Offseason Movement: The Hornets #1 job this offseason was to lock up Chris Paul, and they managed to sign the superstar point guard to a deal that runs through 2013. GM Jeff Bower poached James Posey from the Celtics in a move that will bolster the team’s bench. He also signed Devin Brown to give the team some depth at guard.
Keep Your Eye On: The Hornets’ wings
In Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler, New Orleans has three of the top players in the league at their respective positions. (Chandler isn’t an offensive force, but he’s a terrific shot blocker and rebounder and his contract is a bargain at the center position.) The key to the Hornets success might be the play at off guard and small forward, which are currently manned by Morris Peterson and Peja Stojakovic, respectively. Both players are 31 and have shown signs of decline. Neither player is a defensive force, so if their shots aren’t falling, there’s really no reason for them to be on the floor. Julian Wright is an up-and-coming small forward who played very well in limited minutes last season and James Posey was signed for his championship experience, tough defense and clutch shooting. Devin Brown will also play a factor.
The Big Question: Can the Paul/West combo lead these Hornets to the Finals?
Both Paul (23) and West (28) are in their primes so the championship window is wide open. They nearly upended the Spurs in last year’s playoffs and have added a valuable piece (Posey) to their championship puzzle. The Hornets need good shooting from their wings to give Paul and West the space to operate. Whomever is on the floor in crunch time needs to be able to knock down shots because inevitably the Hornets’ season will depend on it.
Outlook: With Paul locked up for five years and West locked up for the next three, the Hornets are clearly in their championship sweet spot. But it seems like the team is one player away from being a serious title contender. Stojakovic was supposed to be that guy, but his defensive limitations and suspect shooting in the clutch may make the Hornets regret signing that huge contract two summers ago (if they aren’t already regretting it). Don’t be surprised if Posey gets a lot of crunch time minutes. If he can perform like he did with the Celtics last season, the Hornets have a good shot of getting out of the West.
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From Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback:
I think I’d be surprised if the Baltimore Ravens did not have some sort of bounty — financial or otherwise — or at least some quiet pact, to try to knock Hines Ward onto the Pittsburgh sideline when they meet Dec. 14 in Baltimore. And though Terrell Suggs has sanitized his initial statements on bounties with a statement issued through the team’s PR staff (the most carefully sculpted, crafted words that Suggs has ever been assisted in feeling, if you know what I mean), it’s probably better to listen to the man who was Suggs’ head coach with the Ravens until this year.
Writing on his WNST.net “Brian Billick’s Blog” in Baltimore, Billick opined: “So-called ‘bounties’ by players [are] a commonplace occurrence in any locker room and similar to the bravado displayed on most schoolyards. Players are constantly motivating each other by putting a certain amount of money in a pool and the cash going to the player that ‘knocks’ so-and-so out of a game, or gets an interception for a TD, or pancakes a defender on a running play. This is standard operating procedure in virtually every locker room in the NFL … What is worth commenting on is how stupid it is to talk about it afterward. Locker room talk should be just that.”
Pretty revealing.
I kind of downplayed the issue when it first came out, but maybe the whole “bounty” issue is a big, underlying issue in the NFL. Still, what can the league do about it? They can fine players if they talk about it later but other than that, how are they going to stop players from getting together over the phone or secretly in the locker room and having money on trying to knock an opponent out?
The Love of Sports ranks the top 10 current pound for pound MMA fighters. The intro explains how the writer, E. Spencer Kyte, compiled the rankings.
1. Much like the BCS, strength of schedule counts. While Anderson Silva made like The Governator and kicked the bejesus out of “The Predator,” he still stands behind Georges St. Pierre, whose performance against Jon Fitch was far more impressive than “The Spider” showed against Patrick Cote.
2. You don’t fight, you don’t get ranked, simple as that. Randy Couture’s undoubtedly one of the best pound for pound practitioners in the business when he’s inside The Octagon. Problem is, he hasn’t set foot inside The Octagon since August 2007. Same rules apply to Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.
3. After those other two, it all comes down to personal preferences.
1. Georges St. Pierre
“Rush” still stands at the top of the heap, primarily for the reason already mentioned above. The secondary reason would fall to #3 – he’s Canadian, I’m Canadian.2. Anderson Silva
What else is there for this man to do? Regardless of how uninspiring his win at UFC 90 may have been, he’s still won eight fights in a row and doesn’t have a challenger at 185. Maybe Dana White should stop being critical of him and give him the dream fight against Chuck Liddell he’s been asking for.3. Fedor Emelianenko
The more I think about “The Last Emperor” and his destruction of Tim Sylvia at “Affliction: Banned,” the more I think he deserves top billing on this list. As the fine folks at Fighter! magazine so intelligently said it, Emelianenko did to Sylvia in 36 seconds what it took Randy Couture five rounds to accomplish.4. B.J. Penn
Personally, I really would’ve liked to see “The Prodigy” take another fight in between waiting for GSP in early-ish 2009. Kenny Florian was willing and waiting, but that’s just the fight fan in me complaining. A win over GSP would not only avenge an earlier loss, but also send Penn to the top of this chart.5. Urijah Faber
Hurricane Ike could only delay Michael Thomas Brown’s destiny to be added to the roll call of challengers disposed of by “The California Kid.” Words can’t explain how much I’d love to see Faber tack on five or 10 pounds, move up to lightweight and really show if he’s as good as we think he is or simply the big fish in a shallow featherweight pool.
No Kimbo Slice? Oh, I forgot – he’s a fraud.
SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has the story of some Phillies fans that unsurprisingly haven’t treated Ray fans too well during the Series.
During Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday night, Rays family members and employees say they were harassed and abused by Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park to an unacceptable degree.
Children were cursed at, and one 9-year-old boy had beer poured on him. A Rays family member stayed locked in a bathroom stall because, he said, Phillies fans were banging on the walls and threatening him.
Also, according to a quote from Rays manager Joe Maddon before game four last night, his granddaughter spent her Saturday night getting pelted with mustard packets.
“I think it’s really humorous, actually. Down by the dugout I had a good time with a bunch of guys sitting up in the stands. I was actually giving a guy a hard time for drinking Coors Light in Philadelphia. We went back and forth with that, and I said where’s the Schmidt’s? At least some Rolling Rock. Don’t be going with Coors Light. It’s so unfashionable for a Philly dude. So I was all over him about that, so we had a good time. I mean, the biggest part is my families. If we could do something about that, throwing mustard packs at my granddaughter is not very cool. The other part about it I’m good with. If you want to be vociferous with us, I am fine with that. If you want to have arguments about the Coors Light versus Rolling Rock, I’m good with that, but leave the families alone.”
While I don’t mind when the home fans give visiting fans crap from time to time, why in the hell do Phillies fans have to go after kids? Pouring a beer on, or throwing mustard at children? Seriously? Is that what you have to do to feel like a badass?
I mean, a beer is expensive enough. In these tough economic times you should not be pouring it over anybody’s head, let alone a kid, you should be drinking it. Of course, it’s probably drinking the beers that got us into this mess in the first place. Phillies fans did have to sit around for an extra hour and a half before the start of game three, which gave them plenty of extra time to down the beers.
Amen.
This is how Bill Cosby gets ready for an exciting Tuesday MAC football game between his alma mater Temple Owls and the Ohio Bobcats. (Or Ohio Chicken Lings?)
His face at the end of the clip is priceless.
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