March 20, 2017

Let’s start with UCLA.  The Bruins had a few very nervous moments in their 1st weekend of the NCAA tournament, but got by Kent State and Cincinnati.  Lonzo Ball managed to cure cancer, and end the dispute between Israel and Palestine, as well as score 19 points last night.  Well at least according to his father Lavar, he will eventually do all those things.  Knowing Steve Alford though, the downfall will be on Friday against Kentucky, because the Sweet 16 is always where his road ends.  I can’t see UCLA surviving that game, let alone a game after that against UNC, in what will basically be two hostile road games.  Speaking of Steve Alford though, you know that UCLA fans are just chomping at the bit for him to take the $31 million that Indiana is offering him and hit the road.  On the other hand, they are probably hoping he’ll take Dan Guerrero with him too, which won’t happen.  As we’ve seen before, Guerrero is unlikely to hire a superior replacement, so don’t count on the 2nd coming of John Wooden coming to Westwood.

Meanwhile, despite losing yesterday to Baylor, the Trojans made a strong showing in the tournament.  Frankly, had USC not been playing their third game in five days, they might have actually had the energy and the mental toughness to finish that game.  However, the committee screwed them by forcing them to play in the First Four game on Wednesday night.  That goaltending call on Chimezie Metu was nearly a spectacular play that might have been the play that gave the Trojans the win.  However, USC is going to go home and take shots of whiskey at the Nine-O when they come to grips with the fact that they would have faced an East Regional without the top two seeds, Duke and Villanova.  That’s right….Andy Enfield would have had a real chance to send the Trojans to the Final Four.

Elsewhere around March Madness, you’re bracket is really jacked up now.  But think of it this way, you took one for America.  Duke is out, so the country wins.  If anybody actually watched college basketball, which we all pretend to, we would have known that Villanova was going to get exposed in the 1st weekend.  UNC also got a late clutch performance by the referees to advance to the round of 16.  I thought Vanderbilt kids were supposed to be smart?  Apparently not after intentionally fouling in a tie-game.  Louisville also went down faster than a call girl on a high school recruiting trip.    After the 1st weekend, there are 164 perfect ESPN brackets remaining.  Lavar Ball claims he owns all of them.

Why are the Lakers screwing with D’Angelo Russell’s confidence so much?  Just let the kid play like he did last night! That was the perfect tanking game.  Russell exploded for a career-high against elite competition, all five young Laker starters showed some nice development, and the Lakers lost in competitive fashion.  For all the criticism that Byron Scott got for benching Russell last year, Luke Walton is actually playing him fewer minutes on average than last season.  I thought Luke was supposed to be promoting development? I also don’t understand why Russell and Clarkson haven’t spent more time playing together in the backcourt.  If they are the backcourt of the future, then they should be developed together.  At least Magic and Rob Pelinka are taking their tanking efforts very seriously.

Speaking of tanking, had it not been for Saturday’s win, you might think the Clippers are tanking with the way they’ve been playing of late. When I watch the Clips play since the All-Star break when they’ve been healthy, it’s like they’ve aged overnight.  Teams like the Warriors, Rockets, and even the Nuggets and Jazz suddenly seem more athletic with better shooting.  If that’s not bad enough, JJ Redick makes it sound like the team is questioning the defensive game plan on a nightly basis.  In a lot of ways though, it seems like the Clippers curse is with their bench.  Every year it seems like Doc has found some useful pieces on the bench, but when it really counts, they don’t play well.  That’s what’s happening again.  There’s not much more time for them to get it right with just a couple of weeks left in the regular season before playoff time.

So you thought it was last night the LA Kings playoff hopes were toast? It actually happened a week ago when they lost to St. Louis at home.  That was the official nail in the coffin.  Last night just exposed the Kings for what their team has become.   An aging group that is playing a style that is suddenly outdated.  The Kings players may not be old in age, but they’ve played enough hockey to be old.  They need to get younger and faster, and find a way to unload some of the terrible contracts they gave the Dustin Browns and Marian Gaboriks of the world.  It’s just a matter of whether or not it will be Dean Lombardi that’s going to do it or another General Manager taking his place.

I think the Angels have a permanent curse in left field.  Now it’s Cameron Maybin’s turn.  He was in an 0-20 slump before finally breaking out of it on Saturday.  Then there’s Danny “Mendoza line” Epsinosa, who’s career batting average is so low, we might not even realize when he’s actually in a slump.  We haven’t even started the season yet and the Angels warning flags are up.

The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC, and the season is building toward a big last two episodes.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case.  I thought for sure we we’re going to see Sasha and/or Rosita die last night, but I guess we will have to wait at least one more episode.  In other words, nothing happened.  I guess Eugene didn’t want to leave without his pickles.  The Saviors traded a box of aspirin for a real doctor.  Now that sounds like real American healthcare.  Simon probably just gave Gregory directions to a toilet so he could find somebody who gives a crap.  When Darryl cries, we all cry.  I’m looking forward to an all-out war in the last two episodes of the season.  At least I hope so because the last 13 episodes have been pretty slow.

Finally, what a horrible ending to ABC’s The Bachelor last Monday night.  The finale was so not Raven.  It’s like Nick picked Vanessa because he knew he didn’t want either woman that was left, and wanted the relationship to fail.  Perhaps if Raven just hit him with a stiletto, as she did with her ex, he might have actually had some sense beat into him.  We kept hearing about “the most shocking thing in Bachelor history.”  I thought this would be that somebody actually said “yes” to a Nick proposal.  Anybody that thinks Nick and Vanessa are going to get married need to be hit with a stiletto.  Think of it this way.  Nick gives every man in the world hope that if you are boring, and get rejected enough times, you too can marry a girl that completely hates you.

March 13th, 2017

The Lakers introduced Rob Pelinka as their new General Manager on Friday.  I heard a lot of good things from Pelinka, and it’s exciting, not just because he looks like Rob Lowe.  However, I also heard something a little concerning as well.  I heard a lot of talk about free agency.  If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past five seasons of Laker basketball, it’s that free agency by itself is a lousy way to build a team, and it’s about to get a lot lousier with the new CBA.  However, when you do an excellent job of drafting and developing players, you give yourself the opportunity to get elite free agents, and elite talent via trade.  Rob Pelinka probably has some great relationships with players, but hopefully he’ll have more than that to sell to free agents during the offseason.  As for the Lakers, here’s a summary of their season in 30 seconds……

On to college hoops, where March Madness is upon us, and the NCAA tournament bracket is set.  That means UCLA’s fate has been determined after their disappointing showing over the weekend in their conference tournament.  The Bruins blew a major opportunity to get a a #2 seed in the West, and have a very favorable path to the Final Four.  Now their potential 2nd round matchup won’t be easy, and then they’ll probably have to face Kentucky and UNC to get to the Final Four.  The bigger concern is the fact that UCLA reminded us over the weekend that they live and die by the 3-point shot, and that they can revert back to not playing any defense at any time.  Lonzo Ball is banged up, Bryce Alford can’t get any shots off other than 3-pointers,  and suddenly, I’m feeling a lot less confident about Steve Alford coaching the Bruins now that’s it’s March.

As for the Trojans, they narrowly made the NCAA Tournament, and will be participating in the play-in game on Tuesday vs Providence.  USC will be the #11 seed.  Sure enough, they are playing the team that played them last season in the 1st round, and beat them at the buzzer.  That’s about as surprising as a USC student being hungover for class on Friday, after a Thursday night frat party.  The selection committee loves these type of re-matches and creating story lines out of them.  The Trojans game against Providence, and potentially SMU after that should be close ones.  They are evenly matched, and USC should feel good that they beat SMU back in November.  They probably won’t make it too much further though, with Baylor awaiting the winner of that game.

As for the rest of the bracket, Arizona might as well have a bye to the Final Four.  You can pencil in Gonzaga to be upset by the Sweet 16 every year, and this year is no different.  Congratulations to Kentucky for winning the SEC tournament.  Their players are clearly earning all the money they are being paid.  Word is President Trump has selected Trump University to win it all in his NCAA bracket.    Kansas also has a fairly easy route to the Final Four but you can always count on them to blow it.  That’s an annual guarantee like people smoking weed at Coachella.

The Rams went out and spent money on former USC receiver Robert Woods last week.  I realize that the Rams needs help at wide receiver, but $15 million guaranteed for Robert Woods? Alshon Jeffrey got $14 million guaranteed and at least he was once a Pro Bowler.  When you include Tavon Austin, that’s two receivers the Rams have overpaid for that are really #3 receivers on a good team.  They should be directing most of their resources at the offensive line.  Andrew Whitworth was a good start, but they need more.

If you think the Rams are having an unspectacular offseason thus far, the Chargers look like they are trying to give their new cross-town rivals a run for their money.  The Bolts signed Russell Okung to help their offensive line, but apparently Okung nor the Chargers knew the rules about negotiating with a player who didn’t have an agent.  They might have tampered by negotiating with him prior to the period when it was allowed.  Based on how Okung played last season though, they probably have more to worry about him protecting Philip Rivers than the tampering issue.

