Big weekend in sports with the return of the NBA playoffs, a burgeoning scandal regarding the poster boy of the forthcoming NFL draft, more HR'#### in the majors, and Lavar Arrington finally finds a home.
- LeBron James opened the playoffs in style for the Cavs, recording a triple-double in an easy win for the Cavs. What does this mean? Yes, the King has arrived and displayed his monumental talents jumping on the Wizards early and keeping the foot on the gas. But if he thinks the Wiz and Gilbert Arenas plays that bad for the rest of the series he's sadly mistaken, and the Cavs will get a wake up call against the Pistons in the Confernce Semi-finals.
- The Spurs handled the Queens in game 1. Was anyone surprised by this? Really? I didn't think so. The Kings showed their same old faces in game one and a rout was on the cards by the time the first quarter was in the books. On a talent standpoint the Kings (Bibby, Wells, Artest, 'Reef, Miller) would worry any no.1 seed, particularly one with a hobbled superstar. But the Spurs handled their business and preserved home court with Tony Parker and Nick van Exel leading the way in the beat down. The Spurs have the deepest roster in basketball, and anyone hwo thinks Rick Adelman can outcoach Pop, is out of their mind. The bad news for the Kings, Artest is supended for game 2 and things will only get worse...
- Phoenix gets acquainted with the free throw line, and made the most of it. Hitting 30 of 32 free throws was an example of how to punish a young teams over enthausiasm to make a splash in R1 against a number 2 seed. Yes, Kobe wasn't killing it on Sunday as he's prone to do against PHX, but if you send an opponent that shoots that well from the stripe to the line 32 times in one game, you deserve to lose. Watch out for Kobe to blow up in game 2 (you can tell he was agitated playing "within the offense on sunday"). Steve Nash for MVP...
- RIck Carlisle is a great coach. He really is and anyone who thinks other wise is a fool. FIrst he builds up that Detroit team to a 50win team without 'Sheed - which would have taken it all once Sheed arrived - with or without Larry Brown and his cantankerous ways, then he goes to Indiana and endures 2 of the most horrible seasons a coach can suffer through injuries and Ron Artest's insanity and still he drags the team to the playoffs through pure coaching. And now Carlisle's Pacers have pinched home court from the much fancied NJ Nets. Will they win the series? I don't think so, but Carlisle has worked miracles in Indy again, and if he can ever get a dependable All-Star performer (JO too injury-prone), and a couple of dependable veterans together.. look out.
- Anyone noticed the amount of Homers being smacked in the Majors this year in this alleged "post steroid" era. I looked it up and Homers are up over 20% on last year, mostly through the performances of the likes of Albert Pujols, Morgan Ensberg, Chris Shelton, Travis Hafner, and Jim Thome. Erm, is this supposed to happen? Didn't most people expect the no. of Homers to go down post juice? Lots of theories have been put forward - the baseballs are harder, all players (apart from Barry) are healthy at this time of year, the pleasant hitting conditions in a mild April in the midwest, and Pujols new stomping ground is a lot more hitter friendly than the old Busch stadium. The most interesting theory is that the Pitchers were also hitting the juice hard, and have suffered a drop off this year. Interesting stuff, and a lot more pleasing to watch on TV...
- Barry finally nails 709. Woohoo! Break open the pinata. I've had all the Barry watch i can take, and now hope the hysteria around him dies down for a while. Sure he's chasing legendary figures and legendary records, but Bonds isn't worthy of the attention, there are far better players playing ball at the moment to turn you attention to, until Bonds cracks 714 and 715, and then we can all go about our lives again....
- Reggie Bush's family alledgedly were given a free lease to a home in San Diego California, allegedly putting his college eligibility in doubt. They are talking about taking away the kids greatest honor of his life so far, the heismann. Big deal, Reggie Bush is less than 7 days away from becoming a multi-, multi- millionaire. Everyone knew this kid would be special and would always make it to the NFL and get paid a kings ransom to play. In my opinion the NCAA rules regarding eligibility are ridiculous , and the fact that guys aren't "paid" to play football doesn't mean they're not getting dollars. You don't think Matt Leinhart's made money from his LA exploits? please. You also think Vince Young was academically eligible at UT? Please.. I'll let someone with a better handle on the college scene write a more informative blog, but while college guys shouldn't necessarily be paid for performing on saturdays, penalizing them for helping their families have a better lifestyle until they get paid for real is just wrong.
- Brett Favre - Hurry Up and take a s*hit or get off of the toilet! Your team needs to know what to do in the upcoming draft.
- Lavar Arrington should be spitting mad about his new deal with the G-men. He bought out the remaining 4.4mill on his contract so he could pursue lucrative free agency money. The result? a 5.5mill signing bonus, and a base contract averages that pays 3.7. Again the Postons show they are the most incompetent agents on the NFL market this side of Major Bud Adams, now if only they can find Ty Law a new home....
- One final point which none of you will care about, but really got me going on Saturday concerns sportsmanship. A huge game in the English Premiership between Arsenal and Tottenham was played with the victor moving one step closer to qualifying for the lucrative European Champions league (worth approx 25mill to either team). With Arsenal needing to win and the game at 0-0, two arsenal players collided with each other and lay stricken on the pitch. Tottenham collected the ball and ignored arsenal's plea's to kick the ball out of touch so the players could receive treatment and proceded to score causing uproar amongst the arsenal fans and players. Arsenal would later rescue a 1-1 draw out of the game but still trail Tottenham in the race for European qualification. Question is, were Tottenham right to play on and score?
Roll on the NFL draft on the weekend, here's hoping your team drafts who you want! Out....
