Today's Best - 01.06.08

5. denver nuggets - the nuggets have won six of their last seven games including and impressive win against the spurs and also less noteworthy wins against the kings, bucks, timberwolves, and sixers. but wins are wins, so don't expect the nuggets to apologize for beating teams they're supposed to beat. if the nuggets should apologize for anything it should be for blocking so many shots. they've blocked at least 12 shots in each of their last three games, a span where they've had one player block seven shots in each game and returned 41 shots to sender as a team. yesterday, anthony carter blocked three sixer attempts. it's madness. they're blocking shots like it's some sort of party. some sort of mario party. anyways, thanks in part to this, if the season ended today, the nuggets would be the fourth seed and would have to wait like five months before their first playoff game.

4. lebron james - after three quarters of play in toronto, the cavs faced a 13 point deficit. but after four quarters of play in toronto, the cavs had a 3 point lead thanks in large part to lebron james' 24 4th quarter points. at one point in the third, i checked the game's box score and thought to myself, "the cavs stink". after the game, i realized that only most of the cavs stink. either way, i'm sure this performance has piqued bill belichick's interest. how better to run up the score on your opponents than to sign a player who is currently averaging the most fourth quarter points in the league?

3. 60 minutes come across, - as you may have heard, roger clemens was on 60 minutes yesterday proclaiming his innocence. i was ready to watch for myself after being told that it was following the chargers-titans game until i was reminded that this was "...except on the west coast". well, i have better things to do than sit around waiting for a 60 minutes interview, so instead i sat around waiting for american gladiators. but thanks to numerous articles i'vei've gotten a good idea of what he said. i especially found it interesting when he told mike wallace, "i don't know if i can defend myself. i think people - a lot of people have already made their decisions". as someone who is both a person and person who has made a decision, this really spoke to me. at this point, is there really anything he can do or say that will convince me that he didn't use steroids? short of doing time travel or saying "i've done time travel and went back in time to prevent my past self from using steroids" i doubt it.

2. football teams on bye weeks - as someone who spends his sundays throughout the football season watching football comfortably at home, i think i can relate to those players on the colts, cowboys, packers, and patriots who did the same this weekend. sure it would have been nice to have been personally involved with any of the four good wild card games this weekend. but i think everyone from those aforementioned teams will agree with me that we would have much rather taken naps and eaten potato chip crumbs from off our shirts this weekend than risk elimination from the playoffs. lastly, because i'm curious, does anyone know whether football players collect checks during playoff bye weeks? i would think they do simply because it doesn't seem fair otherwise. but what do i know, my boss has asked me to take a day off because i spilled ketchup in his cd drive much more recently than he's asked me to take day off because of my high level of performance.

1. america - with our country still at war, it's very reassuring that brave men and women remain who risk their lives fighting for us. fourteen brave men and women in fact, with names like militia and hellga and wolf. and if these gladiators, as some would call them, weren't trying to keep people from winning $100,000, who would? i guess the point i'm trying to make is that both american gladiators and the show that depicts american gladiators are awesome. however, from what i've read, i'm in the minority. anyways, let's not get into a debate about who's right and why i'm right today. let's just agree that the sooner espn's ticker includes a tab for "american gladiating" that briefly mentions things like "anonymous contestant loses to titan in assault" or "fury extends unprecedented hang tough winning streak" the better.