Thriller!

In the two weeks since Michael Jackson has died my opinion on the man has changed almost every day. The second I heard Michael was dead it didn’t mean anything to me. I thought of it the same way I’d thought about Anna Nicole Smith’s death. He was dead, and though he was too young to die, it almost seemed like the next logical step. He wasn’t really contributing anything anymore. There was a little bit of shock, but he seemed sick the last few years, and truly he’d reached the point where anything could come out about him and I wouldn’t be surprised. Goodbye Michael, it’s been a long strange trip.

But then I sat and watched the News coverage. All it took was a four minute recap of his life and I started to realize, this was a big deal, it was a huge deal. They played the songs, the ones he’d recorded before I was born. He was this sweet kid belting out songs and moving like a true professional. Then they showed the things I remembered the moonwalk, the glove, and the videos. I remembered being in Mrs. Beatty’s class in first grade, a kid named Noah brought in his Thriller tape and he’d play it during snack time and the whole class danced; we even tried the moonwalk. I remembered going to my friend’s house across the street and she was telling me how Thriller was great, but he’d had another great album called Off the Wall before that, so we listened and it was pretty good. But I didn’t really know all those yet so I told her Thriller was still better, and we listened to that a lot more. I remember forcing my parents to buy the Boston Herald because it came with a full page poster of Michael and I put it up on my wall for a while. I may have even shed a tear when I heard about his hair catching on fire while he was filing a Pepsi commercial. Michael ruled the world, or I guess he was sitting on top of the world according to Eddie Murphy, (just so long as he wasn’t at the Beverly Hills Hotel.) If you think about it, is there anyone around today who could get people to wear anything as ridiculous as one sequined glove or a stupid red and black leather jacket? If that fashion trend doesn’t tell you how big he was nothing can illustrate it. The popularity faded a bit, no one could stay that big, no one had ascended to those heights, and perhaps that of fame was the beginning of his downfall.

Fast forward three years and then came Bad. I had heard the song on the radio, but I hadn’t seen a video or anything; my family didn’t have MTV, and V66 had gone off the air. I distinctly remember walking through a mall down in Silver Spring MD with my cousins and I saw it in a record store. Some strange looking woman’s picture all over the record store, but it wasn’t a strange looking woman, it was Michael. (I figured MJ had undergone plastic surgery, but he cleared up that misconception by revealing it was the result of puberty and a strict vegetarian diet.) I thought he’d gone off the deep end, which he probably had, but soon after I was singing along to all of his songs, especially The Way You Make Me Feel. I was back on the bandwagon, the music was too good. Then came the Grammies; and Michael played Man in the Mirror with a gospel choir backing him up. This was the last time I remember the Grammy Awards show meaning anything to me as well. Man in the Mirror is still my favorite MJ song; and the hits kept coming from Bad. Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Leave me Alone, I was still into it right up through Moonwalker. Sure I would just listen to the jokes about him being feminine or his best friend being a monkey and I’d laugh along.

As I was getting older I had to become a closet MJ fan I was getting older and I knew it wasn’t the coolest thing in the world to love MJ anymore so I would say things like, “You’ve got to admit Smooth Criminal is a pretty great song even if Michael Jackson sucks,” or “I don’t like Michael Jackson, but moonwalker for the Genesis is a really great game.” It was a code that my friends and I all spoke in. The act continued right up through the release of Dangerous. He would make major video debuts on Fox, and the music was still pretty good, but it seemed that he was getting stranger, and the music wasn’t quite as great, but no one had told MJ so he kept putting out these over the top videos and the least impressive parts were MJ and his music. I still bought the album, and some of the songs were really good, I would listen to Black or White, Remember the Time, the Free Willy tune and Heal the World, but I would certainly deny being his fan if anyone asked, because it was decidedly uncool. But Michael was still very popular, during the past two weeks I’ve found out that more people watched his halftime show during the Super Bowl than there were viewers of the game itself.

