Categories
Baltimore Ravens

We hope the men get different uniforms


We’ve never been to a game in Baltimore but apparently they have male cheerleaders on their stunt team. The Ravens recently held tryouts for the squad.


Many of the men participating in Sunday’s tryout had good experience, said Dan W., a new participant. Most of them were cheerleaders in college and grew up playing sports. A big part of their job description includes lobbing their female counterparts high into the air and catching them. Dan W., 24, cheered for three years at University of Notre Dame and played lacrosse in high school

This is exactly what’s wrong with male cheerleading. (“There are 10 things men should never do and cheerleading is 9 of them.”) Most decent high school athletes who can’t make the leap to the next level just accept their lack of athletic ability and go on with their lives and once in a while think back on glory days. However, a small percentage decide that this isn’t good enough and feel the need to be in the spotlight — but as a cheerleader.

The defense for male cheerleaders are “well, they are always looking up the cheerleader’s skirts”. Listen, who cares. They are after the athletes. You are like a eunuch who claps his hands real loud. And besides, it’s just not worth it. The mascot is cooler than you. Have you ever seen a male cheerleader and thought, “yeah that guy is cool, I want to hang out with him”?

Links:
[Examiner]: Ravens cheerleader tryouts attract men, women

Categories
NBA General

This could lead to an exodus to Canada


A top drug testing official in Canada said that marijuana should be removed from the list of banned drugs because it’s taking time and resources away from catching people who are actually cheating.


For athletes to be punished, they have to show a level of marijuana in their systems that indicates regular use, or some attempt to get an edge, said Joseph de Pencier of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports, the group that administers drug testing to athletes in Canada.

Why is this story filed under the NBA? Well, cause everyone knows that 75% of the NBA smokes pot. Could you imagine if the NFL or NBA decided it was no longer going to test for pot? It’d be like the end of prohibition. Pacman Jones would have a field day. Ricky Williams could come back to the NFL. Michael Vick wouldn’t have to worry about smuggling it in water bottles. Wait a minute, maybe this story should have been filed under the NFL.

Links:
[CBC Sports]: Sports officials debate removing marijuana from ban

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Ron Arrest


1. The NBA’s Equivalent of Iron Mike
Apparently it’s thug life or no life for Ron Artest. No matter how many chances this guy gets, he will always blow it. Artest’s latest episode got him thrown in the slammer for suspicion of domestic violence and suspicion of using force or violence to prevent the incident from being reported after he allegedly shoved a woman to the floor of his suburban Sacramento home. The Kings president of basketball operations, Geoff Petrie, also said that Artest has been excused from the team indefinitely. If it’s not animal abuse, it’s spousal abuse and if it’s not spousal abuse it’s auditory abuse. The question is what’s worse? Ron-Ron throwing his old lady to the floor, leaving his dog’s in the city pound for 77 days or subjecting an audience to a live performance of “Workin the Pole.” They’re all despicable offenses worthy of imprisonment in my book.

2. Hey, Yao, Break a… Nevermind
After missing 32 games, Yao Ming made his much anticipated return to the Rockets lineup last night but by the end of the game it was LeBron James who was basking in the spotlight. Yao was struggling to find his timing from the very beginning of the game and ended with just 16 points on five of 15 shooting, but he did manage to grab 11 rebounds. But there’s no reason to rush Yao back for his defensive effort when the 40-something year old Dikembe Mutombo is gobbling up rebounds like his vocal clone Cookie Monster devours a pack of Double Stuf Oreos. Nevertheless, no player, man or Muppet, was going to stop LBJ last night as he put together a near triple-double effort in the Cavs 91-85 victory. Cleveland is now only three games behind Detroit for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

3. Oh No-ah!
Boy, one year and one boneheaded Dick Vitale conversation sure can make a big difference in a kid’s life. Just ask Joakim Noah. After leading Florida to the national championship last year, Noah could have decided to go pro and possibly be selected first in the draft. Chicago has admitted to being enamored with the 6-11 forward/center before last years draft and would have selected him with the second pick, should he have fallen to them. But that was when Noah was hot, now he’s not. In fact, some scouts are saying that he isn’t even worth being picked in the top ten. Even Noah has admitted that he hasn’t been fully contributing to his team of late. Throw in the fact that two of the biggest prospects in recent history are probably coming out this year and Noah’s decision that school is cool will probably end up costing him some serious cash.

