spor(t) repor(t)

Usually sports writers are struggling to find things to write about in a non-Olympic summer before football season kicks off. However, the past month has been filled with interesting sports stories and controversies, so I thought I would take some time to comment on some of them.

Naturally, we start in Kentucky, where college basketball is King. Rick Pitino, the head coach of the University of Louisville, is having some PR problems after he admitted to cheating on his wife and paying his mistress $3,000 for an abortion. He would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for said mistress trying to extort millions of dollars of hush money from him. Should Louisville have fired Pitino? Yes, but probably more because of his crappy press defense and inefficient offense.

At the same time, here in Lexington, some are worried about the recent news coming from newly hired John Calipari's former school. The University of Memphis will have to vacate its wins and Final Four appearance from the 2007-2008 season for having someone take the SAT for its star player, Derrick Rose. Even though Calipari's name was not mentioned in the NCAA report, this is the second time a team under his watch had to vacate a Final Four appearance (the first being UMass in 1996). So Calipari gets the full support of the university and governor of Kentucky despite cases of academic fraud and improper benefits to players in his two previous university head coaching jobs, on top of the fact that he depends on a horrible offense that he stole from a corrupt coach from Fresno (not named Tarkanian).

Now to the NFL controversies:

Michael Vick: served about 2 years in prison for his involvement in dog fighting/torturing/killing and will receive an additional 2- to 6-game suspension by the NFL.

Donte Stallworth: served 24 days in prison for DUI manslaughter and will be suspended for the entire NFL season.

Plaxico Burress: received a 2-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to shooting himself in the leg with an unlicensed firearm in a nightclub and will likely not receive any additional punishment from the NFL.

I know that each case above has unique details, but how does the only action that resulted in a death of a human call for merely 24 days in prison? Also, do you think that the NFL should act as a second judge and jury for legal cases by adding additional punishment?

The next story comes from the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. People are questioning the gender of 18-year-old Caster Semenya, the South African runner who crushed her competition in the women's 800m on Wednesday night. As you might imagine, this is a lot more complicated than investigating to see if there’s a man dressed up as a woman under there. Where do you draw the line between male and female? Should hermaphrodites compete as men or women? What if you have X and Y chromosomes, but no male genitalia? What if you have two X chromosomes, but no female genitalia? I feel bad for Semenya, who was teased for looking like a boy her whole life, and now the whole world is asking questions about her eligibility to race as a woman. What kind of privacy rights should Semenya have in this situation? I also think there is an element of racism as some have mentioned—perhaps this is another example of demeaning Western attitudes towards black Africans? Would people be questioning a white European or American woman who ran a really fast time and looked kind of manly?

And now to Michael Phelps. In the past year, he has: won 8 gold medals in Beijing using the controversial LZR suit made by Speedo; gotten caught with a marijuana bong at a party; and lost to Paul Biedermann at the world championships, who apparently has an even more hi-tech suit than Phelps. Phelps’s coach complained about the use of these new suits and demanded that they be banned. Apparently, any suit that might be better than the one Phelps uses should be banned.

Also, Usain Bolt is fast.

check it out!

Check out my new nerdy basketball blog and the cool banner that Lauren made for it. 

http://inside-the-numbers.blogspot.com/

what's at stake

For the winner of our March Madness contest (clockwise from top left): market bag from Chocolate Mayordomo; cinnamon-flavored chocolate from La Soledad; black pottery keychain from Dona Rosa's workshop in San Bartolo Coyotepec; chocolate from Chocolate Mayordomo; a tortuga alebrije from the MARO shop in Oaxaca City; and two postcards with Dia de los Muertos-themed artwork.

Thanks for entering!

Check back later for pictures from our trip.

hundreds—okay, maybe three—will enter, but only one will win

It's March Madness time once again. Here's a sneak peek at our picks for the Final Four and the championship game:

Lauren

Wake Forest
UConn
Pittsburgh
Syracuse

Title game: the Orange will take it all in an epic rematch against their 6 OT rival UConn.

