Sports, Sports and more Sports

No Super Bowl for the Niners and the Ravens

2012-01-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

The Giants and the Patriots are getting ready to re-enact Super Bowl 42 in a couple of weeks. The combination of a missed field goal by the Ravens and a made field goal by the Giants on Sunday prevented a Har-bowl. Tough day for the Harbaughs, but I ain't shedding a tear for that family. They have it pretty good with both brothers making millions as prestigious head coaches in the NFL. Considering there are only 32 of those jobs in the entire world, the Harbaughs hold 6.25% of all NFL head coaching jobs under the sun. So they will be fine. But life is all perspective and I am sure that entire family is feeling horrible this week given the way both teams lost. Jim Harbaugh made his family's catch-phrase the 49'ers war cry - "who's got better than us?". Well, the real answer is - Tom Brady. The guy got another Super Bowl trip gifted to him by the Ravens. He sure is talented and a great QB and is rarely outplayed by other QBs, but Joe Flacco actually outplayed him and looked good against that horrible Patriots defense. Brady was going against the better defense, but he didn't even have a passing TD in this game - something that's unheard of this season.

Flacco's throw to Lee Evans that would have won the game at the end of the game was just perfect. In fact, it was a little too perfect as it fell on Evans lap and surprised him just enough to let a defender knock it out of his hands. One could still argue that Evans controlled the ball and then fumbled it. And that should have made it a TD because the ball broke the plane. But the zebras thought otherwise. As if that's not enough of a good fortune for Brady, hoody and the Patriots, the Ravens then miss a game tying field goal that would have at least sent the game to OT. Poor kicker Billy Cundiff missed a short, 32 yard field goal and lost the game for his team. I liked how his teammates, especially Ray Lewis stuck up for him and said all the right things. I am beginning to like Ray Lewis more and more as he ages and moves away from the murder scandal back in the day. But I do feel for that team because Ray Lewis and Ed Reed are getting up there in age. They had a great shot at another Super Bowl appearance but Cundiff kicked it away. There is no guarantee they get there back again - not in that division with the Steelers. There is also some talk about how the scoreboard in the Patriots stadium threw Cundiff off with the wrong down and distance information. You can't help but wonder if this is another "hoody-gate" in the making. But the Ravens season is over anyways.

In San Francisco, the game did go to overtime unlike the AFC championship game, but Kyle Williams fumbled a punt and stopped the hearts of the home crowd. It was a shocking moment, but you immediately felt for Kyle because he joined Ravens' Cundiff as the other goat on that day. This was even worse than Cundiff only because he kneed a punt earlier in that game committing a costly turnover. Nothing justifies the stupid fans sending him death threats after the game, but it was a tough day for Williams even otherwise to have turned the ball over twice. Niners pride themselves on their turnover differential, but they were 0-2 in this one with both credited to Kyle. Of course, his teammates came out and stood by him. It is indeed a cliche to say "it's not one man's fault, we win as a team and we lose as a team". Obviously a costly mistake at the end of a game like that has a much greater impact and is harder to recover from, but Kyle's last fumble was truly not the 49'ers main problem. I wouldn't blame him at all for that defeat. They had several opportunities to put that game away and the 49'ers offense couldn't get it done. All they needed was a field goal and Williams would have been in the locker room celebrating instead of fielding that ill-fated punt if only the offense had done it's job.

The way that game ended proved one more time how much of a team game football is and even a mistake of that magnitude exposed more of a team's problem in it's entirety than anything else. In fact, I would say Kyle's first turnover where he kicked a ball that he didn't even catch was more stupid and even more damaging in the big scheme of things. He had no reason to hang around that ball and it was a big momentum changer in the game. The NY Giants hang on and move on to the big game behind some strong performance by their wide receivers. The niners WRs caught one pass for 3 yards the entire overtime game and that was the difference. Credit goes to Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and Hakeen Nicks and the blame goes to Alex Smith and Michael Crabtree. The best quote about this game was by Bill Romanowski when he said "Michael Crabtree was an ornament in this game. He might as well have hung out on a Christmas tree." Both defenses were awesome, but the Giants passing offense with Eli Manning is in elite hands - pun intended. It was a disappointing end to a great season for Jim Harbaugh, but they should be proud of what they accomplished this season. Now it's time for them to go get a receiver to help Alex Smith. The challenge for the niners and their fans is that in today's NFL, there are no guarantees that this team - or any other team for that matter, makes it to the Super Bowl or even to the playoffs next year.

The NFL power structure changes every year due to 4 main reasons. First, the player churn is too high in the NFL, thanks to the hard salary cap and non-guaranteed player contracts. Secondly, NFL is a brutal sport with a very high risk of injuries and that's always a factor with many teams every year. Thirdly, NFL schedule is short and a bad stretch here or there can doom a team's playoff dream unlike what happens in the NBA or the MLB where the more talented teams bubble up to the playoffs eventually. Last but not the least, NFL teams play an unbalanced schedule and people don't realize that it's almost like teams play in a different league every year. First place schedule is vastly different from a 4-Th place schedule and niners will have a tougher road next year. So nobody knows where the niners end up next season, but this is a great start and they do have a great coach, which is a great thing to have. The closest thing to a guarantee of consistent success in the NFL is a great quarterback. Even Brady and Manning don't go to the Super Bowl every year, but good QBs like that at least get you enough wins to make the playoffs consistently. The niners don't have that in Alex Smith, but they better stick with him, give him a receiver and see where this thing goes. In Harbaugh they should trust.

More on the Super Bowl soon.

Can I get a Har-bowl!

2012-01-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

What I want for the Super Bowl is a Har-bowl, but I think we will end up with a Brady-bowl. I expect the Niners and the Patriots to hold on at home in interesting championship games in the NFC and the AFC respectively. That would lead us to a Brady-bowl where ESPN will feed us a whole lot of Tom Brady for 2 weeks. They don't know this guy named Alex Smith playing out west for the Niners and to be fair to them, Brady is a much bigger star anyways. But not sure if I can handle 24 X 7 Brady love-fest for 2 weeks. Of course what I would like to see instead is a Har-bowl though some people have raised valid concerns about how that would be as bad as the BCS championship game - a repeat game between 2 offensively challenged teams with good defenses. It's not unlikely that we will get this super bowl considering defense wins championships and the Niners and the Ravens have the best defenses in this final 4. I have always liked the Harbaugh brothers and I can totally handle them for 2 weeks leading up to the super bowl. Now that both what I want to happen and what I think will happen are obvious, the NY Giants are the odd team out and ironically, they may be the most complete team left in the dance.

NY Giants definitely have a shot in San Francisco, but I have to go with the home team with the better defense here. And their offense didn't look too shabby either last weekend as Alex Smith sliced and diced the Saints twice in the last 4 minutes. The Giants offense and Eli at QB are better than what the Niners have and their defense is decent too, but everything New York is a little overblown by the predominantly East coast media. I like their front 4 on defense, but the Niners are no slouches either in that department. The NY bandwagon is especially full now since they beat the champions in Green Bay. But the Niners are tougher in every sense of the word. The Niners defense hit people like this is your grand father's NFL, and they know how to deliver those old-school blows without the new-school flags. They routinely knock out running backs and I would be concerned if I was Ahmad Bradshaw. The weather is going to be soggy and I never liked the theory that rain affects the offense. It's hard to play defense too in the rain as defenders have to react and move depending on where the receiver goes. But at the line of scrimmage, the defenders are pushing forward and the offensive line has to back-pedal. So the weather affects both sides and it depends on the position you play. The only added challenge for the offense is holding on to the slick ball in the rain and avoiding turnovers. All things considered, I think the road team is going to be uncomfortable here and the Niners should sneak through.

In the AFC, Joe Flacco is under a lot of stress because of his performance last weekend against a strong Texans defense. He should do a lot better against a weak defense in New England, but the question is, can he match Brady and the New England offense who just look unstoppable? Ravens don't seem to have any answer for Rob Gronkowski - actually no team does, and Gronk is just one of many options at Brady's figer-tips. Add to that the extra motivation the Pats have against the Ravens since they got embarrassed at home by the Ravens in the 2009 playoffs behind Ray Rice's 83-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. Ray Rice might have to pull something that spectacular again to hang with this Pats team. I would give Ravens a better chance if their defense was more consistent and fearsome. They have a good D, but some of it is just good reputation even while their on-field performance has been inconsistent. Never count the team with the better defense out, but all things point to a repeat Super Bowl appearance for the hoody. A NY Giants V NE Patriots Super Bowl will be awesome considering what happened a few years back, but give me Niners this year. And good luck to Ravens who have the unenviable task of preventing the hoody from going to his 18000-Th Super Bowl.

49'ers are the story of this round

2012-01-16T00:22:00.000-08:00

The Divisional round of the NFL playoffs are in the books. Many things happened this weekend - some expected, some unexpected, some I like, some I don't. But the best game of the weekend and the most impressive win was San Francisco 49'ers beating the New Orleans Saints in thrilling fashion. The Niners faithful is used to seeing these fantastic finishes orchestrated by Joe Montana and Steve Young. But it was Alex Smith at the wheels this weekend and he drove them right past Drew Brees - the real mayor of New Orleans, to the finish line. There were 4 TDs in the last 4 minutes as both teams exchanged punches, but Alex Smith dealt the final blow as he drilled a pass to Vernon Davis with very little time left for Brees to mount another attack. It was a perfect throw in traffic, very reminiscent of Steve Young's game winner to Terrell Owens back in the day. And just like TO, Davis did great to hold onto the ball in traffic and teared up on the sidelines.

Large, strong, rich, grown men crying like a baby while making a winning play - tells you all you need to know about the drive, passion and effort that these guys put into this game. We may think they are spoiled millionaires and they may even come off as thugs who are "too cool for school" sometimes. But make no mistake about the fact that they didn't become a professional athlete in the NFL without an incredible passion and burning desire to be the best at what they do. Most of them have a winning, genetic lottery ticket in their hands, but it aint as easy as we sometimes think it is to cash that ticket. While years of frustration and disappointment welled up Davis's eyes, it was actually a much greater moment for Alex Smith who has been discarded as a bust by the Niner fan base for a few years now. Jim Harbaugh trusted this guy, invested in him and Alex Smith has more than done his job this year. He is a good guy by all accounts and I am happy for him to have come through twice in the clutch like that. Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit for going for a TD in that final drive when a field goal would have sent the game to OT. That's intelligent aggression from a conservative coach and this is why Harbaugh rocks.

The other big news of the weekend was the elimination of the Green Bay Packers at home. Some people expected it because of how good the Giants have been lately. Others expected it just because somebody has to lose at home and the Niners won the first game of the weekend and it didn't look like the Patriots or the Ravens were going to lose at home. The home teams were 7-0 before the Packers defense decided to play flag football for 3 hours. Their offense was surprisingly not on-point either and that combined with a couple of untimely turnovers killed them. It should be disappointing to be 15-1 in the regular season and not even make it to the NFC championship game. But this goes to show how difficult it is to repeat in the NFL. That defense did not deserve to win though. My first reaction after the season opener between the Saints and the Packers was that neither team looked Super Bowl bound with that defense. This weekend, both of them helped me pat myself on the back for that prediction.

The Packers game also showed why we always say "defense wins championship". It does because offense can have a bad day and you need to stop somebody to win. More importantly, offense controls the ball and some weird things and bad turnovers can happen at random times in games and you need the defense to stop the other team and get the ball back. This is exactly what Packers couldn't do today as Ryan Grant fumbled with about 7 minutes to go and with the Packers trailing by 10. The game was over right there for all practical purposes, but it definitely was over for the Packers with that defense. The Giants now proceed to the NFC title game. There is something about this team, the coach and the QB that results in a lot of wins. None of them get a whole lot of credit, but they win a lot. People can keep doubting Eli Manning all they want, but you can't spell elite without Eli. If he keeps this up, he might have more rings than his big brother. Coach Coughlin is not too shabby either.

In the AFC, both games fell short of expectations. Tebowmania came to a screeching halt at New England as expected. Tom Brady kept finding his favorite tight-ends to the tune of 363 yards and 6 TDs. Proof number 19052 that the NFL is a different sport right now. QBs are throwing for 6 TDs in 3 quarters in playoff games. Of course no such luck for Tebow as his limitations were exposed and his ride stalled. He is still not ready and I am not sure what Elway and Fox are going to do with this runaway train that's not really going anywhere. Ravens now have to try and stop Brady and I don't think that's going to happen either. Joe Flacco just like his draft mate Matt Ryan has many questions hanging over his head and he didn't answer many of them today at home. I doubt if he does on the road. They beat Houston, but didn't look good doing it. I think their defense is overrated too and are now living on reputation more than consistent performance. But the games next week will be a true test for the Ravens. Actually it will be for all the teams involved. When you are playing for the right to go to the Super Bowl, you will be tested.

Time to Eat Crow

2012-01-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

It's not often that I am wrong with 3 out of 4 picks. In fact, it's hard to do. Of course impossible things always seem to happen when we are dealing with Timothy Richard Tebow and he was one of the reasons I was wrong with 3 of my road picks this wild card weekend in the NFL. Tebow has been proving many experts and their theories and pontifications wrong. Today he added one more theory to the list - NFL playoff overtime rules have changed. Not today and not under his watch as Tebow ended the game and the Steelers season in overtime with not just one possession, but just one play. It was a 80 yard bomb down the middle - the middle left vacant by the Steelers secondary as they crowded the line of scrimmage expecting another 1-St down run. Tebow hit Demaryius Thomas in stride and he did the rest. With the new rules, each team gets a possession if the first score is a field goal. But it's still sudden death if that score is a TD or a safety. Tebow time today produced a TD in 11 seconds and made the new rules irrelevant.

The other team still deserves a possession in my opinion and this rule change is a step in the right direction, but only a small step. May be this game will force NFL to expand the new rules even further. But all that's neither here nor there. This game was all about Tim Tebow. He played a superb and complete game. This was not one of those games where he looked like a deer in the headlights for 3 quarters and pulled out some weird magic in the last 3 minutes to win the game. This was almost the opposite and Big Ben actually had to bring the Steelers back from behind to tie it in the 4-Th. Tebow was great from the beginning to the end. He did make some mistakes and missed some throws as always, but he also made some terrific plays - to the tune of 316 passing yards, 50 yards rushing and 3 TDs. Those are some superstar numbers. Coach John Fox deserves a lot of credit. Not only did he finally unleash Tebow and satisfy his boss, John Elway, but he has also been steadily figuring out ways to use him right throughout the season. Not easy considering that his previous QB was very different from Tebow.

In this game, Fox had Tebow throwing long balls almost exclusively. Brilliant strategy as Tebow may not be the best thrower or reader of defenses. So just don't have him throw those intricate, short passes down the crowded middle. Instead, go for the longer routes which are safer, especially since the Steelers like most other teams crowded the line of scrimmage to stop Tebow and the run and most outside receivers were just single covered. And credit Tebow for hitting almost all of those long balls beautifully. 316 yards on 10 completions proves my point. At one stage in the game, I was wondering if Tebow even attempted a pass less than 30 yards. Big Ben was brilliant as always, but was hobbled. In addition to all the injuries coming in, they lost a couple of key players during the game and they couldn't overcome all of that. I could use that and the fact that they still almost won the game as an excuse for my bad pick, but I won't. Honestly, I would have still picked the Steelers even if those injured guys were all out coming into the game. I thought Ben and Troy would be way better than the Tebows and they were not. So I have to eat crow. Speaking of Troy, I am a big Polamalu fan, but he looks done. Was he even in this game?

I picked Atlanta and Cincinnati to win on the road as well. It turns out that all road teams lost and the wild card weekend eliminated all wild card teams too. So both the home court advantage and the playoffs seeding are alive and well up to this point. Atlanta was an abomination today. That team will be going to Green Bay next weekend if only they knew how to rush for a measly yard when they really need it. In a season where the coach got in trouble for going for it on 4-Th and short against the Saints and stalling, he did that twice in this playoff game and the Falcons stalled both times. They can't do 3-Rd or 4-Th and 1 and it's mind boggling given all the talent on the roster. Giants abused them on both sides of the ball and left Matt Ryan and Mike Smith with a lot of questions. Now the Giants get to go challenge the defending champions in Green Bay. It will be a fun game, but that's a tall order for anybody. In the AFC, Cincinnati went into Houston and their immaturity and inexperience got exposed on the road. The Houston rookies outplayed Cincy's rookies and won behind another solid outing by Arian Foster - 153 yards, 2 TDs. How do guys like Arian Foster and Isaac Redman go undrafted?

The 49'ers will be hosting the Saints next weekend in probably the most intriguing of the match-ups. It's all offense versus all defense. Saints and Drew Brees are putting up ridiculous numbers week in and week out. 400 yards is becoming the norm for this guy even in blowout victories. That used to happen once in a while in the old NFL only when good QBs were chasing a big deficit. Now, any decent QB can drop a 400 on you and of course Brees is great. Drew Brees is becoming a legend and civic treasure much like Marino, Elway, Montana and Manning. He might even be ahead of Brady on that front. He is the man behind that offensive machine and that city. But despite all the gaudy numbers, this offense doesn't look to me as special as the "greatest show on turf" Rams or the Vikes with Moss and Carter or even the Patriots when Brady threw for 50 TDs. I feel like the Saints offense is as much a product of today's rules as they are a product of an innovative offense or phenomenal talent. Also the fact that there are 3 or 4 other offenses this year that are not far behind the Saints takes some bloom off of that rose. I look at it as proof number 12551 that the offensive game has changed and gotten a lot easier that this Saints team could put up those kind of numbers. Proof number 12552 would be that Tim Tebow threw for 316 yards in his first playoff game. But let's not suggest anything even remotely critical of Tim Tebow right now.

One last bowl

2012-01-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

This is the week of the BCS before we transition to the NFL wild card weekend. When the bowl schedule came out, it' didn't look too appetizing this year. Part of the problem was that the BCS championship game is a rematch that really didn't get a whole lot of us excited. There were a couple of good match-ups, but it looked like slim pickings. But the BCS bowls since the New Years day have been pretty good. Wisconsin-Oregon stayed true to form and Oregon won in a thrilling Rose Bowl. Then the best game of the BCS season was as expected the Fiesta Bowl featuring Stanford and Oklahoma state. Andrew Luck had an amazing game, but lost anyways. I like David Shaw - Stanford's coach, but he went far to the right - too conservative on this one. Shaw let a red-shirt freshman decide the game with a 35 yard field goal and sure enough, he kicked it away right in to Oki state's hands.

Given that these are not professional kickers making millions for these field goals, this is equivalent to a 45 yarder by NFL standard. You then add 5 more yards for the high-pressure situation - it should actually be higher for the college kids, but I will keep it at the standard 5 yards for both the NFL and college. I would say this was a 50 yarder for the kid by NFL standards. You should not be depending on 50 yard field goals to win games, not when you have Luck driving your car and navigating it beautifully. Shaw went ultra-conservative at the wrong time and let a lot of plays and timeouts go to waste. One of my pet peeves in football is coaches stalling way too early on their final drive and asking their kickers to boot long, hard field goals. Never made sense to me. And Shaw paid the price. The game went to OT and state won it there with a field goal of their own after the Stanford kid missed another one. Luck should be disappointed, but I think his NFL career is still in good hands.

The Sugar Bowl was also an overtime affair as Va Tech figured out a way to lose after out-gaining Michigan all game. A win in the Sugar Bowl is a great start for the Brady Hoke era for the big blue, but they better get ready for some serious challenges down the road as Urb is coming to Columbus. Hoke is happy to have Denard Robinson on his side though. The Orange Bowl was a rather weird affair where West Virginia scored 70 on the Clemson tigers. Clemson showed us how to score 33 points, win the first quarter, tie the 4-Th, and still lose by 37. If only they figured out how to defend that stupid toss play that West Virginia ran a million times. All this leads us to the title game Monday. It's a rerun and I expect the result to be the same as well. LSU is really the better team though Alabama's Nick Saban is the better coach. Lets just hope it's better than a 9-6 snoozer. By the way, I also expect the Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals to have won their way to the next round of the NFL playoffs by the time this championship game rolls around.

The Season is Over for Some

2012-01-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

The first day of the year 2012 was also the last day of the NFL season for a bunch of teams. As the season of giving wound down today, the NFL season also followed suit. It was an interesting feeling having both Christmas and the New Years on a Sunday this year. I liked it more than waking up on New Years and watching the college Bowl games. But not sure if the Raiders and the Cowboys liked what happened today. Both had a "win and you are in" situation and both blew it. Raiders had a set of more complicated options entering the day, but it boiled down to an elimination game as the day progressed. And they got eliminated even after Tebow was exposed and the Broncos lost. The Raiders have had a tough season with the demise of Al Davs, the injuries and renewed hope when they got Carson Palmer, but they just were not good enough to win a bad division. They could not stop the Chargers today on defense and didn't score enough TDs on offense. Palmer threw for a good game, but they still stalled a lot in the red zone. And of course the special teams did it's bit by letting the Chargers score a TD as well. Overall, a tough loss and a rough season for the Raiders given how the other teams in the division gave them all the opening they can to help them.

Raiders had some ugly losses late in the season, but the killer ones were the home losses to bad divisions teams in Kansas City and Denver in the middle of the season, around the bye week, coming off of a season ending injury to Jason Campbell. With Campbell or even with Palmer at practice for a couple of weeks, they win both those games. If they win those "easy" games, they finish the season 10-6 and the story is different. The week 17 Chargers were a lot more challenging than those 2 teams back then, but the Raiders just were not dealt the right hand those 2 games. So after going 6-0 in the division last year, they went 0-3 at home and 3-0 on the road in division. Thats strange and a typical Raiders stat. Speaking of typical Raiders stat, they have to fix the penalty situation. They beat all kinds of records with penalties this season and the top 10 all-time infamous list is littered with Raiders teams from all eras. It's an amazing contrast to see the discipline of the niners under Harbaugh across the bay and this Raiders team, which is probably more talented than the niners on paper. Of course, they need McFadden on the field to prove that. I am excited to see Palmer with a full training camp next year, but there was some karma at work here this season as he refused to suit up for the Bengals and they are now in the playoffs with the rookie Andy Dalton at QB while Palmer will be sitting at home watching.

Denver lost ugly and still backed into the playoffs. Tebow looked horrible and there is just no way Pittsburgh gets beat by him next week - at home, on the road, in Iceland, it don't matter. Denver has a home game due to the weird NFL rules, but Big Ben and Polamalu will be ready. Seattle might have upset New Orleans last year at home, but Pittsburgh V Denver is just too lopsided. If he wins next week, Tebow magic is for real. I am looking forward to a couple of upsets in the playoffs next weekend. Cincinnati Bengals should be able to beat the Texans on the road. Texans are a better team when healthy, but they never are. The Giants eliminated the overrated Cowboys today, but the Atlanta Falcons come into town next week and that will be a whole different ball game. The Falcons are on a roll and if the Giants blink, they will be joining the other New York team - the Jets, at home. It feels good not hearing the loud mouth Rex Ryan and the Jets in the playoffs. They are a overrated team with an overrated quarterback and they better improve and shut up if they want to take the next step. Mark Sanchez is a decent guy, but just not a good QB. Darrelle Revis said he doesn't know who Giants receiver Victor Cruz was a couple of weeks back. Cruz first helped eliminate Revis, Ryan and the Jets. And today, helped kick out Rob Ryan's Dallas Defense out of the playoffs. Now the Ryan brothers should be seeing Victor Cruz in their nightmares all off-season and rightfully so.

The wild card round starts Saturday and I expect the Saints to take care of the Lions at home. The Lions are good, but they have the unenviable task of stopping Brees in his house and that ain't happening. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati should join their division rival Baltimore the week after in AFC's final 4. The other game is a "pick em" for me as I wouldn't be surprised if Atlanta wins at NY, though Matt Ryan has trouble on the road. Green Bay will be playing everybody at home down the road, but looking at their defense, I am concerned. I think the Saints can shock them in the NFC championship game, but they have enough offense to beat anybody else including the niners who have the best defense in the NFC. It's more of a tossup in the AFC with the Ravens, Pats and the Steelers. I like the Ravens to join the Packers in the Super Bowl when it's all said and done. A Saints or Patriots appearance there wouldn't shock me either. It's a different playoffs without Manning and the Colts. The Colts locked up the top pick in the draft. Let's minimize the drama and pick Andrew Luck right away. That will give them time to decide what to do with Manning if and when he comes back. He should come back and may be play for another team. The way the game is these days, both Luck and Manning might throw for 5000 yards next season. Two dudes, Brady and Brees beat Marino's mark this season and Stafford threw for more than 5000 yards as well. There were more 5,000-yard passers in the 2011 season than there had been throughout NFL history prior to this season. Rodgers sat out today. Otherwise, there would have been 4 QBs with more than 5000 yards. I'd say Marino's record still stands just like Hank Aaron's in baseball, though for different reasons.

NBA Preview

2011-12-23T23:59:00.000-08:00

NBA is almost here. It's time to get excited and ready. I thought I will try and rank all the teams in the league and predict how the season is going to play out. I am going to stick my neck out with my analysis and see how it looks at the end of the season. So I started looking through all the rosters closely and boy, there is some serious garbage in this league. It straight away became obvious why there is so much heartburn and unease over the new NBA - post LBJ syndrome. For those of you that don't know the term, LBJ syndrome is the culture of stars trying to team up with other stars in hand-picked teams. This is something LeBron started with Wade and Bosh last year and everybody else is trying to emulate. It's very clear that NBA is in real danger if this trend continues. While the lockout was more about money than competitive balance, the two are related and competitive balance currently needs some attention and almost justifies the lockout. You can see why the owners freaked out at the Chris Paul to Lakers trade just coming out of the lockout. NBA needs another super-team like the NFL needs a Brett Favre comeback. These rosters also remind me a lot of MLB and that's not a good thing. A talent skew like the MLB will just NOT work in the NBA, not that ti works for baseball.

Almost half the rosters look like garbage and the scary part is, some of these teams will be in the playoffs because NBA lets way too many teams in to the playoffs - at least the MLB is better with that, though they are hell-bent of expanding their playoff counts next season. This also reminds me why NFL is the king. Not only do they have superior parity and competitive balance, they allow only 12 teams in to the big dance and rarely does garbage get in to the playoffs. It happens once in a while, but not always. When a bad team plays another bad team, somebody has to win. So some of these garbage NBA rosters will also sport decent records at the end of this season. But trust me, I see way more Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals type rosters in this year's NBA than in the past. The hope is, these teams can develop, grow and turnaround. But for that to happen, the LBJ syndrome cannot continue and the system should enable these teams to retain the young stars that are already on their rosters or might end up there via future drafts. Let's hope for that to happen.

The objective of this NBA season is not different from last's for most of the fans - basically keeping the dream team in Miami away from a ring. But it is going to be harder this year than last. For all the talk about how last season was a failure for the heat, the reality is, it was a roaring success for the big 3. To win the Eastern conference in year 1 after all the negative attention, chemistry issues and adversity caused by unexpected losing streaks is just amazing. What else did we all expect? If they won it all in year 1, then LeBron would have been absolutely justified in predicting 8 rings when he stupidly said "not 1, not 2 .... not 7." Even now, I am scared he is going to get close to the number because they almost got there in year 1 and are going to be much better in year 2. On the court, their chemistry is going to be much better. Plus, their experience with all the adversity last year and the booing and hatred will probably make this year 2 look like a stroll on the South Beach for those guys. Given all this, I pick the Miami Heat to win the championship this year. I don't want them to, but I am afraid they probably will. I don't see a solid threat for them, though they are not invincible by any stretch of the imagination.

The heat lost to Dallas last year. The mavericks have the look and feel of a one-hit wonder. This is because of their age and also the fact that they lost Tyson Chandler. Speaking of age, the Spurs will be good as always, but they only got older and are not a serious contender. The Celtics are also older and not sure if they can do better than last year. The age bug is also beginning to bite the Lakers. They imploded against the Mavericks last playoffs and took a step back this year when they lost Lamar Odom. Unless they pull a Dwight Howard blockbuster, they may have problems even dominating their own town given that the Clippers are now looking great with a talented, young, athletic front court chauffeured by a stud point guard. While the rest of the league would love to have one good big guy at either the center or the power forward position, the Clippers have a stud PF in Blake Griffin and seems to have lucked into an amazing athlete with a huge upside at center in DeAndre Jordan. Even the Clip-joint may not be able to screw this one up. The Clippers are good, but they need at least a season under the belt with these pieces before becoming a serious contender.

I wouldn't discount the Lakers and the Mavericks completely yet, but the teams that can really challenge the Heat this season are the OKC Thunder in the West and the Chicago Bulls in the East. The baby Bulls will be better with that deep playoff experience last season, but they still need one more offensive weapon. Too bad they didn't add significant pieces this year, though Rip Hamilton will help. The OKC on the other hand have had 2 deep playoff runs and seem to have a complete roster. This is the year for them to breakthrough. I would love it for Kevin Durant to take down LeBron in the Finals. That would be poetic justice like no poet has ever seen before. And it's not a pipe dream. Speaking of pipe dreams, it's sad to me as a Suns fan that I am nowhere near mentioning them as a contender. In fact, it's out of pure respect for Nash that they are even ranked as high as they are in most power rankings on the web. That roster has been decimated by owner Robert Sarver and I just hope they are even in the running for the playoffs. Shame on you Sarver!

Now on to my rankings in each conference.

EASTERN CONFERENCE
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1. Miami - They are my pick to win it all this year. The rich usually get richer in this league. So they got Shane Battier. But I am surprised they didn't get significantly more. They still have issues with the bigs - anybody who signs Eddy Curry have some issues, and at the point guard spot. But their experience from last year will help immensely. Somebody please stop them.

2. Chicago - They have the MVP and a good core, but they need one more reliable scorer. I didn't like the way Miami handled them last year and I don't see any improvement to put them over the heat. Rip Hamilton helps, but they need a healthy, dominant Boozer and a little bit more.

3. Boston - Jeff Green's heart illness is a big blow. This team is old and I would have loved to see them challenge the heat of today with their big 3 when they were 3 years younger. I like the Brandon Bass pickup, but the golden oldies have to handle a compressed schedule and challenge Miami at the end. Not going to be easy.

4. Knicks - Depth is a concern, but the front court talent is just undeniable. Melo, Amare and Chandler is a phenomenal lineup. They are overpaying for all 3, but they can afford to. I think this team is going to surprise a lot of people. I hate to say this, but Steve Nash will look sweet in this team.

5. Atlanta - They have always been an enigmatic team for me. I don't think they have elite talent and they have also topped off talent-wise with all the money invested in their existing pieces. But they are talented enough to be a top 4 team in the L-East. On the positive side, they can party like 1999. They have both Tracy McGrady and Jerry Stackhouse.

6. Orlando - They have taken a step back, but they still have their stud - for now. They can make some noise, but will fall short. Hedo is not giving them what he gave during his first go-around. Rashard Lewis is not worth a lot, but he and a younger Hedo made things work for them. They have to find something new now before losing Dwight Howard.

7. Philly - Jrue is true. The development of Jrue Holiday makes the sixers pretty interesting. A good PG compensates for a lot of things and this sixers team is ready to take the next step this year especially if Evan Turner turns the corner.

8. Indiana - They made the playoffs with just 37 wins last year. They may be in a position to clinch the 8-Th seed this year too. But they are slightly better this year with the pickup of David West. A healthy West and an improved Paul George can get them 37 wins this season - which is a good improvement because this is a 66 game season and not a 82 game season.

9.Milwaukee - Shaun Livingston and Mike Dunleavy make this roster interesting for completely different reasons. Shaun's injury should still be one of the worst ever and is good to see him play again. It seems like Bogut and Jennings have leveled off a little bit. If one of them steps up, they could be a playoff team.

10. Washington - I would love to be a billionaire owner of a NBA team, but I will still cry if I have to pay 20 mill a year for Rashard Lewis. Then again, I might be happy I am not doing the same to Gilbert Arenas for whom the Magic traded Lewis. 20 mill for Lewis is bad any way you look at it, but this roster gives you another reason why it's bad. A young, barren roster like this can use a leader and they have a 20 million dollar guy who is not even close to providing that on the court. Both Lewis and the Wizards will go only as far as John Wall takes them.

11. Toronto - Nothing to really get excited about. This is why the system should help teams like these retain players like Chris Bosh. This is a typical MLB type team with no light at the end of the tunnel yet.

12. Nets - The recent injury to Brook Lopez is a killer. It impacts their performance on the court and their ability to chase Dwight Howard off of it. Deron Williams is a stud. But he is going to be tired carrying these guys around. That means he might want out soon too. Also, he should be super excited to see Mehmet Okur again on his team, or not!

13. Detroit - There is nothing going on with this team right now. If you are a fan, you can pay 100 dollars for bad seats, watch mediocre NBA basketball and wonder why Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva make a combined 18 million dollars. Let me know if you have the answer after watching 33 home games because neither myself nor their GM Joe Dumars have an answer.

14. Cleveland - Last year, they showed us how important one guy can be to an entire franchise. This year, they will show us how not all number 1 picks are LeBron James. Kyrie Irving is nice, but I am not sure if a Dukie can rescue a franchise. Tough spot for the Cavaliers. At least their owner sometimes makes things interesting.

15. Charlotte - Here's another reason why David Stern's rookie age limit makes sense. If a bunch of teams like the Bobcats this year have nothing to offer except their high-priced rookie, I would rather watch a 21 year old Kemba Walker than a 19 year old Kemba Walker. Their owner, the 48 year-old MJ could walk in to their starting lineup and will probably be an upgrade to what they got.

WESTERN CONFERENCE
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1. OKC - They are the team to beat in the west. Their young, talented roster has an amazing balance and variety to it. Westbrook, Durant and Harden are ready to take it to the next level this year.

2. Dallas - The mavs never got any love from anybody and they still don't after the championship. The concern now is that they are aging and old. They are still deep and talented and I love the way they replaced Caron Butler with Lamar Odom. But they will miss Tyson Chandler and J.J.Barea. Both of them meant a lot more to the mavs than what their talent would suggest.

3. San Antonio - It seems like we have been calling them old for the last 15 years, but they still had the best record in the west last year. They did lose to an eight seed in Memphis, but that was probably the worst match-up for them. I expect them to be up there in the west again. Are they a legitimate contender? I don't think so.

4. LA Lakers - They went from adding Chris Paul to losing Lamar Odom for nothing in 2 days. They are in trouble unless they steal superman from Orlando. Metta World peace will lead a bench that lacks depth. They got Troy Murphy, which means they are searching and reaching for answers to some serious questions.

5. LA Clippers - There is so much going on with this team that people are not even talking about the addition of Caron Butler. If this guy is healthy and productive, watch out. Blake Griffin and DJ will develop faster with a PG like Chris Paul and this team will be good this year.

6. Memphis - The west is not as great as it used to be and Memphis should be very relevant in the playoff race this year even if O.J. Mayo and Tony Allen start punching each other again. Zach Randolph makes a lot of dough, but was amazing for them last year. If he stays in his shoes, this year will be no different.

7. Portland - Brandon Roy is gone. Some of their good depth has disappeared. So they are not what they used to be, but are still playoff good. It is LaMarcus Aldridge's team now and they added Jamal Crawford to the mix. I am sure Jamal will shoot them in and out of games as always.

8. Denver - They lost 3 guys to China. Wilson Chandler will be missed, but I am not so sure about J.R.smith and Kenyon Martin. Their talent and depth has to come together under George Karl to make the playoffs. I think they do.

9. Golden State - The big catch of the off-season was Kwame Brown. Not the best way to upgrade a roster, but they have some young talent in the back-court to give the faithful some hope. Mark Jackson has his work cutout with this team.

10. Houston Rockets - They have some depth. Somehow Jonny Flynn always ends up in rosters with too many PGs. The vetoed trade would have given them Pau Gason, but they have some scorers even now. They could get in the mix for the 8-Th spot.

11. Phoenix Suns - It pains my heart to put the Suns here, but they have very little outside of Steve Nash. He deserves so much respect that many ranking have the Suns ranked way higher than their roster warrants just because of him. He is great and he makes others good. But Robert Sarver has made sure even Nash can't help this roster. It's hard to get excited over the Sebastin Telfair signing the year after you let Amare walk last year. Markieff Morris is the only hope this season. Of course Vince Carter is gone. I am hoping that's some addition by subtraction.

12. Utah - Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter give hope for the future, but their present also features young talent. Out of all the rebuilding rosters that are at crossroads, Utah's has the best balance between the future and the present. Of course, that doesn't mean they will have the best future, but it does mean they may continue to win a few games today.

13. Sacramento Kings - They have a lot of young talent that they have been accumulating the last few years, but for some reason it's not all coming together - at least not yet. This should be the year things get better, but it won't. I think they need a new coach and a veteran or two to help the talent gel and grow together faster.

14. Minnesotta - This team is all about the future. Derrick Williams, Ricky Rubio and Wes Johnson gives them hope and even some excitement. And Kevin Love gives them stability and strength in the middle. Don't expect too much out of them this year, but next year might be interesting.

