The NBA season is nearly upon us

I went to a preseason NBA game (for my 'birthday' with the wife and kids) between the Suns and the Kings last night and came away with these observations:

- The refs are REALLY cracking down on bitching about calls by assessing Technical Fouls for even unfavorable body language! There were 4 T's during the game for this very reason - A PRESEASON game!!! Steve Nash got a T just for throwing his hands out and gaping his mouth in disbelief after a bucket in a pleading manner for the foul call. At first I thought he said something to the ref, but the jumbotron replay clearly showed he said nothing, just made motions.

Later in the game, he DIDN'T get a T for passing the ball to the ref by kicking it. He may be the ONLY basketball player that will get away with that (it was a nice pass)

- Lucky me. I sat in front of 4 old yappy ladies who never shut up the entire game. My 3 yearold daughter even turned around at one point and "shushed" them! But I didn't mind. Apparently they all worked for some charitable organization at Cardinal and Coyotes games in Glendale and they allowed me to join in some of their 'inside conversations'.

Nothing really shocking: SURPRISE! The Bidwells are cheap and won't pay employees overtime pay. They also make employees park miles away and ship them into the stadium on un-airconditioned School buses (Good thing these teams play in the winter)! And Glendale Arena sold it's naming rights to Jobing.com, a local job search engine. Yippee!

But just to hear them banter about players, management and players was entertaining to me, at least! And they were HUGE Suns fans, (Suns earrings, sweatshirts, facepaint, etc) so that allowed me to tolerate them...

- Marcus Banks will be a great fit for the Suns. Dude is FAST and can lock 'em down on D. A lot of people questioned signing him, but I don't anymore...

- Leandro Barbosa is the slowest looking fastest dude ever! He is probably the fastest player in the league but he looks like he moves really slow... I guess it's because his arms are nine miles long... with the Brazilian Blur and Banks in at the same time, there was no answer. This team will throw so many dimensions at opponents this year. THE running team got FASTER!!!

- Amare looks healthy. He had some good explosion and never seemed to limp or run with an odd gait. He did get poked in the eye on one play and went down while the entire arena gasped thinking it was his knee. I think his knees are fine, but he has to get his handle back, let the game come to him and get the hell out of his own head. He also tried to do too much when he had the ball and had a few turnoveers, but he'll come around. I am no longer concerned with the physical, now I am concerned with how he responds mentally - once the season starts, he'll be Amare again.

- Boris Diaw is locked up to a 5 year deal. Phew! I am much happier today. I LOVE 3D and all he brings to this team. The Suns are a bunch of freek-unique players. Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa - there is NO ONE in the league like ANY of these guys!!! Throw in Raja Bell's toughness, Kurt thomas' insane stares and tight D, Banks' speed, Jumaine Jones' ability to get dirty, James Jones shooting and spunkiness, and Pat Burke's ferocity off the bench as a 10-12th man... Can you say 2006-07 NBA Champion Phoenix Suns??? Start practicing now as this team is set for years to come!!!

- Diaw, Nash, Stoudemire, Barbosa, Marion, Bell, Banks, ALL locked up to long term deals, TWO Atlanta first rounders to come and a bench full of proud lunch pail guys... this team IS set!!! (Now, STAY HEALTHY, Y'ALL!!!)

- My daughter LOVES the Gorilla. Every time he came out to entertain, she lit up!!! (Guess what she's getting for Christmas) Of course, she loves primates and apes of all shapes and size. One time when I told her we were going to the store to get sea monkeys (as food for our aquariums) and she thought we were going to a "Monkey store" to SEE the monkeys... she was SO distraught. Especially after the store was out of sea monkeys... We'll just call them brine shrimp from now on.

- Before the game we went to TGI Friday's Front Row inside of Chase Field (Home of the Diamondbacks) for dinner. Both of the kids were awestruck when we sat on the balcony and the roof was open! Even though there was no game, still a great experience...

The D-Backs were holding some sort of "Be a D-Back for a day" fantasy camp and a bunch of rich scrubs dressed up like MLBers and took BP and shagged flies, etc. I gave them the 'real' treatment by booing and telling them the were overpaid, letting them know that my Grandmom has a better arm, etc... the stadium was mostly empty so I didn't need to yell. It was fun, the drinks were strong!

Worst part; some of these scrubs were swinging aluminum "lumber"!!! Ping! Ping! Ping! (and very few got out of the infield) Ina Major League Stadium... Unacceptable...