06/16 Quickie: Game 7, Izzo, Pac-12

Flashes of classic Quickie-style "Instant History" in today's SN column:

Is tomorrow night the biggest game in NBA history?

At the very least, is it the single biggest NBA game since the last time the Lakers and Celtics played a Finals Game 7, back in 1984?

When considering the Jordan Era of the 90s or the Kobe/Shaq and Duncan combo-dynasty of the past decade -- which were defined by dominance, not drama -- it is at least in the discussion.

(Since '84, I'll take some votes for Knicks-Rockets Game 7 in 1994, but that seems like something only a New Yorker would offer up. I don't think you'd say it was bigger than Lakers-Celtics '84.)

What I find most interesting is that in all the insta-nostalgia for 1984, consider that if you're under 30, you have no recollection of the 1984 Finals.

If you're under 40, you might -- might. But it would have merely a hazy (if formative) place in your development as a sports fan.

If you're older than 40, it will bring back all sorts of memories. If you're older than 60, you even get to add in context of the Lakers-Celtics Game 7s of the 1960s.

But the fact is that all that nostalgia compounds to make 2010 even bigger. Then layer in things that would have been fiction in 1984 -- 24/7 sports cycles, the Web, social media.

It is refreshing to consider that with a combination of retro and nouveau, tomorrow night's game breaks through the weight of history -- particularly the NBA's hallowed (if overrated) "Golden Age" of the 1980s -- to stand on its own.

****

More you'll find in today's column:

*Tom Izzo staying at Michigan State: I really wanted to nick him for his dalliance with the pros, but his discussion of staying was so heartfelt, I couldn't begrudge him any further. As I said last March, Izzo is the best coach in college basketball, and if anything, the drama of the past week will make Izzo's national title next April all the more dramatic.

*So I guess Roy Halladay won't be leading the Phillies past the Yankees in the World Series.

*David Price for AL Cy?

*I love Utah in the Pac-10. Consider this: Utah instantly becomes the best team in the league. At least the best bowl-eligible team in the league. Wonder if the Pac-10 will regret it after Utah wins the conference title in its first year of eligibility in the league?

*What a goal by Brazil's Maicon. Didn't think it was possible to score from that angle. (Today's game to watch: South Africa vs. Uruguay. What's the chance that every single game in Group A ends in a tie? Better than not! In that case, URU needs a goal to help its tie-breaker chances.)

*There are very few Jordan Farmar fans out there -- the ones who accept the ribbing from folks who find him an amusing sidebar. And so last night's Farmar posterizing of KG has to mark the player's finest moment ever.

Lots more in the column. Check it out here. More later.

-- D.S.

06/15 Quickie: Big 12, Game 6, More

Let's be clear: It's not the Big 12. And that's not because there are only 10 teams in it. It's because there is Texas, then everyone else. It's more like a Big One (Plus Nine Afterthoughts).

As I put it in today's SN column, I don't begrudge Texas carving out their own individual TV deal to go along with the fictitious TV deal that Big 12 commish Dan Beebe has promised his members.

But let's not talk about Texas "saving" the Big 12 -- they maximized the deal for Texas, and if everyone else happened to get to stay in a solvent Big 12? Just an unintended bonus.

More you'll find in today's column:

*As long as you're not a Lakers or Celtics fans, you really can't lose tonight in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. I'd like to see it go to a Game 7, if only because little beats a Game 7.

*I'm getting really really tired of Tom Izzo, who is giving LeBron a run for his money as a "will-he-or-won't-he" diva holding his current team over a barrel. Classy!

*World Cup: The vuvuzelas are saved! Hooray for the world! Meanwhile, was anyone rooting (aside Italy fans) for Italy to tie Paraguay? Big day today: Brazil!

Tons more in the column. Check it out here.

-- D.S.

06/14 Quickie: Cup, A&M, Finals, Stras

To start things off, consider me firmly in the camp that would be entirely against banning vuvuzelas from the World Cup. They are a part of the regional sporting culture.

It would be like banning the Wave, or chants of "Dee!-Fense!" or morons who wave at TV cameras while using their cellphones as their buddies call to tell them they can see them on TV.

What a morning, hunh? Probably 5 things that could have led today's SN column:

*The World Cup is off to a rousing start. It's hard to complain about ties when the US tie with England was so dramatic. (Speaking of dramatic: Ghana!)

*Feels like the first four games of the NBA Finals were a sideshow of Ray Allen, Big Baby, Nate Robinson. Last night was for real -- Pierce vs. Kobe. (Lakers in 7!)

*Texas A&M to the SEC? That's how it is looking, and more power to the Aggies, who are ready to stick it to sibling Texas and claim all the cachet that comes with joining college football's best conference. (For a 14th, I think the SEC should go after UNC.)

*LeBron endorses Tom Izzo: Even if it is tacitly through an intermediary, LeBron wanted that message out there. This should embolden Izzo to take the job -- and embolden Cavs fans that LeBron might come back (if only for a mini-max deal for 3 years).

*Strasburg? OK, he only has racked up more Ks by a pitcher in his first two starts than any pitcher in the last half-century, but how about Ted Lilly's oh-so-close near-no-no?

You know who is loving life this morning? Vince Young. If this was a dull sports day, he would be in some trouble. Instead, his little club incident is an afterthought.

More World Cup all day. Almost assuredly, more drama out of the Big 12. Light MLB schedule. No NBA. Maybe some word from Izzo. Keep tracking.

And embrace the vuvuzela!

Complete SN column here.

-- D.S.

Sunday (Late Late Late) Quickie

I love the "US Wins 1-1" headline. That says it all.

Saturday (US-England) Quickie

A few thoughts while idling time until kickoff for US-England:

*Did you catch that South Africa celebration after their goal against Mexico? That wasn't showing anyone up. That was joy. The NFL could take a lesson.

*I'm not as down on 0-0 ties as others, although France and Uruguay didn't exactly play inspired soccer to get there (compare that game to RSA-MEX).

*US-England is the biggest soccer game in US soccer history. Bigger than 1950. Bigger than the '94 World Cup in the US. If this can't catch casual/non-fan interest, nothing will. (But it will.)

*Nebraska to the Big Ten: As a Big Ten alum, it's odd for me to think that a road trip could take my school to Lincoln. On the other hand, it is as solid a fit as is out there.

*Texas A&M not sticking with Texas to the Pac-10, but instead going to the SEC? There are very compelling reasons for TAMU to be its own team and bend East, not West.

*Boise State to the Mountain West: Great move for both sides. The MWC is a BCS-worthy league; with the future 2010 national champion of college football, that's even moreso.

(Say what you want about the conference depth, but Boise-TCU-Utah-BYU is a more solid Top 4 than any conference outside of the SEC.)

*No decision from Tom Izzo yet: Coming today? Two thoughts:

(1) Even if he takes the Cavs job, I won't believe it until we get to Monday (Billy Donovan Precedent).

(2) Even if he stays at Michigan State, he has eroded his place as college hoops' top coach.

*Jamie Moyer Watch: Remember his complete game shutout earlier this season that was so glorious? Well, Moyer just had the worst start of his career last night. Yikes.

*Ubaldomania: Win No. 12. He would have to fall off the tracks to not be the NL All-Star starter.

*The NCAA, BCS and Heisman Trust could learn something from the Olympics, where Marion Jones' stripped gold went to the competitor from the Bahamas who finished behind her.

*Sounds like a really awesome celebration parade in Chicago for the Blackhawks. Say this: Chicago fans know how to do a title pep rally.

Now, back to getting ready for USA-England.

-- D.S.

Shanoff World Cup Picks

World Cup picks, per the Daily Quickie Readers World Cup pick 'em bracket:

Group Round:
A: (1) Uruguay, (2) France
B: (1) Argentina, (2) Nigeria
C: (1) US, (2) England
D: (1) Germany, (2) Serbia
E: (1) Netherlands, (2) Cameroon
F: (1) Italy, (2) Paraguay
G: (1) Brazil, (2) Portugal
H: (1) Spain, (2) Chile

2nd Round:
(B2) Nigeria over (A1) Uruguay
(C1) US over (D2) Serbia
(E1) Netherlands over (F2) Paraguay
(G1) Brazil over (H2) Chile
(B1) Argentina over (A2) France
(D1) Germany over (C2) England
(F1) Italy over (E2) Cameroon
(H1) Spain over (G2) Portugal

Quarters:
US over Nigeria
Brazil over Netherlands
Argentina over Germany
Spain over Italy

Semis:
Brazil over US
Spain over Argentina

Champ: Brazil over Spain

06/11 Quickie: World Cup, USC, Big 12

It is critical to put all the sports-news insanity from the past 24-48 hours -- USC sanctions, Big 12 implosion, Strasburg mania -- into some perspective.

Combined, they are all a pimple on the tusch of the World Cup.

Here is some handy shorthand: Millions care about the USC penalties or for which conference Texas A&M ends up playing football. Billions care about the World Cup.

I do not claim to be a soccer expert -- at all. But, as I profess in today's SN column, I love the World Cup. I watch as many games as possible -- middle of the day, middle of the night, whatever. And I almost always watch the games on Univision (I will give ESPN another chance, because they upgraded their announcers).

I love the nationalism. I love the goal celebrations. I love the feeling of being connected not just to some parochial fan base, but to the world.

I don't get the World Cup haters. There is too much to enjoy -- and too much joy -- to worry about not understanding the game.

Especially when things feel so unsettled in the sports world, stateside.

Actually, that's not entirely true: Everyone but USC fans cheered the sanctions dropped down yesterday, which I immediately dubbed "Death Penalty 2.0." It didn't quite kill USC football, but it put a huge hurt on it, entirely having to do with the loss of 30 scholarships.

