April 6th, 2015

Well last night was fun wasn’t it Laker fans? That beat down by the Clippers at Staples was about as expected as the drop in President Obama’s approval rating.  Any logical Laker fan probably didn’t mind though, since the Lakers need to make sure they go no lower in the lottery standings.  The lone bright spot has been rookie guard Jordan Clarkson though, even though he stunk last night.  Had Clarkson been starting since the beginning of the season, he might actually be Rookie of the Year over Andrew Wiggins.  Nevertheless, he should be an NBA First Team All-Rookie selection.  The four other spots are pretty much guaranteed: Wiggins, Nerlens Noel, Elfrid Payton, and Nikola Mirotic, but Clarkson has proven a worthy selection.  Clarkson will also create a financial dilemma for the Lakers in about a year.  He’s a bargain next year for only $845 K, but will be eligible for a contact as large as 4 years and $95 million.  It sounds insane for a guy this young, but it’s the NBA, where everyone is overpaid.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are now directing their complaints at their fans.  After last week’s loss against Golden State, Blake Griffin said, “home-court advantage is just not there for us.  If that’s how it feels in the playoffs, it’s not looking good.”  Blake went on to say “It’s kind of like when we play the Lakers.”  Since the Clippers are actually a halfway decent team now, they’ve had to increase their ticket prices, but that fact of the matter is that the fans (all 10 of them), are just not used to paying expensive ticket prices to see quality basketball.  Clipps President Gillian Zucker released a statement saying that if Clipper fans are going to sell their tickets, they should be sold to other Clipper fans.  How are they supposed to prove that they are Clipper fans?  By providing some type of evidence that they hate the Lakers?  There are all kinds of conspiracy theories here on what Steve Ballmer is doing, or planning to do for this franchise.  For now, it puts into perspective how bad things are for the Clippers, even when things are supposed to be good.  Hopefully CP3 will be able to walk again after Steph Curry took him….
On To baseball, where opening day has arrived for the Dodgers.  This is one baseball season I can’t say I’m really looking toward, and I’m anticipating a lot of aggravation watching the Dodgers.  Yes, this team is much better defensively than they were last year.  However, that’s about the only thing I see that’s improved.  The Dodgers have one legitimate power hitter in their lineup, in Adrian Gonzales.  Jimmy Rollins is a very high injury risk, and even though Howie Kendrick is a solid player, he shouldn’t be a cleanup hitter on any team.  The real wild card is Joc Pederson, who will need to ascend to stardom very quickly if the Boys in Blue are going to be an elite team.  The real problem though is the pitching depth and the bullpen.  LA is going to have issues relying on Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy as their #4 and #5 starters, and things could get even worse if Hyun-Jin Ryu is out for a while.  That’s more pressure put on Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.  The bullpen is a complete unknown, and will be tested early without Kenley Jansen.  The Dodgers may be a more harmonious and cohesive group this season, but that doesn’t mean they will be better.  This team will be lucky just to make the playoffs.

As for the Angels, we had some doubts at this time last year, but much fewer now.  On paper, the Halos look like contender.  The pitching looks solid with Jered Weaver, Matt Shoemaker, Hector Santiago, and eventually Garrett Richards.  Everybody hates CJ Wilson, but he could easily rebound and be serviceable like #3 starter for this team.  The bullpen looks pretty set with Mike Morin and Joe Smith setting things up for Huston Street in the 9th inning.  The lineup should provide plenty of production as well, anchored by the best player in baseball, Mike Trout, and Albert Pujols, who is still a productive player.  Even with some questionable production at 2nd and 3rd base, and the uncomfortable Josh Hamilton drama, the Angels should have plenty of fire power throughout their lineup. Speaking of Josh Hamilton, the Halos should be downright embarrassed by their reaction to the current situation.  It looks as though Hamilton will not be suspended by the league for his behavior.  Team President John Carpino said “It defies logic that Josh’s reported behavior is not a violation of his current program.”  What defies logic is that the Angels actually signed this guy, and are taking no accountability.  No matter how you feel about Josh Hamilton, the fans should be horrified by Carpino’s statement.   All the Angels care about is saving money, and trying to get out of some of the 3 years and $83 million that they owe Hamilton.  If the organization wanted to show some real class, they would have made a statement saying how much they cared about his well being.  You can bet the Players Association isn’t going to be too happy about this either, and many players are going to remember this when it comes time for their free agency.

It’s prediction time.  My division winners in the MLB this year in the AL: Orioles, Indians, Angels, and the wild cards will be Seattle and Detroit.  In the NL: Nationals, Pirates, Padres, and the wild cards will be St. Louis and Miami.  I’ve got the Orioles over the Nationals in the World Series.

What an upset that was on Saturday night in the Final Four.  That was the worst thing to happen to Kentucky since you weren’t allowed to marry your cousin.  A bunch of white guys haven’t caused that much suffering in Lexington since the Civil War.  Wisconsin was finally that matchup nightmare Kentucky was hoping to avoid, and the Badgers pulled it off.  Meanwhile, there wasn’t much drama in the Duke v Michigan State game.  The Spartans overachieved to this point in the season, but finally ran into a team that had superior talent.  Someone should tell John Calipari that he shouldn’t feel so bad because the NCAA is going to make him vacate all 38 wins he collected this season.  Just think how upset the Kentucky fans were after most of them probably lost all the receipts for all the gear they just bought the other day and now can’t return it.  Has this guy even left yet?

Speaking of the NCAA, USC should do everything in its power to take down the NCAA for how they handled the Todd McNair situation.  McNair’s professional career has basically been ruined after the NCAA linked him to the Reggie Bush situation, and in turn, he filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for defamation.  Everybody knows the NCAA’s rules are archaic, and many of their disciplinary actions over the years have been done just to make an example out of different institutions.  This couldn’t be more evident after documents were recently released that showed the unbelievable bias against USC that took place during this incident.  The NCAA eventually needs to go.  Everything that these guys do is simply not right.  The Trojan athletic department can take a huge step in taking these bastards down, so hopefully they do the right thing here.

So Shaka Smart decided to leave VCU for Texas?  What a joke!  It was only two years ago that Smart was offered the job at UCLA and turned it down.  He took Texas over UCLA?  i realize these aren’t exactly your grandfather’s Bruins, but does Smart realize that Texas is a football school?  This is just another reminder of how bad things have gotten for the Bruin basketball program.

This final week of the NHL season is going to be wild.  The Kings are currently sitting in the final playoff spot with four games to go, but they’ll have to battle it out with Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and San Jose to secure that spot.  LA looks so dominant at times, but Stanley Cup fatigue is an issue.  Amazingly enough, the Kings might even be able to get home ice advantage in the 1st round if they play well enough.  I’m thinking 3-1 with wins over Calgary and Vancouver will get the Kings in.  Whether or not they have anything left in the tank for the post season will be a problem for another day.  As for the Ducks, they are locked in a battle with the Rangers for the Presidents Trophy, but does it really matter? If I’m Bruce Boudreau, I don’t think i even want to win that thing, because having the best record in the league puts that much more pressure on the team during the playoffs.  That pressure has resulted in disappointment after disappointment in the last few years under Boudreau.

And finally, the final season of Mad Men got underway last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap of the first of the final seven episodes.  Don and the boys are entertaining models in the office, while Joan and Peggy are having a hard time being taken seriously by their male co-workers as they try to launch a high-end pantyhose product.  One of their meetings is nearly derailed by some sexists comments sent Joan’s way.  An elevator ride is even more tense when Peggy criticizes Joan for how she dresses.  Later, Peggy goes on a blind date with John Mathis’ brother-in-law, Stevie.  Peggy eventually ends up hungover and admits to desperately wanting a fairly tale romance.  Ken Cosgrove is urged by his wife to quit his job, but he refused, only to be fired later on.  When Ken is named the head of Dow Chemical, he tells Roger that he will be the client from hell.  Don is haunted by two women in this episode.  The first is Rachel Katz, who he had a relationship with many seasons ago.  He dreams about her in an audition, but then later on is shocked to learn she died of leukemia when he tries to set up a business meeting.  The other woman is a diner waitress, who Don thinks he recognizes, but for some reason can’t.  After several trips to the diner, these two get it on in an alleyway, before she tells Don to get lost the third time.

This was a pretty interesting start to the last season, and the theme was seemed to be choices that haunted different characters.  Betty, Megan, and Sally aren’t present in the episode, but seem to be connected to Don symbolically, and Don still has a long list of women waiting for his call.  However, when he wants more, he can never get it.  Just like from the waitress in the alleyway.  When Don discovers that Rachel passed away, and when her sister tells him that “she had everything”, it’s a slap in the face to Don, because he’s reminded that he doesn’t have “everything”, which is mostly family.  It looks like Peggy has a shot at happiness on her blind date, but we’re reminded of her bad choices in the past, and her difficult work schedule, which makes us think it will never materialize.  Joan is “filthy rich”, but that doesn’t appear to make her any happier, especially with the sexism she is experiencing at work.  Wealth also ruined Ken’s life, and he intends to make SCP pay for it.  Everything thus far suggests that the more things change, the more things stay the same with these characters.  They’ve experienced too much to change who they are in the next 6 episodes.  Looking forward to seeing whether or not that is really true.

