OK, so maybe calling him a thief might be a little strong, but ... nah, he's a thief.

I know - I am a die-hard Jazz fan and am too familiar with the John Amaechi years. Simply put, he was a terrible player - he really had no business being in the NBA for five years.

Let's be clear - he was not awful because he is gay. He was awful on his own accord. By all accounts, he was a nice enough guy off the court. Back then he was whiny in the press and rumored to be part of the malcontents (including Mark Jackson and Deshawn Stevenson) on the team, but that really makes him no different than any other NBA player. There were frequent stories about his run-ins with Jerry Sloan - again, not all that unusual.

I don't care that he is gay - if people want to make a big deal about it, so be it. But honestly, Amaechi really wasn't a player that would merit any attention other than being gay.

But reading excerpts from Amaechi's book disgusts me. But it has nothing to do with his personal lifestyle and everything to do with his professional attitude. Let me set the background. The Jazz signed him in 2001 as a desperate attempt to shore up the front-line They gave him a 4-year, $12 million contract - a significant amount of money at the time.

Over the next two seasons, there were numerous rumors about Amaechi's poor work habits and attitude. It was apparent to anyone watching him play that he was dogging it on the court. In 104 regular-season games, Amaechi averaged 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and shot 32 percent from the field.

Basically, he stole that money.  Maybe not a smash and grab, but a theft nonetheless.  Think Enron, not stick up at the Kwik-E-Mart. 

Well, that's how I view it now - at the time, I just thought it was a bad signing. But it is now apparent that Amaechi never intended on giving a full effort in exchange for paid wages.

First, he writes about his relationship with Sloan. "I respect the game of pro basketball. I just don't think it's all that important. I wasn't going to be embarrassed by Jerry Sloan because basketball had a proper role in my balanced life and I didn't blindly worship a game he made pretty much the entirety of his existence."

OK, so basketball wasn't as important to him as it was to Sloan. At the time, many said he didn't take it seriously at all, but we'll give him a pass and take him at his word that he was just well-balanced.

Later he writes about his poor performance after his contract. It is interesting to see where he places the blame. He writes: ""Why does the performance of so many players decline after they sign multiyear guaranteed deals? It's a little thing called human nature. Plenty of guys - Karl Malone and John Stockton are the obvious examples - play hard no matter how much they make. Other guys lack the discipline. Predicting which player falls into which category is the key to scouting."

Later he continues: "The problem was not my commitment to the game. I was working as hard, with what I had, as anyone on the team. The truth is Sloan and Jazz management hadn't done their research - otherwise known as scouting. They could tell you all my court tendencies, how I played the game and why I should fit into the system. But they knew nothing of my character."

So let's make sure I'm clear here - he admits he had the skills to fit into the Jazz system. But it is their fault that he was a failure because they didn't know he was going that he was lazy, selfish and dishonest. And obviously Utah's research should have uncovered that - it's not Amaechi's fault that he's such an untrustworthy character. Sure, he puts in a throwaway line about working hard, but in the same breath he basically admits that his dropoff was due to lack of effort.

What kind of man blames the team for that and takes no responsibility? I'll tell you who - a con man, a thief. Amaechi had no intentions of fulfilling his end of the contract but he took the money anyway.

Right now, many people are saying that Amaechi should be proud of coming out of the closet and for the things he wrote in his book. After reading a few excerpts, I think Amaechi shouldn't be proud, he should be embarrassed.

*Statistics and excerpts from the book were taken from Steve Luhm, writer for The Salt Lake Tribune.

I wish ...

... I could get inside Kobe's head and find out the real reason he only took three shots in the second half of a Game 7.  I would look for that answer before I tried to find out what really happened in Colorado.

