The Mid-Week Rundwon

I haven’t been able to write as much as I would have liked this week, due to me being in Memphis helping out family and friends affected by the flood. Remember to keep those victims of the Spring tornadoes and flooding in your prayers as they need your strength their this time of need.

Dallas Mavericks march on to NBA Finals: Dallas defeated the OKC Thunder 100-96 last night to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2006. Dallas got a dagger 3-point shot by Dirk Nowitzski with 1:14 left to cap a 14-4 run and to seal the series. The Mavs have been the surprise team in the NBA playoffs this year as they knocked off the two-time defending champs L.A and have been on a roll every since. The Thunder are a group of young dynamic players as evident by the exploits of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. In the end Dallas just had too much experience and as the young Thunder wilted under the pressure. The Thunder will be a team to be reckoned with in the future as this lost is only a growing pain that will make them better. Dirk has proved this entire post-season that he wants his ring and he wants it now. The time is now for the German assassin and the rest of the grizzled vets like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. Congrats to Dallas for an outstanding post-season run thus far.

L.A Lakers hire Mike Brown to replace Phil Jackson: In a stunning turn of events, the Lakers brass has found their man for their coaching vacancy signing Mike Brown to a four-year $18 million dollar contract. Brown as you may remember was the coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Lebron years and had an overall record of 272-138 in five seasons that included two Eastern Conference Finals and one NBA Finals trip. Brown was also the NBA coach of the year in 2009. My personal take on the signing of Brown is this: Although he is a defensive wizard (His teams were in the top 10 defensively 3 out of 5 years he coached), his offense scares me because it often was stagnated and went all points through Lebron. Granted, the Cavs really had no choice because Lebron was clearly the best option on every possession. I just hope he can be a little more creative now that he has more talent at his disposal. Also he has the reputation as a pushover in the locker room as seen by his treatment of James. Kobe will be a different animal to contain. You’re talking about a champion and an MVP who doesn’t care that father time has caught up with him. He will still try and take over a game if he feels it necessary. If Brown can somehow found a common ground with Bryant and show some flair on offense then he should be just fine. Lebron’s comments on the hire: Good move.

Local Sports News:

Vandy downs Georgia 10-0: The freshmen duo of T.J. Pecoraro and Kevin Ziomek shut down the Bulldog bats as the Commodores shut out Georgia to opener of the SEC Baseball tournament. The game was actually stopped thanks to the mercy rule that goes into effect when on team leads by 10 or more runs after seven innings. The only negative about the thumping on Georgia was that Pecoraro’s forearm which forced him out of the game in the fourth inning. In came Ziomek, and he was in trouble to start as he inherited a batter that he walked and walked another to load the bases. He would get out of the inning by striking out Curt Powell and Jay Delmonico and kept the 3-0 lead for the Dores. Vandy will now take on number one seeded South Carolina today at 7:30 pm make sure you tune in.

Nashville Sounds Update: Wednesday’s scheduled game between the Nashville Sounds and Tacoma Rainiers was rained out and will be made up as part of an 8 p.m. doubleheader on Thursday. The teams will play a pair of seven-inning games Thursday to close out their four-game series. Right-hander Amaury Rivas (3-3, 3.73) will start for Nashville in the opener and face Tacoma right-hander Blake Beavan (1-1, 5.76). Left-hander Sam Narron (2-1, 3.30) will pitch for the Sounds in the nightcap to square off against Rainiers right-hander Charlie Haeger, who will make his first appearance of the season.

Editor’s note: For more content make sure you go to www.noomizo.com/sports.com as I continue my partnership in covering the sports section for them. Feel free to make any comments in that section as well and I will surely respond.

Super Bowl Hangover

The Super Bowl hangover is now in full effect. We now have no football until at least August and quite possibly longer than that with looming NFL labor strife with the players union and the owners. What is a die-hard fan to do in the lulls of winter boredom? If you’re like most fans including myself, you will just turn your attention to the other major sports but the only thing in full swing is basketball. I am an avid basketball fan as well but regular season basketball just doesn’t tickle my fancy as much as a regular season football game. Of course, you are going to have your deep 3-pointers and high-flying dunks with animated commentators such as Marv Albert with his signature “Yes!” .Also in college basketball with Dickie V’s over the top bragging about any player he sees fit for his praise but it not enough for to fill football void. Basketball is my yang and football and is my ying. I’ve always followed both with die-hard status but it always hard to just change my viewing pleasure to mid-season basketball.




It makes it even harder when one person is dominating the headlines of the NBA as much as Carmelo Anthony is right now. So after countless trade rumors about Melo going to the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks, am I suppose to believe that the Los Angeles Lakers have joined the discussion? So I guess now the NBA is in line for its version of super-teams that was ushered in by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. I just wish he would land somewhere so every time I watch sportscenter I don’t have to hear about it anymore.



