The thing I hate about the NBA draft is the way a guy is chosen by a team when it's obvious he's going to be trade bait. Sometimes, like the Toronto pick everyone knew was part of the Jermaine O'Neal deal last night, we know in advance. Most of the time, though, a kid has to walk up on stage and pose with Stern while wearing what will turn out to be the wrong hat. The analysts talk about the impact they'll have on their new team, which they'll never play for. It's maddening. Hope the Minnesota media enjoyed chatting with O.J. Mayo before the big Grizzlies-Twolves deal in the middle of the night. My thoughts on the Sixers taking Speights are in my column at fightingators.com but I will say that's about as well as I thought he could do. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the kid from Rider was not taken by Sacramento at twelve.
Lots of people are jumping on Warren Sapp's revelation that he's been approached about being on the next Dancing With the Stars, but to me the more relevant part of the article is where Sapp goes after Monte Kiffin. Sapp says of the Bucs DC,
"It was always his defense, and he barked people out of the building. It was too much about him."
Let me get this straight, Warren. You wanted big bucks when it was obvious you needed to drop at least 25 pounds to get back to being as effective as you were in your glory days. No one was willing to give it to you except the stupidest franchise in the league, for whom you underperformed the rest of your career. Kiffin's the bad guy? Please. Sapp was a great player for the Bucs, but honest self assessment has never been one of his strengths.
It's clear Dennis Felton would have been fired if Georgia did not go on their miracle SEC tournament run last season. The one and only guy for whom the tornado brushing the Georgia Dome was good news got back to his usual bad luck this week. Number two scorer Billy Humphrey got busted for DUI. Under UGA policies, this will likely mean a half season suspension already. It's Humphrey's third brush with the law in eight months - might be time to say goodbye.
Let's say you are Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers, and you are in fact injured moving a pillow. Wouldn't you at least go out to batting practice, take two or three swings, and then grab your arm? Seems like it would be worth it to avoid the embarassment.
Remember the great Shaq "freestyle rap" Kobe dissing controversy earlier this week? The L.A. Times decided to check up on his current CD sales. Total Shaq CDs sold in 2008? Twenty. I'd like to hear what motivated that purchase from one of those twenty people, unless it's just Shaq buying his own stuff while he's on the road.
The guy who played Billy Bear in 48 Hours now wants to be a US Senator from Kentucky. He points out that he worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura, both of whom went on to become high profile elected officials. Two governors and a senator, all from the cast of Predator? This is quite a country. Have a good weekend.
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Brutal trade for the Grizzlies and I'm becoming more and more convinced that they are being run by real Grizzly bears. I guess they want to see if Don Nelson's dream of winning in the NBA with a roster of 10 guards can be done. Of the top of my head, they now have Mike Conley, O J Mayo, Jaric, Crittenden, Navarro, Buckner, Pau Gasol's little brother, and Rudy Gay. Ummm...yeah, that'll work in the same division with the Spurs and Rockets and in the same conference with the Lakers.
Good for Mike Miller to get out of that mess, even if the T-Wolves are still a couple of years away from contending. Bad for Corey Brewer, though. Miller, Love, and Cardinal will probably cut into his playing time. I wonder if Brewer will be on the move later this offseason.
By the way, I didn't think it was possible for ESPN to do worse with their NBA draft coverage than their NFL draft coverage, but they did. Gotta love one of the main analysts admitting on more than one occasion that he doesn't know much about the player drafted (Van Gundy) But, he made sure to get in a fat joke about Stan. Way to do your job there, Jeff. This was a sports event, not amateur night at the Improv. Stu Scott was being Stu Scott, basically getting in his useless stats, joking about Vitale's energy level, and screwing up. Jay Bilas tried and at least did his homeword, but sometimes reached for hyperbole too often. (Anthony Randolph has arms that go forever?? Huh??). Doris Burke interviewing every teary-eyed mother was.....nice, if I wanted to watch Lifetime. The only positive thing I can say about them is that I have nothing negative to say about Screamin' A because they demoted him to doing Suzy Kolber's job. You think maybe now he'll get the message and quit altogether? Streamin' A, my man....they don't want you anymore. They fired you from your radio show, they fired you from Sunday morning SportsCenter appearances, they canned Quite Frankly, they don't invite you to guest host Jim Rome's show or be on Lupica's Sunday morning show, and they chose to put a guy who knew nothing about the players drafted and admitted it during the broadcast at the main desk instead of you. Oh, and gave you the job that could've went to any of the 50 sideline reporters employed with them already. Not exactly a subtle message they're sending you, Screamin A.
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