Cyber Max

It took awhile, but every NBA free agent eventually found his way to a team. Curry is with the Knicks, Allen is with the Sonics, Johnson is with the Hawks, and free agency is pretty much over. WaitI’m forgetting someone. Hey, where’s Latrell Sprewell? Yes, Minnesota’s separation of Cassell and Sprewell has gone so well that Sprewell isn’t even in the NBA right now. In fact, he might never come back.



Just how bad was Sprewell’s season last year: how about no-job bad. In a Marketing Evaluations Q-rating for sports athletes, Spree was dead last, that’s right, the worst. First came his quote about having to feed his family with a $14.6 million salary. Then there was an incident where he cursed out a Clippers fan within earshot of television cameras. Finally there was the chemistry issues mixed with his T-wolves teammates and his horrible production that kept Minnesota out of the playoffs one year past from having the best record in the league.



Sprewell had the absolute worst year of his career last year, suffering career-lows in Points, Rebounds, Assists and Minutes Per Game. Combine that with his unforgettable altercation with P.J. Carlisemo and the high contract he’d surely demand, and the Nuggets, Clippers and Lakers have all stopped taking phone calls. And lets face it; Spree is the one guy (who if he were still playing) that has a worst reputation than Ron Artest. Except, Sprewell doesn’t act as innocent as Artest does.



Hold on a minute; maybe we’re being a little too quick to jump the gun. Let’s let Sprewell speak for himself: “I stopped at Cub Foods for the first time since 1991 and picked up six packages of Pork Ramen for 78 cents. I barely had enough for the 58-cent box of Best Yet Mac and Cheese, but we’ll just pinch our pennies for the next day or so.” Now that was pretty moronic, but let’s see if we can go a step higher: and I quote: “One of my boys got teased by a sixth grade girl on the bus, that stupid little whore.” There we go. And yet, people don’t seem to like him. A real head-scratcher.



Overall, Sprewell might not play at all this season, and he deserves no excuses. Choking a coach is more than enough to get you thrown out, but he got a second chance. Sure he did okay at first in New York, but he’s really collapsed since then. A guy as separated from the real world as anyone, Spree turns 36 in 2006. Getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball is a hell of a privilege, and Spree has worn out his welcome. No team will dare pick him up, because of the negative press they’d receive. Not only that, but it was Latrell Sprewell who monopolized those stupid rim-spinners on cars (AKA Sprewells). Add it all up, and that $7 million extension the Wolves offered him a year ago is starting to look awfully good now, especially if he never plays again.

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Tags: basketball coaching, basketball violence, latrell sprewell, nba 2005 2006 season, sports recapbasketball coaching, basketball violence, latrell sprewell, nba 2005 2006 season, sports recap

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In the AFC South look for the Jacksonville Jaguars to nip at the heels of the Colts for most of the season but in the end the Colts with an improved defense must be given the nod to win the division. Colt HC Tony Dungy had to do something with his defense given the fact that they were ranked 28th overall in the NFL last season and allowed a whopping 237 yards per game thru the air which ranked them 26th in pass defense, Dungy came through in a big way by drafting five defensive players within his first six selections and three of those picks were used on defensive backs.

The Colts top draft pick this year was used on CB Marlin Jackson out of Michigan, with their second pick they drafted CB Kelvin Hayden out of Illinois, Jackson should be an instant starter while Hayden will in all likelihood be used in nickel packages, with their fifth selection the Colts took S Matt Giordano out of California for depth and help on special teams.

When you had the best passing attack in the NFL in 2004 and overall averaged 404.4 yards per game on offense its no small wonder that the Colts didn’t tinker much on this side of the ball, however, the Colts were indeed fortunate to finish the 2004 campaign with a straight up record of 13-5 overall when considering just how bad their defense was in allowing an average of 366.1 total yards per game which of course is the reason why Colt contests exceeded the posted total in 12 of 18 outings last year.

Jacksonville was the opposite of Indianapolis with regard to not allowing a lot of points but then they didn’t score a lot of points either, as a matter of fact 12 of the Jags 16 outings in 2004 dipped UNDER the posted total and according to the ole history book the Jags have now failed to score 30 points or more in their past 50 straight contests, with QB Byron Leftwich back under center and a year of experience under his belt I would look for the Jags to score more points this season, however, keep in mind that HC Jack Del Rio is and always will be a defense first coach that likes to play conservative on offense.

Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Houston have the distinction of being in a three way tie for having the 13th toughest schedule in the NFL for the 2005 season based on their opponents 2004 final win/loss records, this does not bode well for Jacksonville and Houston who are trying to unseat the Colts for the top spot.

Houston has improved their seasonal win/loss total each of the past three years since their 2002 NFL debut and it would not surprise me to see this Texan team win 8 or 9 games in 2005 and possibly take the second spot in the divisional standings when its all said and done. What looks to hold these young Texans back in 2005 is the fact that they are in the same division as the Colts and Jags.

Texan QB David Carr has proven he can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ when considering that he was sacked 49 times last season, this same offensive line was responsible for most of the injuries that Texan RB’s absorbed in 2004 and this weakness will probably prove to be Houston’s downfall once again in 2005 as they have not taken steps to correct this fault.

If these young Texans can stay healthy this season and improve their offensive line play they will indeed surprise some folks, however, look for these Texans to tire coming down the stretch as they will take their bye early in the season during the third week of the schedule and must play three of their final five games on the road and in this same span will play much improved Arizona and Jacksonville teams at home.

The Titans finished last years campaign with a 5-11 straight up and ATS record which was by far the worst finish under HC Jeff Fisher during his tenure. The good news for the Titans is that they had a pretty good draft which should give them a much needed shot of youth on their roster, the bad news is that they are still in salary cap hell for this upcoming season which is the reason why they were so quiet in the free agent wars.

