On the baseball front, no trades but more news. Apparently, the Cardinals are in the lead for Matt Holliday, and it looks like it might happen. This would be huge for the Cardinals who already improved their team with Mark DeRosa, but are fending off every team in their division (as usual, excluding the Pirates, but now including the Astros who just swept them!).

Mixed reports on the Red Sox, some say they aren’t done, others thinking they still might try and deal for another bat. It appears V-Mart is out of the question however, so I personally don’t see who else they are going to add. Obviously some big names like Adrian Gonzalez are floating around, but what would have the purpose of getting LaRoche been then?

On Sportscenter, Tim Kurkjian floated the idea out there that the Phillies might decide to pursue Erik Bedard instead of Roy Halladay in order to save money. This of course depends on whether or not the Mariners are going to call it quits, they are currently 5 back in the wild card.

Bad news for A-Rod, who lent his car to his girlfriend (?) Kate Hudson who didn’t exactly take care to drive safely.

ESPN is facing criticism over the fact that it failed to report that Ben Roethlisberger had been accused of rape until 48 hours after the story broke. Some are accusing the organization of racism considering its response to the way it handled similar accusations regarding other athletes.

Lastly, I don’t know if I’m the only one who finds this funny, but the Video Professor was featured on a SportsNation commercial. Watch Sportscenter and you’ll surely see it.

What would be Ariza’s reason to lie here? He has nothing to gain, or in fact lose from saying this. I feel as though LeBron did say that he would be in Cleveland for years to come, but I don’t necessarily think that its true. James is about winning. Even if it means telling white lies to potential teammates to get them to sign for this years Title tilt. Ariza actually suspected as much when his source said, “He thought it was just a recruiting tool, until he signs the contract it doesn’t mean much.” This shows me that Ariza is a smart fella.

To be honest, I don’t really like LeBron’s angle here. Why would you want to lie to a guy so that he commits for 5 years (the length of the contract offer from the Cavs to Ariza), on a deal if you don’t have concrete plans on being there for four of them. If he wants to sign, he’ll sign, but if LeBron does in fact re-sign with the Cavs, it will have been a very stupid basketball move on his part. If he re-signed last summer, for instance, the Cavs could have re-modeled their roster, to perhaps create enough cap room to make a run at one of the other marquee free agents that will be available next summer, either a Dwyane Wade or a Chris Bosh. Instead the Cavs are deliberating on a contingency plan to potentially replace LeBron. For his sake, I just hope he stays, because he wouldn’t exactly be loved in his home state anymore.

The Suns on the other hand have absolutely blown their team up… The Shawn Marion trade for O’Neal more than a year ago was the beginning of a movement that has since seen their team completely re-examined. Aging, star point guard, Steve Nash is a year away from free agency, and Amare Stoudamire trade rumors have been whispered for weeks. The most prevalant of which was to Minnesota. After acquiring Wallace and Pavlovic, it is clear that their goal is to rebuild. I feel the best thing for Phoenix would be to trade Nash for as much as you can get, maybe even another lottery pick. Odds are he will be gone in a year, and the Suns can now admit that they won’t challenge in a very stacked Western Conference next season. Cut your losses.

This is not an article about whether or not there was poor sportsmanship displayed at the end of that game.  The question is, why is everyone so upset that LeBron showed harmless, raw passion?  He didn’t swear at anybody, he didn’t gesture towards any fans, he walked off the court and said nothing.  This is a man who clearly is not used to losing and can’t stand the feeling of a season-ending loss.  Would Stern have preferred it if LeBron had gone to the press conference and blown-up at reporters?  Would he have preferred it if LeBron had acted petulantly and embarrassed himself further after his premature exit from the floor?  These are the things that would have happened had LeBron gone to the press conference.

The main thing I look for in professional sports is passion.  Everybody exhibits passion in different ways; for him, he couldn’t bear the thought of congratulating another team on defeating him. LeBron said the next day, “It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them. I mean, I’m a winner. That’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. Somebody beat you up, you’re not going to congratulate them on beating you up.”  Did this quote not satiate David Stern’s appetite for LeBron-media face-time?  This is clearly a man who was trying to recover from a very disappointing end of the season.  He didn’t want to go to the press conference, because he was so sorely disappointed.  Fining LeBron James $25,000 proves nothing to him, as he’s infinitely rich, and it proves nothing to the fans.  I guarantee that if he loses in a similar fashion next year, LeBron will react in the same way.  This is just another instance in which David Stern has to “lay down the law” with players earning 15 times his salary.  Is it just to maintain order? No, its just to maintain the illusion of order.  Hey Stern, remember…”The NBA, where caring happens”.

It seems as though LeBron James uses almost every game to prove something new about himself.  And while he has, expectantly, dominated Cleveland’s offensive numbers so far this series, he has also been mostly to blame in the three defeats.  Not that he hasn’t produced enough, but in the sense that he hasn’t produced at the right time.  Invariably, LeBron has been and will be at the center of every fourth quarter offensive possession for the remainder of the series.  And seeing that Cleveland is almost completely devoid of any other clutch shooter, with the possible exception of Mo Williams; who waited until Game 5 to start playing.  Therefore, the 3-1 hole, which has been swiftly downgraded to a 3-2 hole, is nothing more than a stage upon which LeBron can make his final step into super stardom.  For how much can a basketball player do than to single-handedly pull his team out of a 3-1 hole and into the NBA Finals?

Let’s look at Game 5, for instance.  LeBron’s line: 46 minutes played, 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists.  Impressive, yes, but is it really that special from an MVP, who has to carry his team offensively? Perhaps not.  What about the fact that 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists came in the fourth quarter?  That is the performance that the stage called for.  Simply put, the more desperate the Cavs become, the more lethal LeBron’s performances seem to be.  A word of warning to the Magic, the Cavaliers won’t be any more desperate than they will be in a hostile Game 6 on the road.