WARNING: Sports Related

I remember one of the first things Mom told me when she found out we were moving to San Antonio: “at least you can root for the Spurs.”

Wow................wow...

I understand why Mom loves the Spurs so much. Probably because they are such great guys who play sound, ethical basketball; a team that has never fouled anyone in their life, especially Tim Duncan; a team loaded with European players who grew up watching soccer players fling themselves all over the field hoping for a foul; a team that has the dirtiest player in the league in Bruce Bowen; a team in a City that shows Eva Longoria every 5 minutes on eyewitness news.

I watched the first half of Saturday’s game before the power went out in our area—no TV and no internet. So I spent the next hour playing my harmonica in the darkest of night. Eventually the power came back on—the Jazz won handily. My blues were even blusier on Monday.

Anyway, onto some random thoughts from Monday night's game.

1. I caught the play on Saturday night when Horry flung himself on the floor. That has to be embarrasing if you’re a Spurs fan (Mom). Of course, even more incredulous was the announcers blaming it on Boozer for having his arm out in contact with the player, or in other words, playing proper defense. Frankly, the flopping is just getting out of hand. And I don’t care if you play for the Spurs, the Jazz, or the Parkwood 2nd Ward, it’s all over the place; it has infiltrated the game as shown with the 2nd technical on Fisher.

I’ve been saying for the last 10 years that the charging call is whistled waaaaaaaaaaaaayy too often in the league. I see way to many times where a guy is in the air and the defender slides in at the last minute to “take a charge.” This isn’t defense. I think the influx of charging calls has infected other facets of the game including the flailing of arms coming off pick and rolls. Here’s the thing that gets me. Do the refs even know who the floppers are? Do these guys watch tape? It’s not like Horry or Ginobli just started doing this yesterday. It was always a running joke that Vlade Divac was the best flopper in the league. And everyone knew it, except the refs for some unexplicable reason.

Can we please, please, please stop showing Eva Longoria on the sidelines? I mean, who would be against this? Who even watches Desperate Housewives anymore?

Did Oberto lose a bet or something? His hair looks like Cassie after a rainstorm. Who puts a part down the middle, slicks it, and blowdries the sides? Maybe that’s why Boozer can’t play defense on him—he’s too busy admiring the hairdo. Boozer has made him look like an all-star.

Overall, I thought the announcers did a great job. They weren’t too biased, they didn’t state the obvious too many times, and they actually had some good things to say. On a side note, Elvis exists, pigs fly and Deal or No Deal is the greatest show on TV.

Hopefully the Jazz play tonight at a high level, or at least they need to put in Hoffa as an enforcer. Maybe Kirelenko will suddenly realize that he’s getting paid the max salary and play like it. I wrote this on the blog a couple of months ago, “I am a little worried about Kirilenko. He wanted the max, got a franchise-player contract, and now looks like Dolph Lungren at the end of the fight in Rocky IV running up and down the court taking shots. Lucky for the Jazz, he should put up all star numbers again in 2011. Coincidentally, this is when his contract expires.” I guess he doesn’t read this blog. I thought it might have fired him up, like it did for my boy Deron when I wrote about him on draft day. It’s a shame.

Maybe, espn will finally stop showing the Matt Harpring on-screen graphic showing his family tree of football players after the 18th time. Maybe the NBA will finally fill us in on the whole cheerleaders in yellow outfits commercials that keep coming up after every time-out that really serve no purpose. Maybe Okur will finally quit his night job and get some rest. Maybe fans will realize that throwing stuff on the court does nothing. Who knows, maybe this will be the season I finally stop following professional sports or sports in general. Maybe Locke is still on the island leading the others.

And maybe, if the Spurs win and advance, at least Mom can stroll down Beacon Drive on her beach cruiser, consoling herself with: “At least it’s the San Antonio Spurs.”

At least...