Wow!

Aside from "Wow!" what more can you really say. Here it is if if you haven't seen it.

gatosalvajech (2:42:22 AM): theres no words for that

gatosalvajech (2:42:40 AM): i ve never even seen that ...

gatosalvajech (2:42:48 AM): after someone made a crucial mistake

gatosalvajech (2:42:51 AM): you repeat it

gatosalvajech (2:42:56 AM): with less the a second left

gatosalvajech (2:43:01 AM): and momentum into OT

romoballa (2:43:29 AM): if u want to see the dumbest loss in the history of sports
just tune into today's arizona game

gatosalvajech (2:43:35 AM): thats like Jalen Rose calling time out after webber already made that one famous mistake

And that's what it comes down to. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me -- you can't get fooled again.

That's a little George W. Bush for you. It fits with the stupidity of Arizona basketball.

I understand Kyle Fogg's mistake. He's a freshman who just scored his first two points of the game and was too excited to remember that his bucket tied the game. It was in the heat of the moment as the cliche goes.

But Jamelle Horne, the same guy I blasted in my last post about Arizona basketball for gloating in an exhibition game, fouling to lose the game after a timeout?

Wow. Wow. Wow.

The phrase I've never seen that before is overused but it applies in this case. It would be like Jose Canseco having the ball go off his head and over the wall on two consecutive fly balls.

I just want to know what Horne was thinking. What was said in the timeout. How could you not discuss what you do if the shot is missed? Or was Horne really just spacing out?

“I saw the guy with the ball going 94 feet and the last thing I wanted to do was give him an uncontested shot,” Horne said. “And I saw him in front of me so I tried to foul him and the ref called what. … I don’t know what he called it.”

Now that's a very Bush like quote.

What did the referee call? He called an intentional foul. It's what happens when you grab a guy's jersey from behind and hold on to it to stop him from shooting. In the sport of basketball, that's an illegal move. Who has Horne been talking to lately, Donovan McNabb?

On the bright side, if there actually is one since I've had to watch the Sportscenter anchors incredulously describe the sequence of events while shaking their heads in disbelief, maybe this will teach Horne about some humility. I'm starting to sound like a fan of a bad team. I'm somehow trying to grasp onto a positive side of this tragedy.

I'd just like to say that the actions of November 18, 2008 by two of Arizona's basketball players in no way, shape, or form represent the University of Arizona and it's alumni.

The other phrase I've heard a lot recently is "it's gonna be a long season."

1. In terms of how frustrating it will be to watch Arizona play, I agree.

2. In relation to how Arizona is going to fare this season, I disagree. The Pac-10 is really bad aside from UCLA. Oregon already lost to Oakland, Cal State Northridge hung in with Stanford for the majority of the game, and Oregon State had the court rushed on them against Howard.
Plus, after this game, it can't get any worse, right? Right?

See, I'm trying to stay positive.


Of course it had to happen when I moved to the East coast.

There will be no Laker games on tape delay this year. KCAL will now show games played in the Eastern time zone live.

That could have been my biggest television pet peeve. But since I no longer live in LA, I don't even get to enjoy the change.

And finally, even USA today has an article on how ugly the last year or so has been for Arizona basketball.

Euro Trip

The high top fade decided that "hash brownies man" and making some cash ASAP, are more important than blonde coeds and college basketball glory.

Brandon Jennings is headed for Europe, regardless of the results of his third SAT score.
This of course, is a hit, if you will, to Arizona's chances of extending their NCAA tournament streak of 24 consecutive seasons.

Aside from Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill, the Wildcats have a very thin roster. Nic Wise showed signs of being capable last season and will most likely be the third option. But then what? Jamelle Horne and Fendi Onobun are your next two best players. Freshman center Jeff Withey is a complete unknown. Zane Johnson would be a 13th man on UCLA.

Had Budinger known Jennings was Euro-bound, you think he would have stayed? Probably not.
"I would like to thank the University of Arizona for their interest and support through this process," Jennings said in a statement from his agent.

I'm sure the fine folks in the Arizona program were thinking of a few choice words for Jennings, starting in F and ending in you.

According to this True Hoop blog, Jennings may be overestimating how much he'll make playing overseas.

"He's not strong enough and he's not experienced enough to run an elite club. He has a world of talent, and he'll be unbelievable down the road, but experience trumps athleticism and talent every day European basketball," explained Jonathan Givony. "I'd be very surprised if a top team offered him more than $100,000, at most, but stranger things have happened.

NBA Draft.net's Aran Smith thinks going to Europe will actually hurt his stock as well. Smith dropped Jennings to No. 11 in the 2009 draft.

