When life gives you lemons...

Tuesday night, a wave of emotions hit me as I watched the Boston Celtics win their 17th NBA championship over their arch-rival, the L.A. Lakers. No, I could care less about the Celtics and I am tired of Boston winning everything. The Patriots have won three of the past six Superbowls, the Red Sox have won two out of the past four World Series, the Celtics won another NBA championship, the Bruins are an up and coming NHL team, and Boston College had a tremendous football season and they won the national championship in men's hockey. I'm sick of Boston. But what I am not sick of is seeing Kevin Garnett win. No, he did not have a great series but he did the little things that needed to be done for his team to get the ring. For thirteen years, I watched this future hall of famer dominate the post like no other power forward in the NBA. He is probably the most coordinated, and fasted 7'1 player to ever play the game. Besides winning another defensive player of the year award, his infectious good attitude and leadership qualities were display for the world to see. I also marveled at how Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and KG all sacrificed their own personal statistics so the team could play better. KG typically averaged about 23 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 assists a game. He had career lows yet he finished second or third in MVP voting. What makes me so sad is that his talent was wasted by terrible management with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves have wasted their first round draft picks, traded good players like Ray Allen, Brandon Roy, Stephon Marbury, Tom Gugliatta, Sam Cassell in his prime, and other great players for basically a hacky sack, in afghan, and a $10 gift certificate to T.G.I. Friday's. They have overpaid players who did nothing like Troy Hudson, Michael Olowokandi, Ricky Davis, and Mark Blount while losing good players like Chauncy Billups, Wally Sczcerbiak, Trenton Hassell and others to free agency. The Wolves are the worst managed sports team in all of professional sports and it makes me so sad that in the 12 years that KG was with the wolves, they only got out of the first round of the playoffs one time. A few days ago, I read this article in Sports Illustrated about KG that said he never asked to be traded. His wife is from here, he has a house in Orono, his son was born here, and he liked it here in Minneapolis. He never wanted to leave but the Wolves knew they were caught in a Catch 22. With just KG and his monster salary, they would never be bad enough to get a top five pick in the NBA Draft, but with his salary, and other bloated salaries on the pay-roll, they couldn't get top free agents either. Regardless, I am happy for Kevin Garnett, and I am looking forward to the NBA draft in a few days to see who the next top five bust will be for Kevin McHale and the rest of the T-Wolves' brain-trust.

1. I think like all of you, I am tired of paying over $4.00 a gallon for gasoline. Being a proud environmentalist, previous to this, I could never imagine that we drill in the rocky mountains, off shore in the ocean, or in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, in the mode of national security, is it time that we think about drilling in these places. I was starting to think yes... until I read this Time article. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1815884,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner
Basically it says that even if we said today we will start drilling, we would not be able to see the gas in our stations until 2027 at the earliest. Plus, it would likely only reduce the cost of gas per gallon by 3 or 4 cents. I'm sorry President Bush and John McCain. But destroying the Coral Reef, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains for a measly 3 cents off a gallon is just not worth it to me. Great article.

2. Every day it seems I read another terrible article about the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Today I read in this cnn.com article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/19/darfur.rape/index.html
That relief workers claim almost 100% of women in Darfur have been raped or sexually assaulted, and most say it has started at a young age. They are raped by the government, and they are raped by the rebels. Relief workers say there is nothing that they can do. It just amazes me. This is 2008!!!! I just don't understand. I don't understand rape and I never will. Rapists disgust me sometimes more so then murderers. At least sometimes murderers feel that what they are doing is just and fair and they are "helping the world". But rapists are just barbaric beasts that don't deserve to walk in a free society. I don't know what to do about Sudan. I just don't know.