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While We're Young Ideas

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes – April 3

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BOSTON – Next week (April 10), we’ll be three days into the 2022 Major League Baseball regular season and will be awaiting the Boston Red Sox home opener against the Minnesota Twins, scheduled for April 15th. The Red Sox open the season on the road with consecutive three-game sets against their arch rivals NY Yankees and a sure-to-be chilly trip to play the Detroit Tigers.

While your trusted reporter was able to attend a couple MLB Postseason games last October, the last time Digital Sports Desk graced the press box was Sunday, September 29, 2019 when the Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles in front of 35,427 fans who had no idea that the terrible hurdle of COVID-19 was four months away. The Red Sox finished 84-78 in 2019, 24-36 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, then rallied back to a 92-70 mark last year.

They knocked-out the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card game, then took the five-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1, after dropping the first game of the series at Tampa, 5-0. Of course, the Sox fell short, losing to the Houston Astros, 4-games-to-2 in the ALCS. They lost the final three games of the series after going up 2-games-to-1.

Boston is 9-6 in 2022 Grapefruit League games (as of the morning of April 2). After Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves in Sarasota, the Red Sox have only two more Spring Training games on the docket (April 4 & 5) against Minnesota.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: 

SVG SAYS: (And, we’re not talking Stan Van Gundy) – The Sports Video Group highlighted the bells and whistles that Turner and CBS Sports compiled to cover Final Four Saturday and Monday Night’s NCAA championship game.

“Sports is match-up driven,” says Craig Barry, EVP/Chief Content Officer, Turner Sports. “It always has been, it always will be. It doesn’t always determine the drama of the event, but it definitely helps determine the dramatic impact of an event. To have Duke, UNC, Kansas, and Villanova, it’s going to be unprecedented.”

“[Duke-North Carolina], Barry continued, “is, historically, one of the biggest match ups in Final Four history. It’s all hands on deck to do this show justice and bring something really special to the fans, without focusing on – and I’ll use this word loosely – any gimmicks. We’re bringing a robust broadcast, where we tell the story of the games that are being played.”

In addition to the elite level matchups, this Final Four is bolstered by the return of live fans, following the cancelation of the tournament in 2020 and an attendance-limited event in 2021. According to Bryant, that energy brings better visuals to the show but also goes a long way into spilling over to fuel the energy of the crew behind the scenes.

“The opportunity to have the energy in the arena again [has been fantastic],” says Bryant. “And that’s not just in the arena, it’s the energy in the studio, the energy in the truck, the energy in the control rooms. We’ve been really leveraging that and bringing that into the broadcast. We need to make sure that we have the technology and the assets to harness that. You can add technology, you can build storylines, but [the atmosphere] was the one large differentiator for us that we really felt was going to push us back to normalization.”

This Final Four is the last for director Bob Fishman, the lead CBS Sports director for college basketball for the past 39 years. It’s not lost with the fact both Fishman and Krzyzewski will both retire after they’re finished working this tournament.

“We have become dear friends over these years. I’ve directed every single one of his national championships,” Fishman said. “I said to him a couple weeks ago ‘You know, I’m impartial coach, but it sure would be cool to be there together to celebrate our retirements together and maybe win a national championship.’ That would really top it off pretty well for me.”

HALL OF A FIVE: The ultimate starting five from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s season-long competition for the best collegiate players at each position.

2021-22 Men’s Naismith Starting Five:

Collin Gillespie (Villanova, Graduate Student) – Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award – 15.6 pts/gm, 3.9 reb/gm, 3.3 ast/gm

Johnny Davis (Wisconsin, So.) – Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award – 19.7 pts/gm, 8.2 reb/gm, 2.1 ast/gm

Wendell Moore Jr. (Duke, Jr.) – Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award – 3.5 pts/gm, 5.2 reb/gm, 4.4 ast/gm, 41.1 3pt%

Keegan Murray (Iowa, So.) – Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award – 23.5 pts/gm, 8.7 reb/gm, 1.5 ast/gm, 55.4 fg%

Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky, Jr.) – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award – 17.4 pts/gm, 15.1 reb/gm, 1.6 blk/gm, 60.6 fg%

CHICAGO LAW: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, (University of Chicago – JD’88), still thinks of himself as a lawyer, wrote Becky Beaupre Gillespie in the u of chicago (sic) news of April 1.

“After all, it’s the skills he learned at the University of Chicago Law School—and later as a judicial clerk and law firm associate—that undergird his approach to the complex issues that have defined his tenure as NBA head, including high-profile decisions related to COVID policy, international relations and more,” she wrote as an intro to a University speaking function headlined by Silver.

“The problem-solving, issue-spotting techniques that you learn, particularly at the University of Chicago, [including] how to reason through issues—I find I use those skills every day of my life, and I really feel indebted to the Law School as a result,” Silver said at a March 22 event co-hosted by the Law School and the University’s Harris School of Public Policy.

OVERTIME: In the past year, the NBA G-League created its Ignite club of talented high school aged players who chose not to attend college but prepare for professional basketball by playing against G-League competition. Similarly, the Overtime Elite team out of Atlanta was mining the same talent.

This weekend, the Commissioner of the Overtime venture, former NBA executive Aaron Ryan, decided to step down from his post to return to his home in New Jersey to spend more time with his family.

“A little over a year ago, no one had ever heard of Overtime Elite,” wrote Ryan. “However, what started out as a novel idea, has transformed the basketball ecosystem and sports media forever. Elite basketball players, for the first time, were prioritized. They were compensated for their value, provided a top-notch education that met them where they are in their academic journey, and they were given access to elite coaches and training. The opportunity to build a league, with the visionary team at Overtime was a true career milestone. And even more than that, for me it was a mission filled with purpose.

“The past 18 months have been rewarding, exhilarating, and exhausting, given that our work was taking place in the midst of a global pandemic where all business and sports norms were upended. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, my work at Overtime Elite bore fruit through hard work with a great team. It also took a personal toll. As many of you know, I have been splitting my time between my home in New Jersey and my office in Atlanta. Time away from my wife and teenage daughters was a tough sacrifice, but became increasingly more difficult as we moved from working remote, to being in Atlanta,” Ryan stated.

“So it is with a heavy heart, and with the agreement of my colleagues at Overtime, I have decided not to seek a contract extension. As much as I enjoyed the job and was dedicated to the larger mission, putting my family first and being present for my daughters as they go through these formative years is best for me and for my family.

“I’ll forever be proud of what we built in the face of adversity. And I’ll always be grateful to our incredible staff, our first 27 athletes and their families, who made the decision to be a part of history.

“I wish the Overtime Elite team every success as they move forward on this powerful mission,” concluded Ryan.

NOTE: This was also a part of the While We’re Young (Ideas) notebook (link)

Parting Words & Music:

As we did a year ago, here’s the song you ‘wanna hear.”

One Shining Moment from the 2021 NCAA’s:

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TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Madness!

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By TERRY LYONS

NEW YORK – When the BIG EAST tournament crowned Villanova as conference champion at Madison Square Garden on March 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference folded-up its tent the same evening as Virginia Tech upset Duke at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, the only New York connection to March Madness was Colgate, winners of the Patriot League.

For its efforts, the Hamilton, NY-based school was sent to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and quickly dispatched by Wisconsin in a Midwest Regional opener. As of March 18th, the only New York-based connection to the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament were a few remaining games of the West Regional first and second round being played in Buffalo, home of the Bills, great chicken wings and fond memories of the Buffalo Braves NBA franchise.

 

Tri-State basketball fans might’ve connected to the tournament via UConn (Storrs, CT) or Seton Hall (South Orange, NJ) or even little Saint Peter’s College of Jersey City, NJ, just eight miles from The Garden via a quick tube ride from Herald Square to Journal Square.

