It's been a LONG while since I've written a post on here ( I was indisposed to say the least, lol) but anyway's I'm back and man o man alot has happened.  There is so many good sporting events going on with bowl season and the nba and NFL coming into the playoffs. Sportscenter is on non-stop at my house during this time of year.

Here is just a few thoughts on a few things that I thought was worthy to mention......

First Off I want to congradulate one of the most humble, and just straight up good guy's in Tim Tebow on his season and the Heisman.  His team is young and will only get better but there is no denying how talented tebow is as a college football player. Everyone, weather you are grown or still a kid, you need to take a look at tebow and if nothing else respect this kids morales, he has his head on staight and his prorities in order. I at first didnt know if he was faking or not but he has kept up his act for over a year and he has proved to me that for a guy who can have anything he wants in gainsville, he takes nothing and gives a whole lot.

The nba is back and it looks to be a pretty good year, we have the celtics back as darling's of the nba and a few surprises with portland, atlanta, orlando all playing better than they have in a long while. The season is goona be intresting and the playoffs will hopefully be better han last years.

Dwight Howard looks to be the MVP so far if his team can stop the current losing trend and keep up on and get top 3 spot in the east. We have not seen anyhting like him since a guy named Shaq came into the leauge more than a decade ago. Howard has the size, power, strength, and sure star power that has not been seen in a big man in a long while. He is only 22 and he is sure to get better and better as the eyars go on.

I'm not much of a baseball fan and I will talk about the nfl once it comes playoff time. I'm glad to be back, for those who know me hello, I missed you. For those who dont then I tell it how it is and in a not biased kind of way, if my team sucks then hey, i will tell you. For those who dont care, well your probably not reading this anyway.

Why are you a college FB fan? Why is it we get so emotional when our team is playing a BIG game? What makes you bleed your team’s school colors? These are questions people want answers too.

College FB or any college sport is a rare find; you get these superstar athletes before they are millionaires in their youth and innocence. This is the time before they are drafted to a specific team or sign with an organization just because they are the highest bidder. This is the one instance where a player picks his school for all the right reasons weather it’s something big like academics or something as little as the school colors, the athlete picks his allegiance and gets caught up in the school’s tradition, history, etc.

So why do we as fans root for our beloved teams, is it because from a young age we were told and forced by our surroundings to do so, is it because you went to the school and are alumni? Whatever the reason is let it be known to the Fox Sports Blogging community and tell us the team and why you are a fan!

It's being reported that Kevin Garnett has sqaushed a trade that would have sent him to the Boston Celtics for AL Jefferson, the #5 pick in this years draft, Wally Zerbiack, Telfair, and Theo Ratliff's expiring contract.  Apparently old friends Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge agreed on the deal but KG's agent called the celtics and informed them that KG had no desire to play for boston, which killed the trade.

KG wants to go to the suns where him and steve nash have become close friends, but pheonix is only offering Marion and their draft pick, the wolves want Amare but the suns are reluctent to give up the 24 year old for the 31 year old KG.

So, this is my question, how can any team in the east get better if no one wants to play for them? The bulls are the only team any west superstar regularly mentions when talking about trade destinations. We have come to a piont where athletes totally control the cards it seems like and get to pick and choose where they go, it should not work this way.

While the great bloggers like Lisa 4USC have "straight talk from the left coast" and meandovines "best damn Guard" and others with cool names for their blogs, I, in my pathetic attempt to come up with a catchy title for my blogs have created the Gator's Gander (for the average Joe, gander is another word for view). So with that, welcome to the gator's gander, if it ever gets popular maybe I will copyright it, ha-ha.

 

 

-          I don’t even want to write this next name because I’m getting tired of seeing it/reading about it but Kobe Bryant is certainly making the headlines, as you can see by the NBA blog section on this site. Who knows if he will move or not but we all have a lot of trade destinations that we see him going to but he will probably end up with a team that we never even thought of or stay a laker. So let’s just wait to see what will happen, the draft is in a week and a lot will happen in this next week leading to it.

 

 

-          College football is on the horizon and don’t know about you but I’m pretty excited. I hate these next 3 months, it’s the worst part of the year in sports when the only thing that is on the TV is baseball, which I would rather watch a blue whale expedition from national geographic than a baseball game.

 

 

-          I really would like to know why so many people hate on Dirk Nowitzki? Last year in the finals, his team collapsed, the refs called a foul on anybody who looked at D-Wade and this year they faced the one team who presented the worst possible match-up for them. The guy is not a choker. Kobe, T-mac, and for so many years KG could not get out of the first round but I don’t see people calling them a choker, so I don’t see why dirk does. You should be calling him MVP.