... we had better nicknames for pro athletes.  The only athletes with good nicknames are streetball players - "Future", "Hot Sauce", "Escalade".  Can't we have the announcers from the Rucker and AndOne Tour be roving P.A. announcers in every major sports arena until every top athlete is appropriately named?  Just a couple of decades ago, we used to have nicknames like Magic and Iceman. Now we have K.G. and T-Mac.  People just don't have the same creativity any more.  Personally, I blame video games.   

... Jalen Rose would retire and become a full-time sideline reporter for TNT.  His interviews have been hysterical, not to mention the moment when Nick Van Exel threw towels on Jalen's head.  Among all-time sideline reporting moments, it's second only to Suzy Koelber and Joe Namath.  Also, Charles has already given Jalen a great nickname, "The Robot".  Because that's what he sounds like when he talks.    

... that the next time Greg Anthony is as visibly annoyed by Stephen A. Smith's histrionics as he was on Saturday, he just kicks Stephen's A. up and down 42nd Street.

... announcers would stop using the word "literally" - they obviously have no idea what it means.  The other day ESPN's Mark Jackson (not the former player) said that Cuttino Mobley was "literally salivating about the opportunities he would have in this game."  Just so everyone is clear, when Cuttino heard the game plan, his body immediately started producing large amounts of saliva.  Every time a broadcaster says something like that, it literally makes my ears bleed.

... that I was friends with Kenny and Charles.  I know it's pathetic to for a grown man to wish he was friends with other grown men, but it's the truth.  And it's not because they're famous, either, because I can honestly say I don't wish I was friends with Tiger Woods or Tom Brady.  And it's not because I don't have any friends, either, because I do.  They're just not as good as Kenny and Charles.

... ESPN would stop giving us updates every 30 minutes on Barry Bonds.  If he ties Babe Ruth, fine, tell us.  But you don't need to break in to show us that Barry can't catch up to a fastball of a pitcher who was in Double-A a year ago. 

... I knew why Bonds' bat speed has slowed down so much.  Hahahahaha.

... someone would tell Nowitzki that when Tony Parker switches on to him, you go to the low block, not float around at the top of the key.  This is the NBA playoffs, not the European league.  

... the networks could hype up the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry a little more.  After all, it's the best rivalry in sports.  And we're already in May.  Seriously, it's really interesting to all of us that aren't Boston or New York fans. 

... I had the option of watching a "silent game", as NBA TV did a month ago.  No announcers, just mics that captured the sound of the players and the crowd.  It was fannnntastic.  I'd use that for every game that Hubie Brown and Doug Collins weren't broadcasting.

... that just once, both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are healthy for an entire year.  Just once.

... the best of luck to everyone participating in NGS II.  I'm not doing it, but I hear it's a lot of fun.

I know I'm one of the only people in the country who still gets excited about the NBA All-Star Saturday competitions, but I think they're so entertaining.  Here are some of my favorite moments from Saturday night's events.  All times are MST.  

 

6:42 - Walter McCarty is singing the National Anthem, even throwing in random riffs where he scales up and down with no rhyme or reason like those people who audition for American Idol.  He is better than I expected, which is to say he's not a train wreck.  Needless to say, I am wildly disappointed.

 

6:47 - The first event is the Shooting Stars competition, where a current NBA player, a WNBA player and a retired player shoot from different spots on the floor.  Mercifully, they made this a one-round competition this year.  Tony Parker and Kobe Bryant make the half-court shot on the first try.

 

6:48 - The Los Angeles team comes out and Magic Johnson has abandoned the form-fitting jersey he wore last year and actually has a larger one that fits.  First, McCarty doesn't bomb and now Magic doesn't look like Oliver Miller any more.  It's not looking too good so far, I'm concerned I'm not going to have any fun tonight.

 

6:48 - Kevin Harlan talks about a heart-warming story of how Kobe befriended a young boy who was a Katrina victim.  Pretty transparent, I think Kobe's PR team needs to start working a little harder than that.  

