Random Stuff

Well, it's the day after the draft and everyone is declaring who the draft winners and losers are. Truthfully, no one knows for sure how these things will play out. The top 2 picks could wind up being complete busts when it's all said and done. I hope it doesn't go down that way, but it could.
The Yankees won a game 2-1 with Moose pitching. I didn't think he had that kind of performance left in him. Sux won too.
James Blake got ousted at Wimbledon. The male American tennis players just aren't what they used to be. I know we are in the Roger Federer era and the chances of most people beating him in a Grand Slam final are slim to none, but our guys barely get close enough to breathe on Roger Federer let alone actually play him. It's not like they would win anyway but it would be nice if someone actually made it that far.
Evander Holyfield has a fight on pay per view tomorrow night. No, I'm not kidding.
Portland welcomed Greg Oden today. I hope he pans out, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be an average big man.

The Draft (we didn't get Amare)

Well, the draft is still going on but the Hawks were finished after 11. We got Al Horford and Acie Law. I was right! The crowd at the draft party was not so stoked about the Horford pick for whatever reason, but they were psyched about the Law pick. In theory we addressed our 2 biggest needs unfortunately it doesn't make us better. We are still a very young team and unless Marvin starts showing that upside that we've heard so much about the past 2 years then we are going to be in the lottery again (without a pick) We still need to make a couple of trades. We won't, but we need too. In other interesting draft news, the Sonics traded Ray Allen to the Celtics for the #5 pick that is Jeff Green. They're rebuilding so it was a good look to get the pick, but Jeff Green.?. He's pretty much an extremely poor man's Kevin Durant. As far as Boston, Al Jefferson might never see the ball again. Between Paul Pierce's 20+ shots and Ray Allen's shots look for Jefferson to become one hell of a rebounder if he intends to score. The Blazers traded Zebo to the Knicks for Channing Frye and Stevie Franchise. Say what you want about Isiah, but this is a damn good trade for the Knicks. It takes some big ones to bring Zach to New York though! Can you imagine the foolishness he might get into now???? If you can find trouble in Portland, you can find it anywhere. I'm not sure about the Blazers relying on Greg Oden for their low post scoring. I know he was hurt, but I'm almost certain before it's all said and done he'll be known more for his defense than anything else. We'll see what happens. The only other pick that surprised me was when Chicago took Noah at 9. They need a low post scorer in the absolute worst way so they are either going to make a serious run at K G or they just said to hell with it, they'll live and die by the J. Either way. I'm glad the draft is over and we didn't take the Chinese boy. He might turn out to be a baller, but I'm still glad we didn't take him! My early pick for rookie of the year is Kevin Durant. The Sonics just got rid of the only man standing in the way of him being able to shoot as much as he wants. He'll be the go to guy on offense so he'll have great numbers. I think he's going to be better than Oden when it's all said and done.

Pre-Draft

Well, today is judgement day. What will we do with 3 and 11?? The Amare deal might not be officially dead yet, but we'll see. I'm going to to ahead and say we take Horford at 3 and trade the 11 for a veteran point guard or either draft Law. There it is. Let the record reflect that my personal favorite player in this draft aside from Durant is Corey Brewer. If we needed another swing man he'd so be my choice. Not that the ones we already have are great, but there's no way they'll draft another one. Right?

Hawks update (more drama)

So here's a little update on the Amare to the Hawks and why it will never happen and why we will be drafting Yi with the 3rd pick.
Apparently Steve Belkin (the owner the other half of Atlanta Spirit is battling in court) has the right to veto any trade or free agent signing that will put the team over the salary cap. If Amare comes that will put us over so if this is true that pipe dream is as good as shattered.
Michael Gearon Jr. (one of the other owners in the group) has some strong business ties to China and he wants the team to draft Yi at 3 while Billy and most everyone else wants to take Horford. If this is true, for the first time Billy isn't going to be the one responsible for setting the team back any further (in theory) You know that feeling I had in my stomach when I heard about the proposed trade that would bring us Amare? Well let's just say that feeling has turned into a nauseus one. This whole ownership situation gets more and more ridiculous every damn summer. This is why it's not a good idea to invest millions of dollars with other millionaires who you know absolutely nothing about. It's hard enough to get a group of people that have all known each other for years to agree on anything. It's next to impossible to get a group of businessmen who have no personal relationship with each other to agree on anything. This is why I've said all along that it might not be a bad idea to let one man run the team, but given his alleged latest move I don't know if Belkin is that man. I mean if there is even the slightest chance that he will gain control of this team he should want Amare on it! I know he's better than 95% of the guys in this draft. So what if it will put them over the salary cap? If you are interested in winning you have to spend money and this ownership has plenty of money to spend that they didn't even have to earn. They got millions of dollars just from the nationally televised games (the Hawks didn't have a nationally televised game) so you can safely assume they came away on top there. This just irks my freakin nerves! You know what? I might not even wait 2 years before I change my allegiances. I'm so frustrated by this ownership group, let's just say Chicago is about to make a mad dash at becoming my favorite team. Why Chicago? They show some of their games in Atlanta on WGN. Hey I gotta take what I can get. I don't see myself buying NBA league pass anytime soon but ya never know.
Oh, the Yankees lost again. Dammit!

