MELODRAMA

DUI in Denver for Nuggets star

As if people were wondering why Carmelo Anthony was never considered a true leader and superstar in the ranks of fellow 2004 draft mates Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, there’s no need to look further than his DUI and arrest early this morning. On the heels of the Nuggets’ convincing 111-94 victory over the Rockets Sunday evening, Melo was arrested at approximately 4:00 AM, pulled over for weaving on the Denver roadways after probably kicking back a few too many Coors lights. Though Melo played arguably his worst the game of the season at the absolute worst time for the Nuggets, going 3-14 field for 11 points, Denver pulled their playoff magic number to 1, with the season finale this Wednesday against the Grizzlies while the Warriors play in Phoenix tonight and host Seattle on Wednesday.

No word yet on what type of action the team will take, though bets are Anthony will likely be in the Nuggets starting lineup for the season finale. After having beat the Warriors and taking the tiebreaker in a monumental game last Thursday in Golden State, the Nuggets retook the driver’s seat for the 8^th spot after the Saturday loss in Utah by beating the banged up Rockets in decisive fashion. While the playoff spot looks just about locked up, the question remains whether or not this incident will be a distraction for the Nuggets and their playoff run.

Thankfully for the Nuggets, they have a true leader and former league MVP in Allen Iverson and a strong bench to overcome this incident, and probably could do some damage in the playoffs with some consistent play. But after having his best season yet, being named All Star starter and putting up career rebounding numbers, this lack of judgment during such a vital late-season stretch and potentially devastating decision has got to leave Nuggets fans wondering when fully grown-ass Melo is finally going to show up. Several Nuggets players admitted the team celebrating like they won a championship after the victory over Golden State, maybe George Karl needs to give his team a reality check. With 2 All Star starters and reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the Nuggets are far too talented a team to be duking it out for the last playoff spot.

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CURSE OF ACTION

Yankees exhume shirt to exorcise the demons

The House that a Sox fan helped build.

It used to be that the significance of the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry spread beyond the borders of the American northeast, showcasing the likes of Ruth “cursing” his old employer, DiMaggio edging a .400-hitting Williams in the ’41 MVP race, Thurman Munson clocking Carlton Fisk in the grill in a home plate bru-ha-ha, and Bucky Dent joining the ranks of Yankees with expletive middle names. Now it’s becoming just plain annoying.

Earlier in the week, a Sox fan who happened to be working on the construction of the new Yankee Stadium (you’d think the Steinbrenner’s would inquire about a contractor’s favorite team on an application) buried an Ortiz jersey in the concrete foundation in an effort of bring some voodoo vibes to the Bronx. So far, it’s only brought bad luck to Ortiz himself, who is hitting a paltry 3-for-43 on the young season and can’t seem to hit a beach ball with a tennis racket.

After initially denying that the burial ever occurred, the Yankees had the supposed location of the jersey torn up by jackhammers for five hours until the tattered uniform was unearthed, ironically wrapped around the body of Jimmy Hoffa. The shirt was burned, Hoffa was re-buried.

And of course, future President of the United States Hal Steinbrenner had to chime in his usual classy way, uttering “I hope his co-workers kick the [expletive] out of him” while sipping scotch from his Michael Scott-like “World’s Best Boss” mug.

The two teams square off Sunday night in the rubber-game of their first series of the season, as this rivalry continues to look more and more like two cross-town high school football foes.

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GOOD BYE-BRATIONS

Love to declare for June Draft

Just a month after leading the UCLA Bruins to their 3^rd consecutive Pac-10 title, and a week after being unceremoniously upset, at least in the eyes of bracket-fillers nationwide, by runner-up Memphis, freshman center Kevin Love and junior guard Darren Collison have reportedly decided to leave Westwood and declare themselves for the upcoming NBA draft. Love and Collison, 1^st team and 3^rd team All-American selections respectively, were expected to hire agents in preparation for the June draft, making them ineligible to return to a Bruin team that just participated in their 3^rd straight Final Four.

According to reports, word first broke out of Love’s potential declaration to enter the ‘08 Draft via his Facebook profile, which stated, “Kevin Love is: entering the NBA draft, suckas” which was taken down soon after and replaced with “Kevin Love is: just joshin ya”.

Amidst the confusion Tuesday, Love’s mom announced that no decision had yet been made, and that Kevin would be travelling up to Oregon on Wednesday to discuss the draft with his family because, well, who needs Intro to Biology when the Chicago Bulls beckon. No word yet on whether Uncle Mike Love would be attending the family meetings and trying to persuade his nephew to go for the green.

If Love and Collison do indeed declare for the draft, the 2008 pool would become even more stacked with talent, as it already looks to be one of the deepest drafts in years. Among those already declared or likely to declare for June: damn-near-consensus #1 pick Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose and teammate CDR from Memphis, USC guard OJ Mayo, the Lopez twins from Stanford, Jerryd Bayless from Arizona, 1^st team All American D.J. Augustin, and forward Anthony Randolph from LSU.

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VINDIC-HATED?

Bucker back in Boston, current Sox flaunt rings to his face

After traveling to Saturn and back during the last week, the Red Sox finally come home to Beantown to open up the 2008 season at the Fens. Ironically, during the same ceremony where the 2007 World Series rings were presented, the grateful people in the Sox front office invited the long-infamous Billy Buckner to experience something he would have 22 years ago, if he only hadn't screwed the pooch. Buckner's psyche was not available for comment.

