North: Not everyone's Final Four bracket is a bust
As college basketball winds down and baseball winds up, here's another addition of random thoughts.
• Hey college basketball fans, wake-up! The Final Four is here and I have three of the four teams left: Villanova, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. I might be in the minority, but I am taking Villanova over North Carolina to win it all.
• With the NBA regular season just about over, Kobe Bryant sat on the bench the other night covered in ice packs, looking like a war veteran.
• There was a ton of hoopla from the Los Angeles media as Lamar Odom attended the Lakers game Wednesday night as the VIP guest of Kobe. Odom received a standing ovation at the Staples Center, where he played for seven years with the Lakers. There still are lingering concerns since a video surfaced of Odom imbibing at a bar in Sherman Oaks on the Saturday before Easter. TMZ reported he ordered three Remy Martin drinks and stayed until 1 a.m. He attended Easter services with his family later that day.
Odom overdosed in October at a Nevada brothel and if his near-death experience can't make him stay sober, what can?
• With the best golf tournament, the Masters, starting next Thursday, I am already missing Tiger Woods. Sure wish he was participating.
• The U.S. Soccer Federation is being taken to the woodshed by USA women players who get paid $15,000 to make the World Cup roster, while the men get paid $76,000, according to a New York Daily News report.
What makes it even more unjust is that women's soccer brings in more revenue that the men's team. You can't put a spin on it - that's wrong in about 19 different ways.
• Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith deserves whatever punishment he gets. He slashed center Charlie Coyle Tuesday night in Minnesota and the length of his suspension is still pending. The Hawks will be fine, but losing him will hurt even more if he misses playoff games.
• You can't say it more plainly: Big Ten basketball has seen better years.
• Say what you want, but Jerry Reinsdorf told everyone to move on from the LaRoche situation and everyone did! It was the right time for him to use his power. No one, including players, media and fans, could stop talking about it, but once he spoke that was it. Good. Time to think about baseball.
• If there is a more toxic person in sports right now than D'Angelo Russell, I'd like to know who it is. Russell taped a private conversation with a teammate, Nick Young, and then made it public using social media. Wow!
• I talked to sports book legend John Avello, now at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort, about the resting of players in the NBA. He said San Antonio does it the right way, if there is a right way, and announces early who will not play. That allows the sports books at the casinos to adjust their lines. Last second sit downs by guys like LeBron James can drastically effect them. Maybe once the commissioner, Adam Silver, wakes up, he can do something about it!
Program notes:
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• North's column appears each Tuesday and Friday in the Daily Herald, and his video commentary can be found Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at dailyherald.com. For more, visit northtonorth.com.