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Home > ajcsportstalk > Archives > 2007 > June
June 2007
Hawks will draft Yi, Conley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks beat writer Sekou Smith believes the team will get their point guard of the future in Thursday’s NBA Draft, but only after drafting center Yi Jianlian of China with the third overall pick.
Smith has Ohio State guard Mike Conley Jr. falling to the Hawks at the No. 11 pick in his mock draft, one pick before Georgia Tech freshman Javaris Crittenton. Smith also has three Florida Gators (Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah) going in the first nine picks and Crittenton’s former Tech teammate, Thaddeus Young, going No. 16.
What do you think of the mock draft? Should the Hawks draft Conley No. 3 and not take the chance on him being available at No. 11? Should they draft Horford, who proved to be a tough inside force on Florida’s back-to-back championship?
Let us know what you think.
Permalink | Comments (129) | Categories: NBA
Is UGA’s schedule soft?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sports Illustrated’s web site, SI.com, has just released its listing of Div. 1 football’s 25 toughest football schedules.
Based on in-conference and non-conference opponents, SI ranks the Washington Huskies’ upcoming slate as the nation’s toughest. Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks rate the second-toughest schedule.
In all, SEC schools occupy five of the Top 10 toughest schedule slots. (Auburn is fifth, Tennessee is sixth, Florida is seventh and Mississippi State is 10th.
Georgia appears on the list at No. 14; three slots behind No. 11 Kentucky.
Does the fact that many of Georgia’s SEC opponents are thought to be playing tougher schedules diminish the Dogs’ stature as a “powerhouse” program?
Share your thoughts with us.
Permalink | Comments (304) | Categories: UGA
Braves Blastoff: Say anything
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes The Vent is NOT enough. After Tuesday’s 4-0 blanking at the hands of Boston, the Braves were utterly pasted Wednesday night 11-0. (Luckily for us, the Mets also lost. So thanks for that, Twins.)
Atlanta, whatever you’ve got to say about this season so far — the Red Sox series, injuries, fan support (or lack thereof), starting pitching woes, solutions, anything — we’re throwing this blog’s metaphorical doors open to you. Let it all out. You’ll feel better. We hope.
Permalink | Comments (323) | Categories: Braves
Following Larry Munson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Longtime UGA football radio play-by-play announcer Larry Munson met at length Tuesday with athletics director Damon Evans about possibly stepping down from the job he has held for 40 years.
Munson, 84, said health reasons prompted his discussion with Evans and indicated that athletics officials are “very carefully trying to set up contingency plans.”
If Munson does retire imminently, who should replace him? Which voice would you like to hear behind the mike calling UGA games?
And where do you place Munson in UGA’s football legacy? He never took the field as a player or a coach, but may be one of the most definitive figures in Bulldogs lore. What has he meant to you?
Favorite memories of father
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Has sports played a big part in your relationship with your father?
Playing catch in the backyard? Going to Braves games together? How about watching Falcons games with your father on TV?
Do you and your dad still talk about sports together?
Or maybe when you played sports as a youngster, your father drove you to your games or made sure he was there cheering for you for as many games as possible.
Honor your father by sharing your favorite sports-related memories of dad.
Is the All-Star voting process flawed?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Is voting players onto Major League Baseball’s All-Star rosters too much like picking a homecoming queen to you?
In other words, is All-Star balloting too much like a popularity contest where the odds are stacked against certain players by virtue of the markets they’re in or how much publicity their teams attract?
Some would contend that if Braves catcher Brian McCann played for the league-leading Mets, he’d probably be first in votes gained. Others might argue that if Jeff Francoeur played for the cellar-dwelling Royals instead of his hometown Braves, he’d be an afterthought at best in the voting.
The MLB stance is that the current system is the most democratic way for fans to choose the teams. But year after year, there are instances that highlight the system’s flaws.
Is the current method of All-Star balloting as good as it gets? Or can you think of ways the system could be improved?
Permalink | Comments (51) | Categories: Baseball, Braves
Spurs the best team nobody recognizes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cleveland — It’s belabor-the-obvious time as an inattentive nation bids a backhanded farewell to these NBA Finals.
So, let’s look at the lessons of a rout, many of them delivered with the subtlety of a croquet mallet to the head.
—The Spurs are really good, in fact, probably the best team that nobody recognizes. They have achieved a measure of fame for not getting famous, if that is possible. And having too easy of a time with the Cavaliers will not gild their resume. Just try not to hold Cleveland’s callowness against the Spurs.
Winning on odd numbered years - 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 - is an odd way to build a dynasty. The titles don’t wash over you, rather they sort of hit you when you’re not looking.
“A team for the ages,” NBA Commissioner David Stern called San Antonio after matters were decided Thursday, but that is his job. A team for the DSL Age, certainly.
“A helluva team,” critiqued Cleveland coach Mike Brown, getting to the real meat of the matter.
— Even if the TV ratings suggest the Spurs are not popular, they represent so many things that should appeal to a fan.