I’m not in denial anymore.  The LA Kings aren’t making the playoffs folks.  Every time i find myself saying they are only a few points behind one particular team for the last playoff spot, a week later that team is about 10 points ahead of them.  The same is about to happen with St. Louis, who is coming to Staples Center tonight.  The wins the Kings are picking up now needed to happen back in December and January.

A tragic episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  SPOILER ALERT for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you are watching it later.  The Saviors have officially lost their minds, in case we weren’t sure before.  Now they are shooting people over a missing cantaloupe.  Our favorite killer homemaker finally knows what happened in Alexandria, and Morgan is about to do his Rambo impersonation.  It only took 13 episodes, daylight savings time, and a cantaloupe.  I don’t remember a cantaloupe causing this much drama since Janet Jackson’s at the Super Bowl.  Apparently in the apocalypse your life is worth 1 cantaloupe.  Why isn’t Ezekiel bringing Shiva to these meetings?   The last three episodes of this season are going to be epic.

Finally, it’s about to go down tonight on The Bachelor.  The finals between Vanessa and Raven.  However, when it’s over, you’ll think Nick is going to choose Raven, but he’s really going to choose nobody.  Which we all agree is better than living in Canada.  The producers must have blown the whole budget on the trip to Finland so they had to settle for ice baths for Nick and Vanessa’s date.  Either that or Nick was determined to give Vanessa pneumonia.  In the last episode, Nick saw more action than Chuck Norris does with 4 different girls in fantasy suites.  The only difference is the action Chuck Norris sees can kill him, while the action Nick sees can give him herpes.  My favorite part of the last episode was when Vanessa said this is the best relationship she’s been in.  Really? The best relationship you’ve ever been in is with somebody who was dating two dozen women at the same time? Corrine and champagne  are one of the ultimate duos of all-time.  She was going off at Taylor during the women tell all.  It felt like Josephine was Corrine’s hype man, supporting her with every word that came out of her mouth.  Poor Taylor though….I guess she gave up her career for lent.

March 6th, 2017

Just when you thought the Laker front office was stabilizing, Jim Buss comes back to screw the franchise.  That’s right folks, Jim Buss wasn’t going to go quietly into the night after his sister fired him.  It’s like watching an episode of Game of Thrones, except Jim’s removal was more like “The Purple and Gold Wedding”.  Jim and his brother Johnny, are trying to take control, but I don’t see it happening.  The fact that Jim and Johnny’s first attempt to oust Jeanie was shot down rather quickly, suggests that he and Johnny are being nothing but foolish and vengeful.  I also love how Jim’s attorney tried to do major damage control after the story leaked, claiming that the two brothers support her.  It was also interesting to see  NBA spokesman Mike Bass quickly issue a statement in support of Jeanie and her importance as an owner in the NBA.  There’s simply no way that the NBA is going to allow the Billy Madison of the Buss family to be the controlling owner of the Lakers.  I guess we’ll know for sure on May 15th when a judge reviews the family trust.  Who says the Lakers aren’t playing in the post season?

Meanwhile, the Clippers have been having their own problems on the court of late.  They’ve lost 4 of their last 5 games, and have been getting destroyed by their top competition in the Western Conference.  Even more alarming was the fact that they got blown out by the Houston Rockets by 30 points at home.  Weren’t the Clippers supposed to have this great bench this year? Don’t people say the Clippers are going to have a great bench every year? Well once again, they don’t.  Austin Rivers is not a real point guard.  Ray Felton is past his prime, and Jamal Crawford has been in a horrible slump.  Everyone is healthy, and the Clippers still can’t hang with the best teams in the West.  They also can’t defend against good 3 point shooting teams.  We all know how this movie ends, but Doc Rivers is of course pretending like he hasn’t seen it five times.

Next week is going to be an amazing Pac 12 Tournament in Las Vegas.  UCLA is probably going to have to go through USC, Arizona, and then Oregon to win the tournament.  The good news though is that if they beat those three teams, they will be a #1 seed in the Western Region.  However, the Bruins better hope that freshman forward TJ Leaf will be healthy enough to play next week.  There’s no way UCLA can contend with the size of Arizona without having their own skill in the paint in Leaf.  This is going to be fun, and the NCAA Tournament is going to be even better the following week.

I can’t believe how early spring training started this year.  And we wonder why pitchers keep having Tommy John’s surgery? That leads us to the Dodgers.  I can’t believe some people are buying into the nonsense that the Dodgers are world series contenders.  I must have missed the part where the Dodgers acquired another reliable starting pitcher over the winter.  I also must have missed the part where they added some more trustworthy arms in their middle relief.  On top of that, they can’t decide on 3 regular outfielders, which screws up the quality of their play by shuffling them in and out of the lineup.  Until that changes, this team might win the division, but is nothing more than a pussy cat in the postseason.

Then there’s the Angels, who are playing in the AL West, which should be known as “the division of death.”  The Halos are going to have to figure out a way to deal with a young and talented Houston team, an always solid Texas team, and a Mariners team that is bound to make the playoffs one of these years we keep making fun of them.  I can’t imagine that the Angels aren’t going to score runs, but its a matter of whether or not their starting pitchers can stay off of the operating table.  The Halos aren’t even sure Garrett Richards is going to be healthy and return to the ace he once was.  They’ll also need to get lucky with a few more arms on their staff.  Mike Trout is amazing, but he can’t do it all.  The Angels are going to need to get lucky to get into the post season.

I still think the LA Kings are in serious danger of missing the playoffs.  Jerome Iginla is 39 years old.  Acquiring him last week was a great move….5 years ago.  Even though it’s low risk, LA just doesn’t have the goal scorers this year to get it done.  It’s like watching a team throw for 400 yards every game in the NFL, but never score inside the red zone.  The Kings dominate the shots, the possession stats, and even special teams, but they get outscored 5-on-5.  Then there’s the Ducks who acquired the player the Kings needed at the deadline: Patrick Eaves.  Anaheim has their own goal scoring issues, but is still in good position to make the playoffs, and then see what happens from there.

Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead was the equivalent of watching an apocalyptic  honey moon.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if that is the case.  You didn’t really think that Rick died in that episode did you? I would hope if it ever came to that, it wouldn’t be at the hands of a pack of walkers like that.  I think Rick has laughed and smiled more in the last three episodes than he has during the last seven seasons.  Then there’s Rosita.  who I really liked for a while, but now she’s just being stupid.  It’s like she wants to be Carol, but she’s just being driven by emotion and anger, and that usually gets somebody killed.  It nearly got Carl killed, but this time, I don’t think Rosita is going to get some spaghetti if things don’t work out.  I’m surprised that Sasha is being just as dumb about the whole plan to take down Negan as she is.  They both failed to realize that her foolishness is actually what got Eugene captured.

Finally, it’s going to be a three hour episode of The Bachelor tonight.  I’d like to thank Corrine for making this season worth watching, prior to her departure last week.  I think it’s safe to say Nick is an idiot for getting rid of her.  Hope he has fun renewing his passport and living in Canada, or squashing all those roaches in Houston, or rolling in the mud in Arkansas, as opposed to living in Miami.  It was very fitting though that Corrine took a nap right after her big statement in the limo when she was leaving.  Apparently dismissing her was Nick’s way of thanking her for buying him a pair of $800 sweatpants.  You’ve gotta feel bad for Raven’s ex-boyfriend.  She’s putting the dude on blast for cheating on him, and then never giving her an orgasm.  That guy might never get another woman.  There’s nothing worse than seeing a guy cry in a turtleneck.  I feel like after that episode we need to call him “TurtleNick”.  The only smart thing Nick has said this entire season is that ironing your clothes is way more effective than steaming them.

February 27th, 2017

In case you were living under a rock over the last week, Magic Johnson has replaced Jim Buss as the President of Basketball Operations, and NBA player agent Rob Pelinka, has replaced Mitch Kupchak as General Manager of the Lakers.  This might make some of you feel better because you didn’t like how things were going with Buss and Kupchak.  However, it’s not like everything is suddenly ok in Lakerland because of the changes.  The good news is that Jeanie will be able to actually have normal communication with the Basketball Operations Department, unlike the weird dynamic she had with Jim earlier.  The way things were going,  these two practically needed attorneys just to decide what they wanted to order for lunch.  It’s always good for any organization to have a unified direction, unified voice, and good communication, which the Lakers now have.  Still, it doesn’t change the fact the Lakers need to get somewhat lucky to be good again.  They’ll need to keep their 1st round picks, and likely find their next face of the franchise player in the draft.  These days, determining the success of a 19 year old in the NBA is about as easy as playing darts blindfolded after 5 shots of Tequila.  That’s why I’m a little disappointed Jerry West isn’t going to be coming back in any role with LA.  He was the greatest talent evaluator ever.  Even if they sign Paul George in 2018, they’ll still need a lot more around him to be competitive, which can’t be done through free agency alone.

