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April 30, 2009

Head Games

Paul Pierce played the role of hero on Tuesday night knocking down big shot after big shot for the Celtics in their overtime victory over the Bulls. For the first time in NBA history, three games in the same series have been decided in overtime.

Yet, despite Pierce's heroics, Boston's thrilling OT victory at home in Game 5 will be remembered for a Rajon Rondo's hard foul in the final seconds on Chicago's Brad Miller.

Orlando also won a Game 5 on its home floor as Dwight Howard's 24 points and 24 rebounds helped lift the Magic to a 13-point victory over the Philadelphia 76ers and take the 3-2 series advantage heading into Game 6.

Like Pierce, Howard's monster game will also be overshadowed by a blow to the head. Howard nailed the 76ers Sam Dalembert with an elbow to the head three minutes into Game 5 and was issued a technical foul. The following day, after reviewing tape of the incident, the NBA suspended Howard for Game 6 in Philly.

In case you missed it, here's a look at both plays.

Normally, I'm not one to criticize NBA officials. I feel like most people use poor officiating as a crutch to fall back on when they don't know enough about the actual game to find anything better to talk about.

However, on Tuesday, it looked like the officials botched both calls and in both instances the team committing the foul was rewarded greatly.

We'll start with Dwight Howard. The NBA rulebook clearly states, "A player, coach or trainer must be ejected for ... An elbow foul which makes contact above shoulder level."

As you can see, the rulebook clearly states that a player is to be ejected for the exact same kind of foul the Howard committed. Instead, by issuing Howard just a technical foul, he was allowed to remain in the game, a game in which he completely dominated on both ends of the floor, and the Magic won rather easily.

Had Howard been ejected just three minutes into the game, the Magic would have been reeling, and Philly could have delivered a knockout blow of their own and stole the decisive Game 5 and home court away from the Magic.

Now, even despite the devastating suspension for Game 6, the Magic are still in the driver's seat for this series. Even if they lose Game 6 in Philly without Howard, they'll still have a fresh and motivated Dwight Howard for the deciding Game 7 on their home floor.

The league probably made the right call by suspending Howard on Wednesday, but it's too little too late for Philly, as their best chance to win the series was to take both Games 5 and 6. Now, because the rules were bent to cater to a superstar, if only temporarily, the 76ers are faced with the daunting best-case-scenario of having to win a Game 7 on the road to advance to the next round.

Still, the lack of an ejection for Dwight Howard is a slight mistake compared to the call (or no-call in this case) made on the Rajon Rondo foul in the closing seconds of game five of the Celtics/Bulls series.

Already this postseason, there have been six flagrant fouls called around the league, and almost every single flagrant foul involves some sort of blow to the head, whether it was intentional or not.

How many times over the past two seasons have we seen a "flagrant one" foul called because a defending player has made contact with the shooter's head trying to stop a breakaway, regardless of the fouler's intent? The NBA has made it a point of emphasis to call flagrant fouls on those types of plays recently in an effort to protect its high-flying superstars from potentially serious injuries.

Hell, even Chauncey Billups, winner of this year's Joe Dumars award for sportsmanship, was issued a flagrant foul this postseason for hitting Rasual Butler high and hard on a fast break. Chauncey wasn't trying to hurt Butler, but a blow to the head is a blow to the head, and the officials have been calling it a flagrant foul for the better part of two seasons.

That is, right up until it happens with a playoff game on the line. When it happens then, it falls somewhere in the popular "hard playoff foul" category, and Brad Miller is basically told to suck it up and hit both free throws.

Had a flagrant foul been called, even if Miller missed one of his two free throws (a probability seeing as how he was clearly shaken up on the play, although how much is debatable) the Bulls would have still been able to take the ball out of bounds and have one play to win the game.

Brad Miller did a good job of not losing his cool after the foul and doing something dumb that could have cost his team, but is it possible that he remained too calm?

Think about this, if Miller would have played up how hurt he was, maybe yelled at Rondo to the point of having to be restrained, or even just walked over to the official to show him how badly his lip was cut, it may have given the impression to the officials that the foul in question could have possibly been worse than initially thought.

If Miller does a better job of planting the flagrant foul seed in the official's minds, perhaps they take a different mindset into reviewing the tape, and decide amongst the three of them that it was indeed a flagrant foul and the Bulls would get two shots and the ball.

One final possession for the Bulls at least guaranteed them one chance to win the game, even if that chance boils down to no more than a desperation three at the buzzer. A desperation three still has more of a success rate than a tip in off a missed free throw with only two seconds to play.

Maybe what Rondo did really does fit under the category of "hard playoff foul" and the right call was made. That's not really for anyone besides the officials to decide. But if the entire regular season and most of the playoffs are going to be officiated a certain way, and the final seconds of a critical game five are to be officiated a different way, the league is leaving the door wide open for more unneeded criticism of its referees.

By now, there should be a rule in place that clearly states whether blows to the head, inadvertent or not, should be considered flagrant fouls. Having a clear-cut definition of the rule one way or the other would have eliminated any confusion at the end of that game, and we would have spent the two days between games discussing how great Paul Pierce was down the stretch.

Instead, regrettably, the biggest story so far to come out of quite possibly the greatest first round matchup in NBA history revolves around a call made (or not made) by the referees. Nobody wins in that situation, and the optimist in me hopes that this issue will be addressed this offseason so we can keep the focus on the great playmaking that's been happening this postseason and not on the difficult-to-comprehend determinations of the refs.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2009

Tapping Into the NFL Draft

Everyone loves a good draft. Cool, refreshing ... uh, oh, that kind of draft. Yeah, those are good, too. So in honor of the other draft, the one that makes everything go down better (like your team's questionable picks), here are some things that struck me about this year's NFL draft.

(This will not be a nuts and bolts breakdown of every player and every team as if anyone actually knew what the hell to make of each and every pick and how their careers will go. The beer theme was a clue.)

Premium Import

The Jets got a quality pour, but the result of their deal with the Browns, Mark Sanchez, is every bit as lucky. Not since Ben Roethlisberger has a first-round QB entered a better situation. Good line, good RB, experienced receivers, near playoff team last year before Brett Favre went Alzheimer's and forgot which color jersey to throw to. And an at least serviceable guy in Kellen Clemens that can steer the ship if he's not ready to start right away, but no one that can hold him out of the lineup long-term the way Aaron Rogers was.

Throw on the fact that he's dealt with the big city media in Los Angeles and has great intangibles, and the weakness of only starting 16 college games starts to look increasingly insignificant.

Leaning Domestic

For the more affordable night out. The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Kansas City Chiefs (and probably the Rams and Seahawks) didn't want to pay top-dollar for their top-five picks, so they would have rather traded down. They would have rather just gone for a six-pack of something reasonable to fix their many needs. But only the Browns were able to get someone to trade up, and so the Lions drafted a franchise quarterback into a system and franchise designed for him to fail, and the Chiefs reached for DE Tyson Jackson about 10 picks before he was projected to go. At least the Seahawks and Rams got players that are regarded as top-three talents as close to can't-miss as can be found at their positions in LB Aaron Curry and OT Jason Smith.

As bad teams are stuck with top picks that they don't want and can't give away, the need for a rookie/draftee pay scale has become so obvious it's unbelievable. Rookies that have proven nothing shouldn't be able to handcuff bad teams financially at the expense of upward mobility and veteran salaries.

Pabst on Tap

It's not that a case of Darius Heyward-Bey won't get the job done. But the seventh pick is still priced at a premium. With such uniquely crafted microbrews as Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin still on the board for the same price, this order will make any bartender look at you funny ... and possibly cut you off. Wide receivers with inconsistent hands and unpolished route-running abilities generally don't go in the top 10. Unless you're the Raiders.

Of course, the Raiders definitely should have been cut off a round later when they ordered a Michael Mitchell. What's a Michael Mitchell? How 'bout a safety from Ohio Not State, one that didn't produce all that much in the MAAC. By no means do I consider Scouts, Inc. rankings gospel, but he was slapped with a 20. To put it in perspective: A) that's the minimum; he wasn't really even graded; and B) the Raiders' sixth-round pick, Stryker Sulak (presumably drafted for his cool name), graded out at a 37. Denver, with the very next pick, took a safety out of Texas Tech in Darcel McBath, who was a 69. Meanwhile, most had Mitchell as a seventh-rounder or free agent.

Again, not vouching for these rankings. But come on, the prognosticators can't be that much worse than the Raiders at evaluating talent, can they?

Half-Off Happy Hour Special

The 49ers take advantage of the discount on a smooth, refined, robust Michael Crabtree. And they certainly owe the Raiders a round. Of Patron. (Then again, they could slip them Jose Silver instead and they'd probably be none the wiser...)

Not Enough Head

Plenty of taste in the quality of the Bengals' draft. But for a franchise long on head cases and police blotters, the talent comes with a warning: it may turn out to be flat.

Don't get me wrong. Cincinnati may have gotten as much talent as anyone in this draft. The get a potential franchise tackle in Andre Smith. And Rey Maualuga in the second round? I understand a lack of hip fluidity and over-aggressive instincts pushing him out of the top 20. But at 38? A steal. DE Michael Johnson and TE Chase Coffman are regarded as good values in the third round.

But even disregarding the agent issues that landed Smith a Sugar Bowl suspension, his weight and corresponding work ethic/commitment concerns had a few teams shying away. Maualuga has a couple bar-fights and an anger-management session on the resume. On any other team, I would even say they are minor risks worth the gamble. Ending up on the Bengals, however, seems to serve as a multiplier for off-field problems. This team already had enough red flags that it was considering making it a primary team color.

Oh, and sixth-round pick Bernard Scott comes in having been kicked off a high school and a college team (both for fights; at Central Arkansas, he punched a coach), and he got probation after giving false info on a traffic stop. So he's already considered a seasoned veteran in that locker room.

All Foam

At least the Bengals will be entertaining. There was no substance in the draft for the Dallas Cowboys or Chicago Bears. Hope Roy Williams and Jay Cutler are worth it. And they may be. But with the keg kicked for the first and second round, the draft isn't helping the party get started this year without some of their many lower-round picks surpassing expectations.

Blonde Ale

Can we please bring back Kevin Greene to play with A.J. Hawk and Clay Matthews in Green Bay to have the All-Blond-Mullet linebacking corps? Matthews, almost by consensus the safest pick of the stellar trio of USC linebackers, should help solidify that unit with his Hall of Fame pedigree and apparent lack of a true weakness.

Steel Reserve

It just doesn't make sense; it leads to a night of bad choices and a morning of pain and regret. The Broncos had 10 picks, five in the first two rounds. They are proud owners of an awful front-seven (it's been said their entire line wouldn't start on any other team). And they pick one guy to help. Hmmmm...

Knowshon Moreno at No. 12 set the tone for the mistakes the way that first 40 oz. of 8.1 percent fuel will lay the base for a bad night. Forget that he could have been there still at pick 18 in a league where the marquee running back is losing value and importance to two-back systems and injury risks. Denver has made many journeymen into 1,000-yard backs in recent years, and new coach Josh McDaniels comes from New England, a team that has won Super Bowls without an elite back playing a key role.

Granted, McDaniels had a guy named Tom Brady in New England and Denver couldn't find any backs to get the job done last year. But then again, McDaniels chased away his Pro Bowl QB (or had him cry his way off the team, whichever you prefer) and again, good backs are always available a lot later in the draft.

Six picks later, the Broncos drafted Robert Ayers, a DE out of Tennessee, and if they had simply gone after defense from there, taking the best RB could have been understandable. But only three of the remaining eight picks were defensive, and all of them in the secondary. Since Ayers projects as a linebacker in a 3-4, they got zero defensive linemen.

Plenty of potency in this draft, but when Denver is watching the defensive struggles continue next year, a killer hangover will certainly set in.

Somehow the Raiders are only the second most beer-goggled team in the division.

Woah, sorry. After typing that sentence, maybe I'm the one feeling a little buzzed...

Posted by Kyle Jahner at 11:54 AM | Comments (10)

NASCAR Top 10 Power Rankings: Week 9

Note: the quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Kurt Busch — Busch avoided the three big wrecks at Talladega, and survived a skid through the infield after losing control on lap 60, to post a sixth-place finish and jump to the top of the Sprint Cup point standings. Busch passed Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in the points, both of whom fell victim in separate crashes in the Aaron's 499.

"I think Roger Penske would agree with me," says Busch, "that this is something to yell about. And believe me, that radio chatter would be safe for virgin ears. But who am I to speak on the subject of virgin ears?"

"If you've noticed, it was mostly the drivers who wrecked that are calling for NASCAR to amend some of the rules of restrictor plate racing in the name of safety. Me? I'm all for restrictor plates. That is, restrictor plates on the opinions of drivers opposed to restrictor plate racing."

2. Jeff Gordon — Gordon's Talladega hopes were squelched early on Sunday in the wreckage of the early "Big One," a 13-car pile-up that sent Gordon to the garage for lengthy and major repairs. On lap 7, Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet, sporting Darrel Waltrip's classic 1983 Pepsi Challenger paint scheme, was clipped by Matt Kenseth, sent into the wall, and into the path of nearly the entire field. Gordon completed 128 laps and finished 37th, and lost the points lead. He is now in second, 5 behind Kurt Busch.

"I guess Kenseth took the 'Pepsi Challenge," says Gordon. "And won."

"Kenseth and I have had our share of run-ins, and usually, I find myself on the short end. Bristol 2006. Talladega 2009. I think, instead of the Pepsi Challenger retro paint scheme, it would have made more sense had my car displayed a paint scheme of the new Zac Efron movie, because after my accident, I found myself saying '17 Again?'"

3. Jimmie Johnson — With nine laps to go, Johnson was lurking, in position to challenge for the win, when Denny Hamlin bumped Juan Montoya, sparking another multi-car pileup that collected the Lowe's No. 48 Chevrolet. Johnson finished 30th, and was clearly unhappy with the driving that abruptly ended his day.

"I'm not one to name names," says Johnson, "unless I running down the list of my sponsors whenever there's a camera thrust in front of me."

"If it's incredible speeds, spectacular crashes, and exciting finishes, Talladega Superspeedway delivers. If it's impatient driving leading to an accident that spoils my chances, then Fed Ex delivers."

4. Tony Stewart — On the race's final restart, Stewart lost a cylinder and fell considerably back, foiling an opportunity to hook up with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Ryan Newman, who led at the time and eventually finished third. Stewart hobbled across the line in 23rd, the last car on the lead lap.

"For me," says Stewart, "the 'Big One' wasn't a massive accident, but a single engine cylinder."

I really thought I could have got in line with Ryan and run a train to possible victory, but it was not to be. My engine soured, and Ryan was caught in one of the 'Big One's.'"

"But really, talk of 'running trains' and 'big ones' segued nicely to talk of my next hauler party, which took place in the lovely Talladega infield. As long as my hauler's in the infield, then the infield 'fly' rule is in effect. And just like the race on Sunday, my party featured 'three-wide' action, fire, spectator injuries, visits to the infield care center, and a surprise visit from Brad Keselowski."

5. Carl Edwards — In the lead, and with the finish line in sight, Edwards' plan to hang back and make a late dash in the Aaron's 499 nearly came to fruition. Edwards teamed up with the No. 09 car of Brad Keselowski in the closing laps, and the two easily rumbled past the inside line led by Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. But, as Edwards went to block Keselowski's pass attempt on the low line, the No. 99 was nudged by Keselowski directly into the path of Newman's No. 39, the force of which sent Edward's Ford crashing into the catch fence. Keselowski went on to victory, while Edwards' car came to rest within feet of the finish line. Edwards exited his wrecked machine and jogged to the finish line, symbolically completing his final lap.

"It's incredibly disappointing to come so close to my first Talladega victory," say Edwards, "only to have it ripped away at the last moment." "However, on a positive note, I did accomplish another first — completing a backflip while still in the car."

"You know, while I was airborne, I had lots of time to think. And I came to the conclusion that NASCAR needs to review restrictor plate racing and makes some changes so what happened late Sunday is never repeated. Or, maybe the simplest solution is for drivers, like myself, not to try to block a pass at 200 miles per hour."

6. Kyle Busch — Busch led a race-high 42 laps, and was in the front with 17 laps to go when a spin initiated by contact from Jeff Burton ended his reign out front. Then, Busch was unable to refire the engine of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota, and after a push from a safety vehicle, he found himself a lap down. He finished 25th, and dropped one slot to sixth in the point standings.

"With the Pedigree paint scheme on my car," says Busch, "it was unfortunately fitting that I experienced a 'dog-day afternoon.' And, as I idly sat in my car as the field roared by, along with my chances at victory, all I could say was dog 'gone.' Well, that and countless references to the male offspring of a female canine."

"As for all the talk about the inherent danger in racing at superspeedways, there is no simple solution that will restrictor 'placate' everyone. In NASCAR's defense, I think they are reluctant to make changes that may deny fans the action, however dangerous, that they want to see. NASCAR fans are a resilient bunch; if outrageous ticket prices won't drive them away, then I doubt the threat of physical harm will either."

"Besides, what can possibly make a better souvenir than a piece of a race car? You know, there are lot of things you can buy at NASCAR merchandise stands. Shrapnel isn't one of them."

7. Denny Hamlin — Within a span of three laps, Hamlin experienced the agony and the ecstasy of racing at Talladega, with the end result being a wrecked race car and the ire of his contemporaries. On lap 177, Hamlin linked up with Ryan Newman, and the two sailed past the leaders. Then, just as quickly, Hamlin lost the draft and fell back, and on lap 181, tapped Juan Montoya, causing the second "Big One," which collected several cars. Hamlin finished the day 22nd.

"I'm sure a lot of the guys are calling my driving 'Ham'-fisted," says Hamlin. "They can 'den'-igrate my ability all they want. Their request for an apology — 'Den-ny'-ed."

"Now, in a restrictor plate race, traffic is always an issue. And if you're bumper-to-bumper with a Colombian, it becomes an even more serious issue — cocaine trafficking."

8. Clint Bowyer — Bowyer was a casualty of the lap 7 "Big One," his No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet a crumpled heap after the crash that collected thirteen cars. While the accident sent four cars involved to the garage for good, Bowyer's crew worked feverishly to get him back on the track. Eventually, he returned to the race and completed the final lap, finishing 39th. Bowyer dropped two places in the Sprint Cup point standings to eighth.

"What's important is we kept my streak of not having a 'DNF' alive," says Bowyer. "I've got to hand it to the BB&T team. They spent over three hours repairing the car to get my back out there. They showed a lot of spirit and hard work. That's what this team is all about. No, not spirit and hard work. But setting and achieving goals, albeit senseless ones."

"Was there any rhyme or reason to wasting resources repairing a totaled car just to complete the final lap and keep a silly DNF streak alive? No, it was an illogical and unreasonable proposition. We really had nothing to gain, or lose. So, call it a 'catch-33.'"

9. Greg Biffle — Biffle was one of the few to remain unscathed on a chaotic day at Talladega, as he kept his car out of harm's way in three big crashes, including a narrow miss of teammate Carl Edward's wrecked Ford Fusion during a crash-filled finish. Biffle finished seventh, his third-straight top-10 result, and is now tenth in the point standings after advancing four places.

"Wow, what a wild finish," says Biffle. "Carl nearly ran the perfect race, except for the part where people were nearly killed."

"But it's quite a testament to Carl's fitness and stamina that he was able to emerge from a violently-wrecked race car and make it to the finish line. Only a workout freak like Carl could drive nearly 500 miles, then finish with a light jog."

10. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. — Earnhardt posted his first top-five finish of the year with a runner-up result in the Aaron's 499, as his protégé, Brad Keselowski, capped a wild day with an even wilder finish in scoring the victory. Earnhardt led for 20 laps on the day, and was anticipating a last lap move on Ryan Newman until Keselowski and Carl Edwards rolled to the lead on the high side.

"Congratulations to Brad," says Earnhardt, "for the biggest win in his career. It all downhill from here. He's in the record books for the most exciting win in Talladega history, as well as the dorkiest post-race interview."

"As you know, Brad drives for my Nationwide JR Motorsports team. So I got quite a bit of satisfaction from seeing an employee win a race. It's a lesson Teresa Earnhardt never quite learned."

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2009

A New World (Championship) Order

The sea change known as the 2009 Formula One season can best be summed up by one tidbit from Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

When Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen led laps in the middle of the race as a result of being off-sequence with the leaders' pit strategies, they were the first laps led this season by any of last year's top four teams (Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, and Renault). Mind you, this was taking place in the fourth race of 17, usually a point in the season where the two dominant championship-winning sides of the past 11 years in Ferrari and McLaren had found their perch on top of the standings.

In those last 11 years, Ferrari and McLaren have combined to win nine drivers' championships and nine constructors' titles (the formal name for the team title), with the exceptions being the Fernando Alonso-led double titles for Renault in 2005 and 2006.

And as bad as McLaren and defending champion Lewis Hamilton have struggled early on in 2009, Ferrari has had an even tougher go of it. Through the first three races, the most famous and most successful Formula One team had no points from either driver. With the top eight cars in each Grand Prix receiving points, and a field of 20 cars, Ferrari failed to even crack the top 40% of a race after having six chances (two cars in a team and three races).

This awful start for the team was its worst in over three decades, back when points were only given to the top six runners.

This season is a far, far cry from the team that had one of the most dominant spells in top-level sports history from 2000-2004, when Michael Schumacher won five straight world titles under the prancing horse banner.

If you don't follow F1, all of this begs the question, "Well, how come?" Formula One, like a large amount of motor sports series, rarely sees elite teams and organizations become also-rans over a winter and vice-versa.

The FIA, which governs F1, made huge rules changes to be implemented for 2009, which included the return of slick tires (the tires had been grooved for the last decade or so in an effort to slightly curb speeds), a larger front wing, smaller rear wing, and a maximum of eight engines used. All of these changes were made to lower the exorbitant modern-day costs of running an F1 team and to improve racing.

The result? In the first race of the season in Melbourne, Australia, a team that had only come into formal existence three weeks prior, won the race and took a 1-2 to boot, with Jenson Button winning and Rubens Barrichello second. In the process, it became the first team in three and a half decades to win its debut race.

The team was previously known as Honda, who pulled out of the sport in December as a business decision. Amazingly, even though no buyer had been found for the former team's assets and with the team's existence in the balance, work continued on the car that was to be Honda's 2009 edition under the tutelage of Honda team principal and former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn.

For a while, it seemed like Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim was going to take over the team, but never came to fruition. So, Brawn bought the team himself and named the remnants of the old Honda team Brawn GP in eponymous fashion.

It is a common strategy in Formula One, in midseason when a team is doing worse than planned, to abandon development on that year's car in order to focus on making the next year's car a hopeful contender. This scenario usually plays out with a smaller team or underachieving big-money spender that traditionally wouldn't have a chance of winning races anyway. Its results have a less-than-stellar track record of working, partly due to the fact that the richest teams have so many employees and so much cash on hand that their development can be done in a fraction of the time of a cash-strapped team.

In a twist that pretty much stops the proper time-space continuum of F1, Ferrari have made statements alluding to the possibility that they may give up development on 2009 soon, a further testament to how ill-prepared the Italian team was for the next generation of Formula One.

Obviously, for Brawn, this strategy worked out perfectly, despite not having any sponsorship (a main source of revenue for F1 teams) until the day before the season-opener in Melbourne when Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group stepped up. The success of Brawn is interesting as well in the fact that Honda were largely serial underachievers except for a second-place constructors finish in 2004, despite winning no races.

So far, Button has continued his winning ways, also winning in Malaysia three weeks ago and Bahrain on Sunday. Button is also making huge steps toward shedding a personal underachiever tag, which may well have been a direct result of being under the previous Honda banner for over five years.

Some cynics that cover the sport have pointed to Brawn's success as a result of its controversial rear diffuser under the rear wing, which took advantage of a loophole in the regulations and helps with the aerodynamics and grip of the car. However, two other teams (Toyota and Williams) have similar diffusers and have been shown to be not as fast at the moment as Brawn.

All three teams' diffusers were declared legal by the FIA at the Australian Grand Prix and then upheld in a ruling by the FIA's appeals court earlier this month in a hearing that reportedly saw heated exchanges between Brawn and his former employers.

And while Brawn have the best car, and certainly the most ingenious team principal, the Red Bull team is close on Brawn's tail if the last two races are any indication. Red Bull takes the cake as far as what team has the best car designer, with the energy drink-funded group boasting Adrian Newey as its designer. Newey ranks as possibly the best car designer in the sport and has seen his cars win championship almost everywhere he has gone. It helps immensely that Red Bull has one of the best young drivers in the series in Sebastian Vettel, who, even at 21, is already the best wet-weather driver in the series.

Last season, the battle between Ferrari and McLaren came down to the last corner of the last race. This season would be hard-pressed to live up to the dramatics of what GrandPrix.com called, "The race of the century," yet the sport is already undergoing its biggest changes in decades through four races in 2009.

Posted by Ross Lancaster at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2009

2009 NFL Draft Roundup

Maybe I'm going soft in my old age, but my draft report card this year is filled with As and Bs. Maybe teams drafted better, maybe I just saw the glass as half-full this weekend, or maybe the other 31 teams benefitted from Oakland's bizarre use of early picks. Here are my choices for this year's draft winners and losers, plus a few tweeners who mixed good and bad.

2009 Draft Winners

* Washington — Perennial draft losers under Daniel Snyder, they have to be thrilled with Texas DE Brian Orakpo in the 13th spot. Adding Albert Haynesworth and Orakpo should have an immediate impact on Washington's underachieving pass rush. Local product Kevin Barnes, a cornerback from Maryland, could help fill the hole created by Shawn Springs' departure.

* San Francisco 49ers — Like Washington, picked up a talented player who dropped, getting Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree with the 10th slot in the draft. Some scouts believed Crabtree was the best player in the whole draft. The Niners also got Carolina's 2010 first-round selection in a trade for the 43rd pick this year.

* University of Southern California — With more first-round selections (3) than any other school, and more first-day selections (5) than any other school, USC remains the premier proving ground for NFL rookies.

* Green Bay Packers — Got two highly regarded defensive prospects who could be immediate impact players. B.J. Raji was the premier nose tackle in this year's draft, and Clay Matthews III is a versatile LB who should also facilitate the transition to a 3-4 defense. That makes the Packers draft-day winners, but they probably overpaid in the trade for Matthews, giving up two third-round picks by trading up.

* New England Patriots — Turned their first pick (23rd overall) into a second-rounder this year and two second-round choices next year. The Patriots made six picks in the first three rounds, and they're well on their way to the same in 2010.

* Wide Receivers — After no wideouts went in the first round last year, six were taken in this year's first round.

* Teams that pick quickly — Washington, Denver, and Minnesota, I'm looking in your direction here. Thanks for helping to keep the first round under six hours. For the rest of the league, if you know who you're picking and you haven't gotten a serious trade offer after a couple minutes, just go to the damn podium. I swear some teams use the whole 10 minutes to deliberately waste everyone's time.

* Minnesota Vikings — Drafted for need. Third-round CB Asher Allen should help address the team's weakness on pass defense, and gigantic second-rounder Phil Loadholt (6'8", 332 lbs.) was a great value who could start at right tackle on opening day. The question mark is first-round selection Percy Harvin. He fills the team's need for a play-making wide receiver, and no one questions Harvin's talent, but some league observers have concerns about potential off-field issues.

No one is the next Randy Moss, but it's hard not to draw the connection between Harvin, a talented-but-troubled WR who slipped to 22nd in the draft due to character concerns, and Moss, a talented-but-troubled WR who slipped to 21st in the draft due to character concerns, especially since both were eventually drafted by the Vikings. Harvin was a substantial gamble, but even if he doesn't work out, Loadholt and Allen could salvage this draft. If Harvin is anything like Moss, though, Minnesota may have had the best draft of any team in the league.

* Tyson Jackson — A week ago, he was projected to go in the middle of the first round. Now he's the third choice in the draft, staring at a $50 million contract.

* Seattle Seahawks — Aaron Curry fell to them with the fourth pick, plus they got Denver's 2010 first-rounder in exchange for this year's second-round pick, and then traded up to grab OL Max Unger in the middle of the second. Curry will have to be awfully good, because it looks like the 'Hawks will go into 2009 minus both of last year's starting OLBs, Julian Peterson and Leroy Hill.

* UConn — When did the Huskies become a football powerhouse? They had four players selected on the first day of the draft, more than anyone except USC (5) and Ohio State (4).

* Philadelphia Eagles — I'm not sure I understand their first-round selection of Jeremy Maclin. Was it a value pick on a player they had graded in the top 10, or were they targeting a WR? Maclin is the same type of player as DeSean Jackson, a burner and a returner. It's not surprising that the Eagles picked a receiver, but most people expected them to go with a bigger, possession-type receiver. Same thing in the second round, where Philadelphia added a running back, LeSean McCoy, who is almost exactly the same size as Brian Westbrook. The team has needed a power back for years, but McCoy seems more like Westbrook's heir apparent than a short-yardage complement. I don't question that these were good value picks, but I'm not sure how the players fit into the Eagles' 2009 lineup. It looks to me like the team addressed strengths rather than weaknesses. This team is a contender right now, and it should be building a team for 2009, not 2012.

Despite some concern that Philadelphia is sacrificing the present by planning for the future, I do like their fifth-round picks and the trade for Jason Peters. Through some wild wheeling and dealing in the third and fifth rounds, the Eagles also secured extra third- and fifth-round choices in next year's draft, a couple of extra late-round picks this year, and veteran CB Ellis Hobbs, who started all 16 games for New England last year and has a KR TD in each of the last three seasons.

2009 Draft Losers

* Oakland Raiders — They're in danger of becoming an automatic selection here. Darrius Heyward-Bey was a huge reach at seventh overall, and might even have been available with the team's second-round pick. A decent trade in the second round was spoiled when they took safety Michael Mitchell 47th overall. Mitchell likely would have been available at least a full round later. Both Mel Kiper and NFL Network's Mike Mayock graded Mitchell as a seventh-rounder, and this pick prompted SI.com to opine that "the Raiders appear to have no rhyme or reason with their selections."

* Anquan Boldin — It's looking less and less like he'll get that trade he's been asking for. In fact, ESPN has reported that the Cardinals may have "forgotten" to call back teams that were interested in Boldin. Now, after choosing receivers in the first round, potential trade partners like Philadelphia and Tennessee have probably lost interest in him.

* Radio City Music Hall Audience — What on earth is wrong with these people, who think it's okay to boo 21-year-olds on the best day of their lives?

* Dallas Cowboys — What do you think of Roy Williams? Dallas didn't make a selection until 69th overall, so Williams, who cost the team this year's first-rounder, is the only marquee addition from their draft picks. Williams had one great season in Detroit (2006), but he has struggled with inconsistency and gave the Cowboys nothing down the stretch last season. This was not a real big weekend in Dallas.

* Ian Johnson — The Boise State RB went undrafted despite a great college career and the second-fastest 40-yard dash by a running back at the Combine. Twenty-two other RBs were chosen in the draft.

* ESPN television audience — ESPN takes all the drama out of the draft by revealing the picks before the Commissioner even gets to the podium. Chris Berman takes special delight in showing off that he knows who the pick is before it's official. And what point does Steve Young serve on this broadcast? Yes, Steve, we know you think every team should take a quarterback. If I were Mark Sanchez, I might look into a restraining order against Young.

* Chicago Bears — I actually like their third-round selections, but any team with no picks on the first day is a draft loser. Everyone has a strong opinion on the Jay Cutler trade, and I think the Bears gave up too much to get him.

Tweeners

* Everyone who took a quarterback on the first day — The Lions' draft is going to be judged almost exclusively on whether or not Matthew Stafford succeeds. The Bucs traded up to get Josh Freeman at 17th and didn't pick again until the third round. The Jets traded up for Sanchez, and only had two other picks. Those teams have all their eggs in one basket. To a lesser extent, that's also true for the Dolphins, who chose West Virginia's Pat White 44th overall. White could be a huge impact player, an effective part-time player in the Wildcat, or a total bust. He's a fascinating wild card, and his success level could define Miami's 2009 draft.

* Kansas City Chiefs — I like their third-round choice (Purdue DL Alex Magee), and the trade of their second-round pick for Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel was a steal. But Tyson Jackson third overall was a need pick, and you don't just draft for need in the top five. Jackson was a reach who probably would have been available later.

* Houston Texans — At the end of last season, I wanted them to draft "a play-making strong safety or a dynamic outside linebacker" and "a complementary pass rusher." The Texans used their first two picks to take dynamic USC outside linebacker Brian Cushing and pass-rush phenom Connor Barwin. I love the picks, but they appear to echo the free agent acquisitions of OLB Cato June and DE Antonio Smith. Will June be a backup, and Barwin exclusively a pass-rush specialist?

* Carolina Panthers — Traded away next year's first-round choice, for the second draft in a row. Several teams had a first-round grade on Everette Brown, so he was a good value at 43rd overall, but they mortgaged next year's draft to get him, so Brown needs to produce. Jake Delhomme just got a contract extension, but he's 34, and some fans wanted Carolina to draft its QB of the future.

