(Ring...Ring)  YELLO!!!

Did you just say yello Jr?  aren't you a little old to be saying that? As a matter of fact aren't you a little old be be still calling yourself Junior?

"Who is this?"

It's ain't your stepmother sweetie. Listen, can we talk? I been thinking about a couple of things ever since you tried to wreck Busch for beating you to the lower groove and you cut him off  costing him a win.

""I never saw him there. It was just one of those things. Racing."

Yeah well you could have stood up and told Jr. Nation that but whatever. That's not why I'm calling. Mr French wanted me to call you and ask you which do you think is cuter. Kyle, or Denny or Carl? We're doing a survey of the ugly drivers.

'How would I know? Guys can't tell about other guys and besides what do you mean a survey of the ugly drivers???...."

Now now little Dale, it's nothing to be ashamed of just because you look like the offspring of Opie Taylor and a Chimp. Can we move on? Time is money here for the French family. This a big empire to run and Mr French is getting just a little tired of all the money invested in promoting you and you haven't won a race in over two years. If you don't win soon Jr Nation is going to look like Jr town and real quick like turn into Jr's unsponsored book of the month club, know what I mean?

"You tell that piece of BLEEP French...."

Ah ah AH!!! No need to get our blood pressure up here. Don't kill the messenger. Truth is truth and perception is reality. People are starting to say you're washed up. Got no guts for it anymore. Got to much to fast too early. Too much of the good life. We've noticed you got about two extra inches on the old waistline lately.

"I DO NOT. What the hell is the matter with you people? DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO????"

Don't you dare raise your voice to me JUNIOR. Your stepmother ran you off from DEI just like that (snaps fingers). Don't you think for one minute my husband won't throw your little red wagon in the dumpster if I give the word.

"YOU YOU YOU...."

(Click)

"Hello? Hello? ^()_%^(O( Frenches. I hate them".

Hey Nique. Who you on the phone with?

Just doing my job as the team Nique owner Kyle. I hear Junior is real sensitive about his ears sticking out. Pick me up a chimpanzee mask and I'll get it in his car before he climbs in at racetime.

The Utah Jazz lost at home to the Lakers tonight. The Lakers move on and the Jazz clear out their lockers.

The first half the Lakers were a well oiled machine scoring 33 then 29 and it looked like a blowout. But the Jazz are a very good team. They have heart and they have pride. They would not go quietly into this night.

As they have shown a tendency to do all year long the Lakers came out half asleep to start the third quarter and the Jazz quickly jumped them 10-4. By the end of the third quarter the Laker ship had righted to the degree of only losing the quarter 27-24.

A virtually useless Laker bench (Sasha excepted) managed to get jumped yet again to start the fourth with the Jazz cutting a once 19 point lead to a mere 9 points. Phil came back with the starters but the Jazz kept coming. With 23 seconds left the Jazz closed to three.

Lamar made two free throws with 19 seconds left.  Bryant makes two free throws with 15 seconds left. In between Kirelenko hits his second 3 in a row. Lakers by 4. Milsap makes a 2, Fisher makes 1 of 2 FT's and Okfur misses a 3 at the Buzzer and the Lakers go to the West finals 108-105.

Once again Luke Walton appears he is incapable of reacting in a positive manner to pressure. 1-4 with no rebounds and two fouls. Farmar, was even worse. Don't get me started on Farmar. Turiaf was equally useless. The Laker bench is going to have to get their act together if they expect to win the Championship. Or even play for it.

Total respect to the Jazz team, Jerry Sloan and congratulations to the Jazz fans. You have a team. Anyone putting down the Jazz are out to lunch. You got game.

Kobe Bryant  9-19 34 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists.

Pau Gasol 7-17 17 points 13 rebounds, 4 blocks

All six Laker primary players in double figures. It has to go deeper than that next round but for this series and this night it was just enough.

GO LAKERS!!!

That's what it must seem like to Kevin Garnett. 

