Coaches get hit for everything come playoff time. Is the team has a big lead with just a few games left in the regular season, they’re told they need to bench their players to avoid injury. Then when their team comes out in Round 1 flat and loses, it’s because they benched their players for too long. And if they don’t bench them and someone gets hurt, they were idiots, they had home court wrapped up, they were in, and so-and-so should’ve never been on the court.

It’s a Catch 22, really. I’ve got one for you now: Jameer Nelson may be playing for the Magic come Thursday night.

Nelson participated in a full team practice Tuesday for the first time since tearing the labrum in his right shoulder Feb. 2. While Nelson and coach Stan Van Gundy still said the point guard’s status won’t be determined until game day, players said Nelson looked “terrific” and expect him to be on the court against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I expect to see him out there at some point in the series,” backup point guard Anthony Johnson said.

Nelson had what was then called season-ending surgery Feb. 19. Nelson’s rehabilitation was supposed to take at least another two months.

Game 1 of the Finals is Thursday night in Los Angeles, and healed or not, Nelson wants to play.

“I’m not saying I’m any tougher or stronger than anybody, but I’ve been known to do some amazing things sometimes,” Nelson said Tuesday, again lobbying for playing time.

On paper, this is good news for the Magic, who would get the return of an All-Star at maybe the most important position in basketball. However, if he comes out cold and out of sync, the papers will kill SVG on his decision to play a guy in the most important series after having been out of action for months. My take on it? I like Jameer Nelson. But your team got here without him — no need to get the guy back right now.

[ESPN]

Every summer, I start to think about NCAA two-zero-fill-in-the-blank, and Madden two-zero-fill-in-the-blank. This year will be NCAA 2010, and Madden 2010, and given that both of my teams should be good (Georgia Tech and the Falcons), I feel a little more excited than most.

[Falcons Message Board]

As Deadspin points out, Charles Barkley may just be the most bulletproof person in broadcasting; the guy gambles and brags about it, drinks and brags about it (and drives while doing it), and is quick to call someone a pussy on national television because he doesn’t agree with him.

Has he been fired? Has he been suspended? Has anyone inside of TNT attempted to slightly reprimand him for his doings? Well, not really.

“While Charles often makes jokes about his producer during our telecasts, he used poor judgment on Saturday during our NBA coverage. His comment was inappropriate and TNT apologizes to our viewers. We have spoken with Charles privately about it and will not have any further comment.”

Don’t be shocked if Barkley refers to LeBron as a little crybaby bitch for not shaking hands. Or if he goes out on a limb and calls Dwight Howard a Bible thumper. Or gets real truthful, and says Zydrunas Illgauskas reminds him of a seven foot penis with a jump-shot.

[Deadspin]

If you know me, you know I”m not the biggest LBJ fan. I’m just not. I’m not saying he isn’t good, I’m not saying he isn’t the best player in the league, I just don’t like cheering for a guy that can blatantly charge on a regular basis and always watch the defender get called for a block.

So I’m going to point out that LeBron James won’t address the media after his crushing Game 6 loss in Orlando. Dan Wetzel, who wrote the piece, goes on and on about how the Cavs have to get something around LeBron.

I’m going to go back to my point: The Cavs got enough around LeBron to win 66 regular season games. To lose only one real home game all regular season. If they did all that, didn’t they do enough to give him a chance in the playoffs? The team stormed through the first eight games, and they were given the title already. There were multiple comments about how with Mo Williams, LeBron had a real No. 2 threat. Now they’ve lost, got dismantled by the Magic, and suddenly the guy had nothing around him.

Please go play in Europe when your contract expires. Maybe there you’ll get called for a foul.

[Yahoo!]

Maybe he thought it was okay to say this because he was drunk. Or maybe someone bet him he wouldn’t. Maybe both. It’s nice to see all of Charles’s addictions are coming at the cost of TNT. This almost makes the NBA watchable.

The game starts in about 12 minutes. If the Cavs win this series, don’t be surprised. The refs have done everything in their power to give this one to LeBron, and the Magic have survived (and last night, it was evident these same refs are trying their hardest to get Kobe there, as well).

LeBron has had a great series. He’s averaging 42 ppg, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Great numbers. And while I’ll never blame the guy for his team being in a 3-1 hole, I will say this: Suddenly everyone is saying that Cleveland doesn’t have a team. For the better part of this season, with the Cavs dominating the NBA both on the road and especially at home, all everyone could talk about was what LeBron was capable of doing now that he has a team around him. With the addition of Mo Williams, this team was for real, and LeBron didn’t have to carry them all the time. Delonte West plays lock down D. Ben Wallace can defend the middle. The list went on and on.

It even continued into the post-season. After mauling the Pistons in Hawks in eight total games (sweeping both), it was stamped that the Cavs were going to the Finals, and now the only question was who they’d be facing.

Now they’re down 3-1. They’re strugging. They’re being outplayed by the Magic on offense and defense. This thing should be over, but a miracle last second shot has extended the season. And all of a sudden, the only talk is that LeBron has no team around him. That nobody can step up. That he has to have someone else, because these guys don’t cut it.