That is an absolute piledriver -- at least to the extent that USC wants to be a national-title contender. It is virtually impossible to do that without significant depth, which USC will no longer have. Oh, and layer in the penalty-free transfers for USC juniors and seniors, along with what has to be changed minds for many incoming freshmen. It is brutal. And it is hard not to feel -- wait for it...

"USChadenfreude."

Meanwhile, I recognize that the college football realignment is entirely unsettling for many fans, particularly those in Big 12 country. But it is -- as it always has been -- entirely about money. And so we'll get what we get and not get upset, as my kids' preschool teachers say.

Colorado to the Pac-10? Sure!
Nebraska to the Big Ten? Sure!

Where things get really interesting is this situation involving Texas A&M, which may or may not be considering a jump to the SEC, leaving the rest of the Big 12 powers to go to the Pac-10.

Personally, I'm in the Clay Travis camp that it is in the best interests of both the SEC and Texas A&M to join up. It gives the SEC a Texas foothold, and it gives A&M a competitive differentiator from Texas.

Now, there is always the chance that Texas joins Texas A&M in the SEC -- that would be monstrous, and I have heard that the SEC would even move Alabama and Auburn to the SEC East to accommodate the newbies. Fine, although at that point, I'm not sure why the SEC would bother staying in the BCS, when they could simply have an 8-team playoff of their own, with the SEC champ being crowned the de facto national champ.

That doesn't even bring in Tom Izzo STILL considering the Cavs, which has to be the biggest "WTF?!" of the year in sports.

There is tons more in today's column, including my complete World Cup picks. Updates throughout the weekend, but for the most part, I am camped out watching soccer, especially tomorrow for US-England, which I have going down as a tie (which would be a W for the Yanks).

-- D.S.

World Cup Bracket: Join Up Now!

Last chance to join the Daily Quickie Readers group of the World Cup bracket picker. Do it now!

06/10 Quickie: Blackhawks, Nebraska, USC, Izzo, More

So much is going on in sports this morning that it makes the Strasburg thing feel like a very pleasant appetizer before some kind of Thanksgiving-style engorgement, which leads today's SN column:

*USC is about to get far more than slapped by the NCAA -- the two-year bowl ban isn't a big deal; the loss of scholarships are. (And I'm trying to figure out exactly how the transfer rules work when a team is slapped like this. Could USC's entire junior and senior class transfer without penalty?)

*The Big 12 is teetering. Nebraska is gone. Colorado (to the Pac-10) and Mizzou (to the Big Ten) are sure to follow. I'm still all for the Big 12 picking up TCU, Utah, BYU, Boise and Memphis to join whoever is left. Those first four represent 4 perennial Top 25 programs -- wouldn't they be enticed by the Big 12's BCS designation?

*I am honestly stunned that Tom Izzo is considering the Cavs job, for two reasons: (1) He has one of the best jobs in the country at Michigan State, where he has emerged as the best coach in college basketball and has his team positioned for a national title next year. (2) Even if he has an itch for the NBA, if LeBron doesn't return to the Cavs, that job sucks.

Given what happened with Billy Donovan, I won't believe that Izzo is taking the job even after he takes it (if he takes it, obviously). I will wait for MSU to hire a replacement, because we all know coaches have been known to change their minds in these situations. (Still, much like I quickly jumped on the "replace-Donovan-with-Anthony-Grant" bandwagon, I would quickly get on the "replace-Izzo-with-Brad-Stevens-or-Josh-Pastner" bandwagon.)

*Oh, AND THE BLACKHAWKS WON THE STANLEY CUP. Just a small story there. The NHL can't catch a break -- I think Chicago is one of the most likable NHL champs in years.

And ohbytheway, the World Cup starts tomorrow. It's only bigger than all of the above stories combined... times 1,000. (I'm talking globally, not parochially.)

There is so much going on in sports today that my head is swimming. I am sure I will constantly be refreshing Twitter and sports blogs to keep up. But I will do my best to offset that by sitting on the beach while doing it.

Complete SN column here. More later -- I think I'm going to post my World Cup picks this afternoon.

-- D.S.

06/09 Quickie: Strasburg, Lakers, Nebraska

I'm traveling this morning so this will be a quick promo for today's SN column, which should be up by 8:

Strasburg. Good goshamighty.

Lakers. Why everyone loves Derek Fisher.

Nebraska. What's next for Big 12?

Izzo. Why? Whywhywhywhy?

Galarraga. "ND" is not quite "Imperfect."

Golden Tate. Mmm, pastry.

Pete Rose. Wasn't everyone corking?

Tons in there today. Should be up by 8-ish.

More later.

-- D.S.

Worst. Graduation Speaker. Ever.

So I just read that my high school, Walt Whitman HS (Bethesda, MD), had lined up journalist Helen Thomas to be this year's graduation speaker. For obvious reasons, that didn't work out; she was replaced with CBS's Bob Schieffer, certainly a distinguished honoree.

But it took me back to June 1991, when the graduation speaker for my class was... Anthony Dilweg.

Who? Fair question. My high school regularly had really awesome graduation speakers, a function of having kids whose parents either knew or were themselves fairly prominent in the DC area. For example, the year before my graduation, Whitman had Paul Tagliabue speak.

So. Dilweg. Again: Who? Let's go right to Wikipedia: He played QB for my high school in the mid-80s (notable for taking a 5th year, where he excelled). He went on to play at Duke, where he was fortunate enough to play QB during the Spurrier Era. Success!

This led to a job with the Green Bay Packers in the pre-Favre Era. In 1990, Dilweg played 9 games, accounting for 1,300 yards passing and 8 TDs. His brief moment of prominence as an NFL player yielded the graduation speaking spot.

Did that qualify him to offer up an inspiring graduation speech? Nineteen years later, in the haze of my memories, I remember being extremely underwhelmed at the content and a little bummed that the jockacracy appeared to have won the day. A year later, Dilweg was an afterthought, both to the NFL and to the graduating class of Walt Whitman High School, 1991.

I'm not sure how much this all matters (not at all, unless your speaker is, say, Barack Obama or Stephen Strasburg), but among the few things that people tend to remember from their high school years, the graduation speaker often stands out. It is the send-off -- kind of your last memory of the institution of high school.

I am sure that Bob Schieffer -- in his folksy, newsy way -- will offer up something profound. At least, more profound than Anthony Dilweg. Perhaps that is the greatest lesson you can pass along to high school graduates: Whether you keep the bar high or low, be sure the person in front of you has set expectations so low that you can't help but succeed by comparison.

Good luck with your future, high school graduates. And congratulations.

-- D.S.

06/08 Quickie: Strasburg, Harper, CFB XL

For starters, type "World Cup" into Google and check out the bottom of the screen, where you see the layout to see more pages. Nice little treat.

Oh, and count me in for an iPhone 4 in two weeks.

Both are great examples of manias this week, and it is a sign of the hugeness of Stephen Strasburg that tonight's "Strasmas" can join that kind of list.

As I lead in today's SN column, it is hard to believe he could live up to expectations tonight -- should it be a perfect game or a 20-strikeout game? (Honestly, I'll settle for a W plus a couple knee-buckling Ks?)

You could forgive DC sports fans from a bit of triumphalism: Drafting hitting prodigy Bryce Harper last night, Strasburg's MLB debut tonight -- with the prospects of drafting John Wall in two weeks. You have to love a fan base that can find satisfaction in something like player drafts or rookie debuts, rather than, say, winning a championship.

(Then again, "championship or bust" is well-traveled territory here, and it is not recommended. That's how I experience life as a Florida football fan, and it is complemented nicely by my life as a Wizards fan, where winning the draft lottery felt like winning a championship.)

So all eyes on Strasburg tonight -- unless you don't like baseball, in which case you probably will be watching the NBA Finals Game 3 from Boston. It is rare to see a "pivotal" game happen so early in a series, but this feels like it qualifies.

Meanwhile, in conference expansion (which I need a short-hand for, so I have dubbed it "CFB XL"), it looks like all the dominoes surround... Notre Dame? If ND goes to the Big Ten, it is possible the conference yoinks its presumptive offers to Mizzou and Nebraska, which means the Big 12 has a chance of staying as-is. Here's the rub: ND insists it has no offer and doesn't seem compelled to seek one out. That means the Big Ten goes to Plan B -- the two teams from the Big 12. Then the Pac-10 offers the B12 South en masse and the Big 12 is extinct.

(I think the Big 12 has enough cachet that the remaining teams -- Kansas, Kansas State and Colorado or Baylor -- should poach the best of the Mountain West, WAC and C-USA: Boise State, Utah, BYU, TCU. That gives them four perennial Top 25 teams that are actually better than any of the remaining Big 12 teams. The question: Would the Big 12 get to keep its contractual BCS designation? That would be appealing to those non-BCS schools, wouldn't it?)

Anyway, there's that and a whole lot more in today's SN column. See it here. More later.

Merry Strasmas!

-- D.S.

SB Nation Goes Big With Local

Long before the ESPN Local initiative, SB Nation was the most well-positioned company in sports media to serve the "local" market. After all, SB Nation was already intensely -- if not directly -- local: A network of team-focused blogs, it was fair to presume a lot of traffic came from the team's home market.

And so it made -- and makes -- perfect sense for SB Nation to pull together all the team blogs in one city and create hub sites that service fans who want to read all about the teams in one city. They launched a bunch today and plan to create 20 city hubs in the next 20 days.

Brief aside: We are around 15 years into the idea that, for sports fans, geography stopped mattering as much as it used to -- that changed as soon as you could get online and follow your team from anywhere. My first company, later acquired by AOL, was launched specifically to service the untapped "displaced fan."

Now, your physical geography as a fan feels entirely irrelevant -- with the exception of actually attending games, you can be a St. Louis Cardinals fan in Brooklyn just as easily as you can be one in St. Louis.

