Jack or Jimmy?

Most of you have probably heard the news by now about the kid from Grinnell College who made history yesterday. His name is Jack Taylor, he is a 5'10" guard on their basketball team, and the 138 points he scored in yesterday's game against Faith Baptist Bible College set an NCAA record. Needless to say, it was an unprecedented performance, but is this really something that should be so celebrated?

The numbers are ridiculous. They read like the total offensive stats for most high school players' whole season. Taylor made 52 of 108 shots from the field, 71 of which were three-pointers, of which he made 27. Let me point something out. His shooting percentages were normal. He shot 48% from the field and 38% from three-point range. The only reason he scored 138 points in the game was that he got to shoot 108 times! Most college players could score over 100 points if they were allowed to shoot that many times in a game. The more impressive part of this game was the leading scorer for Faith Baptist. David Larson scored 70 points on 34-44 shooting from the field. He shot 77%! If he had put up 108 shots with that percentage he would have scored 166 points, and that's with no three-pointers or free throws.

The point is that this is not the way that basketball should be played. If Norman Dale were Taylor's head coach, he would have been on the bench after one shot for not waiting until the team had passed it at least four times. Jack Taylor ain't no Jimmy Chitwood. And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is Jimmy Chitwood's game-winning shot in the state championship.

That gets me every time. This is how basketball should be played.

Monday Afternoon Football

Soccer, that is. At least in America. I am delighted, by the way, with the turn of events that has seen soccer being shown more and more on ESPN. I agree with the recent advertisements that claim the English Premier League to be the best soccer league in the world. We're in for another great season I'm sure. It will be hard to live up to the standard set by the crazy drama at the end of last season. Here's a clip to help you relive it and get pumped for the new campaign.

Awesome. And here's a link to a longer one if you want more.

I'm at home in Cedar City on this beautiful Monday afternoon. The sun is shining and I've got nothing to do (yet) except flip on the tube and watch some EPL soccer in fabulous HD. We're in the 50th minute right now of a match between last year's runner-up Manchester United and an always tough Everton side. It's been a great game so far, even though it is still scoreless. There have been some great chances. Everton looks pretty impressive against perennial powerhouse Man-U, and a few players have impressed me more than the rest. My two favorite players in this match so far have been Marouane Fellaini of Everton and Shinji Kagawa of Manchester United. They both look very composed and have been, in my opinion, the best players on the field for their respective teams.

And there you have it. Everton just scored, and it was none other than Fellaini with a beautiful header off a corner kick! I told you he looked good. There have been multiple times in this match when he simply overpowered Man-U defenders, and this was yet another example of that. Fellaini is tall and he has fantastic hair. How can you stop that one-two punch?

I wanna talk a little bit more, however, about Kagawa. Manchester United just barely picked him up in the recent transfer window before the season started. He was playing for German side Borussia Dortmund before making the switch, leading them to the Bundesliga title last season. Kagawa is a facilitator. He is soccer's version of a Steve Nash sort of player. He's a pass first kind of guy. He's created some great chances in this game against Everton, including a magnificent pass to Danny Welbeck that so nearly resulted in a 1-0 lead for Man-U. He's the kind of player that everyone wants to play with, and that is a very valuable thing to have. I want to talk about the importance of a facilitator.

I guess I had to talk about it eventually. I'm sure by now you've all heard about the recent trade that sent Dwight Howard, the best young center of his generation, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Their starting line-up now includes four superstars and a bruiser (I like to think of Metta World Peace as the kind of guy that hockey teams send out to protect superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin). Kobe Bryant is Kobe Bryant. We all know his credentials, but the most important player to that team's success will be Steve Nash (he also happens to have the most MVP awards than anyone else on that team). If they play it right, it won't be superstars taking turns, it will be the best pure point guard since John Stockton controlling the game and making sure everyone is involved. Steve Nash needs to have the ball in his hands more than anyone else (including Kobe) if they want to beat OKC and Miami this coming season.

A facilitator is someone who is unselfish, who seeks others' happiness before his own. He understands that his own happiness will come from helping others. That is the kind of person that we all want to be around, and it's the kind of person that we should all strive to be. It's the kind of person that Jesus Christ was when he was on the earth. The scriptures say that he "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). The prophet Moroni in the Book of Mormon teaches that men should "lay hold upon every good thing," and any man who does so "certainly will be a child of Christ" (Moroni 7:19). Happiness comes from doing good.

Sports are amazing in their power to teach. There is so much more to them than meets the eye, so many lessons to be learned. This is why I love them so much and want to share what I learn from them with whoever wants to listen. Thanks for reading.

All In

It had to be something good to get me writing again. I've been in a slump. Ever since the NBA season ended there hasn't really been anything that I've cared enough to write about.

