Brandon ROY

I've invented a new thing and Brandon Roy is it: a Dida. Dida is AC Milan's goalkeeper, he's long and lean and plenty athletic, a damn fine keeper, maybe top 10 in the world, definitely top 20. He's Brazil's goalie. Think about that: if you're growing up in Brazil, man, you don't want to be the goalie. Don't get me wrong, he's great! He's a top quality keeper, he's one of the very best in the world at his job. But you're growing up as one of the finest players in the world and you're surrounded by killer talent at every stage of your career--and you gotta stand in the back and never take the field? You know, that's gotta suck. Where's the fun in that?

Brandon Roy (yeah, I'm getting there) was named Rookie of the Year today in the NBA. What's so Dida about that? That kinda rules. Well, normally, it kinda rules. But this year's rookie class is perhaps the worst of my lifetime, certainly for as long as I've been watching b-ball. In my NBA draft preview from last year (which I'd love to link to but it doesn't exist), Brandon Roy and Adam Morrison were the only two players I had any hopes for at all, it looked weak all the way last year. Andrea Bargnani in Toronto, Paul Milsapp in Utah, maybe Tyrus Thomas with the Bulls, along with Roy and Morrison are probably the only 5 rookies even worth mentioning this year (and realistically Milsapp and Thomas are not actually worth mentioning). Seriously, man, how many rookies this year are one of the top 100 players in the NBA? Not top 10--top 100? Think of the top 20 starting 5's you could imagine in the NBA...would Brandon Roy in there? Maybe Roy, maybe Bargnani--just barely. That's seriously weak--dude, that's like Carrot Top weak.

No, wait. I guess he's not a Dida, he's the opposite, huh? Rather than being a guy who will spend his career gazing at the backs of the finest soccer players on earth and never getting to play, Roy is the pacesetter of a mediocre bunch. He is the leader of a bunch of guys who shouldn't be playing. In that case he would be a... a Landon Donovan.