Little did we know that the No. 15 seeded Peacocks, coached by former Seton Hall guard Shaheen Holloway, would become the Cinderella Story of March Madness of 2022. St. Peter’s on Friday became the only No. 15 to advance to the “Elite Eight.” as previous 15s (Oral Roberts and Florida Gulf Coast both folded in the Round of 16. It’s a great, heartwarming story, a story made for March Madness as little Saint Pete, winners of the MAAC conference, habitants of the Run Baby Run Arena on Kennedy Boulevard and home to 2,600 undergrads and 600 graduate students, were winners over big, bad and blue blood Kentucky (85-79, OT on March 1700, pesky Murray State (70-60 on March 19), and then after advancing to the NCAAs “Sweet 16” to play highly-touted, Big 10 bad-asses Purdue (67-64 on March 25).

But, make no mistake about it, that’s a Jersey basketball story, not NYC.

There is one great New York City basketball connection in this year’s on-going March Madness and it is University of Miami Hurricanes head coach Jim Larrañaga. The 72-year old coaching legend grew-up in the Bronx, one of six children. He attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens where he starred on the basketball varsity under a legend-maker in the late Jack Curran. Larrañaga graduated from Molloy in 1967 and went on to play basketball at Providence College where he became the basketball team’s captain as a senior, 1970–71, leading Providence College to a 20–8 record and an NIT appearance when the NIT was as big-time as Peter Gabriel.

Larrañaga’s story gets cooler than that! His grandfather was born in Cuba of Basque parents, and was part of the Por Larrañaga cigar company. Jim’s son is a legend in the making, in LA Clippers’ assistant coach Jay Larrañaga, the former assistant in Boston who has a coaching resume ranging from Calabria, Milano and Rome,. Italy to Real Madrid, Spain to Ireland and even the Ukraine, where he assisted Mike Fratello in Ukraine’s bid to qualify for the Olympic Games. Winning runs in the family and that brings us back to the University of Miami’s climb to the Elite Eight in this year’s NCAAs.

While all the Cinderella Story attention was (rightfully) focused on Saint Peter’s, the “U” kept chugging along, knocking off No. 7 USC in the first round then soundly defeating No. 2 Auburn (79-61) in the second round. The Sweet 16 match-up saw No. 10 Miami whoop No. 11 Iowa State, 70-56, which brings them to Sunday’s (today) tough game against No. 1 Kansas for the right to go to the NCAA Final Four.

Don’t be surprised, though, as you might recall Jim Larrañaga and George Mason’s run to the Final Four in 2006 when the coach was just a 56-year old puppy. Since his hiring at Miami in 2011, it’s been nothing but winning in the ultra-tough Atlantic Coast Conference. He now stands as the first coach in the history of college basketball to take two programs who were double digit seeds in the NCAA Tournament — Miami and George Mason — to the Elite Eight.

Much like his pro counterparts, the Miami Heat in the NBA Year of the Bubble (2020), the “U” hovers around in the pack but is a dangerous draw once the postseason rolls around. The Heat came out of the No. 5 slot of the 2020 NBA Playoffs whereas the “U” held to the No. 4 slot in the ACC (14-6), but only two games off the lead.

While basketball fans focus on the upset special of Saint Peter’s as they go up against North Carolina, remember to spend a little time watching Jim Larrañaga and the Miami Hurricanes, New York’s best story in college basketball in the year 2022. Larrañaga will be the guy coaxing his players, cajoling the refs, as his team hangs around, ready for another win. He’ll play his five starters in the high 35+ minutes per game and maybe go to his bench for two or three players to give a foul.

In the end, Larrañaga wins. The University of Miami wins (for hiring him and recently extending his contract) and the sport of basketball wins, even if it’s not at a New York college looking in at the NCAAs from the outside once again.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook: On the Real Jerry West and Winning Time

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“Like Sands Through the Hour Glass, So Are the Days of our Lives.”

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – There’s a new soap opera on TV and I tuned in to check it out the other day. I streamed it, actually. It’s entitled “Winning Time,” and it is based on a 2014 book by Jeff Pearlman, entitled “Showtime.”

I’ve watched two of the scheduled 10 episode series which first saw the light of day on HBO Max on March 6. I doubt I’ll bother to watch the third episode because – after two episodes – I’ve had enough.

It is horrible.

The first two episodes were dedicated to the point in time when Dr. Jerry Buss (played by actor John C. Reilly (whose best known work is from Chicago, Gangs of New York and The Perfect Storm) was acquiring the franchise. Reilly plays the part and delivers his lines admirably but goes way overboard, if you ask me.

Why?

Well, I was there.

I can not say I was up at Pickfair sipping martinis or champagne with Buss and the stars, but from 1980-on, I saw Buss in action through dozens upon dozens of NBA Playoff games, NBA Finals games, and NBA Board of Governors meetings. I met his daughter, Jeannie, when she was running the Los Angeles Strings of Team Tennis. She was 20 years old.

As I watched the first two episodes of “Winning Time,” I wondered if I had just missed the dirty secrets of the early days of Buss’ tenure, the days when he negotiated terms of a sale for the team and The Fabulous Forum with longtime Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke.

I’ve met and chatted with the former Lakers GM and Hall of Fame player/team exec/coach Jerry West many a time, usually off to the side of some cocktail party honoring a mutual friend at the Hall, but, after seeing the depiction of West by actor Jason Clarke in “Winning Time,” I wondered if it was a different man they were bringing to the screen? How could Jerry West change that much from the first 40 years of his life to the most recent 43 years?

I watched a depiction of Forum executive Claire Rothman that was just flat-out wrong and terribly miscast for actress Gaby Hoffman, a very acclaimed actress whose credits include playing little Karin Kinsella – the daughter who fell off the bleachers – in Field of Dreams.

Lemme tell ya, Claire Rothman was almost royal – maybe regal – always confident and solidly “in charge” of The Forum. She didn’t demand respect, she commanded it, using the show of respect to her as an elixir for anyone seeking to accomplish something in the building, or The Forum Club. Hoffman’s portrayal is of a young executive trainee type not of the highly respected Rothman who ran the best venue in town.

The sports drama, created by Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong) and co-producer Jim Hecht, just misses drastically. They claim it’s not a documentary and admit they’ve taken poetic justice to enhance the show. But, you’d think they’d stay with the basics of human drama and personalities, would you?  The series has been met with mixed reviews but one review, in particular, by NBA super-agent turned Detroit Pistons senior executive Arn Tellem in Hollywood Reporter is the reason for the review you are reading right now.

Tellem knows West and the Lakers better than most as he spent time trying to work together while in the high stakes game of the NBA and compete against him while moving talent and draft picks elsewhere for the benefit of his clients. Tellum’s key move came in 1996 when West maneuvered to acquire Shaquille O’Neal as a free agent after Tellum manipulated his way through the NBA Draft to orchestrate a trade of the late Kobe Bryant to the Lakers.

In Hollywood Reporter, Tellum wrote under a headline that told it all:

Guest Column: ‘Winning Time’ Is “Campy, Mean-Spirited Fiction”

Former NBA uber-agent Arn Tellem, who is now vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons, takes issue with the HBO series’ “cruel, dishonest and staggeringly insensitive” depiction of former Lakers player, coach and general manager Jerry West.

Tellem said:

“The late novelist and screenwriter Gore Vidal observed that it’s not what things are that matter so much as how they are perceived. The media supplies stories that the public accepts, at times literally, as the gospel truth. Through eye and ear, Vidal said, we are both defined and manipulated by fictions of such potency that they are able to replace our own experience, often becoming our sole experience.

“Which is the problem with HBO’s new Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, a campy, mean-spirited fiction about the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers. The show’s paradox is that it prides itself on being faithful to the facts, and yet — between the formulaic script and stick-figure cartoon characters — reality seldom intrudes.

