Capello recently went on holiday over the Christmas period! He speaks Italian! He doesn’t do chest-thumping passion! He hasn’t wasted one nano-joule of energy in buttering up the English press pack! And not once in his so-called career has he won the FA Cup, or pulled off an audacious relegation escape by signing Paul Kitson and John Hartson, even though he was the man who led his team into deep relegation trouble in the first place, or got a club relegated from the top flight after a 27-year residency, or proved himself to be a more successful boss than Jacques Santini and Christian Gross and Ossie Ardiles and Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence! So, no loss, then. Chancer. Foreign chancer. Bye!
Capello also had the bare-faced cheek to take umbrage at England’s finest puffed-up bureaucrats telling him how to go about his business. “The manager is the most important figure, but there are moments when the board and chairman have to step up to the plate, and when strong leadership is required,” explained FA chairman David Bernstein today, opening a press conference held amid the smouldering rubble of Wembley, during which he and FA Director of Something Adrian Bevington repeatedly paused awkwardly and stammered “you answer this one” to each other. Bernstein was, of course, referring to the issue of The Armband, ripped by said board from the biceps of Eejitry’s Brave John Terry, much to Capello’s annoyance.
Now, the Fiver accepts that going out to bat for EBJT might not have been the cleverest call in Capello’s career, unless he was deliberately trying to engineer an out. But as things stand, EBJT has yet to be proved guilty of That Charge, so Capello’s stance was, if not necessarily wise, then at least a legitimate one to take. Either way, it was undoubtedly a decision he was better equipped to make than the 14 men of the FA board, notwithstanding the fact that, according to Bernstein, these lads have “a high level of football expertise and a huge knowledge of the game”. (For the record, the 14 include Bernstein, who once gave the Manchester City manager’s job and a big pot of cash to Kevin Keegan; Dave Richards, who set Sheffield Wednesday trundling on their way from the Premier League to the third tier, and David Sheepshanks, who oversaw Ipswich Town’s brave march into Europe and then administration.)
With all due respect to the Boston Globe offering of “(‘Oil Can’) Boyd says he used cocaine with Red Sox”, the least eyebrow-raising headline of this week has to be the New York Post’s contribution ; “Alderson Says The Mets Are Standing Pat”. With the Post’s Dan Martin doing everything possible to keep a straight face, Mets GM Sandy Alderson declares, “We’re pretty much there,” which makes plenty of sense if your idea of “there” is contending for a 5th place finish.
Alderson has at least postponed the search for a left-handed bat off the bench and regardless of whom he was thinking of bringing in, the starting outfield is expected to remain Jason Bay in left, Andres Torres in center and Lucas Duda in right, with Scott Hairston as the fourth outfielder.At the same time, Daniel Murphy talked about competing for the playoffs, a notion Alderson didn’t discourage.
“[He] has every reason to be optimistic,” Alderson said of Murphy. “There are unanswered questions on every team. It’s very important that they not be discouraged and they shouldn’t be. Some teams improved themselves on paper, like the Marlins and maybe Washington, but we can’t let that affect us.”
“I really believe we have a tremendous opportunity for improvement from within the organization,” Alderson said. “Nobody had a career year. And everybody — everybody — has something to prove and that can be a powerful component during the season.”
Trevor Ariza wins the “I don’t understand your obscure musical references” Facial Expression Of The Week Award. Which reminds me, how can the Hornets or any other professional sports franchise hope to host an ’80′s Night without playing this classic?
OKC C Kendrick Perkins probably never imagined being dunked on by the Clippers’ Blake Griffin would elevate his profile like nothing else in his hoops career. It’s doubtful, given his competency as a defender, he ever envisioned his role in the monster slam being fodder for ridicule by peers, broadcasters and fans alike. But that’s exactly the situation Perkins finds himself in, and in a frustrated rant to Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears, the former Celtic was in a frenzy of self-contradiction.
