- Carlos Boozer decided to remain in Utah for next season, exercising his player option for $12.7 million. He will remain in Mormon country for another year because a) the economic slowdown and the subsequent reluctance of many teams to pay the luxury tax meant his options to better that amount were very limited and b) he felt the need to continue his penance for stabbing the blind owner of the Cleveland Cavs in the back a few years back. Well, maybe only one of those reasons actually factored into his decision.
- Mehmet Okur also exercised his option, which gives the Jazz the bulk of their frontcourt back, but makes it harder for them to re-sign another key piece: Paul Millsap. As far as I know, there's no karmic reason for his decision to eschew free agency.
- Detroit, in an effort to make their team a more attractive destination for free agents, fired coach Michael Curry after just 1 year on the job. The main reason appears to be the fact that he lost a number of the veterans on the team when he decided to bring Rip Hamilton off the bench to accomodate Allen Iverson. It apparently got so bad that Hamilton and Curry weren't speaking by the end of the season. Of course, this situation was brought about by the midseason trade made by the very man who fired Curry, GM Joe Dumars.
- Houston may be facing a tougher offseason than they initially thought. They already have a decision to make on Ron Artest, and must decide whether to let playoff hex Tracy McGrady anywhere near the team, but now Yao Ming's feet aren't healing from the break he suffered in the 2nd round series loss to the Lakers. There is talk Yao might miss all of next season, or his career may be in jeopardy.
Of course, this may be a devious ploy by Yao to avoid playing through the entire offseason on behalf of the Chinese sports federation. To be fair, I'm not sure there's another way he could really say "no" when the Chinese government "asks" him to participate in national team events. For his sake, especially given the fact that he's missed 95 games in the past 4 seasons due to foot issues, I hope that's the case.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I agree with Chris Evert, up to a point
The grunting in tennis, especially in women's tennis is idiotic.
But I disagree with her conclusion. She says the WTA (and, I'll extrapolate, the ATP as well) should step in and put a stop to the theatrics. I say, let them yell, scream, grunt, whatever all they want. But end the restrictions on the crowd. Let them also make whatever noises they want.
After all, if you're going to allow Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, or Rafa Nadal to recreate Meg Ryan's famous scene in When Harry Met Sally every shot, then forcing the crowd to be quiet during every point seems kind of pointless, no?
And if there are players who can't handle the noise, they'll fall out of relevance and other, mentally tougher players will take their spots.
But I disagree with her conclusion. She says the WTA (and, I'll extrapolate, the ATP as well) should step in and put a stop to the theatrics. I say, let them yell, scream, grunt, whatever all they want. But end the restrictions on the crowd. Let them also make whatever noises they want.
After all, if you're going to allow Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, or Rafa Nadal to recreate Meg Ryan's famous scene in When Harry Met Sally every shot, then forcing the crowd to be quiet during every point seems kind of pointless, no?
And if there are players who can't handle the noise, they'll fall out of relevance and other, mentally tougher players will take their spots.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Top 7 Calls that made me want to put a fist through the television set (luckily I created this blog instead), #5: She Got Interfered With
I realized it's probably about time I got back on this particular horse. #5 actually doesn't involve the Seattle Seahawks...well, at least not directly.
Let's go back to November 29, 1998, in Foxboro, MA. Doug Flutie has made his return to Foxboro Stadium after years in Canada, but this time he's playing for the visiting team, the Buffalo Bills. Flutie had what looked to be a triumphant return, passing for 339 yards and rushing for 30 more, and staking his team to a 21-17 lead with just over a minute remaining.
Then Drew Bledsoe went to work (this was Drew Bledsoe before years of bad decisions and hard hits from holding on to the football for too long turned him into Zombie Drew Bledsoe), with a broken finger no less. He drove the Patriots into Bills territory, where the drive stalled a bit. Facing 4th down, Drew completed a pass to Shawn Jefferson at the Bill 26, and Jefferson got out of bounds with time for just one more play. The Bills were not happy, as they felt Jefferson was out of bounds BEFORE he caught the ball on the play, which should have negated the catch and won the game for the Bills. The referees disagreed, and the Bills (the year being 1998) had no recourse (this would be dramatic foreshadowing).
