“It is your decision to make. You know where I stand on you joining that sorry-ass franchsie.” – Jeanie Buss (possibly to fiancée Phil Jackson)
EL BARIO, BRONX: There seems to a general malaise going around the MTM Staff. That is malaise, not Malaysia, where the missing plane is something torn from a script of the TV show Lost. Unable to locate one good story to sink our collective teeth into, our staff has picked a potpourri of topics to banter about and I, Deacon Blaber, do the same here in my Sports Blabberings from the Bully Pulpit… and my potpourri includes: Phil Jackson & the Knicks, Richard Sherman Twitter wars, Rashard Mendenhall retires, John Tortorella’s firing countdown and Dangerous Dan Warthen’s slurs.
NY Knicks fans are so dumb and desperate they will believe anything. How can someone believe that Phil Jackson, a guy that has never built a dynasty, will be a good President for the franchise? Remember, for all of Phil’s 13 rings, 2 came as a role player on a star-studded Knicks team featuring Clyde Frazier and Bill Bradley. The other 11 came as a coach. 6 were with teams led by Michael Jordan, the greatest player ever. The other 5 came from winning 3 with Kobe & Shaq, and 2 with the former running Showtime solo… Those teams were put together by Jerry Krause and Jerry Buss. So what makes people think the Zen Master knows how to put a team together? And do so with meddlesome and impatient new boss James Dolan lurking? C’mon, man! It just adds up to a bad idea, especially as Phil will be allowed to work from home in LA half the time… If championships were won on Bad Ideas, the Knicks would be the Yankees of Basketball. Can’t wait for Tuesday’s press conference.
Richard Sherman is back at it again. The man that scared White America with his enthusiasm, can’t stop fighting with people on Twitter. To be exact it’s fellow NFL brethren LaGarrette Blount and DeAngelo Hall he is Twitting it out with. Hasn’t Al Gore warned him that the Internet is filled with idiots and if he seeks to correct them before going to bed, he will never sleep.
More news from the NFL is that Rashard Mendenhall is retiring, effective immediately. Mendenhall has just had enough of the physical abuse and the likelihood of CTE, all in the name of money and entertainment. That is his right, as it is his body on the line. It would be nice if he gave football’s dad, rugby, a try (no pun intended). But just wait, all the Internet tough guys will come out and call him soft. They are angry they were never good enough for the NFL. We wish him the best.
This will not come as a surprise to us Rangers fans but apparently John Tortorella‘s style of coaching is not working out in Vancouver. There are tough coaches in hockey – Ted Nolan & Ken Hitchcock for example – but Torts often fails to get the guys on board with his vision before clashing with people. He is no “Iron” Mike Keenan, to be sure. The only question seems to be whether he will finish the season. The countdown clock to his firing has begun.
There was a small flare up with the Mets this week. Apparently 61-year-old pitching coach Dan Warthen was overheard by the Wall Street Journal reporter Stu Woo referring to Japanese (half Japanese) American team interpreter Jeff Cutler as a Chinaman. It was an off-the-record conversation, but was still reported. Warthen and Cutler made up, though that exchange was awkward. The whole process had Met hurler Jon Neise’s nose out of joint, upset at reporters publicizing private conversations. He let the pundits know it, and they promptly tweeted about it.
That is it for now, feel free to comment below and come back tomorrow for the one and only, Cheesy Bruin.
P.s… If you want to read more of my ramblings as a Rugby Guy, you can find them on RugbyWrapUp.com and our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @RugbyWrapUp and @JunoirBlaber, respectively