Again: I’m not blaming LeBron. But I do find it funny that all season long we’re finally able to see what the Cavs are capable of now that there’s a team around him, and then when the third series of the playoffs comes around he suddenly doesn’t have anybody. If LeBron is the “Next Jordan,” as I’ve heard some of his fans say (me, personally, I think his jump shot is too hit or miss, and I don’t think his career will be nearly as long — he relies on his 260 pound frame for a lot of his points, and that will fade as his career goes on), then I think the guy needs to be able to win against mediocre teams, whether he has a team around him or not. MJ won with John Paxson, BJ Armstrong, Luc Longley, Will Perdue, Steve Kerr, and a gang of other no-name guys that he made names. He had Scottie Pippen, sure, but we all saw what Scottie Pippen was post-Jordan, both during his time with the Bulls when Jordan had his brief hiatus, and also during his time with the Rockets and Trail Blazers towards the end of his career.

Where’s this rant going? Not sure. I just thought it was funny to hear about a great “team” all year long, and now all of a sudden LeBron has to have help, because these guys stink.

It’ll be an interesting game tonight. I say the Cavs win by 15. And as much as I want the Magic, I think the refs give them a game in Orlando, and Cleveland some how manages to come back from 3-1 and win the series, to meet Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. From there, maybe the refs can call the games as they see them, and not how the TV ratings want them to be.

And by now, he should be used to that. He does have his brother, mom, dad, friends, fiancee — everyone, really — that have used him in the past, so it should come as no shock that the Humane Society is now using the ex-superstar. The surprising thing? They’re admitting it. Just ask Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society.

“We’re using Mike Vick. We’re both using each other,” Pacelle told KNBR radio in San Francisco Wednesday when asked about criticism that the Humane Society is being used.

“We have an agenda to eradicate dogfighting in America. He can be a valuable instrument in that. If he can demonstrate that he’s a changed person, good for him.”

I don’t know if volunteering for something that isn’t really volunteering because he can’t get back into the NFL without it…. I don’t know if that counts as being a changed man. It’s not as if Vick is bursting at the seams to work a $10 an hour construction job and help the same animals that are responsible for sending him to jail.

[AJC]

Since Michael Vick has been out of jail, there hasn’t been much heard from him. Or at least I think not. I’ve been in Cancun for the last week, so really don’t know. That said, over the next couple of months Vick is going to have to show “genuine remorse,” per Roger Goodell, if he intends on playing in the NFL again.

So… do you think he’s learning his lesson? Do you think he’s sorry for what he did? Well, according to Michael Boddie, Vick’s father, the star will “be a better man” because of his 18 month stint in federal prison.

“You have a lot of time to reflect,” he told the newspaper. “Looks like he came through it in one piece. I think he’ll be a better man for it.”

Boddie, 47, and Vick have a strained relationship, but they visited for 10 to 15 minutes last Friday at the Hampton home where Vick is serving two months of home confinement.

“I told him, ‘Son, what don’t kill you will make you stronger,’” Boddie told the newspaper.

Better man? Maybe. Better passer? Unlikely. And given that he’s in about a trillion dollars of debt, better man isn’t going to cut it. Better man who’s a better passer and a better runner and better decision maker and better guy at making fans forget that he killed dogs…. that’s what he needs to be shooting for.

[AJC]

As a UT fan, I like Lane Kiffin. Really. I do. He’s grabbed a good recruiting class in less than three months of work, and all signs point to things looking well on the recruiting front in 2010 (has four early commits, two of which are four-stars by Rivals’ account). The guy’s been getting a lot of flak, and rightfully so — it isn’t very wise to come in and take shots at a coach that just won a national title and is building a freaking dynasty at Florida.

So despite the numerous recruiting infractions that Kiffin has had to go along with the numerous stupid things he’s said, he’s just misunderstood, according to his AD, Mike Hamilton.

And while the new coach has ruffled some feathers with his bold moves and brash comments, athletic director Mike Hamilton told The Associated Press Thursday that Kiffin’s statements have been “misunderstood.”

“Everybody says, ‘Does he really understand what he’s doing or saying?’ Yeah, he does,” said Hamilton. “He might have been shocked initially or surprised initially at the attention that anything he says will get.”

Bottom line: The guy’s getting recruits, something that hadn’t been done in a while at UT (okay, only two years). As far as I’m concerned, he could rip his clothes off and run around in panties screaming that Nick Saban is a drag. As long as he grabs recruits, we’ll take anything. And then we’ll spin it that it’s just misunderstood.

[AJC]

You’d think that since Jim Mora is going to be taking over the Seahawks, Seattle might be a likely spot for Michael Vick to end up once he does indeed get back into the NFL. Well, not according to Pro Football Talk, who pulled up some quotes from an interview conducted by ESPN with the coach, himself. Here you go, what Mora thinks of Mr. Vick:

“I don’t know that everybody sees him as a quarterback,” Mora said in a pre-taped segment. “I spent three years with the guy, and the most consistent question I got was, ‘Does he have the skill set of an NFL quarterback or is he better suited to play another position?’”

Said ESPN’s Ed Werder in response, “But you always stated your belief that he was a quarterback, and could succeed at the position.”

Replied Mora, followed by a slight ish-eating grin: “Because he was my quarterback.”

I side with Mora. He’s right. That said, Mora is one of the dumbest head coaches I’ve ever seen, and that’s coming from someone who watches 16 Falcons’ games a year, plus the preseason and playoffs. He instilled Greg Knapp, arguably the worst offensive coordinator ever, as his offensive coordinator. He was known for being a guy that was a friend to the players, not a coach. Anyway… I don’t want to get off on too much of a rant. Michael Vick won’t be the QB of the Seahawks. Have fun with Mora, Seattle. You’ll never see a more loosely run team. Trust me.

[Pro Football Talk]