Sports of New York

Latest Look at ESPN’s Bracketology has Florida, Miami, Duke, Indiana as No. 1 Seeds

KC Downey — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:34:01 +0000

While ESPN’s Bracketology has no bearing on the actual seeding for the NCAA tournament when it is set next month, Joe Lunardi’s page often is a strong indicator of what we will likely see on our brackets. It would be awesome to bet on March Madness, as long as you check out the Bracketology page ahead of time.

The latest look has Florida, Miami (Fl), Duke and Indiana as the tournament’s No. 1 seeds.

The newest team added to this mock bracket is Stony Brook, who is on a roll, having won 10 of the last 12 games. Lunardi has Stony Brook penciled in as a No. 14 seed in the West bracket.

In all, the latest mock bracket includes seven teams each from the Big Ten and Big East conferences.

Whatever the bracket ends up being, I’m sure you’ll be likely filling out your own bracket. This also means you will probably be joining a pool (no gambling, of course…OK, never mind), whether it be at work, among friends, family or even in Vegas. Either way, you need to be prepared when filling the bracket out. This means being aware of the most likely upsets or Cinderella teams, knowing which No. 1 or 2 seeds you can trust…and knowing your competition in the pool.

ESPN The Magazine recently broke down the types of bracket-fillers you’ll meet in your office pool.

Among them…

“1) Overus-Analaticus
He comes into work with a manilla folder overflowing with cheat sheets and can tell you every team’s RPI and offensive and defensive efficiency. Every year he thinks he’s chosen the perfect bracket. Every year he’s wrong.”

Or…

“2) Safe-Pickia Non-Riskitus
Why pick upsets when they are so hard to predict? Slow and steady wins the race! At least until the #1 seeds start getting picked off.”

Click here for the fill list from ESPN The Magazine.

Mayor Bloomberg Cancels New York City Marathon due to Sandy

KC Downey — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:27:02 +0000

Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially canceled the New York City Marathon due to the continued cleanup efforts after Hurricane Sandy roared ashore earlier this week, flooding 42 miles of NYC subways and knocking out power to millions of homes on the East Coast. The storm is also responsible for more than 100 deaths in the U.S.

Originally, the mayor decided that the race would go on as scheduled on Sunday, but critics felt it was in poor taste to keep the marathon on despite the devastation.

What do you think of Bloomberg’s decision?

Photos: New Tim Tebow Girlfriend? Meet Actress Camilla Belle

KC Downey — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:21:46 +0000

Since the Jets aren’t very good and quarterback (maybe?) Tim Tebow barely plays, all the attention in New York is on his dating life.

It turns out: Tim Tebow’s girlfriend may be actress Camilla Belle, according to TMZ.

Here are some photos of Belle:

Mark Sanchez and Eva Longoria Dating? His New Girlfriend?

KC Downey — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:26:02 +0000

Wait…Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is dating Rays third baseman Evan Longoria? No way!

Yep, no way. He’s actually dating actress Eva Longoria, which may be just as shocking.

Longoria is 37 years old, or about 19 years older than Sanchez’s high-school girlfriend from a few years ago.

Not that the presence of Tim Tebow or Rex Ryan is distracting enough, Sanchez now has another Hollywood starlet to keep his focus from the football field.

Will that affect his performance on the field?

Video: Jason Pierre-Paul Dumps Prince Amukamara into Cold Tub in Hazing Incident

KC Downey — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:59:33 +0000

The video shows Giants stud defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul carrying corner Prince Amukamara and tossing him into an ice cold time while teammates egg him on.

Amukamara didn’t look to pleased getting dumped in the tub, and probably wasn’t thrilled the freakin’ punter, Steve Weatherford, took video and posted it on Twitter (it has since been removed).

Fair or foul? Is hazing OK when you’re an adult, or does it still suck as much as it does for teenagers?

Yankees Sign Derek Lowe

KC Downey — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:34:34 +0000

Looking for pitching depth after placing CC Sabathia on the DL, the Yankees dipped into the free agent pool and picked up 39-year-old right-hander Derek Lowe Saturday night.

Lowe was released by the Indians earlier this month after going 8-10 with a 5.52 ERA over 21 starts, but an 8.80 ERA over his last 12 starts.

The former Red Sox pitcher has agreed to pitch out of the bullpen for the Yankees, who will pay him the prorated portion of the major league minimum. The Indians will pay him a prorated portion of $5 million, while the Braves (who traded him during the offseason), will pick up a prorated portion of $10 million.

Hacked Yankees Facebook Page: Derek Jeter Will Miss Season After Sex Change

KC Downey — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:55:54 +0000

Yankees fans got a big scare Thursday when it was announced on the team’s official Facebook page that star shortstop Derek Jeter would miss the rest of the season.