“Hiding behind the disclaimer “this series is a dramatization,” Winning Time imagines itself a “satire” that treats pretty much everyone with equal odium, covers pretty much everything with equal ordure. Pro basketball players are greedy braggarts and narcissists; pro basketball owners, ruthless bigots and hedonists.

“Of all the athletes and executives shamed and ridiculed in the first two episodes, the most brutal — and gratuitous — character assassination was reserved for Jerry West (played in the series by Jason Clarke), the universally beloved former Lakers player, coach and general manager known as Mr. Clutch. In the series opener, which aired on March 6, his character seemed to be modeled on Yosemite Sam — a boozy, impulsive hothead who steamrollered anyone in his path, angrily snapped a golf club over his knee and stormed away to curse out a colleague, and chucked his 1969 NBA Finals MVP trophy through his office window in a fit of frustration.

‘Never mind that West is a health nut who has always shied away from alcohol. Never mind he’s not just a gentleman but a gentle man who prides himself on treating others with grace and compassion. And never mind that his old office at the “Fabulous Forum” didn’t have windows. Indeed, none of the arena’s basketball offices did. I ought to know. I was there.

‘As a former player agent who is now vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons, I have known West for more than 40 years. During that time, I have observed, negotiated and socialized with him. In all of our dealings, he has been courteous, respectful, generous and self-deprecating. He’s never once lost his temper. He’s always heard me out. Many of the players I represented sought his counsel, both professionally and personally. Having battled depression during his entire adult life, West has a deep awareness of the suffering of others, coupled with the wish to relieve it. Sure, he can be moody. But when frustrated, he doesn’t lash out. He withdraws into himself.

“In his 2011 memoir West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, he wrote about his father, an oil company machine operator, who beat him repeatedly. At 12, West kept a shotgun under his bed and threatened to use it on his old man if the abuse didn’t end. Today, at 83, he’s still haunted by a sense that he’d let his college down by losing the national championship in 1959, still blames himself that, during the 1960s, his Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics six times in the NBA Finals. “I have a hole in my heart,” he conceded, “a hole that can never be filled.”

“Fans of Winning Time defend the show by saying nothing is sacred, sacred targets are funnier, lighten up, criticism is censorship. And it’s true that, used deftly, satire is a powerful tool to deflate and diminish the powerful, to take them down a peg or two. That’s the power of satire. But Winning Time is less satire than bullying. Though the disclaimer is designed to shield against the possibility of legal action for libel, it’s not a license to damage the reputation that West spent a lifetime building.

“The depiction of Mr. Clutch is cruel, dishonest and staggeringly insensitive,” concluded Tellem.

MUST WATCH:

AFTER-THOUGHTS: From my personal point-of-view, the portrayal  of Jerry West by the creators of Winning Time is a flat-out disaster. It’s wrong. He is the complete opposite of the portrayal.  That’s not opinion. It is a fact drawn from the true reality show we lived and worked in as employees of the National Basketball Association and its teams. I thought it to be so, and Arn Tellem confirmed it.

During my 26+ years, Jerry West was the most competitive person I had ever met until I met Michael Jordan. West’s running mate, Rod Thorn – both West Virginians, I might add – came in as a close third to those two. I can imagine the three of them pitching quarters against the curb and competing like hell for 25-cents.

To some extent, Thorn was my credential of trust and authenticity to West. If you were a friend of Rod’s you were a friend of Jerry West. One time, at a summer USA Basketball exhibition in Charlotte, the two – I’ll call ‘em “hoodlums” – took off with my rental car to head south to Pinehurst to meet up with a bunch of Carolina guys to play some golf as I was returning to work at the NBA office in New York. (Yes, Thorn was kind enough to save the receipt so I could be properly reimbursed and West gave me his “VVIP” gift – a new fangled, wireless home telephone – as compensation for my gesture to hand-over the car. It was a great phone and it lasted for a dozen years or more.

The point being, West is/was/always will be a gentleman. His gesture of gifting a new tech, cool, $150 phone was just a hint of the man’s generosity and depth. He’s a pro’s pro.

In the cone of silence very well respected in the sports television-to-PR world, we are given the direct studio phone lines, dozens of direct mobile numbers for calling or texting information. We have the right email address that is monitored when a show is live. That is the case for The Dan Patrick Show and its producer – the great Todd Fritz.

As a general rule, I never call or write or compliment a writer or reporter on a story, an interview, or a news-breaker unless it’s far above and beyond the realm of the regular ebb and flow of the sports news world.

Twice – yes twice – I stopped in my tracks as Dan Patrick interviewed Jerry West. I can’t think of another interview that was nearly as intriguing as Patrick’s conversations with West. In fact, on one occasion, Fritzy and I traded an email of an A+ level interview Patrick did on air, but we both agreed, it wasn’t quite great enough to be in the “Jerry West Zone.”

REVISIONIST HISTORY: The favorite pastime for sports fans today is to engage in revisionist history. “Today’s game was THE BEST.” … “It was the GREATEST … ever, or “He’s the GOAT.’ … Tom Brady is the greatest NFL player for anyone who didn’t see Jim Brown play football. Michael Jordanand LeBron James are the greatest for everyone who didn’t see Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson or Elgin Baylor dominate in the NBA or Julius “Dr. J” in the ABA.

While Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance” stayed very, very close to reality and also broke some storytelling ground on the backgrounds of Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr, “Winning Time” has done none of that in its first two episodes. Please note, this column is not commenting on Jeff Pearlman’s book, a book I haven’t read yet. I will and will comment further into the basketball season. For now, everyone’s attention might turn to March Madness and then the Final Four, as we dread our choices crossed-off in newly busted and worthless brackets.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook | March 13

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By TERRY LYONS

NEW YORK – There are few things that join death and taxes as the guarantees in life. With that in mind, we add:

  1. Steph Curry’s jump shot
  2. Gregg Popovich leading NBA coaches in career victories
  3. The famed Island Green (17th) at TPC Sawgrass bringing PGA Tour pros to their knees, especially with winds at 20 mph and gusts 44+ mph.
  4. The annual BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden – the World’s Most Famous Arena – playing host to some of the best postseason college basketball any fan would want to experience in a community of like-minded opponents. Every March.

Right from the beginning this week, the BIG EAST did not disappoint. In the opening game, a 4:30pm (ET) afternoon start of a BIG EAST triple-header, Butler (14-19) upset Xavier (18-13) in a 89-82 overtime thriller. As the tournament progressed at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Providence and Butler were tied (31-all) at the half until the Friars outlasted Butler, 65-61 after a last minute 3-point FG by Providence’s Al Durham iced the victory.

With 15:38 left in the 2nd half on Thursday evening, St. John’s led Villanova 44-27. At 2:08 mark, after several lead changes, St. John’s was barely holding on, 65-64, but could not convert the win, eventually losing to ‘Nova, 66-65.

At the Friday night semifinals, No. 8-ranked Villanova took care of business against the No. 20 UConn, 63-60, in a game that had old-school BIG EAST fans lighting up The Garden with sound. But, No. 11 ranked Providence, the regular season BIG EAST Champion and tournament No. 1 seed dropped their semifinal game to an impressive Creighton team, 85-58. Included in that one-sided tally was the fact Creighton held Providence to 27 points in the first half.

After a terrible start (trailed 0-7), Creighton gave Villanova everything it could handle in the Saturday night BIG EAST Final. Villanova’s team leader, Collin Gillespie was held scoreless in the first half but finished the game with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists, including a pair of pressure three-point FGs and the game-clinching rebound with seven seconds remaining. Gillespie went to the line and hit two clutch FTs to close out the victory, 54-48, while securing Villanova’s fifth BIG EAST title in the past seven years.

