Category Archives: Sports
Denny Hamlin brings Michael Jordan to NASCAR, sort of – Yahoo! Sports (blog)
DAYTONA BEACH — Denny Hamlin, 2010 NASCAR runner-up and avowed basketball fan, has brought a fine new sponsor to NASCAR: Nike’s Jordan Brand. Like Dwyane Wade and Derek Jeter, Hamlin is now rocking the skying-Michael-Jordan jumpman logo, as you can see there at right, on his firesuit, gloves and shoes.
Hamlin, a huge hoops fan — you’ll recall that’s how he tore up his knee this time last year — struck up a friendship with Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. And from there, boom — logo city.
“It’s
a big deal for myself and really NASCAR,” Hamlin said Thursday at Media Day. “The Jordan
Brand has never been in NASCAR before. It is a dream come true for me.
To me the Jordan Brand represents excellence in sports.” Jordan has owned a motorcycle team since 2004, and, as they say, game recognize game:
“Denny’s confidence and passion for racing along with his determination
for excellence on the track make him a valuable addition to the Jordan
Brand,” Jordan “said” in a press release. “We look forward to working with Denny as he continues to take his
success to the next level.”
While Hamlin hasn’t yet gotten to duel Jordan one-on-one — and considering Hamlin’s propensity for injury as well as Jordan’s still-sharp skills — he nonetheless notes that this will vault him, and by association NASCAR, to a new level of perception. If Hamlin starts showing up in Nike commercials, where’s the downside? As long as it’s not a Super Bowl gag ad, that is.
This isn’t the first time a major sneaker manufacturer has entered NASCAR; adidas sponsored Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting back in 2007. But this isn’t really a sneaker-branding deal; it’s a lifestyle-association one. If Hamlin is able to bring a little of that Jordan cachet to NASCAR, hey, so much the better.
Related: Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Continue reading here: Denny Hamlin brings Michael Jordan to NASCAR, sort of – Yahoo! Sports (blog)
Sloan, the last of the Old Guard, exits without title – Deseret News
So there it is — the Old Guard is gone. Jerry Sloan was the last one to leave the building, along with his faithful assistant, Phil Johnson.
Larry Miller is buried a couple of miles away in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. John Stockton is retired and back home in Washington state. Karl Malone has gone home, as well. Jeff Hornacek, too.
The run that started in the ’80s finally came to an abrupt end Thursday with the resignation of Sloan, the most enduring and persistent of them all. It was a fabulous run, but the Old Guard — Sloan and the rest of them — ended without the ultimate prize: an NBA title.
Did anyone or any team ever deserve a championship more?
I have recalled this story previously, but it seems pertinent now to mention it again. Many years ago, I ran into the late Bobbye Sloan in the hallways of the Delta Center. As she waited for her husband and high school sweetheart to emerge from the locker room, she told me something I have never forgotten.
“We were talking about his career,” she said, “and he said, ‘I can never consider my career a success if I retire without winning a championship. I can never consider myself a success because I didn’t win it as a player and now as a coach,’ ” Bobbye shook her head sadly. “I tell him, ‘You can’t do that. You’ve got to look at all the things you’ve done.’ … I tell him, ‘Look at the number of people who have played and coached in the league who didn’t win a championship.’ But he just says, ‘I can’t do that. If I don’t win it, I’ll consider myself a failure because that’s the goal I set for myself when I started playing.’ He has said this time and time again.”
I asked Jerry about this later, and he explained, “Why else would you play? How else do you judge my record?”
So Sloan, a famously tough man, is tough on himself. He retires having failed to win a championship, but what a career he had. The third winningest coach in NBA history. Nineteen playoff appearances. Two NBA Finals appearances. Twenty-three years as the head coach of one team. The only coach to collect 1,000 wins with one team. Sixteen consecutive winning seasons, 1,221 wins, etc.
Some failure.
Sloan was the longest tenured coach in professional sports, ranking well ahead of the next two behind him, baseball’s Bobby Cox and football’s Jeff Fisher. All three of them stepped down in the last few months — the end of another era. During Sloan’s coaching run in Utah, there were 245 coaching changes in the NBA.
Think about it: Sloan has spent 45 of his 68 years in the NBA, first as a player, then as a scout, an assistant coach, and a head coach. What is that, 4,000 to 4,500 games, counting playoffs, exhibition and regular season?
Continue reading here: Sloan, the last of the Old Guard, exits without title – Deseret News
Four TV outlets mean more NCAA Tournament watching – Houston Chronicle
If you’ve got enough TVs, enough time and enough eye drops, you’ll be able to watch every blessed second of the NCAA Tournament’s Road to Reliant Stadium.
CBS and Turner unveiled their four-channel schedule Thursday for the 67-game extravaganza, featuring 26 games on CBS, 16 on TBS, 12 on TNT and 13 on truTV distributed in what the networks hope will be Goldilocks fashion: not too close together, not too far apart, but just right for you to catch every single buzzer-beater.
“We’re trying to give fans what they want,” said Christina Miller, Turner’s senior vice president for programming. “If they want to have four TV’s going, that’s great. If they want to move between games, they can. They can customize their experience.”
truTV will have the first four games March 15-16, as previously disclosed. On the first two full-bore days of play, March 17-18, CBS and the Turner networks will offer Tournament pregame, postgame and game coverage from 10 a.m. until midnight.
