NBA Blog

After being infuriated by Shanny O’Shanahan’s utter disdain for all things fantasy football on Thursday night, I watched in utter dismay as my beloved Cobra Kai disintegrated in the fantasy football playoffs.  Let’s set the stage:

I was all set to get my weekly picks post in on Sunday morning, and I was ready to make those last second changes to the Kai lineup for the BFL semifinals.  I could not do either on Saturday, because I spent the day in Christmas shopping season hell by going to the mall and what I have now dubbed “the worst Toys-R-Us ever!”.  That experience took all day, and the weather was miserable in Louisville.  Saturday was a terrible personal day for me.

Then on Sunday morning, I had to drive to Versailles, Kentucky, only in Kentucky it is pronounced Ver-SAILS, which is about an hour away from my house.  I had to pick up my brother’s VW Jetta that I admittedly was driving when the engine died over a year ago.  He had to find a TDI specialist to fix the thing.  What better weekend for the work to be completed than last week, during my BFL playoff semifinals.

Well, my lady friend and I got up early that Sunday morning and hit the road to get the Jetta.  We eventually found the house where the TDI specialist works out of his garage.  I’m really loving VerSAILS at this moment because the house is hidden off a street that cannot be found, so that cuts about 20 minutes into my alotted extra time to get back before the games start.

Eventually we hit the road home, but my lady-friend and me are hungry.  We hit the Waffle House in VerSAILS, because, well who doesn’t love Waffle House, and it has to be faster than Cracker Barrell.  An hour later and after we didn’t even get our order of waffles (seriously cutting into my fantasy football lineup time), we have eaten our yummy smothered hashbrowns and eggs and we hit the road home. 

Well, I’m an idiot and my phone was dead.  I was cruising along listening to all the updates for fantasy football, and realized that I had not swapped Edge James out of my lineup for Brandon Jacobs.  Serious concerns hit me.  Then, I had the misfortune of hearing about the blizzard that was still going to impact the Cleveland Browns game.  I NEEDED to get Ben Roethlisberger into my lineup to replace Derek Andersen.

About twenty minutes from my house, I look in the rear-view mirror and see that my lady-friend is no longer behind me.  She being the only one with house keys.  I pull to the side of the highway, hit the flashers, and wait.  Then I wait.  And I wait some more.  Twenty minutes later I drive to a gas station to call her from a pay phone to find out where she is.  To avoid any embarrassment on her part, and partly because it was my fault for having a dead cell phone in 2007, I won’t get into the details of what happened.  Let’s just say she exited too early and got a little turned around.  She eventually hit the road home, and actually beat me home after trying to find a pay phone off the highway. 

I got home 5 minutes too late to set my lineup, and watched as the Kai’s chances at a second title in four years went up in flames.  Had I been able to make the necessary changes, the Kai would have cruised into the finals by about 12 points.  Do I blame myself.  Yes, because I was to blame for waiting until the last minute for the first time in 15 weeks. 
BUT… I also blame Shanny Shanahan for giving Selvin Young 8 carries and refusing to get the ball to Brandon Marshall.  I also blame my brother for making me drive to VerSAILS, Kentucky, on a Sunday morning during the BFL playoffs.  I also blame my lady friend for having the worst sense of direction EVER.  I also blame the city of Cleveland for being so darn cold that they had a huge blizzard.  I also blame the Arizona Cardinals for being so bad that their running back who averaged 5.3 yards per carry only got 16 carries against New Orleans.  Oh well, in the words of every Cubs fan, “There’s always next year.”

Week 16 picks (picks in bold and home team in ALLCAPS)

Steelers at RAMS (+7.5)
Cowboys (-10.5) at PANTHERS
Browns (-3) at BENGALS
Packers (-9) at BEARS
Texans (+7) at COLTS
Chiefs at LIONS (-4.5)
Dolphins at PATRIOTS (-22)
Giants at BILLS (+3)
Eagles at SAINTS (-3.5)
Raiders at JAGUARS (-13)
Redskins at VIKINGS (-6.5)
Falcons at CARDINALS (-10)
Jets at TITANS (-8.5)
Bucs (-7) at 49ERS
Broncos at CHARGERS (-9)
Ravens at Seahawks (no line)

Week 9:   9-5
Week 10: 6-7-1
Week 11: 7-8-1
Week 12: 7-9
Week 13: 9-5
Week 14 Lines: 7-9
Week 15 Lines:  0-1

Overall 2nd Half Record: 45-44-2

I just watched the Thursday night game, and Mike Shanahan was completely incompetent in his offensive play calling.