I've decided to change things up a bit. So far my blog has just been my reactions to what happens in the world of sports. I stretched it to where I was writing about things just to write about them, not really putting a lot of feeling in it. My best post came when something happened which really affected me (see "Rose's Thorn"). So I'm only going to write when I really care about something (go figure, right?), and I'm going to tie in some life lessons as well. I think it will be a lot better.

I'm back in Cedar City tonight. I drove down from Provo this evening. I was again reminded of how beautiful Utah is. I remember really appreciating it for the first time when I got home from my mission in Romania. I guess I had learned to better appreciate beauty while I was away serving in Romania. I saw some beautiful things there, but nothing compared to what I saw when I got home. All that time is was right in front of me, but I had to go halfway around the world to figure out how lucky I was to live in such an amazing place. The scenery was magnificent as I drove. Purple rain was a curtain veiling the red, sunset-lit horizon. Colorless silhouettes of cloud were lined with orange and yellow. I've tried before to take pictures of such scenes with my phone, but it never does it justice, so I've given up on that. Instead I tried to paint a picture with words. It seemed to work better.

The panorama eventually turned black. The dark sky was illuminated from time to time with brilliant flashes of lightning in the distance. As I got further south, closer to Cedar, the lightning got closer and brighter. Rain pelted the windshield. Coldplay provided a perfect soundtrack to the drive, and I kept myself awake by singing along (as is my custom). Life is good.

The real reason I was inspired to start blogging again after about a month off was a one minute video I saw the other day. Here it is.

I'm blown away by D-Rose. Everything he does seems to make me a bigger and bigger fan. The part of the video that hit me the most is the end when he says, "I'm all in." That's significant. To be great requires complete devotion to a goal. Derrick Rose hit a bump in the road - a big bump. If you think that deterred him from his desire to be the best basketball player he can possibly be, think again. He'll come back, and I fully believe that he will eventually be better than he ever has been up to this point. That will happen because he is completely focused and determined to make it happen. He's "all in," holding nothing back. So we should be "all in" with everything that we do. To only give half effort is to meander in the mass of mediocrity. Anything short of everything just isn't enough if we want to reach our potential.

I had a conversation with my roommate (one of my best friends) about this a while back. A lot of times we are scared to give 100%. Doing so leaves no excuses for the results. Giving less than our all, we can always say, "Oh, if I had tried harder I could've done it," or, "I could've won that game if such-and-such wouldn't have happened." We cripple ourselves. True satisfaction comes from giving our all, knowing we gave our all, and accepting the results as a just reward for the effort we put in. If the results aren't quite what we wanted, then we go to work and improve on the areas where we need a boost. Continual progress is the goal. Patience is required.

Patience will dispel fear, calm nerves, and soften the blow of disappointment. Patience will sustain the fire within. Derrick Rose is displaying amazing patience and humility as he works back in what has been diagnosed as an 8-12 month recovery process. I can't wait for him to get back. The Bulls need him. The NBA needs him. He is a great example of hard work and excellence that we can all learn from.

NBA Summer League

I had the chance to go down to Sin City for a couple of days of NBA Summer League action this past weekend. The quality of basketball wasn't great, but that doesn't matter that much in summer league ball. All of these players were out to impress. One who did so was Lithuanian 7-footer Donatas Motiejunas of the Houston Rockets. I watched his first game on Friday where he scored 25 points in 25 minutes and grabbed 9 rebounds. He was impressive, and with Luis Scola gone he'll probably get some good playing time in the upcoming season. Watch out for this guy. He's also got a smokin' hot girlfriend to boot.

The Bobcats won a game! Well, their summer league team did. They were led by rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The second overall pick in this summer's draft was all over the place stealing, dunking, shooting, and defending. MJ made the right pick getting MKG. We'll have to wait and see if he made the right choice with their new coach. He seemed more like a high school coach as he had his team pressing the whole game. It worked to win a summer league game, but who cares? We'll see what he does once the real season starts.

Other than that there weren't really any big stand-outs. Thomas Robinson looked okay for the Kings. He showed great ability to get the free throw line. He could use some improvement on knocking down those free throws, though. He'll be good once he gets used to the NBA game. He's got all the tools. He looked better than Jimmer. Jimmer still hasn't gotten the same confidence back that he had at BYU. He seemed to kind of struggle when he was running the point. In the second Kings game I saw they had him at the 2. He looked a lot more comfortable there and did much better. Hopefully he'll be able to find his niche. I'm not sure it's in Sacramento.

I'm excited to see more summer league story lines come out this week. I'm even more excited for the USA National Team. Hopefully nobody else will get hurt (best wishes to BG).

