Dom's Dish - Friday, April 13, 2007
Kind of a slow week in sports. Baseball is in full swing - no pun intended - Hockey is in the postseason already, basketball has about 4 or 5 games left, the NFL draft is in 2 weeks (less than 2 weeks to the Dom's Dish NFL Draft preview special), and the Masters' and College Hoops just passed. With all of that said, the news of the week in my mind, is Kevin Durant.
Kevin Durant has declared for the NBA Draft. "One and done" if you will. He won all 6 national player of the year awards, first to do so as a freshman. Worst thing about the draft is that he'll wind up going to the team with the top pick - most likely the Memphis Grizzlies (formerly of Vancouver), the Boston Celtics (formerly a respected franchise) or the Milwaukee Bucks (former 1971 NBA champs). As great as he is, Durant will be a swing man scorer who hopefully will not be playing with a bunch of scrubs. Now granted, each of these teams has a few great talents, but their records don't show it. My guess is Boston will get lucky this time - Red Auerbach will control fate from the grave and Danny Ainge (who coincidentally sat next to Mrs. Durant in the NCAA tournament) will get his wish. Then the Celts will have Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson and Kevin Durant in their front court. Bill Simmons will be happy and Boston again will be the focus of major sports and we can all hear "ca-ar" and "ya-ard" and all will be right in the world. Who can stop them in the NBA Atlantic Division? The Nets will be without at least Kidd or Carter or both, the Sixers are further away, Toronto is still Toronto and the Knicks, well their story is below.
I was up in NYC the other night and got to see the post game interview of Isiah Thomas after their near 30 pt loss to the Chicago Bulls. That dude always has the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Now, you never notice it, because he keeps his lips over his teeth and mouth closed, but you can see it. Is he always smirking because he has not only tanked the CBA, but now the Knicks two years in a row? Worst part is, he has a multi-year extension and the Knicks #1 pick in a "deep draft" is headed to the Bulls in the Eddie Curry deal. Someone needs to slap that grin off his face - maybe ask 'Melo to do it and run again?
So I haven't played competitive baseball since I was 10. I don't claim to be an expert - I'll go to my brother-in-law (aka "blood brother") or former SGA president friend (never answers phone) for some hard core baseball knowledge or stats. One thing though I might have to ask them for is a real explanation and history of the blank wall in center field. I'm pretty sure every park has it - dead center field so the hitter has a solid background to look at while the little white stitched ball comes at them at 80+ mph. I think it's time to change the rule though. I mean basketball makes it hard - clear glass backboard, small circular orange hoop and tons of people waving stupid balloons in the background. It's worth a shot to do that in baseball - maybe the hitters in the major leagues would hit better than 25% of the time? That would be something the fans in Philly would eat up - giant cheese steaks in center field = more hits and homers for "Pat the bat" or Ryan "Fatty McHoward".
Around the balls:
Giant-orange- Adam Morrison was fined $25,000 by the NBA for an obscene gesture he made to the crowd last week. Funny, I've been wondering when they were gonna fine him for that porn 'stache...
White-leather-stitched- A-Rod is H-O-T!!! I think my favorite part is that he is getting cheered in NY finally - like he wasn't worth it before. Granted he'll need to keep it up into the post season, but I also love how John Kruk points out his "figure" on the tele-strator on "Baseball Tonight", showing how he sticks his ass out. Hey Kruk - is that a mullet or a full blown pony tail?
Rubber-non- Martin Brodeur and the NJ Devils are off to a 1 game lead in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Big-brown-oblong- Pacman Jones is out for the year - Roger Goodell put his foot down. I'm glad someone finally did. I just hope that Pacman isn't stupid enough to appeal. Best quote was his mother saying "it wasn't fair" - people got shot, do you think that is fair?
Tiny-white- I was wrong about Tiger. I didn't have my weather forecast handy to see that there would be 25 mph winds either. Best shot of the weekend was when he snapped his 7 iron on the tree, then cracked it over his knee. No grand slam this year :-(
Program Alert: Watch some playoff hockey! The one game the other night went to 4 OT's and they don't clean off the ice! Guys were tripping and falling- it's fun!
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