Josh McRoberts Is The Future

I was planning on doing a little draft preview today, but then figured it would be a lot easier to write a draft recap tomorrow as the concept of a team spending a first round pick on Josh McRoberts isn't nearly as funny as the actual action. (Update: Major miscalculation on my part. The funniest thing is actually seeing Josh McRoberts slip out of the first round entirely, as he just did.)
Until then, a few thoughts:

* re: Oden & Durant
The importance of these two players won't be confined to two major northwestern cities. With the NBA in the midst of a major downswing, Oden and Durant might be the keys to the league regaining the stature it had in the '80s and early '90s. The NBA is still in good shape because people seem to care about the league, even if they don't watch the games (I include myself in this category). But the league seems to be a distant third to the NFL and MLB when it comes to casual interest.
I never hear anybody talking about the NBA outside ESPN and various websites. Yet, baseball and the NFL are talked about year round. It's rare that I ever hear, "hey, you see that Wizards game last night?" Back in April I played golf with three friends, all of whom are sports fans, during the first Bullets playoff game and nobody thought to check for a score until about the 14th hole. (Granted, the Bullets season was over after injuries to Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, but still... If Clinton Portis, Jason Campbell and Santana Moss were hurt heading into the NFL playoffs, we never would have scheduled a conflicting tee time.)
I'm not quite sure why the NBA has lost the casual fan, but my guess would be because almost every Eastern Conference game is mind-numbingly boring and the league continues to allow its playoffs to peak in the second round. (When the NBA Finals matchup is the eighth or ninth most interesting playoff series on paper, that's not a good thing.)
Another reason for the NBA malaise could be LeBron James' failure to captivate Joe Q. Sports Fan. Outside of Cleveland, do you know anybody that really loves LeBron? Are his games appointment viewing? As the ratings for the NBA Finals showed, clearly not. Perhaps that's a function of Mike Brown's boring offense, but it could also be that LeBron just isn't all that likable. The suits at Nike have turned him into a robot, and not a cool, sassy robot like the maid on The Jetsons. LeBron comes across as a politician who is worried to say anything controversial, so he doesn't say anything at all. It's a fine line to walk, to be sure, but Michael Jordan still had charisma even though he tended to be pretty banal in his public comments.
LeBron is still young (although I contend that it's the amount of years a player has been in th eNBA, not his calendar age, that is most important - This bothers me when people talk about running backs not being able to perform after turning 30. It's not turning 30 that stops them, it's that usually running backs at 30 have around 2,000 carries. If a player doesn't start until he's 27, turning 30 won't slow him down), but at the moment, he might need a new marketing strategy. Thus, it might be up to Oden and Durant (and DWade, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, etc.) to bring the game back the heights it enjoyed during the Jordan-era.

* The "debate" on whether to take Oden or Durant with the #1 pick seems to be contrived by a media desperate for something to write about. Taking Oden is the right thing to do and will be even if Durant ends up better because, as history has shown, big men win championships.
The Bowie-over-Jordan discussion has been brought up for the umpteenth time but, as Michael Wilbon points out today in a column, Bowie wasn't really a big man. He was just a big dude.
This is no slight on Durant, who I think will be a great pro. It's just that Oden is the only pick Portland can make.

Players I Like: Jeff Green, Al Thornton, Julian Wright, Nick Fazekas, D.J. Strawberry, Derrick Byars

Players I Don't Like: Florida players, Jared Dudley, Josh McRoberts, Acie Law, Nick Young

Kobe Needs a Hug

The infamous "Kobe video" has finally been released and it's about as disappointing as you'd expect. Why is it surprising to hear a star verbalize something everyone knew he thought in the first place? If a video of A. Rod saying "I'm jealous of Jeter's rings, girlfriends and ass-tautness" was leaked, everyone would be shocked even though we all know A. Rod feels this way.
Anyway, here's the video. Nothing special, but it is sort of amazing that Kobe will stand in a parking lot and talk shit about teammates to people he doesn't know. I'm just a little disappointed the tape cuts out before Kobe got going on Kwame Brown.

Yippee Ki-Yay


Die Hard 4 was awesome. Now, I'm going to get some sleep.

Because Training Camp Is Only A Month Away...

