Tough games

Two of my teams had a rough, rough day on the field last football weekend. Both these teams just gave away their game to the opponent and luck was not on their side as well. First it was ASU on Saturday going into Madison and outplaying the 11-Th ranked Wisconsin badgers. I was at a sports bar with some friendly, mid-western alums from Wisconsin and the grip was on for them once they saw how fast and effective the ASU running game was in the first quarter. But after both teams missed a field goal, the ASU receivers dropped a couple of catchable passes in the end-zone. Mistakes like that on the road are always costly. The badgers special teams had no answers to the Devils kick-off and punt returns and the Devils scored a TD through their special teams. But then they almost returned one more at the halftime buzzer. It was so hard to see them get tacked at the 1 yard line with no time on the clock. That was just bad luck. They could have scored if the guy got one more yard or if we had one more second on the clock for a field-goal kick or a play. They came back in the second half and the game went back and forth. The Devils fell behind, but came back to score a TD to make it 20-19. They then missed an extra point kick to lose the game. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tough way to lose the game.

Then on Monday night, the niners lose a great game in a similar way. I am not a passionate fan of any particular NFL team except my fantasy team, but I do have a soft-corer for the niners. They will probably be in my top 3 list in the NFL along with the Arizona Cardinals and the Oakland Raiders. They played very well and defended Drew Breezy and the Saints effectively. But 4 turnovers did not help their cause. Alex Smith had 2 interceptions, both of which didn't seem like his mistake exclusively. The first one was intended for Gore and was a little wide and inaccurate, but both INTs were tipped balls. Some of these turnovers were also in the red-zone and those are the worst. Despite all these mistakes, the niners had a chance to tie the game with a TD and a 2 point conversion. Alex Smith got them both in what was the best drive of his career up to this point. The 2-point conversion was denied by the refs initially, but a booth review overturned it and tied the game up.

The only problem was, Alex Smith left too much time on the clock for the Saints. Breezy did what Breezy do and basically won the game for the Saints 25-22. The game winning kick was actually tipped by the niner defender, but went in anyways. This was really unlucky for the niners. It's not often you see a tipped kick make it through the goalpost. That hurt. If not for the 4 turnovers, the niners could have beaten the champs 30-15 or something. The niners have now lost 2 games where they looked like the better team for 6 out of 8 quarters. May be Mike Singletary does have to take some responsibility for this. I like him a lot and I think he is a great professional and a great motivator, but I am not sure if he is a great Xs and Os coach. Also, his fire and brimstone approach can wear thin easily. The niners better start winning before the players start tuning out Mike. I like Alex Smith too. I hear good things about him as a person and this game might be the first time where fans and the media are also saying good things about Alex Smith, the football player.

Anyways, 2 days, 2 teams, 2 great games, but 2 heart-breaking losses.

Week to week

Life is flowing gently from week to week right now. Thats the beauty of the football season. You start following the rhythm of the football season - both college and NFL, and your excitement level picks up towards the weekend and settles down during the week. With some spike in excitement Monday night for MNF and Thursday night if you are a hardcore college guy. Week 1 was good in the NFL. Lots of low scoring games as the offenses are still trying to get into the groove. New Orleans beat Minnesota 14-9 and Washington beat Dallas 13-7 in 2 of the more surprising low scoring games. Baltimore beat the over-rated Jets 10-9 in a game which didn't surprise me at all. The one true upset of the week was Indianapolis losing 34-24 to Houston despite Manning throwing for 433 yards and 3 TDs. This was a huge win for Houston as we have all been waiting for them to take the next step. This victory might propel them to much better chemistry and performance down the road this season.

In college, ASU is playing Wisconsin tomorrow. Arizona is playing Iowa and the cats are ranked 24. Hope they lose and stay out of the rankings. No other major top-25 match-ups between ranked teams. Last weekend, Va Tech lost to James Madison 21-16 at home. This was shocking and embarrassing for the Hokies, but more importantly, this diluted Boise state's win over the Hokies the weekend before. So Boise lost some shine and may be some number 1 votes even without playing a game. Classic college football - broken system with questionable semantics. I always love how at the end of year talk shows are endlessly arguing about the relative superiority of conferences. Oregon state lost to Mississippi state which lost to Tennessee but Tennessee lost to UCLA which in turn lost to Oregon state. So is the Pac-10 better or the SEC? You can argue about all this till the cows come home and thats exactly what NCAA wants us to do. We are still a few months away from such discussions. Lets enjoy the games until then.

Bring on the NFL

The first NFL Sunday is almost here, It's like christmas-eve for sports fan as we get ready for the must-see TV over the next 5 months. America's top league takes over Sundays from now until early February and dominates some Mondays and Thursdays too. The season officially kicked off Thursday with the much awaited Saints-Viking matchup. The game didn't live up to the hype and neither did Brees or Favre, but it was still awesome to see football on TV and see these superstars play. Saints won as expected, but the scoring was not nearly as prolific as people expected. I was a little surprised at the Saints and Brees having trouble scoring. I am going to go ahead and give the credit to the Vikings defense. I think they are good and thats good news if you are a Vikings fan.

The Vikings offense on the other hand didn't look that great. Understandable considering Favre is just getting back into the groove and with Sidney Rice missing. Adrian Peterson had a few good runs, but Favre was clearly off on a few throws. He spoke about it in the post-game show and claimed that the game would have been different if he was not off on those throws. I would be pissed if I was a Vikings fan. He is talking about being a little off after missing all of training camp. Isn't that what practice is for? To get all of the timing and chemistry nailed down. Of course he is off and he can't use slugs like Cleveland and Detroit as training camp substitute this season since their schedule is a lot harder. But I think they are going to be fine given that defense and the fact that Favre is going to be fine eventually.

Favre's old team, the Packers are a trendy super bowl pick from the NFC this season. I am surprised, but happy about it. I have always been a fan of Aaron Rodgers and he is clearly one of the top QBs in the league today. Suddenly this era has become a golden era for quarterbacks after a few years of serious mediocrity at the position outside of a coupe of elite QBs. Now, there are more than a dozen high quality QBs with a lot of young guns like Rodgers and Rivers. I was happy to see A-Rod lead all QBs in the fantasy rankings. I don't always remember when I am wrong, but I won't forget to remind people if and when I am right. I told anybody who would listen that Rodgers will be good and same with Brees. I have liked both these guys from their college days and they had their ups and downs in the league, but they have finally arrived. Tomorrow, Rodgers and the Packers have a big start against Phily. Week 1 features a lot of good games and I am ready for all of them.

In college today, Penn state couldn't hang with Alabama and Florida state got embarrassed by Oklahoma. Miami lost to Ohio state and Georgia lost to South Carolina in the top-25. The biggest loser of the weekend didn't even play. Boise state was off after their impressive victory, but Va Tech made sure it was not that impressive anymore by promptly losing to James Madison at home. Not sure what it does to Boise state's championship aspirations, but it can't be good. In the Pac-10, my man - captain comeback Jim Harbaugh and his boys from Stanford undressed the Bruins 35-0. Thats a great start to their Pac-10 season. ASU won and the other great win for Pac-10 was with Oregon crushing Tennessee 48-13. USA barely sneaked past

Noisy Boise

Welcome back college football and aren't we all glad it's back! Boise State took care of business today against the 10-Th ranked Virginia Tech and validated their 3-Rd spot in the ranking to some extent. They looked good and dominated a legitimate, East-coast, ranked BCS team on the road. It was a neutral venue at Washington's FedEx field, but it was Hokie-town today all the way, given DC's proximity to Blacksburg. And of course, the media respects East coast teams more anyways. So Boise stands to gain a lot by beating the Hokies instead of some Pac-10 team. They busted out the special teams on Beamer ball himself and went up 17-0. But Va Tech crawled back into the game and Boise had to win it with a 2 minute drill at the end. Boise's remaining schedule is kinda soft with only a visit from Oregon State to the blue turn looking mildly challenging on their calendar. This means they may have a legitimate shot at the national championship game. It would be interesting to see what happens if they stay unbeaten. Boise did play the Fiesta bowl last year against the other highly ranked non-BCS team - TCU. Both teams are back this season ranked pretty high and TCU beat the 24-Th ranked Oregon state this weekend. Not happy as a Pac-10 honk, but it is what it is.

Speaking of Pac-10, ASU is ranked 9-Th out of 10 teams. What the hell is Dennis Erickson doing? They did beat Portland state in their season opener, but thats neither here nor there. USC won as well, but did not dominate. Oregon dominated New Mexico 72-0. It should have been brutal to be their mascot doing all those push-ups after every TD. I guess the message was "get buff or die trying". Pac-10 is viewed to be even weaker this year than usual and as if to prove that right, Washington State got crushed by Oklahoma State 65-17. Washington lost to BYU And UCLA lost to Kansas State to round off the weekend. And again, ASU is ranked 9-Th in this conference? Scary bad! The 2 top-25 upsets were Utah beating the 15-Th seeded Pittsburgh and 21-St seeded LSU beating North Carolina ranked 18. The second one was not a major upset, but it was one of the 3 big games this opening weekend and Les Miles comes through. Few high-profile teams involved in some big games in week 2 - Penn State @ Alabama, Miami @ Ohio State and Florida State @ Oklahoma. I would be pulling for the road teams in all those 3 games. Give me Joe-Pa over Nick Saban any day of the week. All in all, good start to the football season and it's only going to get better with the NFL kick-off on Thursday.

Speaking of the NFL, the Cardinals released Matt Leinart and he signed with the Texans today to backup Matt Schaub. Schaub is injury-prone though he is way better than Leinart. So we may even see Leinart play a little this year. As bad as Leinart has been, I still didn't want him to be released unceremoniously. Considering all the investment the Cards have put into him, they should have given him another shot. He was no comparison to Kurt Warner, but I don't think he deserves to be cut in favor of Derek Anderson - benched may be, but not cut. 14 TDs and 20 INTs doesn't make a great career yet, but the Cards should have given him another shot just because they don't have a great option ahead of him. Anderson is better, but only slightly and Leinart has slightly more upside. I think it was more a personal decision than a football decision. Matt coming out and complaining openly about the coaching decisions didn't help. The relationship was damaged and the Cards decided there was not enough talent there to put up with him anymore. TJ.Housh was the other big name who got cut and he got picked up by the Ravens. Baltimore now has a lot of big names on the flanks and lets see if it pans out. The Jets finally signed Darrelle Revis and it should be a good Monday night opener between the Ravens and the Jets. Let's see how Boldin does on the Revis Island.

