Hole Punch Sports

The United States men's basketball team just finished a perfect Olympics with a fabulous 118-107 victory over Spain, giving the Americans their first gold medal in a major international tournament since the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Let me extend one final [thank] you to NBC for its horrendously confusing schedules. When I checked its online listings late last night, I saw that the gold medal game would run from 1:30 to 3:30 a.m. Mountain time. (Even put in my cable company and everything.) When I woke up at 1:30 Mountain time, you guessed it, the U.S. was holding a 69-61 halftime lead and I'd missed Dwyane Wade's impressive first half. Great. Of course, NBC's Olympic website still says the game starts at 1:30. At least we got the matchup I wanted. Last week I got an e-mail from my brother, a missionary in Spain, who was ecstatic about the United States' 37-point victory over them in the opening round. He said that ever since he got there he's had to hear the ...

Michael Phelps just won his eighth gold medal of this Olympics, and the 400m medley relay was the seventh race he won with a new world record. It was such an incredible meet, especially the finishes to the 400m free relay and the 100m butterfly, that it's hard to put in perspective. (With his win over Crocker in '04, with his amazing .01 touch this year, and with his leg of the 400m medley relay just finished, I think Phelps swimming the butterfly for one hundred meters is officially my favorite thing to watch in sports.) The closest I can do to giving this justice is to think of what Mark Spitz said last night on NBC about how the greatest athletes know how to win. I've never been dominant enough at anything to know what that phrase really means, but it's as close as I can come to describing the zone some athletes get in where any victory is possible. What's amazing is how unsurprising Phelps' triumph was. Yes, my faith faltered during that 100m butterfly, bu...

I woke up early this morning to watch the U.S. beat Spain live in basketball, one of the few live events I've seen this year. (Which reminds me, I screwed up again on the 200 IM, accidentally checking Phelps' Wikipedia page for his career medals breakdown before the race was shown live in Mountain time. Thanks again, NBC!) Anyway, the Americans—or Redeem Team, as they are so cutely called this year—dominated the Spaniards with superior athletic ability. Fittingly, Coach K had us looking like a Duke team, except like one from the late-90's, when they were good: they combined pressure defense and exquisite ball movement. Carmelo continued his torrid shooting with four threes, and Dwyane Wade especially continued his great play. LeBron James was good today but overall my opinion of him is almost down...he's still a little too prone to the what-the-heck-are-you-doing-type plays where he pulls up for a three when it's far from the best shot. However, he pulls some of th...

Today I was discussing with commenter David V about how'd he accidentally learned the results of the men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay yesterday before he'd seen the race on TV. At first, I didn't even believe him that the race wasn't live, thanks to some annoyingly deceitful tactics from NBC . (If my fact-checking is accurate, they did it again tonight. The "LIVE" graphic was up in the right-hand corner through the men's 100m backstroke, in which Americans Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers went gold-silver. But judging from the times on NBC's website (which say the event took place at 10:31 a.m.) and online world clocks (which say it was about 11:30 a.m. in Beijing when I was watching) the race was tape-delayed here by about an hour.) One reason I didn't believe him was that I'd thought I'd checked ESPN.com frequently before the race Sunday night but had seen nothing of the American team's victory. I couldn't imagine what ESPN cou...

Some of my favorite and most dramatic American wins in the last two Olympics have taken place in the pool. In 2000, swimmers Gary Hall, Jr. and Anthony Ervin tied for the gold in the splash-and-dash 50m free over a field including Russian Alexander Popov, who'd won the gold in the event in both 1992 and 1996. (Don't think Popov was over the hill: he'd set the world record in the event a few months before the 2000 Olympics.) In 2004, Michael Phelps trailed U.S. teammate and world-record holder Ian Crocker by a body length at the turn of the 100m butterfly, but chased him down for the gold and set a new Olympic record. Neither was as cool as what just happened . * * * The 4 x 100m free relay was billed as a showdown between the United States and France, but the color commentator, whoever that is, seemed awfully sure the Americans didn't have a chance. It seemed odd, considering the United States team had set the world record in the race the day before with their B t...