The Freaks & Geeks of Sports

This past weekend, local product Kate Ziegler shattered the oldest swimming world record on the books: Janet Evans' 1,500 freestyle mark, a record which was once thought to be untouchable. In recognition of this historic event (Evans set the record in 1988), Ziegler was unable to net even a small news headline on ESPN.com.
(Not that you care, but Ziegler's swim was pretty awesome. As Steve Yanda described in The Washington Post, "[Ziegler's] 400-meter split was 4:09.87, or four seconds slower than her winning time Friday in the event. Her 800-meter split was 8:22.57, or two seconds faster than her winning time in the event Thursday." That's just nasty.)
Anyway, Ziegler's underappreciated swim got me thinking about other sports feats that do not get their proper due. This is, by no means, a comprehensive list, but just a few that popped into my head.

Tiger Woods Wins Four Straight Majors
This is one of the greatest sporting feats of all-time, yet it's casually tossed around only as proof that 2007 Tiger isn't as good as 2001 Tiger. What everyone fails to realize is that 2001 Tiger was the second best anybody was at any sport ever. (Only Babe Ruth's early HR years were greater.) Maybe when Tiger retires this will be fully appreciated. Until he does, perhaps everyone just expects it.

Michael Johnson runs 19.32 in 200 meters
In the 200 meter finals in Atlanta, Michael Johnson shattered his own world record (set in the qualifying heats), thus lowering the previous 20-year old mark by a whopping four-tenths of a second. Still, all anyone ever thinks about when they think of track is Ben Johnson. (Not that Johnson probably wasn't on 'roids, but I don't want to think about that.)

Spurs win four titles in nine years
If Tom Brady and the Patriots win the Super Bowl in 2009, nabbing their fourth ring in nine seasons, Peter King will attempt to marry Bill Belichick. Michael Smith will proclaim Tom Brady the greatest athlete since whichever athlete it is that Michael Smith incorrectly believes to be the all-time greatest athlete. John Clayton will cease writing his column on ESPN.com and begin composing sonnets to Scott Pioli. And you know this.
Yet the Spurs win four in nine years, and it's routine. You know what's routine? The rest of the NBA not winning a title, as the Spurs have taken 44% of the championships since 1999.

Dave Stieb loses no-hitter with two outs in the 9th in back-to-back games
I had never heard of this until The Wolfman wrote me an email after seeing this stat on SportsCenter. I did a little digging this morning, and found out that, indeed, in his last two starts of 1988 the Blue Jays' Stieb took a no-no to within the final out. (In the first game, the still-active Julio Franco broke up the bid with a single to center.)
Amazingly, Stieb threw another one-hitter in 1988 and two more in 1989 before finally getting through all nine innings without allowing a hit in 1990 against Cleveland.

Pedro Martinez loses perfect game in 10th inning
Mention the name Harvey Haddix to any baseball fan and they'll be able to tell you about the Pittsburgh pitcher taking a perfect game into the 13th inning back in 1959 before losing the contest 1-0. While that is clearly the greatest hard-luck performance ever, people seem to forget that Pedro threw a nine-inning perfect game of his own in 1995 before giving up a hit in the 10th. (Coincidentally, Pedro also ended up getting the loss in his gem.)

George Mason makes Final Four
This one is borderline underappreciated, as everyone still talks about George Mason and will until another mid-major gets to (and/or wins) the National Championship. However, it seems that the Mason run has incorrectly acquired the dreaded "fluke" label.
In a way the run was a fluke, but only in the regard that any Final Four run is flukey. Strange things happen on the way to the Final Four (just ask Ohio State this year). Unlike a lot of surprise Final Four participants over the past 20 years, Mason didn't take advantage of a battered bracket to win their regional. Instead, they beat (arguably) the best team they could have faced in every round and won. (I say arguably because Mason played #7 Wichita State in the Sweet 16 instead of #2 Tennessee, but most would say that the Shockers were the better team.)

Florida and Ohio State play in football and basketball title games in four-month span
Think about that. It's pretty insane when you do.

Carl Lewis jumps over 29 feet three times
Mike Powell broke Bob Beamon's unbreakable long jump record at the 1991 World Championships, but in the same meet Carl Lewis did what no other man in history had done: Jump over 29 feet multiple times in a meet. (Lewis had never jumped over 29 feet once before, nor would he do it again.)
Also underappreciated; Carl's acting ability. (Click on the link, goto the English page and check out Carl's acting reel. Seriously. If you haven't already seen it, this will be the best two internet minutes you'll spend this year.)

