Posted on May 30th, 2012
David Robinson and Tim Duncan
By DERON SNYDER
One of my most unforgettable “Where were you?” sports memories doesn’t involve an actual game or players, although seven teams took part. It was the NBA’s first draft lottery, held Mother’s Day 1985, the day after my Howard University graduation ceremony.
I was a nervous wreck that Sunday in my dorm room at Carver Hall, anxiously watching the lottery broadcast on CBS. When commissioner David Stern announced that the second pick belonged to the Indiana Pacers, I leapt for joy and ran hollering into the hallway: Patrick Ewing was headed to my beloved New York Knicks.
The Knicks never brought me to the next level of celebration (although they came close as I drove Vanessa to the hospital for our second child’s birth and heard Larry Johnson’s four-point play on the radio). But in that regard I’m like most NBA fans, or at least fans of teams that nab the top pick.
Unfortunately, the result of Wednesday’s lottery proceedings is likely to be as good as it gets for the winner.
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Posted on May 25th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
She was away from the game for nearly a year, sidelined by a foot injury and then scaring us to death when a blood clot was discovered in one of her lungs. But slowly and steadily, Serena Williams has climbed back up. As the French Open begins Sunday, she’s ranked No. 5 in the world and a favorite to win the tournament.
Williams has won 13 Grand Slam singles titles in her storied career but has raised the French Open trophy on the red clay at Roland Garros Stadium just once, in 2002. Clay clearly has been Williams’ least-preferred surface, with only four of her 41 career titles won on such courts. But it’s a different story this year, since no one has a better record on clay — 17-0 — and no one has a better record overall (27-2).
“I absolutely love clay,” Williams said earlier this month after winning in Madrid. “I played on hard court until I was 11, then, until I turned 16, I only played on clay courts. It’s really a myth about me not liking clay.”
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Posted on May 24th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Once again, it’s time to check off some items on my “TIDU List” — Things I Don’t Understand:
• Why the Nationals haven’t swept a series.
It’s hard to complain when the team is 26-18 and has spent most of the season in first place. But the Nats haven’t been finishers. In seven series in which they were a combined 16-0 entering the finale, they’re 0-7 in the finale. Philly and Cincinnati twice have staved off sweeps.
The Nats are doing fine, but they’re killing broom sales in D.C.
• How mandatory knee and thigh pads are bad.
NFL players voiced their disapproval when the league increased padding as of 2013. Players said it would slow them down and really wouldn’t prevent injuries. Several said they won’t wear the extra pads, while the union said working conditions must be collectively bargained.
That’s OK. I imagine NFL players in 1943 objected to mandatory helmets, too.
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Posted on May 23rd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Considering the speed and violence of NFL football and the size and strength of players, it’s amazing that many participants eschew certain pads. You might think that players would protect their bodies through every available means. But that’s not the case, particularly at the so-called skill positions like halfback, wide receiver and defensive back.
Look at the San Francisco 49ers’ Frank Gore, among the league’s top runners. His knees are totally exposed during games, not even covered by his pants. If he wears any thigh pads at all, they must be paper-thin. The NFL doesn’t like that and did something about it Tuesday, when team owners approved a rule change that makes knee and thigh pads mandatory, beginning in the 2013 season.
Players across the country immediately spoke out in protest.
“Personally, I won’t be wearing them,” Oakland Raiders cornerback Ron Bartell told the Contra Costa Times. “So I’d better put some fine money away. It takes away from the speed of the game. Hip pads, knee pads, thigh pads. They’re not going to stop you from tearing an ACL. It may stop a couple of soft-tissue injuries, but a knee pad isn’t going to stop a guy from blowing out a knee.”
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Posted on May 22nd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
We interrupt the stream of reports about athletes falling on hard times — and/or forced to sell valuables such as championship rings — to share the story of Dmitri Young. A two-time All-Star who played 13 seasonsin Major League Baseball, Young recently turned his hobby into seed money for a good cause.
In terms of profit-loss statements, Young’s interest in baseball cards didn’t pay off. He estimates that he spent roughly $5 million in building a collection during his playing career. But he didn’t do it for investment purposes as much as to relieve stress and amuse himself. So the fact that he just auctioned his collection for $2.5 million shouldn’t be the focus here.
His plans for the money are more worthwhile to discuss: A portion will fund the new Dmitri D. Young Foundation, which will help underprivileged kids in Ventura County, Calif., excel in life by learning to make good decisions. Among the areas he’ll emphasize is healthy living, particularly important since he has Type 2 diabetes.
