Yes, there are several things in sports going on that do NOT involve Tiger Woods.

Shortly after Allen Iverson announced his fake retirement and made us all aware that he was sulking, Iverson’s old coaches Larry Brown (Sixers) and John Thompson (Georgetown) contacted him to stroke his ego and tell him not to walk away from the game. After reconsidering, the disappointing Philadelphia 76ers talked with Iverson about a possible return. As I stated in a previous post, Iverson  simply wanted to feel loved and appreciated (more on that later), and if it took an injury to a player to push a team to that realization, so be it. PG Lou Williams was having a career season before breaking his jaw, averaging career-highs in nearly every statistical category. His injury will leave him out with some oral hardware for at least the next month, which created the perfect situation for Iverson to go back where his pro career started. He can certainly help this 5-14 team right the ship before it’s too late. While the old AI is expected to start for at least the short-term, he will have to make sure he keeps the younger and more athletic AI and Thaddeus Young involved in the offense. SIDEBAR: Iguodala was ROBBED in that dunk contest, by the way — I was THERE, and the crowd was not happy with Nate Robinson’s numerous uh-ohs. In my opinion, as long as Iverson isn’t as old-looking and lazy as Elton Brand (and his career-lows) has been as of late, his comeback is a success. Iverson desperately wants to make this work, to salvage his legacy and prove his doubters wrong. See a grown man go through puberty all over again, cracking voice and all at the 2:00 mark:

To me, that looks like a humbled future Hall of Famer that is eager to do the best that he can to show his fans and his teammates that they can count on him giving his all. After reverting to behavior akin to a spoiled little child for the past month, perhaps he is growing up before our eyes…again.

Someone please tell the New Jersey Nets that the season started over a month ago. This isn’t summer league, this isn’t the preseason, and these games actually count. This was supposed to be a promising young team. Sure, they traded away Vince Carter, but does he really make that much of a difference? I thought Devin Harris was supposed to be the truth…but maybe the truth is that these guys just suck. Courtney Lee is decent and is coming off of an injury, but I expected him to come into his own this year. I was thinking along the lines of the expectations I had for Trevor Ariza in Houston, but to a lesser degree. There’s still time for him to show some stuff, but that team as a whole is just a mess. Chris Douglas-Roberts is looking solid, and Brook Lopez is off to a good start after a strong finish to his rookie campaign. Still, as steady and solid as I think Rafer Alston can be, if he is the main veteran presence on your team, it’s going to be a long season. Sure, had the Magic stuck with him instead of a half-speed Jameer Nelson in the Finals last year, perhaps Orlando beats the Lakers, keeps the group together and the Nets still have Carter – or at least trade him elsewhere. But still…18 consecutive losses to start the season? Congratulations New Jersey Nets, you have just made the likes of the Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings, and Memphis Grizzlies look like elite franchises. Seriously, the Timberwolves have been without Kevin Love, straight-up wasted the 5th pick in the draft this past year, play in the (still) deeper Western Conference, and even they have managed to win twice so far.

Ron Artest likes his Hennessy…so much in fact that he used to make liquor runs at halftime and keep his cognac of choice in his locker when he was with the Chicago Bulls.

Since then, Artest clarified that he used to drink before games as well, but the in-game Henny benders didn’t last for a long period of time.

Do you believe that Artest was drinking before and during NBA games? I’m not sure that I do…I mean, it could help explain some of his odd behavior, but Ron’s an odd cat to begin with, so that can’t be it. Rick Adelman and Chuck Hayes don’t seem to believe it either, with Chuck questioning how one would function with alcohol in their system during a game, “especially dark liquor”. Phil Jackson isn’t completely buying into it, either. Now I’m not going to judge, because I like my Hennessy too *takes a sip*, but that’s not meant for working hours. Also in the interview with The Sporting News, Artest stated that he’s always ready to fight Ben Wallace and thinks that referee Joey Crawford handed Game 2 of last year’s Lakers-Rockets playoff series to the Lakers because Kobe is more important than the Rockets as a whole. I tend to agree with Coach Adelman in that Ron likes to say things to shock people. Whether or not those things are true, that’s for David Stern to decide.

I’ll leave you guys with a musical tribute to Iverson that should accurately sum up his feelings right now. Plus, anytime I can wedge Coming to America into a conversation, I must do so.

by Jack Maidment

If you are like me, you like to win. It is only very strange people who will lose on purpose just to be ‘nice’.

