NBA Draft Preview

The annual NBA Draft takes place in mere hours. The fortunes of every hopeful NBA team rest of the outcome of events tonight. Rumors are swirling about a 3 team trade in which KG goes to the Suns, Amare Stoudemire goes to Atlanta, and the 3 and 11 picks end up in Minnesota. I would love to see Garnett play with Steve Nash, personally. Amare is a nice dunker, yes, but what else does he do?

As far as actual draft picks, it appears that Oden will go 1 to Portland and Durant 2 to Seattle, much to Local ESPN Idiot Bill Simmons' dismay. For my 76ers, my wish list involves trading up to nab Jeff Green. If/when that does not happen; I have decided who I want at pick 12: Nick Young of USC. He is silky smooth and would put a hop in my step. I have no idea if he plays D, but I don’t care. I am not Bill Simmons, who cries about guards who don’t play D.

Non draft thought: I’m sorry, anyone who thinks Gary Payton was better than Steve Nash, in their primes, does not know basketball. I must be forgetting the back to back MVPs that GP won with Seattle.

Ballshots:

• I hear that now Benoit may have killed his son using a wrestling choke hold? Was it the crippler crossface? On his own 7 year old son. Jesus, dude.


• Lindsay Lohan is banging a guy she met in rehab? That is hot.


• Red Sox swept by the Mariners. Lead down to 9 games…over Toronto! Man, this is a choke-job if I’ve ever seen one.


• Ryan Howard hit a 505 foot home run last night. That is pretty far.


• Hey, I wish I had my way, 'Cause everyday would be a Friday, You could even speed on the highway

RIP Benoit

As everyone knows by now, ‘Rabid Wolverine’ Chris Benoit and his wife and son were all found dead in their Atlanta home yesterday afternoon. It appears to be a double murder suicide with some crazy details soon to come out. Rumors swirling that he killed his wife with some sort of chord on Saturday, then rented WWE’s PPV on Sunday night. He followed the PPV viewing by smothering his son and hanging himself. Was the PPV that terrible?

I just saw him wrestle in person 2 weeks ago today. Sadly, I did not see anything like this coming. I saw him hit some hellacious german-suplexes on some unlucky black wrestler, who I had never heard of. ‘The Crippler’ was a hell of a wrestler, and an insane crazy person outside the ring apparently.

Ball-Shots

• Paris Hilton released from jail, free to spread herpes and HIV to whomever she chooses.
• NBA Draft on Thursday. I still say Jeff Green will be a stud.
• KG to the Lakers is the talk. I have no opinion on this.
• Phils 3.5 games behind the Mets. Phillies bullpen sucks and now they are down 2 starters (3 if you count Brett Myers); I don’t see them winning the division.

Boston Buys It's Team Too

Boston Red Sox 2007 Salaries

PLAYER	SALARY (US$)
1. Manny Ramirez	17,016,381
2. J.D. Drew	14,400,000
3. David Ortiz	13,250,000
4. Curt Schilling	13,000,000
5. Jason Varitek	11,000,000
6. Matt Clement	9,500,000
7. Mike Lowell	9,000,000
8. Julio Lugo	8,250,000
9. Josh Beckett	6,666,667
10. Daisuke Matsuzaka	6,333,333
11. Eric Hinske	5,725,000
12. Tim Wakefield	4,000,000
13. Joel Pineiro	4,000,000
14. Coco Crisp	3,833,333
15. Julian Tavarez	3,350,000
16. Mike Timlin	2,800,000
17. Alex Cora	2,000,000
18. Wily Mo Pena	1,875,000
19. Brendan Donnelly	1,400,000
20. Hideki Okajima	1,225,000
21. Doug Mirabelli	750,000
22. Kyle Snyder	535,000
23. Jonathan Papelbon	425,500
24. Kevin Youkilis	424,500
25. Javier Lopez	402,500
26. Dustin Pedroia	380,000
Total Team Salary:	143,123,714

Manny Ramirez- BOUGHT

JD Drew - BOUGHT

Curt Schilling - ARIZONA SALARY DUMP

Matt Clement - BOUGHT

Mike Lowell - FLORIDA SALARY DUMP

Julio Lugo - BOUGHT

Dice K - BOUGHT

The Overwhelming Boston Media Influence

"I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more"

For years, people have ranted and raved about what was a perceived "East Coast Bias" in the media regarding sports coverage. Initially, I always thought it had alot to do with the time zones across this country. Who is really going to be interested in a San Diego/Los Angeles game that starts at 10:30pm for most of the country.

