Changed the equation

For the last month the Clarion Content's sports editor had been telling Duke fans in Durham, NC that Gerald Henderson the younger was going pro at the end of this season. The draft experts had all been listing him as a top ten prospect. Duke fans had been insisting that it was different for him, despite how well he was playing he wasn't leaving. His dad was a pro baller, he wasn't broke, he was staying. The Clarion Content was insistent, he was too good, he was going.

The equation changed tonight in the Sweet Sixteen. The Clarion Content thought Gerald Henderson would showcase as a NBA draft lottery prospect in the NCAA tournament. 33% from the field against Binghamton, 33% from the field against Texas, then on national television this evening, he had an awful, ugly outing, 1 for 14 from the field against Villanova. Is Gerald Henderson going pro this year, the Clarion Content is no longer so sure.

If he comes back to Duke, he is going to hugely motivated, that could help his game and his draft status.

Baseball and the Economy

Here at the Clarion Content we have been trumpeting the Yankees difficulties selling expensive tickets and luxury boxes. With the economy shedding jobs and the perception of tough times all over, it is no suprise to us that baseball is going to take a big hit in revenue this year. Commissioner and dimwit Bud Selig claimed in the LA Times, "I used to think we were recession-proof. I really did."

Not a very intelligent plan, Mr. Commissioner, but sounds kinda like a former Texas Rangers owner's philosophy of prior planning and forethought. "If I believe hard enough that it won't happen, it won't happen." As in, "I know what I'll do, I just close my eyes and make a wish." The Commissioner has finally woken up, and admitted that his offices advised franchises to plan for three scenarios: attendance about the same as season, a 10% drop in attendance scenario and a 20% drop scenario.

The Clarion Content thinks certain areas in the Midwest could face (much) steeper declines than that, can you say Detroit! Possibly Cleveland? Cincinnati?

The Knicks season is ending

2008-09 felt empty

The Knicks season is drifting ignominiously to an end. They made it a five game losing streak last night, blowing a ten point fourth quarter lead to the Orlando Magic. They did it in front of a fired up home crowd at the Garden celebrating a Knick of the decade for each of the last six decades. Quite an illustrious group, including Orlando assistant coach, Patrick Ewing, the five others were Richie Guerin, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Bernard King (a little date fudging, but not too bad.)

Reports also had Earl "the Pearl" Monroe in the building, along with legendary player, coach and scout Dick McGuire and Larry Johnson, too. Unfortunately none of them can help the 2008-09 Knicks who are about to tie a franchise record with an eighth straight losing season.

The big positive of the season has been the shedding of salary cap money looking ahead to 2010. The team and its supporters never felt like the Knicks were going to make the playoffs. The Clarion Content was and is against the Mike D'Antoni hire. Rookie first round draft choice Danilo Ginardi was just the soft Italian jeans model we thought he was. There were seven first rounders picked after him who are making significant contributions for their teams. That means two of the four biggest moves Knicks President Donnie Walsh made weren't exactly great shakes in the Clarion Content's view. Dealing Zach Randolph was good work. Ditching Jamal Crawford, it had to be done. But 2008-09 ends like it started, another non-playoff year, waiting, hoping for LeBron to save us.

At least the Nets, who are never moving to Brooklyn, aren't making the playoffs either.

Finale at the Spectrum

The forty-two year old Philadelphia Spectrum closed last week with a 76ers win. This was the house where Moses declared it was gonna be, "Fo' fo' and fo'!" and then with Dr. J led the 1983 Sixers on a twelve win and one loss championship run. The Spectrum was a powerful homecourt advantage and those Sixers teams would have won a few more titles if it hadn't been for Bird's Celtics and the Jabbar-Magic Lakers. They were the third wheel to one of the greatest rivalries of all-time.

The Spectrum is a building located in one of the biggest parking lots on the East Coast. The parking lot area in downtown Philly off the I-95 is so vast that the new home of the Philadelphia Eagles was built in the parking lot of the now imploded Veteran's Stadium. The Spectrum stood even as it was replaced by the First Union Center as the home of Sixers and Flyers.

