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Monday, 28-Apr-2003

 

Spurious thoughts and idle musings from the sports week just past ...

 

Coming up next on ESPN, you won't want to miss The Michael Jordan Retirement Show Retirement Show.  Yes, it's six full hours jam-packed with all your favorite highlights from all three Michael Jordan Retirement Shows.  And you'll see them all ... 1993, 1999 and 2003 ... in their entirety, commercial-free and uninterrupted.  But that's not all ... Stay right here for three very special hour-long feature presentations ... "The Making of The Michael Jordan Retirement Show Retirement Show", "Behind The Scenes: The Michael Jordan Retirement Show Retirement Show" and "The Michael Jordan Retirement Show Retirement Show: The Director's Cut" here on ESPN.

 

Who let the Ducks out ???  With a mighty four-game quackjob over defending Cup champ Detwah and 2 more OT wins over Dallas, Anaheim is feeling no pain.  Also, feeling happy happy joy joy are the Minnesota Wild.  Or is that "is the Minnesota Wild" ???  I can never tell.  Regardless, Lord Stanley is now down to just eight including my Flyers who bagged the Leafs in six to somehow postpone their annual spring tee times for at least another week.  Now if only they can get past the Ottawa Bankrupts and keep those golf clubs on ice just a little while longer.

 

I dunno what else there is to say about the NFL Draft ... Clearly, it's a mini-event that's been carefully overblown into a Mega-Event.  But it's also a fertile pop-up oasis in the barren desert wasteland known as the NFL off-season.  So yes, I can hold on for ten hours of the insufferable Chris Berman.  And the hair that is Mel Kiper Jr.  And the hair that is not Merrill Hoge.  And Jaws and Mort and Andrea and Dennis Green and war rooms and green rooms and Coors Light videoconferencing.  Cause it's the pig, the whole pig and nothing but the pig.  So help me Vince.

 

More Stanley Cuplets ... Man, I don't know where these guys get the energy but they play so many multi-overtime games that you almost can't believe it when they finish one in three regulation periods.  And they fly up and down the ice shift after shift too with enough bone-crunching hits, pinpoint passes and miraculous saves to send Darren Pang into low-level orbit.  But here's what I'm thinking the whole time I'm watching in stunned amazement ... Is there anything more meaningless than the NHL regular season ???

 

And the answer is ... Yes, the NBA regular season.  Gee, ya think ???  I mean, with the quality of play in both the NBA Playoffs and the Stanley Cup, you'd have to pay me to go see a regular season game again.  T-Mac, Kobe-Wan, Dirk Diggler, Allen "Just Shoot Me" Iverson, KG, Stephon Marbury, Tim Duncan, Paul Pierce, Kazaam ... The list goes on and on.  One stud after another turning the impossible into Oh My God.  Yeah, you're right, the regular season pays most of the bills but the post-season is all chills and thrills.

 

Dear Braves, Too bad you couldn't afford to keep Kevin Millwood.  How's Johnny What's-His-Name doing ???  Love, the Phillies.

 

Clearly, the Vikings still haven't quite mastered the 15:00 minute clock but the 2003 NFL Draft Head Scratcher Award goes to the Houston Problems who drafted not one but two more quarterbacks.  After spending $60,000,000 on David Carr, last year's top shelf pick and fortunate survivor of 76 painful sack dances, you'd think his brass would get him some o-line help.  Then again, maybe the Texans just had a coupla extra clipboards lying around in need of caddies.  As Master Yoda would say ... Sense not make this does.

 

I admit I'm not sure what to make of the apparent settlement of the WNBA's recent labor problems ... On the one hand, it's nice that Oprah Nation has a league of their own, no doubt about it.  But with rare exceptions, the game itself is all but unwatchable and can't even begin to support itself without the NBA's underwires.  I mean, c'mon, can you imagine trying to bargain with The Sterminator for a little more coin ???  They might as well ask Judge Smails for a cheeseburger ... You'll get nothing and like it, ladies.

 

Bud Light got himself some ink last week when he announced he'll step down as baseball commish when his current contract runs out on New Year's Eve, 31-Dec-2006.  Let's see now ... That's three more years, eight more months and three more days to go ... Which is 44 more months or 1,343 more days or 32,232 more hours or 1,933,920 more minutes or 116,035,200 more seconds.  And counting.

 

From The Association offs ... Nobody's through yet but the Orlando "Grant Who?" McGradys are on the verge of sending the Pistons home for a summer lube, oil and filter.  Same goes for the Holy Green Sweat Socks who have Isiah's Pacers looking like his belly-up CBA.  Elsewhere, my Mavs are up 3-1 on the insane Fail Blazers while the Sixers and Hornets are still busy holding home court serve.  But until the king is actually dead, deader, deadest, the Lakers will get the ink.  Or at least share it with the T-Pups.  C'mon, KG, beat 'em and make The Peacock cry.

 

See ya nexted week ...

 

Robert E Hunt Jr

 

Copyright ã 2003 by Robert E Hunt Jr.  All rights reserved.