San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...

- KNUCKLEHEA­D OF THE WEEK

 There is concern that DeMarcus Cousins will slow down the Warriors’ fast break. True, Cousins won’t finish many breaks, but he will start a lot of them. History says a transition team doesn’t need five sprinters. The run-run Showtime Lakers featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who participat­ed in zero fast breaks ... and five Lakers NBA championsh­ips.

 I wonder why the Raiders didn’t fire Reggie McKenzie when they hired Jon Gruden. They needed someone to do the basic personnel paperwork until they hired a new general manager, but they didn’t need McKenzie to do that. Seems as if owner Mark Davis and Gruden didn’t want to appear to be drop-kicking McKenzie out the door, but the long delay made for silly drama and awkwardnes­s, and it didn’t fool anybody.

 Dabo Swinney — man, that guy can talk. He’s the only coach I’ve ever seen whose postgame interview needed a halftime show.  All football coaches live in fear of their players feeling job security and losing their edge, but how silly is Swinney saying Trevor Lawrence will have to compete for the starting quarterbac­k job next season? Yeah, no.

 The opportunit­y is gone for this season, but starting next season, the Knicks’ annual visit to the Bay Area should be declared a regional holiday. A chance for fans to give thanks that Stephen Curry was drafted by the Warriors and not by the team that desperatel­y wanted him — and vice versa.

 The Raiders to San Diego next season makes a lot of sense. Playing in Vegas in a second-rate Sam Boyd Stadium (capacity 40,000) would take the luster off the real move the following year. Davis hates the 49ers and Levi’s Stadium. He doesn’t want to play nice with Oakland and stay at the Coliseum another year. But in San Diego, Davis would be hailed as a hero and the Raiders would get great support.

 Cowboys owner Jerry Jones just bought himself a $250 million yacht. Now he needs a place to park it, so he’s planning to buy the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a new year, a great time to clean out the sports garage, throw out those unwanted and unneeded phrases, such as:

Upon further review. “Further review” means a review of the review.

Zero tolerance. Almost always used by someone who, upon further review, has at least a tiny bit of tolerance for what he has zero tolerance.

This one’s on me. Spoken by a losing coach, and usually means, “This one’s on the idiot players who won’t listen to me.” When spoken in a bar, no problem.

Score the basketball. No. Please.

Literally. “He literally carried the team on his back.” That’s literally incorrect, unless it’s the wife-carrying competitio­n. Failure is not an option. Failure is always an option. That’s why they play the games.

for this match,” Emery said. “Today the players who were here are the players who deserved to be in this match. We could’ve won or lost.”

But Arsenal lost — for the third time in six EPL matches — and fell six points behind Chelsea, which extended its grip on the fourth and final Champions League place with a 2-1 victory over Newcastle.

EPL leader Liverpool beat Brighton 1-0 thanks to Mohamed Salah’s 49th-minute goal, moving seven points ahead of defending champion Manchester City.

 U.S. player Charlie Kelman, 17, scored from inside his own half in his profession­al debut in England. Playing for Southend in the third-tier League One, Kelman lobbed the ball over the Plymouth goalkeeper in the second minute of stoppage time. Plymouth won 3-2.

Swimming: Stanford student and former Cardinal swimmer Katie Ledecky won the 1,500meter freestyle (15 minutes, 45.59 seconds) for her fourth individual title of the week in a TYR Pro Swim Series meet at Knoxville, Tenn. Former Cal swimmer Ryan

Murphy won the men’s 100 and 200 backstroke­s at the event.

Winter sports: Elana Meyers Taylor and Lake Kwaza of the U.S. were second in a World Cup women’s bobsled race in Koenigssee, Germany, the top World Cup finish so far in 2018-19 by any USA Bobsled and Skeleton sled. Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka of Germany teamed with Annika Drazek for their third victory in four starts this season.

 Marcel Hirscher overtook first-run leader Henrik Kristoffer­sen for a win in a World Cup giant slalom at Adelboden, Switzerlan­d. The Olympic champion’s eighth World Cup win this season padded his lead in the overall standings as he seeks a record-extending eighth straight title.

Obituary: Joe Gibbs Racing co-founder J.D. Gibbs, the eldest son of team owner and Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, has died at 49 in Huntersvil­le, N.C. The team said J.D. Gibbs died from complicati­ons following a long battle with a degenerati­ve neurologic­al disease.

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