When did ABC/ESPN become the PR team for Kobe, Inc?

How tired are you of the references “the best player on the planet,” or those silly comparisons to Jordon? Please. Kobe hasn’t even been the best player on the floor. That distinction belongs to Paul Pierce. Even more sickening…how many times are we to be subject to the piece on Kobe at home portraying the good family man? Are we to dismiss his admitted adulterous sexual encounter in Eagle, Colorado on July 1, 2003? I know that incident is old news and should be put to rest – and it would be, if not for the “family man” campaign imposed by Kobe’s ABC public relations team. He’s trying too hard to convince the pubic he’s something we all know he’s not. Maybe if he bought me a $4M diamond ring, as he did his wife after his Colorado indiscretion, I’d forgive him, too.

It seems apparent that Kobe wants and needs to be liked. With apologies to LeBron James, Kobe is the best player in the league…but, likeable? Magic or Jerry West he’s not. First, he runs Shaq out of town – then he wants out of LA himself. Even Lakers’ fans had enough of Kobe prior to the start of the season. However, it’s amazing what a few W’s can do for fickle fans.

As the Finals heads back to Boston for game six, let’s hope we’ve seen the last of the Kobe campaign and just see a great game.

We’ve all seen and heard enough about the rich Celtics - Lakers traditions. Well, almost. How can this championship round go on without hearing the names Chick Hearn and Johnny Most? It can’t.

Considered the two greatest basketball radio-broadcasters of all-time, Hearn and Most were the voices of these two great franchises - and as much a part of their glorious history as Russell, West, Bird and Magic.

Johnny Most announced Celtics games “high above courtside”� (his traditional opening remark), from 1953 to 1990. Chick Hearn could be heard calling Lakers games from 1965 to 2002, including a consecutive-game streak of 3,338. Between the two, there were 25 championships (16 by Most and 9 by Hearn), and nearly 90-years of radio-broadcasting. Most passed away in 1993. Hearn in 2002.

Hearn was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also inducted into the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame in 1995 - and has a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Most was inducted into the media-category of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, and was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Basketball Hall of Fame trustees. That he’s not an actual Hall of Famer is a travesty.

Hearn is credited for numerous basketball sayings - called “Chickisms,”� including “slam dunk,”� “air-ball,”� and “no harm, no foul.”� My personal favorite was “ticky-tack”� foul. Most was best known for his raspy voice and villainizing of Celtics opponents. His famous call: “Havlicek stole the ball”� lives in NBA and Celtics lore.

I grew up listening to Johnny Most - and grew old admiring Chick Hearn. There will never be anyone like them again.

Celtics versus Lakers just isn’t the same without them.

I don’t know why the national media are afraid to say it. Okay, so it has something to do with television contracts, but where are the print media? All these questions as to why there’s a major advantage for NBA home teams in the playoffs is quite simple…it’s partly due to referees’ “home calls.”

Forget the fans who always blame officials for their favorite team’s loss. That has been happening since Naismith invented the game. However, watch games in which you don’t care who wins. Are there not obvious home-town calls that are infuriating?

To be honest, I don’t know what a foul is anymore. I see players mauled in the low post – then a foul is called on a ticky-tack hand-check. How about a player driving to the hole? I know the playoffs are at a higher intensity level than regular season games, but this isn’t rugby. No, I don’t want the game played at the foul line, but there needs to be more consistency with calls.

Everyone (but the NBA) admits to “star calls” and “rookie calls.” It has been happening since black and white television, but appears more obvious today. You can’t tell me Kobe and LeBron don’t get most of the calls at home. If the NBA wants to protect the stars to keep them in the game, change the foul rule and give players 7 or 8 fouls. Hell, why have a foul limit at all? Just give the opponent 3 foul shots, or two foul shots and the ball, if fouled by anyone playing with six or more fouls.

Also, the “hack-a-Shaq” foul strategy, which is now used on any player with a foul shot percentage ala Shaq, is a disgrace to the game. For non-basketball fans, a “hack-a-Shaq” is a foul committed away from the ball on anyone who doesn’t shoot foul shots well – enabling the fouling team a possible possession advantage. Any rule giving a fouling team an advantage needs to be changed.

Here are a few more things the NBA should consider:
• Add an extra foot at each end of the floor. Between the size and athleticism of today’s great players, they need more room under the basket.
• Take away the three-pointer from the corner – it’s too close.
• Go back to two officials. That’s one fewer person on the floor feeling a need to justify a job.
• Allow replay on any play/shot ending a quarter.
• Call traveling and palming the ball – as the rule reads.

The Hall Of Fame Network www.HOFn.com has a poll asking: Which major pro league has the best officiating? I’m not sure which is best, but I do know which is worst.

After a thrilling season of football upsets and an epic championship basketball game, we’re reminded why we love college sports. But, which college can boast the #1 sports program? In a HOFN.com exclusive, Jim Weber ranks this year’s top athletic programs.

