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This stems from a series of incidents that took place last month. From ESPN-
The NBA has suspended the Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas indefinitely.
“Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game,” commissioner David Stern said in a statement Wednesday. “Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA.”
Multiple media reports over the weekend said that a dispute over a gambling debt led to a conflict between Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that an argument commenced during a card game on the team’s overnight flight back to Washington from Phoenix on Dec. 19 and escalated into a heated exchange between Arenas and Crittenton. The Wizards had Dec. 20 off, but sources say hostilities between the two Wizards guards resumed Dec. 21 in the locker room on a practice day.
Sources say that Arenas, in response to what was said on the flight, placed the three guns on a chair near Crittenton’s locker stall and invited him to pick one before practice on Dec. 21. Sources said that Crittenton subsequently let Arenas know that he had his own gun.
The Washington Post reported in Sunday’s editions that Arenas, according to sources, was expecting Crittenton to see the guns on his chair as a joke based on the earlier back-and-forth on the plane, during which Crittenton allegedly said that he would shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired knee. But Crittenton, according to Post, reacted angrily and tossed one of the guns to the floor, saying he had his own.
In his statement, Arenas confirmed that the guns were brought out at the Dec. 21 practice.
Honestly, I’ve barely followed the Arenas saga. As part of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, players who bring firearms to practice are subject to discipline. How long will Arenas be out? Frankly, I’d be surprised if he returns this season.
He also used to do Milwaukee Brewer, Los Angeles Clippers, and USC Trojan broadcasts. RIP.
Los Angeles Angels broadcaster Rory Markas has died. He was 54.
Markas was found dead at his home in Palmdale, Calif., on Monday and the cause of death was not immediately available, Angels spokesman Tim Mead said Tuesday. Markas had surgery for a blood clot on his brain in late 2008.
Markas was with the Angels for eight seasons. Many remember his call in the 2002 World Series when center fielder Darin Erstad was about to make the final out: “Erstad says he’s got it! Erstad makes the catch! The Anaheim Angels are the champions of baseball!”
Markas also did broadcasts for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Clippers, USC men’s basketball and Pacific Coast League baseball. He had been a sports reporter for KNX Radio and a sports anchor for KTTV.
During Markas’ six seasons with the PCL, he spent three years doing radio broadcasts for the Salt Lake City Gulls and three for the Vancouver Canadians.
“The entire Trojan family is shocked and saddened to learn of this sad news about Rory,” USC athletic director Mike Garrett said in a statement released by the school. “We held him and the outstanding broadcasting work he did for us in the highest regard. He was a consummate professional and a well-loved individual. He’ll be a very difficult person to replace. We want to extend our support and condolences to his family.”
“Rory was one of the great professionals in the business,” said Jim Hefner, who worked with Markas as the analyst on USC radio broadcasts, in the USC statement. “But more importantly, he was one of the nicest, kindest people I’ve ever been around. I’m sure that everyone who worked with him will truly miss him. He was one of a kind.”
He was honored with two Associated Press Sportscasting awards and received the 2008 Radio Play-by-Play Award from the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association.
The Trail Blazers at half strength can still whip the Warriors. From AP-
The Portland Trail Blazers keep losing players — and they keep winning games.
Brandon Roy scored 37 points, Andre Miller added 23 and the Blazers won for the sixth time in seven games with a 105-89 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night despite dressing only eight players.
“We’re just laughing because we can’t understand it either,” said Martell Webster, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Blazers. “We’re just going out and playing. We have nothing to lose.”
Monta Ellis continued his strong play against Portland, leading the Warriors with 30 points. Corey Maggette added 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Anthony Randolph had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Warriors, who shot 68.4 percent in the first quarter but 33.3 percent the rest of the way. They tied a season low for points and are 0-9 when scoring fewer than 100.
Blazers have been hampered by a spate of injuries and essentially used six players. Rookie forward Jeff Pendergraph started but played just 9 minutes. Shavlik Randolph, a recent acquisition with an injury hardship exemption, played less than a minute.
The most recent player Portland lost, Steve Blake, is not due to any injury but pneumonia. It is more than remarkable that the Trail Blazers have kept it together this season, alone go 22-13 like they have.
After gaining their 3rd win of the 2009-10 NBA season, the Nets went back to their losing ways. From AP-
LeBron James had 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Jersey Nets 94-86 on Saturday for their seventh straight victory.
Mo Williams added 18 points for the Cavaliers, who have won 12 of 13. They have defeated some of the NBA’s top teams during their winning streak, but struggled against the league’s worst for much of this game, leading by only four with 4 1/2 minutes left.
