Wow What a Week! Sports Edition

It's no secret that I'm a sports guy. It's not quite as well known that I'm also an entertainment guy. Well now you know. And now that you know you can probably figure out that for me it was quite the week. Pop culture nearly crashed its home in the Internet this week and if it was enough to do that you can imagine what happened to my little brain. First I'll recap the week that was, and then I'll go in depth about a few of the things.

Monday

Jon and Kate announce divorce

Greenville native Lucas Glover wins US Open

Chris Brown pleads guilty to assault on ex-girlfriend Rihanna

Perez Hilton and Will.I.am have Twitter feud

Ed McMahon, wing man to Johnny Carson, dies

Tuesday

SC Gov Mark Sanford announces affair with Argentinian woman

Wednesday

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits theaters

Thursday

Farrah Fawcett dies at 62 after long battle with cancer

Michael Jackson dies at 50 after going into cardiac arrest

NBA Draft

Friday and Saturday

Surprisingly quiet, thought maybe things had died down

Sunday

Billy Mays found dead in his home at the age of 50

(Note: This is purely the sports portion of the blog, if you're looking for Entertainment click the link to the right that says "Wow What a Week! Entertainment Edition Parts 1 and 2")

Aaaah! It's good to be home. I knocked out the entertainment side of things first but here I am back where I belong in the world of sports. And what a week it was here too. The tournament that was never going to end finally did Monday and none other than Lucas Glover was the winner. Yes, Lucas Glover is your U.S. Open Champion. Now where did Lucas Glover come from you might ask? Well as I sit here in my house in Greenville, SC the correct answer would be approximately 10 minutes away. As a matter of fact I drove by his high school yesterday. And this of course means only one thing: there was good news coming out of SC this week! And it was all good till our stupid governor went to freakin Argentina because he couldn't keep it in his pants. Oh sorry. What's that you ask? No it doesn't eat at me at all. Not at all.

Anyway there were far more important things than Lucas Glover this week in sports but he came first geographically and chronologically so I figured I'd knock his story out first. But now let's get to the fun stuff: the NBA Draft. The first pick was no surprise in Blake Griffin and the second pick really wasn't either in Hasheem Thabeet. 7'3" guys simply don't come around that often and although I have more of a post game than he does, the Grizzlies actually have guys who can fill it in OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay, and a guy like Thabeet who can rebound and make up for their lack of defensive skill is a good fit. The third pick wasn't a shock but at the same time it wasn't what we expected either. Everyone expected OKC to pick Ricky Rubio, but I actually like the pick of James Harden here instead. Rubio is a point guard as is Russel Westbrook, the Thunder's first pick from last year. Although they are two totally different players they do play the same position and you were gonna have a hard time playing them together as I'll explain with what Minnesota idiotically did in a minute. Instead you now have three legitimate scoring threats at PG, SG, and SF in Westbrook, Harden, and Kevin Durant, and while OKC will still be a lottery team next year they definitely have a solid young core to build around. With the 4th pick Sacramento took Tyreke Evans who was great in the NCAA tournament showing he's clutch and he's a tough guy, something Sacramento has lacked since Doug Christie (and his wife) left town.

And now we have come to the fun picks. It is no secret. I LOVE Jonny Flynn. I am a Syracuse fan because my dad went there as did my granddad and in all reality if I had gone to school with the major I have now I would be there too. I also like Ricky Rubio. He's a pass first player with instinct that you can't teach. He's also exciting and you can't underestimate the power of putting fans in the seats. That being said, playing them together is the dumbest idea I've heard in a long long time. Both are Point Guards. I don't want to hear Flynn can play the 2 because he can score. The man is 6'0". Yes, that second number is a zero. As in he is 6' even. The T-Wolves play in the Western Conference. Would you like me to name you the starting 2 guards in the Western Conference? Kobe Bryant, Brandon Roy, Tracy McGrady, and so on and so forth. I love Jonny Flynn but at his size he has no shot against any of those guys and will even have trouble with some bigger point guards. "Well on defense you can switch and have Rubio play the 2." You mean the guy with no lateral foot speed? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Having two point guards is a very good thing. Having two young point guards isn't. There was a reason Jason Kidd was on Team USA last summer. There was a reason that Derek Fisher was on the Lakers this year. There is no doubt that the players behind each older guy (Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Jordan Farmar, and Shannon Brown) were better overall then the older starter but there is something to be said about the calming influence of a veteran point guard.