The loss of the No. 1 point guard in the country obviously hurts Arizona, and I figured this would be the year their tournament run ends. But then I looked deeper at the Pac-10 and reevaluated the original assessment.

Stanford, Oregon State, and potentially Cal, who lost Devon Hardin and Ryan Anderson, are on the downturn, and will battle for spots 8-10 in the Pac-10.

The Cardinal lost the Lopez twins who accounted for both its offensive and defensive strengths. It's now left with Lawrence Hill as its best player and a ton of bad guards led by Mitch Johnson. Oregon State has been horrible for the past decade and that won't change this year.

The next tier includes the rest of the Pac-10 except for UCLA, who's head and shoulders above everyone else.

USC lost Davon Jefferson and OJ Mayo, but gain Demar Derozan, who will team with Taj Gibson for well coached Tim Floyd squad. Oregon lost Maarty Leunen, Bryce Taylor, and Malik Hairston. Washington State lost Derrick Low, Kyle Weaver, and Robbie Cowgill.
Washington has pretty much everyone back but it finished 7-11 last season.

As crazy as it sounds, I would vote for ASU to finish second in the Pac-10. The Sun Devils showed a lot of signs last year and finished tied for fifth with a 9-9 record. They return every key contributor including stud sophomore James Harden. It will be Herb Sendek's third season so the players are really starting to become comfortable with the system, and they come off a disappointment at the end of last season when they didn't make the NCAA tournament, which should serve as motivation.

With ASU as the favorite to finish second, at least by my calculations, it goes to show you that the Pac-10 isn't nearly as strong as it was last year. That means Arizona has a chance to finish anywhere from second to seventh.

Barring an injury to Hill or Budinger, this should be another first round exit team. But at least the tournament streak will be alive.

Hot Sauce to Canada
Hassan Adams signed a two year deal with the Toronto Raptors.
The article calls him a tenacious defender, a statement at which I seriously lol. The only thing tenacious about Adams, who played in Italy last season, is his dancing in the huddle.

Turiaf signs offer sheet with Warriors

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Ronny Turiaf signed a four-year, $17 million deal with Golden State. The Lakers have seven days to match the offer for the restricted free agent. My Turiaf jersey and I, as well as those who love to watch his bench antics and appearance in Kobe commercials, are hoping they do.

Can "The Hit Man" teach the Dodgers to hit?
According to an L.A. Times report, Don Mattingly will take over as the Dodgers hitting coach.
Unless he's bringing metal bats with him, that will be a tough task, but maybe a change in leadership will give the Dodgers a spark.

The Truth Hurts

I always say the worst day of the year is the day when the Lakers lose their final game. This year that day came a lot later than expected at the beginning of the season.
For that delay, I am grateful. It doesn't mean the day hurts any less, however.

A lot of things hurt about the way the Lakers lost to the Celtics. First and foremost is The Truth.
As in Paul Pierce. He completely outplayed Kobe Bryant in this series and deserved the MVP. The Lakers had no answer for him, and that includes the times when Kobe defended Pierce.

Here are some other truths.

• I never thought I'd say this but the Lakers were outcoached...badly.
• Phil Jackson made no adjustments. The Lakers should have had Lamar Odom guarding Paul Pierce, put Vlad Radmanovic on Kenrdick Perkins or P.J. Brown and Gasol on KG. Or better yet, they should have benched Vlad and Luke Walton, and put in Trevor Ariza. They even could have gone big with Ronny Turiaf on Perkins, Gasol on KG, and Odom playing small forward. All those options would have worked better. It would have been worth a try, but Phil just sat on his ass. Pierce may still have won the series for the Celtics, but at least it would have been tougher. At least, Pierce wouldn't have been able to drive into the lane while pressing the Easy Button.
• The Lakers fans (or the people who went to the Laker games in the Finals) were an embarrassment to basketball fans and real Los Angeles Lakers fans.
• The Celtics crowd was terrific.
• James Posey was the X factor. When he wasn't hitting big 3-pointers, he was doing a great job defensively on Kobe.
  
• Pau Gasol was the negative X factor. Sure, Lamar Odom was inconsistent, but he didn't completely lay an egg like Pau who played softer than Charmin. Those sure hands that he had all season completely went away in the finals. At times, he looked like dare I say, Kwame Brown. He even missed an inordinate amount of free throws, a telltale sign that he was nervous.
  
• The game 4 loss was ten times more excruciating than the end of the series.
• Had the Lakers won game 4, they wouldn't have won the series anyway.
  
