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NBA General

The Guru’s 2008 NBA Draft Review

Team By Team Breakdown of Draft Picks

After year two of the NBA’s “one-and-done” experiment, a new crop of kids will be collecting millions of dollars, having their name plastered across ugly overpriced shoes and either joining the list of draft busts or draft steals.  Though this draft wasn’t as deep as drafts past, it still had a lot of quality players available.  But, as they always do, NBA GM’s and big wigs will find a way to screw up the future of their franchise.

Here’s a report card of the winners and losers from Thursday night.

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NBA General

Season Of Certain Uncertainty

2008 NBA Playoff Preview

The knockdown, drag out fight that has been the NBA regular season has finally come to a close and all the participants, battered and disheveled, are ready to scrape their way to the summit to claim the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Okay, that sums up the Western conference but what about the East?

(That was too easy…)

But seriously, this NBA season has been one of the best that I been able to watch.  And because of my love for football, I usually dismiss the round ball action until after New Year’s, but this season slapped you in the face all year long.

Mega-blockbuster, franchise changing trades, unrealistic turnarounds, the tightest MVP race in history, and some of the coolest-turned-annoying promotional commercials I’ve ever seen (I hear that “Where amazing happens” piano music in my sleep).

While no one in their most insane and eccentric state of mind could have predicted Boston going all “We’re the real Celtics again” on the league, Mitch Kupchak hi-jacking Pau from the Grizz, CP3 looking like the Big O reincarnate, Shaq turning Phoenix, Arizona into the latest site for his 24-hour fitness club chain, or Kobe playing nice; the upcoming playoffs will be even more unpredictable.

So with all of the questions swirling around this weekend’s playoff kickoff, I picked out 15 of the most pressing ones and answered them.

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NBA General

The Guru’s 2008 Mock NBA Draft Lottery

The Guru Predicts The 2008 NBA Draft Lottery

The ping-pong balls are done bouncing and the Association has once again found a way to make all the conspiracy theorists, like myself, concoct new assumptions about its self-serving manipulation.

But far be it from me to ever question Mr. Stern or the integrity of his league, you know the league with the betting refs, the painfully predictable games, and the one that once employed Tom Tolbert; that league.

But I digress.  The next crop of “one-and-dones” is ready to start collecting millions of dollars while trying to avoid the ranks of Kwame Brown, Darius Miles, and Michael Olowokandi.  But unlike the aforementioned busts, this next generation of kids can at least say they know what a college gym looks like.

I still think the NBA should extend the age limit rule to two years removed from high school, forcing these kids to actually take notes in class instead of doodling sketches of their first ugly, over-priced shoe.

There I go getting off topic again…

Here’s how I think June’s lottery will shake out:

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NFL General

The Guru’s 2008 Mock NFL Draft

It’s that time once again, time for teams to either rebuild or destroy their franchise’s future.  Though the true meddle and talent of a draft class needs about five years to truly be measured, I think I can pick out about ten players that I believe won’t measure up to what they’re expected to be.  But who knows…

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NBA General

2007 NBA Draft Review: Winners & Losers

Team By Team Breakdown of Picks

This year’s NBA draft was considered to be one of the deepest we’ve seen in a long while.  Normally I’d disagree with the experts and Jay Bilas, but this time they were right.  The new age limit rule has made all of these young kids go to someone’s college for at least a year and play against some better competition.  But no matter how deep a draft might be, some teams will still find a way to screw up their draft night and their franchise’s future.  Here is a report card of the winners and losers from last Thursday night.

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General Sports

Sometimes I Sit and Think

The Guru’s Inner Most Thoughts about Sports and Stuff…

A lot of things have been going in and outside the world of sports here lately.  And I haven’t had the opportunity to weigh in on much of them due to my lack of time.  But SportsColumn has been too good to me for me just leave you guys hanging.  So here are some of the things I’ve been sitting and thinking about…

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NBA General

It’s Anybody’s Game

Another NBA regular season has come to a close, which means we only have five more months until we can get some football actions.  The 2006-07 NBA regular season was definitely one to be remembered.  But this year’s cast of playoff participants should make for an even better postseason.  Once again we have a couple of new faces in the picture as Don “Nelly” Nelson led his Golden State Warrior team to the playoffs after a 13 year hiatus.  While the Orlando Magic snap a 4 year playoff drought as they reach the postseason.  The rest of the cast remained pretty much the same.  In the East, the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland LeBron’s /Cavaliers, the new and improved Toronto Raptors, the Chicago Bulls, the Washington Wizards, the New Jersey Nets, and the defending champion Miami Heat.  Out in the West, the juggernaut Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns, the overlooked Houston Rockets, the Utah Jazz, the San Antonio Spurs, the up and coming Denver Nuggets, and the Los Angeles Kobes.

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NBA General

30 More Reasons to Watch the NBA in 2007

The Best Storylines Going into the Playoffs

Well, we are entering the home stretch of the NBA season.  The playoff picture is beginning to solidify and the Oden – Durant lottery is all but set.  So here are the last reasons to watch the NBA before the playoffs.

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NBA General

30 Reasons to Watch the NBA in 2007

The Best Storylines Going into the All-Star Break

Now that the NFL season has come to a close, I can really focus on some basketball.  And since I had so much success with this article NFL style, I figured, why not give a NBA version a try.  Well, from what the little bit I’ve watched, the 2006-07 NBA season is already shaping up to be a doozy.  The usual powerhouses are dominating and the usual losers are, you guessed it, still stinking it up every other night.  But beyond that, some things have been flying under the radar.  But that’s what you have me for, so here we go…

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NFL General

The Men Are Black

Lovie & Dungy Make NFL and Black History

There was an old proverb that I once saw on a wall at one of my local bakeries that read, “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right.”  Now of course they were referring to bread, but that really struck a nerve with me.  One, because I was there to buy a loaf of rye, and two, it made me think about the number of African-American coaches in the NFL.  I have been watching NFL football for a substantial amount of years and that statement really hit home and made me rethink my views about the coaching position in the NFL.  Now with the success of Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, both Black men and head coaches, leading their teams to the Super Bowl; maybe its time to say “If it ain’t white, that’s alright.”