WHAT A WEEK!

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WOW! This has been one exciting week for sports fans. We were able to witness the perfect storm. This week brought us the beginning of NFL free agency, the NBA trade deadline, and the start of the NCAA tournament. Each of these events is a story within itself and have dominated the headlines on ESPN and the various sports websites, but having them all occur at once really provided those who love and follow sports as I do, with information overload and an overall awesome week. Some of the things that occurred this week were totally expected, but some were serious head-scratchers. If you know me and this blog, I am going to talk about the head scratchers, the things that make you go HMMMM! (shout-out to those old enough to remember Arsenio Hall). There were plenty of them. Let’s discuss, shall we:

The Tim Tebow’s Throwback Jersey: As I walked out of my office today, I received a text message from a friend with something that he read on twitter. It read, “Tim Tebow’s Broncos jersey is now a throwback.” I found that to be hilarious. It’s funny, because it’s true. Now that John Elway has finally convinced a real quarterback who can read a defense and throw the forward pass to come to the mile high city, Tim Tebow is expendable (personally, I thought he was expendable on draft day). Tebow is now officially on the trading block and will probably end up with Miami or Jacksonville, two teams that desperately need to sell tickets. Neither team will be any good this year regardless, so as they say in the NFL, it’s better to be terrible in front of a sellout crowd than to be terrible with no one watching.

Mario Williams to the Buffalo Bills: Prior to last season, I adopted the Buffalo Bills as my favorite NFL team (I had to pick a new team since I knew the Peyton-less Colts were going nowhere fast). Many of my friends thought that I was crazy, but I looked at that roster and knew that they could surprise everyone and take the league by storm. In the end they only ended up taking the league by scattered showers, but they did make me look like a genius for the first half of the season. I am not a bandwagon fan, so I am sticking with MY Bills for this season also. I fully expect them to win the AFC East, and I am saying that with even more confidence since they landed Mario Williams. That’s right, a young, rich, black professional athlete has chosen to play for a team located in Buffalo, New York. I have heard from some people who feel as though he is going to Buffalo only for the STRAIGHT CASH HOMEY!  I disagree with that sentiment because his market was going to be approximately $50 million guaranteed no matter where he went. I think Mario sees what I see in Buffalo. A team that has a legit number one receiver (Stevie Johnson), a stud running back (Fred Jackson), a rising star at quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick), and a strong defensive line that he will be able to add to (featuring Marcell Dareus and Kyle Williams). Buffalo also plays a 4-3 defense that suits Williams’ skill set and body type much better than the Texans’ recently implemented 3-4 defense. Although they are a part of the game, injuries derailed the Bills playoff chances last season. With the re-signing of Stevie Johnson and the acquisition of the best defensive free agent since Julius Peppers, I am expecting big things from MY Bills this season. When Williams was drafted ahead of Reggie Bush in 2006 many laughed and thought that Houston had blown it (I am included in that group), but Williams has shown that he was indeed the right pick. Too bad they won’t get to reap the benefits of having him during his prime. GO BILLS!

Brandon Marshall is a Bear: I know that he is somewhat of a head case, and I also know that he is always prone to making headlines off the field. However, in case you haven’t noticed BRANDON MARSHALL IS REALLY GOOD!  In his five years as a starter, Brandon Marshall has averaged 95 catches, 1,188 yards, and 6 touchdowns. You simply don’t give that away for two 3^rd round draft picks. This is the NFL, not the Boy’s Scouts. On-field production trumps everything in this league as long as you don’t kill the chemistry of every team that you play for (yeah, I’m talking to you T.O).  Lawrence Taylor & Michael Irvin snorted more snow than Buffalo residents shoveled this winter, and they were never traded.  As a matter of fact, Irvin only had one season where he had more catches than Marshall has averaged over his last five seasons. The Rams never traded Leonard Little, and we all know that he did the unthinkable. In a passing dominated league where choir boys are few and far between, you can’t practically give away a legit number one receiver. 

Dwight Howard is traded to NOWHERE!: To quote Shakespeare, the Dwight Howard trade discussion was “much ado about nothing." (Yes, I just quoted Shakespeare in a sports blog) At various points of the season, it was rumored that Howard would be traded to the Nets, Rockets, Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, and Warriors. Then Howard stated that he didn’t want to leave Orlando after all. Then he decided that he did want to leave. Then he decided that he wanted to stay again. Then the Magic owner offered to let him decide the fate of the general manager and head coach if he stayed. Then he decided that he wanted to finish the season in Orlando and be a free-agent this summer (which is understandable because a trade would gut any team that he is traded to). Then Orlando demanded that he waive the right to opt-out of his contract if he wants to stay. Then he decided that he did not want to offer any guarantees. Then he decided not to opt out of his contract, and play out the full contract, which ends after next season. To make a long story short, we will have to go through all of this again this summer and possibly throughout next season. The only people who are happy about this are ESPN and NBA TV, because they just got a lot of programming hours placed in their laps (prepare yourself for “The Decision—The Sequel”).

