Lob Shots For The 4th

The United States blast off fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July, in England they have Wimbledon. I'm American and do you know what I was capivated by?

Wimbledon.

I don't care what you think, but in the weekend where I'm usually a Morning Glory blazing Yankee Doodle Dandy, I was getting text updates on my phone telling me what was going on in the Gentlemen's Final. In the days leading up to the conclusion of the two and a half week championship, my friends and I were e-mailing about it and actually having arguments on Facebook posts regarding the tourament. I was upset that I was missing this match, in what seemed to be the day that Andy Roddick was about to leap up and slug the mighty Federer for the title. Whether he did it or not, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, it was the fact that somebody was going for history (Roger Federer's 15th major, and the most all time) and someone was trying to reverse their own history, (Roddick) in the same day.

This all started last year. It started when the greatest rivalry in sports, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal battled in the greatest tennis match I've ever seen. The list of tennis matches that I have seen is not very extensive, but even in my narrow view of what tennis is and who the great players are, I knew that what I was witnessing was something very special. The test of it was that my dad, who doesn't watch tennis and really doesn't care about tennis, was absolutely captivated by what these two guys were doing. The back and fourth of tennis was taken to another level, they were not only returning each shot, they were taking a great shot and improving it to the other. This match was so good, that Jon Wertheim wrote an entire book about it titled, Strokes of Genius. (I haven't read it yet, but it is definately in my Amazon shopping cart.)

This set us up for more this year. Nadal wasn't there because of an injury, but Andy Roddick stepped up and gave us an exceptional contest. Once again I was drawn into the match by it incredible lack of hype; it is hard to build hype when Sports Center only talks about it for 2 minutes per day and talks about Jeff Garcia decreeing himself the Raiders starting quarterback for a minute and a half. Something incredibly appealing to me about tennis is that it is understated in a sports world where everything is overstated and reiterated. I missed most of the final while at church, but was able to see the first two sets before I left and still get home during the 5th set. Fearing that I would miss the end of the match, I was happy to find out it was 6-6 in the 5th when I got home. What I was left with was 95 minutes of back and fourth, give and take, with the greatest of the generation (and maybe ever) trying for history, while his opponant was trying to hit the walk off home run and trying to avoid being Al Downing at the same time. Andy Roddick was in the final with an all of nothing feel. He was either going to be the hero, who hit the walk off home run to win the World Series or he was going to be the goat, who gave up a record breaking moment and always have his name attached to it for all the wrong reasons.

In the end, Federer won, Roddick lost and Tennis has jumped into my conciousness. Now in the midst of barbaquing, fireworks and being with people I like to be around, following the preceedings in Wimbledon, England is going to be added to my weekend. What Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate did last year at the U.S Open in Golf, Federer, Nadal and Roddick did in two years.

Well done and I'll see you next year.

Sterling Pingree

Bit’s O’ Info: NBA Edition

I don’t really have a category for this post, because it’s really a mixture of random NBA thoughts. In case you were wondering about my Black Book draft post, I’m waiting till after July 8th, when I expect a few more trades to pop up.

Thought # 1: I loved the Shaq trade…If it happened 2 years ago when he was still with the Heat. Now? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Sure, he’s a big name and a big body, but he is nowhere near dominant and is always on the verge of a breakdown. At this point in his career he is not even a significant upgrade over Zydrunas Ilgauskas. And by the way, he will clog up the lane like no other. Have fun driving to the hoop now Lebron. You’re going to have drive around your defender, Shaq’s defender and Shaq, because he won’t play away from the hoop like Big Z does.

And let’s say they pull it off and win an NBA championship. Lebron is now just another player that “can’t win the big one without Shaq”. Ask Kobe how that tastes.

