Finals Pick

First off I want to say sorry about the break, I'll be getting back on my blog grind now that schools winding down.

Wow, what a postseason! A lot of great series and crazy outcomes. To bad that theese series didn't go so longer. Who would've thought a 5 game series could be so competitive. Both of the past 2 Miami series were way more exciting and competitive then the scores show. Not to mention Dallas' amazing comebacks (or OKC collapses). But lets get down to business.

You couldn't have written a finals match-up better than this. Dirk attempting to triumph over the team that knocked him off his pedestool five years ago. LeBron going for his first ring (again) The big three getting to the finals in their first year. Mark Cuban fined zero dollars throught the playoff run so far. A lot of compelling stuff with this match-up, but the most glaring of all comes from what the series means itself.

Lebron left Cleveland because he recognized the fact that you can't win with one star on the team. Now he and the big three are up against Dirk and the Mavs. Yes Dirk. Alone. One star. Granted he has more talent then Cleveland had, this team is a slightly more talented Cavs team from past seasons. Now we will see who was right. If LeBron wins, he was right. He can't do it alone and all he needed was a little help. If the Mavs win, what can LeBron say? It's the one star team that history tells us can't win championships. If the Mavs win, LeBron will be looking kind of dumb. All that said lets be fair, those Cleveland teams were a joke and there GM should be ashamed of himself, but that's for a different story.

The deciding factor of this series will come down to the Mavericks hitting jump shots. The thing about the Mavericks is that's were all their points come from. Dirk isn't tearing up the paint. J Kidd isn't taking it to the hole. If the shots don't drop, Miami will dominate this series. If the shots don't drop. If they do drop, this is a very hard team to guard. You can't double anybody because the guy you leave will get the rock and drain it. On the other side I just don't see how Dallas expects to guard the heat. Shawn Marion has been playing lockdown and he shut Kevin Durant down, but Kevin Durant is not LeBron James. I know after the world championships everyone wanted to compare them, but I think we see now there is no comparison other than there both SF. LeBron does everything, and if your locking him up, he will spread the floor and find Wade, who I expect to come back hard.

I would think logically to say that if Wade comes on, Miami wins, if not, they lose. This could end up happening, but as we saw in the Chicago series this team goes as LeBron goes. You could say Wade started the run that won game 5, and you'd be right. That's it though, the rest of the series was won by LeBron with help from his sidekick, Chris Bosh (Mr. Two and a half men my ass) Who is going to lockdown Dwayne Wade? Don;t worry I'll wait. Give up? Exactly.

Overall, the only adavantage the Mavs have is Dirk over Bosh. It's not the advantage you'd think because Bosh is a match-up problem for Dirk too. Miami just has too much firepower. LeBron is just plan out of his mind right now. The Mavs know whats up when they play the heat in the finals. They can't rest easy with any lead, as those 06 memories will creep into Dirk and Terrys heads. When your team has a struggling Dwayne Wade and it really doesn't matter, your just not losing. I hope this one goes the distance to make up for the short series we've seen, but I'm going with Miami in 6.

Other Predictions
MVP-Lebron 29pts 9 reb 7 ast
Game by game(just to see how brilliant I am) Miami wins games 1 and 2, Dallas takes game 3, Miami game 4, Dallas game 5, and Miami closes it out in game 6.
Tears for Mark Cuban and Nowitski-Yes

Six Fig Newton

Recent reports suggest that Heisman frontrunner Cam Newton allegedly left his recruitment up to the highest bidder. It is alleged that he didn't go to his first choice Mississsippi State because Auburn made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Sounds like the Corleone Family was involved in the recruitment to me. Anyway, not only that but an anonymous source has said he was caught cheating 3 times while at Florida and was up for a hearing which would decide on his future with the school, if any, so he transfered to a junior college amidst all this, contrary to the report that he left due to seeking more playing time. To me, this is not only a smear compaign, headed most likely by his former coach, Urban Meyer, or excuse me, an anonymous source. I guess those two titles and Heisman winner wasn't enough to hold him over for a couple years. It's also ridiculous because there is no facts backing up any of the accusations. It's basically all hearsay. I could go tell a reporter as an anonymous source that I saw LaMichael James kill two people, and all of a sudden it would be top news apparently. Is it really that easy? Although after all this, do I think it's true? Of course I do. He didn't want to go there in the first place, but he suddenly had a change of heart because his dad told him to go to Auburn. That being said it really doesn't bother me at all. What do I care if he got paid some money to play. Good for him. I think he's earned it, and with how violent the sport is there's no guaranteeing anything these days. We just saw Tre Newton retire due to injuries in college and he'll never get NFL money. Hopefully he was getting money under the table, he definitely deserved it. The way I see it not paying college players is like prohibition. It still happens even if it's banned so you might as well legalize it so you can control it. Either way it's going to happen, and it's not fair to the schools that get caught to get penalized when every school is doing it. But in a world where cash rules everything the last thing these schools want to do is give some of it up.