 

6:58 - They show Eva Longoria for the 7^th time after San Antonio wins the shoot-out.  I know that everyone over 40 in the media can't get enough of her, but personally I can't wait for Tony Parker to dump her.  Right after Katie leaves Tom, I'm focusing all my psychic powers on this couple.

 

7:19 - Dwayne Wade wins the skills competition. 

 

7:29 - Charles tells Kevin Harlan that when he offers him some Altoids, he really means it.  Although Charles is joking around, you can tell that he's also serious.  It's really the only way to tell someone that he has bad breath.

 

7:30 - The three-point contest is about to start.  Ray Allen has to be the favorite, with Dirk Nowitzki second.  None of these other guys are true shooters. 

 

7:42 - Tyronne Lue looks genuinely distraught that Chauncey Billups doesn't make the finals.  Like really, really upset. 

 

7:53 - Mark Cuban cheers as Nowitzki wins.  Cuban is also wearing a headset (like a television headset, not a phone headset) for some reason.  If you saw any other owner wearing a headset, it might strike you as odd.  But since it's Cuban, it seems perfectly normal. 

 

8:00 - Andrea Bocelli, the opera singer, performs a song.  In Italian.  I don't know why everyone thinks the NBA is trying to distance itself from its hip-hop image. 

 

8:01 - On one of the pictures they are running in the background during Bocelli's song, Ricky Davis is wearing a balloon hat on his head.

 

8:03 - While HDTV is great, there are definitely drawbacks.  One of those is being able to see hair hanging out of Bocelli's nose in great detail.  I know he's blind so I can't hold him responsible for not trimming it before he appeared on national television, but his personal assistant should be fired. 

 

8:04 - TNT viewers vote Michael Jordan's leaner dunk is voted as the best dunk of all time over Vince Carter's between-the-legs slam.  Unfortunately, Kenny screwed up because he didn't listen to Charles and didn't originally include Carter's 360 windmill jam instead of the between-the-legs dunk.  That is the best dunk of all time.  Sorry, I know that there is no way people are going to vote for Vince over MJ in any sort of competition, but that's the truth.  Actually, that's just the best dunk in the slam dunk competition.  The best of all time is also Carter's - when he jumped over that 7-footer in the Olympics.  This cannot be argued, it is an absolute fact. 

 

8:05 - The dunk contest begins!  Personally, I love the competition, even though people always say everything has already been done, which I completely disagree with.  Think of Josh Smith last year or Jason Richardson a few of years ago.  Quick story: When I was in college, Brent Barry won the slam dunk contest.  One of my friends, who is white, was in a complete tizzy because a white boy was going to win the competition.  After it was over, he turned to me and said: "YES! IN YOUR FACE!"  For the record, I am not African-American, I am Asian.  But I guess I was the closest thing in the room.

 

8:14 - Josh Smith puts some tape on the floor, which is about three feet above the free throw line.  Everyone starts getting a little worked up, expecting something that we've never seen before.  Then Smith runs past the tape and takes off about a foot inside the free throw line.  It actually wasn't a bad dunk, but he gets the lowest score because everyone was expecting him to jump from further away.  Talk about over-promise and under-deliver.  It's like a buddy promising to throw the greatest bachelor party ever, and then holding it in Reno. 

 

8:18 - Magic says that once Las Vegas holds the All-Star game next year and shows that they can handle the "bedding situation", they will likely get an NBA franchise.  I think Magic Johnson is the only person in the world who thinks the reason that Vegas doesn't have an NBA team is because they don't have enough hotels.  

 

8:20 - Andre Iguadola completes a ridiculous dunk from off of the backside of backboard.  He actually hit his head on the backboard the first time he tried it.  I think we might need to take a new vote on the best dunk of all time. 

 

8:25 - We've completed the first round and we still haven't had the obligatory shot of Shaq falling all over people after an incredible dunk.  We better get a picture of this in the finals, people, it's not a dunk contest unless we see it.

