The NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, and more

Here we are in the best sports month of the year. June features the finals for both the NBA and the NHL, the Belmont Stakes, the U.S. Open, and intensified baseball division races. In this weeks blog entry, I'm going to break down the NBA Finals, NHL Finals, and then give my thoughts on a few other topics.

NBA FINALS

Dallas Mavericks over the Miami Heat

Have you ever seen the movie Jaws? You know the scene where Quint talks about being on the USS Indianapolis? If not here's the clip. Well if the refs screw Dirk out of the finals again, like they did in 2006, this is how I expect most all of his interviews to go after he retires. Of all the teams in the Eastern Conference, I think that this is the one that Dirk wanted to see the least. The psychological advantage that the Heat already have is enormous. So why am I predicting the Mavs to win? Well, it comes to down to a few main ideas.

1. The most important of which is that I don't think anyone can guard Dirk. He's one of the few players in the league that is completely unique, because he's a legit 7 feet tall and can shoot the three as well as anyone. The best chance the Heat have is to put Lebron on him and hope that Lebron can use his athleticism to contest Dirk's shot. In the past it has always been the bigger, super athletic guys that have been able to contain Dirk. Shawn Marion did a great job back when he was with Phoenix, but Marion is now Dirk's teammate.

2. Dwyane Wade is hurt. Wade hasn't complained, but it's been reported and can be seen that his shoulder is giving him trouble. Wade didn't play that well against Chicago and I think that having someone like Jason Kidd guarding him could actually be a big problem for Miami. Even in his advanced age, Kidd is still a good defender and will be able to contain Wade.

3. DESIRE. I'm so sick of hearing how much Lebron and Chris Bosh want a championship. The talking heads on ESPN talk about this all the time, like it's their God-Given right to be multi time champions. Lebron, Bosh, and Wade have been in the league for a combined 24 years and have 1 championship combined (Wade's 2006 title). Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Jason Terry, and Peja Stojakovic have a combined 62 years experience and no rings to show for it. Tell me which group probably wants it more. This Mavs team NEEDS to win now. The Heat want it, but the urgency just isn't there for them.

So my final pick.

Dallas over Miami in 6 games........I hope

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS

Boston Bruins over Vancouver Canucks

DISCLAIMER: I have only been a hockey fan for a little over 3 weeks, so these predictions are probably terrible.

I became a hockey fan when my precious Celtics were knocked out of the NBA playoffs. The Boston Bruins were still in the hockey playoffs, and there is something that is just more exciting about playoff hockey than regular season hockey. Anyways, this particular Bruins team has me hooked on hockey right now. They have every ingredient of a successful and entertaining team. Let's start with the goaltender. Tim Thomas grew up extremely poor and has played all around the world. His incredible will and determination led the Bruins to signing him and his improvement has given him the opportunity to be the starter. He has been, unquestionably, the best goalie in the playoffs, even going so far as to guarantee the Bruins would beat the Lightning in the conference finals and coming through with a Game 7 shutout. The Bruins defense, from what I've seen, is pretty solid. With Chara and others on the defensive side of the ice, the Bruins leads are usually safe. On offense they have Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Tyler Seguin, and Patrice Bergeron as their big time players. Again, I'm not an expert on hockey by any means, but these guys have come through in every series so far and I have no reason to think that they'll let me down now.

I'll be honest, I probably couldn't name more than one guy on Vancouver's team, and I have never seen them play, but I like what I see from the Bruins.

Final Score

Bruins bring home the Stanley Cup in 7 games. Boston has a party.

Other Sports odds and ends:

-Congratulations to Charlie Furbush on making his big league debut with the Tigers. It was very surreal to see someone that I went to high school with pitching on a major league mound against the Red Sox. Making South Portland proud, keep up the great work.

-Speaking of the Red Sox, it looks like they're starting to roll. Everything is starting to come together for the Sox right now as the pitching has been excellent and the hitting timely. With everything else sports related going on now, it's tough to keep up with the Sox, but if they are lucky enough to still be playing in October, we might point to this as when they turned it around.

