-
Dan Pearson
In basketball, picking up the ball and moving you pivot foot more or taking more than two steps while shooting a layup, used to be called traveling and the other team would get the ball.
Then the modern day NBA player came along and all of a sudden, three, four or even five steps became acceptable. In fact they started giving traveling fancy names like the “Euro Step” and the “Crab Step.”
Now James Harden has taken it to a new level with the “Gather Step.” You can Google it to watch it, but if you are too lazy, let me explain it you.
Ever see the obstacle course at a dog show where the cute border collie runs a weave back and forth through the poles? Just imagine that four or five poles are now NBA players spaced five or six feet from each other. The border collie is James Harden carrying a basketball and “weaving” between the players, starting from outside the 3-point lane, never dribbling the basketball and eventually laying it in about 10 seconds later. Pretty sure my high school basketball coach would be rolling over in his grave if he saw that…
Not a huge NASCAR fan, barely a fan at all, but have to say that when it comes to fans, their drivers “get it” more than most professional athletes.
At the Las Vegas race last week, Ryan Newman held a press conference where he discused the horrific wreck he was involved in at Daytona a week earlier. How did he start his press conference?
With a sincere and lengthy apology to the Vegas fans for not being able to race that week…. hmmm compare that to no apology for taking off a regular season NBA game for “load management”… just saying…
Came up with a new idea for a store. “Two Dollar General” for the upscale who enjoy the finer things in life…
Guessing the average worker probably has not seen this type of wage inflation in their chosen professions.
In 1990 (doesn’t seem that long ago), Wayne Levi participated in 24 PGA Tour Golf Events and WON four times. He pocketed $1.02 million and finished second on the season-long money list. Last Sunday, Bryson DeChambeau stuffed a cool $1.12 million into his bank account for finishing second in one event, the WGC-Mexico Championship…
Not predicting whether LSU QB Joe Burrow is going to be a success in the NFL (with 30 percent of draft picks in the first three rounds usually do not pan out), but what I do know is this guy is both smart and funny.
When critics like Colin Cowherd suggested Johnny Manziel may not be worthy of a No. 1 draft pick, Manziel got into very public sparring matches with Cowherd that did nothing to help his reputation. Now comes news out of the NFL combine that suggests Burrow’s smallish 9 inch hands (by NFL quarterback standards) may be a problem. Burrow’s reaction? He sent out this hilarious tweet “Considering retirement after I was informed the football will be slipping out of my tiny hands. Please keep me in your thoughts.” Brilliant…
There’s a difference between being a great player and being a “star.” You can be a great player without being a star. Joe Namath’s career stats were average at best. But he played in New York City, was nicknamed “Broadway Joe” and had a certain bravado about him that made him a “star.”
Zion Williamson may not even be the best rookie in the NBA (Ja Morant might be), but he is going to be super star. The name, the charisma and the fact that he doesn’t look or play like anyone else (no one that big should be that fast and fluid) definitely sets him apart from the run of the mill great player…
Sabrina Ionescu, a 5-10 guard on the University of Oregon, became the first college basketball player (male or female) to record 2,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds and 1,000 career assists. Putting that in prospective, players who average 18 or 19 points a game are not usually spending a lot of time doing the dirty work under the boards or sharing the basketball on the offensive end.
Yet heading into this week, Ionescu had 26 triple doubles to her career (games with 10-plus points, rebounds and assists) - far more than any player in college basketball history (again male or female)…
Sometimes, I occasionally get one right. In a column a few weeks ago, I suggested that testing for marijuana would be a carrot the NFL owners could use to push through a new collective bargaining agreement with the players. The potential new agreement would call for a 17th regular season game, something the player’s union vocally disagreed with. On Wednesday of this week, the player reps agreed to send a proposed CBA to the membership for a full vote, something they most likely would not have done had they not felt there were enough votes to pass the agreement. Among other things, the new CBA proposal does call for acceptance of a 17th regular season game and according to Feb. 20 article in Forbes magazine the new agreement says players, “would no longer face the possibility of being suspended from games just for testing positive for marijuana.” While it does appear that league will still test for cannabis, it does narrow the windows when the tests can be conducted and certainly falls in line with other pro leagues on lessening any penalties for usage…
For a great read on former Florida State University golfer Brooks Koepka, log on to GQ magazine (formely Gentlemen’s Quarterly) at www.gq.com. Among interesting things revealed about a young man who is changing the face of golf with his propensity to win majors, is his reluctance to become buddy-buddy with the players he competes against.
“I just don’t want to be that close with everybody I compete with,” Koepka said. “Like, I don’t even have Rory’s phone number. I didn’t have Tiger’s phone number for the longest time”…
Y’all have a great week!