Anyway, one play left, from the Bill 26 yard line. Bledsoe drops back, waits, then launches a pass for Terry Glenn in the back left corner of the end zone. There is some jostling, maybe a shove, but the pass falls incomplete as time expires. Bills win! Flutie is successful, and strikes a blow for short, Heisman-winning quarterbacks everywhe...what?
There's a flag on the field?
Oh, okay, I'm sure it was back by Bledsoe and was offensive holding or something, so let's get back to the celebra...wait...it's in the END ZONE? Are you sure? I mean, officials NEVER call a foul on a hail mary type pass unless the defense rips off the wide receiver's leg or stabs him through the heart, or something like that. (Note: Given the long career of Terry Glenn, highlights including being suspended for basically all of the Pats' Super Bowl winning 2001 season and fumbling away a ball for a safety in one of my favorite playoff games of all time, despite a lack of video evidence, I feel safe declaring Glenn's leg is still attached and thus, was not ripped off on this play; nor was he killed wth a knife through the heart.) Besides, the receiver in question is Terry Glenn. As a rookie, when asked how he was rehabbing from a bad hammy, his own coach Bill Parcells responded, "She's doing fine." Clearly, if you breathe on Terry Glenn, he's going to fall over. This clearly isn't a flag for defensive pass interference.
Yes, the flag was for defensive pass interference. It's at this point I'd normally embed a video of this outrageous decision, but I cannot find one, which is part of the reason this post took so long to write. Anyway, this call gave New England one untimed down at the 1 yard line. The play was a play action pass which ended with Bledose hitting tight end Ben Coates for the touchdown.
The Bills were so incensed with this turn of events, and so disgusted with the officials over the Jefferson catch and the phantom PI call, that their coach (disclaimer, it was Wade Phillips) declined to put out 11 players to defend the point after this touchdown. In fact, he neglected to put 1 defender on the field for the PAT. The Patriots' reaction? Instead of having kicker Adam Vinatieri kick the PAT for a 24-21 win, the holder handed him the ball and Vinatieri ran the ball in to the end zone, for a 25-21 win.
Now, to be honest, I cannot comment on whether Jefferson was in or out. But I can safely say the PI call was horrid. When I first saw this game, I thought the call was terrible, but it benefitted the Patriots and most of my friends were Pats fans, so I wasn't too upset. It did hurt Doug Flutie, who I pulled for, so that stunk. But overall, there were plenty of worse things that could have happened.
Anti-Quality of call: 8/10
Effect on game situation: 9/10
Effect on my mood: 2/10
It was only later, after a far more catastrophic set of circumstances occurred, that this game would take it's place on this list. For the rest of the story, well, you'll just have to wait till we get a little higher on this list.
Let's go back to November 29, 1998, in Foxboro, MA. Doug Flutie has made his return to Foxboro Stadium after years in Canada, but this time he's playing for the visiting team, the Buffalo Bills. Flutie had what looked to be a triumphant return, passing for 339 yards and rushing for 30 more, and staking his team to a 21-17 lead with just over a minute remaining.
Then Drew Bledsoe went to work (this was Drew Bledsoe before years of bad decisions and hard hits from holding on to the football for too long turned him into Zombie Drew Bledsoe), with a broken finger no less. He drove the Patriots into Bills territory, where the drive stalled a bit. Facing 4th down, Drew completed a pass to Shawn Jefferson at the Bill 26, and Jefferson got out of bounds with time for just one more play. The Bills were not happy, as they felt Jefferson was out of bounds BEFORE he caught the ball on the play, which should have negated the catch and won the game for the Bills. The referees disagreed, and the Bills (the year being 1998) had no recourse (this would be dramatic foreshadowing).
Anyway, one play left, from the Bill 26 yard line. Bledsoe drops back, waits, then launches a pass for Terry Glenn in the back left corner of the end zone. There is some jostling, maybe a shove, but the pass falls incomplete as time expires. Bills win! Flutie is successful, and strikes a blow for short, Heisman-winning quarterbacks everywhe...what?
There's a flag on the field?