ESPN must be desperate to create news, and the only way they can do it apparently is by talking about race.  On Thursday, Dan Le Batard explained on his radio show that he felt like Magic wasn’t all that qualified to run the Lakers.  Although he gave a comprehensive explanation of this, ESPN decided to take clips of Le Batard’s criticism of Magic, and play them on all their stations.  However, those clips made it sound like Le Batard was a racist, implying that Magic was simply all about “shucking and jiving” his way to the top.  Anybody that knows Le Batard knows this isn’t what he meant and that he’s not a racist, but it’s just another example of ESPN manufacturing a story. Le Batard also spent all of Friday explaining his position on multiple talk shows, as opposed to the clips which suggested he might be racist.  Since ESPN has lost all of their real talent, apparently they have to resort to these smoke and mirror stories. So the Clippers are now considering moving to Inglewood, next to the new Rams and Chargers stadium.  Don’t we have enough terrible teams moving to Inglewood?  Do we really need to add a 3rd? It’s like we’ve created the city of losers.  Getting approval to build that NFL stadium was complex enough, so I’d be surprised if Steve Ballmer is able to get all the city and EIR approvals necessary to get this done.  Even if he has all the money to build the stadium.  Ballmer does realize that Inglewood is in Los Angeles and not in Seattle, right?

I love it when college and NBA players say they never read the headlines, or pay attention the criticism they receive from the media.  The UCLA Bruins basketball team sure reads the headlines and pays attention to that criticism, because for weeks I’ve been ripping them for their pathetic defense, soft play, and lack of toughness.  In the month of February they have answered the bell, playing tough defense against quality opponents.  Both Coach Steve Alford, and his son Bryce, are most aware of this and admitted they are constantly working on it.  It showed, and if the Bruins continue to play like this, the are true national championship contenders.  UCLA has two of the biggest road wins in college basketball this year.  As for Lonzo Ball’s dad, Lavar, he’s at it again, suggesting that he would only play for the Lakers when he enters the NBA next year.  Although he backtracked from these comments yesterday, he replaced them with dumber comments by suggesting that if we currently put Lonzo on the Warriors instead of Steph Curry, they would be better.  Lavar is going to make Lonzo the most hated basketball player in the world at this rate, and he hasn’t even played a single NBA game yet.

Why are NBA players so thin skinned these days? First you have Lebron complaining about Charles Barkley criticizing him for needing more help.  Now we have Javale McGee engaging a huge Twitter war with Shaq because McGee is repeatedly on “Shaq’tin A Fool”, which is a weekly blooper reel of NBA highlights.  It’s Shaq’s job to be entertaining, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.  If Javale has a problem with being featured on the bloopers every week, he should stop making a fool out of himself every week he plays.  The crying and bitching that we’re seeing from his teammates and the Warriors, who are complaining to TNT, is ridiculous.  In case you missed the exchange between Shaq and Javale, here it is.

@SHAQ get my ‘s out of your mouth! And EAD! #thatisall

— Javale McGee (@JaValeMcGee34) February 24, 2017

@JaValeMcGee34 now since you on a good team u wanna act like you a player now stop it u will only be remembered for shaqtin a fool #bumass

— SHAQ (@SHAQ) February 24, 2017

@JaValeMcGee34 don’t be acting like u a g I’ll smack the s**t out yo bum ass u da one that be looking stupid with your dumb ass #bumass

— SHAQ (@SHAQ) February 24, 2017

Oh we threatening people now? Kick rocks you old bastard… you ain’t gone do sh** !!! And that’s on my mama… stick to cooning! https://t.co/ZFuGREc1WJ

— Javale McGee (@JaValeMcGee34) February 24, 2017

Forget being on a good team… Ima grown man… you’ve had these ‘s in yo mouth for 5-6 years now… u thought I was just gone stay silent? https://t.co/3gTpTgVgmU

— Javale McGee (@JaValeMcGee34) February 24, 2017

Aight y’all I’m done responding… I think

— Javale McGee (@JaValeMcGee34) February 24, 2017

This race for the 2024 Summer Olympics in getting interesting.  After Donald Trump was elected President, it dealt a major blow the hopes of LA’s bid.  However, Budapest dropped out because similar to a number of other previous bidders, the cost was just too great for them.  That leaves Paris and Los Angeles.  Paris is unfortunately the home of a lot of terrorist activity of late, while the United States creates a great degree of uncertainty because of Trump’s immigration orders.  On one hand, it’s hard to imagine all of those IOC voters from Islamic and Latin American countries voting for the LA because of Donald Trump.  But on the other hand, we know the IOC is corrupt, and is getting bribes left and right.  How else do you explain a disastrous country like Brazil getting the Olympics? It’s going to be an interesting decision for this corruption that is the IOC.

Why did the LA Kings acquire one of the top goaltenders on the market to backup Jonathan Quick now? This would have been helpful 3 months ago when Quick was hurt.  Maybe they wouldn’t be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in if they had.  By the way Kato Kaelin was in the house for the Kings-Ducks game on Saturday at Staples Center.  This makes sense. Whenever Kato is in the house there is always bloodshed.

The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it yet, so read no further if that is the case.  Just when I thought I got that “Easy Street” song out of my head, I had to hear it again, and I’m going to playing it in my head for the next few weeks.  Listening to Eugene’s nerdy talk was unbelievable.  He was like some type of super nerd, that was made from parts of a lesser nerd.  Couldn’t Negan have just killed him instead of some of our favorite characters this season? It was even more painful watching him interact with the girls Negan sent to him.  Negan lines up some easy sex for him and somehow, in two or three sentences, he lost the ability have sex with every woman in that room.  The scary thing about him though is that once you gave him some pickles, he got his confidence up, and bought into Negan’s nonsense.  Eugene is desperate for his own survival, and knows the’s too much of a coward to stand up for what’s right.  Dwight on the other hand is on the verge of snapping, and I’m curious to see if he gets revenge on Negan.

As for the Oscars last night, I thought blunders like that only happened in beauty pageants that were hosted by Steve Harvey! Harvey may think he’s off the hook, but the reality is we will forever compare his blunder in the pageant to every other blunder like last night.  I realize it wasn’t entirely Warren Beaty’s fault, but perhaps the Academy should make sure all of its presenters are young enough to effectively read and recognize when they have the incorrect envelopes like Beaty did.  Props to all the people from La La Land that recognize the goof, and stopped their acceptance speech to give the real award to Moonlight.  I know i know…..most of you are wishing that the 2016 Presidential Election turned out the way Best Picture did last night.  Outside of that blunder, and Justin Timberlake’s brilliant performance to open the show, last night was just a reminder that the Oscars are nothing but politics and who is in bed with the right people in Hollywood to get recognized.  In case you missed the blunder here is the full disaster…..

Finally, we get to see another highly anticipated episode of The Bachelor tonight on ABC.  Last week we got to see Nick go on four different dates with each remaining contestant.  The remaining women are from Houston, Montreal, some small town in Arkansas, and Miami.  It should be a no-brainer where he wants to live.  Corrine has both geography and money on her side.  Her dad also seems like the equivalent of Pauley D from Jersey Shore, but 25 years older.  He’ll also have the person who might be the most famous nanny in the world, Raquel.  My favorite part of the show was seeing Corrine’s mom say “I can’t do a lot of things without Raquel”, while waiting anxiously for Raquel to pass her a glass of wine.  Let’s be honest though, Nick doesn’t really like olives.  Vanessa might seem like the most normal, but her family is way too intense.  She got dumped people, she didn’t grow up eating lipstick.  Apparently, none of them realize they are on The Bachelor, and are surprised Nick asked for the permission to marry each girl remaining from all the parents he visited.  They were about as surprised as I was that there was no cheese pasta served for dinner at her house.  I’m going to need to take a shot of whiskey tonight every time Nick says the word “respect”.  From platinum “vageen” to platinum visa, Corrine needs to be the winner.

February 20th, 2017

The NBA All-Star game went down last night.  That game was basically a 2.5 hour and 1 mix tape.  The West beat the East 192-182.  Yes that was actually the final score of the game.  Since both teams were on pace for 200 points each by halftime, they really made an effort to lock down on defense in the second half.  I’d also say Steph Curry’s defense was about as good as it was in the NBA Finals last year. Besides, 192 points are what the Knicks would call an average game for their opponents.  Hopefully Anthony Davis will be awarded a free eyebrow wax from the NBA since he took home the All-Star game MVP last night.  The league could easily make this more competitive by giving a $10-$15 million prize for the winning team.  I suspect Adam Silver will fix this problem.

Last night DeMarcus Cousins was traded to the Pelicans.   It was just hours earlier that the Lakers were in talks to acquire him, but the price was too high as far as they were concerned.  We know the Kings asked for Brandon Ingram, a future 1st rounder, and probably more.  The Lakers didn’t want to include Ingram.  You might think the Lakers were stupid to not give the Kings what they wanted for Cousins, even if it meant giving up Ingram.  However, LA made the right decision hanging on to him.  As great as DeMarcus Cousins is, we’ve seen what a team looks like with him as the best player, and it’s not even a playoff team.  As a Laker, Cousins would become the best player on the team immediately, and LA still wouldn’t be a playoff team.  Don’t be fooled into thinking LA won’t give up their young talent for a star player.  That star isn’t DeMarcus Cousins though.

