Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: Thoughts from the Week in Sports
Date: February 11, 2008
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: This became kind of a weird occasional trend of mine, where I would link to all of our articles from a week by shoehorning them into my thoughts on random sports topics.

This would have been the most boring week in sports if it weren’t for the Shaq trade. The week following the SuperBowl is usually the most annoying week in the sports year as people quickly tire of SuperBowl coverage (we were guilty here and here) and writers grasp at straws to overemphasize small-time stories. Steve Kerr provided us with a little bit of love and gave us something to discuss the rest of the week, and here’s what else you may have missed while you were having surprisingly attainable day dreams of scoring with Eli Manning.

Shawn Marion Also Traded
Lost in the Shaq press conference and all the hippity-hoopla (8 Mile?) about whether Shaq could fit in the Phoenix run-and-gun system was the fact that another top-25 player in the league was dealt. Yes, perennial ‘most underrated player’ award winner Shawn Marion was on the other end of that deal. He’ll now get to battle for ping pong balls alongside Dwayne Wade. Pardon the bad play on words, but The Matrix also has five months to decide which proverbial pill he will take: another year at $17.1M alongside Flash or the free agent market.

This trade was talked about plenty by the whole sports world this week, so here are links to our more elaborate coverage of it: Trevor and Blake.

A Whole Lot of AL East News
New York: Extend second base stud Robinson Cano with a 4-year $30M contract, a very affordable deal, though they probably should have locked him in for a little longer.

Torono: Extend Alexis Rios for just one year to avoid arbitration. You can rekindle your love for our coverage of The Best Looking Blue Jay here.
Tampa Bay: Signed ex-Jay Eric Hinske to a minor league deal that is heavily laden with incentives. Check out here to see why this is bad news for the Jays.
Baltimore: The Erik Bedard trade became official, sending him to Seattle for center fielder Adam Jones, a mediocre relief pitcher, and a trio of prospects. Jack took a look at this deal a while back when it was pending, and you can check that here.

Raptors Go 2-1
The Raptors played ugly ball against the Clippers, but that was sandwiched between emphatic wins in Miami and Minnesota. The biggest news from these games? Raptors fans should feel blessed to have Chuck Swirsky and Leo/Jack covering games, because the Heat, Clippers and Twolves all had poor commentator showings. I get the benefit (punishment?) of watching most Raptors games on the other team’s broadcast because I stream them online (no cable) and can say without a doubt we have a top-10 announcing core.To prove my point, check out these T-Wolf tidbits: Gerald Ford, referring to Gerald Green; Mark Madsen is shockingly the best character guy on a team that includes Sebastian Telfair, Antoine Walker, and the superstar most likely to turn into David Wells.

TJ Ford returned, too, which is awesome. He had a few games with poor numbers in small minutes, but dropped 13 dimes against the T-Wolves, playing 22 minutes, a great sign as he gets back to 100%.

Oh ya, and two nice trivia pieces for you from the Raptors weekend: Antoine Walker is now 8th all-time in three point field goals (I can’t even begin to comprehend how many bad shots that took to accomplish); remember Kobe’s 81? Well the Raptors have held opponents under 80 points a league-high 9 times, and are 9-0 in those games. Umm, obs?

Wait, Football’s Not Done?
Adrian Peterson won Pro Bowl MVP Sunday, scoring two touchdowns to buoy the NFC to a victory. First the SuperBowl, now the Pro Bowl? Whatcha gonna do brother, when a whole bunch of mediocre teams run wild on you?

Also in Football news was Signing Day, where players committed to the schools they will party at for the next three or four years (or, in the case of Kevin Hart, won’t). I won’t claim to know much about this, but top QB prospect Terrelle Pryor is yet to make a choice, leading SI to overhype it as “the most anticipated announcement in college football history.” To see Al’s freshmen preview, hit this.

Wait, Hockey’s Still Around?
Not only did we have hockey pieces from Deven, Blake and Stu this week, but the NHL also gave you a triple-dose of hockey with their annual Hockey Day in Canada special. I had to double check my facts on this, but it appears the Leafs beat the Red Wings with an overtime goal by Nik Antropov, which I can only assume is the hockey equivalent of a winning dunk from Alek Radojevic. Calgary pumped Edmonton and the Senators spanked the Habs, in other HDIC news.

More Basketball NewsRasheed Wallace has snuck his way into the All-Star game with bad numbers again. I am in absolute shock that the league picked Sheed to replace an injured KG in the game, not only denying more deserving players (Jose? Josh Smith?) but also ensuring a less exciting game. It makes sense, I guess, since nobody wants to show the Pistons any disrespect,

because they get off on that. Really, though, 13 and 7 can get you into the game? Screw you, you balding cry baby.

Duke beat UNC in a really good game (which Stu previewed here), on the same night that Uconn beat Syracuse in an equally good game. There were several other good games on the night and throughout the week, and it’s good to see the NCAA heating up at the right time. We good? Good.

Mrs. Clemens Also On the Juice
Bryan McNamee has now fingered Roger Clemens’ wife (oops) as having used HGH, claiming he shot her with needles leading up to a swimsuit shoot. Insert your joke here, I’m too tired of this steroid shit to care anymore. Let’s just end it already. In the meantime, here’s Jack’s take on it.

Superstars Emerge
This isn’t exactly sports news, but this week Samuel Cassady threw down two really good articles here at the ODC. I’ve shouted out a lot of work by others in this week in review, so
I felt you should also hear about Sam’s Kapono article and his hilarious ____-est Players in Sports piece.

Long time friend of mine, Adam Wood, also had a superstar-ish week, winning the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League scoring race as a forward for the St. George Dukes. Last year he won Defenseman of the Year, and this year he tallied 60 points, a number that could only have been improved by sticking me back on his team like in our grade school days.

MMA News
Since Kyle would be upset with three big mixed martial arts stories going down over the weekend not getting a mention in this wrap up (especially since his UFC 81 Review isn’t getting mentioned), here they are (by the way, I submitted Kyle on Friday night at the 7 Welly kegger, tell ‘em about it):

Former UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk has stated that he will not return to California to fight, ever. The California State Athletic Commission was responsible for administering his positive nandrolone test, and Sherk has beef with the way appeal proceedings went down. Eventually, he was stripped of the title, but is getting his shot at new champion BJ Penn on May 24 in Nevada, where the athletic commission is more succeptible to bribery and/or steroid induced physical violence.

Speaking of champions being stripped of titles, “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler has been removed as Icon Sport Middleweight Champion for failure to adequately defend the strap. Apparently, Kala Kolohe Hose was not happy waiting a year for his shot, and you have to keep your big name stars like Kala Kolohe Hose happy.

And rounding out this week’s news on a positive note, the UFC 83 event to be held at The Bell Center in Montreal on April 19 sold out in a record 24 hours. My dad scored 4 of the 13,000+ tickets for him, me, and my brothers, so I hope y’all suckas have HD to watch me sitting Octagon-side with Kevin James, Jamie Pressley and, of course, Pauly Shore.