The Phoenix experiment did not work and Shaq is on the move again. It should be very interesting to see how he meshes with LeBron! Read more from TSN.ca:
After coming up short in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers brought in Shaquille O’Neal to complement LeBron James.
Numbers Game examines the Big Aristotle’s arrival in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers Get: C Shaquille O’Neal.
O’Neal, 37, is coming off his best year since 2005-2006, averaging 17.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting a stellar 60.9% from the field and his 59.5% from the free throw line was the second-best percentage of his career (behind 62.2 in 2002-2003).
At this stage of his career, O’Neal doesn’t need to dominate the ball and, with LeBron running the show in Cleveland, O’Neal shouldn’t have any trouble deferring to the reigning MVP.
Shaq’s not a dominant defender, and can be exploited by centres that can move away from the basket, but he’s still an upgrade on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the veteran Lithuanian centre who was abused by the Magic’s Dwight Howard in the Conference Finals.
Ilgauskas has a player option for next season and the prospect of being Shaq’s backup would figure to be enough reason for the 34-year-old to seek out a better opportunity elsewhere.
While his mobility isn’t what it once was, O’Neal was much better in Phoenix than he’d been in his later days with the Miami Heat, so there is every reason to think he’ll be a productive player next season, the final year of a contract which pays him $20-million in 2009-2010.
With LeBron and Shaq going into the final years of their contracts, 2009-2010 shapes up as the Cavaliers’ best chance to contend for a title.
The Suns Get: PF Ben Wallace, SF Sasha Pavlovic and a second-round pick.
34-year-old Ben Wallace is a long way from the energetic, dominant defender that he was in his championship days with the Detroit Pistons. He’s never been an offensive player and last year’s 3.0 points per game was his lowest total since his rookie season.
Even with all that taken into consideration, Wallace is still a capable defender who can block shots and crash the boards, only he does it in more limited minutes.
Due $14-million next season, in the final year of his contract, Wallace’s future is uncertain. He could get flipped to another team or it’s possible that he’ll take on a role with the Suns next season.
Pavlovic, 25, hasn’t been able to rise above reserve swingman in five years with the Cavaliers, though some of the reason for that may be attributed to injuries — Pavlovic hasn’t played in more than 67 games in a season since playing 79 in his rookie season with Utah in 2003-2004.
While he’s not going to be any better than a reserve in Phoenix, Pavlovic does shoot well enough — 41.0% on three-pointers last season — to fit into the Suns’ rotation at either of the wing spots.
The second-round pick, 46th overall, actually has some value. Since 2001, 12 players taken in the 46-50 range have become NBA rotation players — a success rate of 30% — with the best of the bunch being Cavs PG Mo Williams and Jazz PF Paul Millsap. No, it’s not likely to yield a star, but a serviceable rotation player is possible.
All indications are that the Suns aren’t done, either; that an Amar’e Stoudemire trade is on the way, so it’s hard to gauge just what the Suns are going to look like until the dust settles and they actually have someone available to play in the paint.
Here’s a great compilation by the good people at TSN. Nice to see that the true inter-teammate rumbles remain in Hockey!
Bad news for Team Russia!! From The Canadian Press:
Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are two of the world’s best hockey players, fellow Russians who became millionaires by their early 20s, former Olympic team roommates and the NHL’s top two scorers last season.
But the one-time friends have become cold-as-ice rivals, and their on-ice feud has grown increasingly nasty. Last season, the Penguins’ Malkin ducked just in time to avoid a hard drive into the boards from the Capitals’ Ovechkin.
The ugliness has moved off the ice, too, with Ovechkin reportedly taking a swing at Malkin’s agent in Moscow.
”Ovechkin is a great player, but every time he hits me - I don’t know why,” Malkin said.
Ovechkin has defended his play by saying that he hits hard against every opponent, although he does not have a reputation among his fellow NHL players for regularly throwing his body around.
