Today In Sport

Shaquille O’neal was this week announced as the newest addition to the Boston Celtic’s All-Star Cavalcade Of Future Hall Of Famers Retirement Tour.  That’s not to say that this team won’t be competitive, far from it.  They have over 50 combined All-Star appearances on their roster and they can all still play.

But they are not getting any younger and other teams are getting better, most notably Miami.  Shaq is becoming a bit of a journeyman in his latter years, this being his fourth different team in four years.  He has been signed by teams like Phoenix and Cleveland who believed his experience could help them get to the championship.

However Shaq is now more likely to get the final piece of pizza rather than be the final piece in the championship puzzle.  Boston had their final shot at a title with this team last season and came up a few games short against the Lakers.  This should be the last year for this group as it stands now.

And Shaq, stop hurting your legacy and just retire at the end of this season.  You do not want to be Michael Jordan finishing up your days as an ageing superstar trying to get a rubbish team to be less rubbish and failing.

So, LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers have been bounced from the NBA playoffs by the Boston Celticsin six games.  James had a fairly good Game 6 at Tha Gahden but even he gave up in the final minutes.  Nine turnovers.  NINE!  Were you paying attention out there King James, Lord of the Court?

No, you were too busy complaining about every little piece of contact that wasn’t called and blaming everyone but yourself.  Sure, you came out and said that your little elbow boo-boo wasn’t to blame for your bad play but come on, you didn’t play through the pain and your team suffered because of it.

So, where to now for the King?  Well, the Nets have some money to splash around now.  Or even better, he can go to the Clippers!  Anywhere where we can laugh at him trying to drag an inept franchise into mid table obscurity.  LeBron James is now the Charles Barkley and Karl Malone of his generation.

Lots of talent but will never win a championship ring.

Boston Celtic general manger and former NBA player Danny Ainge, was fined $25,000 after game 2 of their series with Cleveland for the high crime of throwing a towel in the air and catching it as Cavalier forward JJ Hickson was taking a free throw.

Never mind that there are always fans behind the net that are trying to distract a player or a team mascot running around making a nuisance of himself, Ainge took it way too far.  We are lucky it was just a towel.  It could have been one of those foam fingers that may have taken Hickson’s eye out.

What next?  An owner yelling at a player’s mother?  Maybe Ainge should have thrown an octopus onto the court.  The NBA wouldn’t know what to do then.  I want to see Ainge throwing other things in the air to see which objects attract the bigger fine.  Let’s go with a popcorn bucket next.

Tomorrow, a select bunch of the worlds basketball talent are about to cash in on a whole mess of money.  The annual NBA draft is taking place in New York and for a few guys it will be a nervous wait to see who will be the top five picks.

Oklahoma’s beastman Blake Griffin seems like a lock for the top spot but there are a number of others sniffing around for the big money as well.  Spain’s wild eyed Boy Wonder, Ricky Rubio has the whole world talking, and not just about whether he knows any English.  He has been playing Pro-ball in Spain since he was 14 and also is a professional bullfighter [citation needed]. (continue reading…)

I know this has taken a while to get up here but here it is.  The 2009 NBA Playoffs have been run and won and quite easily in the end by the Los Angeles Lakers but not without some stumbles and hurdles along the way.  Kobe Bryant may not have won the league MVP award but he did show he can play when it counts.

There were some great series in the first round of the playoffs including the Boston v Chicago and Miami v Atlanta series’ that went to seven games.  Chicago showed with a few additions they might be able to return to the glory years of the 90’s but also they showed the frailties that exist in Boston without Garnett.

Two former powerhouses suffered embarassing first round defeats.  The Spurs and Detroit both showed that maybe their time has passed for now.  LeBron James treated Detroit like his own personal punching bag as he took control of every game.  As for San Antonio, you know you are going bad when you get beat by Dallas in a playoff series.

Speaking of Dallas, they not only embarrassed themselves on the court in the second round but also off it.  During the series with Denver, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thought it would be a good idea to go off his nut and tell Kenyon Martin’s mother that her son was a punk (or worse if you believe some reports). (continue reading…)

NBA Commissioner David Stern and all his bean counters were looking forward to the dream match-up that was on the horizon.  An NBA Finals series featuring the two hottest teams.  Los Angeles v Cleveland.  Lakers v Cavs.  Kobe v LeBron.  Phil Jackson v The Other Guy.

The Denver Nuggets had read the script and knew their place in the world.  Win a game, try really hard but ultimately fade away in the shadow of the mighty Lakers.  Apparently Dwight Howard and his Orlando Magic either can’t read or just threw the script in the bin.

Even when LeBron James is busy hitting last second miracle shots the Magic still didn’t get the message.  Earth to the Magic - YOU ARE RUINING EVERYTHING!

But does Dwight Howard really care?  Not one little bit.  The poor NBA had printed thousands of Kobe v LeBron T-shirts and now all they are good for is wiping the tears away of all the NBA journalists who now have to throw away all the stories they had pre-written and come up with new ones. (continue reading…)

The 2009 Playoff season in both the NBA and NHL have been full of exciting games and series.  The last few years have been so full of one sided sweeps that someone must have a large collection of brooms somewhere.  But it seems like this year is different and teams are actually fighting for their playoff lives.

Take the NHL Conference semi-finals for instance, three of the four series have gone to game 7.  Even Chicago took 6 games to defeat Vancouver.  The Pittsburgh - Washington series up until game 7 had been a battle of titanic proportions…and then Washington hit the iceberg the Penguins were on and sunk.  The Penguins now march on to the Conference finals after a 6-2 shellacking of the hapless Capitals. (continue reading…)

The past weekend has been full of massive fights and fightbacks.  Also a few one sided shellackings for good measure.  In the NBA, Boston and Chicago decided that a normal 7 game series just wasn’t enough.  They had more overtime than the people in charge of fixing the financial crisis.  Chicago played like they thought they had a chance in the series due to the unavailability of Celtics star Kevin Garnett and Boston played like they didn’t have Kevin Garnett.

Boston advanced to the second round 4-3 but not without revealing their fragile side to the world.  Former French tennis star Yannick Noah watched his son Joakim not win a championship.  He must be so disappointed in him.  All those tennis lessons wasted when he should have been learning how to dunk a basketball properly. (continue reading…)

We have completed a week in the Stanley Cup playoffs and almost a week in the NBA so it would be a good time to see how everybody is going.  We have a couple of series that are over and some that soon will be but some others that might go down to the wire.

In the NHL, Boston completed their sweep of a very disappointing Montreal Canadiens.  The Bruins look to have the goods this year and big Tim Thomas is providing the great goaltending that every Cup hopeful needs.  Right Winger Michael Ryder is the playoff point leader at the moment with 4 goals and 3 assists. (continue reading…)

Out west there are still some good teams that are hanging around not wanting to go away and let the East dominate.  Here are the matchups.

1-LA Lakers v 8-Utah Jazz

It is always easy to say how Kobe goes so go the Lakers.  But with Gasol and Bynum and Fisher as his running mates the Lakers are a definite contender and do not always have to rely on Kobe to save them in every game.  However it is comforting to know that if your team gets in trouble you can always keep giving the ball to one of the best players ever to play this game. (continue reading…)