Kobe Wins MVP

It was announced that Kobe Bryant was named the NBA's MVP last night for the first time in his career. Kobe averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists while playing in all 82 games this season despite tearing a ligament in his finger in February. Kobe also led the Lakers to the best record in the very tough Western Conference this year and a sweep of the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

While some fans may disagree with the decision, I think Kobe was the right choice for the award this year. He was the best player on the best team in the tougher conference. In the clutch, with the game on the line he is the guy I want with the ball in his hands. Kobe has won the scoring title twice in his career before and finished second in the MVP voting a couple of times before this year. Kobe has also won 3 straight NBA titles with the Lakers when him and Shaq were both on the team. Kobe is now looking to lead the Lakers back to the finals for his 4th championship this season. The NBA playoffs continue tomorrow with Kobe and the Lakers taking on the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the second round.

The Greatest Upset in NBA History?

The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics last night 103-100 to force a game 7 tomorrow afternoon in Boston. This Eastern Conference quaterfinals series is now tied at 3 games each. The winner of tomorrow's game 7 advances to the next round and the loser goes home. The Celtics finished with the the NBA's best record this year at 66-16. They were expected to easily breeze by their first round series against Atlanta, who finished the season 37-45, which is the worst record of any team to qualify for the playoffs.

The series has been much closer than anyone would have thought. The Hawks have played really well in a series where most people didn't think they could win a game. I think it is going to be very difficult for them to win tomorrow but if they do I think it has to be considered one of the biggest upsets in NBA history. The home team has one every game in the series so far, so the Celtics will have the advantage tomorrow playing in front of their home crowd. But Atlanta who is a much more inexperenced team than the Celtics, have looked like the quicker, more energized team throughout the series. Almost no one will give them a shot to win the game tomorrow, but they still have a chance to pull off what would be one the greatest upsets in NBA history.

The Run For the Roses

Tomorrow is the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. For those of you not familiar with horse racing, the Kentucky Derby is horse racing's first big race of the year. It is run the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs every year. The race is the first leg of what is known as the triple crown. The other two races are the Preakness Stakes, which is held two weeks after the Derby in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes, which is the three weeks after the Preakness in New York. Many horses have won the first two races and failed to win the Belmont.

Only 11 horses in about 130 years of these races has a horse won the triple crown. The last horse to do it was exactly 30 years ago in 1978. Tomorrow there will be 20 horses racing in the Kentucky Derby, hoping to win the triple crown. Horse racing is a still a very popular event, even though it it not as popular as it once was. I think that people enjoy these races because so many fans like to bet money on horse racing. I have watched some of these races over the years and sometimes they are really exciting and fun to watch. The Kentucky Derby starts at 6pm tomorrow on NBC.

BCS Mess

This week it was announced that college football would keep its current postseason form exactly the same for at least the next 6 years. The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) has been in place for over 10 years and has generated a lot of controversy. After the regular season ends in college football instead of having a postseason tournament, there are a series of bowl games that teams play in. One game always pits the two best teams in the country against each other with the winner being the National Champion. College football is the only major sport that does not have a postseason tournament. There are over 100 division 1 schools in college football. The current system only allows the top two to play for the championship.

I feel that the current system makes no sense and is unfair to many "mid-major schools". To not have a tournament after you play a regular season makes no sense to me. There have been some instances in the past where teams have finished the regular season undefeated and not gotten a chance to play for the national championship. I mean what more can you ask for than for a team to win all of its games.

I think what college football should do is have an 8 team playoff. The bowl games are a good idea, but what you have to do is pick the best 8 teams in the country and pair them off to play in the four top bowl games. Then the winners would advance to the next week as you eventually cut 8 teams down to 1. I think a postseason tournament would make college football more popular than it even is. Every other sport has a tournament, there is no reason to not have a legitamate postseason in college football. The fans have been angry with the BCS system for many years now and a change has to be made.

