So yeah...

The SPLP staff is in full Dark Knight mode and will not be posting today. I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for three years. Yup, I'm that guy... Rumor has it that every show was sold out by this morning in the entire city of Boston. I nabbed tickets last night so now it's just a matter of fighting (other) fanboys for seats in the theater.

Assuming we've all recovered from our movie going experience, posting will likely resume this weekend with a look toward the second half of the MLB season. Until then, enjoy the movie.

If they can breath, they can win...

Now that title doesn't mean, "As long as the USA Men's Basketball team is conscious, they'll kick the crap out of every country they face." It's more like, "the air in China resembles Mars so stay the hell inside at all times." But alas, instead of investigating the extremely poor air quality over there, I'm actually going to analyze the team and why/how it's different from the 2004 squad. I suppose I could just say that this team doesn't have Stephon Marbury and call it a day. Seriously, Marbury?

There are only four players from that team that's back again this year: Dwayne Wade (pictured above, being awesome), LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer. If all are healthy, I see no reason why they shouldn't be in Beijing. Jason Kidd will most likely start at the point with two schmoes (kidding!) named Chris Paul and Deron Williams backing him up. Considering how Wade, Tattoo-Head and Allen Iverson (Tattoo-Neck?) were the only three guards on the ENTIRE team in Athens, I'd say the team is off to a pretty damn good start. Michael Redd and Kobe round out the guards. Not only does Kobe need surgery on his finger, but he just played in the NBA Finals a month ago. He'll still play well but he's nowhere near 100% right now. Redd is just viscious from beyond the arc and that will most likely be his only responsibility. Nothing wrong with that.

Joining Lebron, Boozer and Melo at forward will be Tayshaun Prince. Personally, I hate this guy. As a Heat fan and someone who followed the Celtics' run through the playoffs this year, I just can't stand that Detroit team. Not to mention he sucked big time in that series against Boston. He played seven more minutes a game and barely raised his season averages, disappearing on the court for lengths of time. But with all that said, I think he's a good fit here. He won't be looking for his shot at all and will play some serious D. Lamar Odom, Shawn Marion, and Richard Jefferson were there in Athens. Um, what were Stephen Jackson, Rasheed Wallace and Al Harrington busy? Lamar and Marion are essentially the same player (with Marion playing more D) and Jefferson always struck me as kind of soft. They are good NBA players, but not good enough for an Olympic team.

Now here's where things might get a little dicey. Dwight Howard will start at center. The dude is a beast, no question. He will dominate any joker that tries to get in the paint. But when he's out of the game, Chris Bosh will be at the 5. Chris Bosh is a great, but he's not a true center by any means. He's more of a KG type power forward. The height is there, but he's not a banger. The team could run into some trouble against bigger lineups.

The problem is, what American born centers could make the trip? Tyson Chandler is actually going as an alternate. He's really coming into his own and I wouldn't mind him as a 12th man, maybe going instead of Carmelo or Deron Williams. But after him? Amare proved that he can be a superstar-but playing next to a huge center in the middle. (Notice I said huge and not necessarily good.) Al Jefferson's not a true center either plus he's a long way off defensively. Duncan was there in Athens but at this point in his career, I doubt he wants anything to do with games not played in the NBA. Don't even get me started on Okafor being there either...Kendrick Perkins is coming off shoulder surgery and KG still hasn't slept since the Finals. Not kidding. So that leaves the one guy I think will be a star by the 2012 games in London: Andrew Bynum. Even if he was healthy, I don't know if I would expose him to all that international play after only his second year. But I can promise you that if he progresses the way he did in the first half of the season this year, other countries will be peeing everywhere at the thought of going up against Howard AND Bynum in four years.

I've heard some arguments that whatever team wins the NBA Finals should represent the US against the world. I can appreciate the whole "they've been playing on the same team all year so they'll be cohesive" approach, but Boston played 108 games since November 2nd. That is insane. I'm sure Danny Ainge is thanking his lucky stars that no Boston player is actually on the Olympic roster. Plus, do you think the rest of the guys would want to play next to Posey right now? Don't get me wrong, I think it'd be rad to see Leon rep the red, white and blue, but there just isn't enough time to recuperate and prepare. Besides, I wouldn't be shocked to see some of the younger guys on the next Olympic team.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Puerto Rico demolished the United States 92-73 in the first game in 2004. It would make a great statement if the US could go out and not only win big in their first game, but win against the home country. Having Mike Krzyzewski as the head coach is a bit interesting since there are no college players. Boozer is the only one with any kind of history with Coach K so I don't see any bad blood being a possibility.