Nirvana and Pearl Jam came along, and as everyone loved to point out, Nirvana knocked him off the top of the charts. Then the music moved to the side and the controversy completely took over. Strange stories about oxygen chambers and amusement parks he built for himself to play on gave way to serious allegations of molesting kids. I didn’t want to believe it, but the press would release strange details about sleepovers with boys where they shared a bed and then the kid apparently described MJ’s discolored junk in detail. MJ paid the kid a ton of money and the criminal charges went away. From this point on it was never the same. Until very recently I thought it was an accepted fact that he’d done it. But life isn’t like a movie, it doesn’t just end when you think it should, he kept trying to reclaim his glory. He married Elvis’ daughter, a strange coincidence to say the least, and he released a cool song with his sister Janet who was still near the top of her game. He released a double album, HIStory, half greatest hits, half new stuff, just in case you couldn’t tell he was a shadow of his former self, it was right there on display. There was only one other hit on the whole second disc.

Michael’s slow fade into irrelevance continued. He got divorced and remarried; he supposedly fathered three kids, although I’m not sure if he could really describe the process by which children were created. He put out a remix album with dance versions of his hits; it sold a lot of copies, but nothing like he used to sell. MJ tried to put out one last new album, but it was a dud, and the fact that it came out just after 9/11 didn’t help. MJ only existed on Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition form that point on, until his accusers finally had their day in court. Michael went to trial for the child molestation charges. He beat all the charges, and I watched with puzzlement, not only at the verdict, but at MJ’s fans that cared so much. There would be talk of comebacks most recently a huge concert tour in Britain. It wasn’t like he was forgotten, not totally anyway, in the last month I sat with a group of friends and talked about his riches, the music catalogs, etc. but they corrected me and told me that he was in financial trouble, then we all made fun of his controversies, we quoted South Park, made jokes about him diddling celebrities, then we moved on to making fun of Corey Feldman, which is how most of my conversations end up.

But it all ended two weeks ago. He was gone. It wouldn’t have been MJ if there wasn’t controversy over how, and over whom the father of his children was and his will and so on. But now the controversies were less significant. Without the strange man around anymore we could concentrate on his greatness, we didn’t need to worry about the kids, we could think about when we were kids, and how we loved his music. We could think about how Michael had been a constant presence in our lives. We could remember when he was the most important presence in the world. I watched his funeral and listened to Brooke Shields remind us that he was actually a human being, and I felt genuine sorrow when his daughter came up and spoke. Without Michael around to tarnish his own image he was the great artist again. And now when I hear his music, I can just enjoy the music without thinking about the sideshow.