That said, a plurality of a team's fans will naturally still reside locally. And a fair number of fans in a city who like multiple sports teams will probably like all the teams in that city. Thus, the ESPN Local strategy -- and SB Nation's new product.

SB Nation already has solid (many spectacular), leading blogs in each market -- the content was already there, as was the core audience, as was the publishing platform. This just bundles them together, creating a portal for, say, the DC fan to get the latest on all the city's teams in one place.

(As a differentiation from ESPN Local's strategy, I also like SB Nation going into 20 markets in 20 days -- SBN doesn't have the same logistical hurdles as ESPN; SBN better take advantage of that nimbleness to get into markets that ESPN isn't in yet... but will likely get into eventually.)

Beyond serving fans in new ways, the gist of any local strategy is to unlock the huge potential of the local ad market -- there are advertisers out there who want to reach people in specific cities, and platforms like SB Nation and ESPN Local are new ways to do that.

SB Nation uses the phrase "ground-up," which I like better than "grass-roots" as an alternative to "top-down" to describe their content. Ultimately, SB Nation has powerful potential for consumers and marketers because SBN clearly signals the user's interest, the ideal in any relationship where you are trying to serve consumers, including matching them to relevant advertisers.

(Is it the same declaration of intent as doing a Foursquare check-in at a bar to indicate that you want to get a drink or a Hunch query to indicate that you are in the market for a point-and-shoot camera? No, but if I visit BulletsForever I am clearly indicating that I care about the Wizards.)

The other thing you'll notice in the coverage of the local launch is the focus from Bankoff and Blez on SBN's fan-centric tone and voice. While retaining the credibility of expert analysis, SBN stakes out differentiation from traditional journalism in each local market.

Here is why that is important: It is complementary. It is something that local newspapers and local cable-sports networks can't or won't do well -- that creates the opportunity for a partnership that helps both the local media (likely already nervous about an ESPN Local entry) and SB Nation.

When you think about what is next for SB Nation, this new local strategy feels like a core proposition.

Having the individual blogs is great -- if I'm a Florida fan and a Wizards fan and a Broncos fan, I can get all those things from SB Nation blogs.

But my type of fandom -- while entirely enabled by the media and technology landscape -- is still not the predominant organizing principle within media, which would be based on local interest; if you're building a platform that has to make a bet on fan interest, a plurality will like the Wizards and Redskins and Caps and Nationals as a local combination.

And so SB Nation needed to shift its taxonomy from individual team blogs to more formal local collections not just because it is a solid advertising opportunity, but because that is still the metaphor of larger companies that would be interested in partnering with or acquiring SB Nation.

SB Nation fits exceedingly well as a piece of a larger media company's sports strategy -- that could be AOL/Fanhouse (Jim Bankoff used to be an exec at AOL); that could be Yahoo (SBN's lead editor's sibling happens to be the content impresario at Yahoo); that could be a newspaper company (SBN is based in DC, handy for discussions with a company like Gannett that needs a boost of content and community locally).

Of course, the best fit is Comcast.

*The cable giant has existing local sports presences hubbed around TV networks -- their online strategies are still a work-in-progress that would benefit from SB Nation's reach and depth.

*Comcast has aspirations of becoming the dominant national sports-media rival to ESPN; SB Nation gives them an instant online foothold locally, a prerequisite for any would-be juggernaut.

*Comcast obviously has more than enough cash to do a deal, and the upcoming incorporation of NBC's assets is the right time to fold in other acquisitions. (It complements NBC Sports's recent push into Yahoo-style "national" blogs focused on each sport.)

*Oh, and let's not forget: Comcast's internal VC unit happens to have an investment in SB Nation; they have already signaled their faith in SBN's potential.

It feels like the right move for both, particularly given that the acquisition market for content companies is beginning to heat up. Put it this way: I don't think SB Nation is an independent company in 2011.

For now and on its face, SB Nation is re-organizing (or "co-organizing") its content around local markets, rather than (or in addition to) individual teams. (Obviously, high-quality individual team sites -- however or wherever they are accessed -- remain the heart of the company.)

The move isn't just about serving fans now, but also about positioning the company for the future.

-- D.S.

06/07 Quickie: Celts, Wooden, Pac-16

Tons in today's SN column -- it was hard to figure out what to lead with, actually.

There's Ray Allen's 3-point barrage to help the Celtics beat the Lakers -- amazingly, Allen's 3s were matched by Rondo's triple-doube.

There's the whole Pac-16 situation, which is entirely convoluted -- it's hard to figure where the dominoes start, but it feels like the Big 12's ultimatum to Nebraska and Mizzou, which might push them to the Big Ten and start the implosion of the league, as 6 teams head West.

There is the MLB Draft -- the Bryce Harper draft, really -- which sees the Nationals grabbing the spotlight with a superstar draft pick for the second straight year. (And that's before "Strasmas" tomorrow in his first MLB start.)

(Update: Made an error in today's column about Harper. I thought that switching him from catcher to outfielder would cost him money, because a superstar-hitting catcher is more valuable than a superstar-hitting outfielder. That is possibly true, but another financial incentive rules Harper's situation: As an outfielder, he can make the major leagues faster -- and hit MLB free agency faster (meaning get that Yankees max money faster). It will make his signing bonus look piddling. Apologies for the muddled analysis this morning.)

And then, of course, there is the weekend tributes to John Wooden. If you were under 45, he was never "Coach" -- only "legendary." What I was most struck by was the applicability of his philosophies far beyond basketball. In fact, that's how they were intended.

There's a lot more in there -- how can I resist an update to Ubaldomania?

See the complete column here. More to come later today, including an analysis of SB Nation's move within local markets.

-- D.S.

Coach John Wooden and Success

John Wooden had the kind of inspired life that makes any kind of tribute feel unworthy.

So I will relate my own connection to him:

When I was a kid, I read Coach Wooden's "They Call Me Coach" and was so amazed by his "Pyramid of Success" that I hand-wrote my own copy and taped it to the wall above my desk.

I memorized his definition of "success," essentially: Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

There are plenty of other Wooden quotes worth reading -- and applying to your own life.

RIP, Coach.

-- D.S.

06/04 Quickie: Imperfect, Finals, Pac-16

I needed closure in today's SN column on the Galarraga-Joyce story, which I think is one of the best of the year -- and one of the best baseball stories in years.

I am a huge fan of a comprehensive instant-replay system in baseball. I am against Bud Selig overturning the call to give Galarraga a perfect game.

But those are secondary ideas, relative to the larger lesson of sportsmanship -- a social compact that had to be met by both participants:

Galarraga had to not flip out over the call; he didn't, remarkably. Joyce had to not deny he made the wrong call; he didn't, to his credit.

It all culminated with that meeting at home plate yesterday. It was the epitome of sportsmanship in sports -- and the perfect lesson for the Imperfect Game.

More you'll find in today's column:

*Suddenly, the Celtics look tired.

*The Pac-16? Why would Texas go there, when they could go to the Big Ten or SEC?

*My pick to win the Spelling Bee is already out. Drat.

This post is already 6 hours late. Tons more in today's column. I'm headed down to Georgia for a wedding this weekend, but should be posting tomorrow morning, Sunday afternoon and throughout the weekend on Twitter.

-- D.S.

06/03 Quickie: Griffey and Galarraga

My challenge this morning was to link Ken Griffey to Armando Galarraga -- I haven't seen anyone else do it yet, and I hope I pulled it off.

The gist of today's SN column lead: Two sides of "not quite" -- one mythic, one mythical.

For Griffey, I say this: For all the skills (power, speed, defense) and the mythology (Upper Deck '89, The Kid, Junior for President), he is saddled both with "What if?" and as the greatest player never to play in a World Series.

For Galarraga, I say this: It was the ultimate "not quite" -- this wasn't your average one-hitter-away-from-a-perfect-game. This was a perfect game that was robbed on the final out by a bad call. In imperfection, we will remember Galarraga a lot more than if he had thrown what would be known rather anonymously as "the third perfect game in a month."

Check out the column for yourself to see if I pull it off or just stretch a bit too far.

Otherwise, there is a ton in the column today -- way more than I thought there would be for a first-Thursday-in-June column:

*There is no reason baseball shouldn't have a more comprehensive instant-replay policy.

*Ump Joyce did everything right: Immediately admit fault, express sincere remorse. The chatter nearly instantly went from "Joyce sucks!" to "He's only human."

*By the way: The NBA Finals start tonight, and I will watch with a renewed appreciation for Kobe, playing with the greatest mastery of the game he has ever had.

*Plus this odd sensation of not hating these Celtics -- they remind me too much of the 1995 Rockets, my favorite NBA title team ever.

*That doesn't mean there can't be some Boston schadenfreude: How about the supposed issues between Tom Brady and the Pats?

*Boise State to the Mountain West? Yes, please. Two problems: (1) It won't happen until 2011, a year after BSU wins the national title. (2) Utah and BYU will eventually leave for the Pac-10.

*Tom Thibodeau should hold out for the Bulls job. Let Monty Williams have the Hornets job. The bigger point: Finally, some new NBA coaching talent, rather than re-treads.

*I almost always take Tiger over "the field" in any given golf tournament. For the Memorial, I'll take the field.

*Spelling Bee. Only the most pressure-packed competition in sports. And an event that I have historically crushed from a fantasy bee standpoint.

(How long before there actually is a fantasy bee product that gets launched? It is a perfect game for ESPN.com.)

See the complete column here. More later.

-- D.S.

On The Big Lead's Big Payday

There are a few reasons I was sincerely excited about -- and for -- Jason McIntyre selling The Big Lead to Fantasy Sports Ventures.

