The Lakers faced the Orlando Magic in this years NBA championship. The Magic had made some unbelievable comebacks to earn their spot as eastern conference champions, but they did not have what it took to overcome the Lakers, as they fell by a score of 4-1. However, in their defense, the series could have been more interesting and a lot closer had the Magic won game 2 off the last second alley-oop pass to rookie Courtney Lee, and had Dwight Howard made his free-throws/had Jameer Nelson fouled Derek Fisher before he sunk the biggest shot of his career.

With this victory, the Lakers secured their 15th NBA championship trophy (out of their 30 appearances) and trail the Celtics by two for the all-time record. This was also a historic day for Laker’s coach Phil Jackson, as he won his 10th championship (6 with the Bulls, 4 with the Lakers), the most championship wins for any coach in any sport.

With this win, Kobe Bryant was also able to silence critics for finally being able to win a championship without former teammate Shaquille O’Neal. He also won his first Finals MVP award, which he will add to his resume in application for the world’s best basketball player.

Now the Lakers face a new dilemma regarding guard Trevor Ariza and Forward Lamar Odom; which of these star players will they be more interested in re-signing, and which will they consider letting go? They both played vital roles in winning the championship and they will both will be expecting a big raise, something the Lakers may not be able to afford, as they are already way over their salary caps.

Laker guard Derek Fisher was having a quiet night, shooting just 0-5 from 3 point land, up until the final 5 seconds of regulation where he made the biggest shot of his career ever. That’s right, this shot was bigger than the one he made against the Spurs a few years back with only 0.4 seconds remaining. Because of this shot, the Lakers were able to tie the game and go into overtime where they won quite easily, Fisher hitting another big 3.

Check out the footage of this amazing piece of NBA history:

LeBron James was crowned  MVP for the first time at age 24, the 3rd youngest player to win this prestigious award. As shown by the poll on this website, LeBron seemed like the clear winner to most people, and beat out rival Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade, who follow behind in 2nd and 3rd respectively. LeBron definitely earned it this year, helping his team to a season-best record and into the playoffs. Most people (including me) believe that the NBA finals will be the Lakers vs. Cavs, where there will be a thrilling showdown between the latest MVPs, Bryant and James.

Today the New Orleans Hornets received the biggest beat-down ever recorded in NBA playoffs losing to the Denver Nuggets by a score of 121-63, a 58 point deficit. The worst part about it was that it happened on the Hornets come court in front of thousands of spectators. If I attended that game I would definitely be asking for a refund! Now the Nuggets hold a 3-1 lead over New Orleans and look to end the series on home court come Wednesday.

In other news, the Lakers finish off the Jazz with a 4-1 series, and the Cleveland Cavaliers sweep the Detroit Pistons.

The votes are in and the awards for the 2009 nba players have been distributed, all except the most coveted, the most valuable player (MVP) award. Taking home the Coach of the year award was Mike Brown, thanks to his stalwart Calves who ended the regular season with the best record in the NBA (66-16), only losing twice at home.

The rookie of the year award no doubtedly went to none other than Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. Almost everybody saw that one coming and there seemed to be little competition for that award.

Dwight Howard was able to take home the defensive player of the year award, leading the league in blocked shots with 231. In pursuit of that award was Dwayne Wade and Chris Paul, who led the league in steals (216 & 173). All that remains is the MVP award, which won’t be announced for another week or two. Most people believe it will go to LeBron James, although Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade remain in the runnings.

Surprisingly there have already been 4 of 8 possible upsets already and who knows how many more are on the way. Most people would not have foreseen these upsets, except for maybe the Rockets beating the Trailblazers (but not by 27 points). Check out this list of upsets so far:

• Bulls over Celtics – [105-103]
• Mavericks over Spurs [105-97]
• 76ers over Magic [100-98]
• Rockets over Trailblazers [108-81]

As far as the series go with these upsets, I would still bet money that the celtics, magic, and rockets all win these rounds. I could see the Spurs falling to the Mavericks, since they are an older team with injured key players (Manu Ginobili). Lakers will take down the Jazz easy, Denver should beat the Hornets, Cleveland will sweep Detroit, and the Hawks will probably overpower the young Heat team, even though I’m pulling for my man D-Wade.

For the second time this year, both in championship matches, North Carolina easily sweeps past Michigan State by a score of 89-72 for the National Championship. North Carolina jumped ahead by 20 points in the first 10 minutes of play, and never looked back. Michigan tried hard to make the game more exciting by coming within 13 in the final 5 minutes, but it just wasn’t enough.

This marks North Carolina’s 5th national championship which ties Indiana for 3rd overall and trails behind Kentucky and UCLA for most championships (UCLA leads with 11, Kentucky 7). Despite having a record number of spectators, this years final match was nothing compared to last years, where Kansas mounted an unbelievable comeback to take down #1 seeded Memphis in overtime.

Is this the end of the line for the heroic Super Bowl champ? Only hours ago the Giants administration decided that it was in the team’s best interest to cut the pro-bowl veteran. Reasons as to why he was let go are still being discussed by most people agree that the incident where he shot him self in the foot with an illegal handgun had something to do with it, if not everything. The Giants just don’t want to be another Dallas Cowboys team who  constantly faced media uproad from diva Terrell Owens.

Personally, I don’t think this was a good idea on the Giants part – dumping your #1 receiver rarely leads to an improvement. Perhaps the Giants owners have a trick up their sleeve and know of an excellent draft replacement. Now Plaxico may turn into a deep threat, were Plaxico to sign with another team. As far as teams looking for receivers, Philadelphia, Miami, and Detroit should all be interested.

What can I say; my picks were way off this year, unfortunately. Despite my bad picks, this year’s March Madness tournament has proven to be yet another set of exhilarating battles between the best college basketball teams in the nation. With multiple upsets, incredible last second buzzer-beaters, and record-breaking blowouts, its no wonder millions of Americans tune in to watch these athletes give everything they got.

Now that there are only four teams left, be sure to tune in on these final matches, which are set to take place on April 4th and April 6th on CBS.

I’ll get straight to it. These are my final four picks:

Semifinals:

Louisville vs. Memphis

North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh

Finals: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh

Winner: Pittsburgh