Their discussion and analysis led me to a single conclusion...
CAN'T DAVID STERN GET ANYONE ELSE TO SERVE AS "EXPERTS" ON THESE PANELS???
I mean seriously!
-Mike Woodson is one more Josh Smith explosion away from joining Eric Musselman.
-Bill Raferty is best known for his NCAA work,
-And don't get me started on Peter Vescey...
Vescey actually said "the Raptors are missing Garbajosa but the Nets are missing Krstic so they kind of cancel each other out..."
Why? Because both players were born somewhere other than the US?
And here was my favourite Vescey-ism...he basically stated that Garbajosa and Bargnani were the same player.
Sounds like someone was hanging out with Charlie Rosen too much as of late.
In the end, the panel picked the Nets because of their experience but not before Fred Carter, in his classic gravelly voice uttered this gem:
"I like to say that the Nets heading to Toronto is like trying to go to Jurassic Park to have a picnic..."
Yes ladies and gentlemen, NBA TV!
Here at the HQ we've picked Toronto to win the series against New Jersey and I got to discuss this a bit with JE Skeets and co. on the infamous Basketball Jones podcast yesterday.
The HQ also offered up our thoughts on this year's playoffs to Ryan McNeil for his HoopsAddict.com playoff preview as did a number of other bloggers and basketball fanatics.
So far it seems like the majority believe that New Jersey is going to take this series but not without some serious abuse of Vince Carter first.
In fact according to Vince's Mom, he's ready for whatever Toronto fans can throw at him as he's had it much worse in the past.
Hmmm...if that's not adding fuel to the fire, I'm not sure what is.
Let's go Raps!
FRANCHISE