'Tis the End of February - I welcome March with open arms. March is always a good month, because it always leads to good things like April and May, you know, spring months. If you can get through the Holidays, then January, then February, you're on the downward slope toward spring. Spring proves to be a refreshing change every year. You get to wear new shirts with short sleeves, and the weather is generally warmer in a good way.

Bring on spring. Bring on change.

Leap Year!

The World According to Ming - Yao Ming thinks missing the Summer Olympics would be "the biggest loss" of his career.

He's wrong. He could miss the Olympics and his biggest loss to date would still be when he and Tracy McGrady failed to beat Utah in the NBA Playoffs last season.

An NBA title is always more important than any Olympic gold medal in basketball. Everyone should know that, particularly people who compete in the NBA.

Great basketball players are measured, in part, by what they do in the NBA Playoffs, not the Olympics.

Mutumbo Filling in for Ming - The 41-year-old backup center for the Houston Rockets still wags his finger when he blocks a shot.

It's nice to know that Mutumbo has aged so gracefully.

Ming Suffers Stress Fracture - Yao Ming has a stress fracture in one of his feet. The injury sidelines him for the rest of the NBA season and The Playoffs. He is also questionable for this summer's Olympic Games in China.

This is bad news for Ming, China and the Olympics. Ming was the Games' marquee athlete.

Terrible, terrible, terrible!

If Your Film Doesn't Have a Space Station That Blows Up Entire Planets ... -

Then it ain't as good as Star Wars.

You hear what I'm sayin' Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Woody Allen? Annie Hall?

Since I'm on the subject of Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Star Wars, I must say, I must reiterate, if you ain't got a space station that can blow up an entire planets in your film, then your film ain't better than Star Wars.

The Much-Anticipated Dr. Jones Movie - I have yet to watch the Internet trailer on this inevitable blockbuster, but let me say it now: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the most relevant movie since Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Revenge of the Sith is the most relevant movie in the past 31 years and counting, since Star Wars basically, because it answers pertinent questions about cinema's greatest villain, Darth Vader.

Since Revenge of the Sith's release, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull carries a distinction of penultimate relevance with respect to Revenge of the Sith by simple virtue of being an Indiana Jones movie. While The Bourne Ultimatum is perhaps the single-best movie since George Lucas' last Jedi adventure, it does not come close to achieving the mystique and the sheer wonder of the Indiana Jones franchise. The Harry Potter movies don't either. Sorry J. K. Rowling. While I love watching Mr. Potter's exploits and the quick edits that make Ultimatum Ultimatum, I have to say those movies don't measure up to Dockta Jones running around in his famed fedora, cracking his whip as he chases the latest fortune and glory.

Plus, Steven Spielberg directed, and George Lucas played a major part in the story development, famously holding out until he got his coveted McGuffin, which I can only assume for now is a crystal skull. Yes, I read the Vanity Fair article about the production. Kate Blanchett appears, and Karen Allen is back (without any plastic surgery). Thank goodness someone in Hollywood has sense.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be a romp, an absolute must-see. How could it not be good? If you are under the age of 30 and you don't believe what I'm writing then I feel sorry for you. You won't appreciate what's about to happen because you haven't lived long enough to witness such a phenomenon in the appropriate context.

Castro Resigns - Just like that. Fidel Castro is out as Cuba's leader. I thought for sure he would hang on like Pope John Paul II. I thought Castro would die before he gave up control of Cuba.

Throughout my lifetime I have not known a Cuba without Castro. This is so strange and foreign to me, a Cuba led by someone other than him.

The times they are a changin'. Fidel Castro is truly one of the last bastions of the Cold War and, I believe, the 1960s as I know it from the history books. To me he is a symbol of the Cold War tensions between the United States and Communist states in general. I think Castro stands out as much as Viet Nam and Nikita Khrushchev. Castro's presence in Cuba did nothing to help U.S./Soviet relations. But I do believe Castro did what he thought was right. In that respect, he was quite honorable, a man of principle. Call me naive or underinformed, but that's what I think.

Cuban-Americans loathe Castro. I'm sure all of them would disagree with me. They probably have good arguments too, but I haven't heard them. And I didn't like everything Castro did, but he had his reasons for his actions.

