The musings of a madman...

The internets and ESPN are abuzz with the talk of college basketball as they are at this time literally every year of our lives. The only redeeming things about it to me, though are that it stretches the time I can ignore baseball for a few more weeks in wait for the NBA playoffs. [ Phlip note - c'mon, baseball... Take on my suggestions and your game won't fucking suck!] Anyway... This is the time that, as described once before recently, coincides with that lull in the NBA (and Hockey, if you care) season where teams are gearing up to take it home. It also represents a time where the everyman (or what USED to be 'everyman') student-athlete from a small-to-midsize school can prevail in the land of giants. The word "parity" applies here. One problem... Players who once were able to just g'head and skip college and not even PRETEND to be taking classes now HAVE to go to school for one year and do just that. With that, you have what is now known as the one-a

I have been critical of Tracy McGrady for as far back as I care to remember... For that record, that would be about the time when he and Grant Hill got to Orlando, McGrady scored a ton of points and got an enormous contract which ignored that he was a huge softy who didn't seemed to be terribly interested in playing defense if it would take away his energy to score, and then he started getting injured left and fucking right while Grant Hill continued to do the same. $21+ million a year and you don't commit to the requisite conditioning and medical attention that helps you to preserve your livelihood? Or were you planning to take this fatty contract and call it a life? Riiiiiiiight... Orlando apparently comes to grips with the fact that he can't (or won't, which serves to my opinion of it) get and stay in shape to be worth the money he is making, so he is shoved off to Houston, where he COULD have served as one half of the second coming of Shaq and Kobe, pla

NBA trade deadline was yesterday and some teams made some moves. Highest profile was the deal between the Wizards, Cavaliers and Clippers: Cavs get: Antawn Jamison, Sebastian Telfair Wizards get: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Al Thornton, Brian Skinner, Cleveland's first-round pick in 2010 Clippers get: Drew Gooden Sebastian Telfair was a throw-in and will fester on the bench and not return next season. Zydrunas will geta 30-day vacation, bought out by the Wizards and go right back to the Cavaliers, the rest of them were throw-ins to ease the blow of their having to deal with the Gilbert Arenas situation. Drew Gooden gets another sticker for his suitcase, 9 teams in 9 years... Next year will be 10 when Blake Griffin returns. This is the one that kinda worries me as a Lakers fan for our chances of a repeat. It furthers the exodus of anything from Washington, and I am quite sure that even Washingtonians don't care. It strengthens the Cavs, though, giving LeBron a new sidekick who can actu

Look, I know this shit happened on New Year's Day, but I was alternating hungover, shopping in Charlotte and then drunk all over again that day, so I did not get to it until like Monday, I think... A friend reached out to me last night to check and make sure I wasn't cutting my wrists or anything, what with not having posted yet this year. I explained what I had been up to since the holidays and promised new posts soon. Working on a project. A week prior to the new year, it was revealed that Gilbert had admitted to having brought a loaded pistol into the locker room at the arena on more than one occasion. The reason? "I have an young son in the house and wouldn't want that around him" I saw where this was going right then... It says here that Gilbert Jay Arenas Jr. signed a $111,000,000 (that is 111 million for those keeping score at home) 6-year contract in July of 2008. Noteworthy is that he was coming out of a season where he had missed 9 games due to injury. T

Why, you ask? Well, because it is the beginning of the NBA season this year. Those of you who read my last post to completion knew that though. If you've not acclimated yourselves to where my loyalties are, I would suggest perusal of any of my prior basketball posts for some information. I am a basketball FANATIC, and a lifelong Lakers' fan. I do not allow my fanship of the Purple and Gold to cloud my common sense as it relates to basketball... I DO, however, agree with current prognostication that they are naturally the team to beat in their own (terribly overmatched by them) division and conference. I FURTHER agree with assessment that the Shaquille O'Neal experiment in Cleveland will need to remain to be seen, no one is installing them as de facto Eastern champs again after June's "Debacle at Disneyland," as I will henceforth refer to the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. I become a bit worried about drafting bigs not named Yao Ming or Dwight Howard at the