TJ

Wake Forest
Marquette
Pittsburgh
UNC

Title game: the Big East will prove their dominance in college basketball when Pittsburgh beats Wake Forest in a landslide victory.

Which teams do you think will make it to the Final Four this year? Post your prediction in the comments, and whoever gets the most right wins a sweet prize from Oaxaca, to be determined, but specially handpicked by us. In the event of a tie, we will randomly generate a victor from among the winning entries.

For reference, here are the teams playing in the tournament, in bracket format.

If you want to play, please get your picks in before 12:20 PM ET/9:20 AM PT on Thursday, March 19. Good luck!

a few reasons why i should hate the NBA

1. David Stern. David Stern has been accused of implementing racist policies and dismissing statistically significant evidence that proves it by saying racism "doesn't exist in the NBA." Not only did he not even look at the evidence that Justin Wolfers presented, but he claimed that the NBA keeps their own better numbers (which he tried to keep private) that proves otherwise. Eventually the NBA's secret data was analyzed and further confirmed Wolfers' original claim.
2. Tim Donaghy scandal. Tim Donaghy (the NBA official who bet on the games he officiated), was labeled a "rogue official" by Stern before any investigation took place. After Donaghy claimed to have evidence that he had first hand knowledge of the NBA (and presumably David Stern) using their officials to rig games, Stern dismissed it by calling him a convicted felon and somehow dodged any investigation into any of Donaghy's claims.
3. The Oklahoma City Thunder. David Stern also has worked with his good friend Clay Bennett to steal away the former Sonics from Seattle. After a long series of threats, lies, and lawsuits, the Sonics no longer exist, and in its place is some team named by a 4 year old, or maybe someone who owns the rights to a certain AC/DC song.
4. Lebron James. His main goal in life is to become the first billionaire athlete. He refused to sign a petition for human rights in Darfur. He rejected Ralph Nader's request to speak out against Nike for using sweat shops. He actually criticized another NBA player for creating $15 shoes, because Lebron is with Nike and "...we hold our standards high," and in the process somehow made Stephon Marbury look like the good guy.
5. The NBA Cares campaign. With NBA propaganda being thrown at me at every commercial break it's hard for me to believe that they care more about getting kids to learn how to read than they do about making sure the cameras are there for their NBA Cares commercial. I'm convinced some of the NBA players involved in the program are doing some good, but I remain unconvinced that the NBA itself cares about anything other than making money.
   

So why do I still watch the NBA? Because it's still the most exciting professional sports league in the U.S. and college basketball is really only good in March.

God: BYU's #1 fan

Lauren e-mailed me a hilarious link to some guy's comment about the BYU football team the other day. Here's just a portion of his remarks.

BYU carries the name of the Church where ever it goes, if the players live good lives and they work hard they will be blessed and yes those blessing can include winning football games. Why wouldn't the Lord care? Of course he cares, he cares about everything we do and all the aspects of our lives, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt 6:3 Have any of you wondered why we are having success, it's because Bronco's got his priorities straight #1 Spirit, remember God and do his will #2 Tradition, remember what is to be a member of this fraternity, this band of brothers and live up to the expectation. Keep the traditional alive through your actions now. #3 Honor, Honor God, your teammates and the community by doing what’s expected, live worthy, do your duty, and keep your promises.

So did God call the excessive celebration penalty against Washington last week? Or maybe cast a spirit of confusion on the Washington special teams unit to allow BYU to go in there untouched to block the kick? God is really making this team successful by allowing them to beat a Div-IAA team and barely win against the worst pac-10 team.

And in case you were wondering why there are rules in football, Coach Bronco explains: "We do have the rules for a reason. They are to teach principles of class and integrity." Apparently these rules are so important to him that he has explained them clearly to all his players. Which is why BYU offensive lineman Travis Bright is quoted as saying, "I didn't know the rule."

