May 16, 2022

I almost forgot how horrible game 7’s are until the Kings played on Saturday night against the Oilers, and we’re eliminated. If you’re invested, it’s miserable. You’ve been spoiled by the fact that they’ve dominated game 7’s for the last decade. That was not the case with a different and younger Kings team over the weekend. The fact the Kings made it this far is impressive. Nobody expected them to make the playoffs, and they took the Oilers to 7, while missing two of their best players. Still, it doesn’t make it any less disappointing knowing the series was winnable, and that they could have closed it out in 6. However, the Kings have some huge opportunities in front of them. They have plenty of young talent, draft capital, and cap space to go improve their team. They badly need more scoring. They also need a better power play. Jonathan Quick is still amazing, but he can’t play forever, and at some point they will need another elite goalie. Cal Peterson isn’t that guy. They probably also need a #1 center, because Anze Kopitar is still great, but getting a little long in the tooth. Big salute to Dustin Brown, who played his last game, but had an amazing career. Now that Florida is playing Tampa, and Edmonton is playing Calgary, you have the battle of Florida, and the battle of Canadian Florida going on simultaneously.

To the NBA, where most Laker fans are breathing a sigh of relief. The Sixers want Doc Rivers back as their coach. You can keep him Philly, as well as that lazy lard butt James Harden. I’m still a little nervous, because Doc hasn’t committed to coming back knowing that Harden is still there, and clearly doesn’t like him. It’s not out of the question Doc backs out, especially if he knows he has another job lined up. For now, it may have been accidental, but the Lakers dodged a bullet if Doc is staying. Now they will likely go with Darwin Ham, Terry Stotts, or Quinn Snyder. Ham is the obvious choice here, and not a complete re-tread, unlike the other two choices. As for Lebron, if you’re watching the NBA playoffs, you have to ask yourself whether or not it’s a good idea to extend a 37-year-old player more than one year at a time. Chris Paul’s ability seemed to deteriorate in a matter of a week. He’s got about $90 million left on his contract and he’s 37. Lebron is already missing games, which has been a problem in 3 of the past 4 seasons. With that being said, I still have a feeling that both the Lakers and Lebron will talk themselves into doing this deal come August. It’s how both sides tend to do business. Apparently Laker coaching candidates have been asked how they would use Russell Westbrook if they were to get the job. Hopefully their answers are “as trade bait”.

I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that the Rams want to bring OBJ back and OBJ wants to be back with the Rams. This feels like all it really takes is carving out just a little bit of cap space, and a nice sit down at Nobu between OBJ, Les Snead, and Sean McVay. McVay just came out and said that he wants OBJ back. OBJ said that he wants to be back with the Rams. That should be enough motivation for both sides to get something done.

I’m not sure what in the hell happened to the Dodger pitching over the weekend. The Dodgers made the Phillies look like the ’27 Yankees with the way they were giving up runs. Apparently the Dodgers only lose to crummy teams like the Pirates and Phillies, otherwise they have been pretty solid. I’d say they should feel good about Arizona coming in next, but Arizona stinks too, which means they could give the Boys in Blue more problems! I still can’t believe we have to hear more criticism about these Dave Roberts in-game decisions. After all these years you people really still think it’s Dave Roberts who is pulling the strings here with the pitching and lineup decisions? You guys must think it’s still 1995, and have never heard of artificial intelligence or analytics. Roberts is just reading the next move off of line 54 of the spreadsheet, for all intents and purposes. Losing Clayton Kershaw to the IL hurts as well, however, at least it’s not an arm injury. I also think Kershaw could probably use the rest anyway. I’m sure this makes some of you even more annoyed that he was pulled from the perfect game to protect him, yet he still got hurt. However, think of it this way: he might have suffered an even more serious injury if he wasn’t taken out of that game.

The Angels might not be the best baseball team in LA, or the most popular by any stretch of the imagination. However, they appear to be the most fun team to watch right now. Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and some decent pitching this year has put them in 1st place in the AL West. They’ve won 7 of their past 10 games, and have a +57 run differential, which is 2nd best in the AL. Were it not for those pesky Houston Astros who have caught fire, they would be in sole possession of 1st place in the West right now. Instead they are sharing it, which is still pretty good for the Halos. As sad as this is to say, this is probably what Arte Moreno wants. He wants to win and all, but probably cares more about having an entertaining product that will sell tickets and merchandise. For the time being he has that, so in his mind, being stingy is perfectly justified.

Finally, if you think the NIL model is shaking up College Sports you haven’t seen anything yet. There’s a new bill in the CA legislature that will be discussed this week, which would potentially force Universities to revenue share with athletes. If that happens, you can completely kiss the NCAA goodbye, and they can start posting their resume on LinkedIn. This is going to take collegiate sports to the next level, and at this point, it’s probably the most sensible and just thing to do for those that are actually making the money. It might even make collegiate sports better, because kids could stay in school longer since they are making money, and develop longer. That means by the time they get to be pros, the quality of their game will be that much better, and they’ll be more mature as well. That benefits the professional leagues too. What a concept!