March 9th, 2015

The last 3 months of watching Laker basketball has made me realize something.  No, not that watching them has made me more noxious than ever.  But rather, why would they want to sign an expensive veteran point guard this off-season?  Jordan Clarkson is showing he’s not only a solid NBA player, but might even have some star potential down the road.  Since the all-star break, Clarkson has averaged 15.6 ppg, while shooting 53% from the field, along with 4.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds.  He’s only 22 years old, and he’s under contract next year for $845 K.  Goran Dragic would cost the Lakers $20 million a year, and his next contract will take him into his 30’s.  Rajon Rondo is in decline and is moodier than a teenag girl on her period.  Signing one of these guys will only take away from Clarkson’s development.  The Lakers have plenty of needs, but a starting point guard is no longer one of them.

Meanwhile, the Clippers took another beating from the Golden State Warriors yesterday at Oracle. The Warriors are fun to watch, and at this point, the Clipps better hope they don’t run into them in the playoffs.  More than anything, the Clipps were exposed yesterday on the perimeter, the one area that Doc Rivers has managed to deplete over the last few months.  With or without Blake Griffin, the Clipps don’t have enough talent on the perimeter to keep up with teams like Golden State, Portland, or even San Antonio when they are firing on all cylinders.  Speaking of Portland, DeAndre Jordan’s brain went off about the same time the shot clock did the other night against the Blazers.  All he had to do was lay it in, and his team would have another win.  The Clipps were so desperate for bench help that they resorted to signing Nate Robinson to a 10 day contract last week.  They’ve done a decent job treading water without Blake Griffin in the lineup, but this team is still destined to get bounced in the 1st round or two of the playoffs.  Steph Curry was just nasty yesterday…..

There’s something completely screwy about this whole Chargers-Raiders stadium plan in Carson.  The NFL is interested in two teams playing in LA, but it doesn’t really make economic sense to put two teams in LA.  Aren’t each of them worth more in separate markets, and having monopolies on that market?  Putting them in the same market, let alone the same stadium, makes little sense for a market that previously couldn’t support two teams.  There’s also the logistical issues of having two AFC West teams playing in the same stadium, which would mean both teams would have 9 home games, and Fox and CBS would have a TV issue in the LA market given their respective commitments to the NFC and AFC.  The Chargers also leaked a vague rumor that Goldman Sachs would be willing to help finance their move, even if short-term losses were incurred.  The Raiders have been awfully quiet during this whole ordeal.  This all still sounds like public pressure put on the cities of San Diego and Oakland to get something done.

As for NFL free agency, what’s going on here?  The Bills traded for stud running back LeSean McCoy by sending out lineback Kiko Alonso, and then signed Matt Cassel the next day.  That’s like buying a yacht and then announcing that Jihadi John will be the captain.  Meanwhile, Chip Kelly is a lunatic who for some reason, is dismantling a 10 win team to recreate his Oregon team that didn’t win anything.  He also signed Frank Gore, because he once watched Oregon play for 5 minutes, and Byron Maxwell, because he found Oregon on a map.  Elsewhere, the Jets and Dolphins just added expensive toys in Brandon Marshall and Ndamukong Suh, but probably will never get anywhere without QB’s.  Suh needed a bigger contract to cover all the fines he will be receiving next season.  Marshawn Lynch is also now the highest paid running back not to get the ball at the 1 yd line.

Are you ready for March Madness?  The Bruins are going to be ready for the NIT in a few days.  UCLA is likely going to have to go through Stanford, Arizona, and then Utah in the Pac-12 Tournament.  They’ll also need to win at least two games to have a reasonable shot at going to the NCAA Tournament.  The chances of that happening are about as likely as me dating Mila Kunis.  As for the rest of the field, I don’t see how anybody beats Kentucky.  These guys keep winning games, and they look more and more relaxed with every game that passes.  I also love the notion that they should lose a game to better prepare them for the NCAA Tournament.  Give me break.  They have been in close games and have found a way to finish them.  That’s more important than losing a game.  They have a chance to make history, and it would be a pleasure to witness it.

That was an awesome ceremony outside Staples Center on Saturday night, where the Luc Robitaille statue was unveiled.  Robitaille is easily the most popular player in Kings history, and the fact that greats like Jerry West, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux showed up tells you just how great he was as a player.  On the ice however, the Kings making the playoffs is anything but a sure thing.  LA lost a devastating overtime game on Saturday to the Penguins, after shutting down some of the most talented players in the game all night, like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  However, one little mistake killed them, and hurt them in the standings.  The teams in front of the Kings keep winning, and LA’s margin for error has never been slimmer.  The reality of it is, the Kings are a very good team, that just might not be good enough to make the playoffs.  No matter what kind of obstacles the Kings have overcome in the past, at some point, the magic runs out.  In any case, the statue looks awesome.

Here comes more public pressure on the Dodgers for not having Sportsnet LA on DirecTV, or other cable distributors.  LA Times writer Bill Plaschke came up with a suggestion, which was to sell about 25 games to a local network so fans could watch games, until this fiasco was over.  That would at least demonstrate that the Dodgers are acting in good faith towards all the fans through this difficult time.  Interestingly enough, Stan Kasten was not available for comment.  That is also something that the Yankees and Giants do, despite the fact they have their own separate cable networks or cable agreements.  This would be a nice gesture, but ultimately, the Dodgers have to get this thing resolved with DirecTV, and lock themselves in a room until they figure it out.  That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon, which pains me, since I am a very unhappy Time Warner Cable customer.  I’m also one of many unhappy Dodger fans too.

On to last night’s episode of The Walking Dead.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it yet.  Here’s a quick recap.  The group further settles in to Alexandria, some much more easily than others.  Sasha struggles the hardest, starting out by taking target practice in the wild to let out her frustration, and later on had an emotional breakdown at a weird cocktail party.  There, she yelled at a friendly foodie for not worrying about the right things in the world they now live in.  Darryl went on a rabbit hunt with Aaron, they kill some zombies, and apparently are best buds now.  Darryl then agrees to become a recruiter for Alexandria.  Michonne hangs up her sword, reluctantly, despite her desire to settle down.  Glenn convinces Noah to come to the weird cocktail party, arguing they are all in this together.  Abraham gets drunk.  Rick gets a little tipsy himself at the party, and gives Jessie a meaningful peck on the cheek.  He also accepts Carols’ offer to remain armed.  Carol goes from swapping recipes with the girls to sneaking into the supply shack to get some guns.  She’s caught by Jessie’s son, and threatens him if he tells anyone that he has seen her.

This episode is a major reminder of one thing: Carol is a badass.  She is not to be messed with.  Just when you think she’s gone soft by swapping recipes, she reminds you how tough she really has become, and has not forgotten her true identity.  I have a feeling that at some point however, Jessie’s son will tell on her.  Rick is definitely on his way to an affair with Jessie.  But doesn’t the show need that?  We haven’t really had one of those since season 1 when Shane was around.  Ok seriously…..what happened to Father Gabriel?  Nobody even mentions the guy.  Maybe he’s the one that stole the gun from the blender that Rick left it in during the last episode.  Ultimately, this episode represented somewhat of a fantasy land for the characters.  For Rick it was seeing a place his kids can be safe and getting attention from another woman.  For Darryl it was a motorcycle in pieces.  For Abraham it was a bunch of booze.  The characters are now enjoying civilization, but it comes with a price.  That price is cutting into who they have become.  Sasha and Carol are the only ones that have grasped this thus far.  It’s probably only a matter of time before the others do as well.

