NBA 2012-13: The More Things Change . . .

SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 10: David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, arrives for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 10, 2012 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have been invited to attend the conference which begins Tuesday. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The NBA opens its first full season in two years without the spectre of a lockout hanging over them.  That's the NHL's problem, as they have just canceled another month of games.  Nor are they using replacement officials, like the NFL did for a few weeks.

Commissioner David Stern is retiring in February of 2014, handing over the reins to his deputy commissioner Adam Silver.  In three decades, Stern has presided over what's become a successful global enterprise, taking the NBA and its players to places they've never been, including China, Europe and the Olympic games.  But we also mustn't forget (among other things) the league-owned New Orleans Hornets, Seattle losing the Sonics to Oklahoma, and Patrick Ewing just happened to be the first-round draft pick of the New York Knicks in 1985.

LeBron James just won a championship with the Miami Heat, and already they're talking about him taking his talents elsewhere when his contract is up?

Dwight Howard whined his way out of Orlando and into Los Angeles, where he joins Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.  Oh yes, Steve Nash is there too.

The Brooklyn Nets are finally a reality, having moved across the Hudson River from New Jersey, outfitted in gangsta black as befits part-owner Jay-Z's style.  The NHL New York Islanders will join the Nets at Barclays Center starting in 2015 (who knew Brooklyn was part of Long Island?).  Now all they need is a baseball team.

The Sacramento Kings may be on the move if the city doesn't fork over enough cash to satisfy the owners' demand for a new arena.  We hear Seattle might be available.

That's quite a team the Houston Rockets have assembled.  Jeremy Lin will find that being Yao Ming's replacement is much less stressful than getting away from New York--and all the Linsanity that came with it.  And Royce White has issues with going on planes, which will limit his effectiveness on road trips.

Having just traded James Hardin to the Rockets, is the Oklahoma City Thunder a one-season wonder?  Or do they have what it takes to win championships for the next few years?

The Minnesota Timberwolves just lost their best chance to make the playoffs when Kevin Love joined Ricky Rubio on the sidelines with injuries, taking them out of at least the first two months of the season.  Until then, Brandon Roy, Derrick Williams and Andrei Kirilenko will be asked to win enough games to keep the fans interested until Love and Rubio return.  Oh, and would it kill the Wolves to add talent  that happens to be African-American?  These aren't the 1953 Minneapolis Lakers, you know.

Here's our Top 8 playoff picks for each conference.

EAST;  Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers.

WEST:  Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs.

Giant Sweep In Detroit

'''Giants Logo 2000–present''' (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The San Francisco Giants are baseball's world champions for the second time in three years, defeating the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings at Comerica Park to take the World Series in four games.  It was a single by Marco Scutaro in the tenth that brought Ryan Theriot across home plate for the winning run.

Pablo Sandoval of the Giants had set the tone in Game 1 by becoming the fourth man to hit three home runs in a World Series game (Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols were the others).  After that, the Giants' pitching of Ryan Vogelsong, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum shut down the Tigers' bats so effectively that they didn't score a run for two games.

For the Giants, they got here the hard way, trailing in their National League playoff series against Cincinnati and St. Louis before coming back to win.  For the Tigers, they had beaten Oakland in five games and swept the New York Yankees to win the American League pennant.

The Giants won the world championship without the help of Melky Cabrera, who was leading the National League in batting before being suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball for using banned substances.  The suspension has since been lifted, but the Giants wanted nothing to do with Cabrera as he is about to be a free agent.  Bet he's kicking himself now.

Once again, the City By The Bay has a world champion, and a rather unlikely one too.  The Giants don't get much notice beyond the West Coast, so most of its players are unknowns to the rest of the country.  But here they are, holding a World Series trophy and a spot in baseball history.

Indiana Leaves Lynx Out In The Cold

The Indiana Fever has won its first WNBA championship, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 87-78 to take the series three games to one.  Tamika Catchings was not only the leading scorer for the Fever with 25 points, but she was also named the league's Finals MVP.

For the Lynx, the 2011 champions had the best record in the WNBA this past season with a returning cast that included Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whelan, and Maya Moore.  Even the month-long Olympic break couldn't slow them down.

