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I enjoy playing basketball and football, I'm also a Lakers and Panthers fan. It's not often that my two favorite teams from two different major sports make it to the finals of that particular sport in the same season. It's would have been even rarer that they both win. That's probably why they both lost. The Los Angeles Lakers, which seemed undefeatable, lost in the NBA Finals to the Pistons. And the Carolina Panthers, defying all odds, made it to the Super Bowl, but got beaten by the Patriots. What will follow, is ramblings of my teams. So if you don't like them, just skip these parts.

I'm going to start with the Lakers. At the beginning of the season, Karl Malone and Gary Payton signed with the Lakers in hopes of winning a championship. The Lakers seemed unstoppable with four future Hall-of-Famers in their lineup. People expected them to cruise through the regular season, and own the playoffs. But it was not so. The Lakers were plagued by injuries during the regular season. Shaq, Kobe, and Karl Malone, all suffered injuries. The two added Hall-of-Famers didn't play as would have been expected. Then came the Kobe's "ordeal", which I won't go into.

Lakers put on a burst at the end of the regular season, and got into the playoffs at a Western seed of 2. The first round against the Rockets was pretty simple and straightforward, with a Malone 30 point performance. Though the Rocket came close a few times, Lakers won the series in 5 games. The second round against the Spurs, I wasn't so sure of. The Spurs had beaten the Lakers a year ago, and the Spurs had a deep team. Lakers squeaked by 4 games to 2 thanks to a prayer sent by Derek Fisher with less than a second in regulation time. I had been sure that whoever won that series would win it all. Then came the Western Conference Finals. There's nothing much to say except that Malone twisted something, which affected the Finals, and that the Lakers won 4-2. I was confident, all the Lakers had to do to win, is to beat the East. Everyone knows that the East haven't been any good since the Michael Jordan days. The Pistons took game 1, ouch, a setback but it could be worked through. In game 2, Kobe made a 3-pointer at the end of the game to win the game and tie it up at 1-1. Then the Lakers had to go to the Pistons home for three straight games. The games seemed pretty close, but Lakers lost all three. So the dream team went home. It just wasn't to be.

Now, here is why they lost. First, the Lakers were plagued by injuries. Karl Malone was ineffective because of his injuries, and Horace Grant was forced to sit out all of the postseason. Fox and Fisher weren't 100 percent either. So the bench was not very deep at all. As soon as the starters and Fisher were gone, the Lakers had to go to Stanislav Medvedenko, and the rookies. Yes, the rookies had a few good performances during the playoffs, Luke Walton and Kareem Rush came through a few times for the Lakers, but weren't consistent. Gary Payton and Karl Malone just didn't perform up to par in the playoffs.

In the off-season, the Lakers made more mistakes. They pretty much did whatever was necessary to get Kobe back for another season. They got a new coach because Phil Jackson the "Zen Master" played a triangle offense, which Kobe didn't like. Lakers got rid of Shaq, so Kobe could be the star, and because Kobe had a bad relation with Shaq. Shaq wanted out because he felt the owner didn't treat him with respect, and he was insulted that the owner, Jerry Buss, chose to make a team around Kobe instead of him. He demanded a trade so "The Diesel" was traded to the Heat for three small forwards and a future first round draft pick. What were the Lakers thinking? They traded the most dominant force in the league who had a good 6 or more years left in him for a bunch of undersized small forwards? Now the only big man the Lakers currently have is a ROOKIE, yes a rookie, that was a mistake the Lakers will have plenty of time to regret because, next season, Shaq will be back with a vengeance. I still hope for the best with the Lakers, and now the Heat. Links to Lakers and Heat home page on the pictures.

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Now, to the Carolina Panthers. I've always liked the Panthers, since when I was like 9 or 10 years old. But they've never won before. I didn't expect them to make the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl. I always had faith though. Their defense is pretty good, and I wouldn't have thought the Jake Delhomme could take a team to the Super Bowl, but he's becoming very good. They weren't supposed to win, so it made watching them win even more interesting. I didn't expect the Panthers to beat the Rams, but that was probably the best game of all time. It was exciting with the missed kicks and double overtime. (If I remember correctly.)

Here's why they lost the Super Bowl. The Panthers and Patriots were pretty evenly matched that game. So I would have to blame John Kasay, the kicker for kicking the kickoff out of bounds. They probably would have had to go into overtime, and something different could've happened. Maybe they need a younger kicker and some more luck.

Link to Panthers home page.

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I also like computers in general. They are a great help in a variety of ways. It saves a lot of trouble in writing papers and making presentations. It's quick, easy, and fast. You don't have to go to the library to look up stuff for papers and projects, because the Internet has everything. Anything you've ever wanted to know and a lot more stuff you don't. Fast, simple, efficient Internet sure beats a dusty book any day. But most of all, you can play games on them. There are so many computer games which are cheaper than the ones for the systems. Plus, there are many games on the Internet. Multiplayer, so you can play with people across the globe. I personally like Runescape and America's Army. Both are huge multiplayer games and can be enjoyed for a long time. Below are links to the games. Runescape is a massive multiplayer game, that's simple to learn and understand. It's sort of like Diablo with easier controls and a lot of skills to level in. America's Army is your traditional first person army game, but a lot more realistic.

www.tip.it/runescape---a good site with helpful tips for beginners and intermediate players

America's Army is hosted by the U.S. Army. It's supposed to help attract people to the army. There are "help" sites, you can search for it if you want, but, I won't put any sites here.

?004 Mingyuan's Web Page.