MLB regular season, NBA playoffs and NFL Draft 1st round

My guy, Stephen Drew, hit his first grand slam last night. A hanging fastball over the plate got deposited in the right field stands to give the Diamondbacks a 4-0 lead with zero outs in the first inning. He gets no respect. This Diamondbacks team is difficult to figure out. They blasted through Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt of the Formidable Phillies to end a five game losing streak. Joe Saunders continues to suck and suck some more. I don't know. This team may not make the playoffs, but they'll definitely be a deciding factor in what teams do make the playoffs.

I saw the first Memphis Grizzlies jersey ever this week. Some dude at MCC had an OJ Mayo jersey on in light of the Griz possible upset of the Spurs. I'm rooting for them. Danny Granger disappointed the heck out of me in his series against the Bulls. Are you or are you not the leader of your team? Rise up and lead your army to victory, young warrior!!!!!!

Celtics v. Heat should be fun. I'm takin Celts in 6.
OKC will beat either Memphis or San Antonio, no contest. (Update 5/2/11: I've already been proven wrong.)
Lakers will crush the Mavericks.
Bulls should blast through the Hawks.

The Cardinals selected studmaster Patrick Peterson with the fifth pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. This is AWESOME! Make DRC realize he has to work for playing time. Make DRC realize he isn't all that. Make DRC play to his potential. This really helps the Cardinals.

Restin Bones

Bickley wrote a recent column re-enforcing what I've been trying to tell everyone for three years. The best thing he says in there is "The facts are indisputable, and the blame ultimately rests on one person: the businessman running a basketball team, even though I'm sure Sarver wouldn't let an NBA executive run one of his banks." What a freaking solid point. I've never thought of it that way, but how correct is that? Frikin solid, Bickley!

The Suns are off restin up. The NBA owners are gonna lock out the players in July. No summer camp for rookies and sophomores. Probably no training camp and preseason. Likely a shorter season because of games in November and maybe even December being missed.

Steve Nash has one year left on his contract. He's expressed interest in staying here for at least two years after that. He feels slightly responsible for turning this team around and leaving it in good hands.

The Diamondbacks are gonna be really good in two years. Give the pitching staff time to grow up and mature and this team will be difficult to beat.

On The Coattails Of A Dead Man

Who would've guessed Marcin Gortat would be this good?? Seriously, this guy is GOOD. Once he gets his offensive game under control (hoping for this summer), he will be a Top 5 center in the game.

Grant Hill and Steve Nash both say they would like to stay with the Suns. What idiots!!! I respect them both, but that's just stupid!! This team is dead! Leave it to Jared Dudley, Marcin Gortat and Channing Frye to rebuild. Just retire with nice careers that may land both in the HoF.

Here's what Bill Simmons wrote in his most recent column:


"17. Phoenix Suns
An incredible ten months that included …

A. Owner Robert Sarver pushing Steve Kerr out after Kerr miraculously got his Suns under the luxury tax AND to the cusp of the Finals.

B. Sarver replacing Kerr with agent Lon Babby, who acquired two of his clients (Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress) at a prohibitive cost. One never plays; the other got traded within a few months. So that's worked out great. And for the record, Sarver allowed Amare Stoudemire to leave (defensible), then spent 80 percent of what it would have kept to keep Stoudemire on Channing Frye, Childress and Hakim Warrick (indefensible).

C. The team trading Turkoglu and Jason Richardson for Marcin Gortat and Vince "Half-Man, Half-Amazingly Washed Up" Carter, which ended up being a steal (Gortat emerged as the franchise's first legitimate center since … Alvin Adams?) and a disaster (Carter single-handedly murdered their playoff hopes).
Who knows what Steve Nash did in a past life to deserve playing with the Ghost of Vince Carter?

D. Nash suffering through a brutally tough season off the court. To be honest, I wasn't talking about his divorce, I was talking about the fact that every morning, he had to wake up thinking, "Oh my goodness, I have to play with Vince Carter."

E. You realize Grant Hill quietly just had one of the most incredible seasons in the history of the league, right? He played 135 games total from 2000 to 2006; in the past three seasons, he's played every game but three and averaged 30 minutes a night. This season, he tossed up 48-84-39 percentages for FG/FT/3FG, scored 13 a game, played the best perimeter defense of anyone other than Andre Iguodala and even wrote a takedown essay of Jalen Rose for The New York Times. He's 38 years old! This shouldn't be happening.

But hey, at least Sarver was consistent; he's like Nic Cage, you can always count on him to do the wrong thing."

Solid stuff.

Diamondbacks seems optimistic. This team is gonna scrap and fight to win every night.