Author: clay

Categories
Minnesota Timberwolves

Should I stay or should I go?



KG or DMX?

There has been more speculation surrounding the future of Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett this season than ever before. Probably because the team is once again in jeopardy of missing the playoffs and they passed on the Allen Iverson trade which would have provided the Big Ticket with his best opportunity to win a championship since Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell left town.

But any concern of Garnett hitting the bricks himself might have been squashed with the purchase of a $6.5 million dollar home in Minnesota. The two story house was built in 1998 and is equipped with ten bathrooms for those moments of nausea when KG realizes he’s could be stuck with the Timberwolves for the rest of his career.

Here are some of the other notable statistics of the dwelling; it has 11 bedrooms, 16 “other rooms,” and two living rooms. In square footage terms, the garage area has 2,265; the ground floor 8,263; the second floor 2,790; the porch 3,375, and the basement 826.

Now that’s a lot of house! MTV’s Cribs is on their way.

Links:

[StarTribune.com]: Is KG leaving? Not if you read between the real estate lines

Categories
NFL General

Cowboys and Dolphins fans can’t take it any longer


The mid-70’s seems to be the cutoff for anybody who wants to roam the sidelines at professional football games in silly costumes. Wilford `Crazy Ray’ Jones had been the unofficial mascot in the stands for Dallas in a trademark wild west getup with trademark white cowboy hat. Jones, 76, was never paid by the Cowboys for his services (shame on you Jerry Jones) but he was given a special parking spot and an all-access pass to every game at Texas Stadium. The diehard fan will now be buried in one of his traditional uniforms.

But Jones won’t be the only superfan watching his team from the big seat in the sky when this NFL season kicks off in the fall. Dennis Sym, a.k.a. ‘Dolfan Denny,’ died at the age of 72 on Friday after whipping Fins fans into a frenzy for over 34 years. Unfortunately, kidney failure and cancer would take the life of a man who had so bravely withstood every late season Miami meltdown for over three decades. But a disappointing Nick Saban stint proved to more than his old, proud body could take.

Links:

[DallasNews.com]: Wilford “Crazy Ray” Jones: 1931-2007
[MiamiHerald.com]: `Dolfan Denny,’ unofficial mascot

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Bryant’s big weekend



Yea, I play a little.

1. The Mamba strikes again, no suspension necessary
With the madness running wild on CBS there is a good chance that you were too preoccupied with brackets on Friday night to think about the NBA. Well, unfortunately, you missed another incredible offensive performance by Kobe Bryant. The man with the uncontrollable elbows put up the second best scoring feat of his career by torching Portland for 65 points on a 23-for-39 shooting performance in a 116-111 overtime victory. Bryant was clutch when the game was in question but refused to let his team fall to the Blazers as he scored 24 points in the fourth quarter and threw in an additional nine points during OT. This was only the third game of Bryant’s career in which he scored at least 60 points; it might sound crazy to use the word “only” in that last statement but that’s a sign of how spectacular Kobe is. The Mamba has been on the verge of 60 numerous times as he has cracked the 50 point plateau 13 other times, including a 50 point performance in a 109-102 victory over Minnesota last night.

2. Luck of the Irish

The last time the Celtics had beaten the Spurs was on Jan. 8, 1997. Then the curse began. It was in the following draft when San Antonio changed the destiny of the NBA and landed the number one pick in the draft instead of Boston who had the statistical advantage to grab the top selection, a.k.a. Tim Duncan. Fast forward ten years and the Celtics finally got a measure of revenge as they defeated Duncan and his Spurs by six points, 91-85, for Boston’s first victory over San Antonio in 19 tries. And it’s no coincidence that the Celtics picked up the historic victory of St. Patrick’s Day; Boston also broke a 17-year drought against the Spurs in San Antonio. If losing his first ever game against the men in green wasn’t bad enough for Duncan, the Spurs became only the third team in NBA history to have a winning percentage of .700 or better and drop consecutive games to teams with win percentages of .360 or worse at least 60 games into the season. It’s a big win for the C’s but they’d still rather have the three trophies.