Malkin and Ovechkin face each other again Wednesday night, and Malkin’s Pittsburgh teammate, captain Sidney Crosby, said the Penguins will protect their teammate. It is the second game of a back-to-back for the Penguins, who played Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
”It’s a different scenario because you usually don’t see that,” Crosby said, referring to one elite player taking what appeared to be a deliberate run at another. ”Guys on our team have to make sure we stick together and Geno (Malkin) has to make sure he sticks up for himself.”
If he does, the top two players in the league last season could be in for what is known in hockey as a Gordie Howe hat trick - a goal, an assist and a fight.
What observers can’t understand is how two good friends became enemies in so short a time. Only three years ago, they roomed together in Turin at the Winter Olympics, and the two were often seen together off the ice, hanging out, shopping, taking in the Italian sights.
Then, boom.
Neither the 23-year-old Ovechkin, last year’s NHL scoring champion and MVP, nor the 22-year-old Malkin, this season’s scoring leader, will say what went wrong. Two years ago, Russian hockey websites were filled with reports that Ovechkin took a swing at Malkin’s Russian agent, Gennady Ushakov, in a Moscow nightclub.
Ovechkin denied the story but in a November interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Malkin said it happened, calling it a ”bad situation.”
With the Vancouver Games only 13 months away, the testiness between the two is causing some anxiety for Russian hockey officials. Russia will be an underdog on Canada’s home ice and badly needs its two biggest stars playing together if it hopes to win a gold medal.
The NHL has stayed out of the dispute so far, but no doubt doesn’t want either of its stars to be injured because of a personal disagreement.
After Wednesday’s game, the Capitals and Penguins play again on Feb. 22 and March 8 in Washington, so there’s plenty of time for the feud to end or grow worse.
When Washington rallied from three goals down to win 4-3 in Pittsburgh on Oct. 16, Ovechkin didn’t score but appeared to go out of his way to hit Malkin at any opportunity.
”We’ll stick up (for Malkin), like you would for any teammate,” Crosby said. ”They’re intense, physical games and as long as that’s the way they stay, that’s safe. But if there’s deliberate intent to hurt someone, you kind of step outside the line a bit, you have to make sure you stick up for your teammate.”
The Penguins felt that happened in a Jan. 21 game last season, when Ovechkin lined up Malkin near the rear boards and took a long run at him from Malkin’s blind side. Malkin ducked out of the way, causing Ovechkin to slam sideways into the boards.
”I mean, he’s got run a couple of times,” Crosby said. ”The (Oct. 16) game here, I think he made a few runs at Geno and Geno handled it the right way. Geno’s focused on playing and he shouldn’t get caught up with that.”
Team Canada says no, but everyone else is crying foul. Sure the girls look young, but so do all gymnasts? Read more from the National Post:
BEIJING — They look like they are anywhere between 8 and 11 years old, but five of the six girls on the Chinese gymnastics team hold passports that say they are 16 — the minimum age to be competing in the Olympic gymnastics competition.
In a sport where youth means flexibility — and flexibility means everything — many people in the gymnastics world are questioning just how old these girls really are.
“It’s really bigger than gymnastics,” began Carol-Angela Orchard, who coaches Canadian gymnast Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs. For the record, she is one of few coaches here who is not accusing the Chinese of cheating, heading into Wednesday’s team competition.
“I can’t go to the Canadian government and say, ‘Please give me passport for Elyse that will allow her to compete at the Olympic Games [before she is of age]. That simply can not happen,” Orchard said. “So, if it’s a passport that the government supplies; if they have documentation from their government that says that is their age, then that’s their age.”
Bela Karolyi, former coach to Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, now coaches the pixies of the United States team. He spoke out last week about the Chinese.
“This is a joke,” he said. “We are people who have had children of our own, so we know what a 16-year-old should look like. They should not look like they are seven and maybe still in diapers.”
The New York Times reported irregularities in the ages of the Chinese gymnasts last month, finding online records that showed two gymnasts, He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan, may only be 14. The state-run Chinese Central Television website also posted a profile of Yang Yilin indicating she too was 14, the Times reported.
