Friday, May 28, 2010

Funny Sports Pictures


Ozzie Guillen Signed this for a Fan in Cleveland.


Venus at the French Open.........


He actually lived too!


Nice Shirt!


You can't play across from that!


What a Catch!


Some say this is why she is losing now, because of picture #2


I think he got this big by hard work??????

Thursday, May 27, 2010

NBA Free Agency Watch - NBA 2K11



Report: Air Jordan on Cover, Possibly Playable in NBA 2K11

ESPN, citing multiple unnamed sources, says 2K Sports is pursuing basketball's greatest player ever, Michael Jordan, for the cover of NBA 2K11 and may have plans to feature him as a playable character in the game.
Jon Robinson, ESPN's sports gaming columnist, adds that he's "heard whispers" that 2K has been in negotiations with Jordan's teammates and opponents to appear in NBA 2K11. That fuels speculation that Jordan will be playable in the game, at least in recreated his iconic career moments - such as his 44 points and game-winning jumper against Cleveland in the first round of the 1989 playoffs, or the shoulder-shrugging 35-point first-half performance against Portland in the 1992 NBA Finals. Or berating Kwame Brown during practice in his second comeback with the Washington Wizards.
Robinson also notes that, if Jordan does make the cover, it'll be the first time any team executive has appeared on the cover of a sports video game. Jordan is the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.
I emailed 2K Sports who, understandably, hasn't answered the request for comment. It's a good bet more on this will be known at E3 next month.
Though up-and-comers like Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans have been rumored for the slot, 2K's cover decision might be motivated by the publisher's need to outdo itself. Last year's NBA 2K10 featured Kobe Bryant. There's only one player to go to if you're trying to top Bryant, after a championship year no less, and if LeBron James said no thanks, only a hall-of-famer like Jordan would represent a step up. 2K Sports has spared little expense or effort to defend its marquee title's top-of-the-heap status, so pursuing Jordan would be very much in character for them.
But when I heard 2K was considering an awesome dunker with ties to Charlotte's NBA franchise, I thought they were gonna stick Rex Chapman on the cover. Still no love for the original Hornets. Sad.







Tampering of a different kind: LeBron, Wade and Johnson to discuss plans together
msnbc.com
It's a whole different kind of collusion, and there is nothing the league can do about it.
Some time next month, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Joe Johnson are all going to sit down together and talk free agency plans, Wade told the Chicago Tribune. All before the July 1 official start to free agency.
"(Free agency) has been three years coming," Wade said. "We've discussed it prematurely, at different times. (But) you don't know what guys are thinking and where they're going. I think we'll all sit down, and before one of us makes a decision, all of us will have spoken to each other and (listened to the) thinking.
"A lot of decisions (will be based on) what other players are willing to do and what other guys want to do. So it's not just a 'me' situation here. We all have to look and see what each other is thinking."
Bottom line, they are going to choreograph the dance. They will work to set up package deals.
The players will talk with each other, and unofficially they will know what the teams are thinking (although they won't say that). The NBA has a tampering problem, it just can't really do anything about it. Oh, sure they can fine Mark Cuban or Steve Kerr when they foolishly speak on the record about such things, they can make a big show, but it doesn't really solve the problem.
Back channel conversations are a constant in the NBA. A whole separate network of discussions goes on through intermediaries. Talks that are unofficial because the two main parties don't speak directly. For example, R Nets president Rod Thorn emphatically denied having reached out to Phil Jackson -- and Jackson backing him up -- to discuss their coaching vacancy. But that is an easy conversation to have quietly, with a contact of the new owner reaching out to an associate of Jackson's to just gauge interest. In this case that conversation may or may not have happened, but the point is it easily could have. And similar conversations do happen all the time.
So when the players all get on the conference call next month, they are going to have a lot of information. By the time July 1 rolls around, our own Ira Winderman pointed that teams will know who is available.
But it looks like the players (and their agents) will be picking the dance partners, not the other way around.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Buckeye Wednesday


Ready to Lead?
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — Terrelle Pryor is the starting quarterback at Ohio State.
Quarterbacks by nature are supposed to be the leaders of a football team. The position itself has become synonymous with great field generals like Bart Starr, Joe Montana, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and even Tim Tebow (you didn’t really think you were going to get away from him just because he wasn’t in Gainesville did you?).
For all his flaws as a quarterback, Tebow was everything Urban Meyer could have wished for as a leader. The Heisman Trophy winner gave Florida a rare mix of competitive fire and judicious composure in the heat of battle that coaches dream of finding at the game’s most critical position.
The Buckeyes are hoping they can capture that same type of mixture in their ultra-competitive quarterback from Pennsylvania.
“As a quarterback we talk a lot about being a leader no matter what your age is,” said Pryor, who will enter his third season as the quarterback at Ohio State this fall.
“So I try to lead no matter if I'm the youngest on the team or not.”
In two years at the helm of the OSU offense, Pryor has a record of 20-4 as a starter. He is coming off a marquee showing against Oregon in the Rose Bowl, a game the Buckeyes desperately needed to win in order to snap a three-year bowl losing streak.
He has racked up over 5,000 yards and 44 touchdowns in his brief college career, but does that alone make Pryor the leader of the Buckeyes in 2010?
“He’s calmer, more composed. He’s getting older as a person, and that makes a huge difference,” quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano said during spring camp.
Even Head Coach Jim Tressel admits he wasn’t sure Pryor would have two Big Ten titles, two wins over Michigan, two BCS bowl appearances and a Rose Bowl win under his belt before the age of 21.
For as good as the numbers and accolades might appear on paper, there have also been some rough moments for Pryor during his first two years of college football. His first experience in a big game—albeit as a backup—was a 35-3 thrashing at the hands of USC.
Pryor took over as the starter under center the following week, but it was in week nine of the 2008 season that he made his first critical error as the quarterback at Ohio State, one that would ultimately cost the Buckeyes the game against No. 3 Penn State.
His decision to go for the end zone instead of keeping the ball inside for a first down lead to a game-changing fumble late in the fourth quarter. It was a decision that ultimately led to the Nittany Lions’ game-winning score in Pryor’s first loss as the starting quarterback.
A year later, Pryor threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball twice as Purdue upset the Buckeyes 26-18 in an ugly, ugly game in West Lafayette.
“Every time somebody asks me, I tell them, ‘Now just remember when you were 21 years old, all the mistakes you made and all of the things you might have said that were incorrect, so you’ve just got to remember that,” Siciliano said of his quarterbacks mistakes.
“I know all of the bad decisions I made when I was 21, I’m trying to stop them at 35.”
Siciliano and the Buckeyes are hoping Pryor can stop them a lot sooner. After passing for nearly 2,100 yards and rushing for nearly 800 as a sophomore in 2009, much more is expected of the 6-foot-6 quarterback as he prepares for his junior season. But is he ready to handle the type of leadership this team will need from its quarterback if they are going to make a run at the national title in 2010?
“I feel like I'm more of a people person now,” Pryor said during spring ball.
“I feel like I have a relief off my chest all the time and I can be just happy all the time and enjoy my teammates and talk with all my teammates no matter who it is and hold conversations with people outside of football.
“I feel great as an individual and I feel great as a quarterback.”
Offensive coordinator Jim Bollman noticed a difference in Pryor on and off the field this spring.
“In all aspects,” said Bollman.
“In the huddle and what he wants to try to do. What he wants to attempt to do. How he's throwing the ball. How he's taking charge and just his knowledge of the whole picture.”
Pryor’s new level of confidence and maturity is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by his teammates, especially the ones that have to line up and play against him every day in practice.
“He just has this ‘no doubt’ look in his eyes,” cornerback Devon Torrence said.
“He’s really confident right now. If he carries that over into the season, he’s going to have a really great season this year.”





Wimmers Repeats as Pitcher of the Year
Hurley joins him on all-Big Ten 1st-team; Dew and Stephens are 2nd- and 3rd-team honorees
OSU Press Release
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Four Buckeyes were selected to the All-Big Ten Conference team today, including junior right-hander Alex Wimmers being named Big Ten Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive year, the conference office announced.
Wimmers, a junior from Cincinnati, was a unanimous first-team selection and senior Zach Hurley, from Springboro, Ohio, was also named a first-team outfielder. Worthington, Ohio senior Ryan Dew was tabbed the second-team designated hitter and Victorville, Calif., senior Michael Stephens was named a third-team outfielder.
Wimmers, a National Pitcher of the Year Award and Golden Spikes Award candidate, becomes the first pitcher in conference history to receive the Pitcher of the Year Award two years in a row. Wimmers was co-Pitcher of the Year in 2009 with Indiana’s Eric Arnett. Former Buckeye Justin Fry is the only other pitcher in the Big Ten Conference to win the award twice, earning it in 1997 and again in 1999.
Despite battling a hamstring injury and missing four weeks at the tail end of the season, Wimmers posted a 9-0 record with a 1.60 earned-run average over 10 starts. The Cincinnati native gave up just 58 hits and struck out 86 batters over 73 innings pitched. Opposing batters hit just .218 off Wimmers and he tossed two complete game victories against Indiana and Penn State, striking out 25 over those two contests.
Hurley, a 2010 co-captain, led the Buckeyes and ranked third in the Big Ten with a .385 batting average. Hurley was not only an excellent table-setter, but he was a most valuable offensive performer as he lead the Buckeyes in runs (51), hits (85), doubles (19), triples (4), total bases (133) and slugging percentage (.602). He also tied for second on the team with seven home runs.