3. The Sixers are great hosts
Hopefully you weren’t fooled by the 76ers seven game winning streak a while back because the real Philadelphia team has returned and they are an ugly assembly. Since having their run of victories ended the 76ers have lost three of their last four games, including an eye-popping 50 point loss, 124-74, to the Rockets last night in Philly. It was the biggest home loss in club history and ranked as the third most lopsided home loss in NBA history. Only the 1986 Houston Rockets (lost to Seattle by 56) and the 2003 Boston Celtics (lost to Detroit by 52) have suffered bigger losses in their own gyms. On the other hand, the Rockets set a new franchise record for road domination and fell just two points shy of tying the team’s biggest win ever. So don’t give up hope just yet Sixer fans; you still might strike lottery gold after all.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Kobe Bryant vs. Minnesota 45 min, 50 pts (FG: 17-35, 3FG: 4-9, FT: 12-14), 6 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl

Monday’s Game to Watch: Boston (20-46) @ New Orleans (29-37) Yea, it’s a crummy game but it’s the best that the NBA has to offer on a light evening that only consists of two games. But let’s be positive about this because it could be worse, it could have been the same teams from a month ago. Now that’s scary. But Boston is finally picking up some victories after going on a franchise-record 18 game losing streak earlier in the year. Paul Pierce is breaking the hearts of millions of Bostonians as his outputs are slowly removing the Celtics from having a possible future with Greg Oden or Kevin Durant as the franchise’s cornerstone. And while New Orleans is sitting behind all three of the Texas teams in the Southwest Division, they are only two games behind Golden State for the final playoff spot in the West despite losing seven of their last eight games. But don’t blame CP3 for the teams struggles because Chris Paul can’t be expected to do too much more than put up his recent five game average of 16.8 points, 9.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds.

Buzzer Beater: Those weren’t Boooo-zer chants you were hearing on Saturday night. No, those were actual boos as turncoat Carlos Boozer returned to Cleveland for the first time since he bolted for Utah almost three years ago. And LeBron James showed his old teammate that the Cavs don’t miss his glass cleaning abilities as he grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds to go along with 24 points, nine assists, two steals and two blocks. But Boozer had an impressive game of his own (19 points and 14 rebounds) despite being unimpressed with the crowd’s imagination. “It wasn’t even that bad,” Boozer said of his Cleveland homecoming. “They had a lot of signs. I saw a couple of them. Chants were OK. They could have been more creative with their chants. It was good though.” What, you don’t think “Boozer is a Loozer” is purely ingenious?

Categories
New York Giants

Bling bling, bang bang


The NFL is a game of yards but on Wednesday night, New York Giants linebacker Brandon Short was involved in a scary situation in which inches meant the difference between life and death.

While shopping for some new bling in a Greenwich Village jewelry store, a pair of officers rushed past Short as gun shots began to ring out from down the street. Eventually a gun battle would erupt between gunman David Garvin and police right next door to the jewelry store where Short was now out of sight on the floor. By the time the whole situation was over it took police 56 shots to bring down the semiautomatic wielding nut job who killed three during his spree, including the two officers Short had seen earlier.

I was fearful for my life,” said Short. “There were bullets flying everywhere.” He went on to say, “It was a crowded street in Manhattan. Some people were running through restaurants, running down alleys to get away.” It’s a miracle that no bullets actually went through the window.

Obviously this would have been a terrifying situation for anybody, except maybe Pacman Jones who currently averages at least one near death experience per week.

Links:

[ABC7.com]: GIANTS LB SHORT NEAR CROSSFIRE OF FATAL NY SHOOTINGS
[The Fanhouse]: BRANDON SHORT WITNESSES SHOOT-OUT IN NEW YORK

Categories
General Sports

Hey Carmelo, this is how you throw a punch

Ho ho ho this!

We don’t usually report on the world of rugby, but this incident had us reminiscing back to the Malice in the Palace when Ron Artest went, well Ron Artest on a fan in the stands. David Stern should keep this in mind should another mentally imbalanced NBAer decide to partake in a similar showdown between player and spectator.

Trevor Brennan is a forward for the Toulouse rugby club who got fed up with being taunted by a fan of the opposing team back in late January and decided to take action into his own hands and go, well Ron Artest on his ass. After having beer poured on him (hmm, Artest didn’t seem to like that either) and having his mother insulted, Brennan hopped into the stands and knocked the Christmas cap right off the head of an Ulster fan who was obviously still full of the holiday spirit.

Brennan had been suspended from the league since the episode occurred and eventually announced his retirement, but that didn’t stop the European Rugby Cup from dishing out some punishment of their own. The ERC has banned Brennan for life and fined him $33,250; in addition to $6,650 he has been ordered to pay to guy he punched.

It was the view of the committee that Mr. Brennan’s behavior was completely unjustified and that he caused serious harm to an innocent spectator and significant damage to the image of rugby union,” the three-man disciplinary panel said. “The committee could not envisage more serious misconduct in relation to spectators and believed that the maximum permissible suspension was appropriate.