As for All-Star Saturday night, this had to have been one of the more disappointing ones I can remember in the last several years. The NBA is all about star power, and unfortunately, we just didn’t see much of it in any of the three contests.  Kristaps Porzingas winning the skills contest is the most exciting thing to happen to the Knicks since Allen Houston came off their payroll.  They might as well have called the three-point shooting contest the “Klay Thompson Invitational” and the slam dunk contest the “Aaron Gordon Invitational” since they were such heavy favorites, yet somehow, they both managed to lose those events.  Eric Gordon shot well, but how can you have a three-point shooting contest without Steph Curry and Kyle Korver? Otto Porter leads the league in 3 point shooting this year, and he wasn’t even in the contest. As for the slam dunk contest, not having Zach Lavine go up against Aaron Gordon was a big let down after Lavine’s injury.  Aaron Gordon himself looked like he was laboring with his foot injury, and that probably allowed a guy like Glen Robinson III to win.  In addition to the dunks just not being creative enough, the names just weren’t there either.  I think we have all come to grips with the fact Lebron isn’t going to compete now that he’s well into his 30’s.  However, where is the top young athleticism in the NBA like Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo, or even an athletic freak like Larry Nance Jr? It’s feeling more and more like a “whoever we can get to show up” contest.  DeAndre Jordan had a nice dunk, but we all know the odds are always stacked against you when you are a big man.  In DeAndre’s case, the odds are also stacked against him playing basketball when Chris Paul isn’t on the floor to throw him some ally-oops.  Hopefully Adam Silver comes up with some ways to keep the dunk contest alive.

Even though the NBA All-Star game did not have any Lakers playing in it, they did have some representation, most notably in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday. Both D’Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram participated. I don’t like to read too much into an exhibition game without a lot of defense being played, but after seeing D’Angelo contribute 12 points and 4 assists, and giving the fans some highlight reel isolation plays, it couldn’t help but reinforce what I already thought about him. Russell has star talent, but whether he fulfills it will come down to all the intangibles: work ethic, mental toughness, and maturity. As for Brandon Ingram, the skill is there, but until the kid puts on some weight, it’s hard to know exactly what the Lakers have in him.

Did anybody stop and think for just one minute that Kyrie Irving was actually trolling the media when he suggested the world is flat? It just goes to show you how desperate the media can be for a story in a slow news weekend.  Kevin Love has been the subject of some trade rumors in Cleveland, as he has been the last couple of years.  He was actually replaced on the All-Star team by Carmelo Anthony.  He and Lebron had a nice little exchange of text messages a few days ago….

New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis turned himself in to authorities on Friday, after being charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor stemming from an altercation in Pittsburgh last week. Revis is scheduled for a hearing in a few days.  Looks like Revis Island is about to turn into Alcatraz Island if he has to face jail time.  If the judge we’re going to give him a maximum sentence though, he would just sentence him to playing for the Cleveland Browns for the next five years.

Going into Saturday, it felt like UCLA was never going to beat USC again in basketball.  Then Lonzo Ball reminded us how great he was once again, as the Bruins blew out the Trojans at Pauley Pavilion.  Not only did UCLA play great defense, but we didn’t have to hear Steve Alford bitch about how high of a standard we hold him to when they don’t play defense.  If Alford wants to complain about it, he should go coach at Southwest Missouri State and take his kid with him.  To his credit though, Alford has gotten the Bruins to play some much better defense in the last couple of games.  I still think that Lavar Ball needs to settle down with all the talk about Lonzo being better than Steph Curry and better than Jason Kidd.  It’s great to have confidence in your kid and support him, but no need to put the added pressure on him, or even put a target on him that other players want a shot at.  Lavar Ball has become the world’s worst soccer mom.

Let’s go to the ice where last night the LA Kings played one of their biggest games of the season, yet somehow laid their biggest egg.  In typical Kings fashion, they couldn’t score, losing 1-0 to the Ducks at Honda Center.  The Kings must be under the impression that their bye week was for two weeks instead of one, because they haven’t showed up in their last three games.  I get it, Anze Kopitar is a nice defensive forward who does more than score.  However, the Kings sure as hell need him to score, and for $10 million per year, it better be more than six goals a season.  I also love how the Kings called up their most skilled prospect in Adrian Kempe, yet stick him on the 4th line instead of the top line when they are desperate for offense.  The Kings may not be out of the playoff race, but it sure feels like they’re letting the playoffs slip further and further away from them.

To baseball where spring training has opened up in Arizona for the Angels and Dodgers.  However, the big news for the Halos is that according to Arte Moreno, they will be playing at Anaheim Stadium until 2029.  The Angels also spent $1.5 million to install some LED lights in the stadium during the off-season, to go along with other improvements to the stadium over the years.  Moreno has clearly experienced the same troubles that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has recently, with regards to trying to build a new stadium in Southern California.  Even if Moreno had the money to do it himself, which he doesn’t, trying to build something in Orange County is not amenable to most residents, while in LA there are just too many stadiums.  Even if there was an opportunity to move, Anaheim has been home to the Halos for decades, and should continue to be that home.

Another coalition building episode of The Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case, and you want to watch it later.  I like how Rick was saved by Michonne in this episode, and she wasn’t even fighting with him.  I was shocked that Jadis didn’t ask for a hair stylist instead of all those guns for her group.  She must have thought the Jim Carey “Dumber & Dumber” haircut was in.  I was really bummed that Darryl didn’t tell  Carol that Glenn and Abraham were beaten to death.  However, my gut feeling is that she will eventually find out, and when she does, she will get her revenge.

Lastly, we’re down to the final four on The Bachelor, and I’m sure many of you can’t wait for tonight’s episode.  I’m fairly amazed how Nick has found a way to send all the girls home that would actually be good wives.  That dude is crazier than the women on the show.   He wants a deeper relationship, the women say they love him, then he sends them home.  Can they just send Nick home already? Let’s be honest, Nick probably sent Christina home because he thought he had to travel all the way to Russia for the hometown date with her.  Looks like ABC forgot to issue the spoiler alert when they announced that Rachel Lindsay will be the next Bachelorette.  This was never a problem with previous Bachelorette’s, so I’m not sure why ABC made this scheduling goof.  I’m not sure what was up with Corrine suddenly talking in the third person during last week’s show.  Who does she think she is, Elmo?  Nevertheless, she has a real shot to win, and my prediction is that you’re going to see her in the final.  If not though, I hope we at least get to meet her crazy family and Raquel.  After all, nothing says bringing a girl home to your family like a “platinum vageen”.  I’m not sure what was funnier: seeing Corrine walk out of that hotel while walking past the sliding doors, or seeing her walk like Bambi in those Louboutin’s.

Well Corrine when one door closes another opens…. but okay don’t use it #thebachelor pic.twitter.com/AvQnI1jqNY

— Sam Moore (@sammoore_007) February 14, 2017

February 13th, 2017

It’s not out of the question Laker fans.  Jerry West could come back to the franchise.  Reports surfaced out of the Bay Area last week, indicating that West could be intrigued by an offer from the Lakers Basketball Operations Department.  This is the most exciting piece of Laker news I’ve heard since learning that Blaze Pizza had a concession stand at Staple Center.  West is 78 years old, so let’s not get any crazy ideas that he would come back as a General Manager, or even Director of Basketball Operations.  However, he would be an extremely valuable consultant for the Lakers, and would be instrumental in helping rebuild the franchise.  If there’s one thing Jerry West is great at, it’s evaluating talent.  The Lakers have reached a point where drafting is more important than anything else they do.  With that being the case, his input would be critical.  He rebuilt the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Golden State Warriors, mostly through the draft.  There’s no reason he can’t help do it one more time.  With his son Ryan already in the front office, and good working relationships already with Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss, Magic Johnson, and Jeanie Buss, there’s no reason this can’t work.  The Lakers are going to need additional help, but that’s a great start.

For those of you complaining about Jim Buss and where the Lakers are, Buss looks like the greatest owner in sports when you compare him to James Dolan in New York.  There is no tent big enough to hold the circus that is going on with the Knicks franchise.  Dolan has completely washed his hands of the Carmelo Anthony drama, and when asked about it last week, he said it’s all up to Phil Jackson.  The man doesn’t care, he just doesn’t want any of the blame.  I guess that’s why he’s paying Jackson $12 million a year.  I feel terrible for Carmelo, who’s been ripped by Jackson in the media, just to make him feel uncomfortable and ultimately waive his no-trade clause.  Carmelo has done nothing but come to work everyday, he doesn’t complain, and by all accounts he’s a good guy and a good teammate.  As if that didn’t create enough drama, Dolan then threw out former Knick legend Charles Oakley from Madison Square Garden late last week.  Oakley was likely screaming obscenities, but Dolan handled the situation poorly, and made up stories about the former Knick.  Dolan was so determined to win the battle of public perception that he even invited former Knick Latrell Sprewell, to sit next to him during yesterday’s game.  Sprewell also has a very rocky history with the organization.  I can’t wait to see where this high school drama goes next.  The bottom line is that the Knicks do more fighting in the stands than on the court.