In a move that must be breaking hearts across Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers have traded quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets. It's a sad finish to an avoidable saga. We never found out the answer to the most important question: why wouldn't the Packers take Favre back? He had them a home game from the Super Bowl just a few months ago, right? I didn't just dream that, did I? My impression based on the news of the last few days is that Favre was willing to stay in Green Bay (and even compete for his job, which is lame), but that the Packers were ready to move on. I'm going to assume that's true. I've heard many reasons why the Packers were so eager to go forward without Favre, and most of them had two things in common: they involved Aaron Rodgers, and they were incredibly stupid. Common was the contention that the team owed something to Rodgers, who has, after all, endured three years on the bench despite a sparkling career quarterback rating of 73....

A Few Seconds of Panic , Stefan Fatsis' new book about his time with the Broncos as a kicker before the 2006 season, includes on its one hundred sixty-second page the following awesome quote: This year's per-team salary cap is $101,866,000, and the Broncos will come as close to that number as possible. Fully funding the team was a condition Shanahan set when he became head coach in 1995; a few years earlier, he had spurned an offer from Bowlen for reasons of internal politics and authority. Bowlen says he wouldn't do it any other way. 'I'm not going to be judged on how much money this organization made,' he tells me one day. 'I mean, [f], that doesn't even enter the equation. Zero. It's, 'How many games did he win? How many Super Bowls did he win?' There's not a lot of things that I really want other than winning Super Bowls. I mean, what do I want, a bigger house? No. More space in Hawaii? Own my own jet? I mean, none of that makes a ...

Longtime Denver Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith, a team leader and one of the last remaining links to the franchise's Super Bowl victories, is retiring . He leaves as the team's all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown catches. Smith was amazingly athletic and emerged as John Elway's go-to deep threat in the 1997 season, after which the team won its first championship. But I'll always remember him for his work ethic and attitude. Smith wasn't drafted, but he worked his way up through the Broncos' organization, going from the practice squad to the punt returner to the No. 1 receiver in just a few years. His rise was somewhat overshadowed by that of his running mate, Ed McCaffrey, who had a similar story, coming from nowhere into NFL stardom. Together they were the toughest tandem in the league, neither ever flinching over the middle, and both serving as outstanding run blockers. McCaffrey was a little more popular during Denver's fantasti...

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They haven't gotten rid of Carmelo Anthony—yet—but the Nuggets have begun the disassembly of their dynasty of okay teams that make the playoffs, then lose quickly. This ESPN.com headline says that the Nuggets traded Marcus Camby to the friggin' Clippers for a second-round draft pick, but the story seems to suggest that the Nuggets gain only the option to swap picks with the Clips in 2010. I can remember the last time the Clippers wanted to win more than the Nuggets did. It was just a few years ago. And it sucked. Camby is aging, but he's a solid center, a position very difficult to fill. Last season he averaged nine points, thirteen rebounds, and just over three-and-a-half blocks per game. His blocks average led the league, and his rebounds per trailed only Dwight Howard. At least we didn't let Camby get away for nothing, right? Except he's not a free agent, and a second-round pick is nothing. The option to trade for such a pick is even less, and if the teams...

I can't put into words how much it's going to bother me when Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for president this year at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos. Do what you want to the military, the tax code, and the health care system, Mr. Obama, but leave the Broncos out of it. I am a lifelong Republican, but I love the Broncos much more than I do any political party. And this isn't just about Obama being a Democrat. Sports are supposed to bring us together, while political parties—notwithstanding the Downy-soft coverage of Obama—often do little but tear us apart. I wouldn't be happy about John McCain doing this, either. The only candidate I could support in such a move is John Elway, if he ever makes the long-rumored move into politics, since he built the house anyway. Realistically I know the presidential race is more important than football, that the studium is publicly funded, and that there's no other venue in Denver that can match the new M...

I usually make this list right after the playoffs, but I keep putting it off this time. Unfortunately, now that I haven't watched football in months, I'm going to forget someone. (Peyton who? Oh, crap!) Anyway, for the third straight year, here are my top quarterbacks in the NFL. (Links to the lists for 2006 and 2007 .) Honorable mentions: There are few who deserve recognition, but 37-year-old Kurt Warner (Cardinals) and 38-year-old Jeff Garcia (Buccaneers) turned back the clock with very good performances last season. 12. David Garrard, Jaguars. Garrard completed just nine passes in his team's playoff upset over the Steelers and, like any decent former backup, got way too much credit last year. But he did put good numbers in the team's loss to New England, and threw just three interceptions in twelve games last year. He's also mobile enough to be a threat. I don't expect him to remain here long-term, and considered putting Warner in his place. 11. Eli ...