Goodbye, Michael

That’s just Manny being…Shipped out of town

The greatest continuing drama in Boston sports has reached its final conclusion. Manny was shipped out of town for an all-star left fielder. And now we have the ever present Red sox PR machine working overtime to make sure everyone understands that Manny was a bad person and a bad teammate and an overrated player. And the sheep from Red Sox Nation eat it up like so many blades of grass while they graze the Boston sports scene. I can’t explain why Manny pushed a retired cop/traveling secretary, nor can I justify Manny taking two days off with a phantom injury. But I can say with confidence that if the Red Sox hadn’t wanted Manny out of town, things would’ve been handled much differently. They publicly fought with Manny for the last few weeks. Team Owner John Henry had the balls to be indignant that Manny claimed the team says one thing to your face and something else behind your back. What makes this particularly ballsy is the constant PR game that the Red Sox have played every time a player left the team. They pulled it with Nomar, they pulled it with Damon, and they pulled it with Orlando Cabrera and anyone else who has left the organization. They even pulled it on one of their own when Theo Epstein had a contract dispute. This has been a Red Sox trick going back to the early 80s when they sent Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk out of town. The Sheep continue to eat up what the PR machine feeds them. All that aside, it’s about more than a PR battle, this group has never appreciated Manny. They never understood the difference between an all-star and a superstar. The fans and the organization didn’t understand that a presence like Manny made the entire team better. The SABR-metricians think that numbers on a stat sheet can explain it all, but there still exist intangibles that will never show up on a stat sheet and those intangibles can mean the difference between a team winning a lot of games and a team winning championships. Manny batted behind Ortiz for a reason. It’s because Manny was the best hitter off his generation. Perhaps he is on the downside of his career, but he still commanded an opposing pitcher’s full respect and attention when he was in the lineup. Manny’s bat carried them in the playoffs whenever someone aside form Josh Beckett was on the mound. He hit a walk-off homer against K-Rod then clobbered the Indians in the ALCS. For everyone who doesn’t believe Manny deserved the World Series MVP in 2004, he more than made up for it last years when he was the best hitter in the playoffs but didn’t get the World Series MVP in their four game sweep of the Rockies. The Red Sox put Manny on waivers in 2003 but no one claimed him, the Red sox were lucky and The Yankees are still paying for not picking up Manny that year. Manny came back and helped them win two World Series. The Red Sox never understood how lucky they were to have the greatest hitter of his generation, and in this case it was better to be lucky than good. The Red Sox are going to find out the hard that you should be careful what you wish for, because they just came back to the pack on July 31^st.

Since I’m on the topic of The Red Sox, I’ll just throw out a few more thoughts from this season. Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis have stepped forward as All Stars this year, and they’ve been fun to watch. Dusty is just a little guy who takes huge swings and you’d never think he’d be able to get away with it if you hadn’t been watching him do it for almost two years now. Dustin isn’t the only one defying logic, Dice-K has been playing with fire all year but almost never gets burned. He continues to allow base runners but allows very few runs. The best story of the year, the reason I keep watching games, is Jon Lester. Lester has really stepped up and become a potential All-Star. He had a rough patch at the start of the year but since has been the Sox ace. Despite the nice stats from Dice-K and the resume of Josh Beckett, Lester has been the Sox best pitcher this year. I only really care once out of every five games; it’s when Lester is on the mound. Over 162 games it’s impossible to really care every game, if the best teams of all time lost one out of every three, but if Lester is on the mound I can actually get into it, I care about all the small plays and long at bats that can lead to victories. There are just so many reasons to root for Lester. He’s a cancer survivor, and if you don’t root for cancer survivors you probably have some issues you should deal with; but even if he wasn’t there’d be plenty to like. He’s a quiet guy who has been brought up slowly through the organization. He was almost traded to The White Sox during one of the organizations ill-advised attempts to unload Manny. People had started to doubt his ability, but he just kept going strong and this year he has broken out and looks like he could be an elite left handed starter for years to come.

One final rant before I go. The Little League tournament is on TV right now, and they’ve added lots of rules to protect the kids. There’s a strict formula about how many pitches a player can throw each week and how many they can throw in a game, but for all these rules they’ve added the kids throw curve balls every damned pitch. It makes no sense, they don’t want to hurt their shoulders but it’ll be fine to blow out their elbows. Any coach teaching a 12 year old how to throw a curveball should be ashamed of himself. There’s no reason for a kid this young to be throwing a curve, they might do better as twelve year olds throwing curves but many believe they’re hurting their future, doing irreparable damage to their arm. OK…Rant Over.

-Bender Out

Fan Shots

Is it time that NESN bans the fan shots during games? Just one night after they got a Red Sox fan on TV giving the finger, this happens. A shot of a Tampa fan receiving a hand job. Is this for real? Thanks to the world's greatest website Barstool sports for catching this. What the heck has this world come to? And does this girl have a slutty sister for me?

