The Vig

I saw three Buy Hydrocodone Buy Adderall Buy Adderall buy codeine buy hydrocodon Buy Codeine buy hydrocodone Buy Adderall buy Hydrocodone of the Xanax is fairly easy to Buy vicodin Buy Adderall
buy codeine
Buy Adderall
Buy Adderall
phentermine
vicodin
hydrocodone
viagra
adderall
codeine
game the other night.  Mostly I wanted to see Shaq again.  He’s always been one of my favorite players, due mostly to his gregarious nature.  As I explained to my friend Doug a few weeks back, the guy knows exactly who he is and is unafraid to be himself.  He’s also very aware of his surroundings, which is how he ended up shaking Paul Allen’s hand the other night.  In that moment, O’Neal revealed about 5 different levels of awareness.  Simply put, he’s the man.

The Blazers have had a tough time of it the last six weeks or so.  While they’ve been just a handful of games out of the playoffs, the path is just too difficult.  The schedule since the first of February included Boston, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix and the Lakers twice each.  Add to that the fact they need to jump two teams to grab the 8 seed, and it’s too much.  Have they packed it in?  Boy, there have been stretches where it sure has looked like it.

The question now is what do I do about tickets next season?  My $5 tickets are shooting all the way up to $21.50 next season.  That’s way too rich for me.  Especially for an entire 41 game season.  So I’ll probably become a regular at a local watering hole.

In the meantime, I’ll have some pleasant memories from the current season.  To wit:

LaMarcus is my favorite of the big three.  The guy has a motor that doesn’t seem to quit.

I tried to capture the joy that is watching O’Neal shoot free throws.  Karl Malone used to mouth a few words prior to shooting his free throws.  Shaq also mouths a few words prior to sending one up.  They’re “well….maybe”.  I don’t think he can see that far, personally.  Has he ever had his eyes tested?  Seriously.

The best part of that picture though is three of the five Blazers on the floor are committing lane violations.

And finally, here’s Shaq on the bench, enjoying a stance which would make Larry Craig weep.  Gordan Giricek is most uncomfortable.

Now before the entire Hawks front office get their knickers in a twist, let’s all take a moment to appreciate what “drop the cow” means.

Where’d “Drop the Cow” come from in the first place? From an anecdote I remember Eric Idle tell in the first season of Saturday Night Live, way back when I was, like, ten. The point being, when a skit (joke, job, conversation, etc.) has gone on long enough and is starting to lose momentum, you drop the “cow” and move on before said “cow” dies altogether. That’s why so many Monty Python skits just end in such a Dali-esque fashion.

See? That’s funny. Normally I don’t tell Python jokes (I love Monty Python, but I loathe people who love Monty Python…think about that…it works for Star Trek too), but this one was too good. And it reminded me of this season.

Of course it can be argued that the cow dropped way back in December and we’ve been waiting for it to die ever since, but whatever. The point is, tonight’s the night.

I haven’t been around much at all since January. The flu followed immediately by a business trip to Salt Lake City pretty much did me in for most of January and February. I followed as best I could on my Palm. Friends would look at me with a mixture of pity and amusement as I checked in.

“Why do you follow that bunch of losers,” they would ask. They’re not even hockey fans yet they know what’s happening in the MC.

Yeah, it’s been frustrating for everyone.  The front office continues to tell us there’s been progress, but it’s obvious to anyone with two open eyes that they’ve taken a major step backward this season, both on and off the ice.  Blame injuries, I guess.  Blame attitudes.  Blame absentee coaching.  As for the off-ice stuff, the league is making all the right noises about stepping in, but I have a feeling it will all go for naught.  Remember a year ago when the league declared the MC didn’t meet their standards?  Notice how far that got them.  Now they’ve directed Goldsmith to get a new GM.  Who’s name was immediately floated?  Kromm.  Right.  I’m sure he and Bardsley will help the organization out of the woods.  Can’t wait, by the way, to see the next Southwestern wunderkind Bardsley brings into town.  And speaking of Southwestern scouting, whatever happened to that Dallas pipeline that Donovan promised during that fan gathering at Claudia’s in ‘06?  I thought the “silent” partner down there was going to work the area.

Promises promises.

And so it goes.  At some point, as Dylan pointed out a few weeks back, the Trib will dial up Goldsmith, get him good and agitated, and get him to say something spectacular like “I’m a winner” or “this place is a dump” or “we won’t have another season like this”.  Even if they hire a competent GM, I fear everything will still get filtered through J2 and we’ll end up right back here next season.

