By updating RealClearSports I read hundreds of articles every week but sometimes there are particularly passages that need highlighting. And to make these passages more palatable I'm doing them in award form! The awards are completely random and will change weekly.

I'm thrilled that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Someone like that doesn't deserve a trial or the right to live after all the things he has done. But am I the only one that doesn't want that story seeping into the sports world? I'm fine with some of it. The fans in Philadelphia during the Phillies-Mets game chanting 'U-S-A!' was amazing. The singing of the 'Star-Spangled Banner' before the Bulls-Hawks game and the crowd's cheering throughout the entire song gave me goosebumps. Monday should've been a day for all to celebrate the military's great accomplishment. What I don't need though, is lazy columns that talk about how this event puts things in perspective. "Armageddon in sneakers and shorts has been the buildup to this Heat-Celtics playoff series and the tenor of its early coverage, the hard physicality of Game 1 only underlining the gravity of the grudge match," wrote Greg Cote of the Miami Herald. "Everything is at stake, right? Well, no. Not everything. Nothing needs balance and perspective more than big-time sports, and a welcome dose came in the wake of this series opener and overnight into Monday. The news that was cheered from coast to coast offered a particular reminder about reality to the men so passionately immersed in this second-round NBA series and seemingly wearing blinders to anything else." It's not like I even disagree with what he's saying and that's part of the problem. Who does? What does this column accomplish? Dwyane Wade and Erik Spoelstra are happy Bin Laden is dead? Wow, and here I thought the Heat were pure evil. I'm singling out Cote but it's not like he was the only one to write this exact same column while replacing the athletes with whatever local ones apply. It's times like these I think a computer could do a columnist's job. On to the awards!

More Bin Laden Nonsense

Mike Florio of ProFootball Talk posturizes that Osama's death could raise stakes in the NFL lockout: With bin Laden gone, September 11, 2011 will have an even more powerful impact on our country, and the sense of indignity to the American people resulting from a lockout that wipes out the 9/11 games will escalate.

No. No. Just no. His death has nothing to do with the NFL and the lockout. You think people are going to be even more angry at the NFL because Osama is dead and they aren't playing football? "We can catch Osama Bin Laden but we can't figure out a way to play football?" Is that the rationale? How different is that from, "We're mourning the death of thousands and these two sides can't figure out a way to play football?" His death will not change the public's opinion about this lockout one bit.

Most Insane Reason Thunder Have Great Fanbase

Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post has an interesting theory behind why Oklahoma City fans are so passionate: Maybe this intense love for the Thunder was born in part from a city spirit shaken 16 years ago this month by a horrific explosion at the Murrah Federal Building. Terrorist Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people, including 19 children.

And from those murdered people and children came a love for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to fill the void left by the fallen. What? How about the simple fact that they are the only professional sports team in the area, they're an amazing story, and they are a young team full of players that can make highlight plays? Maybe that's why. Maybe the bombing and deaths had NOTHING to do with the support for the Thunder.

Worst Use of a Gimmick

Do you like watching and listening to NBA players complain? Do you enjoy watching Bryant swing his fist in disgust or Carmelo Anthony flashing that sarcastic smile? If so, read this article by Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated: You call that a foul? You called that a foul? You called THAT a FOUL on ... ME? When I didn't touch the guy? When I barely brushed the guy?! If anything, HE fouled ME. Now I am required by NBA convention to go through an entire taxonomy of exaggerated emotions, beginning with shock and disbelief.

Best Use of a Gimmick

T.J. Simers of the LA Times usually works his way into his stories and it's actually quite enjoyable. This time he worked a coworker of his into his story: Let me just say there's no reason to keep reminding bill.plaschke@latimes.com that he was so misguided, so wrong, and if you will, a Lakers saboteur.

If you want to email him, go ahead. But not me.

But I would like to know why bill.plaschke@latimes.com didn't want the Lakers to win the championship this season. There's no way the Lakers can win it without Andrew Bynum.

"I'm sure (bill.plaschke@latimes.com) wasn't the only one who thought Andrew should be traded," said Derek Fisher. "But I'll tell you, I don't hear anything now from the boo birds (or bill.plaschke@latimes.com)."

He lists Plaschke's e-mail address 7 different times throughout the article. I'm assuming Plaschke's e-mail box was overflowing the next morning.

Most Obvious Statement of the Week

Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal brings us quite the revelation about the Grizzlies: These Grizzlies may not be the most talented team in the league. They may not have a LeBron or a Durant or a Rose.

Alright, so this doesn't seem quite as crazy now that the Griz took Game 1 vs. the Thunder but I still don't think anyone outside of a few deranged Memphis fans would even consider that the Grizzlies are the most talented team in the league. It's like me saying, "Fast Five isn't quite as well-made as The King's Speech or Black Swan..."

Ignorant of Star Status

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe addresses the two technical fouls and ejection of Paul Pierce in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals: The second T looked ridiculous. Pierce said something to Wade ("a bunch of gibberish,'' said Wade) and referee Ed Malloy didn't like what he heard. It was another double-T, which meant Pierce was gone. ... Rules are rules, right? But does anyone believe they would have slapped LeBron James with a second T on a "verbal taunt.'' Please.

It's not like Paul Pierce is Joey Dorsey. Paul Pierce is a superstar and if you're going to argue that superstars get superstar calls you can't pretend like Pierce isn't in that class. LeBron is a bigger star but Pierce isn't far behind. I believe that same ref would've tossed LeBron. Maybe Paul Pierce should keep his mouth shut and play basketball instead of trash-talking like he always does. The Heat are getting easier and easier to route for (full disclosure - I'm a Lakers fan...).

Refreshing Honesty

Peter King catches a lot of flak for his rambling columns. But he's earned the right to seemingly not have an editor. He's also earned the right to not have to do draft grades and he spoke his mind about this in his post-draft MMQB: I have nothing against my peers grading drafts. It's harmless fun. Like mock drafts, grading drafts has become a spring tradition that fills space and, I suppose, generates good talk show fodder. There's a difference in the two, though. When you do a mock draft, you're predicting who each team is going to pick ... presumably based on some knowledge you've gleaned though some people you know in different organizations. But when you grade a draft, at least when I graded drafts in the past, I always felt I wasn't qualified in any way to do so, because I just didn't know the players beyond the top ones well at all.

He pretty much hit the nail on the head - they are fodder and harmless fun and that's how fans should take them. I read them all because they're fun to look at. But you have to take them with a grain of salt because they really do mean nothing.

A Reach About Reaching

Bob Sansevere of the Pioneer Press takes issue with so-called experts proclaiming the Vikings reached by picking Christian Ponder 12th overall: Most of the folks making the "reach" comment haven't done their own research. They were parroting what they heard or read from the likes of self-proclaimed NFL draft experts and media creations Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay and Mike Mayock.

Keep in mind that Kiper, McShay and Mayock are part of the same bunch of experts who raved about what great NFL quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Vince Young would be. (Russell is out of football, and Young is on his way out.)

The problem is he is equating "reach" with "bust". But they definitely are not the same thing. Most of these people aren't saying Ponder will be a bad pro just that the Vikings picked him too highly. It's possible the Vikings could've traded down to get him or traded up from their 2nd round pick. And while those experts might not be great at deciding future talent (there is no one out there who can accurately predict future talent - if there were they'd be a billionaire), they are good at figuring out the draft value of players and if they say Ponder was a reach at 12 they are probably right.