mcinerney

There have been a lot of collapses in sports at all levels. However, the one I witnessed last night in the NCAA Championship game ranks near the top. From a quick glance at the headlines this morning, not enough is being made of this collapse.

Memphis had the Championship in their hands with 2:12 left and a nine point lead. They must have collectively decided they weren’t interested, because it took a team effort and collaborative collapse to allow KU to win the game.

There is plenty of debate this morning about whether or not Memphis should have fouled a KU player before they even got a three pointer off. The problem is that gives KU two points and puts Memphis back at the free-throw line, which was potentially a bigger problem. Assuming Memphis misses those two free-throws, KU has the ball with five or six seconds left and they would have been trailing by only one. I think if you are Memphis you foul KU only if you are confident you can make your own free throws.

Memphis showed how dumb they are last night. CDR should have received a technical when he spiked the ball on the floor up two with 10 seconds left. That would have given KU two shots and the ball. Memphis fell apart at the line down the stretch. Calipari swore that free throw shooting would not be the end of them, but that proved false. They ranked 339th out of 341 teams by shooting 59% for the season.

Points I found interesting from the game last night:
• CDR went for a layup knowing he was going to get fouled with 15 seconds left….don’t you pull that out in an effort to eat up more clock? They were already in the double bonus so he was going to get two shots anyway.
• When D. Rose hit that fade away J as the shot clock expired…that should have been KU’s ball. The replay confirmed it. The announcers and players missed it. The ball bounced in play and before it touched anything out of bounds one of the Memphis players grabbed it (whilst standing out of bounds). That is KU ball all day.
• Memphis threw away the inbounds pass with two minutes left which resulted in a KU three. How does this happen?
• KU made some clutch plays to win that game, but more than that Memphis gave it away.

We had our Fantasy Basketball draft and I am bruised and beaten. I hated my team before I even made a pick. Usually we have 11 teams in our league. This year we have nine. I had the eighth pick. I could see what was going to happen and I felt helpless. LeBron, KG, Kobe….Carmello, Agent 0, Dirk…. I was hoping, praying, begging for the team in front of me to let Dwight Howard slide. It didn’t happen. For those who know me, I probably don’t have to continue. You know what happened. I was stuck. Every year I battle between taking players I enjoy and players that I think will help me win the fantasy league. Here I was at pick # 8, not a player on my roster and I knew I was going to hate my team. All eyes in the room were on me. It was like driving on ice and needing to stop. You start to slide, you know you are going to hit the other car and there is nothing you can do about it. Then the words that I will forever regret came out of my mouth….

”I will take Tim Duncan.”

Honestly, I don’t even remember saying it. It’s all a blur now. My options at that time were Dwayne Wade (hurt), Vince Carter (I’ve done the Vince Carter experiment and it was terrible), Chris Bosh (nursing a knee), Boozer (always an injury waiting to happen), Yao Ming (injury prone), McGrady (injury prone), AI (I thought he may drop off because of playing in Denver with Carmelo Anthony), Paul Pierce (question mark with KG and Ray Allen in town), Al Jefferson (new team, carrying the load, etc.), and Amare Stoudemire (coming off a pretty good year). Knowing the next team got two picks, I assumed Stoudemire would be available given the previous year’s stats. He was an I took him. We are two weeks into the season and he is having a terrible year. I went on to take other players all having terrible years (see Luol Deng).

Anyway, the draft is over, we are two weeks into our season and I am 0-2. My team is terrible. Looking back, if all it took for Tim Duncan to become very average was for me to draft him on my fantasy team, I would have done this eight years ago. I would have done my part to help the T-Wolves advance in the playoffs. Maybe it is a good thing I draft Timmy. He’s terrible and I love every minute of it.

Fantasy sports is always fun to play. It makes me care how Damien Wilkins played on a given night. Without fantasy sports, that wouldn’t happen. I do wish my team was better, but what can I expect? The words “I will take Tim Duncan” allegedly came out of my mouth.

Some friends and I have played fantasy basketball for about 15 years now. Some teams have left and others have joined. The league started when we were in college. When we graduated we decided we could not let this league fall apart. Mainly because we figured it is a good reason to get together every year.

