Join Anthony Stalter and John Paulsen as they talk about the week in sports and what to look forward to this weekend

In 2005, Mike Brown took over a Cavs team that went 42-40 a year before under Paul Silas. Since then, he has compiled a 145-101 (.589) regular season record and led his team to the Finals last season. Good work, right? Yes, but a closer look at the numbers reveals something very troubling.

The Cavs are getting worse offensively.

The table below shows the Cavs’ year-by-year offensive and defensive ratings, which are defined as points scored (or points allowed) per 100 possessions.

All in all, the defensive numbers look pretty good. It’s a little worrisome that the Cavs regressed from 4th last season to 11th this season, but the mid-season trade that brought Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace and Delonte West probably had something to do with it (though adding a former Defensive Player of the Year shouldn’t have an adverse effect).

But Brown has never been criticized for his team’s defense. Take a look at the offensive numbers. Since posting the 9th most efficient offense in his first year, the Cavs dropped to 18th last season and 19th this season. To put this in perspective, Cleveland is sandwiched between Indiana and Philadelphia. Ouch.

A mediocre finish for most teams isn’t too alarming, but the Cavs have LeBron, who is one of the top offensive players in the league. He can drive to the hole as well as anyone, has a developing pull up jumper and is arguably the best-passing small forward in the league. And while it’s true that James doesn’t have a whole lot of help, one could argue that the help he has is offensive-minded. West, Szczerbiak, and Daniel Gibson are all known for their shooting and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is one of the best face-up centers in the league. The Cavs shouldn’t have this much trouble scoring.

I’ve been complaining for the past few seasons that Brown’s offense is uninspired. The Cavs will pass the ball around a little and eventually LeBron will get it on the perimeter and try to drive to the basket or pull up for a jumper. Obviously, it makes sense to get your best player the ball, but Brown doesn’t seem to change up where LeBron gets it or use any measurable amount of picks and screens to free him up.

But this part is mind-boggling: LeBron is the most physically imposing small forward in the league yet Brown never posts him up? Why is this? Michael Jordan was stronger and more athletic than most wings, and he made a living on the block.

LeBron is partly to blame for having failed to develop a post game. If he came back from the summer with a killer turnaround jumper and a sweet up-and-under, Brown would get him the ball on the block more. After all, it seems like a natural fit given LeBron’s ability to hit the open man if he gets doubled. But it’s not LeBron’s job to coach himself. It’s Brown’s responsibility to tell the young man how he can improve his game and, in turn, help his team win. Developing a post game would go a long way.

While he’s at it, I have some other homework for LeBron. As I watched a close up of him shooting a free throw, I noticed (in super slow mo) that the ball wasn’t even out of his hand before his eyes already looked up to watch the flight of the ball. I’ve always learned that a shooter should lock his eyes on the back of the rim (not the front) and keep those eyes there until the ball goes through the hoop. Don’t worry about where the ball is – it’s going to pass right through your field of vision if you did your job. If you start looking up to watch the path of the ball, you’re not as focused on the rim as you should be and your shooting will suffer. Given LeBron’s mediocre 73% career free throw shooting and inconsistent jumper, this is something that could really help his game if he worked at it.

Unfortunately, Brown has been coaching LeBron for three years now and he still has this bad habit. And people wonder why he’s shooting 19% against the Celtics…

In light of Bears’ running back Cedric Benson getting pepper sprayed by police following an incident on his boat last weekend, The Love of Sports ranked the top 10 most embarrassing athlete arrests of all time.

1. Najeh Davenport
In July of 2002, the Pittsburgh Steeler rookie fullback was arrested for burglary and criminal mischief; charges stemming from an incident that took place in April of that year. Late one night, Davenport, a former standout at the University of Miami (rated the No. 2 fullback in the draft) snuck into a dorm room at nearby Barry University. A woman sleeping in the room awoke around 6:00am to find Davenport leaving an extra load in her laundry hamper. “Dookie” was sentenced to roughly 100 hours of community service for defecating in the woman’s closet, but continued to maintain his innocence, arguing “Where’s the evidence? Where’s the manure?” After the trial, his lawyer said, with a straight face, “Najeh wants to put this behind him.”