* Cleveland Browns — The most active team on the first day of the draft, the Browns traded down three times and made four selections on the first day, netting some solid players who should contribute immediately, but no obvious high-impact playmakers. The most interesting acquisitions weren't draft picks, but the players acquired by trading the fifth overall selection to the Jets: backup QB Brett Ratliff, DB Abram Elam, and DE Kenyon Coleman. This wasn't a flashy draft, but if the cards fall correctly, the Browns may have addressed a lot of problems on Saturday. On the other hand, it's also possible that the team added a bunch of backups and special teamers when it needed to draft a star.

Posted by Brad Oremland at 11:59 AM | Comments (6)

So Long, 'Sheed

The roller-coaster ride started on February 20th, 2004.

That's when, on a cold, winter night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Rasheed Wallace made his Detroit Pistons debut.

Little did Piston fans know that 'Sheed's first game with the team would set the tone for what was to come over the next five and a half seasons: excitement meets disappointment.

Wallace came off the bench and played 12 minutes in the first half, and curiously remained sidelined for the remainder of the game. As we would later find out, the paperwork on the trade had not been completed in time and 'Sheed was technically ineligible to play in the game, forcing him to the bench for the second half.

The Pistons as an organization would incur a hefty fine for playing Wallace that night, and the fans got their first taste of what life with 'Sheed is all about: the excitement of having one of the most talented seven-footers to ever play the game make his Piston debut was overshadowed by the disappointment of watching him sit on the bench in the second half with no real explanation of why at the time.

The disappointment, at least for the time being, wouldn't last long. The Pistons finished the regular season going 17-5 with Rasheed in the lineup and had transformed themselves literally overnight from a middle-of-the-pack team to a legit NBA title contender.

Then, as the playoffs wore on, it became obvious that "legit NBA title contender" was an understatement. The Pistons were for real. Chauncey Billups was the leader offensively, Ben Wallace held down the fort defensively, but it was the addition of Rasheed Wallace the put the Pistons over the top.

On their way to the NBA championship in 2004, Rasheed averaged 13.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and was a matchup nightmare for the Lakers in the Finals with his ability to play both inside and outside. Chauncey was Finals MVP, but the Pistons don't win without 'Sheed, plain and simple.

Then the offseason came and the Pistons were forced to make a choice: re-sign Rasheed Wallace and let Mehmet Okur go, or re-sign Memo and tell Sheed, "thanks for the ring, best of luck to you in the future."

Keeping both players simply wasn't in the budget. The Pistons opted for Rasheed over Okur. Once again, the excitement of keeping together a championship starting five meets the disappointment of letting one of the league's bright young stars go.

But, as Pistons fans would grow accustomed to in the early part of Wallace's tenure with the Pistons, the disappointment wouldn't last long. As fans, we were still in the honeymoon phase of the Rasheed Wallace era.

We spent the entire '04-'05 season as the defending champs; Rasheed Wallace was the main reason for that, and we loved him for it. We loved how he bought everyone on the team a WWE-style championship belts that they wore for pregame introductions. We loved how he'd talk trash to any and everyone. We loved how he'd stick up for his teammates with his patented "ball don't lie!" after a missed free throw. We loved screaming "'SHEEEEED" every time he touched the ball.

And for the second year in a row, we loved watching 'Sheed knock down big shot after big shot while leading the Pistons to their second straight NBA Finals appearance.

Then, with the NBA Finals tied 2-2 and the pistons leading by two pints, this happened.

The excitement of being one win away from back-to-back NBA titles meets the disappointment of knowing that a Rasheed Wallace mental mistake meant that it wasn't going to happen.

Piston fans never totally blamed Wallace for losing the '05 Finals, but we never really pardoned him, either.

So long, honeymoon phase.

The grace period for winning the Pistons their first title in 15 years was over, and the focus shifted from Rasheed's versatility to his volatility, as he led the league in technical fouls in both 2006 and 2007.

The same antics that fans cheered for the first two seasons quickly made those same fans cringe, as Wallace's uber-intensity became more of a distraction than anything else for the Pistons.

In Game 6 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, Wallace fouled out then received two technical fouls on his way to the bench. The four free throws put Detroit in a too big a hole, and they ending up losing to LeBron James and the Cavs. Had the Pistons somehow won that game, 'Sheed would not have been able to play in the critical seven of that series because his second technical would have drawn a one game suspension from the league.

After that game, like most other Piston fans, I was done with Rasheed Wallace. He had gone too far. Only, unlike the fans, Pistons management hadn't seen enough of Rasheed, and he was back for another run the following season.

2007-'08, 'Sheed's worst season statistically as a Piston, was "highlighted" by an expletive-laced rant about flopping after the Pistons lost Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Boston Celtics.

Wallace summed up the Piston's run to six straight conference finals after the series with his most eloquent statement in his five seasons with the team by saying, "It's over, man."

If only that were true.

The excitement of having a huge expiring contract ($13 million) as trade bait meets the disappointment of realizing that no team in their right mind would trade for a player that comes with so much baggage.

Because of that, Piston fans were stuck this year with one final season of Rasheed's antics. After the Pistons were swept Sunday by the Cavs, Wallace's line for the 2009 playoffs looked like this: 6.5 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, .25 blocks, 36% from the field, not a single free throw attempted in four games.

I can honestly say that I've never seen a big man with so much talent in all my years of watching NBA basketball. Wallace is as good a defender as Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett. He can score in the post as well as either of those players, and has the ability to stretch his range out beyond the three-point line, a skill that neither of those future Hall of Famers was ever able to master.

Yet, as you can see, all of those qualities that 'Sheed possesses are met with a giant asterisk: when he wants to. As a fan, it looks to me like Rasheed Wallace hasn't wanted to apply those skills since 2005.

Now, as the Pistons mini-dynasty officially ends, things have officially come full circle for Rasheed Wallace: the excitement of winning an NBA title meets the disappointment of spending the following five seasons squandering as much talent as an seven-footer that's ever played the game.

Rasheed: it's been a long five and a half seasons. Thanks for the ring. You're someone else's headache now.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:53 AM | Comments (2)

April 24, 2009

Are Canucks Championship-Bound?

"Burrows quickly goes after the puck, the Sedins are coming with him. He shoots, he scores! Alex Burrows, with 19 seconds left in overtime, sends the Vancouver Canucks to the second round of the playoffs!"

Thanks to Alex Burrows' overtime heroics, the Vancouver Canucks completed a first-round sweep of the St. Louis Blues.

The Canucks will now get a chance to sit at home and rest their injured players while waiting for their second-round opponent, who will likely be either the Red Wings, Blackhawks, or Flames.

After neatly dismantling a young Blues team, the question now is, do the Canucks have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup?

There is little doubt that the Canucks have the most potential of any Canadian team left. Montreal, of course, has been eliminated by the Boston Bruins, and Calgary is locked in a close series with the Chicago Blackhawks. While the Flames did win their two games at home to even the series, they have been playing sloppy, most recently blowing a three-goal lead only to narrowly escape with a win. Calgary may not have the discipline to win a championship, making Vancouver the odds-on favorite.

Vancouver is built perfectly for the playoffs. They have a solid defense, and their offense, led by the Sedin twins and Alex Burrows, have already proved that they can get it done when the pressure is on. And, of course, one of the biggest reasons the Canucks have a chance to win it all is Roberto Luongo.

Luongo had another impressive regular season, tallying 33 wins, 9 shutouts, and maintaining and solid save percentage of .920%. If anything, Luongo has raised his play during the postseason. He has yet to lose in the playoffs and boasts a save percentage of .962% and has a goals against average of 1.15. Luongo never allowed more than 2 goals in the series, registered 1 shutout, and carried the Canucks on his back as they easily won the first two games at home and then battled hard to take the next two in St. Louis. If Luongo maintains his high level of play, the Canucks will have a chance to win every night.

However, the biggest challenge for the Vancouver Canucks on their quest to win the Stanley Cup may come from the Detroit Red Wings. If Vancouver wants to make it out of the West, they will likely have to go through the Red Wings to get there. This may prove to be a daunting task as Detroit not only has a potent offense, but Chris Osgood has been playing amazing for the Red Wings in net. For the Canucks to compete with a top-tier team like the Red Wings, they will need not only solid play from Roberto Luongo, but they will also need the Sedin's, along with Alex Burrows, to continue producing goals.

Winning the Stanley Cup has not been easy for Canadian teams. From the 2003-2004 season to 2006-2007 season, one Canadian team made the Stanley Cup Finals. But as we all know the Calgary Flames fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Edmonton Oilers fell to the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Ottawa Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks. The Canucks will undoubtedly be trying to change this recent trend that has seen Canadian teams fall after coming so close. Vancouver will try to break the "Canadian" curse.

So, do the Canucks have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup?

If Roberto Luongo maintains his high level of play, and Vancouver's suddenly solid offense doesn't stutter, the Canucks should be able to give any team a run for their money in a quest to claim the coveted Stanley Cup.

Jonathan Hamelin contributes articles mainly on the NBA and NFL. Being an avid fan of the Canadian Football League, Jonathan writes two columns on the CFL, Rider Report Card and CFL Buzz.

Posted by Jonathan Hamelin at 11:57 AM | Comments (2)

April 23, 2009

NBA Playoffs: Split Decisions

With the first two games of each NBA playoff series in the books, an incredible five of the eight series are tied up at a game apiece. Not since 2003 have five first-round series been tied after two games.

While conventional wisdom says that the road team in each of the five knotted up series has the advantage because they have stolen home-court advantage, that isn't necessarily the case. If the higher-seeded team is good enough to win a road game, it's safe to assume that the lower-seeded team can win one, too.

With the two most competitive series of the first round (Boston/Chicago, San Antonio/Dallas) set for a change of venue tonight, let's take a closer look at the two matchups to determine who has the advantage as the first round goes old-school and reverts back to a good, old-fashioned best-of-five format.

No. 7 Chicago Bulls vs. No. 2 Boston Celtics

You know who has the real advantage in this series? The fans. What an amazing first two games these teams have played.

The playoffs kicked off last Saturday with one of the most evenly matched and exciting playoff games since, well, since last year when the Spurs and Suns played their epic OT battle in Game 1 of their first round series.

Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose was sensational in Game 1, and Rajon Rondo and the Celtics would not back down despite playing their first game knowing that Kevin Garnett will miss the entire playoffs and Ray Allen shooting just 1-12 from the field. In the end, the Bulls were able to pull off the upset and send a message for the rest of the series: we came to play.

As if Game 1 wasn't a good enough show, the Bulls and Celtics were back at it again on Monday night for Game 2 and delivered another instant classic. Rondo had a triple double, Leon Powe was lost for the series after blowing out his knee, Derrick Rose was in foul trouble, Lindsay Hunter came back from the dead and gave some solid minutes, Joakim Noah and Ty Thomas were active on both ends, Kendrick Perkins was fired up ... and that was just the first three quarters!

The fourth quarter turned into a personal shootout between Ben Gordon and Ray Allen. Gordon finished with a playoff career-high 42 points, but Allen got the last laugh, burying the game-winner with two seconds left, finishing with 28 points in the second half.

We tend to hyperbolize during the playoffs because each game has so much significance, so I want to be careful not to overstate things here. Ray Allen vs. Ben Gordon in the second half wasn't exactly Larry Bird vs. Dominique Wilkins, there wasn't nearly as much on the line and it wasn't exactly two of the greatest players of their era dueling out there, but it was close. Fifteen years from now, Game 2 will be replayed on ESPN Classic, and the reason is because it was one of the greatest head-to-head showdowns in NBA playoff history.

This series has been so close to this point, it's almost impossible to predict who will have the advantage the rest of the way. One extra stop down the stretch either way and either team could have walked into the United Center up 2-0 in the series.

In a pinch, though, I'd have to give a slight edge to the Bulls for the remaining five games in this series. Boston's biggest strength in this series has been their ability to control the offensive glass. Now that Powe is out, the Celtics have just three healthy big men on their roster. Not only does the possibility of fatigue become a factor, but any sort of foul trouble for any of the Boston bigs puts the Celtics in a tough spot.

They can either slide Paul Pierce to the power forward position and create a mismatch on the perimeter, sacrificing their biggest advantage of the series in the process, or count on Mikki Moore to give them 20 or so quality minutes. Neither option is ideal.

Glen Davis was great in game two scoring a career-high 26 points, but he's a role player. Role players always play much better at home because they can feed off the energy of the crowd. He's going to be asked to put up the same kind of production, without fouling, in the three remaining road games for Boston to have a chance.

I think that it's going to be a dogfight the rest of the way, but the Bulls have too much size for the undermanned Boston frontline. Unless Ray Allen stops being streaky and starts playing as a consistent weapon, Chicago has a real chance to complete the upset. Look for the Bulls to put away the Celtics and become the NBA's version of Cinderella as they advance to the second round.

No. 3 San Antonio Spurs Vs. No. 6 Dallas Mavericks

This series hasn't exactly had the heart-stopping finishes as the previously mentioned series, but it's still been very interesting. Dallas came out and stunned the Spurs in game one behind a balanced offensive attack, but their strategy of using J.J. Barea as a "Tony [Parker] stopper" looked like it may have been fool's gold as Parker was able to get anything he wanted in Game 2.

The change of venue should help role players like Barea and Brandon Bass get back on track offensively (they shot a combined 4-of-12 in Game 2 for just 13 points compared to 13-of-23 for 27 points in Game 1), but Dallas needs to make some major adjustments defensively if they want to recapture the upper hand in this series.

The playoffs are about making adjustments between games, and there's no coach in the league better at it than Gregg Popovich. Erick Dampier vowed to put Tony Parker on the floor early in Game 3 to send a message, but if that's Dallas' lone adjustment, they can start making tee times.

The Mavericks would be better served to trap Parker as he crosses half-court and force players like Roger Mason and Michael Finley consistently knock down jump shots for 48 minutes. Right now, the San Antonio offense is 100% based on getting shots for Parker and Tim Duncan. If they can take the ball out of Parker's hands early and force him to play off the ball, it puts the pressure on the other players to step up.

Superstars like Parker and Duncan will always bring their "A" game regardless of where the game is played, but asking guys like Mason to carry more of the offensive load in a hostile environment looks like the only way the Mavs can slow down the Spurs offensively.

Pop pushed all the right buttons heading into Game 2, now it's Rick Carlisle's turn to counter. I think that Carlisle is one of the best coaches in the league today, but I'm not sure that he has what it takes to match wits with a Pop over a seven-game series. Dallas needs to take both Game 3 and 4 on their home floor to win this series; a split simply isn't good enough.

San Antonio has won four consecutive playoff series in which the series has been tied after two games, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. Dallas has the talent to eliminate the Spurs, but the Spurs have history on their side. I predicted this series to go seven earlier in the week, and it still might, but only if Dallas can find a way to stay a step ahead of the San Antonio coaching staff.

I can't see that happening, and I'm looking forward to the inevitable Denver/San Antonio slugfest in round two.

Look for Scott Shepherd's NBA column on Mondays and Thursdays during the NBA playoffs.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Slant Pattern's Know Your Golfer

This Easter, non-religious sort that I am, I celebrated by ducking in to the only open bar nearby and checking out the final round of the Masters.

I used to write tons about golf in this space. Eventually, that space was usurped not only by the mainstays (college sports, football in general), but by soccer and poker, two things I did not care about five years ago.

But it may be high time for me to get back in the swing of things and remember what makes golf such an underrated spectator sport and very underrated as a bar/pub sport. It has as much drama as any other sport, and probably more tension, but at a pace that allows much more schmoozing with buddies, checking out that girl over there, or poring over the menu in detail, one of my favorite things to do on this earth.

The Masters, of course, was won by Angel Cabrera, who may be the least known two-time major winner ever. The two majors represent 40% of his total number of wins on the PGA and European Tours, and the only ones he's claimed since 2005. Just two years ago (not that he needed to), he was playing the circuit of the Tour De Las Americas, which might not even rank in the top 10 of highest quality golf tours.

The pudgy, smiley guy would rank as one of Spain's greats along with Sergio Garcia, Seve Ballesteros, and Jose Maria Olazabal — if he was actually Spanish like most of the country thinks. He's Argentinean.

Here are some more names from the top of the FedEx point standings that you may not have heard much about:

Nick Watney (4th) — He slugged it out on the Nationwide Tour for years, and is finally starting to break-through in the PGA, getting his second tour victory in San Diego this year and several other high finishes. Also, his first tour victory came in New Orleans, where they play this week.

Dustin Johnson (11th) — I can't find it anymore, but I know that in one of my last golf columns for SC, years ago now, I lamented that there were no good young American golfers. Johnson may prove me wrong. Just 24, he burst onto the scene in 2007, earning his way on tour through Q-School and skipping the Nationwide route. He's also won two events, but one was the prestigious Pebble Beach tourney (albeit a rain-shortened version). And if John Daly fades away, he may be able to take the mantle of golf's bad boy — he was busted for drunk driving in March.

Pat Perez (12th) — Perez is a bit more of a lifer than the other guys on this list, having won his way onto the tour at the 2001 Q-School tourney. But it was only just this year that he got his breakthrough win, after a lifetime's worth of disappointments and runner-up finishes. Maybe he will mellow out a bit now. Perez has one of the most infamous tempers on tour. He's flipped the bird at his ball and broken a club over his leg, among other antics.

Charley Hoffman (16th) — The man with the long, golden locks (considerably longer than John Daly's when the PGA made him cut his) has made his way into FedEx race contention just by being very consistent. He's made the cut in all nine of his tournaments this year, with two top-six finishes.

John Rollins (17th) — This guitar-playing Virginian with the aw-shucks Mayberry looks has already been a bridesmaid twice this year, giving him seven top-twos for his career. Unfortunately, only one of those seven has been a victory. He's a pro's pro, playing at least 28 events in each of the last four years.

John Merrick (22nd) — No relationship to the elephant man. Merrick got his card in 2007, lost it, won it right back in q-school, and managed to keep it through for 2009 by registering four top-10 finishes last year. Now only in mid-April, he already has three top-10s, so his star is clearly rising.

Posted by Kevin Beane at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

NASCAR Top 10 Power Rankings: Week 8

Note: the quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Jeff Gordon — Gordon struggled to his worst finish of the year, a 25th in Phoenix, plagued by a number of mishaps, including a lug nut problem that forced an extra pit stop, as well as damage from the Robby Gordon/Michael Waltrip incident on lap 164. Gordon also complained of a sore back. However, despite all his troubles, Gordon maintained the points lead, with an 85-point cushion over Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson.

"Like my first wedding date," says Gordon, "Saturday was a day I'd like to forget. The similarities end there, though. I got paid for Saturday's race; I'm still paying for my first wedding."

"But enough about gold-digging former Miss Winstons, as if one isn't enough. Let's talk about other things that have cost me money. Is it just me, or have loose lug nuts 'screwed' more drivers this year than any other year in memory?"

"As for being caught in the fallout of the Gordon/Waltrip incident, it's like people say, 'That's racing (with idiots).' I'll give those two some credit. They cured my back pain, or at least made it move to another part of my body."

2. Jimmie Johnson — Johnson fell short in his quest to win his fourth-straight race in Phoenix, but a fourth-place result in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 left little to be unhappy about, as the Lowe's squad has now posted a third, first, second, and fourth in the last four races.

"I believe that's called 'driving' for the cycle," says Johnson.

"This team has three Cup championships under our belt, and we're riding a wave of momentum. Confidence is high. I guess you could say we have 'Lowe's self-esteem.'"

3. Tony Stewart — Stewart finished second in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, unable to chase down Mark Martin in the closing laps at Phoenix International Raceway. It's was the Office Depot/Old Spice driver's first runner-up finish of the year, and third-consecutive top-four result.

"There's no shame in losing to Mark Martin," says Stewart. "And, as everybody knows, I'm practically shameless. That's why I can say, without shame, that Mark's old enough to be the father of the kind of girl I like to invite to my late night hauler shindigs."

"Anyway, age is just a number. 50 is the new 47. Whether he's winning races or driving the Viagra-sponsored car, Mark's inspirational message leaves people saying 'It's amazing the things you can do at 50.'"

4. Kurt Busch — In his 300th career Cup start, Busch matched his qualifying effort with a third in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, surviving a brush with the wall on lap 177 that caused a temporary tire rub. Busch maintained the third position in the Sprint Cup point standings, and now trails Jeff Gordon by only 98 points.

"It seems that I created quite a discussion about public radio chatter when I bitched out Roger Penske a few weeks ago in Martinsville," says Busch. "It's ironic, in light of the knowledge that I had the size of my floppy ears surgically reduced, that I would be able to give anyone an ear 'full.'"

"Roger found my outburst alarming, because I darn sure 'went off' on him. But let's not overreact. Making our radio communication private would be the wrong move. I think fans want and deserve to hear the conversations that take place between team members. Besides, it gives people like me the opportunity to say things to a car owner that I don't have the guts to say to his face."

"But there are consequences. Roger Penske is a noble man, so he did the right thing by taking me behind closed doors and cursing me out. Did I deserve it? 'Roger' that."

5. Denny Hamlin — Hamlin scored his fourth top-10 finish of the year, delivering a sixth at Phoenix in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Fed Ex Toyota. Hamlin led the Gibbs' charge, with teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano finishing 17th and 21st, respectively. Hamlin now sits fifth in the points, 154 off the lead.

"I can totally relate to Mark Martin," says Hamlin. "I'm only 28, but, like Martin, I feel like the elder statesmen on my respective team. Kyle Busch is only a tender 23, and Joey Logano is so young, he refers to the Home Depot not as his sponsor, but as his mother's womb. It's like I'm an escort for those two."

"But that's an entirely separate entity from my other escort service, in which fanatical Denny Hamlin fans of the female persuasion pay way too much for the services of yours truly. Just like my sponsor, Federal Express, I specialize in 'package' delivery."

6. Kyle Busch — Busch had a promising finish at Phoenix International Raceway foiled by a pit road speeding penalty as he exited the pits after a stop during the race's final caution. With six laps to go, Busch was sent to the tail end of the longest line, effectively ending his chances for a win in the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

"Hey, it's never good to go to the tail end of the longest line," says Busch, "unless it's the Conga line at a Tony Stewart hauler party. Or the line to work for Teresa Earnhardt."

"As for my speeding penalty, NASCAR officials tell me the timer recorded me at .005 too fast. That seems awfully nit-picky. I don't think the punishment fits the crime. Instead of punishing me by essentially killing my chances of winning, why can't NASCAR just chastise me with a slap on the wrist, like a six-race probation?"

7. Clint Bowyer — Bowyer finished 26th in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, a disappointing result considering he finished second and twelfth there last year. Bowyer toiled with a loose-handling No. 33 Hamburger Helper/Cheerios Chevy Impala, finishing a lap down and dropping two places in the points to sixth. He trails Jeff Gordon by 190 points.

"I hear all the talk about the struggles so far this year for the Richard Childress organization," says Bowyer. "But I'm not worried at all. After all, if there is help for hamburger, then there's got to be help for us."

"But what's to worry about? I'm sixth in the points, and Jeff Burton is 11th. But, if you rank the top 12 drivers alphabetically, we're 1-2. In addition, 'RCR' backwards is still 'RCR.' I'm not sure what that means, but when Richard Childress tells you to stay positive, you look for positives anywhere."

8. Mark Martin — It was one for the aged in Phoenix last Saturday, as 50-year-old Mark Martin won for the first time in 97 races, capturing the pole on Friday and leading 157 of 312 laps on Saturday on his way to the win. Martin, in the No. 5 Kelloggs and Car Quest sponsored Chevrolet, gave Hendrick Motorsports its third consecutive victory.

"I love the smell of cereal and motor parts in the desert," says Martin. "It smells like napalm and victory. You could say it's a '50 scent.' Anyway, I'm going to party like it's my birthday."

"But it's great to see my name in the headlines again. Just call me 'Marquee' Mark. If that name alone doesn't get me back into the rap game, I don't know what will."

"Now, if form holds, then Dale Earnhardt, Jr. should win next week at Talladega. It's a definite possibility. God knows the 'E'-ternally optimistic fans of Junior Nation are praying for it. Of course, Dale, Jr.'s fortunes rest on the assumption that he can harness his emotions and potential, and avoid this silly '(S)Mears campaign' of intentionally wrecking Casey Mears. Hey, I used to drive the Viagra car — there's a proper time and place for an 'E'-wrecktion. Junior's 'Amp'-etite for destruction won't cut it at Talladega."

9. Carl Edwards — Edwards grappled with handling issues in Phoenix, and complained often the No. 99 Subway Ford Fusion lacked grip on the changing PIR surface. Still, he and the No. 99 crew fought their way to a 10th-place finish, and Edwards remained eighth in the point standings.

"This certainly isn't the start to the year that I expected," says Edwards. "I heard that quite a few experts predicted me to win the 2009 Sprint Cup. Maybe I got a little big-headed about that, but at least now my head is more in proportion to my teeth."

"By this point last year, I already had three wins. I'm not sure what's happened, but it looks as though we've regressed. It seems my signature acrobatic move, the back flip, has been sadly replaced by the back slide."

10. David Reutimann — Reutimann finished eighth in Phoenix, his second top-10 result of the year, and improved twp places in the Sprint Cup point standings to ninth, 250 out of first.

"My car owner, Michael Waltrip, says he'll give up his ride in the No. 55 if he's not competitive," says Reutimann. "Well, Michael hasn't been competitive, but he has been repetitive, with uncompetitive result after uncompetitive result."

"I think Michael's time in the No. 55 is limited. The fat lady is singing, and so is Sammy Hagar, because 'Mike can't drive, the 55.'"

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2009

NFL Mock Draft: A Challenge Accepted

So the past few years I've run what I like to call the NFL Mock Draft Mock Competition. It's basically what it sounds like. I took the mock drafts of various experts from across the landscape of online sports writing, graded them on an objective criteria of my own choosing, then made fun of the losers.

(Last year, Pat Kirwan of NFL.com and Rich Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News tied for first. In 2007, it was a tie between ESPN's Todd McShay and Mel Kiper. In 2006, it was CNNSI's Don Banks. I've never finished higher than sixth.)

You might notice there's an extra "mock" in the title. The second "mock" was in reference to the fact the only people who knew about the competition were me and the few friends and family members who read my blog. So it was a competition, but not really since none of the participants knew I was using their work to wrack up dozens of blog reads. (Dozens!)

And so, not thinking of any possible repercussions, I ended up writing the following paragraph:

"In the end, I finished one spot lower than last year and three spots lower than '06. Kirwan has gone from sixth to fifth to a tie for first. McShay dropped from a tie for first last year to eighth, which is where he finished in '06. Gosselin proved why he's one of the most respected names in the mock draft business. King proved he's as good at mock drafts as he is picking games, which is to say he stinks. (I think he's too gullible, doesn't have enough of a filter to tell when people are feeding him bulls**t.) And Matt Thomas still stinks. After two consecutive last-place finishes, he will not be invited back."

Well, yeah. Perhaps that was a little harsh.

Unbeknownst to me, Thomas actually had the gall to read my blog. Understandably taking umbrage with my derision, Thomas has challenged me to a mock-off in 2009. And since I am not one to back off from a challenge (at least not when nobody can punch me in the face), I have accepted. Sometime an Internet sports dork has do to what an Internet sports dork has to do.

Not having a journalism degree from Arizona like me, Thomas has simplified the scoring criteria: Player/team/draft position all correct = 3 points; team/player = 1 point; player/draft position = 0.5 points; highest point total wins. Easy enough.

So that's the story. Thomas has offered to quit the mock draft business forever if he loses. I have advised him that will not be necessary. Win or lose, he must mock on. Here is his final 2009 NFL mock draft.

After all, he's my only guarantee against finishing last.

Let's do it.

1. Detroit — QB Matthew Stafford, Georgia

To take a quarterback first overall, you have to be 100 percent. Stafford may be a swell guy with a cannon for an arm, but the junior is not a 100 percent lock to be a star. Considering JaMarcus Russell got $61 million ($32 million guaranteed) in the top spot two years ago, and Matt Ryan got $72 million ($35.75 guaranteed) out of the three spot last year, the Lions would be looking at somewhere around $75 million in total value and nearing $40 million in guarantees to sign Stafford, a guy half the league seems to believe isn't even the best QB in the draft.

That's just stupid.

With that said, this is the Lions and new head coach Jim Schwartz seems intent on resetting the franchise with a new face, ala the Falcons with Ryan last year.

2. St. Louis — LT Jason Smith, Baylor

It doesn't matter what philosophy the Rams plan on employing in year one of the Steve Spagnuolo era if Marc Bulger continues to get his ass kicked every time he drops back to pass. They spent huge to upgrade the middle of the line with Jason Brown from Baltimore. After the release of Orlando Pace, the Rams absolutely have to have a top-flight left tackle. Alex Barron isn't it.

3. Kansas City — WR Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech

Everybody and their mama is giving the Chiefs Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry, and that makes sense. Their defense needs help and Curry is the best defensive player on the board.

But...

Crabtree and Dwayne Bowe would give new head coach Todd Haley a close approximation of the greatness he had with Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona last year. Kansas City is paying huge cash for Matt Cassel and new GM Scott Pioli isn't known for taking linebackers high in the draft (last year's pick of Jerod Mayo 10th overall was the first LB taken in the first round during his tenure in New England). Crabtree, Bowe, and Tony Gonzalez running the middle would make for one hell of an offense.

4. Seattle — LB Aaron Curry, Wake Forest

Seahawks fans rejoice. They've upgraded their offense considerably with the addition of T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and now add the best defender on the board with Curry.

5. Cleveland — LB/DE Brian Orakpo, Texas

Eric Mangini fell in love with Vernon Gholston last year and spent the sixth overall pick on him. This year, there are two players in the Gholston mold — Orakpo and Florida State's Everett Brown. You look at them in person and you think, "holy crap!" But when you watch them play week in and week out, it's just as much "Is he in the game? I don't see him."

Still, the Browns need somebody who can get to the QB in new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's defense. Orakpo fits the bill.

6. Cincinnati — LT Eugene Monroe, Virginia

The Bengals absolutely have to build a line to protect Carson Palmer. They refused to pay for T.J. Houshmandzadeh, which would make it unlikely they would want to spend huge on a receiver like Jeremy Maclin, even though they could really use him. Monroe is the best talent at their biggest weakness.

7. Oakland — WR Jeremy Maclin, Missouri

Maclin seems to be the forgotten man in this draft. It used to be he was in everybody's top 10. Now I've seen some mocks with him down in the late teens. Why? Is he not the most dangerous receiver in the open field any more? I think he is. And I think Al Davis still loves speed and the deep ball. Go with what you know.

8. Denver — QB Mark Sanchez, Southern California

(Projected trade with Jacksonville. Jacksonville receives Denver's 12th overall pick and the first of Denver's two third-round picks, No. 79 overall.)

From Sanchez' Scouts, Inc scouting report: "Sanchez is consistently accurate in the short-to-intermediate zones — particularly between the numbers. He displays very good touch. Gets the ball out quickly and throws a 'catchable' ball on quick-hitters. Knows how to drop the ball in between linebackers and safeties. Rarely misses an open target."

And this: "Very good pocket presence. Really improved in this area as a junior. Displays quick feet. Gets set quickly and shows agility to avoid the initial rush. Will step up in the pocket and also shows the foot speed to out-run the rush to the perimeter. Is a better athlete than appeared most of junior season, when he was battling a lingering knee injury."

Now think of the spread offense new Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels is going to run. Doesn't that description fit perfectly the type of quarterback who would excel in that style of offense?

Yes. Yes, it does.

9. Green Bay — DT B.J. Raji, Boston College

The worst possible thing you can do as a defense is try to switch to a 3-4 without a dominant nose tackle. Even more than a solid run stuffing DE and hybrid OLBs who can cover and rush the passer, you have to have a nose who can hold up at the point of attack. Don't, and you're bailing out the ocean with a shot glass. Raji is by far the most dominant interior lineman on the board.

10. San Francisco — LT Andre Smith, Alabama

One of the best ways to predict a draft choice is to type-cast the guys making the decision. These aren't computers making rational decisions solely on the bases of needs and available resources. These are guys with personalities, egos and a desire to have their teams built in their own images.

In the case of Mike Singletary, he wants to smash. He wants to smash on offense. He wants to smash on defense. He wants to smash on special teams. Any area where he can possibly hurt the other team, that's where Singletary is going to go. He's not going to be afraid of all the hoopla around Smith's end-of-season suspension or bizarre combine behavior. All he's going to see is a guy who can smash. That'll be enough.

11. Buffalo — OT Michael Oher, Mississippi

With Jason Peters off to Philadelphia, Oher, a clear No. 4 in the OT pecking order, fits a prime need at tackle.

12. Jacksonville — RB Chris Wells, Ohio State

(Received in trade from Denver)

This might seem high for Wells, but his stock seems to have taken off over the last week or so. After cutting the aging Fred Taylor, Wells provides the brute force compliment to Maurice Jones-Drew.

13. Washington — DE/LB Aaron Maybin, Penn State

The Jason Taylor experiment didn't work. So rather than going with another old guy past his prime, the Redskins select a young guy still three years away from his.

14. New Orleans — CB Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State

Anybody who's watched a single Saints game over the past two years has seen them get torched by the deep ball. I'm not sure Jenkins and his 4.60 40 really fixes that problem, but he's the only first-round corner available. It's a bad year for teams needing immediately help in the secondary.

