Which Way Wednesday
Since we are going to roll a little Which Way Wednesday, we’ll start here:
Which NBA team with home-court advantage handles their business in Game 5?
After the first truly compelling conference finals game Tuesday night, each series is tied 2-2.
Houston delivered an inspired fourth-quarter effort – a performance that could go a long way to rewriting the postseason narratives for James Harden and Chris Paul if the Rockets reach the NBA Finals – to reclaim home-court advantage with a 95-92 win over Golden State.
A loss and a 3-1 hole would have almost assuredly meant certain elimination for the Rockets. But they survived the Warriors’ almost-always-there third-quarter success and delivered their best defensive stretch of the season in the final period. Houston held Golden State to 12 fourth-quarter points. Twelve.
On the East, heading back to Boston, the Cavs and Celtics are tied at 2.
So we put it to you, which home team will get it done in Game 5?
Monmouth Park racetrack is seen in Oceanport, N.J., Monday, May 14, 2018. The Supreme Court on Monday gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking down a federal law that barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)And let’s roll the dice
Which way will this legal worm turn?
To recap for the link-challenged.
We know the Supreme Court stated that Federal laws prohibiting sports betting were unconstitutional. Then…
We know the sports leagues, after a lengthy fight against betting, is lining up with their hands out wanting a percentage of all bets made. Then
We know the New Jersey state legislature is now looking at suing the leagues and the NCAA for hundreds of millions of dollars.
That’s right, the leagues funded an injunction back in 2014 – a monthly amount of $3.4 million – as the fight to prevent the Garden State from getting sports wagering moved through the legal system.
Now New Jersey is reviewing whether it can get its legal fees – almost $10 million – back and if they could sue for lost betting revenue – estimated around $700 million.
(Also part of this: Monmouth Park ownership is moving forward with lawsuits in the neighborhood of $300 million.)
So, which way does this turn? And could this be a bargaining chip for states that do not want to offer up a full 1 percent of every bet on each sport?
In this Dec. 10, 2017, file photo, San Francisco 49ers San Francisco 49ers’ Eli Harold (57), Eric Reid (35) and Marquise Goodwin (11) kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, in Houston. President Donald Trump’s feud with the NFL about players kneeling during the national anthem is the runaway winner for the top sports story of 2017 in balloting by AP members and editors. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)15-yard penalty?
OK, which is it: The NFL floating out the worst of its ideas to stop the protests during the national anthem or the leadership of the NFL continues to be the worst of any multi-billion-dollar operation anywhere.
The idea floated from Tuesday’s owners meeting was to penalize a protesting player’s team 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct as well as allowing the home team decide whether the teams are going to be on the field at all for the anthem.
Oh my. Again, which is it: The NFL is lobbing the worst possible plan so the next plan seems light years better by comparison; or Roger Goodall and the boys are a terrible combination of the trio of sidekicks Dorothy dragged to Oz – brainless, gutless and heartless.
First, the thought of allowing the home team decide is dumb. And pointless. If the Eagles do not want to be on the field, but the Cowboys do, how is that solving anything.
Secondly, the 15-yard penalty is so passive-aggressive in would make a manipulative teenage girl squirm. You want to guilt players into doing the right thing? What’s next? No video games after supper?
And what happens when both sides kneel? Off-setting penalties. Yeah, that really is a deterrent. In fact, that would likely make more players kneel.
Hey, NFL, you ask these players to be tougher and more disciplined than most of us could ever know.
Take a tough stand. Make a hard and fast rule.
Kneel during the anthem: It’s a $100,000 fine that escalates with each instance.
Taking a knee is a personal decision. So make a work-place rule that deals with it on each person.
The NFL can then donate the money – half to a civil rights group; half to Fraternal Order of Police – and move along. And if the player wants to forfeit their pay check to take a knee for whatever cause, fine.
But buck up NFL. Take a stand.
The NFL has forever been about uniformity and workplace appearances. The uniforms are regulated and the slightest deviation is fined.
Touchdown celebrations were forever taboo before allowing a little wiggle room in recent years.
Heck, pick almost any point of any part of an NFL game, and it is very scripted and orchestrated.
That’s how it became the most popular sport in America and generates an 11-figure annual income.
And the protests are hurting the product only slightly more than the ineptitude with which the NFL is dealing with protests.
Everyone involved is being unsportsmanlike and suffering the penalties. And it’s costing the league way more than 15 yards.
This and that
– Speaking of the protests – and Colin Kaepernick’s original purpose was to protest how minorities are treated by law enforcement – the name Sterling Brown will become well-known in the coming days. Brown is an NBA player for the Milwaukee Bucks who was tased during a 2 a.m. arrest in January. Here’s what Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett said Tuesday: “There’s going to be a video that going to come out soon, in the next couple weeks involving the department. And I’m going to be honest with you. We’re going to need your support during the challenges.” Barrett has seen the video.
– Speaking of the owners meeting, all of the changes to the kickoff in the faux name of safety. Here’s more.
– The winner of the Harris Poll of more than 77,000 Americans for the nation’s best hamburger chain? Five Guys. Hard to argue with that one, friends.
– Braves got a nice 3-1 bounce-back win over Philadelphia on Tuesday. The surprising teams that reside atop the NL East conclude their three-game series tonight.
– Interesting story that likely will get revisited, say, around Thanksgiving. Gerrit Cole was very good against the Giants Tuesday in an 11-2 Houston win. Both of those runs came on a Brandon Crawford homer. Cole is married to Crawford’s sister Amy. So there’s that.
– Because it can never get here quickly enough, here’s CBSsports.com’s list of 100 things to get excited about for the upcoming college football season, which, as you likely guessed, is 100 days away.
– Bill Belichick was tight-lipped about Brady and Gronk not being at OTAs. Completely stunner, huh?
– The see trouble with analytics is occasionally the law of averages meets the law of gravity. According to tracking data, LeBron James is the slowest player left in these playoffs. According to James, well, he thinks those numbers may not exactly be 100 percent.
Today’s questions
If you have a Which Way Wednesday, feel free.
If you have a mailbag question, go crazy.
As for today, May 23, let’s review:
In 1785, Ben Franklin invents the bifocals. Man that Benny was a smart cookie.
In 1873, the Canadian Mounted Police is formed.
According to the Onthisday.com site, on this day in 1883, there was a baseball game between a team with one-armed players and a team with one-legged players. Who has the advantage in that game? Also of note, the one-legged team was known as the Hoppers, who lost to the Snorkeys 33-17. (Imagine if there was a team of one-legged anythings called the Hoppers in this day and age?)
Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! champ, is 44 today. Drew Carey is 60.
As for a Rushmore, on this day in 1934 Bonnie and Clyde were killed.
Rushmore of one-named tandems with a male and a female? Go.