Ready to change your prediction for the Nuggets-Hornets series yet? - Harold Hitz Burton, Blacksburg, Va.

That's the last time I choose an upset after watching a team play zero games during the regular season.

You have to admit, on paper, the Hornets look dynamite. CP3, Peja, David West, Tyson Chandler, and James Posey? You'd figure - OK, I would figure - that team could win 57 or so games.

And then I watched the first two games, and realized they all hate their coach, and that their "second best player" (David West) is the black Tom Gugliotta. And no, that's not a compliment.

Apologies for my lack of posts lately. I am trying to buy a house, so my time is being spent driving through shady neighborhoods and examining door frames rather than answeing questions.

If you 40 people are willing to pony up $1,000 a year, I will quit my job and do this full-time, giving you at least four posts a day. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Here's the comment of the week, and although it isn't his original work, Rufus Wheeler Peckham dug up some gold about the party animal New York Mets of the mid-1980's. And we thought today's NBA stars knew how to party.

Rufus joins Quigley as the first two entrants into the deathmatch (OK, not quite) for a free George Steinbrenner book.

Rufus: “Can you name another sport or era where there were so many bona fide superstars that you would love to party with?”

Easy, easy answer: mid-80’s major league baseball. I’ll pull a few quotes from “Boozing in the Big Leagues”, Rich English’s insider tell-all account of the ‘86 Mets’ run to the champsionship. You can read a larger selection here:

“They kept a refrigerator stocked with beer in their locker room at Shea. After games, players stayed late into the night emptying it. Many times the team trainer arrived the next morning to find men passed out all over the floor, half-naked, surrounded by crushed Budweiser cans. The trainer would get them on their feet and into the showers. When they were awake, a shot of B-12, a couple of cigarettes and a six-pack got them ready for the day’s double-header. These guys played with hangovers so often it began to seem like their normal physical state.”

I did my mock draft like a month ago, but if you want to see how it held up, click here.

And I still think the Lions are morons for giving Stafford all that money.

Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu have been chosen to adorn the cover of the latest Madden video game. When Madden retired a week ago, I suggested the player on the front would not be prone to the curses of years past because of Madden's departure from the game.

At first, I couldn't make sense of why they would put two players on the cover. But now I get it. You see, the curse has to be extinguished slowly. If one player was on it, there was a 50 percent chance he would still be cursed for this upcoming season.

I just realized something: I don't like LeBron James the basketball player. Off the court, he's hilarious. And obviously, he's a freak, has stepped up his game all around, is developing the killer instinct...but I just have a tiny problem with Bron Bron that I can't articulate. I think it reminds me of when I play basketball on a short hoop with kids seven inches shorter than me. I try my best to play an all-around game, hit jumpers, pass, block shots, all that. But if we start losing, or I start bricking j's, I just go to the hole and abuse people with my size. LeBron should absolutely use his size and does, and he's a freight train, but I just feel like if anyone could stop him from driving - which no one on the planet can - then he'd be stuck. And Magic, Bird, MJ, Kobe, they can completely alter their game and keep going. LeBron won't be stopped so the question won't be answered, but I just have a weird feeling he's the biggest kid on the playground. - Quigley, Houston, Texas

I actually had to put a bookmark in halfway through your point, get a cup of coffee, then come back, but I appreciate you delving deep into the inner workings of LeBron James. You're absolutely right about him simply dominating because of his unbelievable combination of athleticism, size and strength. He is a bull in a china shop.

You know what the scary thing is? He's going to polish off his game and get even better.

The Hawks and Bulls are off to great starts in the playoffs with very young teams. The Cubs and White Sox look poised to repeat as division champs.  And, in case you have been living under a rock for the past month, the Bears got Cutler! Is the city of Chicago cementing itself at the pinnacle of the sporting world? – Hurricane Ditka

I’ve been thinking about this question for awhile. I think Chicago is definitely in the running, but there is a city that trumps it – for now – as the sports Mecca. And since I love lists, let’s count it down. Oh, and if you know what city's skyline this is, you don't have to bother reading the post.

4,382: Tucson: The local minor league team packed up and moved to Reno, and a basketball program in which the whole city prides itself on can’t come up with enough ‘scholarship’ money to keep their only three good players from jumping to the NBA. Oh, and the place smells like there was a fight between rotten seaweed and a can of tuna in the clouds above the city, and the sweat from both rained down. (Now that’s imagery!)

Quigley McMannis is the first entrant into the race for the free George Steinbrenner book after picking up the Comment of the Week. He was quite tricky, choosing a post that was done two weeks ago, but waiting to comment until last week. I'm pretty sure he studied the other comments, knew he couldn't win, and waited for a diluted week of comments to fire off his post. It's much like college players coming out for the NBA or NFL draft - there's an art to it.

Here is Quigley, ahem, 'defending' Ozzie Guillen kissing another man: Ozzie is kissing his son after the White Sox won the World Series. As a loyal cubs fan, I won't take a cheap shot about same-sex incest. I'm above laughing about how Ozzie Guillen is laying it on his own flesh and blood pretty good, or how he's a loud, cry baby psycho path. I won't.

Who do you think is a better singer - Paul Potts or Susan Boyle? - Lucius

Both are great stories, and it's obvious that while we won the Revolutionary War, Britain has a leg up on middle-aged, unassuming music superstars (with apologies to Taylor Hicks, whose name I couldn't remember but quickly found by googling 'gray-haired american idol guy').

You can't really go wrong with either, but I'm still partial to Potts.

Why didn't anybody tell me they were re-making the acclaimed flick 'Rookie of the Year'? I'm watching the White Sox-Rays game right now, and Chicago has a 15-year-old at second base. Seriously, look at the photo below.

I couldn't find an updated picture of Brent Lillibridge with the Sox, but here is one from his time with the Pirates. It couldn't have been more than a year or two ago, and believe me, he looks even younger right now. This picture doesn't even do him justice, but it's the best I could find.