Posted on January 24th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
The Washington Wizards put Flip Saunders out his misery Tuesday. Too bad the fans left behind aren’t that lucky.
Being fired by Washington probably is the best thing that has happened to Saunders in his 15, mostly-distinguished seasons as an NBA head coach. No more nights of watching their ugly, uninspired basketball. No more weeks of trying to get a group of hardheaded players to work together. No more months of lopsided losses followed by blowout losses, with a few close losses and narrow wins sprinkled in as teases.
Saunders gets relief from all of that anguish but still collects next season’s salary from his four-year, $18 million contract.
He said had been staying up late and eating nothing but Subway; on Tuesday night he should’ve slept like a baby after dinner at the Hay Adams.
John Wall’s demeanor and body language came under fire during his rookie season, with Saunders stressing that improvement was necessary entering this campaign. But Saunders couldn’t hide his own distress through a 2-15 start. His expressions on the sideline varied only slightly, from helpless to hapless to hopeless, and it was easy to see why.
He was coaching the worst team in the league and it wasn’t getting any better.
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Posted on January 23rd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
“What would my grandmother think?”
If Yuri Wright had asked himself that simple question before sending out a series of offensive tweets, he probably wouldn’t have hit the button. And the University of Michigan wouldn’t have rescinded its scholarship offer. And Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., wouldn’t have expelled him.
Twitter might be the equivalent of high school doodling 30 years ago, but those scribbled messages on notebook covers weren’t transmitted through cyberspace for the entire world to see. Even the average high school and college student can lose out on opportunities because of inappropriate social media postings. But top-ranked athletes with interest from schools such as Notre Dame, Colorado and Rutgers are watched as closely as anyone and should know better than to unleash tweets that are sexually graphic or racial.
“This could be the first … example of Twitter really hurting a [top-flight] kid,” national recruiting analyst Mike Farrell told the Star-Ledger. “The shame of it is that I know every kid was warned. I know conversations occur — especially at Don Bosco.”
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Posted on January 23rd, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Your life is judged by the contents within the dash, that punctuation mark between the dates of your birth and death, respectively. But some observers will focus on Joe Paterno’s final months of life, a dizzying and tumultuous 78-day descent from revered legend to fired, deceased legend.
Ignoring the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal that ended Paterno’s 46-season tenure as Penn State’s head football coach is out of the question. The sordid details warrant prominent mention — high in any story or early in any broadcast — whenever we look back at Paterno’s reign. There’s no escaping the fact that a longtime assistant allegedly conducted heinous acts for years, right under JoePa’s nose in the football team’s facility.
The revelations contained in a shocking 23-page indictment are a threat to overwhelm Paterno’s legacy. That would be a mistake. Sandusky gave Paterno’s image a black eye, not multiple cuts and lumps with busted lips and a bloody nose.
Reasonable people can disagree on Paterno’s culpability and whether he deserved to be fired Nov. 9, roughly 12 hours after he announced he would retire at season’s end. Paterno’s supporters argued that he fulfilled his legal requirements when a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, informed him of a sexual assault in the showers. If higher-ups didn’t do the right thing with the information Paterno provided, that was their fault, not his.
Unlike former officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, Paterno wasn’t charged with a crime. But he was guilty of a lesser offense that led me to support his immediate firing, though it wasn’t grave enough to overshadow everything.
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Posted on January 20th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Upon hearing that Terrell Owens has signed with an outfit called the Allen (Texas) Wranglers, many people might initially feel pity. There’s a certain amount of sympathy in seeing an all-time NFL great scuffling to continue his career in the Indoor Football League.
Then again, if he’s really going to be paid up to $500,000 and receive an ownership stake, you really can’t blame him. Especially since he appears to have serious money problems, due largely to the four paternity suits he’s facing.
Even the judge considering a reduction of Owens’ child-support payments noted that returning to big-time football looked unlikely. “His NFL career seems to be over,” Judge Marc Marmaro said earlier this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “I mean no disrespect.”
The end seemed obvious when Owens held a workout in October, trying to convince the NFL that he was fully recovered from knee surgery. The session was televised, but not a single team showed up. Agent Drew Rosenhaus brushed it off. “Just because they weren’t there doesn’t mean they weren’t interested,” Rosenhaus said. “I can guarantee that all 32 teams were interested.”
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Posted on January 19th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
With only three games remaining before the NFL season wraps up (no, the Pro Bowl doesn’t count), baseball will take the stage shortly, when spring training begins just ahead of March Madness. We still don’t know if Prince Fielder will be among the Washington Nationals reporting to Viera, Fla., but at least pitcher Gio Gonzalez will be settling in for a while.
Signing Gonzalez to a contract extension that bought out his four years of arbitration, and potentially three years of free agency, involved some risk for both parties. But the strategy helped the Cleveland Indians become a perennial powerhouse in the mid-‘90s, winning five consecutive AL Central titles and six in seven years.
If Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo has thoughts of emulating that success by locking up additional players, he can’t find a better sounding board than John Hart.
