Rodman tryout for Raptors?

E-mailin' regular Mark Freedman sends along this link on Dennis Rodman, who during his stint on a British reality TV show played three games in the English hoops league:

"My dream is to get back into the NBA on the back of these games - Portland and Toronto have offered me try-outs," said the former Chicago Bulls star.

"Do I even want to believe this?" asks Freedman. "Is this the last vestige of Robert Babcock?"

I seriously doubt this one, especially with The Lofters cancelled. But it does give me an easy segue into announcing that I'll be announcing the winnah of the Latrell Sprewell bobblehead in an hour or so. Stay tuned.

Brainwaves, Bertuzzi and more

It's Thursday. That means it's time for the all-blogger edition of the morning links, and a big 'un it is:

Raptors finish before the all-star break with a loss in New York, where the Knicks have been beset by the latest Isiah Thomas brainwave (and from a couple days back, but too good not to mention: Intercepted from Bosh's Blackberry).

So long, Sammy Sosa. Unless someone comes along with $5 million, anyway.

Steve Moore wins the good timing award, dropping a lawsuit on Todd Bertuzzi just as Thug o' My Heart plays a fine game for Team Canada. Andy Grabia at Sports Matters has it here, with some equally good comments.

Eric McErlain calls in a crisis P.R. man to break down Wayne Gretzky's options:

  This is not a publicity tour -- it is about stopping attackers who are bent on disgracing your hard-earned reputation. And at the end of the day, it is what the public thinks that counts -- not the county DA and not the newspaper columnist guild.

Joe Clark gets his Freakanomics on and asks the question: "If being in the NHL is good enough to get men into the Olympics, is being in the Olympics good enough to get women into the NHL?"

Across the pond, Ken Owen riffs on a link included here regarding the Times' campaign to (as if!) end soccer diving: "Unnecessary violence is the real scourge of sport," he concludes.

Maisonneuve has an old coot in a cabin on James Bay blogging the Olympics. Sort of like Red Green meets late period Hunter Thompson (thanks to regular visitor JLo for the pointer here). Don't ask, just read, including this curling primer from a visitor:

“First things first,” he said, as he downed his can of Old Vienna. “We’ve got to mark the sheet.” Then he walked out to the middle of the stream, whipped it out, and pissed a strategic yellow arc, turning as he did. When he had come around 360 degrees, he stopped, stepped back, and let a few drops fall right in the middle of the circle. He looked at me, ‘marker’ in hand.
"Now it's your turn..."

More 'lympics, back after a two-year absence: A blog of last-place finishers in each sport. Best part is it's not snarky at all. (A bow to the very fine Now That's Amateur for the link).

The latest on wok racing. Sort of like skeleton or bobsled, only in a wok.

With pitchers and catchers reporting, the Soxaholix are back (and yeah, that Steinbrenner story had my gag reflex going too).

From multimediafriendly J.E. Skeets' new home, a Valentine card.

Via Deadspin, funniest thing I've read all week file: momentous world events covered by the blogosphere's favourite ESPN.com punching bag.

Tim Farrell has a couple of lookalike pairs. Hey, what's a chock-a-blog Thursday without lookalikes?

From dog to Darko

We're late today. Apologies all around, work got in the way, and these aren't even morning links anymore. They're more like cold sausages in congealed grease:

The other night I was watching the Raptors game and switched over during the ads to the Westminster dog show -- at which one of our two dogs (the stupid one, as opposed to the less-stupid one), immediately perked up, jumping down on to the carpet and bouncing happily up to the front of the TV set, where she stood up on her back legs and waved as the toy group went through their paces.

Dog TV. It's incredible. As anyone who has watched Best in Show knows. Joe Garagiola might be gone from the broadcast, but Westminster lives on, with a new top dog crowned last night:

... In the end, best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show went to a breed that hasn't won since 1918: a Colored Bull Terrier.
His owners, Tom and Barbara Bishop of Homedale, N.J., screamed, wept and all but collapsed in the stands when the tall dapper Canadian judge walked toward their dog Rufus bearing the coveted purple and gold ribbon and silver trophy.
''This is like having Lance Armstrong for a son,'' said Tom, a 50-year-old chemical plant maintenance supervisor in a corduroy jacket.

(With those details and that touch of snooty irony, this report almost seems like it came straight out of Best in Show).

Also today, Darko Mlicic appears to be on the verge of coming out from hiding in an Auburn Hills bunker and being traded to Orlando (Does this mean the blog has to be renamed "Darko Freed"?)

