Did Beckham take Brady or Zidane to the ESPYs?

While David Beckham is most likely enjoying a romantic honeymoon with French footballer Zinedine Zidane, it was Landon Donovan who got the shaft at the 2008 ESPY awards. Who am I to question the great and powerful ESPYs? While David Beckham is likely the prettiest player in the MLS (as evident by the ESPY nod), I don't think you can hand [read more...]

SSNN posts for the weeks of June 24th through July 8th

I'm going to start posting a few links to my SSNN posts for the previous link, so you all can see what we've got going on over there and hopefully enjoy a couple of those stories. CC Sabathia confused by new nickname MILWAUKEE -- CC Sabathia had an unusual request of reporters in Milwaukee upon arriving with the team Tuesday – no [read more...]

Soccer Basher Mad Tea Party

Dear FIFA, U.S. Soccer Fan, MLS, and Euro 2008: I know you want America to love you, but it's just not working out. You aren't trying hard enough to make this relationship blossom -- and I think you should seek counseling. The British-sounding guy doing all the Euro 2008 commercials just isn't sexy to America. You can do better soccer nation. If [read more...]

Lakers v Celtics

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Lakers Game 4 Collapse More a Beginning Than an End

When you think about it, it is amazing that the Los Angeles Lakers even made it to Game 5 of the 2007-08 NBA Championship series. This young team with only two players over 30 and only three born before 1980 has made it farther than even they expected and should be commended for their achievements. However, after four games of this [read more...]

Celtics v Lakers

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Celtics Fan, You Should Have Married Your Childhood Sweetheart

I know you want it to be like the first time you locked sweaty hands in 7th grade with Suzie B. Kute, but I'm going to put it to you as bluntly as I can: 2008 Lakers vs. Celtics ain't 1987; not 1985; not even close. Celtics fan, I know you're still jazzed-up from the "Beat LA" victory in game one, [read more...]

The NBA Finals: And the Winner Is…

By June 19 either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Boston Celtics will be handed the Larry O'Brien trophy. When this occurs the two teams will have combined to win exactly half of the NBA championships - 31 of 62 - since the league's inception. But the question is: Which team will win number 31? The "Big Three" equals one Kobe. Think about [read more...]

Phil’s Quest for 10

When Game 1 of the historic 2008 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics tips off on Thursday night, the answers to many questions will finally come to light. Does Kevin Garnett have the inner-drive to dominate a defender who has one-third of his skills? Can Lamar Odom fill the Finals X-Factor shoes that Robert Horry [read more...]

Kobe Bryant: The Jaundiced View of a Superstar

Right here before these playoffs end, before we get to the Finals, it is important to put Kobe Bean Bryant in some sort of perspective. His Los Angeles Lakers - and make no mistake, on the court they are his Lakers - are winning and winning big. They finished first in the highly-competitive Western Conference with a 57-win season. They [read more...]

How the Lakers Will Fare in the Western Conference Finals

For the Detroit Pistons 1989-1990 capped off consecutive runs that ended in Chuck Daly's team holding the Larry O'Brien Trophy. For the Chicago Bulls 1989-1990 marked consecutive seasons losing to Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals. After that season, after losing 4-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Pistons Bulls head coach Phil Jackson' team understood the leader's message and [read more...]

Kobe Bryant

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Lakers and Celtics, Make it So

Even without the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs, this is one of the better postseasons I've ever seen. It seems like every team still remaining has a chance to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy in about... say six months. I know, the postseason is that long. I know that it would probably go down as one of the most over-hyped series [read more...]

MVP Kobe Does What the Greatest Do

There are beauties and there are beasts. In the NBA both are considered for MVP consideration. Chris Paul with his 21 points, 11.6 assists to only 2.5 assists, and league-leading 2.7 steals is a beauty. Kevin Garnett, who led the Boston Celtics to 66 victories and was the Defensive Player of the Year, is a beast. But neither won the MVP. The [read more...]