15. Houston — LB Brian Cushing, Southern California

There's better value here with the top two remaining defensive ends, Robert Ayers and Tyson Jackson, but the Texans have their ends in Mario Williams and Antonio Smith. Cushing steps in next to MLB Demeco Ryans to shore up the major remaining weak spot on the Texans' roster.

16. San Diego — DE Tyson Jackson, Louisiana State

With Igor Olshansky gone to Dallas, Jackson steps in as a perfect fit as the 3-4 end. What he lacks in top-end quickness and ability to turn the edge as a pass rusher he makes up for in brute strength and excellent ability to defend the run.

17. New York Jets — RB Knowshon Moreno, Georgia

Popular opinion has the Jets going QB with Kansas State's Josh Freeman or WR with somebody like Maryland's Darrius Heyward-Bey, but both of those come with concerns, and neither look to be able to major contributors in year one. Current Jets starter Thomas Jones will be 31 when the season starts and is boycotting voluntary workouts in search of a new deal, not exactly a great way to endear himself to team-first new head coach Rex Ryan (see Coles, Laveranues). Moreno makes Jones expendable and would team with Leon Washington for a very dynamic 1-2 RB duo.

18. Denver — LB Rey Maualuga, Southern California

Denver doesn't just need players on defense. It needs attitude. Maualuga brings a violent streak and outstanding size to the 3-4 ILB position. He will be a huge factor in improving a porous Denver run defense.

19. Tampa Bay — QB Josh Freeman, Kansas State

The Bucs bought themselves some time at the quarterback position by signing Byron Leftwich to start in 2009, but he won't be the long-term answer. Freeman can come in, then sit for at least a year while he learns how to play at the NFL level.

20. Detroit — DE Robert Ayers, Tennessee

The Lions have a pretty good set of linebackers, especially after acquiring Julian Peterson from the Seahawks, but their defensive line is sorely in need of an upgrade. Ayers has been mentioned as high as the 12-13 range, so this would represent excellent value for the rebuilding Lions. Florida State's Everette Brown could be a possibility here, as well, but Ayers is much bigger and stronger at the point of attack. Brown is more suited to a situational pass rushing role, at least early in his career.

21. Philadelphia — TE Brandon Pettigrew, Oklahoma State

With L.J. Smith off to Baltimore in free agency, Pettigrew instantly becomes a major force in the Eagles offense. There's a chance the Eagles could move this pick to Arizona in an Anquan Boldin deal. If that does happen, I would expect the Cardinals to take Pettigrew here, as well.

22. Minnesota — WR Percy Harvin, Florida

With Adrian Peterson in the backfield, few teams should be able to use the play-action game as well as the Vikings. But even with the acquisition of Bernard Berrian in the offseason last year, the Vikings' pass attack was below average (25th at 184.8 passing yards per game). Of course much of that was due to poor quarterback play, but with Sage Rosenfels in town, that should be less of an issue. At the least, Harvin would provide a major upgrade in the kick return game.

23. New England — LB Clay Matthews, Southern California

This pick is so obvious, it's bound to be wrong. Pats head coach Bill Belichick has said multiple times that Clay Sr. was one of his most favorite players he ever coached (during his first HC stint, with the Browns). Clay Jr. plays with the same type of intelligence and violent passion, traits Belichick holds dear. He also loves football more than anything, something the Pats value very highly.

24. Atlanta — DT Peria Jerry, Mississippi

The Falcons finally completed their divorce from Grady Jackson, so they need some new beef in the middle of their defensive line. Jerry is more athletic than his 300-lb frame would indicate and would help anchor against run-heavy division opponents Tampa Bay and Carolina.

25. Miami — CB Vontae Davis, Illinois

Davis has the frame and athleticism to go much higher, but questions about his work ethic and coachability have crashed his draft stock. But the Dolphins are one of those veteran-laden teams, especially on defense, where the coaches don't have to do a whole lot of effort training. That gets handled in the locker room by the players. With a division that now includes both Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, a bigger corner with top-end speed is a commodity you don't pass up.

26. Baltimore — WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, Maryland

After watching his stock soar after the combine, Heyward-Bey has fallen back to Earth a bit due to concerns about his route-running and hands. But as the saying goes, you can't coach speed. Heyward-Bey was the fastest guy at the combine and should help stretch the field for second-year quarterback Joe Flacco.

27. Indianapolis — WR Hakeem Nicks, North Carolina

With Marvin Harrison gone, the Colts need to re-stock the depth chart. Nicks doesn't bring the top-end speed of Marvin (or Harvin or Heyward-Bey), but he's got great hands and shows no fear going over the middle. With Peyton Manning as your quarterback, that's enough.

28. Buffalo — C Alex Mack, California

(From Philadelphia in exchange for Jason Peters)

With Oher selected at No. 11, there's no need for Arizona's Eben Britton. The Bills absolutely get killed by dominant nose tackles. In a division with Vince Wilfork, Kris Jenkins and Jason Ferguson, that's a bit of a problem. The likes of Mel Kiper (who likes Oregon's Max Unger better) will give the Bills hell for this pick, but Mack is a guy you plug into the middle of your line and don't worry about for the next decade.

29. New York Giants — LB/DE Everette Brown, Florida State

The Giants aren't in a position where they have to fill holes. They could certainly use another receiver, but the top-rated guy left on the board at this point is Rutgers' Kenny Britt, and he has some flags about him I'm not sure the Giants want to take on in the wake of the Plaxico Burress debacle. Brown can fit into the Giants rotation as a speed rusher who can drop back into coverage when needed.

30. Tennessee — S Louis Delmas, Western Michigan

Like the Giants, the Titans are fairly well set at every position except receiver, and the value just isn't there on the board. The best safety in the draft, Delmas is a great tackler with good instincts and a great work ethic.

31. Arizona — DT Evander Hood, Missouri

Hood's stock has been rising over the past few months. While he won't turn into an Albert Haynesworth-type of dominant interior lineman, Hood is a hard motor guy with an excellent first step. The Cardinals defense is predicated on using superior athleticism to create pressure on the pocket, thereby causing turnovers. Hood fits well.

32. Pittsburgh — DE/LB Larry English, Northern Illinois

And the next great Pittsburgh LB is born.

Posted by Joshua Duffy at 11:56 AM | Comments (3)

Kobe vs. LeBron, At Any Cost?

Unless you live in an NBA city where they still are playing, the idea of a Kobe/LeBron, err, I mean Lakers/Cavs NBA Finals, is enough to make you giddy.

I know there's 14 other cities that would love to see their team in the Finals, but come on, let's be honest, would there be anything better than seeing the two best players in the NBA attacking each other for seven games?

The storylines of the two individually are great, not to mention what would happen collectively.

Kobe, getting close to the end of his prime, is looking at his best chance at a title, with all the pieces there for his first non-Shaq ring. Kobe is looking at ring number four and a spot in the top 15 of the greatest of all-time, and Los Angeles would be bringing the hardware back to the West Coast and redeeming last year's Game 6 embarrassment.

In Cleveland, years of let-down and despair would be put on the line.

A few weeks ago, I met someone who was visiting from Cleveland. He never said he was from Cleveland, he merely mentioned he was from LeBron Country, and that was enough. I knew where he was from and he knew that I knew where that "Country" was located. After about five minutes of basketball talk, I asked him, is the city excited? He looked at me, and as if I could see Michael Jordan's shot in '89 and Edgar Renteria's seeing eye game-winner in the '97 World Series, he said, "it's very low-key, we've been disappointed before."

Even with arguably the greatest player in the world, LeBron Country still doesn't believe they can win it all. Imagine the weight on James' shoulders, on the Cavs shoulders. For James, it's an opportunity to surpass Kobe as the best in the game right now. If he outplays Bryant, if they were to meet, there would be no discussion, Kobe would be in the rearview mirror. If he wins his first title, he'd be ahead of everybody on the ring list. Not only are the LeBrons vying for the title, but also for a little redemption of their own. Two words: Spurs sweep.

How many national pundits would just stare at the TV and drool when trying to analyze the contest? How many bloggers would spend June gushing about the series? If ever there was a time for print media to make a comeback, it would be during this series.

It's the perfect storm of the glitz and glamour of L.A. against the hard-nosed, blue-collar city of Cleveland. In an era where everyone knows the meaning of downsizing and recession, there's no doubt this Finals would bring everyone a much-needed escape.

But hold on, there's another side to this coin that must be mentioned.

Conspiracy theorists are already at it. The most "aware" of the bunch are already predicting some fishy officiating if either team is close to elimination.

I'm not trying to make excuses for certain teams losing to other bigger, more marketable teams, but there are some interesting events that have occurred over the years.

2002, Kings/Lakers, Western Conference Finals — Watch the series again, and you come away not blatantly saying there were some shenanigans, but much like sitting down for a home-cooked meal from someone not adept in the kitchen, something just doesn't smell right.

2003, Timberwolves/Lakers, Western Conference First Round — In the middle of the year, David Stern made an unprecedented move, changing the first round of the playoffs from a five-game series to a seven-game series. Many believe it was to help an increasingly dysfunctional growing Lakers team make it past the first round with fresher legs to win its fourth title in a row. In Game 4 of the series in Minnesota, the Lakers found themselves with a 25-6 edge in free throws in the third and fourth quarters. Even with that advantage, they lost in overtime.

2006, Heat/Mavs, NBA Finals — Up-and-coming star Dwyane Wade got an obscene amount of calls and turned the NBA Finals into a whistle-blowing convention. Some couldn't help but notice Mark Cuban on the other side of the bench. After Dallas stole the first two games in Miami, the Mavs held a 20-point advantage in Game 3. Miami would make an amazing comeback and win the next four games to take the title.

Before everyone goes crazy backing their team, I am merely giving you details of where there have been some questionable officiating with larger market teams as the beneficiaries. I hope this doesn't happen this year.

Sure, there's a lot that can happen between now and June. The Knicks made it to the Finals as the eighth seed. Detroit upset the Lakers in 2004. It's sports, and as the old cliché goes, anything can happen on any given night. Let's just hope the anything isn't a slight against the NBA and its officiating.

But if it does, will I care? Kobe/LeBron in the Finals, who would?

Posted by Wailele Sallas at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2009

Early Fantasy Football Draft Advice

Draft Them

QUARTERBACKS

1. Peyton Manning
We saw Peyton come back to true form toward the end of last season. Expect him to be ready and fired up for 2009. I don't think he's up for another 49-touchdown season, but 30-plus with a low interception total looks promising.

2. Drew Brees
I'm not sure about another 5,000-yard season, but another 4,500-yard season seems imminent.

3. Tony Romo
I think Romo will begin to thrive in 2009. He has been consistently good with his yards and touchdowns and I don't think he'll miss T.O. all too much.

4. Matt Cassel
This one is a touch risky, but I think it is safe to draft Cassel, maybe not as your premier guy (don't take him before Donovan McNabb, Eli Manning, Chad Pennington, or anybody else above him), but he'll be solid backup or second quarterback in a two-quarterback league.

5. Matt Hasselbeck
This is perhaps a surprising pick to you. Hasselbeck had a rough year last year with injuries and lots of other things and Seattle looked pretty pathetic for the whole season, but Hasselbeck has a real weapon in T.J. Houshmandzadeh that could really open up the Seattle offense. Their running game continues to be a concern, but look for Hasselbeck to put up solid numbers and will some games this season.

RUNNING BACKS

1. Michael Turner
Perhaps a surprising number one, but Turner's consistency and dominance last year were quite solid. He received little credit for leading the Falcons to the playoffs, but without him, Matt Ryan very well could have been a flop. Ryan has established himself well and will continue to be a solid quarterback, which means Turner will have more room to run. Expect another 1,500-yard season.

2. Adrian Peterson
The only reason Peterson doesn't hit number one is because of the fumbles. It's gotten to the point where he's seriously become a liability in close games which means perhaps that he could get benched if the fumbles continue. He'll probably rush for more yards than Turner, but with the fumbles, he's not a true number one.

3. Matt Forte
The biggest winner in the Jay Cutler trade? Matt Forte. When Brett Favre got traded to the Jets last season, I drafted Thomas Jones in every one of my fantasy drafts and he turned out to be quite a good pick. Favre did not have a great season, but the defenses were so loosened up by Favre's very presence that there was more room to run. This is what will happen for Matt Forte. Along with his pass-catching abilities, he's a serious candidate for MVP in 2009.

4. DeAngelo Williams
I'll admit that Williams may deserve the top spot. He had some ridiculous games last season, scoring4 touchdowns on two occasions, but there were some games where he was flat-out shut down. As teams get to know him better, he may become less of a threat. He should still produce heavily, however.

5. Steve Slaton
Slaton is another back benefiting from the good passing game around him. With Andre Johnson out there somewhere, it opens up lots of holes for Slaton.

WIDE RECEIVERS

1. Andre Johnson
There were a lot of arguments about Fitzgerald being the best wide receiver in the game today, but Andre Johnson truly has something to say about that. His route-running and sheer physical presence are enough to make him close to unstoppable. If Matt Schaub can stay healthy and continually get better, Johnson has a chance for some MVP numbers in 2009.

2. Larry Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald is obviously most effective with Anquan Boldin opposite him, but I think Warner has another good year in him and Fitz will be stellar as always.

3. Calvin Johnson
Despite the fact that he's playing for the hapless Lions, Johnson still is able to produce huge numbers. Whoever his quarterback is, expect Johnson to be a solid bet in 2009.

4. Reggie Wayne
With Marvin Harrison gone, Wayne becomes even more of the top dog. Anthony Gonzalez will still be helpful to him, but Wayne and Manning have lots of potential in 2009.

5. Dwayne Bowe
Bow had a good season last year with mediocre to really poor quarterbacks. If he and Cassel can find the chemistry, he could put up 1,400 yards and 15 touchdowns.

TIGHT ENDS

1. Jason Witten
With Owens gone and Romo happy, I think Witten may lead the league in receiving next season. He's almost always open and is so sure-handed that I'd consider taking him before I take any receiver in the draft.

2. Tony Gonzalez
Whether he gets traded to a contender or stays in K.C., Gonzalez is set for 2009. He'll put up his usual numbers and be great as usual.

3. Dallas Clark
So long as he can avoid injury, Clark is always a solid pick at tight end.

4. Antonio Gates
Despite having somewhat of a down year, Gates still caught eight touchdown passes, second among tight ends only to Gonzalez.

5. John Carlson
As a rookie, Carlson looked good in the pass patterns (not so good trying to block, but you don't lose fantasy points for that). Expect his numbers to improve under the steady hand of Hasselbeck.

KICKERS

1. Ryan Longwell
Longwell was 6-for-6 in field goals over 50 yards. Yeah, Jason Hanson was 8-for-8, but what good does that do when Detroit doesn't let him kick any extra points? Longwell is a solid pick.

2. Stephen Gostkowski
Gostkowski was the league's scoring leader with 148 points last year. Expect him to be toward the top of your kicker list for the next 10 years.

3. David Akers
If Philly's offense looks good, Akers will do just fine.

4. Jason Elam
Why the Broncos ever let him go, I'll never know.

5. John Kasay
Kasay didn't miss once under 40 yards and with a powerful Carolina offense, he has lots of chances to score.

DEFENSE

1. Baltimore
It looked like the Ravens perhaps were waning in their phase of amazing defenses, but they have retained much of their talent and look to be tough again next season.

2. Pittsburgh
Another solid defense is to be expected.

3. Tennessee
If they can continue to create turnovers, the Titans look like a good pick.

4. Chicago
They led the NFC in takeaways and good very well do so again.

5. Green Bay
With Charles Woodson on the loose, scoring just as many touchdowns as Ryan Grant, the Packer defense is a good fantasy pick.

Avoid Them

QUARTERBACKS

1. Tavaris Jackson
Perhaps these are no-brainers, but whoever gets the starting job will not be amazing in 2009. If Jackson or Sage Rosenfels throws 20 touchdowns and less than 10 interceptions, I'll be shocked.

2. Sage Rosenfels
Rosenfels is the type of guy you can pickup off of waivers in Week 4 or so when he finds his stride or Jackson gets benched, but it's not worth drafting him.

3. Joe Flacco
Don't get me wrong, Flacco is a good quarterback who knows how to win, but he is not going to be compiling stats that will impress.

4. Kyle Orton
The starting job may not even be his and even if it is, expect a short leash. It is very doubtful that Orton will play ever down in 2009 for the Broncos, don't be tempted to take him, even as a third QB.

5. Jay Cutler
Cutler may turn out to be spectacular, but it is just not worth the risk this early in the process for Chicago. He'll loosen up defenses, but there is still no big-time wide receiver for him to count on in Chicago. It is too much of a change for them too quickly and Cutler will not be as impressive statistically in 2009 as he was in 2008.

RUNNING BACKS

1. Thomas Jones
The Jets do not have a serviceable quarterback as of now and Jones will suffer from that fact. Add to that the rise of Leon Washington and Jones should not be drafted as a starter for 2009, perhaps not even as a third or fourth back.

2. LaDainian Tomlinson
I told lots of people to get off the L.T. train last season. He had an okay year, but he is not worth a top-five pick anymore. He'll probably rush for 1,100-1,200 yards and have 10-12 touchdowns, but that is not a top back, that's a second at best back, perhaps even third.

3. Anybody on the New England Patriots
Who knows what the Patriots are trying to do with all the backs they have, but don't bother with any of them. Just avoid them all.

4. Marshawn Lynch
Despite his troubles with the law, Lynch really just doesn't look like a smart pick. The Bills picked up Dominic Rhodes, so there's the potential of him taking some carries away from Lynch and the potential of Lynch being in prison or suspended or both.

5. Derrick Ward
I'm not sure what the Bucs plan to do with Ward, but my guess is that they'll establish one-two punch with Ward and Carnell Williams. I'm not sure who is one and who is two, but even if Ward is one, he still won't breakout for an amazing season.

WIDE RECEIVERS

1. Eddie Royal
With no Jay Cutler, don't expect Royal to even be on the map this season.

2. Jerricho Cotchery
With no Brett Favre, Cotchery's numbers will be even weaker than last year.

3. Torry Holt
With his future uncertain, you should be cautious in your drafting. If he stays in St. Louis, don't bother.

4. Lee Evans
Evans is a quality receiver, better than T.O. in my opinion, but if there's one thing that is certain to happen, it is that T.O. will complain about not getting the ball until he gets it or the team releases him. This means Evans' already low number of touchdowns may decrease. He's an okay pick, but not a great one.

5. Lance Moore
I'm going to go ahead and guess his 10 touchdowns last year were a fluke. Don't bother.

TIGHT ENDS

1. Tony Scheffler
Again, no Jay Cutler in Denver = do not draft.

2. Randy McMichael
McMichael was a force in Miami, even with lousy quarterbacks but in Saint Louis, he's lost some life.

3. Vernon Davis
No particular reason, he just doesn't look worth it.

4. Robert Royal
Again, just not a good decision.

5. Kellen Winslow
I have no idea what the Bucs plan on doing with Winslow, but the lack of a truly solid quarterback leaves me avoiding Winslow completely.

KICKERS

1. Jason Hanson
Despite the fact that he's the best kicker in the league, Detroit's offense is too woeful for him to get many good looks.

2. Jay Feely
With the Jets future looking dim, especially on offense, expect the same to be true of the typically reliable Feely.

3. Sebastian Janikowski
Janikowski has the same problem as Hanson, only Janikowski isn't as good.

4. Phil Dawson
He managed to put together an okay season with a lousy Browns team in 2008, but most signs point to the Browns not improving.

5. Josh Scobee
Scobee looked okay last year, but Jacksonville's offense is going nowhere fast and their defense is headed in the wrong direction so who knows if he'll get 25 attempts at field goals this year.

DEFENSE

1. Detroit
It goes without saying, but I still should say it.

2. St. Louis
Their defense may actually be worse than Detroit, I'm not quite sure.

3. Denver
Despite Champ Bailey and his dominance, the Broncos defense looks pathetic and there has been little done to remedy that.

4. Dallas
They're an attractive pick with lots of sacks, but they allow way too many points. Don't be fooled.

5. New Orleans
Most people should know this, but just in case you're unaware. The Saints' defense gives it up big time.

Posted by Andrew Jones at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

The MLB Powerless Rankings: April

We all know and love (or possibly hate) the phenomenon known as power rankings. They provide just about any person an opportunity to give their opinion on who the "best" teams at any given time and in any given league. While they certainly serve a purpose and produce some comically aggressive arguments from time to time, I've always wondered why we never have anything to gauge the worst teams. Surely, most people probably don't even want to think about giving bad teams the time of day, but if you think about it, don't we owe it to the league as fans to know as much as possible, for better or worse? I submit yes to this question.

So, in order to accomplish this task, I went and created "the powerless rankings." The name is pretty self-explanatory, but I promise you that I will at least attempt to make it much more riveting than it should rightfully be.

Enjoy!

26. Colorado Rockies

The Rockies are currently the proud owners of the longest losing streak in baseball currently (four games) and it's this very same losing streak that plopped them into the first spot in the powerless rankings. Although losing four games is never a good thing at any point in the year, it's April (you'll be hearing this again) and in the grand scheme of things, April doesn't really mean much. Unless you have losing streaks that last for any longer than four games or so. Hopefully, the Rockies can turn things around and end the drought soon.

27. Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have been playing some very mediocre baseball thus far in the season and their record has reflected this. Prince Fielder looks to be off to a slow start compared with his normal standards, but the team certainly has the talent and experience present to end up being just fine. Until then, though, they have a very special RSVP in our poorly decorated powerless rankings basement!

28. Arizona Diamondbacks

The biggest problem for the Diamondbacks so far this year is that their bats haven't been able to give their arms any consistent support. As with every type of ranking or analysis of baseball in April, it is still April and there's no sense running around crying that the skies about to fall just yet. So you can relax, Chicken Little, everything might just turn out to be okay.

29. Houston Astros

Despite what their record may indicate, the Astros aren't really playing that horribly and are ranked in or near the middle of the pack in nearly all respectable statistic categories. In the end, though, it matters more what your record says than whereabouts you're ranked. Even though they are so close to the bottom, consider the Astros a victim of a slow start and expect them to make a somewhat respectable turnaround in the short future.

30. Washington Nationals

Although an argument could be made for any other team in the bottom five of the cellar rankings, the Nationals have only managed thus far to win 2 total games out of 12 tries. Say what you want about it sometimes taking a bit for a team to get started early in the year, but you have to admit that there start has been especially slow — and unprofessional. But it's still only April, so all is certainly not lost, but if they don't start to get their act together soon, then it certainly could be.

But that's going to about wrap it up for the debut edition of the powerless rankings. Hopefully, you're not too disappointed in your team's performance, but just always remember that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it just matters that you had fun. Even though it's not very fun at all to watch our teams lose more games than anyone else in the league.

Regardless, like I've said 15 times so far in this article, it's only April. So stop with the doom predictions and all that stuff! You know, unless it continues happening into next month...

Posted by Josh Galligan at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2009

NBA Playoffs: Opening Statement Games

The NBA playoffs are full of unpredictability. For as much time and effort as people spend scrutinizing each and every detail trying to predict the outcome of each series in advance, there is a certain level of unpredictability that goes into each NBA playoff series, and it's the reason that the next two months are the greatest months of the year on the sports calendar.

For every "Cavs will blowout the Pistons" prediction that people get right, there is a "Ray Allen shot 1-12"-type, nobody-could-have-possibly-seen-that-coming moment in every series that makes the NBA playoffs must-see TV. It's like watching an episode of "Diary" on MTV: you think you know, but you have no idea.

In fact, the only thing that was predictable about the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs was the coachspeak. "It's only one game" was the cliché du jour in postgame press conferences around the league, and if Vegas were taking prop bets on things you'd hear in NBA press conferences this weekend, I would have taken the over on "it's just one game."

And while coaches will spit out "it's just one game" until after Game 2, when it will most definitely change to "it's a long series," you'll hear the phrase "statement game" used over and over by analysts over course of the NBA playoffs. After digesting the first game of each series, it's time to make some statements of my own.

Derrick Rose will never be a superstar.

If you watched even a minute of game one of the Celtics and Bulls series on Saturday, you probably think I'm crazy. Rose had 36 points and 11 assists in his first career playoff game and led his team to the biggest upset of the weekend. How is this guy not a superstar in the making?

Allow me to explain.

Derrick Rose is a great player. I've been saying it all season long. He's a year or two away from being in a three-way conversation with Chris Paul and Derron Williams as to who is the best point guard in the NBA. He's just starting to scratch the surface on how great of an NBA point guard he is going to be.

The problem: he has no personality whatsoever. On the court, he plays with the confidence and swagger of a seasoned veteran. He's as cool as it gets out there. Nothing rattles him, as you saw Saturday when he went 12-12 from the free throw line, including two huge free throws down the stretch that gave the Bulls a one point lead in the final seconds of regulation.

Off the court, however, is a completely different story. Getting him to say something quotable after the game is like pulling teeth. He's like the non-Steve Buscemi hit man from "Fargo." He averaged 16.8 points and 6.3 assists per game, only the ninth rookie in NBA history to average at least 16 and 6 in his first season, and he's yet to crack his first NBA smile.

Take a look around the league at the biggest superstars in the game right now: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard. All of those guys just ooze charisma.

Derrick Rose has the skills to play basketball on the same level as those guys one day, but unless he loosens up a ton and soon, he'll never have near the star power that any of those players has.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, but you know the league is dying for him to come out of his shell so they can promote the hell out of him. Tim Duncan has had a Hall of Fame career with little to no fanfare because he has no personality. It'd be a shame if another once-in-a-generation player goes largely unnoticed because he has no marketability.

Cleveland will go unchallenged to the NBA Finals.

It's a little early to say that they'll go 12-0 against the East en route to the Finals, but I'm not far from going there. Obviously, they are going to have no trouble with the Pistons, Saturday's game might have been the most lopsided 18-point win in NBA history, but it's a little early to predict a conference sweep. But with No. 2 seed Boston looking like a shell of themselves because their best player is hurt, and No. 3 seed Orlando blowing an 18-point lead at home to a .500 team, finding a challenger in the East is going to be tough.

Atlanta was impressive, to say the least, in their 26-point blowout win at home against the Heat, but this is a team that's already proven that they can win at home in the playoffs as they showed last year against Boston. I'm not sold on the fact that they can carry that success over to games three and four in Miami, let alone steal at least one game from the Cavs at the Q. They look like the only team that can threaten the Cavs right now, and unless they prove me wrong and win a big game or two on the road, the threat level in Cleveland is currently green.

New Orleans will bounce back, Portland will not.

Let's face it, there aren't a whole lot of positives that you can take from a 30-point blowout loss in game one of the NBA playoffs. But there are two reasons why I think that Portland has no chance in their series and New Orleans does. First, and most obviously, Portland was playing at home. The Rose Garden was supposed to be one of the biggest home-court advantages in the NBA heading into this postseason, and Portland allowed the Rockets to come in and just dominate them. That's a terrible sign.

At least New Orleans can sell themselves on the fact that they were on the road. For them, Game 1 was a game that they were supposed to lose. They knew going in that they only needed to win once in four tries at the Pepsi Center to take the series, so what's the difference if it's Game 2, 5, or 7?

Secondly, New Orleans played hard. Sunday night's game was by far the chippiest (not really a word, but I'm sticking with it) of all the Game 1s this weekend. There was plenty of pushing and shoving and trash-talking going on from both teams. You just got the feeling that New Orleans came to play, they just didn't have an answer for the 21-0 run that Denver threw at them to end the third/start the fourth quarter. Really, aside from that six-minute stretch, the game was fairly close. The Hornets were in striking distance for two and a half quarters and fell apart. That happens to seven seeds on the road. It's not the end of the world.

Portland, on the other hand, played with a "deer in the headlights" look on their face the entire night. Yao Ming was 6-of-6 from the field before the first TV timeout, and that was the end of it. Houston came out and landed the first punch and Portland just completely folded. Basketball is a game of runs, and to be unable to put together any sort of counter to the early run that Houston went on was a bad omen for the Blazers. I'm not saying that they're out of this series, not by a long shot, but the Baby Blazers looked more outmatched than any team in this year's playoffs on Saturday night, and that includes the eight seeds.

San Antonio and Dallas will go seven games.

These teams are too familiar with each other for this series to be one-sided. The Spurs have too much experience, are too well-coached, and have too much talent to be taken out in a short series.

On the flip side, Dallas is relying on too many players at once to be able to control the entire series from start to finish. They basically went with an eight-man rotation, and six of those eight players shot 50% or better from the field on Saturday. Inevitably some of their role players are going to have off shooting nights.

The Mavericks are playing a big game of Jenga right now. All their pieces fit in just right in game one. As soon as one of them has an off-night, this whole team could come crumbling down on top of him. Expect the Spurs to come up with a game plan defensively for the rest of this series that basically allows Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Josh Howard to get theirs, but prevents role players like Brandon Bass and J.J. Barea from scoring as efficiently as they did in Game 1.

It's only one game.

As much fun as it was to enjoy an entire weekend of playoff basketball, we still need to keep things in perspective. No one has ever clinched a series after one game, so no team should get too high or too low based on their performance in game one. Coaches don't just say this because it's the easy answer; they say it because it's true.

After one game in each series, there's only one thing that we know for sure: we don't know anything yet.

Look for Scott Shepherd's NBA column on Mondays and Thursdays during the NBA playoffs.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

The Washington Capitals' Tough Lesson

What's that old adage? Ah yes, "Defense wins championships."

Someone forgot to tell the Washington Capitals that.

Flying high with dynamic forwards and a mobile defense, the Capitals started the playoffs with Stanley Cup dreams. After a few days and two games, the Washington players — from superstar Alex Ovechkin to veteran Sergei Fedorov to speedy Mike Green — are looking at themselves and wondering what's happened to their team.

While New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding in his Game 2 shutout of the Capitals, Game 1's 4-3 loss was a mixture of good and bad for the Capitals. Generally, when a team scores three goals in a playoff game, it's enough to win. But the Capitals went into the playoffs with question marks on team defense and in net, and those two exact problems bit Washington in that game. In fact, in the age-old Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin debate, one of the constant points in favor of Crosby is that he can play the penalty kill and consistently backchecks, something that Ovechkin often fails to do.

How bad is the goaltending situation in Washington? Jose Theodore, a measure of doubt for everyone but the most die-hard Caps fans, played inconsistently enough to warrant the Game 2 start of Simeon Varlamov.

Who? If you don't know Varlamov, you're not alone — the 20-year-old rookie was a 2006 draft pick with no playoff experience.

That's right, coach Bruce Boudreau elected to go with zero playoff experience rather than the veteran. However, it wasn't totally Theodore's fault. In fact, the Game 1 loss was more an example of defensive breakdowns — the very Achilles' heel that so many speculated about entering the post-season.

The Caps' offense-first thinking is a dynamic, entertaining brand of hockey. If they employed a Hall of Fame goalie in his prime (or at least swapped goalies with the Rangers so they could have Lundqvist's Vezina-nominated skills), that sort of thing might work in the long run. However, the regular season and the playoffs are two separate beasts. While the Rangers had plenty of flaws going into the playoffs, they also had one of the league's best goalies and a disciplined commitment to team defense (check out that No. 1 ranked penalty kill). Sure, it might make for boring hockey, but that defensive strength has carried plenty of teams deep into the playoffs.

The problem is that it's easier to win a 2-1 game in the playoffs than a 6-5 goal-fest. It just doesn't happen in the playoffs, and when a team's strategy emphasizes offense rather than a balanced approach, it becomes a risky gamble. The Capitals have discovered that whenever you gamble, eventually you lose. In the regular season, those losses were acceptable. In the playoffs, two losses in a row can be devastating.

Only about 13% of playoff teams have come back from 2-0 deficits. It's also a different beast when the road team loses their first two games. The Capitals, on the other hand, have lost the first two at home, something almost unheard for a team nearly unbeatable at the Verizon Center.

So let's just assume that despite a valiant effort from OVechkin and company, the Caps lose. What does this mean for next season?

Well, there's no doubt that Bruce Boudreau will be back for next season — but will his style change? The Capitals don't need to have a Jacques Lemaire-style of "defensive automotons on ice," but their overall strategy needs to be revisited.

Defense wins championships. That's been acknowledged since the beginning of sport, probably dating back to the original caveman competitions. Perhaps it's time that the high-flying Capitals traded in some of that explosive offense for a little more stability on the back end.

Posted by Mike Chen at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2009

The Big Finals Ticket

Since the arrival of No. 5, the Boston Celtics have been a revitalized organization. The culture instantly changed to one of winning, in large part because the furious, white-hot passion of Kevin Garnett wouldn't have it any other way, both on the court and off it. A championship banner was raised and the Celtics appeared to be the strongest team through the first half of the '08-'09 season. Then came February 19th.

Late in the second quarter of a game against Utah, Garnett went up to slam down an alley-oop. The ball never made it to the hoop or his firm grasp, but more importantly, his right knee has not been the same since. Despite there being no contact with any Jazz player, Garnett limped his way to the locker room. Since that time, K.G. has played in only four of the team's final 26 games. The four-game stretch in late March where Garnett did play, he was a shadow of himself, averaging only 9 points a game and never playing more than 18 minutes.

While the Celtics have had their share of much-publicized stumbles over the season, to their credit, they went a formidable 18-9 since the injury, including a win in against Cleveland and in San Antonio.

