SpongeWorthy

In what other walk of life would a potential suitor calling you and encouraging you to come work for them be considered a bad thing? I think it illustrates how nutty things have gotten. I don't really think a college is entitled to have a level playing field, really. It's not like Harvard and MIT have to leave a few extra bullets in the chamber when trying to get a Nobel laureate to join the faculty. Genuine amateurism is nice but it's kind of hard to enforce with your left hand while your right hand is signing multi billion dollar television contracts.

Derrick Rose is a good Calipari related example of what I'm talking about. Absolutely no one cares about his SAT thing now that he's in the pros. They only cared then because he was on a college team that happened to not be the team that most people rooted for not because of what it meant about "ethics" in college sports. It didn't stop him from being drafted #1, and if it did you'd be labeled, rightly so, as a totally incompetent front office guy. But in the bizarro NCAA world it was an egregious violation...even though the NCAA got a lot more out of Rose than Rose did out of the NCAA. He should've never been in college in the first place.

Equating skirting the rules with paying people off is sort of what I'm getting at. They're pretty different but you conflate them all the time. Even Tim seems to think that USC was ever accused of paying Reggie Bush off. That's not even remotely accurate, btw. Sorry. Please correct me on the story as I didn't really pay all that much attention. I know it wasn't a direct cash receipt by reggie. And it was likely a booster or set of boosters and not the school, right? the post I quoted had nothing to do with cash dispersals from the university funds, though. It talked about schools skirting the rules. If you think USC is completely innocent of that, I've got some lovely real estate to sell you. It was an agent that wanted to sign Bush that put his family up in a fairly expensive house in San Diego. An agent that had everything to gain by getting him to leave school a year early. The school is accused of not knowing/monitoring it like it should have been. I'd say that's quite different than a booster or someone in the university paying a guy to attend/stay at your school. But yeah, it's bad and USC is going to get some punishment for it this summer, finally. And no I know USC is guilty of skirting more than it's fair share of rules. I probably care less than most though. I just can't get that worked up about whether institutions, in league with the NCAA, that profit from the exploitation of college athletes under the guise of sham amateurism are following the letter of the law. Big time college athletics is a huge farce that way. Every day standards of fairness that we take for granted in every segment of the economy somehow get people into a lather because certain colors are involved.

Equating skirting the rules with paying people off is sort of what I'm getting at. They're pretty different but you conflate them all the time. Even Tim seems to think that USC was ever accused of paying Reggie Bush off. That's not even remotely accurate, btw.

I think it's that you guys say that Calipari, among others, are paying off everyone in sight as if it's incontrovertible fact that comes off as whiny and presumptuous.

Carlos Boozer is a huge loser.

The starters were gassed by then. This team is peaking.

btw, goran dragic officially stripped himself of being derrick rose's biatch by TORCHING the spurs for 26 in the second half. he was amazing.

This whole "PHX learned how to guard and no one noticed" makes things VERY interesting.

So is all that hyperventilating about how the Hawks played in the 2nd half of the season pretty much history? As a total hockey newb, it's pretty easy for me to tell that the Hawks are just way better than their competition thus far. They can't even generate chances or control the puck. They almost look unbeatable playing this way.

Beautiful.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=26791 I don't know enough about hockey to know how impressive those stats are. I'll just assume he's a choker who happened to be lucky enough to play on Team Canada in 2010. It's more fun that way.

My experience of watching Luongo is this series, last years series, and the Olympics. Why is this guy considered one of the best goaltenders around again?

Is Luongo drunk? I am and I think I can spot other drunk people.

WOOP

That was pretty sick by Toews.

Hawks are the first team to get back to back hat tricks in the playoffs since 94. lol @ lu

Hollinger would put up whatever his statistical rankings say he should put up. And there's not anything wrong with that necessarily. He's the sort of guy that could be transported back to 1997 and would claim that Terrell Brandon is a better basketball player than Allen Iverson. What I'm saying is if you think Rajon Rondo can carry a team like Derrick Rose can then you're not watching the same sport I am.

If we hire Calipari if/when Lebron is eliminated from the playoffs I'm going to get irrationally excited.

How good is Sharp considered league wide? Every time I watch him he's doing awesome things.

I don't think it means much. And if it does, Lebron or anyone else has already made up their minds about it one way or another and that's not going to change between now and free agency. I was just disputing the point that Jordan is just a name in the rafters. Besides, the people making it rain at the UC and pumping cash into the Bulls surely remember Jordan. The people that only know MJ through his YouTube mixtapes are begging their moms to buy them Derrick Rose jerseys (and Air Jordans).

These are very comparable situations. They're not? Jordan's gone. To the younger generation of NBA fans around right now he's just a guy from old highlight clips. Why is it realistic that the Lakers and Celtics could get great players to come play for them despite arguably being defined by previous dynasties and some of the greatest players of all time, but it's not for the Bulls? Because by the time the NBA became "THE NBA", the Celtics and Lakers already had a host of iconic stars. The Bulls 2nd best player of all time is still just "Jordan's sidekick" And? Again, Jordan's gone. I suppose it would be one thing if he was anything even remotely close to a presence with the Bulls or at the UC, but he's not. To fans growing up now he's just a number in the rafters, a statue outside and someone they see in highlight clips. Anyone that is perceived as winning a championship for the Bulls from now on is going to be first in the minds of most young fans, not Jordan. The impact of playing "in the shadow of Jordan" is a load of crap, especially when it comes to player of LeBron's abilities. I mean, if you're going to argue that he'll be second to Jordan here if he doesn't win at least 6 rings, then where could he go where that wouldn't be the case? What, if he goes to the Knicks or stays with the Cavs and wins, say, 4 championships with them when all is said and done, in those cases people would argue he's as good as or better than Jordan, but not if he "only" 4 rings as a Bull? I agree with the general thrust but Jordan is more than just a guy in highlight clips to any generation of Bulls fan. This is Michael Jordan we're talking about. He's still moving more merchandise than all about maybe 2 or 3 active basketball players (Lebron, Kobe, Yao) and is one of the most famous human beings on the planet.

Why is Calipari considered such a bad in game coach? Or is it just part of the hysteric over reaction by the NCAA moralists here?

Really? If anyone that's what I'd think an outsider would expect an average Cub fan to act like if they brought him up, but would be shocked that the fan responded with a shoulder shrug. I've been to at least 100 Cubs games since 2003, and I cannot honestly recall one time that Bartman's name was brought up. And that's among a crowd of the drunkest, averagest Cubs fans you can find. Actually, the only time I do remember Bartman being mentioned at Wrigley since 03 was in 04. Miggy was so blotto at the time he doesn't even remember doing it.