Man I hate people like that.

Luckily, those type of people don’t get too far in pro sports where winning is everything. Along with getting paid I guess.

The thought of ‘nice’ athletes scares me something fierce as I’m sure it does the owners who pay their salaries.

‘Kobe! What the hell! Why did you give them the ball back?!’

‘We always win. I thought it would be nice if someone else had a go.’

The fact is that if you remove the competitive nature from those who play for our favourite teams you eliminate every ounce of drama and excitement from the game itself.

We pay money and waste our time on sports to be entertained, to get behind our team and shout for the win. Because winning feels good. That is a fact.

I personally believe that it is inevitable for human’s to invent games that capture our imagination simply because we get bored easily and our imaginations are always active.

It just so happens that basketball captured me. If I lived in China I might obsess over table tennis or badminton. Switzerland? Skiing. You get the idea.

If the game itself was awful then we, meaning millions of people, would not watch. But the game is not awful, in fact it can be amazing. A tedious slogan, but the NBA is where amazing happens.

Mostly.

I read Bill Simmons’ piece on referees and I couldn’t agree more. The reason that people are so vociferous in their anger toward bad refs is the fact that we as individuals commit too much to the game for a handful of people to change the course of history.

Yes it is ‘just’ sports, but they are damn important. So, when a game is changed or decided by suspect refereeing? I feel exasperated.

There is definitely a feeling of helplessness as you sit watching a player go to the free throw line to tie the game on the worst phantom foul call.

That magic that the game generates dies and you lose interest. You feel cheated. There is no question of underhand dealings on the refs part, just bad decisions.

I think that we have got away from the fact that referees are there to intervene if necessary. They should not be playing a major part in the outcome.

It is partly shoddy officiating and partly poor rule interpretation. Technicals and suspensions just don’t make any sense in a number of different examples.

Should you be banned for a game just for leaving your bench? No. Of course you shouldn’t.

Its kinda like messing with the Mona Lisa. Just leave it alone. Give it a touch up if it needs it. Maybe a new frame. You see what I mean.

Enough of the interference, just be consistent and leave us to love the game.    

Look at how a referee fouls a player and calls a foul on another player:

Another player who returns a slap got sent off:

Another player bangs into his teammate and a foul is called:

Anyone got another nickel? She was about to show me her bustle!

NBA commissioner David Stern is quoted multiple times in this ESPN article discussing the potential use of expanded instant replay in the NBA.  More specifically, he says he’d like to see a similar system to the NFL, with a “coaches’ challenge” option where coaches might be risking a timeout.  Stern goes on to say:

What we’re struggling with … we want to have a set of rules, we want to call it the way they’re written, we want to have a game called the same no matter who’s reffing it, and we want to assure that we get it right. Against that, we struggle with the problem of to get it perfectly right, put 16 cameras and take four hours to play the game, we can’t do that and we won’t do that. So what you’re seeing is us move slowly to more replay. And I think this is a good time to look at it again. And it may happen and it may not happen.

I am really happy Stern recognizes the NBA has a serious officiating problem, but I fail to see how replay is going to be effective.  Replay is already used for the non-subjective calls – whether a shot was a two or a three, whether a shot was released before the buzzer, and whether a flagrant 2 call actually warrants ejection.  What in the world is a coach going to challenge?  3 in the key?  An iffy block/charge call?  The only thing I could see it working for is out of bounds possession.  Anything else, if it’s reversed, is going to immediately call into question the ability of the officials to continue to make subjective calls.  It’s not the NFL, where often the wrong call is made simply because the officials couldn’t see what happened clearly.

Not to mention the fact that the chief complaint I hear from the casual NBA fan is that the game is too long, too slow, and I tend to agree with them.  I love playoff basketball, but it’s hard to sit through one of those mid-November games when it’s clear that even the players don’t really care.  How much is a challenge system going to slow down the game?  Whatever the cost in time, it’s going to be too much.

"Did I remember my Ensure for halftime?"

Stern has at least recognized there is a problem to be solved.  But before we bog down the game with more stops in play, let’s perhaps look at the officials themselves.  The stately gentleman at left is Dick Bavetta.  Dick is 69 years old.  His contemporaries Joey Crawford and Bennett Salvatore are both in their late 50s.  Far be it from me to begrudge a man his passion, but how can we expect senior citizens to accurately call a game played by some of the biggest, fastest athletic freaks on the planet?

