HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, the 2008 portion of the 2008-2009 season is over for the Atlanta Hawks and I don't think we could have asked for a better start than 21-10. I mean, we could have, but that would have just been greedy.

These are happy times for Hawks fans so I'm not even going to nitpick today. I hope everyone has a splendid New Year and hopefully we'll pick up in 2009 right where we left off in 2008.

Although I hope sometime between now and the New Year Coach Woodson finds some minutes for Acie Law (without Flip alongside him). WE just want to know if he's capable.

JOE THE BASKETBALL PLAYER

Joe The Basketball Player (as Steve Holman calls him and as I shall now refer to him) was fantastic tonight. He had 41 points against the Baby Bulls. J-Smoove had a very very good night adding 24 points. My boy came to play tonight.

Next up is Denver.

Let's Kiss And Make Up.

Alright Josh (Childress) this has gone on long enough. Come on back for this playoff push we're about to make. I know you probably hoped the team would play horribly and have to come crawling back to you, but obviously that's not the case. It's okay, swallow your pride, say you were wrong and we'll all pretend you were just out with an injury. You know, like Craig Claxton.

If it will make you feel better you can just say you're returning because of all of the recent rioting in Greece. Yeah, just tell everyone you feared for your own safety and you thought it would be in your best interests to just come back. (wink)

Where will your minutes come from? Who knows? But let's be honest, the bench has been up and down since early in the season anyway. I'm sure Woody can go from a 7 man rotation to an 8 man rotation seamlessly.

There, we've addressed all of the things that may give you pause about returning. I'll see you next year.

Say It Ain't So Joe.

I felt sick when Joe missed that possible game tying free throw, so I can only imagine how he felt.

The officials were just ridiculous in the third quarter, but of course no one will mention it...... except Drew.

I have never seen a player fall down (Paul Pierce) and an official call an official timeout instead of a travel. Ever. Ever. Ever.

I have never seen someone dribble and then dribble again (Garnett). and then get a foul call against the Hawks.

Something Rajon Rondo said that couldn't be more true... "If they played everyone else the way they play us they'd be a top five team."

I have to mention a few things about Josh Smith and the fans view of him. It's no secret that I'm a Josh Smith fan. Not the delusional type, but I do want him on this team. That being said, sometimes I'm sure I can come off as sort of a Josh Smith apologist. That's not what I'm going for at all, but I think he takes an unfair amount of blame for a lot of the things that are wrong with the team.

Do we want Josh out there jacking up shots outside of 12-15 feet? No, but it's going to happen from time to time. The problem I see is that fans seem to only have a problem when Josh takes a bad shot. No one says anything when Flip is out there shooting at will. Everyone just accepts that this is what Flip does. What's that about? I could go on, but the point I want to make is that Josh is not the only player on the team who takes bad shots. He has plenty of company in any given game.

Every shot Joe takes is not a good shot. I know that may be a hard pill for some folks to swallow, but when he has two guys on him and he has to spin and fade away just to get the shot off, not a good shot.

And, if the Hawks ran some semblance of a fluid offense Josh wouldn't even be in a position to take some of the bad shots he takes. They dribble too much, way too much and the play doesn't even develop until there's only a few seconds left on the shot clock. That alone leads to a lot of the bad shots that numerous players on the team take.

I'm not making excuses for Josh, but it does irritate me that people look at him as one of the biggest problems on the team.

It's like the inconsistent rotations, poor clock management, bad play calling and other countless offenses have nothing to do with what plagues the team.

That short, sweet O.J. Mayo Interview I promised... Also featured in Score.

I’m the opposite of moderate, immaculately polished with the spirit of a hustler and the swagger of a college kid.”

That’s a line from Atlanta’s home-grown rapper T.I. off of the song “Live Your Life,” and that sentence pretty much sums up what rookie phenom O.J. Mayo is right now. He just has IT. He was in town recently to play the Atlanta Hawks as well as to help introduce the marketing agency Eighty81, which is opening up a new office in Atlanta. I caught up with him for a few minutes to get his thoughts on life in the league.

Calandra Coone: What’s life like in the NBA? How is it different from college?
O.J. Mayo: I think it’s all the travel, you know, the climate changes. The travel is really rough going from city to city. You go from a cold city to a warm city and you’ve really just got to make sure you get enough rest.
C.C.: You’re averaging over 20 points per game, so you seem to be adjusting pretty well. Is Rookie of the Year something you’re shooting for?
O.J.: Nah, not really. I’m not really a person who looks for individual goals. I’m more of a team-goals type of person. I’m just looking to help better our team.
C.C.: What was it like for you on draft night being traded from the Timberwolves to the Grizzlies? Did you take that personally?
O.J.: Well, it just let me know that the NBA is definitely a business. I didn’t know I got traded until I saw it on TV. So it just let me know that it’s a business and I have to maintain, be a professional and stay strong.
C.C.: Are you going to be extra-motivated when you face the Timberwolves for the first time?
O.J.: Yeah probably so, haha, probably so.

6-0 seems so long ago.

The game could not have started any worse. Seriously, had the Hawks decided to not send any players on the court and just let Houston get the game going alone, they couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. They didn't score their first points until the 6:52 mark of the first period. Dreadful. Even still somewhere between spotting Houston a 13 point lead and losing 84-92 the Hawks had an 8 point lead late in the game. What happened you say? Missed shots, no free throws and untimely turnovers. Not that there's ever a good time for a turnover, but you know what I mean.
One thing that stuck out to me was Josh Smith's turnover (bad pass) with 5:36 left to play. Turnovers are bad, they really are, but turnovers should also be quantified because some are worse than others.
For instance, if Josh is dribbling out of control when there's a more capable guy to his left or right and he turns the ball over, that's a bad turnover. Unforgivable.
However, if Josh just got a steal and he sees a teammate ahead and he tries to throw the ball to him but it sails out of bounds that's a turnover I can live with. Why? Because of the intent. I see what he was trying to do and it was a good idea, it just didn't work out.
I guess coach Woodson doesn't quite look at turnovers the same way I do and hey I don't blame him, he's obviously a bottom line kind of guy.
He yanked Josh at that point (while they were clinging to a two point lead and had completely lost the ability to score) and he didn't put him back in until there was only 1:53 left and that two point lead had turned into a 10 point deficit.
Josh is not the best defender in the league.
Josh is not the best defender in the East.
Josh is probably not the best defender in the Southeastern division.
Josh is the best defender on the Atlanta Hawks.
Josh was bad on offense.
Josh was not bad on defense.
Since Woody is a bottom line sorta guy he should have thought to himself since we can't score maybe I'd better try to stop Houston from scoring.
Woody could have genuinely thought Za Za was a better defensive option at that point. We'll never know because no one asked him. Maybe he was trying to teach Josh a lesson. Hey, I'm all for getting your point across, but there's a time and a place for it. That was not the time. Berate him during the time out, question his heart, question his manhood, then put him back on the floor because as bad as you need a bucket, you need a stop.
Yes he was dreadful leading up to the turnover. He missed three or four shots in a row to help Houston get back into the game. Dreadful.
But, for everything he was lacking on offense he was still pretty effective on defense. The bottom line is even though he was having a bad night, he was still the best option at the time.
I have no idea what to make of this team right now. All I know is if they are going to be bad, I want them to be all the way bad. Don't be middle of the lottery bad. Be number one pick bad. I know its waaaaay too early for this talk, but I'm seeing some of the same things this season that I've seen in the previous four seasons. That's not good.

