The sports World has been incredibly busy the last week. Steve McNair's murder was a shocker. He was playing in the league until very recently and we have all seen him play. Now he has been shot dead and it's hard to believe. It's also a scandalous story involving a persian girlfriend with money troubles and her suspicion that he was involved with another girl. Of course neither of these girls have anything to do with his wife! Weird circumstances for him to go, but it is what it is. He seemed like a good guy, but celebrities and sex go hand in hand and I guess he is not an exception. Whenever guys who have been in your fantasy teams start passing away, something is wrong. Initially I thought he was shot outside a club or something by tough guys, but the story here was much weirder. This was not your normal "athlete goes to a bad club wanting to keep it real, and some thugs take him out." story. Not that thats should be normal, but unfortunately it is more common. But McNair seems to have been involved with some weird, unstable chick. It's sad.
NBA is still a major story in the news. The trade winds have been blowing non-stop. Artest going to LA as a free-agent is HUGE. Between him and Kobe, wing players in the league are going to have an hellish time trying to score on the Fakers. He has swapped places with Ariza, which is interesting because Artest is better, but Ariza is a lot cheaper and younger. I am sure Houston thinks they got a good deal too in locking up Ariza. But actualy he is a much better fit for the Lakers which has an alpha-dog in Kobe. The Rockets on the other hand can use a semi alpha-dog like Artest given that they want to get rid of T-Mac and Yao's career might be in trouble. It's also interesting that LeBron is still recruiting Ariza for Cleveland. He will be a great addition to a talented team like the Cavs. He will be good in Houston too, but Houston may not be good enough to use him right if Yao is hurt.
Shaq finally arrived at Cleveland and was his usual charming self in the interview room. Of course, his performance on the court is what we are all interested in. Boston responded by signing Rasheed Wallace. Thats a great addition. Celtics will be a contender the moment KG comes back healthy. But to have Wallace as an insurance policy behind him is just great. The only issue with Sheed is, he can be too content at times playing the 4-Th fiddle. But he can defend some bigs and if he at least steps up when KG is on the bench or if he is hurt, they should be awesome. The Magic traded away Hedo after trading for Vince. That to me is iffy. A 100% healthy and committed Vinsanity will help them contend, but then again, when was the last time we saw that Vince? I am not sure if Air Canada has even showed up this decade.
So basically the rich have gotten richer - Spurs, Lakers, Cavs and the Celtics are all better. The "rich got richer" cliche is also very true if you consider the fact that most of these trades and player-movement are all money related. Basically only the better teams are making money and hence they are able to add talent and get even better and make even more money. The middle-tier teams and the clipper-teams are all busy dumping salary and talent. Sadly, even the Suns are in that list. The Magic has moved sideways and Dallas got Marion. That should inject some athleticism and energy into the Mavs. Sad to see a true-blood Phoenix Suns guy like the Matrix go to the Mavs. I am not sure how much better they are though. He doesn't solve a lot of their core problems and plays the 3-spot where the dope-head Josh Howard also balls. If his head is screwed on right, Howard is better for that team than Marion. But they will get some consistency with the Matrix. He shows up every night and handles his business.
I noticed something shocking in baseball. Guess who has the second best record in all of NL? It's the San Francisco Giants. How did that happen? This team was riding some great pitching to a few wins earlier in the season and that has given them a boost of confidence and they are winning more and more games now. It seems like a vicious cycle. With a load of mediocre teams in NL, it suddenly looks like they may even make the playoffs. There will be enough teams competing for that wild-card spot, but the Giants are definitely ahead of schedule when it comes to their post-Bonds rebuilding plans thanks to Tim Lincecum. That dude is a stud and Matt Cain aint no joke either. If only they had not paid a boat-load of cash for Barry Zito, they'll look even smarter. But Zito has been pitching half-way decent this year as well. I am surprised and shocked by their performance. In other news, there was a Andruw Jones sighting the other day. He hit 3 home runs in one game for the Texas Rangers after dong nothing at the plate for a couple of years. Lets hope things turn around for Andruw. May be he might even finally realize his name is misspelt and fix it one of these days.
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