Amare to Atlanta??

Right now there is a rumor that the Hawks could get Amare Stoudemire from the Suns for our #3, #11, Za Za Pachullia and Anthony Johnson. This deal is too good to be true that is why I know it will never happen. I got that feeling in my stomach that you get when you see the guy you have a crush on when I heard about this. It was that serious! This deal would make the Hawks instant playoffs participants considering they play in the Eastern Conference. I am hoping and wishing with everything in me that this deal happens. There's also a rumor that we are willing to send the #11 pick to Seattle for Luke Ridnour. This deal seems more likely to happen because this is exactly the type of thing Billy Knight would do to us. On a related note, I am so afraid we are going to take Yi with that 3rd pick. If you go to Hawks.com there is a picture of him surrounded by a sea of Asian reporters on our Draft Central Page and there's another picture of him on the bottom of the page talking about all the options the Hawks have with the 3rd pick. He will be an Atlanta Hawk if they don't make this Amare trade just as sure as I am a Yankee fan. I will need a heavy shot of alcohol tomorrow night when this draft pick goes down, so will everyone else at Philips Arena.

Yanks, Kobe for T-Mac, Random stuff

So I've neglected to post a few times this past week. I have my niece and nephew for the summer and so yeah. Anyway, the Yankees suck again. We are now double digits behind the Red Sux again. Sigh. Rumor has it that Chicago is looking to trade Mark Buehrle. I hope Cashman has at least put in a phone call. Although in fairness, the pitching hasn't been that bad. Our bats have gone cold again.
Ken Griffey Jr. is still hot. If only he could have stayed healthy. He's almost at 600 home runs and he's spent an enormous amount of his career on the DL. That should put into perspective just how good Griff was.
The Lakers were trying to get KG, but apparently the deal is dead now. The ESPN gang is reporting that even if they got KG Kobe still wants to be traded. Supposedly John Paxson (GM of Chicago) sent Kobe a text message and basically told him that a trade to Chi-town wasn't going to happen. If I'm Jerry Buss, I 'm not trading Kobe. He can opt out when the time comes, but there is no way in hell I'm going to be the GM that traded Shaq and Kobe. It just ain't happening. Although, one trade I've thought of for the Lakers is they should probably try to get T-Mac for Kobe. Seriously, this trade helps both teams. T-Mac is a bonafide superstar and that is what L.A. needs in return if they are going to trade Kobe. As far as Houston is concerned, T_Mac and Yao isn't working for whatever reason, they just aren't getting it done so it's time to move on. To be honest, the team played better without Yao this past season. I'm not making this up, they really did. Anyway the salaries match enough that the trade would work and it wouldn't have to involve any other players. They should seriously consider this deal. I know they won't, but they should. I know to most people including myself think Kobe is the best player in the world. There is nothing he can't do, except apparently make his teammates better. T-Mac kept the Rockets in the top of the Western Conference while Yao was out nursing his broken leg and he didn't have much more to work with than Kobe. I love T-Mac! He is one of my favorite players and I think this would be a win, win for him and L.A. Kobe is the best player in the world, but that hasn't translated to wins lately so it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, this would be the only deal that I could see the Laker's getting almost fair value for Kobe. Their numbers are very similar and they both have star quality. The only reservations they should have is T-Mac's bum back, but if Kobe decides he'd rather sit than play for them they need to explore this trade.
Expect Paul Pierce to want out of Boston soon.
Anyway, the Bears waived Tank Johnson after he was sort of arrested for being slightly impaired. I don't even know what that means. Seriously I don't. Even though he has to sit out 8 games, I know for a fact that we have not seen the last of this young man. Someone will give him is 3rd chance and so on as long as he can still play. That's just a fact.
Wimbledon has started and I have to go with Federer and I'm going to go with Serena to win it all. Serena is a long shot, but Federer is damn near a no brainer as long as there's no clay and Rafael Nadal involved. He can overcome one or the other, but not both.

