This past March, Donte Stallworth, an NFL player for the Cleveland Browns, killed Mario Reyes while driving drunk in Miami. Donte was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail, and now he is on probation and subject to community service.

Tonight, Stallworth will speak out for the first time in an interview with ESPN’s Michael Smith. In the interview, Stallworth is said to address his account of the night in question, as well as his perception of the legal proceedings.

My question to you, what do you need to hear from Stallworth tonight to convince you that he is both remorseful and ready to assume normal standing amongst the rest of society? Below is a preview of Stallworth’s interview on ESPN’s E:60.

Obviously, the Cavs are feeling the pressure to make some type of move. Because if they go into the season with the same roster they have now, you can rest assure that anything short of an unlikely championship will guarantee that LeBron James is headed for New York City.

So who are the Cavaliers thinking about bringing into the fold?

Naturally, it’s a bunch of people that really aren’t up to the task of being the Robin to LeBron James’s Batman. Here are a few of the names rumored to be on the Cavs’ short list of possible acquisitions, along with reasons as to why they won’t work out in Cleveland.

Antawn Jamison – I love Antawn Jamison’s game. He’s a perennial 20 and 8 guy, who gives it his all on the offensive end. He doesn’t pass the ball much (Assist Percentage: 8.6%) and turns the ball over more than you want a pure scorer to turn it over, but there’s no questioning that on offense, this guy is the truth. That being said, Jamison brings nothing to the table defensively. At best, he will average a steal a game for you, but he won’t get you any blocks, and his defensive rating of 109 would be a huge blow to a Cleveland Cavaliers Roster that is full of front court guys who make a difference defensively. Besides, Jamison is used to playing out on the perimeter, not d-ing up forwards in the post. To bring him to this system as a starter or the “second leading man” would be a huge mistake on the part of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Shaquille O’Neal – What can I say? I love Shaq, too. But I don’t think he has what it takes to get the Cavaliers over the hump. If we are assuming that any move the Cavs make this off-season has to take the Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics into consideration, then Shaq hurts them on both fronts. While Shaq could probably slow Dwight Howard down to some degree, he would ultimately get in foul trouble, and he would probably be ran off the court given how fast Howard can get down the floor. Not to mention, when the Magic go small, that could lead to some serious holes in the defense if Shaq can’t get out and defend the pick-and-roll. Shaq wouldn’t fair well against the Celtics either, who have a standout defensive player in Kevin Garnett, and also have that ability to go small. If KG is playing center, there is no way you can expect Shaq to step out and guard his jumper. So while Shaq would be a bump up over Zydrunas Ilgauskas, he certainly doesn’t guarantee a trip to the NBA Finals.

Vince Carter – Vince Carter averages 23.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 4.3 apg for his career, and yet he has never won a damn thing in his life. Not to say I don’t like his game, but I don’t like his game. Yes, he can be completely unstoppable at times, but if that jumper isn’t going for him, then he can stop himself. A younger Vince Carter, that averaged upwards of 25 points per game, was much more interested in getting to the rim, making plays, and getting to the free throw line. Now at age 32, Carter has fallen in love with his jumper, gets to the free throw line 2.5 fewer times than he did just 3 years ago, and his 3-point shooting has actually gotten worst over the years. Listen, Vince can do it all, and the numbers prove it, but he is probably a lot like Paul Pierce in that playing with a lack of talent has sullied his motivation. So unless you’re talking about bringing in another piece in addition to Carter to the Cavaliers, then Carter himself is not enough to turn this team and LeBron James into champions.

So which player rumored to be of Cleveland’s interest would make LeBron James an immediate champion? I have the answer here.

Shaquille O’Neal may be the most charismatic athlete in the history of sports. However, a product of being charismatic is being an engaging speaker. In order to be engaging, one must say something of substance and/or “shock value.” Shaquille O’Neal often goes the route of shock jock and usually wins over anybody who is listening. However, some of his most recent “shock jock” statements may have finally come back to bite him in the butt.

Biggest big-man ever. The Diesel. MVP Winner. Four-time NBA Championship Winner. Yes, Shaq has all of the credentials, and he has won just about every thing there is to win in his profession. However, this year, he won’t win his battle of the words with either Kobe Bryant or Stan Van Gundy.

As many of you all know, Shaq had the pleasure of singing a not so pleasant tune about Kobe last summer. I believe the lyrics went something like, “Kobe, tell me how my a** taste.” As charming as that historic video of Shaq ripping Kobe was, his ridicule of Kobe’s inability to win an NBA championship without him is now coming back at Shaq full-force. Because little did Shaq know, Kobe Bryant would be headed right back to the NBA Finals, and this time, it is looking like he is indeed going to take home the trophy.

Of course, Shaq has ripped other people over his career, including, but not limited to, Phil Jackson, the Sacramento “Queens,” Vlade Divac, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Eric Dampier.

However, Shaq’s latest victim, Stan Van Gundy, the coach of the Orlando Magic, is now coaching in the NBA Finals. Shaq called Van Gundy a front-runner and the “master of panic”; two phrases that no coach should ever be attached to. And not only did Shaq call him that, but he essentially got the entire sports world to debate and analyze just how much of a “Master of Panic” Stan Van Gundy actually is. However, it may be Van Gundy who gets the last laugh. If he can win an NBA Championship, he will undoubtedly put Shaq in his place. And believe me, it is not beyond Van Gundy to put players and the media in their place, as he did with a 76ers player earlier in the playoffs, and as he scoffed at the media after beating the Boston Celtics.