In turn, the Chinese have produced documentation which satisfies the International Olympic Committee, a fact that does not surprise Canadian coach Tony Smith at all.
“[False documentation] was pretty [common] among all the Eastern Bloc countries, when the Communists were running the show,” Smith said, a fact of which the Romanian Karolyi is no doubt well aware. “It’s the mentality that, through sport, we’re going to demonstrate our superiority over the non-Communist nations. It’s been around a long time. Unfortunately we don’t get to play by the same rules.
“It’s no different than the whole drug testing thing,” he said, referring to countries that stringently test for drugs only to make sure their athletes show up clean for competitions. “Whereas in Canada we say, ‘You tested positive? See ya later.’ “
The crux of the problem lies in the fact that the only way for the IOC to verify an athlete’s age is by passport or birth certificate — both government-issued documents.
“It’s impossible,” Smith said. “It’s all speculation, but some of those kids, they barely look 12, 13, years old. There are a few of them that are legitimately older than 16. Yet every now and then you see the phenomenon coming up, then all of the sudden she’s old enough to compete.”
Karolyi is adamant that some of these girls are too young. “What the Chinese are doing is a slap in the face of the whole world, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
The Chinese gymnastics federation (FIG) issued a statement last week claiming the matter was cleared up.
“The FIG has received confirmation from the International Olympic Committee that all passports are valid for all gymnasts competing in the Beijing Olympic Games,” they said in a statement. “Stringent control measures are taken at the time of athlete accreditation for all official FIG competitions. Further, all athlete ages for the Beijing Olympic Games are consistent with the FIG records for all past FIG competitions.”
The Canadian women’s team has been in a practice group with the Chinese during the Olympic competition. “Those girls I see at the gym look eligible to me,” Orchard said. “They are magnificent gymnasts. I could sit there all day and watch them.
“Their physique is even smaller than the typical North American child, so it is [exacerbated] even more. They are the best in the world, especially on bars and beam, but they are just tinier people.”
In fact, the minimum age in Olympic gymnastics has been raised from 14 to 15, to 16 over the years, as those outside the sport grew concerned with the work regimen demanded of 12-and 13-year-olds in preparation for the Games.
“It’s difficult to understand our sport. The physique is so different,” Orchard said. “To my mind, 15 is the perfect age.
“In this sport, we do select very tiny packages. Even in Canada you have girls where you go, ‘Oh my God. They look like they’re only 10.’ They’re 15.”
Time Warner takes a page from the book of “give people what they want”
Enter SI Vault. If you are wondering what SI Vault is, as the name would imply, it’s 54 years of Sports Illustraded’s covers, images, stories and much more. If an image is worth a thousand words, what would 54 years’ worth of images be worth?
Here’s a story dating back to 1992, for example, on Christian Laettner and Duke. Hmm… Laettner? Duke? Pardon the shameless plug, but enjoy WatchMojo.com’s classic college programming:
Duke in Top College Programs:
And Laettner in Top College Careers:
All right, enough shameless promotion, now go and enjoy 54 years of SI at SI Vault.
What on earth are these Falcons thinking?
Free Mike Vick? Yeah, cause you currently suck… but if I were a Falcons player, I’d be pretty darn pissed at the dog-killer.
Will Nelson Piquet Jr. be Fernando Alonso’s Lewis Hamilton in 2008?
Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso is heading back to Renault.
The 26-year-old Spaniard announced his return to the French team Monday after a turbulent season at McLaren.
At Renault in 2005, Alonso became the youngest driver in F1 history to win the title. He repeated in 2006.
“I am delighted to be returning to Renault,” Alonso said in a statement. “This is the team where I grew up as a driver in Formula One. Now it is time for us to begin a new chapter together.”
Renault said that Alonso, who agreed to a two-year contract, would drive along with Nelson Piquet Jr. The duo will make their debut testing the new R28 car at Valencia from Jan. 22-24.
Read more.
PLAY