15. New Orleans - It's good the Commish made sure they got Eric Gordon in the CP3 trade. Otherwise, they may be scoring just 50 points a night. This roster is cheap for a new owner to buy, but will also play cheap all season.

Big, Dark, Fun Day in the Bay

2011-12-21T00:06:00.000-08:00

The Bay Area has not had a big Monday night football game in a while like the one this week when the 10-3 steelers rolled into the stick to play the 10-3 niners. Many great things happened for the niners on a night that started with darkness all around - literally, as the stadium lost power before the kick-off and then again in the first half delaying the game both times. It was not a great advertisement for the city of SF or the stick, but the niners probably secretly liked the fact that the old stadium they are trying to get out of looked bad. Of course it doesn't really help anything with the new stadium as that's well on it's way in Santa Clara. The delayed start and the interruptions probably didn't help the 2 teams either, but I am not sure if it hurt Big Ben with his injured ankle to the point of affecting the outcome of the game. But the Niners dominated the Steelers anyways. It was a big win for the niners - a defining one this late in the season, coming off a loss to the Cardinals.

There has always been some doubt around the true elite status of the niners despite their impressive record. Unlike the other contenders in the NFC, they don't possess a great offense or a stud QB. Alex Smith's biggest critics are mostly niner fans given what they had to endure the last 7 years with him. So even the niner faithful didn't feel comfortable with the playoff prospects of this team and after the loss to Arizona last week, there was open talk of a one and done playoff date. That is why this MNF game was big, not to mention the actual impact of this win on the standings and the bye week positioning. A tradition-rich, experienced and legitimate contender was coming to town, albeit with a hobbled superstar QB. By dominating them, the niners have reestablished themselves as a worthy playoff contender. Now the fan-base is convinced they can beat anybody at home - except the Packers that is. And they can even beat most NFC teams on the road, except the Packers and may be the Saints. They needed this confidence boost. The media and the fans had to truly believe that the niners are a true contender, but it was even more important for the players and the coaches to win a game of this magnitude for some positive reinforcement.

The niners defense is truly elite. The most amazing stat of the year is not all the gaudy numbers the QBs are putting up against soft pass defenses, but the fact that the niners have not allowed a single rushing TD in 14 games. It has gotten to a point where offenses have stopped trying to rush in the red zone against them. That's respect. As good as this defense is, it's hard to imagine them bottling up a Drew Brees or an Aaron Rodgers and that's why they were expected to be one and done in the playoffs unless the offense started scoring with some consistency. The best part of the Pittsburgh game for them is the fact that the offense showed up. Alex Smith looked more comfortable making some tough throws, though he did miss a few easy ones as always. They scored twice in the red zone and that was two times more than what they usually do. Of course, things are week-to-week in this league and the niners can come crashing back to earth next week at Seattle. The seahawks are no joke at home and the niners will have trouble, but they still needed this one against the steelers.

As for the rest of the NFL, it was a bizarro weekend as the packers finally lost at Kansas City of all places and the colts finally won against the Titans. New York had a rough weekend with the giants losing at home and the jets getting crushed by Philly. The eagles are surprisingly still alive in the muddled NFC East. Oakland had a rough 1-point loss at home and if not for the end of Tebow magic against Brady and the Belichicks, they would be in a world of trouble. They still are, but there is hope for the silver and black in a division that's tightening up every Sunday. The other big news of the weekend was Drew Brees abusing another defense and virtually assuring himself of besting Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record. This is the clearest sign yet that the game has become almost too easy for the QBs and the passing game over the last several years. Marino's record stood for 27 years, but now is under serious threat from 4 QBs, all in one season - Brees (for sure now), Brady, Rodgers and even Eli Manning. If that's not enough proof, Cam Newton is threatening Peyton Manning's rookie passing yardage record and he and Andy Dalton have become the first pair of rookies ever to pass for more than 3000 yards in a season. It must be hard playing corner-back or safety in the NFL these days. Imagine having to defend a Dan Marino every other week.

Off Season Fun

2011-12-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes in sports you have days during the off-season when there is so much activity and excitement around trades, free agent signings and assorted discussions that you feel like you are having more fun than being in-season. Yesterday was one of those days as both baseball and basketball featured some big news around player movement. First, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim signed Albert Pujols to a 10 year 254 million dollar contract. It should be tough for Pujols to stomach just a 254 million dollar contract considering his agent was angling for 300 mill at one point! But in all seriousness, it's amazing teams are still throwing that kind of money at stars. We all thought the days of 250 million dollar contracts are over in MLB since the twice disastrous A-Rod signings. But always count on a owner or a team to go above and beyond and shock you. To be fair to Pujols, if anybody can command that rage of salary in this day and age, it's probably a generational hitter like him. With that said, I don't like this signing and the Angels will regret this sooner than later.

The Angels are a big market team with deep pockets. They just signed a 20 year TV deal with Fox sports for 3 billion showing us how these big money teams work and why they even take these risks. But I still don't like this signing. Pujols is great, and he has had phenomenal numbers since his first year with the Cardinals in 2001. He spent 11 amazingly consistent seasons in St. Louis and hit .300 with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs every single year except the last one - in 2011, he had 99 RBIs and batted .299, narrowly missing the bar. But he is suspected to be a couple of years older than his reported age and he will slow down way before the 10 years runs out on this contract. He can be a DH in the AL, but he won't be worthy of 25 mill in another 5 or 6 years. Also, the problem with baseball is, you need more than a superstar or 2 to be able to win. We see more and more "teams" winning the world series rather than individuals and stars. Yankees may be the exception to that rule, but then they can afford a team of superstars each making around 20 mill.

Of course pitching is an essential ingredient too and the Angles do have that - for now. They even signed C.J.Wilson in another big money signing yesterday. But, can one 25 million dollar hitter carry your entire lineup? If he doesn't, can you go and sign another 15 or 18 million dollar hitter? The answer here is a "no" for most teams and this is the difference between the Yankees and the others in my opinion. You probably knew the Yankees pay almost 15 mill a year to Jeter, but did you know that he was their 6-Th highest paid player in 2011? A-Rod, CC, Tex, A.J and Mo pulled a bigger paycheck than him and Posada was not far behind. I doubt if Angels can do that. That's why deals like these are too risky and bad deals for most teams. It's sure to disappoint unless everything goes perfect. I expect this deal to look bad in 2 years and downright horrible in 5. As an A's fan, it is disappointing to see both the Angels and the Rangers involved in an arms race with rumors of the Mariners jumping in for Prince Fielder. The A's may have nothing to offer next year in this division, but I don't think the Angels are all set for the future either with Pujols. Lets see if my crystal ball works.

Bad deals and big market spending splurges are common in baseball, but are not foreign to the NBA either. I have always maintained that the NBA's system is way better than MLB's and may be even the NFL's, but the league still needed a protracted lockout to tweak things. One reason for that is, the NBA just does not break the bank like the NFL does. But the owners also need to be saved from their own stupidity just like in baseball. The NBA also has a new problem. I call it the LBJ syndrome. Since LeBron James engineered an exit to Miami to play with his chosen superstar teammates, everybody is beginning to do the same. Stars - whether Albert Pujols or LeBron James, always had leverage, but the NBA stars are beginning to hand-pick exactly the town and teammates and it's getting to be ridiculous. First it was the whole LeBron saga, then Melo and Amare ended up in NY. And at least some part of the lockout was about competitive balance and parity. So I thought it was funny that the first wave of news out of the lockout was all about Chris Paul and Dwight Howard ending up in LA with the Lakers. So much for NBA parity and change.

And then the trade for Chris Paul apparently happens with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol ending up in different towns. That's when something even more bizarre happened. The commish vetoed the trade. This totally opened up a can of worms to say the least. Everybody has an opinion on this and it's going in all directions. The only reason the league could step in is because they technically own the Hornets in a strange arrangement. So the other owners all own a piece of this franchise and when they objected, the commish (over) reacted. To me, there are only 2 issues with the veto. If all the owners collectively own the Hornets, are the Hornets supposed to do whats best for the Hornets or whats best for all the owners? If the owners want to do whats best for all of them and if they think not sending CP3 to the Lakers is good for them, then do it by all means. But to me, it feels like the only way to manage this setup is to let the Hornets operate independently and do whats good for that team. Believe me, this trade was not bad at all for the Hornets. If the owners should have vetoed any trade involving the Lakers, it was the Pau Gasol one with Memphis a few years back.

This trade was fair for all the parties, In fact, I have seen many "best back-courts ever" fail miserably and the Lakers acquiring it at the cost of Gasol and a lot of size is neither here nor there. Of course, these days we all have a soft-corner for new super-teams because they can probably keep the original super-team - the hated Miami Heat away from winning it all. The Paul trade in and of itself didn't scare me all that much. But the Lakers were also just setting up to go after Dwight Howard and that would have been a scary super-team down the road. The owners were hot and bothered about the rich getting richer, but the Lakers in this case are just able to get Paul because they know he will re-sign there and hence can afford the risk of renting him in his free agent year. There's no way to prevent it when they are a storied franchise in a big market with a lot of money and Kobe Bryant. Life is always going to be unfair. I don't mind the owners trying to make it as fair as they can, but they over-reacted in this case coming out of a contentious lockout. The bigger problem here is the LBJ syndrome like I said - Dwight Howard is now saying he wants to be traded to the Nets. You can try to solve it with systemic changes, which I hope they did with the new CBA. But they can't eliminate it right away and they can't do it right here, right now when the LBJ syndrome is at it's peak. And they definitely shouldn't use their flawed arrangement with the Hornets to try and accomplish that.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

2011-12-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

"Friday Night Lights" is a critically acclaimed sports movie, TV series and originally a book. One of the best lines from it is "clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose". I am constantly reminded of it when I watch Tim Tebow. He has been THE story of this NFL season since he started playing and it just keeps getting better for him and the Broncos. His record is 6-1 and today at Minnesota, he even demonstrated his passing skills. Another game on the road, another late-game thriller, another comeback performance and another win. Tebow sure seems to have clear eyes - he rarely throws interceptions and this may not be the most complicated or sexiest explanation, but his low turnover number is one of the main reasons behind Denver's success. We know he has a full heart. Actually he is all heart, toughness and grit. Also, his heart is probably filled with Jesus too. Tebow seems like a really well-behaved kid committed to his faith. And of course he sure can't lose right now. Denver right now is convinced that there is no way they can lose a football game and I don't blame them.

I have no dog in this fight, but I still can't look away. That's the power of this Tim Tebow story. I am not a Denver fan. As a matter of fact, I have not liked them all that much since the day they kicked Jake Plummer - my favorite Sun Devil, out of town. I know that a lot of people are Tebow fans and want to see him succeed just because of his (and their) religious faith. But I am not religious like him and hence that's not an endearing factor for me. I do like him because he seems like a decent, well-behaved and humble human being, but his journey this season is fascinating to follow regardless of your affiliations. On the one hand, you have people who think he is God's gift to football who can win any game just with his intangibles and on the other hand, you have football experts who say he can't throw the ball to save his life. And Tebow is constantly proving both sides right! He is winning in unconventional ways and when you are quarterbacking a team to a 6-1 record after taking over at 1-4, it can't all be an accident or a lucky coincidence. He deserves more than some credit.

It almost feels disappointing if he has a good game and they win like he did today. It's a much better story if he wins while just completing 2 passes or throwing for just 60 yards or something crazy like that. He seems to be winning in all these different ways and has the Broncos leading the division. A team that at one point was the worst team in the division is now tied with the Raiders and is leading via the tie-breaker. That division has completely flipped in 12 games with Denver on top and San Diego at the bottom. The Raiders had an embarrassing loss today at Miami. With most of Oakland's talented offensive play-makers hurt, and with their trip to Lambeau coming up, this may become Tebow's division to lose. Raiders are a better team - especially on offense, but Carson Palmer is definitely missing his speedy receivers and they need Darren McFadden back. Plus Denver's schedule is slightly easier than Oakland's. Raiders are officially in a dog fight and their home losses to Kansas City and Denver may come back to bite them.

At the end of the day, AFC West will be won by the team that has clear eyes, full hearts that refuses to lose.

HarBowl

2011-11-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

All the talk in the NFL right now is about the HarBowl on Thanksgiving night. The niners are playing the Ravens and the Harbaugh brothers are (head) coaching against each other for the first time. NFL put this game on Thursday night for this storyline, but now this contest is also a premier game of the week since the niners are much better than expected under Jim. Not only are they good, they actually have a better record than the Ravens at 9-1. The Ravens are still the favorites here since the game is at Baltimore and since the jury is still out on the niners. San Francisco's defense is definitely great, but their offense - especially the passing game is still shaky. The Ravens are inconsistent themselves, but their offensive talent is a little more legit than the niners. If the niners win this game on a short week, we better put them in the contender circle for good. They are not Packers yet - no team is. But this game can establish them firmly in the second tier with the other good teams. They will still not have a Drew Brees or Tom Brady playing QB for them, but they may have the best defense in a league without many dominant defenses this season and that should count for something. This game should be a great night-cap on Thanksgiving.

The day games feature the usual dates in Dallas and Detroit, but Detroit is good this year for a change. This makes the turkey day games really interesting as all 6 teams involved won last week. Of course, Dallas should still win against Miami easily, but the Dolphins have been playing way better lately. Undefeated Green Bay is going into Detroit and that should be a good one. Nobody will be surprised if the Packers lose as Detroit will be up and ready for this one against their division rival. Detroit had a great game last weekend and they might have even found a running game in Kevin Smith. The NFC north has some of the best arms in the league with Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers and the now injured Jay Cutler. This game should feature a lot of bombs from both QBs and should be a lot of fun. The Bears were playing really well too and it's too bad Cutler is hurt. Denver released Kyle Orton - a former Chicago Bear, today. It's a smart move. They are hoping Chicago will pick him up and pay the rest of his salary saving Denver some cash. John Elway decided to cut Orton, but is still refusing to completely endorse Tim Tebow. Elway seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place.

In college, USC beat Oregon by a field goal to put the BCS in a high-speed spin cycle. Now the top 3 teams are all from the SEC and the prospect of a Alabama-LSU rematch looms large. Arkansas is third and they play LSU next. Things will get really interesting and confusing if Arkansas upsets LSU and Alabama wins the iron bowl against Auburn. In that case, Arkansas has to be ahead of LSU and LSU beat Alabama. But Alabama can't drop from 2 to 3 after a win against Auburn. Also Alabama has already beaten Arkansas. This means Alabama will jump to 1, Arkansas 2 and LSU 3. This is not because that's how they rank on the field, but because that's the ranking that looks the least stupid. If this is not an argument for a playoffs, nothing else can be. I am not a BCS hater. In a non-playoff world, BCS is a decent effort to implement a system, but it just doesn't work because it's dealing with a problem that is intractable. So you need a playoff and you need to decide all this on the field. But I have to add that I do see the argument that playoffs will dilute the value of these weekly games. If there was a playoffs down the road, I will not care all that much about the LSU-Arkansas match-up this weekend. The fact that this game can eliminate LSU does adds a lot of juice to the contest and that's not a bad thing. But that juice is not worth all the squeeze and we need the playoffs in College football, period.

It just takes 2 to win

2011-11-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

There are many interesting stories from the sports weekend, but none more fascinating than what happened in the Denver Broncos game at Kansas City. Tim Tebow won a game as the starting quarterback by completing just 2 passes out of 8 attempts. You heard that right and that has never happened in the history of the league. A professional quarterback won a NFL game by completing just 2 passes the entire game. Sure, one of that was for a 56 yard TD, but how do you win a game completing just 2 passes? May be Tebow does have God on his side. May be he has good karma going for him since he seems like a decent human being. Of course it helps the Chiefs just threw for 140 yards themselves and it took 2 QBs to accomplish that as Matt Cassel might be out for the season with an injury. But seriously, even I am beginning to believe in some of that Tebow magic and the supposed intangibles he brings to the table - the "it" factor. That's the only way to explain the stats behind this win. That and the fact that Denver has suddenly become a top-tier rushing offense. They rushed for over 244 yards and Tebow himself ran effectively as always. They have changed their offense to suit Tebow and are now 3-1 with him as the starting QB. He still doesn't look like a NFL quality QB, but does he have to if can beat teams with 2 completions?

Speaking of elite QBs, tonight on MNF, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers dismantled the Vikings as expected to go 9-0. The Packers offense looks as smooth as a hot knife through soft butter and there is no stopping them - at least not yet, definitely not tonight. I didn't expect this game to be competitive and didn't even care to watch it closely and the Packers proved me right. Rodgers is going to shred some records this season and the only question is, which ones. The weather is going to get worse soon on the East coast in general and in Green Bay in particular, but I don't think it's going to matter a whole lot with this offense. They are the exact opposite of the Denver Broncos right now. The Packers don't run the ball all that well, but they don't seem to have any need to. The Niners surprisingly own the second best record in the league after beating the Giants on Sunday. The jury is still out on how elite the Niners are despite their 8-1 record, but they do have a good defense and might end up with a bye week in the playoffs and just one more home win in the playoffs might take them to Lambeau field in January for a NFC championship game. Can Jim Harbaugh and the Niners cash this season in for a date with the Packers deep in the playoffs? This is going to be a very interesting question the rest of the way in the NFC.

In the AFC, the Patriots beat the Jets to shut Rex Ryan up possibly for good this season. They are 5-4 and are not a horrible 3-6 like the "Dream Team" Eagles, but they are looking up at too many teams and may not make it to the big dance if Mark Sanchez keeps playing like this. Their defense is definitely overrated. The AFC is a little messy right now. Ravens seem to be able to beat only the Steelers and the Steelers look great except when they play the Ravens. Patriots had fallen off from their pedestal only to bounce back against the Jets. All this led to some talk about the Houston Texans possibly being the best team in the AFC. Too bad that this talk was followed by the news that Matt Schaub may be done for the season. It seems like the Texans and Schaub are some kind of jinxed. We have been waiting for them to bust out and it seems like they may not make it even this year unless Matt Leinart plays halfway decent. We will find out next week. With the NBA staring at a "nuclear winter", we have to start focusing on college basketball way before March to keep us occupied between the NFL games. Glad there is Thursday night football the rest of the way. Speaking of college, Stanford lost to Oregon in football and that pretty much ends their and Luck's BCS aspirations. Boise State lost as well and we may end up with another LSU-Alabama game for the championship. Nobody wants it, but we might just get it.

Action is always better than inaction

2011-11-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

The dust is slowly settling down on the sad and disturbing sex scandal at Penn State University. The scandal has erased the 46 year coaching career of Joe Paterno in a matter of days. There are several lessons in this sordid saga, but if there is one takeaway from Joe Pa's firing, it is that action is always better than inaction, especially when the aforementioned action can prevent some bad things from happening to innocent people. The disgusting part of this story and what got Joe Pa fired is how little people did to help the helpless kids and how easily and for how long Jerry Sandusky got away with some of the gravest crimes you could think of. If you read the grand jury report, you see how many people - big and small, were made aware of the sexual abuse over many years and they all did next to nothing. Given his power and influence, Joe Pa had to be fired for not having done more to stop this pedophile.

All the people who saw Sandusky do those despicable things should be ashamed of themselves for not reacting the way they should have. Not acting or reporting Sandusky to the authorities not only let him off the hook that one time and hurt that one kid, but it probably gave him more confidence and encouragement to continue perpetrating his crimes. He then begins to think, "people have seen me do these horrible things right here in the Penn State locker room and I am still not in jail, let alone not yet killed or even punched in the face!" So his fear and shame reduces and he continues to do more of the same. These guys basically empowered a pedophile. This is why we should always act when we can stop something bad. Always act when we can do something good. Inaction only makes bad things worse and worse things vile. It is somewhat sad to see Joe Pa go out this way after all these years. It's never fun to see a legend fall like that. But he had to go because he failed to do all he could to protect the kids.

Speaking of vile, Google's example for the usage of the word is "as vile a rogue as ever lived". They should put Jerry Sandusky's face next to it. It is indeed the best description of him. It is pretty obvious from the grand jury report that this guy had a method and a scheme for meeting, befriending and abusing kids and he deployed this pattern repeatedly. He used Penn State's football program and his access to it's resources as an effective tool in the process. This is why Penn State looks really bad. Even if Penn state was not aware of a lot of the details, they had enough to treat him as a "suspect" since 1998 and they still didn't do anything and let kids get assaulted right under their nose for many years. What were they waiting for? There is no conceivable answer to this question and that's exactly why everybody from Joe Pa to the President of the university have been fired.

As if this scandal is not dirty enough, the fact that Sandusky used a charitable foundation for kids called The Second Mile to meet and recruit his victims makes me sick to my stomach. That's just messed up. And the story can apparently get even worse if you believe all the ugly rumors floating around and I don't even want to go there. It's easy to sit on our couch and judge everybody from Joe Pa to Mike McQueary to the AD and the president. But if we find ourselves in such situations, I hope we all do the right thing. Lets use this scandal to reinforce the value of positive action, integrity and strength of character. There are no substitutes for these. Sometimes in life, silence and walking away may appear like the easy way out, but abdicating our responsibility never works. It only leads to more problems and headaches down the road, not to mention that you shouldn't be able to walk away with a clear conscience in the first place. Untimely silence will even get you fired for a crime you didn't commit and Joe Pa can attest to that.

Game of the century was mising a QB

2011-11-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

The highlight of the sports weekend was supposed to be the LSU-Alabama college football game. ESPN has been hyping it for over 2 weeks and even called it the game of the century - partly in jest, but they were also semi-serious. The game itself was not bad. It was close as LSU won it 9-6 in overtime. That's 15 points total from 2 teams and they needed OT to do that. I understand the defenses are good, but the offenses were horrible. For all their greatness, these 2 SEC teams have no offense or a QB worth looking at. It's ironic that this game comes a couple of week after the 49ers defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois said that Stanford QB Andrew Luck's stock would drop if he played against a SEC defense. He may be right, but how can SEC teams dominate their league without any decent QB? Also, how great are these SEC defenses anyways if the quality of the QBs they are facing, at least this year, is so bad?

The somewhat unfortunate truth is that defense wins championships and a SEC team may very well win the BCS championship this year too, propelled by the athletes playing defense. But they need a good QB and a decent offense to test them out. That's not happening in-conference this year and it definitely didn't happen in that game last Saturday. Now the national focus moves to the Bay Area as Stanford is hosting Oregon this weekend in their toughest test of the year. If they win, they stay undefeated and move closer to a BCS championship appearance for Andrew Luck. Oklahoma state is undefeated too, but the conventional wisdom says that they will eventually lose to Oklahoma, though that game is at home. Let's see if Luck pulls it off against the speedy ducks and get us all closer to a SEC-Pac 12, offense-defense culture clash for the championship.

In the NFL, interesting unpredictability continued. This is one of the main reasons for NFL's popularity - upsets like the Saints losing to the Rams last week. Parity results in weird results sometimes and this week was no different. The real head scratchers were Denver's win at Oakland, Miami embarrassing Kansas City and to some extent, Chicago beating Philly tonight. The Eagles and the Bears are not that far apart talent-wise, but after last week's demolition of the Cowboys, people were ready to re-anoint the Eagles as the Dream team. So it was pretty impressive that the Bears went into Philadelphia and took all that momentum away. Both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte are playing very well right now. As for the Eagles, they are done. They may have to go 7-1 or something to have a shot at the playoffs. Doable, but not practical because they are already 3 games behind a good Giants team for the Division and 3 games behind a good Lions team for the wild card.

Just when the entire NFL was ready to kick Tim Tebow out of the league, the Broncos beat the Raiders on the road and ran all over them. Tebow didn't pass great, but he ran very well and also threw for 2 TDs against a Raiders defense that played extraordinarily bad. They let some of Tebow's receivers roam around wide-open in those TD drives and they could not stop either Tebow or Willis McGghee on the ground. They didn't just give up 8 or 10 yards every play, they seemed to get gashed for 20 to 60 yards a pop in that second half. The only explanation I can come up with is, the Raiders disrespected Tebow's passing prowess so much that they put 8 or 9 guys around the line of scrimmage and that actually hurt them. It made things easy for the Broncos receivers and the running game found huge, open lanes if they got past the first level of defense around the line, which they seemed to do repeatedly in that second half.

Tough game for Carson Palmer who made some good throws and looked decent. I am sure the media would have been very high on his performance if he had won because he had impressive numbers - more than 300 yards and 3 TDs. But without that win, his 3 interceptions stand out. Good for Oakland that both Kansas City and San Diego lost too. They have to regroup in 3 days and play the Chargers to open the Thursday night schedule. I was also slightly surprised at the NY teams winning on the road. The Jets won at Buffalo and Giants won at New England in a game that resembled their Super Bowl contest from a few years back. Joe Flacco led the Ravens to an impressive road win at Pittsburgh to stop some of their momentum. That division is heating up. With all that said, the biggest news in sports right now is also it's ugliest. The sex abuse scandal at Penn state is shocking and lets wait for more details before making judgments.

Tony La Russ is gone, Andrew Luck is on.

2011-11-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

The World Series is over and this is when the NBA typically starts up and fills up our sports calendar. But that's not to be this year as the NBA lockout has already taken away the month of November from us. It's now starting to hit the fans where it hurts and that's not good for the NBA long term. Until last weekend, we had the world series and it got more interesting as it went on. That game 6 when the cardinals came back from 2 runs down twice with just a strike away from elimination both times was amazing. I would have said that something like that will never happen, but we all saw it actually happen. That resulted in a game 7 and of course game 7's are always fun and exciting. The rangers couldn't recover after that tough game 6 loss and Chris Carpenter sealed the deal. I felt bad for Ron Washington - world series losses 2 years in a row, but that cruel game 6 loss made it much worse. There was also the cute story of Davide Freese, a local St. Louis kid, ending up as both the NLCS and the world series MVP. He sure is living the dream right now. The biggest news though was the retirement of Tony La Russa. We will miss him. An innovator like that is hard to find in baseball dugouts more so than in other sports.

The world series ushered us into the weekend and of course football took over as always. Stanford went into USC and played a whale of a game. Andrew Luck is an absolute stud. He threw a pick-6 very late in the 4-Th and still managed to bring them back to tie the game and later won it in 3 overtimes. He looks as NFL-ready as anyone I have ever seen in college. I have had my share of infatuations with college QBs that I thought would be good pros and have been right sometimes and wrong other times. For instance, I always thought Aaron Rodgers will be great and Akili Smith won't be any good. But I also thought Cade McNown will be good and Cam Newton won't be any good. Of course we all seemed to have missed on Cam. But Luck seems different from everybody. The way he runs, passes, his mechanics, demeanor and everything seem destined for NFL greatness. As high as I was on Aaron Rodgers at Cal, he did throw like a college kid and I thought he needed some seasoning in the NFL before busting out. Luck on the other hand looks like he could start this Sunday and have a 250 yards, 2 TD, 2 interception game for any NFL team.

College QBs are coming in more and more ready for the NFL. This trend really started with Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and it seems to continue with Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and even Christian Ponder. But Andrew Luck is just on a different level of college quarterbacking. It totally makes sense to "suck for luck" and if I were the Colts, I would definitely draft him even if it means pissing Peyton Manning off. Top QB picks don't sit on the bench for long these days and Luck definitely wouldn't, given his immense talents. Manning is no dummy. He foresees all the controversies and might prefer the Colts don't draft him if Manning is planning to play 4 or 5 more years. But the prospect of going from Manning to Luck is just too good for the Colts to pass up. I would draft him if I had a chance, keep him behind Manning for a year or may be 2 and then trade Manning away if he is still healthy and playing. I thought Herm Edwards was way out there in the left field when he suggested the Colts trade Manning, but after seeing Luck last weekend, I am convinced it's not a bad idea at all. Even Luck can be stashed away in the bench for one season and that's what I would do before eventually trading Manning away. Let the kid learn for a year from the sheriff, but let's avoid the whole Favre-Rodgers drama.

On Sunday, the Colts continued their losing season and inched closer to winning the "suck for luck" sweepstakes. The Dolphins are giving them a tough fight. Miami even lost to Tim Tebow last weekend. He is playing really bad right now and some experts are even claiming he is the most immature and confused, young QB to have ever played in the league in 20 years. I am not sure if I would go that far, but he sure is looking clueless right now. And that lions player who "tebowed" after the sack is indeed causing a lot of stir. It was a classless move for sure, but he was just trying to mock Tebow and not his religion. If Tebow's celebratory move was something else, he would have done that instead of the prayer move. But still, what he did was classless because it does involve religion and always keep away from such sensitive, personal issues when it comes to a stupid sack celebration. In other games, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves and the entire Dallas metropolis with that performance Sunday night against the Eagles. Even more surprising is all that struggle Philip Rivers and the San Diego chargers are experiencing this season. They lost Monday night and that offense looks horrible for the most part. Rivers better fix it soon or they can kiss the AFC west title good bye.

Hallf Of Fame Mess

2011-10-26T00:11:00.000-07:00

Tony La Russa is a hall of famer and by all accounts, a smart guy. He lost some credibility when he got busted for DUI a few years back and couldn't recite the alphabets in order, but that's neither here nor there. I guess we can let a little DUI go when the resume is as impressive as La Russa's. He has been a very successful baseball lifer who is smart and unique with his strategies. He also does a lot of good things off the field like his work with animal rights groups. But yesterday's game 5 of the world series was a disaster for Tony. Good for him that he is a hall of famer. If the other manager, Ron Washington had been involved in this mess, the baseball experts would have buried him alive. The Texas-St. Louis world series is getting bad TV ratings as expected, but Tony might be reviving the interest all by himself with some crazy controversies.

Speaking of TV ratings, baseball ratings are obviously down and it's a fascinating fact that 14 million people watched game 1 and that's less than half of the 30 million people who watched the world series in 1971. That sounds like a bad stat if you think about the almost 100 million people added to our population since then and the millions of additional HD TV sets in circulation today compared to the seventies. But the context has changed too. We have 700 channels today and people's TV watching habits have changed considerably. So 14 million is not bad and the interesting stat that proves this point is, the world series in 71 was the eighth highest rated TV show that year and guess what! The 8-Th highest rated TV show in 2010 was the World Series as well. We just watch TV differently these days. It's a fragmented audience.

Anyways, the story of the world series right now is the bullpen communication issue ad the phone fiasco. The Cardinals could not get the right pitchers up and ready in the bullpen and every time Tony went to the mound to replace the pitcher in the critical 8-Th inning, he seemed to get the wrong guy sent. It sounds bizarre to say the least and Tony called it embarrassing. Apparently he asked for Motte on the phone and the bullpen coach heard it as Lynn. That's the only explanation. How amazing that a championship game in a 7 billion dollar industry was decided by a bad telephone call? Sometimes in life, crap happens, especially when people instead of machines are involved. But for La Russ and the Cards, these bad mistakes happened at the most inappropriate time yesterday.

There was also another issue with a bad hit-and-run call that apparently Pujols called himself. That's not looking good for Tony right now either. We are learning new things now even in this day and age of 24-hour sports TV and radio where every angle is analyzed a million times daily. Apparently, it's pretty common to have star players call their own hit-and-run sometimes and that's exactly what Pujols did - at the wrong time in this case of course. Also, it's apparently common to have bad phone connection and communication issues with the bullpen. We just don't care enough to learn about all that unless it's the world series. In any case, the Cardinals are now going back home trailing 2-3. They still got 2 games at home and I expect them to push this to game 7 if not win it in 7. It's been an interesting world series so far despite the lack of widespread interest among fans.

In the NFL, it was not a great weekend of football across the league last weekend. The national TV games were horrible as if to help the world series with it's TV rating. Baltimore and Jacksonville forgot how to play offense Monday night and the Sunday night game between the Colts and the Saints looked like one of those college pre-season games between a football superpower and a no-name school - Ohio State V Youngstown State or something. Who wins a pro game 62-7? And these 2 teams were in the Super Bowl less than 22 months back. I have always said (and blogged) that the best examples for the term "franchise player" you can ever find are Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan. LeBron too was going to be that guy in Cleveland before he took his talents to South Beach.

Peyton is now proving this point with his absence. The perennial power Colts are 0-7 and all they are missing is this one guy named Peyton Manning. How (franchise) player is that? May be Colts got a little older, may be some talent left, may be their offensive and defensive lines have regressed in ways that the average fan usually can't detect, but there is no way this team is a sub-500 team with Manning, let alone a 0-7 team. That's how great that guy is and quarterbacks are that important in the NFL. Not only is he affecting the Colts, he has single handedly destroyed NBC's TV ratings twice already. They have had 2 unwatchable Sunday night games that they couldn't get out of and those 2 would have been major "blockbusters" if only Manning was playing. The only positive coming out of this for the Colts fans may be that they luck into Luck - Andrew Luck.

Three lessons from the football weekend

2011-10-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

Another entertaining football weekend is in the books. The story of the weekend for me was how 3 common football and sports theories were played out right in front of my eyes. These are well-founded theories that have been around forever, but you still see several games where you can't clearly connect the play on the field with these theories and the teams also routinely overcome some of the mistakes and eliminate the effect of these theories. Take for instance the theory that penalties are a killer. It's no breaking news that it's not a good thing if you are moving backwards instead of forward on a football field, but players do commit these penalties sometimes because they are convinced they can overcome it. Most penalties are just mistakes, some are emotional acts, but players do cross the line intentionally at times because they kind of know the down, distance and the score and they think their team can overcome it when it's all said and done. The Oakland Raiders are a good example of this. They have always been notorious for their penalties, but lately, they also have a better record in games in which they commit a lot of penalties than their cleaner games. Weird stat and it sure doesn't give the Raiders much inspiration to play disciplined football.

But the Arizona State Sun Devils were not as lucky as the Raiders on Saturday night against the dangerous Oregon Ducks. The Devils had their hands full against the Ducks on the road, but their many mistakes and bad penalties didn't help the cause. Lesson 1 from the weekend was a particular sequence in this game which in my opinion clearly took the game away from the devils and handed it to the ducks. It was towards the end of the second quarter and ASU was driving down for a score eating good chunks of yards every play. They were already leading 17-14 and were poised to go up 24-14. Brock Osweiler completed another pass to Gerell Robinson to Oregon's 22 and they were almost in the red zone. That's when Robinson committed a stupid penalty and killed the Devils. He got up after the catch and kicked the defender who was on the ground. The penalty took the ball back to Oregon's 37 and Osweiler's next pass was intercepted. Oregon scored and went into the half leading 21-17 instead of trailing. The momentum shifted for good. Robinson's penalty didn't make Osweiler throw the interception, but I strongly believe that this interception would not have happened if the ball was on the 22 yard line instead of back at the 37.

Oregon's speed is just too much and it's just amazing to watch that offense. It's even hard to track the ball on TV as they fake, shift, move and option you do death. They are impossible to beat at home and they always play much better in the second half. All things considered, ducks probably would have put the devils away anyways, but I clearly saw how a stupid penalty can change the momentum, kill a drive and finish a team off prematurely. When I saw that penalty, I became one of those alums you see at the stadium yelling at players saying things like "I pay your scholarship, get your act together you idiot". That always cracked me up and now I was feeling the same anger at Robinson. He had a good game statistically, but he screwed up big time with that penalty. That was a great lesson on penalties and how and why they hurt. Too bad ASU had to suffer through it.

The second lesson of the weekend came on Sunday in the form of an interesting game between the niners and the lions. This game was as good as advertised and the niners won a big one on the road. Conventional football wisdom always says you win with rushing, defense and by playing the field position. This is exactly what the niners did all game. Jim Harbaugh is all about playing conservative, disciplined football and he did the same at Stanford too. Alex Smith and that passing offense is not reliable, but I was still surprised how committed Harbaugh is to his philosophy and how he followed it to a tee from start to finish despite various situations where it would have been easy to start chucking the ball all over Ford field. Many teams win with defense and rushing, but the discipline with which Harbaugh has his team playing right now is pretty striking and impressive. He deserves all the credit in the world for having the niners at 5-1 with basically the same team as last year. It's impressive to see his football philosophy built around defense and rushing considering he was a pretty good quarterback.

Speaking of Harbaugh, he was also the man behind the lesson number 3 from the weekend. Coaches and front office types are constantly asked to stay in their shoes so as to not take attention away from the players and the game on the field. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is the best example of this as he is constantly accused of talking too much, getting in too much trouble and taking away from his team. Coincidentally he lied low last year and the Mavs won the championship. Harbaugh proved to be that guy this weekend when, after the game, he got carried away and gave an excited pat on the back and an aggressive hand-shake to lions coach Jim Schwartz. Schwartz exacerbated the situation by chasing Harbaugh as if he was going to fight him, but Harbaugh definitely broke protocol and misbehaved to start it all off. Both men were at fault, but an important lesson for Harbaugh is that he definitely took attention away from the team and the game. "Handshake-gate" has been the story on sports radio and TV all day across the nation. Even in the bay area, people are forced to talk about it instead of celebrating one of the biggest wins for the niners in many years or talking about the potential for this interesting team. Neither coach got fined and I am fine with that. You can't fine people for bad etiquette. But Harbaugh made a mistake and hope he now understands that he has to save his emotion for the locker room. This is a clear proof of how distracting such behaviors can be.

