Hall of Fame

Patrick Swayze

Two of the biggest names of the 1980s finally got Hall of Fame calls this week. Congrats to Patrick Swayze and Molly Ringwald. Kidding. Mostly.

On a serious note, former Alabama linebacker Derrick Thomas reportedly will be among the 2014 class inducted into the college football Hall of Fame. The only question about that is what took so long? Thomas had 27 sacks as a senior at Alabama in 1988. TWENTY-SEVEN. He is reportedly to be one of the 14 former players and two former coaches that will be announced today.

This came on the heels of the announcement that Bill Elliott was elected into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He is part of the five-man class that also included Wendell Scott, the first African-American driver elected to the hall.

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville won 44 races and dominated in his points championship season in 1988. He was close to another points title in 1992 - finishing 10 points behind Alan Kulwicki - and was a heavy-footed cuss that set pre-restrictor plate speed records at Talladega (212.809 mph) and at Daytona (210.364 mph) in 1987.

Good times and congrats - finally.

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Spurs drop hammer

Wow.

That was impressive and overwhelming and complete. The Spurs tagged OKC with a 112-77 Game 2 win that puts San Antonio up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals.

And yes, the Thunder are heading home for the next two, but that type of spanking makes 2-0 seem more like 22-0. E-gad.

United States basketball player Kevin Durant arrives to watch a women's beach volleyball match between USA and Austria.

The Spurs were balanced and poised and started quickly. The Thunder were sloppy and distracted and done early. Heck, Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook - the duo we talked about on Press Row on 105.1 FM this week that needed to combine for 70 points for the Thunder to advance - were awful. The tandem we will call Kevell DuBrook was 13-of-39 for 30 points. Ouch-standing.

Heck, Spurs role shooter Danny Green had 21, and while we do not know much, we do know that if Kevell DuBrook is only going to outscore Danny Green by nine, the Thunder has ZERO chance.

The stats and the recap are as ridiculously one-sided as you would expect in a 35-point win. And so is this series apparently.

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Shocking?

Well maybe shocking is over the top, but the L.A. Times is reporting that the Sterling family and the former president of the Clippers tried to cover-up the audio tapes before they were leaked with owner Donald Sterling going all racist on everyone.

The Sterling family along with team president Andy Roeser tried to get V. Whoseherpants to lie about the authenticity of the tapes. Here's the story.

That seems likely. Also of note in the L.A. TImes report, which is based on seeing dozens of pages of the NBA's investigation, is that Donald and Shelley Sterling, his wife of 58 years are not estranged and that Shelley must be forced out to or it would extremely devalue the franchise.

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This and that

- Mark Reynolds first inning grand slam crippled the Braves in a 6-1 loss to Milwaukee. Despite the recent offensive improvements, when this Braves team is down 4-0 after three outs, well, that's tough to overcome.

- Nice column on GPS coach Susan Crownover from TFP ace Stephen Hargis.

- How cool is Jack Nicklaus? Check out this video from 2010, where he drains a 100-foot putt after Johnny Miller says it can't be done and Jack asks, "You want me to show you how?" And then shows all he's still Da Bear.

- While the Mrs. 5-at-10 was watching the American Idol finale last night - hard to convince anyone you need to watch an NBA blowout for "work" when it got as bad as it did - we could have sworn that we saw Les Miles in the crowd. Then we thought who would be the biggest surprise to see at American Idol? It's Saban right? Or Belichick? Or Chuck Norris? That said, if it was Les Miles, the only surprise is that he did not get up and sing the LSU fight song. Or the Naughty by Nature classic, "Down with O.P.P."

- Thought this story was super interesting. It details how California Chrome got its name. Apparently a waitress drew it out of the hat from a group of four that also included Big Chapter, Lucky at Love and Seabisquik (which would have been worth a pretty penny in sponsorship from the Bisquick folks considering how things have turned out). No word if Rusty, Glue Stick or Hoof Hearted were considered.

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Today's question

T. Boone Pickens

T. Boone Pickens is 86 today. Happy birthday and, to loosely borrow a line from Fletch Lives, for God sakes T. Boone put your pants on.

He's on the Rushmore of all-time college sports donors, right? Who else makes it? Big Jim Haslam likely is there too. Discuss.

Here's another Rushmore: Who's on the Rushmore of the 80s? Be it sports, culture, what have you.

Reagan is there. Montana maybe. Michael Jackson. Madonna. Who you got?