He is. In case all you have seen is the Associated Press story, here's a staff-written account from the Nashville Tennessean (which doesn't add much, but still).

Note to the Ravens: ready, set, GO!

Hurry up! You and the Titans. For all we know, Steve might be headed for the workout facilities right now, as we speak. Am I wrong? Don't the Titans have to make a move with him immediately? If another team sneaks in and makes a bid on him, it ain't gonna be pleasant at the Castle. Not that there's much chance of that happening, but why take that chance?

Finish this off. This is almost as bad as the Barry 715 Watch and the Roger Cash-Grab Watch.

Posted by David Steele at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

Sometimes the tiniest, seemingly most inconsequential one-line item in the paper can cause the deepest scars. Check Page 4 of the sports section today, in For the Record, under "Moves.'' Way down at the bottom of that column, under Colleges, there's this: "PROVIDENCE//Announced junior basketball G Jeff Xavier has transferred from Manhattan.''

I'll give the Maryland fans a minute to remember where they know that name from.

Think...

Ahhh, now you remember.

Jeff Xavier, all 6-1 (listed) of him, absolutely torched Maryland in the biggest debacle of last season, one of the more disgraceful performances in a long time here, the 87-84 loss in the opening round off the NIT at home against Manhattan, before a small but hostile gathering on a Saturday morning, days after Maryland had to be cajoled and/or browbeaten into accepting a bid in the first place, and after railing against the injustice of being left out of the NCAAs in favor of some of those undeserving mid-majors (like George Mason, although the Terps head honchos didn't mention that school specifically).

Xavier scored 31 points, and in between the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the way Maryland played, there was a lot of wondering about why this kid was at Manhattan. Well, now he's in the Big East. He might blowup big from there, or he might disappear. But he'll hold an unpleasant place in Terps history for a while, at least until the program gets back to where it should.

You probably didn't need to be reminded of that NIT game, especially with the problems bubbling under the surface this offseason. If so, feel free to vent. So many of you have already.

Posted by David Steele at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

This entry was going to be about Barry Bonds' new nickname, but first things first. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has added to the enjoyment of the NBA playoffs so far with this cartoon featuring the Dallas Mavericks, spoofing your favorite crime-fighting teenagers. (OK, maybe you're not old enough to remember cartoon crime-fighting teenagers. It's Scooby-Doo.)

Back to Barry - who, by the way, no longer deserves to be leading off SportsCenter with a 1-for-4 day. The Ruth "chase'' is over, and the Aaron chase is pretty irrelevant at this point, with Bonds not looking like he'll get back to the dugout after every at-bat without an aluminum walker, much less get 40 more home runs to tie Aaron.

Last night on SportsCenter, a discussion was taking place about where Bonds might play next season, in the NL where he'd be too gimpy to play the outfield regularly, or in the AL where he can DH. For the money, the aggravation and the limited availability and production he's bring, the consensus was that he wouldn't be coveted much.

Then, Karl Ravech summed it up with what might be the best description of Bonds ever, and one that is long overdue: Bonds, he said, is like "a human porcupine.'' (The replay is probably going to be on ESPN all day, and I'm pretty sure it's playing on the website's ESPN Motion - you know, that over-loud, annoying video that comes on against your will whenever you log on to the site.)

I hereby propose that Bonds be referred to by that nickname for eternity, the way Ruth is known as the Sultan of Swat, Ted Williams as the Splendid Splinter, Pete Rose as Charlie Hustle, and so on. In fact, I propose that in lieu of a lengthy description of the steroid allegations on Bonds' Hall of Fame plaque, there should simply be a notation of his nickname and a brief explanation, along with his career accomplishments.

Barry Bonds, The Human Porcupine.

On a serious, and very unfortunate note, check out this column on ESPN.com by Jayson Stark. If you really, really, really don't buy my argument that Aaron is the most overlooked and underappreciated great player ever, then explain why, in the name of fairness and decency, would this piece even be written. The premise, as clearly stated in the column, is: "If we take all home run records out of the argument, what are the 10 greatest numbers in baseball?" Well, golly gee, that takes Aaron's 755 home runs right out of it, and it tells us all, "The home-run record used to be the most sacred number in baseball when Babe Ruth held it, but now that Hank Aaron holds it, nah, not so much.'' Jayson Stark is one of the most respected baseball writers around, but oh my God, did he drop the ball on this one. Denigrate Barry Bonds' totals if you want; he deserves it. But it's still one of the stupidest premises for a baseball story ever concocted. What's next - "If we take all the World Series championships out, what are the most successful franchises in baseball?''