USA Basketball just announced its team for the 2008 Olympics. The roster, broken down by positions: C: Dwight Howard PF: Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer SF: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Tayshaun Prince SG: Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Michael Redd PG: Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Deron Williams One question remains: could we have put one more swingman on the team? We definitely need more scoring at the 2 and the 3. (Yes, that is a joke.) To me this roster shows what we've learned from our past few Olympic teams: absolutely nothing. I especially like the choice of Tayshuan Prince, which is clearly just a nod towards the general direction of the idea of building an actual "team". Don't get me wrong; there's a ton of talent here. But so much of it cancels other players out. For example, I love Carmelo (see below), but does a team with Kobe, LeBron, and D-Wade really need the scoring he brings to the table? Having three point guards is actually justifiable, because you have a st...

I don't know whether to be excited or horrified. Calvin Andrews, the agent for Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, said today that the team has assured him that they will not trade Anthony. Anthony has been the subject of trade rumors since the Nuggets' season ended with a quick first-round playoff exit. In his five seasons with Denver, the team has never made it past the first round of the playoffs. To put that in perspective, the team didn't even make the playoffs for eight years before Anthony arrived, part of a span in which the team reached the postseason only twice in thirteen seasons. That's why I'm only slightly disappointed the Nuggets haven't done better, even with the addition of future Hall of Fame guard Allen Iverson. The scars of an 11-71 season (1997-98) run deep. The reason I'm scared, though, is this sentence from the article: Anthony, who does not want to be traded, is bothered by his name being mentioned in rumors and upset becau...

The tenth anniversary was Saturday, but the DVD of my favorite NBA game ever didn't come in the mail until today. That game was Game Six of the 1998 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan's last game as a Chicago Bull. (Quick sidenote: you may remember I already did a tenth-anniversary retrospective on the Denver Broncos' first Super Bowl win. And in a few months I could write a look back on Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's home run record chase. Has any year in sports ever come close to 1998?) So I just re-watched the game and this is my report. 1. I knew this game was a classic, but forgot just how classic until I saw the NBC logo's feathers lighting up right before the "NBA on NBC" music kicked in. Yes, I bought a version of this song on iTunes a couple years back, but there's nothing quite like the original in context. (For the record, the song is by John Tesh and is called "Roundball Rock".) 2. Our announcers for the game? Bob Costas, Doug Collin...

The Boston Celtics just won the NBA Finals with one of the most dominant performances in a closeout game in any sport ever. The final tally had the Celtics winning by 39 points, just shy of the all-time record for winning margin in any Finals game. The Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz by 42 in Game Three of the 1998 Finals (a game in which Utah was held to the then-lowest scoring output of any team in the shot clock era). Paul Pierce just won the Finals MVP award after his tenth season, fitting for the man who slipped so famously to the tenth pick in the draft. He was outstanding in the Finals, getting to the line at will and playing with incredible poise throughout. The best part of any championship, though, is watching the long-time veterans who finally broke through. For Boston, that was Ray Allen (26 points on 12 field goal and 3 free throw attempts) and Kevin Garnett (26 points, 14 rebounds,  four assists, three steals, and a block), both of whom turned back the clock with...

Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion today, defeating Rocco "The Mediator!" Mediate in the playoff. Woods and Mediate went back and forth on the first eighteen holes today, but neither could pull away. Mediate was up by one stroke going into the 18th, but Woods made birdie to force sudden death, which is much less frightening than it sounds. To us, anyway. It did look to be a little much for Mediate, who looked simply worn out as he walked out to his ball on the sudden death hole, though he hadn't blinked all day before that. Woods had an opportunity to win with flair when he nearly sunk a long putt for the championship. He knocked it in on his short second attempt, then won the Open when Mediate couldn't sink a difficult putt of his own. The win gave Woods his 14th major victory. Jack Nicholson himself is just four ahead. It's widely believed, and has been for years, that Woods will break the record easily before all is said and done. What that...

