My Recap of recent events (I am so good)

Hellllllooooooo sports lovers,

         It has been so long since I've talked to you ( I know you've missed me), but lets get right on to it and talk sports. Goodness there are just so many things to talk about where to start first, but how about we start with the world champion Los Angeles Lakers! On the back of finals MVP Kobe Bryant, the Lakers went on to win their 15 championship in 30 tries, (you know I'm not a math major but 50 percent is pretty good in this situation). Also, they won it in just five games ( I think a certain blogger said that as well, see two blogs ago). A big part of the championship run was because of the lanky Lamar Odom and the shooter Trevor Ariza. In addition, even though I don't forgive him for the dreadful playoffs he had, I got to say thanks Derek Fisher, for hitting two of the biggest shots of your career. But the person who I thought performed second best, (cause you can't beat Kobe) was Pau Gasol. The Spanish chicken was the reason the Lakers made the run they did. With a great post presence and a quick step and dribble, Gasol easily became the biggest threat to score down low in the entire league, so good work big man. My goats of the playoffs are as follows: Sasha Vujacic, please your only job is to make a three, and you didn't hit one. Andrew Bynum, you were just awful I'm sorry, get into the gym and work out and stop being a baby (even though you look like one). And finally, Dwight Howard. Boo, just boo. You let down your team by not performing and basically saying that you gave up midway through, realize that you need to be the best player on your team and stop talking. And for giggles, lets just throw in Courtney Lee for missing two games winners (I could have made that layup, where's my contract?) All in all congrats to the Lakers, and its nice to see that Bill Russell MVP trophy in the hands of a genius. Moving on.

I have to give a quick shout out to the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, for winning a huge game 7, in Detroit. Also having to watch their captain go down in the second period, and still find a way to collect themselves and score two goals on a keeper that seems unbeatable at home. I have to admit I was pulling for them, purely because I consider the Detroit Red Wings the New York Yankees of hockey, its basically your job not to like them. So congrats to the city of Pittsburgh, I'm glad to see the cup in your town, because lets be honest, I don't see the Pirates winning the World Series anytime soon.

And finally, lets talk about the best sport in the world, women's field hockey (gotcha), I'm talking about college basketball of course. Now, I attend the highly respected University of Arizona or as I like to call it, the Harvard of Arizona. As you may or may not know, we have run into some hard times as of late for our once prestigious basketball program. However, things are finally turning around with the hire of Sean Miller, and a great recruiting  class in just under a month. The thing that keeps making me smile however, is the recent addition to the USC basketball program, and that would be their new head coach Kevin O'Neil. To this I just have to say, HA HA HA. Good luck USC, with a coach that doesn't work well with others and doesn't respond well to critics, he should fit in just fine with the Trojan program. Also, with the loss of every recruit in their class except one, the rest of the country should stand to benefit from their loss, especially Arizona, (cough Lamont Jones and Derrick Williams). All in all, it should be a very interesting year for the Pac-10. Well guys I think thats all I got for you know, until next time, bear down.

The Way Sports Are?

Hey all,

     I wanted to dedicate this to the NBA finals again, but some things have come up in recent sports news that I wanted to cover, so if you aren't caught up on some of the sports news around the world, get ready because here we go. Lets start with a sport that is one of my personal favorites (there are so many after all), and that would be european soccer. The Premiership League more specifically. This week has seen some big moves for the leagues future, Real Madrid to be exact. Madrid has shaken up the 2009 season by first paying used to be a record setting $68 million euros (thats $94.05 million) to sign star player Kaka. Next, they topped themselves (who'd of thunk it), and payed Manchester United a NEW record setting $80 million euros ($131.6 million) for world and european soccer player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo. Now Ronaldo happens to be one of my favorite players in the world, but this move really angered me. This trade came at the request of Ronaldo who was "unhappy" at his United club. I'm sorry, I just don't see how playing on one of the most famous clubs in the world, and being adored by your whole team and country could make you frown. Also, it's not like you were earning pennies there either, so please do not tell me this was all about the money. But is this what professional sports have come to? I don't mean to get nostalgic but is it really all about the money now? This is why college sports are better than every professional sport. Those guys are playing to get paid, not playing because of the money (sorry O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush, you guys don't count).  I wish Ronaldo all the best with his future team, lets all hope he tries a little harder to like his fans this time around.

