Monthly Archives: February 2015

Monday Morning Coffee

NBA Trade Deadline

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………

Joe Thornton Sad 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.

Aaron Episode

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

CP3 All Star Game

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….

Westbrook Gif
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.

Aaron Walking Dead

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

Clarkson vs Cavs

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.

Tyrese

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….

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

Superbowl INT

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….

Pats Rings

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.