They almost single-handedly blow up the cliche that there is no defense played in the NBA. They can take a ham-and-egger like Bruce Bowen and sic him on LeBron James (with a lot of help behind him) and deny a special young talent any chance to breathe hope into the Cavs. “(Bowen) did an awesome job of standing in front of that guy and making life tough on him,” Duncan said. Thursday was one last hard day for James, needing 30 shots to make 10, scoring an inefficient 24.
Then there is just the way the Spurs carry themselves in a game. Even as the Cavs made an 11-0 run to begin the fourth quarter Thursday, taking their first second-half lead of this whole series, San Antonio never showed the slightest cracks. It just flipped the switch that has been seasons in the wiring and took back the lead in just under a minute.
“(The Cavs) fought, they hit the offensive glass, they did everything they could, but we sustained,” Duncan said. “They made runs, we never panicked. I think it just shows a lot of the experience, the poise, that we’ve built over the years, and I think we just outlasted them.”
— Childbirth is life-changing, but not series-changing. James spent much of Wednesday attending the birth of his second child - Bryce Maximus James, a name that would make him part Abercrombie model, part gladiator.
There was some thought that the emotion of that event would propel James to new heights come game time. Instead, he just kept running into the same Spurs. Bryce, daddy will be home soon. — The basketball world is flat. The Finals MVP is from France (Tony Paker). The player who lifted the Spurs in Game 4 with 27 points if from Argentina (Manu Ginobili). If you are an NBA scout serious about stocking your team, you better have a valid passport.
“European basketball is improving every year,” said Parker, the first from that continent to be recognized as Finals MVP. “You’ve got Dirk Nowitzki the MVP for the first time and now the MVP of the Finals. There’s going to be more.”
— Cleveland has the mold for what it needs to do from here. It need only at the film of the last week. Brown, the Cavs coach, sprung from the San Antonio system, so he is very familiar with what has to happen.
Get somebody in there to help James, who in assessing Duncan almost wistfully said Thursday night, “He’s a great player and he has a great supporting cast around him.” In this series, he kept dishing the ball to empty uniforms.
With the players, ground them in defense but also install some sort of offense that doesn’t grow moss in 24-second increments.
— There is no reason San Antonio can’t win more. Duncan, the lynchpin, is just 31. Coach Gregg Popovich is beginning to take on the look of a mastermind. Asked about a repeat, the less than cuddly coach responded, “I don’t give a (bleep).” But he probably does.
When Duncan and James passed behind an interview podium, the four-time-titled power forward was overheard telling the 22-year-old prodigy, “The League is going to be yours soon.” But the Spurs will be in no hurry to hand it to him.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: NBA
James pressing; San Antonio feasting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
San Antonio — About this time last year in another Texas town, we were declaring the premature death of the NBA Finals. Dallas had handled Miami twice, the Pearl beer was flowing like wine and parade preparations were on the breeze.
The Mavericks are still on the curb, waiting for the marching band, the convertibles and the key to the city.
So, then, might the Cleveland Cavaliers pull off the same kind of resurrection this time, returning home down 0-2 to San Antonio? Do they have the Spurs right where they want them?
That would be a no, unless the Cavs fly in Pat Riley and whatever healthy parts are left of Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal. The illusion of finality is so much more powerful this time, San Antonio’s only challenge appearing to be much the same as the viewing public — staying awake through the fourth quarter.
Oh, the Spurs will beat themselves up over a couple of late-game lapses, if only to keep their attention on Game Three.
“We’re humans,” said the Spurs Tony Parker, who is playing just a little bit above that modest ceiling. “When you get a big lead (and the Spurs had a 29-point one Sunday), you’re not playing with the same intensity, you don’t get on the loose balls, and we can’t play like that. We can’t let them outwork us.”
And the Cavs will take solace in the homeward direction of this series, becoming some of the first people to ever utter the sentiment, “Thank heaven we’re in Cleveland.”
They will have the emotional lift of the home crowd, and perhaps not come out as they have in these first two games, as if shuffling around in their bedroom slippers waiting on someone to read them “Goodnight Moon.”
“We’re definitely still confident,” said LeBron James, whose team did climb out of a 0-2 hole to beat Detroit in the conference finals. “It doesn’t matter if you lose by 1 or lose by 30 with us.”
Confidence in the face of dire odds is fine, but what the Cavs need much more of from James is a whole lot more poise and production. Beyond underscoring the Spurs greatness, this series mostly has served to point out just how much room for growth there is for the 22-year-old James.
Sunday, his callowness cost the Cavs greatly. Reaching in to hack Tim Duncan with 9:05 left in the first quarter, James picked up his second foul. Rather than roll the dice, Cleveland coach Mike Brown decided to sit him out for the rest of the quarter. That chilled the Cavs to the bone.
