This Weekend in Sports (29-June-2007)

NBA

The NBA draft was held on Thursday. The top two picks were slam dunks. Greg Oden, the man child, went to the Portland Trailblazers, and Kevin Durant went to the Seattle Supersonics. After those two obvious picks the Atlanta Hawks passed up on a point guard again and picked forward Al Horford. Oden’s teammate from highschool and college, Mike Conley went to the Memphis Grizzlies. In the fifth spot the Boston Celtics picked the Big East’s Player of the Year Jeff Green. However it was unofficially reported that the Supersonics have traded Ray Allen to the Celtics for the Jeff Green and two other players. That would give Seattle two of the top 5 draft picks and make them an instant contender even though they lose Ray Allen

CFL

The Canadian Football League started this week. There seems to be an air of excitement around this season. It might have to do with the new commissioner Mark Cohon, who brings youth and a ton of marketing experience from the NBA and MLB. It might have to do with rule changes such as blocking angles on kick returns and as I watch the Toronto Argos and British Columbia Lions there have already been two kicks returned for touchdowns. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the popularity of the league has been increasing the last couple of years and now if they can put together a fourth successful marketing season we might see expansion again and more interest in the Canadian version of the game.

Tennis – Wimbledon

We go into the first weekend of Wimbledon with rain delays, as usual, and no major upsets. Roger Federer the number one ranked men’s tennis player in the world and the men’s number one seed has one his first two matches and 50th grass court match in a row. Federer is going for his fifth straight Wimbledon championship to equal the record set by Bjorn Borg. An absolutely amazing feat in any era. Federer will have to get by American Andy Rodic and eternal opponent Rafael Nadal. If Roger makes it to the finals this year it will be interesting to see if he can keep his emotions in check with possibility of such a monumental win.