Weekend winners
Kawhi Leonard. A Game 7 for the ages pushed the Raptors into the Easter Conference Finals. His buzzer beater – which hit the rim four times before dropping – from the corner will be a postseason staple for years to come. And the scenes from in and around the arena in Toronto were magical.
The Braves. For all the hand-wringing and the heart-wondering the Braves finished a very trying road trip 6-4. Three in Miami, a flight to L.A. and then four in Arizona in 10 days and you come away with a winning record is a job well done. (Side note: Zach Grienke, who pinch-hit for the D-Backs on Sunday and singled. The starting pitcher is hitting .318 this season.)
UTC softball. Congrats to the Mocs, who rolled into the NCAA tournament by dodging the rain and winning the SoCon tournament this weekend at Frost.
Alejandro. One of our regulars around these parts graduated from the University of Georgia this weekend. Kudos my man. And here’s betting his accounting degree – with a MBA in his crosshairs – is going to be way more lucrative than my Public Administration degree they threw in my car window as I was driving through Auburn.
Moms everywhere, especially Mike Davis’ mom. Hope you and your family enjoyed Mother’s Day. Davis, the fifth-year running back who signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Bears, bought his momma a house. Here’s the Instagram post with the following message: “Happy Mother’s Day Mom I love you so much. I remember when I was younger we moved every year to a new place. Days you didn’t eat but made sure we ate. I love you, enjoy your House. BTW I did cry but nobody got it on camera Thank God” I’m not crying. You’re crying.
Houston Rockets guard James Harden reacts after a foul during the second half of his team’s playoff game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday in Salt Lake City.Weekend losers
James Harden. If these Rockets can’t handle Golden State without KD at home in a playoff game, then the model simply does not compute. Yes, Harden had a great regular season and scored a truckload of points. But now he’s the face – and an aging face at that – of a clearly flawed system of a team with four starters 30 or older that has to be asking serious questions about overhauling the entire thing.
NCAA basketball rule-changers. We can debate the proposed changes to the college basketball 3-point line. (The proposal is to move it to the international distance – 22 feet, 1-3/4 inches from 20-9 – in an effort to enhance spacing. It may do that. It will not slow the number of 3s shot; it will lower the percentages of 3s made.) The committee also proposed to assess a Flagrant 2 with an ejection if a player uses derogatory language at an opponent in terms of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or disability. Cue the morality mob and the pearl clutching. Ejection? Really? Because that is exactly what the power-hungry collection of NCAA college basketball officials need – more controversial decisions to make.
Lakers protestors. First, why the fans of an organization with that many titles would ponder a protest – hey, come to Atlanta people – is anyone’s guess. But if you are going to make a statement, you need more than a dozen or so folks showing up.
Golf Channel. Yes, you Golf Channel and this has nothing to do with Brandel Chamblee, who seems every bit as pompous as his name would suggest. Did you notice that early Sunday morning – while the AT&T had actual golf happening because of dreadful weather – after the European Tour the GOLF Channel was showing European Kickball. Shame.
American Idol. There was a time that was not that long ago, that the penultimate episode of Idol would have been a national event. It happened last night with not much more than a whisper.
PGA Championship
OK, much has been made about the schedule change on the PGA Tour.
Personally, I am a fan. The Players in March, Augusta in April, the PGA Championship in May, then the Opens in June and July.
For the golf fan, cool.
For the rest of the tour, maybe not so much.
The field was filled with names I have seldom heard on Sunday in Dallas for a tournament that is normally well-stocked.
It will be interesting to see how many of the stars – especially Tiger – completely overhaul their schedules for the majors. Woods, for example, did not play between the Masters and this week’s PGA Championship.
So there’s that. There’s also this: The Even the Minor Major is Still a Major Contest.
Hey, we rolled over the prize from the Derby so let’s do this.
You know the drill. Pick five golfers and the top four finishers count. You get the number of points for the finish of each player. (Winner gets 1, tie for third gets 3.)
Add them together and in our very non-Stableford way, low score wins.
Easy-peasy-lemon squeezy.
(And yes, I’m taking Tiger again this week too.)
This and that
– Speaking of golf, did you see that Scott Piercy, who finished second this weekend, played 72 holes without a bogey this weekend? First time that has happened on Tour since 2010.
– Speaking of golf and Mother’s Day, did you see golfer Tyler Duncan hit his wife with an errant approach shot over the weekend? Right in the melon. She is OK, and Duncan finished with more than $267K, so here’s betting he was able to make it up to her.
– Wow, Game of Thrones. Wow. We will offer this and believe we are not violating the spoiler-free Monday: This finale season has not been short on eliciting emotion – from pleased to outraged – from its fans. The first four items trending on Twitter Monday morning were GoT-related.
– Wow, Michigan coach John Beilein has been hired to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers. So there’s that. Consider Beilein’s career arc: Dude started coaching in high school in 1975. Best guess on what he made in his first gig? Over/under $8K?
– Now that there is a college hoops opening, wonder if Rick Barnes will kick the tires on that job and leverage another raise.
– Edwin Jackson was dealt to Toronto. If he makes it to the bigs – Jackson has been pitching in Oakland’s fair system so far this year – it would be his 14th major league team, which would be a new MLB record.
– Doris Day died this morning. She was 97.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Discuss.
Also, speaking of Mike Davis’ video clip of buying his momma a house, if we were seeding the social media videos that make it dusty, is kids giving back to parents the 2 seed? The clear 1-seed is the military parent surprising the family, right?
This from a regular around these parts this morning: “And this for consideration – When Johan Camargo hit his go ahead homer on Friday, he pimped it. So does de facto commissioner of baseball’s unwritten rules Brian McCann have the other team then throw at one of his own teammates?”
Discuss.
Stevie Wonder is 69 today.
On this day, May 13, 15 years ago, the final episode of Fraiser was viewed by more than 33 million folks.
Let’s do a Rushmore of TV spinoff characters, because it feels like Fraiser is a no-doubter right?