They'll have five exhibition games leading up to that August 10th matchup against Yao and the Chinese team. Combine that with all of the practices and the desire to finish higher than third in World competition for the first time since 2000, I believe the United States Men's Basketball team has a great chance to come together as a unit, put egos aside, and proudly and successfully represent their country. All twelve of those guys definitely deserve to be there and I don't think they'll take anything for granted. Yes, the rest of the world has caught up a bit to America, but I don't think they've caught up enough to beat this team.

I never really believe anything that Kobe Bryant said, but when he was asked what would be placed higher in his trophy case (let's just assume he has one) his NBA Championships or a potential gold medal, he didn't hesitate to say it would be the medal. He also said that every one of his teammates feel the same way. Take that all with a grain of salt but it's still fairly encouraging. It sucks that it will probably feel like smoking a carton of American Spirits after being outside for five seconds, but you can't control everything...

Happy trails, James Posey

Well, good thing I got that post up this morning.. James Posey just signed a four year, $25 million deal with the Hornets. Good for him, and good for the Hornets.

Don't buy that Jason Thompson jersey just yet...

Well folks July is upon us, and you know what that means... the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas! That's right, drink in all the exciting* and meaningful* games between the NBA's rookies first and second year players young(ish?) talent! Translation: it's just like the D-League, except anybody pays any attention to it! Wow this is fun, I may never end a sentence without an exclamation point again!

For realsies though, I understand there isn't much going on in sports right now (as Scrob elegantly points out below), but the amount of attention given to these summer camps is ridiculous. NBA.com and ESPN's NBA page turn the results and big-time performances into headline news. Now for a coach, GM, or especially obsessive fan, I definitely see the value of the camp. But people try to predict future results from standout performances if Vegas, and it just about never helps. Take for example:

2007 Vegas Summer League MVP: Nate Robinson (NYK)
Nate lit it up last year, edging out the elite trio of Louis Williams , Aaron Brooks, and Marco Belinelli for the MVP award. 19.6 ppg, 6 apg, and 3.6 rpg (not to mention a cringe-inducing 4.2 turnovers per) was good enough to bring him the prize. But how hard could it be to score 19 a game when Marcus Banks went off for 42? Nate followed up this MVP performance by putting up 12.7 ppg, 2.9 apg, 3.1 rpg, and a more under control 1.4 TOpg for a horrible train-wreck of a team. Those aren't bad numbers for a 5'9 sixth-man, but they're hardly worth doing back-flips over.


What's more telling is to look at the statistical leaders for the '04-'06 summer leagues against what they did in the regular season that follows. Check it out (click image for detail):

That's right, we get to make a Tskiti reference! Seriously though, that 2004 crop was horrible. Leading scorer is one of the biggest flops ever, the leading rebounder never made an NBA roster in his CAREER, and one of the leading passers had a pretty horrible year. Just look at this list... these were the STARS of the summer camp. Singleton, Lucas, Tskiti, and Jones are all out of basketball. J.R. Smith and Bassy Telfair have been high-upside guys who've never put it together. Nelson, Blake, and Foye are all solid but unspectacular starters. Clearly, a Las Vegas monster does not an All-Star make.

Sure, there have been big performances by big names. Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Chris Kaman, and Montae Ellis have all used the camp to improve their game and get going on big years. But it's mostly just something to needlessly obsess over during the sports doldrums.

Then again... Leon Powe did shoot 55% and pull down 7.8 boards a game last season.... maybe they're on to something here!

*note: sarcasm

I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man

Considering the fireworks surrounding the Clippers' moves this off-season, the Celtics have had a relatively uneventful time thus far. Despite Doc Rivers' courting of Corey Maggette, he signed with Golden State. Then the C's signed a Golden State disappointment, Patrick O'Bryant, pretty much ending speculation that they would sign Chris "Birdman" Andersen, David Harrison, or Randolph Morris as a back-up for Perkins.


