Surprise, surprise, surprise

Lance Armstrong's much hyped plans for an independent drug-testing program have been scrapped. Why here at the Clarion Content, we can barely believe it! Anti-doping expert Don Catlin told The Associated Press that after months of negotiations, both sides, Armstrong's and the drug-testing expert's, realized the program wasn't workable. We hardly find it amazing that an anti-doping expert renown for being clean and straight can't find a way to conduct a drug-testing program with Lance Armstrong.

Because it is not like Lance Armstrong follows that classic pattern of illicit performance enhancement users; achieving for years on one level, like middle of the pack of world class tour cyclists, to then suddenly best in the pack after 1999. Armstrong's Tour de France finishes were middle of an albeit fantastic pack for six, seven, eight years in a row, then suddenly after 1999 spiked to a unparalleled seven straight wins. A medical miracle, or growth hormones, steroids, blood doping, something else, who knows? Lance knows. Too bad he and anti-doping expert Don Catlin couldn't work a testing program out to make sure the rest of Armstrong's career is clean(ish.)

Favre

This time I mean it. Really. Pinkie swear.

It can't be that only the Clarion Content's editorial board had this conversation today. We heard Brett Favre was "retiring" again, breaking Sugar Ray Leonard's all-time world record for the most announcements regarding one's retirement. The bootlickers over at ESPN got all lathered again. Says here that the most overrated quarterback ever is yanking the news media's collective chain one more time.

Sure the interception king doesn't want to participate in offseason workouts. The pretty boy slacker was called out by Jets teammates after the season for his attitude and work ethic, or lack thereof. The problem is Favre thinks the whole year is the Pro Bowl, an exhibition where the world has come to gawk at his talents. He can stand around and give interviews while other people pump iron and run sprints. After the workouts are over, and half of training camp has disappeared into the rearview mirror, Favre will be attempting to un-retire and engineer his way on to the Minnesota Vikings.

BU wins the Beanpot

Congratulations and a shout out to Boston University on winning the 57th Beanpot Championship this weekend in Boston. Twenty-nine titles in fifty-seven tournies is mighty impressive for the Terriers. The Beanpot tournament began in 1952 and in its second year moved into the old Boston Garden. Over the years BU has gotten the better of its intra-city rivals. The three other Boston schools that contest the Beanpot every year are Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern. It helps the prestige of the tournament that the schools are annually among some of the top tier of college hockey programs.

NBA notes

Saw a fun little column, "Around the Association" from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that had three interesting NBA notes. One was kind of a follow-up to the LeBron v. Kobe arguments that were everywhere following their big games at the Garden last week. The Plain-Dealer's column found an NBA blogger who has tracked players' last second shots, defined to be players' shots with less than twenty-four seconds remaining in the game and the team trailing by two points or less. This guy says surprisingly, it is not LeBron or Kone who leads the NBA in last second shot percentage. Instead, it is Carmelo Anthony, who has made 13-of-27 (48% career).

Another note from the Plain-Dealer's column was on a crazy revenue sharing agreement that the Clarion Content had never heard of previously. Get this,

"Ozzie and Dan Silna...legends...in the NBA business community for a deal they struck in 1976. At that time, the ABA merged with the NBA, with the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets and then-New York Nets becoming full members. However, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis, owned by the Silna brothers, weren't allowed in. To settle things up, the Colonels took a one-time payment of $3.3 million and the Silnas took $2.2 million and - OK, here it is business-school students - one-seventh of the television revenue of the Pacers, Nuggets, Spurs and Nets in perpetuity. That's right, forever.

Apparently, it's an ironclad contract because those four NBA teams have tried to get out of it for years and failed. So each year, they send the money. CNBC recently estimated that the Silna brothers already had made $186 million on the deal - without owning a team, paying for the players and coaches, etc. - when the NBA reached its most recent television contract last year. This new deal with TNT and ESPN will pay the Silna brothers about $19 million more per year until 2016."

Holy crow, talk about an amazing, but little known story.

The final note we saw and liked from the Plain-Dealer was that former NBA player David Wesley has gone back to college to finish his degree. He took sixteen credit hours and got a 4.0 average last semester while helping out with the school's surging basketball program, too. Good for you David!

A further note from our editorial offices, we have heard some criticism of the New York Knicks crowd this week for ostensibly chanting MVP at Kobe Bryant. As Bill Simmons noted on his podcast, these weren't Knicks fans. Those were people who had scalped their tickets from real Knicks fans. And the reason LeBron didn't get as much cheering the following night, despite having a better game and Knicks fans fervent desire to have him come to New York, was that the game was closer. Knicks fans, first and foremost, would prefer to win. The Lakers game was a blow out, the Cavs wasn't.

A-Fraud

Heading back to the dugout after another strikeout with men on base...

The strangest thing about the revelations that Alex Rodriguez has been taking steroids since back in 2003, allegedly, is the reaction. What you are surprised? Why? He was on a team with known cheaters Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, and Ken Caminiti. Jose Canseco's book, Vindicated, says A-Fraud had been introduced to steroids suppliers even earlier in his career. The numbers are pretty compelling, in his five full seasons before he went to Texas in 2001, A-Fraud averaged 36.8 homers per. In the eight season since he met the Texas Medical Miracles, A-Fraud has averaged 45.5 homers per. Huh.

