Rocky Now Officially Better Than Indiana Jones

The American Film Institute updated their ten-year-old list of the 100 "greatest" American films of all time this past Wednesday night. While this apparently wasn't enough time to recognize some excellent movies of a recent vintage (really, no Brokeback? No Fight Club? No Spider-Man?), several films benefited from a re-evaluation.

Rocky jumped up an astonishing 21 slots to #57, just one spot behind Jaws. It's hard to invest a lot of credibility in a list that ranks Tootsie ahead of A Clockwork Orange, but this is quite an upset for the Italian Stallion. Stallone's feel-good masterpiece is often cited as one of the "worst" Oscar winners for Best Picture, the film's critical memory stuck in a perpetual 1976 of long gas lines, political malaise, and bicentennial ephemera.

But its popular memory? That's a completely different story. Perseverance never goes out of style. They can make an uber-depressing movie about Tom Hanks getting fired and dying because he has AIDS, call the damn thing Philadelphia, and they still can't remove the image of Rocky flattening Apollo Creed with a big left hook from people's minds. The city and the fictional fighter are inextricably linked forever. And with a list like this, that's all that matters. Rocky still goes the distance today.

(Bonus: The Sixth Sense appears at #89, complete with a wistful M. Night Shyamalan soundbite, and The Philadelphia Story clocks in at #44. Ask your grandpa about that one.)

Phillies Notes: A Family Affair

Is there such a thing as a two-game sweep in a three-game series? The Phillies were lucky to get out of Cleveland with one win. Pitching was subpar for all three games (especially the horrendous bullpen) and though they scored some runs, a diet of three straight lefties had the Fightings taking a lot of awfully ugly swings.

One of the few enjoyable subplots was following the performance of the high number of former Phillies on the current Indians roster at the beginning of the series. Pat Burrell's former fishing buddy, Jason Michaels, was the only guy who really torched the Phils, going 5-10 with a homer and 3 RBI. Maybe he heard about Pat's engagement.

Aaron Fultz also pitched a couple innings, didn't give up any runs, and somehow continues to avoid injury with that violent-looking delivery of his.

On the flip side, David Dellucci proved he was an "everyday player" by blowing out a hammy while running to first base. This being the Phillies, he still beat the throw. And Roberto Hernandez played himself all the way to the minors on Tuesday. Sadly, Paul Byrd and his forehead did not make an appearance.

To recap: five little Indians who played for Philadelphia on Monday; only three left by Thursday. You're welcome, Cleveland.

- Good riddance to interleague play! The Phillies escaped with a winning record for once (8-7), but I'm sure they wouldn't be sad to see it go. After the Expos left Montreal, Toronto became Philly's "natural rival." With Baltimore, there used to be a little juice to the games, but Phillies-Blue Jays has all the spark of Padres-Mariners. It's pretty depressing.

And with the exception of the White Sox, the AL Central just destroyed the Phils--even the Royals.

- Goodtime Charlie got ejected again on Sunday, his league-leading fifth ejection of the year. The Phillies, unsurprisingly, also lead the majors in ejections as a team.

This was always one of my pet peeves about Larry Bowa. If you whine and yell all the time, umpires are going to remember that. Manuel was supposed to be a change of pace--a guy who might actually endear himself to a few of the guys in blue. Now it seems like he'll get himself thrown out because he doesn't know what else to do.

- The Road to 10K continues, the magic number dwindling to 9. And despite all of the turmoil of the past week--the schizoid play, the bullpen implosions, the suspensions--only two games separate the Mets, Braves, and Phillies in the NL East.

Whatta game, folks.

Billy King Works Out Yi Jianlian, Pulls Brain Muscle

Though most of mock draft scenarios I've seen have 20-year-old Chinese phenom Yi Jianlian off the board well before the 12th pick, the Sixers brass couldn't contain their excitement after seeing him practice yesterday. In Los Angeles.

And even though the phrase "Chinese phenom" should at least trigger circumspection, Billy King is highly impressed:

“[At the workout] you are able to see a lot more things that you aren’t able to see in a game,” King said. “He was shooting three pointers, handling the basketball, just seeing him run…. We were able to see him do some of the same tests that we do for guys, they did for us here like the shuttle runs, the sprints, the vertical jumps and those things.”