I believe the problem with officiating rests with barriers to entry.  How does one even become an NBA official?  According to Wikipedia, Bavetta started his career as an official by reffing games featuring Wall Street Brokers at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York.  He spent a decade officiating high school, then another 9 years in the CBA before being hired by the NBA in 1975.

I get that the NBA values experience in their officials.  After all, a key component to competent officiating is the ability to remain unruffled when you’re being screamed at by players, coaches, and 10,000 maniacs (hopefully not the 10,000 Maniacs).

But Commish, rather than waiting for referees to cut their teeth elsewhere before you bring them up and hope they do well, why not recruit?  Why not take officiating seriously and have a training camp, a school, where you train athletic people with perfect vision who want to take on the mantle of the gray shirt?  You have an opportunity to find some of the most competent folks and can put them through whatever kind of screening you like.  Have them evaluated psychologically, have them review tape, have them call simulated games.  Find committed young men and women who want to do this for a living and will work hard at it.  The people that are going to want to do this are going to be people that have already watched thousands of hours of your product.  Train them.  Make them the best officials in any major sport.  Sports are a large enough industry now that the officials cannot be part time.  There needs to be an application opportunity for young people to come into your referee school and make themselves a career.  You make it competitive, not arbitrary, and not something that seems next to impossible, and you’re going to get some of the best possible officials you could hope for.  After all, an ambitious person with the cognitive reasoning and ambition to be a great referee is not going to enter that field because it’s not possible to commit to it and make a living.  If you could offer a screening process and a living wage, your pool of candidates will increase exponentially.

It’s good that you understand you have an officiating problem Commissioner Stern.  Now it’s time to do something drastic about it.

Well as Ice Cube used to say, “Once again it’s on!”

I had a good talk with my man Larry Blue the other night about this series.  I knew from Game 1 Monday night that even as the Lake Show looked flat after the week off this series was going to be a tough physical one.  This Houston Rocket team is tough and they are not going to back down.  The Lakers are no push-overs either as illustrated by D-Fish putting Scola on his ASS taking one for the team. 

The refs have a tough job with this one.  Technicals were flying as fast as the words exchanged by the players.  Hell referee Joey Crawford was serving T’s like Burger King serves Whoppers…. Often.  Talk about veteran official!  And Houston’s coach had to send one of his players to the locker room in the middle of the game cause he obviously forgot who the coach was. 

Kobe was Kobe just tearing Shane Battier up like Manny Pacquaio did Ricky Hatton the other night. 

The Lakers toughness was definitely tested last season when they played the Celtics.  From the looks of last night’s game they have learned the lesson. 

Kobe summed the situation up best.  

“It’s good for us.  You have a challenge here in front of you. You want to be champions, you have to respond to it.”

This will definitely be the most intriguing series post Celtics v. Bulls!

LA Lakers 111, San Antonio 112

(31-7)

That’s all I can say about this one. Damn. We shouldn’t have even been in a position to win it after going down by eleven midway through the fourth. With the Spurs’ touted defense, that should have been game, set, and match. But somehow, with Kobe pulling all the strings and Josh Powell draining jumpers, we chipped away and eventually took the lead. 

It finished just like all our other big match-ups with this team, with one incredible shot after another. With the Spurs down one, Tim Duncan drives to the basket, encounters a few defenders, and appears to lose the ball, which flies up out of his hands and rattles through. Spurs up one. No time out, of course, because Phil doesn’t play that game, so Kobe dribbles up, waits for the plan to crystallize in his perfect mind, sees Mason sagging off him, and fires a three, knowing it’s going in. And it does. Lakers up two. There are 10 seconds left and the Lakers have a foul to give. San Antonio is out of timeouts. If we can just execute here, the worst we leave with is overtime. Can you guess what happens? An almost steal, Fisher ends up behind Mason, who steps just inside the three point line, gets nailed from behind by Fish, and drains the shot. Tie game, Mason going to the line. He makes the free throw, but there are still more than nine seconds left. Once again, no time out, and this time I disagree. The first time, there was no dead ball in between, no chance for Pop to sub players in or out for defensive purposes. This time, with the free throw, the Spurs got to reset and prepare defensively. So instead of drawing up a play to make sure Kobe is the deciding factor, on either the pass or the shot, he dribbles up court and of course the Spurs trap him at half court to get the ball out of his hands. He finds Ariza at the top of the key, which doesn’t seem so bad at first. But then he traveled. 0.8 seconds left. Game over.

