Basketball Purists????

I'd like to meet the people out there that call themselves basketball purists and hear why they think the NBA Finals will be awesome, especially after having to suffer through watching the 1st game tonight, which the Spurs won 84-69. I consider myself a basketball purist, someone who has a true love for the game, and I couldn't watch more than 5 minutes at a time it was so bad and booorrrrrring.

Now I know what some of you will tell me, "Well, it was good defense, and they play much better defense now than they used to." I do think the defense has gotten better, but I think the offense has become just that, offensive. Good offense can beat good defense, I'm a firm believer in that. The superstar players can still do this, but the role players have gotten much worse, more "defensive specialists", but in reality, "really bad offensive players". For example, Antonio McDyess almost missed the basket from 8 feet on a couple of shots. 8 feet?!?!?!?!?! And he was wide open. Greg Kite could make 8 foot shots and he was one of the WORST pro basketball players ever. (Greg Kite was a 7-foot white guy who couldn't jump more than 6 inches off the ground and was terrible, trust me.)

Ok, enough about the NBA for tonight, what else is going on:

• In his last climb up the Giant of Provence, Lance Armstrong finished 4th behind Alexandre Vinokourov, which allowed him to climb into 2nd place overall in the Dauphine Libere. Mont Ventoux lives up to the hype, rising 20 kilometeres, with the last 10 being the worst as there are no trees or anything else to shield the riders from the sun. Lance had never won on the Ventoux, placing 2nd in 2 Tour De France stages for his best finishes there. Today, Lance yo-yoed a bit from the lead group of riders, but he hung on and actually accelerated away from the group to gain some seconds on his rivals. Levi Leipheimer has regained the overall lead after previous leader Santiago Botero lost close to 3 minutes on the climb. Again, Lance isn't all the way there, but he's coming, which is encouraging. Saturday will be his next test when the race goes up the Col du Joux-Plane, a mountain Lance struggled on during the 2001 Tour de France, before descending into Morzine for the finish. The Joux-Plane is what's called an "hors-categoire" or off the charts climb. These are the hardest climbs in the world due to their length and steepness.
• Katie Holmes is hot.
• Another UC basketball player is in trouble, go figure. Tyree Evans from Richmond, VA has been charged with statutory rape. Evans was scheduled to go to UC in the fall. Huggy Bear sure knows how to pick em.
  
• Former Columbus Brookhaven and Oklahoma point guard Drew Lavender has announced he will transfer to Xavier. He will redshirt this year while he sits out, leaving him with 2 years of eligibility.

12 days until my birthday, 23 days until the Tour.