March 30th, 2015

It was only a matter of time.  The UCLA Bruins finally ran into a quality opponent in the NCAA Tournament, and were exposed.  This time it was Gonzaga in the Sweet 16, a round of the tournament that Steve Alford has never been able get through.  That was an ugly basketball game, but the difference was the Bruins were just overmatched in the paint.  Gonzaga had more depth, and better coaching.  The Bruin players showed character, but had their game plan been better, they might have actually beaten the Zags.  Many will say the Bruins have a bright future, with a lot more depth coming back next season.  However, I say otherwise.  In year 3 of Steve Alford, when he finally has all his own recruits in place, everyone should see who this guy really is.  An average coach that will only take a great program so far.  The UCLA basketball program deserves better.

The Notre Dame vs Kentucky game was a tragedy.  The Irish should have won that game.  Mike Brey is a great coach, who executed a brilliant game plan up until the last few minutes.  The Irish were killing Kentucky on the pick and roll.  Instead of sticking with that, on the last three possessions they let Jerian Grant play hero ball.  Even more puzzling was the fact they refused to double team Kentucky big man Karl Anthony-Towns, who was the only guy scoring for the Wildcats.  Every time he touched the ball, it was like watching a grown man score over a 1st grader.  The one time they did double team him, Kentucky actually turned it over.  I’m sure John Calipari threatened to take away the cars and phones he got his players if they didn’t come back and win.  Apparently it worked.  Kentucky is everything wrong with college basketball and Notre Dame is everything right with it.  Too bad the good guys didn’t come away with the win.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin has caused more suffering for the University of Arizona in the last two years than STD’s.  What was Sean Miller thinking in the last minute?  He’s down by 5 with no timeouts left, and he decided not to foul.  The Badgers have the size to bother Kentucky, but I still think Kentucky is going to win the next two games easily.  Funny how six weeks ago, everybody thought Michigan State was horrible.  Now they are in the Final Four.

On to the NBA, where the Lakers have some disturbingly winnable games left on their schedule over the next 10 games.  These include games with Philadelphia, Minnesota, and a couple with Sacramento.  This means the Lakers could come dangerously close to not having one of the five worst records in the NBA, and potentially losing their 1st round draft pick.  The Lakers are actually getting so uncomfortable about losing the pick that they’ve started benching some of their veterans like Carlos Boozer and Jordan Hill.  That probably should have happened ages ago.  ESPN also came out with an article on Jeremy Lin a few days ago, explaining how he simply does not fit in with the Lakers, with or without Kobe Bryant.  The article also pointed out that Jeremy’s friends believe that he’s a better player without Kobe.  I’m sure there’s no bias there at all.  When you consider that Jeremy has played in twice as many games as Kobe this year, it makes his performance that much more disappointing, and highly unlikely he will be a Laker next year.  I assume none of Jeremy’s friends that believe he’s better without Kobe were smart enough to go to Harvard.

As for the Clippers, they’ve hit another soft spot in their schedule, allowing them to win 6 in a row.  At the moment, they look like their headed for a 1st round matchup with the Blazers.  That could be winnable, but I don’t suspect the Clipps last too much longer in the post-season.  That leads to the question of not whether or not they should re-sign DeAndre Jordan, but whether or not they need to make a major trade to try and become a real championship contender.  Which makes me wonder if the Clippers and Thunder might entertain a Blake Griffin for Kevin Durant trade this summer.  DeAndre Jordan played remarkably well without Blake in the lineup, and the Clippers badly need a small forward.  The Thunder are going to start asking Kevin Durant if he intends to stick around after next season.  No matter what Sam Presti says, he would absolutely trade Durant if he thinks he’s going to leave.  That guy would trade his own mother if he got value out of it.  Getting Blake Griffin in return sounds like a pretty good haul.  It’s a situation complicated by Durant’s foot injury, but one to keep an eye on if both teams make an early playoff exit.

To baseball, where we are just a week away from the start of the season.  The Dodgers just made another head-scratching move.  They spent $62.5 million on Cuban infielder Hector Olivera, who has had issues with his UCL.  To come to think of it, this makes perfect sense.  The Dodgers signed two pitchers this off-season, whose arms are about to fall off, and who haven’t even thrown 100 innings in recent memory.   Now they’ve added a 2nd baseman whose arm might also fall off soon.  At this point, I’m not expecting LA  to try to re-sign Howie Kendrick, Juan Uribe, or Jimmy Rollins after the season.  Instead, they’ll have a largely unproven infield, and one that seems pretty expensive for that inexperience.  I wonder how much the Dodgers would have spent on Olivera if they actually had a deal to distribute SportsNet LA .

The Angels might have some decisions to make once the Josh Hamilton situation gets resolved.  If and when Hamilton is re-instated, the Halos will have to decide what kind of role he will have.  I realize they have both Matt Joyce and Collin Cowgill as an insurance policy, but the reality of it is that Hamilton is still under contract for 3 more years, at a hefty $25 million or so annually.  He’s not going anywhere, and it would be foolish to not at least give the guy a chance to show he can still be a valuable contributor.  If Hamilton could become even 70% of the player he used to be, that could put the Angels over the top and into serious championship contention.  The fans probably wouldn’t hate Josh Hamilton as much either.

I’m not sure if the LA Kings are going to make the playoffs, but you can count on sweating it out until the last game of the season to find out.  The King loss to Minnesota on Saturday wasn’t disastrous, but it was a golden opportunity missed to put a strangle hold on a playoff spot.  If LA misses the playoffs, most will say it’s because of Stanley Cup fatigue.  If they make the playoffs, I might miss them due to the fatigue they made me endure!

What a wild season finale of The Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Can’t every episode be 90 minutes?  Spoiler alert if you have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap.  The episode opens with Morgan getting cornered in the woods by two members of “The Wolves” who seem to be shows next villains.  These guys have a “W” symbol on their forehead, but before they could take Morgan’s things and kill him, he takes them out like he’s Donatello from the Ninja Turtles.  Aaron and Darryl stumble upon a food truck, which is too good to be true.  They open up the truck, and are ambushed by a bunch of walkers.  Moments from going out in a blaze of glory, Morgan shows up and saves them.  Soon after, Darryl realizes the connection between Morgan and Rick when he sees the note he wrote Rick on a map.  He then invites Morgan to Alexandria.  Nicholas takes a walk outside the wall, and Glenn follows him, but ends up getting shot in the shoulder by Nicholas.  In the end, it didn’t workout so well for Nicholas, as Glenn threatens to kill him, but spares his life.  Meanwhile, Father Gabriel leaves the gate open and lets walkers in, and then manipulates Sasha into trying to  kill him.  However, Maggie intervenes before that happens.  Finally, Pete tries to confront Rick with a sword, and while Deanna’s husband tries to calm him down, he slits his throat and kills him.  Deanna then orders Rick to kill Pete, which he does by shooting him.  In the final moments, Darryl, Morgan, and Aaron appear, and they look shocked to see what Rick had done.

This was an explosive season finale.  For the entire episode, we knew somebody was going to die, and I thought it was going to be Glenn.  Then we’re reminded that Glenn was tough as nails, and that it wasn’t his time to go.  This episode raised a number of questions, which are going to make things very interesting in the fall.  Why was Morgan so determined to find Rick?  What’s the deal with the Wolves? I’m assuming they will be the show’s new major villain.  Why was Nicholas out in the woods in the first place?  I’m thinking he might actually be part of the Wolves, or connected to one of the exiled members of Alexandria.  It can’t be the last we’ve seen of this dude.  Morgan had to have been shocked at what he just witnessed.  He was looking for the man Rick used to be.  Not the man Rick is now.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the next season.  Gotta love how Rick didn’t even think twice about killing Pete when he was asked to.  It just goes to show you how much he’s changed since the show started.  Father Gabriel is such a punk, and needs to go.  Unfortunately, I think he’s sticking around for a while.  I already can’t wait until the next season starts, but looks like we’ll need “Fear The Walking Dead” this summer to hold us over until the show returns for season 6.

