Mavericks vs Heat: Who wins?

The Mavericks take on the Heat in what promises to be a really entertaining final. It's Lebron vs Dirk, youth vs age and big name stars vs experienced, solid players. This is certainly a tough one to predict. In all honesty, my heart tells me go with the Mavs, but my brain says the Heat are going to win.

I correctly predicted before the start of the Playoffs that Miami would get to the Finals (see here). My other predictions for the most part were totally wrong, and I'm happy to see an ageing Mavs team in the Finals, in what will most likely be their last chance to win anything together. But Miami are a massive powerhouse. Wade, Lebron and Bosh as I said previously in my Playoff prediction post are a massive threat, and at their best they cannot be stopped. As simple as that.

I really like the Mavs team. They have an experienced point guard, in my opinion on e of the best in the league in Jason Kidd. They have for me the second best player in the NBA in Dirk Nowitzki and just generally a strong squad that can do some serious damage. They also obviously have incredible determination, shown when they cam back in spectacular style twice against the Thunder in the Conference Finals.

I think it will definitely be a seven game series and it will all depend on the coalition between the Big Three. If it works to perfection, then Miami win without a doubt, however one tiny mistake or error and I think that the Mavericks' determination, experience and skill will see them winning it.

Barcelona: As Expected

As I said on Twitter last night, anybody who though that Man Utd would win this final are idiots. That was put bluntly, but when you look at the past it really does make sense. 2009, Barcelona win comfortably, 2008 Final, Man Utd only win because John Terry doesn't know how to take a penalty, and 1998, Man Utd only win because for some reason, Bayern switch off in the last 3 minutes, potentially allowing even a group of small children to score against them twice.

So when you looked at Man Utd's odds, they were really very low, them going up against unarguably the best club side in the world in a Champions League Final. Barcelona completely outplayed Man Utd as expected, with Messi of course being at the centre of it all. However what Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro and Villa did was also incredible, so it was a team effort. Barcelona outplayed Man Utd man for man.

I also totally agree with Harry Redknapp: Man Utd are far from being a great team, but they won the Premier League. This fact was shown by them getting destroyed by Barcelona. Furthermore, I think that teams like Chelsea and Arsenal at their best can comfortably beat Man Utd and are better than them. However the problem is that Man Utd are a juggernaut and are a solid , consistent team. Chelsea and Arsenal on the other hand are quite inconsistent, and over a season, that's why Man Utd win.

Finally, a lot of people say this Barcelona side are the best team ever. I disagree. They are without doubt the team of the decade, but not the best team of all time. The Real Madrid team of the 50s and 60s is still better in my opinion, and other great teams like the Ajax of Cruyff and the AC Milan of 1989 are also, in my opinion, slightly superior. However Barcelona are, nobody can deny it, one of the best teams ever, and the question now is, how long can they keep going?

UFC 130!!!

I've sort of fallen out of touch recently with the wonderful world of the UFC, however I did see that GSP beat Jake Shields reasonably easily at UFC 129 and also that Randy Couture unfortunately lost by KO against Lyoto Machida. What do you expect though, the guy's almost 50. It's phenomenal that he even manages to handle a guy who's almost half his age. It just shows you how good an athlete he is.

Now however, it is time for UFC 130, which does feature a few good looking fights. As a lot of you probably know, the headline fight for this event was originally meant to be a rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, but they both got injured in the run up, so as a result, Rampage Jackson vs Matt Hamill is now taking centre stage.

Rampage Jackson is widely acknowledged as being the favourite in this fight, and honestly, I think he's going to win as well. Matt Hamill is good fighter, no doubt, but Rampage is Rampage. He's a former Light Heavyweight champion and the fight is a must win for him. Matt Hamill can cause him problems, but if the fight is played out standing up, then Rampage will win. Not maybe, will. Hamill has a improving striking game, but his strengths lie elsewhere. If he gets into a slugfest with Rampage Jackson, he will have lost before the fight has even begun.

In the other fights, Frank Mir faces off against Roy "Big Country" Nelson, which should be interesting. Frank Mir is the obvious favourite, but I think that Roy Nelson will cause him problems and that it won't be a knockout. It will go to a decision. Finally, there is the fight between Stefan Struve and Travis Browne. The latter is undefeated but I like Struve's chances. I think That Struve really has a bright future. He's obviously really talented and has incredible height and reach.

Top 100 NBA Players: 2011

As you might know from a previous post, I disagree with the voting criteria which determine the MVP. I argue that it should be the most talented player that year, not the person who is most valuable. Here is my top 100 most talented NBA players of 2011. Anybody who complains about certain rankings, this is only for 2011. I made this ignoring all performances by players in previous seasons. Enjoy!

