Will the Lakers be "the family circus"

An early season 94-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks have Mark Cuban and a few others saying I told you so. I know it's early in the season, but the Lakers looked bad last night, in the process making Mavericks owner Mark Cuban seem prophetic. During the preseason he said that the Ron Artest signing would open the door for others in the Western Conference. True things weren't working last night but i'm sure Phil Jackson will get everything straightned out and Kobe Bryant will make sure everyone stays on the same page. Another potential distraction is Lamar Odom. With the high profile marriage to reality tv Khloe Kardashian, he'll have more cameras following him than he had before. Odom usually keeps out of the spotlight, now he's being thrust into it. Hopefully he can keep his mind on his game and not crumble under the increased attention he gets away from the arena. An immense talent, he's always had a tendency to drift and disappear during games. Although this seems like a recipe for trouble i think the Lakers will overcome this circus atmosphere to remain kings of the west until proven otherwise.

Quick note on college basketball

The NCAA head honchos are thinking of of putting a new rule in place that would prevent coaches from hiring outsiders as assistants and camp counselors. This would hopefully end the "package deal" that we frequently see in college basketball. The deal where the college coach hires or pays an AAU coach or a "handler" so the kid will go to his school. Personally I hope this goes through that way it levels the playing field somewhat in the world of college basketball. Also it would show who the true recruiters are and kids choosing a school based on the program alone rather than going somewhere because someone was paid. 

Twitter makes trouble for athletes

Nothing against the Twitter craze going on right now, but i just don't get it. To me it's almost like what i'm doing now your giving details of your day. Over the summer i began to hear more about professional athletes "tweeting". If i'm an athlete i want no part of this. You might as well invite the press over or get a reality show, which is another topic for another day. Now athletes are finding themselves getting in a bit of hot water over twitter. One is the case of Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The thing about it is it wasn't him "tweeting", it was his brother Marcus lighting the flame. It was all about Larry's role in the offense and apparent disenchantment with the coaching staff. Of course there was some damage control done, now all is well in Cardinal country.This past week it's soon to be former Kansas City Chiefs star Larry Johnson. He goes on his twitter account and blasts his teammates, using gay slurs along the way, and flames his coach, Todd Haley. After the story comes out he tries to make the account private. Too late. He's now suspended  and banned from all team activities. He's apologized and has filed a grievance with the NFL. One local case involved Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions. He alledgedly was giving updates on whether or not he was going to play. I know Chad OchoCinco swears by it, but i just think it's more trouble than it's worth. Just line up the news trucks outside your home if you want to let everyone know what your doing.    

Los Angeles Clippers. Snakebit or just a bad organization?

Once again the Los Angeles Clippers have been snakebitten, spit in the face by the basketball gods. The top overall draft pick Blake Griffin, gone for about two months. Honestly i'm one of the few who for some odd reason has a fascination with the Clippers.I don't knbow why i just have something for the downtrodden in sports. I know, they've botched nearly every personnel move in franchise history. With them it seems like a bad horror movie, when someone says "when you go there you become one of them".It's not that all the players happened to be bad players, its that they made bad deals or players got hurt. There was the Moses Malone deal back in 1976. The selling of Bob McAdoo, the trading of Marques Johnson, which came back to haunt them since they dealt for him after his best days in Milwaukee to Danny Manning blowing out his knee, Danny Ferry forcing his way out of town, Shaun Livingston mangling his leg, and now this. At least they parlayed Ferry into two number one picks and Ron Harper, but he had to go ahead and get hurt.Then Harper said playing for the Clippers was worse than being in prison. The Clips had a few playoff seasons during the 90's and earlier this decade, but bad luck has once again reared its ugly head with the Blake Griffin injury and then i hear in the season opener last night that baron Davis is basically playing one one good leg. I thought this team had a chance to make some regular season noise in the Western Conference, but i don't think they can withstand injuries of any sort. The season's still young and maybe they can actually get it together. They do have Mike Dunleavy as coach so anything's possible. If you want to know more about the Clippers franchise run of bad luck click on the Bill Simmons article he wrote about this back in July. It's downright funny how he breaks all this down.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090624&sportCat=nba

Bernard King for the Hall of Fame

With age i realize i'm becoming a lot more old school. That's why i believe Bernard King belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I was too young to remember the Bernie and Ernie (Grunfeld) show while he was at the University of Tennessee. But i do remember a lot of his NBA exploits. This man was a scoring machine in every sense of the word. Damn near unstoppable. I believe that Michael Jordan never wins a scoring title if Bernard never gets hurt. The moment i remember in particular is when he torched the Detroit Pistons, in a five game playoff series to the tune of 44 points a game. Correct me if i'm wrong. It made head coach Hubie Brown look like a genius at times. A one man wrecking crew, I always joked that it was Hubie's easiest coaching job. Imagine the sideline huddle where Hubie says, "just give it to Bernard". I know that series alone probably ran Kelly Tripucka out of Detroit. He just couldn't handle him on the defensive end. Bernard wasn't the greatest defender either, but coach Brown had a way of hiding that. I really hate the fact a lot of people overlooked how good of a player he was, as he was overshadowed by the Larry Bird's, Julius Erving's, and Magic Johnson's of the world. Call it bad timing. Another bad break, almost in a literal sense was the knee injury he suffered in 1985 i believe. I would've loved to see what damage a healthy King and Patrick Ewing could've done together. It's time to give the man his due and finally elect him into the Hall of Fame, he deserves it. Sometimes i wonder if i'm the only one that carries the torch for his election. I know i'd like to see him in.

Jake Delhomme=Steve Blass?

In a previous posting I mentioned that Jake Delhomme was still shell shocked by the performance in last season's playoff loss to Arizona, in which he threw six interceptions. Correct me if i'm wrong.This is a quick fall from grace for someone that was considered to be near the top of the second tier quarterbacks.The last time i've seen something like this was how quickly Jim Everett fell off. In my opinion, this seems to be the equal of the "Steve Blass syndrome". To anyone not familiar with Steve Blass, he was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 60's and 70's, who had a stellar start to his career and had a sudden loss of control which pretty much ended his career. If you don't know him, look up the names Mackey Sasser, Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, and most recently Rick Ankiel. The reason I say this is because of the high  amount of interceptions Delhomme has thrown. Since the Arizona debacle he has yet to have an interception free game. In a way I almost feel sorry for the guy. I don't know him personally, but he seems to be like a genuinely good guy with a downhome southern personality. He has to take a lot of flak from the fans and his teammates, especially the tempermental Steve Smith. As a fan I hope he gets it together and soon (not for fantasy purposes either). First he must get over the interceptions which i don't think he can, therefore sinking the Panthers' season and you know who's gonna take the blame for that. Pick up your game Jake and get back on track. If you don't your career is most likely over on a sour note no less.

WTF? Things that aren't funny but are

Maybe I just have a sick sense of humor, or just someone that sees the lighter side of life.This news story is about a former paramedic who faked a 911 call to try to sneak back in to her place of employment to obtain drugs for the pain she had from an apparent leg injury.She wound up being crushed by the garage door when she tried to get back in. It's not a good thing, but i can't make this stuff up.


http://www.2news.tv/news/64810022.html