Draft Time

Depending on how you look at it, tomorrow's NBA draft is either the end of this year's season or the start of next year's season. While I would love to do a first round analysis, I'm only gonna talk about my team, the Washington Wizards.

The Wizards have the #3 pick. Given the recent trade they completed with New Orleans getting center Emeka Okafor and swingman Trevor Ariza, it seems that the table has been set to take care of their glaring need: perimeter shooting. The only real shooting guard they have is Jordon Crawford, a player who never met a shot he didn't like. On the playgrounds back in a day he would be called a "heister", which is love when he's on.

Enter freshman Florida guard Bradley Beal, a 6'5" shooting guard who made a third of his 3-point shots and averaged a healthy 6.7 rebounds a game this past year. He made both the SEC All Freshman and Conference teams. Shot a solid 60% from the field in this year's tournament. What gets me exited like the Pointer Sisters is that my basketball people tell me is that this guy could be Ray Allen who doesn't mind getting his jersey a little dirty.

My main concern is that either the Bobcats (who have the #2 pick) would snatch him or the Cavs (at #4) would try to move up to get him. Couple of dynamics going on here. The Cats, who need help everywhere, may trade the pick for more bodies. Guess who would be in that conversation? He would be a nice rebuilding complement to "Uncle Drew" in Cleveland (Kyrie Irving).

My hope is that Charlotte goes Carolina dreamin and picks Harrision Barnes, who is Calbert Cheyney part II. I also like homeboy Thomas Robinson from Kansas and Wildcat Michael Kidd-Gilchrist who is Dennis Rodman with the hustle but without the attitude.

Because this is my blog, I also want to make my personal pitch for a player. Connecticut swingman Jeffery Lamb, who won a championship with the Huskies two years ago, has both a better shooting percentage and scoring average than Beal. Will have to get in the weight room at 179 pounds. Currently projected to be the 15th pick (Phoenix).

I'm still buying owner's Ted Leonsis plan to rebuild one player at a time. Just hope that they are not wolf tickets.

Champion

For regular readers of my blog, I have refused to follow the beat of popularity by calling Labron James the King. This was done not out of hate or cause I didn't like the guy. I appreciate his talents, abilities and personal achievements (3 MVP's). I'm just a team guy and like I always say, while Jordan is one of the greatest players to play the game, someone still had to pass him the ball for him to score or someone had to get that rebound for him to score. For an old skool guy like me who like his athletes to win titles first, then talk his talk, for him to talk about winning not one, not two, not three etc. without winning the first one is like James Brown and his song, "Talkin loud and Sayin Nothin".

Well, his first step to team greatness has been made with his first team championship with the Miami Heat. In earning (his first?) finals MVP, he averaged thirty points and ten rebounds for the series. I have to say here that it was his team; this was one time that I liked ABC showing the pre-game huddle where James gave the pre-game speeches. I thought it was Dwade's (my boy) team, but I stand corrected. For Wade, two rings playing with possibly two of the top ten players in league history and a movie star girlfriend--what's not to like.

I said that the Heat would win the series for the wrong reasons. While there was some referee "stuff" in there (how could Fisher commit an flagrant foul on James?), I still think that the better team won the series. But I still heard that controversial bump in the night.

For Miami, it's their second title in six years. Congratulations to the Heat and their leader.....King James.

Dreamin...

The Miami Heat are one win away from the NBA championship. This despite Prince James being unable to play with leg cramps in the last three minutes and City guard Russ Westbrook scoring 43 points. Not to change the subject, but I got to say here that I love Westbrook's game because he goes to the rack on everybody. He does not care. As for the possible game 5 clincher, I got just one thing to say:

It ain't over.

Yea, yea, i've heard it: no team has ever overcome a 3-1 deficit in the current (bogus) 2-3-2 format to win the title yada, yada yada. But be advised that when the City beat the Spurs this playoff season (after losing the first two games), they only had a 4% chance of doing that. I don't see any quit in these New Jacks, despite their verbal gaffes (Lebron can't play defense---what that's about?).

Now don't get it twisted: BreezyG did predict in a previous blog that the Heat would win the series, but for the wrong reasons. That bump in the night thing. Having said that, the Heat better wrap it up tomorrow night. If it goes back to the City, all bets are off. While I'm not flip flopping like a former President, I'm just saying.

Betrayal

There I was...watchin a great NBA finals game two matchup that was coming down to the wire. Then the incredible happened. Now I've heard the stories of sports fans watching a sporting event when, click, out...nothing darkness. It finally happened to me.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!???