Monday’s Player of the Day: LeBron James vs. Houston 42 min, 32 pts (FG: 12-24, 3FG: 3-6, FT: 5-9), 12 reb, 8 ast

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: New Jersey (28-32) @ Dallas (50-9) If the Mavericks aren’t must watch basketball then what is? Every single night it seems that Cuban’s kids are breaking records and extending streaks. At this point, every victory is setting a new franchise-high for consecutive wins, currently at 15, as they are now the sixth fastest team in NBA history to reach 50 wins. New Jersey is beginning the dreaded Texas road trip that includes stops at all three of the gyms in just five days. While the task is daunting, the duo of Vince Carter and Jason Kidd have been combining for some serious efforts of late. Jersey is fighting for their playoff lives as they are currently sitting just outside of the top eight in the conference. Presently, the last spot is up for grabs between Orlando, New York and New Jersey so every game is critical for the Nets.

Buzzer Beater: As if there aren’t enough reality shows on the tube already, now Shaquille O’Neal is getting into the act after agreeing to a six-episode series which has yet to be titled or scheduled for release. However, unlike reality gurus such as Flavor Flav, Johnny Knoxville and Dog the Bounty Hunter, Shaq’s show will be beneficial to society. That’s because the Diesel is going to be tackling a topic that he is quite familiar with, childhood obesity. Listed at 325 pounds (uh-huh, right), O’Neal will follow the lives of select kids as they participate in the ABC program and also lobby politicians on health related causes including school nutrition. You have to appreciate Shaq for using his fame to promote a worthy cause, but is the Big (fill in the blank) the right guy to show our nation’s future how to properly eat? Were Charles Barkley, Oliver Miller and Shawn Kemp busy or something?

Categories
College Basketball

Actually Billy, this is the definition of cheap shot

We’ve hated Billy Packer since he dissed St. Joes a couple of years ago. Here’s more Billy Packer magic as he tells us that the Gerald Henderson’s shot to Tyler Hansborough’s face with his elbow wasn’t a cheap shot.

Do Billy Packer and Dick Vitale have a conference call every month to coordinate their schedules for hanging off Duke basketball’s collective jock?

Categories
Miami Heat

To be fair, Shaq was educated during the Reagan administration


You know what’s a shame? That they don’t release Wonderlic scores for basketball players. Cause Shaq might be challenging Chris Leak and Vince Young for low score.

Shaquille O’Neal says you won’t hear him bashing President Bush in light of an eye-opening visit to the White House with the Miami Heat.

“When it comes to ridiculization, if you can’t walk in a man’s shoes, you shouldn’t ridicule him,” O’Neal says. “When I was sitting in the blue room and seeing all the (stuff) the president has to go through, people bringing him letters and a million people walking around, I couldn’t do that job.

If one of the job requirements for being president of the United States is misusing words (“tacular“), then Shaq should considering running in the next election. We’re sick of people making up words whenever they want. Ridiculization isn’t a word, Shaq. The worst thing about Shaq is that he actually thinks he’s smart. He’s like Mike Tyson without the insanity. Just because you’ve read Aristotle doesn’t mean you’re a smart man, it just means you’ve read Aristotle.

Links:
[USA Today]: Shaq for prez?

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Knucklehead Nelson’s Short Fuse Blows It


1. Geez, Thanks Coach
With under a second remaining in yesterday’s game between the Wizards and the Warriors, Don Nelson picked up a technical foul after a questionable call gave Gilbert Arenas a pair of free throws with Washington down by two. But thanks to Nellie’s tech, Agent 0 went to the line and drained three consecutive freebies with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Arenas was 12 for 12 from the free throw line as he went off for 32 points, six assists and five rebounds in the home win. By sinking the clutch free throws, Arenas has joined a pretty elite club. In the last two seasons only three players have hit game-winning free throws in the final second of play (Channing Frye, Darrell Armstrong and Zach Randolph). However, Arenas became the first player since Karl Malone against the Suns in 1999 to give his team a one point victory on three free throws with under a second remaining in the game.

