This will be some NFL Draft, ‘student-athletes’ & Dwane Casey . . .
The Jets moved up to No. 3?
Oh, baby. Best. Draft. Ever. At least around here. How come I keep thinking is going to do waaaay more DHing this season than he thought he was signing up for with our kids on 161st Street? Does this mean I don’t have to watch the Virginia Cavaliers work the shot clock again until next season?
There are so many issues and so much hypocrisy about college basketball and its “student-athletes,” especially at this time of year, when everyone is giddy about their brackets and the Big Dance and buzzerbeaters and diaper dandies and all the rest of it.
There will never be a good reason why star players, even ones just passing through some of the most famous schools in this country the way so clearly is at Duke, should not be able to profit off their names and likenesses.
But there is also a fair question to be asked, in light of all the recent stories about the sport, about what actual crimes the feds are actually investigating here.
You turn on these early-round games in March Madness and sometimes see so many empty seats, even close to the court, you think for a second you might be watching a Yankee home game. By the way?
You know what the Yankees might be sort of and kind of hoping?
That doesn’t end up pitching for the Red Sox this season.
If there is a great player in baseball who deserved to get paid, it is
of the Astros, the little big man who just got an extension worth $150 million over five years.
I am going to keep asking this question, all the way to when the MVP votes are counted in the NBA:
What has done for the Rockets this season that
hasn’t done for the New Orleans Pelicans?
And when you evaluate Davis’ immense contribution to a team as much of a surprise as any in the sport, you cannot ignore the way he somehow raised what has been a transformative game from the time he arrived in New Orleans after
got hurt. If you don’t think that sports can provide redemption sometimes, and wonderful second acts, just look at the career of
who continues to do such a wonderful job coaching the Raptors, and ought to be Coach of the Year.
Once, what feels like a hundred years ago, he was part of a scandal at the University of Kentucky, where he was an assistant to and there was an incident with a prospect where some money fell out of an Emery Air Freight envelope allegedly sent by Casey. Casey ended up resigning. The NCAA gave him a harsh fiveyear suspension. Casey sued Emery. A few years ago my friend
summed up the conclusion to the incident this way in the Times:
“Casey settled the lawsuit, and the N.C.A.A. rescinded the showcause order that kept him from coaching, but he has never come close to returning to the college ranks.” Casey never did. He went to Japan to begin repairing his reputation, and rebuilding his coaching life. And now has he ever. There have been other fine coaching jobs done in his sport this season. I believe he has done the best. A fine, continuing second act for Dwane Casey, with a first-place team in the Eastern Conference. Boy, there really is nothing in the tournament that gets my blood racing like the kind of 55-52 win Syracuse got over TCU on Friday night. You know the deal. The football team at your school isn’t supposed to outscore your basketball team.
I watch some of these games and think about the great describing what it was like for the old Rochester Royals before the 24-second clock in the NBA:
and I would dribble around outside and everybody would leave the arena.”
Since I had making it to the Elite Eight in my brackets, I just need her to make it to that “60 Minutes” interview next Sunday night.