8. Joe Cullen
Yet another case of a coach under fire for a “uniform violation.” On August 24, 2006, the Detroit Lions defensive line coach was arrested for obscene and indecent conduct after he took a little late-night drive in the buff. Wearing not a stitch of clothing, Cullen rolled up to a Wendy’s drive-thru window and calmly ordered a burger, fries and a drink. (No word on whether the cashier asked him if he wanted to “supersize it.”) Cullen was asked to pull over and wait for his meal, at which point the manager on duty called the police. Less than a week later, the nudie foodie was arrested again. This time he was clothed, but driving under the influence. A year later, Lions QB Jon Kitna caused a stir when he showed up at a teammate’s Halloween party dressed as Cullen, with his wife dressed as the red-braided “Wendy.”

I couldn’t imagine what that drive thru attendant thought when he/she saw Cullen drive up in his birthday suit. I picture Cullen being calm – like nothing was wrong. If that’s not a Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live skit, I don’t know what is.

Here’s what ESPN’s Chris Mortensen had to say about the tapes former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh turned into the NFL offices early this week.

In other words, there’s nothing new here. Neither Bill Belichick nor the Patriots are going to face anymore punishment, so stop waiting for it.

I wrote a few days ago about how the Hornets’ speed is killing the Spurs, and while speed and quickness is also playing a role in the Lakers’ 2-0 start against the Jazz, their length has been a bigger factor.

Specifically, I’m referring to Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. Their considerable wingspans are really causing problems for the relatively short-armed and undersized Carlos Boozer, who has shot a woeful 9-24 (38%) from the field in the first two games. His 12.5-point average in the series is well below his 21.1-point regular season average. Simply stated, if he posts his usual stats, the Jazz probably win one of those games in L.A.

As it stands, they head back to Utah where they hold the best home record (37-4) in the league. However, one of those four losses came against a Pau Gasol-less Laker squad back in late March. This certainly doesn’t bode well for the Jazz, who really didn’t play all that great at home against the Rockets in the first round.

The key for the Jazz is to get off to a good start. They outscored the Lakers in the second half of each of the first two games, but a crappy second quarter in Game 1 and an even crappier first quarter in Game 2 put them behind the eight ball.

As with any team heading home down 0-2, this is a must-win for the Jazz, who can get right back into the series with a win. For that to happen, the Lakers’ 89-46 free throw advantage will have to even out a bit. I think part of that is home court advantage, and part of it is that the Jazz just aren’t quick enough to handle the Lakers’ perimeter players. Only time will tell which is the dominating factor.

Turns out former Patriots videotape assistant Matt Walsh doesn’t have tape of the Rams’ walkthrough practice allegedly filmed before Super Bowl XXXVI.

Walsh gave the NFL eight videos of opponents’ coaches from 2000-2002. The tapes show the Patriots videotaping opposing signals in five regular season games and the the 2002 AFC Championship. Walsh’s attorney says his client never claimed to have a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough and was not the “unnamed source” in the Herald’s story. The NFL knew about all this, and says this is consistent with what the Patriots told them. Any further punishment isn’t happening.

This is just another example of how rumors catch fire in the media. The Boston Herald reported in early February that Walsh had tape of the Rams’ walkthrough and now it’s interesting to hear that the NFL knew all along that Walsh had no such tape.

This incident shows just how much the media and fans really know about the inner-workings of sports.

Okay, I’m probably one of the last bloggers to chime in on this, but I’m the first to admit that I don’t spend a lot of my day reading about the blogosphere and its place in the world. I pretty much just watch the games and the news and provide my commentary. But this new feud between “Friday Night Lights” writer Buzz Bissinger and Deadspin editor Will Leitch caught my attention when a headline about it appeared on my Yahoo home page. Both writers appeared on “Costas Now,” along with a deer-in-the-headlights Braylon Edwards, to talk about the role of blogging in sports. It’s probably best to view the entire segment - which can be seen here - but if you just want to hear Bissinger’s side of things, watch the YouTube video below.