No, to answer your question, I'm not going to leave this alone.

Posted by David Steele at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

We now have a serious battle at hand, over biggest hot-button issue. Wrote about Barbaro in Monday's and Tuesday's paper and in Tuesday's blog. In Thursday's paper, it was Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. And between the blog comments here and the emails at the office, computers all over Baltimore are blowing up. Maybe I'll say something about the Duke lacrosse team and see if it shuts down Internet traffic in the entire Eastern time zone.

The Babe Ruth reaction didn't surprise me at all, but more on that a little further down. As for Barbaro, the predominant emotion is anger. And it's coming from racing lovers, horse lovers and anyone who watched the race or the replays. The industry is in big, big trouble if there's this much frustration about the circumstances under which Barbaro was injured. For the industry, or anyone else, to play this off with a phrase like "That's racing,'' is dangerous for the business, not to mention for the horses.

Meanwhile, for those a little touchy about my comments about donating to the fund to help the New Bolton animal hospital treating Barbaro - believe me, your hearts are in the right place. But it reminds me a little bit of when Alonzo Mourning needed a kidney for a transplant, and fans all over the country tried to donate one. My thought then: touching sentiment, but there's someone out there who isn't the star of your favorite NBA team who probably needs one just as badly. The same thing went on back when Mickey Mantle needed a liver. Both men did great things to increase awareness of the need for organ donation, but they also both emphasized, donate to everybody, especially the people you don't see on TV all the time.

I still say that if you have money to send to Barbaro's hospital, you have some to send to the hospitals treating the little girl who got stabbed and the boy who got shot at or near city public schools on Wednesday. And, as a blog reply pointed out, if you can send apples and carrots to Barbaro, you can bring them to your nearest food bank just as easily.

Now, for Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth ...

First of all, I can't believe what some of you are saying about Frank Robinson's comments. I thought he was one of your heroes. Some readers act as if he's some ranting fool wandering in off the street, blathering incoherently about some delusion in his head. Go ahead and dog me and say I have no credibility, but Frank Robinson? To say he doesn't know what he's talking about, after everything he has done as an Oriole, that's blasphemy, and you really should have your computer taken away from you.

But it appears to be part of the whole strategy (although that's not really the right description, because that implies some sort of organized effort, and it's actually a bunch of individuals) of burying anybody who dares mention any athlete in the history of mankind in the same breath as Babe Ruth. I knew before I even arrived at RFK Wednesday afternoon that I was just engaging in an unwinnable argument. As far as lots of people are concerned, 714 is always going to be more than 755. By now, mentioning that I'm not advocating Hank Aaron as a means to denigrate Babe Ruth is pointless. Perception is everything.

But I would like to add one other observation that Frank Robinson made about Hank Aaron that day:

"He was a terrific all-around player, but you don't ever hear about that, either. It's the home-run thing that's attached to him, and that's only whenever you mention the Babe. Have you looked at the batting average, the runs driven in, the hits, the runs? That's what I'm talking about ... And not just his records, but the way he played and what he meant to his team. He played on great teams in Milwaukee, but they never got national press coverage, and you didn't hear about him. They also won pennants in Milwaukee.''

I looked all those things up. Now, I've been a big Aaron fan for a while, but I didn't even realize where he stood, today, 30 years after his retirement, on the all-time lists. Besides home runs, that is, but again, I'm getting conflicting information about what constitutes a home-run record.

But career RBIs? First. Total bases? First. Hits? Third, behind Pete Rose and Ty Cobb. Runs scored? Tied for third - with Ruth (seriously, I wouldn't even dare joke about that), behind Rickey Henderson and Cobb.

Now, here's something I just looked up now and realized. Thanks to good ol' Raffy last year, we know the members of the 500 homer- 3,000 hit club: Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray and Palmeiro.

Add a .300 career average to that, and how many do you think are in that club? Two. Aaron (.305 career average) and Mays.

And he stole 240 bases, with a 30-30 year included.

