Bleacher Talk

Bleacher Talk April 29, 2007 Playoffs Twists and Surprises The NBA season’s first round of playoffs has produced a combination of twists, surprises and expected’s, and has done a great job of making the playoffs a must-watch affair. While many tune in late in the playoffs to see who will eventually clash in the finals, missing this year’s first round could mean a lot of “sayang’s” when they find out what has taken place so far, and we aren’t even halfway through the different series yet. The biggest story out of the first round has to be the way the Golden State Warriors have played against the Dallas Mavericks. When I found out that the Warriors had taken Game 1, was I surprised? Not at all, knowing that if there was a coach who knew how to beat the Mavs, he would have to be Don Nelson. After all, didn’t Nellie once handle Dirk Nowitzki and company before (and this includes Dallas Coach Avery Johnson)? While many predict that the Warriors won’t eventually win the series, they are prov...

Bleacher Talk April 14, 2007 (Note: This was published in The Freeman on April 14, 2007) Pacquiao Drama What else is there to mention about the Pacquiao-Solis fight today? With virtually all boxing websites, local TV, and the print media giving the Pacman so much media space, one might say that we’re getting an overdose of the Pacman. But one thing that we’d like to discuss is how the Pacquiao story has now taken a soap opera type of twist, characteristic of the biggest names in showbiz or the entertainment world. For starters, it has now been confirmed that Pacquiao is already among the biggest names of the boxing world. Although he’s fighting a Jorge Solis who is not at the level of an Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera or a Juan Manuel Marquez, the Pacman is getting so much attention from the international boxing media. From where we sit, it looks like he’s getting so much more media coverage for this fight compared to his previous clashes with Morales and Barrera. By “so much,” w...

Bleacher Talk April 8, 2007 Pick when to Peak Question: What kind of an NBA fan are you? Are you a Dallas, Phoenix or Detroit kind of fan (team) that stays hot all year round all the way to the playoffs? If you are, I guess you’re tuned to the NBA all year-round, from the off-season all the way to the NBA Finals and back to the off-season. You probably watch at least 80% of all the NBA games shown on TV every week and are a trivia quiz on every department of the league. Or are you a Miami, Chicago, San Antonio or Denver type of fan (team) that plays through a season in a “calculated” manner, going through the motions of playing through the regular season and choosing when to peak? Whether or not they’re doing this deliberately is another story altogether. I ask this because I’m admittedly the latter kind of NBA fan. As the off-season and season-opening games kick off, I’m not yet “tuned in” completely, and will rely on the sports pages and TV sports news for updates on the NBA. I’ll mo...