A 73 game suspension suddenly doesn’t sound very harsh.

Links:

[IHT.com]: IRELAND’S TREVOR BRENNAN BANNED FROM RUGBY FOR LIFE FOR PUNCHING FAN
[IrishExaminer.com]: BRENNAN SLAPPED WITH LIFE-TIME BAN

Categories
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

$12.3 million could change anyone’s mind



Will the real Jake Plummer
please stand up

Jake Plummer recently, suddenly retired from the NFL. He was ready to move on to new and different aspects of reality outside of the sidelines. You can’t blame him for that; players can call it quits whenever they want. But now we’ll really see how badly Plummer wants to be out of the league.

$5.3 million dollars is sitting on the table, just waiting for Plummer to come and scoop up in return for another year of service in the league. If that’s not incentive enough, Jake the Snake faces a Ricky Williams type fight for his cash.

Plummer’s rights were traded to Tampa Bay earlier this month and if decides not to report to camp then there could be a $7 million tussle going on over prorated bonuses that Plummer received. And the task might not be very difficult; the Miami Dolphins took $8 million away from Williams after he abruptly retired to go on a spiritual journey of self enlightenment in Asia. At least Plummer shouldn’t be that difficult to find, but he might cause just as much of a ruckus when it comes to getting him back on the field.

I can’t sit here and discuss anything further,” he said. “But you don’t have to chase me around any more or speculate on what I’m going to be doing. There will not be a jersey that has an NFL patch . . . on my body.

We’ll see about that.

Links:

[RockyMountainNews.com]: LEGWOLD: PLUMMER MAY PAY $7 MILLION

Categories
General Sports

That’s a lot of precipitation



I’m rich bitch!

Most people fill out their brackets every year just so that they can enter their office’s pool and, hopefully, end the month with bragging rights and a pocket full of cash. Well, Archie Evans has proven that we shouldn’t simply limit ourselves to action on the hardwood, in fact he would probably suggest heading to your local horse track. And you don’t even have to be a high roller to walk out with some serious cash.

Across the pond in Wales, Evans picked six correct winners and won approximately $1.4 million and all he had to wager was a measly four bucks which is probably at least six dollars less than you spent on your bracket and there’s not even going to be half a million waiting for the winner.

It’s fantastic to have won and it’s so exciting to think I could be a millionaire by Saturday night. It’s a huge amount of money and if I’m honest it’s not sunk in yet.

Evan’s also said that everyone wants to know how he’s going to spend his new found wealth.

I’ve not decided yet but I know I’m going to take my wife on a bloody good holiday.

That’s one option; the other is that he pulses out a lot of cash and heads to the local gentlemen’s club where he could make it rain for days and days.

Links:

[BBC News]: PUNTER’S £700,000 WIN WITH £2 BET

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Welcome to the neighborhood


1. San Antonio just got bucked
Last night was one of the greatest games that Coach K has ever been a part of. No, not the Coach K that choked away Duke’s first round game of the big dance for the first time since 1996. We’re talking about coach Larry Krystkowiak who snapped San Antonio’s 13 game winning streak in his first game as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks after Terry Stotts was fired on Wednesday. Well, a little credit has to go to Michael Redd who chipped in 29 points, five rebounds and five assists in the upset. Stotts was even able to make Andrew Bogut keep his fingers to himself. The win is nice but when a team has only won nine of their last 36 games, there’s really nowhere to go but up.

2. Miami’s heat check

Dallas’ 17 game winning streak is long gone and has since been replaced with a two game losing streak, and San Antonio had their 13 game win streak snapped by the Bucks last night which leaves Miami as the possessor of the league’s longest consecutive string of victories. The Heat were supposed to struggle without their superstar point guard in the lineup. But instead of flaming out (insert your own John Amaechi reference here), Miami has been torching opponents and have slowly worked their way up the playoff ladder in the East. With a win over Sacramento tomorrow, the Heat can grab the lead in their division via a 2-1 head-to-head tiebreaker with Washington and vault all the way from their current seed (sixth) to either third or fourth in the Eastern Conference.

3. Say cheese!
Scot Pollard took a brief moment during a 20 second timeout in the midst of Cleveland’s decimation of Indiana on Sunday to let the world in on his personal message to the future of America. As a camera passed, Pollard moved into frame and said, “Hey kids, do drugs.” There’s been no confirmation on if Pollard was actually inebriated at the time of the remarks but we’re guessing he probably had a nice buzz going. The white Dennis Rodman minus the skills has since apologized and said the comment was a “bad joke.” But we really know that the guy with the dyed locks, funny hairdos and ridiculous facial hair is the most comical punch line.