 

 

-          My early prediction for the BCS championship game: USC vs. West Virginia, these two are in a little less difficult conferences than some of the other top teams who beat themselves up within their own conference. I think if USC loses it will be EARLY IN THE SEASON, a la Nebraska. Texas’ only real challenge is Nebraska as well but they could run into trouble with always tough Texas A&M, and Oklahoma.

 

 

-          I hope whatever team picks that guy YI Jillian from china is ready for disappointment. There is always, always at least one player form the top 10 picks of the nba draft who never pan out. Sure he is tall and athletic, but so was Darko, Kandi man, Tskhiville, and many others from overseas who could not live up to their hype. He average like 14ppg in his china league (I was telling Rev Rhythm this earlier) but any decent average baller off the streets could average 14 ppg in china’s league, Im telling you they just play a different style over there and most are not ready for the nba. So whatever franchise picks up Yi….. Good Luck!

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it folks, it was short but so is the sports world for the next few months. I’m out like LBJ’s fingernails.

 

 

 

I was reading a post that was about Barry Bonds on the blog of the day board and there was a line that read "bonds is hated and it's harder for him because of his skin color".

This makes me hotter than Jessica Alba naked!!!!!!  I can not stand people who use this race card stuff. Look, the past is the past, almost everyone in this world now had nothing to do with the past, no slavery ties or anything like that. Yes a small few % of idiots are still out there and are racisit towards any one that is not the same skin color they are, but they should not ruin it for the rest of it and people should not let them!

My responce to the Barry Bonds article...........

man... I hate when people use the race card! No, your 100% wrong that barry is hated and it's harder for him because of his skin color. That has nothing to do with it at all. Bonds is an ####, he did take steriods but it wasnt illegal at the time he took them so no he did not cheat technically. That's why people dislike him. It doesnt matter if someone is black, green, red, or blue, it matter what type of person you are, and bonds ouzes evilness for some reason! I hate the 3% of people who still think that everyone is racist and everything has to do with skin color in sports. The rest of the world has grown up and doesnt think that way, those petty few people who still do ruin it for everyone.

People need to grow the hell up and start taking responsibilities for their actions and stop blaming things on race, their parents, etc........ get a life and MAN up!

Go start a club, call it the "people hate me because I'm black club" and have little pitty parties for yoursleves on your own time because most sports fans are just that sports fan, not racsist!

Again, for the 15th time this playoffs, the Spurs won a game because of the REFS!!!!!!!!!!!

LBJ was fouled on that last 3-point attemp while going up for the shot, he should have gone to the line. Who knows if he would have made them but the damn refs helped the SPURS again!

What is wrong with the NBA? Did Stern send a memo to all the refs telling them the spurs win no matter what,when,or how?

This is an overall team/franchise ranking, this does not necessarily reflect how the team performed this past season but how the future looks for the team all the way from the Owner/GM/roster, all the way down to the towl boy!

 

 

 

Bottom of the Barrel

 

 

30. New York Knicks – Yes, I think a team in the biggest sports market in the world is the overall worst franchise in the NBA.  The team is going nowhere fast, Isaiah “the worst GM sports have ever seen” Thomas really hurt this team loading up and ridiculously overpaying just about everyone on his roster, he has no chance of loading these crazy contracts off to another team in hopes of a trade. Plus this is a roster that does not play well with one another I might add.

 

 

 

29. Atlanta Hawks – This team has been the doormat of the NBA for years now. They have a lot of young talent but have yet to land a decent coach and the ownership might be even worse than the knicks bunch.

 

 

 

28. Memphis Grizzlies – Memphis (my home town by the way) really missed out on not landing Kevin Durant or Greg Oden. The franchise was almost banking their whole future on one of the top 2 picks and when the ping-pong balls bounced the wrong way, well Memphis’ dreams and hopes slid off into the Mississippi River! Their one “iffy superstar” Pau Gasol wants out and the rest of the team is really young. Not looking good, maybe the new coach can turn things around.

 

 

 

27. Charlotte Bobcats  - This team has a freaking college All-American line-up but I guess that doesn’t translate into wins in the NBA. They need to spend some of their well saved money on bringing in a top Free Agent this season and trade some of their young assets to acquire the type of team they are trying to build. I have another question for this franchise? I am by no means a racist (and this is just something I have wondered of late, so let’s not get into a moronic argument over this) but from the owner down to the scouts does this team have a white assistant/scout on the payroll or in the back office, just wondering because it seems this franchise might be the first to get fined for not interviewing enough “white” people. 