With all that being said, if the Wolves trade Rubio, who was one of the hottest commodities in the draft, I absolutely love the pick. They get a good PG in Flynn and get whoever they get in return. However if they decide to keep Rubio whether he stays with them or decides to return to Europe (which would make them look even worse than they already do), the GM should seriously be looked at and fans should have a right to be upset. I don't have a problem with one or the other. But to say that you couldn't trade a top 6 pick is ridiculous and simply inexcusable.

Other highlights of the draft to me include the Knicks, who get a scoring PG in Toney Douglas at 29 from the Lakers for $3 million which seems ridiculous, but in NBA money really isn't, and Jordan Hill who serves as David Lee insurance. I'm also a huge fan of what Utah did in adding Eric Maynor. I'm a Duke fan and thus I know what Maynor can do. He's a mature PG who can run a team and score when he needs to. In fact, according to many scouts, he was the most NBA ready of any of the PG's out there and he now has a great PG to learn from in Deron Williams. When Atlanta traded Acie Law I was kinda curious as to why, however they redeemed themselves to me in drafting Jeff Teague. Teague is gonna be a solid NBA point guard and when Mike Bibby decides to step aside he will be more than ready to take over. All that being said, the winner in the draft was undoubtedly the San Antonio Spurs. On top of their trade to get Richard Jefferson which I love for them and hate for me as a Lakers fan, they picked up a legitimate top 15 talent in DeJuan Blair with the 37th pick! He's a defense and rebounding guy which is fine for the Spurs because they have 4 guys who drop 20 a night in Parker, Ginobili, Duncan, and RJ which leaves Blair to do the dirty work. The one problem for the Spurs though is Blair's size. As has been stated (and proven!) before, the NBA is all about matchups, and if you think DeJuan Blair can do what he did to Hasheem Thabeet to Pau Gasol you are out of your everliving mind. That makes me sleep a little easier as a Lakers fan but kudos once again to the Spurs.

I talked about the Hawks earlier and I would be shorting them if I didn't mention who they got in the Acie Law trade and that is Jamal Crawford. Crawford is the only man in NBA history who has dropped 50 pts for 3 different teams. Simply put, he can score with the best of em and that gives Atlanta another option and a solid backup for Joe Johnson. Does this push them into the upper eschelon of teams in the East? No. Does it push them closer? Definitely.

One of the biggest trades took place between the New Jersey Nets and Orlando Magic. It basically sent Vince Carter to the Magic for Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee. I'm incredibly torn on this from the Magic's perspective and here's why. Getting Carter is a plus. He's still capable of big scoring nights, loves the up and down game, can shoot the 3, and get to the rim. I also like getting Rafer Alston out of town because although he played well for them, Jameer Nelson is not only younger but he is better than Alston and Alston wasn't going to sit quietly. However giving up Courtney Lee to me was not a good move at all. Lee has the makings of a star and I think in the future he and Dwight Howard could have won a championship if not multiple crowns which is why the Nets coveted him. That being said the Magic get a better player for now and still have J.J. Redick who showed signs of his college form late in the Finals, as well as Mikael Pietrus, who has shown flashes throughout his career. That being said, the Magic building to win now as opposed to later just because they got a taste of the finals doesn't exactly sit well if I'm a Magic fan with me considering their best player is still developing, and they are a young team as a whole.

With all that being said for Orlando, the exact opposite is true in Cleveland where win now is not only a slogan but a battle cry. They have one year to keep Lebron at home and it's all or nothing. The Big Shaqtus is no more and we now have LeShaq in Cleveland. Last year the Cavs built themselves to beat Boston and this summer its time to Magic proof and adding Shaq is a step in the right direction. Shaq can guard Dwight Howard really as well as anyone because he, like Andrew Bynum was in the finals, is one of a few guys as big as Howard in the league. Cleveland is still without a 4 that can guard Rashard Lewis but if the Cavs don't have to worry about a 6'10" Hedo Turkoglu in Orlando that's not nearly as big of a deal as they can play small with Lebron at the 4 while letting Vince Carter jack it up from 3 over Delonte West. More importantly it shows Lebron that the Cavs are willing to wheel and deal to put a winning team on the floor and that's what is going to above all else keep Lebron in Cleveland. Don't underestimate the winning pedigree Shaq adds either with his 4 championship rings.

Wow. What a week. 11 major events and we almost had a 12th with US Soccer almost beating Brazil in the Confederations Cup final. Big ups to the boys in red white and blue on a well played final and a brilliant match vs Spain. If they had won I'm pretty sure my head would have exploded. It could've been a little messy, but for that, I wouldn't have minded.

