almost 50+ wins and still no respect....

The Denver Nuggets are closing in on their preseason team goal of 50 wins. But if things don't go their way, they could also make NBA history as the first 50-win team to miss the playoffs.

No NBA team has reached the 50-win mark and not advanced to the playoffs. But in the highly-competitive Western Conference, the Nuggets, or some other unlucky team, could become the first.

"I've never seen anything like it. I call it the Halley's Comet year of the NBA," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "Once every 99 years something like this happens. Why I have to be a part of it, I want to know why."

The Nuggets are 40-28 with 14 games left and 2½ games behind the Golden State Warriors (42-25) for the eighth and last spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

"We're on the outside looking in right now," Karl said Friday. "But if we win 10 or 11 of our last 14, which I think we're capable of doing, we've got to make the other people worry."

The top end of the conference race is also a dogfight, with three teams -- New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix -- within one game of the Los Angeles Lakers (47-21) for the top spot.

"History says that [50] will get us into the playoffs. I'm not sure it will get us to the playoffs," said Karl. "There are days I'm nervous it won't get us in, but to throw more than that out there, you're pushing the power of our positive thinking.

"We've got to do what we're capable of doing. I think 50 would be at the top end of that," added Karl, who in 20 seasons of NBA coaching has taken three different teams to division titles, including the Nuggets in 2005-06 with 44 wins.

"It would be a high level of success but it might not be a high level of success from a playoff standpoint. That's the sadness of what we're dealing with."

the real March Madness

Echoing ESPN, this year the NBA has better players, better games and better story lines than the NCAA tournament. Which will you watch?

db-Coming into this season I said it was going to be a good year and I couldn’t wait and so far it’s proven me right. the west is just so hard to say anyone man, cuz yea there’s 8 spots but to me any of those 8 can make a run or at least the top 5. but I don’t know man, the lakers and kobe, who I love as a player, are playing like they know this is their shot at it but at the same time you’re the champs until you get beaten so yea, spurs might not get a lot of air time but come playoff time they simply do what they do and win. They’re not out here trying to look coo or show off, they just simply win and it is what it is ya know. I feel like dirk might be a great player but sad to say might lack a lil heart feel me? I wouldn’t mind my man tracy going to the second round so everyone can get off his back! And I’m pulling for this to be his year to do so. Utah looks like a young version of the spurs in the making and Deron Williams is shaping up to be great. But as far as the east in my mind it’s simply between Detroit and the Celtics and I love lebron but I’ll just have to see if he can pull it off again this year. I would love to see my man KG finally get a ring. Dwight howard is awesome, just might not be his time. Can you imagine a celtic/laker final? How sic would that be? I don’t know man; I obviously can’t answer this without some deep pondering. Who ya’ll got?

pd-If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that the Rockets (sans Yao) would be sitting atop the western conference with the Lake Show I probably would have told you to "puff puff give!" But it's no lie, at the time of this posting take a look at the west:



No visine needed thats the Lakers and Rockets sitting on top of the western conference! I'm a big fan of this seeding! Truth be told I've never been a fan of the Rockets but I am a fan of the game no less and what the Rockets are doing is history. The shift in power is a great thing to see. The top west contenders are no longer at the top, San Antonio -5, Dallas-7, Phoenix-6. Replaced by a new crop, L.A.-1, Houston-2, New Orleans-3 (no denying ya boy CP3). The battle in the west is anyones game, as a Denver local it's hard to see the Nuggets on the outside looking in (especially when they're carrying a better record than 5 eastern conference playoff teams. The good news is that there is still a lot of ball to play and the top 8 teams are separated by only 4 1/2 games. Not to mention we all know that playoff ball is a whole notha' game!

In the east I have to agree with db, it's kinda hard to bet against the Pistons and the Celtics. Of course we'd like to see King James make another run, but are the pieces of the puzzle the Cav's acquired the right pieces? Other than Chauncey & CO. and the BIG3, sorry to say I really dont see anyone else making noise.

Let the chips fall where they may, hopefully with the correct seeding will see some exciting playoff matchups to nightcap an exciting season.

injury report :(

What’s up world, sad news to report: I went to play ball last night during my break between classes as I do somewhat frequently and messed up my knee pretty bad. I was leading a fast break and it was just 1 dude to beat so I took off but the way I took off to get around him tweaked my knee pretty bad. I don’t know if it was a case of my knee going one way and my body the other or just the pressure from taking off awkwardly. Whatever the case is I was in a lot of pain, took like 30 mins just to gather myself and get dressed and another effort to drive home. But I must admit its feeling a lil better this am and I can at least bend somewhat as oppose to last night when I could barely move. I’m just going to have to shut it down for a while and hope for the best; I’m thinking 2 weeks should do the trick. And a boney-fide 2 weeks this time unlike when I’ve had other injuries and rushed back like D wade J. Some might call me injury prone when it comes to the playing ball cuz I’ve had a history or rolled ankles, many-a-jammed fingers, dislocated shoulders, and back pains all on the court! But I just see it as I go hard when I’m out there like ya boy A.I. J But yea it’s not as bad as Shaun Livingston so I should be good.