If what I'm hearing is true.

And with the 3rd pick in the draft, the Atlanta Hawks select Yi Jianlian. This soo might happen and I'm soo terrified and I soo will never forgive Billy Knight when this kid turns out to be a bust! First of all there are several question marks surrounding this young man. Some say he's 20 some say he's 23. I know this might not seem like a big deal, but it is. A 23 year old should be far more developed than a 20 year old so we need to know where his ceiling might be. If he's 23 his game might not get that much better than it already is. He already has a list of teams that he doesn't want to play for so that leads me to believe that he's not coming over here to be a basketball player he's coming over here to be a superstar. Totally unacceptable! He needs to earn his super stardom as opposed to just hoping to get drafted by a major market. I know that drafting a Chinese player will bring on a big following, but I don't give a damn about what kind of exposure the Hawks get as long as they are winning games. And another thing, he's a jump shooter. I know he's 7 feet tall supposedly, but he's a 7 ft jump shooter so drafting him still doesn't address one of our biggest needs which is a post player. We need someone who will go no further than about 10 feet away from the basket. I'm tired of looking at these 7 ft jump shooters. I really want the NBA to go back to the day where 7 footers played in the post. The ish is getting out of hand right now. Every GM is looking for the next Dirk Nowitzki and I'd rather have the next Tim Duncan or some 7 footer who isn't the least bit interested in shooting 3's. I don't understand how Yi could have climbed up to 3rd pick status on the Hawks draft board when everyone else has him around 9 or 10. There is no way in hell that you can make me believe this young man is the 3rd best player in the draft! This is so going to look like 2003 when the Pistons took Darko even though Carmelo and Wade and Bosh were still on the board. The only difference is that we won't have a championship to show for it. The sad truth is that this draft could set us up for the next 6-10 years or it could set us back for the next 6-10 years. Given the history of this GM, it will probably set us back. The Hawks have about 2 years left of my loyalty. If there is not significant improvement (by significant improvement I mean playoffs) I'm soo switching teams. That's it, I'm not going to spend my time rooting for a team that has absolutely no interest in winning. I refuse to be that fan. Oh and one more thing about Yi, Boston really likes him. Nuff said.

Swept, Miggy, KG

How do we get swept by the f ing Rockies??? Come on fellas, ya'll couldn't get at least one damn win??? Now our deficit is back to double digits. Ugh.
Miguel Tejada apparently fractured his wrist so his consecutive games played streak is prolly over!
Joe Girardi declined the Orioles job. Whew! Good for him!
Oh, yesterday Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run. He still won't get into the hall without some serious resistance from the voters.
I may have failed to mention this but Pacman has been charged with 2 felonies stemming from the All-Star weekend fiasco.
Kevin Garnett has no interest in a trade to Boston. You know what? Screw K G! I won't feel bad if he wastes away in Minnesota for the rest of his career. He deserves it if he insists on staying there. You know the way Kobe has been acting towards the Lakers with the bitching and venting and such? That should be KG. Instead he wants to sit on his damn hands and watch Kevin Mchale make stupid decision after stupid decision. He deserves whatever bad comes to him in his basketball career! I mean seriously, was he not watching the Eastern Conference playoffs? It doesn't take much to be competitive and every team in the East thinks they have a legitimate chance to get in the playoffs and make a run. That's all most vets ask for, but not KG apparently he wants more. I'm here to tell you homeboy, you have a better chance going deep into the playoffs in the East on any team than you do in the West on most teams. Get over yourself!

$1.99 video, Joe Girardi

Yankees lost, Sux won. Blah.

