Apparently so if you have ever seen his wife. They are like oil and vinegar…err…I mean peas and carrots if you ask me. The funny thing is this is one of the most family friendly pictures I could find of Mrs. Gasol. Lena likes to live quite carefree based on a Google image search of her name.

Lena Gasol

Loves

Pau Gasol

The Celtics absolutely broke the Lakers heart last night with a 24 point comeback in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The Celtics are now up 3-1 in the series so you can turn out the lights the party is over. I included a clip below of Ray Allen making an unbelievable reverse layup in the fourth quarter that in my opinion really took the wind out of the Lakers sails.

Celtics cover -2.5 against the Lakers

Tonight is the all important first game of the seven game series in the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. If you can take down the first game in the Finals you have roughly a 78% chance of winning the World Championship. While I think Boston will pull down game one I do think the Lakers will win the Championship.

Overall Record:

NBA 27-18
MLB 8-2
College Football: 44-41-1
NFL 63-33-3
College Basketball 102-69-6
NHL 0-1

I have heard a lot of chatter from sports heads today stating that if the NBA Playoffs counted Chris Paul would have been announced as the NBA MVP rather than Kobe Bryant. I personally think that is absolute farce because Kobe is hands down the most valuable player. I must say though that I don’t want to take anything away from Chris Paul because he is flat out amazing and is definitely one of the top three players in NBA in only his second year in the pros. Now on to the best player in the NBA which is Kobe Bryant. Kobe is averaging 34.4 points per game during the playoffs yet Paul averages 24.3. Ten whole more points??? Kobe outscored Paul by seven in the regular season and also finished in the top 50 in the NBA in almost every major statistical category during the regular season. Lets also not forget it came down to the Los Angeles Lakers or the New Orleans Hornets for the number one spot in the West and the Lakers went 7-1 during April while the Hornets went 6-4. The Lakers also won against New Orleans on April 11th led by Kobe’s 29 points and eight assists. During this crunch stretch a true MVP steps up and leads his team to the graceland. That along with being hands down the best basketball in the NBA since Michael Jordan is why no matter when the vote would have taken place this year you were going to be the MVP.

* Big Ben just hit the mother load with an eight year deal worth $102 million. Roethlisberger joins Peytong Manning, Brett Favre, Carson Palmer, Donovan McNabb and the suspended Vick in the $100 million club for signal callers. Many people are questioning whether the Steelers should extend the wealthiest contract in franchise history, but I personally think Ben deserves every dime. Lets just hope there was a provision in the contract for staying away from motorcycles.

* The Houston Rockets won their 15th game in a row matching a franchise record. That is all well and good, but now that Yao is out of the season the Rockets will be lucky to make it to the playoffs. Remember this statement!

* Michael “The Burner” Turner has signed a lucrative deal with the Atlanta Falcons and should be the starting running back in ‘08 for Hotlanta. Turner has been mired behind Tomlinson for years in San Diego and I fully expect a huge season this coming year. Nice work by the Falcons especially after so many dumb moves in recent months. On a side note Warrick Dunn immediately asked for a release due to this acquisition.

* Kobe dropped 52 yesterday in a win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers only lost TWO games in all of February and are a legitimate threat to win it all this year.

* Ernie Els won the Honda Classic yesterday ending a four-year winless drought. Whoopty do! Els is no longer a top player in the game and is not competition for Tiger Woods.

Kobe talking: “I’m serious man! You can tell Mr. Buss, Mitch Kupchak, and everybody else in Lakers management that I have changed my mind again and I WANT TO BE TRADED! If I have to go tell Steven A. Smith or discuss my request on my website www.kb24.com then have no problem doing that either. I want to be heard.”

This seems to be the question going on right now with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe made a lot of noise with the media yesterday when he announced on Steven A Smith’s radio show that he has been lied to by the Lakers and wants to be traded. He said he was promised the Lakers would build an adequate team around him after the departure of Shaquille O’Neal, but there haven’t been any big additions to the team and they don’t plan on doing much in this off-season.

A few hours after Kobe said he must be traded he backed off these statements and said he really wants things to work out. How do you back track that much in the same day Kobe? You shouldn’t make such damaging statements and then just take them back as if it wasn’t a big deal. Don’t forget this was the same team and organization that stood behind you during your off-court isssues a couple of years back and do you really need another PR problem?

Mr. Bryant has dropped at least 50 points in a row the last four games. It’s a shame the Lakers are in the West because if they were in the East we could watch LA and Kobe put on a show in the NBA Finals. No one in the East could beat the Lakers if Kobe played like this video clip below, but they just don’t stand a chance in the West.

We are sometimes pretty hard on Kobe Bryant here at the Underground so today we want to give him some proprs.  Check out this video clip of highlights from Kobe Bryant scoring 65 against the Portland Trailblazers.  Kobe is EN FUEGO!

It is going to be time for some serious Zen soon for Mr. Jackson.  His Lakers just lost their seventh game in a row which is the first time in Phil’s coaching career this has happened.  The Lakers have a lot of injuries and Kobe is getting supsended every other game these days it seems, but seven in a row in the NBA?  Anybody want to bet Phil is gone after this year?