Theo, the "curse slayer"

2011-10-13T00:56:00.000-07:00

Theo Epstein is apparently going to the Chicago Cubs. Can you imagine this guy's potential legacy if he wins a championship in the north side of Chicago? Can he kill the Cubs' curse after doing all of that in Boston? He would be the first official curse slayer in the history of sports. He went in as a kid to run the Redsox with his moneyball philosophy and won 2 championship. He became the proverbial "he doesn't have to ever pay again for a drink in that city" guy in Boston. But it's amazing how much of a pressure-cooker Boston is and how short people's memory are. After the historic collapse in September, I don't want to say people wanted him fired, but he had a bunch of problems on his hands. To be fair to the Bostonians, may be it was more a function of the collapse than people forgetting the 2 championships Theo brought home. Whatever it was, Theo has decided to move on. I can see why he would want to go to Chicago because the opportunity to do this at another storied franchise like the Chicago Cubs is unique. Also, even if he wins more championships in Boston, the payoff will not be what it was in 2004. So it's time for Theo to try something new and fresh. I am sure both teams will be fine as Boston will probably try to retain his deputies and continue with the program. The Cubs on the other hand can use Theo and his program. It may not guarantee them a championship, but I am sure Theo will take them closer to one.

On the field, the baseball playoffs have been interesting, but probably not the most watched. With the North Eastern teams like Boston, New York and Philly eliminated, I am sure the TV ratings are not pretty. But some games have been thrilling. Too bad the DBacks couldn't win on the road, but it took the Brewers 10 innings to eliminate them in game 5. Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder were just too much for the DBacks the entire series. I would like the young Brewers to march on and win it all, but I don't know if I can handle their stupid "beast mode" after every big play. There have been many stupid sports celebrations, but this might be the worst! It's interesting how more and more of the MLB playoffs have moved to cable, much like what happened with the NBA a few years back. NFL seems to be marginalizing all other sports on TV. A Milwaukee-Detroit World Series would be MLB's worst nightmare from a TV ratings perspective and we might just get it. Detroit did lose game 4 today in 11 innings and is now trailing 3-1 to the Rangers. Nelson Cruz is killing them. He has homered in 2 11-Th innings in this series. What are the odds of 2 games going 11 innings in a 7-game series and featuring the same guy homering in both 11-Th innings? Bud Selig would say "only in baseball" and he might even be right, but I am not sure if anybody except Bud is watching these games.

The best news for MLB might be the NBA lockout. NBA seems to be committed to it's self-destructive ways and the league just canceled the first 2 weeks of the regular season. It took more than a decade for the league to recover some of it's lost popularity after the previous lockout and Jordan's retirement, and another lockout is the worst thing they could do at this stage. Thanks to LeBron's talents the last few years at Cleveland and then his stupidity surrounding his "taking his talents to south beach", NBA regained some of it's viewership. The playoffs last year was especially interesting because people had a set of villains - Miami Heat, to root against and they watched the show on TV. Now, the NBA decides to throw it all away by pissing off it's customers. Mainstream America, for the most part, hates NBA and it's players for whatever reason. Some of it is justified, but some of it is just perception and prejudice. But the point is, NBA cannot afford to anger and distance them further. NFL possibly can get away with it, but NBA can't. NBA's owners seem to be oblivious to this and are hell-bent on getting a good financial deal. They should be committed to getting a good deal, but I wish they had the common sense to be committed to not losing even a single game as well. That's apparently too much to ask and now, nobody cares that the NBA is locked out. Hopefully, some of us will care if and when they start playing again.

All this means more time for NFL and college football. There are a couple of states in the union doing great right now - Wisconsin and Michigan. Detroit is especially having a whale of a time in sports. The Detroit Tigers are in the ALCS, the Lions are 5-0 after many years of abject failure and even the Michigan Wolverines are 6-0 and are ranked pretty high. Same story in Wisconsin. The Brewers are in the NLCS, Packers are the only other undefeated team in the NFL with a 5-0 record and the Wisconsin Badgers are 5-0 and ranked 4-Th in the nation. Life is good in the mid-west. Both the Lions and the Packers are in the same division and they don't play their first game until Thanksgiving. I can't wait for that game. Should be a great one after years of bad Detroit football on turkey day. We may be looking at 2 undefeated teams that day or may be 2 teams with a combined 1 or 2 losses. There are other markets seeing a football revival as well. It always feels good to see small market Buffalo do well. Bay Area is enjoying a good season too as both the Raiders and the Niners are looking good after many years. Just like the Packers and the Lions, the Raiders and the Chargers don't play until late in the season and I expect those 2 games to be great and meaningful too. Who would have thought the game of week 6 would be Niners (4-1) at the Lions (5-0). Acid test for both maturing teams, but I expect the Lions to win at home. In college, ASU is going to Oregon for a matchup of ranked teams. Nobody beats Oregon at home. ASU's only hope might be that Oregon's RB LaMichael James might miss this game with an injury. It's a challenging game for the Devils with or without James. Lets see how they handle the pressure.

Al Davis will be missed

2011-10-11T22:51:00.001-07:00

NFL's week 5 started with the sad news of Al Davis passing away. He was an one man show with the Oakland Raiders and was one of the most controversial figures in all of sports. What made him interesting was that he was one of a kind and also the last of his kind. I suppose that's redundant because one of a kind by definition means there's nobody else like him, but it's also worth mentioning he is the last of his kind because you won't see sports owners like him anymore. He was a football lifer who became an owner. Ownership groups are becoming more and more corporate as it takes hundreds of millions of dollars to own teams these days. Most owners are Home Depot CEOs or Bank One co-founders. They may have a pure football guy in their group as a minority owner and even let him be the managing general partner and the face of the franchise. But the days of pure football lifers like Al Davis becoming the all powerful, majority owner of a major sports franchise are long gone. Davis was the owner, GM, head scout, head coach (in hiding) and the primary decision maker for the Raiders for several decades. It's hard to imagine the Raiders without Al Davis or a setup like that in the sports landscape moving forward.

The Raiders lost all of their identity last Saturday and they have to recast themselves now. For better or for worse, Al was the heart, soul and face of the franchise. He did not have a lot of success the last decade or so and has been facing severe criticism both within and outside the Raider nation with many of his decisions. The worst move in my opinion was letting Jon Gruden go after he revived the franchise coming off a few horrible years. Instead of holding onto the only guy who was able to manufacture any success in Oakland in recent years, Al traded him away to Tampa Bay and it came back to bite him the very next year in the Super Bowl. Even Al's famous slogans like "commitment to excellence" have become the butt of ridicule over the last few years. But with all that said, the man deserves a lot of credit for his body of work. He has seen a lot of success during his career and he built the Raiders brand all by himself. He was always independent, ingenious and relevant. Love him or hate him, you could never ignore him. He was never afraid to be in an island and challenging the NFL power structure was his past-time. I found it funny how he was always the only one or may be one of 2 or 3 owners who consistently voted against many proposals in the ownership meetings. He had a mind of his own and you were either with him or against him.

All that aside, Mr. Davis's real contribution as far as I am concerned is how forward thinking and color and gender blind he was. He was a pioneer when it came to hiring black coaches, recruiting from little known black colleges, giving breaks to Hispanic coaches and hiring women executives. He was consistently ahead of the curve on each of those progressive issues and in some cases, he was ahead of the world around him by 20 or 30 years! It's funny and sad at the same time that the NFL is still struggling to create opportunities for black head coaches while Al Davis hired one in 1989. That's what I will remember the most about the man. Al was definitely a maverick and dominated every aspect of the Raiders. He did have a giant ego and some things like the problems he had with Marcus Allen made him look petty. His drafting the last decade have made us all scratch our heads many times and made us wonder if he was holding onto football a little too long. But the progressive and minority-friendly program he ran singularly makes him an impactful and unique legend in the sport controlled by good-ole, billionaire boys.

The Raiders won the game last weekend at Houston on the last play. The game was close and could have gone either way, but winning it was the only way the Raiders could have honored their owner. It was also fitting that Sebastian Janikowski and Darrius Heyward-Bey - 2 of the most controversial and confusing Al Davis draft picks from the last decade, made significant contributions in the victory. It's been really interesting to see how coach Hue Jackson has been using Janikowski's legs this season. His ability to kick long field goals is having a significant impact both on the games and the way Jackson approaches certain situations in a game. May be the godfather was right in making the polish cannon his 17-Th overall pick in the 2000 draft. Speaking of Jackson, he has been very emotional all week since the news and understandably so. He was another one of those Al Davis hires and he seems to be doing pretty well right now. The Raiders are 3-2 and both Davis and Jackson deserve a lot of credit for what this team is doing. With Davis now gone, nobody knows who is going to or who can run the football side of the Raiders. A lot is going to fall on the shoulders of Hue Jackson and that's way too much for a first year head coach to handle. Hope the Raiders figure it all out soon.

For now, all the talk in the Bay Area is still about Al Davis. Mr. Davis, as he liked to be called, will be sorely missed.

Playoffs are here

2011-09-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

Baseball playoffs are here and this is definitely a fun time of the year. We get to share our attention between the baseball playoffs, college football and the NFL. Baseball is not exactly the most popular or fun sport during the regular season and I don't spend a lot of time watching those games. But playoff baseball is riveting and usually a lot of fun. I am looking forward to it this year since the Arizona Diamondbacks have made it. Also, the exciting and strange way in which the regular season ended by eliminating the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves has definitely help raise the interest in this post-season. The Red Sox were leading the Rays by 9 games for the wild card in early September and still managed to lose it with just one strike to go in the season. They lost a one-run lead in the 9-Th and ended up losing to the Orioles 4-3. The Sox went 7-20 in September to achieve this meltdown. The Rays on the other hand came back from a 0-7 deficit in their final game to beat the Yankees 8-7 in 12 innings to win the wild card. That was an amazing and unbelievable sequence of events that put the Rays into the playoffs! The Braves went 9-18 in September to lose their playoff spot as well on the last day to the Cardinals. Both wild card races had spectacular finishes and historic collapses. Now we have the Rays and the Cards in the playoffs and no Braves or Red Sox. Braves will be fine, but some big names are going to lose their jobs in Boston.

As for the playoffs, the fun starts tomorrow with the AL games. Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia are the headliners for day 1. That should be a fun matchup. The D-Backs kickoff October baseball on the first of the month and Ian Kennedy will take on Yovani Gallardo in Milwaukee. The Brewers have home-field and that can be a challenge for the snakes since the Brew-crew just does not seem to lose at home. Both teams have solid pitching as most playoffs teams tend to do and the Brewers have MVP candidates Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in their lineup on top of that. That should make them the favorites, but thats why they play the games - to defy logic and numbers and to create new records. A lot rides on Kennedy in game 1. In the other NL contest, Philly should be an overwhelming favorite over the Saint Louis Cardinals with that pitching. Halladay goes in game 1, but it doesn't get any easier for the Cards after that as Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels will attack them just as effectively as Halladay. The Phillies should be the favorites to win it all with that pitching, but again, there's a reason why we actually play the games. Just so that the Dbacks can upset the Phillies and then the Yankees! I am sure this playoffs will throw us a few more astonishing moments just like the ones we saw yesterday when the Sox and the Braves wrapped up their historic collapses. Bring it on!

Football weekend is almost upon us. Pittsburgh crushed 16-Th seeded South Florida today to set the stage for a fun college weekend. ASU has re-entered the top-25 with an impressive win over USC last weekend. They should continue that trend when they host Oregon State. The big games of the weekend are Alabama-Florida, Clemson-Va Tech and Nebraska-Wisconsin. Thats a great way for Nebraska to start their life in Big 10 with a visit to the 7-Th seeded Wisconsin. Madison will be ready for that. SEC football at the swamp is always fun and they will welcome Alabama this weekend. UCLA at Stanford will be a fun, late night, Pac-12 contest as well. In the NFL, Patriots at Oakland promises to be one of the great match ups along with Detroit at Dallas and Pittsburgh at Houston. All 3 games featuring surprising teams in Oakland, Detroit and Houston that have not been in the playoffs the last few years, but have all looked good the last 3 weeks. The headliner will be the Jets at Baltimore, but the real action might be in those other 3 contests. The Raiders can definitely shock the Patriots since they can run the ball. Run DMC is an absolute monster and the Pats are going to have issues stopping Darren McFadden. Brady will be a handful for the Raiders as well and the team that commits the fewest mistake should take this one. Not a path-breaking theory, but I think it's going to be the case with this one given the Raiders tendency to commit mistakes and penalties. If they stay in their shoes, they have a shot.

Moneyball

2011-09-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

I watch my share of movies, but am not a big movie guy. I don't think I have ever been as excited for a movie as I am for Moneyball. The movie is finally out, many years after the book and has actually gotten great reviews. This is the movie about the Oakland Athletics and Billy Beane, my favorite GM in the game. I read the Moneyball book years back and it was definitely a page-turner. I expect this movie to be equally good and hope it doesn't make me cry! I miss those Oakland teams and how good they were with those big 3 - Hudson, Mulder and Zito. They had a small payroll, actually very small. But they also had those pitchers and Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and what appeared to be a very sturdy farm system. All of the big 3 and Chavez and Tejada were drafted by the A's and they also had Rich Harden and Joe Blanton coming up. And don't forget closer Houston Street, shortstop Bobby Crosby and outfielder Nick Swisher - all guys homegrown and pretty good. Beane always went out and made some great mid-season trades to rent players for the stretch run. And he would let him walk after the season and accumulate more draft picks for more moneyball picks.

The book explained that strategy among many others. It explained the A's love for walks, OPS and college players. It also explained why they thought high-school prospects are risky, bunts are bad, and defense is over-rated. It all made sense to the A's fans when the book came out because they were witnessing all this in real-time. The team was full of home-grown, young, cheap talent drafted by A's and they were winning big. The book credited all this to A's love for sabermetrics and A's trust in numbers and statistics. It also ridiculed traditional drafting techniques, scouts and old-school GMs and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Fast forwarding to the here and now, many of those people are taking a lot of pleasure from the troubles Beane and the A's are in. Very surprisingly, all of Beane's magic seems to have evaporated. May be it's bad karma! The A's teams since 2007 have been bad, uninteresting and boring. They have really not even showcased any top, young talent to be stolen by the richer clubs. They seem to bring up young players, but none of them seem to really stick out. There was a lot of hope for their pitchers this year after last year's performance, but they seem to have all taken a step back.

The primary problem for Beane is that the entire league is now into sabermetrics and the Moneyball book is a big reason for this. Between the book and the championship success of the Boston Redsox - another moneyball team, the rest of the league seemed to have followed suit. Billy Beane was not the first or the only one to rely on stats back in the day, but the book promoted him as a genius and popularized the concepts. This has led to all the other teams following suit. Many scouts and GMs are upset with Beane because they were all offended by some of the scenes in the book. The primary criticism of Beane is that he never won anything big - the A's have not even been to the World Series under his watch. The other complaint is that the book (or the movie) doesn't give much credit to the top talent they had - the big 3 pitchers especially. Their point is, the top talent they had were all high on most people's draft boards, with or without moneyball and hence Beane can't take much credit for those. Most of the true "moneyball" picks on the other hand, have not done much in the big league. I used to wonder about that myself as the book spent entire chapters on certain players as if they were surefire diamonds in the rough that the A's and A's alone spotted. But I have not heard of those players at all since then. So the critics say the A's were successful because of Hudson, Zito and Mulder and not because of moneyball or Beane's genius.

As always, the truth is somewhere in-between. To be fair to Beane, he did pick most of those star players and they may not have been entirely moneyball picks, but I am sure Beane followed some of his drafting policies on them as well. Secondly, I think the whole point is how he was winning an unfair game and you can't dismiss all that just because he never won the big one. Boston did win big because they backed up the moneyball numbers with the most important numbers that matter - zeros on the paychecks making up that big payroll. Theo Epstein is also a moneyball guy and Beane actually recommended him when Boston was hiring after Beane turned that job down himself. I wonder if it was a bad decision on the part of Beane to have rejected that offer in retrospect. At that time, the theory was, Beane with those resources will be more scrutinized and will look less like a genius and of course, it was also going to be hard to handle that crazy east coast media and the RedSox pressures. But Theo erased the curse of the bambino and brought a championship to Boston. He will never have to pay for a drink again in Boston. If Beane had won that ring - no guarantee he would have, he would be an even bigger star just because of the name recognition. Epstein was just a kid back then and he earned his stripes with that ring. Beane on the other already had the stripes. The stripes would have only gotten brighter, thicker and deeper. Hope he doesn't regret that decision and end up going to Chicago where they are looking to hire a GM to erase their own curse and Beane is on the shortlist of candidates.

Beane does deserve credit for revolutionizing the game to some extent. He was one of the early adopters of sabermetrics and the moneyball idea has definitely "crossed the chasm" now. It's mainstream to the point the A's can't work the system anymore. Beane in some sense shot himself in the foot with the book and also his success in general. Most of his critics are just bitter and they are being sadistic in enjoying his recent struggles. Moneyball definitely had it's share of good ideas and he deserves credit for it. They have to learn to give the devil it's due. Sure, the book does mock the traditional scouts and the baseball hierarchy - sometimes unnecessarily, but thats just the arrogance that personifies the whole jock and sports culture. Beane is just an ex-jock and his critics should cut him some slack. He is now facing an uphill battle. All of his competitive advantage is gone as richer teams are doing what he is doing, but with a lot of cash that the A's don't have. He has also learned to incorporate more traditional techniques these days as he has realized pure moneyball can't do it alone. Plus, I am not even sure what the Oakland A's want these days as a franchise. They are dealing with stadium issues, potential moves etc. Sometimes I wonder if they are self-destructing for a reason - to force a move or a new stadium or something. That would be sinister, but thats all part of the business of sports. Whatever it is, I wish Beane the best of luck, I hope he stays with Oakland and I expect him to be back with a decent product on the field soon. It's time for him to re-invent himself and if anybody can do it, he sure can.

If Beane leaves the A's, there is always the option of hiring Brad Pitt as their next GM!

Thank the honeymoon

2011-09-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

When somebody is new at their job, we always use the term "he is still in his honeymoon period". San Francisco 49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh had a classic honeymoon moment last weekend. The niners were leading and playing really well against the Cowboys when they stalled at about the 37 yard line and settled for a 55 yard field goal with over 11 minutes to go in the game. The kicker nailed it, but the boys committed a penalty - the kind of penalty that would typically be considered back-breaking. These are the penalties that gives life to a stalled offense and drags the defense back on to the field and asks them to now defend an even shorter field. It was a 15 yarder and offered the ball to the Niners offense at the 22 yard line. Harbaugh surprisingly declined the penalty and instead decided to tag it to the kick-off. I was shocked to say the least. Sure, it was a long field goal, but it was a 15 yard penalty. Even if the offense didn't move an inch from there, it would have given the niners a 39 yard field goal, which you would assume is pretty easy to convert in this day and age of HGH enhanced athletes. If it was a 5 yard penalty, it would have been a different story. The worst case scenario would have been a retry on a 50 yard field goal and who knows if the kicker converts again. But he declined a 15 yarder. This decision basically meant Harbaugh had no faith in his offense. The only way this penalty was going to hurt the niners was if the offense either fumbled the ball, threw an interception or got sacked way behind or sacked multiple times and gave it's kicker another long field goal. All things a decent offense and an average QB can avoid.

Bad things can happen and does happen to NFL offenses every Sunday, but you can't play or coach scared. There is a difference between being conservative and being scared and Harbaugh was scared in this case. He was scared to put the ball in his offense and Alex Smith's hands. He was scared that his offensive line was going to screw up. All valid concerns given the talent on that side of the ball, but if you can't accept the ball on their 22- yard line, you have bigger problems. Being conservative or even scared is not going to save your season in that case. To be fair to Harbaugh, Brian Bilick on TV was not sure if he should take the penalty either. The logic was that you don't take points off the board. I am sure there is some unwritten rule somewhere for coaches on this and thats why Bilick was very familiar with it. But Harbaugh followed the rule to the T. The niners went up 24-14 at that point and the Cowboys went onto tie the game and won it in overtime. Interestingly, Harbaugh was scared for his offense and his team losing the game, not for his job. From a job security perspective, it was safer to take the ball back because a turnover then would have been Alex's or Gore's fault and not his. By making this decision, it was all Harbaugh's fault. Thats a level of cunning he doesn't have to resort to in his 2-Nd game as a head coach and hopefully never. But it is also because this is just his second game, that he gets away easy. He better be glad he is still in his honeymoon period because if Mike Singletary or Mike Nolan had done this closer to the end of their coaching tenure, the niner faithful would have roasted them over the coals.

This game also made a hero out of Tony Romo and rightfully so as he came back with a broken rib and played real well to put the boys over the top. He went from goat to a hero just like that and all the toughness questions were erased overnight. Thanks to his honeymoon, Harbaugh is not facing too many tough questions either. The niner faithful is still busy scheming how to get Alex Smith out of town! Across the bay, the Raiders are also dealing with the aftermath of a tough defeat they snatched from the jaws of victory. They let the Bills score in every possession in the second half to the tune of 35 points and lost a game they were dominating in the first half. Jason Campbell played real well even without 3 of his top receivers and his top TE. I don't ever remember the top 4 pass catchers being hurt and out. Good for the Raiders, none of them are that good anyways! They seem to have replaced them rather easily. The Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick are playing great right now. Next week's Bills-Pats contest should be an high-octane affair and might surprise us just like last week's Bills-Raiders. In Carolina, Cam Newton continues to impress. He threw for more than 400 yards again. I am glad I predicted it will happen again, though I didn't expect it so soon against the world champions. He is hosting the Jaguars this Sunday and Blaine Gabbert is going to start for the Jags. That an interesting storyline for the weekend for sure. Arizona Cardinals lost a tough one on the road, but the overall outlook for the team still looks good. Kolb is doing well and the Rams are not doing great. So the Cards can easily make it to the playoffs if they don't self-destruct.

Overall, the Lions, Redskins and the Bills are looking better than expected and the Rams, Chiefs and the Colts are looking worse than expected. Week 3 will clarify things much more. Bring on week 3!

Tom and Cam define week 1

2011-09-15T23:23:00.001-07:00

I don't know what was more ridiculous. Tom Brady throwing for 517 yards or Cam Newton throwing for 422 yards. Where's the defense? What happened to the theory that offenses take longer than defenses to get into the groove, especially coming off a lockout shortened training camp? Brady shredded the Miami defense Monday night and he didn't even need Chad Ochocinco to do anything. It was beautiful to watch Brady throw those pin-point passes that hit his receivers in stride every time. Whether he is making passes at a super model or throwing passes to Wes Welker, I guess Brady knows what he is doing. I don't care how many more rings he accumulates, I will rank Brady second only to Peyton Manning, but I have to say, he is an elite quarterback and he was totally on-point Monday night. This league is definitely becoming more and more QB, offense and pass friendly and I am not complaining. You can't breathe on a quarterback these days and the corner-backs can't do much of what they used to do a decade back. All of that is beginning to show in the numbers. Brady threw for 517 yards and there is talk of him eclipsing Dan Marino's single season record for yardage (5084 yards) this season. Of course both Brady and Manning have already surpassed Marino's single season TD record. Too early for such discussions this season, but with the new NFL, I wouldn't be surprised if Dan the Man loses more of his records. Week 1 featured 5 games where both QBs threw for more than 300 yards. Thats almost 1/3-Rd of the league. Thats not counting Kyle Orton and Matthew Stafford who also threw for 300+ yards in their respective games.

The most surprising QB performance was Cam Newton's 422 yards. The rookie from Auburn was supposed to be so mediocre in year 1 that even a star WR like Steve Smith was barely drafted in most fantasy leagues. Their passing offense was supposed to struggle as Cam was expected to suffer through a steep learning curve despite his amazing physical tools. Coming into the NFL, he didn't look ready, but he showed us last weekend why the Panthers spent their first pick on him though there was some talk of other QBs possibly being more ready for the NFL than him. All last week before the games, most experts picked Cincinnati's Andy Dalton to have a better game than Cam in week 1, but they were not even close to being correct. Cam looked like Michael Vick without the dogs and was throwing long darts all over the field. He also ran for a TD and at 6'5", 248 pounds, this guy is going to be something else if he keeps this up. Of course thats a big question mark because he did all this to the Cardinals defense. I would like to think he is that good and the Cardinals defense is not that bad for selfish reasons, but I am afraid the truth is somewhere in-between and the Cardinals defense might just be that bad. We will know more this weekend as the super bowl champs will try and contain Cam and they should do a much better job than the Cards. It was good that Kolb and the Cards won their first game together, but the story of that game was definitely Cam Newton. Does he have another 400 yarder in him this season? Looking at the league right now, I have to say yes. Either way, I will be watching what he does rest of the way.

Some of the bigger games last weekend gave us some interesting results. The Baltimore Ravens pummeled the Pittsburgh Steelers much to my delight and sent the reigning AFC champion running for cover and searching for answers. Nothing good came out of that game for the Steelers except a new Tomlinism - "There is a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. Obviously last weekend we were grape squashers.” I don't even know what that means, but it sounds so cool! Sunday night game between the NY Jets and the Dallas Cowboys was interesting for just one reason. Both QBs did exactly what their reputation would suggest. Mark Sanchez didn't seem to do much, but he won a big game as always. He should be the most unimpressive QB with the most impressive wins against better QBs. As for Romo, it was the same story as always - great for 3 quarters and major mistakes when it mattered most. QBs always get too much credit or too much blame for victories and defeats. Case in point - Mark Sanchez. He gets a lot of credit though the Jets mostly win despite him, not because of him. But Romo truly lost that game for Dallas. He fumbled at the goal-line once and then threw an interception with less than a minute to go in the game. He forced the ball to Dez Bryant, who was limping and covered by Darrelle Revis, one of the best corners in the world. Sometimes, Romo just gets blamed for the loss, but this time he earned it. I think his problem is simple. He doesn't take ball security in the clutch seriously. He needs a shot of seriousness injected into him in the 4-Th quarter to cure his nonchalance. He has to learn to protect the ball all game, but 10 time more securely in the 4-Th. Lets see how the boys respond against the Niners next week in Jim Harbaugh's second game as the head man in San Francisco.

Crazy, good stuff

2011-09-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

We are just 2 weeks in to college football and a game into the NFL and we have already had multiple reminders of why we love our football. Saints-Packers on Thursday was everything you, me and the NFL wanted (times 10) out of the season opener. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers put on a show and the Saints almost pushed the game into OT on the very last play. A high-scoring, fun game devoid of offensive mistakes that stayed close till the very last play. Could Roger Goodell have scripted a better season opener to emerge from the lockout? Don't think so. Exciting game, but if I were a fan of either of those teams, I would be a little concerned about the defense. Granted, they were both going against a great QB and good offenses, but it didn't look like they can stop a whole lot of teams. The Saints especially looked really weak on defense as Rodgers did whatever he wanted. I will reserve judgment for another week so that I can see these defenses in action against another team, but neither defense looked to be of Super Bowl quality on Thursday. Thats great news for fantasy owners with Brees on their roster. I think he might have to have an even better season than expected for the Saints to be any good. The fun will continue Sunday with Pittsburgh-Baltimore and Dallas-Jets being the headliners. Philadelphia at Saint Louis and Detroit at Tampa Bay are the other intriguing match-ups. Well, it's week 1. Each and every match-up looks appetizing to me. Everybody is ready to roll. Especially Adrian Peterson and Troy Polamalu - the 2 veteran superstars who were given huge extensions the day before the season.

College football was not a slouch either in it's week 2. ASU started off a fun weekend with an OT win over Missouri on Friday. Great win for Pac-12 and good exposure for ASU as they try to creep up the top-25. Of course it would have been an awful game for ASU if they had lost. They gave up a 14 point lead and almost lost the game in regular time. Luckily, they won it in OT after making it a nail-biting affair. Michigan and Notre Dame played an amazing game like they always seem to do lately. They combined for 3 TDs in the last 2 minutes and Michigan's stud QB Denard Robinson sealed the deal with a TD pass with 2 seconds to go. Tough loss for the domers as they were leading comfortably at one point in this game, which was the first night game at the Big House. It was a great college game between 2 storied programs in an awesome atmosphere. Instant classic in front of 114,00 fans, college football's record crowd. Michigan's rival, Ohio State scraped past Toledo 27-22 and Texas survived BYU 17-16. South Carolina and Georgia played a fun one in Athens as the Ole' ball coach won on the road and added on to Mark Richt's pain. Auburn upset Mississippi state 41-34 in the other marquee SEC match-up. Speaking of the SEC, it continued it's dominance over the Big 10 today as Alabama crushed Penn state and Joe Pa 27-11. Out west, Oregon bounced back from their loss at LSU with a win against Nevada as they dropped 69 points on them. Cal, Stanford and USC, all won their week 2 match-ups as well. USC won the first ever Pac-12 conference game. They beat Utah 23-14. Cal won a good one against Colorado but it was a previously scheduled non-conference game and won't count in the conference standings. Interesting twist.

Aside from the great action on the field, the other big news in college has been the conference re-alignments that has the Big 12 pretty much disintegrating soon. First, Pac-10 added 2 teams including Big-12's Colorado. Now, Texas A&M is trying to bolt to the SEC. Call me a traditionalist, but I don't like too much change in such matters. I miss my Pac-10. I always liked the geographical integrity of our conference. It was all West coast though Arizona is not technically a state on the Pacific coast. Now, thats all gone. I guess Utah and Colorado still qualify as "West coast", at least in the eyes of some East coast honks, but all geographic logic are under threat as the SEC is now getting Texas A&M and Pac-12 might still bring in Oklahoma, though the conference is denying that possibility. Hope we don't end up with Boston College in Pac-16 and the BYU in the SEC in 2015! There is now a threat of a lawsuit and all kinds of rumors in Big-12 and unfortunately, Pac-10 was the initiator of all this confusion. I am still amused that Pac-10 had issues with the almighty dollar because they were nestled away in the West coast with late night games and not so committed fan base in some schools, but they are the ones growing. They were apparently not generating the same revenues as some other football-crazed conferences, but they went and poached from Big-12 instead of the other way around. I guess tradition and the Pac-10 label is still strong enough to help them breakup other conferences, with or without top-of-the-line revenue. Utah and Colorado should help the Pac-12 because it brings 2 entire states on board and those states will tune into football as not much else happens in those hoods. The only good news for the NCAA with regard to re-alignment is that it takes attention away from all the scandals that dominated the college football's off the field newswire. Of course the action on the field is compensating for everything off the field.

Lets get this party started

2011-09-08T15:25:00.001-07:00

Today is Christmas day for most sports fans. NFL is back after a tumultuous off-season where we were even threatened that the season may be locked out and we may start losing games. Luckily, better sense prevailed and here we are, on schedule for game 1. The compressed training camp is done, pre-season is all wrapped up, our fantasy teams are all drafted and ready to roll and we are ready for a phenomenal season opening game - Green Bay versus New Orleans. NFL did a lot of things wrong this off-season, but I don't think they could have come up with a better season opener. Even a Green Bay - Chicago matchup, which I am sure they considered given the rivalry and the playoff last year, would not have us all juiced up quite like this matchup. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers on the same field is what will remind us of why we love the NFL. Elite QBs make the NFL and these two are as good as it's going to get in the NFL these days, especially since the native New Orleanoian and the sheriff of all QBs, Peyton Manning seems to be in real danger of missing the entire season. I will definitely miss watching Peyton - he is one of my favorite players to watch in the NFL. It will also be interesting to see how the Colts do. Kerry Collins is old, but can surprise you once in a while. Lets see how he does with this cast of characters. Peyton's injury is definitely the biggest news in the NFL right now and rightfully so.

But, tonight is all about the Packers, their ring ceremony and a contest between 2 elite QBs, offenses and teams. They are after all the last 2 Super Bowl Champions and they have not fallen off too much like some Super Bowl rosters tend to do, especially 2 years removed like the Saints. Thats the strength of having a good QB. You can stay on top regardless of what happens around him. In fact, I would give the Packers a great shot at repeating this year. Though that doesn't happen that often anymore, this year could be different. Shorter training camps mean lesser chances of those last to first teams, rags to riches stories. Even if some teams upgraded their talent significantly, they may have problems putting it all together due to the shortened off-season. So good teams with continuity may do even better this year and the Super Bowl champion is obviously on top of that shortlist. Plus, as good as Aaron Rodgers has been so far, he is still getting better. Watch him do some amazing things this season now that he is totally out of drama queen Brett Favre's shadow and has a championship ring of his own. Thats going to remove a lot of his inhibitions and unleash him. Philadelphia seems to boast of a dream team, but thats going to be a Miami Heat story all over again, only with a slightly more likable cast of characters. Not to digress, but how badly did LeBron and Heat screw up if I am saying the Eagles with the dog killer Vick are a slightly more likable bunch?

I see Philadelphia, Atlanta and tonight's opponent New Orleans as Green Bay's primary threats. I like what Kolb brings to my team, the Arizona Cardinals and I am sure they will be good. But not sure if they can make it to that top-tier. In the AFC, I like the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots to be up there and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets fighting them for the top spot. Peyton's injury pretty much eliminates the Colts. It's not just the talent that he takes away, but the way that offense is structured, it's all him and without him, even a talented replacement will take a while to figure out what to do. Peyton Manning is the NFL equivalent of "throw the ball into LeBron and get out of the way" strategy. Football is a lot more structured and coached than other sports, but Peyton pretty much is the one exception to that rule. He took a box of chocolates onto the field and picked one out every play and only he knew what and how to pick it. Now Collins will have to learn the bag of tricks and learn it in a hurry. The Houston Texans have been trying to win the AFC South for 3 years now and they may get their wish this season. Unfortunately, even they may not enjoy this tainted victory as much as they would have liked to without the sheriff watching over that division. Long story short, I like a Packers-Patriots Super Bowl with the Packers winning it all.

NFL is king and today is another proof of that fact. Even President Obama had to play around with the timing of his address to the nation because of the NFL season opener. Even the President cannot compete with a nicely thrown Drew Brees spiral. Fantasy football is a major part of the reason for football's popularity and I can't even imagine what would have happened to millions of American males if the lockout had eliminated a couple of weeks of football, let alone the whole season. May be we would have invested all our energies in college football, which is not a bad plan B, but it aint no NFL. The college season always gets us in the mood by kicking off first. Last weekend was fun since it reintroduced us to football after a challenging 7 month period. There were some good upsets as usual and Notre Dame losing is always fun, but the college season doesn't really kick into top gear until week 3 or 4. Arizona State won last weekend, but they are playing one of the few ranked match-ups this week. They are hosting 19-Th ranked Missouri and hope to improve their own 23-Rd rank. Of course I am going with the USA today ranking because thats the only one ASU has broken into. Coincidentally, Arizona will be going against the 9-Th seeded Oklahoma state and let's hope the Wildcats don't surprise us and themselves by pulling off an upset. Whatever happens, we will be watching and we are all collectively happy to be talking, reading and writing about football again.

Welcome back NFL! We sure missed you

600 is the new 300

2011-08-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

When it comes to our age, people these days say things like "30 is the new 20" and "60 is the new 10" etc. Some of this is just idle chatter, but some of it does make sense due to changes in our lifestyles, priorities, development in health sciences, and workout habits. This is a good thing. The story is the same with home runs. 600 home runs these days doesn't get you the respect and attention it got 30 years back. This is not a good thing and Jim Thome has the rampant use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in baseball over the last 2 decades to thank for it. Thome just hit his 600-Th home run and nobody seem to care. Thome has stayed relatively clean in the eyes of people, but who are we to judge? These guys are all considered guilty until proven innocent because of the extent of the use of PEDs and the spate of shocking revelations over the past several years. It is what it is and I don't blame the fans or the writers for the way they are forced to think on this issue. It's baseball's fault that they never instituted any drug testing for decades.

Writers may take their time debating whether or not Thome belongs in the hall and delay his induction. MLB is exclusively to blame for this predicament. They knew there was a big problem for years and still had their blinders on for a decade or two. Is this fair to Thome? Of course not, assuming he is clean. But he only has his league's management and to some extent, his player's union to blame. Haven't we all been in that situation? Where our managers and our company's executives mismanage everything and end up adversely affecting our careers, earning potential, and the company's bottom-line and future. It's the same with MLB, NFL or the NBA. Baseball's executives and the player's union mishandled the PED issue and underestimated it's importance to the average fan and now, everybody is paying the price. Thome has to deal with the fact that 600 is the new 300. Thome is past his prime and also has a low-key personality and that contributes to his relative anonymity as well. But his feat would have definitely been celebrated way more if not for the specter of PEDs hanging over every baseball feat these days.

