Author: clay

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Warriors lose their cool and game two

1. It’s getting hot in here
The series between Dallas and Golden State just keeps getting better and better as the rivalry grows bitterer and bitterer with every dribble of the ball. In game two we saw some real fire between the clubs in a very physical session that was littered with enough trash talk to fill a city dump. And in the end it was the Mavericks who walked away with a 112-99 victory and tied the series at 1-1. Baron Davis got ejected from the game at the end of the third quarter for clapping sarcastically at a call, which basically ended the Warriors chances of leaving Big D with a two game sweep in hand. Then Stephen Jackson took his sweet time leaving the court after he got ejected late in the fourth and gave the refs a nice sized piece of his mind on the way out. But just wait until an arena full of blood thirsty Warriors fans provide the backdrop for a big time game three that could swing momentum into the direction of either team. Hopefully there won’t be any suspensions handed out for the Davis and Jackson incidents or for a brief skirmish that broke out during the third quarter. Maybe all this bad blood stems from the Don Nelson connection but who cares how it originated, it’s producing some freakin’ exciting ballgames; even the one’s that are 13 point blowouts.

2. Carlisle out

In a pretty shocking move, the Pacers decided to axe their coach after the team suffered through a dreadful second half of the season en route to a 35-47 record. Indiana had a horrible season, their worst since 1988-89, and has gotten gradually worse every year under each of Rick Carlisle’s four years. But don’t expect this to be the last thing you hear from Indy this off-season because a complete overhaul could be in store for the Pacers. Stephen Jackson was already traded away and Jamaal Tinsley and Jermaine O’Neal probably aren’t too far behind. Larry Bird is a hardcore winner and he will do anything to get his fix, so a blockbuster deal for Kevin Garnett or Pau Gasol could definitely be in the cards. And, well what do you know; Larry Brown is suddenly interested in coaching again.

3. Gimme that game back!
San Antonio was rolling to an easy victory as game two of their series with Denver entered the fourth quarter but the Spurs almost let a late game slip cost them the victory. With 7:16 remaining in the game, San Antonio grabbed a 17 point lead, 84-67, but by the time the clock struck the 45 second mark, the Nuggets were within three points, 88-91, of a 2-0 lead over the three time champs. But the Spurs held on and evened up the series 1-1 after ripping off six unanswered for a 97-88 victory. The defensive focus was targeted on Denver’s duo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson after they torched SA for 61 in the first game; in game two they were held to a combined 46 points on 46 shots. This series will be rockin’ in the Rockies on Saturday when these two hook up for game three.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Drew Gooden vs. Washington 32 min, 24 pts (FG: 10-13, FT: 4-5), 14 reb, 2 ast

Buzzer Beater: Earlier this week, Kobe Bryant made an interesting statement when asked about the window closing on his career. He responded by saying “We definitely have to get to that elite level. And we have to get to that level, like, now.” Bryant has been a winner for most of his career and you know that he is just praying for a Shaqless championship ring to go on his pinky finger, so getting bounced in the first round every year is probably not going to cut it for league’s best scorer. Without executing a serious roster overhaul, the Lakers will never reach that “elite level” that Bryant speaks of considering that Dallas, Phoenix, Utah, San Antonio and Houston don’t look like they’ll be giving up their spots any time soon. So, would Kobe consider leaving Tinsel Town for a more championship conducive environment? Hmmmmm.

Categories
Philadelphia Eagles

Odds and Ends: The Oregon Ducks are off the hook


Who puked up this color scheme?

The Philadelphia Eagles are celebrating their 75th season in the National Football League, so in order to commemorate the occasion, the Eagles will be dressed in the franchise’s 1933 throwback uniforms.

Oh, but these aren’t just any unis; these are quite possibly the ugliest uniforms ever worn in the history of sports. We’re not sure is if the purpose is to commemorate or humiliate the team but either way Philly fans can turn in their traditional green for yellow and baby blue on September 23 when the Eagles host the Lions.

In other news…

[Lion In Oil]: The Braves can get you into a slightly used seat with 90-day, interest free financing; so, do we have a deal?

