Categories
All Other Sports

A zamboni commits the ultimate sacrifice, goes out in a blaze of glory

Normally we’d laugh at anyone nerdy enough to spend a Friday night at the local ice skating rink, but now we feel like morons for missing out on the coolest zamboni story of the year. During intermission at an Aston, Pen., skating rink, a zamboni caught fire, causing the iron horse of ice to explode, sending a rush high schoolers fleeing into the night. Ha ha, nerds!

Somewhere out there, Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy are shedding a few tears over this.

Links:

[6abc.com]: Zamboni Catches Fire Inside DelCo. Rink

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Around the Rim: San Antoni-oh no!


1. San Antonio plays the waiting game
The Spurs grabbed their 15th victory of the season, but the win was meaningless as the organization waits patiently for the results of an MRI on Tim Duncan’s right leg on Monday. Duncan was injured in the second quarter when he tried to spin around Portland’s James Jones and then suddenly fell to the floor, clutching his knee. The immediate diagnosis was a bruised right knee and sprained right ankle and the Spurs said their star would defiantly miss some time. The injury couldn’t have occurred at a worse time as the Spurs are looking a stretch that includes six games in 13 days against some of the West’s best, including Dallas, Utah, Golden State, the Lakers, Denver and Phoenix. Ouch!

As for the game itself, SA was winning 34-28 when Duncan departed, but Portland was unable to capitalize, falling down by 13 points at halftime and 20 after three quarters. Tony Parker finished with 27 points and eight assists to lead the Spurs.

2. Boston exacts revenge, kinda

Last Tuesday, LeBron James torched the Celtics for 38 points while handing out 13 assists to give Boston its second loss of the season in an overtime instant classic. On Sunday, the two teams met for a rematch and the Celtics rolled the defending Eastern Conference champs, 80-70. Oh, did we mention LBJ missed the game, his second consecutive, with an injured finger? Cleveland hung tough with the Celtics in the first half, trailing by four at the break, but they displayed serious offensive ineptitude down the stretch without the league’s top scorer. The Cavs could only muster 11 points in the third before scoring 20 in the fourth, 12 coming in garbage time when the game was well in hand. With the King out of the lineup, two of the Leprechauns `Big Three’ basically got to take the afternoon off. Kevin Garnett finished with nine points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes while Paul Pierce had seven points. Ray Allen finished with a game-high 20 points to lead the unusually, unexplosive Celtics.

3. 21 and done
November 1999: That was the last time that New Orleans defeated Dallas; until Saturday. It took overtime, a last-second trey from Peja Stojakovic in regulation and another big-time performance from Chris Paul, but the result was well worth the effort as the Hornets snapped a 21-game losing streak to the Mavs. Thanks to Paul’s near triple-double (33 pts, 9 reb, 12 ast), NOLA is now sitting in second place in the Southwest Division – ahead of Dallas and Houston. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a one-man show: Stojakovic is killing opponents from behind the arc while David West and Tyson Chandler are providing some seriously underrated post presence. Oh, and the Spurs are the only team in the West that holds opponents to fewer than Nawlins’ 93.3 points per game. Next up for the Hornets is a game against the Pistons in the `Hive,’ followed by contests at home against Memphis and Seattle.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Chris Kaman vs. Indiana 40 min, 22 pts (FG: 7-14, FT: 8-10), 22 reb, 1 ast, 5 blk

Monday’s Game to Watch: Orlando (15-4) @ Golden State (9-7)
Nobody in the NBA is hotter than the Magic or the Warriors after both picked up victories last night over the Lakers and Sonics, respectively. There were some early season questions surrounding the slow-starting Warriors, but everything fell into place when Stephen Jackson returned from his suspension and Golden State is back to their run-and-run-and-run-and-gun style offense, averaging 108.6 points per game (1st). Of course, those points at the rim won’t be easy to come by with Dwight Howard patrolling the paint. Howard is off to a `Defensive Player of the Year’ start to the season, leading the league in rebounds (15.0 rpg) and ranking third in blocks (2.67 bpg).

