Lin Spins Out – ESPN crashes and burns

Jeremy and Amare, with 'Melo and JR coming soon

It’s only been about a week, and I am already very tired of all the different ways headline makers have attempted to be cute, clever, and alliterative in using (New York Knick’s point guard) Jeremy Lin’s last name in story headlines. The kid has become the biggest story of the year in the NBA, and in a world where sports talk radio is a 24/7 proposition, all the wags and pundits need something to talk about aside from the Peyton Manning soap opera.

It’s not surprising to me that it was only a matter of a short period of time before we saw the racial angle in some of those game stories with Lin.

We had "The Knicks Good Fortune" and an accompanying fortune cookie, in extremely poor taste. Then, the New York Post (one of the biggest rags in the country) had a sports page headline shouting "Amasian!" This apparently invoking the memory of the Amazin’ Mets, all the way back in the early 1960’s.

Who thought this was a good idea?

However, the worst one (so far?) occurred last night however, when ESPN sent out a NY Knick game story to folks with ESPN apps on mobile devices. The Knicks lost their game last night, and some genius came up with this one:

"Chink in the Armor"

How stupid and pathetic is that?

Hey, I get the fact that Lin’s Asian-American roots are a big part of the attraction, because we have never had someone of that background play in the NBA before, but whoever had the ultimate responsibility at ESPN for allowing that one out should be fired.

Does the media use other derogatory phrasing in describing black players? How about German, Croatian, Italian, Spanish, or Puerto Rican hoopsters?

There are many things about the Jeremy Lin story that have been fun to follow, but the hype is still just hype. This young man is not going into the Hall of Fame, trust me. He appears to be a marginal NBA talent who found himself in the center of a perfect storm when the Knicks needed a point guard. Lin is a hard working and very intelligent player, and made the most of an opportunity to play in what turned out to be the prefect system for him. Toss in the fact that it happened in New York, and it boosted him into the spotlight.

Does Lin have a chance to have a nice career in the NBA? Of course he does, but he’s going to have to work much harder to succeed going forward.

Lin has yet to play against any top teams except for the Laker’s, who were coming off a overtime game in Boston when they played the Knicks last week. Beyond that LA game, and the following game against Utah, the Knicks have played nothing but bottom feeders. As good as Lin has been, he’s turning the ball over a ton, his shooting is not very good, and he doesn’t seem to be able to go to his left very well. Teams have started to trap him up high, or force him into driving recklessly to the basket where he seems to get airborne, and more and more often throw the ball away. This is one of the biggest errors any player can make, and one no coach ever wants to see in his point guard.

Go left young man, go left

Things are about to change dramatically in New York, with Amare Stoudemire back, Carmelo Anthony ready to return, and JR Smith recently signed. We are about to see what Jeremy Lin will be able to do with some top of the line NBA talent available to pass to, and it may not be quite as easy as it was when no one knew who the heck he was?

One thing certain is that this has been great for New York Knick fans, and a great story for the media to cover.

Just stop the over the top hype, and quit the racist crap.

Whitney and Josh

Just lovely.

I don’t know exactly what the date was in late 1985 that I tuned in to David Letterman’s show, the evening he had Whitney Houston as a guest? I really didn’t have much of an idea about who she was, though I did know she was Dionne Warwick’s cousin, and Dionne had been a chart-topper for many years, with many great tunes.

Whitney was 22 years old at the time, and when she came out to sing the song "Saving All My Love For You," she absolutely blew me away. She not only had a fabulous voice, singing a remarkable song, but she was stunningly beautiful. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df5aaUbRx_s

All of that beauty and talent singing a song with lyrics to melt your heart, and make you question how any man wouldn't do anything for someone so seemingly perfect?

Whitney lost a lot along the way to all of the fame she would find. The young lady grew into a woman lacking whatever it was she needed to get clean – to avoid or forgo the drugs and the lifestyle that certainly killed her, and yesterday, when the news of her death was announced, she became just another sad story with a bad ending.

The Josh Hamilton story is really no different than Houston’s in my mind. Hamilton’s incredible talent is also there to marvel at, and to entertain us, and for many years he was unable to beat back the same demons that eventually killed Whitney.

I believe that drug/alcohol addiction is a disease that is not curable – once an addict, always an addict, and I have a lot of first hand knowledge on the subject, as many people do.

I'm rooting for him.

When Josh Hamilton decided to have a few drinks the other night, he claimed he was dealing with some personal problem that was so serious, he put his entire career and life on the line. For those of you that don’t suffer from being an addict, or having someone close to you suffer from the disease, it’s almost impossible to reconcile that it was normal behavior for Hamilton to go drinking. It’s abnormal for him to be sober, as anyone that’s attended a few AA meetings will testify to. The idea of drinking or using is always on his mind because it’s the answer to every problem he faces, the same way it is for the homeless guy sitting in an alley with a bottle of malt liquor.

