After a wacky week in sports in which discussion seemed to center around Pacman Jones, Mike Nifong and Don Imus, Sunday got this week off to a rousing start when referee Joey Crawford ejected Tim Duncan from the Spurs-Mavs game and then allegedly challenged Duncan to a fight.  No one knows for sure why Joey Crawford ejected Tim Duncan from Sundays game.  There are all sorts of theories floating around so I figure I'd throw my hat into the ring. 

 

Crawford ejected Duncan on April 15. Now why is April 15 a significant day you ask?  April 15 is usually the day that we law abiding Americans file our taxes. Joey Crawford has had trouble with this in the past.  In 1998, Crawford was one of 10 NBA referees charged with filing false income tax returns. An Internal Revenue Service investigation was the result of cash being pocketed by referees when airline tickets provided by the league were downgraded. At the conclusion of a four year investigation, Crawford pleaded guilty on July 1, 1998 for falsely stating income of $82,500 from 1991 to 1993 and resigned from the NBA effective immediately. He would be reinstated by NBA commissioner David Stern in 1999.

Now we all know that Duncan is a smart guy.  Do you think that maybe Duncan was reminding him to file his taxes on time this year?  Maybe Duncan was suggesting a good accountant (or a good lawyer in Crawford's case).  maybe Duncan was reminding Crawford that the tax filing deadline was extended this year, just a little FYI for his BFF.  Maybe Duncan was sitting on the bench chanting "TUR-BO-TAX...TUR-BO-TAX...TUR-BO-TAX......."

I guess the world will never know for sure but since it was April 15, you kind of have to wonder........ 

Here's a hypothetical scenario for you. It's Week 5 of the 2007 NFL season. The Bengals are in their bye week so Carson Palmer decides to go to Buffalo to watch the Cowboys-Bills Monday Night Football game. Palmer is a bit disenchanted with the Bengals organization and with Roger Goodell's new conduct policy and the subsequent suspensions, the Bengals are starting to resemble Gene Hackman's team in the movie "The Replacements." In the back of Palmer's mind he's also thinking how cool it would be to play Quarterback for Americas team, the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones would pay him an outrageous salary and the endorsement deals would rain down on Carson like manna from heaven. It's late in the 4th quarter and the Cowboys are up by 14. Not a huge lead but fairly comfortable. Romo is pulled from the game and the Cowboys put in Brad Johnson. On his first play, Johnson gets knocked out of the game. The Cowboys put in 3rd string QB Matt Baker. On his first play he gets knocked out of the game. The Cowboys are scrambling. They call for Romo to go back in the game but they realize Romo has left for the day. He figured he was done and he wanted to get a jump on the traffic. The Cowboys are scrambling on the sidelines looking for a QB when out of nowhere Carson Palmer comes down from a luxury box, dressed in a Cowboys uniform, and he tells Wade Phillips "put me in coach, I'm ready to play!" A giddy Wade Phillips hands Palmer the QB wristband with all the Cowboys plays on it and says "go get 'em tiger" and with that, Palmer proceeds to QB the Cowboys to victory.

Now most of you would look at this scenario and say I've lost my mind. You would question what fantasy world I live in to even come up with this crap. You would simply say "THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN!" Now this is true in the world of most sports but not NASCAR. Can anyone tell me what the hell Dale Jr. was doing running the last nine laps of yesterdays race in Texas in Kyle Busch's car?

Now I'll be the first to admit I don't get a lot about NASCAR. I don't get any sport where the focus is on the arrow and not on the indian. I don't get any sport where 50% of the competitors are sons/nephews/cousins/brothers/uncles of someone else who once participated in the sport. I don't get how you can own a team yet drive for another team (can you imagine Mario Lemieux owning the Penguins but playing for the Flyers?) For that matter I don't get the idea of having a "teammate" in an individual sport. And I don't get how the drivers refer to their cars by make/model/number/and sponsor name with every passing reference. I don't get that stuff but someone PLEASE explain to me why a driver from another team would ever drive someone else's car. Someone please explain to me why Kyle Busch would leave the track before the race ended.

