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One of my favourite basketball players, Chris Webber, has left Philadelphia and is joining his hometown team, the Detroit Pistons. I hope it goes well for the Pistons, and for Webber. If Houston (my favourite team) can’t win the championship this year, then I hope Detroit does.

Dikembe Mutombo, currently playing for my favourite NBA team, the Houston Rockets, has passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to move into second place on the All-Time Blocked Shot Leader List.

Dikembe has always been one of my favourite players, with his near-singular focus on defence. A graduate of Georgetown (Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning), he has always held his own against other great centres in college in in the NBA.

Who is first on the list? Rockets great Hakeem Olajuwon - the player I emulated the most (or at least tried to) as a teenager. And before some smart alec (I’m thinking one of my younger brothers), I know that stats weren’t kept for blocked shots when Bill Russell was playing, and yes, he would probably be on the top of the list if there had been stats kept.

Well, there goes any chance the Queensland Reds had of making the Super 14 semi-finals this season. Without Chris Latham in the side, the Reds will be battling not to finish in last place with the South African teams, and probably the Western Force also. That sucks!

What’s more, is that his chances to represent Australia at the World Cup in France later this year are slim. Even if he is there, it is unlikely he will have had a good chance to play himself into any decent form. In my opinion, the Wallabies weren’t a good chance to win it, but even less so now that Latham is out.

What is interesting is the news that Wallabies coach John Connolly is furious about the injury, and has asked for a please explain from the Reds, as all Wallabies players were supposed to refrain from contact drills.

My computer has been getting some work done to it, so I’ve been pretty light on with the posting. A few things I wanted to mention:

• Settling into the new house is going well, albeit slowly. I’m okay with that, as I’ve had enough rushing about to last me a while. I actually realised on Saturday morning for the first time that from my driveway I have a great view all the way across Moreton Bay, and I can quite distinctly make out the enormous sand dunes on Moreton Island. It is not a bad view at all.
• My Mum rang from South Korea, but I missed the call. If you’re reading this Mum (and you’d better be!), I’ll try to call in the next few days.
• My friends Sven and Marie are having a baby! Their little girl Indie will have a baby brother or sister in just under 8 months time. Congratulations!
• Watched the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race yesterday at Sven and Marie’s house, while cooking a pig on a spit. Craig Lowndes won the race, which I was happy about. Sadly he won it in a Ford. Bah! But good beer and even better company makes for an excellent day all round.
• On a scarier note, North Korea has about 30 minutes ago announced that they have tested a nuclear weapon. Apparently it is too early yet for external experts to agree on whether the test was real or not, but either way it is going to be an interesting development.

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been flat out moving house, and dealing with all the drama’s associated with that. Luckily, the worst of it is over now, and I now get to focus on unpacking at my new residence. I’m share-housing with four other musicians, all of whom are much better than I am, so I expect to learn a thing or two. It will be a bit more crowded than I am used to, but I’m sure I’ll have fun.

Since I’ve posted last, the Bronco’s won the NRL grand final by defeating the Melbourne Storm. I can tell you I was excited! I think the Storm would have been deserving victors, but the Bronco’s are certainly worthy champions. I was glad to see Shane Webcke going out on a high.

Also, some of the acts for next years Big Day Out music festival have been announced. The Violent Femmes and The Killers are two acts I have never seen that I would like to.

Anyway, there has been much else I’ve wanted to post on, but haven’t had time, so I’ll be catching up over the next couple of weeks.

The Opals have beaten the Russian National Team to win Gold at the FIBA World Championships. Congratualtions ladies!

While the Boomers performance was a bit disappointing at the Men’s FIBA World Championships recently, the women really stepped up big time. Hopefully the WNBL does some positive marketing off the back of this victory to enhance the profile of basketball, particularly women’s basketball, here in Australia.

The Australian National Womens Basketball Team, the Opals, play Russia in the final of the world championships being held in Brazil today. I was surprised that the USA didn’t make it to the gold-medal game, but it highlights the increasing parity in international competition. The USA will now play Brazil in the bronze-medal game.

The Brisbane Bronco’s, the team I follow in the National Rugby League, just handed the Canterbury Bulldogs a resounding defeat. Trailing by 20-6 at halftime, the Bronco’s staged a remarkable comeback to win the game 37-20. A list of the key players features the usual suspects: Darren Lockyer, Tonie Carroll, Justin Hodges, Shane Webcke & Shuan Berrigan. Hell, the whole team played pretty well, especially in the second half.

I’m tipping Melbourne to beat the Dragons tomorrow night. Either way, I hope they bash each other up. Go the Bronco’s!

[The Melbourne Storm has beaten the St. George Dragons, so it’s a Melbourne v Brisbane Final. This is kind of funny, since in the AFL Final there is no Melbourne team competing this year, and in the NRL there will be no Sydney team in the final.]

I spent the weekend camping at Woodys Head, near Iluka in northern New South Wales. I haven’t been there before, but it is a really beautiful place. We were about 30 metres from the beach, and we had really good weather most of the time.

It was a bucks weekend for two of my friends, Jeremy and Quinten, who are getting married in the coming weeks (to be clear, not to each other).

Lots of eating and drinking, with some guys taking the opportunity to surf or fish, and others (like me) playing a fair bit of Texas Hold ‘Em. Yesterday, some of us went and had lunch at the Pacific Hotel at Yamba, a town south of Iluka, just over the Clarence River. If you’re ever in Yamba, be sure to have a feed at the Pacific Hotel - the food was awesome! Most of the guys ordered the biggest, tastiest burgers I’ve ever seen, and I ordered a Laksa, that had about 20 local mussels, and lots of yummy prawns. I was so impressed.

These are simple pleasures, I suppose, but times like this are the memories I think I’ll really treasure when I’m an old man. And I get home to find out the Brisbane Bronco’s flogged the Newcastle Knights over the weekend in the NRL finals. Sweet!

Back to work tomorrow, but I feel better for the break. Now for a few big weeks ahead with Uni assignments due, moving house and lots to do at work. No rest for the wicked!

Om Malik points out that one of the very best cricketers ever is podcasting! Sunil Gavaskar seems to be a media saavy guy. He was a player I always looked forward to watching whenever Australia played India, as he played alongside other Indian greats such as Kapil Dev.

I also want to weigh in on the ‘Darrell Hair Affair’ (read some of the background here, here and here).

There has been suggestion, even in mainstream media in Pakistan, that Hair’s interpretation was motivated by racism. Some have come out and said that he is being far too harsh in his interpretation. And then he has been criticised for his subsequent offer to resign with compensation.

This all strikes me as greatly unfair to a very good servant and umpire of the game. The racism angle is just plain ridiculous. I think he has every right, in fact an obligation, to be strict in his application of the rules of the game. And let’s not forget that Hair didn’t act alone - another quality umpire, Billy Doctrove also agreed, supported and executed the course of action at the Oval late last month with Hair.

Moreover, I think that he had every right to make what is really quite a fair offer to stand down to avoid any possible tarnish to the image of the game he obviously loves. Malcolm Speed  deserves a kick in the pants for leaking what was a private communication, and for not supporting his umpires. What sort of message does that send to the other umpires - “Next time one of the players gets really sooky, you’d better let them have their way”?

Anyway, I’m starting to rant - in a nutshell I think he did the right thing (ball tampering is a blight on the game), and deserves better treatment from players, the media, and especially the people at the ICC.