 

8:28 - Nate Robinson is interviewed and he sounds like a 14-year-old boy.  So maybe he will still hit that growth spurt.

 

8:30 - Uh, oh, Robinson has missed his fifth dunk in a row and everyone is having Birdman flashbacks.

 

8:31 - He finally did it on his 8^th try and it's a good dunk.  Last year, everyone was laughing at the Birdman.  This year, everyone feels relieved and happy.  There's a lesson here: People will always root for the little guy, and laugh at the goofy, lanky guy who is on acid. 

 

8:34 - Shot of Damon Jones in a bright red jacket - apparently he broke into Craig Sager's closet.  He's also not sitting in Shaq's lap so I have a bad feeling that the Diesel may not be present.  I know he was here earlier, but I'm worried he left.

 

8:36 - Nate jumps over Spud Webb.  Absolutely awesome. 

 

8:36 - We finally get to see a picture of the players falling over each other and running on the court.  Shaq isn't in the picture.  It doesn't feel right, but I guess we all just have to move on. 

 

8:37 - Magic keeps saying that "The dunk contest is back!"  Whatever, he said the same thing last year when Josh Smith won.

 

8:40 - Iguadola completes his dunk.  It's pretty marginal.  Kenny isn't sure what to give him so he looks over at the other judges' scores and then puts up an 8.  It ends up being a tie so there is a dunk-off, and Kenny is absolutely ecstatic.  Honestly, I think Kenny was trying to offset the other 9's he saw next to him and hoping for a tie.  It worked and I couldn't be happier.

 

8:53 - Nate has just missed his 10^th try at the halfcourt dunk and guess who they show?  Shaq.  That's right, he's been here the whole time.  He's standing next to Terrell Owens who is wearing a matching hat -- there must have been a 2 for 1 special.  We've seen Eva Longoria 17 times tonight before we finally get another shot of Shaq?  After we fire Andrea Bocelli's personal grooming assistant, the TNT producer is next. 

 

 8:54 - After Robinson misses his 11^th try, Magic just said that Nate has done a great job for every little person in America.  I didn't realize he was working for us.  Apparently Magic wasn't satisfied with the absurdity of his Vegas hotels comment.

 

8:55 - Robinson completes it after his 16^th try (by my count, not TNT's).  The dunk contest has officially become an endurance contest.

 

8:55 - He gets a 47.  The score is way too high.

 

8:57 - Iguadola dunks and only gets a 46.  A.I. has been the best dunker throughout the night and he loses.  Seriously, they need to limit the number of attempts.  It took Robinson over 30 attempts to get down five dunks.  I thought he was phenomenal and I always root for the little guy, but that was a little ridiculous.

 

8:58 - The crowd is obviously disappointed with the result and the excitement that was in the building a few moments before is gone.  Cheryl Miller attempts to pump up the crowd by repeatedly saying: "C'mon on, y'all saw a show tonight!"  A few hundred people clap half-heartedly.  Just so we're clear, that is the proper response to Cheryl Miller under any circumstance.

 

8:59 - Cheryl asks Nate if he was getting tired.  He responds by saying that although he made it look easy, it was actually pretty tough.  Um, actually, it didn't look that easy.  It actually looked really, really difficult.  And exhausting.

 

Although the ending of the dunk contest seemed a bit anti-climatic, overall it was an entertaining Saturday event.  Looking forward to tomorrow. 

            While I think Mike Holmgren is a pretty solid coach, I've always felt he was a bit overrated (before the Super Bowl, one of the common stories was about the tremendous job Holmgren has done since he gave up personnel responsibilities).  Sunday's performance did nothing to change my mind. 

            But after I recently read about Holmgren's motivational techniques, my opinion of him dropped another couple of notches.  Apparently, in an attempt to inspire his players, Holmgren showed the team $73,000 - the winner's share - in $1 bills the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, according to The New York Post.  The loser's share is $38,000.

