And another thing...

Old school NBA

Dust off your Jerry West jersey. Brush up on your Sam Jones jumper, your Elgin Baylor reverse layup, your Kevin McHale up-and-under move.

We got the Lakers and the Celtics in the NBA Finals again.

And I'll say the same thing about that I said about the Stanley Cup finals: If the NBA can't move the needle with this matchup, it's never gonna move the needle. Unless it comes to its senses, hacks 25 games off the regular season and plays its Finals in April instead of mid-June.

We shall see.

-- Ben Smith 

Manny being amazing

I know it's not even June yet, but tell me we haven't already seen the play of the year in ... well, anything.

I refer, of course, to Manny Ramirez' running catch in the outfield ... after which he continued to the wall, jumped up and high-fived a fan ... after which he wheeled and doubled the baserunner off first with a spot-on throw to the relay man.

Athleticism, skill and marketing, too. Greatest play EVER.

Shortsightedness of Tomorrow

NASCAR has once again brought the hammer down on a team for messing with the Car of Tomorrow.

This time it was Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter whose crews got caught fiddling with the rear wing, trying to (gasp!) gain an advantage. And so the crew chiefs and car chiefs for Riggs and Sauter have been suspended for six races and fined $100,000 each, and Riggs and Sauter have each been docked 150 points.

To which I say this: Remember when auto racing was all about innovation?

No more. Innovation is out; absolute conformity is in. Both NASCAR and the IndyCar series -- which basically has just one chassis (Dallara) and one engine maker (Honda) -- are essentially spec series now, abandoning auto racing's traditional role as THE proving ground for automotive development in exchange for cost control.

Once upon a time, trying to improve your equipment was rewarded in this sport. Now it's punished.

Heck of an indictment. And a damn shame.

-- Ben Smith

   

Izzo, right as rain

Interesting stuff today from Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo, who was in town yesterday for a Big Brothers/Big Sisters function.

Among other things, he said what many (including yours truly) are increasingly contending -- that the NBA's rule prohibiting players from going pro out of high school is making a farce out of college hoops, and ultimately hurting both the game and the kids involved. Absolutely on the money.

He also had kind words for his coaching brethren in this state -- Mike Brey at Notre Dame, Matt Painter at Purdue and new IU coach Tom Crean, a former Izzo assistant. And check out the veiled shot at disgraced Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson:

"Nothing’s perfect,” Izzo said. “But I’d rather go against someone who is going to be honest and upfront and not cheat than go against some of the people we have to go against in this profession."

-- Ben Smith   

Character witness

Personally, I don't think Adam "Pacman" "Bugsy" "Machine Gun" "The Teflon Don" Jones, the Human Crime Spree, has a thing to worry about. I mean, look who's in his corner now.

Apparently former Chicago Bears bad boy Terry "Tank" "Bazooka" "RPG" "Small Thermonuclear Device" Johnson has taped a plea to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to reinstate Jones and let him play for the Cowboys.

Tank, you'll remember, is the guy who nearly missed the Super Bowl after being arrested on 10 counts of possessing illegal firearms. He later did jail time for it, got dumped by the Bears and was suspended by Goodell for several games at the beginning of last season.

If I were Pacman, I think I'd rather have, say, Peyton Manning pleading my case. Tank Johnson doing it is a little like Pablo Escobar going to bat for you in a drug beef.

-- Ben Smith

    

 

Horse stuff

This just in: Big Brown, diagnosed last week with a quarter-crack in his left front hoof, galloped nine furlongs today in preparation for his run at the Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont Stakes.

I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't even know how much a "furlong" is, unless it's halfway between "fur" and "long." I'm guessing nine of them, therefore, must be a pretty "fur" piece.

OK, OK. I'll stop.

Though not furlong.

-- Ben Smith   

Spellcheck

Just to get you in the mood for this week's National Spelling Bee (which is a sport because it's on ESPN, and we all know that if it's on ESPN it must be a sport), here's a piece on Samir Patel, who finished third in the Bee when he was 9 years old and then never went on to win it.

Wow. Peeking at 9.

Oops. I mean, "peaking."

-- Ben Smith

Young punks being dopes

Today's I'm A Knucklehead Award goes to Joakim Noah, who somehow managed to run afoul of the law twice in a matter of hours last weekend.

Noah was already the biggest flake in the NBA, but this little episode put real distance between him and any pursuers. I mean, really, first he gets tagged for violating Gainesville's open-container law (and having a joint on his person), then he gets arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

More disturbing was the reaction of Joakim's dad, former tennis star Yannick Noah, who basically took a boys-will-be-boys attitude toward his son's transgressions. The suspicion among media types always was that Joakim was your basic spoiled-rotten celebrity brat, but this seemed to confirm it.

Not to say shed a little light on why the kid's such a knucklehead.

-- Ben Smith

Struck down

We all know that bizarre-ness tends to cling to the Chicago Cubs like barnacles to a trawler. But this is ridiculous, not to say incomprehensibly tragic.

Yes, that's right. Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, 33, died when he was struck by lightning while walking on the beach.  His major claim to fame was that he was on the mound for the Cubs in the famous Sammy Sosa corked-bat game.

There are no words. Actually, there are, but none that wouldn't be revoltingly tasteless.

-- Ben Smith

Genderphobia

I love this. Apparently there's a 6-foot-1, 12-year-old girl in Oregon who's been told she can no longer play on the boys basketball team for which she's been playing since second grade.

Supposedly it's because there's a rule against mixed-gender teams in the league in which she plays, although her coach says it's the first he's heard of it.

More likely, says the girl's mom, it's because her daughter scored 30 points in her last game. All of a sudden up popped this rule, and she's been told she can no longer play against the boys.

Personally I think mom's probably right. Sounds to me as if, while this may not be a mixed-gender league, it's definitely a mixed-species league.

Boys and chickens.

-- Ben Smith