On the field, the Diamondbacks are leading the NL West ahead of the World champions Giants and I think the young team has a great shot at holding onto that prime spot through the season. They are different from the Pittsburgh Pirates who have declined rapidly towards the depths of the NL Central standing. The Brewers are on a roll and dominating that division right now. In the AL, the Central is tight as always with the Tigers owning a small lead. The Yankees and the RedSox are all tied up, but both will be in the playoffs - one of them as the wildcard. This is normal for those 2 teams. Few years back, this is when Bob Costas would typically start complaining about how bad an idea the wild card is. That train has long left the station and we don't hear Costas anymore on that topic, but his point is still valid. Yankees and RedSox should be involved in a heated pennant chase right now, but instead, they are humoring us with a mildly amusing and marginally relevant fight for the division. What we get in return for this diluted pennant chase is a whole bunch of teams fighting for the 2 wild card spots every year and a potential Yankees-RedSox ALCS contest. That would be Christmas, New Year and election day all rolled into one for the East Coast media.

Kolb in da house!

2011-07-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

The only thing better than football being back in our lives is having a QB back in our team. As a closet Arizona Cardinals fan, I am used to mediocrity and failure more than success and excellence. Kurt Warner changed all that for a couple of years, but then the Cards went back to where they belong once Warner retired. As bad as Matt Leinart was and as much as I hated him, it still was a bad idea to let him go last year just because they had no other option. As soon as the lockout was lifted this week, there was a flurry of activity around the league and I was glad the Cardinals triggered one of the bigger moves right away. They traded Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round pick to the Eagles for Kevin Kolb. They then signed him to a 5 year 63 million dollar deal. Big money for a new QB.

Did they pay too much for Kolb? Probably. Is Kolb still unproven for the most part? You bet! But you are nothing without a QB in this league. You might as well stay locked out. And the QBs don't come cheap. You either pay for promise or pay a rookie similar money and wait for a year or two hoping he turns out to be a Sam Bradford and not Alex Smith or Matt Leinart. I would rather pay for promise and somewhat of a known entity like Kolb instead of gambling on a rookie in the draft who has taken just as many NFL snaps as me. It was also important they did this now because Larry Fitzgerald is a free agent next season and there is no way he resigns without a good QB. So I am perfectly fine with this trade and this is one more reason I am looking forward to this NFL season.

The Eagles were involved in the other big splash too. They signed Nnamdi Asomugha as if DRC and Asante Samuel were not enough in that secondary. They now have 3 stud corners and given all that talent on offense, they are now promoted to a title contender status - may be even ahead of the Packers. They just need to take care of DeSean Jackson and they will be a great team this season for sure. The Raiders, the other team I like, are a losers here but they never had a realistic shot at retaining Asomugha anyways. The Patriots are working the phones as always. They got themselves 2 huge gambles and if it works out, watch out for the hoodie. Lets hope Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth are not a "programmatic non-fits". I absolutely love all this NFL chatter.

Locked out!

2011-07-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a month since I blogged. This should be the longest break I have taken in a long time. If you were wondering why, it's because I have been locked out by the NFL and the NBA. Just kidding! But I do have less to talk about like most sports fans these days because of the dual lockout. All we have is baseball right now. The NL beat the AL in the all-star game and it was good to see a bunch of new faces. MLB is going through a changing of guard as well with some of the stars getting older and of course with the steroids removed from the system for the most part, a few stars have disappeared from the horizon as well over the last few years. Now, the second half of the season starts and as always, the playoffs will be fun.

My rooting interests these days are confined to rooting against the Yankees, RedSox and the Giants. Looks like all the teams I like are all doing bad and all the teams I don't are doing good. So I am reduced to a little bit of sadistic hatred. Baseball is interesting, but some divisions are too predictable. It really heats up towards the playoffs and then they get our attention for a month or so. Given the situation now with the NFL, they may even get our undivided attention. While speculation is rife that NFL is close to a resolution, the reality is, it aint over until the fat lady sings. The new CBA should be in place soon, very soon, but the average fan is not too bothered right now. They have no interest in getting into a dispute between millionaire players and billionaire owners.

Fans will be bothered if and only if NFL starts to miss games. Hopefully, it will not happen and this lockout will be a distant memory soon. Fans care even less about the NBA's lockout. NBA is just coming off a great playoffs featuring a great villain in LeBron James. All that goodwill will be lost in no time if the NBA loses games next season. Fans will cut some slack for football because it's so much more part of their lives, but they won't for NBA. The sad part is, the NFL owners are just posturing, but most of the NBA's problems are real. They may have a protracted fight and a real lockout in-season. Thats just all bad news if you are a NBA fans. Let's hope it doesn't happen. But first things first. Lets hope NFL gets unlocked soon.

Everything and more is riding on this game 6

2011-06-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

This game 6 of the NBA finals is it! I can't remember a more important, historically relevant, pivotal game in the recent past of the league than this one, Two games come to mind, but even those 2 got to be important in hindsight. I had only a faint idea of the importance of those games before or during the game unlike today. Both involved the LA Lakers and both were Western Conference final games. The first was the Portland Trailblazers' epic 4-Th quarter meltdown in game 7 against the Lakers in 2000. This game had the potential to alter history. This was the year when the Kobe-Shaq championship run started and it wouldn't have if not for the Blazers choking away a comfortable lead in the 4-Th quarter. This Portland team was loaded and arguably more talented than the Lakers with Pippen, Sabonis, Steve Smith and Rasheed Wallace starting and Detlef Schrempf, Bonzi Wells, Brian Grant and a young Jermaine O'Neal coming off the bench. They were championship contenders that year and they would have won it all if they had gotten past the Lakers. That could have potentially started a Blazers dynasty and nipped the Lakers run in the bud. It might have even accelerated the Kobe-Shaq divorce and the NBA might look a lot different now, but the jail-blazers blew it all that day.

The next pivotal game was towards the end of that Lakers three-peat - Kings-Lakers game 7 in 2002. This was the game that followed the infamous game 6, but by losing game 7, Kings lost a golden opportunity to win a championship and start a run of their own. Again, they were legitimate contenders and possibly more talented than their southern Californian counterparts who were coming off a back-to-back championship. But their inexperience in game 7 (and the NBA referees in game 6) accelerated the end of a special era for the Kings. The Sacramento faithful will never forgive the NBA for that game 6. I could add another Western Conference final game to this list - the Suns V Spurs game 4 in the 2007 series where Robert "the devil" Horry hip-checked Nash onto the sideboards and Amare and Diaw got suspended for game 5 due to the ensuing altercation. This changed the whole complexion of the series and my Suns might have lost their only shot at a championship for many years to come. But I still left it off the list because who knows what would have happened in games 5 through 7 even with Amare and Diaw playing in game 5. I would like to think the Suns would have won game 5 and the series, but you never know.

Here comes game 6 tonight in the 2011 NBA finals. The Mavs have 2 shots to win this series, but seriously, would you be willing to put your 5 bucks on the Mavs winning game 7 on the road? I am not. Though if anybody can do it, this Mavs team can. They have the experience and Nowitzki to make that happen. Whoever replaced all of the blood in Nowitzki's veins with ice-cold water from Antarctica should be the MVP of this series. Nowitzki has been unbelievable throughout the playoffs! With all that said, you don't want a game 7 on the road against a team with Wade and LeBron, especially Wade. Thats what makes this game 6 the most important game ever, at least until game 7 that is! If you hated "The Decision", if you think it was stupid to "take my talents to south beach", if you were appalled by LeBron's public dumping of the Cleveland Cavs in favor of the sexier Wade and Miami, if you thought it was disgusting for the big-3 to come out of WWE-style smoke and celebrate even before winning a pre-season game - which even Wade now agrees was stupid, then you absolutely want the Mavs to win game 6. If you are like me and conform to the widely held belief acknowledged even by a whining Wade earlier in the season when he said "the world is a better place, the Heat is losing", then this is the game you want the Heat to lose. You don't want a game 7.

This game is for more than all the marbles as I see it. When he went to Miami, LeBron said "Not 1... Not 2... Not 3... Not 4... Not 5... Not 6... Not 7" referring to the number of championships they might win. This is a distinct possibility if they win their first ring this year itself. That statement sounded preposterous even halfway through the season and I still maintain that they are even lucky to be in the finals in year 1, but it becomes very real if they clinch their first ring right away. Success breeds more success and with this talented group, just their uptick in confidence after a ring this season will be an enormous addition to their repertoire. And more talented veterans will flock to them to win a sham ring and retire as a champion. Once that train starts rolling, it's hard to stop much like the 2000 Lakers. On the flip-side, a defeat tonight (and in this series) puts more self-doubt in the Heat. It might even derail the big-3 and Bosh trade rumors might start sooner than later. It will also give the necessary opening to young teams like the Bulls and the Thunder to grow and challenge the Heat both in the East and in the finals. Thats very important because those teams are almost there, but not quite. I don't think a victory tonight for the Mavs helps them a lot in terms of their future given their age, but who cares anyways! This series is all about the Heat. Nobody cares about the Mavs - we are just rooting for them!

It's amazing how even the markets that have traditionally been Dallas-haters are all pulling for them only because they hate the Heat. And Wade and LeBron's stupid coughing video before game 5 didn't win them any new friends either. There has never been a more polarizing NBA team than these Miami Heat and there is this sense of joy in people when the Heat lose or when LeBron struggles that is almost universal. Never has a superstar gone from most beloved to most hated in such a short-time and that too not because of issues involving sex, hookers or wives. Now LeBron is trying to turn that around and reclaim his most-beloved spot again and it starts with tonight's game. Thats why this game is so important for those on the other side. If you are one of those guys or girls who believes the integrity and the moral fabric of this culture is dependent on LeBron losing, then you want him to lose game 6. Game 7 is too risky and Nowitzki's shoulders are too slender for us to place the weight of the World on it on Tuesday. But that game 7, if it ever happens would be one of the most entertaining and engrossing NBA game in ages. May be since 2002, when the NBA "fixed" game 6 to force the aforementioned game 7 between the Lakers and the Kings. These finals have already been one of the best series and many bet that the NBA wants a game 7 and will get it. Time will tell, and we don't have to wait a long time, just a few hours before this question is answered. I personally want and expect the Mavs to win tonight.

Best of 3

2011-06-09T00:41:00.001-07:00

The NBA finals is now down to a best of 3 series. Thats good news for the Dallas fans since the Mavs won game 4 to tie things up. But the bad news is, they got to play 2 of the 3 in Miami. Not the toughest place to play, but these are still finals games on the road and are no joke. May be the Mavs look for some poetic justice here. In 2006, they chocked away the home court to Wade and the Heat. They came from ahead to lose after a 2-0 start to the series. May be now, they win it all in Miami on Wade's home court and erase some bad memories. They had a lot of complaints back then about some serious home-cooking served by the referees to D-Wade. Dallas thought they couldn't even breathe on Wade without being whistled for a foul that entire series. Some agreed that it was the best treatment a superstar got from the NBA officials since MJ retired. The scary part for Dallas is that Wade has really stepped up his game lately in these Finals. And going back to Miami, he will be a load to handle in those games 6 and 7. Mavs better be prepared.

As Wade asserts his influence on his team and this series, LeBron has faded into the background and almost the oblivion in game 4. 8 points in game 4 is not king-like for sure. He is getting a lot of attention in the media and also some trash-talking from DeShawn Stevenson. I don't know why DeShawn is yapping and adding fuel to LeBron's fire. He did the same back in his Washington days and is now compensating for his boss Mark Cuban, who has surprisingly gone quiet this playoffs. Now the media is talking about this game 5 as being the biggest game of LeBron's career. He is expected to come out firing on all cylinders. Honestly, I find all this criticism a little over the top. Granted, the standards for LeBron are high, but isn't this the whole point of becoming the "big 3", so that one of them can afford to have nights like this? Especially when the other 2 are going great like Wade and Bosh were in game 4 - Wade had 32 and Bosh had 24. This is not the same as LeBron scoring 8 for a Cleveland team where he was the only scorer.

Actually, I expected a lot of such nights for LeBron with the Heat. I thought LeBron would be their best player all-around, but Wade would be the premier scorer for them. It turns out that I under-estimated LeBron's effectiveness as a scorer. He surprised me by becoming option number 1 for the Heat throughout the season and leading them in scoring by more than a point over Wade - known as a more prolific scorer. I guess he raised the bar higher for himself by being such a consistent scorer throughout the season and this is not the time to be dropping just 8 points! It would be interesting to see how he responds. The media is putting all sorts of pressure on him, but Wade has got it going right now and the last thing LeBron should try and do is hog the ball to save his image. This game 5 might very well be decided on how Miami and LeBron react to these criticisms. As for Nowitzki, he will be there for Dallas in game 5 - sick or not, fever or not. And he will be very interested in finding out which LeBron shows up just like us. This finals just keeps getting better!

Dallas needs to heat up and Sabean needs to chill!

2011-06-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

If you are a Dallas Mavericks fan, I don't know if there's a more hated and frightening athlete than Dwyane Wade. After owning the Mavs completely during the 2006 finals, Wade is again putting on a show in these finals. Wade and LeBron have been sharing the leadership role and the limelight throughout the season for the Miami Heat. But it became more and more LeBron's team as the season progressed and he was impressive during the earlier round of the playoffs. Now, it's almost like Dwayne Wade telling him "step aside son. These are the finals and I got this". I don't know if it's because it's the finals, a stage more comfortable for Wade than to LeBron or is it because it's the Dallas Mavericks, but Wade is dominating right now. Mavs fan would kill him if they could. He won game 2 pretty much on his own. Nowitzki did all he could, but Wade has got much more help around him and the talent once again showed. On some days, Heat just have too much talent on offense and that's all they need. Can you imagine double teaming Wade only to see the ball goto LeBron James? As if that's not enough to give a defense nightmares, LeBron can then swing the ball to Bosh if he gets closed out. Bosh is a terrific offensive talent himself and he is option number 3 on this team. This scenario played out exactly like this towards the end of game 2 and Bosh nailed an important bucket. Nowitzki kept the Mavs rolling all by himself, but fell one makable jump-shot short.

The series is at 2-1 in favor of the Heat and I would be stating the obvious if I mention that the momentum is on their side now. They won home court back and they now know that the series will go back to Miami. So they won't get eliminated on the road and Dallas has to win 1, if not 2 at Miami. One is hard, but doable. 2 is almost impossible considering that it also mens they will have to win game 7 on the road. The win in game 2 no doubt makes Miami the favorites now, but these 2 teams are so close! This has really been a great and competitive finals and it will continue to stay that way. Both game 2 and 3 were decided by 2 points and it's hard to say which team is better and by how much. Miami is clearly the more talented team, but they have enough weaknesses too. So Dallas clearly has a shot and they have to focus on winning games 4 and 5 at home. The games in Miami will be difficult but then again, who said winning a NBA championship is easy? Nowitzki better stay ready to continue his brilliant run. He needs help and Jason Terry better give it to him starting tomorrow. This series will be difficult for Dallas without a solid contribution from Terry. Kidd, Barea, Marion and Chandler can help too, but it's been Terry sharing the load at the offensive end for several years now, he can't disappear now. Dirk needs him and if his threes start falling, this will be a different series altogether. Miami is shooting the long ball better than Dallas right now and that's not a winning blueprint for Dallas. They need to shoot the 3-ball better and it starts with Terry. Otherwise, the only interesting discussion coming out of these finals would be who is better and more important for the Heat - Wade or LeBron? Many pundits are leaning towards Wade these days.

In other sports news not related to the NBA finals, Shaq retired. He will be missed. I was not a big fan of his game nor his teams, especially the Lakers, but I was a big fan of his quotes. The best might have been "“Our offense is like the Pythagorean Theorem. There is no answer.” He was truly funny. He had a unique personality and sense of humor. He was dominant on the court and charming off it. He really had a shot at winning more than 4 rings, but 4 is his final tally. Hard to call him an under-achiever, but he was to some extent given his enormous physical tools. I am sure he will be on TV soon. I wonder if he unseats Barkley as the most edgy and funny personality on sports TV. It may be real fun to see them both in the same studio booth. In MLB, I was surprised by the vitriolic reaction of San Francisco's GM Brian Sabean to Scott Cousins plowing into Buster Posey at the plate and ending his season. I know the Giants need Buster and Sabean is just sticking up for his guy, but for him to say he wouldn't mind if Scott Cousins never played another game again was too hateful and classless. First of all, Cousins did nothing wrong. May be the MLB needs to do more to protect the catchers and eliminate those collisions, but thats unfortunately part of the game today and has been going on for 100 years! Cousins didn't do anything that hundreds and thousands of baseball players before him didn't do. There are some idiots in rec-league softball who try to level the catcher! So chill out Sabes, I always thought he had an "holier than thou" attitude and he took that to a whole another level with this stupid interview. I am glad he is getting reprimanded and is forced to apologize for his idiocy.

Mavericks sitting pretty

2011-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

They always say you learn more from your losses than your victories and I was counting on that when Dallas lost game 1 at Miami. For some reason, I felt like it was a good thing for the Mavs. Dallas has this vibe of a veteran, mature team that learns and adjusts game to game. They also have the depth to switch things up and Rick Carlisle is a thinking man's coach. He is not headed to the hall of fame yet, but I consider him to be under-rated. Also, game 1 was on the road and the Heat are a young team prone to letting things get to their head and can act immature at times. I think both Wade and LeBron still have these youthful tendencies and that shows from time to time. They don't possess the killer instinct of a Kobe or a MJ and don't effectively step on the throat of the opponent when the opportunity presents itself. All this led to my belief that the Mavs are going to be fine after the game 1 loss and even be better for it. I thought they will learn from it, adjust, and come out with a more aggressive game plan for game 2.

Of course, all my theories looked shaky when the Mavs were trailing by 15 with around 6 minutes to go in game 2. This is a close series between 2 equally matched teams and the Mavs were doing very well in the first half. But then the Heat went on one of it's runs and the Mavs suddenly were staring at a 15 point deficit and some early celebrations from the Heat. Here is the amazing thing about this Dallas team and Nowitzki. They never give up. They have supreme confidence and never panic. They did to the Heat what they did to the Thunder earlier in the playoffs. They focussed a little more on the defensive end, unleashed Nowitzki on the offensive end and chipped away at the lead. Next thing you know, the lead was gone and the Heat didn't know what to do. When LeBron and Wade start hoisting long 3's, you know you have a shot at winning. They have become decent long-range shooters, but still thats not their game. As a defense, thats exactly what you want them to do. LeBron has been making more of these shots in the clutch than in the past, but still he is "settling" anytime he attempts those and we saw a few of those in that 4-Th quarter of game 2.

Mavs finally outdid themselves when Nowitzki kept scoring and killed the Heat down the stretch. At least they needed overtime during their comeback against the Thunder, but Nowitzki finished things in regulation here. May be it was the Heat's premature celebration that fueled this run. Whatever it was, it wasn't pretty for the Miami Heat or it's big 3. Jason Terry did his best to give the Heat a shot at redemption when he left a 3-point shooter wide-open, but Nowitzki erased that mistake in a hurry at the other end. It was either that or he was going to erase Jason Terry off the face of the Earth after the game! Thats how angry he was after Terry's defensive brain-cramp. Reminded me of Nowitzki publicly yelling at Terry after Nash nailed a 3 to tie a playoff game for the Suns back in 2005. But Nowitzki is a lot more mature these days. He didn't show any emotion on the court, but apparently was hot in the huddle during the timeout. Terry seems like a good guy, but it's funny how he always finds himself in the middle of something interesting.

Now the series goes to Dallas for 3 straight games. It has traditionally been hard for teams to win all of those 3 middle games. The reason for that is very simple. It's just hard to beat a good team 3 times in a row and more often than not, good teams make it to the NBA finals. It can happen if there's a big talent differential between the 2 contending teams. But thats not the case here. So I expect Miami to steal one game out of the 3. Then the series becomes even more interesting and Miami would have won home court back at that point. Thats when home court is truly relevant because game 6 and 7 would be at home and it's almost impossible to win game 7 on the road. If anybody can, it's this Dallas team with the experience and depth. Still if I were Dallas, I wouldn't want to "take my talents to South Beach" for that game 7 on the road. So this is basically a 4 game series for Dallas now where they have to win 3. Doable for sure and thats why that game 2 win was big. But game 3 is also equally big. If Heat comes back and wins game 3, momentum is right back on their side and probably will never return to Dallas again. But if the Mavs win game 3, then the pressure builds on the Heat and Dallas can really work it.

When it's all said and done, I think Dallas takes it in 6.

Cuban or LeBron

2011-05-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

The NBA finals that most people did not expect and I personally did not want is here. Either LeBron James or Mark Cuban - two of the most polarizing figures in all of sports, will win their first championship. Of course, Nowitzki, Kidd, Marion, Bosh and a bunch of others are also in line for their first ring. But those kids are not as polarizing as the two principals in this contest. In fact, I personally don't mind some of them winning a ring and would actually like them to. Case in point, Kidd and Marion. I would be happy for those 2 if they win. Nowitzki is not too "hatable" either. My only regret about him winning a ring would be that he would have it before his buddy Steve Nash, who the Mavs and the Cubans let go. This ring will never vindicate that stupid move, but some people in the media and Cuban would try to spin it that way. Being a Suns fan, it's really the Nash angle that makes me hate on the Dallas in this context. Otherwise, they are definitely the team to root for in the finals for all of us who didn't appreciate the big-3 coming together and LeBron dumping Cleveland through the "decision".

The Nash-Dallas discussion is very nuanced and I feel compelled to get into before these finals. First and foremost, shame on Robert Sarver and the Suns management that the Suns have still not even made it to the Finals with Nash. It's not Nash's fault that Cuban and Nowitzki have gotten to the finals twice without Nash while the Suns management has just refused to invest and improve the team. In fact, by letting a blue chip talent like Amare walk last off-season, they have made sure Nash will probably not win a championship, at least not with the Suns. When Nash first moved to the Suns, they were better than the Mavs and then the tide turned when the Suns ownership stopped feeding the beast - the core of that great 2004 Suns team. Cuban on the other hand has not showered money like he used to when he originally bought the Mavs, but he has definitely tried to improve the team and has spent the money when and where required. This has kept Nowitzki well-fed with solid talent all around. It's ridiculous how deep this Dallas roster is.

Secondly, when Cuban traded for Kidd, it was an implicit acceptance that the Nash decision was a mistake and that he had to go back to a legitimate assist machine in the form of Jason Kidd. Granted, you could argue that Kidd is a better defender than Nash, but that was not the driver in Cuban getting him. The Dallas system and Nowitzki needed a legitimate point guard and Cuban made a mistake by letting Nash go and he made it right by getting Kidd back. Last but not the least, one could even argue that the Mavs could have done better with Nash and the rest of that roster Cuban has built over the last 6 years. The catch this year was Chandler anyways! So who knows where Cuban and Nowitzki could have been with Nash around them. So given all these dimensions, it would be hard for me to digest a Dallas championship. There is a little sadist in every one of us that doesn't want to see certain teams and athletes win, especially their first championship. I hate the Lakers but I was counting on them to beat the Heat even if the Heat got past everybody else. It was so much more important to stop the first championship for the Heat than to stop the 6-Th for the hated Kobe and the Lakers.

Now that we are stuck with this finals match-up, who do I root for and who do I think will win? After all the drama of the last off-season and the totally unexpected gang-up of 3 of the most sought-after free agents of the 2010 class, I just cannot bring myself to root for the Miami Heat. They signify everything thats bad about the way free agency in the NBA should be managed. Granted, they came together to win, but this is just not the way to do it. And if they win this year in their first season together, it's just too easy! I can't even imagine how arrogant these guys will be next year if they win it this year after all the drama and losing streaks. I still maintain they are not championship material. LeBron is, but the Heat as a team are not. They are just catching the league on a down year when the Celtics and the Lakers have both mysteriously took a step back while the Bulls and the Thunder are on the way up, but not all the way up there yet. So I don't want them to win. Do they have a shot? Of course they do. With LeBron and that defense they play, I can totally see them winning it all. But the Dallas Mavericks are slightly better and Nowitzki is balling out of his mind. So the Mavs will hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy. I also want them to win, I think.

Bad Guys 3, Good Guys 1

2011-05-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

The teams that I don't like and don't want to see win the NBA championship are both leading their respective series 3-1. I am part of the group that doesn't want to see the Heat win. It is indeed a "have" versus "have-not" bias plus the whole anti "Decision" sentiment, but the reality is, the Heat are not even that good. I feel like they are catching the NBA during a proverbial "down" year and are doing really well to take advantage of it. At one point, it seemed like they had no shot at winning it all. But then the Celtics self-destructed by trading away Perkins for younger pieces. Great job Danny Ainge! All that KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen really needed in their mid 30's is an in-season rebuild of a championship caliber team! Not only did the Celtics give up size and toughness with that trade, it also completely ruined their chemistry and derailed a good looking season. So after Aingle removed the Celtics from the path of the Heat, all that was left was a young and upcoming Bulls team in the East. The Bulls are playing great and Derrick Rose is insanely talented, but that whole operation is inexperienced and immature. Their future looks bright and all they need is another offensive piece, but they clearly can't handle the pressure of an Eastern conference finals yet.

Ironically, this assessment of inexperience should have been true for the Heat themselves - a brand new team with 3 superstar pieces figuring out how to play each other under an young, inexperienced coach. But the Heat have a couple of things the Bulls don't. One, they have 3 stud offensive pieces as opposed to just one for the Bulls. Secondly, LeBron and Wade have experienced this stage and beyond individually, if not as a team. You can clearly see that they are a lot more comfortable than Rose at the end of games. Rose is still learning these playoffs and the rest of the Bulls team is of no help sometimes. They are neither talented nor experienced. The Heat on the other hand are better off on both accounts. The only issue was, they were supposed to take a year or two to build chemistry. But it seems like a championship is within their grasp right here, right now. The only thing worse than these 3 dudes winning a championship is them winning it right now in year 1. That makes LeBron's predication of 6 or 7 championships realistic. Thanks to Ainge and the total collapse of the Fakers, they can smell the trophy. The only thing on their way now are the Dallas Mavericks - the traditionally soft and under-acieving Mavs.

Unlike the Heat, the Mavs are legitimately good, but they are also benefitting from the inexperience of their talented, but young opponent in the Thunder. The Thunder gave the game away yesterday after leading by 15 with 5 minutes to go. It's the type of defeat that can crush a team for a couple of years! Nowitzki has been unbelievable in this series and the playoffs. Durant's game is very similar to his, but Nowitzki's experience is now trumping Durant's youth. The Mavs are a collection of old, talented and decent dudes that we can get behind, but I just can't because of the fact that they are one of Suns' major rivals and I don't want them winning a championship while Nash is languishing at home. It would legitimize Cuban's stupid decision with Nash and thats why me and most Suns fans have a huge problem with the Mavs winning. But they will be the favorites against the Heat and they may be the lesser of the 2 evil. Nowitzki sure is playing like he deserves a championship and those 4-Th quarter shots he made in game 4 against some good defense were unbelievable. We live in a "what have you done for me lately" culture and hence feel like this playoff performance by Nowitzki is one of the best ever. I am sure many legends including MJ and even Kobe and Shaq over the last 10 years have had runs like this that is not fresh in our memory. But I can't remember a stretch where a defender gets appreciated for great D on a superstar like Nick Collison is right now, but still get torched routinely for 40 points on 60% shooting! Thats how good Nowitzki has been this series - unstoppable with or without good defense.

Time to mentally get ready for a Mavs-Heat finals. The Mavs have home court this round and there is no way the Thunder win all 3 remaining games with 2 of them at Dallas. At least the Bulls have 2 of the 3 at home. So I sill have some hopes for Da Bulls.

Roller Coaster

2011-05-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

The Eastern conference finals in the NBA is tied at 1-1 while Dallas just went up 2-1 in the West. The road team won the 2-Nd game in both the series to even things up and "steal home court". I didn't think any home court was really stolen since both these series are going to see a few more road wins. The teams are too close and they are not mature or strong enough to take all home games. So the home court in either of these series is going to be helpful only in game 7. Until then, I expect a roller coaster ride in coasts. As if to prove my point, Dallas went into OKC and took game 3 away. Where's the home court now? The experts will now start talking about how pivotal game 4, and then 5, and then 6 are. Of course, game 7 will be in Dallas and I can't see how the young OKC team will win that if it gets that far, which I think it will.

The Durant-Nowitzki matchup is real fun, but the defense in the Bulls-Heat series suggests that one of those 2 teams will hoist the championship trophy when it's all said and done. The Heat do look and feel like a championship caliber team right now. The way they play defense just adds to their 2 great individual talents and makes them very formidable. Bulls play equally good defense, but they don't have a LeBron or Wade to shoulder the offensive load. If the game is close, they need a flawless 4-Th quarter from D-Rose to win the game and thats going to be hard against the Heat defense. They need Boozer to step up to ease some of the pressure on the offense. If Udonis Haslem starts playing like it's 2007 again, the Bulls might be in trouble unless Boozer neutralizes him and then gives them some more. I think the Bulls have decent talent, but not the experience.

In the West, Nowitzki won the first game 48-40 against Durant. These 2 guys are just awesome to watch. Nowitzki's shooting in this series has been amazing so far, except for the first 3 quarters of game 3. And that dunk by Durant in game 2 deserves to be you-tubed if you have not seen it yet. Scott Brooks put Westbrook on the bench and won game 2 with his subs and Durant. Thats a talented bench he got there and my man James Harden is bringing it. That guy can ball and is not intimidated by the setting at all. Brooks needs Westbrook in this series, but Westbrook needs to scale down his shooting, which is easier said than done. He got Durant, he doesn't have to shoot every-time down the floor. The problem with OKC is that they are still young and inexperienced and it shows. There were a couple of 3-point attempts late in game 3 that made you scratch your head. One was by Westbrook and another by Daequan Cook which were both horrible shots to begin with. But they were both not even close and that says a lot about the way these kids are handling this stage. Unfortunately, experience can't be taught and you can only hope these guys will relax, settle down, slow down and make better decisions.

But the story of the series so far has been Nowitzki's shooting. The dude is unbelievable. This year has been a MVP type season for him and the proof was in those games he missed during the regular season. Mavs lost most of those games and looked like the Clippers. Too bad the voters will never give him a MVP ever again because of what happened in 2007 when he won the MVP and the Mavs exited in the first round of the playoffs. Since then, he and the Mavs have never been able to shake the "soft" image. But there is nothing soft about Nowitzki right now. He is dominating and carrying the Mavs all by himself. Even in game 3, when he didn't shoot that well, he made all the clutch shots in the 4-Th quarter just as OKC nudged back within 6. If you are an OKC fan, Nowitzki's jumper is the scariest thing for you in the World right now even after a 7 of 21 shooting night in game 3. Durant didn't shoot any better in game 3 and that has to change if the Thunder wants to win this series. They also need to give the ball to the Sun Devil Harden a little bit more.

New Boyz

2011-05-17T00:15:00.000-07:00

The NBA playoffs look and feel different right now. Except for Dallas, the other 3 surviving teams are new and young outfits. Seeing LeBron there seems very familiar, but he is now wearing a new jersey. Thunder and the Bulls are young and these 3 teams are all going to be around for a while. They might have replaced the likes of Spurs, Lakers and the Celtics. It would be great to see a Thunder-Bulls finals signaling a new beginning in the NBA. I am not sure about the TV ratings of such a series, but these 2 teams aint bad at all. I am definitely in the anti-Heat camp and am pulling for the Bulls all the way. I want them to win and I think they will win. They took care of game 1 rather easily, but their maturity will be tested in game 2. The Heat are still a collection of 2 superstars and one star whereas the Bulls are a real team. Whatever it is, I want the Heat to lose. I have always been a Laker-hater and this was the year I thought I would rather have them win instead of the Heat. But just when I needed them, the Lakers let me down and got eliminated a round or 2 earlier than expected.

Phil Jackson and the LA Lakers were swept in shocking fashion by the Dallas Mavericks of all teams. I don’t know how many people picked this upset, but if somebody claims they called this, the odds are, they are probably lying. The Mavericks are perennial softies who do a lot of great things during the NBA regular season, but are usually guaranteed to under-achieve when it matters the most. The Lakers on the other hand are the 2 time defending champions with a lot of skill, size and playoff moxie. They under-achieve during the fall months and are usually unstoppable in the playoffs. They turn on the proverbial switch when they want to and then they turn the lights off on their playoff opponents. This looked like a mismatch on paper, but little did we know it was mismatch going the other way!

These 2 teams have been perennial contenders and playoff regulars, but for some reason, they have never met in the playoffs after 25 long years. The Mavericks slept through the entire 90’s, but I find it hard to believe that they never ran into the Lakers during the Nowitzki era. That’s some strange luck of the draw. The Western conference has featured some heated and stable rivalries over the last 10+ years in this whole Kobe, Duncan, Nash, Nowitzki era – Suns-Spurs, Suns-Lakers, Spurs-Lakers, Spurs-Mavs, Suns-Mavs and even Utah-Lakers. For some reason, the Mavs had never met the Lakers in this era and now I wish they had met them every year. The Mavs ripped the Lakers’ hearts out and stomped on it. The Lakers have way too much talent for then to let this happen to them. You had to wonder sometimes where was Kobe?

Kobe is on the downward slope of the career and this is the year the slide officially starts. He is still awesome, but you can feel a slip. The first stage of the slip manifests itself as follows. The athlete will still dominate with all the talent in the World, but he or she can’t do it as consistently as they used to. Kobe is exactly there now. It’s hard to see him play and pinpoint exactly what he is lacking or what is it that he used to do that he can’t anymore. But he just can’t do all the things he used to (and still can) for 48 minutes on a day-to-day basis. He is Kobe for stretches of the game and Latrell Sprewell for the rest. I was shocked when Steve Kerr casually mentioned in an interview that Kobe is not a superstar anymore, but he is still a star. That’s what a sweep will do to you.

In any case, the playoffs are not about the Lakers anymore. I can only hope the Thunder and the Bulls prevent the Mavs and the Heat from winning

Lakers may be winning 2 series

2011-04-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Lakers are winning their series against the Hornets 3-2. It's following a known pattern as the Lakers first lost home court and then seized it back. Then the home teams have won 2 "must-win" games. CP3 was awesome in game 4. This playoff series has been a comeback tour for CP3. The last couple of years, he has taken a step back for some unexplainable reason - both him and the Hornets after looking like the team of the future in 2008 when they extended the Spurs to 7 games. He was not super-dominant through the regular season either and the season of course started with him demanding a trade. He should have been the consistent league leader in assists the last couple of seasons, taking over from MP3 Steve Nash, but Nash is still the top dime-dropper. Paul is a distant 4-Th. But this playoffs have given him the stage to excel and boy did he do that in game 4! Of course the series came back to LA and Kobe dropped a couple of rim-rattling dunks. Now the Hornets may win game 6 and lose in 7 or I would not be surprised if the Lakers finish things off in 6 as well. Thats typically how the NBA cookie crumbles.

There has been a couple of odd cookies in this playoffs so far as well. While I expected the Celts to win, the sweep was surprising even with the Knicks injuries. Of course the Bulls win should have surprised nobody. The Heat and the Thunder are doing good as well while the Mavs and the Blazers are involved in a street fight. The odd-ball surprise is the continued trouble the Spurs are in against the upstart Grizzlies. While the Spurs have been fading fast late in the season, home cooking during the playoffs is supposed to cure a lot of ills. But it seems like they are going to suffer the ignominy of losing to the 8-Th seed in the first round. Those upsets are few and far between and the Spurs are the last team I would expect to suffer through that. They still have 2 home games, but they have to win all 3 games to avoid the upset. Looks like Zach Randolph is going to have the last laugh and may be come up with a Dikembe Mutombo type moment after the upset. Or may be he may just light up a joint right there on the court after the win!

The other upset could be the Hawks over the Magic. This is another series where the real winners might actually be the LA Lakers! In the rich get richer World that the Lakers typically live in, there is already rampant speculation that Dwight Howard will bolt the Magic and end up with the Lakers. That would be the perfect, late-career side-kick for Kobe and possibly a great future focal point for the Lakers once Kobe fades away, though I am still not entirely sold on Howard. A defeat in this series will only push Dwight Howard away from the Magic in a hurry, if not towards the Lakers. Of course, my favorite coach Stan Van Gundy will probably lose his job too, but Howard is clearly the bigger piece here. The Hawks are honestly going nowhere, but they may take the Magic down with them. The Magic fans would be really disappointed if they lose Howard to the Lakers after losing Shaq to them many moons ago. But thats exactly how the media is drawing this up. Not sure if the Lakers want him that bad or if thats what Dwight Howard is dreaming about, but the media is actively brokering this marriage. And a first round playoff exit for the Magic will be the perfect engagement gift.

Playoffs for real

2011-04-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

The NBA playoffs often has a very predictable cadence and rhythm to it. This is primarily because these series are all 7 games long and more often than not, the better team always comes out on top in a 7-game series. Sure, we always say the playoffs are all about match-ups. But the better team can usually overcome a couple of match-up issues and they will win at the end. The longer series is really fair - given the long, grueling regular season that is the NBA. You don't want a fluke victory to decide the champion after such a long regular season. So demanding the teams to show consistency over a 7-gamer makes perfect sense, though the sudden-death elimination format is really fun and we totally enjoy that in the NCAA tournament and even the NFL. The NBA playoffs are a lot of fun, but you can predict certain games at certain points in this 7-game series rather easily.

