Recently in NBA Category

Well, the Detroit Red Wings have done it again — they won the Stanley Cup in six games against the Pittsburgh Penguins. This tops off an excellent season in which they also won the President’s Cup for having the best regular-season record.

Sadly, The Detroit Pistons didn’t fare as well in the NBA Eastern Conference finals. I think the fix is in, though. Everyone whined the last time the Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs faced off in the NBA Finals, and the ratings were very low. And, mysteriously, this year both the Spurs and the Pistons lost their respective conference finals and aren’t in it, setting up the allegedly more exciting Los Angeles Kobe Bryants versus the Boston Celtics. Of course, the fact that the Celtics got to somehow shoot 35 more free throws than the Pistons in one freaking game probably had nothing to do with it. And if it did, I’m sure there was absolutely nothing fishy going on with the officiating.

I’m guessing I’m going to be fined by the NBA now.

Well, it seems that in addition to Captain Steve Yzerman retiring, we'll also be bidding Brendan Shanahan farewell from the Detroit Red Wings. Shanny, apprently, has decided to go off to the New York Rangers. So now Stevie Y and Shanny are leaving.

And, of course, big ol' Ben Wallace has left the Detroit Pistons, too, for the Chicago Bulls of all the damn places.

But Matt Millen, sadly, doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings won their first playoff game in a double-header. Once again, we have the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup hunt while the Detroit Pistons are after another NBA championship.

The defending NBA Champion Detroit Pistons face the Indiana Pacers tonight in Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. Of all the people to be lecturing Detroit fans on what is ethical behavior, Mitch Albom decided to do so today in his Detroit Free Press column.

Of course, ol' Mitch "I'll Write About it Whether it Actually Happened or Not" Albom is referring to the much-ballyhooed "brawl" that took place a few months ago. Of course, we still have to talk about that, don't we? Or at least, the Freep certainly does, as evidenced by this article, and this one. And here, Freep sports writer Drew Sharp goes as far as to say that he media are tired of reporting about it, before charging right ahead and doing so.

If Drew and the media really cared about moving on, we'd stop making such a big deal about the so-called "Malice at the Palace," and just write about the game. Hell, the guy who precipitated it is cooling his heels on the sidelines.

As for me, I'll be tuning in to see the game, and I'm quite sure that it will go off without any hitches.

Because I've not been quite as good at filing regular updates as I might have been, I'll have to combine a few subjects into this post.

Flying Beer and Rampaging Pacers

This past Friday, the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers met at the Palace of Auburn Hills for what otherwise would have been a normal, regular season NBA game. It ended up turning into a massive brawl. It seems that some jackass fan threw some form of beverage toward massive jackass Ron "I Honestly Don't Know the Meaning of the Word Integrity Because my Daddy Never Explained it to Me, Which is Why I Felt it Was Okay to Skip Out on My Contractual Obligations to Promote Some Stupid Rap CD" Artest, and Artest, AKA Mr. Doesn't Know What Integrity Means, decided to respond by whaling away at whatever random fans he could get his hands on. Several other Pacers jumped into the fray, as did some Pistons. Only one Piston, Ben Wallace, was suspended for his role in the fracas, as at least one of the other Pistons appeared to be trying to stop the whole thing. Supreme Jackass Artest, fittingly, was given a season-long suspension. At least he'll have some time to work on that rap career.

Buckeyes

Speaking of supreme jackasses, my beloved University of Michigan Wolverines faced our ultimate archrivals, the spawns of Satan known as the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Now, Michigan went into the game at the top of the Big Ten, with only one loss overall, and no losses in Big Ten action. The week before, it looked like Wisconsin, which was undefeated in the Big Ten and overall, would end up taking the conference championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl--Michigan and Wisconsin don't play each other, so there isn't any head-to-head tie-breaking opportunity or anything like that. However, our in-state rivals, Michigan State, managed to really pile on the mojo and bump off Wisconsin, giving them an all-important loss in the conference, and relegating them to second-place in the conference. Thanks to the Sparties, all Michigan had to do to win the Big Ten outright and go to the Rose Bowl was beat Ohio State.

And so, of course, Michigan lost to Ohio State. Both teams have, over the years, had the occasion to play spoiler to the other. This year was no different for Ohio State. They just plain outplayed the Wolverines, who couldn't seem to find a running game with both hands and a flashlight, if you get my drift.

Thankfully, however, the Iowa Hawkeyes also managed to beat Wisconsin this week. This gave Wisconsin two conference losses, and put them out of the Rose Bowl hunt. And while Iowa tied Michigan for the conference championship, Michigan gets the Rose Bowl bid because they beat Iowa earlier in the season. And so . . .

Roses

Michigan will, for the second year in a row, head to sunny Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. It looks like they will be playing California this year. I'm afraid that, unless "Lord" Carr makes some coaching changes, we may have yet another Rose Bowl loss. Perhaps not quite the ass-handing we suffered at the hands of USC last year, but . . .