 

 

 

26. Philadelphia 76ers – This team traded it’s only superstar and actually played as hard as they could last season making a late run. Well all that is nice until you remember they have the second worst GM in the league in Mr. King and unless they add some talent this summer, it’s going to be many more years of complaining from the philly fans.

 

 

 

Swimming in the kiddy Pool

 

 

25. Milwaukee Bucks – If they re-sign Mo Williams or pick up another decent point this summer, they have a chance to make the playoffs as one of the lower seeds in the east. Redd, C-Vill, and Bogut are a good young nucleus for a team to build around; another couple of the right pieces and this could be a good team.

 

 

 

24. Boston Celtics – Other than Memphis this is the team you felt bad for after the draft lottery. They have Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge, so you can’t expect to much from them right? On the plus side they do have Peirce and Jefferson, and if they can pull a trade to get Marion from phoenix they will be a good team in the run down east.

 

 

 

23. Indiana Pacers – The pacers are going to pull the trigger and trade J-O, we all know they are, depending on who they get in return (hopefully Odom and Bynum) they will be yet another young and up-coming teams in the weak eastern conference.

 

 

 

22. Minnesota T’wolves – The award for the 3rd worst Gm in sports…. Congrats Mr. Mchale! They do still have KG and Randy Foye looks like he will be a player but other than that, this team needs to be reviewed, preferably by another GM other than Kevin Mchale!

 

 

 

21. LA Clippers – This is how I look at it…. The clippers seemed to turn the corner last year, then they played like their usual selves this season and Livingston, their only true asset other than Brand went down with a career changing injury. They need to blow this team up, finally trade Magette and build back around EB.

 

 

 

20. Sacramento Kings – So what does it mean when No ONE wants to coach this team? It means this team is in trouble! The Maloofs need to pick between making this franchise matter again or hanging out at the palms! Bibby looks to be trade bait, Ron-Ron is freakin CRAZY, and Kevin Martin is turning into a pretty good damn player. Some hope for this team but the future is still pretty murky.

 

 

 

Lucky Ping Pong balls

 

 

19. Seattle Super Sonics – I would actually rank this team ahead of Portland because I think Kevin Durant is going to be a BEAST in the NBA and they still have Ray Allen and R-lewis (for now). The reason I don’t is because this team doesn’t even have a home as of next year! The owner has already moved the team in his mind and their will be no saving this team in Seattle; so sorry sonic fans enjoy the one year of watching KD and Allen.

 

 

 

18. Portland Trailblazers – I’m really intrigued as to what this team is going to get in return for Zach Randolph when they DO trade him (it’s going to happen…soon). If they can pick up the right kind of player/players they will have a great young nucleus of Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. Let’s see what they do, they could be the most improved team next year if they do it right this summer.

 

 

 

Surviving….. Barely!

 

 

17. New Jersey Nets – This team wins sometimes by default just because they are in the east. If Vince carter leaves via free agency this team is in trouble. I say this because J-Kidd is on his last legs, they constantly talk about shipping him and if VC leaves, they are left with only R-Jefferson and a injury prone Kristic. Not a good outlook, maybe the change of scenery to Brooklyn will brings a few happy days.

 

 

 

Almost Famous….

 

 

 

 

16. Orlando Magic -  This team has potential to move into the upper class of the east, now will they actually do it, that’s yet to be determined. D-Howard is as good a building block you could ask for, once his offensive game is honed he will be an unstoppable force on both ends of the court. Nelson is a up and coming young PG and Darko, J.J, and turk can be real players if they get enough minutes in my opinion.

 

 

 

15. Washington Wizards – This franchise is one good big man in the post away from fighting with the bulls, and cavs for the best of the east for years to come. The only problem is, Big time post players are hard to come by these days! With Butler, Jamison (who will probably be traded soon), and Agent 0, this team has a dynamic big 3! If Agent 0 leaves after next season , well this team will fall into bottom of the barrel category.

 

 

 

14. Toronto Raptors – This team surprised a lot of people this year and I think only more good things will come. They get to play in a terrible division, they have a young franchise player in Bosh, a good young point in TJ Ford and that Italian kid (I’m not going to try to spell his name), looked very good at times last year. With one of the best GM’s in the game they will only add more of the right pieces to contend for the eastern conference crown.

 

 

 

13. New Orleans Hornets -  People may be asking why would the hornets go here at 14? Well, this team almost made the playoffs the last two years in the loaded west and they have one of the youngest teams in the NBA. If they were in the east, they would be a top 4 team! CP3 is the future PG star of the NBA, David West might be the most underrated  player in the NBA and are one shooting guard away from having the right mix of talent/role players you want on a team.