Oh, and those pennants. 1957 and '58. The Braves beat the Yankees in '57, after Aaron hit the game-winning home run in extra innings in the pennant clincher. Had Mays not hung on for that '73 World Series with the Mets, the two would have the same number of World Series appearances. And he has one more ring than Ted Williams. And the Braves won a division title in the first year of divisional play in '69, when they lost to the Mets. So it's not as if there were no opportunities for him to be in the limelight, and it's not as if he pulled an A-Rod when he got there.

See for yourself, if you don't believe me - on MLB.com, here, and here.

So no matter how much you might disagree on the whole Aaron-Ruth thing, you can't possibly disagree that all things considered, Aaron is the most overlooked player in baseball history. Throw in everything he went through in chasing the record and how he's been denied credit for it since then, and you can't sit there with a straight face and act like there's nothing wrong with the way he and his accomplishments have been treated.

The only reason he's not getting his due is because people are refusing to give it to him. And you know who you are.

One last thought to finish this off: doesn't it mean anything that, after all the talk about Bonds getting to 714 and tarnishing the Babe's legacy, he's now so physically beaten up and mentally worn down that he probably won't get anywhere near 755? Which tells you that Aaron put the record so far out of reach, a sure-fire Hall of Famer and the best player of his generation apparently cheated throughout the latter third of his career and still couldn't catch him.

Posted by David Steele at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

You might have noticed that our paper has gone full blanket coverage on Barbaro, and that has annoyed a lot of people quite a bit. Personally - and I say this not necessarily as an employee of the Sun and someone who probably is going to be writing about him again eventually - I think it's appropriate. If horse racing overall isn't overwhelmingly popular, the Kentucky Derby is a huge deal, and if the winner of that race goes out in the next Triple Crown race and blows out his leg that graphically, in front of a crowd that big and on national TV, and has his life in danger because of it, it's tough to argue that it isn't big news.

Then again - the fact that so many people are saying, "It's just a horse! He's not the president! Give us a break!'' might very well indicate how much trouble racing really is in. The odds are good that people wouldn't be yelling, "It's just Cal Ripken!'' or, "It's just Ray Lewis!'' if he suffered a grotesque, near-fatal injury on a stage that big. Baseball is baseball, football is football, and racing is racing.

Another sign of trouble: the news, in Sandra McKee's story today, that a fund has been set up to aid the veterinary hospital center in Pennsylvania that's treating Barbaro - to "provide a lasting resource to help care for animals.''

I'm no psychic, but based on what I've heard since the accident from people who really dislike the mega-rich, elitist aspects of the sport (which those people mostly don't consider a "sport''), that's going to rub the masses the wrong way. And this tidbit won't help: the one-day look I had of the facility left the impression that it's doing just fine, and that the horses and other animals there are getting better treatment than, say, most residents of Baltimore.

I like animals as much as the next guy, and am more in awe of thoroughbreds now (and feel a little more sorry for them) than I was before Saturday afternoon. But if it were me, I'd sleep better sending that check to the trauma centers at, say, the University of Maryland hospital or Hopkins or the like, the ones that treat shooting victims. There are probably people sitting around ERs in town right now, wishing they had gotten hurt in the 10th at Pimlico Saturday afternoon instead of on Edmondson Avenue today.

Heck, even if your fellow human citizens don't move you to sympathy, the local vet hospital/animal shelter situation isn't exactly looking flush with resources, I'd imagine. Send a check there, and help out an abandoned animal that isn't set to stand at stud at $100,000 a pop.

But we digress.

To sum up, though, I'm thinking that column colleague Peter Schmuck's view and mine don't exactly mesh on this. My thought is that the "very casual race fan'' he mentions is exactly who's at stake here, and that the hardcore fan base is way too small for this incident to blow over. Besides, the more furious reactions to this are coming from those real, in-the-know fans.

Then again, you might not want to listen to me. I'm the one who wrote Tuesday that Charismatic was one of the famous horses who suffered a fatal injury in a race. Bad mistake - he was injured, but survived. A case of thinking about writing something without actually writing it - I had "near-fatal'' in my mind as I wrote, and inadvertently left out "near.'' I apologize.