Another Athlete Crashes His Motorcycle

Since none of the major sports web sites seem to have this yet: LaVar Arrington was in a serious motorcycle crash on the Washington Beltway this afternoon. Thankfully, he's reportedly in stable, yet serious condition.
Between Jason Williams, Ben Roethlisberger and Kellen Winslow, I'm starting to think it's about time that athletes stop with the whole motorcycle-riding thing.

Update: From WTOP News:

Arrington does have a license, but not a motorcycle license. He was given a ticket for driving the bike without a proper license and for failure to control speed to avoid a collision.

So, Arrington gets points for wearing a helmet, BEN ROETHLISBERGER, but loses them for not having a license.

Through the Fescue

In terms of sports, it doesn't get much more exciting than a Championship Sunday at a Major with Tiger Woods in the hunt. Today was no exception, with the 107th U.S. Open providing riveting action for nearly five straight hours as a paunchy, chain-smoking Argentine held off two of the world's best golfers.
A few thoughts from an afternoon spent on the couch drinking Bloody Marys, eating pizza and making way too many jokes about fescue.

* Janet Jackson's nipple was shown on CBS for approximately 1.5 seconds; a violation that cost the network $500,000. I shudder to think of what sort of fine the FCC will levy upon NBC after subjecting us to both of Tiger's nipples for the better part of an afternoon. It looked like he stole George Clooney's Batman suit and painted it red. I heard the engraver's tool broke while he was putting Cabrera's name on the trophy so he had to write the last four letters with Tiger's left nip.

* NBC made the inexplicable decision to ignore Jim Furyk for the entire front-nine, even though it was clear he was in contention. Instead, they chose to show almost all of Aaron Baddelay's shots after it was clear he was finished. They eventually rectified this on the back-nine, but I kept thinking that CBS would have done a better job of keeping viewers abreast of Furyk's early progress.

* When Tiger was sitting in the bunker on 17, looking like he was going to get up and down for a tying birdie, Johnny Miller was downplaying Tiger's chances of birdieing the 18th hole, going so far as to say that he wouldn't. Granted, a birdie on 18 was unlikely, as the finishing hole was playing the toughest of any at Oakmont this week, but you wouldn't know that from watching NBC's broadcast yesterday. (Nor did they mention how many golfers had birdied 18 that day, a stat whose mention would usually be a no-brainer.)
While Miller had a point, it almost seemed like he was rooting against Tiger to make a late-charge and was spiteful in his comments about Woods on those final holes. I thought that Miller was doing this because he didn't want Tiger to make history at Oakmont, thus robbing Miller of his role of Oakmont Conqueror, one which he earned during his final round 63 in 1973. Maybe you heard about it one of the 9,000 times Miller, or one of his NBC colleagues, mentioned it during their Open coverage.

* Angel Cabrera's par on 18 was surprising, considering he had bogeyed the previous two holes and looked as jumpy as a crackhead on speed. At one point, Cabrera was puffing on his cigarette so hard I thought he'd say "the hell with it" and pull a Homer (left) while walking down the next fairway.
(I'll give NBC some credit for showing Cabrera smoking and letting Dan Hicks talk about it a few times. Usually the networks choose to ignore golfers having a cigarette in-between shots, but it's a legitimate thing to air and certainly an interesting one.)

* Last thing about the coverage; before Tiger hit his putt on 18 someone mentioned that the atmosphere was electric because everyone expected Tiger to make it. I disagree. I think the atmosphere was electric because everyone wanted Tiger to make it. But with the way he had been putting all week, it was unrealistic to think he was going to sink that one.

* I'm looking forward to the inevitable "Tiger can't win from behind" stories that will be published tomorrow. They'll definitely appear in some newpapers and major websites and will be as stupid as the articles from four years ago that asked whether Tiger had lost it.
Tiger burst onto the scene with come from behind victories in the U.S. Amateur and also came from behind in the 2000 PGA when Bob May seized the lead early in the Tournament. He's well-versed in winning while not in the lead.
Plus, to criticize him for not winning from behind belies the fact that Tiger rarely is behind. The guy has 12 freakin' Majors for crap's sake. It's only natural that he's going to get outplayed on some Sundays. That's happened in three of the past nine Majors; Michael Campbell did it in the '05 Open, Zach Johnson did it at this year's Masters and Cabrera did it today. That's golf. It happened to Nicklaus and now it's finally happening to Tiger. It doesn't mean others have caught up to him, it just means that inevitability has.