Pierce 5-15,  Kendricks 1-4,  Allen 3-8,  Rondo  1-4,  Davis 2-8,  Posey 0-2  and so it went. Shades of Minny nights.

Hard enough to overcome but toss in the refs who are doing their best to protect Lebron being humiliated and you have Lebron shooting 15 free throws against the entire Celtic team shooting 13. Yes that's 13, count them 13 free throws as a team for the ENTIRE game compared to Lebron shooting 15 himself . Ridiclous.

Many have said that David Stern wants Celtics vs Lakers. Bull. It now appears that the refs and the NBA wants Kobe vs Lebron. The NBA has far too much time and effort into Lebron James to allow him to lose.

The only problem is is that Lebron is so overrated ( 9-23 tonight yet again) that he probably won't be able to rise to the occasion in Boston and his teammates are so terrible they won't be able to save him. Maybe the refs will save him again.

Kyle Busch is 23. A puppy by NASCAR standards. Most Legends of the sport are in their late 20's to mid 30's by the time they reach legendary status.

Credit the Internet. 4 of every 5 blogs have something to say about you know who. NASCAR news is full of him. He crashed popular Dale Jr to hear Dale fans tell it despite polls that 90% say  Dale Jr caused the wreck. It also cost Kyle a chance to win but that is overlooked in the rush to make Kyle the villain.

Comparasions are made between Dale Sr and Kyle Busch. These are valid in one sense only in Kyle's young career. The sport has to have a villain. Dale Sr was the villain prior to his becoming the most beloved racer of his time.

 Kobe Bryant has been the villain in the NBA for some years. Now he's the MVP and easily the most revered player in his game. Not that everyone likes him. The Lebron James supporters, much as the Dale Jr Nation does about Kyle, will tell you he's overrated, a jerk and a troublemaker.

As a new NASCAR fan I am reading volumes about NASCAR. It seems the NASCAR nation had decided they would make Montoya the villain, and remember, every sport needs their villain or it's not as much fun. Problem was it seems to me, that Montoya didn't win enough to really fulfill the needs of those hunting a bad guy.

Enter Kyle Bush. By winning 4 Sprint car races, 8 of 11 top 10 finishes overall, toss in some truck wins and this and that coupled with tangling with the most popular driver of them all in Earnhardt and Busch bouncing off the walls at Darlington where you just don't do that and win, he did win.

You have yourself a bonafida villain. And a legend in his own time.

GO KYLE!!!

The easy answer is yes bloggers affect fans since bloggers are fans and internet blogging allows bloggers to have a much larger audience than sitting in McDonalds chatting up a friend about a favorite team.

This would seem to be the conventional wisdom but if so the conventional wisdom is wrong. If you go to a blog getting a lot of hits on a Fox Sports blog it's unsual to get over 50 or so hits and many of them are the blogger themself responding and multiple posts by a single person. Even the paid writers who allow a response follwing their article do not get thousands of responses. Again you will find several, perhaps a dozen people who engage in slow motion chat and generally are insulting each other more than discussing the merits of the subject written about.

My feeling is that those who attempt to write about sports are not the problem. Most are people who constantly ask for restraint, common decency and mature discussion.

Where I do feel the problem lies is in the fringe element of blogging. Those whose only goal appears to be the insulting of others. These people seldom, if ever, write their own blogs and prowl the blogs insulting, accusing and creating undesirable turmoil. A few examples.

One person spammed my blog over 200 times calling me someone I am not and claiming I am a man. The end result of this was that others of his/her mentality took up the cause and the harassment of myself was not about what I wrote, what team I follow or what I was saying on  my blog. It was nothing more than simple childish harassment.

What the internet has done is allow bullying without accountability. Reporting these people will result in them being blocked from posting under the screen name they're using to bully others but serves only as a temporay solution as these bullies simply make up another screen name and begin anew.

Another example is the "know it alls". If you don't subscribe to their "self proclaimed knowledge and leadership" they will constantly insult you and correct every single thing you try to talk to.  If you delete them they post the same statement over and over and over again. Their need to be recognized far outdistances any value the subject at hand may have had and once again the harassment starts.