As far as the CIA goes, I don't think they tried hard enough to kill Castro. I can't imagine failing 638 times as Castro claims. I doubt that number is anywhere near accurate by the way. Still, I do believe the CIA didn't try hard enough.

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest - Am I the only one lucid enough to realize that Dwight Howard's Superman-clad "dunk" was not actually a dunk? While Howard's Kal-El moment was fun and entertaining, I'd of flagged him for not actually dunking the ball. The judges, all seasoned experts, gave him 10s in spite of the most important element, an actual dunk. Howard threw the ball downward into the hoop. Folks, it's a dunk competition, not a throw-the-ball-downward-into-the-hoop competition. Howard failed to dunk the basketball.

Magic Johnson and the rest of the guys commentating truly annoyed me with their "top 5 of all time" comments regarding Howard's creative genius. They tend to make such flavor-of-the-month comments annually. While Howard's dunks were truly groundbreaking, they weren't close to the greatest dunks ever. I can think of at least two dunks by Spud Webb that were better, several Jordan dunks, several by 'Nique. Even a guy named Terence Stansbury had an incredible Statue of Liberty 360 back in the day. Stansbury played for the Sonics when he threw that one down, under the gun of official dunk competition I might add, and it was a most picturesque kind of feat. No one does those anymore, and it's a shame. Would like to see a Statue of Liberty 360 again.

Dwight Howard broke new ground with his creativity last night. He is the world's most creative dunker right now. But guys like Jordan and Dominique could do the dunks he did, if only they had thought them up first. Accolades go to Howard for pioneering and pushing past the same-ole, same-ole. I just don't think his dunks were among the top 5 best ever.

CNBC's Nike Feature Lags - As feared, Swoosh! Inside Nike didn't do much besides tell the public what the company has done. The company gambled on Michael Jordan, and it paid off. He wanted to sign with Adidas, but Nike granted a better offer. We knew that. They used irreverent and sometimes controversial advertising. They created the Just Do It slogan. Just Do It took off. Blah, blah, blah.

They had labor problems. They still do, but they're improving. Wow. How enlightening.

After a few stumbles, Nike cracked the skateboard market. They did so by infiltrating skate shops. No doi.

CNBC mentions Nike's $1 billion-plus revenue from the soccer market. What CNBC fails to mention are the barriers Nike had to break to find success in that market. I still don't know the details. As little as ten years ago, just like skateboarding, Nike was not a global soccer giant like Adidas. Today, they are. Nike makes the world's best soccer shoes, and they are worn in countries like Portugal, Brazil and France. Just look at those nations' national teams.

The segment about Nike's success in the skateboard market made me laugh. The company's success amuses me because of the resistance from old-line skaters who rail against large corporations like Nike. Nike's success in skateboarding translates to failure for the resistant, the non-believers who would prefer to wear inferior skate shoes because they hate advertising and corporate culture. How silly is that? Like Donald Trump, I like to see bad people fail. It's funny. I'm amused. I revel in it. I love it when efficiency exposes inefficiency.

The reason a lot of skateboarders buy Dunks and P-Rods and Blazers is because these shoes are still great, perhaps not so great for basketball these days, but they still work for skateboarding.

Knowing what I know now, having seen it happen, I'm not surprised Nike is kicking everyone's tail in the skateboard market, nor am I surprised with the success in soccer. And I remember when neither was so. Nike began as an upstart in the running market too, and then basketball. Michael Jordan and his signature Air Jordan helped change the dynamic quickly. It's been Nike, then everyone else ever since. And they all lived happily ever after. Nice story isn't it?

As far as CNBC's effort goes, I have to give them a grade of C. They got all of their facts right, but they were facts we all knew. I did learn how much Nike's marketing matters as far as creating buzz. Furthermore, I understand better the importance of buzz. The company generates buzz like no other in its industry. The best branding comparisons I can come up with are Coca-Cola, Barbie, Star Wars and Harry Potter. And if anyone could learn something from CNBC's piece, it's our car companies. Maybe Ford, Chrysler and GM will wake up and tap into what Nike does. They should emulate Nike so they can topple Toyota. They can do it if they just do it. Ha! See what I did there?

