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Dear Kobe

Kobe was a lot of things to different people. For many years the world saw him as a basketball player, first and foremost. What he did on that floor in the 29 arenas around the country were a thing of legend, down to his last performance we got to witness. I re-watched his last game last night. 60 points. At 38 years old, slower than his younger self, still had the fire and passion to take on anyone at any moment. Early on in the game when nothing would fall it was a blocked shot from behind that sparked something in him. That was Kobe. One spark of hustle ignited the fire that blazed into 15 points in the next five minutes. And again, in true Kobe fashion would not sit in the second half. He would bring his team back from being down 10 with three minutes to go. He just had a way of always getting the best of people. We saw that for 20 years. 19 years 364 days of him being a villain to most. One of those villains who you feared from his power and greatness but respected hard work and passion more than all. Then on his last day in uniform everyone was a Kobe fan. I had goosebumps and jumping up and down the first time I watched it. I had goosebumps and tears watching it last night. His, only fitting, final words of the night “Mamba Out!”

But then he was out of our lives. We didn’t see or hear from Kobe much after that for a few years. We saw why about a year ago. The stories came out about how the AAU team he coached, with his daughter on the team, beat another team a million to nothing, or something close to that. My first thoughts were that’s the Mamba mentality at its finest. Even a 12-year-old girls team isn’t safe from Mamba’s competitiveness. What I didn’t understand at the time was it wasn’t the Mamba who anyone needed to worry about anymore. He was just an artist molding a Mambacita with the same fire and passion he had. I realized why we hadn’t been seeing Kobe. His passion for this game was now through the eyes of Gianna. Gianna brought him back to the game he had already given so much to because of her passion. The past year we saw him come back to the NBA, with Gianna, sitting on the front row. It wasn’t because Mamba was coming back to see his old prey in action. It was so Mambacita could study her favorite players to one-day use on her prey. It was so exciting seeing the two of them discussing the intricacies of the game he already conquered and her on her way, was a special thing. To see players, such as LeBron and Luka, come hug him, always happy to see him. Then make a point to go say hi to Gianna was special. I looked forward to seeing that for the next 20 years. I can’t believe we won’t see that for the next 20 years. But you always left us wanting more. “Mamba Out!”

Evan Battey Has A Big Heart

I’m not going to try to act like an old person and say more kids need to be like Evan Battey. I won’t do it. But this is certainly a young athlete kids could look up to. Evan (Colorado) was being guarded by Oscar da Silva (Stanford). After an unintentional fall to the ground, it looked like Oscar da Silva (who was gushing blood from the head) was seriously injured. Evan was overcome with emotion and had to be taken to the locker room, himself, to calm down. I won’t tell you what the final score is of this game or if one team made a huge comeback because that doesn’t matter. What does matter from this game is it looks like Oscar da Silva is going to be fine and the incredible sportsmanship that came from it.

Dame is Big Mad!

Damian Lillard is big mad. He has very good reason to be. If you don’t know by now, he got screwed last night.

If he goes down like this, he is going to make sure everybody gets it.

He was quoted in the locker room after the game saying, “they cost us the f*cking game”. Then followed it up with quoting the tweet above. He will probably get fined for both. Does Dame care?

I don’t think so. Also, a word or warning to Donovan Mitchell, I think you picked a bad time to go after the teammate of a man on fire like Dame right now.

I expect the next tweet out of Dame will be a new single release. It will be a remix on N.W.A. called “F*uck the Refs”. It may have a diss on Donovan Mitchell too if he keeps talking when Dame is big mad. Good luck to Miami on Sunday. Damian Lillard will be raining them from half court. It will certainly be Dame-Time!

The Return of the XFL

The XFL comes back tomorrow. Am I as excited as 12-year-old me, in 2001? No. Will it live up to the XFL in 2001? Probably not. Will I be watching the games this weekend? ABSOLUTELY! In fact, I have already set the recordings to the televised games. I am intrigued. I just hope the level of play is better than Alliance League. Either way, I am happy football is back, even after my Chiefs won the Super Bowl less than a week ago. 

I have already chosen my XFL allegiance to the Tampa Bay Vipers. They have one of my favorite Notre Dame running backs in Tarean Folson on the team. They have Aaron Murray as the quarterback. They are close in proximity to where I am writing this. They are coached by ex-Bears coach, Marc Trestman. That man is extremely energetic. Many compare his speeches to Ray Lewis. They will make you ready to run through a brick wall. And let’s be honest, I’m partially choosing them for the colors and uniforms. 

