March Madness, Madness: The Refs Help Michigan State Advance over NMSU

Ten minutes after I wrote my Friday article about the officiating bias – aka, game-fixing- in the Villanova-Robert Moriss and Wake Forest-Texas games, the producers of Mike and Mike in the Morning decided to devote two full segments of the radio-television simulcast – separated by commercials – to a #8 vs. #9 Thursday game. That game was Wake-Texas. Oddly, Doug Gottlieb, who [read more...]

March Madness: Low Seeds Soar; Villanova-Robert Morris, Texas-Wake Forest Officiating Travesties

First, some Thursday tidbits: -A #14 (Ohio) and #13 (Murray State) seed won for the first time ever on the same day. -A record seven lower seeds won on the same day. -Eight of the 10 mid-major conference teams in the tournament won on day one. -Eight of the 16 Thursday games were decided by three or fewer points. -There were three overtime games [read more...]

Skip Bayless Claims 2001-2002 Season New England-Oakland Playoff Game Was Fixed by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue

The following conversation took place this morning during the second down portion of 1st and 10, a group of debate segments aired daily on the ESPN morning show, First Take. Jay Crawford (JC) is the moderator. The debaters are former Oakland Raiders fullback Jon Ritchie (JR) and segment regular Skip Bayless (SB): JC: Skip, is basketball the easiest game to fix? SB: [read more...]

NBA Finals: Lakers Go up 2-0, Stan “Van Panics” in OT

ABC’s NBA Finals Game 2 telecast begins with… a Big Mac commercial. Here we go. Rafer begins the game with an ill-advised drive against Pau. KB misses a short J. Courtney Lee scores. Wow 10:43, already there’s a foul called on Bynum…  FINALLY. On the next possession a moving screen is called on the Magic - Rashard Lewis All Game 1 I [read more...]

NBA Finals: LA Plays Through; Orlando Folds

I was forced to watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals on my DVR because I went to an incredible show Thursday night (guitarist Robin Tower, if you must know - think Jimi Hendrix… dude is almost 65 and still plays his ass off!). Anyway, thank goodness for DVRs….. here’s what I saw. It was evident from the first quarter that we [read more...]

NBA Finals, Los Angeles vs. Orlando: A Champion Will Be Crowned in Six Games

The primary characters want “It” for vastly different reasons.  Yet, the primary character want “It” for the same reason. For Phil Jackson, it is to usurp legendary Boston Celtics head coach Red Auerbach and break their present tie of winning nine NBA championships each. For Dwight Howard it to be perceived as one of the greatest players of this era. For Kobe Bryant it [read more...]

NBA Playoffs: Orlando-Cleveland, Game 5 - Thoughts as the Game Progressed…

LeBron goes to work against Dwight Howard. I decided to do something a little different, perhaps even novel (NOT!). Rather than write out my observations after the fact, I want to let you in on what I’m seeing and thinking during the game - as if that’s of any real interest. But I was getting bored with postgame, player-ref-coaching analysis, so [read more...]

NBA Playoffs: Orlando Pushes Cleveland to the Brink - an Addendum on Mike Brown’s Defensive Disaster

Mo Williams must rise to the challenge of Game 6 or the Cavs are done.     Mo Williams guaranteed a Cleveland win. The original influence peddler - William “Wes” Wesley decades before Wesley ever thought of aligning himself with the likes of Michael Jordan and LeBron James - Jim Goldstein brought his trademark cowboy hat, gold jacket, and his mojo and sat [read more...]

NBA Playoff: Denver-LA Game 4 Sure Looked Crooked from Here

J.R. Smith gets his stupid on. First, let me say that if the Los Angeles Lakers lose this series, on the player side, it will be because Lamar Odom refused to engage himself in the game. Other than two defende inbounds passes, Odom has played as if he is totally uninterested in basketball. Secondly, the Lakers, with Odom spearheading the lack [read more...]

NBA Playoffs: Cleveland in Trouble; Lakers Might Just Need to Fight

LeBron James attempted at least 17  jump shots out of his 28 attempts from the floor in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. Yet he attempted 24 free throws, 12 alone in the fourth quarter in Cleveland’s 99-89 loss to Orlando. As Charles Barkley, in his capacity as TNT analyst said, “The referees have been terrible in both series - [read more...]

Next Page »

Monthly Archives

March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008