Way to go, Larry

I'm not a big Larry Bird fan. Okay, I despise the guy.
But, I must admit this impressed me. Bird, reportedly, purchased the entire balcony at Conseco Fieldhouse at Indiana in an effort to fill the arena for tonight's WNBA Eastern Conference playoff game against Detroit.
Someone said it's about 9,000 seats, which would be an amazing amount of money for me. It's probably not that much for Larry Bird. But, it's still an incredible gesture and a nice show of support for the ladies on the Fever's team.
He might be trying to keep up with Magic Johnson, who has been a huge supporter of the Los Angeles Sparks this season. Magic skipped Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame ceremony so he could support Lisa Leslie in her final regular-season game in Los Angeles.
With all the criticism the WNBA gets, it's nice to see these basketball legends, who truly understand what the sport is all about, throw their support toward women's basketball.

Football season

Busy. Busy. Busy.
Football season is going strong at the Eldog with the state's most anticipated matchup coming to town tomorrow. I must admit, I'm in complete football mode, right now.
Lots of things have happened recently, including Serena Williams losing her mind at the U.S. Open. I've been watching but haven't had a chance to comment.
I watched the Razorbacks against Georgia last week. It looks like Ryan Mallett is as good as advertised. It's always exciting when a premier athlete comes to this state. But, as good as the quarterback looks, Arkansas' defense was absolutely awful.
Serena lost her mind at a line judge at the Open. At first, I completely understood her getting upset at the call. I've seen McEnroe and Connors do the same thing and it's not a big deal. Serena crossed the line, however, if she threatened to kill the woman. I do think it was a bit of a double standard for the commentators, who couldn't wait to trash Serena for her actions. I wonder why.
Serena should send Kanye West a thank you card, though. Everybody forgot about her after that idiot did what he did the next night on MTV.
I'm trying to get into the WNBA playoffs. It's harder for me since San Antonio lost to Phoenix the other day. But, you have to admire Vickie Johnson for the way she ended her career. The former Lady Techster closed her career in style with one of her all-time great performances. It was tough watching VJ and Hammon hug at the end of the game. They've played more games together than any other duo in the WNBA. Hammon did her best to keep her friend by her side for another series. Sadly, it was not meant to be.
Phoenix should win this thing, now. I hate to say it but, dayum, they're good.

Oops, try again ESPN

Thank God for Caroline Wozniacki.
If I had to go through another day of our media French kissing Melanie Oudin I was going to lose my lunch.
I know we're constantly looking for the next great white hope in this country but good grief.
For the past few days, we've been bombarded with Oudin, who was a great story about a 17-year-old, up-and-coming tennis player from Marietta, Ga. She's small. She's feisty. She's blond. She's cute. She's southern. And, yeah, she can play a little bit, too.
Oudin got on a great run at the U.S. Open. She beat Elena Dementieva but Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova pretty much gave her their matches. Still, she deserved a lot of credit, being unseeded and advancing to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
She was a nice story, too. The crowd cheered for her, which actually made her matches good to watch.
But, my problem is with the media coverage. They hyped this kid up to be the greatest thing in the world. John McEnroe pretty much declared it a done deal that she'd be in the finals against Serena.
Hello? Is anybody home?
Nobody even mentioned her opponent's name. Oh yeah, her opponent, Wozniacki, who at 19 is just a kid herself but is ranked No. 9 in the friggin' world. Yeah, this little girl from Georgia is going to curb stomp the player who has more wins on the women's tour than ANYBODY else in the world.
Don't let cold hard facts get in the way of a nice fairy tale.
Oudin had about as much chance of beating Wozniacki as I did. Hell, I might've done better than that 6-2, 6-2 beatdown. I actually feel bad for Oudin, who didn't ask to be hyped like this. It's not her fault that we've heard her story so much these past two days that a lot of Americans were rooting for the girl from friggin' Denmark to win on Wednesday.
We love to make our own heroes in this country. That seems to be the media's job these days. The great thing about sports is champions can't be created by ESPN. No matter how hard you try, you can't turn a little girl from Georgia into the best tennis player in the world.
She may get there one day. But when and if she does, it'll be because she earned it on the court. Not because she was christened it, by the media.

Two wrongs

I had no idea my opinion on this would be so completely opposite to a lot of my office co-workers but, I believe the kid from Oregon got a raw deal.
LeGarrette Blount is the running back for the Ducks who punched a Boise State player after their game last week. The school kicked the senior off the team for the rest of the season. He has no-redshirt year. His college career is over and his professional career (he was projected as possibly a 2nd round pick) is in serious jeopardy.
Actually, I shouldn't say he got a raw deal. Blount, after punching the one kid, lost his mind and started trying to fight everybody, including Boise State's fans. He punched a teammate and just royally made an arse out of himself.
For his post-punch antics, I can see him getting some very stiff punishment, which he deserved.
My problem was with the initial punch. People like throwing around words like "thug" and "hoodlum" when a black athlete does something like this. But, you know what, my outrage is directed at the Boise State kid who started the whole thing.
After the game, Blount, who reportedly had talked trash in the media before the matchup, was simply walking off the field. Oregon had just gotten their butts beat. They were licking their wounds and couldn't get off the field fast enough.
Boise State's team showed class and sportsmanship - except for one dude. This guy runs up to Blount, slaps him in on the shoulder and proceeds to talk trash, rubbing salt into the open wound.
Should Blount have knocked him out? No.
Do I understand why Blount knocked him out? Yes.
Anyone who has ever competed knows, the easiest way to start a fight is to rub it in after a victory. I know. I got into a fight with my best friend in high school after a pickup basketball game that I lost.
No one likes to lose. Most of us can accept defeat, however, until some fool starts mouthing off about it.
Anyway, nothing would've happened had the Boise State player just did what all his teammates were doing. Because he wanted to get in a little extra kick to an opponent who was already down, it nearly started a brawl.
Should Blount be suspended for the entire year? Because of what he did after the punch, I supposed it might be justified.
Should the Boise State kid get off scot-free after what he did? Hades no. In my opinion, he's just as guilty.