Sad Strasmus

Stephen James Strasburg seem to have come and gone like a shooting star. He was a rookie one day, a super star the next, a hall of famer by day 3 and is now going under the knife for a tommy john surgery all in a matter of months. If it were the olden days, his career would be over. Fortunately for him, tommy john surgeries are as common as getting a haircut these days and most, if not all pitchers come back. And some of then even come back to be as dominant as they were before getting knifed. The chances of a full recovery is higher if you are younger and Strasburg has age on his side. With all that said and done, this is still such a bad news for him, the Nationals and MLB. He became an overnight sensation and to see his season end like that hurts. Plus he won't be back until deep into the 2011 season if not early 2012. But he will be back and he will be good. The question is, can he pump those fastballs in at 100 MPH anymore? May be, may be not. Time will tell. For now, lets all sympathize a little with the Nationals fan only because they have been so down-trodden for so long. Strasburg was the savior for a couple of months and just like that, he is gone. Life is harsh and unreal sometimes, but it is what it is and it must go on.

The other big news in baseball was about a bunch of teams opening their books and the fans getting surprised and in some cases, pissed at bad teams like the Pirates and the Marlins making a load of cash without spending any on baseball players. In the case of the Pirates, they have not had a winning season in 18 years and have still turned a cumulative profit of $34 million in the past 3 years. And some of these teams have ripped off their cities for new arenas and a lot of these cities are in bad financial state these days because of the recession. All of this adds up to a bunch of angry fans. These bad teams are supposedly making money because of revenue sharing and the big boys like the Yankees pushing them down some cash. So obviously, there are some murmurs about revenue sharing and how it breeds bad behavior and is not helping bad teams build winners. These teams would instead sit tight and just take in the money. Why not?

What's the point of Baltimore spending 20 million more and still having no shot against the 200 million dollar payroll of the Yankees and the RedSox in that division when they could just spend nothing and make money off of revenue sharing? Yes, revenue sharing does breed bad behavior, but that doesn't mean we remove revenue sharing and force a freer market on everybody. What it means is, the MLB system is messed up and they need a true salary cap to go with the luxury tax and revenue sharing for a more balanced league. Pure revenue sharing is not working. A salary cap is what's needed to give the Baltimores and the Pittsburghs of the World a chance. NBA and NFL have figured this out in different ways and MLB has to follow one of those systems. Unless there is a level playing field in baseball, these problems will continue. People always point to teams like this years Tampa Bay Rays and say how they are able to work so well within the system. But it's hard. These teams are the exceptions, not the norm and they can't be your blueprint for a typical team in your league. They are the role-models, not the average Joe.

The other good news in baseball is the indictment of Roger Clemens. Nothing is going to happen for 2 years and even after that, he has enough money to fight all this, but it still feels good to see a scum-bag like him get indicted. To his credit, he is still fighting it by pleading not guilty, though may be he shouldn't. Only Roger Cossack knows what all this means, but if Cossack is talking about you on ESPN sportscenter, it only means that things are not going well for you. The other roider Manny is now a whitesox. He has officially become a journeyman. Wasn't he worshipped like a God in LA just a couple of years back? Only in LA would people care less about their supposed sports super-heroes. It's an ultimate fair-weather, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately town. The Dodgers are going nowhere and hence Manny has been shipped out of town. It hurts me to say that both the NL West and the AL West are garbage. AL East on the other hand is just too good. They may end up with the best 3 records in the league with one of the teams, the Redsox, not even making the playoffs. That would be something. It would still not be what I have been waiting for - both the Yankees and the Redsox missing the playoffs. While we are dreaming, we might also ask for the Mets, Dodgers and the Cubs missing the playoffs the same season along with the Yankees and the RedSox.

Favre and the Jets

Favre finally came back this week. Three of his stooges had to literally goto his home and get him on the flight back to Minnesota. As ridiculous as that circus was, it was good on two fronts. First and foremost, it put an end to the fake suspense of "will he or won't he". Of course we all knew he will come back, but still had to deal with the endless hype and circus. Secondly, even with all that said and done, between the lines, he is just fun to watch. He is one of the better QBs in a sport dominated by QBs. And his spontaneity and risk seeking attitude make him must-watch TV. I don't buy the whole "he will play the game for free" hype that talking-heads like Chris Berman have been foisting on us for more than a decade, but he does play well for apparently 16 to 20 million a year. As a NFL fan, I don't mind watching this drama queen when he is not in the off-season drama-mode.

But I think this year is going to be more disappointing than last for the Vikings and Favre. He is a legit 40 year-old now and expectations are higher due to his success last season. He still has a good team around him, but the Saints might have given the league a blue-print to get after him in that playoff game last year. Also, all this talk about Chilly's offense being insufficient for him might put more pressure on them to open it up. If that happens, Favre may go back to throwing 20 interceptions again and might also end up pissing Adrian Peterson. Their schedule is much tougher this year and the Packers will put up a better fight too in the division. Given all this, I would say the hype for the Vikings needs to be tempered. Don't put them in the Super Bowl yet. But then again, better them than the Cowboys who have been going to the Super Bowl the last 5 years in some people's eyes.

The other team that's over-hyped in my not-so-humble opinion are the New York Jets. Between Sexy Rexy's personality and Mark Sanchez's charms and Darrelle Revis's talents and the Big Apple's marketability, this team is getting way too much attention since last year's playoffs. The reality is, they sneaked into the playoffs last year because Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer ended up resting against them and then they got deep into the playoffs. It's no guarantee they are going to go farther this season. Patriots are not the same anymore, but they are still the team with Brady, Moss and Belichick and they will have a big say in what happens in that division. Mark Sanchez is no better or worse than Matthew Stafford and it might be a little too early to put that kid in the Hall of Fame. And if Revis does miss part or whole of the season, they will have real big question marks. Antonio Cromatie can make 6 kids with 5 women or whatever and forget their names, but he is no Revis. Hope the HBO show Hard Knocks doesn't end up being the high-point of the Jets 2010 season.

NFL 2010

I know it's a cliche, but I can smell football in the air. The only good thing about summer being on the decline is the soothing sight of football and the NFL. College football will start soon too, but we all know the NFL is the king. The former King, LeBron, kept us occupied and entertained through the summer and the NBA in general is getting a lot of attention these days and seems to be on the upswing again, but it still ain't no NFL. ESPN follows the NFL throughout the season and it's fun to finally have some games and training camps to talk about rather than just arm-chair analysis.

Of course there are 2 guys who have no interest in the NFL pre-season or the training camps. It's me and Brett Favre! Just like the last couple of years, the NFL off-season is all about Brett Favre. Recently, some news of his retirement leaked and it was funny how absolutely nobody except the ESPN TV producers bought it. Sure enough, he went from being retired one day to a 7 million dollar pay-hike (13 Mill to 20 Mill) the next. I have no idea how that happened and only Favre can pull something like that off. He is still nowhere to be found and is making an absolute fool of the Vikings and Brad Childress. Childress typically rolls with an air of arrogance and talks like he is curing cancer, but with this Brett Favre issue, he is reduced to being a bumbling fool. Love it!

The other big news of the off-season is Darrelle Revis's contract. This story is derailing the Jets and it would be interesting to see how well that team does in case this guy doesn't sign. I expect Mark Sanchez to get exposed a little bit this year because his numbers last year were no better than Lions QB Matthew Stafford. But Sanchez has a great team around him and people were getting ready to put him in the Hall of Fame already because of all the playoff success for the Jets last year. The other big news is TO joining Ochocinco in Cincinnati. I think TO is washed up, but lets see if he at least opens up some lanes for Ocho. Hope they don't don't start fighting over the girls in Chad's stupid reality show on VH-1. Chad brings in TO as a special guest.

Anyways, I guess the NFL festivities actually officially starts only when Favre shows up in Minnesota.

LeBron part 2 - Brand diminished

In the previous post, I covered the part about how LeBron mismanaged the decision making process. Now I want to talk about the decision itself. I hate it. I am one of those guys who never wanted him to leave Cleveland, but thats not the only problem with this decision. Miami to me was a head-scratcher. He is definitely diminishing his brand by joining forces with Wade - a top 5, if not a top-3 talent in the league and Bosh - a top-10 talent. I realize that he is doing this for winning championships, but winning with this group will not make him a "global icon". He will be lucky if he even becomes a bigger icon than Wade in Miami! Wade already has a ring and he will always have one more than LeBron in this setup.

I realize that our culture is really obsessed with winning and we rate people with championships much higher than the ones without. Dan Marino is probably the best quarterback ever, but he never gets the credit because he has ten fingers, but no rings. LeBron clearly thought about this and got intimidated by Kobe's 5 rings and MJ's 6. He looked at himself and his Cavs team and just could not imagine winning 4 or 5 or 6 championships, which is what he thinks he needs to do to be in that "best ever" discussion. But the part he missed is that having multiple rings is important, but how you win them matters too. MJ gets all that credit because he won those rings as the "alpha-dawg" in those Bulls team. Thats why the 2008 ring was so important for Kobe because Kobe's first 3 rings are not his, but Shaq's.

There is no question that LeBron is the better and the more popular player than Wade. I thought the news about how the Heat season tickets were flying off the shelf once the news of LeBron's arrival in Miami leaked was interesting. Wade and Bosh were already in town and I am sure they sold a lot of tickets too, but LeBron is just at a different level as a star. With all that said, Wade is no joke. He is no Pippen or even Pau Gasol. Plus LeBron is going to his town and Wade already has a ring. So LeBron has to share the limelight with Wade. There is no guarantee they win multiple championship, but if they do, LeBron has to share it with Wade. Wade always screamed "this is my house" whenever he hit buzzer beaters or made big plays at home in Miami. Thats exactly the point! LeBron is going to his house. They may be giving him the keys to the master bedroom, but it's still Wade's house.