"It's about damn time"

During the pregame show I heard Mike Wilbon make the first prediction for tonight's game. He said that he was picking the Heat to win it and clinch the title. I was a little bit surprised to hear Chris Broussard ask him if he thought it would be a blowout. A blowout? But then I thought about it a little bit. Yeah, this might be a blowout. The thought hadn't even entered my mind before then, but afterwards, for some reason, a blowout seemed probable.

Then the 3's started raining.

Mike Miller looked like Uncle Wade out there, running down the court like a hobbled old man, draining 3's left and right. The only thing that was missing were some street ball moves and an off-the-backboard throw down. Mario Chalmers drained a couple. Norris Cole came in off the bench, took a charge, and drained a 3-pointer of his own. Shane Battier continued his hot streak in the Finals. Even Chris "The Raptor" Bosh hit one from the corner.

Miami's "Big Three" are all grown up now and have started winning championships. Lebron has figured it out. Tonight's game saw him calming Mario Chalmers down when Mario was starting a premature celebration. "Not yet," James said. That alone showed how much he's matured. He's still a kid at heart, though. Did you see him jumping up and down on the bench when the game was in hand? Even Eddy Curry looked young over there jumping around (that exercise probably did him good). The look on Lebron's face as he held the championship trophy can only be described as the "little kid on Christmas morning" look, and he gave it a big hug.

Thinking back to the actual game, it just seemed like it was decided from early on. The basketball Gods were smiling on Miami. The Thunder never really looked like they were in it. They just didn't have that spring in their step that they usually have. It was Miami's night. Make no mistake, though, this Thunder team will have their night. I have no doubt about that. This one will hurt for a while, just like last year's Finals loss hurt Miami. It was touching to see Kevin Durant hugging his family in the tunnel after the game, tears flowing. He'll be back on that stage again very soon.

Russell Westbrook played a heck of a series. Check out Bill Simmons's column about him.

I picked Miami to win, and I was rooting for them. I was rooting for Lebron. I was ready for all the crap to end. The haters were getting ridiculous. There will still be haters, but Lebron is finally starting to shut them up. And I'm happy for him. In his own words: "It's about damn time."

As much as it pains me to say this as a Bulls fan, the rest of the NBA should be very worried at this point. Happy Gilmore said it best: "Happy learned how to putt...Uh-oh." Lebron has figured it out. Lebron learned how to win........Uh-oh.

Lebron vs Durant

Awwwwwww yeah! We've got the top two MVP candidates from this year facing off in the finals. I really hope they guard each other so we can just watch them duke it out. There are gonna be some other great match-ups as well. Battier will probably be guarding the Beard and we'll probably see a showdown between Russell Westbrook and Dwyane Wade. I give the edge to Westbrook because Wade has knees comparable to Greg Oden's. It's a good thing he doesn't play for Portland. It's becoming an epidemic over there.

As for the Lebron/Durant match-up, I give the edge to Lebron. I know I said in my last post that I thought the Thunder would win the Finals, but I'm changing my mind. I think this is Lebron's year to get that first ring. I say Miami will win it in 7. Yes, in OKC. You heard it here first. And let's hope that the Heat have one of those don't-shave-until-we-win-the-title things going so they can shave all those nasty beards they have.

The Finals

I was trying to figure out how to describe the look on Lebron's face last night when he was completely dominating that game. He was in his own world - a world that very few people can journey to. It's the world that Michael Jordan would go to when he would simply refuse to lose. Lebron was not going to lose last night. It didn't matter what the circumstances were. Bill Simmons said put it really well in the last part of his column from today; last night's game was a defining moment in Lebron's career. There was tons of talk about what the Heat would do in the offseason. Should they break up the big 3? Should Spoelstra go? There would inevitably be another tidal wave of criticism directed at Lebron if Miami lost. He decided he had to just take this game into his own hands. He decided that he was going to make it clear that even if his team did lose, there was no way he could be the one to blame.

Now that last night's game happened, I'm not so sure about picking the Thunder to win the Finals. If Lebron can play like that then there might not be much that OKC can do. This is assuming that Miami beats Boston in game 7 tomorrow night, of course, which I think they will.

Honestly, though, I think I will be rooting for Boston. I think the old Celtics putting it together for one more run at the title is a cooler story. Ever since Chicago's and LA's 3-peats we haven't seen another team do it. I like watching amazing runs like that - dynasties. Lebron was supposed to have given us that at least once by this time in his career, but he hasn't. He still could, but I don't know if he's going to come into game 7 with the same mentality as he had in game 6 and which should be his mentality every time he steps on the court. Every time he steps on the court he should be thinking, I'm the best player on this court and I'm going to prove it. That's what Michael Jordan did. You might hurt some people's feelings, Lebron, but if you want to be on MJ's level you have to bring that game 6 mentality every game. So it will be interesting to see who wins tomorrow night. Lebron can take his team to the Finals if he wants to. Otherwise, Boston will continue their improbable run. It's a win-win situation. My brain says the Heat will win, but my more poetic side hopes Boston pulls it out.

