After being confiscated and kept in a secret vault six miles below Nike headquarters, video of Xavier guard Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James has finally surfaced.
It was a nice dunk — a memorable moment Crawford can certainly brag about. But, really, that’s it? That’s what LeBron and Nike wanted to keep in the closet? Talk about underwhelming. I haven’t been this disappointed since Matrix: Reloaded. After all the hoopla and mystery shrouding the tape’s seizure, I was expecting a “Tom Chambers on Marc Jackson“-type dunk. But Crawford’s slam was hardly a facial LeBron should be embarrassed of.
Firstly, LeBron was not dunked on. That would imply rising above the defender and throwing it down, like the Chambers dunk, or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jUUMCvLPFU. No, instead, I think the correct phrasing should be: LeBron was dunked beside. Crawford turned the corner, beating all defenders to the hoop, and LeBron was late in rotating and late in his jump. It was a half-assed attempt at blocking a shot, and Crawford, to his credit, still dunked the ball with LeBron attached to his hip.
But this dunk would’ve been forgetting after a day. After 24 hours, the blogosphere would’ve moved on to other breaking news like Brett Favre wiping his ass or something. The dunk wouldn’t even be a topic on ESPN’s 1st and 10, and that show talks about everything, no matter how mundane. Even now, it’s kind of a non-story.
Utah matched Portland’s four-year, $32 million offer for Paul Millsap, solidifying the Jazz’s claim that Carlos Boozer is no longer in their long-term plans. With the 24-year-old Millsap the starting power forward of the future in Utah, current discussions have Boozer going to Chicago in a three-team trade.
What’s been baffling the league is why Portland almost wasted $8 million a year for LaMarcus Aldridge’s backup
Smile while you're still happy, L.O.
when they could have used that money to try to get Lamar Odom, where they lack at small forward? Granted, they are that third team in the rumored three-team trade and could have just been putting the pressure on Utah to make a move, but that’s quite a bold move by Portland just to save some time. Well, now that that money is freed up again and the Lakers recently pulling out of a three-year, $27 million offer to Odom, Portland needs to step in now after its failed attempts at getting Hedo Turkoglu to Toronto.
Odom and the Lakers agreed to the $9 million annual salary, but Odom balked at the Lakers offering the 29-year-old forward just a three-year deal. Another Lakers forward playing hardball this offseason. Trevor Ariza, anyone?
After setting the Division I record for career touchdown passes (134), Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell went undrafted in April’s
Sacked.
seven-round NFL draft. Guys like Purdue’s Curtis Painter, West Texas A&M’s Keith Null and Fresno State’s Tom Brandstater did get drafted. A workout with Cleveland proved fruitless, meaning he didn’t have the stuff to unseat unproven Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson from the depth chart.
A system player, no doubt. Too small? He’s 6′3,” 205, the same height but about twenty pounds lighter than the three drafted QB’s. It’s tough to say how he’d play out in the bigs, but don’t expect a couple of dominant years in the CFL before being picked up by an NFL team.
If his career turns out to be anything similar to Timmy Chang’s from Hawai’i, this is the last we’ll hear of Harrell. Chang hardly played two years of CFL, throwing for one touchdown and seven interceptions, was dropped by two teams in six months and is currently out of the game. Good luck with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Graham.
On January 23, 2009 Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido was arrested for DUI. On July 16, he was sentenced to four days in jail for the conviction. As far as his coaching punishments were concerned, he was handed a four-game paid suspension of the Longhorns’ 67-game season, which amounts to virtually nothing.
As sincere as Garrido’s apology was, he made a huge mistake and didn’t even get a slap on the hand, as evidenced by the paid suspension. Unless someone can bring up an example that’ll make me reconsider, I think college coaches should be on the same level as their student-athletes with legal issues, which means Garrido should be given the hook the way every player was thrown off a team for even being charged with DUI. It’s hypocritical, and the fact that Garrido is an accomplished coach is just another example that if you’re good, you can get away with things others can’t.
Now, those of you that’ll try to run with this, listen. The magnitude of this mistake is exponentially worse given that he is a coach. Yes, I would still hold the same standards for Pete Carroll or Mike K. He is supposed to be an example and a role model to these youngsters, who are still in school, and no, like a lot of things, these same principles I wouldn’t apply to any other job. So if anyone gets a DUI, no, I don’t think you should be automatically fired from your job. It’s too bad Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds values college championships more than morals.
Garrido has a Division I-record 1,629 wins and five championships, his last with Texas in 2005. The Longhorns fell to LSU in last month’s College World Series championship.
What’s with all the Brett Favre hate? I can’t find a single person who’d want him on his team, let alone Vikings fans. I mean, what’s the reasoning? That Favre will only give you one year, when the Vikings should be building on Tarvaris Jackson, who has improved each year? That Favre is a has-been who doesn’t know when to quit? His completion percentage, touchdowns and QB rating last year are all up there with his career averages. I would be confident handing the ball to Favre every game. And quite frankly, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, Coach Childress and Adrian Peterson are all cool with Favre’s arrival, if that were to happen. So why aren’t you?
The 39-year-old future Hall-of-Famer has been practicing three times a week with the local high school football team,
In yo' face, haters!
but his biggest concern is whether his arm can last him through the entire season. With the surgery successful and his velocity back to NFL-speed, I’d wager Favre plays through for one final year.
[From the AP] [The other day] he tossed a deep pass to a college receiver who dropped by to work out. The pass split the receiver’s hands and hit him in the face.
“He’s a senior from Southeastern Louisiana, so I put a little more on it,” Favre said with a smile.
Yes, the Vikings won their division last year, but to get to the next level (and the reason why they lost to Philly in last year’s opening round), they need a better passing game. Zero TD passes and giving the other team one on an interception return ain’t going to win you a playoff game. And hey, if he goes on the bench for whatever reason, at least you’ve got a leader and a mentor for Jackson, who could learn a thing or two from the great one.