See how they rank at HOFN.com …

It’s the final week of the NBA regular season, and there’s no clear-cut leader for the 2007-08 NBA MVP. At least not in the city of the candidates. Consensus has Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, and Chris Paul leading the way.

Personally, I think it’s a 3-horse race between Kobe, Garnett, and Paul. Since the Cleveland Cavaliers won’t reach the magical 50-win plateau, which appears to be an unwritten rule to be considered for the award, LeBron will have to wait another year.

Using individual statistics (alone), Kobe is this year’s winner. However, Paul leads the league in assists (11.6) and steals (2.73), plus carries a 21-point average. On the other hand, Garnett could be the defensive player of the year and has led the Celtics to the greatest one-year turnaround in NBA history.

Of the three, only Garnett has won the coveted award (2004). That, coupled with the fact that he plays with two other superstars (Pierce and Ray Allen), leads me to believe he will finish third in the voting. And, while Paul seems to have personally carried his team to a great season and the playoffs, I’m not sure he can overcome the sentiment that it’s Kobe’s time.

With all due respect to LeBron, and whether you like him personally or not, Kobe is the best player in the NBA. Granted, the addition of Pau Gasol to the Lakers has been instrumental to their rise in the Western Conference, but it has been the consistent play of Kobe that has brought the Lakers back to prominence.

I’m not a big Kobe fan, but he gets my vote.

(You can vote for the player of your choice in the www.HOFMAG.com poll.)

By the way, do you know who’s won the most NBA MVP awards? Here’s a list of multiple winners and how many trophies they’ve garnered.

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 6
• Bill Russell: 5
• Michael Jordon: 5
• Wilt Chamberlain: 4
• Larry Bird: 3
• Magic Johnson: 3
• Moses Malone: 3
• Tim Duncan: 2
• Karl Malone: 2
• Steve Nash: 2
• Bob Pettit: 2

It’s March Madness - so what better time to talk about college basketball’s greatest players? A poll by www.HOFmagazine.com provides a consensus list of the Top 10 college players of all-time from which to choose. The list consists of (alphabetically):

• Lew Alcindor, UCLA
• Larry Bird, Indiana State
• Bill Bradley, Princeton
• Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas
• Pete Maravich, LSU
• Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati
• Bill Russell, San Francisco
• David Thompson, NC State
• Bill Walton, UCLA
• Jerry West, West Virginia

Again, the poll question asks who is the greatest - not who’s your favorite. That’s an important distinction. For me, my favorite college basketball player was Bill Bradley. But my greatest Top-5 is as follows:

• 5. Oscar Robertson
• 4. Pete Maravich
• 3. Bill Russell
• 2. Lew Alcindor ( Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
• 1. Bill Walton

Choosing between Walton and Alcindor was difficult. I give the slight edge to Walton for his rebounding and more aggressive style of play. However, being a three-time Player of the Year with two National Titles, plus leading his UCLA team to an 88-game winning-streak certainly helped!

I’m a believer in our capitalistic society. As a businessman, I understand marketing and maximizing profits. However, as an American sports fan, I’m not in favor of our professional leagues’ fascination of playing games on foreign soil. International marketing and the selling of product is fine – but, do we they really need to send our teams to other countries? We open our doors to international athletes, but having actual games played beyond our borders seems to be going too far.

For some reason, I’m having trouble with regular season NFL games in London and MLB games in Japan. Does America really need to force feed the world our culture, including our sports? Exhibitions, as the NBA recently did in Europe, seem reasonable, but let’s keep games that count in league standings in America.

The Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox will be playing two regular season games in Japan – that’s two fewer games the fans in Oakland will get to see. Baseball games are a hard enough draw in Oakland these days, so why take away two Red Sox games from them? The New York Giants and Miami Dolphins played a game in London this past NFL season. How memorable was that? And God forbid the NFL does the most sacrilegious of all – and plays the Super Bowl in England! The next thing you know, we’ll be moving the New York City 4th of July fireworks to London, too!

NFL Europe was a failure, Japan has its own professional baseball league, and the world has soccer (excuse me, football). Let’s leave the rest of the world alone and play American games on American soil.

The word greatness is often used callously in the world of sports. To me, individual greatness means Ali, Robinson, Ruth, King, Owens, and a few others. The top 10 most influential people in sports history are analyzed in an excellent piece published in HOFmagazine.com. http://www.hofmag.com/content/view/642/60/1/0/

Regarding great team dynasties, the consensus top three are the 1957-1969 Celtics, 1964-1975 UCLA Bruins, and the 1947-1962 Yankees. The order is debatable.

The Boston Celtics won 11 championships and were in 12 NBA finals in 13-years. The UCLA Bruins won 10 NCAA championships and were in 11 finals in 12-years. The New York Yankees won 10 championships and were in 13 World Series in 16-years.