Oh, okay, I'm sure it was back by Bledsoe and was offensive holding or something, so let's get back to the celebra...wait...it's in the END ZONE? Are you sure? I mean, officials NEVER call a foul on a hail mary type pass unless the defense rips off the wide receiver's leg or stabs him through the heart, or something like that. (Note: Given the long career of Terry Glenn, highlights including being suspended for basically all of the Pats' Super Bowl winning 2001 season and fumbling away a ball for a safety in one of my favorite playoff games of all time, despite a lack of video evidence, I feel safe declaring Glenn's leg is still attached and thus, was not ripped off on this play; nor was he killed wth a knife through the heart.) Besides, the receiver in question is Terry Glenn. As a rookie, when asked how he was rehabbing from a bad hammy, his own coach Bill Parcells responded, "She's doing fine." Clearly, if you breathe on Terry Glenn, he's going to fall over. This clearly isn't a flag for defensive pass interference.
Yes, the flag was for defensive pass interference. It's at this point I'd normally embed a video of this outrageous decision, but I cannot find one, which is part of the reason this post took so long to write. Anyway, this call gave New England one untimed down at the 1 yard line. The play was a play action pass which ended with Bledose hitting tight end Ben Coates for the touchdown.
The Bills were so incensed with this turn of events, and so disgusted with the officials over the Jefferson catch and the phantom PI call, that their coach (disclaimer, it was Wade Phillips) declined to put out 11 players to defend the point after this touchdown. In fact, he neglected to put 1 defender on the field for the PAT. The Patriots' reaction? Instead of having kicker Adam Vinatieri kick the PAT for a 24-21 win, the holder handed him the ball and Vinatieri ran the ball in to the end zone, for a 25-21 win.
Now, to be honest, I cannot comment on whether Jefferson was in or out. But I can safely say the PI call was horrid. When I first saw this game, I thought the call was terrible, but it benefitted the Patriots and most of my friends were Pats fans, so I wasn't too upset. It did hurt Doug Flutie, who I pulled for, so that stunk. But overall, there were plenty of worse things that could have happened.
Anti-Quality of call: 8/10
Effect on game situation: 9/10
Effect on my mood: 2/10
It was only later, after a far more catastrophic set of circumstances occurred, that this game would take it's place on this list. For the rest of the story, well, you'll just have to wait till we get a little higher on this list.
Brazil 3 (well, 4), USA 2
Well, that was a ride that ended in vast disappointment.
Okay, let's get this out of the way first. No, this does not, in any way, invalidate the wonderful run US Soccer went on starting in the Egypt game. This Confederations Cup was unquestionably a success, whether you stop watching after the first half of this game or at the actual end of the tournament. And the first half was what you point to when you envision US Soccer having success in this type of environment. Get some chances, convert early, and let their counterattack put the pressure on the opponent trying to catch up. And for most of one half of play, that is what happened.
That all being said, the second half of play was a major disappointment. First, giving up the first goal less than 2 minutes into the second half brought back the beginning of the game demons the US has suffered from coming into this Confed Cup. That it happened in the second half doesn't change the fact that the US got caught either flat footed or complacent against their opponent, and it cost them dearly.
Once that goal happened, the cracks in the US foundation split open. Not all at once, but every minute they grew wider and wider. It started with the attack. If you can find evdidence of a sustained US attack in the second half, please post a comment below and point me to it. Part of this can be explained by the overall defensive mentality the US employed in the second half. But another part looked like general tightness and fear of making the big mistake. It's hard to fault the US team for this fear, as bad giveaways led to a couple of Italy's 3 goals, but no team can withstand 45 mintues of Brazil's attack without some sustained possession, just to give the defenders and goalkeeper an occasional rest (even if it's just a mental one).
It's hard to draw the line between what the US didn't do and what the US simply cannot do. The US isn't Brazil, it isn't Spain. It's not going to overwhelm the opposition with ball possession and constant attacks (well, maybe against Barbados or Guatemala). The US will need some lucky bounces, and will need to convert a smaller amount of opportunities. But the US is much better at possessing the ball and launching sustained attacks than they were 8 or 12 years ago, and they have to keep pushing themselves to get even better at this facet of the game.
There is a lot of talk about how this tournament was a stepping stone for the US. It can be, but I won't call it that until I see the Aug 12 game against Mexico. Mexico is a team in disarray and the US is fresh off of this Confed Cup. If there was ever a year for the US to finally break through with a win in Mexico, this is the year. Win THAT game, against what can only be described as a currently inferior opponent, and we can talk about stepping stones. For taking the next step doesn't just mean advancing at the World Cup, it starts within the USA's region, on the road to South Africa in 2010.
