Lakers up 3-1

Spurs are in trouble for real. They are down 3-1 to the Lakers headed back to L.A. I doubt they'll play another game in Texas this season.

Yanks lost in extra innings to the Orioles.
Forgive my laziness, I'm a bit under the weather.

Spurs down 0-2, Doug Davis

The Spurs are in a little bit of trouble. They are now down 0-2 to the Lakers and both defeats were ugly! The first game they blew a 20 point lead halfway thru the 3rd qtr. You can't lose that game even if you have the championship mettle the Spurs have. It's not a good idea to give away games in a 7 game series, especially against a Kobe Bryant team that has realistic championship aspirations. The second game wasn't much better considering they got beat by 30, but at least they never had a chance to win it after halftime.

I know the Spurs were down 0-2 to the New Orleans Hornets and they came back to win that series in 7, but this Lakers team is better than that Hornets team. I seriously doubt they are going to lose four of the next five games. Although, stranger things have happened.

The Spurs have nothing to be ashamed of when they lose this series. There's no shame in losing to a better team, plus the Spurs don't repeat anyway.

Game 3 of the ECF between the Pistons and Celts is tomorrow. The Celts lost home court advantage so they are going to have to figure out their road woes if they want to advance to the Finals. Ray Allen finally joined them last night, but outside of the "big three" no one else did anything. That's not going to get it done. They are going to have to win in Detroit sooner rather than later. In other words they have to win one of these next two or their season will end a lot sooner than they'd hoped.

Yanks won, Sox lost.

Barry Zito finally won a game, now he's 1-8. $100+ million contracts just don't buy what they used to.

Earlier this week Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester pitched a no hitter. It was especially special because he'd just finished battling cancer a little over a year ago. The Diamondbacks Doug Davis made his first start since having a cancerous thyroid gland removed in April. The fact that he came back in a little over a month is a tremendous accomplishment in itself. Having lost several family members to cancer it's very encouraging when you see people like Jon Lester and Doug Davis win the battle. Hopefully those fighting cancer who aren't in the public eye will be inspired and know that they too can overcome and make a full recovery.

Oh yeah, I went online during the game tonight to check out the Yellowbook fresh faces feature on NBA.com. They basically have a screen split into 4 sections and they pick a player from each team to follow incessantly and the other two cameras are different angles of the game. It was pretty cool, the only problem is they don't have the score until there's a commercial break. I'm sure that's a kink they'll fix going forward.

Almost $35,000,000 Guaranteed For #3. Really Arthur????

Okay, maybe I'm wrong about this, (although I doubt it because I'm incorporating a little common sense into the equation) but the Atlanta Falcons giving a #3 pick more money than the #1 pick is just absurd to me!

I know Matt Ryan plays the QB position and they are normally the highest paid players, but he was picked 3rd so shouldn't they have based his contract on what the two people in front of him received? Isn't that why most teams wait until the #1 pick is signed so they can make sure they don't overextend themselves? In this case the #1 picked signed a couple of days before the draft so they knew how high the bar was set. I know the Falcons want to make it clear that they are so over Michael Vick, but I think drafting a quarterback kinda drove that point home.

Was there really a need to give Matt Ryan that much money?

"It's highly unusual to get a first-round pick this high in the first round signed in the month of May, and it's indicative of the kind of person he is," Blank said of Ryan.

No it's not highly unusual when you put damn near $35 million on the table. Him accepting damn near $5 million more than the #1 overall pick is not indicative of what kind of person he is, unless you really had no idea prior to him signing that he wasn't a complete idiot.

"We don't want to go through a situation like they went through last year in Oakland," Blank said. "This young man wants to come in and compete."

In my mind these are two totally different situations because Russell was the #1 overall pick so of course his contract needed to be higher than everyone else's. Matt was selected #3 overall so they should have started negotiations about guaranteed money around about $2-3 million less than whatever the #1 pick received.

I don't know why I'm acting surprised, the Falcons have been known to overpay players before. See Ovie Mughelli

I'm not mad at Matt for getting his money, but the NFL desperately needs to put some kind of cap on rookie salaries. It's just ridiculous that unproven players can get paid more than the vets. Talk about the prisoners running the asylum. How in the hell can someone who isn't even really a part of a company yet have that much control over it's employer?

It's mind boggling I tell ya!

Conference Finals, No Hitter, Barry Bonds and the Maloofs

The Conference Finals are finally set. The Lakers will face the Spurs and the Pistons will face the Celtics. I'll take the Lakers and the Pistons to advance to the Finals.

Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester pitched a no hitter against the Royals. I was even pulling for the kid considering he's just a little over a year removed from fighting cancer.

The Yankees suck right now, I'll go into detail about this at the end of May.

So I was flipping through the video channels today and I came upon a David Banner, Young Joc and Chris Brown video. Aside from the fact that Chris Brown singing in the middle of the song was a bit awkward, Barry Bonds and the Maloof brothers were in the video. Strange. I would upload the video, but I don't know how, so just youtube it your damnself!

Cancel The 2008 Olympics

They need to seriously think about cancelling the Olympics in the wake of this earthquake. Officials say the death toll could rise to more than 50,000.

50,000 is a big number when you're talking about most things. 50,000 is an obscene number when you attach it to human lives that could possibly be lost after this earthquake.

Think about how many people 50,000 people is. It's ridiculous! I don't see how they can possibly carry on with these games. I understand Beijing is almost 1,000 miles away from where the earthquake hit, but still. Even if every venue that is to hold an Olympic event is in tip top shape, they should still cancel the games.

I'm sure they won't, but they should at least discuss it.

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Aint This a B*%@$#

This is some bullshit! What's even worse is buddy whose selling these shirts claims it's only because Obama looks like Curious George.

We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears — he looks just like Curious George

Is this country really ready for a black president?

What's Next???

Now that my Hawks season has prematurely ended, (yes I thought we would beat the Celtics before the series started) it's time to address the issues that this team faces this summer.

1) What are they going to do about Coach Woodson? As my 3 faithful readers know, I'm really not sold on Coach Woodson's coaching abilities. I'm sure he's a nice man and we have to give him some credit for the Hawks pushing the Celtics to the brink of elimination, howeva his flaws were just as magnified during the series as the player's flaws. He's scared to death of one of our players fouling out so he sits them for too long when they pick up a couple of fouls early. Sometimes you just have to trust your guys. The playoffs is a great time to show a little confidence considering every game matters..... Not to mention, his inability to develop players. No one has really gotten better under his watch. The record improved each year, but he never gave Salim a real opportunity and we didn't see near enough of Acie Law to know what we have in him. It should also be noted that he's had issues with several of the players. It seems like they've all damn near come to blows with him at some point over the past few seasons. Clearly there's a respect issue where he's concerned and the issue is the players don't have very much for him. I think we need to go in a different direction.

2) What are they going to do about the Josh's? I think they need to keep both of them. Josh Childress is really good off the bench and if he were on a contender it would be even more obvious! They have to keep him and if that means they have to overpay him a tad bit then I'm fine with that. As far as Josh Smith, there's always a battle between Good Josh and Bad Josh. On most nights it's clear about halfway through the first quarter which one of them is going to win. For all of his faults I truly feel like he's an asset to this team. He averaged 17 points 8 rebounds, 3 assists and he was second in the league in blocked shots. That's nothing to turn your nose up at. Is he worth a max contract? I don't know, but the market says he's worth close to that. While most people do not want the team to give him $70 million dollars, no one is offering any alternatives. It's so easy to say do a sign and trade with Josh and bring in a quality big man and etc., but quality big men don't just grow on trees. Who do the Hawks have a chance to acquire this summer that will replace Josh's production?? What it basically comes down to is whether the organization wants to hitch their wagon to Josh Smith or Marvin Williams? If it's going to be one or the other, I'd go with Josh 10 times out of 10. He's going to have the opportunity to go get a contract from another team this summer and the Spirit will have the opportunity to match it. It's going to be interesting to see how it turns out.

This summer is going to tell us a lot about the organization and what their objective is. Everything they do has to be done via free agency or trades. The draft cannot save them since they have no picks. Earlier this season one of the owners went on the radio (shortly after Sekou Smith wrote an article about how Knight wanted to fire Woody but the organization wouldn't let him) and while addressing a myriad of issues he basically said "money ain't a thang". We'll see how true that is when it's time to talk about these contracts with the Josh's and any free agents. This summer the team could take big steps forward or big steps backwards.

Second Round Picks

Lakers
Spurs
Cavs
Pistons

Game 7!!!

You can read my thoughts about the series here.

Hawks Win Game Six!!!!!

Remove the * because Game 7 is DEFINITELY necessary!!!!!!!!!

One freakin game is all we need in Boston! The fourth time has got to be the charm!!!!

The Cavs finally took care of the Wizards.

T Mac has gone fishin in the first round again.

Word on the street is Kobe won the MVP. I honestly didn't think they'd give it to him.

Marvin Harrison might be in trouble.