Brandon Marshall completely destroyed the Houston secondary in the first half.  He caught 9 passes for 83 yards.  In the second half, he caught two passes for 24 yards.  They never even tried to get him the ball.  In the first half, they ran screeens, swing passes, and quick hitters to the big guy to get him going.  They did exactly NONE of that in the second half.

Oh, and there is the little bit of information that Selvin Young is/was supposed to be their main back for the remainder of the season.  His first rush went for 20 yards.  For the rest of the game, he got 7 carries for 14 yards.  Travis Henry, who had been banged up and playing poorly, got 10 carries.  So much for letting Young get the bulk of the work. 

Instead, Shanahan chose to focus his entire offense on their tight end, and throw four yard routes on every fourth down play. 

Then, to close the game out, they threw to Javon Walker underneath to try to make a play.  Yes, that same Javon Walker that has been healthy for like three games all year.  He can’t even run well right now. 

It was absolutely pathetic what he did tonight. 

Am I pissed that I picked them?  Not really.  I’ve been dumb enough to miss picks on my own. 

Am I pissed that I inserted Selvin Young into my starting lineup in fantasy playoffs?  Absolutely. 

But, I’m also pissed, because as I sat here in an incredible amount of debt, making not nearly enough money for the amount of education I was stupid enough to get, and watching a football game that I could have called.  During every ridiculous drive in the second half, and every drive that stalled at the Houston 40 yard line (which was the majority of them), I just sat there and called what Shanahan was going to do.  Their defense can’t stop anything, but Shanahan did enough on his own to prevent his offense from making plays to keep them at least in the game.  It was terrible, absolutely terrible. 

Thanks Shanny for not letting me sleep tonight, and costing me a shot at the finals. 

I was going to put my picks up for the day, but then I realized that the Mitchell Report was coming out.  Sorry, that takes precedence.  It is over 400 pages long, and I have every intention of making my way through it.  I’ve already checked out a bunch of the names on the report, and aside from the major names like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Barry Bonds, and Miguel Tejada, there are not many big names. 

There are a few former all-stars like Chuck Knoblauch, Paul LoDuca, Matt Williams, and Lenny Dykstra, but other than that, its a veritable who’s who of middle of the road/journeyman players.

By the way, Eric Gagne is on the list.  BIIIIIIIIG shocker there!

Check it out for yourself.

Tonight’s game:  Denver -2.5

I have been out of law school for 19 months now.  I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about the trial for Barry Bonds.  It will be so much fun to watch all the coverage as it is going on, but what will annoy me is the continuous “Barry is going down because he took steroids” chatter.  That is not what he is being accused of.  If you want to better understand what is going on in this trial, read a little bit of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle writers who wrote Game of Shadows. 

From the start of the indictment, Barry professed his innocence, and today entered a plea of Not Guilty.  His attorneys also said that a plea bargain would be unlikely.  This could go on for a while, and I will try to follow the events as much as possible, occasionally providing updates.

In other, and much more important news, Kevin Everett is walking.  This story was released today.  There is not nearly enough press covering how big of a deal this is.  Everett was supposed to be extremely close to death after making a tackle in Week One of the regular season.  Then, he was going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life.  Now, before the regular season is even over, he is able to walk on his own.  This is just an amazing story and the procedure that was performed needs more publicity.  I wish the media covered this with a little more fervor.

As for the Week 14 picks, well, we started off a little rough last night.  The NFL network games have really hurt me the past two weeks.  I did not get my post uploaded in time last week for the Packers-Cowboys game (I swear I had the Cowboys), and then last night Todd Collins defeats Brian Griese in the 2008-2009 emergency quarterback or insurance salesman sweepstakes.  You have got to be kidding me.

For the rest of the games, we will go with my picks in bold and the home team in ALL CAPS.