With the being said, Titan HC Jeff Fisher is still one of the very best coaches in the league and always seems to get the most out of his troops. Although I see Tennessee once again finishing up in the cellar I believe there will be many opportunities to win some wagers this season with these Titans, however, these opportunities will probably not present themselves until after the first four weeks of the new season.

Tennessee opens their season against four playoff teams from 2004 when they take on the likes of Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St Louis, and Indianapolis in their first four outings, all four games will in all likelihood be marked in the loss column which will create “Value” when they play their next five games against non playoff teams prior to taking their bye during week 10 of the 2005 season.

Jim Campbell is one of the nations most respected Sports Handicappers, he specializes in College and Pro Football, you can visit Jim at his website located at footballforecastor.com for all of your handicapping needs including free play selections, College and NFL stats, trends and award winning analysis on upcoming games.

With over 30 plus years experience in the handicapping profession Jim has built a solid reputation, his web based handicapping service at footballforecastor.com has been in existence since 1997 and year after year proves to be one of the very best handicapping services in America.

Tags: 2005 AFC projections, angles, football stats, handicappers, n, NFL statistics, sports experts, trends2005 AFC projections, angles, football stats, handicappers, n, NFL statistics, sports experts, trends

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It’s the Scots fault.

Curling was a great loch sport until the end of the ice age. After that, the lochs absolutely refused to freeze. Now it’s a great refrigerated ice sport. We have about 15,000 Americans playing the slide-the-stone game.

We have curling in Idaho. You can read about our curling clubs at http://www.cityofboise.org/parks/Iceworld/curling.htm.

Read the exciting history of the exciting sport of curling at http://www.usacurl.org/basics/history_of_curling.htm.

Curling is an Olympic sport. That started in 1998. Right this minute I’m watching curling on television. The United States just beat Denmark 8 to 3. How very exciting.

Curling is somewhat like shuffleboard. That’s the game played by old people like me on some cruise ships and in some city parks. In curling you slide a stone too-heavy-to-left along the ice. Once the stone is rushing down the “runway” at about one mile per year, others sweep in front of the stone. Teammates yell words of encouragement to the sweepers.

I’m not sure what sweeping does. Does it polish the ice so that the stone will go faster in the direction of the sweep? Does it roughen the ice to slow the stone down? What is a curl anyway? This calls for research.

A quick Google search shows the official rules of curling. Read them at http://www.usacurl.org/Media/Press%20Kit/WCFRules.htm.

Under section 4: Stones, we learn that “(2) No stone, including handle and bolt, shall be of greater weight than 19.96 kilograms (44 lbs.) or of greater circumference than 91.44 centimeters (36 inches) or of less height than 11.43 centimeters (4.5 inches).“

Let’s say you have a stone that is 3-feet in circumference. Dividing by π we get a maximum diameter of 11.459129 (ignoring the fact that I used π to only 5 significant figures). Anyway, that looks about like the diameter they use in the Olympics. I think that means wider the better.

My television just switched to the Westminster Dog Show. What’s as fun to watch as curling is the trainers running the dogs around the arena.

I have to stop here for a minute because they are showing the sporting group. Go have a cup of coffee. I’ll be back as soon as I see which family-loving bundle of energy with the highly-developed sense of smell wins the group. Did you know that the German Shorthair Pointer has questionable lineage? Wow, that Brittany is a beauty.

Back to the very exciting game of curling.

Wow! That’s a nice Chesapeake!

Occasionally a stone gets broken in curling. I’ve never seen it happen but that would be a very exciting moment in the sport. If a stone breaks, one must then decide which fragment is the largest. Once that is carefully determined, a new stone is placed in its spot. The game then continues-but things will never be the same.

The Golden Retriever is one of the most loved dogs in the world.

I don’t know how this would ever happen in curling but if a stone rolls over onto its side or its top, is shall immediately be removed. It would take Paul Bunyan to accomplish this feat.

The English setter is often an object of art. They can come in orange or lemon as well as other colors.

In curling if the handle comes off the stone, after a good laugh, the stone, if desired, may be replayed. I think that requires a new stone but I’m not sure of that.

In curling you must release the stone. If you don’t, you will look silly sliding down the runway. By the way, the term runway is not used in curling as far as I know but you know what I mean.

The Black Cocker Spaniel “is black” according to the Westminster Dog Show announcer.

A player in curling must not doodle around when it is his or her turn. The skip is the teams boss. The skip must not put up with slowpokes. One must get that stone “running.”

The English springer spaniel has a history in the White House.

According to the rules of curling there is no purpose in sweeping in front of a stationary stone. That will not get it moving. And you must not sweep in front of an opponent’s stone. That would be rude.

The Irish Water Spaniel has a rat tail. They don’t like strangers. When I was a kid, my friend, Paul, had a water spaniel. Believe me, they don’t like anybody.

In curling, you must not tackle the opposing sweepers while they are trying to sweep. Sweepers must not damage the ice with their brooms.

The Spinoni Italiano is tireless. He was developed in Italy. He likes pepperoni on his pizza.

In curling there will be no switching brooms or brushes in the middle of the game. If your broom or brush breaks, you must replace it with the exact type of broom or brush.

Section 12 of the curling rules tell you how to score. I’ll let you figure that out for yourself. There is to be no smoking, drug-use, or profanity in curling. What a nice clean sport.

The Golden Labrador Retriever, “America’s dog,” won the Sporting Group.

The Hound Group is next.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.dumbincome.com

Tags: Curling, dog, Olympics, rules of curling, sporting dogs, Sports, Westminster dog showCurling, dog, Olympics, rules of curling, sporting dogs, Sports, Westminster dog show

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