Tonight is Game 4 of the NBA finals, but it's also the beginning of the Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees series. Personally, I think this will be a very telling series as to how the American League will play out, although there are definitely other contenders. As it stands right now, I believe that these are probably the top 2 teams in the American League and I fully believe that the outcome will rely heavy on the pitching performance of both teams as both have monsterous offensive capabilities.
So the big question right now is if this is a "must win" game for the Dallas Mavericks. To be honest, I would normally say that it's not really a do or die situation for a team as good as Dallas even against another quality team like Miami. They definitely have the ability to win 3 straight. However, given the comments of Jason Terry taking shots at the Heat defense and more pointedly at LeBron James defense against him in the fourth quarter changes the equation. It just doesn't make much sense to me to take shots at a person who has entirely shut you down in 2 out of the 3 games so far. Why give LeBron more motivation to play you even harder? Yes, the pressure is entirely on the Mavericks and specifically Jason Terry now.
I do have to give a lot of credit to Mark Cuban as an owner for putting together a great team, though. Love him or hate him, he has in fact done outstanding things for basketball in Dallas when it's a city that's so dominated by football. Perhaps Jerry Jones should take a look at how Mark Cuban has run his organization?
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
I hate to say it, but...
There's a lot to cover today, most of it related to the NBA Finals game 3. So I'll start off with the other stuff, I suppose. The first issue being the situation between The SF Giants GM and Scott Cousins. Reports have said that the 2 had a "heartfelt and apologetic" phone conversation. Now I can believe the statement previously released by the Giants saying that the GMs comments were just out of frustration. Good job for owning up to your mistakes to both of you.
Plaxico Burress was released from jail today and hopes to get back to playing in the NFL. Early reports are saying that the Philadelphia Eagles are a likely landing spot for him when he returns. Honestly, I have no idea where he will end up. However, Adam Schefter has stated that htere are numerous other teams that have a greater need for him and will have more money to spend on him. All of which is probably true. But, Mr. Schefter, I wouldn't discount Philly so quickly because they have a "glut of receivers." When they got Michael Vick, they also had Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb.
Also today, the NCAA vacated the 2004 National Championship won by USC based on the actions of Reggie Bush. Now, I'm not entirely familiar with the situation, but it got me to wondering if maybe there isn't a better way to deal with this than to punish the entire team, if none of the other players were guilty of anything?
And on to the Finals... The Miami heat won Game 3 last night. They accomplished this task despite.... let me say that again with emphasis... DESPITE being outrebounded and their bench being outscored by the Mavs bench. So to John Barry or Magic Johnson (whoever made the comments that I referenced a couple days ago), I hate to say it, but I told you so. Don't get me wrong, Dirk needs scoring help in order to win, but that doesn't mean that it has to come from the bench. He also needs a good deal of help from the starters who have seriously lacked production in the Finals.
During the game, there was a play in which a foul was called by a referee who didn't have a very good vantage point on Jason Kidd because Dwayne Wade greatly exaggerated a small push from behind. Immediately after this Jeff VanGundy made a comment about how horrible it is for the game of basketball. Personally, I don't feel that the effect of this is very substantial at all. The issue that I do have is that later in the game when Dirk Nowitski did exactly the same thing, Mr. VanGundy said nothing. If you are going to be for or against something don't pick and chose which players you condemn for it. If you want to make comments about Dwayne Wade, make sure you don't look like a hypocrite when you don't say anything about it when Dirk does it.
On an ESPN radio show this morning (Mike and Mike in the Morning), there was a caller that stated the final score of Game 3 should have been 85-86 with Dallas winning because of back court violation at the end of the first quarter when M. Chalmers hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. While it was in fact a back court violation and should not have counted, this is not a reviewable play, as was stated by the hosts of the radio show. Furthermore, later in the game there was a play in which Dwayne Wade fouled Jason Kidd, but after looking at the replay, it was revealed that Kidd traveled with the ball before the foul (also not a reviewable play). So actually, by the callers own logic, the 2 free throws Kidd made shouldn't have counted either, making the score85-84 for Miami. Look, I know we all want our teams to win, but refs are just as human as everyone else and make mistakes. And for the integrity of the game, not every play can be reviewed, especially in a game as quickly paced as basketball. In the big picture, generally these mistakes even out.