*Rising tide. Deals involving start-up sports media companies or properties are really really good for everyone in start-up sports media. (I'm going to get back to that.) I'm not going to say that this deal is a bellweather for indie sports blogs or sports bloggers -- it more closely resembles an anomaly (see below). But any deal flow is good deal flow.

*Money is good. "Low seven figures" -- presumably a million bucks -- for his huge effort over the years is a hell of a payoff. I felt the same way about Henry Abbott's "acq-hire" with ESPN; about PFT's deal with NBC; about KSK's deal with Uproxx; about EDSBS's deal with SB Nation; and -- apples and oranges -- about any sports blogger who works for free (or for cheap) who gets a better financial deal by earning a content contract with a larger site or media company, whether we're talking about Will Leitch or the Basketball Jones guys or Shoals or any number of other folks.

*Valuation comp. It is hard to know what went into the "low-seven-figure" price. FSV already had an ad-sales deal with TBL. Only FSV knows how that traffic was monetizing, but as TBL was one of FSV's most prominent repped properties (and FSV had built itself into a Top 10 online sports property), obviously they (and, most likely, FSV major shareholder Gannett) felt like outright owning the traffic and intellectual property was in their best interests.

To my point above, I doubt this signals some kind of acquisition spree of indie sports sites by larger media companies, and it is unclear what TBL would have commanded from a more mainstream media company. (I would be surprised if there was any, although I'm sure there were at least a few that would have wanted to do a traffic-assignment ad-sales deal.)

Skip that "3 million page views a month" metric from the NYT article; that's a metric that mattered 5 years ago. Stick with monthly unique visitors. Both Quantcast and Compete peg TBL at around 250,000 uniques per month (impressively, up 5X from a year ago). That makes TBL likely the largest (and already among the most veteran) "indie" sports blogs -- it is entirely rare to find a sports blog or site unaffiliated with a mainstream media company that has anywhere close to 250,000. (And just to be clear, I count Gawker and Uproxx and SB Nation and Yardbarker and Octagon as "mainstream." The only indie I can think of with that kind of traffic is SportsByBrooks, which Quantcast has at roughly 600,000 uniques per month, but I'll update if any others come over the transom.) So was this anomalous? Probably.

Let's set that aside: Again, any deal flow is good.

*Mostly, what TBL did is really hard. Here is what I respect most about TBL -- and this goes for any other would-be media entrepreneur: Way too many folks in media were born on third base and think they hit a triple. It is hard -- really really hard -- to create something from scratch, then build it up to the point where you have enough visitors to get enough-to-get-by ad sales, let alone create a couple million bucks in an acquisition.

The NYT piece didn't mention the polarizing place TBL has in the media landscape -- highly regarded by mainstream sports media folks (mainly for dishing and breaking sports media gossip) yet largely derided by other sports bloggers. (From the initial reaction to the sale on Twitter, TBL has earned nothing if not wide respect for the outcome.) It's not like I haven't staked out some ground -- petty and regrettable, by the way -- in that debate.

But here is how I have come to see it: If you are satisfying your community, growing your audience and ultimately making money doing it, it doesn't matter what other people have to say about it; you are doing your job well. As the producer, if you can enjoy doing it, all the better. TBL maintained a laser focus, seemed to like what he was doing and earned a sizable financial reward for the combination. That is a success story.

At this stage of my career -- and, looking backward, at the most satisfying points of my career -- I am personally much more focused right now on building something meaningful from scratch -- something that an audience values and that I love doing and that changes the game and that I can hopefully find financial reward in. When it works out, great. If it doesn't, I will hopefully have learned something and enjoyed myself and not burned too much of a financial investment.

And so when I think about TBL's payday, what I come back to at a fundamental level is entrepreneurial admiration, not just for the exit but for the process to get there.

-- D.S.

06/02 Quickie: LeBron, Wade, Urban

Well, the big story in sports today, at least in sports media, is The Big Lead getting acquired by Fantasy Sports Ventures for "low seven-figures." More on that later this morning.

In today's SN column, I lead with one of my biggest pet peeves: The myth that for LeBron or Dwyane Wade, they care more about winning than anything else.

That is simply not true.

They care about winning -- obviously -- but only within the context of getting paid as much as possible.

If they cared more about winning than money, they would either both sign with the Magic to play with Dwight Howard (and win 80 games en route to as many titles as they wanted) or they would sign with any team they wanted for the league minimum, freeing up room for other free-agent superstars to do likewise. Again: The result would be epic winning.

But "I want to win" is a canard. And I don't begrudge LeBron or Wade for wanting to get paid. Hell, we would all do the same thing.

What I begrudge is that they insist they put the premium on winning, when they are already narrowing their ability to win based on parameters of getting paid.

Money is the No. 1 priority. Winning is No. 2. A distant 2nd, actually.

Here was my kicker from the column: If LeBron and Wade and Bosh and the rest really wanted to make NBA history -- I mean do something that no one has ever done before AND win as many rings as they wanted -- they would put winning over money.

(Don't argue that by picking Chicago or New York over Cleveland, LeBron is giving up tens of millions and somehow taking love over money. I'm talking about orders of magnitude: LeBron playing for a million bucks in Orlando and winning 80 games and a title next year.)

It is an earnest, pie-in-the-sky (even naive) attitude for me to take -- but I sure wish we would at least acknowledge that "I want to win" is subordinate to "I want to get paid."

More in today's column:

*This ain't the 2008 NBA Finals.

*Urban Meyer: Hmm... I'm confused.

*Joe West: MLB's biggest villain?

*Bryce Harper: One week to go.

*Federer: Upset of the Year?

(No, really: Is Federer losing before the semis of a major a bigger upset than, say, Kansas losing to Northern Iowa in the NCAA Tournament first weekend? How about the Bruins losing a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers? I think it is.)

*I approve of the Marlins selling unused Perfect Game tickets to Phillies fans. If you don't want one, don't buy one. (But if I was a Phillies fan, I'd probably buy one.)

See the complete column here. More later.

-- D.S.

On Drafting Bryce Harper

The double-sided enthusiasm around Stephen Strasburg's first start as a Nat combined, 18 hours later, with the Nats drafting uber-prospect Bryce Harper has me enthusiastic and riding a nice little fairweather bandwagon for "my" Nats.

Don't get me wrong: I have been partial to the Nats since they relocated, which itself is based only on my youth in Bethesda and general affinity for the DC area. But I will admit I have had a pretty metzo attitude about them up until this year. And yet I feel no shame in late-adopting a less tepid allegiance. Buying a Strasburg and/or Harper jersey (or jersey T-shirt)? Sure!

Meanwhile, Joe Posnanski weighed in on Harper. I love Joe's writing -- he is among my favorite sportswriters. You should read his post on Harper, because it will give you context for my response, which I almost put in his post's comments, then moved over here. Here's me:

I'm just not quite sure how this Harper analysis from Joe's unnamed scout wouldn't apply to EVERY prospect -- certainly the ones at the top or the "can't-miss" types.

I'm sure you could have even found someone to say before the 2003 NBA Draft "LeBron MIGHT NOT be a once-in-a-lifetime player." (And, indeed, that critic might now be saying, "He may be great, but he still can't win when it counts.")

My point is that there hasn't been a draft in history that hasn't included at least some form of caveat or some contrarian viewpoint, for every single player -- including the "can't-miss" stars. Especially the can't-miss stars.

The logical follow-up question is: So?

So what would the unnamed scout advise the Nationals to do: Not draft Harper because a couple scouts are bearish? OK, I'll take that on its face. So who would those bears like the Nats to take? Can they find a single prospect in this year's draft that wouldn't come with at least one question or bearish analysis attached?

The pace of contrarianism is constantly getting faster, but getting from a scout "Well, he MIGHT not pan out," simply for what seems to be its own sake, doesn't seem bold or insightfully cautionary.

It seems like CYA and the chance to purchase a costless option on "Told you so."

Note: I'm not criticizing Posnanski, per se. I do have an issue with his anonymous scout sources peddling the "You never know if a draft prospect might not work out!" thing. What's the point? (As always with Joe, he provides an absurdly high level of surrounding facts and analysis -- which more than outweigh what might be considered a tenuous premise.)

-- D.S.

World Cup Pick 'Em: Daily Quickie Readers

Well, why NOT have a World Cup Pick 'Em game? Sign up here -- it's the stand-by group name: Daily Quickie Readers. I cannot possibly do worse than I do for the NCAA Tournament.

06/01 Quickie: Ubaldo, Finals, Bledsoe

We are two months into the baseball season, and I lead today's SN column with a simple but mind-blowing proposition:

As good -- as great -- as Roy Halladay has been in his transfer to the NL (capped by the weekend's Perfect Game), Ubaldo Jimenez has been even better.

Ubaldo helps the cause with his best win yet (yes, even better than his perfect game in mid-April) -- a complete-game shut-out win over Tim Lincecum.

That gave Ubaldo -- who has earned One-Name Status, obviously -- 10 wins through the season's first 2 months (on pace for 30 wins!) and lowered his ERA to sub-0.80. Good gracious.

More you'll find in a loaded, post-three-day-weekend column:

*I keep hammering the Celtics-as-'95-Rockets thing. But I pick the Lakers to win in 6. Andrew Bynum reprises his 2008 role as "Finals X-Factor."

*Is it too early to get obsessed with MLB divisional races in the NL East and Central? No.

*Strasburg. June 8. Weather-permitting.

*Duke's men's LAX title was impressive -- it broke the stranglehold of "UVPrinceHopCuse" -- but Maryland's win over 5X defending women's champ Northwestern was more impressive.

*I couldn't have lower expectations for the NCAA's findings against USC football, coming Friday.

*The Kentucky/Bledsoe scandal -- brewing -- was entirely expected. What is amusing is that it is much more humiliating that Wall-Bledsoe-Patterson-Cousins-Orton failed to get to a Final Four that the NCAA could subsequently strip away than the stripping away of wins itself.

