Mount Mutombo

29 01 2010

Dikembe Mutombo interview

Dikembe Mutombo is famous for wagging his right index finger after blocking a shot.

As I stated in a prior post, I interviewed Dikembe Mutombo at the NBA Store on Wednesday. Mutombo was there with NBA Hall of Famer Bob Lanier to help introduce Right Guard as a founding partner of iHoops, otherwise known as the official youth basketball initiative of the NCAA and NBA. Right Guard is launching the Right Guard Total Defense Challenge, which is a nationwide search for the best defensive stopper in the country. (I believe this is focused on high school basketball.)

Mutombo’s presence at the press conference was sensible in that he’s not only a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year recipient but also an incredibly generous philanthropist. He paid $15 million out of his own pocket to help fund a hospital in his hometown in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He just won the Coach John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream award on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — President Obama was there to congratulate him — for his contributions to community service. And Mr. Mutombo is a hell of an entertaining interview since he sounds like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

If there were ever one athlete to hold as the model by which all others should carry themselves, it’s Dikembe. Enjoy our chat.


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Quotes of the Week II

29 01 2010

Another Friday morning with the best quotes I could find in the sports universe during the past week.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson in a speech to his players:
“If anyone steps out of my control, they’re dead. The most important person in Manchester United is the manager.”

Kevin Garnett on his left knee injury that shelved him for over a month:
“The old ’76 Pinto got banged up a little bit.”

Top high school basketball recruit Quincy Miller in a Tweet about North Carolina’s struggling basketball team:
“Is UNC really that sorry or is my mind playing tricks on me? Hahaha.” You won’t believe this but Miller hasn’t been offered a scholarship from UNC.

Suns head coach Alvin Gentry on an ESPN-reported rumor that Amar’e Stoudemire has created tension in the Suns locker room because of trade rumors:
“It’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard.”

Warriors head coach Don Nelson on how the team will handle losing a slew of close games recently:
“We’re grown-ups. We don’t need lollipops.”

Phil Jackson on Andrew Bynum sleeping in and missing the Lakers’ flight from New York to Toronto:
“It’s a rookie mistake, as we call it, even though he’s not a rookie.”

Ex-Saints quarterback Archie Manning on whether he’ll root for the Colts — his son’s team — or the Saints during the Super Bowl:
“I’m pulling for the Colts 100 percent, it’s not even close.”

Ron Artest on his excitement level at getting to meet President Obama during the Lakers’ trip to the White House Jan. 25:
“I’m not that excited to meet him because I look at him as a regular person”

LeBron James’ response to head coach Mike Brown’s call for a double-team on Dwyane Wade on the last possession of the Cavs’ win over the Heat Jan. 25:
“I got D-Wade.” A fired up LeBron James is better than an angry Kobe Bryant. Hate to admit it but it’s true.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel on what he’d do if the Phils had kept Cliff Lee to go with Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels in the starting rotation:
“I might even be buying more expensive furniture than the Mrs. has been buying me lately.”

Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork on his dissatisfaction if the Patriots re-sign him for one year with the franchise tag instead of giving him a multi-year deal. The franchise tag for a defensive tackle in 2009 was worth $6.058 million for one year:
“[The franchise tag] is decent money for most people out there.”

Nets center Brook Lopez after the Nets beat the Clippers 103-87 Jan. 27 for their fourth win:
“Did we need this? Are you kidding me? I mean we were 3-40.”

Patriots cornerback Shawn Springs when asked as a guest on ESPN2′s First Take which of the two Super Bowl teams he would rather not face:
“Well if it was me, I would hope a hurricane comes through.” One of the two Super Bowl teams plays in New Orleans, which was obviously ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Nice work, Shawn.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin discussing his efforts to secure Super Bowl tickets from the Saints:
“Some people seem to forget I come from the business environment. So I got contacts at ESPN, USAToday, you name it. So I’m going to work it out.”

League executive to Pro Football Weekly on the recent fat contracts Raiders owner Al Davis has handed out to players:
“And he keeps throwing boatloads of money at players who cannot handle the trappings of success — [JaMarcus] Russell, Javon Walker, Terdell Sands, Tommy Kelly, DeAngelo Hall. It’s a who’s who of turds.”

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich responding to a question about a Yahoo! Sports report that the Spurs are interested in acquiring Amar’e Stoudemire:
“What the heck is Yahoo? Is it one of those computer things? Is that like Twittering?”