But as the weather turned cooler, so did their shooting.  This became painfully obvious in the playoffs, as the Lynx barely got past the Seattle Storm in the first round, and had a closer-than-it-looked two game sweep of the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Lynx came in as the heavy favorite against the Fever, but surprised everyone when they were outhustled, outplayed and outscored by a short-handed Indiana team which was missing their leading scorer in Katie Douglass.  Minnesota only won Game 2 after coach Cheryl Reeve's jacket-doffing tirade protesting a questionable call by the officials resulted in her and Whelan earning technical fouls, which ended up making the sports highlights shows that usually ignore the WNBA.

For Seimone Augustus, it could be that she was distracted by events off the court.  First, there was the incident where she was stopped by a traffic cop near a shopping mall for having an air freshener hanging off her car's rear-view mirror.  Of course, it could also be that Augustus got a DWB violation.  That's Driving While Black.

Next, she and her partner held a news conference to announce that they were supporting the efforts of those who want to defeat a Minnesota constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, and that they would like to get hitched next year either in this state or Iowa.  Better plan on Iowa, ladies, because even if the measure is defeated, same-sex marriage would still be illegal in Minnesota.

Congratulations to the Indiana Fever.  If nothing else, they taught the Lynx a valuable lesson:  It's tough to win back-to-back championships, especially when the tank is running on empty after going at full speed all season.

Twins 2012: Another Lost Season

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Target Field opened for business as the 2010 baseball season opened, it was expected by everyone involved with the Minnesota Twins--players, fans, the front office--that the outdoor atmosphere would produce as much success as they had at the Metrodome.  More wins, more division championships, more first-round playoff losses to the New York Yankees.

Three years later, the Twins are like an indoor plant that's been left out in the elements too long.  They have just concluded the 2012 schedule at 66-96, the worst record in the American League Central division, and the worst in the entire league.  Only the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros--both with more than 100 losses--are worse.

All the ingredients for a last-place team were there:  bad pitching, weak fielding, nonexistent offense, injuries, frequent callups from the minors, being out of the running by Mother's Day.

Don't blame Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Josh Willingham.  They all had better individual seasons at the plate, and were all healthy for a change.  Mauer, for one, was in the hunt for the A.L. batting title that ultimately went to Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers (who also won the league home run and RBI titles, making him the first since Carl Yazstremski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967 to win the Triple Crown).

But they were offset by two Twins' decisions: (A) Giving Tsuyoshi Nishioka another chance at second base after a stint in the minors.  He performed so poorly that the team ate its expensive investment and let him go back to Japan.  (B) Trading mercurial pitching ace Francisco Liriano to the Chicago White Sox for prospects.

With two consecutive 90-loss seasons under their belt, the Twins are in desperate need of a house cleaning.  That process began with the firing and/or reassigning of several coaches.  For some reason, manager Ron Gardenhire still has a job.

The Twins are going to have to do a lot better than that if they want to remain relevant to its fans.  That means being active in the free agent market.  That means trading popular players to get better pitching talent.  That means, Nishioka aside, signing more Asian players to a team that already resembles the United Nations.  And that means management getting off their duffs and stop pinching pennies.

One thing to look forward to:  Target Field was recently named host of the 2014 All Star Game.  That event has become the last refuge for struggling franchises with a new or refurbished ballpark to show off.  Whether the Twins will have any stars in that game besides Mauer by then will have a lot to do with what happens next season.  It won't be pretty.
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Major League Baseball has decided to stick with its present national TV partners (ESPN, Fox, TBS) through the 2021 season.  What's different is that Fox is getting more games on Saturdays and an increased presence in the playoffs, perhaps in anticipation of its yet-to-be-announced cable sports channel.  TBS is getting fewer games, which might be an acknowledgement by MLB that not every baseball fan can find the channel.  Unless you're a "Family Guy" fan.
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Thanks to the new playoff format, in which two wild card teams from each league goes into a one-game playoff just to get into the next round, picking the two teams we think will go into the World Series just got trickier.  But here goes:  Detroit Tigers vs. Washington Nationals.