Moving on, I feel that I need to say this. To all those baseball fans bashing players like; Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco (ok you can bash him, he's just annoying), please, just stop talking. I know, they "ruined" America's past time, but I hate to burst your bubble, the game is already tarnished. Just because people haven't been identified as steroid users, doesn't mean they aren't there. The pitchers and hitters use, and if you can trust the game, you can't respect it. So get off the moral high horse and just enjoy the 110 mph fastballs and 500 feet homeruns. 

The NBA finals are really the only thing is sports that are bringing me happiness, (I can't wait for NCAA basketball to start.) After watching the Orlando Magic become a completely different team and shooting 62.5% from the field will probably help to. But I want to discuss my idol, Kobe Bean Bryant. I'm sorry to say that the Black Mamba shot a very poor (for him) 44 percent and and even worse (for anyone) 5 for 10 from the line. With all that happening the Lakers still only lost by 2, I know the score was 108-104 Magic but I don't count two free throws with .02 seconds left in the game. So with a restored hope the Magic look to seize a pivotal game 4 and tie this series up. Look for the Magic to keep the high pick and roll offense going (since they've done it all playoffs), and get Turkoglu and Lewis their open threes. On the Laker side, they need to attack the weak spots of the Magic. Trevor Ariza has been left wide open the whole series, and is still shooting 30% from the field, he needs to hit those shots. Pau Gasol must get more involved in the offense, attack the high post and hit that 15 foot jumper. Kobe needs to come out angry tonight and attack the rim and dish if he's triple teamed! All in all I think the Lakers take a strong hold on the series tonight, Lakers win by 4. 

I promise the next post will be more uplifting, and i'll make sure to bring some happy news next time.  

A view on the NBA Finals.

I find it fitting that the first post on my new blog site is about the last round of the NBA playoffs. I know, I know, my timing is a little off, as we join the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic already two games deep into the series, with the Lakers on top two games to zilch. But I'm a glass is half full kind of guy so lets focus on the positive: there's still plenty of basketball left. Being from Los Angeles, I may have a little bit of bias towards this subject, but it's my blog so there. Watching the first game of this series I felt that Lakers played the best basketball of their postseason. They came out poised and ready, and showed a young and underprepared Magic team how to preform in the finals. Kobe Bryant had 40 points, eight assists, eight boards, 2 blocks, and 2 steals, while the Magic man Dwight Howard had a mere 12 points and 15 boards off one of six shooting. (Not gonna win to many games with your "best player" shooting six shots and then saying in his post game news conference that, "they have to play a lot harder than they did tonight." Are you kidding me? This is the NBA finals, probably time to bring the "A" game....but I digress.) Game two showed a much more "fierce" Magic team. Fierce being the operative word because if it wasn't for Rashard Lewis scoring 18 of the Magic's 20 points in the second quarter, it would have been another blow out. But again, it was inexperience that would prove to be the downfall of the Magic. When Kobe Bryant failed to ice the game with one second left due to a very nice and well timed block by Hedo Turkoglu, head coach Stan Van Gundy designed an amazing play with six tenths of a second that fooled the whole Staples Center, (and yours truly). Turkoglu made a beautiful alley-oop pass right into the hands of rookie Courtney Lee, and he missed the wide open layup, to WIN the game. Talk about a rough night. The Lakers went on to dominate the overtime period and now take this series back to Orlando up two games rather than tied at one apiece. Now its time to analyze. The missed layup by Lee is not only the kind of shot that can send a player into a slump, (especially for oh let's say a rookie on, oh I don't know, the biggest shot of his life for example), but also a team. I truly believe the Lakers have revealed the tricks of the Magic, and they need to strike while the iron is hot. If the post play remains in the Lakers favor (i.e. Gasol gets his 24 and 12, Odom gets 19 and 10, and Bynum can stay in the game for longer than five minutes at a time,) then it should give the Lakeshow the advantage they need to pull out a huge game three win. The important thing for the Magic to remember is that they are vastly superior behind the arc, have supposedly the best big man in the league, and have been in this situation before. Also, people need to realize that you cannot stop Kobe, you can only hope to contain him, I'll quote Denver Nuggets head coach George Carl, "Jesus would have had a hard time covering him." So good luck with that assignment. I'll end this post with extreme confidence in a Los Angeles Lakers team hungry for revenge for a terrible finals appearance last year, and with the best closer to ever play this game on your team (thats right I said best ever), I think they are ready for a post-Shaq title, Lakers in five. Also, to Mr. Lebron James, first you should learn how to play the game with respect then worry about winning a finals, don't worry, you can always try again next year. Enjoy the finals everyone, I know I will.