By Paul Honda
paul@hondareport.com
Monday, Jan. 1, 2007

I have less than 40 minutes to avoid breaking one of my unofficial new year's resolutions.

Before I explain, you gotta know this. I refuse to use a capital 'N' and a capital 'Y' when it comes to resolutions. I just can't bring myself to give that much power to a three-word phrase that means, really, nothing to me. After four decades of living, I don't remember ever living up to a resolution. I just remember sticking to some very basic fundamentals while accepting the fact that there are some flaws within me that make sticking to all fundamentals extremely difficult.

In other words, I now have less than 38 minutes to stick to one unofficial resolution. That would be to write something here every day. Might be a thousand words. Maybe ten thousand. Or just a paragraph. Whatever the case, I'm gonna do it.

Today, I learned that 'Scrubs' the TV show is sometimes quite funny, and always quick. The pace and tempo are like that of an LMU basketball team — the Paul Westhead-coached one that averaged 2 million points a game (and gave up almost as many). Not the one today that scores as much in a game as the late Hank Gathers did in a half.

I've also learned recently that the Hawaii Islanders baseball team of my youth began in 1965 (I'm told) and that their original logo was the state seal. No kidding. I have the hat, thanks to my always-generous brother, Kimo. He thinks of the coolest Christmas presents, while I ... I am lame. For family this year, it was cash in a card. The time it takes to do that compared to shopping in Honolulu made it a no-brainer, especially since December is a crazy busy month in prep sports.

I'll wear the Islanders hat from time to time. It's a bright red can't-miss-item that goes well with my navy blue/red trim Syracuse Nats jersey. Thing is, I hardly wear it because Iverson's name is on it. I voluntarily bought that jersey on eBay, but the notion of wearing the jersey of a guy who hates practice and whines about it just annoys me.

On top of that, the trade that sent A.I. to Denver wrecked part of my beautifully manicured Fantasy League (now that's worth capitalizing) backcourt of Nuggets Andre Miller and J.R. Smith. Though Smith is on the shelf for participating in that stupid fracas with the Knicks, Miller was producing at a huge level for Denver. The uptempo game that Karl has going was perfect for Andre, who was having his highest assists-to-ratio number in years. (He's not doing so bad in Philly right now, but it still stings.)

In short

Nice jersey (Nats)
Bad attitude (Iverson)

As a former and current age-group coach, I just don't wanna hear any kid ask me, "Coach, doesn't Iverson say practice is stupid and worthless?"

Anybody wanna buy a barely used Syracuse Nationals jersey?

OK, made it. With 30 minutes to spare. January 2 is a short nap away.

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