LeBron's career averages are 27.8 points, 7.1 boards, 7.0 assists and Wade's are 25.4, 4.9 and 6.6. I can easily see Wade being the better scorer in this team give LeBron's tendency to give up the ball and be tentative in the clutch sometimes. LeBron might end up with better all-around numbers, but Wade could end up being the alpha-dawg. Thats not good for LeBron's brand. You could say that he is sacrificing his brand and salary for winning, but thats just a fake argument. To quote one of my friends - "taking less money to play with a bunch of elite players is a false positive for having heart". You can't go and team up with other super-stars , accumulate rings and claim I am better than MJ or Kobe. Ain't gonna happen. LeBron will never be better than MJ now. He could win 7 rings, but will still be ranked lower than MJ and may be even Kobe. I don't think there was ever a situation in any sport where pick numbers 1, 4 and 5 from a year's draft end up on the same team while they are still at their peak. He can never get away from that fact in any "legacy" discussions.

Even NY or Chicago would have made more sense to me than this. He would have been on a great team in Chicago and would have still been the alpha-dawg. It would have been his team, but Miami is not his. As a 25 year-old superstar, he should be working towards winning his championship for his team. Instead, he is joining forces with other stars in another city like older superstars do to get a ring before they retire. I feel like he could have given Cleveland some more time - may be another 3 year deal, and resorted to some mercenary tactics later. I think he seriously tried to convince Bosh to join him, but when he didn't, he didn't see any strong running mate left, panicked and ejected. He is not that far from a championship in Cleveland and the Cavs have been spending money. In fact, if he didn't have a gun to their head for the last several years with this impending free agency, they might have built a more viable team than go after quick fixes like Shaq and Jamison. But they did spend the money and I am sure they would have tried to build a winner for LeBron. And that championship would have meant a LOT more for his legacy than the Miami rings ever will. He might have even become a legend with just a single ring at Cleveland. Now, he needs at least 2 championships to even make a mark.

Winning will solve a lot of problems, but LeBron has a boatload of work to do to fix and rebuild his brand.

LeBron part 1 - Image tarnished

I can go in a hundred different directions with this whole LeBron James saga and I may do just that over the next couple of days on this blog. Simply put, he has tarnished his image and diminished his brand significantly over the last few months and finally with his decision to "take his talents to South Beach". Yes, I always called him "The King", but not anymore. It was indeed one of the most anticipated, hyped up and fascinating free-agency and off-season in the NBA and LeBron and his people deserve a lot of credit for the sheer entertainment. But all the hype and shenanigans had one big collateral damage - the image of LeBron himself. You could tell that he was enjoying every second of the attention and he looked more and more self-obsessed with each passing day. The charade culminated with a show on ESPN called "The Decision". The announcement of the plans for that show almost convinced me that he is going to stay in Cleveland. Is he going to put himself out there with such a level of self-promotional hype and actually turn back on his hometown? I guess he did, but that was shocking to me. It was one thing for him to goto Miami, but I can't believe his handlers let him walk out on Cleveland with such fanfare and hype. I thought the only way he gets away with the unprecedented stupidity of a prime-time TV show to announce his free agent signing is, if he comes out humbly and says "I am staying in Cleveland. This has always been my home. I love these fans blah blah blah". Even Art Modell sneaked his team out in the middle of the night, not in prime time. He should have totally kept it low key if he was going to walk out on Cleveland. Thats just common sense. Of course there doesn't seem to be a lot of common sense in LeBron's home-grown posse.

The show itself got amazing ratings and out-drew a lot of actual NBA games. Goes to show how big LeBron is and how much interest there was in his signing. But thats good news for ESPN, not LeBron. He just put the spotlight on himself while he was going to make an unpopular decision. It's never going to be a popular decision when stars walk away from their current team to another team because, in most circumstances, stars move from the Clevelands and the Kansas Cities of the world to New York and LA. It's just how the economics of the sports world works. Free agent superstars rarely leave the New York Yankees to sign with the Kansas City Royals. It's almost always the other way around. And when that happens, most people except the Yankee fan is unhappy and bitter and angry about it. Most fans like to root for the underdog and hate the rich dog. Also, there is something romantic about a player staying with the same team his entire career and do well for them. This is becoming rarer and rarer these days and Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan may be some of the few guys with a realistic shot of doing this in all of sports today. And all of these feelings were 10 times more amplified with LeBron because he was playing for his home-town team and there was so much attention on his free agency since day 1 because of the New York angle. So LeBron was never going to be embraced for leaving Cleveland. So whose idea was it to do it under the bright lights?

Not only was the show a bad idea, the words that he used to relay the message was even worse - "I have decided to take my talents to South Beach". That doesn't sound humble and the reference to South Beach - the party capital of the World doesn't help either. The contrast between South Beach and Cleveland couldn't be starker. Immediately Cleveland started burning his jersey and the cute girl in that Cleveland bar started crying. It's great theater for sure, but is LeBron gaining anything out of all this? Obviously no because 80% of the people in a poll say they think less of LeBron today than they did before. Totally understandable. He has had a horrible few months PR wise since that game 5 against Boston. ESPN has been milking this free agency big-time since last year and even the NBA should be loving this as this has clearly been the top news this summer ahead of the MLB season, but LeBron's image is a casualty in all this. With all that said, the most shocking thing of this probably happened after LeBron's announcement. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert came out and absolutely killed LeBron in a an open-letter to the Cavs fans. I am shocked he did it, but I am glad he did it. Of course, he is not entirely on the high-ground here as LeBron could have done everything the same way and if only he had decided to stay in Cleveland, Dan would have hailed him as the next coming of Jesus, Allah and Vishnu combined. No moral high-ground for Dan here, but I am just glad he said the things he did - somebody had to say it. Somebody had to vent on behalf of the Cleveland fans. The national media and the NBA isn't going to do it (except for Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski) and Cleveland's local media is just not loud enough for all of us to hear. So I like the fact that Gilbert came out like that and is being heard everywhere.

That covers the way the decision was managed and announced. I will continue my thoughts tomorrow and focus more on the decision itself.

Freaky free agency

The sports world is obsessed this summer with the NBA free agency. It is the biggest news story around and ESPN is going nuts and getting freaky with it's coverage. But I guess now we can all relax since the big domino has fallen. Timberwolves president David Kahn said signing Milicic was his first priority of the summer and locked him up with a 4 year 20 million dollar deal! Who needs LeBron James when you can overpay one of the biggest draft busts in recent history! Who exactly was Kahn competing against anyways? May be a couple of teams from Turkey and Greece? God help the Twolves. Despite all the big names in the NBA free agency, what we have so far for headlines are a bunch of bad signings. Milicic's contract is not that bad if you stack it up against Rudy Gay's five year, $82 million deal and Joe Johnson's ridiculous $119 million over six seasons.

Both players are decent and I actually like them, but neither of them is a true superstar who can be a number one guy in a championship team. NBA salaries are such that you gotta overpay at times for talent and both these guys can be legit number 2 guys and sometimes this is the going rate for such guys. But the problem is, it's OK to pay them if you already have a stud on your roster. Example - Orlando paid a ridiculous amount for Rashard Lewis, but they had Dwight Howard on the roster and as long as they could afford to sign both, it was OK. If you don't have that number one on the roster, the problem with these contracts is that it cripples the team's ability to get those number ones and these teams are basically now stuck with what they have and have hit their ceiling and the ceiling is not that high. May be Memphis can sign another big contract, but the Hawks are pretty much stuck where they are if Joe Johnson accepts this. The shocking part of this is, Joe Johnson has not accepted this offer and is apparently even tempted to play for less at Chicago or NY.

Now on to the real big names. The only thing that sounds concrete right now is Amare to NY. I am disappointed as a Suns fan, but I like the Suns signings of Hakim Warrick and Frye. They overpaid a little for Frye, but not too bad. I have always liked Warrick since college and it should be interesting to see him play with Nash. I just hope the Suns pick one more mid-level talent with some of the money they saved with Amare. The penny-pinching owner is going to lose one of his best players and the least he could do is bring somebody to fill some of the gaps. He already lost Steve Kerr as the GM because he tried to cut his pay after one of the best seasons the Suns have had in a few years. Amare may or may not be worth the max, but you gotta pay him, period. He will get 100 over 5 years from New York and I wish him good luck. He is now saying Melo and Parker will join him in 2011. Interesting!

We are still waiting for the top 3 free-agents to make up their mind - LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Many teams have already visited Cleveland to court LeBron including the paper clips. Now it's time for LeBron to make up his mind. He has more talent in Chicago, but he still can make the most in Cleveland. So it will be interesting to see what he does. There are also several crazy scenarios involving Miami and Chicago where all 3 will end up in the same team. I don't think that will happen. I don't think it even makes sense for LeBron to join Wade. LeBron needs his own championship and can't be a co-winner with Wade. Bosh is a big guy and he can join either one of them to help out, but looks like he is more likely to join Wade may be in Miami. Toronto refuses to sign and trade him and I think that makes it interesting. All said and done, LeBron is the king of this free agency period and he will get this thing really moving when he makes his call. There is a lot of second and third level talent in this free agency including Carlon Boozer and Tracy McGrady that nobody is even talking about. I liked the Lakers picking up Steve Blake. Smart move.

Kid from Queensbridge

The NBA finals ended last week, but I didn't have the time to blog about it until now. Plus, the Lakers won. So I thought what's the hurry! The most interesting part of that game 7 might have been Ron Artest's post-game interview. The dude from Queensbridge went crazy in his post-game presser. The guy is genuine and all real. He may be crazy, but what you see is what you get with him. It was classic when he said "the zen master was in my ears saying don't shoot and I was like whatever and shot the ball". Funny! He also spoke about how he feels like he let down his Indiana teammates back in the day when they were good before he jumped into the crowd in Detroit. He had 20-5-1-5 in game 7 and those 5 steals were critical. He finally came through for the Lakers after a spotty season and an even worse playoffs. Every team in the playoffs left him open as they had to double and triple Kobe. They wanted him to shoot and he often obliged and clanked the ball off the rim. But in game 7, he made a lot of those shots. I am happy for him. He seems like a good guy, though I wouldn't accuse him of being smart or intelligent.

