Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . . OK, yes, I have to admit it. I was thrilled to see the Miami Heat and LeBron James lose the NBA Finals. I didn't care who won it as long as the Heat and LeBron lost it. I vowed to never watch the NBA again if the Heat won. So, thank you, Dallas Mavericks for making sure that King James has as many NBA titles this morning as Burger King, King Tut, King Kong, Don King and Stephen King.
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Are the Mavericks the worst team to ever win a NBA championship? Almost, but not quite. While this season might be the first in league history to be more about the team that lost the title rather than the team that won, the Mavs are probably not even in the Top 5 of the worst teams to ever win the crown. The title of Worst NBA Champ would have to go to the 1977-78 Washington Bullets. The Bullets, led by Elvin Hayes, won just 44 games in the regular season.
It was a mediocre bunch that also included an aging Wes Unseld as well as Bob Dandridge, Mitch Kupchak, Phil Chenier and Kevin Grevey. The late 1970s was the ugliest era in NBA
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Philadelphia fans boo Santa Claus. Chicago Cubs fans want to seek and destroy one of their own, Steve Bartman, for trying to catch a foul ball in the stands. Los Angeles Dodgers fans attack fans of the rival team in the parking lot. Chicago White Sox fans come out of their seats to attack the opposing team's first base coach and an umpire. And we won't even mention Oakland Raider supporters who make the fans of every other team in history look like a bunch of soccer moms carrying juice boxes and halftime snacks. But the fans of the Vancouver Canucks might be the biggest idiots of all-time after rioting in the streets Wednesday night just because their team lost.
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Major League Baseball is considering a drastic realignment that would put three five-team divisions in each league with five teams (three division champs and two wild cards) qualifying for the postseason. Sounds like a great idea.
The most ridiculous thing in baseball will always be one league using the designated hitter and the other requiring pitchers to hit but a close second is having 16 teams in the National League and just 14 in the American League.
A five-team playoff in each league is also a great idea because the team with the best record in each league would be rewarded with a first-round bye.
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The Western Athletic Conference will have nine teams starting in 2012-13. It's a random, aimless, humdrum, uninteresting collection of schools that nobody else wants - replacements Seattle, Denver, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and holdovers Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Idaho and Utah State. But it's not the WAC's fault. Just when the league was finally becoming relevant and interesting, their most relevant and interesting schools (Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii) left town for greener pastures. Give the WAC credit for keeping their league alive.
But how long can they survive? It's all about tTV money and bowl games and, well, does anybody really want to watch a Texas State-Idaho football game?