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As you all know about the scandal a few months back, it is something that the NBA is going to have to recover from and try not to allow such a thing to happen.

Looking at the NBA Scandal

The main point in it has to do with fixing outcomes in order to better serve ratings and earn more revenue. This season of course had the Lakers and Celtics but we know who won that one being the Boston Celtics. Now, I'm not going to claim this is true but if it is, it does taint the NBA championship and would really lead to more discouragement from other cities. The main points being brought up on this would be the 2002 Western Conference Finals matchup with the Kings and Lakers and the Lakers getting so many free throw shots and "phantom" fouls to give them a victory crushing the Kings confidence and of course LA won the championship that year. I remember that game and thought it was a bad game to be a referee.


I forget what the other game was but I think it was a game with the Spurs and Suns in 2005 I believe. I will have to double check.

Now why is this going to impact every sport you can find? Well, think about this for a minute. Have you seen games where really bad calls had been made and it seems to be favoring one team or the other? I'm sure at one point you have but because of this scandal, it could lead to speculation of whether the game was fixed. Granted, it probably isn't deserving but it will lead to that.

Think about it in baseball for instance. It could happen there and I've seen games outcomes messed up by one bad call in the later innings. It is annoying but you can't expect perfection. To go for that would be ridiculous and even though there is some Instant Replay, it isn't perfect at all. The system will make mistakes as well.


Sometimes a penalty or a bad call will end up costing a team a game. We saw that game with the Chargers and Broncos with controversy. The ref has owned up to it and apologized so it wasn't an intentional error. It could be other games that it could happen too.

I'm not saying it's going to happen for sure but you have to be careful. I would not want to be a ref or an umpire for example. Those are jobs that quite frankly would be extremely difficult to get everything right. You can't expect it despite having Instant Replay involved. The impact will be large because of the perception of fixed games will show its ugly face.
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Lance Armstrong Will Race in 2009 Tour de France

Lance Armstrong image
VeloNews and ESPN are reporting that sources close to the situation have told them that soon to be 37 year old Lance Armstrong is coming out of retirement to ride in five road races.

He will join the Astana team and receive no salary or bonuses. His manager Mark Higgins would not comment. Armstrong’s comeback will be chronicled in an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair that will come out later this month.

Last month Armstrong raced through the Colorado Rockies in the Leadville Trail 100. He came in just behind six-time defending champ, Dave Wiens. To keep himself fit he has also run in the New York and Boston marathons, and is entered in the upcoming Chicago marathon in October.

He will run in four tune-up races prior to the Tour de France. They are; the Amgen Tour of California, the Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere, followed by the Tour.

ESPN also said that Armstrong has posted all of his blood work results on his web site to dispute any notion of doping or other substances.

I don’t really see any reason why Armstrong can’t win the Tour again. It would be a truly heart-warming story if he can. The fact that he can even be competitive still after his bout with Cancer is amazing. The proof that he is clean is also refreshing with so many being disqualified for doping and other violations in recent history.


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Defining Athletes Through The Decades

Ken Griffey, Jr. image
Is Ken Griffey Jr. on one of your lists?
Over the past few days I have been reading and responding to a post on an Orble blog site that I subscribe to, put that together with watching a gathering of many of the greatest baseball hall of famers of all-time at the Major League Baseball All Star Game, and it gives me ideas. You see the post I was responding to was on www.popculturist.net , a site run by Mr. Nice Guy. It asked for one musical artist from each decade “that really stamped with authority on the era or simply personified the time.” So as I was watching a rather good All Star game I said, “why don’t you do the same thing, but with athletes?”

Click here to go respond to Mr. Nice Guy's music post

So here goes. . .

Your mission if your choose to accept it is to name the athletes that for you defined a decade. (Don't worry this post will not self-destruct in ten seconds, that would just be silly.) You can name people from any sport, or one from each sport you wish to list. Feel free to list any decades you want.

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Since my mind is stuck on baseball at the moment I will get the list started using the boys of summer.

