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      Lakers are playing hardball with Odom

      July 30, 2009 /

      Trevor Ariza tried to play hardball…and lost. Lamar Odom tried to play hardball…and the Lakers aren’t budging. If anything, they’re less interested in bringing Odom back.

      Odom’s choices, as of lunchtime Thursday, were the same choices he’s been mulling all week. Informed sources say the Lakers’ latest offer is in the area of $25 million over three years, down from the $27 million over three years that was taken off the table earlier this month by Lakers owner Jerry Buss.

      As ESPN.com reported Monday, should the 29-year-old decide to reunite with Dwyane Wade and Pat Riley after haggling with the Lakers for so long, Odom likely will be deciding between a five-year, $34 million deal that includes a provision to return to free agency after the fourth season or a four-year deal with an opt-out clause after three years.

      Keep in mind that with California’s state income tax (10% for $1 million-plus), the Lakers’ offer is essentially three years for $22.5 million, or $7.5 million per season. Florida has no state income tax, so Miami’s offer (~$6.8 million per season) looks to be the better offer since it has about $12 million more in guaranteed money. If these numbers are accurate, it makes sense why Odom is dragging this out. It seems like he wants to stay in L.A., but he doesn’t really want to take a reduced offer.

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Report: Big Papi, Manny test positive for PEDs in 2003

      July 30, 2009 /

      According to a report by the New York Times, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

      Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.

      The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.

      Unlike Ramirez, who recently served a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, Ortiz had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing substances.

      This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed baseball over the past decade. When Manny was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a woman’s fertility drug often used to mask the use of steroids, you would have had to been naive to think that he wasn’t on something. And considering Big Papi admitted back in February that he works out at the gym of suspected steroids supplier Angel Presinal, nobody should be surprised that his name is on the ’03 list either.

      Bud Selig needs to get with the player’s union immediately and discuss releasing the rest of the names on that list. Ramirez, Ortiz, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have already been outed and baseball should just do itself a favor by releasing the rest of the names. Because guess what? The names will come out, whether it’s one at a time, two at a time, etc.

      But the union will never allow it. They’ll continue to believe that this situation will eventually go away and that the fans will someday rejoice and call baseball “America’s Game” again. But we won’t. We know the game was tainted for over a decade and the accomplishments of Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Ramirez and Ortiz mean very little because they had help. The union, the owners, the players and everyone else in Major League Baseball is fooling themselves if they believe more names aren’t going to come out.

      Related Stories:

      – Ortiz issues statement about positive ’03 test

      MLB

      Erin Andrews’ 911 call surfaces

      July 30, 2009 /

      Erin Andrews is having one hell of a month. First she was videoed naked via a peephole in the privacy of her hotel room, now she’s got perv paparazzi hanging out on the outside of her house just waiting to snap a picture of her.

      Audio of a 911 call Andrews made after spotting two members of the paparazzi outside her home has surfaced online and during the call, Erin vents her frustration over what has happened the past couple months.

      “I have been in the news recently about being in the hotel naked and I have paparazzi outside and I was told by law enforcement that if I did, to call 911,” Andrews told a 911 operator, before offering a description of the men. She then added “I did nothing wrong and I’m being treated like fucking Britney Spears and it sucks.”

      Erin must feel like she’s in a real life movie of “Enemy of the State,” where she’s being video taped through peepholes and having (what should be) private conversations being put online for everyone to hear.

      I feel bad for her. Yes, she has cashed in on her sexuality. But nobody deserves to have their privacy invaded like this. The peephole prank crossed the line and while the 911 call was nowhere near as bad as being shown over the internet in your birthday suit while in your hotel room, it still must be infuriating to Andrews.

      She’d probably have to quit ESPN, but if I were her I’d give the double-fingered salute to everyone and pose in Playboy. What the hell – everyone has already seen me naked anyway? Might as well get paid (very well) for it. That might be the wrong attitude to have and I’m sure she would never go that route, but I’d want to be compensated for all the bullshit that I had to endure over the past couple weeks.

      General Sports, News

      Warriors trade Belinelli

      July 30, 2009 /

      In a small but somewhat strange move, the Golden State Warriors have traded Marco Belinelli for Devean George.

      Belinelli, 23, played sparingly as a rookie and at the start of last season, but other injuries forced the Warriors to play him consistently and he had a 13-game stretch where he averaged 16 points and shot better than 50 percent in eight of those games. He also made 46 of his last 113 3-point attempts (40.7 percent.).

      Other than maybe being in Don Nelson’s doghouse, I can’t think of a reason why the Warriors would make this trade. Devean George is 31 and has a career average of 5.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. His PER hasn’t been above 10 in the last three years and it has never been above 12 in his entire career. Why give up a prospect like Belinelli, who showed some promise in his rookie season? In 15 games in December, he averaged 14.1 points, 3.2 assists and 2.6 rebounds, and shot 38% from long range. His overall shooting percentage (44%) wasn’t bad for a rookie off guard.

      George’s contract is expiring this year, but the Warriors had a team option on Belinelli next summer that they didn’t have to exercise. Golden State is projected to be over the cap, so Belinelli’s 2010 salary ($2.4 million) would have cost the team almost $4.8 million with the luxury tax. I guess they just decided to cut bait.

      This is a head-scratcher.

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Childress: No chance on reconsidering Favre

      July 30, 2009 /

      Judd Zuglad of the Minnesota Star-Tribune posted a quote on his Twitter page from Vikings head coach Brad Childress that said:

      “There is not a chance from my standpoint,” Childress said of Favre talks resuming.

      Of course, NFL.com’s Jason La Confora writes that Childress would welcome Brett back under the right conditions.

      Let’s see, in the past 24 hours Brett Favre has called Vikings coach Brad Childress to say he’s done, then he began telling various former coaches, media people, analysts, whomever, that he’s gonna keep throwing the ball, and how hard the decision was and that if somebody called him Nov. 1, well, heck, he’d probably have to listen and think about it some. So, in essence, it’s just the same old thing. This guy doesn’t know how to retire. Giving up football is so counter to his very nature that he’s becoming the poster boy for wishy-washy antics (John Kerry was dubbed a flip-flopper for far less, it seems), and drawing criticism for self indulgence.

      Maybe the NFL is a league of skeptics, but I spoke to a lot of people who think it’s far from over. Injuries will occur and the opportunity to ride in as a savior could well develop. A lack of production from the quarterback position — a recent tradition for the Vikings and a reality across the league — could well put Favre right back in Minnesota, and there are people within that organization who believe that Childress would welcome him back under the right conditions.

      Personally, I hope Childress means what he said about not reconsidering signing Favre. On one hand, he owes it to his players to field the best team possible to win. But on the other, he owes Sage Rosnefels and Tarvaris Jackson the opportunity to compete against each other in training camp knowing that Favre isn’t going to come in once all the hard work has been put in and stake the starting job.

      It wouldn’t be fair to Rosenfels or Jackson if Favre skipped all the two and three-a-days, then was named the starter just because he’s Brett Favre. The Vikings gave Brett a chance to play and he decided not to. Cool, it should be a done deal in Minnesota then and hopefully Childress sticks to his guns.

      NFL

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