Thoughts on the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend

This is my first article I've written in a few days so bare with me. This previous weekend that just now has arrived, and has already made it's exit for us was the 2007 NBA All-Star weekend in Vegas. It was a better weekend then I predicted it would be, and it ended with a boom and a bang when the Western Conference blew out the Eastern Conference 153-132. As every year, it's a meaningless games with events that don't really have a place in basketball whereas they shouldn't matter; however, they do. The Slam Dunk competition isn't what it use to be, but this year, it got a few people off their chairs screaming, yelling, and for the rednecks, "hollering," for Gerald Green of the Boston Celtics. Anyhow, I'm writing this to express my thoughts and analysis, dissecting the 2007 NBA All-Star game:

1.) Dick Bavetta versus Charles Barkley (sprint) -- Okay, okay, I had to love this one. It was especially funny at the beginning when Bavetta walked over to the sidelines to take off his sweatpants, then his warm-up jacket. It made it even more hilarious when he was struggling getting off the sweatpants and nearly fell down. He took his place at the baseline across from Sir Charles (Barkley) waiting for the race to begin. Barkley made a fool of himself a few times by stepping over the line before Ernie Johnson made the final "Go" on the "Ready. Set. Go!" call. He finally completed the start of the race, and Barkley stormed off, dominating the whole way, running back and forth, dominaing the competition like a fat man possessed for some Kripsy Kreme donuts. On the final stretch, Barkley started backpedaling, knowing he was on his way to victory, alas Bavetta made a quick dive for it, one last stretching effort, as he busted his knee in the process, while Barkley tripped up and fell on his ass tumbling to the ground, yet still being crowned the winner of the race. All in all, it was a great race, and was very entertaining. Now next year, why not Shaquille O'Neal versus Charles Barkley versus Magic Johnson versus George Gervin. Gervin being the oldest out of them all, it would be nice to see Shaq come away with the victory since he's more in shape than the other 3.

2.) The 3-point shootout -- I enjoyed it. It was a good event this year with a Heat player coming out and taking stride by shying away from the rest of the competition with 24 points in the last round, sinking some racks like no other. He's been a great attribution for Miami this year, but who really thought he would win the contest? A lot of people did, but I didn't think nothing of it; especially when he had those two air-balls, someone yelled "Why in the hell is this guy in here!?" Well to the man that said that, you have your answer. He defeated Washington's Gilbert Arenas, and defending champion of Dallas's Dirk Nowitzki in the Final Round to be named the champ of the event. I would have liked to of seen Gil make it interesting by knocking down some more jumpers tying it at 24 just to make it more exciting in the end, forcing a sudden death round. However, that wasn't the case as he missed jumpers early, and that cost him. In the end, he started shooting some one handers being the same Gilbert Arenas we all know and love.

3.) The Slam Dunk competition -- even though a Heat player didn't win this one, it was still my favorite competition of all from All-Star weekend. It was the most exciting dunk competition in a while (sure, you can say last years was good, but this year tops it by a long shot) with Gerald Green, doing a two-handed windmill bring-it-back dunk off the backboard, leaping over Nate Robinson for a jam, and then completely pulling an aerial assault over a table by jumping completely over it for a nice dunk giving him a 10 from every single judge. You couldn't really top that. Nate was good this year, but he was more spectacular last year when he could actually wow-ed the crowd with his little-guy dunking antics. This year, they wanted more; and while he brought it, there was another deserving contestant who could (or should) have made the final round. That contestant was Dwight Howard, who made a spectacular dunk to finish off his night, as he flew up, he controlled the ball in his right hand, while putting a sticker (of himself) on the backboard, straight on, not even being crooked, while finishing off the one-handed dunk. It was spectacular in that fashion of the concentration of the dunk and move, and it's unique posture in doing so. That should give upcoming, bright, dunkers some good ideas for the future. That's for sure.

