Life must be pretty easy backing up Tim Duncan. Not too much pressure or responsibility. Just come in, play your 15 minutes a game, go sit on the bench, and at the end of the season go get your championship ring. Seems simple enough….unless your name is Matt Bonner. I’m sure Matt was ridiculed a lot growing up for having a last name so close to the underrated word “boner”, so by now at age 27 he’s probably used to this sort of thing. Yes, you guessed it, Matt was mistakenly called Matt Boner in a photo caption.
Specifically, the correction points out:
ATTENTION EDITORS: Matt Bonner #15 of the San Antonio Spurs was incorrectly identified as Matt Boner within the captions of the following photos: GYI0051088925.jpg GYI0051088947.jpg GYI0051088955.jpg We apologize for any inconvenience. Corrected versions will follow.
The fact that a retraction was issued has to be somewhat disconcerting for Matt. I mean how many people do you think really noticed the caption on the originial photo? Now how many more people are going to read or hear about this because of Ghetty’s decision to issue a retraction? Poor Matt…Boner is it?
There’s been an excitement to the Wizards this year that hasn’t been there in the past. I’ve been trying to put my finger on it for weeks, but I never could. Then it hit me. For the first time in twelve years it’s possible to be excited about the team’s recent draft picks. While fans of other teams often take their talented rookies for granted, Wizards fans have 14 reasons not to do that.
Ronnie Henderson, Predrag Drobnjak , God Shammgod, Jahidi White, Calvin Booth, Richard Hamilton, Mike Smith, Kwame Brown, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rod Grizzard, Juan Dixon, Jared Jeffries, Steve Blake, Jarvis Hayes.
Those are the Wizards’ 14 draft picks that followed Rasheed Wallace. Comedy aside, it’s not a very impressive list. Hamilton is the only above average player in the bunch, and he was traded before hitting his prime. At no time in their entire Wizards careers did any of the guys on the list show the ability the take over a game the way Andray Blatche and Nick Young have this year (or the way Dominic McGuire did in the summer league).
For that reason the 2007 Wizards have an element that hasn’t been there in more than a decade. They have homegrown youngsters who can be superstars even outside the minds of deluded Wizards fans. It’s a welcome change, and hopefully the next time Nick Young and Andray Blatche are basking in the love and adoration of grateful Wizards fans, they take a moment and think about the 14 men before them who made it all possible.
And now to abruptly change the subject. During last night’s Wizards game (at about the 9:30 mark of the 3rd quarter) Deshawn Stevenson, Antonio Daniels, and Caron Butler headed down court with a 3 on 2 break. Corey Brewer and Sebastian Telfair were defending. Stevenson missed a shot, the Timberwolves got the rebound, and Brewer and Telfair headed the other way with a clean 2 on 1 break (Telfair would also miss). Why am I bringing this up? Because the sequence looked exactly like the classic 3 on 2—2 on 1 drill that middle school basketball teams run in every single practice. I don’t know where to find video of it, but if anybody has it please share the video with the world. Consider this the sportsblogging version of a guy posting on craigslist that he wants to meet the cute red haired girl he met at the bar the previous night.
Oh, those pesky ESPN.com polls. I always assumed nobody read them, and the guys who make the polls must have shared my opinion because an “inappropriate poll” made its way onto the site last week. Apparently it’s not acceptable to ask people if they want to see Kevin Garnett get injured.
The question posted last week asked whether voters would want to see:
• The Steelers beat the Patriots.
• Twins star Johan Santana be traded to a team other than the Red Sox.
• Kevin Garnett blow out his knee.
The poll was taken down and this week the site issued an apology. I haven’t seen the apology, but it better be for not including “Tom Brady contracts seven STDs in one week” and “God tells Curt Schilling he hates him” as potential answers.
Nowadays it seems rather difficult to find anything of much significance coming out of Bristol worthy of considerable praise. This isn’t a bad start though…ESPN.com now has a college football playoff simulator. Using the top 16 teams from one of three polls, or you can even custom seed any of the top 25 teams, the simulator predicts the outcome of a college football playoff. Sure it is somewhat primitive, but considering we most likely won’t be seeing a college football playoff anytime soon, this is going to have to due. At least it could provide some non-LSU/Ohio State fans with some bragging rights, if you can construct a bracket in which your team ends up winning it all.