James then put it away, throwing down a dunk and setting up Daniel Gibson for a 3-pointer and an 86-77 lead with 3:05 remaining.
New Jersey’s highest scorer was Devin Harris with 22 points. The Nets were also hoping this game would mark the return of F Jarvis Hayes who has missed over 30 games but coach Kiki Vandeweghe decided Hayes needed more time.
Now for the part of the article that I found amusing.
The Nets fell to 3-30, but the good news is it’s finally 2010, when they’re hoping to be able to transform the franchise. They could have the most money to offer this summer’s free agent class, expected to be highlighted by James, and they hope that, along with his friendship with rapper and part-owner Jay-Z, plus a planned new arena in Brooklyn, could get them in the running for him or one of the other All-Stars who could be available.
James will come play for the worst NBA team(Who hasn’t been able to win 2 games in a row all season) and because one day he might be able to strut his stuff in Brooklyn. Sure, and Associated Press will hire me to be its national golf writer.
The Trailblazers have been so beset with injuries this year that team owners may begin investing in hospitals. From AP-
Trail Blazers guard Steve Blake has been hospitalized with pneumonia.
Portland says Blake is expected to remain in the hospital for several days. He is averaging 7.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists this season.
Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge has a sprained left ankle and is expected to miss Saturday’s game against Golden State.
The Blazers have been beset by injuries this season and have received two hardship roster exemptions from the league.
All joking aside, a case of pneumonia can be very serious business. It was for me in 2008, when I came down with it while recovering from open heart surgery. Get well Steve Blake.
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OTB Sports linked with Eight is Enough- Portland beats Golden State 105-89...
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OTB Sports linked with Never a calm moment- Portland defeats Los Angeles 107-98...
My annual sports predictions for the upcoming year. Due to some unknown reason, I skipped doing this a year ago. What matters is I came back, right?
1 Cleveland beats the LA Lakers for the NBA Championship
2 Indianapolis defeats Arizona in the Super Bowl 
3 San Jose defeats Washington for the Stanley Cup
4 St. Louis beats the Los Angeles Angels in the World Series
5 Tiger Woods returns to golf, wins at least one tournament but no major championships. That is a risky prediction in light of the fact that Tiger has won majors on 3 of this year’s host courses.(Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews)
6 Phil Mickelson wins the US Open
7 Michelle Wie wins at least two tournaments, one of which is a major championship
8 Ji Yai Shin is LPGA player of the year
9 A non-Korean golfer will be LPGA rookie of the year
10 Yu-Na Kim wins figure skating gold at the 2010 Olympics
11 The Miami Dolphins don’t make this year’s playoffs but have a winning 2010 season
12 The Miami Heat make the playoffs but lose in the 1st round
13 The Florida Marlins have a winning record but don’t make the playoffs
14 Urban Meyer doesn’t return as coach of the Florida Gators
15 Joe Paterno announces his retirement after the 2010 Penn State season is complete
16 The Florida Panthers don’t make the playoffs
17 The Florida Panthers trade Goalie Tomas Vokoun
18 Manny Pacquiao loses to Floyd Mayweather
19 Kansas defeats Purdue for the NCAA Basketball Championship
20 Texas defeats Alabama in the BCS Championship game
21 Army has a winning football season and gets a bowl invitation
22 Washington Redskins fire Coach Jim Zorn
23 Serena Williams wins at Wimbledon
24 Versus and Directv finally settle their dispute
25 A North American horse racing track closes its doors.
26 Sebastian Vettel wins the Formula World Drivers Championship
27 New York Rangers fire Coach John Tortorella
28 The New Jersey Nets don’t finish with the worst record in NBA history
29 Connecticut defeats Tennessee for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship
30 At least half these predictions are wrong
We’ll come back on December 31st 2010 and see how I did.
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OTB Sports linked with January 10th NFL Wildcard playoff game predictions...
Not only sports websites are reporting news this month that isn’t true. From AP-
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade of backup point guard Jason Hart didn’t exactly go as smoothly as planned.
Hours after mistakenly letting a release leak on the team Web site announcing a trade with New Orleans that never came to fruition, the Timberwolves did ship Hart out after all, to the Suns.
Instead of ending up with Devin Brown from the Hornets, the Wolves landed Alando Tucker, a second-round pick and cash considerations from Phoenix.
Timberwolves president David Kahn was in talks with the Hornets about acquiring Brown, a 6-foot-5 guard shooting a career-high 41 percent from 3-point range this season. The Hornets were looking to dump Brown’s $1.1 million salary and the Wolves needed perimeter shooting.
Kahn went so far as to prepare a statement for the deal.
