My server went haywire all last week, which caused me to disappear for a little while, but I'm back and I'm going to act like nothing even happened! Just like I'm going to act like that Fishfoul at the end of Game 4 never even happened (because it didn't!)!
So that was pretty easy, wasn't it? Lakers swept the Nuggets in Round 1 (with help from Ima and me after we broke our curse), beat the Jazz in 6, and just now put the Spurs in crutches after 5. The only difficult part about the Playoffs for the Lakers so far has been deciding whether Ronny should braid his hair normally, or put it in a pony-tail – he called me last night and I advised him to definitely go with the samurai look. It paid off, because the Lakers are going to the Finals!! And that sentence so deserved two exclamation points!
And because the Playoffs have been oh so easy for them, they have had plenty of rest between rounds. This time, they are going to have almost a full week to lounge around and jump off of rocks with their daughters. Finals start Thursday, June 5th, but in what city? If it will be in Boston, it will be the Finals that everyone has been wanting for decades. But if in Detroit, it will be a rematch of the Finals from the last time the Lakers made it there, in 2004, the year that the Lakers just fell apart. Either way, it's sure to be great. I personally am hoping to see the Pistons make it into the Finals. Not because the Lakers lost both games against the Celtics or anything, just because I personally like the Pistons more. That team is just full of characters, while the Celtics are pretty weak in my eyes. The Celtics have that three-headed monster fighting their battles, but the problem is that none of the heads know which one of them is going to strike. They may have been all flashy and amazing in the beginning of the season, when they went like 30-3 or something, but lately they have been forced into Game 7 in both of their series, just recently getting their first road victory. But based on all that, shouldn't I be rooting for the Celtics to make it to the Finals so the Lakers have it easy? Sure, Lakers/Celtics no doubt would be real fun to watch, but I'd rather see the Celtics die in the Eastern Conference Finals; Pau to the Lakers was the best trade in the NBA this year, not some stupid KG and baldy trade to the Celtics. But I know a lot of people disagree with me – especially you Mr. Stern.
I would've written this earlier today, but I had stupid class. Anyway, luckily the Lakers won last night, otherwise you'd be getting yet another Laker post. There of course isn't anything wrong with Laker posts, it's just, too much of a good thing isn't always good. So tonight, I decided to talk some TV. I haven't talked a little TV for a long time! It's almost the start of summer, which means shows are going into their finales. A couple shows have already had their finales, but the good ones wait until this week!
The Office has its season finale tonight, at 9 PM on NBC. As you probably know, we were Office-less for nearly five months (damn!). But that break wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because it gave me a chance to finally watch all the eps with the help of Netflix (thanks, bud!). So even though there are 10 less Office eps this season, it's coming to an tonight. And just in case anyone Googles why the Office had only 14 episodes during its fourth season in a couple years and comes across this page, know that it was due to the strike. Tonight, they'll be going out in a bang. The Office has always been pretty good at these season finales. Season 1 doesn't count because that one was too short (but side-by-side, is just as great with the other seasons), so we'll start with Season 2. In Season 2's finale, Jim and Pam kissed (ah!). In Season 3, Ryan left (yay!). In Season 4... I won't say anything! I know what happens though. I have this bad habit of looking a couple weeks into the future to read the episode titles of shows and read their synopsis, I do so because I trust they won't give anything away. But, stupid Season 4 finale had the spoiler right in the episode's title! I read that they gave the episode a codename so no cast member or anyone else would know it until they started shooting it. If you've been watching the interview circuits, you know what will happen (but not the details), though I won't spoil it because it hasn't aired yet - well at least on the West coast. You East coast pricks already have it, so don't ruin it for us, you pricks. The best part of tonight's ep is not that it will probably be the best of the season, but because it's finally back to an hour. I'll tell you in a sec why we get an hour tonight, but be happy we finally do! So watch it at 9 PM on NBC!
If you visited the site from Sunday until a few hours ago, you would have seen the new splash page I had up: video of Ronny Turiaf trying to block Ronnie Price during Game 4 with a nice message to both Price and the refs from that game. I have since changed it to a promo that TNT put up of Fisher and Deron Williams split screen, but boy did that flagrant call piss the hell out of me – you should be happy I didn't write about it on Sunday, I was steamed. I know those refs from Game 4 did not ref the other games, but it's complete bull. Utah has been physical all series, and no one says anything, but as soon as Ronny plays his physical game (he is real physical when it comes to blocking
those shots, it's the Martinique part of him we all love), he gets penalized. How is it Ronny's fault that Utah's midget guards don't know how to freaking land on their own two damn feet? You toss him out of the game just for that? It's just ridiculous. If that idiot didn't draw blood, Mbenga would've probably come in later and slapped him around a little bit and all would have been fine. You know what, I think the reason Ronny got all pissed at Price was because Price's first name is Ronnie, he's a freaking copy-cat. He even stole the year of Ronny's birth! That's just pathetic.
