Rants and Ranks

Before the season started I wrote my 20 questions for the NBA this season ( click here ).  This season is over as of Thursday, and I'm only going to address one of them.  Unless you're a moron, you can probably guess that it's about Shaq totally ruining Inside this year.  He had done guest spots before, and always came off funny and upbeat.  I don't know what happened, but now he always appears pissed off, and he killed the whole chemistry of the show.  I can deal with his mumbling, but the negative attitude (particularly about the Superman nickname) is quite strange from a player who made a career of being a happy-go-lucky guy.  When Chris Webber was on it in years past, he fit right in, even though he wasn't always a nightly regular.  He stayed quiet for a nice chunk of time, and offering his two cents at the appropriate moment.  He brought an aura of "cool" to the show, and most importantly, he knew his place.  Shaq doesn't.  It'...

The Timberwolves aren't going to make the playoffs this year.  Big surprise right?  They haven't made the playoffs since '04.  Well things are looking up in Minneapolis regardless.  Kevin Love is the best power forward in basketball.    The fact he averages about 104 rebounds per game is enough to get excited about, but he's anything but one-dimensional.  The man can literally do everything that basketball player needs to do, at a fantastic level. Ricky Rubio wasn't a flash in the pan after finally arriving, and aside from his unfortunate season-ending injury you could have made the case he was rookie of the year.  He may not be Steve Nash 2.0, but whatever he ends up being is going to be pretty damn good.  Nikola Pekovic is almost a nightly 20-10 center (coming from out of nowhere I may add), and they have the ultimate energy guy off the bench in JJ Barea.  And just for a bonus, they have two good chemistry guys in Luke Ridno...

Raw was absolutely incredible last night.  It was the hottest Raw crowd in easily 10 years.  Miami deserves a big pat on the back because they may have drastically changed future story lines for the better.  Daniel Bryan was made to look the fool at Wrestlemania.  Instead, the true fans voiced their opinion on the matter.  Loud "YES" chants echoed through the American Airlines Arena all night long.  Didn't matter a bit what was going on.  The Rock got chanted at.  (I did get the feeling though, he didn't even realize they weren't for him) Cena did obviously, Miami was totally anti-Cena.  Even everyone's blue-collar hero CM Punk got some as well.  "D-Bry" is officially the most over guy in the company now, and I freaking love it!  Some other good tidbits: The Jericho and Punk exchange.  Usually the sneak attacks seem silly and forced.  Jericho's attack on Punk felt very awkward (in a good way) and uncomf...