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Summer of ’96

29 01 2010

I interviewed Dikembe Mutombo yesterday at the NBA Store for an upcoming amNY story, which led me to think about when he signed with the Hawks as a free agent. It was the summer of ’96, which should be known as a seminal few months in the NBA’s history. Maybe it is already, maybe it isn’t. With all the hype surrounding this summer’s ‘Bron/D-Wade/Bosh-laden free agent class, one might get the impression that the NBA will experience a power shift of unprecedented proportions. One look at the summer of ’96 would squash that theory. Let’s take a look at the players who joined new teams through free agency, trades and the draft during that summer:

Free Agency

  • Shaquille O’Neal signed with the Lakers and won a regular season MVP and three NBA titles with the purple and gold.
  • Mutombo signed with the Hawks and won the Defensive Player of the Year award the next two seasons while making the Hawks a stable playoff team.
  • Allan Houston signed with the Knicks, played in a couple All-Star games and positioned himself as the Knicks’ go-to guy for nearly a decade.
  • Ervin Johnson (not that one) signed with the Nuggets and led the NBA in total defensive rebounds that season.
  • Two moves that didn’t go down: 1) Michael Jordan was rumored to be flirting with the Knicks before “settling” on a one-year, $30M contract with the Bulls. You know the rest of the story; 2) Juwan Howard, who was a big-time player at the time, agreed to a $100M-plus deal with the Heat yet it was rescinded because it didn’t comply with salary cap rules. So, Howard re-signed with the then-Washington Bullets. With Howard back in the fold in the frontcourt, the Bullets felt justified in making what turned out to be a really, really bad move.
  • Future Hall of Famers Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning were free agents but re-signed with the Sonics and Heat, respectively. Payton obviously helped lead the Sonics to the Finals that season and Mourning would drag Jeff Van Gundy around the floor with his legs.

Trades

I almost couldn’t believe it when I checked it on basketball-reference.com, but the Bullets had Chris Webber, Juwan Howard (remember, he was a 20/10 guy in the mid-’90s) and rookie Rasheed Wallace on their ’95-’96 team! They had the best two-fifths of the Fab Five in C-Webb and Juwan PLUS a dominant collegiate player in ‘Sheed. And despite those three young post studs along with sharpshooter Calbert Cheaney and Robert Pack, who was basically Bobby Jackson before Bobby Jackson, the Bullets managed only 39 wins.

Of course, they could’ve nurtured the ‘Sheed/Webber/Howard triumvirate, which represented an ideal frontcourt mix of athleticism and power right at a time when the NBA was transitioning to a slower style of play conducive to teams with good interior scoring and defense. But the Bullets didn’t have a legitimate point guard, so they made this trade:

  • Bullets traded Rasheed Wallace to Portland for Rod Strickland. To Strick’s credit, he did average at least 15.7 points and 8.9 assists over the next three seasons. However, the Bullets spent two seasons on a low 40s-wins squad before crashing while ‘Sheed went on to become one of the best players for a Blazers squad which nearly reached the Finals in 2000.
  • Vlade Divac was traded from the Lakers to the Charlotte Hornets for a guy we’ll get to later. Divac was a tough scorer and rebounder for two Hornets teams that won 54 and 51 games before getting re-routed to Sacramento.

Draft

Here’s the top dog of player movement that summer. Let’s look at the gentlemen who helped lead the NBA into a new era:

  • Kobe Bryant, selected by the Hornets at #13 and traded to the Lakers for Divac, is a 12-time All-Star, won an MVP and four NBA titles and is one of the 10 greatest players to grace the NBA hardwood.
  • Allen Iverson, selected by the Sixers at #1, is an 11-time All-Star, won an MVP, led the Sixers to the Finals and averaged at least 26 points 10 times.
  • Steve Nash, selected by the Suns at #15, is a 7-time All-Star, won two MVPs and was the ringleader for one of the most exciting teams in NBA history in the mid-’00s Suns.
  • Ray Allen, selected by the T-Wolves at #5 then traded to the Bucks, is a 9-time All-Star and one of the best pure shooters of all-time.
  • Marcus Camby, selected by the Raptors at #2, is a one-time Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time blocks leader.

That’s not to mention Stephon Marbury, Antoine Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jermaine O’Neal and Peja Stojakovic, all of whom were selected in the first round.

What basically came out of the player movement from ’96 is five MVP awards won for the teams which added that player (Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, Nash) not to mention nearly an All-Star game’s worth of player movement (Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, Nash, Mutombo, Houston, Allen, ‘Sheed, Marbury, Abdur-Rahim). That won’t happen this summer, even if LeBron turns to South Beach.


