Weekly Sporties

-Every single year the first two days of the NCAA Tournament remind me of a very simple fact: the people who watch basketball for a living are stealing money from their employers. Seriously, these are the supposed experts in their fields and yet they never have any more of an idea how things are going to play out than someone who doesn't watch a single game all year. I know they all have the built-in excuse of sports being unpredictable and that is what makes it so great, but the simple fact of the matter is that if you or I were as bad at our jobs as these people, we would have been fired years ago. I'm not annoyed because none of them predicted that a 15-seed would beat a 2-seed - that is an extremely rare occurrence and no one would expect it to happen, let alone twice. But, the thing is I didn't even hear any of them bring it up as a possibility. I mean, some of these "experts" had picked Missouri to win it all and the Tigers made it exactly as far as teams like Loyola and St. Bonaventure. If your expected champion can't even make it to the round of 32 you have no credibility in my book. Just be happy that the people in charge of hiring on-air talent are apparently as clueless as you are about picking games.

-It was a super-busy week in the NBA because the trading deadline was on Thursday. As a result, it was basically decision time for a lot of franchises concerning their season. Because the worst thing you can be in the NBA is mediocre, they had to decide whether to try and make a move which would get them to the next level or start selling off assets, bottom out and make sure they can come back stronger in the near future. One the of teams which was selling was the Portland Trailblazers, who traded away several good players without getting much back in return. However, they still had to release a couple guys to make room for their new players and one of the players let go was Greg Oden. Now, Oden is widely seen as a bust since he was the first pick in the 2007 NBA draft and has only played 82 games since then. But, there is a sympathy factor because Oden seems like a really nice kid whose body just betrayed him. Unlike Ryan Leaf, who thought he was too good for practice, Oden can't seem to catch a break. Now, Oden says he plans to keep trying to play, but he just had his third micro-fracture surgery and most guys don't come back from one of those. I have to be honest, Oden never seemed like he loved basketball, it was just something he had to do because he was 7 feet tall. I think this could be his 'get out of jail free' card. He's made some money, so here's hoping he invests well and find something which makes him happy.

-Another one of the guys who found himself on a new team at the trading deadline was former Lakers' captain Derek Fisher, who was sent to the Houston Rockets. This pleased me, because Derek Fisher was my least favorite Laker. Some of you may be confused and asking yourself why I would be annoyed by a man most people never even think about. Well, allow me to explain: as a Celtics fan it is no secret that I do not like the Lakers. But, much like with the Yankees, I have come to begrudgingly respect them and I no longer really hate every superstar who puts on the uniform. Instead the guys who annoy me more and more are the ones who don't actually have much talent, but hitch themselves to the superstar on the team, then ride his coattails to fame and fortune and at some point on this journey they begin to think that they are a superstar. I always got the vibe that Fisher thought he was a lot better than he was, which bugged me greatly because we actually have proof to the contrary. He spent three seasons between Golden State and Utah and accomplished a grand total of nothing. In a league where one great player should at least get you to the playoffs, Derek Fisher's teams went one time and he was a back-up. He is not as good as everyone keeps telling me he is. Allow me to put it another way: Derek Fisher was the Jorge Posada of basketball. He stuck around because he was Kobe's friend and not because of how good he is.

-Some NBA teams think they can spark their team not by making a trade, but by switching coaches. That is what the New York Knicks tried when they fired Mike D'Antoni on Wednesday. (Technically they claim D'Antoni resigned, but the organization has said they will stay pay him the rest of his salary - you don't usually get to keep receiving paychecks when you quit.) Reportedly, D'Antoni was mad because he wanted to trade forward Carmelo Anthony to the Nets for point guard Deron Williams and the rest of the organization didn't see the point. Considering the Knicks have both Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis, I have to side with them. You know, for a minute there I was starting to get concerned that the Knicks might be getting their act together. But when you are willing to let a shoot-first forward like Carmelo Anthony whose team actually played better when he was out of the line-up dictate the direction of your franchise, it is a pretty safe bet you are going to continue to circle the drain. The Knicks and their fans think they will be able to lure Phil Jackson out of retirement to take over next year. Frankly, if I'm Jackson I have to wonder if coaching this mess is worth it.

-The one big domino everyone expected to fall on the trade deadline was Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. But, Howard surprised everyone by waiving the opt-out clause of his contract, meaning he will remain with the Magic through not only this year, but next year as well. (While that sounds like the end of it, all it really means is that he pushed the 'pause' button on the situation, because unless he signs an extension over the summer we're going to be right back in this spot next summer.) But the new wrinkle which came out early in the week was a report stating that the Magic told Howard if he remained with the club they would give him the power to decide the fates of coach Stan Van Gundy and GM Otis Smith. Remember how in the past I've written that they best way to be a first-class franchise is to act like you already are? Yeah, that is not the action of a first-class franchise. I'm not saying NBA teams haven't let NBA players fire coaches before - the Lakers have let both Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant have this kind of power. But those guys are NBA champions multiple times over. It is entirely another thing to let a guy like Howard, who has never won anything more than the Eastern Conference in a down year, make this kind of call. All I'm saying is not all stars are created equally and if you let a low-level star run your team you are destined to always be a low-level franchise. I know the Magic were originally owned by Disney, but this brings the phrase "Mickey Mouse Franchise" to a whole other place.

-Moving to the NFL: on Monday it was revealed that both the Redskins and the Cowboys were going to suffer salary cap penalties. Apparently during the 2010 uncapped year both teams used some creative math when negotiating their contracts and front-loaded most of the deals they made. Basically, they paid the majority of the contracts in the first year, uncapped year which meant the totals would be decreased later, giving them more room to work with when the cap went back into place. If you think that just sounds like smart math, that's probably because it is, which is why just about every team did the same thing. But I guess the NFL thinks these two teams went a little too far, especially the Redskins, whose payroll would have been about $60 million over the cap had it been in place. As a result they are losing $18 million of cap space for the next two years and the Cowboys are losing $5 million. This is especially crippling to the Redskins who just traded a bunch of draft picks and planned to built through free agency. Now, I don't like either team, but to me this is complete bullshit. After all, the NFL approved these deals at the time. Not to mention it is total crap to go back and retroactively punish teams for rules that were not in place at the time, but are now. That would be like getting sent a ticket for talking on your cellphone while driving your car back in 2005 before the laws were on the books. I know the NFL is the most popular sport in the country, but that doesn't make it all-powerful. If the league isn't careful people are going to start to sour on them, no matter how enjoyable the games are.

-Even though they weren't going to get him anyway, the loss of that cap space officially eliminated the Redskins from the Peyton Manning sweepstakes, which rolls on. Allegedly Manning has narrowed his choices down to the Broncos, Titans and 49ers. We know this because we know all about his visits to each location thanks to local news crews following his car with their helicopters. This comes on the heels of a blimp-cam following Tiger Woods' every move as he made his way to his car and then drove out of the parking lot after he withdrew from a tournament on Sunday due to an injury. Frankly, all this following athletes around with cameras attached to flying machines makes me wonder if we're using this technology in the best ways possible. It used to be that we reserved this kind of attention to visits from the Pope, high-speed chases and victory parades. Now we use it whenever a high-profile person gets into a car. I guess I shouldn't get too worried until the day when I go to get into my car to make a trip to the store and there is a news helicopter hovering over my house. If that happens we will officially be wasting everyone's time.