“Me thinks this is a bad idea”.

A player as volatile as Artest could mess up the zen in the Laker locker room. News reports say that this trade will compensate for the loss of Trevor Ariza, but I really doubt it. Ariza’s height is listed as 6-8 and he plays like one. Artest’s height is listed as 6-7 but he plays like a 6-0 player to me.

Ariza weighs in at 210 lbs. We have a quick and athletic player. Artest weighs in at 260 lbs., which makes him slow for a guard/small forward.

And the main reason why Ariza was effective last season was the recognition that he was a 3-point shooter. If you look at his 3-pt field goal percentage, it averages at around 50%. Artest is not as reliable from the 3-pt line, only averaging about 30%. The point of having reliable 3-point shooters is to help lessen the burden on the big men, and on premier players like Kobe.

And let’s not forget about the Kobe-Artest trash talking during the games between the Lakers and the Rockets in the playoffs.

Does the Lakers team need more attention? Do they want to change their image into a bad boy one? The Bulls took Rodman because of his rebounding prowess, not his antics. I don’t see anything special Artest could bring into the Laker team that they don’t already have.

If I were part of Laker management, I’d try to find another gem of a player in the “unknown” basket… a rookie, or free agent perhaps, who does not have an ego, and will fit well in the existing system of the Lakers. This team already has stars in Kobe, Gasol, Odom, and Fisher. They should learn from their experience in 2004 that having too many “big-named” players on a team could backfire.

Congratulations to Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers, winners of the 2009 NBA Championship. Bryant was also awarded the NBA Finals MVP trophy.

Perhaps Lebron’s Cavaliers would have given a better challenge to Bryant’s Lakers. And watching James and Bryant go one-on-one would have been a treat. Maybe next year…

It is a bit disappointing to see the Orlando Magic lose in overtime in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. But I applaud the effort. It was an exciting game to watch, stretching you down to the last second, compared with the blowout in Game 1. These are the games in the Finals so fans expect a treat.

Orlando has been through a lot of challenges. The beat the 2008  NBA Champion Boston Celtics. They won over the top seeded team of the 2009 NBA season (Cleavland). They have every right to be in this finals and have utmost right to win.

The Magic has the best defensive player and current best center in the game in Dwight Howard. They have a Reggie Miller like shooter in Rashard Lewis and a Toni Kukoc like player in Hedo Turkoglu. Van Gundy coached the Maimi Heat to a Championship with Wade and Shaq.

But one thing the Magic don’t have is a Micheal Jordan like player… a player who can dominate the game when the score is tied, and the basket is critical… a player who can take the pressure off the team, and carry the team on his back. And the Lakers have that player in Kobe Bryant. If the Magic want a chance of digging out this 0-2 hole, they have to solve the problem named Kobe Bryant.

Didn’t the Magic overcome a similar situation with Lebron James, of the Cavs, dubbed the King? I don’t know what it is about Lebron, but I don’t see the “Jordan” in him that I see in Wade and Kobe. I guess Lebron is Lebron, and he will be paving the way for the speed and power type of player. But a Jordan type of player is a thinking player who uses whatever arsenal composes his team to his advantage.

Wade led a aging and injury laden Miami team to a championship, and I think Kobe will (God willing), help this 2009 Laker team win one too. And this Laker team isn’t exactly an overly talented team. I’d say they are just ok. The only flashy player in the team is Bryant. Bynum is overhyped. Odom is injured. Fisher is aging (and keeps throwing up bricks and prayers). Pau is dependable (doesn’t jump too high, isn’t muscular, he just gets the job done). Ariza is a good player and I’m still hoping for a Steve Kerr in Farmar or Vujacic. Denver was a star-studded team compared to these Lakers.

Rodman was a small player for a forward and had all sorts of antics that tested even his teammates patience. Harper and Pippen were not 100%. Longley was an average center. But Jordan led that team, and I can see the leadership in Bryant that was not there in the Shaq-Kobe Laker team.

Phil Jackson may have shaved his beard but I’m seeing a Chicago Bulls patterned team. A team with the best player in the game surrounded by a capable supporting cast. This is the tried and tested way Phil knows can win a championship.

MERALCO has introduced another fixed charge component in the May 2009 electric bill. What used to be Retail Customer Charge amounting to 5 pesos per month has now been split into a Fixed Metering Charge of 5.30 pesos per month, and a Fixed Supply Charge of 15.70 pesos per month, for a total of 21 pesos, 4 times larger than the Retail Customer Charge amount in the past months.

Other fixed charges that may be present in your MERALCO bill include the First Energy Tax that has been split into ENERGY TAX: First (35 pesos) and ENERGY TAX: Next (20.80 pesos). These combined with the 21 peso charge amount to 76.80 pesos.

“The more levers there are to tweak, the harder it will be for consumers to track changes to the electric bill. If ambiguity exists, it will be easier to introduce incremental overcharges.”

I thought that the application process for NBI Clearance would be streamlined and rid of corruption since their satellite office was only a few feet away from Sonny Belmonte – run, Quezon City Hall. And when I applied for it a few years back, I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was today.

People who were there simply to claim their NBI Clearance – meaning they already had gone through the payment, picture taking, finger-printing, and information input – a chain of processes that would take 30 minutes at the most – were waiting in a line for an average of 3 hours. Why would an almost flawless process have such a bottleneck when what is expected is that the Clearance only needs to be printed out. If there is a “hit”, shouldn’t this already be sorted out since they ask the person applying to come back after a week anyway?

Managers of this satellite office clearly have no knowledge of best queing practices. If they can afford to have 3 people in the Payment window, and 3 people in the Information Input Window, why can’t they allot 3 people instead of 1 in the Releasing window? And why is there only 1 Releasing window when their are 3 windows for other parts of the process.

The real reason is that there are fixers who take advantage of a 3-hour Releasing line. A guy beside me decided to pay 120 pesos when a fixer approached him and told him he could get his NBI Clearance within 5 minutes. And true enough, the man who was in the line next to me was able to go home within 5 minutes while I had wait in line for 3 hours. People wonder why the line takes so long. If a fixer approaches an NBI Employee to get a clearance, they have to spend time looking for the record, and the fixer has to give the NBI employee his cut in the payment. This introduces significant delays. So while one Filipino saves time because he paid 120 pesos, an amount more expensive than the NBI Clearance Fee of 115 pesos, 100 other Filipinos end up wasting their time waiting in line.

Another problem I see is the need to buy wet-naps from the guy in-charge of finger printing. He charges 5 pesos per wet-nap since he reasons that a person must want their hands clean after getting it dirty with ink during the finger printing process. But a typical wet-nap only costs about 50 centavos. He is using geographic-monopoly practices (he is the only person providing the service with the “blessing” of the NBI) in order to charge an exorbitant price. Even if you factor in the price of the ink being used in finger-printing, the price being charged for the wet-nap is too high. And shouldn’t the 115 peso fee for the NBI clearance cover all costs?

And fingerprints take a long time to really change. So government should just determine the last time you renewed your NBI clearance. If it was 10 years ago, then you should have your finger prints freshly taken, but if it was just last year, then the NBI employees should simply print out the old fingerprints on record.

Chalk this one up as one of the worst Philippine government services I’ve experienced.