February 23rd, 2015

The NBA trade deadline came and went last week, and the news for Laker fans was worse than knowing President Obama is going to be in office for another two years.  The Lake Show did nothing.  That’s also because they couldn’t do anything.  The single most important priority right now for the franchise is making sure it keeps its own 1st round pick this year, which would be in the top 5, which also means continuing to lose games.  Acquiring a player like Goran Dragic or Reggie Jackson would have been nice, but would have helped the Lakers win a few more games this season, which would have prevented them from keeping their draft pick.  However, the real problem is that many of the key free agents this summer were traded, and will likely re-sign with their new teams.  Dragic will stay in Miami to get paid more, the Pistons have plenty of money to keep Jackson, and you can add those players to the group of Lamarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, and Kevin Love, who will be staying with their own teams.  This continues to look like a painfully slow rebuild.  At least Obama will be gone in two years, but the Lakers will still suck.

Meanwhile, Kobe has been doing all kinds of interviews in the last week.  One of the more interesting of these, was the 1 hour special he did on NBA TV.   I was very surprised in that particular interview, there was no discussion about the stability or instability within the Laker organization.  In fact, there was no discussion about anything that has taken place in the last 4 years, other than his injury, and desire to comeback.  I realize that we are getting toward the end of the line with Kobe, and that his legacy is what most people are focusing on.  However, what about the present and the future for the Lakers?  Since most fans are freaking out about how incompetent Jim Buss is, and how dysfunctional his relationship could be with Jeanie, it would be have been nice to hear Kobe comment on this.

As for the Clippers, everyone thought they were toast when Blake Griffin went down.  Some of you even panicked to the point of thinking that the Clippers were going to fall out of the playoffs completely.   Instead, the Clipps are slowly pushing their way up to the third seed in the West.  I think everybody thought CP3 died, and that DeAndre Jordan was pretty worthless.  It turns out that those two guys are pretty good basketball players, and probably took things a little personally when Blake went down and everyone counted them out.  Now there’s even lunatics out there that think the Clippers are probably better without Blake Griffin, since they’ve won 4 in a row without him.  Still, my opinion on these guys hasn’t changed.  They needed help on the perimeter and help on the bench at the trade deadline and they didn’t get it.  The Clipps are a good team, but not a great team.  We’ll all be reminded of this come playoff time.

Now that the T-Wolves have traded for Kevin Garnett, they will probably be looking at locking up Stephon Marbury this summer.

So now I’m really supposed to believe that not one, but two NFL teams are going to be playing LA in the near future?  There’s a better chance the NFL will add a child support check writing class to the NFL Combine before the Raiders and Chargers will be sharing a stadium in Carson.  Most people are getting excited about the joint statement both teams made last week, but it’s nothing more than a way to increase leverage in their current city’s  The logistics of this plan don’t add up at all.  Neither team owns the land in Carson, they simply bought the rights to develop that land.  What happens if the Chargers can’t work out their stadium issues with San Diego and want to move, but the Raiders do work out their issues?  Won’t the Chargers need another team to move with them to finance the new stadium?  There’s also a number of environmental issues and lawsuits currently going on in the Carson area, which will make it a challenge for this stadium to get the necessary approval.  At least Stan Kroenke’s plan depends exclusively on whether or not the Rams can work things out in St. Louis.  There’s not much to get excited about yet people.  NFL Football is much further away from SoCal than you think.

The baseball season is upon us, and that means pitchers and catchers reported to spring training last week.  As if things weren’t rough enough for the Dodgers over the winter, they just learned that closer Kenley Jansen will miss the next 8-12 weeks after undergoing foot surgery.  I can’t wait for the Dodger front office to use this as an excuse for why they get off to such a crappy start.  We all know that the crappy start will really be a result of those dumb ass moves they made in the offseason.  It turns out that Dodgers fans aren’t the only ones that think that Andy Friedman and his stat nerds are a bunch of idiots.  MLB General Managers voted on the worst moves of the off-season, and they considered the Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy signing the two worst moves of the winter.  Can’t wait for this disaster to play out.

Meanwhile, the Angels pitchers and catchers reported to spring training as well, and CJ Wilson hasn’t come to play.  Instead, he’s come with excuses.  Wilson blamed his crummy 2014 performance on an ankle injury, and claims he wasn’t healthy for long stretches of time.  That probably isn’t something anybody wants to hear from him, considering how awful he was in game 3 of the NLDS last fall.  CJ also said he had some good games and some bad ones.  Funny, because I don’t think anybody recalls any of those “good games”.  All they can think of is a guy who is underperforming and making boatloads of money for the next two years.  The best thing CJ can do is own up to his crappy play, and just try to turn it around.  Otherwise, he should just focus on selling Mazdas at his dealership.

I’d like to thank the UCLA Bruin Basketball team for participating in the 2014-2015 College Basketball Season.  An invitation to the NIT awaits them, which was secured by their two road losses to ASU and Arizona in the last couple of days.  I like how I’m now consistently seeing two UCLA players, Kevon Looney and Norman Powell, projected as 1st round picks in this summer’s NBA draft.  So the Bruins have two future pros on their roster, but the best they can do is make it to the NIT?  Either that means those two players aren’t that good, or they are being coached by a clown.  Which is it?  Considering how successful UCLA players have been at the next level over the last few years, I think it’s obvious that coaching is the problem.

Let’s go to the ice where the LA Kings have caught fire.  They have won 7 straight, are suddenly looking much better in their hopes to make the playoffs and have a chance to defend their Stanley Cup.  Even more notable is the fact that our long national nightmare is over!  No, I’m not talking about Obamacare.  I’m talking about the Kings actually scoring a goal in an outdoor hockey game.  After being shutout last year against Anaheim, the Kings scored a pair of goals at Levi Stadium on Saturday night, and defeated the Sharks 2-1 in front of a crowd of over 70,000 people.  I love these outdoor hockey games, and they definitely have not waned in popularity.  People are buying tickets for these things like crazy, even if their view of the game would be as good as watching it from Mars. There’s still a lot of hockey left to be played, but the Kings are starting to look like the Kings gain.  Poor Joe Thornton…..but he makes an excellent gif………

Did anybody see the final episode of Two and Half Men?  Spoiler alert if you are still waiting to see it.  The show has definitely not been the same since Charlie Sheen left four years ago, but it’s still provided some laughs.  However, the final episode was nothing more than a giant middle finger in the face of Sheen.  It was an hour of jokes about his personal life.  In fact, the plot in the final episode didn’t really make much sense.  The story was that Sheen was supposedly held captive by his wife after their honeymoon. Then he escaped and tried to kill his brother Allen, and Allen’s billionaire friend Walden.  Why would Sheen want to kill his brother after being held in captivity for four years?  Wouldn’t he want to kill his wife?  We never actually see Sheen in the episode.  We see a look-alike at one point, and a Piano is dropped on him at the end of the episode, killing him.  Then we see the writer of the show, Chuck Lorre, laugh and say “winning”.  Then he dropped a piano on himself, which ended the show.  In the end, the show was shameful.  Instead of going out with a heartfelt moment, or in style, it went out with Lorre focused on his own agenda, which was telling Charlie Sheen that he didn’t need him anymore.

Another exciting episode of The Walking Dead took place last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap.  Aaron is taken to the barn and introduced to the group.  Immediately, Rick doesn’t trust him, so he then ties up Aaron and knocks him out.  Aaron claimed he was traveling with one other person, and urged the group to come join his group in Alexandria.  Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, and Rosita venture outside to investigate Aaron’s claim that he brought a few cars to transport the group back to Alexandria.  That turned out to be true.  Rick decides that the group will travel at night toward Alexandria, and they have to battle it out with Walkers as usual.  Along the way we learn that Aaron is gay, and his lover has broken his ankle.  The group finds shelter for the night before continuing their journey in the morning, and finally arriving in Alexandria.