The tournament brought forth an amazing sense of normalcy for the old-time BIG EAST fans, not the ultra-annoying “new-normal” spoken by talking heads, health care professionals and political talking heads. Just as the timing of the 2020 BIG EAST Tournament couldn’t have been worse, the 2022 edition, the 40th held at The Garden since the conference kicked its tires in Providence, Syracuse and Hartford to start things off in 1980-81-82, came about at a time when COVID-19 restrictions are being eased at public arenas, bars, restaurants and at schools.

There’s talk of the BIG EAST receiving seven invites to the NCAA’s Big Dance, with Xavier having a possible NIT invite awaiting after their early exit this week. What’s certain, as sure as that Curry 30-footer, is the depth and competitiveness of the BIG EAST’S men’s basketball teams.

The conference play is physical and, to the credit of the officiating staffs, the BIG EAST seems to have found the ability to call games in a ‘no harm, no foul’ professional style, rather than the annoying ticky-tack foul calls out on the perimeter. The refs have mastered the art of the non-call, to let play to continue. It has allowed an intense up & down style of play, less frequent foul trouble by the star players and better preparation for the upcoming Big Dance for Big East contenders.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The new NBA coaching record for most career victories was set Friday and mentioned above. While it’s easy to define the best coaches by the sheer number of victories, NBA coaches often chalk-it-up such honors due to longevity.

Here are the winningest coaches in the four major North American sports leagues:

NHL Ice-Hockey – Scotty Bowman – (1,244 wins, nine Stanley Cup championships)

NFL American Football – Don Shula – (347 wins, two Super bowl wins)

MLB Baseball – Connie Mack – (3,731 wins)

NBA Basketball – Gregg Popovich – (1,336 victories, five NBA titles)

NCAA Basketball – Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and coach John Wooden of UCLA both deserve mention.

In addition to this lofty list of winners, there’s also a common sense list of the greatest coaches, one that is a bit more subjective.

NHL – Al Arbour, Coach of the New York Islanders, Toe Blake of Montreal, Joel Quenneville of multiple NHL teams.

NFL – George Halas of Chicago Bears and Bill Belichick of New England Patriots

MLB – John McGraw, Tony La Russa, Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Sparky Anderson all deserve mention.

NBA – Red Auerbach, Boston Celtics.

DIAMOND DUST-UP RESOLVED: Thank goodness. Major League Baseball and its players Association came to terms this week and the baseball season will begin with players reporting today (March 13) and Spring Training games beginning March 17. As you would expect, it’ll be toughest on the pitchers stretching out, especially free agent pitchers.

Opening Day will be April 7, and MLB is planning to play a full 162-game schedule, allowing for players to make up on previously lost salary.

The MLB Postseason will expand to 12 teams.

The National League will adopt the Designated Hitter.

Free agency might be the most newsworthy item as Baseball comes back to life after its loss of three months. The lock-out began December 2 but starting this week, there will be a frenzy of free agent signings, maybe some 10-12 a day as teams re-stock.

Freddie Freeman, the Atlanta Braves star first baseman is high on the list of the potentially most valuable and sought after free agents. While some believe he will re-sign in Atlanta, there’s already talk of a mega-deal with one of the big market teams.

LA Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw already signed a one-year deal with the only club he’s played for on the major league level. The Dodgers’ California rival and neighbor to the north, the San Francisco Giants, signed left-hander Carlos Rodon to a reported two-year $44 million deal. Saturday, the Oakland A’s sent Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets in a muti-player deal to begin an Oakland roster-stripping list of expensive player sales.

For additional information, the reporters at ESPN are following the Free Agent market and post all transactions HERE.

March Madness Special: Read more of the weekly notes by subscribing HERE.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook – March 6

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – Somewhere over the double rainbow, the snow is melting and the birds are chirping and that damn woodpecker is back in action. The 2022 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is in the books and the annual College Basketball Conference tournaments are already underway. My fave – the BIG EAST Tournament – will tip-off Wednesday.

The saying is that March comes in like a lion but goes out like a lamb. Whoever coined that phrase did not live in New England. In fact, first mention can be found in a volume of proverbs by English author Thomas Fuller, dated 1732. As the thermometer outside reads 19-22 degrees, many of us think he was Fuller Bologna.

The news from Major League Baseball and its Players’ union is not good, but aside from the wonderful 11:10am Minny at Red Sox start on Patriots’ Day, many a baseball fan would be happy with a May 1st season start for the game they used to call the National Pastime. MLB has already cancelled all Spring Training games and the first two series of the regular season for each club. The revenue from those games is gone. Vanished. The December lockout is now real money for both management and the players’ union.

The question is just how much of the 2022 season will go down the drain to further Baseball’s nosedive towards Boxing and Horse Racing on the list of sports that once dominated in popularity the USA public’s point of view, but fell from the sky – Icarus style. It’s not good.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The PGA Tour instituted a new and interesting program to increase its players’ engagement on Social Media and thus interact with golf fans. It’s known as the Player Impact Program. Not surprisingly and although he didn’t play a single event because of the terrible auto accident he experienced as a solo driver in the ‘burbs of Los Angeles, Tiger Woods took top prize from a pool of cash the Tour put aside. Phil “Lefty” Mickelson placed second. Of course, that was well before he put a few brainless comments in his mouth regarding the rival Saudi Super League of golf.

Said Mickelson on a podcast (Note to self, beware of podcasters with good PR firms), “They’re scary mother——s to get involved with. We know they killed (Washington Post reporter and US resident Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay.

“Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as (PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan) comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right.

“And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage.”

The complete list of money-winners from the PGA Tour Player Impact Program:

  1. Tiger Woods $8 million
  2. Phil Mickelson $6 million
  3. Rory McIlroy $3.5 million
  4. Jordan Spieth $3.5 million
  5. Bryson DeChambeau $3.5 million
  6. Justin Thomas $3.5 million
  7. Dustin Johnson $3 million
  8. Brooks Koepka $3 million
  9. Jon Rahm $3 million
  10. Bubba Watson $3 million

NICE PICK-UP: The Boston Celtics added a little extra offensive depth and shooting with a nice free agent pick-up this week. Nik Stauskas played in 26 games (25 starts) with the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G League this season, averaging 23.8 points on 47.6% shooting (41.6% 3-PT, 87.9% FT), 5.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 38.0 minutes. He scored a career-high and set the franchise scoring record with 57 points on 20-of-29 shooting (11-15 3-PT) against the Wisconsin Herd on March 1, and tallied 43 points on 16-of-21 shooting (9-13 3-PT) the very next night against the Lakeland Magic, becoming only the second player in G League history to produce 100+ points in a two-game span.

SIDWELL FRIENDS: “We aims to please” in this collection of notes and that includes a “MUST MENTION” of the Sidwell Friends Quakers (@SFSQuakers #GoQuakers). Congratulations is in order to Kiki Rice. The Sidwell Friends basketball guard (Class of ‘220 is the school’s first McDonald’s All American. She is also a finalist for the prestigious Naismith High School Player of the Year award. “No wonder Sidwell Friends is the No. 1 high school team in the country,” said a Sidwell social media post. Ms. Rice is the daughter of a former NBA employee, John Rice, now the founder and CEO of MLT (Management Leaders of Tomorrow). He grew up in Washington, D.C. where his father Emmett J. Rice was a governor of the Federal Reserve System. His mother, Lois Dickson Rice, was considered “the mother of Pell Grants.” John’s older sister is Susan Rice, a famous diplomat and the Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council. John received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA with honors from Yale, where he was a three-year starter on the basketball team. He resides in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife Andrea and their two children, Mateo and, of course, Kiki, a promising scholar and basketball star. … Sidwell Friends’ varsity girls play for DC’s AA Championship in the finals March 6 at 4pm (ET) while the school’s varsity boys play for their title at 6pm (ET), with both games at George Washington U’s Smith Center.

March Madness Special: Read more of the weekly notes by subscribing HERE.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook | Feb 27

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – What did you think about this week when you first heard the news that Russian troops had invaded the Ukraine?