In other camera related news, the last time Mark Cuban was seen he was shoving a camera after storming across the court following the Mavs double overtime heartbreaker to the Suns. So far, the league has not come down on Cubes for the incident but you know that David Stern is frantically thumbing through all the latest manuals on rules, regulations, policies and procedures just scanning for a fine or suspension to slap on the league’s most annoying owner.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Kobe Bryant @ Denver 38 min, 25 pts (FG: 9-19, 3FG: 0-5, FT: 7-8), 5 reb, 9 ast

Friday’s Game to Watch: Detroit (41-22) @ Phoenix (50-14) This could be a preview of the championship series later this year. The Suns are hotter than they have been all year after pulling out the biggest game of the season against Dallas earlier in the week and the euphoria from such an epic contest could be the momentum that sends Phoenix off on another long win streak. But the Pistons will be no pushover as they hold an impressive 22-10 record away from Detroit. The Pistons have so many people who can step up when it counts and now Chris Webber has become a valuable offensive contributor to the cohesive unit. But it will take a trademark Detroit defensive effort to shut down the trio of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion.

Buzzer Beater: You have to believe in yourself in order to achieve your goals and nobody personifies this idea better than Shawn Marion. After the double overtime instant classic against Dallas on Wednesday, Marion was more than happy to share his opinion about his performance. “I think I should be the defensive player of the year,” he said. “I’m going to do my own publicity.” At least he’ll be endorsing a quality candidate. Marion guards everyone from Kobe Bryant to Kevin Garnett and averages two blocks and two steals to go along with 10 rebounds. But just so there’s no confusion, Marion is more than willing to clarify his stance on the matter. “Defensive player of the year, hands down,” Marion said of himself.

Categories
NFL General

Brett Favre wants to know if he can still retire



New home game celebration?

There’s a rumor speculating that Randy Moss’ ass could be calling the Green Bay end zone home after a trade would send Moss to the Pack for backup QB Aaron Rodgers. Green Bay’s 2008 7th round pick and Raiders tight end Courtney Anderson are also expected to be involved in the deal which could be signed by Friday.

It’s an interesting idea to kick around because of all the implications involved. If Oakland grabs Rodgers from the cheeseheads then what happens to their No. 1 draft pick? It appeared that the Raiders were set to select LSU’s JaMarcus Russell to become their franchise QB. The move could free up the team to go after other skill position players like wide receiver Calvin Johnson or running back Adrian Peterson.

The trade would also leave the Packers without a play caller for the future. Brett Favre isn’t going to play forever, is he? And if Favre thought that Javon Walker was a selfish person, just wait until he starts sharing the locker room with Moss. Then you have Moss’ whole mock mooning performance after a TD in the Vikings/Packers 2005 NFC wild card game.

While there are tons of question marks surrounding this possible trade, it will all be worth it if Green Bay inspires Moss to produce more classic quotes like this famous line after his sideshow in the 05 wild card game netted him a $10,000 fine.


No, cause it ain’t sh*t. Ain’t nothing but 10 grand. What’s 10 grand to me? Ain’t sh*t … Next time I might shake my d*ck.

Links:

[BostonHerald.com]: MOSS HEADED TO GREEN BAY?

Categories
All Other Sports

Safin’s babe trades up



Worth $2.5 billion?

You might not know who Daria Zhukova is, but you’ll probably remember her as the smoking hot babe that was hanging out at all of Marat Safin’s tennis matches some months back. Well, she’s apparently moved on from Safin and into a much more profitable relationship. Zhukova, 25, also known as Dasha, is now rumored to be with playboy Roman Abramovich, 40.

Abramovich is a Russian businessman and owner of the Chelsea football club. In other words, the guys freakin loaded. But he’s now considerably lighter in the pocket after he settled to pay his ex $2.5 billion in the most expensive divorce of all time. But taking into account that Abramovich is worth a cool $18.7 billion and his wife Irina, 39, only got away with $2.5 makes his trade in for Dasha quite a steal. Irina could have scratched and clawed her way to half of his fortune probably, but nobody is going to argue when $2.5 billion is thrown on the table.

Links:

[News.com]: WIFE TO GET $2.5 BILLION
[MOSNews.com]: RUSSIAN TYCOON, CHELSEA OWNER ABRAMOVICH FACES COSTLY DIVORCE