But as for real football news, Fresno has their big game tonight against Wisconsin at 10:30 ET on the deuce. It's the first time a Big 10 school dares to come to Bulldog Stadium (even though they reportedly offered 7 figures to Fresno to move it to a neutral site). And Fresno State is so excited they put a 25 foot tall jersey up in the middle of campus.

Kanush!!

the rules are the rules

In case you missed it, BYU beat Washington after a controversial call (or controversial rule) forcing Washington to kick their tying PAT from 35 yards back rather than the typical 20 yard kick. BYU blocked that kick and won the game, which brings up discussions of whether that call should've been made, whether this rule should exist, and whether BYU would've still blocked that kick if the penalty was not called.

At best, this was a proper interpretation of a rule that almost nobody agrees with, which makes it unfortunate that this call played a critical role in how the game ended. When BYU's head coach Bronco Mendenhall was asked about it at the end of the game, instead of responding with some comment about how it's tough to end a game that way or that you always prefer players to determine the outcome of the game rather than officials, he responded with "the rules are the rules."

Why does this response sound so familiar? Maybe it has something to do with going to BYU and being told that I needed to cut my hair because the length was "almost breaking the honor code." Or not being allowed to play in a BYU intramural basketball game because I hadn't shaved that day (my team eventually got kicked out of league play for making a "mockery of the game of basketball"). Or hearing way too many students say things like "illegal is illegal" when referring to immigration (remember, Cougars don't cut corners). And that the spirit goes to bed at midnight (except on Friday nights when it goes to bed at 1:30).

red velvet bulldogs

I made some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting in honor of Fresno State's opening game against Rutgers.

I have to say that the idea of red velvet cake kind of makes me gag. I don't know...maybe it has something to do with the two ounces of red no. 40 that I just emptied into my mixing bowl? But of course, the taste of delicious cupcakes always trumps any doubts about artificial coloring, and these were really good.

In case anyone's wondering, here's what the green V is all about:

When Pat Hill became Fresno State's head coach prior to the 1997 season, he wanted to reinvigorate San Joaquin Valley pride in the Bulldogs. Because Fresno State is the only Division I football program in the Valley, a 250-mile stretch in California's midsection from Bakersfield to Modesto, Hill wanted to make the Bulldogs the "Green Bay Packers of college football." As Coach Hill often states, Fresno State is not only representing Fresno, its representing the entire Valley.

This representation of the San Joaquin Valley is displayed in the form of a green "V" on the back of the Bulldogs' helmets. The green in the "V" is a symbol to the agricultural community of the Central Valley, which is the world's richest agricultural area in export dollars. [source]

Also, Fresno State won 24-7. It had to be the cupcakes.

Team USA vs. The World

I've never claimed that The United States is the greatest best country God has ever given man on the face of the earth, but what about Team USA being the greatest best basketball team God has ever given man on the face of the earth? Well, it's arguable at best that Team USA is the best international team in the world right now. So what does that mean for the Olympics coming up in about a week? Will "Team Redemption" bring back the gold after settling for bronze in the last two world tournaments?

If Team USA plays anything that resembles last night's exhibition game against Russia they will not win gold. If they play as good as they have in the other exhibition games I would probably give them a 40% chance of winning gold (which is better than I would give any other single team). Team USA is the most talented, but not respecting opponents and not implementing any offense or defense that takes advantage of the FIBA rules allows other less talented teams to take advantage. If you watch Nike's documentary on Team USA you might believe that as long as everyone on the team is gets along, has fun, and works hard, then the gold medal is theirs (for a good analysis of the documentary see truehoop). I remember reading an interview with Coach K after they lost to Greece in 2006 and he mentioned that he was surprised at how tall the Greek players were. If you don't know the height and weight of your opponents you probably don't know how effectively they run their pick n' roll. Did no one give Coach K a program? Was the metric system too difficult for him to figure out?

