Sports Agenda for Monday (4/22/13)
Big Stories:
Well, to the surprise of absolutely no one not named Brandon Jennings, the Heat opened up a can on the Milwaukee Bucks and they can get better. Plus, the Marlins are historically bad and I mean deep history. The Bucs fleeced the Jets in the Darrelle Revis trade. And some brief commentary on the state of television news in the wake of the Boston bombings.
Miami Heat: (Off Monday, Game 2 Tuesday)
So, um yeah, here's the scariest part of Miami's Game 1 blowout of the Bucks; the Heat can play better.
Yes, after annihilating the Bucks, Miami still isn't at the top of its game.
It's close, mind you, but it's still not there.
LeBron had another LeBron game, 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Ray Allen exploded for 20 points off the bench and Wade and Bosh had 16 and 15 respectively.
Here's what I noticed the Heat needed to work on...
Not making stupid turnovers all the time.
Miami turned the ball over 19 times against the Bucks.
Against Milwaukee you can get away with that, but down the road that's not going to cut it.
The only other thing I noticed not going for Miami was the 3-point shooting of Shane Battier.
Other than that, it was total domination for the Heat.
Wanna see a scary stat line?
9-11 shooting, 1-2 3-pt shooting, 8-11 free throws...yeah, that was LeBron last night.
Miami outrebounded (yes the Heat outrebounded) Milwaukee 46-31.
Miami had 22 assists to Milwaukee's 14.
Miami's defense held Milwaukee to 41.5 percent shooting, 26.9 percent from 3-point land, and 60 percent at the free throw line.
How did Miami do?
55.9 percent shooting, 30.4 percent 3-point shooting, and 81.8 percent from the free throw line.
Not to point out the obvious to Mr. Brandon Jennings, but if you're going to give a team some bulletin board material...try the Bobcats, not the best team in the world.
I'm just sayin'.
Miami Marlins: (@ Minnesota Twins, 8:10 p.m., Fox Sports Florida)
So we know the Marlins are bad....I mean epically bad.
Bad in a sense that few teams will ever see.
Luckily, the fine folks at Hardballtalk.com helped break down just how bad Miami is through 19 games.
The Marlins had never won fewer than 5 games through 19 starts in team history, yeah, even the first season.
Miami has scored a total of 43 runs through 19 games, that makes them the 19th team in history to have such a bad offense and only the fourth team since 2000.
Also, Miami's -46 run difference is the largest gap since Detroit posted a -57 in 2003 and since Baltimore posted a -82 in 1988.
Think about that for a minute.
You have to literally try to be this bad and if the fans ever wondered if Jeffrey Loria has complete and total disdain for them, this should answer it.
Plus, contrast the ownership of the Marlins versus that of the Dolphins and the Heat.
Someone will have to explain to me one day how Loria can keep this team.
Seriously, they pushed out the Maloofs in the NBA, they pushed out the former Dodgers owner, they've just about pushed out the Mets guys, yet Loria continues to play the fiddle as the Marlins burn.
Way to go baseball, and you wonder why you are no longer America's pastime?
Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
There's robbing, and then there's straight stealing in the NFL.
The Bucs didn't just rob the New York Jets in the Darrelle Revis trade, they robbed them, beat them up, and then made the Jets clean up the mess.
So the Bucs traded a first-round pick in a so-so draft to the Jets for the best defensive player in the league (if healthy).
Not a bad thing.
The Bucs also gave Revis 0 guaranteed money.
No signing bonus, no nothing
Either he plays, or he's out and the Bucs likely avoid any salary cap penalties if they cut him.
Meantime, the Jets lose their only star player and best defensive stopper.
In return, they get the 13th pick in the draft.
They'll likely be able to draft some help for Mark Sanchez, but what about covering people in the secondary against Tom Brady and Ryan Tannehill?
Yeah, let me know how that turns out.
Plus, the Bucs defensive backfield now looks like this: CB - Darrelle Revis, Eric Wright (possibly) S - Dashon Goldson and Mark Barron.
Yikes, talk about a weakness to a plus!
Dadgum.
Finally, as promised a word about the Boston Bombing coverage:
We in the journalism business, especially television news, have fought with the need to get things on the air first.
But, in the last few years, the Internet, and more specifically Twitter, has so far trumped television news that the news business is having a hard time figuring out how to use it.
Last week, we saw what kind of chaos all of this brings.
CNN's credibility is ZERO after it's massive fails.
The Boston Globe was dinged for screwing up the story.
CBS Boston got hammered after reporting the suspect had been arrested.
The Associated Press got it wrong.
Only CBS News and NBC News held off until things were confirmed.
And they come out looking the best in the long run.
Let's face it CBS' John Miller and NBC News' reporter, who's name slips my mind, looked like good old school reliable journalists.
The rest of the media looked like a monkey flinging poo against a wall hoping it would stick.
Here's the dynamic going forward:
Twitter and the Internet are faster than Television news. It's not going to be, it already is. It's a fact.
But, both come with warnings that the old media already learned.
For example, don't post scanner traffic as Reddit found out the hard way.
However, what television news has to learn is how to harnass the speed and power of Twitter and the Internet into the broadcast.
Break it online and send it to television.
Break it on Twitter and send it to the web and television.
The days of holding stories for the newscasts have long since gone.
This proved that as much as anything.
Still, Twitter needed television as much as television needed Twitter.
Plus, the blogs also helped drive the story.
It's the first crowd-sourced investigation and it had a lot of bumps and bruises for all media sources.
But, the one thing both sides should remember is what I've told news directors for years when asked about my news philosophy…
It's good to be first, but it's better to be right.
CNN, Fox, ABC, Boston Globe, Local Boston Affiliates, Reddit, and others need to remember that.
It's also kind of funny, I've had news directors in the past say that philosophy was one that would get me beaten by other stations.
To all those news directors who looked at me funny when I said that, I say, HA!
And thank goodness that's the philosophy where I am now of being right is just as important as being first.
I smell a much longer dissertation coming from me on this one.
