Quick Hits:Utah Jazz, Agent Zero's Blog, and American Gladiators

Quick thoughts before game six tonight...

Utah Jazz: Fans step away from the panic button.
Tonight's game is big. There is no need to panic if you are a Jazz fan...yet. After the butt kicking that Houston laid on the Jazz Tuesday, the panic bug started. Yet, there is no reason to worry. The Jazz have put themselves into a position to advance to the next round of the playoffs on their home court. That is why they went to Houston and won the first two games. Thanks to that effort at the beginning of the playoff series the Jazz had a mulligan that they could play on their home court. Sure it would have been easier for the Jazz just to show up and win game three and sweep the series. Sure the Jazz could have at least made the game respectable on Tuesday. Even with that in mind, the Jazz are a force when they play on their home court. Also the blowout loss should have refocused the Jazz for tonight's game.

Other reasons for Jazz fans to be optimistic about tonight's game. Boozer. The lone bright spot about the end of game five was the recognition of Boozer that he is a low post beast. He took the ball to the basket, and their wasn't a single person on Houston that could stop him. Hopefully, the break between games five and six doesn't cause Boozer to forget this fact. There is no reason to panic...although if the Jazz drop the game tonight save me a spot on the ledge.

Agent Zero's Blog
I was late coming to this party, but Gilbert's blog is AWESOME. I read over three month's worth of entries yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised about the quality that Arenas puts into all of his blog entries. What also shocked me was all of the negative criticism that comes from the media in relation to the Blog. It is a little understandable for the local media to be upset, because Arenas openly bashes the media in his post. Saying he will not talk to media members after games, and breaking news on his own, bi-passing the need to talk to the media.

This is especially interesting after watching Costas Now. On the program Bob Costas had town hall style panel discuss the merits of media coverage of sports. It was interesting to see all of the negative feelings towards Blogs that media members have. They openly wondered how a person without any formal training could think to write information about sports. Well...it is called an opinion. Speaking for myself I don't try and break news, or get close to knowing about players. I don't always agree with what the news media says about a certain situation.

A good example of the media bias was the Wallace situation in Portland. The media in Portland black listed Sheed, and called him a head case and a thug, why? He wouldn't do any interviews with the media after games. That is right, he was helping in the community and was a positive influence in the locker room, but the media painted him as Mr Hyde. Did Sheed lead the league in technicals? Yes. Yet, they never talked about his passion for playing the game. You could never say that Sheed didn't do everything he could to win a game when he was on the court.

I don't think that the print media should be done away with. That is just dumb! There needs to be someone there covering the stories, and interacting with the players. Someone that can try to be unbiased. Yet, to turn their backs on blogging make absolutely no sense. Welcome to the Internet my friends...and guess what, I think it is going to be a big deal.

American Gladiators
It looks like the producers of the show on NBC have made some changes for the second season that is coming later this month. Hopefully, they have made the changes for the better which I already went over in my first piece about the program. I also like that they are coming up with new events that are completely original. This is the make or break season for the show. I am pulling for this show to work out.