[Steroid Nation]: Pit bulls are now being accused of having connections with BALCO

[Star-Telegram.com]: From America’s Team to Arena Football: The Quincy Carter Story

[Boston.com]: Time is almost up for you to own your Red Sox World Series ring. Don’t delay, act now!

And finally, here’s a story of a man in Germany who had a bit too much to drink one night and fell asleep with a horse inside of a bank’s lobby. The couple was discovered the next morning by employees heading into work. The man said that he only had a “few beers” and we believe him; hell, Al Reynolds slept with Star Jones when she was a fat load and he wasn’t even drunk.

Categories
NBA General

The Heat repeat as the "fans favorite" dance team

Who could say “no” to these chicks?

We told you about the 2007 NBA Dance Team Bracket a few weeks ago, which is a playoff style competition between cheerleaders from around the league to determine who the fans favorite dance team was. Or, it could be described as what it really is, which is a contest to determine exactly which city sports the hottest babes in the least amount of clothes.

Not surprisingly, the masses went with the tanned and toned ladies of Miami for the second year in a row. And the repeat performance was even sweeter than last years title as the Heat dancers were never even challenged on their way to the trophy. In the Eastern Conference finals, the hotties from South Beach blew away the Raptors dancers by receiving 62 percent of the vote. Then in the finals Miami knocked off the West champion Rockets with 61 percent of the vote.

The way we see it, there are no losers in the tournament. In fact, Miami might have won the crown but we know that the true winner in this playoff is the entire male population. But if you go by the numbers, then the Los Angeles Clippers have the most unfavorite team in the league because they got bounced in the first round after receiving only 16 percent of the vote. Still, in our opinion, there’s not one dancer on that squad who is lacking lovely lady lumps.

Links:

[NBA.com]: NBA Dance Team Bracket

Categories
Utah Jazz

Mrs. Kirilenko says Andrei’s crappy play is due to a language barrier


Andrei Kirilenko got some heat earlier in the week for crying after practice because he wasn’t happy about his role during the Jazz’s opening game loss to the Rockets on Saturday. Well, things are probably going to get worse for AK-47 now that his wife has come to his aid in a very Brenda Warner-esque move. Masha Kirilenko wrote an email to several journalists that explained that perhaps an interpreter would solve the problems between Kirilenko and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. Here are her views on the subject according to the article.

It’s frustrating,” she said. “His English is not so good. Sometimes he can’t explain himself. Maybe he needs an interpreter.”

She claimed Houston’s Yao Ming, from China, “has an interpreter all the time” and added “maybe we’ll hire one.”

Masha went on to say that, “with the coach and Andrei that’s certainly a language barrier and it looks like there could be a misunderstanding with both guys.”

Asked if she thinks Sloan and his player can work out their differences regarding playing style and time, she said, “Two smart people like that can work it out.”

She was motivated to speak on the subject when she saw her husband’s red-eyed picture in the newspapers on Monday. “I said, ‘This is not happening,'” she said. “I’ve never seen him like this.

We know that your intentions were probably good, but you’re just making things worse for your hubby. Just keep giving him that yearly free pass to have sex with a random groupie and call it a day. Nothing good can come from your interference into your husband’s career.

Links:

[DesertNews.com]: From Masha with love

Categories
All Other Sports

Hos is a bad word? We always thought it was short for honeys



I’m sorry; you were saying?

So, somebody out there in TV land isn’t too thrilled with how some of the major television networks portray women during their sporting telecasts, and now the FBI is offering $5,000 to find out who it is. Dozens of letters criticizing the practices of TV crews and cameramen were sent to national networks and their local affiliates, and some were sent to the athletic departments of Ohio, Michigan and Arizona. Some of the letters even contained an insecticide within them. Apparently, this pissed off fan thinks that camera crews objectify women, especially cheerleaders, and that they have a tendency to focus the lens on the young ladies, ahem, most popular assets.

Here are some excerpts from this raving lunatic’s threatening letters of disapproval.