“Tampa Bay has done it as good as any club,” said Hart, an MLB Network analyst who served as the Indians GM from 1991 through 2001. “Number one, you’re able to fix the payroll and not be at the mercy of arbitration. Number two, it sends a great message to the fans and the ballclub, that the guy you traded for isn’t going to become a star you can’t afford.”
The Nats can afford any player they desire based on Ted Lerner’s status as baseball’s richest owner. And the rich are about to get richer, with the club’s rights fees from MASN expected to double or triple. Not that Lerner needs the extra revenue to sign Fielder, but adding the free agent slugger could increase the amount received for broadcast rights.
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Posted on January 19th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
USA Basketball has announced its preliminary 20-man roster for the 2012 Olympics, and once again, it’s quite an impressive list. Among the players with a shot at representing the United States in London are Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard.
We’ve come a long way since the 2002 World Championships and 2004 Olympics, when the U.S. turned in disappointing performances — finishing sixth and third, respectively — for the first international losses with NBA players. The entire system was overhauled, with former Phoenix Suns executive Jerry Colangelo being named USA Basketball chairman, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski being named coach and prospective players being asked for three-year commitments.
The result was an immediate return to the United States’ self-proclaimed rightful place, No. 1, taking gold in the 2008 Olympics and first place in the 2010 World Championships. But few, if any, observers had the nerve to mention “Dream Team.”
Until now. Colangelo said the 2012 squad is a fair comparison.
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Posted on January 17th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
The Wizards are going as expected, starting to play more as a team, with more intensity and confidence. They’re starting to get contributions from many players and should settle in now and start to become more productive.
Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. That’s what owner Ted Leonsis wrote on his blog when the Washington Wizards were merely 0-5. He said he knew the rebuilding process would be difficult, messy and painful, but he’s patient.
He could use some tips from Job at this juncture.
“Obviously — no one is happy with the progress we are making as a team,” Leonsis wrote after Washington fell to only 0-8. “It is important that we be measured and smart in how we move forward.”
But the Wizards are stuck in reverse with the pedal floored, collectively unable to comprehend the words “measured” or “smart.” That much is clear after Monday’s loss dropped them to 1-12 and provided Exhibits X, Y and Z in the case against them.
Washington is guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt. The offense?
Flashes and lapses. Primarily the latter.
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Posted on January 16th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks capped an 11-game schedule on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which has become a sacred day on the NBA calendar.
Home teams prepare special MLK tributes to be played in their arenas. The Indiana Pacers did a collaborative reading of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The Washington Wizards went with a couple of players sharing their thoughts — as Steve Wonder played in the background — interspersed with clips from the March on Washington.
ESPN got into the spirit with a weeklong series of orginal programming entitled Content of Character. It included a roundtable of journalists, scholars and former athletes discussing the King’s legacy and how it affects sports. Among the stories examined were the familiar — former home run king Hank Aaron’s rise from Mobile, Ala., to the Hall of Fame — and the unfamilia: Kareem Rosser’s rise from inner-city Philadelphia to a national polo championship and scholarship to Cornell.
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Posted on January 13th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Church mothers who never watch football because they’re always in service have heard of him. Preachers who want to make points about incredible faith and overcoming odds have preached about him. And Christians who didn’t have a favorite NFL team or a favorite player have chosen the Denver Broncos and him — Tim Tebow.
Tebowmania reached new heights on Jan. 8 when he led the Broncos to a playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The game produced several numbers connected to John 3:16, the popular Bible verse that Tebow sometimes inscribes on his eye black. He’ll attempt another miracle Saturday night against the New England Patriots, though there’s already enough proof for true believers: They contend that Tebow transcends football.
But observers who use football, not faith, to inform their opinions remain skeptical. And fans who prefer that athletes keep their religion to themselves are upset. Opposing sides in the cultural divide struggle to keep their views unencumbered. Thoughts on Tebow the Christian get mixed with Tebow the Quarterback. Tebow the Hyped is entangled with Tebow the Great Guy.
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Posted on January 13th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
First-year Maryland men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon is a breath of fresh air, and not just because first-year football coach Randy Edsall is emitting so much funk. No matter who occupied the head office at the Gossett Team House, there’s little doubt that athletic director Kevin Anderson at least got the hoops hire right.
Turgeon still is figuring out his team, actually version 3.0. He started the season with just seven scholarship players, didn’t have a true point guard for the first nine games and didn’t get his big man until the 11th game. Yet the Terrapins managed to survive scares from virtually every non-conference opponent and compile enough ugly wins to enter league play at 10-3.
Prevailing on the road Sunday at North Carolina State was too much to ask. But Maryland rebounded to win its ACC home opener Wednesday, surviving the obligatory second-half swoon for a 70-64 victory against Wake Forest.
And Turgeon’s Terps inched another step forward.
“We’re starting to become a better basketball team and figure out ways to win games,” he said afterward. “Tonight, it was second-chance points and at the foul line, which is a good formula. It’s no fun going through games like that. We’d like to win by 16, 18 or 20 points. But that’s not who we are as a team right now.”
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