The first land war since 1945? The people? The bombs and tanks? The casualties to come?

Although this column is not intended to delve into politics and war, when the all-out war and invasion broke out on Thursday, February 24, this columnist thought of an old friend, 57-year old Alexander “Sasha’ Volkov, a former member of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. Although Volkov was born in the vast region of Siberia – prior to the fall of the U.S.S.R. – he made his way to the Ukraine and eventually played for the Soviet National basketball team, a club who upset the United States and won the gold Medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Alexander Volkov

Volkov was drafted into the NBA as a sixth-round choice, 134th overall, in the 1986 NBA Draft. Prior to his stint as an Olympian, he and the Soviet team trained against the upper echelon of NCAA blue blood schools, including Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers, Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tar Heels and – in the summer of ‘86 – against the Atlanta Hawks in the Atlanta/Cobb County Summer League and the LA Summer Pro League.

In the Summer of 1988, together with a contingent from Turner Sports, CNN and the coach Mike Fratello-led Atlanta Hawks, this reporter – then Director of Media Relations for the NBA and soon-to-be Veep, International Communications – went on a three-city tour of the then-Soviet Union. Sasha Volkov and Sarunas Marciulionis were among the young Soviet National Team players the Hawks faced in the summertime exhibitions. From Moscow to Tbilisi (in Soviet Georgia) to Sukhumi (near Sochi and the Black Sea) to Vilnius (in Lithuania) and back to Moscow, the trip was legendary. In some cases, it was so bad, it was great.

After his NBA playing career, Volkov returned to the Ukraine and was named as head of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation and served on the State Committee for Sports. The decorated Olympian eventually turned to politics and was elected to Parliament where he served until 2014.

Volkov and his wife, Alla, are currently in Kyiv. An outbound e-mail remained unanswered as of this posting.

UKRAINIANS IN THE NBA: Sacramento Kings center Alex Len and Toronto Raptors forward Svi Mykhailiuk, the two Ukrainian players in the NBA, condemned Russia’s invasion of their native country in a joint statement released on Thursday.

“A great tragedy befell our dear homeland Ukraine. We categorically condemn the war,” Len and Mykhailiuk wrote. “Ukraine is a peaceful, sovereign state inhabited by people who want to decide their own destiny. We pray for our families, friends, relatives and all the people who are in the territory of Ukraine.

“We hope for an end to this terrible war as soon as possible. Dear fellow Ukrainians, hold on! Our strength is in unity. We are with you!”

If you’d like to read more … Subscribe at While We’re Young (Ideas) on Substack. There’s even a March Madness Special.

While We’re Young (Ideas) | Feb 20

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TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | February 20, 2022

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – Post the dreaded and deadly global pandemic, the sports world bounced back about as well as any business segment on the planet. While not perfect and, in many cases, having to operate without fans in the building, the events and sports carried-on and incurred extra expenses to keep the players and front-line workers safe.

Here are just a few of a long list of sporting events of 2021-22 that greatly entertained our sports-loving world:

  • PGA Tour ✅
  • NASCAR ✅
  • NCAA Basketball and March Madness ‘21 ✅
  • NCAA Football and the CFP Championship and most Bowl Games ✅
  • NFL Season and Super Bowl ✅
  • NBA Season and this Weekend’s All-Star festivities ✅
  • MLS ✅
  • NHL Season and its Winter Classic and All-Star Game ✅
  • The Masters ✅

And, more recently …

  • Australian Open ✅
  • Winter Olympic Games ✅
  • Super Bowl LVI ✅
  • 2022 NBA All-Star and the Daytona 500 are looking good ✅

Then, we get to Pitchers & Catchers reporting and MLB Spring Training ❌

The Major League Baseball lockout began at 12:01am on December 2, 2021 immediately upon the expiration of the 2016 MLB/MLB Players’ Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) ending. It is MLB’s first work stoppage since the 1994-95 players’ strike and the first lockout since 1990.

Unbeknownst to many, the expiration of a CBA gives a sports organization very few options. If the sides are close, they can call for a moratorium and try to bang-out the remaining issues and keep things operating in “good faith.’ However, with things as they are in Baseball today, the Commissioner of Baseball and his MLB Player Relations Committee had no option under labor laws and called for the lockout.

While a lockout in December and January is not very visible to players or fans, the impact begins immediately for the league office and teams, as they must shutdown any and all player-related activities, including promotional tours, winter training and a host of important items. The players must train on their own, which most do in their hometown cities anyway. So, as the NBA on TNT basketball guru Kenny Smith once likened an off-season lockout as your regular Barber Shop being closed on Mondays, the tenants of MLB are now in dire need of a haircut.

MLB and its Players have volleyed proposals back-and-forth without any significant progress towards a deal. The first “real” meeting didn’t take place until January 13 and that was done by virtual Zoom rather than in person, which saved time and travel while keeping the parties safe from confinement and air travel.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred requested a Federal Mediator to assist the process in early February and as recently as February 17, the sides met again – but that was two days after the treasured date on the calendar for Pitchers & Catchers to report.

The Boston Red Sox are yet to load-up the equipment truck on Jersey Street, outside of Gate D at Fenway Park and the negotiations seem to be going backwards, rather than forward.

The NBA and NHL find themselves in the dog days of winter. College basketball’s “Got Next” with the various Conference Tournaments and March Madness fast approaching. Meanwhile, MLB is starting to scratch-off scheduled Spring Training games and revenue is being lost by the day. And, if there’s any sport which needs a solid month of training and exhibition games, to stretch-out the starting pitchers and alleviate many a hamstring pull awaiting, it is baseball.

Remember last year when the likes of Ronald Acuna (297 at bats), Alex Bregman, Max Muncy, Fernando Tatis, Jack Flaherty, Chris Sale, J.D. Martinez, Eloy Jiménez, Cody Bellinger, Ketel Marte, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, George Springer, and a laundry-list of others were all sidelined or scratched?

A combination of pandemic fatigue, lack of training and proper stretching and preparation, never mind care by some of the best Athletic Trainers in the world, will cost many a game due to injury if and when the 2022 MLB season begins and the Barber Shop opens seven days a week.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Shares of Boston-based DraftKings tumbled by more than 15% as the week closed when the online sports-betting operator reported top line growth as well as widening costs, according to the Boston Business Journal. The company, led by CEO Jason Robins, reported its quarterly and full-year financial results. In the last three months, DraftKings’s revenue jumped from $322.2 million to $473.3 million, but costs widened as well, particularly sales and marketing — from $192 million to $278 million. In the end, net loss for the quarter grew from $242.7 million to $326.3 million. while Draft Kings offers full sports gambling in many States, including New York where it pays a lofty 50+% tax, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to bury its head in the sand with no real progress on sports gambling. With Governor Charlie Baker now facing lame-duck status, there’s no certainty on the future of sports gambling in Massachusetts and the money continues to flow to Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

NHL UPHOLDS MARCHAND SIX-GAMER: National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman upheld the six-game suspension that was assessed to Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand by the Department of Player Safety for roughing and high-sticking Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry during their game in Boston on Feb. 8.Bettman heard Marchand’s appeal of the original decision, assessed Feb. 9, at a hearing on Feb. 16. … The incidents occurred at 19:35 of the third period. Marchand was assessed a minor penalty for roughing as well as a match penalty. … “In reaching my conclusions I have given careful consideration to Mr. Marchand’s testimony concerning his efforts to control his emotions in order to excel as an impact player who plays aggressively, but within the rules. I believe that he has already made significant strides towards achieving this goal. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Marchand’s behavior and lack of judgment in respect of these incidents did not meet acceptable NHL standards. He created a distraction which reflected poorly on himself, on his team and on the League as a whole, and as such, I find he also deserves the penalty he received. Having said that, I encourage Mr. Marchand to reflect on this experience and to use it positively in furtherance of his efforts to refine and improve his on-ice image and game for everyone’s benefit,” said Bettman in his statement.

