During the off-season the Dallas Mavericks made two big trades getting Antawn Jamieson and Antoine Walker. I suspect there is a secret agenda here. Mark Cuban is obviously working on some big promotional deal and it trying to corner the “Antoine-market” no matter how you spell it. But if I'm off base on that assessment, then the trades were made to give the Mavs scorers all over the place. I said before that the Mavs ought to be the World Champs if they can only find a loophole in the rulebook that allows two balls to be in play at the same time. But there might be a speed bump here.

Dallas went to Washington and lost to the Wizards by 10 points. For future reference that is not a good thing for any team hoping to go deep into the playoffs. The next night, the Mavs went to Toronto and lost 77-71. They only needed to score 78 points to beat a Toronto team that is also not particularly special. Given the firepower on the Mavs, they should score 78 points in the first three quarters of just about every game! Maybe they are sleepwalking through the first part of the season?

Last week, I told you that FBI Director, Robert Mueller, would be visiting Athens to consult on security matters for the Olympic Games next year. Within hours of his arrival and the beginning of these discussions, there were a series of firebomb attacks in downtown Athens on several banks. Evidently there were some people arrested in Greece a few months ago who were protesting globalization and these attacks might be in some way related to the desire to get those folks released. Of course, if the authorities there get on the stick, they might catch some more people doing anti-social things and put them in jail too. Oh well. Just remember this when you see a pop-up ad on your computer that allows you to click on it and gain the chance of free tickets to the Games next year.

Amidst the clutter on my desk is an NFL schedule for all the teams. I just happened to notice that this is the final week of the season where teams get byes. That is not a cheery thought. When teams have byes, you have a chance to avoid games where Rick Mirer will have to be the starting QB. Those opportunities are behind us. Sad.

Bruce Smith was unhappy about not starting last week against Dallas and said that he had team goals and selfish goals to accomplish this year and could not do either on the bench. Obviously, his “selfish goal” is the all time sack record and he needs 1.5 more to achieve that. Here is how he can get the record in a flash.

He needs to call out Danny Boy Snyder in the most degrading and offensive terms such that the Boy Genius releases him on the spot.

Then Smith should sign a one game contract with the Seahawks for this week and play the Redskins. Against that offensive line, he should have the sack record in hand by the third quarter.

Denny McLain is out of jail. He has remarried the woman that he married 40 years ago and then divorced. He says he is sorry for what he did and wants to rejoin society in the Detroit area. Sounds good on the surface. If you want to see an alternative viewpoint, Michael Rosenberg wrote a column in the Detroit Free Press yesterday, which says that McLain may not be nearly ready for redemption. I commend this column to your reading.

Navy goes to Notre Dame this weekend. Paul Johnson, the coach at Navy had a great line leading up to the game:

“They have 35 Parade All-Americans and we have 35 guys who marched in a parade.”

It looks like Miami will build a new stadium for the Marlins. Forget all the nonsense about whether or not taxpayers should or should not do this kind of thing for teams; we've heard all that too many times. What I wonder is this:

Why is it better for fans to stay home and ignore a team in a new stadium instead of an old stadium?

The rumor du jour is that Jamaal Anderson might be considering a comeback with the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Bucs' running attack has not been spectacular; they are 11th in the NFC in rushing. But Anderson has two surgically repaired knees and has been out of football for three years. If the Bucs decided that they absolutely had to get a new RB, is this really the best one out there?

Finally, the new assistant women's basketball coach at Brown is Casimir Grygorcewicz. It would take an Ivy League squad to be able to spell that name.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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