by Michael DePaoli

THE ME IN TEAM 

Devin Booker, the 13th pick in the 2015 NBA draft for the Phoenix Suns, scored 70points last Friday in a losing effort against the Boston Celtics.

The real story is that the Phoenix Suns are losing games on purpose in an effort to gain a higher draft choice in the next draft.

And, that is why I have lost interest in the Phoenix Suns. It has become a ME team in an ever-increasing ME sport.

I grew up with the Suns. I was three years old in their first season. We had some great players: Dick Van Arsdale, Connie Hawkins, Paul Westphal, Alvin Adams, Tom Chambers, Kevin Johnson, and Charles Barkley. We had players on the Suns whose effort must be admired, like Danny Ainge, and Jeff Hornacek, and Garfield Heard, and Fourth Quarter Frank Johnson, and Truck Robinson, and Ricky Sobers.

The Suns were rarely the most talented team on the floor, but we won so many games with effort and teamwork. We once had a player named Ron Lee and we used to count how many times he “hit the floor” while chasing a loose ball.

And now, the ownership of the Suns wants to lose games on purpose. They give us a circus act to see how many points can be scored in a lost game. Disgusting.

I am going to guess that there are fifty players in the NBA (No, at least a hundred players!) that could score seventy points in a game if you told them: “We do not care about winning, do not tire yourself out playing defense, just go out there and shoot as often as you want and score as many points as you can.”

But, that is not basketball. That is just low.

I am not knocking Devin Booker, or his talent. I just wish he played on a team that cared about winning.

TOMI LAHREN 

Tomi Lahren was reportedly fired from Glenn Beck’s show “The Blaze” because she stated on The View:

“I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies.”

And, that is just another example of how conservative ideology falls apart when you start to use your brain.

TRUMP EMPIRE

I am not advocating any boycott. But, I was just remembering that old movie Trading Places, where Eddie Murphy says: “You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.”

And, not that you should, but if you wanted to boycott Trump, you should remember that his empire is highly leveraged, which means that it all could come crashing down if he had two or three bad years.

It sure would be ironic if Trump lived a long life, long enough to become poor, and he had to live in a government-funded nursing home. Yeah, we would call that justice.