March 23rd, 2015

How predictable this was.  The UCLA Bruins basketball program is stuck in Sweet 16 purgatory forever.  UCLA lucked out and was given an at-large birth in the tourney.  Then they lucked out and defeated SMU on a miraculous goaltending call, which should not have been goaltending in my opinion.  The luck continued when they played UAB in the 2nd round, whom they had already beaten this season.  Here they are once again, in the Sweet 16, where they are going to get exposed.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Bruins and hope they somehow keep this going, but I’m just not convinced that Steve Alford is doing this with any more than smoke and mirrors.  I sure wish I could have been in the Bruins huddle before that last play against SMU.  “Ok guys, everybody get the hell out of the way and give the damn ball to my son.  He’s going to shoot this 30 footer with two guys in his face.”  Great play call Coach Alford.  I think that was the worst shot in basketball I’ve ever seen.  Here’s to hoping the Bruins somehow keep the winning going, except that means more Alford and more mediocrity, just like the Steve Lavin era.

One of the things that has really been bothering me about UCLA basketball is the fact that the basketball alums have distanced themselves so much after they left.  A lot of that has to do with Ben Howland, and how much players disliked playing for him.  Why does Kevin Love rarely even speak about his time at UCLA, let alone show up at any games?  Why hasn’t there been a night honoring Russell Westbrook given how much he still loves Southern California?  The Bruins should have a night honoring him, and it should be “Russell Westbrook Fashion Night”, where all the fans dress up in his nerdy clothing line.  The program should be operating like Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky.  Not some glorified mid major.

How bad is your bracket looking right about now?  The person ranked #1 in your pool is probably the girl who picked winners according to the schools with the cutest mascot.  The person ranked #2 is the 8th bracket of a guy who made 10.  Your mom is right around 40th, and you must be 41st.  College basketball is so screwed up because of the one and done.  The mid-major teams with players who have played together for 3 or 4 years are better prepared to knock off the talented but inexperienced teams with higher seeds from power conferences.  Still, the Sweet 16 is going to have some of the household names we are used to: UCLA, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State,  North Carolina, and Arizona.  I still don’t think anybody is beating Kentucky.  Jahlil Okafur was phenomenal yesterday and is going to be a great pro.  SDSU is a great defensive team, but that was a terrible matchup.  If the Aztecs and Virginia played horse, they would need all weekend to complete the game.  Tom Izzo and Michigan State do more damage in March than college kids do during spring break in Cancun.  Stupid shot selection by UC Irvine against Louisville at the end of the game, or they would have pulled off the upset.  Kansas chokes again in March, a tradition unlike any other.  Here’s a look at my bracket…..

Oh and this happened too during the first weekend of the tournament………

It would be way too easy to start firing off jokes about Steve Nash after he announced his retirement yesterday.  However, the reality is that at the time, the Lakers made the right move by trying to acquire Steve Nash for two 1st round picks and two 2nd round picks from the Suns.  Nash was still a very effective player, and it was simply a freak injury against Portland in his 2nd game that forever messed him up.  The Lakers had a chance to win a title with Kobe, Pau, Dwight Howard, and Nash a few years ago.  Had they hired the right coach, it might have actually happened, and that Nash trade would have worked out.  Nevertheless, Nash is still a great player, one of the ten best point guards ever, and a stand-up dude.  Oh by the way, the Celtics, Rockets, Spurs, Suns, and Kings are planning a ceremony for Nash to honor him for the destruction of the Lakers.

As for the Lakers themselves, I actually had a pair of tickets to the game vs the Sixers last night.  I had been trying for weeks to get rid of those tickets.  When I asked people if they wanted them, the response I got included “do you really hate me that much?”, and “you’re going to pay me to go watch that game right?”

The Clippers won their 4th in a row last night to move back into the 5th spot in the West.  Blake Griffin is looking healthy again, but the Clipps may be not have home court during the playoffs as the 5th seed.  Most of the players say it isn’t a big deal because it really comes down to matchups. However, I don’t agree.  The Warriors, Blazers, and Grizzlies are all excellent on their home court, and LA will likely have to go through these teams if they plan on doing anything of significance in the playoffs.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers got a big scare a few days ago when Clayton Kershaw took a line drive off the side of his mouth, but fortunately, he just needed a little dental work.  We’re only a couple of weeks away from the start of the season, and LA is still looking to trade Andre Ethier.  I get that Joc Pederson has had a great spring, but I want to see what he looks like on an everyday basis in centerfield before trading away Ethier.  If you remember correctly, Pederson had a nice spring last year, but couldn’t hit anything in the short time we saw him in the big leagues during the season.  Besides, Ethier has still been productive this spring, so let him get his trade value up before just eating his contract in a trade.

I’m telling you, the Kings are screwed.  The magic runs out at some point, and I think this is it.  Another home game against Vancouver on Saturday, desperately needing a win, and again, they only come up with 1 goal.  It’s gotten so bad that they are actually calling Mike Richards back up, expecting him to solve their offensive problems.  The same Mike Richards that has had trouble scoring for a while.  This road trip against the Devils, Rangers, Islanders, and Wild is going to be the death of LA’s season.  When you sleep walk through games in December, eventually, it comes back to bit you in April, when you have no margin left for error.

And finally, things got wild on The Walking Dead last night.  Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet.  Here’s a quick recap.  Carol starts off by leaving a Casserole on the Monroe’s doorstep and a sympathy note following Aiden’s death.  Deanna burns the note, clearly influenced by what Father Gabriel told her last week.  Carol continued to urge Rick to step in and stop Pete from abusing Jessie.  Meanwhile, Sasha just keeps taking her anger out on Walkers in the woods.  Michonne tracks her down, and memories of her own are triggered, and she goes crazy on the Walkers too.  Carl and Enid have their own romantic moment hiding in a tree from a herd of Walkers.  Rick confronts Deanna about Pete, but Deanna says under no circumstances will he be killed, just exiled.  Rick disagrees.  Rick then confronts Jessie, and at first she suggests that she shouldn’t make this his business, but then opens up.  Eventually, she agrees to protection from Rick.  Pete then confronts Rick and Jessie, and a brawl erupts between Rick and Pete.  After the fight ends up in the street with everyone watching, a bloodied Rick is urged to stop by Deanna.  Rick tells everyone that “their way” is going to get everyone killed and destroy Alexandria.  Rick is then knocked unconscious by Michonne, as the episode comes to an end.

This episode was a wild one.  Rick has lost his mind and become psychotic again.  Rick wants to take over Alexandria and do things his way.  However, things are getting messy.  He needs to be more like Carol.  She plays things way closer to the vest, and gets things done by operating under the radar.  If this were a poker game, Rick would be telling everybody exactly what his cards are.  He should have taken a more discreet approach to the situation, and he would have gotten exactly what he wanted.  My guess is that Michonne knocked out Rick to buy time, and prevent the situation from further escalating at that moment.  I doubt she turned on him.  i don’t trust Enid, and I don’t buy that she and Carl are having some innocent teenage romance.  Something tells me she’s got some other intentions.   There were too many characters that had story lines going on in this episode, which made every story line lacking a little depth.   Sasha is going ape shit.  She’s going to get herself killed at some point.  I fully expect a death or two in the season finale next week.  Feels weird to say looking forward to it after making that statement, but should be a great finish to the season.

March 16th, 2015

I nearly fell out of my chair.  I was shocked.  The Bruins somehow got into the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid yesterday.  Just about everybody thought they were one of the first four out.  It wasn’t even that close.  They were in, and not even among the last four teams in.  They didn’t deserve it either.  The selection committee had to have valued the brand name of UCLA over all the other mid-majors.  John Wooden is still working his magic.  UCLA was just 2-8 against the top 50, and 1-7 against the top 25.  They played one of their best games of the season against Arizona on Friday, but lost.  That game truly symbolized just how badly the Bruins are coached.  UCLA has two solid big men in Thomas Welsh and Gyorgy Goloman, but Steve Alford never utilizes them.  Freshman forward Kevin Looney is one of the best freshman in the country, yet Alford barely got him involved in the most critical game of the season.  In fact, Bryce Alford and Norman Powell have taken a combined 500 more shots than him all season!  There were 36 at-large bids given out.  There aren’t 36 teams in the country with more talent than the Bruins.  That’s definitely something the selection committee believed.  However, in the long run, UCLA was probably better off missing the tourney and putting Steve Alford on the hot seat.

Before I get into the rest of the bracket, I have to mention USC.  For the last two seasons, the Trojan basketball team has finished dead last in the Pac-12 standings.  When Andy Enfield was brought in to coach this team, many thought he was going to bring showtime basketball back to LA.  Instead, he’s only driven this team into complete irrelevance in the Los Angeles sports landscape.  While I realize that USC is a football school, Trojan fans should find this to be completely unacceptable.  UCLA is considered a basketball school, but they expect a certain amount of competitiveness from their football team.  The Trojan alumni should demand no less from their basketball team.  This program also has phenomenal athletic facilities that are relatively new, so they should be far more competitive recruiting in a basketball hot bed like Southern California.  I guess Trojan fans can only focus on one mediocre aspect of their athletic program at a time.

