Twitter isn't a destination for logic seekers. It's a place where respectful exchanges of ideas go to crawl under a dumpster and bleed out. Follow the Twitter rabbit hole past the cat videos and #brandedcontent and duck-lipped, cleavage-girded selfies, and you arrive at a minefield inside an echo chamber that's assiduously monitored by your employer's HR... Continue Reading →
#MayMac! OMG! LOL! YOLO?
This won't take a minute. Because tomes have already been written and endless terabytes of audio and video exhausted in the Cannonball Run-style sprint to offer THE OPINION about Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor Show of Shite, the less I pile onto the steaming heap the better. Still, there's this: It's not a fight. Tonight's main... Continue Reading →
Go on: Light a candle for Klitschko
One of history's all-time great heavyweight champions retired today. But don't hold your breath for the hero's sendoff. More like, Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. So it went for Wladimir Klitschko, who announced Thursday that, after 20-plus years of professional prizefighting, he is moving on. For the... Continue Reading →
Kyrie Irving, the Wolves and their reflections
Go ahead and dust off your adage of choice: The grass is always greener. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Chances are, one of them applies to Kyrie Irving. It seems Irving, the Cavaliers' seminally skilled point guard and former No. 1 pick, wants out of Cleveland. This wouldn't be noteworthy for 98... Continue Reading →
About Last Night: Russ the Impaler
Corey Brewer had one job. In his defense, when the Thunder took the ball under their own basket leading Houston 103-100 with 7.1 seconds left in last night's game at Oklahoma City, sticking Russell Westbrook wasn't technically Brewer's job. But after a Domantas Sabonis down screen released Westbrook from Trevor Ariza at the weak-side elbow, the unfortunate task of switching to cover the NBA's resident Weapon... Continue Reading →
Snobby Beer Slob Review: Arbalest
I'm no food connoisseur or sophisticate. I don't drop money on clothes, cars or, truth be told, much of anything. But I will pony up a few extra bucks for a good beer. Doesn't mean I won't knock back whatever watery brew that's yanked from the cooler. But when I can, I sip something tasty.... Continue Reading →
Hey, youth coaches: You aren’t Bill Belichick
I have news that will undoubtedly shock and dismay you, Ditka doppelgänger: Coaching is easy. I realize this revelation is anathema to all that we hold sacred as Americans: the unimpeachable authority of grown men wearing visors and hoodies. Still, we must find a way to carry on. Seriously, coaching -- strategy, the Xs-and-Os stuff... Continue Reading →
Snobby Beer Slob Review: Hoegaarden
I'm no food connoisseur or sophisticate. I don't drop money on clothes, cars or, truth be told, much of anything. But I will pony up a few extra bucks for a good beer. Doesn't mean I won't knock back whatever watery brew that's yanked from the cooler. But when I can, I sip something tasty.... Continue Reading →
Mayweather-Ariza tag team? Don’t bet on it, brother
The boxing-as-professional wrestling trope is a go-to move for far too many modern fight writers, but I understand the easy connection -- especially in the case of an orchestration like Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s under-cover-of-darkness tweet in the wee hours of Friday morning. Mayweather's coy original tweet -- "Alex Ariza stretching the Champ before his 3... Continue Reading →
Dick Bavetta: It was a good run
The best officials in any game, as the saying goes, are those who make you forget they're even there. Right or wrong, no will ever accuse Dick Bavetta of having blended into the background. On Tuesday it was announced that Bavetta is retiring as an NBA referee, and it's notable if only because the man... Continue Reading →