Let’s say Babe Ruth owned the 1920s. Not many would argue that.
1930s – Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Satchel Paige
1940s – Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Bob Feller
1950s – Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Warren Spahn
1960s – Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Sandy Koufax
1970s – Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver
1980s – Cal Ripken, Jr., Rickey Henderson, Wade Boggs, Dwight Gooden, Roger Clemens
1990s – Ken Griffey, Jr. Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, (you can’t list one of the previous three without listing them all) Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez
2000s – Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson

I know I listed a lot, but when I got to the end of the list I realized there were very few pitchers on it, so I went back and added at least one for each year. I also know I missed so many greats. This is where you come in, who is on your list? Again, not just baseball, but all sports in general.
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If you care about ESPYs (Spoilers)

July 17th 2008 03:33
Here's this year's winners (the show airs Sunday on ESPN):


Male Athlete: Tiger Woods, golf

Female Athlete: Candace Parker, Tennessee and Los Angeles Sparks

Team: Boston Celtics

Coach-Manager: Pat Summitt, Tennessee women's basketball

Comeback: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers

Breakthrough Athlete: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

Game: New York Giants defeat New England Patriots, Super Bowl

Record-breaking Performance: Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers

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Championship Performance: Tiger Woods, U.S. Open

Play: New York Giants QB Eli Manning's pass to David Tyree, Super Bowl

Moment: Central Washington's Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace, Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky for sportsmanship

Finish: Western Kentucky's Ty Rogers hitting buzzer beater to defeat Drake in first round of NCAA men's basketball tournament

Upset: New York Giants defeat New England Patriots, Super Bowl

Sports Movie: ``Semi-Pro''

Male College Athlete: Tim Tebow, Florida football

Female College Athlete: Candace Parker, Tennessee basketball

Women's Collegiate Team: Tennessee basketball

Male Action Sport Athlete: Shaun White, skateboarding/snowboarding

Female Action Sport Athlete: Gretchen Bleiler, snowboarding

Male Athlete With A Disability: Ryan Kocer, wrestling

Female Athlete With a Disability: Shay Oberg, softball

Male International Athlete: Rafael Nadal, tennis

Female International Athlete: Lorena Ochoa, golf

Baseball Player: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

NBA Player: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

WNBA Player: Lauren Jackson, Seattle Storm

NFL Player: Tom Brady, New England Patriots

NHL Player: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

Bowler: Norm Duke

Driver: Jimmie Johnson

Fighter: Floyd Mayweather, boxing

Golfer: Tiger Woods

Jockey: Kent Desormeaux

MLS Player: David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy

Male Tennis Player: Roger Federer

Female Tennis Player: Maria Sharapova

Track and Field Athlete: Tyson Gay

Outdoor Athlete: Scott Smiley, mountain climber

Arthur Ashe Courage Award: John Carlos and Tommie Smith, 1968 Olympic medalists

Jimmy V ESPY for Perseverance: Kevin Everett, former Buffalo Bills tight end

Like Nothing Else Award: George Martin walks across America

Undeniable Moment: Warner Robins, Ga., defeats Tokyo to win Little League World Series on Dalton Carriker's walk-off homer in extra innings
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The dream is over

July 15th 2008 00:27
Tiffany Michelle had a chance to be the first woman to win the World Series of Poker mian event, and perhaps the yougest player to win it. But it wasn't to be. She was eliminated in 17th place.

She was in 4th place to start the day but quickly dwindled to the bottom half of the field continuing to see flops and play aggresive poker. But today the rest of the players were kind of tight, and so when they had hands they tended to go all in. Michelle lost quite a few chips this way, raising then folding to all-in bets


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Down to 27 in WSOP

July 14th 2008 08:41
Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few rounds of the World Series of Poker main event, internet connection has been in and out. As it is now, I'm on a borrowed connection.

But the tournament has finally reached the final 27 and they will go at it today until they get down to nine,then take a vacation to November


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Beijing Olympic Gardens Pictures

July 7th 2008 10:51
A friend sent me some pictures of the Beijing Olympic Gardens. There are some amazing features. I do not know who to credit with these pictures, but thank you for sharing them with the world whoever you are.