College basketball isn’t good until March although The Jimmer is making a case for me to watch a BYU game. I want to catch the latest outfit of one and done players Coach Cal has put together at Kentucky before its too late. North Carolina and Duke games are always good and are about the closest thing to hard hitting you will see in college basketball. But again, I can wait until March in most cases before I tune in for college basketball.



What about baseball you ask? Spring training is right around the corner. The Boston Red Sox have reloaded by adding two of the best young hitters in the game in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. Philadelphia added ace Cliff Lee after he spurned offers from the Yanks and Texas. And speaking of the Yankees, now what are they going to do without Andy Pettitte? Baseball peaks my interest but again not enough for my football fix. For the life of me I cannot watch an entire nine inning game of baseball. I have tried and tried but I always end up doing one of the following: A.) Falling asleep B.) Hopping on the computer or C.) Flipping the channel after watching a guy foul off 10 pitches. It’s just not the same as seeing Troy Polamalu come off the edge for a blitz or Peyton Manning pump faking the defense for a bomb to Reggie Wayne.



As far as all the other so-called spring and summer sports (Tennis, Race-car driving, Golf etc.), none can come close to the action on the gridiron. For those of us who are die-hard football fans, nothing else can touch the pigskin. The worst Sportcenters are in the summer, tune in to one if you don’t believe me. I call this period of non-football the drought. I find myself sometime watching old college football games with players who are either in the league or doing something entirely different with their lives. I watch the NFL network games just to get a taste of what I’m missing even though I know who is going to win. The only good thing that comes from this is that it makes you tune back in to your regular life. You know like work, your family and the outdoors. One person who never complains when football season is over is my girlfriend, she says this is the only time she can get my attention and maybe she is right.



So in summarizing the only thing for us football fans can do is the things we did before football like enjoying the nice spring weather and our family and friends. That is until football returns.

NBA season tip-off

The NBA season gets underway tonight with two games featuring three of the prohibitive favorites going into this season.

The Miami Heat face-off with the defending Eastern conference champions Boston Celtics and the defending world champion Los Angeles Lakers take on the Houston Rockets.

After an off-season in which they dominated the headlines with the free agent signings of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh; Miami finally gets the chance to state their case for the championship. I wasn’t at all thrilled with the choice of Lebron James and the whole “Taking my talents to South Beach” thing. It changed my view of James, who I thought was more of a Michael Jordan type leader. The decision to join forces with Wade and Bosh seems like an easy out for him. Everyone had something to say rather it be negative or positive with his choice. I’m not going to bash the guy for using his rights as a free agent to pick the team of his choice. But I will never view him as the fierce competitor on the level of Jordan, who took his team on his shoulders and carried them to multiple rings. I guess we all should have seen have as more of a Magic Johnson type player.

Boston has flown under the radar as much as a conference winner can. They did add Shaquille O’neal (not the big diesel anymore, more like the big unleaded.), Jermaine O’neal and Delonte West. Those additions will make them one of if the not the deepest team in the league. Their season will hinge on health issues of course as they are one of the oldest teams in the league. The big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen still have their say in the Eastern conference. They are like the old men in the neighborhood who still have enough fight in them to be a cause for concern. The most important player of the team now is Rajon Rondo. His play last year was elevated to an all-star level.This team could very well win the championship OR have multiple injuries and limp to the finish line with nothing.

In the second game of the doubleheader, The Los Angeles Lakers will face off with The Houston Rockets

The Lakers are looking for a three-peat following their championship run of last year. The biggest question mark for this team is the health of their leader Kobe Bryant and starting center Andrew Bynum. Bryant had off season knee surgery and the same goes for Bynum. Kobe was quoted as saying he thinks his knee is 75 -80% going into this season. Andrew Bynum on the other hand will be out until at least late November. The Lakers made some good off season pickups to pick up the slack with Matt Barnes, Steve Blake and Theo Ratliff. Even with Kobe not at 100% they should easily win the Western conference crown. I look for Pau Gasol , Derek Fisher and Ron Artest(as crazy as he is) to hold down the for fort until Kobe is back to 100% and Bynum is returns. A three-peat is likely as this team has the experience and talent to duplicate last year’s results.

The Houston Rockets are a team that hinges on the health (this is becoming redundant) of its big man Yao Ming. He looks to recover from a broken foot that has hindered him all of last year. Aaron Brooks took control of the team in his absence and the Rockets also traded for the sharp shooter Kevin Martin. Luis Scola had a nice tournament in the FIBA world championships, leading the tournament in scoring. This team has a lot of moving part but if it comes together and by that I mean in large part the health of Ming, they should be right in the thick of things for the Western conference.

The opening tip-off games are usually good match-ups and this year is no different. I look for Miami to pull out the victory over Boston and the Lakers to overmatch the Rockets. Enjoy the games, I know I will.