All About Sports

Lin-Sanity and Carmel Anthony

2012-02-15T20:44:00.005-05:00

To say that Knicks starting point guard, Jeremy Shu-How Lin, is taking New York, the NBA, and the Sports Nation by storm would be quite an understatement. The hype is warranted because New York is winning, and Lin is playing solid at the point.

The undrafted Harvard grad is doing his best impersonation of Tim Tebow, except his arena is the basketball court. Jeremy received no athletic scholarship offers out of high school and was undrafted out of college. Talk about your long shots!

Message to Carmelo

Carmelo Anthony will return to the Knicks lineup by weeks end or early next week. Unfortunately, he finds himself in a no-win situation. New York has won 6-straight games with Lin as the starting point guard. They are bound to lose a game and heaven forbid the winning streak is broken the first game Anthony returns.

Carmelo, you must "get in where you fit in." You cannot come back and dominate the ball. Use your other skills to make an impact on the game. You're 6 feet 8 inches tall and a leaper, which means you can rebound and you're not too shabby of a defensive player either. Upon your return Melo, you must play as if it's Jeremy's team, not yours. If you don't play in this manner, and the Knicks lose, you will be roundly criticized by the unrelenting NY media. This is why you can't win either way. You have the skills to dominate in other areas. All good basketball players find a way to leave their mark on a game if they are having an off-shooting night. This is the way you must play the game, as if you are not shooting well. Not to mention, when the ball is moving, more players are involved, the team takes more high percentage shots, and your chances of winning are enhanced. If you do this, you will be seen as the ultimate team player, and you won't come out as the goat.

Lin's success on the court clearly points out the fact that the Knicks needed a point guard. They now appear to have one. This means that the losing was not necessarily Carmelo or Amare Stoudemire's fault, they simply had no decent floor leader.

The Lin phenomenon is very similar to what occurred with the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow. They struggled from the QB position, started Tebow, and ended up making the playoffs and winning one game. The similarities don't stop there, the media hype surrounding both Lin and Tebow is great for sports fans. The problem is, neither Tebow or Lin is on a team that can win a championship. And just like Tebow, at some point and time the Lin-Sanity will come to a resounding thud.

However, there is one thing that Jeremy has that Tebow didn't - scapegoats. When the Knicks begin to unravel and start losing again, most of the blame will fall in the lap of Carmelo Anthony. Pundits readily admit that Amare Stoudemire played with Steve Nash for several years, but fail to point out the fact that Anthony played alongside Chauncey Billups in Denver.

Also, what happens when Baron Davis comes back from injury? The Knicks have the pieces to win, if they don't, the onus really should fall on coach Mike D'Antoni, not Carmelo Anthony.

46th Super Bowl Diary

2012-02-05T20:40:00.012-05:00

Toyota commercial right before the kickoff was nice.

I'm hoping Chad has a decent game, with a couple of catches, at least, but I'm typing this at halftime and OchoCinco was in on only one play, he will more than likely be no factor in the game.

Four minutes into the game I'm thinking, "it sure would be nice if the Raiders were in the Big Dance, as you all wish your team was playing in the Super Bowl.

The Elton John, Pepsi commercial was smooth. Flava Flav and Elton, I don't know about that, but it was a nice, rather odd ending to the commercial.

After the safety, with 7 minutes left in the 1st half, Giants have the momentum on their side. It was the 17th play for the Giants and 1 for NE. Patriots cause a fumble but have 12 men on the field. Those are the type penalties that the Raiders commit.

3:34 left in 1st half, Manning to Victor Cruz and he does his trademark Salsa dance.

Doritos commercial was nice, "you didn't see nothing." The dog was responsible for the missing cat.

The VW commercial about the Fat Dog, getting in shape again, on his own, because he can't fit through the doggie door.

The GoRun commercial with the dog moon-walking over the finish line was cool, but not sure if it needed Mark Cuban at the end.

E-Trade, with the talking baby, those commercials are always tight.

Great drive by the Patriots. Tied the longest drive in Super Bowl history, 96 yards. Giants dominated the 1st half but are down 10-9 at halftime.

Madonna represented with her halftime show.

Just before the start of the 2nd half, nice commercial featuring Clint Eastwood. Typical Clint, "It's halftime in America, but this is no game."

Start of the second half, Chad catches a pass; later in the same drive, the Patriots score. New England has put together back-to-back drives of 96 and 76 yards.

16-12 after Giants drive for a field goal.

13:23 to go in 4th quarter, Bradshaw fumbles but Giants recover. Bradshaw is good, but he is injury prone and will fumble at the most inopportune times. Hold on to the ball Amhad!

