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....
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