It certainly has been a volatile season for the New York Giants, but somehow despite all of Eli Manning’s interceptions the G-men find themselves sitting pretty at 9-4 in the easy NFC. Considering how poorly some of the other big apple teams are playing, specifically the Jets and the Knicks, the Giants are currently the toast of the town. But maybe this whole 9-4 (wow how are they 9-4???) thing has gone straight to their heads, or at least that seems to be the case for Jeremy Shockey. Why’s that? Well Shockey has posted an open invite to his New Year’s Eve Party to any woman who wants to attend, binding the approval of Shockey and presumably the other men in his posse.
So how does this approval process work exactly? Shockey requires all willing ladies to “send one head and one body shot, as well as your name and contact info, to brunofierce@gmail.com.” There might be some stiff competition for this thing, cause you know the New York ladies are going to stay away from Isaiah’s party. Oh, and is it me or does this selection process have reality television written all over it?
Last week the University of Hawaii found out their football team was going to a BCS bowl for the first time in its history. It was an epic moment; something sure to attract the attention of an entire island and spur colossal demand for tickets. Unfortunately, the Sugar Bowl didn’t quite see it that way. Bowl officials reportedly told Hawaii they shouldn’t use their whole allotment of tickets.
UH was originally contractually obligated to sell 17,500 tickets for its Sugar Bowl game against the University of Georgia. But UH athletic director Herman Frazier told The Advertiser that Sugar Bowl officials pressured him to take only 13,500 tickets on Saturday, before UH played its final regular season game against Washington. The extra 4,000 Sugar Bowl tickets were allocated to Georgia fans.
Can you guess what happened next? I’ll give you a hint. Everything did not turn out all nice and rosy. In fact, the opposite happened. The high demand for Sugar Bowl tickets led to shortage for UH fans.
Bowl officials are now trying to make things right……by giving Hawaii only an additional 500 tickets. Yay. It’s bad enough that non-BCS schools are never invited to big money games, but to exclude 4,000 fans when they do get invited to those games is downright mean. Tear the system down.
In other Hawaii news, Colt Brennan didn’t win the Heisman, but he did get to skip class to go to the ceremonies in New York. I guess that’s just one benefit of being a Heisman trophy candidate—you know, along with accepting $50,000 dollars from USC boosters.
Remember all the hubbub surrounding Gate D at Giants stadium? After a New York Times article revealed that during halftime of Jets games men gather to chant and harass women into showing their breasts, the city promised to put a stop to it. Well, it turns out that publicizing publicizing potential nudity in the country’s most famous newspaper wasn’t a good idea. During halftime of Sunday’s game Gate D had record crowds as all the fans from gates A,B, and C decided to show up in the hope of sneaking a peak at some Jet fan boob. They didn’t get what they were looking for. The interesting part is that the hopelessness of asking women to show their breasts is pretty similar to the hopelessness of being a Jets fan.
Onward with the report…
Don’t Miss…
…Terence Newman sticking it to Jon Kitna. After the Cowboys came from behind to beat the Lions, Newman added insult to injury by proclaiming that God wanted the Cowboys to win. “Yeah, I mean, God definitely is on our side,”Newman said. “They talk about God watching us at Texas Stadium, but he was in Detroit today, too, watching his Cowboys play.”
…Bart Scott showing off his toughness. Last week he broke a bone in his hand, but he returned to the field and lead the Ravens in tackles last night. How did Scott deal with the injury? “Just give me some duct tape” he said.
…Jon Gruden basically admitting that he lied to everyone about Jeff Garcia’s back injury. Said Gruden, “I have done the best I can to not let the whole world know what we’re doing.” I blame Bill Belichick’s for all this.
…The Dolphins staying up late on Saturday night in order to watch the Floyd Mayweather fight. Hey, if you’re gonna lose, you might as well have some fun the night before.
…The fightin’ words coming from the Titans. Despite losing to the Chargers the Titans still think they’re the better team. Bo Scaife articulates: “They think they are a little better than they are, especially on defense. I am not trying to give them any bulletin board material or anything like that, but I think they think they are better than they are.