“You come to a time in your life when it’s time to do other things,” Young told CBSSports.com when asked why he was selling. “When you have something as massive as that and that was 12 years in the making, it wasn’t like I inherited it. I started it from scratch. The collection was with me through the good times and the bad times, and now I’ve started a foundation …
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Posted on May 22nd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Champions don’t pass the torch when an up-and-comer nips at their heels, eager for a taste at the summit. Contenders must snatch the crown and pry it away from seasoned winners.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, once isn’t enough. The NBA’s most exciting young team just vanquished the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, but it’s only halfway through the Western Conference gauntlet of trophy-wielding legends.
It almost seems unfair that the Lakers, one of the league’s most decorated teams of all time, were merely a precursor to the San Antonio Spurs, one of the league’s most decorated teams of recent vintage. If Oklahoma City reaches the NBA finals, it will set a record for former champs in its wake.
The Lakers and Spurs have won nine of the past 13 NBA titles combined. And their respective longtime mainstays, 33-year-old Kobe Bryant and 36-year-old Tim Duncan, are very much alive and kicking.
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Posted on May 22nd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
The Washington Redskins didn’t have a second-round selection in this year’s draft, having packaged it in the bounty for the No. 2 overall pick. But you could argue that Washington had a second-round draft pick in the bag – defensive end Jarvis Jenkins.
His return to good health could dampen the sticker shock in landing Robert Griffin III.
Jenkins participated Monday in his first full-speed, 11-on-11, drills since tearing the ACL in his right knee last preseason. A black brace was the only reminder of the fateful play Aug. 25 against Baltimore, when he tried to change directions while pursuing halfback Ray Rice and heard a loud pop.
“I’m just getting used to this brace, keeping it on me,” Jenkins said after the team workout at Redskins Park. “It’s not heavy on me; it’s just a matter of knowing it’s there. It keeps sliding up.”
Jenkins was moving up in everyone’s eyes before his injury, impressing coaches and teammates with his power and speed. There was talk that he might have been the team’s best defensive lineman in camp, and he figured to play a prominent role in his first year out of Clemson. At 6-feet-4 and 309 pounds, he had everything the Redskins wanted along their defensive front.
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Posted on May 20th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Their early-season success was sputtering out as the Washington Nationals entered Sunday’s series finale against Baltimore. The Orioles were looking for a sweep in the Battle of the Beltways, which would continue Washington’s downward trajectory after racing to a 14-4 record April 25.
Losers of three in a row and five of their past seven, the Nats were running on fumes, a measly 9-13 since the high-water mark. They needed a win badly, not just for pride along the Washington-Baltimore corridor, but also to put a good taste in their mouths entering a brutal stretch of 18 division games and another 13 against the Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays.
But that’s the purpose of having phenoms on your side, guys who can make things happen when the team is dying for a pick-me-up.
Thankfully for Washington, it has two of the game’s best in Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, both of whom played huge roles in a soothing 9-3 victory at Nationals Park.
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Posted on May 18th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
A funny thing happened on the way to resolution of the New Orleans Saints’ alleged bounty program: The matter didn’t go away when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended four players earlier this month, after previously sanctioning the team and management.
The NFL had spoken, and that was supposed to be that. Goodell reinforced his reputation as an iron-fisted ruler who liberally doles out sentences, serving as judge, jury and executioner. The Saints’ players would take their medicine, just like the coaches and general manager took theirs, and the issue would die.
But Jonathan Vilma didn’t get that script. The linebacker and so-called ringleader, who received a yearlong suspension, has gone rogue. He slapped Goodell with a defamation lawsuit on Thursday, claiming that the commissioner made false statements that trashed Vilma’s reputation and hindered his ability to be hired as a pro-football player.
The suit claims that Goodell “relied on, at best, hearsay, circumstantial evidence and lies” when he made comments about Vilma regarding the NFL’s investigation. According to the league, Vilma offered $10,000 in cash to any player who knocked Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner out of a 2009 playoff game, and he pledged the same amount to anyone who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the following playoff game.
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Posted on May 18th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
And then there were two. Mark Turgeon replaced Gary Williams as Maryland’s men’s basketball coach last May. Exactly one year later, only two players from the old regime remain at College Park. So let’s hear it for the sole survivors, rising senior James Padgett and rising junior Pe’Shon Howard.
The housecleaning was unplanned and a bit unsavory. But it actually works out well for Turgeon, whose first recruiting class now has more space to make its mark.
Would-be junior guard Terrell Stoglin and his ACC-leading 21.6 points per game won’t be back to alternately carry and bury the Terps. That should keep Turgeon’s gray patch from expanding further. Stoglin’s ability to exasperate and exhilarate — often on the same possession — was unparalleled.
But his off-the-court decision-making was as questionable as when he had the ball, considering the one-year suspension (reportedly for marijuana use) that prompted his entry into the NBA draft.
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