How Was Your Weekend?

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah was fined $50,000 on Monday for directing an anti-gay slur at a fan during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami, which just so happened to be witnessed by a national TV audience.  Noah's Bulls lost back-to-back games for the first time since February and fell behind 2 games to 1 to the Miami Heat in the best-of-seven series. Noah publicly apologized and said he would "learn from my mistakes" and acknowledged that being frustrated over picking up his second foul did not excuse his words.  "I'll remember," Noah said. "I'll remember it for a long time." Noah's memory will be assisted by the $50,000 fine, which is 1.6% of Noah's $3,000,000 annual salary...slightly more expensive than Noah having his Mom wash his mouth out with soap.

Joakim Noah had a bad weekend: Game 3 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals?
Check. One point in Game 3?  Check.  Using an anti-gay slur on national TV?
$50,000 check made out to the National Basketball Association.

Joakim Noah's teammates supported him despite his unfortunate and inopportune choice of words; meanwhile, Lance Armstrong's teammates keep turning against him.  World-class cyclist, Tyler Hamilton, who was one of  Armstrong's former teammates on the USPS cycling team, said on "60 Minutes" over the weekend that Armstrong provided illegal drugs to teammates, showed them how to use them, used secret cellphones and code words like Edgar Allen Poe for EPO, a blood-boosting drug, and paid his way out of a positive test.  Armstrong continues to deny that he has ever used performance-enhancing drugs by reiterating that he has never tested positive for a drug test.

Given Hamilton's strong accusations against Armstrong on Sunday, Lance may have been wishing that the world was actually going to be ending on Saturday so the interview wouldn't air.  I wonder if Armstrong also has a code word for "judgment day"?  Which brings us to another person who had a bad weekend.  89-year old Harold Camping, whose doomsday predictions went unfulfilled over the weekend, emerged from his house on Monday morning and made his first public comments since his failed prophesy: "It has been a really tough weekend...But now I have nothing left to say."

At least Joakim Noah and Lance Armstrong understand how he might feel.

NBA Playoff Predictions and Dunks

The NBA playoffs are down to the NBA version of the Final Four.  The Western Conference Finals kick off on Tuesday night with the Oklahoma City Thunder heading to Dallas to take on the Mavericks.  Remember the Mavericks?  They are the team that disarmed and disrobed the world champion Lakers while dismissing legendary coach Phil Jackson 8 whole days ago!  The Mavericks have not had 8 days off since October, so it will be interesting to see how they respond once they take the floor against the Thunder, who just finished a long and exciting 7-game series against the Memphis Grizzlies that included a triple-overtime thriller in Game 4.  Despite the layoff and my personal dislike for Dirk Nowitzki, I'll take the Mavericks in 5 games.

Russell Westbrook will try to lead his Oklahoma City Thunder
teammates over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Finals.

The playoff seeds held serve in the Eastern Conference as the #1-seeded Chicago Bulls advanced to face the #2-seeded Miami Heat.  The Bulls got off to an impressive start last night who ran past the favored Heat, 103-82.  The Bulls outplayed and outhustled the Heat while outscoring the superstar-laden team by 21 in the second half (55-34).  (Is it just me or does seeing the Bulls as a championship contender make every Jazz fan a little queasy as we all remember the last time they were a contender...MJ ring a bell?)  The latest dominant performance by Chicago was evidenced by the Taj Gibson's highlight reel dunk early in the second quarter when he threw down a ridiculous two-hand dunk over Dwayne Wade, who to make matters worse committed a foul on the play.  Even Wade clapped when he saw the replay.  "That was a good one," Wade said.  "That's a great ratio for me.  First time I got dunked on all year.  I'll take my 90 (really, Dwayne?) to 1 on my blocks to dunked-on ratio.  I really got punked.  It was good."  However, I don't expect the Bulls to be a high-flying act throughout the series.  The Heat will make adjustments, play better defense against the Bulls role players than they did in Game 1 (Deng, Korver, etc.), and LeBron James and Dwayne Wade will match Chris Bosh's 30-point performance in Game 1 and play up to their guarantee of bringing an NBA championship to South Beach. The Heat will win it in 6.

The bleacherreport.com posted the Taj Gibson dunk for our viewing pleasure (unless you're a Dwayne Wade fan) as well as the "10 Greatest Playoff Dunks".  It's a list so stacked with great dunks that they needed to add a few dunks as honorable mention.  I personally would have voted for the Shawn Kemp dunks because he had TWO of them within mere moments of each other...enjoy!