Weekly Sporties

-Last week I told you that the Los Angeles Lakers job was probably going to come down to former coach Phil Jackson or former Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni. Well, all weekend it looked like the job was Phil's if he wanted it and the only thing left was for some details to be ironed out on Monday. However, in a sudden change of heart, apparently the Lakers called in the middle of the night on Sunday to let Jackson know they had hired D'Antoni instead. A lot of Laker fans are not happy because they think Jackson was the obvious choice given his history with the team. What this move proves is that while Jimmy Buss may not have total say over the team (he was the one who hired Mike Brown, after all, so I doubt he was keen to fire him so quickly), he clearly has plenty of influence on basketball decisions. Jimmy Buss wanted to distance the franchise from Jackson, which is why a perfect candidate like Brian Shaw was ignored and multiple stories about demands Jackson had made to the team regarding salary, personnel decisions and travel restrictions was leaked to the media. As I wrote last week, I have my doubts about whether D'Antoni's style of play will work with this current Laker team. He has coached Steve Nash before, but that was several years ago and I have a feeling coaching Kobe Bryant in the Olympics is not the same as coaching him during the playoffs. At least D'Antoni is realistic, saying that if the team didn't at least make the Conference Finals he should be considered a failure. Well, the Laers front office had better hope this decision works out because I'm pretty sure the team has burned the last remnants of the Phil Jackson bridge. I can't see him ever coming back to their bench now.

-Perhaps inspired by the Lakers's decision to fire Mike Brown after 5 games, this week the Miami Marlins traded Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle and Josh Johnson to the Toronto Blue Jays for a couple of players and prospects. What this means is that, one year after promising that if the state built them a new stadium the team would have increased revenue to spend on players and adding almost $200 million to their payroll, the Marlins have now fired their high-profile manager and traded away about $190 million of those contracts. A lot of people are extremely pissed at the Marlins owner, Jeff Loria, because it appears they gave him this sweet stadium deal and he reneged on his end the bargain after just one year. This is not the first time the Marlins have participated in a major salary dump, but at least in the previous instances they had the common courtesy to win the World Series first - this team lost nearly 100 games. Now, the offseason has just begun, so it is entirely possible we have all jumped the gun and the team is going to turn all this uncommitted money into a slew of new players. However, the evidence would suggest what is actually going to happen is the team is going to lose even more games next year while playing in front of 400 fans, all of whom were given tickets to the game, while Jeff Loria rakes in money from a stadium he didn't have to pay to build. (The only good thing to come out of this is that at least it should end the practice of states using public funds to build stadiums for billionaires.) You know, I'm pretty down on Red Sox ownership over how they have handled the team the last year and a half, but it is nice to be reminded that no matter how bad you think your situation is, you should be thankful because there is always someone out there who has it worse.

-Before the NBA draft the most intriguing prospect was Royce White. He has the rare combination of good size to go with a nice shooting touch. The issue is that he also has a serious fear of flying, which is a problem in today's NBA. At the time I wrote that it probably stopped him from being a higher lottery pick and I wasn't sure this was going to work out between White and the Rockets, who took him 16th overall. Well, turns out I was wrong, but only about the part where I said this would rear its ugly head eventually. Less than 10 games into his NBA career White stopped showing up for team-scheduled therapist sessions and was going to be demoted to the D-League, so he stopped showing up to practices and games and now is saying he may leave basketball. Even worse, he has taken to airing his dirty laundry on Twitter, where he is saying the Rockets have not been honest with him about their plans and are not working with him as much as they said they would. Some in the organization have fired back, saying White's real problem is not his fear of flying as much as his lack of playing time and this is his way to fight his demotion. The two sides need to be careful with the public sniping or else this could get very ugly, very quickly. Also, someone should remind them that they need each other right now. If they eventually want to go their separate ways they would be wise to make it work in the short term, otherwise White will never get a contract extension from another team and the Rockets will never get back the value of the draft pick the used to get him in the first place. I think both sides already know this isn't going to work, now they need to be smart about how this gets settled.

-After the New York Jets lost last weekend to the Seattle Seahawks to fall to 3-6, several people wondered if it was finally going to be Tebow-time in New York. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez hasn't been able to lead the offense and while the group of receivers he has to work with are not all-world, they are still in the NFL for a reason. The thought has been floated that Tim Tebow could spark the team the same way he sparked the Broncos last year. What's kind of crazy is that usually on a bad team the back-up quarterback is the most popular guy in town, but even among Jets fans the opinion on Tebow is split. Well, on Wednesday the Jet players let their feelings on the matter be known, as several players anonymously spoke to the media and labelled Tebow as 'terrible'. (For their parts, the Jets who spoke on the record later all say that anonymous is essentially code for 'made-up' and while they like Tim very much, Mark is their guy.) Personally, at this point I don't know what you are waiting for. The Jets are about 3 losses away from officially not making the playoffs and if you aren't planning to use Tebow, than why the hell did you trade for him? I don't think he is a good quarterback, but given that Rex Ryan was willing to use him in the Wildcat formation as well as do things like trot out defensive backs at the wide receiver position, I am stunned the Jets appear willing to go down without firing off the biggest bullet left in their gun. I can only assume it comes down to what the coaches see in practice everyday and since every person in that organization is essentially fighting for their NFL future right now, the fact that they still think Sanchez is the best option they have should tell you all you need to know about Tim Tebow's pro quarterback prospects.

