createpositivechange

Category: Sports

  • Outspoken Jim Bunning Embarrasses Gop

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  • Obama team ready for full-court press

    As the new presidential administration is becoming increasingly loaded with good basketball players, Barack Obama has stressed that hardcourt skills are not a requirement for service.

    “I did not pick Arne because he’s one of the best basketball players I know,” Obama said Tuesday in announcing the selection of Arne Duncan as the new secretary of education.

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    That denial out of the way, Obama, who played on a Hawaiian state championship team in high school, went on to say that “we are putting together the best basketball-playing cabinet in American history.”

    As Mark Memmott notes in USA Today, it is fair to say that the Obama and his appointees got game. (Full disclosure: Memmott is this writer’s brother.)

    Obama was a reserve on the Punahou High School team that won a state championship in Hawaii in 1979. He didn’t play in college, but he continues to take part in pick-up games.

    A You Tube video from April shows then-candidate Obama in a three-on-three game at an Indiana high school.

    A left-handed point guard, the 6-foot-2 Obama makes several good moves to the basket, all of which are enthusiastically celebrated by announcer Herbie Ziskend of the Obama staff. No ball hog, Obama also gets off some good passes.

    Obama’s talents aside, Duncan, currently the CEO of the Chicago public schools, might be the star of the cabinet team.

    A co-captain of the 1986-1987 Harvard basketball team, the 6-foot-5 Duncan went on to play two seasons for the Eastside Spectres in Australia’s National Basketball League, averaging 26 points per game, according to league records.

    The rest of Obama’s starting five could include:

    • James L. Jones Jr., a retired Marine General, chosen to be national security adviser. He played forward for Georgetown University, graduating in 1966.

    • Susan Rice, a former point guard at National Cathedral School in Washington who is slated to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

    • Eric H. Holder Jr., the nominee for attorney general, who co-captained a losing team at academically prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York City in the late 1960s.

    Should any of these players tire, Obama could bring in Reggie Love, his 6-foot-5 personal aide. Love played football at Duke University and was a reserve on the 2001 NCAA championship basketball team.

    Love offered this analysis of his boss’ game to The New York Times: “He’s quick and he’s strong. A lot of people still don’t know that he’s left-handed, so he can get to the basket and get his shot off, even though he’s not the most explosive or tallest player on the court.”

    Timothy Geithner, the pick for Treasury secretary, also might have a spot with the Obama five, as he’s said to be a pick-up game regular.

    Reaching beyond his appointees and staff, Obama could suit up fundraiser John W. Rogers Jr., the 1979-80 Princeton co-captain and head of Ariel Capital Management.

    Martin Nesbitt, another fundraiser, is also a regular in Obama’s pick-up games.

    Obama’s court closer could be Craig Robinson, his brother-in-law. The coach of the Oregon State University men’s basketball team, Robinson starred in basketball at Princeton University.

    Michelle Robinson Obama noted at the Democratic Convention this summer, that when Barack Obama was wooing her, Craig Robinson vetted the young lawyer on the basketball court.

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    • Schapiro likely to be questioned about Madoff ties

      December 19, 2008 at 11:30am

      Mary L. Schapiro, Barack Obama’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is being described as the right person to help restore the commission’s battered reputation.

      “If there is anybody who is going to reinvigorate the SEC, it is Mary,” David M. Becker, the commission’s former general counsel, told The Washington Post. “I have no doubt that with her leading the SEC, it will show its teeth whenever necessary.”

    • Kansas Jayhawks have big

      Advice to anyone who wants to become a successful (and rich) men’s college basketball coach: Connect to Kansas.

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      Three of the four teams remaining in this year’s NCAA Division I basketball tournament have coaches with some link to the University of Kansas.

      And their Kansas influences can be stretched back rather easily to the invention of basketball itself.

      But for starters, here are the current Kansas connections:

      The first is obvious, as Kansas is one the four teams left.

      It’s coached by Bill Self who took over the team in 2003, replacing Roy Williams, who had coached at Kansas for 15 seasons.

      Williams left Kansas for the University of North Carolina, which is also one of the Final Four teams.

      So while Self and Williams have the strongest links to Kansas, John Calipari, the coach of the University of Memphis, another one of the four teams, also has a tie to the school in Lawrence, Kansas. He was an assistant coach there from 1982 to 1985.

      Coincidentally, when Calipari left in 1985 to go to the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant coach, his assistant’s position at Kansas was taken over by Self.

      The fourth Final Four coach, Ben Howland of UCLA, doesn’t have a Kansas line on his resume.

      However, he was at Pittsburgh after Calipari left, serving as the head coach from 1999 to 2003 before he departed for UCLA.

      The Kansas connection can be traced in another way, by looking at the career and influence of Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach from 1961 to 1997.

      Born in Kansas, Smith played for the University of Kansas in the early 1950s.

      His coach was Phog Allen, who in turn, had been coached at Kansas by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball in 1891.

      Consequently, anyone who played for Smith or coached with him can claim to be only two steps removed from basketball’s origins.

      Williams can cite a double influence in this regard as he played junior varsity basketball at North Carolina during the time Smith was coaching there.

      He also was an assistant coach for Smith from 1978 to 1988 before he went to Kansas.

      There’s another connector, as well – Larry Brown, the much-traveled college and professional basketball coach.

      Brown played for Smith at North Carolina and was briefly an assistant coach for him, as well.