The Cavaliers are the number one seed and unquestioned favorites coming out of the East, as they have proven unbeatable at home and now have a viable sidekick for LeBron James in Mo Williams. While the Cavs had come so close to dethroning Boston in last year's suspense thriller of a Game 7, now it appears clear they have closed that narrow gap and then some. The 107-76 beatdown the Cavaliers administered on Boston made the necessary statement. LeBron and the Cavs are neither scared nor intimidated of the green jerseys. Without a healthy Kevin Garnett, King James can drive to the basket all he wants and get plenty of open threes for his teammates, thus the Celtics will not win a playoff game in Cleveland. For you math majors out there: that means they lose.

Before the C's can get to Cleveland, though, it appears obvious they will have to go through Disney World in round two, always a fun place to play until Dwight Howard sends your point-blank layup five rows into the seats. The Celtics are 0-for-2 against Orlando since the Garnett injury and were sorely outplayed both times. While the Howard-era Magic have yet to make a deep playoff run, they now appear undaunted and poised to make their mark in the East. Without a healthy Kevin Garnett, the league's self-proclaimed Superman will shatter backboards (after all, they're not even the 12-foot ones) in the low post with no one to stop him. Not even the home-court advantage will protect Boston from that mismatch.

Last, but not least, should the Celtics return to the promised land, they will most likely find a very angry Lakers team waiting for them. This Lakers team beat Boston twice this season with a healthy Garnett. Their entire season has been dedicated to erasing the memory of the green-and-white confetti that cruelly ushered the Lake Show out of Boston. Kobe and his team heard the complaints that they were too soft when it counted the most, and they responded with a noticeably more physical style of play in '09. This time, Game 6 and 7 would be played on the West Coast.

Without a healthy Kevin Garnett, the Celtics don't reach this round, although you cannot rule out a scenario in which he returns and then aggravates the injury later in the playoffs, as he has already had one failed return this year. Even with a healthy Garnett, the Lakers should have enough to knock off the Celts in six or seven games, although they would have honorably defended their title. Without K.G., though, I would call it an L.A. sweep with Kobe lifting the trophy in Boston.

The only playoff matchup I have not yet covered for the Celtics is their immediate one with the Chicago Bulls. I think just about all of you would understand my reasoning for that. With the talent Boston has even without Garnett, the Bulls are about as intimidating as a bus stop of grade school kids in the morning. It may even prove wise for the Celtics to consider keeping Garnett on the shelf for this first round if there are any kinks left to be worked out before there are bigger fish to fry in the later rounds. Chicago would be lucky to win two games in this series regardless of who's playing.

Three titanic teams lie between Beantown and their next title, casting large, ominous shadows. The play of No. 5 could very well be the difference between going out quick in the second round and a return trip to the finals, thus spoiling all the predictions going around this time of year. The fate of the NBA's Eastern Conference playoffs has come down to one simple question: how's the knee, Mr. Garnett?

Posted by Bill Hazell at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2009

2009 NFL Mock Draft, Version 2.0

At this time last year, I challenged fellow SC columnist Seth Doria to a "Mock-Off." The rules were straight-forward: the two of us would submit into record our respective mock drafts and would measure the results against one another in hopes of: a) entertaining you, the reader; and b) determining which of us was the rightful Sports Central Mock Draft Champion. 2009's challenge was accepted, terms were reached (and later changed), and the rest is a matter of historic record.

The results? I lost, relatively convincingly actually, and for that victory, Seth deserves his well-earned notoriety as the Sports Central Mock Draft Champion for 2009 (check's in the mail). Truth be told, and not unsurprisingly, we both sort of sucked, but my "suckitude" far eclipsed that of Mr. Doria. Seth nailed nine first-round picks (worth 3 points each) — which is a reasonably respectable number, but only hit on one other team-player combination (1 point value), giving him a final score of 28.

I managed a feeble 4 player/team/pick bulls-eyes and added 2 team/player combos and a single player/position identification (0.5 point value) for my total score of 14.5. The one solace is that the reality is that in the unpredictable game of mock drafting, even the most well-respected draft gurus (ESPN's Mel Kiper, Jr. and NFL's Mike Mayock would be two of those) miss more often than they hit, so we mock drafters soldier on.

In the spirit of that soldiering on, the time has come for the 2010 Sport Central NFL Draft Mock-Off and as the resident loser, I'll go first. Once again, the scoring is simple: 3 points if you nail the pick, 1 point for a correct player/team selection that happens in a spot other than what was forecast in the mockm and 0.5 points if you hit the player in the right position, but he goes to a team other than the one indicated in our picks. As an added bonus to our readers, I've added round two, but must throw out there that my round two picks cannot and will not be counted in the competition, unless it suits me, in which case I'll see what I can do to change the rules after the fact. May the best mocker win.

Round 1

1. St. Louis Rams — Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford

His recent workouts solidified the highly accurate OU signal-caller as the Rams' first choice. He appears fully recovered from his arm troubles of '09 and should make a solid, though unspectacular pro.

2. Detroit Lions — Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh

How do you spell relief in Detroit? N-D-A-M-U ... well, you get the point. Suh should add instant stability to a defense desperate for a reliable building block. Behind the Rams' brass and Bradford's agent, Jim Schwartz was the happiest man in the house as he watched Bradford flawlessly move through his pro day routine.

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Oklahoma DT Gerald McCoy

The Bucs need a run-stuffer and a presence in the middle of that d-line, and McCoy fits that bill perfectly.

4. Washington Redskins — Oklahoma State OT Russell Okung

With the recent move to acquire Donovan McNabb, the 'Skins won't be in the QB market any longer. As such, I wouldn't be entirely taken aback to see a team with a particular interest in Tennessee's super-safety Eric Berry looking to move into this slot ahead of the Chiefs, particularly since you have to think Washington will be looking to recoup a second round pick (their original round two was traded for McNabb). Alas, I don't see anybody making that move, so Okung will be brought on to protect McNabb's blind side.

5. Kansas City Chiefs — Tennessee S Eric Berry

OT Bryan Bulaga is a name that many experts are calling here, but with a secondary so poor in '09, you have to think that a player of Berry's impact at a position of need can't be ignored.

6. Buffalo Bills (from Seattle) — Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen

Buffalo secretly pines for Mr. Clausen (well, it isn't that big of a secret) as they feel he is a proven commodity who will be able to perform in the poor weather of upstate NY, but you have to think they have their doubts that another team — say a team like San Francisco — won't try to move up to get the best pure passer in the draft. This leads me to the conclusion that they will pull the trigger on a deal with Seattle who has their eyes on some personnel they can grab later in round one.

7. Cleveland Browns — Florida CB Joe Haden

Yes, he has run consistently slower 40s than most thought he would. Yes, he hasn't gained any momentum in his draft status since his relatively pedestrian showing at the combine. But film doesn't lie and Haden is a stud on any tape study you review. Cleveland needs a shutdown corner type, and Haden is their guy.

8. Oakland Raiders — USF DE/OLB Jason Pierre-Paul

Okay, last year I gave Al Davis the benefit of the doubt against my better judgment and had them picking the best available at a position of need. In short, they went a different direction, as Davis always does. The lesson? Al Davis will pick a player with whom he is infatuated regardless of what general consensus is. This year's fetish is the freakishly-athletic edge rusher from South Florida.

9. Seattle Seahawks (from Buffalo) — Iowa OT Bryan Bulaga

Bulaga is technically sound and a behemoth up front. Though he has some lingering health concerns unrelated to injury, Bulaga is a guy that can be plugged in and be productive from day one. With the loss of Walter Jones, that is the sort of player Pete Carroll will need as he hopes to build a winner in the Great Northwest.

10. New England Patriots (from Jacksonville) — Texas S Earl Thomas

Two factors to consider: the Jags are facing immense pressure to select Tim Tebow, a hometown hero, with their first pick and the Pats are desperately searching for a way to settle their sporadically productive secondary issues, but know that they won't have any options there later in round one. Add to that the facts that Jacksonville has no round two pick and New England has three such selections, and these two make sensible trade partners.

11. Denver Broncos — Alabama ILB Rolando McClain

McClain is, in my estimation, the most impactful name on this list. Denver needs some production up the middle defensively and the powerful and speedy hitter from the national champion Tide team fits that bill to a tee.

12. Miami Dolphins — Idaho OG Mike Iupati

As a loyal Dol-fan, I'd like to see someone like Dez Bryant, C.J. Spiller, or even Taylor Mays go here. But Bill Parcells and his disciples are firm believers that you win games in the trenches with size and power, and the 6'6", 330-pound guard is athletic, powerful, and sound technically and will make a good replacement for John Smiley, whom the 'Fins have been disappointed with.

13. San Francisco 49ers — Clemson RB C.J. Spiller

I think this is a bit high for Spiller, but the team is making no secret of their lust for a playmaker in the backfield to pair with Frank Gore. Spiller offers all of that and then some, excelling in the passing game, return game, and as an option as a change-of-pace runner.

14. Seattle Seahawks — USC S Taylor Mays

With their second first-round pick, the 'Hawks will be able to bring in a Pete Carroll guy, and he raves about Mays at every possible opportunity. I would be very surprised to see Taylor not playing in Seattle next season.

15. New York Giants — Georgia Tech DE Derrick Morgan

Morgan has top-10 potential, particularly lately, but will likely fall as most teams needing a rush end before this slot play 3-4 style, which Morgan isn't really well suited for. The Giants will be delighted to have him available and should snatch him up as a long-term partner to Justin Tuck.

16. Tennessee Titans — Tennessee DT Dan Williams

WR Dez Bryant is an option here, too, but if Williams falls, the Titans should jump all over him. One thing that was evident in Tennessee last season was how much they missed Albert Haynesworth and Williams does fit that mold.

17. San Francisco 49ers — Rutgers OT Anthony Davis

In addition to some playmakers, the Niners are looking to improve at the point of attack. Davis makes sense and could move in at RT immediately.

18. Pittsburgh Steelers — Oklahoma OT Trent Williams

Trent Williams is a pure RT, lacking some of the footwork that left tackle prospects need to compete on a QB's blind side. The Steelers have given up a bushel of sacks over the past two seasons and surely have identified their own offensive line as a weakness. Williams fills a real position of need.

19. Atlanta Falcons — USC DE Everson Griffen

Griffen looked great in his Pro Day and solidified himself as a viable round one option. Once Derrick Morgan starts slipping, the Falcons may try to move up to grab him, but otherwise the USC end makes good sense here for a defensive line that needs some bolstering.

20. Houston Texans — Penn State DT Jared Odrick

I live in Houston and I can tell you first hand that the entire fan base of the city is begging for Dez Bryant or C.J. Spiller here. Bryant would in fact be a very good fit, but it wasn't offense that kept the Texans from making the playoffs in 2009, it was their ability to stop a team when the most needed to. With their defensive end positions solidified and a superior set of linebackers, Odrick would be a perfect fit as a guy that brings pressure up the middle, funneling action towards those ends and rushing QBs into dumping the ball into the short zone patrolled by Pro Bowl linebackers DeMeco Ryans and Brian Cushing. H-town won't like it, but this is a pick that will go a long way towards bringing a disappointing franchise to the next level.

21. Cincinnati Bengals — Oklahoma State WR Dez Bryant

The Bengals need to start adding offensive weapons to the mix, and Bryant is a very strong option.

22. Jacksonville Jaguars (from NE) — Florida QB Tim Tebow

Still early for Tebow, but Jacksonville needs some good press and Tebow gets them that. It is a sensible match since the Jags aren't going to be looking to make him the savior for 2010 and it buys them some positive mojo from a fan-based tired of disappointing results as he develops into a viable pro quarterback, which make no mistake, Tim Tebow will be.

23. Green Bay Packers – Michigan DE Brandon Graham

Graham is a second round guy on paper, but does nothing but make an impact on tape and in person. He dominated the Senior Bowl, had a great showing at the combine and has looked strong in individual workouts. The Pack can plug Graham in on passing downs right away and further their ability to get after the QBs in their pass-happy division.

24. Philadelphia Eagles – Missouri LB Sean Weatherspoon

Philly plugged in as many options at LB as they could imagine last year and never did find the right guy. Weatherspoon provides energy, leadership and playmaking ability and fits well in an aggressive scheme, which Philadelphia certainly employs.

25. Baltimore Ravens – Boise State CB Kyle Wilson

Wilson is a hard-hitting, play-making, impact-creating defensive back who plays with an undeniable toughness and swagger. Is there a better fit for a Raven team looking for secondary help? I don't think so.

26. Arizona Cardinals – Oklahoma TE Jermaine Gresham

Arizona has an emerging ground game, great receivers (though one less with the departure of Boldin) and a serviceable offensive line. Their defense is good enough to maintain without needing a big-time add. Their one most obvious variable from '09 is their new QB, Matt Leinart, who will be stepping in for the retired Kurt Warner. A huge, fast, good-handed tight end is a young QB's best friend, so Gresham makes sense.

27. Dallas Cowboys – Maryland OT Bruce Campbell

The Cowboys are loving two defensive backs, USF's Nate Allen and Rutgers' Devin McCourty. However, they are NEEDING some depth along the offensive line, and Bruce Campbell – who made a name for himself with a spectacular and somewhat legendary combine performance – offers some versatility that they could leverage into a lot of playing time for the youngster. If Campbell remains on the board this late in round one, Dallas will be hard-pressed to pass him up, even if it means losing out on a player they've otherwise coveted throughout their draft prep process.

28. San Diego Chargers – Florida State CB Patrick Robinson

The epitome of a boom-or-bust player, Robinson at times looks like an All-Pro-caliber play maker and other times is Swiss cheese. But Robinson does have good attitude and that combined with his raw tools makes for an intriguing option for a team needing some help at cornerback.

29. New York Jets – Penn State OLB Navarro Bowman

Bowman is as good as it gets at OLB in this draft, and the Jets having access to him here is a boon for their top-ranked defense. He makes plays, covers well and can edge rush as a stand up 'backer in a 3-4. His versatility makes him an easy fit and his experience in complex defensive schemes (ran at Penn State) show he has the aptitude to pick up on New York's varied looks.

30. Minnesota Vikings – Florida C Maurkice Pouncey

The Vikings need to improve their interior defensive line, and Pouncey can play C or G for a pro team immediately. Whomever is quarterbacking in Minny, Pouncey will be a welcomed addition and a contributing factor in 2010.

31. Indianapolis Colts – UCLA DT Brian Price

The Colts need to start rebuilding their aging defensive line and Price offers a sorely needed boost to their run defense.

32. New Orleans Saints – Texas DE/OLB Sergio Kindle

Though a player like Bowman is a better fit, the Saints will be looking to shore up their LB corps on draft day and Kindle is an interesting guy to consider. He may be better suited in a 3-4 defense, but Kindle is a guy that did drop into coverage some at UT and could be dropped in as a defensive end in the nickel scheme for New Orleans as well.

Round 2

33. Rams – Florida DE Carlos Dunlap
34. Lions – Rutgers CB Devin McCourty
35. Buccaneers – Illinois WR Arrelious Benn
36. Chiefs – Alabama DT Terrence Cody
37. Eagles (from Wash) – Iowa ILB Pat Angerer
38. Browns – Fresno State RB Ryan Mathews
39. Raiders – Texas QB Colt McCoy
40. Chargers – Georgia Tech RB Jonathan Dwyer
41. Seahawks (from Bills) – Mississippi DE Greg Hardy
42. Buccaneers – Mississippi RB Dexter McCluster
43. Cowboys (from Miami) – USF S Nate Allen
44. Jaguars (from NE) – Florida DE Carlos Dunlap
45. Broncos – Oklahoma CB Dominique Franks
46. Giants – Penn State ILB Sean Lee
47. Patriots – TCU DE Jerry Hughes
48. Panthers – Duke DT Vince Oghobaase
49. 49ers – TCU OLB Daryl Washington
50. Chiefs – Texas OT Adam Ulatoski
51. Texans – Stanford RB Toby Gerhart
52. Steelers – Oklahoma State DB Perrish Cox
53. Jaguars (from NE) – Clemson DE Ricky Sapp
54. Bengals – Arizona TE Rob Gronkowski
55. Eagles – California RB Jahvid Best
56. Packers – Massachusetts OT Vladimir Ducasse
57. Ravens – Hillsdale OT Jared Veldheer
58. Cardinals – Georgia Tech WR Demaryius Thomas
59. Dolphins (from Dallas) – Northwestern DE Corey Wootton
60. Seahawks – USC WR Damian Williams
61. Jets – Virginia Tech OLB Jason Worilds
62. Vikings – USF DE George Selvie
63. Colts – Wake Forest CB Brandon Ghee
64. Saints – Florida ILB Brandon Spikes

Posted by Matt Thomas at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

NBA Western Conference Playoff Preview

This was a weird NBA season. This is the earliest that I can remember all 16 playoff teams being set. Normally, it comes right down to the final game or two before all 16 playoff spots are finally secured.

The season was also weird for another reason: heading into the final day of the season, six of the eight playoff seeds in the West were undetermined. Only the first and the last playoff spot in the West were locked in heading into Wednesday night, leaving the 2-7 seeds up for grabs on the final day of the season.

It took all 82 games, an overtime on the final night, and a game running well past the midnight hour before we finally knew the four first-round matchups in the west.

Yesterday, we broke down the Eastern Conference first-round showdowns, today we focus our attention on the Wild West.

No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 8 Utah Jazz

This is not the ideal matchup for the Lakers, they would have much rather have seen the Dallas Mavericks (a team that they have owned in recent years) in the first round than the Utah Jazz.

Still, the Lakers shouldn't have too much trouble knocking off Utah in the first round.

For starters, Andrew Bynum looks like he hasn't missed a beat after missing 32 games with a torn MCL. In the four games since his return, he's averaging 17.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in just 26 minutes per contest. The Lakers are 40-10 when he plays this season. His presence inside should make it tough for Derron Williams and Ronnie Brewer to finish at the rim, and it allows Pau Gasol to slide back to his natural power forward position and Lamar Odom to come off the bench, both moves should help the already deadly Laker offense operate more efficiently.

But the real reason the Lakers will win this series, or any other series for that matter, is Kobe Bryant. Dallas may have been a better matchup overall for the Lakers, but Utah is the best possible draw for Kobe. He's averaged 31 points per game in his career against Utah, and he completely killed the Jazz in crunch time of all four Laker wins in last season's second round matchup between these two teams.

I don't expect Kobe to score 30 every game in this series (although if he does, would anyone really be surprised?), but I fully expect him to take over every fourth quarter. There may not be a player in the league that can stop Kobe in the fourth quarter, and if there is, he certainly isn't on this Utah Jazz team.

Expect Utah to compete, especially at home, but don't expect them to have an answer for the inevitable Kobe Bryant onslaught that we'll see every fourth quarter in this series.

Prediction: Lakers in five.

No. 4 Portland Trail Blazers vs. No. 5 Houston Rockets

On NBA TV's Western Conference Playoff Preview this week, Steve Smith made a good point. He said that since he's come into the league, no young team has won a title. Now I realize that beating the five seed in the first round isn't exactly the same thing as winning a title, but the same theory applies: young teams have little to no success in the playoffs.

Portland has more talent on their roster than any team in the playoffs not from Cleveland or Los Angeles, but they also have less experience than any team, too. They've played good in big games this year as evidenced by their blowout win against Denver on Wednesday night to secure home court in the first round, but that "big game" isn't anything close to a playoff game. Nate McMillan will do a good job with the X's and O's getting this team prepared (he always does), but nothing except being there before can prepare a team mentally for the playoffs.

The flip side to this argument is that Portland is playing Houston, the same Houston Rockets team that, despite having one of the league's top-10 players over the past decade in Yao Ming, has never advanced to the second round of the playoffs with him. They've clearly had the talent, they've had the chances (they won the first two games in Dallas in '05 and still lost the series and lost a Game 7 on the home floor to Utah in '07), but for one reason or another they cannot get over the hump.

So Portland's lack of experience meets Houston's inability to succeed in the playoffs, it's a classic "something's got to give" matchup. In my opinion, both deficiencies cancel each other out, so we have to move on to the tiebreaker: head-to-head success in recent years.

Unfortunately for Portland, recent history is not on their side. Since the '06-'07 season (Brandon Roy's rookie season), the Blazers are just 3-8 against the Rockets. They've won just once in eleven regular season games played at the Toyota Center.

The old boxing adage says that styles make fights, and for one reason or another, Portland's style just hasn't been able to put up much of a fight against the Rockets. This will be the year that Yao finally tastes the second round of the playoffs.

Prediction: Rockets in seven.

No. 3 San Antonio Spurs vs. No. 6 Dallas Mavericks

I planned on writing two different previews for this series: one assuming that Tim Duncan was 100%, one assuming that he wasn't. Then I realized, "it doesn't matter, San Antonio is going to win either way."

I know that I'm probably in the minority when I say this, but I don't think that the loss of Manu Ginobili is as crippling as most people think. Do I think that they can compete for a title without Ginobili? No. Do I think that they are still going to be very tough to beat, especially with home-court advantage? Absolutely.

The Spurs have basically had a secret weapon in Tony Parker in their back pocket for years, only they haven't had to unleash him because Tim Duncan is so unbelievably dominant and consistent that they've just been able to ride him for the past 10 seasons. Even when Parker won Finals MVP in '07, I don't think people fully appreciated how great of a player he truly is.

Now that Duncan is finally starting to show signs of aging, and Ginobili is out for the season, Pop has no choice but to put the ball in Tony Parker's hands and unleash him. When that happens, as we saw in the regular season when he shouldered most of the load while Ginobili and Duncan fought of various ailments, Parker dominates.

Parker can get to any spot on the floor he wants to, can finish better in the paint than any guard in the league, and has the uncanny knack of finding open teammates in clutch situations. Basically, he's Chris Paul with a ton of playoff experience and three rings to show for it.

When you also consider the fact that Duncan isn't exactly hurt, just worn out (big difference), and that there are no back-to-back games in the playoffs, you can fully expect to see the Big Fundamentals knocking down clutch shots and playing his usually brand of stellar defense while completely embracing the role of second fiddle to Tony Parker.

For years now it seems like people have been trying to write off the Spurs for one reason or another. I've been defending their greatness for years, and I'm not going to stop now.

Prediction: Spurs in six.

No. 2 Denver Nuggets vs. No. 7 New Orleans Hornets

Simply put, Chauncey Billups is a winner in every sense of the word. He's almost singlehandedly changed the Nuggets from a team of me-first head-cases to a "team" in one season as the Nuggets' point guard.

He was the driving force behind the Pistons' run to six straight conference finals appearances. He can score, he can pass, he can defend, and he never misses a free throw down the stretch. His leadership by example has basically convinced Carmelo Anthony to evolve from great scorer to great player this season. He's not the biggest or fastest guard in the league, and his game isn't without holes (watching him try to stay in front of Chris Paul this series should be fun), but he might be the best game-manager in the league. He's surrounded by just enough weapons on this team that if he personally can't win a game for the Nuggets, he will certainly get the ball to someone who can.

And while I like, scratch that, love Chris Paul's game, he simply has to do too much for this team. He and David West have had to play over 40 minutes a game down the stretch for the banged up Hornets for this team to even have a chance to compete, and even that wasn't enough to garner anything better than the seven seed.

When Paul and West rest to start the second quarter, any lead that the Hornets have amassed in the first quarter evaporates. Denver's bench, led by the "I love watching this guy for all the wrong reasons" MVP of the league J.R. Smith, will take full advantage of the Hornets' lack of depth, and it will ultimately be the difference in this series.

Chris Paul is great enough to prevent this series from being a rout, but his lack of help will be glaring and the Nuggets will take the series.

Prediction: Nuggets in six.

Look for Scott Shepherd's NBA column on Mondays and Thursdays during the NBA playoffs.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Sports Q&A: Wee, Monsieur

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong believes French doping officials may ban him from the 2009 Tour because of disagreements over a recent drug test. Is this just another ploy by the French to taint Armstrong's accomplishments in France's most beloved sporting event?

Absolutely. Just to clarify, this latest incident, like all the others in Armstrong's past battles with the French doping gestapo, revolves around a test that ultimately revealed no banned substances in Armstrong's samples.

The Frenchies have been bitter since French dominance of the Tour ended in 1986, when American Greg LeMond edged Frenchman Laurent Fignon by eight seconds. Before that, a French rider had won eight of the previous nine Tours, with Bernard "The Badger" Hinault the last Frenchman to win the title. Hinault won five Tours in his illustrious career, a mark that Armstrong pedaled past on his way to his seven Tour championships.

Instead of acknowledging Armstrong's greatness, the French have focused on a crusade to discredit him, "badgering" him with drug accusations, to create a de-"Tour" to Armstrong's quest for title number eight. In their efforts to find the dirt on Armstrong at all costs, the French have entered a new era of cultural and artistic awareness, as well as obsessiveness, known as the French "Reconnaissance."

In order to obtain Armstrong's samples for testing, the French, surprisingly, have displayed a "no surrender" attitude.

With championship cycling no longer associated with France, it's not enough for the French to just be known for "ticklers," fancy toast, and a cartoon skunk. Therefore, they feel the urge to deface the worldwide image of superior cycling, who happens to be an American.

Armstrong is a cancer survivor, and he has shown the same incredible resilience in defeating the disease as he has in each of his seven grueling trips through Les Alps. Cancer left Armstrong near death, and he has actually given his left nut to the sport of cycling. Yet the French insist on the belief that those experiences preclude the possibility of Armstrong's incredible accomplishments. That, mon amis, is a piss poor excuse.

Sorry, France. You can't prove in the laboratory that Armstrong is doped up, and he surely isn't going to admit to something of which he is innocent. Armstrong insiders have said that the French have promised no more tests for the Texas native, provided he admits to some form of drug usage. Sources also say that Armstrong has adamantly refused the offer, decrying the "pee bargain" as a form of blackmail.

The latest incident involves a drug test on March 17, a day in which a drug tester with France's anti-doping agency, the AFLD, which, I believe, is a clever abbreviation for "Armstrong Failed," showed up in the "CSI: Le Tour" van at Armstrong's home in France to collect urine, blood, and hair samples. Armstrong patiently supplied the samples, although his frustration with the French was evident when he graciously offered a stool sample and quipped, "I'm tired of this crap."

Undocumented reports also claim Armstrong tossed in a sperm sample, which the seven-time champ asked to be delivered directly to the president of the AFLD, a man Armstrong referred to as "Jacques Doffe."

As previously stated, French laboratory technicians, no matter how hard they tried, found no banned substances in Armstrong's blood, urine, or hair, nor in his kitchen sink. In fact, Armstrong himself reported the news of the tests in an online post on "Twinkle," a Twitter-affiliated site in which users post news of their urine tests.

All was copacetic until officials with the AFLD later questioned a 20-minute delay in collecting the samples in which Armstrong went inside his house to take a shower. The AFLD tester, under strict orders to keep Armstrong in his sight, claims he never granted permission for Armstrong to take a shower. Armstrong says the tester did allow him to go inside and take a shower while Armstrong's team manager, Johan Bruyneel, checked the tester's credentials.

Fittingly, Bruyneel demanded the tester's blood, urine, and hair samples, in what had to be the most fitting use of the French word touché in the history of spoken language.

Now, what exactly is the problem with Armstrong's shower? Is it possible to wash traces of drugs from one's hair, urine, and blood with just soap and water? Believe me, I've taken my share of 20-minute showers, and despite vigorous scrubbing, I've found that you can't alter the genetic makeup of bodily fluids.

And, I'm assuming Armstrong didn't draw his own blood for that portion of the testing. If that were the case, then it's no wonder the French have never busted Armstrong for a positive drug test.

Armstrong said the March 17 test was the 24th drug test administered since September of 2008. That's more than Charlie Sheen and Snoop Dogg, combined. Since Armstrong has passed all of them, it would seem the French authorities are intent to let the ongoing harassment of constantly demanding samples interfere with Armstrong's training. If they can't find a positive sample to disqualify Armstrong from the tour, then it appears the French just want to distract Armstrong from his preparations.

Armstrong is not without his supporters on this issue. Without Armstrong in the Tour, the Versus network's coverage of the event will lose much of its American fan base. It's been proven that Americans will tune in to view the biking exploits of only two people, Armstrong or Johnny Knoxville.

In addition, Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the world's cycling governing body, questioned the French authorities' ethics in the matter. McQuaid cited the fact that the AFLD sent a report of the Armstrong tests, although the UCI had no jurisdiction in this case, at about the same time the case was leaked to the press. Normally, contact between anti-doping agencies and the UCI is kept confidential until a decision to open a case has been confirmed.

So, is the AFLD telling the media the same thing they've been telling Armstrong — "Take a leak?"

Let's assume, just for a minute, that Armstrong has used banned substances. What's more impressive? Winning seven Tours, or fooling the doping agencies for this long? If Amstrong's been able to mask the presence of banned drugs in his body, then he's better at "duping" than he is at "doping." Either way, the French lose.

But assuming that Armstrong is dirty is a crazy assumption. One that only French doping officials on a witch hunt would make. But, in their crazed efforts to "catch" Armstrong, the French are just spinning their wheels. For those with a problem with Armstrong and/or his seven Tour De France wins, it's all over but for the crying.

That's appropriate, because everyone, Armstrong included, would agree that the French are known for their fine "whine."

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:16 AM | Comments (2)

April 16, 2009

NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Preview

In the Rotation is no more.

(Moment of silence)

With the playoffs just 48 hours away and do-or-die action packed into every game, one long weekly column just won't suffice. There's too much happening every night to just neatly recap things once a week. This is the playoffs, baby.

The league has been asking for months, "Where will amazing happen?" For me, the bigger question is, "When will amazing happen?" With the stakes so high during the NBA playoffs, each and every night there is the possibility of something historic unfolding before our very eyes. I can't just sit and wait for Monday to roll around to pass out praise and second-guesses alike.

Therefore, In the Rotation has been scrapped for the remainder of the NBA season with the goal to post, shorter, more time-sensitive columns twice a week from now through the NBA Finals in order to stay as on top of the NBA playoffs as I can.

Where will amazing happen this year? We don't know yet, but you can bet that when it does happen you can visit sports central over the next two months to catch up on anything you might have missed.

Over the next two days, we'll break down each series in round one of the playoffs, starting today with the Eastern Conference.

No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. No. 8 Detroit Pistons

Living in the Detroit area, I've seen just about as many Pistons games over the last six seasons as anyone. I'm not even disappointed at the fact that the Pistons run of six straight conference finals appearances is about four games from coming to an end (five if we're lucky).

If you would have told me in 2003, the year the Pistons went to their first of six straight conference finals, that this team would win 50+ games each of the next five seasons, advance to the conference finals in each of those seasons, play in two NBA Finals, and win an NBA title, but afterwards there would be a minor rebuilding process, I would have taken that offer in a heartbeat.

So, no, I'm not disappointed that we've come to the "minor rebuilding process" of that agreement. What disappoints me about the 2008-09 Pistons is that seemingly at the drop of a hat, this team completely lost its swagger.

For six straight seasons the Pistons took the floor every night and knew that they were the better team. In fact, that was the only knock on this team over the last half decade: they're so good that they put it on cruise control against lesser opponents because they know they're better and don't feel like proving it.

The Pistons spent the last six seasons with a collective swagger that was so important to their success that not even Daryl Morey could figure out a stat to quantify it. You just knew that this team had that "it" factor. Then the Pistons traded Chauncey Billups and the "it" factor left with him.

Players stopped caring. Nagging injuries lingered longer than they should have. Players questioned their roles publicly for the first time. Finger-pointing was at an all-time high. The Palace of Auburn Hills even saw its sell-out streak of 259 games snapped this season. Simply put, this franchise lost its swagger.

So what does that have to do with this series? Well, the Cleveland Cavaliers have more swagger than any other team in the league.

Whether it's posing for the team photo before the game, holding the follow-though that extra split second on a three-pointer, mugging for the bench after a monster dunk, or any of the other little things that the Cavs do to toe the line between confidence and cockiness, this team just oozes swagger.

Add that to the fact that they have the most talent 1-12 in the league (their scrubs pushed Philly to overtime when the Sixers had the difference between Orlando and the defending champion Celtics on the line) and the best home crowd in the league (39-2 ... in the Q!) and it makes for a lethal combination.

Having seen firsthand for the past six seasons just how deadly the combination of talent and swagger can be, I know better than to bet against this Cavs team, especially against a team that punched out four months ago.

Prediction: Cavs in four.

No. 4 Atlanta Hawks vs. No. 5 Miami Heat

One thing I thought I'd never do when I started writing for Sports Central over two years ago is give the Miami Heat, especially Dwyane Wade, any credit. In fact, the first column I ever wrote was titled "If You Can't Stand the Heat..."

What a difference the Olympics can make.

After Wade poured his heart into every minute he played in the Beijing Olympics, he became (gulp) one of my favorite players to watch this season. He played on another level for 82 straight games.

Now, as the playoffs approach, maybe it's the fact that I'm actually rooting for as many more Dwyane Wade games as possible that has me blindly convinced that the Heat can win this series.

