The Basement View

7… Californication must be blearing in the speakers of the Golden State Warriors players leading up to game seven on Monday night. With an unbelievable performance in the 4 th Quarter by their superstar backcourt and great defense on the other end by the entire team, the Warriors are aloud to hold seven fingers in the air and have smile on their faces. On the opposite end Oklahoma City seems deflated and a little agitated knowing they let two key opportunities to eliminate the defending champs and head to the NBA Finals and a redemption meeting with Lebron James. Steph Curry and the 73-9 Warriors look like they are back to having fun and having a chip on their shoulders. Being a -3.5 underdogs in Game Six, Steve Kerr had the ability to preach to his team that “nobody truly believes in us” which is just the medicine that the two time MVP and his band of champions needed. Really I honestly think that nobody does believe in them even though that they have nothing left to prove. The

Fernando Mania Part II If you didn’t watch any Spring Training Baseball this past winter, you may not have heard or seen a young southpaw named Julio Urias. Urias is a nineteen-year-old lefty from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico who throws absolute gas. He is the number ten prospect going into this season according to Baseball America and number eight according to MLB.com. Urias has four pitches that he can use at any time; they are a lighting fast fastball, a Jon Lester type cutter, a big arching curveball, and a changeup that is underrated. Julio Urias has only been a part of sixty-nine games in his Minor League Career. He has only nineteen games of record and eleven wins. However, he has three hundred and eight strikeouts to eighty-three walks—which is incredible. He is only 4-1 in this young season in Triple A and has been called up to pitch tonight on the road in Queens against Jacob DeGrom. Urias if he didn’t already have an immense amount of pressure on him already—his Major Lea

Lost and now found… What on Earth happened to the Oklahoma City Thunder? This is the same team three months ago blowing leads in the 4 th quarter against the Clippers, Bulls, and many more just slipping through the thin cracks of the Western Conference. Billy Donovan’s seat was heating up and the idea of the playoffs becoming more of a nightmare than a day dream. Clinging on to the  3 rd seed against San Antonio and the writing looked to be on the wall with Durant possibly looking at a new city to play in next season. THAN after an incredible game four with Durant turned back the clock to his MVP season and torched Kawhi Leonard (the defensive player of the year) for forty-one points with Russel Westbrook growing up—taking a backseat to Durant. Game four was the immaculate conception of the winning formula for OKC, with an unbelievable performance by Westbrook missing a triple double by one rebound. Steven Adams and Entas Kantar became the power forward—center combo in the pl

The back end The best way to dominate in Major League Baseball today is to have a great back end of the bullpen. If you have a great set-up man and closer, you automatically have an advantage over your opponent day in and day out. The Kansas City Royals are advocates of this model that they have created. Kansas City are the defending champions and are the founders of the dominate bullpen model. The New York Yankees now are completely bought into this model and are being criticized for way they are using their weapons at the end of games. Joe Girardi has a heavy task on his hands and especially being in the media capitol of the world. Personally I do not like Joe Girardi and the way he manages the game. Girardi banks on the home run ball more than any other manger in today’s game. With that said he has done very well with the cards that he has been dealt, and I will give him a pass for 2009 because anyone could have mange that team. Girardi is possibly on the hot seat in New York and

Fitzing in So with the NFL offseason wrapping up soon the New York Jets are finalizing the team for 2016 going into OTA’s. Meanwhile the Jets yet have another Quarterback controversy (what’s new) for 2016. With Geno Smith, Bryce Petty, and Christan Hackenburg all under contract as of today are the Quarterbacks are going into a season which is absolutely crucial to the New York Jets. With a dominate defense who are not getting any younger along with aging superstar receivers in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker. Geno has had multiple chances in the NFL and shows time and time again that he just can’t play in the bigger, faster, stronger NFL. Bryce Petty has been groomed in the Jets system but has yet to even throw a pass in the league. Finally, this year’s second round draft pick Christan Hackenburg who is if you look at the numbers is the college version of Geno Smith, and no not the college Geno, the pro version of Geno Smith. Hackenburg in his three-year college career has a comple

Underdogs So with their wins today the Tampa Bay Lighting, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Toronto Raptors have taken leads in their respective championship series. Tampa Bay takes a 3-2 series lead in the NHL Eastern Conference Championship series, Thunder take a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Western Conference Championship series, and Toronto taking a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Eastern Conference Championship series. With both underdogs currently winning their respective series it may be bad for sports in terms of people watching nationally. For just a minute close your eyes and image an NBA Finals with Oklahoma City and Toronto playing for the NBA Championship. Then open for a minute and reclose your eyes and image a Stanley Cup Final with Tampa Bay and either Nashville or San Jose. I can’t help but think that with these respective cities will hurt the NBA and NHL with their mass audiences. Sure the local fans will be ecstatic that their team is competing for a championship, but as a n

The Farewell Trail… With the Game Six clinching home victory, Kevin Durant and the Thunder are headed to the Western Conference Finals against this year’s MVP in Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. This is not the Conference Finals that most of us thought we were going to see at the end of the regular season. The San Antonio Spurs had an incredible season with only fifth teen loses this season and looked as the main contender to knock of the Warriors. This Thunder team was on the totally flip side. Oklahoma City struggled their way into the playoffs going five and five in the last ten before the end of the season. The Thunder also was notorious for blowing fourth quarter leads over the course of the season, most notably against the Los Angeles Clippers. Durant and Westbrook looked they had some chemistry problems over the course of the year and especially heading into the playoffs. With that said, it was Westbrook who did something that we haven’t seen him do in his whole

The MVP Well Stephen Curry won the NBA’s MVP last week and the first unanimous one at that. Curry averaged thirty points, five rebounds, and six assists per game on the best team in NBA history. The Curry lead Warriors were the best regular season team in NBA history and are on pace to be the best team overall in the history of the league. This is Curry’s second consecutive MVP award and second disputed award. Last season the runner-up James Harden and third place finisher Russel Westbrook had a ton of hype behind both of them respectively. This season Harden fell off, but Westbrook led the league in triple doubles and is possibly the most complete player in the game today. Kawhi Leonard came in second and also won the defensive player of the year award. Lebron James finished in third with the quietist season of his career averaging twenty-five points, seven rebounds, and six assists per game. Leonard averaged twenty-one points, seven boards, two steals, and about one and half block

As promised I am coming back and doing this blog full time. With Finals done and the summer ahead of me I can give great attention to this blog. Thank you so much for your patience and I promise you guys that the content will be getting better and better throughout the summer and continuing into 2017 and beyond. I have a new format for doing the blogs and I hope you enjoy. Please subscribe to the Play by Play youtube channel as well for more opinions all things sports. Don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, and share on your way out!