So no matter who wins this year’s NBA Finals, it appears as if Shaq will come out the loser. I guess the only question is, which outcome hurts Shaq less? The answer may be not so hidden in Shaq’s recent Twitter message where he claims that he is rooting for Kobe Bryant to win his fourth championship. Given the type of disdain that Kobe and Shaq have exhibited for one another over the years, that says a lot about just how much Shaq hates a Master of Panic.

Shaq’s Top 10 Quotes

Nah, there’s no Jay-Z music here, just a stringent NBA Finals Prediction. For those of you who haven’t already seen my prediction on TheSportsWatchers.com, low and behold, I am going with the Los Angeles Lakers over the Orlando Magic in six games.

Of course, I also picked Cleveland to beat Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals, so you can take my prediction for what it is: an educated guess. However, I do have good reason to believe that the Lakers will win the 2009 NBA Championship. Here are a few of them:

~Dwight Howard Can’t Have It Both Ways. For most of the series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Howard was an absolute beast. Even if he didn’t end the game with a staggering amount of points, he usually had 14+ rebounds and whole lot of altered shots. And while his defense and rebounding will continue to be there in the NBA Finals, his offensive game won’t come as easy.

Against the likes of Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace, Howard dominated. The fact is , he is both stronger and quicker than all 4 of those guys. However, in matching Howard up with the Lakers’ Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, he doesn’t have both of those advantages. Pau Gasol is quicker than Dwight Howard, and if you don’t believe me, take a look back at their matchup in the Olympics last summer. As for Andrew Bynum, he is big enough to match up with Howard’s strength. Howard might have a little bit of a first step on Bynum, but he won’t be able to go through his chest like he did Varejao, Ilgauskas and the rest of the Cavs frontline.

So expect Howard to have to work a lot harder for his points. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few charge calls thrown Howard’s way, as he has to prepare to be a little more versatile than he was in the Eastern Conference Finals.

~Umm, Kobe Bryant can shoot. Not to say that Kobe is better than LeBron James, because I don’t think that he is, but the fact that he is a better shooter will make him a difficult cover for the Magic. If the Magic are going into Game 1 thinking they can play Kobe the same way they played LeBron, they are going to give up 40 points tonight. They will have to make a serious adjustment if they want to stop the Black Mamba.

That adjustment will have to involve forcing Kobe into the middle of paint. When guarding LeBron, that’s the last thing you want to do, but against Kobe, you can’t afford to give him the jump shot, so you have to make him put the ball on the floor. Of course, this would be great if Kobe had the type of frontline that the 76ers, Celtics or Cavs had. Then he wouldn’t have any options and would be forced to try to score over Defensive MVP Dwight Howard. However, this ain’t the Eastern Conference anymore, and Kobe has 3 really good options in the frontcourt, including Lamar Odom, Bynum and Gasol. The Magic are going to have to find a way to rotate back to those guys quickly, as Howard goes for blocks on Kobe. If the Magic can’t recover, this could be a very short series.

~Jameer Nelson is playing, but he won’t be ballin’. A lot of people look back at the two regular season wins for the Magic over the Lakers, and point to those games as reason to believe that this series will be close. However, many fail to remember that Jameer Nelson was the reason the Magic were able to beat the Lakers on 2 different occasions. Sure, Nelson is said to be in line for a few minutes a game this series, but I don’t care how many minutes he gets, he can’t just show up for the NBA Finals (the highest level of basketball in the world) after 4 months with no NBA in-game action and expect to be effective.

Nelson averaged 27.5 points against the Lakers in the Magic’s two wins during the regular season, mainly because, as we have seen in the playoffs, Derek Fisher can’t stay in front of a Mack Truck. Nelson’s replacement, Rafer Alston is a “slashing” type of point guard as well, but he is much less adept at being an efficient scorer with his pull-up jumper, and I don’t know that he is necessarily quick enough to blow by Fisher.

The lack of Nelson in the lineup really hurts the Magic. His 27 points will be missed, and I don’t know that those points will be easily replaced—if they are replaced at all.

-Lamar Odom can matchup with Rashard Lewis. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu killed the Cavs last series. Mike “Coach of the Year” Brown failed to put LeBron on either of them, which allowed them to alternate subsequently killing the Cavs from the perimeter. However, the Lakers can put Ariza on Hedo, and with Lamar’s 6’10” frame, he is a great counter to Rashard Lewis’s perimeter ability from the power forward position.

I personally think Lamar Odom is the key to this series (and some others sort of agree with me), because if he can outplay Rashard Lewis, I don’t think there is any stopping the Lakers. And he should outplay Lewis, because he is the better player. In fact, someone should tell Lamar that Rashard Lewis is making max-contract money, and that he isn’t, despite being a better rebounder, passer, and more efficient scorer than Lewis.

However, there is one caveat to that. Lamar Odom doesn’t always show up to the arena. Sometimes we get the 19 and 7 game from Odom, and sometimes we get the 5 and 4 game from Lamar. Fortunately for him, Lewis doesn’t always show up. Thus, whichever one of these skilled-big men decides to show up the most this series is likely to take home an NBA Championship trophy.