4.) The All-Star game -- As I figured would happen, the West won, and Kobe would win the MVP. I had the thought that this would be the year the West would re-control the pace of what would happen in the All-Star game and they did. They ended a 3 year droubt since they last won it in 2004, and Kobe Bryant dominated the game. Even if the game had no avail, none of the players were truly trying to play defense, or playing very hard what-so-ever; you have to look at the fact that Kobe Bryant rehabilitated himself back to the way he played in 2002 when he won Most Valuable Player honors. He's really had quite a year, and is in third of my MVP choices for the season. Dwyane Wade didn't do so hot with only 10 points. However, he didn't need to, anyway. As I've acknowledged and mentioned, the game had no avail, and players were there to have fun (well 95 percent of them. The other 5 percent were there to win MVP, and that was number 24, Kobe Bryant, and number 23, LeBron James) so I'm sure they all did having a time with their horseplay, and their laughing it up throughout the weekend. Back to speaking of LeBron James, he scored 28 points, and if the Eastern Conference All-Stars would have won the game, he would have easily gotten the MVP privileges and honors despite having 4 turnovers, while finishing the game also with 6 assists, and 6 rebounds, right up there with his season averages.

Most Inevitable Moment of the Night: Shaquille O'Neal's crossover, then pull-up over Utah's Mehmet Okur, in the 4th Quarter. When the Eastern Conference All-Stars were down and out, Shaq wanted to give the fans of Las Vegas, and those like me watching at home something to remember this game by, and something to laugh about as well (that's a no-doubter.) He stepped up into a groove, and pulled up for a shot as the ball flung and bricked off the front iron for a big bricked shot by Shaq. Though, who would have thought it would have went in? We should have expected to of seen something crazy of Shaq (as we seen last year throwing the ball of the backboard of a free throw attempt then slamming it down) and our expectations were met. Next year, our expectations? Maybe a 3-point attempt or two. Why not?!

That was it for All-Star weekend, and this is it for my article. All in all, if I had to rate the weekend, I would have to give it a high 8 (out of 10.) It was overall, an enjoyable experience watching it this year, and I'm already thinking about the future events of what is going to happen next year. It's been a surprising, and blistering (for me) so far this season, and is only going to splinter in as the process goes on. I'll be back with another column as soon as possible.

Three Reasons Why I Absolutely Cannot Wait For Baseball To Start Back

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've wrote an MLB column. Like I've stated previously, I'm not much of an off-season chit-chatter when it comes to baseball at all. There are only a few trades that I'm actually intrigued to talk about, so I'm not too fond with off-seasons in any sport of that matter since it means a while until the regular season starts back (the winter is long if you exclude the NFL Playoffs, and the NBA progressing), and the MLB Draft isn't something you're going to jump up and down for every other day when you want more coverage for it. So for those who have been wanting a baseball column from me, here you go ... the top 3 reasons why I absolutely cannot wait for baseball to start back:

1.) The St. Louis Cardinals are mine, and your 2006 World Series champions, hence now the defending champions; that's what is going to make this season so special, knowing that everyone is going to be gunning for us, wishing for their respective team to be "the one," the World Series champions. However, the most special night will be on April 1st, when the Cards welcome the team that they beat to enjoy a trip to the World Series in the NLCS, the New York Mets. That's going to be a near must-watch on ESPN2. However, ESPN2? What is going to be on ESPN at the time? I have no idea, and that makes me disgusted on how America's Pastime is disrespected by having to play on the alternative ESPN station. You have to be kidding me.

2.) One name, two words: Albert Pujols. The guy is a serious animal and led the National League in slugging percentage and on-base percentage last season. The ESPN "experts" claim that he doesn't have speed, but I claim he makes up for it with his defense, his hitting, and not to mention his leadership. He is my favorite player, 'should be your favorite player, and in my offering biased opnion, he is the best player in the Majors (with all-due respect given to Derek Jeter.) He just won the World Series, his stock is high, he is "THE" man of baseball, and is only getting better at the age of 27 (just turned last month.)

3.) The Chicago Cubs, baby! They're the lovable losers of baseball, and as much as I love to rag on them countless times one after the other like it's the 55 bottles of beer on the wall (Kinda like one of my older versions of 98 years on hold on a call); well this year, I'm going to keep it down a bit; however, they retained injury prone Kerry Word and Mark Prior; they're both washed up in my opinion beause of that. They cashed in getting Alfonso Soriano, and beat my Cards last season more than the Cards beat them. However, where were the Cubs at during the post-season as the Cardinals took home the World Series tropy in Game 5 against Detroit? Oh, LAST in the National League Central while the Cardinals stood tall (err..on one foot) in first place. The Cubs will have another season where they will fail to reach even the Wildcard, and end up disgustingly missing the playoffs, as they grunt their teeth once again during the post-season. I love those guys.

