Racist Or Funny

Tough to decide on this one...

There's a chance we may find out if Wade accepts a job offer from a Chicago-area KFC, where he worked as a teenager.

Because of the NBA lockout, the fast-food, fried chicken restaurant said it will make a $250,000 donation to the company's Colonel Scholars program in Wade's name if he agrees to work at a local KFC drive-thru window.

The idea originated when Wade tweeted "Any1 hiring?" once the lockout became official. KFC general manager John Cywinski then wrote a letter to Wade saying he could be of assistance.

"We couldn't help but notice your recent tweet about looking for a new line of work in light of the lockout," the letter said. "We're always looking for folks with precisely your qualifications — initiative, teamwork and the ability to make buckets in a hurry (sun-sentinel.com)."

HAHAHAHAHA. Sorry, but that is damn funny. I think the funniest part is how this owner wrote back to Wade. "Ability to make buckets in a hurry" is fucking hilarious, but you have to wonder if someone is going to take this whole thing the wrong way. I doubt there is any chance he would do this unless it was a one day thing, but it is actually a great idea even if it is just for the day. I mean imagine the publicity KFC would get if Wade is there for an 8 hour shift? It'll be well worth the $250 grand they would throw to a charity, so I think he should do it.

Anyways, I found this hysterical.

Heat 97, Celtics 87

Around this time 4 years ago, Celtics fans were talking about lotteries. And now we're disappointed that we've only seen the C's win 1 title in 3 years. So let's not get too depressed about the possibilities of the Big Three breaking up. Let's not dwell on lost opportunities, or focus on the negative. In the last three years, this team went from a joke to a model franchise. They won 3 divisional titles, 2 Conference Championships, and 1 NBA Championship. They've become a face-franchise of the Association. They've rekindled old rivalries (Los Angeles) and established new ones (Miami, New York). This might be the end of an era for the Celtics. But it was one hell of an era.



Now to the game. You have to give credit to Miami. LeBron's been long criticized as a poor finisher. And before this series, I felt like if the Celtics could keep games close, their experience and clutchness would propel them to victory, just as it did in the Knicks series. However, the Heat were better in those late stages. Last night, while Ray Allen missed a three, and the C's turned the ball over with ease, LeBron, Wade, and James Jones were knocking down huge 3 point shots.



The Celtics turned the ball over 17 times. Garnett was 3 of 8 with his free throws. Glen Davis still can't find himself. Rondo played 30 minutes and most of those were ineffective. There was no singular reason for the Celtics losing. They lost for a number of reasons.



And without stellar 4th quarter performances from guys like Delonte West, it might have been over much sooner. West was the Celtics' best player in the 4th quarter. That's not a winning formula.



And at least LeBron's post-game interview was classy, and laced with praise for the Celtics. At the same time, he's still an annoying bitch, and I hope either the Bulls or Hawks destroy him in the next round.



Beat LeBron



-The Commodore

Did Race Play A Role In Dwayne Wade's Costume?

I wonder what LeBron thinks of this. I personally don't care that he dressed like this to be honest. But since America is too damn PC, shouldn't this be a bigger issue?

Why Not?

Why not watch Wade doing what Lebron taught him to do to little kids? The only difference is Lebron touches them after.

Please Stop Calling Those Dudes In Miami The Big Three

I know we all hate LeBron now and most likely going to hate the Heat, but the one thing that is irking me more than anything else is that everyone calls them the Big 3. When in reality Bosh, Wade, and LeBron are really nothing like the guys in Boston. The reason why Boston was so successful when the big three came to town is because they covered all facets of offense and defense. KG was the downlow post, but also an excellent distributor and the QB defensively, Ray Allen lives off of picks and obviously the 3 point sniper and Paul Pierce was the in between guy who needed the ball to create offense.

The Miami Trice (you can steal that one from me America) has Lebron, Wade and Bosh. Bosh is a replica of a young KG except being somewhat of a defensive liability, and both Wade and LeBron need the ball in their hands to create offense. I don't see LeBron or Wade running off picks and spotting up scoring, so that's where I see the first issue. The second issue I see is when KG and Ray went to Boston, they both understood this is Pierce's team and let the captain stay the captain. I don't really see LeBron being such an egomaniac as he is accepting that this is Wade's team and playing second fiddle to Dwayne after a couple of years.

Yes, they will be a top 3 seed constantly, however I don't see them winning it all unless both LeBron and Bosh defer to Wade in clutch situations. Which I'm just a little skeptical on.

