Nothing in particular !

Refreshing: To see a PG emerge in Utah to continue Stockton's legacy. It was nice to see one player not being bothered by the spurs, their defense and their reputations. On the contrary, I think he got into the spurs minds and made them spend some time and energy on trying to guard him. Having said that, I think he will only be a solid PG in the years to come. "The emergence of a superstar" claims from the commentators and experts I think is a little far fetched.

Puzzling: is the best way to describe Mehmet okur and AK's play. It just sems like these guys leave their brains at home before stepping on the court. Atleast AK comes to play defensively. Ill advised 3 pointers and unnecssary fouls at inopportune times have cost utah their chance to play in the NBA finals. Not that they were expected to be beat the spurs or anything.

What ????? : Sachin scores 2 centuries in 2 test matches in Bangladesh and people still want his head ? This is crazy. I watched him play in the 2 nd test and yes, I agree, he was not at his dominating best. But, he did what was asked of him. Stay at the crease and take India to a solid score. These stupid journalists will not lay off him till he retires and it is sad to see that not many people understand that he has years of cricket left in him and can be very useful to team India's success. Oh well !

Saddening: To see the lives of the duke lacrosse players torn to pieces. Granted, some poor decisions got them to this position. But after establishing that they are not at fault and that the lady in question wanted to get some dough out of this whole deal by pulling the race card, the players are due an apology. Their lives had been made a living hell for the past year or so, and now, nobody (except the prosecutor) claims responsibility. The way the facts? were presented on TV, just days after the rape allegation, every one in the country believed, that these were rich spoilt kids and deserved the worst. But clearly, that is not the case. I think the university has to make atleast a part of it upto them. It was clear that they were worried about trying to save their own ass and their reputation and did nothing to stand up for their kids. One might say, we didn't know that they were innocent at that time. Yes, which is precisely why they should not have jumped on the "blame them" bandwagon before learning more on the matter. Whatever happened to "Innocent till proven guilty" ?

Nash it out

The most interesting conference semifinal match-up IMO is the suns-spurs series. It is highly probable that the NBA champion would come out of this series. To watch this little guy run up and down the court has been a privilege. I've only caught glimpses of his games during the regular season, and the importance of this series has made me sit down and watch full games. In doing so, I have been able to understand why this guy is so special. 2 time MVP and finished 2 nd in the MVP voting a 3 rd time. Is this guy really that good ? Just sit down and watch a couple of his games and you'll know. If anything, he's under rated. In spite of all the MVP talk, he does not get as much attention from the media or sponsors as the other superstars like Lebron or a D-wade do. Suns have a great team. Amare and Marion are superstars in their own right and Barbosa would start in just about every other team and would probably be a 22-25 point scorer every day. But without nash, the whole system would crumble and the suns would not be half as successful. They operate under a simple scheme. Get the defensive rebound, get it to nash, run the distance of the court in under 4 seconds, a few screens, collapse on the paint and pass the ball out to a wide open shooter. There are no secrets here. Their success has been due to nash's extra ordinary dribbling skills and finding the open man. Easy as it may sound, he does it with tremendous consistency. And he can hurt you with his shooting skills too. It was obvious to me, that Nash means more to the success of this team than any other super star's presence to his team. If not for all the championships, a comparison with MJ's role, would not sound stupid. Kobe means a lot to his team, Wade to his and Lebron to his. But nobody's presence is as important to his team's success as Steve nash's. I am rooting for his team to go all the way !