-No Russell Westrbrook? No problem. The Oklahoma City Thunder stole home-court advantage from the Mavericks last night with a 106-100 win. RussWest found himself on the bench after a series of miscues and watched Eric Maynor run the show and OKC into the showers with the victory, tying the series at ones. It will be interesting to see how he responds to the benching, but after his last one in the Memphis series and the show he put on after that one, Dallas could be down 2-1 after game three. Oh, and Kevin Durant got all up on Brendan Heywood.
-The Bruins took a lead in the first period and never looked back as Tim Thomas blanked the Lightning 2-0 to gain a 2-1 series advantage. Tyler Seguin didn't have a point during the same proving one thing: HE'S A TOTAL BUST.
-Lance Armstrong is facing charges from admitted cheater, former teammate, and Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton that during the 1999 Tour de France Armstrong injected himself with EPO testosterone. The charges were levied during a 60 Minutes interview, an excerpt of which was released yesterday. Armstrong has always categorically denied such charges but as these claims keep piling up it will be interesting to see if anything changes. Hamilton is facing his own
problems as the IOC investigates Hamilton's admission he cheated during the 2004 Athens games where he won a gold medal.
-Speaking of PEDs, Jason Giambi hit three homers, one of which was a moonshot in the Rockies 7-1 victory over the Phillies to split a two game series. Jhoulys Chacin pitched 7 strong innings to move to 5-2 on the year. There was a hiccup though as CarGo left with a little tightness in his groin.
-The Mets had their first no-hitter in franchise history last night! Just fucking with you. They did come close however as Dillon Gee carried a no-no through 6 2/3 until pitcher Livan Hernandez singled. The Mets did get the 1-0 victory with hot hitting Justin Turner driving in the games lone run.
-As Steve Politi of the Newark Star-Ledger put it, the Orioles are the chicken soup for an ailing ball club. The Evil Empire hung a lucky 13 on the hapless O's as they earned a two game series sweep.
-The NCAA, conference commissioners, and school officials are finally beginning to see the light through the assholes their heads are jammed into as paying athletes becomes a serious topic of conversation. The idea of amateurism is long gone, due in part to all the shady dealings that happen with athletes and billions in revenue the schools, conferences, NCAA, broadcast companies, etc. make off the kids themselves.
-Dick Ebersol, the man who helped craft NBC Sports into what is, resigned yesterday morning after being unable to reach an agreement on a new contract. This will certainly throw a monkey wrench into the bidding for the broadcast rights of the Olympics. I can only hope the next chief's first act of business is disavowing Notre Dame football followed by having Tom Hammond sent to the glue factory like the horses he loves so dearly.
-The second college football player to dies this week is dead because of unknown causes. Austin Box, an Oklahoma linebacker, died just out side of Oklahoma City yesterday due to causes yet to be determined. His former high school coach's son said Box had been taking pain medication and may have overdosed. Assuming this is true, and assuming this injury is football related, it only magnifies the needIt has been a sad week for deaths in the world of sports. Here's to hoping that it ends sooner rather than later.