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets: A Repeat of Last Year’s #1 vs. #8?

Seven games separate the Los Angeles Lakers from the Denver Nuggets and some pundits believe L.A. is a clear favorite to defeat the Nuggets. Seven games separate the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons and yet none of these pundits would predict that the Celtics would defeat the Pistons in anything other than a hard-fought six or seven game series. So [read more...]

Bulls Season In Review - Part 1

Wow, that was painful. The only solace Bulls fans can take from a miserable 2007-08 season is that it wasn't just Chicago that was optimistic about the team coming into this season. After three straight playoff appearances and an 06-07 season that featured 49 wins and a first-round playoff sweep of the Miami Heat, even the World Wide Leader was buying [read more...]

Impact Players

It's unlikely there has ever been an NBA regular season with more intriguing storylines than the 2007-08 one. It started last summer, when both Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were traded from last place teams in the Western Conference to the new Beast of the East, the Boston Celtics. That was followed by Lakers star Kobe Bryant demanding a trade, [read more...]

This Season’s NBA in Many Ways Resembles Another in the Distant Past

Every NBA pundit tells us that this season's Western Conference teams are like no other in NBA history. Should Denver win tonight at home against Memphis, every playoff team in the West will have won 50 games. Golden State, the 9th-place team in the West, ends its season tonight at home against the Seattle SuperSonics. Should the Warriors win they [read more...]

The MVP Debate

I've heard the NBA has an image problem . I've heard the Seattle SuperSonics, a team that won the 1979 NBA Championship and only three years ago won the Northwest Division with a 52-30 record, are on the verge of moving to Oklahoma City and their fans aren't all that happy. I know one of the league's premiere franchises, [read more...]

FSR Daily

-The Twins' Francisco Liriano is having problems with his visa and expects to be late for the team's Spring Training. Add to that the Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss all of last year, and Liriano's fantasy value is plummeting. -Rumors of a serious Albert Pujols injury are floating around. -Kobe's finger injury is worse than was initially expected, and [read more...]

FSR Daily

-And the Jason Kidd trade is once again off. Devean George has blocked the trade and Mavs coach Avery Johnson didn't seem optimistic it would get done. Again, if and when this trade goes through, we'll review all it's fantasy impact. -Shaq, or 'The Big Winded', will not make his Phoenix debut until after the All-Star break. -Kobe continues to have problems [read more...]

Shaquille O’Neal Trapped in a Double-Team of His Own Making

"Shaquille O'Neal's arrogance is an insult to people who think."That amazingly honest public statement was made by Bill Walton Sunday on ESPN's SportsCenter. The show's host Chris McKendry - understandably - laughed uncomfortably and tried to verbally wiggle out of and around that damning comment. I've had conversations with people recently about O'Neal and the stunning similarity in his flagging performance [read more...]

Time for the Running of the Bulls

There are a million excuses for this year's abysmal Bulls performance. Writers, including myself, have speculated ad nauseam about the preseason contract extensions never signed, the Kobe rumors, Scott Skiles "losing" the team, missed opportunities in the past lotteries, the small backcourt, the lack of inside scoring, and on and on. While some of those may even be valid reasons for [read more...]

Can a Window Be Closed Before It Opens?

Let me take you back, Bulls fans. Take you back a few years and a million lifetimes ago, before I ever had any foolish dreams about wanting to be a writer. Entering the 2003-04 season, Bill Cartwright was the coach of a young Bulls franchise that featured unproven young bucks: Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Jamal Crawford, Jay Williams, and a rookie [read more...]

Kobe, Barry, Adam and Tank: The Black Villains Club

On ESPN radio and television simulcast show Mike and Mike in the Morning, baseball guy Buster Olney, sitting in for Mike Golic, called Kobe Bryant, "the biggest baby in sports." Further, he implied that Bryant is a cancer with the rhetorical question: "Is Kobe Bryant a cancer?"Olney's question comes on the heels of word from Bryant's camp (whatever that means) [read more...]

