The following conversation (alledgedly) took place on Sunday, May 17th, time unknown, but it would have happened before both Game 7's in the NBA...

David STERN: Get me Coaches Rivers and Adelman on the phone now!
Secretary: Right away, sir. [Ringing]
Doc RIVERS: Rivers here.
Rick ADELMAN: Coach Adelman speaking.
STERN: Gentlemen, I need to speak to both of you on a matter of extreme importance.
RIVERS: Sure, commish, what's up?
STERN: As you are aware, the second round of the playoffs is closing tonight, with both your teams playing tonight.
ADELMAN: Yeah, we should be getting ready for the games...
STERN: Yes, about tonights games, coaches, I need your help with something. I need your teams to lose tonight.
RIVERS/ADELMAN: WHAT?!?!?!
STERN: Gentlemen, this is a matter of life or death for the NBA. It is so important the government has become aware of the situation.
RIVERS: What situation? You're asking me to tank a playoff game?!?! Stern, you've gone off the deep end this time.
VOICE: I"LL TELL YOU WHO'S GOING OFF THE DEEP END IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO THE COMMISSIONER, RIGHT NOW!!!
ADELMAN: Who the heck is that.
STERN: Agent Jack Bauer, CTU.
RIVERS: I thought he was a TV character.
BAUER: DO I SOUND LIKE A TV CHARACTER TO YOU?!?! DO I SOUND FAKE, HMM?!?!
STERN: Agent Bauer, please let me explain the situation to them.
BAUER: Make it quick, they're running out of time...
STERN: Gentlemen, the US Government forsees a widescale riot, nationwide, if both your teams win tonight.
ADELMEN: How is that possible?
STERN: Well, it's really quite simple. The experts believe that with all the high drama in the playoffs this year, that the country is now addictted to it. They need to see competitive conference finals as well.
RIVERS: And you're saying that our teams aren't up to the task.
BAUER: Coach, look at your team right now. You're too injured to continue fighting like this. You need to withdrawl.
RIVERS: You're asking me to tank a Game 7, at home, in front of thousands of loyal Celtics fans?
BAUER: I'M ASKING YOU TO DO WHAT'S BEST FOR YOUR COUNTRY!!!
STERN: Calm down, Jack.
ADELMAN: Commish, I agree with Bauer. We can't continue like this. I wish it was brought to my attention sooner, that way I wouldn't have had my team push the Lakers so hard.
STERN: It's all right Rick. The Lakers understand. Can you do this tonight?
ADELMAN: Did you see our last game in LA? I don't even have to ask the guys, it would have happened anyway.
RIVERS: I don't know about this...
STERN: Coach, I know that this sounds strange, but it needs to be done.
RIVERS: How am I supposed to tell my team? Just say, we can't win tonight guys?
BAUER: No, there's an easier way.
STERN/RIVERS: How?
BAUER: You need to get Paul Pierce to fake an injury during the game. Sometime during the second or third quarters.
RIVERS: Are you insane!
BAUER: THAT'S THE CHOICE YOU HAVE TO MAKE!!! If Pierce goes down, the rest of the team will be too demoralized to continue. It's your best option and it also limits the number of people who are aware of the situation.
RIVERS: And it's that simple? Tell Paul to come up lame with a hammy or a knee or something?
STERN: That's the best option that we can think of Doc. I know this is difficult, but we need your help right now. The country needs you.
RIVERS: No, I can't. I can't just give up on these guys, they've come to far...
BAUER: Listen coach, you have shown more heart in the last few weeks than any team I've seen or fought with before. But right now, we don't need you to fight. We need you to do your job.
[Silence]
BAUER: MAKE THE DECISION COACH!!! YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!!!
ADELMAN: Come on Doc, do the right thing. We're with you.
RIVERS: All right. I'll get Paul in on the operation. You'll have your results later tonight.
STERN: Thank you Doc, Rick. I couldn't have done it without you.
BAUER: America couldn't have done it without you.
ADELMAN: You still didn't need to call me. We weren't winning tonight.
RIVERS: Yeah, you guys were about to get smoked anyway. Kobe's gonna be pissed that your series went seven games...
BAUER: Thank you gentlemen for your cooperation. I have to give a report to CTU and then watch the games.
RIVERS: But you already know what's going to happen.
BAUER: Sure, but it's still fun to watch.
STERN: God bless America.