A third example is the racial polarization on the blogs, particularly among blacks and whites. Recently when I stated that I felt OJ Mayo was and is an adult in the scandals involving him, one person stated that I was a racist who would "grow up to be a Repulican Senator". He then added on that I was the sort of racist that would get a gun and start shooting black athletes. My crime? I said Mayo should be held responsible for illegal acts right along with the University/Coach/Recruiter and Agent(s) involved. This person refused to acknowledge that my outrage over yet another sports scandal was all inclusive of all races involved and chose to make the entire situation a "racist attack on all black people".

This sort of hatred goes on throughout the blogs constantly and no one side is without their own people making wild absurd accusations against the other  concerning race.

Fox Sports in one of the giants of the internet yet I feel they are doing less than what they could to make sports blogging all that it could be. A few suggestions how this could take place and make the impact of blogging more positive among the blogs and sports society at large.

1.) Concering the posting of comments after a professional writers comments. Fox should monitor these comments and do something about those who are there only to make personal insults against those who are posting in direct response to the article.

2.) When someone is reported and found to be so wrong as to be blocked by screen name, after the second time they are found to be harassing a particular person the harasser should be IP banned through the hotmail account we all use. Granted they could get another server company however this would, hopefully, get their attention eventually.

3.) Racial attacks come from all races. When some is making racial attacks as the person did to me they should be warned once then IP banned if they do it a second time. Race is an issue in society and sports alike, however discussion of the race issue is not the same as racial attacks and racial attacks are not productive to sports blogging.

In conclusion, it is my feeling that if companies like Fox would take the responsibility to hire, train and enforce the fair and equitable monitoring of their own site, that the influence of the fringe bloggers would not continue to impact the behavior of the sports fan in an every increasing downward spiral as it seems to be doing today.  I see the possibility that the creep who covers his eye trying to harass Derek Fisher is likely the kind of guy who would spend his time on a sports blog harassing Derek Fisher/Laker fans.

What does this mean? I'm being inconsistent when I say that sports bloggers have little negative impact on sports fans today and then proceed to give examples that they do and suggestions how to improve that impact? Not at all. Sports bloggers are an assest to the game. The fringe element that seldom if ever write a blog, but only roam the internet harassing, hating, spamming and generally staining the reputation of the true sports blogger are the problem. Bullies are a problem throughout society with 36 states now having enacted anti bully laws and the federal government considering anti bullying internet laws. These are not sports fans. They are bullies that may well be doing the same thing on blogs other than sports. They're not about sports they are about bullying.

Now that we're going into the Million Dollar weekend and I've managed to get past the wrath of a few who think I'm the dumbest new NASCAR fan in history (I already knew that but thanks for the reinforcement.) it's time to announce Team Nique for the 2008 season.

First off all this is only for this season. No long term contracts. I reserve the right to change drivers after this season when I have some idea of what the hell I am talking about. I want to thank  24 X 2 for helping me out and for having the funniest line of the day (yesterday for most of you) with "Pull up them bloomers Granny". LOLOL

Ok here we go.

TEAM NIQUE

Kyle Busch

Denny Hamlin

Carl Edwards

May the Gods have mercy on the rest of your drivers and all concerned's souls.

Team Meeting:

OK everyone take 20....Kyle, Denny, Carl I need to see you in the little boy's room.....what do you mean why are we all in here?  You think Jr Nation doesn't have spies putting recording devices in the garage? Turn on the water Carl. Denny you can't sit on the toilet. I need the back for my laptop.

Ok we have to have strategy for the Million. Whoever of you wins we split it five ways...what do you mean there are only 4 of us? Do you pay for the toilet paper in here? For the soap? 5 ways. Now everyone crowd in and listen up. (SLAP) Kyle you put your hand there again and you're driving with a hook on Sunday.  Stop giggling you two, this is serious business.