It would be nice if the Flyers, who dominated in the Spectrum in the era of the Broad Street Bullies, got to play one more game their, too. They won two Stanley Cups there. They also became the first American franchise to beat the legendary Soviet Red Army team doing it at the Spectrum. The building also hosted the 1976 NBA and NHL All-Star games during the height of the bicentennial celebration.

Jay Bilas

What happened to Jay Bilas? Was it just a year or two ago that the Clarion Content was in love with his professorial style? Musing about his future political career?

How did he become so annoying so fast?

We know we are not alone because we have had or heard more than two sports bar conversations making the same complaint. It might have something to do with the raising of his profile. After all three to five years ago he was a minor deity in the ESPN pantheon of sports analysts, far off on the edge of the page of the family tree. This weekend for the NCAA tournament he is paired with Dick Enberg, whose resume is longer than the Old Testament (which is about the era his career started.)

The Clarion Content is not sure if the fame is what is causing it, but Bilas's tone has become pedantic and lecturing. He is like listening to the atrocious Tim McCarver and Joe Buck. Bilas is frequently spouting cliches in too slow a voice with a tone that says 'I am bringing you revelation,' "You can't foul a jump shooter." Wow, Jay, you got any more new ones?

Great golf shot

Don't know if you saw this one from last weekend faithful readers. Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson did it right last Friday at Doral in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. He went white underwear only while on the golf course to hit a shot out of a muddy water hazard. He looked surprisingly good for a golfer. As the New York Times put it, "[he] became the most-talked-about man to be photographed in his white skivvies since Mark Wahlberg."

NCAA Predictions

The Clarion Content's senior sports editor likes to pick two NCAA brackets, one immediately after the pairings are released, the other late Wednesday night just before the tourney starts the next day. This year the one team he has to the Final Four in both is the University of Washington Huskies. They are led by a trifecta of high quality players, including Jon Brockman at power forward, and two good guards, including the unfortunately named, Isaiah Thomas. The Clarion Content's sports editor likes the Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar who has had UW in the Sweet Sixteen twice in recent memory. The PAC-10 was underrated this year. They can't win it all can they?

The Huskies are in the West region. The Clarion Content sports editor's is torn in two other regions the South and the East. In the South much depends on the health of the big toe of the University of North Carolina's point guard, Ty Lawson. Even if he is healthy, UNC is in the toughest region with strong competitors in Syracuse and Oklahoma, both of whom are led by future NBA lottery picks. The 'Cuse has super strong and speedy guard, Johnny Flynn. Oklahoma has the likely number one overall pick in dominating big man Blake Griffin, think Kenyon Martin with better moves. In both brackets, he picked UNC to at least the Elite Eight.

A similar problem arises in the East were the Clarion Content sports editor loves the Duke trio of Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and John Scheyer. Like UNC, our editor has them ticketed for the Elite Eight in both brackets. In the top half of Duke's bracket is one of the best teams in the country the Pitt Panthers. Pitt has a terrific big guy in DeJuan Blair who led the rugged Big East in rebounding at 12.2 per game. They also have a tough and tested point guard in Levance Fields. However, this would be their first deep run into the tournament. Even though the Clarion Content likes Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon tons, our editor cautions betting against Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. In one bracket he has Pitt to the Final Four, and in the other he has Duke.

The final region is the Midwest and our editor is befuddled. He is not in love with Louisville or Michigan State, though with their talent and veteran coaches either one of these two squads could represent the region. Wake Forest likewise has tons of talent, but has been very inconsistent this year. The Deacs also have a newbie coach. The Kansas Jayhawks, the three seed in this region, have no starters back from last year's national champions. Their head coach Bill Self had led Kansas to two first round losses before an Elite Eight run and the title. Could a team lower than a four seed come out of this bracket? If so, our editor says put your money on Boston College.

To sum up, the National Championship will be won by Pitt, UNC, Washington or perhaps Oklahoma. The long shot first round upset possibilities include American University from the Patriot League, Cleveland State who beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome this year with a last second half court shot and Arizona a talented PAC-10 at-large squad.

Yankees athletes

Are Yankees fans worried about replacing A-Fraud Rodriguez at third base this season? (It is too bad about how steroids and HGH make muscles grow, but not corresponding tendons, making those huge muscles all the more likely to rip the tendons from the bone.)