A few other notes for this quick day. I'm not too worried about the Red Sox getting swept by Tampa. Yes it's unfortunate, and yes the Sox look like they have a lot of problems right now, but a week ago everyone was still calling them the team to beat and soon they'll be back home doing their thing. Papi is out, Manny is struggling, Buccholz is being held off for the stretch run, they limit their starters' innings so they can dominate like Beckett did last year, and not fold like CC Sabathia. It's 162 games, and sure the Sox aren't in first like they were after 81 games but I still like their chances.

Lots to review from the NBA draft and other developments since. I'm going to go on record as saying that Russell Westbrook will be a big bust. That whole Oklahoma City franchise is going nowhere fast. They keep betting on the wrong horses, Kevin Durant and Co. are not headed for the playoffs any time soon, and choosing Westbrook 4th will could haunt them for a long time. Charlotte seems like another team destined for mediocrity. Not only did they pick a mediocre point guard ninth overall but now they're trying to trade Raymond Felton to clear the way for DJ Augustin. The Bobcats have shown how clueless they are ever since their inception. I'm still not convinced about Danilo Gallinari and I bet NY fans are gonna run him out of town before he becomes even a mediocre forward. As for the winners, well Portland seems to be headed for a nice run in the next few years, they continue to throw around money to earn themselves extra picks, which may or may not pan out, but you have to like the increased odds when you pick so often. I also liked what both Memphis and Minnesota did both teams got what they needed. Memphis is all about the bottom line right now and they cut their payroll for the future while adding young potential all-stars. Minnesota got a nice player in Mike Miller along with Kevin Love who they really wanted. Most of all both teams seem to be trying to build something great as opposed to winning just enough to keep them at the bottom of the playoffs every year.

Anyway, that's all for this quick post. Be careful what you do in public, you never know who'll be watching.

-Bender Out

Losing My Religion

Pearl Jam is in town this week, and by in town I mean at the crappy Tweeter Center in Mansfield. Actually I take that back, it’s now the crappy Comcast center in Mansfield, I think Tweeter is all done. Not sure if they went out of business, but Comcast is kinda a big deal. If Comcast were a person it would have many leather-bound books and its den would smell of rich mahogany. But back to the point, Pearl Jam was in town, and similar to the last time they were in town, I’m not going. Why is this newsworthy? Because, in 1993 I was prepared to start my own cult, and that cult would be based solely on the teachings of one Edward Vedder, and his cronies in Pearl Jam. I have been known to make ridiculous claims, sometimes I say that Pearl Jam saved my life, on other more reasonable days I simply say that Pearl Jam changed my life and gave me one step closer to enlightenment. So why am I missing their tour for the second straight year? The short answer is, because I’m old. At 30, going to a Pearl Jam concert is no longer what it once was. I felt the pain, as did many of my friends, when they were going concert free and fighting Ticket Master. I even had their back, and I fought through the pain of not seeing them. I ended up seeing them in concert four times, and the God’s honest truth was that it was a very disappointing set of experiences. Not because Pearl Jam didn’t rock, because they definitely did, it was because I was surrounded by a bunch of drunken assholes. No one there truly appreciated the music, they were just there to get drunk with their asshole friends and then do stupid things like moshing or crowd surfing,. Then some girl would crowd surf and many of the drunken animals would try to cop a feel. Anyway, I’m now too old for that shit. Maybe I’m just not cut out for rock concerts, but Pearl Jam for a few years was my religion, it was what I identified with, and Pearl jam is still my favorite band. I bought Riot Act and Binaural the day they came out (those are what I refer to as the slim years) I have way too many of their bootlegs for it to be deemed appropriate, and some might refer to it as an obsession, and lastly I still can’t accept that Eddie didn’t win an Oscar for his songs from Into The Wild. I just know that at 30, music just can’t possibly mean as much to me as it did when I was fifteen. I will always appreciate that time in my life, but that time is no longer.

Heavy is the Head...

