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      Sources: Free agency summit happened over the weekend

      June 29, 2010 /

      LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh apparently met over the weekend in South Florida to discuss the possibility of playing together next season for the Miami Heat.

      Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball — Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James — met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade’s Heat.

      One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was “non-committal” with the start of free agency fast approaching.

      Earlier Monday, Fox Sports Radio’s Stephen A. Smith reported on his morning radio show and via his Twitter feed that James and Bosh have committed to joining Wade in Miami. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, in a report on its website Monday afternoon, quoted a source close to Wade as saying that the 2006 NBA Finals MVP “believes his team is poised to pull off a free-agency coup” by signing James and Bosh and re-signing Wade.

      Chris Broussard is on SportsCenter as I type saying that the trio left the meeting “without a verbal commitment” because LeBron has been “non-committal.” He’s torn about leaving Cleveland and is intrigued about playing for the Bulls.

      Unless Pat Riley is able to move Michael Beasley, this trio would currently have to take less-than-max money to play together in Miami. Currently, the Heat have enough cap space to sign three players at contracts that start at $14.7 million per season, but the fact that Florida has no state tax is a big ‘pro’ in the Heat’s favor. If pragmatism outweighs egoism, the trio could create a dynasty for the next five seasons in South Florida.

      I wonder about LeBron’s willingness to join a franchise that has won a title recently and is known around the league as ‘Wade’s team.’ If he’s mainly interested in winning championships, Miami may be the place to be, but there are other factors involved, no matter what LeBron and his camp say. The other issue is that if the three do join forces, the expectation will be that they will win a title every year, and anything less will be a major disappointment.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Five things we learned from the United States’ run at the World Cup

      June 29, 2010 /

      The United States is out of the 2010 World Cup and the most remarkable thing about that fact is that most of the country knows it. Record-breaking audiences in America watched their national soccer team match England, get robbed of a victory against Slovenia and dazzle in the late minutes against Algeria. This was all en route to the knockout stage — a destination they were expected to make given their pool. But nobody cared about that — only a small percentage of Americans watching knew any back story about their team. They cared because their friend cared, or their neighbor, co-worker or sibling. Everybody seemed to be watching, or was curious at the very least. It left as quickly as it arrived — the excitement — but in its brief period, the American public — a people largely disinterested in the sport — got themselves a fast and free education about the beautiful game.

      1. Soccer is not a beautiful game.

      I wasn’t around to witness the Pele-era Brazil teams run circles around other nations with short passes, dead-on accurate crosses and goals kissed into the net with just the right touch. But I’ve seen footage, and I played on and against enough teams growing up to experience soccer as a cruel game of keep-away, where one side has the otherworldly chemistry to never lose control of the ball. It’s amazing. It’s art. It’s not the 2010 World Cup. Players flop all over place, turning the pitch into a minefield of prima donnas. As frustration builds, cooler heads don’t prevail, and they commit fouls. Of course, the center referee is blowing his whistle every 30 seconds attempting to keep things in order. But nothing is. It’s sloppy soccer — soccer with brute force. Goals in this World Cup are made on indecent opportunities — when the other team has its guard down, or a referee is too scared to be sure.

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      External Sports, Soccer, World Cup

      Cardinals interested in Mariners’ Cliff Lee

      June 28, 2010 /

      And this week’s Cliff Lee rumor is brought to you by…Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse and Rotoworld!

      Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse has confirmed that the Cardinals are indeed interested in Mariners lefty Cliff Lee.

      Where the talks currently stand is anyone’s guess. The Cardinals have a very thin farm system and really only boast one top prospect: 19-year-old potential ace Shelby Miller, who has struck out 60 batters in 44 1/3 innings at Single-A this season. If a deal is to happen, he will need to be part of it. Lee, 31, has a 2.39 ERA, a 0.91 WHIP and an incredible 76/4 K/BB ratio through 11 starts this year. He has thrown four complete games, one shutout.

      The Mariners are looking for young bats in exchange for Lee and as Rotoworld points out, the Cards are a little thin in that area. If (and that’s a big if) the Rangers were able to overcome their financial restrictions and get involved, then it would be hard for St. Louis to match the compensation that Texas could offer out of its farm.

      That said, the Cards have already shown that they’ll do whatever it takes to add missing pieces, as they proved last year by trading for Matt Holliday (who provided much-needed protection behind Albert Pujols). If there’s a deal to be worked out and St. Louis is seriously interested, then expect the Cards to be major players in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, MLB

      Are the Bucs moving in the right direction?

      June 28, 2010 /

      Two years ago, the Buccaneers appeared destined for another playoff run after amassing a 9-3 record behind veteran players like Derrick Brooks, Jeff Garcia, Stylez G. White, Barrett Ruud, Kevin Carter and Antonio Bryant.

      But the team faded down the stretch, losing all four of its remaining games (including an embarrassing defeat to the hapless Raiders in the final week of the year) to miss the playoffs entirely. Following the season, both head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen were fired and replaced by the experienced Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik, respectively.

      Last year was a disaster for Morris and the Bucs, who finished 3-13 and statistically had one of the worst offenses in the league. Until Morris took over the play calling duties midway through the season, the once proud Tampa Bay defense also took a significant step back from what it was earlier in the decade under former coordinator Monte Kiffin (who left the team following the ’08 season to coach with his son at the University of Tennessee).

      But one of the main reasons the Glazers fired Gruden and Allen was because of the pair’s desire to rely mostly on veteran players. There was a lot of turnover from year to year under Gruden and Allen and the Glazers felt as though the two weren’t building a young core that could compete for many years, not just one.

      Continue reading »

      External Sports, NFL

      Vince Young unlikely to be suspended

      June 28, 2010 /

      While speaking at the NFL’s Rookie Symposium over the weekend, commissioner Roger Goodell said that Titans’ quarterback Vince Young is unlikely to be suspended following an incident in which he punched a man in a strip club earlier this month.

      From FOX Sports.com:

      Goodell acknowledged that a first-time legal offender like Young is unlikely to face an NFL suspension. Young, though, is guilty of embarrassing the NFL with a physical confrontation that was caught on the strip club’s security camera.

      When announcing a six-game suspension for Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in April, Goodell said one of the reasons for the punishment stemmed from behavior that “undermines or puts at risk the integrity and reputation of the NFL, NFL clubs or players.”

      Asked whether Young did the same and if that would factor into his final decision, Goodell said, “I think you have to look at these cases individually and understand them in a way of what are the issues going on with any individual. The intent of the (personal conduct) policy is to intervene so you help some individuals make a better decision and avoid these troubles. So when I sit down and look at all the facts around Vince or any other player, you want to make sure they understand that and what the policy was designed to do and more importantly understand the responsibility (of being an NFL player).”

      Some think that Goodell is too harsh on players and maybe he is. But the thing he does well is look at each situation separately when it comes to making a decision about whether or not to punish a player. If he needs to compare two separate incidents in order to determine the appropriate punishment for a player he will, but he’s not going to suspend Young for six games just because he served Big Ben for that amount. Nor should he.

      Young made a mistake, but this was also the first time he’s been in any sort of trouble. Goodell recognizes that and while he can’t be pleased that the incident occurred, I think it’s fair that Young goes without punishment.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, NFL

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