Weekly Sporties

-The last time Sacramento Kings forward DeMarcus Cousins was mentioned on this blog was when he had been feuding with head coach Paul Westphal and the Kings has sided with Cousins by firing Westphal. Well, it appears a pattern has begun to emerge because early this week there was a report that Cousins was now fighting with his new head coach, Keith Smart. Apparently, the two got into it during halftime of a game against the Clippers and it was so heated that Smart told Cousins to forget the second half of the game and to stay in the locker room. The next day the Kings suspended Cousins 'indefinitely' for conduct detrimental to the team. Some people thought this was exactly what Cousins needed to snap him into shape because he clearly has NBA talent but an NBDL level of maturity. Well, if those people thought what Cousins needed was time to think about what he had done they will be severely disappointed, because it turns out to the Sacramento Kings, 'indefinitely' means one game. Now, Smart says he is a fan of Cousins and thinks the two of them can work out their differences, but if I were him I would think about renting instead of buying. The thing is I just don't see why the Kings are so loyal to Cousins. Yes, he averages 18 points and 10 rebounds a game. But despite this production the Kings haven't come close to even making the playoffs in either of the years Cousins has been with the franchise. Surely, you can get that kind of production with fewer headaches from another player. I know the NBA is a players league, but shouldn't that only apply to players who are worth something? I understand that it is easier to fire a coach than trade a player but at some point you have to stop letting the inmates run the asylum, even if that does explain why the Kings haven't been competitive for several years.

-The good news for Cousins is that he didn't stay as the face of NBA malcontents for very long, because a couple days after Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams complained about how he was being used in head coach Avery Johnson's offense and the Nets were blown out on national television, Johnson was fired. Now, the Nets were 14-14 at the time of Johnson's firing and after spending a lot of money this offseason to rebrand themselves in their new home in Brooklyn the Nets had high expectations, so you could argue that Johnson did not do enough to keep his job. However, he was coach of the month in November as the team started out 11-4 so there is evidence that Johnson's team was simply going through a rough patch and he had the skills to turn the team around. Clearly, there had to be more to the story for him to get relieved of his duties and a lot of people believe Williams, who had a lot of influence in who the team signed this offseason, was the one who wanted Avery gone. On top of that it was Williams who famously feuded with Jerry Sloan while the two were still in Utah and the whispers have long pointed the finger at Williams as the reason Sloan retired after coaching in Utah for longer than most of his players had been alive. As they say once is an accident, twice is evidence. What I don't get is that, like Cousins, Williams hasn't actually ever done anything to warrant this type of power. He has always been the proverbial 'good player on a terrible team' but has never taken his team deep into the playoffs. He started off his career with a bang and for a while was running neck-and-neck with Chris Paul in a battle for the title of NBA's best point guard, but I don't see anyone adding him to that discussion anymore. I understand that players perform better if they actually like their coach, but I'm not convince that Williams is capable of taking the Nets anywhere even if he is playing at his best.

-As you would expect when there is a coaching job open in a major market and that team's owner has more money than he knows what to do with, Phil Jackson's name has surfaced as the primary coaching candidate for the Nets. What this really means is that the Nets are willing pay him whatever he wants, provided he actually wants the job. For a variety of reasons I don't expect him to take it. First off, Jackson has as big an ego as any player he has ever coached - he has to be the main attraction. I can't see him agreeing to go to the Nets who, despite their best efforts, are still second-fiddle to the Knicks. (Ironically, since he used to play for the Knicks I could have seen him taking that job even though it doesn't mean the rest of his standards.) Secondly, the Nets roster is in shambles right now. Joe Johnson is an ok player but will never be confused with an all-timer and I think I made my feelings known about Deron Williams in the last paragraph. Beyond that they have a lot of nice players but no one you would kill to have on your roster. Jackson tends to pick his spots and those spots always feature the best player on the planet. Unless the Nets think his presence will be the thing which gets Dwight Howard to come to Brooklyn as a free agent, I feel like Jackson is the wrong coach for them at this time. The other name which has come up is Jeff Van Gundy. I think they are in the right family, but have the wrong Van Gundy. To me Stan Van Gundy makes more sense because he coaches a motion offense which would suit the players the Nets currently have. I know it would end any talk of Howard in Brooklyn, but I'm not convinced that is happening anyway. The Nets need to get themselves pointed back in the right direction or they are never going to be a free agent destination, I don't care how many rappers they have sitting courtside.

-Last week I mentioned the mess that is the New York Jets quarterback situation, specifically the ineffective Mark Sanchez being benched and the coaches deciding to skip over the much-hyped Tim Tebow in favor of third-stringer Greg McElroy. What we (allegedly) learned this week is that after McElroy got the starting job Tebow asked out of the wildcat offense, which was pretty much the only way he got onto the field. For his part Tebow denies saying he didn't want to run the wildcat anymore, but there is no denying the fact that the Jets still ran it, only with wide receiver Jeremy Kerley filling that slot instead. This is bad for Tebow because while everyone had questioned his ability to play quarterback at an elite level, no one questioned his character. This is the first crack in his armor, however minor it may be. After all, you don't get to this level without having some ego and belief if your abilities and Tebow is not exempt from that. The good news for Tim is that it hasn't turned the entire NFL against him because it is being reported that if (when) he gets released from the Jets he will have an offer to join the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now you may remember that last year Tebow was given the choice by the Broncos of the Jets or the Jags and he picked the Jets because he thought it would give him a better chance to play. Well, a year later things are very different and I'm pretty sure Tim will be happy just to have any NFL job, let alone one which will let him return to the state of Florida, where he is still a god. (I'm going to go on record right now as saying Tebow's Jaguars jersey is the highest selling next season.) I'm not sure it makes the Jaguars any better, but it will at least make them more interesting. Considering they have won 7 games in two seasons they will take just about anything to get people talking about them.

