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Fun & Games for Thursday, June 5, 2008 |
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June 05, 2008 |
≡ Fun & Games ≡
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, our format now includes a weekly intelligence briefing for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and “Fun & Games” on Thursdays. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> Boston, Ma.: With the NBA Finals starting Thursday night, oddmakers are working overtime on standard and silly propositions concerning the Lakers and Celtics:
Despite a 57-25 record in the regular season compared to 66-16 for Boston, the Lakers are favored to win: Los Angeles is a 1-2 favorite while the Celtics are 4-3.
The Celtics are favored by 2 1/2 points in game one, with an over-under of 192, so the final is projected to be Boston 97, Los Angeles 95.
On BoDog,com, you can bet on how many games will be played in the Finals: a sweep in four (by either team) is 6-1, a five-game series is 2-1, as is a six-game or seven-game series.
You can bet on whether the final game of this series will be held at Staples Center or the T.D. Banknorth Garden. You have to put up $175 to try to win $100 on the Garden, but a $100 wager on Staples Center could return $145. Translation: the series will go six or seven games.
Who will be the Finals MVP? Kobe Bryant is 1-2, followed by Kevin Garnett (3-1), Paul Pierce (9-2), Ray Allen (10-1) and Pau Gasol (12-1). Ronny Turiaf of the Lakers is 100-1.
How many points will Bryant average? The line is 28 1/2; you have to put up $105 to win $100 on the under, but it takes $125 to try to win $100 on the over.
How many points and rebounds (combined) will Garnett average? The line is 32; you have to put up $110 to try to win $100 on the under, or $120 to try to win $100 on the over.
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: Got to love this headline from the New York Post about Yankee Joba Chamberlain’s starting debut, pulled from the game after 2 1/3 innings, giving up four walks, one hit and two runs to the Toronto Blue Jays:
JOBA IS STOPPED FOR JAY-WALKING
You don’t even get headlines like that in The Onion! One other thing from Mark Hale’s story: “Besides Chamberlain’s shaky outing, Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez were shelled, allowing six runs in one-third of an inning. The Yanks have lost three straight and are in the AL East basement.”
= The NBA =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: In laid-back Los Angeles, the Laker car flags are blowing in the breeze and there’s this sign in front of a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor:
Watch the Lakers
Wear the jersey and get 10% off
Who says Laker fans don’t dress for success!
>> Memphis, Tn.: Truth is always stranger than fiction. Here’s an unbelievable story from Yahoo! Sports about Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley and the club’s trade of Pau Gasol to the Lakers:
For the first time, even Heisley wondered whether his general manager, Chris Wallace, blew it by caving in so soon to the Lakers.
“I don’t know if I got the most value,” Heisley confessed. “Maybe our people should have shopped Gasol more and maybe we would’ve gotten more, done a better deal. Maybe Chris did call every team in the league. I don’t think he did, but maybe he should’ve . . .”
Heisley also said that while the Bulls offered a boatload of players for Gasol, “Chicago wouldn’t offer us any of their good, core players,” and added that “we needed to do a deal that would give us cap space and draft picks.” That’s what they got from the Lakers: an expiring contract in Kwame Brown, a promising rookie point guard in Javaris Crittenton, the rights to Marc Gasol, the contract of Aaron McKie and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010.
Comment: Heisley complained bitterly in the Yahoo! story that his team is terrible, but the Grizzlies don’t get the top pick in the draft. Even Jerry West couldn’t turn the Grizzlies around. Maybe it’s the owner? He’s trying to sell the team, but no one is buying . . . at least not at his asking price. Time for a sale!
>> Detroit, Mi.: Winning isn’t enough, at least in Detroit.
General manager Joe Dumars fired Flip Saunders after three seasons, continuing the revolving door in Detroit that hasn’t stopped since Chuck Daly ended his nine-year run in 1992. Since then, eight coaches have come and gone: Ron Rothstein (1 season), Don Chaney (2), Doug Collins (3), Alvin Gentry (3), George Irvine (2), Rick Carlisle (2), Larry Brown (2) and Saunders (3).
In his eight years as general manager, Dumars has seen four coaches exit (Irvine, Carlisle, Brown and Saunders) and will now be hiring his fourth coach. Carlisle, Brown and Saunders each won at least 50 games in their final seasons, and all three got to at least the Eastern Conference finals. But that’s not good enough.
Comment: Has anyone considered that the Pistons could use better players? Just asking . . .
>> Sacramento, Ca.: Former University of California and Phoenix Suns star Kevin Johnson was hardly considered a shoo-in, but it appears he’ll be in a run-off with incumbent Heather Fargo in the Sacramento mayoral election.
Johnson, who campaigned to make the city more of a destination and fight crime, polled 47% of the vote to just 40% for Fargo with five other candidates receiving the other 13% of the vote. He’ll be the favorite in November, but as the current campaign was more about mudslinging than issues, look for more negative campaigning in the fall.
= Boxing =
>> Sheffield, England: London’s The Sun newspaper ran a headline on Wednesday – the day after the Montana and South Dakota primaries – reading “Clinton Won’t Stop!”
However, it had nothing to do with the U.S. Presidential race and was instead a story on Sheffield-based Clinton Woods, who lost his IBF light-heavyweight crown to Antonio Tarver in April. Said Woods, “I feel I have a point to prove after losing to Tarver. That wasn’t me in the ring. There’s no way I want to call it a day after that performance.”