While We’re Young (Ideas) | February 13

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TL’s Super Sunday Sports Notes | Tribute to Tuukka Rask

“You could say I lost my faith in science and progress

You could say I lost my belief in the holy Church

You could say I lost my sense of direction

You could say all of this and worse, but

If I ever lose my faith in you

There’d be nothing left for me to do,’

– Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – He came to Boston from Savonlinna, Finland by way of the 21st overall selection in the 2005 National Hockey League entry draft, a pick made by the Toronto Maple Leafs. His trade to the Bruins is high on the list of the worst trades in Maple Leafs history and that’s a lofty list of mistakes.

By 2007, when goalkeeper Tuukka Rask was first called up from the Providence Bruins to the mother ship in Boston, he would be among four players attempting to crack the Bruins’ line-up of which only two goaltenders share the daily duties. A season in Providence would pass.

In 2008, although Rask had the best save percentage (.952) among the goalies in NHL preseason play, followed by teammates Manny Fernandez(.875), Tim Thomas (.869) and Kevin Regan (.857), the Bruins kept Thomas and Fernandez on their roster.

By 2008-09, a red-hot Thomas would earn the Vezina Trophy honors as the best goalkeeper in the NHL by playing 54 games and winning 36 of them. Fernandez backed up Thomas for 27 games while Rask played in only one. Thomas and Fernandez were 34 years old while Rask was 21 that season.

Two years later, Thomas led the Boston Bruins to drink from the Cup with mask as his primary back-up. Thomas started 55 games and recorded a .938 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average. Rask started 27, but went 11-14 while posting a .918 save percentage and 2.67 GAA.

In 2012-13, with Thomas retired, Rask led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals in a lock-out shortened season. He started all 22 playoff games but the Bruins came up short, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-games-2 but Rask recorded a .940 save percentage and 1.88 GAA in the 22 games. The Bruins had their starting goalkeeper and he was only 25 years old.

From that moment – on – the Boston Bruins put their faith in TUUUKKK.

Rask guarded the Bruins’ nets brilliantly, although the club would only get back to the Stanley Cup Finals one more time, losing 4-games-3 to the St. Louis Blues in 2018-19. He went 14-9 that postseason with a 2.02 GAA and a .934 save percentage.

The global pandemic and Father Time soon came a’ visiting and a series of injuries felled Rask. In the pandemic, he opted to return to his family and leave the team. It was later learned that his daughter was undergoing a medical emergency at that time. He also underwent surgery in the summer of 2021, dealing with an acetabular labrum injuries in his hip.

Rask became an unrestricted free agent but made his plans known to play with the Boston Bruins or not play at all. He attempted a comeback between January 2 and February 9 of this year, eventually starting four games with the Bruins, but he decided to retire as of February 9.

Bruins G Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman have started all but four of Boston’s games and will oversee the net minding duties for the time being.

Rask went 308-165-66 over his career, hitting the incredible NHL milestones of 500 games played and 300 wins. He also surpassed the great masked one, Gerry Cheevers, to become the winningest playoff goalkeeper in Boston Bruins history. task also led Finland to the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, including a shut-out against the USA in the medal game and a quarter-final victory over Russia on their home ice in Sochi.

Said Rask in a statement announcing his retirement from the Bruins:

“Today is a day that I hoped would never come. But now that it’s here, I feel I owe it to everyone to hear it from me. When I made the decision to have surgery on my hip last summer, I did so knowing that the road to recovery would be challenging. I also knew it was something I would have to do if I wanted to give myself a chance to play my best hockey again. The rehab, the workouts, the practices – all of it was with the intention of getting back to where I needed to be to help my teammates win games and make another run at a Stanley Cup. Over these last few weeks, I’ve realized that my body is not responding the way it needs to for me to play at the level I expect of myself and that my teammates and Bruins fans deserve.

Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from the game of hockey.

While I am sad to say goodbye to the game I love, I am so very thankful to have shared these last 15 years with the greatest teammates and fans in the best sports city in the world. We have shared so many special memories over the years – bringing the Cup back to Boston in 2011, our runs to the Final in 2013 and 2019, playing overseas in the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland and China, and of course the Winter Classics. I am also so thankful that I was able to represent Finland on the world stage and win a bronze medal in the 2014 Olympics. While these experiences were all incredible, what I will remember most about all of them is the bond that I had with my teammates, coaches and team staffs, the memories that we will always have, and the friendships that will last a lifetime.

Through all the ups and downs, I am so grateful for all the support this team and the people of Boston have given me. I will miss everything that comes with representing the Boston Bruins. But now, I’m excited to spend more time with my family and friends who never stopped supporting my dream. Boston is special for so many reasons and will always be our adopted home. We look forward to remaining a part of this amazing community.

I especially want to thank the Jacobs family, Cam Neely, Don Sweeney, my coaches, the equipment staff and the rest of the team support staff for all they have done for me throughout my time with the Bruins organization. I’ve never wanted to play for any other team. I’m so proud to have worn the Spoked-B for my entire career and wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Kiitos paljon translates to ‘Thanks a lot” Boston

Farewell TUUUKKK, the hockey fans of Boston never lost faith in you.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: American downhill skier Mikaela Shiffron had a rough week at the 2022 Winter Olympics. The 26-year old Olympian was disqualified from her first two races this week after missing gates and ultimately skiing off to the side of the course, head in hands and realizing her failure. The social media-verse skewered the TV/media coverage for shining the bright lights of exposure upon her misfortune. Yet, only a few days later, Shiffron did what all real pro athletes do, she competed in the Super-G race, only to finish ninth.

“I didn’t think there was a very big chance to come in and win or even medal in this race, with these women who have been skiing Super-G all season,” she said. “It felt really nice to ski that today. It was a little bit uncertain—or very uncertain. Coming back out and getting the chance to race again, was just the perfect thing to do, actually.”

She also took complete responsibility and “owned” the shortfall: “I do consider it failure,” said Shiffrin. “I think a lot of people do. It’s just tough to see that word in the headline of an article and it feels like clickbait to say, you know: ‘Crashes out!’ ‘Fails!’ ‘Disappoints the world!’ ‘Chokes’! All of it. They’re just harsh words … I failed twice to do the job that I am supposed to do. I can say that. That’s the honest truth.”

What Shiffron discovered through the experience was much more valuable than gold. She realized the amazing compassion and support of an entire nation – maybe the entire world – showing her the support she deserved.

“I would never have expected to feel in this moment, severely under-performing in an Olympics, that humans could be so kind. It’s the most surprising thing of my Olympic experience, how kind people have been in the face of my failure. I mean, it is failure – it’s okay to say that. I’m okay with that. And I’m sorry for it, but I also was trying, and I’m proud of that,’ said the downhill champion skier.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, personified. On TV and properly covered by the TV and media on hand.

ICYMI: On Saturday, February 12, William Felton Russell turned 88 years young. The 11-time NBA champion, 12-time NBA All-Star, five-time NBA MVP and member of the league’s 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th anniversary all-time great teams, hailed from West Monroe, Louisiana but moved to Oakland with his family and attended University of San Francisco from 1953-56. He won a gold medal for the USA in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks but traded to the Boston Celtics for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Feb 6

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The Story Behind ‘Linsanity” 

By Terry Lyons

BOSTON – This is a story worthy of narration by Peter Coyote or David McCullough. The voice of Morgan Freeman might be too much to handle.

This is the story of Jeremy Lin and the “Linsanity” which swept through New York and the NBA 10 years ago. To fully understand the story of Linsanity, one must first understand the story of the great Mike D’Antoni for without D’Antoni, “Linsanity” would’ve never materialized.

