Substitution...

Mood: Khaki.

While waiting for the shift to end so Tiger Woods can be fired up on the PS, just a collection of thoughts on some pressing issues today.

• First and foremost, Phil Jackson is back as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers' announcement was the only thing in the NBA that could have trumped Game 3 of the league Final: The city where scripts are born, adding another scene to its most dramatic, ongoing sports saga.

Everything that happens with the Lakers is big time and the team heightened that drama in the 21st century by providing onlookers with one of the great real-life soap operas of all time. But don't you think that drama just overshadows what is really a non-story anyway? Honestly, Phil Jackson is not going to be the saviour of this team. The Lakers are up against it hardcore when it comes to the salary cap and with no wiggle room there, the only hope is to find something golden in July's draft where they will, mercifully, have three picks in the two rounds.

The problem areas are not at the head of the bench for the Lakers. Not to argue that having Jackson around won't be a boost to what was a non-playoff team this year, but the glaring weaknesses are in the middle where they could really use someone like .... oh I don't know ... Shaquille O'Neal ... and at point guard where Chucky Atkins is outmatched. Moving Atkins to a back-up '2' would be a nice luxury if they could get someone to adequately hand the PG duties. Both of these will have to happen through the draft and perhaps UNC's Raymond Felton will be dressing in purple and gold next season. (Remember when the Lakers had O'Neal, Gary Payton, Kareem Rush and Derek Fisher?)

So it's with a cautious optimism that I look at the Lakers for 2005-06. I'm just not as fired up as the rest of the world seems to be.

• Michael Jackson. ... Man, maybe I'm one of the few that believe it, but I'm still on MJ's side here. I won't say that everything he's done has been the most normal or acceptable, but it still hasn't made him a child molester.

Remember that the impetus for this entire investigation was a completely slanted documentary by British filmmaker Martin Bashir which gave Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will a run for its money.

What Jackson has been most guilty of is poor decision making, from putting himself in the firing line time and time again. But this case is a perfect example of how the media can shape the public's opinion. Take into account the ungodly number of jokes, backhanded barbs and ridiculing pieces that comedians, news shows and entertainment programs have put together over the years and it's not a stretch to say the public can be swayed into just accepting the fact the guy is nuts and, for that, also a sexual deviant.

Still, very little in the way of concrete proof has ever surfaced about what he's done with these kids. Why? Because those that have surfaced to tell their stories have invariably been shown to be money-grubbers and con artists.

I don't disagree that The Glove has put himself in positions to be held up to intense scrutiny, but goofy outfits and peculiar behaviour doesn't add up to perverted criminal. As we saw with the evidence in this case, nothing added up that way and that's why Jackson is rightfully a free man today.

• Not to give up too much information about my regular day of work at the Brandon Sun, but my colleague in sports, Rob Henderson, and I tend to Google a lot during the course of an average day in the office. Hendo, I believe, shares my affinity for the mundane, random and useless pieces of information we all encounter in our day-to-day lives. As such, a new segment has been introduced to the Blog. So allow me to take you to ...

The Googleplex. The place to Google up.

• Mississippi Valley State University. Reason: Is it really an all-black school, because some white kid from Brandon golfed there on scholarship.

• Jason Alexander's wife. Reason: "He's probably got a hot wife," Hendo said.

• Bump J. Reason: "Who the hell is this guy on the new McDonald's commercial?" Well, according to his bio, apparently he runs the streets of Chicago the way one Alphonse Capone used to. Hmp, I see.

• Jordan Dumars. Reason: Curious about the height of the 14-year-old son of Joe Dumars.