By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
“This is the best important open job in all of
sports right now.” – owner Ted Leonsis on Wizards’ GM vacancy.
It’s
quite possible that no else in the world agreed with Leonsis when he made that
statement on April 3. And there’s good reason to wonder how much he truly
believed it himself.
“Open”
is the only part of the job assessment that was universally accepted as
accurate.
Eight
weeks later, nothing else has changed. The position remains unfilled and (to candidates
with options) unappealing.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Ladies
and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting edition of America’s favorite sports
pastime, The Blame Game!
Today’s
contestants hail from the Washington Nationals, whom several prognosticators picked
to reach World Series. When we last left
the Nats, they were coming off a disappointing 82-80 season in Dave Martinez’s
inaugural campaign as a major-league skipper.
Now
in his second year at the helm, Martinez is a favorite to win MDB honors – Most
Deserving of Blame. Also in the hunt are the Lerners, general manager Mike
Rizzo, and the injury bug. Each has played a key role in Washington’s 14-21 mark
entering Wednesday, the NL’s second-worst record and the Nationals’ worst winning
percentage since September 2011.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
With
all due respect to No. 2-seed Denver and No. 3-seed Portland, there’s a sense
that the Western Conference finals are underway as we speak, even while the aforementioned
teams toil to advance.
The
Nuggets and Trail Blazers have produced a scintillating back-and-forth in their
semifinal matchup, particularly Game 3’s instant-classic, four-overtime
thriller. Neither squad has won consecutive contests and neither has protected its
homecourt, with Denver’s road win Sunday knotting the series at two games
apiece.
Great
stuff.
But
most attention is focused on the other Western conference semi, featuring
three-time champion Golden State and would-be nemesis Houston. Denver and
Portland have plenty of talent between them, but not the star power of Kevin
Durant and James Harden, nor the teams’ recent history and bad blood.
In
Durant and Harden, we’re witnessing the reigning MVPs for the NBA Finals and
NBA regular season. Durant is staking his claim as the league’s best player and
Harden is right behind him, pushing like he did when they battled in practice
as Oklahoma City teammates.
“Hopefully,
he pulled a couple of things from me, but I probably pulled way more things
from him than he got from me,” Durant said via The San Francisco Chronicle.
A
rematch of last season’s Western Conference finals, the Warriors-Rockets series
was looked forward to with great anticipation all season. Unfortunately, Denver
won 54 games to Houston’s 53 (clinching the second seed), while Portland also
won 53 games (securing the third seed on tiebreakers), leading to an
earlier-than-expected reprise.
Follow