Despite the last two UCLA wins, I’ve been really skeptical about their tournament chances of late.  However, there’s one thing that makes me think they could have a chance to go to the Final Four: Lonzo Ball.  As the College Basketball season goes on, he keeps getting better and better.  He totally dominated at both ends of the floor against Oregon, shutting down Dillon Brooks at one end, and taking over offensively at the other.  Yesterday, he sparked the Bruins in the 2nd half to route Oregon State.  Even when UCLA had a team with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love, it wasn’t enough to overcome the likes of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, or Al Horford in the Final Four.  It may very well be that UCLA has the most transcendent college player in the nation that puts them in National Championship contention.  Still, the Bruins have to improve their defense, and Steve Alford needs to stop bitching about us criticizing him for it when they stink.  Prior to playing the Oregon schools, the Bruins were ranked 117th out of 351 schools in adjusted defensive efficiency.  That measures how many points teams give up per 100 possessions when accounting for level of competitions.  Of the last 40 teams that made it to the Final Four, only two have had a ranking of 51 or higher.  That’s bad news for UCLA hoops.

Speaking of UCLA, you probably heard about future Bruin recruit LaMelo Ball scoring 92 points in a game for Chino Hills High School last week.  LaMelo is clearly one of the best high school basketball players in the country, and I can’t criticize a kid a teenager for doing something his coaches enabled him to do.  Let’s give LaMelo credit for dedicating his performance to a very sick classmate who was having surgery as well.  However, allowing someone to score 92 points in high school game is everything that wrong with high school and college basketball recruiting today.  Chino Hills defeated Los Osos 146-123.  A team with LaMelo Ball, one of the best high school players in the nation, is giving up 123 points? That’s because LaMelo spent most of the night cherry picking and not paying any attention to the defensive end.  LaMelo and his brother LiAngelo are such great players, their parents and coaches should hold them accountable for playing great defense on every possession, and for getting their teammates high quality shots with regularity.  It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either to give some players minutes who don’t get to play a whole lot either.

Are the Kings actually going to make the playoffs? They’ve got 27 games left, and are clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.  How LA has managed to make it this far is more confusing than the names of Michael Jackson’s kids.  The Kings are 4th in goals allowed, but just 23rd in the league in goals scored.  Even stranger is the fact that Anze Kopitar, their leading scorer for the last 9 seasons, has just six goals on the year.  They also lost Jonathan Quick, one of the best goaltenders in hockey, to a groin injury in the 1st game of the season.  Quick might return before the season is over, but it’s far from a guarantee.  LA had the benefit of making an impact trade at the deadline in 2012 and 2014, which propelled them to Stanley Cup Championships.  This time however, they probably don’t have the assets or the salary cap flexibility to make that type of trade.  Meanwhile, the Ducks have found a way to get younger, yet they are still staying in playoff contention.  Their offense isn’t overwhelming, but their defense and goaltending are solid, and they are a much grittier team than in years past.  Whether that translates into playoff success remains to be seen however, in the crapshoot that is the NHL playoffs.

Nick Saban needs to start a reality show for fired USC coaches.  When coaches look like their career is over, they go work for him, and then find themselves as useful candidates elsewhere.  It was just months ago we felt like Steve Sarkisian’s career was over when he sued USC.  It turns out that not only is he an NFL Offensive Coordinator for the Falcons now, but he could easily end up getting a chance to be a head coach in the league in a couple of seasons.  Not bad for a guy that’s probably having a drink as you read this.

The Bachelor is getting crazy on ABC.  In fact, it’s getting so crazy that Jasmine makes Corrine look totally normal.  Nick is cutting girls like the federal budget.  We’re down to six.  It’s probably a good idea for most of the girls to take note that Nick doesn’t like to be choked, as Jasmine found out.  Who the hell is Whitney? Did anybody actually know who she was before that horrible 2 on 1 date she had? It was like watching a bad job interview.  These girls are getting very whiny, and I don’t blame Nick for starting to get over the whole process.  Every one of them should be fortunate and excited they made it this far on the show, yet all they can do is just increase the amount of complaining they are doing because of the lack of attention they are getting.  Vanessa in particular is the worst of these complainers, and I’m tired of her act.  There’s no crying in volleyball ladies.  If you played a drinking game where you had to take a shot every time Nick says “my heart is open”, you would be dead 30 minutes into the episode.  Nick is also crazy for sending Danielle Lo home.  At least she didn’t get left on the beach like Whitney.

The Walking Dead came back last night on AMC.  We just can’t seem to escape politics can we? The show spent a full hour building coalitions against a totalitarian regime.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  At least in this season premier we didn’t have to witness anybody get their skull crushed by a baseball bat.

Finally, it was Grammy night at Staples Center last night.  The last two years all I heard from people was how little talent the artists had, and how most of them had some kind of sideshow personality with no real quality music.  Last night definitely dispelled that notion, as plenty of talent was on display, and there were a number of excellent tributes to artists that had passed away recently.  Adele’s blunder wasn’t that bad.  Her expletive on live TV was unnecessary, but she collected herself quickly and gave a good performance after that.  That same can’t be said for Mariah Carey, who spent five minutes complaining about the technical difficulties on live TV during New Years Eve.  Then again, the Metallica microphone blunder seemed like a far worse mistake to me, but a lot of people might not have even realized their microphone wasn’t on anyway.  A legendary band like Metallica deserves better than that though.  Did anybody else think that Beyonce’s mom looked like Caitlyn Jenner?  Speaking of Beyonce, she looked better with a baby than most women do without one.

February 6th, 2017

That turned out to a be a much better Super Bowl than it appeared.  I’m not sure what was worse, the Patriots play in the 1st half, or all of the Super Bowl commercials.  Even the Cleveland Browns scored as many points as the Falcons and Patriots did in the 1st quarter on Super Bowl Sunday.  Bill Belichick was about ready to replace Brady with Lady Gaga as his quarterback.  Then came the second half of the game, which had to be extremely disappointing to the 8 Falcons fans that made the drive to Houston.  In the end, the Falcons looked like such big losers for blowing that lead, nobody would be surprised if they moved to LA next season.  This was like the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead all over again.  I don’t know if Tom Brady is the best quarterback of all time, but he’s certainly in the discussion with Joe Montana.  Just listening to his teammates talk about him after the game made you realize how much they believe in him and their coach.  How the hell did Julian Edelman catch that ball?  I have never seen a team make second half adjustments like the Patriots do in all their games.  Bill Belichick is really that good.  Why did the Falcons keep throwing the football in the fourth quarter? They had two of the best running backs in football, and they didn’t take nearly enough time off the clock.  It was experience vs inexperience.  Roger Goodell congratulating Tom Brady on the podium when it was over was like Obama meeting Trump at the White House.  What a great finish to the NFL season.

The one thing I look forward to every Super Bowl is the commercials.  However, there was not a single commercial that was good.  Nothing made me laugh.  In fact, I think for the last several years, the Super Bowl commercials have been progressively getting more conservative, as well as less funny and entertaining.  Lady Gaga’s performance was good, but it was almost surprising that she wasn’t wearing less clothing, and didn’t make any kind of political statement.  I’m guessing the NFL gave her some pretty strict guidelines to follow for her performance, which did not allow for any of that.

The Lakers announced that Magic Johnson is returning to the team.  Magic says that he is available to the team in any way they would like to use him.  Good thing because I think it’s most ideal if Magic can be the team’s starting point guard and center.  Magic indicated that the Lakers are one superstar away from competing, so hopefully he was talking about himself, because acquiring one through free agency or a trade is going to be more difficult than ever before.  There is actually a lot that Magic can do for the organization right now, both on and off the floor.  In the eyes of the public, he immediately will add some much needed credibility to the front office.  If and when Jeanie Buss moves Jim out of basketball operations in the coming months, Magic will also pave the way for someone else to provide more help to run basketball operations.  Perhaps someone with some fresh thinking.  I also suspect that Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak will not be going anywhere, nor should they.  They will simply be ascending to higher advisory type roles.  We see Fortune 500 Companies do this all the time, bringing in new CEO’s after just a few years for that type of thinking.  Magic can also help mentor D’Angelo Russell, and work with him in practice to get him to fulfill all that potential he has.  Acquiring talent is going to be tougher than ever in the NBA, but if there’s somebody who can help the Lakers rebuild, it’s the Magic man.

This Lebron James vs the Cavs, and Lebron James vs Charles Barkley saga is so overblown.  Even though Lebron could have done it without going public, there is nothing wrong with him pushing his front office to make more moves to improve the team.  If you remember correctly, it was Kobe Bryant who did the exact same thing in 2007-2008, which pressured the Laker front office into making a big trade for Pau Gasol.  We always used to accuse Lebron of not being pathologically obsessed with winning.  As he’s gotten older and is trying to enhance his legacy, he has resorted to this type of “crack the whip” leadership with the entire organization.  You may not like it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be effective.  There’s a good chance Lebron already had this talk with the Cavs privately, yet they haven’t acted, so he resorted to scolding them publicly for not continuously trying to improve the team.  I have no problem with that an even admire him for it.  On the other hand, it’s Barkley’s job to give his opinion on these types of situations, and Leborn knows that.  There’s nothing wrong with Barkley’s criticism of Lebron, and it’s no disrespect toward his legacy.  There’s a difference between criticizing the person and the performance, and Barkley is able to separate the two, so there’s no reason Lebron shouldn’t be able to.  Lebron on the other hand felt the need to criticize Barkley on a personal level, which was totally unnecessary.