As for the rest of the NCAA Tournament bracket, I don’t really know why we are wasting our time playing this thing.  We all know that Kentucky is going to win it all, and sleep walk while doing it.  So that’s how the selection committee rewards Notre Dame for winning the ACC tournament:  a #3 seed in the same region as Kentucky.  Notre Dame is so well coached, but when it comes to the tourney, there is less time to prepare, so that goes out the window.  Can’t say I’d be shocked if they were upset during the first weekend.  The committee got 3  #1 seeds right, however, Arizona won their conference and Duke didn’t.  Arizona should be a #1.  I’m looking forward to their showdown with Wisconsin in the Elite 8.  I’m still not sure how you can look at UCLA’s resume next to Colorado State’s, Miami’s, or Temple’s, and pick UCLA.  The committee loves good story lines though, and the Bruins, Indiana, and Texas all help contribute to that.  I won’t be surprised if any of them make it past the first weekend too.  SDSU got a tough draw in St. John’s and having to go through Duke.  And congratulations to the UC Irvine Anteaters!  They are going dancing for the first time, and will take on Louisville.

Wow, I really didn’t realize how much I missed Bill Walton after all this time.  He was basically exiled to the Pac-12 Network to cover college basketball, so many of us don’t hear much from him.  I wonder if he even listens to the things that come out of his mouth?  On Friday’s UCLA vs Arizona telecast, he kept babbling on about the importance of the game for UCLA as an inspiration for little kids who aspire to go to UCLA.  What the hell is he talking about?  I don’t think a 10 year old that is watching Bryce Alford chuck up bricks is going to have much inspiration watching Bruin basketball. They need to put Walton on the Golf Channel, or even on the Masters telecast to liven up the game.  That sport is definitely going to need some absurd commentary to keep interest alive.

I was very saddened to hear about the death of Los Angeles talk show host Joe McDonnell on Friday.  McDonnell was one of my favorite talk show hosts to listen to growing up, and you always felt like he was a very reliable source.  He was so plugged in with the Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, and other LA sports team.  He was controversial, but so well respected in the media, and within the  local organizations.  Even Mitch Kupchak and Mike Scioscia were saddened by his passing, and spoke about him over the weekend.  I found him to be very inspirational growing up, and his passion for the SoCal sports scene could always be felt in his work.  That is a big part of the reason why Jock Talk LA exists today.  RIP Big Joe.

The NFL offseason has been more wild than spring break in Cabo.  With LeSean McCoy, Sammy Watkins, and Percy Harvin, the Bills now believe they have the speed to chase down all those people that pick off Matt Cassel.  The Jets theory is that if they can acquire enough cornerbacks, there won’t be any left to intercept Geno Smith’s passes.  The Raiders signed Christian Ponder, who is expected to take over Matt Schaub’s clipboard holding duties.  I’m keeping a very close eye out on the Adrian Peterson situation.  Peterson really wants a trade.  One of the teams he wants a trade to is the Chargers.  There have been rumors out of there of an Eric Weddle for Adrian Peterson swap.  Can you imagine if the Bolts can get some star power like that on their team, at a position of need like running back?  More importantly, it would be perfect to acquire a star player if they are really moving to LA.  Los Angeles is a star studded town, and AP can fit perfectly into that.  Here’s hoping that trade comes to fruition.

We are getting closer and closer to the start of the MLB season, and Time Warner still hasn’t made a deal with regional cable networks to televise the Dodgers SportsNet LA channel.  Rumor has it that TWC is coming back to the bargaining table with several regional cable providers to try and get a deal done before the start of the season.  However, I don’t see why TWC doesn’t create an HBO like model, where they just sell directly to the consumer over the internet.  Who wouldn’t pay between $20-$30 per month to watch the Dodger games over the internet?  I’m sure this would put a lot of money back into TWC’s pockets for the losses they suffered on the channel last year, and would also give them a great deal of leverage in talks with other cable networks moving forward.  Consumer demands are changing, and TWC has a chance to get ahead of the curve and take advantage of it, while also giving the fans the chance to watch the Dodgers again.

I had the privilege of attending the Lakers open house last week for season ticket holders, and I got to listen to Mitch Kupchak and Byron Scott field questions from a group of disgruntled fans.  I must say that i’m impressed they took the questions without any of them being pre-screened.  More than anything, the impression I came away with from listening to Mitch is that they aren’t going to rush into any moves that will be short-term gains, and jeopardize the long-term growth of the team.  That means players like Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson will probably be Lakers for a while, and they’ll try to add free agent veterans around them.  This is a very different approach from what Phil Jackson says he is planning to do with the Knicks.  Phil said that he is focused mostly on free agents, and last week indicated that he didn’t like the idea of waiting around 3 years for a draft pick to develop.  I like Phil, and wanted him back with the Lakers at one point, but something tells me his front office track record is going to be nothing like his coaching record.

I’m not going to make too big of a deal about what we saw from the Clippers yesterday against Houston.  Blake Griffin had his first game back and was completely out of rhythm, which was to be expected.  However, the Clippers complain on literally every single call against them, and I think it’s starting to make the NBA referees despise them.  After one call yesterday, Blake looked more stunned than Sly Stallone did after dropping his buddy’s girlfriend at the beginning of Cliffhanger.  This is just one of many issues the Clipps are going to have to sort out over the next month before the playoffs start.

And finally, another episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap:  We had a death so stop reading if you intend to watch it later!  Noah died, and it was a gruesome death at the hands of Walkers, but the people of Alexandria got him killed on their quest to restore power in the community.  Tara is badly injured on the quest, and Aiden is killed by Walkers, but not before revealing the people of Alexandria are all about themselves.  Meanwhile, Carol, a former victim of abuse, recognizes that Jessie’s son, Sam, is a victim of abuse.  Sam asks her for a gun and she refuses.   Carol tries to go over to Jessie’s house, but Pete tells her it’s not a good time, and closes the door in her face. She later tells Rick what’s going on, and that he is going to have to kill Pete.  Interestingly enough, Rick and Pete had an awkward encounter of their own, with Pete claiming that “we’ve lost things.  Other things we’re fighting like hell to hold on to.”  Father Gabriel also ratted out Rick’s entire group to Deanna, claiming that she made a mistake letting them in, and eventually they will choose their own lives over everyone else’s.  Maggie overhears this in the other room and is disappointed.

The writers of The Walking Dead might as well be the Ferguson Police Department with the way they treat black characters.  Another one ended up dead, this time it was Noah.  It felt like we became so desensitized to the deaths by Walkers in the show, however, this episode had some really gruesome deaths that were tough to watch.  Noah wasn’t around long, but in the short time he was on the show, I grew very fond of him.  As for Father Gabriel, leave it to the hypocritical religious guy to throw the entire group under the bus.  How many deaths was Father Gabriel responsible for when he left all those people in the church to die?  And now he has the audacity to blame Rick and his group for killing all those truly evil people, when the group saved him countless times?  Unbelievable.  More than anything, we learned that the people of Alexandria are a bunch of cowards, and only look out for themselves.  Heck, Father Gabriel fits right in with this group because of that.  On the other hand, Eugene finally showed some courage by helping Tara after her head injury.  It’s inevitable there’s going to be another couple of deaths before the season ends, and one of them will likely be Pete.  This Alexandria thing is starting to make sense now.  The people are just weak.

March 9th, 2015

The last 3 months of watching Laker basketball has made me realize something.  No, not that watching them has made me more noxious than ever.  But rather, why would they want to sign an expensive veteran point guard this off-season?  Jordan Clarkson is showing he’s not only a solid NBA player, but might even have some star potential down the road.  Since the all-star break, Clarkson has averaged 15.6 ppg, while shooting 53% from the field, along with 4.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds.  He’s only 22 years old, and he’s under contract next year for $845 K.  Goran Dragic would cost the Lakers $20 million a year, and his next contract will take him into his 30’s.  Rajon Rondo is in decline and is moodier than a teenag girl on her period.  Signing one of these guys will only take away from Clarkson’s development.  The Lakers have plenty of needs, but a starting point guard is no longer one of them.

Meanwhile, the Clippers took another beating from the Golden State Warriors yesterday at Oracle. The Warriors are fun to watch, and at this point, the Clipps better hope they don’t run into them in the playoffs.  More than anything, the Clipps were exposed yesterday on the perimeter, the one area that Doc Rivers has managed to deplete over the last few months.  With or without Blake Griffin, the Clipps don’t have enough talent on the perimeter to keep up with teams like Golden State, Portland, or even San Antonio when they are firing on all cylinders.  Speaking of Portland, DeAndre Jordan’s brain went off about the same time the shot clock did the other night against the Blazers.  All he had to do was lay it in, and his team would have another win.  The Clipps were so desperate for bench help that they resorted to signing Nate Robinson to a 10 day contract last week.  They’ve done a decent job treading water without Blake Griffin in the lineup, but this team is still destined to get bounced in the 1st round or two of the playoffs.  Steph Curry was just nasty yesterday…..

