What We've All Been Waiting For....Lakers-Celtics Finals

There may have been a few bumps in the road for both NBA dynasties, but in the end the Lakers and the Celtics took care of business and made it back to the NBA Finals.

This will be the 12th meeting between the two teams in the NBA Finals, with the Celtics winning the majority of them.

These two teams haven't changed all that much from the 2008 NBA Finals when the Celtics took care of the Lakers in six games, including a 39-point crushing in Game 6.

Sure, the Lakers now have Ron Artest and the Celtics have Rasheed Wallace, but overall these two teams are almost the same as two years ago.

Like I've said all postseason, Rajon Rondo is once again the x-factor in this series. The Big Three of Garnett, Pierce, and Allen will show up as usual, but if Rondo continues to play the way he has all postseason then I expect the Celtics to win another NBA championship.

We've seen the Lakers tested by the likes of the Thunder and the Suns. They got down right lucky against the Suns in Game 5 which swung all of the momentum in favor of the Lakers.

However, if Artest somehow finds a way to play consistently good basketball on the offensive side of the floor then all of the sudden Kobe has a second option on the perimeter. He was missing that option for the most part in 2008.

This series could easily end up going seven games, but the Celtics seemed poised to win another championship and they're a more complete team than the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant has the ability to win a couple games in this series all by himself, but in the end that gritty Celtics defense will force Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to find an offensive game. Just like in 2008, I think both Gasol and Bynum fail to be effective in the low post and the Celtics win this series in seven.

Series Notes

• Celtics x-factor: Rajon Rondo
• Lakers x-factor: Ron Artest
• Series prediction: Celtics in 7
• Finals MVP: Rajon Rondo
  

Rampage vs. Evans: Heads Will Roll

Perhaps one of the most anticipated fights since UFC 100's Mir-Lesnar fight pits Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-7) against Rashad Evans (14-1-1).

Needless to say these guys don't like each other which always makes for a good fight. This dislike for each goes back a while but really got going when the two fighters were coaches on one of the Ultimate Figther series.

We've always known Rampage as trying to get under the skin of his opponent, but Evans has generally been more mild mannered than Rampage.

However, don't expect any cheap shots like UFC 113 when Paul Daley sucker punched Josh Koscheck well after the final bell hand rang.

Both of these guys respect the sport and will put on a great show for the sport's most loyal fans.

Rampage is the knockout specialist while Evans is more of a technical fighter. If the fight goes to the canvas then many are saying Evans will have the advantage. To the same degree, with the fight standing Rampage possesses that deadly strength that can put you out before you even know what's coming. He did it to Chuck Liddell and he can do it to Evans as well.

Evans is a very smart fighter but has been known to get careless at times when the fight is standing. Don't expect that to happen this time around. Much like Rampage, Evans is completely focused on the most hyped non-title fight in UFC history.

UFC 114 marks the beginning to a summer loaded with good events that will lead up to the Lesnar-Carwin fight in July.

Will Jackson Ditch Sunny SoCal For Old Stomping Grounds?

Not only is Phil Jackson currently having to coach his team back to another NBA Finals, but now he is in the midst of a contract negotiation with owner Jerry Buss.

Rumor has it Jackson is up for a hefty decrease in pay to make room for one of the free agents out of this historic class that's coming up in just a month.

Sources close to the situation are saying that contact has already been made by the Chicago Bulls to bring back the coach that put them on the map. We already know they're lobbying for LeBron James as well, and it's not crazy to think that Jackson would be drawn to another superstar.

Whatever happens in the Western Conference Finals might determine if Jackson stays or not.

There's really nothing to lose if Jackson does go to Chicago. He's already cemented himself into coaching royalty even if he does end his coaching career on a sub-par team. However, Chicago is a team that is on its way up.

Worst case scenario Jackson sails off into the sunset with at least ten rings, and maybe 11 if the Lakers win this year. In other words, I think Jackson has some wiggle room to do what he wants.