Dew led all Buckeyes with 46 runs batted in to go with his .348 batting average and 38 runs scored. The senior designated hitter/first baseman also saw some time in right field late in the season and tied for second on the team with seven home runs.
Stephens led the Buckeyes with 10 home runs while batting .360 with seven doubles and 43 runs batted in. The center fielder also stole five bases and scored 39 runs as he was named All-Big Ten both seasons at Ohio State after transferring from Fullerton College in California.






The Top 5 Conferences for 2010 College Football
espn.com
Missouri and Nebraska to the Big Ten? Clemson and Florida State to the SEC?
Let's take a break from the conference-realignment hysteria to talk about the conferences that are actually in place.
With the start of the 2010 season less than four months away, it's time to examine how the 11 college football conferences will stack up.
I'm betting 2010 will look a lot like 2009. And 2008. And 2007. And 2006.
From top to bottom, the SEC figures to be the country's strongest conference. The SEC might not be as strong as it was during the past few seasons, but neither will the Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-10.



1. SEC

Defending BCS national champion Alabama will try to become the fifth consecutive SEC team to win a national title in 2010. The Crimson Tide won a BCS crown in 2009, Florida won in 2006 and '08 and LSU won in '07. The Crimson Tide must replace nine starters on defense, but they might return one of the best offenses in school history. Florida probably will take a small step back without quarterback Tim Tebow and eight other players who were drafted by NFL teams, but Tebow's replacement, John Brantley, figures to keep the Gators from falling off the map. Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina are all capable of being surprises in 2010.



2. Big Ten

If quarterback Terrelle Pryor plays the way he did against Oregon in the Rose Bowl, Ohio State might be an overwhelming favorite to win the Big Ten championship. And if the Buckeyes can navigate their way through home games against Miami and Penn State and road games at Wisconsin and Iowa, they also might be a legitimate BCS title threat. Meanwhile, the Badgers, Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions might be Ohio State's biggest threats in the Big Ten race. But unless Michigan can pull off a complete turnaround in coach Rich Rodriguez's third season, the rest of the conference figures to be mediocre or worse.




3. Big 12

The Big 12 will go through a transition period without star players like departed quarterbacks Colt McCoy of Texas and Sam Bradford of Oklahoma as well as defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska. But the league's overall depth remains very strong, especially if Nebraska can continue its resurgence under coach Bo Pelini. Oklahoma State might not be as stout without quarterback Zac Robinson and receiver Dez Bryant, and Kansas (Turner Gill) and Texas Tech (Tommy Tuberville) have new coaches. If new defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter can shore up Texas A&M's defense, the Aggies might be the league's biggest surprise.



4. Pac-10

The league's overall strength took tremendous blows when USC coach Pete Carroll bolted for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was suspended for the 2010 season for off-the-field problems. The Ducks and Trojans still seem to be the teams to beat in the Pac-10 in 2010, but neither team figures to be a juggernaut. Former Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin replaces Carroll and inherits what might be a roster with diminishing returns. Quarterback Matt Barkley returns, but USC must replace seven players who were drafted by NFL teams. Ducks coach Chip Kelly is counting on former starter Nate Costa to replace Masoli. Oregon State always exceeds expectations, and the Beavers should be potent on offense with Jacquizz and James Rodgers returning to school. Stanford has to survive without bruising tailback Toby Gerhart, but quarterback Andrew Luck might have the Cardinal in the Pac-10 hunt by season's end.



5. ACC

Is this the year Virginia Tech returns to the national title hunt? The Hokies haven't had as many weapons on offense since Michael Vick was running it. With quarterback Tyrod Taylor and tailbacks Darren Evans and Ryan Williams returning, the Hokies will be very difficult to slow down. If defensive coordinator Bud Foster can rebuild his unit -- and if Tech can win its Sept. 6 opener against Boise State at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. -- the Hokies might be in the thick of the BCS hunt. Georgia Tech must replace three departed stars (tailback Jonathan Dwyer, receiver Demaryius Thomas and defensive end Derrick Morgan), but coach Paul Johnson always seems to plug players into his triple-option, spread offense and not miss a beat. Florida State should have one of the country's more explosive offenses under new coach Jimbo Fisher, but former Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops might need time to rebuild the FSU defense. Miami continues to make much progress under coach Randy Shannon and might be even better if quarterback Jacory Harris cuts down on his mistakes. Even without departed star C.J. Spiller, Clemson can't be overlooked in the ACC's Atlantic Division.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Top Sports News Stories


Cavaliers fire Brown as coach
www.si.com
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Of the many reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers had for firing coach Mike Brown after five seasons without an NBA title, one mattered most.
They can't lose LeBron James.
Less than two weeks after their stunning, second-round loss to Boston in the playoffs, the Cavaliers fired Brown on Monday, an expected move that perhaps indicates the team believes it can re-sign James, the two-time MVP and free agent-in-waiting.
Brown was the most successful coach in franchise history. In five seasons, he led the Cavs to the playoffs every year, to the finals in 2007 and to 127 wins in the past two seasons. But Brown failed to win a championship, and after Cleveland's second straight early exodus from the postseason -- a collapse that included two blowout losses at home and dissension in the Cavs' locker room -- and with James about to explore free agency, owner Dan Gilbert decided to make a change.
"After a long and deep analysis of all of the factors that led to the disappointing early ends to our playoff runs over the past two seasons, we concluded that it was time for the Cavaliers to move in a different direction," Gilbert said in a statement. "The expectations of this organization are very high and, although change always carries an element of risk, there are times when that risk must be taken in an attempt to break through to new, higher levels of accomplishment.
"This is one of those times."
The Cavs did not hold a news conference to explain their decision to relieve Brown, who went 314-177 and was the league's coach of the year in 2009.
Brown was not immediately available for comment. No one answered the door at his home in Westlake, Ohio.
A James family publicist said the superstar is out of town on vacation and would not be available to comment on Brown's dismissal.
Boston's Doc Rivers and Orlando's Stan Van Gundy, the coaches who knocked Brown and the Cavs from the playoffs the past two years, expressed disappointment in Cleveland's decision.
"Obviously, I was not thrilled to see it," Rivers said before Game 4 in Boston. "I wonder what you have to do to keep your job -- back-to-back 60-win seasons. Our profession is tough."
Said Van Gundy: "Franchises have the right to make any decisions they want. You can't do a hell of a lot better. There's not a coach in the league that has done better than Mike Brown."
The Cavaliers were under a deadline to dismiss Brown. If they had waited beyond 10 days after the season, they would have had to pay the 40-year-old coach his salary for next season. Cleveland's assistant coaches remain under contract for 2010-11.
The team now faces an even more pressing deadline. James can become a free agent on July 1, when he'll head a free-agent class unlike any other in league history. He will hit the market with fellow superstars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and others, and while the expected bidding wars are weeks away, the speculation and suspense are hanging over the NBA playoffs.
James has said winning will be the most important factor in choosing a team. In building around him, the Cavs have already shown their commitment to giving the 25-year-old James the tools he needs to win multiple titles.
Now, by firing Brown, who won more than 66 percent of his games, the Cavs have again demonstrated a willingness to go beyond the norm to make James happy. While the All-Star forward did not call for Brown's head, it was clear during the Boston series that James and his coach were not on the same page.
The Cavs, though, are in a bind as complex as any defense they saw in the playoffs.
James will likely keep his options open until free agency begins, and without an agreement from him, it will be almost impossible for the team to land a high-profile coach since any prospective coach can't be assured he'll have James.
Beyond that, general manager Danny Ferry's contract expires next month and there's no guarantee he wants to stay around.
If Ferry isn't re-signed, the Cavs face the prospect of preparing for the NBA college draft and free agency without a coach or GM -- hardly the position they thought they'd be in after winning 61 regular-season games and dispatching Chicago in the first playoff round.
It gets even trickier. Gilbert will undoubtedly try to make a big splash to convince James to stay, but to do so he'll likely have to land a high-profile coach. There's no indication Gilbert has reached out to anyone yet but the top-tier candidate list would include people like Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State's Tom Izzo or Kentucky's John Calipari, a close friend of James, whose seat near Cleveland's bench added awkward drama to the Cavs' loss in Game 5 to the Celtics.
Jackson's contract with the Lakers expires after this season. The 10-time champion has talked about retirement and recently said he can't imagine himself coaching anywhere else, but that may not stop Gilbert from making him a strong pitch -- especially if James is part of the package.
Krzyzewski and James formed a strong bond in three seasons together on the U.S. Olympic team, winning a gold medal in Beijing two years ago. Krzyzewski came close to leaving Duke for the Lakers in 2004, and if he's ever going to test his mettle in the pro game, the opportunity to coach James could be enough to pry him from campus.
Also, assuming he stays, Ferry is close with Krzyzewski, whom he played for in college and still calls "coach."
"The NBA rumors have been addressed several times in recent years by coach Krzyzewski," Duke spokesman Jon Jackson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He has repeatedly stated that he will be the Duke head coach for the remainder of his career."
Gilbert has always been impressed with Izzo, who fits the tough-minded defensive profile the owner was looking for when he hired Brown in 2005. Also, Gilbert is a Michigan State graduate. Izzo has turned down previous NBA overtures, but maybe none as big as what Gilbert might offer.
And then there's Calipari, who has insisted he'll stay at Kentucky. But that's not likely to stop the Cavs from reaching out to Calipari to gauge his interest in coming to Cleveland, a move that could keep James home.
Brown, meanwhile, did everything in his five seasons with the Cavs -- everything but win a title. In the end, that meant Gilbert had little choice but to let him go.
The Cavs owner can't let James walk away as easily.


