I'm back from Iceland. The trip was spectacular. I'm way behind in my reading about the sports world so let me clean up a bunch of “older items” and use the next couple of days to re-orient myself.

I received a copy of an article from the LA Times saying that Dennis Rodman has sold his house in Newport, CA – the one where he hosted the raucous parties that brought the police out there about a hundred times. When parties were ongoing, there was a neon sign in the second floor window that said “Open”. Supposedly, he got $3.8M for the house and it is being sold to an “Arizona developer”. It would not surprise me if a consortium of neighbors got together to buy the house just to get the Rodman out of it. The article also says that Rodman is being sued for divorce by his third wife. I do not find it strange that he would be sued for divorce; the phrase that stuns me is “third wife”, because it implies that three different women decided that marrying him might be a good idea…

In NBA news, the Clippers and Bobcats switched draft positions in a deal that is strange. The Clippers moved down in the draft by two spots and gave up Predrag Drobnjak; in return, they got the Bobcats' second round pick (#33 overall) in return. Tells you what the market value of Drobnjak was. In discussing the trade and the impending dispersal draft and the college draft, Bobcats' GM Bernie Bickerstaff said, “We are trying to build our team with the best possible players and being able to pick second in the [college] draft exemplifies our commitment to accomplishing that goal.” Three comments:

1. Who would have ever thought they had developed the strategic plan to stock their team with the best players and not the worst ones? What a breakthrough in human understanding!

2. How does Predrag Drobnjak fit into that plan? I didn't think so.

3. Picking second instead of fourth in the draft allows you to make a bigger mistake if you did your homework poorly.

I see that the Lakers – as an organization – have taken their defeat by the Pistons with grace and equanimity. Let me see if I have this right. Phil Jackson says he is not coming back to coach these guys; Shaq has said that he wants to be traded and that any GM can call Mitch Kupchak because Mitch will be listening to offers; Karl Malone says he will come back only if he is 100% recovered from his knee injuries of the past year; Kobe Bryant still has not stood trial for sexual assault but has opted out of his contract with the Lakers to field offers from around the league; Gary Payton says he'll come back next year. If all that continues to obtain, that is certainly not the formula for success next year. Obviously, the Lakers need to talk to the Bobcats to see if the Lakers can figure out how to imitate the Bobcats' strategy for building a team with the best players instead of a bunch of guys named “Whomever”.

Now that the NBA playoffs are over, can I suggest that the annoying song Let's Get It Started be relegated to the musical ashcan? Several weeks ago, I wanted to change the title to Let's Put It Out Of Its Misery.

The WNBA continues to live in its fantasy world. TV ratings were supposed to go up this year after the NCAA women's tournament last spring set ratings' records. Well, the WNBA ratings so far have been less than The Weather Channel gets for its programs called Storm Stories. WNBA president Val Ackerman says the ratings are what you might expect for professional soccer or regular season NHL games. The WNBA should be so lucky! And to add to those woes, the league attendance is down 7.7% from last year. The WNBA has lost money for every year of its existence but Ackerman says that attendance is expected to bounce back as more group sales come in. Group sales? Have they hired Mandrake the Magician to cast a mass hypnotic spell on folks? Here is a quote from Ackerman that tells you the league is in trouble:

“We're confident in our business model.”

Memo to Val Ackerman: Your business model has yet to work for the seven-year existence of the league. Yet, you remain confident in it and continue down that path. You should heed the words of Albert Einstein. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I see that Brett Hull and a couple dozen NHL “stars” are interested in playing for the WHA next year in anticipation of a work stoppage. The WHA teams will have a $15M salary cap and a $5M exemption for one “star player”. When the NHL suggested a salary cap of something over $30M the players and the union went into orbit. Am I the only one who sees a contradiction here? In any event, changing leagues will not be difficult for NHL players because the WHA will be very similar to the NHL. It will be a minor league sport played in a few cities with a cadre of passionate fans that number less than 10,000 per city. And there will be little if any TV exposure and just about no one will care. No culture shock there.

I have already gotten tired of the Marion Jones/USADA spitting match. If she failed a test, toss her out; if not, then let her compete and shut up. How is this difficult?

The world of golf is a world that ought to be visited by NASA one of these days – but it might be a good idea to send a robot there first to find out if it is safe for humans. I love the terminology of some of the golf items that make it into the Washington Post under the heading of “local golf”. In a recent note, one of the country clubs in the area had four guys win the “ABCD Tournament”. What's the prize there? A guest appearance on Sesame Street? In the same edition, another local country club had a husband and wife winning the “Mixed Scotch Championship”. How does that work? Did they win because they used spring water to make the ice cubes for the scotch on the rocks they served?

Finally, I read that the PGA's Western Open will now be the Cialis Western Open. Oftentimes, the winner of a tournament will kiss the trophy. I think this might not be a good idea here…

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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