Also its looking like I’ll be able to cop the packages that come out this weekend. I was real hesitant because the 14’s that come in them are almost identical to some that I already have, but I want the 9’s so I was half and half. But I’m still on my mission to get 1-23 so I might as well suck it up and just get it because if I don’t I’m already knowing I’ll be kicking myself about it.

Hey who do you think would win in a fight? 300’s king Leonidas or Gladiators Maximus?

shout out to millermothra...

-i'm out

Apple Set to Reveal Road to Third-Party iPhone Apps

The iPhone has received acclaim as cellphone, personal information organizer, web browser and e-mail client. Now, it's about to become a remote control, a game platform, a photo-editing platform, a device for remotely accessing your desktop files, and maybe much more.

Four months of rumors, speculation and giddy anticipation will come to an end Thursday, as Apple prepares to reveal how it will transform one of the most-hyped devices in tech into a full-fledged platform.

"The iPhone is the richest mobile platform that we've ever had," says Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin.

And yet, that platform has until recently been officially open only to web developers. To date, Apple has forced developers to create iPhone applications through one conduit: the phone's browser. While that approach simplified development, it never gave developers access to the truly alluring bits of the device, like its accelerometer, voice capabilities and touchscreen. It also forced developers who wanted to create more sophisticated apps -- like a utility that lets you remotely control a Mac desktop from an iPhone -- to go around the iPhone's security with jailbreaking hacks.

Steve Jobs caved last October and said Apple would release a full-blown software developer's kit once the company could ensure security on the phone. Presumably, that's been accomplished, and the fancy apps available only on jailbroken iPhones may soon be available legitimately on any iPhone.

At this point, it's still not clear whether Apple intends to officially release the SDK at Thursday's event or just make some announcement. At any rate, the SDK will be in programmers' hands soon, and analysts and developers expect a wide variety of applications to blossom in the coming months -- everything from photo-editing apps to motion-sensing games that take advantage of the device's orientation sensor.

The possibilities, as Mac developer Daniel Jalkut recently noted, will be limited only by developers' imaginations.

Those possibilities will be also influenced by a number of outstanding questions about Apple's planned app-distribution method, the vetting process it will use, and any iPhone access restrictions the company imposes on developers. The company is expected to provide answers to those questions as well on Thursday.

At the very least, Thursday's SDK event will involve an announcement about new enterprise features for the iPhone, according to an invitation circulated last week.

While enterprise software may not be as sexy as movie and game apps, its inclusion could be huge for Apple's ability to meet its goal of 10 million iPhone sales by the end of the year.

By adding features like push e-mail and cultivating relationships with corporate-software vendors, Bajarin says, the iPhone could become one of the major communication platforms in business, making it much more competitive with the corporate-friendly BlackBerry.

"Ultimately, that's why I believe [Apple is] confident it can reach its 10 million goal by the end of the year," he says. "With an SDK and major corporate-software vendors backing it, we'll see the iPhone finally transcend the consumer business this year."

UPDATE: Here's a quick recap of what was said

• Apple has 28% of the US Smartphone market, 71% (doubtful) of mobile browser usage is Safari.
• Business users? Check. Full Exchange / ActiveSync support is on the way including push email, push contacts, push calander, VPN, security and more.
• Web apps are great, native apps are better. The SDK is here and it’s ready to party… As long as you’ve got a Mac. Developers using Windows and Linux-based systems need not apply.
• Game developers gave demos of native games built in two weeks without ever having seen the SDK prior. EA showed Spore and Sega showed Super Monkey Ball; sweet.
• App developers had a bit more time to boogie. Salesforce.com showed a very good looking native app tied to its online CRM solution. AOL showed a native AIM app.
• All apps will be distributed through Apple’s App Store only. This is great news for big developers that can afford to pay to have their apps featured, ok news for small developers that have a better chance at more exposure, and not so good news for users who are going to have to dig through the inevitable mess of thousands upon thousands of apps. Hey, at least Jobs’ model keeps Handango out of the game.
• Developers get 70% revenue share (score!), no charge for publishing freeware apps (only $99 for payware!) and a nice little $100 million VC fund to help them get crackin.
• SDK is available now, the rest drops in June with version 2.0 software. Free for iPhones, chargeable for iPod Touches.