Normally it’s the Raiders that find a way to screw things up.  This time however, it’s the NFL that screwed things up for the Raiders, likely ruining any chance for them to move to Vegas.  That’s because the league advised the Raiders to negotiate a deal to move to Vegas without Casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson.  After months of talks with Adelson, the team went behind his back multiple times, in attempt to get the deal done without him.  The real stupidity behind this decision is the fact that Adelson practically owns Vegas.  To get the deal done without him, the Raiders need the support of the local politicians, and Goldman Sachs.  Too bad Goldman has been advising Adelson’s firm for decades, and Adelson is very close with those local politicians.  There’s no chance they would go behind his back and make the deal without him.  With each passing day, I get the sense that the NFL is really run by idiots, who naively believe their football product is invincible.  That belief didn’t hold up in San Diego, who let the Chargers go when they refused to use public money to build a stadium, and the same thing is happening in Las Vegas.  Ultimately, what could destroy the NFL years from now is the people running it.

I’m not a huge believer in the merits of College Football’s National signing day.  However, there was a stark difference in the recruiting classes of USC and UCLA.  When you have a top 5 recruiting class, you are pulling in the best of the best, and a handful of five-star recruits.  That’s exactly what USC did, finishing with a class as high as #4 in some rankings.  The Trojans absolutely killed it, headlined by linebacker Levi Jones, a four star recruit, wide receiver Joseph Lewis, and his high school teammate Greg Johnson.  That also goes along with five star running back Stephen Carr, and a number of other highly touted recruits.  That not only fills the void left by the Trojan players departing for the NFL draft or graduating, but also adds much needed depth we haven’t seen since the Pete Carroll era.  I think it’s safe to say that Clay Helton has no problem recruiting.  Whether he can develop and coach over the long-haul remains to be seem, but I don’t hear anybody complaining about him anymore.  USC has returned to not even really recruiting players, but just selecting the top ones because the football brand is strong again.  As for the Bruins, a recruiting class ranked as high as #19 doesn’t sound bad, except when you find out that there were no running backs or wide receivers recruited.  Considering those were two of the Bruins biggest problems last year, it’s hard to imagine the team getting a whole lot better.  For a while, it seemed like UCLA was back on track, and even eclipsing USC within the Pac 12 Conference.  That feels like a distant memory now, and Jim Mora’s job might actually be in bigger jeopardy than most think.

Why are the Dodgers trying to sign Giants reliever Sergio Romo? His fastball probably wouldn’t even get a speeding ticket on the highway these days, and he definitely knows how to serve up some home runs.  Then again, he was injured last season, and his arm is about to fall off, so it makes perfect sense why Andrew Friedman would be interested in him.  If the Dodgers are going to take flyers on relievers like this, it would be nice if they also signed Joe Blanton as well.  However, let’s not pretend like the bullpen and the pitching is going to be reliable beyond Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen.  Those two guys are probably going to be asked to do some stupid things come October, like pitching way more innings than they really should.

Finally, get ready for The Bachelor Tonight.  You don’t actually think that both Taylor and Corrine are going to get kicked off the show tonight do you? Don’t be surprised if not only Corrine stays, but Taylor as well.  I think in the last episode I heard the term “emotional intelligence” more than I did in my senior year psychology class in college.  Whether you like her or hate her, you had to have fallen out of your chair laughing when Corrine said “make America Corrine again.”  If a guy dated 25 girls at one time, a girl would call him a player and a jerk.  On The Bachelor though, that guy is the man of every woman’s dreams.  The hilarious part about that is that all of these women are being duped and that Nick really just out to get some tail.

January 30th, 2017

What are you waiting for Doc Rivers? Just pull the trigger on the Carmelo trade already.   How many times are you going to try and convince us that your team is good enough to win as currently constructed? We all know it’s not, and deep down inside, you know it too.  ‘Melo isn’t Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard, but he’s still an All-Star caliber small forward that will make Clippers better.  Even if you have to give up J.J. Redick to get it done, you’re getting a massive upgrade at the position you need the most help.  Yea I get it, most of you think ‘Melo is some one dimensional ball hog.  However, if you put great players around him like CP3 and Blake, just like in the Olympics, he becomes a huge asset.  Not to mention the fact he’s a much better locker room guy than people give him credit for.  Even if ‘Melo doesn’t get the Clipps by the Warriors or Spurs, they are still a better team with him, as well as a more entertaining one.

Speaking of trades, it’s time for the Lakers to find a trade partner for someone to take Lou Williams and Nick Young.  By trading those guys, they might even be able to get another 1st round pick, shed some longer-term salary along with them, and get some of the kids more playing time to develop.  With that development likely comes more losses, which is actually much needed as well.  The Lake Show are trying to hang on to their top 3 protected lottery pick this year, and if they are successful, they would also keep their 1st round pick in 2019 as well, which is a result of the Dwight Howard trade.  In other words, by losing they are protecting not one but two future 1st round picks.  Drafting NBA players in the lottery is a crapshoot, but if you keep picking, eventually you find your franchise guy.  Just ask the 76ers and Bucks.

So the NBA players and coaches complained about the fans having too much say in the All-Star selection process.  This year, when they changed the voting process to give players a say, it turns out most voted for themselves, their friends, or didn’t even bother to vote.  Many didn’t even have Lebron James on their ballot! Perhaps the NBA has forgotten what the All-Star game is about: it’s a game for the fans, so they should get to see what they want.  If the fans want to see Steph Curry start over Russell Westbrook then they deserve it to see it.  For the most part, the fans do a pretty good job, and a much better job than the players themselves.  Without the fans, there is no NBA.  After this idiotic display by the players, the next player, coach, or member of the NBA that suggests anything is wrong with the fan voting should be slapped.  As for the Cavs, according to this reporter, they do some pretty interesting things in the huddle…..

The Dodgers finally made a big move to acquire a second  baseman you’ve probably never heard of.  It was Logan Forsythe of the Tampa Bay Rays, and it cost them one of their better pitching prospects, Jose De Leon.  I sure wish the Boys in Blue were able acquire Brian Dozier from the Twins instead, however, Forsythe is just as good, but without the power.  He also fills a lot of needs: an everyday second baseman, leadoff hitter, and someone who hits well against left handers.  That sounds great and all, but the Dodgers aren’t in any better position to win a World Series than they have been the last 6 years.  They are probably good enough to win the division, and then get abused by another midwest team in the playoffs.  The Dodgers wouldn’t have had a need to acquire Forsythe had Andrew Friedman not made that stupid Dee Gordon trade a few years ago, as Gordon is now a very affordable all-star second baseman.  The team would also probably perform a lot better if Friedman didn’t insist on changing his outfield lineups more frequently than Kim Kardashian changes husbands.

Remember when I didn’t mind that Steve Alford was coaching the Bruins basketball team? After losing to USC, I think every UCLA Basketball fan should mind.  The Bruins should never lose basketball games to the Trojans.  Even Trojan fans know that.  UCLA returned to the team we saw against Arizona, which couldn’t play defense, and had an offense that was totally of of rhythm.   It’s like Alford forgot he had to coach this team when they ran into trouble.  Speaking of Alford’s forgetting things, it feels like Bryce has suddenly forgotten how to play in the last two games.  Even Lonzo Ball shares some blame in this, serving up more turnovers than Betty Crocker last Wednesday.   These are still eighteen and nineteen year old kids, which is hard to remember, but their development and focus falls at the feet of the coaching staff.  The more adversity the Bruins seem to face this year, the more that coaching seems non-existent.

I wish they would permanently do away with the bye week prior to the Super Bowl.  Just give us the game already!  By the time we get to Super Sunday, NFL analysts will be forced to analyze issues like what color hoodie will Bill Belichik be wearing? Or whether or not Tom Brady wears Gisele’s underwear for good luck in big games? You’ll just have to hear about this stuff for the next seven days.  The game features the Patriots #1 defense in the NFL, vs the #1 offense of the Falcons.  These games never end well for the offensive juggernaut, so this game has Patriots blowout written all over it.

It’s one thing to have a sport with an All-Star Game that’s less than ideal.  However, the Pro-Bowl takes this concept to a new level by making the NFL just look like garbage.  The entire game has become a joke that nobody watches anymore, in which the players hardly try so they don’t get injured.  Many deserving players don’t even want to go or are playing in the Super Bowl.  This is one league showcase they should have ended five years ago.  Unfortunately, as successful as the league is, it isn’t necessarily run by the smartest people.  Roger Goodell even came out last week and claimed that Thursday Night Football is a good product.  It seems that even the NFL Commissioner is suffering from CTE.

