God, I Miss Football

Long time, no blog. So the last three weeks I've been traveling in India and driving hundreds of miles for work. Needless to say, a lot has happened.

First off, the damned writer's strike is finally over. About damn time. Now give me more Office!

The NBA trade deadline lead to a plethora of deals. My thoughts on the major ones, quickly:

Pau Gasol to the Lakers - You get Pau for pretty much nothing. Kobe's happy. Your front court will now consist of Andew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. Fucking A. Sucks for the rest of the NBA. You get Pau playing second fiddle, as he always should have been, and a suddenly even more motivated Kobe. That's scary man. But honestly, what the fuck were the Grizzlies thinking? You already have Navarro, Lowry and Conley, all of whom I like. So of course you get Javaris Crittenton from the Lakers? Huh? You couldn't even pry Jordan Farmar, who's is and will be a better player than Javaris, from the Lakers? Bullshit.

Jason Kidd to the Mavs - Obviously this takes the pressure off of Dirk. The Mavs HAD TO do something after their epic collapse last year. The problem will be if the Mavs can adjust to Kidd. Avery's already benched Kidd in he waning moments of a key game, and unless Johnson can loosen his tightly wound strings and allow the offense to evolve around Jason Kidd, the trade is pointless. A lot will be determined on whether Jason returns to playing the stellar defense he used to bring nightly. He's never been a great shooter and is having a pretty shitty shooting year so far. If he's not creating and at least doing something defensively, this trade sucks for the Mavs. I like Kidd's competitiveness and experience. I think this trade makes the Mavs better. But a contender in the west? Not so sure about that.

The Cavs-Bulls-Sonics Trade - Ben Wallace got out of Chicago and the Cavs managed to fleece Larry Hughes on another team. Seriously, is Chicago retarded? They had enough draft picks and talent to make a push for KG or Kobe.... and now they have nothing. You really think Deng or Gordon are gonna be franchise-type players? The Bulls most consistent player is fucking Nocioni! And now you have Larry Hughes. Dumbasses.
It's addition by subtraction for the Cavs. Just keep Lebron happy, and getting rid of Hughes was one way to do that. I actually liked Gooden, But the combination of Varejao and Big Ben can replace his production while giving you better defense. I love throwing Wally and Delonte onto the Cavs. Now I'm biased towards West as he's a St. Joes grad, but I really think he can ball and can thrive somewhere like Cleveland. He's still learning the point and will get a lot of open looks playing with Lebron. Great trade for the Cavs, the Sonics dump more salaries, and the Bulls still suck.

Shaq to the Suns - The jury's still out, but so far it's not looking too promising. Obviously they were hoping the old Shaq would magically be revived, but I don't think that's happening. Clearly this trade is made more for the bruising, slow-paced game of the playoffs rather than the regular season, so we can't make a true judgment until the post-season starts. From a chemistry and experience stand point, the trade can't help but succeed. But the question looms if Shaq has enough left to help the Suns get over the hump.


The NFL off-season has started being pretty awesome. Money's being thrown around and players are changing teams. Good times. The biggest free agent signing thus far would, arguably, have to be the Eagles getting former New England cornerback Asante Samuel. I like this signing. The Eagles two current corners, Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown, are both quite adequate, but when you have the opportunity to attain a ball-hog corner like Asante, on a team that struggled to get takeaways like the birds, you have to sign the man. Did we overpay for him? Yeah, probably. But he should thrive in Jim Johnson's blitz happy scheme, and if we decide to keep all three corners it will give us a fearsome secondary. More importantly, perhaps, the signing shows the fans, the players, and the rest of the league that the Eagles mean serious business. No more pussy-footing around. They're going for it. It also shows their commitment to McNabb. The man asks for playmakers and that's what he's getting. I'm excited by this trade. We could still use a big play receiver and I would love someone to replace Jeremiah Trotter's heart and emotion, but this is a good start. After the bullshit that was the Eagles season last year, it's good to see progress.