Posted on August 19th, 2007 by
Pat Riley, the Miami Heat’s dapper coach, has stated that he will fulfill his contract through 2010. After the Heat’s pitiful showing in the playoffs last year where they were swept by the young Bulls, questions abounded about Riley’s future. They grew even louder when he refused to comment during the offseason. The Heat won the 2005 NBA Championship with the young legs of Dwayne Wade, and the experienced savvy of a group of veterans like Shaquille O’Neil, Antoine Walker, and Alonzo Mourning. Last year, Shaq showed his age, Wade broke down, and the veterans looked their age more and more as the season progressed.
By staying through 2010, Riley will be in Miami through the duration of Wade and Shaq’s contracts. But what then? Shaq will by lucky to still be able to play in three years, Mourning will be gone by then, and the rest of the Heat will certainly be on the backside of their careers. Miami has no one to trade, and is just good enough to qualify for useless draft picks. If the Heat don’t win this year, then it may be a decade before they are a competetive team again. Their offseason pickup of Penny Hardaway goes to show their woes. They are maxed out on their payroll, and have no player–other than Wade–who any GM would consider trading for.
Riley says he will be there through 2010, but does he have any players that can last that long?
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Posted on August 17th, 2007 by
Tim Donaghy, the former NBA referee who recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce, apparently will give information to the feds regarding involvement of other referees in placing bets. It is unknown if he will state that any of them bet on basketball, or even on sports for that matter, but it really doesn’t matter. The NBA has a rule against officials gambling at all, except for horseracing during the offseason.
The NBA is already reeling from this entire episode, and fans for years have felt that things were amiss with the officiating. But commissioner Stern has stated throughout this entire affair that this was an isolated event caused by a ‘rogue official.’ If it turns out that other refs were gambling on other sports, the damage might be somewhat limited. If it turns out that any were gambling on basketball, this could be one of the most major crisis in sports history.
Stern has stated time and again that the league has measures in place to track and grade the officials, but Donaghy managed to grade out among the better refs in the league. What kind of measuring stick do the use? How can Stern and the league have any credibility? Of course, it’s easy now to go back and determine which games could have been affected, but shouldn’t the league be doing exercises like this year-round?
This affair could end up being worse than the “Black Sox” scandal when a team decided to throw the World Series. It would be incredibly worse for the league officials to be caught shaving points, calling bad fouls, or otherwise adjusting the outcome of the games. Perhaps Stern is right, and the information Donaghy gives the feds will only state that some refs liked to play craps, or blackjack. Even betting on baseball or the Super Bowl would be bad, but not devastating. If any other refs are caught gambling on the NBA, then this firestorm has just begun.
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Posted on August 15th, 2007 by
If the new owners of the Seattle team get their way, that’s just what will happen. The consortium of Oklahoma big shots, led by local energy tycoons, have stated that the city of Seattle has just 60 days to come up with a new stadium or the Supersonics will be jetting off to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma would certainly look forward to having a permanent team in town. After having the New Orleans Hornets on loan for a couple of years in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, sports fans there are feeling the void. But is the move viable? The ownership group has stated that merely breaking even financially would be good enough. While the city populations of the two cities are about the same (500, 000 and change), the metro area of Seattle more than doubles Oklahoma City’s. Metro Seattle: 3.2 million. Metro Oklahoma City: 1.2. Does that matter? Apparently not. The Sonics averaged a bit less than 16,000 per game last year, while the Oklahoma City Hornets were ninth in the league in attendance averaging almost 19,000 per game.
The ownership group has stated outright that their plans are to move the team to Oklahoma City and have given October 31 as the deadline for Seattle to come through with their bid for the stadium. While seeing a new team in a new city is always exciting, and would certainly be a coup for the state of Oklahoma, would the league actually benefit? Would seeing a mid-market team drop down to an even smaller market thrill the NBA bosses? Television would certainly tune out. One only has to look at the dismal Cavs-Spurs series to see that.
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Posted on August 10th, 2007 by
Penny Hardaway was signed on Thursday by the Miami Heat in a move that makes what was already an old franchise just that much older. Maybe a decade ago this would have been a great signing, but in 2007 one can only wonder if Pat Riley’s brain functions haven’t been altered by the combination of south Florida heat and hair gel. Since 2003, Hardaway has played in a grand total of 83 games and averaged 6.4 points a game. He hasn’t played since 2005, and has spent that time recovering from knee injuries.
The trade does have a retro cache to it–Shaq and Penny in south Florida again together–but practically speaking, it seems fairly useless. The Heat is full of old stars that have difficulties playing long minutes, and when playoff time rolls around after a grueling regular season, who would put money on Shaq, ‘Zo, Penny, White Chocolate, the young-but-always-banged-up Wade, and Antoine Walker frightening anyone in the post-season? The only way this trade really makes and sense is if L’il Penny makes a comeback.
The Heat aren’t the only team looking into going back to the future. Word out of Boston is that the Celtics are trying to tempt Reggie Miller out of retirement. Miller is 42, and has been a commentator for TNT for the past two years. Rumors abound that other retirees such as Allan Houston, Charles Oakley, Shawn Kemp, and Tony Massenburg all have expressed interest in making a comeback. ESPN has an article with all the retirement plans of the geezers.
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Posted on August 6th, 2007 by
Who thought that they would be reading that? After dropping out of the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes, and thus being relegated to the realm of solid-but-not-quite-great draft picks, it looked like Danny Ainge and the long-suffering Celtics were to remain mired in their funk for a few more years. Then they pulled off the Ray Allen trade and things looked a bit better. Then they pulled off the coup and landed the Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett. Suddenly the team that went 24-58 last year has a chance to completely turn that record inside-out. Suddenly, Danny Ainge goes from goat to genius. Suddenly, the Celtics are loaded with all-stars and look to be contenders in the future. The only problem? The future needs to come soon.
Although the Celtics starting five have mega-credentials and experience, with that experience comes age. Garnett is 31, Allen 32, and Pierce will be 30 when the season starts. Garnett also is an old 31, coming into the league at 18. If the future doesn’t come within 3-4 years, it may not come at all. The Celtics will surely be able to get enough baskets with this group, but their defense will be suspect. Sure Garnett is a lively force in the middle, capable of guarding anyone from the 2-5 position, but Allen has never been known as a stopper, and Pierce even less so. The bench is non-existent and non-tested. Glen ‘Big Baby” Davis, the rookie out of LSU was a force to be reckoned with in the SEC, but can he keep his weight under control? He can score from 20 feet out, and definitely provides toughness around that basket, but can he go a full season? At point guard, Rajon Rando out of Kentucky, had breakout moments in his rookie year last year, but at the end of the day averaged 6.4 points, 3.8 assists, and nearly 2 turnovers in 23 minutes per game. Not bad, but definitely not yet a point guard that you can hang your hat on.
Of course, after winning only 24 games last year, average is still an improvement.
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