I am also excited to see what new things the XFL will bring. They were innovative when they came around in ’01. They had more behind-the-scene stuff than the NFL ever dreamed of at the time, but what we see every day as an NFL fan now. The XFL will have Pat McAfee running around like the wild man he is, which I’m always a fan of. In fact, I say let Pat be Pat and just hang on for the ride. That man will always provide entertainment and ratings. Maybe the NFL and ESPN will copy the XFL on that and let Pat replace Booger for Monday Night Football coverage. But most of all, I will tune in for the chaos that the XFL has a history of bringing. I mean, the first play of the inaugural season brought a broken leg. They brought ‘He Hate Me’, one of the most iconic names in football. And they brought us the feeling of never knowing what would happen next. If they can bring a hint of that back, I will be a supporter of this league. I want them to succeed this time around. Let’s be honest, can we ever have too much football?

NBA Trade Deadline Aftermath

The NBA Trade Deadline usually brings a lot of action. This year brought some interesting trades. First, Golden State got rid of D’Angelo Russell after a couple months of being on the team. Russell made no sense for this team. I don’t know what they thought they were going to do when Klay Thompson came back. I don’t know who they thought would guard the #2 with Steph and Russell both on the floor. Turns out Klay and Steph were both out most of his tenure and they got Andrew Wiggins for him in return. Wiggins hasn’t lived up to his hype yet, but put him on the court with Steph and Klay next year and I will guarantee he has a spark in value. This should really benefit Golden State after a very questionable offseason deal, last year. 

Next big move was the Andre Iguodola trade to Miami. I have always loved Iggy, all the way back to his rookie year when he played with Allen Iverson. He is a heart and hustle guy through and though. But he is 36 years old. He hasn’t been an every day starter since 2013. Maybe he can have one more playoff heroic and shut down The Greek Freak in the playoffs to get them to the NBA Finals. It would be a far stretch. What this trade does do, is free up money for the Heat to try to get a free-agent next season, like they always do. And get more reliable players (Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder) for James Johnson and Dion Waiters. Neither have been reliable assets for the Heat since being there. And Justise Winslow is too often injured. 

But the mega trade was the four team trade with the Houston Rockets. Don’t ask me who all was involved or what everyone got because it will take me a month to figure it all out. What I can tell you is Houston traded their center. They are now playing the rest of the NBA season with a center listed at 6’5”. This is not a joke. They have no starters listed above 6’7”. They have no bench players playing reliable minutes listed over 6’8”. At first glance you would say “put a dagger in them, they are finished”. But this does allow Russell Westbrook free range to drive to the basket and either finish or kick a pass out. This does allow James Harden free range to dribble and get fouled or score. This does allow the Rockets to continue to shoot 60 three pointers a game, like they love to do. And they actually beat the Lakers last night! It looked like an elementary team playing against high schoolers when they came out for the opening tip. But the Lakers got sloppy and the short fast guys ran away with the game… Although LeBron did steal the show with his highlight reverse windmill.

But I regress. This Houston team may have just made a terrible mistake thinking they could play small-ball 100% of the time the rest of the season or we may see them actually run away with games on all these big guys. Either way, the Houston Rockets are going to be “MUST WATCH TV’ the rest of this season.

What To Watch For: While the Lakers didn’t make a trade before the deadline, Darren Collison was spotted at the game last night sitting next to Jeanie Buss. If the Lakers sign the free-agent point guard (which they desperately need) this could be all they need to for the final stretch to the NBA Championship.

The NBA Dunk Contest is Back!

Over the past few years, the NBA 3-point Contest has stolen the show on Saturday nights of All-Star weekend. But this year should be different. Get ready for the best dunk contest of recent memory. There are three awesome contestants in this dunk contest, and Dwight Howard. In Dwight’s defense, he may surprise us. Dwight isn’t the type of guy to go out of his way to embarrass himself so he may have something up his sleeve. But when he was last in it, he was just so big it wasn’t very exciting to watch. 

