Daily Roundup- Friday, February 6th

Another Lakers/Celtics game another brewing controversy between the two teams. It was a pretty intense game ripe with all the pressure of a June NBA Finals like atmosphere with a lot of chirping on both sides with a few pushes, shoves and unseen elbows by officials. Apparently the officials didn’t see a lot according to Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe who said that the Lakers deserved an asterisk on their win considering the C-List officiating crew.

Its becoming abundantly clear to me how obnoxious Boston media is reading these articles. I watched the majority of the game and I saw nothing that would make me believe that the Lakers got away with murder on that final shot. In fact, if you watch the replays you can clearly see Ray Allen pushing off with his left hand to give him some space from Derek Fisher who is playing him well and Allen just tried to seem so off balance with his last shot to create the effect that his balance was altered by Fisher to draw the foul. Nice no call. End of story Boston. Deal with it.
As for Bob Ryan’s crying for a real officiating crew, it’s a game in February with basically nothing but bragging rights during the regular season on the line. It will take a while for the Lakers and Celtics to really reach the storied heights of their rivalry back in the 80’s but its slowly building.

Meanwhile in LA-LA land, the overwritten theme is the Lakers showed muscle and heart and all that good stuff but a few noteworthy quotes showed the difference between last year and told you everything you needed to know about what this year has been like for the Lakers. Bill Plaschke of the LA Times wrote this one.

So the quote I found most disturbing is Trevor Ariza (Former Knick by the way) saying how the Lakers were not afraid of the Celtics “anymore” which of course implies that at some point during last season they were which goes further into giving tread to this belief that the Lakers were this soft finesse team that can’t hang with the big tough bullies of the East.
Good win for the Lake-Show without Andrew Bynum. I just have a problem with a team’s toughness emanating from a 22 year old. If by his mere presence the Lakers have this tough image about them, then the Lakers are going to be in trouble later one. Plus, you have to get this guy healthy on the court, which is no small task.

Meanwhile the hometown Knicks are going to play host to the hosed. The Celts come to town looking to avenge a previous loss and also atone for last night’s L as well. Frank Isola of the Daily News hopes that the Knicks don’t roll out the red carpet as well as they have for Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.

Its hard for me to criticize the Knicks for playing this bad. Their best player (David Lee) is probably a sixth man on the top 5 teams in the league. They don’t have any clutch performers and their offense while good depends on a lot of good streaky shooters which the Knicks have (Streaky) but not so much on the good side. Obviously the personnel has to get better before the Knicks see the results that the Suns saw under Coach D’Antoni’s system but like Frank says, this week has to be killer for the confidence of the Knicks and its fans when everything seemed to be on the up and up.

Ray Lewis is already lining up prospective new places to play and sure enough he’s going the old safe and easy route of getting his current employer to pony up the big bucks, he’s looking at a New York team as a possible suitor. Mark Canizzaro for the Post reports.

It sucks that players do this but I totally understand. The funny thing is, the New York media, eager for the scoop go all in and jump right into the fray which should only create further buzz in New York. You light a small match in New York and the whole city will be lit up and its smart for Ray Ray to do this seeing as how he’s 33 and the only way to maximize his leverage is to play on the roots that he has with Rex Ryan (who went to a major market and to a team that spent over $140 million on free agents last year so you know Woody ain’t cheap) and try to get a better contract offer with the Ravens. Ray Ray ain’t leaving so don’t get all excited Jet fans. But then again, you never know. Oh boy, there I go now!


Finally, in a shorter than usual posting (sorry kids, I’m running late to real life), my last column I end with a bang. One of my favorite columnists Jason Whitlock writes in Foxsports.com about how false this belief is that Michael Phelps would have been treated differently had he been a black man.

First off, I think he’s one of the best writers today. Controversial because he doesn’t shy away from the racial debate in sports, yet doesn’t do it in some silly way to get some attention. I agree that because Michael Phelps is falling victim to his own fame and celebrity in such a clean sport like Swimming. Like I wrote a few days ago when I posted the letter that the president of the USA Track and Field Association wrote, sports outside of the big 3 have a major imaging problem whereby if their biggest star gets involved in anything foolish, it jeopardizes the entire sport’s reputation and thusly can’t be taken lightly.
I agree that a person who can speak well, smiles often and can make people hypnotized by their personality can erase any fears and doesn’t have to apologize to anyone about his transgressions. That’s how Charles Barkley has gotten away with murder. We continue to love him yet he’s made some of the biggest mistakes that if any other person had committed them, we would never hear from them again. But since they are a likeable kind of guy we can look the other way. Drugs are a part of society, not just sports and like it or not a 23 year old will make a mistake. That does NOT mean however that we should let him slide because he’s this kid. He chose this life and if he can’t accept that he will be watched everywhere he goes, he needs to rethink his career options.