*I am so ready for the World Cup to start next week. Do I buy a US MNT jersey? Did you?

Lots more in there. Check it out here. More later. It's June, y'all. Let's get going.

-- D.S.

*

Monday (Very) Quickie

Pujols hits 3 HR: Yes, I'd say his slump is definitely over.

Howie Kendrick didn't make the same mistake as Kendry Morales when celebrating his walk-off HR.

Dario Franchitti winning the Indy 500 means... more gratuitous images of Ashley Judd. (Solid 6th for Danica.)

Upset! Maryland beats 5-time defending champ Northwestern for the women's LAX title.

MLB Today: Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Tim Lincecum. Ooh.

Please take a moment today to feel grateful for the ultimate sacrifice made by people serving the country.

-- D.S.

Sunday (Very) Quickie: Roy, Kobe, USMNT

If Dallas Braden's perfect game was glorious for being entirely unexpected, then Roy Halladay's perfect game was glorious for being the crowning achievement of his Hall of Fame career.

Kobe is simply sick. The Lakers are going to beat the Celtics in 6, getting some revenge for two years ago and earning the rare back-to-back championship.

That was an impressive comeback win for the US men's national soccer team over Turkey. I am still nervous they won't make it out of the group round -- let alone further -- but I think that I have my favorite player on the team for South Africa: Clint Dempsey.

The Stanley Cup Finals are off to a wild start -- were most casual fans watching Blackhawks-Flyers or Kobe-Suns? (Or following Roy Halladay's perfect game through the internet or ESPNews?)

Kentucky/Bledsoe scandal: Is anyone surprised that one of Calipari's star players at Kentucky may have had eligibility issues? Of course, there's no Final Four to strip away...

Kendry Morales' walk-off grand-slam broken leg is the worst baseball injury of the year -- and it is hard to think of a worse one in years.

Fantasy Stud: Buster Posey, 3 H and 3 RBI in his much-anticipated debut. Someone in your league has probably already claimed him, but you should at least give it a look this morning.

(I have been sitting in 1st in my league for weeks -- unprecedented -- precisely for obsessive moves like picking up rookies like Posey. But I was aced out for him yesterday -- capping a week where I'm getting drubbed and will fall out of 1st. Of course, I'm usually in the second division by now, so this is all a bonus.)

NCAA LAX Championships: Duke and Notre Dame will play for the men's title tomorrow.

Northwestern and Maryland will play for the women's title today -- with NU going for its 6th straight national title, a run of dominance that makes UConn women's hoops seem second rate.

-- D.S.

Saturday (Very) Quickie

So much for Celtics' "panic." It is like those Games 4 and 5 never happened -- or that the Celtics decided to shake them off while the Magic assumed momentum alone would be enough.

And so the meme goes from Celtics-as-chokers back to the post-Game-3 version: Celtics as the next coming of the Rockets '95, the ex-champ that knows how to get it done in the spring.

It is no joke to beat the conference's top seed then its No. 2 seed, decisively, back-to-back. This Celtics team is a very worthy Eastern Conference champ.

And based on what is happening in the West, most of us would still take the Lakers over them. But we all would continue to underestimate this Celtics team at our own risk.

-- D.S.

05/28 Quickie: Artest, Celtics, Mets

Well, that was the best game of the NBA playoff season.

And it was the greatest moment of Ron Artest's career, with full Ron-Ron crazy on display, from that ridiculous missed 3 that led to the Suns tying the game on their own ridiculous miss-miss-YES to Ron's improbable buzzer-beater.

For the Lakers, some breathing room. For the Suns, the confidence to know that should they take care of business at home, they can absolutely beat the Lakers in LA.

As I put it in today's SN column lead, I'm not sure Artest's shot eclipses the Palace brawl, but it sure diverts our attention. Now, when we look back on his career, we'll say "Brawl, yes... but remember that shot in Game 5 of the Western finals in 2010?"

More you'll find in today's column:

*If there's any justice, the Celtics will lose tonight.

*The Mets should kind of call it a season after this, right?

*LeBron and Wade will NOT play together.

*Texas pulling a Notre Dame? Unlikely.

*Stanley Cup: Who ya got? I'll root for the Blackhawks, both because of my Chicago roots and my disdain for Philly. (Even if I had a great time there a few weeks ago.)

*Let's rank the current scandals, in order of seriousness: UConn, Kansas, Dwayne Bowe -- who should reply to every question with "And?"

*Obama. Koufax. Enough said.

This isn't in the column, but I had an epiphany last night that if I was the Sixers, I would absolutely take Derrick Favors over Evan Turner. It totally reminds me of the Dwight Howard vs. Emeka Okafor debate from earlier in the decade. Okafor was so "NBA-ready" -- yeah, but it discounted that Howard would develop under pro coaching and conditioning. I'll hammer Favors-over-Turner into submission between now and the draft next month.

Complete SN column here, with posts sporadically over the long weekend. Have a safe and happy Memorial Day, and don't forget to take a second to think of the people who died while serving the country in the military.

05/27 Quickie: Celtics, Magic and Panic

Is it time for Celtics fans to panic that their team is going to become the first NBA team in history to lose a 3-0 playoff series lead?

Yes.

That is ironic, because back in 2004 during the ALCS, even after the Red Sox had won 2 straight, it was utterly inconceivable that Boston would actually take the series from the Yankees.

Even now, the safe bet is that the Celtics will find their mojo at home and end all this talk that they are too tired (read: old) to avoid being humiliated.

And yet the dominant storyline is exactly the opposite: That the Magic feel in control. That the pressure is all on the Celtics. That the C's D is faltering and their depth in the post is iffy.

For those of you who believe in conspiracy theories, it's pretty simple: If the NBA would rather see a Game 7 -- and a Boston choke -- than a Lakers-Celtics Finals, Perkins' 2 Ts will stand and he will miss Game 6. The Magic will win, forcing a Game 7 back in Orlando.

If they want a Celtics-Lakers Finals and couldn't care less about the East finals going 7 (and, god forbid, a Magic series win that undercuts the ratings goldmine of Celtics-Lakers), Perkins will play.

The irony is that it still might not be enough.

As I put it in the kicker of today's SN column lead: If you're a Celtics fan and you're NOT panicking right now, you have probably given up on your team already.

More you'll find in today's column:

*Like some sort of deal with the devil, just when the Celtics started to fold, the Red Sox have been unstoppable. Karmic trade-off?

*Even before the Nats battered Tim Lincecum, I would not have traded Stephen Strasburg for Lincecum, straight up, if I was the Nats.

*Yeesh: Kansas.

*SN has Alabama as preseason No. 1 in college football. Phil Steele has Oklahoma. I still think that Boise State will win the national title.

*I'm baffled why this Dwayne Bowe "importing" story is a big deal. Athletes use social networking sites to find women to hook up with! And?

*What has to happen for the US men's soccer jersey to just say "Herculez" on the back, rather than "Gomez." Let's think more like Brazil, people!

See the entire column here. More later.

-- D.S.

The Debut of SportsGrid.com

Today launches a new entry in the sports media landscape: SportsGrid, the sports extension of the Mediaite empire.

There are good original posts off of the big memes in sports at any given moment -- not unlike Mediaite in the media world -- but the glitzy product of SportsGrid is its... well, "grid."

It includes rankings of athletes, teams, executives -- even sports media -- based on factors like online buzz, search-engine relevancy and audience metrics.

It is exactly the kind of thing that navel-gazey sports media folks will obsessively look through, checking to see where they are, who's ahead of them and who's behind them.

It's a very clever and well-produced feature, updated constantly. It is a good stake to put in the ground to differentiate from other sites.

Traction will come with a combination of people checking out the rankings -- and the rankings getting referenced -- and people digging the original posts.

(SB Nation's national site front has been doing a terrific job of creating posts about the hottest topics that go beyond a static entry and get expanded as developments happen. SportsGrid may want to keep an eye on that.)

Sports media doesn't have quite the same competitive dynamic as news media -- and sports fans don't have the same habits as fans in other categories like politics or entertainment. It will be interesting to track the traction SportsGrid gets, both among fans and within sports media.

But the site is worth wrapping into your bookmarks or RSS. And, at the very least, I'll be keeping an eye on my ranking. Low 200s? WTF?!

-- D.S.

05/26 Quickie: NYC SB, Suns, P-Jax

I couldn't not lead with the Super Bowl coming to New York. There are two camps, and the crux of the debate is, basically, "What if it's cold out?"

My response, in two words: "Ice Bowl." That the 1967 NFL Championship was played in frigid conditions was a pre-condition for its place at the top of NFL mythology. Imagine if it was the "Balmy Bowl" because it was played in San Diego. Not the same.

As I argue in today's SN column: Fans who are at the game will wear their frostbite like a badge of honor; fans at home will love the spectacle of swirling snow and blasting winds.

I'm a big fan of novelty in sports -- it is a huge reason the NHL's Winter Classic has been a massive success. This will be a huge hit.

Now, let's not talk about it again until, say, 2013.

More you'll find in today's column:

*The Suns won with basically the same strategy you win your Sunday morning pick-up game at the Y: Junky zone D plus scrappy dudes playing unexpectedly well.

*If the Magic win tonight to make it 3-2, will Celtics fans start to freak? They shouldn't -- not until it's 3-3 with the series heading back to Orlando for Game 7.

*What was I saying about Phil Jackson and the Bulls being a good fit? Great example of a one-day story.

*The Rays have a right to gripe.

*Looks like the Nats are set on drafting Bryce Harper. Obviously.

*Don't be surprised when Gordon Hayward ends up in the Top 10 of the NBA Draft. Remember Stephen Curry from last year -- a month out, he was a Lottery pick; by draft night, Top 10 lock.

