The Drubbing

Ricky wasn’t ready

Nate Tharp, Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 1:27 PM Comments (0)

Ricky Rubio wasn’t ready for the NBA, but we knew that. According to an ESPN.com article, the Minnesota Timberwolves seem to have thought they had a deal in place with Rubio and his current team, DKV Joventut, to bring Ricky Rubio to the NBA this season, that’s the surprising part. The not-so-shocking part is that Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn says that Rubio and his family backed out of the deal, making way for Rubio to be traded to FC Barcelona, as was previously announced. It also appears that Rubio has admitted that he was not ready to play in the NBA.
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Get ready New York, here comes LeBron James

Nate Tharp, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 9:17 AM Comments (2)

The competition has been heating up for quite a while now. NBA teams have been clearing cap room in the anticipation of his emergence on the free-agent market (as well as the other stars that will be available that summer). Many fans, including myself, would like to see LeBron James stay with his home-town team and win a few championships for Cleveland. But the team’s management hasn’t made a great case.

LeBron had to give an ultimatum to management before they went out, spent the cash and surrounded James with some players that could help him win. And while he may have LeBron in his corner, if Mike Brown has proved one thing, it’s that he’s not capable of leading the Cavs to big wins. Nothing says you’re a coach with confidence like throwing in the towel and asking LeBron to go one-on-one for an entire quarter.

While there are many teams that will vie for James’ services there is one clear leader and it’s not for the players, coaching staff or front office. LeBron will go to the New York Knicks if for no other reason than all of the off-the-court opportunities. James’ aspirations go way beyond basketball and as was pointed out on EPSN a while back, there is no better place for him to set himself up for life after basketball than New York. It doesn’t hurt that the Knicks have a coach that is a proven winner, a GM with an excellent track record, and a core group of young players that put up points and play hard. And it doesn’t hurt that the ownership has always been willing to spend the money.

The 23 jersey was freed up after the Knicks moved Q-Rich. But for now it’s been claimed by rookie Toney Douglas. So for their next personnel move, the Knicks either need to cut or trade Toney Douglas. Because soon enough the 23 will be worn by the new King of New York.

Update: ESPN has penned an article predicting where LeBron James will be playing his 2010-2011 home games. They polled 52 of their writers to see what they thought. As expected, Cleveland was the top vote-getter. Also as expected, New York was #2. Interestingly enough, although the Los Angeles Clippers were mentioned by the author of the article, they received a grand total of zero votes. Very interesting.

Starbury TV, what a strange world we live in

Nate Tharp, Monday, August 24, 2009 at 3:47 PM Comments (0)

Apparently I’m a couple of weeks late  to this, but it is way too bizarre to not share. Stephon Marbury has his new 24/7 live online tv show. In late July Starbury started a streaming broadcast of his daily life on Justin.tv for the world to see. It includes everything from him sleeping, to him helping his son get ready in the morning. Apparently he broadcasts from his home in Los Angeles so the six Knicks fans that still like him will have to put up with the three-hour time change. With no further ado, here is the madness.

Changing the face of sports online

Nate Tharp, Monday, August 24, 2009 at 2:34 PM Comments (2)

There is no shortage of sports reference sites, but that hasn’t stopped new ones from popping up. Several new websites recently that are attempting to change the way fans interact with sports and acceess sporting information, mostly centering around athletes use of social media. First there was The Jockosphere which collects “the best” of all of the blog posts, Tweets, MySpace and Facebook comments from athlete’s sites and writes about it.

Next came Jockipedia, which is run by the same team that manages the The Jockosphere, and sets out to catalog the communication tools in use by athletes and teams such as their blog, Twitter feed, MySpace page, etc. Basically all of the sources used by The Jockosphere.

The newest one is Fanbase, which launched today, is more of a reference utility. Essentially, they’re trying to become the Wikipedia of athletics or as they call it, The web’s largest almanac of pro and college athletes, built by fans.
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World Cup 2018

Nate Tharp, Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 8:55 PM Comments (1)

A committee is already building support to bring the World Cup back to U.S. soil in either 2018 or 2022 (my vote is for both), and I couldn’t be more excited. The World Cup is one of my favorite sporting events and it’s made even more special because it occurs only every four years.

The excitement is only heightened in New York when for a few weeks in the summer the streets empty at kickoff, and every bar with a TV in Manhattan is filled to capacity. It really is, “the world’s game.”

So the U.S. is generating support to make their bid for the 2018 event, and I’m really hoping they can pull through. My hopes of going to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup dwindle with every passing day. So 2018 may be my next best chance to see it live. So go sign the petition. And tell friends to do the same.

Cautiously optimistic about Ricky Rubio

Nate Tharp, Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 11:05 AM Comments (2)

Superstar or bust, that’s where most people land on the topic of Ricky Rubio. It’s clear that some of us here think that Rubio will be nothing short of an NBA superstar, eventually. I’m not so sure of his imminent rise to superstardom, but I’m not ready to write him off yet. So I’ll put myself in the cautiously optimistic category. I hope he becomes a capable starting NBA point guard, but I wouldn’t bet a paycheck on it.
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The MLS is expanding, that’s right, expanding

Nate Tharp, Monday, August 10, 2009 at 9:13 AM Comments (8)

If an expansion team is added in the MLS, does anyone know about it? I guess not. This one came as a shocker to me. In 2010 the MLS will have a new team, the Philadelphia Union. The only thing more shocking to most people I’ve talked to was that the MLS was still around.

David Beckham was supposed to be the savior of the MLS. There was supposed to be a flood of international talent that would rush over the league upon his arrival. To his credit there were a few players that defected from more popular leagues. But all that hype and media coverage lasted for a month or so.
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What would Adam Pacman Jones do?

Nate Tharp, Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10:40 AM Comments (0)

Pacman has a new slang term for strippers... "children"

Pacman has done a lot of undesirable things in his life. But he hasn’t done this. As the NFL continues to work on it’s image rehabilitation program, there are naturally a few players that just can’t get on board. Adam Pacman Jones is the league’s lightning rod and poster boy for their legal Troubles. Pacman has been charged with everything from assault, vandalism, disorderly conduct and public intoxication to obstruction of justice, marijuana possession and has allegedly been involved in a shooting at a Las Vegas strip club. But for all the things Pacman has done, Corey McIntyre, fullback for the Buffalo Bills, found something that he hasn’t done. And that’s fondling himself outside of a woman’s home.
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Tenured quarterbacks in the NFL

Nate Tharp, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 8:37 AM Comments (2)

For those that may have missed it, former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League on Friday. Yes, that’s the same Graham Harrell that threw for over 5,000 yards in a season twice and holds the NCAA Divison I record for career touchdowns with 134 and was undrafted in last years NFL draft. He has two of the top ten season passing yardage marks including the #4 spot, right behind the late Steve McNair. This guy not getting a good look from an NFL team is downright criminal if you ask me.
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Vince McMahon just as childish as the basement-dwelling man-boys that watch the WWE

Nate Tharp, Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 8:55 AM Comments (2)

The WWE is about as popular as the MLS, and the people that run it are about as big of whiners as the Lakers or Spurs. The bumbling idiots that manage the Pepsi Center in Denver, home of the Denver Nuggets, were foolish enough to schedule a WWE event on the same night as a potential NBA playoff home game. Instead of taking it like a man, trying to reschedule for another day or rearrange the time of the event, the chairperson of the WWE, Vince McMahon, decided to throw a public tantrum and cry like the little woman that he is.
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