Phil Jackson thinks that the free throw disparity in the first two games of the NBA Finals shows that the referees have caused the Lakers to lose. There is no argument that the extra scoring opportunities afforded to the Celtics have been advantageous to the Celtics, but I am not yet convinced that there is some kind of bias in the referees here. I refer all skeptics to a replay where Lakers’ forward Vladimir Radmanovic is on a breakaway during the Lakers’ rally to cut a 20+-point lead to two points late in Game 2. Radmanovic took five – count them five – steps without a dribble going for his dunk. His final dribble was just outside the three-point arc. If the referees were biased and trying to assure a Celtic victory, they might have been tempted to call traveling on that play – even though most of them have forgotten that traveling is indeed still a violation of NBA rules.
Vinny Del Negro is reportedly the choice of the Chicago Bulls to be their next coach. I remember Del Negro as a player but know nothing about him personally. Nevertheless, I wonder if the Bulls really need a coach who has never coached before. The Bulls have a young team who chafed under the “stern leadership” of Scott Skiles and so the Bulls moved Skiles out and put in a laissez-faire coach who led the team exactly nowhere. The Bulls seem to play hard only in spurts and seem uncommitted to things like tough defense and lots of effort on the court. It would seem to me that a “newbie coach” might not be the way to go here…
Staying in Chicago, the Bears cut Cedric Benson yesterday. Recall about a month ago that Benson was arrested in Austin Texas on charges that he “driving” his boat while intoxicated. That interaction with the gendarmes was less than cooperative and his actions caused him to be pepper-sprayed and restrained; he still claims he was not drunk. Over the weekend and once again in Austin Texas, Benson was arrested for DWI in the early morning hours. No pepper spray was needed this time and Benson claims he was not drunk once again. The Bears have obviously had enough of this behavior simply because Benson’s on-field performance has not been nearly good enough for them to put up with this nonsense.
At the moment, Cedric Benson leads all NFL players in 2008 off-season arrests. Just to clarify, that is not a good thing…
I know that the baseball season has not hit the halfway mark yet, but I think that one needs to acknowledge that Chipper Jones is hitting the ball is if he were playing tee-ball. It is the middle of June and he is hitting .420; he already has 92 hits for the season in 58 games. The most hits Jones ever had in a season is 189 – back in 2001 – so he is almost halfway to that mark in a little over one-third of the season. It is too early to start a “Chipper Jones Assault On Hitting .400 For The Season” watch. I surely do not want ESPN to break into its coverage of whatever is on to show on split-screen every Chipper Jones at-bat. However, if he is still hitting .420 on August 1, that might not be too early to focus on his every at-bat.
The Tampa Bay Rays are on a pace to win 96 games this year. For the first ten years of their existence, the Rays have averaged 97 losses per year. The Rays have never finished at or above .500 for a season. That is another thing to keep an eye on in the baseball season.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had 15 consecutive losing seasons; if they finish below .500 this year, they will tie the baseball record – held by the Phillies – for consecutive losing seasons. The Pirates are only two games under .500 as of this morning and they host the woebegone Washington Nationals in their next series. Pirates teams have had reasonable starts to seasons in recent years only to watch their seasons go into tailspins in August and September. This is another thing to keep an eye on as the baseball season unfolds.
Quick Quiz:
What is the more difficult feat in baseball – hitting .400 for a season or accumulating 15 consecutive losing seasons?
One hundred words or less…
Here is another rhetorical question:
How do the folks who comprise the medical staff of the Los Angeles Dodgers manage to retain their jobs?
In recent years, the Dodgers have handed out big-money contracts to Nomar Garciaparra, Andruw Jones, Esteban Loaiza and Jason Schmidt. It is too much work to go back to check the daily rosters, but one has to wonder if there was ever a game in which the Dodgers had all four of these guys off the DL and on the active roster at the same time…
Evander Holyfield’s estate near Atlanta will hit the property auction market on July 1. Holyfield is having serious financial difficulties, his estate has to be sold, and it ought to bring a decent price. The house has 54,000 square feet of living space including 17 bathrooms, 3 kitchens and a bowling alley. The lot is 232 acres.
Evander Holyfield earned a boatload of money during his boxing career. I read one estimate that said he earned more than $170M. Even if that is overstated by 50%, he earned a whole lot of money and this situation represents a cratering of his financial situation. It may explain why he continues to fight into his mid-forties – - even though he has not been able to fight very well for the last 5 years or so. One has to wonder what tomato can they will put in front of him next time. Or has Holyfield become the tomato can with a recognizable name that gets put in front of “up and comers”? Hmmm…
Here are a few of Holyfield’s outstanding debts:
He has stopped paying $3,000 a month in child support for one of his children. That may not seem like a huge sum, but recall that Holyfield has fathered ten or eleven children – the accounts vary – among a variety of women. By the time you do the math, his child support payments are a serious cash-flow drain.
He has a mortgage that is in default on the property that is up for sale. The note value reportedly is $10M.
He has a judgment outstanding for $560,000 for failure to pay a loan taken out to effect landscaping on the estate.
Finally, here is a comment from syndicated columnist, Norman Chad on the NBA Finals once again pitting the Lakers against the Celtics:
“It’s morning again in America. I half expect to look outside and see Norman Rockwell mowing my lawn and gas at 29 cents a gallon.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…