As for the game itself, it went exactly like I expected - hard-fought, defensive struggle with a lot of missed shots with the home team eventually winning the contest. The pressure is so high, very few guys hit open shots in such game 7 contests. Even Kobe couldn't make his shots and Gasol and him combined to shoot 12/40. But the Celtics were not able to take advantage. Things looked too good to be true when they went up by 13 in the second half. Unfortunately for a Laker hater like me, it was. Celtics blew it all as they couldn't hit timely shots late in the third and all of the fourth quarter. Nobody except Garnett shot a decent percentage and Allen and Pierce couldn't hit anything late in the game. The final score of 83-79 meant we got a good game, but also a disappointing result. If Kobe has lost this one, he would never be compared to Jordan. He would have been 4-3 in the finals and thats barely batting .500 in finals. While making it to 7 finals is awesome, America loves winners and MJ's 6-0 would have been untouchable. Even now his Airness is untouchable, but if Kobe is 5-2 in finals. One more ring, he has just as many as MJ and 2 more, he has more than his Airness! Then the media might start MJ-V-Kobe discussion all over again.

I feel like MJ's legacy is a little threatened, though Kobe has to win 2 more before we entertain that argument. Right now, the argument is about his place in the Lakers history. Some people say he is the best Lakers ever and some don't agree. The argument against is Magic, Jerry West and even Kareem. I don't care either way, but I think he is close to being the best Laker ever. Kobe also made it a point to mention he has 1 more ring than Shaq. Shaq is all nice now after rapping about "Kobe can't do it without me" in 2008. Kobe has finally done it without Shaq and done it twice and done it back to back. May be Pau should now rap"Kobe can't do it without me". Kobe has a lot of talent around him, but he still deserves a lot of credit obviously. He plays hard, helps defensively and he badly wants to win. Thats a coach's dream. His game is still at peak or near peak. He is going to decline soon because of all the mileage, but he probably has one or max 2 more years at this level. I hope LeBron overtakes Kobe and takes the baton soon. But looking at the King's behavior, he may not get the job done this year or next. I am very curious to see how long Kobe stretches his effectiveness at this age.

The King's Court

While Kobe is busy setting himself up for a 5-Th ring and potential parity with his Airness MJ, King James is having an interesting month or two to say the least. He first lost some goodwill with that horrible game 5 against the Celtics and the loss in the Eastern semis - couple of rounds before his projected exit. Then there was the ugly rumor about an affair between Delonte West and his mom. He then started his free agency period. He has always enjoyed the chase and all the attention, but he has done some weird things this spring. While Kobe is still hitting fade-away jumpers, the King is sitting by a pool and chatting with the other king - Larry King. I don't think anybody should be on Larry King's show except 50 year-old cougars. He did say Cleveland has an edge in that interview, but why is he even talking to Larry King during the NBA finals?

Then there is the supposed stupid free agent summit involving him, Joe Johnson, Wade, Bosh and may be Nowitzki. Of course Amare wants to join that too. But what are these guys going to decide? All of these guys want max contracts and no team has the money to pay 2 of these guys. Nets and Knicks theoretically have it, but it's really not practical. If you pay 2 max contracts, you got no money for good role players and no flexibility for trades for years. While a team with LeBron and Wade or Wade and Bosh sounds great, you need more than that to win. Look at the Lakers and the Celtics. Both teams have 4 or 5 guys making decent salary with a max or 2 thrown in. So getting 2 max contracts off the street is not a viable strategy. Extending one of your own and picking one off the street is more viable. Secondly, the way NBA salaries are structured, these guys will be giving up about 30 million dollars over 6 years if they choose to sign with another team and not their own. And nobody is going to do that. So I am pretty sure Bosh, LeBron and Wade are going to sign with their own team. The only question is, are they going to play there next year or force a sign and trade to another team. If it's sign and trade, then the Knicjs and Nets don't have the pieces for one, let alone 2.

So the summit is pretty stupid and useless. The only thing it achieves is for these guys to structure their contracts very similarly. Specifically, they can talk about when is their next opt-out. That way they can create another "biggest summer of NBA free agency ever" again in 3 or 4 years like they did this year. These guys coordinated their opt-outs the last time they signed their contract. Thats why Carmelo Anthony is not in the field this year. He signed the same contract the same year, but he didn't put in the opt-out like LeBron or D-Wade. They can do it again and enjoy the attention, but other than that this summit is worthless. Bron and Wade can never be in the same team. The only option is for one of the bigs - Amare, Bosh, Nowitzki or Boozer to team up with either Bron or Wade. This can still happen, but this summit won't make it happen. It is going to take some create deal-making by a GM or 3 to make it happen.

Then there are the wholesale changes in the Cleveland management. Coach Brown is fired, GM Ferry is gone. They are now talking to Tom Izzo after the John Calipari rumors died down. Seems like Tom Izzo is even considering taking the job. The most interesting part of this is, I have no idea why Izzo would want this job if there is no guarantee LeBron will be back. I would assume LeBron will stay in Cleveland if Izzo signs on the dotted line. Either way, I never understand this infatuation with top college coaches. It's really a different game and success in college rarely translates to success in the NBA. I would rather go with known big names among the ex-NBA coaches who are unemployed right now. But the point is, the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is doing all this to please the King. Of course he is saying thats not the case, but the King is right now getting whatever he wants from Gilbert and understandably so. Gil is desperate and is letting the inmates - actually one inmate, run the asylum. All of this is adding to some bad press for the King. He should just lie low and wait for July 1-St. He needs to manage this better. We all like to be pursued and courted, but the King might just be taking this too far.

Bynum is the news

The NBA finals is tied at 2-2. I am on track with my prediction that the Lakers will take it in 7. Boston did great stealing game 2 in LA, but gave the advantage right back to LA in game 3. As the team without home court, Boston should be looking at this as a 6 game series. They just cannot win game 7 on the road in the Finals. This means the Boston should have seriously tried to make Truth's prediction come true. Paul Pierce predicted at the end of game 2 that the series ain't coming back to LA - meaning Boston will win the middle 3 games and win the series 4-1. But Boston lost game 3 and now they are coming back to LA. Boston better win game 5 this weekend and win game 6 in LA if they want their second ring. They need to play the next 8 quarters like there is no tomorrow. Game 7 just does not exist as far as the Celtics are concerned. Boston won game 4 behind some strong bench play. They were also helped by the injury to Andrew Bynum and that could be a "gift" that keeps on giving to Boston. I don't think he can really be very effective in this series given the state of his knee. Game 5 might depend on how well this dude plays.

The NBA finals is the top news this time of the year, but Stephen Strasburg and the conference alignment in college football has been challenging the NBA pretty good this week. More on the realignment later, but this dude Strasburg took Washington DC by storm. Every now and then a pitcher's debut causes a lot of excitement, but I can't remember anybody generating as much excitement as this dude. DC and the entire ESPN nation was hyping this start for a couple of days and the dude outperforms even the massive hype. LeBron's debut came to my mind as the closest parallel though nobody will ever have to deal with LeBron's level of hype ever. Strasburg struck out 14 batters and walked none in seven innings. Nationals' won 5-2 over the Pittsburgh Pirates and gave the kid a W. All in all a great day for the sold-out Nationals fan base. His 14 strikeouts were the third-most by any pitcher in history in a big league debut -- behind only J.R. Richard (15) in 1971 and Karl Spooner (15) in 1954. Great start, but a pitcher's career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Lakers in 7

It took me a while to recover from the Suns elimination. We all saw it coming, but it's disappointing for a true fan if and when it happens. This series was especially topsy-turvy. It started with the Lakers looking like gang-busters. Then the Suns achieved some parity at home. At 2-2, my expectations went up. Plus the game 5 in LA was a barn-burner and the Suns almost stole it. At that point, it looked like a 7-game series all the way. But then the Lakers were back to being the Lakers of game 1 and 2, that too on the road in game 6 and the Suns fell short. The Suns zone was just not the same in game 6 and neither was Ron Artest. He killed the Suns and so did Kobe with 37 points. It was one of those days when Kobe looked unstoppable. He made sure the Suns needed a comeback again in the fourth quarter, but he also made sure the comeback didn't get the Suns all the way back.

Now, the Lakers and Celtics are in the finals and the NBA and the TV channels are happy. This is probably the second best thing to Kobe-V-Bron if not better. I pick the Lakers to win it in 7 only because they have the home-court. I would totally pick the Celtics if they had the home-court. We all saw what the Celts did to the Fakers in 2008. Granted, the Lakers are better now and the Celtics are a little older, but still I would have picked them in 7 if they had 4 home games. But the Lakers do have home-court and I think they are going to need it, It's gonna be a tough, close, hard-fought series. The Celtics are no joke as Cleveland and Orlando figured out. They will scratch and claw and harass the Laker bigs and thats probably where the series will be decided. Lets get the series started.

In MLB, there was a near perfect game today. But the first base umpire screwed up the call in the ninth inning with 2 outs. It was kinda tragic, but what happened later was interesting. Armando Galarraga, the pitcher saw the safe call and flashed a great smile! It was refreshing to see a pitcher react like that. Most pitchers conduct themselves like they are the biggest a-holes. It was interesting to see this guy react in such a normal way at such a interesting point in the game. The umpire later profusely apologized and genuinely felt bad for screwing up history. He also apologized to Galarraga. In the post-game presser, Galarraga was once again graceful and decent. He pretty much pardoned the umpire saying everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect. This dude is a class act! Nobody would have blamed him if he was resentful and most pitchers would have been. This could have been true history in a sport where most historic occasions these days are tainted by steroids. But the umpire stole it from Galarraga. It's time for instant replay in MLB.

We got a series ... or may be 2

The Suns got it done twice at home to tie their series up. It was an amazing home-stand for the Suns. Neither game was easy, but they made it look easier than it actually was. The key to both games was the Suns playing the zone. They had to give it a shot given how bad their defense was against the bigger Lakers. But it was surprising to see how effective the zone was. Typically, it messes up an offense for a quarter or 2 and then they adjust. It was surprising to see how effective the zone was for almost the entirety of game 3 and also through game 4. The zone helped the Suns in game 4, but not as much as their bench. The Suns bench came through again and I love how Gentry plays 5 bench guys all at the same time. I don't think I have never seen that with any coach. Definitely not with Mike D'Antoni and the Suns of the past. Not only did the Suns bench play, they played forever in the 4-Th quarter as Gentry even pulled back Nash and Amare from the scorer's table.