Chargers Head Coach Schottenheimer Fired

Despite an early exit from the playoffs, the Chargers announced in January that Marty Schottenheimer would return as coach. That's not the case anymore. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported on Monday that the team had fired the coach.



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The Top 3 Quarterbacks in the NFC

Since we all know the top Quarterbacks in the AFC are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Carson Palmer, I thought that I'd make things interesting and alter my opinion up a little bit, and prove some valid points, and bring out some good facts. Yes, I will be talking good (and a little bad *wink wink*) about Matt Hasselbeck, for the first time in a while. Enjoy:

1.) Marc Bulger "duh duh duh duh duh duh duh, if only I could find Torry "Big Game" Holt on a post patttern" (Sorry, I had to pull a Chris Berman.) - Very underrated. While he may have great surrounding talent on offense, he is the NFC's most accurate passer in my opinion. Dude can throw it into the tightest windows despite having a bad offensive line that gave up somewhere in the top 5 most sacks this season, and he only threw 8 interceptions. I mean, Brees couldn't do that I don't believe, and I'm 100% sure that Hasselbeck couldn't even touch it, because Matt has had solid protection for most of his career (I'll get to why I added Matt so low and what his problems are. It just isn't his offensive line. That's for sure.) You can maybe say he has the second/third best running back in the league behind him, but still. We aren't talking about running, we're talking about passing (even though Stevie J. did receive for over 800 yards this season. 'Sounds like he did get his learning tips from the man behind the great Marshall Faulk.) However, with a banged up offensive line, it's hard to do things like this. Believe me, I watched every single Rams game this season (as the die-hard that I am) and easily know this stuff. Bulger has an aging, 34 year old Isaac Bruce, with a 30 year old (turning 31 on April 7th) torry Holt (yet, Bruce can still play, and Holt is the best receiver in the league in my eyes), so still tossing up big numbers like that, just after switching head coaches is just mind boggling. Bulger is bulging into a star. He's like the dark horse of the NFC; he never gets any credit.

2.) Drew "the birds and the" Brees (I made that one up.) - He is the best deep throwing in the conference in my eyes. He can bomb it like no other right now, and that really makes it hard on defenses if you add that, and solid (not great) offensive line protection around him, he can work his magic all over the field if he's given the time with receivers like Joe Horn (who actually, Brees only had two thirds of the year, so maybe he shouldn't be included), Marques Colston, Reggie Bush out in the flats, and with Reggie Bush and Deuce Mcallister lining up behind him in some of the split backs formations while splitting time, it's a deadly Saints' offense. What sets Brees apart from Bulger is that, Brees may have had a *career* season, but one season doesn't make you (however, he's had other seasons where he done *good* but not *GREAT* as in this one), and that's been proven several times in this league. Now if Bulger slumps net season, and Brees has another astonishing season (which I highly doubt), then I'll rank Drew higher than my main man Marc; however, right now, I don't see it at all, and you probably don't either because the only four games you have ever seen Bulger play were in 1.) The 2004 Pro Bowl when he won the MVP, 2.) The Panthers/Rams game in 2004 (Eh!), 3.) The Rams/Bears Monday Night Football game from this past year, and 4.) The 2007 Pro Bowl. Thank you, and come again.

3.) Matt "we're going to take the ball and we're going to score" Hasselbeck (Classic quote of the 2004 Wildcard chokers as he threw the game winnning interception to Green Bay's Al Harris) - I believe this guy has the biggest swagger as a competitor to win at the Quarterback spot in the NFC. He's one of the best leaders (when he's not being a ditz; outside of Brett Favre); but Hasselbeck has molded his character, not necessarily his game, but like I said, his character, after Brett Favre. I mean, versus Arizona, he had a bad knee, broken fingers, torn labrum, but he hustled 10 yards downfield and laid his body out on the line to recover a fumble. He's also very efficient, but over his career in Seattle, he has been plagued by drops, drops, drops, and more drops. With this year having a variety of injuries namely to the Seahawks' offensive line really decimated the effectiveness and chemistry of the offense of the 2006-2007 season.