There you have it. That is my NBA Finals Prediction…what’s yours?

On Saturday morning, Georgia police released NFL player and Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Quinn Ojinnaka on bond after he was accused of engaging in a fight with his wife.

According to Associated Press reports, Ojinnaka’s wife confronted Ojinnaka about his activity on Facebook involving another female. Police say that Ojinnaka eventually ended up tossing his wife down the stairs and proceeded to throw her out of the house.

If these allegations are true, how boneheaded is this guy?

I will never understand acts like this; acts so stupid and violent that they do nothing, nor anybody, any good. Now Ojinnaka, a man of youth, wealth and privilege by virtue of being a heavy-set man who knows how to block a defense tackle, is going to spend the next several months, if not years, paying for his transgressions via his money, his time and maybe even his freedom.

What a shame.

Of course, you can’t feel sorry for the guy, because he is exactly the reason black athletes, especially those in the NFL, get a bad wrap. A while back, there was a magazine cover with several faces of different athletes who had gotten caught up with the law prior to the magazine’s publishing. All of them were young, rich (more or less) and black. Some might point to that cover and say that it’s racist because it didn’t portray white athletes that had been involved with the law. Others, such as myself, would look at it and see that the cover did a remarkable job of depicting the reality of the situation: that there are far too many black athletes doing the wrong thing.

Such broad statements, by that magazine and many other news articles like it, are shining a light on an area that needs some. While unfair to athletes who lead good and respectable lifes, the fact is that when one black athlete makes a mistake, it makes all of them look bad. Sorry to say it, but it’s the truth. You can call it racism, or you can call it what it actually is: “a connecting of the dots.” If someone is reading the paper and sees a story about a 25-year old rich, black, male athlete hitting a woman, and then that same person reads the paper the next day and sees the same story about a different black athlete, it’s only natural for that person to start drawing a correlation between black athletes and illegal behavior. That’s certainly not fair, but it is what goes on. And whether the correlation is the result of causation or not is irrelevant to most consumers of news.

Yet despite the awareness of the negative perception many black athletes face, there is always another fool who continues to perpetuate the stereotype. Perhaps we have yet another black face to carry the torch for the Pacmans, Mike Vicks and the Plaxicos of the world. Quinn Ojinnaka, if guilty, has taken privileges life has afforded him for granted, which will likely lead to the Falcons taking his talent for granted and cutting him from the team. And if that happens, maybe we will find out whether his riches turned him a foul, or if his alleged violent behavior was innate.

Either way, guilty or not guilty, true or untrue, strike another tally in the rich, violent black athlete column, because in the minds of the people who control the sport, this is yet another black eye for the black athlete.

Today, Charles Barkley took part in a conference call to promote his appearance in this year’s American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. However, as Barkley tends to do, he allowed himself (with the pushing of reporters) to go a little off topic.

During the phone call, Barkley reiterated that he has indeed stopped gambling. He claimed that he has not missed gambling, but that he will gamble again someday. Apparently, Barkley said the reason he needed to stop gambling was “because [he] was losing.” I will come back to that in a second.

Barkley also addressed his latest run-in with the law, when he was stopped for a DUI in Arizona earlier this year. For that incident, Barkley paid a $2,000 fine and spent 3 days in jail. He also had to attend an alcohol treatment program. However, Barkley admits that none of that has prevented him from continuing to drink; he just does not drive under the influence…anymore.

Before, I begin to opine, let me reiterate a point I acknowledge all of the time at TheSportsWatchers.com: I love Charles Barkley. He is one of the most entertaining, witty, intelligent people I have ever seen, and he always means well—or so it seems. I often tune into TNT regular season NBA broadcasts after the games are over, just because I want to hear what Barkley has to say every night. In fact, I am more likely to record the TNT post game show than the game itself.

Now that I have that out of the way, I have to say this: What the hell is wrong with this man? I don’t doubt his intelligence or any of the other butt-kissing compliments I just sent his way. Yet for him to act as if he is so remorseful, yet essentially go on to say that he is going to continue to live his life as he always has, is borderline ignorant. The man honestly said that he needed to take a break from gambling, not because he was possibly addicted to it and/or it was effecting his demeanor and everyday personality, but because he was losing. During the conference call, he made an analogy that basically conveyed that if he were winning too much money, no one would have a problem with his gambling. As if to say there aren’t addicted gamblers who win. Come on, Chuck!

The fact that the man said he will return to gambling, while not ridiculous, is more or less…how do you say…umm…stupid! I understand that Barkley has a lot of money and that TNT will continue to give him a lot of money for the rest of his life. However, that was never the issue with his gambling. We never saw Chuck selling his house to pay off a gambling debt. The issue was that he was becoming too consumed with gambling, to the point where it altered his lifestyle. And I don’t care what you say, but over participation in gambling can’t alter your lifestyle in a positive way—especially if you’re already rich.

Okay, so he has not learned his lesson with gambling, but you would think the whole drinking and driving thing would be easy enough to overcome. And that’s true, Chuck hasn’t had any issues with DUIs since the incident earlier this year, and hopefully we won’t have any such issues ever again. However, during the conference call, Barkley admitted to going out to dinner and having a drink before driving for the duration of the last 25 years. Now I know there is some merit to the baring of your soul, being completely honest, and starting a new, but maybe this isn’t really the place to do it. Maybe it isn’t such a good idea to tell the entire world that you’ve possibly been endangering the lives of people on the road for the majority of your life. Maybe you shouldn’t announce that you’re “lucky” to have never hurt anyone else while driving under the influence during a conference call. Maybe there are things that you should just keep to yourself.