Rick rightfully did not trust Aaron from the start, given what happened at Woodbury and Terminus.  The interesting part of this episode were the different forms of leadership that took place for Michonne, Rick, and Glenn.  Rick took a more dictatorial approach with how he handled Aaron.  Michonne took a softer approach, which eventually Rick and the rest of the group bought into.  Glenn also took a similar approach in leadership, by suggesting that they shoot anyone they encounter while searching for the cars.  However, Michonne reasons with Glenn that they should take a more cautious approach, but Glenn also buys into.  More importantly, compassion and humanity are big themes by the end of the episode.  Although we don’t know a lot about Aaron’s motivations, we see that he is far more humanized that many other characters in the show, with his love for Eric.  Rick and Glenn also show him compassion by letting him stay with Eric during the night, despite the fact they didn’t entirely trust him.  Still, it’s hard not to think the next villain in the show is going to come from somewhere inside Alexandria.

Ok, so I haven’t seen many of this years Oscar movies, however, I do have a few thoughts on last night’s awards.  It felt like some of the award winners needed to take a ski lift to get to the stage from their seats.  A few of them also tripped as well.  Sean Penn made a very lame immigration joke, which really took away from Birdman’s moment.  The show went way too long…..about 30 minutes longer than most people had their DVR’s programmed for.  I thought Neil Patrick Harris did a fine job as host, however, if you aren’t really familiar with him from his role in “How I Met Your Mother”, he can rub you the wrong way.  I’m thinking they need to put some of the more important awards toward the beginning, or at least one or two to make it more interesting.

February 16th, 2015

The NBA All-Star game is still the most entertaining All-Star game in all of sports.  I’m not sure why everyone complains that there is no defense played in these games either.  Last night there was more defense played than any other game Knicks game at the Garden this year.  Russell Westbrook was fantastic, earning MVP, and continuing to make his case for being the best point guard in basketball.  He’s gotta be kicking himself though for missing that layup that would have broken Wilt Chamberlain’s All-Star scoring record.  I hear that Lebron is now threatening to take his talents to the Western Conference next season if the East doesn’t add more talent.  Speaking of Lebron, he will never participate in the dunk contest, but of course he participates in the All-Star fashion show.  I think it’s safe to say that Zach Lavine owns the dunk contest after the show he put on Saturday night.  He was even great during the Rising Stars game on Friday, which only adds to the theory that UCLA coaches don’t know how to develop players, which is why they become that much better in the pros.  Here’s a taste of what we saw over the weekend from the former Bruins….

Charles Barkley has been doing Inside the NBA on TNT for 15 years, and he’s been doing a fantastic job.  After all these years, it amazes me how sensitive some people are to his criticism.  Barkley has had several beefs in the last week.  One was with Sacramento All-Star forward Demarcus Cousins, when Barkley said that Cousins shouldn’t have had input during the teams coaching search.  Cousins said he didn’t respect Barkley after that.  Earlier in the week it was Rockets GM Daryl Morey ripping Barkley after Barkley thought the teams use of analytics was stupid.  Then the Rockets entire front office complained that TNT’s coverage of the team was baised against them.  What a bunch of whiney babies!  Even Dwayne Wade was so upset when Barkley said he shouldn’t be an all-star, that he had his wife Gabrielle Union fighting battles for him.  She brought some serious trash talking to the table though by saying Charles has no credibility because he has no championship rings and thinks slavery may have been a good thing.  However,  she was upset when Barkley’s beef moved on to Morey and Cousins, thinking she wasn’t important enough.  Barkley is great for the NBA and his job is to be honest.  It’s never about the person, it’s all about the performance.  Apparently, none of these athletes and executives are tough enough to take the criticism.

Speaking of not being able to take the heat, why have Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook become such ass holes towards the media of late? If anybody in Oklahoma City slightly criticize them, they publicly lash out at them in the media or on Twitter.  Durant also told the media yesterday that “they don’t know shit”, and that they shouldn’t be voting for awards.  Apparently, KD fails to realize that without the media, the NBA would get the attention of a Saturday afternoon game at the Y.  Without that attention, KD wouldn’t be enjoying those $20 million annual paychecks.  You think you hate the media in OKC KD?  If you end up in a real market like LA, NY, or Boston, they would chew you up and spit you out.

Good news, unless of course you enjoy torture.  There’s only 29 Laker games left in the season for you to endure.  That hasn’t stopped Magic Johnson from once again, ripping Jim Buss for all the mistakes he’s made.  This is getting old, and it’s starting to look more personal than ever.  Every time Magic opens his mouth, people take notice, especially when he’s talking about the Lakers.  I’m pretty sure guys like Lamarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, and even Kevin Durant took notice of what Magic said, and that can’t help the Lakers chances of signing any of them, even if the odds were slim anyway.  If the Lakers have any hope of becoming decent again before Lebron James grandson enters the NBA draft, Magic better stop talking.  I’m no fan of Jim Buss, but he’s already put himself on the clock, and will be out in a couple of years if things don’t turn around.  Magic sounds like he’s willing to go nuclear and make the guy look like a total buffoon, just to run him out of town.  Even if you want Jim out of town, Magic sounds like a petty and jealous sibling, who had his favorite toy stolen and is exacting revenge.  Grow up Magic…….you’re better than this.

The Clippers are actually surviving without Blake Griffin.  The Clipps collected wins over Dallas and Houston before the All-Star break, mostly because DeAndre Jordan has been doing his best Wilt Chamberlain impression over the last week.  The Clippers would love to make a deal to improve their team before next week’s trade deadline, except Doc Rivers doesn’t have anymore kids in the league, so he probably won’t be able to get anything done.  At this point, the best the Clipps can hope for is getting Blake Griffin healthy, and somehow getting the right matchups in the playoffs.  Otherwise, this teams window appears to be closing rapidly.

Don’t look now, but here comes the UCLA basketball team.  The Bruins swept the Oregon schools over the weekend, and are now back in 4th in the Pac 12 Standings.  You probably think I’m about to give credit to Steve Alford for getting the team to peak at the right time.  Think again!  The only reason UCLA is rising in the standings is because nobody else in the Pac 12 can win on the road, and even Utah and Arizona are starting to struggle.  If the Bruins can somehow find a way to win their next two games, they would suddenly be right on the bubble for the NCAA tournament.  The Bruins even got a decent crowd, over 10,000, which was one of the largest of the season.  Still, Dan Guerrero said he’s not very enthusiastic about the attendance he’s seeing.  Mr. Guerrero should try improving the product on the floor by finding a better coach.  He should also drop some of those ticket prices, especially since a lot of people can’t even see games on the Pac 12 network.     The Bruins have a chance to steal the basketball spotlight in LA, but instead, they are just becoming more irrelevant.  At least Norman Powell provided a lot of excitement on Saturday…..

Let’s go to the ice where the Kings are back to finding the win column, as they have now won 4 straight.  The bad news is that they are still 3 points out of the final playoff spot in the West, which tells you that the playoff race is tighter than what Ariana Grande wore at the All-Star game last night.  Their last 27 games include 3 games against Vancouver, 2 against San Jose, and 1 against Winnipeg and Calgary.  5 of those 7 games are on the road as well, which will likely determine whether or not the Kings will be playing playoff hockey this year.  Meanwhile, I thought that most people that covered the NHL were fairly intelligent, however, that is clearly not the case for columnist Jonathan Willis.  Willis recently wrote a column about how Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick isn’t elite.  Of course he picked out some cute little numbers in the last two months to make his case, and then finished by saying Quick needs to prove he can do it year in an year out.  Apparently winning two of the last three Stanley Cups, including a playoff MVP, and starting for the US Olympic team was not enough to prove this.  This is why drugs are bad for you people.

Last night’s SNL 40th Anniversary special was phenomenal, and it even got much better ratings than the NBA All-Star game.  There were a few former cast members who I was surprised didn’t have bigger roles in the show.  The first of which was Eddie Murphy, who simply accepted something like a lifetime achievement award from Chris Rock, but did not participate in any sort of skit or monologue.  Considering the legacy he left, I thought it would have been fitting for a bigger role.  I was also surprised that we only saw Mike Myers at the very end of the show in a Wayne’s World skit, but at no other point.  You could make a case for greater involvement for a lot of characters, but in a lot of ways, that’s just a reminder of how much star power has gone through the show over the last 40 years.  It’s nearly impossible for Lorne Michaels to involve this many stars for a show of this magnitude, but it’s also a reminder of how much staying power the show has, and will continue to have.

