Shawn Marion-Not Crappy?

Before game 5 I was writing a piece where I used the internet to shit all over Shawn Marion. The scope of the piece was about how Shawn Marion is awful and if Miami ends up winning the series they should heavily consider sending him in an honory Championship Ring. Due to a dispute over the accuracy of my points with my buddy Rob, I decided to scrap it.

For the last year, Rob has lived in Dallas and as atended 30+ games for the Mavericks this year (including all 5 games against Portland). I decided to give him a call to see if he want to join me in my bashing of Marion's game. After all, who better to talk shit about a player than someone who watches him first hand.

He declined the invitation. He didn't have anything to add because he didn't agree with what I was saying. "Yeah he wasn't good during the regular season, but he's been playing great in the playoffs." Rob said to me.

Bull shit, I thought. I've been watching the Mavericks for 7 weeks now, and I was at game 4 in the Blazers series; shit, I personally watched the Artist Formerly Known as Brandon Roy pick him apart at will. No way could someone label Shawn Marions playoff performance anything other than 'putrid'. I decided to check the numbers, after all, my journalistic integrity was in question here.

Upon further review, Shawn Marion has been playing his ass off.

I know, I know, it's shocking. But the numbers confirm this. He is giving 12 points, 6 reb's, a block and a steal all while spending majority of the time guarding the oppositions best player. Over the last 16 games, Marion has spent time guarding Brandon Roy, Nic Batum, Gerald Wallace, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Kevin Durrant, and now Lebron James and Chris Bosh.

I thought he'd been playing like shit, but Dallas keeps on winning and he has had the misfortune of drawing some pretty gnarly defensive assignments.

So I paid extra attention to him during game 5, and I'm simply astonished on how off I was. Don't get me wrong, the dude isn't Scottie Pippen; but he also isn't Amare Stoudamire. His work on Lebron was at times so inspired, it left me giggling like a girl. Everytime ABC showed a close up of his on ball defesne on Lebron, you would get his mouth moving what seemed normal speed (but the rest of the screen was in slow motion) and LeBitch looking frustrated.

True, Lebron ended up having a good statistical game. Especially for a second banana (a 17 point triple double), but Shawn Marion's defense clearly frustrated him. And once again, by the forth quarter the 2 time MVP was a complete non factor.

It's just unfortunate, really. I would like nothing other then to post what I had written about him. I had some witty anecdotes and a LEGENDARY 1 liner ( about Shawn Marions jump shot being the retarded love child of a chest pass and a 12 year girls shot), but I will not stand here and have my credibillity be compromised in favor of a joke. Point is, here at ClinicallyAwesome, we give credit where credit is due. The Mavericks deserve credit. Shawn Marion deserves credit.


Lebron James does not. He is a bitch.

Dallas is wraping up this series tomorrow in Miami.