After those top three, a plethora of teams are considered dynasties, including other Yankee and Celtic teams, plus the Steelers, Canadians, Edmonton Oilers, Packers, Lakers, Bulls, et al.

As the NFL moves into week 15, the 13-0 Patriots already fit into that second-tier of dynasty teams with 3 Championships – and with 30-year-old Tom Brady leading the way, who knows how long this run will last. A perfect 19-0 season this year would mean championship number four and would put them atop of the NFL greatness list.

Love them or hate them, this Patriots team appears unbeatable. From this seat, only the Colts might be able to derail them and enable the Dolphins old-guard to drink from their crusty cups. To the Patriots and the football world, a 16-0 regular season followed by a loss in the playoffs would mean failure. Like the Yankees and Celtics before them, only championships are acceptable.

If the Pats do run the table, then re-sign Moss, their road to greatness will continue. And don’t forget, even though they lost their number one draft pick to Spygate, they do have the 49ers number one pick which, at the time of this writing, is the number two overall pick in the draft. The rich get richer.

Naysayers beware…with a healthy Brady at the helm another decade, the Patriots could join the elite list of Celtics, UCLA Bruins, and Yankees by the time he hangs up his cleats.

There they sat - left to right - the smiling all-star trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen at the recent Celtics press conference. Their smiles as wide as the distance between Boston’s North Shore and Cape Cod. Not since the Bird glory-days have the Celtics been relevant. Now, with Garnett officially in the fold, Celtics Pride is once again alive and well. The NBA’s most storied franchise is back.

Those smiles went far beyond New England sports fanatics. From Boston’s new Garden, you could see the smile on Commissioner David Stern’s face. At least for a short time stories about the NBA will actually be about its players and teams - and not the shame of its referee scandal. Plus, what’s better for the NBA than to see articles about the Celtics and Knicks on websites and newspapers across the country. Nothing is more important to the NBA than successful teams in the Northeast. With all due respect to the great Spurs’ team, along with Phoenix and the rest of the Western Conference, the NBA needs New York and Boston teams to be competitive.

Whether you’re a Celtics fan or hater, having the Celtics competing for their seventeenth NBA Championship is good for the league. Back in the 1980s, Bird and Magic saved the NBA with their great Celtics-Lakers battles. Now, with the immensely talented and intense Kevin Garnett in Boston, the NBA can now look forward to its Eastern Conference playoff battles in the spring of 2008. And with Garnett playing in the east, watch him become an even greater superstar.

Western Conference fans can boast about their teams, but two of the last four champions have come from the Eastern Conference - and now there’s one more eastern team that will join the potential championship mix.

So keep smiling Mr. Stern, as NBA television ratings and retail sales will jump next season with the return of the Boston Celtics to your league.

Whenever I see NCAA President Myles Brand, my blood boils. This two-bit bureaucrat continues to spout his assertion that NCAA athletes on a whole out-perform the general student body in the classroom. I’ve always stated that his statement is a lie, or if technically true, is the result of gender equity. Women carry the men.

When people complain about reduced emphasis on academics for “athletes,” Brand refuses to acknowledge that “student-athletes” in question are football and basketball players. As I opened up my Sunday paper, I noticed information released by a major SEC powerhouse that illustrated how Brand and the NCAA twist GPA statistics. Take a look.

Team GPA (Spring)

1. Women’s track/cross country 3.367
2. Women’s soccer 3.325
3. Men’s soccer 3.262
4. Women’s golf 3.257
5. Softball 3.240
6. Women’s swimming 3.235
7. Women’s tennis 3.219
8. Volleyball 3.087
9. Rifle 3.086
10. Gymnastics 3.047
11. Women’s basketball 2.954
12. Men’s swimming 2.951
13. Men’s tennis 2.897
14. Men’s golf 2.880
15. Baseball 2.804
16. Men’s track/cross country 2.694
17. Men’s basketball 2.560
18. Football 2.490

Notice anything? That the men’s basketball team is carrying almost a 2.6 GPA and the football team nearly a 2.5 GPA is commendable. Hell, I was usually happy with a 2.5. And while you can twist stats however you like, if you want to compare apples to apples – for the general student body at this university during the same spring semester – the men’s GPA was 2.75 and the women’s was 2.99.

So Myles, just once come clean and stop spinning. Your NCAA presidents are now paying head coaches $3 million a year. Assistants are making $200,000. We know they are going to take a kid who can help them win even if their main academic goal with that kid will be to keep him eligible. We can accept that. Heck, you should be bragging that the combined GPA of the 85-man football team is only .26 behind the general student body. With all the added time those guys put into spring football, give them credit for how well they are doing. The NCAA has been lying for so long about so many things, they don’t know how to stop.

It’s their Brand management.