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Dodgers are poor bastards

24 01 2010

Most sports fans would prefer that the owner of their favorite team spend money like Mark Cuban on a weekend Vegas blitz. Me? I’ve set my expectations far lower. I just want the Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to prove that his wallet still has some signs of life.

If you haven’t heard, the Dodgers are running their team as if they had all their cash invested with Madoff. Despite leading Major League Baseball in home attendance in 2009 with 3.76 million fans, the sixth time in as many seasons during McCourt’s ownership that the Dodgers have ranked at least third, the franchise somehow doesn’t have the funds to spend like a normal big market team. Worst of all, McCourt and the rest of management refuse to acknowledge that they’re operating like a small market lot.

The fact they avoided arbitration with their best young players is optimistic. Of course, they had to do something with their season, and it’s not as if they signed Kemp, Ethier, Broxton or anyone else to a long-term deal. That’s a side story to what’s really important for this team, which is surrounding those young players with veterans who can raise the level of the Dodgers’ World Series contention. Instead, all us Dodgers fans have received is move after move demonstrating an unwillingness to spend despite management’s shallow excuses.

  • They inexcusably refused to offer arbitration to Type A free agents Orlando Hudson and Randy Wolf, neither of whom would have likely accepted the one-year deals. Offering them arbitration would have resulted in a first-round draft pick and a supplemental pick between rounds one and two for each player. Failure to do so ended up costing the Dodgers four possible high-level picks at a time when they’ve traded many of their best prospects the past two years to compensate teams for veteran players in trades — all because the Dodgers didn’t want to pick up the veterans’ salaries.
  • Jamey Carroll — JAMEY CARROLL — signed with the Dodgers for two years at $3.85 million.
  • Vincente Padilla re-signed for one year at $5 mil.

So that’s nearly $9 million for the Dodgers’ two biggest free agent signings plus a refusal to offer roughly $15 million in combined arbitration to two players in order to secure four high-level draft picks in the likely event the arbitration was turned down.

And yet the McCourt, president Dennis Mannion and the rest of management promise Dodgers fans that their ability to spend dough hasn’t changed. Like I always say, thank goodness for Dr. Jerry Buss! L.A. fans know what I mean.


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Quotes of the Week I

22 01 2010

In order to give people something to laugh about as they officially enter the weekend, I’ve decided to post the top quotes of the week every Friday morning. These are comments I find from reading mostly AP stories, although occasionally I might discover some words of wisdom from a non-AP story or on TV. I’d like to find quotes from all types of sports but this week we’re limited to football, baseball and basketball. Here we go:

USC women’s basketball coach Michael Cooper after his first win against the school’s rival:
“My opening statement is [expletive] UCLA.”

Ex-MLB catcher Carlton Fisk on why it was inexcusable for Mark McGwire, among other players, to use steroids:
“Try having your knees operated on and catching for 30 years. Do you think you feel good when you go out there? [McGwire] had to stand around and play first base. So excuuuuuse me.”

Florida head coach Urban Meyer on the son he wish he had — Tim Tebow:
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he can play quarterback in the NFL.”

Eight-year-old Andrew Brower of Kimball, Minn. on why he drew Jesus wearing a Brett Favre Vikings jersey for a school project:
“I just thought of it because Brett Favre is the quarterback and Jesus is like the quarterback of the world.”

Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva on ex-Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace’s return to Detroit for a Celtics-Pistons game:
“Of course, he wanted to show the fans what they’ve been missing. But Charlie V’s here.”

Clippers center Marcus Camby on studying the trajectory of a shot in order to block it:
“It’s like geometry out there.”

Celtics forward Glen Davis in response to Detroit fans calling him “fat boy”:
“Suck my dick!”

Self-proclaimed lifelong Jets fan Patrick Freer during a Jets pep rally in Manhattan. He apparently wasn’t told that every Jets fan should cheer for the team by expecting them to lose:
“We’ll also be at the Jets ticker-tape parade.”

Colts linebacker Clint Session on the upcoming game vs. the Jets:
“We’re licking our chops right now.”


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Fergie would’ve sung Big Mac sweet chin music

22 01 2010

Aren’t sneering old men fun? I’m convinced they provide half the world’s humor, and I write that with all due respect since my parents taught me to treat elders with appreciation — but I’m going to make an exception this time.