You would think that after 25 years of being a public persona that Chuck would know a little something about being discrete. He of all people should understand that baring all of his faults is not a great idea, especially if he is essentially assuring people that his life is headed down the same treacherous path. I understand that he has no intention to drink and drive or gamble his money away, but in order for him to even be capable of doing those things, he has to actually continue to drink and gamble. Two things he apparently isn’t going to give up, and in case you didn’t know that, he thought he’d announce it to the world.

For yet one more round of NBA Playoffs, the NBA world can continue to dream: a Kobe and LeBron NBA finals matchup remains a very strong possibility.

This is what we want. The 2 best players, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, in the NBA playing against each other on the world’s biggest stage. Cleveland fans think they have the next Michael Jordan. Lakers fans think Kobe is King. And even Vitamin Water can’t help but stay out of the “Great Debate.”

Yesterday’s two game sevens made the thinkable one-step closer to becoming a reality. First, the Lakers pounded the Houston Rockets in Los Angeles, 89-70. The Rockets were just overmatched. LA’s big men, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, finally stepped up with two stellar performances against a team playing with a 6’9” power forward at the center position. Kobe Bryant himself did not have to do much, scoring just 14 points with 5 assists, as he got an all-around effort from his team, including one of his backcourt mates, Sasha Vujacic. The Lakers were up by 10 points after the first quarter, and then up by 20 going into the half. They never looked back, as the Rockets could not even muster up a 20-point quarter until Aaron Books hit one last 3-pointer to give the Rockets 20 points at the end of the 4th quarter.

As for the nightcap, the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic squared off at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts Sunday night. With the Magic on the road, not many thought they could come away with a victory. But they defied the historical odds against them, and took it to the Celtics right from the beginning. Orlando led 27-17 after a first quarter that included a multitude of uncontested dunks by Dwight Howard. Michael Pietrus, who in my opinion is one of the most underrated players in the league, scored a surprising 17 points off the bench on only 7 shots. And Hedo Turkoglu, who with the exception of one game in these NBA Playoffs has been a tremendous disappointment to his team, came up with his best performance of the postseason, scoring 25 points while dealing out 12 assists against the Celtics. The game ended in a rout, with Orlando beating Boston 101-82.

The ends of those games and series couldn’t have gone any better for our hopes of a Kobe-LeBron NBA Finals matchup. First, it is obvious that the Lakers needed to win that game in order to stay alive in the playoffs. However, you also have to account for the fact that perhaps their series against the Rockets gave the Lakers a wake-up call, so that they will really put it all on the table when they face the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.

In the East, the Orlando Magic would be the team I want to face, strategically speaking, if I’m LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. I know Boston is without Kevin Garnett, but Cleveland is a team built around perimeter players, and I think the experience of Boston’s perimeter players could give the Cavs more of a test than the perimeter players for the Magic. That being said, the Cavs facing Orlando is really the easier series for them, because Orlando is one of the worst coached teams in basketball. They execute poorly, their best player is rarely the player who has the most shots at the end of the game, and they don’t play at a tempo favorable to their style of play. A well-coached, well-oiled machine like the Cavs have to be salivating at the prospect of playing this unsystematic squad of athletes that could barely beat a KG-less Celtics team.

So all things look good as we enter the second to last round of the playoffs. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James will square off against their conference foes for now, but in 14 days (or less), we could have the matchup we wanted (and that I have been predicting) before the 2009 NBA postseason was even a thought.

Spike Lee went through the ESPN Car Wash promoting his film, “Kobe Doin’ Work”, yesterday. I suppose he is the first major motion film director to go through the car wash, and I also imagine that he’ll be the only major motion film director to do so. And after seeing his film about “a game in the life of Kobe,” I imagine this will be the last piece of work he does on ESPN’s dime.

I love Spike Lee, and I love ESPN. The marriage of the two entities seemed destined for greatness. When I was watching the film’s “game of choice” between the Spurs and Lakers last season, I was 100% ecstatic to hear that Spike Lee was doing a piece on Kobe and I could not wait to see what would come of it.

Spike is known for doing some outlandish stuff in his movies. First of all, he is a cinematographic genius, and he really can change the perception of a scene, character or purpose with any one of the hundreds of unique angles, graphic effects and cinematic techniques that he has used over the course of his career.

Secondly, Spike is the master of addressing the issues that few other directors touch on. Sure, Spielberg talks about genocide, and Allen talks about the perils of love, but Spike talks about what’s real and what’s now. When he brings up racism in his films, his characters do not just experience it, they embody it. When he brings up sex and love, he doesn’t just explore the perils of monogamy, he explores the perils of not being monogamous.

Lastly, Spike is a terrific storyteller. Have you ever meet somebody who told stories in a roundabout fashion, seemingly with no rhyme or rhythm to their tale, only to hear the end of the narrative and became convinced it was the best story you have ever heard in your life? That is Spike Lee. His movies come across off-topic at first, only to convince the viewer that it is not his movie that is off topic, but it is the viewer himself who is off topic. He makes his audience see things a in a new light, that can turn a story about a hot day in Brooklyn into one of the greatest social archetype flicks of all time.