As time elapsed there were more and more online leagues available. We have thrown around the idea of using an online league just from an ease of use standpoint. One thing we will not compromise on is having the draft in person. Sure most of these leagues are setup to allow the draft to happen online as well, but our league has really been focused on the draft. We have a fair amount of participation from owners living in Chicago and Minneapolis. We also have an owner in the Bay Area. It is really a good way to have a “guys weekend.”

It used to be that we said the winner of the league would host the following year’s draft. That meant if someone in Chicago won the league, the Mpls. folks would have to (as if it is a bad thing) fly to Chicago for the next year’s draft. Over the years we have just decided to keep the draft in Minneapolis.

Well, this coming weekend is “Draft Weekend.” It really isn’t a one day event. Friday night the lie’s and rumors begin. A few things that may be mentioned Friday evening are:
• The rumor is Kobe is going to Miami to be with Shaq again. He’ll get less shots in Miami than he was getting in LA.
• I can’t believe how well Adam Morrison has been playing in the pre-season.
• What do you think about Tim Hardaway’s comeback effort? Do you think he’ll start in Memphis?
• I can’t believe Rashard Lewis just got busted for steroids

The actual draft will happen Saturday. The fun really begins with our own lottery. Put all of the teams in a hat and start picking them out. The first team out of the hat will draft last. The last team out gets the first pick.

Once the picks begin, the trash talking really gets underway. We don’t get three picks into the draft and someone is blurting out, “First mistake of the draft!” or “Whoa, you want him in the second round even though he’ll be out until February?” These are great only because we have always had the rule that if you say a name, he is on your team. You cannot undo the pick. This is mainly because there is nothing funnier than having someone draft a guy that is out for the year and have everyone immediately burst out laughing.

Through the course of the season more trash talking will happen, mainly through email and our chat room. It is all in good fun and gives us a good excuse to stay in touch.

To the teams that will be flying in….after this weekend, we’ll see you in Vegas in March. Until then, I’d highly recommend checking the injury report AND police reports this year. You may just change your draft strategy.

I have been playing softball regularly since 1993.  That means I am finishing my 15^th year of softball.  That makes me feel old!  I was talking with some friends and tried to figure out how many softball games I have played in my life.  I only play once per week now, but I used to play more (three times per week plus occasional weekend tournaments).

I broke it down this way:
1993-1995’ish: Roughly 20 games per year with a team of high school friends and a few tournaments each season = 75
1995-current: Roughly 20 games per year with some old work friends in the summer plus a couple of “one day events” = 260
1995-current: Three or four, maybe five years of fall ball with 14 games per season = 56
1994-1996’ish: 20 games per year with some college friends = 60
1998-2001’ish: 20 games per year with a friend’s team and his coworkers (plus a few tournaments) = 60
1998-2002’ish: 20 games per year with some random guys (friends of friends) plus quite a few tournaments = 180

I went with 20 games per year as I end up missing one or two weeks each year because of work or other reasons.  Generally the seasons are 22 or 24 games in the summer and 14 games in the fall.  That is almost 700 softball games.  That seems high, but I don’t remember missing too many games.  I could have the years wrong, but even if I’m a year strong on one or two of them, and I’m not sure I am, it is still well over 600.  I remember a few years where I was playing double headers Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights and tournaments on the weekend. 
 
I guess I am old.  If I have played 650 total games in 15 years that would be an average of about 43 games per year.  That seems like a lot, but there were a few years where I played three nights per week and played in a handful of tournaments.  Even now if I play 24 summer games and 14 fall league games that is 38….maybe the average of 43 games per year is right (or possibly low).  Assuming I’ll play all 14 fall league games this year, I will have played 22 summer games, 14 fall league and six in a weekend tournament.  That’s 42, and it didn’t seem like I played that much. 
 
I’m starting to think a conservative number is 650 games.  Again, that makes me feel old.