Kobe Bryant: Black Jesus Wears #24

The person becomes the persona until the persona crushes the person. ------------- On the basketball court he is a lyricist like no other. His flows resonate so deeply with his audience that they are left gasping at the end of his show. In between, syncopated beats go well beyond the set 16 bars, sometimes shortened to 12, eight, and then in a [read more...]

LeBron Changes… Everything

6/2/2007 6:00:00 PM by D.K. Wilson Bye-bye Kobe. Can you say Sisyphus? ------------------------ What franchise is worth more, the NBA or Nike? Oh, I thought so. Because Bron Bron, the Game One idiot savant with his idiosyncratic way of pounding opposing players with his body on the way to the rack like the cartoon Bam Bam, sloughed off the "idiot" and looks [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Breaking Down the Boo

When Rafael Palmeiro made his first appearance at the plate after serving his suspension for steroids, I expected to hear the boos and catcalls normally reserved for athletes who screw up. With steroids such a hot-button issue, I figured the PA Announcer would have a hard time even getting his name out over the razzes and huzzahs. Imagine my surprise when [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Jackson Can’t Get His Fill of L.A.

One of my favorite comedies of all-time is Tommy Boy, the classic tale of fatty-does-right. In particular, one of the best scenes in the movie is when Chris Farley gets into a fistfight with David Spade, and as Farley is coming around the car to thrown down, Spade says, "You are going to regret volunteering for this assignment. I'm gonna [read more...]

Moss Antics a Mere Cultural Caper

American culture is often generalized unfavorably through the publicized acts of few. Individuals from Madonna to McCarthy have been inaccurate symbols of everything from our fashion sense to our ideals. As a country we are even unfairly ridiculed. This week, we hear of our "stinginess" internationally in the wake of the tsunami disasters. How anyone (even the New York Times [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Master Debaters, Part Deux

Following the rousing success of the first debate between me and Tom (and by rousing, I mean my mother liked it), we came back this week for round two. Just like the presidential debate Friday night, this will be in a town hall forum, with each of us responding to questions asked by a panel of sports fans. In this case, [read more...]

Kobe Bryant Case a Predictable Plot

This was a meteor, or perhaps, a Hollywood meteor disaster movie. It had all the elements: total destruction, doom and despair, tears, tattoos, some new bling for the wife before Daddy goes to take on the disaster. It had it all. But the finale? Same ole'. Kobe Bryant will survive as the main character in this summer's Hollywood blockbuster court case. With [read more...]

Hart Surgery: End of the Lake Show?

Most of the time, the sports world is a continuous spectacle. Season bleeds into season, sport merges with sport, and rarely does anything really stand out. Occasionally, an event will transcend like the Olympics, or a heavily anticipated title fight - but rarely does it involve a major sport. I would argue, however, that Game 5 Thursday night between the Lakers and Spurs is such [read more...]

The Sports Anti-Oscar Goes To….

Sports and Hollywood should be the antithesis of one another.Hollywood has awards based on the subjective, sports on the scoreboard. The sporting world lives for championships and morphine for dislocated shoulders. Hollywood lives for its award shows and botox for dislocated eyebrows. Like hockey playoffs, Hollywood award season is one unto itself. Fortunately, hockey players have too few teeth or are [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Threesomes!

A report out Tuesday says the Lakers are going to sign Gary Payton. As my friend Josh points out, if the Lakers sign Payton, they will now possess the world's best center, best shooting guard, and a top-5 point guard. They will also have the world's best coach, best two perimeter defenders, and the game's most intimidating post presence. Many [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Chew on This

The last week has been an absolute blur to me. Driving back and forth from Syracuse to Bethlehem, PA, on Friday. Flying to Jackson, MS, on Sunday. Driving to Memphis, Tupelo, Oxford, and back to Jackson Monday and Tuesday. All this travel has left me weary, and struggling to focus on a topic for discussion for this week's column. Figuring [read more...]

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