To borrow a term from Seinfeld...

The Lakers suffer from "Euromysatisis." That is to say, we're too pathetically soft (Pau Gasol) and unbelievably stupid (Vlad Radmanovic) to ever have seriously contended with the Celtics. It's still midway through the 3rd quarter in game 6 and, even as a die-hard Lakers fan, I don't see the point in watching anymore. Why bother? When the Lakers go up 20, collapse is imminent. When Boston goes up 20, it feels like 80.

Credit to the Celtics. They're smarter and wanted it more. From blatant tanking to a championship. Suddenly, I'm supposed to believe that Doc Rivers is an amazing coach...

Perhaps most retarded of all? Boston wasn't even that gifted an offensive team. Not until they faced LA's phantom defense. I swear, I cannot remember a more joyless Finals in which I've had a rooting interest.

You know what's great TV?

I don't think I'm going to blow any minds, here, but Inside The NBA on TNT with Charles, Kenny, Ernie, and Magic is brilliant. It's something we've already known to be true, but just now, after a mediocre Cleveland team, lead by an iffy performance from LeBron, leveled their series with Boston 2-2, watching the guys talk about how the Celtics themselves don't even know how they earned the best record in the regular season was just brilliant. Specifically listening to Magic and Charles agog at how Boston's "big three" are incapable of taking over games, how KG disappears in the fourth quarter, how Rajon Rondo of all people shouldn't be the guy taking the second-most shots on the team, how KG is the only guy who can play defense, how the C's don't know how to play from behind. I just love seeing the greatest players in the game concisely, yet casually, chop up a championship favorite who is showing game-by-game that they lack heart. At this rate, there's no way Boston gets past Detroit in the conference finals.

I'm a fan of his, but I just hope that Bill Simmons was watching. People need to understand that the Celtics have massive problems. Being taken to seven games by a lousy Atlanta team was just the tip of the iceberg.

And the big loser of the Kevin Garnett trade IS...

*drumroll*

... The Lakers. Duh. DUH! You're telling me that the marquee team in the league with the marquee player in the league couldn't throw expiring junk at Kevin McHale and gotten away with it?!? Surely, you jest.

Look, Al Jefferson is going to be a star in this league, but even a mensa like Danny Ainge knows that Kevin Garnett, now, is better than Al Jefferson, now. All of a sudden, Boston, with KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, looks like the best team in the league... if the year was 2004. Regardless, I think it's more than fair to compare Al Jefferson and his promise to someone like... oh... Andrew Bynum. I'll state, clearly, that I think Jefferson will be the better of the two, but there's no denying -- even from an unbiased point of view -- that Andrew Bynum is going to be a stud in a couple years' time. So what you're telling me, now, is that Andrew Bynum's potential has once again derailed a monumental trade that would've vaulted the Lakers back into the throws of title-land...

...

...

... my God...

Again, look at how little Boston actually gave up in return for one of the league's best. It's ridiculous. In effect, the Lakers could've parted with Bynum, Sasha Vujacic, the rights to Sun Yue, Phil Jackson's chest hair, and a gift certificate to Starbucks and landed KG. I'm sorry, but all I want to do is pull my hair out and shove it down Buss' and Kupchak's throats. That's right, I'm going to make them choke on my hair... The Celtics? Really? Them?!

Who am I kidding. We're not making any big moves any time soon.

2-0

Few things in sports make me as happy as that scoreline. That scoreline when it is applied to this rivalry. Yeah, that's right. I absolutely delight over US victories against Mexico. More and more, Mexico is becoming my Duke basketball of the soccer world.

A lot to catch up on, here. There's the mixed bag of what I feel is ultimately good goodness in the US-led takeover of Liverpool. Everyone is always fearful of change, but if the mighty Reds were to be taken over by a foreign interest that assures it will keep the club competitive and genuine, I'd much rather it be at the hands of Tom Hicks and George Gillet than the dubious DIC and whatever dirty money they scrounged up.

Every time there's a new paragraph, there's a new thing to mention. You know they aren't playing soccer in Italy, at the moment, because of hooliganism? This is unreal! For all the right reasons, too!

Not soccer, hockey. Consider me pretty bummed about the LA Kings (getting worse by the second) dumping Sean Avery to the New York Rangers for a bag of day-old donuts. Avery's all heart and one of the fiercest competitors in the league. Even at 5'10". He'll be missed. Like winning.

B-ball. John Amaechi is gay. Not a big deal. Really, it's not. Sad, really, that a personal confession from a forgetten never-was basketball player can grab headlines. LeBron James -- young LeBron James (the guy's what? 13?) -- thinks Amaechi keeping his sexuality a secret all this time raises character and trust issues. Let's hope that everyone realizes just how young LeBron is. The guy has no perspective. Just like a freshman film student thinks he can make a war film, LeBron thinks he knows what it is to have complete trust, loyalty, and openness from all of his teammates. Meanwhile, he's raking in millions and mailing it in nightly as the Cavs continue to look unapologetically average.

The Celtics have lost 16 in a row. WTF?!? Is this a one-way ticket to Greg Oden or what?

College ball, you are my love. Only six weeks until the madness and, only now, people are finally taking notice of USC. I went to the new Galen Center (very nice facility, yet not typical of most arenas -- essentially a sleak basketball gym dropped inside a conference hall) on Saturday to catch the Trojans' sweep of Oregon. Tonight, they were one Lodrick Stewart technical away from hanging on L on UCLA. I don't think I can be any clearer here, I love the look of this Trojan basketball team and I think that they have real potential to make some serious noise come tournament time. If not for UCLA, I swear it, USC would be the best team in a loaded, loaded Pac 10.