Categories
General Sports

Would you take a 50 mph tennis ball to the nuts for $50? This guy did

We always thought the show Sport Science was interesting, but we would get lost sometimes in the whole “science” part of the show. Force, mass, speed, propulsion, blah, blah, blah. Luckily for us, the nerds decided to dumb it down a bit with their episode dedicated to getting racked. Huh huh, we said rack. That was cool.

“Will the fear, anticipation and pain send his heart redlining into dangerous territory?” Well, duh. We could have answered that long before his gonads got grilled. But sometimes you have to put your neck or even your package on the line in the name of science and anyways, it wasn’t such a bad afternoon for Jason. He went down in history, made 50 smackers, took 68 pounds of force to his balls and Mr. Brainiac told the world he has a tiny, freshly bruised unit. Yup, that’s a day well spent.

Categories
Orlando Magic

Around the Rim: Poof!! The Magic make Boston disappear


1. Hedo to the rescue
Kevin Garnett strained an abdominal muscle during his reunion with the Timberwolves on Friday night and on Sunday the Orlando Magic took advantage of the injury. The Big Ticket missed his first contest as a Celtic, giving the Magic a perfect opportunity to beat Boston for the second time this season; which they did thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Hedo Turkoglu. Orlando survived a fourth quarter Celtic rally to escape with a 96-93 victory on their home court. Turkoglu led all scorers with 27 points while Dwight Howard finished with 18 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. With K.G. sidelined, Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 24 points and nine rebounds. Ray Allen scored 17 as Boston suffered its second loss in three games, bringing their once insurmountable lead over the rest of the league down to just 3 ½ games.

2. When All-Stars collide

When it comes to scoring, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are the absolute best the NBA has to offer and the duo didn’t disappoint under the Staples Center lights on Sunday afternoon. LeBron James, the league’s top scorer, finished with 41 points, including 14 in the fourth, to lead Cleveland past the Lakers 98-95. Kobe Bryant, No. 2 in points per game, scored 33 points to go with 12 rebounds and six assists, but the Lakers fumbled away an opportunity to tie the game as they failed to get up a shot following a timeout. After briefly grabbing the top record in the Western Conference, the Lakers fell into a tailspin, losing their third consecutive game and four of their last five games. The Cavs, on the other hand, are rolling, winning 10 out of 12 games.

3. Unfamiliar positions
Before the season, somebody would have slapped you silly if you said Utah and Houston would be on the outside of the playoff race looking in when the end of January rolled around. Nonetheless, that’s where the two clubs are currently sitting. When they hooked up on Sunday, Utah took advantage of Yao Ming’s absence (upper respiratory infection), beating the Rockets 97-89 to win their eighth game in nine tries and taking one more step toward entering into the postseason picture. Carlos Boozer (13 pts, 10 reb) and Deron Williams (17 pts, 12 ast) both finished with a double-double while Andrei Kirilenko finished with 17 points. Tracy McGrady looked like an All-Star even though the fans left him off the Western Conference’s starting five, scoring 21 points to go with nine assists and six rebounds.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Al Jefferson vs. New Jersey 42 min, 40 pts (FG: 13-21, FT: 14-17), 19 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk

Monday’s Game to Watch: Denver (26-17) @ New Orleans (26-17)
Nobody is playing better right now than the Hornets and point guard Chris Paul is starting to get some serious MVP love because of it. The Bugs’ biggest win of the season came on Saturday night when they destroyed the Spurs by 24 points, 102-78, in San Antonio. The victory further solidified the Hornets as the best in the West, giving Nawlins its eighth consecutive. Since Dec. 19, they are on a 16-2 roll with Chris Paul averaging 20.6 points, 10.5 assists and 2.59 steals for the season. The Nuggets are still without Carmelo Anthony (sprained left ankle), but have played extremely well without their superstar. Before losing to the Mavericks by five points on Sunday, Denver won two straight without Anthony. Losing Melo is huge, but the Nuggets are stacked with talent and if Allen Iverson starts rolling, they can hang with anyone in the league.

