NBA upside down cake
It’s early, I know, but with the Clippers, without Elton Brand at 4-0 and the Miami Heat as well as the Chicago Bulls winless, you just shake your head and say, holy crap, it’s getting to be like the NFL: Any Given Weekday. But of course it isn’t going to remain like this as we can attest to because of last year’s Dallas Mavericks horrendous start and monstrously successful overall season. But one thing that DOES look like it will continue is the All Star game-like scoring binge of the new and improved Boston Celtics. I tuned into the Miami Heat/San Antonio game last night and saw the scores from other games on the crawl at the bottom of the screen. It looked like the Celts had won by a huge margin but wait….it was only half time. With the two refugees from losing teams joining the ever suffering Paul Pierce it looks like a school yard game with the seniors playing the freshmen. Kevin Durant is shining while his team is still winless but do you notice that we haven’t heard people carping about him being selfish and unable to be a leader by making his teammates better? Again, I know it’s early but with the force of media expectations and pressure to perform NOW, it will only be a matter of time until that skinny youngster is held to a standard that veterans are judged by. New Orleans is back in New Orleans….well you know what I mean, the Hornets are back in New Orleans and Seattle is eyeing the space the Hornets vacated in Oklahoma City as a new home for the Supersonics. I still have problems remembering that the Hornets aren’t in Charlotte any longer; God knows what will happen if Seattle moves on to the mid west. All in all, a fun beginning to the new season and a distinct lack of talk about rigging of games and officials’ gambling habits. How nice for a change, huh?
Be careful of Russian tennis fans
OK, who would ever think that men’s tennis, outside of the Nadal vs. Federer matches, would be so intriguing or so dangerous? 2 recent stories indicate that Russian tennis fans or players think the sport is so relevant that it is worth betting on, fixing matches and/or poisoning opponents. I know things aren’t always sunny in Russia and maybe after the fall of Communism the sports fans can’t count on the dominance their athletes once enjoyed; but poisoning? Tommy Haas, an American with German heritage was playing in the Davis Cup semi-finals on the German team against the Russian team. He fell ill on the first day of the matches, lost in straight sets to his Russian opponent and then was unable to play again during the 3 day event. His team lost and the Russians went into the Finals which will be played here in the US next month. Haas thought he had gotten food poisoning from a dessert or coffee drink he’d had the night before but when he still didn’t feel right weeks later he started to wonder. Then an “unnamed Russian” in Moscow was said to have confided to one of Haas’ teammates that Tommy had been intentionally poisoned. What? This came on the heels of a story that won’t go away about suspicious wagering on matches played by a top ten men’s star named Nikolay Davydenko, another Russian. When was the last time you heard of an online betting site suspending all activity on a sporting event….and that event was tennis? He was recently cited and fined by the governing body of tennis for “lack of effort” during a match he lost. What could that possibly mean other than he was tanking the match? That must give you pause to wonder if a guy ranked in the top 10 of his sport and making mucho dinero still needs more and figures out that he can go down a notch or 2 in the rankings by fixing matches.
Russian women have dominated the tennis world now for a few years so we know that lack of talent is not an issue in that country so what are we to make of this. Just when you thought steroids permeated sports and made it unreliable as a test of competitive greatness you have an example of the road map for assuring lack of competition and profiteering off that aspect of our world. It’s just sad.
Want more? Read my Daily Dose of Duffy column at www.incidentalcontact.com and listen to me on the Sports Journey radio show on Wednesday and Friday.
© 2007 Incidental Contact, LLC
Categories: NBA · Paula Duffy · Tennis
Gee, what do you think I’m talking about…huh? The MLB All Star game of course. It’s a bad combination of ingredients that when mixed makes you sick to your stomach…or it just makes you crazy and prone to bad decisions. Tony LaRussa was still throwing up the next day from the gastric distress that forced him to keep Albert Pujols on the bench with 2 out in the 9th, the bases loaded and his team down by only 1 run. He allowed Aaron Rowland, a great defensive outfielder to hit and he promptly popped up to end the game. Poof…there goes home field advantage in the World Series for the National League. Poor Tony had to accommodate the 2 different approaches to the game and only if all the stars and moon are aligned will that allow you to happily win the game and get all the players chosen to play on the field. Tony had to think about the tied game that forced a public outcry about the All Star game; such an outcry that what people in their heart or hearts knew was an exhibition game was turned into a game that couldn’t end in a tie and had to be won for it to be relevant. Thus, the idea that home field for the World Series would be awarded to the winning league was born. God knows I bash Bud Selig every chance I get but on this issue, he gave in to his worst judgment. His original decision was the right one which was to shut down a game that was threatening to go into the middle of the early morning and would have forced the managers to keep one pitcher out on the mound until it ended because they had emptied their bull pens in an effort to make the exhibition a good one. LaRussa was holding back Pujols in case of a tie and thus didn’t reach the tie he held him back for. Got that? I know, I know it’s insane but that is the result of being afraid to clear your bench of the players that fans need to see vs. having to face a tied game. Maybe this will cause another outcry and make MLB choose what they really want the game to be. I vote for the way it used to be and take the World Series out of it for Pete’s sake.
The throat that roared. When was the last time you heard of a grown up getting his tonsils out? So I guess this clears up the age issue about Greg Oden. He really is 19 looking like 39 and the kid has tonsils the size of golf balls. Let’s leave aside the bad jokes that could be made about that comment and respect that fact that he has been sick as a dog for a while. I suffered from tonsillitis til I was 22 and then it disappeared but not until I got a bout every year complete with high fever, a throat that hurt like hell unless I was sucking on ice chips and taking penicillin until it all went away in a week. Let’s give him a huge “do-over” for the two bad games he played in the Vegas Summer League in which he committed 19 fouls and realize that a big man takes some time to be great. He has had his head turned around by the speed and skill of NBA players and he’ll learn how to play. As a wise guy once said, you can’t teach 7 feet.
Federer hears the foot steps down the hall. Rafael Nadal took Roger to 5 sets in the Wimbledon final and had 2 games in which he could have broken Federer’s serve that would have led to a victory. The fact that the outcome was in doubt until 15 minutes prior to the end was news in and of itself. Talk about history repeating itself: Borg’s 5th title came the year that McEnroe had taken him to 5 sets after that famous 30 minute tie breaker to win the 4th set. McEnroe took over the mantle after that. It appears that Nadal has it figured out and now he has to execute on the plan. What’s interesting is that Federer never gets that close to Nadal on his beloved clay courts but Rafa almost spoiled the party last Sunday on Roger’s home court, so to speak. These two can save men’s tennis for the foreseeable future if they go back and forth trading titles. Let’s see how they both fare next month in NY but I gotta guess that New Yorkers will be rooting for a guy that they never thought they would: a Spaniard in Capri pants.
Want more? Read my Daily Dose of Duffy column at www.incidentalcontact.com and listen to me on the Sports Journey radio show every Saturday.
© 2007 Incidental Contact, LLC
Categories: College Basketball · MLB · NBA · Paula Duffy · Tennis