This offseason is going to be a busy one in the NBA and it looks like Phil Jackson wants a piece of the action. In the end I think Jackson stays where he's at in L.A. The situation is too comfortable and he's already made his millions.

It would be a great story seeing Jackson return to where he won six championships as a coach and possibly coach LeBron, but he's going to stay with a team that's going to continue to be contending for championships for years to come.

Don't Bank On Lakers-Celtics Series Just Yet

Last night Amare Stoudemire made sure the Suns wouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as the Magic in the 2010 NBA Playoffs.

Stoudemire went for 42 points to get the Suns right back in the thick of the Western Conference Finals.

Lately scoring hasn't been the problem for Stoudemire. Oddly enough it's been the lack of rebounding. Last night he grabbed 11 which was two more than his rebounds total in the first two games combined.

The Suns don't have a lot of size outside of Stoudemire and Robin Lopez so it is extremely important that Stoudemire continues to be dominant on the boards like in Game 3. It was only his third double-digit rebound game in this year's playoffs.

Now it's obviously no time to panic for the Lakers. They're still in great shape to wrap this thing up quickly and prepare for the Celtics who at the moment look better than the 08' championship team.

Pretty much all of us outside of the state of Arizona want a Lakers-Celtics series in the NBA Finals. It is easily the most recognized rivalry in the NBA and so far the 2010 NBA Playoffs have not been very exciting. In fact, the NHL has shown them up a little bit. That would all change with a Lakers-Celtics series.

To go back to the Western Conference Finals, don't count the Suns out of this at all. This team is resilient and has a ton of great pieces in place for this team to go down swinging. I can promise you that guys like Steve Nash, Jason Richardson, and Grant Hill aren't going to let the Suns be embarrassed like the Magic have been.

Oh yeah, and if Stoudemire somehow figures out a way to follow up that career performance with another one than this thing will be tied up going back to L.A.

The talent and sheer size of the Lakers will ultimately win this series, even if it takes seven games, but crazier things have happened in sports. For the sake of the bottom line, the NBA is hoping that all goes according to plan and the Lakers make yet another trip to the NBA Finals.

MLB Enters Interleague Play

There's not much going on this time year in sports, but the baseball season has entered interleauge play which always provides at least some excitement.

What we've come to know as the Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets. The Yankees took the first game in a close one. Much like the Cubs in Chicago, the Yankees are the darlings of New York, but the Mets have a very loyal blue collar fanbase which makes this series so fun to watch.

It's always fun going out west to witness the Giants and the Athletics go at it. They're separated only by San Francisco Bay. The series opener was especially intriguing because reborn Barry Zito played against his old ball club that made him great at one time.

The Athletics took down Zito and the Giants in that series opener.

Other than those two series, the others really didn't jump out at me. However, there are plenty more interesting matchups left on the interleague slate.

Upcoming Interleague Matchups

• 6/11: White Sox @ Cubs
• 6/11: Phillies @ Red Sox
• 6/15: Phillies @ Yankees
• 6/18: Dodgers @ Red Sox
• 6/22: Tigers @ Mets
• 6/22: Dodgers @ Angels
• 6/25: Yankees @ Dodgers
• 6/25: Red Sox @ Giants

The one that sparks the most interest is the rematch of last year's World Series between the Yankees and the Phillies, and I'm sure those faithful Dodger fans can't wait to have the pin stripes come into Dodger Stadium.

Interleauge play is one of the few exciting moments in sports during the dog days of summer.

CJ's Current Contract a Slap in the Face

How is it that last year's leading rusher by almost 600 yards not even close to being the highest paid player on his own team?

That's the million dollar question that Chris Johnson is probably asking himself while holding out from Titans offseason practices.

In Johnson's current contract he stands to make $550,000 in 2010. Have you seen some of the contracts that professional athletes get these days? And all the Titans can manage is a shade over a half a million.

For the average person I realize this is a lot of money, but you have to move along with the business. If you were performing among the best in your line of work and not getting paid nearly what everyone else was then you would gripe too.