My head tells me that the Hawks are the better team. Across the board, at every position except shooting guard, the Hawks have the advantage, and even the shooting guard matchup (Joe Johnson vs. Dwyane Wade) isn't that big of a mismatch when you consider how good Johnson is. Logically, there's no real reason that the Heat should be able to steal home court away from a playoff-tested Hawks team and win this series.

But my gut tells me that time and again in the playoffs, especially in the first round when the level of play isn't quite as high as say an NBA Finals, one player can win a series by himself. Wade proved it in '06 when he (with a lot of help from the officials, but still) basically singlehandedly beat the Mavericks after the Heat lost the first two games of the Finals.

There are only three players in the league right now that are capable of beating a team by themselves: Wade, LeBron, and Kobe (sorry, CP3, you choked at your chance to make this list by blowing Game 7 to the Spurs last season).

I knew better than to bet against the Cavs and their swagger in the first matchup, and I know better than to bet against a great player in round one. I'm taking the Heat (my '07 self just shook his head in disbelief).

Prediction: Heat in six

No. 3 Orlando Magic vs. No. 6 Philadelphia 76ers

Orlando isn't exactly clicking on all cylinders heading into the playoffs, but if there's one team more out of sync right now than the Magic, it's Philly.

The Sixers come into this series having lost six of their last seven games, and their one win came against the Cavs bench players, and they needed OT for that. What's worse for Philadelphia, they lost all three games they played against the Magic this season, including two on their home floor.

The Magic might rely too much on the long ball sometimes, a weakness that will most likely be their undoing this postseason, but it won't be enough for Philly squeak out the upset. Superman and company should have no problem defeating Iron Man and company (in case you were wondering, Andre Miller is Iron Man, having the longest active consecutive games played streak).

Prediction: Magic in five

No. 2 Boston Celtics vs. No. 7 Chicago Bulls

You might think that the big concern for the Celtics heading into the playoffs is the health of Kevin Garnett. I'll admit, Boston can't compete for a title without him at 100%, but he's not the X-factor in this series.

The real key to this series, healthy Garnett or not, is the matchup between Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo. Rondo is probably headed to his first NBA All-Defensive team; Rose is headed towards winning Rookie of the Year. Something's got to give.

Rondo's sneaky good defense and quickness off the dribble could be a matchup nightmare for Rose. Rose's ability to blow by his defender and create scoring around the rim might nullify one of Boston's biggest strengths.

And while Boston's supporting cast will ultimately push the C's past the Bulls, I think this series is going to be closer than a lot of people think. The Bulls are asking a lot to try and count on a rookie point guard to carry them past the defending NBA champs, but Rose is anything but your average rookie point guard. Boston will win the series, but the big story of this series when it's all said and done will be Derrick Rose's coming out party.

Prediction: Boston in seven.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the Western Conference first round preview.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:51 AM | Comments (1)

2009 NFL Schedule Breakdown

When you look back at the history of the NFL, one thing you rarely hear about is the schedule. History doesn't care whether the Steelers played an easy schedule or a hard schedule last year. It only cares that the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

Likewise, people don't talk about how the schedule impacted last year's losers. They don't talk about how Cleveland got screwed with nine games outside of the normal 1 PM EST start time (death for a young team with a weak coach). And they don't talk about how Scott Linehan's death certificate was signed with a first three that included road trips to Philadelphia and Seattle, with a home date against the Giants in between.

All people remember is that the Browns and Rams stunk, and their coaches fired.

It's a bottom line business, that history.

But the schedule matters. The players play and the coaches coach, but it's the schedule that determines the flow of the season.

With that in mind, here are the biggest winners and losers from the Tuesday announcement of the 2009 National Football League schedule:

Winner: Arizona Cardinals

West Coast teams losing 1 PM games on the East Coast became a major story line last year, especially for Arizona. But this year, they only have one EST 1 PM game (Jacksonville in Week 2) and only one other game on the East Cast (Sunday night at the Giants in Week 7). After that, they make a couple of trips to the middle of the country (Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Tennessee), but none of those brutal all-the-way-across-the-country treks.

Loser: Miami Dolphins

After Week 7, they play six of their next eight on the road: @Jets, @Patriots, Bucs, @Panthers, @Bills, Patriots, @Jaguars, @Titans. They then finish with the Texas and Steelers at home.

It's going to take a lot more that the Wildcat formation to get them back into the playoffs with that slate.

Winner: Houston Texans

It seems like every year is going to be the year Houston finally breaks through. Whether this will be it or not, I don't know. But they do have a friendly schedule: Three out of the first four at home (Jets, @Titans, Jaguars, Raiders), with a @Cincinnati/San Francisco/@Buffalo stretch from Week 6 to Week 8, and another three-out-of-four-at-home stretch from Week 11 to Week 14 (Indy, Tennessee, @Jax, Seattle).

Let's just go ahead and call this the year Houston finally breaks double digits in wins at 10-6.

Loser: St. Louis Rams

Tough break for new coach Steve Spaguolo: three road games in their first four, including a brutal turnaround from Seattle in Week 1 to Washington in Week 2. They also have a three-game stretch of Minnesota, @ Jacksonville, Indianapolis from Week 5 to Week 7.

The Rams do catch a break with a rare three-game home stretch, after a bye no less, so they'll go from a Week 8 road contest at Detroit on November 1 all the way to a Week 13 trip to Chicago on December 6 without having to leave home. The question is whether they'll get to that stretch in good enough shape to take advantage.

Winner: Indianapolis Colts

Their hardest stretch of the season is from Week 10 to Week 13: New England, @Baltimore, @Houston, Tennessee. When that's as tough as it gets, you're looking at another 11- or 12-win season for Peyton Manning and company.

Loser: Dallas Cowboys

Wow. This schedule is loaded. Not only do they play in the toughest division in football, but they have the NFC South, including a tough matchup in Tampa in Week 1 and a Sunday night game at New Orleans in Week 15. Their final five is @ Giants, Chargers, @ Saints, @ Redskins, Eagles. They have back-to-back road trips to Denver and Kansas City in Weeks 4 and 5, and another back-to-back at Philly and Green Bay in Week 9 and 10.

Sad to say, but just like Linehan had his death certificate signed with last year's schedule, this will surely lead to the end of the Wade Phillips era in Big D.

Winner: Minnesota Vikings

First five: @Cleveland, @Detroit, San Francisco, Green Bay, @St. Louis.

To put those teams' performances in 2008 into perspective, that's the (in order) fifth, first, 10th, eighth, and second picks in the upcoming draft looking at you.

The Vikings also have a nice three-game home stretch after their Week 9 bye: Detroit, Seattle, and Chicago. If the Vikings don't have at least seven wins going into December, Brad Childress needs to be shown the door.

Loser: Denver Broncos

Apparently the league is as much of a Josh McDaniels fan as Jay Cutler. From Week 4 through Week 14: Dallas, New England, @San Diego, Bye, @Baltimore, Pittsburgh, @Washington, San Diego, Giants, @Kansas City, @Indianapolis.

The words "holy" and "crap" come to mind.

Winner: New England Patriots

With Tom Brady working his way back from last season's devastating knee injury, New England had to be happy seeing a first seven that only includes two true road games: Buffalo, @Jets, Atlanta, Baltimore, @Denver, Tennessee, Tampa (from London).

For at least one year, we'll be spared the Matt Cassel vs. Tom Brady nonsense as the Chiefs and Pats don't play this year. We will, however, get plenty teacher vs. pupil hype going into the Week 5 New England at Denver game.

Loser: Detroit Lions

The first thing new head coach Jim Schwartz needs to do is win. It's been since Dec. 23, 2007. You'd think the league would have done him a favor and given him a home game against Cleveland or St. Louis to at least give them a shot, but no. Instead, the Lions will kick-off 2009 as such: @New Orleans, Minnesota, Washington, @Chicago, Pittsburgh, @Green Bay. The Packers in Week 6 will be their first 2009 opponent that didn't finish .500 or better in 2008.

St. Louis comes in Week 8 after their bye. The Browns are in the Motor City in Week 11.

A Few Other Notes

5. Think the TV people noticed the Jay Cutler trade?

Take a look at the teams with the most games in prime time (pre-flexing of course). Each team has five.

Dallas (America's Team), Indianapolis (12-4 last year, Peyton Manning), Giants (12-4, best team in the biggest market), Steelers (defending champs)

And Chicago, they of the 9-7 and no playoff berth last year.

Think that happens with Kyle Orton at QB?

Total number of night games by team:

5: Dallas, Chicago, Indianapolis, NY Giants, Pittsburgh
4: Miami, New England, Philadelphia, San Diego, Tennessee
3: Arizona, Baltimore, Carolina, Denver, Green Bay, Minnesota, Washington, New Orleans
2: Atlanta, Buffalo, Cleveland, NY Jets, San Francisco
1: Houston, Jacksonville, Oakland
0: Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa Bay

4. Oakland better get their act together quick: Their first three games are against the division (Charges, @Chiefs, Broncos).

3. My favorite day of the year is Thanksgiving. It's got everything — copious amounts of great food, football, and the ability to get drunk and pass out around your family and not have anybody say anything about it. It is the perfect man day. And so the first thing I check each year is the Thanksgiving schedule. This year's slate is pretty decent:

Green Bay at Detroit
Oakland at Dallas
Giants at Denver

How interesting that Lions/Packers game is going to be depends in large part on what the Lions do in the draft. If the take Georgia QB Matthew Stafford, he'll probably be starting for Detroit at this point.

Oakland/Dallas should be a good one. I like what the Raiders have going for them. They have a hell of a running game behind an improved offensive line. JaMarcus Russell should be better in year two. And their defense should be at least somewhat improved. And then, of course, there's the Cowboys. Good game.

And Giants/Broncos could be the best game of the day. I'm going to have to try real hard not to fall asleep during that one.

2. Best game by week:

Week 1: Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers

Actually a lot of good games in Week 1, but it doesn't get much better than a primetime match between the defending champs and the team with the best record in the NFL last year.

Week 2: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys

First game at Jerry's Billion Dollar Palace; Pats at Jets and Colts at Dolphins on Monday Night should be quality, as well.

Week 3: Indianapolis Colts at Arizona Cardinals

Peyton Manning vs. Kurt Warner should make for some fireworks in the Sunday night game; It's only the second career matchup between the two.

Week 4: Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots

There is some serious bad blood between these two organizations; The last time they met, during New England's perfect regular season of 2007, was an all-time classic.

Week 5: Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans

Pats/Broncos will get all the hype due to the McDaniels/Bill Belichick dynamic, but this game will have far more serious playoff implications.

Week 6: Chicago Bears at Atlanta Falcons

Titans at Patriots is the obvious headliner, but Cutler and Matt Forte squaring off against Matt Ryan and Michael Turner in a battle of emerging NFC powers could end up stealing the show.

Week 7: Philadelphia at Washington

Kind of a weak week from first glance, but this is right around the time of year teams start playing their best football. This game will be a good measuring stick of just where the power lies in the NFC East.

Week 8: Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints

You know Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be all over Giants/Eagles, but, for my money, it doesn't get much better than Monday night on Bourbon Street.

Week 9: Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots

Cowboys/Giants is great drama, but Pats/Dolphins is hatred.

Week 10: New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts

Brady/Manning. Enough said.

Week 11: Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans

If the Texans are making the final push toward their first playoff appearance as I expect, this Monday nighter in Houston game will be huge.

Week 12: Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens

War on Sunday Night.

Week 13: Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

December gets kicked off right.

Week 14: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants

Not to sound like a FOX Sports executive, but it really is hard to beat an NFC East game in December, especially when the MNF game is Arizona at San Francisco.

Week 15: New York Giants at Washington Redskins

I hate to go NFC East and Giants three weeks in a row, but it's the most competitive division in football. Every game is going to be critical in the playoff race. Plus, there really aren't a whole lot of options.

Week 16: Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears

Soldier Field on Monday night on December 28. Now that's a football game.

Week 17: Washington Redskins at San Diego Chargers

There are more obvious games on the schedule like Eagles/Cowboys, Giants/Vikings or even Raiders/Ravens, but I have a feeling this game is going to be vital in both conferences' playoff races.

1. God, I love football.

Posted by Joshua Duffy at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)

Step Off the Ledge, Red Sox Fans

You have to admire Red Sox fans. What other group of fans would reach for the panic button in unison 5.55% of the way into the season?

The Red Sox are three games under .500.

They lost two of three against the Rays, Angels, and As.

The Yankees just took 2-of-3 from the Rays.

David Ortiz isn't hitting, Jon Lester isn't pitching, and most importantly, the team isn't winning.

Where's that panic button?

Daisuke "WBC MVP" Matsuzaka has a mild right shoulder strain likely caused by over-exerting himself in the WBC.

Not to get off-topic, but the Selig Baseball Classic is nothing more than a nuisance at this point. Americans don't care. The games are mostly bad baseball because the players are still in spring training mode. Pitchers are put on strict pitch-counts and can't go full-speed.

Well, they shouldn't go full speed. When they do go full-speed, they Dice-K themselves onto the DL.

Anyway, back to the Red Sox.

The last time the Sox got off to a start this bad was 1996. Kevin Kennedy was the manager. For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the annoying guy on the FOX pregame show. And trust me, he was a much worse manager than he is as a commentator.

That team featured exactly one good hitter, the steroid-aided Mo Vaughn. His dealer, Jose Canseco, was decent. Jeff Frye was the only above average fielder on that team. They featured players like Mike Stanley, Lee Tinsley, and Troy O'Leary.

Their pitching staff featured an out-of-shape Roger Clemens, future Yankee reliever Tom Gordon, year two of Tim Wakefield, and the squishy-soft Aaron Sele. The immortal Vaughn Eshelman made an appearance, Heathcliff Slocumb closed games, and Rich Garces was as fat as ever.

Point is, that team was terrible. It was an ill-conceived roster full of guys who were either over-the-hill, over-weight, not that good, or completely forgettable.

If this Red Sox team looked anything like that Red Sox team, I'd be the first one to beat the panic button into oblivion. This Red Sox team features a ridiculously deep pitching staff, one of the best bullpens in the majors, and a pretty good hitting lineup. There's no Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz may not be David Ortiz anymore, but Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay, and Dustin Pedroia are all pretty good.

This may be the best fielding team in Red Sox history. The Sox have legitimate Gold Glove candidates at first base, second base, third base, and center field.

Josh Beckett is the best big-game pitcher in the league. Jon Lester (slow start aside) is a legitimate Cy Young candidate. Dice-K, for all his faults, led the league in batting average against last season.

There are only two guys in all of Major League Naseball with 100 or more innings and an ERA under 2.00. Both of them are in the Red Sox bullpen (Jonathan Papelbon and Takashi Saito).

Did I mention John Smoltz yet?

Anyway, point is, this team is hardly panic button worthy. This Red Sox team is a well put together championship contender that's off to a slow start.

That's all.

Come October, this slow start is going to be a very, very distant memory. So step off the ledge and hide the panic button. It's a long season.

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner at Examiner.com. He writes a column every other Thursday for Sports Central. You can e-mail him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.

Posted by Sean Crowe at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2009

In the Rotation: NBA Postseason Awards

Finally.

That's the one-word paragraph that I used over six months ago sum up my excitement towards the NBA season.

No more offseason speculation, no more "what-ifs," just a new NBA season.

Today, as the NBA regular season concludes, I found myself thinking the same thing: finally.

Finally, the playoffs are here.

But before we look forward (be sure to check for the playoff previews for each conference starting tomorrow), we must look back.

Here, in the final regular season edition of In the Rotation, I submit my ballot for the NBA postseason awards (you know, just in case one of the 120+ accredited media members forgets to mail his in and the NBA needs an alternate ballot).

MVP

1. LeBron James
2. Dwyane Wade
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Chris Paul
5. Dwight Howard

At this time last season, there was a great debate over the MVP award: Kobe or CP3? You couldn't go wrong with either choice. I felt pretty strongly that Kobe should have won, and he did, securing 82 of the possible 126 first place votes.

This year, there is no such debate. We've been trying to talk ourselves into making it a three-man race between LeBron, Kobe, and Dwyane Wade for the past two months, but in reality, it's not even close.

LeBron James is the 2008-09 MVP.

It doesn't matter what you put the most emphasis on when considering who you'd pick for MVP, LeBron has it all.

Best player on the planet? Check.

Most team success? Check.

Most exciting to watch? Check.

Has meant the most to his team over the course of the season? Check.

The list goes on and on. LeBron's season has been one for the ages, right down to the very end where his Cavs will most likely tie an NBA record for best home record in a season by going 40-1 at the Q.

If last year was supposed to be one of the most hotly-contested MVP races in recent history and Kobe finished with 65% of the first-place votes, what can we expect this year? Kevin Garnett received 120 out of 121 possible first-place votes in 2004. Same with Shaq in 2000. Maybe we won't see LeBron take home 99% of the first place votes this season, but he should. He's been that good.

Trying to make a case for Bryant or Wade at this point is just playing devil's advocate. They've both been spectacular, and a vote for LeBron takes nothing away either of their seasons, but it's just not realistic to believe that either of them has been more of an MVP than LeBron.

James' 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game will go down as, statistically, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, NBA seasons of this generation.

You can play devil's advocate all you'd like. I'm going with the King.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Dwight Howard
2. Dwyane Wade
3. LeBron James

No need to really get too in depth with this one. Howard is just the fifth player to lead the NBA in both rebounding and blocked shots in the same season since the league started keeping blocks as an official stat in 1973.

As you should be well aware of by now, any time that a player does something of historic relevance, the Rotation takes notice. No exceptions here. Congratulations, Superman.

Rookie of the Year

1. Derrick Rose
2. Brook Lopez
3. O.J. Mayo

One of the biggest stories of the 2008-09 season has to be the depth of the rookie class. Rarely do you see a crop of rookies come in and see so many of them have immediate impacts on their respective teams.

Yet this season we've seen no fewer than eight to 10 rookies come in and play a major role for their team. In most draft classes, you'd be lucky to have eight to ten players play a major role on a team at any point in his career, let alone his rookie season.

And, just like he did in June when he was selected number one overall by the Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose stands atop his draft class once again.

It's not just the fact that Rose has statistically been better than all other rookies (second among rookies in scoring, first in assists, 47% from the field), but it is his leadership above all else that earns him my vote for Rookie of the Year.

From the day the Bulls opened camp, they put the ball in Rose's hands, designed a system that would allow him to flourish, and let him go to work. Rose responded by leading the Bulls to the 6th best record in the Eastern Conference.

Sure, there were some bumps in the road, but when you consider that at age 20 Rose will get his first taste of playoff basketball, there's no telling just how great Rose can be in the years to come.

We'll worry about that later, but for now let's just focus on the fact that Rose's career got off to an amazing start, and reward him for what he has done and not speculate on what he might do in the future (that's what the offseason is for).

Coach of the Year

1. George Karl
2. Erik Spoelstra
2. Stan Van Gundy

For some reason, George Karl's name is seldom brought up for Coach of the Year. Yet, at the beginning of the year, how many people outside of Denver thought that the Nuggets could win their division and secure the second seed out West?

The reason that Karl gets my coach of the year vote isn't just because the Nuggets exceeded all my expectations by winning the Northwest Division, it's because of the way they won it.

When the Nuggets traded for Chauncey Billups, they completely changed the way they play. Sure, they still employ the run-and-gun tactics that we've grown accustomed to seeing from a George Karl-coached team, but they've also added a half-court offense and inspired defense to their resume. And it's Karl's willingness to add those new wrinkles that makes him coach of the year in my book.

Just look at what happened to Detroit on the flip side of the trade. They brought in Iverson, an open-court player who needs to have the ball and create his own shot, and tried unwaveringly to plug him into their team-first style of play. We all saw how that worked out.

Karl knew better than to bring in Billups and have him try to fill the role that Iverson had played over the past two seasons. It wouldn't work because Billups isn't that kind of player. Karl knows that, so instead of awkwardly parading Billups out there to play like someone he's not just to fit him into a system, Karl simply tweaked the system.

The results: a Northwest Division Title, the most wins in franchise history, the number two seed out West, and a punchers chance to represent the West in the NBA Finals.

If results like that don't warrant coach of the year accolades, I'm not sure what does.

First Team All-NBA

Kobe Bryant
Dwyane Wade
LeBron James
Dirk Nowitzki
Dwight Howard

One of the greatest injustices in recent NBA history is that Chris Paul, despite having one of the best point guard seasons on record, might not even make First-Team All-NBA. I thought about fudging the requirements and moving Kobe to forward instead of Dirk and rolling with a three-guard first team, but the rules clearly state two guards, two forwards, and a center.

As much as it kills me to leave Paul off the first team, it would hurt more having to leave off Bryant or Wade, so CP3 has to settle for being the best player on the second team.

Second Team All-NBA

Chris Paul
Tony Parker
Tim Duncan
Paul Pierce
Yao Ming

You might think it's a reach to have Tony Parker on the Second Team All-NBA, but he's been better than ever this season. With injuries to Manu Ginobili and Duncan at various points of the season, Parker has had to step up and carry the load night in and night out for the first time in his career. He's responded by showing that he can completely take over games when his teams needs it, and his ability and willingness to slide back into the playmaker role when his teams needs it shows exactly the type of versatility that you would expect to see from a second team All-NBA player.

As for the rest of the players on the second team, the one word can sum up each of their seasons: consistency. Not that we should expect any less from Paul, Duncan, Pierce, and Yao, but their ability to consistently perform at the highest level for championship-caliber teams makes them easy choices for an All-NBA selection.

Third Team All-NBA

Chauncey Billups
Brandon Roy
Kevin Durant
Carmello Anthony
Pau Gasol

I couldn't bring myself to fudge the system on the first team, but I'll make an exception here and put Pau at center. At least he played half the season there while Bynum was hurt. Plus, he's more deserving of being All-NBA than Shaq, who would be the alternative at center, so I can live with that.

And I know that there will be some of you that say that Durant has no business making an All-NBA team while playing for a team that will win less than 25 games, while players like K.G. and David West get left off, but there's no rule that says that team success has to factor into All-NBA voting. If you want to put more stock into the fact that the Celtics and Hornets are making the playoffs, that's fine, but I'd rather reward Durant for his great individual play than punish him for his lack of help. If it wasn't for the fact that his supporting cast is so terrible, Durant would probably be first-team. I think he's that talented.

Still, the last five spots are up for debate. There are still plenty of great players who didn't receive All-NBA consideration from me. If you have an issue with the list, speak now or forever hold your peace.

After all, these are regular season awards and the playoffs start in two days.

Finally.

Look for Scott Shepherd's NBA column on Mondays and Thursdays during the NBA playoffs.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Andres Gimeno in Tennis HOF?

In the middle of January, International Tennis Hall of Fame announced its class of 2009 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Leading the group of four inductees was Monica Seles, who received most of the media attention. Joining her were three other names, one of whom is an internationally little-known player from Spain, however, a legend by all means in his home country of Spain — Andres Gimeno. Why did I think of this guy? Let's start from the beginning.

Last week, I was watching a show on The Tennis Channel called "Best of Five: One-Slam Wonders." To me, that would mean players who won a Grand Slam and did not accomplish much else in their careers. Apparently, it had a different meaning to the producers of the show. I disagreed with every selection except Petr Korda.

I did not understand why they would put players on that list such as Goran Ivanisevic, Michael Chang, Yannick Noah, and Gabriella Sabatini who have had numerous tournament titles, who have reached other Slam finals and semifinals, and who spent a considerable portion of their careers ranked in top 10, unless their criteria was to simply select a player who only won one Slam in their career. But if that was the case, a large number of players would fit the criteria. It seemed that the producers forgot to consider the "did not accomplish much else in their career" part.

Their "Honorable Mentions" category with Gaston Gaudio, Thomas Johansson, and Richard Krajicek were better selections then four of the top five. Also, players such as Andres Gomez and Albert Costa were more fitting to the list than the four that I mentioned above. And who can forget Mark Edmondson, who won the Australian Open in 1976 as the 212th-ranked player in the world, struggled to maintain a top-100 ranking otherwise in his career, and won only five titles other than the Australian Open, all on grass by the way?

This is where in my train of thought came in Andres Gimeno, the 1972 French Open champion. He could have easily made this list also, although his case is not as blatant as Costa, Gaudio, Korda, or Edmondson. Outside of his Roland Garros title, he did reach the final of 1969 Australian Open, and two other semifinals. He does have wins over most of the top players of that era, such as Arthur Ashe and Ken Rosewall. So, I convinced myself that Gimeno, who runs one of the top tennis academies in Spain and has been doing commentary on TV for two decades, deserved better than that; he was not a "one-slam wonder," not in the way the Tennis Channel producers defined the term, but in my own.

Then, as I started thinking of Gimeno, I remembered vaguely reading in January that he was one of this year's inductees into the Tennis Hall of Fame. So, once again, my mind went back and forth. Okay, his accomplishments coupled with the sympathy that I have for him due to his receding hairline similar to mine were enough for me to take him out of consideration for "One-Slam Wonder" category. But did he really deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? After all, his French Open title came in a year where a ban against players who participated in WCT was in effect. This resulted in him beating a French man named Patrick Proisy (now be honest, who has heard of Proisy?) in the finals.

So his one accomplishment, the apogee of his career, accompanied an asterisk next to it. Now I became skeptical. At last, I decided to look at his total career and discovered that this was a man who played his first Slam in 1956! This was a man who was there through the transitional phase of tennis from an amateur sport into the Open Era that began in 1968! This was a man who had considerable accomplishments in both parts! Last, but not the least, this was a man who won his only Slam title when he was a just couple of months shy of turning 35! To top it all, he still holds that record to this day. Yes, it was decided — Andres Gimeno, the "Master" as some of his peers called him, absolutely and positively deserved to be in International Tennis Hall of Fame!

On Saturday, July 11, in the 2009 Induction Ceremony, I have no doubt that Monica Seles will get the loudest cheer when her name is announced. I promise to cheer just as loud when Mister Gimeno is introduced.

Posted by Mert Ertunga at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2009

What to Watch For in 2010

Alas, another March Madness has come and gone.

With this year wrapped decisively in Carolina blue, we turn our eyes towards next year. Will it be another year of Tar Heel bliss? Will the Big East continue to impress? Who's heading up and who's sliding down? It's time to pull out the crystal ball again and see what's in store for next year. So without further ado, let's see what to look for in 2010...

The South will rise again. Expect the SEC to recover from its miserable slump and come back stronger next year. Florida will bounce back and be a NCAA team, while Bruce Pearl will continue to succeed at Tennessee. Trent Johnson is laying the foundation for something big at LSU, while Darrin Horn could have a real darkhorse in South Carolina. Anthony Grant will send a fresh wave of energy through Alabama. And oh yeah, did anyone forget that John Calipari is the new head coach at Kentucky?

Speaking of Calipari, while he's at Kentucky, and Rick Pitino's at Louisville, expect a surge of Italian restaurants to hit the Bluegrass State. Kentucky Fresh Pasta, anyone?

North Carolina will be a little down from last year. After all, you don't lose Tyler Hansbrough and expect to go up, do you? But as long as Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington stay in Chapel Hill though, UNC will still be incredibly tough to beat.

Kansas will win another Big 12 title. Okay, so I didn't look in the crystal ball to make this prediction, but let's face it. KU put on the court a much different team than the 2008 national champions, and still won the conference title. Should we expect anything less?

Speaking of another Kansas team, for some reason, I expect Wichita State to make a serious rise in 2010. Nothing in particular, except for the fact that Gregg Marshall is a heck of a basketball coach and I have to believe that, in his third season, he'll make the Shockers a mid-major threat again.

The Big East won't be as potent, but it'll still send half of its conference to the NCAA tournament. Despite the slight fall from this past year, the Big East tournament will still be one of the best tickets in college basketball.

Oklahoma will be way down with Blake Griffin heading to the NBA. If Willie Warren, OU's very talented freshman guard, joins Griffin in going pro, the Sooners will have a long 2010 season.

Billy Gillispie will sit out this season somewhere in Texas, where he'll take a job somewhere in the Lone Star State for the 2010-11 season. And unlike at Kentucky, he'll succeed there.

Tom Crean's second season at Indiana will be a surprising one, not in that they'll improve, but by how much they'll improve. The Hoosiers don't have much time to wait before they're back in the Big 10 picture.

The big-name coach that will retire at the end of the 2010 season? I'm going with Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. Honestly, I have no clue as to why, it's just a hunch that I have.

And finally, in what may be the clearest picture in the crystal ball yet, Wisconsin will go through the 2009-10 season without coming close to scoring 100 points in a game.

This season may be over, but already I can't wait to see what actually happens next year! What are you looking forward to?

Posted by Jean Neuberger at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

MLB Ramps Up Casino Sponsorships

It was 30 years ago when baseball legend Willie Mays was banned from Major League Baseball. Four years later, NY Yankee great Mickey Mantle met with the same fate as did Willie. And what was their supposed fall from grace? They each became promotional spokesmen for two Atlantic City casino hotels.

Willie Mays had a deal with the Park Place Casino — now Bally's Park Place — and Mantle contracted with Del Webb's Claridge Casino Hotel. The roles both played were as pitchmen for the resorts as they appeared in television and print ads for the respective properties.

At the time, it was MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn who made both then Hall of Famers "permanently ineligible" to participate in any capacity with MLB. In 1985, after Kuhn's retirement, then newly-appointed Commissioner Peter Ueberroth exonerated both Mays and Mantle, thereby lifting their banishment. Ueberroth proclaimed, "A lot of people will misinterpret my position as being soft on gambling. My stance is as strong as any Commissioner's going back to Judge Landis. But there's a need for new rules."

And the argument could be made back then that both Mays and Mantle were not front-men for gambling, but rather were promoting entertainment interests of hotel resorts.

Fast forward to sometime around 2006 when MLB supposedly relaxed its rule on permitting direct relationships with gambling casino interests and its MLB teams. However, most such deals blossomed for this year's 2009 baseball season that includes large casino hotel properties, as well as many lucrative agreements with Indian reservation hotel casinos.

Sponsorships and the financing of such throughout professional sports as well as amateur athletics are drying up by virtue of the worst recession in 70 years. Added to that is the negative public perception that corporations receiving federal tax bailout dollars should not be dabbling in multi-million dollar contracts for advertising at sports venues nor buying skyboxes and over-priced season tickets at stadiums.

However, there now appears to be a new revenue stream, largely untapped, yet quickly assembled by many MLB teams and with Commissioner Bud Selig's blessings. But in order to fully appreciate the precariousness of such contracts that MLB has already approved, it is helpful to revisit MLB Rule 21:

(a) Any player or person connected with a club ... or who being solicited by any person, shall fail to inform his Major League President and the Commissioner

(d) Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared "permanently ineligible."

And now the question must be asked. How does MLB oversee such sponsorships between MLB teams and those casino operations that allow legal sports betting on their premises, such as Harrah's Entertainment, which has become a major sponsor for the NY Mets' new Citi Field, most prominent in its outfield stands?

Harrah's is now a Signature Partner of the Mets and has a 12,000 square foot 900-seat capacity full-service restaurant called the Caesar Club. Harrah's hopes to recreate the atmosphere it provides at its Caesar's Atlantic City property. Harrah's will also benefit from naming and branding rights and orchestrate theme nights for baseball fans throughout the season.

It is important to note that Harrah's casino hotel properties that it owns in Las Vegas, such as Caesar's Palace, the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, Bally's, and its Rio Hotel and Casino, which is host to the World Series of Poker, among others, all have sportsbooks where sports betting on all professional and amateur sports is legal. And such includes sports betting on MLB.

At the new Yankee Stadium, the Mohegan Sun Hotel & Casino also has a presence in its center field stands. Its Mohegan Sports Bar is a 4,900 square foot full-service restaurant with major signage and a naming rights deal with the Yankees. In addition, Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment will own and operate the NYY Steak restaurant, as well as the stadium's new Hard Rock Café. The Seminole Nation is the primary proprietor of all Hard Rock Café and hotel casino properties worldwide, with the exception of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casinos in both Las Vegas and London.

The casino sponsorships for both the Yankees and the Mets are quite lucrative and in the millions of dollars, although MLB clubs do not necessarily accurately disclose the amount of their sponsorships, nor are they required to do so. But the NY teams are hardly in the minority when it comes to lining up for casino riches in the form of sponsorships. The Milwaukee Brewers inked a deal over the winter with the Potawatomi Bingo Casino of the Potawatomi Tribe.

The Brewer's deal with the Potawatomi Tribe is just second to its deal with Miller-Coors Beer. And in MLB's logic according to MLB's Chief Operating Officer Bob DuPuy, "There is no sportsbook associated with Potawatomi and casino gambling is now part of the entertainment landscape in 40-plus states and a number of clubs have had advertising and sponsorship relationships with local casinos."

Perhaps DuPuy does not realize that Harrah's is in the sports betting industry?

In Detroit there appears to be a long-standing conflict of interest with respect to the ownership of the Detroit Tigers, as well as the Motor City Casino, purchased by Ilitch Holdings, Inc. in 2005, which purportedly owns both entities simultaneously.

Michael Ilitch and his wife, Marion Ilitch, are listed as the Tigers' owner and the Motor City Casino owner, respectively. The question arose when it was revealed that Marion Ilitch is Vice Chairman of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. which also owns the Detroit Tigers. But Ilitch friend and Commissioner Bud Selig overlooked the proprietary conflict and asked his staff to stand-down.