Thought #2: The Spurs are THE BEST run basketball franchise in the world. Hands down. And it pains me to say this because I hate Manu Ginobili and generally do not like the Spurs. Here’s what they have done in the past few weeks.
Trade for Richard Jefferson by offering the Bucks a pupu platter of expiring contracts. This is such a great move, because they needed a small forward, but one that didn’t need the ball to be effective. Jefferson is exactly that player. He is unselfish, a very good defender, and can nail the three. He fits exactly what the Spurs needed.

Have no first round picks but still manage to grab the most dominant player in the Big East (DeJuan Blair), at times the most dominant guard in the ACC (Jack McClinton), and a very underrated foreign born player that will be able to stay overseas (Nando De Colo). Blair “beasted” (Jay Bilas’ term) second overall pick Hasheem Thabeet and the rest of the college landscape, and while he is undersized and has past knee issues the guy is an absolute stud. He could start in the NBA right now; I don’t care what any of these “scouts” say. If he can stay healthy he may one day lead the league in rebounding. McClinton is another player that is supremely talented, and a great scorer. He has the potential to be a more consistent Eddie House. As a 7th or 8th man that is a great asset to have.

Thought #3: The Pistons are THE WORST run basketball franchise in the world: This one isn’t hands down, but the mistakes they have made in the last few years are horrid. They drafted Darko Milicic when everyone knew they should take Carmelo Anthony. They signed Kwame Brown to a two year deal despite the fact he had been terrible everywhere he had been. They traded their leader (Chauncey Billups) for a complete opposite in a player (Allen Iverson), putting Iverson into a terrible position.

They drafted Austin Daye, a toothpick that never did much of anything for Gonzaga against some fairly weak competition, in the first round when no one had him going nearly that high. They kind of redeemed themselves by selecting DeJuan Summers in the second and then getting the steal of the draft (other than Blair) in Chase Buddinger. But then they traded Buddinger away.

All of that is bad, but there are other teams *coughCLIPPERScough* that were worse run. Or so I thought. Now they have signed Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, both to five year deals for 98 million combined. Both players are second or third bananas, not leaders or all stars. They come to a team full of second bananas and non all stars. It’s also been said that Joe Dumars values toughness; clearly that’s not the case because although Gordon has shown some toughness Villanueva has not. He has completely underachieved his entire career, and Gordon is practically the EXACT same player as Hamilton, except with terrible shot selection. The only redeeming quality of trading Billups was the money they were saving, now they have even wasted that. Terrible.

Thought #3: I’m not sure how I feel about the Vince Carter trade. On one side I like that they are making moves, but I’m not sure acquiring Carter is the right one. There are two Vince Carters. One that dominates at times, albeit now with his jump shot rather than his athletics and can be an effective leader on the floor, and one that can disappear at the most inopportune times. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt for now, because I think Vince has matured enough to be a second banana on a championship team.

Thought #4: The Blazers should sign Hedo Turkoglu OR Jason Kidd. Hedo is the better option here…younger, great passer and a much better shooter and athlete. He can play the point at times for them and play the small forward for them. He doesn’t need the ball to dominate the game.

On the other side is Jason Kidd. He may actually be a better fit for them if they think he has a few years left, and heres why. He is the ultimate facilitator. Combine him with the offensive talent the Blazers have and I think he could average 13 assists a game easy, and that’s what they need. With Roy, Aldridge, Outlaw and everything else the Blazers have I could see them being a major contender with a premier passer.

That’s all for now folks
~Aaron Jackson

Great Idea, Poor Execution.

I am watching ESPN Classic. Which I love and I hate. I'll explain.

