Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
Duane Hoffmann / msnbc.comBy contrast, Kobe has been embraced with unqualified support, even as he was commuting to Colorado for hearings that were making him pariah in 28 other NBA markets, scoundrel among various women's group.
Yes, he has belittled Mitch Kupchak along the way. Yes, he had his Shaq-like moments with Dr. Buss. Yes, the greatest affection often appeared to be for the money, or even himself, rather than the SoCal masses.
To try, at this stage, to reinvent the relationship is like Michael Jordan denying that punch thrown at Steve Kerr during practice.
The black eye remains. It's who they are.
Shaq tends to play the jilted, jealous party. It reached the point with the Heat where he was privately alluding to Dwyane Wade as "Wonder Boy." Blows nearly were traded last season between O'Neal and Pat Riley, until Alonzo Mourning interceded.
But the moment also always passes with Shaq. If there are any doubts, merely consider his separation and reconciliation with wife Shaunie.
As for Kobe, YouTube tells no lies when it comes to his dissatisfaction with anything but ultimate team and personal success. The Andrew Bynum he embraces today is the same awkwardly youthful teammate he couldn't have his team dump soon enough, based on that now-famous parking-lot video.
And yet, he, too, has become a master of allowing the moment to pass.
So he embraced O'Neal during that memorable moment on Martin Luther King Day in 2005. And now, as O'Neal offers his latest me-as-the-good-guy spin, Bryant jokes about going "Tiger Woods," simply saying nothing, rather than re-stoking.
Through it all, Kobe stayed.
Even as it meant missing the playoffs and then enduring heartbreak at the hands of the pre-Shaq Suns.
Even as it meant watching Shaq win another championship while embracing Wade as his "best sidekick ever."
And now? And now Kobe well could bring his Lakers' success full cycle, with another championship, one earned in the absence of Shaq, one that would prove that he, too, is capable of getting it done on his own.
The difference being? He never left.
That, as much as anything, should count for plenty when it comes to defining the superior legacy.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.