That—and more—is what makes Spike Lee a tremendous film director and thinker beyond his time. That being said, very little of those aspects were found in his documentary about Kobe Bryant.

I know it’s a lot to ask of a guy to make this grand biopic about a guy when you’re locked into the timeframe of a 48 minute basketball game. But I thought, if anyone could do it, it was Spike Lee. I also thought, if it could not be done, than Spike would not take this project on. Needless to say, I was wrong on at least one of those accounts.

As I said before, Spike is a master of touching on deeper social issues. Of course, Kobe is not the Plato of our generation, but he is an icon in our society, and clearly his own thoughts about his place in basketball, society, and maybe even just on his own team, would all be worthy points of discussion, but the film touches on none of that. Then there is the obvious thing we all want Kobe to elaborate more on, which was the whole Colorado debacle, but Spike didn’t even go near that topic—not even so much a question regarding how he has grown individually and with his family since that dubious event. And Spike didn’t dare bring up the LeBron-Kobe debate. Some insight on what Kobe thought about LeBron, or at least what it was like to play against LeBron and MJ, would have been nice, but it wasn’t in the film. Heck, I would have settled for a conversation about what Kobe hopes to accomplish in his remaining years as an NBA player.

Remember how I said Spike was a master storyteller as well? Well, not so much in this film. “Kobe Doing Work” is basically 80-something minutes of Kobe talking over footage of a basketball game. There is no plot, there is no story to tell, and there is no underlying meaning Spike is trying to drive home. It is more or less like sitting through a poorly-written, sitcom version of a basketball film session, only the lead character (Kobe) isn’t the least bit funny. Occasionally, Kobe tries to make a joke or two about giving Kurt Thomas a hard time, which I’m sure is funny if your name is Kobe Bryant or you have a really big soft spot for guards bouncing off power forwards. And as great as Kobe is, let’s face it, he won’t be doing play-by-play for the Lakers after he retires. He has one of the most monotonous voices—which is high criticism coming from me, someone with a no inflection in my voice whatsoever. The film would have been better off if it were narrated by one-time ESPN reporter Stephen A. Smith. Too bad they let him go, huh?

I will give Spike some credit for at least bringing some of his great cinematography work to this film. He does a nice couple of ultra-slow-photo shots that are pretty unique. However, they don’t really add to anything or give the audience any new perspective that say a really good Nike commercial wouldn’t give you.

So when “Kobe Doin’ Work” airs on ESPN this Saturday, don’t get too overly excited about it. It’s really not an Oscar-worthy film. Which is probably why they are airing it on television—then again, it’s not exactly “Must See TV” either. However, if you’re a sports fan, it’s kind of a “must see” for you, if not solely for the purpose of being able to talk about the film in the future. And at least you can rest your hat on the fact that it does not come across as some kind of homage to the Lakers or any other team—so Sacramento Kings fans, you can watch this too. At its core, the film is really just a look inside the head of Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, it only gets skin deep, which is to be expected, given that skin-deep is about a deep as Kobe has ever let the public see him.

LeBron James is the MVP of the NBA. And while it’s nice to see him and his Cleveland Cavaliers blowing through the NBA Playoffs against subpar basketball teams, I’d definitely love to see the best player in the NBA face some sort of a challenge.

The Detroit Pistons did not pose a threat to King James and his royal court. And the Atlanta Hawks have proven that youth and exuberance is just that, and it doesn’t result in playoff victories against veteran NBA teams. So who’s got next?

Well, it could be the Orlando Magic, the most talented, poor executing team in the NBA. They have a lot of good players, starting with the man in the middle, Dwight Howard. But even as good as Howard, Rafer Alston, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu (the Turkish Michael Jordan) are, they lack any sort of offensive awareness. They rarely run any sets, don’t get a whole lot of assists, and they shoot way too many three-pointers, despite having one of the best big men in the league. They are absolutely dysfunctional offensively, and there is no way that they could get away with running lackluster offensive sets against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are perhaps the best defensive team in the NBA. There is no way that this series is even mildly interesting.

Then there are the Boston Celtics. Should they manage to make it past the Orlando Magic, they would be the next team to face the Cleveland Cavaliers. When these two teams played last season, it was one of the better series in 2008 NBA Playoffs. It went all the way to Game 7, with Boston eventually winning on their home floor in a thriller of a performance by both LeBron James and Paul Pierce.

However, that was with Kevin Garnett on the floor. With Garnett likely to miss the rest of the 2009 NBA Playoffs, we can’t really expect Boston vs. Cleveland to be a close series either. Cleveland is a much better team than they were last year, and even before KG’s injury I would have picked them to beat the Celtics; most likely in 6 games, but maybe in 7. But without KG, I can’t see the series even making it back to Boston for a Game 6. The Cavs would finish off a KG-less Celtics team, that really has no bench and no one (with the loss of James Posey) who can really be an impediment to LeBron James’ ability to score.

So it’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers will not be challenged by any team in the Eastern Conference. Is there a Western Conference team that could give them trouble?