I first fell into a disfunctional relationship with ESPN Classic when my parents got Prime Star (a satillite company now defunct) and was introduced to the third ESPN channel in my life, this was late 1996. Back when I wanted the Patriots to draft Tyronne Poole (they would later pick him off the scrap heap, it wasn't as good as I imagined) Mo Vaughn was the king of the world (I even met him in the fall of '96.), so pretty much, things were good. The first show that got me into ESPN Classic was Home Run Derby. A Hollywood television show of the real Mid-Summer classic, where two Major League ballplayers would face off in a head to head, 9 inning home run derby. Looking back, the show was kind of poorly done, it was heavily edited, they would take a clip of the guy swinging in the on deck circle and then show the ball flying over the fence. The show captivated me though and still does to this day because it is interesting to see guys such as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Harmon Killebrew in their prime. The show came out on DVD a couple summers ago and yes I own them. Below is the link to Amazon.com where you can get them cheap.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Home+Run+Derby
The only problem with ESPN Classic running the show was that they showed it 6am. I was just young enough to still get up that this time, but even then I knew Classic wasn't all it should be. I imagined the channel showing old games, old shows like the Derby and other great sporting events from before I was born that were well, classic. Instead what I found was old boxing matches that took place about 3 years before on ESPN 2 that nobody watched then and certainly didn't want to watch now. As if that wasn't bad enough, it went from bad to worse when they would block off hours for nothing but rodeo, bowling and billiards. My question was, are they people who really want to relive the 1987 Dallas Open?
The point of all of this is, why does ESPN classic still show mostly bowling and billiards? Does this get ratings or do they just have nothing else to show? This afternoon they showed something called Sports Challenge. The idea is that 3 people from a team would compete as their team in a sports trivia game show. Now it was a good premice that was horribly executed, much like the Home Run Derby show it was kidn of cool to see Red Auerbach, Bill Russell and John Havlicek sitting at a table like they're on the Newly Wed Game. On a side note, it's funny to see that even on a short lived game show, the Celtics were 4 time champions and openly mocked the other team when they got a big lead. It was fantastic, it was like Auerbach had Hondo and Russ practicing before they went onto the show. Somewhere in his office, I bet Red even had a small banner made up for the Celtics victories on Sports Challenge.
Now sometimes Classic does show an old game, one that has been long since forgotten, but has some sort of significance. This is where Classic is threatened by NBA TV, MLB, NHL and NFL Networks. They show old games, they show documentaries on classic teams and series and pivotal moments. They in essence show everything that you would want to see on Classic, and they even divide it up by sport on their own channels. Where does this leave Classic?
It's hard to say, but they could definately have a niche. They own the rights to the games broadcast on their channel (as does the other major sports as well as their networks) so they can still run those to maintain the classic feel. What they need to do is clean house. The best things that Classic has going for it is the old shows, bring in more of them, find all that you can and show them. The more random the better, who knows what people will like and what will become nostalgic. American Gladiators is about Classic's most watched show. Whenever it's on, it seems like one of my friends are watching it. AWA Wrestling, it can be brutal to watch at times, but at the end of each hour it is fun to watch the "Main Event".
Pretty much, ESPN Classic had a monopoly on the showing of older sports content market, and now that market is fragmented by all of the specialty stations run by MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL. Classic may have missed it's window, unless they are catering to that Bowling and Billiards crowd. In that case, they are in a league all their own.

Sterling Pingree

NBA Draft Jogging Diary

Welcome to the 2009 NBA Draft. I’ll be your host, Aaron Jackson. Lets hope Blake Griffin doesn’t tear an ACL before reaching the podium.

7:40: Blake Griffin goes number one overall to the Clippers, sealing his fate as a future bust. Poor guy. Meanwhile, John Smoltz has given up four runs in the first inning of his first start in over a year. Uh-Oh. Blake Griffin is informed the Clippers are terrible, and he responds by saying he can’t look to the past. If you don’t look to the past it’s doomed to repeat itself Blake.

7:51: The Grizzlies select Hasheem Thabeet at number 2. Terrible choice, has bust written all over him. Jay Bilas’s thoughts. “He is not very good offensively and needs to build body mass. Dejuan Blair absolutely beasted him this past season. Is not that great one on one defensively.” Nice job by the Grizz. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City selects James Harden 3^rd. I loved him at Arizona State, but I think Ricky Rubio was a better fit here. Russell Westbrook and James Harden are too similar to play together right now. If Harden is willing to become a traditional point this could work well. I’ll give Sam Presti the benefit of the doubt on this one.

