Round 2

Shaq to the Suns and Kidd to the Mavericks were two experiment that went terribly wrong and knocked both teams out of the playoffs in the first round, eventually causing a coaching change.

Avery will coach again nots doubt. As for Mike D'Antoni? Well he loves experiments so much, he's actually taken interest in the Knicks job. You'd think he'd want to coach professional basketball. At least he doesn't have to report to Isiah Thomas who has no job title.

Rick Carlisle and the Mavs have reached a $4 million agreement.

Will Cuban accept the fact they should probably start rebuilding and he screwed up by bringing Kidd in? He should know he can't shop the former co-rookie of the year point guard. Is this the end of that quick paced run down the court style offense for the suns?

We've seen some interesting things in the playoffs this year. Duncan hit a three, Shaq hit a free throw, (well almost) and the Celtics were taken to seven. The first 11 games of the second round went in favor of the home team.

As the games continue, maybe more memorable moments will stand out. Will Kobe's Lakers go back or will one of the young guns take it all? James, Paul, and the "Boston Three Party" are all trying to win their first title.

Falling Rocket

Has there ever been an athlete, or anyone in the world of sports for that matter than Roger Clemens. The Rocket has been in the news constantly, and the issue has gone far beyond steroids. Did have a relationship with a golfer's wife or a country music star? Who cares? It's none of our business, but for those who are perfect, by all means pick his life apart.

One would argue fans have a right to know whether or not Clemens and other athletes took steroids because they pay to watch these all-stars but to publicize his love life is another issue. Come on, we don't even know if it's true.

Clemens had a rep for being a great like-able guy. Even the Yankee fans loved him when he signed with Astros despite the fact an article in the New York times said "He's an Ass-tro."

Houston fans loved him and missed him after his return to the Yankees. It was as if the guy could do nothing wrong, and people would constantly make excuses for him. The most hated athletes now were never liked nearly to the extent that Clemens was. I don't think he's going to get back to the top. His hit bottom and there's no bouncing back.

Who in the world of sports do you think has taken a bigger fall?

Madden 09

Are you serious? This is just too good to be true. Someone get Frank Caliendo on the phone. Madden 09 will feature Brett Favre on the cover.

The reason Favre wasn't on the cover earlier is probably because whoever has been on it in the past ended up getting hurt, and there's no way John Madden would want to be responsible for ending the quarterback's streak.

Madden better hope and pray that Favre doesn't have some freak accident even though he's not playing. If we hear he fell down the stairs in his home, Madden might be more injured from than Favre himself.

More than anything, it's probably Madden trying to make Favre look all the more heroic. Here you have the player on the cover getting hurt every year, but Favre in his greatness won't get hurt on the field. Nice to know the first person to break the madden curse is the most Favrelous quarterback of all time.

NFL Mock Draft

Before every draft, you have the classic debate about whether you should take the best player available or just address the position your team needs. It will be interesting to see if there are any blockbuster trades during the draft and who goes where. No huge names stand out like usual, but somehow, it's still intriguing.

Who's going to be this year's Ryan Leaf? Thankfully the time between picks has been shortened from 15 to 10. Remember that Minnesota, you had a hard enough time with 15. Will anyone fall like Brady Quinn and Aaron Rogers? Which team will get the biggest steal late in the draft? It should definitely be interesting.

