More like Basketball at Random, but whatever.
Check this clip out- I wish Gerald Green would have done this to Nate.
Monthly Archive for February, 2007
Another going to Hell story.
Celtics Broadcaster and ex-player Cedric Maxwell told female referee Violet Palmer to “go back to the kitchen” after he disagreed with one of her calls. After awkward silence, he went on to say, “Go in there and make me some bacon and eggs, would you?”
Imagine if you were Sean Grande, Maxwell’s play-by-play partner, and you had to continue after that? There’s no way I could go on (or not laugh). If anyone has audio of this, please post in the comments.
He’s going to apologize immediately- but seriously, woman or not, Violet Palmer is one of the worst refs in the league, if not the worst.
They aren’t a bunch of Powders, but Charlie Villanueva and crew are…
I can’t do this story. I’m going to Hell.
Just watch the video on this page where Charlie thanks everyone who has made fun of him over the years. Are all those kids wearing wigs? Is it bad that I sometimes wish I had Alopecia because I’m Italian? On a related note, is this even real?
Pacman is getting chased hard by those ghosts. Adam “Pacman” Jones, already much discussed on Sports at Random because of an All-Star Weekend strip club incident, is in serious PR (if not legal) troubles again. WTVF in Nashville has obtained wire-tapped conversations between convicted felon and alleged drug kingpin Darryl Moore and Tennessee Titan CB/KR Pacman Jones. Jones was recorded asking for ‘Dro’, which is a nickname for marijuana, and Moore made a cocaine deal over the phone where he said he was at Pacman’s house. On the day Moore was arrested, Pacman, who allegedly was good friends and often partied with Moore, continued to call Moore’s cell phone several times before he realized the police had taken Moore into custody.
In more severe findings, though, WTVF reveal that this convicted drug dealer, who was caught with almost 2,000 pounds of marijuana and cocaine, advised Pacman to “slow down” and to “get him focused on football”. He goes on to say that Titans Coach Jeff Fisher is being “patient as a mother f—er” about Pacman and that Moore told Pacman that “he needed 33 days before he took his mother f—in’ test, dry out” and that Pacman needs to take his job more seriously. He also mentions how Pacman bet thousands and thousands of dollars on College Football in order to make a quick buck.
Let’s tackle the fact that a drug kingpin is telling you to get control of your life first. When a Dude that sells coke is telling you to take your real life job more seriously, you know you are a mess. Now many of Pacman’s family members (grandparents, uncle) are coming out and saying they are worried about him, too.
Now, as far as Jeff Fisher goes, he seemed to know about much of this. He knew Pacman was getting in trouble and (probably) smoking weed (which the NFL doesn’t tolerate). Isn’t it Fisher’s responsibility to put a stop to this, whether it is Pacman’s paycheck or get Pacman traded or something. If you know one of your players is involved in this type of thing, you need to do something about it, not just put him back out there on Sunday to try and win. I’m not trying to be all high and mighty here, just realistic. You know it’s going to hurt you in the long run after you realize you aren’t helping the kid- you are only being another one of the many ‘yes men’ Pacman has been around his entire adult life.
More on the All-Star Weekend Saga: Pacman apparently had nowhere near $81,000 in singles that night of the shooting, but more along $3,500. He also was just copying what Jermaine Dupri and Nelly were doing up on the stage, sprinkling one dollar bills on the strippers. Then the strippers started to pick up his money and that’s when it all went down.
Here it is if you want to see it, but just be aware that Clippers physician Dr. Tony Daly said, “It’s probably the most serious injury you can have to the knee.” Shaun Livingston tore his ACL, PCL, MCL, and his lateral meniscus. He also dislocated his knee cap. I’m getting sick just thinking about all of this.
Livingston was the 4th pick in the 2004 Draft. He is up for an extension offer this offseason (which he obviously won’t get (he has another year after this one, then he’d be a restricted free agent)). Although this will extremely hinder his development, from a Clippers’ standpoint, this could work out money wise. I know that is a ridiculous thing to say because he will probably be out until the All-Star break NEXT YEAR, but it’s realistic. Livingston could come as a discount during the summer of 2008 because he will have proven only that he has injury problems. The Clippers have valued him so highly that he could have asked for a max deal by that time (if he had properly developed).
