Welcome Back Mike

Last night was the return of something good: Michael Vick on the football field. It was great to see Vick in a helmet and pads. Though it was brief, I think Vick did better then people might had expected. There was a warm exceptance of Vick last night. Vick said in the post game press conference that he missed one of his reads because he was distracted by the sight of all the Phila Vick jerseys.

My favorite part was when Vick lined up at QB and McNabb was lined up at wideout. Vick took the snap and ran it only for a few yards. The cool part is that there are so many options now for the Eagles with Vick.

I'm glad Vick is back. Not everyone shares that view but that's okay. The NFL might have lost fans because of Vick's return. However, Vick in Philadelphia might earn new fans for the league.

I hope that Vick has much success this season. I believe he deserves that chance.

Problems Seem to Follow Thomas

NBA great Isiah Thomas has again found a way to get himself in the news under negative circumstances. In the past it was how he was ruining the New York Knicks as general manager and head coach. Followed by a sexual harassment suite filed by a Knicks employee. His departure from the NBA was not a pretty one.

Now Thomas is the men's head basketball coach at Florida International. A controversial hire because of the past that preceded his hire. Also the fact that  Thomas has a weak coaching record. His return to the attention of the news again is not a positive one as his team refuses to play in a pre-season tournament, Coaches Against Cancer. 

The story goes that FIU originally agreed to a contract with the Gazelle Group (the organizer for the tourney) that let Gazelle Group decide whether FIU will  play Ohio State or North Carolina, the defending national champions.  FIU had agreed to play Ohio State earlier in the off season for the start of the tourney and that is where FIU is upset. So upset, they are threatening to pull-out of the tournament.

Here is my issue, Isiah Thomas and FIU need to just play! Shut up and play! I don't see the reason why would skip out on a rare chance to play UNC and skip it for OSU or the whole tourney altogether. FIU needs to get noticed, they need to be put on the map. A televised game versus the national champs would be a great opportunity. People aren't going to watch because of FIU. Instead they'll be watching UNC. However, to watch UNC you have to watch FIU. 

If FIU pulls out of the Coaches Against Cancer it will be a bad start to Thomas' college coaching career. If Thomas wants to build a successful team, you have to play the ones who have success. There is not more success then playing North Carolina. 

I think this could be the start of a rough, and possibly short tenure at FIU for Thomas is his team decides to pull out of the tournament.

Just sack up and play them already. Who knows what will happen.

Where Is My Remote?

Right now, I'm sitting on the couch at my parents house and I'm wearing out the remote to their televison. Tonight, I'm gonna be flipping back and forth from the The Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NBA Finals. NBA on ABC and NHL on NBC. Both games are pivitol and are very much worth watching.

I turn the channel to NBC. Hockey! The Pittsburch Penguins are fighting to stay alive as they are down in this series 3-2. In game 5, the Pens laid a giant egg losing 5-0. The Detroit Red Wings are playing in Pitt - a tough place to play.

The Pens are riding the Evgeni Malkin wave this postseason. He leads the team in goals and points. Don't forget about the kid, Sidney Crosby. He lead the team in assists and, along with Malkin, are two of the best 1-2 punches in the NHL. Since they haven't won a Cup yet, I wouldn't say they are like Jordan and Pippen. More like Stockton and Malone. If fortune falls in their favor and the stronger, smarter Red Wings don't play their best hockey, the Pens will force a deciding game 7.

Strength and smarts come from experience. The Wings have just that. With veteran skaters like Chris Chelios (24 yrs in the NHL) and Nikolas Lidstrom ( 16 years), the Red Wings have experience, leadership, and success on their side. When you add a star like Henrik Zetterberg, you have the recipe for championships. The Red Wings are trying to repeat as the raisers of the Stanley Cup. They are one game away.

Flip the channel to ABC to see how game 3 of the NBA Finals are going.

The Magic have to win this game. How big of a miss was Courtney Lee's missed alley-oop at the end of regulation in game 2? It was a tough shot. It wasn't a typical lay-up. He put up that shot from nearly below the backboard. The Magic are a good team though. They seem to be lost and out of sync certain moments in a game. They some how always find a way to get themselves back into it. They have three games at home. They've got to win! Being swept would be embarrassing...especially after defeating the Cavs in 5 games. Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis carried the team with their shooting in game 2. Howard has got to be a bigger threat. He's getting the fouls and knocking down his free-throws but he late in the game, Howard tends to disappear. I was confused at the end of game 2 why Howard was setting the pick for Lee to get open. Seeing just how close Orlando came from winning that game, I don't think that so much.

