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What I missed
 Posted
7/7/2010 9:13:00 AM
One of the cool things about working in sports is the unpredictability each day brings -- you literally never know what might pop up. So when you go on vacation, you are always at risk of missing something juicy. There is a reason why no Zone hosts are allowed to take vacation between September and February; it's football season and we can’t afford to be away for any length of time. So we usually take the majority of our time off during the "dog days of summer," like I did last week. Well ... something juicy definitely popped up.
When I go on vacation, I usually like to shut it down and not pay too much attention to details of the sporting world. I will always sneak a peek at the internet or catch a few headlines on Sportscenter, but that’s about it.
However, I did make a point of watching Strasburg’s start on Monday against the Braves. I’m fascinated by him and have watched all his starts and was very intrigued by how he would do against the Braves. It was a win-win for me as he was as good as advertised again and has absolutely lived up to the hype and then some. He is as fine a pitcher I have seen mechanically and his stuff is electric. But the best part was the Braves caught a few breaks and Huddy was even better than the kid and the Braves got the win. Good times.
Then I couldn’t help but see that the Hawks were making a max offer to their “superstar,” Joe Johnson. I was very taken back by this even though Rick Sund and Larry Drew both said they desperately wanted him back and never thought the ASG would or should pull the trigger. I feel like the best of Joe’s career was what you saw last year and it won't get better from here on out. Would it have meant taking a step back next year? Probably. But I could live with that if the team was continuing to build around Al Horford, Josh Smith and hopefully Jeff Teague. Now you’re stuck with this contract for the next six years and with all the tread on Joe’s tires, he is an old 28 years old and the track record for jump shooters after the age of 30 is not very promising.
The Shaq-to-the-Hawks possibility is ridiculous. At this stage of his career, he is not the guy I want in this locker room mentoring our young guys on how to take the regular season off, come to work out of shape and not really work at their craft. Thank you, but I’ll pass.
I literally can’t watch six minutes of World Cup action without seeing a horrendous call by the officials. I hope we now appreciate our guys back here a little more. At least they have to explain themselves. The balls on these guys is remarkable.
So let me get this straight -- the Knicks gave a guy $100 million who averages 21 and 8, had microfacture surgery, doesn’t play defense whatsoever, is a reluctant rebounder and played his entire career with the best passer in the league, and is a bit of a pain in the ass by all accounts and they gave up on a guy who averages 20 and 11, is a ferocious glass cleaner and willing defender and played with Chris Duhon and Toney Douglas getting him the ball? The Knicks will rue the day they gave that kind of money to Amar'e and jettisoned David Lee.
When I first heard about the Damon Evans scandal, I got it in piecemeal form. I heard he got a DUI, wasn’t sure where, how far over the limit, etc … then slowly I started getting the sorted details. First off, I do really feel awful for him and his family. He was absolutely in the wrong and deserves the punishment he got, but it doesn’t make it any less tragic.
I really feel Evans got drunk with power; he was arrogant and thought he could get away with just about anything. To be as brazen as he was told me this wasn’t his first rodeo ... if it was, he no doubt would have tried to be more discreet. But to pile in a car with this little trollop after several martinis and attempt to go who knows where with her 60 miles from home shows me this was a semi-regular occurrence. Maybe not with this chick, but with others and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear another old flame come out of the woodwork in the near future.
It’s good to be back -- I had a great vacation in Kiawah Island. I guess now that I’m a dad, you don’t call them vacations anymore. You call them family trips. I got to watch my 15-month-old run around the beach and played a lot of golf. If you have the opportunity and the means, go and play the Ocean Course. It’s well worth the money, especially since I wasn’t paying!
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Jeff Woolverton
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