Sport Watch

Filed under: Bulls, Cavaliers, Heat

King James is Air Jordan, and Air Jordan was King James, but not in the way that you think.

Here’s how you should think: Deception.

More specifically, you should think the fine art of deception. Which, if you believe the Scriptures, always leads to the perpetrator getting exposed at some point with a heavy dose of ugliness.

Exhibit A: Most of the universe didn’t know Michael Jordan’s public image was a fraud until years after his second Three-Peat with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. The truth dribbled into view — somewhere between his $168 million divorce settlement and the insufferable (or shall we say insulting?) speech he delivered last year during his induction ceremony into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

No question, much about Jordan was well-crafted fantasy. The lovable superstar no matter what. The everyman with the perfect family. The African-American version of Ed McMahon who wasn’t so much into pocketing millions, but who just wanted everybody to have a good pair of underwear and some nice-fitting sneakers.

There is a difference between King James and Air Jordan, though, and it’s actually huge. Jordan’s image went unblemished on and off the court throughout his playing career. LeBron James continues to dribble with authority in his prime, but when it comes to that self-proclaimed King James, he already is an emperor with no clothes.

Speaking of nakedness, the lengthy campaign by James and his handlers to make King James the next Air Jordan (without the baggage) has flopped, because it suddenly is bare of substance and credibility.

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Filed under: Dodgers, Orioles, Yankees

So I called Jim Gentile to hear his story and to congratulate him on winning the American League RBI title this week.

“Yeah, I saw that,” he said. “My son called me this morning and told me. It caught me off-guard. But it’ll be something my kids and grandkids can look back on and see I did something.

“I’m excited about it, but I wish it would have happened about 40 years ago.”

Actually, it happened 49 years ago. For the record, Jim Gentile just became the first 76-year old grandfather to win an AL RBI title. He did it in 1961.

Let me explain: That was the year Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle had the race to see who could break Babe Ruth’s record 60 homers. When Maris hit No. 61 on the final day, he also had batted in his 142nd run, winning the league RBI title for the year.

But researcher Ron Rakowski discovered several years ago that Maris had been mistakenly credited with an RBI one day that year when the run actually scored on an error. Baseball has finally agreed to take away that RBI, leaving Maris at 141. That’s how many Gentile hit that year for Baltimore.

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Filed under: NBA

LOS ANGELES — As another gold banner dropped from the rafters and moving pockets of psychos lit cars on fire, beat up people and momentarily made California anything but a dream, there was another indelible scene that shouldn’t be lost. One after another, Doc Rivers and Phil Jackson sat down at the post-game interview podium, a young man curiously looking old and an old man suddenly looking young.

Normally, the smart advice would be for Rivers to breathe in, breathe out and push forward with the Celtics in the prime of his coaching career. Normally, the smart advice would be for Jackson to retire, take immediate care of his health problems, settle back in his beachside home in Playa del Rey, reconcile himself with his age — “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Paul McCartney sang — and savor the 11 championship rings he has won with the Lakers and Chicago Bulls over the past 20 years, the most by any pro coach in the history of American sports. But understand, please, that these are unique cases requiring counterintuitive recommendations.

Seems the man who needs a doc should stay one more year.

Seems the man known as Doc should slip away for one year.

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Filed under: FIFA World Cup, US Soccer, U.S. Men’s National Team, Slovenia, United States

JOHANNESBURG — The day after the U.S. World Cup team all but upset scary ol’ England by winning a point in this tournament via a draw, its coach, Bob Bradley, was asked what he saw his team needed to improve on most to be successful against the rest of the world.

Bradley, in what is his haltingly cautionary answering style, pondered the query for several seconds. Then he said his charges couldn’t continue to play from behind early. England scored that game’s first goal four minutes in.

On Friday at Ellis Park Stadium in the U.S.’s second game, Slovenia scored first in the 13th minute. It netted the match’s second goal in the 42nd minute.

The Stars and Stripes didn’t learn. As a result, they had no one but themselves to blame for winding up with just another point by tying another game – certainly not a rookie World Cup referee from Mali who waved off what the U.S. squad and every U.S. fan thought was the potential winning goal booted in by Maurice Edu in the 85th minute. To blame it on Mali would only be proper as a movie title.

It wasn’t referee Koman Coulibaly, after all, who left the U.S. in the precarious position it found itself in Friday after 90 minutes of play, the first 45 of it quite lackluster, against Slovenia, the third smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup. It was the players themselves and coach Bradley’s inability to light the fire beneath them.

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Fanhouse Soccer

Filed under: FIFA World Cup, US Soccer, U.S. Men’s National Team, Slovenia, United States

JOHANNESBURG — The day after the U.S. World Cup team all but upset scary ol’ England by winning a point in this tournament via a draw, its coach, Bob Bradley, was asked what he saw his team needed to improve on most to be successful against the rest of the world.

Bradley, in what is his haltingly cautionary answering style, pondered the query for several seconds. Then he said his charges couldn’t continue to play from behind early. England scored that game’s first goal four minutes in.

On Friday at Ellis Park Stadium in the U.S.’s second game, Slovenia scored first in the 13th minute. It netted the match’s second goal in the 42nd minute.

The Stars and Stripes didn’t learn. As a result, they had no one but themselves to blame for winding up with just another point by tying another game – certainly not a rookie World Cup referee from Mali who waved off what the U.S. squad and every U.S. fan thought was the potential winning goal booted in by Maurice Edu in the 85th minute. To blame it on Mali would only be proper as a movie title.

It wasn’t referee Koman Coulibaly, after all, who left the U.S. in the precarious position it found itself in Friday after 90 minutes of play, the first 45 of it quite lackluster, against Slovenia, the third smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup. It was the players themselves and coach Bradley’s inability to light the fire beneath them.

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