Maybe Hamilton has the strength to do what Houston couldn’t do after another relapse, and maybe he doesn’t?

We will find out, one day at a time.

In the "Black" with Big Blue?

Back on January 8 I started writing about having $5000.00 to bet on the NFL Playoffs, and have been chronicling every bet since that time.

I am bucks up

To date, I am up $3780.00 in the endeavor, which is not as remarkable as it may otherwise appear. When I look at the past bets and consider that aside from Denver’s upset of Pittsburgh, where I lost $2000, the games on which I had large wagers weren’t hard for me to predict.

The big winners have been:

$1000 on New Orleans over Detroit

$1000 on New England over Denver

$2000 on Baltimore over Houston

$1000 on New England over Baltimore

$500 on the under of 41.5-points in the Giant/49er game

The rest of my bets have been of the nickel/dime type, and I have won a bit more than I have lost, which brings me to this evening’s game.

Betting numbers for the Super Bowl

New England is a 2.5-point favorite

The over/under is 54-points

$100 on New York earns you $120 if they win

$140 on New England earns you $100 if they win

So, what’s going to happen?

Scouts, Inc. ranks all 106 players in the game in order of value and importance, and 8 of the top 12 are New England Patriots, but the next 9 players are New York Giants. That means that 13 of the top 21 will be playing for New York.

Critically, Rob Gronkowski is #3 on the list, and we have heard endless speculation on whether he’ll be able to play effectively, or even play at all? I think the easiest wager of the day is that Gronkowski will be active, and he’ll be in the game early and often. The key is will he be able to make sharp cuts off that high-ankle sprain, and everything I have heard and read has said that it’s doubtful he’ll be able to do so?  Halftime could be critical for Gronkowski too, as not moving much on that ankle for the extended (30-minutes) period of time won’t make things better.

Look for Brady to get crunched

I would look for Tom Brady to try and hit Gronk with some passes early on to try to set the Giants up for him being a decoy. If the Patriots are able to do that, look for Brady to hone in on Aaron Hernandez on short out patterns. The Giants crowd the middle of the field defensively as well as any team in the NFL, and should be able to take most of that away from New England. This should also negate many of those short slants and drag routes over the middle to Wes Welker.

It’s obvious that the Patriots will need to slow down the Giants pass rush, so being able to gain yards running the ball is a major factor. The metrics on Brady’s effectiveness under duress are much worse than other top NFL QB’s since he had the knee injury that knocked him out of the 2008 season. While no quarterbacks ‘like’ being hit, once a player gets seriously hurt, it does stick in his mind, and I think Brady "hears the footsteps" a lot more than Eli Manning does – this is a huge factor.

When the Giants have the ball I would look for more of a mix in running the ball than we saw them use in San Francisco. I couldn’t figure out why the went almost exclusively to Ahmad Bradshaw two weeks ago, especially in the second half, when Brandon Jacobs could have been in the game pounding away? In retrospect, I think it was a function of how well the 49ers tackle, and Jacobs (who is not a good pass receiver) would have been easier to catch and bring down, than the speedier Bradshaw. I don’t think this will be the case today, and if the game is close in the last 20 minutes or so, look for Jacobs to get a lot of calls.

Manningham TD's today?

Potentially, I think the most critical match-up in the game will be Mario Manningham for the Giants, and Julius Edelman, trying to cover him one-on-one, for New England. I expect to see a lot of 3 wide receiver sets with Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, and Manningham, and the Patriots can’t double-team all three. If Giant tight end Jake Ballard steps up with a big game, the Giants could put up a lot of points.

I don’t see this game being a track meet – it won’t be a 41-35 type of game, as the Giants defense got healthy as the playoffs began, and the Patriots defense is much improved. I don’t expect a rout either, but if it does get away from either team, I think it’ll be the Giants that run up the score, especially if the Giants D-line can hit Brady early.

Immediately after the Giants beat San Francisco I knew that New York was the better team, so I was a bit surprised that the Patriots were favored by 3.5-points.

In two weeks that number had dropped a point, which tells us that most of the early money came in on New York. The over/under dropped a point as well, meaning the under was getting most of the money.

Early on and seemingly up until a few days ago, a healthy majority of informed opinion seemed to be picking New York to win, but that majority is no longer as healthy as it was. To me, that’s a good thing, as I have little faith in public perception, and now that it appears that New England is the smart pick, I will remain steady and pick the better team to win the game.

I will put $2000 on the Giants to win.

I’ll take 2.5 points and the Giants for $100.

I’ll bet under 54-total points for $100.

I’ll parlay New York +2.5 and over 54-points for $100.

It's 2008 all over again

Go Big Blue!