Philadelphia was 32-27 and went to the Playoffs after DiLeo became head coach. From AP-
Philadelphia 76ers interim coach Tony DiLeo has withdrawn his name from consideration for the permanent coaching job.
Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski says DiLeo decided Monday to return to his old job in the front office as a senior vice president and assistant general manager. He says the search for a replacement will begin immediately.
DiLeo replaced Maurice Cheeks after the Sixers stumbled to a 9-14 start. They went 32-27 under DiLeo and earned a playoff spot.
Despite the improvement under DiLeo, the 76ers looked lethargic late in the year before getting bounced from the playoffs by the Orlando Magic in the first round. After the playoffs, some team members offered only lukewarm endorsements of DiLeo.
The Maurice Cheeks firing was a dumb move. While the 76ers played all right for the rest of the 2008-09 season, they aren’t more than a mediocre NBA team at this stage. No matter who the coach is.
The non-call happened on a possible game-winning 3-pointer as time ran out yesterday. From AP-
The NBA admitted officials were wrong when they didn’t call an intentional foul the Dallas Mavericks were trying to commit before Denver’s Carmelo Anthony made a game-winning 3-pointer Saturday.
Dallas had a two-point lead and a foul to give when Denver inbounded the ball with less than 8 seconds left. Antoine Wright was clearly trying to foul Anthony, and bumped him twice.
But the whistle never blew and Anthony swished a 3-pointer from in front of the Dallas bench with a second left that gave the Nuggets a 106-105 victory and a 3-0 series lead.
“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s three-point basket,” Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said in a statement issued by the league about two hours after the game.
In the aftermath of the Tim Donaghy scandal, the NBA has taken to admitting to when referees blow a call. Remember Donaghy accused two other referees of fixing a 2002 playoff game.
Honestly, the NBA if it wanted to totally come clean, would have a do over from where the foul took place. A game with much at stake was altered by what happened. Yes such an action is unprecedented, but then it would truly show the NBA isn’t fixing games like Donaghy accused them of doing.
Here is a You tube video of shot in question.
It is pretty clear to me that Wright fouled Anthony, not once but twice.
What was the reaction of the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban?
“It’s a shame the game had to come down to this, but that’s the way it goes in the NBA sometimes,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press after the league’s statement.
In light of how the league fines anyone who criticizes officials, even when justified, Cuban’s public self control is not unexpected. Privately I bet he threw a fit.
It was his best finish in any golf tournament since 2005. From AP-
Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik breezed to a six-stroke victory in the Italian Open on Sunday as two-time major champion John Daly enjoyed his best tournament for four years by taking a share of second place.
Vancsik’s runaway success came with a closing 6-under-par 65 for a 17-under 267 four-round total, with Daly sharing second place, six shots back, with Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin and Briton Robert Rock.
“It was always going to be difficult winning because every time I made a birdie Vancsik did but I had my eye on second place,” said Daly, wearing a pair of yellow trousers with psychedelic patterns, told reporters.
“I played really well and I’ve just believed in all my coach has been saying to me. I hit a lot of fairways this week. All I need to do is to work more on my putting.”
Vancsik claimed his second title, two years after his first, with consummate ease.
At the beginning of today’s round, Vancsik had a one-shot lead. Eight closing round birdies by the Argentinian put the tournament out of reach for the rest of the field.
The last time John Daly finished this high on a golf leaderboard, was the 2005 American Express World Golf Championship. That was when Daly lost a sudden death playoff to Tiger Woods. I will need to see more from Daly before I say this is the sign of a comeback. Daly is a very talented golfer, but his personal baggage seems unable not to affect his play on a regular basis.
Prior to his days at SMU, he was a NCAA assistant coach for over a decade and a highly successful head coach at the high school level. RIP.
Former SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired after two seasons in 2006 when an internal investigation revealed NCAA violations, has died. He was 60.
SMU spokesman Brad Sutton said Tubbs died Saturday. No cause of death was given.
Tubbs was a popular choice to lead the Mustangs because he’d spent 12 years as an SMU assistant before going to Oklahoma for two seasons under Kelvin Sampson. He was also a championship-winning high school coach in Dallas, a fertile recruiting ground SMU has always struggled to tap.
The Mustangs were 27-30 in Tubbs’ two seasons. He was 232-42 at Dallas Kimball High School, including the 1990 Class 5A state championship.
The hitting streak by the Washington National 3rd baseman marks the longest by a player at that position since a 28 game streak by Wade Boggs in 1985. From AP-
Ryan Zimmerman homered to extended his hitting streak to 27 games. Adam Dunn hit one out of the park for the second night in a row.
And the Arizona Diamondbacks squandered one opportunity after another.
The play that everyone was talking about after Washington’s 2-1 victory over Arizona Saturday night, though, was made by Nationals right fielder Austin Kearns and catcher Jesus Flores.
“Unbelievable,” Washington starter John Lannan said. “I’ve never seen that happen before.”
