Blue View
Who was the winner in the Shaq trade?
Shaq. He was traded from the worst team in the NBA to one of the best. The only drawback is that he gives up the sunny, model-filled Miami landscape for the sunny, geriatric-filled Phoenix landscape. I don’t know how much the Diesel will help the top-fuel-dragster offense the Suns run, or how much Shawn Marion can impact a terrible Heat team. But, what I do know is this: Phoenix is closer to Hollywood than Miami is, making the possibility of a “Kazaam 2” more real. So in that regard, the biggest winner is the American movie-watching public.
Mid-season MVP
I considered giving this meaningless award to Jazz acquisition Kyle Korver, whose arrival propelled Utah to a 10-game winning streak. That would be a homer pick. Plus, Korver is a better candidate for the “Most Likely to Punk Wilmer Valderrama” award, anyway. Chris Paul is probably the real mid-season MVP. He’s averaging 20 points and almost 11 assists per game. He’s the catalyst for the best story of the first half of the NBA season – the surprising New Orleans Hornets. All that while looking nothing like a cast member of “That ’70s Show.” Or does he kind of resemble Topher Grace?
Mid-season: Best Rookie
He hasn’t logged one minute of court time and won’t all year, but Greg Oden is my pick. Sounds stupid, right? I thought so at first, too. But after watching the Blazers tear it up early in the season, I’m convinced Oden has something to do with it. There hasn’t been a rookie this season whose absence on the court has had as much of an impact as Oden’s has. Maybe he’s a terrific cheerleader? Maybe it’s the way finely tailored suits drape off of his 7-foot frame? I’m not sure what it is, but whatever he’s doing, it was clearly working well for the Blazers. If Oden has this much of an impact as a spectator, think of what he could do on the court.
Mid-season: Best Coach
Doc Rivers. He is the coach of the best team in the NBA, and does it so nonchalantly. I think Rivers should be applauded for just sitting on the bench and letting his big three-Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen-win games. Rivers is following the Phil Jackson model of coaching excellence: Get some great players and get the hell out of their way. Jackson never really had three great ones, either, so Rivers’ accomplishment is even more impressive. And, Doc’s done it all without handing out books off of the AP reading list to his players, like Phil used to do.
Thoughts on the steroids hearings
Terrorists don’t care whether Roger Clemens took steroids or human growth hormone or Flintstone vitamins. So why is the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee spending so much time on this issue? All of these shenanigans just to find out whether one baseball player took illegal substances. Maybe the elected officials should try to fix the problem of steroids and HGH in baseball, rather than focusing on one player’s potential past indiscretions. If elected officials are going to take a break from raking in swag from lobbyists and turn their eye to baseball, I’d hope they could at least be productive. But then again, we are talking about the federal government here.
Rant
I’ve never been a big NASCAR fan. Never really saw any need to watch or follow it. But with the Daytona 500 coming up, I’m reminded that NASCAR is really threaded into my genes. I’m sure I have relatives who believe Dale Earnhardt ran into that wall to save the world from sin. For me, it’s not so much the racing. It’s just the gathering of so many mustached men-and several mustache-sporting women-getting together to drink beer, get in fights about Jeff Gordon’s sexual orientation, listen to Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” 3,000 times and watch shiny things speed around a circle track. That sounds like a family reunion I’d want to attend.