So these two guys have video of Kobe in a profanity laced tirade and they are selling it for $1.99 Great move by them. I'm sure it's just more of what Kobe has been saying except it includes a few 4 letter words! This whole little situation could end badly for Kobe and L.A. I understand he has a no trade clause, but let's just say the Laker's can't get a deal done with his 3 preferred teams. Mitch would have to be a damn fool to send Kobe to Phoenix so let's count them out. Chicago has some good young talent, but what if they can't get it done? The Knicks have some pieces and some bad contracts, but they'd have to trade all of the pieces that could help Kobe make them competitive. I just don't know if Kobe is going to get traded considering his wish list of teams is so short. He should pretty much accept any trade to a team in the East though. It doesn't take much to contend on the right coast. We'll see what happens though.

The Orioles have offered their managerial job to Joe Girardi. DON'T DO IT JOE! Wait until this winter when there will most certainly be job openings on teams whose outlook is not as bleak as Baltimore's. Just continue to do your broadcasting thing!

Random Stuff

Red Sux lost, Shilling got rocked! This is one of the few times I'll actually be rooting for the Braves. I don't have anything against them, but I'm an American League kinda gal. Plus, the Braves are boring!

Pacman is potentially in trouble again. Of course his people say he had nothing to do with the ish that went down. Then again, he never does.

There are rumors going around that Kevin Garnett may be traded to the Celtics. He needs to get the hell out of Minnesota!

Cecil Fielder's boy is balling! He's the NL A-Rod

Stephen Jackson has agreed to a plea deal surrounding that strip club incident in Indiana.
Lavar Arrington was injured in a motorcycle accident. He doesn't have any life threatening injuries, but he does have several injuries to his person which could affect his football career. At least he had on a helmet.

Random stuff

So Tiger came in second today. That's way more important than the guy who won. The winner was Angel Cabrera by the way.
Yankees won, Sux did too. Barry hit a homerun at Fenway, it wasn't enough though. They got swept by the Sux this weekend. Thanks a lot Giants.
The colored guy who was the first colored guy to win an F1 race, won again today. He's pretty good. (Yes I said colored)
The DA in the Duke LAX case was disbarred. He was wrong as hell, but I have a hard time feeling bad for rich white kids who were wronged by the law considering it happens to poor black people everyday. Sorry, but that's how I feel.
Kobe wants to be traded again. This time he's serious. Whatever will the Lakers do??? I'll keep you posted!

Spurs win, Tony MVP, LeBron, Yankees

We are all witnesses. So San Antonio won. Um, this Finals was so anticlimactic! The Spurs celebration was even business as usual. Seriously, they looked like they've known since November that they were going to win this title and they were annoyed that the league made them wait until June to get the trophy. I guess when you've won 3 of the last 5 it seems kind of routine. Congrats to Mike Finley, all of the Spurs players kept saying they wanted to win it for him and they did. Tony Parker was named MVP and he deserved it. Timmy did not play particularly well tonight, but Tony came ready and Gino sealed the deal with 13 points in the 4th quarter. They were just better than the Cavs and I'm sure they knew it all along they just couldn't say it. LeBron ended up with 24 points, but he didn't shoot well. It took him 30 shots to get those points. That's not a good look. What's even worse is that he had on a dress vest with a t-shirt that had writing on it underneath the vest. Sigh. I don't know who his stylist is, but seriously he looks like the little girl who's mom let her dress like a fairy for the day just because she wanted too. Something's gotta give. Boobie had absolutely no impact in this series just as I suspected. I knew those looks that he got late in the Detroit series were not going to be there against the Spurs. For whatever reason all of the so called experts proclaimed after that series that LeBron finally had his reliable second scoring option. Well, old reliable didn't work out so well. Anyway, the Cavs had an extremely easy road to the Finals which is why they earned the right to get smacked around by the Spurs anyway. They'll be better for it in the future. LeBron has to work on a few things and hopefully someone will tell him that. I don't think Mike Brown is the guy to criticize LeBron and tell him that his release shouldn't look different every time he shoots. Hell, he says things like "LeBron allows me to...." LeBron needs a coach that will tell him that he's not as good as advertised and he has some serious flaws in his game. Mike isn't going to do it because he's terrified as hell of losing his job if his Superstar player doesn't like him. As a matter of fact, I think the whole Cavs organization is terrified of losing LeBron in 4 years (or whenever that new contract expires) so they let him go along thinking his ish doesn't stink. They better find someone to tell him to work on his jumper and his free throws and it wouldn't kill him to develop a post game. The running over people thing will only get you so far as demonstrated in the series against the Spurs. Anyway, I'll miss the NBA. The draft is in a couple of weeks, I can't wait to see how Billy Knight sets our franchise back 10 more years.

