insightsports

For all of you armchair athletes, ESPA has come up with the remote to solve all your viewing problems. Dubbed the ESPN Ultimate Remote, this little gadget is packed with features. And no, I’m not getting a cut on any of the sales, but I thought you would want to know about it. For a mere $300, you can get all of this: wireless connection to the Internet that allows you to text message, send and check e-mail plus watch television via the 2-inch screen. It will even turn itself on when it senses nearby movement and automatically adjusts the brightness of its screen based on surrounding light. How could you possibly get along without it?

I’ve been playing fantasy sports on Yahoo since the start of the new millennium, dating back to 2000. If you’ve never tried it, you should give it some serio9us consideration. There are both public leagues and private leagues. I don’t recommend the public leagues because there are many participants who flake out after the start and it takes the fun out of it for everyone else. The best thing to do is to go to Yahoo Sports, click on Fantasy Sports and choose the one you are interested in. Then go to the message board where you will find dozens of private leagues that are looking for a few more participants. Find the one that appeals to you and join up. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself with a group of guys who stay active. I’ve been playing with the same people for seven years or more and we come from every corner of the United States. Give it a try—you’ll be glad you did.

The Boston Celtics are on a roll and the lowly Los Angeles Lakers aren’t in any position to stop them. With Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce leading the charge, the Boston squad is going to bring home the NBA championship to Bean Town. It’s been a long time and they are certainly due. And I for one am a bit tired of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant and the whole bunch of guys. They’re yesterday’s bad news. I predict that it will all be wrapped up on Sunday. And it’s about time. The season is one of the longest in sports. It’s already mid-June and they’ve been going for so many months that I lost count. We won’t have very long to wait for the next pre-season. So now it’s onward to baseball and then my personal favorite, the National Football League. Go Seahawks!

It comes as no surprise to me when I read in today’s San Francisco Chronicle a story about accusations being made by former National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy who is at the center of a huge gambling scandal. According to Donaghy’s claims, referees rigged a playoff series in 2002 to push the series to seven games. It was all about money of course. He also claimed that referees are routinely encouraged to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate games and to refrain from calling technical fouls on the league’s superstars to keep them from being ejected from games. It comes down to ticket sales and TV ratings. NBA Commissioner David Stern says there is no basis for the allegations and that Donaghy’s claims are self-serving. I suppose there may be some truth to Stern’s comments since Donaghy has pleaded guilty to felony charges concerning cash payments he accepted from gamblers for rigging games in which he officiated. He also bet on games himself. It’s just unfortunate that sports have to be tainted by such actions.

When the NBA finals start in Boston on Thursday night, a couple big guns will be in the spotlight. Paul Pierce of the Celtics will be facing off against the National Basketball Association’s MVP, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers. I have to give the nod to the Lakers despite Boston’s great 66-16 regular season record this year…nine games better than the Lakers’ 57-25 record. When you look at the individual stats, Kobe dominates (28.3 scoring average vs. 19.6 for Pierce). He also leads the Lakers in assists and steals. But this is playoff time, and stats don’t really mean anything.  Boston beat the Detroit pistons in six games, and in three of them Pierce scored 22, 26 and 27 points. Kobe on the other hand averaged nearly 30 points (29.2) over the five games that it took to end San Antonio’s season. His scores were 27, 22, 30, 28 and finally 39 points. Although this is slated as a seven-game series, I don’t see it going that long. I see the Lakers winning in five games, including two road wins.

Sunday will be a real challenge for the American sports buff. Start out with a full slate of MLB games—15 games in all. Then toss in game three of the NBA Western Division finals, with Kobe Bryant’s Lakers leading 2-0. With this game being in San Antonio it’s time for the Spurs to get back on track. They lose this one and it’s all she wrote. They would have to win the next four straight and that isn’t going to happen. Also on tap is auto racing, starting with the Indianapolis 500 and then NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600. Add it up, that’s 1,100 miles of racing this Sunday. Perhaps golf is your forte. No problem, the final round of the Colonial in Fort Worth is on tap with fan-favorite Phil Mickelson leading the pack. I haven’t really been a big Mickelson fan, but I’m starting to come around a little bit, plus I picked him to win in my fantasy golf league, so I guess I’ll be rooting for him tomorrow. Oh, and did I mention tennis? It’s one of the big four starting tomorrow at Roland Garos—the French Open, this year’s second Grand Slam. Favorites Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova will be taking on a formidable group of challenges led by Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic. The only major professional sport that won’t take place tomorrow is NHL. First game of the Stanley Cup final between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penquins takes place tonight in Detroit. Sunday is an off day and then they will all be back out on the ice on Monday. So good luck in choosing what to watch. Personally I’ll be toggling back and forth between the Indy 500 and the French Open, with quick checks of basketball and golf during commercials. Baseball can take a back seat at this juncture in the season.

