YellowHandMan

Filling in the gaps, Pt 1

Five major sports stories in the six weeks since this blog petered out again about two months ago:

1. Lakers signed Artest instead of Ariza, and (after a painfully drawn-out limbo) re-signed Odom. So we're set to repeat, and on paper should be even better.

2. Felipe Massa got hit in the head by a spring that fell off Barrichello's car, but fortunately seems on the road to recover after it looked a little dicey at first (to say the least). Then Schumi announced he was coming back to fill in for Massa, but eventually had to call it off because a recent motorcycling injury hadn't healed. Disappointing, to say the least. Meanwhile, FOTA and the FIA finally sign the new Concorde Agreement and peace breaks out in F1. And Red Bull seem to be slowly reeling in Brawn F1 in the championship races.

3. Slightly more than a month short of his sixtieth birthday, Tom Watson almost won the British Open. But he choked (yes, that's the only way to describe it) on a tournament-winning putt on the last hole, and ended up losing in the playoff. Nobody cares who the actual winner was.

4. United signed Michael Owen on a Bosman transfer from Newcastle. We're paying him a relatively low salary with incentives - in my opinion, it's a great no-downside gamble by Fergie, and it'll be the icing on the cake if his goals contribute to our overtaking the Scousers on championships won. Antonio Valencia's long-rumoured transfer is also finally completed, making him Ronaldo's replacement, at least positionally-speaking. Oh, and Carlos Tevez took Citeh's money, whining all the way to the bank.

5. United lost the Community Shield to Chelsea on penalties, after drawing level 2-2 with an injury time goal from Rooney. Nani had a great first half capped by an excellent goal that gave us a 1-0 lead, but Chelsea came back to lead 2-1 after a disputed goal by Lampard when first Ballack (by his own admission) fouled Evra, then ref Chris Foy allowed play to carry on with Evra being down, despite Foy having halted play on two previous occasions for injuries. It was a better Shield match than most, with both teams playing hard and the aforementioned dose of controversy. Crap penalties from United's penalty takers, unfortunately, and Ben Foster looked completely overwhelmed by the pressure of finally having his opportunity as first-choice due to VDS's broken finger.

Kobe in Dreamland

Watched Kobe's appearance on The Tonight Show. It's really wonderful to see how happy he looks. He's always come across as tortured, moody and misunderstood, but now he just looks like a man living in a perfect world, completely at peace with himself.

With the earlier Kobe-Shaq championships, although they did come after some struggles, there was ultimately something easier about them. There were more shoulders (like Shaq's rather large ones) to share the burdens, and it's almost as if the Lakers - and us fans - took them for granted, especially after the first one.

But after all that Kobe has been through since then, it's easy to understand why he feels so happy now. But the great thing is that you know he's going to come back just as hungry next year, except that the rest of the team will also have the experience and confidence that comes with having won it all before.

All the focus now is on whether Ariza and Lamar will come back, although the press has also been trying desperately to engineer some drama over the possibility of opting out. Personally, I think it's virtually guaranteed that Ariza and Lamar will be brought back, although Shannon Brown might be a couple of million too much for Dr Buss - if anything, Farmar's improved play towards the end of the championship run might have sealed Brown's fate, unless he's prepared to accept only a modest raise.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Your World Champion Lakers!

YES!

It was simply wonderful to see the joy on Kobe's face. I expected him to be more emotional, perhaps some tears, but instead he just looked like a man overflowing with happiness, with a huge weight taken off his back.

Chapter One of Kobe's career was his success with Shaq, Chapter Two were the dark years - with the criticism, the Denver thing, all that negativity. Chapter Three - when Kobe really comes into his own as a leader and winner, and is the centerpiece of the Lakers' latest championship dynasty - begins NOW.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Delayed

Not worried - Magic may have won Game 3, but they needed to shoot a NBA Finals record 62% just to win by four points. Lakers fought back hard in the 4th quarter, but Kobe's uncharacteristic fallibility from the line and late turnover were costly.

Won't happen again.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Experience counts

Lakers take a 2-0 lead in the Finals, surviving a blocked last-second Kobe shot in regulation to pull away in overtime. Two more wins!

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Gameface

After several days of light twittering, the dam bursts - 36 tweets in 24 hours. Ironically, it's the same day Steven Johnson's TIME cover story about Twitter comes out.

Lakers won Game 1 of the Finals in impressive fashion, beating the Magic 100-75 with a 40, 8 and 8 game from Kobe, who had the scariest gameface on. In contrast, the Magic looked shellshocked and lost from around the middle of the 2nd quarter, when it was obvious they simply couldn't stop the Black Mamba.

Surprisingly, it was Kobe's first 40 point performance in the Finals; even more surprisingly, Dwight Howard managed only ONE field goal (on 1-6 shooting) and 12 points - and that was being played largely straight-up by Bynum and Pau.

Also indulged myself in some WWDC musings, and other random observations.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Embarrassed

The final score of 99-87 completely flatters the Lakers, because the Rockets really deserved to win by 30-40 points and they were probably just conserving energy in the fourth quarter when the game was already over. Lakers assumed that the Yao-less Rockets wouldn't show up, so decided to take the day off and got their a**ses handed to them.

For once, Magic's punditry wasn't hyperbole - 'Embarrassing' pretty much sums up this performance. Playing like this, the Lakers don't make the Finals.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Jerry West, Lakers' Consigliere (from BSPN)

Frankly, nobody wants Kobe to be traded more than BSPN, because it would be great for their business. But this article proposes the perfect solution to the Kobe soap opera - bring back The Logo, as team consigliere, a living symbol that everything is okay in Lakerland.

Dr Buss needs to pause from all those Playmates for just long enough to make this come true...

Suns extinguished

Lakers 119 Suns 98 (in Phoenix)

I haven't blogged at all about the ongoing will-Kobe-be-traded? soap opera, because it's simply too frustrating...but it's great to be able to put that out of my mind for awhile and just savour this victory.

After an amazing almost-comeback in the season opener, tying the game after being down 12 with 90 seconds to play before losing to a Battier three-pointer, this win really came out of nowhere.

Or rather, nowhere in particular. It wasn't Kobe going off (he had a quiet game), or any particular reserve stepping up (although Vlad was an encouraging 4-4 from downtown for 19 points). It was a TEAM performance, dominating the Suns and bringing their uptempo game to a grinding halt.

But what is it about Phil that gets him under the skin of our rivals? That exchange with D'Antoni - who is rapidly becoming the new Adelman - was priceless, and completely uncalled for from the Suns coach. Of course, he was completely b*tchslapped by Phil: "Go sit down!"

Mr D'Antoni, you have been served.