The spin move Dragic dropped on Fish was awesome and the highlight of game 4. And Barbosa is looking good too. If the Brazilian Blur is on, the Suns are that much better. The Suns bench really defend better and if they can score offensively, then it does make sense to keep them in ahead of even the studs like Nash and Amare - both shaky defensive players though awesome offensively. Speaking of Amare and offense, he got killed in the media for a couple of day after his performance in the first 2 games, but his 42 in game 3 shut fools up. He was unstoppable and the Suns need that on the road too if they want to win this series. The Suns will try the zone in game 5 for sure and we will see how it goes. The zone works as good as the jump shots attempted in that zone - if those are bricks, the zone "works", if they go in, the zone is busted. And of course the jump shooters always do well at home. That explains the success of the suns bench at home and that will decide what happens to their zone on the road. Can't wait for game 5.

In the East, Boston lost game 3 at home and of course lost game 4 on the road. Now all the pressure is on the Celtics. They have to win game 6 at home. Otherwise, they are looking at a game 7 on the road. Thats not something to look forward to. We now have 2 interesting series in our hands while we had none about a week back. The problem for Boston now is, they have multiple bodies in trouble - injuries, technicals etc. I am pretty sure the league will rescind one of the 2 techs handed out to Perkins. Otherwise, he is out since he has gotten his 7-Th technical. I still think Boston closes the deal in game 6. If they can't win at home, they don't deserve to win the series anyways. It will be ironic if Boston is the first team to lose a 0-3 lead after what the RedSox did in 2004. Of course the Bruins just lost a series they were leading 3-0 just 2 weeks back. But it is not unfathomable in the NHL as much as in the NBA or the MLB.

Tilting one way

The NBA playoffs this season has been surprisingly one-sided. Usually, the playoffs are tough, tight and competitive. Even if certain games are one-sided, the series usually swings back and forth and most series go 6 and a couple even go to 7 games. This year, most series don't even seem to go past 4. It's been broom-town for the most part and even the conference finals seem to be trending that way. Unfortunately, the Suns are at the receiving end of one of them mismatches though they were dishing the sweep last round. It's too early to be talking sweep in the Suns-Lakers series because they don't even play their first home game until tomorrow. I don't think there will be a sweep and I totally expect the Suns to take game 3. But they are definitely the inferior team in the series. Lakers have been toying with them so far. The Suns have no defense for Kobe, which is normal. But they don't seem to have any answer for Gasol or Odom or Bynum. Basically the Lakers are huge and are unstoppable.

The Suns problems are all at the defensive end. The Lakers have won both the games almost in identical ways. The scoreboard read 128-107 after game 1 and 124-112 after game 2. Even the Suns can't outscore their opponent if those opponents score 120+ without even really breaking a sweat. They have to figure out something to slow down the Lakers. Easier said than done, but I want to see them at least try tomorrow. Gentry has pushed all the right buttons this playoffs so far, but here is his real test. I don't know if he goes deeper into the bench or what, but he has to do something to slow down this Lakers offense. Offensively, the Suns are fine. The guys even have decent numbers because they have scored almost 110 in both games, but they have given up way more than that. Honestly, the Suns probably don't have a shot in this series. But the question is, can they make it interesting unlike the Magic.

Speaking of the Magic, they have now fallen to 0-3. That series was over the moment Magic lost both home games to go down 0-2, but still today's effort in game 3 was horrible. The Celtics are just on a roll right now and I can see all the experts picking them to win it all even against the mighty Lakers. I can see the Celtics winning it all just like 2008 though the Lakers are a better team now than they were in 2008. Celtics are tough and strong defensively and that always helps. The Magic have nowhere to go against them. Dwight Howard is great, but he is not all there yet offensively. He has a looong way to go and the Celtics have him completely bottled up. This series should be a sweep come Monday night and the Celtics may have sent 2 premier Eastern conference teams into a massive rebuild mode this off-season - the Cavs and the Magic. Match-ups always play a big role in the NBA playoffs and both these series prove this point. But if the Magic do get swept, it does raise some serious questions about Howard and the Magic. They may decide they need another alpha-dawg to improve. Howard may not be the guy, at least not offensively. He is getting exposed in this series.

Resurgent Celtics

The Celtics are back. They have gone from an aging, old team to a true championship contender in a matter of 2 weeks. They didn't do very well last year because KG was hurt. This year, it looked like they were old and on the way down. They had an inconsistent regular season and finished 11 games behind the Cavs and 9 games behind the Magic in the Eastern standings. Fourth seed just didn't seem good enough for this team. But they have been great in these playoffs. While the Magic have the impressive scoreboard, they have really not played anybody until this round. The Celtics on the other hand, have played good defense, unleashed a true superstar in Rajon Rondo and eliminated the King. The big 3 of course can't bring it day in and day out anymore, but they don't have to because they now have a big 4 and good role players.

Today, they won a huge road game to open the Eastern finals and played stellar defense. They harassed Dwight Howard and did not give him even an inch. He had to fight and struggle for everything he got and ended up a frustrated young man. They have a lot of big bodies to throw at Howard - Big Baby and Rasheed Wallace and Perkins and KG. I see the same toughness and defense that got them the championship in 2008. Carter and Jameer Nelson had decent games, but the Magic will be done if they can't get Howard untracked. It's now time for Van Gundy and Howard to come up with some adjustments for game 2. They need him at both ends of the floor to win this series. I have to pick Boston in 6 to take this one. I don't really care who wins this series, but I am a little excited to see Boston play like this because may be they are the only team that can dethrone the Lakers with their toughness and defense - just like they did in 2008.

Of course the previous sentence almost suggests that the Lakers will beat my Suns and get to the Finals. My heart say not, but my brain says probably yes to that scenario. My heart picks the Suns in 6, but my brain says Lakers in 6. The series starts tomorrow in LA and it's going to be a good one. There may be a blowout or 2, but I am sure there will be a couple of great games. The Suns need a great start tomorrow. They can't get blown out tomorrow just for their psychological well-being. They have to show to themselves and the others that they belong and can compete. They lost 3 out of 4 games during the season and in couple of those games in LA, I felt like the Suns didn't really believe they can beat the Lakers. It seemed like they were expecting to lose. They can't do that tomorrow or in any of the games this series. Hopefully, they won't suffer from that mind-set after all the success and confidence from the second half of the season and the great playoff run so far.

The Lakers have size and Kobe. Suns have no answer for either, though I am sure Grant Hill will try and even succeed sometimes in slowing down Kobe a little. Bynum's bad knee and Robin Lopez's return hopefully levels the field a little bit, but will that be enough is the real question. The big problem for the Suns is the Lakers length at both ends of the floor. It really hurts Amare at both ends. He gets in foul trouble at one ned and their length bothers him at the other. I think the Suns hopes in this series depends on Amare outplaying Pau. If Amare wins that duel, the Suns can put a lot of pressure on the Lakers. We will get some of these answers tomorrow. If the Cavs can be eliminated in the East, why can't the Suns kick the Lakers out? My hopes are up! I am going with my heart and picking the Suns to win this in 6.

Suns Sweep and the King is out!

The second round of the NBA playoffs has been sweet for me until today, when it turned a little bitter. The Suns shockingly and surprisingly swept the Spurs. I think nobody including the Suns players would have guessed they could actually sweep the Spurs. This pretty much confirms KG's words of wisdom after his championship - "anything is possible!". It was a very satisfying moment for Suns fans like me given all the heartache we have been through over the years. The final game was not without signs of some of the ugly demons coming back to haunt us. Duncan's elbow inadvertently cut open Nash's eyelid and he had to step out to stitch it up. The Spurs tie the game up when he is out and the tension escalated if you were a Suns fan. Nash came back to the bench, but his right eye was barely open. He got in the game and we could see his eye swelling up and closing down by the minute. Somehow, he still hit his shots and the Suns put the Spurs away courageously. It was indeed a proud moment. Unfortunately, the reward for such brilliance is a date with the Lakers. That team is way too big for the Suns! More on that later.

The bitter part of the second round happened today as the Cavs were eliminated today in 6 games. King James looked horrible at home in game 5 and though he had a triple double today, he didn't look too great - 8/21 shooting and 9 turnovers is not good enough. He had an unbelievably horrible night in game 5, but I was still surprised by the backlash. I thought everybody was entitled to a bad day or 2, but he is getting killed on the radio across the nation since that game 5. I don't know if it's the internet/blog culture of today or is it because of heightened sensitivity due to his upcoming free agency, I thought this one bad game got way more attention than any other bad game by other superstars in the past that I can think off. His free agency is such a big news. Now, almost everybody thinks he is a goner. Chicago is suddenly the favorite destination. He has now missed making it to the finals in both the years he has won the MVP - Nash-like. And the Cavs have fallen short of even last year's performance when they made it to the Eastern conference Finals. I guess they don't need Shaq to deal with Howard. They didn't even get to Howard. Rando made sure of that. That dude is awesome! A true triple double threat day-in and day-out. I don't know how he can get 18 rebounds at just 6'1". The game 5 loss and the series loss is almost inexplicable for the Cavs. Now they have a lot bigger problem to deal with if LeBron is not staying. It should be an interesting off-season.

Easy, breezy second round

Three of the four second round match-ups in the NBA playoffs are at 3-0. It's unusually one-sided and I am glad that the Suns are one of the teams thats ahead 3-0 on the hated Spurs. Jazz gave a tough game to the Lakers today, but they just fell one point short and an inch or two to the side as a late game tip-in that would have won the game rolled off the rim. For a couple of minutes before that, the game was played at a very high level as both teams hit shot after shot and traded the lead back and forth. It was probably the best game of the playoffs so far, but the Lakers are still up 3-0. The Magic crushed the Hawks again and they have not lost a game in the playoffs yet. They have won 7 games straight and many folks are saying they are the best team in the playoffs right now. I don't quite buy that because they have beat up so far on Charlotte and Atlanta - 2 mediocre teams in my opinion. You can't really compare them to the Lakers playing the Thunder or even the Cavs against the Celtics. The Cavs won yesterday behind a tremendous performance by the King (38-8-7) to get that series to 2-1. Ironically, Cavs, the supposed best team going into this round, are the only team not leading their series 3-0.