The Boston Celtics have reclaimed their rightful throne on top of the Basketball world. Bob Ryan calls it the “First ever six game sweep.” And I’m fully on board with that claim. The Celtics showed themselves to be the dominant team. In only one year things went from being completely hopeless, to being total domination. KG silenced all the doubters, I’m not sure if this was something that he said during his incoherent interview with Michelle Tafoya, but it may well have been. I think he quoted Jimmy Cagney, by accident of course, and then told Michelle she looked good. I give him an out because I believe we were watching pure euphoria. So now Kevin has solidified himself as one of the true elite players of his generation, no more questions like those that haunt Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing to this day. Shouldn’t an elite basketball player win at least one title during his career? One player has such a huge impact on success, is it really too much to expect that a star will lead to at least one title? Good questions, but not for KG to ponder anymore. The next big winner is Paul Pierce. I used to have to debate with friend over whether or not PP was among the top 20 or 25 players in the NBA, they just wouldn’t listen to reason. I always knew Pierce was top 12 if not higher, but those who weren;t watching closely didn’t like his ugly game and didn’t want to let him be called an all-star. It was just two years ago that Reggie Miller wanted to put Tayshaun Prince on the All-Star team over Pierce, a more valid argument would be whether or not Pierce was better than everyone on the Pistons, but Pierce is vindicated, he can now start talking about his place in history, not just whether or not he was an all-star one year. Ray Ray and Doc and Danny all are feeling better, not to mention Rajon and Perk. Everyone had something to prove, perhaps that’s why they won 66 games this year. I don’t think they’ll win that many next year, even if they win the title, the win total will be much lower. Another thing that won’t be happening next year: Steven A Smith won’t be comparing Danny Ainge to Isiah Thomas any time soon. Steven A used to bring up Danny anytime someone wanted Isiah to be fired. Well it turns out that Steven A was stupid and Isiah got what he deserved as well.

Of Course I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up someone else who used to trash Danny Ainge. I refer to none other than (drumroll please) The Bender. I always trashed Danny for his poor trades, but obviously I was wrong, just a year ago I was bemoaning another waste of draft picks. Danny, who always made great picks except for one since becoming GM of Boston, had traded away the C’s pick for Ray Allen, while adding a lot of other assets, and I was fuming. I declared that there was no master plan and Ainge had to go. Well I guess I was very wrong. Danny is the greatest GM EVER.

Speaking of the draft, last year it was all we had. Now it’s almost an afterthought. Well here’s my two cents on this year’s draft beforehand. The Celtics will get another steal this year, as they have with almost all of their picks in the last 5 years. I don’t know who they’ll draft, but I do predict that once they pick him, I will declare it to be a steal, abnd say that he is underrated. Even if it is Roy Hibbert, whom I have trashed in the past, his stock will rise exponentially is the C’s get their hands on him. I will say that I’d take Derrick Rose over Michael Beasley, and after that it’s a crap shoot, some days I think Brook Lopez will be a strong starter, other days I think he shouldn’t be a lotto pick. I was always down on Kevin Love, bnut now I see him as a top five pick. One thing I am confident about is that Danilo Gallinari is not a good pick. I’ve never been more down on the concept of European players than I am right now having watched Pau Gasol, Sasha Vujacic and Vlad Radmoanovic wilt in the finals. Is this type of pre-judging inappropriate? Perhaps, but I bet a lot of the GMs are on the same page as me. It’s like the backlash against High Schoolers that occurred after Kwame Brown and company were such busts in the 2001 draft. I’m going to enjoy the draft this Thursday, but it won’t be the same as it was for the last fifteen years. The draft has always been about hope for the future and the infinite possibilities that await, but when you’re on top, you don’t need to dream as much as you have to enjoy the moment. I’ll root for The Grizzlies, they’re my second favorite team, because they stink and I like their players, and no matter how many people trash him, I still like Chris Wallace. Wallace makes me think I could be an NBA GM someday.

