December 8th, 2014
That picture tells you everything you need to know about the Lakers’ season. Even Kobe Bryant is yawning. Last night’s loss against the Pelicans was another game where the team looked completely disinterested. The only thing remotely interesting last week about the Lakers was Kobe’s breakfast with Rajon Rondo in Boston. Cue the “Kobe won’t pass the syrup” jokes. That meeting doesn’t make me think the Lakers are going to trade for Rondo, but brings about the next obvious question, which is whether or not they should sign him this summer. This is really an issue I’ve wrestled with quite a bit over the last few days. He’s a Celtic, with a questionable attitude, and questionable shooting ability. However, he’s a guy that they need to sign. He’s a great playmaker, who will speed up the rebuild, and will make things easier on Kobe in his last year. More importantly, he’s a player that would give Kevin Durant a reason to sign with the Lakers in 2016, which would thrust the franchise back into contention.
Here come the Clippers. Well, sort of. The Clipps have won 7 in a row, and you would think they are one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Except 6 of their 7 wins have come against teams below .500, and the other came against a Houston team without Dwight Howard. Say what you will about their lackluster defense, but the Clipps power puff schedule over the next few weeks could give them a great chance to put a grip on one of the top seeds in the West. The bad news is that the Clippers might need to give DeAndre Jordan a 5 year $103 million extension if they want to retain him. This is exactly the problem with the NBA. There’s no way Jordan is worth a max contract. However, the Clippers will have to give him one because they need to retain him. The more I watch them play against real competition, the more I think the window of opportunity for this group has closed. Giving Jordan such a contract would only further lock the Clippers into 2nd round playoff purgatory.
On to college football, where the inevitable happened: two teams got screwed yesterday in the new playoff format. We went from an imperfect system that screwed a few teams, to another imperfect system that screwed a few teams. Let’s just have a 16 team playoff already. I hate the idea of punishing a team for not having a conference championship game. However, without a more extensive playoff, that was bound to happen. This is the worst thing to happen to Baylor since all their players found out they had to spend the next 4 years of their lives in Waco, Texas. As for TCU, it’s mind boggling to think that they just dropped three spots after blowing out their last opponent. However, they probably never should have been ranked that high. As dirty of a program we all know Ohio State and Florida State run, they are both very deserving of moving on.
Meanwhile, our locals were given bowl bids over the weekend. UCLA received a bid from the Alamo Bowl, where they will take on Kansas State. Given what we saw from the Bruins in their game against Stanford, and what we saw against Baylor in the Holiday Bowl in 2012, I fully expect UCLA to get their asses kicked in this game. This team appears completely checked out after beating USC, and even at the risk of embarrassing themselves, I can’t imagine them being too interested in this game. The Trojans will be a bit more excited because they get to stay local, and go to the Holiday Bowl against Nebraska. This is practically going to be a home game for SC, as most Trojan fans will make the drive down the 5 freeway, then celebrate after by going to those dirty clubs in Tijuana. Nebraska is a team in transition right now after hiring Mike Riley, while the Trojans have some momentum coming off their win against Notre Dame. Speaking of Notre Dame, they shouldn’t have even accepted their bowl bid with the way they just laid down the past few weeks.
Does anybody have any idea what the Dodgers and Angels plans are going into the winter meetings this week? I feel like somebody needs to remind the Dodger front office that they are actually in “win now” mode, and should consider that with every move they make. They almost made a solid move by trading Andre Ethier to Arizona for catcher Miguel Montero, but the D’Backs ownership squashed that. Now that they attempted to trade him and the cat’s out of the bag, Ethier needs to be traded, or else he will show up at spring training complaining like a housewife who’s husband hasn’t mowed the lawn. I’m also still wondering what the Angels are doing to improve their team. Unless they have the balls to move a guy like Howie Kendrick, I can’t see anything major happening this off-season. That’s also ok, because they really just need a healthy Garret Richards.
On to Week 14 of the NFL where Jim Harbaugh is already leading the Raiders to victories before officially being named coach this off-season. That interception by Manti Te’o last night was extra special, because it marked the 5th anniversary of his 4th date with Lennay Kukua. Didn’t seem to matter because the Pats took care of business against the Chargers. Has anybody seen the 53 men in Louisiana that call themselves The Saints? It was very fitting that Thursday night’s Romo vs Cutler game ended with an interception. Le’Veon Bell is quietly becoming one of the best running back’s in the NFL. When a Jets game goes to overtime, it’s the fans that are the real losers. The Rams feel like the best 6-7 team I’ve ever seen. Peyton Manning clearly doesn’t care about any of your fantasy football teams. His Broncos keep rolling. The Seahawks look like they are back, and just as dangerous as last year.
To the ice, where the the Kings are pretty much wasting our time right now. LA didn’t even show up for Saturday’s matinee against the Flyers, and played like they were out chasing tail in Manhattan Beach the night before. If the Kings are going to play half the season bored and uninterested, then maybe we just shouldn’t care until April? I mean that’s usually when the Kings get their act together anyway. On the bright side, I love the fact Dean Lombardi re-signed defenseman Alec Martinez to a 6 year $24 million contract. This defense is going to be good for a while. As for the Ducks, they continued to cruise with their 4th straight win last night. Anaheim’s only real concern right now is the knee injury to Corey Perry. The Ducks have a lot of fire power, but won’t be going anywhere in the long run without their leading scorer.
I’d like to thank The Discovery Channel for completely wasting two hours our life last night. We all were under the impression that a man was going to be eaten alive by an Anaconda. Instead, we waited two hours to watch some dude hunt down an Anaconda, and then cuddle with it for 15 minutes. Unlike the movie Anaconda, if Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez were involved in this, it might have actually made it better. If i really wanted to see something eaten alive, I would just watch the hopes of Washington Redskin fans every September.
Finally, Homeland is so much better this season, and this actually has the potential to be the best season yet. Slight spoiler alert if you haven’t seen last night’s episode. I love how the show has finally gotten away from that stupid storyline with Brody’s annoying family. Frankly, I questioned how the show would go once he died, but it’s turned out to be much better. The show has a way of luring you into things that you want emotionally, even though you know that they are intellectually wrong. The show has also given us a look into how complex the issues are when our country tries to assert its imperialistic will overseas. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens to Quinn in the last few episodes, after he has completely gone rogue. I have a feeling he might get justice, but will lose his life in the process.