For the past 6-7 years, ESPN and its nationwide networks have exploited cheer/dance teams all across the country. They do this by parking their TV cameras on these women for their own personal entertainment.
…
Pigs park their cameras on us close up, front view, dozens of times each game, yet rarely ever show on TV in this manner.
…
We have asked nicely for them to respect us and all women, yet they refuse. They exploit innocent people, so we will too. When they start respecting us, we stop mailing these out.
…
For the last 6 years, Ohio State cheerleaders have received more TV time than any other Division 1A cheer squad on ESPN, because they wear long sleeved red/white outfits. If they wore sleeveless outfits, they would not get ANY TV time. So, we are fed up with this constant exploitation.

For a second there, the perpetrator made a bit of sense talking about how “pigs park their cameras on us,” because we all know that men are really dogs are heart. However, this nut lost all her credibility when we found out that in one letter she complained about the sexist manner in which WNBA players are portrayed. Listen, we’ll admit that cheerleaders probably do get exploited when they wear their little outfits, but nobody in their right mind is checking out the WNBA horses as they gallop up and down the court. Hell, do any men even watch the WNBA? Didn’t think so, case closed.

Links:

[SignOnSanDiego.com]: FBI seeks author of threatening letters complaining about cheerleaders, female athletes on TV
[King5.com]: Threatening letters say cheerleaders exploited

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Da’ Bulls are dancing all over Miami

1. Repeat defeat
Most people seem to think that a team isn’t in trouble in the playoffs until they lose a game on their home court. Well, Miami hasn’t lost on their home court but they still appear to be in serious trouble after the Bulls ran over Miami for a 107-89 win and took a 2-0 advantage in the series. The defending champions are getting thoroughly thrashed by what appears to be a more complete team unit in the Bulls. Luol Deng continues to abuse defenders as he put together another impressive outing with 26 points and six assists to go along with Ben Gordon’s game-high 27 points. But you can’t count out the Heat just yet; after all, Miami did drop the first two games of last year’s finals before going on to take the title away from Dallas in six games. Chicago, on the other hand, blew a 2-0 lead in the first round to the Wizards two years ago.

2. The Mamba strikes and misses

At the end of the first half of game one it looked like Kobe Bryant was going to carry the Lakers on his back to playoff victory. The past six quarters between the Phoenix and Los Angeles have proven that nothing could be further from the truth. Even if Bryant could string together another batch of 50 point games like he did earlier in the year, it still wouldn’t be enough to get this lackadaisical Lakers squad past the first round. The Suns just toyed with LA like a cat with a mouse on Tuesday as Steve Nash dished out 14 assists and newly crowned Sixth Man of the Year Leandro Barbosa put up a game-high 26 points off the bench in the 126-98 win. The odds are definitely going to be stacked against Los Angeles when the series heads to Hollywood and it’s going to take a lot of extra rooting from Jack, Denzel, Dyan and the other famous faces in the Staples Center crowd to keep the Lakers from falling down 3-0.

3. Sam’s the man
There were lots of worthy candidates for this season’s Coach of the Year award, but when it came down time to vote only one man could earn the honor. Toronto’s Sam Mitchell was named that man on Tuesday and rightfully so. Mitchell took the award with 394 total points, including 49 first place votes, over other possible candidates like Jerry Sloan (301 points), Avery Johnson (268 points) and Jeff Van Gundy (134 points). Who would have ever guessed that Mitchell would turn around a struggling Toronto franchise that was widely considered to be one of the black holes of the league? Certainly not the players of the Association because last April a Sports Illustrated informal poll amongst league ballers declared Mitchell to be the NBA’s worst coach. But nobody is saying Mitchell is a bottom feeder anymore since the Raptors made a 20-game improvement over last year’s dismal 27-55 record. And just hours after receiving the award, Mitchell went out and led the Raptors as they evened up their series with New Jersey by defeating them 89-83. Suck on that SI!