Cavs-Wiz Series Heating Up

The NBA's Eastern Conference Quaterfinals series between the Cleveland Cavs and the Washington Wizards series has started to heat up on and off the court. There has been a lot of trash talk and hard fouls in the series between these two teams. Before the series began Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas wrote in his blog that he wanted to face the Cavs in the playoffs saying that we know we can beat them. Other members of the Wizards have also called Cavs forward Lebron James overrated.

The Cavs are currently winning the best of 7 series 3-1 right now. After Game 4 of the series Lebron said after the game that he thought the Wizards had commited many hard fouls and were trying to hurt him. Wizards center Brendan Haywood responded to Lebron comments by mocking him today and saying were just playing basketball, were just going out there and trying to win. I think that Haywood is right. I feel Lebron has done too much complaining about the hard play in the series. This is the playoffs, it's supposed to be intense. I also think Lebron shouldn't be complaining because I believe if you watch the games you would agree he does get the majority of foul calls go his way. I'm not saying Lebron isn't a great player because he is definetely one of the best players in the NBA today but he tends to get some star treatment from the officiating crew most of the time.

I think that all this trash talk is good for the game. It's pretty clear that these two teams don't like each other that much and they have developed a good rivalry over the last few years. Gilbert Arenas made another comment today saying that he didn't think this series was over and he guaranteed that his team would come back and win the series. Even though the Wizards are down I don't think the series is over yet. The Wizards have shown that they won't quit and still believe they can win. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Cleveland and it should be interesting.

Mets Fans: Too Much Booing?

There has been a lot of talk this week about Mets fans and what happened in last Sunday's game. The Mets beat the Braves on Sunday afternoon but the real story in the game is what happened after Mets first basemen Carlos Delgado hit his second homerun of the game. Delgado had been in a 4-49 slump before the game and had been getting booed heavily by Mets fans. After he hit the homerun that put the Mets ahead the fans wanted him to come out for a curtain call. Delgado refused to come out of the dugout and give the fans what they wanted. After the game he said that he really didn't feel like he should take a curtain call after a home run in a game in April, especially since he had been hitting so poorly.

I have no problem with what Delgado did, but it was seems to me it was made such a big deal this week by New York media. Whether he really didn't feel like taking the curtain call in that situation or he was just upset with the fans for booing him, I think he was right not to do it. First of all, I think that Met fans have been really excessive this year with their constant booing of certain players on the team. I understand that when you buy a ticket to game you have the right to boo players if you want, but I just think that their have been times this year where fans have gone over the line. I remember that their were some Met fans booing players in the first week of the season for things that happened last year. Some fans even booed pitcher Johan Santana after his first start at home this year because he gave up a couple of homeruns in his first start. He has pitched really well overall this year and is the pitcher on the team, the guys not going to be pervect every time out. It's just not smart, I mean why don't we give these guys a chance first. The booing is not going to help the players, so why do it?

I think the fans have to realize that just as they have a right to boo, the players have a right to refuse curtain calls and do what they want. I just think that some fans are still upset with the Mets collapse last year and they want the team to be perfect. As a Met fan I want the team to succeed, but I feel that some fans have gone over the line in their hating this year on some circumstances. The main thing that should have been taken from that game Sunday was that they won the game. Not this whole booing and curtain call stuff.

The NFL Draft

The 2008 NFL Draft started ysterday and concluded today. The top football players from college are chosen by NFL teams to play at the highest level of competition. Many football fans have different feelings about the draft. Some fans love the draft. Their are fans who will watch almost all of the picks and follow the players closely in the months leading up to the day. Other fans can't stand to watch it. Some think that watching players names get called out for hours and hours can be tiresome and that it takes too long.

I guess I am somewhere in the middle. Ysterday I enjoyed watching almost all of the first round. But after that I agree that it can get boring. The players taken in the first round are usually players that even the average college football fan knows. There are 7 rounds in total and when the middle rounds start to begin is when you cannot watch anymore of this. I like to tune in to watch what players my team will pick but I really can't see how anyone can watch the whole draft over this two day span.

I really think that the draft is a fun sports event and I tune in every year to watch. I also enjoy the talk of the top players who will be taken in the weeks leading up to it. But you just can't watch to much of it because it will get boring even for the die-hard football fan.