What do you think of the Olympic Gardens in Beijing


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The beast leaves his mark on WSOP

July 7th 2008 08:19
There was something obviously eerie when the final numbers for Day 4 (or 1D) of the main event of the World Series of Poker were announced.
In all, 6,844 players entered, that made first place worth over $9,000,000, while the top eight all cash over $1,000,000. But in all 666 players will cash. Creepy.
Shannon Elizabeth
Seriously, who cares if she can play poker or not. Still, Shannon Elizabeth can, and survives Day 1 at the WSOP

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As to be expected, Day 3 (or 1C) of the main event at the World Series of Poker was interesting for not just the play and who all climbed to the top, but who all climbed out.
I honeslty wish I could have seen a lot more of the action than I did, as this looked like some of the best poker yet. That hopefully means that Sunday will be superb.
Saturday's eliminated list is a small who’s who of poker. Huck Seed, TJ Cloutier, Daniel Aleai, Gavin Griffin, Mike Sexton, Mimi, Tran, Joe Tehan, JC Tran, Paul Darden, Marcel Luske, Tony G, David Plastik just to name a few


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Sorry about the lack of updates from the World Series of Poker last night. Something came up and it became difficult to pay attention to the happenings at the Rio.
In fact it will be hard to pay attention today as well, but I should be able to give a day’s end recap.
Really yesterday’s play looked like it slowed down and the leader Ben finished the day with 177,500, quite a ways behind the first day’s leader, but still a nice amount. I think a lot of this has to do with the quality of play on Friday


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Day 1B seems to be much looser and tougher than 1A of the main event at the World Series of Poker. Not even an hour into the day, several stacks were above 40,000. Some of the best players are gone, including Daniel Negreanu at the feature table, who saw his set of sixes fall to a set of nines, Ted Forrest, and Andy Black.
A few others have taken early hits, including Jamie Gold, Kenny Tran, and Greg Raymer, but are surviving.
I can easily see the tournament winner coming from this group. To survive today is going to take a miracle just because of some of the aggressive play


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WSOP main even day 1A is over

July 4th 2008 08:23
The day finally came to an end and there is still a small buzz about one hand. It was the ultimate bad beat.
Justin Phillips took down Motoyuki Mabuchi with a royal flush. Certainly royal flushes are going to happen in a tournament, so why all the buzz? Mabuchi had quad aces. Talk about a sick way to go out.
I’m curious to figure out what Josh Arieh went out on. He got into a nice pot, and maybe he felt pot-committed as the board showed 2, J, and Q of spades along with 6 of diamonds and 7 of hearts. When the 7 came, Arieh’s opponent fired 10K, and Arieh eventually called, putting him all in…and gone. His opponent only had a pair of jacks. I thought at first that maybe Arieh though that the opponent was chasing, missed and fired. But his opponent kept betting it right the whole way: info seeking bet on the flop, then aggressive on the next two. Maybe Josh was confused. I have a feeling he had pocket 10s or 9s and honestly thought his opponent was chasing. Just a bad read by a quality player


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Can't stand ya...

July 4th 2008 02:25
It looks like the final entry count for Day 1 of the World Series of Poker Main Event will be about 1300. That’s huge, and it’s just Day 1. The players have gone to dinner. We’ll update at the end of the day, but it’s been a short run for many hopefuls already and several more will fall before the night is over.
Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander was eliminated from the Main event on the opening day.

Jason Alexander is eliminated with pocket As. Pocket As seem to be getting cracked quite a bit early today but since we can’t see all the hands, it’s hard to tell what percentage that happened. As the night moved on, the As seemed to be holding their own


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Pros going down

July 3rd 2008 23:59
Over 1,300 on the first day. Nice. The official tally will be up soon, I think, as we are at the end of the second level (players can buy in until the end of the second level). Again it’s going to be a great accomplishment for whomever wins this, and it won’t be easy, as some of the eliminations show.
Another pro leaves as David Benyamine goes down on a tough hand, losing his AJ to pocket As when the board showed both an A and J. Benyamine had four cashes in this year’s WSOP, including a bracelet in event 37, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo.
Freddy Deeb is out, dropping his pocket 7s to pocket Queens and a board that helped neither. Not a good day for Deeb, who never had much of a stack. Not a great WSOP for the two-time bracelet winner, who only cashed one time this year with an 80th place finish in a $1500 No Limit Hold 'Em event


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