For a thorough analysis of the game go see Brett.

O.J. Mayo

I will be posting my 23 second interview with O.J. Mayo later this week. I'll leave you with this picture of him playing NBA2k9 against rapper Killa Mike. He looks so intense.

As seen in Score.... sorta.

I wrote the paragraphs following this paragraph for Score this week. The editor left out a very important thought (highlighted in orange) so the end of my rant does not make sense in the paper. I've decided to include it. In fairness to the editor he did tell me it was kind of mean spirited. I did not intend for it to be mean spirited because hey, tis the season.....Truth hurts sometime and I'm not making this stuff up. When I wrote this they were only a -27 together, now they've jumped to -39.

I am not a stat geek, not by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t feel like stats always tell the whole truth. Besides that, stats sometimes get in the way of the opinion I want to have about certain players. Sometimes they work against the point I’m trying to make so I just don’t deal with them.
Every time I watch the Hawks play I get this nagging feeling that when Acie Law and Flip Murray are on the floor at the same time nothing good happens. Now of course I had nothing concrete to back this up, but this feeling just kept intensifying so I finally decided to look it up Friday night after the Hawks lost to the Raptors. I went to 82games.com and I was not surprised to learn that I in fact was correct. The Law Murray combo this season is absolutely awful. In defense of Murray, he’s equally as awful when he’s on the floor at the same time as Marvin Williams and Maurice Evans. In defense of Law, when he’s on the floor with Maurice Evans it’s also dreadful. It's not just the two of them together. See, this is exactly why I don’t bother with stats. The only point I wanted to make is that Coach Woodson should stop playing Law and Murray together unless there is absolutely no one else available. I don’t just limit that to point guards and shooting guards. I mean they shouldn’t be on the floor together unless there is no one else available in uniform. It feels that bad when they are on the court at the same time. What I discovered is that Woodson needs to not play Acie, Flip or Maurice much at all. Now that doesn’t make any sense. I told you stats don’t tell the whole truth.

The Washington Wizards fired Eddie Jordan last week after they started the season 1-10. My only feelings on this are if they were ready to fire him after only 11 games they might as well have fired him last season. They obviously weren’t convinced he was the right person for the job anyway.

COME ON HAWKS FANS

Let's get Mike Bibby on the All Star team for the first time people.

VOTE HERE

And while you're there you should go ahead and vote for the rest of the Atlanta Hawks starting five.

I'm not just being lazy.....for the most part.

Since I wasn't there for the photoshoot

It's simple, I have very limited computer access right now. I'm basically only online while I'm at work and I'm almost 100% certain my bosses would prefer I use my time at work being productive as opposed to blogging about the Hawks. Don't fret, a new laptop is on the way from Dell. It won't ship until December 9th so to my 4 loyal readers you should go here and here for your daily fix of Hawks news.

Howeva, I did take a few minutes to write for the Hawks Blogger Roundtable.

Where you at Drew???

Brett quit making me look bad with all of your statistics and facts. There's no place for that in my world.

Get Some Rest

Joe Johnson or High Blood Pressure as I like to call him, is understandably tired.

Due to injuries he's the team's 1st and 2nd best option. That's an unfortunate situation to be in, but it happens sometimes. I don't think he's being asked to do anymore than LeBron or Dwyane in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure he'll get through it.

Still Waiting.

Yes Josh, you do look good in a suit, (although, Za Za seems a bit unimpressed) however, we'd really like to have you back on the court soon. Thanks.

And, I'm going to go ahead and act like that Cleveland game never happened.

Uh Oh.....

First Josh

Now Al

My heart can't take it.

I'm About To Snap!

This is a little unrelated to sports, but whatever. It sucks being the youngest person in an office. I (expletive) hate it! The older people don't want to listen to you about any (expletive) thing even when you know more about the subject. I need to find another job soon because I'm only moments away from snapping on an elder. I'd hate to do it, but I will. I'm not going to let this one person in particular keep talking down to me like I'm her (expletive) six year old daughter. I've been extremely polite when voicing my displeasure with her attitude, but I'm tired of biting my tongue. As I used to say when I was younger, She got one mo time........

To make a short story long

I'm sure in a few places on the web you'll be able to read any number of "back to life, back to reality" articles/comments about the Atlanta Hawks. They will not be completely off base because let's face it, the Hawks have been playing over their head's since they lost Josh Smith. He is no worse than their second best player and we would have been foolish to assume that the Hawks would not start to miss him at some point. That point just happened to come 2 games later than expected.

Josh is not the best defender in the league, however he is at least a presence that gives opposing players pause when thinking about assaulting the lane. Lately if an opposing player (insert guard name here) is able to get past his initial defender (insert Hawks guard name here) he has by all accounts a clean shot at the rim and if Acie Law is anywhere around he has a free throw attempt to follow said shot.

Nothing against Solo, but he is no Josh Smith.

Randolph Morris wouldn't even be on this team were it not for the fact that our big men are dropping like flies. He's a big body and nothing more. He has no emotions at all, none whatsoever. I've never seen someone look so stoic about every situation. He's probably one hell of a poker player though. When he's not sitting on the bench staring blankly at the goings on in front of him, he's on the court wandering around committing fouls with very little effort. People keep telling me to give him a chance, so I'll wait.......

Marvin Williams has been really good thus far, but he's no Josh.

We all know how much I love Al, I will not say one bad word about him. My hopes for Al include him becoming the next Tim Duncan, and possibly the father of my children. (I'm joking for those of you who aren't regular visitors) My little brother thinks only one of those two things is possible. I'll let you guess which one.

I miss Josh, they miss Josh. I'm sure that's something we can all agree on.

I miss Josh.

This weekend did not go well.

Drew explains here
and here

Beat the Nets

I fully expect the Hawks to win these back to back games against the Nets. I can't wait to watch Woodson's rotations tonight. They've become must see tv. It's always interesting to see how he's going to keep both teams in the game on any given night.
If Randolph Morris gets to play meaningful minutes my head might explode. If I'm not back here to update this blog (at the very latest Monday morning), that's why.

Hating Boston Even More.

Why couldn't it be anyone but him?

I thought two things while this game was unfolding, in this order.

1. Al picked up two early fouls in the 1st quarter so there's a good possibility we won't see him again until Friday against the Nets. No, this isn't last season, Woody knows better...... Even still, the Hawks built a double digit lead and as it started to dwindle I knew at any moment we'd see Al again. Any moment didn't come until the 3rd quarter. Really Mike? Really? Randolph Morris gets meaningful minutes. Really? Really? (expletive, expletive, expletive)

2. If Josh Smith were playing we would have won this game. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

* Bonus thought: I hate Paul Pierce.

6-0 Yep. 7-0????

Al Horford had a Tim Duncanesque line last night. 27 points, 17 rebounds and 6 blocks.

Al Horford impresses me. I think I fell deeper in love with him last night. Deal with it Drew.