 

 

 

12. Houston Rockets – Im not sure what to think about this team? T-mac seems to be plagued with the curse of not getting out of the first round, EVER, and Yao seems to have taken a step back from just a season ago where he finally took a step forward. If the stars and planets ever align in the right way for this team, they could be scary, but that’s a big if.

 

 

 

11. L.A. Lakers – There is only 2 reasons I put the lakers this high…. 1: Kobe Bryant; love him or hate him, he’s the most individually talented player in the NBA and if you’re a true fan of this game, you know he is (even I had to earn to accept this, and Im not a big kobe fan).  2: The lakers ARE going to pull the trigger and make a big trade for a low post player, who it will be… I’m not sure, but with kobe and a good post player, well, we all saw what can happen with that!

 

 

 

10. Golden State Warriors -  Depending on what Chris Mullen does this offseason, who he trades, who he gets in return, this team is dangerous. People say Nellie ball never wins, well all it takes is a few of those shots to fall in the big games and people will be singing a new tune!

 

 

 

The Contenders

 

 

 

 

9. Detroit Pistons – This team had it’s run, won a title and now it’s time for a fresh start. I think they should keep Mr. Big shot, Rip, and Prince but everyone needs to go and build around the previously mentioned. With their GM and being in the east, they will always be good so that why they get top 10 status.

 

 

 

8. Miami Heat – This might be too high for the heat, but with D-Wade and SHAQ (even an old, watered down SHAQ is better than most teams centers) this team has a chance. They need to get younger FAST, so it’s time to blow the roster up and center around wade for the future.

 

 

 

7. Utah Jazz – WoW, I never would have picked the Jazz to make it to the west finals this year but they are a solid team and people should not be surprised to see a lot more of them in the future. Boozer is a BEAST when he stays healthy and D-Williams had the biggest coming out party in this years playoffs. Okur, AK47, and fisher are really nice role players to put around the Jazz’s 2 budding superstars.

 

 

 

6. Denver Nuggets – This team is up and down more than any other, but with melo and A.I as your superstars along with Camby, Nene, Smith, and K-mart  as your role players, the future looks like more clear than dark.

 

 

 

5. Cleveland Cavaliers – LBJ is going to carry the Cavs for years to come, but he needs help. Boobie looks like he is a keeper and needs to start next year (hell, he needs to start now). Varejoe is a player that any team would want coming off the bench. Other than that, everyone else needs to go, including Mike Brown!  When will LBJ demand the changes that are necessary for him to win his first NBA ring?

 

 

 

4. Chicago Bulls – This is the time for the Bulls to trade some of the stockpiled talent to get them over the hump to be a championship contender. They have a lot of the right pieces but they need that one go to scorer in the big games to get them over the hump.

 

 

 

Elite Status

 

 

 

 

3. Dallas Mavericks –  Dallas is in a very interesting situation right now. Do they keep the team that took them to the nba finals and won 67 games this year? Do they trade JET/Dampier/DIOP/ or Harris to bring in another superstar to take the pressure off dirk? I feel dallas is either going to go way up from what happened this year or way down, it all depends on what Mark Cuban does to his roster this off-season and I have no clue as to which scenario is better for them!

 

 

 

2. Phoenix Suns – The greatest show on the court! The Suns have one of the best rosters in the NBA and one of the best personnel offices in the NBA as well. Something has to be done for the suns to get over the hump though and hopefully they can get the right players for their system, it’s going to cost them one of their BIG 3 though, it’s looking like Marion will be the odd man out!

 

 

 

1. San Antonio Spurs – With a deep bench, a great coach and a great starting line-up who plays team ball every night there is a reason the Spurs are about to win their 4th title. Duncan still has many years left, and ginobli and parker are in their prime. The future still, as has been looks good for the spurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all remember the hype, the potential, the flashes of greatness and the things we never saw a QB do before.

He is now known as Ron Mexico, yes I'm talking about Mike Vick.

I remember the first real college football game I ever watched, I was a little kid and my grandpaw told me to come watch the championship game with him, so I sat down and during the pre-game highlights, they were showing santana moss of florida state. After that the highlights of the v-tech hokies QB came on and I was like wow, this guy is fast for a qb, man is he good. So not following much of college football I had never seen a qb like him because there were none in the nfl (randal cunningham was not mike vick running the ball). That game was the first time I heard of vick and actually watched him play, and I was hooked.