“The windows will be basically the same, but they will be staggered and elongated,” said Mike Aresco, programming executive vice president for CBS Sports. “It essentially means wall-to-wall basketball all day and all night.”
There will be, granted, at least one tradeoff for the truly crazed thump junkie. DirecTV’s Mega March Madness package is no more under the new 14-year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS and Turner, so there will be no mix channel to feature all games in progress. CBS and Turner will retain March Madness on Demand, but details have yet to be announced.
On the first two days of full Tournament play, March 15-16, tip times for the opening game will vary from 11 a.m. on CBS to 1 p.m. on TNT. The starting spread for the second afternoon game will be from 1:30 p.m. on CBS to 3:30 p.m. on TNT.
CBS will continue to take its midafternoon break for local and network news, and truTV also will have a gap. But the hoops never stop during the first two days on TNT and TBS. In prime time, the first four games will tip within a 30-minute stagger, and the late games will be separated by 40 minutes.
If Turner and CBS have their way, you’ll never have two games ending at the same time. And, similarly, they’ll have more eyeballs watching more games to help foot the bill to the NCAA.
“I do think the cumulative rating in each window will be higher with four (networks) than it would have been with just one on CBS,” Aresco said. “It’s hard to say how much higher. I think people will switch around. The viewer will be in charge.”
Certain scheduling principles, however, will continue to apply. You won’t see Duke on CBS and North Carolina on TNT, for example, in the same prime time window. Schedulers will strive for geographic balance and competitive balance, mixing potential 1-16 blowouts with 8-9 barnburners, and they will try to slot the best games in prime time.
If you’re devoted to a particular game site, you may have to do some channel changing, since it’s unlikely that all four games from, say, Tulsa, will end up on the same channel. CBS and Turner, however, will try for some degree of consistency so there are no scheduling gaps or abrupt switches in the afternoon and prime time windows.
On the second weekend, CBS, TNT and TBS will have Saturday games, and all four networks will have Sunday games, with Turner taking the prime time windows. Regional semifinals will be split between TBS and CBS, and CBS will have the regional finals and the entire Final Four.
Continue reading here: Four TV outlets mean more NCAA Tournament watching – Houston Chronicle
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Ray Allen’s long shot to top
For something that took so long to accomplish, Ray Allen seemed to want to get it over with in a hurry last night.
After nearly 15 years in the NBA and 6,429 shots from beyond the arc, Allen lofted home one more 3-pointer from the right wing with 1:48 left in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers and it was done. Ray Allen stood alone.
As the ball curled through the net, a radiant smile pierced Allen’s face. But it was not as wide as the one his mother, Flo, was wearing — for she had seen more of those shots than anyone on Earth.
She had seen them when the world was watching and when no one was watching. And now she had seen No. 2,561, the one that allowed her son to pass Reggie Miller as the all-time 3-point leader in NBA history.
The sellout crowd of 18,624 was on its feet while the ball was still in the air, as it had been the three previous times Allen launched from the ozone. Once they cheered, twice they groaned, and with this one they exploded.
It was another 24 seconds before there was a pause in the action. When it came, Allen walked over to Miller, who was sitting courtside as part of TNT’s national broadcast team. They hugged in the way only two athletes who understood the struggle the other went through to get to this moment can.
And then Allen turned to Flo. It was difficult to be sure whose smile was wider, but both were the kind only a mother could share — because they, too, know how many shots it took to get to the one that put her son’s name above anyone else who ever launched a 3-pointer. Shots in the heat. Shots in the cold. Shots in empty gyms and jammed ones. Shots in the bedroom when the light was supposed to be out. Shots over the TV and from behind the sofa.
Shots launched only in the mind of a skinny kid who believed one day he would shoot shots the world would pay to see. And so it came to pass last night that one more went up and a record fell.
It came against the Celtics [team stats]’ most hated rival, and with the man who held the record (and had to take 57 more 3’s to set it) as witness. Most of all, it came after a sleepless night in which Allen had to admit he was unable to act like it would be just another night in 15 years of nights.
“I didn’t sleep extremely well (Wednesday) night, and I didn’t expect it,” Allen admitted before the game. “I got into trying to talk about shoes, just dealing with everything that was going on today and making sure that everything was together.
“The game itself is big enough. Being on the precipice of breaking this record takes you to another level. I saw Reggie earlier, and it’s like so surreal because I know Reggie and he’s been here many games. But now, being here, in this moment, and being able to say this moment is before us, it seems pretty overwhelming.”
It looked that way when he badly missed his first 3 attempt just 4:36 into the first quarter. It didn’t look that way when he tied the record on a pass from Kevin Garnett that found him wide open with 4:15 to play in the period. But with Kobe Bryant now on him, he missed again a few seconds later on a shot that not only he seemed to rush but the whole team seemed rush.
Then it came, the perfect pass from Rajon Rondo [stats] to Allen on the right wing. And then that classic frozen moment before he went straight up, as he always seems to, and flicked the ball as if it was light as a feather.
For Allen, that’s how a basketball has felt for years. But more than anyone else, Flo knows better, for she saw shots no one else saw. Shots that hit the rim. Shots that missed the rim. Shots that refused to do what they were told.
Last night, 3-point shot number 6,429 listened. It went where it was told, into the net for the 2,561st time as gently as a dream and maybe that’s what it was. The fulfillment of a dream that began when nobody was watching but his mom, and nobody knew how far this would go but him.
Continue reading here: Ray Allen’s long shot to top
