...I'd make a facetious bet with Adam Bonin over the Amherst-Brandeis Final Eight Division III basketball game, but I'm pretty appalled at Brandeis these days.

Old-style Astros caps are a Crips gang sign.

I can't find the blog comment where I criticized the trade, but I thought the Suns got severely taken by the Heat in giving up one of the best players in the league for the desiccated bones of Shaquille O'Neal, who simply isn't the Shaq of five or even two years ago. Even three years ago, O'Neal demonstrated in the Detroit-LA series that he no longer had the stamina to play every other day, and the Suns have gone from a team with a 15% or so chance of winning the title needing only some breaks in the playoffs to a team that may well not make the playoffs: they're 3-6 with Shaq in the lineup (only 1 of those wins against a playoff-contending team) and in the hypercompetitive West, that's dropped them from on top of the league to sixth seed, only 2.5 games ahead of ninth-place Denver with 20 to play. Phoenix can probably eke in to the playoffs at 51-31, requiring an 11-9 finish, though they're helped by a relatively easy schedule: two games against Memphis, two against Portland, one against Minnesota, Sacramento, Seattle, and New Jersey. Critically, they have a home-and-home against Denver Mar. 31 and Apr. 1.