I believe in B-ball ...

right

on

I have been looking forward to Christmas this year ever since (and only since) I found out it would be the first regular season meeting between the Lakers and Kings since the travesty that was the 2002 Western Conference Finals. Doubly so since I tuned into the preseason game (yes, I watch preseason games) between the two teams that degenerated into an off-court brawl before five minutes had elapsed. No nice Christmas cheer for this doggy; basketball bloodlust will be the order of the day.

I'll take anybody except the Lakers. Would like to see Houston do good this year. Want San Antonio, but they keep tripping over their own feet.

Boston looks good for the first time in a long/long winters night. Don't think the Knicks stand a chance.

Is it the bloodlust that scares everybody away?

Not me! I dunno who I'm for, though. I'm usually regional, and was in L.A. for their renaissance under Phil, who I have allegiance to as a former Bull fan. But they have always irked me a bit, now more than usual, and I'm not in L.A. anymore. I was impressed with the Kings last year, so what the hey.

Meanwhile, I have to say the sports center of my brain is currently overwhelmed with the PACKERS. Did anyone see the game on Sunday? Good ol' Gilbert Brown, bless him, just standing innocently on the sideline and the 49'ers Jeff Craig plowing directly into him and getting sufficiently discombobulated that he couldn't get a drive together to win the game? Brett lookin' goooooooooood and throwing bullets in the pouring rain? I haven't had this much fun watching them since '96-'97.

I may have to get into the Pack, soz. The patiobitch got a letter of acceptance (very early, and personally signed) from the U Wisc. law school yesterday. Which pretty much narrows the hunt down to Sacto (go Kings), Madison (go Bucks! -- nah, Kahr's a tool), or Athens (uh, yeah, whatever).

Sorry for the digress, there, jes...

That's so great! Congrats to... er... (can't bring myself to use your term of endearment) the patio gal! I'm tellin' ya, dude, you would LOVE Madison.

It's way more a football town than basketball, though -- the Bucks are doing OK, but just OK, and with no particular prospects. But between the Packers and the Badgers (not so great last year, usually stellar), there's a lot of good stuff football-wise.

Congrats again, though -- that's a big deal. UW-Madison Law School is really well-regarded. (Jes can probably give a more neutral view on that -- I'm just gung-ho on all things Madison. If you couldn't tell. )

Football, except in the form of highlights or the old Bills hurry-up offense, bores me to tears. Too much time with nothing going on. And Karl (did I really call him Kahr?) should be fired from the Bucks for the way he coached the U.S. national team -- never mind the way he's coached the pathetic Bucks, who are suddenly greater underachievers than the Trailblazers, and that's going some.

(But, then, I'm gung-ho on basketball. If you couldn't tell.)

Anyway, still gotta get word on my app to Wisconsin, and elsewhere...

Oh, Karl. Yeah. He's a doofus.

I have some kind of multiple-sports-personality. I shift gears. Right now I'm in full Packers mode, and will be through the playoffs at least. It probably would be different if I had a b-ball team I was completely for. But when the Packer's season is over, I'll switch to b-ball, and then I say all those same things -- football's slow, it's boring, there's so much less drama, you can't even see the guy's faces, you can't judge a lift of an eyebrow and decide whether it's an incipent drive to the basket or a fake, etc. I find basketball infinitely more esthetically pleasing, and if it wasn't for the Packers, I probably wouldn't be such a football fan. But Brett-to-Driver on a crossing pattern.... gorjuss.

Man, I can't believe you'd rather watch that than the Bulls' latest collection of tall, skinny teenagers!

Hey, a digression in spawts is no problem.

Yeah, I know, the Knicks are pretty woeful (sorry, Mr. Jespah). The Celts have been looking good, though, but I'm always cautious about too much rooting for local teams as, whenever I get interested, it always seems that they start to tank. Hmmm. I guess I have a rooting hex, or something like that.

Could never get into football, not even last year's championship Pats. 'Course, that's what made 'em champs - the fact that I did not root for them.

Anyone got a team they don't want me to root for? I can't guarantee victory but I figure, hey, it can't hurt.

Like rally caps, yanno.

If you could, please refrain from rooting for the Mavs or the Kings. I'd like to see them in the conference finals this year. And I'll be in touch with you about some very particular horses I'd like you to root FOR, next time I go to the track.

I'll do my best. Sometimes the mojo works, sometimes it doesn't.

I hereby want the Mavs and the Kings to lose. Perhaps I should burn incense or something, to make it official?

Nah, burning things just leads to light fines, "rehab," and diminished free agent contracts in the NBA.

Don't be so hard on George Karl. When he coached the Sonics, it was said that Gary Payton, a great player but a real hothead, respected his coach because he knew that Karl was just crazy enough to take a swing at him if it came to that...

Could be. I actually liked him back then, but I just sat there scratching my head looking at his decisions this summer; and last year's team falling out of the playoff hunt altogether -- man.

(For that matter, I've never thought Adelman was a very good coach, but his players love him and they're doing great, most of the time, so there you go...)

My heart still goes to my college baseball team. The University of Oklahoma Sooners.

But, I have been very faithful to Huston, as I mentioned earlier. Am glad to see them get Chu, this guy may be the talent of the future. Look forward to seeing him against Shaq in a couple of years when he gets the American footing down. He already has some great moves and some very interesting shots. How will he be when faces the same team 7 times in 10 days?

Yao was a stud last night. And a couple of the passes he's made the last couple of games were incredible. That touch pass on the inbounds play with time running down last night? A thing of beauty. I watched him early in the season and thought the Rockets were out of their heads -- thought they'd found the second coming of Shawn Bradley -- but this kid has some serious court sense. He's gonna be a player.

I remember earlier in the year he did a no look pass, it looked like between some defenders legs - at a full gallop. That is where this man is gonna be something. He moves up and down the court - can he continue to do it? That is a lot of mass to move around, but will he have to bulk up for the NBA? That'll slow him down!

They've been waiting for a guy seven and a half feet tall who wasn't an absolute fish for a long time, and this may be him. As long as he makes it up and down -- look at Sabonis in the second half of his career; he was very effective running about as fast as a plump toddler. I'm jumping on the Yao bandwagon...