Finally, the Walking Dead returned for another episode last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch it.  Here’s a quick recap.  Rick and the entire group continue their journey from Richmond to Washington, DC.  On the road, they encounter some Walkers, and we see a lot of self-reflection from Maggie and Darryl, after some of the people they cared for died in some of the recent episodes.  Much of the episode is spent listening to Maggie, Darryl, Sasha, and others decide whether they even want to continue living and fighting.  By the end of the episode, Rick tells the group a story about his grandfather in World War II, and that he felt like he was “The Walking Dead”, while at war, which eventually got him to feel like he was living again.  Rick explained that’s how the group feels now, but that will get them to eventually feel like they are living again.  The episode ends with a new character named Aaron showing up, claiming he is a friend with good news, and asking to speak with Rick.

The zombie fight was probably the lamest fight I’ve seen in 5 seasons of the show, with Walkers just getting pushed down a hill.  Thank god Sasha got angry and started killing zombies the old fashioned and more entertaining way by stabbing them.  How brutal was it watching Darryl eat a worm straight out of the ground?  The irony is that the he and several other members of the group became uncomfortable with the idea of eating dog meat after Sasha shot a pack of dogs.  Somewhere, there are angry members of PETA writing to the producers of The Walking Dead, and telling them how ashamed of themselves they should be.  Darryl has now become this extremely emotional character instead of a badass survivalist.  It felt like that transition was complete when he started crying in the woods with his cigarette.  When Rick actually described the group as “The Walking Dead”, it really just confirmed what most of us were thinking about the show, and made me want to yell “Duh! Obviously Rick!”  As for Aaron, the guy looks way to preppy and clean for the zombie world to not be evil.  It’s like he just walked out of Nordstroms and into the zombie world.  It’s hard to tell where the next evil do-er is going to come from on the show, but right now that’s probably everyone’s best guess.

February 9th, 2015

I don’t know about you guys, but I think this Laker road trip has been a phenomenal success.  Even though they got blown out yesterday, they’ve been playing hard, and losing close games.  LA is inching themselves closer to the bottom of the standings, which is critical for them in order to keep this year’s 1st round pick.  In other words, many of these games against terrible teams are “must lose” and they are losing.  Interestingly enough, Laker fans all seem to be putting all their hopes and dreams into either signing Kevin Durant in 2016 or trading for Russell Westbrook.  Neither one of these guys by themselves can win a title, which they’ve demonstrated in Oklahoma City.  It’s going to take even more talent around them, so the Lakers shouldn’t trade a lottery pick or even Julius Randle, just for a player like Durant or Westbrook.  Hopefully the Lakers have accepted their current place in the NBA, as well as their fans, and will not make foolish decisions for a quick fix.  Considering Jim Buss has given himself a certain amount of time to fix the team, a potential quick fix is something we should be very worried about.  On the bright side, Jimmy Fallon and Kobe Bryant shared a pretty funny moment earlier this week….

The Clippers had a week that was even worse than Pete Caroll’s.  They’ve lost 4 in a row, Chris Paul took his frustration out on a female official, which got him fined, and then they find out Blake Griffin has a staph infection and will be out for at least the next couple of weeks.  Let’s start with CP3.  There’s no question that this guy is frustrated, as is the rest of the team.  That was very evident in his comments about Lauren Holtkamp.  It’s probably a little much to accuse Chris Paul of being sexist, but at the very least, he’s guilty of being careless.  Do you really think he would have said “this might not be for her” if a rookie male official had made the same call?  I doubt it.  In any case, the frustration we saw in that game seems to epitomize what we’re seeing from this team.  A group of guys that no longer seem like they are really having fun, or even like each other for that matter.  You can overcome that if you have superior talent and superior coaching, but their talent and coaching isn’t that much better than everyone else’s.  As for Blake, losing him is going to hurt, and with the schedule coming up, the Clipps could end up losing 7 or 8 straight and find themselves clinging to the last playoff spot in the West very soon.  It’s looking bad, but they sky isn’t falling…..yet.

I have never been a huge fan of College Football Signing Day.  We’ve gotten to the point where we are giving 17 and 18 year old kids ridiculous amounts of attention, and we have no idea whether or not any of these kids will actually be able to be good college football players.  Even more obnoxious is when we see kids give us some dramatic presentation announcing where they are going to school, and some have even punked us by announcing one school, and then saying “just kidding” and announcing another one.  That serves the media right for giving them that much attention.  Even with all that obnoxiousness, it’s hard not to notice how well USC and UCLA football did in the years recruiting.  In some rankings, USC had the #1 recruiting class nationally, while the Bruins had as high as #6 nationally.  It’s really no surprise for USC, who had had good recruiting classes for a while, now it’s simply a matter of Sark developing them.  However, what Jim Mora Jr. is doing at UCLA is amazing.  The Bruins may be losing out on some local kids, but they are making up for it by stealing away some SEC talent.  Is UCLA slowly becoming a football school?  Hopefully for Dan Guerrero’s sake it is, otherwise he would probably be fired by now.

How did the Bruins manage to blow that game against Cal on Saturday?  They coughed up a 4 point lead with 90 seconds left.  Terrible defense, terrible free throw shooting, and even worse late game execution.  These guys have no hope of making it to the NCAA Tournament, which is an embarrassment for any UCLA basketball team.  The good news is that 5 of their last 7 games will be at home, and televised on the Pac 12 Network.  That means that most people won’t actually get to see how much these guys have underachieved this year.

It’s February, and that means its almost time for Dodger baseball.  That also means that Zack Greinke is speaking his mind like he usually does, and is saying what most of us are thinking: the Dodger front office has found a way to make the team worse than last year.  Greinke was asked if he thought the Dodgers were going to be a better team than last year with the moves that were made.  He said that it was hard to see how they were better.  Which is a nice way of saying they aren’t better.  That’s because they are actually a whole lot worse.  Now that the Padres have signed James Shields, they’ve already clinched the NL West.  The Dodgers front office nerds found a way to not only make the team worse, but strengthen a division rival.  Nicely done.

It’s becoming more clear than ever now: The LA Kings are screwed.  I just don’t see how this team can even make the playoffs anymore this year.  Even after Saturday’s win over Tampa Bay, the Kings are still in 10th place in the West, with just 31 games left to play.   The Kings would have to go at least 21-10 the rest of the way to give themselves a chance to get in the post-season, which will be even tougher since 18 of those games are on the road, where they stink.  On top of that, Slava Voynov’s NHL career is probably over, LA has terrible salary cap problems, and they’ve got injuries to Tanner Pearson and now Alec Martinez to deal with.  These days, Steve Urkel has a better chance of scoring than the Kings, and when the playoffs come around, LA probably won’t get the chance to defend its title.

Tiger Woods is losing his mind.  Honestly, I can’t figure out what is deteriorating more: his skill or his psyche.  It feels like his disease is “lameexcusitis”, which is a condition that flares up when he is at least 10 strokes behind a tournament leader, which clearly flared up last week.  I think the question is no longer whether or not he can catch Jack Nicklaus for total number of majors anymore, but rather if he can win just one more major.  It’s very sad to see, not just for Tiger, but for golf.  The sport badly needs him, whether you love him or hate him.  Does anybody even really watch when he isn’t playing?  I’m rooting for him to get his game back, but it’s clear that whatever seems to be troubling him doesn’t have anything to do with golf.