Euro 2012 started today with some awesome games. There were seven goals scored in the two games. Russia dismantled the Czech Republic 4-1 and co-hosts Poland tied Greece 1-1. ESPN is doing some great coverage. Both games were on ESPN today and all of the games can be seen on ESPN 3 as well. I like the crew they've got covering the games. Bob Ley leads a panel with former USA National team member Alexi Lalas and long-time German captain Michael Ballack. It's fun to hear what Ballack has to say from his experiences playing alongside and/or against many of the best players in this tournament. The only thing is that he struggles a little bit with his English. He seems to lack a little bit of confidence with it. It's a little bit awkward and you get a little bit anxious trying to figure out what he's saying. It's kind of like listening to Shaq, only Ballack is somewhat incoherent for more legitimate reasons rather than just being too lazy to open his mouth all the way when he talks.

My beloved Romania didn't make the tournament. *Sigh*. Too bad there are very few Romanians that are proud of their country and want to stay there. They probably lose a lot of young talent because guys go and get dual citizenship and try to play in another country. They can't quite pull a Jurgen Klinsmann and convince foreigners to get dual citizenship to play for their team. Hopefully it starts working out better for the US team than it has so far under Jurgen.

Now that I'm off that tangent I'll go ahead and say that I'll be rooting for Germany. I took German in high school and am currently minoring in German at BYU, so I guess they're the only participant in Euro 2012 that I have any ties to. Hai Germania! (Imi ceri scuze, Romanilor).

Here's to hoping we have some Zinedine Zidane head-butt type of drama in this tournament. Soccer would have more American fans if it became a little bit more like hockey. Why not let them fight a little bit, eh? Just kidding...but seriously.

Amazing

Well I guess I'm finally over the nightmare of a playoffs that the Bulls had. There is some recent good news, though. And there's talk that Chicago's gonna bring in Jason Kidd (or Steve Nash) as a temporary semi-solution for Rose being out. I'd be okay with that, but let's get on to what's happening in the playoffs now.

I just watched one of the best performances in a half in NBA playoff history as Lebron James scored 30 points on 12-14 shooting from the field while playing every second of that half. He was making shot after shot, and everything he threw up was going in (except a few free throws, ironically). After every shot he was just stone-faced, no emotion. You could see in his expression that there's no way he's gonna let his team lose tonight and be eliminated. He looks extremely confident, and you can tell that absolutely nothing else matters to him right now besides winning this game. I have a hard time believing that Miami won't.

Meanwhile, I heard a crazy statistic about what Kevin Garnett is doing in these playoffs. Right now he is averaging 19.9 points and over 10 rebounds per game. If he finishes the playoffs with those numbers, he would be the first player ever to average 20 and 10 (letting him have that missing 0.1 ppg) throughout the playoffs. Surprising, right? I heard that from one of the commentators today but I don't remember which one, so I hope I'm not leading you astray. If it is true, that's pretty amazing coming from 36 year-old Garnett in his 17th season in the NBA.

I have a hard time believing that either the Celtics or the Heat can beat the Thunder in the NBA Finals. After the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, I was thinking (as I'm sure many others were) that the Spurs were simply untouchable. Then something changed. I don't really know what it was exactly, and maybe it was a combination of things, but the Thunder just transformed. I remember thinking that the series was all but over after game 2. How could OKC beat the untouchable Spurs four out of five games to win the series? They not only did that, but they won four straight, including a game five win in San Antonio. Wow. That's amazing. We could be witnessing the start of a dynasty as long as this team stays together. No matter who comes out of the East, I'm picking the Thunder.

Rose's Thorn

The dream that was the start of the playoffs has turned into a nightmare. And it's not just one of those nightmares that you wake up from in a cold sweat and then it's over; this has been a nightmare that has replayed over and over and over, and won't end anytime soon. It seems like every time I turn on the TV I see another replay of it. Derrick Rose was attacking like he always does, like few others can, and then something went horribly wrong. His knee just gave out and he slowly lowered himself to the court, holding his left leg. I couldn't believe it was that bad at first. I immediately assumed that he had just tweaked his ankle again and would be fine in a couple of days. Marv Albert was freaking out. He wasn't helping. Shut up, Marv! It's not that bad! Stop making a big deal out of it! A pause came, and the trainers came out to check on Rose. A hush came over the United Center, and his teammates looked on in disbelief.

