Marc Andre, you beauty!

If you watched Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight and still are not a hockey fan, then you need to go kill yourself. Immediately. Unbelievable game and, by all rights, the Red Wings should've taken it going away. Pittsburgh looked timid, especially in the third period and first OT where they were dominated. The Pens power play continued to look miserable (how ironic that Sykora's game-winner in triple OT came on the power play) and Malkin was miserable. Again. Fleury saved this team countless times, tonight.

In so many ways, watching Sidney Crosby lead Pittsburgh in this Cup Finals reminds me of LeBron leading Cleveland to the NBA Finals last season. Both are the futures of their respective sport, both are/were up against juggernauts. Will Pittsburgh's miracle escape tonight mean Crosby won't share the same fortune as LeBron? Still a ways to go, yet.

Jazz fans are horrible people

Not horrible fans, mind you, but horrible people. Seriously, how do they justify booing Derek Fisher mercilessly when he rolls into town with the Lakers? He's a class act who gave you everything, Utah, and he didn't leave for money or the chance to be reunited with Kobe and Phil Jackson. No, he left because his daughter has CANCER OF THE FREAKING EYE and she needed proper doctors and facilities to help treat her condition. So because Salt Lake doesn't offer that and Los Angeles does, all of a sudden Fisher is a monster? FUCK YOU! For the longest time, you've held the mantle of most classless fans in the league and you've done nothing to deter that notion, especially lately. Nevermind the racial bias, nevermind Larry Miller, nevermind championing a creton like Karl Malone, it's all about the pure ignorance that comes with living in the state of Utah and sticking to your guns of not being an NBA fan, but being a Jazz fan and only a Jazz fan.

Miserable, miserable people. Lakers are winning this series in six games and D-Fish will be dropping 20 in Salt Lake when they clinch it. Pathetic people.


Shifting gears (and a couple days late, I realize, but I work my balls off so save it), Kobe finally got his MVP. The best player in the league having the best season of his career... Makes it hard for even the staunchest Chris Paul supporter to argue. And I love Chris Paul. No doubt, Kobe was the clear choice, this season and, finally, we can erase the memory that Dirk Nowitzki of all people won last year's award. *shudder*

But here's where the voting process has flaws: LeBron James received a first-place vote in the balloting. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHY? That smacks of a voter who is on crack or simply doesn't care that LeBron did little to elevate his crap team in a crap conference. If LeBron was deserving of a first-place vote, this year, then Kobe should have three MVPs already. And we all know that shouldn't be the case. Inexcusable. Realizing that the post-season has nothing to do with regular season voting, how about those first two LeBron performances against Boston, huh? Wow! Just miserable (but not as miserable as Jazz fans)!

Another thing I don't understand: How Kobe was the only member of the All-NBA 1st Team (Kobe, CP3, KG, Dwight Howard, LeBron) to be unanimously voted to the team. It's clear that these five were an unquestionable cut above the rest of the league. There were no other candidates for 1st Team, as far as I'm concerned. And for what it's worth, I say Deron Williams should've been 2nd team ahead of Steve Nash.

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.