Been watching the Stanley Cup Finals over the last week but looks like LA Kings are going to run away with it now. The first two games in Jersey were close despite Kings dominating possession and chances but switched to LA for game three today and the Devils were just outclassed going down 4-0 in the end.

Landed in Vancouver a bit late to catch any of the Canucks playoff games so will have to wait til next season now but got tickets for a Whitecaps game (Vancouver's MLS team) next weekend so looking forward to that.

So the Heat win.

Lebron finally gets a championship.

The Thunder do well, but finally show their (lack of) age in the finals and lose focus a little bit.

Toughest job as a GM is going to be Sam Presti for the thunder trying to keep the team together, and not going overboard on changes.

Given the young bucks they have (Durrant, Westbrook, harden and Ibaka) it's a matter of keeping them, and making the odd change to the role players. Perkins may have to go, Fisher should only be kept if he's cheap, and I'm not sure if sefalosa is the 2 guard stopper they want. Always hard to find that mix of defense, good shooting and price tag.

If they can keep that young four together for a while, they'll grow and get a title soon enough, you'd think. They've improved every year as it stands, and 23-24 is so young for going for a title.

Not sure who else is going to challenge the Heat in the next couple of years. Everyone else is the wrong side of 30 (LA, SAS, boston, Dallas) or haven't got the pieces together yet (NYC, Magic, LAC). I could see LAC going places next year, assuming Griffin really gets it together and they make a couple of good trades and they stay healthy, but still, they've got to be a year or so off really having a tilt.

Meanwhile: chet's been getting into the history of the game on Facebook and put me on to an awesome doco about Bird and Magic. I'll link when I get home. Either way, worth watching, and I'd nearly say that a love of basketball is secondary as far as enjoying it goes. It's one of those good docos that gets fairly universal interesting territory.

Surprisingly moving towards the end too. The stuff with magic and his battle with Aids is an obvious source of the emotion, but I have to say the stuff about Bird and his injuries is equally amazing.

Damn, got side tracked. Can you link it here? I can't FB right now, and I have 10 minutes to kill while some work stuff DLs.

Only a bit of the way through, but it's hard to argue with the idea that they should get paid.

Yeah I can't see how this isn't the last word on the argument. It gets even more shocking as it goes along.

This nearly needs its own thread: Rasheed Wallace is out of retirement, playing for the Knicks. That is awesome.

He's the size of a fucking hummer these days.

Still, sheed is the king of the technical, so that'll be exciting. he may well hit someone this year, I reckon.

On holiday in Canada i watched loads of Baseball and went to a Blue Jays game which was amazing fun. I've been before and did the same and i always promise myself i'll continue following baseball when i get home. Can never keep it up though.

Play offs now though i think, might try and follow to the end of the series.

At the least i'll try and watch the world series!

Its pretty hard when its not just on TV constantly.

Exactly the same here, I used to be really into basketball, collected the cards, bought merchandise etc. and it was easier because Channel 4 had a couple of shows a week, but if you have to make too much of an effort to keep up with the goings on it makes it much harder.

The NFL app on iPhone is good, and ESPN do a podcast 4 or 5 times a week that previews and reviews games, so that is helping. Will be interesting to see if I am still into it come January.

Surveyor wrote:

Any chance of a Shawn Kemp return? 'Here Comes the Rainman'!

Surely his nose has fallen off. Coke habit much.

Surveyor wrote:

Facewon wrote:

Surveyor wrote:

Any chance of a Shawn Kemp return? 'Here Comes the Rainman'!

Surely his nose has fallen off. Coke habit much.

Please don't disgrace my hero.

Just read his Wiki page, oh dear. I had forgotten about his chubby stage at the Cav's too!

Brooks wrote:

Bengals are actually 3 and 1 I don't believe it.

Must be a widely reported misprint surely? 

49ers also 3-1 which after road games against the Packers, Jets and Vikings I'm very happy with. Still not convinced that Smith has what it takes but the 49ers defence is ridiculously good.

Music is shite, but the plays are awesome.

Posting Spree!!!!

Picked up a new ball today. unadvertised, but new Molten for nearly half price. nabbed a new pump, whistle and needles for pump for $20 less than I was planning to pay for the ball by itself. Win.

Can't wait for Saturday and my first day coaching a team!

Meanwhile, watched game 4 of the 04 Finals curtesy of the above 'tube channel. Hadn't seen any full games of that series. Pistons coming through as underdogs playing massive D with the two Wallaces, LA made up of a still potent Shaq, an off the boil Kobe, and two guys trying to steal a ring before they retired (Malone and Payton).

Malone should never have left Utah. Watching him sit on the bench with a wrecked knee while the pistons dismantled the lakers is sad for a guy who'd been so big for so long.

Payton, of course, managed to sneak onto Miami's roster the year after, with Shaq, and finally get his ring.

Rasheed Wallace, for all his crazy, is also a fucking monster centre/forward with an awesome low post game, and unstopable shooting action. Beautiful high release, long arms, amazing to watch.

No, Payton was in the heat team in 05, when they won with Shaq and Wade.

You'll be pleased to know that the wheels are in motion for an arena in Seattle. Which in the crazy world of US sports, tends to come before the team. Even crazier if they get called the sonics, as a lot of the franchise records are shared with thunder and sonics.

Nothing boring about stockton and malone to me. Just magnificent pick and roll ball for like 18 years.

Kemp was a champ in that finals run, mind. Even though Rodman totally took him apart in the third quarter of game 6.