Lots of questions. Now I'm just looking for answers.

So I'm reading Verbal's Ton Ten Flashiest Athletes Today and I started thinking about athlete nicknames. It really seems like NBA players have cornered the market on the best nicknames in all of sports. If you break it down sport by sport, from both a contemporary and historical perspective NBA players have the most memorable nicknames. Look at the following sports and then I'll take a look at NBA players nicknames.

Hockey does not have memorable nicknames. Right off the top of my head I can only think of three nicknames that stand out:

• Wayne Gretzky ("The Great One") - Wow, that's not particularly creative. The Great Gretzky. Nice use of alliteration though.
• Mario Lemieux ("Super Mario") - Yep, he's nicknamed after a video game. Yawn.
• Sydney Crosby ("Syd the Kid") - Did the NHL have a second grader come up with that? I would have been more impressed if they rhymed something with "Crosby."

Overall grade for Hockey nicknames: F

Football has some decent nicknames historically but relative to the size and popularity of the league, it's fairly weak. Look at the entire list of Pro Football Hall of Famers. There really aren't too many memorable nicknames here. Even factoring some sure fire hall of famers, the list is not very solid. Other than Deion Sanders( "Neon Deion," "Prime Time"), and Walter Payton ("Sweetness"), there aren't very creative nicknames. Most names fall into one of three categories:

1. Nicknames that rhyme with the last name: "Mean" Joe Greene, Dick "Night Train" Lane.
2. Nicknames that are simply the initials of the player: Lawrence Taylor ("LT"), Ladanian Tomlinson ( another "LT"), Terrell Owens ("TO")
3. Nicknames that are shortened versions of the players name: Edgerin James ("Edge"), John Riggins ("Riggo")

Even the flashiest player in the game today, Chad Johnson, has a fairly lame ass nickname. His numbers in Spanish and not even correct Spanish (should be "Ochenta y Cinco). LAME!!! Overall grade for Football nicknames: D

Baseball seems to avoid nicknames like Mike Nifong avoids the truth. Other than Roger "The Rocket" Clemens and "Babe" Ruth, not many nicknames to speak of. Look at the entire list of Baseball HOFers. There isn't a decent nickname to be found. Overall grade for Baseball nicknames: F

Basketball. Now we get to where the truly great nicknames reside. Now I'm not even going to touch the AND 1 nicknames (although "Skip to my Lou" might make the all time Top 10 nicknames list) and I will still come up with a solid list of the 10 best nicknames in the history of Professional Basketball (notice I don't say "NBA." Maybe a few ABA ballers will make the list). So without any further delay, here goes:

Honorable mention: Gilbert Arenas ("Hibachi" and "Agent Zero" - you can't have two nicknames and make the top 10), David Robinson ("The Admiral" - sure he was in the Navy so it's kind of a no brainer but boy does the nickname fit the man), Darnell Hillman ("Dr. Dunk" - this one is a shout out to Mean Dovine...I hope you like this one brother), Connie Hawkins ("The Hawk" - Sure it's a play on his last name but you must have the first ever ABA MVP on the list somewhere), Andrei Kirilenko ("AK 47" - it takes the play on initials to the next level), Lebron James ("King James" - someday you may crack the list young jedi. You do have to respect the biblical reference for the "savior" of the NBA), Nate Archibald ("Tiny" - he was the gold standard of point guards when I was growing up in New York City. He was the one that all the greats; Kenny Smith, Pearl Washington, Kenny Anderson, looked up to. As a matter of fact Kenny Anderson, the greatest high school player of all time, wore Tiny's #7 in high School at Archbishop Molloy and at Georgia Tech), Walt Frazier ("Clyde" - the coolest player for the coolest team in the coolest city during the coolest era), Hakeem Olajuwon ("Dream" - smoothest big man of all time. Played like a Center could only in his dreams), Charles Barkley ("The Round Mound of Rebound" - a bit lengthy for a nickname. Anything over four words equals not top 10 material. Still one of my all time favorites.)

