Like King, I've never seen what Tirico brings to the table, no matter what the sport. He just doesn;t seem to hav ethat much personality. You would think in such a competitive profession that an ABC would not just hand over the mantle of lead sports commentator to a guy without much charisma.

As far as Sunday nights, wouldn't it be great if they brought Fouts over to work with Michaels? He is great on college with Keith Jackson, but Keith will likely be retiring soon. And I also thought he was great on MNF when he was there, but he got dragged down by the whole Dennis Miller deal.

Four points:

1) Yes, it was nice for Packer and Nantz to aplogize for their previous remarks about the MVAC. Unfortunately, a lot of this apology time occurred while Arizona and Villanova were within 2 points and 2 offensive sets occurred with no commentary.

2) CBS is a little more sedate than FOX, I agree. But how many times do they show you previously unknown coaches' wives in the final minutes of a close game? Too many.

3) Enberg still is the class of the play-by-play commentators.

4) It's a little thing, but why does CBS repeatedly refer to "NOVA"? Even on their bracket graphics? Do they think "VILL" would get us confused, thinking they were referring to the Villa Park High School? Or the Village People?

In Bush's mind, it may not be a lie at all, because he may have been told by his "trusted advisers" that Saddam refused to allow the inspectors in.

Cheney/Wolfowitz/etc. could have easily fed this to the President. He would believe that this was true since he never reads the newspapers or hears opposing views. And this would make his resolve even more "steely" since it makes an excellent justification, whether or not it is actually true.

As long as it fits his simple world-view...

King,

Collins is OK, but I wish that Marv Albert and Steve Kerr were doing the games in the West. I think they are the best team by far. Collins and Harlan are OK, especially after you watch a game on ABC with Mike Tirico, Bill Walton and Steve Jones.

Collins made several basic errors though...he called the Clippers "Lakers" at least twice, he mixed up Tim and Kurt Thomas, and he miscalculated the point lead. The last two are no big deal, but it has taken the Clippers long enough to get here, and are much beter than the Lakers. They don't need to be insulted!

Steve

King, totally agree on the games. TNT said that there have been 13 games decided by 3 points or less so far, and the record for a full playoffs is 14. We're not out of the second round yet!

I do like TNT, but they seem to have the JV team at the Detroit/Cleveland series.

First, when Wallace got a techincal , the commentators (Reggie Miller was the color man, I don't remember the play-by-play) got all excited that Wallace would be sitting out of a Game 6 because of too many technicals.A few seconds later they mentioned that his was his 3rd and a suspension would occur after 7, so he was really in no danger at all. I don't know how they could be so far off on that.

Second, after the exciting finish, the sideline reporter's first question to LaBron was something like:

"How did Flip Murray's basket at the end of the 3rd quarter set you up to go out and win this game?"

Well, Murray's basket gave Cleveland a 2-point lead, but it had happened a looooong time ago by the time he asked that question. Certainly there could have been a more-relevant question about something that happened in the 4th quarter, like the foul on the 3-point play and ensuing missed free throw and block of the subsequent 3-point shot? Or Eric Snow's mistakenly throwing the ball down the court with too many seconds left? Or James's pass down low for the game-winning basket?

I guess the sideline reporter had thought up a good question and was going to use it whwther it mattered or not!

Ah well, at least we got Marv and Steve Kerr after that.

Steve Bentley

I don't know if I have the quote exactly correct, but I think back when Casey Stengel was managing the hapless '62 Mets, they had ended up in a brawl while Casey, in his 70's, stayed firmly on the bench.

When asked by a reporter why he didn't join the brawl, he said something to the effect of: "They say baseball players fight like girls. The last thing I wanted was to hear I fight like an old lady!"

King, maybe you can have a weekly contest and have the winner get to submit their own pull quote!

I like the new format. I liked the old format. I'll probably be OK with the next one, too!

McClellan should have made a Viagra commercial! That's the way to make real money and keep your dignity.

You forgot to mention if you had any second thoughts on your Lakers in 5 prediction. Do you see the Lakers winning 4 in a row?

Dear Sirs,

I am glad that you show Opus every Sunday. However, the title of the link gave away the punchline to the strip!

Please try not to lessen the full Breathed effect.

It was good to see the LA Times had a front page story on Carlin's death. I expect we won't see the week-plus outpouring from the media that Russert got, for obvious reasons...yet I would argue that George probably affected a lot more people over the years in a positive way than Mr. Russert ever did. Of course, George was an outsider and Russert was the opposite.

At least they are awarding the Mark Twain prize to George in November.