With the Nationals leading 1-0 and the bases loaded with one out in the seventh inning, Arizona’s Josh Whitesell lined what looked like a base hit just in front of Kearns. Felipe Lopez, the runner at third, had to hold close to the base in case the ball was caught, and Kearns rifled a throw home.
Flores stretched out like a first baseman to make the grab for the force out.
“That was the play of the game, actually,” Washington manager Manny Acta said. “It was just a tremendous play.”
I have seen a similar play in high school ball but can’t remember one at the MLB level.
Zimmerman remains one of the few assets the Nationals have. He is hitting .338 for the year and has 6 homeruns for the season so far. Washington in spite of winning 5 of their last six, are 10-18 for the season so far. I expect the Nationals to lose 95 or more games this year.
Yesterday’s game marked the 2nd time AJ Hinch was the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was appointed to replace the fired Bob Melvin.
After firing Bob Melvin, the Arizona Diamondbacks have turned their fortunes over to a 34-year-old former catcher with no experience as a manager.
A.J. Hinch was introduced as Melvin’s replacement as manager Friday at a news conference, where general manager Josh Byrnes acknowledged the hiring was “unconventional.”
“He brings unique leadership and perspective to the job,” Byrnes said. “We’re not here to reinvent the wheel, but to change the nature of the job a little bit? OK, we’ll do that. A.J.’s a leader. He connects with people. He gets things done.”
Hinch, who has a degree in psychology from Stanford, was in his fourth season as the Diamondbacks’ director of player development. He becomes the youngest manager in the majors since Eric Wedge was hired by Cleveland in October of 2002.
So how is the unconventional hiree doing? Arizona is 0-2 since giving Melvin. So much for fast turnarounds. I only expect Arizona to be moderately more successful this year than Washington is.
IMHO this is a death blow to anyt hopes the Houston Rockets had for playoff success. From AP-
Yao Ming will miss the rest of the playoffs because of a broken left foot.
The Houston center limped off the court late in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 108-94 victory over the Rockets on Friday night. Yao missed Saturday’s practice to get treatment and the team said the 7-foot-6 All-Star would be re-evaluated on Sunday.
After finally making it out of the first round, Yao Ming couldn’t reach the end of the second. His season is over after medical examinations revealed a stress fracture in his left foot. Story
But the Rockets announced later Saturday night that further examination of Yao’s injury revealed a hairline fracture. The Rockets say Yao will need 8-12 weeks to recover, though no surgery is required.
The Rockets and Lakers play Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Sunday. The Lakers lead the series 2-1.
Yao had 19 points and 14 rebounds in Friday’s loss, his sixth straight double-double. But he was noticeably limping by the fourth quarter and finally hobbled off the court in the final minute, with the outcome decided.
Am I wrong in thinking, that the really big men of the NBA have problems with foot injuries? I don’t follow the sport alot, but it always seems to me the 7′ tall or higher players like Yao have trouble staying healthy. Yao has been seriously hurt on at least one other occasion.
It was also his fourth straight Formula One triumph. From AP-
Jenson Button won his fourth Formula One race of the season Sunday by taking the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello.
Button’s two-stop strategy proved decisive as he became the ninth straight winner from pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya, even after Barrichello overtook him out of the start.
“I crossed the line first and this is a race where I didn’t really think I was going to,” Button said.
Barrichello’s extra pit stop allowed Button to make up the difference, and the Briton won by 13 seconds to extend his championship lead over his teammate to 14 points after five races.
“I had the race in my hands and I was quite surprised when they told me they were switching Jenson to two [stops],” Barrichello said. “I would like to understand why they changed that.”
Mark Webber finished third ahead of Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, who trails Button by 18 points in third overall.
Apparently there was no controversy with this race. Next stop for the Formula One circuit- The Grand Prix of Monaco. That street course and the Monza site of the Italian Grand Prix are the only two tracks I remember seeing on television.
He passed away after a short battle with cancer. Besides his NBA days, Daly was an Olympic coach and in his early days, a college basketball coach at Penn and Boston College. He was one of the great ones. RIP.
Chuck Daly, who coached the original Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons, has died. He was 78.
He died Saturday morning in Jupiter, Fla., with his family by his side, the team said. The Pistons announced in March that the Hall of Fame coach had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment.
He was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars.
“It’s a players’ league. They allow you to coach them or they don’t,” Daly once said. “Once they stop allowing you to coach, you’re on your way out.”
Daly was voted one of the 10 greatest coaches of the NBA’s first half-century in 1996, two years after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the first coach to win both an NBA title and Olympic gold.
“I think Chuck understood people as well as basketball,” Dumars told The Associated Press in 1995. “It’s a people business.”
Doug Collins, a former Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls coach, learned the intricacies of the game from Daly.
“He was a man of incredible class and dignity. He was a mentor and a friend,” Collins said. “He taught me so much and was always so supportive of me and my family. I loved him and will miss him.”
Daly had a golden touch at the Barcelona Games with NBA superstars Magic Johnson, Jordan, Larry Bird and Barkley, using a different lineup in every game.
