Weekend winners
Dustin Johnson. OK, we can all admit that DJ has this life thing figured out. It was announced over the weekend that he and fiancee Paulina Gretzky were expecting their second child. (Ms. Gretzky is rather easy on the eyes and you may have heard of her dad, who attained a level of success in hockey that very few did.) In time, youmay be able to make the same statement about her baby-daddy, as Dustin Johnson's win Sunday at Riveria put him on an amazing impressive list. The win - a drama-less runaway because Johnson was tops in strokes gained off the tee and third in strokes gained putting, which is a staggering combination - was DJ's first of the season. It also marked the 10th consecutive season in which Johnson has won a PGA event. If that sounds pretty special, well, it's because it is. Since 1960, DJ becomes the third player to have wins in 10 or more consecutive seasons, and the other two have animal nicknames - some guy called Tiger and the Golden Bear. (We may not know much, but when you are the third name on a list of golf accomplishments and the two are Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, well, that's a pretty good weekend.
To be fair, we are not the guy to properly assess the pros and cons of the NBA all-star weekend. (Yes, there's a joke in that "pros and cons" thing, but we will not digress.) We can't make an accurate evaluation of the entire thing since we watched about seven minutes of the entire weekend. We saw a little of the celebrity game. It was less than good. But we also were watching at the end of the 3-point contest Saturday night when by far the best moment of the weekend happened. TNT all-around great dude Ernie Johnson took the mic and paid tribute to former colleague Craig Sager. That led to Reggie Miller and a bunch of other celebs taking shots raising money for the foundation started by Sager, who died a few months ago. That was then followed by calling Steph Curry to the court and offering to make the money raised by 3s from the celebs to half a million is Curry could hit a half-court shot. He hit the back of the rim about seven times. Eventually, they brought Sager's youngest son Ryan to the floor with the promise that if he hit any shot, TNT and the NBA would give the $500K to the Sager Foundation. To elimnate all doubt, Shaq picked young Ryan up and he dropped it through the net. It was a cool moment - yes, it would have been amazing if Curry had dropped a 50-footer - and speaks volumes to what Sager meant to his colleagues and those he covered.
All-Star game's "Can't we all just get along" moment. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were on the court at the same time for about a minute and a half for the West in the All-Star Game. It was enough time for Durant to float an alley-oop to Westbrook and the two to put a smile on the moment everyone wanted to see. Whatever. Now that's done and we can more on to a slew of more pressing issues.
New Orleans. Hosting the All-Star game is a definite money-maker. There's a ton of high-rollers in town, and here's betting that the NBA's decision to flip it's middle finger to Charlotte was worth at least a quarter-of-a-billion bucks to The Big Easy. Now add in that hometown fav Anthony Davis had 52 points to be the MVP and that the Pelicans sent the poo-poo platter to Sacramento for Boogie Cousins, who is one of the three best interior players in the league. With a little help from the backcourt, the Pelicans with AD and Boogie are the biggest wildcard in the Western Conference come playoff time.
Batman the Lego Movie. We've seen it - and if we are not able to speak about the All-Star festivities, we are fully able to breakdown kids' movies - and we were impressed. Apparently so were a lot of others, considering it's the top movie of the weekend for the second consecutive week, and is set to pass the nine-figure mark sometime today in only 10 days of release.
Bonus pick: Yes, it was a pretty non-eventful sports weekend, and that's OK. It happens. With that we saw this - and others may not be as keen on this as we are, but we're in - but an inventor has come up with a golf-chipping version of cornhole. Game on. (Side note: Even as cool as the game Cornhole is, how much cooler would it be with a different name. Seriously, the person who came up with cornhole assuredly had to hate the concept, right?)
Michigan forward Moritz Wagner (13), of Germany, shakes hands with Michigan State forward Nick Ward, right, after an NCAA college basketball game at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Michigan won 86-57. (AP Photo/Tony Ding) Weekend losers
Joe Harding. We know you are saying, "Who? Agnes, call the paper, that Greeson guy has lost it." Well, stick with us. Joe Harding is a British MMA fighter and he is the new personification of the adage of "Walk the walk, only if you can talk the talk. In fact, maybe Harding, who was KTFOed by Jonas Segas on Saturday, can start a new cautionary tale. Don't do the dance while in your fighting stance, maybe? Harding did a little showboating shimmy and then got the "Friday" - aka knocked the (blank) out - from Segas. Good night.
Lavar Ball. Dude, shut it. Just shut. We all love our kids and believe them to be special. Mr. Ball, however needs to take a break from interviews. For the second time this month, Ball has said that his UCLA freshman son Lonzo is better than Steph Curry. Yes, that Steph Curry, the two-time NBA MVP. Hey, Lonzo Ball can play. But c'mon man. We all watched and winced at the complete disregard for defense and sportsmanship that Lavar Ball's high school star son LaMelo had for the game - snowbirding, team fouling late to get Ball more shots, no defense whatsoever, etc. - and it now makes more sense considering the lunacy coming from the family's patriarch. (Side note: We wrote about the 92 points LaMelo Ball scored earlier this month. Here's another story about it that included the stat sheet, and here's our question: Yes, LaMelo Ball can shoot it, and he'll score in bunches at UCLA when he gets there, but give us that Eli Scott. According to this who in the same game Ball went for 92 on 37-of-61 shooting, Scott went 29 points, 17 rebounds and 14 assists and only took 15 shots from the field. That's sharp.)