Who is your most talented player of the 2011 season?

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What is the most frustrating sport?

There are clearly many really frustrating sports, in the sense that you can come so close to winning but you just fail by several millimetres. However for me, the three which are most frustrating have to be darts, snooker and golf. Even though two of these sports do involve anything physical at all, they require great accuracy, which is why they can get on your nerves so much.

Darts is one of those sports when you can keep missing. You can have a really easy checkout, needing only a double tops to win (for those unaware of the terminology, it's a double twenty and it is widely considered the easiest finish on the dartboard) and yet still fail. You miss three in a row and then your opponent has three chances to make you pay. If he does, you're then left frustrated and distraught over the fact that you lost by what is not even a centimetre.

Snooker, is like darts, but could to an extent be even worse, because so many things could frustrate you. It could be the fact that you miss the pot by a centimetre, or even worse, that you find yourself only just snookered by a whisker. You could also end up blasting the ball toward the pocket, only for it to ricochet out and block it.

However if you want a sport that is played outdoors and does involve some physical effort, it's without a doubt golf. In golf, you see endless putts where the ball does go towards the hole, but ends up somehow jumping over it, usually because the person has hit it a fraction too hard. You also have the typical Rory McIlroy scenario, where you hit it into some trees, get a triple or quadruple bogey and end up losing your chance at a first Major championship.

Other really frustrating sports that deserve mentions are football of course, basketball, when the ball spins round in circles on the inside of the rim, and somehow finds its way out and to an extent track cycling, where you can lose by half a tyre's width.

Survival Sunday!!

For maybe the fist time in the entire season, the one thing that football fans care about this weekend is what's happening at the bottom of the table, not at the top. The relegation battle is so tight, and will be decided no doubt by the smallest of margins, maybe even goals scored.

Wolves face Blackburn, Man Utd play Blackpool, Wigan play Stoke and Birmingham face Tottenham. I really hope Blackpool stay up. Their will really be missed more than any other team, whether it be Ian Holloway's antics or their very attacking style of play. Birmingham, I feel, do deserve to go down. Not just because they beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup final, but because I think that they took their foot off the gas afterwards and that a good team doesn't.

Another team that I hope stay up are Wolves. They don't play particularly attractive footy, but again, they have a really good manager who is honest, and I think that seeing how they managed to beat all the top four teams, it really shows that they are actually no that bad. Blackburn on the other hand I do want to see go down, simply because of the new owners. Never in a million years should they have fired Allardyce and if they go down, they will really realise that they made a calamitous error.

Finally, Wigan. I don't really have much to say about them, but I secretly think they'll stay up. They always manage to and they've been in the same situation for the past several years. Martinez is a good manager, but Wigan frustrate me as they can either be on some days quite literally the best side in the world and on some days they can get thrashed 8-0 by teams. All I know is that today is going to be nail-biting and that I'll definitely be watching Match of the Day later on.

Andrea Bargnani: Il Mago

I made this mix of Andrea Bargnani, who is one of my favourite NBA players. Enjoy and comment! Who's your favourite player?

Song: All of the Lights-Kanye West ft Rihanna

NBA Draft Lottery: The Moment of Truth

So this is the day that the worst 14 teams in the NBA have been stressing about for the past few months. The day when the draft order is decided, and the destiny of the top prospects is more a less laid out. Kyrie Irving is the top prospect, and he looks pretty good. The Timberwolves will hope they can get him, even though there's no guarantee it will happen.

The Timberwolves have the worst record in the NBA from last season, so they should get the first pick. But here's the problem I noticed with the lottery: the odds of the worst team getting the first pick are only 25%, meaning that the odds of all the other teams added up are greater. So there is in fact more chance of the worst team not getting the first pick than getting it.

Basic probability states that you should increase the chances of the worst team to 50% to give them an equal chance. I really think this should happen. It's wrong that there is a 75% chance that team with the worst record won't get the first pick.

Still, we'll see what happen later on. Personally, I think the team that deserve it most are probably the Timberwolves, even though you do have to feel sorry for Cleveland and the Lebron saga. It will be very interesting to see the lucky team who come out winners.

More Penalty Shootouts!!

Why even bother with extra-time? Seriously, I reckon, that there are a whole lot of people like me, who when they are sitting through a period of extra time are biting their nails not because there team is playing, but because they just want to see a penalty shootout. It's annoying that you have to wait 30 minutes to get to the exciting part of the game.