The unintended consequence of the status of this story? I've got to hold off for another day to talk about the playoffs. I haven't completely digested Game 7 of Mavs-Spurs, and here came Heat-Pistons Game 1 last night and Game 1 Mavs-Suns tonight. Not to mention the season finale of "Lost,'' speaking of shooting victims.

I'll just leave you with this: since the Heat-Bulls first-round series was tied 2-all, with the Bulls having won two straight at home to tie the series, and with everybody in America writing off Shaq as being too old, the roster being totally mismatched and Pat Riley being the master screw-up of a potential Finals team ... the Heat have gone 7-1, won two series and stolen home court from the two-time defending conference champ and the team with the NBA's best record.

If they win it all, and pull out the no-respect card in the post-game celebration locker room, they'll be more entitled than almost any other team ever. (No. 1 on that list, of course, is the Texas football team after the Rose Bowl.)

Posted by David Steele at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
                    

It's been a busy week, a little too busy, as you've noticed by the lack of blog posts. The Preakness, the NBA playoffs, the first Orioles-Nationals series, Barry tying Babe Ruth, the unfathomable fact that Michael Barrett punched out A.J. Pierzynski on Saturday in front of several million eyeballs and hasn't been suspended yet - all gone in a blur.

Too late to go into detail about all of that (although some of it will be revisited, particularly the playoffs, which features the last two of three Game 7s tonight, running against the "24'' season finale, of all things).

Time, though, to acknowledge this: The 2008 NBA All-Star Game is going to New Orleans.

Now, I've written before - back in the weeks immediately following the deadly hurricane last fall - that hosting a big-time sporting event is the last thing New Orleans needs. Studies have shown time and time again that cities struggle to break even most of the time when they bring a Super Bowl or Final Four or such an event, and that the boasts of economic impact by the league or sport involved and by the city politicians, tend to be a load of you-know-what. New Orleans, in fact, is proof of that, since the city was revealed to have been wracked with poverty even though big sports events roll through there every other year - and cultural events come in every year.

So take with a grain of salt David Stern's pronouncement that the All-Star Game gives a "vote of confidence'' to the city, and that it will "demonstrate ... that New Orleans is very much open for business. Don't dismiss the fact that the Hornets' sleazy owner, George Shinn, is trying to leverage the city for a new arena, and the possibility that this is Stern's ploy to apply league pressure. The NBA really likes new arenas, and probably likes New Orleans more than it likes Oklahoma City.

(It should like Baltimore more than both cities, but Baltimore hasn't figured out how to build a better arena than that relic on Howard Street, so the NBA has no reason to care).

Besides all that, though, there is this: The '08 All-Star Weekend is going to do wonders for the city's psyche.

That's never a small part of big blowouts like this. It would be nice, in fact, if leagues and cities would just put it that way instead of pulling the wool over our eyes about how they're going to pump gajillions of dollars into the economy. Tell us, It's going to make everybody around here feel a lot better, and get people who are hurting badly to have some serious fun.

That's what All-Star Weekend will do. It's also what the Saints will do. No, it's highly unlikely the city can honestly afford the Saints, but if Reggie Bush has the psychological impact on New Orleans that everyone believes he will, that will be a great trade-off. Great cities have great diversions, and even if those diversions don't make the cities as fiscally rich as some would insist, making them socially, culturally and emotionally rich is just as valuable.

Once upon a time, New Orleans and All-Star Weekend seemed made for each other. In fact, it's what everybody in and around the league has been waiting for since the Hornets got there. Just the fact that the Hornets moved there lifted the spirits of long-time NBA followers who only needed a half-decent reason to make a trip there. Why the Hornets never had the best home record in the NBA pre-Katrina is a mystery. Teams should show up at tipoff worn out from the partying. What a waste.

New Orleans might not be that kind of city anymore - but then again, it might be at some point, and maybe bringing All-Star Weekend there will help it get back to it. Without draining the city coffers dry, preferably. If the city has to lose a dime off of this, then they shouldn't host it. Let the NBA do the heavy lifting.

Either way, I can't wait. Actually, this may have been just a long-winded admittance of a selfish wish: to do the All-Star Game in Nawlins. Can't promise you that it wasn't.

This much must be recognized, though: no matter what happens, it'll have to go a long way to beat out the '07 weekend in Vegas. And that game is still nine months away.