The things Team USA needs to change to actually be unquestionably the best team in the world are first, learn how to scout effectively (not just learning their own game but adapting to different teams). Second, change the arrogant attitude and don't say things like "let's show them how to play our game" because it's not our game, it was invented by a Canadian, and everyone has a right to play it and there's always the possibility that they will play it better than us. Third, give credit to Puerto Rico, Italy, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece for beating us and stop claiming that we had organizational problems etc. that imply that we would've beat them if we didn't have those problems. Fourth, get rid of Coach K and hire someone who has some FIBA experience, maybe even a European. Just make sure he's sponsored by Nike.

Oh yeah, and don't forget about this. (I just wanted an excuse to show Kobe getting crossed over by some unknown on the Mexican team.)

movie of the year?

Fans Ruin ESPYs

The ESPY awards are a joke because the winners are decided by the fans. Fans in general are not informed about their choices so it turns into which name they recognize or who is their favorite regardless of the category. If you need more evidence of this, compare this list with this list. Let's start with the category of Best Breakthrough Athlete. The nominees are Adrian Petersen (Minnesota Vikings), Stephen Curry (Davidson), Kyle Busch (Nascar) and Ana Ivanocic (Tennis). And the winner is Adrian Petersen! From the little known school of Oklahoma. Seriously, people couldn't stop talking about how good this guy is since he was a freshman and now he's a breakthrough athlete? I admit that I know nothing about Nascar and as a result I have no idea if Kyle Busch should be considered. Ana Ivanovic did finally break through and win a major, but she's been knocking on that door for a little while now. But Stephen Curry is the definition of a breakthrough athlete. From Davidson, single-handedly made a run in the NCAA tournament, and was really the only thing interesting in the entire tournament (just because the final went to OT doesn't make it a good or interesting game).

Next category, Best Championship Performance. Nominees, Venus Williams (2007 Wimbledon), Josh Beckett (2007 Baseball Playoffs), Rafael Nadal (2008 French Open) and Tiger Woods (2008 U.S. Open). Of course the winner is Tiger, because everyone loves Tiger. But I don't know how you can vote against Nadal, he beat Federer in straight sets and the guy has never lost a match on the clay in Paris.

Best Play: Mississippi Miracle (Trinity College's 15 lateral play), Super Bowl: Eli Manning To David Tyree, Big 10 Stunner (Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber scores on a length-of-the-court pass to upset Indiana), Columbus Blue Jackets' Rick Nash Shoots And Scores Game Winning Goal Against Phoenix. The winner is Eli, possibly the least impressive of the 4 options. I don't know how you could vote against 15 laterals to win a game, and Rick Nash's game winning goal is much more impressive than Eli avoiding a sack and completing a pass.

Then the worst of all: Best Upset. Appalachian State: Stuns Michigan In College Football, Da' Tara: Wins The Belmont Stakes As A 38-1 Longshot, New York Giants: Beat Patriots In The Super Bowl, Fresno State: Beats Georgia To Win The College World Series. The Giants won the ESPY. Obviously I'm biased here, but Fresno was the lowest seeded team to ever win a championship in any sport. Enough said, fans shouldn't give out awards.

Kanush!

I've never really been a big baseball fan, but I've been watching the College World Series regularly the past week or so. It took the Fresno State Bulldogs to make it into the CWS for me to care about anything in college baseball. They weren't supposed to be there, but they won the WAC tournament, then went on a long run of upsets over teams ranked in the top 25. They beat Long Beach St., San Diego (twice), Arizona St. (twice), Rice, North Carolina (twice) and Georgia (twice) for the championship.

This makes Fresno State the lowest seeded team to win a NCAA National Championship in any sport ever. They also tied the record for total runs in the CWS with 62 including 14 home runs in their 7 games. And all I can say is it was the first time I've really enjoyed watching baseball.