In this game 3, the Magic are in a must win. Three games in Orland arrived just in time for the Magic. They are a good enough team to not be swept but they don't have the experienced players on their team like the Lakers.

What can I say about Kobe? Not much...he's just Kobe. I just watched him get fouled and put up a twisted shot from three for the four-point play. Kobe is...well...just Kobe. Not much you can say. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm............................Adam Morrison looks good on the bench. I bet he would top the best dressed list of players not playing the NBA Finals.

It's NHL and NBA tonight. If you have a few moments free...somehow, check out the MLB Draft. Should be interesting...for a while.

Someone Missed the Memo

The NBA, Nike, ESPN sent out a memo to the entire country a couple of weeks ago. The memo pretty much said that Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers will be playing the Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. The memo was sent out by way of ESPN specials comparing the two super stars. They both are lottery picks out of high school. Both had immediate impacts in the league and so on and so on. You might have seen the Vitamin Water commercials show city locals explaining how their star is better than the other. The add the for Vitamin Water only ties in when at the very end someone says, "they both get their vitamins." I think the commercial is selling Kobe and Lebron as a product instead of Vitamin Water. Oh and how could I forget the two puppets. Lebron throwing his chalk into the air and covering the house. Kobe copying his highlight tape over Lebron's game film. In one commercial, both LBJ and KB were being annoyed by some little kid. I think that was imagery of the response of these commercials...annoying!

All this media coverage on how great it will be to see Lebron and Kobe face each other in the finals. Then here comes some punk seven-footer named Dwight Howard who ignored all the press Lebron and Kobe was receiving. Instead of allowing a media feeding frenzy to take place, Howard led the Orlando Magic to a lopsided four games to two series win over the Cavs. 

I think Dwight just got fed up with all the puppet commercials like I did and decided to be the spoiler of it all. 

So now it's Kobe versus Le...oops I mean Dwight. See, I'm so used to hearing Kobe versus Lebron, I almost said it. Kobe and Dwight...doesn't have quite the same ring as the other but we are going to have to get used to it; game 1 is tomorrow.

There are some interesting comparisons and history between these two teams. The last time the Magic were in the Finals was 1995 when they were led by another big man, Shaquille O'Neal. He lost to a very good Houston Rockets team. Shaq was then traded to the Lakers in the off season of the 96-97 season, he met up with then rookie, Kobe Bryant. The duo went on to win three NBA Championships in 00-02. 

Shaq then went on to play for the Miami Heat. After winning a championship with the Heat with Pat Riley,  Riley stepped down as coach and was filled in by Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy was Shaq's coach when he left Miami to play for the Phoenix Suns. By the way, Van Gundy and Shaq are not good friends. They are known for exchanging words about each other on camera during interviews.

So now in the present, the Magic are lead by  another big man in their run for the Finals. The Magic are coached by a former coach of the Shaq( the old big man) and are playing against Kobe, who with Shaq created a new era for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Tomorrow starts the NBA Finals and there is plenty to look forward to. Will the Magic be able to suppress Kobe? Will the Lakers have an answer for Howard? Only time will tell. What I do know is that the in the puppet commercials, the new one should be Lebron moving out and Howard moving in. Maybe all three can be together. This time, Lebron will sit on the sidelines while Kobe and Dwight duke it out for a ring.

Words Speak Louder Than Actions

I'm sitting on my couch last night watching the Lakers verse the Nuggets in game 3 of the Western Conference Final. I was at work for the first half so seeing the second half was atop of my to-do list. I rushed home on my bike to make it right as the 3rd quarter begins. The whole second half is close. The Nuggets jump out to a healthy lead but Kobe and his Laker teammates stay resilient. Both teams are trading buckets and the lead. Let's jump ahead to 36 seconds remaining in the game. The Lakers have a 97-95 lead after some Kobe Bryant free-throws. The Nuggets are inbounding the ball at the half-court stripe and Denver's Kenyon Martin is inbounding the ball.

Here is where I get hot. I cannot stand Kenyon Martin...at all! He is a spark for his team but unfortunatley is a bigger talker then basketball player. In the previous series where the Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games, the story was not how good the Nuggets played but how Martin was in the center of a verbal fued with the Mavs owner Mark Cuban. 

Maverick fans, after a controversial Nuggets win in game 3 of that series, were verbally harrassing players as they left the court. People called them "thugs" and "punks." Cuban is accused of doing the same. 