P.J. Brown is probably going to lumber off into retirement. Sam Cassell wants to come back for one more season (probably at the minimum) before looking into a coaching job (yes! coach now! but somewhere else!). Tony Allen will probably only be offered the veteran minimum if he wants to return to the Celtics. Scot Pollard should become a broadcaster (for real, dude is good on the mic).


Danny Ainge and company have made it clear that resigning James Posey is their number one priority, however it's being reported today that Posey is looking for a four year deal. Apparently no team in the Posey sweepstakes, including the Celtics, is interested in a contract longer than three years. Now, I'm a Posey fan; he's a solid sixth man for the Celtics, and brings some great energy and experience to the team, but if he's interested in getting paid, that's probably means he's gone. Look, he's 31. This is likely going to be his last contract in the NBA. If he can find some GM to pay him the duckets he wants, for as long as he wants, and maybe finds a starting job, then more power to him. Remember that Posey took a pretty substantial pay cut to come play in Boston ($6m a year from the Heat to $3m in Boston).


Eddie House, who shares an agent with Posey, looks to be nearly gone. Already far over the salary cap, the Celtics are looking to sign a back-up point guard to a one-year contract for the league minimum, which House is decidedly uninterested in. He's publicly discussed wanting to get a raise, job security, and increased playing time.. all understandable for a veteran like House, but none of which the Celtic's can easily offer (especially if they do manage to finagle a mid-level deal to bring Posey back). Much like Posey, I think House is a solid guy to have coming off the bench, but let's face it.. the Celtics can't pay every guy as much as he wants. With the contracts of the big three nearly equaling the salary cap for '08-'09 ($56,112,028 for the big three to $58,680,000 for the cap), they've got to be pretty careful about who else gets duckets.


So Celtics fans, a question: will you be incredibly broken up if House or Posey opt for literally greener pastures? They both are definitely great guys, with great energy, but statistically they aren't irreplaceable. It hurts to see quality guys leave, but sometimes this stuff is just business.

Worst. Day. Ever.

In case you didn't know, today is the worst sports day of the year. Seriously. Not like, "Aw dude, my team just got shutout in the playoffs" or "Dang man, my favorite player broke his assneck the first day of spring training and is out for the season". Nope, the day after the MLB All Star Game is actually the worst sports day of the calender year. Go ahead, check ESPN's listings for today. How about Fox Sports Net? (By the way, that pic of Adam Morrison doesn't necessarily apply here but I figure it's a pretty good visual representation of guys all across the country who want nothing more than to come home after work and sit on the couch, drink a few High Lifes, and watch a game. Oh yeah, nice pick MJ!)

Let me break it down for you.

The NFL, NHL and NBA are all in their offseasons. All MLB teams get today off (but some start again tomorrow, some don't-weird). College Football and Basketball games don't start until the kiddies get back to school. Let's keep it going: no PGA Events, no tennis, hell even no NASCAR! I mean there has to be something, right?

Well, the New England Revolution is playing Pachuca (whoever that is) in a Superliga game(whatever that is) tonight at 8:00. NE is by far the best MLS team right now but this match won't be shown on any of ESPN's channels, or Fox Sports Net. In fact, ESPN is so desperate for programming, they are reshowing the home run derby from Monday. I know the Hamilton stuff was rad, but you could check that out on youtube whenever you want. Plus uh...it was just on two days ago. They're following that with a special about Yankee Stadium which if you watched ANY of the All Star coverage for the past two days, will be pretty pointless.

Now the Deuce is showing the AAA All-Star Game which is kinda interesting. So okay, not a complete black hole of sports. But reeeeaaallly close. Fortunately, I have a recommendation.

That's right people. In case you didn't know, and judging by the attendance you haven't (copyright Harry Doyle), the Arena Football League is on the verge of their Superbowl. Yup, Arena Bowl XXII snuck up on us like R. Kelly at a junior high dance. And just to let you know where my life has been at lately, I've watched some of this year's playoffs. We have the Bon Jovi owned Philadelphia Soul vs. the San Jose Sabercats. (No joke, I was in LA last week and saw some four year old kid with a Sabercats jersey on.) Now the game is scheduled for Sunday, July 27th. Why wait? If they pushed back the start of the season by a week, it's definitely possible for them to have the game this week. There really isn't a need to have the game on Sunday like the NFL. There also isn't a need to show the game on ABC. Yeah I can just imagine how pissed all the AFL fans would get when their championship game isn't shown on basic cable.