As I was listening to Bissinger’s comments, I probably had the same initial reaction as most people in the blogosphere. Bissinger made some good points about the tone and poor writing on some (or most?) blogs, but his anger and venom made him come off like a bully. Not only that, he came off like a dinosaur, so I guess he’s the sportswriting equivalent of that T-Rex that smashed and crashed his way through the city of San Diego in “Jurassic Park II.”

The writing on “Friday Night Lights” is excellent and Bissinger did win a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles he wrote on the Philadelphia court system in the late ’80s, so it’s clear that the guy knows how to write. He just feels that the environment in which he grew up - the group of (sports)writers reading and critiquing each other’s work in the newsroom - is under attack by hundreds (or thousands) of faceless bloggers who are too cynical and smarmy for their own good, or worse, who can barely write at all. Of course, that mentality is akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

As in any endeavor, there are both good and bad sports blogs. But Leitch makes a good point when he says that blogging is a meritocracy. If you can’t put a coherent thought together or write boring stuff, you’re not going to build a readership. We here at The Scores Report try to write serious, knowledgable sports commentary with a dash of the silly and strange. Anthony Stalter is a football nut who actually studies game film in the offseason. Coach Z is a commentator for the Big Ten Network and has the experiences of a long coaching career to draw upon. I played college basketball for Bo Ryan, where we broke down hundreds of hours of tape, which ultimately led to a Division III National Championship in my junior season and All-Conference and All-Region honors in my senior season. The bottom line is, we know our stuff, but we’re not afraid to admit it when we’re wrong.

You’ll also notice that the comments we get from our readers are typically well thought out and reasonably polite, and the debates rarely delve into personal attacks. While we’re trying to create a sports bar atmosphere here, we want it to be a nice sports bar - a place where you can go and enjoy a cold lager while debating with another patron about the role of Spygate in Tom Brady’s legacy, or if Kobe deserves to win the MVP award even though he wasn’t such a good teammate last summer. And you can have these debates without having to worry about that patron heading off to the bathroom only to come back to smash a pool cue over your head because he didn’t like your argument.

So, in my mind, much of what Bissinger said was valid (however venomous), but since the more popular blogs tend to be the ones that write to the lowest common denominator, maybe he isn’t getting a clear picture of just how many good sports blogs are out there.

Lute Olsen is back in charge at Arizona and has cleaned house to prove it. Besides losing Buddinger and Bayless to the pros he has also dismissed his entire staff.

Kevin O Neill, who was supposed to get the job when and if Olsen ever retires, was pushed aside and reassigned within the department. That won’t last. O’Neill didn’t come to Arizona to be an administrator. Miles Simon, who helped Olsen get a championship ring was pushed out the door as well. Olsen showed a lot of gratitude there.

Now word has it that Josh Pastner and all of his father’s connections - his father runs a Houston AAU team and a couple big time tounaments each year - are leaving for Memphis. This might not be a big loss for Arizona since Pastner really didn’t deliver as many players as he was supposed to. But at Memphis, I guarantee Coach Cal will benefit from the paternal ties.

It looks like Mike Dunlap will fill his shoes. The former NBA coach realizes that won’t get a head coaching job in the NBA and needs to get back to the college level to strengthen his chances of getting a head coaching job in college. The big question is - how long will it take before Olsen gets tired of Dunlap and his ideas? It didn’t take him long to tire of O’Neill.

Mark my words - Arizona will not have the success it had in the past until Olsen calls it quits. Check out Bowden’s and Paterno’s recent record in football. It’s a young man’s game.

Here’s something to file under the “shocking” category: the sports world is a mess.

From performance enhancing drugs to Spygate to players getting arrested on seemingly a daily basis, I sometimes have to laugh to keep from crying.

That said, I’ve decided to channel my inner Jeff Foxworthy and do a segment called “You know the sports world is in trouble when…” Basically I’ll just take a few shots at some of the latest goings on in the world of sports.

