Like riding a bike, eh?

I apologize for interrupting your focus as you break down the 8 player BLOCKBUSTER trade that just went down in the NBA...but I gotta blog it up. It's been a while. The honest reason is mostly laziness...but sprinkle a little "I'm trying to sell my condo and I've been constantly cleaning" into the normal "busy" mix and I think I got a hell of an excuse. No? You don't think so? Well, piss off and scroll down to the bottom of this entry.

Now do I have your attention? Well, good. This entry is meant to be a sports/pop culture/politics Schmogasboard...so I'm going to spout out what needs to be said bullet-style.

• Thanks to JMass for totally ballooning my expectations for "Children of Men" and the 4 hour season premier of "24". Both were good, but "COM" wasn't better than any movie since the '80s (it's probably not in my Top 3 for this year for cry eye) and "24" was same old "24". Someone you like dies, something shocking happens. As a matter of fact,

• "24" deserves it's own bullet point, don't cha think? Granted I've only seen one full season of "24" but the formula is becoming as predictable as a Marcus Giles at bat. Seems to me that the writers realize that each year has to get more shocking to hold the attention of the viewers. President assassinated last year in the first episode, friggin nuclear weapon explodes on U.S. soil in the premier this season. There's was a preview of next week's episode where Bauer explains to Bill "I'm back in this now" since the bomb went off. Well, Jack, I guess that's the case for me too. But, like you, Jack, it's against my will. What's the shocker for next year? 1/2 the world explodes? Jack Bauer realizes that he can go down on himself? Sorry...was that a little too much? A little too shocking? Don't tell Fox, otherwise JB will be giving himself BJ's next year for the "shock value." Clever aren't I?

• Anyone else still watch The Apprentice? Didn't think so. Real quick, though, this season the losers of the tasks have to sleep in a big tent called..."Tent City". I wonder where the Donald got that idea (I would link to the AJC article...but it's no longer available).

• Speaking of all things tailgating, who's ready for college football to be back? First game's in 3 weeks right? Well, shoot. At least there's still recruiting. Rival's new Top 100 came out today. A few of UGA's recruits moved up way up in the rankings, specifically Aron White, who was previously outside the Top 100 and now is #38 as well as Antwane Greenlee, now # 65 who continues to worry me since he flaked out on FSU to come to UGA and is still talking to FSU. I'm going to nickname Greenlee "The Flake"...I don't think he'll mind. According to Rivals, Caleb King is now our 5th best recruit, which comforts me a bit since my Dad tutors Caleb's sister and she claims that Caleb got a, well, let's just say that he didn't do so well on the SAT. Hello Hargrave. UGA still has some blue chippers on the big board, specifically Cameron Heyward (Ironhead's boy who'll probably go to OSU), and Allen Bailey (dude lives on a friggin island). Other than that, we're pretty much finished up. Expect a Top 15 class...but the main objective was achieved since we'll sign 8 offensive lineman (5 of which are already on campus).

• Staying on the sports path, what are the Braves thinking? I think Gonzalez will be a fine reliever, but I thought they had a closer in Wickman. LaRoche has the potential, now that he's on medication, to be one of the best left handed power hitters in the game. Look at his numbers in the 2nd half of last season. At the 80th game of last year LaRoche was hitting .237 with a .321 OBP. By the end of the season, his average was up to .285 and the OBP was at .354. Wouldn't you let that momentum ride into 2007? I don't understand why the Braves suffered through the growing pains of LaRoche for 3 years, then when he finally hits his stride, they deal him. It's like holding onto Apple stock for 3 years and selling it right before they released the plans for the iPhone. Oh well, at least Schuerholz got it right with "Cross Eye".

ah herrr. Derrr.

• Seriously, still nobody has seen Keane? I ned to talk to someone about this movie.

• I'm interested to see what JMac thinks about this next point. Sonny Perdue wants to make Georgia the fishing capital of the world. I agree that it's going to improve the state economy and probably be good for the environment. But c'mon...let's be honest. Sonny wanted to improve something he loves doing. Wouldn't adding a wing to some museum improve the economy? Wouldn't improving the highways allow workers to get to work quicker and improve the economy? Nope...fishing. Ridiculous, and, don't get me wrong, the only reason it's ridiculous is because I don't fish. If I were governor, I'd be getting pressure from Stanicek and a bunch of others to put $19 million into the state Tailgating Budget and I'd spin it that it would be great for the economy since we'll be encouraging visitors to tailgate in Georgia. How is nobody calling him out on this?

• Bill Simmons has officially lost it and I'm FINALLY fed up with his Boston bias. It kills me that the article that put me over the edge has to do with basketball, but this one is a direct attack at one of my beloved teams. Here's the lines that made me gouge my eyes:

The last great basketball teams were the Lakers and Celtics from the mid-'80s. Both were blessed with selfless superduperstars (Bird and Magic), genuine Hall of Famers (McHale and Parish for Boston; Worthy and Kareem for the Lakers) and valuable role players (DJ, Ainge and Walton for Boston; Cooper, Scott and Green for the Lakers). And both teams reached heights that haven't been approached since. They were the last two teams that dominated in a competitive league and routinely submitted those occasional "not only are we winning this game by 25 points, just send the tape to Springfield after it's over" games.

Not even a mention of the Bulls teams that would've won 8 titles in a row if MJ didn't retire. Not even a mention.

AND

Would the '86 Celtics have beaten the '96 Bulls in a seven-game series? Too difficult to say. For instance, Pippen would have guarded Bird in that series, and there wasn't anyone remotely resembling Scottie Pippen in 1986. So how could you know? Compare their relative impacts and it's a different story. The '86 Celtics were greater than the '96 Bulls because they excelled against tougher competition, they were invincible at home (50-1 at home if you include playoff games) and their top-six was better than Chicago's top-six. You will never convince me otherwise.

I know everyone's getting bored with me talking about NBA, so I'll keep this short. Michael Jordan put up 63 on the Celtics in 1986 when he didn't have a supporting cast and took them to overtime BY HIMSELF when he was just 23 years old. And just because there wasn't a player like Pippen in 1986 doesn't mean that he doesn't count...he would've shut down Bird like no other. Ask Magic in 1991 when Pippen owned him in a non-sensual sense.

• There...no more basketball. Happy? OK, this is long enough. Gotta save some material for my book tour. GO BEARS!!!...oh, and sneak another peak at my rump.
  

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now, mind ya bizness and keep reading