Anyway, CNBC gets a C because their program lasted only an hour, and the reporter, Darren Rovell, whom I've never heard of, didn't do a good job of communicating the inspiration that drives the company. Maybe he did, and I just missed it. I also think it would have been nice to see interviews from industry analysts and corporate experts about why Nike is so successful. What does Nike do right? What does Nike do better than others? Apparently, Nike excels in marketing and advertising to generate brand strength, consumer loyalty and sales. But Rovell barely touched on the importance of product innovation. We never really saw how products grow from idea to executed product.

Perhaps Rovell pursued that angle and got rebuffed. He did call Nike "secretive." Oh well. The study continues. Maybe CNBC will do a better job in the future covering a company like Microsoft or McDonald's.

CNBC Documents Nike - CNBC's sweeps documentary on the global footwear giant premiers tonight. Swoosh! Inside Nike purports to go in depth, revealing how Nike designs, markets and manufactures its athletic shoes.

According to the business news channel's website, "Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, LeBron James and other superstar/endorsers explain how they helped Nike establish its brand."

I like all of these guys, but honestly, I don't care to hear a bunch of overexposed sports celebrities spout off about themselves and what they allege to have done to help Nike achieve over $30 billion in market capital.

I want to see how the business works. Granted, relationships with athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have improved Nike's sales, Nike's image, but the true masterminds responsible for Nike's success are guys like Bill Bowerman, Phil Knight, Frank Rudy, Tinker Hatfield and the advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy.

Bowerman, the legendary Oregon track and field coach, founded Nike with Phil Knight. Bowerman invented the Waffle sole. He is no longer alive and hence cannot be interviewed. Frank Rudy conceived and patented the air sole concept recognized by everyone as Nike Air. Rudy worked for NASA. Hopefully, he lends input to CNBC's project. If he doesn't appear, then the piece is incomplete.

As far as the famous advertising goes, haven't we heard enough stories about that? How many times can we hear the story about how Tiger Woods was juggling a golf ball with a club, and an advertising guy saw it and decided the routine would make for a great commercial? We know that. Let's not rehash. I don't want to hear about Spike Lee and Mars Blackmon. It just amounts to more celebrity babble. There's enough of that on the pages of People and TMZ.com. I don't need it on CNBC. Who tunes in to CNBC to hear about Spike Lee? I don't. CNBC is not Spike Lee's forum.

I wonder if we'll hear about the time Nike used the Beatles' Revolution for an Air Max ad? After concerns about whether or not an air bag-revealing foam cutout would make an athletic shoe structurally unstable, Max Air finally debuted to the public. Hatfield fought skeptics within the company on that one, and he won.

Anyway, visible air bags were considered revolutionary, so Nike used Revolution to tout the development. Nike got permission to use the song from Michael Jackson, drawing the Beatles ire. This story is great because, as we all know, Jackson acquired the rights to the Beatles catalog after a famous conversation in which Paul McCartney explained to Jackson the business upside of music licensing. So, Jackson bought up the Beatles' catalog, sticking it to the band.

Will that come up? Probably not. We'll hear Jordan, Barkley, Woods and James blabber on, and they may provide interesting insight, or they won't. I hope they entertain me. I'm not counting on it. I love seeing these guys, but I'm more interested in things I don't know from people with points of view I don't know about.

Jordan has already published a book on his relationship with Nike. The project looks a lot like a contrived advertising piece, but its still an interesting read. If I want Jordan's take on Nike, the Jordan Brand, his shoes, I can always get that book. I don't need CNBC for that.

We'll hear about the sweatshop charges and what Nike has done to alleviate that issue. Hopefully we'll also learn more about what Nike is doing to create green sneakers.

We'll see. We'll see. Sneakerheads, marketing professionals and CEOs need to tune in!

Roy Scheider Dead - The actor known best for his role in Jaws died in Little Rock. He was 75.

Schieder had battled multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. He was in Little Rock for treatment at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Apparently, UAMS is a world leader in the fight against multiple myeloma. Did not know that.

Roy Scheider was so awesome. This is a real loss, and he will be missed. The upside: His work on Jaws is immortalized forever.

O'Neal Traded to Phoenix - Wow. Didn't see that coming. Hopefully, Shaq can show more production in Arizona.