There’s something completely screwy about this whole Chargers-Raiders stadium plan in Carson.  The NFL is interested in two teams playing in LA, but it doesn’t really make economic sense to put two teams in LA.  Aren’t each of them worth more in separate markets, and having monopolies on that market?  Putting them in the same market, let alone the same stadium, makes little sense for a market that previously couldn’t support two teams.  There’s also the logistical issues of having two AFC West teams playing in the same stadium, which would mean both teams would have 9 home games, and Fox and CBS would have a TV issue in the LA market given their respective commitments to the NFC and AFC.  The Chargers also leaked a vague rumor that Goldman Sachs would be willing to help finance their move, even if short-term losses were incurred.  The Raiders have been awfully quiet during this whole ordeal.  This all still sounds like public pressure put on the cities of San Diego and Oakland to get something done.

As for NFL free agency, what’s going on here?  The Bills traded for stud running back LeSean McCoy by sending out lineback Kiko Alonso, and then signed Matt Cassel the next day.  That’s like buying a yacht and then announcing that Jihadi John will be the captain.  Meanwhile, Chip Kelly is a lunatic who for some reason, is dismantling a 10 win team to recreate his Oregon team that didn’t win anything.  He also signed Frank Gore, because he once watched Oregon play for 5 minutes, and Byron Maxwell, because he found Oregon on a map.  Elsewhere, the Jets and Dolphins just added expensive toys in Brandon Marshall and Ndamukong Suh, but probably will never get anywhere without QB’s.  Suh needed a bigger contract to cover all the fines he will be receiving next season.  Marshawn Lynch is also now the highest paid running back not to get the ball at the 1 yd line.

Are you ready for March Madness?  The Bruins are going to be ready for the NIT in a few days.  UCLA is likely going to have to go through Stanford, Arizona, and then Utah in the Pac-12 Tournament.  They’ll also need to win at least two games to have a reasonable shot at going to the NCAA Tournament.  The chances of that happening are about as likely as me dating Mila Kunis.  As for the rest of the field, I don’t see how anybody beats Kentucky.  These guys keep winning games, and they look more and more relaxed with every game that passes.  I also love the notion that they should lose a game to better prepare them for the NCAA Tournament.  Give me break.  They have been in close games and have found a way to finish them.  That’s more important than losing a game.  They have a chance to make history, and it would be a pleasure to witness it.

That was an awesome ceremony outside Staples Center on Saturday night, where the Luc Robitaille statue was unveiled.  Robitaille is easily the most popular player in Kings history, and the fact that greats like Jerry West, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux showed up tells you just how great he was as a player.  On the ice however, the Kings making the playoffs is anything but a sure thing.  LA lost a devastating overtime game on Saturday to the Penguins, after shutting down some of the most talented players in the game all night, like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  However, one little mistake killed them, and hurt them in the standings.  The teams in front of the Kings keep winning, and LA’s margin for error has never been slimmer.  The reality of it is, the Kings are a very good team, that just might not be good enough to make the playoffs.  No matter what kind of obstacles the Kings have overcome in the past, at some point, the magic runs out.  In any case, the statue looks awesome.

Here comes more public pressure on the Dodgers for not having Sportsnet LA on DirecTV, or other cable distributors.  LA Times writer Bill Plaschke came up with a suggestion, which was to sell about 25 games to a local network so fans could watch games, until this fiasco was over.  That would at least demonstrate that the Dodgers are acting in good faith towards all the fans through this difficult time.  Interestingly enough, Stan Kasten was not available for comment.  That is also something that the Yankees and Giants do, despite the fact they have their own separate cable networks or cable agreements.  This would be a nice gesture, but ultimately, the Dodgers have to get this thing resolved with DirecTV, and lock themselves in a room until they figure it out.  That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon, which pains me, since I am a very unhappy Time Warner Cable customer.  I’m also one of many unhappy Dodger fans too.

On to last night’s episode of The Walking Dead.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it yet.  Here’s a quick recap.  The group further settles in to Alexandria, some much more easily than others.  Sasha struggles the hardest, starting out by taking target practice in the wild to let out her frustration, and later on had an emotional breakdown at a weird cocktail party.  There, she yelled at a friendly foodie for not worrying about the right things in the world they now live in.  Darryl went on a rabbit hunt with Aaron, they kill some zombies, and apparently are best buds now.  Darryl then agrees to become a recruiter for Alexandria.  Michonne hangs up her sword, reluctantly, despite her desire to settle down.  Glenn convinces Noah to come to the weird cocktail party, arguing they are all in this together.  Abraham gets drunk.  Rick gets a little tipsy himself at the party, and gives Jessie a meaningful peck on the cheek.  He also accepts Carols’ offer to remain armed.  Carol goes from swapping recipes with the girls to sneaking into the supply shack to get some guns.  She’s caught by Jessie’s son, and threatens him if he tells anyone that he has seen her.

This episode is a major reminder of one thing: Carol is a badass.  She is not to be messed with.  Just when you think she’s gone soft by swapping recipes, she reminds you how tough she really has become, and has not forgotten her true identity.  I have a feeling that at some point however, Jessie’s son will tell on her.  Rick is definitely on his way to an affair with Jessie.  But doesn’t the show need that?  We haven’t really had one of those since season 1 when Shane was around.  Ok seriously…..what happened to Father Gabriel?  Nobody even mentions the guy.  Maybe he’s the one that stole the gun from the blender that Rick left it in during the last episode.  Ultimately, this episode represented somewhat of a fantasy land for the characters.  For Rick it was seeing a place his kids can be safe and getting attention from another woman.  For Darryl it was a motorcycle in pieces.  For Abraham it was a bunch of booze.  The characters are now enjoying civilization, but it comes with a price.  That price is cutting into who they have become.  Sasha and Carol are the only ones that have grasped this thus far.  It’s probably only a matter of time before the others do as well.

February 23rd, 2015

The NBA trade deadline came and went last week, and the news for Laker fans was worse than knowing President Obama is going to be in office for another two years.  The Lake Show did nothing.  That’s also because they couldn’t do anything.  The single most important priority right now for the franchise is making sure it keeps its own 1st round pick this year, which would be in the top 5, which also means continuing to lose games.  Acquiring a player like Goran Dragic or Reggie Jackson would have been nice, but would have helped the Lakers win a few more games this season, which would have prevented them from keeping their draft pick.  However, the real problem is that many of the key free agents this summer were traded, and will likely re-sign with their new teams.  Dragic will stay in Miami to get paid more, the Pistons have plenty of money to keep Jackson, and you can add those players to the group of Lamarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, and Kevin Love, who will be staying with their own teams.  This continues to look like a painfully slow rebuild.  At least Obama will be gone in two years, but the Lakers will still suck.

Meanwhile, Kobe has been doing all kinds of interviews in the last week.  One of the more interesting of these, was the 1 hour special he did on NBA TV.   I was very surprised in that particular interview, there was no discussion about the stability or instability within the Laker organization.  In fact, there was no discussion about anything that has taken place in the last 4 years, other than his injury, and desire to comeback.  I realize that we are getting toward the end of the line with Kobe, and that his legacy is what most people are focusing on.  However, what about the present and the future for the Lakers?  Since most fans are freaking out about how incompetent Jim Buss is, and how dysfunctional his relationship could be with Jeanie, it would be have been nice to hear Kobe comment on this.

As for the Clippers, everyone thought they were toast when Blake Griffin went down.  Some of you even panicked to the point of thinking that the Clippers were going to fall out of the playoffs completely.   Instead, the Clipps are slowly pushing their way up to the third seed in the West.  I think everybody thought CP3 died, and that DeAndre Jordan was pretty worthless.  It turns out that those two guys are pretty good basketball players, and probably took things a little personally when Blake went down and everyone counted them out.  Now there’s even lunatics out there that think the Clippers are probably better without Blake Griffin, since they’ve won 4 in a row without him.  Still, my opinion on these guys hasn’t changed.  They needed help on the perimeter and help on the bench at the trade deadline and they didn’t get it.  The Clipps are a good team, but not a great team.  We’ll all be reminded of this come playoff time.

Now that the T-Wolves have traded for Kevin Garnett, they will probably be looking at locking up Stephon Marbury this summer.

So now I’m really supposed to believe that not one, but two NFL teams are going to be playing LA in the near future?  There’s a better chance the NFL will add a child support check writing class to the NFL Combine before the Raiders and Chargers will be sharing a stadium in Carson.  Most people are getting excited about the joint statement both teams made last week, but it’s nothing more than a way to increase leverage in their current city’s  The logistics of this plan don’t add up at all.  Neither team owns the land in Carson, they simply bought the rights to develop that land.  What happens if the Chargers can’t work out their stadium issues with San Diego and want to move, but the Raiders do work out their issues?  Won’t the Chargers need another team to move with them to finance the new stadium?  There’s also a number of environmental issues and lawsuits currently going on in the Carson area, which will make it a challenge for this stadium to get the necessary approval.  At least Stan Kroenke’s plan depends exclusively on whether or not the Rams can work things out in St. Louis.  There’s not much to get excited about yet people.  NFL Football is much further away from SoCal than you think.