I collected newsworthy stories from over the past week and essentially poked fun at the misery of others. Hey, it’s better than trying to make sense of it all or complaining about how the sports world needs to clean itself up. (Is it better? Maybe not. But it’s more fun, that’s for sure.)

After reading this, I’m sure you’ll share the same sentiment I do in that it can be really hard to be a sports fan these days.

You know the sports world is in trouble when…Roger Clemens apologizes for “past mistakes” but not for those past mistakes.
When I read the headline, “Roger Clemens apologizes for past mistakes” I thought to myself, “finally – the guy is going to be honest and admit to his wrongdoings!” Little did I know that what the Rocket was apologizing for was…well, I have no freaking idea. He’s not apologizing for allegedly taking HGH, lying to congress or having an affair with a minor (country music singer Mindy McCready). No, he claims he’s still innocent about all that stuff. He’s just apologizing for past mistakes. What past mistakes? Sneaking out of the house when he was a teenager? Cheating on a test? Fighting with siblings? What are you apologizing for, Roger? You can’t just make a blanket apology and expect everyone to go, “Well hey, he did apologize, so he’s good in our book now.” What’s Suzyn Waldman’s take on all of this?

You know the sports world is in trouble when…you can actually make a wager on what NFL team will have the next player thrown in the clink.
Courtesy of BetUs.com, you can make a wager on which NFL team you think will produce the next convict. Not surprisingly, the Cincinnati Bengals are going off at 5-1 odds and the Atlanta Falcons offer a good value bet at 8-1 after Michael Boley was picked up for battery charges. The Miami Dolphins are 10-1 odds, while the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts are all 15-1. Here’s my question: Why, pray tell, are the Dallas Cowboys only 15-1 after trading for Pacman Jones? At 15-1 odds, I’m taking out a sizeable loan and just sitting back and waiting for the next time Pacman decides to paint the town red. I might be able to retire early the next time he wants to go to a strip club.

You know the sports world is in trouble when…a freaking horse is being accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
The Kentucky Derby – one of the most historic events in all of sports – suffered a tragic outcome this year when thoroughbred Eight Belles had to be euthanized on the track after breaking both ankles following a second place finish. What’s even sadder is that the damn horse is being accused of being on the juice. Trainer Larry Jones can’t even mourn the death of his horse because he’s too busy ordering steroid tests to be done along with Eight Belles’ necropsy. It’s ridiculous that we can’t even watch a horse race without wondering aloud if “Colt McBronco Pony” is on the ‘roids. Seriously, if it comes back that Eight Belles was juicing, I want a nation-wide drug testing policy put in place for all professional sports. Athletes, horses, dogs, farm animals – I want them all tested, because clearly nobody (or animal) can be trusted anymore.

You know the sports world is in trouble when…the Bears draft Cedric Benson’s replacement in Matt Forte and the first thing Benson does is get pepper sprayed by Texas boating authorities.
It’s no secret that the Bears feel running back Benson might not be the best man for the job after three years of mediocre football; why else would they select Forte in the second round in this year’s draft? So it was a little surprising to hear that Benson was charged with boating under the influence and resisting arrest last Saturday, even though he knows he’s on thin ice with the team. While the arrest seems a little fishy (why did the police feel the need to search Benson’s boat?), why is he getting into any trouble? Shouldn’t this guy be doing absolutely everything he can to try and keep his ass employed? Normally when people realize they might lose their job, they turn up their performance a notch and try to be on their absolute best behavior. They don’t get pepper sprayed by police and arrested for driving a boat while under the influence of alcohol. I’m not saying Benson and other athletes don’t have the right to have a life, but the Bears are dying for a reason to cut him, so one would think he would manage to stay out of trouble in the hopes that he can keep his job.