There's a sidenote to this that will at least temporarily make any Raptors fan toss off a novenna or two: If the Raps had have won a slightly better ping-pong ball nearly three years ago -- if they had have selected third higher than fourth, in other words -- they were all set to take Darko and leave Chris Bosh out there. Instead they ended up in the No. 4 slot. Now, can you imagine where this team would be if they had have "done better" in the 2003 lottery -- Nashville, maybe?

Oh, and one other thing. Cato, who is said to be headed to the Pistons, has a pet python named Skippy. Or at least he did.

Tomorrow morning I'll be back with an all-blog edition of the morning links, so if you have a blog post you think deserves consideration, let me know.

And I can hardly wait, but I'll be live-blogging the draw for the Sprewell bobblehead later tomorrow morning, before live-texting the Canada-Germany game on the website in the afternoon. It never stops around here.

Live texting the hockey

Just a note to let you know that, starting Wednesday morning bright and early (7 a.m. Toronto time; 5 a.m. Salt Lake City time, for all you readers there), I'll be live-texting the Canada vs. Italy men's hockey opener.

Here's your mascot.

(Note: Being a bit of a snob, I don't call it live blogging because it also functions as a news story on the website, without the unlimited means of hotlinks and open comments and all the goodies that make for a real blog. But if you wanna call it a blog -- hey, go right ahead).

Here's the schedule of the games I'll be doing. Of course everyone's invited:

Wednesday: Men, Canada v Italy, 7 a.m.
Thursday: Men, Canada v Germany, 2 p.m.
Friday: Women, semifinal, Canada v Finland or U.S., time TBA.
Monday Feb. 20: Women's final, 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday Feb. 21: Men, Canada v Czech Republic, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday Feb. 22: Men, quarterfinal, time TBA.
Friday Feb. 24: Men, semifinal, time TBA.

And of course, that's the official JABS prop Olympic mascot, fresh off scooping all the dough (again!) in the annual Super Bowl party.

Updating the NBA's list, updated

Okay, I'm busy these two weeks, so busy I'm lame-ducking it, posting this in advance 'cause I have to keep up with the latest results from Italy. How busy?

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Another MVP-worthy season, and Top-60 consideration, for Steve Nash.

I'm 'Zo-not-reporting it.

I'm chaining myself to the locker and never going there busy.

I'm East Bay funk-dunkin' and lovin' myself even more for it busy (A nice catch from True Hoop, perfectly in keeping with the theme here).

That Spree bobblehead chase has got it going on, though, keeping this blog ticking over nicely. And along with a gathering push for one Steve Nash, it even resulted in a J.E. Skeets missive, and how reassuring is that, Skeets having been a little under the weather of late -- so under the weather, in fact, that he doubled his blog empire. Here's how the early returns look for the 10 available additions to the original NBA's 50 Greatest list:

Unanimous (9 votes): Kobe, Duncan

Very Strong: Dominique 8, Iverson 7, McAdoo 7, Garnett 6

Lukewarm: Kidd 4, Reggie Miller 4, Nash 4, Rodman 4, Nowitzki 3, Payton 3, Dumars 2

Single votes: Alex English, McGrady, Wade, Nobody but Shaq and Wilt, Petrovic, The Bonzi/Bowen hybrid, Muggsy Bogues, Manute Bol, Chris Mullen, Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek (and his ear tug), Bob Lanier, Bernard King, Adrian Dantley, Connie Hawkins, Chet Walker, Ben Wallace.

Still time to get a vote in if you haven't. With all the vote-switching going on I'm really on the fence about Reggie, Kidd and GP. Keep having these second thoughts about this guy.

UPDATE:

Just delivered, here's TNT's Top 20, out of which they'll select their 10 additions:

Walt Bellamy, Alex English, Dennis Johnson, Reggie Miller, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Adrian Dantley, Connie Hawkins, Bernard King, Gary Payton, Joe Dumars, Allen Iverson, Bob Lanier, Dennis Rodman ,Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Bob McAdoo, Dominique Wilkins.

Looks like they've been reading here. No mention of Bonzi Bowen, but only D.J. is one y'all missed.

Replay, Raptors, Ruggerio

It's the morning links, just happy to be here:

Olympic flagellation update: Yesterday was Wayne Gretzky's big send-off before heading to Turin for another round of the self-fulfilling prophecy of that all-purpose sports media buzzword, "distractions". Meantime, Jeremy Wotherspoon is getting it from all sides, the poor man. And Angela Ruggerio, the American defenceman who is quoted as criticizing Canada's women's team for running up the score, hasn't mentioned any of that yet on her blog (Thanks to James Mirtle for those latter couple of links).

