The Big Story: It wasn’t quite the Patriots coming back in dramatic fashion to beat Atlanta in SB 51. But given that it ended with a game-winning field goal kicked in the waning seconds after a frenetic second-half comeback led by a gritty, bloody sock-like star (for the second straight game), it’s fair to say SB 57 goes into the books as one of the Top 10 Super Bowl games. Though Kansas City’s 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles does not make the Mahomes Chiefs a dynasty, as the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin said they were on Monday. At least not yet. To be that they need to win two or three more times and hang around the top of the league’s contenders for another 10 years. For now let’s just celebrate the two-time champs’ admirable win and give a shout out to Philadelphia for fighting the good fight and just coming up short in a great game.
Thumbs Up: To LeBron James for breaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record of 38,387 set in 1984. Say what you want about LeBron, and my only issue is how he unethically got around tampering rules to get Anthony Davis to quit on his teammates in mid-season to make him a Laker. Beyond that he always puts the team first, plays hard and almost always shows up to play. Along with talent, durability and effort are the prime factors for someone to break a record that takes as long as it does to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. Well done, young man.
Thumbs Down: To the bloated monstrosity the Super Bowl has become. Born simply as the NFL/AFL championship game, it has become an “all things to every possible aspect of society” attempt to cram as many eyeballs in as possible to maximize TV ratings. It leaves us with ridiculous sights like jamming what seemed like 110,000 people around the mid-field coin toss, including kids from NFL PR/marketing programs no one ever heard of or cares about; worthy people being used in transparent “Hey Aren’t We Great, Guys?” PR ploys, and a 40-minute half-time distraction with a person wearing a bright red outfit that made it look like one of those high-flying objects the Air Force shot down last week had avoided detection and landed on the half-time show stage, followed by about 200 people filling in divots kicked in by said show on a field that already had people slipping far more than players should for a game of this magnitude. All of which makes the actual purpose for the massive production (the game) a sideshow. Sorry to those insulted by this “get off my lawn” rant, but I’m a frustrated guy who just wants to watch the freaking AFL/NFL championship game devoid of all the other crap.
Sports 101: How many of the seven other people who at one time held the all-time NBA scoring record can you name? Hints: One guy’s son later played in the league and another played for the Celtics before he took over the lead for a short time.
News Item – NBA Trading Deadline a Doozy: Can’t remember as active a trade deadline as last week. The dual big stories were the Nets scrapping the plan that almost everyone (except me) said would lead to multiple championships in Brooklyn and their star Kevin Durant landing in Phoenix. It makes them more dangerous for sure, but it did strip a weak bench of its best guy (Cam Johnson). Though the pick-up of Terrence Ross after a buyout in Orlando was a nice helpful addition. The two other biggest winners were, with LeBron leaving the GM-ing to the brass for once, the Lakers coming away with three nice additions to their bench while dumping ill-fitted Russell Westbrook’s gargantuan contract (and ego) and the Nets, who’ll be better than you think, starting over with a zillion unprotected first-round picks, a better team-oriented point guard and three more solid wing players to give trade flexibility this summer. Finally Jae Crowder going to Milwaukee makes them tougher vs the Celtics because he’s a lot better than Grayson Allen.
And then there’s the they’ll-never-learn chatter that teaming Kyrie Irving with Luka Doncic will make Dallas a legit contender. SPOILER ALERT: That’s what they said about the KD-KI pairing, which ended in disaster, just like it will in Dallas.
Do The Math: in case you are interested in the final Durant/Irving Tally in Brooklyn, it went like this: Durant played in 114 games out of 300 they played when he was a Net, while for Kyrie it was 143 in 300 as they went 159 and 141 (53 percent) while going one and done in the playoffs twice and losing in Round II the other time.
Not to mention Brooklyn let two inmates run the asylum, leading to the firing of three coaches in three years, Kenny Atkinson (totally undeserved), Jacque Vaughn (the first time when he was passed over ’cause Durant and Irving didn’t approve) and the disrespected all-timer Steve Nash (deserved). All for the bargain basement price of $22.9 million.
Sports 101 Answer: The NBA all-time leading scorer parade started with Piston George Yardley, followed byGeorge Mikan, the traded-for-Bill Russell Easy Ed Macauley, Dolph Schayes, whose son Danny was an NBA’er, first 20,000 point career scorer Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain and Jabbar.
Finally, Greg Olsen doesn’t have the star power of future No. 1 Tom Brady, but Fox hit a homer with its new-for-now lead analyst. He was on all year with useful insights and thinking ahead strategies, like saying two plays before it happened KC runners should get down before the end zone to run out the clock before kicking the winning field goal. Not sure I agree, but it gave viewers something to consider, which is what a good analyst should do. And since Harrison Butker hit the FG the strategy worked too.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.