There is indeed no shortage of casino sponsorships throughout the major and minor leagues of baseball. The Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, and Chicago Cubs all have contractual sponsorships with Indian casinos, gambling interests, or state lotteries.

So what impact does this state of affairs have on the "best interests of baseball?" One could say that it was precipitated by Commissioner Ueberroth's comment that "there's a need for new rules." Or did Bud Selig's multi-billion dollar empire become too greedy for MLB's own good by accepting a strong presence of gambling partnerships throughout the leagues? Has the appetite for big bucks clouded Selig's judgment and has he crossed the line?

For MLB must be careful not to step on that third rail; that which endangers its integrity. After all, MLB itself has already gambled on fan loyalty after nearly 20 years of the Steroid Era, also on Selig's watch.

And finally, if the apparent overlap between gambling interests and MLB is not clear to the MLB Commissioner, then why is he so clear on keeping Pete Rose "permanently ineligible" and forever denying his chance of realizing his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Posted by Diane M. Grassi at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2009

Rookie Salary Debates Equal Labor Pains

With the draft approaching in two weeks, there will be 10-12 college stars looking to cash in on a huge market for potential game-changers for suffering NFL franchises. Players like Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Michael Crabtree, and others can expect to walk on stage in New York, don a cap, and be expected to be the key piece to the puzzle that will somehow lead to success for a team looking to get out of the first half of the draft for 2010.

Also to be expected are the countless hours of negotiations and mind-boggling numbers included in contracts that increase every year, placing a bulge against a club's salary cap and often infuriating sturdy veterans around the league. It's one of the bigger issues at hand with league owners, who last year opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement, which could set things up for a quandary in 2010 if no deal is reached.

The owners' main gripe is that salary concerns along with soaring construction and renovation costs leave clubs operating at much less of profit than ever. Since the state of economy has no preferential treatment to sports, this has put the proverbial "pinch" in the wallet of billionaires who are now looking to save money and cut costs. Rookie contracts, which have grown to enormous heights with ridiculous bonuses, have become a focal point in possible renegotiation in labor talks. Owners would like to set in place a rookie contract scale for those being drafted similar to what is done under the current NBA bargaining agreement, and after one's rookie contract has expired, the player can either make demands for larger contract with his current team or become a free agent for a contract of his liking. As one can imagine, this will be a huge hurdle to clear with the player's association.

A big stink was made about this last year when the top three picks of the 2008 draft received huge contracts, specifically Matt Ryan, who was taken third by the Falcons and received a six-year, $72 million dollar contract, $34.5 of it guaranteed. Ryan became the fourth highest paid player in the league behind Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Carson Palmer before he completed a pass. Guess he answered some questions when his first NFL pass was for a touchdown. Jake Long, the top overall pick who signed a five-year, $57.5 million dollar deal with the Dolphins, was a Pro Bowler in his rookie season, while Chris Long (five-year, $56.5 million) had a solid rookie season for the Rams.

It is very rare that you have the top players in the draft all produce. Veteran players, however, have a considerable beef with rookies being paid in the upper-echelon of players at their position without proving anything at the professional level — call it the "new guy" complex. Sure, rookies, especially high-profile first-round draft picks, are seen as investments that franchises hope that can give them a strong return on investment.

While the Longs and Ryan more than proved with their worth risk with great rewards, the reality is that most investments for teams don't flourish right away or in some cases at all. Consider: Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Rick Mirer, Heath Shuler, Cade McKnown, Joey Harrington, David Carr, Ryan Leaf — you get the picture. The failure rate on star college quarterbacks picked in the first round is amazing. Sure, most owners would love to find their franchise QB round three and after, but the gamble is taken in the first round on the belief that "this kid can't-miss." All of those guys missed — badly — and the teams that picked them were thrown off of course and picked, traded, or signed another QB four to seven seasons later. While "Matty Ice" and Joe Flacco of the Ravens seem to be exceptions to the rule, the old adage remains to be true: pick a QB in the first round, pay him big-time money, and hope he stays motivated to produce.

The Long boys should hope they don't fall into their respective bust categories at their positions. It really would pain an owner to spend a wad of cash on a big stiff of a lineman that can't bust a grape, let alone run block, pass protect, or be able to rush the passer. Mike Williams, the top offensive lineman taken in the 2002 draft by the Bills, was a serviceable run blocker, but never could polish his pass protection skills. Williams was out of Buffalo three years later, was signed and cut by Jacksonville, and has been out of the league since.

Anyone ever heard of Tony Mandarich? Most casual football fans won't, but most aficionados remember him being touted on the cover of Sports Illustrated before the draft in 1989 as "the greatest offensive lineman prospect ever" and was taken second overall by the Green Bay Packers. The very next pick in the '89 draft? A guy out of Oklahoma State named Barry Sanders. Andre Johnson was great at Penn State, but he was made inactive for the whole 1996 season after being drafted 30th overall by the Redskins. He was cut during the offseason and out of football by 1998. On the other side of the ball, it didn't pay for any team that selected busts like Erasmus James, Wendell Bryant, Andre Wadsworth, or even Steve Etman and Courtney Brown, who were once No. 1 overall picks and thought to be "sure things." Jonathan Sullivan, anyone? I don't think so.

A proposed NFL rookie salary cap prevents a couple of problems. Rookie pay could be based on a tiered earning structure, usually based over two years with a club option for a third and fourth year. This is similar to the NBA rookie that salary falls between $3 to $4 million per year over three years with club option of that third or fourth year. This solves the problem with rookies, while arriving with great fanfare, who are not sure-shots for success on the next level.

The rookie contract acts as a "try-out," if you will. A rookie knows his contract is guaranteed for a few years, but at much less of an amount than currently and has that time to make an impact or prove his value at the position. If he isn't happy or doesn't like the system and team feels likewise, he can always be free to shop his services elsewhere for a salvaged payday. While the payday may not be as enticing as the jaw-dropping numbers of today's rookie contracts, it can provide viable incentive for the player and flexibility for the ownership and the front office to keep or go after highly-touted free agents and veterans to provide stability on the field and in the locker room. Plus, it can relieve some pressure on a team's cap and save a couple of bucks in the owner's pocket or allow them to cut their losses on a bust.

Of course, the possibility remains that 2010 could be an uncapped year if there is no labor agreement met by March 2010. Then you could possibly see a drastic change and jump in the number of players declaring for the draft in 2010 should a labor agreement not be in place by January. We could also be looking at the possibility of the two most dreaded words in labor talks: work stoppage. With other issues on the table such as player union issues, retired player pension debates, and salary cap conditions, the "proposed" rookie pay-scale will be a hotly contested item at the bargaining table coming soon. If that idea doesn't work, I'm sure the college superstar who can't cut it at the next level won't mind the huge payday and few million bucks in his pockets for a couple of years, while owners use their checkbooks to wipe away those tears of frustration, or better yet, throws them wistfully into the fireplace.

Posted by Brian Cox at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)

12 More Great NBA Seasons

Earlier this month, my colleague Bijan C. Bayne wrote a column titled, "The 12 Greatest Individual NBA Seasons" that left me wondering if it was an April Fool's joke. Actually, Bijan did a great job of highlighting some exceptional NBA seasons which don't get enough recognition today. But his list was missing some serious NBA icons. No George Mikan. No Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Dr. J. No Shaq, no Tim Duncan. I just don't find it plausible that six of the 12 greatest NBA seasons occurred in the 1960s, and none before '61 or between 1991-2006. So here's my own list of the 12 greatest individual NBA seasons in history. Like Bijan, I'm only listing each player once. Unlike him, I'm numbering my list and going in reverse order.

12] TIM DUNCAN, SAN ANTONIO SPURS, 2002-03

Vitals: 23.3 ppg, 12.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists

Duncan is the closest thing we have to a modern-day Bill Russell. In Duncan's 12 seasons with the Spurs, the team has never lost 30 games. In fact, Duncan made the largest immediate impact of any player in history. In his rookie season, the Spurs went 56-26, a 36-game game improvement from the previous season, shattering Larry Bird's record of +32 in his rookie year with Boston. That rookie year, Duncan averaged a double-double, shot 54.9%, made the second-team All-Defensive Team, and finished fifth in MVP voting. According to John Hollinger's PER system, Duncan's rookie season was the worst of his career. Like Russell, Duncan is an outstanding defensive player who is even better than his statistics show, and he's so consistent that it's not easy to choose his best performance. I've gone with '02-'03, when Duncan won regular-season and Finals MVP Awards. This was also his career-best year in rebounds, assists, and blocks.

11] WALT BELLAMY, CHICAGO PACKERS, 1961-62

Vitals: 31.6, 19.0 rebounds, 51.9% FG%

Let me get something out of the way right now. I expressed bewilderment that my colleague's list included six seasons from the 1960s. Mine includes three individual selections from the 1961-62 season. That was an expansion year, and the Chicago Packers were the new team. You probably haven't heard of the Packers, because they only existed for one season. The next year, they were renamed the Chicago Zephyrs. The year after that, the Baltimore Bullets. That stuck for a while, but three more name changes later, the team is now the Washington Wizards.

Anyway, Bellamy was the one capable player on the expansion Packers. It is my estimation that the team would not have won more than eight games without Bellamy. Even with him, they were 18-62. But Bellamy scored more than any two of his teammates combined, grabbed more rebounds than any three teammates combined, and led the whole NBA in field goal percentage. That's especially impressive, because this was before the zone defense rule, and Bellamy was usually guarded by multiple defenders. 52% may not seem like much today, but shooting percentages were much lower then, and what Bellamy did was equivalent to about 60% in today's game.

10] JULIUS ERVING, NEW YORK NETS, 1975-76

Vitals: 29.3 ppg, 11.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists

It would be misleading to say that Dr. J was never the same player in the NBA that he was in the ABA. He was an NBA MVP, NBA champion, 11-time All-Star, and five-time first-team All-NBA selection. It would be misleading, but it wouldn't be wrong. Dr. J was absolutely the best player in the ABA, and his statistics were not only better, but much better in the younger league. That doesn't mean the ABA was a weaker league; many other ABA players made the transition to the NBA with no noticeable downturn. In the 1975-76 season, his last in the ABA, Erving averaged 4 offensive rebounds per game, which is unheard of for a small forward. He shot over 50% from the field and over 80% from the line, led the league in scoring, and led his team in assists.

9] SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, L.A. LAKERS, 1999-2000

Vitals: 29.7 ppg, 13.6 rebounds, 57.4% FG%

There are many players on this list whose best season I've had trouble identifying. O'Neal is not one of them. This was Shaq's best or second-best season in scoring, rebounding, assists, minutes played, and blocks, earning his only regular-season MVP. It was the best team he ever played on (67-15, won Finals), and he was named Finals MVP. O'Neal has always had major or minor injury issues, and this was a healthy season with O'Neal at his athletic prime, but still with enough experience to be a very smart player on the court.

8] LARRY BIRD, BOSTON CELTICS, 1985-86

Vitals: 25.8 ppg, 9.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists

Larry Bird is one of those players who had so many great seasons, it's hard to choose one to stand alone as his best, and I'm not convinced this is the right choice. Per game, his averages were better the next year. But in 1985-86 Bird collected his third straight MVP award and his second Finals MVP. This was probably the best team in Celtics history — which is really saying something — and Bird was the motor that drove it. He led the Celts in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, and steals, shooting 90% from the line and 42% on three-pointers.

7] MAGIC JOHNSON, L.A. LAKERS, 1986-87

Vitals: 23.9 ppg, 12.2 assists, 6.3 rebounds

Which was Magic Johnson's best season? Was it 1981-82, when he averaged more than 9 rebounds and 9 assists per game, led the NBA in steals per game, and was named Finals MVP? 1983-84, when he averaged 13 assists and shot 56.5%? Maybe it was 1988-89, when he averaged 13 assists and 8 rebounds, led the NBA in free throw percentage (91.1%), and won league MVP, or the next season, when he repeated as league MVP? I went with 1986-87, when Johnson was both NBA MVP and Finals MVP, with a career high in scoring.

6] ELGIN BAYLOR, L.A. LAKERS, 1960-61

Vitals: 34.8 ppg, 19.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists

One of my biggest disagreements with Bijan's original article was picking Baylor's best season. Bijan chose 1961-62, when Baylor averaged 38 points instead of 35, but was worse in every other major category recorded at the time: FG%, FT%, rebounds, and assists. Most significantly, Baylor only played 48 games. His contributions were much, much greater in '60-'61.

5] MICHAEL JORDAN, CHICAGO BULLS, 1990-91

Vitals: 31.5 ppg, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists

One of the curiosities of basketball is that the link between individual performance and team success is much less than in other sports. In football, each teammate has a specific role, and selfish plays and players are difficult to identify, at least on the field. There's no such thing as a ballhog in baseball. In both of those sports, a player who does well on an individual level almost invariably is helping his team, and the greater his individual success, the better that is for his team. The same is not true in basketball, where a player can rack up fantastic individual statistics by being selfish or unwise with the ball. Bijan chose 1988-89 for Jordan. That year, he had more points, rebounds, and assists than in the season I've chosen. But in my year, the Bulls won a championship. I think Jordan became a smarter, better player under Phil Jackson, and I believe this was Jordan at his best.

4] KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 1971-72

Vitals: 34.8 ppg, 16.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists

This is one of only two seasons to make both my list and Bijan's. It is difficult to overstate how dominant Abdul-Jabbar was in the 1970s, and this was his best season. Kareem is best-remembered for his time with the Lakers' Showtime Dynasty, but he was even better in Milwaukee. I would argue that Oscar Robertson, Bob Dandridge, and Abdul-Jabbar were a better trio in the early '70s than Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Abdul-Jabbar were in the '80s. The 1970-71 Bucks may have been the best team in NBA history.

3] GEORGE MIKAN, MINNEAPOLIS LAKERS, 1950-51

Vitals: 28.4 ppg, 14.1 rebounds, 80.3% FT%

Reliable stats are spotty for the NBA's earliest years, which makes it tough to identify Mikan's best season. I suspect it was really the year before this one, but the league didn't keep rebound data then, so '50-'51 is the safer choice, even though it's the only season from 1947-1954 that Mikan and the Lakers didn't win a league title. This season, Mikan scored 1,932 points; next-best was 1,429. Mikan had 958 rebounds; only one other player (Dolph Schayes) had over 800. Mikan made 100 free throws more than anyone else. He made almost 200 more field goals than anyone else. Mikan may have been the single most dominant player in history.

2] OSCAR ROBERTSON, CINCINNATI ROYALS, 1961-62

Vitals: 30.8 ppg, 12.4 rebounds, 11.5 assists

One of the two seasons Bijan and I agree on. The man averaged a triple-double for the whole season.

1] WILT CHAMBERLAIN, PHILADELPHIA WARRIORS, 1961-62

Vitals: 50.4 ppg, 25.7 rebounds, 48.5 minutes

In the original piece, Bijan selected '65-'66 for Chamberlain, and really, you almost can't go wrong with this guy. If we let people on the list more than once, Chamberlain would probably have at least half the seasons listed. In that 1965-66 season, the Big Dipper led the NBA in minutes, points, field goals, field goal percentage, and rebounds. But look at the numbers listed for 1961-62. Wilt averaged more than 50 points per game. He averaged more than 25 rebounds per game. And somehow, he averaged more than 48 minutes per game. Huh? Well, the Warriors had a couple of overtime games that season, and Wilt was an iron man. I won't argue too hard against any of the seasons on my list, or on Bijan's, but I would submit that this was probably the greatest individual season in the history of professional basketball.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

BOB PETTIT, ST. LOUIS HAWKS, 1958-59
29.2 ppg, 16.4 rebounds

BILL RUSSELL, BOSTON CELTICS, 1961-62
18.9 ppg, 23.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists

JERRY WEST, L.A. LAKERS, 1965-66
31.3 ppg, 7.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists

JOHN HAVLICEK, BOSTON CELTICS, 1970-71
28.9 ppg, 9.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists

BOB MCADOO, BUFFALO BRAVES, 1974-75
34.5 ppg, 14.1 rebounds, 80.5% FT%

MOSES MALONE, HOUSTON ROCKETS, 1981-82
31.1 ppg, 14.7 rebounds, 6.9 offensive rebounds

JOHN STOCKTON, UTAH JAZZ, 1988-89
17.1 ppg, 13.6 assists, 3.2 steals

HAKEEM OLAJUWON, HOUSTON ROCKETS, 1992-93
26.1 ppg, 13.0 rebounds, 4.2 blocks

DAVID ROBINSON, SAN ANTONIO SPURS, 1993-94
29.8 ppg, 10.7 rebounds, 4.8 assists

KARL MALONE, UTAH JAZZ, 1996-97
27.4 ppg, 9.9 rebounds, 55.0% FG%

TRACY MCGRADY, ORLANDO MAGIC, 2002-03
32.1 ppg, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS, 2007-08
30.0 ppg, 7.9 rebounds, 7.2. assists

***

Finally, if anyone is still with me after all that, I want to clarify something I wrote earlier: "I won't argue too hard against any of the seasons on my list, or on Bijan's" as the best ever. There is one exception: Adrian Dantley in 1982-83, when Dantley only played 22 games. His stats were just as good the year before and the year after, but he played a full schedule in those seasons. The '82-'83 season was the only one in the early '80s that Dantley wasn't an all-star. That clearly was not one of the top 12, or even the top 100, seasons in history. The rest of the list, even where I disagree, is very strong.

Posted by Brad Oremland at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2009

Angry in Arizona

Someone needs to remind Anquan Boldin that there's no "I" in team.

The heralded wide receiver has recently stated that he would like to be traded to the Miami Dolphins, and he has also said that he would relish the opportunity to play in his home state of Florida.

"I would love to play in my home state, so if I were traded to one of the teams in my home state that would be a privilege," Boldin told ESPN 760. Backing down a bit, the Cardinals wide receiver has said that he has not made up his mind about anything yet, but if history is any indication, this likely means he has little to desire to re-sign with the Arizona Cardinals.

I find Anquan Boldin's sudden desire to leave the Arizona Cardinals disappointing for a number of reasons.

One reason of course, is that Boldin has developed such a good chemistry with the offense in his time in Arizona. Last season, he played a huge role in the Cardinals' success. In a storybook season, one that saw washed up veteran quarterback Kurt Warner lead the Cardinals all the way to the Super Bowl, Boldin was a key contributor the offense. He had over 1,000 yards receiving and caught 11 touchdown passes during the regular season and played a huge roll in the Cardinals' postseason run. His 71-yard touchdown catch against Atlanta in the opening round helped Arizona advance to the next round.

Boldin, along with his fellow receivers, seemed to flourish with Warner throwing the ball last season. Fellow receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston had over 1,000 yards receiving, and it seemed like Boldin was very comfortable with the offense. I'm not sure why Anquan Boldin would leave a team that he has built so much chemistry with.

A few teams have expressed their interest in Boldin, though none of these choices are more attractive than staying with the Cardinals. Should he be traded, Miami seems to be one of the more possible destinations, as Miami would benefit from adding a solid wide receiver and it would satisfy Boldin's desire to play in his home state. Another option may be the New York Giants, who are in the market for a wide receiver after the release of Plaxico Burress. Whatever team Boldin end up on, I believe he would regret the move.

In Arizona, Boldin has the perfect opportunity to continue thriving as a receiver. He lines up on the same field as big-time playmaker Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald will undoubtedly continue to draw double teams, which will only help Boldin get open. Bottom line, if Anquan Boldin goes to a new team, it is going to take him time to adjust to the offense. And I highly doubt Boldin will be traded to a team with as much firepower as the Cardinals.

Of course, the biggest disappointment about Boldin requesting out of Arizona is Kurt Warner.

A year after resurrecting his career, Warner has already agreed to come back to the Cardinals. The reason? He wants another chance to lead the Cardinals to the Super Bowl. Coupled with the re-signing of Larry Fitzgerald, it looks like Arizona should be primed for another run into the postseason. Yet, if Boldin doesn't stay with the Cardinals, it would definitely hinder their chances to make it back to the Super Bowl.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to the fact that Boldin is putting himself ahead of the team. Boldin doesn't seem to care that Kurt Warner staged off retirement to lead the Cardinals back to the Super Bowl. All he seems to care about is getting a lucrative contract extension.

Boldin seems to want a contract similar to that of fellow wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, yet the Cardinals have little desire to re-work Boldin's contract until the end of the season. While I can understand where Boldin is coming from, I really think that in the long-run; he will regret signing a larger contract with another team and throwing away his shot at a Super Bowl with the Cardinals.

To close, I'd like to remind Anquan Boldin of one thing. When his career is finished, it won't matter how big of a contract he signed, but he would always remember a Super Bowl victory.

Bottom line, Anquan Boldin should re-sign with the Arizona Cardinals and gear up for one last run at a championship.

Posted by Jonathan Hamelin at 11:53 AM | Comments (2)

What a Beautiful Game

I don't get out much. My normal day usually involves watching countless re-runs of "SportsCenter," playing online solitaire, and reciting the lyrics of the South Park theme song. My daily agenda consists of three words; eat, sleep, and repeat. So when a few of my new buddies called me up to play a fun round of golf yesterday, I said, "Hell, why not?"

What my friends didn't know, and would soon find out, is that I am one competitive son of a gun. I don’t care if we are playing poker, or having a thumb war; I refuse to lose and a temper tantrum would be thrown if necessary.

I haven't played golf all year, so I gingerly made my way into my attic in an attempt to retrieve my clubs. After shuffling through old magazines, schoolwork, and pictures of my middle school girlfriend (what did I see in her anyway?), I finally came across my best friends for the day, my golf clubs.

As I got into the car, my mouth got the better of me. I started trash-talking to my three opponents telling them how they didn't stand a chance at unseating me from my thrown. I even claimed I was the second coming of Tiger Woods and that Phil Mickelson was my half cousin. Thankfully, I was hungry, because I would be eating those words later that afternoon.

It was a great day to golf. Not too hot, not too cool. The grass was freshly cut and the smell of victory was in the air. The club was relatively crowded and we were forced to wait for others to finish on the first hole.

The group in front of us was four men probably in their 60s. They chose to have caddies rather than to take a cart, which was unfortunate for us because let's just say they were the kind of guys that would take two hours to watch 60 minutes. After waiting for the group to finish the first hole, a time-span in which I possibly could have memorized half the dictionary, it was finally time to get this show on the road.

The first hole was a short, 150-yard par 3. The green was small, with sand traps on both sides that seemed to be taunting me as I went into my backswing. I teed the ball up and just as fast as I swung at it, it went sailing directly into the trees. Thank God for first hole mulligans. My second try at it wasn't much better, but at least this time it was in play. Into the sand trap I was, and my round was off to a bad start. I saved bogey on the par three, but I was unsatisfied and determined to show my true colors on the hole number two.

On the second tee, I pulled out my shiny driver that had been in my house for almost four years, but looked brand new. I put a good swing on the ball and sent a low screamer around 250 yards to the center of the fairway. A cocky smile appeared on my face as I got back into the cart. The unnecessary smirk may have proven to be my downfall. Less than 100 yards away from the pin on this short par four, I completely sliced the ball way right of the green on my second shot. In fact, I was on the next hole's fairway. Damn practice balls. After muttering a few expletives and kicking the ground several times, I made my way back into the cart, speechless.

Hole by hole, I kept losing strokes to my rivals, and suddenly, I was the victim of the trash talking. "You were right, Bobby, Phil Mickelson is your half-cousin, and all he taught you was how to choke!" Now I was getting really pissed.

What started out as a phone call asking if I wanted to play a friendly round of golf, has turned into an all-out war.

On hole 12, my anger reached an all-time high. My tee shot took a bad hop and sat directly in the thick grass on a terrible lie. I took out my black sharpie and wrote "Hillary Clinton" on the ball for obvious motivational reasons. My 7 iron was the club of choice and when club met ball, the head of my 7 iron snapped completely off, and traveled 20 yards farther than my ball itself. As my friends laughed in enjoyment, I threw the rest of my club like a Frisbee into the water to my left.

Already mathematically out on the 18th green, I sunk a 20-foot par putt, my first par of the day. Talk about too little, too late as this finish to an otherwise awful round was more pointless than the Spice Girls' reunion. We drove our cart back and packed up our bags. My friends made their closing remarks and as I sat down in the car, shaking my head in defeat, I could only say one thing.

"So, are you guys up for another round tomorrow?"

Ahh, golf ... what a beautiful game.

Posted by Robert Campbell at 11:24 AM | Comments (7)

April 9, 2009

Everybody Gets a Trophy

Every fan of college basketball can take a breath. With North Carolina and the Connecticut women proving themselves more than worthy of championship status earlier this week, the '08-'09 season has finally come to a close. This also ends what I believe, annually, to be the most enticing postseason in all of American sports.

Problem is, the entire focus wasn't on the NCAA tournament. Now, you may expect me to rant and rave about the Postseason NIT. Not even close. I actually enjoy the NIT, which was the original national championship tournament. The matchup between Stephen Curry's Davidson team and Patty Mills' Saint Mary's squad doesn't happen if not for the NIT.

But there is a more recent trend brewing in men's college basketball ... the growth of tournament play. In the early months of the season, these tourneys are great. They give us contests between top-tier programs and chances for mid/small majors to prove themselves against their big brothers.

Unfortunately, this trend has also seeped its way into March. Last year, the first annual College Basketball Invitational was introduced into the late season frenzy of tournament play. The competition was said to give even more people a chance to play in the postseason. Participants varied from the 22-9 Houston Cougars to 13-18 Cincinnati. Seven of the 16 teams were three games over .500 or worse going into the tournament. Tourney champ Tulsa had to outlast Bradley, who was 17-15 before the first tip.

This season's version should have raised even more eyebrows. The field had better records overall, but three teams that stood out were 16-16 Wichita State, 16-17 Saint John's, and 13-17 Oregon State. Your winner ... those 13-17 Beavers from Corvallis, OR (who finished with an 18-18 record).

Listen, I'm a fan of OSU's head coach Craig Robinson. Other than being President Barack Obama's brother-in-law, the man coached Brown University to the 2008 CBI. Then, he headed west and completely turned a team that went 0-fer in the Pac-10 last season and got them seven conference wins. But really? Oregon State finishes 13-17 and ends up winning a postseason tournament title?

Now, I wish I could end the story there and call it good, but that ain't the case. Enter CollegeInsider.com, who figured they could stage their own shindig. The CIT (CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament) had its inaugural run last month. This 16-team field didn't represent any of the major conferences, but at least all of these squads had winning records.

Old Dominion beat Bradley (the poor Braves can't win a postseason tourney) in the final. Thus, yet another team gets to find joy in obtaining a piece of hardware.

You know, with so many people celebrating titles (include Penn State and their NIT victory), there seems to be a feeling of déjà vu. I have felt this before, at some time or other. I got it. I felt this about three months ago ... during bowl season. Ick.

That's right. I said it. The focus of college basketball has now been splintered. While most people will continue on the real run to the championship, others will be able to follow their schools and alma maters in some other kind of postseason event. If my teams from Missouri and Iowa State were a part of it, I'd more than likely do the same thing.

I watched parts of the Tigers' Alamo Bowl win back in late December. I followed the Cyclones' bowl appearances a few years back. But with more bowls sprouting up year by year, even the thought of playing past Thanksgiving has lost its allure. Sites host more than one game. Places like Boise, Albuquerque, and Birmingham are lackluster destinations. And the biggest message of all is that the lesser bowls credit mediocrity over everything else. Where else in sports can you have a representation of 6-6 vs. 7-5 for a "prestigious" trophy?

Now, it seems to be creeping into college basketball. To be honest, it's even worse. What bowl game would ever bring in a 5-7 or 3-9 team to represent its sponsorship? Not even Notre Dame could pull off that kind of magic. And while there are those that argue that sub-.500 teams make the NCAAs, the validation is that they earned their spot through beating good teams, not by getting an invitation.

I might be a little bit overanxious about this whole development. One of my buddies is a huge fan of the tradition of the bowls, saying that multiple teams get to end their seasons with a win. That's all well and good in the spirit of sportsmanship, but Madness isn't about giving everybody their turn on the court. It's about surviving six games against the best competition.

But who knows? Maybe there are those out there with a dream ... a dream of winning a title and screaming that wonderful phrase of redemption and validation.

"We're number 98."

"We're number 114."

Posted by Jonathan Lowe at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Ranking the NFL Logos and Uniforms

You will just have to take my word that I am a heterosexual when I say have lots of strong opinions on the uniforms and logos of all sports. Particularly, the NFL. Here is how I rank each teams uniforms/logos, by division.

AFC EAST

1. NEW ENGLAND
The Patriot head logo is clean, fairly simple, but not too simple, and the colors are in an improvement from the old Patriot hiking the ball.

2. BUFFALO
Still second best in a weak division, but each helmet modification (from still buffalo to running buffalo, from white to red shells) has been a step down.

3. MIAMI
They should have an alternate helmet with the "M" that the dolphin on the current logo wears. Always hated the color scheme.

4. NEW YORK JETS
Jets and airplanes are cool. There's infinite cool logo possibilities incorporating a jet. So why don't you?

AFC NORTH

1. CINCINNATI
It's obvious to use tiger stripes if your nickname is tigers or bengals, but somehow only this team is smart enough to do it.

2. PITTSBURGH
The logo on just one side of the helmet, as well as the yellow lettering for the last names on the back of the jersey, are nice touches.

3. CLEVELAND
I wouldn't mess with tradition and put a logo on the helmet, but the cool orange dog head they sometimes paint in the end zones should be the "primary logo" they send to networks and websites.

4. BALTIMORE
Bluish-Purple together with black doesn't really "work." I do like the font of their jersey numbers.

AFC SOUTH

1. INDIANAPOLIS
Very clean, good shade of blue, and I think of them as the pre-eminent team of that pair of shoulder stripes several teams use (like Minnesota and colleges like Ole Miss) .

2. HOUSTON
Colors are boring, but the logo is the best one to come from an expansion franchise since at least the '60s.

3. TENNESSEE
Logo, colors, uniform - all get average marks across the board.

4. JACKSONVILLE
Another bad blue (technically teal)/black combination. I'd also love to know who thought the jaguar head should have realistic colors except for the tongue.

AFC WEST

1. SAN DIEGO
You can't go wrong with lightning bolts. You just can't.

2. KANSAS CITY
Average, but the interlocking K.C. in the end zone without the arrowhead is a nice, alternative touch.

3. OAKLAND
I know the logo and especially the colors are iconic, but they don't do much for me.

4. DENVER
Please go back to the John Elway-era uniforms and logo!

NFC EAST

1. NEW YORK GIANTS
If you want something traditional, this is the way to go. I like how there's only small bits of red, yet they do have red alternate jerseys.

2. WASHINGTON
I am surprised that more team don't use burgundy. Why not scrap the outer circle that surrounds the Indian head?

3. DALLAS
One year, they ought to make their navy jerseys their primary ones.

4. PHILADELPHIA
I liked their pre-'90s shade of green and wing shape better.

NFC NORTH

1. DETROIT
Love the shade of blue and the silhouette of the lion.

2. MINNESOTA
Decent ... there are not enough purple teams. Home jerseys very different from road jerseys, unlike most teams.

3. GREEN BAY
Belongs with Oakland in the iconic-but-boring category.

4. CHICAGO
Your mascot is a bear. A BEAR. USE IT!

NFC SOUTH

1. TAMPA BAY
This may be biased, but I think this is the best redesign of the last 20 years.

2. NEW ORLEANS
If the Saints were any good, the fleur-de-lis might be as iconic as the Cowboys' star.

3. ATLANTA
Would love for them to bring back the old falcon logo, the re-imagined one sucks.

4. CAROLINA
Nothing stands out to me.

NFC WEST

1. ST. LOUIS
Changing from regular gold to old gold was an excellent move.

2. ARIZONA
They had such a cool end zone a few years back, with the Arizona flag stretched out behind the centered cardinal head. I like the blood red.

3. SAN FRANCISCO
Wish they would return to the non-block numbers and lighter shade of red they had under Joe Montana.

4. SEATTLE
Man, that horizontal phallic bird-head is dumb. Almost as dumb as that shade of blue.

If you want to beat the NFL odds you can't just take the teams with the pretty uniforms, but you can beat the spreads with the knowledge and experience of the handicappers at BetFirms.

Posted by Kevin Beane at 11:28 AM | Comments (24)

NASCAR Top 10 Power Rankings: Week 7

Note: the quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Jeff Gordon — Gordon snapped his 47-race winless streak, winning the Samsung 500 for his first win since October of 2007. Gordon, in the No. 24 Chevy sporting a special National Guard paint scheme, used a quick pit stop during the race's final caution to go from third to first, then held off teammate Jimmie Johnson over the final 30 laps. The win also marked Gordon's first triumph in Texas, and leaves Homestead as the only track where he hasn't won.

"There were a lot of people who thought this day might never come," says Gordon. "No, not a Jeff Gordon win, but a National Guard car in the winner's circle. Hopefully, that comment won't irritate the Junior Mafia."

"Is it coincidence that I won with my wife and daughter away from the track? Before we decided to have children, Ingrid and I were in agreement that she would be a 'stay at home mom.' I plan to reiterate that to her before every upcoming race, when I'll say to her, 'Stay at home, Mom.'"