Martin responded by dropping M.F.'s and homosexual slurs. I don't want to say what he said exactly but I think Martin is more in the wrong then Cuban was. What is the word "punk" compared to calling someone gay (to say the least). The little respect I had for Kenyon Martin was completely destroyed after the incident with Cuban

Back to last night, Martin is inbounding the ball. He passes the ball to Carmelo Anthony. Martin's pass to Anthony is lazy and is stolen by the Lakers Trevor Ariza. This is the second time Ariza has stolen a inbound pass late in a game this series. Sorry Ariza, you made a great play but only thanks to the stupid play of Martin. 

Kenyon Martin, whether you just decided to inbound the ball in a lazy fashion or just made a bad pass, you have got to step up your game.  Deciding to make a bad pass with just seconds left is unacceptable. You let your team down, the city of Denver down and made the Lakers win easier last night.

I'm not blaming Martin for blowing the game. Anthonly, who is the only player in the NBA playoffs this year so far averaging atleast 30 points a game, finished with 21 points. 20 of those points were scored in the 1st half. I am blaming Martin for taking a play off. A very important play. Instead, his stupid pass was stolen and Anthony had no choice but to foul Ariza. The foul was Carmelo's sixth forcing him out of the game. 

The Lakers lead this series 2-1. Who knows how the yesterday's game would have ended if Kenyon Martin would have pulled his head out and made a good play. 

The Nuggets need Martin to be smart on the floor if they are going to win this series against L.A. Come on Martin, be smart, do what's best for your team and play good basketball. By keeping his mouth shut doing what he does best and that is playing basketball.

I hope yesterday's game was a wakeup call for Martin. 

How Big Was That Shot?

How big was Lebron James game winning three-pointer yesterday over the Orlando Magic? Huge! That's what it was, huge. It's a huge shot for three reasons.

1. The Orlando Magic looked out of it in Game 1 of this series. Somewhere in the second half, the Cavs lost their edge and let the Magic back in to the game. Thanks to Rashard Lewis and his clutch  three pointer, the Magic were able to steal home field advantage from the Cavs. Game 2 was a "must win" for the Cavaliers. Lebron and his teammates, again, displayed their strength, speed and skill by jumping out to a 23 point lead in the 1st half. Like in game 1, Orlando battled back into the game and got within 12 by halftime. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Orlando was right in the thick of things only trailing the Cavs by six.  Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu tied the game at 93 a piece with less than a minute left. Coming up big again, Turkoglu hit a short jumper with just over a second remaining giving the Magic 95-93 lead. It's only fitting that out of a timeout, Lebron James took the inbound pass from beyond the three-point line launching the shot over the defending Turkoglu. The Cavs are now back in this series. They have found redemption and new life headed to Orlando for game 3.

2. Mentioning "The Shot" is a good way to upset Cleveland Cavaliers fan. Thanks to Lebron James, Craig Ehlo might be off the hook. Like last night, Michael Jordan took the inbound pass from half court in the first round of the 1989 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs. Jordan dribbled to the free-throw line and nailed the shot over Ehlo. (Ehlo scored second prior to give the Cavs the lead with three seconds to go.) So often Jordan and James are compared to each other. Both are number 23, both were high flying dunkers, good shooters, so on and so on. Jordan has had the ball in his hands in the closing seconds plenty of times in his career. He didn't come through every time but we don't remember those. We remember "The Shot", his jumper over Bryon Russell to beat the Jazz in the 98' Finals, and his jumper to lead North Carolina to the 82' National Championship over Georgetown. Lebron through his career so far is more known for his missed game winners. Lebron didn't make his first game winning shot until this year over the Golden State Warriors in January of this year. Fortunatley for Lebron, I think he is going to be known more for this one shot then all his misses put together. For the city of Cleveland, "The Shot" is now a memory worth having.

