Nugget Run

Scott Hasting, Kiki Vandeweghe and Adrain Dantley better bring their Icy/Hot Patches, and the sneakers to the arena and start scouting Kevin Durant’s every move.

The Nuggets have the toughest matchup of the first round of the NBA Playoffs in the Oklahoma City Thunder. And they’ll have to take the challenge on shorthanded. The injury list looks more like a Seattle weather-man’s prediction on rain for the week…Gallinari 85%, Mozgov 60%, Felton 90%, Afflalo 45%, Lawson 85%, Andersen 80% and NOW Nene 85%.

But even with a healthy lineup George Karl was going to install the Guarding-Kevin-Durant-By-Committee defense anyway. And that may not even work.

In the playoffs stars win games, stars win series and stars win championships. This isn’t baseball where momentum carries you over the top. On the hardwood you need that great player, now those great players (OKC, LA, Boston, Chicago), to hoist their team above the rest.

And let’s say the Nuggets somehow find their way moving onward. (NOT losing in 6 games to the Thunder) It could mean trouble for the rest of the West. The playoffs have as many days off in between game that even Ferris Bueller gets jealous, and that could be just what the doctor ordered.

So then the only thing really stopping the Nuggs from THE NBA FINALS is Los Angeles. But I’m liking our chances…. if it’ll rain, it’ll pour.

WHITE KNIGHT

More and more athletes are getting in trouble and, to put it lightly, tarnishing their careers and ‘legacies’. And this perception of athletes and the sports they play is hurting the fan base, hurting me.

But I don’t want to believe it.

I want to believe in a WHITE KNIGHT. I want to believe that these guys we look up to are just as good of people as they are athletically. I want to believe that, not that they can do no wrong, but the miniscule mistakes they make on a daily basis are no worse than the ones I make as well. I want to believe they can and should be idols to so many kids that watch them year in and year out. I want to be naïve.

I don’t like Brett Favre; not because of the situation that arose with Jenn Sterger, I just don’t like the way he plays. But, then within the past few days I found myself defending the guy when people started taking shots at his career and who he is as a person.

Why can’t I, as a fan, watch a game without also seeing the TMZ Special inside their personal lives?

]I just want to see an athlete as the God-gifted, talented, non-human, playing the game for the love instead of the money, jersey wearing individual in their element and accept this as the ultimate truth.

Bye Bye Burksie

He's not going to stay.

It's like building a couch cushion fort, you cannot do it alone. (Or defending one for that matter.) The Buffs are graduating the likes of Cory Higgins, Levi Knutson, Marcus Relphorde, and Trent Beckley (again). Their leading scorer returning, besides possibly Alec Burks, is Andre Roberson.

He WOULD have more pressure on him than Snooki's poof bobbypin. (I can't believe I just made that reference, ugh.) But do not expect another freshman to step up the way Burks did 2 seasons ago with Higgins.

His raw talent and size WILL translate to the NBA, and we all know the GM's in the lottery are all looking for the next big thing to make their small market team marketable. Someone is going to be smart/(stupid) enough to take a chance on the kid in the top-15 picks.

And if you think he is back in Grandview, Missour this weekend talking with his moms about 'their' decision to turn pro you're mistaken. He's at Men's Warehouse as we speak picking out the most ridiculous suit he can find to wear on the biggest day of his life.

Anchoring Fools

This is no joking matter.... I anchored on April Fools Day.

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Part 2.


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Part 4.


Let me know what you think.