“The strongest thing I put into my body is steak and eggs. I’m not a supplement guy.”

Welcome to the gun show. I bought mine at Walmart.

Rashard Lewis has been suspended for the first 10 games of the NBA season without pay for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. He claims that he didn’t know that the over the counter pills were considered steroids. He’s a key player on the Magic, and they will likely suffer without him, but maybe it will help resolve his recurring knee tendonitis. While the $1.6 million loss of salary is bad, it’s nowhere near the penalties faced in other sports.

The 10-game suspension for a first positive test in the N.B.A. is a little less than an eighth of the season. A first positive in baseball results in a 50-game suspension (about a third of the season) and a first positive in football results in a 4-game suspension (a quarter of the season).

– New York Times

On the plus side, the Magic’s underplayed bench will get some coveted court time. Lewis is only the 4th to recieve a suspension since the leagues drug-testing anti-dope program was initiated in 1999. The program is far from stringent, requiring no off-season testing. It is believed that the off season is when athletes benefit from the drugs the most, so if the Lewis scandal is at all indicative of a trend (unlikely), the NBA will have to reevaluate their policy.

“Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-Twitter.”

The dust has settled in the wake of Magic’s defeat by the Lakers in Game 5 of the series on Sunday night. I can’t say that it was a shocker – Bryant, Gasol and Fisher were solid throughout the game and Odom showed up in a big way – but it was nonetheless disappointing. The Magic didn’t have a chance once the second half hit. It was the kind of close out game that I had no desire to finish watching; the last 5 minutes were just too painful. The finals are made for 1 2 3 point games, not 13 point deficits. Bitching aside, there are plenty of reasons why the Lakers won. The Lakers were the better team, and I must admit that I’m glad Kobe was crowned a champion without Shaq. Shaq manned up on his Twitter and gave credit where credit is due, saying

Congratualtions kobe, u deserve it. You played great . Enjoy it my man enjoy it. And I know what yur sayin rt now “Shaq how my ass taste ”

Howard has also been attentive to his Twitter, sending out updates all day yesterday about Magic’s defeat

i wanna thank all our true fans for believing in our team. and havin faith in us. we didnt reach our goal. but GOD is still good. love yall

im lookin forward to next season. and this summer to get better. we was so close. but sometimes u gotta learn how to lose to be a winner

and for everyone my head is not down. im ready to get better for next year. never hold ya head down. never. life is too short for that

Candy man Lamar Odom (who shot more threes in the last game than in the rest of the series it would seem), left his Twitter on a lighter and brighter note

Still can’t believe it! I’m in a daze. Going to celebrate all week!

I have a feeling Howard will be feeling the post-season blues for a long time to come. 2009 was a miss for both Howard and Lebron…but there’s always 2010.

“Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.”

It’s as good as over. ORL lost Game 4 in overtime. How did it happen? I thought it was a sure thing! They came in with a great attitude, gunning to tie up the series, but lost it in a Failblog.org worthy overtime. Pietrus looked like he was hurting all night, and Howard just wasn’t on his game, but between Turkoglu, Lewis, Alston, and fresh-faced JJ, I really believed that we’d pull through. Enter Derek Fisher. How old is he, 40? The vet dominated and stole the game away from the Magic. Forget Kobe, Lebron…whoever the hell else. Last night, Fisher was King. I had to grin and bear it, sitting at a bar staring stupidly at the oversized flatscreen too shocked to drink my beer as Fisher scored that 3 to tie it up at 87, and Gasol DUNKed (that brace faced son of a…), and the crowd around me erupted into a grab bag of delighted screams and cheers, and belligerent drink induced boos. I weakly picked up my phone post game and tapped my Twitterfon app only to be informed by The_Real_Shaq that the winner of Game 4 has won the finals the last 9 of 11 times. So where do we go from here? ORL will no doubt regroup for Sunday night and come back with a vengeance, but so will LAL…they’ll be going into Game 5 with a 2 game advantage and the knowledge that they could close it out tonight. We’ll have to wait and see. Regardless, I’ll be back at a bar drinking $3 pitchers, watching the game, and cheering for Magic.

“The real secret of Magic lies in the performance.”

At some point in the last 14 months, I became a die hard sports phan. I blame my boyfriend; watching ESPN and sporting events non-stop when we first started hanging out drove me bonkers, but now I can’t get enough of it. At first I would watch anything and everything: baseball, hockey, lacrosse, football, soccer…but the holy trinity that is basketball got me hook line and sinker. I can’t say that I’m a dedicated audience member during the regular season – I’ll watch the games at the gym but am hardly hardcore about them – but Playoff season gets me all bothered and hot. Last year, I was gunning for the Celtics (born and bred a Bostonian), this year, I’ve been up in the air. Maybe being a chick watching the games I just get a little distracted by all of the men; Howard’s shoulders/smile, King James prowess on the court/general hilariousness, Artest’s height and obnoxiously manicured hair, Odom’s domination of the court and love for candy…well, you get the idea. I knew that without Garnett, the Celtics were up a creek for the post season, but I couldn’t settle on an alternative team. Enter again the chick-in-me, and I’ve sided with the underdog for each series. Celtics, Rockets, Cavaliers, Magic…I’ve just been waiting for the Cinderella story ending. Magic could be it. If they can rival their 75% shooting from the field in the last game, keep getting threes out of Turkoglu, Lewis & Pietrus, and throw in some crowd pleasing dunks from Howard, their chances at tying up the series are strong. They’ve come too far to let the clock strike midnight just yet. In Game 4 tonight, I really hope Howard and co. find their glass slippers. And for the record, I believe in Magic.