For instance, most people probably knew the Lakers are going to win game 2. No team, especially a good one like the Lakers, will lose game 2 at home against a 7-Th seed in the playoffs to go down 0-2. You may ask how did they lose game 1? That would be a great question and Chris Paul is the short answer. But once that game went down, you knew for a fact the Lakers are going to seal game 2. Lakers won't lose in round 1, but even if they do, the Hornets have to beat them in 6 or 7 games and that game 2 belonged to the Lakers. This is what I mean by "predictable cadence" to the playoffs. The only unpredictable part of that game was the dominance of Bynum. He led the Lakers in both points and boards and that may be the best news for the Laker-fan. Health is really wealth with this dude.

The same formula worked for the Spurs-Grizz as Ginobli returned and the Spurs tied the series up. The Spurs are probably more in trouble than the Lakers. They have been visibly aging and fading towards the end of the season much like the Celtics and they may lose the series against a lively Memphis team, but it's not going to be easy for the Grizzlies. It's amazing what this team has done without Rudy Gay, but it's going to end in 7 games against the Spurs. It's funny that the first and second seeds are tied 1-1 in the West while the 3-Rd and 4-Th seeds seem comfortably placed. Of course, I like the saying the series doesn't start until a road team has won. So the Thunder and the Mavs can't get too complacent.

In the East, Celtics - the other old team, has survived the 2 home games. They are up 2-0, but not an impressive showing at all. Carmelo did anything he wanted against the Celtics except win. Now he goes back home and the Knicks should win at least a game. It will be hard for them to win the series without a healthy Amare and Chauncey, but it will be interesting to see how efficient the Celtics are against this team. The top 3 seeds in the East are all up 2-0 and my prediction for a superior Eastern conference playoffs might be happening in the next round. Bulls are going to be hard to deal with, but who better to challenge them than the talented Heat and the veteran Celtics? Of course playing the Pacers in the first round is not going to prepare the Bulls for the real playoffs. Who let the 37-45 Pacers into the big dance? The bottom of the East is still the L-East.

The Phoenix Suns are 3 games better than the Pacers and they have been eliminated from the playoffs for a while in the West. They lost interest and motivation and lost a few more games and are still better than a couple of playoffs team in the L-East. I guess thats how the cookie crumbles. Thanks to the horrible management of Mr. Sarver, Nash is at home while his arch nemesis Mavs are as good as ever and his old coach and running mate are also playoff bound in New York. What a feel good story for Nash and his fans. Speaking of running mates and a "predictable cadence", I expected a loss or two early for Wade and LeBron in this, their first playoff run as a team. But their first round opponent, Philly, is so horrible that the losses have not happened yet. Then again, a word of caution for these 2-0 teams - playoff series really begins only when a team loses a home game.

Game of the season

2011-03-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Suns and the Lakers played a game on Tuesday that should be on ESPN classic anytime now. The Suns were at the losing end of what should easily be the game of the season so far - a triple overtime, 139-137 thriller on national TV. The only thing that could have made this any better is a Suns victory. I am not saying this just as a Suns fan, but after trailing by 21 in the third quarter, that ending would have made this gem of a game even more improbable and dramatic. But the game was loaded with dramatic moments anyways. Between the brilliance of Kobe and Nash, Channing Frye and Kobe Bryant's clutch shots, ice-in-the-veins free throws by Pau Gasol and Channing Frye, this game had everything. The game started slow for the Lakers and they looked disinterested and looked like they were just waiting to turn it on in the second half and put the Suns away. And sure enough, they did seem to step it up a notch in the third quarter and they were up by 21 before the Suns knew what hit them. The Lakers were ready to call it a night, but the Suns had other ideas. They may not be the most talented bunch these days, but they showed they are resilient, well except for Vince Carter of course. Channing Frye is especially awesome and is fast becoming one of the best clutch players in the league. Before the Lakers knew it, the Suns were back powered by the Suns' 3 point shooting.

Nash ignited that 3-Rd quarter comeback as always. There are many things we could talk about when it comes to this game and there are several game reports on the web doing the same. But I wanted to focus a little bit on what Nash did late in that third quarter to turn this game completely around. It was an amazing and underrated stretch of the game where Nash showcased his under-appreciated leadership skills. Oftentimes, talent in sports is mistaken for leadership. Not every talented player is a leader capable of doing the right things to show his team direction. But Nash totally is. He is unselfish and has the ultimate sense for what his team needs and when. He can turn his scoring on and off anytime and does it so deftly at specific points in the game, you are sometimes left speechless. In this game, the Lakers were running away with it in the third quarter and it looked like the Suns offense was stuck in mud. He could sense that the Suns were getting close to giving up when he went down the floor and hit back-to-back 3's and another 3 a few possessions later. You could sense that this totally galvanized the team and they started playing with a different rhythm right after. Nash again went back into his usual role as the Suns woke up as a team and started scoring. Granted, he had the talent to hit those shots and without that, he is no leader. But the way he senses his team's needs and provides whatever is needed is just a true leadership trait. Hope people like Carmelo Anthony understand this.

Coming back to the game, even as I was watching it late in the OT, I thought it was one of those games which meant more than just one W or L in the standings. I think this loss pretty much takes the Suns out of the playoffs. This is the reality both literally and emotionally. The Memphis Grizzlies seem to be well entrenched at that 8-Th spot and if they keep winning tough games on the Road against teams like the Celtics, the Suns a'int got no chance. But, a triple overtime loss like this takes way more out of you. It was impressive that the old Suns team came right back on Wednesday and won a back-to-back against the Raptors. But they have to make-up 3 games in 12 tries and leaf-frog 2 teams in Houston and Memphis. Utah is done as expected, but Denver without Melo and the Grizz without Gay are surprising everybody. All that the Suns have to show for this season might be this classic game. I don't mind if they miss the playoffs. Thats a better reality for the front-office and the ownership to deal with instead of thinking we are good just because we made the playoffs. Also, it doesn't hurt to have a couple of balls in the lottery. Of course, I still wanted them to win this triple overtime thriller against the hated Lakers, but the Lakers got it done at the end. It should have been contagious because the Clippers and the Wizards played an entertaining double overtime game the very next day on the same court. And the Hornets today beat the Jazz 121-117 in another entertaining OT game.

March Madness is here

2011-03-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

Fun times are here again. The 2011 NCAA tournament kicked off in style today with some tremendous games early. It was amazing to watch these kids hit great shots in the clutch with time running out. For some reason, it feels like these guys do better in the clutch than their NBA counterparts. There are a few buzzer beaters here and there in the NBA, but there are way more in college, especially in March. It should be the better defense in the NBA or something. Also, the number of NBA teams and the player pool is pretty small and players know other players' tendencies and goto moves pretty intimately. In the tournament, schools that have never crossed paths in 20 years meet and anything can happen despite the best efforts by the coaches to prepare their players for the specific opponent. Not sure if it's real or just an illusion, but I thought these college games today featured a lot more big shots than your typical NBA games. I was totally thrilled to watch the fantastic finishes and amazing shots this morning and afternoon.

There were 6 really close games, though UCLA took a blow-out and unnecessarily made it close at the end. Brandon Knight sealed the deal for Kentucky against Princeton with a drive and a shot, though it's a credit to Princeton that Kentucky needed that to win. The better game-winner today belongs to Temple's Juan Fernandez against Penn State. He was stopped cold by the defender, but somehow found a way to use his pivot foot to jump away, create some space and hit that shot with the defender all over him. It was not quite "Kemba Walker against Pittsburgh" good, but a great shot nonetheless. Butler won on a buzzer-beater, but that one should be rough on Old Dominion because Matt Howard won it on a rebound and a put-back after the defense played good D and forced a bad shot. 13-Th seed Morehead State sent Rick Pitino and Louisville packing behind Demonte Harper's game winning 3. I think some of these kids should coach LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. In the same bracket, 12-Th seed Richmond got Vandy for the usual 12 over 5 upset. Thats becoming so common, I am surprised if 5-Th seed win these days. How did Utah State and Clemson lose?

Sydney Johnson, Princeton's head coach and Kalin Lucas, Michigan State's senior guard, both teared up at the post-game presser showing us why we love this event. The single-elimination, sudden-death format is thrilling, but it should also be heart-breaking to the players and coaches. Their entire season and in some cases, their college basketball careers come down to one shot and a few plays here and there. It's real tough. These guys still stay cool and focussed enough to take and make those game winners. Just the potential of ending some senior teammate's careers with a miss should put immense pressure on these kids. It's all part of the allure of the tournament. Speaking of the allure, Kemba Walker and Jimmer Fredette had big days and did nothing to hurt their star status. Jimmer's range is just incredible with some of his shots. The kid is going to need some help soon, but I will be watching him as long as he is playing. The "watching" was really fun today with the coverage across 4 channels. It's a brilliant idea and you never miss anything. Especially with the way they stagger the start time of these games, you get to enjoy the last 5 minutes of every game on a different channel and the action was continuos all day. This is exactly why I love the first weekend of the tourney more than the rest. Of course, the "first round" on Tuesday and Wednesday didn't do much for me except confuse me a little with the bracket. Anyways, can't wait for more of this tomorrow!

Tradeoffs

2011-03-05T23:58:00.000-08:00

Now that we have seen teams in action for more than a week since the NBA trade deadline, it 's a good time to evaluate the trades. This, surprisingly, was an especially busy trade deadline in the NBA. All the talk for months leading into the deadline was about Carmelo Anthony and he did move. But there was many more players switching jerseys and zip codes. Some trades are over-hyped, while others are under-valued. I can see what the excitement is with Melo and the Knicks. The Knicks have been hurting big time for many years and Amare has finally bought them some legitimate hope. Now add a prolific scorer and a clutch player like Melo, it's a formidable 1-2 punch that almost guarantees them a playoff trip every year. But the problem is, they are both similar in what they bring to the table - lots of scoring with very little outside of that. They are both mediocre defenders and bad rebounders for their size. They have both been accused of being ball-stoppers. So I expect good things, but not great things from this combo. They still need a third piece and the best part of the deal for the Knicks might be Chauncey Billups. He is another clutch player, but he is also a good point guard who can manage the 2 scorers on the floor. He has already won them a game against the Heat and he may win them a playoff game or two down the road. With all that said, this Knicks team is incomplete and I am not sure if they will ever have the cap room to become complete.

The Russian Billionaire really scared the Knicks into trading for Melo while the Knicks thought they could wait for the off-season and just get Melo off the street as a free agent. Denver had no leverage in their negotiations with the Knicks and Mikhail Prokhorov gave them the leverage. Now, the Nuggets are not looking that bad with all the pieces they got back. It's not quite the elite roster without Melo, but it aint bad at all. The rich and creamies are running, gunning and even winning with the young and talented roster with better defenders and no "ball stoppers". Danilo Gallinari has a lot of potential with a Nowitzki-like game. Raymond Felton and Wilson Chandler are not bad either. Timofey Mozgov, the guy who almost held up the trade from the Knicks side because D'Antoni didn't want to give him up can actually make this trade one-sided if he develops as a player for the Nuggets. Speaking of D'Antoni, the Nugges roster looks like something he would love to coach even more than the Knicks roster he coaches right now. But Pokhorov made sure the Knicks lost a lot of talent in this trade and Pokh got Deron Williams fromt he Jazz in a shocker of a trade at the last minute. I don't know if Deron wants to stay there, but if he does, I would say Nets hit the jackpot. Give me Deron over Melo any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Deron is under-rated a little and a great point.

The Jazz didn't want to deal with any kind of Deron soap opera and hence dumped him in a surprising trade. But they now lose legitimacy in the West and have to deal with the under-achieveing Devin Harris. For all his talents, Devin is invisible these days and may be the change of scenery will do him good. I won't put money on it, but the Jazz are now in trouble without Sloan an now trading away their heir-apparent to John Stockton. They are slipping down the Western seeding and I am not complaining as a suns fan. The other shocker trade was the Clippers banishing Baron to Cleveland. Thats the last place Baron is going to play hard for, but they have him now - enjoy! The other big trade was Boston trading away big body Kendrick Perkins, the guy who could have won them their championship last year. They got good scoring talent in return in Jeff Green and Nenad Kristic, but thats not what they need for a championship run this year. They better hope Shaq and Jermaine are healthy now for the playoffs. Otherwise, they are going to be soft in the middle. Perkins hardens the Thunder's middle immediately - if he stays healthy and plays. Portland got Gerald Wallace, Atlanta got Krirk Heinrich and the New Orleans got Carl Landry from Sacramento in other good moves. The Suns joined the party by trading Dragic for Aaron Brooks. I have always liked Aaron Brooks and I am expecting good things from him. Some people are reading too much into this move with regards to Nash's future, but it's a decent move for the Suns.

I still can't believe Baron is in Cleveland. The Donald is cruel.

Mid-season wrap

2011-02-20T23:23:00.000-08:00

The NBA all-star weekend is now in the books. The all-star game and even the dunk contest was not too bad this time. The contestants came up with some creative dunks for a change and made it slightly interesting. Blake Griffin even brought a car in to jump over with Baron Davis sitting in it. Now the stars can go back to their teams for the second half push and playoffs. This is a good time to look back at the first half and also hand out some interesting awards. Most teams have played 54 or 56 games and that makes up about 68% of the season. So we are way past the halfway mark of the season though we consider this the official mid-season. Everybody and their grand moms are handing out mid-season awards and here's my list.

MVP:
There's a lot of momentum building for LeBron James for MVP despite the pre-season projection that his days as a MVP candidate are over. Even LeBron himself said it would be difficult for both himself and Dwayne Wade to win MVPs from now on since they have joined forces. Surprisingly, LeBron has managed to distinguish himself both through his individual brilliance the last several weeks and through the great run the Heat is on. Even more than the Heat's record, it's the Cavs record thats helping Bron's MVP candidature. The Cavs are 10-46 and they are basically the same team as last year, minus LeBron. Yes, they have had a couple of injuries, but with LeBron, they would still be winning 60 games. That just shows how important and unique a player he is. With all that said, my MVP is Derrick Rose. He is scoring almost 25 points and dishing 8 assists per game and has the Bulls just 2 games behind the Heat and the Celtics. And he is doing all this with injuries to Boozer and Noah. The Bulls may not be better than the Celtics, but don't be surprised if they shock us with a deep playoffs run. LeBron is great, but I am going to hold Wade against him. Though he is clearly emerging as the biggest of the big 3 in Miami, Wade isn't exactly chopped liver. Wade is still averaging 25.4 PPG and thats no joke. Also, keep an eye on Kevin Durant in the second half. He could steal the MVP if the Thunder make a major push in the West.

Coach of the Year:
Chicago's Tom Thibodeau is a top candidate in many people's eyes for the coach of the year. I would instead give the MVP to D-Rose and give him most of the credit for the Bulls' season. Thibodeau has done a great job, but that Bulls roster does have some talent. If anything, they were expected to breakout the last couple of years and it has taken D-Rose's brilliance for them to take off this year. My coach of the year is actually Gregg Popovich. Not only does he have the Spurs leading the league with a ridiculous 46-10 record, but he is doing it with pretty much the same team as last year. But he has reinvented their style and approach and has convinced Tim Duncan to take a backseat on offense. I have never seen such a seamless adjustment by a coach with the same roster. Risky, dangerous and brilliant strategy all at the same time and he deserves an award for it.

Rookie of the Year:
Easiest award of them all, unless you are disputing the fact that Blake Griffin is even a rookie. Blake Griffin is averaging 27.6 points and 14.4 rebounds per game and brings a load of excitement to every Clipper game with his effort and power, not to mention the monstrous dunks he is known for.

Executive of the Year:
I guess this is an easy award too, considering all that has happened in Miami. Pat Riley deserves this award for buying LeBron and Bosh to run with Wade. I don't think they will win the championship this year, but Riles should still pat himself on the back for bringing arguably the best player in all of basketball to Miami. Speaking of, Reggie Miller during the all-star broadcast on TV referred to Kevin Durant as the guy who is going to be the best player in the NBA in 2 years. Barkley immediately responded like only he can by saying "you better hope LeBron is dead for it to be true". Thats would be a "LOL" moment if I was a teenager, but that's exactly what I am grappling with as well. I totally see Durant becoming an absolute monster, especially as a scorer in a year or two, but I don't know how anyone can be more complete or better than this LeBron James dude. It's going to be great watching those 2 grow into their NBA greatness.

Most Improved Player:
Another award for which Derrick Rose can actually qualify, though I won't give it to him. This goes to Dorell Wright from the Warriors over Russell Westbrook of the Thunder. Westbrook has become a legitimate second option behind Durant and a force to reckon with, but he was still good last year. Also, I think he is still slightly over-rated. But Dorell Wright has been lighting it up for the Warriors with 16.5-5.7-3.2 per game. Thats impressive for a guy who barely left the pine in his previous stop. The Warriors GM not only found the right guy, but also found a way to use him.

Defensive player of the year:
At almost 14 boards and 2 blocks per game, it's hard not to give this award to Dwight. He definitely makes his presence felt on the defensive end and he needs to play like a defensive player of the year the rest of the way to keep the Magic in it and then take them further in the playoffs.

Power Rankings:
Here are my NBA power rankings - just the top 8. Who cares which is the 18-Th best team in the NBA - not even a hard-core Suns fan like me.

1) San Antonio Spurs - Their record is real, their lead over the Lakers is legit. I think it's going to be a Spurs-Celtics finals.
2) Boston Celtics - The East is not going to be a bed of roses, but these veterans can handle any thorns on their way.
3) LA Lakers - The Lakers are slipping, but the Black Mamba is still lethal.
4) Dallas Mavericks - The Mavs should probably be ranked higher, but they have disappointed us too many times in the past.
5) Miami Heat - I am not a believer yet, definitely not against the big, talented playoff teams.
6) Chicago Bulls - With a healthy Noah and Boozer, this team has everything you could ask for.
7) Orlando Magic - Good team, but too much going on in the East these days. They might fall short.
8) Oklahoma City Thunder - Durant's next step may not happen this year.

500 and beyond

2011-02-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

The new-look Suns are on a roll a little bit. They have now won 7 out of 10 and are just 2 games behind the 8-Th and final playoff spot in the west. They finally got past 500 and are now 27-26. They can still lose a winnable game anytime - like they did the other day against the Sacramento Kings at home, but they are playing much better overall. The new pieces are finally fitting in well, though the Suns are not getting a whole lot from Vince Carter, the biggest name in that trade. But Marcin Gortat has been great and Mickael Pietrus has fit in seamlessly. Both of these guys have significantly upgraded the shaky Suns defense. Nash is making the best use of Gortat’s size and abilities and Pietrus is never shy to take and often make those open 3’s. It’s a shame Vinsanity is not producing even close to what his talent-level demands, but what’s new? That has been his M.O forever and it seems to have only gotten worse as he has aged and moved through multiple stops.

The Suns have had some impressive wins off-late including 2 games against the Utah Jazz. The brutal schedule that we were talking about at the start of the season has eased a little and the results reflect that. The team’s chemistry and performance have also clearly gone up over the last couple of weeks. As always, Steve Nash has been a big reason for this. Nash is just amazing. He is still pouring in the assists and it has gotten better lately as Gortat and the gang has gotten comfortable around him. His numbers are as impressive as ever and he would be in the running for the MVP if the team was in the top 3 spots in the conference. He is averaging 11.3 assists per game without Amare and is averaging over 12 assists a game since Jan 1-St. He is just a freak and a treat to watch. He can score a lot more if he really wants to. I felt the same way when I watched John Stockton late in his career. Nash could easily average 5 more points per game if he was a little more selfish and took a few more shots. Rando’s assist numbers are falling while Nash’s numbers are increasing. It will be interesting to see where they both end up.

It does look more and more like the Suns are going to end up in the playoffs. They are only 2 games behind Utah and Memphis and just 3.5 games behind the 5-Th seeded Portland. There are a whole bunch of good teams in the mix, but no great team. So Suns should like their chances as much as anybody else in that mix and the Warriors are not too far behind either at 26-29 and playing well. I am not sure what making the playoffs really means if it’s just going to be about finishing 7-Th or 8-Th in the west and getting eliminated in the first round. But it’s still a prestige thing and I will take it and so will most people in the valley of the sun. The long-term plan for this team is still not clear because we need something big in the short-term here. Nash and Hill are two of the best players for the Suns and they are not getting any younger. Vince’s salary comes off the books next year, but I am not sure what’s the plan for that money. Hope it’s not just going straight to Robert Sarver’s bank account so he can buy another foam finger to wave at Suns games. He should never be allowed to wave the number 1 sign ever again because it’s his leadership that has basically taken a number 1 team and made it number 10 in the west (at the time of writing this article). But finishing 7-Th or 8-Th instead of 10-Th is a good first step in this road to redemption.

End of an era

2011-02-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Over-paid athletes with long-term contracts and leagues that are more worried about television contracts than the sport itself define the sports world today. This era is not exactly known for loyalty, longevity, commitment, toughness or old-school work ethic. A singular exception to this rule was Jerry Sloan, the now former head coach of Utah. He was a head coach at one place for 23 years - which is equivalent to 25 dog years, which is about 120 human years. He was the longest tenured coach in all of US professional sports. It’s almost impossible to enjoy such long tenures at this day and age and NBA is especially notorious when it comes to hiring and firing head coaches.

High salaries, unrealistic expectations and a general cultural shift towards instant gratification are all challenges to extended tenures for these high-profile coaches, GM and even superstars. But Jerry Sloan survived all of that and more. He also survived the retirement of two Hall of Famers – Karl Malone and John Stockton. He was able to do his thing for 23 years due of several reasons, but primarily because he was a great coach. He was one of the best at his craft even though his style is old school and several modern day athletes definitely didn’t enjoy it. Case in point – Deron Williams. Sloan and D-Will have clashed often and recently during the halftime of a loss to the Chicago Bulls. This incident is rumored to have pushed Sloan over the edge.

Williams is a talented and hard working guard who doesn’t have a reputation of being a cancer or even a bad seed. But I can easily see how Sloan and him clashed over stuff. That’s going to happen in any high-stakes environment like the NBA. But whether or not that caused his exit, only Sloan knows. The theory is that the ownership was getting more and more friendly to Deron’s position and Sloan felt like his authority was being compromised. He apparently told them that if this is how they want to run their franchise, he doesn’t want any role in it and walked away. This is probably what happened because I can’t imagine Sloan quitting in the middle of the season without a strong trigger like that. Sloan is one of the toughest SOB and he is definitely not a quitter. He is not going to be pushed out by a kid like D-Will after 23 years at the helm. He has seen it all and handled every conceivable situation. So the only plausible explanation for him exiting like this is that he thought the front office was not behind him this time.

This actually means the front office is probably more responsible for him leaving than Deron Williams, though this will probably stick to Deron. It will be interesting to see how the Jazz faithful responds to D-Will now. They are a nice, well-behaved, religious fan-base and you could say that’s one of the reasons why Sloan even survived 23 years. But they may still turn on D-Will, especially if Utah starts losing a lot. I think that won’t happen because the team is loaded with talent and the new coach Tyronne Corbin might open it up and make it more fun for Williams and the team. While Sloan was a great coach and preached fundamentals, toughness and defense like no other, he did not often tweak his style to suit his talent. It was always the other way around with Sloan. The talent on the roster had to get on with the proven program or sit on the bench. If Ty Corbin finds a middle ground between the rigidity of a great system and the versatility of the phenomenal talent at hand, Jazz could have a great rest of the season.

As for Jerry Slaon, he should be retired for good at this stage. He is 68 years old and I can’t imagine him coaching anywhere else. That’s probably a good thing because this way, he would always be remembered as a Utah Jazz and we don’t have to deal with things like him coming into town as a visiting head coach. I can definitely see him in a television role, but I am not sure if he wants that. In any case, this was a shocking culmination to a recent spate of long tenured coaches retiring, resigning or getting fired. First, it was Atlanta’s Bobby Cox retiring after 21 years as the manager of the Braves and the longest tenured manager in MLB. Then it was Jeff Fisher getting out of Tennessee in a surprising move after 17 years at the helm and the NFL lost it’s longest tenured coach. Now it’s Sloan who was the leader in the NBA and all of sports - all 3 changes happening in a 5-month spam. As of today, the NFL honor belongs to Andy Reid, Greg Popovich leads the NBA in terms of tenure and the longest tenured coach in all of sports now is MLB’s Tony LaRussa. Not bad replacements, but it’s still a sad day in sports and an end of a glorious era. We will all miss Jerry Sloan.

Suns win one

2011-01-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight the Suns beat the Celtics 88-71. Suns don't win many games when they score only 88. Actually the suns don't win many games these days period! So it's a pleasant surprise for suns fans when they beat top-notch teams like the Celtics. Granted, the good old celtics were playing on back-to-back nights on the road, but these are still the eastern conference leading celtics with the big-3 or 4 or 5 or whatever number of great players on that roster you want to recognize. Thus the inconsistent and mediocre suns season continues. They lost by 34 points at Denver and then went on a nice 5 game winning streak against some bad teams (and the knicks). Then they lost 3 in a row to even worse teams. Now, they beat the celtics at home to get to 21-24. They supposedly had a team meeting recently with some front office suits in the room and this game is touted as a strong response coming out of that meeting. Whatever the cause was, this is a sold result, but they are still what their record indicates and it indicates nothing but mediocrity.

I am not sure how the suns owner Robert Sarver can show up in public after taking a team that went to the western conference finals just 8 months back and turning it into a 11-Th placed team with a 21-24 record. Most suns fans were not too disturbed when he let Amare walk. We were all caught up in what Amare can't do - namely defend well or rebound consistently, but what was lost was what he can do and what he did do for the suns. People forgot Amare was Blake Griffin before Blake Girffin and it was not going to be easy to replace his production. Poor guy never got his due in Phoenix and he never lost it and turned on the city like some knucklehead superstars do. Thats just amazing considering how rough a background he comes from. My respect for him constantly keeps going up looking at the way he plays and conducts himself. I am glad the Suns fans gave him a nice ovation when he visited. That was absolutely the appropriate response for Amare.

Without Amare, the season was meandering along when the front office pulled the Vince Carter - Hedo trade. Not a bad trade for the future in terms of cap room, but does nothing for this year. It took a already floundering team and added lack of chemistry to it's list of problems. Now, Steve Nash has to get used to 3 new players and try and incorporate them into his offense. Not the kind of rebuilding project he is looking for at 37. I love Grant Hill, but at 38, if he is Nash's best fast-break option and also the most reliable defender, the team is not being managed well. So what do you do with this team and the veterans, especially Steve Nash? I don't want him to be traded, but why waste his time and talent with this roster? Sarver and others keep talking about still making the playoffs. NBA teams constantly try to make the playoffs as if that means something. The truth is, making the playoffs means nothing except more money for the owners. It saves the coach's job and causes some momentary excitement, but if you are not contending, what's the point in just making the playoffs? It's a meaningful goal only for a young team on the rise. Making it to the playoffs as an eight seed only to lose to the Spurs or the Lakers in 5 games cannot be a goal for this Suns team led by a 37 year old superstar.

Nash is still playing at the high-level, but his assists that used to be slam dunks (and 1) when Amare was around are now a hit or miss layup attempts with Gortat and Lopez. I am amazed Nash is still averaging 11 assists per game. Marcin Gortat actually had a great 19-17 game tonight against the Celtics. May be this is the turning point we have all been waiting for. May be he cements his place at the center position and the Suns find some chemistry with this new group. May be the team meeting sparks a sustained run. The Celtics didn't play well today, but they did play tough and the game had a few tense moments and pushing and shoving followed by a few ejections. May be the team rallies around this and takes off. Remember how the Cleveland game ended up changing Miami's fortunes? I am searching for something here because I don't want to see Nash struggle for a mediocre team. Yes, a playoff berth is the best this team can do and it doesn't mean much. But it's still better than nothing and it will at least give Nash a shot. Plus it will put some money in the owner's pocket and might encourage him to be more aggressive next year. Nash and Hill might still have a year left in their young legs and I don't want that to go to waste.

Packers-V-Steelers

2011-01-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

The Super Bowl lineup is now set. The Packers and the Steelers got the job done today in almost similar fashion. They both looked like they were going to blowout their opponent in the first half, but slowed down significantly in the second half to let the Bears and the Jets back into the game. But they did hold on at the end to win close games by a score or less. I am not a big big-ben fan - couldn't resist the opportunity to use 2 "big" back-to-back, but you gotta give the devil it's due. Nobody clutches up like this guy and he is almost impossible to bring down. He rarely plays "pretty" or puts up big numbers, but he always seems to make plays in the 4-Th quarter. His QB rating in this game was 35.5, but there were 2 third down plays late in the game when the ball was in his hands and he completed big passes to help the Steelers kill the clock. The second one was typical Ben as he got out of the pocket and found a receiver in the crowd just past the first down marker. All Rex Ryan could do was throw down his headset in disgust.

The Jets had a shot today, but they should have scored during that long drive in the 4-Th quarter when they stalled at the goal-line. That drive reminded me of the stalled Oregon's drive against Auburn in the college championship game. Of course the other option for the Jets would have been to have actually shown up in the first half. They didn't do either and hence lost the game. If you have as bad a first half as the Jets did, you need a flawless second half to have any shot at winning. The Jets were almost there, but not quite. Rex deserves some credit for half-time adjustments, but he can now work on preparing a script for next year's "hard knocks". That show should go back-to-back with the Jets because it's going to be a letdown next season with any other team. As part of his script, Rexy should mix in a home playoff game too. He has played 6 road playoff games in 2 years and has gone 4-2. Pretty impressive in it's own right, but a home playoff game wont hurt their chances.

The Packers generated their own excitement today as they let the Bears back into the game after a 14-0 first-half lead. Cutler got injured mysteriously and the Bears took a step back from bad to worse momentarily when Todd Collins stepped in. But then they put in the third string QB Caleb Hanie and he turned the game around for the Bears. He drove them for a TD and made things interesting, but threw an interception on 4-Th down late in the game to finish things off. Apparently the Bears fans are burning Cutler's jersey for not playing through an injury which they think was not major. I guess tomorrow's MRI will reveal the damage and at this stage, Cutler may actually be wishing it shows a ligament tear or something serious. But the fans are playing doctor right now and are pissed at Cutler for not being tough enough. Controversy always seems to find Cutler or may be he finds them. He is the exact opposite of Aaron Rodgers, who seems to have managed his young career flawlessly up to this point. I sure hope he adds a Super Bowl championship to his resume.

Sport Illustrated rarely gets it right, but their Super Bowl pick this season - Steelers over the Packers. Pretty impressive though I sure hope they are wrong about the eventual champion.

Talk and Walk

2011-01-20T23:21:00.000-08:00

If you talk the talk, you got to walk the walk. This is why most people don't talk the talk. This is especially true in sports where people are afraid they may not be able to walk the walk, so they don't resort to any controversial trash talking. Athletes and coaches often display fake humility and false respect when they talk about the other team and try not to give them any bulletin-board material. Modern day sports is really soft and mellow when it comes to trash talking and hating the rival teams. Blame it on free agency, or the realities of the 24X7 media with a constant eye on everything or may be it's just a more evolved society we live in today. Whatever the reason is, teams don't hate and go after each other in the media like they used to. However, life, like fashion, always goes around in circles and this trend of decency and decorum between teams might be changing too.

At the forefront of this revolution, if you can call it that, are the New York Jets led by Rex Ryan. In 2 years, this guy has single handedly changed the landscape of the NFL. He is brash, loud and anything but shy. His team has taken his lead and they also say and do whatever they want. Antonio Cromartie shocked everybody when he dropped an A-expletive on Tom Brady of all people. Guys don't do that these days, especially with superstar QBs with a spotless image. Of course the Jets were perfectly at ease with such behavior while Bill Belichick, on the other hand, would still not bite. The entire Patriots contingent would not respond, including Brady. I was hoping Brady would take a shot or two, but he probably thought he would win the game and then drop some trash on the Jets. Dude never got a chance. Wes Welker was the only guy who would venture out into the wild, but he got benched by the Hoodie for the first possession of last weekend's game. I thought what Welker did was smart and hilarious. He dropped 11 feet or toe references during the course of a normal interview with an obvious eye on Rex Ryan's "foot porn".

All of this is great for the NFL. The league sure can use a little more character and edge in it'e personalities. People calling each other expletives is not great, but things like what Ryan and Welker did adds a lot of personality to these games and builds rivalries. There are not many quality rivalries right now, but seems like the Jets are building a whole bunch of them all by themselves. A few years back when the NFL re-aligned, they sent a survey to teams asking them to identify their biggest rival. All the teams in the then AFC West (except the Raiders) identified the Oakland Raiders as their primary rival. I think in a year or 2, the New York Jets might be voted as the hated rival by the entire league. Rex Ryan tried his best to piss off Peyton Manning and then Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. But the Jets backed it all up with victories against both the teams. For the second year in a row, they are going to the AFC championship game after 2 road playoff wins. Thats no fluke ladies and gentleman. This team is special and whatever they are doing is working. They can talk and then back it up on the football field.

The Jets win over the Patriots was especially impressive considering they just lost 45-3 at Foxboro few weeks back. Rex doesn't just talk, but also coaches. He came up with a brilliant game-plan to throttle MVP Brady and the Patriots offense and completely changed the game on the hoody. Win or lose, I don't remember hoody getting out-coached too many times, but he was against Ryan and the Jets. Sexy Rexy is brash, loud, funny and he seems to be beloved in his locker room. They want to play for him and win for him. Not sure if his style will work with a mediocre team or a losing team, but he is the king of NY right now as the Jets are a game away from the Super Bowl. They have a legitimate shot at making it to the Super Bowl, though they are unusually gracious and humble towards the Steelers. Not sure why the Steelers are treated so special, but I am sure there is some method to this madness. This seems to be Rex's chosen approach to the Steelers - quite different from his attitude towards the Colts or the Patriots. The Jets did beat the Steelers at the ketchup bottle in December. May be he is scared Polamalu, who missed that game, is going to whack them this time around, which is very likely.

In any case, Jets-Steelers will be a great game. To quote Bart Scott - "can't wait".

Stanford lucks out

2011-01-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Stanford is front and center of the football universe right now. They scored an impressive 40-12 victory over virginia tech in the orange bowl and since then, Stanford's coach Jim Harbaugh and their QB Andrew Luck have dominated the sports pages across the country. Jim Harbaugh was the most sought after coach in all of football this week - may be ever, and rightfully so. 3 NFL teams - Denver, San Francisco and Miami, were after him and Stanford threw money at him to try and retain him as well. Finally, Harbaugh committed to stick with the Bay Area but not with Stanford. He was announced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49'ers. What Harbaugh had done at the farm after taking over a 1-11 Stanford team is pretty impressive. In a short time, he took them to a BCS bowl and won it in style. I have always been a big fan of Harbaugh since his "captain comeback" days with the Colts. I wish him good luck in the NFL where is brother is not doing bad either as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Of course, Harbaugh should thank his stud QB Luck for a lot of his success this year, but Harbaugh deserves his share of the spotlight too.

Luck was super efficient against Va Tech and the Hokies looked all confused in the second half trying to deal with him and that offense. He has all the pro-skills and looked every bit like the projected first pick in the NFL draft. Obviously, the other major news of the week was concerning his future. He cut the conversation short by shocking everybody. He has decided to stay back at Stanford instead of making millions of dollars. Staying back in school is always risky for pro-prospects and is especially risky for a projected first pick and even more so for Luck given the uncertainty of the labor situation in the NFL right now. The labor situation is one reason he is staying back, but depending on how the NFL resolves it and when they decide to implement the rookie wage scale (starting 2011 or 2012), he could lose tens of millions of dollars. Now add to it the fact that Jim Harbaugh is gone, you really have to say Luck is rolling the dice here. There are several cases of athletes over the years, including Jake Locker - the other popular Pac-10 QB this season, who decided to stay back in school and lost some shine and draft position. As good as Luck is, he can suffer a similar fate especially with the coaching situation now at Stanford.

The closest parallel that comes to my mind is Peyton Manning. He came back to school even when he was guaranteed be a top pick. It worked out well for Peyton as he was still the first pick the next year and is now headed towards being the best QB ever in the history of the NFL. Luck would have to be very lucky to follow in those footsteps. Aside from the obvious dangers of an injury, the problem for Luck is going to be the unsettled coaching situation at Stanford and all the changes in his offensive line. This decision must have been a lot tougher call for Luck than it was for Manning, but he has made the same call nonetheless. Coincidentally, Manning's decision from the late 90's is in the news this week because of his playoff matchup against the NY Jets. One of the suspicion for why Manning went back to school was that he wanted to avoid playing for the Jets, who had the first pick in 1997. Luck is dealing with the same theory involving the Carolina Panthers, who have this year's first pick. I don't think Luck is trying to avoid the Panthers, but only he knows for sure.

