He's Right

Simmons in a long post about basketball, slips in some truth about our society.

112. Yao Ming
You know what's great about this country? If you have a sports column and write opinions like, "Yao is overrated" and "When he's out of the lineup, the Rockets are quicker and more effective defensively," you'll get a few angry e-mails from readers claiming you're just downing Yao because he's Chinese. I love where we're headed as a society. Let's all take a bow.

UPDATE: Basketball stuff - on the difference between Chris Paul and Kobe.

There's a difference between genuine affection (the way Paul and his teammates interact) and contrived affection (the way Kobe and his teammates interact), and over everything else, that's why Paul gets the No. 2 spot on my ballot. He's the heart and soul of the Hornets. You could never say that about Kobe; he's too detached, too cut-throat, too willing to roll his eyes and hold an angry stare for that extra second every time something goes wrong. (With Kobe, the underlying implication is he's on your side … as long as you're playing well. Anyone who has watched him in person during the past few years knows exactly what I mean.) In fact, the most interesting thing about Paul's MVP campaign (as well as the campaign of the No. 1 guy on this list) is how vociferously his teammates have been lobbying for him. They just love the guy. When Paul appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last week, his teammates came to the show and sat in the audience to support him. After the show, when Kimmel asked him to film a comedy bit and Paul agreed, his teammates tagged along and attended the shoot instead of hitting the town. They all left together. I thought that was interesting. These are the stories I want to hear about my MVP candidates.