A few years later me and my friends had madden tournaments all the time and we only had one rule, no mike vick (if you ever played madden, you no it's not fair to have him since he has 99 speed in the game). Once agian vick was there for one of my fondest memories.

Entering my adult years (I'd like to think of myself as one) Mick Vick was the future of the nfl, he was one of the most marketable players alive and the world was waiting for him to take off.

Only a funny thing happened.........he never did. At first, it was he had no recievers, then it was the coaches not using the right system for him, etc, etc, etc.  Now, after all the off the field problems and on field problems Mr. vick is out of excuses.

I'm not going to talk about the dog fighting, the water bottle, the std's, or any of that because we all have heard the stories and I'm tired of seeing it. Mike messed up, maybe he was always messed up and it's just now all boiling over but he let alot of people down, man, he let down a whole league.

Mr. Vick is done, it does not matter if he gets off for the dog fighting and keeps playing football for yeras to come. He lost the faith of his fans and once that happens to a superstar athlete, well that athlete is not so superstar anymore.

You could say mike vick drew me to like football, get me out of my basketball only world, now when I see his name on a sports article it makes me mad since he's wasting other readable headlines.

Sorry Mr. Vick but all that potential, hype, super athleticsism..... well it seems it was all a waste!

 

 

This is just a few thoughts on the state of the nba and a few other topics as I (a huge b-ball fan) see's it .

The playoffs are a huge failure this year, after last years remarkable playoffs, this years playoffs has left alot of fans feeling down in the dumps. With the referees and the nba front office screwing teams left and right, this year's playoffs had no chance to succeed. No disrespect to any spurs, jazz, or pistons fans but no one wants to see your temas in the finals. Im not making this up, seriously no one wants too! The cavs have lebron, so the fans/nba want him to get the finals but it looks like it might take a few more role players to get LBJ into the finals. So we are set up with a likely spurs/pistons tittle match.........once again this years nba playoffs suck!

- Does anyone else feel that the sonics are letting rashard lewis go to free agency only to draft.....another rashard lewis?  I think Kevin durant will be one hell of a player but if you look at their styles and even their body types, they are the same exact player! Maybe KD will become the all-star lewis cant grasp but if lewis would have went to college instead of coming right out of high school, he probably would have all the hype KD has coming into the nba.

- Why does everyone think Greg Oden is going to lead portland back to the playoffs right away?  The kid is a defensive beast, I agree, but he will not, I say again WILL NOT be able to score on a consistant basis in his first few nba seasons. He could not even average 20 ppg in college where the competition was weak compared to the nba. Hopefully the blazers keep zach radolph because if they think oden is going to make up his 20 ppg they are crazy.

- Dirk deserved his MVP, I don't care what you think, the guy is good and lead his team to a great season. The nba mvp award is setup for the best player on the best team in the REGULAR SEASON to win it, I don't agree with it myself, but that's the way it is so dirk deserved it.

- Looks liek the lakers are screwed. Lamar odom and Kwame brown are having off season surgery that will require months of healing. This puts a hold on any kind of trade the lakers were trying to brew up.

- Vince carter is a #2 guy, he needs to have a true leader and superstar on his team to succeed. If any team signs him to be their number 1 guy, well I feel sorry for that team (why do I think isaiah thomas is about to get carter).

- The nba took a big step back with both durant and oden going to the northwest!  I mean damn, the east could have at least gotten 1 of them right?  Guess not.

- I agree with a very popular sports writer when he talks about the nba GM's. I mean does anyone else feel they could run a team better than almost any of the current GM's?  Isaiah Thomas............worst GM/coach of all time, I don't think any can ever do as bad a job as he did, EVER!

First, yes I am a gators fan, let's get that out of the way. Unlike most other people on this site that only roots for there team I'm more realistic about sports and espeacially my florida gators. It makes me mad that all these michigan fans or big 10 teams think florida does not deserve to play for the championship. How the hell can you to see a team that already had a chance and lost play for the BCS championship (and a team that did not even win their own conference by the way) ? Yes, I think ncaa football should go to a playoff system but all these SEC haters need to come out of the big 10 world and meet reality. Honestly, does anyone think michigan would go undefeated if they played in the SEC, no I thought so. The big 10 has 3 teams..... Ohio state, wisconsin and michigan, I mean that's it ,one of the weakest conferences out of all the major ones ( even the big east out did you guys this year). The SEC is by far the toughest conference this year, yes it changes from year to year but this year they were the best and florida lost one game in it, that's pretty damn good. No one wants to see a team that had their chance and screwed it up get a second one when you have other teams deserving of their own chance. Big blue fans, maybe next year, stop crying!!!!!!