03:46 left in the game, Eli and the Giants have the ball, Manningham just made a fantastic catch!

02:50 to go in the game, Giants driving, whatever you do, do not give Brady any time on the clock. A field goal is all the Giants need to win, but if you give Tom Brady at least 1 minute, he will beat you.

01:04 to go, NE would do best to allow the Giants to score. The score is 17-15, and they did allow Bradshaw to score. Smart move on NE's part, but Bradshaw scores when he was probably told not to. Score: 21-17 New York.

Two dropped passes by Branch and Hernandez. 3rd and 10 and Brady is sacked at his own 13-yard-line. 4th and 16, no time outs, 1st down to Deon Branch.

19 seconds, ball on NE's 44-yard line. Giants have too many men on the field (12-men on field). 9 seconds. left, ball on 45. Incomplete to Branch, 5 seconds remaining, last play of game will be a HAIL MARY.

Game Over - Giants are Super Bowl 46 Champions, 21-17!

That's Just Wrong!

2012-01-31T10:47:00.004-05:00

NBA’s most valuable team - Lakers

2012-01-25T21:23:00.002-05:00

Blockbuster television deals and a new collective bargaining agreement have lifted the value of the average NBA team to a record $393 million, up 6.5 percent over last year.

No team has benefited more from the explosion in TV money than the Los Angeles Lakers, who have unseated the New York Knicks as the league’s most valuable franchise. The Lakers struck gold last year with a new 20-year television deal with Time Warner Cable worth an average of $200 million annually beginning with the 2012–13 season. The agreement drives the value of the Lakers up an NBA-high 40 percent to $900 million.

Time Warner will create two new regional sports channels to feature the Lakers, one in English and one in Spanish. The Lakers have by far the biggest TV audience of any NBA club, averaging 271,000 households on Fox Sports West last season, which was 73 percent higher than the next-most-watched team, the Chicago Bulls.

Continued on Yahoo Sports

3 Homes + 75 million

2012-01-20T17:24:00.005-05:00

Vanessa Bryant gets three homes, $75 million in Kobe Bryant divorce settlement

Vanessa Bryant appears to have made a three-point shot in her divorce settlement with Kobe Bryant, reports say. Allegedly, Vanessa will receive $75 million, as well all three of the couple's properties in Newport Beach, Calif.

Sources with knowledge of the settlement tell TMZ that Vanessa will get the mansion the couple lived in, as well as the new home they had been building for the past two years. She was also reportedly granted a third property, where her mother has been living.

In addition, Vanessa will supposedly receive half of the couple's total assets, estimated at $150 million.

It's unclear when exactly Vanessa filed for divorce from her husband of 11 years, but Kobe Bryant signed the paperwork on Dec. 1. A joint statement from the former couple, who have two children together, read, "The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012."

Vanessa famously stood by her man in 2003 when 19-year-old hotel employee Katelyn Faber accused Kobe of sexual assault. While the criminal case against Kobe was eventually dropped, and a civil case was settled out of court, Kobe did admit to having sex with Faber.

Reports say that, more recently, Vanessa finally became fed up with her husband's alleged philandering.

"She’s been dealing with these incidents for a long time and has been a faithful wife, but she’s finally had enough," a source told TMZ.

The Bryants reportedly had no prenuptial agreement. Vanessa is being represented in the divorce proceedings by Laura Wasser and Samantha Klein, whose clients include Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Maria Shriver and Kim Kardashian.

Source: nypost.com

Only Kobe deserves comparisons

2012-01-17T22:11:00.005-05:00

Michael Jordan thinks only Kobe Bryant deserves comparisons. Ever since Michael Jordan retired — all three times, really — the NBA has searched for the heir to his throne. Many players have popped up as pretenders to the throne, from Harold Miner to Jerry Stackhouse to Vince Carter. In recent years, people have stopped trying to find a clone and just searched for a similarly dominant great player. If you ever wondered why LeBron James is seen as such a failure, a lot of it has to do with his inability to meet the example set by Jordan.

There are many great players in the NBA these days, most of whom have never been directly compared to Jordan. Nevertheless, His Airness says only one player comes close enough to his greatness to merit the comparison. Not surprisingly, that player is Kobe Bryant. Here's what Roland Lazenby, a great writer currently working on a Jordan book, tweeted on Sunday (via PBT):

Kobe's ultimate competition is MJ. That's why MJ watches him. MJ made people think what he was doing wasn't human. Ditto the Kobester.

I never said Kobe was better than MJ. MJ just told me Kobe's the only one to have done the work, to deserve comparison.

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