Speaking of Nerd

So the NBA playoffs are starting so I've been reading up on some playoff predictions when I found this. It's probably too long for anyone else to want to read so let me highlight the worst part:

In fact, while much has been made of Utah's home/road splits in a negative light, I don't think enough has been made of the positive implications that has for their chances. Think about it. They were 37-4 at home, which is a winning percentage of over 90%. On the road they were 17-24, for a winning percentage of just over 41%. Not to state the obvious, but 90 is a lot closer to 100 than 41 is to zero. In other words, isn't it far more likely that Utah will win all of its home games in a given series than it is that they will lose all of their road games? Which scenario would you rather bank on?

- A team with a 41% chance of winning road games going 0-4 on the road
- A team with a 90% chance of winning home games going 2-1 at home
- A team with a 90% chance of winning home games going 3-0 at home and with a 41% chance of winning road games going at least 1-3 on the road

I know I'm a stats nerd, but does this guy really think any of this makes sense? According to his logic, the Utah Jazz have a 90% chance of winning in Utah and a 41% chance of winning in Houston, so if we treat those as independent Bernoulli random variables with p=0.9 for home games and p=0.41 for road games, that means Utah has a 78.5% chance of winning the series against Houston. Which by deduction would mean that Houston has a 21.5% chance of winning the series. So Houston, which has a better overall record and home court advantage are now somehow heavy underdogs in this series.

The problem with this logic is that we're assuming that Houston's odds of winning a game in Houston is 59% and winning a game in Utah is 10%. But if we reversed the logic and naively looked at just Houston's home and road records, they would have a 75.6% chance of winning in Houston and a 58.5% chance of winning in Utah. Which by the same statistics I used above, the Rockets have an 85.5% chance of winning the series. And last time I checked Utah can't have a 78.5% chance of beating Houston in the series at the same time that Houston has an 85.5% chance of beating Utah.

Is Fresno State Back?

If you didn't know already, I'm a huge Fresno State football fan. Fresno State football and basketball are probably the only teams that I'm really a true fan of. In professional sports I tend to have preferred teams based on style and personnel, but as those things change in a team I change my opinion of them.

If you didn't see the Fresno State game against Texas A&M in College Station, you can read a recap here. If you want to read about how Fresno St. should've won the game based on the current replay rules, you can read about it here. If you don't feel like reading that one, it basically says that Fresno had nearly a sure victory, until the Big 12 replay officials reviewed and reversed a play that is by definition "not reviewable".

One of the hardest things to do in college football is go into a top 25 opponents stadium and steal a victory. By my count, it's happened 3 times this year—South Carolina over Georgia, South Florida over Auburn, Appalachian St. over Michigan. There have been 3 matchups so far where two top 25 teams have played each other. In all 3 of those games the home team came away with the victory, although the home team was also ranked better than the away team in each of those games as well. So far in the first two weeks, top 25 teams when playing at home are 33-3, and when they play away from home they are 7-5. According to these numbers, if you're playing a top 25 team at home you have a 41.7% chance of winning, but if you play a top 25 team on the road you have a 8.3% chance of winning. Obviously these numbers are somewhat skewed because a lot of top 25 teams schedule easy opponents at home at this stage (although it didn't seem to work for Michigan), but the point is it's a lot harder to beat a top 25 in their stadium than it is in your own.

When mid-major schools win a lot of games, they seem to always be ridiculed for their weak schedules. For years now, Fresno State has played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country to try and make up for this criticism. Is it possible to completely make up for this though? Should a one loss Fresno State team be treated the same as a one loss Virginia Tech, Tennessee or Georgia team (all 3 with one loss and all 3 still ranked)? My argument is yes, they should be treated the same. But they aren't. And here's my reasoning (besides the fact that Fresno really won their game on Saturday despite what the Big 12 says). Fresno State, by the end of the season, will have played 3 top 25 teams on the road (Texas A&M, Oregon and Hawaii). Those are games that I imagine most people agree are the most difficult to win. But how does that compare to the tough SEC schedules, or Big 12 or any of the major conferences? Well, here's a list of the number of road games against top 25 teams, for the current AP top 25 teams.