There’s a path out of this.  Here’s hoping WHL commissioner Ron Robison can our Moses and convince Goldsmith to hire him.

Bill Simmons thinks so.

From what I was told by multiple people in New Orleans, the Blazers made a strong push, and Kidd made it clear to everyone involved he didn’t want to play there. Now, I don’t know the exact trade offer, but I’m assuming it was something like this: Kidd and a smaller contract (somebody like Antoine Wright) for Raef LaFrentz (monster contract expiring in 2009), Steve Blake ($13 million total for this year and the next two), the rights to Rudy Fernandez, a lottery-protected No. 1 and $3 million — which would have pushed Portland into the playoffs this season (even at this point of his career, Kidd is a significant upgrade over Jarrett Jack and Blake) and made the Blazers a genuine contender if/when Greg Oden comes back strong next season.

Here’s the irony: Kidd didn’t want to play in Portland because he wanted to win a title and, by all accounts, his heart was set on playing in Dallas. Fine. But just for the hell of it, let’s say the Blazers swung the Kidd deal and signed Antawn Jamison for their entire mid-level this summer, giving them a nucleus of Roy, Oden, Kidd, Jamison, LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Jarrett Jack and Joel Przybilla next season. Um, wouldn’t the ‘09 Blazers have had a higher ceiling than the ‘08 or ‘09 Mavs? Wouldn’t that have been a better fit for Kidd because those Blazers could have run with them?

Oh my. First, the deal wouldn’t have involved Blake. They would have moved Jarrett Jack. Second, the rights to Rudy Fernandez? That would have been a deal breaker. If what they say is true, he’s the two-guard of the future.

The point of the current process is to be prepared to make a run in two or three years, not next year. The path for the next two seasons is still way too treacherous, especially with Kobe and Gasol tearing things up down in LA and a motivated Shaq Fu in Phoenix. So why sell out 2012 for a second round playoff exit next season? Makes no sense.

That said, wouldn’t it have been fun to see Kidd running the point?

PS  Casey hates Simmons.  But that’s not exactly news.

I never did get around to properly writing up the Utah-Chicago game I saw down in Salt Lake ten days ago.  The Jazz are something special and their fan base definitely are our equal.  They’re passionate and fiercely loyal.  I do believe Portland has a better arena.  The Delta Center Energy Solutions Arena is a little smaller than the Rose Garden (19,911 for basketball as opposed to Portland’s 19,980) and much boxier.  I prefer the sight lines at the RG.

The current Jazz squad has been much improved with the addition of Kyle Korver.  In the short time he’s been in town, he’s become a crowd favorite.  Watching him work his way through a maze of picks and screens to get his shot was something to behold.  I’m going to have to get a good look at Webster and Outlaw doing the same thing next time I attend a Blazer game.

Like us, fans in Utah are waiting for their team to fully blossom.  Local sports host David Locke calls is Project 2010.  It’s the year about $26.5 million comes off Utah’s cap.  Now they’re gonna have to resign Boozer and maybe Okur, but beyond that, the sky will be the limit.  By contrast, the Blazers shave about$55.25 million off their cap a year earlier, but they’ll have a ton of guys to resign.  That said, they’ll be getting a top-flight free agent with that cash.  It’s all part of the Blazers plan.

SLC has three sports stations going 24/7 and a ton of local programming.  Fans down there are not only passionate about their Jazz, but they can talk up all angles of Utah and BYU athletics as well.  They really get after it.  The thing I found really interesting though was the lack of talk and respect for the Blazers.  “Project 2010″ focused primarily on defeating the Lakers and Suns and to a lesser extent Dallas and San Antonio.  Only once did I hear the Blazers mentioned, and it was only as a casual aside.  Lack of respect?  Just slipped their mind?  I’m inclined to pick the former.  Despite the fact the Blazers are in the same stinking division, for whatever reason they don’t see what we see.  I wonder why that is.

Something I’ve been thinking about as I watch the recent flurry of deals around the Western Conference.  Why should fans in Portland and Utah have to wait another year or two for their teams to improve themselves?  Why should we continue to pay full price while we’re stuck in holding patterns, waiting for Raef LaFrentz, Steve Francis, and Darius Miles to come off the books?  I mean I understand all the contractual stuff, but still.  It’s depriving fans, I think.  Obviously that thought needs to be fleshed out a little more, but it definitely bugs me.