Basketball 101: Matchups

We hear it all the time.  Basketball is a game of matchups.  But what does that really mean?  Well luckily for all of you I'm here to explain it, because, like in most things in life, there is a whole lot of crap out there to sift through.  However creating matchup problems in basketball is slightly more difficult than putting a big guy on a little guy so he's taller.  There are a few things that go into it with the primary one being that one player must have a distinct advantage over the other. 

To me, the most commonly misdiagnosed mismatch is that of size.  Size can create huge mismatches however its not a true mismatch if its offset when the smaller player is faster.  This is the same with speed when its called a mismatch against a bigger player.  In order to illustrate this let's pick on my favorite player to pick on lately and that's Derek Fisher.  In the Lakers last series Fisher was matched up against Aaron Brooks who was a few inches shorter and 40 lbs lighter than Fish.  Size advantage goes to the Lakers.  However Brooks was infinitely faster and quicker than Fisher so the speed advantage went to the Rockets.  This in theory is not a mismatch and for about 4 minutes in the entire series it played out that way.  While Brooks was able to run around like crazy, getting wherever he wanted while Fish was hopelessly chasing him, using the advantage he had, Fisher only used the advantage he had a few times for one stretch of one game.  What Fisher should have done is taken Brooks down in the post and thrown him around like a rag doll.  He didn't.  This than created a mismatch in the Rockets favor, and thus there was a legit matchup problem for LA.  That being said Houston had a large matchup problem inside once Yao went down in that they were small, and finally LA exploited it in Game 7.

There are some guys that just by being on the floor create matchup nightmares for coaches.  Right now this is Stan Van Gundy's problem.  Lebron James can guard all 5 positions and no one can guard him and thus he's a matchup problem instantly  (SVG said in his post game presser after Game 1 that he doesn't have a clue what to do with him).  The good thing for Stan Van though is that the other 3 of the 4 other positions on the floor are going his way.  Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis are both big, quick, and skilled players.  Anderson Varejao is big, not quick, and his skill is growing hair.  Lebron can guard one of them but he can't guard both and thus whoever is at the 4 has a huge advantage over Cleveland and that's why the Magic are up 2-1.  At the center position, Big Z has about as good of a chance as I do guarding Dwight Howard which is none what so freaking ever.  Then for the surprise of the series.  Delonte West and Courtney Lee should be even but West is playing horribly and Lee is playing remarkably well for a rookie.  And while this hasn't been enough to turn the series, add in the fact that Mikael Pietrus has been huge and Delonte has absolutely no shot at guarding him because Pietrus is much bigger and stronger and Orlando has a huge mismatch at Shooting Guard.  In theory PG should be even with no mismatch, just an advantage to Cleveland because Mo Williams is the better player.  However since Mo forgot how to shoot and Rafer Alston is playing so well he might have to slap somebody (I stole that from Jemele Hill but it's funny, so laugh it up) the advantage has gone to Orlando.  So let's review:

Pos Advantage (in terms of matchups)

PG Draw

SG ORL

SF CLE

PF ORL

C ORL

And you wonder why Orlando is not only up in this series but has owned Cleveland over the past 3 years.

Now to the West.  Kobe Bryant is the same as Lebron in that he can guard whoever is attempting to guard him and they can't.  Once again Derek Fisher is a matchup nightmare for his own team because right now he can't even keep up with Chauncey Billups.  Luckily for Laker fans, Phil Jackson is a master of matchups (although I think he's missing a few potential series clinchers that I'll share below) and has put Kobe on Chauncey and thus left Fisher on Dahntay Jones who only shoots because that's what you're supposed to do when you're wide open even though he and everyone else knows its not going in.  That being said Fisher isn't doing anything offensively and some of the credit has to go to Billups.  Despite Trevor Ariza's outstanding play, he has had trouble guarding Melo because Melo is so freakishly strong.  Melo can also guard Ariza because he's quick enough (definition of a mismatch? I think so!).  The PF is an advantage for the Lakers because Kenyon Martin isn't a threat on offense and Pau Gasol has him by a good 5".  The center position is a wash because Bynum and Nene can guard each other blah blah blah you've been paying attention and you know why by now. 

Pos Advantage

PG DEN

SG LA

SF DEN

PF LA

C None

Ah but it doesn't stop there.  You see, there are more players in basketball than those who start, and this is why LA is up, and will win this series.  When Billups goes out, Anthony Carter comes in.  When Fisher comes out, Jordan Farmar comes in.  Huge advantage LA because Farmar is a good defender, Carter is nothing on offense,  and Farmar is way too fast for Carter to chase around (all is also true with Shannon Brown).  When J.R. Smith comes in there is initially a matchup problem for LA with him against Sasha Vujacic.  Sasha is a very good defender, however J.R. Smith is elite on the offensive end when he's on.  LA has a simple solution to that though and that is Kobe comes back in and that's the end of that.  Luke Walton helps to neutralize Melo and is a good passer on the offensive end however nothing major of note there.  Then we get to the big men.  And this is where it gets fun.  Chris Andersen is one of the best shot blockers in the league from the weak side.  However when he tries to guard anybody on the post its futile.  Thus when Lamar Odom comes in it is a huge advantage for LA.  He can post Andersen up or take him outside because he's a PG in a Power Forward's body.  This brings Andersen away from the rim, opening up the lane and wha-la! advantage Lakers.  