…How bad it is to be a 49ers fan? There’s actually optimism surrounding Shaun Hill, a guy who’s so mediocre you could have a serious debate about whether or not he’s one of the five best quarterbacks to play for the University of Maryland this decade.
I know there hasn’t been a pattern of behavior like with the Patriots, but nobody has said word about Brett Favre throwing the ball on 2nd down with four minutes left in the game and a 24 point lead. If that was Tom Brady, I guarantee things would be different. I guess the Raiders can’t be upset—they can only feel honored that Brett Favre gave them the pleasure of watching him throw another touchdown pass.
The Unstoppability of Play-Action Fakes
The lack of discipline displayed by NFL players on play-action fakes is simply astounding. In the final minute of the Detroit-Dallas game the Cowboys had the ball on the Detroit 16-yard-line with 20 seconds left and no timeouts. A running play that didn’t get the ball into the end-zone would have ended the game. There was zero chance the Cowboys were going to run the ball. Nevertheless, Romo faked a draw to Marion Barber, and the fake froze the linebackers just long enough for Romo to slip the game winning touchdown pass through to Jason Witten.
Anthony Smith had an even worse gaffe for the Steelers. On Randy Moss’ first quarter touchdown pass Smith came charging towards the line of scrimmage like it was 4th and 1. At that point the Steelers front seven was easily handling the Patriots rushing attack (on those rare occasion Tom Brady handed off). There was absolutely no reason for Smith to be within 30 yards of the line of scrimmage.
You know why the Colts and the Patriots are the two of the best teams in the NFL? Because they’re two of the best at not biting on play-action fakes. Play-action has become such a big part of the game and coaches would be wise to do a better job of coaching their players on how to deal with it.
Joe Gibbs is Learning
Last week the Redskins ran the ball on first down five straight times while protecting a 4th quarter lead. On those five predictable carries Clinton Portis gained a total of 11 yards, and the ensuing punts gave the Bills an opportunity to win the game with three 4th quarter field goals. That ultra-conservative play calling was nothing new—it had already hurt the Redskins in numerous come-from-ahead losses and near losses.
This week Joe Gibbs showed he may have learned his lesson. When the Redskins took over late in the 4th with a 4 point lead, the offense threw the ball on its first two first down plays. Those plays netted 29 yards and opened things up for Portis to gain 5 yards on the first down run that followed. That put the Redskins into a much more manageable 3rd down, and the drive ultimately concluded with a game icing touchdown. Gibbs didn’t completely atone for his performance in the Buffalo game, but for one day he proved to not be as senile as people think.
The Patriots Go Marching On
I’m not sure if I was watching a different game than the rest of the national media, but I did not see a dominating “statement” game from the Patriots. What I saw was a game in which the Pats were completely dominated in the first half.
In the first 30 minutes the Patriots had 3 three-and-outs and the Steelers defense had Tom Brady misfiring. Even with an extremely lucky fluke turnover and an Anthony Smith gift-touchdown to Randy Moss, the Patriots only had a four point lead at halftime. At that point nobody could argue that the Steelers weren’t the better team. They had scored on three of their four first half possessions. The Patriots scored on three of six. The game only changed with Vince Wilfork’s sack on the Steelers first 2nd half possession. That killed a potential go ahead drive and set the stage for Anthony Smith’s second gift to the Patriots.
I don’t want to play the “if these two plays didn’t happen” game, but if you take away the two big Anthony Smith mistakes it would have been a completely different game. Although the Patriots looked dominant in the 4th quarter, that was a mirage. Once the Pats made their goal line stand (thanks to some inexplicable play calling) the Steelers basically took it down a notch, playing a more straight up defense so they wouldn’t show the Pats any blitzes or schemes that could be used in a future meeting. Thus concludes the “trying to find flaws in the Patriots” rant of the week.
Ok, now let’s get back to that inexplicable play calling. A team should never, ever, ever, ever throw a fade from inside the 2-yard line unless it’s the final minute and they have no timeouts. How could a jump ball be better than running up the middle for a yard? It doesn’t make any sense, especially when Santonio Holmes was giving up two inches to Rodney Harrison. The 4th down play call was nearly as bad. Once the backfield cleared out and Ward came in motion, the defense knew who was getting the ball, where he was getting it, and when he was going to get it. That’s generally not a good thing for an offense.