“Jason has been the consummate professional during his time with us, but it was a rare opportunity to add a proven player with 3-point shooting capabilities that will help our offense,” Kahn said. “Devin should be a nice addition to our team defensively, as well. He has a reputation as a tough kid and hard-nosed defender.”
Just one problem — the deal wasn’t done. The release somehow found its way into cyberspace, and the trade never materialized. So it was removed from the site and the Wolves eventually announced a deal with the Suns for Tucker, a 6-6 forward that has had trouble finding playing time in three seasons in Phoenix.
“All I know is we were in conversations with teams,” Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said before Minnesota’s game at San Antonio on Tuesday night.
Ted Johnson, Timberwolves senior vice president for communications and chief marketing officer, said the release on Brown appeared on a “dead” Web page.
Here is one vital thing I’ve learned in my other three years of blogging at OTB Sports. Don’t write posts till ‘news’ is official. I get most of my sports reports from ESPN. Much of ESPN’s reporting starts ‘Sources say…..”. The source is always another media outlet and the ‘news’ a unconfirmed report in regard to some sports team or athlete. I’ve made it a practice in the last year, to avoid blogging these reports till the news becomes official. If it ever does.
What happened with the Minnesota Timberwolves arose out of human error and had no other other motivation than to keep its fan informed. The mistakes made by the media in regards to the Tiger Woods have stemmed from the competition to be first in reporting ‘news’ about the golf star. Too many media outlets are reporting without the slightest bit of background checks and like today, a local television station in Florida is reporting something that is discredited for at least two days.
The Thunder have a three-game winning streak, their longest this season. From AP-
The Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly have found a winning formula — Kevin Durant and a lot of defense.
Durant matched his season high with 40 points and the Thunder defeated New Jersey 105-89 Monday night, sending the Nets to their 10th straight loss — their second double-digit losing streak of the season.
The key for the Thunder was the final 17 minutes when they limited New Jersey to 17 points, including 13 in the final quarter.
*****
The win was a season-high third straight for the Thunder (16-14).
“We have a long ways to go,” Durant said. “We still have a lot of slip-ups in games, but we are getting better. Hopefully, we peak at the right time.”
Former Net Nenad Krstic added 19 points and Russell Westbrook had 16 points and 10 assists. Reserve Nick Collison added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Last night’s defeat was the 10th in a row for the Nets and the second time this season(in just 31 games) that New Jersey has put together a double digit losing streak. They opened the 2009-10 NBA season with 10 straight losses.
Up next for New Jersey are New York, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. The Knicks and Bucks are each playing about .400 basketball. So there is a fair chance the Nets latest losing streak will end soon.
While New Jersey’s disastrous season has drawn lots of attention, the Thunder’s good year(16-14) has gone relatively unnoticed. I did note their victory over Miami last month.
Oklahoma City plays 7 of their next games against losing teams. The team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics could be playoff bound.
He wants a trade and has been benched by Coach Mike D’Antoni. From AP-
New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for remarks made by his agent.
The penalty was issued Monday. Robinson has been benched for 12 straight games by coach Mike D’Antoni.
Agent Aaron Goodwin recently told reporters he’d asked the Knicks to move Robinson to another team.
The NBA also fined former Golden State Warrior Stephen Jackson for publicly demanding a trade. I hold to the same view on Robinson that I took in regards to Jackson. If the Knicks can’t trade Robinson, they should swallow his salary and cut him loose. In any case, he is of no use to the team as long as he is benched by D’Antoni.
Believe it or not, the downtrodden Clippers have beaten the Celtics at the Staples Center two years in a row. From AP-
For the first 47 1/2 minutes, Rajon Rondo was quicker, sharper and smoother than Baron Davis.
In the final seconds, the Boston youngster just couldn’t match the bearded one’s California cool.
Davis hit a long fallaway jumper at the buzzer after Rondo missed two free throws 1.5 seconds earlier, and the Los Angeles Clippers dramatically snapped the Celtics’ nine-game road winning streak with a 92-90 victory on Sunday night.
Davis had 24 points and 13 assists for the Clippers, whose three-game losing streak ended when Davis took an inbounds pass with a second left, pivoted and hopped backward for a perfect 22-footer while drawing a little contact from Rondo, giving Los Angeles its only lead of the second half.
The win makes Los Angeles 13-17 for the 2009-10 NBA season or 13th out of 15 in the Western conference. Which isn’t as bad as it sounds. The Clippers are 2.5 games out of 9th and well ahead of Minnesota and Golden State the two conference tailenders.
As for the Celtics, they are 23-6 now. Cleveland trails Boston by a half game in the Eastern Conference.
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