[beep, BOOP, beep, BOOP]

- Eagle

The following conversation is purely fictional. Jack Bauer did not help the NBA fix the two Game 7's in question.

If you haven't seen the controversy yet from last night's NBA action, here's a quick recap. Boston's Rajon Rondo committed a hard foul against Chicago's Brad Miller late in OT of Boston's win. Miller took a pass driving into wide open lane and Rondo came across and fouled him, opening a cut on his lip. Dwight Howard swung an elbow at Sam Dalembert of the 76ers during his game.

Rondo was assessed a personal foul and Howard a technical.

Here's the difference between the two fouls: Howards was intentional.

Clearly, Dalembert is trying to clear out Howard under the basket, but that's just poor judgement on Howard's part. Had the officials caught this, Howard probably would have been ejected/fined and be playing in Game 6. However, he finished the game (with a 24-24) and now should have to sit at least 1 game. If not, then you can add this to the growing list of NBA conspiracy theories for playoff officiating.

The problem with Rondo's foul, which could get upgraded to a flagrant-1, is that it directly effected the outcome of a game. While unintentional, asking Brad Miller to hit two game-tying free throws after having his face split open is just not logical. Why the Bulls didn't ask to put another shooter on the line is beyond me (assuming they could of course, I don't know the rules for that), but I think the zebras got that call right. Rondo is trying to recover against a 6-11 center who's got a wide open lane. If he doesn't foul him hard, Miller probably dunks it and goes to the line to win it.

Here's my interpretation of the flagrant foul rules. You get a flagrant-1 foul for a hard foul on the ball, this is where Rondo's foul might be classified. You can also get a flagrant-1 for those dumb things, clear-lane violation, undercutting, etc. Anything that's for player safety. A Flagrant-2 (in my opinion) is an intentional foul against the player, i.e., you didn't play the ball, you attacked the player. Flagrant-2 fouls have basically become technical fouls that occur during the game. Techs are now used more for mouthing off, physical altercations, etc.

Remember when Zinedined Zidane (French International soccer player) headbutted Marco Matterazzi (Italian international soccer player). This is the same concept (on a much smaller scale of course) because Zidane clearly head-butted Matterazzi. After the officals conferred, they showed Zidane a red card (ejection). Why can't the NBA just do the same? Refs are allowed to look at replays to determine who did what during altercations and I'm curious to see whether they did that during last night's game with Howard's foul. It's intentional, it's unnessacary and he should be punished. I would be surprised to see Rondo's upgraded to a flagrant-2, but since it directly effected the end of the game, I don't know.

But I do know that somewhere, there's a NBA fan/conspiracy theorist screaming for Stern's head (again). I'll hold off judgement until after the NBA's decision. But if I'm Doc Rivers, I wouldn't be praising Rondo for committing the foul after the game.

- Eagle

I've watched more NBA games this year than in the rest of my life put together. Maybe that's a stretch, But after I heard that UConn grad Ray Allen was coming to play in Boston via a draft day trade, I got excited. I never really followed the NBA outside of UConn grads such as Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, Emeka Okafor, etc. I just enjoy the college game more than the NBA. So naturally, I wanted to see the UConn players have success in the NBA as well. Rip Hamilton won a title with the Pistons a few years back, but other than that, I've really only followed Ray Allen. I have an old, purple Allen jersey from his days with the Milwaukee Bucks that's probably in mint-condition because I never really wore it. That jersey was rather big for my 4-foot nothing frame ten years ago. Even through the rough days in Seattle, I really wanted to see Allen get one last chance at a playoff run. The Boston Celtics answered this call, acquiring Allen via a trade as well as Kevin Garnett in a separate trade. Last night, after watching the Celtics suffocating defense on the Lakers and Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen finally got his ring, and this UConn follower rejoiced. But alas, it is not meant to be.

