Precious Roy

Yeah, because none of those guys ever complained about a call wow, did I say anything about them not doing it...no I said that was when the NBA was fun...keep your roll eyes Well, for a lot of us the NBA still is, and has always been fun. You implied that this rule might help bring a return to the "good old days," but if guys back then were complaining about calls and working the refs and the game was still fun, why would you be hopeful that this new crackdown would bring a return to the "way things used to be"? That doesn't make any sense. Because all I'm seeing right now are the same guys getting the same techs they would have in the past, the same guys getting extra leeway, and a whole bunch of bullshit techs when guys show any sort of emotion whatsoever. Magic and Bird used to do all kinds of on court celebrations, fist pumping and yelling and what not. Under the new rule they'd hypothetically be tossed out of every game.

Yeah, because none of those guys ever complained about a call

Barkley and Reggie are echoing my thoughts here

Right here, Sam Cassell gets stripped of the ball in the backcourt, Denver gets a layup, and immediately afterwards he's animated right in the face of the ref saying he was fouled. No tech. No tech because he's Sam Cassell and it's a close game. If that's Shaun Livingston there's a good chance he gets a T. That's the problem with making such a huge deal out of this rule and putting it out there the way the NBA has, it can't be enforced evenly and impartially, and thus far it hasn't been.

David Stern can't be happy. Sports Illustrated, USA Today, etc. etc. all run articles about how Carmelo Anthony is more mature and ready to be a team leader and vanguard for the NBA, and he gets tossed in his first game. Deserved or not, refs being told to implement the new rule with force or not, I don't think that's a desired outcome for the league. My problem is it's all discretionary. What is excessive complaining? where is the line? With one ref and one player the first questioning of a call or dirty look is going to be a tech. With another ref and another player there'll be more leeway. There isn't a finite line or definition, and I think it's good that refs take control of the game and keep the players in line and respecting the authority of the refs, but making it so arbitrary and publicizing this hardline stance just makes for a rougher transition, and it leads to less experienced refs causing problems by jumping the gun. And calling a tech on Melo for tossing his headband while he's walking to his seat on the bench is just nitpicking. On the court? Ok. But not when he's checked out of the game and is just frustrated, clearly not trying to show up the officials.

Melo just got jobbed. Bullshit.

Melo and JR Smith have some nice chemistry on the break, second time they turned a 2 on 1 into a monster dunk

Odom offensively is basically a bigger, more post oriented version of Pippen. If Jordan and Pippen could make it work so can Kobe and Odom, but Kobe as the superior offensive player and leader of the team needs to be the one to strike the balance and make it happen.

AL Gold Glove has been announced: C- Pudge Rodriguez 1B - Mark Teixeira 2B - Mark Grudzielanek SS - Derek Jeter 3B - Eric Chavez OF - Torii Hunter, Ichiro Suzuki, Vernon Wells P - Kenny Rogers Let the bitching about Jeter commence

KNICKS WIN! THE KNICKS WIN! Funny, I was saying the same thing about the Grizzlies. This was a game the Knicks absolutely should have won. They didn't make it easy on themselves, blowing an 18 point lead, turning the ball over and accumulating a lot of fouls, but they hung in there and got it done. Very good games for Q-Rich, David Lee and Eddy Curry. Crawford had an awful night shooting the ball but played well otherwise.

The Knicks and Grizzlies are headed to TRIPLE OVERTIME! Ugly game for the Knicks in some respects. They were up by 18 at one point. 39 fouls and 23 turnovers so far, both Marbury and Francis have fouled out, Curry and Robinson both have 5, Lee and Balkman each have 4. Jamal Crawford is 3-20 from the field. But I don't care about all that. JUST WIN BABY!

ANDREW BYNUM IS AWESOME!

