Sequestering and such.

Apparently, the great “Sequester of 2013” hit a week ago Friday at the witching hour. President Obama foretold famine and pestilence that would reign down if the sequester were to occur. Janet Napolitano echoed her Commander and Chief’s pronouncement with TSA ending overtime and airports waits ballooning to hours from minutes. The locust are not far behind as they always are during these biblical moments. I am not sure about everyone else but having stared down a frigging “Fiscal Cliff” a “Sequester” sounded a bit more innocuous. We share the common fear that a cliff announces whatever adjective emphasizes the importance. Sequester? We got your stinking sequester, Willis. Wall Street and Main Street seem less concerned than the President. That could all change tomorrow. If we had the answers we would charge for this blog! Fortunately, neither the Dodgers nor the Lakers have any sequester plans or fiscal cliff challenges. Time Warner has bank rolled both of their marquis products for the next 25 years. TW paid a fortune for the rights for the Lakers. Once TW signed the Lakers, they had to have the Dodgers to have a broadcast channel package. They will be passing the cost+ right along to the video service providers like Charter and DIRECTV and they will pass it along to us. Sports programming is one of the last bastions of real time television viewership. People watch the game and the ads live and with passion. Sports programming is less likely to be DVR’ed for later viewing or on demand. With the plump Jack Nicholson looking on while Jeremy Piven is high fiving Kobe, most of us would rather stay home with a better seat, beverage and remote control rather than attend a Laker game. Dodger games are still an event to be attended. Even with the bulbous payroll the Dodgers have not raised ticket prices in three years. Imagine also a time when we do not hear about Frank and Jamie in the news. It is not that hard if you try. The Lakers might not make the playoffs but they are playing better. They have cobbled together a roller coaster season while lowering the bar with each dip. The double helix of this season can be traced to the hiring of former coach Mike Brown under the cover of darkness by Jim Buss in 2011. It was the mullet based son of the owner’s first water shed moment as heir apparent. The Lakers struggled last season and then opened this season 0-4. Mike was fired, was paid well and smiling at Burger King later the same day. Sports fans were surprised but the Lakers did not win a single preseason game prior to the winless start. The team had not won in a month. He needed to go with that Hall of Fame lineup failing badly. With Phil earnest and willing, Jim Buss hired Mike D'antoni. The rationale being that Kobe loved him from his days in Italy and D’Antoni coaching Bryant and Howard in the Olympics as an assistant coach. His fast paced offense would be the elixir for this star studded team. Jimmy was never going to hire Phil and have him save the season. D’Antoni has gone 29-26 since taking over as coach. That is better than 0-53 if that where the Lake show was heading if the thought process is they may never win again unless a change is made.” This Laker march to the 2013 Championship was then interrupted by firing the coach in the first two weeks of the season because dammit, someone has to pay for getting boat raced by OKC in the playoffs and then losing the first four games of the following season. A change was made and now the Lakers are not a .000 team, they are .500 team. They should have kept interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff who was 4-1 while Jimmy John Buss found Mikey D and almost saved the season! If the team makes this playoffs, it will be a one and done. Jim Buss knew his father was not going to make the NBA Finals even if the Laker’s did this year. Jerry was very sick and it was not common knowledge. Jerry wanted to still be the face of the organization and protect Jim while he matured into that face. With Jerry gone, Jim may never fully evolve into that epidermis. He is trying too hard to do something his father did effortlessly. Jim is threatened by Jeannie Buss’s fiancé, Phil Jackson. It gave him no greater feeling of power than to lure Phil out of retirement to talk about replacing Mike Brown and not hire him.. Phil never thought he was the only coach in the mix but he was candid about the poor way the process was handled by his brother in law. Jeannie Bush should and will be running the Lakers in the future. She is of sound mind and fine body. She has been the pragmatic and fan facing voice of the Lakers for years. Jerry Buss tried to keep his bad self out of the news either by design rather than DUI. Heir apparent Jim is a relative unknown. Hedrives better while his mullet and cap are usually stylishly creepy. Jeannie is on local LA sports talk all of the time. She promotes the team with articulate candor and humor. She is affable, approachable all while banging our legendary coach Phil with love and affection. She would hire the right people to run this legendary organization without getting her ego or mullet in the way. If there is a better representative of our ownership may they step forward or forever hold their peace. Play in Game: March Madness is within our headlights. This year will be one of the most competitive in recent history. The Pac-12 is back and should have at least four teams in the dance after last year’s embarrassment. The Mountain West is one of the well- kept secrets in DI hoops. The SEC not so much except for Florida. The Big 10-12 is the best basketball conference in the Union. Indiana will be the overall #1 seed but the conference will have seven teams sharing single digit seeds. Final Thoughts: USC Fan, please support the continued employment of Lane Kiffin by your University. He seems to be a fine lad even if he had to fire his father to save his own job. He seems as a myopic as the rest of you. The Trojan franchise just needs a re-tooling and all will be good once you get past this obtrusive probation loss of scholarships nonsense. Fight on your bad selves! Jim Mora will never stay at UCLA so there is time.