The Lakers just pulled out a sloppy Game Five win over the Celtics. The Celtics lead the series 3-2. From what I saw, a.k.a. the second half, the Lakers were sort of lucky to win, but the Celtics certainly didn't play well enough to close out a championship series on the road. I think it would be inaccurate to say the Celtics relaxed after their huge comeback a game ago. It was more that they just blew the opportunities they had in this game to take control. The biggest example came with 2:31 remaining , with the Lakers leading 95-93. Pau Gasol, going for an offensive rebound, went over the back on Kevin Garnett. So Garnett got two foul shots and a chance to tie the game, but he missed both. It was stuff like that. Boston's defense was solid enough, but their offense needed work. The Lakers played solidly enough to defend their home court. Kobe Bryant had another poor shooting night, finishing 8-for-21. (And he made his last two shots, meaning at one point he was identical to ...

The Celtics are up 3-1 now, but as Bill Russell told me during the 2001 Finals, every game's a new game. So in other words, no, they haven't won it all yet. But Boston made a huge move towards winning the NBA championship with a win tonight at the Staples Center. They fell way behind, down at one point by 24, but made enough clutch baskets to keep the pressure on L.A., and eventually to take control of the game and win. There was Eddie House's jumper to take the lead. James Posey's three to extend it. Ray Allen had a pair of fabulous drives, the first a reverse lay-up, the second a late-in-the-shot-clock left-hander that his defender, Sasha Vujacic, saw about two minutes before the sound reached him. Kevin Garnett connected on two big shots when he made power moves going left. And Paul Pierce hit that beautiful jumper from the top of the key over Kobe Bryant, as well as three crucial free throws at the end. Before the Celtics completed their comeback, it was amazing...

Have you ever heard the saying that it's not a series until a team wins on the road? If not, good for you, because it's stupid. By that logic, the Hornets-Spurs second round series this year, which went to seven games, was not a series until the Spurs won Game Seven. In other words, it was not a series until it was over. In any event, the home teams have won the first three games of the NBA Finals, but still plenty has happened. Boston struck first, taking Game One by ten points. Paul Pierce went down (briefly) with an injury, and it appeared the series was over, but he came back, hit some memorable threes, and his team cruised. In Game Two, the Celtics appeared well on their way to a blowout before the Lakers almost stole the win. It was one of the craziest games ever. I've never seen a team give up such a brain-dead easy basket as Leon Powe's coast-to-coast dunk and still threaten to win the same game in a championship series. I still can't make sense of it. Fi...

I quite enjoyed ESPN's halftime coverage of the disturbing claims found in a letter written by the lawyers of disgraced former NBA ref Tim Donaghy. Stuart Scott presented the brief-but-necessary research that let us know which series were probably being discussed (the Lakers-Kings in 2002 and the Rockets-Mavericks in 2005). Jeff Van Gundy responded with a little editorializing and his confusing-as-ever distinction between NBA officials and NBA referees, but he made a fantastic plea for more transparency in these affairs. And the network didn't edit any of the self-satisfaction out of David Stern's response. ESPN.com also has a good article and legal analysis up on the situation. All caught up now? Good. What bothers me most about the situation is that Stern can afford to speak so smugly, because he knows the fans have short memories. Of course there's no way I can prove any official corruption. But the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Sacrament...

The T.V. says L.A., but my heart says Boston in six . Why is the everyone so sure about the Lakers? The Lakers do have Kobe Bryant, who is the best...shooting guard of the decade, maybe? Bryant has three rings, but Allen Iverson has won three scoring titles, won an MVP trophy, and been the star of a Finals team during the '00s, so it's at least close between them. Bryant, who really ought to switch back to jersey number 8, is the undisputed best player in the series. The team with the best player almost always wins the Finals. Take last year's Spurs, or the Heat before that. Or the Lakers with Shaq. Or the Bulls with Jordan. Throw in Phil Jackson, the best coach in the series, and it looks like L.A. should get by easily. The Lakers are missing only one ingredient: an outstanding No. 2 guy. I don't know if they need one, but championship teams typically have at least one other good clutch player. Like Shaq with the Heat, The Admiral/Tony Parker with the Spurs, Kobe w...

The NBA Finals are set, and in several days they'll even begin. The match-up, of course, is a classic: the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics and Lakers have met in the Finals 10 times. The rivalry is best-known today for Larry Bird and Magic Johnson's encounters in the 1980s, though they only faced each other for the championship three times, with the Lakers winning twice. But the Bill Russell/Sam Jones-era Celtics faced the Lakers seven times in the Finals (including in 1959, when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis), with the Celtics winning every single time. And yet Jerry West is the guy who ended up with the "Mr. Clutch" nickname and his silhouette on the NBA logo. West did win the first-ever Finals MVP award in 1969, which made sense, because even though the Lakers as always lost to the Celtics, at least they dragged it out to seven games that time. That series is one of my favorite Finals ever. Though the Celtics had beaten the Lakers ...