Oh yeah, did I mention that ESPN has a minority stake in the league? Because they do. I mean the angle rights itself. They could do a whole ad campaign around the fact that today sorta sucks and they are rescuing you, the fan, from having sports withdrawals. I know that the fact that Arena Football has been around for 22 years means that they're survivors and have scratched and clawed their way to stay afloat. They've come up with different ideas over that span, but I think this could really help them. If no other sports outlet besides ESPN is going to report on them anyway, the World Wide Leader should just go for it instead of sticking the game on ABC on a Sunday afternoon in the summer when people are actually doing stuff outside and whatnot.

Now, would people actually watch it? I think so. I'm not sure what the past Arena Bowls have done in the ratings but this would at least drum up some more interest. The product is definitely watchable especially for one game. If people knew this was the last game of the year, they'd give it a chance. So while July 16, 2008 will be the worst day of the year, maybe 2009 could avoid such a travesty.

(I know it's actually probably a healthy thing to not watch sports for ONE day out of 365 but a guy can dream, right?)



Also. Big ups to the man himself, Leon Powe and teammate Kendrick Perkins who did an autograph signing in Boston yesterday. Both were very friendly and I gave Leon a flyer advertising this very site. Let's cross our fingers for a possible interview down the road.

Mad Homerz LOL...

Josh Hamilton officially entered the "Grown Ass Man Club" last night. (Leon is a card carrying member, FYI.) His story is amazing. His 95 RBIs at the break are amazing.


Last night was RIDICULOUS!


I thought the event as a whole was a step in the right direction for Major League Baseball. Uggla, Longoria, Sizemore, etc. There's nothing wrong with giving the young, fresh faces of the league a chance to grab some spotlight away from the established veterans who are already household names. Besides Lance Berkman, every participant in the Derby last night has five years or less big league experience. And although Hamilton didn't win the thing, it doesn't really matter.

"Dude, you see how far I hit that?"

He hit 35 total homers, 28 of which came in the first round. There was a stretch of 13 in a row! It honestly looked like a video game. And for a New York crowd that didn't have one of their own to cheer for, (Seriously A-Rod, ya couldn't use some good PR right about now?) Hamilton gladly stepped into the role as hero. The crowd was chanting his name and was going ballistic after the monstrous 500 feet shots he launched.

And how about that old dude pitching? He's 71 years old and tossing BP like it ain't no thang. He and Hamilton were definitely on the same wave length. And it was great to see Hamilton's Rangers teammates goofing around and cheering him on. (The Rangers have four All-Stars?!?!) I also thought it was a nice touch when Edinson Volquez left the briefcase at home plate referencing Hamilton's "Natural" nickname. I'm not sure if any of the announcers caught on. Speaking of announcers, it was a great move by ESPN to switch back and forth from the Berman/Morgan/Phillips team to the Baseball Tonight crew (now with 100% more Rick Reilly). I know the Home Run Derby is sort of Berman's "thing" but there's only so much one person can take.

But there's always plenty of time to knock bad announcers. Hamilton made them irrelevant. They seriously could have just shut all their mics off after about home run number 10 and just let the crowd take it from there. I don't know if MLB/ESPN knew what they were doing when they had him bat last but I couldn't imagine anyone following that performance in the first round. And props to Justin Morneau who actually won. He was really gracious in accepting the trophy acknowledging Hamilton. I really hope Hamilton can stick with it and have a great and productive career. Dude looooves Jebus so he's got that going for him. I wonder if he'll be back in the contest next year? (Hamilton not Jebus)

Anyway, last night was definitely something special and for a guy who didn't even play baseball for three years, he didn't do half bad. And can you imaging if he was playing for the Rays right now?

Oh yeah, and I forgot the obligatory sports blog ogling of Erin Andrews. Seriously though, she's hot.

Leon Powe

Heads up to all you local Leon fans.. he will be at the Boston FYE* from 6pm til 8pm on Tuesday to promote the Celtics 2007-2008 DVD. Kendrick Perkins will be there too. No word on whether Garnett will be there, making out with Leon's ear. Sorry.




*The Boston FYE is at 411 Washington Street (the Downtown Crossing-area Washington Street, not the Brighton or Dorchester Washington Streets, for all you ambulance drivers out there who get confused)