Now I have to pause my little rant because most of you have probably
forgotten the play I am speaking of, none of those TV folks ran it too much because Ronny is only loved in LA. Well get yourselves ready, because this is the first time I've had a streaming video inline with the text, so be very proud I picked you guys as my audience for this brand new thing. To the right you'll see the floating flash video, click the play button to watch it. It's pretty much the exact same thing I had on my splash page, except this one doesn't have the text and the sad face at the end. So that's the play I'm talking about. If you watch closely, after the foul, Ronny looks around and puts his hand up indicating that he gave the foul. Then when the entire stupid Utah crowd goes crazy, Ronny looks around in confusion. Now that is an innocent man. When ABC/ESPN shows the replay, you see absolutely no foul play, Ronny was going at the ball the whole time. The only problem with that clip is Ronnie Price, I guess his momma never taught him how to use his feet. They're supposed to stay under you, Price, not above your shoulders. Idiot. Even Phil thought the kid was a damn fool. After the game, Phil said he was "out of control" and that it was "absolutely not" a flagrant foul. And directly after Ronny got tossed, Phil was bewildered. You can see Phil's face in that clip when he's talking to Ronny. No one knew what the hell was going on! Those Mormons gotta pipe down! haha, sorry. Even though there was no way Ronny could have been suspended for this Game 5, unless the league had gone nuts, I was still somewhat nervous. But it turns out Ronny will play, thankfully. And, Ronny, I know you said you wouldn't have time to read today's post, but just in case you're reading, Price said you weren't trying to hurt him, so beat him down today if he gets in your grill again. You Frenchman cannot take that from a stupid Texan. The kid's from a city called Friendswood, how gay is that?!
I'm sitting here in my living room watching Raymond in HD, remote desktopping to my computer in my room from my Mom's laptop. I never knew how much I disliked laptops, even with my watch off. I don't know why, it's just kind of uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just not a laptop kind of guy. Anyway, it turns out the people who ended up buying Game 2's tickets were the people who benefited the most. My apologies to those of you who ran out and bought Game 1 tickets after I said Kobe would most probably get the trophy Sunday afternoon - forgive me?
Now after that weekend when everyone found out that Kobe would be getting the MVP, and the press conference for the announcement on Tuesday, and the trophy ceremony on Wednesday, there are no doubts around the league if Kobe deserved the award. The press conference alone is what did it for most I'm sure - Kobe laughing and joking with his cronies on stage was quite a sight. Though almost everyone now agrees that the award went to the right guy, there are still some discussions of how sincere Kobe is currently being or whether it is all just an act.
Those people say that Kobe is only happy and joking with his teammates because they are currently winning, but if they were to drop a couple games to the Jazz in the series that he'll be going nuts all over again. Well, you know what I say to those stupid and ignorant sportswriters? I can't say it here, this is a family site. But anyone who actually thinks that Kobe will go off at his teammates or the coaching staff for losing a couple games is just a moron. I highly doubt Kobe will ever go off like that again. I mean look at the position he is in: the Number 1 team in the West, surrounded by really great players, with one really great player who will be coming back stronger than ever next year, in a city full of people who kiss the floor he walks on. Kobe's got it made, and he won't ruin it.
Now, when I say he's "done it again", I of course mean: never ever in his entire life – ever. Almost twelve years have gone by while Kobe has gone without his well-deserved MVP award. I would compare it to the great Marty Scorsese: waiting more than forty years to get his first Oscar, from the day he made his first film, to last just year. But wait, let me think about that for a second. Marty doesn't need the Oscars, the Academy Awards is stupid. Stan-the-man went Oscar-less for almost fifty years, and then he died. Well, he did get an Oscar for Visual Effects for 2001, but he only had one other opponent in that category, making it fifty-fifty, and that movie had Jim Brown, the football player in it, so I doubt it was very good. It is called Ice Station Zebra, now how lame is that? I really shouldn't be making fun of it though, I didn't see it and know hardly anything about it. Rock Hudson is in it, he was from Winnetka. Winnetka, Illinois though, not California. Wait, why the hell am I rambling on about?
Oh right, "MVP. Kobe", as told by the great "hoe fasho" of course. Though it has not officially been announced by the NBA as of yet, the LA Timesran a story last night / this morning about "sources familiar with the outcome" saying that David Stern will be coming into LA to hand Kobe the trophy. Usually, the professional papers / sites do not publish rumors resembling the truth, especially a story of such magnitude, so I think it's safe to trust the Times. Yet, those sources that the article refers to say that David Stern will be coming to LA "next week". Hopefully by next week they mean Sunday (tomorrow), because that is when Game 1 of Round 2 is. Last year, they gave Dirk the award later on into the second round so that it could create some distance between itself and the great Warrior upset, haha. The three years prior to that, when Kevin Garnett and Steve Nash got them, they were given out at the start of the second round. So if the league goes back to that earlier tradition, David Stern should be on a plane tonight and Kobe should be getting the award during Game 1 tomorrow.