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Steve Nash vs. Los Angeles Lakers 25 min, 16 pts (FG: 7-11, 3FG: 2-4), 5 reb, 14 ast

Buzzer Beater: Danny Ainge thought he was getting Boston’s point guard of the future last year when he made the trade for teenage phenomenon Sebastian Telfair. Turns out that he got a giant headache instead and after just one season the Celtics have decided that enough is enough and cut ties with the 21-year-old. “I wanted to let you know that we have removed Sebastian’s nameplate from his locker in Waltham,” said managing partner Wyc Grousbeck in an e-mail to the Boston Globe. Geez, you removed his nameplate; guess there’s no turning back now. Telfair was arrested on Friday after a gun was found in his car, but his attorney, Ed Hayes, thinks that Boston’s decision to get rid of Telfair is far too sudden and they should reconsider. Save your breath Ed; didn’t you hear? They already removed his nameplate, it’s over.

Categories
Soccer

Soccer player gets yellow card instead of black eye after kissing referee

We’re not big soccer fans; in fact, the only times we report on futbol is when riots break out or some chick rips off her shirt after a goal. But a story about a soccer player kissing a ref caught our eye because the referee decided to give his admirer a yellow card for the smooch. Apparently the ref took offense to the sign of affection and started saying “You can’t kiss me. You can’t kiss me.” You can’t blame the guy for getting upset at the kissing bandit; after all, the least he could have done was take him out to dinner first.

This got us thinking about some of the more famous kisses in sports history. What we came up with can be found after the jump.

Links:

[TheOffside]: Defender kisses ref. and gets yellow carded

Continue reading “Soccer player gets yellow card instead of black eye after kissing referee”

Categories
College Football

Colorado State makes the news for all the wrong reasons

Some people say that all press is good press, but the athletic department over at Colorado State might disagree with you on that. First, there was the incident involving wide receiver George Hill and 4-year-old Caden Thomas over the weekend. The boy was on the sidelines during CSU’s spring youth football festival while an intrasquad game took place on the gridiron. In an attempt to catch a TD pass, Hill smashed into the kid and slammed him against the padded wall. To make a long story short; 30 stitches in the head later, lil’ Caden was sent home from the hospital.

It was kind of scary `cause I got bonked by the football,” the boy said, hugging his own football. “It kind of hurted.

Here’s video of Caden getting walloped.

Now, that’s a tough kid. Kellen Winslow Jr. would have been out of commission for six weeks after a hit like that.

But, hey, accidents happen; at least everything worked out for the little guy. Something that was avoidable and has the Colorado State community hiding their faces in disgust was the actions of Xavier Kilby. Kilby is accused of pointing a gun at the head of Ronnie Aguilar, a teammate on the basketball team, early Sunday morning. According to police, Kilby pulled out a revolver after the two argued inside of Kilby’s apartment. After pointing the gun at Aguilar’s head, Kilby aimed at the couch and fired off a single round.

Luckily, nobody was injured in either of the recent black-eye incidents for CSU. Now it they could just become capable of doing as much damage on the field as they do off of it, then the fans of the sports programs could actually having something to cheer about.

Links:

[1.WHDH.com]: Boy recovering after run-in with Colorado State football player
[MSNBC]: Police: CSU player pointed gun at teammate

Categories
NFL General

Now you can own something that Bill Cowher considered to be junk

Sorry guys, but this is coming
with me.

Bill Cowher had been in Pittsburgh for a long time, and when in you stay in one place for that many years there’s a good chance that you’ll accumulate a butt load of crap. So, when The Chin left the Steelers organization for the hills of North Cackalacky, he decided to leave a few of his personal belongings behind and clear out some clutter. And as the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure; so here’s the perfect opportunity for Pittsburgh fans to go high class dumpster hopping in hopes of grabbing a spittle covered memoir.

Dargate Auction Galleries will now be in charge of auctioning off over 130 individual pieces from the Cowher home on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Some of the pieces up for grabs include a foosball table, pinball game, patio furniture, a desk and chair, some china, a pool table and several pieces of designer furniture.