USC - 3

LSU - 0

Oklahoma - 1

West Virginia - 1

Florida - 3

Texas - 1

Wisconsin - 2

Cal - 2

Louisville - 1

The Ohio St - 1

UCLA - 1

Penn St. - 0

Rutgers - 1

Nebraska - 1

Georgia Tech - 0

Arkansas - 2

South Carolina - 4

Virginia Tech - 3

Oregon - 2

Clemson - 2

Boston College - 3

Tennessee - 2

Georgia - 2

Hawaii - 0

Texas A&M - 2

That's an average of 1.6 road games against top 25 teams, so Fresno has almost double the average. South Carolina is the only top 25 school with more road games against top 25 teams than Fresno State (which makes me wonder how LSU got away with zero games, since all 4 of South Carolina's games are in the SEC). So, if Fresno ends the season with 1 or 2 losses, will they get the same treatment as these other schools? If they beat Oregon then win out in the WAC is a BCS bid possible? I doubt it, and that's not fair.

US Ignores Romel Beck Castro

If you've been following FIBA Americas tournament, you've probably heard that Team USA is the best they've been since 1992. They're more organized, more focused, playing as a team, well coached. Jerry Colangelo and Coach K must be geniuses, how did they (with most of the best basketball talent in the world) figure out how to beat countries like Venezuela, Canada (without Nash or Magloire), US Virgin Islands (without Tim Duncan) Brazil (without Varejao) and Mexico (without Najera)? Sounds exactly the same way that everyone was talking about this team when the got the bronze last year.


If you watched the Mexico game, you would've seen Kobe getting crossed over like this. Yes, that's the same Kobe that has taken the role of defensive specialist. This was by far the best play of the day in the FIBA tournament, but ESPN's and NBATV's highlights didn't show this play. Not only that but top 10 plays of the day in the FIBA tournament didn't include it. Not even in the top 10 for the day? Did Kobe pay someone off to make sure that nobody saw him almost fall over? Good thing someone was filming their TV during this game, otherwise it might've disappeared forever. Here's some numbers from the game. In the second quarter Mexico outscored the U.S. 28-20. For quarters 2,3 and 4 combined the U.S. outscored Mexico 82-77. That's a 5 point advantage for the U.S. in 3 quarters. If Mexico can keep the margin that close in 3 quarters what will Argentina be able to do in 4? Since the current U.S. team has the goal of winning the gold in Bejing, maybe the better question is what will a full-strength Argentina, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc. be able to do next year?

2 Questions for David Stern

I guess it's more like 2 topics to discuss with Stern, since each will likely end up having several questions that I think fans of the NBA deserve to have answered.

First topic: What is the league doing to prevent NBA teams from putting some unimportant player in a game to start an "altercation" to get important players to take a few steps off the bench? I read one ESPN columnist suggest that if that happened, it would be really obvious and the NBA would sniff it out and punish the team accordingly. My response to that would be: it just happened. No punishment for the Spurs and they got exactly what they wanted. In a league where the head coach has an extremely high salary and extremely low job security, there's a lot to benefit from having a couple of important guys on the opposing team sit out. Especially when winning a series may mean that a coach gets to keep his job. Also, it'll always be easy to find someone in America who's willing to accept a $1 million per year pay check to be a professional fan who's willing to start altercations on call. So what is the NBA doing? I see nothing being done and that's a problem.

Second topic: How can a player be punished for another player's action? David Stern's initial response to this would be that Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were punished for their own actions because they got off the bench. That's true, but that's not entirely why they are being punished. So I would have to start off with the incident involving Duncan in the 2nd quarter. If Jumaine Jones would've punched Elson in the face after they got tangled up, would Tim Duncan have been suspended? If the answer is no, I would call Stern a biased Spurs fans that's using his power to give his favorite team the best chance at winning. If the answer is yes, I would say why is Duncan being punished for the actions of Jumaine Jones? Duncan didn't do anything differently, but if you can call it an altercation, he gets punished. The same thing goes for Amare and Diaw—they were running to help Nash when it was a flagrant foul, not an altercation. When it became an altercation, they ran back to the bench. So why are Amare and Diaw being punished because Horry and Bell and other players on the court escalated it to a so-called altercation?