“If I was in the same position, in the same rotation, I’m going to jump again and again and again,” Perkins told Yahoo! Sports. “I don’t care. A lot of people are afraid of humiliation or don’t know how to handle embarrassment or would even get embarrassed. I don’t care.
“I’m the same Perk you’re going to see. I’m still going to sign autographs the same way. I ain’t going to change. The people that move out the way and stuff are the people who have insecurity problems.
“That’s my job. How will my teammates look at me if next time I just back out the way and just let him dunk when I’m supposed to be defensive-minded, a shot-blocker? That would be a coward move on me. He’d just have to dunk on me again.”
Along with blasting LeBron James for his enthusiastic response to Griffin’s dunk (“you don’t see Kobe [Bryant] tweeting…you don’t see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you’re an elite player, plays like that don’t excite you,”), Perkins insisted such incidents were “part of the game…you might get talked about. But who cares at the end of the day.” Yeah, who indeed? Except it would seem Perkins cares quite a bit about this moment of infamy. At the end of the day, what’s worse, LeBron taking pleasure at another player’s misfortune, or said player critiquing James’ tweets? Whatever reasons you might catalog for King James’s lack of rings, that he actually watches other teams’ games and finds them entertaining is not the most sensible one to cite.
…tell him to grow up and/or put down the smart (?) phone. That’s the lesson we can take away from CNN contributor Roland Martin, who was suspended by the network today following a firestorm of criticism after a series of tweets on Super Bowl Sunday take exception to Beckham’s signature line of man-pants and/or pink attire at a football game.
Martin has tried to pass himself off as a soccerphobe rather than a gay basher, but unless you’re auditioning to become Jim Rome’s guest host, that’s a curious brand of damage control. It’s far too easy for Martin to label himself an anti-bullying advocate when it’s clearly no big deal when he suggests — even in jest — that those with a Boner For Beckham deserve a beatdown. With all due respect to the folks at It Gets Better, it doesn’t necessarily get any better in the world of sophisticated adults employed by CNN.
A slight distracting from the continued ascension of PG Jeremy Lin was Knicks fans’ continued verbal abuse of Jared Jeffries during Monday’s win over Utah. Jeffries, who continues to struggle offensively from close range while performing much of the team’s dirty work on defense. is an undeserving target in the eyes of head coach Mike D’Antoni, as the New York Post’s Marc Berman explains.
“Indulge me for a second, anybody who boos Jared Jeffries has got to reexamine their life a little bit,” D’Antoni said following the Knicks’ 99-88 win over the Jazz at the Garden. “I love our fans and I like Madison Square Garden, the arena, but here’s a guy who came back to us, minimum contract. He could’ve gone to a lot of other teams. He plays as hard as anybody could possibly ever play, with injuries, everything you ask him. He takes every charge, every dirty play, every rebound. He works every second.”
“I’ll die for him,” an appreciative Jeffries said. “I’ll leave blood on the court … because he’s the best coach in the NBA.’’
Fans are hard on Jeffries because he was a nonentity in his first stint after Isiah Thomas gave him the full mid-level exception in a $30 million deal. Jeffries was also the goat in the Game 2 loss in Boston in the playoffs for going up meekly and blowing a game-tying layup in the final seconds.
“There are people that look at that and go, ‘Well, I think I’ll boo him.’ I have a hard time believing that,” D’Antoni said.
Instantly killing the growing urban legend Madonna’s tightrope artist from Sunday night was actually the little kid from “Bad Santa” all grown up, the New York Times’ Jere Longman profiles Andy Lewis, who “makes his living performing an extreme and obscure form of tightrope walking known as slacklining.”
Slacklining reached the Super Bowl about three decades after originating in Yosemite in the world of rock climbing. Frequently, it involves stretchy nylon webbing attached low to the ground between two trees. But the more adventuresome have branched into highlining (sometimes performing hundreds of feet above the ground), waterlining and tricklining, Lewis’s specialty.
He is said to be the first to complete a back flip on a slackline. He is definitely the first to complete a kiss on the cheek by Madonna at halftime of the Super Bowl on a slackline.