And if you’re feeling a bit frisky you could even bid on the coach’s bed or a shag rug that would make Austin Powers cringe. But if it’s strictly Steelers stuff you desire, then you’ll be forced to take a long look at an ice bucket with the logo imprinted on it or a Pittsburgh Steelers desk clock.

Most people with bank accounts as big as Cowher’s would have simply paid the movers to pack up the left over junk and haul it to the vacation home in Maine or at least rent (or buy) a storage unit (or complex). But hey, it’s classier than taking out an ad in the local paper and throwing your ex’s stuff on the lawn for a garage sale millionaire style.

Links:

[KDKA.com]: Items from Bill Cowher’s Home on Auction Block

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Utah gets floored by the Rockets

1. Clutch City is back on track
Carlos Boozer tied a career-high with 41 points to go along with 12 rebounds and six assists but it was his critical turnover with 20 seconds left in the game that will be remembered. Boozer dribbled the ball off his foot and helped Houston secure a 98-90 victory, giving them a 2-0 lead in the series. The Jazz started the season by jumping out to a 12-1 record but ended the year by dropping seven of their last 11 games, and if you throw in their playoff woes, they have lost nine of their last 13 contests. If that’s not bad enough, the Jazz have never won a playoff series after falling behind 0-2. Houston is riding a momentum tidal wave of monumental proportions behind the efforts of their droopy-eyed superstar Tracy McGrady (31 points, 10 rebounds, five assists). If the Rockets can hold on to their lead over the Jazz they’ll be on their way to the second round for the first time since 1997, not to mention it would be T-Mac’s first trip past the opening round in his ten year career. Just keep your mouth shut Tracy; Houstonians don’t want a repeat of your big mouthed fiasco during the 2003 playoffs.

2. The 151st best player in the league

Some observers of the game have been saying that Phoenix has the best starting five in the league, but on Monday the Suns showed that they have a pretty good bench as well. In a landslide, Leandro Barbosa took home the Sixth Man Award (and a nice sized bonus check in the process) to join the likes of Mike Miller, Ben Gordon, Antawn Jamison and others. Barbosa finished with 578 points, including 101 first place votes, to blow away Manu Ginobili (269 points) and Jerry Stackhouse (210 points). This could be the first of many post season awards for Phoenix considering that Mike D’Antoni, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion are all candidates for various awards. The “Brazilian Blur” averaged 18.1 points off the bench to compliment the Suns’ starters; all that’s left for Barbosa to do now is work his way into the starting lineup. And come up with a more creative nickname.

3. The Magic’s disappearing act
The series score is 2-0, but it might as well be 4-0 after Detroit put another hurting on Orlando and held Dwight Howard to just eight points on three-of-nine shooting. Howard has as much potential as any young superstar in the league but his playoff immaturity is definitely shinning through as he has only scored 21 points in the first two games. As it is every night, the rebounding was there on Monday against the Pistons but the Magic won’t even sniff a post season victory until Howard can learn that he must carry the load offensively, as well as defensively. But Howard can’t be held completely accountable for the Magic’s current situation; after all, there aren’t a lot of teams that can compete with the Pistons’ efficiency. Detroit was led by Richard Hamilton’s 22 points but it was a complete effort from the starting five that earned the team a 98-90 victory. In fact, only 10 points came off the bench during the game.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Carlos Boozer @ Houston 42 min, 41 pts (FG: 17-30, FT: 7-9), 12 reb, 6 ast

Buzzer Beater: Since Orlando has been visiting Detroit over the past couple of games, it’s needless to say that Darko Milicic has been taking some crap from the fans of his old club. But he’s not letting it get him down; well, at least that’s what he says. “I don’t really care,” said Milicic. “Back home fans used to throw the baseball (bats) and stuff at me – everything. They tried to kill me back home. That’s why I don’t really give a (expletive) about it.” We can see why a little taunting wouldn’t phase you, considering your countrymen attempted to murder you. But we wanna know why the Pistons’ fans are harping on Darko so much in the first place? After all, it was Joe Dumars who blew the pick; all Milicic did was get drafted. Last time we checked it wasn’t Milicic who passed on Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.