Playoff Picks

ALDS
Yankees vs. Twins
The twins are a great story. Every year it seems like they lose big talent but still play good team baseball and rally around each other and end up near the top if not t the top. The loss of Justin Morneau would lead you to believe they were done, but they still won the division pretty convincingly. That being said all that's not going to help them against the Juggernaut that is the NewYork Yankees. They may squueze one win out of New York just because of the pitching situatuin New York has, but I'd be surprised at anything more than that.
New York 3-1

Rays vs. Rangers
I'd love to take the Rangers here. They've got a lot of firepower and decent pitching since they added Cliff Lee, but there's way to many question marks around them. Will Josh Hamilton return to form? Will Cliff Lee pitch like Cliff Lee? The Rays are just way to solid right now and have formidable pitching with Price, Shields, and Garza and the combination of power and speed in their line up, not to mention homefield, they're just way to solid to pick against.
Tampa Bay 3-1

Phillies vs. Reds
This should be the NLCS in all honesty. These are easily the two best teams in the NL. Cincinatti's line up looks really good too, with Volquez, Arroyo, and Cueto, and their bats are pretty good, too, with Votto leading the way. That being said they might as well be minor leaguers compared to the Phillies who have Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels going for them, not to mention there all star filled line up with Howard, Utley, Rollins, Ibanez just to name a few. The main reason in deciding this pick is experience. The Phillies know what they're doing. Pretty much everyone on their roster has been to the world series. The Red's line up has very little experience in the playoffs at all. I love Dusty Baker, but unless he's not out their playing, and there's just too much firepower on the Phillies for the young Reds to deal with.
Phillies 3-2

Giants vs. Braves
Probably the two worst teams in the playoffs, the Giants, who have good pitching but hitting revolves pretty much soley on Buster Posey, whose a good young kid but not enough to carry the whole team offensively, so unless the pitching is perfect they stand no chance. The Braves, I don't even understand how they made the playoffs. Who do they have?? Just kidding they're a decent team but they are pretty much like the Giants, but they have a little better hitting. On one hand I would say the braves because they have more experience and a little more bats, but come on!! It's the Braves. They make the playoffs and then mail it in after that pretty much everytime. I like Lincecum to dominate and Cain to return to form. Giants squuek this out in a close one.
Giants 3-2

Pressure Cookers

I've noticed a disturbing trend in sports today that became to much too ignore after the demise of Tiger Woods. These days we place way too much pressure on athletes. As soon as they show signs of greatness we immediately start comparing them to the greats and act as if it's only a matter of time before they become the best player ever in their sports. Think about it, as soon as Tiger started doing good it became a matter of when, not if, he would become the all time majors winner. As soon as Roger Federer started doing good it became when, not if, he would be the all time majors winner. After this, they both began a huge decline. Even with LeBron James, who himself did a bit of self hyping, before he was even drafted the talk began about when he would win 6 rings and become better then Jordan. Now he still has no rings. On the flip side, players that we don't put this pressure on, like Nadal or Kobe, continue to win the highest honors in their respective sports. Even in football Adrian Peterson was proclaimed "one of the greatest running backs ever" in his first year and since then he has struggled to maintain that level of performance. It's mostly the sports media constantly using these hyperboles that put such huge pressure on these guys it becomes expected for them to win multiple championships, rush for thousands of yards, or whatever is considered greatness in their respective sports. I don't think to this date that one athlete has performed up to the hype that we have put on them. We as people today put way too much expectation on athletes, almost as if they don't win the championship every year, they are a failure. Then people wonder why LeBron went to Miami -- at least he knows he can get some rings down there and people will get off of his case about it. I just hope it doesn't happen to Kevin Durant because I'm seeing all the signs of another athlete being overhyped way too early. Let's not forget this guy wasn't exactly superman in the playoffs last year, coming up pretty short in some critical playoff games. So all I'm saying is let's turn down the overhyping and just watch these guys play without letting them psychologically defeat themselves.