Your Job's Your Credit

I'm not the biggest Bill Simmons fan, but I give credit where it's due and Simmons had a pretty good week on ESPN.com. His most recent column for the network's eponymous magazine touched on a subject I've written about many times on this site; the tendancy we all have to proclaim recent events as the best ever, forgetting about equally great performances or events that took place years ago.
Upon re-reading the piece now, it's actually not as good as I initially thought. I do agree, somewhat, with this part:

So why do we pump up the present at the expense of the past? Goldman believed that every era is "so arrogant (and) so dismissive," and again he was right, although that arrogance/dismissiveness isn't entirely intentional. We'd like to believe that our current stars are better than the guys we once watched.

Why? Because the single best thing about sports is the unknown. It's much more fun to think about what could happen than about what already has. We don't want LeBron to be as good as MJ; we need him to be better than MJ. We already did the MJ thing. Who wants to rent the same movie twice? We want LeBron to take us to a place we've never been. It's the same reason we convince ourselves that Shaq is better than Wilt and Steve Nash is better than Bob Cousy. We don't know these things for sure. We just want them to be true.

Actually, I think it's more basic than that. In the 24-hour sports news era, networks try to attract readers and viewers by making statements bathed in hyperbole. It's a lot easier to fill an hour-long SportsCenter by saying LeBron's 48 was the greatest performance ever instead of merely great. With the former, SC can show highlights at the top of the hour, have PTI discuss it at the :15, show some MJ highlights at :25, ask Greg Anthony for his valued opinion at :40 and then show a top 10 list of the greatest playoff performances at :55. If LeBron's night was simply one of the best performances, they wouldn't be able to talk about it for so long. It's in ESPN's (and SI.com and Sportsline, etc.) best interests to hype up the game so much.
Secondly, people have short memories. Things that seemed big at the time are forgotten now. Remember T.O.'s "overdose"? It's a mere footnote to the 2006 NFL season, but that episode dominated the sports world for a solid 48 hours when it happened. Everyone had an opinion. Now, it's like it never happened. The same phenomenon happens with great games. The next great college football game will be called the best ever, even though the 2006 Rose Bowl was likely as good as a game as you'll ever see.
The news cycle is so short that we're already onto talking about the NBA Draft, while the champagne from the Spurs' fourth NBA title in nine seasons is still cold. It's natural, I suppose, but perhaps the sports media spends too much time looking ahead instead of looking back. (My main problem with SportsCenter these days. They'd rather preview an upcoming series instead of showing highlights from the just-completed one.) The regular news media is guilty of this too, as evidenced by the coverage of a presidential election that will take place after next year's World Series. (The Onion has parodied this trend, to great effect, a few times.)
Simmons' second impressive showing of the week was his interview with David Stern, aired on an ESPN podcast. In spite of his shril voice, Simmons asks The Commish some hard questions about tanking, the soul-sucking boringness of the NBA playoffs and the Suns' suspensions and doesn't back down when Stern delivers his patented non-answer answers. That takes some gumption and, I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of impressed.

* The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced Tony was shot at the end of The Sopranos.

* The clip of the week comes from Dan Steinberg at the DC Sports Bog, who visited the filming of the newest Eastern Motors commercial. It's duly noted that Antwaan Randle-El does not like the boogie-woogie.

Pete Rozelle Mocks You, David Stern

In the past 24 years, only seven teams have won the NBA Championship: Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio and Miami. All except Miami have won multiple titles.

A List Without The WNBA Is Like A Day With No Sunshine

To celebrate their 25th anniversary of providing light-news to the masses, USA Today is publishing Top 25 lists in various categories. Yesterday, they published their 25 Greatest Sports Stories Of The Past 25 Years. And considering how the Sports section is pretty much the only good thing about USA Today, it's sort of disappointing how bad their list is. I've railed on lists before, but this one makes those look like the Ten Commandments.
It seems that USA Today couldn't decide on a specific criteria for what would be included on their very-generalized "greatest sports stories" list, so they instead went the opposite direction and included specific moments, entire games, ongoing scandals and "pervasiveness" all under one roof. The results, like the NBA Finals, aren't pretty.
Below is USA Today's list, with accompanying comments from me. Normally, I'd include my own list, as it is my pet peeve when people complain about things without any suggestion for what could have been done differently (my main beef with these idiots who think the final scene of The Sopranos was a cop-out). But, in this case, since it's tough to tell what exactly USA Today wants to be listing, I'll just complain about it and call it a day.

