The Ineligible Sports Writer

Whose O-Line is it Anyway?

Troy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:05:24 +0000

Something smells.. well, smelly. No, it’s not the steak I had last night. It’s more like Dennis Green’s Arizona Cardinals who blew a 20-0 halftime lead to the undefeated Chicago Bears. Cardinals Quarterback, Matt Leinart, went five for five on his first drive, leading to a touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin. Boldin, on the other hand had 12 receptions, and over 130 yards. Hell, Leinart had two touchdown passes and zero interceptions. Sounds like a sweet game for the Cards doesn’t it? Uno-numo-Wrong-o. Rex Grossman led– Umm, pardon me, I’m use to saying that isntead of different scenarios. The Chicago defense, and their special teams units led DA BEARS back into the game, and back into the zone. As the Cardinals were up 20-0, Mike Brown kicked a field goal to cut it to a 3 point game. Ensuing drive, the Cardinals had a field goal. It looked to be over to tell the truth. It wasn’t, Mike Brown recovered a fumble, and took it three yards for the score. Next drive? Another fumble occured, and Charles Tillman returned the rock 40 yards back to the house that Barry Manilow says is hot; the endzone baby. The Cardinals stalled out, ending up punting to the Bears, but former Miami ‘Cane, Devin Hester, returned it 83 yards to take the lead 24-23.

On Arizona’s last possession of the game, Leinart led them up the field, looking to be a game-wrapping drive, after what looked to be a choke, setting up Neil Rackers in field goal position with 53 seconds left on the clock. Snap up, snap good, kick up, kick no good from 40 out, pushing to the left. What happened? Well, apparently, according to Dennis the Menace aka Arizona Cardinals Coach Dennis Green, they were who that he proposed to think they were. He stepped along the podium having that “I had to take a big smelly shit during arguably the most important game of the year and I ended up getting a migrain afterwards” look. Why did the Cardinals lose? Because they’re the Arizona Cardinals. They haven’t been known to win for eyars, so what really makes you think that they’d have a chance against the Bears? Well, it’s of course the way rookie quarterback, Matt Leinart, played. He played moreso like a veteran, than the way a rookie usually would. He played with alot of intensity this game and led his team up the field, making the Bears look like the Neo Nazis at the end of Red Raiders Legion of the dark Arch.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they lost to a team that had zero offensive points, a team that had six total turnovers, a team that had a quarterback (Rex Grossman) that committed every single one of those six turnovers. And it’s simply because their inability to stop fumbling the ball, and to try to stop the speed demon that is Devin Hester. I sat at my computer desk Monday night, with onion rings all over my fingers, nearly falling asleep trying to keep myself awake as I watched Chicago come back against Arizona. At the time, I didn’t really pay attention to what was going on, but I knew what was happening — the Chicago Cubs were winning the World Series, right?! See? I was a sleepy man, sitting there wondering what in the hell was going on as Brian Urlacher ran out onto the field holding his helmet in the air. So you have it, as Dennis Green does too, the Cardinals crowed DA BEARS’s asses.

Bargnani — Bust or Not?

Troy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:25:13 +0000

Many debate if Bargnani will be the top dog in the league this season. No, not the top dog as of the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, or other young superstars, but to the likes of the top rookie in the league, being compared with whom? Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Darko Milicic out of all players. Why? Because all three of them are European. Intereresting huh? Yeah, I thought so. There are so many similarities people see because of it. Them being, a tall european, that can shoot the rock. Well here are some differences between the two (Darko and Tskitishvili), and Bargnani. Here they are:

1.) Bargnani actually plays. What I mean by that, is Tskitishvili was on an Italian team, not just any Italian team, but a stacked Italian. He didn’t see much action on the court, all he saw was the practices, where scouts would sneak in to see him play. Darko, also didn’t see much time in a veteran Serbian-dominated team. The thing is, scouts and GM’s get too burn’t out on what they see in workouts, and dont seem to want to snap back to reality to actually watch game tape of the players. That was the main problem, in the case of a few years ago. But however, it was blamed on the Italian coaching, which is sad enough. Bargnani actually had some major in-game minutes to prove himself during games. Now that Bargnani has actually played on the court some good amount of minutes in Italy, the Raptors have seen his flaws, and their arms still seem to be as open as possible.

2.) He’s already good. Since he gets time on the court, he gets time to play, for more on-court experience. Though, alot of European scouts around the world don’t realise the difference between his per-game and per-minute stats. His per-game stats were 10.9 points and 4.1 rebounds. Nothing special, and it doesn’t exactly make you put a popsicle in your mouth and want to yell “future All-Star.” But the thing is, he only averaged about 21-some minutes a game. What kind of scoring do you expect to see from that amount of time? Besides, Italian games are more low scoring than NBA. They are eight minutes shorter, and slower paced, so it’s extremely difficult for a player to average 20 points a night. Many people don’t see, or realise that, though. In fact, nobody did that this year, some guy averaged 18.6 or so points, leading the league.

3.) There’s not much risk. Alot of people think it’s a big risk drafting a European now in days. Especially, Bargnani, after what he has done in the International League(s), I think he will end up being a good up to great player, and by no means, a bust.

Thoughts on the Bulls’ signing of Ben Wallace

Troy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:58:12 +0000

Ben Wallace a Bull. Huh. I imagine Piston fans find Big Ben full of Bull-shit right about now. The old “you don’t respect me enough to pay me more than I’m worth” tune has started playing now. It’s a beauty. How much is a guy like Wallace worth anyway? A lot to be sure. I mean he rebounds, plays great defense and occasionally throws down a dunk. Rebounds and defense are definitely a valued commodity. 41% at the free-throw line and 7.3 points per game—not so much. But still, you can make the case Wallace was the heart and soul of the Pistons and they would not have had the success they did without him. He’s one of those guys that you don’t build your team around but with some really good players around him, he can be that final missing piece that puts you over the top. Many teams never find that final piece. And that’s annoying because I once spent two hours looking for a piece to my puzzle of the Golden Gate bridge and never found it. I probably shouldn’t have thrown the rest of the pieces out a two story window after that and then beat my neighbor senseless but that’s besides the point. You want that piece.

So is a vital piece of the puzzle, one who doesn’t give you any offense, worth 52-60 million (I’ve heard it could be both) over 4 years? I would say yes if it’s your final piece. I think the Pistons showed us that even with Wallace they are still missing something. And I don’t think he is the Bulls final cog in their still-being-assembled machine either. They still need a go-to guy that can score. But hey, they have cap space and their maneuvering isn’t done so we’ll see I guess.

This ought to be a lesson to many players out there. If you suck offensively, just play defense and rebound like a maniac and the cash will flow. The Pistons have proved that twice with Rodman and Wallace. Both ended up in Bull uniforms. Huh.