Listen in as Michael Phelps talks to ESPN about his achievement at the Bejing Games, what’s in store for London in 2012 and, most importantly, what it feels like to have Chad Johnson challenge him to a race.
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Maybe the most memorable part of Michael Phelps’ wonderful Olympic run was the finish of the 100m butterfly. He won the race by 0.01 seconds, so the finish was too close to call even in slow motion. SI.com has a cool frame-by-frame breakdown of the last moments of the race.
Be sure to check out the whole thing, because it’s interesting to see how Phelps’ final half-stroke actually won him the race (when, at the time, he thought it was going to lose him the race). Here’s the final shot for those that still wonder if he was the first to touch the wall. Phelps is on the left.
Real German Dirk Nowitzki and fake German Chris Kaman were no match for the U.S. men’s basketball team, who trounced Deutschland, 106-57.
The U.S. is three wins away from its first gold medal since 2000. First up is Australia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
The U.S. didn’t wait to dispose of the Germans. The U.S. jumped out to a 20-3 lead, with LeBron James capping the run with a dunk, a bucket and a 3-pointer.
The U.S. led 53-29 at halftime, and the rest of the night was garbage time.
Asked afterward what it will take to beat the U.S., the American-born German center Chris Kaman replied, “No one’s gonna beat ’em.”
Once again, defense was the story for the U.S. The Americans limited Germany to 30 percent shooting from the floor and forced 18 turnovers.
Team USA shot 42% from long range, which is encouraging, but they need to take that accuracy with them into the medal round. They still make careless passes at times, and their 13 turnovers against a team like Germany are too many.
On a side note, Chris Kaman has been criticized for deciding to play with the Germans in these Olympics. Even his dad isn’t happy about it. I’m not happy about it either. I think, in a way, he’s betraying his country. It’s a positive for Chris Kaman the basketball player to have the opportunity to play against good competition in the summer, but he’s working against U.S. interests. If you’re born and raised in the U.S., you’re not good enough to make the U.S. team, and even your dad says you shouldn’t play for another country, then you should probably just stay home.
U.S. begins the round of eight against Australia at 8 AM ET Wednesday morning (on the USA Network). The Aussies gave the U.S. men a tough game in a warm-up match, and they didn’t even have a healthy Andrew Bogut in that game. Argentina and Greece square off in the other quarterfinal on the Americans’ side of the bracket.
As Steve Jackson holdout nears almost a month, the St. Louis Dispatch reports that he and the Rams have had no recent dialogue about extending his contract.
So the holdout continues. As of Sunday, the Pro Bowl running back had missed 24 days of training camp and the preseason, 24 practices and two preseason games. At $15,116 per day, his fine total stands at $362,784 — or just under the minimum base salary for a second-year NFL player.
For the first time, Rams coach Scott Linehan conceded Sunday that time is of the essence in getting Jackson ready for the season opener Sept. 7 in Philadelphia.
“It is getting critical to where time now becomes more of an issue for just the physical part of getting ready for the opener,” Linehan said. “Every day we miss now … does start to factor in as to what the workload will be from the start.
One has to believe that the Rams will eventually get this mess figured out, but will it be sooner rather than later? Antonio Pittman has received the bulk of the carries in the preseason and while he has shown flashes of potential, he can’t duplicate what Jackson does for the Rams’ offense in both the running and passing game. And at only 25 years old, Jackson is just starting to reach his prime so it’s imperative that St. Louis reaches a deal with the star back.
Peter King of SI.com wonders aloud if Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning will be ready to play by Week 1 of the NFL season after having an infected bursa sac near his left knee removed in mid July.
After surgery, the knee was immobilized — for two weeks, I was told — and the infection treated with antibiotics to be sure it was totally eradicated from Manning’s system. “Then the incision had to heal,” said Polian. “That’s fine now. Now he begins — he’s begun — range-of-motion exercises. He’s in that process now. Now he’s at the point where Mother Nature has to take over. He’s close to optimum range of motion now. He’s on schedule, with no bumps in the road.”
Here’s the big problem, as I see it. Polian says the doctors are not going to clear Manning unless they’re sure he can maneuver in the pocket and has the leg strength to play an NFL game. Now, if Manning spent the second half of July (or more) with the leg immobilized, with a little longer to wait before normal activity could be resumed, the resulting muscle atrophy would take a while to get over. Thus, as of Sunday, Manning was working hard to make sure he get could full range of motion and normal flexion in the knee.
Considering he’s never missed a game in his career, the Manning-bursa sac story has been a relatively quiet one so far this summer. But King is right – this might become a huge issue in about a week if Manning can’t practice. In terms of being familiar with the playbook and offense, obviously Manning has zero learning curve to worry about seeing as how he knows Tom Moore’s system like the back of his hand. But it’s a different animal when you consider Manning still has to get his timing back with his receivers and get his legs ready for a full 16-game season.
It’s easy to say, “Well it’s Peyton Manning – he’s going to play.” But even if he does, will he be 100%? There has to be some concerns brewing within the Colts’ organization, even if they do believe Jim Sorgi (who has never started an NFL regular season game) is a capable backup.
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