For those who dismissed the international presence in the 2002 NBA Draft, are you listening now? America loses to Yugoslavia 81-78, and now will not medal in the World Championships. That’s just pathetic. I didn’t happen to catch this game, but from what I’ve heard it was more of the same – a lot of hastily jacked threes and a complete lack of team D.
Category: Sports
Don’t Cry for them, Argentina
As I’m writing this, the US basketball team is down 9 to Argentina with 10 seconds to go, meaning they’re about to lose their first international game since the 1992 Dream Team…Yep, 87-80, it’s over. Wow. Guess we shoulda seen this coming when they made George “the choke artist” Karl head coach.
Yao’s Trial By Fire.
#1 pick Yao Ming looks decent in yesterday’s US-China matchup, going for 13 and 11 in a 30 point loss. More to the point, he didn’t let Antonio Davis dunk on him, which should bolster his ego a bit coming into his first NBA season.
Ho-hum.
While I’ve been busy the past couple of days, apparently MLB players decided to strike. Well, you know what? I really couldn’t care less. At the risk of alienating all the stat-keeping baseball lovers out there, baseball before October just bores me, unless I’m playing or at the stadium watching. Ranks right up there with golf as the sport I most like to nap to on weekend afternoons. I do have a mixture of pity, fascination, and irritation for the legions of Red Sox fans out there, who constantly act like (a) winning a World Series is more important than world peace and (b) Boston is somehow a cursed sports town, despite their winning 16 NBA championships over the years. But otherwise, I have no vested interest in baseball at all…During the summer, I’d rather watch MLS any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And now it’s almost September, so bring on the hoops.
Trade Winds Blowing.
Many NBA trades went down in my absence, including Miller to the Clips, Big Dog to the Hawks, and – the biggest – Mutombo to NJ for Van Horn. While that’s a great pickup for Jersey (and losing Van Horn is addition by subtraction), I’m actually kinda glad the Knicks-Mutombo trade fell through. Much as I’d love to see Travis Knight off the roster, I gotta think Kurt Thomas has more upside than Mutombo these days. I’d say Mutombo’s probably a season or a slight injury away from looking Ewing-tired. We’ve already been down that road with Glen Rice and Mark Jackson.
Gotham Makeover.
ESPN tries to reinvent the Knicks. Houston for Van Horn sounds better than any of the Sprewell trades I’ve been hearing.
Halloween Hall of Fame.
Sportsguy Bill Simmons pens the Michael Myers’ Sportscentury. Pretty lame, I know, but the Hubie Brown bit really cracked me up. “OK, you’re Michael Myers. You have a tremendous amount of upside for a serial killer, but you have to understand, you’ve been locked up for the past 15 years…“
Gentle Giant or Ivan Drago?
The NBA and the Houston Rockets try to figure out how to market Yao Ming. Looks like Agassi’s just psyched Yao doesn’t play tennis.
Vinsanity.
In the first big NBA deal since draft day, the Celtics trade underachieving head case PG Kenny Anderson for underachieving head case F Vin Baker. I dunno…but I’ll wager it was a terrible call for the Celts. I would have stuck with Rodney Rodgers, but perhaps Baker can turn it on in the East. At any rate, thank goodness the Knicks didn’t end up with him.
Suicide Kings.
In deciding to pay big bucks to keep emerging superstar Mike Bibby at point for the Sacramento Kings, the Maloof brothers are making a significant gamble that may end up as a lithmus test of the respective importance of basketball vs. business decisions for small-market clubs.