The Bill Simmons article can be found here: 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7946461/the-nba-award-winning-playoffs

“To Ramon Sessions, the darling of Lakers fans heading into the postseason … only now, he might as well be holding a “THERE’S A REASON I’VE PLAYED FOR FOUR TEAMS IN FIVE YEARS” sign. At least they can replace him with one of their two no. 1 picks this summ— whoops, my bad.”

“To Andre Iguodala, who surged ahead of Danny Granger, Rudy Gay and Luol Deng in the “Small Forward You’d Love Having on Your Team, Just Not for $15 Million a Year” rankings “

 ”Wade DISLOCATES Rondo’s elbow. Wade BREAKS Kobes nose. Wade BODY-BLOCK TACKLES Collison. Forget Metta World Peace, the biggest threat to player safety (and biggest NBA brat) is D Wade!!!”

“To Oklahoma City possibly sweeping the Lakers … which, of course, will lead to the inevitable Bynum trade (for a one-year Dwight Howard rental) and the inevitable Gasol trade (for multiple pieces), as well as Mike Brown’s inevitable firing, Phil Jackson’s inevitable return, and everything else that will probably work out in their favor because this is what happens historically for the Lakers. God, I hate the Lakers.”

Article can be found here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7863321/nba-playoffs-preview

- The “Bad Santa” clip for a Del Negro/Popovich metaphor was a great start.

- “This has all the makings of one of those “Denver loses in six even though they led all six games in the fourth quarter” series. God, I hate the Lakers.”

- “More than any postseason in recent memory, these specific NBA playoffs have an inordinate number of legacies at stake. In other words, we’ll feel differently about various players and teams by the end of June than we do now.”

- “16. Ronmetta Artestpeace” Read the whole section.

- “In December 2010, Amar’e averaged 39.5 minutes, 29.8 points and 22.4 field goal attempts on knees that were so shaky, the Knicks couldn’t even get insurance on them.”

- “Could he swing Round 1 with one vintage Amar’e game? Doe’s he hav’e it in hi’m?”

- “Boy, we sure spend a ton of time picking nits with a 23-year-old kid who’s only played 148 career games, averaged a 21-11 and shot 55 percent this season, plays his ass off EVERY game, absorbs an absolutely insane pounding (and at least one borderline cheap shot) night after night after night, truly gives a shit, spent three full years in the league without ever having any semblance of a coaching advantage, and gave us so many YouTube highlights the past two years that you can practically choke on them. Yeah, that hitch on his jumper is annoying. Yeah, everyone knows the spin move is coming at this point. Yeah, he struggles in crunch time and struggles from the line. Yeah, he should cool it with the incessant eyeballing of officials, and he should probably stop staring down opposing players and opposing benches after he dunks on somebody — that’s the real reason people keep clotheslining him.”

- “Here’s a good litmus test for any basketball situation: WWLBD.”

- “You aren’t beating Miami without one guy on the other team who says to himself, “Screw those guys, I’m as good as both of them” and carries himself accordingly. Dirk did it last June; Carmelo can absolutely do it in Round 1. ”

- “You have the seeds for an epic Stiemsma-Asik battle.”

- (On Chris Paul) “… you’d think he’s saving a little extra something for the playoffs, a little like how Dom Toretto always saves that one last nitrous oxide blast for the biggest moment.”

- “If the Lakers win the title, “Kobe vs. Jordan” becomes a legitimate conversation to the chagrin of everyone who believes Jordan was the greatest basketball player who ever lived who ever lived and that we’re never seeing another MJ.”

- (On Lebron) “…  he’s halfway through one of the most confusing athletic careers we’ve ever witnessed. How can someone leave such a memorable, indelible, remarkable regular-season basketball legacy while simultaneously leaving us so unsure of his postseason prowess? Now that’s intriguing.”

- “ROUND ONE: Bulls over Sixers in four … Heat over Knicks in seven … Pacers over Magic in six … Celtics over Hawks in six … Spurs over Jazz in six … OKC over Dallas in five … Lakers over Denver in six … Grizzlies over Clippers in five.

ROUND TWO: Bulls over Celtics in seven … Heat over Pacers in six … Grizzlies over Spurs in seven … OKC over Lakers in seven.
ROUND THREE: Heat over Bulls in seven … Grizzlies over OKC in six.
FINALS: Heat over Grizzlies in six.”

OMG. Those are exactly my predictions for the Finals playoffs (in terms of who advances, not series score). I’m doing an NCAAB-style NBA bracket challenge with some friends and that’s exactly how mine is. Amazing.

“I’ve always learned this about sports. And that is there is no topic people that are completely uneducated are more willing to offer up an opinion on. Like if you were hagning out with some of your buddies and you’re talking politics. Say hey we’re in an election year. Maybe you don’t really do that if you listen to this podcast. Chances are you never do that, but lets say you did. and one of your buddies is really into it. He follows all this stuff, he watches Wolf Blitzer, maybe even has that ipad app where he can project who’s winning what primary in caucus. Hey it’s red! If you heard your buddy talking about like, Mitt romney’s tax plan, would you because you voted once say, “Yeah, I don’t know about that tax plan for Mitt Romney. I think he’s way in over his head!” Would you do that? If you’re a jerk, you might. But chances are you probably wouldn’t because you know deep down I have no idea what my friend is talking about. Like literally not a clue, so I’ll sit here and nod, maybe I’ll stare at other people. I might not even listen. But what I wont do, most likely, is tell him that he’s completely wrong about Mitt Romney’s tax plan. Because I don’t know nothing about it and I haven’t read anything about it. But what we do in sports is, you just say stuff. Because you watch your team you’ll say, “Oh KG? He’s washed up!” As soon as you hit send on that, you’re admitting publicly you haven’t watched KG or you haven’t spent 30 seconds looking up who he’s been as a player this year….

…. I’m sitting there laughing going, dudes are not afraid to fire off strong opinions, especially when it comes to sports, despite not having any background what so ever.”

-Ryen Russillo, ESPN analyst and reporter

“Look, it’s not rocket science: Any basketball game is going to be more entertaining with competent-or-better point guards running the show. (Cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding.) Without the right point guard, you won’t get fast break points or easy baskets (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), you won’t have good ball movement (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), it’s harder to get your post guys the ball in the right spots (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), and you might have to rely on one perimeter player shooting 25 to 30 times a game while everyone else stands around (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding vigorously while fighting off tears). More point guards = more fun.”

- Bill Simmons aka The Sports Master

Unlike anything else in existence, the concept of love is undefined. There are no rules or patterns. When it comes to love, anything goes. One moment you’re on top of the world, the next you can’t feel anything. Sometimes you think you’ve got it all figured out and other times you don’t have the slightest clue what to do next. And that’s what makes love so unique. There’s no official book on it, there’s no one on Earth that has a definite sense of what is right or wrong about it. Being so, the best you can do is define it yourself. As cheesy as it sounds, follow your heart. Love is purely instinctual and no one ever teaches you how to do it. And as human beings, we act on our instincts and we shouldn’t have to be ashamed of something we can’t resist feeling. So do what you feel is right. No one else can tell you how to love because their idea of love is completely different from your own.