(As you can see from this picture, the majority of the people in the USA live East of the Mississippi River and predominately in the Northeastern part of the country)


(In fairness, I will admit 2 things. The Yankees get a LOT of coverage. Yes, Jayson Stark tends to write about Philadelphia slightly disproportionate to the rest of his work.)

However, the Boston coverage in the "national" media is just overwhelming. Peter King, who is, from the repeated mentions of his daughter's high school career, from Montclair, NJ. Yet, by reading his weekly CNNSI.com columns, you would think his father was Paul Revere. It finally reached a head this week as he printed a verbal fellation on Monday of the New England Patriot organization during a visit to their mini-camp. This rotund coffee drinking blogger spent paragraph after paragraph fawning over everyone from Scott Pioli down to the clubhouse boys who pick up Tom Brady's jock. To make things worse, on Tuesday, he published a series of questions from readers who have finally reached their boiling point with this ninny. Here's a clue Peter....Nick Saban called and said he's staying in Miami.

But the worst culprit in this mess is ESPN and their website, ESPN.com. Aside from Peter Gammons annoying Red Sox related drivel, ESPN actually employs the former Boston Sports Guy, Bill Simmons to write a column. Simmons, in his hackneyed ways, actually made a statement that "More people are concerned about what the Celtics are going to do with the #5 pick, than the NBA finals." Guess what? We aren't. Nobody cares about Boston as much as ESPN leads people to believe. Their bandwagon fans have suddenly popped out of the woodwork the past 5-10 years as the team has decided to go on an all-out spending spree to become the Yankees North. Nobody cares about the Celtics or the Patriots or the Red Sox as much as ESPN leads us to believe. Nobody cares about Dave Roberts and "The Steal", people don't view "May 22" as a day that will live in infamy, and people are not entertained by you relating everything back to the 1986 Celtics. Simmons should do what Simmons does best, yammer on about inane reality shows to the point where he ghost writes a column about "The Bachelor" as his wife......again.

Well, gotta run. ESPN is reporting breaking news that Theo Epstein just bought a new guitar and are going to go live to Dan Shaughnessy and Bob Ryan for their take.

PICK PICKLER

Mid Week Ballshots

• 75-72? Oh dear God. I heard a rumor that David Stern is in negotiations with Versus for exclusive coverage rights starting in 2009. Looks like we’ll be down to 2 major sports. Well, 1 ½ really.

• Phils 3 games back of the Mets! Maybe this Leiberthal exorcism really will work out after all. Hamels wins his 9th. Let’s see if Ozzie can somehow get Thome into a game in this series today. Prick.

• Peter King was blasted on MMQBTE for being on the Patriots payroll. So what if he wants to be Bill Simmons, Jr.? I think they are peers at this point. Both are total hacks.

• Dale Jr. signed with some other race team. Moving on……

• Yanks win 7th straight. Warrants mentioning.

• Tony Soprano lived! Or did he? Who knows. Everyone in that diner was wearing gray though, possibly to signify a gray ending, not black and white. Dammit.

• US Open this week. FIGJAM’s vag is hurting, er, his wrist.
  

Baseball...Still Capless....Still Retarded

Joe Torre offered a simple explanation for his team's recent turnaround.

"Looseness. These guys are having fun with each other," the Yankees' manager said Sunday after New York's sluggers broke loose in a 13-6 victory over the Pirates.

Alex Rodriguez homered twice and drove in five runs, Bobby Abreu went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and the Yankees overpowered Pittsburgh for their sixth consecutive victory.