In any case, It's great news for Stanford and it's fans. Having Luck back will give them a huge boost, especially after losing Harbaugh. A QB of Luck's stature doesn't come along too often in college and Stanford gets him for another year. This makes their coaching job more attractive as well. The only frustrating part for Stanford is how they are nothing more than a training ground for top coaches. Even if they hire the best, they are going to lose him after a few years because they can't compete with top college programs and NFL teams that came after that successful coach after a few years. However, losing Harbaugh to the NFL is better than losing him to a bigger name college program like Michigan. It would have been a repeat of losing Tyrone Willingham to Notre Dame and that would have been even more frustrating to the cardinal faithful. At least now, they can expect Luck to get them a few wins. They can also pat themselves on the back for spotting and hiring 2 sought after coaching talents in Ty Wilingham and Jim Harbaugh within a few years of each other. Somebody is doing the right hiring at Stanford. Lets see what they do next.

The small 10

2011-01-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

The Big 10 conference got it's behind kicked today in the New Year day bowl games. The non-AQ (thats my favorite abbreviation these days - non automatic qualifiers) TCU beat Wisconsin in the grand daddy today. It was a close game that ended 21-19. Thats a huge win for the AQ guys, who have consistently done well in the BCS bowls. In fact, thats why they are even allowed in these days after having a tougher time getting in during the first few years of BCS. The conference that should not be allowed in to the BCS games automatically is actually the Big East. Ever since Miami and Va Tech left the conference, they have been awful. After Cincinnati stunk up the BCS joint the last 2 years, it was UConn's turn today as they lost 48-20 to Oklahoma in the Fiesta bowl. Good for Oklahoma and Bob Stoops because they have looked horrible the last few years in the BCS games themselves. I feel like the Big East has single handedly diluted the BCS bowls the last few years. NCAA should definitely revisit this conference's AQ status for BCS the next time they look at it.

As for the Big 10, they again had all kinds of problems against more athletic teams and conferences. While TCU beat Wisconsin, Florida beat Joe-Pa and Penn state in a close contest for the Outback bowl. Miss state crushed Michigan 52-14 and Alabama rolled tide all over Michigan State 49-7. No special teams trick plays in this one for Michigan state. And Northwestern lost to Texas Tech 45-38 to complete the 5 losses in one day for the Big 10. This after all the controversy surrounding the Ohio state suckeyes. ESPN's Mark May ripped the NCAA for the soft penalty for the OSU players and he blamed it on NCAA's partial treatment of it's preferred conferences like the Big 10. His theory is that the penalty would have included the BCS bowl game suspension as well if it was a different school from the SEC or something. NCAA does look stupid that they suspended the guys for games next year, but they get to play in a couple of days in the bowl game. But thats what TV and money does to whatever little integrity thats left of the NCAA. Of course, it probably won't help the Big 10 on the field as I totally expect Arkansas to beat OSU in the Sugar bowl with or without these fools.

I can't believe we are already in the last week of the NFL season. There are a lot of scenarios to be played out tomorrow. The AFC is pretty much set with only the relative standings to be decided. The only open issue is the AFC South championship, but with Indy hosting Tennessee tomorrow, it's their division to lose. NFC is more interesting with 2 spots still up for grabs. The NFC West championship is still open. Seattle is hosting St. Louis and I totally want them to win. I don't care about either of these teams, but it would be totally awesome to have a 7-9 team in the playoffs. They not only get to make the playoffs, they will be hosting a playoff game against a team with a better record. It would be even more awesome if the Giants and the Bucs stay home with a 10-6 record while Seattle is stinking it up in the playoffs. I sure hope the Hawks bring it home tomorrow. The other wild-card spot is Green Bay's to lose. If they win, they are in. If they lose, the Giants can get in with a win. Bucs have the toughest route there since they need both the Packers and the Giants to lose. Unlikely given the opponents. Packers have the tough Bears, but it's at home and the Bears may not play their starters all game. Lets see what happens. I want the Packers to make it. I think they are the best team among the wild-card bunch and will be a tough out in the playoffs.

Is it the Spurs year again?

2010-12-31T00:41:00.000-08:00

The Spurs are playing .875 ball. They have a habit of winning championships in the odd numbered years and you have to wonder if 2011 is their year again. Their game against the Mavs today was not as big as originally projected because of the injury to Nowitzki. Coach Popovich termed it a lose-lose game because if they won, it's no big deal since Nowitzki was out and if they lose, they will have to deal with the fact that they couldn't even beat a Mavs team without Nowitzki. But the Spurs beat the Mavs anyways for an impressive 28-4 record to end 2010. They are entering 2011 as the best team in all of the NBA and they are a completely different team this season. They have de-emphasized Tim Duncan a little bit and play a more up-tempo style. They let their versatile offensive stars like Parker and Ginobli strut their stuff and they have a couple of young, athletic scorers to run and gun with them. As a consequence, their defense is not as good as it used to be, but they are scoring more than enough to win games.

Greg Popovich is one of the smartest coaches in the league. He has not won a championship since 2007 and seems to have put some thought into how to win again with this roster. His teams have always won with Timmy and defense, but father time is slowly catching up to Timmy and he has slowed down a little. More importantly, their game-plan has not been working the last couple of years and Pop has decided to switch things up. Actually, the Spurs have always had some offensive talent ever since they got Parker and Ginobli, but that was not the emphasis in Pop's world by design. He wanted the team to think defense first, Duncan in the low post second and everything else was a distant third. Now, he is unlocking the offensive potential of this team and trading off some defense and Tim Duncan in the process. And the beauty is, this is the right strategy at the right time for the Spurs given where Duncan is in his career and where the Spurs have been with respect to the rest of the league the last couple of years.

The challenge for Pop is going to be the playoffs. It would be interesting to see if the Spurs play this style or go back to basics in the playoffs. They do have Timmy available, but is it practical to turn him on and off like that? Would the rookies and the younger Spurs be able to adjust to a different style in the playoffs if Pop decides to go that route? These are interesting questions I am sure Pop is thinking about already. They did beat the Lakers the other day with Timmy having a 2 point, 4 rebound night, but that dog probably aint gonna hunt in the playoffs. Lets see if the Spurs get all the way to the finals behind this new strategy and an improved offense. In the East, the Heat are still rolling. They spanked the Lakers on Christmas day and are looking unbeatable these days. Dwayne Wade has had 2 consecutive 40 point nights to lead them over the Knicks and the Rockets. The Celtics are still the favorites in the East, but with Garnett out for a couple of weeks and with the new look Magic, the East is going to get really interesting. Great way to start 2011 in the NBA.

Lets go bowling

2010-12-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

To nobody's surprise, we are well into the college bowl season now. The length, the number of bowls and the stupidity of the sponsors are all getting worse every year. This year, the national championship game is not until the 10-Th of January. Pretty soon, we will be watching college football on Martin Luther King's day. There are 35 bowl games in all with bowls named after "uDrove", "R+L carriers" and "AdvoCare V100". It would be cool to get one of them bowl games named after myself next year. I am a huge sports fan, but have never really gotten into these bowl games since I don't see a point in a lot of them. I will watch them if I am at home and there are no other pro games to watch at that time. And some of these games are fun and nail-biting like any sporting event has the potential to be, but outside of the elite bowls, there is not much for me to get excited about. So clearly, you can see where I fall on the college football playoffs discussion. Absolutely bring on the playoffs and nuke some of these bowls. And playoffs will nuke some of these bowls. Thats exactly why the NCAA doesn't want it.

The bowl season is a good time for reflection on our lives as a sports fan since it also coincides with the end of the year when we are supposed to do resolutions and evaluate our life and all that nonsense anyways. I split the bowls into 3 parts. The first is the set of games prior to Christmas. These bowls starts earlier and earlier every year and I think it started on the 18-Th this year, but I am not sure. Ideally, it's good if you didn't know there are bowl games going on before christmas, but if you do, pretend like you didn't know. Of course, there will be a few good ones like Utah-V-Boise State, but for the most part, the pre-xmas bowls will feature match-ups like the 7-6 BYU versus the 6-7 UTEP. If you find yourself watching these games with rapt attention, please check yourself into GA - Gambleholics Anonymous! Honestly, gambling is the only reason to watch these games unless you are an alum, or in some cases, even if you are an alum. The march madness play-in game between the 64-Th and 65-Th seed is the only other sporting event that comes close to these bowl games in it's irrelevancy while also being marketed as an important sporting event.

The second phase of bowls are between Christmas and New Year. This is, for the most part used to be the meat of the bowl season leading up to the real big ones. I am not even sure anymore because of all the mish-mash of bowl games strewn across the calendar both before Xmas and after New Years. But if you are watching these bowl games closely, time to get a girlfriend! Something is slightly off in your life and lets go get a new life. It's the holiday season, schools and most of the workplaces have time-off and if all we are doing is watching these bowl games, life is not too bad, but aint great either. At the cost of sounding a little judgmental, I would recommend you shake things up a little. The third and final phase starts with Jan 1-St and this is where you have the big hitters like the grand-daddy Rose and the Orange and the Sugar. These are the games we should be watching and if you are not, then you are too busy. May be it's time to re-evaluate your priorities and re-connect with your inner sports fan. May be you are spending too much time at work or with "honey dues" and you should step back a little to enjoy some sugar (bowl). It will do you some good.

Of course, since they introduced the championship game a week later, they have dirtied up this third phase as well with a bunch of filler bowls leading all the way up to Jan 10-Th. For instance, Pittsburgh is playing Kentucky on Jan 8-Th. They are both better off playing basketball instead this time of the year, but thats neither here nor there. So when I say watch the post-new-year bowl games, I mean the real ones, not the "BBVA Compass Bowl". By the way, how perfectly named is that bowl! As I am writing my thoughts on how to use the bowl season as a compass to our lives, there is actually a bowl called compass bowl. In short, if you are watching the compass bowl start to finish, you need to change direction in your life. That pretty much sums up my 2 cents on the bowl season. As someone who has been on all sides of this bowl compass (except the gambling side), I thought I will share my opinions with you. But lets not forget to have fun with college football this holiday season. Lets go bowling, but hopefully not 35 times.

Dogs beware

2010-12-22T23:25:00.000-08:00

This is Michael Vick's world and the rest of the NFL is just living in it. He says dogs are welcome in his new world, but I am not convinced yet. But the guy has been awesome on the field and is a legitimate MVP candidate. Everything he touches or involved in turns to gold this season. The game of week 15 was clearly the Eagles win over the Giants. They were down 31-10 with just 8 minutes to go in the 4-Th quarter and Vick brought them back to tie the game. Then with just a few seconds to go for OT, DeSean Jackson took a ill-advised punt to the house to give the Eagles an improbable and shocking 38-31 victory. Punter Matt Dodge had no business kicking it to Jackson in the first place. This was against a good team and a great defense in the Giants.

Vick has been part of several such jaw-dropping performances this season. The only thing that could have made this better for him is if he had thrown a "buzzer beating" 80 yard TD instead of Jackson scoring on the punt return. Vick has slowed down a little bit since that great game he had against the Redskins. The Giants game was in some sense the mirror image of that game. He scored a load of TDs in the first few minutes against the Redskins and now in the last few minutes against the Giants. He is a legitimate MVP candidate and the other top contender is Tom Brady. Brady has been near flawless this season and Vick is not far behind. I don't love or hate Vick these days, but it's amazing how quickly we forgive athletes if they play well on the field. He got a massive standing ovation at the 76'ers game against the Lakers and even Kobe had to stop and look.

Pittsburgh and NY Jets played a great game and the Jets came through 22-17 to stop the bleeding for now. It was an impressive win and it reestablishes them as a contender. Sexy Rexy can now go back to humoring us with more stupid quotes. Speaking of Sexy Rexy, the other Rexy (Grossman) started for Washington and had a good game. I am not sure what Shanahan is doing with Donovan McNabb, but Mike has benched him for the rest of the season. McNabb's agent is saying he has never been disrespected quite like this and I have to agree, McNabb is a star QB and treat him with some respect for God's sake. I don't know what Shanny is trying to do with these moves. Shany has not won a single playoff game since he benched my man Jake Plummer in favor of the baby-faced Cutler. I would chalk it up to bad karma.

In life, showing up is half the battle. If you consistently show up, regardless of what you do, you will do well because most people don't even show up. Brett Favre definitely scores big on this front. I was shocked to see him start the Monday nighter against the Bears after sitting out just 1 week. Unfortunately, he got beat up again and is probably done for the year now. The disastrous season continued for him as the Bears then crushed the Vikings 40-14. In other big games of the week, Ravens beat the Saints and the Colts beat the Jaguars to show them they are still the big boss in that division. Tim Tebow started for the Broncos and God shed some tears of joy resulting in some rain in Oakland. Run DMC and the Raidas won easily, but Tebow did rush well and threw and rushed for a TD each.

The trade to nowhere?

2010-12-19T15:50:00.001-08:00

So far, my NBA predictions have been off the mark this season. Thats always going to happen once in a while and thats the beauty of sports, but you still like to think your expert opinions are correct more often than not! I buried the Heat after their shaky start and they seem to have totally turned it around after that trip to Cleveland. The Cavs might have blown it for the entire league with their ineptitude and lack of heart and pride in that game. I still think the Heat are not good enough to win it all or even win the L-East, but they do seem to have a better handle on playing together and might be good enough go really deep in the playoffs. I also thought the Fakers are looking good enough to may be threaten the 70 win plateau. I was wrong, though I was not entirely serious about the 70 win mark. Some years, teams do look like they are threatening 70 when they go on a long streak and it never really happens. But my point was, the Fakers looked really unbeatable and I think they still are very good. They are still everybody's pick to win it all, but they are nowhere near 70-win good. I am totally fine with it given I am no Faker-fan. I also thought the Warriors were going to be decent, but they seem to be back to where they always belong - the cellar. The suns looked good to me despite their early season record through a tough schedule.

The suns are hovering around 500 though their schedule has been rough. It's not as rough as it was to start the season as the schedule has evened out a little bit given that we have played 25 games, but they are looking more and more like a true .500 team. The loss of Amare has taken it's toll and it's kinda revealing how important he was and how good he is considering that the Knicks are rolling at 16-12 while the suns are 12-13. There is always this discussion about whether guys get over-valued because they look so good playing with Nash and if they will do well without Nash. Guys like Marion have proved that Nash adds more value to them than they ever did to Nash, but with Amare, it's not the case. Amare has proved that he is a true superstar by averaging 26-9 for the Knicks. Coincidentally, Nash's assist numbers are slightly down and his 3-point shooting is down to 33%. I don't think thats directly related to Amare's departure, but one has to wonder. He is still shooting a career high 51.4% and has more than 10 assists a game - both very impressive given his age and the state of this team. We all know the Suns were going to take a step back without Amare, because you need talent in this league and Nash can't compensate for everything. But the more surprising part has been how good Amare has looked in his new colors. Also, the new pieces for the Suns like Hedo have not really jelled and hence the tough predicament.

While I was sadly getting close to being resigned to a season of giving (away wins) and mediocrity, the suns have engineered a trade. It's very interesting in the sense that any change and shake-up is good and trades are great because it shakes up 2 teams. The Magic, for instance, have done exactly that with these trades. They get Hedo back and J-Rich and also Gilbert Arenas for Rashard Lewis from the Wizards. The Magic are making some desperate moves to win now and have given up some cap flexibility, but they have improved. They have gotten a little smaller and have some duplication at certain positions - JRich and Gilbert, but overall they are better. They had no business getting rid of Hedo in the first place. He was perfect for them. As for the suns, I am surprised a old team even got older at a key position, They now have a 33 year old shooting guard instead of a 31 year-old guy in J-Rich. They also hope that Vinsanity now replaces the productivity of J-Rich, who was the scoring leader for the suns. The suns also get some cash in return. With this stupid ownership group, the money part of it was probably the main motivation for the trade - they get some cash, flexibility plus they get out of Hedo's contract. This ownership group has constantly acted cheap and thrown away expensive assets. So I expect them to do the same with the first round pick they got.

However the official reason for the trade is defense. The suns are as usual leading the league in points scored, but they have the worst FG% against in the league and they give up the 2-Nd most points in the league and that explains the record. So they wanted size and defense and are hoping Marcin Gortat will give them both. Also, Pietrus should be a good defender as well. Thats the hope, but I am not entirely buying it. Vinsanity is old and flaky and I am not sure if he can even match J-Rich's consistency and scoring. The potential is there, but a whole lot of other things have been missing with this guy his entire career. I like his talent, but I don't trust him. As for the other pieces, they are nice, but I am not sure how much Gortat is going to provide over and above Lopez and how do those 2 play together? I like Pietrus as a piece around Nash and he can even defend some fools, but he needs to get healthy as well. As a fan, you always have hope, but I feel like this is a trade to nowhere or at best, a lateral move. They are hoping for better chemistry around Nash and I would definitely be curios to check it out. But I don't have much expectations and I still feel like this team is going nowhere. I sure hope my suns prove me wrong with this prediction as well. Speaking of predictions, the Magic just proved me right with 2 of my prior takes. I said the Rashard Lewis contract was stupid and they would do worse with Vince than with Hedo. Let me pat myself on the back for those on the way out.

On a totally unrelated note, fellow sun-devil James Harden is just awesome!

The roof caves in

2010-12-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

The scariest and the most fascinating sight in the NFL last weekend was the roof at the Metrodome in Minnesota collapsing under the weight of a lot of snow. Thank God nobody was in the stadium when this happened since it was early in the morning. I can't even imagine what would have happened if this had occurred during the game. This video is a must-see on youtube if you had not seen it yet. Vikings game against the Giants was moved to Detroit on Monday night. This scene was a metaphor for the Vikings and Brett Favre's season. Despite the extra day, Favre could not go ending his impressive streaks of continuous starts at 297. This has been an utterly disastrous season for the ole' gunslinger. Between his 10 TD, 18 interception season, a 5-8 record, 2 losses against the Packers, the sexting scandal, firing of Childress and now the end of the amazing streak, the roof has definitely caved in on Brett Favre as well.

This has been one of those seasons where Favre would have gained more reputation sitting at home instead of playing. Good for him that he gets to deposit his 12 mill plus incentives in the bank and derive some comfort out of it. Of course the Vikings have no replacement for him and Tarvaris Jackson proved that at Detroit against the Giants. Now experts are saying the Vikings should audition Jackson for 3 weeks so they can decide what to do with the QB position next season since Favre should be definitely gone. There is really no point in playing Favre though Leslie Frazier still says he will play again this year if healthy. I think they should just shut Favre down and get this team to turn the page. The Favre era is over after one unbelievably great seasons and one horrible season. Whatever the Favre-haters and Packer fans wanted last year from Favre, they got it all this year and then some!

Speaking of the Packers, Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion and the Packers shockingly lost at Detroit. This severely hurts their playoff chances given how difficult the rest of their schedule is. They may end up 9-7 and still miss the playoffs. My dream of a sub-500 team from the NFC West making the playoffs is still alive. 13 weeks in, the entire division is sill under 500. The only team in the entire NFL that has clinched the playoff position is the NE Patriots. They went into Chicago and creamed the Bears in inclement weather. It's amazing how good this team plays in bad weather. They may be the only team that does not change their passing game for the snow and handle the weather like it's no big deal. I don't know how the Pats and Brady do it, especially without Randy Moss or any top receiver of that caliber. The best game of the weekend was the Raiders at Jaguars. It's a better league if the Raiders are good and they seem to be almost there. Darren McFadden is an absolute stud and the Raiders almost won a big game on the road after many moons. They are almost there but not yet.

When you win, say little. When you lose, say less.

2010-12-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

That was Tom Brady quoting his head coach after their game against the Jets. As much as I would like to hate these 2 guys, it's getting really hard with each passing week as their body of work just seems to get better and better. At 10-2, they have the best record in the AFC in a year that was supposed to be a rebuilding year and on top of that, they traded away Randy Moss, their most potent weapon on offense. These 2 guys are ultimate professionals and great role-models for professionalism. It's amazing to watch Brady bite his teeth and rally his troops on the sidelines even during games they are leading 30-6 or whatever. Even today, he plays with a chip on his shoulder and seems like a perfectionist. No wonder he is married to a super-model. The hoody seems like a perfectionist too. He is the ultimate operator of a franchise. The Patriot are so consistent with how they approach players, situations, media etc. top to bottom in that organization. If somebody veers off the beaten path, he is gone. And other organizations have tried to steal their system through assistant coaches like Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Josh McDaniels, but none of them have been the same without the hoody. McDaniels was a disaster and Denver finally let him go before he got rid of few more studs from the Broncos roster.

The hoody and Brady made sure the much hyped Jets-Pats Monday night game was a non-event. This was supposedly for all the AFC East marbles between 2 coaches and teams so culturally different. At the end of the night, Rex Ryan had to eat a 45-3 score wrapped in a humble pie. Brady scored 4 TDs and threw for 326 yards against the vaunted Jets defense. The talking heads on TV went gaga over hoody's game-plan and the quick, precision passing offense Brady ran all night to slice and dice the Jets. One more feather in the cap of these Pats. They may have another Super Bowl in them this year and if he Steelers are on the way, we know the Pats will walk all over them. Speaking of the Stillers, is there a better rivalry in the NFL than the Ravens-V-Steelers? While the Jets-Pats fell way short of expectation, Ravens-Steelers was every bit as exciting as advertised. It was a hard-fought game with some amazing hits and collisions. The game started off with a broken nose for Ben Roethlisberger, but Ben closed the deal at the end thanks to Troy Polamalu's hit on Flacco and the subsequent fumble. Is there a better defensive player in the league than Polamalu? This guy's speed, strength and aggression stands out even during a physical Ravens-Steelers game.

Manning and the Colts are moving in the wrong direction. Lots of passing yards and lots of scoring, but Manning is also throwing lots of interceptions and pick-6's and the Colts are riding a 3 game losing streak. It's no coincidence that Manning's interception numbers have sky-rocketed since Dallas Clark's injury. The Colts have some issues right now and if they don't fix them soon, they may miss the playoffs. In the NFC, the Bears are continuing to win. I don't understand this team at all, but I have to start giving them their due. At 8-4, the Packers may not even make the playoffs because of these Bears and a few other quality teams in the NFC. Of course, the NFC West still stinks and some bad team is going to make it and give us a bad playoff game. In the NBA, the Suns are still going back and forth and seem to be settling into a 500 bteam. Thats not good. The Heat are making my prediction of their demise seem pre-mature. They went into Cleveland and crushed the Cavs. That seems to have rejuvenated the team and are on a surprising 6 game winning streak. The schedule is soft right now, but they are winning some road games and today's win at Utah was impressive. Let see if this is something permanent.

Week 13 also means the fantasy football regular season is done. Unfortunately, I missed the playoffs in both my leagues despite having 2 good teams. I need to take responsibility for the bad showing. I guess I am no Bill Belichick.

You heard it here first!

2010-12-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

I am going to go out on a limb and say that they will blow up this Miami Heat team in a year or 2. I actually give them 18 months. By the summer of 2012, they will have to trade away one of the two and let either LeBron or Wade take his talents to some other city. I know it's just 18 games, but I see structural problems. Sure they will get rid of coach Spo and sure, Riles will come down and the team will improve. They will listen to him and he has the stature to implement some interesting things with these fools. Also he will make defense a priority and that in and of itself will be worth 5 more regular season wins. Of course, they have enough talent to make it to the playoffs in the East under coach Spo or under my grandma for that matter. Riley's coaching will only upgrade the team to a much deeper playoff run, but I don't see championship credentials in this team. And thats not just because of the lack of a strong supporting cast or lack of depth. Those are peripheral issues that are actually fixable over a couple of seasons, if not right now.

The fundamental problem I see is that Wade and LeBron are not complimentary pieces. They want to and have no problems playing together, but they are not adding value to each other. Chemistry is a difficult science. It is very important in any sport, but more so in basketball and it's very hard to predict until the players actually play together. Unless you have a great glue guy like Stevie Nash who brings everybody together and makes them all better, it's hard to predict how guys play with each other. So nobody, myself included, ever commented on the potential fit of the Wade-LeBron duo. We all assumed it will work and it does for many stretches, but it's not consistent. You need a Jordan and a Pippen and I am afraid the Heat have 2 Jordans who are not as good as Jordan of course, and they have no Pippen. People don't appreciate Pippen and how important he was for the Bulls. He was very talented, but more importantly, was ultra-versatile. Plus he had the attitude and maturity to fill in any gaps for that Bulls team. He did everything that MJ couldn't or wouldn't do on a given night.

With Wade and LeBron, there are issues. They both came in to the league together and became big-time stars separately. Now they are together, but their games don't work together. The only options for them would be to make a Pippen out of Lebron, Thats not because he is the inferior talent or has been unproductive so far. It is only because he is the more versatile of the 2 and Wade can't do everything a Pippen or a LeBron can do. So turn the offense over to Wade and see if LeBron can do all thats needed to fill in the gaps. But who can make LeBron do that or is it even fair to LeBron to fit him into that role? He is one of the potential all-time greats and how can you make him a second option? So there is no easy way to make these 2 players complimentary. Short of giving them 2 balls and 2 hoops (and possibly 2 strip clubs in south beach), it's going to be hard to maximize their potential. It's not that they are hogging the ball or fighting for it, but they are not able to work well together. When LeBron is dominating the ball, Wade is nowhere to be seen and when Wade is on fire, it looks like they are over-paying LeBron for nothing. They both do similar things and are not both useful at the same time. They are not great rebounders or defenders or 3-point shooters. They don't have a great low-post game or a dependable jump-shot. Their style may be different, but their output and roles are very similar. And this despite the fact that LeBron is a triple-double threat every night.

Of course, chemistry builds over time and players evolve too. One or both can become a great 3-point shooter or an awesome defender and things can change. Richard Jefferson is supposed to have finally found his spot with the Spurs after an entire season. So 18 games doesn't make a season. But like I said, I see structural problems (not dead people :-) ) and I don't see an easy way out. The great expectations and lack of salary cap doesn't help either and I suspect this system collapses under it's own weight and the Heat will be forced to trade either Wade or LeBron after 2 futile seasons. Thats my prediction. Last time, Riley fired Stan Van Gundy and collected a easy ring with Wade and Shaq, but he may not be able to pull that scam again. He can and will fire coach Spo, but he ain't winning the championship with this group. This once again proves it's not easy or efficient to have 2 talented wing players as your superstars and 1-2 punch. It's always easier to build a team with a wing and a big combo - Kobe-Shaq, Shaq-Wade, Kobe-Pau. Their positions and their roles on the court are complimentary by design. Not the case with Wade-LeBron and thats what makes the Jordan-Pippen combo all the more impressive.

Cards suck

2010-11-29T22:51:00.000-08:00

Today's monday night football was one of the worst performances you will ever see by the Arizona Cardinals, even by their unbelievably low standard. There is really no reason for the Cards to suck like this against a mediocre Niners team at home. With Fitz and Breaston on offense and decent talent on defense, it's really hard to see what ails this team. QB Derek Anderson is not even that bad, but he is no Kurt Warner and Warner's retirement has completely changed the complexion of this team. Anderson was also caught smiling with a teammate on the sidelines and that became an issue later. Some reporter questioned him on that and he flipped. I feel for this guy. I am sure he works had, but the talent is just not there. I think he was just smiling with his teammate on the sideline and I always find it funny that the media makes a big deal out of losing players smiling on the sideline. You are supposed to sit there looking like one of your close relative just got shot. It's OK if that's fake remorse - which is what it is with most players, but you are just not supposed to look normal or have any kind of fun if you are losing. Not sure why the demeanor matters so much, but it just does for some folks.

DA definitely didn't do anything to earn the right to laugh tonight. He made most fans cry watching his throws and this offense and the Cards defense was even worse. They couldn't stop the run to save their lives. Gore got hurt in the first 5 minutes of the game, but he already had 50+ yards rushing and backup Westbrook ended up with 130 yards rushing. They didn't get any pressure on the young QB Troy Smith or the old RB Brian Westbrook. Niners looked like World beaters after looking like the Cards last weekend against the Bucs. The NFC West is horrible and the rookie QB Sam Bradford might end up leading the Rams to the playoffs. He is very good for a rookie and they beat the Denver Broncos on the road while Seattle lost at home. It would be awesome if a team wins this division with a 7-9 record. I always want a team to win a division with a losing record. And what would be even funnier if that team also goes onto win the Super Bowl. That probably would never happen, but the first request might actually be satisfied this year in this horrible NFC West.

There were a few indelible images from this football weekend, and some of them were from shockingly bad plays. Buffalo's Steve Johnson's drop of the game winning TD pass in the end zone should be on the top of the list. It was hard to watch his emotional post-game interview after the loss. At least the Bills have nothing to play for and that should help him handle this better. It would have been much worse if he lost the game with playoff position or a Super Bowl trip on the line. He was open and Fitzpatrick's pass fell right on his hands. He just dropped it inexplicably. The good news for the Bills fans is that they might have the QB of the future in Fitz. This dude is good. The other disturbing image of the week was the Boise State kicker missing gimme field goals that would have won the game both in the 4-Th quarter and OT thereby losing the game for Boise State and putting an end to a supposed championship run and an undefeated season. I was pulling for Boise State and TCU to stay unbeaten and crash the BCS party. Now that dream is gone though TCU is still in the run. The best play of the weekend, if not the entire college football season was made by Oklahoma State defensive back Broderick Brown who jumped outside the lines and tapped an attempted out-of-bounds pass onto the field of play where his teammate caught the ball for an interception. Heady, unselfish and athletic - the very attributes that define a good football player.

Wild wild west

2010-11-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

The Western conference in the NBA is supposed to be finally slowing down this year after some talent movement to the East. But there are some crazy records in the West right now and it looks scarier than ever. San Antonio is 10-1 for the first time in their history and they are still not even leading their division! The Hornets are 10-1 too and are finally realizing the potential they showed us 2 seasons back. We were all wondering what happened to them the last 2 years and CP3 even wanted out. But now they have come back strong. The Spurs are as good as ever and slightly better that last year because Richard Jefferson is looking better than before in their uniform and Parker looks a little more focussed with all the divorce news floating around. Duncan just surpassed the Admiral Robinson to become the franchise's scoring leader. As usual they have their yearly steal from the draft - James Anderson contributing.

The Lakers are of course 11-2 with their 2 losses coming against the Suns and the Nuggets back-to-back. They are still the best team by far and are pretty much making the NBA regular season look meaningless. But these other teams in the West are threatening them just a little bit. The Jazz at 8-5 are barely holding onto the 7-Th spot, but they have had a bunch of impressive, come from behind wins including a shocker in Miami where they embarrassed the small 3. But today, the Jazz lost to the Spurs big 3. Dallas, OKC and Portland are as good as expected and the Warriors are looking surprisingly good at 7-5. Watch out for this Warriors team. They are no joke. They score a lot as always, but now they can also rebound, especially when David Lee is healthy and available.

This leaves the Suns and the Nuggets looking in from the outside. I think things will change, especially with the Suns having such a brutal start to the schedule, but the West will be rough as always. The Suns have already played the Spurs, Jazz, Lakers - twice, Heat, Denver and the Magic with a lot of those games being on the road. This combined with the fact that the team is new and still learning to play with each other and the fact that Nash has missed a game already, it's not bad that they are 6-6. The schedule will loosen up eventually and if they are still healthy, they should be fine. I was hoping they will beat the small 3 and the Miami Heat, but it was not meant to be. Bosh and the Heat crushed them. Hopefully we will get them in Phoenix later. Speaking of the Heat, one of the few funny catchphrases in the stupid sportscenters these days is when one of the anchors always introduce the team visiting the Heat as "The Charlotte Bobcats took their talent to South Beach today". I love the pun! I am still amazed Bron "took his talents to South Beach". I used to be such a "believer" in this guy, but now I want them to lose every game.

Vick is sick

2010-11-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I glanced at the score of the Eagles-Redskins game during Monday night football towards the end of the first quarter. It read 28-0. I don't think I have ever seen such a score in Q1 of a pro game. Michael Vick just went nuts. I can't believe how good this guy is playing right now. The entire sports media is in awe of this guy today and I have to say, rightfully so. He threw for 333 yards and 4 TDs and rushed for 80 more and 2 TDs. Are you kidding me? What's this, Tim Tebow and Florida versus Cincinnati? This didn't look like a pro game against a semi-decent Redskins team.

Vick actually looked like himself from his good old college days at Va Tech. Ironically, this is exactly what I thought he would become when I used to be his fan when he was in College. But that potential was never realized and as if to add insult to injury, he ended up in jail. Just when we thought his career was done, he comes back out of jail and coach Andy Reid seems to have completely resurrected his career. Of course, Vick himself I am sure is a changed man after that stint in the jail and that helps. But he was never the kind of passer he is right now before he hooked up with Reid.

I hate to admit this, but Vick might be unstoppable after all. Took him a while to get here and there were some unsavory detours along the way, but he might have finally arrived. Of course he has just played a few games this season and it's way too early to put him in the hall of fame, but he sure looked impressive Monday night. Just his fantasy numbers was newsworthy considering how ridiculous it was - close to 50. One of the record breaking nights for a QB and he missed just 8 passes. Now there's talk of a MVP award and his games have become must-see TV again already. May be time for Favre to retire for the 15-Th time and turn over the reins to Vick.

MLB has started handing out it's stupid off-season awards. Actually good awards but stupid timing. Roy Halladay won the NL Cy Young. Well deserved for sure. So was the Rookie of the Year winners - Neftali Feliz in the AL and Buster Posey in the NL. Buster Posey was the biggest no-brainer ever. The guy pretty much turned around the season for the Giants, a season that eventually ended with a championship for them. I don't know if people understand his impact on the team, but it was humongous. It was his call-up that turned around the hitting, the attitude and the excitement surrounding the team. He brought both tangible and intangible benefits to the team. R.O.Y indeed.

In my favorite league, the association, my favorite team is doing great. Suns' early season schedule looks like something a die-hard Suns hater would have come up with in his copious free time, but they are still 6-4 with 2 strong wins recently. Just when I was wondering if the Lakers would win 72 games, they lost to the Nuggets on the road. The Suns then beat the Fakers right in LA using 22 3-point bombs and followed it up with a win against Denver at home on a back-to-back night. Now onto Miami to take on the Heat. The only problem is, beating that Heat team may not be as impressive as the previous 2 wins! Great quote heard on the radio - "is it just me or does Pat Riley really look closer to the bench every time they show him on TV during Heat games". Riley might come down and steal another championship, but this team may not be good enough to win one this year. The only bad news for the Suns is that Robin Lopez is injured and they got even smaller if thats even possible.

Programmatic non-fit

2010-11-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Vikings coach Brad Childress might have come up with the quote of the year, if not the decade in the NFL. When asked why did he cut Randy Moss, he said Moss was a programmatic non-fit. Thats so cool! I am going to start using this term everywhere. I have always wondered if I was a programmatic non-fit in this World. But thats neither here nor there. Coming back to Chilly, I have always disliked him since last year. I thought he has been sounding a little arrogant and way too self-important ever since he started winning with Favre last season. But I love him now! As weird as it sounds coming from a football coach, thats the best description for Moss. Considering that Moss's recent issues range from disrespecting the head-coach to yelling and screaming at the caterers, "programmatic non-fit" sounds fitting - pun intended. I was shocked that they actually went ahead and cut him after trading the Pats a 3-Rd round pick for him. Moss is still a threat in the field and of course a threat to caterers and other off the field apparently, but still, Chilly had no business cutting him. Apparently he didn't tell his ownership either. So the ownership went out and interviewed the players to see if they should hold onto Moss and fire Chilly instead! Chilly better put his house in Minnesota on the market. Even before the Moss mess, Chilly's time there was coming to an end soon, but the Moss fiasco will seal his fate for sure. Favre is done too. That team is in a world of trouble, and most of it self-inflicted by either Favre or Chilly or both.

This has been a strange week in the NFL newswire. Mike Shanahan benched McNabb last Sunday for the final 2 minutes and gave a weak excuse that Rex Grossman, of all people, had a better handle on his 2-minute drill and hence was inserted into the game. The only good handle Rex has his own - sexy Rexy. Dude usually takes planned 10-minute drives and makes them a quick and dirty 2-minute drill - typically featuring a 3 and out. So Shanahan's comments were strange at so many different levels. Shanahan sounded like a "programmatic non-fit" after that comment. He then came back next day and made it worse. He said he pulled McNabb because he was not well-conditioned for a 2-minute drill. Now Terrell Owens is referring to McNabb throwing up during the Super Bowl and is agreeing with Shanahan. Here's a good rule of thumb in the NFL. If TO is agreeing with you, you are saying something stupid. I think Shanahan could have just said McNabb was benched because of his performance and things would have been so much better. It sounds like Shanahan came up with something initially to make it sound better than a good old benching, but later decided to throw McNabb under the bus anyways. Weird! Even Tom Brady got sucked into the stupidity of this week as he suggested he doesn't make any decisions in New England and if they listened to him, Lawyer Milloy and Deion Branch would have never left. He was answering a question about whether the Pats should claim Randy Moss off waivers. Brady said all this with a smile and didn't end up stirring any controversy, but it sounded a little odd coming from a "programmatic fit" like Brady from the ultimate program - hoody's Pats. Hoody is go well put-together, even Moss had high praise for him after last week's loss and that was actually the start of the issues for Moss and Chilly - at least publicly.

