Hole Punch Sports

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 ...