WEEK 14 PICKS

X Chicago -3 at WASHINGTON

Carolina at JACKSONVILLE (-11) - I was crazy enough to take the 49ers against the Panthers, what makes you think I wouldn’t take Jax at -11?

Dallas (-10.5) at DETROIT - I mistakenly typed “-105″ initially, and still considered taking the Cowboys.  I guess you could say that I really do believe that the Lions are in self destruct mode.  After I type this, I can honestly see Kitna throwing five touchdowns, three of them to Mike Furrey, who until two weeks ago, had been a proud member of my Cobra Kai fantasy bench.

Miami at BUFFALO (-7.5) - Initially I was going with Miami, but the Kevin Everett story completely changed my mind.  Miami’s best shot at a win this season went out the window, when Kevin Everett was able to walk out of the hospital on his own accord.

New York Giants at PHILADELPHIA (-2.5) - I really don’t know on this game, but McNabb is back, which means A.J. Feeley can stop throwing late game passes to the wrong team.  Seriously, how much of a tease was Feeley these past two weeks?  He showed flashes that were really good, but then, when it mattered, he would throw a pick.  Then after the close loss, you would look at his stats and realize that he threw 7 interceptions in two starts.  And you never realized it because he played so well at times.  You know what, even if Feeley…wait a minute, how can I take the Eagles after the 12 sack game?  I’ve changed my pick five times while writing this, so let us revert back to the original pick:
New York Giants (+2.5) at PHILADELPHIA

…Give me a second, I just took Eli Manning on the road with Reuben Droughns as his only running back.

…

…Alright I’m back.

Oakland at GREEN BAY (-10.5) - Even if Brett Favre doesn’t play, I’m still taking the Packers.  Try and stop me.

Pittsburgh (+10.5) at NEW ENGLAND - I rode the N.E. payday long enough, and got burned the past two weeks.  Besides, Santonio Holmes and Troy Polamalu are back for this one.  Even Anthony Smith’s stupid prediction won’t prevent the Steelers from covering.

San Diego (-1.5) at TENNESSEE - Albert Haynesworth really cannot mean that much to a team can he?

St. Louis (+6.5) at CINCINNATI - This is how little I think of Cincinnati.  I don’t even know who will be playing quarterback for the Rams.

Tampa Bay (-3) at HOUSTON - Tampa is playing well, and nobody can figure out how or why it is happening.  They have a McCown filling in at quarterback, they have Earnest Moonlight Graham playing running back, they are incredibly old, and Jon Gruden is still coaching them.  What is going on?

Arizona (+7) at SEATTLE  - Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin may both be out of the game on Sunday.  It is at Seattle.  However, Arizona may have discovered something special in themselves and make a game out of this.  Am I trying to hard to talk myself into backing Urban Legend’s team?  Probably.

Minnesota (-9) at SAN FRANCISCO - Repeat after me: I will not take the 9ers again this season.  Repeat this mantra over and over again.  Good.  Let’s move on.

Cleveland (-3.5) at NEW YORK JETS - Jets fans are officially the lowest form of humans.  Classless.  Tasteless.  Inappropriate.  I think I probably know some of those guys. 

Kansas City (+6.5) at DENVER - Can anybody tell me what is going on in Denver?  They look dreadful.  Then, they look terrible.  Then they show some life.  Then they are dreadful again.  I’m looking for terrible this week.

Indianpolis at BALTIMORE (+9.5) - The only reason I picked Baltimore: I saw several promos for the upcoming season of “The Wire” and it TOTALLY clouded my judgment.  Best show on television; bar none.

New Orleans (-4.5) at ATLANTA - New Orleans is a better road team than home team, and they get to play in a dome.  Oh, did I mention that Chris Redman is starting for the Falcons in that game?  Go Saints.

Week 9:   9-5
Week 10: 6-7-1
Week 11: 7-8-1
Week 12: 7-9
Week 13: 9-5

Overall 2nd Half Record: 38-35-2

So you were expecting some thoughts on the NBA.  Well, I only have a few.  Why?  Because Dish Network is so incredibly incompetent that I cannot/have not been able to get NBA League Pass.  You could imagine how furious I am about that, because this season appears to be the most compelling NBA season, with the greatest number of fun, watchable teams, that there has been in a very, very long time.  (Note the double usage of very.) 

