phil.mushnick@nypost.com THE 'WOW' FACTOR
Sports world's never-ending chain of fascinating rationales
EITHER I’ve become easily fascinated, or these are extraordinarily fascinating times. Lawyers, for example, never have seemed more fascinating.
Knicks forward Kyle O’Quinn has been sued for assault by 22-year-old Shakaira Elie.
Lawyers for both parties, though neither was at the scene of the incident, claim to know exactly what happened, yet their versions greatly differ — meaning one or both of their claims to know ex
actly what happened are wrong. Elie’s attorney, Marion Conde da Silveira: “The NBA and the Knicks need to take this matter very seriously. Mr. O’Quinn should be severely sanctioned for violently assaulting an innocent woman who was half his size.”
O’Quinn’s attorney, Jim Walden: “Kyle is completely innocent of these charges,” adding, “Kyle is a good man and treats all women with respect.”
Given that both attorneys publicly claim to know the truth, that’s fascinating.
Home team TV announcers are increasingly fascinating for their inability to realize that we actually can see what they are or aren’t talking about.
Tuesday’s Blackhawks-Rangers game on MSG included an ugly episode: The Rangers’ Chris Kreider smashing Chicago forward Ryan Hartman from behind and into the boards, headfirst. Kreider was lucky to have received only a 2minute boarding penalty; Hartman left, apparently injured.
Had the roles been reversed — Kreider the victim, Hartman the perp — conditioning tells us MSG analyst Joe Micheletti would have been borderline apoplectic.
It took three replays before Micheletti conceded it was “a tough hit.” Before that? Micheletti suggested Hartman had it coming: “He plays with a certain edge to his game and he just missed a hit in the neutral zone.”
Also fascinating is FOX Sports/ FS1’s continued eagerness to duplicate or restore the very worst of ESPN’s ideas.
Tuesday, FOX announced the hiring of ex-NFL receiver Cris Carter, a steady but feckless ESPN TV and radio presence who had become the punch line to bad jokes. He was let go a few months after it was revealed he counseled NFL rookies on how to beat criminal charges — have a pal take the rap. Skip Bayless? Every time he’s on! The bogus state of big-time college sports grows increasingly fascinating as less and less becomes beneath their dignity.
Tennessee has announced it will wear gray uniforms in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 — gray, as in smoky gray and in memory of the 14 who have perished in fires that recently swept eastern Tennessee.
What a wonderful gesture ... if only Tennessee didn’t already have “alternate” gray uniforms, worn since 2013. My guess is they would have worn them Dec. 30, regardless, but chose to credit themselves with dubious, deathdefying sincerity.
Equally fascinating is that the Suns, of all teams, played the Knicks on Tuesday wearing black uniforms. This, of course, was a salute to the solar eclipse.
This time of year, New York State Lottery commercials fascinate by pitching lottery tickets as a fabulous gift idea. Yup, no better Christmas-spirit feeling than to create a rush of blood to the head caused by false hope of sudden riches followed by disappointment and, perhaps, continued despair.
The “evolving” language of sports is fascinating.
As reader Dan Syvarth alerts us, Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse — Nurse! — this week was lost to injury, causing coach Todd McLellan to lament, “I thought Darnell was one of our best transporters of the puck through the neutral zone.”
Reader Wendell Ramey: “Is there a special satellite dish required in order to see a receiver catch a pass ‘in space?’ ”
Reader Dave Cockinos wonders when a receiver who is “open” became one who “created separation.”
Imagine Marty Glickman reporting that a “gain” or “loss” of whatever — “2” or “3” — became cases of “positive yardage” or “negative yardage.”
And reader Louie Rey is confused by analysts who advise teams’ defenses to work to “get off the field.” Wouldn’t that create one-sided games, especially at exorbitant ticket prices?
Furthermore, the team that
should get off the field first is the one that “runs downhill.”
And there is no end to the fascination provided by our esteemed universities in producing studentathletes who will well serve society, as per their schools’ charters.
Aqib Talib, the Broncos defensive back who played into his junior year at Kansas, Sunday accused Titans receiver Harry Douglas of trying to injure him: “He don’t do nothing. He come in the game, don’t catch no passes. And he done got the same agent as me, so when I see his ass in Atlanta, I’ma beat his ass.”
This full scholarship college man has been what we media synopsize as “troubled” — fights, ejections, fines, arrests, guns, and a, reportedly self-inflicted, bullet wound — since leaving college, likely worse, far worse than when he first entered Kansas University as a student-athlete.
Then again, maybe I’m just easily fascinated. Go Kanye West, young man!