That being said I think the Zen Master is missing a major opportunity.  I put it in my last blog so I'll keep it short, but why not use the Lakers plethora of size against the Nuggets severe lack of it all at once?  Put Bynum, Gasol, and Odom together.  You could even do it with Bryant and Ariza and have your shortest player at 6'6" and have and advantage at 3 of the 5 positions on the floor with the other two being a washes like this:

POS LA Denver Advantage

PG      Bryant         Billups       LA

SG       Ariza    Jones/Smith LA/None (Ariza's length would drive Smith nuts)

SF      Odom       Anthony           Denver   (however if Odom plays big, None)

PF      Gasol        Martin       LA

C             Bynum Nene     None

Then, when the benches come in, everything stays the same because Carter can't guard Farmar, Vujacic goes down to Smith,  Walton and Kleiza are a wash and LA has the advantage inside if they box out Birdman.  To me it makes too much sense to not to try, but as I've said before, Phil has 9 rings, I have as many as you do: 0.  

As for Cleveland...well...umm...yeah, they're screwed.  They don't have big enough wing players to match up with Orlando and thus they are gonna have to continue to get ridiculous performances from Lebron, AND his back-court mates are going to have to find their shot.  Mo Williams and Delonte West have been off all series and its shown as they should be down 3-0 and would be if not for LeShot.  Cleveland is clearly the better team however they just don't match up well with the Magic.  And the NBA is all about matchups.  But you've been paying attention, so you knew that.  Go you!

Remember you can always follow my much shorter thoughts (less than 140 characters to be exact) on Twitter at twitter.com/choffman223

Also, shoutout to Steve Mason of Mason and Ireland of 710 ESPN Radio in LA who is now reading the blog!  Thanks Steve, it really means a lot and I hope you enjoy it!

I Had A Great Frickin Day!!!

There are good days and there are bad days.  Then there are great days.  Today was a great day.  Well at least in terms of sports.  First I played some basketball with a buddy of mine and won in 1-on-1, but nobody cares.  Now to the stuff you do care about: Laker thoughts and Yankee thoughts.  We'll go chronologically, Yankees first.

The New York Yankees have won 9 of 10 and for the first time in a year have put it all together.  Last year the Yanks lost a lot of games 2-1 and would follow it up by losing 10-9 the next night.  They could hit and they could pitch but never on the same night.  During the last ten games the Yanks have hit and pitched spectacularly.  You want two things out of your hitters.  To be balanced, where everybody is a legitimate threat so that you can't pitch around guys, and to be clutch.  During this streak there have been game winners from Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano, and Alex Rodriguez.  To some extent all 4 are unexpected.  The first three aren't stars by any means and Alex Rodriguez is known to come up small in big spots.  However the last part of this isn't true at all.  Yes he's been horrible in the post-season but in the regular season he's been great in late game situations hitting countless walk-offs in the past few years.  This was no different today as he tied up the game off Brad Lidge which led to the eventual Milk Man walk-off.  Also, the pitching has been consistent for the first time in a year and a half.  All 5 starters are pitching well and in his last two starts C.C. Sabathia has gone deep into the game, which gives the bullpen a rest.  Also Chein-Mein Wang is on his way back so hopefully he'll come back strong and although I know it won't happen, I think Joba is the missing piece to the Yankee bullpen as an 8th inning stopper.  If Wang can come back and Hughes stays up that's 6 starters; send Joba to the pen and the Yankees, to me, are the unquestioned favorite in the AL.  (And remember I'm completely unbiased!!!)

Now onto the fresher topic: the Los Angeles Lakers.  Fresh off of Game 3 here are the things on the forefront of my mind.

1) Thank God the Lakers have Luke Walton.  

What?  He played 14 minutes and didn't score. Yeah, I got that.  However in those 14 minutes he played the best defense all night on Carmelo Anthony including Melo's 4th foul (an offensive foul) that sent him to the bench.  He also threw a beautiful lob to Kobe that was a key play in the game.  That reminded me of my next point:

2) Execution on out of bounds plays has to do with personnel and execution.