Rajon Rondo is still a Celtic: The Celtics elected to keep their team together for the remainder of the season. They had unrealistic expectations of the value that Garnett, Allen, or Pierce would return in a trade, and they couldn’t fleece another organization in exchange for Rondo, like the Lakers did Memphis to get Pau Gasol. Oh well, I guess my boy Rondo will play out the rest of the season with the AARP all-stars and go into next season with a fresh round of trade rumors. This off-season, he should demand a trade and put an end to this constant state of limbo that the Celtics front office seem to always have him in.

Pau Gasol is still a Laker: This one is funny because Gasol was actually traded before the season started, but Commissioner Stern pulled the plug on it. The Lakers have also been openly shopping him for everyone in the league that is under 28 years old. Yet, they were unable to move him at the deadline. These distractions have definitely affected his play this season. Much like Rondo, everyone expected him to be moved (possibly in exchange for Rondo), yet he is still a Laker.

Dook Bounced from NCAA Tournament: As a Kentucky basketball fan, I am required to follow Rule #37 in the “Kentucky Fan Rule Book.” This rule states that you must always hate Dook. You must root against them against all other opponents and rejoice every time they lose (Rule #19 states that you must always refer to them as Dook instead of Duke).  Therefore I was just as happy when Dook lost to the 15^th seeded Lehigh, as I was when Kentucky beat Iowa State to advance to the Sweet 16.

Missouri Ruined My Final Four: As I stated last week, I felt as though The Final Four would end up being Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Missouri. Well, the good people at Norfolk State University obviously didn’t agree with my prediction. They went ahead and bounced Missouri from the tournament and (along with Lehigh) screwed up everyone’s bracket. The fact that a pair of 15^th seeds beat #2 seeds in the same day is a sign. Although it has yet to happen, the day is coming when a #16 seed is going to beat a #1 seed. I just hope that your favorite team isn’t the victim.                            

And now for my Ballers & Scrubs of the Week….

BALLER #1 – Peyton Manning: Its official, Peyton Manning is the powerful man to walk the earth since Joe Clark (those who have seen the movie “Lean on Me” will get that one).  He single-handedly put every quarterback in the league on notice that he could have their job if he wanted it. He chose Denver, which hopefully will make the Tim Tebow story disappear as quickly as the Jeremy Lin story did. The other finalists were Tennessee and San Francisco, but that’s not the point. The point is that he held every quarterback in the league and every team’s salary cap space hostage until he made HIS decision! A power move like that earns you Baller of the Week status.

BALLER #2 – C.J. McCollum: Let me guess, you’ve never heard of C.J, McCullom. Well, neither had I until he dropped 30 on Dook on Friday night. He is not only Lehigh’s best player, but he was the best player on the floor on Friday night. I don’t know much about Mr. McCullom, but based on the fact that he plays his college ball in a brown uniform for Lehigh, I’m going to guess that the traditional powers (Kentucky, Dook UNC, Kansas, etc.) weren’t exactly knocking down his door to convince him to come to their school. I think it’s safe to say that this is an underrated recruit that got away. He is the two-time Patriot League player of the year, and the guy who is most responsible for the tears of embarrassment that flowed in the Dook locker room on Friday night. For that, I am making him an honorary Kentucky Wildcat. I’m a big fan of anyone who can make Dook players cry.

SCRUB #1 – Jim Harbaugh (49ers Coach), Bud Adams (Titans Owner), Ken Whisenhunt (Cardinals Coach):  Personally, I don’t blame you for openly professing your love for Peyton Manning and your desire to sign him even at the expense of the quarterback(s) currently on your roster. However, now that you have basically called your current quarterbacks scrubs in the national media and members of your teams have been gushing about the possibility of playing with Peyton on ESPN and on twitter, you must now try to profess your love to the quarterbacks that you were previously ready to dump. They now feel like your back up plan, and no guy ever really wants to marry their back up plan.  However, you must now try to make them feel special again. Good Luck with that!