Goodbye to the American icon the number "3"

My late Father (RIP December 18, 2003) and I wrote this together in February 2001 when Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed away. Since it's going to be 6 years this next Sunday, I thought I'd post this on my blog. 'Hope you enjoy:


Bye bye to an American icon, who drove his Chevy on Sunday when racing was fun.
And good old boys drinking beer in the stands, said Earnhardt, he was their man, yeah Earnhardt, he was their man.

So bye bye to the man in black, he drove the number 3 Chevy on the race track
And good old boys drinking beer in the stands, said that Iron Head, he was their man, yeah, Iron Head, he was their man.

So bye bye to the man in black, he wore dark sunglasses and a baseball cap
Yes, I can still see him with that sneaky grin, I know how much he loves to win.
And good old boys drinking beer in the stands, said the Intimidator, he was their man, yeah, the Intimidator, he was their man.

How did he learn to drive so fast? Did you see him go around him through the grass?
And boy, I can't believe the way he made that last pass.
I know he don't like to finish last.

With seven championships in his hat, it seemed that the man would last and last.
He had been driving for Nascar for twenty some years.
The man in black never shown any fear.

And even though, he had sons who raced, they could never take his place
He was the man you either loved, or hate, this is part of what made him great

So bye bye North Carolina's favorite son, your race is over, you have did all that you could have done.
Just good old boys, having fun, racing in the sun.
They started singing bye bye to a racer's son, everybody knew he was the greatest one.

It was Daytona that he went away, February 18, we won't forget that dreadful day. The day that Nascar died.

By: Troy & T.J. Sparks (February 26, 2001)

Saturdays are for Pro Bowling

Friday, I wrote a column on how useless the Pro Bowl is, and what it can do to teams by injurying key players. So, what happened? Drew Brees (who went 2 for 7 early in the first quarter) dislocated his elbow. Which one, as you frightenly ask? Good news, his nonthrowing elbow. And in other good news, he won't need surgey. See what I mean when I was talking about this, Friday? The Pro Bowl is one tough event, and it is tackle football, by the way. It's not some easy event, where you go out and play two hand touch in your Uncle Sean Glennon's backyard.

Let Brian Moorman of the Buffalo Bills tell you that, as the AFC ran a fake punt in the third quarter of the game yesterday, as he was running down the right side of the field near the sidelines trying to set up a scheme of blocks, when Sean Taylor broke the unwritten rule about hard hits in an exhibition, as Taylor popped Moorman. After the hit, Moorman laid on the ground like he was knocked out for a couple of seconds, then hopped right back up, and congratulated Taylor on the hit, righteously so (Too bad Taylor is too scared to do it to Steven "Action" Jackson, though.) "Believe it or not, it wasn't as bad as it looked," Moorman said. "It was just hard. It took me a second to realize that it didn't hurt so bad, so I got right back up." Yeah, right, Brian. Wait, I'm not doubting you; please, switch positions to offensive line, and come to St. Louis to play for my Rams. Please.

Speaking of the Rams, how did my boys from St. Louis do? Well Marc Bulger played pretty well, going 8/15, 133 yards, except he made a costly mistake when he fumbled on a confusing play, as Baltimore's Adalius Thomas scooped it up like an ice cream cone and ran it back 70 yards for the score. However, Steven "Action" Jackson made up for the Rams' Pro Bowl deal by getting tossed a pitch on 4th and 3 to the left side, he had no room so he ran backwards. I sat there with The Sports Gal thinking, "Yeah, he's going to score. Anyone in the world who has watched the Rams this season knows this beast is going to score." As he ran across the field, he bursted right into a seen carrying at least 3 AFC defenders with him for the touchdown.

It was funny, in my opinion. No one ever really credits the Rams, and how great our offense is (disintellect our offensive line.) One of the commentators made a comment on how you could make an easy case on how Bulger could be the third best quarterback in the league behind Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, on how he flies under the radar so much, never getting any attention. However, when Jackson made that touchdown, it was priceless! How so? The commentary said "None of these guys remember who the Rams are, and they're smashmouth now so they are going to remember this for a month or so. They haven't really gotten to face a Steven Jackson this year, except Sean Taylor, and we know how that turned out (Jackson blew right by him on a 65 yard passing TD, and had the winning touchdown run against the Skins earlier this year running right past Taylor.) If you're the AFC, you think 'WHOA!'"