Buzzer Beater: Stephon Marbury is known for making outlandish statements, so it was no surprise that he was at it again before the Knicks played the Suns on Sunday.

After all the hoopla, we’ve won three of the last four,” Marbury said. “Normally when that happens, you’re getting praised.

“At the end of the season, we’ll be where we want to be.

Wait, do you guys want to be in the lottery because 5-11 teams that get decimated by 45 points don’t usually make the playoffs. We’re just saying.

Categories
New England Patriots

Rumor has it Gordon Ramsey is looking to hire Bill Belichick

Did you know that Bill Belichick’s “culinary skills are legendary throughout the NFL”? We didn’t think so. In fact, the only person who seems to be blown away by Belichick’s recipes for BBPBJs is this loser Mike Veneman. What a friggin’ brown-noser.

Geez, a guy who loves to sport hoboesque looking sweatshirts has a fancy for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Go figure.

Links:

[PatsFans.com]: Cooking with Bill Belichick

Categories
College Football

It’s going to be LSU vs. Ohio State in the Rest vs. Rust Bowl


This was the wildest college football season the world has ever seen, and in a year chock-full of upsets, the only way to avoid being defeated was to simply not play. Worked out pretty well for the Buckeyes who haven’t played since Nov. 17.

After being shocked by Illinois at home in Week 11, Ohio State fell from No. 1 in the BCS Standings to No. 7. But after finishing their season with a rivalry win over then-No. 21 Michigan, they jumped up No. 5. Since then No. 1 LSU lost to Arkansas, No. 2 Kansas lost to No. 4 Missouri, No. 1 Missouri lost to No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 2 West Virginia lost to unranked Pittsburgh. And just like that, the Buckeyes are back atop the BCS and in the title game.

Of course, having 50 full days between games can have disadvantages as well. Look at what happened last year when OSU had an identical 50 idle days before getting thrashed by Florida for the giant crystal football. The Gators were riding just 36 days of rest. The Tigers will be coming into this year’s title game with just 36 days off since playing Tennessee in the SEC title game.

And while we could bitch and moan for weeks about why LSU grabbed the No. 2 slot over Virginia Tech, Georgia and Oklahoma (heck, we’ll even throw in undefeated Hawaii to humor all you WAC nuts), it would just be a waste of breath. The BCS is what it is, which an injustice to competitive athletics and the game in general, but it is the system we’re stuck with, so we might as well accept the fact that this is the match-up going down in the record books and move on already.

The `rest vs. rust’ debate will be something to contemplate in the weeks leading up to this national championship showdown. Ohio State played every week for 12 consecutive weeks, there is no way a sudden seven week vacation can improve their timing, chemistry or in-game, real time decision making ability.

LSU is facing a similar, yet less drastic, situation coming in the weeks ahead, but they have the advantage of playing in a winner-take-all, pressure-packed SEC Championship game and they’ve also had the `benefit’ of fighting for their lives – twice – following loses to Kentucky and they again to Arkansas.

Sitting in the shadows might have been the best plan for making it to the top of the rankings in this wacky season, especially for the Buckeyes, but having actually survived the wild finish of this wacky season on the field might prove more beneficial come game time. But don’t worry; we’ve still got 35 days to think about it.

Links:

[AZCentral.com]: LSU to face Ohio St. for national title
[WBIR.com]: It’s Ohio State vs. LSU for national championship

Categories
All Other Sports

We didn’t even know there was 1, let alone 10 ‘Top Ping Pong Shots of All Time’

First off, we thought that seriously competitive ping pong was just something thrown into Forrest Gump as story filler. We were pretty taken back to find out it actually exists in the real world. Who knew? What’s next; are you going to try and tell us that people actually fence in real life too?