-In a race which wasn't nearly as close as most people predicted, Detroit Tigers' third baseman Miguel Cabrera won AL MVP over Los Angeles Angles centerfielder Mike Trout. Now, many of you know my policy when it comes to my baseball provincialism: if it doesn't involved the Red Sox, I really couldn't care less. However, I was interested in how this race turned out for the simple reason that it had sparked a baseball debate about the role of new sabermetrics in baseball: the old-schoolers argued that Cabrera won the Triple Crown, which hadn't been done in 45 years and got his team to the playoffs. The new-schoolers argued that stats like RBIs aren't as important these days and put more emphasis on things like WAR (wins above replacement) and various defensive stats, all of which contend Trout had the better year. Also, his team won more games, while the Tigers had the fortune of playing in a lesser division than the Angels. Personally, while I think advanced stats have their place in baseball due to the nature of individuals playing a team game, I think Cabrera winning the Triple Crown counts for something and I don't discount things like RBIs nearly as much as some do, so I would have voted him for MVP. That being said, what the old-schoolers need to realize is that their argument against these new stats, which boils down to "math is for nerds!" isn't going to win them any fans. Considering baseball is quickly fading from the public spotlight, they would be wise to cultivate any interest they can find out there, even if those baseball fans don't look at the game in the same way.

-During last weekend's NASCAR race in Phoenix, Jeff Gordon had his tire cut down by Clint Bowyer. It essentially ended Gordon's chances for the day, so with two laps to go he decided to return the favor, slowing down until Bowyer was about to pass him and then turned Bowyer into the wall. At the time Bowyer was third in the Championship point standings and having a good day, but the wreck effectively ended any chance Bowyer would have had to contend going forward. The 'accident' sparked a huge brawl in the pits between the two teams. (Which was more like a baseball brawl, with a lot of pushing, but very few actual punches thrown. So much for the theory that the sport is full of a bunch of tough, good 'ol boys.) For a four-time series champion like Gordon, it was seen as a truly punk move (also you would have thought a guy with his resume would know how to wreck a guy without taking himself out as well). You know, every time there is a major fight in a sport like hockey people try to point out that if the same thing happened off-ice it would have resulted in criminal charges. Well, intentionally causing an accident at 200 mph seem much more dangerous for a lot of people, yet I didn't hear any of that here. All Gordon was hit with was a $100,00 fine, docked 25 chase points and places on probation until the end of the year, which is like ejecting a guy with :10 seconds left in the last game of the year. Honestly, it is less than a slap on the wrist. Even worse, with one more race to go, I'm pretty sure this isn't over. That's why they probably should have parked Gordon for this week's race. I know NASCAR told the drivers to "have at it, boys" at the start of the year, but it seems like if it was anyone else they would have been penalized a lot worse than this. I think NASCAR should remember that while the drivers inside the car may be safer than ever, the fans in the stands are just as exposed as ever. They're lucky the damage was contained on the track.

-In its ongoing attempt to convince the world it is doing something about player safety (pay no attention to replacement refs, Thursday Night games or talks to increase the schedule to 18 games) the NFL continues to trot out new idea for people to think about. This week's proposed tweak would limit the maximum the guys covering kick-offs could weigh. Kick-offs continue to be the most common time for injuries and the league is arguing that smaller players would create smaller collisions. At first the theory seems sound, until you remember that these smaller guys would be running into one another faster than the current larger players are. It would really be trading big hits for faster ones, which I'm not sure actually makes anyone safer. What they really need to do is go the other way and have a weight minimum - you have to be at least 300 to be on special teams. That way, kick-offs be a kicker and 10 lineman. By the time those guys reached the tackling point they would be so winded they would be trotting. That would really cut down on big hits. Either way, I don't see it happening because the teams would need to expand their rosters for all these little guys, who wouldn't be any help in regular game situations and I can't see owners paying more money for guys that are only on the field for 10 plays a game. Also, the players would never go for it because too many of them use special-teams as a way to make a roster while they learn the position they would rather play. I think this is especially good news to Raiders fans, because if the NFL declares that you have to weigh less than 200 lbs to be on the kick-off team, what would they do about Sebastian Janikowski?