Michigan's Self-Imposed Punishment for Ncaa Violations
www.espn.com
The University of Michigan on Tuesday admitted to a series of violations in its storied football program, but insisted the problems related to practice time and the activities of graduate assistants were not enough to warrant major punishment from the NCAA.
Michigan released details of self-imposed sanctions it hopes will satisfy the NCAA, whose staff will hold a hearing on the case in August. A final decision on NCAA penalties could take months.

Michigan's self-imposed penalties
Penalties self-imposed by the Michigan football program Tuesday:

• Cut back practice and training time by 130 hours over the next two years, starting this summer.

• Cut number of assistants from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings for the rest of 2010.

• Recommendation for two years of probation. The school said it should not be tagged as a repeat offender despite a 2003 scandal in the basketball program.

• Letters of reprimand issued to seven people -- including head coach Rich Rodriguez.

• Acknowledged for first time that staffer Alex Herron was fired after his claim of not being present during some activities was discredited by players.


Michigan said it will cut back practice and training time by 130 hours over the next two years, starting this summer. It also trimmed the number of assistants -- the so-called quality control staff -- from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings for the rest of 2010.
"I'm glad to get that over with," coach Rich Rodriguez said Monday night in Midland at the Michigan AP Sports Editors Meeting. "But that is just part of the process."
The self-imposed sanctions included a recommendation for two years of probation for the NCAA's winningest football program, which is 8-16 in two seasons under Rodriguez. The school said it should not be tagged as a repeat offender despite a 2003 scandal in the basketball program.
"We're imposing on ourselves what we believe is corrective actions," athletic director David Brandon said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Ultimately, the NCAA will decide what the appropriate sanctions and penalties are."
The violations came to light last fall during a second straight losing season for Rodriguez, who will return for his third season at Michigan this fall. Anonymous players told the Detroit Free Press that they were exceeding NCAA limits on practice and training time, prompting school and NCAA investigations.
The NCAA has outlined five potentially major rules violations, all related to practices and workouts. It accused Rodriguez of failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance in his program -- a charge Michigan vehemently denied even as it acknowledged an overall failure by the athletic department.
"We think that is overly harsh," Brandon said. "We do believe that there were things he could've done better and Rich would be the first to agree that details he delegated shouldn't have been in retrospect."
Brandon said the school decided not to take away scholarships or eliminate coaching positions.
"That's usually a result of something deemed to be an offense that created a competitive advantage," Brandon said. "Those kind of sanctions are also typically related to academic fraud, gambling, recruiting violations and extra benefits."
Michigan told the NCAA that letters of reprimand were issued to seven people -- including Rodriguez -- who shared responsibility for the violations. One staffer who worked under Rodriguez at West Virginia before joining him at Michigan, Alex Herron, was fired after his claim of not being present during some activities was discredited by players.
The school said two main problems -- too many people acting as coaches and too many hours being put into football by the players -- occurred in part because of "inattention by the football staff."
"The university agrees that it failed as a whole to adequately monitor its football program to assure compliance regarding the limitations upon the number, duties and activities of countabale football coaches and the time limits" for practice," it said. "The university also agrees that Rodriguez failed to satisfy the monitoring responsibilities required of head coaches."
After his hire from West Virginia, Rodriguez filled all five quality control positions in the program -- essentially assistants to assistants who were paid $17 per hour to "run errands for the coaches, check on student-athlete class attendance and academic issues, and chart plays."
The school said the staff "crossed the line in specific situations and engaged in 'coaching activities" as defined by the NCAA.
Rodriguez also told school investigators he didn't know about forms used at Michigan to track athletes' activities until last summer, 18 months after he was hired, and he said no one ever told him those forms were not being filed with compliance officials by his program.
Rodriguez's response was submitted by his attorney, Scott Tompsett. He said the coach was "very disappointed that his administrators failed to provide the job descriptions on multiple occasions and he is disappointed that the compliance staff never brought their failure to his attention. Rodriguez has always had an open-door policy for anyone to bring matters to his attention."
The school said it had discovered the paperwork problem and was working on it when the story broke. The bigger issue was the lack of communication. The school said the football program didn't provide requested information to the compliance office, which failed to alert Rodriguez -- who "should have paid closer attention to his subordinates."
Rodriguez regretted that he didn't adequately monitor certain aspects of his program, but added in his response that following NCAA bylaws was not a "one-man job."
"We're not happy to be in this process, but we're handling it in a professional and transparent manner before we move on," Brandon said. "The NCAA will hear our case in August, then will deliberate as long as is needed -- and that could be weeks -- before making a decision that we can agree with or choose to appeal."


Tressel's wife has heart surgery
CLEVELAND -- The wife of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel is recovering from surgery to repair a heart valve.
Norma Watson, Tressel's mother-in-law, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her daughter, 56-year-old Ellen Tressel, had the operation at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday in hopes of improving blood flow through the heart.
Watson says the procedure went well and her daughter is likely to leave the hospital this weekend. She says the coach plans to stay with his wife for the duration. He's missing the Big Ten's league meetings in Chicago.
Ellen Tressel's mother says doctors detected a problem when she was tested for a heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) that runs in the family. She wasn't ill but had noticed shortness of breath.

Monday, May 24, 2010

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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

2010 NBA Draft Lottery


Wizards win NBA lottery, Nets third
SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) -- With his championship ring on her hand and her late husband's dreams of another on her mind, Irene Pollin stood in shock as the Washington Wizards won the draft lottery.
Towering over her to the side, Mikhail Prokhorov watched the New Jersey Nets lose yet again.
The Wizards won the draft lottery Tuesday night, moving up from the No. 5 spot to earn the top pick in next month's draft, when it will likely choose between Kentucky freshman John Wall and national player of the year Evan Turner of Ohio State.
Washington was represented by Irene Pollin, who wore the 1978 Bullets championship ring of her late husband, longtime owner Abe Pollin. When the Wizards pulled off the surprising win, her jaw dropped and appeared to mouth 'Oh my God!!' with wide eyes.
Abe Pollin died at age 85 in November.
"This is very, very special. I have been in this my entire adult life and to be here, representing my husband, this is very special to me tonight," Irene Pollin said. "I think it's the culmination of my husband's dream because he wanted another ring and maybe this will get us another ring."
The Philadelphia 76ers, another disappointment this season, moved up from the sixth spot to grab the No. 2 pick. The Nets continued the run of failure by teams with the best chance of winning, falling to the third.
Prokhorov, the 6-foot-6 Russian billionaire who was approved as Nets owner last week and had a front row seat for the loss, shrugged off the disappointment.
"Sometimes luck makes all the difference, but it never comes down to one player," Prokhorov said. "I'm sure we're going to get a great player. For our team, the only way is up."
The lottery victory -- despite only a 10.3 percent chance -- is just about the only thing that has gone right in a disastrous year for the Wizards, marred by the suspension of All-Star Gilbert Arenas for bringing guns into the Verizon Center locker room. They finished 26-56 after being widely forecast to finish in the middle of the Eastern Conference.
Irene Pollin hopes the lottery win will help fans forget a turbulent season, when the Wizards also traded former All-Stars Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to cut salary after things fell apart.
"Fans are fickle. But I think this is a wonderful thing for our fans who have really stuck by us," Pollin said. "They really have been through a very, very tough year. Actually when I got up and spoke to them, I was thanking them for sticking by us and being so supportive even though we had all the problems."
Now they hope the No. 1 pick can help spark a quick turnaround under Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, who is close to completing a deal to buy the franchise from the Pollin family. Leonsis met with some NBA owners earlier Tuesday, and the sale is expected to be completed early in June.
"We have a lot of work to do with the franchise," Leonsis said. "The players, the culture, the expectations, the discipline around the team, but I do think it is a breath of fresh air and does revive the franchise and gives us a shot to be an exciting team with a lot of expectations. I know how hard it is to rebuild a team. I am going to be patient but I have a strong belief that our management team and ownership team is very focused."
The Nets had a 25 percent chance of winning after going 12-70. Instead, the team with the worst record still hasn't won since 2004, when the Orlando Magic selected Dwight Howard.
Asked before the lottery about potentially changing the system to keep teams from losing on purpose to improve their probability of winning, commissioner David Stern said he thinks, "the results of the lottery, if anything, are causing teams with the worst record to feel as though a paucity of wins is not being adequately recognized and compensated."
So will Arenas play with the No. 1 pick or be replaced by him?
"I'm just going to come in and work hard ... just try to win games for the organization this year," Wall said.
Team president Ernie Grunfeld told reporters on a conference call that earning the No. 1 pick would not affect the team's plans for Arenas.
"Gilbert is still with us. He's been down at our gym, working out and getting ready," Grunfeld said. "The more good players you have, the better."
But the Wizards will have to do better than they did last time they had the No. 1 pick. That was in 2001, when Hall of Famer and former Washington executive Michael Jordan selected Kwame Brown, considered one of the biggest busts ever at No. 1.
The losers this time were the Minnesota Timberwolves, who fell from second to fourth. Sacramento (No. 5) and Golden State (No. 6) also tumbled -- the second straight year the Kings went the wrong way in the lottery.
The Kings went from first to fourth last year, but did end up with Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans -- who represented them Tuesday. So maybe the Nets shouldn't lose hope.
The NBA draft is June 24 in New York.
Philadelphia brought its own lucky charm, a used hockey stick from the Philadelphia Flyers' rally from 3-0 down to stun the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Still looking for a coach after firing former Wizards coach Eddie Jordan, they stand to grab either Turner or Wall.
"We had a rough year," team president Ed Stefanski said. "We feel that our talent was better than our record but we have to prove it now."


