So I guess Koufax/Drysdale means nothing to David Stern?

Wade’s agent, Henry Thomas, said Thursday that while the 2006 NBA finals MVP could talk with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and others before the July 1 start to free agency, no formal sit-down sessions among the headliners of this summer’s class are scheduled.

In interviews Wednesday and Thursday with the Chicago Tribune and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Wade reiterated he will do much homework this summer, and said he and other stars may get together for strategy sessions.

Honestly, I don’t understand how this is OK.  Wade’s agent is essentially saying, hey, at some point, my client is going to sit down with other free agents and collude.  Baseball has bylaws to protect the owners from this sort of thing (which actually backfired to hurt the owners when Andre Dawson was a free agent, but that’s another story), and I’m shocked that the NBA doesn’t.  If I’m an owner, I’d absolutely call bullshit on these meetings.  I mean, imagine the outrage if Mickey Arison and Mark Cuban got together to discuss who they wanted to sign in the offseason and how they wanted to know what the other was doing before making a decision.

This is clearly collusion, and I don’t really understand how the NBA owners are OK with this.  Then again, the NBA stopped being real sports around 20 years ago, so who really cares.  A ladder match in the playoffs honestly wouldn’t shock me.

[Miami Herald]

So Alvin, I have a question for ya. And you have to answer, you can’t say “neither” or “suicide” or something lame like that, OK? Alright, here we go. Would you rather have the girl from Precious sit on your face every day for the next year after she gets a yeast infection or – wait! I didn’t even get to finish my question!

This is great.

The Oakland Raiders have filed a grievance against former quarterback JaMarcus Russell seeking repayment of $9.55 million, the team confirmed Thursday.

The grievance is based on the contention by the Raiders that the contract was changed at one point during Russell’s three-year stint with the organization and that he’s not allowed to keep all of the money he had collected prior to his May 7 release. Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft, was guaranteed $32 million as part of a six-year contract reportedly worth $68 million.

Yikes.  Talk about buyer’s remorse.  Is it safe to say that Russell is a bigger bust than Ryan Leaf at this point?  At least Leaf won his first two games and never had the Chargers asking for money back.  I love how the Raiders are claiming the contract somehow changed.  Listen, if you simply ask for money back based on the fact that Russell sucks, I don’t think too many people are going to question that.

[Yahoo! Sports]

The order of the words “student athletes” should probably be switched around.

Kentucky’s spring GPA was released this week: 2.18. That’s an increase from the 2.025 in the Fall, but still not stellar and far from the “amazing students” coach Calipari praised during the season. Kentucky as a whole for varsity sports was 3.04 the highest in Mitch Barnhardt’s time at Kentucky.

If the grades of Daniel Orton are removed from the GPA, the team rebounds to a 2.35 – still a far cry from straight A’s. John Wall, as previously stated on this site, announced via Twitter that he had received a 3.5 for the semester.

I’m not going to sit on a high horse and rip the Kentucky athletes for having shitty grades, simply because they aren’t there to learn or get an education in the first place.  A significant portion of them, at least.  John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins and Bledsoe and company aren’t there to earn chemical engineering degrees, they are there to play basketball for a year since the NBA somehow has a problem with 18-year-olds using their skills and talents to earn a living.  It doesn’t matter that the classes these guys take are jokes, and it doesn’t matter that they get the actual exams as “study guides.”  All that really matters is that they pass, and the last I checked, 2.18 was passing.

/end of college athlete apologist rant

[SportsThat]

Could Mark Sanchez look any less interested? He’s at a Pearl Jam concert and has Meadow Soprano sitting to his right and the guy is less animated that the corpse from Weekend at Bernie’s. Nice golf clap at the end, too.

Also, a Pepsi shirt? Awesome, broseph!

Why even acknowledge him, Stan?  Wilbon is a moron.  Consistently.

This is what Wilbon said, without citing sources, or without following up in either his newspaper column or on television:

“… I think that Stan probably will be fired [if the Magic lose to the Celtics]. … I’ve already heard the rumblings that he will be fired if they don’t win this series.”
The Magic, who were trailing 3-0 in the Eastern Conference finals against Boston when the remarks were made, beat the Celtics in overtime Monday night. They are home against the Celtics on Wednesday.

