LeBron or LeHype?

There's no question that LeBron is the most talented player in the NBA, and maybe of all-time for that matter. However, that doesn't always mean that he has what it takes to take this Cavaliers team to an NBA title.

One thing is definitely for certain. This team has little chance at defeating the Celtics in their 2nd-round series if LeBron James can't figure out this puzzling elbow injury that has just surfaced.

Just seconds before closing out the Bulls last night, LeBron grimaced in pain forcing him to shoot a free-throw left-handed causing it to clank off the rim.

LeBron did his best to pull Cavs fans out of panic mode by insisting that it's nothing serious and that he'll be fine.

That elbow may be fine enough for him to play, but will he be 100 percent going forward? He's got till Saturday to figure out what's up with it.

Even with LeBron healthy I'm not sure this team has what it takes to defeat the Lakers in the NBA Finals or the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals.

If the Cavaliers fall up short yet again then Cleveland can say bye bye to LeBron. The truth is LeBron is sick of being a star player without any rings. It's a huge blow to his ego to not have a ring by now.

I'm still not sold on his supporting cast when it comes to this upcoming series with the Celtics and the remaining two series after that. The recent play of Antawn Jamison does give this team a fighting chance to get to the NBA Finals.

Either way I would not be surprised if the Celtics take the Cavaliers to seven games and the Magic sends them home packing again.

Even a player as talented as LeBron can't live up to the enormous amounts of hype that is continuously put on his shoulders. The funny part is he brings most of it on himself with his "look at me" persona. That's why if his team comes up short again I'll do nothing but laugh.

It's different when a player like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, or Chris Paul comes up short. They play the game in a respectful manner that makes me cheer for them over a player like LeBron, even if LeBron may be more talented.

Looks can only get you so far in this world, and so can talent to a degree.

Titans Draft Recap

Historically Jeff Fisher and company have always been good during draft time. This year looks to be no different, but we won't know that for sure until a few years later.

Nonetheless, the Titans entered the draft with needs at the defensive line and in the secondary as they finished 28th in total defense last season.

The addressed those needs with the picks of defensive end Derrick Morgan of Georgia Tech and outside linebacker Rennie Curran of Georgia being the most notable picks.

The Titans actually picked defensive players for six of their nine picks.

What may end up being a huge steal in this draft for the Titans will be the sixth round pickup of Myron Rolle from Florida State. This guy dropped due to questions of his commitment but his skill level is very appealing. It's a great bargain pick if you ask me.

It was very smart of the Titans to address the defensive line with their first pick and Morgan was widely considered the best all-around player at his position in the draft.

Like almost every other draft, the wide receiver position was also a need. The Titans addressed that in the later round with the picks of Damian Williams out of Southern Cal and Marc Mariani from Montana.

Williams is a great route runner, but Mariani is probably a lot more unknown for most. He's known for his gritty style of play and will also compete for being a kick returner.

Another intriguing pick was the selection of quarterback Rusty Smith from Florida Atlantic. This guy has a great skill set, but he played in the Sun Belt so he didn't exactly get the best competition week in and week out.

However, the Titans needed a quarterback and Smith could definitely end up being a steal one day in this league. There have been plenty of quarterback in NFL history who got picked in the later rounds and ended up being great. Tom Brady is a perfect example.

Overall it looks like the Titans addressed all of the positions in need. Only time will tell if these draft picks will work out in the Titans favor.

Titans Draft Picks

1 (16) Derrick Morgan,DE-Georgia Tech
3 (77) Damian Williams,WR-Southern Cal
3 (97) Rennie Curran, OLB- Georgia
4 (104) Alterraun Verner, CB- UCLA
5 (148) Robert Johnson, S- Utah
6 (176) Rusty Smith, QB- Florida Atlantic
6 (207) Myron Rolle, S- Florida State
7 (222) Marc Mariani, WR- Montana
7 (241) David Howard, DT- Brown

Tebow Picked Before McCoy, Clausen

Everyone knew that Tim Tebow would get his NFL opportunity no later than the 2nd round of the NFL Draft, but few thought that he would go before both Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen.

