Dwyane Wade Dominates

I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon.....I promise. However, anyone with half of a basketball brain would have to admire and respect the performance of Dwyane Wade in these NBA Finals and the courage and talent he displayed beating the Mavericks in 6 games. In fact, I would even venture to say, that this was the most incredible Finals performance since Michael Jordan dismantling of the Jazz in 1998, and it's really close on that one. Wade was on a team with an overaged Shaquille O'Neal, who had a solid, but certainly not stellar Finals, a hard banger in Udonis Haslem, who had the game winning shot in game 6, a ball-hogging overrated forward in Antoine Walker, who finally decided he wanted to share the ball for a title, and hip hop wingman in Jason Williams who also had a good series. Two other former superstars and probable hall of famers came off the bench in unconvential roles and contributed to win a championship in Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning. The story for Mourning is even more incredible because due to his kidney disease, had some several key defensive plays in the waning minutes of game 6. I must say though, Wade STOLE THE SHOW. I mean not since Michael Jordan has a team been more predictable on who the ball was gonna go to. Still, the Mavericks couldn't stop him. I have never cared one way or the other for the Heat, I really am not too high on Pat Riley as a person despite his stellar coaching skills and as I said before, I really think Antoine Walker sucks. However, I can't tell you happy I am that Mark Cuban lost, and you know when you make as many mistakes as the Mavericks made in game 6, there's no way you can blame the game on the officials. Mark Cuban is everything that's wrong with sports and I hope he never sniffs the finals again. However, my heart does go out to Erick Dampier, the former Mississippi State Bulldog, who played a good game and had a consistent series as well as former Arizona Wildcat and Atlanta Hawk Jason Terry, I'm glad he finally get to play on a winning team. I am also happy for Gary Payton, who despite having questionable personal flaws, is still a deserving champion who's had a great career. However, I am more happy for no one more than Alonzo Mourning. One of the few professional athletes to have a major transplant surgery (actually the only other one I can think of is Bo Jackson) and come back and be competitive. He's had alot of adversity in his career, and I'm glad to see such a great person win a title. Here's to you, 'Zo.

Top 10 Live Performances I've Seen

10-Kenny G- Mississippi Coliseum- Jackson, MS (1994). Don't laugh- I am not by any stretch of the imagination a hardcore Kenny G fan. However, the man is a musical genius and the display of this musical ability was very evident in this revolutionary style of concert. If you ever get the chance to see him, go do it- just don't tell anyone.

9-Boyz II Men- Mississippi Coliseum- Jackson, MS (1998). This performance would have been higher is Michael McCrary would have been stage more than 50% of the show. (I found out later he suffered a hamstring injury and was in alot of pain backstage) However, this show gets serious cool points for the Boyz II Men doing a set of all their accapella songs with piano as well as a tribute to Dru Hill, who was also scheduled to be there that night. This was part of the Evolution tour which accompanied Boyz II Men's last big album of the same name. I bet these guys would be great in a non-arena setting just doing alot of their hits from the 90's as well as some stuff off their latest album, Throwback.

8-Creed- Bankcorps South Center- Tupelo, MS (2002). I was never a big of a Creed fan as Jay Money was (who was actually at this one with me), but the performance turned in by Scott Stapp this night (one his very last with Creed- which broke up three weeks later) was one of the most incredible I've ever seen. The pyrotechnics and multimedia used in that show was only out down by the concert which is #1 on this list. Great show by Creed.

7-K-Ci and Jo Jo- Mississippi Coliseum- Jackson, MS (1998). The headliner for the night was the aforementioned Boyz II Men, but K-Ci and JoJo definitely stole the show that night. Fresh off breaking away from Jodeci (they actually made a comment during the show that Jodeci was going to get back together, which still hasn't happened 8 years later), K-Ci and JoJo turned in stellar performances of "All My Life" and the Stevie Wonder classic (and Jodeci remake) "Lately".

6-Train- Green Coliseum- Hattiesburg, MS (2004). Before this night, I really knew nothing about Train. I went to this show to see Better than Ezra open for a band I heard a few songs from. However, as soon as Train hit the first note of "Calling All Angels", I got chills. Train came up with song after song after song that sounded better and better. They even closed with the Aerosmith classic "Dream On". Ever since this concert, I have been following Train, including their new album For You, It's Me.

5-Better than Ezra- Fred's- Baton Rouge, LA (2005). A memorable birthday performance was turned in by one of the most awesome live bands in music history on the eve of my 24th birthday at their home venue. The thing I'll always remember about this show besides the kick ass party at my apartment that proceeded it was the fact that BTE played "This Time of Year" right at midnight, which I thought was pretty appropriate for my birthday. The only thing I don't understand about BTE is why they do so few of their slow hits live. Of course they'll always do "A Lifetime" and "At the Stars", but I never seen them do "Porcelain", "Get You In", or "WWOZ". I guess when you have so many great hits and fans who like to rock out, "In the Blood" would seem to be a better closing song.

