People are constantly asking me what “Pavlovian Sayings” – the name that appears at the top of this column every week – really means. OK, well maybe not people. Maybe one person, and actually come to think of it, that one person may have just been part of a dream. I sleep a lot so it’s really hard to tell sometimes. Whether or not the question was real, I thought long and hard about it and realized that it’s kind of an oxymoron to have the Sayings be a long column. Plus, no one likes to read long drawn out columns anyway since it’s too hard to keep finding your place after you look up every few moments to pretend like you’re paying attention in class. Or at least that’s my theory. Add it all up and I decided to shorten everything up today and touch on a number of things that are bothering me, rather than just one. Starting with…
– The NBA MVP award. I’m an unabashed Kobe-basher. I really, really don’t like the guy. I don’t like his personality, I don’t like the way he treats his teammates, I don’t like the fact that he pitted the Lakers and Clippers against each other when he was a free agent in what essentially amounted to a money grab. All that being said, I’ll admit that he’s still one of the top three players in the league, but is he the MVP? Sorry, can’t say that he is. Essentially for me, this race comes down to Kobe and Chris Paul, and despite the fact that the Lakers finished a game ahead of New Orleans this season, Paul should have been the choice. While Kobe had Odom, the Bynum/Gasol combo and one of the deepest benches in the league by his side, Paul has done just as much with much less, turning David West into an All-Star and resurrecting the careers of Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic. More importantly, Paul’s been a leader for a Hornets squad that’s been through a lot in the past few years, while Kobe has been the opposite, fueling last summers trade speculation virtually all by himself. Kobe had a great year, but CP3 meant to the most to his team this season, and he’ll prove it if the two squads face off in the next round.
– Speaking of playoffs, it amazes me that ESPN and the NHL stubbornly refuse to partner together and bring hockey back to the worldwide leader. Sharks-Stars Game Six was a classic, but I didn’t even realize it was on until I caught an update on SportsCenter and frantically scrambled to find the Versus channel. You’d think they would have figured it out by now. If nothing else, we need as much Barry Melrose as we can get.
– Melrose is the best part of SportsCenter these days. The second best part: the new freeze frame effect at the end of each episode that’s quickly turned into a contest between the anchors to see who can stay still the longest. If only they had something that fun for writers…
– The soon to be worst part of SportsCenter: the TitleTown USA series that’s scheduled to start soon, in ESPN’s annual attempt to come up with some crazy time-wasting idea during the slow summer months. Here’s an idea guys, how about just showing more baseball highlights? Nobody will complain.
– This next point is related to sports, I swear it is. How exactly can TBS get away with advertising that Tyler Perry show as “Cable’s #1 Sitcom of All Time?” There’s no way this is a true fact. Absolutely no way. In case you haven’t figured it out already, this is related to sports because I’ve seen about 6,354 Tyler Perry commercials during the NBA playoffs.
– Here’s a question for you: Why do most NBA teams still use their centers for the opening tipoff? No one on the Cav’s can jump higher than LeBron, so logically, it should be him and not Ilgauskas attempting the tipoff. You’d think NBA teams would have figured this one out by now.