The most surprising and satisfying 3-0 lead is owned by the Suns. They had an amazing game yesterday that was just unbelievable to watch. We have seen this movie over and over again through the decade and the ending was always a Spurs win. But yesterday, the Suns on the road, came back from an early 18 point deficit and won by 14 points in the fourth. Thats a 32 point turnaround against the Spurs defense. Granted, the Spurs D is not what it used to be - no Bruce Bowen these days, but they are still the Spurs. But this Suns team is great. They still run and gun and with Steve and Amare, they look similar to the Mike D'Antoni teams, but this is really a different team. I love Alvin Gentry and he has definitely improved on the Mike D'Antoni blueprint. He has put the right emphasis on defense and rebounding by just mildly tweaking the players and their minutes. It's subtle, but significant because these moves have convinced Nash and Amare and everybody to work just a little bit harder on defense. The extra minutes to Jared Dudley through the season and starting Robin Lopez or even Jarron Collins now are the kind of moves that emphasizes defense and rebounding and the message has gone very well with the team.

I really doubt if D'Antoni would have ever played these bench guys the way Gentry uses them. Anytime a starter got injured, D'Antoni just couldn't wait to insert Barbosa into the starting lineup and score 10 more points and give up 15 more. I personally thought some of the defensive criticism that D'Antoni received was a little overstated. But I definitely was a big critic of his lack of use of the bench. And Gentry is proving my point everyday. The biggest difference between the two is how Gentry trusts and uses his bench. This is something he has built through the season and it is paying huge dividends right now. The only reason they won yesterday on the road was because of Goran Dragic. He dropped 26 points, all in the second half and the starters never even had to get off the bench to wrap this game up. The problem with D'Antoni was that there was just too much pressure on Nash to make things work. When you play only 5 or 6 guys, you have only 3 or 4 different things to run on offense and defense. In the playoffs, you are playing good teams and on top of that, they scheme and plot and focus on every little detail over a 7 game series. So when a great team like the spurs shut off Nash and the 3 or 4 schemes D'Antoni had, there were no answers or counter-punches.

With Gentry, it's different. He has many things to goto. He has a bench that can help him out if the starters stall. Even on defense, he relies on Hill, J-Rich, Dudley and Dragic at different points against different people and the team is just better because of all the variety and versatility. They are not great defensively, but they can get a stop or two when it matters. Same story on offense. Is Dragic as good as Nash? Of course not - except for yesterday when he looked better than Nash, Amare and Duncan combined! But Gentry lets him play with a group and lets them do what they do best and keep scoring even when Nash is on the bench. This is the point D'Antoni never got. He was over-reliant on Nash and his run-and-gun philosophy and never stopped and looked at his bench players to see how they can help. It's the job of the coach to try and leverage the strengths of the players. NBA players are very skilled and are varied in their skill level and what they bring to the table. I am really happy with what Gentry is doing with the roster he got. I think D'Antoni probably had a better bench a couple of years he was coaching the Suns, but he never let them play. If he had done that, may be the Suns would already have a championship.

Suns looking good

Suns are looking great right now. They are up 2-0 against the hated Spurs and they clearly look like the better team. Historically, the Spurs always come out and punch the Suns first in the mouth. The Suns will usually fight an uphill battle and scratch and claw their way back into the series only to eventually lose it in 6 or 7. I think the tables are turned this year. The Suns are the better team and they have punched the Spurs in the mouth twice in the first 2 games. It's now up to the Spurs to respond and they probably will, but the Suns definitely are the favorites to win the series now. They look like the more talented team and they are not scared or intimidated by the Spurs. Today, they came out with their "Los Suns" jerseys and made both a political and a basketball statement on the court. I was surprised by the openly "anti-immigration-bill" stand that the Suns owner Sarver took, because businesses usually don't take sides on such things. They are always on the side of the almighty dollars. But I guess the NBA fan base is so heavily colored, young, liberal and democratic that Sarver did the right thing, both morally and financially. Coach Pop also came out and ripped the bill. He sounds like a big liberal and even took a shot at the patriot act.

In the other series, Atlanta looked like dogs in their game 1 against the Magic and Cleveland didn't look much better in their game 2. Lots of talk about King James's elbow. Hopefully, it's not too bad. He is going to have a third MRI to make sure things are fine. I think Cleveland will be fine and wrap things up in 6 or 7. But the Hawks-Magic series is a dog and I hope it ends soon. The Lakers-Utah series is not that great either. Jerry Sloan's teams are usually tough and good defensively. This team is tough, but they are not good defensively. He just doesn't have the horses to play D like he wants to. Having AK-47 back for game 3 will help, but so far, the Lakers have gotten whatever they want. They have no answers for Kobe, but then again no team has an answer to Kobe. But this Jazz team has no answers to anybody on the Lakers roster including Luke Walton! Every single Laker looks bigger than every single Jazz player - except Deron Williams on D-Fish. The size on this Lakers team is just amazing. They are too big and are abusing the Jazz in the paint. Pau Gasol is blocking shots like he is Dwight Howard. I think this series ends in 5 unless AK-47 does a job on Kobe - very unlikely considering he is coming back from injury and who knows what percentage he is at.

By the way, what happened to Barry Zito? Seems like he is back!

Suns-Spurs

I should have known better. Of course it's going to come down to the Suns-Spurs series for the Suns if they are any good. And they are very good this season. Starting Monday, we will all watch another tantalizing series between these two teams who have enthralled us with many such series over the last 6 years. I don't expect this series to be any different except for the eventual result. I totally expect the Suns to win this year though the Spurs are always a tough out in the playoffs. The Mavs found this out the hard way last week even as the 2-Nd seed playing the supposedly 7-Th best team in the West. There is a saying that we should be careful what we wish for because we might just get our wish! I was actually so impressed with the Mavs late in the regular season, I was scared of the Suns playing them. Because of the Nash-centered rivalry and how he used to kill them a few years back, I feel the Mavs get up for the Suns and with all the talent this year, I was not confident that the Suns can handle the Mavs talent, emotional surge and their home court in these playoffs. So I was pulling for the Spurs to beat the Mavs and get to the Suns. That has happened now and I am beginning to get a little jittery given the history.

I feel like the emotional dynamics in a Suns-Spurs match-up is the revere of the Mavs-Suns series. The Suns fight like the wounded underdog against the Spurs because they are. They get up for them and though the results have not always been favorable in the playoffs so far, this regular season has been pretty good for the Suns against these Spurs. I understand these playoffs are different, especially for the veteran Spurs team, but I still like the Suns chances. Amare always plays well against the Spurs. Timmy is great, but he seems a little slowed down these days. Also there is no Bruce Bowen to molest Nash full-court. In fact, I have always believed Bowen's absence is one of their issues this season and I am hoping the Suns and Nash take advantage of it. I am sure Pop will find someone else to harass him and Nash didn't look all that great against even the Blazers, but Bowen's absence should be good news for the MP3. Nash needs to play better. Too many turnovers against playoff caliber defenses and a tired, end-of-the-season body always hurts him in the playoffs, but if he plays smart, the Suns should be good. The team as a whole did well against the Blazers and I am happy they put them to bed in 6 even after losing game 1 at home. Thats a sign of a mature team. Lets hope the Suns prove me right on Monday. They can't lose game 1 to the Spurs at home. Just like the Sox against the Yanks in 2004, the Suns have to go through the Spurs if they ever want to win a ring. Thats the only way to reverse the curse!

LeBron James has won his second MVP in a row. Very deserving I might add. No arguments here. The Cavs will beat the Celtics and go forward. The series might take a while, but will work out for the Cavs. In the other Eastern series, the Bucks now have to go on the road and play a game 7. They lost a golden opportunity at home yesterday. Utah did not do the same mistake and took care of the Nuggets. It's amazing what Utah did with the guys on that roster. Goes to show how much you can do with a couple of studs and a great coach and system. My only regret there is, the talent, size and the thugs on the Denver roster would have given the Lakers more trouble than the Jazz would. It should be a relatively easy series for the Lakers right now against the Jazz. The Lakers did close out the Thunder on the road. They proved me right. The Thunder played very well and what they did was impressive, but it was much ado about nothing. A young team like that cannot beat the Lakers in a 3 game series with 2 games in LA. The best case scenario or them was to force a 7 game series, but that didn't happen. Durant was totally off, but the Thunder still almost won the game. It is an awesome team and I am scared of them as a fan of a fellow Western conference team. The future is theirs for the taking as long as Durant keeps getting better.

Spurs, Jazz and the Cavs seem all set

All the 4 playoff series today ended up at 3-1. Dwayne Wade made sure the Heat got one back today. He was sensational as he dropped 46 on the Celtics. The Heat were up a lot and then they lost all that lead and trailed by 5 or 6 at one point. It seemed like the Heat should have been so deflated and ready to go fishing. But Wade had other ideas. He just decided to go bonkers and even hit 3 after 3, which is really not his game. He made 16-of-24 shots, 5 of 7 from 3-point range, and outscored the Celtics 19-15 in the fourth quarter. Thats amazing for someone who shoos just 30% from 3 and takes no more than 3 per game. It was one of those special games for DWade in what might be his last game for the Heat. I think he resigns, but you never know.

It was a great day for the 2003 draft class as LeBron and Melo followed DWade with great showings of their own. Cleveland creamed the bulls behind LeBron's triple double - 37/12/11, shooting 11/17. Melo lost, but dropped 39/11 and almost had a dubious triple double with 9 turnovers. The Jazz are surprisingly leading this series 3-1. This was a 4-V-5 series and those are always close. And this was especially supposed to be tight in this year's Western playoffs where even 1-V-8 is sensationally tight. But the surprising part is that the Jazz met with late season and post-season injuries to AK-47 and Okur. Thats when I switched my pick to Denver. But Jerry Sloan and his system is genius. They are taking it to the more talented Denver team behind starters named Fesenko and Matthews. Sloan should be winning the Coach of the year award every year or like somebody said, they should just name the award after him instead of giving it to him.