2010 NBA Draft Order First Round
1. Washington
2. Philadelphia
3. New Jersey
4. Minnesota
5. Sacramento
6. Golden State
7. Detroit
8. LA Clippers
9. Utah
10. Indiana
11. New Orleans
12. Memphis
13. Toronto
14. Houston
15. Milwaukee
16. Minnesota
17. Chicago
18. Miami
19. Boston
20. San Antonio
21. Oklahoma City
22. Portland
23. Minnesota
24. Atlanta
25. Memphis
26. Oklahoma City
27. New Jersey
28. Memphis
29. Orlando
30. Washington


Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/nba/05/18/draft.lottery.ap/index.html?eref=sihp#ixzz0oNZy5Xpt
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Wall Wants To Be A Wizard
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
WallBEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- John Wall played it cool, calm and collected through the first 11 announcements of the NBA lottery order Tuesday night.
Then the ESPN broadcast went to a commercial break and he exhaled. Surrounded on agent Dan Fegan's couch by a close circle of friends who are considered family, Brian and Dwon Clifton and Tyrone Williams, Wall started to get a bit fidgety.
All his anticipation about where he could be playing next season -- the buildup for two years of his likely destination after being anointed the top pick in the 2010 NBA draft as a high school senior -- was finally about to come to a close.
"I think it's going to be the Nets," the Kentucky freshman point guard said. "I've just got a feeling."
Fegan, who openly cheered when the Minnesota Timberwolves got the No. 4 pick because he represents Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio (selected by Minnesota last year but choosing to stay in Spain), was ecstatic at the final three teams -- New Jersey, Washington and Philadelphia -- telling the group they were all East Coast cities for the Raleigh, N.C., native, and all major media markets.
When the Nets went No. 3 and the Sixers No. 2 there was silence and then a realization that the Wizards had secured the top pick, leading to a round of applause from within the room.
Wall's not the only winner in this situation.
With the widow of Abe Pollin, Irene, representing the team in Secaucus, N.J., the Wizards lucked out after enduring a season in which Gilbert Arenas brought guns to the locker room and was subsequently suspended by the league and had to serve jail time.
Arenas is still under contract so there's no indication of what will occur with Washington but the roster has been undergoing a makeover, one which will likely continue.
"They need a fresh face coming in right now when the organization had been at an all-time low," Fegan said. "The only place to go is up and if he goes there he can help them win."
Wall and his circle of friends and agents were thrilled over the Wizards getting the top pick. While they were all being cautious not to offend the Sixers or Nets in case the Wizards had a change of heart, there was a clear indication that they anticipate going to Washington. Don't expect Wall to work out for any teams outside of the top three, if it even gets below No. 1.
"I was real nervous coming down to the wire," Wall said. "My goal is to be the No. 1 pick. I can't wait for June 24 and see." It seems likely Wall will reach that goal as ESPN.com polled a third of the league and the consensus was that the point guard will be the No. 1 pick. Now Washington is on the clock.
"President Obama can be at your games," said Wall, as he stood outside on Fegan's patio. "I'll keep working hard and hopefully they'll pick me."
Fegan said he just wanted for Wall to get a "good opportunity. This is a big market with a good opportunity. I've been in situations where we wonder what the teams are going to do. This one is 'wow.' "
"Wow" might also describe the Wizards' season as the team finished with the second-worst record in the East at 26-56 under coach Flip Saunders in his first year with the team.
Those numbers don't faze Wall, however, who said he'll be able to handle going to a team with a losing record just like he went to Kentucky after it had a down year the previous season.
"It wasn't just me," Wall said earlier Tuesday after working out at the 360 Athletic Club in Reseda. "The team believed in me as the point guard. Patrick Patterson was there. We had talent. Wherever I go, there will be a new coach [for him], a new team and I'll be ready to play."
Wall was indeed part of a gifted Kentucky team, but his talent stood out above that of his teammates. Wall's exceptional speed at the point from one end to the other differentiates him from other point guards. His 6-4 frame allows him to elevate and finish. His ballhandling is not an issue. If there was a point of contention with Wall it's his outside shooting. Wall led the Wildcats with 16.6 points a game but shot 32.5 percent on 3-pointers.
"I'm working on all the angles on my jump shot," Wall said. "My jump shot is the key thing. Guys go on the pick and roll and will force me to knock down shots. I want to be one of those point guards who knock down shots you have to get over the top. I want to make it easier on my teammates. I'm not going to take bad shots but take shots that are open for me. I feel like I can be a great defensive player when I put my mind to it for the whole game, not just half the game."
To that end, Wall is already scouting his future competition to pick up a few pointers. Wall was at Staples Center for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Monday night to watch the Lakers and Suns and said he spent the evening studying Kobe Bryant's footwork.
"I have to work on mine," Wall said.
Wall has no problem with putting in the work, on the court or off as he compiled a 3.5 grade point average in his second semester at Kentucky. Wall's GPA dwarfed the overall fall semester GPA of the Wildcats which was reported by The Lexington Herald-Leader as being at a seven-year low of 2.025.
"People thought I was just going to look over college basketball and not take it seriously, not do my school work and just look to the draft," Wall said. "But that wasn't my goal or my mindset. I went to Kentucky to be a better player. Coach [John Calipari] and [assistant] coach [Rod] Strickland helped me get better. The college experience jump-started me to the NBA.
"I finished the semester with a 3.5 and people thought I wouldn't finish school or blow past it since I knew I was going to the NBA," Wall said. "It made me feel good because people say I'm not smart enough or I don't take my school work seriously. But I took it seriously both semesters and finished with a great grade point average."
Now Wall is focusing on his life away from the classroom.
Earlier Tuesday, Wall worked out with noted pre-draft trainer Joe Abunassar as part of his Impact Basketball training group.
Next Wall plans to head to Chicago this week for the NBA's pre-draft combine. As a lottery selection, Wall won't go through the basketball drills but will go through the strength and agility testing as well as medical testing.
Brian Clifton said Wall will get a brief stop in his native Raleigh for a few days before using Tampa as his home base for much of June prior to the draft with a likely stop in Washington at some point prior to June 24. Clifton wanted Wall to be in a much more isolated area and out of the spotlight in his prep work for the draft.
But hiding from the fame has been hard in the sport for Wall recently. He was pegged as the next golden child in a sport that loves to cradle its next super stars from early on in high school through however many years he's in college.
Wall said he's convinced had the NBA not had the rule that a player must sit out a year (in addition to being 19) that he wouldn't have been ready for the league out of high school.
"I wouldn't have been one of those players that could have been something," Wall said. "I needed the maturity to go to college. The one year of experience, listening to the coaches and playing in the Elite Eight helped."
After the euphoria of the lottery selections died down, Wall and his friends sat around Fegan's couch, with the sun setting over Beverly Hills and watched Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Magic and Celtics.
Wall, who will turn 20 on Sept. 6, said his mother Francis Pulley, who was at home in North Carolina, was simply "happy" about the lottery order.
As he looked out over Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Wall collected his thoughts about how far he has come in a few short years of stardom.
"I sit back sometimes and think about it," Wall said. "I think about my life, how my dad passed, how my mom had to have three to four jobs to take care of me and my sister, this means a lot right now."

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Lebron Watch


1. How Will The LeBron Situation Play Out?
ESPN.com

Henry Abbott, TrueHoop: I think he'll go wherever he thinks he can win the most championships as soon as possible. The two most important kinds of teammates he can have are a good big man and a good point guard.
Miami and New York have neither, but either could pair him with another free agent (or two). Chicago has Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, and New Jersey might be able to provide John Wall and Brook Lopez, so those are interesting options.
But nobody can deliver a knockout roster immediately, so the Cavaliers stay in the hunt.