If they never show Craig Claxton on the sidelines in a suit cheering for the Atlanta Hawks again, that will be just fine with me.

The Hawks defense without Josh Smith protecting the rim leaves a lot to be desired.

Mike Woodson still doesn't quite know how to properly substitute, but whatever.

LeBron James may very well average 40 this season, not because he can, but because he has too.

Drew and Brett are really funny.

Nothing would please me more than for the Hawks to win in the Garden, or whatever the hell it's called tonight.

6-0???

Hawks vs Bulls tonight. Our perfect record is on the line. You can enjoy a live blog of the game over at Za Za's Playground.
Drew was also big enough to give Mike Woodson credit for a job well done. I'm not there yet. Yes, I'm probably being petty, but still. I have four loooooong years of frustration I'm dealing with. I'll be the first one to write a post criticizing him when he starts mismanaging minutes, fouling players out of the game in the first half and insisting on playing Randolph Morris meaningful minutes, but I'm only human. Forgive me. I will give him credit for inspiring them to play defense. That's as far as I'm willing to go right now.

Hurry Back Josh!

Josh Smith may miss 2-4 weeks. That could hurt. This is an excellent opportunity for Marvin and Solo to step up and shine. The next four games are on the road starting tonight with the Seattle Supersonics aka the Oklahoma City Thunder. I won't pretend to have any knowledge of how well this team will perform without Josh, but I feel a lot better about our chances this year than I would have last year when we had no depth. Right now we're the only undefeated team in the East, but we'll have to see where we stand after this 4 game road trip.

YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!

YES WE DID

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, ALSO KNOWN AS THE SILENT KILLER

Josh Smith makes me happy, but Joe Johnson makes me really happy! Joe is a silent killer, kinda like high blood pressure. From now on I'm going to call Joe High Blood Pressure, or The Silent Killer. Let's try em both out and see which one rolls off the tongue the easiest. High Blood Pressure was as cool as ever in the Hawks comeback win against the Sixers tonight. That's right my boys came from 23 points down to beat Philly. The Silent Killer put in 35 points with none more impressive than a long 3 with 11 seconds remaining. He was cold, but I'm telling you I had no idea High Blood Pressure had as many points as he did. I looked up at the player's scores late in the game and I was shocked to learn he had so many points. He does it so effortlessly you can't help but be impressed. Unfortunately with The Silent Killer you don't realize you're watching something special until after its over. But, you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hawks and Phillies win. One team's win means more than the other's obviously.

HAWKS WIN! Yep, they put the smackdown on Dwight Howard and the rest of the Orlando Magic. Josh Smith who is the pulse of the team had a monster line! 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals.... Joe was as cool as ever with his 25 points, 7 rebounds. Al had 10 points 9 rebounds and Flip Murray had 14 points off the bench. It was a total team effort and I loved it. Next up is Philly at the Highlight Factory on Saturday.
The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. Cole Hammels was named MVP. I'm happy for Jimmy Rollins because the fans in Philly have been hard on him at different points in his career. Earlier this year they were pissed at him cuz he was pissed at them for booing the team. I'm glad he's been somewhat vindicated.
There were a lot of other games in the NBA tonight, but I honestly don't give a damn about any of the rest of them.

Cole Hammels Was Stalling!

So Game 5 of the World Series was tonight and it had to be suspended due to the rain with the game tied 2-2. In the top of the 6th inning when the rain began to come down a little harder and the Phillies still had a one run lead, I couldn't help but notice Cole Hammels stalling. I mean seriously he was taking forever. In fairness to him BJ Upton was on base and he has stolen like 4 bases in this series, but I know Hammels was stalling. Since it was the 6th inning they could have ruled it a complete game. First of all, I think that's a stupid rule to be in place during the World Series, but whatever. I don't actually have a second of all! I just pulled a Charles Barkley on yall! Anyway, all I know is homeboy was stalling. He was working relatively fast up until that point, then all of a sudden it started taking forever in between pitches. No one else is going to say it, but trust me. Would I lie about this? Hell I don't even care who wins this damn series. I'm just sayin, homeboy was actin shady.

Rays beat the Sox! Thank God!

NOW, THAT'S HOW YOU CELEBRATE! The Rays are going to the World Series. As a Yankees fan I really don't care who wins it when we aren't playing. Well, unless Boston is playing, then I'm rooting for the other team no matter who it is. Anyway, the Rays will face the Phillies. I'm going to say the Rays will win it because I'm an American League girl.

WE NEED MORE HAROLD REYNOLDS!!

We need more Harold Reynolds! Seriously, they should let TBS broadcast all of the games so we can have a dose of Harold all the time. I haven't watched an episode of Baseball Tonight since he left. Unfortunately we'll get the usual Tim McCarver and Joe Buck for the World Series, but they should definitely squeeze Harold in as an on field reporter or something. He's definitely handsome enough that they should consider it.

You all probably think that's the only reason I like Harold so much anyway. I'd be lying if I said his smile didn't have a little something to do with it, but really it's his analysis that I love so much. He knows his stuff and even when he's critical of a player he's so nice that they could never take issue with it. Somehow MLB needs to give us more Harold!

I'm back with random thoughts.

Okay I'm back. I've been gone for about a month and I really don't have a good excuse. To my 3 loyal readers, I do apologize. I guess I'll just run through my thoughts on a few of things I missed.

The Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. And to add insult to injury, they just gave Brian Cashman an extension thru 2011. Really? Really? I mean what has Cashman done to deserve an extension? I really can't think of anything right now. I am of the thinking he needs to go. And, he should take Hank with him. Neither of them have a clue at this point. The players were all pretty much horrible this season. Melky and Cano regressed. Jeter and A-Rod struggled. Johnny Damon still throws like a girl. Carl Pavano made it back and he started more games towards the end of the season than he's started in any of the seasons combined prior to this one. Okay, that's not true, but it feels like it. Joba got hurt. Wang got hurt. Cashman didn't do anything to address those issues and keep the team in contention. Luckily we get 3 more seasons of this type of inactivity.

Gilbert Arenas had to undergo another surgery just months after signing that monstrous contract. Penny Hardaway was his favorite player growing up. Looks to me like he's following in Penny's footsteps.

Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier was shot 14 times in the month of September and has just had to have his leg amputated. He's also paralyzed from the waist down. It's just a horrible situation and the NFL needs to do something to address player safety. Yeah he was out in the early hours of the morning, but you know what I hang out like that on the weekends too and it doesn't mean I want to get shot. The league can't expect these players to just go to practice and games then spend the rest of their time at home so they need to take small steps to look out for these guys. One thing they need to consider is not publicizing these players salaries all over the world wide web. Of course we all assume a player is making a lot of money since he's in the NFL, but we don't need to know exactly how much.

My Eagles are off to a 2-2 start. Brian Westbrook missed the last game with an ankle injury and the team looked lost without him. They are so average when he's not on the field it's ridiculous. And to think they were hesitant about paying him more money. He should go back to the negotiating table and ask for even more money as far as I'm concerned.

Roger Federer won the U.S. Open. I knew he wouldn't go through the whole year without winning one of the four major tournaments. He is getting a little long in the tooth though. We'll see if he's still able to catch Pete Sampras.
Serena Williams won on the women's side. She regained the #1 ranking for the first time in a handful of years.