We won’t even talk about the Dallas Mavericks, who are on the brink of elimination thanks to what was probably one of the most bogus “non-calls” in the history of the NBA.

We can also forget about the Houston Rockets. Without Yao Ming, there is absolutely no way they could go through the West and still have enough man power to match-up with what is likely to be a very well-rested Cleveland Cavaliers team.

That leaves us with the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Nuggets have probably played the best basketball in the playoffs thus far. I know the Cavs have yet to have lost a game, but the Cavs also have yet to have had any sort of a challenge. The Nuggets, on the other hand, have beaten some very respectable teams and players (i.e. Chris Paul and Dirk Nowitzki), and there’s no reason why they couldn’t find themselves in the NBA Finals if they keep playing this way.

But can they really match-up with the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Yes!

The Nuggets definitely have the manpower to match up with Cavs. Chauncey Billups, as he has proven, is still one of the top point guards in the NBA, and if I have to pick who is going to win a match-up between him and Mo Williams, I’m picking Billups 7 days a week and twice on Sunday. Dahntay Jones starts, but essentially we’re talking about J.R. Smith going up against Delonte West, and I like J.R. Smith in that match-up. Kenyon Martin vs. Anderson Verajao is a toss-up, and Nene Hilario vs. Zydrunas Illgauskas may be slightly in Illgauskas’s favor, but Hilario could outplay him on any given night. As for the big match up between Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, clearly LeBron wins that, but that doesn’t mean ‘Melo can’t go off for 40 in 1 or 2 games and outplay him on a few occasions—even if King James is a 1st Team All-Defensive player.

So I definitely the like the prospect of a potential Denver vs. Cleveland series.

Nevertheless, as tantalizing as it will be to compare draftmates LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, the individual matchup everyone wants to see is LeBron vs. Kobe.

That’s the NBA Finals matchup I predicted back on January 16th, and that just may be what we end up with. And while the Lakers still have a long way to go before they can even advance to the Western Conference Finals, we can at least speculate what this dream matchup will be like.

Before we even get to Kobe and LeBron, how about the potential matchup between Pau Gasol and Illgauskas? That could doom the Cavaliers before this series even starts. Gasol is the much better player, and there is absolutely no way Big Z can stay in front of Gasol when he steps out to the free throw line.

Then there is the matchup of the point guards. Certainly Derek Fisher can go toe-to-toe with Mo Williams, but for how long? As good as Fisher is, he is still kind of long in the tooth, while Williams can probably go the entire game against Fisher and not even think twice about it. It will be interesting to see what kind of minutes Shannon Brown can give the Lakers off the bench if Fisher needs to spend more time on the pine than head coach Phil Jackson might want him to.

And how about Anderson Varejao going up against Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum? He will definitely have his hands full, and my guess is that it will be a long series for him. Nevertheless, Varejao will play hard and tough, and whenever he is not in foul trouble, you can be sure that he’ll make his opponent earn every shot he takes.

As for the main course, Kobe versus LeBron, who knows what we might see from those two players? In all honesty, we haven’t had the top 2 players meet in the NBA Finals since Michael Jordan’s Bulls were beating down on Karl Malone’s Jazz back in 1997 and 1998. However, in the late 90’s, while Malone managed to get 2 MVPs (even stealing one from Jordan in 1997), there was never any question as to who was the best player in the NBA. Hands down it was Michael Jordan. But with Kobe and LeBron, there is a strong debate.

But that all could be decided in one NBA Finals matchup. And while going through the individual player comparisons, as I did, demonstrates that Kobe has a better supporting cast, I truly believe that the best player shall prevail. As you know, I lean toward the LeBron James side of the argument, and his MVP Trophy tends to agree with me. But that all could change in 7 games, and I think given the stage, both of their performances will be so outstanding that it won’t matter what the other 8 guys on the floor bring to the table.

So that settles it. The Cavaliers and LeBron James really don’t have anything to look forward to until the NBA Finals. They’ll sweep the Hawks. And they just might sweep the exhausted winner of the Magic-Celtics series. But with their potential match up against the Nuggets or the Lakers, the NBA Finals might sweep the nation.

EURweb reports that Michael Vick is attempting to secure a reality show deal for when he gets out of jail. Seriously? Check out the below story about how Michael Vick has turned into a desperado.

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So Michael Vick will star in his own documentary. And while it’s not surprising that he is willing to do almost anything for a dollar, it is quite surprising that his legal and public advisers are allowing a journalistic introspective into a lifestyle that Vick should want the public to forget about.

Reportedly, Vick has been offered $600,000 to have his life detailed in the aforementioned documentary. And while his athletic exploits, lavish lifestyle and unbelievable popularity are certain to be chronicled in this film, there’s no doubt that his run as the financier of an intricate dogfighting ring will be highlighted as well. With that being the case, one has to wonder if the money he will be paid is worth the negative feedback he will receive from this documentary?

Michael Vick Looks For Reality Show Deal

Company Sued for Michael Vick Dog Toy

Michael Vick’s New Job: Construction Worker

You can be 100% sure that no filmmaker offering Vick $600,000 is going to allow Vick to have control over what does and does not make the final cut of the movie. At that price, not even Frank Lucas Jr. could himself ave a say in this film’s final cut.

