Derrick Rose desperately wants to play for his hometown Chicago Bulls.They should make his dream come true.Rose is a once-in-a-lifetime point guard, an amazing combination of speed and strength from the perimeter. I think another Michael Beasley, the Kansas State forward who is the only other legitimate choice for the Bulls, will come along before another Rose.The kid’s from Chicago. You got lucky in the lottery to get the No. 1 pick. Just do the right thing. The kid’ll be worth it. 

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The University of Washington’s Amanda Miller earned All-America honors by placing 11th in the 1500-meter run at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Miller, who grew up in Ephrata but moved to Wenatchee for high school, finished the race in 4:20:71. It is Miller’s fourth career All-America selection.

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After escaping their home arena with a 2-0 series lead on Sunday night you’d think the Boston Celtics would be all but assured of a 17th NBA championship. After all, the C’s have four shots to win two games.I’m here to tell you, The Celtics are more vulnerable now than they were when the season started. This team has shown many times during the regular season and postseason that it plays differently when it has a sizable advantage. They get complacent. They don’t work on defense. They relax.Leading by 24 on its home floor with 8 minutes to go, a time when great teams stomp on their opponents’ throats, this bunch allows the Lakers to get within two points and end up hanging on for dear life.Now, with Team Kobe facing a must-win at home on Wednesday, will the Celtics be able to get it done against Bryant, who for some reason did not touch the ball on the potential game-winning play in the closing seconds Sunday night?The answer is no, for two reasons. First, Boston coach Doc Rivers is awful. This team wins in spite of him. I can’t bring myself to believe that a team with Kevin Garnett, James Posey and Paul Pierce, all fierce competitors, can just wilt down the stretch like the Celtics do. I don’t know what Rivers is doing, but it ain’t right.Second, I think Kobe might get 60 points on Wednesday. While Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic were passing the ball back and forth on the Lakers’ final possession, Kobe was drifting out on the wing with Ray Allen half-guarding him. He displayed his dismay vocally after Vujacic airballed his three. This is one of those times where the Mamba will, and probably should, go into “I’m going to kill everyone” mode.It’s totally possible that the Lakers will win the next two games and will have all the momentum coming back to Boston. With these Celtics, you just don’t know. 

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Matthew Cerda, one of four high school players on the Wenatchee AppleSox’s 2008 roster, was drafted in the fourth round (131st overall) by the Chicago Cubs in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Thursday.

Cerda is a shortstop from Oceanside, Calif. and has verbally committed to play for the University of San Diego in the fall. The Toreros were eliminated by Cal State-Fullerton in the NCAA baseball regionals. 

AppleSox coach Ed Knaggs has not yet commented on whether Cerda will sign with the Cubs or stay committed to the Sox for this summer.

If Cerda signs with the Cubs, he loses his amateur status and is no longer eligible to play in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, or for the University of San Diego.

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Cassie Merkley, a three-sport star at Cascade High School and current junior at Idaho State, will compete in the heptathlon at the NCAA Division I National Championships on June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa. Merkley won the seven-sport event at the Big Sky Championships.

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This is an exciting portion of the sports calendar for me, and probably very few other people. Two of my favorite sports are soccer and college baseball, and the next few weeks will be chock-full of both. With the European Championships starting this weekend in Austria and Switzerland, the international soccer community will enjoy its finest competition outside of the World Cup.College baseball’s 64-team regional tournament started this morning and will culminate with the eight-team College World Series in Omaha, Neb. June 14-25.International soccer and college baseball are not the most publicized of sports, but they are definitely the most exciting. ESPN is starting to get the message, and will be televising the majority of both events on its family of networks. 

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With the state track championships coming up this weekend, this crazy story out of Utah strikes a particular chord. Ryan McGeeney, an intrepid photographer with the Daily Examiner out of Ogden, Utah, was covering that state’s track championships and was speared in the leg with an incoming javelin. McGeeney wandered into an out of bounds area while shooting discus throwers. The javelin didn’t hit anything below McGeeney’s knee, but did take 13 stitches to close the wound.The wild part is that McGeeney’s first instinct was to capture the spear hanging out of his leg. He said that his editor’s first question when he got back from the hospital would have been, ‘Why didn’t you get a photo?’ The wildest part was that the kid that threw the javelin, Anthony Miles of Provo High, went on to win the state title later that day.

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Wenatchee High School alums Jeff Kintner, Tom Ballinger and Ben Spaun have all qualified for the NCAA Division III men’s track championships, which get underway today at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Kintner, a sophomore at Whitworth, qualified in the shot put with a heave of 53-6.25 at the Northwest Conference Championships. Spaun, a senior at Whitworth, will only compete in the decathlon at nationals despite winning the 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles and leading off the winning 4×400 relay at the conference meet. Ballinger, a junior at Carleton College in Minnesota is the fifth seed in the 400 hurdles.

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Wenatchee High School alum and two-year Wenatchee AppleSox Garrett Dorn led Linfield College to the NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wis. The Wildcats will begin play in the double-elimination, eight team World Series on Friday against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. If Linfield wins, they will likely face Trinity College of Connecticut, who garnered national acclaim this season for being the only NCAA baseball team ever to finish the regular season unbeaten (41-0).Dorn, who has a season record of 8-3 in 13 starts with a 2.86 earned run average, was chosen to the Northwest Conference’s All-League second team. Dorn pitched eight innings in Linfield’s 10-inning, 4-3 win over Webster College that send the Wildcats to their first ever NCAA final. He struck out seven without walking a batter and allowed two earned runs. 

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Only time will tell how successful Wenatchee’s new North American Hockey League franchise will be in the long run in terms of profitability and permanence in the community. But I believe one thing to be certain: Rocky Flynn and Bill Stewart found the right man to be the team’s inaugural coach. In his introductory press conference on Thursday, Paul Baxter sounded like a tough, determined man that will not tolerate flaky attitudes or mediocrity on his team. The team was purchased so close to the start of the season that you’d think the team’s first year would be a lost cause because of the small window to find players and to get things organized in the front office. After listening to Baxter on Thursday, I don’t feel like Wenatchee’s team is lagging behind at all.

Plus, the guy has a vested interest in the team’s success. Since he’s a part owner of the team, and uprooted his family from sunny Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to come to North Central Washington, he’s going to to everything he can to make sure that the team is as successful as he can make it.

I know it’s only been one day, but I feel confident that no matter how many people are in the stands watching, Paul Baxter’s hockey team will be playing the game the right way.

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