Not sold on the new Knicks

This was Knicks alpha dog. Now?

An expanded look to follow on the main page soon, but let it be heard that the Sports Editor is not sold on the new look New York Knicks. Sure Melo and Amare were both All-Star starters, but they play the same position and neither plays defense.

Anthony's first two games with the Knicks, twenty-five shots and twenty-two shots to score twenty-seven points each time, as the Knicks split games with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not exactly impressive.

There are those that will say Coach Mike D'Antoni style is the problem. The Clarion Content certainly agrees it is a problem, nobody has ever won playing Loyola Marymount ball in the NBA. Having Melo and Amare together couldn't solve that conundrum even if Dog Moe were running the offense.

The Knicks are no closer to a title today than they were a week ago and apparently they could have had Deron Williams for half the price.

Look out

The Duke Blue Devils backed into the #1 ranking in the land this weekend when the four teams ahead of them lost. However, last night Duke took a much more definite step forward when the Most Outstanding Player at last year's Final Four finally exploded. Much like the beginning of last season, Duke's Kyle Singler has battled to find his place in the offense. Singler has rotated over the course of his career between center, power forward and wing player, depending on the needs of the team.

This year, like last year, as the team has grown around him, Singler has been willing to sublimate his own game to let others develop theirs. About this time last year Brian Zubek's emergence as a defensive and rebounding presence helped clearly define Singler's role and led to Duke's run.

Last night, against a banged up Temple squad, Singler exploded for twenty-eight points without the benefit of a single three-point shot. Temple Coach Fran Dunphy said, "He was just not to be denied."

Singler humbly noted, "The bigs were actually passing the ball to me, so I got good post entries and ... just kept getting the ball and putting it back up."

Has the Duke offense turned a corner?

The Wood Brothers ride again

The last time the Wood Brothers team won the Daytona 500 was in this legendary, 1976, David Pearson driven Lincoln-Mercury.

NFL Labor strife

Why are the NFL owners aggressively going on the warpath against the players?

In the post King George the II economy, there are a bunch of franchises struggling with cash flow (in some cases needed to service their debt). Struggling to sell out the stadium, no new luxury boxes, no new PSLs and no new naming rights money on the horizon in: Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Nashville, San Diego...

No doubt these greedy old white men (billionaires) are wealthy beyond belief already, but the reason they want a cash grab back from the players (millionaires) is that they don't have as many new revenue streams as they did in the 1990s. (Much like the rest of the America...)

The increase in value of their franchise is only realized when they sell. And 97% of these guys are going to own their team for the rest of their lives.

This year is the perfect time for the owners to attack because they have secured a deal with their television contracts where they get paid-in-full even if there is a labor stoppage.