So what is Vick going to do when the makers of this film turn to those who participated in the dogfighting ring with Vick, and those snitches–I mean co-conspirators–say things that make Vick look 10-times worse than he already does? Is he really going to allow himself to be an accomplice to this film, essentially co-signing everything that is said in the film by starring in it?

I don’t think Vick, his lawyers, or his public reputation is ready to be vilified by a movie that Vick is actually a part of. That would be like Frank Lucas or Al Capone trying to restart their businesses after their biopics came out. I really can’t see how participating in such a film, or even allowing such a documentary to be made, can help Vick retain his livelihood as a football player in the NFL. No team is going to want to sign him after an entire documentary about his time fighting dogs is out there for the public to watch and reference. That would just be bad business. And if there is one thing the NFL does not do, it’s bad business.

That being said, Michael Vick needs the money. He owes millions of dollars to his creditors, and if he wants to pay it back, making $600,000 for what will probably amount to relatively little work makes good sense. But Vick and his lawyers will have to take a long hard look at the opportunity costs of participating in a film that is sure to denigrate his viability as a respectable human being.

The House That Michael Vick Built

Michael Vick Looks For Reality Show Deal

With all of this talk about LeBron James becoming a free agent in the summer of 2010, one player’s name is continually forgotten about by many people weighing in on the LBJ sweepstakes.

Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat may not have the best record in the NBA like fellow draft classmate LeBron James, but that’s not his fault.

Despite playing with a rag-tag bunch of players that have been assimilated quite randomly over the past couple of months, Wade has his Heat headed to the playoffs as the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. That’s pretty hard to do when you’re playing under a rookie head coach, your team’s second best player is a rookie, and you yourself haven’t played a full season since 2005-2006.

Nevertheless, Wade has defied the odds by way of leading his team to the playoffs without so much as one other proven player on his team, except for the quickly aging Jermaine O’Neal. However, carrying a team on your back isn’t all that hard when you’re having one of the best seasons of all time.

With a Player Efficiency Rating of 30.06, Wade is on target to be one of just a handful of players to finish with a PER of 30+. And for those of you who don’t understand the value of a 30+ PER, his other stats will tell you the story. The man is averaging 29.9 points per game, to go along with 7.7 APG, 5.0 RPG, 2.2 SPG and 1.3 BPG. Those numbers are unfathomable. Not to mention, he is playing his best basketball at the right time of the year. Over his last 5 games, he is averaging 35.6 points per game, and he is fresh off hanging a career-high 55 points against the New York Knicks last night.

Yet, despite having one of the better seasons of all time, Wade’s name is brought up quite rarely, in comparison to LeBron James, when people start talking about the Free Agency of 2010. Don’t get me wrong, smart basketball minds are well aware of the fact that Wade will likely be on the market that year, and maybe they themselves are trying to keep that under wraps. But that decision to keep quiet about it could be a mistake. Afterall, with so many teams clamoring for LeBron James in 2010, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wade just decides this market isn’t for him and elects to stay with the Miami Heat. That would make Pat Riley happy, but it wouldn’t do any teams with cap space next summer any good.

However, in all honesty, LeBron James is the better player, and teams are right to want him first. But realistically, only one team can claim LeBron James services, and then the rest will be left to fix their sorry teams with an alternative option. Dwyane Wade is not a bad alternative. And if the right team starts putting their feelers out for Dwyane before it’s too late, I’d say that’s a team headed in the right direction.

With all of the talk about Coach John Calipari ditching Memphis for greener pastures at the University of Kentucky, another major move in college basketball has gone virtually unnoticed.

Missouri basketball head coach Mike Anderson reached a deal with his current team and signed a new seven-year contract worth a reported $1.3 million to $1.5 million per year. Anderson made just $850,000 last year.

While the contract is nice, it should be noted that Anderson turned down $2.1 million per year in annual salary to coach the Georgia Bulldogs next season. While you certainly can’t blame him for choosing the prestige of Mizzou basketball over that of Georgia’s virtually nonexistent program, the money lost in doing so was substantial.

Moving past the money and what not, my biggest question is why wasn’t Mike Anderson sought after by more prestigious basketball programs? His basketball resume certainly would suggest that he is worth it. He just took a Mizzou team predicted to finish 7th in the Big 12 to a second-place regular season finish and a Big 12 Tournament Championship. Not to mention, he just knocked off the aforementioned Calipari to advance to the Elite 8 in this year’s NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament.

Before anyone gets all wound up, I’m not suggesting he wasn’t offered more prestigious opportunities because Anderson is black. College basketball, and basketball and general, has been one of the most progressive sports in terms of dealing with race, having embraced black culture at the core of its business model (exploitation or otherwise). In addition, of all the schools that did offer him a coaching job, it came from Georgia: member of the SEC and essentially the personification of the old-white boys club. So I’m not crying wolf here—at least not on college basketball’s dime.

I will call attention to the media though. They haven’t exactly given Mike Anderson much love. This man has done a remarkable job all season, having beaten Texas, Oklahoma, USC, California, and Kansas. That’s more quality teams beaten than Calipari has beaten this season, yet Calipari gets all of the publicity, and he is essentially dubbed a better coach. Which he has been in most years—just not this year.

So while the media pushes Calipari on you as the next Adolph Rupp of Kentucky basketball, look out for a basketball coach by the name of Mike Anderson making a name for himself at Mizzou. Maybe, just maybe, his team will continue to outclass Calipari’s teams—just as he has 2 of the last 3 times he’s gone head to head with Calipari’s “superior” Memphis teams.