Buzzer Beater: The Timberwolves were one of the laughingstocks of the NBA just a few weeks ago. How quickly things can change. On the ever growing shoulders of Al Jefferson, the T-Wolves took another step toward respectability with a 98-95 win over New Jersey. Jefferson recorded a career-high 40 points to go with 19 rebounds and suddenly Minnesota is on a mini hot streak, winning three of their last four. Minny might technically hold the worst record in the league (8-35), but there is no way anyone can argue they are currently worse than doormats like the Heat (losers of 14 out of 15) and the Sonics (lost 14 straight).

Categories
NBA General

C’mon K.J.; let’s get political!


The news of former Phoenix Suns point guard Kevin Johnson possibly running for mayor of Sacramento came out a little while back, but, to be honest, it took us until now to convince ourselves this wasn’t just another cough syrup hallucination. Oh, like you’ve never swallowed 1,800 milligrams of DXM and laughed at the garbage man before.

Well, turns out the story of potential mayor K.J. is a reality and it sounds like the campaign could get ugly.

Johnson’s strong interest could bring some strong criticism. Hailed as a hometown hero, he’s also considered a so called slumlord by some. A handful of people renting homes from the all-star say he dropped the ball on his Oak Park, Calif. properties. They are demanding he clean up his act and clean up their homes.

Hometown hero? Slumlord? We don’t really care. He could walk down the streets of Sactown and chop the heads off puppies and he’d still get our vote based on his slam over Hakeem the Dream back in ’94.

Links:

[KDKA.com]: Former NBA Star Shakes Up Sacramento Mayor Race
[Sacbee.com]: Johnson vs. Fargo? Speculation swirls

Categories
NFL General

Super Bowl tickets are expensive; don’t forget you’re gonna have to watch Eli too


We know that the chance to see a perfect 19-0 season doesn’t come around very often, but this is starting to get just a little out of hand. Don’t you people have kids you want to send to college?

Asking prices for the Feb. 3 game range from $2,450 to $19,446 at StubHub, a unit of eBay Inc. and the biggest of the online resellers. Officials there say the average price so far is $4,300 for tickets that the National Football League originally priced at either $700 or $900.

“You gotta mortgage your home to get into the game,” said Michael Hershfield, a former lawyer who recently started the ticketing Web site LiveStub.com. “There’s this recipe that’s been spiced up for a very exciting, very hot event. With all the changes in the industry, this combination has created this current wave of supply and demand.”

RazorGator Chief Executive Jeff Lapin, who is predicting total sales will set a record, is amazed what buyers are willing to pay. Tickets on his Web site are listed between $2,700 and $7,200. “I’m telling my friends to buy now because it looks like it’s going to be tight,” he said.

StubHub figures show the march higher of scalped tickets in recent years. Tickets it handled for last year’s game between the Bears and the Colts averaged $4,004. That was sharply higher than the Steelers-Seahawks in 2006 at $3,009, the Eagles-Patriots in 2005 at $2,659, the Patriots-Panthers in 2004 at $2,290, and the Raiders-Buccaneers in 2003 at $2,767.

Considering the University of Phoenix Stadium will seat around 75,000 on game day, we’re talking about a whole lotta the greenbacks. Even with an expensive divorce settlement ahead, we know Shaq Daddy can foot the bill, but what about us regular Joe Six Packs? We’re going to have to sell our organs to get through the gates? Aww, screw it; if we’re dropping a load of cash, it’s going to be at the Lingerie Bowl and it’s going to be all in one dollar bills!

Links:

[CBS2.com]: Super Bowl LXII Tix Fetch Record Prices

Categories
NFL General

Forget everything that happened ON the field in the NFL, we’re talking `bout talking

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we loves us some soundbites!

Categories
Miami Heat

When you’re Shaq, all mo’ money means is mo’ bills


Patrick Ewing once infamously said “We might make a lot of money, but we also spend a lot of money.” Perhaps nobody exemplifies this better than Mr. Money Bags, Shaquille O’Neal.