I've been in a relationship with Direct TV (if you're a sports fan, yes, it's a relationship) ever since 2006 when I was seduced with a free season of the NFL Ticket to join. As I said in my blog, I've been in love ever since. For me, it even worked through horrific thunder and wind storms with no problem. In six years (honestly) I have had three blackouts with the longest being 10-15 minutes.

Now I know the pain of others who have experienced this. And it doesn't even have to be sports related. From soaps to Law & Order episodes (even though I have seen them all--really I have) to heck, the last ingredient in your dream meal on your favorite cooking show, I have now felt how deep that cut can be. While I got filled in thanks to You Tube, it's really not the same.

I have already sent e-mails to the Direct TV corporate board as well as local management. I am tempted to ask Congress to hold hearings.

You think I can get a $5 credit out the deal?

Battle of the Titans

This year's NBA finals will be as funky as a 70's George Clinton concert. The only thing that will be missing is the starship. I believe that natural selection got it right this year as the two best teams in the league will play for the title. As usual, don't look for any in-depth analysis from BreezyG. I'm just going to tell you who's going to win. Regular readers of my blog will remember (only because I got it right) that I picked this year's finalists for the wrong reasons.

This will the first time since 1998 that the two top players in the league (since Jordan vs. the Mailman) will face off in the Finals. Both players bring different talents to the table. Bron-Bron when he's (really) on can take a game over. He averaged 30ppg in the series against the Celtics and the question for me is, who will check him? On the other hand, you got a guy in my homeboy Kevin Durant that is poised to take the clutch mantle from the Black Mamba. He averaged almost thirty a game himself against the hottest team at the time in the Spurs. The two actually hung out this past summer on James turf in Akron for a week, playing flag football against each other.

Another funky matchup is DWade (my boy) against the freakshow in his own right, Russell Westbrook. If Russ can stay under control, that matchup could also be major. I barely give Wade the edge only because of his previous Finals experience. And also because he has the movie star girlfriend.

While the top two could cancel each other out, the difference could be each teams part three: Sixth man of the year James Harden and current All-Star Chris Bosh. Both have come back from serious injuries to play major parts for their team. Harden has been more the madman with his fearless drives to the rack while Bosh is content being the third option and shooting his open jumpers.

One more point: the big men. While the Heat are vertically challenged, the City has a pair in Perkins and what Stephen A. Smith calls the "Swat Master" in Serge Ibaka.

I'm staying with my pick that I made in my previous blog. I believe that this series will be the crowning of Labron James in getting his first ring. The City has more firepower, are younger and playoff tested after beating recent champions in the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs. They are not waiting for their turn. They are banging at the door now. Having said that, I think that the light bulb has come on for James and it's time.

Conspiracy Theory

I have to say that I believe in things that go bump in the night. That includes conspiracies and secret pacts. I thought that I would never had to deal with it in my sports. Or at the least for it to be so blatant and obvious.

What took me down this road was last night's game between the City and the Spurs. The game reminded me of the last few playoff games in both series. The home team jumps out to a sizeable lead only to have the road team make a comeback make the game competitive. It got so predictable for me that I cut the game off midway thru the third quarter. I knew that the City was going to win. Now, aside from the City (probably) being the better team, I had seen this movie before.

What really probably got my gander (didn't want to use the more profane phrase) was the tenet of the whole season. You had a shortened season because the owners wanted to save a couple of bucks by locking out the players. Now while I didn't closely follow the negotiations, at the end of the day, the players didn't really seem that happy with their deal. With owners now pocketing half of the revenues (up from 43%), was pimpin really that hard?

What squeezed my gander even tighter was how the league has been overseen by the Commissioner (aka The Godfather) David Stern. Basically, he told the Lakers that Chris Paul couldn't play for them because he would make them a better team. I personally thought that why you make trades.

Then came the draft lottery. Remember, there was a time where the entire process was done live on TV. Now you don't see anything but the league rep coming out with the results already done. Let me put some more stink on it like OutCast by saying how accurate the percentages were in which every team got the pick they was supposed to get except the Wiz, the Bobcats (who was favored to get the #1) and the New Orleans Hornets who jumped over both of them to get the number one pick. By the way, the Hornets are currently owned by the league who is ran by you know who. I can't make this up.

Let me tell you how this season ends. It'll be the Heat vs. the City in the finals. Prince James will have his coronation and his first title. Look for Stern's hit men (the officials) to play a part. It could happen because the Heat are just the better team.

Really?