Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots
If Steve Kerr returns to the Warriors at midseason, I foresee a ferocious battle for Coach of the Year honors between Kerr and Luke Walton. If so, Walton’s official record (0-0) might work against him.
Gagging for Goff ? If the 49ers lose in Seattle, many will turn their thoughts to future 49ers quarterbacks. Tanking won’t happen, because you can’t make players give up, and Jim Tomsula and his staff are battling for jobs and reputations. But a lot of fans are going to start rooting for a high draft pick, with Jared Goff a likely target.
As Goff contemplates whether or not to stay at Cal another season, how attractive does the QB job in Santa Clara look?
On Thursday’s Warriors-Clippers telecast, analyst Reggie Miller kept expressing surprise at Stephen Curry’s drives to the hoop. Doesn’t Reggie have cable? Curry has developed into a deadly and creative finisher.
When was the last time a baseball team traded the next season’s MVP, before the A’s traded Josh Donaldson ?My MLB research staff, a.k.a. John Shea, tells me it was 1983, when the Phillies traded reliever Willie Hernandez to the Tigers. Another one: Orlando Cepeda, traded by the Giants to the Cardinals 19 games into the ’66 season, MVP in ’67.
In fairness to the Giants in the Cepeda trade, I hear Ray Sadecki was vastly underrated as a clubhouse canasta player.
At the risk of upsetting the baseball traditionalists, why is MLB the only major sport that doesn’t have one annual overall MVP?
Man, it took a looong time for the NFL to decide on Aldon Smith’s punishment. Does the league’s Department of Criminal Justice have that big a backlog?
“Tell me about it,” says Pete Rose, whose appeal for baseball reinstatement is on its second decade and second commissioner.
In the FIFA scandal, a WADA-appointed panelist in the investigation referred to the FIFA exec cheaters as “a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets.” Or, as most of us call that, “Earth.”
Although, let’s not sell short the corrupt men.
Bob Iger will be paid $1 per year to steer the Raiders’ quest to build a stadium in Los Angeles. Sheikh Salman, running for president of FIFA, says he will do the job for free. This trend can mean only one thing: Cheaper beer.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko says of the massive doping allegations against his country, “We admit some things, we argue with some things, some are already fixed, it’s a variety.” You fellas out there, memorize that speech and try it on your wife or boss next time you get caught doing something really stupid.