Please NBA Don't Let This Happen

According to a report on ESPN.com, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh met over the weekend in Miami to examine the possibility of the three playing together for the Miami Heat. A source labeled Miami as the new frontrunner to land all three prized free agents but also warned that James was "non-committal" with the free agency period officially starting at Thursday at 12:01 a.m.

If there is a God, he can't let this happen. I don't think it will, but it is possible. In order for the Heat to sign all 3 stars, they would need to trade Michael Beasley to a team with salary-cap room, thus not having to take back a contract. That would allow the Heat to offer James, Bosh and Wade each the 2010-11 maximum salary of $16.5 million.

That part I really think is possible, but how terrible would this be for the NBA? Have all these stars end up on the same team would just be crazy. I also have a hard time believing this, because just yesterday reports suggested that Lebron was leaning towards Chicago. Anyways, if they get all 3 of these guys it would be a hell of a "Big 3", but I wouldn't hold my breathe.

I Think Wade Is Leaving Miami

Most people think Wade is staying in Miami, but I am not so sure. He has said that his heart is in Miami, but looking at his comments I got something different out of it...

"I'm not putting no pressure on myself," Wade said. "I think I put myself in a great situation three years ago to sign this deal to make sure that my team stays competitive. We've got some work to do, the front office has to do it, and there's no pressure on me. I've said where my heart is, and I think any player that's thinking about wanting to come to Miami, they know where my heart is. You just have to see things being done and accomplished."

I believe that he loves Miami, but I also think this was a bit of a heads up that he wants more talent around him. Maybe he will make Miami sweat awhile, and see if they do anything to the roster. I don't think Miami does much, and Wade moves on.

Anyone who watched that series knows that if Wade had anything around him they would be awesome, but they don't and I think Wade wants to win. So, bye-bye Miami, who doesn't deserve him since they can't even get fans to show up for playoff games.

Wade Recruits Odom

"The Miami Heat, who traded Odom to the Los Angeles Lakers five years ago in the trade that brought Shaquille O'Neal to South Florida, have made the free-agent forward an offer to return and help Wade once again. The team has not revealed terms of the offer, although it's believed to be a five-year package that could be worth around $35 million. "I want Lamar to do what's best for him and his family because we love him as family, but on the other hand, we want him back home, to come home," Wade said Friday in a telephone interview. "His house is still there. It'd be exciting to see what happens (Sportsline)."

Wade makes a strong case. The Lakers have not shown that they truly want him back. Odom still has a house in Miami. Wade seems to love him, and the Heat are starting to turn into a real team again. This might really happen, and as we saw with Boston getting Rasheed, a close friend who is a star on the team can throw a lot of weight.

Love for D-Wade, Clay Buccholz and the Patriot Secondary

I have a feeling Tommy Heinsohn would not approve of this post because he thinks Dwayne Wade never gets fouled. As ardent of a Celtics fan as I am, I am willing to admit the man knows how to take the ball to the hole. I'm surprised he didn't drive even more due to the black hole that was the Celtics' paint defense last night.

Watching him put a dagger in the Celtics in the fourth quarter with a long 3-pointer gave us some indication as to how much his range has improved. Not only is he doubling his career average for attempted treys (3.3) but he is shooting his highest percentage (.314) as well. Wade has always been devastating with short jumpers and bank-shots but being a threat from down town has taken his game to a whole new level.

Such improvement to an already stellar set of tools brings us to the obvious question: Since when is the leading scorer in the NBA such a dark-horse candidate for the MVP? Wade is averaging 29.7 points per game with 7.7 dimes and 5.1 rebounds and somehow is seen as a distant third runner in the race for hardware in May.

The argument that Lebron James and Kobe Bryant are more deserving because of their teams' records doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If Wade replaced either Kobe or Lebron in their respective lineups I doubt there would be any sort of drop off. Why am I so confident in that opinion? Wade has been playing with rookie Mario Chalmers and Chris Quinn as his point guards this year, neither of which are exactly John Stockton when it comes to court vision and passing ability. Lebron can feel D-Wade's pain and I gave him the same type of love last year when he was forced to initiate offense by himself. Now he has an elite point guard in Mo Williams to get him the ball and take some of the scoring pressure off of him. Kobe has Derek Fisher to get the ball to him in spots where he can score, which seems more simplistic than it really is but Fisher is a veteran, pass-first guard who is a huge upgrade over either of the Miami point guards.

If you read any of my summer postings, I said it wouldn't be a shock to see the Heat back in the playoffs this year as a five or six seed. Wade served notice during the Redeem Team's dominant run that he was indeed back to being the same player who had the greatest finals ever back in 2006. He had to have been in the subconscious of any basketball fan who watched the Olympics when they were predicting awards in the pre-season. My point here is that it's not as if he's coming out of nowhere or that anyone had forgotten about him.