You know the sports world is in trouble when… Ozzie Guillen has a point.
This is what Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had to say before a game last weekend:

‘’Right now, everyone in Chicago is making lineups, ‘Call up this guy, call up that guy,”’ Guillen said. ‘’If we had 50 people allowed on the roster, we could do that. That’s what ticks me off about Chicago fans and Chicago media — they forget pretty quick. A couple of days ago, we were the [bleep]ing best [bleep] in town, now we’re [bleep].’’

‘’We won it a couple years ago, and we’re horse[bleep],’’ Guillen said. ‘’The Cubs haven’t won in 120 years, and they’re the [bleep]ing best. [Bleep] it, we’re good. [Bleep] everybody. We’re horse[bleep], and we’re going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win. We are the bitch of Chicago. We’re the Chicago bitch. We have the worst owner — the guy’s got seven [bleep]ing rings, and he’s the [bleep]ing horse[bleep] owner.’’

Every sportswriter in every sports town wants to make up the lineup for their city’s respective manager. So I’m not giving Ozzie credit for bitching about that. But he makes a great point in the second paragraph about how the city of Chicago treats their two baseball teams. The Cubs can do no wrong, period. They could lose 162 games in a season and they’d still sell out every game because they’re everyone’s lovable losers – the “Cubbies!” On the other hand, the Sox are the black sheep of the city (or “bitch” in Guillen’s words) and are more quickly criticized when things go wrong. It doesn’t help the Sox that going to Wrigley Field is like one big tailgating party and therefore it didn’t matter to fans that the Tribune Company blatantly avoiding putting a winner on the field for decades. The Sox ownership at least feigns interest in trying to win and while it’s not easy sticking up for Guillen, he has a point in this case.

You know the sports world is in trouble when…every time the Atlanta Falcons want to build their franchise around a certain player, that player winds up behind bars.
Granted, first round pick Matt Ryan is going to be the new face of the franchise. But it couldn’t have been a good sign when linebacker Michael Boley was arrested early this week for battery. (His wife claims he pushed her.) Boley has quickly emerged as the Falcons’ best defensive player over the past two years and he’s due for a long-term contract extension after signing a one-year tender this past offseason. He’s a player the Falcons would love to build their defense around, but it’s kind of hard to do that when his mug shot is all over the front page of the sports section. Given Boley’s arrest and the fact that former franchise centerpiece Michael Vick is in jail on federal dog fighting charges, maybe the Falcons should do one last background check on Ryan. You know, just to be sure.

A buddy and I went to the AVP Huntington Beach Open this past weekend. I wanted to catch one of Kerri Walsh and Misty May’s matches, but we arrived about an hour too late. We walked around the tournament grounds watching the action on the various side courts. We settled in to watch a match that featured Angela Knopf and Saralyn Smith against Jenelle Koester and Sarah Straton. Why did we decide that particular match? I’m not certain, but I think it might have been Jenelle Koester…

That’s her on the right. I could say that it was her terrifc serves, clutch digs or powerful spikes, but I’d be lying. As I watched the match, I started to wonder - how much of beach volleyball’s success is based on sex? The sport really came to the forefront during the 2004 Olympics in Sydney, when May and Walsh (and all of the other competitors) showed off their toned, athletic bodies in tiny bikinis. If you remember, it was pretty amazing how popular the sport became as it was introduced to an international audience. Everyone was talking about it. Moreover, everyone was watching it, and the unbeatable Misty May and Kerri Walsh became household names. Still at the Koester match, I looked around the court, trying to figure out what percentage of attendees were there for the volleyball and what percentage were there for the view. I noticed a couple of male “photographers” taking pictures of Koester. No press passes, just big cameras with long lenses. It’s clear that a large percentage of beach volleyball fans are there for the eye candy. And I’m not just talking about women. There were a lot of female fans clustered around the men’s matches as well.

From a pure sports standpoint, indoor volleyball is more entertaining to watch. Due to the hard surface, the athletes are able to move more quickly and jump higher, which results in longer rallies and harder spikes. My wife is a former volleyball player and she doesn’t like to play on the beach because it’s hard on the ankles and it’s difficult to run and jump. For those reasons, she believes that beach volleyball players are in better shape when compared to their indoor counterparts. And given what I saw at the tourney, it’s hard to disagree.