I followed the NBA more closely than ever before. You see, this is the last year I can "legally" follow the University of Connecticut graduates in the NBA. My current school Rider University (Lawrenceville, NJ), will graduate its first NBA draftee in 6'-10" PF/C Jason Thompson. According to the myriad of sports law, after he is drafted, I can no longer follow Allen's Celtics or Hamilton's Pistons. I'm stuck with whoever drafts Thompson, and I'm not complaining. Following the NBA this year has been interesting to say the least. I still don't like watching most games, mainly because I like watching defense. So watching the Celtics and the Spurs along with a few others comes easy to me, but watching basically every other team is a challenge. But no matter what, after Thompson is drafted, I'm changing my CBS profile, buying a jersey and hat online and embracing my new team with open arms. I would love to see Thompson go to a contender, or stay local in Philly or New Jersey so I could road trip with friends to see him play.

I'm not going to get into a college vs. pros rant, that will be for another time. But for this sports fan, embracing the NBA will take time. Watching this years playoffs and Finals have been exciting, and hopefully next year, I'll be watching Jason Thompson and team to be announced on draft day in 2009 challenging for the title. But for now, this "bandwagon" Celtics fan has a week to celebrate. There won't be any buying of championship hats or t-shirts. Perhaps a phone call or two to family and friends to talk about Allen, Garnett and MVP Paul Pierce finally getting to the top.

But congratulations to Ray Allen and the Boston Celtics, the 2008 NBA Champions. You've started to convert this college fan into a potential NBA fan. And while that day may truly never come, it is a start.

- Eagle

I've been back home for the past week and haven't posted anything. No Atlanta Braves game threads on the message boards or any play-by-play on the GameCenter glogs either, so I apologize for everyone who has wonder where I've been. On to some random thoughts from the last week in sports that I haven't gotten around to posting.

Can anyone win on the road?

I've watched the Braves continue to struggle on the road (4-13 this season) and the Boston Celtics drop their 4th straight road playoff game (3 against Atlanta and 1 against Cleveland). Extreme cases such as this with good teams surprise a lot of people, but I am not shocked about either case. The NBA playoffs have been dominated by home teams so far, and people were amazed that the Celtics-Hawks series went the full 7 games. However, I think a lot of people, probably myself included, underestimated the Hawks, and the crowd at an NBA game, especially in the playoffs. As for the Braves, well, it is only early May, and they'll pull out of it eventually. They haven't played a lot of tough teams on the road, mostly divisional games, but did get swept at Colorado and at dropped the first two against Pittsburgh. Any pro sports team needs to win on the road to be successful, whether it's the regular season or the playoffs, and home dominance seems to be a growing trend, unfortunately.

OJ Mayo and the One-Year Rule

I don't care if Mayo accepted gifts or not before or during his time at USC. Ditto for athlete for that matter. This is an issue that goes beyond that. This a rant against the one-year rule for all NBA prospects. I don't understand why the rule was made, because all it does is cause problems. If some one is talented enough to go straight from high school to the NBA, just let them. A lot of the NBA's biggest names, LeBron, Kobe, KG, Howard, etc., didn't go to college and this rule I believe is killing college basketball. It causes to many problems with the NCAA when players rack up violations and it will continue to kill the college teams, while the players who committed the violations don't get penalized for their actions. Maybe this will change at some point, as Mayo and fellow USC player Reggie Bush have ongoing investigations about violations. There are only two ways to solve this problem, change or remove the rule. Either ban the player from playing in the pros or some other punishment or force them to earn a degree while playing in college. Here's an idea David Stern: If you're going to force young players to go to school, make them get a degree. I don't care if it is a two-year degree, but before you can play in the NBA from college, you have to earn some kind of degree from your school. This one-year thing is a joke. Athletes can take bogus classes, like Rocks for Jocks and whatever, for one year (for free, I might add), then move on to the NBA. Having these young athletes accepting gifts and talking to agents are going to continue to happen unless someone (David Stern) fixes the root of the problem. You can't allow players to treat their one year of college basketball as a joke, and right now, that is what it is. Of course, I'm just a whackjob with an internet blog, so who cares right?