It would have been sickening if it wasn’t so damn much fun to watch. I’m glad I’m a little older, although not much wiser, because this is the kind of game that would have had me sulking for a week in the past. Now, though, I just sit in awe after watching an incredible game of basketball. Would I have liked to see us win it? Absolutely, especially because we earned it down the stretch. When it matters, we are excellent late in fourth quarters, except for one critical moment: that last defensive possession. No matter what we do, that one always kills us. Teams don’t always make us pay – like Houston didn’t last night, like the Heat didn’t – but the better teams will, as San Antonio proved. I don’t know what can be done to remedy the problem, considering what quality and experience we have on the court in those situations, but it has to be fixed, because we have a troubling tendency to make games closer than they need to be and closing out is crucial. 

It’s a tough one, to be sure, but I’m slowly coming around to Phil’s long-term view on the season. We aren’t even at the All-Star break and we’re in a dead heat with three other teams – all from the Eastern Conference – for the best record in the NBA. This was the second game of a road back-to-back and we had not one single guard available to come off the bench (unless you count Sun Yue, which I don’t). We’ve been without a back-up point guard for a while now, and we just got our true sixth man back. I’m not whining – and I’m certainly not going to act a Kings fan and discredit the Spurs’ win because of it (still bitter – can you tell?) – but it helps lessen the blow somewhat. I still don’t think that, at the end of a grueling season, in a seven game series, the Spurs or any other Western Conference team can take us. How we hold up against the East in the Finals is another story, but I’m not counting anybody out at this point.

The talk after the game from a number of corners was about whether or not Ariza actually traveled or was tripped, and how the Lakers reacted to the ref’s call. Even before that last play, I had been thinking about how well officiating is handled in the NBA. I’ve always complained about how the NFL can be both so precise and so lax in its officiating – with all those rules about who can be on the line of scrimmage and where and eligible this and that, you would think that they would be able to properly call a delay of game penalty when it occurs or stop the clock as soon as a team calls a timeout. Yet these things routinely go awry. Soccer has its own set of problems with, I believe, not enough officials to cover such a huge pitch and squabbles over potentially allowing replay for key situations. And I’m not even going to talk about baseball, because that’s a joke – both the sport itself and the way it’s run. (Tell me we still need the umpire system we currently have when ESPN can tell me definitively if it’s a strike or a ball.) The NBA, though, has an effective, streamlined system that works so often that we are able to pick out the bad moments so easily and belabor them. I’m not gonna lie – there’s a good argument to be made that Ariza was tripped, but it’s not something I get bitter over because I know everything else has been done to ensure that the game is called correctly and, more often than not, it is. When tennis first started its replay system, everyone was amazed to see just how often calls were missed. As it turned out, the lines were called correctly the vast majority of the time, with player challenges being held up around 30% of the time and often less. And that’s only when players choose to challenge, not even including the other calls that everyone accepts as correct. All I’m trying to say is that, while it’s easy to bash the refs (and they should be held accountable when they eff it up), I gotta give credit where it’s due, and the NBA has been easily the most judicious in keeping its officiating house in order. I love NBA refs, even Joey Crawford’s punk ass, and I have a personal affinity for a lot of them, including Danny Crawford and Violet Palmer. So whether or not they got it right tonight, it still sits well with me because, Tim Donaghy aside, I’m not worried about some sort of Calciopoli-type scandal going on. Keep up the good work, dudes.

Game recap:

1. The referee assignments have been posted, and it appears that I was 33% correct with my prediction. Looks like it’s going to be Bennett Salvatore (seriously, just kill me now); Joey Crawford — yes, THE Joey Crawford that was suspended by the NBA for ejecting Tim Duncan from a game last postseason because Duncan was laughing on the bench; and Eddie Rush, who’s also basically terrible.  So the NBA didn’t pull out ALL the stops to force a game 7, but pretty close.

2. According to Boston.com, both Kendrick Perkins and Ray Allen are expected to play. Sayeth Perkins: “I’m going to give it a shot tonight and see how it goes. I plan on playing tonight and I’ll see how it goes.” I’m expecting he starts, plays around 5-8 minutes and then hits the pine for the rest of the game.

REMINDER: LIVE BLOG DURING THE GAME!