J.A. Adande, ESPN.com: He might take the tour around the league because he likes the attention, but it's hard to see a better situation for him than Chicago, where he could have a potential Hall of Fame sidekick in Derrick Rose and plenty of supporting cast members such as Joakim Noah.
At times in Chicago's first-round series versus the Cavaliers, the only thing keeping the Bulls from winning was LeBron. Imagine if he joined them.

Chris Broussard, ESPN The Magazine: LeBron will visit Chicago (45 percent chance he lands there), New York (18 percent chance) and possibly other places. He'll soul-search about whether he can win titles in Cleveland, where they don't have a ton of roster flexibility. He'll consult other free agents about playing in New York and Chicago. At end of the day, I think he chooses Chicago.

John Hollinger, ESPN.com: He'll soak up all the attention and do the full tour. But at the end of the day I think he's going to try to rig it so he, Wade and Bosh end up on same team, or at least two of them. Right now, that's most plausible in Miami.

Chris Sheridan, ESPN.com: Between now and July 1, the pendulum will swing hard in various directions, and it'll swing harder after that. But when it comes time for the sales pitches to begin, my money is on Mr. Smooth, Pat Riley.
I also wouldn't be shocked if LeBron, Wade and a third free agent all took four-year deals with three-year opt-outs, which means the next Summer of LeBron could come as soon as 2013.

Marc Stein, ESPN.com: I never would have imagined seeing the stay-in-Cleveland numbers so low in mid-May, but I still see staying with the Cavs as the most likely LeBron scenario. It's just not going to be that easy for him to walk away from Dan Gilbert's spare-no-expense ownership -- which might well result in the hiring of John Calipari before the Bulls get him -- and the latest episode of sports torture for the fans in LeBron's backyard … torture with his name on it.
But he's definitely going to take a long look at all the options, even with those Ohio ties, so allow me to spotlight one team in addition to the rising LeBron-to-Chicago speculation, Pat Riley/Dwyane Wade in Miami and the usual New York chatter: New Jersey. If the Nets get John Wall in the lottery to go with new owner Mikhail Prokhorov's riches, LeBron has to listen. Has to.



He doesn't Need New York
By Chris Broussard
ESPN The Magazine
The notion that every player -- or at least every star player -- in the NBA wants to play in New York tickles me.
In the early 2000s, while a Knicks beat writer for The New York Times, I remember being baffled because many of my colleagues and readers thought every skilled free agent was headed to New York -- even though all the Knicks could offer such max-salary talent was the midlevel exception. They thought Grant Hill would leave Detroit for the Knicks (for less coin) and Chris Webber would spurn Sacramento for the Big Apple (and chump change).
Now, New York assumes it's getting LeBron James. At least the Knicks actually have the salary-cap space to pull this off. But while New York has a decent shot at LeBron, the idea that LeBron -- or any other great player -- needs New York or harbors this intense desire to play there is a joke.
LeBron, an endorsement king, is already the face of the NBA, despite being ringless in tiny Cleveland. The Internet and globalization have largely made where a player plays irrelevant in regard to marketing and popularity. So to suggest LeBron needs New York is nuts.

The only thing that can make him bigger is a title, not a town.



LeBron owes it to Cleveland to stay
www.msnbc.com
The LeBron Saga, Part XXVII, in which our hero leaves Cleveland and is forever looked upon by residents of that city as if he were a resident of Pittsburgh.
As all the LeBron speculation and intrigue swirls around the regular-season MVP and where he might end up next after his earlier-than-expected vacation is over, little has been said about how he will be regarded in Cleveland and surrounding areas if he does indeed bail.
Needless to say, it won’t be pretty. Sales of LeBron jerseys in the area will plummet; sales of LeBron effigies will skyrocket. And there would be good reason for that.
If LeBron James leaves the Cavaliers, it wouldn’t be as if he were leaving the Clippers, who, in the NBA’s "Guide to Championship Basketball," are featured only in the chapter, "Don’t Let This Happen To You."
Instead, he will be bolting a franchise that did everything it could to surround him with a team capable of competing for a championship. Of course it didn’t work out that way. But the effort by ownership and management to make it happen was there. At no time did the club say, "That’s enough, LeBron. You should be able to win with what you have."
The Cavaliers’ entire existence in the past couple of years seems to have been dedicated to pleasing LeBron, knowing free agency would happen after this season. Yes, he probably is the best player in the world right now. But if LeBron ends up jilting Cleveland, he will be the most prominent ingrate who ever played the game.
Add to it that he is from Akron and would basically be turning his back on his own people and LeBron James will be pronounced “LeBron $@!%!” in those parts.
LeBron should stay in Cleveland. If he doesn’t, he’ll accomplish something previously believed to be impossible: He’ll raise Art Modell’s name above his in the estimation of the Ohio citizenry.

Monday, May 17, 2010

NFL Super Bowl to the Cold




Super Bowl in the New York area all but a cold, hard reality for NFL
Don Banks www.si.com
Now that the idea of an outdoor Super Bowl played in the chill of early February is just days shy of making the leap from concept to, uh, cold, hard reality, it's time to take a look at what the 2014 game in the New York area might hold in store, from as many perspectives as we can conjure up.
I'll admit, when I first heard the idea of the NFL playing a Super Bowl outdoors at the Meadowlands, my gut reaction was something along the lines of "You can't be serious.'' But in time, playing the league's biggest game in the winter elements is an idea a lot of people seemingly have started to warm up to. We'll find out exactly how many of the people who count the most are in favor of it at the NFL's one-day owners meeting on May 25 in Dallas, when the vote to award the game to New York, Tampa or South Florida is scheduled to be taken.
But the way I read the tea leaves, it'll require a Giants over Patriots-like upset to keep the NFL's 48th Super Bowl from unfolding beneath the frigid night skies of a New Jersey winter in the nation's largest metropolitan area. So let's all just bundle up and deal with it, shall we? We have a little less than three years and nine months to figure out what to wear and how to layer correctly.
What's in it for the NFL?
The theme chosen by the folks putting together the new Meadowlands Stadium Super Bowl bid is a savvy one indeed. They're going with the evocative "Make Some History'' catch phrase, and that's called playing your strongest hand.
Let's face it, everyone has at least a little drive to be part of something historic, and history undoubtedly will be made when the NFL, for the first time, circumvents its requirement that Super Bowls must be played in regions where the minimum average temperature is 50 degrees for that time of year, or in roofed stadiums.
Some of the most memorable postseason games in NFL history have largely been about the weather conditions that prevailed on game day -- think the Ice Bowl in Green Bay, the Tuck Rule game in Foxboro, or that frosty 2007 NFC title game affair at Lambeau Field. Fans who braved those elements and survived wear it like a medal won on the field of battle.
When you tell people they can be part of something that has never happened before, the rarity factor adds an exponential allure and attraction all its own. I'm not suggesting the league is holding the Super Bowl in New York in an effort to boost ticket sales, because I'm fairly sure the folks in NFL headquarters are confident of a full house, short of a game-day tsunami. But in terms of creating hype and never-before-reached levels of pre-game buzz, which is something the Super Bowl pretty much invented, this Roman numeraled affair might just set the bar higher than ever.
That's a win-win for the NFL in terms of TV ratings, media coverage, and the stop-what-you're-doing-and-pay-attention factor that the league thrives on. Turning the potential negative of the weather into a positive by highlighting the uniqueness of the event is both masterful and straight out of Marketing 101.
If you're wondering if one cold-weather Super Bowl opens the door to Green Bay, Chicago and New England being added to the Super Bowl rotation going forward, just slow down and unbutton your parka for now. The league made an exception for New York this time, largely because it has a new $1.6 billion stadium to showcase, and it fits commissioner Roger Goodell's focus on trying to adopt a few new innovations for the league. The Super Bowl city's minimum temperature/roof requirement was set aside on a onetime basis only, for New York.
In the past, Washington has made it known it would like a Super Bowl, too, but the overwhelming odds are that the NFL will see how the game works out in New York before it even considers another cold-weather outdoor site. Given the three- or four-year lag time between a game being awarded and being played, we're probably at least seven or eight years away from another cold-weather Super Bowl being scheduled -- if it ever happens at all.
What's in it for the fans?
Start spreading the news ... it's gonna be cold. And there's no way around it. Providing fans with self-warming seat cushions, hand warmers, blankets and giant heaters in the stadium concourses will help, but if you're trying to sell the novelty and charm of a cold-weather Super Bowl to begin with, you can't exactly make extending the scope of creature comforts your first priority.
Fire pits in the parking lots for tailgaters is another nice touch that's planned by the host committee. But it's not really the hard-core football fans at the Super Bowl the league is worried about, since roughly half of the league's 32 teams play outdoors in some cold conditions for a good bit of the season and have fans who know how to stay warm. Rather, it's the fat-cat, big-money corporate element that has made the Super Bowl its own private event in the past two decades, and how it reacts to sitting in the elements for four or five hours?
I would imagine the scramble for the stadium's 10,000 or so club seats is going to be a furious competition in and of itself before Super Bowl Sunday, because if you have to be at the game but still want shelter from the cold, the club level is the best of both worlds. I can't wait to take a head count on game day of how many NFL team owners who voted to award the Super Bowl to New York never leave their amenity-filled suite that night. Do I see ... none?
Who knows, maybe one silver lining of a New York Super Bowl will be a couple dozen fewer stretch limos in the parking lot, and not quite so many corporate jets landing on the morning of the game at Teterboro. Maybe a few thousand more year-round football fans will actually get tickets this time around, what with the jet-set crowd scaled back by the daunting prospects of waiting in line for hot chocolate at concession stands.
My sense is fans will buy into the old-school nature of a cold-weather Super Bowl, if anything that has never been done before can even be called "old school.'' There will be a communal shared experience aspect to it, and people will try almost anything once just to see what it's like, no matter how ridiculous it sounds (Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football, for example).
But the bottom line is the only thing that will make a New York Super Bowl truly special is if the game itself is truly special. Jets-Giants go to overtime in a snowstorm? Probably too much to ask for. But if it's Bears-Ravens in a tight, back-and-forth contest, with just enough weather to know you're outside in the North in February, we'll no doubt have an instant classic on our hands.
That's when you'll have the proverbial 200,000 people telling their grand kids that they were one of the lucky 82,500 there that day to see the game (and their breath at the same time). Everyone will agree it was a swell idea whose time had come, and the NFL will quietly start investigating the idea of a Super Bowl in Iceland.
What's in it for the players?
Well, they do award rings and some playoff money to the winner of this game, so there's that. But beyond those goodies, which get handed out every year, the players with a sense of NFL history will likely love being part of the historic nature of the game. The reward of getting to the Super Bowl isn't about earning the right to a warm-weather game, it's about stamping your name on something that stands the test of time. And this game has a chance to be a one-of-a-kind type event.
True, players have come to expect to compete in the absolute optimum conditions in a Super Bowl, but it wasn't always that way and a champion still got crowned. Check out those old NFL Films highlight reels of Super Bowl IV in New Orleans, where the field at Tulane Stadium looked like a muddy, rut-filled mess, or Super Bowl IX in New Orleans, played on an overcast, wind-swept day that was anything but balmy.
And I like what Giants quarterback Eli Manning said in helping pitch the New York Super Bowl bid this week. Manning has a soft spot in his heart for New York's thrilling overtime win at Green Bay in January 2008, a game played in such bitter conditions that Tom Coughlin's face nearly froze and fell off.
"Some of my friends still talk about that game more than the Super Bowl,'' Manning said. "It's one of my all-time favorite games, being in Green Bay, in negative-20-degree weather. If the NFC Championship Game can be played anywhere, why can't the Super Bowl be played in a cold-weather atmosphere?''
Why indeed? What's one more game in the cold for a player staring at the chance to hoist a Lombardi Trophy? The year the Giants won their latest Super Bowl, they prevailed in the playoffs in three different time zones, and dealt with the heat of Tampa, the chill of Dallas and the bone-numbing cold of Green Bay, before upsetting New England in the climate-controlled air of the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Whatever. Wherever.
In truth, it might be cold, but far from some historic freeze come game day. According to New York's Super Bowl committee, the average high temperature for the area in early February is 40 degrees, with a low of 24.1, and about 2.7 inches of precipitation. Sure, an ill-timed Nor'easter could come along and make everyone's Super Bowl Sunday a bit more tricky, but at least we'll have a good story to tell.
I'll grant you that giving some still-to-be-determined unfortunate Super Bowl-winning head coach a Gatorade shower late on Super Bowl Sunday night could be complicated by cold weather, but basking in the glow of victory -- and maybe a shorter post-game trophy presentation -- should help offset those concerns. I can think of about 32 current NFL head coaches who would love to grapple with that particular problem on a chilly February night in New York in another 45 months or so.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Good Riddens Prince LeBron



