- We begin with the NBA as I congratulate Golden State Warriors G Steph Curry for winning the NBA Most Valuable Player Award for the 2nd year in a row. He’s the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP honors, and the first since Cleveland Cavaliers F LeBron James who done so in 2012 and 2013.
- But the 28-year old has done something that no NBA MVP has ever done: Winning the award unanimously. Not even 5-time MVP winner Michael Jordan has accomplished this. Shaquille O’Neal and James fell one vote shy of unanimous selection in 2000 and 2013. As for other sports, Tom Brady (2010 NFL MVP) and Wayne Gretzky (1982 Hart Trophy winner) as the only unanimous MVPs in their respective leagues. There have been 17 unanimous MVPs in MLB history, most recently Bryce Harper, who was NL MVP last season.
- In my opinion, the honor is well deserved. Curry is the face of the NBA (yes, even over LeBron) he led his team to a championship last season and he’s on the verge of that repeat as well. the Warriors have also won a record 73 games and Curry is also the first player to make over 400 3-pointers (402) and also joined Steve Nash and his coach, Steve Kerr, as the only players in league history to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor. He’s a bad dude.
- And just in case you were wondering how his knee is? Well, he scored 40 points in his second game back and led the Warriors past the Portland Trail Blazers 4-0 and into the Western Conference Finals. Now he can rest that knee more while they wait for an opponent.
- As for the rest of the NBA playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs trail the Oklahoma City Thunder. With respect to the Thunder, I’m pretty shocked because I thought the Old Guys from San Antonio was going to sweep F Kevin Durant, G Russell Westbrook and Co. right out of the playoffs. Although it’s not over, I guess not.
- In the Eastern Conference. It’s really no brainer that King James and the Cavs are the Beasts of the East after sweeping the Atlanta Hawks 4-0 in route to their 2nd Eastern Conference Final, but if you were thinking that they would be playing James’ former team in the Miami Heat, think again because the Toronto Raptors lead them 3-2.
- Yes, I know it’s not over, but the Raptors aren’t the East’s 2nd best team for nothing. They’re proving to be as good as they were during the Vince Carter era, even better in my opinion. If they can knock off the Heat, it would be huge.
- He may be retired, but Kobe Bryant is still making news. The former LA Lakers guard as officially trademarked his ‘Black Mamba’ nickname. It’s about time, in my opinion. he should’ve done this when he was still in the league. But better late than never, I guess.
- Orlando Magic HC Scott Skiles resigned from the team Thursday-after just one season in which he led them to a 35-47 season and no playoffs. He felt like he wasn’t the right coach for this team. I respect his honestly, but the Magic hasn’t been right since they allowed former star/nuisance Dwight Howard to get HC Stan Van Gundy fired. But I’ll leave that alone.
- In Major League Baseball news, ‘DH…SmeeeH’ says the National League pitchers as more of them are not only getting hits, but they’re hitting Home Runs, which means they’re loving it!
- You already knew about the Chicago Cubs Jake Arietta and the LA Dodgers Clayton Kershaw going yard, but what about 42-year old NY Mets P Bartolo Colon hitting his first HR last week, and on Wednesday another Mets pitcher hit 2 HRs in a game as Noah Syndergaard who is the first to do so since Arizona’s Micah Owings in 2007. Wow. You can’t take hitting pitchers for granted anymore.
- To be honest, I still think that the National League should add the Designated Hitter (DH) at least as an option. There’s still a lot of pitchers who have no business with a bat in their hands, and that will hurt teams. But I don’t think MLB is worrying about that now, especially with NL pitchers hitting more HRs.
- As for the Pittsburgh Pirates, I am impressed at how they came back to beat the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night. They were down 3-1 and stormed back to win 5-4. 4 of those runs came on HRs. (Andrew McCutchen, David Freese, Jung Ho Kang-his 3rd since last Friday and Josh Harrison) Good job, boys.
- With a Thursday off day, the Pirates (18-15) will now face their fears: the 25-8 Chicago Cubs for a 3-game set in the Windy City starting Friday. As we know, the Cubs are still the best team in baseball, and after destroying the Pirates in 3 games last week, they would love to extend their NL Central lead over them by 3 more games. Oh boy.
- Congrats to Washington Nationals P Max Scherzer for becoming the 4th pitcher to strike out 20 batters in a game. He joins Roger Clemens (twice), Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson as the only big league pitchers to compile 20 strikeouts in nine innings.
- Scherzr has also pitched 2 no-hitters last season (one against the Pirates) and is making $210 million. It’s amazing that the only think he hasn’t done is still win a Cy Young award-which he would’ve done if he remained in the American League.
- As for the NFL, apparently the video game Madden ’16 has taken center stage as they’ve announced who their next cover athlete will be, and it’s New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski. Congrats to him.
- I don’t get much into video games, but although Gronk does deserve the cover, I feel that the best WR in the NFL should have won it, which is Pittsburgh Steelers Antonio Brown. Oh well.
- As for other NFL news, Seattle Seahawks WR Calvin Lockette has announced his retirement after suffering a serious neck injury last November after suffering-you guessed it-a concussion after getting hit while covering a punt.
- I’ll say it again: There will be more of these retirements due to the concussion concerns in the NFL. I respect Lockette’s decision because he has the rest of his life to think about. Lockette admitted he was sad, but he has 2 sons to also live for, something that his doctors told him that almost didn’t happen if he immediately would have stood up after he was injured. Wow. I wish him the best.
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