We Keep Waiting

Rewind to mid-February. Rumors were rampant of blockbuster trades to shed salaries. But all we ended up with was Jermaine to the Heat, Chauncey to Denver and a few other minor trades that were over hyped due to the lack of movement. Then we waited for Utah to become the sleeper in the West, Shaq to put the Suns in a first round match-up with Kobe, LeBron to collect his first title, KG to come hobbling out of the tunnel and be an instant "Where Amazing Happens" commercial. But as much as we hoped for it, nothing happened. Orlando made the Finals beating both Boston and Cleveland who were scheduled to battle for the Finals from the get go of the season. The Lakers silenced darlings all the way to the Larry O'Brien trophy; Houston and Chris Rock Jr's Red bow tie, Denver and Chauncy's home coming and finally Orlando's hot shooting. Time and again we (or maybe just me) kept talking ourselves into something new and exciting that could happen, that we wanted to happen.

Then the NBA Draft started creeping up on us. And the days prior to it were like a page taken from a video game where you make the computer accept ridiculous trades in order to load your team up. Shaq to Cleveland. 5 months too late. VC to Orlando. A big game choker to a team that recently did just that only in the process they their only two clutch players; Hedo and Courtney Lee (I don't think Lee's missed lob was his fault at all) Richard Jefferson and his tiny ears to the Spurs. How fast do you think it took for RC Buford (best GM name ever) to say yes to this one? I say he put his hand over the phone and whispered over to Pop something like, "Would you trade your '96 Corolla, '94 Ford Ranger and $500 bucks for a '05 5 series?" To which Pop replied, "Is that the Bucks on the other line?"

So now we have Cleveland, Phoenix, Orlando, New Jersey and Milwaukee talking themselves into things. The Shaq Era, The Steve Kerr Era, The Vinsanity Era, 2010 Leftovers in Jersey, and the Fabricio Bogut Era. Maybe these trades will end up being just what everyone needs, but I'll wait until I'm proved wrong.

The Draft was a night of Stu Scott, Marc Jackson and JVG trying to get excited about each draft pick and at the same time avoid eye contact with Jay Bilas. Even the "at the chair" interviews were painful, like trying to get through a blind date with your aunt's neighbor's daughter at Red Robin painful.

Looking at the first two quarters of music, there is a bit of a parallel. Earlier we highlighted a few anticipated releases for the first half of the year, which never really panned out to be what he had hoped. We keep hoping, waiting for that to change. Signs point for that to happen next week. So stay tuned.