Anyway, that’s enough for now, maybe be back on /Friday to say who blew it on draft night, and then have to retract it a year from now, til then…

-Bender Out

Lakers Vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs

Well game one is in the books, and already it seems the Celtics have won more games than most of the media predicted. I’ll admit there were times when I was more than a little worried tonight, such as when Paul Pierce was carried off the floor and I had visions of his career being over, or when a minute later Kendrick Perkins limped off. (Perkins had committed the unforgivable foul of being tackled from behind by Derek Fischer.) But the Celts at least got one win under their belts and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. I don’t begrudge anyone for picking the Lakers, there are times when I watch Kobe Bryant and I just can’t envision him missing a shot. And then you throw in his nice supporting cast of former all-stars like Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping for the best, in many ways we’re just playing with house money. Just a year ago I was advising the C’s to blow it up and hire a new GM while they were at it. But since they made it this far, they might as well win it all, and there’s no way I can accept losing to a douchebag like Kobe. I know it wouldn’t be the classiest move, but I can’t help but want to shout “no means no” every time I hear people praising what a great player Kobe is. (I know; I’m so crass. But at least I’m not a rapist.) Plenty more is still to come on this one.

By the way, while everyone in the North End was preparing for a renewing of a glorified rivalry, the Red Sox were renewing a very petty rivalry back at the Fens. Over a three day period the Rays went from being the first place team in the AL East to being the same cheap shot artists and punks that they’ve been for years. For the historical perspective, the Devil Rays/Rays most notable legacies in their history are feuding with top teams and also drafting number one. In the late nineties the Rays used to try and start bean-brawls and bench clearers just about every time they met the Sox. And the Sox were all too happy to oblige. Most famously the D-Rays plunked batter after batter one night while the Sox couldn’t retaliate because Pedro was throwing a possible no-no. Anyway, fast forward to the present. Coco Crisp take offense to Jason Bartlett blocking second base with his knee on a stolen base attempt, leading to Crisp going spikes up into Akinori Iwamura the next time he’s on base. This leads to Tampa manager Joe Maddon starting a shouting match with Crisp when Crisp was in the dugout. And tonight, Coco got plunked during his first at bat and charged the mound. Now this was no ordinary bench clearing brawl where guys come out and socialize with each other, say “hi” to old teammates and posture a bit to pad their manly egos. First pitcher James Shields throws a haymaker at Crisp, which he dodges nicely, then Tampa catcher Dioner Navarro tackles Crisp and the Rays pile on Crisp taking cheap shots, most notably Johnny Gomes and Carl Crawford. This is who the Rays are, a bunch of cheap shot taking punks. Oh the gutless ways they do things in Tampa, people say I shouldn;t say bad things about Carl Crawford and I say ‘why not?’ The Sox went on to complete the sweep of the series, like professionals, and they’ll plunk Craw Daddy when he least expects it.

It’s been a huge night in sports but I just wanted to comment on a couple more things before I go. The Real World Hollywood has just taken a drastic turn for the worse. They kicked off Greg, “the chosen one.” This is an outrage. Apparently you can go on a drunken rampage where your roommates fear for their lives, and you can tell one of your roommates that his father died because he hated that roommate for being secretly gay, but god forbid you miss a stupid improve night. In general improv is very hit or miss. Even at Second City or the Groundlings, the improv can suck ass and that’s when the stars of the show are well trained clever people who go on to become great comedic actors. But I can imagine nothing less enticing than watching the real world cast perform improv. They are a bunch of vapid dolts, and not a single one of them has said anything even accidently clever on the show, and that was over four months of shooting. Whoever decided to put these people in improv classes should lose their job as a television producer. Anyway, Greg is off the show, he was a total dick, but at least he knows it, the other six are fuct and they have no clue.

One last note, apparently the biggest rumor mill item in Hollywood is that Lindsey Lohan is actually a lesbian and she’s dating a DJ named Samantha Ronson. Normally I would go off on a diatribe about how ridiculous the concept of a celebrity DJ who performs at clubs is, but right now I’d just like to say bully for them. I hope the press gets off their nuts and they can become a happy healthy couple, and then maybe Lohan can go back to making decent movies like Mean Girls. Or if not, the two of them can fade away peacefully and live a comfortable life in California as a happy married couple, as things should be.