If he can't answer those questions well enough to satisfy the fans, he should be removed from his duties as NBA commissioner and he can take Stu Jackson with him. The NBA is headed for a downward spiral, and eventually some star in their prime will get frustrated enough to sign with a European team that's willing to pay NBA money for the recognition they'd get.

Way to be consistent, David Stern.

I wanted to criticize David Stern before this suspension came out, but I wanted it to be official. Horry gets a 2 game suspension, and Amare and Diaw each get one game. The NBA, several years ago, decided to come up with this rule that basically states that if you're on the bench and a fight breaks out and you step onto the court, you get an automatic one game suspension.

First, let me give you the prevailing argument for the suspension, then I'll explain why it's wrong. People say that you need to be consistent with suspensions. If you let Amare off the hook, how could you suspend someone later for coming off the bench? I understand that argument, but it's not accurate, it's not fair, and they need to change this rule, or at least the way they enforce it.

How do you enforce it in a future incident if you don't suspend Amare? That's easy. If players have a normal reaction to a fight, then remember (or have coaches help them remember) the rule and go right back to the bench without escalating the conflict or having any contact with players on court, then don't suspend them. Otherwise, you have the right to suspend them (assuming you actually want to keep this rule at all, which I don't).

Now let me tell you why this decision can potentially hurt the NBA. In playoff basketball, when you play the same team several times in a row, it would be beneficial to have a non-contributing player with no other purpose than to start fights. If some unimportant player on your team, (aka Robert Horry), decides to toss a player to the floor and can get a 3 second reaction from any player on the opposing bench (aka Amare and Diaw) then you win. The opposing team loses two good players for one game and your team loses one crappy player for two games. I know most head coaches aren't smart, but they can all figure this one out. I'm not saying this is what Horry or the Spurs had in mind with this play, but I can't completely rule it out either. That's beside the point, though. The point is, the team that was clearly in the wrong is being rewarded.

This goes way beyond sending in a "goon" to start a fight with the opposing team's best player, because in that circumstance, the player being attacked would have to throw a punch or participate in the fight in some way to warrant an ejection. These guys have been punished, essentially, for taking 3 more steps than they should have. According to the league, those 3 steps are worse than kicking an opposing players Achilles or kneeing the opposing player in the nuts.

During a similar situation in the second quarter, when a player from the Spurs dunked and landed on a player from the Suns, they got tangled up and it looked like it could escalate, Tim Duncan got up from the bench and took a few steps onto the court. How can you punish Amare for taking a few extra steps and not Duncan? Probably for the same reason that if Duncan gets ejected for laughing about a call, the ref gets fired. But if a ref ejects Baron Davis for clapping at no one in particular there's no punishment for the ref. I'm not saying that Duncan should be suspended, and I'm not saying that the ref that ejected him didn't deserve what he got. What I am saying is, Amare should not be suspended either, and the ref that ejected Baron Davis should've been punished.

GS Warriors are the Swampcoolahs

There's plenty of reasons to like the Golden State Warriors. For one, they just accomplished the greatest upset in NBA history. They also play a fast paced, entertaining style that's easy to enjoy. Their star player has an amazing beard. They have a player who consistently shoots free throws like this. The fans where bright yellow shirts that say "We Believe." They have no center and up to 4 guards on the floor at any given time. Charles Barkley hates them.

During game 2, I realized the real reason why so many people like them. And that is because they are the Swampcoolahs. Reggie Miller pointed this out during the game after Baron Davis threw up a pretty crazy shot that went in somehow. Miller said, "There's no such thing as a bad shot when you're a Golden State Warrior."