Posted by David Steele at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It was just a matter of time. The moment word got out, long before it became official, that Steve Nash had won his second straight MVP award, the discussions began. How does Nash compare to the other great point guards in NBA history, especially since so few of them have ever won even one MVP, much less two, much less two in a row?

How does he rank against Jason Kidd? Gary Payton? How wide should the "point guard'' net be cast? Does Allen Iverson count? Some insist that Magic Johnson doesn't count, because his size and the way he was used totally skews the chart. And does any of it mean anything as long as Nash has failed to even get his team to the Finals - and might not get it out of the second round this year, if last night's loss to the Clippers at home is any indication?

This has been buzzing around NBA arenas, on talk shows and in at least one newsroom (guess which one) in recent days. Now, ESPN.com has flung itself into the debate. Its rankings, in order: Magic, Oscar, Isiah, Stockton, Cousy, Clyde, Kidd, Tiny, Nash, Payton. Nine other players received at least one vote from its 10-member panel of ex-players, coaches and media.

Surprising in how far out of the race he finished: Lenny Wilkens, who was second in the "also receiving votes'' rankings behind Jerry West, whose claim to the position is a little tenuous (one of those old-school players who was just a guard, not a point or off-guard).

A pleasant surprise to see him ranked high: Bob Cousy, who was way ahead of his time, but who played almost so long ago it's easy for him to be overlooked. There's a story out there, which might be an urban legend, that when the first draft of the 50 Greatest Players was done back in 1996, Cousy was left out, forcing an instant re-vote.

Meanwhile, Payton definitely won't be happy to be behind any of these players.

As for the instigator of this whole thing, Nash? Try as you might, it's really, really hard to argue where he's placed. It's amazing, because before last season, the first MVP season, putting him in this company would have been a joke, like trying to include Kevin Porter or Rod Strickland. Very good player, in the upper echelon among his peers and even slightly overlooked - but top 10 of all time? No freakin' way. Then again, he is the only player in this particular top 10 who has not been to the Finals.

Anyway, that's one website's opinion. It's something to talk about on a day with no NBA playoff games. Great. Now I guess I have to read a book or something.

Posted by David Steele at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Not Barry Bonds, at least not this particular disgrace. And this time it's not me saying it, although I did get into the soon-to-be-No. 2 home-run hitter in my weekly podcast.

No, this theory about Bonds not exactly being the worst thing that's ever happened to baseball comes from the author of a book about early 20th-century Hall of Famer/suspected game-fixer Tris Speaker. His article on ESPN.com makes an interesting point: steroids, schmeroids. Gambling in baseball was practically an epidemic back in the day, and the 1919 World Series was only the tip of the iceberg. Other World Series were affected by it, and other Hall of Famers besides Shoeless Joe Jackson (Speaker, for one) were linked to it.

That includes a particularly influential Series: 1918, the one we all heard about daily our entire lives until the Red Sox won in 2004, and the one that more or less launched the Babe Ruth legend (he starred in it, and was sold to the Yankees after the following season).

Any article that can get both the words "chicanery'' and "skullduggery'' into print is worth giving your attention to.

Again, not to defend Barry. Just to offer a little perspective in an environment where perspective seems to have run away long ago.

Posted by David Steele at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

A little Sunday afternoon reading for halftime of the Mavericks-Spurs game (the Mavs up at the half, in San Antonio, with Timmy scoring 20?), or between conference semifinal games (Pistons-LeBron ... er, Pistons-Cavaliers later today):

* For those peering over the side of the Leo Mazzone bandwagon, Bruce Chen's numbers clenched in their fists, wondering whether to jump or not: here's a clear, hard-to-argue defense of Mazzone, presented by Newsday and by the wretched performances of the pitchers he left in Atlanta after ending his 16-year association with the Braves.

* For those believing that the bailout of some sponsors on the Barry Bonds home-run chase is appropriate, this column by former S.F. Chronicle colleague Scott Ostler sheds new light on the move. Let's just say one particular sponsor doesn't have a moral leg to stand on.

* For those ready to fight over the merits of Bonds vs. Ruth and obsessing over asterisks and legitimacy and who deserves to be recognized for what, here's an angle most everybody (once again) has forgotten or overlooked: from my old paper again, the Josh Gibson story.