Secondly, as if the existence of ping pong outside of someone’s basement or garage wasn’t shocking enough to us, just imagine how surprised we were to find out that somebody out there actually watches enough ping pong to come up with the Top 10 Ping Pong Shots of All Time and then sets `em to an ancient Offspring song. Believe it or not, that really goes on as well.

It appears you’ve forgotten about the best ping pong `shots’ of all.

Enjoy.

Categories
New York Knicks

Around the Rim: Somebody must pay with their head!



One of these people just doesn’t
belong here.

1. 45-point blowout!?
Does the NBA need to start investigating players for being involved with fixing games? Sounds stupid, but how else do you explain a 45-point victory? Well, coach? Explain your team’s performance.

I don’t know where this game came from. I thought we played extremely selfish tonight … Definitely didn’t see this type of game coming after the last two games we played. This was just not a good night.

Not a good night? Try the third-worst beating in the storied franchise’s history and the second-lowest offensive production since the shot-clock went into effect! Oh, and if Nate Robinson didn’t get lucky and nail a half court, desperation heave at the end of regulation to make the score 104-59 then it would have been the lowest output EVER. That a getting-caned kinda night, Zeke.

2. 45-point swing

The Lakers fell down by 17 points early to the Denver Nuggets, but by the time the final buzzer sounded, Kobe Bryant was chillin’ on the bench and the Lakers had a 28-point victory, 127-99. Bryant had 24 points and Andrew Bynum had a nice double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Even Sasha Vujacic got into the act and scored 22 off the bench. But the real news out of Los Angeles has to do with the Zen Master signing on for another two years of drama, which begs the question: Does this move effect whether Kobe is in or out of L.A.? $24 million says Phil Jackson really doesn’t care.

3. Back to their old Mavericks-beating form
After starting the season off by dropping their first six games, the Warriors coasted to an 8-7 record by beating the Rockets 113-94. Since Stephen Jackson returned from his suspension, Golden State is 7-1. And while some of those wins are coming against creampuffs, they have quality Ws over Toronto, Phoenix and now Houston. Al Harrington deserves an expensive steak dinner from his coach after manning up big time against Yao Ming on Thursday. Harrington (6-9, 245) limited Ming (7-6, 310) to 4-of-12 shooting for 10 points and seven rebounds while scoring 18 points on the offensive end.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Baron Davis vs. Houston 40 min, 27 pts (FG: 9-14, 3FG: 1-3, FT: 8-11), 5 reb, 8 ast, 5 stl

Friday’s Game to Watch: Orlando (14-3) @ Phoenix (11-4)
Remember the good old days when you anticipated big-man match-ups like Charles Barkley vs. Karl Malone or Hakeem Olajuwon vs. David Robinson? Well, in 10 or 20 years, you might be reminiscing in the same way about Amare Stoudemire vs. Dwight Howard. These are two of the most blinding young stars working the post today and both of their teams are continually improving. Unfortunately, since these two studs are running in different conferences, this individual battle doesn’t come along all that often. In fact, the only way this becomes a truly intense 1-on-1 rivalry is for the Suns and Magic to square off in the Finals. Fortunately, that’s not an impossibility.

Buzzer Beater: Nicknames are some of the coolest things in the world. The great ones just naturally fit with the person and no explanation is needed, like “Magic.” Then you’ve got nicknames that just seem uncreative and forced, like “Youngrich.”

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is nicknamed “Youngrich.” It’s even written on his shoes. So why the nickname? “Because I’m young and I’m rich,” the New Jersey native said.

What? Was “Denvernugget” taken by a teammate already?

Categories
New England Patriots

Tom Brady might have to beat down Leo DiCaprio for moving in on his woman


Leonardo DiCaprio could have any girl he wants, but it seems that he wants the one that got away. Apparently Leo is regretting having ever let the stunning Gisele Bundchen out of his grasp and, frankly, we can’t blame him. Problem is, as everyone knows, Gisele is currently dating the soon-to-be NFL MVP Tom Brady. Well, Brady is a man, in fact, he’s the Stetson man, and apparently he doesn’t take kindly to old flames sending text messages or calling his lady.

