This Miami Heat win streak is nuts, and I don’t even care about the NBA. A man refuses to share ice cream with his woman. And the NYPD, “heroically” fighting pot

Today, the Madness truly begins. These next two days are sports nirvana for me, as I plan to watch hour after hour of college hoops at one of the many fine watering holes here in New York City. If you hear on the news reports of a man thrown out of a bar for screaming too loud for a 14 seed to upset a 3, you’ll know it’s just me happy my Davidson over Marquette pick has come through. Enjoy the madness…

I care very little about the NBA mostly, except at playoff time and in those rare years my Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets, of course) are any good, like this year.

But I have to say, this Miami Heat 24-game winning streak has captured my attention like nothing else in pro hoops the last 10 years. I find myself checking NBA.com every day to see if they kept it going, not because I love the Heat (though I have gotten over hatred of LeBron over “The Decision”, and Miami does employ my all-time favorite Dukie, Shane Battier) but because a streak that goes on this long is just so improbable in pro sports.

I don’t care how good you are, and clearly the Heat are the NBA’s best: In a long 82-game season, filled with long road trips to Cleveland and Detroit and Milwaukee, every team is going to lose once in a while. It’s just inevitable; your top players have a bad night, the bench guys can’t bail you out, and the opposition and their fans are fired up to take down the champs.

And yet every time it’s looked like the Heat were going to tumble, they somehow pull the rabbit out of the hat. Wednesday night at Cleveland was their most Doug Hennig-esque trick yet (look him up, kids, he was a famous magician in the 1980s).

The Heat were playing in Cleveland, which of course still has all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings toward LeBron, and despite the Cavs playing without its top two stars, they amazingly led the Heat by 27 points in the third quarter.

Pretty much an insurmountable lead in 95 percent of NBA games. But because this streak has magical powers now, apparently, Miami came back and won.
They’ve now won 24 straight games, nine short of the all-time record.

It’s hard to not root this streak, or at least not be in awe of it. And oh yeah, this happened during the game, too; I hope this guy enjoyed his few minutes of fame.

**Next today, I thought this was pretty funny. Former NBA star Chris Webber, and the man all Knicks fans love forever, Isiah Thomas, used their analysis skills to explain how this fan at a recent game refused to share his ice cream with his lady friend. Pretty funny…

**Finally, yet another disturbing story about the ridiculousness of America’s war on marijuana, perhaps the stupidest “war” ever fought in U.S. history.

A recent report discovered that the NYPD spent one million hours making 440,000 marijuana possession arrests in the last 10 years.

Think about that for a minute: Think how much better and more effectively those 1 million hours could’ve been spent. Think about the REAL crimes that could’ve been prevented, or investigated, if officers weren’t arresting people for the victimless, mostly harmless crime of smoking pot.

Just ridiculous. The only upside is this story also says that Andrew Cuomo is talking about reforming New York’s drug laws, and decriminalizing marijuana in small amounts.

Wish the rest of the country would do the same.

The Trayvon Martin shooting sparks outrage (and great writing). Final Four field is set, and I’m not happy. And tennis gets some love on “60 Minutes”

It seems like every day, this Trayvon Martin shooting story gets bigger and bigger.
I’ve been as interested in it as anyone else, partly because I used to live very close to Sanford, Fla., where a 28-year-old white man named George Zimmerman shot and killed a 17-year-old African-American boy.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much outrage has been sparked, from professional sports teams like the Miami Heat (who took this fantastic photo, above, in support of Martin, who was wearing a hoodie when he was killed), to ordinary folks all across the country who are sick and tired of our gun culture, and racial prejudice, combining to cause so many innocent victims.

I think the police acted way too slowly in this case, and I fear that there are far too many people who seem to think any white male who, for any reason, feels threatened by a member of a minority is totally within their rights to start shooting.

I read two excellent articles about the case over the weekend that I wanted to share: Here’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts with his take on the case, and David Simon, the brilliant creator of “The Wire”, talking about our gun culture and how destructive it is.