I still couldn't accept that it might be serious. A close-up of Kyle Korver's face told the whole story. He - like the rest of the Bulls, like the city of Chicago, like Bulls fans everywhere - had just had the wind knocked out of him. The "Windy City" was wind-less (lame, I know, but I couldn't resist; consider it a little bit of comic relief). Then Derrick got up, supported on either side, and walked off the court and into the locker room. Ok, at least he wasn't carried off. He might be okay.

The Bulls won, but whatever. For the next few hours I got texts from my two older brothers and some friends expressing their condolances. Now that I have started coming to terms with what happened, I appreciate them more, but at the time I was still convinced that he was going to be fine. I was doing some homework. I decided to take a break and turn on the TV for a minute. ESPN was buzzing with the news. The nightmare came into full swing. My favorite player had torn his ACL. He was done for the rest of the season, effectively dooming the Bulls' hopes for a championship this year and probably next year as well. I was depressed, and I still am depressed. I'm sad for Derrick Rose, for the Bulls, for Chicago, and for the NBA in general. He is one of the league's brightest young stars, the youngest MVP in NBA history. I've never enjoyed watching someone play the game of basketball like I enjoy watching Derrick Rose. Here's to hoping (and praying) that he will make a full recovery and we'll get at least most of the same Derrick Rose back again.

I don't care if you're a Bulls fan or not. If you're a basketball fan, you should be feeling some of the hurt from the events of yesterday's game in Chicago. I sure am.

Check out Mike Wilbon's article about it.

Bulls/Sixers Game 1

It's playoff time, and I couldn't be more excited about the next couple of months. We just reached halftime of the first game: Bulls vs. Sixers in Chicago. The first half was a game of catch-up for the Sixers. They started off with a 3-0 lead, but that was the last time they would lead. They tied it once at 28-28, but the Bulls followed that with a 9-0 run to start pulling away and they ended the half with an 11-point lead.

Derrick Rose looked like his healthy self in the second quarter. He made Evan Turner look silly on one drive. That's what Turner gets for thinking that he would rather play the Bulls than the Heat. Rose and Turner are old high school rivals from Chicago. Rose went to Simeon and Turner went to St. Joseph's. Rose got the better of Turner back then, and it's looking like that trend is going to continue.

The third quarter is underway. Eight minutes to go in the third and D-Rose just hit a three. He's back! Actually I should probably save that declaration for his next monster dunk like we saw in last year's playoffs.

Coach Thibs is barking so loud I can hear him through my TV. Looks like he already lost his voice in this game. The Bulls have their biggest lead of the game with seven and a half minutes left in the third at 14 points.

Rip Hamilton looks real good. I love the chemistry between Rip 'n Rose. I love Rip's mid-range jumper. It's a thing of beauty. And there's another three from Rose!!!  And the lead is back to 14. When he's making his outside shots, there's no way you can guard him.

Boozer is looking good as well. He didn't miss a single game this season. What? Boozer stayed healthy? Yeah, you heard me right. And there he is mixing it up a little bit after the play. I like it, Booz. There was a little confrontation there. Technicals all around, but I like the intensity.

The third quarter comes to a close with Taj Gibson extending the lead to 13 with a couple of free throws. Here comes the fourth quarter, and the Bulls are looking good.

Coach Thibs just did an interview with Sheryl Miller and he sounded like a frog. Gotta love the croaker.

The lead is 17. Might we have a White Mamba sighting? Don't jinx it, Brett. I haven't even noticed if he's suited up in a jersey or in some Armani apparel. I hope he gets in. We love him.

If you're watching this game, Utah fans, I bet you wish KK shot like that when he was with you. Two words: en fuego. Three words: a luat foc! He can't miss! Dangit he missed one...finally.

Well the game is winding down. There's 3:20 left in the fourth and the bulls have a 95-81 lead. D-Rose has 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. Let's finish off that triple-double, eh Derrick?

Rose just went down holding his left knee.........

Eff.

Aight he's up and walking. He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay. An "MVP!" chant came from the crowd as he got up. That's better than the disbelieving silence that followed his going down.

And that'll do it. The Bulls win with a score of 103-91. If D-Rose is seriously hurt I'm gonna be depressed.

'Til next time.

NBA MVP Race 2.0

What a lame MVP race. No one is really claiming it. Lebron is making a strong case for it right now after his 17 straight points performance in the fourth quarter against New Jersey the other night. Although let's realize what I just said...against New Jersey. But that's basically what we've got to work with. Durant and the Thunder aren't playing that great lateley. Kobe is hurt. Kevin Love has tanked along with the rest of the T'Wolves. So Lebron might end up just winning it by default, which he would love by the way. Did you guys catch that interview when he was asked what it would mean to win a third MVP award? Here it is. You wanna be the MVP for your teammates and your fans, huh? Hahaha! Yeah right, Lebron. You wanna be the MVP so that everyone will continue to think you're awesome. Without a doubt you're the most gifted athlete ever to play the game of basketball, but you need to win some championships with your teammates. Your teammates don't care if you win the MVP "for them," and neither do your fans. It makes me laugh every time I think about the fact that he really said that. Your teammates want to win a championship, and you're fans want to see you holding that bigger, more important trophy at the end of the season. I agree with Skip Bayless on this one. Lebron's focus needs to be on the more important issue: winning a championship.