A lot of people are talking about LeBron James and the reporter that asking him about "shrinking" away from the big moments late in the game. Man, how quickly some people forget... Or maybe this particular report chose not to watch the Heat v. Celtics and Heat v. Bulls series when LeBron was the Heat player lighting up the score board at the end of the games. With 2 huge stars on your team, I believe that it seems logical that there will be one or the other that has a great night while the other doesn't do as well. Not to mention, player match ups could also have a great deal to do with this. So to this reporter I would ask, "The next time you are going to ask a potentially inflammatory question to a player, do you think maybe you could do the slightest bit of research so you don't sound silly to the people who have watch more than the last couple games?"
Until tomorrow....
Plaxico Burress was released from jail today and hopes to get back to playing in the NFL. Early reports are saying that the Philadelphia Eagles are a likely landing spot for him when he returns. Honestly, I have no idea where he will end up. However, Adam Schefter has stated that htere are numerous other teams that have a greater need for him and will have more money to spend on him. All of which is probably true. But, Mr. Schefter, I wouldn't discount Philly so quickly because they have a "glut of receivers." When they got Michael Vick, they also had Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb.
Also today, the NCAA vacated the 2004 National Championship won by USC based on the actions of Reggie Bush. Now, I'm not entirely familiar with the situation, but it got me to wondering if maybe there isn't a better way to deal with this than to punish the entire team, if none of the other players were guilty of anything?
And on to the Finals... The Miami heat won Game 3 last night. They accomplished this task despite.... let me say that again with emphasis... DESPITE being outrebounded and their bench being outscored by the Mavs bench. So to John Barry or Magic Johnson (whoever made the comments that I referenced a couple days ago), I hate to say it, but I told you so. Don't get me wrong, Dirk needs scoring help in order to win, but that doesn't mean that it has to come from the bench. He also needs a good deal of help from the starters who have seriously lacked production in the Finals.
During the game, there was a play in which a foul was called by a referee who didn't have a very good vantage point on Jason Kidd because Dwayne Wade greatly exaggerated a small push from behind. Immediately after this Jeff VanGundy made a comment about how horrible it is for the game of basketball. Personally, I don't feel that the effect of this is very substantial at all. The issue that I do have is that later in the game when Dirk Nowitski did exactly the same thing, Mr. VanGundy said nothing. If you are going to be for or against something don't pick and chose which players you condemn for it. If you want to make comments about Dwayne Wade, make sure you don't look like a hypocrite when you don't say anything about it when Dirk does it.
On an ESPN radio show this morning (Mike and Mike in the Morning), there was a caller that stated the final score of Game 3 should have been 85-86 with Dallas winning because of back court violation at the end of the first quarter when M. Chalmers hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. While it was in fact a back court violation and should not have counted, this is not a reviewable play, as was stated by the hosts of the radio show. Furthermore, later in the game there was a play in which Dwayne Wade fouled Jason Kidd, but after looking at the replay, it was revealed that Kidd traveled with the ball before the foul (also not a reviewable play). So actually, by the callers own logic, the 2 free throws Kidd made shouldn't have counted either, making the score85-84 for Miami. Look, I know we all want our teams to win, but refs are just as human as everyone else and make mistakes. And for the integrity of the game, not every play can be reviewed, especially in a game as quickly paced as basketball. In the big picture, generally these mistakes even out.