Here’s how it went down:

The 2011-12 NBA season started on Christmas Day, December 25th after a July 1st expiration of the NBA/NBA Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement and subsequent lockout. The league was just days away from losing the entire season but came to terms with an agreement to jumpstart the regular season by Christmas to fulfill mega TV dollars.

The season began and looked a lot like NBA preseason. Games came at a frequent pace and the players were tired, out of NBA game shape and feeling it a month into the truncated season.

Coach D’Antoni was at the helm of the New York Knickerbockers and they limped into Boston Garden on February 3, 2012 for the middle game of a back-to-back-to-back in the condensed season schedule. D’Antoni and his Knicks departed with a 91-89 loss to the Celtics, a two-game losing streak and an 8-15 record. Worse than that, the Knicks were badly banged-up, especially at the point guard position.

The New Yorkers were fumbling around with a backcourt of Iman Shumpert, Toney Douglas, a washed-up Mike Bibby, and an injured Baron Davis who was suffering from an elbow infection, severe back pain and couldn’t suit up. When D’Antoni was finished with his media obligations after the loss at Boston Garden that night, I remember walking aside with a friend and confidante of 23 years and asking, “What the hell are you going to do?”

“Jeremy Lin is gonna get his chance,” said D’Antoni in his distinctive West Virginia way.

While some looked at Lin as a deep reserve or a (then) D-League prospect, those of us who saw him play at Harvard from 2006-07 to 2009-10 knew there were some amazing skills hidden beneath his 6-foot-3, weak, lanky frame. Lin showed improvement in his sophomore season of college ball, often bringing Harvard’s tiny Laviettes Pavilion fans to their feet in amazement. By the time he was a junior, he was an All-IVY League point guard and the only NCAA Division I player who was in the Top 10 in his conference in scoring (17.8), rebounding (5.5), assists (4.3), steals (2.4), blocked shots (0.6), field goal percentage (0.502), free throw percentage (0.744), and three-point shot percentage (0.400).

In Lin’s senior year of ‘09-10, he carried the Harvard Crimson team, averaging 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals, and 1.1 blocks, and was again a unanimous selection for the All-IVY League First Team. He was one of 30 midseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award (College Player of the Year) and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award named annually by the Basketball Hall of Fame to recognize the best point guards in college basketball.

Lin was on the radar for a small group of Boston/Cambridge basketball fans but few outside of Boston or the IVY League crowd even knew his name. He went undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft. Soon after, Donnie Nelson of the Dallas Mavericks signed Lin to a make-good summer league contract but the Mavericks did not offer him an NBA deal that summer.

The Golden State Warriors did and on July 21, 2010 Lin became a member of the Warriors (B.T.W.G) which translates to “before they were good,” as evidenced by their 26-56 won-loss record in 2009-10. The Bay Area was a good fit for the American-born guard of Asian (Taiwanese) descent, and that was amplified by the fact he graduated from nearby Palo Alto High School and brought his very own fan club along for the ride, many showing up and buying tickets for rod games, too.

The problem for Lin was that he was playing behind Steph Curry and Monta Ellis, two basketball-needy guards who didn’t flinch at playing 40+ minutes a game. Buried on the bench with only an occasional downgrade to the D-League Reno Bighorns for much-needed seasoning and playing time. In Reno, he averaged 18 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists and made the D-League All-Defensive team to boot. Everything he was asked to do, he did. In everything he did, he began to excel. Yet, before the 2011-12 season, the Warriors were forced to waive Lin to clear salary cap space for the free agent signing of DeAndre Jordan.

Lin bounced from the Warriors to the Houston Rockets to the Knicks, a victim of clearing salary cap space once again, as the Rockets went big with the signing of center Samuel Dalembert. Two days after Christmas and the opening of the delayed NBA season, Lin was claimed off waivers by New York, prior to the rapid-fire injuries to their backcourt.

Aside from knowing Lin “was going to get his chance,” D’Antoni elaborated as the Knicks limped back to New York, saying, “the one thing you can say about Jeremy is that he’s very coachable. You never have to tell him something twice and when you teach a step or technique, he uses it immediately.”

I watched the Knicks leave the TD Boston Garden that night, looking at the team bus somewhat sadly as I waved good-bye to my longtime friend like a Band-Aid waving to the Stillwater Band in Almost Famous. It was not a wave of sadness or despair, it was a wave of hope.

To me, D’Antoni became just “Mike” in 1987 at the McDonald’s Open in Milwaukee when he was the starting point guard for Tracer Milan of Italy. After the initial acquaintance, we met frequently, usually along with his wife and son in Europe after he retired from playing but undertook big-time European coaching gigs first with his Milano club but more prominently at Benetton Treviso where he led the rival club to Italian League titles and a trip to the 2002 EuroLeague Final Four in Bologna.

When he wasn’t coaching in the Final Four, he was attending as a celebrated coach and all-time fan favorite – even for rival teams in Spain. Put it this way, Mike didn’t pay for a dinner or a drink in Italy, Spain or West Virginia.

His coaching resume expanded with a job coaching the Denver Nuggets in 1997-98 and short pre-season stint to assist the San Antonio Spurs as they navigated Milan for the 1999 McDonald’s Open. All the while, D’Antoni stressed an up-tempo offense, second to none.

By 2005-06, D’Antoni ran his famed “Seven Seconds or Less” offense for the Phoenix Suns with soon-to-be MVP point guard Steve Nash running the show. The Suns went 62-20 and he won NBA Coach of the Year honors while Nash became the best point guard in the league.

In 2008, with the Suns somewhat imploding a couple years after longtime Suns managing partner and GM Jerry Colangelo sold 30% of the franchise to current owner Robert Sarver, D’Antoni and company headed for greener pastures and that aligned the universe and the world’s Most Famous Arena for Linsanity.

On the third game of that back-to-back-to-back, Saturday, February 12, 2012 at The Garden, Linsanity began with a seat on the bench. D’Antoni started the ailing Shumpert and Landry Fields at the guard position, but substituted Lin who logged a team-high 35:52 minutes, scoring 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting. He added seven assists, two steals and five rebounds with only one turnover as New York defeated New Jersey (now Brooklyn), 99-92.

Knicks star forward Carmelo Anthony encouraged D’Antoni to give Lin more minutes, as did center-forward Amare Stoudimire, but both players would soon be added to the Knicks’ injury lists as the team resembled more of a M*A*S*H unit than an NBA team.

Lin got the start the next game, which ended as a 99-88 home win over the Utah Jazz. Lin played 44:52 minutes, scoring 28 points on 10-17 shooting with eight assists and an equal number of turnovers, a sign of concern.

The phenomenon of insanity grew and grew, and it carried on because of The Garden’s victory-starving crowd who fueled the ride. In his 12 starts before the NBA All-Star break, Lin averaged 22.5 points and 8.7 assists per game, and New York surged to a 9–3 streak, including the first seven in a row since that game up in Boston. The Knicks reached the .500 mark on February 15 and were 17-18 at the break. However, the shooting star was faltering, slightly, as opposing NBA team scouts focused-in on New York’s style, the way to double team Lin while the injury-ridden Knicks had nothing more in the gas tank.

D’Antoni was dismissed in March and former Knicks forward Mike Woodsontook over, slowing the offense down and running few pick-and-rolls as he favored an isolation game featuring Anthony. Meanwhile, Davis returned to play the point and Lin’s run was over.

During the offseason of 2012, the Houston Rockets concocted a free agent offer sheet for Lin with two years at about $5 million and a third year, ‘poison pill’ at $14.5m. The Knicks signed Raymond Felton and Linsanity died a natural death somewhere between the Hudson River and Galveston Bay.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: José Pañeda, the official Spanish-language voice of the Miami Heat, has been awarded the National Sports Media Association (NSMA) award for Best Broadcaster in Florida. The popular Cuban-American narrator, affiliated with the Heat Spanish Radio Network since the club’s establishment in 1988, became the first Spanish-language broadcaster to win the prestigious NSMA national award.