In Touch Weekly is reporting that the NFL signal caller is unhappy with the entire development.

Now that Leo’s romance with Israeli model Bar Refaeli is kaput, he’s rekindled his friendship with Gisele, 27, and has been texting her a lot., the story claims.

“Leo now realizes what a mistake he made by not marrying Gisele,” his pal dishes to the magazine. “He knows she’s with Tom, so if he can’t have her as a girlfriend, he wants her as a friend.” According to the insider, Tom, 30, is miffed that Leo, 33, is suddenly back in Gisele’s life, even though she’s assured him that it’s just platonic. “Tom is not happy at all that Gisele and Leo are friends again,” the insider says.

Of course he’s upset! He knows there’s no such thing as friends between guys and girls, especially between an ex-boyfriend and a supermodel. He’d have to be dumber than Helio’s old ladyto let Leo back in the picture.

Links:

[NationalLedger.com]: Leonardo DiCaprio Texting Gisele Bundchen: Tom Brady Fumes!

Categories
College Basketball

Bob Knight hates impolite people

We’re sure you’ve seen the clips of Bob Knight going Bob Knight on his neighbor, but have you seen the entire drawn out video? These guys are arguing like a couple of school boys and they go on for nearly nine stinkin’ minutes.

But don’t get us wrong, there’s plenty of entertainment value in the uncut edition. Pay special attention around the 5:15 mark.

We love how this guy is so worked up that he’s still ranting and raving at Knight even after he’s back inside his house. Thank goodness the audio was working on his camcorder because if it wasn’t for the undeniable voice of Knight, nobody would know who the heck that was. Dude, you better have asked Santa for a new camera.

Categories
General Sports

Helio: you dirty dog, you!



And his fiancee left him because
he got famous, right.

Current Dancing With the Stars champion and race car driver extraordinaire Helio Castroneves is splitting up with his long-time girlfriend/fiancée. According to TMZ, the break up is due to Castroneves’ new found celebrity. Apparently his ex old lady, Aliette Vazquez, couldn’t take Helio’s inflated ego anymore and decided to bolt, but we’ve got our suspicions.

We’re not huge fans of this dancing sensation that is sweeping the nation, but we’ve seen enough to know that the babes on the show are smokin’ hot. Needless to say, Helio’s `partner’, Julianne Hough is no exception. The two shared a kiss on a recent episode, but that was just part of the dance, right?

Actually, the kiss is probably the last thing the newly single Ms. Vazquez was worried about. After all, her man was spending countless hours with an incredibly sexy woman, dancing chest to chest, hip to hip and even lip to lip. Sexual chemistry is virtually unavoidable at that point. We don’t know a woman alive who would approve of her husband doing something like that in any other context.

Regardless, the relationship is over and the DWTS curse lives on. Oh, you haven’t heard about the curse? Just look at what it did to Emmitt Smith; from dancing machine to barely being able to put together a sentence.

Links:

[TMZ]: Ex-Fiancée to Helio: Lights, Camera, Split!
[ABC News]: Helio Splits From Fiancee After `DWS’ Win

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

54 pit bulls win the lottery

Now it is starting to become clear why Michael Vick simply strangled, beat, shot or electrocuted pit bulls that were no longer of service…those mutts have some serious upkeep!

Vick was basically ordered to fork over almost $1 million for the care of the 54 dogs that were seized from his Virginia home several months back. The exact amount Vick set aside for the pooches was a cool $928,073. In case you’re wondering, that’s $17,186.54 per pit bull!

We know that vet bills can be expensive, but damn! Throw in some Kibbles-n-Bits, a few chew toys and we’re talking a couple hundred bucks a year, right? Oh, of course, poker money.

Links:

[NBC11.com]: Vick Will Pay $1M For Care Of Seized Dogs