Many, it is true, argue that penalty shootouts are all about luck. Well, that's wrong. It is a skill to be able to handle pressure, and it is a skill to guess where the goalie's going to dive, just as it is for the goalie to know where the player is going to shoot. It's not luck that somebody like Alan Shearer or Zidane almost never misses and that some other players when under pressure, Ronaldo or Lampard for example, often miss.

I propose that FIFA should just forget about extra time. Actually, I'm going to go even further and argue that all competitive football games should finish, if drawn, with a penalty shootout. It would make, I think the game much more suspenseful and interesting. In basketball, a game can never be drawn, so why not in football?

I really think it is a brilliant idea. Players would have to start getting good at shooting penalties, and, what's more, you could have some really big and important upsets. Imagine for example, if that rule had applied today: you could have maybe had Blackburn beating Untied on penalties and giving Chelsea another chance. Why hasn't anybody though of this before?

INTERACT!!

This isn't really a proper post as such, more a reminder or a bit of encouragement. One of the main reasons I started this blog up was to be able to interact and learn about the opinions of other people, and debate about stuff. I really want to be asked questions and that people comment, because, although it is "my" blog, I want it to be a place where people talk about sport, technology or anything else that I post about. But that's not all. If you comment I can 100% guarantee that I WILL RESPOND (unless it's spam or hate). Also, if you ask me my opinion on something that I feel strongly about or that I find interesting, I will almost for sure write a post on it. This is just as much about me as it is about my readers, and if any of you are sitting there thinking, "I totally disagree"or "This guy's nuts, he couldn't be more wrong!", then comment it, and elaborate, so like that everybody can have a good discussion. Let your thoughts be known!!

Although I probably should have emphasised this earlier, there is no time like the present. Of course, you can also comment on Twitter, @henry_tg.

Wouter Weylandt: Tribute

I really hoped that I wouldn't have to do another one of these for a while, but what a cruel thing sport can be. A tragic week for sport. Wouter died at 26, with still so much to give to cycling. R.I.P.

Comment and enjoy.

Seve: The Greatest

My tribute to a legend who passed away too soon.

Comment and Enjoy.

Magic Trackpad Review!!

This is bit delayed, I meant to put a review up a long time ago, but never really got around to it. Anyway, here is my review of the awesome Apple Magic Trackpad.

When I purchased the Magic Trackpad, I was really hesitating as to whether to buy the Trackpad or the Magic Mouse. Both were the same price (roughly), however I think I made the right decision.

Firstly, the Magic Trackpad is essentially like an iPhone screen. All the multi-touch gestures on the iPhone are integrated into the Magic Trackpad. You can do anything you want, even pinch to zoom and turning your fingers to rotate pictures in Aperture or iPhoto. This is really brilliant, as it brings one of the best bits of the iPhone to the Mac. Furthermore, the Magic Mouse has really limited gestures, and is nothing like an iPhone screen.

The other thing I like about the Trackpad is how wide it is. You have room to do all the gestures, and when compared with the Magic Mouse, for example, you realise the difference. On the Magic Mouse gesture wise, everything is cramped, so it makes a real difference.

The final thing to say is that the Magic Trackpad is the future. The mouse is slowly disappearing, and multi-touch is the future. The Magic Trackpad therefore is the future, and the Magic Mouse, even having some limited multi touch capabilities, is more a less the past.

Apple rarely make disappointing products (there have been some though), and they, in my opinion, certainly have not disappointed with the Magic Trackpad. which really is the way to go. Needless to say, a 3 year old could have installed it.

John Higgins wins the World Championship!

John Higgins is number one. Again. He produced a stunning last frame to win the final against Judd Trump, and he really reminded everybody during that frame that he was still there, even after the corruption allegations that plagued him a year or so ago.

John Higgins is a very good player, and this is his 4th world championship, so it's no doubt he is one of the all time greats. His adversary in the final, Judd Trump, was a very bright young talent. but my worry is that he'll disappear almost totally from the scene, like Neil Robertson did this year. The Australian got knocked out in the first round of the tournament this year, so the question really is, will Trump leave a long legacy ie come next year and do better?

He definitely can, but I haver my doubts whether he will. My bet is he'll do well but he won't reach the final. I could be wrong of course, but I think he will gradually go back into the shadows, slightly like Neil Robertson did.

For John Higgins however, I'm sure he will come back stronger than ever next year and will be ready to defend his title right to the death. One thing I do wish for is for people like O'Sullivan (who should genuinely be doing better) and Stephen Hendry, even though I know the fact that in snooker especially, it is a lot easier said than done.