TT - In a big game, you have to play on and score. If I was on the field I probably would have kicked the ball out of bounds instead of scoring, but that is the kind of player & person that I am. I don't necessarily think the guy was wrong though.
Bush looked all red faced this morning on ESPN, as if he knew what really happened but was hoping a phony paper trail could make it all okay. He kept saying he didn't want to go into details, but they had done nothing wrong. Okay Reggie, whatever you say.
You forgot Nick Swisher on the HR list. He has 8 and is loving every one of them. I think the counterpoint to that 20% rise is that the pitchers were on the juice (ha!) but let's face it, long balls going up doesn't necessarily mean illegal substances were not responsible for players going off in the past. Any nerd baseball stat guy will tell you that these things are cyclical and a lot of variables come into play.
Since Houston holds your 3rd round pick, I guess your Saints are out of the interactive mock. However, feel free to check in and when I open it up for suggestions on the new page chime in.
Last edited by Norcalfella on April 24th at 1:51 PM.
Will do norcal, thanks for running the group mock, it was a worthwhile experience and we all know more about the process now than we did before. I don't know enough about the Reggie Bush thing (hoping someone with more time on their hands can investigate it form me), but so many college players are getting "perks" its hard to keep tabs on it. I guess the bottom line is Reggie got found out, but don't take his Heismann away. Although you could argue Vince deserved the damn thing in the first place.
TT - Yeah I was hoping to memorialize everyone's hopes & dreams for "their team" so the mock has turned out pretty well.
broncogirl is having computer issues, so we might need people to rally on her behalf. If we do, it is possible five or six more selections can be made very quickly.
Bush's family lived in this really nice house in (or around) San Diego. This dweeb Yahoo writer Charles Robinson went all Inspector Gadget and now it is being revealed that in fact the Bush's probably didn't actually lease the home, but were put up there as a perk from I guess it was a prospective agent of Reggie or someone inappropriate I know that much. It is widely known that these things happen on a regular basis. Leinart almost got put through the ringer for being in a commercial, which is a bit different from this.
I can tell you with certainty that recruiting and maintaining these players is big business. Payoffs are made in one way or another. I think it would be a crime to yank the Heisman (or USC's wins) over a situation like this. If anything, the program should lose scholarships or at worst be put on probation for 1 season. Punishing him would to me be wrong.
i disagree with punishing the entire USC football program for what 1 player may have done. i dont think they can take away his heisman either, nor should they be allowed to. something should be done if he indeed did what i've heard rumor about though, that i'm sure of.
the numbers i got on the arrington/giants deal was 7 years for almost $50 million....other than the fact everyone knows he'll never see the end of the deal (except for maybe arrington himself), i dont quite see how that comes out to be a bad deal. maybe i misread something, i'm not trying to discredit you in any way, just thought i read something different is all.
broncogirl's selection has been noted norcal, i was able to obtain classified information from her, and submit her choice.
Cuz, arrington's deal as i say averages 3.7mill a year and he paid 4.4mill to buy out his 'skins deal. With his easy to earn incentives earned he'll take home a net amount of 1.1 mill in year 1 of his deal (having paid the 4.4 to washington), which is grossly underpaying one of the better LBs in the league at this time. The incentives reached to acquire the full terms of the contract won't be reached. The Postons told Arrington he could get big money on the free agency market, and i'd say a net gain this year of 1.1mill isn't big money.
if that's the case, then he should have been smart enough to not sign the deal. i'm not trying to hate on arrington, i just dont see the point in feeling sorry for him over this issue. from what i read this afternoon, green bay and 2 other teams (i forget which ones now) were also targeting him. the story also stated that arrington WANTED to play in the nfc east, for the chance to face the redskins 2 times each year, AND for the chance to play for the G-men's defensive coordinator, tim lewis, whom he supposedly has wanted to do for some time now.
Cuz, it was his agent's fault for not analyzing the market for Lavar properly. He bought out his contract so he could hit free agency early, and what happened? he sat around waiting for the big money deal (he wanted an 11mil signing bonus and got 5.25) that never arrived. I'm not going to feel sorry for him either ('cos he'll take home approx. 1mill more than me this year after paying offe the skins). If the Packers, Jags, Bengals or whoever were willing to pay more money, thats where he would have ended up, he's saving face by saying he wanted to stay in the East.
Being a Skins fan, I believe Arrington's desire to leave Washington was not motivated by money. As you stated, he paid $4.4MM for his freedom. Who does that in sports today? I'm sure he also knew deep down that he wasn't going to get paid elite LB money, even though he was asking for it. With all the good LBs available in the draft, the market wasn't there for him. Sometimes a little less money in a good situation is the best medicine.
With his recent history of injuries and reputation of being unable to play within a system, I think he's getting paid fairly. He has plenty of incentives and will probably be a 2-down player.
Understand, I'm a fan of Lavar. He was the heart of the Skins through many bad seasons, but it was time for him to leave. I just think Gregg Williams isn't the type of coach that will sacrifice his philosophy for the natural talent of one player. Lavar didn't fit in his defense, however I think he'll be very good for Tim Lewis and will probably collect most of his incentive money. I wish him the best (in every game but 2 this season).
Hey Thump, true Lavar wanted to leave the skins but buying out his contract for 4mill was unnecessary as they probably would have cut him. The fact remains he got a nice deal, but nowhere near the huge money he was expecting when he secured his release. Its always about the cash...
Disclaimer - I AM NOT A THFC FAN!!!!
I think Arsenal got what they deserved in the game on Saturday. Eboue faked the injury so he could get a call from Steve Bennett. In every sport there is a golden rule -- play to the whistle. Michael Carrick did the right thing and continued play and the rest is history
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