Ferguson Jenkins is the latest old-timer to take a shot at Mark McGwire’s steroid use, perhaps momentarily opting for selective memory and forgetting that many players of his era took amphetimines a.k.a. greenies to stave off the wear and tear of a baseball season.

In this ESPN.com article, Fergie, who used an open letter to the Associated Press to air his feelings, inferred that McGwire cheated the careers of pitchers by doping. This paragraph from the story effectively sums up Jenkins’ rationale:

“You have yet to apologize to all the pitchers you faced while juiced,” Jenkins wrote. “You altered pitchers’ lives. You may have shortened pitchers careers because of the advantage you forced over them while juiced. Have you thought about what happened when they couldn’t get you out and lost the confidence of their managers and general managers? You even managed to alter the place some athletes have achieved in record books by making your steroid-fueled run to the season home run record.”

Who wants to let Fergie know that pitchers also sampled in the finest performance-enhancing drugs on the market during Big Mac’s career? In fact, I ran through the pitchers identified on the Mitchell Report as having been linked to PEDs, then cross-checked their careers against McGwire through his home run log on his baseball-reference.com player profile.

It turns out that McGwire slammed 16 home runs off nine pitchers who were linked to taking PEDs. Here’s the list:

  • Ron Villone – 5 HR (in 15 AB!)
  • Ricky Bones – 2
  • Roger Clemens – 2
  • Andy Pettitte – 2
  • Jason Christiansen – 1
  • Matt Herges – 1
  • Darren Holmes – 1
  • Jim Parque – 1
  • Steve Woodard – 1

To be fair, we can’t be sure if the pitchers were on the juice at the time they surrendered these home runs to McGwire, but since when are we sympathetic to guys who cheated our holy game?

I get tired of PED-related arguments based around the broken sanctity of the game. Baseball, as much as we like to joke about it, is not a religion. There is nothing holy about it. Perhaps at one point in its history, baseball was a truly American endeavor, one of the cultural backbones of our country. But that ship sailed a long time ago. I’d argue baseball and America haven’t truly been in harmony for at least 50 years, a point of time in which race relations, assassinations, the Cold War and the Vietnam War began to break some of the innocence our country built in the ’50s.

Baseball wasn’t ruined by steroid abusers. It was just modified for a time until Major League Baseball’s front office accepted the fact that public pressure — and Congress — would force them to deal with the steroid suspicions they swept under an apparently very large rug.

Cry as they might, Jenkins and any other PED critic miss the point when they verbally attack one player. They neglect to mention that during that “unholy” era, it was more commonplace than we realize for juiced-up players to directly compete against one another.


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My NBA All-Star starters

18 01 2010

Now more than ever it seems like voters are besieged with pleas to reveal which player or team they chose for a particular award or ranking. Whether it’s for the MLB Hall of Fame, the NBA MVP or college football’s Top 25 ranking, transparency is the desired characteristic of any voter. Therefore, I present my 10 picks for the NBA All-Star game starters, as I voted them this morning. (Because I know my opinion goes a really long way.)

East

Center — Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic. He leads the NBA in rebounds (13.1 per game) and blocks (2.5), which makes him the game’s biggest and baddest defensive post presence. Plus, he’s a fan favorite and has shown his desire for winning by averaging three fewer shots per game than last year in order to provide more shot attempts for the rest of his team’s deep roster.

Forward — Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors. A career-high 23.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and 52.2 field goal shooting should make it clear that he deserves a starting spot. I still don’t want the Lakers to trade Andrew Bynum for him, but that speaks more to Bynum’s uniqueness as a legit 7’0 shot-blocker with a soft shooting touch than it does to Bosh.

Forward — LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers. ‘Bron is averaging 29.6 points, 7.7 assists and 7.1 rebounds along with shooting 51.1 percent from the field. He’s notched just two triple-doubles but has come within one or two assists and/or one or two rebounds from a triple-double six other times.

Guard — Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat. Can you believe all four of these guys so far were on the Redeem Team? Gold, baby, gold! Wade is in the same position Kobe was for the Lakers in 2005-06 in that he has to play like one of the league’s three best players every night for his team to have a good chance at winning. He’s throwing down 27.1 points and 6.3 assists with at least a few game-winning shots so far, so he’s doing his job.

Guard — Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics. As painful as it is to recognize a Celtic, it would be unjust to pass over Rondo for the way he’s held the Celtics together. Amidst injury-riddled seasons from KG and Paul Pierce, Rondo has averaged 14 points and 9.6 assists to jump ahead of Derrick Rose for the battle of the East’s next great point guard. He has 17 point/assist double-doubles and has twice come within one rebound of adding two triple-doubles to the one he already has.