* For those who haven't picked their jaws off the ground after seeing Suns 121, Lakers 90 - and Kobe 0-for-3, one point in the second half of a Game 7 - here's a pretty clear-headed deconstruction of the team, the player and the series, in the L.A. Times. To sum up: the Lakers weren't that good in the first place.

* For those who knew Kobe had ultimately, finally and conclusively won the battle with Shaq two years after their divorce because of how their respective playoff series were going last week, here's a kindred spirit, whose column in the Orlando Sentinel ran in this paper. Written and published, by the way, before the Lakers blew that 3-1 lead and before Shaq closed out his series with a 30-point, 20-rebound game.

Now, back to the Mavs-Spurs game...

Posted by David Steele at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

I'm dying to dissect last night's Suns-Lakers Game 6, yet another classic in an insanely exciting, drama-soaked first round of the NBA playoffs. But it's time to put the lightning-rod theory to the test. Yesterday, Kobe. Today, Barry.

Bonds is in Philadelphia this weekend needing two homers to tie for second on the all-time list, in the most hyped-up chase for second on a career list in the history of mankind. But that's a topic for another blog entry.

First, this from this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer, with this deathless phrase: "Get ready for another embarrassing Philly sports moment.'' The point: this series is a perfect storm, Barry Bonds in a city of legends (Santa Claus, Michael Irvin, etc.). Also in the paper, an illustration of the dilemma faced by those very same fans: what do you do if you catch the Ruth-tying or Ruth-passing home run? One suggestion for fan reaction in general, from a well-known local sports anchor and talk-show host: get up and walk out every time he comes to bat. Interesting. Will that suggestion get the same frosty reception I got last year when I recommended a version of that for Rafael Palmeiro (don't show up at all)? Granted, Raffy was playing at home, but still, knowing what we do now ...

Speaking of other players on steroids who get free passes that Bonds has not:

Phillies pitcher Cory Lidle (who started last night and thus won't face Bonds this weekend) had this to say, among other things, in Thursday's Daily News: "I don't want to see him break records ... If he breaks them, it will be a shame, because I think when all is said and done, the truth will come out.''

Thought-provoking. Especially when you consider that Lidle's teammate on the 2001 Oakland A's was the reigning American League MVP, a guy named Jason Giambi. The truth came out about him, too - he admitted being a steroid user in front of the BALCO grand jury. Lidle had nothing to say about him, though, maybe because he wasn't asked.

Giambi, in fact, now gets to have his resurgence as a hitter chronicled in pieces like this one on ESPN.com with his steroid history treated almost grudgingly, addressed briefly and fairly superficially.

In that vein, here's a Daily News column pointing out not just the inherent disgust the Bonds story is generating ... but that baseball and its fans, in their hypocrisy, deserve nothing better.

Stay tuned. Meanwhile, there's still Wizards-Cavs Game 6 tonight, Suns-Lakers Game 7 tomorrow night, and (if necessary) Game 7 for Wizards-Cavs and world-champion-Spurs-Kings. Intriguing, except that Bonds is one, two or maybe three swings away from blowing all of it out of the water.

Posted by David Steele at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Because it's been a while since the NBA playoffs have been touched on here in real depth, this seems to be a good time to remind everyone why Kobe Bryant is the biggest phony in all of sports right now.

Raja Bell got himself suspended from tonight's Game 6 between his Suns, facing elimination, and the Lakers, after yoking Bryant down late in Game 5. Not that it wasn't completely unjustified considering what the Lakers had been doing to the Suns most of the series (neither Luke Walton nor Kwame Brown have missed any time after their "hard'' fouls) and what Kobe did to Bell specifically (plenty of replays of Bryant cracking him in the head and other body parts to free himself). David Stern called Bell's takedown "unmanly,'' although what he should have said was, "Remember that comment about our refs getting 5 percent of the calls wrong in these playoffs? I meant they get 5 percent right.''

Anyway ... here's a pretty succinct breakdown from today's L.A. Times of the jawing that went on during yesterday's off-day. The key phrase from Bell: "I have no respect for him. I think he's a pompous, arrogant individual." Sure, Raja, tell us something we don't know. Do you also think he wears No. 8?