Yankees won, Sux lost. Yay! We're only 7.5 games back. Andy Pettite was great, Josh Beckett was not. I'm still waiting on him to get a hang nail and miss a few starts!

I haven't mentioned it, but Griffey Jr.'s been playing pretty well. He has 579 home runs.

Daunte Culpepper injured his left hand in a car accident. He should be fine, he's right handed anyway.

Yankees, Random stuff

Yankees won, Sux lost yay! Mike Mussina was really good tonight and he went into the 8th inning. Bless his heart, that's the first time that's happened all season. A-Rod already has 25 home runs. This is the 10th straight season he's had at least 25. He's scary good in the regular season.
The U.S. Open starts tomorrow, I'll only be interested in it if Tiger is in contention. That's just how it is.
Word on the street is that Bud Selig is leaning towards suspending Giambi. Eh..... I don't really care, we've been playing better without him anyway.
Lil E will drive for Hendrick instead of his Poppa's company next season. We'll see how long this honeymoon lasts.
The stripper who said Pacman bit her has some splainin' to do. Apparently his DNA didn't match. Hey, it's dark in strip clubs. It could have been an honest mistake.
Game 4 of the Finals is tomorrow and I'm thinking San Antone will run Cleveland out of the gym, but dammit I said 5 games and I wanna be right! Go Cavs!

It's been nice Cleveland, Verlander no, no

Well game three is in the books and the Cavs did everything they needed to do to win. They kept Tony in check, got Timmy in foul trouble early and held Gino to only 3 points. See they did everything they needed to, but they didn’t win. The important thing is that they gave themselves a chance and that’s all they could ask for. The Cavs shot 3-19 from the 3 point line while San Antone shot 10-19, that won’t get it done. I honestly thought the Cavs would win one game, but it had to be game 3. They might get run out of the gym Thursday night. Cleveland shouldn’t feel bad though, this is a great learning experience for them and it will only help them in the future. As I’ve said before, the Spurs are decidedly better than them in every category. It was blatantly obvious tonight in many areas. The Spurs coach and role players were just better. Seriously, Pop is like 20 steps ahead of Mike Brown. Bruce Bowen had 14 points tonight on mostly 3’s (that’s about all he shoots) and that was enough to pretty much wrap up this series for San Antone. They still have to win one more game, but at this point it’s just a formality. Tony seems to think Timmy is still the MVP at this point, but I think he’s just being modest.
Justin Verlander pitched a no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers. He was crunk as hell in the 9th inning. He got the ball up to 102mph. Filthy. He had a couple of great defensive plays behind him as most pitchers who throw a no-hitter do.
Yankees won, Sux did too unfortunately.
A 12 year old girl qualified for the U.S. open. Yay for her. Michelle Wie should take notice of how it should be done. Qualify instead of get an exemption all the damn time.
Pacman dropped his appeal to the Commissioner. I don’t feel like Goodell was going to overturn it anyway. If he behaves we’ll see him in week 10.

Barry, 5, NFLPA, Flip's safe

Barry finally hit another home run.
The young man who was in the car with JR Smith when he ran through a stop sign and crashed died today. So sad, neither one of them was wearing a seat belt.
McNabb returned to practice way earlier than expected. I told ya'll just the other day that athletes were a little stupid about their injuries. I mean so what if you broke your knee in several different places, all you need is a few months off then you'll be totally able to let 250lb defensive linemen hit you again. Your knee will hold up just fine! (wink) All I have to say is he needs to pay close attention to what is happening to Pepp in Miami. He came back too early and now everyone forgot how good he used to be. Would it really kill him to perhaps take the whole year off and get completely healthy?? The Eagles are not going to cut him and if they do, so what?? Then he'd get to pick his team, it's a win win for him to concentrate on his future. These athletes should know by now that a lot of these team doctors are just that, TEAM doctors. It's not like there haven't been instances where they've cleared a player who wasn't quite ready. I could go on about this forever, but I won't.
The battle between disabled former players and the NFLPA is getting nasty. There's too much money for those guys not to be taken care of.
Joe Dumars says Flip's job is safe. Why Joe? How many playoff games do you need to see to realize that Flip is not good at making adjustments? Chauncey might leave for that reason alone. I know you gave him his first real chance to be the leader of a team, but it's a business man. Chauncey better recognize that when he hits the market.
Game 3 is tomorrow, and I fully expect the Cavs to win that game before San Antone finishes them off.