West

Center — Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix Suns. His stats aren’t brilliant (21.0 points, 8.8 rebounds) but S.T.A.T. has improved his defense from atrocious to middling and appears primed to garner a robust contract this offseason. After all, he’s the forgotten prize considering he’s just 27 and has the maturity to eventually become less stat-oriented and more defensive-minded. He still beats out Bynum and Chris Kaman, although Kaman should make the All-Star roster as a reserve.

Forward — Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder. Charles Barkley proclaimed he wouldn’t attend All-Star Weekend in Dallas if Durant wasn’t in the game this year. He better be since he’s a Texas guy and he would win them over during the game. Not to mention that he’s officially joined the ranks of the league’s 10 best players with his 29.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. I don’t care what excuses Greg Oden’s advocates want to make for his defensive presence. Portland should have drafted Durant and it’s now more apparent than ever.

Forward — Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets. If there were an MVP award for the first quarter of the season, he would’ve won it. He still might take home the full-season prize if he holds his NBA scoring lead (30.0) and the Nuggets finish second in the West. He’s definitely become a Top 5 player this year. (Kobe, ‘Bron, Wade and Chris Paul hold the other four spots in my eyes.)

Guard — Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. I’ll try not to gloat. Forget the stats for a minute. He’s played at an elite level even with hamstring, groin, knee, back and finger ailments and he’s hit three or four buzzer-beating game-winners. He’s a few years away from becoming the G.O.A.T.

Guard — Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns. All due respect to Paul, Nash has gone assist-for-assist with Paul (11.0 to CP3′s 11.3) and has his team in a better place than Paul has New Orleans. (The Suns are 24-17, the Hornets 21-18.) Plus, Nash has played in every game while Paul missed eight contests with a sprained ankle.


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12 best NBA dunks

16 01 2010

http://www.maxim.com/sports/articles/85900/12-most-badass-nba-dunks.html

Football has gut-wrenching hits, baseball has steroid-laced home runs and hockey has those plays where the guy lifts the puck off the ice with his stick and drops it over the goalie’s shoulder. Every sport has its quintessential play and for basketball, it’s the in-game slam dunk. Nothing gets the crowd roaring and the mood pulsating, unless of course there are random players running into the stands to knock the hell out of the fans.

For this Maxim.com piece, I pieced together the NBA’s 12 best in-game dunks. (You’ll notice that one isn’t from an NBA game but is obviously worthy of its inclusion.)

A few notes about the videos on this list:

-My favorite call was the play-by-play guy on the first Kemp dunk. Yeahhhh baby!

-The Varejao smile in the Wade dunk comes right as the 15 seconds turns to 16. Watch for it.

-I have problems viewing the vids on Maxim.com. They become really choppy, although they ease up if you re-play them after the first time. If you click on each video, it’ll open a new page to the YouTube page on which the video exists and it plays the vid at a much smoother rate. So try that if the video links on the Maxim.com page run a little choppy.


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Tyler Hansbrough will scare you

14 01 2010

Here is Hansbrough right after he murdered Coach K with his bare hands.

Someone get Tyler Hansbrough’s agent on the phone because I found a new career for the big guy in case the NBA doesn’t work out. He could rent himself out to haunted houses for Halloween. He can work as an extra in B-rated horror movies. He could even be a Wal-Mart greeter. Hansbrough could work all those jobs and he’d never have to take off his beloved Tar Heels jersey. Just look at this photo. Is it me or is he smiling?


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Team merchandise competition

13 01 2010

If you’re a NFL fan, then the league’s current case against American Needle should be of some interest. The case has gone through a federal court in Chicago, a U.S. Appeals court and is currently being heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. What it boils down to is whether the NFL can be considered a collection of 32 businesses (since that’s the number of teams which exist in the league) or as a single entity, which in effect would give the league exemption from violating antitrust laws. (American Needle used to produce merchandise for the NFL in a non-exclusive arrangement until the NFL signed an exclusive deal with Reebok in 2001, which forms the basis for AN’s lawsuit against the NFL.)

I won’t try to bore you with all the gory lawyery details since I don’t understand half of them myself. One little factoid that I found interesting — and which my Montana State-educated brain was able to wrap its cerebrum around — was a comment from Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer posted in a Reuters article you can find here. He asked, hypothetically, whether NFL teams compete against each other to sell merchandise, using a pair of Major League Baseball teams for an analogy.

