Sports

[Arthur Heath]

I completely understand what your saying here. We already have more than one player that can score 15-20 points per game on the roster. Even Rudy, our silver medal Olympian rookie, is scoring 15-20 in so many mins. Oden was overly hyped. No doubt about it. The fact of the matter is if he can be a 10 pts, 10 rbs per game (much like Ben Wallace) and a championship comes home (when the championship comes home) then all is well.
Oh, and now that I just found out that you are a Knicks fan I must admit that Reggie Miller is my all time favorite NBA player. What an absolutely fabulous rivalry that was over the years, eh?

[jayson]

Oh, and now that I just found out that you are a Knicks fan I must admit that Reggie Miller is my all time favorite NBA player. What an absolutely fabulous rivalry that was over the years, eh?

Reggie I hated, but because he was so damn good. It was that respectful sports fan "I hate you" kind of thing. I went to many Knicks/Pacers games and saw first hand how good Reggie really was.

[Jon]

Gotta watch those Hoosiers!!!

[Arthur Heath]

Gotta watch those Hoosiers!!!

Reg was from UCLA. Indiana was pissed when they drafted him, they wanted their man (forget his name now) from the Hoosiers.
As much as a geeky fanboy it makes me sound one of my favorite moments (outside of meeting my wife and having a son) is when Reg was walking back to the locker room at halftime and I reached out and he slapped me five.

[alinda]

Heres a pic of the football team Jorge plays on...

[Ruthful]

http://www.postingandtoasting.com/20...124-knicks-114

Brandon Jacobs and his baby son were courtside, as they often are. In reference to today's win over the Ravens, Al Trautwig asked Jacobs, "what's it like to be tackled by Ray Lewis?", to which Brandon confidently replied, "I don't know. I don't think he tackled me". So Al changed up his game and asked, "then what does it feel like to run by Ray Lewis?", to which we got the instantly classic response, "Oh, that feel good."

[Arthur Heath]

My Blazers are kicking ass. Boom Boom shake the room, championship in 3 years.
Its gonna happen. Guarenteed.

[Still Servant]

Instead of playing actual games, the Knicks should just play a Lebron James highlight reel on a loop.

[Arthur Heath]

Knicks just unloaded on a lot of salary cap. Rumor is there going for Labron in a few years.
No matter. Blazers, championship, 3 years.
Period.
.

[jayson]

Oh it's no rumor, it's pretty much a known fact. The main reason they brought in D'Antoni as a coach is because LeBron likes him. The Knicks are trying to get as far under the salary cap as possible for the 2010 free agency extravaganza to get themselves LeBron and, quite possibly, another superstar for him to play with (someone like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudamire would be ideal). It's nice to know that someday real soon it'll no longer be embarrassing to admit I'm a Knicks fan.

[Arthur Heath]

It's nice to know that someday real soon it'll no longer be embarrassing to admit I'm a Knicks fan.

You get that with a lot of your teams, dont you friend Portland knows embarrisment.

[jayson]

You get that with a lot of your teams, dont you friend Portland knows embarrisment.

Yes, it seems to be a recurring them with my teams. It's why when I moved here to Tampa (in 1992) it didn't take me long to adopt the Bucs as my NFC team. Something about their history seemed familiar to me.

[Ruthful]

Instead of playing actual games, the Knicks should just play a Lebron James highlight reel on a loop.

+1.

[Arthur Heath]

My boys are 12-6. This time last year we where 5-11.
Go Blazers!

[Ruthful]

The Giants need to trade Plaxico, even if it's to that hayseed Jerry Jones. In fact, especially if it's to him, because he's probably stupid enough to take that contract and give up a couple of draft picks.

[jayson]

I'd be curious as to how long Plaxico will be suspended. Discharging an illegal weapon in public, even "accidentally", is a violation of several NFL conduct policies, all of which are much more serious than anything Michael Vick or Adam Jones did. Plaxico is looking at a major suspension. Personally, I think his career should be over. He could have killed someone. He's an irresponsible fucking moron and only his fame will keep him out of prison. I doubt even Jerry Jones would hire him.

[Ruthful]

Plax is a dumb-ass.

He didn't have a permit in New York State, he had an (expired) permit in Florida. Not that it would have mattered, since even if he had a carry permit it wouldn't be valid in The City, because the police commissioner is the only person allowed to approve permits given to people who aren't police officers-or retired police officers-here.

Did any of you read Buress's book, which I think was released a few months after his team's Super Bowl victory? There was an entire chapter devoted to his athletic endeavors in high school in Va. where he explored a basketball game that he was playing against a predominantly white high school, which I suppose was an intrastate rival. In any case, he implies that there was a hostility towards them because they were representing a uniformly black team. I'm sure there's some element of truth to that, but the undertone came off as bitter, and not really self-aware.

You can't surround yourself with quasi-criminal elements-even if you've known them since high school-when you're a multimillionaire. Jason Whitlock wrote a good column about this in relation to the Vince Young benching a few months ago.

To me, if you're too inept to use the safety on your handgun without shooting a hole through your thigh, then you're probably not competent enough to handle firearms, and should probably just spend some of your signing bonus on hiring a platoon of bodyguards.

I don't know if what he did is as grave in terms of NFL rules violations as Vick's transgressions-since he was essentially racketeering-or even Pacman's, but he's definitely going to be in a heck of a lot more trouble than either if the DA, or the DOJ, decide to pursue charges.

[Ruthful]

D'antoni's small line-up is holding the 'Blazers to a less than 10 pt. lead with less than three minutes to go!

[Ruthful]

http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2008/12/03/t...ry-in-trouble/

[jayson]

And for once, I completely agree with the league on a suspension. Nobody is more deserving than Avery, and for a LOT more than his disgusting commentary.