The Clippers now must decide which direction they want to go. They never pulled the trigger for Vince Carter or Allen Iverson or whoever else was offered to them because they refused to trade Livingston. Now you could have never known this was going to happen, but YOU KNEW he was fragile. He missed significant time in every one of his seasons and, as a Clippers half-season ticket holder myself, you see him miss games with pathetic injuries all the time. I know he had tremendous potential, being a 6′7″ long and lanky point guard who can attack the rim, but you knew his issues, you knew he wasn’t developing at a spectacular rate. The Clippers set themselves up to be a decent team for a long time with Elton Brand- but they seemed to never want to take that extra step. It’s a business and I know it’s about making money, but taking risks is what you need to do to reap bigger rewards (both for money and championships). Many blame Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling (who once sued a woman who claimed he sexually harassed her and asked her to start an escort service for him), but I think he has actually been a good owner. He claims he always would pay if a player deserved it, and he has, with Elton Brand and Corey Maggette. I blame his General Manager and Coaches. Elgin Baylor has made some of the worst draft picks in history and decisions by Sterling to trade or not resign guys like Michael Olowokandi, Andre Miller, Darius Miles, Loy Vaught, Maurice Taylor, Brent Barry, Lorenzen Wright, and Rodney Rogers all seemed to have been good moves, no matter what Clipper fans thought at the time. Admittedly, he should have gotten more in return for these guys, but that is where I blame the GM who knew what kind of player his owner would only resign.
So now the Clippers have Chris Kaman, basically, for forever, Elton Brand with a player option after next season, Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas until the 2009-2010 season and Corey Maggette with a player option after next year, which he will definitely not opt to do if Mike Dunleavy is still there. There seems to be no present with this team, as Chris Kaman has been wildly inconsistent, and with the uncertainty with Livingston, no future. Elton Brand needs help and all of these shoot first players (especially Kaman who once he touches it, you aren’t getting it back) are not helping. This team should be built around Brand and Maggette, but it will never be since the Coach and Owner differ greatly on their opinions of Maggette (who once did a flip in the dunk contest- I was there). With Maggette’s athleticism, ability to create instant offense, and his underrated shot, he’s well worth building around (with the inside presence of Brand- like Manu and Duncan, you can slow it up or get out and run).
The Sports Boy Bill Simmons wrote an article today (read that first) where he had comments from Cleveland Cavaliers fans- who lived in LA. So, I thought I would have my resident Cleveland Cavaliers expert (who lives in LA) crack back on what they said. So, here’s the first appearance of My Roommate:
“For the first email Simmons poster, I’ll just point out the thing I don’t agree with. Most of what he says has some validity… however:
- Z gets boards. Checking his offensive rebounds per 48 minutes proves he’s still an effective rebounder. Perhaps this guys is watching how effective Drew and Andy are as well, and taking Z for granted. But, anyone watching the the games sees all the tips and put backs he gets. With a team that misses as many jumpers as Cleveland, his tip ins and Andy’s deflections to others and/or rebounds for himself are huge. Z plays almost 10 less minutes a game than Dwight Howard and he pulls down the same amount of offensive boards per game (3.4-not even a per 48 minute stat). But, as we know, Z doesn’t play 48 minutes, so if you look at his overall rebounding numbers for a 7′3″ guy, you’re gonna be disappointed. He’s actually slightly worse than Gooden. But the reality is he does sit a fair amount, and yes, that includes at crunch time, usually in part due to foul trouble. But he’s most definitely not a liability on offense or defense. He’s one of the top jump shooting/post up centers in the game (not that there are many left), and on defense there is no question he alters a ton of shots and gets a fair number of blocks. He’s a liability in transition and he’s a liability on the pick and roll. But Varejao’s speed often masks that on this Cavs squad.
- Lucious Harris never started outside of multiple injury situations. David Wesley started two games consecutively in the beginning of this year due to injury to Hughes (shocker there) before Brown (the coach) was willing to give Boobie (keep reading) and Brown (the player) minutes. It’s an exaggeration by the writer to try to prove what was a valid point prior to his gross exaggeration. Lebron’s two guards have largely sucked, or been ridiculously inconsistent, or both during his short career. Eric Williams was there for a half year and was just a rotation guy. He didn’t log massive minutes. He was a stop-gap that was just one of the three temporary salary fillers to unload triple-double Davis. And if it’s not exclusively two guards and point guards that you are using to cite as “awful shooters”, what about Pavs? What about Donyell? He’s obviously not talking about just guards cause Eric Williams is a three. Paint the whole picture. Hell, even Lee Nailon and Jumaine Jones were better shooters than some of the scrubs he decided to mention who have played insignificant minutes on the Cavs over Lebron’s tenure. Z can knock them down out to about 19 feet with regularity.