A lot of people are talking about LeBron James and the reporter that asking him about "shrinking" away from the big moments late in the game. Man, how quickly some people forget... Or maybe this particular report chose not to watch the Heat v. Celtics and Heat v. Bulls series when LeBron was the Heat player lighting up the score board at the end of the games. With 2 huge stars on your team, I believe that it seems logical that there will be one or the other that has a great night while the other doesn't do as well. Not to mention, player match ups could also have a great deal to do with this. So to this reporter I would ask, "The next time you are going to ask a potentially inflammatory question to a player, do you think maybe you could do the slightest bit of research so you don't sound silly to the people who have watch more than the last couple games?"
Until tomorrow....
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Third time's the charm?
Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight, and hopefully the game will be every bit as good as the first two, but without the silly analysis afterwards.
Oh, and an update about the Buster Posey incident. Apparently, the Giants organization release a statement downplaying the comments of their GM basically saying that his comments about Scott Cousins were made out of frustration. Also, The GM himself came out and said that he was just frustrated and didn't mean anything negative towards Cousins. Now, if I were Cousins, I'm not sure that I could take someone saying that "if we never saw him again or he never played another day in the big leagues" in anything but a negative light.
And then there's the death threats Cousins and his family have received... I would think, given what happened with the Giants fan being beaten at the Dodgers game, that they would have better sense than this. Don't get me wrong, I know it isn't all Giants fans. But for the few that feel the need to do something dumb, maybe you should take Buster Posey's advice on the situation and "move on."
On an entirely unrelated note, NFL overtime is just stupid. For being the most popular sport in the US, lately it seems that the NFL gives its fans the least in return. I've seen several polls that pretty much agree with my viewpoint. I mean, with the current system, if a game is a complete shootout between 2 teams that goes into OT, the game is, in a way, basically decided by a flip of the coin. It should definitely be changed. Maybe the NFL could look to the NCAA on this? And maybe the NFL could help the NCAA on figuring out how to find a real national champion? But I'll save that for another day...
Oh, and an update about the Buster Posey incident. Apparently, the Giants organization release a statement downplaying the comments of their GM basically saying that his comments about Scott Cousins were made out of frustration. Also, The GM himself came out and said that he was just frustrated and didn't mean anything negative towards Cousins. Now, if I were Cousins, I'm not sure that I could take someone saying that "if we never saw him again or he never played another day in the big leagues" in anything but a negative light.
And then there's the death threats Cousins and his family have received... I would think, given what happened with the Giants fan being beaten at the Dodgers game, that they would have better sense than this. Don't get me wrong, I know it isn't all Giants fans. But for the few that feel the need to do something dumb, maybe you should take Buster Posey's advice on the situation and "move on."
On an entirely unrelated note, NFL overtime is just stupid. For being the most popular sport in the US, lately it seems that the NFL gives its fans the least in return. I've seen several polls that pretty much agree with my viewpoint. I mean, with the current system, if a game is a complete shootout between 2 teams that goes into OT, the game is, in a way, basically decided by a flip of the coin. It should definitely be changed. Maybe the NFL could look to the NCAA on this? And maybe the NFL could help the NCAA on figuring out how to find a real national champion? But I'll save that for another day...
Friday, June 3, 2011
The reason for.... this...
Okay, first post. Better make it good, right?
Well, let me start of by giving some information about this blog. First and foremost, it's a sports blog. Mainly because I've noticed some incidents over the last couple days that just don't make much sense to me. That being said... let's begin. Or actually, I'll wait until the Shaq-tirement press conference is over...
Well... I was going to save this for last, but I think it deserves to be mentioned first and foremost.
To Shaq,
I'd like to say goodbye and congratulations on an unbelievable career in the NBA. You are definitely one of the greatest centers... no, scratch that... players the sport has ever seen. And more than that, you are one of the best ambassadors of your sport in history. It truly makes me sad to see you go. Although, that may be because it's a reminder of how much older I'm getting as I can remember your rookie season.