The Lakers will never have a problem on an inbounds play in terms of personnel because of Lamar Odom and the aforementioned Luke Walton.  On offense you want a guy who is big and a great passer to get the ball inbounds.  Luke Walton is a great passer and is 6'10".  Lamar Odom is also a good passer and is 6'10" so Phil Jackson has options.  Denver doesn't.  Cleveland doesn't.  Orlando does (Who do? Hedo).  On defense you want someone to guard the inbounder who is not only tall but long.  Every team left has one of those.  

Now for the execution aspect.  On offense, you want a play where you get your best player open in a clutch situation or for a non critical (non-end game play) you want an easy pass.   In game 2, Phil Jackson broke the cardinal rule saying Kobe would have been fouled and Derek Fisher (more on him below) was the man with the ball.  I'm not saying Phil's a bad coach, but to foul Kobe successfully (without putting him on the line for 3) in that situation would have been nearly impossible.  Mike Brown in Game 2 followed the rule and Lebron hit the game winner.  Now for defensive side.  You want the man guarding the inbounder to make whatever pass is being attempted difficult and you want your players to be smart.  First how to do it: Lamar Odom and the Lakers.  Odom twice in this series has made the inbounds pass incredibly difficult for Anthony Carter (Game 1) and Kenyon Martin (Game 3) and that has resulted in two game-clinching Trevor Ariza steals.  Now for the "how not to do it" portion of the program: the Orlando Magic.  First, watch the play here.  Now pay atttention class:  

Mistake 1:  What the hell is Rashard Lewis doing?  You have two options: 1) Guard the ball so that 6'1" Mo Willams can't see a damn thing because you're big 6'10" frame means he can't see or 2) double team Lebron in case he Hedo loses him.  Rashard Lewis chose neither and instead was in no man's land and thus was useless.

Mistake 2:  What the hell is Mikael Pietrus doing?  There is 1.0 second left on the clock.  It's a catch and shoot situation.  There is no time for a play to be run.  Watch again as Pietrus chases Sasha Pavlovic into the backcourt.  Let him go!!!!   As soon as your man is out of shooting range you become a roamer on defense, which against Cleveland means find 23!!! If Sasha Pavlovic beats you with a 50 footer, you shake his hand and go back to Orlando tied 1-1 with a smile on your face.  You cannot let Lebron get the ball.  Hedo Turkoglu did everything right.  He denied the lob and forced a contested 28' fade away three.  Lebron just hit it.  However the rest of his team dropped the ball and thus the series is tied instead of Orlando going home to Mickey having beaten Cleveland the same amount of times that Cleveland lost in the regular season all year.

Now back to the Lakers.

3) Will Derek Fisher please put on the shirt and tie and coach????

D-Fish has been amazing for LA over the years.  He has hit huge clutch shots this season and even some in the playoffs.  However that's all he's done and he no longer plays defense like he used to to the point where he is now a liability.  He can't keep up with Chauncey Billups.  Jordan Farmar has the skill to be an elite PG in the NBA and all he needs is some run.  He is a player built on confidence and it's hard to be confident playing 15 minutes a game, the least of the three point guards.  Yes he's had a rough stretch but look at the one game where he got significant run, when Fisher was suspended in Houston.  LA played their best road game of the playoffs and he played extremely well.  Shannon Brown has also played well.  Farmar and Brown create match up problems for Denver because of their quickness.  Right now I could guard Derek Fisher.  Please Fish, put on a suit and coach.  We love the leadership, but we can't have you anywhere near a basketball right now.  Love, all right-minded Laker fans.

4) When did Trevor Ariza become LA's best shooter (outside of that Bryant feller)???

It used to be Sasha Vujacic hands down.  However if Sasha were a Coors Light, his mountains would be blue.  He's cold.  Really cold.  And although he's kept the shooters mentality and has kept shooting he hasn't snapped out of it yet.  Meanwhile,  I feel like Trevor Ariza hasn't missed a shot all series and I know he hasn't missed a clutch shot.  He's become a knock-down shooter and is as confident as any player on the floor right now.  He's also playing smart, picking his shots.  Also he hasn't fallen in love with his jumper like many players (J.R. Smith *cough cough*) do when they get hot, still attacking the rim every chance he gets.  Simply put, Trevor Ariza=stud.

5)  I know it sounds crazy but...