Dallas is in trouble. They are down 3-1 and today, they got undone by George Hill who had 29 points. Duncan, Ginobli and Parker combined to score just 31 points on 9/34 shooting once again proving they win behind their defense and experience. Of course Hill's offense didn't hurt, but they bottled up everybody on the Dallas side including Nowitzki. For all the glitter and glamour of the Mavs, they really are not setup to handle such playoff pressure unless Nowitzki shows up big. If he is off, they are like chickens with their heads cut off. All that scoring talent they got seem pretty inconsistent and they seem to run a system that is just hoping for people to hit shots and score and it doesn't really have a consistent scheme outside of Nowitzki. And against teams like the Spurs, hope doesn't quite get it done. The Suns are similar in some ways and they have to use their home court and make it 3-2 tomorrow. They have to unleash Amare to neutralize the size of the Blazers and somebody, anybody has to slowdown LaMarcus Aldridge. Orlando and Atlanta are also playing tomorrow, but who cares.

Tebow goes too early Roy returns too early

The draft is done. They started it Thursday and ended it today and surprisingly, Tim Tebow was drafted on Thursday itself - ahead of Jimmy Clausen. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels seems to have made up his mind to practically burn that franchise down. After dumping Jay Cutler last year, he has traded away Brandon Marshal this year. After getting rid of 2 of their best talents, he has now drafted Tebow way ahead of the spot his talent actually warrants. I would be surprised if Josh is still employed this time next year, but part of me hopes he would still be the coach for several years to come and personally struggle through Tebow's development. Clausen on the other hand endured a draft day embarrassment worse than Aaron Rodgers and Brady Quinn. Hopefully this motivates him to achieve greatness. Carolina is a good spot for him. The QBs were the biggest news of the first 2 rounds of the draft. It was amazing to see players from the state of Oklahoma fill out 3 of the first 4 and 4 of the top 6 draft spots. Good day for the state and especially the Sooners football program.

The other pick from the first two rounds that caught my eye was Stanford's Toby Gerhart going to the Vikings. Thats a great pick for the Vikes. The interesting story for me from the later rounds was the former FSU safety Myron Rolle. There were questions about his “character” because he left school early to study at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. One Bucs scout asked him how it felt to desert his team. Basically teams have downgraded him because he is smart. Thats ridiculous. Trent Dilfer made a great point on TV that for most players, the priorities are football and play-station or football and partying. Thats considered normal. But they don't want it to be football and education. That raises some eyebrows and I can only laugh. Rolle eventually went with the last pick of the sixth round to the Titans. Weber State receiver Tim Toone was "Mr Irrelevant". He went to the Detroit Lions as the last pick of the 7-Th round. Looks like the Lions post-Millen have started drafting WRs with the last pick instead of the first pick. Thats good for them. They have pretty much wasted the last decade drafting WRs with their first pick year after year. All in all a fun draft. More than anything, it ends ESPN's 3 month obsession with the draft and I am thrilled about that.

In the NBA, the OKC Thunder took it to the Lakers today to even the series at 2-2. Everybody is talking about this young team, but the bad news is, they still have to play a 3 game series with 2 of the games in LA. That unfortunately makes game 5 a must-win for the Thunder. If not, there is no way they go into LA and win game 7 even assuming they win game 6. Thats the power of home field in the playoffs - especially in a series like this where a young team is playing a talented, veteran squad like the Lakers. I hate to rain on the OKC parade, but this series still belongs to the Fakers. But I am happy for the Thunder and what this means for their future. In the Suns series, Brandon Roy played spoil-sport today. He came back way way too early from his injury and caused some unnecessary excitement. He didn't have a great game, but he was a shot of energy for the Blazers. It seemed like the Suns played to lose and they eventually did. They were horrible in the 4-Th as Nash couldn't hold on to the ball and they ended up scoring just 87 points. Thats usually what they score in 3 quarters. The good news is, the series is still 2-2 and the Suns have home court. But the Suns need to focus and get the job done in game 5. They need to slow down LaMarcus Aldridge somehow.

Lots of fun series in these playoffs but the Spurs-Mavs may be the most fun. Mark Cuban might have cost them this series and may be a shot at this year's championship by mouthing off on how the Spurs and the Mavs hate each other. He also went after the Spurs owner a little bit and that seemed to have energized the Spurs. The Spurs are a classy organization and Cubes had no business going after them like that. They have now won 2 straight and are playing game 4 at home. Of course, thats a must win for the Spurs. Otherwise, they will still be looking at a 3 game series with no home court. Not an ideal situation. But Duncan, Parker and Ginobli are baling right now. The Mavs seem to have no answer to any of them and their only shot seems to be to outscore the Spurs if possible. All the other series are also intriguingly poised except for Orlando and Boston. Those 2 teams are comfortably placed at 3-0. Even Cleveland has an important game tomorrow that could potential tie their series and make it a dog fight. Lets see if the King comes through.

Game 1 blues

I can't believe the Suns are the only team to have lost game 1 at home in these first 2 days of the playoffs. Not only did all the other teams win, they looked good doing it and also gave us boring games. The Suns on the other hand were supposed to win this 3-6 matchup rather easily due to all the Portland injuries, but they lost primarily due to complacency. They have always had a matchup problem with Portland and that seemed to continue tonight even without their best player Brandon Roy. It's amazing how the Blazers have so much size to bother the Suns even without Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla. Their trade for Marcus Camby was genius. Thats a sign of a team serious about winning. I am sure the Suns wouldn't have bothered to acquire anybody if they had lost a couple of their big guys to injuries in the middle of the regular season. The management would have accepted defeat, conveniently blamed it on the injuries and and even dumped a few more salaries on top of that. Camby was a monster today with 17 boards and 3 blocks. He did give the Suns a shot with a missed dunk, but the Suns still fell short.

At the end of the day, I think the Suns should still be able to win this series if they play well, but they did not look good today. They worked hard to finish 3-Rd in the standings, but Doug Collins was talking about how they might have been better off at 4 playing the Nuggets. The Rich and Creamies are more talented than the depleted Blazers, but the Suns have had their number this season for some reason. It's just one game and Nash could have still sent this game to OT at the end even with them playing this bad. But Suns better make some adjustments and get Amare going against the size of the Blazers. Nash was doing it all alone today and thats not going to work given that Nash is very vulnerable defensively in this series with Andre Miller and Jerryd Bayless going at him. What makes this worse for me and probably Nash is that the Dallas Mavs are looking awesome and may even give the Lakers some fits. Nowitzki was unstoppable today as he dropped 36 on 12/14 shooting on the Spurs. The trade for Kidd has really worked out for this team. Kidd is not what he used to be, but is still amazing. He had a 13-11-8 night today and he may just help the team that drafted him get to the Finals after all. The Mavs are so loaded that Tim Thomas can't even get off the bench.

Russell Westbrook is a player! And the Lakers figured this out in a comfortable victory today. Andrew Bynum had a 13-12 night with 4 blocks. Getting this guy back is huge for the Fakers and might make all the difference between winning the championship or not for the Lakers. Kobe's health and efficiency is still going to be an issues, but Bynum will definitely help. Of course Ron-Ron harassed the kid Durant today and that might become the story line of this series. By the way, how good is Durant? The guy has won the scoring title already at this age and that's ahead of stars like LeBron, Melo and Kobe. This guy is for real like no other emerging star. But they should be dispatched in 5 games in this series, if not 6. Speaking of young teams, it kind of feels good to see the Atlanta Hawks. Except for Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby, all their starters are young, home-grown studs who seem to have reached their potential after a few years in the league. Oftentimes, we hear about these young teams of the future, but it doesn't pan out. The Hawks and the OKC Thunder are 2 teams where it has indeed worked out great.

In other games, the home teams won, but I am sure some of these series are going to get interesting nonetheless. Cleveland should handle the Bulls. Shaq looked great in his first game back in a while. Seems like he made sure he took care of his conditioning this time around. The Miami-Boston series should get interesting soon - especially with Garnett's suspension for game 2. Denver took care of Utah at home and Jazz lost Okur for the entire playoffs with an achilles injury, but they should still give Denver a few tough games. With Okur and Kirelenko, I would pick the Jazz to win. But now I think Denver takes it in 6. Similar story with the Bucks. With Bogut in there, their series with the Hawks should have been interesting. The Hwaks tend to be inconsistent, but the Bucks can't beat them. In the other series, the Bobcats lost to Magic and they had no answer for Jameer Nelson. Magic-Cavs is what the East is going to be about, but it's going to take us a while to get there. As TNT says, 40 games, 40 nights. We can only watch.

Playoffs are here

The NBA playoffs don't start until this weekend, but for most of the teams in the Western conference, it's playoff time already. A bunch of teams are going after the 3/4/5 and 6/7/8 spots and they are playing each other often to setup a playoff type atmosphere. The Suns played the Nuggets today and are playing the Jazz tomorrow. They creamed the rich and creamies today and that got them home court in the first round for sure. But if they don't beat the Jazz tomorrow, they'll end up at 4. A spot teams are trying to avoid since that puts them in the way of the fakers before the eventual Western conference finals. Tomorrow, we will know if the Suns are 3-Rd or the 4-Th seed. If they finish third and get past the first round, they will play the Mavs. Thats a crazy rivalry and the Suns used to get better of the Mavs back in the day, but I am not sure this year. The Mavs look scary good and they always play well against the Suns because of the rivalry. But I guess we have to pick that matchup ahead of the fakers anyways. So it's important the Suns win tomorrow in game 2 of the 2010 playoffs. Lets hope Amare continues to abuse folks like he has been doing the last 2 months. He pulled a move on K-Mart today and K-Mart is still trying to figure out what happened. You are the man if you can out-thug the top-thug, K-Mart.