“The kiss was my idea,” said Lewis, who lives in Moab, Utah, a slacklining haven. “Madonna likes to present her show with some kind of meaning. I wanted the kiss to give me energy to perform tricks. She kissed me every day in rehearsal. I’ve been kissed by Madonna something like 27 times.”
Initially, Lewis said he had some reservations. Exactly how much slack would Madonna allow in this slacklining routine?
“I was afraid I would get bossed around,” he said. “But Madonna was so nice and friendly.”
What an embarrassment for the Patriots organization and Bob Kraft. So now the Giants have taken Lombardi from you twice, and you haven’t looked this bad in a playoff game since…well, two weeks ago against the Ravens. Maybe that moment will actually hit you as you’re whittling down water slides in South America looking like Prince Valiant this spring.
Your legacy has been stamped, but you’re turning your Joe Montana status into one of Jim Kelly. But, hey what you worry? There’s that new mansion in the “Names” pages to deal with.
That was Wilbur’s take on Tom Brady’s performance in Super Bowl XLVI, a somewhat hysterical, nearly Shaughnessey-level evisceration of the only New England QB to have won one Super Bowl, let alone three. After being pilloried throughout the blogosphere, Wilbur has today apologized (sort of), claiming “I never intended Sunday night’s column, written in the immediate aftermath of the Patriots’ loss, o garner quite the widespread attention – and negativity.” In other words, Wilbur had no idea whatsoever he was writing something kinda provocative that would be seen by anyone beyond his closest friends.
To the dozens who have pointed out my follically-challenged scalp (thanks, I hadn’t noticed), called me a hack, loser, or some other unprintable expletive, and even the tough guy who promised to put my head (that’s “cue ball” head, sir) through a wall if he spotted me in Boston, consider this my repentance.
I still think Tom Brady was most at fault for the loss, but it wasn’t directly because of the safety as I noted. Granted, it did lead to forcing the defense on the field for most of the first quarter, but it wasn’t the quarterback who happened to be the 12th man on the field. I didn’t take into account how hurt he might have been when he tremendously underthrew that ball to Rob Gronkowski, but if he knew he was hurting, his decision-making process there should have been better. Yes, Wes Welker should have caught the ball, but it also could have been thrown with more accuracy. Again, I didn’t take into account how Brady’s possible injury may have affected his performance.
But rational thinking doesn’t come to head in such a moment, and frankly, that was my intention; to present the knee-jerk reactions of what the fan base had to be feeling at that very moment. As it turned out, there was little anger directed toward the Patriots. Disappointment, yes, but the anger was at a minimum.
That, apparently, was reserved for me.
Of Danny McBride’s comic creation Kenny Powers, former Braves closer John Rocker insists, “It’s about me. It is. The guy wears 49, is a Braves pitcher, he’s a bit of a hothead. It’s kind of obvious.” Continuing on a promo tour of television stations to promote his new tome, Scars & Strikes, Rocker continues to blame Jeff Pearlman for his rotten reputation, claiming the Sports Illustrated scribe / author is prone to “vilifying every subject he encounters.” And some of ‘em don’t give Pearlman nearly so much to work with! From WXIA Atlanta (link swiped from Baseball Think Factory):
Jaye Watson asked, “Do you blame him completely for the article for you looking like a racist and a homophobe?”
“Absolutely,” said Rocker.
Watson replied, “So none of it was your fault? Nothing that you said?”
Rocker answered, “If the article was 20 pages long and my long winded commentary had been included in its entirety, the opinion of me today would be drastically different.”
Rocker uses his book to make clear his views on immigrants. He writes that he welcomes those who are legal, who want to assimilate, learn english and adapt to american culture. But he also says, “If you are that kind of immigrant that comes here, looking to exploit, looking to take advantage, not looking at any way shape or form to endear yourself to this great country. I don’t appreciate you.”