1) Red Sox win World Series
I can sort of see where they were going with this one as the #1 sports story, but the Sox winning the World Series was actually one of the more boring events of the past 25 years. Emphasis on "winning the World Series".
I watched each game of the Fall Classic religiously and can barely remember anything about them. I'd say that most people would have a similar gap in their memories. The Sox four straight wins over the Yankees; however, everyone remembers. From the Dave Roberts steal to the Ortiz walk-offs to the Game 7 massacre, the 2004 ALCS might have been the greatest sports story of the past 25 years. Compared to that, though, the World Series was a bore.

2) Cal Ripken Breaks Gehrig's Record
This one seems a bit high. Even though The Streak was a national news story in the weeks leading up to Cal's big night, the inevitability of the record's demise lessened the excitement. Really, had it not been for a steroid abuser (Rafael Palmiero) pushing Cal out of the O's dugout to take that magical victory lap around Camden Yards, the night would have been largely forgetful. (Cal did homer that night, I guess, but how many people really remember that, even though it did lead to the only Chris Berman play-by-moment that I actually enjoy.)

3) Tiger wins 1997 Masters
Tiger's dominating win at the 1997 Masters was one of the greatest performances in sports history. It's signifigance, though, has been widely overstated. Here's what USA Today said about it:

In the Deep South, at a club whose members do not look like him, on a hallowed course where legends Jones, Hogan, Nicklaus and Palmer carved out shots for history, Tiger Woods earned a victory “for the ages” in winning the green jacket in 1997 at The Masters in Augusta, Ga. The game of golf has not looked the same since.

When Tiger Woods won the Masters, there were two black players on the PGA Tour. Today, there os one; Tiger himself. Apparently, there are very few black players in golf's "minor leagues" as well.
Tiger's win, while historic, didn't have a fraction of the impact as Jackie Robinson or Billie Jean King did. Those events led to wholesale changes in the rules of sports and society. Tiger's win led to wholesale changes on the PGA Tour, but only because other golfers needed to catch up to him.

4) Villanova upsets Georgetown
This is where this list lost me. It's not that 'Nova's "Perfect Game" wasn't a huge story, because it was. But #4? Did USA Today editors factor in whether a moment had been made into an HBO documentary when selecting the list?

5) BALCO scandal hits baseball
6) 1998 HR chase
I misspoke earlier. This is where this list lost me. Somehow, USA Today determined that a story nobody seems to care about was bigger than a thrilling homerun chase that captivated the entire nation for the better part of two months in the summer of 1998.
It's easy to forget how big McGwire and Sosa's chase was at the time. The duo were national news; not just sports news, but news news. People who didn't know the first thing about baseball knew their homerun totals and how far away they were from Roger Maris.
BALCO, on the other hand, is a story confined to baseball. And it's a boring one at that. (Also, I'm not quite sure why BALCO got billing instead of the blanket "steroid controversy")

7) N.C. State shocks Houston
This game might have been a bigger upset than 'Nova/Georgetown, since Villanova had played Georgetown tough in their two previous meetings that year. But I still don't know if this is the #7 moment of the past 25 years, and that's coming from a huge college basketball fan. I don't care for the NBA much at all; and even I'm baffled by how college ball gets two of the top seven slots on this list while Michael Jordan has yet to make an appearance.

8) Jack Nicklaus wins '86 Masters
A great moment, but is it really better than Drew Gooden's decision to shave his head while leaving a carpet square on his upper-neck?

9) Magic Johnson retires with HIV
The biggest star in basketball retiring due to a deadly-illness of which the general public was very misinformed about is certainly less of story than Lorenzo Charles dunking a basketball to beat Phi Slamma Jamma.
(By the way, I loved the phrasing USA Today used for their recap of this story, "Magic Johnson retires with HIV." They make it sound like Magic quit the NBA and moved to Florida with his wife, Hiv (short for Hivian, of course).

10) Pete Rose banned from baseball
11) Doug Flutie's Hail Mary
12) Dale Earnhardt dies at Daytona
13) Kirk Gibson's walk-off
14) U.S. Women win World Cup
15) Bill Buckner's error
If you're scoring at home, that's seven baseball stories in the top 15, compared to zero for the NFL. This list is so stupid, I'm completely losing interest in writing about its stupidity.