So how aware are the players of the role that sex plays in their sport? They don’t seem to have a problem playing in bikinis, so they probably understand that it’s part of the game. Is Koester aware that 70% of the fans in attendance are staring at her amazing body? Does she like it? Does she even care?

It would be interesting to hear the answers to these questions, but I get the sense that sex is the dirty little secret around the AVP. Few will address it directly, but everyone knows it’s there and that it’s necessary for the sport to survive. After all, if all the girls started to wear loose-fitting jogging shorts and all the guys wore t-shirts, how much would attendance suffer?

Oh, by the way, the match went three sets, but Koester and Straton ultimately lost, 17-15 in the final set. But I still think she’s a winner.

Here’s a gratuitous video of these beach volleyball players in action. Enjoy.

Photos courtesy of Flickr.

I realize that it’s old news that Kobe Bryant is this year’s MVP. But the league released the vote tally, and the results are interesting.

Player, Total Points (First Place Votes)

Kobe Bryant, 1105 (82)
Chris Paul, 889 (28)
Kevin Garnett, 670 (15)
LeBron James, 438 (1)

In a recent post, I suggested the possibility of Kobe benefiting from a three-way MVP race because Paul and Garnett would split the “nice guy/good teammate” vote, while all of the Kobe believers and apologists would vote for him, allowing Bryant to win the award with a minority of the first-place votes.

Apparently, that was not the case. Paul and Garnett totaled 43 first-place votes, as compared to Kobe’s 82. Sports writers are typically the ones to complain the most about today’s “me-first” athletes, so it’s a little surprising that they would give the award to Bryant after his actions last summer. There’s no doubt that he and the Lakers had a terrific year, and if he hadn’t thrown Andrew Bynum under the bus and demanded a trade, I would agree that he deserved the award.

I think Paul’s relative age and Garnett’s unspectacular stats worked against them.

How the hell did I miss Kige Ramsey “for YouTube Sports” dressed up like a crazy basketball and football head?

That’s just ridiculously awesome. I, like, can’t wait for Halloween now.

According to ESPN.com’s John Clayton, Giants’ defensive end Michael Strahan is “60-40” on retiring before the season starts.

Officially, Michael Strahan is undecided about his future. But he looks and sounds like a player who is going to retire before training camp.

Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce went on the radio and said he thought Strahan was gong to retire. Last summer, he almost did retire. Clearly he doesn’t want to come to training camp, and Tom Coughlin isn’t going to give him a pass that will allow him to take the summer off.

Put the odds at 60-40 for a retirement announcement before training camp.

The key here is that Strahan doesn’t want to go to training camp. He never wants to go to training camp, so take all the retirement talk with a grain of salt. He pulls this crap every year around the same time.

Granted, it’s not nearly as big of a deal as last month’s DUI, but Carmelo Anthony just got a speeding ticket.

Police say Anthony was pulled over Saturday for driving 60 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Driving yourself around isn’t worth the bad pub, Carmelo. Hire yourself a driver, at least until this DUI runs its course.

A woman who was a passenger the night Bears’ running back Cedric Benson was charged with boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest is claiming that Benson was mistreated by police.

“I called my dad and told him, ‘Call 911, my black friend is getting beaten up by police on Lake Travis,’ ” Elizabeth Cartwright told the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s more what I heard than what I saw,'’ said Cartwright, 22, who said she’s a friend of Benson’s from the University of Texas.”

Cartwright said she and her fiance had been boating with Benson about six times this spring, and each time a Lower Colorado River Authority boat pulled them over for a safety check. Saturday, she said, after Benson’s boat passed examination he was taken to a LCRA boat for a sobriety test.

“We were all like, ‘Why?’ ” said Cartwright, adding that Benson had had two drinks. “I know Cedric and I don’t think he was drunk.”

A few minutes later, Cartwright said, she heard Benson scream after an officer pepper-sprayed him in the eye.

