Goodbye, You Rebel You

I'm regretful to say I never met Jerry Tarkanian in person. But he had the vision to see "amateurism" as it is labeled by the NCAA as a total crock of shit long before the crowd.  I happen to believe (though not know definitively) that Jesus Christ loves those who don't misrepresent themselves in a daily bath of hypocrisy (think Coack K, Lute Olsen, Bill Self here....) God bless you Jerry, the world has one less anti-serum to hypocrisy, and one less straight-shooter today. Dan Wetzel gives a short take:

Heisman Race

A "walk on" Heisman trophy winner????  Dominique Whaley?? Well, we all know the East Coast red diaper sports "journalists" couldn't handle it.  ESPN thinks people are interested in watching highlights of Tom Brady drooling apple sauce from his highchair while Alabama and Florida are playing football. But observe kids.

Blake Griffin (of LA Clippers) Slam Dunks Over a Car (With Pass From Sunroof)

Serge Ibaka (of Oklahoma City Thunder) Slam Dunks From the Foul Line

Top 10 Slam Dunks From Blake Griffin

Hey, there's fun stuff in life too folks.  And every time there are bad things happening in this crazy world, there's good things happening also.  I found this at the Los Angeles Times, it was a Melissa Rohlin post.  Top 10 Dunks From Blake Griffin of the Clippers,  Sports fans don't miss these!!!!

On Mike Leach Termination

Mason Lerner writes about the Mike Leach firing.  Includes an interesting video discussing the punishment they gave the little boy.  This story strikes me deeper than some because I'm familiar with the situation of giving your heart to an institution, like Mike Leach did, and being knifed in the back.  Many parts of this story ring true to me that I'm not going to get into on a blog.  But Lerner spells out this particular story quite well.  Also Dale Jones of the Capstone Report spells it out pretty well.

Best of Friends

Bill Finley writing for the New York Times has a story on two young women playing basketball together.  If you are tired of war stories then this is a story for you.  One is Palestinian-American Niveen Rasheed, and her teammate Lauren Polansky is Jewish.  They are best of friends, and all smiles together.  I just decided who my favorite women's basketball team is now.  Wish them the best.  Warm-fuzzy here.

Thayer Evans and Pete Thamel of NYT on Mike Leach Firing

I have always been a fan of Mike Leach's since he was an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma back in 1999. I was greatly saddened by his termination from Texas Tech. Until the smoke clears it will be hard to know who was in the right on this one. Or maybe it was something in the middle (both parties partly to blame). It certainly does make one wonder, after having led the Red Raiders to their most successful season one year ago (11 wins, 2 losses) and with an $800,000 retention bonus that would have been due in less one week from being fired, what exactly were the leaders of the University thinking??? Maybe you can find the answer in the more detailed stories from the New York Times, both written by Thayer Evans and Pete Thamel here and here.