16) Laettner's shot
17) Nancy vs. Tonya
18) Jordan's '98 game-winner
19) World Series earthquake
20) Ashe announces he has AIDS
Two game-winning basketball shots, two real-life tragedies and one made-for-television drama make up this section of the list. College basketball makes another appearance, indicating (to me at least) that Myles Brand must have some incriminating pictures of Jon Saraceno (right).
Arthur Ashe's AIDS announcement certainly merits inclusion on a list like this, but it still feels a little dirty, as the only reason Ashe made his affliction public was because USA Today essentially forced him to.

21) Lance evades drug tests, wins Tour de France
22) O.J. Simpson trial
23) '94 World Series cancelled
24) Pervasiveness of ESPN
25) Gretzky sets NHL scoring record
While making a seemingly-arbitrary list of the 25 greatest sports moments of the last quarter-century, there's a big decision to make: Does OJ Simpson murdering two people count as a sports story? I'd argue no, as OJ's trial was a celebrity thing, not a sports thing. That being said, if you're going to include OJ on the list, doesn't he have to be a lot higher than #22? Was Doug Flutie's Hail Mary really a bigger deal than a story which gripped the nation nearly two years?
Of all the entries on this list, OJ was clearly the biggest story, followed by the the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding saga. Neither of those events were really about sports though; OJ happened to be famous because of sports, while the figure skating thing was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments that became much bigger than it should have. (The ladies' short program in the 1994 Olympics was the 6th most-watched event in television history.)
ESPN's inclusion is fairly confusing, not because ESPN's ascendence isn't a big story, but because it's not nearly as big as the NFL's rise over the past 25 years. (Ironically, without the NFL, ESPN wouldn't be in the position it's in today.)
This doesn't bother the editors at USA Today who managed to shut-out the most popular sport in the country entirely from its list of 25 biggest sports stories. Hockey? That gets some love at #25 with a moment nobody outside of Canada or the Gretzky clan can accurately remember (I can picture highlights of a big Gretzky goal, but I can't be positive which record it is he's breaking since he has so many). Somehow, though, the NFL gets nothing.
Granted, thinking of a singular NFL moment that's more memorable than, say, the Laettner shot, is tough. "The Catch" doesn't make the cut because it happened in January of 1982, out of USA Today's 25-year range. John Riggins famous 4th-and-1 rumble is an NFL Films staple, as is Scott Norwood's missed kick and the end of the Rams/Titans Super Bowl. Maybe those moments aren't worthy, but surely USA Today could have switched ESPN and the NFL to give some recognition to the sport that dominates its headlines year-round.

Good Night, Sweet Prince

Considering that I loved the much-reviled Seinfeld finale, maybe I'm not the best judge of these things. That being said, I thought last night's Sopranos was a worthy send-off for the greatest drama in the history of television. A fair number of haters disagree, but I'm not quite sure what they would have been pleased with. Tony's murder? Tony's incarceration? Tony talking to Clarice in a phone booth while wearing a wig and a trenchcoat?
The beauty of The Sopranos was it's real-life complexity and in real-life, things don't wrap up neatly. When the screen cut to black last night, David Chase froze The Soprano family in time; ther future left open to your imagination. (Or until they reappear in a movie or another season.)
Every major character had their moment last night; even the recently-deceased Christopher with the picture-staring cat. And even though Lorraine Bracco was left out of the finale entirely, her absence was felt when Tony turned a meeting with A.J. shrink into his own personal therapy session.
I've gotta run now or else I could on for hours. Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Austin, TX Just Got A Lot More Handsome

* Former Dukie and ex-Missouri coach Quin Snyder has a new job with - wait for it - the Austin Toros of the NBDL. If Mike Krzyzewski's coaching tree were any weaker, he'd be Kevin Durant doing the benchpress.

* I'm only kidding about Durant. His "poor performance" at the NBA's pre-draft camp means absolutely nothing in regards to his basketball ability. That people are even discussing his poor showings in the vertical jump, shuttle run and bench-press speaks to how stupid some people are. Did they not watch Durant play basketball in college? I mean, I'm no NBA scout, but the last time I checked, the NBA uses a round, orange ball that goes through a hoop, just like in college.
Sure, Durant has to get some more upper-body strength if he wants to bang around with the likes of Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, but he's still only a kid. He'll grow into his body, the same way Garnett, Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal all did.
Draft combines are entirely meaningless. I'm assuming Portland knows this, but I bet Sam Bowie would be pretty relieved if they passed on Durant anyways.