The Raptors win their third in a row, beating the Timberwolves, and they face the plummeting Knicks next, before going on all-star break (and not to put a whammy on 'em or anything, but look at the standings and the p-word is almost in sight).

LotN: Has to be LeBron James' 44 points as the Cavs beat the Spurs.

Coming soon to the CFL: Instant replay, and former White Sox hot prospect Joe Borchard.

Chelsea and Barcelona are a week away from renewing their Champions League rivalry, but it's never too early to let the games begin as Barca moans about the Stamford Bridge pitch. And from the Chelsea-rumoured-to-be-interested-in file, add Samuel Eto'o.

With big swells, ripped sails and a cracked head on a daggerboard, the Volvo Ocean Race is getting interesting.

And finally, a request from e-mailer Rusty Shackleford:

"You know how CBC is using studios here to broadcast coverage of Olympics? Well, last night ... did anybody catch Brian Williams as they came back to him from some spot and he obviously didn't know ? ... He was caught on camera for a couple of seconds practising what I can only surmise was his version of that Gene Simmons guy from KISS ... They quickly went to BLANK and then a commercial ... I wonder if any techos can get copies of this TONGUE WAGGING ... It was hilarious."

KoBay

The NBA was quick to jump on Kobe Bryant's 81-point night against the Raptors three weeks back. But they weren't the only ones. Terapeak, a company that tracks eBay transactions, notes that Bryant items spiked dramatically after the game.
As for the Raptors, they were losers in so many more ways than one:

EBay auctions in the week following the game for the Toronto Raptors had a 60% decrease in total sales from $15,317 to $6,388. The average price decreased by 44% from $88 to $50. Raptor fans also stopped buying team merchandise in droves as there were 50% less bids than the week before.

I'm waiting for the Chris Bosh bobbleheads to hit the market, along the Rob Babcock autographed, officially licensed Rafael Araujo commemorative draft night plaques doorstops. That ought to reverse this tide.

And on to a reminder: the windows will be open until Thursday morning as we count it down to the NBA's All-Star Weekend in Houston. A Latrell Sprewell bobblehead to the randomly-drawn entrant who gives us their 10 additions to the NBA's 50 Greatest list.

The Endulkar of the world as we know it

Dedicated to everyone already sick of the Olympics, here are your morning links -- zero per cent trans fats, low in cholestorol (all but the bad stuff, of which it is stuffed) AND zero per cent citius altius fortius:

Newsflash. Chelsea is calling on Canada's Christine Sinclair and Tiffeny Milbrett of the U.S. to rescue them from relegation. (Chelsea, relegation. There's two words you don't hear next to each other very often).

Going to the World Cup? Don't even think of doing this.

That wiretap of Wayne Gretzky? Chalk it up as another New Jersey police leak to the media that was considerably less than advertised. 

LotN, NBA division: It's all Dwayne Wade, all the (crunch) time as the Heat rally to beat the (now barely) league-leading Pistons. NHL division: Gotta be Jaromir Jagr, first to 40 goals, even if his first of two Saturday against Leafs was a case of failing Belfoursight. (And with the Olympic (oops! sorry!) break upon the NHL, arrivederci, Leafs. I really mean that. Don't hurry back on my account.)

With nothing but away games until March 1, the Raptors said farewell to the ACC with a crushing of the Blazers.

Mike Weir wilts at Pebble Beach, or as it used to be called, the Clambake -- even though no clams were ever harmed in the making of it.

The NFL season is over. Now Shaun Alexander starts on next season.

The Times wants to stop diving, and asked Premier League clubs to support them. All but four clubs said no.

Say it ain't so: India's cricket megastar may be slowing toward the finish line, or as the newspaper headlines are calling it: "Endulkar".

Updating the NBA's 50 Best

Time to wrap it up around here, as is the normal Friday custom:

E-mailer Bob Brown sends in a note about the NBA's upcoming All-Star weekend coverage, including TNT's addition of 10 more players to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list of a decade ago -- actually, it was nine years ago, but never let the facts get in the way of a debate, good or otherwise.

AP PHOTO/ANN HEISENFELT

Spree bobblehead up for grabs, and a Spree moment to mark it.