Here is the first round mock draft by NFL draft "expert" Mel Kiper. I'll pitch in my thoughts on some of them, but didn't make one of my own, and I probably won't this year. Talk about a lot of O-Linemen in the first round.
1 Miami Dolphins - Jake Long, OT Michigan- Consider it done.
2 St. Louis Rams -Chris Young, DE Virginia-It'll be interesting if he fell to Oakland. Would they take him. Like father, like son____^
3 Atlanta Falcons - Glenn Dorsey, DT LSU- No, go with Matt Ryan. McShay's right.
4 Oakland Raiders - Darren McFadden, RB Arkansas-No brainer
5 Kansas City Chiefs - Brandon Albert OT/DG, Virginia
6 New York Jets - Vernon Gholston, DE Ohio St. S
7 New England Patriots (from SF) - Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, CB Ten St.-will it ever end for the Pats?
8 Baltimore Ravens - Matt Ryan, QB Boston College-Not a chance he falls to 8, but Baltimore better take him if he does.
9 Cincinnati Bengals - Sedrik Ellis, DT USC-They're not drafting out of prison. What's with Chad?
10 New Orleans Saints - D. Rodgers-Cromartie, CB TSU
11 Buffalo Bills - Derrick Harvey, DE Florida
12 Denver Broncos - Keith Rivers- OT Pitt
13 Carolina Panthers - Ryan Clady-OT Boise State
14 Chicago Bears - Chris Williams, OT Vanderbilt
15 Detroit Lions - Rashard Mendenhall, RB Illinois
16 Arizona Cardinals - Leodis McKelvin, CB Troy- The Cardinals will trade him just as he gets good.
17 Minnesota Vikings - Phillip Merling, DE Clemson
18 Houston Texans - Jonathan Stewart, RB Oregon-What? The Texans take an RB in the first round? The don't have youth at that positions since they passed on you know who.
19 Philadelphia Eagles - Jeff Otah, OT Pittsburgh- Can anyone protect Donavan?
20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Mike Jenkins, CB South FL- Any chance he falls to 22?
21 Washington Redskins - Devin Thomas, WR Michigan State-He's 6'2" 218. He's too tall to be a Skin's wideout. Snyder likes short and fast. How fast is Tom Cruise?
22 Dallas Cowboys (from CLE) - Felix Jones, RB Arkansas-What? No! we have a running back. The Jones' from Arkansas have done enough.
23 Pittsburgh Steelers - Kentwan Balmer, DT North Carolina
24 Tennessee Titans - Jerod Mayo, LB Tennessee
25 Seattle Seahawks - DeSean Jackson, WR Cal
26 Jacksonville Jaguars - Lawrence Jackson, DE USC
27 San Diego Chargers - Gosder Cherilus, OT Boston College
28 Dallas Cowboys - Justin King CB, Penn State- Finally a CB
29 San Francisco 49ers (from IND) - Jerod Mayo, LB Ten
30 Green Bay Packers - Brandon Flowers, CB V-Tech
31 New England Patriots - Matt Walsh, Camerman
32 New York Giants - Tyrell Johnson, Safety Ark. St-Wow, first safety taken in round one. We'll see.

NBA Playoffs

Just one thing before discussing basketball: There’s still over four months left in the NFL off-season, but so much has happened and continues to happen. Chad Johnson in whining. Packman Jones wants to be a Cowboy, and another Jones would like that as well. Steve McNair has said good bye to the league. The schedule has been released and the draft is approaching. Did you hear they came up with a new NFL logo? Speaking of change, there have been rules changes. They've done away with the force out rule and you can now challenge field goals. Interesting, no force out. Oh yeah, Bryant Gumble stepped down. Finally. Anyone have even one good reason he had the job in the fist place? Anyone? Didn't think so. This next season should be a great one, but between now and than,we have The NBA Playoffs.

We’re in the beginning of what should be a great baseball season and... oh yeah, just one thing. Let’s talk NBA:

The East is so far off from the West. Talk about night and day. It's not the 80's when you had Bird vs. Magic. In the Western Conference, the eighth seed is Denver with 50 wins. In the East, the lowest ranked team to have at least 50 wins is the Orlando Magic. Oh yeah, they’re ranked third in their conference. In other words, the Nuggets would have at least a number four seed and wouldn’t have to start off against Kobe and the Lakers if they were in the east.

The inconsistent Mavs are set to play to New Orleans Hornets (man, they need to change their name) who are making the playoffs in the west for the first time and they have the number two seed. That match should be fascinating, but I’m more interested in the Spurs and Suns.

Who would have thought this would be a first round match? Duncan vs. Stoudemire could be a fun seven game series to watch. Remember what happened last year between the two teams in the playoffs? Benches cleared and suspensions were handed out. Suns will be out for revenge, but more than likely, Spurs escape with the win.