VIDEO

Vilified and scorned for nearly the past two decades in Red Sox lore, Bucker threw out the first pitch to a rousing ovation from the Fenway faithful as if he had hit a pennant-winning grand slam last October. It's funny how a couple World Series titles heals old wounds....

The Sox would go on to defeat the Detroit Tigers, 5-0, after seven strong innings from Daisuke Matsuzaka. Motown falls to 0-7 on the season.

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ANOTHER SHINING MOMENT....

Ahh, the Madness is finally over, and the Kansas Jayhawks are left standing now that the dust has settled. You know what that means? It's time for your favorite annual guilty pleasure that even your male hair-stylist named Cameron thinks is kinda gay.

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CRY OF THE TIGERS

Missed foul shots doom Memphis; Kansas commits grand larceny

On a Monday evening that more than made up for an arguably second-rate tournament thus far, two of the nation’s top schools all year long banged heads in a 40-minute winner-take-all showdown in central Texas.

In a game that went back-and-forth like Nick Saban’s words for a majority of the first thirty minutes of play, the Tigers began to pull away a little more than halfway through the second half, eventually boosting the margin to a game-high nine points with a few ticks over two minutes left. Faced with desperation and heart-wrenching defeat looking him dead in the eye, Kansas coach Bill Self decided it was time to exploit Memphis’ best-known Achilles’ heel: their inability to hit undefended set shots from fifteen feet out.

This may have been the most exciting and efficient displays of the foul-and-extend-the-game strategies ever seen on the basketball court. As Memphis missed crucial free throw after free throw (four misses in the waning minutes of regulation), the Jayhawks chipped away at the lead with a colossal steal and big outside shots, including the biggest bucket of the tournament coming out of the hands of Mario Chalmers, who swished in a trey with under 3 ticks left on the game clock to send the contest into only the seventh overtime in Championship Game history. A Joey Dorsey-less Tigers team looked panicked and helplessly scrambled around during the extra period, only managing five points.

Memphis’ Bo Outlaw foul-shooting will surely be under severe scrutiny in the coming days, especially with their tournament free-throws showing vast improvement over their horrid regular season numbers. But on the largest of stages, when it counted the most, with the hearts of their fans riding on their shoulders, the Tigers simply could not deliver. One can point at the “controversial” review of a perimeter jumper (and they got the call correct, John), or the lack of an NBA-ready performance from their freshman-sensation Derrick Rose in the first half (credit given for his ailment), or questionable coaching decisions, but ultimately, the never-say-die Jayhawks took full advantage of Memphis’ fatal shortcomings.

So where do things go from here? Does this win validate Self’s tenure in Lawrence? Will Rose or CDR be back in Memphis come next fall? Surely this loss will leave a nasty taste in the mouth of Calipari and his players for quite some time, but as coach said exiting the floor, “when you have a lead like that, you’re supposed to win the game”.

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THE IRON ENSHRINED

The Dream and Ewing, Sr. cement legendary status

When Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing went toe-to-toe in the 1994 NBA Finals during the "Dark Ages" of the Chicago Bulls Empire of the Nineties, we all knew we were watching two sure-fire Hall-of-Famers battle each other for the crowning achievement that had eluded both of them for their entire illustrious careers. A rematch of the classic NCAA Championship match a decade earlier, in which Ewing's Georgetown Hoyas defeated Olajuwon's Houston Cougars, Hakeem looked to settle the score. The Dream would eventually “shake” his way to the NBA Promised-Land over the Knicks in a remarkable seven game series (including the year after, against a younger "Diesel"), leaving Ewing to ponder how he just missed his opportunity for glory on the biggest stage that every ball player yearns for.

Hakeem entertained and impressed us not with his sky-flying dunks or nightly inserts in ESPN's Top Plays, but with his remarkable and sheer efficiency, lighting up scoreboards with his 18-foot baseline turn-around fall-aways that seemed to soar endlessly towards the arena rafters before finally splashing into the net. Dominant on both the offensive end and a terribly imposing presence underneath on the defensive end, Olajuwon's game was a perfect blend of yin-yang basketball prowess, much like the soft-crunchy Double Decker tacos he hawked with Shaq during the mid-90s. His was a fun and unique brand of basketball to watch, and frankly, a brand that is sorely missed. Olajuwon enters the halls of Springfield with just under 27,000 points, over 13,000 boards, a astounding 3,830 rejections, two rings with matching Finals MVP trophies, 12 All-Star bids, and one quadruple-double.

As for the man who was the face of the Georgetown Hoyas in the early eighties, the man who seemed to be born with wobbly knees wrapped in braces and icepacks, the man who is the reason that sweat-moppers have a job, the man who was blocked by Muggsy, the original urban caveman before Geico took it and ran, and the man who stole every scene in Space Jam, his Hall resume is just as remarkable. As the Big Apple's man in the middle for 15 years, Ewing led the perennial playoff-bound Knicks in numerous memorable rivalries, with Jordan's Bulls, Reggie's Pacers, and Alonzo's Heat, but was never able to capture that elusive championship in 2 tries. P-Ew holds the Knicks records in scoring, rebounds, blocks, and steals, finished with nearly 25,000 points, 11,000 boards, and just under 3,000 blocks. The 1986 Rookie of the Year was a member of 11 Eastern All Star teams, won Olympic gold twice including the Original Dream Team, and was named one of the NBA' 50 Greatest.

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