The Blame Game

Well its Sunday and I'm staring at my computer trying to think about what I am want to write about for this week in sports. Barry Bonds? Too over-covered. Larry Brown's possible firing? Too predictable. Rasheed Wallace's victory guarantee? Too insane. So instead I'll just zero in on a few people I blame for this week's doing.

Cliff Robinson: After Game 1, where the Nets throttled the Heat, I thought hey maybe the Nets have a serious chance at winning this series. Then the Nets lose a close one. Then Cliff Robinson gets himself suspended for failing a drug test. Of all the dumb things you can pull Cliff gets top marks. Not to say that the Nets were cruising to the finals but the Nets lost a crucial member of their ridiculously thin front court. Cliff gets suspended, Nets get the boot, Cliff gets the blame and Pat Riley cuts his smoking back to only 17 packs a day.

Kenny Rogers: Its Mid-May and guess who has the best pitching staff in the American League? Statistically its the Detroit Tigers. Go look it up. I didn't believe it either. I didn't see that one coming. Kenny has not only done a good job holding up his end in the game but has helped Mike Marouth turn the corner into a quality pitcher. Marouth's delivery, stance (its now to the left of the mound) pitch selection, etc all bare Rogers finger prints. Damn you Kenny.

Avery Johnson: This year's coach of the year has the Mavs up 2-1 and on the verge of finishing off the Spurs. Normally its hard to exactly pin point the difference a coach makes but not this series. Avery substituted in Devin Harris into the starting lineup and since then Devin has out played, out-hustled and out gunned Tony Parker. Of course the question is, by beating San Antonio would Avery Johnson be messing with Texas and if thats the case Avery Johnson will get a lot of blame (not to mention an arrest) for violating the new constitution (also known as Executive Order 716).

Lebron James: Lebron somehow made the Cavs-Pistons bloodbath into a series. Sure it might only last the time period from the end of Game 3 to the start of Game 4 but thats pure joy to this little Clevelander. King James only had a triple double and led the Larry Hughes-less Cavs to victory over The Combine. Now of course this has sent Wallace into deep search as to which Mike Tyson line to use (ultimately he decided on the I'll eat your children line). Nonetheless I assume the Pistons will come out strong in Game 4 but as long as Lebron can pull off a quadruple-double the Cavs can even the series. Why does he get the blame? Mostly because my hopes are now up.