Game 2, Nadal, Lewis Hamilton

Game 2 of the NBA Finals is in the books and the Spurs now lead the series 2-0. All they did was take care of home court in all honestly, but I can't see Cleveland winning 3 in a row at home. It ain't happening. The Cavs still had no answer for the big 3. I don't know how many teams have to learn the hard way that they can't beat the Spurs when Timmy Tony and Gino all have 20+ points. Lebron has had the pleasure of defending Tony Parker this series and tonight he held him to 30 points. Stop it Mike. When LeBron is your best option on defense you are in trouble. He's known for a lot of things but stout defense is not one of them. The Cavs keep reaching back to their series with Detroit where they were down 2-0 and they came back. Once again, San Antone is not Detroit. For 3 quarters they put on a clinic out there. The fourth quarter they kind of fell apart, but we all knew the Cavs would make a run so that's not surprising. The Spurs made the stops when they had to and they held on and got the victory. In the process Robert Horry looked like a teenager out there. He was blocking shots all over the place. He ended up with 5 in all. They only have one day in between games (thank God) so we'll see what happens. If Mike Brown couldn't come up with the proper adjustments with 3 days to prepare, I don't expect much out of him with one day to prepare. Having said all of that, I think Cleveland will win Tuesday. Insert Steve Javy and Joe Derosa and LeBron is due to have a 20+ free throw attempt game, Timmy will be in foul trouble and in the end Cleveland will be back in this series. I don't expect it to go further than five at this point though. Oh, LeBron shot an airball early in the game at the free throw line. It was funny.

The Yankees won, Sux lost. Yay, we're down to a single digit deficit. Isn't it time for Josh Beckett to miss a couple of more starts with blisters or something? Come on man, I'm counting on you!

Bonds is still in a drought.

Nadal beat Federer. He's about the only person who can look Federer in the face and know he has the edge. (on clay)

Today a colored man won a Formula 1 race for the first time. His name is Lewis Hamilton. (yes I said colored)
I'm sure a lot of other stuff happened today, but I can't remember anything else, so I'm out!

Random stuff

Michelle Wie still sucks.
Clemens finally pitched a big league game today. He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs and we got the win.
J.R. Smith was thrown from an SUV. He should be okay.
Miguel Cotto beat up on Zab Judah.
Chad Johnson raced a horse. He won, but he had a head start.
The Finals starts back up tomorrow. If the Spurs take a 2-0 lead, it might be a wrap for the Lebron's. I know they came back against the Pistons but don't get it twisted, the Spurs ain't the Pistons.

Federer, Yankees, Paris Hilton

Yankees won in the bottom of the 10th. Clemens goes tomorrow, should be interesting.
Alfonso Soriano hit 3 homeruns in his first 3 at bats. He was hot tonight.
Culpepper went to the Dolphins practice today and they had him escorted off the field by security. Damn Miami, is it like that??
Federer and Nadal will meet in the Final at the French Open. Federer has never won the French Open and it would be great if he could win and solidify his greatness. Not that he'll be considered less great if he loses, but a win will help immensely. Unfortunately for him Nadal is probably the best clay court player of our generation.
Word on the street is that the Yankees were watching Schilling's no hitter in the clubhouse and they cheered when it was broken up. That's the spirit! I would have been highly disappointed if they were rooting for him.
This has nothing to do with sports, but yesterday a sheriff decided to let Paris Hilton out of jail after only 3 days for an undisclosed medical reason. Well today, the Judge who sent her to jail thought otherwise. He sent her back and she was a hot mess! She was reportedly crying and carrying on about how unfair it was. This is the best news I've heard all day. I saw the pictures of her crying in the back of the police car and they were priceless!

