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NBA Coaches Get Benched
The NBA season is barely six weeks old and six coaches have already lost their jobs. P.J. Carlesimo was canned in Oklahoma City, Randy Wittman lost his gig in Minnesota, Eddie Jordan was shown the door in Washington, and Sam Mitchell was dismissed in Toronto. Then just as things seemed to be settling down, Maurice…
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Shakin' Up The Game
The NBA is the most predictable of the three major North American sports. In each of the last five seasons, the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers have been top teams in the Western Conference. The Detroit Pistons have gone to the Eastern Conference…
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Bulletproof
I can’t pretend to understand why New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress would carry an illegal firearm or why he would go to a club where he felt a need to have a weapon. Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg last Friday at the New York nightclub Latin Quarter, and he has been…
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Knick That LeBron Talk in The Bud
Nov. 28, 2008—Last Friday, the New York Knicks made two trades, getting three journeymen players, forwards Al Harrington and Tim Thomas and guard Cuttino Mobley (whose health has kept the trades from being considered final). But to hear the locals tell it, the Knicks just acquired LeBron James. The New York media and the local…
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Trading Places
Nov. 21, 2008—Folks down with the number crunchers at sites like 82games, Basketball Prospectus, Baseball Prospectus and Football Outsiders, mutter these three little words—small sample size—as if it were a mantra and for good reason. Even those fans with no appetite for algebraic gymnastics with their sport can easily recall some otherwise ordinary player who had…
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How the Mighty Have Fallen—Behind
Nov. 14, 2008—The rapidly changing fates of the NFL have diminished the sizzle of the great rivalries. But this weekend—when the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers resume hostilities in Wisconsin and the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins maul each another in D.C.—there will be more at stake than mere bragging rights. The Packers and…
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Rockin' 'Science'
It’s encouraging that the multiracial rock band TV on the Radio has stormed the New York rock scene without anybody making much of the group’s demographic novelty. Their latest recording, Dear Science, (Interscope) is so engrossing and powerful that the band members could be from Mars, Venus and Saturn and that little detail might escape…
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The Football Giants
It’s not a surprise, but this point needs to be stressed: The NFL is not big on continuity. Just look at the NFC. After 10 weeks of the season, last year the top teams were clear; Dallas, Green Bay, Tampa Bay and Seattle were the class of the conference. Each was a team with enough…
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Harlem: Red, White and New
It isn’t often that you get to choose where to watch history in the making, but Election Night was that rare event that you could pick your perch. I chose Harlem as my perch. I don’t live there, but I work there once a week, tending to the cheese program at a wine bar—yes, a…
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Hey Ump, You $!#*&@* Suck
Even if they don’t have a gun, it seems as if the men who run baseball will find a way to shoot themselves in the foot. The 2008 World Series should have been a showcase for a plethora of new stars, a platform for two emerging powerhouses, and a chance for the sport to display…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