The Los Angeles Lakers narrowly escaped with a victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals tonight, and by "narrowly escaped" I mean that they did everything they could think of to blow the game. I tuned in during the fourth quarter, a period in which L.A. had semi-sizeable leads (seven to nine points), but couldn't make them stick. The Lakers took a final seven-point lead with just under a minute remaining, but Manu Ginobili hit a three, Kobe Bryant forced a shot (believe it or not), and then Tim Duncan found Tony Parker downcourt for a breakaway lay-up, or technically a breakaway goaltending call on Lamar Odom. Anyway, the Lakers missed a couple of shots on their next trip but wisely used up most of the shotclock, leaving the Spurs down two with about two seconds left. Brent Barry caught the ball, then took a long and lame three-point attempt to lose the game. Afterwards he lifted his hands up in shock that the foul wasn't ca...

I originally intended to post this under a more innocuous title like "Programming Note" or something...more on that in a second. Yesterday at work I was watching TV when I stumbled upon SportsCenter, a popular athletic highlights show that is not so well-known that my computer thinks I've spelled it correctly. Anyway, one anchor, Mike Greenberg, asked baseball analyst and former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips his opinion on Alex Rodriguez's return to the Yankees' lineup. (Rodriguez had missed three weeks with a strained quad.) Seconds later, my jaw dropped. I don't remember Phillips' exact response. But I do know he said something along the lines of us having a situation here where the greatest player ever was returning to a team. Immediately I had two thoughts: first, I have to blog about this, and second, he didn't really just say that, did he? It's so dumb that I seriously did sit and wonder. Because the greatest player ever w...

So, it's been a few weeks. What I've missed: 1. Jay Cutler has diabetes . Articles list several prominent athletes who've had the disease and been successful, including guys like Bobby Clarke, Jackie Robinson, and Gary Hall, Jr., who I liked a lot even though I only saw him compete in sprints once every four years. From the USA Today article: CBS4 in Denver caught up with the Denver Broncos quarterback, and was told the disease has affected him for 'at least six months.' 'I was losing weight, didn't have a lot of strength,' Cutler said. 'You could tell, just the way I played. Some of the throws that I made didn't have a lot behind them.' That sort of makes it sound like he'll be much better this year now that he's healthy. And that makes sense if the disease held him back down the stretch. The thing is his game-by-game statistics don't paint the picture of someone who was worn down at the end of the season; instead, he had som...

There are very few publicity stunts a presidential campaign can use to get on the front page of Hole Punch Sports. One of those would be practicing with my favorite college basketball team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, and Democratic hopeful Barack Obama did exactly that yesterday. (The other way might be to straddle the fence and pretend to love two teams in the same sport equally, as one certain politician does so offensively in that story. It's just wrong.) Judging by the behind-the-back dribble in Obama's YouTube mixtape , by this time next year our President might have better handles than I do. (But then that's probably true even if John McCain is elected.) In all seriousness, I think it's awesome that Obama is so into hoops. His love of basketball was the subject of a recent story on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which is available on YouTube and which I recommend watching if you have the time. The segment spends some time talking Obama playing t...

1. The Spurs beat the Suns 4 games to 1 with a win last night. And thus one of the two interesting first-round series is over. Remember when people were saying this could be one of the best opening series ever? Idiots. 2. With the Boston Celtics up by almost 20 in the fourth, the other good series feels like it's losing its luster. I really hope the Hawks can pull out Game Six. 3. We only have to wait until Saturday for the second round to start with the Spurs-Hornets series, which makes the playoffs feel less stretched-out than usual. But the next day (Sunday) could feature a bunch of first-round Game Sevens. I'm sorry, but that's just weird. 4. The Dallas Mavericks fired head coach Avery Johnson today. The franchise has clearly underachieved in the postseason, especially since blowing a 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals. They won 67 games last year, but lost in the first round. This season the team traded for Jason Kidd but couldn't recapture their elite status. Until ...