Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tuesday 04/29 A.M. Quickie:
Brown, Hawks, Clemens, Haren, More

Today's Sporting News column leads with a name familiar to anyone who has read the Quickie over the past few years:

Larry Brown, a man whose late-career talent for ruining franchises is only matched by the level of sanctimony with which he accomplishes it.

Michael Jordan -- perhaps the least talented active executive in the NBA -- hiring Larry Brown -- perhaps the universally worst fit to coach ANY team -- is destined to fail.

See what else I have to say about it in the column right here.

Meanwhile, how can you not love the spunky Hawks? I'm not saying they will oust the Celtics -- that would mean winning at least one game in Boston -- but they sure exposed the Celtics as...fire-free.

(And that's the problem with KG: There may not be a more passionate regular-season player in the history of the NBA. In the playoffs, though, his passion translates into something else.)

The Hawks are the antithesis of the Nuggets, by the way. If I was a Denver fan and was offered the chance to trade entire rosters, straight up, I would do it.

(I mention this at the end of the column: Is there a more intriguing 3-player core than Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Al Horford? You get versatility, toughness, youth. That is a trio that Atlanta can build around.)

Meanwhile, in MLB, the D'backs just got even better, with Dan Haren getting out of his flu-ish funk and joining Webb and Owings as the best 1-2-3 pitching combo in baseball.

How can you not love Frank Thomas?

I have more to say about yesterday's activity around Roger Clemens. What I didn't say was this:

I didn't think there was anything that could bump "cheater" from the top-line of Clemens' legacy, but "palling around with a 15-year-old girl" might just do it.

Also from the column: "A (Jump-)Shot at Love with Pat Summitt" may be one of my favorite concepts since I started the SN column. It's a throwaway line, but I love it.

As always, there's a ton more, so check it out here.

-- D.S.

3 comments:

Steve said...

Re: Hawks over Celts

Technically it means winning only one game in Boston, Dan.

John said...

The Hawks overachieve for two games and you've officially jumped on the bandwagon. That's a shock. You do realize they finished eight games under .500 this season and have been one of the worst run franchises in all of sports?...so you just might want to hold off before you anoint them "East contenders for years" and "better positioned than the Celtics for long-term success." I like Johnson, Horford and Smith, but we're talking about the Atlanta Hawks...the Clippers of the East. They will most likely screw this up, just be patient.

Mikepcfl said...

Johnson, Horford and Smith are a pretty good trio, but Atlanta fans have to be killing themselves over drafting Marvin Williams over Chris Paul. that may go down just behind passing over Jordan as the worst draft move in history. The Hawks would be sick with Paul at the point.