Dubious Distinction: Vince Carter - "Half Man, Half Amazing" might not have made the top 10 but it was honorable mention material until Barkley and Smith started referring to him as "Half Man, Half a Season." you can't have somebody flip your nickname on you and still make the top 10 so Vince Carter holds the dubious distinction all by himself.

Now here we go folks.........

The Top 10:

10. Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston - First player to cross over from AND 1. Nickname is more memorable than the player.

9. Dominique "The Human Highlight Film" Wilkins - Original nickname, four words just comes in under the maximum word allowance for a nickname, describes his game (dunk, dunk hard, dunk frequently) quite well.

8. Vinnie "Microwave" Johnson - Coming off the bench for the Bad Boys he had to get "real hot, really fast," much better nickname than "Toaster oven." I know the Rev is going to like this inclusion (I did my research Rev!!!)

7. David "Skywalker" Thompson - "Skywalker" is a n accurate description of the way David Thompson played. Anyone who could touch the top of a backboard deserves the nickname Skywalker.

6. Shawn "The Matrix" Marion - Creative, timely, nice pop culture reference. Fits the player about as well as a nickname could.

5. "Pistol" Pete Maravich - Described his shooting style, his personality and his penchant for putting up fifty four shots a game. An all time great in talent and nickname.

4. Karl "The Mailman" Malone - 'cause he always delivered. Imagine if he had played in a major market his entire career.

3. Julius "Dr. J" Erving - If you asked my grandmother who Juliue Erving was she would have no idea. Ask for who Dr. J is and she will tell you right away. "The Doctor is in the house!"

2. Earvin "Magic" Johnson - There can be only one Magic and that's a fact. Describes what he could do with the ball on the court. The nickname completely overtook the real name.

1. George "The Iceman" Gervin - Boy could he finger roll! Iceman was such a great nickname. It captured his style, his demeanor, the way he carried himself on and off the court. Not to mention, back in the day he had the coolest poster around sitting on his ice throne (anyone else remember that?) It was on my wall growing up right next to Farrah Fawcett and Jim Morrison. Just the coolest sounding nickname as well.

Just curious if anyone had any idea whether or not Fox Sports has just completely abandoned this site. Not that I don't like seeing the Rev's face every day for the past 96 days but sometimes I feel like we were all at a party and the hosts just went to bed and didn't tell anyone. I don't know but maybe another NGS or some changes to the site or maybe some form of rating/recognition of the bloggers similar to what SportingNews.com does. Just some suggestions.

Hey Fox Sports.....are you still there?

The AP is reporting this morning that after snow wiped out Cleveland's series against Seattle for the fourth day in a row Monday, the Indians moved their next series against the Los Angeles (formerly the "Anaheim Angels" which were formerly the "California Angels") Angels to Milwaukee's Miller Park.

The last time the Indians played a home game in Milwaukee, Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn was on the mound, Jake Taylor was catching, Roger Dorn was at third, Willie Mays Hayes was stealing bases and Pedro Cerrano was worshipping "Jobu." It still freaks me out to see Pedro Cerrano doing Allstate Insurance commercials.

The home game scenes in the movie were filmed at Milwaukee's County Stadium, which has since been torn down. Bob Uecker who portrays announcer Harry Doyle, called games for the Brewers and played for the old Milwaukee Braves. The exterior stadium shots use Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, which has since been torn down.

Although it was one of the greatest sports movies of all time, there were a few errors in geography that tip off the fact that they were filming in Milwaukee. For example although the movie was supposedly set in Cleveland, the scoreboard features advertisements for WTMJ, a Milwaukee TV station and for 94 WKTI a Milwaukee Radio Station. At least Bernie Brewer's house and beer mug was dismantled for the shooting of the movie.

Oh the memories. Rene Russo was sure hot back in the day!