Western Conference's Stephen Curry, of the Golden State Warriors, (30) slam dunks the ball past Eastern Conference's Paul George, of the Indiana Pacers (13) during the first half of the NBA all-star basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016 in Toronto. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Weekend winners
The NBA. Yes, the game was a loose version of bad street basketball, but the NBA is arguably in the best place right now of all the pro sports leagues. (Yes, football makes more money - a lot more - and is the most popular, but the unknowns ahead could be troublesome.) The NBA got to say good-bye to Kobe Bryant on Sunday after a Saturday filled with fun and entertainment. Klay Thompson edged Steph Curry in the 3-point contest and the dunk contest may have been the best since Jordan and those guys were participating in the late 1980s. (Man, the dunk contest back in those days was a real event, you know?) Regardless, it was fun and impressive.
Chase Elliott. Dude won the pole for the Daytona 500 http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2016/2/14/chase-elliott-wins-daytona-500-pole-qualifying-recap-daytona-international-speedway-results.html, meeting the early buzz and lofty expectations for the hotshot with the famous last name and the bog-ticket ride.
Auburn gymnastics. Auburn had not beaten Alabama in 117-consecutive meets. That ended this weekend with a dominating 197.275-197.250 win (wow, that's close), the Tigers are currently riding a one-meet winning streak.
Baseball fans. Hey, pitchers and catchers report this week. That has to count for something right?
One email non-fan. Got a pretty funny heckle via the email this weekend. "I wish I didn't love sports so much. But listenting (sic) to your political views gives me jock itch!"
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Phil Mickelson follows his shot out of a bunker on the sixth fairway of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course during the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) Weekend losers
Phil Mickelson. Mickelson has Pebble Beach by the putter and he lost. We have watched as Tiger Woods has imploded, but Lefty hasn't won since 2013. Is he just as done?
The Supreme Court. Antonin Scalia died this weekend. He was fittingly described as interpretative conservative, in that his first loyalty on all matters was his view of how the constitution would view a decision. Then he was a conservative. It served him very well on the bench. Now that opening creates an eight member court - which could easily fall 4-4 on major cases - and puts the court-appointing process in the middle of the political process.
Kanye West. The rapper who says he is running from president in 2020 has had a rough 10 days or so. Dude picked on pop princess Taylor Swift and claimed Bill Cosby's innocent on Twitter. Now a story comes out that he's $53 million in debt http://news.yahoo.com/please-pray-overcome-kanye-west-171544661.html. OK, we'll ask, how can anyone be $53 million in debt? Kanye, who dropped an album this weekend, was awful on SNL. (Side note: Watched some of SNL for the first time in a long time this weekend, and it was not dreck, which is high praise considering where that franchise has been for a decade.)
Sports fans. Man the first weekend without a meaningful football game was difficult for random TV viewing. Alas.
Tennessee hoops. Man, how can the same team beat UK and lose to Missouri, like Tennessee did Saturday? This may be the most unpredictable college basketball season ever.
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FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016 file photo, Denver Broncos’ Peyton Manning (18) passes against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game in Santa Clara, Calif. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is mentioned in the lawsuit a group of women filed against the University of Tennessee last week in which they said the school violated Title IX regulations in the way it has handled reports of sexual assaults by student-athletes. The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 says Tennessee created a "hostile sexual environment" through a policy of indifference toward assaults by student-athletes. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) Peyton Manning
It's tough to say Manning lost the weekend because of something that happened 20 years ago, but that's a possibility.
A New York Daily News columnist pulled the two-decade-old band-aid off the Peyton Manning sexual assault allegations https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/02/14/peyton-manning-and-the-sexual-assault-story-that-wont-go-away/ during his days at Tennessee this weekend.
It went everywhere.
The timing was curious. Some of it's about the aftermath of the Super Bowl and rightly or wrongly juxtaposing it against the heat Cam Newton has received for his post-Super Bowl antics. (That's a weak rationale for even the biggest Newton supporters. Hey, we are pro-Newton, but saying, "Cam is unfairly treated because Peyton got a pass 20 years ago is simply nuts. First, that was a completely different time - before Twitter and the 24/7 news cycle - and secondly, it smacks of the defelctionism that has robbed our society of arguably one of an individual's potentially greatest strengths: personal responsibility. It also has the watered-down feel of, "Well, our team may have cheated, but everyone's doing it, and so-and-so does it way worse.)
Now, the timing that Manning was mentioned in the recent UT lawsuit is a different animal altogether. That gives this a time peg - a newspaper word that substitutes for relevancy.
Still, this is not new news and there was little that we learned from the report - the vengeance that the Manning's allegedly had for this woman was a little surprising though.
And it's important to remember that all of the legal documents quoted in the guys work for the Daily News was from the plaintiff's side, and since the Mannings settled, that's all there is to go on.
That said, it was eye-opening to a lot of folks who either did not know the details or choose to forget them.
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This and that
- Weeds has a great college hoops column in today's TFP. (By now isn't saying "a great Weeds column" and "college hoops" together redundant? Some truths are self-evident.) Here's his take about the Mocs and their chance to be an at-large http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/sports/columns/story/2016/feb/15/wiedmer-mock-committee-no-friend-mocs/350184/. The mock selection committee has the Mocs as one of the first four out of the NCAA tournament. (Apparently the committee had the Mocs getting upset in the SoCon tourney for an interesting twist.)
- As for some of the non-regulars who may not be as sharp on the RPI rankings of the college basketball teams in the great state of Tennessee, well, the mighty Mocs are now 33rd in the main power rankings used by the selection committee.
- Bill Murray apparently threw two cells phones of other folks off a second-floor roof http://www.eater.com/2016/2/14/10990050/bill-murray-throws-cell-phones. No charges were filed.
- The 5-at-10 and the Mrs. 5-at-10 are genuinely excited for tonight's "Better Call Saul" season premiere. That is all.
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Today's question
Have at it folks.
Today, Chris Farley would have been 52.
Rushmore of actors/entertainers who died before 40. (Man, Farley's been dead since 1997. That's 19 years.)