The Hawks open up training camp soon and I can't wait to see what this new team looks like. They decided to keep Mike Woodson around because those two weeks in the playoffs apparently mean more than the 4 years preceding them. I'll have more on this later. Okay this post is so random, I'm gonna let it go, but I'll be back with an NBA preview soon.

I GET IT NOW.

So almost 2 weeks ago (in the post below) I declared I wasn't giving up on the Yankees yet..

Yankees fans don't resign themselves to failure in August!
I mean, yeah they're several games out of contention for the AL East and or Wild Card, but its barely the middle of August and there are a lot of games left. It's too early to concede!

At the end of it I wrote:

I'm not ready to concede this season. I won't believe the Yankees are out of it until they are officially out of it. 6 games is a lot, but there's still time.
I believe that.

I've changed my mind.

I'm Not Giving Up On My Yankees Yet!

I'm waving a white flag, but it's not THE white flag!

No team I've ever seen in baseball has been decimated like this. It would kill any team. Imagine the Red Sox without [Josh] Beckett and [Jon] Lester. Pitching is 70 percent of the game. Wang won 19 games two straight years. Chamberlain became the most dominating pitcher in baseball. You can't lose two guys like that."

Did you really throw in the towel Hank?

"I'm not writing off this season. They're trying hard to win. There's only so much you can do. They're not supermen."
We're going to win it next year," he said. "If we need to add a top veteran pitcher, we'll do that. We'll do whatever we need to do. Next year, we'll be extremely dangerous."

You could have had a top notch pitcher who now plays for the team across town, but you deemed two scrubs (thus far) untouchable.

I'm disgusted in ways that you can not even begin to understand!
Where's George?

This is insanity! Yankees fans don't resign themselves to failure in August!

I mean, yeah they're several games out of contention for the AL East and or Wild Card, but its barely the middle of August and there are a lot of games left. It's too early to concede!

I cannot believe this is the man who is supposed to fill the Boss's shoes!

This is the same guy who said he wouldn't negotiate with A-Rod past a certain point, then completely backtracked and gave him the $300 million that he wanted.....

This is the same person who deemed Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes untouchable when Johan was on the table. What does the team have to show for that decision?

Ian Kennedy is 0-4 with an ERA of 8.17

Phil Hughes is 0-4 with a ERA of 9.00

They both got shipped back to the minors, but Ian Kennedy made his way back last week only to get ROCKED by the Angels in 2 innings. Luckily for Yankees players and fans it didn't really bother him.

I'm terrified at Hank's decisions thus far. If he wants to throw a towel then he needs to throw it and hit Brian Cashman in the face! What has he done to make this team better over the past couple of years? Nothing!

I still think re-signing A-Rod was a bad idea! Yeah he puts up great numbers, but never when the team really needs them. When it's 9-2 Yankees in the bottom of the 8th its almost a guarantee he'll hit one out. I want to like A-Rod, I honestly do, but I'm convinced he's destined to be a great player that never won a ring. That would be fine with me if he weren't playing on my favorite team! The fact that he's a prick doesn't even bother me, but his prickness would be more tolerable if he had some post season success to go with it. He doesn't.

A-Rod and his destiny aren't the only things standing in the way. The team is old.... Even my Derek Jeter. It pains me to type that, but it's true. He's on the decline. Mariano who used to be the closest thing to automatic there was is declining also.

Even still, I'm not ready to concede this season. I won't believe the Yankees are out of it until they are officially out of it. 6 games is a lot, but there's still time.

I believe that.

My Trip To The Bronx

I finally made it.

I finally realized my lifelong sports dream.

I finally went to Yankee Stadium!

If you've ever read my blog then you know the affection I have for the Yankees.

You know how I feel about Derek Jeter. (I was stalking him the whole game. I took like 50 pictures of him).

You know the love/hate relationship I have with A-Rod.

You know I think Johnny Damon throws like a little girl.

You know I think Brian Cashman has been sleeping on the job the past few years.

You know I don't think they are good enough to win it all this season, but you know I believe they will anyway.

You know I had to make my way to THE Yankee Stadium before they move next season.

You now know I made it there on my birthday.

The experience was kinda crazy for me. I had all of these emotions running through me when I finally got to my seat. The first thing that went through my mind was my Dad. I wished he could have gone to the game with me. He's the reason I love the Yankees and he was the only thing missing from the game.

Everything was set up beautifully.

The weather was perfect, not too hot.

They were playing the Los Angeles, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Orange County Angels of California, or whatever it is they call themselves these days.

Sidney Ponson was on his game which was a pleasant surprise. He matched Ervin Santana (who was also on his game) pitch for pitch. I was actually terrified when I found out Ponson was the scheduled pitcher. I wished for a rain out on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday so that Andy Petite's start could get pushed back. He got rocked on Thursday, glad I dodged that bullet.

The game went by extremely fast since no one was scoring runs. When the 9th inning started the game was still scoreless and curiously Joe Girardi brought out Mariano Rivera. Don't get me wrong, I hoped we'd be in a position to need Mariano Rivera, but I didn't think 0-0 in the 9th was the right time. I know why Joe did it, I just didn't agree with it.

When Mo came out of the pen of course the crowd went nuts! He's the best pitcher on the team and he's earned the right to have our complete unabashed trust.

While he was warming up on the mound I just couldn't shake the feeling that things were not going to end well for him.

They didn't.

He walked Mark Texiera to start the inning, gave up a single to Vlad which put runners on the corners, then gave up a single to Torri Hunter to score the pinch runner.

In reality it was only one run, but the Angels have the best closer in the game in Francisco Rodriguez so that one run may as well have been 5.

I am a big fan of K-Rod's, but he is the last person I wanted to see on Friday night. Of course he came in and took care of business the way he normally takes care of business. He's on pace to save like a thousand games this season.

Good times at Yankee Stadium either way!

I'm glad I finally made it there to see my favorite team. I really don't understand why they are moving. The stadium doesn't look to be in that bad of shape as far as I could tell.

I guess since we live in a sports world that is dominated by luxury boxes and corporate sponsors Yankee Stadium is just too old.

If they can still get it poppin in Fenway, I know Yankee Stadium is good for a few more years.

There's no turning back now, the new stadium is almost complete and I'm sure it will cost a small fortune to get in there.

I hope they don't make the tickets so expensive that you can hear a pin drop in the stadium at a time when the crowd should be going wild. Although I won't be surprised if that happens.

Hopefully one day soon I'll make my way across the street from where my Yankee Stadium used to be.

Rashan Ali Smith Interview

If you aren't in Atlanta you probably can't totally grasp who and what Rashan Ali Smith is to the community. She's the perfect role model for any woman, young or old in Atlanta who aspires do to wonderful things. Rashan is more than just a radio personality on Hot 107.9's A-Team Morning Show and sideline reporter for the Atlanta Hawks. She has her hands in lots of things! She's also a philanthropist, a mother, a writer and an actress. Recently she played a character by the name of Monica in the movie Three Can Play That Game starring Vivica Fox and I can assure you Rashan is unforgettable in that movie! She really made the most out of all of her scenes! Atlanta better enjoy Mrs. Ali Smith while they can because although she'll always be Queen Of The East Side, she's on the verge of becoming too big to let just one city own her.