“I don’t know a Red Sox fan who would take a Yankees t-shirt if you gave it away,” Breyer noted.

While it’s a fairly accurate statement, it does nothing to prove whether or not teams compete against each other to sell their hats, shirts, jerseys and other apparel. The short answer is that they absolutely do.

Not every fan of the NFL — or any other sport — is a die-hard. Plenty of casual fans exist and they might switch their favorite teams on a whim. Maybe someone who grew up in Chicago but lives in Houston decides to show more love to the Texans than the Bears based on cheering for the team in her current locale.

Perhaps a fan who’s just been introduced to the sport is seeking a favorite team. Rather than support the Broncos, whose heinous blue and orange motif does nothing for fashion sensibility, the fan opts for the Chargers since he can match more of the Chargers’ navy blue, baby blue and yellow colors to his existing wardrobe.

Then you have the really fashion conscious crowd who don’t even like the NFL but want to sport a Chris Johnson jersey or a Cardinals hat because that’s the hot look from the NFL right now.

So in those theories, NFL teams surely compete against each other. Their colors, logos and jersey designs all help determine their appeal to casual fans. Which in this case would go toward proving that the NFL is a collection of businesses rather than a single entity. (Any lawyer who reads this should definitely correct me if I screwed up anything.)


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Great quotes in movie history

12 01 2010

A couple friends — we’ll call them Chris and Dave — informed me of one of those YouTube videos that signifies a man’s career. In this case, how freaking old Harrison Ford has become. Did you know he works around the clock? It hasn’t been paying off for Hans Solo/Indiana Jones as he hasn’t made a good movie since…Air Force One, when he just wanted terrorists to get off his plane. Through the brilliance of YouTube, I thought we’d revisit some memorable quotes from the old-timers we used to love.


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Big Mac — hold the cheese

12 01 2010

Now that Mark McGwire admitted what everyone had suspected for the better part of a decade, can he just get inducted into the Hall of Fame already? After all, he’ll be alone in 9th place on the all-time home run list with 583 once Alex Rodriguez parks his first long ball next season. He’s 11th in OPS with a .982 mark, which is a result of his .394 career on-base percentage and .588 slugging percentage.

If the Hall of Fame is supposed to be a representation of the game’s most significant players, then McGwire certainly qualifies. He’s a 12-time All-Star with a Rookie of the Year award, three Top 5 finishes in MVP voting in two different leagues and a World Series ring. I still don’t understand the reasoning for keeping him out of the Hall.

To belittle McGwire’s candidacy because of his steroid use runs counter to how baseballers have been treated for most of history. The Baseball Hall of Fame is filled with despicable characters who have been inducted strictly for their on-field performance — not for their character. Gaylord Perry spitballed his way to 314 wins but nobody seemed to care that he was inducted, perhaps because he didn’t alter his body to improve his performance.

I don’t care anymore that Big Mac might have gained an extra 50 or 100 or 200 homers during his career from steroids. He clearly had the capacity to hit lots of homers. (He hit 31 homers in 237 at-bats in 1984 at USC and 24 big ones in 489 at-bats at Class A Modesto in ’85.) He just wouldn’t have been able to make it through his career without the recuperating powers of steroids and who knows what other drugs. The list of stars who used steroids from the early ’90s through the mid-’00s is clearly longer than the ones who didn’t.

At some point, a fight isn’t worth fighting. It’s time to move on, concede that the era of most of our childhood was warped and live with the fact that there were a large allotment of very good to great players who were savvy enough to take advantage of the fact MLB never implemented rules to police its players.


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NBA Jam revisited

9 01 2010

As with many other sports video game enthusiasts from the ages of 23 to 40, I was nearly floored the other day by this report that the NBA Jam franchise will get a fresh rejuvenation. New York Magazine’s sports department apparently has nothing to do all day, which enabled them to crank out a list of possible NBA Jam rosters from the current set of NBA teams.

Rather than write an entire post reacting to NY Mag’s picks (yes, the Lakers, Magic and Celtics have the three best teams), I’d prefer to list the top hypothetical NBA Jam rosters had the game been produced through the ’90s and ’00s. Who are the teams from 1995-2009 that would’ve provided the greatest NBA Jam squads? I’ll go Top 11 and follow NY Mag’s style. In other words, three players per team with the two starters in caps.

Mitch Richmond throwin' down the junk.

