Finally a bit of luck

After an excrutiating 82 games marred with injury and blown leads, the Sonics finally got a ball to bounce their way. Not a basketball, but a ping pong ball. Last nights NBA draft lottery saw the Sups get the 2nd pick in this very promising NBA draft. With the damn Blazers snagging #1 the Pacific Northwest never looked so promising. Greg Oden is supposed to go #1 and Kevin Durant #2, which is fine by me. The Sonics will get a mutli-talented college freshmen that could turn this club around. I don't want to put too much pressure on him, but this could save the Sonics (btw, props to Chunk at Supersonicsoul.com for the drawing, it is great and musta been done in a matter of hours, wow... thanks for letting me use it Chunk ;). My sources have confirmed that ticket sales last night had Sonic reps staying late into the wee hours. While I don't 100% support the new ownership (alright I support them 0%) keeping the hype and support of the Sonics is jsut what this city needs. The youngster is already selling tickets before he's stepped on the court and I can't wait to see how he does once he gets out there. My internal debate about supporting a selfish businessman vs. seeing the games live is at it again and I have no idea which will win out. I will most likely break down and see about 10 games (10 game package perhaps?!) but there are tempting offers about a potential 25 game package with really reduced pricing... I'll have to sleep on it. In other news I ahve a mere 4 days left of true bachelorism with a lot to do. All the things I needed to get done a while ago have piled up and now I will be spending my days trying to organize everything I can. Also there to eat up my time is WoW, with the new patch and Children's Week starting simultaneously I am scamperring around the world... of warcraft taking a little orphan to see the sights. Very funny how this is pretty much exactly what my parents do in real life: show orphans their surroundings because they don't have anyone to take them around. I like this aspect of the game and the cute comments from the kid "gee wiz, is there a ghost in that light house?" easily canceled out the hassle of traveling to every corner of the world........of warcraft. I got speedy the turtle and now its on to Sarah's characters so that she has something to look forward to when she gets back. Work has been steady and thats why the abrupt ending, till next time: godspeed.

The Bachelor Season 1

Well now that Sarah has left me here to my own devices I am running wild. Yep running wild..... hungry, in dirty clothes, and confused. Well while most of it sucks there are some good things that always arise when I am abandoned by the one I care about: I know exactly when the dishes are getting dirtied and thus tend to clean them on the fly, I get to do the laundry with only my clothes (6 loads maybe?), when picking where to eat I have the say (also get to order no tomatoes for that matter!), and when the TV's on I can skip right past Dr Phil and Sex in the City and go directly to the NBA Playoffs. Speaking of which here's a quick run down from my view: Golden State pretty much blew their Cinderella story by dropping game 4 last night, that whole section of the west bracket is a mess with my predictions (seriously UTAH?!?!) the east is going according to script, although I think the nets-cavs series may get rather interesting soon, Phoenix has to lock down and take care of business, the Spurs are such an easy team to hate, those bastards! In other news I jumped on the opportunity to get a massage Saturday, thank you Stan, you may have saved my soccer career and I recommend an epsom salt bath for those with achy muscles. Speaking of soccer aches, we lost 2-0 in a rough one yesterday, we played a great second half and overall a pretty good game, just some defensive collapses (not when I was in) cost us the match. News from the team organizer is that he plans on making cuts to slim down the team by this summer. And while I am not the worst player on the team this news does not bode well for me, I'll just play my game and see where it lands me. As a pre-emptive strike anyone out there have a soccer team that needs a defender? In the end abandoning (or rather behind pushed off) this sinking ship may not be such an awful thing. As the summer nears I'm hoping to play more tennis once my new roommate is established and buys her own racket. there is also running, rebounding and hiking to stay in shape as the weather gets better, but something about a competitive game makes it soooo much easier to push it to the limit. With Sarah gone I am also forced to play more WoW, and after reaching 49 last night I feel a wee bit bad because I've gotten to Sarah's level. Granted she has other characters and is away on vacation at the moment, but still I don't mean to surpass her and for that I'm sorry. I did get a pretty hardcore mask yesterday, with my draenei rocking the Bad Mojo Mask, I look that much more intimidating. The hardest struggle is finding a way to dispose of a box spring (I craigslisted the mattress in a matter of hours), so if anyone has a suggestions let me know, otherwise I'll have to track down someone with a truck and haul it do the dump. Well one thing remains during the bachelor days, I have to work so catch ya later.

True Warriors

Last night I witnessed the 6th best NBA team EVER get outplayed, outclassed and completely manhandled by an overachieving bunch of role players. As the Golden State Warriors blew by the Mavs in the third quarter I was filled with pride as well as sympathy.

Pride: The 8th seeded Warriors shouldn't have had a chance in this series (as I noted in my predictions before the start of the playoffs) yet they beat the odds and left it all out on the floor to come away with a 4-2 series win. This team had a record that this year's sonics could have easily equaled had we not sustained some of the injuries and underachieving we did this year. So from one lottery bound team to a nearly lottery bound team, congratulations.

Sympathy: This, like every NBA playoff since it happened, showed the clip with Dikembe Mutombo grasping the ball in his meaty paws as the #1 Sonics were ousted by the #8 Nuggets in 1994. I feel for the Mavs and know that the sudden end to their season feels more like the end of the world. They will rebound from this in years to come and while I rooted for Golden State to shock the world, I am regretful that it had the happen against Avery Johnson, Dirk, and the rest of the supporting crew. Let this be a lesson to the all too cocky Mark Cuban: you can be on top of the world, but once you are content to be there and no longer fight for it, you may find yourself in the deepest of dungeons.

As for the rest of the playoffs, my predictions are holding nicely for now. Except for the Warriors my bracket winners are the same as the actual winners, and while I was obviously hoping for more neck-and-neck action (see Spurs and Suns each needing 7 games to advance) I will stick by my predictions. More than even before I feel like this is the Suns year: having home court against San Antonio is HUGE as well as "getting" to face winners of the Warriors, Jazz, and Rockets. The Pistons still hold the honors in the east although I feel like a perfect combination of a long series with the Bulls and the possibility of the Cavs quickly taking care of business may set Lebron up for his first Finals appearance. As of now if I have to refine my west picks I say Rockets over Jazz, Rockets over Warriors, Suns to win the conference. Until another day this is your local prospective sports beat writer signing off, later.