tim Page 215 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Economists Confirm That NBA Referees Are Biased
An academic study concludes that NBA zebras "tend to favor home teams, teams trailing in a game and teams trailing in a playoff series." Also, the team getting 10 points when Tim Donaghy is involved. [Oregonian]...

Brady Anderson Defends Angelos From Cruelties Of SI Article
"Meddling" Orioles owner Peter Angelos was named "The Worst Owner In Baseball" by SI. This has chafed former 50-home run fluke Brady Anderson, who penned a column for the Baltimore Sun to defend him. Some reasons why Angelos is great: he's compassionate, caring, a son of Greek immigrants. [Steady Bu...

FIGJAM Returns, Some People Depart
This is actually good news for those who like golf and story lines ready-made for sports columnists aching to showcase their Nicholas Sparks technique: Phil Mickelson will return to the PGA Tour, including the U.S. Open....

ESPN Engages In A Bit Of Time Travel
A tipster sent us this shot of the Chicago skyline from last night's Dodgers-Cubs broadcast on ESPN. Pretty, isn't it? Pretty much a lie, that is. The city hasn't looked like this since 2004, when the Sun-Times building you see at left gave way to Trump's unsightly monument to himself....

Tim Tebow Turns Away Hotter Stuff Than You Can Dream Of
Percy Harvin, presented without comment: "If I could trade places for a day with anyone: Tim Tebow....We saw all kind of actors and news reporters just kind of blatantly say, "Tebow, I want you." And he turned them down. I'm looking at him, like, "Man, you are crazy." [Pioneer Press]...

One-Handed Baller Nabs His Scholarship
Turns out, being a 6-foot-10 center was more important than having a full left arm for Kevin Laue, the subject of a New York Times profile and the recent recipient of a scholarship to play basketball for Manhattan College. How did Manhattan's coaches discover Laue? The Times' story, naturally. [NYT]...

The Sports Fella's Dream Is Dead
Minnesota picks ex-Pacers GM David Kahn to run their basketball operations. "I promise that nobody will outwork or outthink us as we build one of the best front offices in the league and a team that begins a climb to the top." They should put that on a plaque. [NBA.com]...

Hey, That's Not John Mayberry Sr.
John Mayberry Jr. hit his first career home run Saturday, and the Fox crew in Yankee Stadium quickly honed in on his father, former MLB player John Mayberry Sr. Only problem: It wasn't him. Ay, there's the rub. (Also, A-Rod homered and the Yankees won, spoiling the Mayberrys' day.) [Bats]...

Patriots Team Up With State Lotto; NFL Conveniently Forgets That It Pretends To Hate Gambling
Remember the NFL's feigned outrage over sports gambling in Delaware? All that sanctimonious stuff about tarnishing the game's image and leading children to degenerate lives of laying the points with the Pats on the road? Well, apparently none of that applies to state-run lotteries....

Ricky Rubio Is Already Getting The Hang Of The American Game
The ping-pong balls have barely settled, and already Ricky Rubio, the mopheaded Spaniard who reminds everyone of Pistol Pete if Pistol Pete had discovered the defensive crouch, is strongarming teams in the NBA draft....

A Sad Postmortem On NYT's <em>Play</em> Magazine
Sigh. Columbia's New York Review of Magazines has a lengthy look at the "the short, happy, tragic life" of Play, the Times' much-beloved sports magazine and, for my money, sportswriting's last good shot....

Great. We Still Don't Know If This Logo Is Racist Or Not.
A federal appeals court just sank a coup de grace through a 17-year-old lawsuit claiming the Redskins logo is offensive. Naturally, the judges left unanswered the question of whether the logo is, in fact, offensive....

Tim Brown Would Like To Clarify That Whole 'Al Davis Hates Blacks From Notre Dame' Thing
By now, you've probably heard what Tim Brown told WCNN radio in Atlanta, which was basically that Al Davis finds black athletes from Notre Dame to be a tad, oh what's the word, uppity....

USC Athletics Not Entirely Above Board
Are you sitting down for this? It seems that USC—the Trojans!—might not be the most outstanding citizens in the world of college recruiting. Set your faces to stunned....

Sports League Built On Backs Of Gamblers Makes Token Effort To Stop Sports Gambling in Delaware
So it appears the Delaware sports betting bill will be signed into law later this week. And, on cue, the NFL is making a big production of being outraged....

The Legitimate Interest In Simmons' GM Candidacy Called Into Question
The Sports Fella set Minnesotans' hearts aflutter with his semi-serious T'Wolves GM idea, resulting in thousands of pro-Simmons emails from a disillusioned fan base to a befuddled T'Wolves executive office. But somebody's rigging the numbers....

The L.A. Times Pens The Mother Of All Steroid Columns
Here it is, folks. Served up piping hot by Kurt Streeter in Sunday's Los Angeles Times — the platonic ideal of a steroid-outrage column....

Yao Breaks His Foot, Done for the Year
The Houston Rockets announced yesterday evening that Yao Ming will be out for the rest of the playoffs with a hairline fracture in his left foot. Adjust your bets accordingly....

Here's Your General Housekeeping DUAN (N)
Some things of varying importance that need to be addressed. So DUAN seems the most appropriate post to do so since I've already lost your attention until tomorrow morning. It's time to purge....

What It's Like To Get Fired In The Press Box
Last week, The Big Lead reported about some of the layoffs at the Baltimore Sun. One of the reporters who was fired, David Steele, recounts his personal trauma for Real Clear Sports....