Jazz and Rockets can go either way. Houston won 22 straight in the regular season, causing much discussion. Are they legit? We’ll see if they can stop the Stockton and Malone combo. Wait, this just in, they retired. That leaves Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko at the helm. Rockets fans are hoping that maybe Kirlienko will take advantage of his wife’s offer during the playoffs and be distracted.

As far as the other series in the West, well, is there any question? Lakers win. In the east, since only three teams have records of over .500, it’s not even worth discussing anyone else. That leaves Boston, Detroit and Cleveland. The Cavs were there last year and the Pistons were there prior to that, and perhaps it’s time for them again. Wait, no, we haven’t gotten to the Celtics yet. Boston's big three will be unstoppable in the east. They’re in, no discussion. It’s going to be them and the Lakers. Sound like the 80's?

Politcal Sports

How low will politicians scoop for a vote? It seems like more than ever, they’re trying to get involved in sports when they know nothing about it. It’s alright for a politician to be a fan, but if you’re not a fan, don’t pretend you are. Don’t act like you know everything about a player, team or sport when all you did was type something in on Google and glanced over it.

The sad part is this has been going on for a long time and it’s not getting any better. Recently we’ve had certain politicians try to persuade the president to boycott the Olympics. Why the government would step foot in this makes no logic to me, but that’s an entire different issue for another day.

What I’m referring to is when a politician jumps on the bad wagon and claims to be a fan just to get votes. A perfect example is when Hillary Clinton claimed to be a die-hard Yankees fan while campaigning for NY Senator. That’s interesting because didn’t she at one point or another claim to be a “life long Cubs fan”? Mrs. Clinton, you do know the Cubs play in Chicago don’t you?

Speaking of Chicago, if Al Gore really invented the internet, it’s too bad he couldn’t use it a whole lot sooner to discover that Michael Jackson never suited up in a Bulls uniform. Their names are similar and maybe it was a common mistake, at least for someone that knows absolutely nothing about basketball. If you can’t say something wise, (or at least almost close to being something halfway intelligent) don’t say anything at all.

What about Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. He dug himself a huge hole in Lake Geneva, Wis., Packer country.

It was early in the presidential race, and Brownback was a candidate at the time. He was talking about the importance of family and trying to make an analogy relating family to football by saying family is like a an offensive line, and without it, the quarterback wouldn’t succeed.
After realizing he was in a deep hole, Brownback tried to change the subject, but not until after he referred to Peyton Manning as possible to greatest quarterback of all time. “If you don’t have a line” He said, “How many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history.”

The crowd started booing, and understandably so. Brett Favre was still a Packer and had the complete support from Green Bay fans.

You’re not going to be on your audience’s good side if you don’t know your facts. Did Brownback seriously think they would go along with his analogy if he used anyone but Favre? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t pretend you do.

While in the Land of Cheeseheads, John Kerry was campaigning in Wisconsin and was talking about his love for “Lambert Field.” Yes, Lambert field. I’m sure if there’s a Lambert field in Wisconsin, it might be pretty nice, but it’s nothing in comparison to the Packers home field known as Lambeau Field. Hey John, are you going to do a “Lambert Leap” in Wisconsin? How can you not know the name of one of the most popular stadiums in all of sports?

That wasn't the only thing Kerry messed up on when it came to sports. He claimed to be a Red Sox fan but thought there was a player named Manny Ortiz, getting confused with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. He also claimed to remember when Eddie Yost played for the Sox? There's only one problem with this. Yost never played for the Red Sox. Hey John, shut up. Please check your facts. You’re just making yourself look like an idiot.

Will most people really vote for a person based on how much they know about sports? Probably not, which is all the more reason they shouldn’t pretend they know more. Bring you’re “A” Game. You can’t sell yourself by pointing out all your flaws. Don’t use your knowledge (or lack there of) of sports to buy more votes. You’re bringing yourself down.

Pretty soon you'll hear a politician ask "Who plays in Yankee Stadium?". Pretending they know something about sports when they really don't is an ignorant move on the part of politicians. It also points out your flaws, you're not really what you're trying to make yourself out to be.