Rocker launched a ‘Speak English’ campaign, t shirts included. He said a trip to Miami frustrated him. “I went to a Starbucks, tried to simply order coffee. The person was literally insisting I order my coffee in spanish. I was like ‘I could do it’, but I’m not going to.”
Though chances are extremely slim that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov (above, left) will defeat Russian President Vladmir Putin next month, if the former pulls off an upset greater than retaining Deron Williams his team making the playoffs, he promises he’ll sell the franchise. From Bloomberg News’ Jane Rudintsky and Ilya Arkhipov ;
“I’ll sell everything, all my assets when I become president and donate almost all of the money to charity,” Prokhorov said during a talk show with fellow candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky that was broadcast on state-run television.
Prokhorov, who owns the New Jersey Nets basketball team in the U.S. and stakes in Russian metals companies United Co. Rusal (486) and Polyus Gold International Ltd., said he’d need the remaining $1 billion for personal expenses after life in the Kremlin.
“I’ll need something to live on,” Prokhorov, 46, said.
(though he’s persona non grata with Sandy Alderson, we’ll have to hope Howard is still in the good graces of Sandy The Seagull. Image swiped from Pick Me Up Some Mets)
Sporstwriter / author Howard Megdal has used a variety of platforms to tweak the New York Mets over the years, but upon taking over the Hudson Journal’s LoHud Mets Blog, he’s essentially assumed the role of a beat reporter — the same role Peter Abraham fulfilled covering the Yankees for the same publication prior to helming the Boston Globe’s Red Sox coverage. So despite what you might think of Megdal’s prior endeavors writing for such obscure outlets as ESPN.com or The New York Times, he’s obviously gone legit and is fully deserving of media credentials next season at Citi Field, right? Not after the Mets’ all-too-prickly ownership & management checked out his most recent book, claims Megdal.
Last week, my editor Sean Mayer received a call from Jay Horwitz, the Director of Media Relations for the New York Mets, telling him that while the Journal News can continue to receive credentials, the Mets would not be credentialing me.
Sean asked why that was, and Jay responded that the Mets “don’t like my reporting”. The team declined to respond to my multiple attempts to reach them for a fuller explanation.
But I don’t think much investigation is required. As of the final game of last season, I was credentialed. I participated in a conference call with Sandy Alderson in December.
Later in December, Wilpon’s Folly was published. The book details the financial and legal problems facing Met ownership due to their investments with Bernie Madoff. The book was no surprise to the Mets- I reached out to them once I was asked to write the book by Bloomsbury, and spoke many times on background to multiple people within the organization about all specific reporting within the book.
The book’s reporting, incidentally, has not been challenged. It has been reinforced by subsequent articles in The New York Times, Adam Rubin at ESPN.com, and numerous other places. The only response the Mets have provided is to attack me personally.
The Mets can’t very well keep out Adam Rubin, whose right to be in the clubhouse is guaranteed by his membership in the Baseball Writers Association of America. Though I am a full-time sportswriter as my profession, I am ineligible for the BBWAA because I make my living through regular, part-time gigs, not a single, full-time one. So the team is lashing out where it can.
The above is image taken from Michael Gluckstadt‘s Twitter feed. After a career night against the Nets Saturday, perhaps we can assume the e-mail solicitation means Jeremy Lin is Mike D’Antoni’s starting point guard Monday evening. Either that or it makes a catchier solicitation than “15,000 Steve Novak Fans Can’t Be Found Wrong”
How did shoddy science about such an important topic come to be so widely reported? Christina Hoff Sommers retraced the story in her book Who Stole Feminism? In 1993, a few days before Super Bowl XXXVII, a network of women’s groups held a press conference in Pasadena, California, to announce that Super Bowl Sunday was “the biggest day of the year for violence against women.”
Citing several studies—including one by Old Dominion University—and backed up by a representative by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), there was enough anecdotal evidence on the topic to inspire newspaper stories and TV segments. Within days, the New York Times sports columnist Robert Lipsyte referred to the game as “Abuse Bowl” and Good Morning America did a piece connecting the game to violence against women.
