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Would kids going to college help? Depends on the player, and depends who you ask. The Times mentioned how Sebastian Telfair wasn't playing well -- don't know which Telfair they're watching. If you break down their stats in relation to minutes played, Telfair, who played no college ball, is about equal to Jameer Nelson, who played four years of college ball and nearly gave Dick Vitale an aneurysm when he was drafted after Telfair.

But it's not so much where you're from, it's moreso what you do once you get there. Jermaine O'Neal, if you remember, went pro out of high school and sat on the bench for two years. But he worked hard, and he made himself dominant. Now he's 26 years old, with maybe a decade ahead of him. Is this old enough? And how old does LeBron need to be to be good? It's not about age, it's about skill. If we want the game to improve, it's up to the players to get better, not necessarily older.

Is the NBA worse than it used to be? To me, it's just different. I watched more games in the '80s than I can remember. Whenever I watch tapes of those games now, I know the superstars could play in today's NBA, but I wonder about the other players, the mid-level guys who hustled and did the little things: Craig Ehlo, Cliff Levingston, Mark Eaton, Vinnie Johnson. Would they even be quick and fast enough to stay on the court in today's NBA? Or is the problem with today's NBA that there aren't enough of those guys around anymore?

Say what you want, but the NBA is still the most athletic, explosive League on earth. Basketball is a game of angles and positioning, much more cerebral than it appears on the surface. I watch it every night and find something interesting and different. The NBA may not be perfect, but then again, it's not as big a train wreck as that Across The Universe all-star singalong during the Grammys. Can we get someone from the New York Times Magazine on that? I promise, I'll leave foreign policy and cooking alone. You guys leave the NBA to me. Please?

Game Of The Week

This is definitely the weirdest game of the week of all time, but it's also pretty fun. You go, Chuck.

Contender Of The Week

I'm not sure what this is about, but with NBC about to trot out The Contender, maybe it will get us all in a boxing frame of mind.

SNL Of The Week

Here's a great link to a Saturday Night Live skit written for Paris Hilton to open her show with last week. She refused to do it, reportedly because she didn't want to be associated with Joey Buttafuoco.

Grassroots Of The Week

Since we're all about the little guy here, we'll link to this effort to get people to stop calling the San Francisco Giants' stadium SBC Park and instead call it Mays Field. Also, they have free bumper stickers. Hard to go wrong there.