So much for waking the slumbering bear.  We’re entering the third year of the J2 experiment and the franchise seems to be sliding further and further behind.  The marketing effort has been non-existent.  The scouting, as has been pointed out elsewhere, has been turned over to the genius who brought us Francis and Cepek.  And the on-ice product is barely half as good (20 points) as last year’s version (37 points).

And now there’s this.

Dylan says we need to chill.  And perhaps he’s right.  But there have been too many other similar rumors all season to discount this one.

Goldsmith says he’s a winner.  Winners don’t let their bills go unpaid.

Goldsmith says he wants to be Mark Cuban.  People thought Cuban was insane to buy the Mavericks.  The first thing Cubes did was invest in player facilities and comfort and make Dallas a place guys wanted to come.  His most famous player perk was a PlayStation in every locker.  But he also made sure they had first-class catering.  And first class travel.  I have a feeling if the team plane broke down in Seattle, Cuban wouldn’t leave his team stuck in a hotel while they waited for parts.  He would have whipped out the black AmEx and had his team back home post-haste.  That’s what Cuban would do.  That’s what a CHAMPION would do.

Instead the organization seems to have accepted their lot.  I keep hearing “why should they market this heap?”  For the life of me, I do not understand that mentality.  Especially at the minor league level.  Minor league sports fans do not care about wins and losses.  They want to have a good time.  And facilities?  Go over to PGE Park and ask Jack Cain how he led the Northwest League in attendance in the hole that was Civic Stadium.  He did it by promoting a good time and delivering it.  He did it with MERC employees running the place too.

Excuses.  Excuses.  When will they end?

Here’s a fun little contest they’re running down in the desert.

The package will include airfare to Dallas on the team flight, one hotel room and two tickets to see the Coyotes take on the Dallas Stars on Feb. 11 at American Airlines Center. The winner will also receive two tickets to the Coyotes’ home game against the Nashville Predators on Feb. 10. The fan and guest will depart Phoenix with the team immediately following the game.

How cool is that? I’d be all over it if the Blazers ran something similar.  Maybe Holdahl will sneak me on sometime instead.

M-1 Global made an offer to UFC for a Couture-Fedor fight.  UFC turned it down.

UFC is still a few years ahead of the rest of the players in MMA, but their days are numbered.  Mark Cuban is building something special in Dallas and there are others.  I wonder if Dana White will look back in a few years and regret not taking the fight.

So the Cards are in second place in the NFC West. And as things sit this week, they actually occupy the final wild card slot. It’s funny how things seem to work out when you’ve got a competent coaching staff and a decent o-line. The game just sort of plays itself. A few bounces the other way, and this team could easily be 7-4 or even 8-3. Of course, a few bounces the other other way and they could be 3-8. The thing is, the improvement is obvious. Edge has benefited from the addition of Levi Brown and second-year man Deuce Lutui. And Warner has been far more consistent than Leinart may ever be.

The NFL, though, is cyclical. Teams that are way up one season tend to take a step back the following season. I don’t think anyone has come up with a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon. It just is. You want evidence? Take a look at the 2006 Steelers. And how about the Ravens, Chargers, Saints, and Bears this season? All four of those teams won their divisions last year while three won at least 12 games. This year only the Chargers will make the playoffs, and that’s because the rest of the AFC West blows chunks.

So the Cards are flying relatively high right now at 6-6. They need only one more win and a Forty-Niner loss to lock up second in the division. Great, right? A building block, right? Wrong.

Here’s the deal. Next season Leinart will be back. And when he’s not boozing it up with AP reporters in Scottsdale or tagging hot blondes, he’s a trainwreck as an NFL quarterback. There’s a reason the coaching staff platooned him with Warner this season. Despite having Edgerin Freaking James in his backfield, a trio of all-pro receivers to throw to, and a revamped line in front of him, he wasn’t getting the job done. A washed-up Kurt Warner came in and nearly beat the Ravens single handedly and has guided the team to every inch of the success they’ve enjoyed to this point. But next season, it’s going to be Leinart’s team again. And fans will have to suffer through it. So that’s strike two.

