Whitt's End: 4.13.12
Whether you've reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:
*Wanna know how important Mavs' coach Rick Carlisle thought last night's game against Golden State was? Down 4-0, he called a timeout 1:35 into the game.
*I don't trust Joe Nathan. Rangers are 5-0; he's 0-2. And if he struggles pitching back-to-back days, what happens come playoff time?
*Okay, what if I offered the Cowboys a running back in his 5th NFL season, who has 81 catches over the last two years, a 26-yard average on kickoff returns in 2011, had a 100-yard game as recently as December and over 450 carries has an average of 5.1? Sounds good, even great right? Now what if I told you that running back's name was Felix Jones? Still interested?
*If you honestly think Friday the 13th is unlucky, we can't be friends. And if you think Friday the 13th is a good movie, same arrangement.
*Dwyane Wade is dumb enough to voice his opinion that NBA players should be paid to play in The Olympics. Another reason to hate him. Others? His fake falldowns and over-dramatic injuries. His mocking Dirk Nowitzki's cough during last summer's NBA Finals. And last night in Chicago, he takes a potential game-winning 15-footer along the baseline. Without so much as anyone touching him, he falls back and then, just before hitting the hardwood, he propels himself faster and farther backward with his foot and winds up sliding another 5 feet into fans in the first row. Why? To attempt to create the illusion of an impossible degree of difficulty on something that should have been as easy as making a 15-foot jumper. He missed. Heat lost. Wade sucks.
*HOT
*NOT
*The Mavs beat the Warriors last night and then boarded a plane, not getting to their Portland hotel until 3:54 a.m. (according to a Tweet by Shawn Marion). Tell me again that baseball players aren't the lamest, most pampered athletes on the planet. Jamie Moyer can pitch at age 49 and baseball has a "getaway day."
*Wondering how much it would cost to put our 105.3 The Fan/RAGE logo on the infield grass at Texas Motor Speedway. Gonna ask TMS Grand Poobah Eddie Gossage today at 3:15.
*ESPN's Monday Night Football next season will be without Ron Jaworski but with new sideline reporter Lisa Salters. Here's betting Salters is better than Lisa Guerrero and Eric Dickerson, but not as good as Lesley Visser and Melissa Stark.
*A couple of long over-due apologies if I may. Back in 2000 while covering the Mavericks in Salt Lake City I went out drinking with players and media. Being that the town shuts down at 10 p.m., I was drunk-hungry with nary a Whataburger in sight. So, on the short walk from bar to hotel, I spotted a group loitering outside a restaurant with doggie bags in hand. Yep, with a running start I snatched one of the bags from a man's hand and sprinted to my hotel, up the elevator and into my room for a delicious leftover meal of chicken parmesan. It was good, but it wasn't right. I'm also sorry to the girl I took to a Jimmy Buffet concert in the late '90s. She got drunk and sick and proceeded to throw up in my 4-Runner, like right into the air-conditioner vents. None too pleased with this, I purposely slammed on the brakes while we sat in going-home traffic, bopping her nose and puke-splattered face on the dashboard while she tried to get cold air. It was funny, but it wasn't right. There, my soul is cleansed. For now.
*Rangers' reliever Mike Adams has thrown 64 pitches this year, 53 for strikes. Or, as manager Ron Washington likes to say, he's hitting gnats on their butts.
*Separated at birth: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Scott, the "Feed Your Lawn!" guy.
*Kentucky coach John Calipari is already at it again. Reloading, that is. A week after leading UK to the title behind freshmen Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis, he landed the nation's No. 1 high-school recruit in 6-10 forward Nerlens Noel and five of ESPNU's Top 100.
*Terence Newman (Bengals) and Bradie James (Texans) have both landed new gigs. Glad they're gone, because they could no longer play. But hate to see good guys leave. Neither complained and both played through injuries.
*ESPN Dallas' Calvin Watkins had a blurb about the Cowboys supposedly having talks about trading Felix Jones. Team VP Stephen Jones' retort may be the biggest shootdown of a rumor, ever: "No discussions – or speculation – on the possibility of a trade involving Felix Jones have ever taken place among individuals in this organization who would have the authority to explore such a scenario. Any reports of apparent internal discussions along those lines would involve people who have no input or relevance in the process."
*Shocking revelation from Trayvon Martin's mom in that she believes her son's shooting was "an accident." Wow.
*The NFL next season will allow stadiums to sell advertising to casinos, long as the casinos don't have sports books and as long as the ads aren't in places that could be caught by TV cameras. Weird.
*Wait, the Atlanta Falcons for HBO's Hard Knocks? This isn't the "Too Legit To Quit" Falcons of MC Hammer and Deion Sanders, nor the "Dirty Bird" Falcons of Jamal Anderson and Eugene Robinson, asking an undercover cop for a $40 blow job the night before the Super Bowl. It's Atlanta, underachieving Atlanta. With boring ass Matt Ryan at quarterback. Yawn.
*It's not that Lamar Odom can't play. It's that he chose not to. That's what makes what he did to the Mavericks almost criminal. Now he and Khloe can both be paid millions for doing absolutely nothing.
*And, yes, to those who either didn't hear the news or are merely seeking confirmation, I am indeed dating Sybil Summers. Rooming with her at the Super Bowl re-lit a previously ignored spark and … away we go.
*This weekend? Today we're at Texas Motor Speedway for NASCAR. Tomorrow morning after a round of golf in Anna, it's back to the track Saturday night for the Samsung Mobile 500 in Gossage's fancy schmancy suite. On Sunday, Lakers-Mavs. Don't be a stranger.
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