June 12, 2017
I’m really looking forward to the NBA Finals ending tonight. Then we can finally stop this ridiculous idea that the Cavs have the Warriors right where they want them. It took the best first half in NBA Finals history for the Cavs to actually win a game from Golden State. That’s not likely to happen three more times, and even more unlikely to happen tonight at Oracle Arena. However, when the Warriors do win, I hope we don’t have to hear that Kevin Durant is the best player in the world for the next year. Kevin Durant has to do nothing more than sweep the floor and make his bed. Meanwhile, Lebron James has to sweep the floor, make the bed, make the breakfast, and feed everyone too. Only Paul Pierce would come up with such a ridiculous idea that Kevin Durant is the best player in the world, especially since he declared himself the best player in 2008 after the Celtics beat the Lakers. He must have thought Kobe died.
These NBA draft rumors have gotten really annoying. The Lakers are trying to spread these rumors that they might not really take Lonzo Ball, and could be taking Josh Jackson instead with the #2 pick. This reminds me when I was a kid and I was on a really long road trip with my mom, dad, and sister. My sister and I would be fighting in the back of the car when my dad turned around and said “if you kids don’t stop fighting I’m going to turn this car around now and go home!” Sure you are dad…..after 14 hours in the car, I’m sure you’re just going to turn around. These are the same empty threats the Lakers are making to Lavar Ball. They are essentially telling him “if you don’t settle down we aren’t drafting your son.” We all know the Lakers are taking Lonzo Ball so just stop it already.
Speaking of the Lakers, Luke Walton said something I’ve been preaching on Jock Talk LA for a year now. That is that the Lakers shouldn’t be willing to trade a whole bunch of talent for one superstar because it’s going to take multiple stars to compete with the Warriors for the next four years. In other words, now is a really good time to rebuild, so why not just stick with the youth? In fact, I would argue that there aren’t even 3 All-NBA players that can be combined that would beat the Warriors. That’s the reality of the NBA right now. At least the Lakers have a handful of young players to rebuild with. In the case of some teams, they might as well not even bother showing up to work for the next five years.
The Dodgers beat up on a crummy Reds team over the weekend, but the Colorado Rockies aren’t going away in the NL West. The worst part about it is the players that could be available at this year’s trade deadline are laughable. LA needs starting pitching and the players being talked about include Oakland’s Sonny Gray and Chicago’s Jose Quintana. These pitchers are nothing more than middle of the rotation starters that are nothing more than .500 pitchers without much of a post season track record. The Dodgers have 6 Jose Quintana’s on their roster right now, so why give up prospects for one more? This is just another reason why Dodger fans shouldn’t be very optimistic about their chances come October.
The Angels took advantage of an injured Astros team over the weekend, but Houston has already won the division and we aren’t even at the end of June yet. Mike Trout has been out for two weeks and it feels like the Halos are a mediocre team with and without him. Everyone always considers Mike Scioscia one of the best managers in baseball, which is probably true, but it’s still shocking that he’s kept his job so long. The Halos have made the playoffs one time in the past seven years, and haven’t won a playoff game in 8 years. Scioscia is still living off of the World Series Championship of 2002, because any other manager, no matter how great, would probably have been fired by now. Then again, by now it seems to be clear that the Halos are in the business of selling tickets rather than in the business of winning baseball games.
Congratulations to the Penguins for winning the Stanley Cup last night after defeating the Predators in game 6. I’d like to point out that the Penguins are actually the 2nd team in the cap era to win back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in a FULL NHL SEASON. You may have forgotten that the Kings won the cup in 2012 and 2014, while losing in the conference finals in the lockout shortened 2013 season. Gary Bettman makes Donald Trump look popular. It’s too bad the officiating in that game was horrible last night and cost the Predators the right to play in a 7th and deciding game. Bettman should have handed the MVP award to the referees rather than Sidney Crosby……
The recent resignation of Oklahoma football head coach Bob Stoops was definitely noted by the football programs of Notre Dame, UCLA, and even USC. Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly is definitely on the hottest seat entering the 2017 season. However, UCLA has underachieved recently under Jim Mora Jr, and it wasn’t all that long ago that everyone was questioning whether or not Clay Helton was the right guy for the Trojans. Considering USC has such high expectations, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear his name attached to the program if the team struggles.
Although the results are going to be very anti-climactic, I’m very excited to know that LA will likely be awarded the Summer Olympic Games of 2028, while Paris gets the games of 2024. Although LA could be ready for the Olympic Games next week if necessary, by 2024, hopefully terrorism will have been eradicated by then. Security will be the biggest issue for both of those cities, but hopefully people won’t have to think about that 7 years from now, and just focus on the beautiful celebration that the Olympics should be.
Finally, the Bachelorette won’t have any new episodes until June 19th. Going back to last week, I subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Lucas and Blake were buddies who pretended to be enemies to get more camera time on the show. For that reason, I was glad that Rachel sent both of them home at the same time. One of my favorite parts of the episode was seeing Corrine and Rachel’s friends from The Bachelor give their opinion on some of the guys. Not only did Corrine not say anything during the entire show, but it looked like she was falling asleep (again!) at the mud wrestling bar. Eric is sure to get thrown off the show soon just for being too emotional. Poor Fred was stressed out over his relationship with Rachel, which eventually got him kicked off the show. Meanwhile, Peter was relaxed and slamming a burrito after his one-on-one.