SCRUB #2 – NFL Ownership: I’ve always felt that this is a shady bunch of individuals that are not to be trusted. This thought was re-affirmed when Roger Goodell (their hired goon) announced that the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins would be docked salary cap space for, get this, OVER SPENDING IN AN UNCAPPED YEAR! The obvious question here is, “How can a team spend too much money in a year when there was no salary cap?” This was an obvious attempt of collusion of the owners against the players. Although there was no salary cap, the owners made an un-gentlemanly and ILLEGAL agreement amongst each other to not spend more than a certain amount on player salaries for that year. Needless to say, two of the most hated owners decided not to join their fellow owners in the sneaky undertaking. Now the other owners are trying to retaliate. Well, here’s the problem with that. Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder live by their own rules and will not let the other owners bully them. Needless to say, a law-suit is coming, and I fully expect the Cowboys & Redskins to be victorious.

Follow me on twitter @scashhomey

GIVE THIS MAN A HUG

Follow me on twitter @scashhomey


Not only am I a huge sports fan, I am also a hip-hop head. No matter what I am doing, I am usually doing it while listening to music. I earn my living as an engineer, and whenever I am at my desk, you will usually find me with headphones on listening to music as I work. The same is true of writing this blog. Each week when I sit down to write, the first thing I do is open iTunes and decide on a playlist or album to write to. My musical choice is usually determined by my mood at the time or the topic that I will be writing about. Although I listen to a lot of Outkast and Jay-Z, you might catch me rocking to Lupe Fiasco, The Clipse, Jay Electronica, Kanye West, or even 2 Chainz (go figure). That being said, there is only one album that can provide the appropriate soundtrack for this week’s entry. That album is “Take Care” by Drake. Drake’s sophomore release is one of the dopest, softest, emotional, man law violating, I need a hug albums in the history of rap (I use the term rap loosely).

Drake is appropriate because today’s topic is the one and only LeBron James. Bear with me for a moment and I will explain why. For my money he is the best player in the NBA, and to be perfectly honest, second place isn’t even close. Anyone who says that LeBron James is not the best player in the NBA is either lying or related to another NBA player. In just his second NBA season James returned the Cleveland Cavaliers to respectability. Think about it, prior to LeBron’s arrival, the last respectable Cleveland basketball team featured Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, and Craig Ehlo. Yeah, that Craig Ehlo. You know I couldn’t mention his name without including a video of his crowning moment as a pro (please see clip below).





In his third season, the Cavs won 50 games and made the playoffs. This was truly amazing, especially when you consider who some of his teammates were that year. He had the honor of playing with such household names as Alan Henderson, Ira Newble, and Damon Jones (I promise you that I am not doing this on purpose, but we may as well look at the biggest highlight of Damon Jones’ career while we’re here).





LeBron spent the first seven years of his NBA career in Cleveland. During that time he led them to the NBA Finals once, the Eastern Conference Finals once, and the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals three times. It’s safe to say that he put Cleveland back on the NBA map.

After the 2009-2010 season, LeBron was eligible for free-agency. This gave him the right to play for any team that he chose. As we all know now, he chose to go to Miami. Who could blame him, he gave up the brutal Cleveland winters for South Beach. He decided to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh instead of Jamario Moon and J.J. Hickson. Can we really blame him? It was his right to leave Cleveland, and he did. However there was one small thing that he did wrong. He decided to announce his “Decision” in primetime on national television. That was awfully arrogant, but again it’s his right. Oh yeah, there is one other small detail I failed to mention, Cleveland was his hometown team, so the people there kinda hate him now; which is their right as well.

LeBron’s decision to dump his hometown in front of the whole world, has led to something that he couldn’t have ever imagined, a backlash. No longer is he America’s sweetheart, the player that everyone admirers and loves. He is now public enemy #2 when it comes to athletes (behind Michael Vick of course). This is by far the most adversity that James has ever faced in his basketball career. They say adversity shows a person’s true character, and if this is indeed true, we now know that LeBron is about as tough as Drake’s music. I must admit, he had me fooled. Silly me, I thought that a 6’8”, 250 lb. man from the hood would be tough. I was wrong. Apparently LeBron is that dude that always went crying to his mother when someone took his toys. He has turned into a walking, talking pity party.

In Lebron’s first year with the Heat they made it to the NBA Finals, but I am still trying to figure out if he was there with the team or not. I watched the replays of the games on NBA TV during this off-season and I simply didn’t see him. As any superstar player should, he received a great deal of criticism for his no-show. He also started ducking the media after games because he couldn’t handle the fact that everyone noticed that Mario Chalmers was a bigger factor in the series than he was.