As for the second Simmons email guy, I think he makes an interesting argument. The only thing I’m hesitant to agree with is that the problem is Lebron. It could be, and time hopefully will tell if Lebron doesn’t jump ship in 2010 (editor’s note: to the Brooklyn Nets), but the guys around him, outside of Z, who are the “skill guys” have all been questioned as to leadership/character over their time in the league. Larry, Damon, Drew (he’s called out for lack of understanding and inability to play help D-not that he’s a bad character guy), hell, even Pavs (one man offense… although he’s taken significant steps to disproving that this season). There are two guys who I see as the type of role guys who rise to the challenge regardless of Lebron. One is Varejao, the other is Snow. Unfortunately Snow sucks outside his defense and strips. But he still gives it 100 percent. Varejao contributes huge, but he can’t help much from a scoring perspective.”
My Roommate emailed me that. Here are the following emails we sent to each other back and forth after I read that:
Me: Who the hell is ‘Boobie’? Gibson?
My Roommate: Yeah, and obviously ‘Andy’ is Anderson.
My Roommate: Simmons obviously at least picked people who watched the games, but their comments read like they look at the Cavs like Lebron and the irrelevants. Like they’re analyzing how ESPN analyzes the Cavs. Not the Cavs as a team. The second guy places blame on Lebron for the failures of his teammates. The Cavs have talent. Not well rounded talent. And not talent with the ability to take over, but they’re not all bums. They ARE largely overpaid across the board though. Except for Andy. And Gooden. And Pavs. Everyone else should be making less. Larry should be dead.
Me: Why the hell is daniel gibson called ‘boobie’?
My Roommate: his mom
Me: why call your son one of your own body parts?
My Roommate: ‘boobie’ stems from a childhood affliction. his mother used to shampoo his hair with lavender and tree oil. he sprouted a tit.
Steve Francis’ season is probably over. His time with the New York Knicks is probably over… but his career? The New York Daily News is reporting that his career might be over because of his recurring knee injury and that he would take a medical retirement. This would save the Knicks about 80% of what they still owe him (minus a deductible).
Stevie Franchise just seemed depressed. “What’s it called, the terrorist alert, when they say the security alert is like orange? That’s what my frustration is now.”
Francis has 2 more years after this one left on his contract at $16.4 and $17.2 million. (Isiah!)
He never really had a chance in New York after he was acquired at last year’s deadline for Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway’s expiring contract. He had back spasms last year, his minutes were played with by Isiah, the man who supposedly coveted him, and then his knee kept flaring up this year. Yes, it may have been extremely stupid for Isiah the GM to get Francis and his contract (unless you assume salaries don’t matter to NY), but I’m going to blame Isiah the Coach for this debacle. Everyone is also talking about how Isiah the Coach is actually very good, and yes, I see he gets his players to play hard and they all like him (most anyway), but he messes around too much, like with Francis, and I just don’t see how you can say he’s doing ‘good’. Channing Frye has turned in to Loren Woods most nights and I think it’s due to lack of consistent minutes. This whole Jerome James starting ridiculousness also has to stop. He starts, plays for 4 minutes, picks up two fouls, misses two shots, grabs one board, then sits the REST OF THE GAME. I just don’t get it. And watching the games, Isiah actually SETS UP PLAYS FOR HIM. It’s unbelievable. Let’s just hope David Lee doesn’t get extremely angry at not starting and stops trying.
UPDATE (2/27/2007 1:00 PM): Jamal Crawford is out for the rest of the regular season with a stress fracture in his right ankle. That loud cheer you just heard was from Chicago.
Ok, let’s talk about the Knicks’ trade for Eddy Curry.
So here was the trade: Knicks get Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis. The Bulls get Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, 2007 and 2009 2nd Round picks, and the Knicks’ 2006 and 2007 1st Round picks (basically-a lot of stuff had to happen, like Spurs making the playoffs and the Knicks’ not being a top 5 team in the league- ok, actually only earth had to continue rotating).
So, looking at it then, everyone hated it, including myself (from a Knicks’ perspective), but now that Eddy Curry has been very good, people are reevaluating the deal and many are taking Isiah’s side. THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL IDIOTS.