This is classic Titans and one reason why they have never been able to hold down a descent NFL star for longer than a few seasons.

Johnson is the backbone of this team and rest assured, if the Titans don't pay him the money he deserves then someone else will.

If the Titans do continue to be the tight wads they have always been then this will come back to bite them in the butt. Without Johnson last season the Titans would have won three to four games.

Johnson single handily was the reason you almost made the playoffs. Get rid of this current contract that is a slap in the face and pay the man the money he deserves.

This holdout is nowhere close to coming to an end. Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk is publicly endorsing Johnson's holdout and there is also a petition in circulation that many fans have already signed.

You're fighting a losing battle here if you're the Titans trying to save money. It's not going to work. Swallow you're pride, pull out one of those giant checks, and give your franchise the best chance to be successful for the coming years.

Analyzing LeBron's Next Destination

Absolutely no one knows for sure where LeBron James will be next season. Probably not even LeBron himself.

If LeBron does end up leaving Cleveland, and shattering the hearts of Cavs fans everywhere, then he won't do it because of money. More than likely Cleveland can offer LeBron just as much money as any other team can thanks to their cap space.

However, if LeBron's top priority is winning a championship anytime soon then he's has to get out of Cleveland. The last few years have shown that he just doesn't have the supporting cast that it takes to win a championship.

We saw that first hand in Game 5 of the Celtics series when LeBron had one of his worst games of his playoff career. The Cavs fell apart like a wet newspaper as soon as they realized LeBron was not going to be his heroic self.

Championship teams don't rely on just one player, even if it is one of the best the game has ever seen. Whenver Michael Jordan had a bad game, which he did, his supporting cast was always there to stop the bleeding.

He's already admitted that winning a championship is all that matters to him which leads me to believe he's not coming back to Cleveland.

His best option if he wants to win a championship as soon as possible is the Chicago Bulls. This team is full of young talent that's only going to get better. They played right with LeBron's Cavaliers in this postseason, but were lacking just one more playmaker.

If LeBron would have been on the Bulls instead of the Cavs this season then you're looking at a Bulls sweep of the Cavs, hands down.

Critics of this scenario say that there's not enough room for LeBron and Derrick Rose, but I beg to differ. Rose is a laid back player who doesn't need to ball in his hands to be effective. You also got rising stars like Joakim Noah and Luol Deng to help LeBron out.

This is going to be a dangerous team in the Eastern Conference in a few years, with or without LeBron.

Even though LeBron's personal brand will sky rocket if he goes to either the Knicks or the Nets, these two teams don't give him the best chance to win a championship. He's better off staying in Cleveland if he wants to use that reasoning.

Some people are guessing that he'll go to the Clippers and try to create a legacy of his own with a new franchise, much like Jordan did with the Bulls. However, LeBron cares too much about his personal brand and playing on the west coast will keep him from getting that mass appeal.

It's really a shot in the dark at guessing where LeBron will be next season, but if winning championships is truly his top priority then Chicago is his next stop.

LeBron's Top Five Choices

1. Chicago- supporting cast: Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Brad Miller
2. New York- supporting cast: David Lee, Al Harrington, Tracy McGrady, Chris Duhon
3. Cleveland- supporting cast: Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, Anthony Parker
4. LA Clippers- supporting cast: Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Blake Griffin, Drew Gooden
5. New Jersey- supporting cast: Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Brook Lopez
   

Oh Canada!

There's finally a team based out of Canada making a run for the NHL Stanley Cup. Fittingly enough it's the Montreal Canadiens and they're turning heads in the NHL.

The Canadiens entered the playoffs as an 8-seed with a daunting task of taking out Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Despite what all of the experts said, the Canadiens went into the nation's capital and took out the Capitals in Game 7.

Then there was yet another heavyweight to take out and it was the defending Stanley Cup champions in the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Once again the Canadiens stuck to the gameplan and took it to a Game 7 where anything is possible. Well the near impossible happened yet again as the Canadiens convincingly went into the Steel City and beat the Penguins 5-2.