Yankees fans are not worried if they know Johnny Damon's answer to the following question. Who is the best athlete on the Yankees? According Damon it is Rodriguez's replacement at third base. The Newark Star Ledger has the YouTube clips that have made Ransom a legend. Watch them here. Damon says if you are still a doubter after that, let him put you in a headlock and try to get out of it.

Says here that no matter how well or poorly Ransom plays Alex Rodriguez's rehab (pun intended) takes longer than scheduled and he plays no more than seventy-five games, driving in about 55 runs. Ransom is thirty-two. He got his first cup of coffee in the bigs in 2001 with the San Francisco Giants, for perspective, that was Pac Bell Park's first full season open.

Witness worthy

Dwayne Wade grabbed the mantle, the podium, the attention, the Q ratings, you name it and kicked open the door for the NBA MVP race with a witness worthy performance last night in Miami. Flash scored 48 points with 12 assists while making 15-of-21 shots (71.4 percent) against the Chicago Bulls. He made a last-second steal and a running, last second 3-pointer to lift Miami to a 130-127 double OT win.

He has a league-leading 10 games of at least 40 points. Wade was insane last night. Before the double-OT game winner, he nailed a buzzer-beating 31-foot three pointer right before halftime to give Miami a two-point lead. He hit a 26-foot three pointer to send the game into overtime.

Addition by subtraction

The new the theme in the NBA seems to be addition by subtraction. There are litany of teams suddenly starting to succeed minus a superstar player or at least a key cog. The best example is of course the Houston Rockets, who are 9 up and 2 down since the whining prima donna Tracy McGrady called it a season.

The Lakers are 12 and 3 since young center Andrew Bynum went down with an injured knee. People had intially said the Lakers would be limited, and they may be in the playoffs. However, until just very recently Lamar Odom had been stepping up in a huge way, putting numbers all over the stat sheet.

Even slumping Detroit got into the act. Coming off of an eight game losing streak with Allen Iverson in the line-up, the Pistons have gone 4 up and 1 down without him. Addition by subtraction!

Finally, the New Yorks Knicks have been pursuing this them all year long, exiling point guard Stephon Marbury. The Knicks are ten wins ahead of last year's pace. The Celtics have sputtered since adding Marbury who is averaging nearly as many turnovers as assists.

Rangers win Avery's MSG return

The New York Rangers won Sean Avery's return to Madison Square Garden today beating the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins. Avery left his last home game in the Garden with a lacerated spleen signaling the Rangers final gasp in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series against Pittsburgh. Today he was a pest from the get-go triggering action and setting up opportunities.

His teammates found the back of the net four times against flopping fish Manny Fernandez, the Boston back-up goalie who had a very soft game. In contrast the Rangers gold medal netminder Henrik Lundqvist was steady as usual. The Rangers have now won three straight with a big game coming up Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes, a team chasing the Rangers for a playoff spot.

Hooray for Avery

Sean Avery made a triumphant return to the New York Rangers line-up last night. The Rangers defeated the horrid, New York in-name-only, Islanders last night in the arena fondly known as the Nassau Mausoleum. The Rangers who had been winless in their last nine games on the road managed to break out of the slump and are now 2-1-1 under new coach, John Tortorella. They are in a furious race for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Clarion Content had been agitating for Avery's return. In his last stint with the team, the Rangers were 50-23-13 with him and 9-13-3 when he was out. As for the Rangers other new acquisitions, forward Nik Antropov and defenseman Derek Morris, we will be consulting with our metro New York hockey sources and get back to you posthaste. Unlike some other Rangers supporters, here at the Clarion Content, we trust Glen Sather's hockey instincts.

First Time in 50 years

For the first time in fifty long years the United States won the gold medal Sunday in the four-man bobsled world championships held in Lake Placid, NY. Piloting a jet-black sled nicknamed, "The Night Train," Steve Holcomb led the U.S. to its first four-man bobsled world championship since Art Tyler piloted the victorious sled in 1959 at St. Moritz, Switzerland. Just a week early Holcomb had piloted the United States to the world championship in the two-man sled, ending a twelve year drought.