= Track & Field =
>> London, England: Sebastian Coe, one of the greatest middle-distance runners in history and now the head of the organizing committee for the 2012 Games, lauded Michael Johnson for handing back his gold medal from the 4 x 400-meter relay from 2000 as it turns out that his three teammates on that run all confessed to doping. But Coe also ripped the U.S., the world’s leading track & field nation since at least the 1896 Olympic Games, in a guest column in The Telegraph on Wednesday:
“Even with the unconscionable state-supported drug programmes in the old Soviet Union and large part of the Eastern bloc, the real damage to my sport for too long has been inflicted by American track and field.”
And for good measure, he added “It is important that our sport has a strong presence in all five continents, which lies at the heart of IAAF strategy, but the mortgages that keep roofs over the heads of American track and field performers are ostensibly paid from their exposure and the marketing skills of our sport in Europe and elsewhere – not from their own backyard.”
Comment: It’s easy to pile on U.S. athletes and for that matter, on USA Track & Field, which currently has no Executive Director. What’s harder is the reality that, on a worldwide basis, only Europe and Asia (really, Japan) generate much spectator and/or television interest in track & field. And the television audiences are worryingly lower than in the 1980s and 1990s.
American athletes should be clean and programs like Project Believe, in which high–profile stars like Allyson Felix, Tyson Gay and Lauryn Williams are tested repeatedly, far in excess of the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency, are crucial to regaining spectator trust. But what track & field actually needs is a six-month-long, worldwide tour of meets a la golf and tennis that includes the U.S., South America and Africa in addition to Europe and Asia and has a designated day or days each week when the sport can be seen. Soccer throughout Europe is generally on Wednesdays and Saturdays; in the U.S., college football is on Saturday and the NFL is on Sunday.
It’s hard to sell a product you can’t see and the real damage to track & field is that over the past 10-15 years, it has become invisible.
>> London, England: As if in counterpoint to Coe’s editorial, convicted drug cheat Dwain Chambers won the 100 meters in 10.26 in a meet in Kalamata, Greece on Wednesday. That mark easily qualifies him for the British Olympic Trials (qualifying standard: 10.85), but to get in, he’s ready to launch a lawsuit against the British Olympic Association.
His suit would be to allow him to compete in the Trials in Birmingham on July 11 and potentially to be named to the British Olympic team. “I have to do this,” he told the Web site InsideTheGames.com. “I’ve got to fight for what I believe in.” Chambers, now 30, points out that he served his two-year suspension for doping and should now be able to compete freely at all levels, including the Olympic Games.
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Beijing, China: While human rights groups have made a lot of noise about conditions in China, the mettle of those groups may now be on the line.
In an article about the wide variety of restrictions the Chinese are putting on visitors to the Games – including “anything detrimental to China’s politics, economy, culture or moral standards, including printed material, film negatives, photos, records, movies, tape recordings, videotapes, optical discs and other items” – Keith Bradsher of the New York Times also noted:
“Jill Savitt, the executive director of Dream for Darfur, which wants China to put more pressure on the Sudanese government to bring peace to the Darfur region in western Sudan, said the group had been considering ways to protest in Beijing during the Olympics, like having visitors wear green, a color associated with Sudan.
“But the earthquake last month, together with the controversy over the sometimes violent protests by Tibet supporters during the Olympic torch relay, has prompted Dream for Darfur to reassess its plans, and no decision has been made, she said.”
Comment: Here is the ultimate test for the folks supporting Darfur. If they can’t bring themselves to make a fuss about Chinese policies during the one event when the whole world will be watching and thinking about China, then the group is well named. They’re just dreaming about Darfur and not doing anything to reach their avowed goal. These Chinese are clearly, absolutely and doggedly determined that the 2008 Olympic Games will be a success; are those who protest just as determined? Maybe not.
>> Beijing, China: These chilling words came from Shaun Rein, the managing director of the China Market Research Group:
“These days, it doesn’t make much sense to sponsor the Olympics, as you cannot set yourself apart from others any more as brand awareness is diluted.”
That’s bad news for Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric and the rest of the dozen TOP sponsors who have paid mega-millions for the rights to associate themselves officially with the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Games. The reason is that despite the IOC’s increased attention to ambush marketing, there is no way to stop it.
Take, for example, the case of Li Ning, the gymnastics triple gold medalist from 1984 who is now China’s largest sportswear retailer. He’s not an Olympic sponsor of his home-country Games in Beijing this August. But a Yahoo! News story noted that he will supply apparel – with visible logos on shirts and shoes – to CCTV, the state-run broadcaster which will broadcast the Games inside China.
There are many other examples of clever attachment by marketers to athletes and teams taking part in the Games which are not IOC or organizing committee sponsors. Their cause is aided by over-the-top sponsor protection schemes. Reporter Robert Woodward, in his Yahoo! News story noted:
“Organizers at the Turin Winter Games in 2006 covered up reporters’ laptop logos with tape so non-sponsors’ names could not feature in camera shots.
“At the soccer World Cup in 2006, hundreds of Dutch fans were asked to remove their orange trousers before entering a stadium because the clothing advertised a non-sponsoring beer company.”
Will this ever end? No.
~ Rich Perelman
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