-A couple of months ago I mentioned that the NFL had voided currently suspended New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton's contract due to some langue regarding his ability to opt out of the deal should his general manager get fired or suspended. This essentially made Payton a free agent when the suspension was lifted and teams started lining up at the thought of it. There were several teams which were ready to drop coaches who wouldn't normally be in danger of getting fired once their owners thought they had a chance to upgrade. Well, a few of those NFL hot seats cooled considerably yesterday as Payton signed a 5-year extension to remain in New Orleans. (I had wondered what would happen if interim coach Joe Vitt had guided the Saints to the playoffs but unfortunately that stopped being a possibility a couple weeks ago. If anything, watching the Saints underachieve all season only served to make Payton look like more of a coaching genius and raise his already high value.) If you go back and read the original post this is what I predicted all along, because if the hold-up was regarding language tying Payton to current Saints GM Mickey Loomis that doesn't sound like something a guy looking to switch teams would have. The only thing I didn't see coming was the size of the contract. Reportedly, the new agreement will pay Payton $40 million over 5 years, making him the richest coach in the NFL. This is just another example of how much Roger Goodell screwed up this entire bounty-gate scandal. He wanted to send a message to all the other coaches and players that a pay-for-knockouts program was not going to be tolerated. Well, all the players won their appeals and never missed a game and the man who was reportedly the architect of the entire thing got a year off and a raise. Who says crime doesn't pay?

-After 10 major league seasons with 3 teams, slugger Hideki Matsui will reportedly retire sometime in the near couple of days. The former Japanese superstar was the rare player who seemed to handle the transition to the America rather well, collecting some clutch postseason hits while playing for the Yankees. Because he played for the Yankees Matsui is getting more attention than a player with his career usually would and that includes a debate about his chances for the Hall of Fame. Matsui didn't come to America until he was 28, which means he missed about 7 years of potential stats in his prime. This raises the interesting question of whether or not the stats from his time in Japan should be added to his MLB stats or whether they have to stand alone. For example, if you just look at his MLB numbers his 175 career homeruns don't sound very impressive. But if you add in the 332 he hit while in Japan suddenly you are at 507 and 500 homeruns are usually enough to gain you entry into the Hall of Fame. The case against combing the numbers is very simple - American baseball writers don't really have any idea what type of competition he faced in Japan. For all they know he hit all those home runs against guys who would be at the AA level here. After all, he never came close to duplicating the power numbers he put up playing in those leagues. (The number of Japanese pitchers who have come over to America and fallen flat after two seasons do not help his case.) However, you can also easily argue the case for combining all his stats into one career total by pointing out that just about every generation of baseball has some kind of caveat to it. After all, no one who played in the 1950s had to worry about 103 mph fastballs. Still, I don't see Matsui getting in - he simply didn't play at a high level for long enough. Still, as a long-time Red Sox fan who was much more afraid of him than Alex Rodriguez when it came to playoff time, allow me to pay him the ultimate rival level of respect: I'm very happy to see him go.

-I've always said that, outside of the National Championship, bowl games are more for the alumni than the current students. As I sit and watch random bowl game after random bowl game try to remind us that college football is still going, I can't help but wonder how excited some of these players are to be there. Sure, teams which never have sustained success are thrilled to be invited anywhere, but if you are at a powerhouse program which had a mediocre year do you really want to play one more game which isn't going to matter? Of course not, you'd rather get this year over with and start preparing for next year. That is why I was hardly surprised at reports that several USC players had tweeted some disparaging remarks regarding El Paso, where the Trojans are playing Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl. Sure, head coach Lane Kiffin said all the right things at the press conference when the team arrived, but then USC was over an hour late to the pre-game celebratory dinner. (To their credit, Georgia Tech got fed up and left. They probably don't want to be there any more than the Trojans, so I like that they had the self-respect to not be stood up like that.) The thing is I don't even blame the players or the coaches. USC goes into each season expecting to be in a major bowl and anything less is seen as a failure. If I were the athletic director I would have refused any bowl invitation for this year. I'm sure there would be some alumni who would be upset, but I'm pretty sure the majority of them would be fine with not appearing in a game which is played before New Year's Day. I've said Lane Kiffin should cut out the petty antics because he is the head coach at USC and that means something. Well, the same should go for the AD - it is ok to be a little snobby about your post-season plans. Honestly, he should be pleased that his players think they are better than a mid-level bowl game because it should motivate them to not be playing in one next season.