The Lakers have 3 big men that are nearly 6'11" and above.  The Nuggets have no size except Nene and Chris Andersen, who despite his great blocking ability from the weak-side can't guard on the block to save his life.  Why not use them all together???? I simply don't understand it. Give me a lineup of Bryant, Ariza, Odom, Gasol, and Bynum.  Kobe and Lamar are fully capable of playing the point in terms of ball handling and Odom has the range to play outside at the 3.  This also allows Odom to play Anthony, which he can with his size, Ariza to play Billups which is a huge size advantage for the Lakers, and it leaves Kobe to play Dahntay Jones aka roam freely wherever he wants.  You can also sub Luke Walton for Odom and it still works.  This would mean giving Josh Powell a little more run to spell the big guys but it would work.  It keeps Fish on the bench and creates a huge size advantage LA.  You then can go small with Farmar and Vujacic when Billups comes out, and Denver doesn't have the personnel on the bench to match LA's speed.  Phil has 9 rings.  I have 0.  However this makes too much sense to me not to try.  

That's it for now.  More to come in the days to come.  Possibly even a "One Big Thing" style blog.  I believe they call that a tease in the business. 

What I Heard in The Herd

When some people talk you can't help but listen. When our President speaks people listen, because he's a well-spoken person with incredibly important things to say. When our last President spoke people listened because there was likely to be a verbal train wreck. When Robin Williams talks people listen because they want to laugh and when Charlie Steiner spoke and wasn't laughing it was a miracle. For me, especially lately, when Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio speaks I've been listening. He admits to being a polarizing figure and is opinionated to say the least, but for the most part I tend to agree with him and there is no doubt in my mind Cowherd gets it. There are those people out there that get it and those that don't, it's a fact of life. Similarly some businesses, including sports leagues also get it and others don't. Citi, trying to give hefty bonuses to upper level executives while their clients money is going down the toilet doesn't get it. The NFL, as Cowherd pointed out on his show Friday, gets it.

"The NFL is only league in this country that runs itself like a business in a TV show, and that's why the NFL leaders get it. They're not even a league. They're not even a sport. They run themselves like a business in a TV show. They are brilliant. Nobody in sports does it better."

And this to got me to thinking. And the more I think about it, the leader of The Herd is right again. The NFL really is King...and here's why.

Think about this: March Madness is supposedly the biggest non-single day event we have in this country. Everybody cares about it in some form or fashion because everybody has a bracket. To me, it's the most wonderful time of the year (see the blog from 2 weeks ago) and yet with it's culmination and showcase event, the Final Four, coming up on Saturday all anyone was talking about all week was Jay Cutler. OK, so after the first few rounds when most people's brackets were screwed a lot less people care and you're back to a typical college basketball fan base. Fine, I'll give you that.

What about, say baseball? It was once king and still is considered America's past time. However, excuse the horribly easy pun, it's past time for the past time. According to two studies, one by Harris and one by ESPN, baseball has lost half its audience in the past 20 years. It has horrible ratings amount young viewers and has nearly no African-American audience, two groups that have flocked to the NFL. Why? Baseball is the ultimate good-old boy sport. The biggest technological change on the field in baseball in the past 100 years is that more players are now using maple bats as opposed to ash bats. Gloves have gotten a little nicer but functionally they haven't changed. It wasn't until last year that baseball finally gave into replay, a technology the NFL gave into nearly a decade ago for the second time. People in baseball and more importantly people in charge of baseball would rather see the game stay the same than a call be made properly. I understand the human element but c'mon...really? And you wonder why baseball's audience is falling by the way-side.

The NBA might be the only pro sports league that has a chance at catching the NFL any time soon. It's entering a golden age (see last weeks blog) and its image is on the rise. However for some unknown reason many people who love basketball HATE the NBA. They say its too much of a one-on-one game. I have two responses to that. 1) Have you ever seen LeBron James play? The man is one of the best passers the league has ever seen. Add in Chris Paul and Deron Williams and you'll get your passing fix. and 2) OK so some games are very 1-on-1 oriented. These are the best players in the world, watching them go 1-on-1 is great entertainment. However some people will be stubborn and still hate the NBA, and even if I did convince these NBHaters there are still far more football fans than basketball fans.

Simply put the NFL is king. The only thing close is College Football. In the South people actually care more about College Football but you'd be kidding yourself if you thought that meant that, like the NBA and College Basketball, they still didn't care about their pro team. Add these people to the millions in places like Boston and New York where the NFL is numero uno and there isn't a legit college team in sight (Boston College doesn't count because quite frankly most people in Boston don't really care about what's going on in Chestnut Hill) and it's clear that across this great nation, our sport is football, and not just football, NFL football. The NBA season is winding down with an epic playoff battle, the MLB season is starting this week, and the Final Four (the culmination of March Madness!) is Saturday night...and tonight's lead story: how an off-season move in a league that hasn't seen a game in 2 months and won't for another 4 will effect the teams involved and the rest of the league. Still have any doubt that the NFL is king? I think not.