An affidavit the LCRA filed described Benson as cocky, smelling strongly of alcohol and needing to be removed forcibly from the boat and eventually falling to the ground. Benson claimed police kicked his feet out from under him, causing him to fall awkwardly.

Something doesn’t smell right here – for either Benson’s party and the police. It’s hard to believe that the police go around pepper spraying people for the hell of it, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut reason why they pulled Benson over in the first place. Then again, I don’t know the boating laws in Texas, either.

The Love of Sports has a beat on the top 10 football video games of all time. No surprise that John Madden’s name came up multiple times.

2. Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl
Released in 1989, Tecmo Bowl included the NFLPA license, which gave fans across the globe a chance to play with the likes of Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Marcus Allen and Walter Payton, to name but a few. And as limited as play selection and graphics were at the time, has anyone forgotten that muzzled voice shouting “Down!” and then proceeding to say “Hut!” over and over until the ball was finally snapped? That was followed by Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991. There’s no doubting how technologically advanced the sequel was in comparison to its predecessor or anything else released at the time. It featured league play that included a standard regular and postseason, as well as practically perfect NFL rosters and player ratings that were actual quite realistic. Simply put, while Madden takes the No. 1 spot for being so dominant for so many years, I can’t help but remember Tecmo Super Bowl for being the single most memorable sports game ever. To this day, almost 20 years later, legions of fans maintain updated versions of this game for online league play, which pretty much says it all. If nothing else, Tecmo Bowl certainly made legends out of Bo Jackson, Christian “The Nigerian Nightmare” Okoye, Randall Cunningham, Lawrence Taylor and Ronnie Lott, amongst others.

Some days I wish I could go back to a time when all that was important in my life was winning a Tecmo Bowl Championship. That music still gets me fired up.

It’s still way too early in the series to write the defending champs off, but I think that even the most ardent San Antonio supporter would admit that things aren’t looking too good. The Spurs entered the series with a serious advantage in playoff experience, but all that’s got them thus far is a pair of 18+ point defeats.

It looks like the Hornets are a horrible matchup for the Spurs. San Antonio’s offense starts with Tony Parker, who is typically able to use his quickness to get into the lane at will. But with the speedy Chris Paul and even speedier Jannero Pargo splitting defensive duties, those driving lanes aren’t nearly as open as they usually are. If Parker’s jumper isn’t falling - and at the moment it isn’t - his effectiveness is severely limited.

Inside, the Hornets are trapping Tim Duncan just about every time he gets the ball. Tyson Chandler is the type of player that can give Duncan problems down low. He’s long and very athletic, and he has enough strength to keep Duncan from getting deep post position. They aren’t trapping every time he gets the ball, and that’s playing mind games with Duncan, who doesn’t know for sure if the double-team is coming. The Hornets’ plan is to get the ball out of Duncan’s hands and force some of these other players - Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley, Kurt Thomas, Ime Udoka, etc. - to beat them. The neat thing is that the Hornets have enough team speed to rotate (or recover) to those perimeter shooters, so those open shots aren’t so open.

In my preview, I suggested that the Hornets might use Julian Wright, the very athletic rookie out of Kansas, to cover Manu Ginobili, and they have. He has long arms and a great motor, and he’s been able to keep Ginobili from getting a good offensive rhythym. They are also surprising Ginobili with the occasional double-team when he’s near the sideline, which contributed to three straight first half turnovers by the reigning Sixth Man of the Year.

Offensively, the Hornets can hurt you in so many ways. Chris Paul looks like he’s toying with Bruce Bowen, and the Spurs simply don’t have a matchup with David West, who is displaying a serious mean streak. Throw in some terrific shooting from Wright, Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson, and the Spurs have their hands full.

Game 3 is an obvious must-win for the Spurs, and I expect them to give it everything they’ve got. There’s still a chance that Pop will make the necessary adjustments and turn the tide of the series, but Byron Scott is no pushover when it comes to strategy.

Apparently Alex Rodriguez has been failing in the clutch for some time now. Just when fans his wife needed him most in 2004, he choked fainted up at the plate during the birth of his first child.