Pretty surprising episode of The Walking Dead last night on AMC, which returned for the 2nd half of season 5.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch it.  At the beginning of the episode, I’m sure we all thought it was Beth who they were burying.  It turns out it was really Tyrese, who ended up dying in this episode.  I found it interesting that Tyrese experienced all of these different hallucinations, but none of them gave us a satisfying conclusion from them.  We see some of Beth, some of the Governor, and some of Bob, but nobody gives us the sense that Tyrese is going to be better off if he dies.  It’s somewhat of an unsatisfying feeling for the viewer, since much of the episode focused around these hallucinations.  I actually thought that Tyrese was going to make it after his arm was cut off, similar to Herschel having a limb amputated when he was bitten.  However, the show needed to start off with a bang for the first episode of the 2nd half of he season, and it did, which is part of the reason he died.  The group is now headed to DC to seek shelter, but only time will tell if their efforts will be fruitful.  Not a bad start to the 2nd half of the season, although somewhat unsatisfying.  Looking forward to the next episode.

Did you watch the Grammy’s last night?  A few quick thoughts.  I loved the ACDC opening.  Sam Smith is a great talent that I never really appreciated until last night.  It’s no wonder that Iggy Azalea is dating Nick Young.  Last night she lost about as often as the Lakers lose basketball games.  Nicky Minaj actually looks good when she isn’t dressed like a total weirdo.  I guess she had to since Iggy has been stealing the spotlight from her for the last year or so.  Kanye is a great talent, but the guy is so unbelievably unlikable.  He nearly crashed the stage when Beck began to give their album of the year speech.  He later appeared on E!, telling reporters that he felt Beyonce  should have won the award.  There’s a time and a place for everything, and clearly Kanye has no concept of that.  In case you missed it, here it is….

February 2nd, 2015

What a horrible ending to a great game.  Super Bowl XLIX would have been remembered as a great game, but instead, will be remembered for one of the worst play calls in the history of sports. All the Seahawks had to do was give the ball to their best player, Marshawn Lynch, and let him get 1 yard to win the Super Bowl.  He had three chances to do so.  Instead, they threw the ball and it was intercepted.  Abe Lincoln could have finished a play better than the Seahawks coaching staff.  Funny, because the Seahawks ignored Lynch like he ignored the media all week.  Serves him right anyway.  Lynch had no reason to disrespect the media like he did.  Nobody is out to get him, and in typical fashion, another athlete ignorantly blames his own stupidity on the media.  Lynch said he only showed up at media day so he didn’t get fined.  For much of the 1st half, Russell Wilson was playing like he was just there so he wouldn’t get fined.  Wilson wasn’t great at the end either, and in the end, white guys had not caused so much depression in Seattle since the death of Nirvana.

As for the Patriots, say what you will about the “alleged” cheating, but Tom Brady’s legacy still speaks for itself.  Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw are the only other quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings.  Montana and Bradshaw probably have better cases for being better quarterbacks and having a better legacy, but Brady has the best legacy of anybody since 1990.  Nobody has done more with less around him on a consistent basis.  I think Rob Gronkowski is going to party harder than anyone ever has over the next 6 months.  The Scottsdale PD probably had their hands full dealing with this guy last night.  Just think how excited he’s is going to be when he gets he gets his Super Bowl ring.  Here’s a sneak peek at what it will look like….

One part of the Super Bowl that I have always enjoyed is the commercials.  This year, they were terrible.  I was just waiting for a commercial to laugh at, and it felt like one commercial after another that was very sad.  I’d like to extend a special thank you to Nationwide Insurance for sucking the joy out of the entire event, by reminding us how children can die in household accidents.  Considering how depressing the commercials were, the halftime show should have been just Sarah McLachlan singing Angel, surrounded by dead puppies.  However, Katy Perry’s halftime show was outstanding, especially when she rode on that giant mechanical lion.  The surprise appearance by Missy Elliot was great as well. Our country must be bankrupt after putting that entire productions together.

That was a very important loss yesterday by the Lakers, against the lowly Knicks.  Obviously Byron Scott was a little bit worried about his job after beating the Bulls on Thursday, so he made sure his team laid a major egg yesterday and continued to tank to better their draft position.  I’m also beginning to wonder what the story is with Nick Young and Byron Scott’s relationship.  Young seems perfectly healthy enough to play, but Scott is holding him out of games.  I don’t think Scott is too thrilled with Swaggy’s defense or attitude these days, so I’m not going to be surprised if the Lakers put him on the trade block in the next few weeks.  As for Kobe, it’s funny how his timetable suddenly went from 3-6 months to 9 months after having rotator cuff surgery.  When that happens, I think the surgery should be considered “unsuccessful”.  Just more reason why the Black Mamba needs to call it quits.

Impressive with by the Clippers against the Spurs over the weekend.  The Clipps really did not have a signature win yet this year, and they took down the defending champs on the road.  The Clippers just looked angry after losing the night before at New Orleans.  Toughness is one area that I have repeatedly question for this team, but DeAndre and Blake showed a lot of it on Saturday night, dominating throughout.  Somehow, the bench is starting to look even thinner after the Austin Rivers trade, but for now, the Clipps are slowly climbing in the Western Conference standings.

Speaking of big wins, UCLA basketball put together a couple of very big wins over the weekend against Utah and Colorado.  The Bruins had not beaten a ranked team all season, let alone a quality opponent.  Looks like they finally got that “signature win” they were looking for.  That should be good enough to secure a tournament birth……..in the NIT that is.

That was one impressive win the Kings had against Chicago last week at Staples Center.  That shows me the Kings still have some good hockey in them, but they better start winning on the road ASAP, because the playoffs are slowly slipping away from them.  Even worse is the fact the Kings are stuck with a $5 million minor leaguer, in Mike Richards, and a defenseman that is about to be deported for domestic violence.  This may be too much to overcome this season.  Meanwhile, the Ducks have given themselves plenty of breathing room in the standings prior to the post-season.  Anaheim is a full 10 points ahead of everyone else in the Pacific Division.  The playoffs though, that’s what they need to figure out.

January 26th, 2015

Sometimes the universe just tries to subtly send us messages.  I’m still a little unsure what message the universe was trying to tell me when Kim Kardashian showed her ass on a magazine a few weeks back, but in Kobe Bryant’s case, I think the message is much more clear.  He needs to retire.  This is why guards don’t usually play twenty years.  Their bodies can’t take it.  In addition to all of Kobe’s other ailments, now he’s got a torn rotator cuff, which will probably shut him down for the rest of the season and require surgery.  I realize that Kobe wants to go out on his own terms, but if he tries to come back again next year, the chances of another significant injury only go up, being another year older.  There’s also no big time free agent that would sign with the Lakers, knowing that Kobe could break any second.  Shut it down Kobe.  Do it for yourself and the Lakers, who will probably suck next year too.  By Thursday night, the Lakers might equal the longest losing streak in the history of the franchise.  The good news…..the Knicks are coming to town after that to prevent themselves from new levels of suckage.

As for the Clippers, they haven’t been so bad of late.  Winners of 4 straight, and now 8-4 against the top 8 teams in the West.  However, the interesting question of the week is whether or not  Chris Paul is going to make the Western Conference all-star team.  Paul deserves to be an all-star.  However, the Western Conference is stacked at the guard position.  I’m thinking James Harden, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, Lamarcus Aldridge, and Tim Duncan are guaranteed to make the team.   That leaves two more spots between CP3, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, and Demarcus Cousins.  Even though he should be given the nod over most of those players who haven’t played as many games as him, or who are on teams lower in the standings, it won’t surprise me at all if he gets left off the squad.  The only thing that might help a few guys is the fact that Kobe is injured and will need to be replaced.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.  The Golden State Warriors have gotta be thinking that right now, after hanging on to Klay Thompson instead of trading him and David Lee for Kevin Love.  In case you missed it, Thompson scored 37 points over the weekend…..IN THE 3RD QUARTER!  It was an NBA record for most points in a quarter.  Suddenly, Thompson looks like he could be more than just a solid role player, and on the verge of being an NBA star.  However, if there are any Laker executives reading this today, the best trades are the ones that involve sending Jeremy Lin to another planet.  Here’s Oracle before and after Thompson’s shooting night….