*I will never get tired of President Obama talking about sports -- especially basketball. (Stop your griping, Cavs fans.)

See the whole thing here. And, from the folks who brought you Mediaite, please welcome SportsGrid to the online sports universe. About my 200+ ranking....

-- D.S.

05/25 Quickie: Bulls, Magic, Red Sox

I wasn't on the LeBron-to-the-Bulls bandwagon... until this latest scuttlebutt that Phil Jackson might be interested in coming back to the Bulls -- presumably only if LeBron joins him.

As I argue in today's SN column lead, it's a good match: Jackson turns elite players into champions (or vice versa); LeBron wants to win a championship, and Phil is a coach he would respect.

The ideal is that each sign a 3-year "mini-max" deal in Chicago -- if they can't win a title in 3 years, find another situation.

My only concern with Phil in Chicago, actually, is that Derrick Rose is entirely the wrong point guard to run the triangle, which doesn't even use a traditional point guard.

There is a very simple solution to this: Trade Derrick Rose to Miami for Dwyane Wade. That gives the Heat a franchise player to pair with, say, Amare for the next 5-6 years.

More you'll find in today's column:

*A plan for the Magic to win their series.

*Have the Red Sox turned a corner?

*Strasburg for Oswalt? HAHAHA.

*Your next DWTS champ: Erin Andrews.

*Regardless of who wins the Stanley Cup, it will be a compelling champ.

Complete column here. More later.

-- D.S.

AOL at 25: My Story of Real Fandom

When I graduated from Northwestern in 1995, I wanted to be a national sportswriter. Like, right then. I resisted the notion that I had to go off to some podunk town and cover JV volleyball and if I was lucky, in 20 years I would be a columnist at a newspaper.

And so I was living in Wrigleyville with my gainefully employed roommates, slowly sinking into a bit of a despair over my joblessness. At one point, I had an unpaid internship in the PR department of the Chicago Rockers of the Continental Basketball Association. I think I stuck around for two weeks before figuring that it wasn't really worth the effort.

In late October, I got a call from a friend in my journalism school's career center. She wanted to connect me with two Kellogg drop-outs creating a sports media company online (What's "on-line?")

I met with them in one of the partners' apartments. They explained that after a summer spent interning at AOL, they got some investment money from AOL, which was then growing for its proprietary service a network of original content sites, under the management of Ted Leonsis.

Their goal was to create the sports destination for this network. And while they were savvy b-school students and had a few ideas about content, they wanted fresh (perhaps code for "cheap") eyes from a person who understood content.

For me, despite having zero experience online (not many did), the appeal was obvious: Tons of creative control, reaching a national audience, writing about sports -- for starters, about college basketball, at the time my favorite sport.

Best and most important of all, the founders recognized that the way to go was to approach sports coverage from the perspective of fans -- this wasn't just a competitive imperative when competing with the ESPNs, SIs, Sporting News and newspapers of the world; this was a fundamental understanding of the dynamic between producer and consumer in the new medium. Remember: This was a couple years before Bill Simmons launched his Boston Sports Guy column on AOL. I give the founders -- and Leonsis -- an immense amount of credit for envisioning a fan-friendly approach to sports content.

And so I was being paid to write whatever I wanted about a sport I loved, however I wanted to -- in fact, with a mandate to write like a fan, not a stodgy journalist. It totally fulfilled the part of me that wanted to make an impact on journalism, to do something entirely new, whether that was the tone and voice of my writing, the engagement with users or the "always-on" news cycle.

It was a dream job.

The company was called, at first, "Extreme Fans." It was later changed to "Real Fans Sports Network." If you were on AOL back in the mid-90s, you hopefully remember it. (I think Leonsis would. One day, when I knew Ted was meeting with our co-founders, I led our home screen with tons of content about Georgetown hoops, because I knew he was a huge Hoyas fan.)

It was a crash-course in everything that mattered -- and still matters now, if you keep up with the current environment for start-ups: Being focused, running lean, constant iterations and feedback loops, engaging the consumers.

Remember that at the time, AOL was a subscription service: Its sites got paid based on minutes spent on each destination by users. And so the premium was getting people to come back a lot -- and once they were there, getting them to stay.

And so in addition to writing daily original individual game recaps for every major-conference college basketball team (I did half; Rob Peterson wrote the other half), we came up with ways to let the users contribute to the site's editorial coverage, which users did brilliantly. It was a very early but critical lesson in online programming: Trust the users.

I would like to think that my natural intuition was a big part of my successful contributions to the company, but I remain convinced that it was the constant at-bats, every day, in the company, that helped develop for me an intuitive understanding of successful online content.

Despite the fact that I spent less than a year there, it set the table for everything that would follow in my career. As defining as it was for me to get recruited away to the company running ESPN.com, my biggest regret was missing out on my first company's acquisition.

That was the AOL postscript: To follow up its initial investment, AOL acquired my company to make it the hub of its sports strategy. As part of the team, it is one of the most satisfying points in my career to take a smidgen of credit for it - offset by the fact that I left before my options were issued, let alone vested.

(To put it in the larger context of AOL's quarter-century history, AOL later made my company the hub of its revenue-generating "anchor tenant" strategy and, under that, AOL's first big money-making deal: In exchange for paying AOL millions of dollars to be its leading sports presence, SportsLine made AOL shutter my company. Absurdly, SportsLine didn't even try to get AOL to hand over my company as a content engine. It was, simply, kaput.)

And so on AOL's 25th anniversary, I look back with tremendous fondness on the pivotal role AOL played in my career. And as I plot out what's next, I find myself thinking a lot about that first start-up and how simultaneously thrilling, frustrating and satisfying the experience was.

-- D.S.

PS: I could have written a Posnanski-style 7,000 words on this. To spare you, I limited myself to 700. Maybe I will revisit some of the bigger lessons in more detail at some point.

05/24 Quickie: Lima, C's, Amare, Cavs

As someone the same age as Jose Lima, the seemingly spontaneous, middle-of-the-night fatal heart attack is a little unsettling.

But there is something life-affirming in the reaction among fans and writers celebrating the player who popularized "Lima Time," which I broadly define in today's SN column as a joyous approach to living your life, with plenty of applications beyond a reliever's schtick.

Actually, the kicker of the column lead is one of my favorites of the year so far: That we could all use a little "Lima Time" in our lives, and that today, you should do something positive -- at work, on your commute, hanging out at lunch -- then exuberantly exclaim "[Fill-In-Your-Last-Name] Time!"

There's a ton more in the column:

*Cavs fire Mike Brown. Did you see that list of replacements someone is floating? Coach K? Tom Izzo? Phil Jackson? What planet are people on? Those coaches wouldn't come to Cleveland even WITH LeBron, let alone without him. Without LeBron, the only good thing about the Cavs job is that missing the playoffs is the expectation, rather than -- oh -- winning a championship. (For his part, Mike Brown should have multiple job offers within the week.)

*I love the fact that the Nats are expressing interest in Roy Oswalt, who has said he only wants to go to a "contender." BTW: If the Nats get Oswalt, along with bringing up Strasburg, that goes a long way toward bolstering their .500 season and actually making them... contenders.

*The Celtics are closing it out tonight. The Suns at least showed they have some pride. We'll see if the Magic have any or are just ready to pack it in.

*Bryce Harper.

*Jordan Spieth.

*No spoilers about the Lost finale, but a simple assessment that it either satisfied you or didn't. I'm in the former category, but not particularly effusively. Just a solid clearing of the hurdle of my expectations, but not some all-time-great moment in my TV-watching career.

-- D.S.

Weekend (Very) Quickie

I don't need to prove or belabor my well-documented anti-Boston sports bonafides.

That makes it all the more awkward for me to note that this Celtics team is growing on me. They were considered past-their-prime, over-the-hill, on the down slope.

Now they are blowing the Magic -- the presumptive favorites (certainly mine) -- out of the playoffs and look good enough to keep up with the Lakers in the Finals. (God, that Rondo play where he chased down the ball in the backcourt, swiped it from Jason Williams, then zipped around for a nifty basket -- that was Rondo and the Celtics, encapsulated.)

They resemble -- if only fuzzily -- my favorite NBA title team of all time: The 1995 Rockets. Rudy T's "Never Underestimate the Heart of a Champion" team that won a title in '94 only to finish 6th in the West -- then went on to dispatch the 3-seed, 2-seed and 1-seed en route to obliterating Shaq's Magic in the Finals.

I'm not sure I can stomach the standard Boston fan triumphalism if the Celtics win the NBA title this year, but I find myself respecting their route to getting there more and more.

-- D.S.

05/21 Quickie: LeBron, Lance, Lakers, Rays

My favorite part of Mark Cuban's open discussion of a sign-and-trade for LeBron is that it should break us out of the KnicksBullsHeatNets contraint of creative thinking and open up LeBron to EVERY team.

If you can conceive of a trade package that works under the cap -- and come up with even a tenuous reason LeBron would want to play for your team -- you can join in the fun. Why should reporters and bloggers in New York or Chicago have all the fun?

The larger point is more serious: If LeBron leaves the Cavs as a free agent, they are done. Like, for a decade or more. If he really cares about the city and its fans, he would at least think about accepting a sign-and-trade that leaves the Cavs better than they would be otherwise.

My personal Mavs scenario is very simple: You want LeBron, Mark Cuban? Fine. Give me Dirk, Beaubois and Caron Butler. You can have LeBron and my worst contracts, to make it work. Done. The point is that (a) everyone should join in, and (b) sign-and-trade is the most humane thing LeBron could do for the Cavs and Cleveland.

More you'll find in today's SN column:

*This is sizing up as the lamest NBA Playoffs season ever.