I have devised a strategy plan that will work but only if we make a few minor changes. First off your names don't work for me. Denny is like a little boys name, Carl is an old man's name and Kyle has been done already by that Petty what's his name. So... from now on out Denny is Dangerous Hamlin,  Carl is Crazy Edwards and Kyle is Pookie. We need to soften Kyle's image up....fine....forget Pookie...let's go with Bud Wise Busch. I'll work on the endorsement tie ins. About time Budweiser got involved...whatever Carl....oh very funny... no we are not having frog or lizard tounges shoot out the front of your cars to reel someone back in if they start to pull away although that's not that bad of an idea. Let me check into it. STOP LAUGHING!!!

Next we have been having far too many pit stops. Your kidneys are bigger than a woman's and everytime you turn around seems like you're making a pit stop. I half expect to hear you asking are we almost there yet over the radios. What? Gas? No problem I already thought of that. Here's one super roll of Rolaids and one of Tums for each of you. If one works better for one of you and another for another of you feel free to swap out. Don't make me do all the work here. Are we clear on pit stops? No more than absolutely necessary. Denny don't make me have to pull rank here. Stop punching Kyle on the arm and wiping your eyes. What kind of BLEEP hits another guy on the arm until his hand is hurting so bad he's crying. Knock it off.

Now I got a plan for dealing with Jr this time, listen up. Allright, all 3 of you settle down right now. How many times do I have to say this is serious business?  You shouldn't be elbowing each other in the ribs. You're already all 3 holding your sides. You keep it up and some pay is getting docked if you can't drive on Sunday. Pay attention and stop the constant snickering. Are you in grade school? . Check this out.

As quickly as possible Carl will get right in front of Jr and slowwwws it down. Denny will get right behind Montoya and they will come right up behind Jr.  While all this happening Kyle will go like a bat out of hell and get way ahead, like 3/4ths a track and right in front of the main grandstand he'll do some donuts and hold a "Jr Nation Blows" flag out of the car. Then while everyone is throwing beer and RC cola and whatnot and while no one is looking Carl says on the radio "I have to go to the bathroom" and ducks into the pits. Denny will smack Montoya in the back bumper spinning him into Jr , takes out half the field. As soon as Denny smacks Montoya he slams on the brakes and cuts into the infield and hops out with a can of instant fix-a-flat and screws it on his tire. I got an empty can right here we can use just in case NASCAR suspects he was faking it and checks the can. Tire's up, can is empty, home free and Montoya gets the grief for wrecking Jr. Sounds like a plan huh?

Kyle I don't remember giving you permission to look up Danica bikini shots on my laptop. And Carl? Denny? Stop rolling on the floor.  Good grief you guys are immature. Get back to work. We'll talk about this again later. Grow up.  

Like any new fan jumping into the Mix I've been running around pestering the family with everything I downloaded about Kyle Busch and such. I said Kyle was good looking and my dad said you've gone blind.

I explained that it was his arrogant air and the fact he bounces off walls and goes super fast that makes him sexy and my dad rolls his eyes. My mom says it's the "James Dean Syndrome". Dad says it's the "Ladies love Outlaws" syndrome. Whatever.

Now that that's settled, in reading the blogs I notice almost everyone has several favorite drivers so I set out to figure out who would be my "other driver". I think I've come to a decision.

My second choice for a favorite driver is TA DA, Denny Hamlin. He's just a puppy dog shy looking guy that gets in a car and goes fast don't you think?  Don't you think he's sorta cute in a shy looking sort of way?

Can't wait until this weekend. Let's go guys. First and second. Either one either place.

"Everyone does it"

No everyone doesn't do it.

"They should be allowed to pursue their dream at any age."

No they shouldn't. IBM has their requirements and just because you think you're better than everyone else, even if you are, they require a Masters for certain entry level positions and that is their right. It's the NBA's right to set the age standard they want. OJ Mayo's "talent" has nothing to do with it.

"They risk injury".