LeBron James did everything he could possibly do to carry the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Eastern Conference finals.  His 45 points were very impressive, but it wasn’t enough as the Cavs came up short to the Boston Celtics. Paul Pierce of the Celtics matched him point for point, hitting some key shots when they were most badly needed. Pierce ended up with 41 points. Looking at the final couple minutes of that game, I thought the Cavs could possibly do it. They trailed throughout the game by 6 to 8 points but closed it to 89-88 toward the end. At that point LeBron missed a couple of 3-point shots that would have changed the total momentum at the end. Instead of  the Cavs being forced to foul, it would have been the Celtics. A different outcome I’m sure. The Celtics now take on the Detroit Pistons, and my money is on the Pistons and Richard Hamilton. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Bottom line: The Los Angeles Lakers win it all.

Big doing’s at the Garden in Boston later today. It’s the National Basketball Association’s LeBron James show, brought to you by your friendly (or maybe not so friendly) visitors from Cleveland. Boston put together an amazing 66-16 record this season, by far the best they’ve ever done. Brings back memories of the Robert Parish, Kevin McKale, Larry Bird era. But guess what, these aren’t the same Celtics that won so many NBA titles. This year’s version will see their season draw to a close this afternoon, courtesy of LeBron and his Cavalier teammates. LeBron is just too good to lose. Frankly I’m surprised that it went all the way to a game seven.  After winning in Boston today, next up for the Cavaliers will be Detroit. I like the Pistons, particularly Richard Hamilton. He looks imposing out there with his facemask. And it sure doesn’t slow him down—31 points in his final against Orlando. Detroit’s season record (59-23) is much better than Cleveland’s (45-37). But this is a new season and I give the nod to Cleveland.

The National Basketball Association has an interesting formula for success. There’s the regular season, which is really just a tune-up for the playoffs. And then there is the real season…the series of playoffs that began on April 19. We’re down to seven teams after Detroit eliminated Orlando 4-1.  Of the survivors, the Lakers are poised to close it out tomorrow night in Salt Lake City.  Cleveland will be at home in Friday, fighting for survival as they trail the Celtics 3-2 in the best of seven series. I think the Cavaliers can win that game and then win again in Boston on Sunday. For both teams, it comes down to two guys—LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Kobe has already been named the MVP of the NBA, but the award could just as easily gone to LeBron. Without those two guys, neither team would still be playing now.  LeBron was on fire at the start of last night’s game in Boston, scoring 23 points in the first half. Then there was a melt down as he made only 4 of his last 14 shots and missed all five of his 3-point attempts. It’s very simple, when LeBron is hot, Cleveland wins, and when he’s cold they lose. The Lakers coasted through their game and were in such control that Kobe didn’t even attempt a field goal in the fourth quarter. He ended up with 26 points, hitting 6-for-10 from the floor and 13-of-17 from the foul line. The Lakers will wrap it up tomorrow night.

Living a Fantasy

Have you ever signed on to a fantasy sports league? They exist for all major sports and they come in a zillion different formats. I’ve been playing for about 10 years and I’m one of a group of about 12 to 15 guys who participate. The guy who runs our primary fantasy site is a fireman from upstate New York. Others in the league hale from every geographic area in the U.S. Plus throw in Canada. For several years, we had a guy from one of those mid-Canada provinces who went by the name Gopher. His posts were hilarious. Some of the fantasy spots I’ve done are NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, College Basketball, Bowl games, Golf, NASCAR and March Madness. Practically everything except snowboarding and rodeo. I play on Yahoo and that’s a good site. There are plenty of other options, such as ESPN.com, so check them out and give it a try. You’ll have fun, make some great Internet friends, and have the opportunity to talk smack every day. I’ll post more details in the days to come, giving you some of my InsightSports wisdom.