Will You Be Watching?

The NBA has always had superstars. It's always had great teams. But in my opinion its really only had one true golden age which was the 80's and early 90's. That is until now. The 60's were dominated by Bill Russel and the Celtics. The biggest news from the 70's was the ABA merger and Julius Erving's hair. The 90's were dominated by that MJ fella and the early 2000's were the Lakers and then the most boring dynasty in NBA history the Spurs. However the 80's was a spoil of riches unlike any other in NBA history. A multitude of transcendent superstars where the only thing that matched the quantity was the quality. And even with that being said there were two that outshone all the rest. Julius Erving, Moses Malone, James Worthy, Robert Parish, Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and a young Michael Jordan all were stuck outside of the spotlight that was dominated by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Luckily for us, the spoil of riches is back. And if you're not watching NBA basketball you need to, be because you're missing out.

First of all the two in the spotlight: LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They battle for the title of Best Player in the World on a nightly basis. To me its not really a question as amazingly brilliant as LeBron is. The best player in the world is Kobe Bryant. He's a better shooter, a better defender, can get to the rim at ease (even if he can't do it with the authority LeBron can), and the thing that separates him most from King James is he's an assassin. His nickname is the Black Mamba for a reason. He has no mercy and wants to rip your heart out. Interestingly enough if you ask LeBron James he agrees with me, saying Kobe is still the best. However LeBron is catching up quickly and in large part to Kobe and the time the two spent together on Team USA. LeBron has gone, in a year, from a defensive liability to an elite defensive player. He's also a greatly improved shooter, specifically from the FT line meaning you can't tackle him when he goes to the rim anymore (although he usually would still get at least the two anyway).

But the spoil of riches doesn't end there. Right outside the spotlight is a man, who unlike LeBron, already has a ring. Dwayne Wade is without a doubt to me the 3rd best player in the world. He's an elite defender, a great rebounder despite his size at 6'4", he can score in bunches from inside and out, and like Kobe has a killer instinct that makes him lethal on both ends of the court as the clock winds down. We saw this in the 2006 finals as he single handedly beat the Mavs but then he got hurt. And then he got hurt again. And again. And then, last year, the Heat did a brilliant thing. They sat him. They let him get healthy, and even when he could have played they made him sit. They weren't going to make the playoffs even in a horrid Eastern Conference and so they made sure he was 100%. And then the Olympics happened and Dwayne Wade was the best player on the floor, a floor that includes the two guys I've already talked about. This year he's had many magical moments and has found himself in the middle of every MVP discussion and his case is getting stronger with the more wins he wills his mediocre team too.

After that there is a significant drop off. Oh wait. No there's not. Not even close. To make it easier we'll go by position:

Point Guard: Its an argument we'll be having for years, who's better? Chris Paul or Deron Williams. It's also possibly a future blog topic. Both can pass, score, and our tremendous leaders. Most people say Paul has the edge and I agree but Williams is ridiculously close. Add in Devin Harris, Derrick Rose, and Tony Parker and we might have the highest quality of PG play the NBA has ever seen.

Shooting Guard: You can't start here without saying that Kobe and D-Wade got their own paragraphs. Next is Brandon Roy, who, ever since trading his Washington Purple for Portland Red he's been a stud. The future is also here in O.J. Mayo. He, along with Rudy Gay, might actually make the Grizzlies relevant sometime soon.

Small Forward: LeBron has his own paragraph above, nuff said about him. One of his best friends could also easily have his own paragraph and that's Carmelo Anthony. Melo has had his share of off the court problems but on the court he's been nothing short of spectacular. He can score with anybody and thanks to some quality time with his old college coach Jim Boeheim and Coach K this summer he now plays defense. From what seems like out of nowhere a guy named Danny Granger has emerged to be a 25+ ppg player who will eventually find his way out of Indiana and be a major player in this league. Also, Kevin Durant is still skinnier than me and only in his 2nd year and is already averaging 26 a game.

Power Forward: Relatively speaking Power Forward is a shallow position in the NBA right now. The argument for the best PF starts and ends with Chris Bosh. He's skilled and he's long which is a lethal combination. He's a great offensive player and a very good defensive player. The ugliest game in the NBA also resides in this position in Dirk Nowitski. He's not a good defender but he's 5th in the league in scoring and is every year. He's also capable of hitting the big shot. The future here isn't here yet but it's coming. His name is Blake Griffin and he's a monster. He's a freakish athlete and brutally strong. He's gonna give NBA forwards and their coaches fits for years to come. Don't sleep on last year's Blake Griffin either...yeah that Michael Beasley fellow. He hasn't been spectacular this year but he was just as dominant in the Big XII last year as Griffin was this year and he's a much better shooter than Griffin. We didn't get to see them battle as much in college as we would have liked but these two horses could be battling for years on the block in the NBA.