Later that week, Ken Ringle, a reporter for the Washington Post, looked into the evidence behind this “day of dread” and found that none existed. The Old Dominion study actually contradicted the reported findings of spousal abuse, and other sources denied similar facts that were attributed to them.
Retractions connecting the Super Bowl and domestic violence were printed, but nearly 20 years later, the myth lives on.
…just like any number of other friendless schlubs. USA Today’s Mike Foss on Tiquan Underwood’s method of keeping his chin up after being cut by New England on the eve of Super Bowl XLVI.
The former New England wide receiver told Mashable in an interview Sunday that he planned to live-Tweet the entire game.
“It won’t get in-depth as far as what happened in practice and stuff like that,” Underwood said. “But it will basically be comments on the game, only from someone who will obviously have a bit more knowledge about it than a regular fan.”
The team released Underwood in favor of adding another defensive lineman to their Super Bowl rotation. After the Patriots’ decision, Underwood has gained over 5,000 new followers on Twitter and has posted several upbeat Tweets in the hours leading up the game.
““You have these moments where sports intersects with politics, intersects with race, and you can have conversations with people who might not normally have those conversations.” Those are the words of San Francisco State professor Larry Solomon, quoted by Colorlines.com’s Jamilah King, who considers the NFLPA opposition to Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Right To Work legislation a watershed occasion “in publicly bridging the gap that exists between the NFL’s multibillion dollar teams and its increasingly marginalized fan base”
On January 6, 2012, the NFLPA released a damning letter in opposition to the Indiana’s bill, which has since moved quickly through the state’s legislature.
“‘Right-to-work’ is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana,” the statement read. “It is important to keep in mind the plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them get lost in the ceremony and spectacle” of the Super Bowl.
The statement was hugely important, considering what’s at stake for Indiana’s workers, particularly black ones. Black workers are disproportionately union members. They’re more likely than whites, Asians, and Latinos to be in public-unions, and make up 15 percent of total membership, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Historically, unions have been crucial gateways for black workers to earn higher wages and break into the middle class.
There are currently 22 states in the country that have the law, mostly in the South and in western states like Wyoming and Utah. Indiana’s bill, which the state Senate passed this week and Gov. Daniels has already vowed to sign into law, is unique because it will be the first the law that’s been put into action in an industrialized area with a large, unionized workforce.
“I don’t think it was surprising, but I think it’s important,” said Washington State University professor David Leonard about the NFLPA’s statement.
…from who else, but Paul Doucette and Hugh Stewart, who dropped an entire season and playoffs’ worth of conspiracy theory knowledge on their legion of loyal viewers. I haven’t been this excited about NFL analysis since Phyllis George’s CBS debut.
Along with such leading lights in the independent nu-media field as Busted Coverage and Sports By Brooks, Boston’s Barstool Sports long ago learned that no one ever went broke underestimated the public’s appetite for generic T&A. Now that Barstool’s David Portnoy (above) has moved into the live entertainment field with The Barstool Blackout Tour (aka “Sea Trash Gone Wild”), a Kenmore Square live date was met with street protests, as described by the Boston Globe’s Travis Anderson :
“We’re down here because we want to let people know that the perpetuation of rape culture is not cool,’’ said Northeastern University junior Anna Siembor, 21, one of the creators of the blog Knockout Barstool, which organized last night’s protest at the nightclub on Lansdowne Street.
Knockout Barstool was created after a posting appeared on Barstool Sports last month signed by El Presidente, Portnoy’s online moniker.
Referring to a recent controversy at the University of Vermont, where a fraternity was sanctioned for circulating a survey asking members who they would like to rape, El Presidente wrote that the matter was being blown out of proportion.
“Just to make friends with the feminists I’d like to reiterate that we don’t condone rape of any kind at our Blackout Parties in mid-January,’’ the posting said. “However if [a] chick passes out, that’s a grey area though.’’