Strike three? The schedule. Have you seen it yet? Try this on for size…

Home:
Dallas
NY Giants
Buffalo
Miami
NFC Central #2 (currently Detroit…it will probably be Minnesota)

Away:
Philadelphia
Washington
New England
NY Jets
NFC South #2 (probably New Orleans, although it could be Carolina)

That’s in addition to the Seahawks and Niners twice.  And the Rams won’t be this bad either.  I’m having a hard time finding 8 wins in there.  Dallas and New England will both still be really good.  According to my up-down-up theory, the Jets and Eagles will both be due for bounce back years.  With the exception of New Orleans/Carolina, the road schedule is gonna be chilly.  It’s all stacking up very badly for the Cards in 2008.

2009 looks much more doable as they play the NFC Central and AFC South.  By then, Leinart will be on his last legs in Phoenix as they’ll have either drafted a quarterback in the middle rounds or traded for one, and they’ll have some young stud running back who’ll be ready to replace Edge.  In the meantime, they need to get a defensive end in the draft to take some pressure off the secondary.

How bad will it be in 2008?  Pretty bad.  It’s tough to believe that we’ll be looking back wistfully in a year and reminiscing about the days when “we” were 6-6.  But there it is.

Oregon City Pioneers:  Many mocked me this weekend over the loss at Redmond.  There’s no shame in it.  Is Redmond that great?  No.  But neither were the Pioneers.  That they even made the playoffs was an accomplishment.  It’s on now to basketball season.  With Kevin Love out of the league, things should open up for my boy Brad Tinsley.  As for the girls, the TRL had best get their track shoes on.

Oregon State Beavers:  I was busy prefunctioning the Roger Clyne show, blissfully unaware of the fact the Beavs were trying to give the game away.  Had I known, it could have put a crimp in my evening.  As things stand, they’re headed for the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.  Disappointing?  I guess.  Time was a six-win season would have been quite heady for the orange and black.  How times have changed.

Oregon Ducks:  Their fans will be insufferable this week.  I can’t wait for the Civil War.

Winter Hawks: So the whole key to the trades was the influx of veteran d-men.  So what do the new guys do?  They go out and allow 56 shots against Seattle on Saturday and 51 against Tri-City on Sunday.  The excuse will be the guys are still adjusting to their new surroundings.  They need a week of practice.  But see hockey is hockey.  And fundamentals are fundamentals.  They don’t change just because you change sweaters.

Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers:  They played a great set at Berbati’s Pan Saturday night.  They played again Sunday, but the show was sold-out.  I can’t name a single one of his songs, nor can I do the crowd participation thing (unlike a Springsteen show, where all you have to do is pump your fist…you have to know the WORDS to a RCPM tune).  It all mattered not.  He’s Jimmy Buffett, only 20-years younger.  My buddy Rick and I were talking about the state of the music industry at the show.  He said he’d like to ask Roger what its like to know there’s no money in music anymore.  Not like there was even a decade ago.  There’s no way to go from zero to $10,000,000 anymore.  It’s a one-in-a-million shot, I’ll give you that.  A decade ago Alanis sold-out arenas for almost two straight years based on one song.  That’s possible.  But a sustained career?

Man City:  0-0 at Pompey keeps the Blues in third place in the table.  There’s this thing I keep reading about called the “transfer window”.  Like most things British, I don’t understand it.  It sounds an awful lot like baseball’s off-season, only it’s in the middle of the season.  The Blues need offense.  It would be nice to find it.

Underdog Pool:  There were a cornucopia of upsets this week.  St Louis, San Diego, Denver, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Jacksonville all hit.  I’ve got the ‘Niners going tonight.  Mike Nolan’s dad died yesterday.  I wonder if that means anything.

Arizona Cardinals:  I e-mailed a fellow fan during the second quarter yesterday as Whisenhunt had put Tim Rattay in on 2nd and goal in the first quarter.  The season, I said, was falling apart.  Why in the hell would Whisenhunt do that unless Warner were mortally wounded?  I don’t get it at all.  Then at the end of the second quarter, Rattay threw a touchdown pass to Leonard Pope.  All was forgiven.  The ten-point win looks more impressive than it was.  The Cardinals remain the only team in the league to not score a touchdown in the first quarter.  That’s impressive.  That said, they’re only 1/2 game out of first place in the division.  And they have the tie-breaker!  So who knows.

Trail Blazers:  I’m with Dwight.  This is going to be a learning year.  Nice win against Dallas, though.