4-The Eagles- Bankcorps South Center- Tupelo, MS (2002). This was known as the only fun thing I did that summer when I had two jobs to save up money for the upcoming semester at Mississippi College. This was actually one of the first shows the Eagles played without Don Felder and one of the last shows before their farewell tour when they all officially retired on good terms. They did EVERY classic Eagles song as well as some of their solo hits. The coolest thing of the whole show, however, was for the encore "Hotel California" was done with a brass section rather than the guitars. Leave it to Don Henley to spice things up.

3-Sinbad- Silverstar Casino- Philadelphia, MS (2002). Ok before you say "what the hell are you thinking, Pigott?" hear me out. Sinbad might be the most underrated standup comic of all time just because of his family friendly routines. Having been trained by Bill Cosby, Sinbad has kept to his roots by not using profane language or jokes in his routine (not to say that other comics with routines like this can't be funny). The amazing about this show is that Sinbad adlibbed over half the show taking questions from the audience (whether or not this was staged I still don't know, but I doubt it). By the end of the show, my jaw was so sore from laughing I had to massage my jaw muscles. If you ever get a chance to see this guy at a play at a casino, definitely go, it's worth it.

2-Elton John- The Pyramid- Memphis, TN (1997). Fresh off his release of the album The Big Picture, Elton John gave a performance for the ages on this fall night in Memphis. Elton stuck to mainly classics, only playing three songs from the 80's and only 2 from the 90's and three from his new album. However, what made this concert so crazy is that he did a 10 minute version of "Take Me to The Pilot" which got the crowd worked up, this led to an 11 song medley that concluded with "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". I've never been any other event period that had that kind of electricity from the crowd. Truly a memorable night.

1-Paul McCartney- New Orleans Arena- New Orleans, LA (2002). This performance was simply breathtaking just because not only Paul McCartney one of the most influential HUMAN BEINGS to ever walk the face of the eart, he's also one of the most talented, and this concert definitely showed it. Paul not only did tributes to George, John, and his late wife Linda, he also did seemingly Beatles hit that he wrote, as well as co-wrote with John, and also did most of his Wings hits. It's amazing that a man his age can still keep up a vigorous pace and intensity level on a nightly basis. However, I felt alot better this night when Paul was about do "Maybe I'm Amazed" (his first solo hit in 1970) for his current wife who was in attendance. Paul got about three chords in and then simply said "oh shit, let's start over". He really is human.

The Clock is Ticking.....

Pigott is down to just 13 days left in Baton Rouge. Stay tuned for a full-fledged tribute to my two years in the bayou. As most of you have heard by now, I'm headed for the land of Clarksville, Tennessee to be in the coordinator of intramurals and special events at Austin Peay State University.

Big Show goes to ECW!!!!

I never thought that another "NWO" type of twist would be added to WWE as a type of faction. After Wednesday's "WWE vs. ECW- Head to Head" battle royal, the biggest twist so far in this new WWE storyline was thrown in when the Big Show revealed he was joining ECW. After Randy Orton (who had announced earlier in the night that he was joining Monday Night Raw), eliminated Kurt Angle, the match seemed to be over with WWE being the winners. However, as soon as Orton turned around, the Big Show ripped off his WWE shirt which revealed a ECW shirt underneath. This doublecross (which hilariously, could not be mentioned on Smackdown! because Smackdown! is filmed on Tuesday- so it was even funnier that Tazz had left Smackdown! prior to the Head to Head special, but no allusion was made to this for the same reason) reminds me of when Sting announced he was part of NWO in WCW back in the late 90's. There are alot of reasons to like ECW over WWE just because of the over the top kind of action the league has, but there are several reasons of why I am disappointed in one of my favorite stars from WWE leaving the homeland. For one, Paul Heyman is shady and is an absolute jerk. I realize his days at "Paul E. Dangerously" are over, but his attempt to take every single superstar from WWE shows how greedy and selfish this guy really is. I think one of the next major twists is gonna be his quest to take over the entire WWE. Also, none of the ECW superstars are really fan friendly except for their cultish fans that have been watching them for years, and on top of that, I can't really like a bunch of guys who wanna attack the good guys of WWE like John Cena and Rey Mysterio. With ECW's "One Night Stand" pay-per-view coming up tomorrow night, I really hope that none of the titles go to ECW and that these defectors will really think twice about the mistake they've made leaving the flagship league of sports entertainment.

Eric Musselman New Kings Coach?!

This is why I hate the NBA coaching carousel. Teams are so impatient they'll settle for everyone. The Sacramento Kings just announced that they are hiring Eric Musselman as their new head coach. Mind you that Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkens, and Maurice Cheeks were all available. The Kings are gonna be a ripe young team in the off-season and you hire a coach with no playoff experience and the son of the "legendary" coach Bill Musselman who was the Minnesota Timberwolves' first ever head coach. Just because they want to start scouting prospects and sign free agents RIGHT THIS SECOND with a good team already in place, the Kings made a very careless hire.