The big fella is currently going through a divorce from his wife, Shaunie, and had to turn over a statement of his finances to the courts and the Palm Beach Post managed to get their hands on it. After taking a look at the article, it’s pretty clear everything Ewing said was true. Shaq indeed makes a lot of money ($1.8 million per month), but he spends a lot of money too ($875,015 per month). Here’s how Shaq attacks the bills.

* $156,116 in mortgages on three homes (including his $20 million mansion on Miami Beach’s Star Island), plus $31,299 in homeowners insurance
* $110,505 for vacations
* $26,500 a month for child care
* $24,300 for gas
* $17,220 for clothing
* $12,775 for food
* $10,065 for electricity
* $10,000 for temporary child support
* $10,000 for alimony
* $6,730 for dry cleaning
* $5,000 for car payments
* $3,345 for phone bills
* $2,305 for pets
* $1,610 for lawn and pool maintenance
* $1,495 for cable TV

Talk about depressing! He’s dropping almost seven grand a month on dry cleaning and we can’t even scrounge up enough change to get our water turned back on. Yea, do *not* go in there! Pheeww!

Links:

[PalmBeachPost.com]: Shaq as big a spender as he is a man

Categories
College Basketball

He’s no Dickie V, but Brucey P is awesome baby!

You don’t have to like the Tennessee Volunteers basketball team, but you gotta love the big man, Bruce Pearl. From his seizure-inducing sportcoats to his sweat-drenched suits to his bodypaint filled masquerade as the letter `V’ to his ability to hug smoking hot babes, Pearl is an all-around fun guy. While we love his antics on the sidelines – and in the stands – Pearl proved he’s got a career lined up after coaching when he helped call the Lady Vols game against Arkansas on Thursday night.

We don’t know about you, but we say he’s a diaper dandy baby!!

Links:

[GoVolsXtra.com]: Adams: Pearl sounds good, don’t quit your day job

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Drum roll please!



The All-Star men in the middle

1. And your starters for the 2008 All-Star extravaganza are…
Without even knowing the lineups, the All-Star game is always one of the best nights of the year. Luckily, the fans did a bang-up job of selecting the conferences’ starting fives. For the East, it’s going to be Jason Kidd and Dwyane Wade as the guards, LeBron James and Kevin Garnett, the top overall vote getter, receive the nod at the three and four spot while Dwight Howard will start at center. On the other side of the floor, Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson will serve as the starting backcourt with Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan and Yao Ming holding things down in the frontcourt. We gotta give the fans some credit for this one because a late surge in voting for the Answer kept Tracy McGrady – missed 12 of previous 17 games – from grabbing a starting guard spot. However, the votes for A.I. also relegate Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Deron Williams to the bench for the opening minutes of the game.

2. Spurs narrowly avoid embarrassment

The Spurs grabbed another much-needed victory on Thursday, but we don’t think there was any celebrating in the locker room after the game. San Antonio barely eked out a 90-89 victory over the ultra pathetic Heat, resorting to a last second defensive stand against Dwyane Wade to preserve the W. But any way you cut it, Miami now has 15 consecutive losses in the record book. Tim Duncan continues to play outta his gourd, scoring 30 points, grabbing 11 boards and dishing out a nickel’s worth of dimes. Even with Duncan going crazy, Manu Ginobili continues to steal the show for S.A. Ginobili stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, but more importantly hit the go-ahead bucket with 36.5 seconds left. D-Wade went off for 27 points with nine assists as Shaquille O’Neal was looking dapper from the bench in a custom tailored suit.

