GOLF

Thursday, the annual tradition that everybody looks forward to AFTER March Madness got underway.  Yes, it was the beginning of the 2011 Masters Golf Tournament, known to be the most prestigious of all the major golf championships.  Tiger Woods used to be the ‘master’ of The Masters.  He either won or sat atop the leader board.  But, since his ‘incident’, he has pretty much fallen off those charts.  It certainly affected his play.  Tiger now sits 6 strokes behind the leader.  Not bad, but not his usual form.  At the same time, the guy sitting atop the charts — 21 year old Rory McIlroy, a golf prodigy in the making.  Perhaps he’s even the next Tiger Woods.  Woods said of McIlroy, “He’s got a great swing, and it’s just a matter of time before he starts winning a bunch of tournaments”.  We’ll see how this Masters progresses.

BASKETBALL

In the NBA, the Chicago Bulls are trying to lock-up the #1 spot in the Eastern Conference.  And that’s quite an accomplishment considering they would be above the defending Eastern Conference Champs Boston Celtics, a tough Magic team, and, of course, the Big Trio in Miami that everybody thought would run away with it all.  Last night, the Bulls took on the Celtics to try and inch even closer to doing what they hadn’t done since the Jordan era.  Derrick Rose played absolutely out of his mind.  He was hitting some of the most impossible shots.  He dropped 36 points on the Celtics, who looked like anything but a team that intends to challenge the Bulls in the post-season.  The win puts the Bulls up by 4 games in the East.  Unless they collapse, they’re going to get that #1 seed.  Chicago 97, Boston 81.

Finally, in some very weird news, LeBron James mother is making headlines again.  Last year, she hit the media circuit as there were rumors that she and LeBron’s teammate, Delonte West, were sleeping together.  Many even think that this is what caused the ripple behind the scenes to send LeBron to Miami.  Now LeBron James mother, Gloria James, was arrested at a hotel for assaulting a valet worker.  Why?  Because, apparently, it was taking too long to get her car delivered.  The police came and got her, and there were reports that they could smell heavy alcohol on her breath.  When LeBron retires, you can bet there will be a very interesting book written on the tribulations of his off-the-court NBA career.