“I can’t remember last time I didn’t play 40-plus minutes,” James said. He still clocked 38 Sunday, and upped his production from 14 points in Game One to 25 Sunday. But there still was that other ugly part of his linescore: Six turnovers, accounting for more than half his team’s total. Dribbling into the teeth of the Spurs defense does not become him.
James is pressing, and San Antonio is feasting on that.
And he has so little help when compared to the balance of the Spurs. They had three players go for 23 or more Sunday, while James’ most reliable accomplice is a player his coach stubbornly refuses to start — rookie Daniel Gibson (15 points Sunday).
When trying to come up with a scenario that might make this series competitive (interesting), you really have to stretch. Maybe the Cavs will draw a whole new level of energy at home to match that of the Spurs. Maybe they found something when they outscored San Antonio 30-14 in the fourth quarter Sunday. Maybe Tony Parker finally will start running out of rocket fuel.
Mostly, they have to hope San Antonio gets fat and happy, which is the most unlikely straw to grasp given its coach’s complete absence of the nonsense gene.
“We don’t think about sweeps or anything like that,” Gregg Popovich said. “We always plan for a long, drawn-out, seven-game series. If a series ends up not being that, that’s great, but we plan for seven all the time.”
Does anyone out there really see this thing going to the limit? It may be time to at least outline a celebration near the Alamo. And put the Pearl away for another, less auspicious, time. Shiner Bock is better.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: NBA
Steve Hummer’s Game 1 analysis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
San Antonio — Just minutes before he was scheduled to burst upon the NBA Finals scene and secure the 21st century for himself Thursday night, Cleveland’s LeBron James was like a kid at the junior prom.
As the obligatory base line thumped through the AT&T Center, the pregame music blinding the senses, James danced and head-bobbed all about his end of the floor. Every ally he came across, he acknowledged with some intricately choreographed greeting. See, he was announcing to all, this is nothing. It’s cool. I got it.
Sadly for the Cavs, as well as all those wishing greatness upon James, those would be James’ best moves of his night. Once the game started, his night suddenly turned into Stephen King’s “Carrie.”
Memo to MJ: Relax, light up a cigar, go play another 18 without a care in the world. Your legacy is safe for a few days more.
This is how they ruined James’ coming-out:
First the Spurs sicced their best individual defender, Bruce Bowen, on him. Through the intensity of his effort, Bowen forced James to initiate his offense a step or two farther from the basket than he would have preferred. Seemed like he always was dribbling for the sideline instead of for the basket, which is not the AAA-approved route to victory. Then, on those times when he was able to penetrate Bowen’s defensive bubble, James ran into one or two more reinforcements, one of them the impressively vertical Tim Duncan.
The Spurs had turned James into a little boy lost in the forest. He doesn’t get a field goal until well into the third period. Game over. Somebody just fill in the final score at the end (85-76).
Obviously, it’s up to James to break out to make this series a little more compelling than a one-horse rodeo. “For me being the leader of this team, I have to play better in order for us to have a chance to win down the stretch,” said James, who at least proved himself no shirker. So discombobulated was James that among the first eight shots he missed would be a panicked cross-court pass that instead clanged off the rim.
Only a couple late 3s saved James’ night from being a complete statistical disaster. But there were plenty of other little insults in his stat line beyond the obvious 4-of-16 from the field. Like the six turnovers to the four assists. Scoring nearly 26 a game in the postseason, James was held Thursday to 14, his lowest point total since the first week of February.
“I’ve seen him struggle before and he struggled mightily tonight,” said Cavs coach Mike Brown.
“We were just trying to contain him, make sure we don’t give him any lay-ups, any dunks,” said the Spurs’ Tony Parker. “Every shot make it tough … make sure we stay on him and force him to pass the ball … shadow him … make sure we don’t give him easy ways to the basket.”
The same thing everyone tries to do to him, only the Spurs are one of those teams that fight the popular perception of the NBA and actually play defense with pride and a purpose. They rotate with precision. They exert real effort in denying an opponent, putting teeth into their double-teams.
So, how do you get LeBron back into this? Let’s forget the whole legend-making process. How do you just get him involved in the outcome?
His coach is relying upon a 22-year-old’s ability to learn overnight. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him rattled or flustered after a game like this. He’s patient. He reads, reads, reads (a defense). Once he gets used to a defense, he’s been pretty good for us,” Brown said.
“There’s nothing I can’t do on the ball court,” James said afterwards, stating that there is no adjustment that he physically cannot make. The really great player strips any defense down to its skivvies.
“You have one off night, but the thing like this, it’s not like the NCAA Tournament where you have one game and you’re out,” said James, the phenom who bypassed that stop altogether on his way to the NBA.
We’ve come here to anoint James. An entire army of adjective-armed sports journalists is at its station, ready to carry him off on their shoulders. But he’s going to have to help out just a little more than this.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: NBA
When coaches … and others … flip-flop on jobs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What do you think about Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan seeking to return after accepting a job with the Orlando Magic?
Should he be allowed to go back to his old job?
Does this reflect badly on a high-profile coach or is it just the way things go?
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