If only the games tomorrow are as good as the action during the week, life will be good.

A Giant week

2010-11-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Giants actually sealed the deal and won their first championship in SF after 52 years. It was great news for the Bay Area that has been in a sports funk the last few years. There are a lot of teams in the area, but most of them have been extremely mediocre lately since the great run by the niners in the nineties. The Giants have been pretty bad since Bonds left and this year was not supposed to be any different. They had built a good pitching staff the last couple of years, but their hitting has been downright garbage since Bonds retired. The most over-used phrase in baseball is probably "playoffs are all about pitching". While this is true, you will often see games in the playoffs that are 8-6 or 11-3. This is because the playoff teams often feature good hitting in addition to good pitching and on some nights, hitting trumps pitching and thats especially true in the American League. But this year, the playoffs were truly about pitching. Between the Giants and the Phillies, the NL pitching was out of the world and Cliff Lee basically carried the Rangers through the AL playoffs.

Not to take anything away from the Giants' timely hitting, but their pitching was awesome - both starters and their bullpen were phenomenal. They had 2 shutouts and a one run game in the 5 World Series game thanks to Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner. Their entire starting rotation is comprised of talented, young and most importantly, home-grown pitchers. The aforementioned three studs were all first rounders and Jonathan Sanchez was a 27-Th round pick by the Giants. This is a rarity in this day and age. No wonder the Giants fan base feels this good about their team. While I am not a Giants fan, I have to admit that this team is the exact opposite of the mercenary Yankee model and I like that about this team. Their most expensive pitcher, Barry Zito didn't even make the playoff roster. Their biggest offensive weapon - Buster Posey, is also home-grown and young. He is clearly the MVP of this team. It's his call-up to the bigs and the subsequent promotion to every-day catcher status after the trade of Bengie Molina that was the turning point of this season. The team's hitting was so bad on paper, that a lot of the pieces were accumulated over the course of the season and they were not even part of the starting day roster. Posey was called up, Pat Burrell was signed late and the playoff hero Cody Ross was added in August. Thats the exact opposite of the 200 million dollar Yankees lineup for instance since it was assembled last December and January by spending millions and zillions of dollars.

Of course the youth and pitching on this roster has the fans dreaming about a dynasty and multiple championships. While the Giants are going to be good, nothing is guaranteed in life, especially with pitching. Doesn't it feel like just yesterday we were all gushing about Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano? Forget a championship or the Cubs, these 3 dudes are barely even relevant as individual pitchers anymore. Thats how fickle pitchers and their arms can be. But even assuming the Giants studs stay strong and Posey improves, championships are not easy and thats what makes them special. Dynasties have become a thing of the past in both football and baseball and it happens only in basketball these days. Baseball at least has some notion of dynasties because of the high-spending teams like the Yankees and Redsox that are at least expected to have a winning season and a possible playoff berth most years. Otherwise, for the most part, teams that make it to the Super Bowl or the World Series don't even get back to the playoffs next year. The Phillies made it to 2 straight World Series and the NLCS this year and thats as impressive a 3 year stretch as you will see these days with teams not named the New York Yankees. It's doable, but the Giants fans can't assume it's a given. Not to rehash a old theory, but the Giants still need some hitting. It's one thing to catch lightning in a bottle over a 10 or a 15 game stretch and win the championship, but they can't assume this will happen every October. They still need a lineup that scales to handle a 162 game season. They need to upgrade their hitting, but they may not be as far off as we originally thought, especially with the development of Buster Posey.

With all this said and done about baseball, we all know football is the real national past time as Sunday night showed us. The Steelers-Saints regular season game outdrew game 4 of the World Series on TV and I was not even surprised. Of course the one million or so Giants fan who gathered at the parade yesterday don't care. They are just happy their Giants won.

We got a series on our hands now

2010-10-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

The World Series is getting interesting now. The Rangers went back home and won game 3. So far, the great pitching of the Giants has looked like it's too much for the Rangers to handle. It's not just their starting pitching, but the Giants bullpen aint bad either. Ironically, their famous and amusingly interesting closer, Brian Wilson, might be the weakest link of that bullpen. The Rangers on the other hand have a rather shaky bullpen and they seemed too dependent on Cliff Lee when the series started. The Giants got Lee out of game 1 pretty early and rather easily. Of course Lincecum was not great either, but the Giants didn't care since they won. Cain was spectacular in game 2 as he shut fools down. The game was close until the texas bullpen started spraying the ball all over the place. Walk after walk meant a hit here or there was going to score 2 or 3 runs and thats exactly what happened. But now, if they win tomorrow, this series becomes fascinatingly close. Tommy Hunter versus Bumgarner should be interesting to watch.

In football, Auburn survived the curse of the first seed as they went on the road and beat Ole Miss to stay at the top. Oregon crushed USC to stay undefeated. Two more undefeated teams lost today - Missouri and Michigan State. Both got embarrassed and thats good news for one loss teams like Alabama. BCS is a mess now and will be a different mess by the time it's all said and done. I guess thats what we like about College football - at least thats what we are told. ASU won 42-0 against Washington. Thats neither here nor there. A dominant scoreboard from a team that has looked anything but lately. To be fair to the Devils, they did play Oregon pretty close early in the season, may be before Oregon fond itself. Lets see if Oregon can punch this one in and take it all the way home for Pac-10.

In the NFL, it's all about Brett Favre. Dude is definitely hurt and probably should sit down, but won't because of his streak. Childress and Favre are talking like they both are in different planets. I have a feeling this is going to end real bad in all fronts. I think Favre starts tomorrow, loses, probably gets hurt more and loses his continuous streak next week. Chilly threw Favre under the bus last week after Favre repeatedly threw the ball into the chest of Packer defenders. Since then they have been going back and forth and this is going to get a lot worse before Chilly gets fired and Favre retires end if the year. NBA is on and apparently the Heat games are getting amazing ratings. The Suns are 1-2, but have looked good so far. The schedule is brutal, but I am surprised how fluid they look.

NBA, MLB, NFL and NCAA

2010-10-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

What a time of the year this is. College Saturday, NFL Sunday (and Monday), World Series and the NBA season is kicking off tomorrow. The Suns play tomorrow along with the Heat and the Fakers. I am really not as excited as usual for this season because of 2 reasons. I decided I don't like the Heat and this season is going to be all about the Heat. I don't think they are going to win 72+ games nor the championship, but they are going to be VERY good and thats going to be very irritating the way ESPN has been covering this team so far. Of course the other reason is that the Suns are without Amare and probably are not going far. I am not a pre-season dork, but they have a horrible 2-6 record. They have some talent, but no size. What's new? So a lot will depend on chemistry and Nash. You look at the Suns and you are certain that their defense can never get worse, but they always seem to make that happen. With Hedo and the advancing age of Nash and Hill, their defense will be even worse this year. But overall I will reserve judgement on the team until December. I am hoping they are good, but I am afraid they'll be mediocre. As for the others, I have been a Laker hater all my life, but am suddenly finding myself hoping they beat the Heat in the Finals. Thats how much I don't like LeBron in a Heat uniform.

The World Series nobody wanted or expected is here - Giants versus the Rangers. I am very curious to see the TV ratings on this. Both SF and Dallas are decent sized television markets, but the rest of the country don't follow these teams and the East Coast will be basically checked out of this series. Plus, even locally, the Rangers are not that big a franchise though I am sure the local area is very excited about them now that they are in the World Series. But as a team that has never won a playoff series from a predominantly football region, the Rangers are not one of those big-ticket franchises. The Giants are at least decent locally. Of course one of the most amazing things in sports is how with every advancing round in the playoffs, the hype and the fan-base of the team grows exponentially. I don't want to call these people band wagoners, but they are something. They are not your serious sports fan for sure and they come out of the woodwork in droves as the team advances each round. The SF Bay Area is currently firmly in the grip of World Series hype. Neither team was picked by anybody to even make the playoffs, but they are now in the World Series. This series will feature some tremendous pitching match-ups much like the previous rounds of the playoffs. The series should kick-off with a Lee-Lincecum match-up. Should be fun. I don't know who I like in this series. I don't care who wins, I will be watching

NFL doesn't stop for the World Series and they don't have to given that the horrible, regular season Tennessee-Jacksonville game last Monday crushed the Yankees ALCS game on TV ratings. So the national sport continues after all the brouhaha all last week about hits and helmet to helmet collisions. Too many concussions and too much noise later by the defensive players on how the league is over-reacting. May be they are, but I like the basic idea that the player need to be tacked, not necessarily hit. Oftentimes, the defender hits the offensive player because he can, not because he need to. The way I see it is, the league is legislating against unnecessary hits. Those have always been part of football, but I don't mind taking them away. Doesn't really change the game for me that much. I don't watch it to see the "jacked up" highlight hits. I don't mind protecting the players better given that the athletes are constantly getting bigger, stronger and faster in these days of advanced health sciences and medical advancements. The game is constantly becoming safer and thats good. Injuries are part of the game, but it's sad to see guys get injured. For instance, today, Romo got hurt and is out. I don't want anybody to get injured, but I especially get frustrated when bad teams that I don't like suffer injuries. Suddenly the bad team gets a convenient excuse for their incompetence. The Cowboys are exactly in that situation - an incompetent team that is 1-5 with an injured QB now.

The NFL results this week were all over the place - like the Raiders and DMF crushing the Broncos 59-14. You really have to parse through the standings to figure out which team is doing what. It's about time we throw the pre-season rankings out. Speaking of rankings, in college, once again a number 1 seed lost and now, BCS says it's Auburn's turn to lose. They have them at one after they beat LSU. Not sure why the BCS hates Oregon and Boise State, not to mention TCU, Michigan State or TCU - the other undefeated teams. But they don't think Oregon is number 1 even after they pummeled UCLA 60-13. And this is the UCLA team that crushed Texas 34-12. Oregon is ranked number 1 in the coaches and other polls, but not in BCS. Of course some of these undefeated teams, may be even Oregon will lose and we will be watching these ranking go upside down a couple more time before all is said and done.

Torture

2010-10-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco giants games are affectionately called "torture" by their fans. This is because they have been in a high-pressure, playoff push since early Sept and in actual playoffs this month and they always play agonizingly close games. They have great pitching and questionable hitting. This means they play a lot of close, low-scoring games that end up torturing their fans until the last pitch. I can't remember too many giants games that were blowouts one way or the other. Brian Wilson joked today "I got anxiety. I got a mini-ulcer developing". Now, they are really torturing the Philies who are trailing the series 3-1. Roy Halladay is pitching tomorrow, but then again, so is Timmy Lincecum. The giants pitching is good enough to neutralize the Phillies pitching and this dude Cody Ross has looked like Babe Ruth so far. Hitting was supposed to be Phillies strength, but so far this entire playoffs has been about pitching. Oswalt volunteered to pitch the ninth inning today and lost the game. The whiz-kid Buster Posey had 4 hits including a key one in the 9-Th against Oswalt. Posey is clearly the Giant's MVP this season. What a talent he is!

The giants are playing very well right now and the chemistry is building and the experience of growing. I can easily see Lincecum slamming the door on the Phillies tomorrow. The Giants are the under-dogs and there still seems to a lot of fans nationally who are just assuming the Phillies will win 3 in a row and take the series. Thats easier said than done. H2O with Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt is pretty formidable, but Sanchez, Cain and Lincecum are no slouches either except in the nick-name department. Closing out this series is gonna be difficult for the Giants like Texas learnt today, but the Giants will have their horse on the mound tomorrow. All stars are aligned for the giants. Texas, on the other hand, is now going back home leading 3-2 and they got 2 games to close the Yankees out. Hope they don't slack off in game 6 hoping Cliff Lee will take care of things in game 7. I can't believe the SF giants or the Texas rangers could be World Series bound, but it could happen. A Giants-Rangers World Series might be the league and the television channel's worst nightmare. In any case, the giants fans don't care. They are just ready for another torture tomorrow.

Parity on display

2010-10-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

Among all the things that makes football the top sport in the country, parity is one of the major attractions. NFL has been all about parity the last few years, may be for a decade or so. There are several stats to prove this point like how most Super Bowl losers, and sometime even champions don't even make it to the playoffs the next year, let alone repeat as champions. The 2010 Saints seem to be very much on track to do their bit to fortify that stat. This year has been especially messy and confusing. There are no dominant teams, no clear-cut favorite and most pre-season favorites, especially in the NFC are barely 500. As a matter of fact, I think the entire NFC might be 500 or below soon :-J This week had it's share of head scratching results as always. San Diego lost to Saint Louis and Seattle beat Chicago - a bad team with a decent record. As I am typing, Colts are trying hard to give the game away to the Redskins - they have fumbled away the ball the last 3 possessions. Steelers, Ravens and the Jets look to be the best and most consistent teams so far. The Colts, Saints, Eagles and the Falcons look decent, but not great. Giants and the Vikings seem to be coming back. Packers seem to be going down. Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco look horrible - to various degrees of course. Thats the story of the season in a nutshell.

The parity bug has also spread to college football over the last few years. It used to be that we always heard of the Texas and the Ohio States and the USC and Floridas of the world all the time in college. But then came Boise State and TCU and these days, "mid-majors" like those have become a regular fixture in the top 10. The number one seed has now lost 2 weeks in a row. Alabama lost last week at South Carolina and Ohio State lost at Wisconsin this weekend. Both good results from my perspective. Undefeated Nebraska lost to Texas after Texas lost badly the last 2 weeks to UCLA and Oklahoma. South Carolina turned around and lost on the road to Kentucky this weekend. That falls on the ole' ball coach as Spurrier went for the touchdown rather than go for the tying field goal at the end of the game. QB Stephen Garcia ended up throwing an interception instead - ballgame Kentucky. All these results add up to a dizzying landscape in the college ranks this year. Boise State was rumored to be number one or two in the BCS standings. But then the actual BCS ranking did come out and Boise was at 3 behind Oklahoma and Oregon. That sucks because I would have loved nothing more than a Boise State - Oregon championship game. That would have been the worst nightmare come true for the old time purists from the East coast. Now, it's going to be an uphill climb for Boise State because the computers are going to continue to penalize them for an easy schedule that will get only easier over the next few weeks. Of course, do we really believe Oregon or Oklahoma will stay undefeated through the rest of the season? It's especially hard to do for Oregon in the Pac-10. But we shall see. Boise State itself might have a tough game on hand against Nevada later in the weekend.

In MLB, probably a bad example of parity, the Yankees are as usual doing their thing in the playoffs. You can kill even the roaches, but beating the Yankees is so hard. As a fan of a team, you are never comfortable with leads. You are always afraid that the other team is going to come back and catchup with you - fan paranoia. But you have to multiply this fear 10 times over if you are playing the Yankees. I really doubt how many Ranger fans were really comfortable when they were up 5-1 in game 1. Sure enough, Yankees come back and win it 6-5 late in the game. Talking heads on TV will call it the Yankees mystique and aura. I call it a 200 million dollar payroll and a bad financial system in the MLB. I hate to quote Curt Schilling, but he nailed it during the World Series when he was playing for the DBacks when he said mystique and aura are nothing but names of strippers. Whatever it is, the Rangers suffered a horrible loss in game 1 and full credit to them for coming back and winning game 2. I still have to believe they lost the series in game 1. In the NL, Halladay and Lincecum went head-to-head in one of the most anticipated pitching contests. We got a good game, but neither looked that great. There were 3 homers in the game, but the Giants got the W at the end of the "torture". This dude Cody Ross has hit 4 home runs in 3 playoff games - 2 against Halladay. Thanks to Oswalt, Philly evened the series today. This series might go 7, but the Phillies might have the edge.

Tex in the mix

2010-10-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

The Texas Rangers have never won a playoff series. They did it this year in style. After winning 2 games on the road, they lost 2 at home and clinched game 5 on the road. Basically the home team never won a game in this series. Thats weird! The Rangers better thank Cliff Lee for this. He won 2 games on the road and totally justified the trade for him. He went complete game in game 5 and shut the Rays down. The only down-side of a 5 game series is that he can't pitch game 1 tomorrow against Derek Cheater and the Yankees. Yes, I just wanted to use "Derek Cheater" for the first time in the blog. The best contribution of this MLB season might have been that nickname. Just for the record, I was not that offended by whatever he did to earn that nickname, but I am going to use it anyways. So C.J.Wilson will pitch game 1 for the Rangers against C.C and Wilson is no dummy either. He did what he had to do in game 2 against the Rays and while the Yankees lineup is significantly different, this should still be a well-pitched game. I like Wilson. Something tells me the Rangers take this series against all odds. May be it's just wishful thinking, but I say Rangers in 7.

The fun series to me is the other one between the hated Giants and the Phillies. The pitching matchups in the series are just insane. I don't think I have seen this good a starting pitching match-up ever. Typically, pitching is always the story this deep in the playoffs. But Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels on one-side is a special threesome. You add Lincenum, Sanchez, Cain to this mix, it's just spectacular. Thats not even counting the new phenom Madison Bumgarner for the Giants, who seems every bit as effective as the other 3 fools. If these pitchers stay true to form, this series may just not see more than 20 runs total! The Phillies do have better hitting and I expect them to take this series in 6 or 7. They have similar pitching, but the Phillies have Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth in the middle with Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino setting the table for them. The Giants may find the going tough in this series. But then again, Giants somehow seem to find a way to win. Lets hope that trend comes to an end in this series. Just last Sunday, the Eagles beat the Niners in the NFL contest between these 2 cities and now the action shifts to baseball. Cant wait for Saturday to watch Halladay-V-Lincecum- this year's Cy Young versus the last 2 years'. Bring it on!

Pitching rules

2010-10-07T23:50:00.001-07:00

Two days into the MLB playoffs, we have seen some great pitching already. The pitching statistics this season has been way better thanks to the fact that a lot of the league is now de-juiced. And proportionally the playoffs seems to be featuring even better pitching since this time of the year is always about pitching. Yesterday, Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter for Philly. He is already the front-runner for the NL Cy Young and then he goes out and pitches a no-hitter in his first game ever in the playoffs. I have always loved this guy as a pitcher since his days in Toronto. Of course, I wanted him to do well back then considering he was beating the Yankees and the RedSox all the time. Now he is in Philly - a team I don't particularly love (or hate). But he has always been a great pitcher and is now getting the right level of recognition after being slightly under-rated in Toronto for all those years. This is just the second no-hitter in the history of the playoffs and I am glad a true ace like him got it done.

Today, Tim Lincecum did what we all knew he was going to do for the Giants. The Gigantes won 1-0 behind a 2-hit, complete game shutout by Timmy. I am never a hater or a sadist, but I am one when it comes to the Giants. As an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and a Oakland A's fan, I have both a divisional jealousy and a geographical rivalry working against the Giants. But even I started pulling for this kid in the late innings because he was just filthy! He had 14 strikeouts and most of them were a swing and a miss. The Braves hitters are probably still swinging and flailing away in their dreams. It's amazing how many times they swung at stuff not even close to the strike zone and how over-matched they looked in the process. Thats just domination. Derek Lowe is definitely overrated, but he was good today. Unfortunately he has nothing to show for it. Lincecum on the other hand put the "touch" in untouchable. If he does this every start, the Giants may be a scary team this off-season.

In the AL, Andy Pettitte added to his post-season resume today by pitching another gem. Both the road teams are now leading the AL series 2-0. Thats surprising, especially in the Texas-Tamapa Bay series. Cliff Lee and this kid C.J. Wilson bottled up the Rays by holding them to 1 run over 2 games. I guess I was wrong about Texas. The series is not over, but both the Yankees and the Rangers should wrap it up at home either in 3 or may be 4 games. They better wrap up the ALDS before Sunday when both NY and Dallas have NFL games to follow. Speaking of the NFL, Randy Moss has been traded away from the Patriots to the Vikings. The Vikes are going all in and I am not sure what comes out of this except coach chilly losing his job at the end of the season. What's the value of Moss when Favre retires? I am sure this is a very uncomfortable question for the Vikes, but I do like this trade for this year. A motivated Moss is still a game-breaker and it should be fun to see these guys play. As for the Patriots, a legendary coach like Bill Belichick with 3 super bowl rings can do a trade like this. He has enough goodwill in the bank to gamble on this season and think really long-term. More power to the hoody!

I was watching the sportscenter and I might have seen the most stupid back-to-back questions in television history. Merril Hoge for some reason was sent to interview Ben Roethlisberger. First, he asks him "what's the difference between Big Ben and Ben?". I am sitting there thinking what kind of stupid question is that? Roethlisberger goes on and blabbers something about how Ben is that little kid from Ohio and is back now and Big Ben was the result of all the hype blah blah blah. Then Hoge in all seriousness asks Roethlisberger, "that incident in Georgia, was it Ben or Big Ben". Come on, give me a break and grow some balls! If you can't ask legitimate questions to Roethlisberger, who needs all the help from the media as he is trying to rehab his tattered image, who the hell are you going to ask the tough questions to? I always liked Hoge as a football expert in the NFL edge show, but he should really stick to his day job. A 'seal here and a seal there" is a lot better than "Ben or Big Ben".

Yankees, Rays, Giants and Phillies should advance

2010-10-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

The MLB playoffs start tomorrow. The yearly Yankees-Twins playoffs series is on at prime-time again. It seems like the AL playoffs always features either the Twins losing to the Yankees or the Yankees losing to the Angels. This year, the Angels are out and the Twins will probably lose to the Yankees. I am glad to see Francisco Liriano back and doing well and winning the comeback player of the year award. He starts game 1 against C.C.Sabathia. He may win, but it may not matter anyways. Pettitte and Hughes go in game 2 and 3 and unfortunately for the Twins, the Yankees offense will be playing all the games all the time! Yanks in 4 as always I guess. It would be funny if Carl Pavano beats Pettitte after all the time he spent, rather wasted in NY. That may be the most intriguing story-line of this series for me.

In Philadelphia, Roy Halladay starts his first ever playoff game. He should win another Cy Young this year with his 21-10 record and 2.44 ERA, but I am sure he is not sleeping today because of the playoff excitement and anxiety. He is going against Edinson Vólquez and the Reds who have not been to the playoffs forever. It will be good to see Dusty Baker back in the big dance. But I don't think Dusty will be happy to see Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels on back-to-back-to-back games, Thats as tough a pitching matchup as we will see in these playoffs. Plus the Phillies have the hitting to back that pitching up. Ryan Howard had an "off year" with just 31 homers and 108 RBIs, but that should be enough to set this pitching up for success. Phillies in 4.

The Texas Rangers have never won a playoffs series ever. I find that stat hard to believe. But the Rangers may not be able to change that this season either. It's great that they made the playoffs, but I pick the Rays primarily because of the level of competition the Rays endured on their way to these playoffs. The Rays have a much better record than the Rangers despite playing in a much tougher division and going down the wire to win that division. The Rangers on the other hand, won the division where the Oakland A's were the second best team at 81-81. The A's organization don't even want to win these days. Winning creates stars and that costs money. The A's just want to be in a perpetual rebuilding mode. These 2 divisions are so different it's almost like one is in the big league and the other is in the minor leagues. With all that said, Josh Hamilton, Cliff Lee and bad Vlad will make this challenging for the Rays. But Rays should take it in 5.

All 4 playoff games feature a Cy Young winner in game 1 - Lee, Halladay, CC and Lincecum - another proof that pitching is the key ingredient to success in baseball. That brings me to the Giants. I was hoping against hope that they would miss the playoffs, but they made it despite some spirited showing by the Padres in that season-ending series. The Giants finally won on the last day of the regular season after losing the previous 2 games to the Padres. They play the Braves in the NLDS and they should win it behind that filthy pitching - Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez with Bumgarner waiting in the wings. The Giants are probably going to leave their 120 million dollar man Zito off the playoff roster. That tells you all you need to know about Zito and about how loaded the Giants pitching is. Atlanta will hang in there behind Tim Hudson who is back strong after 2 injury plagued seasons and they would love to win one for their retiring manager Bobby Cox, but the Gigantes should take it in 5. I don't trust the Atlanta pitching outside of Hudson. I have always thought Derek Lowe is overrated and he will show us why again on Thursday.

In the NFL, Moss is going to Minnesota in a trade. A hired gun who is going to be a pain starting next season. But lets see if Favre clicks with him this season.

Life is going to get bizzy!

2010-09-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

This is the time of the year when life gets busy. College football, NFL and fantasy football is already keeping us busy and occupied and then MLB playoffs start. This is pretty much the only time of the year when anybody really needs to care about baseball. My dream playoff lineup almost happened this year. I have always wondered how baseball will do if it goes all small market - specifically if you take out NY and Boston. I am probably never going to be that lucky, but this year came close. No RedSox, no Dodgers, no NY Mets, no Chi Cubs or Whitesox, no Anaheim Angels and just for added effect, no St. Louis Cardinals either. Of course, I didn't expect the NY Yankees to be kept out, but they crashed my playoff party and are still fighting for a division title with the Rays. Rays have been great this season and they gave away 20,000 tickets for free to fill up their 37,00 seat stadium. Sometimes I feel Baseball is in big trouble.

Anyways, the other party-pooper team for me are the hated SF Giants. They are now guaranteed a tie for NL West and are probably going to win it easily given their pitching and the fact that both Colorado and San Diego have choked away their season. The Giants have a September ERA as of today of 1.78. Thats just offensive ! Lincecum, Cain and now this kid Bumgarner are all killing me. If Lincecum looks like he is from high-school, Bumgarner looks like he is from the little league! I was hoping the Giants will do what they have been doing the last few years - pitch well, hit nothing, be mediocre overall, show some life on and off, but eventually fade into oblivion. But this year has been different. They showed some life and sudenly one thing lead to another, and here they are winning the division. Rookie Buster Posey was the catalyst who took this team to the next level. They better build a statue for this kid outside the AT&T park.

The Giants may be the biggest beneficiary of the divorce of the McCourts. The team that lost to the Phillies in the last 2 NLCS just disappeared with the ownership fiddling away. Of course the DBacks did nothing this year either, but thats neither here nor there. At least nobody expected the DBacks to do well this year. Speaking of teams that were not expected to do anything, The Cincinnati Reds are in the playoffs after many years and they took the division away from the Cardinals. The Reds are an interesting team and America will learn about some of their young stars like first baseman Joey Votto and relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman during this year's playoffs. It is fun to watch Aroldis Chapman pump in fastballs at 105 MPH. Texas Rangers have finally made the playoffs too after 11 years or so . Bad Vlad goes from the Angels to the Rangers and now the Rangers are in the playoffs and Angels are out after 3 good years. If I were him, I will hire LeBron James' manager and try to get all the credit I can for this reversal.

Thats a good segway to ex-king LeBron James. The hype continues. ESPN has put 3 fools plus Rachel Nchols full-time on the Miami Heat beat. I have never seen anything like this. Usually people don't even get know when the NBA training camps start, but this year it's not only news, it's tracked continuously. Rachel Nichols is interviewing the 3 dudes - Wade, LeBron and Bosh EVERYDAY! Leave it to ESPN to make a mountain out of a mole-hill and then sell that mountain to us as Mount Everest erected on top of Mount Whitney. Starting Oct 11-Th, they are going to have a special section called Heat Index tracking this team on ESPN.com. This is insane. I like it and hate it at the same time. I like the fact that there is focus on the NBA pre-season much like the NFL pre-season or even the spring training. But at the same time, this super team reminds me of the notorious Yankees in Baseball. I am afraid the NBA will be just about this team for the next 5 years.

The big 3 might have set a bad precedent for others to follow. For example, there is talk of how Amare, Melo and CP3 or Tony Parker will join forces in NYC. Multiple top money guys in the NBA could never play for the same team at the peak of their careers due to financial constraints. But LeBron, Wade and Bosh might have given the blueprint for everybody and this is not a good blueprint for the league in the long term. You could argue that Lakers were always that top team, but this is different. Even the Lakers had to grow their team organically due to NBA's economic rules, though it is true that success does seem to come easier for them than the other teams. They had Kobe and Shaq, but Kobe was drafted. They now have Kobe and Pau, but they traded for Pau. This is different from 3 of the top 5 picks in the same year coming together via free agency at the top of their game. This is the Heat "model".

The Heat are the most hated and the most intriguing NBA team right now. LeBron came out and said that race was part of the backlash against him. That ridiculous. You can't blame the white race for you going on a stupid "decision" show on ESPN and saying "I am taking my skills to South Beach". It's amazing that this once beloved home-town kid has become one of the top 6 most-hated sports personalities in the US. And he is now blaming others for his predicament. You left Cleveland, you went on TV and got all the attention you possibly can. Don't blame that on the white race. If you didn't milk your free agency like a poor third world cow farmer would milk his cow for the last drop of milk, the backlash wouldn't be this bad. And if you didn't have a bunch of high-school dropouts running your "global brand", you wouldn't have to learn that fact from this blog either! Your manager would have warned you so 24 months back when the attention started accumulating around your free agency.

Surprising week 3

2010-09-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Week 3 is usually when the NFL season gains some definition. NFL has been known for it's parity and hence there are always going to be a few surprising teams every season. And of course the first few weeks is when we are going to be surprised the most as these teams come out and disprove the expert's pre-season predictions. But there could be a few anomalies in the first 2 weeks as teams can catch a break with their schedule or run into a couple of tough teams. So week 3 normally ends up being a good indicator because as the number of games go from 2 to 3, the chances of fluke performances drastically decreases. Granted, it's still early days and teams can totally go from good to bad or bad to good from this point on to the end of the season. The San Diego chargers have done this many times and they are again on track for something similar with a 1-2 start. But by game 3, we typically get a good handle on most teams, if not all.

After week 3, there are 3 teams that are 3-0 and you could say 2 of them are surprises - KC Chiefs and the Chicago Bears. KC Chiefs one could argue have had an easy start to their schedule. Granted San Diego is tough, but they got them at home early in the season. Then they played Cleveland and San Francisco - 2 teams that are now 0-3, with San Francisco being the surprising 0-3 team. But Chiefs actually look very good. Thy have a lot of speed with their young guns and the Niners were exposed. They were not even competitive against the chiefs and it was funny listening to the Niners radio honks after the game still talking like they are some great team destined to win their division. One dude was saying they played down to their competition and was citing how they played well against the Saints and badly against the Chiefs and the Seahawks.

The niners were completely outplayed by the chiefs and it is pretty arrogant to talk about "playing down to the competition". Thats like me saying I didn't get a date with Angelina Jolie because I didn't use my best pickup lines on her :-) I love Mike Singletary, but I think his act is wearing thin and his job is under threat. He has now fired his offensive coordinator and that sounds like nothing but a defensive move to put the blame somewhere else. I hope he survives, but it is pretty clear that he is just an emotional, motivational type coach. His X's and O's is just not there.

There were several other surprising results last weekend. I was surprised by Dallas crushing Houston on the road. I guess Dallas showed up with everything they got to save their season. I still think Houston is the better team, but they can't play like that in a big game. Where were you Matt Schaub? Buffalo lost to the Patriots, but they made the game pretty interesting. The Patriots just don't have the defense this season to dominate teams. Brady better get ready to air it out and line up Moss behind him. The other surprises were Seattle running circles around the Chargers special teams and winning the game. Also, the rookie QB Sam Bradford is doing really well. The Rams shocked the Redskins at home 30-16. What's going on with McNabb and the skins? Minnesota saved it's season too behind Adrian Peterson against the now 0-3 Detroit. Jets beat Miami to go to 2-1 and Atlanta defeated the Saints in OT. There were a couple of games like the OT one which could have gone either way last weekend.

Raiders lost to Arizona, but the could have won if only the fatso sea-bass had made a 32 yard field goal. He is the highest paid kicker in the league and has such a strong leg, but he misses way too many critical field goals in my opinion. For his talent level, he is pretty inconsistent. The other close game this week was the Monday nighter between Green Bay and Chicago. It's funny to watch the Chicago offense. I don't think there has ever been a more risk taking offensive coordinator paired with a more reckless QB. Martz and Cutler just throw the ball wherever they want and surprisingly, the packers sill found a way to lose this gam via penalties. They still had a chance to win the game if only Greg Jennings hadn't fumbled ball away during the 2-minute drill. Aaron Rodgers played very well and his reputation is being cemented every time he takes the field. Cutler was not bad either, but some of his throws are interesting to say the least. He will be throwing some interesting interceptions this season.

Speaking of QBs, Vick is playing like the QB I thought he would be when I saw him play at Va Tech. I thought he was going to be the era defining QB for this era much like Dan Marino was for the 80's. And then he never became a great passer though he could run and had the arm strength. Now, it looks like everything is coming together. May be it's his maturity or may be it's the coaching at Philly, but he is making all the right reads, throwing precision darts and running effectively only when needed. It was fun just watching his highlights this week. Lets see if this continues when McNabb comes back to town next Sunday. Kyle Orton threw for 476 yards against the Colts and still lost. I am surprised he could do that. It probably was bad defense on the part of the Colts. Its funny that the top 5 guys yardage wise among the QBs (Orton, Rivers, Eli Manning, Brees and Henne) all lost proving once again defense wins championships. Well, unless we are talking about fantasy football championships, then it's great to have these QBs.

Week 3 is done and week 4 will only be better. In college, Arizona State played a frustrating game as they tried to come from behind and ended up throwing interception after interception after moving the ball well. Pathetic performance against a ranked team that couldn't actually stop them. The devils stopped themselves.

Flip-flop

2010-09-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

In Philly, Andy Reid flip-flopped this week to go back from Kolb to Vick. He picked Kolb one day and switched sides the next. Now he claims that he has a great problem in his hands with 2 championship caliber QBs. First of all, neither him nor the Eagles should be talking about championships this season. Secondly, neither QBs are championship material. Vick has been playing well, but I think this is a bad decision. Granted, the stupid Philly fans will kill Kolb and Reid if Kolb started and faltered, but Kolb is their future. Vick's ceiling is set. He is a good runner and a mediocre QB. You traded away McNabb for Kolb and you have to set him up for the future. As somebody wrote on espn.com, seems like Eagles just wanted to replace McNabb with any QB NOT named Donovan McNabb! Kolb is young and talented and Vick's legs are not going to carry you that far. Sure, Vick is talented to win you a game or 2 all by himself, but this is becoming more and more of a passing league. There are more elite QBs right now than anytime in the recent past and Vick is not one of them. Let Kolb show what he is made up of before benching him for Vick.

I am not a Vick hater nor am I wedded to the "you can't lose your job to injury" philosophy, but there is some logic to that theory. You spent all your football intelligence and off-season training camps and OTAs and pre-season games to determine Kolb is your starter. Then he gets injured and Vick plays decent. Now you take the job and give it to Vick. So what if Kolb was indeed all that you told us he was? What if he was the next Peyton Manning? Are you going to derail his future just because Vick had 6 good quarters? I am not suggesting that Reid should be stubborn and stick to his decision, but he should let Kolb play and mature right now. It almost feels like Reid is afraid of his fan-base and would rather see Vick fail and then insert Kolb back instead of taking the tough, but right decision now. This might be a case of a fan-base influencing a head coach more than his common sense or football IQ. It's not a horrible decision, just a wrong one. Vick has played very well and he may even be better in the short-term than Kolb, but he doesn't do much for you long term and the Eagles have to think long-term here. Especially since they just got rid of Brian Westbrook and McNabb. This is the time to rebuild.

There are a couple of great games this weekend in the NFL. Houston is hosting Dallas in the Texas bowl and I am pretty sure they are going to whack the Cowboys. Schaub and the Texans are great on offense and are 2-0 after impressive wins. Schaub has been good for a couple of years now ever since he came to the Texans, though things never came together completely for him. This year might be the year where things jell together for him and the Texans. He threw for 497 yards (and crushed my team in fantasy) as the Texans beat McNabb and the Redskins 30-27 in OT. As McNabb and Shanahan and the rest of that team was walking to the locker room after this awesome game with all the yards and the twists and turns, I realized how draining NFL games should be. These guys spend the entire week preparing for this game and it should be hard to lose it in OT like that. It's a difficult, intense and physical line of work.

The Jets will be at the 2-0 Miami, who beat Favre and the Vikings last weekend. Jets payed a great game and shut down Brady and the Pats for a big win themselves. Darrelle Revis was injured on the play Randy Moss pulled in a superb one-handed catch for a TD. But the Jets did well anyways. Brady tried going to Moss on multiple occasions after the injury, but the strategy did not work. Chicago Bears will be facing the Packers next week to renew their long-standing rivalry. The Bears are a surprising 2-0 team and Culler and Mike Martz might get something going there. Cutler has the arm and Martz has the plays to use it. Last week, Cutler took care of the Cowboys in what was a great game. But the bears better be prepared for this one. It's one thing to stop Romo, but is a whole different ball-game if you want to stop Aaron Rodgers. Lets see how they do it.