He put up a triple double in the first game last year. He won't keep up this pace, but he's capable of going off from outside like he has tonight, and is the perfect backup for Hinrich/Gordon as he can play with either. Tyrus Thomas has been getting the shit knocked out of him tonight. First it was Payton hacking him on a fast break layup, then James Posey giving him a mid-air bodycheck. Welcome to the NBA kid. Kobe's not playing tonight. Looks like it's up to Smush and Andrew Bynum.

Where do people come up with this shit? Nice to see the Bulls blowout the Heat in Miami.

None of which equals Isiah running him out of town. Rose was playing a shade under 37 minutes per game under Thomas when he got traded, the same as Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'Neal were getting. The year before that he got 40 minutes a night under Thomas, more than even Reggie. For someone who "sat for long stretches of games" he sure played a lot of minutes under Thomas. Rose also led the Pacers in field goal attempts in both seasons under Thomas. His assists went down in 2002, which coincidently was also the year that Jamaal Tinsley came in, was healthy the whole season and was among the league leaders in assists, so what you call "no clue how to use his versatility" I call, "had a better distributer on the court". In 2001 they had Travis Best at the point, it made sense to have Jalen do more ball handling as Best was more effective as a scorer, and Rose almost matched his career high in assists. With Tinsley out there Rose became more of a wing player. The fact that Isiah used him in different roles shows that he fully understood how versatile Rose was. If there was a problem, maybe it was Jalen who had a problem with not handling the ball as much as he wanted to. Rose has been notorious for being unhappy with his role throughout his career, he's always wanted to run the point rather than be a wingman. And either way, who's going to turn down Brad Miller/Ron Artest for Jalen Rose/Travis Best? That was a masterstroke by Donnie Walsh and/or fleecing of Jerry Krause.

First of all, on what planet is Tim Duncan "approaching the twilight of his career"?!?!?! Am I the only one who saw him average like 30 and 15 against Dallas in the playoffs last year? He had a down year last season due to lingering foot trouble for much of the season. He's 30 years old. If the "twilight of their career" theory holds to ANYONE it's the Heat, not the Spurs. Shaq is 34 and in an obvious decline. Alonzo Mourning is 36 and never a sure thing to be healthy with his kidney and assorted other ailments. Gary Payton is 38. And Dwayne Wade, as good as he is, has been logging heavy run between the playoffs and the world championships. He's been quoted as saying his legs feel like they're at midseason already during the pre-season. And it's set in stone that he'll miss around ten games with minor injuries. If D-Wade goes down the Heat are in MAJOR trouble. I'd easily favor the Spurs over the Heat going into the season. Onto Rose: The way I see it is that Rose wasn't going to be in the rotation, and buying him out for like half his salary or whatever is preferable to leaving him off the 15 man roster while paying him for the entire year (what they did with Penny Hardaway last year), OR having him stew on the bench and cause a distraction. The absolute last thing the Knicks need is bad apples in the lockerroom, and while Jalen Rose isn't a bad guy, he's also not the type to be happy about riding the pine while he's still got some game. Naiwf, in your intense efforts to diss Cena's Writer you're missing some key points about the Rose moves. When they traded for him it was done at the behest of Larry Brown, who felt he needed a veteran playmaker with Marbury injured. At the time everyone was working under the assumption that Brown would be back to coach the team this year, and that Rose and his expiring contract would then be moved at the trade deadline again. This was also before Dolan's edict to Thomas that swapping large expiring contracts for large contracts with 1 or 2 years left on them was no longer permitted. Because the Knicks were so far over the cap when Isiah was brought in and Dolan preferred a large payroll to a full-scale rebuild, Thomas' payroll swap strategy was done in the hope of "winning now while rebuilding" by adding draft picks through the trades. And it worked to a degree in that he managed to put together a good young nucleus while making the effort to win now for Dolan. Of course the Curry move backfired bigtime, but hindsight is 20/20, NOBODY thought the Knicks and Larry Brown would be as bad as they were last year. Now that Dolan has told Isiah he has to work on shedding some payroll Isiah's strategy changes. If the Knicks won't take back comparable salary to Rose's in a deal it means that a trade is nearly impossible given the NBA's rules, unless the Knicks just swap expiring contracts with a team. So at that point, what else is there to do than to buy out Rose? It's the same reason they bought out Maurice Taylor. It doesn't absolve Isiah Thomas of all responsibility, but it's not so simple as just calling him an idiot. He was operating under a set of rules from Dolan (SPEND LOTS OF MY MONEY I WANT A GOOD TEAM!) and trying to keep Larry Brown happy when the Rose deal was made. Also, I'm not sure where anyone gets the idea that Isiah ran Jalen out of Indiana. Jalen and Isiah have never had anything but nice things to say about each other. The Pacers made a great move to trade Rose for both Ron Artest and Brad Miller, It wasn't a case of a player being run out of town, but an opportunity to steal two great young players from the Bulls for an aging, expensive one. It's simmilar to the Dale Davis for Jermaine O'Neal swap. And the trade was made by Donnie Walsh, one of the better GM's in the history of the league. Isiah was the coach.