Then there’s the NHL All-Star game which may have finally gotten an All-Star Game right.  They made it an exciting three-on-three tournament, with teams broken up by division.  There’s probably more goalies that are named “All-Stars” who probably shouldn’t be because of the divisional format, but the goalies don’t really matter.  It’s a huge showcase of skill, with enough competitiveness and entertainment for the fans.  That’s what they came to see.  Yesterday, it was nice to see the present LA Kings, Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty, play well in front of the home fans, but also a lot of former Kings make their presence felt as well.  From former King Wayne Simmonds getting the MVP, to former Kings Luc Robitaille, Marcel Dionne, and Wayne Gretzky being honored among the top 100 players of all time, the hometown heroes were well represented.  The most epic part of the weekend though was the NHL letting Snoop Dog open for the Skills Challenge on Saturday night.  It just so happens though, that the league forgot to tell him to censor his lyrics…..

On a much more serious note, I am happy to hear that LA Kings broadcaster Bob Miller is in good spirits and doing well.  Miller suffered a mild stroke on Saturday, and was admitted to USC Keck Hospital, where he is resting comfortably.  Miller is not only a Hall of Fame Broadcaster but a great guy as well, who is very loved in the hockey community.  Thoughts and prayers with him and his family, and here’s to a speedy recovery.

Ok folks, somebody on The Bachelor is going home tonight, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be Corrine, even though she’s making most of us “cor-ringe”, every time she speaks.  Mind you, on the last episode Corrine claimed that even Michael Jordan took naps.  However, none of his teammates during the Olympics remember him taking any naps and were pretty amazed by that.  Corrine, you are no Michael Jordan.  You are more like the seven dwarfs in one episode: sleepy, happy, grumpy, and slutty (if there was such a dwarf).  Taylor is likely to be the one to go tonight, mostly because if it’s not Nick who says so, it will probably be the producers.  Raven beating her cheating boyfriend with her home wrecker’s stiletto is one of the best “please love me because I’m damaged” stories I’ve heard in a long time.  Why are there so many Danielle’s on the show? The producers really blew it on that one, even though Danielle L. is my favorite.  Nick definitely knew what he was doing when he took all the girls to the farm to check out their skills milking cows.   The more I think about it though, I think Corrine is really just Tiffany Trump living a double life to troll all of us right now……

January 23, 2017

Last week Jeanie Buss met with Magic Johnson to talk about the state of the Laker franchise.  As you can see from the selfie they took from her seats, they made no secret about their meeting.  You can be sure that they were not reminiscing about Magic’s playing days, or about that old television show he used to host called “The Magic Hour” (which was easily the worst television show in the history of television).  Jeanie has to be strategizing a shakeup in the Laker front office, and specifically, replacing her brother Jim with somebody else as the head of basketball operations.  Jeanie was probably using Magic to generate ideas, and probably even gauging his interest in returning to the Lakers in some capacity.  I certainly can’t see Magic in a player evaluation role for the team, but I could see him in a higher level business operating role.  At most, overseeing the basketball operations department, but delegating to others.  He already looks bored of his ownership role with the Dodgers.  Nevertheless, this wouldn’t be too radical of a shift in leadership, but one that would appease the public more than anything else, as well as appease Jeanie and Magic, who both love the Lakers as much as life itself.   On the court things have been rough of late.  The Lakers lost D’Angelo Russell for a couple of weeks to another knee injury, and took a senseless beating from the Mavericks yesterday by 49 points, which was their worst loss in franchise history.  Time to cheer for more losses folks to keep that 1st round draft pick!

Speaking of losing, the Clippers lost Chris Paul to an injury again.  This time, another 6-8 weeks for a thumb injury.  I could swear I’ve seen this movie before, as well as the sequel, and it’s going to end the same way in the trilogy.  Blake Griffin will come back next week.  Then Paul will be back by the end of the season, and the Clipps will struggle to regain their chemistry.  They’ll fool some of you into thinking they can contend, and then they’ll either choke in the first round, or get blown off the floor in the second round against the Warriors.  Somehow, Doc Rivers and Steve Ballmer will then convince themselves to bring back the exact same team next season, even if it costs them another $400 million to keep Blake and Paul.  You’ve gotta give Doc Rivers credit for being able to bamboozle the former CEO of Microsoft, and convince him to keep the team together for this long.  This might also explain why Ballmer is no longer the CEO of Microsoft.

What a horrible pair of conference championship games we saw yesterday.  I refuse to accept the fact we had to watch two blowouts.  I’m so upset, starting today I’m going to be protesting, picketing, rioting, and forming support groups.  #NotmySuperBowl.   In Atlanta, the Packers played so badly, Aaron Rogers’ family probably won’t plan on making up with him anytime soon.  Stay positive though Packer fans.  You still have obesity, cheese, and 11 months of Winter to help you through this difficult time.  The Falcons are a way better team than everybody gave them credit for, and Matt Ryan has been arguably the best quarterback in the NFL this season.  The highlight of the game was the Falcons’ Robert Alford doing his best Lebron James impression…..

Over in the AFC Championship Game, Roger Goodell is going to need to fly to New England to investigate the Steelers claim that they were raped by the Patriots.  The Pats executed at a much higher level than the Steelers, and totally blew them out of the building.  Le’Veon Bell’s groin injury didn’t help Pittsburgh’s cause, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.  Unless Bell could figure out a way to shutdown the Patriots’ receivers, New England still would have handled business.  Bell probably told team doctors that all he needed to recover was a box of Pringles and two joints.  If Brady finds a way to win his 5th Super Bowl in two weeks, he’s definitely going to have a strong case as the greatest quarterback of all-time, which probably won’t sit well with many of you.  I’m going with the Pats.

It’s been just over a week, and the Chargers move to LA is already a total disaster.  In fact, the NFL owners are actually furious with Dean Spanos, and were privately hoping that he would re-consider moving the team back to San Diego.  If the NFL wants the Chargers back in San Diego so badly, why don’t they just write a check for it? I’m sure San Diegans would take them back, the same way you talk smack about your hot ex-girlfriend, until you are just giddy when she asks to get back together with you.  Spanos isn’t going to move them back to San Diego though.  He’s done the accounting, and he knows the money is in LA is great, regardless of how much people are going to hate him.  He’s going to crash the party despite the fact nobody cares about him.  As you can see, last week’s rally went really well…..

I could swear I entered a time machine on Saturday, and was watching a Steve Lavin coached UCLA basketball team.  It wasn’t Lavin, but his horrible reincarnation, Steve Alford, as Arizona upset the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.  It wasn’t the fact the Bruins lost.  It was how they lost.  Alford’s team couldn’t defend the Wildcats, he couldn’t make adjustments, and they were outmuscled in the paint.  The Bruins have a phenomenal offense, but if they can’t defend teams like Arizona in March, they are going to be sent home very quickly.  Alford knows his team needs defense, but can he actually teach it? Based on what we’ve seen from him in the past, there’s no reason to believe he can.  As amazing as Lonzo Ball is, he can’t do it all himself.  To make matters worse, UCLA is now in danger of finishing 3rd in the Pac 12, unless they get some serious help from other teams, and less likely to be a #1 seed in the West for the NCAA Tournament.  There’s certainly time to get their act together, but simply being an offensive juggernaut isn’t going to be enough.  At some point, coaching has to come into play.

As for the Trojans, they held off Arizona State yesterday, and ended up going 1-1 against the Arizona schools.  After a great start, USC is just 4-4 in conference play, good enough for only 6th place.  The Trojan defense is just as bad as the Bruins’, but they aren’t nearly as explosive offensively to make up for it.  They’ll have a cross-town showdown with the Bruins at the Galen Center on Wednesday night.

I don’t understand the rationale of baseball hall of fame voting.  If you get 75% of the writers votes you are in the hall of fame, but why do writers decide to vote for someone one year, but not in another year?  You are either a hall of famer or you aren’t.  It shouldn’t matter who else is on the ballot.  I also think the fact that Ivan Rodriguez made the hall of fame tells me that eventually Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and other documented steroid users will get in.  The younger generation of writers is more progressive and thinks that these players were already hall of famers with or without the juice.  Besides, if you don’t vote for Bonds, he’ll probably take a baseball bat and smash your car out of roid rage.

Ok guys, admit it, your wives and girlfriends have made you start watching The Bachelor on ABC.  Even ESPN’s Mathew Barry has started a fantasy league revolving around the show.  It’s really like repeatedly watching a live train wreck on television.  As gorgeous as many of these women are, most of them are crazy, or just trying to monetize their fame of being on the show (maybe even both).  That’s fine, but no need to make yourself look like an idiot in the process, even if it’s for our entertainment.  This season, the Bachelor is Nick Viall, who was among the finalists in several previous seasons of The Bachelorette.  However, the true entertainment factor on the show is Corinne Olympios, a 24 year old business owner from Miami.  Corinne was totally “that girl” in college, who was sloppier than Lindsay Lohan at happy hour, and getting nailed by the entire football team.  That was pretty evident when she took off her top, as well as made use of the “whip cream bikini” in the first three episodes of the season.  Still, regardless of what Nick thinks of her, there’s no way the producers are going to let him cut her from the show for a while.  I have to say, the fact that this woman runs a company (even if inherited from her father), should give every aspiring entrepreneur hope that they can one succeed.