The baseball season is upon us, and that means pitchers and catchers reported to spring training last week.  As if things weren’t rough enough for the Dodgers over the winter, they just learned that closer Kenley Jansen will miss the next 8-12 weeks after undergoing foot surgery.  I can’t wait for the Dodger front office to use this as an excuse for why they get off to such a crappy start.  We all know that the crappy start will really be a result of those dumb ass moves they made in the offseason.  It turns out that Dodgers fans aren’t the only ones that think that Andy Friedman and his stat nerds are a bunch of idiots.  MLB General Managers voted on the worst moves of the off-season, and they considered the Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy signing the two worst moves of the winter.  Can’t wait for this disaster to play out.

Meanwhile, the Angels pitchers and catchers reported to spring training as well, and CJ Wilson hasn’t come to play.  Instead, he’s come with excuses.  Wilson blamed his crummy 2014 performance on an ankle injury, and claims he wasn’t healthy for long stretches of time.  That probably isn’t something anybody wants to hear from him, considering how awful he was in game 3 of the NLDS last fall.  CJ also said he had some good games and some bad ones.  Funny, because I don’t think anybody recalls any of those “good games”.  All they can think of is a guy who is underperforming and making boatloads of money for the next two years.  The best thing CJ can do is own up to his crappy play, and just try to turn it around.  Otherwise, he should just focus on selling Mazdas at his dealership.

I’d like to thank the UCLA Bruin Basketball team for participating in the 2014-2015 College Basketball Season.  An invitation to the NIT awaits them, which was secured by their two road losses to ASU and Arizona in the last couple of days.  I like how I’m now consistently seeing two UCLA players, Kevon Looney and Norman Powell, projected as 1st round picks in this summer’s NBA draft.  So the Bruins have two future pros on their roster, but the best they can do is make it to the NIT?  Either that means those two players aren’t that good, or they are being coached by a clown.  Which is it?  Considering how successful UCLA players have been at the next level over the last few years, I think it’s obvious that coaching is the problem.

Let’s go to the ice where the LA Kings have caught fire.  They have won 7 straight, are suddenly looking much better in their hopes to make the playoffs and have a chance to defend their Stanley Cup.  Even more notable is the fact that our long national nightmare is over!  No, I’m not talking about Obamacare.  I’m talking about the Kings actually scoring a goal in an outdoor hockey game.  After being shutout last year against Anaheim, the Kings scored a pair of goals at Levi Stadium on Saturday night, and defeated the Sharks 2-1 in front of a crowd of over 70,000 people.  I love these outdoor hockey games, and they definitely have not waned in popularity.  People are buying tickets for these things like crazy, even if their view of the game would be as good as watching it from Mars. There’s still a lot of hockey left to be played, but the Kings are starting to look like the Kings gain.  Poor Joe Thornton…..but he makes an excellent gif………

Did anybody see the final episode of Two and Half Men?  Spoiler alert if you are still waiting to see it.  The show has definitely not been the same since Charlie Sheen left four years ago, but it’s still provided some laughs.  However, the final episode was nothing more than a giant middle finger in the face of Sheen.  It was an hour of jokes about his personal life.  In fact, the plot in the final episode didn’t really make much sense.  The story was that Sheen was supposedly held captive by his wife after their honeymoon. Then he escaped and tried to kill his brother Allen, and Allen’s billionaire friend Walden.  Why would Sheen want to kill his brother after being held in captivity for four years?  Wouldn’t he want to kill his wife?  We never actually see Sheen in the episode.  We see a look-alike at one point, and a Piano is dropped on him at the end of the episode, killing him.  Then we see the writer of the show, Chuck Lorre, laugh and say “winning”.  Then he dropped a piano on himself, which ended the show.  In the end, the show was shameful.  Instead of going out with a heartfelt moment, or in style, it went out with Lorre focused on his own agenda, which was telling Charlie Sheen that he didn’t need him anymore.

Another exciting episode of The Walking Dead took place last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap.  Aaron is taken to the barn and introduced to the group.  Immediately, Rick doesn’t trust him, so he then ties up Aaron and knocks him out.  Aaron claimed he was traveling with one other person, and urged the group to come join his group in Alexandria.  Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, and Rosita venture outside to investigate Aaron’s claim that he brought a few cars to transport the group back to Alexandria.  That turned out to be true.  Rick decides that the group will travel at night toward Alexandria, and they have to battle it out with Walkers as usual.  Along the way we learn that Aaron is gay, and his lover has broken his ankle.  The group finds shelter for the night before continuing their journey in the morning, and finally arriving in Alexandria.

Rick rightfully did not trust Aaron from the start, given what happened at Woodbury and Terminus.  The interesting part of this episode were the different forms of leadership that took place for Michonne, Rick, and Glenn.  Rick took a more dictatorial approach with how he handled Aaron.  Michonne took a softer approach, which eventually Rick and the rest of the group bought into.  Glenn also took a similar approach in leadership, by suggesting that they shoot anyone they encounter while searching for the cars.  However, Michonne reasons with Glenn that they should take a more cautious approach, but Glenn also buys into.  More importantly, compassion and humanity are big themes by the end of the episode.  Although we don’t know a lot about Aaron’s motivations, we see that he is far more humanized that many other characters in the show, with his love for Eric.  Rick and Glenn also show him compassion by letting him stay with Eric during the night, despite the fact they didn’t entirely trust him.  Still, it’s hard not to think the next villain in the show is going to come from somewhere inside Alexandria.

Ok, so I haven’t seen many of this years Oscar movies, however, I do have a few thoughts on last night’s awards.  It felt like some of the award winners needed to take a ski lift to get to the stage from their seats.  A few of them also tripped as well.  Sean Penn made a very lame immigration joke, which really took away from Birdman’s moment.  The show went way too long…..about 30 minutes longer than most people had their DVR’s programmed for.  I thought Neil Patrick Harris did a fine job as host, however, if you aren’t really familiar with him from his role in “How I Met Your Mother”, he can rub you the wrong way.  I’m thinking they need to put some of the more important awards toward the beginning, or at least one or two to make it more interesting.

February 16th, 2015

The NBA All-Star game is still the most entertaining All-Star game in all of sports.  I’m not sure why everyone complains that there is no defense played in these games either.  Last night there was more defense played than any other game Knicks game at the Garden this year.  Russell Westbrook was fantastic, earning MVP, and continuing to make his case for being the best point guard in basketball.  He’s gotta be kicking himself though for missing that layup that would have broken Wilt Chamberlain’s All-Star scoring record.  I hear that Lebron is now threatening to take his talents to the Western Conference next season if the East doesn’t add more talent.  Speaking of Lebron, he will never participate in the dunk contest, but of course he participates in the All-Star fashion show.  I think it’s safe to say that Zach Lavine owns the dunk contest after the show he put on Saturday night.  He was even great during the Rising Stars game on Friday, which only adds to the theory that UCLA coaches don’t know how to develop players, which is why they become that much better in the pros.  Here’s a taste of what we saw over the weekend from the former Bruins….

Charles Barkley has been doing Inside the NBA on TNT for 15 years, and he’s been doing a fantastic job.  After all these years, it amazes me how sensitive some people are to his criticism.  Barkley has had several beefs in the last week.  One was with Sacramento All-Star forward Demarcus Cousins, when Barkley said that Cousins shouldn’t have had input during the teams coaching search.  Cousins said he didn’t respect Barkley after that.  Earlier in the week it was Rockets GM Daryl Morey ripping Barkley after Barkley thought the teams use of analytics was stupid.  Then the Rockets entire front office complained that TNT’s coverage of the team was baised against them.  What a bunch of whiney babies!  Even Dwayne Wade was so upset when Barkley said he shouldn’t be an all-star, that he had his wife Gabrielle Union fighting battles for him.  She brought some serious trash talking to the table though by saying Charles has no credibility because he has no championship rings and thinks slavery may have been a good thing.  However,  she was upset when Barkley’s beef moved on to Morey and Cousins, thinking she wasn’t important enough.  Barkley is great for the NBA and his job is to be honest.  It’s never about the person, it’s all about the performance.  Apparently, none of these athletes and executives are tough enough to take the criticism.

Speaking of not being able to take the heat, why have Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook become such ass holes towards the media of late? If anybody in Oklahoma City slightly criticize them, they publicly lash out at them in the media or on Twitter.  Durant also told the media yesterday that “they don’t know shit”, and that they shouldn’t be voting for awards.  Apparently, KD fails to realize that without the media, the NBA would get the attention of a Saturday afternoon game at the Y.  Without that attention, KD wouldn’t be enjoying those $20 million annual paychecks.  You think you hate the media in OKC KD?  If you end up in a real market like LA, NY, or Boston, they would chew you up and spit you out.

