Bloggers first

(UPDATE: For more on the NHL gambling scandal, including links to this morning's latest update, Damien Cox's new blog, The Spin, is up and running on thestar.com)

The morning links, (Almost) All-Blogger Thursday edition, size XXL:

Detroit-based Beyond Boxscores comes down like a ton of torn tickets on alleged bookmaker Rick Tocchet, making the case for zero tolerance on sports gambling of any kind: "Why do I hold such an anti-gambling stance? I guess it's because I don't want there to be any indication that the sports we watch are contrived. I don't even want to consider the possibility that the miracles of sports history were, perhaps, not quite so miraculous."

Jes Golbez says what's the big deal?: "I don't give a rat's ass. I really don't."  To that, James Mirtle suggests there are 500,000 reasons to give an ass, rat or otherwise.

Down in Carolina, the Acid Queen bounces off Jes, head-fakes Mirtle and goes hard to the net:

"Unless the League does something serious in response to this to distance themselves from the people involved--even Wayne Gretzky, if it comes to that--then I really do think that there will be some serious and potentially irreparable damage done to what little image the NHL has left."

There's tons more out there, and it has Vancouver Canucks OpEd running for cover. Can't blame 'em.

Elsewhere, the Raptors went into overtime last night (again) and lost to the Spurs 125-118 (if nothing else this season, these Raptors are entertaining in their all-offence, no-D approach, the Spurs shooting an unbelievable-in-any-universe-but-the-Raptors' 59 per cent off Tony Parker's slashing setups). I'll take the blog rant lead: as good as Mike James' fourth quarter was (check out the Popcorn Machine's GameFlow -- James had 18 points in the fourth to go with two rebounds, two assists and a steal), his ball-hogging overtime period undermined it all. No Tim Duncan (out with flu), old pal Sean Marks (where'd he get that jump shot?) and Rasho Nesterovic fouled out, and James is still putting his head down and hell-bent driving? No wonder they didn't get a field goal in nine overtime possessions. Oh, one more thing: the just-like-old-times moment came when Antonio Davis missed a triple putback from two feet away late in regulation that would've avoided overtime entirely, but A.D. actually played all right in his 33 minutes, 12 over his season average.

Three more hoops items I've been holding in the queue: Raptors HQ has their usual excellent Euro roundup; and with Chris Bosh a cinch to be named to the all-star team tonight, here's a Bosh-KG parallelogram from Aaron Miller; and from Raptorblog, Scott Carefoot welcomes back Antonio Davis. (And yeah, it's not a blog, but I'll make an exception for Bill Simmons' latest, for the priceless Vince Carter yarn at No. 11 alone).

From the Morning News: In search of Puppy Bowl II.

And from the non-bloggers out there:

Morning links Lines of the Night are back! In the NBA, we give you Gilbert Arenas, coming to an All-Star Game near you: 45 points, with that 23 of 25 from the line setting a franchise record previously held by Moses Malone. And in the NHL, Flyers rookie Mike Richards steps up in lieu of missing Forsberg and Gagne with three goals on three shots, and Philly keeps pace with the streaking Rangers.

Team Canada update: Jay Bouwmeester in for Scott Neidermayer.

Team Egypt update: Mido -- the man, the moaner.

And finally, a Rome newspaper has come up with a novel approach to counter extremist Ultra fans: hand out copies of Life is Beautiful.

Comments

[Mark Freedman]

Another great game last night. I mean, it was fun to watch. Like the Clips the game before, it was entertaining. Sure the Raps lost, but you've got to like the game itself.

Mike James was on fire in the 4th, but stone cold in OT. I think the fact the Raps can't close out in close games is a coaching problem. When the hot man goes cold, they seem to still give leave it with the cold guy. Where are the plays in OT to get it to the franchise player? Bosh was unstoppable all game, raining 20 foot jumpers (Bosh is fast becoming a dominant power forward in the East. He's inside, he's outside. He can put it on the floor. He can do it all.) And yet, Mike James was barrelling head-down to the hoop in OT and where was Bosh? Standing around. I think Bosh should get WAY more touches. But James isn't a pass first PG. Actually, the Raptors are often at their best with Calderson and James together in the backcourt.

One more thing, Charlie V at three causes all sorts of mismatches when he's at the offensive end (sure he's not fast enough to guard true athletic 3's, but the Raps don't play D at all, so this is nothing new). Charlie V also has a pretty good post game. Why wasn't he posting up Mike Finley or Bruce Bowen or whoever the Spurs were sending at him. He has 20-30 lbs and 4-5 inches. And with Charlie V down low, Bosh could start up top. He was taking Nesterovic off the dribble and when given space, nailing the jumper with head fakes and step backs.

[Jlo]

"Why do I hold such an anti-gambling stance? I guess it's because I don't want there to be any indication that the sports we watch are contrived. I don't even want to consider the possibility that the miracles of sports history were, perhaps, not quite so miraculous."

Oh, come on! Sports are contrived by their very nature. This blogger is living in a fantasy land. At least, he thinks he's not, but he is, and doesn't want to be. Does it really matter if someone paid off the Super Bowl refs? I mean, the exciting part (according to cy's reportage--I didn't watch the thing) was the reverse. You can't fake that. Even if the Seahawks somehow "let" them get away with it, it must have been pretty cool to see.

Sports are a diversion. I keep saying this. Jez has got it right: rat's ass--don't have one for you, don't want one.

[Dave]

I can't help but agree 100% with Aaron Miller's suggestion that Bosh and KG are more than meets the eye. He's a pretty damn good writer too!