Maybe I'll pay more attention to the NBA now. I doubt it. I think I'll watch the All-Star Game and wait for the Playoffs. Notwithstanding this trade, it seems like nothing interesting is going on in pro basketball.

Romney Suspends Presidential Campaign - Wow. Didn't see that coming. Romney made a good run. He represented himself well. His campaign was relevant, and he didn't embarrass himself. That's all you can ask for when you fail to reach a nomination.

He leaves with his dignity intact. Good for him.

The Year the Rat - Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Earth Rat according to the Chinese calendar.

Happy Year of the Earth Rat.

Heath Ledger's Accidental Death - Authorities ruled his death as an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, including sleep aids, pain meds and anxiety pills.

The way things appear to have played out is really sad.

Ledger had trouble sleeping after filming his Batman movie, so he got a prescription sleep aid. Apparently, he also had an anxiety problem and a respiratory ailment. He got prescriptions to address those issues too. One thing led to another, and he had 6 drugs in his body mixing together and doing bad things to his body. This mixture killed him.

All he wanted was to relax, sleep well and live pain free.

His death is absolutely tragic.

Super Tuesday Results - Hillary Clinton did not wrap up the Democratic nomination. Barrack Obama still has a chance to beat her though he trails in the delegate count.

John McCain all but assured himself of the Republican bid. Didn't expect that. It looks like my prediction for Mike Huckabee will not pan out. Bummer! The Huckster will not get the Republican nomination. It's the first time I've ever been wrong on this blog! Double bummer!

Anyway, Huckabee should be proud of the race he ran. He did quite well, which is what I expected. I did not expect him to go on CNN and say he wants to put God in the Constitution. He said he believed the Constitution should reflect the Bible. I mean, come on! You can think it. You can't say it. His campaign lost crucial momentum after that.

In a way he kind of talked himself out of the nomination with those remarks. I thought he would talk his way into it. He almost did. Mitt Romney would have never said exactly what he thought. I think Romney does way too much of that. Huckabee doesn't do enough of it.

Assuming Huckabee does lose the nomination, the question becomes, does he run for president again in four years? He needs to get keep name out there, but if Hillary Clinton wins, one has to assume she'll last two terms. Why run against her just to lose? Huckabee should probably run anyway.

Farewell, Bobby Knight - Knight abruptly resigned from his coaching job at Texas Tech. He will be missed. Hopefully he recharges his batteries and takes a new job in the future.

Keith Morrison - I love how NBC's Keith Morrison voices his investigative pieces. He cracks me up sometimes.

Here's an example of something he would say. "But John wasn't at the convenience store to buy cigarettes. He was there to rob it."

Or how about "Jennifer told her mother she had gotten a new job at a local fast food restaurant. But it wasn't a fast food restaurant at all. It was a strip club."

Can't you picture Keith Morrison saying something like that? He's great.

Mr. Clinton on the Phone - I got a call from Bill Clinton today, or was it a recording of Bill Clinton? It sounded like a recording. I'm sure it was. Anyway, he urged me to vote for his wife Hillary. He said his wife would end the war in Iraq and take care of the middle class. He made reference to the last 7 years, and he mentioned something about the economy. It was a nice message.

You don't get a recorded message from a former president every day.

Giants Deny Patriots Perfection - Led by Eli Manning, the New York Giants upended the previously-unbeaten New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII, relegating the AFC Champion to 18-1.

The Giants defense enjoyed repeated success harassing Patriot quarterback Tom Brady with multiple sacks and knockdowns. Furthermore, Brady's arm didn't have the laser-like precision so prevalent in the regular season.

Super Bowl XLII has to be the most engaging, most dramatic Super Bowl since Rams/Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV. With the stakes involved, this year's Super Bowl will likely be remembered for a long time to come. The defensive struggle provided plenty of thrills.

This blogger didn't want to see the Giants in the Super Bowl. The Giants didn't seem capable of powering past the vaunted New England Patriots, but they did anyway. Congratulations to Manning, Michael Strahan, Tom Coughlin and the rest of G-Men for a remarkable performance. They defied expectations and made Super Bowl XLII worth watching on every play.

The quest for an undefeated season continues.

Brand New Month - Happy February! Or should I say January 32.

The Poster Girl for Celebrity Smokers - I wish Katherine Heigl would quit smoking. She's going to get cancer.