-Scottie Pippen called Lebron a "better basketball player" than Michael Jordan. Really? Really Scottie? You could probably say better than anyone else how good Michael was, but are you really going to put Lebron over him? Maybe you forgot about the six rings MJ won you or how he was the MVP in all six of those NBA Finals. Let's wait until Lebron wins at least a couple before we start to throw him into the "Best Player Ever" conversation.

-Fun fact about the Bruins: If they win the Stanley Cup, then the Patriots will be the Boston team with the longest Championship drought. It's been a pretty good past 10 years for New England sports.

Well thanks for reading, and as always please leave a comment telling me what you thought of it.

Good-Bye Macho Man

Thank you for the comments on my last entry, and I'd love see even more on this one.

Very few times in life do you meet someone or see someone on t.v. that you truly believe is going to live forever. You know that no one can live forever, but there's just something about the person that makes you believe they will never get older. It's usually a person that you don't see on a regular basis and maybe haven't seen in many years. You know the years are going by, but memories don't age, and every time you think of them they are the same age that you remember them at.

Macho Man Randy Savage was one of those guys for me. He was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and someone that I grew up watching and idolizing. In my mind he will always look like this:

Unfortunately, people do age and Macho was no exception. Out of the public eye since 2004, he had stopped dying his beard and hair, dropped the flashy outfits and sunglasses, and ditched the cowboy hat. More recent pictures of Savage were less flattering with a clearly aged Savage, now 58, although he still had the charisma that made him famous. He now resembled Santa Clause more than the Macho Man I remembered.

After doing some digging, I found that this new Macho Man Randy Savage had just gotten married and was fully at peace with his life. For those of you that don't know, Savage's first wife was the First Lady of Wrestling Miss Elizabeth. The two were wrestling's perfect couple until their divorce in the early nineties. Unfortunately Miss Elizabeth would pass away in the early 2000's from an accidental drug overdose.

For over 30 years the Macho Man Randy Savage entertained me and millions of others around the world by sharing his incredible talents. Whether it was on the mic or in the ring, Randy Savage was world class and always a cut above the rest. He was one of the greatest characters in the history of professional wrestling, appreciated by more than just wrestling fans as evidenced by the respects paid by Sportscenter, PTI, Around the Horn, CNN, FoxNews, and many other national media outlets. A whole generation of kids grew up in the 80's and 90's watching the Macho Man, with his trademark catch phrase of "Oooooooohhh Yeahhhhhh" and his advice to everyone to "Snap into a Slim Jim". If you haven't tried to do an imitation of the Macho Man's trademark voice, then you're one of the few.

So now, I end this blog with some links to a sampling of some of the greatest hits of the Macho Man. First, his legendary match with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at Wrestlemania III in front of 93,000 people. If matches aren't really your thing, check out some of his greatest promos. He pulled off the intense, crazy guy better than anyone. And as you can see, even 7 years after leaving the spotlight, and less than a year before his passing, the man still had it.

RIP Randy Poffo aka Macho Man Randy Savage. Thank you for making me believe in you when I was a little kid, you were the best.

Reunited.

P.S. The rumor is that Macho saved us from the Rapture that was supposed to happen Saturday.

The Conference Finals Predictions

Welcome back once again to the most sporadically updated blog on the internet. This week I'll be talking about the future of the Boston Celtics, as well as giving you my predictions for the Conference Finals.

Eastern Conference Finals:

(2) Miami Heat over (1) Chicago Bulls

I know, I know, this series has already started and you're already pointing out how the Bulls trounced the Heat by 21 points in the first game, but hear me out. After watching the Heat dismantle my Celtics in the semi-finals, I have a whole new appreciation for the team in Miami. With Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, the Heat have three guys that have all led teams before and are capable of having a big night. The Bulls NEED to have a big night from MVP Derrick Rose, or they aren't going to win. Not to stay that his supporting cast isn't good, but Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, and Joakim Noah can only give you so much. The Wade versus Keith Bogans matchup is going to be particularly worrisome for the Bulls. In game 1, Lebron and Wade only combined to score 33 points. This won't happen again. Deng is a good defender and Bogans is passable as well, but Lebron and Wade usually take 33 FREE THROWS combined per game....or maybe it just feels that way. Between the refs helping out the Miami three and Derrick Rose having a couple of off games, I think that Miami is going to win this series and go to the NBA finals.

