NBA Playoffs

THe playoffs have started and so far it has been one of the most exciting playoffs of recent memory. The opening round matchup between the phoneix suns and the san antonio spurs has lived up to the hype with the first game going into double overtime. Some surprises of the playoffs were the sixers besting the pistons in their opening game. Top perfomers were paul gasol who had a monster opening game for the lakers. Dwight Howard of the Magic has posted back to back 20 point and 20 rebound games, something unheard of espically in the playoffs. The performer of the playoffs so far has to be Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. In his very first career playoff game he droped 32 points on a veteran Mavericks team. He only further backed up his impressive performance and MVP caliber season by putting up another 32 point game the other night.

NFL DRAFT

The NFL draft starts this weekend. THe draft class does not appear to be as strong this year as in years past. Once you pass the top 5 players the rest seem to be evenly matched whether you are looking at best available or best by position. Not only is the draft lacking that large exciting group of players, it is also without hte suspense of the selection of the top pick. On Tuesday the Maimi Dolphins signed Jake Long to a contract. This really kills the excitment and expectation of the top pick nad how the rest of the draft will follow.

NBA Playoffs

Its playoff time in the NBA. Again for like the 10th year in a row the west comes into the playoff with the more dominating side. They are lead by the Lakers and Hornets. THe East is again weak and the only really strong team appears to be the Celtics and the Pistons. The West has all 8 teams with at least 50 wins while the east only sports 4 or 5. The west will be the conference to watch this playoff season. If you have to watch the east wait until the conference semi finals and finals. The four dominating teams should be there, the celtics, pistons, cavs, and magic. The west will be amazing the suns and spurs will be the best opening round matchup. My finals is SUNS CELTICS with the celtics winning in 7

Basketball Hall of Fame

The other day the basketball hall of fame announced their picks for the class of 2008. Some of the more notiable inductees were Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Oligowan. These two players were two of the more dominating big men of their time and possibly ever in the NBA. Ewing was a big part of the Knicks success in the early 90's, while Hakeem did the same for the Rockets leading them to an NBA championship. Another selection was Dick Vitale. We all know who Dicky V is and I am so glad that he made it into the Hall. He is the voice of basketball from November until April. Not only is he a great contributor to the game, but he also does great work for the community and those who are in need.

Baseball Season

The season is offically underway. To me it looks as if its going to be a good year for baseball, with many of the divisons looking like they are going to be competitive. The AL east doesnt look like it will just be the red sox and the yankees chasing a division title. The rays and the blue jays are both fielding competitive teams that could challenge these two top tier teams. The AL central also looks like it is goin to come down to the wire. The indians are always a top team and the white sox look to be a part of the mix, along with the tigers once their offense gets geared up and going. In the NL central it looks like its anybodys game. The cubs, brewers, and cardnals all look to be after that division crown. The reds i dont think will be that bad either. I hesitate to put the pirates into this mix because, well they are the pirates and will probably tank it when the games start to get important. But overall it is shaping up to be an awesome season.

Pirates

The Baseball season offically started yesterday. The hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, opened their season in Atlanta. And again the pirates gave the fans no reason to think that this season will in any way be any different than the previous 15 seasons. They blew a huge lead by making one of the stupidest plays a major leaguer could make. Its not even like they missed the fly, the two fielders just didnt know who was going to make the catch or where the ball was. It was a total lack of communication. Then with a 3 run lead in the 12th, the new manager left the same pitcher in who then gave up a home run, a double, and an RBI single to make the score 12-11. The pirates did win but its not looking good for this season, I'm goin to say that the pirates will be enjoying their 16th straight losing season.

Tiger Woods

Over the weekend there was an incident where Tiger Woods ended up swearing at a photographer who snapped a picture during his backswing. People were offended that Tiger used some foul language to yell at the guy. As a fellow curser I can say that while the language is not the best, it is still not the worst thing in the world. It was in the heat of the moment during a tournament in which Tiger was in the hunt for a win. People shouldnt be taking pictures of any golfer during their swing. And if you feel the need to take a picture walk away and use the zoom so the golfer wont be distracted. It happens all the time in any sport where foul language is used. Its not the best decision but it is what happens and we need to just accept it and move on.