2. Jimmie Johnson — Johnson battled a tight-handling car early in Texas, but gradual adjustments supervised by crew chief Chad Knaus remedied that condition. Johnson was fast at the end, but couldn't catch Jeff Gordon, as Johnson's Hendrick teammate ended his 47-race winless streak. Johnson moved up two spots in the point standings to second, and trails Gordon by 162.

"That's two former champions," says Johnson, "in championship form. I'm really happy for Jeff. That's a long time to go without winning a race. You could tell Jeff hadn't been to the winner's circle in a long time, because he got lost trying to get there. I'm the consummate teammate, so I gave him directions."

3. Tony Stewart — Stewart posted his second consecutive top-five finish with a fourth at Texas after last week's third at Martinsville. Stewart ran in the top five for most of the day, but lacked the speed on short runs to challenge for the win. He moved up two places in the point standings to fifth, 191 behind Jeff Gordon.

"There were a lot of people that thought I was crazy for leaving Joe Gibbs Racing," says Stewart. "Still others just thought I was born crazy. But I knew I was making the right decision when I said 'Newman-Haas-ta la vista, baby' to the Gibbs team."

"Now, no matter the outcome on the track, there's always a wild party afterwards in my hauler. And here, the party is Texas-sized, and so is the debauchery. That's why I do all my party planning at Texas' number one store for party supplies and adult novelty gifts, 'The Best Little Warehouse In Texas,' home of the 'Texas Instrument.'"

4. Carl Edwards — Going for his third straight win in Texas, Edwards was in the lead heading down pit lane with 30 laps to go. That lead evaporated in the pits as the No. 99 Fusion team struggled with the lug nuts. Edwards lost 10 spots on the stop and eventually finished 10th.

"Sure, we had some mistakes in the pits," says Edwards. "But there's no point in our crew beating themselves up over this, because I plan on doing it for them."

"But we weren't the only Roush Fenway team that experienced trouble in the pits. Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth also suffered lug nut issues that possibly cost them top-five finishes. It seems that instead of putting those lug nuts where they belonged, our tire changers suffered from a case of Texas 'hold 'em.'"

5. Kurt Busch — Busch finished eighth in Texas, bringing the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge up from a starting spot of 28th to register a solid result. Busch maintained the third position in the Sprint Cup point standings, and trails Jeff Gordon by 180.

"I was more pleased with my car's performance than I was at Martinsville," says Busch. "Therefore, there was no need for a testy radio exchange with car owner Roger Penske. That was an overblown situation. If a driver and car owner can't get on the radio and talk a little 'No. 2,' then they don't have a healthy relationship."

6. Clint Bowyer — Bowyer faced persistent handling issues throughout a long day in Texas, as the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper squad never found the right balance. Late in the race, the spinning No. 77 of Sam Hornish banged Bowyer's left side, making adjustments even more difficult. Bowyer fell from second to fourth in the points, and is 187 out of first.

"You know it's a long day," says Bowyer, "when you ask your crew chief for so many changes, he eventually says to you, 'Talk to the hand.' And, you know things aren't getting any better when you find yourself taking your frustrations out on the hand. Talk about 'biting the hand than sponsors you.'"

"It was great to see NASCAR chairman Brian France at the track. Not only to show his support, but to condemn the actions of Car and Driver magazine, which posted an April Fool's story with the headline 'Obama Orders Chevy and Dodge Out of NASCAR.' Without France's help, I don't think I could have figured out that the story was fake. He also cleared the air about another questionable story floating around the track — that Bill Murray has assassinated Digger the Gopher."

"I'm shocked at the audacity of Car and Driver. Posting a fake story is lower than low, almost as low as attributing fake quotes to drivers."

7. Kyle Busch — Busch saw the momentum of a quick start in Texas disintegrate, as two separate lug nut issues in the pits sandwiched a flat tire resulting from contact with John Andretti. Busch was also penalized for speeding on the entry to pit lane, and fought back from two laps down to finish 18th, one lap off the pace. He dropped one spot in the points to seventh, 240 out of first.

"I'm stunned that I was caught speeding entering pit lane," says Busch. "You would think, with my crew unable to get a tire on in timely fashion, that I wouldn't be in such a hurry."

"Honestly, though, I made just as many errors as my pit crew, so they've got a right to be just as unhappy with me as I was with them. So, when I vented my frustration by leaving my car on the track and walking back to my hauler, it was no surprise to find my crew already there."

8. Denny Hamlin — After two straight runner-up finishes, at Bristol and Martinsville, Hamlin faltered a bit in Texas but still managed a solid 12th in the Samsung 500. He dropped one place to sixth in the points, 216 out of first.

"So, did people actually believe the bogus Car And Driver magazine story that President Obama ordered Chevy and Dodge to get out of NASCAR? If they did, then I've got some prime oceanfront property in Missouri I'd like to sell them. And if you're that gullible, then tune in to my new call-in show on the Sirius Satellite Network, called 'Ham Radio.' And give me a call at 867-5309/Denny."

9. Juan Pablo Montoya — Montoya finished seventh in Texas, his second top-10 of the year and third straight top-15 finish, a career best for the Colombian. Montoya qualified the No. 42 Target Chevrolet 16th, and moved up one spot in the Cup point standings to 13th.

"I couldn't be happier with the teams' progress," says Montoya. "In this business, during today's economic uncertainty, there's an immense amount of pressure for results, not only from car owners, but from sponsors, as well. That's why I feel like I'm walking around with Target 'on my back.'"

10. Matt Kenseth — Kenseth scored his first top-five finish since he opened the season with two wins. Kenseth and the No. 17 DeWalt Ford were up front and in contention for the win until a setback in the pits on lap 252 cost them valuable time. After dropping to 15th, he recovered to finish fifth.

"I was fast," says Kenseth, "then furious. But really, who needs the big screen to see teenagers recklessly driving Japanese automobiles when I can see Joey Logano do it live every week?"

"It seems the entire Roush Fenway organization was plagued by an epidemic of 'lug nuts.' Luckily, it's treatable with penicillin."

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 8, 2009

Welcome to the Basketball Hall of Lame

I am what you would call a basketball Puritan, a traditionalist of sorts that believes in the value of rules, intangibles, and team achievement over individual glory. While I see an inherent value to in-depth statistical analysis, PER, and plus/minus ratings, I fail to see how those contemporary evaluation methods can be used to measure the number of loose balls a hustling Shane Battier tracks down or the value Derek Fisher's heart brings to clutch late-game situations.

Over the years, David Stern has been every bit the ideal commissioner for purists such as myself. His unwavering dedication to preserving the image of the NBA has provided a stability and consistency that is unlike any of the other major sports. While there have been subtle changes in the message — targeting the inner city in recent years, the effort in the early 1990s to showcase television and movie stars as NBA fans, the globalization of basketball, etc. — the underlying intent has always been to highlight the teams rather than the players, the rivalries rather than the accomplishments, and the league as a living, breathing, caring, unified whole rather than as a group of individuals. By and large, this formula has worked brilliantly; it has been a master stroke of genius by a maestro of a business man leading one of the most lucrative entertainment industries in the world. He has run the league perfectly and stood behind the simple mantra, "it's just good business."

Ironically, it is likely that the very rigidity that has buoyed the sport and the NBA brand, the ironclad consistency that I am celebrating above, that leads me to the level of disappointment reverberating through my traditionalist being upon hearing the announcement of the 2009 NBA Hall of Fame class. In short, Commissioner Stern has failed the NBA and its image as a result of his steadfast commitment to not making any exceptions. How, you ask? Read on.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is an iconoclast of sorts. For those of us who see basketball as a form of religion, Jordan became that one entity that lay to waste the traditional ideas and beliefs we all harbored relative to the sport. A singular talent who could singularly shift your core values with little more than a breathtaking dunk, fade-away jump shot, or mesmerizing reverse layup.

Don't believe me? Find yourself a tape of the 1986 game two contest between the Bulls and the Celtics. I grew up in Maine — decidedly Celtics territory — and my favorite player was Danny Ainge of all people. To me, Ainge exemplified hustle, team play, and those other intangibles that made me love the game from an early age. I used to sit by the radio and scribe the stats from Johnny Most's gravelly play-by-play calls into an old notebook just so I could feel like I was a part of Celtic lore. Nothing could change my perception — at least not until that game.

Jordan was incredible. Awe-inspiring. Amazing. Astonishing. Extraordinary. Superhuman. Inconceivable. None of those adjectives do his performance any justice. Only one does: transcendent. And not the definition reading "going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding" or even the one that defines the meaning as "superior or supreme." I'm talking about transcendent, as in "above all possible modes of the infinite" or "not realizable in human experience." Jordan scored 63 points against undeniably the best team defense in basketball on a Bulls team that had exactly zero other scoring options. And it wasn't a Kobe Bryant 63; Jordan wasn't much of a jump-shooter back then. It was crossover dribbles, fade-away shots, lay-ups in traffic, and the like. It was scoring over double-teams and triple-teams, over 6'2" Dennis Johnson and 6'9" Larry Bird, in transition, and in the half-court sets. In the playoffs, no less, against the team that was to go on to be crowned NBA champion.

It was the game that made me a Michael Jordan super-fan. As a point of reference, as a Rocket fan now, I see Kobe Bryant torch us frequently. His moves are Jordan-esque, his scoring ability is breathtaking, and unmatched in today's game. He moves with fluidity and ease and grace and he does so without self-glorification and with a decency that is rare these days. Yet I can't like the guy. I root against him. Even when on his 81-point jag against the Raptors a few years back, I just wasn't lost in his game the way I was with Jordan's. M.J. changed me and my beliefs and my values. And I wasn't alone.

That trip down memory lane isn't without motive. As transcendent as Jordan was to me and millions of fans like me, he was equally transcendent to the game and the sport and the league. Before the Jordan-boom, there were no personal shoe sponsorships (Converse, the primary sneaker sponsor for the league, marketed team-based lines of shoes using your favorite team's colors to appeal to the masses). Jordan's singular stardom and unmatched manner of carrying himself as the league's ambassador allowed the NBA and its sponsors to single him out without compromising the image of the league.

We, the public, all understood, "this guy is different." Pre-Jordan salaries rarely soared over $3 million. Post Jordan-boom salaries rocketed into the tens of millions of dollars range. Except his own, mind you (Jordan made over $4 million in salary for a grand total of two years of his career). This is what makes him so transcendent: even when his influence changes the very rules we operate under, he furthers the legend by not conforming to his self-induced rule changes!

What is the point to all of this? Simply put, to enshrine Michael Jordan into the Hall of Fame with anyone other than Michael Jordan is an insult to his legacy. John Stockton, David Robinson, Jerry Sloan, C. Vivian Stringer — they are all so very deserving of the honor of being named Hall of Famers. But they should wait their turn. The rules dictate they are eligible in 2009, which is exactly why they were picked, but they and their accomplishments pale in comparison to those of Jordan. I know I will get lots of comments about how wrong I am and how I can't possibly be sane in belittling the accomplishments of these others, and that is fine. To me, I am not belittling anybody's accomplishments, just giving a legendary figure like none other in his sport the due he has earned. If you don't agree, you either didn't see Jordan play enough or you aren't a basketball fan, it is that simple.

Watching Jordan's games won't tell the whole story. You have to watch Jordan's moments. You have to see Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, Dave Corzine, Bill Wennington, Ron Harper, Brad Sellers, Jason Caffey, Jud Buechler, Luc Longley, Brian Williams, B.J. Armstrong, Bobby Hansen, Stacey King, Cliff Levingston, Will Perdue, and Craig Hodges play without M.J. by their side to appreciate what he did as a teammate. He made Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant perennial all-stars. He made Dennis Rodman palatable to the public. There will be others that have the same, or better, skills. LeBron James, for one, could well be statistically more valuable as an all-around player and game-changer. Kobe is every bit as good a scorer and a better shooter than Jordan ever was. There will be others. But no single player will ever come around that redefines the value of a single player the way Jordan did, because Jordan already did it.

Yes, no man is greater than the game itself, I get that, but putting M.J. in alone to give him the singular stage he created for himself as a player and as a marketing tool is not putting him above the game. You see, Mr. Stern, we all understand "this guy is different" so a temporary shift in policy wouldn't come across as pandering or cajoling.

It would come across as exactly what it is: just good business.

Posted by Matt Thomas at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas, goes one of the songs you're likely to hear at least forty times between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, is "the most wonderful time of the year." Bosh. The most wonderful time of the year begins at a point in early April and endures for slightly more than half a calendar year.

Just ask Atlanta Braves fans. They had reason to fear the Christmas song might prove more right than wrong, come their Opening Day, at least. Then they saw a veteran pitcher, practically what they had to settle for following an offseason of more defeat than deliverance, deliver eight innings as though he were still a curse-busting Red Sox or a race-enhancing Dodger. They also saw a young man turn from prospect derailed (50-game suspension, 2008, actual or alleged performance-enhancing substance) to presence and then some. Put it this way: the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies — opening at home, of course — couldn't pry a run out of Derek Lowe at gunpoint (Ryan Howard: "I don't know if he has a magnet in there to keep [the ball] down"), and Jordan Schafer used his first major league at-bat to find the far side of the fence.

Just ask Baltimore Orioles fans. They've had reason to fear the song would remain the same — no, silly, not the Christmas song — as it's been since, oh, the day Jeffrey Maier snagged that Derek Jeter drive that (read this carefully, folks) would have eluded even the leaping Oriole who thought he had a shot at it. Then they watched in their own heart cockle-warming home park as C.C. Sabathia threw little enough that Oriole hitters couldn't see or swat (6 runs, 8 hits, and Sabathia to the bath during the fifth inning), Jeremy Guthrie threw just enough to keep Yankee hitters — including a well-enough-collared Mark Teixiera (0-for-4 and five runners turned castaways) — from getting frisky enough, and the Orioles yanked four more runs out of Yankee pitching in their half of the eighth, after the Yankees had the audacity to close the deficit to 6-5.

Just ask Boston Red Sox fans. Not that they were particularly disenchanted over losing their shot at a mere third World Series win in five years, being the only team to take the eventual pennant-winner to a seventh League Championship Series game last fall, but wasn't it reassuring to watch Josh Beckett pitch the way Josh Beckett is expected to pitch customarily enough, and against the defending American League champion Tampa Bay Rays (how does that phrase sound, Rays fans?) in the bargain?

Just ask Chicago Cubs fans. Regardless of preseason optimisms, they have reason beyond many fans to fear a season to come in which the cleverly lugubrious Opening Day prediction of a Cub fan past (he whipped up a placard on the first pitch in Wrigley Field: WAIT 'TILL NEXT YEAR). Then Carlos Zambrano squared off against Roy Oswalt, the Houston Astros' best pitcher, recently left exhausted and prone in a World Baseball Classic eliminator, and got into the seventh with a mere run against him, outpitching Oswalt and leaving the Rabbit 2-3 on Opening Day assignments. If only Alfonso Soriano could start all his starts with second-pitch-of-the-game bombs. And if only Zambrano could learn that his mouth — which flapped approaching the season that the Cubs need a better ballpark than Wrigley to win, or some such folderol — was not constructed to fit his foot.

Just ask Florida Marlins fans. They had reason to smell things fishy enough, considering their heroes are still much composed of inexpensive commodities and the need to swim by the seat of their dorsals. But then a fresh Fish, Emilio Bonifacio, went 4-for-5 including the Show's first inside-the-park homer since Lyndon Johnson prepared to announce that he would not seek or accept the nomination of his party for another term as America's president. ("He was gassed and he couldn't breathe and he was asking people for water" — Cody Ross.) Three others including Hanley Ramirez with salami hit the more conventional sort of bombs, and the Washington Nationals finished their season debut wishing perhaps that they might get bombed. At the nearest watering hole.

(That last Opening Day inside-the-parker? Carl Yastrzemski. Coming off a Triple Crown season.)

Just ask Los Angeles Angels fans. They had reason to feel just a little less than angelic over losing John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar for at least month number one, at least until Howie Kendrick and Vladimir Guerrero teed up RBI singles in the third and Kendrick as much as suggested to Vlad the Impaler, "You do enough — this one's on me," driving a 2-1 service from an Oakland Athletics pitcher named Dallas Braden over the left field fence in the fifth. And, at least until Joe Saunders picked up where his 17-7 record last season left off and took the shutout halfway through the seventh, Jeff Mathis arrested Mark Ellis on the front end of attempted double grand theft in the third, three more Angel cops performed feats of derring-don't-even-think-about-it against Oakland offenders, and three Angel relievers — including Brian Fuentes, the erstwhile Rockie who can't replace Francisco Rodriguez, but is a pretty capable Brian Fuentes — finished what Saunders started. Just another Halo victory...

Just ask New York Mets fans. They had reason enough to believe all was less than well, in spite of their breathless new Ebbets Field-descended playpen, considering a) the shakes over the Madoff scandal wiping enough of the Mets' owner that he couldn't even think of playing for Manny Being Manny (thank God for small favors?); and, b) the shakes accompanying most assessments of their starting pitching not named Johan Santana. They may still have the shakes by the time you read this, but it won't be Santana's fault. He flattened the Cincinnati Reds (whose pitching acquitted themselves nicely enough, in keeping the Mets to a pair of runs), handed a 2-1 lead to his remade/remodeled bullpen, and watched precisely what the Mets' management hoped they were getting when they landed one closer (J.J. Putz) to set up for another closer (Francisco Rodriguez): a win. The Mets have a mere 161 games left to prove it wasn't a fluke or it was a teaser toward a third consecutive stretch-drive strangle.

Just ask Seattle Mariners fans. The Prodigal Son sent his eighth known Opening Day launch into the seats, the Crown Prince fed the Minnesota Twins in the manner to which Mariners fans would prefer he and they become accustomed, and already the Safeco set thinks their heroes can stand up to the Angels or the Athletics. There's no known crime against first-game optimism. Yet.

Just ask Texas Rangers fans. The bad news was that the defending American League Cy Young Award winner struck out five of them and walked only one of them. But the good news was that none of that stopped the Rangers from treating Cliff Lee otherwise as though he had nothing to throw but pitches that inflated mysteriously enough between his release point and the plate.

Soo-oo-oo, Opening Days proved a little less than the most wonderful time of the year for Philadelphia, Bronx, Tampa Bay, Houston, Washington, Oakland, Cincinnati, Minnesota, and Cleveland fans. But those fans know the wisdom yielded only by the thinking person's sport, courtesy of one of its legendary managers about whom it could have been said that thinking was obscured often enough by temperament. "This ain't football," Earl Weaver liked to observe. "We do this every day."

For six wonderful months. Half the year plus. The other half? We'll worry about that come November.

Posted by Jeff Kallman at 11:00 AM | Comments (1)

April 7, 2009

The Simple Life: Tar Heels Victorious

Many times, our world is complex. Unpaid mortgages lead to busted 401Ks, and gas prices can hit spikes and valleys based on the shrouded positions of Middle Eastern states.

But Monday night in Detroit, the world was pretty simple. The better team won.

No, North Carolina wasn't the top-seeded team entering the NCAA tournament. They cruised into the tournament under the radar in stark contrast to how they began the season in November. And, no, they didn't have dozens of journalists forcing a borderline-insulting storyline that their success was bringing relief to an economically ravaged region.

(Please excuse the digression, but take it from a Big Ten lifer: Detroit is as maize-and-blue a city as there is outside of Ann Arbor. If anything in this tournament made Detroit feel better, it was Michigan's win over Clemson in the first round. But regardless, I find it patently absurd that we're going to pretend a perennial top-10 program reaching the Final Four is even a temporary panacea for a city that's been impoverished much longer than the 2008-2009 basketball season. There's something nauseating about a bunch of six-or-seven figure earners who talk sports on TV for a living saying the poorest blue collar citizenry of a city should feel better because a sports team located remotely in its backyard can win some big games in the city limits. If those cushy gigs in Bristol, Connecticut, went bust, would the dominance of the UConn women make them feel better? Okay, I think Dennis Miller's spirit has left my body — rant over.)

At the beginning of the season, the question that earned TV and newspaper gab time wasn't who would win the title; instead, it was whether UNC would go undefeated. After all, this was a group that returned four could-have-been 2008 NBA draft picks from a Final Four team. When the season started, they were crowned as the undisputed most talented team. It's hard to argue anything is different now at the season's conclusion.

But a strange thing happened in between. A home loss to Boston College here, an 0-2 ACC start there, and the Tar Heels abruptly slid from their anointed throne. It seems talent doesn't matter quite as much in January as it does in November and April.

If we learned anything from these Heels, it should be how pointless the quest for perfection is. New rule: no more asking about perfect seasons until, say, Mardi Gras. It makes sense that coaches rebuff any thoughts of perfection in the early season and become jittery about them in the late season. If these UNC players had come back to school seeking perfection, they would have been deflated one game into their conference slate. If perfection is the stated goal, isn't anything accomplished after that first loss (even a championship!) a consolation?

And what else did we learn from UNC? I see two clear lessons:

First, Roy Williams is a really, really good coach. Sure, he had great talent, but he was responsible for that talent being in Chapel Hill (more on that in a minute). Most importantly, Williams managed the lofty expectations, kept that great talent focused, and had his team playing its best when it mattered the most. Most coaches have to build a team to believe that it's good; Williams had to find ways to challenge a team that knew it was good.

Secondly, it helps to have really, really good players, and Carolina had the best. For better or worse, the one-and-done fluidity of top collegiate rosters has placed an even greater emphasis on recruiting. Not that long ago, maybe even only a decade or two in the past, teams could be built upon a strong class that grew together over a few seasons. Not anymore. If a coach slips in his recruiting for even just a season, he knows that he'll be at a disadvantage. Rebuilding is for mid-majors; reloading with a bigger arsenal than before is for the big boys.

So good coaching and good players win championships. What, were you expecting more? Thankfully, sometimes the world is simple.

Posted by Corrie Trouw at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2009

In the Rotation: A Self-Assessment

If you've been reading In the Rotation all season, you know that there's a real simple formula that we use around here: if someone around the NBA does something good, they're in the rotation. If they screw up, they're out of the rotation. If they do something really stupid, they spend the week on the inactive list.

Over the past 21 weeks, there have been countless players, coaches, owners, announcers, and league executives that have found themselves either in or out of the rotation for various reasons. More often than not, the criticism has garnered more attention than the praise.

And while it's easy to sit back and call out a coach or a GM for a bonehead personnel decision, or rake a player over the coals for a stupid play or poor display of judgment off the court, it's not always as easy to hold yourself to the same standards.

If you've been reading all season, you also know that before I started In the Rotation, there were 82 Things to Watch For This NBA Season, a five-part season preview that started when training camps opened back in October. Surely, when you highlight 82 different things to look for in an NBA season, there are bound to be some hits and misses.

Today, over six months after making some bold NBA predictions in the preseason, I'll hold myself to the same standard I've been holding NBA personalities to all season long and look back of some of the preseason predictions that were worthy of making the rotation, and some that were just plain wrong.

We'll just consider it step 10 of my NBA Anonymous class as I try to prepare for the inevitable League Pass withdrawals I'm sure to suffer once the playoffs start and every game is on national television.

Without further ado, it's the good, the bad, and the ugly of my NBA preseason predictions.

In the Rotation: Kevin Durant

In part two, I compared Durant's rookie season to the rookie season of some of the most prolific scorers in the game today and came to the following conclusions:

"Durant's rookie season, played at roughly the same age as the five players previously listed, is on par or better statistically than each of those players rookie campaigns. If he can continue his natural progression, which all indications say that he will, he could find himself in the conversation of elite NBA scorers sooner rather than later.

"I fully expect Durant to continue to improve and be an elite scorer this year, finishing in the top 10 in points per game. He's that talented."

With six games left in the season, Kevin Durant is currently fourth in the league averaging 25.6 points per game. He certainly continued the natural progression I alluded to, raising his field goal percentage from 43% in his rookie season of a year ago to 48% this season, and even more impressively increased his three-point percentage from an almost embarrassing 28% a season ago to 42% right now, good enough to land Durant in the top 20 in the league in three-point percentage.

And while conventional NBA wisdom says, "Anyone can score on a bad team", anyone who saw the clinic that Durant put on in the Rookie Game knows that he's not just scoring because he's the only option in OKC, he's scoring because no one can stop him. He's well on his way to becoming the next 30 ppg scorer in the NBA.

Out of the Rotation: Detroit Pistons

I picked Detroit to finish second in the East. I predicted this team to win 61 games. I predicted Rodney Stuckey to be one of the breakout stars on the 2008-09 season. I had this to say about the possibility of the Pistons making a big trade during the season:

"If the opportunity to make a deal strikes in the middle of the season, [Joe] Dumars won't hesitate to bring in a big-name player midseason to set this team back towards championship contention, as he did in '04 with Rasheed Wallace. If not, the Pistons are stacked enough as is to still be a real test for any team trying to come out of the East."

Wow. Those are all so wrong I don't know where to begin.

Dumars didn't hesitate long, that's for sure. Instead, he pulled the trigger on the Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson deal a week into the season, and the rest is history. Iverson's shoot-first ask questions later style made him fit into the Pistons team-orientated style about as well as Craig Sager fits in at a fashion show, and the experiment lasted less than the entire season.

Ironically enough, it's the fact that Dumars hesitated at all that could land Detroit in the playoffs. The Pistons started 2-0 before trading Billups away. Those two wins could very well be the difference between the Pistons and whoever finishes ninth in the East.

Maybe Joe Dumars and the Detroit Pistons know what they're doing after all.

In the Rotation: Chicago Bulls

"I project the Bulls to be a lottery team, at least for now. That could all change, however, if they can somehow manage to move one of the 45 guards that they seem to have on their roster. Derrick Rose looks like he might be the real deal, but the only way to find out is to play him.

With guys like Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Larry Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha, and even Loul Deng commanding backcourt minutes, the Bulls are faced the difficult task of trying trade at least one, ideally more like two or three, of these guys for some toughness and size inside."

How many instances have we seen in the past five years where a GM of a bad team took the most obvious approach to fixing his team during the season? My guess would be that you could count the number of times on one hand.

Yet when the Bulls started the season with six guards that could all be serviceable NBA players on their roster GM Jon Paxson did the most obvious thing you could think of to fix his team: trade some guards.

And just when you thought Paxson was blinded by the obviousness of having too many guards by actually signing guard Lindsay Hunter early in the season, he comes through at the deadline and unloads a few of them.

Larry Hughes and Thabo Sefolosha were both traded before the trade deadline, and the Bulls almost immediately started to play better basketball. They've gone from lottery team, to last team in, to fighting for playoff seeding in a little over a month, and it's thanks mostly to the trades that the Bulls made to get rid of some guards to acquire Brad Miller and John Salmons.

The trades may not have put the Bulls over the top, they still have a long way to go, but at least it has them headed in the right direction.

Out of the Rotation: The Clippers finish .500

How I talked myself into believing that the Clips would win 41 games is a mystery. I even used the sentence, "Alas, they are still the Clippers" and still predicted they would go .500. What was I thinking?

Not figuring out a way to pay Elton Brand what he was asking and losing him to Philly was a bad enough start to the offseason. Counting on Baron Davis and Marcus Camby to stay healthy in order to make the playoffs made things even worse. Making Mike Dunleavy the only head coach/GM in the league takes the cake.

And yet somehow I was convinced at the time that the Clippers would be the kind of team, as the 41-41 record I predicted they'd finish with implies, that would come out on a nightly basis and compete to win games.

When it comes to handicapping the Clippers next season I'm going to dust off the Rockband drums and get my Keith Moon on. I won't be fooled again.

In the Rotation: Houston Rockets injury concern

To be exact, I said there's a "1000: 1" chance that their big three (Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest) are all healthy come playoff time. Not that it was much of a limb to go out on given the history of the three players in question, but still a prediction nonetheless.

The funny part is I still picked Houston to finish third in the West. Their season might have been the easiest to forecast out of all 30 teams. They have enough talent on the team that any combination of two of the big three healthy is good enough to compete and win on most nights in the regular season.

But in order for the Rockets to be an elite-level team, they need all three players to be healthy and clicking and the same time during the entire playoffs. Right now, the Houston Rockets are really good, but they're not a legit NBA title contender.

Out of the Rotation: New Jersey Nets will finish with worst record in the NBA

Not that the Nets' 34-win pace is making a fool out of me or anything, but maybe it was a little harsh to say that they have, "only two players on this team that could even remotely contribute on a quality NBA team: Vince Carter and Devin Harris, and neither is even in their prime (Vince's ended a few years ago, Harris' is yet to come)".

One of the most overlooked stories of the season has been that Nets center Brook Lopez looks like he has potential to end up being the best rookie in the surprisingly deep 2008 draft class. There are always one or two rookies that come in as average players, but continue to get better game after game for their first few seasons, eventually evolving into a solid NBA player. Lopez seems like the player in the 2008 draft most likely to fulfill that role.

He's added a few different moves into his offensive arsenal already this season, and has been a key offensive weapon for the Nets in the second half. He's averaging 14.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game since the All-Star Break, and he's shooting 58% from the field in the process.

His rebounding numbers will inevitably increase as he gets stronger and more savvy under the boards, and if his offensive game continues to develop at this pace, the Nets may have one of the top young stars in the league on their hands.

There are a few other predictions that could end up on either extreme like these examples once the postseason awards are handed out, but I think you get the idea.

Predictions are fun in the preseason, but the reality is anything we predict to happen now has just about as much relevance as anything we predicted to happen back in October. The NBA playoffs are a whole different game than the regular season. We're about 10 days away from having to stop making predictions. The playoffs are almost here to settle things once and for all.

Where will amazing happen this year? (Sorry, I still haven't quite kicked the League Pass addiction yet).

Be sure to check back at Sports Central every Monday to see who cracks Scott Shepherd's Rotation as he breaks down what is going on around the NBA.

Posted by Scott Shepherd at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

Life Lessons Courtesy of Federer, Roddick

"The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions." — Ellen Glasgow

Sports has the uncanny ability to mirror life. It can offer up life lessons right before your eyes that help you to understand how the world works. The current career trajectories of both Roger Federer and Andy Roddick are stark reminders of what sports can teach us all about life.

On the one hand, you have Roger Federer, one of the most revered sportsmen of all-time. It is near impossible to come across anyone that is not in awe of Federer's achievements and the way he conducts himself on and off the court. However, the Swiss' last year of competition has been far from what we have come to expect from the former world No. 1.

Federer's demise gives us our first life lesson. To put it simply, as we age we are incapable of doing some of the things that we once found, well, easy. Federer is now 27-years-old and while he continually beats many of his competitors, he struggles against the likes of Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and, to a lesser extent, Novak Djokovic.

Federer's throne was once a very secure pedestal. He reigned over the tour like an evil dictator — in other words, he reigned by fear. Now the throne is abandoned has Federer faces up to the reality that a revolution has occurred. The three people who can, and do, beat him are all much younger. Nevertheless, the key thing is that they appear to be hungrier. They are hungry for change.

While the young pretenders to the crown are striving to be that change, Federer seems stuck trying the same old things. He is reluctant to attack Nadal when the two juggernauts come to blows. His is reluctant to acquire, and stick with, a coach. He is, quite simply, reluctant to change.

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay." — Harold Wilson

Andy Roddick, on the other hand, is embracing change. The hard-hitting American is clearly aware that we live in a world where you either adapt or perish. Roddick's career is currently at somewhat of a crossroads. He has achieved a lot in his career by winning a major title, as well as four Masters Series. Added to that is the fact that he was once the best player in the world. Yeah, it's hard to remember, at times, that he once made it to the world No. 1 spot.

Roddick is just a year younger than Federer, thus it could be argued that they are both entering the final stretch in their successful careers. Unlike Federer, however, Roddick is more than willing to change.

Of the last few months, under the guidance of Larry Stefanki, the American has undoubtedly tried to add more dimensions to his game. A little over a year ago, he would've nearly always resorted to trying to hit his way out of trouble. The time when power was Roddick's only real threat has long gone now.

Roddick is a now a cerebral player who carefully constructs his points. No longer will go for that elusive winner. Roddick now possesses a lot of patience.

In recent weeks, his backhand slice has been a revelation. Often, he will delicately feather the ball from the back of the court with a Federer-like ability to land it approximately two feet inside the opponent's baseline. It's now a solid and dependable shot for Roddick to utilize, but he doesn't stop there. It's by no means rare to see Roddick follow up his backhand slice by charging towards the net.

Is Roddick a competent net player? Well, at times he can produce a moment of magic, then a few seconds later, it would appear as though I could've done a better job. The fact that Roddick is not the finished article on these shots is not the point, though. The point is that he is making a visible effort to change. Roddick is aware that he needs to change and adapt his game, or else he will not be in the world's top 10 for much longer.

It's refreshing to see someone try to change and develop their game, especially at Roddick's age when he could just as easily decide to play the way he always has done.

Here are two contrasting players in more than one respect. They both seem to have different views on the need to change your ways in order to succeed. Surely, if this continues, the end result has an air of inevitability about it.

"When we are no longer able to change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." — Viktor Frankl

Posted by Luke Broadbent at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 3, 2009

Sports Q&A: Cutler is No Elway

The Denver Broncos finally traded Jay Cutler, unloading him to Chicago after weeks of disagreements between Cutler and new head coach Josh McDaniels. Could this situation have been avoided, and who is to blame?