I offer an even simpler explanation.

The Yankees spend $196 million on their team, Pittsburgh spends $39 million. Eff'n Baseball, so stupid. The Pirates more than likely could beat A-Rod and Matsui (combined salaries 40 million) in a 9 on 2 type game.

• Jose Mesa, welcome back. You were washed up after the 2003 season, yet the Phillies bring you back 4 years later.

• Paris Hilton back in the clink.
• Written before Sopranos....I think Tony survives. Just a hunch.
• Losing to the Royals 17-5 is disgraceful and distasteful.

Meet the Mets, Sweep the Mets

The suddenly hot Phillies rolled out of NY with a 3 game sweep of the 1st Place New York Mets. Next up for the Phillies? The Kansas City Royals and inevitably, 729 mentions of the 1980 World Series.

Sex addict Pat Burrell went deep off of the loudmouth midget Billy Wagner in the 9th to tie the game. It's surprising to me to see that this early in the season, the diminutive Wagner usually doesn't come up this small until September. 6 Finger Closer Antonio Alfonseca closed out the game for the save.

The game was not without controversy as the umpires reversed a David Wright triple into a home run based upon instant replay. Paul Lo Duca followed Wright's homerun with one of his own, but punctuated it with a ridiculous bat flip and overly demonstrative celebration following his home run. Look for someone (my bet is Freddie Garcia, graduate of the Ozzie Guillen school of paybacks) to put one in Lo Duca's earflap when the Mets come to town at the end of the month.

Other notes:

• Curt Schilling came one out away from a no-hitter yesterday, I'm sure we will hear about this ad nauseum this weekend.
• Paris Hilton was released from jail early, proving one thing, the warden did not want a rampant Herpes outbreak inside the prison.
• Summer TV stinks.
• Cavaliers drop game one to the San Antonio Spurs last night. No surprise there.
• The Mighty Ducks won the Stanley Cup, in case you missed it.
• Dice K's ERA is 4.63. Suddenly you don't see Bill Simmons and Peter King salivating over Hideki Irabu Jr. anymore.

Thursday Thoughts

No, that's not Brian Cashman or Theo Epstein. It's American Icon Bob Barker. Bob recently taped his final episode of the Price is Right at the age of 83. While many people remember Bob's fight scene with Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore, I have fond memories of a childhood filled with game shows. While I may have loved Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, Joker's Wild, The Newlywed Game and various other Mark Goodson television productions, nothing topped the 11am CBS pure ecstasy that was The Price is Right. Some people refer to it as the TPIR but you know what, I don't want to sell the show short.

Anyway, thanks Bob, for showing me as a child how to putt, how to estimate prices for dentures and, as a man, for showing me that it doesn't matter how old you are, if you are in a position of power and a woman thinks she can advance her career, you can bang any "Barker Beauty" that you want. So to you Bob Barker, in your honor, I suggest that Tiffany Cowbell be spayed today.

Mid Week Ballshots

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• Amanda Beard's Playboy spread gets a big Thumbs Down from this blog. Well, if the photographers main goal is to make hot girls look beat, they usually succeed admirably. This time is no exception. Anna K, please don’t pose for Playboy. Save your rep as an all-time smokin hottie.

• I don’t think A-Rods bomb on Sunday night landed yet. Gaytion still in shock. Sox have dropped 3 straight.

• Sopranos Thoughts. Phil is an a-hole. Great ep on Sunday though. It’s pretty funny that they are trying to wrap up all these stories by this weekend, yet they still had room for a ‘Mangenius’ cameo. That was good. Prediction for the final ep this week: Carmella will nag one final time.

• The Phils are preparing to go on a tear. You are on notice, National League. The Drive to 85 (wins) began last night. Nice base-running last night by Utley and Burrell. What the hell was that???

• Billy Donovan had a hell of an NBA coaching career.

• Good luck to 23 and the Cavs vs the Spurs. However, Spurs in 6

• Johnnie Morton gets knocked the F out (below)

--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mniHJAQmNG8--