I recently exchanged emails with Rashan about her love for sports and her non-profit organization Sporty Girls Inc. Part of this interview appeared in Score Atlanta. Here is the interview in it's entirety.

How did you first become interested in sports?

I was born into a sports family. My father is Buck Godfrey who is the head football coach at Southwest Dekalb High School and the winningest high school football coach in Dekalb County history. My mother coached Pop Warner football at Glenwood Hills Park. She led her team to an undefeated season. Yes, my mother!

Not only did my father coach football, he also coached our summer league swimming team and the high school swim team at Towers High School and SWD. He taught me how to swim at the age of three. I began swimming competitively at the age of five. There were very few girls swimming at the time so I would have to swim the boys in my age group. It definitely helped me build character at an early age!

What is your favorite sport to play?

I am definitely good for a nice swimming workout from time to time! It used to be hard to swim recreationally because after so many years of training you kind of look at the pool like, "man, I sure did put in a lot of hours throughout my life." Training for swimming is arduous! It can be grueling at times. Nonetheless, it is the best exercise for your body, hands down.

What inspired you to create Sporty Girls?

Sporty Girls, Inc. is a non-profit organization which encourages young African-American girls to swim, play golf, tennis and soccer while developing lifestyle skills. We are in the midst of our first summer camp right now!! It has been extremely exciting!!! I am so thankful.

SGI was a dream that I had about two years ago. Growing up, my relay team and I were the only Black girls in the water for a number of years. We were very good and very successful. (We still have two records that stand in the Dekalb County Summer League Record books. One record is 23 years old.) All of us received full scholarships to swim in college. Two of us went to Florida A&M University. One attended Georgia Southern and the other went to Howard University. All of our degrees were free because we chose a sport that most African-American girls just don't do. So I thought to myself, why not create a way for girls from all economic backgrounds to be exposed to the sports "we" don't generally participate in on a professional level. There are scholarships being given in these sports, but they are not going to our youth because we simply have never participated in it.
Swimming also helped me to foster great relationships. The girls on my relay team were also in my wedding. That's what swimming did for me.

Do you think non-traditional sports offer something more than the popular sports?

I think all sports offer the same things. Since we traditionally aren't seen in a swim suit, with golf clubs, with a racket, with shin splints; it gives them that much more confidence to believe that they can accomplish anything by succeeding in those non-traditional sports.

Do you think we need to do more to highlight the successful African American women who are involved in sports whether it be through competition or reporting?

I think the media does a great job in highlighting women of color. Because we have to be that much better than our colleagues, I think we always stand out. I'm always looking for the woman that looks like me and when I see her exhibiting her knowledge and athletic prowess, it makes me proud!

Do you ever feel awkward being one of, if not the only woman in the locker room?

I never feel awkward! I've been around male athletes all my life! I've always considered myself the 'feminine tomboy" so I can relate to males very well! I know how to form good relationships with athletes. They gain respect by your approach and your knowledge of the game. I think I've done a great job with both of those.

You've been the sideline reporter for the Atlanta Hawks for the past few years, but since the birth of your daughter you started working fewer games. Do you plan on continuing with the Atlanta Hawks this upcoming season?

Being a part of the Atlanta Hawks Game Operations staff has been very rewarding. Not only do I have the opportunity to engage the audience with meaningful sideline interviews, but I really get a chance to know the players. I've formed lifelong relationships with many of the staff members and certainly the good people at Philips Arena! I am still sorting things out for next season. I really think I always want to be a part of the family in some capacity because they have been so good to me. Peter Sorckoff and Matt Payne are really incredible people! They've given me an incredible opportunity and they always encourage me to cultivate my talent. What more can you ask for?

I've also been given the opportunity to do some new things with "Better Mornings" on CBS 46, so television is definitely up next!

What about Radio One and sports....

My co-host and friend Griffy 2K and myself do the sports twice a day on the show. I also write a sports commentary every Thursday that is posted on our website. This gives me the chance to talk about any and everything I'd like to talk about. I've talked about everything from Evander Holyfield to Vivian Stringer. I'm proud to say that I'm a woman and I love sports. What man doesn't love that? My husband certainly does!

If you want to learn more about Sporty Girls Inc. or you want to make a donation, log onto the website or write to:

Sporty Girls Inc.
P.O. box 4390
Atlanta, GA 30303
Voice/Fax 404.806.7352
info@sportygirlsinc.org
http://www.sportygirlsinc.org/

Please visit www.rashanali.net to learn more about Rashan.