Desperate Houswives & TO

Apparently people with nothing better to do with themselves have decided to get their shorts in a knot over the intro to Monday Night Football a week ago yesterday. Because Philadelphia was one of the teams competing that night, the MNF powers-that-be thought that their clever opening skit should feature Terrell Owens and Nicolette Sheridan, the former being the famed wide receiver who recently joined the Eagles, and the latter being a star of the new ABC hit show "Desperate Housewives." The skit featured a towel-clad Sheridan approaching TO in the locker room, apparently attempting to use her "feminine wiles" to distract TO from playing that night, thus assuring a win for the other team. At the end, she shed the towel and jumped into the arms of a "surprised" TO. Cut to two other characters from "Desperate Housewives" watching the scene on TV, and smirking about how "desperate" some people can be. Cut to the opening theme song.

Apparently, this caused all kinds of moral outrage because of the scantily-clad Sheridan literally throwing herself at TO. This is supposedly some untoward display of sexuality, apparently moreso than the regular display of several very scantily clad cheerleaders making suggestive moves on the sideline throught many of the games.

Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy went ahead and proved he was a jackass by taking this a step farther, and calling it racially offensive, apparently because TO is black, while Nicolette Sheridan is white. He also said that it was inappropriate in light of the alleged Kobe Bryant rape incident.

My thoughts:

1. Note to Coach Dungy -- characterizing something you don't like as racially insensitive just because you're black, one of the people on the skit is black, and the other person is white just looks ridiculous.
   
2. This is nothing like the Kobe Bryant debacle. Kobe, at the very least, cheated on his wife. TO is unmarried. Kobe was, allegedly, the aggressor. Here, Sheridan literally threw herself at TO. I guess TO and Kobe are both flamboyant professional athletes, but I think the similarities end there.
   
3. If MNF and ABC really want to apologize for something, may I suggest apologizing for that stupid "You've Been Sacked" halftime segment?

Turkey

The day after tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxation and turkey-induced food comas. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

It's been entirely too long since I posted here. I was, for a while, managing to post on almost a daily basis. Now? Not so much.

Saturday was an uncharacteristically warm day for October 30 in Michigan. 70 degrees and sunny, which made it a lot easier to stumble to the Michigan - Michigan State football game despite being under the firm grip of the Evil Death Cold from Hell. I often joke about leaving instructions to have my corpse wheeled into games should I die before the end of the season, but on Saturday, I was beginning to wonder if that was how I'd end up attending. However, the game was possibly one of the best football games I've ever been to in the Big House. Despite the fact that Michigan trailed 27-10 with eight minutes left in the game, a late-game rally sent it to overtime tied at 27-27. After three overtime periods, Michigan finally emerged victorious over our in-state rivals, 45-37.

Now, having essentially shaken the Evil Death Cold From Hell (with the exception of the Insidious Ear Congestion of Doom that just won't clear up, making me speak either far more loudly or far more quietly than I should), I have to turn to the Presidential election for my thrills. After an entirely too long and demoralizing season of political-attack-ad overload, Election Day is finally upon us. I hauled my ass out of bed extra early to get to my precinct first thing this morning (the polls opened at 7 this morning), and managed to get in and vote within a half-hour. Tonight will be spent in true political geek mode, watching election returns with the Detroit Pistons' home opener on the picture-in-picture.

Pistons win the NBA Championship in five games. So much for Kobe's guarantee. Go Pistons!!!!!

The Detroit Pistons have just put the Los Angeles Lakers down in Game 4, 88-80. The Pistons, who were supposed to get swept by the vaunted Lakers, are now up three games to one, and need win only one more game to win the NBA championship.

ABC, however, can't seem to believe the Lakers aren't winning. I cannot believe, (maybe I can) their bias against Detroit. Thursday, when the Pistons won by twenty points, the post-game graphic briefly showed the Lakers as the winning team, and Al Michaels even said, "Lakers win." Tonight, it contiunued. The ABC commentators kept talking about the series as though the Lakers have been blowing the series, as opposed to the Pistons actually being the better team. In the fourth quarter, with a mere three minutes left in the game, they had the audacity to talk about the Lakers, the team that was supposed to steamroller us, the team that was supposed to easily sweep us, "only being down by eight points." Only being down eight points, and about to go down three games to one. Indeed, had the Pistons not blown Game 2, they would have swept the Lakers, a point the ABC folks quite grudgingly made tonight. Ergo, tonight's title.

Actually, I am a fan of Jimmy Kimmel, but I couldn't very well reuse my "Eat it, Shaq" title to describe tonight's Detroit Pistons victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, regardless of how ultimately satisfying it would be to do so. The Pistons pounded the Lakers by a score of 88-68. They now have a two games to one lead in the best-of-seven series. They also held the Lakers to under 70 points for the first time in the playoffs since the NBA instituted the shot clock.

The title refers to Tuesday night's game, when Jimmy Kimmel, a Lakers fan, made some disparaging remarks about Detroit during a promo for his show. He said that aside from being a fans, the Lakers had to win, because if the Channel 7, WXYZ-TV, the Detroit ABC affilliate, to pull the show, and ABC pulled the show nationally. So, while I'm thinking that might have been overkill, at the same time, it earned Jimmy tonight's blog title.

My beloved underdog Detroit Pistons managed to stun the apparently complacent Los Angeles Lakers to win Game 1 of the NBA Finals last night.