“I played against Chuck’s teams throughout the NBA for a lot of years. He always had his team prepared, he’s a fine coach,” Bird said shortly after Daly’s diagnosis became public.
“Chuck did a good job of keeping us together,” Bird said. “It wasn’t about who scored the most points, it was about one thing: winning the gold medal.”
Daly humbled the NBA superstars by coaching a group of college players to victory in a controlled scrimmage weeks before the Olympics.
“I was the happiest man in the gym,” Daly said afterward.
Daly also made the right moves for the Pistons, who were notorious for their physical play with Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn leading the fight, Rodman making headlines and Hall of Fame guards Isiah Thomas and Dumars lifting the team to titles in 1989 and 1990.
Former Piston John Salley gave Daly the nickname “Daddy Rich” for his impeccably tailored suits.
Daly had a career regular-season record of 638-437 in 13 NBA seasons. In 12 playoff appearances, his teams went 75-51. He left Detroit as the Pistons’ coaching leader in regular-season and playoff victories.
“The Daly family and the entire Detroit Pistons and Palace Sports and Entertainment family is mourning the loss of Chuck Daly,” family and team spokesman Matt Dobek said. “Chuck left a lasting impression with everyone he met both personally and professionally and his spirit will live with all of us forever.”
Despite his success, Daly wasn’t part of a Coach of the Year presentation until he handed the trophy to then-Detroit coach Rick Carlisle in 2002.
“This is as close as I’ve ever been to that thing,” Daly said, looking at the Red Auerbach Trophy.
Born July 20, 1930, in St. Marys, Pa., Charles Jerome Daly played college ball at St. Bonaventure and Bloomsburg. After two years in the military, he coached for eight seasons at Punxsutawney (Pa.) High School and then spent six years as an assistant at Duke.
Succeeding Bob Cousy as coach at Boston College, Daly coached the Eagles to a 26-24 record during two seasons, then spent seven seasons at Penn, leading the Quakers to the Ivy League championship from 1972 to 1975.
Daly joined the NBA coaching ranks in 1978 as an assistant under Billy Cunningham in Philadelphia. His first head coaching job was with Cleveland, but he was fired after the Cavaliers went 9-32 during the first half of the 1981-82 season.
In 1983, Daly took over a Detroit team that had never had two straight winning seasons and led the Pistons to nine straight. He persuaded the likes of Rodman, Thomas, Dumars, Mahorn and Laimbeer to play as a unit and they responded with back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990.
Far from being intimidated by the Pistons’ “Bad Boys” image, Daly saw the upside of it.
“I’ve also had players who did not care,” he said a decade later. “I’d rather have a challenging team.”
After leaving Detroit, Daly took over the New Jersey Nets for two seasons and led them to the playoffs both times.
He left broadcasting to return to the bench 1997 with the Orlando Magic and won 74 games in two seasons, then retired at the age of 68 because he said he was weary of the travel.
Daly joined the Vancouver Grizzlies as a senior adviser in 2000.
In retirement, he split time between residences in Jupiter, Fla., and suburban Detroit.
The Pistons retired No. 2 to honor their former coach’s two NBA titles in January 1997.
There will be at least one less ‘Silly Season’ event this year. From AP-
The Skins Game, a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for nearly three decades, became golf’s latest victim of the economic downturn when organizers said it would be postponed this year with no guarantees it would return.
IMG, which manages the Skins Game, had been negotiating a contract extension with LG when the Korean-based electronics company elected not to renew.
“We did another pass through the market place and couldn’t find a title sponsor,” said Mark Steinberg, head of IMG’s golf division.
The Skins Game, now a staple in the “silly season,” was a novelty when it began in 1983 with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Tom Watson. It has struggled to attract an All-Star lineup in recent years, and TV ratings have plunged.
K.J. Choi won the Skins Game last year, ending the two-year reign of Stephen Ames. Fred Funk won the year before that.
As you can see what was a holiday event feature golf’s greatest, present and past, has instead become a exhibition of any warm bodies who have nothing else to do. I rarely watched the Skins game and won’t miss it at all.
Does President Obama have a need for a new Secretary of Defense? From AP-
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios owes more than $78,000 in back taxes on his $2.9 million home in suburban Detroit. A team spokesman blames an accounting glitch and said the bill will be paid in full within days.
Oakland County Treasurer’s Office records cited by The Detroit News say Chelios and his wife owe $61,544 in 2007 taxes plus $16,519 in interest and fees on their Bloomfield Hills home. Treasurer Patrick Dohany says Chelios did pay his 2008 property taxes, but the house will be foreclosed if the 2007 bill isn’t paid by April 2010.
Red Wings spokesman John Hahn says Chelios changed accounting firms after the 2007 bill came due and it apparently wasn’t forwarded to his new accountants.
The explanation sounds plausible to me. If I were the accounting firm who erred, I wouldn’t want clients present or potential to know I’m that careless with my work.
