For the first time ever, the basketball season in Canada has extended past hockey season. Hey, at least Canada has one sport. Right now, the only thing worth watching in Florida is last year's college football tapes.

As the NBA playoffs continue, the Western Conference appears to be heading toward the inevitable Spurs-Lakers matchup. Kobe Bryant missed practice with the Lakers on Saturday, causing the media to ask everyone even remotely involved with the team if he was causing a distraction. Well, according to McDonalds commercials, Kobe doesn't even show up for pregame warmups, so you'd have to think missing practice probably won't affect him. Without practice, Kobe still scores forty-eight and the Lakers sweep out the Kings in four games.

Adding insult to injury after the sweep, Shaquille O'Neal mentioned in his postgame comments he didn't think Chris Webber would return to Sacramento next year and the Kings would be "going back to the expansionism." Dubya jokes aside here, it does seem Shaq harbors some kind of grudge against Sacramento. Did he film "Kazaam" there or something?

Charles Barkley announced this past week he will be moving in with Michael Jordan in the offseason as the two players work out for a possible comeback. Let's see, Jordan and Barkley living together for a month. If one of the networks is interested, I think we've found the middle ground between "Reality TV" and sitcom. I see it as "Boot Camp" meets "The Odd Couple" with a little bit of "Hoop Dreams" thrown in. Check out the hijinks that occur on this week's "Just Hoopin' It" when Scottie Pippen shows up to ask about a sign-and-trade deal, but accidentally gets stuck in Mr. Roper's bathroom.

Speaking of old Bulls, former occasional NBA player Dennis Rodman celebrated his fortieth birthday this week with a celebration involving two live rock concerts and an illegal helicopter landing at his Newport Beach home. Police in riot gear responded, apparently fearing that Rodman had invited his old friend Bill Lambeer over again. Really, though, at forty, Rodman should realize his life is way past "MTV Spring Break" and is perilously approaching "The E! True Hollywood Story."

Was it only two weeks ago when the world of heavyweight boxing was turned upside-down by Hasim Rahman's surprise win over Lennox Lewis? The upset win and unheralded new champion threatened to bring new excitement to boxing, until Don King once again stepped in to return the heavyweight division to normalcy. King signed Rahman, and the discussion about Rahman's next opponent ended. Tyson? Lewis? Holyfield? Some big white guy? Bet on answer "d", fight fans, pass on the next pay-per-view, and we'll get back to you next year.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays called a press conference this week to deny reports of a dispute among team owners that could threaten employee paychecks this month. They would have simply issued a press release, but no one had any change for the copy machine.

In the Dallas Morning News this past week, NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw defended the salary cap, saying it was working in spite of the universal complaints about the system. He also said the salary cap works just as it was supposed to work, and he didn't think it was a bad system. He then left the interview and paid an out-of-work Trent Dilfer five bucks to wash his car.

And finally, the XFL has announced their second season has been cancelled. Experts are warning this may cause another slight drop in the ratings.

Labels: Boxing, MLB, NBA, NFL, XFL