Here's a shout-out and a tip of my hat to Pat Summitt. She's stepping down after almost forty years as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols women's basketball team. She retires as the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history. Take a look.

That's all for now.

MegaSuperPost - Catchin' Up

So it's been a while since I posted. I've been busy with school and stuff. I'll take my last final tomorrow and then I'm free! For a couple of days until spring semester starts.... I need to get caught up on the world of sports, though. There has been a lot of exciting stuff going on, including and especially the NHL playoffs. Who knew, right? It might be kind of unexpected coming from me because I've never been much of a hockey fan, but it has very quickly risen to my top three favorite sports to watch. It goes 1) basketball, 2) soccer, 3) hockey, and then I don't really care as much. Football is probably number 4. Hockey is so smooth and fast-paced, and you can never go wrong with random fights thrown in here and there. This year's playoffs have been full of fighting and big hits. You can tell that these guys really care about the games. There are so many different teams who feel that they can win the whole thing, and it makes for great television. Here's to hoping that the NBA playoffs are just as intense and exciting this year.

Speaking of the NBA playoffs, is anyone else a little bit worried about the top few teams in each conference? Am I just a paranoid Bulls fan? I don't like all of these injuries. Sure, the team is still winning even without Rose and, sometimes, Deng and/or Rip, but we've seen what happens when Rose comes back and is rusty after missing multiple games. He did okay against New York, but the team as a whole didn't play that well. Then there was the game against Miami. Rose scored 2 points on I believe 1-11 shooting from the field. That was not a typo. It was his lowest point total in a game since he entered the NBA. Yeah, he was rusty, so we need to get him back on the floor for a few games before the playoffs start! Ughhh. The cool thing, though, about that Miami game was that Chicago basically beat the Heat with their bench. The starters weren't that good. Only when Taj, Omer (aka The Lurking Turk), Brewer, and the others came in did the Bulls make runs. They locked down Miami defensively.

Let's talk about Miami a little bit. I watched the footage of the huge party they had when Lebron and Bosh signed with them for the first time today. What a joke. It was telling when the announcer declared, "Here are your Miamiiiiiiiii Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaattttttt!!!!!" There were only three guys standing on the stage..................Here's a news flash for you, Miami: basketball is played with five players on the floor at a time. You might wanna look into that. And that's exactly what the Heat are: they're a two man show (sometimes three). You can't win a championship like that. Here's an idea, Lebron. If you wanna win "not one, not two, not three, not four," and so on championships, you better play with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five players. And you and Dwyane better decide what your roles are instead of doing this "Devil went down to Georgia" fiddle duel you've got going. If you don't, you're gonna lose to the Celtics in the playoffs before you even get the chance to meet up with Chicago.

Soccer time! The Champions League semi-finals are in full swing and both of the Spanish powerhouses went down in the first leg. Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid 2-1 and mighty Barcelona fell 1-0 to Chelsea. The Barca/Chelsea game was an anomaly. Barca had 24 total shots to Chelsea's measly 4. Barca won the possession battle 79% to 21%. Holy crap! And they lost!? I didn't watch the game, but I assume that most of the Barcelona shots and possession came in the second half. Chelsea scored right before halftime, and so they would have just packed it in and gone into defensive mode, hoping that they could hold on to the lead. And they did. Props to them. As for the other game. It looks to have been legit. Bayern just outplayed Real and came out on top.

So Pele says that Neymar is better than Messi. Come on, Pele. Really? After I heard this, I decided to go to the source of all wisdom and find out for myself. I looked up some videos of Neymar on YouTube. He reminds me more of Cristiano Ronaldo. He's more flashy. He'll dance around and complain about calls. Messi, on the other hand, just flat out delivers. If I'm a coach and I need a goal, I'm looking to Messi. He is the best player in the world right now, and there is no doubt in my mind that, barring an extreme turn of events, by the end of his career he will be absolutely in the discussion for the greatest player of all time. He just beat the all time scoring record for Barcelona.......and he's 24. He's 24 years old!!!! Is everyone else not flabbergasted by that? I am. I'm flabbergasted.

That's enough for now.

Until further notice.....

...it's still Kobe's league. 