And the NBA Pre-Season began this past weekend, coinciding with the END of the Baseball regular season. I promised not to talk about basketball until October, and now is that time. All that know me know full well that I am a Los Angeles Lakers fan, and it seems that EVERY time I mention that to someone, they question how can that be when I have lived in NC my whole life. Quite simply, really... North Carolina had NO professional sports teams until the NBA expanded by 4 teams, adding the Hornets in Charlotte, the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic. This was set into motion in 1987, to begin with the 1988 season. I was 8 years old and in 3rd and 4th grades as this was happening. My fondness for sporting events, though, began somewhere around age 5 or 6 -- as a kindergartner/1st-grader -- and was directly fed by my own dad and the fact that if there was football or basketball to be watched, then dammit it was getting WATCHED! I, being a middle child and subject to ha

Yes, lady and gentleman, we're at the end of the NBA season and the Lakers have made me an honest enthusiast... Let me start this all off by saying I will spare you the cliche video of Queen's "We Are The Champions," as I am sure that the rest of Blogger, Wordpress, various forums and websites the world over are rife with it. I enjoy that the boys were able to tie shit together on the way to delivering a conclusion that was foregone. Yes, let us not forget who was said to be in the "up" position to take the title this year back at the beginning of the year. Yes, an injury to Andrew Bynum (again -- ugh -- and this time while he was playing well) had this year looking scarily like last year, and none of us wanted to see THAT shit again. Then some shit happened... The foregone conclusion changed hands, Kevin Garnett got hurt and The LeBrons laid waste to an otherwise weak eastern conference, and THEY were the unchallenged juggernaut. For 2 rounds of the playoff

Go Lakers!!! Yes, I have been a fan for all of my 29 years, 11 months, 4 days, 13 hours and 11 minutes (as of when I type this) -- yes, your man is turning 30 in about 3 weeks, not that I am counting or anything... Yes, I know the ups and downs of being a Lakers' fan, so I am banking on them totally fucking off one of the games, likely game 2, and Orlando straight up GETTING one off of them. Lakers in 6 though, Phil Jackson is the best coach in the playoffs, and especially the finals for a reason... Kobe came out in a different brand of "kill" last night, in which he scores 40 without trying hard, only shoots like 8 free throws, gets EVERYONE involved at both ends of the floor and wins by 25. That was a trouncing, lady and gentleman. I am NOT snowed by the blowout, though. It is a hard lesson that comes from being a Lakers' fan. What this is, considering that Stan Van Ron Jeremy is not a slouch in that coaching box for someone with no playing experience in the league

LMAO!!! Narrated by Michael Wilbon: Now watch this one... In the sporting world, from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, you are taught to be gracious -- even in defeat... At the end of a blowout loss that signals the begin of his vacation, LeBron leaves the court AS the final horn sounds. That's a bitch move, LeBron!

These are quite frankly the funniest damned series of commercials I have seen in years. 1 - "Chalk" 2 - "Three Rings" 3 - "Unstoppable" 4 - "Mrs Lewis" 5 - "Lil' Dez" 6 - "Car Jump"

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a basketball FANATIC. I can watch pro ball at anytime, so long as I am sober enough to comprehend and awake enough to be cognizant. Yes, I am a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, and I would STILL be a fan of the Lakers if Kobe Bean Bryant left the team tomorrow... I can fully respect the body of LeBron James' work this season, but I have been preaching to all that would listen that he just was not "there" yet, and by "there" I mean "where they actually BEAT someone who is 'somebody'." More on that in a while, I promise... At the beginning of the season, we were all instilled with "King James" and "I am a witness" and all that extra shit about LeBron James, he was installed as the 2008/09 league MVP before the FIRST jump ball was thrown in the air on October 28th, 2008. I commend LeBron for keeping the pedal to the floor and enjoying a soft schedule for the duration of the regular season to le