The Weekend that Was

In the past I have tried to have weekly posts about the same thing whether it be answering emails or having power rankings but they never seem to work out.  However I have not been deterred and have decided to start another regular post entitled "The Weekend that Was."  Now I know its technically Tuesday as I am writing this but who cares.  It was Family Day in Canada today so technically this was a long weekend.  Either way lets get to some topics.

All-Star Weekend

Brutal from start to finish.  First off the H-O-R-S-E event wasn't even televised in Canada and when I saw the highlights I was anything but impressed.

Secondly, Cheryl Miller shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a microphone.  The woman cannot conduct a good interview.  She got to interview LeBron James about his decision to join the Dunk Contest in 2010 and it seemed like an akward conversation with a fan.  No charisma or attitude at all.  

Third, Jason Kapono not winning the 3 point contest was real disappointing.  Instead it was won by some bench player for Miami named Daquean Cook who, just in case you weren't watching, went to Ohio State (mentioned about 50 times).   Why are Ray Allen and Dirk Nowitzki not in this thing anymore?

Fourth, Dwight Howard.  If you are going to bring out a 12 foot rim to show how high you can jump you gotta at least do a nice dunk on it.  Guy just jumped straight up and did a 2 handed flush.  real impressive.  You're 6'11 with like 9 foot arms and you can dunk on a bigger net.  Come on Dwight you're better than that.  Also the announcers for this contest could not be more biased.  I thought Rudy Fernandez's dunks were pretty sick and they were giving him shit.  How bout you get out there and lace em up Kenny Smith.  Keep chirping from the cheap seats pal.

Fifth, Bill Russell was given a tremendous honor as the MVP of the NBA Finals will now win the Bill Russell award.  I thought this was a real classy move as Bill Russell is one of the greatest to play the game and is a real class act himself.  During his interview he claimed that the proudest moment of his playing career was being named the Captain of the Boston Celtics.  Great guy and a great honor that didn't get enough attention.

Lastly, the game itself was typical.  Lots of scoring with very little defense.  However the highlight of the whole evening was when Chris Paul tried to dunk but got stuff by the rim (couldn't find the video on youtube but I am sure it's out there).

Daytona 500

Who cares right?  The race was ended early cause of rain and the guy who won is not a big name in the "sport."  But hey another great event NASCAR!

Firings

Both Jerry Porter and Michael Therrien both were fired over the weekend.  Porter had been the coach of the Pheonix Suns for 4 months and was fired cause he promised defense and didn't bring it.  He also lost the offense along the way.  Therrien was fired after the Pittsburgh Penguins embarrassing 6-2 loss to the Leafs on Saturday night.  Hard to believe that only months ago Therrien was 2 games away from winning the Stanley Cup with the Pens.  Now he is unemployed.  Crazy world.

Dave Dameshek

Over the course of the weekend I had an email conversation with ESPN writer Dave Dameshek who is a regular on the BS Report and has his own podcast on espn.com.  he is currently doing a series where he discusses the best jerseys fans can wear on a city by city basis.  I emailed him my suggestions for Toronto (Joe Carter, Doug Gilmour, Doug Flutie, and Damon Stoudamire) and was surprised to find he responded fairly quickly saying he hadn't thought of Flutie.  Always nice to know these guys actually read your emails.  I challenge someone to come up with a better pick for the Raptors than Damon Stoudamire.