**The Final Four is now set, and I don’t think many people had their brackets right on this one. Kansas, Ohio State, Louisville and Kentucky all survived their first four games and get to now play on the biggest stage in college basketball.
Some quick-hit thoughts on the weekend’s games:
– That Kentucky-Indiana game Friday night was so much fun to watch; easily the most entertaining game of the tournament. So many great athletes in the game, such excellent shooting, and really, really solid team basketball. It was a joy to all of us who love the sport.
– I dislike Rick Pitino quite a bit, and think his ethics leave much to be desired. But damn, the guy can coach his fanny off. This Louisville team in no way seemed good enough to reach the Final Four a few weeks ago, but they got hot at the right time, and they’ve got a masterful leader who knows how to get the most out of his players.
– Can’t wait until John Calipari has this Final Four appearance vacated for cheating, just like the last two times he’s gone there (with UMass and Memphis). The trifecta will be beautiful for this soul-less ethically-challenged jerk.
– I hate UNC as much as any Duke fan, but I did feel a little sorry for them that they lost their floor leader, Kendall Marshall, for the regionals due to injury. Carolina may have been the best team in the country, but I would’ve liked to have seen ‘em get beat at full strength.
– Oh, to be in Kentucky this week. I can’t imagine much work will get done in the state. The Wildcats and Cardinals rivalry is pretty intense already, but now they’re playing each other in the Final Four? Two coaches that hate each other, two fan bases that hate each other, playing for a spot in the title game? It’ll be madness from Bowling Green to Paducah.

**Finally today, it’s rare that my beloved sport of tennis gets mainstream media attention. So I was thrilled to see current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who has a remarkable life story and genuinely seems to be a good guy, profiled last night on “60 Minutes.” If you’re a big tennis fan, there’s not a lot of “breaking news” here, but it’s a great look at the Serbian star, where he came from, and how he’s become so dominant.

Well done, “60 Minutes.”

In praise of 25 years at the Church of Oprah. A quick Lebron thought. And Darth Vader entertains senior citizens

“The Oprah Winfrey Show” ended Wednesday. Maybe you heard something about it.
If you’re already sick of the hype about the ending of a television talk show, you might want to skip this post.
But I just wanted to say a few words about maybe the most powerful, influential woman in America.
It’s easy to mock the “cult” of Oprah; the millions of people who hang on her every word, do exactly what she tells them to do, etc.
But I won’t do that. Because let’s take a look at what Oprah has been telling people to do for the last quarter-century:
Believe in yourself. Take control of your life. Don’t allow people to mistreat you. Don’t mistreat others. Strive for greatness. Live your dreams. Help other people achieve theirs.
Make yourself a better person. Make the world better.
Through 25 years, through all the shows she did, that was pretty much her mantra.
And is it so bad, then, if a person like that has millions and millions of followers?
I didn’t watch Oprah every day. But I watched her show plenty; sometimes with a family member, sometimes with my wife, sometimes just by myself.
Usually, you learned something from Oprah and her guests. You learned about courage, about wisdom, about overcoming obstacles. Or you just learned in a small way, how to make your life better.
Oprah Winfrey was at tremendous force of good in the lives of so many others. And beyond all the other hype and criticism you may find of her, that’s as good a legacy as anyone could ever hope for.

**Watched the 4th quarter of the Bulls-Heat NBA playoff game Thursday night. Damn, LeBron James is good. Much as I hate the 180-degree turn in his attitude since before “The Decision,” he reminded me again Thursday night why I loved him so much in the first place.
A phenomenal 4th quarter performance. Just cold-blooded, cutting the heart out of the Bulls.
All that said, go Dallas in the Finals!

**And now, for something completely different. Found this clip on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, which I love for many reasons, but one of which is, he always seems to post random clips of joy. And I LOVE random clips of joy.
So here is a man, dressed as Darth Vader, entertaining people at a senior citizens center in New York.