January 16th, 2017

Sometimes business and money outweigh everything else.  Just ask Donald Sterling.  Now you can ask Dean Spanos, who ripped the Chargers from San Diego last week, and moved them to Los Angeles.  Congratulations Dean, you are now the most irrelevant team in the Los Angeles sports landscape.  You are the unwanted house guest that is crashing on the couch, drinking the hosts beer, and slamming food in the fridge that isn’t yours.  Then there’s the disaster that was the team logo.  In a matter of hours, the Bolts had a new logo, that looked like it cost about 50 cents to make.  It looked like the Dodgers logo had sex with an electrical cord.  Then, just a few hours later after being destroyed on social media for the logo, Dean Spanos did damage control on local radio stations by saying this was just a temporary logo for marketing purposes.  Good one Dean.  The logo itself alienated the remaining San Diego fans, and was simultaneously rejected by LA fans.  If you think the logo is bad, wait until you see how bad the team is on the field.  The Chargers added insult to their own injury by hiring a running back coach in Anthony Lynn, just a few hours later.  LA barely has interest in supporting one lousy NFL team.  We definitely don’t need two.  This was a poor desperation move by the Spanos family, who could have easily spent money on a stadium in San Diego instead of a relocation fee, while combining that with the NFL’s contribution.  The irony of it all is that the most popular team in Los Angeles is the Raiders, and we all know they are headed to Vegas.

Speaking of coaching, the Rams have named Sean McVay their new head coach.  McVay is the youngest head coach in the NFL history at 30 years old.  This guy is so young to be a head coach, nobody is actually sure if he’s going to need a permission slip from his mother to go on road trips.  In all seriousness though, its a bold and out-of-the-box hire that is worth a try.  McVay did wonders developing Kirk Cousins the last few years as an offensive coordinator with the Redskins.  At 30 years old, he can probably do a much better job relating to guys like Jared Goff and Todd Gurley, than a guy in his 40’s or 50’s can.  Despite all the big names you heard, we knew the Rams weren’t going to get one.  However, this was a good alternative plan that could payoff in the long run.  I’m still surprised though that nobody wanted to wait for Kyle Shanahan, who has done a great job as Atlanta’s offensive coordinator this year.

I think it’s safe to say The Legion of Boom was blown up the the Falcons over the weekend.  Devonta Freeman was breaking ankles and Matt Ryan was racking up some big numbers.  The Falcons defense doesn’t look that good, but it hasn’t mattered yet, and might not next week either.  The Seahawks just aren’t the same without Marshawn Lynch.  Thomas Rawls clearly did not eat his Skittles the way Lynch did, and his performance has suffered.  Russell Wilson also suffered on Saturday.  If I didn’t know better, I would say it was Grayson Allen who was playing offensive line for the Seahawks, who ended up tripping him…..

In New England, Brock Osweiler was in a very giving mood, throwing three interceptions, as the Patriots routed the Texans.   Osweiler has become the greatest $72 million thief in history.  The Pats didn’t play that well, but handled the Texans easily.  They didn’t even need deflated footballs to take care of business either.

Then there were the good games.  Aaron Rogers proved he’s definitely the best quarterback in football after he single handedly led the Packers past the Cowboys in Dallas.  It feels like if I gave Rogers a couple of homeless wide receivers off the street to play on his team, he’d still be able to throw for 300 yards.  Now that Hillary Clinton and the Cowboys both lost their big games this year while being the favorite, blue must be the official color of choking.  The Cowboys have a very good young team, but their defense has more holes than a Packers cheese hat.  The over/under on the Packers-Falcons NFC title game must be 1,000 points.

The Steelers got by the Chiefs 18-6.  It got even worse for Chiefs Coach Andy Reid after the game, when he found out all the local BBQ joints in K.C. were closed.  Steelers Running Back Le’Veon Bell ran wild again, and is living proof that smoking weed makes you a more patient runner.  Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce just didn’t have it yesterday against the Steelers D.  I fee like Kelce is trying to be Rob Gronkowski the same way that Bon Jovi is trying to be Bruce Springsteen.  Kelce was very displeased with the officiating as well.  Sorry Travis, but you probably could overcome the officiating if you didn’t have a critical drop and a penalty in that game.  Somebody get that man a tissue.

Looking back at the National Championship Game from last week, that was a great finish to the college football season with Clemson getting by Alabama in the final seconds.  That game was very boring early on, and lasted longer than a Kim Kardashian marriage.  However, the Tigers were simply the beneficiary of getting the last opportunity to score, and they took advantage of it.  They also benefitted from Alabama Running Back Bo Scarborough breaking his leg.  It was great for college football that Clemson knocked off the team that was viewed as a dynasty in Alabama.  Knowing Lane Kiffin though, he probably was happy as hell his former employer lost, since Sark replaced him as offensive coordinator for that game.  Sark called a pretty good game, however, the Crimson Tide defense couldn’t keep the ball long enough to keep their defense off the field and rested.  I’m sure Sark also filled the Gatorade bottles with some vodka to take the edge off.  The loss wasn’t a big deal for him since he planned on getting drunk anyway when it was over.

To the NBA, where the Lakers fell to the Pistons last night at Staples, but the more intriguing stories are off the court as we’ve reached the halfway point of the season.  The Lake Show were reportedly interested in acquiring Atlanta Hawks Power Forward Paul Milsap or the 76ers Center Nerlens Noel. Milsap is an all-star player, but acquiring him makes little sense for a team as far away from contending for a title as the Lakers.  He’s off the trade block for now, but hopefully the Lakers don’t pull the trigger on that trade.  As good as Milsap is, he’s really an elite complimentary player on a team.  He’s a B+ player that doesn’t get this team to the playoffs, he’d cost at least a couple of the teams best young players in a trade, and he’s going to be due for a very expensive $140 million contract extension when the season ends.  As for Noel, his shot blocking ability would be a great fit in the front court for this young Laker team.  If the Lakers could find a way to make that trade without trading Julius Randle, D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, or Jordan Clarkson, they should do it.  Perhaps a Lou Williams for Nerlens Noel trade might make sense considering the 76ers need backcourt help.  Forget the playoff pipe dream that most of you had early on in the season.  The Lakers are on pace to win almost 30 games, and before the season started, most of us thought that would be major progress.

As for the Clippers, they’ve won six straight and stabilized things after going through a rough stretch.  Blake Griffin is also due back soon, and they’ll need him to see where they stack up.  Beginning at the end of this month, they’ll face the Warriors three times, the Spurs, Raptors, and Celtics, in a four week stretch.  Keep in mind, Blake Griffin needs to play well for his own free agency.  Under the new NBA CBA, if Blake gets first, second, or third team All-NBA, he is eligible for a 5 year contract for over $200 million this summer.  The next closest another team could offer is 4 years and $124 million.  However, if Blake doesn’t get All-NBA honors, the Clippers could only offer 5 years and about $150 million, which would make it slightly easier to leave LA if he desired.  The other situation to keep an eye on is the rocky relationship between Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony in New York.  If Melo does become willing to waive his no-trade clause, the Clippers and Cavs are the only teams he would be willing to go to.  However, would the Clippers really make that trade if the Knicks asked for Blake Griffin? I have my doubts, even if Chris Paul is buddies with ‘Melo.

That was a great win by the UCLA basketball team on Saturday at Utah.  The Bruins rallied from a nine-point deficit in the second half despite their defense looking as soft as rigatoni.  The Bruins were out rebounded and allowed the Utes to shoot 54% from the field, but they made big shots down the stretch.  Coach Steve Alford actually did something right other than style his hair nicely during this game.  He even sat out his son Bryce on some key defensive possessions late in the game, allowing the Bruins to matchup better in certain situations.  The win was definitely character building for a team that hasn’t had many tests thus far this year.  They’ll get tested next week though as they take on Arizona and Arizona State.

As for the Trojans, they aren’t nearly as good as you thought a few weeks ago.  USC will probably fall out of the Top 25 after losing to Utah.  They also barely got by Colorado.  The Trojans are a combined 2-6 in higher elevation trips to Utah and Colorado since those teams joined the Pac 12 in 2011-2012.  At least they are enjoying the legalization of marijuana on these trips since they can’t seem to beat those schools, which they should.

Finally, we’re just beyond the halfway point of the NHL season, and I think it’s safe to say we can draw some conclusions about the Kings and Ducks.  The Kings score less than Steve Urkel did on Family Matters, and need some major help.  The good news for LA is that despite their scoring woes and the loss of starting goalie Jonathan Quick, they are currently hanging onto the last playoff spot in the West.  With the emergence of young defenseman like Derek Forbort and Kevin Gravel, the Kings can afford to trade a quality defenseman like Jake Muzzin for some offensive help by the trade deadline.  Then there’s the Ducks, who have grinded their way into 1st place in the Pacific Division at this point.  Anaheim has also done it with defense, despite not having veteran goal scorers pull their own weight offensively.  Unless Anaheim can find a taker for Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry, I doubt we’ll see much movement from them at the deadline.  The real question though is if these guys can actually do something in the playoffs, which remains to be seen.