Thursday, November 03, 2005

Thursday Blogging

Mavs fade late, lose in Utah …Tough to accept defeat at the hands of the lummox, Mehmet Okur, but the Turk had his way in the final few minutes and with overly-tattooed Deron Williams making his NBA debut in grand style, the Mavs couldn’t keep up. By the way, Deron Williams is everything the Mavs hoped Devin Harris would be. Williams, the #3 pick in the draft in 2005, look confident and ready to control a game from the point. Harris, the #5 pick in the draft in 2004, looks like his team doesn’t believe he can control anything when he is on the floor.


Fate seemed to be fighting the Mavericks, too. They were up five points in the waning seconds of the third quarter, but Williams let fly from 60 feet at the buzzer, and the prayer was answered as it banked hard off the glass and into the net.

It was the highlight of a wonderful debut for the No. 3 overall pick, who was a pain in the Mavericks' neck all night and finished with 18 points.

"Deron Williams is an old-school basketball player, and I really like that," Johnson said. "He's awfully special.

A night after the Mavericks had erased a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter, they fell apart late against the Jazz. They poured what energy they had left into the first three quarters. But then the shots started coming up short, and the Jazz found another gear.

The Mavericks were 3-of-19 in the fourth quarter and had six of those misses swatted away. Utah outrebounded the Mavericks, 17-7, in the final frame.

"They continued to fight us the whole game," Josh Howard said. "They hit some big buckets."



Are the Stars really that bad? Evidently. After getting pounded at home by Los Angeles (not the 1984 Edmonton Oilers) 7-2 a few weeks ago, they allow that same team to pound them again


Playing in their 500th regular-season home game in Dallas, the Stars were drubbed again by the Los Angeles Kings. Wednesday's 6-3 defeat displayed a home power play that is among the worst in the league, home goaltending that is among the worst in the league and a 3-4-1 home record that has the team wasting what was set up to be a fast start.

"If you look at the schedule, it's been favorable for us, with home games and the rest period we've had," defenseman Philippe Boucher said. "But we haven't made the most of it, and we have to play better in our building."

Especially when you consider what is slipping away. The Stars had a chance to get within one point of the Pacific Division-leading Kings, but fell to 6-5-1 (13 points). Los Angeles jumps to 9-4-0 (18 points). The Stars have been outscored by the Kings, 17-9, in three games at American Airlines Center.


Galloway properly touts Jeff Ireland


Out of the eight players drafted in April, only two haven't been heard from. One of those, safety Justin Beriault, was a major training camp story, but went on injured reserve because of knee problems.

The other, second-round linebacker Kevin Burnett, is the one mystery element. He's the lone rookie who would be classified as a disappointment thus far.

But with veteran Al Singleton now out for the season (also injured in the Arizona game), Burnett will get a second chance to show something.

Overall, Ireland had one immediate observation on this draft class:
"I'm not necessarily surprised. The blueprint on this draft was to find guys who could help us right now. The one thing I stressed to our scouts was we had to find players who were ready to make a contribution.

"We were a 6-10 team a year ago. We had two No. 1 picks [and five picks out of the first 132 spots], so we weren't going to be able to improve unless we could find rookies who could play right now."

Then again, there's nothing more challenging in today's NFL than being right on first-round picks, particularly two of them.

"As the record shows around the league, first-rounders are not a slam dunk," Ireland said. "But our homework was good on both Ware and Spears. And then, as we said all along, we thought we got a first-round talent in Canty (who was available in the fourth round because of an eye injury)."


This is too good to be true Packers shut down press conference after reporter's cell phone goes off again ...


It was at least the third time that a phone had gone off during one of Sherman's news conferences this season.

"I don't understand that," Sherman told the group of 40 to 50 reporters assembled in the Packers' media auditorium before he exited. "That stuff to me, I'll be totally honest with you, is a total lack of respect for each other. Forget me. You don't have to respect me, but respect each other."

