MORE ON THE ROCKET AND A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE NBA

BASEBALL

The Congressional hearings only made me a little less trusting of Clemens, with his status as a liar and a cheat pretty much confirmed by the things he and others said about him. He’s throwing his wife under the bus about her use of HGH and is now saying that Andy Pettitte’s statement that he and Rog talked about his HGH use was a case of his buddy “misremembering”. He sounds like another Texan with an ego problem with his word choice, although unlike the majority of Bushisms, that is actually a word. Chip’s comment about the Daily Show skewering the party-line questioning from the Republican and Democratic members of Congress is very interesting. It seems that party politics even leak into the way people perceive what the Rocket has been up to.

Clemens even makes that weasel Brian McNamee seem honest and trustworthy, even though keeping dirty needles, gauze and vials of HGH is just downright weird. In his defense, McNamee claims he did so because he mistrusted Clemens, which is something he and I see eye to eye on. The other thing that just blows me away is that Clemens refuses to understand how damning what Andy Pettitte said about him really is. Pettitte and Clemens were tight for years in New York and Houston, and you know it broke Pettitte’s heart to have to give up what his good friend had done wrong. Clemens has decided to insult Pettitte by saying that he misheard him and misremembers their conversations, but it looks like the only people that don’t think Roger used anymore are Republican Congressmen and the Rocket himself.

McNamee actually summed it up pretty well when he said that he injected three people with steroids or HGH, two have confirmed it (Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch) and the third is Roger Clemens, who continues to squirm. That’s this story in a nutshell if you ask me.

NBA

I mentioned that I would get to the Jason Kidd to Dallas move a couple days ago, so I thought I would throw that in with a couple more quick hits from the NBA.

Kidd to Dallas seems to make sense for the Mavericks. They obviously don’t feel they're a championship caliber team without him and the truth is they won’t even make it out of the West with their roster as-is. Marc Cuban can’t sit back and watch Pau Gasol and Shaq move to two of the West’s best teams and think that his guys have what it takes to stack up against that, with the talent of the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Hornets only adding to his anxiety. I think that the move needs to happen for the Mavericks to contend, but it’s a shame to watch a quality guy like Devin Harris have to move to New Jersey and play with that group. Right now, Devean George continues to block the move with his virtual no-trade clause, but I can’t imagine life in Dallas being any fun for him if he blocks this move. The players, ownership and fans will be at his throat for the rest of the year. The trade deadline is February 21, I say this deal gets done by then.

Kobe Bryant is going to miss the All-Star game this weekend and potentially 6 weeks with a torn ligament in his pinky finger. If you know me, then you know I think Kobe is the best player in the NBA and the most incredible athlete the game has seen since Michael Jordan retired. It’s a shame he won’t be playing in what is probably the only entertaining All-Star game in sports, but what’s more worrisome is that surgery seems to loom on the horizon for 24. The torn ligament would be repaired immediately if he wasn’t the core of that team and if the Lakers didn’t have a championship in their sights. ESPN made a good point that only 4 games separate the top of the West from being out of the playoffs entirely and if Kobe’s gone, the Lakers could slide into that 9 or 10 slot. He says the finger swells up every time it gets knocked, but can the Lake-Show really afford to be without Bynum and Bryant for the next 6 weeks? An interesting story indeed.

I think that Monta Ellis of the Warriors is my new favorite player. If you watched the Suns/Warriors game the other night, the kid is a human dynamo. His pull-up jumper is in seemingly every time and he drives the lane with incredible ease. I know that the Suns don’t exactly have the league’s best D, but Ellis was carving them up without breaking a sweat. He’s only 6’3”, but this high-school-to-the-pros Mississippi kid plays like a man twice that size when he’s in the lane. That team on the whole is just too much fun to watch. Baron Davis had an around the back move in the lane in the same game that was bananas and I love watching Stephen Jackson shoot threes, he’s got a beautiful stroke. I think my boy Jeff VanGundy said something to the effect that he wishes the Suns and Warriors could play 15 times a year, and it’s hard to argue with him. Neither team likes to play defense and they shoot the lights out when they’re not fast-breaking the game away. Very entertaining game and I’d watch for Monta to continue to impress down the stretch.

I think that’s it for now. Keep your eyes focused on the Hip because I’m not slowing down anytime soon.