* If Michelle Wie were an '80s rock band, she'd already have a two-hour episode of Behind The Music to her credit. (Why doesn't VH1 show reruns of BTM and/or Pop-Up Video? Those things were like channel-surfing-crack. While battling a bout of insomnia a few days ago I stumbled upon an episode of Behind The Music and couldn't turn it off. And it was about Kid Rock. I then checked the "future showings" feature to see when the show would be on again and found out the there were no more airings over the next two weeks. Does really I Love New York really draw-in such good ratings that it would beat the Milli Vanilli episode of BTM? I highly doubt it. But I digress.)
It's pretty amazing how Michelle Wie's career has been so ineptly managed. I get the sense that her handlers see the endorsement checks rolling in (she apparently made $20 million last year, a sure sign that Nike has way too much money to waste) and assume that all the zeroes mean they're doing a good job. But because Wie has (still) yet to win on the LPGA Tour and (still) insists on getting whooped-up on by the men and (still) pisses off golf people almost every weekend because of an etiquette-breach or classless move, she's digging herself into a hole that is proving harder to get out of by the day.
Wie's latest episode was caused by her withdrawing from a tournament because she was within shouting distance of carding an 88 for her round (which draws an automatic year-long suspension for any non-LPGA member, such as Wie) but doing so under the guise of an "injury". This "injury", which forced her to withdraw on the 16th hole and staring at an 88 dead in the eye, was so severe that Wie took a whole four days off before this week's LPGA Championship.
Annika Sorenstam, a golfer whose actually, you know, accomplished something in her career, ripped Wie yesterday for her "lack of respect and class" and then refused to apologize. To which; well done, Annika. It's too bad the gutless LPGA is more concerned with money than integrity. Not that I really blame them.

* Look, LeBron's Game 5 performance was one of the most awesome basketball performances I've ever seen. (I put it behind the Jordan flu game, AI's Game 1 victory over the Lakers in the '01 Finals and the Spike Lee game in terms of single-game NBA greatness.) And, it goes without saying that LeBron is one of the three best players in the NBA, if not the best.
But all the divine praise that's being heaped upon him due to that one 22-minute stretch is a little absurd. I know, I know, LeBron is a sublime talent, yada, yada, yada. That doesn't change the fact that the topic of discussion exactly one week ago was "why doesn't LeBron show up in the 4th quarter of games?" It doesn't change the fact that the East is terrible and that the Pistons were far too overconfident.
Let's put it this way, if the Cavs were in the West, they wouldn't have made it out of the first round. I know LeBron is great and he'll likely have more than one ring on his finger when his career is finished. But the coronation has come a little bit early. (If the Cavs beat the Spurs, forget I ever wrote this.)
I also loved the fact that ESPN, desperate to make the NBA Finals more attractive to viewers, completely misrepresented Michael Jordan's comments about LeBron. The headline on the ESPN.com front-page (and SportsCenter preview) was: "Jordan Praises LeBron Ahead of NBA Finals". From that, you'd assume MJ was sucking-up to LeBron like everyone else. Not so.

What just transpired was something I felt was needed for the league, was needed for Cleveland, was needed for LeBron. Now the test comes in being consistent and continuing that elevation, and not getting complacent.

Making 'The Leap' is where you do it every single night," Jordan said. "It's expected of you, and you do it. ... Not one game, not two games. It's consistent. Every defense comes in and they focus on you and you still impact the game. I think he's shown signs of that.

This next series is going to say, 'How far do you want to take it?

Jordan clearly thinks LeBron can be great, but those backhanded-compliments indicate that MJ also thinks LeBron has a ways to go

The WNBA: It's Faaantastic

The lede from the Associated Press Mystics/Fever game recap:

The unbeaten Indiana Fever and the winless Washington Mystics redefined sloppy basketball.
Their 52 combined turnovers last night was a WNBA record for a non-overtime game, and the Fever set another league record by going the first 13 minutes 32 seconds without a field goal.

A WNBA game lasts 40 minutes; which means those wonderful, fundamental women's basketball players averaged a turnover every 46 seconds.