Okay, let's get this out of the way first. No, this does not, in any way, invalidate the wonderful run US Soccer went on starting in the Egypt game. This Confederations Cup was unquestionably a success, whether you stop watching after the first half of this game or at the actual end of the tournament. And the first half was what you point to when you envision US Soccer having success in this type of environment. Get some chances, convert early, and let their counterattack put the pressure on the opponent trying to catch up. And for most of one half of play, that is what happened.
That all being said, the second half of play was a major disappointment. First, giving up the first goal less than 2 minutes into the second half brought back the beginning of the game demons the US has suffered from coming into this Confed Cup. That it happened in the second half doesn't change the fact that the US got caught either flat footed or complacent against their opponent, and it cost them dearly.
Once that goal happened, the cracks in the US foundation split open. Not all at once, but every minute they grew wider and wider. It started with the attack. If you can find evdidence of a sustained US attack in the second half, please post a comment below and point me to it. Part of this can be explained by the overall defensive mentality the US employed in the second half. But another part looked like general tightness and fear of making the big mistake. It's hard to fault the US team for this fear, as bad giveaways led to a couple of Italy's 3 goals, but no team can withstand 45 mintues of Brazil's attack without some sustained possession, just to give the defenders and goalkeeper an occasional rest (even if it's just a mental one).
It's hard to draw the line between what the US didn't do and what the US simply cannot do. The US isn't Brazil, it isn't Spain. It's not going to overwhelm the opposition with ball possession and constant attacks (well, maybe against Barbados or Guatemala). The US will need some lucky bounces, and will need to convert a smaller amount of opportunities. But the US is much better at possessing the ball and launching sustained attacks than they were 8 or 12 years ago, and they have to keep pushing themselves to get even better at this facet of the game.
There is a lot of talk about how this tournament was a stepping stone for the US. It can be, but I won't call it that until I see the Aug 12 game against Mexico. Mexico is a team in disarray and the US is fresh off of this Confed Cup. If there was ever a year for the US to finally break through with a win in Mexico, this is the year. Win THAT game, against what can only be described as a currently inferior opponent, and we can talk about stepping stones. For taking the next step doesn't just mean advancing at the World Cup, it starts within the USA's region, on the road to South Africa in 2010.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
USA 2 Spain 0
Wow.
The team I saw barely show up against Brazil would have lost this game 5-0. For that matter, the team I saw against Brazil would have lost to Egypt as well. Just getting to this game took a complete 180 from that Brazil game, but then the US took it about 20 more steps in downing Spain 2-0, setting up a rematch with Brazil, who made them look like a U8 team about a week ago.
Now, the upset over Spain definitely featured a lot of lucky breaks for the US, and any win over Brazil would need a similar bout of luck to smile on the Americans, but what the US showed (and what the US needed to show in this tournament) was that yes, this team can play with the elite teams of the world and can get results against them. In 3 games against the top teams, the US has 1 excellent showing with a good result (Spain), 1 good showing without the result (Italy), and 1 abominable showing with no result (Brazil). A good showing, even without the result, would really put a nice ribbon on this tournament experience, but this tournament has to be considered a success even without that.
One final note: hopefully their good showing at this tournament will gain the US some respect with the referees, as yet again against a good team the US was the victim of a very soft red card, which takes Michael Bradley out of the lineup for the Brazil game.
The team I saw barely show up against Brazil would have lost this game 5-0. For that matter, the team I saw against Brazil would have lost to Egypt as well. Just getting to this game took a complete 180 from that Brazil game, but then the US took it about 20 more steps in downing Spain 2-0, setting up a rematch with Brazil, who made them look like a U8 team about a week ago.
Now, the upset over Spain definitely featured a lot of lucky breaks for the US, and any win over Brazil would need a similar bout of luck to smile on the Americans, but what the US showed (and what the US needed to show in this tournament) was that yes, this team can play with the elite teams of the world and can get results against them. In 3 games against the top teams, the US has 1 excellent showing with a good result (Spain), 1 good showing without the result (Italy), and 1 abominable showing with no result (Brazil). A good showing, even without the result, would really put a nice ribbon on this tournament experience, but this tournament has to be considered a success even without that.
One final note: hopefully their good showing at this tournament will gain the US some respect with the referees, as yet again against a good team the US was the victim of a very soft red card, which takes Michael Bradley out of the lineup for the Brazil game.
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