There was plenty to get excited about in this weekend's sports events.
Michelle Wie, whose parents were born in South Korea, made the cut and finished an admirable 12 strokes behind the leader in the men's SK Telecom golf tournament in Inchon. With at least two PGA tour dates scheduled and the U.S. Open approaching, she has a chance to be the first woman to make the cut on the PGA since Babe Zaharias accomplished the feat in 1945. This is an interesting coming-of-age.
A few prominent sports columnists continued to lobby the Heisman Trophy Trust to revoke Reggie Bush's victory. Almost everyone involved in the scandal, from Bush and his family to USC coach Pete Carroll, has addressed the allegations with pre-packaged "time will prove him innocent" responses, hoping that everyone will just forget about the whole thing now that his college football career is over.
Suggesting that the Trust should take away his Heisman because of unsubstantiated rumors, no matter how convincing they might be, seems unfair. There are too many "ifs" involved. Let's get at least a fact or two settled before we start calling for his head.
The NHL Playoffs started its second round. In the Western Conference, the four teams with the highest seeds entering the first round failed to win a series. No. 1 Detroit lost to No. 8 Edmonton in six games. That leaves the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth seeds battling for a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 32 years.
Just as the owners had hoped, goals are up, fighting is down and five players scored 50 goals instead of none like last season. But last season was 2 years ago, and back then you could actually find the games on television, or at least the highlights on SportsCenter. Now you wouldn't even know the NHL had a postseason unless you sprung for a digital cable package from Adelphia to watch OLN.
The first "Kentucky Derby, presented by Yum! Brands," and the 135th annual May horse race at Churchill Downs went off to surprisingly little fanfare. The usually vibrant crowd of 150,000 was there, but NBC only managed a 7.4 television rating, its worst ever for the event.
Barbaro won the race after taking the lead in the final turn, making for a relatively boring finish. It looks like horse racing is in desperate need of a Triple Crown winner to reignite the public's passion for the sport.
Plenty of grist for the mill, as they say. But even with a few good stories around the sports world, there is only one thing going right now that actually seems worth getting into.
Simply put, I can't get enough of the NBA Playoffs. After watching zero basketball games throughout the entire regular season, I haven't gone a night without watching at least one in the Playoffs. After a careful analysis, I've concluded that there are two reasons basketball hasn't been this exciting in the past six years.
The MJ debate: The possibility that anyone in the NBA today might be as good as Jordan has already merited a full column in these pages. After the first series of games, we're forced to embrace the sad reality that Kobe doesn't have a champion's attitude, while we chew our fingernails in anticipation of LeBron rising to the occasion.
King James played the first round with the heart of a seasoned veteran. Kobe, meanwhile, showed some brilliance in games five and six, but somehow forgot to show up in game seven. That Lakers team needed Kobe to play well if it wanted to beat Phoenix, and obviously Kobe knew that, which makes the fact he had 1 point in the second half even more confusing.
This past week has convinced me that there won't be another Jordan (at least for now), but just the possibility from these two amazing players is making these games worth watching. Combine that with a heated rivalry between two of the top MVP candidates -- Kobe and winner Steve Nash -- that played out over seven games, and you have a recipe for some exciting competition.
Charles Barkley: If the Lakers or Cavaliers' story lines don't do it for you, there is actually an even better reason to change the channel to TNT. Sir Charles has found a perfect outlet for his inexhaustible unintentional comedy. With the influx of European players and Sir Charles' inability to pronounce foreign-sounding names, this can only get funnier.