• Kevin Garnett was hilarious after the game. He was crying, screaming, laughing all at once. I thought he was going to have one of those Kenny in South Park moments where his head explodes.
• Nothing beat the comment "Michelle you look good tonight, girl," to ABC sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya.
  
• Chris Mihm playing a minute in this series is a testament to Phil Jackson having no clue how to beat the Celtics.
  
• I hope Jeff Van Gundy never coaches again. Because he's a great analyst.
• I hope Hubie Brown lands a job somewhere because he puts me to sleep.
• I hate ubuntu.
• Ubuntu worked for the Celtics, who played together all series and showed great passion and heart.
  
• Andrew Bynum will look good in a Lakers uniform standing next to Pau Gasol.
• I wish next season started tomorrow.
  

The Mustard is off the Hot Dog

The Lakers are in the Finals but Chick Hearn isn't there. It's odd. Chick was the ultimate regular at Laker games. He put the Iron Man (Cal Ripken Jr., not the movie character) to shame.
He would have loved this, his wife Marge told LA Times writer T.J. Simers in an article that had me choked up.
Just the other day at work, I was telling people how I think about Chick every game as I listen to one of the worst announcers in sports during regular season games, Joel Meyers.

"I think the kid that does the radio is tremendous and I think Chick would have thought so too," Marge said. Notice how she didn't say anything about the television announcer.

Chick's favorite saying was "since Hector was a pup." Marge's was the "bunny hop and the pea patch."
I liked the "Mustard is off the hot dog," and when people were "put in the popcorn machine."

I miss the words that accompany the game because no one said them better than Chick.
Chick loved the fans and the fans loved him back.
"And he was always proud of the fact that the person who could not afford a ticket could listen to the game and still enjoy it," Marge said. "Those were his kind of fans, those were the ones he loved."

As the Times said when he passed away,
"He always knew what to say, and now we are at a loss for words."

Keys to Game 2 today:

Kobe needs to make some shots. In all three games so far this season, Kobe has been awful. He's 24-72 for a shooting percentage of 33 percent.

Derek Fisher needs more rest so he can be fresh down the stretch. Having him play 41 minutes and Jordan Farmar just seven, didn't help the Lakers in the 4th quarter.

The bench needs to get going. Fifteen points from the Mob, like in Game 1 is not going to cut it.

Trevor Ariza has to play instead of Luke Walton. Walton, 14 minutes, 0 points, two rebounds and one assist in game is an understatement to how ineffective he really was.

Ultimately, with all that said, Kobe needs to knock down his open looks, and all the other factors can be put to rest.

Ray Allen is either pretty smart or is psychic.

"If Kobe doesn't see he needs two and a half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship in about a year or two he'll be calling out to Jerry Buss that 'We need some help in here,' or 'Trade me,' " Allen said in 2004. "And we'll all be saying, 'I told you so,' when he says that."

Karma is a bitch. Matt Kemp found that out. He started a fight for no reason (he admitted it was out of frustration) and got his ass kicked by Yorvit Torrealba.

NFL Conspiracy

I usually don't believe in conspiracies but this definitely is a conspiracy.

Check it out:

My article for The Signal Newspaper on Michael Montgomery who was taken No. 36 overall in the Major League Baseball draft.

It was too good to be true

Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

It was too good to be true.

The Lakers sweeping through the playoffs like they were the 2001 Lakers with Shaq and Kobe dominating meddling opponents. And OJ Mayo riding his bycicle around campus like he was a true student athlete. If it looks suspicious, often times there's a good reason.

The Lakers weren't going to shoot 52 percent from 3-point range all series. They weren't going to steamroll a Jazz team that lost just four times at home all season.

OJ Mayo wasn't going to leave his questionable decision making and surrounding posse just because he switched coasts.

All you had to do was go inside his dorm room find the plasma tv screen or check out his clothes and diamond studded earrings. His mom isn't a stockbroker, afterall.

It's been a fairy tale season for the Lakers, and it was one for OJ Mayo. Neither of the situations is surprising. It's not going to be an easy road for the Lakers with a stacked lineup of opponents waiting in line even if they get past the Jazz and you better believe Mayo won't soon get rid of this controversy that's only on the fringe of blowing up.

Jordan Farmar is struggling: The former Taft and UCLA star is starring in his own nightmare. He's shooting 1-16 and has four points in the first four games of the series. In the past three games, he has a +/- rating of -40, worst on the team.

What would Walton do? The man who leads the league in blocked layup attempts did it again. With no one near him, Walton took his sweet time, took a dribble and laid up a shot that was swatted out of the air by Ronnie Price. The only people in the league that would have missed that layup are Luke Walton and Luke Walton. Can you imagine if that was Trevor Ariza on that play instead of Walton.