*If the NCAA finds Reggie Bush ineligible, not only should the BCS cabal take away USC's 2004 title, but the AP voters should RE-VOTE on the 2004 No. 1 team. Give it to Auburn!

*The sweep in New York was all the confirmation you need that the Rays are the team to beat in baseball.

*Who's ready for interleague? (Does this still have any novelty?)

*Doug Collins? Really? (I've said this before: The NBA has the worst head-coaching development pipeline in sports. It's atrocious.)

See the entire thing here. More later, hopefully, and a.m. posts through the weekend. With no kid's birthday to put on, more attention!

-- D.S.

MLB Creating Its Own Foursquare

It isn't surprising that MLB is creating its own Foursquare-like application (on the heels of ESPN announcing its own foray into location-based services via mobile).

On the one hand, it would make sense for MLB to partner with Foursquare and other big competitors in the LBS space (including Facebook). You want to be where the fans are.

On the other hand, having its own app offers a really interesting opportunity for MLB to engage fans at the ballpark.

I'm less bullish on the idea of using it to chat with fellow fans who are at the game -- frankly, that's old win in new bottles -- than I am about the team being able to connect with fans:

*Let people who have checked in know that there is a half-inning special: "$10 off authentic jerseys at every team store location in the stadium."

(Even better: Group-buying deals, like "If at least 100 people are willing to buy jerseys, they will be 50 percent off.")

*Provide helpful tips: "If you're looking for a restroom with the shortest line, try section 21." "Section 21 bathroom lines are now long. Try Section 75."

*Integrate with the Jumbotron to allow fans to interact with the screen. Not just voting and not just making sure fans don't write inane messages. Something like "In six words, what is your favorite team moment?" Great chance for qualitative contributions.

*Pass along interesting statistics from the media team, exclusive to folks who check in. A lot of the buy-in from fans will come from "I check in, otherwise I wouldn't get X value."

The point is that when you control the check-in platform, you can be a little more customized in your applications than if you just create an event on Foursquare and hope everyone in the park checks in and checks messages.

Instead, you can prompt fans to have the app, check in and interact. Obviously, this is run at the MLB level, but the real value is when it gets unlocked at a team-by-team level.

It would behoove local dominant media -- like newspapers -- to either create their own version or, seemingly beaten to that, partner with Foursquare or another service.

There can be multiple winners here, but it feels like the agnostic platform (Foursquare) and the team (or MLB) are going to squeeze out the media partner.

Larger point: MLB leads the way with forward-thinking applications of popular emerging new technology and applications.

-- D.S.

Books: ESPN World Cup Companion

I will not pretend to be a soccer aficionado. However, I absolutely appreciate -- even love -- the World Cup. I love it as the world's biggest sports event (with this year's edition to be, arguably, the biggest event in sports history). I love the pageantry. I love the passion of the fans.

I don't usually recommend hardcover books. In this case, I am going to recommend ESPN's "World Cup Companion," because it felt like the only World Cup book you will need to appreciate the history and spectacle -- the context -- of the event. It is entirely valuable.

For the past two Cups, I have tried (and failed) to find a book that distills everything I would need (or want) to know into one package. That is the value of "Cup Companion." It has some cheeky charm (the imprint of brilliant co-author David Hirshey), but it is the ultimate catch-up.

It's fine to have a grasp of the teams involved this year, which you will be able to get in a bunch of places. But I think you need to get a glimpse of Cups past -- the heroes and storylines, age-old conflicts and mythologies. It helps to appreciate the Cup today. The "Companion" filled that for me.

The book has a breakdown of every Cup, including a summary of the tournament; the greatest teams, players and rivalries; the "cult figures" and a bunch of really smart essays about the past and future of the event.

The subtitle "Everything You Need to Know About the Planet's Biggest Sports Event" is accurate. You will feel vastly more literate about the World Cup, at a moment when that literacy will be the most valuable form of social currency you can have.

The book is an easy read and aesthetically gorgeous -- ESPN's designers know their stuff. It is a must-read before things start in three weeks and an ideal coffee table book for June and July. That's why I am alright with the hardcover recommendation.

I should mention that the publisher sent me a review copy, but I would have paid the $20 for it on Amazon. Think of it this way: After reading it, you'll have enough to say that it'll probably be worth at least two free pints to you at the bar when you've struck up a conversation with a soccer fan.

-- D.S.

05/20 Quickie: Strasburg, Lance, Gasol

It's two weeks until Stephen Strasburg makes his MLB debut, and I'm not sure the hype or anticipation could be any bigger.

In today's SN column lead, I pivot from SN's annual "Top 50 players in baseball" list to ask where Strasburg would slot if you offered him straight up for the guy on the list.

Let's think of it two ways: How much Strasburg can help THIS season -- would you swap him for King Felix at No. 12? Certainly Chris Carpenter at No. 20.

But if you add in the idea of swapping him for his lifetime of upside, I find it hard to believe he would fall much further behind Lincecum at No. 5 or Halladay at No. 6.

That Strasburg is a national story -- as future Nat top draft pick Bryce Harper will be a month from now -- and John Wall is and Alex Ovechkin is, you can understand why DC sports fans (and fans of DC sports) are excited.

More in today's column:

*I really really dislike PED scandal stories. The ones about Lance are particularly tired. At this point, I presume quite a bit -- given the era in the sport (in ALL sports, really). We get it: Everyone did it. Didn't stop us all from being enthralled by Lance or baseball players or, on an ongoing basis, the NFL. But it will be a big issue, because it's PEDs and because it's Lance.

*There seems to be a very good chance that both NBA conference finals series will end in sweeps. I appreciate that "Lakers-Celtics!" is a best-case scenario for the NBA, but having them both sweep to get there takes a little bit of the fun out of the playoffs.

*NBA Draft Combine! See today's column for my ode to Patrick Patterson, who I openly admit to being in the tank for. This, despite the fact that he not only played for Kentucky, but he originally said he was going to Florida only to change his mind and leave for UK. (Patterson's presence the past 3 seasons would have gone a long way to helping Florida avoid the post-championship drop-off, particularly in the front court.) Still: I am a huge fan of his.

*There's nothing I like more than a good busting of conventional wisdom, particularly in a sport I don't have an expertise in, like hockey.

*Brandon Marshall giving the Dolphins a problem? Go figure.

Lots more in today's column. More later -- I've got a World Cup book review coming around lunchtime.

John Wall Hangover: Carmelo, Too?

OK, now I'm going to get greedy:

I want Ted Leonsis to sit on the Wizards' cap room in 2010 (they weren't going to get LeBron or Wade anyway, and Bosh and Gay aren't worth it), setting up a compelling pitch to Carmelo Anthony in the summer of 2011. The Wiz can offer max money, a tandem with Wall and -- this is huge -- proximity to Melo's beloved Baltimore.

Here is my killer idea: If I was Leonsis, I would absolutely dangle putting 4-6 Wizards "home" games in Baltimore as a sweetener to Carmelo; I believe that kind of detail would seal the deal. Combine that with plenty of draft picks this year and next year, and things suddenly get very interesting for the Wiz.

One other detail. Consider DC's athlete Mount Rushmore today: Alex Ovechkin, Stephen Strasburg, John Wall and Bryce Harper. (Sorry, Donovan McNabb. You too, Gilbert Arenas.) Cripes: That's a sick sports-star foundation for a city, and it doesn't even include an NFL star or a rep from one of the city's local college hoops teams.

Hmm: Given all the national-level star wattage, could "ESPN DC" be far behind? (If that's the case, memo to Rob King and Kevin Jackson: Pay what it takes to get Dan Steinberg to be the editor of ESPNDC.com.)

-- D.S.

Congrats to Associated Content and Yahoo

As if my Wizards winning the John Wall Lottery wasn't enough, yesterday my former company Associated Content was acquired by Yahoo. I'm not going to get all media-wonky on you right now about it; suffice to say, I think it is a terrific fit.

AC has a phenomenal management team I was proud to be a part of, great investors, a devoted and talented group of employees and many, many thousands of quality individual contributors. Congratulations to all of them, as well as Yahoo! Between my history at AC and my weekly Tebow columns for Y! Sports, it is like worlds colliding. The two will get along great.

-- D.S.

05/19 Quickie: Wall, Magic, Hanley, More

See the post below for my instant reaction to my Wizards getting John Wall -- I won't even consider the idea that they would take Evan Turner over Wall.

I also lead today's SN column with it, translating that DS.com blog post for the national SN audience: Wall matters not because of championships -- if that was the standard, then LeBron, CP3, Carmelo, Durant and Dirk would all be failures -- but because of the relevance.

Wall makes the Wiz matter, not unlike the way that Arenas made the Wiz matter when he was at the height of his loony powers in the mid-decade. I'm not sure what the Wiz do with Arenas -- I'd like to try the Wall-Arenas backcourt -- but as long as Wall is the face of the franchise, they're OK.

(This is an interesting position: Arenas is my favorite NBA player -- yes, even after the gun incident, I couldn't abandon him. But it is very possible that by the time we get to draft night, Wall could be my favorite NBA player. I'll always be in the bag for Gil, though.)

More in today's column:

*The Magic are finished.

*Don't overstate the Marlins winning w/o Hanley.

*The Nets are fine. Favors is a good fit.

*Who else is bored by the NFL-PED scandals.

*Erin Andrews: In. Chad Ochocinco: Out.

Lots more in there today. More later. (Why haven't the Wiz simply declared that Wall is the pick?)

-- D.S.

Wizards Win John Wall Lottery

Tonight is arguably the greatest night for Wizards fans in the history of the franchise -- at least since the NBA championship in the late-70s, so as good as "ever" for any fan under, say, 40.