1. Trying To Figure Out LeBron's Future
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
BOSTON -- So which LeBron James do you want to believe?
The LeBron who said he hasn't given much thought to what he's going to do with his future?
Or the LeBron who said "my team has a game plan"?
Because James said both of those things after finally making his way to the interview room more than an hour after the Cavaliers' season came to a swift and stunning end with a 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
Myself, I'll go with the LeBron behind Curtain No. 2, and beyond that I'll only go so far as to say I believe he has played his final game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's been seven long years for James in Cleveland, and as Kevin Garnett pointed out, it's hurtful at times when you cannot get your youth back.
And the crossroads James now finds himself at is the one at which he chooses between staying in the state where he was born and raised, the state where he was loved like no other professional athlete Ohio had ever produced, or moving on to the next stage of his life, the stage where he breaks beyond the boundaries that have confined him to a Midwestern comfort zone and goes on to bigger and better things.
Chicago? Miami? New York?
Could be any one of those three, and whoever knows exactly what details Team James' game plan entails isn't yet spilling those beans.
Celtics fans certainly had fun letting James know their prediction, chanting "New York Knicks" whenever he stepped to the foul line on a night when his triple-double of 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists was buttressed by his nine turnovers.
James did not speak to the specifics, whether pro or con, of playing in any of those cities -- or even the possibility of remaining in Cleveland.
What he said he'd do is go into the summer with the proper mindset, something I asked him to define in the final question he took in his postgame news conference.
"It's all about winning for me, and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that," he said. "But at the same time I've given myself options to this point, and like I said before, me and my team, we have a game plan that we're going to execute, and we'll see what we get."
James also was asked what he could say to the people in Cleveland, and it was noteworthy that he used the past tense in saying "We had a great time together."
Great, at least, until they booed him Tuesday night in the disappearing act that'll go down as the LeBacle.
Unlike a year ago when he stormed off the court and left the arena in Orlando without speaking publicly after his season-ending loss, James was the sportsman this time around as he stayed on the court to congratulate the Celtics. As good as his numbers were, he had only one spurt that seemed to put the Celtics on their heels, making a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to get the Cavs' deficit down to four, 78-74.
Boston immediately called timeout after the second 3, coach Doc Rivers reminding his team what he told them pregame: We don't need any heroes in this game; we need to continue playing together as a team.
In the ensuing moments, that entailed a number of arms reaching in at James and forcing him to dribble the ball off his foot for a turnover that turned into a fast-break bucket by Rajon Rondo (21 points, 12 assists, five steals) at the other end. After Anderson Varejao missed from underneath off a pass from James, Paul Pierce drilled a 3-pointer, Antawn Jamison and James each missed a 3 and Rasheed Wallace knocked in a 3 from the corner to get the lead back to 12.
The coup de grace came on Boston's next possession, a 2-on-1 break (James was the 1) on which Garnett took a pass from Rondo and dunked to make it 88-74 and send the crowd into a frenzy.
Cleveland got no closer than seven the rest of the way, and James was ousted from the playoffs at the Garden in the second round for the second time in three years. Boston will begin the Eastern Conference finals at Orlando on Sunday afternoon.
"One thing we don't lack is confidence, and that was the case even when we were playing like crap and trying to get our chemistry problems together," Garnett said. "I think we hit our stride at the right time."
No one could have seen this drastic a turnaround after James came into this building six days earlier and scored 21 first-quarter points en route to a 29-point victory that gave Cleveland a 2-1 lead in the series.
But that ended up being Cleveland's final win, and the chances that it will end up being James' final win in a Cavs uniform now appear greater than ever.
James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have already acknowledged they plan to speak together and go over the options they will be presented with in the biggest free-agency period in NBA history, and James' acknowledgement that he has a "game plan" is an indication that things may be farther along than most people realize.
The latest talk making the rounds regarding Chicago is that the Bulls could be the best fit because they already have a top-tier point guard in Derrick Rose and an athletic big man in Joakim Noah, plus they have a coaching vacancy that could conceivably end up being filled by John Calipari, who is extremely close to both Rose and James confidante William Wesley. The Bulls did make a head-scratcher of a trade when they gave away John Salmons and their No. 1 pick to Milwaukee at the trading deadline, but the deal gave them the flexibility to have max money available this summer. Yes, James would have to play the next several years in the shadow of Michael Jordan, but the generation that is as old or younger than James (25) has more vivid memories of Jordan as a Wizard, or as owner of the Bobcats, than they do of him winning six titles for the Bulls.
Miami is intriguing (aside from the obvious climate reasons) because Pat Riley has been throwing around talk of building a dynasty, and he already has one dynastic building block in Wade, who has indicated that his heart is in Miami and he would prefer to stay there. If the Heat can clear more cap space by moving Michael Beasley and/or Daequan Cook and James Jones before the draft, or in a trade that would be finalized July 8, they could afford to have James, Wade and a third stud, presumably a big man from the available free-agent threesome of Bosh, Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer.
The Knicks? Well, James is on record as saying New York is his favorite city, and Madison Square Garden is his favorite NBA arena to play in. If James is serious about becoming the world's first billionaire athlete, the opportunity to boost his earning potential on a global scale is greatest in the city that is home to Wall Street. Also, New York has cleared enough cap room to sign James, plus another max free agent, and still have a few million dollars left over.
You also can't completely discount the Nets, with Jay-Z (James' buddy) still a part-owner following the transfer of controlling ownership from Bruce Ratner to Mikhail Prokhorov. But that franchise is set to play the next two seasons in Newark, and it's hard to see the King serving time in purgatory before the Brooklyn arena is built.
So if it is truly a four-team race that includes the Cavs, we have to circle back to James' statement about a game plan.
He gave no clues to its details, but in acknowledging that it exists he sounded like a man with plans for bigger and better things than Cleveland has to offer. Remember, when he picked up his MVP trophy, he told the crowd he would always be loyal to Akron.
And on the night he may have played his last game for Cleveland, he certainly didn't sound like a man with a plan to be married to the Cavaliers forever. If that were part of the "game plan," he would have at least given Cavs fans a glimmer of hope.
"The world is his, whatever decision he's going to make," Garnett said.
But on this night, it was a world in which the city of Cleveland seemed like a very small point on a very big map.
As James said: "We had a great time together."
Had.
Past tense.
Spoken like a man for whom the good times ahead, if they ever occur, will happen elsewhere.





