Kevin Blackistone

WASHINGTON -- When Capitals owner Ted Leonsis learned that Game 5 of his team's second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against Pittsburgh would have to be played 24 hours after Game 4 in Pittsburgh because of a Yanni concert scheduled at the Penguins' arena, he complained that the back-to-back games were bad for the league, bad for the teams and bad for the fans.

Personally, I was more concerned to learn that there were enough fans of the Greek crooner to fill a major sports arena. But I digress. Leonsis was right. Yanni shouldn't have been allowed to have any influence on one of our major sport's postseasons, any more than he does on music in this country.

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It was big news last October when LeBron James showed up at an American League playoff game between the Yankees and Indians in his home state of Ohio sporting a Yankees' cap. It was big news when he co-hosted an NBA All-Star Weekend party last February with Nets part owner Jay-Z. It was big news when a month later Nike announced it would introduce a new shoe endorsed by LeBron and festooned with Yankees pinstripes that would be available only in New York.

It all added up, many observers speculated, to a sooner-than-later departure from Ohio to the bright lights and big stage of Madison Avenue by Ohio's favorite basketball-playing son. King James was too big for Cleveland, they harrumphed, and could only fully sprout plying his talent in the Big Apple.

Eleven of its playoff games have been decided in the final minute, or in overtime. That includes seven overtime contests and four last-minute scores in regulation to decide games.

Two series required ultimate seventh games. And the second round of its playoffs just commenced.

LAS VEGAS -- At the end of the day, it wasn't that Floyd Mayweather Jr. failed to do what it appeared he'd done earlier Saturday, which was steal the thunder from the first big pay-per-view boxing event of the year by announcing his much-rumored return to the ring from a 17-month respite. Mayweather's Saturday afternoon press conference did, indeed, overshadow the junior-welterweight championship bout scheduled Saturday night between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton.

But something transpired Saturday evening that even Mayweather couldn't have anticipated. Pacquiao snatched back everyone's attention, stealing back his own thunder, with a second-round knockout of Hatton that was so devastating it left some observers temporarily in fear for Hatton's well-being. It was nothing sort of Tyson-esque

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LAS VEGAS -- It is not raining here today -- when does it ever? -- but Floyd Mayweather Jr. walked onto the Hollywood Theater stage in the MGM Grand this afternoon with his black jean legs stuffed inside calf-high black rubber boots. I guess this was to symbolize that he's about to -- as they say on the strip club scene -- make it "rain money" in the fight game upon announcing just hours before the Manny Pacquaio-Ricky Hatton bout that he is done with retirement. It was even revealed that "Money" is now Mayweather's nickname.

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LAS VEGAS – The last time I saw Andre Ward, he was ascending the medal platform in a warehouse-type building in a dingy part of Athens, Greece, to receive the Olympic gold medal in the light heavyweight division. I'd all but forgotten about him until Saturday morning, when I shared breakfast and chitchat with him, a dozen or so other scribes, and his promoter Dan Goossen.

And that is Ward's problem, which he and Goossen hope to address in earnest May 16 in Ward's hometown, Oakland, Calif., where he is scheduled to fight his first name opponent, the big-hitting (and big be hit) Colombian, Edison Miranda. Ward never seized the boxing public's psyche after Athens. He never cashed in that gold medal as others had before him, like, most notably, Oscar de la Hoya.

After all, another Olympics has come and gone and Ward doesn't have a world title to go with his 18-0 record. De La Hoya had multiple world titles by now.

LAS VEGAS -- Amir Khan stood sheepishly Friday in a back corner of the crowded stage as we all awaited Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton to weigh-in. His shyness was understood when his name was called to say a few things about the upcoming fight.

"Traitor," some of the sauced Brits screamed from the bleachers. "F-off, Khan," a trio of Brits screamed.

If there is a more loathed man among Brits this week than Khan, who, oddly enough, was born amongst them in Manchester, England, I don't know who it would be. He may as well be Salman Rushdie in Mecca.

LAS VEGAS -- With 6,000 screaming fans crammed into a cordoned off portion of the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Friday, Manny Pacquiao stepped onto a scale and tipped it at 138 pounds. Then came Ricky Hatton; his weight was announced at 140 pounds.

Too bad they aren't fighting this evening.

WASHINGTON – It became custom sometime ago that the hero in a victorious Capitals locker room received a shower of shaving cream from his happy teammates.

After a fake news report, a six-game suspension, an allegation of biting, and a coach being banished to a suite for turning a water bottle into a projectile against opposing fans, it is hard to imagine there being anything more unexpected in a mere first-round hockey playoff series. But there is something more unanticipated in this set of great interest now between the Rangers and Capitals. It is that the series wound up where it is scheduled to be Tuesday night -- at a deciding Game 7.

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