What would you football lovers have done all week without “Deflate Gate”?  We would have had absolutely nothing to talk about.  However, this whole drama brings up several key issues.  Why the hell does the NFL let teams provide their own footballs? That’s just asking for trouble.  Once again, the NFL has completely mishandled this issue from a PR standpoint, just like they mishandled the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson situations.  Roger Goodell has been so incompetent, it’s like he’s preparing to be the next Presidential candidate for the Democrats.  The longer the league goes without saying anything, the less we really know what happened.  As for the Patriots, it really doesn’t matter whether they played with pebbles or footballs in the AFC Championship game, because they still would have kicked the Colts asses.  Still, it doesn’t really change the fact that these guys have historically been cheaters, which we saw from “Spy Gate”, so why would we think anything has changed?  Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves…..

On to college basketball we go.  That was a cute little run by UCLA for a week or so.  They went back to playing crappy basketball against the Oregon schools this weekend.  Oregon State locked them down with their zone defense, and Oregon blew them off the floor two days later.  We already knew the Bruins played no defense, and now they can’t even throw the ball in the ocean when they face some junk defense.  They also have no depth, and are sinking like the Titanic at the most critical point in the season.  I’m pretty sure most of those problems have been cause by Steve Alford.

I cannot believe how horrendous the NHL All-Star weekend was.  The weekend started out somewhat interesting during the selecting of players in a pick-up style process.  We got to see Drew Doughty, and many other players actually show some personality, and even talk some trash on other players.  That was something the league needed.  Except once we got to the skills challenge on Saturday night, it was pathetic.  The fastest skater contest had no flare to it like it did years ago.  The breakaway challenge is stupid, and includes all the negative qualities of a slam dunk contest.  The All-Star game was even worse, with very little competitiveness, and was simply hard to watch.  I think Jeremy Roenick was drunk during the telecast.  Luc Robitaille probably watched the speed of that game and felt like he could make a comeback.  Also, the only thing more embarrassing than having Fall Out Boy perform, is having your favorite NHL player come out during the intermission to listen to them.  Drew Doughty did grab Jonathan Toews balls, but I think there’s been enough jokes about grabbing balls in this edition of MMC, so I’m just going to leave that one alone.

One interesting development that did come out of the All-Star weekend was the fact that the NHL announced it was going to have a World Cup of Hockey starting in 2016.  Ugh….another league trying to go to a World Cup format, and possibly ditch participation in the Olympics.  Baseball did it.  The NHL is doing it.  and the NBA wants to do it.  The reality of it is it’s stupid.  You can’t duplicate the World Cup of Soccer.  When it comes to hockey, the players love playing in the Winter Olympics, and it’s very important to them.  Creating a World Cup minimizes the significance of international play, and the only reason it’s being done is because the NHL wants to profit.  These leagues need to go to the IOC, and work out a revenue sharing plan to keep their players involved.  It’s good for the Olympics and it’s good for the global marketing of their leagues.  We don’t need some fake tournament crowning the “World Champion”.  The Olympics are what its all about for the international stage.

Andy Dalton is so bad in the post season that he even finds a way to lose in the Pro Bowl  The only thing worse than the Pro-Bowl was listening to ESPN justify its existence in the pregame and post game show.  Just kill it already!

January 19th, 2015

Time to face the facts folks.  Kobe may be retiring even sooner than we thought.  Thursday’s Kobe-Lebron showdown was fun for everyone involved, but it felt like it might have been the last time we will ever see it.  After the game, Kobe was asked by LA Times writer Bill Plaschke if he has considered retiring at the end of this season.  He replied  “I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t crossed my mind.  Right now I doubt it … but anything’s possible.”  With the growing possibility that the Lakers will shut Kobe down for the season by March, that means you might have just over a month to enjoy what’s left of his career.  How can you blame him?  The team around him stinks, and it’s not even worth it for him to put his body through hell for a team that isn’t going anywhere.  He is ailing so badly, and his minutes have been managed worse than U.S. foreign policy, that he went from playing 36 minutes every game to missing 7 of the last 14 games just to rest.  As great as he was on Thursday night, I don’t want to see Kobe finish his career with a bunch of sub 40% shooting nights like his previous two games.  It was a great run, and he’s one of the greatest ever, but it’s time to hang ’em up.    

Speaking of “hanging ’em up”, it might be time for Doc Rivers to hang ’em up as a General Manager after the stupid trade he pulled off last week.  Let’s review shall we.  The Clippers have desperately needed a wing player since the beginning of the season.  They traded Jared Dudley to Milwaukee, who became more productive, along with a 1st round pick.  Then Doc Rivers proceeded to trade two more wings in Reggie Bullock, Chris Douglass Roberts, and a draft pick, for his son, Austin Rivers, who isn’t even a wing!  I actually like Austin Rivers and think he can still be a decent player in this league, but Doc just wasted three assets to coach his son, who might not even be playing in the NBA next year.  That topped off what was another mediocre week for the Clippers.  They get an impressive road victory in Portland, only to blow it at home against Miami and Cleveland.  I was beginning to have some questions about Doc Rivers the head coach.  Now I’m beginning to have even more questions about him as a General Manager, which could be the biggest problem of all in Clipper Land.  Turns out Doc and Austin are the first father and son to be on the same team since Lebron James and Delonte West were in Cleveland.

Dodger fans without Time Warner Cable….are you prepared to go another season without watching your team on TV?  The FCC is dragging their feet on approving mergers between Time Warner Cable and Comcast, as well as the merger between DirecTV and AT&T.  Even Stan Kasten says he’s “very worried” about a deal getting done before the season starts.  Look, I have Time Warner Cable only because of the Dodgers, and I absolutely despise it.  However, I don’t begrudge the Dodgers for taking that crazy TV deal because it’s putting money in their pockets and helping them put a competitive team on the field.  Uh….let’s me rephrase that.  It helped them put a a competitive team on the field until they hired Andy Friedman and those small market losers to blow up a championship contending team.

Saturday night at Staples Center was another great game between the Kings and Ducks, and a nice retirement ceremony for Rob Blake.  Let me start with Blake.  I get it.  You can’t deny that he is the greatest defenseman the Kings have ever had, and it’s hard not to put his jersey in the rafters just for that.  King fans don’t have to boo him anymore.  However, his legacy with the Kings will always have at least a little stain for taking off the C, and stepping down as captain.  I don’t even have a problem with him going to another city to win a Stanley Cup or wanting more money than the Kings could afford.  However, taking off that C is downright shameful in hockey.  Nevertheless, the ceremony was very nicely done by the Kings.

As for the hockey game, when it comes to shootouts, the Kings have had more trouble scoring than Screech Powers in Saved By The Bell.  LA has not scored in its last 22 shootout attempts, and has a record of 1-7 in shootouts after losing to the Ducks.  The Kings have played like a team with ADD for the first half of the season, not paying attention to the little details at the defensive end, which has cost them.  Darryl Sutter better kick these guys in the ass, because they are putting themselves dangerously close to missing the playoffs.  As for the Ducks, just like this time last year, they look like they’ve already wrapped up a division title.  Once again, the regular season is never the problem.  They look good now, but we’ll see if their goaltending can hold up during the playoffs.  It’s too bad Corey Perry was an all-star snub.  He’s had a great season, and I hate the rule of having all 30 teams having a representative.