So Long! YOU stunk it up!

BOSTON -- LeBron James walked out of the interview room and down the long, noisy corridor toward the exits, out of another nightmare and into a new day. The clock had struck midnight in the East, and on his season, and maybe on his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, too.
Forklifts rumbled this way and that, moving seats and pieces of equipment in the bowels of TD Garden, the beep-beep-beep they make when they're backing up seeming to punctuate LeBron's exit from another lost season. Wearing red shoes on his feet, black pants and a white Nike pullover -- the signature Jordan colors -- he wasn't looking back. He was moving ahead, walking into the future with what he called, "My team."
Technically, LeBron's team is the Cavaliers until midnight on June 30, which is 48 days away. Forty-eight, like the minutes in a basketball game. It was more than an hour after his season had ended with a 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics, a loss that so closely resembled the other three in this astonishing Eastern Conference semifinal series.
And already, when LeBron was talking about "my team," he wasn't talking about the 11 other guys who had lost with him Thursday night in Game 6. He was talking about Team LeBron, which walked in a phalanx out of the Garden, into the night.
With a game plan to execute, as LeBron had so cleverly put it.
"A friend of mine told me today after the game that I guess you have to go through a lot of nightmares before you finally accomplish your dream," LeBron had said in the interview room. "That's what's going on for me as an individual, for myself right now."
Five hundred miles away in Cleveland, a city groaned -- a city already in mourning.
"I'm going to approach this summer with the right mindset," James said. "With me and my team, we're going to figure out what's the best possibility for me. I love the city of Cleveland of course -- the city and the fans. It was a disappointing season to say the least, but at the same time we had a great time together. So we'll see what happens."
Wherever James is going, at least he didn't go out with a whimper, the way he did in Game 5 at home, when his injured elbow and Nike-only-knows what else caused him to be a spectator as the Cavs' championship aspirations were flushed down the toilet in a 32-point loss. True to his all-around gifts, James went out with a triple-double -- 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists. He missed 13 of his 21 field-goal attempts, though -- still something wrong, something he won't admit -- and almost made it a quadruple-double with nine turnovers.
The only sign of the breathtaking force that James can be came with back-to-back 3-pointers that made it 78-74 Celtics with 9:34 to play. Back-to-back treys, and the building gasped, and the Celtics called timeout. But there No. 23 remained, stuck on 23 points for more than six minutes as the season slipped away.
"I had opportunities to do things that I wanted to do," James said, "and it just didn't fall for me."
Earlier, Celtics coach Doc Rivers stood in the hallway beneath the stands and emitted the sigh of all sighs, feeling fortunate to have dodged the freight train he had felt coming. Rivers had looked on with horror as James was ridiculed, criticized, challenged and turned upside down over the previous two days. This 2010 firestorm, a controversy LeBron himself created and never tried to tamp down, along with his passive performance in Game 5, was going to create a time bomb in Game 6. Rivers just knew it.
"My wife calls me this morning yelling, 'What the hell's going on? They're just making this guy mad,' " Rivers recalled. " 'It's gonna be a volcano eruption tonight. Stop it.' I said, 'It's too late. It can't be reversed.' I was really concerned about our team because everyone was so concerned about the 'after,' nobody was talking about the actual game. Everybody was talking about, 'What if we win, what if Cleveland wins, what happens with LeBron?' And I was just very concerned that we were going to start focusing on the 'after' and you've got to win the game."
Will LeBron James turn his back on Cleveland? He gives no indication he won't. In the frenzy leading up to Game 6, it had been open season on LeBron. He had searched for the words to explain an epic playoff failure, yet failed even to do that. He feigned ignorance of the notion that basketball reputations are built in the playoffs, and you wondered if it had finally hit him as he walked out of another dismal defeat Thursday night. One thing he did right this time -- he shook hands, avoiding the embarrassment of last year's snub of the Magic in Orlando. But with his seventh season over, James stands 0-4 in postseason elimination games on the road.
He was Jordan losing to the Pistons again Thursday night, except that by his seventh season, Jordan had his first title.
"I thought it was madness what happened to him over the last 48 hours," Rivers said. "People don't realize how good he is. And he's human. He had a bad game the other night. Tonight wasn't one, I can tell you that. I personally hope everybody stays, but I don't know. I think that's what makes it so intriguing. I think we'll be talking about this until July 1. He's a great kid, he's everything you want. And if someone else gets him, they're the luckiest team in the league."
One aspect of the LeBron hysteria that fed into this game, and spilled into it, made Rivers laugh. It was a first for the Boston Garden, for any version of it -- a "New York Knicks!" chant every time LeBron went to the free-throw line. Somewhere, Red Auerbach choked on his cigar smoke. Rivers usually tunes out the crowd noise, but this was a chant no one could miss. He turned to associate head coach Tom Thibodeau, the defensive guru and former Knicks assistant who had turned James into a mortal in this series, and said, "Well, this is freakin' strange."
"It's funny, I never hear anything," Rivers said. "I didn't hear the MVP chants [for Rajon Rondo] the other night. But I actually heard that. That was funny. ... Boston fans are pretty smart."
Not as smart as Boston coaches were in this series. Rivers, Thibodeau and their staff orchestrated an evisceration of the team with the best record and best player in the league. They pulled it off by not only exploiting every weakness, but by focusing especially on the ones that would cause chaos in the Cavs' huddle and locker room.
The plan was so good, it kept working even after the series was over. After repeatedly praising the Celtics' game plan, James was asked what he thought of the ones put together by his doomed coach, Mike Brown.
"I think we had good game plans going into the game," James said. "I think sometimes we could've made some better adjustments throughout the course of the game. But for the most part, we had good game plans and we tried to go out and execute them. Did it always work? No. Did it work sometimes? Yes."
But that was not the game plan on James' mind as he answered the final question of the night, at the end of what might have been his last postgame news conference as a Cav.
"First of all, I want to win," James said. "That's my only thing; that's my only concern. I've always prided myself on becoming a better basketball individual and then taking that onto the court. It's all about winning for me, and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that. At the same time, I've given myself options to this point. And like I said before, me and my team, we have a game plan that we're going to execute and we'll see where we'll be at."
His team was waiting in the hallway -- friends and marketing people, people from Nike, Wes Wesley and Leon Rose. There they were, LeBron's teammates, with a game plan to execute and 48 days to finalize the details.




gOOD BYE Coach! Thanks for.........?