There are countless reasons to enjoy softball.  Being outdoors, the laughing and joking during and after the games, the chance to be competitive and maybe the greatest thing is hearing the lineup called for each inning.  Playing with the same guys for a number of years usually ends up in calling each other by their nickname.  A lineup could read: Moose, Hollywood, Pig, Shooter, Flash, Shorty, Deuce…

Based on names from a friend’s squad, their lineup could read: Cozzie, Moore, Moore, Byrnes, Whipple, Uber.  Or, it could read: Moore, Cozzie, Uber, Bush, Moore, Whipple, Byrnes… Read that fast like you are calling out a lineup.  You can’t make stuff like that up.  Just fantastic. If you don’t see the humor in that lineup, well, stick with book club and avoid the softball field.

Good times on the softball field.  After 650 or so games, I may love playing softball more now than I did my first year.  Softball is FUN! 

I am too angry, upset, depressed, etc. to write about the topic thoroughly, but I’ll give it a quick try.

Psychologists would tell you that you need to talk about things that upset you this much.  Right now, this blog is my therapist. 

Rumor has it that the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to a trade involving Kevin Garnett (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2954127).  Let me state that another way, the Wolves are apparently going to trade the only marketable face the franchise has known in its almost 20 years of existence. 

A month ago I came to the realization that this might happen and it might be the only way the Wolves could get better as a team.  I even tried to put myself in Glen Taylor’s shoes.  If I owned the Wolves, would I trade KG and try to get some proven talent and some draft picks?  I’m not sure.  A team never gets fair value for trading away a superstar.  I also still feel the Wolves are closer to a championship trying to find the pieces to play alongside Garnett than they would be dealing Garnett and trying to build with young players.  There are a lot of teams with nice young players that are absolutely terrible teams (see Atlanta with Josh Smith, Josh Childress, Joe Johnson, Marvin & Shelden Williams and Charlotte with Sean May, Emeka Okafur, Raymond Felton and Gerald Wallace and now Jason Richardson).  Having a group of young players might be fun to watch, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to a championship team. 

So what are the parameters of this potential trade?  From the sounds of it, the trade is EXACTLY the same thing Boston was offering one month ago, MINUS the #5 overall pick.  How in the world does this make sense?  If you were buying a car and the dealer said it was $40k and you turned it down, would you go back a month later and buy it for $50k?  Unbelievable. 

Rumor has it the actual specifics of the trade have Boston sending Al Jefferson (solid player who is 22 years old and averaged 16.0ppg and 10.9rpg last season in 69 games), Ryan Gomes (nice player, but not great), Gerald Green (an amazing athlete who knows as much about basketball as I know about space travel), Sebastian Telfair (a thug who likes to pack heat and would be a terrible influence for the young players the Wolves DO have) and Theo Ratliff (a washed up player included simply to make the contracts work). 

If the Wolves decided to trade KG and get younger, I would not agree, but could understand that there was a direction for the franchise.  Al Jefferson may turn into a franchise player, and that’s great. But again this is so upsetting because this is the same trade that was on the table a month ago MINUS the #5 overall pick (used for a very talented Jeff Green from Georgetown).  There is no way to explain this current trade rumor to me that makes sense.  We won’t want any of the Celtics draft picks because having Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and KG will earn a #30 overall pick or worse. 

Glen Taylor, remember how the Vikings made the Dallas Cowboys a dynasty by trading for Hershel Walker? 

I am absolutely convinced that I could perform my current job AND Kevin McHale’s job better than he is doing his job now.  Is this a situation where McFale approached Danny Ainge and said, let’s make Boston a contender, I’ll quit my job (or get fired) with the Wolves, fly out to Boston and we’ll both smoke cigars in Red’s old office. 

One more point.

Boston was able to get Ray Allen from the Sonics for Wally Szczerbiak (big contract), the #5 pick and a handful of scrubs.  Did McFale even consider calling the Sonics and offering Ricky Davis (a 20ppg scorer who could go away at the end of the year if you wanted), Troy Hudson (who could be bought out) and the #7 pick (turned out to be Corey Brewer)?  Would the Wolves be better with a lineup of Foye, Ray Allen and KG or Foye, Ricky Davis and Al Jefferson? 

Again, if they made a decision to trade KG, that would be one thing.  But, they are agreeing to a deal that was made a month ago only missing a possible future All-Star. 

McFale gets paid to make horrible decisions like this.  Amazing.