20 Minute freewrite on Josh Smith

Sigh. I really thought I'd be able to sit on this for a few days, but now is as good a time as any to get this off my chest. I should note that my chest is pretty big so I've been holding a lot....
I hope Josh Smith leaves. Don't get me wrong I adore almost everything about Josh Smith, but this organization is inept and I do not want him to be locked in an untenable situation somewhere down the line. If I typed faster this would go a hell of a lot smoother. Anyway, a lot of the personalities in the town have decided that there's no market for Josh since he didn't get an offer. They love to point to Philly and L.A. and say see they wined and dined him and even they passed on him. What they fail to acknowledge are two very important things. 1 Elton Brand opted out. While I wouldn't have given him $90 million bucks coming off an achilles injury, he is a career 20 pt 10 rebound guy so I can see why Philly rolled the dice on that one. 2. The opportunity for L.A. to get Marcus Camby for literally nothing arose so of course they couldn't pass on that. It's not that Josh isn't worthy, it's that he's restricted. So, if they made him an offer they knew they'd risk having their money be tied up for a week while the inept Atlanta Spirit decided whether or not they were going to match it. I can see why they went in another direction, but others feel like its because Josh isn't worth it. Believe me they wouldn't have wined and dined him if they weren't genuinely interested. Elton Brand opting out couldn't have come at a worse time for Josh Smith.
Everyone in this town seem to think Josh has no right to not want to play for Coach Woodson. This irks me the most. Damn near his whole coaching staff left this offseason. Why do you think that is? Did they leave to become head coaches? Nope, they made lateral moves. Even they had the sense to try to get the hell away from Woody. A couple of them tried to leave last season, but since they were contractually obligated Billy made them stay. Larry Drew is still here, but Brett Lagree (Hoopinion) and I are in agreement about the fact that he must long to have the words Interim Head Coach attached to his name. I'll link to Brett's post later. If I forget remind me or just go to my worth a look section. I'm even more annoyed that EVERYONE is so quick to forget the last four years just because the Hawks took the stinkin Celtics to 7 games! Four years does not 2 weeks undo. Mike Woodson didn't all of a sudden become a good coach just because the Hawks managed to win 3 games against them for no other reason than the fans at Philips arena. If the Hawks were winning in spite of Woody (which I firmly believe they did) for the 82 games prior to the playoffs why the hell would they all of a sudden start winning because of him just because its the playoffs? He's not a good coach, I don't care what anyone says. And while we're talking about the celtics series that has everyone jaded, let's talk about the fact that not one time did they bother to show up against the Celtics in Boston. Not once. Alot of that was Woody's fault. Anytime one of the key starters picked up 2 fouls I knew we wouldn't see him again until the game was way out of reach and I assure you that's how the games in Boston played out. Everyone wants the players to trust the coach, but he didn't even trust his players enough to let them play with 2 fouls in the first half. Give me a break. My 2o minutes is almost up, but I'm far from done, at least I think I'm far from done so I'm going to go for 15 more minutes.
Joe Johnson is a very good player, but in real life he only averaged about 4 more points than Josh. So if you're going to tell me Joe is worth $14 million then surely Josh is worth 10 or 11 million. I mean, numbers do matter in this instance don't they? I don't understand how Josh Smith can bear the brunt of the responsibility for everything that ails this team when he's still on his rookie contract, while Joe gets to mosey on through season after season never taking any responsibility for the team's shortcomings. He's the max player on this team so if they aren't winning shouldn't he take a little heat for that. When the Lakers are losing Kobe gets the blame, when the LeBron's are losing people ask LeBron to do more, when the Rockets fail to get out of the first round time and time again, people blame T-Mac. They don't blame the role players. Somehow Joe has been able to escape all criticism. It's really mind blowing. I can't explain it. I swear I don't think the air conditioning is working right now. My glass of wine is getting extremely warm and as we all know you need to have a Moscato chilled. Anyway, back to the Atlanta Spirit. everyone wants us to believe that they are just playing their hand by literally doing nothing where either of the Josh's are concerned. Puhleeze. This group has been inept for many years now all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe they're 2 steps ahead of everyone else. Are you kidding me? They assured us that re-signing the Josh's was priority number one, so why do neither of them have a contract? Are they trying to lowball them? Particularly Josh Smith. Just because bad timing prevented him from getting the $55-65 million he deserves that doesn't mean he should sign with the Hawks for well under what he's worth. josh is undervalued in Atlanta from so many angles its ridiculous. I honestly don't think people understand how important he is/was to this team. Joe didn't do it by himself. One of the radio personalities said he doesn't think Josh plays hard every night. That's fine, but if him dogging it was only 4 points different than Joe playing his ass off then that leads me to one of two conclusions. Either he's way better than we give him credit for or Joe isn't nearly as good as we make him out to be. I mean if he has to play all out just to average 4 more points than a guy who only shows up half the time...... I love this Leona Lewis song playing in the background. I really should buy her album, or just download it. Back to Josh, I hope he doesn't let them lowball him. You are worth double digits don't let anyone tell you differently. Sign that one year qualifying offer, insure you legs and arms and anything else that is important to you being a successful basketball player (if J-Lo can insure her rump surely Josh can insure his legs.) Play out of your mind next season and about halfway through when you're averaging 20 and 10 and headed to the All star game come out publicly and let the Hawks know there is no way on God's green earth you are going to re-sign with them. Let it be known you won't be fielding emails or phone calls from anyone associated with the Atlanta Spirit llc. They had their chance to sign you for like 2 years straight and they decided to play wait and see so now they get to wait until the end of the season to see you go sign with someone else. Time.

Leave Josh Smith!

Pleeeeeease, sign the one year qualifying offer, insure your legs, play out of your mind, then sign with someone, anyone other than the Atlanta Hawks.

You're clearly not appreciated here so go somewhere else. I'll expound on this later.

Favre not finished throwing interceptions just yet...

I knew it was too good to be true! Brett Favre wants to throw a few more interceptions! After a few days of sending text messages to the Packers GM (What is this junior high? He's damn near 40. He should not be handling this type of business via text message) he wants the Packers to release him unconditionally. After Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy stopped laughing they politely told him there is no way in hell that's going to happen.
Brett and his agent cannot really believe the Packers are going to be stupid enough to let him play somewhere else without getting any type of compensation for him. He still has 3 years left on his contract and they own his rights. Brett is about to learn that the NFL really is a business and even though he's a legend he is not bigger than the team. At least he isn't anymore.
Poor Aaron Rodgers is probably supremely annoyed with that lil diva, but he'll never say it. The fans in Green Bay would never forgive him if he started talking reckless about Brett.
Either way I'm tired of this. ESPN isn't even bothering to cover other stories. I really want him to make a decision and stick with it. He's always been able to live with his decision to throw into triple coverage leading to an interception so he needs to just decide with that same "If this is the wrong decision I'll live with it" mindset. Seriously, this song and dance is getting old!

Matt Jones, wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jags is a cokehead......

Wimbledon, Yankees, Agent Zero

Just a few quick thoughts:

The Wimbledon Final between Federer and Nadal was AMAZING! It looked like Federer was going to get beat in straight sets, but then there was a little rain delay during the 3rd set and it kind of re energized him. (At least that's what the announcer eluded too) The truth is that the only reason Federer won sets 3 and 4 is because they were decided by a tiebreak. He could NOT break Nadal's serve today when he really needed to. He only broke him one time which is hard to believe because he's Roger freakin Federer. He just couldn't get that big shot against Nadal's serve. It was unbelievable! I knew as soon as Nadal broke him in the 5th set it was over. I think he knew it too deep down inside. This Sunday was the first Sunday in months that I didn't miss football season.

Yesterday in the women's Final Venus beat Serena. Venus is a beast on grass so I knew she'd win no matter how well Serena was playing.

The Yankees disgust me right now! In less than 25 days I'm going to Yankee Stadium to watch them play the Los Angeles Angels of Beverly Hills Anaheim California or whatever it is they call themselves these days and I fear by that time the Yankees might not be in the playoff race. How can the last season in Yankees Stadium as I know it end with anything less than a World Series ring?? I'll tell you how, because they can't hit and pitch on the same day. If they get a good outing by the starting pitcher they give him little to no run support. It's awful, just awful. And on top of all that, everyone is banged up. I'd be disappointed if they didn't make the playoffs no matter what season it is, but this season in particular it would be severely disappointing.

Gilbert Arenas is not worth $100 million. He just isn't. He's cute and funny and honest and quirky and a whole lot of other adjectives except franchise player. The Wizards finished with the same record without Arenas as they would have finished with if he were playing. That's just the truth, look it up. I just don't understand when a guy became worth $100 million just because he is the best player on YOUR team. There might be 5 players in the NBA who are legitimately worth $100 million and Gil is not among them. If you get that kind of money you HAVE to be able to take your team to the Finals. He can't even get his team out of the first round! And, he has a bum knee! Signing that contract means there are no more excuses. When you take franchise player money then you need to do franchise player things. I'm talking to you too J.O. and Rashard Lewis.

And Hawks fans have the nerve to say Josh isn't worth $65 million. Puhleeze! If Gil is worth $111 million then Josh is worth $65 million. Easily.

Who Wore What To The NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is over and if you want to know who went where you can go here. Let's take a look at what some of the guys were wearing. There were a lot of the basic navy and black ensembles, but I won't bore you with many of those. Here are some of the guys who stood out a bit. My two favorites were DJ Augustin and OJ Mayo.

P.S. Chris Douglas Roberts did not go in the first round. WTF?

My girl Holly Mac was not feeling OJ, but I think he looks handsome other than the shoes. The outfit fits the image he has been projecting. He looks slightly lame, and I like slightly lame guys.