In the bottom half of the West, seems like the OKC will be at the 8-Th spot and will go against the fakers. They have great talent including my main man, Sun Devil James Harden, but they don't have the experience or the maturity to hang with the Fakers. I was hoping the Spurs would finish 8-Th and we could have all seen a great Lakers-Spurs war in the first round. It could have even been an upset. Now, I just hope the Suns don't end up drawing the Spurs in the first round. The West looks so scary that I don't feel comfortable playing any of these 7 teams in any of the playoff rounds, but still you got to be afraid of teams like the Spurs and the fakers. Lets see where things fall tomorrow. In the East, the story is about the Chicago Bulls executive vice president John Paxson shoving coach Vinny Del Negro twice in the chest in a postgame confrontation late last month. I think Paxson should be punished hard. I hate when these so called leaders of organizations treat players like they are thugs on the one hand and behave like thugs themselves on the other. Apparently he tried to provoke Del Negro in to fight so he can be fired. Lame and cheap and stupid and classless.

The MLB season has begun. It's too early to say anything important, but there are a few early surprises as always. Both the bay area teams are on top of their western divisions behind some great pitching. The A's are 6-3 and the Giants are 6-2 and I am not sure if they can stay on top for long. If I were to pick one of the two teams, the Giants are probably capable of surviving given that the division is relatively weak and their pitching is awesome. Even the DBacks are 4-3 and have looked decent so far. They dropped 13 runs in one innings in a game. Of course the Toronto Bluejays are leading the AL East at 6-2 - like thats going to last! The entire league is a front for the RedSox and the Yankees and I don't even know why the other teams in that division are playing. MLB reminds me of a corrupt business that has a trust as a front to siphon off money. The MLB has an elaborate league going on thats basically a front for the Yankees and the RedSox. I think MLB needs serious reforms to make it relevant across the country again. But then again, the Rays of all teams made it to the World Series couple of years back. So I guess the Bluejays and the Orioles in that division and other bad teams in other divisions all have some hope.

Best in the West?

The Suns are rocking and rolling since the all-star break. This has been a weird season for the Suns. They started at the top spot and then at one point dropped all the way down to the 9-Th spot. Then they tried to trade Amare for no good reason. Then they did not. Suddenly Amare starts balling like crazy. He seems to be finally back to the monstrous Amare level from his pre-surgery days. I thought those days were gone for good, but he is suddenly back a couple of years after the surgery. His elevation, extension and ferocity are back. I am so glad the Suns didn't trade him. The second half MVP is either Amare or Ginobli and thats the expert opinion across the league. Now the Suns are competing for the 2-Nd spot and are the fashionable pick to make it to the Western conference finals. It's still a long way to go with 3 teams tied for the second spot and 3 more tied for the 6-Th, 7-Th and 8-Th. The West is amazing. Teams can go from the second spot to no home court in the playoffs overnight.

The Suns were 12-2 in March and coach Gentry won the coach of the month award. Some people are also picking him to win the coach of the year award. They have the best record in the league since the all-star break and the Lakers have also been losing lately. And of course the MP3 Steve Nashty is playing like the MP3 as always. Things are looking good. Today, they even beat the Spurs without even getting Nash off the bench in the fourth quarter. Thats amazing to me. These games are usually nail biters with the Spurs taking it at the end. Things have changed. The Suns missed the playoffs last year and were supposedly on the way out. But now it's the Spurs fighting for the 8-Th spot. They seem to have finally gotten old suddenly and ironically, this happens the year they get the younger, more athletic, albeit over-rated Richard Jefferson.

The state of the Spurs reminds me of an article Steve Kerr wrote when he was in the media a couple of years back. He was saying that every championship team had a "big 2" - Jordan/Pippen, Shaq/Kobe etc.. People think the Spurs didn't have that, but Kerr's point was that the second wheel on those championship teams was actually Bruce Bowen - Duncan/Bowen. And those 2 anchored and dominated the defense, which was the Spurs calling card anyways. I think Kerr nailed it. The main problem with the Spurs right now is not that they are suddenly old or that Duncan has slowed down or they are always injured. All thats true to some extent, but the primary issue is that they are missing Bruce Bowen and his suffocating defense. I am so glad he is not molesting Nash at half-court every possession.

In any case, I hope the Suns lock up the 2-Nd spot. That way, they don't have to face the fakers until the WC finals. The Lakers are also wobbling a little bit, but I think they will be fine come playoffs time. They are probably just disinterested and slacking off right now. Finishing number 2 in no guarantee to make it to the WC finals in the brutal west, but that obviously gives you a better chance to make it rather than starting at the 7-Th or 6-Th seed. But the playoffs are just going to be unbelievably close in the west. Just 3 games separating spots 2 and 8. With just a week to go, we still have no idea what the match-ups are going to be. Except for Lakers at 1, nothing else is set. We could also see all 8 playoff teams in the west winning at least 50 games. That would be amazing. Speaking of amazing, in the east, Charlotte Bobcats have clinched the playoffs. Thats newsworthy. I am curious to see if Larry Brown can take it even further in the coming years. Don Nelson is now officially the winningest coach in the history if the game. The Warrior fans are now hoping he retires.

McNabb is gone

The Eagles finally traded away Donovan McNabb to the Redskins for a second round pick in this year's draft and a 3-Rd or 4-Th rounder in the next draft. I was a little surprised by the destination considering the skins are their in-division rival who are on the upswing with a lot of hype surrounding their new coach Mike Shanahan. Now Mike has a QB, though I am not sure McNabb is his kind of QB. I have always thought McNabb was a little over-rated. But he is still better than average and a definite upgrade for the Redskins. Apparently McNabb is Jason Campbell's mentor and now the protege will lose his job to his mentor. This should be a weird and unique situation.

As for the Eagles, I like Kevin Kolb. I think he is the real deal and with all those new weapons on offense, this guy is going to do great next season. Coach Andy Reid and McNabb have been inseparable for 11 years. They both got to Philly the same year and McNabb was inserted as a starter soon after. It turns out Reid has out-survived McNabb in that crazy town. I think he has made the right decision with Kolb. If not, Reid will be gone soon. As for McNabb, I am glad Reid has tried to treat him well. He honored his request to not get traded to Buffalo or Oakland. It sucks to be Oakland right now. But thats neither here nor there. But the McNabb/Reid era in Philly is over and I hope those crazy fans understand what they had. Outside of the Colts and the Patriots, the Eagles have the highest number of wins since 2000 and McNabb took them to a Super Bowl and multiple NFC championship games. But that was not enough at the end.

Tomorrow is the NCAA championship game with Duke and Butler matching up. This is a very interesting contest considering Duke and Butler are significantly different programs. Some people even call this the David versus Goliath game. Butler is not a major program, but is not quite a cindrella either because they are a 5-Th seed and are not totally a surprise to be where they are now. I think Duke wins this one and Coach K will be on cloud 9 after that. He has had a few bad years and he is enjoying this Final 4 appearance. Lets see if he caches in tomorrow. Good luck to both teams.

Crazy Weekend

There are only 3 certainties in life - death, taxes and my bracket getting busted after just a week of tournament play. The only difference this year is that most people's brackets are busted and I am not alone. It was an weekend of awesome games and amazing upsets in the NCAA tournament. The tourney has been up and down a little bit the last couple of years. But this first weekend this March has been great. The sweet 16 features a 9-Th seed that upset the big, bad Kansas. It also features a 10-Th, 11-Th and 12-Th seeds. The first round also featured a 13-Th and 14-Th seeded teams that upset Georgetown and Vanderbilt. The theory has always been that there is always a 12 over 5 upset in the first round and I called the Cornell over Temple game correctly. But I didn't think Cornell will also dump Wisconsin and go to the sweet 16. I also didn't know there would be a 13 over 4 and a 14 over 3. Amazing! The talk of the nation now is Northern Iowa, who beat Kansas and St. Mary's, who beat Villanova - 2 teams responsible for my brackets being in the state they are. But I can't complain. Don't we all love the underdogs!

It's not just about the upsets. The games have been awesome and a lot of close finishes as well. Both Northern Iowa and Michigan State have played 2 nail-baiters and now they have to play each other. Should be fun. Surprisingly, Cornell has had no problems with their comfortable upsets. Not since Penn made the Final Four in 1979 has an Ivy League team won two games in the NCAA tournament. Cornell has done it by averaging 82.5 points a game. They now have to play Kentucky, the clear favorites to win it all now that Kansas is back home. Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse and Ohio State are the big-names still left in the tournament and have looked decent. It should be fun watching them fight it out with the little guys next weekend. It's time now to follow the NBA for a couple of days before the gang reconvenes for the tournament on Thursday. NBA is heating up too with everybody on top of the conference standings winning and refusing to lose. The Phoenix Suns are playing great, but they cannot close the gap in the standings. Lets save that story for another day.

March Madness

March madness is here. Most people think NCAA tournament when you say March madness. But a lot of god games actually happen during the conference tournaments leading up to the big dance. I wish I had more times on my hands to watch some of these games. The conference tournaments usually feature teams that know each other very well and hate each other and are rivals. This brings an added juice to the contest and some of these games are real fun. Obviously there is not much at stake for the top teams in the tournaments for the big conferences, but a NCAA berth is usually at stake for all smaller conferences. The process has started already and this will keep us busy through the month. Fun times.

In the NBA, Kobe hit his 6-Th game winner of this season. This guy is becoming a legendary clutch player this season. He is the most popular player in the league and he is only getting bigger with these game winners. Kobe's shot today stopped a 3 game losing streak for the Lakers. They actually don't look as good as they used to in December but a lot of people think they will just turn it up in the playoffs. They still have the most talent in the league and they have the black mamba. The Cavs look great, but can they beat the Lakers? Thats the question to be answered this season. I think the much awaited Cavs-Lakers matchup will happen this year in the finals. Boston looks shot and the Magic this season don't look like a championship team. Cavs may still need Shaq to make sure they get past the Magic, but the Cavs look better than they did last year. The surprising team in the NBA are the Mavericks. They have won 12 straight and they are threatening the top teams in the league with their record.

Basketball is fun, but NFL is clearly the national sport. The daily coverage and attention the NFL is getting even during the off-season is amazing. And this is expanding every year. Seems like the people just can't get enough of the NFL and there's constant chatter on ESPN all day about the NFL though the first game is still almost 6 months away. The news today was how Derek Anderson crushed the Cleveland Browns fan on his way out. Looks like the dude was really hurt by them cherring his injury during a game. Fans are sometimes messed up, but I didn't expect so much emotion from him on the way out. The other news is TO being recruited by the Bengals. I can't imagine TO and Ocho on the same team. They both should drive Carson Palmer nuts.