So, it was Tiki Barber's last official NFL game (however, he still hasn't signed the papers.) He was the first player to score a touchdown in his final NFL game being in the Pro Bowl since Jim Brown in 1966 (41 bleepin years ago.) I don't really know what to say of this matter, but truthfully I think Tiki is scared. Scared of what, you ask? I think he's scared that his pride and dignity will be washed up if he continues to play for more significant seasons due to, as players get older, of course their stats deteriorate, and I don't think he wants that. I think what he wants, is fans to remember what they last seen, that "monster who carried the Giants into the playoffs in the 2006-2007 NFL season!" instead of just trying to do what he always wanted to do in life, because that's why he has the 40's to help him accomplish that. In the 30's, players should make the most of the upcoming end of their career, not retire at the age of 30! (turning 31 on April 7th.) That's a mistake that Barry Sanders made.

Whether it was about Marc Bulger and Tony Romo talking about drinking martini's, or about Steven Jackson and Steve Smith talking about "the power of Steve's" on the sidelines, it was a decent Pro Bowl if you count out the Drew Brees injury. What made it decent was the last game of Tiki Barber, and how we'll remember him. As well as Will Shields; who hads had a trip to the Pro Bowl for a record-tying 12 times in his career is contemplating retirement. So what does that mean for Larry Johnson? Lets see, without the total of all "three" of those guys (Willie Roaf, Tony Richardson (Free Agency), and now Will Shields (thinking about it)), he's going to have to be more like Steven Jackson, and just start carrying defenders more on his back, instead of like most backs searching for the holes. So, does this move Stevie J. up to the second best back in the league yet? I would seem to think so.

"Fanking" is the word for the Boston Celtics ... Yes, "fanking"

Two weeks ago on ESPN.com's Page 2, my main man Bill Simmons wrote up a column saying that he was officially fantaking his beloved Boston Celtics, where we all know he's the biggest Celtics fan at the Worldwide Sports Leader (ESPN.) So, we're all wondering, Bill, fantanking? I sent The Sports Guy an email a week ago for some feedback on his column, and spoke of it on the Sports Bash on the Pod Center from ESPN.com. He mentioned that a reader sent him an email, saying it should be "fanking" instead of fantanking. Which, of course, I believe he should have changed it to "fanking" for that one special reason, saying at the end of the season when the Celtics blow up and not even get over winning 18 games, he can say "Fank you, Boston" in form to if they can possibly draft Kevin Durant or Greg Oden in late June. Now, I'll take this moment -- Fank you, Bill.

I've been immersed into being a new "fanker" of the Celtics, now for a while. As you guys all know, there's a part of me that is a fan of the Boston Celtics (yet the Celts are still my second team only to you know who), it all came from being the son of a big Celtics fan so of course it happened. So, what is "fanking" (my word!) or "fantaking" (in Bill Simmons' case)? It's when you turn on your team for the greater good, and in the Celtics' case, you have Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, two guys that can really transform the course of your franchise, and if you can get that top spot in the lottery, you're looking at 50/50 odds draft at getting either two of these guys.

So for me, it's a no-brainer. The Celtics weren't going anywhere anyway. They couldn't get Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce got hurt, Tony Allen blew out of his knee. You know, the day Tony Allen blew out his knee was it for me, I completely went into full fanking (or fantanking) mode for the Celts. I mean the Celtics have the perfect team for this, they've lost 17 straight. They have the absolute perfect coach for this situation (Doc Rivers.) The players always play this hard, and this guy always blows it for them in the final minutes. I don't see them getting 18 (or more) wins, I really don't.

So other Celtics fans, are they joining me in fanking? I'm not sure, and just some people just cannot root against their team, and I'm pretty much like this in Football because I'm never as excited for that NFL Draft as I am for the NBA Draft. I'm usually a warm hugging type of guy that wants the team to go on and win games as they please as greatly as they can, however this isn't the case for the Celtics in the NBA. It's pretty obvious!

If I had to choose between Durant and Oden for the Celtics to choose in the draft, I'm not sure. I always knew that Durant was good, and everyone was saying that he was the clearcut number two guy, he's the franchise guy in his own right. Nobody ever mentioned that he could ever surpass Oden in this draft, you know? I watched Durant a couple of times in November, and December, so you never heard anyone comment on Durant playing as well as Oden til basically in January. People basically think Durant is just one-and-done.