NBA Finals, Joe's 2,000, Culpepper

Game one of the NBA Finals is in the books, as expected the Spurs took care of business. I'm going to say the same thing about Cleveland that I said about Utah. You cannot let Timmy (24 pts 13 reb) Tony (27 pts 7 asst) and Gino (16 pts 8 reb) get off. You might be able to overcome 2 of the 3 having a good game, but you can't expect to win if you let all 3 of them have their way with you. Tony was all over the place and he scored way too many points in the paint to be as small as he is. I understand Tony is not LeBron, but it might not be a bad idea to take the ball out of his hands. Teams basically let him dribble around until he gets good and damn ready to pass or shoot. Somethings gotta give. LeBron only had 14 points and they were a hard earned 14 . Daniel Gibson was effective when he was in there, but Mike Brown barely let him in there. That's the coaching disadvantage Cleveland has. He'd rather let Larry Hughes play after he's admitted that his foot injury makes it feel like he's walking on hot marbles. Come on Mike, put the kid out there. He's shooting a ridiculously high percentage over the last few games. He's your best option at the guard position at this point. We'll see what kind of adjustments they make before game 2 and since that is 3 days away he has time to come up with something good.
On an unrelated note, Lebron had on a sweater vest. He's been wearing them all throughout the playoffs, but I have to say something about it now. It's June young man, that means its too late in the year for you to be wearing a sweater vest!!! And, not to mention you were in hot ass Texas! Put those things away until October.
The Yankees won tonight, yay. A-Rod hit a grand slam in the top of the 9th and we needed it. We only had a one run lead at that point and I'm just not comfortable with that the way Rivera has looked early on. That was also Joe Torre's 2,000th win.
Curt Shilling had a no hitter in the bottom of the ninth and as I watched in horror when he got out 2, my new favorite Oakland A Shannan Stewart hit a single to break it up! I stood and cheered. No way in hell we need Curt Shilling to get a no hitter! We'd never hear the end of it! And by We I mean fans in general not just Yankee fans.
The Magic hired Stan Van Gundy and they are going to give the Heat a second round pick and the option to switch 1st round picks next year. For Stan???? If you say so Orlando.
Sharapova got her behind kicked at the French Open.
Culpepper wants to be released instead of traded from the Dolphins. They might need to hold on to him. In all fairness, he wasn't completely healthy last year when he made that comeback. Most athletes are stupid about their injuries and they rush themselves back for fear of losing their jobs. I hate to generalize, but this is the way it seems 90% of the time. Anyway as far as Miami is concerned, Trent Green is a million years old it won't hurt to have Daunte as a backup plan. This year things might go better since he should be healthier.

500 Saves, Riles is a Hater, Kevin Durant

Jamal Mashburn and Dee Brown on television at the same time analyzing basketball is brutal.
Yankees won and Wang pitched a complete game. Wow, I didn't think Joe had it in him to leave a starter out there for more than 5 innings.
Trevor Hoffman got his 500th save tonight. He's the only pitcher to ever accomplish this. That's impressive in case you were wondering.
The Ducks won the Stanley Cup if anyone cares.
MLB wants Jason Giambi to cooperate with their investigation. He's on the DL so he has nothing better to do, and hell he brought up accountability so he should cooperate.
The Billy Donovan saga is finally over, the Magic let him go. The Magic want Stan Van Gundy but Pat Riley wants to be compensated before he let's him out of his contract. He's such a hater. Why is he trying to hold Stan back? He didn't think Stan was good enough to lead his team to a ship, but someone else does. He shouldn't stand in the way of that. Word on the street is that Sacto might offer him their job. Will Pat ask for compensation from them? This is why you grow to respect organizations like the Spurs. Everyone wants all of their assistants because they assume they've been groomed well and will help their organizations. San Antone never stands in the way of someone trying to come up. In a perfect world I'm sure they'd like to keep their assistants and personnel people because they've helped build a winning franchise, but they see the bigger picture. You should never hold anyone back.
So the big news of the day is the fact that Kevin Durant apparently can't bench press 185lbs. So what?? How much does a basketball weigh, because that's all I'd be concerned with. I hope Seattle is stupid enough to pass on him. We'd gladly take him and his weak frame with that third pick. Honestly I'm not surprised he can't bench 185lbs. I saw him in person and I wasn't even convinced he weighed 185lbs. There's no doubt he needs to get bigger, and he will. He'll put on grown man weight when he becomes a grown man. He's just a kid. I for one could care less about any Combine from the NFL to the NBA. I don't see how some one's draft stock can rise just because they can run drills efficiently. How is it that their game performances become an afterthought when you're deciding whether or not to draft them? I can tell you from watching my beloved Hawks and their last 2 drafts that I don't want a damn workout warrior on my team. We have that in Marvin and Shelden Williams (no relation) I'll take game tape all day every day on a player, and you should too.
The Finals finally start tomorrow. Damn the NBA knows how to build anticipation, or lose momentum depending on who you ask.

