Battle of the Dream Teams, NBA Free Agency and Baseball's 1st half awards

So Kobe Bryant made the comment that the 2012 U.S. Olympic team could beat the original Dream Team, look the Black Mamba is one of the 10 best players to ever play so he should say something like that and he I'm sure he believes it. I think he's a bit delusional and here's why: The Dream Team was not at the end of their careers, Larry Bird was for sure and Christian Lattener was just about to be a rookie but Magic johnson still had game and remember he was just a year removed from being diagnosed with HIV, so he was arguably in the best shape ever (being in shape to play basketball comes up short when you have to be in shape to stay alive), everyone else was pretty much in their late 20's. To suggest that the 2012 Olympic dream team would cause match up problems for the original dream team is really looking at things from a slanted point of view, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook are all super talented point guards but having to have to guard a 6'9 Magic Johnson is a match-up nightmare.Granted Magic has never been known as a defender, but he has spent his whole career matching up with quicker, more athletic guards than he. What I'm saying is he would adjust better than they would. I think Tyson Chandler's ascension to the ultimate role player has been a great story but him, Kevin Love and rookie Anthony "Angry Birds" Davis is not even close to Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Karl Malone and the ultimate match-up nightmare in Charles Barkley whom in my opinion could only be guarded by Lebron James. The way this current team is shaking out, I suspect that their leading scorer will be Kevin Durant and sadly for him he would be matched up against the best perimeter defender the game has ever seen in Scottie Pippen. The true match-up problem this current team would have over the original team is their athleticism but can you seriously call a line up of Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler more athletic than Jordan, Pippen, Barkley, Drexler, David Robinson (which would be each best line-ups) and don't even get me started on an, in his prime Michael Jordan vs. a 17 year veteran in Kobe Bryant. In a best of seven series I'm taking the Originals in 6. Speaking of old school deals Steve Nash to the Lakers reminds me of Scottie Pippen to the Rockets. Both players still had gas in the tank but were just bad fits for their respective teams. Nash is a defensive liability in the era of dominating point guards and he is best served in an up tempo offense, the Lakers are clearly not that. Plus, you just can't convince me that a almost 40 year old player is going to make a team that has won 1 game in 2 years in the second round of the playoffs a championship contender. This move makes them only marginally better, unless they get Dwight Howard and then we'll revisit. His best move would have been to sign with the Knicks, trust me on this boo. Ray Allen to the Heat is a killer move for Pat Riley, he will have at least 2 games in the playoffs next year where his shooting will put the Heat over the top,and one player being the difference in 2 playoff games, for a championship team is huge. The 'Brooklyn' Nets getting Joe Johnson is the best move yet this off season, he was never a good number one option on a playoff team, but a number 2 or 3 option, definitely. Everyone talks about Mike Trout as the 1st half A.L. MVP, but considering that the Texas Rangers coming off a horrible World Series loss last year, combined with losing their best pitcher in C.J. Wilson, to their arch rival Anaheim Angels, Josh Hamilton's torrid start was huge and propelled them to the division lead and that's why he's my MVP choice. Jered Weaver and Chris Sale are neck and neck in the Cy Young race right now I give it to Weaver only because he makes me forget how shitty his brother Jeff was as a pitcher. White Sox manager Robin Ventura is the hands down winner of the A.L. Manager of the year. Andrew McCutcheon is the best player in baseball this year and so he's my easy choice as N.L. MVP. He's tailed off a bit, but R.A. Dickey has had a phenomenal 1st half and even though I don't see this continuing, I still gotta make him my 1st half Cy Young pick and since I laid some loot on the Mets only winning less than 73 games this year, fuck him and my N.L. Manager of the year pick, N.Y. Mets skipper, Terry Collins. Randomest of Thoughts: As soon as Rafael Nadal lost in the 2nd round of Wimbledon, I thought to myself, Roger Federer is about to win his last Grand Slam event. Unless Hideki Kuroda or Phil Hughes can pitch consistently into the 7th innings in the playoffs (which they won't) I suspect the Yankees will have to settle for a great regular season. Dwight Howard has made it impossible to pull for him. I suspect that these random erections I've been getting means that football is less than a month away. Dueces!!!