TWO BIG NBA STORIES THIS WEEKEND: And me with not a lot of time for blog writing, so I shall restrict myself to them.

First: Phil Jackson out at LA. Kobe a free agent. Shaq demanding a trade. It's the doomsday scenario for the Lakers, especially if Kobe doesn't resign.

Second: T-Mac wants out of Orlando. The Magic will oblige.

Plus the NBA draft is Thursday. Should be an interesting week. This sort of puts the kibosh on any possible Shaq & T-Mac team-up next season, doesn't it? Unless the Magic trade for Shaq, and somehow convince the Lakers that the number one pick plus a bunch of other guys is worth losing an unhappy Shaq for. And if they can convince Kobe to come back, and given that Buss is mortgaging everything now so Kobe can stick with them in the future, Kobe may feel obligated to come back. If he has that kind of conscience--he certainly doesn't have any conscience on the court. As a Clippers fan, I'd love to see him there, even though the moment he joins the Clippers is probably the moment he goes to jail for five-to-ten, given that they are the Clippers. The Shaq & T-Mac thing could happen, but it sounds like T-Mac wants out of Orlando no matter what.

Anyway--back to work. Stoopid obligatory humanities class. Like you care what I think about Augustine's Confessions.