In other sports, the Oregon State football team is going to Boise to supposedly give them their toughest game of the rest of the season. OSU actually painted their field blue to simulate road conditions. Not a bad idea, though a little newsworthy to say the least. If BSU wins, their BCS championship aspirations will not only stay alive, but look a lot more realistic. These mid-major teams always choke and lose these big games when it matters. But I think Boise state this year is different, In fact, they should not even be called a mid-major. Thats ofensive to a team like that. In basketball, Warriors coach Don Nelson is rumored to depart and turn the keys over to Keith Smart. This sounds like a great idea on paper and it probably upgrades the defense, rebounding and rotation. But Nelly's system provides a level of offensive success and excitement that sometimes translates into great fan and team energy and propels a team forward. This is especially true with young, talented teams and the only downside to Nelly leaving is that this offensive energy might dissipate unless Smart is smart enough to continue to tap into that well.

The Baseball pennant races are in full swing. The Yankees and the Rays are in a cut-throat battle for the AL East while the Padres and Giants are placed pretty close. With that pitching, Giants have had a season way better than expected. Hope they taper off and go away. They either win 13-0 or lose 0-1. That offense is feast or famine, but that pitching is forcing famine in a lot of cities around the National League. The ERAs of their starting pitching are 3 (Cain), 3.16 (Sanchez), 3.26 (Bumgarner), 3.6 (Lincecum) and 3.98 (Zito). Thats an awesome range even in this non-juiced, pitcher friendly year. They obviously have the best ERA in the league followed by San Diego, who is fighting them for the NL West crown. It should be a fun 10 days in this division, but unfortunately my DBacks have nothing to offer. Most of the other divisions are not competitive and the Twins actually clinched the division already and have the best record in Baseball. Ron Gardenhire is awesome! He and Matt Schaub may be two of the most under-rated talents in sports today.

Tough games

2010-09-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

Two of my teams had a rough, rough day on the field last football weekend. Both these teams just gave away their game to the opponent and luck was not on their side as well. First it was ASU on Saturday going into Madison and outplaying the 11-Th ranked Wisconsin badgers. I was at a sports bar with some friendly, mid-western alums from Wisconsin and the grip was on for them once they saw how fast and effective the ASU running game was in the first quarter. But after both teams missed a field goal, the ASU receivers dropped a couple of catchable passes in the end-zone. Mistakes like that on the road are always costly. The badgers special teams had no answers to the Devils kick-off and punt returns and the Devils scored a TD through their special teams. But then they almost returned one more at the halftime buzzer. It was so hard to see them get tacked at the 1 yard line with no time on the clock. That was just bad luck. They could have scored if the guy got one more yard or if we had one more second on the clock for a field-goal kick or a play. They came back in the second half and the game went back and forth. The Devils fell behind, but came back to score a TD to make it 20-19. They then missed an extra point kick to lose the game. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tough way to lose the game.

Then on Monday night, the niners lose a great game in a similar way. I am not a passionate fan of any particular NFL team except my fantasy team, but I do have a soft-corer for the niners. They will probably be in my top 3 list in the NFL along with the Arizona Cardinals and the Oakland Raiders. They played very well and defended Drew Breezy and the Saints effectively. But 4 turnovers did not help their cause. Alex Smith had 2 interceptions, both of which didn't seem like his mistake exclusively. The first one was intended for Gore and was a little wide and inaccurate, but both INTs were tipped balls. Some of these turnovers were also in the red-zone and those are the worst. Despite all these mistakes, the niners had a chance to tie the game with a TD and a 2 point conversion. Alex Smith got them both in what was the best drive of his career up to this point. The 2-point conversion was denied by the refs initially, but a booth review overturned it and tied the game up.

The only problem was, Alex Smith left too much time on the clock for the Saints. Breezy did what Breezy do and basically won the game for the Saints 25-22. The game winning kick was actually tipped by the niner defender, but went in anyways. This was really unlucky for the niners. It's not often you see a tipped kick make it through the goalpost. That hurt. If not for the 4 turnovers, the niners could have beaten the champs 30-15 or something. The niners have now lost 2 games where they looked like the better team for 6 out of 8 quarters. May be Mike Singletary does have to take some responsibility for this. I like him a lot and I think he is a great professional and a great motivator, but I am not sure if he is a great Xs and Os coach. Also, his fire and brimstone approach can wear thin easily. The niners better start winning before the players start tuning out Mike. I like Alex Smith too. I hear good things about him as a person and this game might be the first time where fans and the media are also saying good things about Alex Smith, the football player.

Anyways, 2 days, 2 teams, 2 great games, but 2 heart-breaking losses.

Week to week

2010-09-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Life is flowing gently from week to week right now. Thats the beauty of the football season. You start following the rhythm of the football season - both college and NFL, and your excitement level picks up towards the weekend and settles down during the week. With some spike in excitement Monday night for MNF and Thursday night if you are a hardcore college guy. Week 1 was good in the NFL. Lots of low scoring games as the offenses are still trying to get into the groove. New Orleans beat Minnesota 14-9 and Washington beat Dallas 13-7 in 2 of the more surprising low scoring games. Baltimore beat the over-rated Jets 10-9 in a game which didn't surprise me at all. The one true upset of the week was Indianapolis losing 34-24 to Houston despite Manning throwing for 433 yards and 3 TDs. This was a huge win for Houston as we have all been waiting for them to take the next step. This victory might propel them to much better chemistry and performance down the road this season.

In college, ASU is playing Wisconsin tomorrow. Arizona is playing Iowa and the cats are ranked 24. Hope they lose and stay out of the rankings. No other major top-25 match-ups between ranked teams. Last weekend, Va Tech lost to James Madison 21-16 at home. This was shocking and embarrassing for the Hokies, but more importantly, this diluted Boise state's win over the Hokies the weekend before. So Boise lost some shine and may be some number 1 votes even without playing a game. Classic college football - broken system with questionable semantics. I always love how at the end of year talk shows are endlessly arguing about the relative superiority of conferences. Oregon state lost to Mississippi state which lost to Tennessee but Tennessee lost to UCLA which in turn lost to Oregon state. So is the Pac-10 better or the SEC? You can argue about all this till the cows come home and thats exactly what NCAA wants us to do. We are still a few months away from such discussions. Lets enjoy the games until then.

Bring on the NFL

2010-09-11T23:44:00.001-07:00

The first NFL Sunday is almost here, It's like christmas-eve for sports fan as we get ready for the must-see TV over the next 5 months. America's top league takes over Sundays from now until early February and dominates some Mondays and Thursdays too. The season officially kicked off Thursday with the much awaited Saints-Viking matchup. The game didn't live up to the hype and neither did Brees or Favre, but it was still awesome to see football on TV and see these superstars play. Saints won as expected, but the scoring was not nearly as prolific as people expected. I was a little surprised at the Saints and Brees having trouble scoring. I am going to go ahead and give the credit to the Vikings defense. I think they are good and thats good news if you are a Vikings fan.

The Vikings offense on the other hand didn't look that great. Understandable considering Favre is just getting back into the groove and with Sidney Rice missing. Adrian Peterson had a few good runs, but Favre was clearly off on a few throws. He spoke about it in the post-game show and claimed that the game would have been different if he was not off on those throws. I would be pissed if I was a Vikings fan. He is talking about being a little off after missing all of training camp. Isn't that what practice is for? To get all of the timing and chemistry nailed down. Of course he is off and he can't use slugs like Cleveland and Detroit as training camp substitute this season since their schedule is a lot harder. But I think they are going to be fine given that defense and the fact that Favre is going to be fine eventually.

Favre's old team, the Packers are a trendy super bowl pick from the NFC this season. I am surprised, but happy about it. I have always been a fan of Aaron Rodgers and he is clearly one of the top QBs in the league today. Suddenly this era has become a golden era for quarterbacks after a few years of serious mediocrity at the position outside of a coupe of elite QBs. Now, there are more than a dozen high quality QBs with a lot of young guns like Rodgers and Rivers. I was happy to see A-Rod lead all QBs in the fantasy rankings. I don't always remember when I am wrong, but I won't forget to remind people if and when I am right. I told anybody who would listen that Rodgers will be good and same with Brees. I have liked both these guys from their college days and they had their ups and downs in the league, but they have finally arrived. Tomorrow, Rodgers and the Packers have a big start against Phily. Week 1 features a lot of good games and I am ready for all of them.

In college today, Penn state couldn't hang with Alabama and Florida state got embarrassed by Oklahoma. Miami lost to Ohio state and Georgia lost to South Carolina in the top-25. The biggest loser of the weekend didn't even play. Boise state was off after their impressive victory, but Va Tech made sure it was not that impressive anymore by promptly losing to James Madison at home. Not sure what it does to Boise state's championship aspirations, but it can't be good. In the Pac-10, my man - captain comeback Jim Harbaugh and his boys from Stanford undressed the Bruins 35-0. Thats a great start to their Pac-10 season. ASU won and the other great win for Pac-10 was with Oregon crushing Tennessee 48-13. USA barely sneaked past

Noisy Boise

2010-09-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome back college football and aren't we all glad it's back! Boise State took care of business today against the 10-Th ranked Virginia Tech and validated their 3-Rd spot in the ranking to some extent. They looked good and dominated a legitimate, East-coast, ranked BCS team on the road. It was a neutral venue at Washington's FedEx field, but it was Hokie-town today all the way, given DC's proximity to Blacksburg. And of course, the media respects East coast teams more anyways. So Boise stands to gain a lot by beating the Hokies instead of some Pac-10 team. They busted out the special teams on Beamer ball himself and went up 17-0. But Va Tech crawled back into the game and Boise had to win it with a 2 minute drill at the end. Boise's remaining schedule is kinda soft with only a visit from Oregon State to the blue turn looking mildly challenging on their calendar. This means they may have a legitimate shot at the national championship game. It would be interesting to see what happens if they stay unbeaten. Boise did play the Fiesta bowl last year against the other highly ranked non-BCS team - TCU. Both teams are back this season ranked pretty high and TCU beat the 24-Th ranked Oregon state this weekend. Not happy as a Pac-10 honk, but it is what it is.

Speaking of Pac-10, ASU is ranked 9-Th out of 10 teams. What the hell is Dennis Erickson doing? They did beat Portland state in their season opener, but thats neither here nor there. USC won as well, but did not dominate. Oregon dominated New Mexico 72-0. It should have been brutal to be their mascot doing all those push-ups after every TD. I guess the message was "get buff or die trying". Pac-10 is viewed to be even weaker this year than usual and as if to prove that right, Washington State got crushed by Oklahoma State 65-17. Washington lost to BYU And UCLA lost to Kansas State to round off the weekend. And again, ASU is ranked 9-Th in this conference? Scary bad! The 2 top-25 upsets were Utah beating the 15-Th seeded Pittsburgh and 21-St seeded LSU beating North Carolina ranked 18. The second one was not a major upset, but it was one of the 3 big games this opening weekend and Les Miles comes through. Few high-profile teams involved in some big games in week 2 - Penn State @ Alabama, Miami @ Ohio State and Florida State @ Oklahoma. I would be pulling for the road teams in all those 3 games. Give me Joe-Pa over Nick Saban any day of the week. All in all, good start to the football season and it's only going to get better with the NFL kick-off on Thursday.

Speaking of the NFL, the Cardinals released Matt Leinart and he signed with the Texans today to backup Matt Schaub. Schaub is injury-prone though he is way better than Leinart. So we may even see Leinart play a little this year. As bad as Leinart has been, I still didn't want him to be released unceremoniously. Considering all the investment the Cards have put into him, they should have given him another shot. He was no comparison to Kurt Warner, but I don't think he deserves to be cut in favor of Derek Anderson - benched may be, but not cut. 14 TDs and 20 INTs doesn't make a great career yet, but the Cards should have given him another shot just because they don't have a great option ahead of him. Anderson is better, but only slightly and Leinart has slightly more upside. I think it was more a personal decision than a football decision. Matt coming out and complaining openly about the coaching decisions didn't help. The relationship was damaged and the Cards decided there was not enough talent there to put up with him anymore. TJ.Housh was the other big name who got cut and he got picked up by the Ravens. Baltimore now has a lot of big names on the flanks and lets see if it pans out. The Jets finally signed Darrelle Revis and it should be a good Monday night opener between the Ravens and the Jets. Let's see how Boldin does on the Revis Island.

Sad Strasmus

2010-08-31T23:38:00.000-07:00

Stephen James Strasburg seem to have come and gone like a shooting star. He was a rookie one day, a super star the next, a hall of famer by day 3 and is now going under the knife for a tommy john surgery all in a matter of months. If it were the olden days, his career would be over. Fortunately for him, tommy john surgeries are as common as getting a haircut these days and most, if not all pitchers come back. And some of then even come back to be as dominant as they were before getting knifed. The chances of a full recovery is higher if you are younger and Strasburg has age on his side. With all that said and done, this is still such a bad news for him, the Nationals and MLB. He became an overnight sensation and to see his season end like that hurts. Plus he won't be back until deep into the 2011 season if not early 2012. But he will be back and he will be good. The question is, can he pump those fastballs in at 100 MPH anymore? May be, may be not. Time will tell. For now, lets all sympathize a little with the Nationals fan only because they have been so down-trodden for so long. Strasburg was the savior for a couple of months and just like that, he is gone. Life is harsh and unreal sometimes, but it is what it is and it must go on.

The other big news in baseball was about a bunch of teams opening their books and the fans getting surprised and in some cases, pissed at bad teams like the Pirates and the Marlins making a load of cash without spending any on baseball players. In the case of the Pirates, they have not had a winning season in 18 years and have still turned a cumulative profit of $34 million in the past 3 years. And some of these teams have ripped off their cities for new arenas and a lot of these cities are in bad financial state these days because of the recession. All of this adds up to a bunch of angry fans. These bad teams are supposedly making money because of revenue sharing and the big boys like the Yankees pushing them down some cash. So obviously, there are some murmurs about revenue sharing and how it breeds bad behavior and is not helping bad teams build winners. These teams would instead sit tight and just take in the money. Why not?

What's the point of Baltimore spending 20 million more and still having no shot against the 200 million dollar payroll of the Yankees and the RedSox in that division when they could just spend nothing and make money off of revenue sharing? Yes, revenue sharing does breed bad behavior, but that doesn't mean we remove revenue sharing and force a freer market on everybody. What it means is, the MLB system is messed up and they need a true salary cap to go with the luxury tax and revenue sharing for a more balanced league. Pure revenue sharing is not working. A salary cap is what's needed to give the Baltimores and the Pittsburghs of the World a chance. NBA and NFL have figured this out in different ways and MLB has to follow one of those systems. Unless there is a level playing field in baseball, these problems will continue. People always point to teams like this years Tampa Bay Rays and say how they are able to work so well within the system. But it's hard. These teams are the exceptions, not the norm and they can't be your blueprint for a typical team in your league. They are the role-models, not the average Joe.

The other good news in baseball is the indictment of Roger Clemens. Nothing is going to happen for 2 years and even after that, he has enough money to fight all this, but it still feels good to see a scum-bag like him get indicted. To his credit, he is still fighting it by pleading not guilty, though may be he shouldn't. Only Roger Cossack knows what all this means, but if Cossack is talking about you on ESPN sportscenter, it only means that things are not going well for you. The other roider Manny is now a whitesox. He has officially become a journeyman. Wasn't he worshipped like a God in LA just a couple of years back? Only in LA would people care less about their supposed sports super-heroes. It's an ultimate fair-weather, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately town. The Dodgers are going nowhere and hence Manny has been shipped out of town. It hurts me to say that both the NL West and the AL West are garbage. AL East on the other hand is just too good. They may end up with the best 3 records in the league with one of the teams, the Redsox, not even making the playoffs. That would be something. It would still not be what I have been waiting for - both the Yankees and the Redsox missing the playoffs. While we are dreaming, we might also ask for the Mets, Dodgers and the Cubs missing the playoffs the same season along with the Yankees and the RedSox.

Favre and the Jets

2010-08-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

Favre finally came back this week. Three of his stooges had to literally goto his home and get him on the flight back to Minnesota. As ridiculous as that circus was, it was good on two fronts. First and foremost, it put an end to the fake suspense of "will he or won't he". Of course we all knew he will come back, but still had to deal with the endless hype and circus. Secondly, even with all that said and done, between the lines, he is just fun to watch. He is one of the better QBs in a sport dominated by QBs. And his spontaneity and risk seeking attitude make him must-watch TV. I don't buy the whole "he will play the game for free" hype that talking-heads like Chris Berman have been foisting on us for more than a decade, but he does play well for apparently 16 to 20 million a year. As a NFL fan, I don't mind watching this drama queen when he is not in the off-season drama-mode.

But I think this year is going to be more disappointing than last for the Vikings and Favre. He is a legit 40 year-old now and expectations are higher due to his success last season. He still has a good team around him, but the Saints might have given the league a blue-print to get after him in that playoff game last year. Also, all this talk about Chilly's offense being insufficient for him might put more pressure on them to open it up. If that happens, Favre may go back to throwing 20 interceptions again and might also end up pissing Adrian Peterson. Their schedule is much tougher this year and the Packers will put up a better fight too in the division. Given all this, I would say the hype for the Vikings needs to be tempered. Don't put them in the Super Bowl yet. But then again, better them than the Cowboys who have been going to the Super Bowl the last 5 years in some people's eyes.

The other team that's over-hyped in my not-so-humble opinion are the New York Jets. Between Sexy Rexy's personality and Mark Sanchez's charms and Darrelle Revis's talents and the Big Apple's marketability, this team is getting way too much attention since last year's playoffs. The reality is, they sneaked into the playoffs last year because Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer ended up resting against them and then they got deep into the playoffs. It's no guarantee they are going to go farther this season. Patriots are not the same anymore, but they are still the team with Brady, Moss and Belichick and they will have a big say in what happens in that division. Mark Sanchez is no better or worse than Matthew Stafford and it might be a little too early to put that kid in the Hall of Fame. And if Revis does miss part or whole of the season, they will have real big question marks. Antonio Cromatie can make 6 kids with 5 women or whatever and forget their names, but he is no Revis. Hope the HBO show Hard Knocks doesn't end up being the high-point of the Jets 2010 season.

NFL 2010

2010-08-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

I know it's a cliche, but I can smell football in the air. The only good thing about summer being on the decline is the soothing sight of football and the NFL. College football will start soon too, but we all know the NFL is the king. The former King, LeBron, kept us occupied and entertained through the summer and the NBA in general is getting a lot of attention these days and seems to be on the upswing again, but it still ain't no NFL. ESPN follows the NFL throughout the season and it's fun to finally have some games and training camps to talk about rather than just arm-chair analysis.

Of course there are 2 guys who have no interest in the NFL pre-season or the training camps. It's me and Brett Favre! Just like the last couple of years, the NFL off-season is all about Brett Favre. Recently, some news of his retirement leaked and it was funny how absolutely nobody except the ESPN TV producers bought it. Sure enough, he went from being retired one day to a 7 million dollar pay-hike (13 Mill to 20 Mill) the next. I have no idea how that happened and only Favre can pull something like that off. He is still nowhere to be found and is making an absolute fool of the Vikings and Brad Childress. Childress typically rolls with an air of arrogance and talks like he is curing cancer, but with this Brett Favre issue, he is reduced to being a bumbling fool. Love it!

The other big news of the off-season is Darrelle Revis's contract. This story is derailing the Jets and it would be interesting to see how well that team does in case this guy doesn't sign. I expect Mark Sanchez to get exposed a little bit this year because his numbers last year were no better than Lions QB Matthew Stafford. But Sanchez has a great team around him and people were getting ready to put him in the Hall of Fame already because of all the playoff success for the Jets last year. The other big news is TO joining Ochocinco in Cincinnati. I think TO is washed up, but lets see if he at least opens up some lanes for Ocho. Hope they don't don't start fighting over the girls in Chad's stupid reality show on VH-1. Chad brings in TO as a special guest.

Anyways, I guess the NFL festivities actually officially starts only when Favre shows up in Minnesota.

LeBron part 2 - Brand diminished

2010-07-21T00:00:00.001-07:00

In the previous post, I covered the part about how LeBron mismanaged the decision making process. Now I want to talk about the decision itself. I hate it. I am one of those guys who never wanted him to leave Cleveland, but thats not the only problem with this decision. Miami to me was a head-scratcher. He is definitely diminishing his brand by joining forces with Wade - a top 5, if not a top-3 talent in the league and Bosh - a top-10 talent. I realize that he is doing this for winning championships, but winning with this group will not make him a "global icon". He will be lucky if he even becomes a bigger icon than Wade in Miami! Wade already has a ring and he will always have one more than LeBron in this setup.

I realize that our culture is really obsessed with winning and we rate people with championships much higher than the ones without. Dan Marino is probably the best quarterback ever, but he never gets the credit because he has ten fingers, but no rings. LeBron clearly thought about this and got intimidated by Kobe's 5 rings and MJ's 6. He looked at himself and his Cavs team and just could not imagine winning 4 or 5 or 6 championships, which is what he thinks he needs to do to be in that "best ever" discussion. But the part he missed is that having multiple rings is important, but how you win them matters too. MJ gets all that credit because he won those rings as the "alpha-dawg" in those Bulls team. Thats why the 2008 ring was so important for Kobe because Kobe's first 3 rings are not his, but Shaq's.

There is no question that LeBron is the better and the more popular player than Wade. I thought the news about how the Heat season tickets were flying off the shelf once the news of LeBron's arrival in Miami leaked was interesting. Wade and Bosh were already in town and I am sure they sold a lot of tickets too, but LeBron is just at a different level as a star. With all that said, Wade is no joke. He is no Pippen or even Pau Gasol. Plus LeBron is going to his town and Wade already has a ring. So LeBron has to share the limelight with Wade. There is no guarantee they win multiple championship, but if they do, LeBron has to share it with Wade. Wade always screamed "this is my house" whenever he hit buzzer beaters or made big plays at home in Miami. Thats exactly the point! LeBron is going to his house. They may be giving him the keys to the master bedroom, but it's still Wade's house.

LeBron's career averages are 27.8 points, 7.1 boards, 7.0 assists and Wade's are 25.4, 4.9 and 6.6. I can easily see Wade being the better scorer in this team give LeBron's tendency to give up the ball and be tentative in the clutch sometimes. LeBron might end up with better all-around numbers, but Wade could end up being the alpha-dawg. Thats not good for LeBron's brand. You could say that he is sacrificing his brand and salary for winning, but thats just a fake argument. To quote one of my friends - "taking less money to play with a bunch of elite players is a false positive for having heart". You can't go and team up with other super-stars , accumulate rings and claim I am better than MJ or Kobe. Ain't gonna happen. LeBron will never be better than MJ now. He could win 7 rings, but will still be ranked lower than MJ and may be even Kobe. I don't think there was ever a situation in any sport where pick numbers 1, 4 and 5 from a year's draft end up on the same team while they are still at their peak. He can never get away from that fact in any "legacy" discussions.

Even NY or Chicago would have made more sense to me than this. He would have been on a great team in Chicago and would have still been the alpha-dawg. It would have been his team, but Miami is not his. As a 25 year-old superstar, he should be working towards winning his championship for his team. Instead, he is joining forces with other stars in another city like older superstars do to get a ring before they retire. I feel like he could have given Cleveland some more time - may be another 3 year deal, and resorted to some mercenary tactics later. I think he seriously tried to convince Bosh to join him, but when he didn't, he didn't see any strong running mate left, panicked and ejected. He is not that far from a championship in Cleveland and the Cavs have been spending money. In fact, if he didn't have a gun to their head for the last several years with this impending free agency, they might have built a more viable team than go after quick fixes like Shaq and Jamison. But they did spend the money and I am sure they would have tried to build a winner for LeBron. And that championship would have meant a LOT more for his legacy than the Miami rings ever will. He might have even become a legend with just a single ring at Cleveland. Now, he needs at least 2 championships to even make a mark.

Winning will solve a lot of problems, but LeBron has a boatload of work to do to fix and rebuild his brand.

LeBron part 1 - Image tarnished

2010-07-11T23:11:00.001-07:00

I can go in a hundred different directions with this whole LeBron James saga and I may do just that over the next couple of days on this blog. Simply put, he has tarnished his image and diminished his brand significantly over the last few months and finally with his decision to "take his talents to South Beach". Yes, I always called him "The King", but not anymore. It was indeed one of the most anticipated, hyped up and fascinating free-agency and off-season in the NBA and LeBron and his people deserve a lot of credit for the sheer entertainment. But all the hype and shenanigans had one big collateral damage - the image of LeBron himself. You could tell that he was enjoying every second of the attention and he looked more and more self-obsessed with each passing day. The charade culminated with a show on ESPN called "The Decision". The announcement of the plans for that show almost convinced me that he is going to stay in Cleveland. Is he going to put himself out there with such a level of self-promotional hype and actually turn back on his hometown? I guess he did, but that was shocking to me. It was one thing for him to goto Miami, but I can't believe his handlers let him walk out on Cleveland with such fanfare and hype. I thought the only way he gets away with the unprecedented stupidity of a prime-time TV show to announce his free agent signing is, if he comes out humbly and says "I am staying in Cleveland. This has always been my home. I love these fans blah blah blah". Even Art Modell sneaked his team out in the middle of the night, not in prime time. He should have totally kept it low key if he was going to walk out on Cleveland. Thats just common sense. Of course there doesn't seem to be a lot of common sense in LeBron's home-grown posse.

The show itself got amazing ratings and out-drew a lot of actual NBA games. Goes to show how big LeBron is and how much interest there was in his signing. But thats good news for ESPN, not LeBron. He just put the spotlight on himself while he was going to make an unpopular decision. It's never going to be a popular decision when stars walk away from their current team to another team because, in most circumstances, stars move from the Clevelands and the Kansas Cities of the world to New York and LA. It's just how the economics of the sports world works. Free agent superstars rarely leave the New York Yankees to sign with the Kansas City Royals. It's almost always the other way around. And when that happens, most people except the Yankee fan is unhappy and bitter and angry about it. Most fans like to root for the underdog and hate the rich dog. Also, there is something romantic about a player staying with the same team his entire career and do well for them. This is becoming rarer and rarer these days and Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan may be some of the few guys with a realistic shot of doing this in all of sports today. And all of these feelings were 10 times more amplified with LeBron because he was playing for his home-town team and there was so much attention on his free agency since day 1 because of the New York angle. So LeBron was never going to be embraced for leaving Cleveland. So whose idea was it to do it under the bright lights?

Not only was the show a bad idea, the words that he used to relay the message was even worse - "I have decided to take my talents to South Beach". That doesn't sound humble and the reference to South Beach - the party capital of the World doesn't help either. The contrast between South Beach and Cleveland couldn't be starker. Immediately Cleveland started burning his jersey and the cute girl in that Cleveland bar started crying. It's great theater for sure, but is LeBron gaining anything out of all this? Obviously no because 80% of the people in a poll say they think less of LeBron today than they did before. Totally understandable. He has had a horrible few months PR wise since that game 5 against Boston. ESPN has been milking this free agency big-time since last year and even the NBA should be loving this as this has clearly been the top news this summer ahead of the MLB season, but LeBron's image is a casualty in all this. With all that said, the most shocking thing of this probably happened after LeBron's announcement. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert came out and absolutely killed LeBron in a an open-letter to the Cavs fans. I am shocked he did it, but I am glad he did it. Of course, he is not entirely on the high-ground here as LeBron could have done everything the same way and if only he had decided to stay in Cleveland, Dan would have hailed him as the next coming of Jesus, Allah and Vishnu combined. No moral high-ground for Dan here, but I am just glad he said the things he did - somebody had to say it. Somebody had to vent on behalf of the Cleveland fans. The national media and the NBA isn't going to do it (except for Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski) and Cleveland's local media is just not loud enough for all of us to hear. So I like the fact that Gilbert came out like that and is being heard everywhere.

That covers the way the decision was managed and announced. I will continue my thoughts tomorrow and focus more on the decision itself.

Freaky free agency

2010-07-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

The sports world is obsessed this summer with the NBA free agency. It is the biggest news story around and ESPN is going nuts and getting freaky with it's coverage. But I guess now we can all relax since the big domino has fallen. Timberwolves president David Kahn said signing Milicic was his first priority of the summer and locked him up with a 4 year 20 million dollar deal! Who needs LeBron James when you can overpay one of the biggest draft busts in recent history! Who exactly was Kahn competing against anyways? May be a couple of teams from Turkey and Greece? God help the Twolves. Despite all the big names in the NBA free agency, what we have so far for headlines are a bunch of bad signings. Milicic's contract is not that bad if you stack it up against Rudy Gay's five year, $82 million deal and Joe Johnson's ridiculous $119 million over six seasons.

Both players are decent and I actually like them, but neither of them is a true superstar who can be a number one guy in a championship team. NBA salaries are such that you gotta overpay at times for talent and both these guys can be legit number 2 guys and sometimes this is the going rate for such guys. But the problem is, it's OK to pay them if you already have a stud on your roster. Example - Orlando paid a ridiculous amount for Rashard Lewis, but they had Dwight Howard on the roster and as long as they could afford to sign both, it was OK. If you don't have that number one on the roster, the problem with these contracts is that it cripples the team's ability to get those number ones and these teams are basically now stuck with what they have and have hit their ceiling and the ceiling is not that high. May be Memphis can sign another big contract, but the Hawks are pretty much stuck where they are if Joe Johnson accepts this. The shocking part of this is, Joe Johnson has not accepted this offer and is apparently even tempted to play for less at Chicago or NY.

Now on to the real big names. The only thing that sounds concrete right now is Amare to NY. I am disappointed as a Suns fan, but I like the Suns signings of Hakim Warrick and Frye. They overpaid a little for Frye, but not too bad. I have always liked Warrick since college and it should be interesting to see him play with Nash. I just hope the Suns pick one more mid-level talent with some of the money they saved with Amare. The penny-pinching owner is going to lose one of his best players and the least he could do is bring somebody to fill some of the gaps. He already lost Steve Kerr as the GM because he tried to cut his pay after one of the best seasons the Suns have had in a few years. Amare may or may not be worth the max, but you gotta pay him, period. He will get 100 over 5 years from New York and I wish him good luck. He is now saying Melo and Parker will join him in 2011. Interesting!

We are still waiting for the top 3 free-agents to make up their mind - LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Many teams have already visited Cleveland to court LeBron including the paper clips. Now it's time for LeBron to make up his mind. He has more talent in Chicago, but he still can make the most in Cleveland. So it will be interesting to see what he does. There are also several crazy scenarios involving Miami and Chicago where all 3 will end up in the same team. I don't think that will happen. I don't think it even makes sense for LeBron to join Wade. LeBron needs his own championship and can't be a co-winner with Wade. Bosh is a big guy and he can join either one of them to help out, but looks like he is more likely to join Wade may be in Miami. Toronto refuses to sign and trade him and I think that makes it interesting. All said and done, LeBron is the king of this free agency period and he will get this thing really moving when he makes his call. There is a lot of second and third level talent in this free agency including Carlon Boozer and Tracy McGrady that nobody is even talking about. I liked the Lakers picking up Steve Blake. Smart move.

Kid from Queensbridge

2010-06-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

The NBA finals ended last week, but I didn't have the time to blog about it until now. Plus, the Lakers won. So I thought what's the hurry! The most interesting part of that game 7 might have been Ron Artest's post-game interview. The dude from Queensbridge went crazy in his post-game presser. The guy is genuine and all real. He may be crazy, but what you see is what you get with him. It was classic when he said "the zen master was in my ears saying don't shoot and I was like whatever and shot the ball". Funny! He also spoke about how he feels like he let down his Indiana teammates back in the day when they were good before he jumped into the crowd in Detroit. He had 20-5-1-5 in game 7 and those 5 steals were critical. He finally came through for the Lakers after a spotty season and an even worse playoffs. Every team in the playoffs left him open as they had to double and triple Kobe. They wanted him to shoot and he often obliged and clanked the ball off the rim. But in game 7, he made a lot of those shots. I am happy for him. He seems like a good guy, though I wouldn't accuse him of being smart or intelligent.

As for the game itself, it went exactly like I expected - hard-fought, defensive struggle with a lot of missed shots with the home team eventually winning the contest. The pressure is so high, very few guys hit open shots in such game 7 contests. Even Kobe couldn't make his shots and Gasol and him combined to shoot 12/40. But the Celtics were not able to take advantage. Things looked too good to be true when they went up by 13 in the second half. Unfortunately for a Laker hater like me, it was. Celtics blew it all as they couldn't hit timely shots late in the third and all of the fourth quarter. Nobody except Garnett shot a decent percentage and Allen and Pierce couldn't hit anything late in the game. The final score of 83-79 meant we got a good game, but also a disappointing result. If Kobe has lost this one, he would never be compared to Jordan. He would have been 4-3 in the finals and thats barely batting .500 in finals. While making it to 7 finals is awesome, America loves winners and MJ's 6-0 would have been untouchable. Even now his Airness is untouchable, but if Kobe is 5-2 in finals. One more ring, he has just as many as MJ and 2 more, he has more than his Airness! Then the media might start MJ-V-Kobe discussion all over again.

I feel like MJ's legacy is a little threatened, though Kobe has to win 2 more before we entertain that argument. Right now, the argument is about his place in the Lakers history. Some people say he is the best Lakers ever and some don't agree. The argument against is Magic, Jerry West and even Kareem. I don't care either way, but I think he is close to being the best Laker ever. Kobe also made it a point to mention he has 1 more ring than Shaq. Shaq is all nice now after rapping about "Kobe can't do it without me" in 2008. Kobe has finally done it without Shaq and done it twice and done it back to back. May be Pau should now rap"Kobe can't do it without me". Kobe has a lot of talent around him, but he still deserves a lot of credit obviously. He plays hard, helps defensively and he badly wants to win. Thats a coach's dream. His game is still at peak or near peak. He is going to decline soon because of all the mileage, but he probably has one or max 2 more years at this level. I hope LeBron overtakes Kobe and takes the baton soon. But looking at the King's behavior, he may not get the job done this year or next. I am very curious to see how long Kobe stretches his effectiveness at this age.

The King's Court

2010-06-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

While Kobe is busy setting himself up for a 5-Th ring and potential parity with his Airness MJ, King James is having an interesting month or two to say the least. He first lost some goodwill with that horrible game 5 against the Celtics and the loss in the Eastern semis - couple of rounds before his projected exit. Then there was the ugly rumor about an affair between Delonte West and his mom. He then started his free agency period. He has always enjoyed the chase and all the attention, but he has done some weird things this spring. While Kobe is still hitting fade-away jumpers, the King is sitting by a pool and chatting with the other king - Larry King. I don't think anybody should be on Larry King's show except 50 year-old cougars. He did say Cleveland has an edge in that interview, but why is he even talking to Larry King during the NBA finals?

Then there is the supposed stupid free agent summit involving him, Joe Johnson, Wade, Bosh and may be Nowitzki. Of course Amare wants to join that too. But what are these guys going to decide? All of these guys want max contracts and no team has the money to pay 2 of these guys. Nets and Knicks theoretically have it, but it's really not practical. If you pay 2 max contracts, you got no money for good role players and no flexibility for trades for years. While a team with LeBron and Wade or Wade and Bosh sounds great, you need more than that to win. Look at the Lakers and the Celtics. Both teams have 4 or 5 guys making decent salary with a max or 2 thrown in. So getting 2 max contracts off the street is not a viable strategy. Extending one of your own and picking one off the street is more viable. Secondly, the way NBA salaries are structured, these guys will be giving up about 30 million dollars over 6 years if they choose to sign with another team and not their own. And nobody is going to do that. So I am pretty sure Bosh, LeBron and Wade are going to sign with their own team. The only question is, are they going to play there next year or force a sign and trade to another team. If it's sign and trade, then the Knicjs and Nets don't have the pieces for one, let alone 2.

So the summit is pretty stupid and useless. The only thing it achieves is for these guys to structure their contracts very similarly. Specifically, they can talk about when is their next opt-out. That way they can create another "biggest summer of NBA free agency ever" again in 3 or 4 years like they did this year. These guys coordinated their opt-outs the last time they signed their contract. Thats why Carmelo Anthony is not in the field this year. He signed the same contract the same year, but he didn't put in the opt-out like LeBron or D-Wade. They can do it again and enjoy the attention, but other than that this summit is worthless. Bron and Wade can never be in the same team. The only option is for one of the bigs - Amare, Bosh, Nowitzki or Boozer to team up with either Bron or Wade. This can still happen, but this summit won't make it happen. It is going to take some create deal-making by a GM or 3 to make it happen.

Then there are the wholesale changes in the Cleveland management. Coach Brown is fired, GM Ferry is gone. They are now talking to Tom Izzo after the John Calipari rumors died down. Seems like Tom Izzo is even considering taking the job. The most interesting part of this is, I have no idea why Izzo would want this job if there is no guarantee LeBron will be back. I would assume LeBron will stay in Cleveland if Izzo signs on the dotted line. Either way, I never understand this infatuation with top college coaches. It's really a different game and success in college rarely translates to success in the NBA. I would rather go with known big names among the ex-NBA coaches who are unemployed right now. But the point is, the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is doing all this to please the King. Of course he is saying thats not the case, but the King is right now getting whatever he wants from Gilbert and understandably so. Gil is desperate and is letting the inmates - actually one inmate, run the asylum. All of this is adding to some bad press for the King. He should just lie low and wait for July 1-St. He needs to manage this better. We all like to be pursued and courted, but the King might just be taking this too far.