BOSTON -- LeBron James sat in his corner locker room stall with his feet in a bucket of ice water. The evening's box score floated on top of the water-like debris. James leaned down to read the awful truths facing him over the long early summer ahead -- the nine turnovers he was forced to commit in 46 minutes of play, as well as his triple-double of 27 points and 19 rebounds that failed to negate the Celtics' 94-85 victory in Game 6 Thursday.
Boston wins the Eastern semifinal 4-2, and afterward Kevin Garnett looks forward to studying a thick scouting book on the Magic to prepare for the conference final that launches Sunday in Orlando, Fla.
Cleveland loses, and the loss is implosive. Coach Mike Brown is likely to be replaced -- by another Brown, first name of Larry, perhaps? The Cavaliers wanted to hire Larry Brown as team president five years ago, and any hope of salvaging a new contract with James this summer begins with acquiring a sure-thing coach -- even if it means doling out compensation to the Charlotte Bobcats -- who has proven he can deliver a championship. There are only a few such coaches who own a championship ring, and one of them happened to be responsible for wrecking the ambitious dreams that drove the Cavs' grabs for expensive talent over this last lost year.
"The coaching staff gave them a great game plan,'' said James of Celtics coach Doc Rivers and his assistants. "They tried to keep us on the perimeter as much as possible. They got a lot of veteran players that's been in postseason games, and they all just bought into their system and it's worked for them.''
This was a terrific series, and it was based entirely on absolutes. The underdog fourth-seeded Celtics came into the series wondering if this was their last chance at contention between Ray Allen's impending free agency and the injuries that threatened Garnett and Paul Pierce much of the season -- and the urgency with which they won four of the last five games is undeniable proof of how badly they wanted to avoid their own demise.
As No. 1 seed of the playoffs with the two-time MVP, the Cavs should have been playing from a position of strength. But insecurities were their ruin -- resulting in Mo Williams' 1-for-8 second half (after scoring 20 in the opening half) as well as the 2-for-10 performance of midseason acquisition Antawn Jamison, who was supposed to be the finishing piece but instead failed simply to finish.
To blame this series defeat on James is wrong in one sense. In spite of an injured elbow that clearly limited his shooting (he attempted fewer three-pointers than normal and made 26.9 percent -- a rate worse than any season, including his rookie year) he nonetheless averaged 26.8 points and shot 44.7 percent while contributing 9.3 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 2.2 steals, 1.3 blocks and, yes, 4.5 turnovers. Those numbers could have been enough to drive the league's best team -- had James been provided support from the likes of sixth man Anderson Varejao, who was enormously ineffective in this series.
Varejao was in the middle of two key second-half sequences that would bury the Cavs. His traveling turnover in the third quarter led to a Pierce three-pointer and then Varejao continued to complain hopelessly that he had been fouled, leaving his teammates to go 4-on-5 as Williams bricked a three-pointer that Garnett converted into a post-up jumper for a 67-58 Celtics advantage. In the fourth Varejao missed one layup, had another blocked by Rasheed Wallace and then was victimized at the other end by both Wallace and Garnett. This is not to pick unfairly on Varejao, but to point out that he had made a positive impact in midseason games against Boston while making so many of the energy plays that Garnett was at that time unable to make. But now Garnett is healthier, and he made Varejao appear to lose all of his powers.
Should the Cavs lose James to free agency this summer, they may look back and wonder if the speculation was self-fulfilling. The pressures to win a championship for Cleveland and keep LeBron to themselves drove the Cavaliers to trade for Shaquille O'Neal and Jamison. In the end, they appeared to be a team overwhelmed by the diversity of its options, and yet unable to execute the simplest plays. For this, Brown will likely be the first to be out of a job.
A big difference between these two franchises was the faith that bonded Rivers to his players and divided Brown from his. All season, Rivers had followed a plan to rest his elders when needed and then force-feed them minutes over the second half of the season, essentially sacrificing precious games in the standings as if they were preseason exhibitions. At times, he appeared to be the only man in Boston who was openly convinced the deteriorating Celtics could win another championship, and the faith he showed in his players was compelling and unifying. At 34, Ray Allen played the best defense of his career while averaging 15.7 points over the series. At 33, Garnett closed out Game 6 with 22 points, 12 rebounds and three assists while delivering from the post more confidently and routinely than during the postseason run to the '08 championship. Likewise, Pierce at 32, recovered from his injuries to hassle James and contributed a trio of crucial three-pointers in the decisive game. Together they believed what everyone else had viewed to be impossible ... and on top of that they added Rajon Rondo's now typical line of 21 points, 12 assists and five steals.
The Cavs viewed Brown, fairly or not, as someone who had been outcoached by Stan Van Gundy during Cleveland's conference finals loss to the Magic last year. Rivers had earned a benefit of the doubt after winning the championship two years ago, but Brown governed without faith in his convictions. And so the pressures to retain James by winning now look very much like the same pressures that resulted in this loss, the loss that threatens to ultimately drive him away.
Celtics fans cleverly raised up Cleveland's worst fears by serenading James with chants of "New York Knicks, New York Knicks,'' as he shot his free throws Thursday. The game and its potentially devastating outcome had grown inseparable.
Does this sound like a break-up speech? "I love the city of Cleveland, of course, the city, the fans,'' said James, who was booed throughout his Game 5 loss, and will be booed even more loudly if he returns next season wearing a different uniform. "It was a disappointing season to say the least, but at the same time we had a great time together."
The Cavs played all-out twice in this series, winning Game 3 to reclaim home-court advantage and then attacking frenetically in vain to extend the season. Why didn't they work so hard throughout the playoffs? The answer is that they were never the real thing, because hard work defines championship teams. It defines the Celtics now, and that is why they will be in Orlando Sunday while James vacations and all around him Cleveland shudders.





LeBron gone! Celtics eliminate James and Cavs in 6

BOSTON (AP)—The Boston Celtics sent LeBron James(notes) and the Cavaliers back to Cleveland to admire all of their regular-season accomplishments and ponder their future.
It’s the Celtics who are still in the chase for an NBA title.
Kevin Garnett(notes) scored 22 points and added 12 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo(notes) had 21 points and 12 assists to beat Cleveland 94-85 in Game 6 on Thursday night and advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Boston will play the Orlando Magic, who are undefeated in the playoffs.
“Winning is gratifying,” Garnett said. “You’re playing the best team in basketball; the challenge is there; you don’t have to dress it up. One thing we don’t lack is confidence. We’re a veteran team and we understand when it’s time to lock in as a group. I think we did just that. I think the experience is taking over.”
Despite his sixth career playoff triple-double, James is headed for another early offseason after winning a second MVP award and leading the Cavs to an NBA-best 61 wins and a home-court advantage they never got to use.
“The fact that it’s over right now is definitely a surprise to me,” James said. “A friend of mine told me, ‘I guess you’ve got to go through a lot of nightmares before you realize your dream.’ That’s what’s going on for me individually right now.”
This offseason is destined to define the future of the franchise—and the rest of the NBA, too.
The LeBron watch began at 10:53 p.m., when Rondo dribbled out the last 14 seconds and the Celtics began celebrating their 4-2 victory in the best-of-seven series. James is eligible to opt out of his contract this summer, a move that would make the two-time MVP—and zero-time NBA champion—a free agent and set off a scramble for his services from New York to Miami to Los Angeles and, of course, back in Cleveland.
“I want to win. That’s my only thing, my only concern,” James said. “I’ve always prided myself—it’s all about winning for me and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that. But at the same time, I’ve given myself options to this point. Me and my team, we have a game plan that we’ll execute and we’ll see where we’re at.”
James scored 27 points with 10 assists, and his 19 rebounds matched a career-high and were the most he’s ever had in a playoff game. But he also had nine turnovers, and he may have been hobbled by an elbow injury that limited him to dunks and short jumpers, going 8 for 21 from the floor overall.
“I just told him, ‘Keep your head up, man. I’ve been there,”’ said Garnett, who was a star without a title in Minnesota for more than a decade before joining the Celtics and leading them to their NBA-record 17th championship in 2008. “‘You have a very, very, very bright future. Continue to work and make decisions based on you and your family.”’
Mo Williams(notes) scored 20 of his 22 points in the first half for the Cavaliers.
Boston’s Paul Pierce(notes) scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half after playing just nine minutes—and shooting 1-for-5—in the first with foul trouble. The Celtics had missed their first eight 3-point attempts when Pierce hit a 3 that gave them a 65-58 lead with 4:06 left in the third.
It was 67-61 when Rasheed Wallace(notes) hit a 3-pointer, and then Ray Allen(notes) stole James’ pass and got the ball to Pierce for another 3 that completed a 16-4 run.
James hadn’t made an outside shot before hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to cut it to four points, 78-74, early in the fourth quarter and force the Celtics to call a timeout. But Rondo drove for a layup, then set Pierce up for another 3. Pierce found Wallace for a 3-pointer and then Tony Allen’s(notes) steal led to a Garnett dunk at the other end that sent the Cavaliers into a timeout to regroup, down 88-74 with 5:53 left in their season.
“You knew it was coming at some point with LeBron,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who reminded his players that they weren’t good enough to take over the game. “That’s what that timeout was about: to remind them that we can’t do that, what LeBron was doing.”
It was the second straight year Cleveland has finished the regular-season with the No. 1 overall seed, and the second in a row that they have failed to get out of the East. Last year, they lost to Orlando in the conference finals, an exit that left James so shaken he skulked off the court without shaking hands.
This year, he might not stop until he finds himself in a new city.
James seemed like he couldn’t wait to slip off his Cavaliers jersey, pulling it off as soon as he reached the tunnel to the locker room. He casually flipped it to an attendant moments after he walked into the dressing room.
Brown said he wasn’t ready to think about the future yet.
“Obviously, he’s a heck of a talent and a great guy,” he said. “But right now we just lost the series. I’m not thinking of that. It wouldn’t be fair to everyone in that locker room to think beyond tonight.”
Brown’s future with the Cavs, too, appears uncertain. After a second straight postseason flameout, there’s no guarantee management will bring him back for a sixth season.
Same goes for the hired guns brought in to help James. Shaquille O’Neal(notes) finished his first—and maybe last—season with the Cavaliers with 11 points against the Celtics. Antawn Jamison(notes), acquired at the trade deadline from Washington, had just five points.
The sold-out Boston crowd taunted James’ every free throw with a chant of “New York Knicks!” and fans wore Knicks jerseys with his name on them. The only “M-V-P!” cheers were not for James, who was the league’s best player in the regular season, but for Rondo, who was the best player in this series.
NOTES: The hottest T-shirt in the stands was a takeoff of the famous Barack Obama campaign poster with James’ image and the caption, “Nope.” … Wallace was called for a technical foul in the second quarter. He had 14 in the regular season, but it was his first of the playoffs.