Oh, I get it. Apparently Yi never dribbles, runs, or shoots threes during an actual game. But at least he passes the President's Physical Fitness Test with flying colors. Good scouting, guys. Quite a trip to see a guy whom the Chicago Bulls, of all people, are reportedly doing everything short of reprising the "baptism scene" from The Godfather to trade up for.

And from the Danny Almonte Files come accusations that Chinese authorities fudged Yi's age to preserve his eligibility in junior competitions, echoing doubts that have been expressed as far back as 2003. Personally, it's hard for me to believe that a guy could be playing on an Olympic basketball team at the same age when I was learning how to parallel park.

Sixers Work Out Yi Jianlian [Official Site]
The Next Yao Ming? [Time Magazine]

NBA Finals Wrap-Up: Wither the Eastern Conference?

There is an argument that posits the dilution of the Post-Jordan NBA Eastern Conference, supported by the fact that from 1999-2006, the Western Conference took home the championship six out of eight times. What's interesting about this streak is that before this year's slaughter, only once did the West sweep the East in the Finals--the Lakers over the Nets in '02. And the West appears more dominant in the earlier half of their run than in recent years, again with the exception of 2007.

For teams in the East, the offseason period is often characterized by doom and gloom. Every year, prognosticators choose one or two sad-sack squads in the Eastern Conference as playoff dark horses simply because of the perception that playing basketball in the East is like playing basketball in the CYO. I even find myself subscribing to this theory, sometimes leaning on it to support my pronouncements of the Sixers' impending return to winning basketball. The problem is, I don't want to believe a theory that says my team is going to improve simply because the competition gets worse. So what's the dealio, yo?

After some consideration, 2007 is an aberration for three reasons:

1) I think our memories get overwhelmed by the incessant hyping of everything in the here and now. I was genuinely surprised when I was reminded that the 2005 Spurs-Pistons Finals went the full seven games before San Antonio's eventual triumph. And it wasn't too long ago that a healthy Dwayne Wade (with Shaq, but a "regression to the mean" Shaq, not the dominant Shaq of the Lakers three-peat) had people buzzing about an Eastern renaissance.

2) The traditional Eastern powerhouses--make that the Eastern powerhouse--showed signs of decline, but people were too reluctant to acknowledge it. The Pistons have been the standard-bearer for quality basketball in the East for the past three or four seasons. We're accustomed to Detroit gallantly riding in at the end of the season to provide the East with at least a fighting chance.

When the Cavs beat the Pistons in the conference finals, commentators made the assumption that there was a new Eastern elite. This couldn't be more wrong. The Eastern Conference Finals was a comedy of errors that showed just how flawed each team was in their current makeup. Cleveland's woeful finals performance after a supposedly significant series victory has a lot of people judging the track record of the East, specifically the 2004-2006 period, retroactively.

3) The potential quality of the Eastern half of the playoffs was damaged by events in the last two months of the season. The Chicago Bulls, perhaps the most complete team in the East, barely missed winning their division and as a result, tumbled to the fifth seed in the conference: Detroit had just enough left in the tank to defeat them. You play that series a round later and you will get a different result. The Washington Wizards looked like a threat until two of their three big stars, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, went down with season-ending injuries. The Celtics and the Bucks were doing everything in their power to lose and increase their odds of landing a top-three draft pick, giving a boost to even the most mediocre of Eastern playoff contenders.

There are other ancillary reasons as well (younger teams, poorer coaching, etc.), but it doesn't change the fact that the Eastern Conference is a scapegoat for the lack of excitement in this year's finals. Fans howl about the competitive balance in the NBA being out of whack, but the NBA is digging its own grave here. Simmons has a point when he tries to think of ways to make the playoff structure better reflect who the best teams actually are in any given year. However, it does little to correct the competitive imbalance in the NBA that almost everyone seems to agree upon. A playoff tournament to gain entry to a playoff tournament? If anything, too many teams make the playoffs from either conference, thus magnifying the gap in quality between the best and worst teams.

I scoff at the notion that 2007 is the year the West Took Over...Again. 2007 is the year the East Was Unlucky.

And luck is a mighty fickle thing.

Time To Fix the NBA Playoffs [Bill Simmons]