So what? The average college kid has to work and go to school for  4-5 maybe 6 years and risk that the "education" they get will put us in that quickly becoming mythical thing called the middle class before we're 35 because of the huge debt acquired getting this education the athletes get for free.  We don't have flat screen in a dorm. We don't even live in a dorm. We risk death in our junk cars every day, we risk injury walking a mile to class from the parking lots, we risk health problems from having to eat cheap food and miss meals while the OJ Mayo's are fed steak and lobster and anything they want. SO WHAT?

Do you have any idea how many of these pampered big name college stars get in trouble for date rapes, rape, strong arm robberies, under age drinking and even murder? Too many. I risk injury just by being on the campus with them after dark. Even if they don't attack me they stand around yelling at girls, spewing obscenities and sexual suggestions and everyone laughs because "OJ Mayo/iinsert star name here  is a star". Don't say thats not how it is either because that is exactly how it is on campus.

"It's the recruiter/school's/sports agents fault. "

Sure it is. It's also OJ Mayo's fault. If you know don't taking money under the table is wrong then you're a fool. He's ignorant by all accounts but he's not that dumb. It was reported his mother refused to sign for him to go to California with this sports agent who owned him and this 19 year old ADULT went to his father recently released from prison, an alcoholic on skid row with the USC recruiter and got the signature. Now OJ can vote, he can join the military, he can get a credit card but somehow you make excuses that he has no responsiblity in all this? He knew exactly what he was doing.

"Everyone does it"

Full circle. Did Dwight Howard do it? Did Kobe Bryant do it? Did Chris Paul do it? Did Deron Williams do it? You don't know but you do know about OJ Mayo.

OJ Mayo is no different from Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds. You want them out of the game right? So do I. The only difference in Clemens/Bonds and Mayo is that there is more proof that Mayo is a criminal than the other two.  And I think the NBA should have some morals and values here.

If I was the Commissioner of the NBA OJ Mayo would be banned from the NBA for the next 5 years.

And guess what? I wouldn't care in the slightest how many millions in court it took to keep him banned in court. He's a cancer and if the NBA is to be believed that they care about the quality of their league and their players there is no place for the OJ Mayos of society.

When he went to USC people said "but he's just a kid, give him a chance." That worked out real nice didn't it?

Let's face the reality of why so many want to sweep this kind of thing under the rug. Your entertainment is more important than values, morals, right over wrong or anything else. He MIGHT turn out to be the "next MJ" and you don't want to wait a minute to see if he is.

I have news for you. He won't. Nobody who has ever done something like this ever turns out to be anything worthwhile.

Stop being hypocrites and support decency and abiding in the law  in sports for once when it comes to "the next big thing" athlete. It's easy enough to get religion when they're at the end of their career as is done with Clemens and Bonds but  you're the reason why it happens with the young athletes. 

 Agents, coaches, players, none of them would do it if you would not tolerate it and demand severe penalities for everyone involved.

Writers and SC fans are making all kinds of excuses for OJ Mayo.  They want to blame the sports agency for "luring" the young man. This is a guy who was reported to have scored under 100 on a SAT his first try. Probably couldn't spell his own name.  God knows who USC got to take the passing test. . A guy who went to a different high school for 4 straight years.

This is a guy who flattened a referee for calling a technical on him.

This is a guy whose mother said no to signing a letter of intent and USC sneaked around and got his drunk criminal father to sign. Real honorable that.

This is a guy who had a flat screen TV in his dorm room and nobody from the USC basketball program knew? Nobody cared is the case. They had to know.

This is a guy whose arrogance is so great that he saw nothing wrong in taking expensive seats to pro sports events for free.

Everyone wants to blame "others". I knew when I was 10 that prostituting one's self was wrong. I knew at 14 and at 18. I know now at 22.

USC went to major trouble to recruit and sign him for one year knowing he was a cancer.