Tonight I had the chance to watch the second half of the Lakers/Clippers game.  When Kobe is on, it's a beautiful thing to watch.  His shot is just pretty.  When he took that shot tonight to ice the game, you knew it was going in before he even shot it.  He has made a big shot like that in three of the Lakers' past four games, and in the other one he scored 40; a big, clutch shot like that wasn't needed.  Sure, there are a few players in the league right now that put up better overall numbers than Kobe.  The list is short.  Kobe is the leading scorer in the league right now, but Lebron, Durant, and Kevin Love are filling up stat sheets.  That being said, I would rather have Kobe on my team taking the decisive shot in game 7 of the NBA Finals.  Until that changes, it's still Kobe's league.  Until Lebron or KD prove themselves on the biggest stage, it's still Kobe's league.

On a different note, I miss D-Rose.  The word is that he'll be back for tomorrow night's game against the Celtics.  Hopefully he can stay healthy so that his name can be added to the above-mentioned list of Kobe-challengers.  Is anyone else as psyched as I am for this year's playoffs?

That's my take for the day.

Takin' on Kobe

I'm taking this opportunity to give my take on Kobe Bryant.  We all know that Kobe is one of those iconic players that causes a division among the masses.  You either love him or you hate him.  I'm gonna go ahead and channel my inner politician by saying that I neither love him or hate him.  I respect him.  He is without a doubt one of the greatest players in NBA history.  I enjoy watching him play.  I admire his fearlessness and his confidence.  I am definitely not a Kobe-hater.  I would probably like him more if I wasn't always surrounded by Kobe-lovers who try unsuccessfully to convince me that he's better than Michael Jordan.  That kind of annoys me, and so I like to mess with them sometimes and bag on Kobe a little bit, but it's all in good fun.

On a related note, the Lakers are an interesting phenomenon this year.  There's been all of this talk lately about their chemistry problems, rumors that Mike Brown doesn't have control of the team.  Mike Brown isn't Phil Jackson.  Of course there will be some bumps in the road in his first season as head coach.  The Lakers have had to learn a new offense and adjust to Brown's style.  All this worry about their chemistry is an overreaction in my opinion.  There are certainly a few rough edges, but nothing to be too worried about.  Bynum is playing great, Gasol is as solid as ever, Sessions has breathed new life in them with his uptempo play, and Kobe is Kobe.  There's no Fisher, though.  I'm not even a Lakers fan, but it's sad to see Fisher in a different uniform.  I watched the Lakers/Thunder game last week with my older brother, Thayne, who is a big Lakers fan.  He was definitely sad to see "Fish" wearing something other than the purple and gold.

On a different note, congrats to Kentucky on winning the National Championship.  They were the best team all year, and now they've proven that the rankings were correct.  I'm excited for this year's draft.

Tomorrow my intramural basketball team plays in the Sweet 16 of the 2nd division tournament.  Wish us luck, and for anyone in Provo who wants to come watch, the game is at 9 pm in gym 144 of the RB.

That's my take.

Final Four

Well it's Final Four time, and I'm hurrying to get this in before the games tonight.  Who do I got?  I got Ohio State.  I see Kentucky beating Louisville to move on to the National Championship.  Louisville is hot, but Kentucky will overwhelm them with size and talent and defense.  Ohio State versus Kansas is going to be an awesome match-up.  It's Sullinger versus Thomas, two of the top big men in the country.  They will each do what they do, but the guard play will be key.  I like Aaron Craft a lot.  He's gotta be one of the best on-ball defenders in the country, and I think he will be the difference-maker in shutting down Kansas's guards.

Then there's the Ohio State/Kentucky match-up.  I'm not an expert analyzer (yet), but I feel good about Ohio State's chances.  Yeah, I'll admit I'm biased.  I'm an Ohio boy.  I'm picking the Buckeyes.

That's my take on this year's Final Four.

Coming soon: Kobe and the hate question.

NBA MVP Race

This year's MVP race is pretty close.  There are a few guys who deserve it, namely Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Kevin Love.  I think Tony Parker should even be in the discussion at least.  If Derrick Rose hadn't been hurt so much he would also be up there.

My nod goes to Kevin Durant.  He's putting up great numbers and his team is winning; they have the second best record in the NBA (behind my Bulls, of course).  Lebron may be putting up better all-around numbers, but Miami has been struggling of late.  My only argument for Kevin Love over Durant would be that Love might be more vital to his team's success.  Minnesota is hovering around .500 and they're only 2.5 games out of the 8th playoff spot in the West, but if Love wasn't there they wouldn't be anywhere near that.  I think that the Thunder would maybe have ten less wins without Durant, and with that they would still be 29-22.  Love's numbers are ridiculous, too.  He's averaging almost 27 points and 14 rebounds a game!  Those are definitely MVP type numbers.  Meanwhile, Durant is averaging a shade under 28 points per game with about 8 rebounds.  I can't argue against that.  While I would love to say that Love should win it, Durant definitely deserves it, and the fact that his team is doing so well makes him much more likely to win it.  If I were to vote, I would give it to Durant.