FROZEN FENWAY: The 2023 NHL Winter Classic will feature the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park, America’s Most Beloved Ballpark. The game will mark the fifth NHL regular-season outdoor game for the Bruins and the second time the Winter Classic is scheduled for Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. Boston defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in OT in the 2010 NHL Winter Classic and the Bruins lost to Montreal, 5-1, when Gillette Stadium played host to the event in 2016. Says the NHL’s official news release, “The game continues the NHL tradition of hosting a regular-season outdoor game at the onset of the New Year. The 2023 edition will mark the 15-year anniversary of the first NHL Winter Classic in Buffalo. Boston’s opponent, broadcast information and a confirmed details for the 2023 NHL Winter Classic will be announced at a later date.

In their two other outdoor games, the Bruins played the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2019 NHL Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The Bruins won, 4-2, in front of 76,126 at sold-out Notre Dame, the second largest crowd in nHL history. Tuukka Rask made 36 saves and Sean Kuraly scored the game winner to elevate the Bruins to the victory.

The Bruins played in the NHL ‘Outdoors’ game in beautiful Lake Tahoe, Nevada on February 21, 2021. David Pastrnak recorded a hat trick as the Bruins topped the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-3.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Brady Retires

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Tom and daughter, Vivian Brady: (Photo by Getty Images)

Bye-Bye Brady

By TERRY LYONS

Mid-afternoon Saturday, ESPN reported that all-time great NFL quarterback Tom Brady has decided to retire from playing pro football, effective immediately. He leaves with one year remaining on his NFL/Tampa Bay contract.

Brady, 44, is retiring with a record (624) touchdown passes, (84,250) passing yards in 22 seasons of NFL football, mostly with the New England Patriots but concluding with the Tampa Bay Bucs, the 2021 NFL Super Bowl champions. Brady also leaves the NFL with seven Super Bowl championships and a burgeoning business with his TB12 brand.

With the fact Brady’s children are in their formative years, the time for spending valuable days with his family is now. With his wealth, combined with the wealth and celebrity status of his super model wife, Giselle, the timing will allow them to settle in the place of their choosing, most likely New York City or Miami. They are building a home near Miami Beach, in an exclusive paradise called Indian Creek Island.

Late in the day Saturday, Brady’s agent (Don Yee) offered a vague non-denial, denial of the report and Brady’s father, Tom Sr. stated via the NFL Network, “This story Mike is total conjecture. Tommy has not made a final decision one way or the other and anybody else that says that he has is absolutely wrong.”

The take here? You’ve gotta be very happy for Tom Brady and his family. He gave his all to the NFL for 22 years and can retire healthy and at the perfect time to spend time with his wife and children. He deserves nothing but personal happiness and more professional success if he chooses to explore more entrepreneurial outlets like TB12. Otherwise, the links from Pebble Beach Ireland, Pro-Ams and celebrity golf tournaments await.

Side Note: With the announced and now highly expected retirement of Brady, the odds of TE Rob Gronkowski returning to the NFL football field fall to slim and none.

Side Note II: With the retirement of Brady, a Golden Age for Boston sports franchises comes to a full stop with Brady leaving the Patriots (lost to Tampa Bay Bucs), Paul Pierce gone from the Celtics (shipped out to Brooklyn with KG), Zdeno Chara for the Bruins (shipped to DC) and David “Big Papi” Ortiz retiring from the Red Sox and just this week voted as a first ballot National Baseball Hall of Famer. At least Big Papi remained on the Sox and retired as a winner in his Boston uniform, something Sox OF Mookie Bettsdecided against. It is the end of an amazing era in Boston sports history.

SNOWY and WIND-BLOWN BOSTON – The NFL Super Bowl participants will be determined today and the game date will be circled on everyone’s calendar – February 13, 2022 with a 6:30pm (ET) kick-off. Then, if all goes well with their negotiations (see note below), Spring Training for baseball will begin 48 hours later. Pitchers & Catchers reporting is always the first sign of spring.

There will be a February 4-20th time-out for the Beijing Winter Olympics, but with dozens of athletes testing positive for COVID+ and the time change challenges of an Asian Olympics for USA television viewing, the 2022 Winter Games are not generating much buzz or viewer enthusiasm. NBC and Peacock are now beginning 24/7 promotion of the Games, avoiding any connection to China and the obvious human rights protests on-going. NBC Sports is NOT sending broadcasters to call the Winter Olympics on site and, instead, will base much of the coverage out of their Stamford, CT studio. Blah.

That brings us to the “next” season for sports fans. With the NBA and NHL in their dog-days of winter, the focus will shift to NCAA basketball, the various conference tournaments as NCAA “March Madness” fast approaches. The bulk of the college tournaments begin March 9, but some, like the Southern Conference tip-off March 4. Here’s your pocket schedule for planning:

  • March 4: Some mid-major conference tournaments begin
  • March 9: Bulk of NCAA conference championships tip-off
  • March 13: NCAA Selection Sunday
  • First Four: March 15-16
  • First round: March 17-18
  • Second round: March 19-20
  • Sweet 16: March 24-25
  • Elite Eight: March 26-27
  • Final Four: April 2
  • NCAA championship game: April 4
  • MLB Regular Season: March 31

Each week, the Associated Press Top 25 and the NCAA Basketball Coaches Poll rank the best college hoops teams. There’s rarely a spot or two difference between the two polls. As of this week, there’s 99.9% agreement on the Top 10 programs in ‘22:

  • Auburn
  • Gonzaga
  • Arizona
  • Baylor
  • Kansas
  • Purdue
  • Duke
  • UCLA
  • Houston
  • Michigan State

In the Top 11-25 ranked range, these teams should be noted as contenders to go deep into the tournament:

  • Wisconsin
  • Villanova
  • Kentucky
  • Texas Tech

Of course, in the NCAA’s, you can always count on at least one or two teams to catch fire in late February and the first week of March, then become the Cinderella darlings of March Madness. Loyola (Chicago) certainly qualifies in that realm, as does a well-coached and scrappy Providence team from the Big East. UConn and Marquette are two clubs to keep an eye on throughout February.

Winning in-Conference road games by any margin is always the key indicator for this reporter. Don’t let those rankings, Quad-1-to-4 victories, RPI or NET rankings fool you.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Saturday, January 29th, 2022 (yesterday – or tonight if you’re reading the bulldog edition) marks the first Saturday without “real” football since August 21, 2021. The NCAA football season began the following Saturday (August 28) and the nFL filled what might’ve been a dormant January 8 with two games of their final regular season weekend. (KS 28-24 over Denver) and Dallas 51-26 over Philadelphia). … The NCAA All-Star exhibitions don’t count.

POWER RANKINGS: Green Bay, Buffalo, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Tennessee all tapped-out last weekend, leaving the January 18 NFL Power Ranking in shambles. No. 7 LA Rams and No. 8 Cincinnati Bengals both advanced and the San Francisco 49ers surprised everyone but the Las Vegas bookies. That leaves us:

Cincy at KC, 3pm (ET) on CBS

SF at LA Rams, 6:30pm (ET) on FOX

Prediction: The home teams win and cover. … That said, Cincinnati is dangerous and will be a team to be reckoned with for at least five more years. KC and Buffalo both in that category, too. Anyone else? Let’s hear it.

PITCHERS & CATCHERS & LAWYERS: The MLB Spring Training countdown clock reads 14 days as of January 30th, with most teams asking pitchers & catchers to report on February 15th. This week, there was a Floridian-style ray of hope as consecutive meeting days (this past Monday-Tuesday) between MLB and the MLBPA concluded with reports of progress in their negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. … The deadline for a deal is fast approaching so it is reasonable to think the two sides will continue to meet and chip away on the details for a new deal. … The good news, there has been surprisingly little said to media as the negotiations continue.