When someone close to you is dying, you want to be there. And when you are not there by his or her side, you want to get there as fast as possible. That’s all Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats was trying to do.

Most of us would be sympathetic to someone for running a red light if they were rushing to the hospital to see their dying mother or mother-in-law. But not Dallas police officer Robert Powell who pulled Moats and his wife over as they failed to come to a complete stop at a red light. No one was hurt as the Moats couple rushed into a hospital parking lot to see their dying mother, but Officer Powell still stopped the two as they tried to hurry into the hospital to get to Moats’ mother-in-law before she died.

Moats’ wife, Tamisha, ignored the officers warning and went in the hospital anyway. Yet Officer Powell detained Ryan Moats and drew his gun on him. Ultimately, he detained Moats long enough so that Moats could not say goodbye to his mother-in-law before she died. Reportedly, Tamisha did get a few seconds with her mother before she passed on.

Now, I could pull the race card—and I will. Because anyone who tells me it didn’t have something to do with race is only fooling themselves.

While detaining Moats, the white Officer Powell suggested that he could “screw over” Moats if the NFL players’ attitude was not “right.”

What?

Yeah, that seems objective, thought-out and LEGAL! Come on now, you don’t say that to someone who you are giving the benefit of the doubt–or excuse me, assuming innocence until proven guilty. As you can see in the video, Moats tells Powell that his mother is dying, but Powell doesn’t care, saying, to a nurse and another officer trying to persuade the officer to let him go, that he’s “almost done” with Moats.

“Almost done?” Yes, because the severity of Moats’ traffic ticket outweighs that of his mother’s death.

The nurse even told Officer Powell that they were barely keeping his mother-in-law alive and Powell ignored the warning.

Now, I could simply characterize this as a simple abuse of power and idiotic judgment on the part of Officer Powell. But when Powell showed no remorse, and went through with writing a ticket in those circumstances, despite several persons pleas for him not to, that made his actions personal. He saw someone giving him “poor attitude” and not submitting to his authority, and he couldn’t imagine letting that slide—no matter how dire the situation was.

So I will pull the race card, and I will say that this was yet another act of the type of bigotry and intolerance that continues to go on in this country, no matter who the President is. Can I prove Powell was acting in a racist manner beyond a shadow of a doubt?

Of course not.

But using the same short-sighted, narrow-minded, insular judgment that Powell used, I too will stick to my “guns,” and call a spade a spade.

In sports, fans often argue that they want the best to play for the championship. Take college football for example. Every year we partake in a debate as to whether the right two teams are playing for the national championship and the need for a playoff system.

However, in college basketball, while we love the playoff system, we could care less whether or not the best teams are in it.

This year’s NCAA Tournament has narrowed the field down from its original 65 participants to the final “Sweet 16.” Despite the usual parody involved in the tournament, this year’s final 16 teams contain the top 14 seeds of the tournament. When you add the number of the seeds up with best teams ranking #1 and so forth, this year’s crop of teams adds up to 49, which is the lowest number ever in the Sweet 16 since the tournament began seeding in 1985.

And fans don’t like it.

When you have the top 14 seeds in the tournament with only 16 teams to go, with the other two teams being a #5 seed and a #12 seed that is a perennial powerhouse, the tournament seems to have lost its charm. Afterall, March Madness isn’t really all that mad when the teams predicted to win actually win their games. The madness, or the charm, of college basketball’s most exciting 4 days is when the unheralded underdog knocks of the perpetual basketball power.

No one wants to see nothing but the powerful programs make the Sweet 16. Sure, we want the marquee matchups in the Final Four when the real “ish” is on the line. But during the “Road to the Final Four,” why not have a couple of underdogs spoil the big dance?

Last year gave us Davidson, where the entire nation fell in love with Stephen Curry. His defeat of several power conference teams, and his unbelievable scoring outputs against them, put him and his school on the map, and put viewers in front of their televisions.

Yet in 2009, there will be no Davidson, no Stephen Curry, and no charm. This tournament lacks a team that everyone can get behind and truly cheer for with out any predisposition, judgment, or scrutiny.

The thing about all of the power programs is that they have natural enemies, disliked traditions, and players whom some love but others hate. Power college sports programs divide us, make us pick sides against one another, and in the end, render us unsportsmanlike. While the Davidson’s of the world, they’re new; or at least new to most.

Most people did not know Stephen Curry before last March. Most of us wouldn’t know Davidson from “Davidsville” if we were smack-dab in the middle of its campus. So when Curry led his team to the Elite 8 last year, no one had any reason not to cheer for his team. In fact, the only people cheering against him were the fans of the other team, and even they would admit to understanding the fervor behind cheering for the underdog who has never done any wrong.

So as we enter this weekend with a powerhouse-packed Sweet 16 set to play for a trip to the Final Four in Detroit, it will be a shame that there is no Cinderella at this year’s ball. There will be no gigantic upset or surprise victory. We can only hope that next year, the charm of the Big Dance will return, and perhaps the absence and the return of it will be even more charming than its presence alone.

RELATED LINKS:

NCAA.com

March Madness on Demand

Men’s Tournament: Top Seeds Squeeze Through