Portnoy could not be reached for comment last night. When the Globe profiled him in the spring, he said that when he posts as El Presidente, he is playing a character in a fantasy world who can have sex with whoever he wants. “But I also have logic,’’ Portnoy said at the time. “I understand that’s not the world we live in.’’
In a posting yesterday afternoon, El Presidente unloaded on the Knockout Barstool group, which had received support from Occupy Boston.
“Do you think the fatzos at KO Boston know that enlisting the wackos at Occupy Boston make them look crazier than they already do?’’ El Presidente wrote. “The people who hate us are just people who hate life, hate fun, hate men, and hate America.’’
Roaches, to be exact. The LA Times’ Melissa Rohlin quizzed the former Ron Artest about the Lakers’ upcoming 6 game road trip, and the conversation took an unusual turn, even by the unexpurgated standards previously set by Metta World Peace.
Sorry, isn’t this sort of thing supposed to happen after you’ve become an ESPN analyst, not before? Hours after Deadspin and former editor AJ Daulerio reported that Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman had been conducting an extramarital affair over the past year, a number of other news outlets are reporting Cashman’s alleged mistress, Louise Meanwell, is facing charges of grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, stalking and aggravated harassment against the baseball exec. While the New York Post portrays Meanwell as a serial spurned-paramore, Daulerio — who previously gave Cashman an opportunity to come clean — is a tad more focused on delivering a degree of humiliation.
Among the salacious tidbits ; Cashman purchases pajamas from TJ Maxx (!) and a recent screening of “The Hangover II” was “the first time he’d seen a he-she,” according to Meanwell (please, no A-Rod jokes). Though Ralph Houk didn’t have to put up with this kind of thing in his day, perhaps Cashman will manage to keep future romantic encounters firmly under wraps by employing the skillful tactics of his bachelor shortstop/Captain. A binding non-disclosure agreement might be signed quickly and without quarrel if it’s accompanied by the right sort of parting gifts (autographed 8X10″, discount coupons for tickets to the Pinstripe Bowl, morning-after pills, etc.)
GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate (Texas) Craig James made an appearance on a Lubbock radio station this morning and attempted to defend himself against “many false statements” attributed to longtime nemesis, former Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach. If you think the ex-ESPN college football analyst was some kind of bullying stage dad, that’s ok ; James doesn’t covet the support of such cynics. From the Dallas Morning News’ Tom Benning :
“There’s some people who won’t understand,” James said on KFYO-AM. “There’s some people, if they wouldn’t defend their own son, I don’t want their vote. I don’t want to run with those kind of people.”
James, a late arrival to Texas’ competitive Senate race, has been a polarizing figure in Lubbock and West Texas ever since he accused Leach of mistreating his son. Leach, who was later fired, has pushed back on those charges and cast James as an overbearing father.
Despite the ongoing controversy — Leach has lawsuits pending against Texas Tech and ESPN — James told the radio station that he plans to campaign in Lubbock and that he’s been there “many times over the last two years.”
“I don’t feel uncomfortable in Lubbock,” he said, adding that another of his sons is a junior at Texas Tech. “My family loves going out west.”
And James laughed off fresh allegations that he called Tech coaches from the broadcast booth during games to complain about his son’s playing time.
“You know how many big, high-profile people have come and gone at ESPN because of poor judgment,” said James, who’s now waging his own legal battle against the publishers of Leach’s book. “Had I done anything remotely close to any of these things that have been alleged and said by Mike Leach, ESPN would’ve gotten rid of me a long time ago.”
OK, if you’ve not been following Master Heitner’s career trajectory of late, you might missed out on this morning’s blog post, alerting his adoring public (“My Jerry Maguire-esque Moment?”) that from this day forward, he’s no longer an agent.
My decision will allow me to expand my current offerings and enter into new lines of business that excite and inspire me. First of all, Sports Agent Blog will continue to exist and will be updated with the same frequency. In fact, my relinquishing of the title of “sports agent” should permit further growth of Sports Agent Blog, as many practicing sports agents who currently believe that I am conflicted by running this site in conjunction with representing athletes may put such fears aside. I look forward to contributing to this website from a completely non-biased position. In addition to Sports Agent Blog, I occasionally post legal related articles on ChangeLegal.com (mostly related to intellectual property) and very recently created Sport-in-Law, which I believe has major potential to be the go-to website for everything “Sports Law.”
