What's the Problem?

"Each piece of life is like a puzzle, can you solve ‘em
Stress’ll drive you crazy when you’re dealing with these problems
Problems, problems - How you gonna solve ‘em
Man, I’m going crazy trying to deal with these problems"
--Problems, Rappin' 4-Tay

Yesterday morning on ESPN.com, after appreciating the headline story (the Lakers' triumph in Game 2, featuring a photo of Kobe's ridiculous and-one dunk on Nash--more on that game later), I was almost depressed reading through the other headlines on the front page. Is sports really this sad?
• Bonds hits No. 711, but Mets beat Giants
• Favre's company: Packers, Woodson agree to deal
• GM says Texans won't draft Young | Bush saga
• D-Rays prospect Young throws bat at umpire
• Canadiens' team eye doctor to examine Koivu
• Washburn, M's hand Buehrle first loss of season
• Crawford's double off Rivera lifts Rays past Yanks
• Martin suspended for next two Nuggets games
• Duke lacrosse players cite money dispute
• USC suspends Sanchez after sexual assault arrest
There are maybe two stories in that list that are in any way uplifting, and that would only be if you're a Mariners or D-Rays fan (Lord knows there's plenty of those to go around, right?). Bonds has pretty much earned the ire of every baseball fan outside the bay area, Favre frustrated more than a few fans with his delayed return announcement, C-Wood is an underachieving bad dude, the Reggie Bush fiasco (though perhaps overblown) is another strike against the NCAA, is Delmon Young kidding?, K-Mart's an idiot (I wonder if I'll see him this weekend--I definitely wouldn't say that to his face), and Mark Sanchez--ouch, don't wanna say anything just yet. More days than not, I'm very excited about the world in which I work, but there are are just so many negative things about sports that it's tough to remain positive all the time. "SportsNight" had a real good episode along those lines, where one of the guys (can't remember if it was Casey or Dan) was getting depressed about all the bad stuff in sports, and was finally vindicated by an inspirational moment on TV at the end. Maybe I need one of those (or maybe I just need to watch "SportsNight" again).

That being said, a couple of my buddies put something together that is about as positive as it gets (if you've seen SNL's "Lazy Sunday", you know exactly where the inspiration comes from):

This aired on the show Wednesday night and it airs again tonight--great response from people already. Watch for the cameos, especially the last one. FYI, Bernie (the one on the right, in the Derrick Mason Ravens journey) is a graphics producer (and a fellow guitar aficionado) and Jason (the white guy, Carson jersey) is the senior segment producer--both real good dudes, and hilarious in this video.

Now Lakers stuff, real quick: There becomes a tendency in the NBA Playoffs to make huge generalizations and rushes to judgment based on just one game, so I don't want to get too carried away about a series that's merely tied at 1-1, but there are so many good things happening that I really can't refrain. Frankly, the biggest thing in all of this is that Kobe is finally becoming MJ. How is this possible, you say? He's finally trusting his teammates, sorry as they may have been all season. It's only been two games that this trust has been in evidence, but they may have been the Lakers' two best-played games of the entire season, and what better time for those to arrive, huh? I was reading a list of the worst draft picks of all time (in any sport) yesterday, and Kwame Brown was No. 77 on the list. I understand that his career to date has been nowhere near representative of a No. 1 overall pick, but the case made in the article was that the Wizards (MJ) passed on the following players: Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy and Tony Parker. In Kwame's defense (and Michael and Doug Collins as well), would anybody on this list other than Gasol have been the right pick here? Everybody else in the first round passed on Parker too (he went No. 28 to the Spurs), so that's not really their fault, Troy Murphy sucks, and none of the swing players would have made any sense (MJ was coming back, and they still had Rip Hamilton). Anyways, after all of the crap he went through in Washington, and a pretty lackluster initial regular season in L.A., Kwame has really stepped it up here against Phoenix. He's a definite presence defensively, and though he's still got terrible hands, he's been much more assertive offensively than ever before. Luke is still sweet, Sasha has even made a couple shots, and Lamar has been the third-best player in the series (behind the two MVP candidates, obviously), which is better than he's been since his first or second year with the Clips. I have acknowledged on several occasions how much I allow my emotions to be affected by the Lakers, and the past two seasons have taught me to temper my expectations somewhat, but I can't help getting excited about the possibility of a Lakers-Clippers second-round showdown.

Flying out to Denver tonight, thank goodness we've got a series...