You have to look at the situation when people were traded, like Allen Iverson this year. He demanded a trade, they weren’t even dressing him. There was no way they were getting even 70 cents on the dollar for him. Other teams had the upper hand. As far as Eddy Curry’s situation goes, John Paxson was in that same situation. He wanted Eddy to take a genetics test because Eddy had an irregular heartbeat and he wanted to make sure his player wouldn’t drop dead like Reggie Lewis or Hank Gathers. He even offered Eddy $400,000 a year for 50 years if he failed the genetics test. Eddy wanted no part of the test and management wanted no part of Eddy Curry if he didn’t take the test. So, Isiah, what we have here is the Bulls needing to trade one of their players, who actually might not even be healthy. You have the upper hand, Isiah! You don’t have to give up all those draft picks! Can you imagine being John Paxson and Isiah is offering to give you the option to trade picks with him, not now, but when draft time comes? Even the fact that he’s offering the pick exchange is ridiculous.
Although many think the trade has become almost equal, it clearly isn’t. Everyone seems to forget the awful situation the Bulls were in at that point. The Knicks should have not traded their 2006 draft pick or either of the 2nd round picks. I mean, I’d even say they could have offered even less, since many teams were not clamoring to get this health risk, but without those three picks it is at least palatable.
Isiah had hand… but he didn’t use it. Well, he may have used it.
Many are reporting out of the NFL combine that the Buffalo Bills are shopping the U alum Willis McGahee. McGahee was very inconsistent last year and the team didn’t lose a step when he got hurt and Anthony Thomas took over.
Circling around with the trade rumors is another report by Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole that McGahee didn’t know the playbook and it affected his perception with other players in the locker room. McGahee didn’t go to any Bills’ minicamps last offseason to learn the playbook, as he was training in Miami with several other Miami alumni who also don’t work out with their teams. Something fishy (excuse the NFL pun) is going on down there. What are all these guys doing down in Miami? I want to say, “It’s Miami Beach, duh. Who wants to train in Buffalo or Baltimore?” Nevertheless, though, the players always seem to be in great physical shape and dominate the league (I’ll have more on this in the near future). Apparently they don’t do much studying, though. Maybe it’s just a case of work hard (physically)/play hard (also physically- I don’t think Sean Taylor lays on the beach after a long workout and does a Sudoku.)
McGahee is in the last year of his rookie contract. The Bills may be looking to get something for him now, because he obviously doesn’t like Buffalo. The Giants reportedly showed interest now that Tiki retired (I’m sure Willis will love Tom Coughlin- also, way to stunt Brandon Jacobs’ growth).
Football wise, if you can get a 2nd round pick for him, go for it. Willis, while very talented, has lost interest in Buffalo and you have to get something for him when you can. The Bills could be losing Willis, London Fletcher, and Nate Clements this offseason. What’s your plan, Marv? Build it around J.P. Losman? Sweet. I saw that guy at a bar last August only because he locked himself out of his apartment and was waiting for his roommate. Forgetfulness and having a bar as your safe haven- just what I want in my franchise quarterback.
It seems the Bills have had great talent at the RB position since Thurman Thomas, but none have really stuck. Antowain Smith had a 1,000 yard seasons, but left as a free agent to win two Super Bowls with New England. Then Travis Henry came in, had two consecutive 1,350+ yard seasons, but then Willis was drafted. (My sources within the Bills at the time speculated that Tom Donohoe drafted Willis not only for value late in the first round, but because Travis Henry had a skiing problem. I also remember a story a year before he was traded to Tennessee where he picked up two 15-year-old girls in Hamburg, NY. He later claimed one told him she was almost 18. Oh, well then, that’s fine, Travis.) And now Willis, who seemed promising, might soon be ending his stay in Buffalo. If the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Indianapolis Colts have taught us anything, it’s that a certain RB doesn’t matter, so Marv going for a draft pick or a LB/CB might be the best move they have.
ROUND II: Another great game, but this time the Sabres lost- and lost the best record in the league to Nashville, who beat Columbus last night in a shootout.
I think they will (and they should) change the NHL scoring system next year. 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for an overtime or shootout win, and 1 point for a tie (sic- by tie, I mean overtime or shootout loss. Thanks, Bottle Rocket). You need to be rewarded for regulation wins. Teams like the Sabres, who won a ton of overtime and shootout games early in the year, shouldn’t be rewarded the same as a team who dominates and wins 3 periods.