It's nonsensical to say this is "Lebron's year" because he hasn't won the MVP before in the same way it was "Kobe's year" last year. Chris Paul was the MVP last year but because Bryant hadn't received his lifetime achievement award he was snubbed. Dwayne Wade is the NBA MVP.

Oh yeah and my answer to last night's ESPN poll that broached the question of who among James, Wade and Bryant would you want to take the last shot of a game? My answer would be reigning Finals MVP Paul Pierce.

-Clay Buchholz's road back to dominance is a bigger deal than most people are making it out to be. Much in the same way the Blue Jays did with current ace Roy Halladay, the Red Sox started from square one with Buchholz. As I said the other day, I'm not sure where or when his delivery problems arose but the Sox should have caught them sooner. I've only seen him in limited action thus far so I'm not able to go into too much depth but he does seem to be far more consistent with his motion.

Another knock against Buchholz last year while he was struggling was his tendency to not trust his fastball at times and at others give in too easily in hitter's counts. For someone so outwardly confident, it's ironic that he lost his bravado with such ease. Even if he doesn't make the rotation to begin the year, there will be a place for him eventually. And, no, I do not want them to use him as a chip to acquire Jarrod Saltalamacchia. If Joe Mauer is on the other end, I'd include him in a heart beat but Salty is a future first baseman whose ceiling isn't as high as some scouts seem to think.

-I can't believe I'm saying this but the Patriot secondary should be viewed as a strength for the first time since 2003. Not only are Shawn Springs and Leigh Bodden two solid starting cornerbacks but Ellis Hobbs is where he should be, which is placed as a number two or a nickel back. The presence of Deltha O'Neal as insurance with far less pressure on Terrence Wheatley and Jonathan Wilhite to perform well make this secondary deep. Bill Belichick knew he would need to address corner back situation with his defense suddenly unable to consistently create a pass-rush. Do we look at Bodden signing as Vrabel's replacement with a guy like Jason Taylor waiting in the wings (move to linebacker?) Give Bill credit; he is on his way to revamping this team. This wasn't an easy thing to do considering it went 18-1 two years ago and nearly made the playoffs last year without Tom Terrific behind center.

Random Stuff

-Who doesn't agree with Lebron regarding the Dunk Contest? It sucks and needs to include only superstars who will be limited to two attempts. I watched less than half of it on Saturday night because it was boring and I thought it was a waste of time. The first thing the league needs to do is limit the contest (and all of the skills contests for that matter) to those who have been selected as all-stars.

If you're the NBA, dish out the cash and let us see D-Wade and Lebron battle it out a la Dominique and Jordan.

While we're talking about Lebron, don't underestimate how much his sense of history will have a role in his quest for Jordan's title as The Greatest Ever. After losing game 7 of the Celtics-Cavs series last May he compared the game to Bird and Dominique's shootout in 1988. He didn't whine about the tight loss but chose to appreciate how the game will be perceived down the road. The recent Dunk Contest comments may seem insignificant but he knows Jordan going dunk for dunk with another great only added to his legend. I think it's refreshing for a player to have such a keen knowledge of the history of the game as well as his potential place in it.

-From a Celtics standpoint, the only thing that happened today of any relevance was the Cavs not using Wally Szczerbiak's expiring contract to acquire Antawn Jamison. Had that deal happened, the Cavs might have sealed a trip to the Finals. Whew.

-When Tyson Chandler's trip to Oklahoma City was canceled it made me think of the awkwardness that ensued when Danny Fortson was traded from the Celtics to Toronto in February of 2000 for Alvin Williams and Sean Marks. On his way out he referred to the Celts as a "sinking ship" (which they were) and he went on and on how happy he was to be out of Boston. Then he failed his physical up in Canada. Back to Bean town. Oops. Good thing Chandler kept quiet on his way out.

-Isn't it weird to have things so calm and quiet in Fort Myers? I think Jonathan Papelbon should engage in a chugging contest with David Ortiz to liven things up down in at the City of Palms Park. My bet would be on Paps.

-If you're a Patriots fan, "The Blueprint" by Chris Price is worth a read. He really does a great job at comparing the Moneyball approach to the Pats' salary-cap magic acts.

Dwayne Wade and Star Jones?

Recent divorced from "Big Gay Al", Star Jones was seen canoodleing with NBA superstar Dwayne Wde. Eww!

She's still fat in my eyes.