We gladly welcome Gotham Confidential on board to the Josh Q. Public writing team. Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush, Gotham Confidential.
Gotham Confidential: Who is more a fool? The fool or the fool who follows the fool? -Obi Wan Kenobi
Highly Confidential: Ok! Ok! I have been avoiding saying it, but it now has to be said. Isiah Thomas refuses to play David Lee, and it’s for one reason, and one reason only: he is blinded by prejudice. Boom! There, I said it. It is no longer debatable. I am sorry, but I do not think anyone out can give him the benefit of the doubt anymore. Not unless your name is DNA Dolan. The only man left in the Garden who has less credibility than Thomas. Dolan is now stuck in the unenviable position of having to keep his word by keeping Zeke. Only the Dolans could get it this messed up. Do they really hate Next Town Brown that much? They are willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces? Rob Peter to pay Paul? I have actually heard Dolan the Younger’s band, so I know he can not fall back on his other job. This is it folks. His only chance is to outspend the rest of the league and call himself a genius, despite the fact that all his teams are worse off now then they were 3, 5, 7 , and 10 years ago. That doesn’t quite beat the Lipper averages. If Isiah has embraced the youth movement/rebuilding program, that he incidentally said would/should never happen in New York, why does he relegate a good, young, popular, and white player to the 7th or 8th option despite the consistent underperformance from his competition. It has to be because “he is just another player.” We’ve seen this before with Isiah, yet no one calls him out on it. This is just another race travesty in the world of sports. David Lee is easily good enough, he is the best rebounder in the NBA minute for minute, to start for a below average team. Isiah needs all the help he can get, but I guess I don’t know enough basketball to argue with him. However, I will make this prediction, if he continues on this way, next year, he and I both will be welcome in the half-empty Garden the same way, with an overpriced ticket.
Next Up: Big Unit gone from the Big Apple. Hmm, you all want me to say good riddance. Well, I guess so, but not so fast. I smell a red herring. No way the Yankees sit on their hands and wither on the vine. They lost in the first round, they had a pitcher killed in the off-season, they were outbid by the Red Sox for D-Mat, they didn’t bid at all on Barry Zito, they trade away an inconsistent high priced starter who went 34-19 with a 5.03 ERA, and their major acquisition was either the return of Andy Pettitte or D-Mat lite, Kei Igawa. This leaves their potential rotation as Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, and Igawa. The back up plan is Scott Proctor (or Ramiro Mendoza without all the skill), calling up Phillip Hughes, and signing Roger Clemens in June or July. This does not sound like the evil empire, this sounds like what the A’s or Twins might do. Wait a minute, hold the phones, something else uncharacteristic is going on. Whilst all this is happening, the Yankees give up Sheffield and Johnson for minor league prospects, lots of’em. Why would they do this? Cashman really has this much job security that he is reversing 50 years of spending, thinks he is “one all-star” from contending like his brothers over at the Garden, and is putting the Yankees on a five year plan? I don’t think so. No, something big is in the works. Clemens? Short answer: No with an if. Long answer: Yes with a but. This is a popular signing at the trade deadline without having to give something up, so Ok. But wait Mr Popeil, there’s more. The rotation still has major holes in it. Those three 5th options listed above, with injury and underwhleming performances, the Yankees will probably need all of them in concert. In addition, none of them are guaranteed problem solvers. So what am I getting at? Well, clearly the Yankees are stockpiling prospects and saving money; this means they are making moves to attract a small market team (most of whom love to build up from the farm and sell off stars when they get high priced) and then sign a big star with the cash they saved from say bidding half as much on Igawa as the Red Sox spent on D-Mat. This brings me back to the Twins. When Barry Zito got 18 million a year, my new favorite player Johann Santana’s fee went to, according to one effusive and salivating agent “at least 25 a year. Now who in the world would have the money to pay Santana and the prospects to wrest him away from the Twins before he becomes a free agent in two seasons? Sorry Public, but whom indeed?!
NFL News: Cowher out. I loved the chin. He will be back, but sad to no longer see him stalking and grimacing in Ketchup or Cats-Sup Stadium. Pennington: Come Back Player of the Universe! Of course. Mangenius soon to be named Coach of the Year, of course. LT offensive player of the year—yawn. Of course. I can’t decide whether Belichick’s recognition of at least Mangini’s first name was either further evidence of brinksmanship (trying to get in our heads one last time) or a small dram of sportsmanship. Maybe he finally realized that with the respect he is accorded by nearly everyone with a pulse around the league, that it actually makes him look even better when on of his assistants do well. Either way, I am taking the Jets and the points on Sunday at Pentuple Electric Edge Stadium, *now with laser scope. Giants lose to the Eagles at the Missing Linc. Colts beat the Chiefs when Herm Edwards gets called for a technical for trying to call a timeout when he has none left. And my upset Cowboys beat the Seahawks. Holmgren fired the next day.
Final Note: For all of you who lament the end of the football season and can’t wait for March Madness in well, March, check out a little European Rugby. I follow Leinster in Magners League and Heineken Cup and of course I follow Ireland in international and 6-nation Cup. Ireland will be playing England, which is always big England won the last World Cup and Ireland won 6-nation Triple Crown last year, but in Croke Park in Dublin. It will be the first meeting there ever, and 91 years since the English sent tanks into Croke Park to fire machine guns into the stands during a Gaelic Games match. Go green. This just in, England has invited Jamarcus Russel to stand on the side lines for “moral superiority er- I mean support
See you next week sports fans!
Need More? Isiah Thomas,NBA,New York Knicks,NFL,Roger Clemens
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