Detroit Free Press

You've seen these bumper stickers. "My kid made the honor roll at blankety-blank school."I used to think they were harmless. A declaration of parental pride. Now, I'm not so sure. Parental pride, it seems, can get you killed.Earlier this month, in a Boston suburb, two fathers took their kids to hockey practice. One father never came home.

SYDNEY, Australia -- Women have always been smarter than men. I used to believe that. Now I'm not so sure.One thing that always made women smarter was their acceptance of things. Like weight. In prehistoric days, for example, a cavewoman would look at a rock and think, "Hmm, that rock looks heavy."Whereas a caveman would not only think the rock looked heavy, he would feel a compelling need to see HOW heavy, so he would grab the rock, raise it as far as his struggling muscles would allow, then drop it on his head.

First, they pulled him off the bus. Literally. Suspended him from the job he loved, accused him of stealing money, said his team of high school girls, looking anxiously out the bus windows, would have to play its championship game without him.Then, over the next 18 months, like crows plucking at a carcass, certain forces in the Southfield school system slowly took away everything else Ben Kelso had worked for.

SALT LAKE CITY -- I knew this would happen if we didn't change the borders. The American sports mentality has finally infected Canada."Other countries hate us," declared Wayne Gretzky, the man who put together Canada's Olympic hockey team, which plays Finland in the lose-and-you're-out round starting today. "Nobody wants us to win but the guys in our locker room."It sickens my stomach to turn the TV on and hear some of the things they're saying about us. They're loving us not doing well. It's a big story for them."

The trip began in the foggy mist of Sunday morning, when traffic was light as drips from a faucet.I had a computer bag in one hand and a large cup of coffee in the other. Settling into the back seat, I took a long sip and looked out the window.There were four of us in this silver van, heading to an NFL game in Cleveland: Gene, the sports editor of the Free Press; Bob, one of our copy editors (and a native of Ohio who still lives and dies with the Browns); Justin, a WJR radio producer, and me.I swigged more coffee. The van lurched forward.

Ageneral manager is not a player, nor a coach. He doesn't skate or knock pucks away, he doesn't blow a whistle.What he does, in a front office sort of way, is paint. He paints a portrait of a team he wants, he paints faces over each roster spot, and finally, when all the trading and cutting and buying is over, he leans back to examine his canvas.

Before the playoffs began, I asked Pistons coach Rick Carlisle if he could buck the trend and win the Eastern Conference with a no-superstar team in a superstar's league."We're about to find out," he said.Maybe we already have.The honeymoon is nearly over. The good feelings between Detroit fans and the Joe Dumars/Rick Carlisle/goin'-to-work philosophy are on the verge of collapse.

He moves like a water bug, so fast that sometimes all you see is the streak of where he was. Into the corner, back into the middle, through two defenders, back into the corner, grab the ball, turn, shoot. Richard (Rip) Hamilton is such a whirling dervish that you're not sure where his shots really begin. Is it when he flicks his wrist, or when he lifts his arms, or when he lifts his legs, or when he starts running 10 seconds before he ever gets the ball? One thing is certain, when that ball comes, there is little hesitation as to whether it'll be launched.Let her Rip.