-Bender Out

Is it Summertime?

“See it or skip it?” What the Eff is this crap? I’m watching Ebert and Roeper “At The Movies.” The most famous of all the movie review shows and they go away from the two thumbs up review method. It’s only one of the most famous sayings in pop culture, why would we ever want to continue using one of the most famous sayings in pop culture? They seem to be re-packaging the show, which is fine I guess, things are different than they used to be 20 plus years ago, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Speaking of Ebert and Roeper, they reviewed Recount, an HBO movie, and gave it “two See its” (just not catchy) and Roeper actually claimed that it was an unbiased view of the recounts. Recount is a lot of things, but unbiased is not one. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I understood that the guys who made this movie were definitely on the side of Al Gore. It is a fine movie, it was interesting to recount all the details of the re-count, and to see all the politics involved. They certainly were giving no quarter to Catherine Harris, who comes off as over-matched although very hot, and I’d like to party with her. Mostly after the movie I just thought about how the world could’ve been totally different if things had just been a little different in Florida. Who knows maybe it wouldn’t have.

On the subject of movies, I saw the new Indiana Jones movie. It was a fun time. It seems every critic wants to pan it, but I think we’ve all forgotten what the Indiana Jones movies were. They were fun adventures with a charismatic star. I’s not like we’re getting the fourth Godfather movie here. Why are people complaining that the new Indiana Jones is too unrealistic? Is it really any more unrealistic than an Arc that melts peoples’ faces off or a guy who can rip out your heart and hold it in his hand while it still beats? Just go to the movie, buy some popciorn and a soda, maybe even some Sour Patch kids and have a good time.

But enough about movies.

Can I finally write a requiem for the San Antonio Spurs? I’m tired of them, like most everyone outside of the greater San Antonio area, (which must be pretty huge.) I feel like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have become the two most overrated players in the NBA. They wouldn’t be nearly as highly thought of if Tim Duncan weren;t carrying their asses. Duncan does all the dirty work, the heavy lifting; then Ginobili or Parker makes a pretty drive and people think they’ve done something spectacular. I heard Ric Bucher say that Manu has had as much to do with the Spurs Championships as Duncan, it almost caused me to get into a car accident. Manu wasn;t even around for the first title and for the second one he was not a big contributor. As an aside, I definitely refer to Manu Ginobili as a European player far more often than I do Tony Parker. Sure Manu is from Argentina and Tony is from France, but Manu just acts more European. I’m hoping we’ve seen the last of these spurs in late May. Perhaps they can have a final run in a couple years where they take some team to seven, like Jimmy Connors at the US Open.

I’ve been concentrating on the Celtics-Pistons, hoping for the C’s to take it in 6 tonight and then a subsequent explosion from the Pistons (not their fans, mind you, please no riots.) I hate the Pistons, they really think of themselves as a dynasty, but they’re really lucky that even won a single title, they’re dysfunctional. ‘Sheed may very well be a sociopath, I don’t know how anyone who plays on the same team as Rip Hamilton can claim that the other team is flopping, that takes some serious balls. When Rip takes off his stupid mask he looks just like Greg from the Real World: Hollywood. Not only do they look alike, but they’re both full of shit. Rip’s flailing and flopping is an embarrassment to the NBA. Anyway, I don’t want to jinx my beloved C’s. I actually went to a few games during the infamous 15 win season and I waited patiently for Antoine Walker to blossom into a superstar, so I feel like me and the other C’s fans have earned this one.

Hopefully all will go well with The Celtics this weekend, so I can properly enjoy the return of The Venture Bros. After too much waiting and searching for info online, I found out yesterday that the best show on Adult Swim returns Sunday night.

-Bender Out