The morning links, aka March of the Penguin:
"This is it. It hurts." Mario Lemieux has retired, again, but this time it's for good, and may well be the the prelude to disengagement: his own, from the Penguins, and the Penguins, from his lengthy shadow. One more link, from George Johnson in Calgary, has this bit from Paul Coffey on Lemieux vs. Gretzky:
"Wayne was, well, in another world altogether. But Mario brought something that no one had seen before. A guy 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5, smooth skater, with the softest pair of hands maybe in the history of the game. Some of the stuff he pulled when we won the Cup in Pittsburgh, undressing Ray Bourque, slicing open Minnesota in the final time and again, bordered on the ridiculous."
In the NBA, which is trying its best to cash in on Kobe Bryant's 81-point night: Ron Artest turns down a trade to Sacramento at least for now but then again, maybe for good (can't anyone make up their minds and trade this guy already?), and a former Knicks employee is suing Isiah Thomas for sexual harassment (reg. req'd; for the AP version of the story, go here).
Paul Coffey's comment about Mario Lemieux's soft hands undressing Ray Bourque makes me feel... er, *funny*...
Posted by: Carla | January 25, 2006 at 11:15 AM
The happiest person in the world that the Artest/Stojakovic trade fell through? Our very own Rob Babcock.
Rob got two draft picks, two scrubs and an ex-all star with a kidney problem for Vince Carter (VINCE-FREAKIN'-CARTER!). Not only that, he paid Alonzo Mourning a fortune to walk away because he was "washed up". Pat Riley should send Babcock to Hawaii during the offseason to say thanks.
Notwithstanding that Peja has been injured and unmotivated this season, he's only 29. With a new address and some health, he'll be back as a sweet-shooting scoring machine. Indiana almost dumped the biggest cancer in the game for an all-star. Babcock should take a lesson from this.
In hindsight (and in the future), here's how these "superstar tantrums" should be handled. Stand up to them. Send them home. Take away their ability to play in the NBA and make them stay away from the team. Don't even talk to them for the rest of the season. Winning is the only important thing and any player that isn't a constructive part of winning has no place. Deal with that person in the offseason.
Babcock surely couldn't have done any worse by trading the Great Sulker during the summer and it would have sent a message loud and clear about the type of behaviour that won't be tolerated. In fact, assuming they could prove Vince was healthy, the Raptors might have made a much better trade for VC in the offseason (without the world watching him play half-assed and sulk his way through games). GM's have a notoriously short memory when it comes to talented players. That fact that Sacramento would even consider bringing on a cancer like Artest is proof-positive of that assertion.
Posted by: Steven Dykstra | January 25, 2006 at 12:36 PM