Yeah, it's a baseball analogy, not a basketball one, but it fits this debacle more than Vince McMahon hiring the Lakers' public address announcer to call his wrestlers "at point guard" and "at "power forward" on Raw this week.

Vince McMahon got his feelings hurt by a fellow bazillionaire last week, and he wasted his company's time and resources for now almost two weeks pitching a hissy fit on national television about it.

First, let's dispense with this is about anything but McMahon once again feeling left out of the respectable Bazillionaire's Club because Stan Kroenke didn't bother to call him about what usually is par for the course: events moving to another date when a home arena's professional team adds extra dates because they made the playoffs. It happens every season, if arenas struggling for events are lucky enough to be booked solid. It's one of the first things any sports fan knows and expects about the home team arena. The home team gets first (and last) dibs. It's an every day thing, and any Chairman of the Board will tell you, they don't handle every day things.

Stan Kroenke didn't have to reserve Monday, May 25th for a Nuggets playoff date. It was always reserved for just that possibility

Vince McMahon doesn't call arenas himself whenever he or his company deigns to move a show, so why in the world does he think Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke owed him some sort of courtesy call? Kroenke has got George Karl coaching what might be the best team in basketball, and that's got to be plenty to deal with without holding some hyper–sensitive wrestling promoter's hand.

You'll notice for all of McMahon's bitching and howling about having to move his show, he never sued anybody. That's because he had no case. The home team has the right to kick out any other tenant in the home arena in every arena in the country for just such cases as these.

Unlike in the wrestling world, where it's easy to convince the Nation that legal terms like "creative control" mean whatever Vince McMahon wants them to mean, home teams in home arenas get their dates no matter what, and no one sends anyone a bouquet of flowers like they were a jilted wife, either.

By the way, those poor crying WWE fans who lost their chance to see Raw in person when the show got kicked out of the Pepsi Arena Monday night? They, and the other fans who lost their chance to see WWE shows in the area, got jilted by Vince McMahon and WWE, not Stan Kroenke and the Denver Nuggets.

Since it's the playoffs, let's add up the score, shall we?

REVENUE, PT. 1

• WWE sold fewer than 5,000 seats at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Monday Night Raw in perhaps the worst "sellout" in sports or entertainment history.

•The Denver Nuggets sold every one of an estimated 18,650 tickets for Monday night's NBA playoff game at the Pepsi Center. NBA play–off prices are scaled higher than WWE Raw tickets.

Winner: Stan Kroenke

REVENUE, PT. 2

• WWE lost the gate on ten thousand tickets sold when, instead of rescheduling Raw in the Colorado area, they moved all the way to Los Angeles for the cheap heat. WWE also lost Tuesday's night already sold out Smackdown gate.

•The Denver Nuggets lost nothing. They didn't have to do anything but show up at their own arena and play.

Winner: Savvy Los Angeles members of WWE Nation, who could take that free ticket they got for Monday night's show, and use it to get another free ticket for Tuesday night's Smackdown show.

TV RATINGS

• As of this writing, WWE Monday Night Raw on the USA network has been drawing ratings in the mid–threes.

•Game 2 of the Denver Nuggets–L.A. Lakers NBA playoff series Saturday night drew a 5.7 rating.

Projected winner: The NBA, ESPN, and Stan Kroenke.

CREATIVE

• WWE sacrificed at least two major two–hour prime time shows normally used to encourage prospective buyers to order PPVs, to televise McMahon's hissy fit.

•Lead heel and top star Randy Orton was clearly uncomfortable in his Nuggets jersey, playing along with McMahon.

•McMahon appeared in the Raw scripted universe with no sign of injury. Neither he nor Orton made any mention of Orton crushing his head with a punt, a key point in the push of Orton and his Legacy group.

•McMahon dictated the rest of the show to his creative team. It sucked.

•The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 120 to 101 to tie the series 2 games apiece.

•The Lakers' Kobe Bryant praised the Nuggets for their dominance in every phase of Monday night's game.

•As mentioned before, the Denver Nuggets may be the best team in basketball.

Winner: Stan Kroenke

PUBLICITY

•Lazy mainstream media sources killed time and space snickering at McMahon's hissy fit over not getting a phone call from the Nuggets owner.

•Vince McMahon, but none of his potential revenue–drawing wrestlers, got his face on something other than WWE programming for something other than explaining why it's not his fault someone died.

•Stan Kroenke had no public comment.

Winner: Unless you're the type of WWE Nation citizen who thinks Vince McMahon is a cause and not a wrestling promoter, nobody, since pretty much nobody cares where some TV show is shot.

FANS

•Raw sucked.

•The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 120 to 101 to tie the series 2 games apiece.

Winner: Stan Kroenke

It's getting a little tiresome watching the two major wrestling companies in this country forego their responsibilities to their other owners and, more importantly, their customers and fans, in favor of feeding the insecurities of two selfish, stunted men.

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