Saturday, July 03, 2010

07/03 (Saturday) Quickie

Still find myself stunned by the way the Ghana-Uruguay game ended.

If you factor in the conditions (tie-breaking PK in final seconds of extra time), the history-making stakes (would have made Ghana the first African country to advance to the World Cup semis... in Africa's first hosted World Cup) and the scope of the fan footprint (not just Ghana, but all of Africa), it feels like the cruelest ending to a game in modern sports history.

I obviously don't know cruel endings around the world, but I tried to think of cruel endings in traditional US sports -- Game 6 or whatever -- and when you put it against those three qualifiers, nothing in US sports holds up. So all of Red Sox Nation was devastated after Game 6? Bah: How about all of Africa devastated after yesterday's loss?

Two more semis today, but they will be hard-pressed to match Ghana-Uruguay.

Also, isn't it nice not to have to lead with LeBron and NBA Free Agency?

So there's all this talk about Dwyane Wade taking a 2nd meeting with the Bulls. Personally, I totally discounted the idea that LeBron could join D-Wade in Chicago. It would be fascinating, even if they don't get a big to join them. I just don't see that happening (but I am enjoying the spontaneous freak-out from Miami media that their NBA meal-ticket might be skipping town).

As for Amare and the Knicks? If I was a Knicks fan, I would be uninspired about giving $100 million to Amare -- I'm not sure he's that much better than David Lee, but at way greater cost. We know Lee can produce at 20/10 without a point guard, let alone an all-world one; how about Amare?

Would Joe Johnson really turn down his $120M deal from Atlanta? If that isn't a signal that he doesn't really want to be on the team, I don't know what is. If I was the Hawks, I would take advantage of the waffling to pull the offer and rectify the mistake of giving him so much money.

Enjoy the day of World Cup, NBA Free Agent rumor-mongering, baseball and more.

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Goberry said...

What about the 72 Olympic men's basketball final between the Soviets and Americans? You pretty much had an assistant Soviet coach overrule officials once, then another awful call on the "replay".
(and yes,...1972 counts as modern sports history.)