The Broncos took Tebow with their 25th pick yesterday.

This pick came out of left field considering that the Broncos already have Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn on the roster at quarterback.

Most likely the Broncos are going to use Tebow in certain offensive packages that could include running the option. It's going to give opposing defensive coordinators another factor to plan for.

What may be even more surprising is the fact that the Broncos passed up on McCoy and Clausen. Both of these guys will most likely get snatched up in the 2nd round later today.

Now that Tebow has officialy been granted his chance at the NFL it'll be interesting to see if he can eventually silence his many critics.

Best Available

1. Colt McCoy (Texas)
2. Taylor Mays (Southern Cal)
3. Terrence Cody (Alabama)
4. Brandon Spikes (Florida)
5. Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame)
   

Jets Add Another Valuable Piece To The Puzzle

You can always expect plenty of huge deals to happen right before the draft each year, and this year has been no different.

The Jets have contributed to a lot of that as they just reportedly signed Jason Taylor to a deal that will make that defense even scarier than it already was.

This pick solidifies them as the Super Bowl favorite out of the AFC. The AFC is no longer dominated by just the Patriots or the Colts anymore. The Jets want in on the action as well.

Even without Santonio Holmes and Jason Taylor last season they still came up just short of going to the Super Bowl.

They're definitely putting all their chips on next season. Most likely this deal with Jason Taylor will be of the one year variety. The Jets want a Super Bowl now and they're done being patient.

The Jets also signed Ladanian Tomlinson earlier in the offseason. There are question about whether Tomlinson is way past his prime, but worst case scenario he acts as a great mentor for Shonn Green and Leon Washington.

This team now has a certain swagger to them that puts them ahead of every other team in the AFC at this point. They've got it all going in the right direction.

They've got an excellent coach that the players respect in Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez is going to get better most likely, the defense is still one of the best, and now they've got a great group of receivers that includes Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes, and Jerricho Cothcery.

The AFC East as a whole has been somewhat busy with the Dolphins acquiring Brandon Marshall and the Patriots just recently adding Torry Holt to their roster.

Hands down, the AFC East will be the best division in the NFL and the Jets will be the top dog of that division.

Jets Offseason Acquisitions

• Santonio Holmes (from Steelers)
• Ladanian Tomlinson (from Chargers)
• Jason Taylor (from Dolphins)
• Nick Folk (from Cowboys)

Tiger Woods Owes Roethlisberger A Hardy Handshake

For a good two or three months Tiger Woods and his extra curricular activities dominated the air waves. Even CNN couldn't get enough of Tiger.

It's crazy how fast things can change. Now it's Ben Roethlisberger that is being discussed every time you turn on a sports channel.

Roethlisberger brought this all on himself by doing what usually leads to trouble for every professional athlete. He was hanging around a bar somewhere in Georgia, having drinks, and flirting with girls he has no business flirting with.

I hate to use a cliche but it works so well for this situation. You play with fire and you're going to get burnt.

This whole situation with Roethlisberger has made us virtually forget all about Tiger Woods and his affairs which are far from over.

It has to feel a lot better for Tiger knowing that he's not the focal point of every sportscast right now.

Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to athletes getting into these kinds of messes.

For some reason it is so difficult for these professional athletes, and celebrities in general, to stay out of trouble.

Roethlisberger may be completely innocent of the charges that were brough against him, but he still should have never been in that situation. He knows the NFL's conduct policy and he obvioulsy failed to follow it.

In the end Tiger Woods will bounce back way faster than Roethlisberger will. Roethlisberger has the weight of an entire organization bearing down on him to make things right again.

Tiger is going through much of the same thing, but at least he plays for himself on the golf course and doesn't have teammates to answer to. We also already know that Tiger is still one of the best golfers in the world despite everything that happened. He proved that by finishing fourth at the Masters.

On the other hand Roethilisberger will continue to be grilled by the media all the way up until the start of next season, and somewhere in a quiet room Tiger Woods has a modest grin because of it.

