Is there any worse fate for a female athlete than winning the National Title one night and becoming a WNBA player the next morning? And so Candace Parker, the best female basketball player ever, will be captured by a gentle breeze and be brought into obscurity as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks. I’ll be at the Verizon Center on May 31 to watch the Mystics and Sparks play so that I can say I’ve seen the best female basketball player ever play…but I won’t enjoy it.

I’ll spare you a long analysis of last night’s game (I missed the first half because Big Brother was on). The second half was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Both teams committing turnover after turnover. For those of you unaware, the Lady Vols won their second consecutive title last night. Nikki Anosike did not score 15 (12 actually), but the Vols didn’t need her to, as they got big performances from the rest of their starting 5 and shut down Stanford’s electric offense, holding Candice Wiggins to 6-16 shooting.

Here in the District, the primary sports story is not the Washington Nationals, who served under 20,000 people during Monday’s second game at the new Nationals Ballpark (I’d go tonight, but they’re facing the Marlins and really, I don’t need to see Scott Olsen pitch for a second time in my life, as I saw him in Miami two summers ago). The story here is about the Washington Capitals and even I am on the bandwagon, though as a jobless fool, I cannot see myself paying 45 bucks for a ticket to a game. If I had a job, I’d be there every night. I’m still picking the Penguins to win the Stanley Cup this year. Not only does the NHL need it, but I think that their one of the 4 best teams in the league. So they have a shot. As for the first round, I see this happening:

Montreal over Boston in 4
Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 6
Washington over Philadelphia in 5
New York over New Jersey in 5

Detroit over Nashville in 5
San Jose over Calgary in 4
Colorado over Minnesota in 6
Dallas over Anaheim in 7

The thought of starting my 2nd round Mock Draft occurred to me today. However, Aqib Talib and Mario Manningham both admitted to failing multiple drug tests (marijuana) in college. Here’s my problem. Talib and Manningham are both 1st round picks. However, they’ll drop to late 2nd round picks, at least, because of what will be deemed as “character issues.” Smoking marijuana is not a character issue. Shooting people in the head is a character issue. Not playing hard is a character issue. Smoking dope is not a character issue. I can safely make the hypothesis that everyone who reads my blog, including myself, has smoked marijuana before, some in larger quantities than others. And I also have it on good authority that no person who reads my blog has committed murder. Unless Aqib Talib and Mario Manningham demand that they play every Sunday blazed out of their skulls, it’s not really a big deal. But it will be. So as they move down draft boards, they make whatever Mock Draft i make completely irrelevant, because I cannot bring myself to make 1st round draft picks, 3rd round draft picks because they smoke marijuana.

Game O’ The Day: 4 NHL playoff games today. The most intriguing matchup is the Devils/Rangers, whoever, unless you have The Sports Network or MSG, you aren’t watching this game. So if it comes down to the two games on Versus (Penguins/Senators at 7, Flames/Sharks at 10) I’ll go with the former as my Game O’ The Day. Eventually, I’ll start paying attention to the NBA again. Perhaps tomorrow…