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| ...and a Shaqtridge in a Pear Tree |
I have pretty much always liked Shaq, except early on when he was still playing for LSU, and "my" Arizona Wildcats had to face him in Baton Rouge during his Freshman year when he was playing for Dale Brown. AZ lost that day, but got revenge the following year in Tucson, and then Shaq went to the NBA and began his run towards MVP’s, NBA Championships, and being fun.
My sense of O’Neal as a person, is a guy of gentle spirit and good will, coupled with a great sense of humor. A man comfortable dressing up in a huge pink Easter Bunny outfit, and visiting poor kids in an East LA day care is a guy I have to like.
SI’s Rick Reilly told a story about when his daughter was about 4 years old, he took her along to meet Shaq. At some point during the conversation, it came up that the little girl’s bedtime was 7:30 in the evening. Later, when Reilly’s daughter asked Shaq if he "was mean," he replied "Not until 7:30."
I can come up with quite a few centers I’d rather have on my all time NBA team than Shaq, but none that were more generous in making sure we were all having fun when he was around. I’m sure we’ll keep seeing and hearing from him, and I look forward to seeing him in the future.
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| Loser |
I don’t think that there are many college football fans that are ever surprised anymore when a major program and coach go down in the flames of multiple NCAA violations, but this one goes a bit beyond the norm for me.
The facts are that Tressel had pretty much always been a cheater when he coached Youngstown State to 4 NCAA Division I-AA titles, but the myopic perspective of the powers that be at Ohio State chose to not see that in Tressel, and they gave him the job.
What makes this a little more loathsome to me is the sanctimoniousness of the man, and all the "Christian values" stuff that went hand in hand with all the cheating and lies.
In this case, it wasn’t (as many have been saying) that the cover-up was worse than the "crime," it was that the guilty party really was a hypocritical scumbag. No small amount of irony that one of Tressel’s nicknames was "Senator." Yeah, him and John Edwards.
I don’t see college coaching in the man’s future, so it has to be ESPN, doesn’t it? Can the guy get a job in the NFL? Does anyone really care what hole this guy crawls into?
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| Just plain stupid |
A couple of days ago, San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean was being interviewed on a San Francisco radio station and was heard to say "If I never hear from Cousins again or he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy."
This was more than a week after Florida Marlin’s outfielder Scott Cousins had bowled over Giant’s catcher Buster Posey on a legal play at the plate, not right after the play, or the game, when emotions were still fairly raw. This was a very stupid and ugly thing for Sabean to say, especially considering that Cousin’s has been receiving death threats, and a Giants fan is still in critical condition after being beaten on opening day after a game in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.
Think what you want Brian, but you can’t say that kind of ugly stuff on the radio.
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