The Harvest of the Winter Zen

The immigration legislation in Arizona has definitely sparked debate on both sides of the border. Mexico apparently is going to crack down on American illegal aliens in Mexico. We are waiting for the CNN footage from the Home Depot in Guadalajara with gringos looking for work scrambling away from Mexican immigration. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon went the extra mile to hear the Latin outrage and agreed to meet with Shakira at his office this week. We are not certain if Mrs. Gordon was invited to the luncheon but it certainly got her attention for many reasons beyond immigration reform.

When OKC Thunder Coach Scott Brooks chuckled about the 21 point beat down that his team put on the Lakers last Sunday, he caught Laker coach Phil Jackson’s attention. There are several members of the Buss family trying to figure out how to reach Phil. Scott Brooks DJ’ed a five second sound bite last Sunday at the press podium that sent Phil into orbit. Brooks seems genuine and a solid coach. His young team embarrassed the defending champion Lakers on that Sunday. OKC has not had too many big time sports press conferences since Barry Sanders graduated OK State in 1988. Brooks was as surprised as anyone that his team was leading the Lake Show by 29 last Saturday night and confidently chuckled at the notion. That was his last laugh of the series.

Waking the Phil is never easy or recommended. Phil spends the regular season in a bong hit elucidated Birkenstock haze. He calls less timeouts in a week than Ben Howland calls in a half during the regular season. He lets a player sit for two weeks and then they play 20 minutes in three straight games. His strategies are three dimensional while coaching a one dimensional player. He is the bow legged unappreciated genius who has never coached a team without a hall of famer in the starting line-up. The Hall of Famers he has coached had never won a championship before he coached them. The regular season is his Petri dish for the playoffs. He is an NBA alchemist who has discovered more championship gold than any other coach in history. The Yard has never understood his methods. Life is about results.

Josh Powell, Luke Walton and Shannon Brown scored tonight in harvested brilliance divined from the beakers of Phil’s seasonal experiment. Phil coaches for situations not seasons. The Lakers play in April with the Zen engrained since last November. The defending champions showed up for the first time Tuesday night. The stormed the Thunder last night to clinch the first round. It was the execution of a plan not the orchestration of play that led to the win tonight and the second round. Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks are still trying to figure out how to play into May. Phil coaches to play in June.

The NFL is the best marketed sporting enterprise in the world. With major league baseball just beginning and the NBA and the NHL becoming relevant, the NFL Draft buried all of them in the ratings during prime time. The other sports should have requested out of season respect from the NFL to allow them to garner a few ratings. Yankees versus Angels in an early season match up on Fox 2.3 million viewers. Cavaliers versus Bulls in the heartland on Sunday afternoon had 4.6 million watching. Nascar had 4.9 million watching whatever the Aaron’s 499 is. NFL draft was on several outlets including NFL.com. Every channel carrying the freaking draft beat everyone in their time slot. 45.4 million people watched the draft in prime time. The Yard would make fun of how stupid that is but we watched the draft also.

The best thing about the NFL Draft being held is Mel Kiper Jr. being shelved for another eleven months. We have no idea what he does or where he stores his hair in the off season but we are glad he and his mock drafts are silenced until after next year’s Super Bowl. He touted Jimmy Clausen all through February and March with him being picked as early as 4th but definitely in the first round. Jimmy the Edge was drafted 48th. Picking the right draft picks before the draft is not easy and really not that interesting. Mel Kiper being off ESPN for ten months, priceless.

"In basketball -- as in life -- true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way." Phil Jackson