Pues nada, que la NBA ha emitido un comunicado en el cual reconoce que la acción de Derek Fisher sobre Brent Barry al final del partido de ayer debería haberse pitado como falta. Sí señor, ya que la cagamos, la cagamos hasta el fondo. ¿Para qué van a dejarlo así, después de que hasta los propios implicados reconocieran que no pasó “nada”? Pero no, tenían que echar más mierda sobre los árbitros… Más información aquí y aquí, la segunda en cristiano.

 Por cierto, creo que se me olvidó comentar que uno de los árbitros que pitaban el partido en cuestión, Joey Crawford, fue el mismo que expulsó a Tim Duncan el año pasado en un partido contra los Mavs por dos técnicas casi consecutivas, la segunda sólo por reírse en el banquillo, literalmente:

Sí, hablamos del mismo que fue suspendido “indefinidamente”, pero que ha vuelto a pitar un partido de los Spurs en playoffs. Hmm… ¿Algo huele a podrido en el reino de David Stern? ¿Tantas ganas tiene este hombre de que haya una final Celtics-Lakers? Si la cosa ya iba a caer casi por su propio peso, hombre…

The NBA is gaining back from me.

Gaining back some of the bad rep. that it doesn’t need. Especially for the fact that the NBA appointed referee, and Spurs hater, Joey Crawford to ref. the Spurs/Lakers game 4 last night in San Antonio.

Why, if you’re the NBA, do you have Joey Crawford ref the game, especially for the fact that the Spurs are playing? Could you find any more proof that the NBA is trying to get rid of the dynasty, the Spurs’ team that has won four titles in nine seasons. A team that has, albeit dropped television ratings for the NBA, made the NBA’s image that much better for the fact that they’re clean, fundamentally-sound team.

Brent Barry was fouled last night. Clearly. The last play was set to have the ball go to Manu Ginobili. It never reached Manu. Lakers’ guard Derek Fisher jumped and Brent Barry went right into him on the floor, off the dribble, instead of taking a jumpshot.

I can understand the situation, mainly because it wasn’t in his mind to do it. It’s hard to think so quickly when you’re having to perform a play that was drawn up only moments later by Popovich. You’re supposed to get the ball to Ginobili. But you’re pretty much fouled, and you’re not taking the chance at the clear shooting foul. It didn’t happen for Barry. Hell, I’m not taking up for Barry or effacing the fact that he screwed up. I’m only using a counterpoint to negate people’s thoughts that have been writing him off as an idiot.

Now, back to Joey Crawford: the play was still a foul. I don’t care what you say. Michael Wilbon says he would have called it if Barry tried to shoot. Well, he didn’t try to shoot, but it was still a clear-cut, full-force, in your face foul. IT WAS A FOUL. Crawford didn’t call it. And it, in a way, deep down inside all of my anger about all of this, amuses me.

Joey Crawford ejected Tim Duncan from a Mavericks game last year, late regular season, for laughing on the bench. Obviously he hates the Spurs, as I was iterating earlier in this post. Earlier in the playoffs, he aggressively poked Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich in the chest. In the Hornets’ series, he gave Popovich a technical. Now, he gives a big F-U to the Spurs and says “Sayonara, bitches!”

Thank you, NBA, for f’ing up again, in the wake of bad reffing, in the wake of Tim Donoghue, for allowing a dumbass like Joey Crawford to ref a Spurs game, a team that he obviously has a bias against.

… the officiating was weak in game 4 between the Spurs and the Lakers. I’m going to try to be completely un-bias, which I think is possible because I dislike both teams. I think I hate the Spurs more, but I can never root for the Lakers, unless Odom is directly involved. Complicated, and no one cares.

Anyway, on to the officiating in tonights game. AWFUL. Let me explain.

Luke Walton gets NO respect. First he got called for a travel on a play where they easily could’ve called a foul on the spurs. Then a few plays later he dribbles near flopoholic Robert Horry who “draws” a charge by jumping backwards. It was definitely a block or a no call. I would like to point out that the travel by Walton was much less egregious than the three running steps by Duncan that preceded a dunk in the second quarter. Laker fans should’ve been pretty angry at this point in the game.

…But Laker fans have no right to be angry anymore. The refs made up for these few bad calls with a SEASON KILLING bad call on the last play of the game. Yup, it was a foul. You can’t just not call fouls in the last minute of the game. Fisher rammed into Brent Barry with one second left in the game and the score 93-91. Barry understandably forced up a wild three and the game ended 93-91. They call that foul and you have career 82% freethrow shooting Brent Barry at the line with a chance to tie the game.