And now a disclaimer. I am a fan of the Philadelphia sporting organization, but this season I am pulling for the Miami Heat to win the title. It has nothing to do with the fact that they are in the finals as I've been rooting for them all season (except the first round of the playoffs, naturally). I think that it's unbelievable that they are so hated because of the LeBron James move. I fully believe that any person given the choice to carry the entire load for a team in a less than gorgeous location such as Cleveland or to join with 2 other superstars in a beautiful city like Miami... well, if you hate Miami because of LeBron, put yourself in his situation and see if you feel a bit two-faced. You'd have done the same thing he did.
Now, onto Scottie Pippen. Seriously, have some loyalty, man. I was never a huge Jordan fan, but I do realize that he is greatest player ever. I guess I should cut you some slack though, as everyone is entitled to their opinion... even if it's wrong.
I'm not sure if it was Jon Barry or Magic Johnson last night that said that the Dallas Mavericks won the game because of the bench scoring and rebounding. Don't get me wrong... I understand that overall in the big picture, this contributed, but in the last 7 minutes, I'm pretty sure there wasn't too much rebounding going on and very few points scored by the Mavs bench players. No, this was just a silly statement. The Mavs won simply because the Heat entirely collapsed offensively and defensively after going up by 15 points. Oh... that, and Dirk Nowitski is a beast. Period.
And finally, just a generally stupid statement I heard today. The SF Giants GM said of the Buster Posey/Scott Cousins home plate collision that Cousins was "trying to be a hero." Well... duh! In the words of Herm Edwards, "You play to win the game!" Injuries happen, even to stars. It was NOT... I repeat NOT a malicious play.
Talk to you again soon...
Well, let me start of by giving some information about this blog. First and foremost, it's a sports blog. Mainly because I've noticed some incidents over the last couple days that just don't make much sense to me. That being said... let's begin. Or actually, I'll wait until the Shaq-tirement press conference is over...
Well... I was going to save this for last, but I think it deserves to be mentioned first and foremost.
To Shaq,
I'd like to say goodbye and congratulations on an unbelievable career in the NBA. You are definitely one of the greatest centers... no, scratch that... players the sport has ever seen. And more than that, you are one of the best ambassadors of your sport in history. It truly makes me sad to see you go. Although, that may be because it's a reminder of how much older I'm getting as I can remember your rookie season.
And now a disclaimer. I am a fan of the Philadelphia sporting organization, but this season I am pulling for the Miami Heat to win the title. It has nothing to do with the fact that they are in the finals as I've been rooting for them all season (except the first round of the playoffs, naturally). I think that it's unbelievable that they are so hated because of the LeBron James move. I fully believe that any person given the choice to carry the entire load for a team in a less than gorgeous location such as Cleveland or to join with 2 other superstars in a beautiful city like Miami... well, if you hate Miami because of LeBron, put yourself in his situation and see if you feel a bit two-faced. You'd have done the same thing he did.
Now, onto Scottie Pippen. Seriously, have some loyalty, man. I was never a huge Jordan fan, but I do realize that he is greatest player ever. I guess I should cut you some slack though, as everyone is entitled to their opinion... even if it's wrong.
I'm not sure if it was Jon Barry or Magic Johnson last night that said that the Dallas Mavericks won the game because of the bench scoring and rebounding. Don't get me wrong... I understand that overall in the big picture, this contributed, but in the last 7 minutes, I'm pretty sure there wasn't too much rebounding going on and very few points scored by the Mavs bench players. No, this was just a silly statement. The Mavs won simply because the Heat entirely collapsed offensively and defensively after going up by 15 points. Oh... that, and Dirk Nowitski is a beast. Period.
And finally, just a generally stupid statement I heard today. The SF Giants GM said of the Buster Posey/Scott Cousins home plate collision that Cousins was "trying to be a hero." Well... duh! In the words of Herm Edwards, "You play to win the game!" Injuries happen, even to stars. It was NOT... I repeat NOT a malicious play.
Talk to you again soon...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)