7:57: Kings select Tyreke Evans 4^th. I’m guessing they expect him to play the point rather than the 2, although he could be a small forward as well. Good choice if he can improve his jumper. By the way, sad day for just about every American, as Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both passed away today. They say bad things come in threes, and that certainly was the case with Ed McMahon, Farrah and Michael over the last two days.

8:10: Timberwolves take Ricky Rubio 5^th and Jonny Flynn 6^th. I don’t know how I feel about that. Flynn is too short to play the two, and Rubio would be completely out of his element as a shooting guard. I’m not sure that combination is the best choice, especially this high in the draft. I like both players individually, but together I don’t think it works. The ESPN poll has voters giving the Wolves an F for Flynn and an A for Rubio. I agree.

8:21: Stephen Curry goes number 7 overall to the Warriors. He definitely fits their system and can play right away. At 8 the Knicks select Jordan Hill. Not a big fan of this move at all. He underachieved at Arizona, and the Knicks needed a player with a good attitude. Not sure Hill is the right pick, and he’s getting booed pretty hard from the crowd.

8:35: Toronto takes Demar DeRozan 9^th. He’s a project player on a team that wants to win now, unless they expect Chris Bosh to resign(not happening). Brandon Jennings then goes tenth to the Bucks, and it’s announced he is not in attendance because he wasn’t sure where he would be drafted. This kid hasn’t made a right move in my mind since graduating high school. Something about his attitude rubs me the wrong way. Terrence Williams is taken 11^th by the Nets. I like this choice a lot, especially now that Vince Carter is no longer with the team. He passes well, shoots well, defends well and has good size.

8:50: Bobcats take Gerald Henderson 12^th. I’ve already said this once, but I think this guy will be a huge bust. On a side note, this is only the 3^rd pick I have guessed correctly. I feel dumb, but you must feel dumber for actually reading me. Indiana is now up at 13. They take Tyler Hansbrough. I was one of the only people out there that had that one right. 4 out of 13 right sounds so much better than 3 out of 14. Thank you Pacers. I like this pick a lot, he has accomplished too much already to be a bust. He has a much better jumper than when he started college, to the point where he was making threes last year. He also has more willpower in his pinkie than most of us have in our body. You may see him in my notebook coming up.

9:13: Phoenix selects Earl Clark 14. I had them taking Terrence Williams, and both players played at Louisville and are very similar. I’m giving myself half a point here. At 15 the Pistons select Austin Daye. Really??? I didn’t even have him in the first round. He’s like a toothpick. The Pistons have made some terrible draft picks in the last few years (Rodney Stuckey aside), this may very well be another one. Next up is the Bulls who select James Johnson, followed by the Sixers with Jrue Holliday. While I may not be getting the actual players right, I am definitely nailing the positions teams will draft. Both teams made good selections considering their needs, and although I’m not sold on Holliday based off last season, I think he has plenty of potential. My computer is burning up, so I’m not sure how much longer I will continue this diary. I’m thinking 20 may be my stopping point.

9:19: At 18 the Timberwolves select Ty Lawson. That’s the third point guard they have taken, and two of the three are under 6 feet tall. Why would they do that? Sometimes I am just perplexed as to how people have jobs, and this seems like it’s the case. Unless there is a trade. Speaking of, there is Ric Bucher saying the pick will be moved to the Nuggets. I like that selection much, much, much, much better. Up next is the Atlanta Hawks, a team that could’ve really used Ty Lawson. They get a great consolation prize in Jeff Teague. Great selection by them, I had him going much higher. He dominated at times in the best conference in college basketball. He may pop up again in my notebook because Atlanta is a great opportunity for a good point guard.

