TNT: All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight

You fuckers are lucky the NBA season is starting tonight, or else you never would’ve gotten an update.

In football: 8-6 on the week, which brings me to 59-55-3. I might actually sneak out a winning record this season… is what I’d say if I wanted to jinx myself. Stay the course. These colors don’t run.

What are ya readin?: Just finished Bret Hart’s book, “Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling”. It was pretty great. I mean, depressing as all hell, and very, very long. There aren’t many jokes, and it wasn’t nearly as much fun to read as Chris Jericho’s book, but man, it was good. Very informative. Bret has an opinion on just about everyone in the business and doesn’t hold back on anyone, good or bad. Does he come across as bitter sometimes? Sure. Arrogant? Perhaps. He certainly is well aware he’s one of the best wrestlers of all time. But he’s also brutally honest about his faults, to the extent that if it was packaged as “The Unauthorized Biography by Ricky Jackson”, I’d think half of it were lies. Long story short, Bret cheated on his wife. A lot. He doesn’t sound proud of it, but he also doesn’t apologize for anything. I highly recommend it; it’s a great read.

What are ya watchin?: SNL’s pretty great again. Did you notice? A great cast, great writing, willing to take chances and be mean; it’s refreshing to see it back. I mean, sure, there’s flaws. Fred Armisen’s Obama is accurate, but not funny. Seeing Will Ferrell come back to do Bush one last time is a reminder that the best impressions don’t have to be accurate, as long as they’re funny. Of course, I’m not quite sure how you do a funny impression of Barack Obama (I’m sure Tim Meadows would’ve found a way), but if we’re spending the next four to eight years with him, I hope they have something better on the horizon.

And while I think Kenan Thompson is funny, they use him a little too much. It seems like he’s in every sketch, and Kenan basically has one character and one voice that he does for every skit. Not that it isn’t funny, but it’d be better if they saved it for one or two big skits a night. Meanwhile, Andy Samberg almost never gets used, even though the skits he’s in are almost always the funniest of the night. I dunno. But still, the show’s looking pretty great. I love Kristen Wiig, who is more than ready to fill the void left by Poehler (and is also pretty damn fine, if I do say so myself), and if Bobby Moynihan can remember his lines and stop staring at cue cards, he’s got a big future. Its much more of an ensemble cast than past years; there’s no Hartman or Ferrell to anchor the show, nor is there a Belushi, Murphy or Farley; that breakout star that completely steals the scene every time out there. Everyone seems to work well together. Hopefully they can keep it going for a while.

Current Pressing Sports Commentary: The NBA’s starting up again. If you told me 8 years ago that I’d care infinitely more about the NBA than the NHL to the extent that I wouldn’t be able to name more than 10 guys on the Bruins, I’d laugh at you, and also ask if you had any cake (I was very fat back then). But with the Celtics tankjob and infinite rebuilding process somehow being more interesting than the Bruins hovering around a 9th seed every season, and the subsequent payoff of a dream season last year, I’ve kinda become a Celtics man. It’s funny how, 2-3 years ago, I wrote a long piece about how the Celtics had two choices; trade Pierce and rebuild or keep Pierce and trade the prospects for big names, and how Danny went for option #3: keep Pierce and rebuild. And I said that it was a mistake because if they traded Pierce, they could’ve gotten cap space for a guy like Ray Allen or Michael Redd, or if they traded Gerald Green and Al Jefferson and others they could’ve gotten Kevin Garnett or Jermaine O’Neal, and by standing pat, they eliminated both those options. And yet, somehow, they got both KG and Allen and kept Pierce, making it the first time a team I made in NBA 2K5 somehow came to life.

Anyway, its fun being a C’s fan, as opposed to being a Red Sox fan. Sure, there are bandwagoners, but this Celtics team is infinitely more likeable than the team of aggressive, balding white guys at Fenway. Do I think they’ll repeat this year? Of course I do. I’m more biased than the Drudge Report. Prediction time.

Eastern Conference Finals: Boston over Cleveland
Western Conference Finals: Utah over LA Lakers
NBA Finals: Boston over Utah
MVP: LeBron James
ROY: Derrick Rose