On Tap

Braves DH against Pittsburgh tomorrow, then road trip to Philly. I might see one of the games at Citizens Bank with some friends of mine from NJ who are Phils fans, since we're bored and we're only an hour away from Philly.

NBA/NHL Playoffs all week

If you were to take a look at my favorite teams on my CBS profile, you would see teams from Philadelphia, New York and Boston. After realizing that I have violated countless rules of city rivalries and probably thinking that I am a deranged fan or a front-runner, please let me explain with my first blog entry as an introduction/disclaim about me and my favorite teams.

See, I have a problem. I love watching sports. I've worked for sports teams and arenas and love nothing more than putting on CBS, FOX, ESPN, TNT or any other channel that has national or local sports at 7 PM and falling asleep to the 2 AM SportCenter. But up until this season, I've never really been a serious fan of the NBA, NHL or College Football. Mainly because I moved around a lot as a kid and chose teams that I could follow from each move. That's how I am an Eagles fan (lived in PA) and a Braves fan (blame Ted Turner and TBS). I also attend Rider University, hence the Broncs' logo for NCAA basketball. However, since Rider doesn't have a football team, I adopted my home state Connecticut Huskies and watched them grow from a transitioning 1-AA team, to co-Big East Champions this year. Say what you want about the WVU-UConn game or the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and WVU, UConn made it, and I couldn't have been prouder for my family, two generations, including my dad, uncle and cousins, and their team.

Now we get into the strange workings of my head. I was raised on UConn Huskies basketball. My dad is an alumni as I mentioned above, and I never really found a love for the NBA. I missed out on Jordan's first run in the 90s because I was too young, like 6 years old, but did see his second run and the Lakers/Spurs dynasties of the 2000s. I really only followed Ray Allen, the first guy from UConn that I was a household NBA name. I'll admit, I have a Ray Allen Milwaukee Bucks jersey somewhere in my closet and was saddened when I heard that the Seattle SuperSonics were going to move to Oklahoma City. Then, Allen was traded to the Boston Celtics, meaning the first UConn great in the NBA, was a only a few hours away from my hometown. However, my Celtic fan hood will be short-lived after this year. No, I'm not a front runner, but Rider has a F/C that you may have heard about. His name is Jason Thompson, a 6-10 big man who could (and should) and drafted in the first round, becoming the first player from Rider ever drafted. Whatever team he gets drafted to, I'll have a jersey/hat order online about 5 minutes after, it's nothing personal to Ray Allen, UConn or the Celtics, I just have a new priority.
Now on to the debacle that is the NHL. I have attended one NHL game in my life. I was about 9 or so, and I was at the Hartford (CT) Civic Center watching Brendan Shanahan and the Hartford Whalers (yes, the Whalers) play the Montreal Canadians with a friend and his dad, who had season tickets. The Whalers won the game, then later moved to Carolina and I lost interest in the sport. However, I casually followed one Chris Drury, who happens to be from my hometown of Trumbull, CT. He's a local legend of sorts, having won a LLWS title (winning pitcher, 1989 championship game), an Olympic silver medal and a Stanley Cup. Somehow, he landed with the New York Rangers in the off-season, and the only two players I ever cared about, were on the same team.

It's been a fantastic sports year for me personally. I actually care about all four major sports teams (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) and follow NASCAR (Hendrick MS) and MLS (NE Revolution) during the summer along with my Braves. I saw two NCAA basketball conference championships, seeing Rider fall in the MAAC, and Pitt win the Big East at MSG. I also achieved a personal goal, and beat my roommate in the process, by getting a "Superstar" ranking on my CBS profile, allowing me to Blog and post on GameCenter live Glogs as well.

I don't think there will every be a point that I am truly satisfied with all of my teams at once. That's asking for too much. However, if sports bliss or true happiness can be attained, I might be pretty close.

And I'm not going to complain.

- Eagle