August 23, 2021
The NBA schedule has been released and the league definitely did the Lakers a few favors early on. 12 of their first 15 games are at home, those 3 road opponents are in the West, and 10 of the first 15 opponents watched the playoffs from their couches last year. That’s good to hear for a team that is going to need to figure out how to play together. I also really enjoy all the idiotic NBA GMs and their responses to the league’s annual survey. All the GM’s voted Giannis and Kevin Durant as the best player, with Lebron not receiving one vote. So let me get this straight……prior to him getting injured last year, you all had him as the MVP, and now he can’t even get a single vote for the game’s best player? You also expect me to believe a bunch of GMs that had Kawhi Leonard as the best player two years ago? That’s like asking Joe Biden for foreign policy advice in Afghanistan. Considering it’s always popular for the media and the league execs to hate on the Lakers, I fully expect to hear that “The Lakers haven’t played anybody” for the first half of the season when they race out to the best record in the West. Should be another fun year of fake narratives we have to endure.
As for the Clippers, they league did them no favors for their schedule. They have five sets of back-to-back games, multiple early afternoon games, as well as an 8-game road trip. Now you can see exactly why Steve Ballmer wants to get the hell out of Staples Center and build his own arena in Inglewood. As tough as the West is, even without Kawhi the Clippers should still be playoff team, given what they accomplished without him last season. Considering how cautious Kawhi is when he handles his injuries, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t come back next season. That still didn’t prevent ESPN and TNT from putting the Clippers on National TV 27 times this season. They might want their money back for those games.
To baseball, where the Dodgers took 2 of 3 from the Mets over the weekend, but they still haven’t managed to catch the Giants for 1st in the NL West yet. We should probably blame Russell Westbrook for yesterday’s loss after he threw out the first pitch. Walker Buehler has definitely reached that Clayton Kershaw status of a few years ago, where we get annoyed when he gives up a single run or two on some cheap hits, which bumps his league-best ERA. He’s that good, and so is Kenley Jansen. When he’s used correctly in save situations in the 9th inning, he’s been reliable and succeeding. Every closer is going to blow a game here and there, but Jansen has been excellent this season, and we can only hope Andrew Friedman’s computer continues to use him only in the 9th inning to protect a lead. Meanwhile, the Trevor Bauer drama continues, and the media is killing the Dodgers for it. Look, it’s a bad look, but can’t they just wait until all the facts come out before continuing to crush them? I will say though the Dodgers probably need an HR department that actually knows how to conduct a background check.
As for the Angels, Shohei Ohtani is keeping them interesting, but they are far from actually being in the pennant race. They entered Sunday 12 games back in the division, and 8.5 games back in the Wild Card. That means they might have better luck winning a lottery scratcher than a birth in the Wild Card game. I’m certainly curious to see what this team looks like with a healthy Trout, an elite Ohtani, and a productive Anthony Rendon. I’m not so sure we will ever get to see that though. At least a healthy and productive Rendon seems like a fantasy with what we saw this year. However, even if all those stars aligned and it happened, it’s hard to envision this team acquiring any impact pitching, or even developing it. Despite drafting a bunch of pitchers, developing them is another story. Until that happens, it’s hard to have any confidence in the direction of the franchise.
The Rams and Raiders played a preseason game on Saturday night at Sofi. The most surprising thing about that game was that we didn’t hear of any fights that broke out between fans in the stands. You can almost always guarantee Raider fans are going to fight like you can guarantee the sun is going to rise tomorrow. It turns out there was more fighting in the practices between these two teams. The Rams were also about to start pulling fans out of the stands to punt for them since both their punters were out due to COVID-19 protocols. In any case, I’m sure everyone is looking forward the season starting so they can start talking more about real football, as well as Sean McVay’s hair.
As for the Chargers, they battled it out with the 49ers over the weekend. I still have no idea how this team could possibly make the playoffs in such a competitive AFC. Unless the Chiefs move to the CFL or Patrick Mahomes is deported , there’s zero chance of them winning the AFC West. Even as a Wild Card, how would they compete with the likes of Miami, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis? We always say the Bolts have talent every year, but they are going to have to win some close games before they do anything of significance. I’m not even sure Justin Herbert can change that by himself.
The PAC-12 badly needs a shakeup. Apparently, so does all of College Football because a new alliance is forming. The Pac-12, ACC, and the Big 10 are working on some formal partnership that will be announced in the coming days. Since the PAC-12 has largely been run by the completely incompetent Larry Scott. Scott probably couldn’t run a lemonade stand on his front lawn after driving the conference into the ground for years. An expansion that includes these 2 other conferences is the best thing that could happen to a conference that is losing relevancy, especially in College Football. I sure hope this expansion includes more teams in the College Football Playoff so then we no longer have to hear that “Team X that played Alabama or Clemson belongs in a women’s league”. All those mindless fools will finally realize that those two teams are just that much better than everybody else.
Finally, have you ever been too far invested into a show and told yourself you just have to finish the series, even though it’s deteriorating? That’s how I feel about the final season of The Walking Dead. The first of the final 24 episodes of the series began last night, and it’s awkward. All the key characters that were in the comic are dead or no longer on the show. All these characters that should be dead are alive, like Ezekiel and Rosita. All these characters that should be alive are no longer on the show, like Rick, Carl, and Michonne. If we’ve learned anything from shows that don’t have the benefit of a book or comic to lean on, they struggle. Just ask the guys that created Game of Thrones. Nevertheless, I’m a full decade invested. I can’t stop now, so I’m going down with the ship and watching the rest, even though my expectation are low.