Hey, didn't he win the All-Star Game MVP as well?  I wonder how many times a player has won both the ASG MVP and the regular season MVP in the same season.  I'll look it up, and maybe I'll post my findings.

That's my take.

Let's talk NBA for a minute

So I just got done watching the Spurs and Kings play in Sacramento.  I finished playing basketball for like three hours and then came home exhausted (I don't think a strawberry surf-rider was a wise recovery/pregame drink, even with an energy boost).  No one was home (which is kinda weird at my house) so I had no competition for access to the tube.  I proceeded to sprawl out on the couch.  Anyway...

The Spurs won, but did anyone else see rookie Isaiah Thomas take Tony Parker to school?  Now, Tony Parker has had an awesome season.  He has carried the Spurs through some tough stretches this season while Manu Ginobili has been hurt.  He's averaging 20 points a game, but he was held to 10 tonight matched-up against Thomas.  Thomas, meanwhile, had 28 points and 10 assists.  Don't misunderstand me, Parker is still one of the the best point guards in the league, but Isaiah Thomas is for real.  This kid can play.  Too bad his playing time comes at Jimmer's expense.  Jimmer was playing pretty well early in the game, too, but it was Thomas's night.

Well, the Spurs won.  Every season for the past few years it seems like people have been trying to say that the Spurs are on their way out, that they're getting too old and they'll start falling off the map.  I'll believe it when I see it, because the Spurs are playing as well as anybody right now and they're second in the west behind OKC.  I wouldn't want to play them come playoff time.  Gregg Popovich is the best active coach right now.  He's got their role players playing so well.  Tonight they had 55 bench points against the Kings' 20.

On a different note, the Bulls won again without D-Rose.  They beat the a Hawks team that has been playing really well lately by 21 points in Atlanta.  How 'bout a Bulls/Spurs Finals match-up?  Anyone?  My brother, Spencer, is a Spurs fan so that would be fun.

Alright, that's my take for now.

The Beginning

Well, this is my first time starting a blog.  We'll see how it goes.  I've been thinking about starting a sports blog for a little while now, and I've finally gotten around to doing it.  Right now, this blog will pretty much be made up of my reactions to significant things that happen in the world of sports.  I'll give my slant (hence the blog name (which is subject to change)) on what's going on for anyone who might be interested to read.

Let me introduce myself a little bit.  I'm 22 years-old and am currently a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  I was born in Simi-Valley, CA, lived there for less than a year of my life, and then my family moved to Bowling Green, OH where I would spend approximately the next 14 years of my life.  That was home, and it still is home to a degree.  Right before my freshman year of high school, my family moved to Cedar City, UT: the hometown of both of my parents.  So I went to high school in Cedar, at Cedar High School.  My college experience includes a semester at Southern Utah University in Cedar City before I transferred up to BYU.  I've been here since then, besides leaving for two years on religious sobatical (aka mission) in Romania and Moldova.

When I was growing up, my dad didn't really take me or my two older brothers to any professional sporting events.  I went to an Indians game in Cleveland once with a friend and a Columbus Crew game with another friend, but that was about it.  Maybe that's the reason that I chose random teams around the country to be my favorites for each sport.  I chose almost all of my favorite teams when I was young and have stuck with them.  They were all experiencing some of their best years, which is part of the reason why I chose them over other teams.  Here's my list of favorite teams in no particular order:

Chicago Bulls
New York Yankees
San Francisco 49ers
Philadelphia Flyers (although I don't really follow hockey much)
Aston Villa (English Premier League soccer, for those of you who didn't know already)
Ohio State Buckeyes (mostly for football)
Bowling Green State University (local, hometown favorite)
North Carolina Tar Heels (basketball only, because I was an MJ fan)

I think that about does it.  Now that I'm at BYU, I obviously root for them (by the way, I'm really,
really disappointed that I missed Jimmermania while I was away.  Oh well).  Maybe you'll call me a "fare weather fan."  That's fine.  Just remember that I was in elementary school when I chose all of these teams, and that I've stuck with the Bulls and the Niners through about 10-12 years of tough times.  With the Yankees...not so much (lol), but I was definitely feeling some pain when I had to stomach the events of the 2004 playoffs.  Anyway...

I hope you enjoy reading my posts.  I welcome responses and encourage your opinions on the matters I discuss.  Debating is a big part of what makes being a sports fan fun.  Make sure their valid debates, though.  None of this MJ/Kobe stuff ;) (that oughta get a few people riled up).  That's my slant for the day.  I'm out.