They interviewed Kobe Bryant after the game. “No foul,” was all he would say. What else is he gonna say? It’s obviously a foul and Joey “call a tech on duncan for laughing” Crawford killed the Spurs again. I guess in a way it’s the ultimate revenge for Crawford, who, I believe, previously got fined because of his poor treatment of the Spurs.

This call was really bad, and I had money riding on the Lakers. Sure it was 11 cents, but it’s still money. if a guy who bets on the Lakers can say that was a bad call, then everyone can admit that was a bad call. Right Socal? (In no way do I think Socal will say it was a bad call.)

So basically, the refs were bad throughout, culminating in a bad call that will be talked about in San Antonio for awhile. Did the refs make up for bad calls against the lakers with that last bad call? Perhaps, but that last no call robbed us of one of the more exciting finishes in sports, a guy at the line shooting two, down two.

On a side note, with about a minute left Odom hit two clutch free throws and then the rest of the Lakers team proceeded to try as hard as they could to give away the game (kobe included). It was very reminicent of this (here for full version). Why would Kobe shoot that shot? Just a strange game.

10 reasons San Antonio is going to win tonight’s Game 7

10. The Tony Parker vs Chris Paul match-up will be played to a draw.

9. The Bruce Bowen vs Peja Stojakovic match-up will be won by the ‘Karate Kid’.

8. Joey Crawford is not on tonight’s officiating crew.

7. Michael Finley and Brent Barry are accustomed to making big shots in big games.

6. Tim Duncan has yet to play a good “away game”. Tonight, he’s due.

5. Three PFs (Thomas-K, Oberto-F & Horry-R) are better than one (West-D).

4. Ime Udoka is not going to waste valuable possessions by taking ill-advised shots.

3. When the Hornets “go small” the Spurs will counter, “going BIG” at the guard spots.

2. The Spurs are mentally tougher than this inexperienced Hornets team.

1. GINOBILI!!!

10 reasons New Orleans is going to win tonight’s Game 7

10. Chris Paul is a better PG than Tony Parker. This is his time to shine.

9. The 5/1 Wing Pick & Roll, with 2 (Peja) back-screening for Chandler, is a tough check for Bowen.

8. Joey Crawford is on tonight’s officiating crew.

7. One of Jannero Pargo, Bonzi Wells or MoPete is due for a BIG scoring night.

6. Tyson Chandler is the best 1-on-1 defensive match-up vs Tim Duncan, in the NBA.

5. 1 star PF (West-D) is better than 3 also-rans (Thomas-K, Oberto-F & Horry-R).

4. There’s no way Ime Udoka can duplicate his Game 6 performance for the Spurs.

3. The Hornets superior athleticism will generate key Stls, Blks, TO’s & Off-Rebs.

2. The Hornets are on post-Katrina mission, as the NBA’s feel-good story this year.

1. The Spurs are a dirty team whose ‘bad Karma’ will finally catch up with them!

Go ahead and take your pick.

Either way, it SHOULD be a terrific ballgame!

9:45 EST, 6:45 PST, 2:45 GMT

David Stern’s Association has reached new levels of toxicity. As I watch Wally “fuckin’” Szczerbiak discuss his excitement in escaping Seattle on ESPN’s annoying coverage of the NBA, I noticed that I wasn’t alone in my disgust. If you plan on attending any games soon, take head: their SARs-like disease is apparently spreading…

“CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Referee Joey Crawford left Friday’s Sacramento-Charlotte game midway through the first quarter because of flu-like symptoms.
Crawford started the game and continued until the first timeout with 5:52 left, when he walked through the tunnel to the locker room. He did not return to the game.”

by BD, Sports Show On Mute

As I expected the ‘Skins knocked off the Eagles last night. They even managed to make the ‘Skins offense look decent. Something I hadn’t considered possible. Leading up to the game I was mulling a 50/1 bet on No TD’s in the game. In the end I decided against it but I wasn’t far off. Mike Tirico and the king of scream are picking up the time Dan Patrick left behind on ESPN Radio. I’d have given the job to Van Pelt myself. My Tigers season may have unofficially ended last night. I’m now hopping on the Diamondbacks bandwagon as I’d like to see them win it all. Though I don’t think they’ll pull it off. I had a different photo lined up for today. But, after these came to my attention I felt it was necessary to post it. As I’m a Heroes fan and the idea of these two together is definitely a good one. (Kristen Bell and Hayden Panettiere)

Cowboys Clinch NFC East
Everyone seemed to think heading into the season the Eagles and Cowboys would be battling it out for the division crown throughout the season. Last night made clear what many of us thought after last week. The only battle the Eagles will be in is for a wild card spot. In the increasingly ordinary NFC it’s possible. But, I fully expect those fantastic fans in Philly to watching another team miss the playoffs this year.