Director of public relations Jeff Blumb later handed out a memo to reporters stating that the Favre news conference would be canceled unless the reporter whose phone rang came forward and admitted it was his. When no one came forward between the end of the locker room period at 12:45 p.m. and the end of practice at 3 p.m., Favre's news conference was canceled.

"I made the decision because no one came forward to accept responsibility for the cell phone going off," Blumb said. "It wasn't made based on it happening one time, but continuous times for multiple weeks. We've given warnings to turn off cell phones. It's disrespectful to Coach Sherman and it's disrespectful to Brett Favre."



Rockets unveil their new look roster

For you who don’t know it, read up on The UFC here if you so choose…

the best of Bob Knight

Super Friends meet Office Space …Did Superman put a cover sheet on his TPS Report?

Restless Leg Syndrome? …I might be in big trouble…

Some interesting Swoopes background


Ever since Swoopes signed to play basketball at Texas in the late 1980s but abruptly left school after just two weeks in Austin, rumors have persisted as to the reason for her exit.

It was said that she was pregnant and went back to her hometown of Brownfield, near Lubbock, to give birth. Swoopes has vehemently denied that.

It was also said that Swoopes asked Texas coach Jody Conradt for a transfer because she had been inappropriately approached sexually by a female associated with the Texas women's basketball program.

Swoopes denies that assertion as well.

"I keep trying to figure out where that came from," Swoopes said. "But no, neither one of those is true. Me coming back from Texas, the only reason I did it was because I was homesick.


Roto Authority was on this last week – Matt Lawton, Steroid user ….

Peter Elkin’s bid to become an “approved blog” …under review…

Email to end it, on the UFC:

Dear Sports Sturm,
I am a fan of the UFC on Spike. The season finale last year between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonner was pure greatness. Two guys beating the crap out of each other is about as manly as you can get. We can throw Gribble's input out the window. The man's ultimate fantasy is having a ménage with a chick and another dude. Nothing gets my engine redlining like the sight of a naked man in the throws of passion. That fact alone negates his argument.

Dan thinks everything is gay. I could see Dan walking his young daughter telling her of all the gayness in Grapevine. "Hey Ava, look at that gay dog." Not sure if I spelled that right but that is besides the point. The UFC show is great. Two guys beating each other is about as far from gay as possible. If they were coming to the octagon wearing feather boas and Elton John glasses, I might lean towards gay. What did Dan do when he got into fights as a kid and as a high school and college kid? Oh, I don't fight because we might end up on the ground wrestling. I know you just insulted my manhood and slapped me but I don't want to get into a fight because we might end up wrestling on the ground. That is how real fights happen. Two guys start swinging and somehow they end up on the ground with one guy on his back and the other guy kneeling over him swinging at the guy's face. I have seen many fights and hardly if any are like boxing matches. If I heard correctly Dan said boxing was not gay. Boxers hug each other a lot when they get tired. I agree that the attire needs to be amended a little but other than that it is great. The UFC guys that fight like Liddell and Couture fight in what equates to board shorts and Muy Thai shorts. In closing, tell your buds to put the gaydar detector down and watch UFC 2.

P1 Josh

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:21 AM

    Amen on the UFC, Josh! Hearing Dan and Gribs (who's a fan of REAL WORLD AUSTIN) talk about UFC is pretty damn annoying. At least Bob knows entertainment when he sees it...

    P1 Hank

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  2. Anonymous8:42 AM

    I am holding final judgement until Friday night...

    but...

    It looks like Tippet has lost this team. This team has bad defensive schemes, bad power play schemes, bad goaltending, and quits during game play. Unfortunately, its probably time for a change while the season can still be saved.

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  3. Anonymous9:08 AM

    I thought the Stars returning so many players would give them a leg up on teams that totally changed their roster. Guess I was wrong. I was thinking the Stars would go deep in the playoffs, now I' just hoping they MAKE the playoffs.