2. Garnett Seeing Green
As unbelievable as it may sound, the Boston Celtics are NOT the worst team in the NBA. The combination of a Boston four game winning streak and a Memphis four game losing streak has given the Celtics a three game cushion over the grisly Grizzlies. Yesterday, the C’s beat the Timberwolves in a double overtime marathon despite another big day from the Big Ticket. Kevin Garnett seems to like playing Boston as he picked up his second triple-double of the season against the men in green. But the last time these two hooked up, Boston fell to KG and crew for their 18th consecutive loss. Seems like Garnett could use a little help in Minny, but, yet again, the entire weight of a franchise is riding completely on his shoulders. You don’t think Allen Iverson, Ben Gordon or Ray Allen could have helped to distribute the burden; do you?

3. Altitude Agrees With The Answer
He hasn’t even been in Denver for a year yet but Allen Iverson has already said that he wants to remain a Nugget for the remainder of his career. Sounds familiar, didn’t he say the same thing in Philadelphia? But things change and you can’t blame AI for wanting to leave the Sixers, considering their current condition. And Iverson is probably truthful about staying in Denver. The Nuggets have a bright future with Iverson and Carmelo Anthony leading the way. When Iverson was traded to the Nuggets, the duo was ranked number one and two in scoring; now they are first and fifth with AI’s numbers dropping a bit. But that was expected; what wasn’t expected was that the Nuggets would be clinging to the eighth playoff spot with only 25 games left in the season.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Kevin Garnett @ Boston 51 min, 33 pts (FG: 14-28, 3FG: 1-1, FT: 4-5), 13 reb, 10 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk

Monday’s Game to Watch: Houston (36-23) @ Cleveland (34-25) He’s back and he’s not hard to spot. The 7-6 Yao Ming is expected to hit the court for the first time in 32 games after breaking his right leg on December 23. Tracy McGrady is going to have to get use to sharing the load again after making a late MVP push as he carried the Rockets during Yao’s absence. But before Houston can celebrate the return of Yao, they will have to pick up a win in Cleveland where the Cavs are 22-8 this season. And if T-Mac has been hot of late, then LeBron James has been scorching. James has scored between 29 and 39 points in each of his last seven games. This could become a scoring duel between two of the game’s most explosive superstars.

Buzzer Beater: Hitting the century mark has typically been the benchmark of a good offensive game for NBA teams. But what makes a game great is when two players combine for a hundred. That’s what Ben Gordon (48 points) and Michael Redd (52 points) did during the Bulls’ 126-121 victory over the Bucks on Sunday. In the last 30 years, only eight games have seen a duo combine for 100 points and this is the first time since the 1989-90 season that the game didn’t involve Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady. For comparison sake, the feat is one of the rarest in all of sports. In the same 30 year span there have been eight perfect games thrown in the MLB, seven 500-yard passing games in the NFL, and five baseball games with four homeruns from a single player.

Categories
NBA General

Kevin McHale is the best GM in Sports?

 

The authors of this Forbes study are just messing with us right? Kevin McHale?  Arguably one of the 5 worst GMs in the NBA?  

We’ve always thought that the best measure of a GM is the number of wins he can muster with the payroll that he has. (It’s actually something we track for baseball called the MLB Cost Index.) However, the authors of this Forbes article are using criteria where they compare wins and payroll but relative to the current GM’s predecessor.  And that’s where the flaw is.  It’s all about how good you are relative to the person who had the job before you.  That’s like saying Steve McNair was the best QB in the NFL last year because of his drastic improvement over Kyle Boller.

Listen, when you have Kevin McHale and Billy King as your #1 and #3 GMs in sports, you have to go back and really look at your methodology.  Kevin McHale has done nothing with that franchise except retard Kevin Garnett and make dumb trades with his buddy Danny Ainge.  Billy King on the other hand has managed to throw money away at guys like Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert, and numerous head coaches.   Meanwhile his “high winning percentage” is relative to a guy named Brad Greenberg who lasted one year and was what Pat Croce called his biggest mistake as a rookie owner.  And on top of that, Larry Brown was calling the shots when Billy King “won” those games.