Center: This is always the weakest position in the NBA league wide because a great true center is hard to find. However there is one in the league right now and he's not going anywhere. Shaq may have been the original superman but Dwight Howard is the real deal. He is a young Shaq with a little less offensive game. He's got athleticism you're simply not supposed to have at his size. I sound like a broken record but Howard benefited immensely from his time with Team USA the past few summers because he had to play defense. Howard often found himself on the bench in favor of Chris Bosh because he couldn't defend the pick and roll. So he learned. And now he's the leagues leading shot blocker and rebounder and his offensive game is coming around.

You might say ok, that's a nice list of good players, but then you'd be selling yourself and those guys short. Every single player I named is or will within the next two years be a bonafide superstar. And it gets better. In 2010 many of them (including D-Wade and LeBron) could be finding new homes in major cities. You could have LeBron and Bosh in Madison Square 41 nights a year while D-Wade and D-Rose play in the house that Michael built in Chi-town while Kobe and his amazing young supporting cast are lighting up LA. Add in the fact that the Boston Three Party is already in Beantown and you're the 76ers giving Andre Iguadala some help more and better than Elton Brand from every major classic NBA team being a power house at the same time, for the first time in NBA history. It's coming people. Get ready. We're at the beginning of a golden age in NBA basketball and it's only going up. All the players I named with the exceptions of Kobe, Dirk, and Tony Paker were drafted after 2003 (the year of Lebron, D-Wade, Bosh and Melo). Not only are all of these players great but they're young. Really young. They'll still be around in 10 years and these 10 years will very likely be the best 10 years the NBA will see for a long long time. So as the ball goes up and the records go down the only question is, will you be watching?

Sports Are Weird

Sports are unique in oh so many different ways from any other form of business. Where else in the world do the workers (the players) make more than the managers (the coaches and GM's)? And in what other line of work do the managers get fired when the workers don't perform? But with the NBA trade deadline now behind us I would like to examine another quirk of sports: in no other line of business can you get transferred and not have a say in where you move and if you move at all?

Now I realize that people get transferred in business all the time. This occurred recently to a family friend of mine when the business he worked for merged with a Canadian business and thus he and his family now live north of the border. The difference between this situation and sports though is there are no other options. If the Johnsons had wanted to stay in Greenville (where I'm from) they could have. Joe could have taken a job else where with another company doing a similar job. However he liked the company he was with so he stayed and in doing so left. In sports that's not an option. When Shawn Marion was traded to Toronto he couldn't say, "No thanks, I really like the weather here" and stay in Miami to play basketball elsewhere in south Florida. He simply had to pack his bags and head to Toronto.

I'm very torn on whether I'm ok with this or not. On one hand you have the other people involved in this, the players families. Its hard enough for the players to go out on the road and devote endless hours to be the top players in the world while still being a good dad (or mom) at home. In the NFL it's slightly easier because teams are home during the week and only have 8 road game per year. However in the NBA and MLB, players are on the road for 41 and 81 games a year respectively. Add in travel days and off days where the team is just on the road and that's a lot of days away from home. Then there's the aspect we're actually talking about here and that's the trade. If a team trades a player he typically doesn't have warning it's going to happen and if he does he still typically doesn't know where he'll wind up. He can't go and find a house in his new home city, he has to continue playing. Thus the family typically stays in the old city for the time being and the player is now constantly away from his family.

Although that doesn't sit well with me, I'm still OK with the entire trade process for one reason: money. Athletes say it all the time about sports: it's a business. Moves are made for on and off the court reasons and neither one takes in to the account how much nicer the weather is in Miami than Toronto. Professional athletes get paid insane amounts of money and they know when they sign up to make that money that they have to sacrifice a few things, including some family time and stability. And since they agree to that, the concept of a trade is ok with me.

Plain and simple: sports are weird. There is no other business that is operated more in the public eye or any other business that is more accountable to its customers. We as fans love our sports and in turn love our athletes. We just sometimes forget that they're people. People, myself included, say they hate athletes all the time, most of whom we've never met. So let's try to remember that these people are in fact people. And when they get traded they're not merely business objects, they are living, breathing human beings who now must adjust to a new work place, new co-workers, and a new way of doing things. So Shawn Marion, I gotcha. I realize you're human. Oh and if you decide to take a side trip to Montreal, tell the Johnsons I say "Hi."