• FINANCE TAKEOUT: As a natural resource, crude oil is arguably the keystone of our entire global economy. It seeps in to the cost of every aspect of our travel, business, development, production and even how we farm our food. New York Times Wall Street and finance reporter Louise Story says that while it’s been an historically tumultuous decade for international oil trade that,  these days, the price of oil is staying relatively still.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Last night UConn took on Florida State University and the University of Kentucky went up against Oklahoma. Sports correspondent Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, recaps last night's women's Final Four, in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament starts this week. The brackets are due by noon today. Sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Celeste Headlee got theirs in... (click on the image to enlarge)

With the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament set to start Thursday, many brackets are due by noon today.  If you haven't gotten yours in yet, we've got some last minute tips from freelance sports writer and contributor to SportingNews.com and the Wall Street Journal, Dan Shanoff.

• WASHINGTON TAKEOUT: Health care is back on the front burner for President Obama this week, and today he travels to Glenside, Pa. to push health care at Arcadia University. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich tells us more.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: In like a lion, march madness begins now that college basketball is heating up across the country. Ibrahim Abdul-Matin talks about the UConn women's basketball team tying their own record for consecutive wins, and number one team Syracuse losing.

With a free throw in the second quarter as the Los Angeles Lakers played the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kobe Bryant became the 15th player (and the youngest ever in the 63 year history of the NBA) to reach 25,000 career points. 

Kobe is still just 31 years, 151 days old, and got to point 25,000 in 35 fewer days than Wilt Chamberlain, who finished his career with 31,419 points. Yes, that is THE 'Wilt the Stilt,' who once scored 100 points in a game!

• Airline Takeout: Airline Consultant and President of R.W. Mann and Company Incorporated, Robert Mann, tells us how the airline industry is being affected by the latest terrorist situation on Northwest flight 253.
• The Value: In the latest installment in her series, "The Value," Takeaway correspondent Farai Chideya follows Umesh Malhotra, a former tech entrepreneur who gave up his job to form libraries poor children in his native India.
• Sports: Contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin picks another of his most memorable sports stories this year: the triumph of University of Connecticut's Huskies women's basketball team.

• Washington Takeout: Todd Zwillich has the latest from Capitol Hill in the fight for health care reform.
  
• Sports Takeout: On the day after famous evangelist Oral Roberts died, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin discusses Oral Roberts University's basketball legacy. 
• Listener Takeout: Takeaway listeners are talking about fine print at their ATMs, and share some harsh words for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and his stance on health care.

• Business Takeout: New York Times finance reporter Louise Story says Britain's banking community is in an uproar after the government slapped a 50 percent tax on bankers' bonuses.
• Sports Takeout: In NCAA basketball, two electric teams met last night at Madison Square Garden. Takeaway Sports Contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin gives us a recap, and explains how a change in NBA rules has improved college ball. 
• Listener Takeout: We hear from you about our manufacturing, jobs and a suggestion involving anthills.

• Business Takeout: Louise Story tells us how Harvard is trying to cut costs in a program bringing lawyers into public service, and why it might mean fewer law grads will help the needy.
• Sports Takeout: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin talks about the latest in the NBA, including the Phoenix Suns' reunion with their old coach, Mike D'Antoni, at Madison Square Garden.
• Listener Takeout: Listeners weigh in on the costs and profits in health care.

• Congress Takeout: From Washington, Todd Zwillich looks ahead to the continuing tussle over health care reform in the Senate.
• Sports Takeout: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin discusses half-time Twittering in the NBA and upcoming NFL games.
• Media Takeout: The New York Times' Brian Stelter says the couple who crashed President Obama's first state dinner are asking for big bucks for their first interview about the incident, hoping to cash in before everyone stops caring ... unless it's already too late.

 

Lebron James is the face of basketball. He has said, on "60 Minutes," that he wants to be the world's first "billion dollar athlete." At the end of the season he will finally become a free agent and the entire NBA has reorganized itself to figure out how to make room for King James.

We want to know why he should come to your team. I'll tell you a million reasons he should not come to my city, as much as we need him and as much as I desperately want him. (continue reading...)

Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin talks about what each team must do to be successful in the post season. We also take a peak at Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.

The WNBA finals begin tonight in Arizona as the fast-paced Phoenix Mercury tries to wear down the tough defense of the Indiana Fever. ESPN.com reporter Mechelle Voepel joins us from Phoenix, the site of the finals' first game.

Bonus: Takeaway listener and women's hoops superfan Helen Wheelock complained we haven't covered the WNBA enough — so we invited her on the program to make her case.

Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Prokhorov, signed a tentative $200 million deal on Wednesday to buy the New Jersey Nets. This would make the Nets the first foreign-owned team in the NBA (unless you consider Toronto's Raptors to be coming from a foreign country, of course). The Takeaway's sports contributor, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, explains the deal.

In baseball, the Red Sox are nipping at the Yankees' heels in the American League East.  And in basketball, the NBA is locking out their referees in a labor dispute. Our sports correspondent, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, walks us around the bases.

Our sports correspondent, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, looks at the NFL and the rise of the "wildcat offense."

The WNBA (the professional women’s basketball league) just kicked off its new season. The team that won the first WNBA championships, the Houston Comets, folded under financial pressure. The team's that remain are more talent-packed than ever. But they still face a very tough opponent: the economy. The Takeaway is joined by ESPN.com writer Mechelle Voepel to talk about the WBNA's future.

Watch the top 10 WNBA plays in the video below.

My aunts and uncle called me from L.A. just as the game was ending. All I could hear was a loud buzzing from my phone – it was them cheering, hooting, hollering, letting the world know that the Los Angeles Lakers are now the NBA champions.

Did the Orlando Magic realize they were in an NBA final? They looked lost. The Lakers, on the other hand, knew exactly where they were. Their five-game series win doesn't quite sweep away the drubbing they got from the Boston Celtics last year, but they did become one of only two teams to win the NBA championship a year after losing. As a franchise, the Lakers have won 50 percent of the finals they have played in. They can legitimately claim to be one of the most dominant franchises in sports.

This is the tenth NBA title for legendary coach Phil Jackson. (Jackson won as a player with the Knicks.) He coached the Chicago Bulls to six titles and the Lakers to four. Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher now have four each. But this year the NBA playoffs made stars out of some previously unknown players. Guys like Trevor Ariza, Houston's Aaron Brooks (whose play brought the Lakers to the brink in seven games) and the Celtics’ Glenn Davis, whose heroics on a team playing without star Kevin Garnett, made the C’s still feel like a contender before they went down to the Magic in seven. This year also brought some players like LeBron James and Dwight Howard back down to earth. In the end, though, this NBA season was all about a 30-year-old veteran named Kobe Bryant. He showed that he can win without Shaq; he is the best player in the league; and he’s got a lot more left in the tank. He's also got a team around him that is young and hungry for more.

After the men's final last night (sorry Michigan State!), tonight the women head to St. Louis for their game. In the NCAA women’s final tonight powerhouse UConn takes on scrappy Louisville. If their last two match-ups are any harbinger, Louisville will need to bring out the big guns tonight since the Huskies dominated the Cardinals in their previous two games this season. Also, UConn has been completely unstoppable this season. Blogger Ibrahim Abdul-Matin has been keeping tabs of all the action and joins The Takeaway to get us ready for what should be a great finale to the college basketball season.


See what UConn will bring to the game in the clip below.