Oh and it’s probably a good idea to remove Bobby Clarke from your list. Sorry Forbes, back to the drawing board.

Links:
[Forbes]: Best General Managers In Sports

Categories
New York Yankees

March 5 in Sports History: Wife Swap — Yankees Edition

 

In 1973: At the start of spring training, A-Rod admitted that he and Jeter don’t get along that much anymore. Blah blah yawn. And this is supposed to be some type of “huge distraction” according to the New York Media Hand Wringers Association. They should look up “spring training distraction” in the Yankee dictionary (if such a thing existed) and they would find the ultimate one took place on the first day at the very same training camp in 1973. You see, it had nothing to do with actual baseball. On this day, it was announced that pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson were involved in a trade. Some called it the “strangest trade in baseball history.”

It turned out that Peterson and Kekich swapped wives. And their two children they each had (no honey, you won’t need any therapy). Even the two dogs were thrown into the deal. As Kekich said, “we didn’t swap wives, we swapped lives.”

The aftermath was interesting.  Kekich and his new wife, formerly Marilyn Peterson, only lasted a few months. Mike’s career didn’t last much longer, as he was traded to Cleveland where he went 2-7 before being released. Peterson — who was considered a pretty good pitcher — went from 17-13 the year before the “trade” to 8-15 the year after. The marriage between him and the former Susanne Kekich has lasted to this day, however. (Full story)

In 1964: Those of us who don’t work during the day were permanatley given something to watch as NFL Films was created on this day 43 years ago. Ed Sabol, father of current NFL Films president Steve Sabol, sold his Blair Motion Pictures Company to NFL owners. The Sabol’s went from filming 30-minute team highlight videos on 16 mm film (which are still produced today with teams being shown in the same positive light whether they were the 14-2 Chargers or the 2-14 Raiders) to amazing Super Bowl shows (still on 16 mm film) with every player and coach (and mom, unfortunately) wired for sound from every conceivable angle. Steve once told 60 Minutes that only World War II has been filmed more than the NFL. Hey, as long as we can find “Football Follies” somewhere on cable at 2 PM on a Tuesday, we’ll keep tuning in.

Categories
Washington Wizards

Gilbert Arenas’ new commercial

Adidas is perpetually trying to catch up with Nike, not just in sales but in their ad campaigns.  While Nike has always set the bar with great commercials, Adidas usually gives us stuff that doesn’t make much sense and isn’t very good.  Impossible is nothing?  Uhhhh…whatever.  

Anyway, Adidas is set to launch a whole new ad campaign featuring athletes and drawing… we guess to spotlight how creative athletes are or something.  Our favorite NBA nutjob Gilbert Arenas has a commercial in the campaign and while it’s designed to show how he overcame adversity to become “the rock star of the NBA“, it mostly just highlights that Gilbert can’t paint for shit.

Links:
[Ad Freak]: Art is therapy for athletes in Adidas ads

Categories
New York Yankees

When it comes to nipples, everyone has standards


People say that the world is in a sad decline and standards have gone out the window. May we present the story of Gia Allemand, student by day, engaged to Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano by night. Gia is hot. And when you’re hot and want attention, what do you do? You enter Maxim’s Hometown Hotties contest.

However, it doesn’t end there. Gia was also pursued by Penthouse for a spread. (Take that, Anna Benson!) However, Gia is a girl of high moral standards and would only do a photo spread if she could cover her nipples with her long hair. Meanwhile, Penthouse too has their standards, a “no hair over the boobs” policy. We imagine their response to Gia to be something along the lines of “we’re Penthouse, you’re lucky you’re not getting peed on.” See? Standards. Alive and well.

Meanwhile, Carl Pavano is still useless.

Links:
[WBRS]: The Next Anna Benson…Ms. Gia Allemand
[NY Post]: UNBRIDLED BRIDE

[Maxim]: Gia’s hometown hottie page