You have to understand: Things like tonight just don't happen to the Wizards. They perennially miss the playoffs. They perennially blow the Lottery. They win the Lottery; they get Kwame Brown. They perennially draft duds. They make terrible trades. Their stars get injured. Their stars get suspended for the season. They bring in the greatest player of all time, and it is a debacle on almost every level.

I'm not sure any franchise in the NBA -- OK, perhaps the Clippers -- has been more ill-fated than the Wizards for the last 30 years or so.

And so it's hard to describe, but I felt this elation when the No. 2 Lottery card turned up "76ers," meaning the Wizards would win the chance to draft John Wall, arguably the most exciting guard since Allen Iverson -- the biggest draft prize since LeBron.

I jumped up and down, repeatedly. I shook. I grinned. I yelped.

The Wizards have never given their fans a championship -- not even close. But this is the closest thing to it that I have ever experienced as a Wizards fan.

I have always joked that the Lottery was the Wizards fan's playoffs. Finally -- finally -- we win it all.

05/18 Quickie: Lottery, Kobe, Hanley

As a long-time (long-suffering) Wizards/Bullets fan, I have an unhealthy obsession with the NBA Draft Lottery. Maybe that's because it is the Wizards fans' playoffs, perennially. (And, my god: No team has had worse Lottery luck.)

So tonight's Lottery is, of course, an Event, leading today's SN column. But mostly because the prize is John Wall, the most electrifying guard in the draft since Allen Iverson, a player who can instantly make a franchise must-see. Not sure if a player in the Lottery has been this big since LeBron.

With the 5th-best chance, I'm quite sure that the Wizards won't get him. I think he ends up with the Nets, if only because Mikhail Prokhorov will be in attendance, and that guy gets what he wants. (Don't listen to the folks arguing for Evan Turner; just draft Wall and sort it out.)

My favorite part about the Wizards is that even if they hold their position, it is regarded as a 2-person draft at best (Wall/Turner), with 2 more elite talents (Favors/Cousins), then a total crapshoot. There will be the Wiz, picking 5th. They could have had Rubio or Evans or Curry.

Meanwhile, Kobe's knee looks just fine. The Magic better hit a few more 3s if they don't want to be finished in this series. And Hanley Ramirez just torched his rep, because there is nothing -- nothing -- that fans hate more than "lollygagging."

See the complete column here. There's a lot more in there today. More later.

-- D.S.

05/17 Quickie: Celtics, Mo, Cuse LAX

Today's SN column leads with a question: What was more surprising...

*The Celtics winning Game 1 in Orlando?

*Syracuse lacrosse losing at home in the NCAA Tournament to Army?

*Mariano Rivera completely imploding?

Well, it's not the C's, even if I still think Orlando is winning that series. The Cuse loss might be the biggest upset in NCAA Lacrosse history. But the Rivera thing feels most shocking -- arguably, more shocking than Dallas Braden's perfect game. It's questionable which is more rare.

More in today's column:

*Lakers in 7.
*Flyers win Game 1 of the NHL's Storyline Series.
*UVA mourns (and wins)
*Phils sweep.
*Obama pitches for LeBron.

Lots more. See the whole thing here. More later.

-- D.S.

Sunday (Birthday) Quickie

Four years ago today, my first kid was born.

It happened at 4 in the morning, so my Page 2 editor David Schoenfield pinch-hit in that day's Quickie, with only a subtle mention on the lower-right of the column that the kid was born. (Such a difference 4 years later, when it would have been tweeted and Facebooked near-instantly.)

I remember that Morning Quickie chatters had put even odds that the kid would be named "Joakim" (or, more realistically, at least "Noah"). Not quite: It was Gabe, after Jewish baseball legend Gabe Kapler. Kidding. It was a "G" name in honor of my wife's grandma.

So today is dedicated to throwing a birthday party in a local park for 30 4-year-olds from my son's preschool. The theme is a combination of jungle animals and financial literacy, which seems appropriate in 2010. (No, Chase or Bank of America didn't sponsor. But hey!)

There will be cupcakes. There will be chicken fingers. There will be a fun activity age-appropriate for 4-year-olds.

And, naturally, there will be quite a bit of reminiscing about how my and Mrs. Quickie's life changed 4 years ago today. Happy birthday, Gabe!

-- D.S.

Saturday (Very) Quickie

I'm still convinced LeBron signs a 3-year deal with whoever, getting us back here in 2013 again. Whee.

Anyway...

*OMG the Flyers. Coming back from being down 3-0 in a series to win 4 straight -- even if it's not unprecedented in hockey (it's been done 2x before) -- is ridiculous. Congrats to Philly fans.

*Come on, sports media: John Calipari is NOT going to the NBA -- even to coach LeBron. He has the best job in college hoops history. He ain't leaving.

*Donovan McNabb doesn't need to apologize for not getting the Eagles a Super Bowl title, and I'm not sure that Philly fans appreciate it. They probably see it as confirmation of his softness.

*Hawks fire Mike Woodson. Unsure where he ends up. Lots of chatter that if the Cavs fire Mike Brown, Atlanta should hustle to hire him.

*Which contender wants Roy Oswalt for the 2nd half of the season?

*So now I'm obsessed with the idea of LeBron going to the Nets rather than the Knicks. Consider:

LeBron + Another good free agent + Top 4 pick in the draft (Wall or Turner or Favors or Cousins) + existing Nets talent (Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Terrence Williams).

That takes this year's 15-win team to next year's 50-win team.

The Knicks would be LeBron + Another good FA + NO DRAFT PICK + existing Knicks talent (Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas).

That's certainly better than this year's team... but not nearly as good as the Nets would be, if LeBron's goal (after getting paid) is to win.

Maybe that's because I jogged past the Brooklyn Nets arena site yesterday. Enjoy your day. Super Saver!

-- D.S.

05/14 Quickie: LeBron's Defining Moment

Getting bounced -- humiliatingly -- in the 2nd round of the playoffs after an MVP season leading his team to the best regular-season record in the NBA is the defining moment of LeBron's career.

That's not to say that it will REMAIN the defining moment of his career. But for now? Absolutely, without question, this failure -- epic failure, frankly -- is THE defining moment for him.

As I argue in today's SN column, that's not to say LeBron isn't the biggest talent in the NBA -- perhaps the biggest talent in the history of the NBA.

But that IS to say that, perhaps because of his individual success, he is defined more by his failure.

More:

*Let's stop for a second and consider that final minute of the game, where the Cavs just up and quit. It was stunning. It was the lasting image of the team, of LeBron and of his Cavs career.

(I don't think this can be stressed enough: LeBron looked like he really didn't care. I was tough on LeBron last year when he didn't shake hands with the Magic after Orlando eliminated him. I actually liked THAT more than his diffident -- I'm willing to accept "shell-shocked," except I really believe he wasn't -- reaction to getting bounced from the series. He was soulless.)

*What next for LeBron? When he says "my team" in the post-game interview, he means "Team LeBron," not the Cavs. I think he is gone. I think he will sign with the Knicks.

*That does NOT mean he is any closer to winning a title in NYC than he is in Cleveland -- then again, as of this morning, Cleveland is no closer to winning the 2010 NBA title than the Knicks.

*If I was LeBron and wanted to win a championship -- AND make big money, which is obviously important to him or else he would sign with Orlando for the league minimum and win 80 games -- he should sign with Miami and play with Dwyane Wade.

*But that's where things get interesting: There's this myth that LeBron cares about winning more than anything. That's simply and demonstrably not true.

*In fact, I would put winning behind: (1) Being a "global brand." (2) Being a billionaire. (3) Making max money in the short term.

*He can do what he wants. But he has to know that every choice will come with consequences: Both how and when he wins and what kind of legacy he leaves behind in Cleveland.

*If he leaves, I suspect that fans -- not just ones in Cleveland -- will feel like the indelible mark was the final minute last night. The failure, not the success.

And that's probably fair.

Complete column here. More later.

-- D.S.

05/13 Quickie: LeBron, Habs, Strasburg

Tonight is put up or shut up for LeBron -- and for both sides of yesterday's "LeBacklash" (both the backlash itself and the backlash to the backlash).

That's the lead of today's SN column. Writing off LeBron after Game 5 was premature, given that there were two games to go. If he loses tonight? Different story. (If he wins tonight but loses Game 7 at home this weekend? Different story, too.)

There can and will be a lot more to talk about tomorrow morning.

More in today's column:

*Love the Habs! Love the Flyers even more!

*I cannot wait for Strasburg's call-up.

*Cheating is cheating in baseball (except when it's not)

*The AP NFL award voters embarrass themselves further.

*Tiger: Medication and massages. Sound familiar?

*Will I double-down on Super Saver?

Complete column here. More later.

-- D.S.

More on LeBron Last Night: Boo!

They weren't saying "Boo!" They were saying "LeBooooron!"

Apologies to the Simpsons ("Boourns!"), but as the rest of the internet battles over whether LeBron is despicable or merely had a bad game, I'm left wondering about a specific angle:

The Cavs fans' booing.

In a visceral way, the jeering was totally appropriate -- this was the most humiliating moment in franchise history.

But the conventional wisdom is that booing LeBron is the fastest way to get him to think twice about staying in Cleveland, rather than going to, say, New York.

My question is this:

What is worse: Booing your superstar in an emotional (but immature) way, or repressing your disappointment by cynically not booing him, specifically so you don't potentially piss him off.

I could make the argument that not booing when you really want to boo, because you're afraid he might get pissy, take his ball and leave town, is more of an affront than booing itself.

On the other hand, whatever visceral value fans (or owners) derive from getting pissy in the moment can't possibly compare with the value of getting to cheer for LeBron over the long-term.

In other words: It's pretty pathetic to cynically not boo -- it's tantamount to begging -- but I'm comfortable with that level of cynicism. Let's just be ready to embrace it AS cynical.

-- D.S.