Stat O’ the Week
3. The number of defensive tackles on the Vikings who had interceptions on Sunday. (Statistic submitted by Trent Dilfer)
European Football Goal O’ the Week
Jump forward to the 1:50 mark and watch Sully Muntari of Portsmouth go between a defender’s legs and blast one in from 30 yards out
Here’s why the MLB winter meetings are an amazing event unique to the sports world: It’s the only time that any of the professional sports mimic a fantasy league. During the winter meetings 30 GMs continuously meet to talk about players and convince each other to accept one-sided trades. This year numerous GMs even filled the roles of token keeper league fantasy team owners.
The first place guy who overvalues his role players and won’t trade them to win another championship—Theo Epstein
Has Theo lost his mind? He really isn’t willing to give up both Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury to get Johan Santana? He doesn’t think the best pitcher in baseball is worth a soft tossing lefty and speedy lead-off hitter—two types of players the minor leagues are overflowing with? I know he’s excited that Lester had a good September and Ellsbury played four good games in the playoffs, but those guys are as replaceable as middle relievers. Even the Pirates have an abundance of speedy center fielders and soft tossing lefties. Can you really say that Lester and Ellsbury are that much better than Nyjer Morgan and Paul Maholm. The Red Sox brass can convince themselves that their two guys are vastly superior, but it’s just not true. Lester can’t touch 90 mph and he walks a hitter every two innings. Ellsbury has no power. Neither are top prospects and both should already be in Minnesota.
Last place guy who jumps on all the highly rated but disappointing players who hit the waiver wire—Jim Bowden
You know the guy who picked up Morgan Ensberg and Barry Zito the second they were cut last year? That’s Jim Bowden. With little left to lose the Nats GM decided to take a chance on both Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge. It is possible both players will turn it around become big contributors. More likely, there’s a reason their original owners were willing to give up on them.
The middle of pack guy who panics and gives up too much for an overvalued past-his-prime player—Ned Colletti
You know the fantasy baseball owner who was still willing to trade C.C. Sabathia or Chris Young for Mark Prior even when it was clear Prior was finished? That’s Colletti. Andruw Jones just hit .226 in his contract year. He’s fat, he’s rich, he’s lazy, and he’s not returning to his 2003 form (which was also overrated).
The guy who mortgages everything to win now—Dave Dombrowski
To get Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis (as well as Edgar Renteria) Dombrowski gave up the future of the franchise. Anything less than a World Series title (or a long term deal from Miguel Cabrera) will make these moves a waste. The result of this trade will completely dictate how Dombrowski’s tenure is remembered.
The stubborn bottom feeding guy who wants the whole farm for his one stud—Bill Smith & Andy McPhail
I actually think both these guys did the right thing in holding on the Johan Santana and Erik Bedard. Both of them are in strong negotiating positions and neither were offered a great deal. Still, you know the teams at the top of the league (Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers) absolutely resent this.
(Every week there are a number of stories that slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)
–According to Forbes the Knicks are worth $604 million, making them the NBA’s most valuable franchise for the 3rd straight year. The team would have been worth more, but the possibility of angry fans burning down Madison Square Garden really decreased its value.
–The Baseball Writers Association of America has decided that starting in 2013 writers will not be allowed to vote for players who have bonus clauses tied to awards in their contracts. The new rule will be a big boost to Julio Lugo’s 2013 campaign for A.L. MVP.
–The Colts awarded Super Bowl rings to five fans who won a scavenger hunt and an ensuing raffle. Four of the rings were extras the team had lying around. The 5th was confiscated from Adam Vinatieri due to his poor play.
–Chris Long (the son of Howie) won the Ted Hendrick’s award as the nation’s best defensive end. Hopefully the award will encourage Long to pursue a career in the NFL instead of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming an actor.
championship—Theo Epstein
The stubborn bottom feeding guy who wants the whole farm for his one stud—Bill Smith & Andy McPhail