I can go either way on the middle of the season thing, but with Tiki there's been rumblings for a couple years that he would retire early, it's not like it should be a surprise to his teammates, the organization, or the fans. Plus, it's basically come out that he wasn't planning on making a formal announcement, but rather he made what he thought was an off the record comment and a reporter ran with it. I'm just really sick of everyone, media and fans, doing everything they can to turn sports into a soap opera. Focus on the fucking game. I don't fucking care about the Tiki Barber CONTROVERSY~! All these fans and talking heads saying he's causing a distraction to his team, look in the mirror, YA'LL are the ones blowing it out of proportion and putting it out there 24/7. Y'ALL are the ones causing the distraction! It's the same deal that happened with A-Rod, everyone bitched about how he couldn't handle playing in New York, or booed him during games, fucking self fufilling prophecy. It infuriates me.

I don't understand this whole, "he quit on his team" logic AT ALL. Isn't he still out on the field playing hard and producing? What about all the players who announce that they're retiring before their last season? Did Jerome Bettis "quit on his team" last year when he said it was his last year? It's this whole mentality that athletes shouldn't retire in their prime. Why not? They're not slaves to the fucking game. Football takes a huge toll on the body. If someone wants to retire at age 32 more power to them. It's the same shit that Jim Brown got. And of all people, Tiki has been a standup guy and model citizen throughout his career, to accuse him of "quitting on his team" is just assinine. And don't even get me started on Michael Irvin. This is the same guy who defends Terrell Owens to the death.

I would love to see him in Pinstripes, but I just can't see it happening. It's not Cashman's style, and it's not an ideal fit given that they want Giambi to basically be a full-time DH. The Yankees are going to be in the market for a defensive minded first baseman , backup catcher and utility infielder, I'd be very surprised if they went after a big bat. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him go to Anaheim, but Anaheim seems to have the buzz on almost every big name out there (Soriano, Sheff)

So, Barry Bonds is filing for free agency. Obviously the smartest move for him would be to sign with an AL team and play DH. If I'm an NL general manager I'm very wary about giving him big bucks to play in the outfield taking his diminished fielding skills and risk of injury into account. If I'm in the AL I have no problem breaking the bank for him. Yes, he's still at a risk for injury, but controversial or not the man sells tickets, there's no question he will make a positive impact at the plate, and there's something to be said for having him in your uniform when he breaks the HR record.

They usually go to charity and end up in a 3rd world country. Congrats Cards. A World Series win in your inaugural season at New Busch Stadium. Nice. I remember seeing Buffalo Bills championship shirts on a clearance rack at a Champs sports back in the early 90's

Eck gets the MVP, lol

Like he wasn't in already? I'm fucking SICK of this "83 GAMES! OMG!" bullshit. The Cardinals made the playoffs and beat every team put in front of them. That's that. The end. I always get choked up during these celebrations. Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans.

the Orioles say hi!

This is disapointing, I'm not ready for baseball to be over yet!