11. 2002-03 Golden State Warriors — ANTAWN JAMISON, JASON RICHARDSON, Gilbert Arenas

This would be the smallest group overall but it contains possibly the best mix of scorers who can dribble and shoot. No shot blocking but enough three-point threats and plenty of dunking. Still, you gotta feel handicapped by their lack of size.

10. 2005-06 Minnesota Timberwolves — KEVIN GARNETT, WALLY SZCZERBIAK, Ricky Davis

KG a year after his peak, Wally’s a 6’7 sharpshooter and Davis is taller than he seems (6’6) and throws down crazy dunks. Plus, you can try to score a triple-double with him and have him take a shot at the opponent’s rim to grab his own rebound — just like it happened in real life.

9. 1999-2000 Toronto Raptors — VINCE CARTER, TRACY MCGRADY, Antonio Davis Charles Oakley

Hard to imagine Half-Man, Half-Amazing and T-Mac played together at one time. This was Vince’s peak as a showman, highlighted by that amazing performance at the Slam Dunk competition during All-Star Weekend. Davis is here as the stereotypical big man for rebounding/knocking heads, but it could just as easily be Oakley. Come to think of it, we’ll make it Oak.

8. 2001-02 San Antonio Spurs — TIM DUNCAN, DAVID ROBINSON, Derek Anderson

Can you run two 7-footers with one of them handling the ball? Of course you can. Robinson was still reasonably productive during this season and Derek Anderson was a slasher who could get sneaky hot from outside. Of course the key is Duncan, who was just entering his prime. If nothing else, Duncan-Robinson would permit you to block your way through some teams.

7. 2003-04 New Jersey Nets — JASON KIDD, KENYON MARTIN, Richard Jefferson

Here’s where Jam gets tricky. In NBA Street, it pays off to have the sweet-dribbling point guard to rack up points. That doesn’t fly in Jam, where all that matters is getting the ball in the hoop. Therefore, you want at least one of the three types of player: 1) Big man who can’t be blocked, 2) Athletic slasher with crazy hops, 3) Sharpshooter, ideally with height so that he can’t be blocked. Kidd hadn’t developed his shooting stroke yet and Kenyon or RJ couldn’t really shoot outside either. So you’d basically use Kidd to throw oops to Kenyon and RJ all day, which isn’t a half-bad strategy.

6. 2001-02 Dallas Mavericks — DIRK NOWITZKI, STEVE NASH, Michael Finley

Nash is short so he’d be at a disadvantage defensively. Of course, Dirk is a 7-footer with range so he’s almost as good a player as you can have in Jam. Finley was still athletic enough during this season to be the typical athletic slasher guy. All in all, this might be the best shooting team in the lot.

5.  2001-02 Sacramento Kings — CHRIS WEBBER, PEJA STOJAKOVIC, Doug Christie

The team that set the stage for the up-and-down offenses in the West, such as Phoenix and Dallas. The late-’90s teams might have been more exciting with Webber and Jason Williams running the show, but this is the year where Webb peaked and Peja became a go-to three-point specialist (just not in Game 7 of the Western Finals). Webb and Peja could get up and down the court, although neither is gonna be confused with being a dunker — Webb’s time in that role had passed.

4. 2008-09 Orlando Magic — DWIGHT HOWARD, RASHARD LEWIS, Hedo Turkoglu

Remember that the 2001-02 Kings had Hedo and Gerald Wallace sitting on the bench. Hedo was nothing like the scorer then that he is now. Still, Howard-Lewis is pretty lethal. Howard is possibly the best rebounder/shot blocker in the game and Rashard is a 6’11 knockout shooter. But Dwight can’t dribble for anything or shoot outside. Rashard can’t shot block.

3. 1995-96 Orlando Magic — SHAQUILLE O’NEAL, PENNY HARDAWAY, Dennis Scott

I put Shaq/Penny ahead of Dwight/Rashard for two reasons: Shaq at 24 was far more dominant than Dwight is now. And Penny is a much better ball-handler and playmaker than Rashard, though not the shooter. But doesn’t the sentimentality of playing with Shaq/Penny outweigh Dwight/Rashard? I think so. Plus, if Penny isn’t doing it for ya, Scott makes for a great change-of-pace little guy who can shoot the rock.

2. 2004-05 Phoenix Suns — SHAWN MARION, AMARE STOUDEMIRE, Joe Johnson

Whoa, this team can’t even fit Nash. Matrix and Amare are the reason why Jam should have a version released every year. This team can do anything. Of course, if you aren’t trying to throw down a Slam-a-jamma every time with these guys, you should put down the controller and punch yourself in the face.

