Dates, excitement and trades

First off as a baseball fanatic, I am stoked that pitchers and catchers report, starting on February 17th. The Red Sox pitchers and catchers report on February 18th. Team positional players report starting on February 22nd. We officially getting closer to Spring Training and I can not be more ecstatic.
I am surviving right now on the Olympics, which is hard to chose which events I want to watch. As of today, the United States is first in the medal count with six overall medals (one gold, two silvers and three bronzes), Germany has four medals following with France and Canada having three medals each and Korea is in fifth place with two (could have been tied in second if it wasn't for the slip in the speed skating race, which the U.S. ended up getting two medals instead of none). When I get a chance to catch them, it will be a good time.
The NBA All-Star game in Dallas was interesting from the five minutes I actually watched and 12 minutes I listened to. From what I saw, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, hits a three point shot. It was a swish none of the less. I did not know he was capable of doing that. Of course there was about 10 ally-oop attempts, probably eight of them were converted. The final score was 141-139. Of course no defense, but there were dumb fouls. With the game dead-locked at 137, Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz, fouled All-Star game MVP Dwyane Wade with over 12 seconds left when they were over the team limit in fouls. Wade made both free throws to make it 139-137. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks got fouled and made two free throws to tie the game at 139 a piece. On the ensuing possession for the Eastern All-Stars, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors got fouled and made both free throws to make it 141-139. On the final possession, Carmelo Anthony attempted a three pointer for the win and was short. Last night's game held a record-setting attendance with 108,713 people.
A block-buster trade occurred in the NBA two days ago. The Dallas Mavericks and Washington Wizards made an agreement with a seven-player trade with the Mavericks acquiring Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson and cash considerations from the Wizards in exchange for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton and Quinton Ross. Massive trade for both teams going the opposite directions. The Mavericks getting Butler is crucial for them because of his scoring ability and versitility. Haywood is a big improvement over Erick Dampier, who is aging and Haywood is more mobile and is better defensively. The trade for the Wizards is the beginning of their rebuilding process. I was surprised there were any takers considering Howard has a big contract, also he has underachieved since receiving his big pay day. Gooden once again moved to another team. It is surprising to me because getting a center who is a 12 point, 8 rebound a game guy is hard to come by these days. Now if the Wizards can trade Antawn Jamison, rebuilding can be at full blast.