            Does this make sense to anyone?  This just seems absolutely insane to me.  Maybe I'm overreacting, but I can't stop thinking that Holmgren is completely out of touch with reality.  These players are facing the biggest game of their lives, they're already millionaires and can make history by bringing the first championship to Seattle - and Holmgren thinks that the extra $35,000 (the difference between the winning and losing) is the most important factor to the players.   

            The weird part is that Holmgren has won a championship before with the Green Bay Packers, so you would think he would make decisions based on past experience.  I'm trying to imagine Brett Favre, Antonio Freeman and LeRoy Butler sitting in the locker room, all of them smoking cigars and celebrating the fact that they were now $73,000 richer.  Granted, I wasn't there, but I have a hard time believing that's what happened.      

            Initially, I thought maybe Holmgren just didn't give much thought to his speech so it turned out lame.  But that can't be it - think about the effort it would take to get $73,000 in $1 bills on a Saturday.  You obviously just can't do on the spur of the moment - a likely scenario is that he came up with the idea on Thursday, had someone get the money on Friday and then gave the speech on Saturday.  So even after three days, this still seemed like a good idea to Holmgren. 

            If I was a Seahawks fan, I would be concerned.  It's not that I think the motivational speech is important because I think a lot of the rah-rah stuff is forgotten as soon as the game starts.  It's just that it shows an amazing lack of common sense by the head coach who is supposed to lead your team to the promised land.  When you think about it, are you surprised that this man couldn't figure out how to manage the clock (kick the field goal!) at the end of the game?        

            Um, that's it.  Just wanted to let everyone know that Holmgren might be delusional.  

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             Last note on the Super Bowl: After the big game, I typically feel a little bummed out that football season is over.  But after all the whining from Seattle fans and the ridiculous rants of Pittsburgh fans, I'm sick of football.  I just want it to go away.  It's like when I have a bad round of golf, I don't care if I play for another month.  So thank you, Seahawks and Steelers fans, for providing such an excruciating experience - it is much easier to move on now.    

 

 

Did the NFL fix the Super Bowl? No, the refs were just horrible. 

I don't believe in the conspiracy theories because of one principle: risk/reward.  Bottom line: the risk of fixing games by the league is far too great.  If the NFL was caught doing that, it would be the greatest scandal in sports history and could cripple the league for years.  Do you think the league would risk all that just so that Jerome Bettis could win a championship?  Or just because Pittsburgh makes a better story?  No way, it's not worth it. 

Trust me, as a Utah Jazz fan who watched Michael Jordan get all the calls in the playoffs, I've given it a lot of thought. 

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Did the refs cost the Seahawks the game?  Sort of.  Yes, it's true that great teams can overcome bad calls and Seattle didn't -- they're not a great team.  But neither is Pittsburgh.  If there were phantom penalties on the Willie Parker run and the pass play that set up the first Steelers' touchdown, Pittsburgh doesn't win either. 

Seattle fans shouldn't complain because the Seahawks still had their chances to win it.  But Pittsburgh fans shouldn't be gloating, either, because the Steelers were flat-out lucky.  Just celebrate the title and thank your lucky stars that the officials had a Peyton Manning-like meltdown on the big stage, but don't try to tell us that Pittsburgh was the better team on Sunday.  The only people who think that the penalty calls on the Seahawks were legitimate are Pittsburgh Steelers' fans or people who thought the halftime show was great - either way, they're both delusional.

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Does anything scream rock 'n roll more than a 62-year-old man doing Jazzercise moves in a belly shirt?  I think not. 

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Why were all the people around the stage during the show wearing bright, neon-colored shirts?  It looked like a Wham! concert. 

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What was the deal with Al Michaels making a random Lake Placid reference at the start of the game?  "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"  Yeah, yeah, you made a great call, Al.   But seriously, you're probably been congratulated on that at least a million times.  You were even in the movie.  Do you really need to remind us again that you were there?