Meanwhile the Cowboys have torched both the Giants and Dolphins. Sure, neither team is very good and the Cowboys defense leaves a lot to be desired. But, they’ll probably sweep both Philly and New York this year. And at worst split with Washington. That’s seven wins alone. The recently tough East is looking a whole lot easier.

On the other side, Washington looked solid. The offense looked better than they did last week against Miami and I think it will continue to improve. Though not enough to really compete with Dallas for the division crown. Jason Campbell’s getting better but I still don’t think he’ll develop into an elite NFL QB. Serviceable? Yes.

One final thought on Philly. Doesn’t it say enough that I’m expecting the Lions as the favorite when the line comes out for that game (despite being in Philly)? Maybe even worse? I expect the Lions to win easily as their defensive front will get to McNabb all day.

Tirico Takes Patricks Slot
Well, most of it anyway. I’m not a big fan of Tirico myself as I consider him a play-by-play guy at best. Not much else. If it weren’t ESPN I’d expect a large ratings dip but he should maintain the majority. Screamin’ A Smith taking the third hour is interesting. So dial your radio down below “5″ before turning him on. Hopefully he takes the summers off as his opinions on anything non-basketball are often wrong and ill conceived.

Leftwich To Atlanta?
This should have happened as soon as he was cut by the Jaguars. The fact that the Falcons thought Joey “Checkdown” Harrington could get the job done is ridiculous to me. It’ll take a few weeks before he can start. But, if they sign him Joey will be losing his job for the third year in a row.

Joey Crawford Reinstated
Despite what happend last season Crawford is probably one of the better officials in the league. Unfortunately he’d have probably been better of retiring with the amount of abuse the zebras will take this year.

Movies
I seen Shoot ‘Em Up as I mentioned I might yesterday. It’s a an interesting flick and the title certainly fits. The story is a bit crazy for me but if you like action it’s worth the hour and twenty minutes. Approximately 300 people die in that span of time on screen and it’s very much interesting to watch. It has a Sin City feel to it though it’s very much in full color. I’d recommend checking it out if your an action fan. Otherwise, it’s a pass.
Rating: 7/10 (I hand out to many 7’s don’t I?)

Television
I finally managed to catch up to Weeds over the last few weeks. And I must say it’s a fantastic show. The whole thing is insane and it could any way every time you watch it. You really never know what to expect and I like that. Anyhow, I’ll be reviewing that today alongside the show that follows it Californication. Next week you may have to wait until Wednesday for these two as Heroes kicks off and these two are likely DVR bound.

I caught up to Weeds the right week as one of the Olsen twins guest starred and it appears she’ll be around a while. She’s playing a hippie who schools Silas on the stylings of Jesus while getting blown. While she’s not very attractive she could certainly look a lot worse. The Mom who’s name escapes me had a bunch of heroin stashed in her laundry room against her will. Though it shouldn’t be a problem after a certain someone died/was murdered at the end of this week’s episode. It’s obvious why the writers made this move. So, what’s next then?
Rating: 7.5/10

Californication was fantastic as usual. Hank finally managed to make a move on the ex. Though predictable it was nice to see him finally get there. The inevitable discussion of it next week should be interesting. Mia and her obsession is becoming a problem and should lead to big ones for Hank soon. Not much he can do though as the situation like most in his life are inevitable. Hank donning Bill’s pink shirt may have been the highlight this week as it magnified the differences between the two even more. Hank looked like a jackass and got a laugh from the three girls over it. And am I the only one who could do without the whole Agent dominating his assistant portion of each show?
Rating: 8/10

Scoreboard – September 17th – 2007

NFL
Washington 20, Philadelphia 12

MLB
National League
Washington 12 New York 4
Atlanta 11, Florida 6
Milwaukee 6, Houston 0
Chicago 7, Cincinnati 6
Philadelphia 13, St. Louis 11
San Francisco 8, Arizona 5
San Diego 3, Pittsburgh 0

