Daily Roundup- Thursday, February 5th

After Kobe Bryant’s 61 point explosion on Monday night, everyone was eager to see what Lebron would do to answer (as if he were forced to do so) and he did with a 52 point, 10 rebound (on the last second), and 11 assist performance.

Plenty of reaction from LeBron’s showcasing. First let’s start with legendary New York Times columnist George Vecsey who writes that perhaps LeBron (who wouldn’t stop telling you how great MSG is) was checking out his future home court and running inspections on the prospect of his new team.

This week, on the heels of the Knicks playing much better lately, is one of the reasons that I feel like all sports has some sort of precognitive factor in the sense that league schedule makers can always surmise what is going to be the hot topic around town and how wonderfully scheduled they can keep it. After Kobe, comes LeBron and then the defending NBA Champion Celtics right after? Who’s coming after, the 1992 dream team?
Hopefully all these compliments are more “hey I want to play here for 41 games at some point and carve out a bigger legend than I ever could playing in Cleveland” than “hey New York city is a swell place to visit from time to time.”


According to Kevin Willis of the New York Post, while the Knicks did lose the game, they won back the fan faithful who clearly had problems Monday night figuring out which team was home and which was away.

The thing about New York fans are that not only are most of them transplanted from different states, a lot of them are fans of the sport more than fans of any particular franchise and share that enthusiasm. They also know when they are in the midst of a historic game and are willing to completely give themselves into the moment and are caught up in it. They have always been the smartest sports fans in my opinion and that can never change so I can’t agree with Kevin’s assertion that the fans regained credibility merely by cheering louder for the Knicks last night than they did Monday night.

Of course Chicago print media couldn’t help but draw up the comparisons between these performances than the wonderful game of “what-if-Michael-were-still-playing.” As Melissa Isaacson writes, she’s sure that Michael would’ve went off for more than 61 Wednesday night if he were playing on the heels of Kobe’s Monday night game.

First off, Mike was a completely different creature from the rest of us humans. He was a person who drove himself insane trying to be the best and was a master at motivating himself to be better than everyone else so yes I could see this happening but seriously, quit with the Michael what if’s. Its over. He’s done. He’s retired, get over it Chicago.

Staying in the NBA, Michael Lee of the Washington Post writes about the loving family of Chris Bosh, and how one in particular helps him keep his life together.

I thought his ad campaign to get into the NBA All Star Game was hilarious and it really pushed me into liking him and not undeservedly disrespecting anything he did because he played in Toronto for a franchise that didn’t care about ever really winning and playing in front of hockey fans who were duped into coming to watch a basketball team.


Dan Reeves and the Dallas Cowboys ended their brief yet weird flirtation with each other to be the “consultant.” It’s a good thing probably for Dan. He didn’t need to go and get involved in that mess and well, it’s a good thing for the Cowboys too in that they didn’t need that hanging over Wade’s head even though there’s plenty of room up there. Jennifer Floyd-Engel writes, good for Dan.

There have been many curious decisions over the years for the Cowboys franchise and this is one of them. Frankly judging by the looks of all the Cowboy hall of famers who came to pay tribute to Cowboy stadium on its last game last year had the same look most of the public have when they see them: what's the big fuss about these guys?

Baseball is in trouble writes Bill Plaschke for the LA Times and he writes its not just because Barry Bonds has failed his drug test 5 times, but also because its leader was pulling in major bucks while letting one of its biggest criminals walk off scot free.

Frankly speaking, Bud Selig brings absolutely nothing to the table as baseball commissioner except troubling decision making and that dumb look he brought to Congress when they were all there to answer questions about the steroid era. They literally had to be called into the Principal’s office and told not to do this again yet there’s just more and more bad news for baseball’s big wig, yet you won’t hear any owner talk about removing Bud from office any time soon. Amazing what a bribe can do.


Here’s Bernie’s black book thanks to USA Today.

And this is why the Mets won’t have Manny Ramirez. Not because Omar didn’t bring him up or because the Mets feel they have a great team on the field.

The Daily News does its annual review of sportscasters and here’s the list of best local play by play guys and analysts.

As a guy who watches SNY regularly for Met telecasts I can tell you that Ron Darling’s inclusion is a must. The guy is fun to listen to and plays off of everyone well and whenever Ralph Kiner joins the booth its like old time story hour and it’s great. You can tell the guys actually like each other and they do a good job. As opposed to Yankee broadcasts which I have had a chance to watch on occasion and Michael Kay thinks he’s still doing his 1050 radio show because the guy yaps for ever.

But to put Walt Clyde Frazier as the worst analyst I mean come on. The guy is all razzle and dazzle and the model of efficiency.

Finally an interview with Theo Epstein in the Boston Globe asking him the tough questions like how did it feel to lose out to the Yankees on Mark Texieira and can you believe that you resigned your stars for that cheap or how about John Smoltz on the cheap?

Theo’s one of those guys that you have to like because he’s smart and he doesn’t beat around the bush and he always seems like the guy that you go to the baseball game with but he’s extra smart because he comes from Haaahhhvard and just has that appeal to him that you can’t quite place. I thought this interview was revealing when he said he knew that Mark would go to the Yankees because there were some other factors there for him to consider. Yeah, about 180 million more.