Then, closer reading reveals the following:

“We regret to inform our fans that Derek Jeter will miss the rest of the season with sexual reassignment surgery. He promises to come back stronger than ever in 2013 as Minnie Mantlez.”

HAHA. Very clever. Clearly the team’s Facebook page was hacked. Right?

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Filed under: Featured, National, Now!, Top Story, Yankees.

Linsanity is Dead. Long Live Linsanity.

Evan S. Schwartz — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:38:53 +0000

Hey did you guys hear Jeremy Lin is leaving the Knicks?

But seriously, folks. The Knicks will officially lose the 23-year-old Lin today, thanks to a combination of financial reasons, ineptitude and logic, in equal parts.

Lin was the most polarizing athlete of the last year, non-Tebow category, with one big difference: the Lin Backlash never really arrived. Sure, he has his detractors. But in general it seemed like the entire world was rooting for the plucky Ivy League upstart to rescue the sad sack franchise from its evil, “thug” superstar.

There’s no need to rehash the story – we all know it by heart, and by “we” I mean, well, just about everyone and their mother. The Garden was electric, the jerseys flew off the shelves and the Knicks were relevant in a positive light for the first time in more than a decade. Lin was a global sensation, and no price was too high to pay for him.

Except $25 million. That is how much the Rockets will pay for him for the next three years, or about a third of the price it would cost the Knicks, depending on who you use as a source. Given the gordian nature of the NBA salary cap, it’s unclear what the exact price for three years of Lin would have cost NY. What is indisputable is that the Rockets extended Lin an offer sheet that was purposely backloaded in order to make the Knicks’ decision as difficult as possible, and Lin signed that offer sheet knowing full well that it would most likely signal the end of his short tenure in New York.

Carmelo Anthony called it “ridiculous,” and despite the fact that he is quickly emerging as the villain in this whole delicate ballet/fiasco, we all know he’s right. The contract IS ridiculous: no one who has played in so few games should make as much or more than X player or Y player, especially someone coming over major knee surgery who was undrafted and about as close to the NBA unemployment line as humanly possible before catching fire. Of course, the flipside is that Lin is worth X amount of money to the Knicks, with Y amount of goodwill, and even if he sucks by Year Three he’s still a marketing bonanza and well worth the tens of millions of dollars in luxury tax and James Dolan is a rich jerk and this is a classic Knicks mistake and blah blah blah.

This was a perfect storm of bad press for the Knicks: a week devoid of sports news, a figure who transcends sports, a deluge of unsourced rumors leading to rampant speculation leading to a million and one opinions.

My opinion? I… I just don’t care. It’s over at this point, and the masses of bandwagon fans who snapped up #17 Linsanity shirts will probably take the tags off their #15 Tebow Jets tshirts next month and forget all about Lin as he lingers in Houston. It was a great story, it’s over now, and Lin will get a fresh start in a new city under enormous pressure to perform.

Honestly, would he have wanted to come back to this Knicks team? Beyond the disrespect he most certainly felt and will almost certainly reveal in the next few days, he would have paired with a 39-year-old drunk guy and a thrice-traded fat guy for quite possibly the worst defensive backcourt in the league. His good buddy, former couch-lender and Bible study partner Landry Fields has already escaped to the Great White North, replaced by… well, no one really. The smell of Old Spice and death will pervade the Knicks locker room next season, thanks to the partially exhumed carcasses of Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas, who combine to about 14 feet and 80 years. Amare’ Stoudemire, who embraced his newfound Jewish faith last year by immediately having back problems, will continue to alternate between wearing a suit on the bench and strapping gallons of ice to his knees. J.R. Smith will continue to jack up shots, and when his knee heals, so will Iman Shumpert. Steve Novak will most likely return to earth after draining threes NBA Jam-style last season. Tyson Chandler will again have a scraggly beard and yell a lot.

And Carmelo Anthony, the prodigal son, the guy who killed Linsanity forever and helped relegate the Knicks to No. 2 in New York behind the upstart Brooklynites of Atlantic Avenue, will probably be roundly booed for most of the next season.

Ok, step back from that ledge, my friend. I mean, honestly, we could be Kings fans. Or (shudder) Sonics fans. We could be Bobcats fans, secretly hoping our team owner suits up instead of pretending to be a rock star. We could be Magic fans – easily the most bumbling franchise around since their Finals trip, a team that has collected several of the absolute worst contracts in basketball history in the past few years. But we aren’t. We chose the Knicks, for proximity reasons or familial reasons or by drawing straws or picking frozen envelopes. This isn’t blood in, blood out. You’ve got a perfectly good team across the river with a cool logo and a new arena that probably doesn’t smell like stale Rheingolds from 1973.

