Month: January 2010 (Page 25 of 65)

No LeBron in the dunk contest

Last year, he said he was going to play. Last week, he said he was 50/50. Today, the participants for the Slam Dunk contest were announced, and surprise-suprise, LeBron’s name wasn’t on the list.

2009 Sprite Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks will attempt to become the first three-time winner of the competition when he defends his title on NBA All-Star Saturday Night, Feb. 13, at American Airlines Center (8 p.m. ET on TNT) in Dallas. Robinson will compete against the Charlotte Bobcats’ Gerald Wallace and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shannon Brown.

The Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Eric Gordon will compete in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk-In, a single-round slam dunk competition that will be held at halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on Friday, Feb. 12.

I’m interested to see what Shannon Brown can do. He’s a smallish guy (6’4″ passes for small these days) with great hops.

It’s a bummer that LeBron refuses to participate, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

Forget about running up the score – the Vikings’ decision was just stupid

After his team ran up the score in yesterday’s 34-3 win over the Cowboys, I found it comical what Vikings head coach Brad Childress said in his post game presser:

“As Lou Holtz used to say, ‘It’s our job to score points. It’s their job to stop us from scoring points.’ That happens. It wasn’t rubbing it in. It’s just taking care of business and being aggressive at the end of the game.”

After spending some time reading people’s opinions on this topic, it appears that many Minnesota fans are taking Childress’ stance. Hey, the Cowboys’ defenders are paid to stop opponents’ offenses. So if they didn’t want to be scored on, then they shouldn’t have quit on that final play. Also, Keith Brooking is a crybaby whiner that should go back to his crybaby whiner mother and have her feed him out of a bottle labeled: My Little Crybaby.

The other stance that Minnesota fans seem to be taking is that Brett Favre should now be treated like a baby bird and protected at all cost. With the way they’re backing Favre’s every move right now, I wouldn’t be shocked if a group of Viking fans attempted to eat some food and regurgitate it back into Brett’s mouth.

Of course, there are a great deal of people that think the Vikings are classless for what they did, or at the very least displayed poor sportsmanship.

But regardless of what stance you’ve taken on this topic, it’s hard to deny that it was an unnecessary move for the Vikings. The Cowboys were out of timeouts, they couldn’t stop the clock following the two-minute warning and therefore it was virtually impossible that they were going to erase a 24-point deficit at that point. It’s not like this is the BCS and the Vikings needed style points – the game was over and therefore there was no need for a pass in that situation.

I wonder how Minnesota fans that have fully endorsed what the Vikings did would have acted if Favre snapped his femur while dropping back to pass. Think about the outrage that would have ensued had the Vikings’ Super Bowl hopes been dashed on a meaningless play late in a game that they already had locked up. Fans would have been calling for Childress’ head instead of wanting a picture of him and Favre re-painted to resemble “The Creation of Adam” on the Metrodome’s ceiling.

Forget the fact that Brooking and the Cowboys should have stopped the Vikings if they didn’t want to be embarrassed. It was a flat out stupid decision and an unnecessary risk by Childress and Favre to throw in that situation and they’re fortunate that something disastrous didn’t happen.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

Watch the drama before the Lane Kiffin press conference [video]

This video was taken before Lane Kiffin sat down to speak to the Knoxville media about his decision to leave Tennessee to take the USC job. One television reporter (or producer?) doesn’t want to agree to Kiffin’s terms. It’s pretty funny to watch thirty people trip over each other trying to get a stupid press conference started.

Suns hope to break TNT jinx

This is an amazing stat, courtesy of the Arizona Republic

The Suns have lost 17 consecutive games that have been broadcast by the network. The peculiar streak will continue or end today when they face the Grizzlies, who have won eight consecutive home games.

This streak is crazy, especially considering that the Suns have been pretty good for several years now. You’d think they would win at least 50% of TNT games, yet they’ve put together 17-straight losses. The Grizzlies are no pushovers either.

The game is at 5:30 ET, on…you guessed it…TNT.

Ravens’ Ed Reed contemplating retirement

Following the Ravens’ 20-3 loss to the Colts on Saturday night, safety Ed Reed indicated that he might retire in the offseason.

Reed is only 31, but hip, neck and groin injuries limited his mobility and production throughout the season. He told the Baltimore Sun that he would speak with his medical team soon and then make a final decision about whether or not to continue his playing career. He indicated that he has aspirations to coach at the college level and might peruse those interests sooner rather than later.

When healthy, Reed still plays at a high level and it would be surprising if he hung ‘em up with $19.7 million left on his remaining contract. Money isn’t everything, but if he can fully recover in the offseason and enter the 2010 season with a full bill of health, it’s doubtful that he would retire.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

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