I say ban all new basketball scholarships for USC for the next 5 years and ban OJ Mayo from the NBA for 5 years. We don't need garbage like OJ Mayo in the NBA. and we don't need garbage like USC in NCAA basketball. While you're at it ban any sports agent found giving money to a high school/college kid for LIFE from doing business with the NBA. That should solve the problem pretty quickly.

After the Pistons squeaked out the win over the Magic in Orlando in Game 4 it sorta seems sad that tonight the Magic may be done for the season. Chauncey may not play but even so only the Magic have lost at home so far so for them to win in Detroit probably won't happen. Hope so but even if it doesn't the Magic have had a good season and Dwight Howard will get better and better. (Just a note: Reverend Rhythm will be doing an exit interview with us shortly if in fact the Magic are home for the rest of the year. Don't miss that upcoming interview as we all know the Rev knows his game.)

For most of us the big game tonight is the Spurs and the Hornets 2-2 series. It' back in New Orleans so the test will be for the Spurs to win a road game. If the Hornets win this one will go 7 is my prediction. For a series that hasn't really been that close in scores it's weird how exciting this is for me.  (Gambit for the Hornets and Spursce for the Spurs have our exit interviews for these teams. Both knowledgable and both great guys.)

Robert Horry says Pops is a better coach than Phil. That suprise anyone?

Around the Fox Sports site a number of people are making a big deal out of Lebron yelling an obscenity at his mother telling her to back off when she tried to mug a Celtic player for riding her son out of bounds. Personally I blame the mother. What kind of person can't control their emotions without attacking a player? Has anyone done a DNA to make sure she's Lebron's mom and not Ron Artest's? (Of course we have Tsumani doing the exit interview during the finals for the Cavs. We don't have anyone for the Celtics yet. You?)

We're not panicking yet but the Lakers lost two close one's in Utah and the momentum has clearly gone over to the Jazz. We can't wait for tomorrow's game but at the same time I'm freaking. Get it together Lakers. Particularly you Pau Gasol and YOU Jordan Farmar. (J-Dizzle has already done his Laker interview and we're still searching for someone to handle the Jazz interview)

Kyle Busch has become the most hated driver in NASCAR by the Jr (Dale Earnhardt jr) Nation.  This is pretty funny considering the driving style of Jr's father the late Dale Sr. Kyle is young, rich, fast, good looking in the arrogant sort of way and he's winning (leading points standings at present.).  What else could you want in a driver?  

A River Hills house belonging to former NBA star Latrell Sprewell was foreclosed on Monday after he failed to show up in court to contest the action brought by a bank that held his mortgage. The holder of the mortgage, RBS Citizens Bank, told Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Hansher that Sprewell owed $320,284. According to River Hills records, the house is assessed at $610,000 and has an estimated fair market value of $667,980. Sprewell bought the house in 1994 for $405,000. Sprewell, 37, a Milwaukee native and Washington High School graduate, has had other financial difficulties lately. In January, his 70-foot yacht, "Milwaukee's Best," was sold at auction by the U.S. Marshals Service. The yacht, said to be worth $1.5 million, went for $856,000 after Sprewell failed to make the $10,322 monthly payments. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wow. I'm not a great researcher but from what I could find Sprewell made in excess of 60 million dollars in his NBA career. You lose your house over 320,000.00 when you made 60 million? That's beyond my comprehension. How much blow did you do?

Finally, Right Guard is now the offical deodorant of the NBA. Information i didn't to know. Chris Paul will be the offical spokesperson. All I wonder is how much does he get for something like that and was Right Guard the one involved with Charles Barkley commercials saying to use anything else would be uncivilized?  

YOU KNOW YOU'RE DYING TO READ THIS ONE. I CAN'T WAIT.

 Beginning around the start of the Finals we'll be running fan exit interviews of all the teams that bloggers have chosen to participate in. If you're a fan of a team that we don't have yet (that's about 20 of them) and want to do an interview dealing all the hopes, dreams, aspirations and fantasies for next season concerning your team let me know here, in foxmail or at niquedodson@hotmail.com.