Phil playing mind games:

"I was angry at his teammates for dropping the ball in his lap," Jackson said of Kobe Bryant's overtime strategy. "I felt guys just bailed out on him."

Kobe took seven shots and the rest of the Lakers took three in overtime. You think they bailed on him, or he just tried to take over, despite having a back injury that was obviously hampering his game? At the end of regulation, the Lakers got back into the game with Kobe dishing to his teammates. He had six assists in the fourth quarter. And then he went away from what was working. Usually he can just take over when he wants. But his back wouldn't allow that and he should have realized his teammates could get the job done. It was an uncharacteristic display of misjudgment on Kobe's part this year.

I think Phil is just trying to take the criticism off Kobe and that's a good thing. Kobe's teammates didn't necessarily agree with that assertion, however.

"I wasn't hesitant," said Pau Gasol. "I just tried to help out. The ball got stuck too much. We took too many jumpers."

"I don't know what to say to that," Sasha Vujacic said. "I know sometimes Kobe just likes to take the game in his hands. It's normal."

Ronny's ejection was bullshit: What were the referees reviewing when they watched the videotape? That Ronnie Price only started bleeding when his head hit the floor? That Ronny was going for the ball and Price was out of control? Where was the intent? It was a hard foul. It's the playoffs. This wasn't a Marvin Williams frustration foul or a Brendan Haywood sending a message foul. This was Ronnie Price, a 6-foot nothing backup guard against a 6-10 power forward.

Thankfull, the Lakers, after talking to the league, expect Ronny to not be suspended. If he is, that would be a travesty on top of a travesty.

Some thoughts from a non-Laker fan on the call:

Shane: oh my god
such bullshit
terrible, terrible, terrible call
just terrible
he's like the nicest guy on the lakers
he never EVER is chaep
he hit a guy that is a pussy
when did he become lebron?
i was pissed
flagrant two for that?

What happened to the officiating? After attempting more free throws than the Jazz in the first three games, the Lakers shot 20 less free throws than the Jazz. All of a sudden, the Lakers are being less aggressive, or did the officials call the game differently?

Jazz fans haven't learned:

You would think after all the negative publicity Utah has received for booing Derek Fisher, they would have learned their lesson. Even Jazz owner Larry Miller said there was no ill will in Fisher's decision to leave the Jazz. He took less money. Come on. It's a disgrace to boo a guy with Fisher's character and the situation that he's had to endure.

Kobe says he'll play on Wednesday:

His lower back is "sore, tight, and stiff" but you didn't really think he'd sit this out, did you?

Wholesale changes:
Josh Pastner makes it official, leaving Arizona to become an assistant coach at Memphis. One of Arizona's new assistants Mike Dunlap, a former Denver Nuggest assistant went to Pierce Community College. So that can't be a good sign. An avid runner, he did once run a 100 mile race. So I'll give him props for that.

Arizona now has yet another assistant coach opening. After filling the first two with names that lack recognition as well as guys who aren't big man coaches, I'll continue to lobby for former NBA and Arizona center Sean Rooks. Last seen as a coach in the Long Beach Summer League, Rooks obviously wants to get into coaching and there's no better opportunity than coaching big men at Arizona. Maybe the Wildcats will be able to finally recruit a good big man. It would help when the guy coaching the bigs isn't 5-10.

OJ Mayo likely won't suffer any consequences after the mess he's gotten himself into, but USC, the NCAA, and some others will. Yahoo sports discusses Who's to blame for the OJ Mayo situation.

You know it's coming:

I can't wait for the announcers to call game 5 "pivotal." This coming on the heels of a pivotal game 4 and preceding a pivotal game 6.

The Celtics need a psychological advantage apparently:

The Celtics brass thinks this will work to fix their road woes.

Andruw Watch
Last season, before the Dodgers signed him to that $36 million dollar deal, Andruw Jones hit .222 with 26 homers and 94 RBIs last season. Now, I wish he would put up those kind of numbers this year.

I went to the game on Saturday, the one in which the Dodgers mustered all of three hits and fell 5-0 to the Astros. I've never seen a Dodger crowd hate a player this much. And we were sitting in the good seats, not the pavilion or reserve section. Granted, we were a part of the yelling and berating Tubby Jones, but the crowd actually mockingly cheered every time he took a pitch. And there weren't a lot of those because in his first at bat, he swung and missed on three straight pitches.
Jones said he's embarassed by his production thus far.

Good, he should be.

And finally,
The most riveting and intense video ever. This blew me away. And it's not even sports related.