3. Missed it by that much
In a game that featured two teams riding losing streaks, somebody had to win. The lucky recipients were the Warriors who bounced back from a horrible loss to Minnesota to beat New Jersey 121-119. Okay, so technically it wasn’t a losing “streak” for Golden State, but one loss to the Timberwolves should count for around three losses to average teams. Either way, the Warriors are back on track after Monta Ellis put up a career-high 39 points and Baron Davis recorded the eighth triple-double of his career with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Richard Jefferson scored 34 in the loss, Vince Carter finished with 29 and Josh Boone had a man-sized double-double of 21 points and 17 boards. But in the end it was the Nets seventh consecutive loss and their eighth in nine games.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Baron Davis vs. New Jersey 46 min, 25 pts (FG: 10-22, 3FG: 3-8, FT: 2-2), 12 reb, 10 ast, 5 stl

Friday’s Game to Watch: Orlando (27-17) @ Detroit (30-13)
Boston clearly has the title of top team in the Eastern Conference locked up for the time being, but Detroit and Orlando are slugging it out for the right to be No. 2. The Magic can’t make up 3 ½ games with a single win over the Bad Boys tonight, but they can boost their confidence through the roof by beating Detroit two times in just one week. On Monday, the Magic ended a five-game regular season losing streak to the Pistons with a 102-100 win in the Magic Kingdom. Detroit ended its three-game slide on Wednesday, beating the 76ers, but still hasn’t broken out of the funk that cost the team six losses in the last 10 games.

Buzzer Beater: Sorry Miami Heat fans, but Shaquille O’Neal isn’t going to be doing you guys any favors for at least another couple of years. While most people think Shaq should probably be considering hanging up his size 23s, Wilt Chamberneezy insisted that he plans on riding out his contract with the Heat, even if it mean’s enduring a 220-game losing streak.

I’m the son of an army drill sergeant and when we enlist, we go out full-term. So I got two years left on my term and then, after that, I’ll be looking to do other things,” O’Neal said on the show.

“I’m not the type to say every game, ‘my leg is hurt, my leg is hurt.’ I just tried to do it the old-school way for so long, just play on … rather than try to get healthy,” he added. “I’m not even playing at 50 percent right now. I just got to focus on getting that leg back strong.”

When asked if he could get back into form this season, O’Neal said: “We’re going to be trying to do it. I just have to get through it.

Categories
General Sports

Five minutes of must see `D’oh!’ moments

We have to apologize in advance for the horrible music accompanying this video, but you gotta take the good with the bad sometimes. This is one of the funnier collections of clips we’ve seen in a while so, hit the mute button if you have to, but make sure you stick around until the 2:20 mark to see the best moment of disappointment ever captured by camera.

Categories
College Basketball

Hey, coach Crean, is your refrigerator running?


Those whacky prank callers who struck the ACC women’s basketball teleconference on Tuesday were back at it on Thursday, infiltrating the Big East men’s basketball conference call and asking some dirty, naughty questions.

Good luck getting through the next coach with this,” [Marquette coach Tom] Crean said to associate commissioner John Paquette after his portion of the call.

It got so bad Thursday that Paquette began screening calls, only taking them from writers he was familiar with. He was able to head off most of the prank calls based on the names of fabricated media.

South Florida’s Stan Heath, West Virginia’s Bob Huggins, St. John’s Norm Roberts and UConn’s Jim Calhoun along with Crean were among the coaches asked disgusting questions.

As the hourlong teleconference continued, the prank calls ceased and Providence’s Tim Welsh, Seton Hall’s Bobby Gonzalez and Louisville’s Rick Pitino were spared.

When Paquette introduced Calhoun, the coach was ready to go because he had heard some of the questions to other coaches.

“Thanks for joining us on the call and before we get started we’ve had some prank …,” Paquette said.

“I understand,” Calhoun said.

“I’ve been trying to screen them as best I can,” Paquette said. “So if you could give us a comment on last night’s game [against Cincinnati] and your thoughts on facing Indiana …”

“Yeah, well, as far as the conference call goes I wish some people would get some lives,” Calhoun said.

Lifeless or not, whoever these guys are, they’re pretty brazen. However, we’ve noticed that these wisenheimers haven’t bothered to crank call the Big 12 yet. Any particular reason for that fellas?

Links:

[Courant.com]: Coaches Endure Bad Calls