DJ Augustin looks fabulous! I love these colors on him.

Mike Beasley played it safe. He so looks like he knew he'd be going 2nd overall.





Derrick Rose bored me. Is it asking too much to make a statement when you know you're probably going to go #1? Color please!














This suit is adorable just like the man wearing it!

I'm kinda feeling Brandon Rush's ensemble. The colors look good on him.

Eric Gordon looks a little like he was going to the prom when you get a close view of the suit, howeva I'm glad he took a risk. He went there.

This suit kinda bores me.








He cried waaaaay before you should ever start crying in any draft. And, he did it in a boring suit!





I'll end this post with a pic of Darrell Arthur, the last guy in the green room. Awkward.

The NBA Draft I don't have to care about!!!

The NBA Draft is tonight and for the first time in a looooooooooooooooooong time I don't have to care! The Hawks don't have a horse in this race because Phoenix got our pick as part of that Joe Johnson trade that seems like it happened 13 years ago. Seriously though, it shouldn't take 3 years to make good on a deal.
Most "draft prognosticators" (I don't wanna call them experts anymore because they are the same people who said Marvin Williams was the best player in the draft a few years ago) say Derrick Rose is going first to Chicago. Although Chicago clearly needs an inside presence, I think they lost faith in Beasley when he measured out just 3 inches shorter than what they had him listed as in college. I mean really, we all know athletes lie about their height all the time, but you can't give yourself 3 whole inches. That's just wrong. Just because he's barely 6"8 it doesn't mean he can't still play power forward in the NBA. Stranger things have happened.
I'm really interested to see where Chris Douglas Roberts and Jerryd Bayless end up for no other reason than the fact that they're cuties.
The only other reason I have to watch the draft is to see what everyone will be wearing. I'll probably do a best and worst dressed on Draft night blog.
Stay Tuned.

Boston Celtics Win It All!

And the Boston Celtics are your 2007-2008 NBA Champs! They just wanted it more, plain and simple. This series was ugly and not very entertaining, but for a team like the Celtics it had to be just that for them to win. The "Big Three" had their moments (never really on the same night) but it was more about the contributions from guys like James Posey and Eddie House and other bench players. They didn't always have great numbers, but they did the little things that you HAVE to do in order to win a championship. The way the Lakers kept leaving James Posey and Eddie House open was just mind boggling. I swear all of Posey's shots came from the exact same spot. At least that's how it seems.
Before this series started I, like many others thought the Lakers would win. They were playing fantastic in the playoffs while the Celtics were being pushed around by everyone they faced. The Lakers had all the momentum and it translated into exactly nothing.
Boston won the first two games at home, then the Lakers won Game 3, gave up a 24 point lead in Game 4 then barely won Game 5. The Celtics ran them out of the gym in Game 6 and the rest is history.
This series redefined a lot of Celtic's careers.
KG is now a champion. That's deep because I was pretty convinced he'd join the likes of Karl Malone and Charles Barkley by being one of the best players to never win a championship. He no longer has to worry about that. He wasn't great in the Finals by any stretch of the imagination, but he was decent and for the first time in his career that was enough. He also convinced a whole team to play defense. That in and of itself is amazing. When you can get Sam Cassell to give you a solid defensive effort you've done something correct. You could argue that his teammates were afraid he might actually kill them if they didn't play defense, but either way they got it done. Someone better check on KG over the next couple of days because his head might actually explode.
Paul Pierce was the closest thing to amazing the Celtics had all series long. He went from needing reconstructive knee surgery in Game 1, to Finals MVP in Game 6. You couldn't have scripted it any better than that. The Celtics loyalty to him FINALLY paid off. Most teams just don't wait that long. If Paul Pierce had played in any number of other places he probably would have been traded a couple of years ago. They held onto him and after a few years of making him play in a situation where they were sorta kinda rebuilding, Danny Ainge made a couple of big trades and gave him a legitimate chance to win a championship.
Ray Allen doesn't have to become the next Reggie Miller. He even went all "He Got Game" on the Lakers a few times in the series. I guess when the only thing standing between you and the rim is Sasha Vujacic it tends to make you a little more aggressive.
PJ Brown finally got a championship after being in the league for 37 years. Gotta love that.
Sam Cassell bought his way into his 3rd ring. I'm not mad at him though.
I can't say enough about Brian Scalabrine....................
The person I feel happiest for is Doc Rivers. We needed another black coach to have the ultimate success. He pressed all the right buttons throughout this series. He actually out coached Phil Jackson, don't believe anything else. Even if he didn't always have the right lineups out there he at least made damn sure they played hard. That's something Phil was not able to do with the Lakers. Doc said all the right things to the media, but deep down inside I don't think he was worried at all about half of the things he kept harping on. Kobe Bryant in particular. He was determined to not let Kobe beat them and his team got that message loud and clear. He lost his father early in the season so he probably never really had a chance to mourn. The fact that he was able to hold it together for so long in the interest of leading a group of men to accomplish something great is tremendous.

This series also redefined (maybe only temporarily) at least 2 Laker's careers.
Remember that look in Kobe's eyes I told you all about? Well I thought it was fire, but it turns out it was probably just a little touch of pink eye. Hey, they look the same.
Losing this series was not all Kobe's fault. You can never really pin a series loss on one guy, but someone has to take the blame so congratulations Kobe, it's you! No one is going to remember the fact that Lamar Odom didn't decide to join you in the Finals until Game 3 and then shortly after he disappeared again. No one is going to remember Sasha's inability to stop shooting when he was clearly having an off night. We've already tried to pretend like the Chris Mihm experiment never even happened even though you won that game. We'll forget about how clumsy Pau Gasol seemed throughout the series. We'll also forget about Derrick Fisher's ineffectiveness.
No one is going to remember any of that.
All anyone is going to remember is that you lost in back to back trips to the NBA Finals.
You talked about how you gave your teammates some of your DNA, well obviously it didn't take because I didn't see not one Laker other than you who had the look or the effort of a player who did not want to lose. KG was able to instill something real into his teammates, unfortunately you were not.
Will the Lakers be one of the favorites to win it all next season? Sure, but that won't erase the ass whippin you took in Game 6 of the 2008 Finals from anyone's memory. Luckily for you there's still time for you to right this wrong. It's not like you've never won a championship, but since most people try to minimize your role during the championship years of the Lake Show you need to win one without Shaq to convince everyone of how great you really are.
Phil Jackson a.k.a. The Zen Master got out coached by Doc Rivers. Period. He'll have to wait at least another year for that 10th championship ring. He deserves it for coaching this team like it's November when clearly it's June.

The Celtics were the best team all season long and they were rewarded with a championship.
Congratulations Boston.
Party all night.
Set the city on fire.
Literally.

No Boston Love Just Yet!

Lakers won game 5 so I don't have to write that recap for at least another couple of days. Thank goodness for small miracles!

Lakers Are In Trouble (That's An Understatement)

Um, the Lakers blew a 24 point lead and they are now down 3-1. Kobe may as well retire because he will NEVER, EVER live this down. Ever.

