Headlines for February, 2009

NCAA Hoops: Packaging Self-Hate through “Package Deals”

I was writing something  long and winding but needed to take a break because of an Outside the Lines (OTL) piece I watched Sunday morning… ———————————- Sunday OTL and its impressario, Bob Ley, gave us a report about an NCAA basketball practice called, “package deals.” A package deal is one where a high school - or younger - recruit is further wooed [read more...]

Real Brief Note: On Jim Calhoun’s Salary - Thanks Pat Forde

By now most of you have heard or seen and heard UConn head basketball coach Jim Calhoun tell a free lance reporter Ken Krayeske of the Hartford News to “shut up” among other things for questioning Calhoun making $1.6 mil in salary while the state of Connecticut is economically going under fast (the state of Connecticut has a $2 billion [read more...]

NCAA Hoops Perceptions: Off We Go a Travelin’ a Pushin’ and a Hand Checkin’ (and a’ fightin’ if We Ain’t Careful)

Watching an extraordinary amount of college basketball the past month has allowed me to see some serious problems with the game - and I’d like to note them for you. Travelling: Players regularly take more than the one-and-a-half steps that we’re all taught is allowed by referees. Today we have the “jump stop” wherein players are allowed to stop their dribble [read more...]

Boston at Utah: A Dick Bavetta Deluxe

Mehmet Okur "helps" Ray Allen miss a potential lay-in. Do not play a game against Utah on television and expect to come away from it without multiple scratches, a half dozen bruises and a charlie horse. And your team will out-foul the home standing Jazz by a grip of whistles. Think this is just sour grapes? Riddle me this: name one team [read more...]

Notes: Steve Kerr Finally Hires the Right Man; Jeff Garcia Walks Like a Duck; No PG, No NCAA ‘Chip; Missing the Point about Steroids, HGH, and EPO; ESPN Blows it - As Usual

Terry Porter was fired by Phoenix Suns GM, Steve Kerr: “I hired Terry because I believed he would be able to provide the balance our team needed in order to perform at a very high level,” Suns general manager Steve Kerr said in a statement Monday. “Unfortunately the transition from last season to this one proved to be very difficult, and we [read more...]

Behind the Elgin Baylor Lawsuit: When “Tolerance” Rules the Day

(Sunday the NBA held it annual public reelations showcase in Phoenix, the NBA All-Star game. The game acts as the perfect event too obscur the fact that Hall of Fame player and recently deposed Los Angeles Clippers general manager, Elgin Baylor, is suing Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. The lawsuit, in itself, is troubling for the league. However, Sterling’s background, the [read more...]

MY BHM Moment: Rob Parker Must Go

Hello folks, it’s Black History Month. Remember that space in time? It’s the four weeks - exactly four except for leap years - when it is ‘Black People Black People Black People Yeah!’ time. It’s the 28 days of Blackness - Kwanzaa writ KWANZAA. BHM (someone should begin a website called, “BHM” - “Because it’s Our Month All Year Long”).Since [read more...]

Bye-Bye Brett (Hello Ass Whippin’s?)

Today I am happier than I was yesterday. You see, white men perceive white NFL quarterbacks - hell, top-notch NCAA quarterbacks - as John Wayne figures. They represent that archetypal, macho Caucasian male loner who is at once a leader of men, but also a man apart from other men. There are the images - like the one of Y.A. Tittle, [read more...]

Alex Rodriguez? Whatever… (Oh America!)

The initial talk surrounding the “Alex Rodriguez tested positive” centered around three thoughts: 1) What has the world come to; 2) Is anyone in professional baseball clean, and; 3) Poor A-Rod is being scapegoated. Everyone everywhere, from Sports Illustrated reporters to USA Today reporters to ESPN reporters/talking heads are making sure that Rodriguez’s “legacy” remains intact. Lee Jenkins of SI [read more...]

The Officiating Farce that Was Super Bowl XLIII

The Super Bowl XLIII culprits: Head referee Terry McAulay, umpire Roy Ellison, head linesman Derick Bowers, line judge Mark Perlman, field judge Greg Gautreaux, side judge Michael Banks, and back judge Keith Ferguson.By halftime the Arizona Cardinals were whistled for a whopping six penalties, while the Pittsburgh Steelers were flagged only once. By game’s end the Cardinals compiled 12 penalties [read more...]

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