The unwritten rule between players in the NHL is that the trash talking is done on the ice, not to the press. There is plenty of it. I've had the pleasure of sitting right behind the penalty boxes and the benches many many times and never have I heard such harsh insults tossed back and forth so casually, but it's all done on the ice where it can be settled right then and there if need be.

Of course Avery has never been one to play by the rules, written or unwritten. His ludicrous behavior towards Martin Brodeur was the single most unsportsmanlike display I have seen in 30+ years of watching sports. Those who defend him saying "well it wasn't against the rules at the time" are oversimplifying just a bit. It wasn't in the rule book because nobody ever bothered to assume you actually had to tell someone not to act like that. I can tell you this, if he pulled that crap against the Devils while Scott Stevens was still playing, we'd have heard the last of Avery that night.

I've read dozens of stories about Avery's teammates on more than one of his former clubs going after him in the locker room. His own teammates! I still suspect the reason the league acted so swiftly on this suspension is so that none of his Dallas teammates (who all reportedly hate the guy) would have to come to his aid when the Calgary Flames went after him, and they surely would have as Dionne Phaneuf is not the only Flame who wants a piece of Avery. Avery has had issues with Jarome Iginla as well. Had Iginla and Phaneuf come calling in the game Tuesday night, the other Stars' players would have been forced to defend their teammate even though they don't want him on the team.

I have been one of the NHL's biggest fans since I was six years old, and I was raised by a father who is an even bigger NHL fan and exceptionally knowledgeable on the history of the game. There have always been so-called "pests" or "agitators" in the league. I remember guys like Esa Tikanen and Theoren Fleury who absolutely excelled at it yet never once did I hear a that a teammate of these guys hated what they were doing. Another former pest extraordinaire was Matthew Barnaby. He is now a commentator for ESPN. Barnaby tore Avery apart. If guys who played the same role as Avery say he is over the top, that says it all to me.

The real shame is that some other GM will sign him when Dallas says goodbye, which is not far off. I definitely think he's played his last game in a Stars' uniform.

[Ruthful]

I still don't understand their rationale.

How is publicity, even negative publicity, a bad thing for a league that's teetering on insolvency, and doesn't have a TV contract?

It's not as if feminists are suddenly going to go out and purchase NHL merchandise because of this decision, and NHL fans already know that Avery is an asshole-this just reconfirms what they already believed-so what's the perceived benefit from suspending him, other than doing away with a headache for The Dallas Stars?

Wasn't there a black player who was almost decapitated on the ice by some psycho a few years ago?

Not to diminish the stupidity of his remarks, but aren't there bigger nuisances in the NHL?

[jayson]

I think the rationale is that this incident with Avery was simply the final straw. I think it had much less to do with bad publicity for the league from the comments than what would have resulted from what was extremely likely to happen on the ice Tuesday night in Calgary if Avery suited up for the Stars. Had the league not suspended Avery, the Stars themselves would have.

I think the benefit for the league is that the game in Calgary was a hockey game and not a festival of violence aimed at "getting even" with Avery. I am not by any stretch of the imagination one of those who wants to take fighting out of hockey. There is a traditional place for it in the game, but it should be the organic result of things that actually happen on the ice, not because some moron ran his mouth off about his ex-girlfriend who happens to be dating a player on the other team.

For a league that is failing like the NHL is, I see negative press as a negative thing. I don't see something like this increasing the likelihood of a tv contract. It's not like broadcasters are saying "Oh the NHL, that's the league with that scumbag Sean Avery. Let's put him on tv." I don't agree with the vast majority of moves Gary Bettman makes as Commissioner of this league, but suspending Avery makes sense to me.

As for the other incident you mentioned, I think that was handled appropriately as well, although Donald Brashear was obviously not assaulted by Marty McSorley because he is black. The two were both well-established fighters in the league. McSorley swung his stick at Brashear to start a fight and wound up clocking him in the head and knocking him to the ice where he slammed his head and wound up with a concussion. McSorely not only received the harshest suspension in NHL history at one year (which ended his career) but he also served 18-months probation on criminal assault charges. I have no problem with that. I have little tolerance for guys who use their stick as weapons. You want to fight, be a man and drop the gloves or just skate away. He could easily have started a fight with Brashear without using his stick to do it.

Now, that incident generated lots of negative press for the NHL and it did not help them secure a better tv deal, in fact things only got worse after that so it seems negative press is not so good for the NHL.

[Ruthful]

Oh no, I'm not saying that it was motivated by racial animus. It's just that the only details I remembered from that incident were the race of one of the players, and the fact that the guy who bashed him with the hockey stick was known as a dirty player. Or at least, that was the perception. Someone also mentioned McSorley-I didn't recall his name until you brought it up-in relation to the Avery suspension.

[Ruthful]

But wasn't fighting more prevalent in previous eras, when hockey was more popular? I was watching the conference finals between The Flyers and The Rangers on one of these classic sports shows that air from time to time, and I saw three or four players being brought out on stretchers before the third period even began.

[jayson]

No, I didn't think you came off that way either.

What's sad is that is how McSorely will be remembered. He wasn't really dirty until the end of his career. He was one of the pre-eminent tough guys of his era and was a part of some very successful teams. His primary role with the Oilers and the Kings was to be the insurance policy to prevent other teams from taking too many liberties roughing up Gretzky. Up until the last few years his fighting was always clean and within the traditional framework of fighting in the sport. The last few years he basically lost it, culminating with the stick-swinging incident with Brashear. Had he only retired a few years earlier (which he should have) he'd have been remembered more fondly, not as "that guy who hit the other guy in the head with his stick." But, he made his own bed.