The Bulls have a chance though, as evidenced by game 1. The key for the Bulls is that they need to dominate the point guard and center match ups in all fashions. They won the rebounding battle in game 1 by a final tally of 45-33 and they won the assist battle in game 1 23-11. These are the two categories that the Bulls need to win. Rose needs to outplay Mike Bibby/Mario Chalmers and Joakim Noah needs to outplay Joel Anthony/Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Not just by a bit, but they need to completely dominate them.

Final Score: Miami Heat 4-3

Western Conference Finals:

(3) Dallas Mavericks over (4) OKC Thunder

5 years old. That's how old Kevin Durant was when Jason Kidd was drafted. He was 9 when Dirk Nowitzki was drafted. This series is the ultimate matchup between New School and Old School, with Dirk and the Mavs going up against Kevin Durant and the Thunder. I think both teams are pretty evenly matched, and this just came down to the team I'm rooting for. Nothing personal against Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, or any of the Thunder but I grew up watching Dirk, Peja, Jet, Shawn Marion, and Jason Kidd. Alternatively hating them for beating my Celtics and loving the way they played. What do they have in common? None of them have a ring, and all came painstakingly close. Dirk and Terry lost to the Heat back in the 2006 NBA Finals in what has to be the worst officiated series of all time. Peja was on the Kings teams back in the early 2000's that came up just short in the Western Conference Finals, and oh by the way Tim Donaghy admitted that the fix was in for the West Finals back in 2002. Shawn Marion was on all those amazingly entertaining Steve Nash led Phoenix Suns teams that seemed to choke every year and Jason Kidd was beaten twice in the finals by Tim Duncan back when he was with New Jersey.

So KD, Perk, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka will have there time. That team will be back and challenging for a title over the next ten years, but for Dallas this is it. This is the last shot for that team and those players. With the Celtics losing, this is the only team left whose best players were all drafted over 1o years ago. This team needs to win for all those guys who played for so long and never won a title. This one's for Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Tracy Mcgrady, Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, and even Dallas stars who never won a title, Michael Finley, Jamal Mashburn, and Steve Nash.

Final Score (I hope): Dallas 4-2

Well that's it for this entry. Hope you enjoyed it and I'd start preparing now for a Chicago vs. OKC finals.

Banking on a Big Shamrock

I can't believe that the title hopes of the 2011 Boston Celtics are relying on the 39 year old calf of the Big Diesel. I really can't believe that the chances for number 18 this year are hanging on the calf of the Big Aristotle. But facts are facts, the only chance that the Celtics have to beat the Heat is by getting The Shaqtus on the court.

Call him what you will, but the fact that Shaquille O'Neal is still this important to a title contender in 2011 should tell you everything you need to know about the man. No other player in league history has made more of a difference at an older age. Sure, players have been better at older ages, but no one has made the difference that Shaq has for the Celtics. With him in the lineup the offense runs smoother because it gives the Celtics a low post presence that jump shooters Jermaine O'Neal and Kevin Garnett can't provide. On defense, Shaq can clog the middle and deliver a hard foul when necessary, and so far it's not only necessary but long overdue for Lebron and Dwyane Wade.

Throughout the playoffs I've talked a lot about older veteran stars having moments where they come up big and carry their team for stretches, it's one of my favorite things to see happen. Shaq coming back and contributing to a Celtics win and a Celtics series comeback would rank at the top of the "veteran stars turning back the clock" moments this postseason.

In case you forgot, here's what Shaq looks like, and what he used to be capable of doing. Let's hope he has a few more performances like these in him.

Shaq's greatest hits.

Don't give up hope, Celtics in 7.