3. Usually a teams best player has the ball at the end of the game. Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kobe, etc. have had the ball to take the  last shot as the seconds fall.  It's expected to see the superstar taking the last shot. Sometimes that supestar draws two or three defenders and delivers a pass to a wide open shooter for the game winner. It seems more magical though when the star takes the shot. Lebron in recent criticism has been called too unselfish. In game 1 of this Easter Conference Final, the Cavs were down just one point when Lebron started to drive the lane. He would have probably been fouled as almost every Magic player on the floor collapsed on James. Instead of trying to put a shot he dumped the ball off to wide open Delonte West who had positioned himself in the corner for a three pointer. West had made the shot moments earlier. This time, his he wasn't so lucky. The shot rimmed out. The Cavs had a chance at getting anther shot after a jump ball but the shot was off. The criticism of Lebron of game 1 was that he shouldn't have passed the ball off and that he should have taken the shot. If West hits that three, Lebron is seen as a great teammate, a leader and smart for recognizing the open man. Instead, Lebron is being told that he should have taken that last shot. The Magic knew he was getting the ball but he should still have been the one at the end puting up the shot. In game 2, there was no question in anyone's mind who was getting the ball. Lebron had decided ahead of time that he was going to take that shot. I don't know that in previous instances, Lebron didn't have the confidence or if he truely felt that someone else had the better shot but on Friday night, Lebron put to rest the criticisms of his unselfishness. Lebron was given the the ball at the end of the game, he put of the shot and came through for his team. 

With game 3 on Sunday, the Cavaliers have revitalized this series. Tied at one game a piece, each game being decided in the closing seconds, this series is living up to be a close battle. Keep a close eye for who is going to come up big. Maybe Lebron, again.

My 1st Entry

This is my blog. Here I talk about an event or an incident in that has happened in the sports world tha has caught my attention. I might bash or praise something...you never know. I just like to write and talk about sports.

For this first post, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets series in the Western Conference Championship has caught my attention. The Lakers have been very good and very bad throughout these playoffs. The Nuggets have been suprisingly good. They blew through the New Orleans Hornets and dismissed the Dallas Mavericks in five games. Carmelo Anthony has shown maturity and leadership as he and the Nuggets make only their third Western finals.

A constant debate of this NBA season has been who is better, Lebron James or Kobe Bryant. Both have won MVP's in back-to-back seasons. This season, in Madison Square Garden Kobe scored 61 points against in the Knicks. Two days later, Lebron was a rebound short of a triple-double. This, I believe, was the real spark to the debate. The talk of who is better ranges from newspaper and magazine articles to sports talk radio. Recently, the Laker great Jerry West claimed that Lebron is the best player while Kobe is the best closer to games. Lebron and Kobe aren't my point.

My point is that a stellar rivalry has developed in already two games in this Western Conference Championship with Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony. In game one, where the Lakers were outplayed by the Nuggets but still won, were led by Kobe's 40 points. The Nuggets were led by Carmelo's 39. 

These two stars went back and forth trading baskets. Carmelo had the big buckets late in the game but it was Kobe who had the last laugh as the Lakers 105-103. In Game 2, I saw more evidence of how these two have developed a small rivalry in this championship. 

The Lakers jumped out in front and for much of the 1st half, held that lead. The lead got as big as 14. Melo and the Nuggets made a comeback shaving the lead down to one at half. Many times throughout the game Melo and Kobe were defending each other; battling each other for points, rebounds, and the victory.

There particular moments where Kobe had the ball being guarded by Anthony. Carmelo had his hand in Kobe's face. Kobe stood at the three point line staring back at Carmelo. Without hestitation, Kobe pulls up and drains a three. Pulling up like Kobe did a couple times on Anthony is a tough shot. Carmelo defended Kobe perfectly but when Kobe makes a shot like that...there's nothing Carmelo  can do. 

On the other side, Kobe defended Carmelo. The physical battle never got out of hand. These two stars play with a respect for each other as well as a respect for the game of basketball. Carmelo in game 2 did a great job of cleaning the glass. Late in the game, as well in game 1, Carmelo had key offensive rebounds leading to putbacks and the very important second chance points for the Nuggets. Almost every time down low when Carmelo was battling for the rebound, he was battling Kobe. Watching Carmelo collect the rebounds showed off the strength that Anthony has. He has the strength to overmatch Kobe. 

Carmelo and Kobe are putting together a highlight reel in this Western Conference Championship. With their play, these two stars outshine all the stars in attendence at these two games in Los Angeles.

I am not comparing the battle between Kobe and Carmelo to Kobe and Lebron. Carmelo is no Lebron. However, Carmelo is showing fans that in these playoffs he means business. He is leading a talented team while facing a talented opponent. Who know, maybe if the Nuggets move on to face a possible Cleveland Cavaliers, the battle will be between Lebron and Melo. As for now, enjoy Kobe and Carmelo. Watch how they challenge each other and play good, physical basketball. The Lakers and Nuggets are tied at one game a piece. With how close each game has been, this series has great potential to go seven games. Seven games mean more of Kobe and Melo.

Weigh in the poll question at the bottom of the entry.