You guys don’t actually think UCLA basketball has suddenly “turned the corner” after beating USC and those mediocre Bay Area basketball schools do you? The Bruins haven’t lost total confidence in themselves, which was the case two weeks ago.  However, this team is still a long shot to make the NCAA tournament.  They would need to go 9-4 in their next 13 games, just to get to twenty wins.  Even then, they will be hard pressed to get an at large bid for the tournament, unless they can somehow beat Utah and Arizona.   Not only that, Bruin and Trojan basketball is becoming more irrelevant in this town by the day, especially with the limited distribution of the Pac-12 Network.  The only thing remotely interesting about that game was Iggy Azalea and Nick Young making out on the kiss cam at the Galen Center.

That College Football National Championship game was really something.  I learned that Ducks are really versatile.  They can waddle, run, swim, and fly.  They can also lay some huge eggs, like Oregon did vs Ohio State.  How many years have we seen Oregon dominate the Pac 12, only to get exposed as a soft undisciplined team come bowl season?  I hope somebody else in the conference can overtake these guys (are you listening UCLA???), because they are giving the conference a bad name when it matters most.  Everybody was so happy when Alabama lost to Ohio State, but Ohio State isn’t that much better character wise than Alabama.  Urban Meyer runs a completely undisciplined program, with kids that are practically criminals.  Then you actually see Ohio State fans on TV, and that does it for you……no way you are cheering for these guys.  As for Cardale Jones, and his decision to return to school, he admitted to friends “I’d rather pour gasoline on myself and light a match than become a New York Jet.”

Bill Buckner called.  Even he thinks the Green Bay Packers choked yesterday.  I can’t believe what a terrible coaching job Mike McCarthy did for the Pack.  He was extremely conservative throughout, kicking field goal after field when he could have put some serious distance between his team and the banged up Seahawks.  It was like watching someone try to win a fight by delivering one-thousand paper cuts instead of one deadly blow.  At one point if you had looked up Russell Wilson’s QBR, it would have read “Jamarcus Russell”.  Ha Ha Clinton-Dix had the biggest moment for Clinton-Dix since Monica Lewinsky.  None of it mattered.  The Seahawks have championship pedigree, and they played like it when it mattered most.  Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, and the rest of the Seahawks may be very boring to watch.  But they have a hell of a lot of physical and mental toughness, and they get a well-deserved 2nd trip to the Super Bowl.  Sorry Packer fans.  This is probably how you feel right now……

As for the AFC Championship game, that was a joke.  Andrew Luck is going to be the next best quarterback in the NFL, but he wasn’t that yesterday.  He was Andrew “Suck” instead.  The only chance the Colts had of winning that game was if the Patriots somehow became the Packers.  Amazing how at the beginning of the season, everyone was talking about how old Tom Brady was, and how New England was finished.  They’ve looked as dominant as they ever have been since that time.  Is anybody outside of Boston really happy to see them in the Super Bowl though?  Probably not.  However, the Patriots play a far more exciting style than the Seahawks, although neither team is all that likable.  Sounds like a bad matchup for New England given how tough the Seattle defense is.  I’m taking the Hawks.

January 12th, 2015

Let’s start with some football, and this idea that the Rams are moving back to LA.  We’ve been hearing this crap for years.  We heard the Rams are moving back here.  We heard Chargers are moving back here.  We heard Raiders are moving back here.  These teams have been trying to get a stadium in their current cities for years, yet they still haven’t moved.  Why should this be any different?  I know….I know.  You all think that because Stan Kroenke actually owns part of the land at Hollywood Park, the Rams are actually coming.  It was just a few days ago that the city of St. Louis unveiled their plan for a new $900 million stadium to keep the Rams.  If Kroenke moves the Rams now, it will look like he isn’t negotiating in good faith, which the league won’t be happy about.        I won’t actually believe LA will have a team until I see the kickoff of the first game.  Besides, the league wants LA to have a team more than the people in LA.

As for the divisional games over the weekend, Peyton Manning tried to pass the torch to Andrew Luck yesterday, except it landed at his feet when he tossed it.  Where are all the Colts fans who were bitching a few years ago when they got rid of Peyton in favor of Andrew Luck?  Manning had 152 yards passing yesterday.  Somewhere, Tim Tebow is having a good laugh.  The Colts made the right move, and they aren’t too far away from being in Super Bowl.    Here’s a look at Peyton trying to get into an ice bath after the game…..

In Green Bay, the football gods definitely evened the score with that late call against Dez Bryant and the Cowboys.  There’s no doubt that was a catch.  Bryant held onto that football longer than the Steelers were in the playoffs.  He was simply reaching for the end zone.  Was the call correct?  Probably, but the rule is horse crap and needs to be changed.  I’m sure all the Detroit Lions players were screaming that what we saw was sweet justice, since they got screwed last week.  I guess Jerry Jones Visa Black Card was denied upon further review.  It would have been way more entertaining to see a Cowboys vs Seahawks game next week, instead of a Packers game.  The Packers didn’t look like they had much of a chance the last two times they played Seattle.

In Seattle, not much to say about that Panthers vs Seahawks game.  Seattle dominated, in completely unsurprising fashion.  I could sit here and talk about Marshawn Lynch’s crotch grabbing on Kam Chancellor’s touchdown, but instead, i’ll just remind you how sick Chancellor is…..
   

The Patriots had to have been a little nervous early on against the Ravens.  Steve Smith had himself a Pina Colada on Revis Island, and Baltimore looked like they were gonna pull off an upset.    However, in the end Tom Brady made clutch plays, and even Julian Edelman proved that he is a better playoff quarterback than Andy Dalton.  Next week Andrew Luck could make it interesting, but I don’t think it’s his time yet, and the Patriots prevail.  Here’s a look at Joe Flacco’s text inbox after yesterday’s game…..

How the hell did the US Olympic Committee select Boston over Los Angeles to represent our country during the next international bid?  We could have actually had a very profitable Olympics had LA been chosen for 2024.  We have the existing infrastructure, and don’t need to spend billions of dollars on stadiums and venues.  The Olympics were wildly successful in 1984 in LA, and our freeway system is that much better now.  Of the 11 members of the committee with votes, three went to college in Boston and 2 live there.  Obviously none of them went to Harvard or MIT,   because those morons just chose a city that recently experienced a terrorist attack during a major sporting event.  Boston’s pitch is that all the events will be within walking distance of each other.  Perfect, that way a terrorist can take out the entire Olympics with one bomb.

Let’s talk some hoops.  Last week was the first week in a long time where there was something to get excited about as a Laker fan.  Young, athletic players, developing on the court.  Tarik Black and Jordan Clarkson actually got some playing time and they looked very promising.   In case you haven’t noticed, and apparently the Laker front office hasn’t, LA has no chance of making the playoffs this season.  They should take the opportunity to develop these players, while simultaneously losing games to insure they keep this year’s 1st round pick, and ultimately, speed up the rebuilding process.  Why would Byron Scott insist on playing useless veterans like Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin, when they probably won’t even be with the team next season?  Show the fans the future, because we are done living in the past.  By the way, I think Damian Lillard is going to be the next starting point for the US Olympic Team in 2016.  This was just mean…..

Then there’s the Clippers.  Even as I watched them beat up on the Lakers last week, I came to a solid conclusion: the Lakers are closer to winning a championship than the Clippers.  The Lakers are much closer to hitting the bottom and bouncing right back.  The Clipps are consistently inconsistent, and its becoming obvious they won’t be able to win a title as currently constructed.  They need a major move to be a serious contender, and this talk of acquiring Austin Rivers, isn’t exactly what’s going to put them over the top.  Austin being coached by his dad sounds cool, but for a team that is looking to win now, I don’t see how the Clippers are in a situation for him to develop.  I guess that tells you what the Clipps really think of Jordan Farmar.  At least the Clippers have Steve Ballmer’s “dance moves”….