American League
Cleveland 6, Detroit 5 F/11
New York 8, Baltimore 5
Toronto 6, Boston 1
Chicago 11, Kansas City 3
Minnesota 5, Texas 4
Los Angeles 10, Tampa Bay 7
Seattle 4, Oakland 0

I just want to point out that Tim Donaghy is not the only referee out there betting or gambling.  I have always felt these guys are very corrupt.  They don’t make anywhere near the amount of the players, yet they have so much more control of the game.  The odds of getting caught are very slim, as there are people out there that put their life into these scandals.  If I were a ref, I’d probably be in on a game or two as well.  If you asked me before Tim Donaghy was the main suspect to the crime, my money would have been on Joey Crawford.  The way he t’d up Tim Duncan for laughing was so suspicious in my mind.  I laughed for a while, tried to figure out why, but then I got very suspicious.  To be honest, I’m not too familiar with Donaghy, but I’m sure within the next couple days, the video editing guys will be posting many clips on YouTube of him making weirdo calls, and we’ll all be hitting ourselves and saying, “man, how did we never realize?”  The only prediction I bring to the table today is that this isn’t the last of the crack-down in corrupt refereeing.  You’re next, Joey Crawford!!!!

Originally Aired: April 23th 2007 at 8:00p.m.

___
Topics Discussed:

- NHL Conference Semifinals

- NFL Draft Preview

- Jets and Giants Draft Needs and Pick Prediction

- NBA Playoffs

- The Red Sox beating the Yankees

- Trend or Mirage:

A-rod’s hitting tear

Adam ‘Pac-man’ Jones’s apologizes

Bizarre Fighting Scenes

—————

Fun Facts:

• Debut of ‘Trend or Mirage’ segment
• Also the debut of new text box
• The new text box design was based upon one used by the ‘BU Blog’, a popular debate show featuring Baruch “Barwin” Spier and Jennifer Frank on BTV-6.

—————

Back to Season One

Unless you follow the NBA much this won’t be a big deal to you, but to me this is one of the strangest stories I have ever seen…

NEW YORK — NBA referee Joey Crawford was suspended indefinitely by commissioner David Stern on Tuesday for his conduct toward Tim Duncan, who contends the official challenged him to a fight.

Lets just be happy that Joey Crawford isn’t a major political player. Instead of paying fans being deprived of watching the star player play basketball, we could have to indure book burning and censorship. Above is only a taste of the oppression and censorship that Despot Crawford is capable of. Stay strong Byron Scott, stay strong.

Under the terrible Despot Crawford, this country would not be able to enjoy the gentle satire of John Stewart and the three other funny guys on the show like that funny guy from the Mac commercials…he is so understated but still so funny. Joey Crawford would have none of this, instead only playing state sanctioned television comprised of Fox & Friends and Bill O’Reilly.

The Despot Joey Crawford would restrict youth expression which according to the 1993 cinematic tour de force “Swing Kids”, would lead to speak easies where rebellious youths would act out through dance and jazz music. I hate jazz music and I refuse to live in a world where rebellion is paced by the painful randomness of jazz music.

Everybody in the NBA including superstar players, coaches and ball boys know that David Stern isn’t messing around this year. Remember how many techs were called the first few weeks of the season when the league was stressing it’s new “behavior policy”? The policy now extends to NBA refs. One of the NBA’s finest, Joey Crawford, has been suspended for the rest of the regular season (two days) and the playoffs for his ejection of Tim Duncan on Sunday. David Stern on the suspension:

“Joey Crawford’s handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of NBA referees. Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted. Although Joey is consistently rated as one of our top referees, he must be held accountable for his actions on the floor, and we will have further discussions with him following the season to be sure he understands his responsibilities.”

All of the details aren’t in yet on this story, but something major had to go down for Stern to hand out an Artest type suspension. Here’s Tim Duncan’s account:

“He looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?’ If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don’t have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, ‘Do you want to fight?”

I’m not sure (ok I’m positive they’re not) if Tim Duncan and Joey Crawford are in the same weight division, but there has to be a way to get the two of them on the De La Hoya/Mayweather undercard.

NBA suspends Joey Crawford. Swacked from ESPN.com

Tim Duncan ejected by Joey Crawford. Swacked from Youtube.com

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