Anyway, Bob fell for it, and so did I, because I'm a sucker for lists: "I’d like to see Bob McAdoo added to the list for starters," says Bob. I'll second that, McAdoo being one of the most notable omissions when the list originally came out. And what about Dominique Wilkins? Is it his time? Or are those chips 'n salsa commercials with Isiah and Kareem just too fresh in our minds?

Who else? From the crowd that have dominated the NBA in the last decade, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant are cinches. Allen Iverson and Jason Kidd, too. What about Robert Horry? Steve Nash? Kevin Garnett? Shawn Bradley?

Ha. Almost caught you there, didn't I? Dirk or Ben Wallace?

Let's fill out the list, and if you want to really get creative, scratch who you figure should be taken off the original list of 50 (Dave Bing? notes Bob. Yes, Dave Bing, sez I. I saw him as a little shaver at MLG and he was worthy in my book). Send in your top 10 suggestions. I've got a Latrell Sprewell bobblehead to award to the one selected at random from the entries, and we'll see if we can come up with 10 names that get the most consideration. I'll keep it open till midweek next week, leading up to the all-star weekend beginning Feb. 17 in Houston.

I mean, a Spree bobblehead? Let the e-mail blizzard begin.

One last read  Two last reads: A couple of things from across the Atlantic this week, with Simon Jordan's latest Observer piece an instant classic. Regular readers know this kind of stuff hits me right between the eyes, the distance between the sports establishment and its core audience a real sore point (and along the same lines, did I tell you that Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has himself a blog -- thanks to Off Wing Opinion for the tip. I'm not holding my breath for the MLSE Board Blog):

It may sound glib, but a chairman really needs to know and to feel the culture of the game, to be a fan. Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough, Delia at Norwich, Milan Mandaric at Portsmouth: all single-minded, respected, committed fans. I'm not saying Milan grew up in Yugoslavia calling himself 'Pompey mush', but he gets fan culture.

Oh, Aki is back, and how:

Preparation is boring. So are footballers — we are not that exciting at all. At least I’m not, although I’ve been suggested to be a bit of a nutter. I’m just bang on boring most of the times. My highlight of the day on Fridays is to get skinny takeaway cappuccino from Starbucks.

One last look: Best long-range goals, Daft Punk providing the soundtrack. Amazing stuff, although it all becomes a blur after a while.

Breaking news: The NBA has named Gilbert Arenas is the injury replacement for Jermaine O'Neal. And apparently the Olympics are starting.

Sports around town: Big weekend for the U of T Blues, with Carleton in town on Friday and Ottawa on Saturday. Women at 6 both nights, and men's game at 8 -- couple of weeks ago, the guys were slapped down in the nation's capital and with the regular season finishing next Wednesday, these are rather large games.

Watching: Rangers at Leafs, 6 p.m. Saturday, CBC. With the Olympic break starting, this is the last time we'll see them for a while. Mind you, that's not an entirely bad thing.

Not watching: X-Games, 12:30 a.m. Saturday, TSN. After a full day of Olympics, am I really going to stay up half the night to watch more snowy high jinks?

Hair-raising

The morning links, invigorated by a dab of Propecia:

Same as Jose Theodore, matter of fact. Struggling Habs goalie tests positive for hair restorative/masking agent (and looking at that GAA, negative for puck-stopping). Proclaims innocence: "I always like my hair real long and I like to keep it long as long as possible." Dick Pound smirks: "It's amazing how many athletes around the world appear to be worried about losing their hair." The Olympics haven't even started yet, but at this rate it should be a riotous two weeks.

Wayne Gretzky says he didn't do it (bet) and he will do it (go to Turin).

Yeah, Turin. The Olympics opening ceremony goes today.

Bengie Molina checks into town, and has a few choice things to say about his old employers in Anaheim, while the Angels are surprised he's miffed. Shea Hillenbrand signs, too, so the Jays are all set.

Chris Bosh is an all-star.

ML LotN: Quiet night in NBA, so nothing much there. From the NHL, Alexei Kovalev -- hey, he's got some kind of flowing hair -- scores a pair including the OT winner as the Habs beat the Sabres in Buffalo. 

Cottoning to the Raptors' possible interest in Joel Przybilla, some Portland fans are taking it into their own hands (via True Hoop).

Alex McLeish is now officially a lame duck at Rangers, and the search is on for a new manager. Meantime, the English FA is talking about buying British for Sven's replacement, with Martin O'Neill the name candidate.