Should we really be excited that the Bruins actually won 2 in a row?  I liked it more when Steve Alford was closer to getting fired.  Cal stinks, although I suppose Stanford is playing decent ball.  Funny how much better the Bruins played once Bryce Alford fouled out.  Maybe his dad should try reducing his minutes, and he might see how much more competitive the team would be?  If the Bruins lose to USC this week it’s going to be downright shameful.  Dan Guerrero should make Steve Alford walk home from downtown LA if that happens.

Let’s go to the ice, where the LA Kings are starting to remind of the Shaq and Kobe Lakers of the early 2000’s.  This team thinks they can just “flip the switch” whenever they want, and start winning games when it matters.  That’s a dangerous way to play in hockey, and they are running the risk of missing the playoffs by doing it.  To make matters worse, the Kings are 0-2 since Jim Fox tweeted pictures of the inside of his butt, Tanner Pearson is going to miss a couple of months with a broken leg, and Tyler Toffoli got mono from making out with too many chicks in LA.  General Manager Dean Lombardi said he’s also operating under the assumption that defenseman Slava Voynov will be cleared of criminal charges and return to the ice this season.  That’s a pretty big gamble to take for a team trying to defend its Stanley Cup Championship, and in danger of missing the playoffs.

Beautiful retirement ceremony last night of Teemu Selanne’s jersey in Anaheim, although it was the longest retirement ceremony I have ever seen.  It was actually a pretty good hockey game as well between Anaheim and Winnipeg.  Wouldn’t it have made more sense though to do the ceremony when the Arizona Coyotes came to town instead of the Winnipeg Jets?  For those of you too young to remember, Selanne played for the Winnipeg Jets until 1996, and then that franchise moved to Phoenix.  The current Winnipeg Jets just moved from Atlanta a few years ago.  In any case, it was good to see Selanne stay throughout the entire ceremony, rather than quit and leave halfway through.

Finally, it would be irresponsible of me to just ignore the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris last week.  Another week of seeing stupid ass comments on cnn.com regarding how horrible Muslims are.  The only way we are ever going to take real steps toward stopping terrorism is when we stop supporting the dictators that actually fund terrorism, and when those countries do more than just “denounce” the terrorists.  The US no longer even needs to depend on Middle East countries for oil anyway, so maybe we can start doing the right thing, and take steps toward getting rid of these jack asses that are giving Islam a bad name.

January 5th, 2015

Welcome to 2015, where it’s time to face the cold hard reality.  Not just that the holidays are over, but that basketball in LA sucks.  Last night was a useless victory for the Lakers, against a Pacers team that somehow found a way to execute even more poorly at the end of a game than the Lakers.  LA will probably get blown off the floor tonight against Portland.  I love those of you that say Kobe needs to pass more.  Have you been watching this team?  It doesn’t even matter, they are terrible either way!  I say let him shoot 40 times a game.  That way we’ll at least be entertained.  I guess there were two entertaining parts to the Laker telecast last night.  The first was Kobe’s reaction after the Carlos Boozer fight with Roy Hibbert, then Jordan Hill claiming that he once dated Iggy Izalea…….

Then there’s those of you who might still believe the Clippers are providing us with good basketball in LA.  That’s only true when they play the NBA garbage like Philadelphia, New York, and Utah, whom they beat up on earlier in the week.  They need better defense.  They need better play from their superstars.  They need a small forward.  And they need a better bench.  Oh, but other than that they are just great.  Is this what they really paid Doc Rivers $7 million a year for?  For early playoff exits?  The only thing that can save this group is if Lebron James gets fed up and leaves Cleveland, again, to play with his friend Chris Paul and the Clippers.  I actually took two Clippers tickets to a broker to be sold the other day.  I gave them to the broker, came back two days later and asked him how much we got for them.  He said “How much?  We didn’t sell them, and now you’re stuck with four tickets!”

Then there’s UCLA basketball, which found a way to hit rock bottom again after this weekend.  When the Bruins hired Steve Alford, I thought they had hired Steve Lavin all over again.  I was wrong.  Even Steve Lavin never had his players quit on him like this.  The Bruins scored 39 points yesterday against Utah, which was the fewest amount of points the team has scored in a game since 1967.  UCLA has lost 5 in a row, including its first two conference games, and gone 4 straight games shooting no better than 32%.  This is for a team that has an offensive minded coach.  I’m beginning to think the Bruins won’t even make the NIT Tournament, let alone the NCAA tourney.  Historically bad times call for drastic measures, like firing Steve Alford.  Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen, because AD Dan Guerrero would likely lose his job as well if he had to replace another basketball coach.

The news wasn’t all bad for UCLA athletics this weekend, as the Bruin football team took down Kansas State in the Alamo Bowl.  I’ve gotta admit, I thought UCLA was going to take a beating after seeing how they finished the regular season.  However, Brett Hundley looked determined to finish his college career on a positive note, rushing for nearly 100 yards, and Paul Perkins ran wild as well.  Jim Mora’s brief handshake at the end of the game with Bill Snyder felt like Jim Harbaugh’s slap on the back of Jim Schwartz a few years ago, only this time it was warranted because Snyder’s players tried to take a cheap shot on Hundley late in the game.  This game was simply bittersweet. Great to see the Bruins win against the 11th ranked team in the country, but felt like they should have at least played Oregon for the Pac-12 championship, and not blown it against Utah.   Even with Hundley leaving, the Bruins can still be very good, but Mora needs to get his players to be mentally tougher if he’s going to get the program to the next level.

As for the college football playoff, what does the SEC have to say for itself now?  ESPN must have be losing its mind not being able to talk about SEC teams since ‘Bama got bounced by Ohio State. This is the worst thing to happen to Alabama since incest became a crime.  That’s gotta be tough for a conference full of schools with kids that shouldn’t even make the cut as college students.  Don’t worry Oregon fans!  The Tallahassee police department won’t file assault charges against you either, after what you did to Florida State last week.  I wonder what “discipline” the Oregon Athletic Department will hand out for their players making fun of Jameis Winston….

On to Wild Card Weekend of the NFL.  The Panthers are finally a .500 team!  I feel like the best play the Cardinals ran in the game was one that lost about 30 yards.  Hopefully those of you that played the “take a shot for every play the Cardinals lose yardage” drinking game, took an Uber home safely on Saturday.  The Panthers will be toast next weekend in Seattle.  Costly turnovers for Big Ben and the Steelers against the Ravens.  After all these years, Ben is still trying to force it in the hole.  I don’t think these Ravens can take this Patriot team with a healthy Gronkowski, and a better defense.  There are certain things in life that are guaranteed:  death, taxes, and Andy Dalton losing in the playoffs.  It’s pretty tough to win a game like that without two of your best receivers, but the Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since the Houston Oilers were around.  I don’t think Andrew Luck is quite ready to knock off Peyton and the Broncos…..yet.  It’s exciting that we get a Cowboys @ Packers matchup next weekend, but the referees were awful yesterday in the Lions game, and you’ve gotta think they got screwed.  Roger Goodell had better claim that he never saw the tape.  Looks like Jerry Jones’ check to the referees cleared just in time.

Has anybody told the Kings that it’s not December anymore?  That means they aren’t supposed to suck.  LA does nothing easily anymore.  They pulled off an amazing comeback against Nashville on Saturday, only to lose 7-6 in overtime.  I’m pretty sure there will be better defense played in the NHL All-Star game than what we saw in that game.  Why am I not surprised that we are halfway through the NHL season, and the Ducks are on top of the entire league?  Now if they actually raise the Stanley Cup this summer, then i’ll be surprised.

Finally, much like everyone, I am shocked and saddened by the death of ESPN anchor Stuart Scott.  As a former sports radio broadcaster, Scott was one announcer that I found inspirational while i was in the business, especially since he was really an innovator in the industry with the phrases he would drop during Sports Center.  Today, anytime I watch a highlight, I wanna yell “booya”, or say “cool as the other side of the pillow” because it adds flare.  Great job by ESPN with their tribute to him yesterday.