But you know what the worst part is? I made a bet with Mike Tillery at TheStartingFive.net that if the Lakers won he'd have to write the recap of this series, but if the Celtics won I'd write the recap. Given my unabashed HATRED for all things Boston, that's going to hurt me tremendously and I don't know if I can recover.

KGjr, NBA Finals, NBA Officials

Wow, it's been a minute since I've blogged. I'm the epitome of laziness right now. I'm back at it though. Here's what I missed in no particular order. Actually I missed a lot, so maybe I need to say here'r a few things that I would have mentioned had I bothered to update this blog over the past week, in no particular order.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th career home run! That's a big deal considering KG Jr. missed what seems like a thousand games during his wonderful career. He was supposed to be the guy to break Hank Aaron's record. Not to take anything away from Barry Lamar Bonds, but Griffey would probably have about 800 home runs had he not been injured so much. KG Jr. has been great since the beginning and he has the most beautiful swing you'll probably ever see.

And, he's quite handsome.

The Laker's and Celtics are in a heated battle for the NBA title. The Celts won Game 1 without incident unless you classify Paul Pierce being carried off the court and then placed into a wheelchair only to return 3 minutes later an incident.

I mean seriously Paul, I know you heard a pop and you thought "it was all over" but you cannot be carried off the court and placed in a wheelchair then come back 3 minutes later. You just can't. You need to be facing season ending surgery or at the very least you should need surgery as soon as the series is over. At the very, very least you should have missed at least the rest of the quarter if not the whole damn game! At least when D Wade got rolled off for his shoulder injury he didn't come back 3 minutes later to play the role of hero. I'm not saying you faked it, but you damn sure over exaggerated it.

Game 2 was no better for the Lakers. Leon Powe shot more free throws in the 14 minutes he played than the entire Lakers team. That should pretty much tell you all you need to know about that game. Naturally Phil was upset about the free throw disparity and of course he brought it up during his post game interview. I mean, he had to let the refs know that kind of chicanery would not be tolerated as the series headed to The Staples Center. Which brings us to Game 3. The Lakers got the calls they couldn't get in Boston and they won. It was ugly for both teams. Ray Allen is the only player who bothered to show up for Boston and Kobe and Sasha were the only viable Laker threats. I don't know what's going on with Pau and Lamar, but they've been pretty much useless throughout these Finals. Phil needs to consider bringing them off the bench. Lamar has spent most of his time there in foul trouble anyway. PP and KG also played like crap and for whatever reason people think that Boston should be more encouraged than the Lakers. They act like the Lakers gave the Celtics their best shot and just barely won. I guess Pau and Lamar aren't as important to the Lakers as PP and KG are to the Celtics. Anyone who thinks that's true is a flawed individual. I mean, Kobe is good, maybe even good enough to win this series by himself (which he might just have to do) but he still needs at least one of his other starters to give him something. I fully expect the Lakers to play better in Game 4. Phil and I think they've played about as bad as they possibly can already, but at least 3.5 of his 5 starters are hell bent on proving us wrong. I digress.

Tim Donaghy is making noise again. He's alleging the fix was on in the 2002 and 2005 playoffs by the league. Specifically the Lakers/Kings series where the Lakers shot 27 free throws in the 4th quarter of Game 6. He basically said the officials were told to make sure that series went 7. Now to the conspiracy theorists this all makes perfect sense. Honestly when you hear that one team shoots 27 free throws in any quarter your eyebrows have absolutely gotta raise. That's just obscene. I don't know if Timmy is telling the truth because let's face it homeboy is facing a lot of time so he needs to say whatever he needs to say to get a lighter sentence (at least that's what the Commish wants us to believe) howeva, I'm not ready to just disregard what he's saying just because he's a bit unscrupulous. That doesn't mean he's lying. See Canseco, Jose.

Here'r some of his allegations:

"Tim gave information on how top executives of the NBA sought to manipulate games using referees to boost ticket sales and television ratings," the letter reads. "He also described how nepotism played a far greater role than qualifications in a number of referee hirings."
• "Tim explained the league officials would tell referees that they should withhold calling technical fouls on certain star players because doing so would hurt ticket sales and television ratings," the letter adds. "As an example, Tim explained how there were times when a referee supervisor would tell referees that NBA Executive X did not want them to call technical fouls on star players or remove them from the game. In January 2000, Referee D went against these instructions and elected a star player in the first quarter of the game. Referee D later was privately reprimanded by the league for that ejection."
• In addition to game-altering allegations, Donaghy's letter claims that many officials carry on "relationships" with team executives, coaches and players that violate their NBA contracts. For example, it said, referees broke NBA rules by hitting up players for autographs, socializing with coaches, and accepting meals and merchandise from teams.
"Tim described one referee's use of a team's practice facility to exercise and another's frequent tennis matches with a team's coach," the letter says.
• The letter also alleges that during a 2005 playoff series, "Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3's Owner complained to NBA officials. Team 3's Owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. Referee Supervisor Z informed the referees about his instructions. As an alternate referee for that game, Tim also received these instructions.

Stern needs to address this. Fans have been grumbling about NBA officiating for years. Lord knows I've bitched about it on more than one occasion. Telling us Timmy is just a desperate man and etc. just ain't enough this time. Considering how easily the subjectivity of the officials can change the tone of a game its not completely preposterous that refs other than Timmy could have called things differently to help or hurt a team.

I don't understand why Stern continues to act shocked that fans think officiating is biased. The announcers remind us of it during every game in some way, shape or form. They'll say things like, "he's a superstar so he's going to get that call" or "you're not going to get that call on the road" or "(insert name of role player here) is not going to get that call this late in the game", or "the officials aren't going to make that call at the end of the game". You know, just to name a few things the announcers constantly say. Not to mention every time an ex player gets interviewed about some random game situation, they point out those same types of things. So if the announcers, players and ex players constantly tell the fans about how games are going to be reffed, what are we supposed to think? When the Lakers got hosed by the officials in Game 2 EVERYONE knew they'd get the majority of the calls in Staples Center and they did. I don't know if its bias or predictability, but it's a problem either way.

The only way the league is going to get the fans to get over these conspiracy theories is to make the refs ref the games consistently. The player, time of game, and venue should not dictate when a foul is called or not called for someone. For as long as I can remember it has been a determining factor and that's just unacceptable on so many levels.

Timmy is set to be sentenced in July. Hopefully someone somewhere will put some pressure on Stern to address and fix this problem because even if nothing comes of what Timmy has said, the league still needs to improve the perception the fans have of the officials. For years we've watched Stern fine players and coaches relentlessly whenever they talk recklessly about the officials, if he wants us to believe that they're just human so sometimes they make mistakes then he should let the players and coaches voice their opinions from time to time without having to pay a hefty fine. If an official is having a particularly bad night someone should be able to say so. They basically go unpunished when they have really, really bad nights. What kind of message do you think that sends to players and fans? It basically tells us that the officials are not held accountable for their actions. If they were then there's no way in hell Joey Crawford would have reffed a critical game in the San Antonio/Lakers series. He got suspended because he ejected Duncan for no real reason last season, and this is the guy you put on one of the most important games of the Spurs season? Coincidentally the officials "missed" an obvious foul on Brent Barry by Derrick Fisher. I'll let you guess which official was closest to the play.....