Summertime, and the Living's Easy

I'm enjoying my time back home in LA. It's been nice to relax after going through a stressful last couple of weeks with finals and such. I've been to the beach three times already (we all know I need to work on my tan). I'll be in St. Louis this weekend for my buddy's wedding. Still can't believe he's getting tied down at age 21, but hey, more power to him.

We're down to the conference finals in the NBA, but I'd like to talk about LeBron James before I talk about the Lakers-Suns series.

I've called LeBron "Prince James" for quite some time now, because I have always felt that he's been overhyped. Now just because I think he's overrated doesn't mean that I hate him. I respect LeBron's talent and ability, but it really annoys me when people call him the next Michael Jordan when he's won nothing in his career. The guy is unbelievable in the regular season, but for whatever reason he always seems to choke in the playoffs. I don't buy into the whole "LeBron doesn't have enough help" crap, because the Cavs had the best regular season record in the NBA the last two years. Everyone was ready to crown Cleveland as NBA Champions in the regular season, yet as soon as they lose in the playoffs LeBron all of the sudden has no help? LeBron is certainly the one player I'd love to build my team around in the regular season, but give me Kobe Bryant all day long in the playoffs because Kobe knows how to win when it matters, unlike Prince James.

The Lakers dominated the Phoenix Suns last night 128-107 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Kobe Bryant led the way with 40 points on an amazing 13-of-23 shooting, and Lamar Odom added 19 points and 19 rebounds for the defending champs, who extended their playoff winning streak to seven games. The Lakers have looked great ever since closing out Oklahoma City in the first round. If they keep playing the way they are now, then I have all the confidence in the world that they will win the championship.

A lot of my friends at ASU are Suns fans, so I'm enjoying this series all the more. I got so many texts from friends that were talking trash once the matchup was set. It amused me that Suns fans felt the need to gloat about reaching the conference finals, but I guess you don't know any better when you're a fan of a franchise that doesn't know what it's like to be successful.

Game 2 is tomorrow night at Staples Center, and I will be there in person. My friend has an extra ticket for me, so I'm pretty excited, as you can assume. The Lakers are 2-0 in playoff games that I've attended, hopefully they will be 3-0 after tomorrow night.