A Few Scattered Thoughts

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers, for winning their 11th NBA Championship -- their 16th if you count their Minneapolis years, which would put them 1 behind the Boston Celtics for the most, all-time.

(And you shouldn't, even though "Minneapolis Lakers" makes much more sense than "Los Angeles Lakers" ever could. Frank Layden, who coached the Jazz in New Orleans, where the team's name made sense, and Utah, where it didn't, suggested the teams change names: "Utah Lakers" would make sense, and if you know music, then so would "Los Angeles Jazz.")

Kobe Bryant has finally won a World Championship without Shaquille O'Neal. Now, let's see if he can win one without the referees giving him every call imaginable.

Hey, maybe he really is, finally, "the next Michael Jordan." Jordan never won a title without the referees ignoring the traveling rule.

So how come Patrick Ewing never won one? He wasn't just a favorite of refs, he was the New York guy, the one Commissioner David Stern wanted when he fixed the 1985 Draft.

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The Washington Nationals come into Yankee Stadium II tonight for a three-game series. They're ahead of the 1962 Mets' pace for most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134. Now, I don't expect the Nats to do worse than the 40-120 the Mets did in '62, or the 43-119 the Detroit Tigers did in 2003, or even the pathetic 36-117 the Philadelphia Athletics did in 1916 (when owner-manager Connie Mack apparently coined the saying, "Well, you can't win them all"). But I do expect the Nats to be bad enough for the Yankees to take three straight.

The English Premier League fixture list comes out tomorrow morning. Two months exactly until it kicks off again.

Two and a half months to Rutgers football, less than three months to East Brunswick football. The NFL? I won't stop you from caring, but I just don't love it anymore.

Less than four months to the 2009-10 NHL season. Didn't we just end a hockey season? (Actually, no: We ended it a bit further back than that. Two goals in the last minute-twenty of Game 7... )

I have to remind myself that June 15 isn't the trading deadline anymore. I'm wondering why the Yankees didn't make a big trade yesterday.

The only thing they really need to trade is their 0-8 record against the Red Sox this season for a World Championship.