So I’m leaving tomorrow for a 7 week trip to Europe. Obviously, I’m very excited about it, but I will say that this is a very loaded part of the sports year, and there are a lot of things I’m going to miss. So here’s my list of the events I’ll miss most, and a little analysis on each for all the die-hards that will miss my expertise. Not included on the list is the Champions League Final next week because I’m expecting the enjoy that more in Europe than I would in the U.S.

1. LeBron pulling a 40-13-12 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to beat the Lakers and win his first NBA Championship – Mark it down. The entire NBA season has been building up to the Kobe v. LeBron showdown, and I expect that it won’t disappoint. The way the teams have been playing of late, the Cavs would roll in 5 or so, but I expect Kobe to take it to another level as the playoffs continue, and that should only raise LeBron’s level of play. He’s been so impressive to watch all year, and I think the coronation of The Bron happens this June.

2. The NBA Draft – Luckily for all the TPB readers, Pat will have a good handle on the Draft, and I know he’s got some thoughts on specific players coming up. In regards to his thoughts on Griffin v. Beasley and Rubio, I think he hit the nail right on the head. I’ve been a member of the Rubio bandwagon for a while, and wholeheartedly agree that Griffin will be a good NBA player but not necessarily a franchise-changing player. As a former member of the Beasley over Rose camp, I’ve learned my lesson. I see Griffin as a slightly better David Lee, which is to say not the best player on a Championship caliber team. Here’s a few other thoughts on specific players that I may or may not have touched on before.

James Harden – I know we’ve talked about this one, but I think he’s going to be the most overdrafted player in the first round, ahead of Thabeet. Every time I’ve watched him play he’s been vastly disappointing. He’s not that good of a shooter, doesn’t have many moves, and does most of his work by overpowering guys, which he simply won’t be able to do in the NBA. I’d want no part of him.

DeJaun Blair – Love him, think he should go in the top 5-8. At the absolute worst, he’s a beast on the boards and can be the first big man off the bench. Yeah, he’s a little undersized, but everyone knows about his enormous arms. Rebounding has been shown to the be most transferable skill from college to the NBA, and Blair was the best in the country this past year (better than Griffin) grabbing around an absurd 25% of missed shots – a historic level of dominance. And, he’s developing some good post moves which should allow him to be a starter on a good team for a long time.

Earl Clark, Austin Daye – Frauds.

Jeff Teague – Looks like at this point he’s probably staying in the draft, much to my chagrin as a Wake fan. He could definitely use another year in college to work on his ball-handling and consistency (the old Joe Morgan manuever), but offensively, he’s shown to have the game that belongs in the league. He’ll never be a true PG, but Teague should be a potent offensive weapon as long he continues to go to the rim where he’s great at drawing contact.

3. Johan Santana’s No-Hitter – It’s gonna happen. Johan’s been spectacular this year for the most part, and there can be no debate that he’s one of the two best pitchers in baseball bar none. While Johan’s No-no will be a great day for Mets fans everywhere – getting the franchise’s first No-hitter – it will also be a major victory for another group in society … people with brains. For so long, there’s been this stupid assumption that the Mets first no-hitter would be thrown by some crappy incosistent pitcher who has a lucky day. First it was Victor Zambrano being touted, then Oliver Perez. All over the league, you hear about guys with “No-hit stuff.” These are pitchers like Daniel Cabrera and Jonathan Sanchez. Well guess what, the problem with that is that they suck. Take a look at the list of guys who have thrown no-hitters over the last 30 years or so. Sure there’s guys like Bud Smith and Mike Warren, but the vast majority of them were solid MLB pitchers over a long period of time, with a bunch of guys who were great. So yeah, there’s an infinitely better chance that Johan Santana is going to throw a no-hitter than Oliver Perez or Nelson Figueroa, and it’s gonna happen in about five weeks.

I’ll also miss following the Amazins over the next several weeks, but thankfully it’s a long season and I won’t have any trouble picking up right where I left off. Despite some troubling defense and decision-making so far, the Mets are still the best team in the NL East and are probably a starting pitcher away from running away with the division. If only Jerry Manuel would just let Daniel Murphy work in more at 1b and stop playing Sheffield so much at the expense of Ryan Church, I’d feel even better about the season. And thanks should go out to Carlos Beltran for making me look smart for picking him as the NL MVP.

4. Stanley Cup Finals – It’s been a really fun playoffs to watch so far, and as one of the people who doesn’t pay attention to the NHL at all until the playoffs come around, I’ve been more interested this year than I have in years. There’s still nothing in sports that matches playoff OT or Game 7 hockey, where it can end at any moment and everyone’s afraid to look away for a second. I’ve also been really impressed with Crosby this year, much more so than last year. He’s made some plays that I’ve never seen anyone else make, and I’m hoping the Penguins take home the Cup this year. If they make the finals they’ll either get a juicy rematch of last year’s finals or they’ll be taking on one of the most exciting teams in the Blackhawks so it should be imminently watchable.

5. The U.S. Open – There’s really nothing Tiger can do to top last year’s performance, but he’s defending both last year’s win and his 2002 win the last time the Open was at Bethpage. The ‘Page was a great tournament host and created one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever seen at a golf tournament, so it should be another good tournament this year. Don’t sleep on Craig Stadler.

6.Confederations Cup – I’m secretly a huge U.S. Soccer fan, it’s one of my favorite things to follow and it’s so easy because the team plays so rarely. And I love international soccer, so getting the chance to watch the U.S. team play in a major international tournament would be great. The U.S. is in a group with both Brazil and Italy, so they get two great tests to see where the team stands heading into next year’s World Cup. The biggest question mark at this point for the U.S. squad is who to team with Michael Bradley in the central midfield, with the most likely options being Pablo Mastroeni, Jose Francisco Torres and Sascha Kleistan. My money is on Mastroeni getting the job to start, but Torres holding the spot come World Cup time – it should be interesting to watch.

7.French Open and Wimbledon – With Federer having finally beaten Nadal on clay, it should be an interesting tournament. I’d expect the loss to only motivate Nadal to roll through the French. On the flip side, I’d really like to see Federer step it up and win another Wimbledon. The drama of a good Nadal/Federer match is always interesting and makes for a great TV experience.

8. The Matt Wieters and David Price call-ups – Since the O’s and Rays are both holding back their studs in order to keep them under team control an extra year in the long term, we as baseball fans get a couple nice infusions of interest soon. For the Rays, I still believe they’re going to be making a strong run at the postseason, and Price will likely be a major part of that push. Wieters has been heralded as the best prospect in the game for a while now, and I’m very excited to see him up in the bigs. And so is my fantasy team.

9. MLB Draft – I’m less interested in the MLB draft this year than year’s past because there’s not much drama. The real interest is in how soon Strasburg will sign, and for how much. Like everyone else, I’d like to see him sign early so we can watch him pitch in the majors, but I actually think it’s in the Nats best interest to wait to sign him closer to the deadline and then let him start next year in the majors. I think Strasburg only has so many innings in his arm throwing around 100 mph, so the team is probably better off getting those innings in a season that’s not already lost. That being said, if he does come up right away this year, he’ll create some interest in the franchise that hasn’t been there since the team first moved to DC.

10. HHH sledgehammering Chris Andersen before he can complete his breakaway dunk