Quick Hits from the Periphery

A little Monday Morning thoughts on this weekend in sports.

NBA
Well its only (deep breathe here) one game but a few surprises have popped up. Frankly I expected the Eastern Conference Games to be tightly contested well the real games wouldn't start out West until Round 2. However yesterday a series of upsets in Texas quickly changed that. Denver and Golden State (which I believe is located actually in Oregon as part of tax deferment plan) beat out the heavily favored Spurs and Mavs. Baron Davis showed off that he is that good when healthy and the dynamic duo of AI and Melo worked the way Denver fans had dreamed when the trade was first announced. While I doubt either of the underdogs can continue their winning ways every extra game the Spurs or Mavs have to play, every extra ounce of energy hurts their chances in future rounds. That said if Spurs or Mavs fall behind 2-0 before heading out on the road watch out.

NFL
There's more smoke around the NFL Draft still than at a coffeehouse in Amsterdam (Or so the Pink Elephant told me). One factor thats important thats a little unreported is the fear a lot of NFL executives have over top 5 draft pick money. There's a huge difference in guaranteed money and certainly given the chance players could fall the likelihood of trades early on are very low. In fact it may be far more likely the trades will happen in the bottom half of the first round rather than the top.

Meta Journalism
One of the interesting thing I find (and annoying) is how the media covers itself. How does react and interact with their own. One of the more controversial things in the sports world today is oddly about Jason Whitlock. Whitlock a former espn columnist/commentator wrote a column calling out Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as attention hogs and in effect the Don Imus controversy overblown. This was of course was of course countered by the General Manager of ESPN the Magazine's Keith Clinkscales who wrote one of the more scathing smackdowns I think I've ever read. More less Clinkscales wrote that Whitlock was empowering the main stream media in continuing to perpetuate the sideshow debates and continue with fairly bigoted commentary. Michael Wilbon, probably the most prominent black sports writer today echoed this point of Zero Tolerance and appropriateness of the focus on Imus with slightly more politeness before subtly putting Whitlock's comments behind the shed and beating it like the proverbial government mule.
Of course like a moth to the flames Pete King, Captain Main Stream Media himself, with one line alined himself with Whitlock and Uncle Ruckus today in his column. I'm even going to bother linking to such a ridiculous column. I'm not sure why Pete King is intruding himself onto this debate in the first place but if he thinks that inserting himself with only one line will allow him to float above this serious debate - its silly and frankly cowardly. If King has an opinion he should give it. If not he should shut up. I'm of mind to use the Hitman War Call "Peter King: Shut the Hell Up!