    I was looking forward to my first viewing of My NHL at the Pheonix game the day after Thanksgiving. But now I don't get to see Hull, Gretz is strugggling, and the Stars blow right now. I'm still going, but it doesn't look quite like it did when we bought the tickets.

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  4. Anonymous9:12 AM

    With DirecTV and dual tuner TIVO, I got to watch the Stars and Mavs both lose last night.

    Thanks Dish Direct!

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  5. I don't want to knee jerk too much, but I will anyway. After only 2 Mavs games, I gotta say I'm pretty underwhelmed.

    They seem out of place with the offense and still get torched on D. Dirk has not lost his knack for the "Ole!" defensive moves.

    oh yeah, and PH Dan. He's been a hag all week. Someone point him to the female hygiene section please.

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  6. Anonymous10:32 AM

    Why yes, we do.

    Sports Sturm wouldn't be Sports Sturm without hockey talk.

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  7. Anonymous10:46 AM

    Does Bob's Packer emblem officially qualify him to label someone "overly tattooed?"

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  8. Anonymous11:17 AM

    ufc is gay

    if you must defend your sport from it being gay then there must me something gay about it.

    boxing is a sport, it is the sweet science. beating the tar out of a fella without any extacting science or plan is just brutally plain and simple.
    there are journals of human psyche that can support this theory, that taking pleasure from watching men beat the crap out another and one man dominating another is gay. meaning you gain some sort of sexual gratification from viewing this.

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  9. Anonymous12:09 PM

    To whoever said this...

    "boxing is a sport, it is the sweet science. beating the tar out of a fella without any extacting science or plan is just brutally plain and simple."

    If you don't think there's a science or plan in a UFC fight, then you really don't know anything about today's UFC.

    UFC encompasses MORE "sciences" than boxing. It includes boxing, but also wrestling, grappling, multiple forms of martial arts, etc. There's NOTHING plain or simple about it...

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  10. Bob, with the Milwaukee Bucks at 2-0 and the Mavs at 1-1, it's clearly time to embrace your roots as a Bucks fan. Bango and I forgive your momentary Finley fascination. He's now a Spur anyway.

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  11. Anonymous12:45 AM

    to mr. ufc is gay
    Ultimate Fighters train 6-8 hours a day of boxing,kickboxing, wrestling, grappling, weights, and cardio. Most train and fight injured. They have to prepare themselves because every fighter they face has a dif. game. They prepare themselves so much because when that bell rings its just them and their opponent and they come in unprepared its their bones getting broken their heads getting beat in, and the funny part most have to have a full time job because they may get paid $1,000 a fight if their lucky. Most of that money goes to gym fees, doctors, and coaching. They dont get paid like your football, baseball, and basketball players who get millions just to sit on the bench for turf toe, or pulled muscle and whine like a bunch of pussies they are, ultimate fighters fight or they dont eat. That is something to RESPECT!!

    Something that is gay... baseball players slapping guys on the ass or how 'bout a quarterback who put his hands under another mans ass and touches his sac to get a football.

    Learn about a sport before you put your two cents in!

    P.S. Roy Jones Jr. and Shaq are huge UFC fans.

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  12. Anonymous7:49 AM

    If they have day jobs, then they still eat if they don't fight.
    That said, UFC is most assuredly not gay.

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  13. Anonymous10:03 AM

    you are not getting my drift here. i respect the fact the they work out and pay their own way, etc.

    what im saying is watching two men brutalize each other whilst you are watching it and deriving some since of enjoyment from that is what is gay. im not say you are gay its the watching that is gay. got that mary.

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  14. Anonymous11:27 PM

    i guess i am a lil confused at your point because boxing is way more brutal than the UFC but you said boxing is the "sweet science". didn't a boxer just die defending his title like a month ago and he fought to his brutal death?? so is watching and enjoying a boxing match "gay"??

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