I have been practicing law for roughly a year-and-a-half and have focused my efforts on intellectual property and other types of civil litigation in addition to having a nice sized practice dealing with transactional work. A majority of my files involve either entertainment, music, or sports related matters. Recently, I have been working with a handful of sports agencies as their general counsel, assisting them with contract drafting/review and litigation. With my knowledge of sports law coupled with my experiences in the world of sports agency, I believe I have a unique ability to assist agencies in the aforementioned areas in addition to salary arbitration, sport-specific grievances, and other related matters. Removing the stigma that is attached to being a sports agent while trying to grow my practice in these areas will hopefully allow my practice to reach entirely new levels.
Though I’d certainly be out of place offering my own uninformed opinions about entertainment law, might there be less of a stigma associated with representing professional athletes than say, pimping for the staff of one’s local Hooter’s? Either way, Heitner’s agency, Dynasty Athlete Representation, has been re-dubbed, “Dynasty Dealings”, and the former man in charge promises whatever remaining jai lai players and/or web models who might need his sage input, “I will still work with many athletes and entertainers, but as an attorney and/or consultant, and not as an agent.”
SF/SG Casey Jacobsen was the 22nd overall pick in the 2002 draft, and after tours of duty with Phoenix, New Orleans and Memphis, he’s currently ensconced with the German League’s Brose Baskets. Recalling his days in pro hoops’ top flight, Jacobsen shares with Slam Magazine a number of tidbits about NBA icons, and sure enough, Hakim Warrick eating Starbursts for breakfast and J.R. Smith being selfish (“I’d never seen a guy so intent on shooting the ball every time it hit his hands and I’m sure I never will again”) weren’t the most eye-popping revelations. Consider, if you will, Jacobsen’s memories of hanging with Darko Milicic (above).
It’s nearly impossible to explain the weirdness that is Darko, but he told me one time that he did not keep his money in any bank, nor did he invest in stocks or bonds. “I just keep it,” he told me and then turned away. Looking back, I should have asked a follow-up question. I don’t know if I believe him, but he was making over $6 million that season. That’s a lot of cheddar to stash underneath a mattress! On another note… that was easily the longest conversation we ever had, and that was how he preferred it.
Terrible Twos (Detroit), James Arthur’s Manhunt (Austin), G.Green (Sacramento), Unholy Two (Columbus) and wrapping up their first visit to the circus Austin, Memphis’ Sex Cult. The show is free, and if you’re really lucky, you might get to press the flesh with one of the entertainment industry titans pictured above.
The lunacy of Signing Day took a decided turn for the absurd in February of 2008 when Fernley, NV OL Kevin Hart made quite a show of his dramatic choice to attend Cal-Berkeley over the University of Oregon. Trouble is, Hart wasn’t being recruited by either institution of higher learning. Fast forward to the present day, and Hart — currently a sophomore at Feather River Community College, has taken to Facebook to update his adoring fans on future football plans. From Lost Lettermen :
Hart responded to a post on his page on January 15 by commenting that his choices are between Division II schools Concordia University in St. Paul, MN, and Missouri Western in Saint Joseph, MO.
On January 4, Hart posted the following on his Facebook page: “Really thought I was close to making decision but after tonight things are wide open again, crazy!! Going on to St Paul on the 14th then Missouri Western on the 21st”
And when a friend commented that he thought Hart was set on a trip to St. Paul, Hart responded by saying he was until Missouri Western called in early January and “started talking offer and a visit so it’s back open u know how much I like Western.”
Yes, we know you like Western, Kevin, because you actually “liked” the school’s athletic page on Facebook. So it’s not a surprise that Hart is enjoying the recruitment process that he apparently never had four years ago and making it public through social media.
