- The NBA Draft Lottery was two nights ago and the poor Boston Celtics got screwed (again). Of course, so did the Memphis Grizzlies and the Milwaukee Bucks, but seriously, who cares about those never-has-been franchises? I do feel bad for the Celtics though. Back in the early '90s I was actually a fairly large fan of the franchise. I was, obviously a huge Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish guy. I was too young to see them in their heyday, but I saw them enough to know they were great. My friend and I would always pretend to be Larry Bird and Robert Parrish on the playground and for some reason he was always Bird. I happy to be pretty tall now, but I wasn't when I was 8, and yet I was always Parish. I really wanted to love the Celtics again. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's malaise, I don't know. But I can assure you, Yi Jianlian is not going to do it for me when I'm sitting around on a Wednesday night this fall and flipping past Fox Sports New England.
- As another side note to the draft lottery, when did Jon Barry become an idiot? I've heard him throughout this season on ESPN and I thought he was rounding into a pretty decent analyst. And then after the draft he makes some of the dumbest statements I've ever heard - saying that the Trailblazers should trade the No. 1 pick for a veteran and some lower picks. Uh, buddy, do you watch college basketball? Did you see Greg Oden play this year? Are you borderline mentally retarded? I don't really care about the fact that Barry "picked" the Celtics to win the lottery beforehard. It was stupid and pointless (because anyone with an ounce of intelligence would know you should pick the team with the highest odds), but it's a lottery, there's no such thing as a jinx and you can't change the results by a prediction. However, his comments following the draft showed complete incompetence. If you can shock Stephen A. Smith with something you said, it must be extra specially stupid.
- An interesting note, is there any other sport (or competition or whatever you want to call it) where past accomplishments are more impressive than present like with the Indianapolis 500? I was listening to commentary on the qualifying the other day and they mentioned how Rick Mears has won the Indy 500 four times. That's an amazing total (A.J. Foyt and Al Unser also did it by the way). In baseball, all the totals from the past are belittled by today. The competition is so much better in football and basketball today, with so much more parity. College sports have gotten much tougher too. Even NASCAR has gotten tremendously tougher to win in. I still watch the Indy 500, because it's a great event, but it is certainly an anomaly in the sporting world.
- Things that are not news (and the media should stop reporting): Brett Favre reporting to Packers mini-camp, Jason Giambi taking amphetamines, Henry Aaron going to the game when Barry Bonds breaks his record. Media, please take note.
- Diana Taurasi should be the MVP of the WNBA this year, as long as she gets the Mercury into the playoffs. The league desperately wants to give her the trophy, as do the voters supporting the league, but they don't want to jump the gun. If her team makes the playoffs, she'll get the award. That doesn't mean she won't deserve it, I'm just saying. Also, just wanted to mention that Erika de Souza is going to be a really good player for the Sun.
- A few UConn notes to close it out: Brandon Jennings is going to Arizona over UConn (in 2008). Obviously you can't be disappointed with that (it's like being disappointed a TV show pilot you read about wasn't picked up), but you can be disappointed with the recruiting of Jim Calhoun. I don't doubt they'll turn it around, but it's hard to get too enthusiastic about next season with no real encouraging news coming. And for the baseball team, a disappointing regular season, but a late charge from Penders' boys has me content. They won't win the tournament or anything, but it's nice to see them rebound after losing three big pitchers from a year ago. And Rob Bono (from Waterford) is going to be a nice player for them next season on what is a very young team.
- The Spurs will win the title this year. I said it at the start of the playoffs. I'm saying it now. It won't even be close. Four titles for Duncan? Unbelievable. Oh and a huge groundbreaking post coming up soon about Tim Duncan. Not an understatement at all. Stick around, because it will be the biggest thing you've ever read on a blog, anywhere. And when I say biggest, I mean in terms of size mostly, but also importance (in a way). I never lie.