(Let’s pause a minute and let that last sentence sink in).

Needless to say James probably had the worst off-season of his career due to the way he played on the biggest stage. What I’m wondering is which bothered him more, losing the finals or being criticized?

This season, the Heat are off to another strong start and are the odds-on favorite to win the NBA championship. That being the case, you would think that all would be happy in LeBronville. Yet, he‘s still in a competition with Drake to see who can whine more about the downside of their fame and success. In an interview a few weeks back, Larry Bird was asked who he thought was the best player in the NBA. Logically, his answer was LeBron James. He was then asked which player playing today would he most want to play with. His answer was Kobe Bryant. Although I would never want to play with Kobe Bryant (because his teammates don’t get to play basketball, they simply do cardio while he plays basketball), I respect Larry’s OPINION. Bird was asked a question and his answer happened to be Kobe Bryant. While giving props to Kobe, Bird in no way insulted the “Sensitive One”. However, LeBron took it as a slight and responded by saying,

“I’m an easy target – let’s say that. When someone wants to get a point across, just throw LeBron’s name in there. If you’re watching cartoons with your kids and don’t like it you say, ‘Blame it on LeBron.’ If you go to the grocery store and they don’t have the milk you like you say, ‘It’s LeBron’s fault. I’m an easy target and I understand that. It doesn’t get me to me at all.”

Is he serious? All that from Larry Bird saying that he wanted to play with Kobe Bryant! It’s obvious that he needs a hug.

Needless to say the good people of Cleveland Ohio have yet to forgive LeBron for spitting in their faces in front of the entire country. To show their disdain for him, they BOO him profusely and hold up signs to express their feelings whenever he visits. This obviously bothers James and I’m sure he cries himself to sleep after each road game in Cleveland. Last week he decided to try to curb the vitriol shown to him by the Cav fans. He stated to reporters that he wouldn’t rule out a return to Cleveland at some point in his career. His selfish need to be loved by all led to him making an incredibly stupid statement and possibly alienating the organization that is currently paying him over $100 million for six years of basketball. Unfortunately for LeBron, he was still booed with each touch of the ball, and now stories are popping up all over the place about LeBron “plotting his return to Cleveland.” I’m sure the fans in Miami are loving that. Now we have a sensitive superstar that will soon have people in two cities hating him, but I’m sure he’ll handle that well. My advice to him is to win a championship this season in Miami and SHUT UP!

There are two things that I am certain that I never want to hear again, a Drake song about his struggles with fame and how it prevents him from finding true love, and LeBron James whining because the people don’t love him like they used to. I think they should just give each other a hug and agree to be one another’s sounding board and support system, because the rest of us are sick of hearing it!


And now for my Baller & Scrub of the Week….

BALLER – Kobe Bryant: It is well documented on this blog that I HATE KOBE BRYANT! Truthfully, I never thought I would see the day that I would actually give props to this _________ (fill in the word that you think I would have used), but I must applaud his comments to the Lakers management concerning Pau Gasol. The Lakers tried to trade Gasol before the season started, but were unsuccessful. Since the season has started, it has been rumored that Gasol was being traded to every team in the league and the Harlem Globetrotters. This has obviously had a negative effect on his play this season because his scoring average is currently at a career low (16.6 ppg.). We all know two things to be true about Pau. He is an enormously skilled post player, and he is about as tough as Keith Van Horn. That being said, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he is a huge fan of whoever is the Spanish equivalent of Drake.

I have a new respect for Kobe (that will disappear as soon as I hit the “Post” button on this entry) for telling management that they need to either trade Pau soon or commit to not trading him. Bryant stated the obvious by saying that Gasol is not comfortable with the current situation and it is definitely affecting his play. I have always viewed Kobe as a selfish, me-first person. Actually I still do, but he has earned my respect for the next 15 minutes for sticking up for his soon to be ex-teammate. I will resume hating him in exactly 16 minutes, starting….now.

SCRUB – My (kinda) Boston Celtics: I am a person that roots for individual players more than I do particular teams. I have been a Boston Celtics fan for exactly 6 years, which is the exact number of years that my favorite NBA player (Rajon Rondo) has been a member of the team. So it’s fair to say that my allegiance is to him and not the actual franchise. That being said, the Celtics are terrible this season (15-16) and they are looking ancient in the process. It’s time for the C’s to shake things up and trade their one valuable asset (Rondo). In the process they will not only lose one of the best point guards in the league, but they will also lose a fan (me). Our loss may hurt them in the short term, but it will be better for them long-term. I just hope they trade us to a contender.


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