Throw Vick A Bone

I'm sure we all saw Michael Vick's wonderful performance on Sunday. I wouldn't say that he's back though. To say he's back would imply that he was back to his old form. The guy we saw Sunday, however, was way better then the guy that played for Atlanta all those seasons before. Not only does he have the superhuman ability to run around the pocket and possibly break loose for massive runs, he can now sit in the pocket and pass the ball better then most quarterbacks in the league. Not only that but having him on the field seemed to open up the entire run game for the offense, now that the defense had to account for him too. I don't think it was a coincidence that LeSean McCoy had a career day at the running back position. When Vick is on the field it pretty much takes away a defender because you need at least one guy to keep his eyes on him. I am willing to bet when Kolb comes back the offense will go back to being very stagnant. Vick has left his mark and I'm willing to bet the other players on the offense are questioning who they want in there. All this being said I am about sick of all the Vick haters. Mainly just PETA the most whiney group of people I've ever heard of. I get what Vick did was wrong and I'm not saying I'm okay with it, but he's also paid an extremely steep price for it. It might have been the best thing for him, and now he is extremely humbled and hardworking. I don't see how some people can say they will never forgive him because it could have been way worse, at least he didn't kill anybody (Donte Stallworth). I am also sick of people talking about all athletes saying "If he was working a regular job, they would never let him back." Newsflash people, it's not a regular job! It's one of the farthest things from a regular job. If anything he went through a lot more than a regular person would with all the public scrutiny, being kicked off the top of the pyramid, doing time in jail, and losing about 100 million dollars. I think he deserves his chance now, and I'm willing to bet by next season he will be a top 5 quarterback. A guy that can outrun your fastest players and hit his guys right in the numbers, that's a pretty scary thought.

Farve From What You'd Expect

Two games into the season and it seems like coming back was a pretty horrible idea for Brett Favre. But what is the problem exactly? You could say it's Sidney Rice being injured, you could say it's age, you could say a lot of things. I personally think that the problem is with the treatment of him as if he is some kind of God. You've got to wonder what the other players in that locker room who work way harder than Farve feel about the way he is bowed down to by the coaches and management. It is absurd that they spent all their time wooing Favre and making sure he's there for them and all the royal treatment they give him. First off if the vikings were really smart they'd thank him for last year and would've let him go so they could pick up McNabb last year, a better long term quarterback with just as much talent. Second of all, if he was going to play for them he shouldn't have been able to BS around skipping most of training camp and then deciding to come around week three. The Vikings pretty much let it be known that their world revolves around this guy. So back to my first point, if I'm in this locker room I know I would have a definent resentment for him knowing that I've been working as hard as I can and pretty much going unnoticed because their too busy sending players to Mississippi to talk to Favre or checking on Favre to see how his ankle is. This is probably the reason they aren't preforming as well especially since this "God" has been playing like a regular old quarterback. The fact is last year was a great year, also pretty flukey, and not likely to happen the same way. Not to mention it ended with another Favre like chokefest in the NFC championship. It's not as if they've done anything to improve their roster, and the NFL is about constantly improving your team because if you don't the other teams will and it's looking like everyone in that division is just as good as them now. Unless something drastic happens (Vincent Jackson to Minnesota?) it's going to be a very long year in Minnesota.

LeBron Hater Bandwagon

Since he came into the NBA in 2003, LeBron has always been my favorite player. Which is why it's really pissing me off that all these people don't like him now. Wow he announced his decision on TV what a horrible guy. Yea right! Whats so bad about that? The bad thing is that pathetic excuse for an owner couldn't put a team together good enough to win with LeBron at the core. Always afraid to pull the trigger. Just last year they could have gotten Amare Stoudemire but didn't want to give up JJ Hickson. Are you freaking kidding me?? Then to top it off they traded for the 70 year old Antawn Jamison who might as well have a big overrated stamp on his chest. It's also comical to me to accuse him of giving up in the playoffs. Oh yea, a triple double in the closeout game, this guy was ready to go home lol. Now everybody hates him for joining "Wades" team. I'm sorry but it's LeBron's team now Dwayne. I admit I wanted to see him go to the Knicks, but I also can't wait to watch this team play. We'll see how much people hate him when hes lighting up scoreboards and part of the greatest show in the NBA. The people of Cleveland make me laugh, I mean who in their right mind would stay with the Cavaliers? Just look at their team now without LeBron. They couldn't even win March Madness! They are looking like one of the worst teams ever! The pacers are looking down on them. So what if he would have stayed? Another five years of him carrying the team while they sit and watch him do everything. I'm glad he's gone and I can garuntee he will win a ring this year, next year, and probably the year after that. By the way, he's definitely better then Kobe, but I'll get in to that another time.