From the words of Reggie Miller's mouth, the Golden State Warriors are the Swampcoolahs.

Biggest upset ever!

Not only did the Warriors upset the #1 seed, they did so in a seven game series (never before done by an 8 seed) and they won the clinching game on their home floor (also never before done by an 8 seed). There have only been two previous 8 over 1 upsets in NBA history since they moved to the 16 team format in 1984. The first was Denver over Seattle in 1994, which likely could've been the Sonics' back-to-back championships instead of Houston's if they had a best of 7 first round like they do now, but I guess we'll never know. The second one barely even counts because it was in the shortened season due to the lock-out in 2000. In both of those cases, they came down to the last possession of game 5 to be decided, in the first case there was an OT in game 4 that Denver edged out to force game 5, then another OT game in to allow Mutombo to scream on the floor holding the ball. The other one was decided by Allan Houston's shot that seemed to bounce around forever as the buzzer sounded.

This series was much different. Not only did the Warriors beat the Mavericks 4 times instead of 3, but they seemed to look like the team that had 67 regular season wins. No time in this series did I ever think, "Dallas is really the better team here." I don't blame it on Don Nelson's big brother syndrome (you know, the big brother always wins no matter how much better the younger brother is) either. I do give Don Nelson a lot of credit, even though I've complained about him ruining the Warriors forever in the mid-90s. He's completely redeemed himself in my mind--just by treating his players better he gets better production from them. Read what Matt Barnes has to say about his coach. So not only did Golden State beat the Mavs with a game buffer (4-2 in the series) but they did so in a 111-86 blowout. This will mark the first time that an MVP will have to take a break from vacation to receive his award since the 16 team playoff format started (assuming Dirk gets MVP).

I also think something should be said about the officiating in this series. Mark Cuban has been known to complain about the refs, but I don't think he can say with a straight face that the refs favored the Warriors. Just looking at the first half of this game, it seemed to obviously favor the Mavs. In the only two games that the Warriors lost the refs seemed to favor the Mavs. Baron Davis got thrown out of game 2 for a combination of two bogus technicals. The first was for trying to play peacemaker in a mild confrontation between the two teams. And the second was for clapping, not saying a word, just clapping. Then in game 5 Baron Davis was given his 6th foul while GS was only down by 1, because the ref thought Davis was trying to foul. But when you look at it, Davis didn't even touch the Mavs player. The refs getting rid of the leader of arguably the most dependent and emotional team in competitive games is the only reason the Mavs got a win.

Nobody gave the Warriors a chance going into the series even though they proved they could beat the Mavs. Even after a surprising game 1, many still predicted the Mavs in 5. After proving they belong and going up 3-1, still people were saying the Mavs would show they are the superior team and come back to win in 7. Now the Warriors move on and the Mavs go home for a long summer.

Indie rock music is the new pornography

During TNT's coverage of Game 4 between the Warriors and Mavericks, Charles Barkley once again demonstrates his struggles with geography:

I love Baron Davis, love Don Nelson . . . [but] Golden State as a city sucks.

Anyone remember when they gave Barkley a map of the world and a list of countries to identify? I can't recall the exact details, but he did something like place Bolivia in Europe.

Anyway, the NBA has come a long way since its lame-o "NBA Cares" Rob Thomas days now that they have the New Pornographers as the voice of the playoffs. Maybe Carl Newman figured that it couldn't be any worse than selling out to the University of Phoenix. Which can't be any worse than selling out to the Outback Steakhouse (Of Montreal), Mitsubishi (Flaming Lips), M&Ms (Iron & Wine), Nissan (Modest Mouse), UPS (Postal Service), or Cesar dog food (Magnetic Fields). And no, I'm not making the last one up.

I guess I don't really mind, since we all have to make a living somehow. It's just kind of weird.

(By the way, Carl explains the whole University of Phoenix thing in a pretty amusing interview with Pitchfork that you can read here.)