Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

Quick thoughts:

I could use a little less drama in sports, but I can't complain about the final outcome for two of my favorite teams. The first and most important game was the Jazz-Lakers Western Conference semifinal game. I could write a novel about the game, but I will spare my thoughts to a few things:

• Deron Williams is the Hakeem Olajuwon of the Utah Jazz. No they don't play the same position or have anything about their game that is similar. The reason for the comparison is that nobody faults the Rockets for drafting Olajuwon even though they could have drafted Michael Jordan just like nobody faults the Jazz for drafting Deron Williams instead of Chris Paul.
• I can't believe Phil Jackson called out Kobe's teammates for "bailing out." This plus his constant politicking through the media for calls is annoying and ridiculous out of touch with what is actually happening in the game. He probably believe that Kobe and MJ never missed a shot without getting fouled.
• Not to be obvious, but Pau Gasol is tall and has a ridiculous long wingspan. Thanks Memphis for giving the Lakers their best post player.
• Two of the Lakers four best players (Derek Fisher, and Pau Gasol) were either literally given away (Fisher from the Jazz) or might as well have been given away (Gasol). How good would the Lakers be without those two players? Would Kobe have won the MVP instead of the real MVP Chris Paul? What would the Western Conference playoffs looked like?
• Where would the Jazz be with Derek Fisher in the lineup? Ronnie Price is a decent backup point guard (who made a Tayshaun Prince-esque block in the 4th quarter), but Derek Fisher is really good and just seems to be even better in the playoffs. I would have loved to see Fisher hit those corner for the Jazz instead of against the Jazz. Did I mention that Fisher was a gift from the Jazz to their competition? I know that Fisher's daughter's medical condition complicated things and I don't fault Fisher at all, but still it couldn't have worked out better for the Lakers and worse for the Jazz. That is like Wendy's giving McDonald's the Frosty, while also taking it off their menu.
• Jazz fans: don't boo Derek Fisher. Again he isn't at fault for the situation and is only doing what is best for his family.

The undercard (which actually happened after the Jazz game) was the Red Sox-Twins game at the Dome. For a random May game it was a pretty exciting 9-8 win for the Twins. I don't know how the team is doing it, but somehow the team is winning games that they didn't win last year. I think that a lot of it might be luck that will even out through the course of a 162 game season, but I will choose tonight to be optimistic.

Top 3 completely unrealistic things I would want from my current sports "career":

1. A Sportscentury half hour about my high school basketball career at St. Andrew's.
2. Jon Miller and someone other than Joe Morgan announcing one of my Thursday night softball games.
3. ESPN Classic showing the Richland-St. Andrew's game from my senior year, but this time with Marv Albert and Al Michael's announcing.