Now, here's Kobe, from that L.A. Times story:

"Does he know me? Do I know this guy? I don't know this guy," Bryant said. "I might have said one word to this guy. I don't know this kid. I think he overreacts to stuff.

"We go out there, we play, and when we play during the season, we play each other. That's it. I don't know this kid. I don't need to know this kid. I don't want to. We go out there, we play the game and leave it at that. Maybe he wasn't hugged enough as a kid. I look at him a little bit, he gets a little insecure or something. I don't know."

So where do you want to start?

Well ... the man he referred to as a "kid'' three times, is a year older than Kobe.

The man he said no less than five times that he didn't know, guarded him when he played for the 76ers in the NBA Finals in 2001. Guarded him pretty well, too. They've also been in the same conference for the past four seasons. Bell guarded him pretty well all of those times.

Let's give Kobe credit for being facetious, sarcastic and humorous under the circumstances. Except there's this, from Sports Illustrated's big Kobe piece a few weeks ago: "After he dropped 51 points on Raja Bell in a loss to the Suns (April 7), he was asked about the physical battle Bell had given him. Bryant shot the questioner a look that said, Are you nuts? 'Raja Bell?' he said, enunciating the name as if it were a contagious disease. 'I don't even think about him. Man, I got bigger fish to fry than Raja Bell.'''

So it's all a matter of dismissing someone that probably is a little harder to dismiss than you thought. Problem is, Kobe's not even as good at doing that as Shaq is; Shaq answers questions about Kobe with either a blank stare, or with an economical "Who?'' Makes its point without making it look like you're trying too hard in the face of the mounting evidence to the contrary.

And do we even want to get into the whole "not enough hugs'' line? From the guy who went a year without talking to his father, Jelly Bean, a few years back, because they were in serious disagreement about his marriage?

The amazing thing is, Kobe could have merely let his play speak for itself. He is being such an unselfish player, such a facilitator, such a leader, he's making his seventh-seeded team a legit title threat, making Jackson look like a genius again, making Steve Nash look like a fraud, making the innocent bystanders wearing his uniform look like a supporting cast, making his critics look bad, and making himself look like the player everyone thought he could be if he wasn't so full of himself. Now, he's back to looking like he's full of himself. All because he couldn't just put a lid on it, couldn't let the suspension and the 3-2 series lead do all the talking.

Now, Bell's problem is this: he could have made a case for being the wronged party, and kept trying to make it yesterday, by describing in detail what Kobe was doing on the court and what Phil Jackson was saying from the bench. But by slinging Kobe down in that manner, in a game the Suns were running away with to stay alive and to steal some momentum and possibly the upper hand in the series, he proved that maybe no one should be listening to him after all.

Somehow, Bell missed the lesson about the retaliation always being punished instead of the instigation. Now his team is hurt by his absence, and Kobe and the Lakers have the psychological edge again. Worse, this game will probably be micro-officiated, and no one will get away with anything.

And, as a bonus, with all the talk about Kobe vs. Raja, there's less talk about Kwame, whose role in a sexual-assault investigation did wonders to bring the momentum he personally had gained to a complete stop, and which had to have sucked the wind right out of his team's sales just when they were ready to finish the Suns off. One must wonder: has there ever been a former No. 1 pick who not only has underachieved as much as him, but also disrupted the playoffs for two different teams in consecutive years while having as small a role on either team?

To make a long story short, I'm not missing a second of tonight's game. To make another long story short, I think my Kobe button is as easy to push as most people's Barry button. That might be a good debate: bigger lightning rod, Barry or Kobe?

As for the rest of the playoffs ... the less said about the Wizards' defense on LeBron James on the final possession of overtime last night, the better. OK, just this: See the big guy wearing No. 23? That's LeBron. See that big white strip of paint behind you? That's the baseline. Keep HIM away from THERE. Do all three of you defenders get that? Are you sure? Him, there, bad.

All right, one last word. Not that there's a lot of competition for this designation, but this is the best first round of the playoffs the NBA has ever had.

Posted by David Steele at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

What was anticipated in the Sun this morning, apparently is officially happening: the Nationals have an owner. ESPN.com is saying that the conference call sealing the deal will take place at 4:45 ET this afternoon. It's the Ted Lerner group, which should make for an interesting little dynamic between the city and baseball since that group was no better than third-favorite among D.C. officials.