Tank, Vick, Joe Torre, Billy Donovan

Roger Goodell is at it again. He suspended Tank Johnson for 8 games following his release from jail. I really don't think the Commish is being consistent. He threw the damn book at Pacman and he hasn't even been convicted of anything. I think Goodell really needs to revisit his decision where Pacman is concerned. He's no saint and he does need some type of intervention, but he's gotten the worst of the punishments and he's yet to face any penalty from our justice system. This latest ruling is giving him great ammunition for his appeal. Falcon's fans have to start being concerned about the possibility that Vick will miss significant time this season. I have to assume the only reason the Commish hasn't punished him yet is because he's a marquee player and one of the faces of the league. It's one thing to suspend corner backs, and defensive tackles, but it's quite another to suspend a $137 million franchise quarterback. There are really no guidelines for his rulings. It should be interesting.
Alright, about the Yankees. I stated a long time ago that Joe has been mismanaging this bullpen, but tonight he took it to a whole other level. He pulled the rookie pitcher in the 2nd inning and the score was only 3-1. Give me a break Joe! Sometimes you just have to leave them out there and sometimes it will cost you the game, but dammitt those are the brakes. The bullpen needs a rest sometime. Joe has got to stop treating the relievers like second class citizens. It's one thing to pull the starter after 5 innings (which is ridiculous most of the time) but its quite another to pull him after 2 when he's only given up 3 runs (one on an error by his defense). I see why everyone is calling for Torre's job. Of course he can't help the injuries and hitting slumps and so forth, but he has mismanaged what little pitching the Yankees do have for most of this young season. Somethings gotta give.
The Billy Donovan saga is far from over. From what I understand the Magic want an agreement that he won't coach in the NBA for at least 5 years if they let him out of his contract. I don't think they'll have to worry about that. Any NBA team that goes after him has some serious issues if they do so in the near future. I'm glad he had this change of heart before it was too late.

Yanks, Billy Donovan, Danica Patrick

Yankees took 2 out of 3 from the Sox this weekend. Is that a big deal? No.

Lou Pinella has been suspended indefinitely for a little tirade he had on Saturday with the umpire. He's a damn fool and reason enough to watch the Cubs. He's hilarious! He was kicking dirt on the ump's shoes and everything.

Billy Donovan apparently wants to be let out of his contract with the Magic to return to Florida. I wonder why he had the change of heart. The Magic are deciding whether or not they are going to let him out of the contract. Um, I don't see why they wouldn't. I certainly would not want my team being coached by someone who doesn't want to be there. That's just me.

Danica Patrick grabbed Dan Wheldon's arm during an argument with him. Let's just say she better calm her ass down. If he had grabbed her we'd all be screaming bloody murder. She's just mad because she's the Michelle Wie of racing. If she wasn't industry cute we wouldn't even know who the hell she is. (she's more average than anything else if you want to know the truth)

The NBA Finals don't start until Thursday. This could be a long week.

Lebron wins the East, but it probably ends there.

So, the Finals are set. San Antone vs. the Lebron's. Um, I'd like to say Cleveland has a real shot at winning this thing, but unfortunately I cannot in good conscience speak such words. I don't think they'll win more than one game against the Spurs. It will be a good learning experience for the Cavs though. They are outmatched in a number of areas. In the past 3 series they've clearly had the best player on the floor, that will not be the case in this series. Tim Duncan is the best player left in the playoffs at this point. He's the smartest and he makes all the necessary adjustments to give his team a chance to win. He's also going for ring #4 and I don't see him letting the future of the league prevent his winning right now. The coaching matchup is not even worth debating. I've already said too much. The Spurs bench is deeper, and their role players are more consistent. All in all they just have a better team. I know we all thought the same thing about the Pistons, but the only real advantage the Pistons had was the fact that they were more experienced. The Spurs have that plus everything else I mentioned above. If Lebron can pull off this upset, he has to be considered the BEST player in the league hands down.