Perhaps the most telling stat in this series is the fact that Sidney Crosby was held to just a single goal in seven games. He scored 51 goals in the regular season and five goals in the previous series against the Senators.

There's no denying the reason the Canadies have made it this far and looking at becoming the first even 8-seed to win the Stanley Cup. It's becasue of Jaroslav Halak and his stellar goaltending that is like nothing I have ever seen.

The Penguins socred two unanswered goals in the 2nd period and had all the momentum on their side when Halak made amazing save after amazing save to keep the game out of reach for the highly talented Penguins.

If Halak keeps this up then you're looking at you're Stanley Cup champions. In hockey, great goaltending wins Stanley Cups.

This series wasn't the only great series going on in the Eastern Conference. The Flyer have now won three straight games in their series to force a Game 7 with the Bruins.

With all of that said, as of right now this year's NBA playoffs have nothing on the NHL playoffs and the Canadiens can greatly be thanked for that.

Inside the 2010 NHL Playoffs

• Number of 7-game series: 4
• Number of 6-game series: 6
• Number of 1-goal games: 33
  

The Titans Backfield Is Suddenly Crowded

After last month's draft, the Titans have fixed any need they may have had at the running back position.

In fact, they kind of have an over abundance of running backs at the moment. This isn't the worst dilemma to have in the world, but there will be plenty of competition when training camp opens up.

Currently there are seven running backs on the Titans roster. We all know Chris Johnson will be the starter, but the replacement of recently departed LenDale White is up in the air.

The competition will be between primarily second-year player Javon Ringer, LeGarrette Blount, and Stafon Johnson.

The draft picks of Blount and Stafon Johnson were excellent picks in my mind.

Blount is of course the infamous guy who sucker punched the Boise State player at the beginning of last season. Even though he made a huge mistake in coming after that guy, he's still an excellent running back that has the physique to run guys over in the open field.

Some of you may remember Stafon Johnson as the guy that had the unfortunate weight lifting accident that almost cost him his life. The doctors said that Johnson's great athleticism helped pull him down the road to recovery.

You can't complain about having a strong-willed guy like that on your roster. He'll end up being a valuable asset to some NFL team even if the Titans end up not having room for him.

I see him becoming the second string running back with Ringer and Johnson fighting for a spot on the team.

Regardless of how things sort out in the backfield when August rolls around, the Titans offense is starting to shape up to be a solid one.

Ron Artest Catches the Twitter Bug

This whole Twitter thing has turned out to be a great emotional tool for professional athletes, much like it probably is for the masses of high school teens.

The only difference is professional athletes put themselves in the possibility of heavy fines whenever they express, or rather tweet, their emotions about certain things involving the team or the league.

Ron Artest is the latest to use Twitter to show his displeasure, and it was in the form of criticizing Lakers coach Phil Jackson:

"Finally Phil Jackson didn't mention me in media talking me Now I can build on game 2. Hopefully he talks to me before the media"

Just about an hour later another tweet came along:

"Ever since phil mention things about me in media before coming to me first I was weird . So every pray he can somehow close his yapper."

Now Artest has declined to elaborate at all on the subject which is usually typical. I'm starting to think that some of these athletes just have to be in the spotlight in some way other than what they do on the playing field.

Some people, including Artest's brother, is claiming that someone hacked into his Twitter account. That might be a possibility, but if that's the case then why wouldn't Artest just say that.

Once again it comes back to the need to be in the spotlight.

Jackson was very critical of the shot selection from behind the arc from Artest, and I'm sure it bruised Artest's ego a bit when he heard the legendary Phil Jackson to tell him to stop shooting so much from behind the arc.

Artest is shooting around 17 percent from behind the arc, so can you really blame Jackson for addressing that issue?

If you can't deal with the media then maybe you shouldn't be playing your professional ball in the NBA. It's the line of work you've chosen and you have to learn to deal with the criticism along with the praise.