Two months ago we moved, and a Dish Network worker came and did our installation.  We had previously been bundled with another company, meaning our Dish services were bundled up with our telephone company.  We de-bundled, if you will, and were told that the biling cycle would take a month to correct.  Last month I purchased a Saturday’s worth of college games, and that call took 45 minutes because they could not figure out what was going on with our account, and they had all our information incorrect.  We thought it was fixed.

Last night, I called to order the League Pass, and, once again, they had our wrong information and could not find the account.  During the 15 minutes that I was on hold, I became somewhat disenchanted with the purchase.  Once I began to speak with the person on the other end of the phone who told me the incorrect information and told me the same thing that I had gone through about two weeks earlier (and had assumed had been fixed), I became even more disenchanted.  Once the person called me Miss for the fifth time, despite the fact that I sound absolutely nothing like a “Miss”, probably because he was reading off his Dish cue-card for our account that is in my wife’s name, I became, for lack of a better word, pissed. 

The phone, my Motorola Q that worked so well yesterday, went sailing through our living room after I told this person that he should probably never walk and chew gum at the same time (not verbatim quote) and hung up on him. 

As it stands now, I do not know if Dish Network will ever correct this issue, but I will not waste another 45 minutes of my life trying to correct their incompetence.  Maybe they will bill me for this past month, but I have no way of knowing because they cannot figure out what our address was, is, or what our account information was, is, or whether the account was/is currently active despite my best efforts to let them know as much. 

If you had known me in the past, I might have been a little more irate about dealing with something that should be so simple, yet was made incredibly difficult by, what some might consider, stupidity.  Maybe it is because I married a psychologist.  Maybe it is because I am growing up.  I seriously doubt both; rather, I think it is just because I might be getting free television and HBO even though I do not get to watch NBA basketball. 

Tonight’s game: Chicago +3 at WASHINGTON

I’ll take the Bears, because I think Washington is barely hanging on at this point.  They lost a very important person to their team and their players, and they have consecutive gut-wrenching losses. 

I cannot think of another team this college season that got jobbed as bad as the University of Missouri when it came time to decide the BCS games.  Suire, some of you may say  that Georgia got screwed because they got jumped by LSU.  However, Georgia was not even good enough to make ti to their conference championship game.  How can a team claim a shot at the national championship game without even making ti to their own conference championship game?  

I am not saying that Mizzou belonged in the national championship game.  In fact, I do not think that was where they belonged.  I do believe that they should have gone to a BCS bowl game.  They lost two games, to the same team, who was obviously one of the best teams in college football.  The only reason Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech (and barely so) was because they lost super-freshman quarterback Sam Bradford during their first possession.  With a healthy Bradford, I think OU rolls through Texas Tech (and I absolutely despise OU). 

Ohio State also does not belong in the national championship game.  They got there by default.  They do not have a conference championship game, AND they do not have to play every team in their conference.  That is ridiculous.  Every major BCS conference (all 6 of them) should have conference championship games.  In fact, I actually think every conference should have a conference championship game.  They should also shorten the season, so that each team plays a maximum of 10 regular season games, with a conference championship to determine playoff seedings.  The major conference winners can get a bye and two teams from each conference get bids.  Then let it be a free-for-all with the bowl games.  This idea just came to me, and obviously needs some fine tuning, so I will have to get back to you with more information about it.

For now, know that Mizzou beat Illinois at Illinois (a BCS bound team), beat Kansas at a neutral site (a BCS bound team), and its only losses were to Oklahoma (a BCS bound team, and arguably the best team in the country).  The rule that only two BCS conference teams may play in the BCS games is fair, and it adds to the crying/lamenting/whining/pining from SEC fans, which is always enjoyable for me.  However, I believe that Mizzou belonged in a BCS game before Illinois and Kansas.  Therefore, they got jobbed, and a fantastic season is essentially worth nothing to that school. 

LSU wins the pseuo-national championship in a blowout. 

I was calling for a Hawaii national championship game, because, “despite not playing anybody,” they are the ONLY team that was good enough to make it through a bizarre season without a loss.  That should count for something more than a mere BCS game.  After all, a two loss team got in to the championship game.