“The one nurse had a cold cloth on his head. The other nurse had the blood pressure on his arm. And my mother was like rubbing his back. And he is passed out on a couch. And I am there, in the middle of labor,” Cynthia Rodriguez, wife of the New York Yankees star, said on an episode of the YES Network’s “YESterdays” that is scheduled to be broadcast Wednesday night.

“And really, I am not being paid much attention to besides the doctor and a couple of nurses,” she said. “And he is there moaning. In between pushing, I am going, ‘Honey, are you OK?’ and ‘Are you breathing? Are you OK?’ ”

Natasha Alexander Rodriguez was born on Nov. 18, 2004.

“As tough and big as he seems, he is real wimpy around doctors or any type of medical situation,” Cynthia Rodriguez said, according to excerpts released Tuesday by YES. “I don’t know why I thought the birth of our child would be different. In the middle of the night, I realized that I needed to go to the hospital. I wake him up. The first thing that comes out of his mouth, ‘Can we call your mother?’ …

A few hours later, I said, ‘I think you can call my mom now.’ Uh, and the color came back to his face when I told him he could call my mom.”

Get a pair A-Rod.

Basketball is a funny game sometimes. On paper, it looked like Boston’s first round series would be a cakewalk. Here you go, Big Three. Here’s a young, inexperienced 37-45 team to sweep before you give your old bones some rest. Or, if you want, you can drop a game in Atlanta so you can give your fans a treat and win Game 5 in front of them.

Only it didn’t work out that way. The young Hawks were a different (i.e. good) team at home. The city of Atlanta, not known for supporting semi-lost causes, turned out in force and gave the Hawks an extra edge at home. While it was interesting to see the Celtics handle a tough series like that, none of these guys wants to play a seven-game series in the first round against a team with a losing record.

Is Boston’s confidence shaken? Maybe not shaken, but there are certainly some chinks in the armor. It remains to be seen whether or not they use the series to circle the wagons, utilizing this ubuntu thing I keep hearing about. But one thing’s for sure - the Celtics move forward knowing that they are not invincible, especially on the road.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers come into the season fresh off an oddly schizophrenic series against the Wizards. It’s clear that those two teams are developing something of a rivalry, so even if neither of the teams were particularly good, the series was still somewhat compelling. The presence and growth of LeBron James is one of the league’s major macro storylines, so in that respect the NBA is fortunate that the Cavs made it to round two. Now the King takes his ragtag band into the lion’s den, to face the mighty Celtics.

The Cavs are 5 to 1 underdogs, and it’s easy to see why. Other than Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron doesn’t have much (experienced) help on the offensive end. There’s the sharp-shooting backcourt of Daniel Gibson and Delonte West, but Wally Szczerbiak has pretty much been a no show since arriving in Cleveland. It’s going to take a superhuman effort from James to keep the Cavs in the series.

Is this a possibility? Sure. Paul Pierce will likely be tasked with covering James that the start, and he’s not known for his defensive prowess. James Posey is probably the C’s best answer for LeBron, but in order to have Pierce, KG and Ray-Ray on the floor at the same time, Pierce will have to guard the Cavs’ power forward – Ben Wallace or Anderson Varejao. The good news is that Allen’s suspect defense shouldn’t be exposed against like it was against Joe Johnson, as neither West nor Gibson drives the ball much. Jesus Shuttlesworth will be asked to stay home on his guy, and that’s something he can do.

I don’t think the Celtics will have much of a problem winning the first two games at home and I think it will be tough for the Cavs to win both Game 3 and Game 4, so this series looks like “Boston in 5.”

SI.com did something cool in their “Photos” section, where they ranked the greatest baseball players of all time by the numbers they wore.

Little disappointed in this though:

No. 1
Oh baby, was he good. In 22 seasons as the Yomiuri Giants’ first baseman, Oh hit 868 home runs, 106 more than Barry Bonds. He led the Japan League in home runs 15 times.

Runner-up: Ozzie Smith

You can’t have the Wizard as a runner-up!