Either NBA.com is clueless, or they really respect Gregg Popovich’s ability to change history.

Baseball started. Another season where people will only notice the Marlins for being an almost viable playoff contender with a stingy payroll. And Mets fans will still be able to console themselves with lording their non-bottom feeder status over the Nationals.

This looks like a rip-off of Reassembler’s By the Book post. But it’s something I’ve been thinking about for weeks. How do you explain chess ratings to someone who is familiar with basketball?

Magnus Carlsen: LeBron James (the best player on the planet, but hasn’t won a championship yet)

Super GM: Kobe, Wade, Howard, etc.

GM: Gets non-garbage time minutes in an NBA game

Jacob Aagaard: Shawn Bradley

IM: D-league, or maybe Dorell Wright

Master: Division I college squad

Expert: Transfered to a Division II squad to get playing time

Class A: Varsity high school squad (ie, can get a cheerleader)

Class B: J.V. high school squad (ie, cannot get a cheerleader)

Class C: Middle school squad

Feel free to fill in the rest (the USCF goes all the way down to Class J.)

LEP salutes Robert as this year’s winner of the NCAA bracket contest thing.

Now, you might argue that it wasn’t that tough to win…after all, there were only three contestants this year. Plus, with all the zany results and upsets, the most successful brackets turned out to be more a result of luck than any appreciable skill.

But we at LEP say “Bullocks!” The fact is that the odds were still stacked against Robert, and you can’t argue against mathematics. At 33% chance to win, one would have been wise to bet against his victory. Not to mention he persevered through blood, sweat and tears to achieve this victory over his two vicious rivals.

So we say to you, Robert, knock down a beer, or whatever your favored alcoholic beverage is, and demand from your boss Friday off. You deserve it.

If, at the beginning of the college basketball season, you had told me that Baylor would be a 3 seed, while UConn and North Carolina would not even make the NCAA tournament, I’d ask what sort of alternate universe you came from.

Apparently, we are now part of this alternate universe.

(By the way — and I’m saying this as a Baylor alum — the Bears were seeded too high…they are more like a 5 seed.)

Once again this year, I have a Liquid Egg Product Tournament Bracket“>Liquid Egg Product bracket setup on ESPN. As the number of regular readers has steadily decreased over the past couple years, it should be easier for you to win this year.

As usual, there are no prizes for winning. No media interviews. No glory. Well, maybe a little glory.

Liquid Egg Product Tournament Bracket

Tiki Barber the “Fmr. New York Giants” tells kids: Go do things

I guess this is an improvement over Scot Pollard’s “Hey, kids. Do drugs.”

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team, the 3-40 record notwithstanding.

It’s not abyssmal, but just bad enough so I can watch it repeatedly and keep giggling.

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The comment section has been fixed so that threaded comments actually appear legible. And now include Gravatars!

“Remind me to fart on my father’s arm for making me a Mets and Jets fan.” –Stugotz

“At this rate, Singletary is gonna run out of body parts to show his team”

So one of the wittier ESPN commenters says as San Francisco is down 21-0 at halftime to Houston.

(Referring to this story if you have not been fortunate enough to see it yet.)