The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

To say the NBA off-season has been crazy would be like saying politicians sometimes exaggerate, as it'd be quite the understatement. With the Golden State Warriors having won the title two of the past three years, quite possibly being one technical foul away from three straight, the rest of the league is attempting to play catch-up. Heading into the coming season, and deservedly so, the Warriors will again be favored to reign supreme at season's end, but four teams (in particular) are certainly doing everything in their power to alter that fate: Boston, Cleveland, Houston, and Oklahoma City. Let's now run down these four teams' off-season acquisitions, how they look going into the 2017-2018 season, and how they stack up against the league-champion Golden State Warriors. Boston Celtics Off-season acquisitions: Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and Marcus Morris Starting Lineup: PG Kyrie Irving, SG Jaylen Brown, SF Gordon Hayward, PF Marcus Morris, and C Al Horford Pro...

A tape has just surfaced of Oklahoma senator and man voted most likely to throw a snowball in a January blizzard to disprove global warming, Jim Inhofe, making a speech on November 17th of last year, his birthday, directed toward ESPN, baseball writers and commentators in particular. The tape, leaked and introduced by ESPN's own Chris Berman, went like this: "'Hi, I'm Chris Berman of ESPN, former host of NFL Primetime , bringing you a video of Republican Senator Jim 'Jack Me' Inhofe telling the world what he thinks about the juiced-ball theory in major league baseball. Let's have a listen...' 'Has anyone heard about this juiced-ball theory in baseball we've got going on? Some people are saying, because of all the home runs that were hit this season, the ball must be juiced, whatever that means. What a bunch of hogwash! It's been what, two, three weeks since the season ended? Have you heard about any home runs recently? No? Me neither! I ...

I've been an Atlanta Braves fan for as long as I can remember. Throughout the past several years, I've been quite impressed with how efficient the team has been in building playoff-contending teams while not having nearly as much money to spend as the teams in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, etc. They've often times done this through great scouting, drafting well, progressing players nicely through their farm system, getting the most out of them in the majors, and making just enough moves in the off-season to make for a National League East-contending team. While the actual jury is still out on their off-season moves this season, I can't say that I've been too happy with them. Future Hall-of-Fame third basemen and hometown hero Chipper Jones retired. Do-everything utility man Martin Prado was traded to Arizona. Quality centerfielder and speedy lead-off hitter Michael Bourn won't be getting re-signed. While there was really nothing the team could do abo...

I've been an Atlanta Braves fan for quite a number of years and while it appears as if the Braves are in pretty good shape to make the playoffs once again - this time as a Wild Card - I've remained extremely disappointed with second baseman, Dan Uggla. Last night, in the bottom of the 13th inning against division-leading Washington, the Nationals had runners at 1st and 3rd with one out. A ground ball was hit right to Uggla, who was playing in on the infield. The runner at 3rd base ran on contact. Uggla had to either try and get a double play by going to the shortstop at second or go directly at home. Based on how he was positioned - the best odds would have been to throw to home. What did he do? He froze. He froze like an ice sculpture being visited by the president. The run scored and that was the ball game, which then placed Washington a full six games ahead of Atlanta with about 40 to go. Sadly, his glove work hasn't been the most disappointing aspect of his game. No...