Good news, unless of course you enjoy torture.  There’s only 29 Laker games left in the season for you to endure.  That hasn’t stopped Magic Johnson from once again, ripping Jim Buss for all the mistakes he’s made.  This is getting old, and it’s starting to look more personal than ever.  Every time Magic opens his mouth, people take notice, especially when he’s talking about the Lakers.  I’m pretty sure guys like Lamarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, and even Kevin Durant took notice of what Magic said, and that can’t help the Lakers chances of signing any of them, even if the odds were slim anyway.  If the Lakers have any hope of becoming decent again before Lebron James grandson enters the NBA draft, Magic better stop talking.  I’m no fan of Jim Buss, but he’s already put himself on the clock, and will be out in a couple of years if things don’t turn around.  Magic sounds like he’s willing to go nuclear and make the guy look like a total buffoon, just to run him out of town.  Even if you want Jim out of town, Magic sounds like a petty and jealous sibling, who had his favorite toy stolen and is exacting revenge.  Grow up Magic…….you’re better than this.

The Clippers are actually surviving without Blake Griffin.  The Clipps collected wins over Dallas and Houston before the All-Star break, mostly because DeAndre Jordan has been doing his best Wilt Chamberlain impression over the last week.  The Clippers would love to make a deal to improve their team before next week’s trade deadline, except Doc Rivers doesn’t have anymore kids in the league, so he probably won’t be able to get anything done.  At this point, the best the Clipps can hope for is getting Blake Griffin healthy, and somehow getting the right matchups in the playoffs.  Otherwise, this teams window appears to be closing rapidly.

Don’t look now, but here comes the UCLA basketball team.  The Bruins swept the Oregon schools over the weekend, and are now back in 4th in the Pac 12 Standings.  You probably think I’m about to give credit to Steve Alford for getting the team to peak at the right time.  Think again!  The only reason UCLA is rising in the standings is because nobody else in the Pac 12 can win on the road, and even Utah and Arizona are starting to struggle.  If the Bruins can somehow find a way to win their next two games, they would suddenly be right on the bubble for the NCAA tournament.  The Bruins even got a decent crowd, over 10,000, which was one of the largest of the season.  Still, Dan Guerrero said he’s not very enthusiastic about the attendance he’s seeing.  Mr. Guerrero should try improving the product on the floor by finding a better coach.  He should also drop some of those ticket prices, especially since a lot of people can’t even see games on the Pac 12 network.     The Bruins have a chance to steal the basketball spotlight in LA, but instead, they are just becoming more irrelevant.  At least Norman Powell provided a lot of excitement on Saturday…..

Let’s go to the ice where the Kings are back to finding the win column, as they have now won 4 straight.  The bad news is that they are still 3 points out of the final playoff spot in the West, which tells you that the playoff race is tighter than what Ariana Grande wore at the All-Star game last night.  Their last 27 games include 3 games against Vancouver, 2 against San Jose, and 1 against Winnipeg and Calgary.  5 of those 7 games are on the road as well, which will likely determine whether or not the Kings will be playing playoff hockey this year.  Meanwhile, I thought that most people that covered the NHL were fairly intelligent, however, that is clearly not the case for columnist Jonathan Willis.  Willis recently wrote a column about how Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick isn’t elite.  Of course he picked out some cute little numbers in the last two months to make his case, and then finished by saying Quick needs to prove he can do it year in an year out.  Apparently winning two of the last three Stanley Cups, including a playoff MVP, and starting for the US Olympic team was not enough to prove this.  This is why drugs are bad for you people.

Last night’s SNL 40th Anniversary special was phenomenal, and it even got much better ratings than the NBA All-Star game.  There were a few former cast members who I was surprised didn’t have bigger roles in the show.  The first of which was Eddie Murphy, who simply accepted something like a lifetime achievement award from Chris Rock, but did not participate in any sort of skit or monologue.  Considering the legacy he left, I thought it would have been fitting for a bigger role.  I was also surprised that we only saw Mike Myers at the very end of the show in a Wayne’s World skit, but at no other point.  You could make a case for greater involvement for a lot of characters, but in a lot of ways, that’s just a reminder of how much star power has gone through the show over the last 40 years.  It’s nearly impossible for Lorne Michaels to involve this many stars for a show of this magnitude, but it’s also a reminder of how much staying power the show has, and will continue to have.

Finally, the Walking Dead returned for another episode last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch it.  Here’s a quick recap.  Rick and the entire group continue their journey from Richmond to Washington, DC.  On the road, they encounter some Walkers, and we see a lot of self-reflection from Maggie and Darryl, after some of the people they cared for died in some of the recent episodes.  Much of the episode is spent listening to Maggie, Darryl, Sasha, and others decide whether they even want to continue living and fighting.  By the end of the episode, Rick tells the group a story about his grandfather in World War II, and that he felt like he was “The Walking Dead”, while at war, which eventually got him to feel like he was living again.  Rick explained that’s how the group feels now, but that will get them to eventually feel like they are living again.  The episode ends with a new character named Aaron showing up, claiming he is a friend with good news, and asking to speak with Rick.

The zombie fight was probably the lamest fight I’ve seen in 5 seasons of the show, with Walkers just getting pushed down a hill.  Thank god Sasha got angry and started killing zombies the old fashioned and more entertaining way by stabbing them.  How brutal was it watching Darryl eat a worm straight out of the ground?  The irony is that the he and several other members of the group became uncomfortable with the idea of eating dog meat after Sasha shot a pack of dogs.  Somewhere, there are angry members of PETA writing to the producers of The Walking Dead, and telling them how ashamed of themselves they should be.  Darryl has now become this extremely emotional character instead of a badass survivalist.  It felt like that transition was complete when he started crying in the woods with his cigarette.  When Rick actually described the group as “The Walking Dead”, it really just confirmed what most of us were thinking about the show, and made me want to yell “Duh! Obviously Rick!”  As for Aaron, the guy looks way to preppy and clean for the zombie world to not be evil.  It’s like he just walked out of Nordstroms and into the zombie world.  It’s hard to tell where the next evil do-er is going to come from on the show, but right now that’s probably everyone’s best guess.

February 9th, 2015

I don’t know about you guys, but I think this Laker road trip has been a phenomenal success.  Even though they got blown out yesterday, they’ve been playing hard, and losing close games.  LA is inching themselves closer to the bottom of the standings, which is critical for them in order to keep this year’s 1st round pick.  In other words, many of these games against terrible teams are “must lose” and they are losing.  Interestingly enough, Laker fans all seem to be putting all their hopes and dreams into either signing Kevin Durant in 2016 or trading for Russell Westbrook.  Neither one of these guys by themselves can win a title, which they’ve demonstrated in Oklahoma City.  It’s going to take even more talent around them, so the Lakers shouldn’t trade a lottery pick or even Julius Randle, just for a player like Durant or Westbrook.  Hopefully the Lakers have accepted their current place in the NBA, as well as their fans, and will not make foolish decisions for a quick fix.  Considering Jim Buss has given himself a certain amount of time to fix the team, a potential quick fix is something we should be very worried about.  On the bright side, Jimmy Fallon and Kobe Bryant shared a pretty funny moment earlier this week….

The Clippers had a week that was even worse than Pete Caroll’s.  They’ve lost 4 in a row, Chris Paul took his frustration out on a female official, which got him fined, and then they find out Blake Griffin has a staph infection and will be out for at least the next couple of weeks.  Let’s start with CP3.  There’s no question that this guy is frustrated, as is the rest of the team.  That was very evident in his comments about Lauren Holtkamp.  It’s probably a little much to accuse Chris Paul of being sexist, but at the very least, he’s guilty of being careless.  Do you really think he would have said “this might not be for her” if a rookie male official had made the same call?  I doubt it.  In any case, the frustration we saw in that game seems to epitomize what we’re seeing from this team.  A group of guys that no longer seem like they are really having fun, or even like each other for that matter.  You can overcome that if you have superior talent and superior coaching, but their talent and coaching isn’t that much better than everyone else’s.  As for Blake, losing him is going to hurt, and with the schedule coming up, the Clipps could end up losing 7 or 8 straight and find themselves clinging to the last playoff spot in the West very soon.  It’s looking bad, but they sky isn’t falling…..yet.

I have never been a huge fan of College Football Signing Day.  We’ve gotten to the point where we are giving 17 and 18 year old kids ridiculous amounts of attention, and we have no idea whether or not any of these kids will actually be able to be good college football players.  Even more obnoxious is when we see kids give us some dramatic presentation announcing where they are going to school, and some have even punked us by announcing one school, and then saying “just kidding” and announcing another one.  That serves the media right for giving them that much attention.  Even with all that obnoxiousness, it’s hard not to notice how well USC and UCLA football did in the years recruiting.  In some rankings, USC had the #1 recruiting class nationally, while the Bruins had as high as #6 nationally.  It’s really no surprise for USC, who had had good recruiting classes for a while, now it’s simply a matter of Sark developing them.  However, what Jim Mora Jr. is doing at UCLA is amazing.  The Bruins may be losing out on some local kids, but they are making up for it by stealing away some SEC talent.  Is UCLA slowly becoming a football school?  Hopefully for Dan Guerrero’s sake it is, otherwise he would probably be fired by now.