Four Reasons Today Was Craziest Sports Day I Can Remember

What a day in the world of sports! It started off so ordinary, but today was anything but that. Here's four reasons why:

1. Mets and Cardinals Go 20 Innings:

It's not often you see more than 10 innings of baseball, but the fans in St. Louis got their money's worth Saturday night. Technically they saw over two full games of baseball played. The Mets ended up winning 2-1, but sadly they'll only get credit for one win in the standings. If I was a player on either one of those teams I would be expecting a bonus.

2. Ubaldo Jimenez Throws No-Hitter For Rockies

A no-hitter is significant in itself, but the fact that Jimenez looked average for the first four innings makes this even more amazing. He had five walks to start the game but still managed the first no-hitter in Rockies history. To put the icing on the cake, his last pitch clocked at 97 miles per hour.

3. One-Seeded Capitals Come From Three Goals Down To Tie Series With Habs

Hard to believe that this is only third on the list of most impressive sports stories of the day. It still deserves a lot of attention. The Capitals were in danger of going down 2-0 to an eight-seeded Canadiens team that was given no chance to the President's Trophy winner. Despite trailing 4-1 with less than two minutes remaining in the 2nd period, the Capitals raillied to win 6-5 in overtime. They scored the winning goal just 31 seconds into overtime. Now that's playoff hockey!

You want to hear parity? Currently every series in the NHL playoffs is knotted at one game a piece except for the Predators-Blackhawks series which has yet to play the 2nd game of the series.

4. Dan Henderson Loses Strikeforce Debut, Brawl Breaks Out Afterwards

This could end up being costly for the sport of MMA. To catch everyone up, Strikeforce is basically the little brother of the UFC. It's featured on CBS instead of Pay-per-view and virtually the entire country has access to their events. Tonight was particularly special because MMA superstar Dan Henderson was featured in the main event. He lost in an unanimous decision to Jake Shields. Unfortunately the main storyline from this fight didn't occur during the scheduled fight time. The camptain of Shields and another fighter got into a physical confrontation in the middle of the ring shortly after the fight. This all occurred on national television and shines another negative light on the sport of MMA which is slowly trying to move into the national spotlight.




Honorable mention:

• Alex Rodriguez (584 home runs) moves into 8th all-time in home runs.
• Rookie Brandon Jennings (34 points) comes just two points short of tying Derrick Rose and Kareem Abdul-Jabarr for the most points scored by rookie in playoff game.

Let The Feuding Begin Between Lakers and Thunder

Usually it's a player that starts the fireworks prior to the start of a playoffs series, but this time coach Phil Jackson got the ball rolling.

Jackson made a bold statement saying that Kevin Durant gets special treatment from the refs which pads his scoring totals each game.

"Yeah, by the calls he gets, he really gets to the line a lot, I'll tell ya," Jackson said.

Durant is obviously not happy about the remarks and views them as disrespectful, and I can't blame him one bit for feeling that way. However, Durant has to use this as a positive influence to help propel the franchise to it's first series win since becoming the Thunder.

There is some truth to Jackson's comment. Durant led the league in free throw attempts and tied with LeBron James in free throw attempts per game at just over ten a game.

However, you can't blame Durant for that. If anything it should be viewed as a strength of Durant's because it means he's being aggressive. Is that not what every coach teaches? To drive to the basket and draw a foul if anything else.

It's a two way street and Jackson should take a look at his own star player who also gets some of that "superstar treatment" from the refs.

It's unfortunately part of the game. The NBA wants their stars to succeed and put up big numbers night in and night out. Like almost everything else in this world, it's a business that's driven by making the most money possible.

You can't come down on Jackson too hard because Kobe Bryant, arguably the NBA's best player, attempted almost 300 less free throws that Durant did. Once again though, you can't blame Durant for that.

The Thunder should not be taken lightly by the Lakers going into this series. They're a very talented team and playoff inexperience is the only thing that really could hold this team back from making a solid run in the playoffs.

I'm sure the NBA is happy to hear Jackson's comments because it will certainly impact the ratings in a positive way.

NBA Leaders In Free Throw Attempts

1. Kevin Durant- 840
2. Dwight Howard- 816
3. LeBron James- 773
4. Dwyane Wade- 702
5. Amare Stoudemire- 632