For all you basketball fans out there—and more importantly, for all you Suns fans out there—tonight may not end in a victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire have been suspended from game 5 for stepping onto the court from the bench in reaction to Robert Horry blatantly and purposely shafting Steve Nash. It’s unbelievable that a single step can result in a player’s absence in an entire playoff game. Without Stoudemire’s offensive skills, the Suns are doomed against the height of Tim Duncan. 

Tonight’s game may throw a wrench into the outcome of this series, and I really hope the Suns don’t lose to the Spurs. Nobody likes Tony Parker and Tim Duncan anyways!

This article appears in May 10-16, 2007.

3 replies on “Watch Your Step”

  1. Red Star is idly wondering should it be, “…and more importantly…” or should it be, “…and more important…” in Kelli Hart’s opening “Watch Your Step” post? Perhaps James Reel can advise (no, really, Red Star would like to know! It’s arbiter time when comes to things like this).

    The main thing is missing aging Sir Charles Barkley from dat amazing season back ’90s…when “bad boy” was overshadowed by dem technical and leadership skills he had but don seem mean much anymore in the business.

  2. Red Star asks for an arbiter; I defer to Evan Jenkins in the Columbia Journalism Review:

    “The short answer is that either form of the word is acceptable. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1994) has a lengthy and interesting (really) discussion of the longstanding argument (really) over important vs. importantly, with many citations, and concludes that ‘both are defensible grammatically and both are in respectable use.’

    “The tilt here, though, is toward ‘importantly.’ The adverb can stand alone at the start of a sentence or clause — without ‘more’ or ‘most’ or any other modifier — and the adjective can’t.

    “Try it. Drop the [‘more’ from Kelli’s example]; the sentence still works. Then, with [‘more’] gone, drop the ‘ly’ from ‘importantly’; the sentence no longer works. …”

    P.S.: Nothing in this sermon should be construed as enthusiasm for ‘Firstly…,’ an irritating start for an even more irritating series.

    The full text is here (third item down).

  3. James Reel:

    Firstly, Red Star’s bias is in favor of “important” over “importantly” in these situations. But it’s just a bias.

    Second, “For all basketball fans—especially Suns fans—tonight’s game may not end with a victory over the San Antonio Spurs” works bestest in that it is to da point and sidesteps controversy.

    Third, (and thisun going to the new world of blogging) when it comes to sentences such as, “Nobody likes Tony Parker and Tim Duncan anyways!” do we excuse such with “Well, it’s only a blog” or do we excuse such with, “It’s about sports-keep in mind the audience”?

    Anyways, thank you the deferential answer lest you be turnin into da grammar lady!

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