Look, the Knicks will win some games next year. I’d say about 48 wins sounds right, which may put them in the fifth seed depending on how things shake out with the Celtics, Pacers, Nets and Magic. They will lose in the first round, which probably would have happened Lin or no Lin. Carmelo might average 40 points a game next year, in a lot of 100-40 Knicks losses. Would Lin have really rescued this team? No. Would he have made them relevant? Sure. But he probably, PROBABLY would have inspired a ton of blog posts written from iPad 5s in 2014 about how stupid the Knicks were to re-sign a guy on the strength of a quarter of a season to a contract that paid him more than Rajon Rondo. Of course, he still won’t have made as much as Goran Dragic, or Brook Lopez, or Gerald Wallace, or Nicolas Batum.

Ugh. On second thought, fuck James Dolan.

Knicks Notebook: Landry Fields Gets Offer, Iman Shumpert Recovering

Edward Gutleber — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:13:36 +0000

The Knicks still need to address their defense somehow. For that reason alone, Jared Jeffries might be brought back. If not, there are certainly some other defensive oriented role players available via free agency from which the Knicks can consider.

Landry Fields (a restricted free agent) has an offer from the Toronto Raptors (3 years, $18 million). That offer the Knicks can also match, though that’s probably not something the Knicks are enticed to do.

Iman Shumpert (knee surgery) has begun the initial steps in his rehabilitation process following surgery to repair his torn ACL. Even though he’s a a little ahead of schedule, it is still likely he’s going to miss all of, if not most, of the first-half of the season.

Jason Kidd Chooses Knicks, Jeremy Lin Gets Offer from Rockets

Edward Gutleber — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:13:12 +0000

In a fairly surprising turn of events, future Hall of Fame free agent point guard Jason Kidd has agreed to sign with the New York Knicks – and not return to the Dallas Mavericks, a team he helped win a championship with in 2011. Kidd, 39, is expected to receive a three-year deal from New York worth an upwards of $10 million. Given his age and mileage, Kidd no longer possesses the intangibles he once did (has averaged only 7.1 points and 6.9 assists per game the past two seasons), but he can provide the Knicks with a much needed veteran presence in the locker room and on the floor, running the half-court offense and knocking down the occasional trey.

The Knicks are still amisdt sorting out the situation with their own (restricted) free agent point guard, Jeremy Lin. According to reports, Lin has agreed in principle to a contract offer he’s received from the Houston Rockets (said to be 4 years, nearly $30 million). The Knicks have until the end of next week to match that offer in order to retain him. It is widely expected the Knicks will do just that, despite the recent acquisition of Kidd.

Kidd had been a mainstay for Dallas as their starting at point guard ever since he was acquired via trade from the New Jersey Nets during the 2007-08 season. According to various reports, there was plenty of mutual interest between Kidd and Dallas for a new deal to get done. But instead, Kidd opted to go a different direction and will be headed for New York, where he will put the finishing touches on his storybook career.

But at this stage in his career, Kidd is not going to be able to handle regular minutes anymore (he has averaged 30.1 minutes per game the past two seasons). If Lin is retained, Kidd would realistically see no more than 20 minutes a game – regardless of who the starter is – which in all likelihood would be Lin. Kidd would help improve the Knicks in facets Lin has shown inconsistencies in, such as offensive fluidity and cohesiveness. Keep in mind, Lin and the birth of “Lin-Sanity” was at its prime when Knicks’ stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire were on the mend. Upon their return, Lin was unable to adapt to a more isolation-paced offense, and began to struggle, particularly with a reckless rate of turnovers.

Kidd would undoubtedly be a tremendous mentor for Lin, who should benefit greatly from some first-rate point guard tutelage. Reports have surfaced that the potential relationship with Lin factored into Kidd’s decision making process, as Kidd eagerly awaits the opportunity to play the role of teacher. Lin is still developing, and if he can mirror Kidd’s style of play and combine it with his uncanny quickness and elusiveness, the Knicks are going to be that much tougher to defend against.

Kidd, is no stranger to playing alongside an elite scorer (or, for a lack of a better term, ball-hog), a spot-up 3-point shooter, a pick-and-roll (or pop) partner and paint-dwelling big man, all on the floor at once. Tyson Chandler, who was apart of that championship Dallas team with Kidd, would attest to that. The Mavericks championship team starting five of Kidd (floor general), Dirk Nowitzki (scorer), DeShawn Stevenson (spot-up), Shawn Marion (p & r partner) and Chandler (paint dweller) are a similar offensively skilled squad the Knicks potentially will have alongside Kidd as floor general in Anthony, J.R. Smith (if retained), Stoudemire and Chandler, respectively.