Stri Smarts

(NOTE: while the regular columnists are either knee-deep in job searches or master’s theses, our favorite (and only, so far) guest columnist has plenty of opinions…) 

Screw Borowski. I have more important things to talk about. There are so many interesting sports stories right now that I almost don’t know
where to start. Actually, I do know where to start:

1) The Lakers: Not too long ago, Kobe was making noise about wanting out of LA. In fact, the last time he was in a critical playoff game he was refusing to shoot because he was so unhappy about the poor level of talent he was surrounded with. Think about that for a second: Kobe basically blew a playoff game because he was unhappy in LA. Now, one (awesome) trade later, the Lakers look unstoppable. That’s an incredible turnaround, no? I mean, Gasol was the PERFECT fit. You can’t focus the entire defense on Kobe, because Gasol will slaughter you. And he distracts everyone enough that Lamar Odom can actually be useful again. It was an incredible trade that led to incredible results and I feel like it’s almost an under-reported story if that’s possible in LA.

2) The Knicks. The NBA’s other signature franchise finally parted ways with Isiah Thomas. To quote another pretty well known black dude “free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, we’re free at last.” Silver-spooned owner Jimmy Dolan finally did something right by hiring Donnie Walsh but he inherits possibly the worst situation in the history of sports: a terrible, god awful team, no salary cap room, an incredibly impatient fan base that won’t tolerate a rebuilding project, the stupidest owner, hell the stupidest rich person, hell the stupideset human, hell the stupisent non-retarded monkey on earth in Jimmy Dolan and, in addition to all that, Stephon Marbury. Good luck Donnie, you’re going to need it. Ladies and Gentleman, one final round of applause for the Isiah Thomas era!!

3) Speaking of moronic coaches, after Isiah was fired it opened up the “stupidest coach on the planet” spot. Thankfully, Doc Rivers was gracious enough to step-up and fill that role for us. Is there any universe in which the Hawks should be tied with the Celtics right now? No, there isn’t. Let’s put it this way, in sitting down to write this I tried to highlight the 5 most inane coaching decisions Doc has made in this serious and I realized it’s impossible to choose just five. So let’s just put it this way: Dear Doc, Please get off your knees and close your mouth – you’re blowing the series. Thank you, STRI.

4) Let’s talk some baseball and, while we’re on the subject of stupidity, everyone who know that giving Barry Zito a $126 million dollar contract was a terrible idea, please raise your hand. He look, 15 billion people just put their hands up. If you’re an owner, and your GM makes even one more as bad as that (or let’s say trading Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano) do you fire him on the spot? I do, and I have him escorted out by security. There was absolutely no defensible rationale for that contract.

5) For the second time in two years, a Carlos on the mets is having a big problem with the fans at Shea. This time it’s Delgado instead of Beltran. After hitting two home runs in one game yesterday Delgado, who has been booed consistently over the past month, refused to come out of the dugout and acknowledge the fans pleas for a curtin call. Carlos Beltran did the same thing last year. Which begs the question: As long as a player is playing hard, hustling, and trying to help the team win, should he ever be booed for poor performance? I think no. Players should only be booed by their own fans for lack of effort, refusing to play for the team that drafted you (J.D. Drew, Eli Manning) which should be universally booed, doing something absurd (Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Latrell Spreewell), or completely boneheaded (Chris Webber‘s timeout), cheating (bonds, clemens, mcguire, sosa), or failing to support a team member (Carlos Zambrano, Terrell Owens). Past that, you’re obligated as a fan to support your players. Just my opinion.

More to follow…