Linkstigating.

It's funny--my main man Lang Whitaker over at SLAMonline.com linked to me (again--big ups!) on Monday lookin' to start some sort of Hatfield and McCoy business. Which ain't such a terrible idea, despite his couple-year head start with the writing every day thing. (Harder than it looks, no doubt--I'm gonna need to start snorting Adderall just to try and stay on track once in my life.) And perhaps we could do dueling running diaries of one of the Finals games, just for the heck of it. At the very least, I'm sure we'll both post extensive notes on our respective sites following the Draft.

But reading his running commentary from Game Seven of the Heat/Pistons series brought to mind a moment late in the fourth quarter that he surprisingly DIDN'T mention. It was Pistons ball, and Udonis Haslem sagged off Rasheed Wallace to double someone in the post. Sheed stepped behind the three-point line, caught a pass, and wetted the shot. As he backpedaled upcourt, you could clearly see him yelling "YOU DON'T WANNA LEAVE ME!*" He said it twice, loud as can be. And that's why we all love Sheed.

Lang shared more of his thoughts on Sheed in his Monday column for SI.com, and he's had more interaction with him than I have. Sheed remains an enigma wrapped in a headband. But if I had to pick a favorite NBA player, damn, he's right there.

* The actual words may be slightly inaccurate, owing to human (my) error, but the sentiment is correct.

Google: Thelonious Monk