Meanwhile, the Lakers seem to be in cruise control to another Western Conference Finals appearence as they're up 2-0 in their series with the Jazz.

Rondo Providing Young Spark To Old Celtics

Rajon Rondo is single handily addressing the Celtics' biggest criticism of being to old to get past the Cavaliers, or much less another NBA championship.

If Rondo continues to play like he is then the Celtics will cruise to the NBA Finals. He's the x-factor in this series and he's the one making the rest of the Boston Celtic players play better.

He set a franchise record in last night's Game 2 win by dishing out an amazing 19 assists in 45 minutes of action.

Give this guy a raise because he is putting in everything he's got to carry this team to the promise land. Five players scored in double figures last night and that is a great statistic for a team in the playoffs.

Rondo has made such an improvement from two years ago when the Celtics were carried by the "Big Three" of Pierce, Garnett, and Allen.

Don't discount the ability of the "Big Three" because they're still capable of playing like they did two years ago.

In all reality this is the most dangerous team in the playoffs if Rondo stays on top of his game and continue to run the point to perfection like he has the entire playoffs.

This has become a league full of great point guards and Rondo is making his case of being one of the best.

Rondo Playoff Averages vs. Season Averages

• Points: +2.7 in postseason
• Assists: +1.8 in postseason
• Rebounds: +1.5 in postseason
• Free Throw %: +18%

Parts of LP Field Under Water

The flood that Middle Tennesseans will never forget has now affected the Tennessee Titans as flood waters have been reported to reach the third row of bleachers in LP Field.

These flood waters are coming from the Cumberland River, which is still currently rising as we speak and not expected to stop until later tonight.

Some high ranking officials within the organization, including Jeff Fisher, aren't too worried about the field or the structure itself. The main concern is with any electrical equipment that was stored under the stadium itself.

Officially the water is at four feet on the field, but it's important to remember that these NFL fields are built with state of the art draining mechanisms. However, I still expect there to be minor damages to the field.

This would be a much bigger deal if the season was closer to starting, but there's still over three months before the first preseason game kicks off.

The Titans practice facility is also in danger of being damaged by the flood waters.

This is the least of our concerns here in Nashville as residents all across the mid-state have lost their homes, vehicles, and in some cases loved ones.

Some of the players have been personally affected by this disaster including Chris Johnson who's neighborhood is completely flooded.

Other major Nashville landmarks being affected are 1st Avenue, Broadway, and the Opryland Resort.

People love their Tennessee Titans around here and it thankfully looks like LP Field will only suffer minor damages to this historic disaster.

Mayweather Unanimously Defeats Mosley

Boxing doesn't get mentioned much on here, but I have to give a lot of respect to Floyd Mayweather Jr. for making such a great boxer like Shane Mosley look like an amateur.

Mayweather improved his professional record to 41-0 and has made it even more apparent that he is the best boxer in the world.

Early in the second round it looked that Mosley would take control after he landed two hard right that stumbled Mayweather a bit, but he weathered the storm like great boxers do. He had no trouble winning the remaining rounds of the fight.

"It's a contact sport, and you're going to get hit," Mayweather said. "But when you get hit, you suck it up and keep on fighting."

That is an excellent attitude to have that makes me a huge fan. It's really something that boxing needs as a sport to get the general public interested again.

Some people have criticized Mayweather's style as not aggressive enough, but he changed that by being extremely aggressive against Mosley.

Most of the major scorecards had Mayweather winning by a landslide:

• Judge 1: 119-109 Mayweather
• Judge 2: 119-109 Mayweather
• Judge 3: 118-110 Mayweather
• Associated Press: 117-110 Mayweather

Originally Manny Pacquiao was suppose to be Mayweather's opponent and Mosley might be wishing he was. He took a beating almost the entire fight.

Hopefully Pacquiao will agree to eventually fight Mayweather. It would be another huge box office draw for boxing, and another great opportunity for Mayweather to cement himself into boxing history as one of the greats.

Love him or hate him, it's time to give Mayweather his dues.