Friday, May 29, 2009

More links and D-Rose scandal?!

But first, a mini-rant ...

Reggie Miller is by far the worst NBA announcer on the planet. I hate when he is assigned to playoff games (I realize he was a sub for Doug Collins last night, but they could find someone else). Reggie is terrible, even worse than the woman who did the back-end of some double-headers on ESPN during the regular season.

He offers no analysis or insight. Yesterday he said: Mo Williams is the first Cav other than LeBron to score 20 points this series, and that's the first time Mo has reached 20 points this series. Really Reggie?! Idiot. Did Reggie also start asking himself simple questions and answering them? Yes.

I could watch Marv Albert announce chess and it would be exciting, but Reggie ruins Marv's excellence and makes me want to mute the games.

I hate Reggie Miller (almost) as much as I ... HATE. THE. CELTICS.




And another mini-rant ...

I know it's been said/written before, but the plays teams run at the end of quarters are absolutely stupid. Those are generally big plays because they can get a home crowd fired up for the second unit at the start of the 2nd and 4th quarters (or take a crowd out of it if the road team scores) ...

And teams continuously do the stupid "player X dribbles the clock down then takes a long step-back jumper" play. It's boring, and it's obviously not the best offensive play the team has - otherwise they would do it all game right?

Some teams are excluded from this criticism (Suns and Magic run a pick-and-roll, but the Magic usually end up with a Hedo step-back J anyway). But think about most teams: Cavs with LeBron, Lakers with Kobe, Bulls with BG ... it's always the same. Couldn't they run that player off some screens and get him the ball in the post, or run the normal offense and make sure it ends up in that players hands?!







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Now some links ...

Why look at another PG? -


Jonny Flynn and his agent, Leon Rose, mapped out a predraft workout schedule for the potential lottery pick based on teams that need a point guard.

Then the Bulls called.

"I couldn't understand why they would bring me in either," Flynn said at the NBA predraft camp at Attack Athletics, confirming the Tribune's report of his Sunday workout. "But they said there are times they wish to move Derrick [Rose] off the ball. When they said that to me, it fell into place."

Whether Flynn is on the board when the Bulls use the first of their two first-round picks in the June 25 NBA draft is impossible to predict. At No. 16 and No. 26, the Bulls have numerous options.







Rose had a grade changed at Simeon -

A year ago, Derrick Rose became the No.1 overall pick in the NBA draft, selected by his hometown Bulls and eventually dazzling enough onlookers to be rated the top rookie in his class.

His ability and promise remain an immutable truth for the present and future. It's Rose's past, though, that is becoming a bit more clouded.

First came news Wednesday out of Memphis that the NCAA is investigating an allegedly fraudulent SAT score of a Memphis basketball player from the 2007-08 Final Four team, reportedly Rose.

Then a Chicago Public Schools source said Thursday that a grade on Rose's high school transcript was changed from a D to a C by someone at Simeon Career Academy in the final semester of his senior year.



Issue with Rose's SAT score also
-

A Chicago Public Schools source said Thursday that a grade on Rose's high school transcript was changed from a D to a C by someone at Simeon Career Academy in the final semester of his senior year.

On Wednesday reports surfaced in Memphis that the NCAA is investigating an allegedly fraudulent SAT score of a Memphis basketball player from the 2007-08 Final Four team, reportedly Rose.


"Mr. Rose is aware of the allegations reported in the press," Daniel E. Reidy, Rose's attorney, said in a statement. "Mr. Rose cooperated fully with the University of Memphis' athletic and legal departments' investigation of this issue when he was a student, and that investigation uncovered no wrongdoing on his part.

"At this time, Mr. Rose sees no reason to engage in further discussion regarding this matter and will instead focus on his career as a professional basketball player."





Ripple effect of the allegations
-

Let's say you're of the cynical, entertain-me-now school of fandom.

You don't care a wit that young Bulls star Derrick Rose has been implicated as the beneficiary of some serious academic cheating at both his alma maters -- Simeon High School and the University of Memphis.

According to NCAA allegations first reported by the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and Chicago high school sources informing the Sun-Times, some person other than Rose allegedly took his college-entrance SAT, and someone with access to Rose's Simeon transcripts changed one of his grades from a D to a C just as Rose was applying to colleges.

So what, you say. He's a pro now. He was always gonna be a baller. Go, Bulls!

That's fine.

Live in your world of beer-can-on-the-belly sports relativism.

But just ponder the ripple effect and the hypocrisy revealed by the academic fraud before you lumber to the fridge for another cold one.



***** UPDATE *****

Memphis denies allegations -

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said the Tigers have no reason to believe a former player -- identified by sources as Derrick Rose -- took a fraudulent standardized test prior to enrolling at the university.

"If we thought that we wouldn't have played him," Johnson told ESPN.com Thursday.

Johnson wouldn't confirm that Chicago Bulls rookie Rose is at the center of the investigation. But he denied any knowledge of someone else taking a standardized test for a Memphis player.

Forde: Kentucky sees, hears no evil

There are still plenty of questions to be answered, but don't tell that to Kentucky or its fans. The NCAA allegations at Memphis? No need to dig up the past -- that doesn't involve next year's dream season. Forde

In a letter to the school the NCAA says an unknown person took the SAT for a player, with his knowledge, and then the player used that test to get into Memphis. The NCAA said the athlete in question played for the Tigers in the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. The only person who played just that season was Rose.

2 comments:

Duckfart said...

Doesn't "scandal" imply that there is actually a scandal here? At Marist, you didn't even have to be an athlete to get your grades bumped, you just had to be likeable.

"Derrick Rose is likeable" is all I've gathered from these articles.

And as for the SAT stuff, thats just dumb. Let me know when Derrick cheated on the real test of knowledge, the ACT.

Duckfart said...

Did I say Marist? I meant Brother Rice.

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