Aaron Gordon has the most hype going into this dunk contest because of the show he and Zack LaVine put on in the 2016 contest. Gordon has said this will be his last time participating in the contest so will have a lot of pressure to live up to his past performance. His imagination is incredible so I’m sure he will put on another awesome showing.

Derrick Jones Jr. will be participating for his first time. This man can fly. I’m talking hops like Zack LaVine and more. Jones Jr. claims he has a vertical leap of 48”. As absolutely absurd as that sounds, I believe him. There is nothing off limits for Derrick Jones Jr. I’m expecting him to jump over an obstacle. It could be a car like Blake Griffin, or go bigger, like an F150. Again, nothing is off limits for Derrick Jones Jr. 

The last contestant is Pat Connaughton. He may be the least known of the four. I’m actually not sure how many people are aware of this guy. What I do know is I love Pat. He went to Notre Dame so I have been cheering him on for years. He is my favorite Irish basketball player of all-time. This man is an athlete. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles as a pitcher who can throw 96 mph. He has been recorded throwing a football 80 yards. At the NBA draft combine, he registered a 44” vertical leap. He is the reminder that “white men can jump”. I don’t know how he will be in a dunk contest but I have seen him have some incredible in-game dunks.

I will be cheering for my Irishman Pat Connaughton to win. But I would have to predict Derrick Jones Jr. taking home the trophy. Again, I don’t know what his limits are. I have never seen someone soar this this man. 

Watch Out NBA

Don’t look now but we may have a new threat in the Western Conference. Portland has won 7-3 and only 1.5 games out of the 8 spot for the playoffs. With the Jazz on a 4 game losing streak, LA Clippers have shown signs of struggle lately, Houston is 4-6 out of the last ten games, this may be the opening Portland needs to move up into the top 7 in the western conference. They are playing some of the strongest basketball in the league on the back of Damian Lillard’s MVP caliber stretch. 

Damian Lillard is averaging just shy of 50 points per game and over 10 assist in the past six games, all but one of those games against teams in the in the playoffs as of right now. He’s had his first career triple-double during this six game stretch. He has the 3rdmost points in a six game stretch in the history of the NBA, behind only James Harden’s unhuman streaks last year and tied with Kobe Bryant streak on ’07. He’s now up to sixth in assist this season and third in points. I will add he is unmatched in rapping, while not a stat that matters it does show his swagger and confidence which is the essence of Dame’s game. We are getting close to the fourth quarter of the season. When the fourth quarter rolls around everyone knows it’s Dame Time. And no one wants to face Damian Lillard in the playoffs, especially Paul George and Russell Westbrook. By the end of the year, I predict the Blazers to make their push into the playoffs, Melo to win the Comeback Player of the Year, and Dame to win MVP. Look for Dame D.O.L.L.A.’s new album “MVP” coming out in 2020.

Super Bowl LIV

February 2, 2020, will be a day many people from Kansas City only thought would happen in our dreams. One of those dreams when you wake up in the morning and want to go back to sleep because it was almost better than what real life is. In fact, I’m not even 100% sure Patrick Mahomes is actually the Chiefs QB or if I’ve just been dreaming of the Madden player I create every year when I play against the computer on rookie level and win every game by 45 points. If that is the case, I just hope the dream last at least 36 more hours.

Kansas City and San Francisco are very similar on paper. Both teams have stellar offensive lines full of guys we don’t hear their names often (which is how offensive linemen like it). Both have a defensive back offensive coordinators have nightmares about in Sherman and Mathieu. Both have human bowling balls for fullbacks, of course KC doesn’t use ours nearly as often. We both have great defensive lines, even though SF has a defensive end that will line up offside eventually. This game will also include the two best tight ends in the game. Each team has an argument on why theirs is better, but of course anyone who says Kittle is better is wrong. We each have a head coach who is a football lifer. They have lived and breathed this game for the majority of their existence. Both have had heartbreak in this game before, with Philadelphia losing under Andy and some people may recall an offensive coordinator who decided he didn’t want to run the ball the entire second half with a 28-3 lead. There is one detail that is not the same on these two teams. While San Francisco has a very good NFL starting quarterback the Chiefs have my created player playing teams on rookie mode and will make no look passes, side arm passes, left hand passes, hell he may even try a bounce pass while he takes his claim of Super Bowl MVP and heads to Disneyland!

Prediction: Chiefs 42- San Francisco 24.