How did the Bruins manage to blow that game against Cal on Saturday?  They coughed up a 4 point lead with 90 seconds left.  Terrible defense, terrible free throw shooting, and even worse late game execution.  These guys have no hope of making it to the NCAA Tournament, which is an embarrassment for any UCLA basketball team.  The good news is that 5 of their last 7 games will be at home, and televised on the Pac 12 Network.  That means that most people won’t actually get to see how much these guys have underachieved this year.

It’s February, and that means its almost time for Dodger baseball.  That also means that Zack Greinke is speaking his mind like he usually does, and is saying what most of us are thinking: the Dodger front office has found a way to make the team worse than last year.  Greinke was asked if he thought the Dodgers were going to be a better team than last year with the moves that were made.  He said that it was hard to see how they were better.  Which is a nice way of saying they aren’t better.  That’s because they are actually a whole lot worse.  Now that the Padres have signed James Shields, they’ve already clinched the NL West.  The Dodgers front office nerds found a way to not only make the team worse, but strengthen a division rival.  Nicely done.

It’s becoming more clear than ever now: The LA Kings are screwed.  I just don’t see how this team can even make the playoffs anymore this year.  Even after Saturday’s win over Tampa Bay, the Kings are still in 10th place in the West, with just 31 games left to play.   The Kings would have to go at least 21-10 the rest of the way to give themselves a chance to get in the post-season, which will be even tougher since 18 of those games are on the road, where they stink.  On top of that, Slava Voynov’s NHL career is probably over, LA has terrible salary cap problems, and they’ve got injuries to Tanner Pearson and now Alec Martinez to deal with.  These days, Steve Urkel has a better chance of scoring than the Kings, and when the playoffs come around, LA probably won’t get the chance to defend its title.

Tiger Woods is losing his mind.  Honestly, I can’t figure out what is deteriorating more: his skill or his psyche.  It feels like his disease is “lameexcusitis”, which is a condition that flares up when he is at least 10 strokes behind a tournament leader, which clearly flared up last week.  I think the question is no longer whether or not he can catch Jack Nicklaus for total number of majors anymore, but rather if he can win just one more major.  It’s very sad to see, not just for Tiger, but for golf.  The sport badly needs him, whether you love him or hate him.  Does anybody even really watch when he isn’t playing?  I’m rooting for him to get his game back, but it’s clear that whatever seems to be troubling him doesn’t have anything to do with golf.

Pretty surprising episode of The Walking Dead last night on AMC, which returned for the 2nd half of season 5.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch it.  At the beginning of the episode, I’m sure we all thought it was Beth who they were burying.  It turns out it was really Tyrese, who ended up dying in this episode.  I found it interesting that Tyrese experienced all of these different hallucinations, but none of them gave us a satisfying conclusion from them.  We see some of Beth, some of the Governor, and some of Bob, but nobody gives us the sense that Tyrese is going to be better off if he dies.  It’s somewhat of an unsatisfying feeling for the viewer, since much of the episode focused around these hallucinations.  I actually thought that Tyrese was going to make it after his arm was cut off, similar to Herschel having a limb amputated when he was bitten.  However, the show needed to start off with a bang for the first episode of the 2nd half of he season, and it did, which is part of the reason he died.  The group is now headed to DC to seek shelter, but only time will tell if their efforts will be fruitful.  Not a bad start to the 2nd half of the season, although somewhat unsatisfying.  Looking forward to the next episode.

Did you watch the Grammy’s last night?  A few quick thoughts.  I loved the ACDC opening.  Sam Smith is a great talent that I never really appreciated until last night.  It’s no wonder that Iggy Azalea is dating Nick Young.  Last night she lost about as often as the Lakers lose basketball games.  Nicky Minaj actually looks good when she isn’t dressed like a total weirdo.  I guess she had to since Iggy has been stealing the spotlight from her for the last year or so.  Kanye is a great talent, but the guy is so unbelievably unlikable.  He nearly crashed the stage when Beck began to give their album of the year speech.  He later appeared on E!, telling reporters that he felt Beyonce  should have won the award.  There’s a time and a place for everything, and clearly Kanye has no concept of that.  In case you missed it, here it is….

February 2nd, 2015

What a horrible ending to a great game.  Super Bowl XLIX would have been remembered as a great game, but instead, will be remembered for one of the worst play calls in the history of sports. All the Seahawks had to do was give the ball to their best player, Marshawn Lynch, and let him get 1 yard to win the Super Bowl.  He had three chances to do so.  Instead, they threw the ball and it was intercepted.  Abe Lincoln could have finished a play better than the Seahawks coaching staff.  Funny, because the Seahawks ignored Lynch like he ignored the media all week.  Serves him right anyway.  Lynch had no reason to disrespect the media like he did.  Nobody is out to get him, and in typical fashion, another athlete ignorantly blames his own stupidity on the media.  Lynch said he only showed up at media day so he didn’t get fined.  For much of the 1st half, Russell Wilson was playing like he was just there so he wouldn’t get fined.  Wilson wasn’t great at the end either, and in the end, white guys had not caused so much depression in Seattle since the death of Nirvana.

As for the Patriots, say what you will about the “alleged” cheating, but Tom Brady’s legacy still speaks for itself.  Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw are the only other quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings.  Montana and Bradshaw probably have better cases for being better quarterbacks and having a better legacy, but Brady has the best legacy of anybody since 1990.  Nobody has done more with less around him on a consistent basis.  I think Rob Gronkowski is going to party harder than anyone ever has over the next 6 months.  The Scottsdale PD probably had their hands full dealing with this guy last night.  Just think how excited he’s is going to be when he gets he gets his Super Bowl ring.  Here’s a sneak peek at what it will look like….

One part of the Super Bowl that I have always enjoyed is the commercials.  This year, they were terrible.  I was just waiting for a commercial to laugh at, and it felt like one commercial after another that was very sad.  I’d like to extend a special thank you to Nationwide Insurance for sucking the joy out of the entire event, by reminding us how children can die in household accidents.  Considering how depressing the commercials were, the halftime show should have been just Sarah McLachlan singing Angel, surrounded by dead puppies.  However, Katy Perry’s halftime show was outstanding, especially when she rode on that giant mechanical lion.  The surprise appearance by Missy Elliot was great as well. Our country must be bankrupt after putting that entire productions together.

That was a very important loss yesterday by the Lakers, against the lowly Knicks.  Obviously Byron Scott was a little bit worried about his job after beating the Bulls on Thursday, so he made sure his team laid a major egg yesterday and continued to tank to better their draft position.  I’m also beginning to wonder what the story is with Nick Young and Byron Scott’s relationship.  Young seems perfectly healthy enough to play, but Scott is holding him out of games.  I don’t think Scott is too thrilled with Swaggy’s defense or attitude these days, so I’m not going to be surprised if the Lakers put him on the trade block in the next few weeks.  As for Kobe, it’s funny how his timetable suddenly went from 3-6 months to 9 months after having rotator cuff surgery.  When that happens, I think the surgery should be considered “unsuccessful”.  Just more reason why the Black Mamba needs to call it quits.

Impressive with by the Clippers against the Spurs over the weekend.  The Clipps really did not have a signature win yet this year, and they took down the defending champs on the road.  The Clippers just looked angry after losing the night before at New Orleans.  Toughness is one area that I have repeatedly question for this team, but DeAndre and Blake showed a lot of it on Saturday night, dominating throughout.  Somehow, the bench is starting to look even thinner after the Austin Rivers trade, but for now, the Clipps are slowly climbing in the Western Conference standings.

Speaking of big wins, UCLA basketball put together a couple of very big wins over the weekend against Utah and Colorado.  The Bruins had not beaten a ranked team all season, let alone a quality opponent.  Looks like they finally got that “signature win” they were looking for.  That should be good enough to secure a tournament birth……..in the NIT that is.

That was one impressive win the Kings had against Chicago last week at Staples Center.  That shows me the Kings still have some good hockey in them, but they better start winning on the road ASAP, because the playoffs are slowly slipping away from them.  Even worse is the fact the Kings are stuck with a $5 million minor leaguer, in Mike Richards, and a defenseman that is about to be deported for domestic violence.  This may be too much to overcome this season.  Meanwhile, the Ducks have given themselves plenty of breathing room in the standings prior to the post-season.  Anaheim is a full 10 points ahead of everyone else in the Pacific Division.  The playoffs though, that’s what they need to figure out.