This is karma at its best. Now the Denver Broncos know what it must have felt like to be the Baltimore Colts, facing a situation in which a talented quarterback the team wants would himself rather be somewhere else. For those of you too young to remember or old enough to care, John Elway was drafted by the Colts in 1983, but refused to play for the team, and the Colts were eventually forced to trade him.

Now, like former Denver kicker Rich Karlis, the shoe's on the other foot. And, sure enough, the Cutler saga is playing out almost exactly like the Elway situation. Cutler has forced the Broncos hand, and he'll be the prize for another team in an imminent blockbuster trade. Soon, Cutler will be left to ponder "things to do in Denver when you're traded."

There's a difference, though, in Cutler's situation and that of Elway. While Elway betrayed the city of Baltimore in cowardly fashion, refusing to play for the team that sucked enough to rightfully earn that pick, Cutler has been betrayed by the city of Denver. Or, more specifically, the people in Denver responsible for firing Mike Shanahan and hiring Josh McDaniels. That would be president Pat Bowlen and the Broncos' front office.

Did Bowlen hire McDaniels with the knowledge that the new Broncos coach wanted not Cutler, but Matt Cassel, a quarterback McDaniels raised from diapers, to build around? Or did Bowlen hire McDaniels, then sit by idly as McDaniels, secretly, behind Cutler's back, worked to ship out a franchise quarterback that Bowlen himself helped to draft?

Either way, Bowlen made a bad decision. And so did McDaniels.

Apparently, to McDaniels, a young, rifle-armed quarterback coming off a 4,000-yard, Pro Bowl season lacked the essentials to lead the Broncos to McDaniels' vision of success. McDaniels' must have been delusional, power-hungry, or just plain stupid not to see that the passing game was the least of Denver's worries.

With Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, Denver had a less dynamic, but more than capable, version of what Cassel had in New England, Randy Moss and Wes Welker. If anything, McDaniels should have prioritized keeping the passing game intact, and maybe looked to utilize his trade urges to bring the Broncos a running back, or defensive help.

Was there something Cassel could do that Cutler could not? Worship his coach, maybe? It's obvious by Cutler's demeanor that he's no
"yes man."

Did McDaniels see some flaw in Cutler's character that made him undesirable? Was it the obvious drug usage? Just to clarify, Coach McDaniels, those syringes are for Cutler's diabetes, not a heroin habit.

Maybe McDaniels built Cassel in his image and feared that Cutler could not be molded.

But does Cutler even need to be molded? He's already a Pro Bowler.

In any case, the Cutler/Broncos relationship was doomed, and never showed signs of improving. The lines of communication are broken, although Bowlen and McDaniels insist they tried to contact Cutler for nearly two weeks, a version of events that Cutler disputes.

But even if they could have contacted Cutler, why should he have believed what Bowlen and McDaniels might have had to say? After all, they're "two-faced." Even if Cutler was lured back, trust would always be an underlying issue.

McDaniels "cheated" on Cutler once, and it was flagrant. No amount of couples therapy could have healed the rift between McDaniels and Cutler. And the trust issues don't end with just Cutler. What about the rest of the Broncos players? Can they fully support a head coach whose first order of business was deception? I doubt it.

We've all heard of coaches "losing the locker room." McDaniels may have lost it before his first practice. McDaniels, as Denver's head coach, is doomed to fail.

So did McDaniels "shop around" Cutler more in the last Cutler trade talks (those of which Cutler was aware) than in the previous trade scenarios (those of which Cutler was not aware)? I'm guessing only a select few teams were in on the initial trade idea, because McDaniels was trying to keep it on the down low.

Word has it that the Broncos, just for spite, toyed with the idea of sending Cutler to San Diego to serve as Philip Rivers' backup. That's got to be the only destination that would leave Cutler more unhappy than in Denver.

In the end, though, did anyone get what they wanted? McDaniels certainly didn't get what he wanted. Instead of Cassel or Cutler, former Bear Kyle Orton is his quarterback, or best imitation thereof.

Cutler? Who's really sure what he wanted? I'm not so sure he does himself. In the end, I think it's more important for Cutler to feel like he is wanted.

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)

Solving the Problems in Raptorville

Get out the salami and cheese mama, the Toronto Raptors' season is over.

The Toronto Raptors are almost officially out of playoff contention as their dismal season comes to a close. After making the playoffs for two successive years, the Raptors' inability to make it to postseason play this year was a disappointment. Unlike the last two seasons, the Raptors never seemed to have a chance to make it back to the postseason. Their season was filled with inconsistent play, huge leads blown, and mental lapses.

Following a slow start by the Raptors, head coach Sam Mitchell was given the hook. Jay Triano took over as interim head coach, becoming the first Canadian-born head coach in the NBA. The move didn't seem to spark the Raptors, who were never really that competitive after the move. Under Jay Triano, the Raptors went 16-36 and slowly watched their postseason hopes disappear.

Now that Toronto's season is over, there is really only one thing to do: reflect on what went wrong and work that much harder in the offseason to fix it. As a team, the Raptors obviously need to improve on shooting and rebounding; management would be wise to bring in some players to fill those needs. On a positive note, this season saw the emergence of Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani, who had some success last season, emerged as a multiple threat this year, averaging 15.2 points and 5.5 rebounds. Chris Bosh had another solid season, averaging 22.6 points and 9.6 rebounds, as well as Jose Calderon, who averaged 12.7 points a game and 8.6 assists a game while notching an impressive free throw percentage.

Here is some advice to the Raptors if they are looking to be competitive next season:

1) Shoot 'Em Up

When it comes to shooters, the Raptors need to look at who they have and decide the best way to improve. Jose Calderon was one of the most effective shooters on the team, shooting an impressive 50.1% from the field. However if Calderon is to be effective in running the offense, he will need more help. If Calderon is driving the lane, he needs a solid shooter to pass the ball off to. Toronto's current starting shooting guard is Anthony Parker. He is the man the Raptors should be counting on to make shots consistently. Unfortunately, the opposite has been true. Parker is averaging around 10 points a game with a mediocre average of 43%. Just how low is that field goal average? There 105 players in the league that boast a better percentage.

The Raptors have a few good shooters such as Jose Calderon, Shawn Marion, Chris Bosh, and even Andrea Bargnani, but they need a solid shooter. Management would be wise to get rid of Anthony Parker. Though he is a safe player, yet one that will shine on occasion, he is not the consistent threat the Raptors need to move forward. Toronto would be wise to add a solid shooter on the team. They should look for a Joe Johnson or Moe Williams type of player through free agency. Or perhaps the team will look to the draft and snap up sharp-shooter A.J. Abrams from Texas.

Just what is the difference between a good shooting team and a bad one? If you compare the Raptor's stats in their wins and losses, you will notice some glaring differences. In 28 wins, the Raptors shot an impressive 49.8% from the field and in their 45 loses, they shot 43.4%. There is also a glaring difference in the three-point percentage, as the Raptors shot 43.2% in the games they won and 34.3% in the games they lost. Winning translates into points, and the Raptors averaged 104.5 points a game in a win and a mediocre 94.8 in a loss.

2) Get Tougher Down Low

It has become a broken record in Toronto; the Raptors aren't physical enough. At 39.97 rebounds a game, the Raptors were among the league's worst in rebounding. The Raptors' failure to control the boards led to many second-chance opportunities for their opponents and ultimately cost them games. Ideally, the Raptors need to add a player like Anderson Varejao who will fight for every offensive and defensive rebound and play physical against even the toughest opponents.

The Raptors also need tougher play out of the players they already have. Chris Bosh is the team's all-star, and he has gotten better in his post play, yet he should still strive to be an even more dominant presence. The 2008-2009 season saw Andrea Bargnani continue to develop his game further, but now he needs to become a better physical threat. Bargnani started off as a great three-point shooter in his rookie season, started driving the ball more in his second year, and will hopefully become a more intimidating presence in his third year. Toronto will never intimidate any team until they become more physical.

3) Stop Losing to the Worst

Before the Raptors can hope to compete with the best, they need to beat the worst. Toronto lost too many winnable games against bad teams last season. Twenty-nine percent of Toronto's losses came against non-playoff teams. While this isn't a striking percentage, consider this. If Toronto won, say, 70% of these winnable games, which should be plausible, their record would change from 28-45 to 37-36 and they would be in the playoffs. Suddenly, that 29% looks pretty drastic.

While most of these losses were fairly close games, Toronto also suffered some embarrassments. The team lost 127-97 to the New York Knicks and lost two times, 112-86 and 102-89, to the Charlotte Bobcats. Toronto needs to adopt a better attitude when preparing for these games. It's been said a million times that if you take a team lightly, they will burn you. Bad record aside, Toronto has made the playoffs two years in a row, and as their roster hasn't changed, there is really no excuse for losing to these mediocre teams.

4) Fire Jay Triano

Can Jay Triano be a solid coach in the NBA? Yes. Is he the right coach for the Raptors right now? No. The Raptors are a fairly solid team in need of a smart coach who can push them over the top. Triano isn't experienced enough yet to be coaching a team with the potential of the Raptors. His interim record of 16-36 is not impressive and the Raptors would be wise to dip into to the pool of talented coaches available.

The name that comes to mind immediately is Avery Johnson. In the 2005-2006 season, Avery Johnson led the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals where they fell to the Miami Heat. He also led the Mavericks to 67 wins the next year. Johnson's winning percentage of 73.5% is impressive and he transformed Dallas' defense during his tenure. With his veteran leadership, Avery Johnson could lead the Raptors to new heights.

5) Bring Back Chuck Swirsky

How will bringing back the former commentator help the Raptors? Not much, but it would certainly delight the fans. Anyone who has watched a Raptors game knows that Chuck Swirsky was one of the best in the business. Swirsky left at the beginning of the season for Chicago and is now the play-by-play voice of the Bulls. Chuck Swirsky always knew how to entertain, yet his knowledge of basketball was evident. And, of course, Swirksy coined the phrases: "Onions, baby, onions!", "Raptors win, Raptors win, Raptors win!" And the classic, "Get out the salami and cheese mama, this ball game is over!" With no disrespect to Matt Devlin, Leo Rautins, and Jack Armstrong, Swirsky just brings that extra element to every broadcast.

Posted by Jonathan Hamelin at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 2, 2009

Blame Bus Cook For Jay Cutler Mess

If you know your recent NFL history, you're probably not at all surprised that the Denver Broncos have been forced into a situation where they're going to have to trade their starting quarterback sometime before the draft.

The Broncos are in this situation for a plethora of reasons. The blame has been thrown in all directions. Is it the owner's fault for lying to the player? Is it the new, inexperienced head coach's fault for not effectively communicating with the player? Is it the general manager's fault for entertaining trade offers for the player? Is it the player's fault for acting like a spoiled 12-year-old?

The answer is probably "yes" to all of those questions. Everyone shares a little of the blame. The entire situation hasn't been handled correctly by anyone involved.

But while all of those people deserve some of the blame, none of them deserve the most blame. The most blame goes to the agent, Bus Cook.

I've read a few articles blaming Bus Cook for how this situation degenerated, but I'm not sure the fans understand the extent to which he's to blame.

If you talk to Denver fans, they're either incensed at their young, big-headed head coach or they're blind with rage at their selfish baby of a starting quarterback. You really have to push to get someone to mention Cook's name.

But when you give them a little back story, it starts to make more sense.

Bus Cook was involved in the messy breakup between Steve McNair and the Titans.

The breakup involved leaked trade rumors, negotiating through the media, a team complaining that the player wasn't returning phone calls, a player being locked out of the team's training facility, lawsuits being filed, and eventually bitter feelings and a forced trade to a division rival.

Any of that sounds familiar?

Bus Cook was/is Brett Favre's agent. No need to rehash the Favre saga, but needless to say he didn't come out of that looking good, he ended up on another team, and his former team left the situation with an extreme dislike for the agent.

When Bus Cook is involved, one of two things happen: record breaking contracts, or a messy, messy divorce. Team be damned, fans be damned, Bus Cook always gets what he wants.

He's gotten record breaking contracts for the likes of Steve McNair, Brett Favre, Randy Moss, and Calvin Johnson. The only one of those situations that hasn't ended in a messy divorce where the player ended up looking extremely bad is the Calvin Johnson situation ... and let's give that one a few more seasons.

When Mike Shanahan was "the man" in Denver, it was a forgone conclusion that Jay Cutler was going to be Bus Cook's next record-breaking contract. When Shanahan was fired, Cook's radar went up.

When the Broncos tried to trade for Matt Cassel, the writing was on the wall. Cook knew he wasn't going to get a record breaking contract for his young quarterback.

So he went the messy divorce route. It's his modus operandi. Get the contract, or get the hell out. Let nobody, not even your own client's reputation, get in the way.

Roger Goodell has been trying to clean up the game since he became NFL commissioner. He's cracked down on the players. He even cracked down on one of the NFL's marquee franchises. Agree with him or not, he believes it's all for the good of the game.

I can think of no single move he could make that would be better for the game than banning Bus Cook from representing NFL players.

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner at Examiner.com. He writes a column every other Thursday for Sports Central. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

Posted by Sean Crowe at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

NASCAR Top 10 Power Rankings: Week 6

Note: the quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Jeff Gordon — Gordon controlled the first half of the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500, leading 144 of the first 348 laps, but late handling issues felled Gordon's chance of snapping his 48-race winless streak. Still, Gordon lengthened his points lead, and now leads second-place Clint Bowyer by 89 points.

"They don't call Jimmie Johnson 'Mr. Martinsville' because he likes to lube up and flex his muscles onstage in mildly homo-erotic bodybuilding rituals," says Gordon. "Hey, what Jimmie does in his spare time is his business."

"No, they call him 'Mr. Martinsville' because the Johnson victory is becoming just as synonymous with Martinsville as the concession hot dog, or the campground fur burger."

"I felt like we were one of the two cars to beat for the first half of this race. Then our handling went south, and we were out of it. It's very frustrating to go so long without a win, but can't someone ask me about my five top-10s instead of my winless streak? My daughter just learned to talk, and her first words were not 'Mommy' or 'Daddy,' but 'When are you going to win a race?'"

"Nevertheless, the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet has been strong all year, so I expect to win any week now. I'm past 'Du' for a victory."

2. Jimmie Johnson — Johnson muscled past Denny Hamlin with 15 laps to go at Martinsville and cruised to his first win of the year, and his fifth win in the last six Martinsville races. Johnson's triumph also marked the 25th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports' first win, when Geoff Bodine won at Martinsville in 1984. Johnson was awarded Martinsville's traditional grandfather clock for his efforts, and leaped five spots in the point standings to fourth.

"I'm so dominant at Martinsville," says Johnson, "that they should make the trophy a 'great' grandfather clock. Hey, what do Jimmie Johnson and a grandfather clock have in common? They both struck '11.' But Hamlin shouldn't be too upset. He didn't leave here empty-handed. Heck, we both got 'clocked.'"

"Now, as for my testimony in the Helio Castroneves tax-evasion trial, I was called as a character witness for attorney Alan Miller, who's also my agent. Hey, I've got no problem vouching for shady characters. Heck, I've been by Chad Knaus' side quite often during inspections."

3. Clint Bowyer — Bowyer's BB&T Chevrolet was strong all day, consistently running in the top five all day, on the way to a fifth-place finish, his best-ever result at Martinsville. Bowyer regained second place in the point standings, and now trails Jeff Gordon by 89 points.

"So many people said changing car numbers and sponsors would have disastrous results," says Bowyer. "But enough about Casey Mears. Let's talk about me."

"I can't lie. I miss driving the No. 07 Jack Daniels car. I was pretty upset last year when I found out I was switching sponsors. I guess you could say I was whiskey 'sour.'"

4. Denny Hamlin — Hamlin, a Virginia native, led 296 of 500 laps at Martinsville, but couldn't hold off the charging Jimmie Johnson late in the race. With 15 to go, Johnson slipped underneath Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, and, as the two jockeyed for position, Hamlin slid up the track and lost traction. Johnson pulled away while Hamlin settled for second. As Johnson circled in a victory lap, Hamlin fans, or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans eager just to toss debris at anyone, peppered the No. 48 car with cans.

"My fans are passionate about racing," says Hamlin. "But not so passionate about recycling, or Lowe's home improvement stores."

"I'm not going to categorize Jimmie's passing maneuver as 'dirty,' but I will say it's one that deserves retribution. I don't know where or when, but there will be payback. You can quote me on that, and call it a 'FedEx Priority.'"

5. Tony Stewart — Stewart registered his first top-five finish of the year, and first for Stewart-Haas Racing, as the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet finished just behind the Jimmie Johnson/Denny Hamlin first-place battle. Teammate Ryan Newman finished sixth, making Sunday the most successful day in the short history of Stewart-Haas Racing.

"It's especially satisfying at Martinsville this year," says Stewart. "As you know, the track is shaped like a paper clip, which makes the people at Office Depot happy. And, you cold say the track is shaped like a stick of deodorant, which makes our sponsor Old Spice happy. Finally, the .526 mile track is shaped like a Twinkie, which makes me happy."

6. Kyle Busch — After Bristol-whipping the field two weeks ago, Busch fired blanks at Martinsville's half-mile track, suffering several incidents that left him well out of contention. Busch first caused a spin with Scott Speed, and later was penalized for speeding on pit lane. Finally, a blown tire on lap 204 cost him another lap, and he finished the day 24th, two laps down.

"After winning in the Snickers car at 'Thunder Valley' last week," says Busch, "you could call me 'Chocolate Thunder.' But that moniker really didn't fit me at Martinsville, not only because I finished two laps down, but because I'm as pale as an unsponsored car. Heck, I'm so pale, even white people call me 'The Great White Hope.'"

"The last two races have been a microcosm of my entire year. A great result followed by a terrible result. From one week to the next, the outcomes have been 'polar opposites.' I assume it's okay to use the properties of magnetism in a sentence, just not in a car."

7. Kurt Busch — Busch battled a tight car for the duration of the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500, as numerous adjustment attempts proved fruitless. Busch kept the car out of trouble and on the lead lap, and the No. 2 Miller Lite team escaped with an 18th-place finish. Busch dropped one spot in the points to third, and is now 132 out of first.

"The Busch brothers winning streak came to a screeching halt," says Busch. "That's very disheartening. What's even more depressing? Kyle is considered the 'good-looking Busch.'"

"Now, it's on to Texas, a 1.5-mile oval much to my liking. As they say there, 'Everything's bigger in Texas.' That reminds me a what Kyle used to say about me — 'Nothing's bigger on Kurt, except his ears.'"

8. Carl Edwards — Edwards was well on his way to a top-five finish when contact with the No. 00 Toyota of David Reutimann cut the left rear tire of Edwards' No. 99 Ford Fusion. With no choice but to pit under green, Edwards lost two laps, and was unable to dig himself out of that hole, and finished 26th. He dropped three places to eighth in the Sprint Cup point standings.

"Except for Matt Kenseth's two wins this year," says Edwards, "this team has struggled. What this team needs is some team unity and a wake-up call. Therefore, I suggest we, as a team, head on over to Kevin Harvick's Nationwide garage and talk a little trash. I think a firm slam on a car hood will do us all some good."

"But I expect a full turnaround at Texas Motor Speedway. Roush Fenway cars always run well there, and I swept the 2008 races. Hey, enough talk about 'tax evasion.' It's time for a 'Tex. Invasion.'"

9. Kevin Harvick — Harvick finished a solid 11th in the Goody's Fast pain Relief 500, managing intermittent handling issues throughout the day that prevented the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy from making a run to the front. Harvick moved up two places in the points to tenth, 245 out of first.

"I would have liked a better finish on Sunday," says Harvick, "but winning the truck race on Monday more than compensated for the disappointment. Especially since Ron Hornaday, Jr. finished second, giving Kevin Harvick Incorporated a 1-2 finish. We were fast out there today. It's a known fact that if you put a KHI driver behind the wheel, he's going to find 'speed,' whether on the track or in a deserted parking lot."

10. David Reutimann — Reutimann was poised for a top-10 finish until a spin initiated by David Stremme cost him several spots. Reutimann finished 20th, and remained 11th in the Sprint Cup point standings.

"I went looking for Stremme after the race," says an angry Reutimann, "but I couldn't find him. Like most Penske drivers, he's good at 'evasion.'"

"Anyway, I'm steaming mad that he wrecked me. I guess you could say that 'the 'Reut,' the 'Reut,' 'the 'Reut' is on fire.'"

Posted by Jeffrey Boswell at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2009

The 12 Greatest Individual NBA Seasons

Basketball by the numbers. Fantasy owners play it, and by all accounts, Wilt Chamberlain was fascinated with it. Others (including some of the greatest winners in the history of the pro game), not so much. The object of the game is, however, to outscore the opposition. Other skills and tactics attribute to that goal. In light of all that, what have been the dozen best seasons modern pro basketball players have ever had? Awarding no player more than once, here's my take (I took ABA seasons into account because teams such as Denver, San Antonio, and Indiana originated there):

ELGIN BAYLOR, L.A. LAKERS, 1961-62

Vitals: 48 games, 38.3 ppg, 18.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists

Elgin Baylor was the reason the Lakers moved to Tinseltown — Showtime before it had a name. In 1961, with tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. heightened due to the onset of the Berlin Wall, Baylor's reserve number came up. He thus only served the Lakers on leave and weekends. He couldn't practice with the club. Nonetheless, the NBA's first frequent flyer's average of nearly 40 points, 19 rebounds was a routine evening, and when double-teamed, the creative passer dissed to open teammates. The dude attempted 13.1 free throws a night! His Lakers met Boston in the 1962 NBA Finals. One wonders in retrospect what manner of career digits Baylor may have amassed had he not hurt one knee badly during the 1963 campaign, and shattered his other kneecap in 1966. Or if arthroscopic surgery had existed then.

OSCAR ROBERTSON, CINCINNATI ROYALS, 1961-62

Vitals: 30.8 ppg, 12.4 rebounds, 11.5 assists

It is one thing to be a team's playmaker. It is generally another to be a 30-point-per-game producer. For NBA guards, however, only Oscar has managed a season where double-digit rebounds were the norm. No one else has come remotely close (even in this era of larger guards than he). We're talking about a one-man revolution — a guard who, as a rookie in 1960-61, destroyed the season scoring average record for guards by 8 points per game! Robertson's contemporaries say he was the first player they ever picked up on defense at three-quarters court length. Silky feints, deft, pinpoint passes, tenacity under the boards — the three-time NCAA scoring champ had it all, and this season was a testament.

SPENCER HAYWOOD, DENVER ROCKETS, 1969-70

Vitals: 30 ppg, 19.5 rebounds

Surprised? Don't be. The JUCO player who became Olympic Games MVP at age 19 was only 20 when this season began. Blessed with agility, enormous hands, and the confidence of a king, Spencer was a man-child long before Darryl Dawkins, Shaq, or LeBron. This was no brute — he shot better than 81% on his free throws in six season, huge mitts and all (compare that to Shaq and Wilt). He could play a little defense, too. Court woes over jumping leagues and other problems hampered his NBA career, but in 1970 and other seasons, Haywood demonstrated why he was the first "hardship case" to be allowed to play ABA or NBA ball before his college class graduated.

RICK BARRY, SAN FRANCISCO WARRIORS, 1966-67

Vitals: 35.6 ppg. 9.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists

Before the 1965 NBA Draft, some GMs fretted that Miami scoring machine Rick Barry might prove to frail for frontcourt play. Teams slated to select early instead focused their sights on Princeton's mercurial Bill Bradley, 6'8", 230 lb. Davidson phenom Fred Hetzel, and 6'7", 250 lb. Michigan bulwark Bill Buntin. The Warriors took a chance on the Hurricanes' whippet as the fourth pick overall, and in his second campaign, he put up the aforementioned numbers. Barry thus became the first NBA player to lead the circuit in scoring since 1959-60 whose last name was not "Chamberlain." More on the other guy later.

The early Barry was not the deep shooter 1970s fans recall, but a slasher in the mold of contemporary Billy Cunningham (minus "The Kangaroo Kid"s legendary hops). He could give it to you underhand, reverse, hook, or stuff it in your face. Barry is also widely considered the best passing small forward other than Larry Bird who has ever played the game (Baylor fans would differ). As for his trademark underhand free throws, Barry sank 88.4% of those this sophomore season. Oh, and the kid led 'Frisco to the NBA Finals. No wonder ABA owners in Oakland lured him away. As for Michigan's Bill Buntin? He can tell his grandkids, "I was drafted before Rick Barry."

WILT CHAMBERLAIN, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS, 1965-66

Vitals: 33.5 ppg, 24.6 rebounds, 5.2. assists, 47.3 minutes per game

Nobody roots for Goliath, but numbers don't lie. This less selfish version of The Big Dipper, teamed with capable scorers such as Hal Greer and Chet Walker, shared the basketball, dominated the backboards, and led his new team to the NBA's Eastern Finals vs. the rival Celtics. The Big Guy, never fouled out (a stat he maintained for his entire career), and played nearly every minute of every contest, despite double teams, covert banging, responsibilities on both ends of the floor. If they had dunk contests at All-Star Games in those days, perhaps he'd have donned a Superman cape as Dwight Howard recently did. Even Bill Russell couldn't stop Wilt, though the Celts as a team often bested Wilt's Warriors and Sixers (though not the next season, when Chamberlain averaged 7.8 assists and Philly won 45 of its first 49 games en route to a title).

NATE ARCHIBALD, KANSAS CITY-OMAHA KINGS, 1972-73

Vitals: 34.0 ppg, 11.4 assists, 84.7 FT%, 48.8 FG%

"Tiny," by NBA standards, he was. Timid, he was not. Archibald was every bit as fast as Allen Iverson, only he focused his drives north and south. The southpaw possessed a masterful handle, spectacular court vision, and the guts of a burglar. In an era of burly bigs such as Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Bob Lanier, and Wes Unseld, time after time, he slipped into the lane to magically score.

Contrary to popular belief, he was not "the only player ever to lead the NBA in scoring and assists." Oscar Robertson accomplished the feat in 1967-68, but since "The Big O" only played in 65 games, due to injury, Dave Bing won the league's scoring crown, which was then awarded the player with the most total points, not the highest average. By today's standard's, Robertson's 29.2 ppg and 9.7 assists led in both. Spotting Oscar at least five inches, and 50 pounds, "Tiny" became the second player in the history of the Kings franchise, and indeed the league, to be the premier scorer and playmaker in the same season.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 1971-72

Vitals: 34.6 ppg, 16.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 57.4 FG%

The man fans had become accustomed to calling "Big Lew" had all the gifts. He was graceful, he had rise, he could handle the basketball the length of the floor, and he had a nice touch. Forget the balding Laker pivot with the goggles — this was a dominant force for several seasons. No center has averaged 34 points since, and none might. The rebound average speaks to a Jabbar with a lot of spring in his step and tenacity in his game. The dimes? This was the second season Oscar Robertson was schooling the 7'2" former UCLA star to the ways of passing out of the double-team. These Bucks went 63-19; the season before, they'd swept a talent-laden Bullets team in the NBA Finals.

MICHAEL JORDAN, CHICAGO BULLS, 1988-89

Vitals: 32.5 ppg, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2.9 steals

This was Jordan before he became Lord of the Rings — when his teammates included Sam Vincent, Brad Sellers, and Charles Davis. Of whom much is given, much is asked. Probably the closest anyone has come to putting up Robertson-esque numbers. 32, 8, and 8 is a standard King James might shoot for. All achieved by a player often charged with watching the most dangerous offensive member of the opposition. Bird and "Magic" Johnson were garnering the headlines and the jewelry, but the 25-year-old Bull was the darling of the dunk contest, and the hardest working man in pro sports.

ADRIAN DANTLEY, UTAH JAZZ, 1982-83

Vitals: 30.7 ppg, 6.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, made 9.7 of 11.3 FT per game, 58 FG%

The face of the Utah franchise before the arrivals of John Stockton and Karl Malone. Few NBA or ABA combatants 6'4" and under have posted a shooting percentage of better than .550. A.D. did it six times, five of them in consecutive seasons. One has to have pretty savvy post moves to play power forward when one's giving up five to seven inches in height to one's average opponent. This was a season for the books, accomplished far from the limelight. Hall of Fame careers are not comprised of a season, but Dantley netted similar numbers from 1980 to 1986. Remember the context, too — on a nightly basis, he faced players such as Kevin McHale, Dominique Wilkins, Marques Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and George McGinnis. Young guns seeking a primer on post play and the triple-threat position would do well to study Dantley's feints, moves, and balance.

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS, 2007-08

Vitals: 30 ppg, 7.9 rebounds, 7.2. assists, 1.8 steals, 48.4 FG%

Had The King attended college for four years, last year would have been his rookie season in the league. He's the reason the Cavs went 45-37. It's not easy being a marked man every night and finding teammates for open shots. Ball-handling duties, leadership, and court awareness mark his game. Unlike the legends listed above, he's just getting started. Given his size, smarts, handle, and athleticism, he could approach Jordan's best numbers in the major categories.

The game has changed too much (less shots taken, less available rebounds) for him to average the unthinkable triple-double, though he's far more suited to it than were Kobe Bryant or Jason Kidd. In the final analysis, the only number M.J. was concerned with was the final score. LeBron will need better teammates if he hopes to match the six rings won by Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

BILL RUSSELL, BOSTON CELTICS, 1963-64

Vitals: 15 ppg, 24.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists

Often, I wish the NBA had charted blocked shots when Russell, Chamberlain, and Nate Thurmond played. Only then would today's fans truly appreciate the intimidation and evolution each brought to the game. Russ changed what had existed as basic basketball strategy for six decades before he played — work the ball as close to the basket as possible for the highest percentage shot. He had a staggering 25 rebound average. What's considered outstanding now was a night's work for No. 6. He could dish, too — the Celtics' half-court offense, such as it was, ran through the lanky lefty. But Red Auerbach's teams preferred to run, and Russell's rebounds triggered many a fast break, and 11 famous championships in 13 seasons.

HAKEEM OLAJUWON, HOUSTON ROCKETS, 1989-90

Vitals: 24.3 ppg. 14 rebounds, 4.6 blocks, 2.9 assists, 2.1 steals

If you're looking for a quadruple-double on a given night, The Dream and Nate Thurmond are your men. Scoring, assists, blocks, steals, boards — Olajuwon was a stat-sheet filler and a born winner. While Russell was an agile, leaping defensive genius, no other center was as cat-quick on the offensive end as this half of Houston's Twin Towers. In his heyday, he had as many moves as Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and embarrasses enemy pivots on the regular. Not even David Robinson could react quickly enough, or avoid being faked out of position by "The Dream Shake." His 1990 numbers illustrate his superstar ability despite regular competition such as Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and Robert Parrish.

Though by its very nature, and number of players per team, basketball is the ultimate team sport. Still, the prolonged individual efforts cited above are the gold standard of professional play. Some were achieved under a bright spotlight, others, by 2009 measures, in relative anonymity. As we approach the postseason, they all deserve renewed attention.

Posted by Bijan C. Bayne at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

What is Going on, Mr. NFL Commissioner?

Now before I get started, don't get this twisted. I'm a Patriots fan, so I was incredibly and unequivocally devastated when Tom Brady was knocked onto the IR at a cringe-inducing 90-degree angle. It was bad and I was quite sad for several days. If there were anyone who should be for some of the new rules that were put in place, it would be me. But for whatever reason, I just can't seem to agree with some of the rules the NFL has been instituting to help protect the quarterback this offseason.

I get why they're doing it, I think everybody does. What I don't get about what they're doing is how they are seemingly so carefree about the whole thing and acting as if it were the only option in the world. Well, it isn't and essentially what they're doing is lighting the original Constitution on fire, making a new one, and then laminating the new one and writing it over in crayon. And all this is being done to protect whoever is reading its eyes!

Was that horrible example? I was afraid so...

It seems like what's being done is that the people in power within the NFL are using their power to protect the quarterbacks of the teams at any cost. This is fine and even honorable — except for when, you know, you take into account that they pretty much couldn't give two candy corns about any other position on the team.

It makes sense why, but it still doesn't make it okay! Pretty soon, we're going to be watching a glorified two-hand touch or flag football game and bemoaning the fact that we never enjoyed it when anyone was allowed to hit anyone ... never mind when the defensive's primary objective was to have the other teams quarterback carted off the field on a stretcher.

Maybe it's because we all have access to the information and the money that quarterbacks get these days is so much larger, but we are essentially moving farther and farther away from the good old, smash-mouth days of American pigskin football! Back in the day, they didn't talk for several days if a defensive back "accidently" aimed a bit too high in a Hit-Stick-esque, laying-the-beat-down-type collision in an effort to get him to drop the ball. No, he might even he heralded! These days, his very presence in the NFL is questioned and rumors persist that he may be shipped up North. It's kind of ridiculous.

I'm not quite sure what the solution would be if we keep going in this direction, but I would assume that we are perhaps in store for more offensive-explosive seasons down the road. Maybe it will have to get so bad that many of us just give up and go watch (cringe) European football?

Nah, just kidding — that's physically impossible!

Until we find out, though, let's all just cross our fingers in hopes that the defensive lineman will still be wanting to crush those very same fingers of the opposing quarterback. Is there really any other way?

Posted by Josh Galligan at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)