The Clarion Content sure is glad the Yankees bid $300 million over ten years against no other takers to bring this guy back, especially since he comes up so small in post-season. More sound advice brought to you by the bankers at Goldman Sachs. Good work. Way to choose A-Fraud over Joe, gentlemen.

The Clarion Content proposes Randy Levine be hung by his toes as part of the opening of the new Yankee Stadium, circa 2009. We would be fine with the Yankees summarily cutting A-Fraud and receiving nothing in return. Fair is fair, nutin' for nutin'.

Gladly

Word one the street is that it is possible that... the New York Rangers may be reacquiring controversial winger Steve Avery.

The Clarion Content is all for it. Yes, we know Avery is a super pest, and a chippy player. Personally, we loved his harassment of the Devils Marty Brodeur. It was so outlandish that the NHL responded with a rule change the next day. Hey, many of our editorial staff grew up Rangers fans in a Bobby Clarke era, it is nice to have a guy like that on the Rangers side for a change. Last time they did, in the person of Esa Tikkanen, the Rangers were winning and contending for Cups. (Of course, Mark Messier was the keystone, but Tikkanen was a foundation piece player.)

We never did understand why the Dallas Stars and the NHL reacted so harshly to Avery's comments about his ex-girlfriends. We had thought it was America, not Canada that had the puritan streak. We couldn't (and can't) imagine why Avery wasn't filing a grievance about his suspension. Seriously, the thuggery, the deliberate attempts to injure like knee-to-knee checks, the boarding, the slashing, that the NHL has seen go on with less penalty than Avery has faced!?! We can't believe he has been banished since November. The NHL has enrolled him in its NHL/NHLPA behavioral health program. Yikes, holy thought police.

LeBron!

Two nights after Kobe Bryant lit up Madison Square Garden and the "Seven seconds or less" Knicks for 61 points, LeBron James and the 38 up and 9 down Cleveland Cavaliers came to town. The New York media was apparently aflutter over whether LeBron would try to eclipse Kobe's point total, which broke the Garden scoring record, previously held by Bernard King.

It is not exactly in keeping with the Global Icon's selfless win-first style to try to beat another guy's individual point total. So LeBron did what global icon's do, went out and did his own inimitable thing. 52 points, 11 assists and 10 boards, the NBA's first 50 point-plus triple-double since Kareem in 1975. (It was later revised down to 9 boards, falling just short of the triple-double.)

Oh and by the way, it is not a technicality, it is reality to say that LeBron's 52 points plus 11 dimes (resulting in 22 points) is a greater net contribution to his team's scoring than Kobe's 61 points and 3 dimes (resulting in 6 additional points.)

So that's how it is in Cincinnati

Mississippi basketball coach Andy Kennedy, who was arrested in downtown Cincinnati on December 18th after a taxi driver said the coach hit him and used racial epithets, was also caught on videotape by the cops. The crux of the dispute was that the taxi driver would not allow more people than the rules state to squeeze into a cab. We have all been there, you just have to take two cabs, Coach, it is not the end of the world. But instead of exercising a little patience Coach Kennedy went ape shit, allegedly.

The funniest part however is the newly released police video tape. Kennedy was caught on tape pleading with officers, according to the Associated Press, "I'm begging you ... this is a major deal, man. This is going to be a national incident, sir." The cop's response says it all, stay classy Cincinnati, "You think we've never arrested somebody that's made national media? ...We deal with the Bengals all the time."

How not to play the Lakers

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere...

The new look Lakers, they are new look because, unfortunately, their rising star of a young center Andrew Bynum was hurt at the end of last week and will likely miss the rest of the regular season. The new look Lakers are smaller and faster. Pau Gasol has replaced Bynum as the center, moving over from power forward. Lamar Odom, 6'9" and an uber-versatile swingman has replaced Bynum as a starter.

As the Knicks so ably demonstrated last night in Madison Square Garden, what you don't want to do is try to run up and down the court with these guys. Of course, now that Mike D'Antoni is in the Eastern Conference nobody is playing the seven seconds or less basketball on the west coast. Good thing for them. You try to run with them and the Lakers will crush you. Last night in the Garden Gasol had an overlooked 31 points and 14 rebounds. Why was Gasol's big night overlooked?

Because Kobe Bryant went off, and broke the all-time Madison Square Garden scoring record held by the legendary Bernard King. Kobe went for 61 points, to break King's record, set against the hapless Nets, by one. Kobe shot 61% from the field and made 20 out of 20 from the free-throw line. Whoa. By the end even the Knicks home crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Read more here in the New York Times.

Serena Williams is a BAD ASS tennis player

It is easy to forget in this era when tennis has slipped so far down the ladder of sports' hierarchy. Serena Williams is a bad ass tennis player. She is tougher, stronger and simply better than almost all comers. Tennis has fallen from the point where Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were global icons to slightly more relevant than lacrosse and American soccer. However, this dimming of the sport's glow has not diminished Williams' accomplishments or presence. Serena Williams has won more money at her sport than any other woman ever.

Last night in the Land Down Under, she won her 10th Grand Slam title. She did so in the dominating fashion that is the hallmark of all of the Grand Slam Finals she plays, save for those against her sister. Williams easily dismissed the Russian, Dinara Safina, who would have been number one in the world if she could have beaten Williams. Instead Serena crushed her 6-0 and 6-3, winning the first set in a mere twenty-two minutes and seized the number one ranking for herself. This followed the pattern Williams has laid down, she has won the Australian Open every other year since 2003. Two years she crushed another talented Russian, Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2.

Read more here.