“No. 1, I’m not worried about my job security, and I’m even less worried about what Michael Wilbon would think about anything,” Van Gundy said. “He’s just … a talking head. I have refused to be on PTI (Wilbon’s television show) for years, for five years. I follow that stuff. If you go on guys’ shows, they don’t criticize you. If you won’t go on their show, they do. That stuff is never known. There’s a lack of integrity in that business.”

Obviously, Stan Van Gundy has absolutely nothing to worry about.  Do you know how fast he’d be picked up were he to be fired?  Once Jackson tells the Cavs to fuck off, they’d be sucking Stan’s dick so fast that Dan Gilbert would cut his lip on Stan’s zipper.  And who would the Magic get to replace Van Gundy?  Mike Brown?

Anyway, Wilbon’s always been an idiot, so this is nothing new.  He clearly doesn’t have any sources, and the concept is preposterous on its face.  You try coaching a team with Vince Carter and a seven-footer who’s offensively worthless 10 feet or farther from the basket.

[NBA Fanhouse]

Fuggin’ lowlife.

PHILADELPHIA — A 21-year-old New Jersey man pleaded guilty Tuesday to vomiting on another spectator and his 11-year-old daughter in the stands during a Philadelphia Phillies game.

Matthew Clemmens, of Cherry Hill, N.J., pleaded guilty to one count each of simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment for his conduct during an April 14 Phillies-Nationals game at Citizens Bank Park.

Clemmens stuck his fingers down his throat and vomited on Michael Vangelo, an off-duty Easton police captain, and one of Vangelo’s daughters after Clemmens’ companion was ejected from the park, assistant district attorney Patrick Doyle said.

Of course he plead guilty.  What’s the alternative?  To concoct a defense that you had food poisoning?  Anyway, Clemmens’ punishment doesn’t seem that severe at first – probation – but when you keep in mind that he’s now got to say “yes” if he’s ever under oath and asked if he’s ever plead guilty to a crime.  He’ll say it’s assault, but a simply background check will show the true nature of the beast.  Plus, Clemmens’ deed will forever be archived on the glorious Internet.  He will never escape this for as long as he lives.. so there is some satisfaction in that.

[ESPN.com]

Admittedly, this is a pretty sweet move (especially the finish) and it was during a pretty pivotal and important game, but Robin Lopez is acting like he just saw that one Shawn Kemp dunk where Kemp cups the ball and dunks on (I think) Chris Gatling. When Gatling falls to the ground, Kemp points at him with both fingers before trotting off. If that were the play Robin saw, then this would be an appropriate reacting. I may even call it holding back. But that reaction for this move just makes Robin look like a douchebag.

Because there aren’t already too many people getting in my way on a daily basis:

The New Meadowlands Stadium, the $1.6 billion jewel co-owned by the New York Giants and Jets, will host the 2014 Super Bowl, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday afternoon at the league’s spring meeting.

“It’s a historic moment for the league,” Goodell said.

Well, hopefully the world will end in December 2012 like the Mayans say it will because I certainly don’t want to be around for a Super Bowl in New York.  And I’m not even talking about the shitty weather or the general entitlement of New Yorkers.  No, it’s simply because I can’t imagine a weekend when tens of thousands of people flock to New York.  It’s already bad enough as it is, what with tourists who have no idea they are even alive wandering on the sidewalks and getting in my way.  You can hardly fucking walk down the street and a normal pace because it’s always so packed.  I honestly can’t think of a worse place to be than New York for Super Bowl 2014.

[ESPN.com]

For some reason, this really cracks me up:

ARLINGTON, Texas — A bankruptcy filing by the Rangers reveals the team owes Alex Rodriguez $24.9 million in deferred compensation dating to his days with the team.

The tam filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in hopes of spurring completion of the $575 million sale of the team by midsummer to a group of investors that includes Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

The 21-page filing includes a list of unsecured creditors headed by the current Yankees third baseman, who was traded by Texas to New York in 2003.

People are always looking for new reasons to hate A-Rod (especially since they can’t use the “choker” argument anymore), so this should help plenty.  I mean, it’s not nearly as awesome as hating him for running across a mound, but it’s still pretty good.  Of all the doucehbags to owe money to, you’ve gotta think it stings just a tad bit more for the Rangers when it turns out that A-Rod is a creditor.  Just look at his picture.  How would you feel about giving that guy money?

[NY Post]