9:36: This will be my last post, as my computer is way to hot. At 20 the Jazz select Eric Maynor. It’s a good pick, although they could’ve addressed other needs that were more pressing. 21 is Darren Collison to New Orleans. I like this pick, but I’m kind of surprised Collison went this high. I had him higher than most of the other mock drafts out there, and he went 7 picks higher than even I thought. At 22 is the Portland Trailblazers. I would like to see them take DeJuan Blair here. He could be a great addition to their team. Instead they take Victor Claver. Not a bad choice, but I don’t expect him to play with the Blazers for the next couple of years.

~Aaron Jackson

Oh What a Night to Have No Life

What a night this shall be? If you are a Red Sox fan, (apparently there are 41,000 more than we though in DC) tonight is going to be an extremely interesting night. You have John Smoltz pitching his first game in the Major's for a team other than the Braves and making his first start in over a year. One of the all-time, ultimate gamers in we've seen in baseball for quite sometime. Also tonight you have Aaron Jackson's night of nights in the NBA Draft.

All that we have heard about this draft is that it isn't very good, besides Blake Griffin. There are a lot of overrated players in this draft and that there will be a lot of busts. I agree with some of that, but not all of it. I think that this is going to be a draft where the rich get richer and the poor get, well you know. I wouldn't want a top 10 pick in this draft really, there are a few picks I like such as Flynn and Rubio, but besides that I like the guys in the teens and 20 much better. I think Dejuan Blair is going to be an absolute monster. I talked with my buddy Duane this morning and I said I thought he was going to be a steal in this draft somewhere around the mid-teens. Duane made the argument that he wouldn't be that good because he was undersized and would have to be a Charles Barkley type. That's when it hit me, Dejuan Blair has as good of a shot as anybody of becoming the next Sir Charles. He has athletic, aggressive and pounds the glass like nobody we've seen coming out of high school or college since the Round Mound of Rebound came out of Auburn.

The other reason that this draft is going to be so entertaining is that I see a lot of trades going down tonight. There have been rumors swirling there are a lot of teams that want to move up to take particular players that they have fallen in love with. The problem is though, that in a historical sense this will be remembered as a hit or miss draft. Teams will move up on guys that they want and if that guy doesn't work out, (especially in the top 10 picks) then it could really set that team back for a few years and assure them that they will be in the lottery for many years to come.

The Shaq trade has gone down which assures us of a couple things:

1. We now have the love triangle of the proportions of Pitt-Jolie-Aniston proportions, now that Shaq has divorced Kobe, had his successful fling with Dwyane Wade and now is snuggled up with Lebron James. This is like Pitt leaving Jolie and shacking up with Jessica Alba and then making having their movie nominated for best picture against something about orphans starring Angelina Jolie. This will be more talked about than the South Carolina Governor who walked around the woods and didn't know why. This will be just under Clinton-Lewinsky in terms of media run.

2. Is Lebron taking the monkey that Kobe just shrugged off his back and putting it onto himself?

It sure looks like it, because if the Cavs win the championship next season, Lebron will then have the "You only won when you had Shaq" stigma attached to him. Ask Kobe, that doesn't wash off so quickly. On a side note, Dwyane Wade has never had this subject broached to him before. Maybe we just need to give it time? On second thought that was a horrible finals and nobody really thinks about it anymore, since it's pretty much been blown out of the water by the last two NBA champions.

3. Shaq might get the chance to battle Dwight Howard in the playoffs next year setting off the chain reaction of story lines involving him getting SVG fired from Miami the year they won the title and their verbal sparring that went on this season. As well as the contrived battle for which center is really nicknamed Superman.

The bad thing about all of this?

I'm an assistant coach on an American Legion team and there is a game tonight at 7. So I will pretty much miss all of Smoltz's start and will get to the draft right about the 20's, where all the interesting trades have happened and Jay Bilas is less punchy.

So in a nutshell, I'm going to miss everything.

Sterling Pingree