Michigan State. The Spartans, who lost to Purdue this weekend, are looking for an NCAA big for the 20th consecutive season. That search is a tough one because the Spartans are 16-11 after the loss. That search got even harder with the news that Senior Eron Harris is done for the year with a serious knee injury suffered in Saturday's loss.
NBA All-Star game. Whether it was the news that Kyrie Irving believes the world is flat (here's betting that does not make a Duke recruiting pamphlet). Or the PA announcer introducing Kevin Durant as "OKC's own" or even the forgettable results of the pre-All-Star-Game festivities (really, some guy named Glenn Robinson III won the dunk contest) to the entire league being allergic to a defensive effort, it sounded like a fine party in New Orleans that resembled nothing close to basketball or the glory days of the dunk contest of days gone by. (Seriously, what can the NBA do to get the stars to be back invested in the dunk contest? We even heard an idea of scouring the interwebs and finding the three best street dunkers and give them a spot in this thing.)
NASCAR. We promise we're not going to beat this speeding ship that is leaking fuel, but this should be the high-water time for NASCAR. Promise of a new season. The Daytona 500 on the horizon. The sports calendar that calls for yard-work more than couch-sitting. And did you know that the only NASCAR news on the front page and headline blurbs of the three major national sports sites Monday morning was this story about new sponsor Monster Energy Drink's spokesmodels being dressed in some sexy attire. (First, man people will protest anything. Second, for those who are obviously painfully unaware of the connection between, shall we say, "shoe models," whether they be Miss Winston, the Sprint ladies or what have you and NASCAR through the years.) The more pressing thing for NASCAR though is going into the biggest race of on your calendar - the 500 is Sunday for Petty's sake - and they had qualifying this weekend and... crickets. (To make matters worse, there are a couple of familiar names on the front row, with Chase Elliot on the pole and some cat named Dale Earnhardt next to him.)
Kentucky's head coach John Calipari reacts to his team in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Hofstra, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek) Coach Cal being that guy
Because John Calipari is John Calipari, he took to the podium to chastise the media and ADs about coaches getting fired during the season.
He started his diatribe - which is becoming tiresome as it often is - when asked about Georgia coach mark Fox, who is on a very hot seat considering how underachieving his Bulldogs have been this season.
(To be fair, TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer states an intriguing case about Georgia keeping Fox. We disagree, and do it knowing that Weeds has much tighter sources around college hoops than we do. But Fox has consistently underwhelmed in what is a very rich high school basketball state. You could make an argument, that in terms of NBA talent, these Bulldogs are no worse than the fourth best team in the league, yet they are 6-8. And in the grand scheme of things, in closing in on a decade with the Dogs, what is the high-water mark for the program under Fox? Exactly.)
Calipari's tired act continued to discuss the firing of Mark Gottfried at NC State, and at least that discussion offers more teeth and debatable counterpoints since Gottfried has been to the NCAA tournament in four of the previous five seasons.
Still, the thing that made a predictable Calipari tantrum downright silly is the contention that he's going to put in his contract that if he gets fired in the regular season, the school owes him $3 million and he's going to urge other coaches to do the same.
Only in today's society would spoiled stars what even bigger safety nets or insurance policies, considering that we have to assume that the $3 million Coach Cal is referencing would be above and beyond what the coach is already owed. Because, you know, when a coach is fired - unless it's for cause because of a really bad incident - the school is on the hook for the remainder of the deal.
Man, people are fired every day, for a variety of reasons. Why should coaches be any different?
And now know that it's going to be tough to sympathize with a coach making millions a year for a very underwhelming performance - no matter how likeable a guy he may be - regardless of the timing of the pink slip.
As for your next contract clause, Cal, well, ask for what you want. Maybe the schools will ask for some refunds when the Final Four banners are forced to be taken down after NCAA violations are found after you leave town.
This and that
- Well-done tribute to late, great Howard coach Henry Bowles here from TFP sports editor ace Stephen Hargis. We use words like legend far too easily this days, and it's moments like this that remind us the merit of the word when used properly.
- As TFP SEC ace and Press Row cohost David Paschall had in the paper this weekend, Brian Daboll is poised to be the next Alabama OC. We will put the over/under on the first public butt-chewing from Saban at Oct. 1.
- Wow, the ripple effects of Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank offering even mild praise for President Trump continue to swirl. The stock is falling, and in this story from Business Insider, the backlash is growing after Plank said that Trump will be an asset for business. Gang, it's impossible to argue with this line of thinking considering the evidence before us. Say and believe what you want about Trump's position on so many other things, but his business views are going to make the markets rise, according to every expert everywhere and all the evidence before us in his tumultuous first month in the office. (Wow, crazy to think that he's only been in office a month, right?)
Today's questions
Winners and losers. Discuss.
It's one of those birthdays that make you go, wow.
Charles Barkley is 54. Cindy Crawford is 51. (Hubba-hubba.) Kurt Cobain would have been 50. Pop superstar Rhianna is 29.
That's a list of big names - and doesn't even include Jackie Gleason, who would have been 101 today, and Kelsey Grammer - right?
In honor of Sir Chuck, let's go this: Who makes the Rushmore of SEC players for their NBA careers? Barkley and Shaq have to be the starting point right? (Now this is different from Rushmore of SEC players because Pistol Pete's a definite on that but his pro career fell short.)