1. 1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers — SHAQ DADDY, KOBE BRYANT, Glen Rice

Anyone who knows me understands I love the Lakers. This might be a biased ranking, it might not. (It probably is.) My blog, my rules. To tell you the truth, I might pair Rice with Shaq considering he’s 6’8 and an accomplished shooter. He was amazing with the way he’d get on a roll from downtown. And Shaq was at his best in this season. Plus you still have Young Kobe, who was never the high flyer that MJ and Vince were but still had enough to get up and get down. This trifecta encompasses the three ways to score better than any other team. Shaq is a beast and can’t be stopped toward the hoop, Kobe could drive and throw down and Rice could light it up from deep. Kobe can handle the ball, Shaq can block/rebound anything, Rice/Kobe are tall enough to hold their own defensively and on the ‘boards and there’s an inherent excitement from playing Shaq/Kobe (with Rice). There’s nothing not to like about this team and no other trifecta from 1994-2009 who could stop them in Jam. Go Lakers.


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Red Sox look fine for 2010

7 01 2010

I promise not to rant too long on how privileged Red Sox fans have become. I suppose winning two World Series in four years (2004-07) inevitably leads to a sense of entitlement, but my goodness, could Red Sox fans sound more depressed about this offseason?

By importing Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron, Boston has dramatically improved a defense that was mysteriously weak for a team which values quantitative analysis. Now they might have the best D in the game with J.D. Drew, Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury in the outfield and Beltre, Scutaro, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis manning the infield. Only the Mariners can rival them defensively, although the Sox are much, much better offensively with the same players. Victor Martinez isn’t bad as the catcher, and Red Sox fans might feel the same way if they could get over the fact that Jason Varitek plays like he’s more concerned about boinking the next Red Sox sideline reporter.

Still, all I seem to read is how the Sox aren’t a legit World Series contender because they have offensive issues. Sure, Beltre can be frustrating offensively. In five years with the Mariners, he never posted an on-base percentage higher than .328 and his slugging percentage fell all the way to .379 last year. Maybe Fenway Park’s hitter-friendly confines is the answer to his slugging problems. Two players who shouldn’t have a problem swatting away pitches are Jeremy Hermida and Bill Hall, both of whom were brought in for offensive power. Hermida will be just 26 this season, so he still has time to realize some of the vast potential he showed as a prospect.

Even if Sox fans are depressed at their overall lack of offensive firepower (Youk is the only legit 30 homer/100 RBI guy in the lineup), they can feel chipper by the notion that Boston is the most realistic destination for Adrian Gonzalez, whenever the Padres decide to trade him. Since Boston signed Beltre to a one-year deal (he has a $5 million option for 2011, which is a reasonable price to pay him if he slides to a bench role), third base will be open for Youk if and when Adrian arrives. And if they manage to keep first base prospect Lars Anderson in the event they acquire Adrian, then Anderson can move to the DH spot, which should open up after Papi Ortiz dies a little bit more this season.

I’d like to point out one more reason for why Red Sox fans should cheer up and immediately start burning Yankees jerseys in their apartment or house — their starting rotation is sick. They spent $82.5 million to make John Lackey their No. 3 starter, which is sort of like saying that Minka Kelly is only the third hottest celebrity Derek Jeter has slept with. It’s impressive not only for the lower-than-usual ranking of the subject, but to imagine how much better the first two options are.

Boston can trot out a Josh Beckett-Jon Lester-Lackey trifecta during really important series throughout the year, while holding the Dice-K wild card and upcomer Clay Buchholz as their fourth and fifth options. If Dice-K pitches even somewhat competently, then that’s a better rotation than the Yankees — or anyone else for that matter.

All in all, Boston has improved their team, from defensive and pitching perspectives. Their offense surely is questionable for its lack of power, but that should be solved by the inevitability of their trading for Adrian Gonzalez. Red Sox fans would do themselves good by accepting their team as a legit threat to the Yankees’ throne. They just need to stop crying themselves to sleep every night while watching their ’04, ’07 World Series videos.


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NBA injury replacements

6 01 2010

Fantasy NBA (Injury Replacements)

This is as a good time of the season as any for the star on your favorite NBA team to go down with a nagging injury. It’s late enough in the season that most teams are in-sync and used to playing with each other — the Portland Trail Blazers notwithstanding — yet it’s early enough that a player should overcome his ailment by the time the playoffs roll around.

Here are four NBA stars battling injuries as well as replacement options for those brave enough to partake in fantasy basketball.


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