Dwyane Wade x Air Jordan I

Madison Square Garden - December 25, 2009

Tiger Woods is not Asian

In his introduction to today's PGA Championship telecast, Jim Nantz claimed that a win for South Korean Y.E. Yang would be the first by "an Asian golfer." Has Nantz never seen Tiger's mom? Perhaps Nantz is making a subtle comment on Tiger's lack of identification with his Asian side.

The Nike Golf Curse

The New York Times recently ran a story exploring golf clothing companies intricate planning of their sponsored golfers tournament attire.  According to the article,  Nike Golf will plan Tiger Woods attire a year and a half before the actual tournament. As a result, retailers will know what clothes to highlight during the week of a tournament. Additionally, Nike Golf can show what clothes Tiger is wearing on its own website. The hope is that those watching the tournament may be compelled to pick up a few of Tiger's threads as he stalks up the leaderboard. Having seen this for the last couple of years, I always felt that this approach of showing Tiger's Saturday and Sunday outfits long before he actually made the cut of the tournament was somewhat presumptuous since Tiger could presumably miss the cut. Granted, this is always unlikely given the fact that Tiger has only missed the cut in only two of his professional major appearances. Well, the unlikely looks to have occurred as Tiger now looks to have missed the cut at the British Open. Perhaps Tiger can wear his Saturday and Sunday outfits at the local Scottish plug.

Federer the 'Greatest Ever'

Pete Sampras goes on the record and calls Roger Federer the "greatest ever"  following Federer's 2009 French Open victory.  Maybe Nike can start the Sampras/Federer commercial campaign. Something along these  lines perhaps ...

    

In his shoes

After indicating that he would not wear the Kobe model shoes he has been sporting all season long during the Magics series against the Lakers, Mickael Pietrus has changed his mind and will be wearing the Black Mamba's shoes when he suits up tonight. If it ain't broke why fix it.

The Ying and Yang

Two game winning shot celebrations:  Lebron's 3-pointer against the Magic last night, Kobe's jumper against the Suns in the 2006 Playoffs.  Notice a difference?  One lets out his exuberance, the other lets out a scowl honed on the mean streets of ex-pat Italy and suburban Philadelphia.  Perhaps even more telling is each player's first instinct.  Upon realizing his shot had gone in, Lebron's first instinct is to turn towards his teammates and dash over to them.  He literally cannot wait to celebrate with his team.  Kobe, on the other hand, has turned to look at the other side of the floor (it's not even the Jack Nicholson side; perhaps he had beef with Doug Collins again that night).  He is basking in the tao of Kobe.  Had the Lakers bench not half heartedly mobbed Kobe, the Black Mamba might still be standing there.  Perhaps Kobe was trying to figure out what Jordan would do in the situation.  Well, Kobe I think late vintage Michael would do this:  
Very close, Kobe.  Don't get me started on the ridiculous heart pounding that ensued.  Two sets of players, two sets of priorities.  I don't care how Kobe seems in Spike's movie (others have well documented the "performance"), I haven't seen that much delusion since General Idi Amin Dada.  

See for yourself...

On the Roto

Turns out Kerouac was a fantasy baseball junkie.

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Looks like there won't be any good vibrations between the Giants' beach boy and the Dodger third basemen.

Update: 

Blake was only having fun, fun, fun.

The Lions run by monkeys

The Lions' first round picks during Matt Millen's tenure:

2001 - Jeff Backus (18th)

2002 - Joey Harrington (3rd)

2003 - Charles Rogers (2nd)

2004 - Roy Williams (7th) 

2005 - Mike Williams (10th)

2006 - Ernie Sims (9th)

2007 - Calvin Johnson (2nd)

2008 - Gosder Cherilus (17th)

2001

Players available: Casey Hampton (19th), Adam Archuleta (20th), Nate Clements (21st), Will Allen (22nd), Deuce McAllister (23rd), Reggie Wayne (30th), Todd Heap (31st), Drew Brees (32nd), Steve Smith (74th)

2002

Players available: Roy Williams SS (8th), John Henderson (9th), Dwight Freeney (11th), Jeremy Shockey (14th), Albert Haynesworth (15th), Ed Reed (24th)

2003

Players available: Andre Johnson (3rd), Terence Newman (5th), Jordan Gross (8th), Kevin Williams (9th), Terrell Suggs (10th), Marcus Trufant (11th), Troy Polamalu (16th), Willis McGahee (23rd), Larry Johnson (27th), Nnandi Asomugha (31st)

2004

Players available: DeAngelo Hall (8th), Jonathan Vilma (12th), Vince Wilfolk (21st), Steven Jackson (24th)

2005

Players available: DeMarcus Ware (11th), Shawne Merriman (12th), Jammal Brown (13th), Roddy White (27th)

2006

Players available: Jay Cutler (11th), Antonio Cromartie (19th), Joseph Addai (30th), DeMeco Ryans (33rd)

2007

Players available: Adrian Peterson (7th), Patrick Willis (11th), Marshawn Lynch (12th), Darrelle Revis (14th), Michael Griffin (19th), Jon Beason (25th)

2008

Players available: Joe Flacco (18th), Chris Johnson (24th), Dustin Keller (30th)

Run by a few monkeys, the Lions could be fielding the following team:

QB - Drew Brees (2001 draft)

DT - Albert Haynesworth (2002 draft)

WR - Andre Johnson (2003 draft)

CB - DeAngelo Hall (2004 draft)

OLB - Demarcus Ware (2005 draft)

CB - Antonio Cromartie (2006 draft)

RB - Adrian Peterson (2007 draft)

TE - Dustin Keller (2008 draft)

Justin Upton - sound the Griffey alarm?

After extending his hit streak to 18 on Monday, the 21-year old Upton's season numbers rest at .307, 7 HR, 18 RBI, 3 SB. This puts him on pace for 37 HR, 95 RBI, 16 SB in his second full season (disregard the 43 games he played in 2007 as a late season call up).

Griffey's stats during his second full season (also 21 at the time) - .300, 22 HR, 80 RBI, 16 SB.

Of course, I'm assuming defensive skills have been disregarded in the comparison.