This is a great dunk and a great call by the play-by-play guy (whose name I can’t remember at the moment).
Month: May 2008 (Page 17 of 28)
Here’s something laughable: Jeff Garcia is threatening to hold out if the Bucs don’t show him some more love (i.e. $).
“There might come a time when I might have to stand up,’’ Garcia said. “I hate to do that to jeopardize my teammates because they’re out here, and I don’t want to let them down in any sort of way. But at some point you just want to see the respect from up top.’’
Garcia first made it clear he was unhappy with the status of contract negotiations last month. He is entering the final year of a two-year deal worth $7 million and is believed to be seeking an extension that will bring his total payout to the league average for starters, which is roughly $7 million.
What? He’s 37-years old and the only reason he got a $7 million contract last offseason was because he played well in seven games with the Eagles the year before. Considering his talents are limited to say the least, he should be happy that he’s still starting in the league and understand that Jon Gruden’s offense is a damn good fit. He was great for the Bucs last year (and the Eagles the year before), but I just don’t understand complaining about your contract when you just signed it a year ago.
It appears that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league is done handing out punishment to Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots regarding Spygate.
After meeting with ex-Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh for three and a half hours Tuesday and reviewing the tapes Walsh presented, the NFL will not further penalize the Patriots regarding the SpyGate affair.
According to commissioner Roger Goodell, Walsh claimed there was no Rams Super Bowl walkthrough tape, he never saw such a tape, and that Walsh was on the sidelines during the practice in full Patriots gear. Other than filming signals, Walsh said he knew of no other cheating by New England. Walsh did say the Pats allowed players on injured reserve to practice, which is against league rules, and that players scalped Super Bowl tickets. Goodell says the NFL will look into those issues, but has no plans to take action. This appears to be the end of SpyGate, finally.
So the question becomes – was Goodell too soft on Belicheat and the Pats? With the top 10 pick they got from San Francisco in a draft day trade last year, the Pats still made out pretty well despite Goodell stripping them of their first round pick (No. 31 overall). I’m not the right person to determine what the best form of punishment should have been, but from an outsiders perspective, it definitely looks like the Pats got off easy for being caught red handed.
Hall of Fame pitcher and former Yankee Goose Gossage has taken issue with current Bronx Bomber reliever Joba Chamberlain’s excessive celebration tactics.
“There’s no place for it in the game,” Gossage told reporters Monday during a tour of the Hall of Fame, according to MLB.com. “I will stand by that and I love Joba Chamberlain. I’m with him down in spring training. He’s a great kid, but no one is passing the torch today. Nobody talks to them. When I broke into the big leagues, I didn’t say two words all year.”
“That’s just not the Yankee way, what Joba did. Let everyone else do that stuff, but not a Yankee,” Gossage told The Record on Saturday. “What I don’t understand is, the kid’s got the greatest mentor in the world in Mariano [Rivera]. He’s one of the leaders of the team, so you’d think it wouldn’t happen on that team.
“I’m trying to think of what would’ve happened if I did what Joba did, especially if I was a rookie,” he told The Record. “The veterans would’ve sat me down so fast, it would’ve never happened a second time. Truthfully, there would’ve never been a first time.”
Excessive celebration will always be an issue in MLB. Every player is just foaming at the mouth, ready to get pissed off when someone “shows them up.” I like a little emotion in the game (after all, it is still a game isn’t it?), but I also agree with Gossage in that it’s more professional to go out there, do your job and act like you’ve been there before. I don’t think it will get this far, but baseball doesn’t need any Terrell Owens-type show boaters to take away from the game like the NFL has. I like Joba’s fire, but maybe Gossage is right and the kid needs to turn it down a notch.
In a word… yes. But the Knicks probably aren’t the right fit for Mike D’Antoni.
This may not make much sense, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Given the right personnel, D’Antoni’s brand of up-tempo basketball can win over any group of fans, even the rough and tumble fans in New York. But a quick look at the Knicks’ roster makes me wonder just how quickly D’Antoni can successfully implement that high-octane attack.
He’ll first need to find a quick, pass-first point guard to push the tempo and hit the open man. Last season, the Knicks had Stephon Marbury, Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford running the point. If reined in, Marbury probably has the skills to run D’Antoni’s system, but there is just too much history there for him to succeed. Robinson and Crawford are both scoring point guards, and while they have the offensive ability to thrive at the off guard position, they don’t have the court vision to run the point like Steve Nash does in Phoenix. So what’s the solution? Barring the unlikely event that they can land Derrick Rose in the draft, the Knicks need to jettison Marbury as quickly as they can and do whatever it takes to acquire T.J. Ford from Toronto. Ford is expendable there because the Raptors will want to re-sign Jose Calderon. If that means that the Knicks have to give up Robinson, so be it.
Next, he’ll need to surround Ford (or whomever he chooses to run the show) with rangy, athletic shooters. Crawford, Quentin Richardson (who played for D’Antoni in Phoenix) and Robinson (if he’s still around) should fit, while Wilson Chandler has also shown some ability in limited minutes.
Finally, he needs big men who can rebound, run the floor and hit an open jumper. Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph certainly don’t fit that mold, but David Lee does. Renaldo Balkman looks like a gritty, do-the-little-things kind of guy that D’Antoni will want to keep around.
It’s not going to be easy, but with a starting lineup of Ford, Crawford, Richardson, Lee and a to-be-determined athletic power forward-type that can run the floor and rebound (Francisco Elson and Kurt Thomas will be free agents this summer), along with a fresh outlook on the game that stresses always making the extra pass, will combine to make the Knicks competitive in their first year under D’Antoni.
It’s true that D’Antoni would probably have a much easier time getting the Bulls, with their core of good, young players, back to the playoffs, but there’s something that has to be attractive about being the guy to bring good basketball back to New York. If the team is successful in trading away Curry and Randolph, they should have the cap room to sign a big name free agent in the summer of 2010. The big question is – will D’Antoni last that long?
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