Washington waited 34 years to get a baseball team, and 35-plus years to get a team with an actual owner. Major League Baseball's clock just doesn't seem to tick the same way everybody else's does.

The question now: how will the competition between the Nats and Orioles shape up? Well, the Nats still need seven straight losing seasons (after this one, which seems to be a lock) to match what the O's have done. Of course, with this bullpen, the O's will be on course to stretch their own streak to nine.

If nothing else, though, the sale should bust one myth: that it's all Peter Angelos's fault the Nationals games aren't on TV. If ever there was a time for Angelos to pour everything into putting the games on, it's now, with Nationals fans emerging from panic mode and returning to full-fledged, undying support of the team that finally has someone in charge of it. Now, the money is lying right on the table in front of both Angelos and Comcast. Someone needs to go ahead and take it, get the games on TV and get this rivalry started for real. If you can't even see who you're supposed to hate, what's the point?

Posted by David Steele at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Just to whet your draft appetite a little more, here's some more info on one of the Ravens' picks, fourth-round wide receiver Demetrius Williams, from my old paper in San Francisco. A few tidbits:

1) He was a college teammate of first-round pick Haloti Ngata at Oregon, which doesn't hurt, and which the Ravens seem to think is a plus for their young players (witness the choice of Oklahoma offensive linemen Chris Chester, who has two ex-teammates already here in Mark Clayton and Dan Cody).

2) His high school, De La Salle, just past the Berkeley hills in northern Cali, is a legendary program, which had a national-record 151-game winning streak broken two season ago and which includes Broncos LB D.J. Williams and Giants WR Amani Toomer among its current NFL players. As the story mentions, three players from the school were drafted over the weekend; that's the same number that Maryland had drafted.

3) He comes from good family (I can say that because it turns out that I know some of his relatives; in fact, they threw me a going-away party before I came here).

After all that, of course, he'd better make the team. Then again, it is fully understood here that whether the third/fourth receiver is Williams, Clarence Moore, Devard Darling or someone else, isn't as critical to the franchise as who's throwing to him. Free Steve McNair! (Hey, T-shirt idea. But I came up with it first.)

Posted by David Steele at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It's been a pretty good couple of days for Aberdeen's Jai Lewis. Last night at halftime of the Wizards' playoff game in D.C., he and his George Mason teammates and coaches were honored for their run to the Final Four (winning the regional, of course, in the same building). Today, he signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent, fulfilling a real longshot of a dream; because George Mason only had club football (and coach Jim Larranaga ordered him to stay away from it), he last played the game at Aberdeen High five years ago, when he was a tight end and defensive end. Could be interesting.

Maryland's women's national champion basketball team also was honored at the game. From the looks on their faces as they walked onto the court, it appears none of them have stopped smiling for a month.

Posted by David Steele at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

This story about a certain former co-MVP quarterback from the Titans having permission to talk to the Ravens, means that the Steve McNair Watch is officially on. It hit our website late Sunday night and will be in Monday's Sun in some version. It sounds as if it's a matter of when, not if, McNair joins the Ravens.

How sick is this? I was actually checking my cellphone for McNair news at halftime of the Wizards-Cavs game. Of course, at that point I thought the game was over, that I'd be writing about LeBron's first 60-point playoff game of his career. He had 18 in the first quarter and 25 at the half. But then the jumpers he was hitting in the first half started missing, and Gilbert Arenas's started falling. Oh, never mind, just read this if you're seeing this Sunday night, or read what Don Markus and I wrote Monday in the paper.

As for Kobe ... I'm speechless. Granted, it was one of the worst non-calls you'll ever see in the playoffs or anywhere else, and how a two-time MVP like Steve Nash doesn't get the call then and there is beyond me. But you still have to get your team there, and get your team in position, and hit the shot. I think I will just be quiet and go sit in the corner for a while.

I should mention, however, that before wrestling the late Sunday traffic to the District, I made it to the final showing of Radio Golf at CenterStage. It was worth it. Another August Wilson classic, extra bittersweet because he didn't live to see it staged. Sorry about the too-late review, but it's expected to be on Broadway next season. And yes, golf is integral to the story, so it's sports-related, right? That's good enough for me.

Posted by David Steele at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)