      Brown was later the head coach at Kansas from 1983 to 1988. Both Self and Calipari served as his assistants.

      Calipari was also an assistant under Brown during the 1999-2000 season when Brown coached the professional Philadelphia 76ers.

      And though they didn’t overlap, Brown and Howland have this in common: They’ve both coached UCLA.

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    • Clemens Uses the B12 Defense

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    • Roger Clemens and Brian Mcnamee Face Off

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    • Theatrical Rusty Hardin takes Clemens’s case

      Baseball’s Roger Clemens has never been one to back down and go easy on batters.

      So it’s no surprise that he has launched a very public campaign to clear his name of allegations leveled against him in the Mitchell report on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

      And it’s also not surprising that Rusty Hardin, a Houston-based criminal defense lawyer, is representing Clemens. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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      “(Hardin) remains the name that should be on the speed-dial of every athlete or deep-pocketed Houstonian who might ever conceivably get into trouble,” wrote the Houston Press in naming Hardin Houston’s best criminal defense lawyer of 2005.

      The honor didn’t come easily, as Houston has long had a reputation for effective and flamboyant criminal defense lawyers.

      However, selecting Hardin was a no-brainer, the Press wrote, “like naming Lance Armstrong as Best Bicyclist from Texas.”

      Hardin, 66, a Vietnam War veteran, and a graduate of Southern Methodist University Law School, first made a name for himself working as a prosecutor in Houston for the Harris County District Attorney’s office.

      During his 15 years there, he almost always won. By his own account, he sent 15 men to death row, according to The New York Times.

      The key to his victories was his preparation and his folksy ability to win over juries. “His closing arguments were pure theater,” wrote Pamela Colloff in a 2000 Texas Monthly profile.

      Summing things up for the jury at the end of one trial, Hardin reenacted the murder by pretending to pump shotgun shells into a truck. In another summation, he swung a pickax — the murder weapon — into a phone book.

      Hardin left the D.A.’s office in 1990 and went into private practice. His resume shows a wide variety of clients. He represented the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson LLP in an Enron-related case. His firm, Rusty Hardin & Associates, P.C., has also handled cases for Rice University, ExxonMobil and Dow Jones & Co.

      Hardin successfully represented the estate of J. Howard Marshall II against claims by Marshall’s wife, Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy centerfold.

      He has also has fared well defending sports stars, so much so that his firm’s website has a section headed “Professional Athletes.”

      Former basketball star Calvin Murphy turned to Hardin when he was charged with sexual assault of a child. A jury acquitted Murphy after a five-week trial.

      Hardin also got an acquittal after NFL quarterback Warren Moon was charged with assaulting his wife. Hardin represented basketball coach Rudy Tomjanovich and basketball player Steve Francis in separate driving-while-intoxicated cases. Juries acquitted both men.

      Clemens, one of the biggest names in baseball and the winner of 354 games over a 24-year Major League career, hasn’t been charged with any crimes.

      But former Sen. George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, named Clemens in a report about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

      Allegedly, Clemens used steroids while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998 and while a New York Yankee in the early 2000s. The report also accuses Clemens of using human growth hormone.

      Brian McNamee, a former trainer with the Blue Jays and strength coach with the Yankees, is the source of these allegations.

      Hardin says that McNamee is lying in exchange for easy treatment by federal authorities. “(He) only came up with names after being threatened with possible prison time,” Hardin said at a press conference earlier this month.

      The Times reported Saturday that McNamee has retained Richard D. Emery, a New York City lawyer with experience in libel and defamation cases. Emery took aim at a 60 Minutes interview by Mike Wallace with Clemens that’s scheduled to air Jan. 6.

      The lawyer said that if Clemens uses the interview to accuse McNamee of lying, the baseball player could expect a defamation lawsuit.

      Hardin responded by saying, “My advice to Brian and his lawyers would be to stay tuned because (Clemens) told Mike Wallace the truth.”

      Related stories on Muckety:
      George Mitchell: connected or conflicted?
      Barry Bonds hires powerful defense team
      Steroid report centers on two suppliers

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    • Sportswriters Move From Print to Multimedia

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    • George Mitchell: connected or conflicted?

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    • Barry Bonds Hires Powerful Defense Team

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    • Steroid report centers on two suppliers

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    • Carl Pohlad: tight-fisted billionaire?

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    • John Keker too pricey for Barry Bonds


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    • Scott Boras: The Ari Gold of baseball

      Like any sport, baseball needs its villains.

      And right now, there’s no better villain than Scott Boras, the California-based sports agent who has the audacity to seek and get really, really good contracts for his millionaire clients.

      Boras, 55, is so hateful, it would seem, that he will even upstage the World Series.

      While the last game between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies was being played last month, the word emerged that Boras client Alex Rodriguez was opting out of the last three years of his contract with the New York Yankees. In doing this, he was passing up $91 million to seek more money elsewhere.

      The writers were appalled that Boras — the presumed leaker of the info — didn’t wait until after the World Series to let the opting-out be known.

      “At the very least, the decision to announce Rodriguez’ decision violated baseball etiquette in the extreme,” wrote Jack Curry in the New York Times.

      Casual observers might wonder how a game in which the players spit frequently and scratch themselves could have etiquette, but baseball does.

      And there are lawyers who might argue that Boras, who is a lawyer and a former minor league player, was just doing his duty to his client.

      Regardless, the fuss over Boras, sometimes called the most hated man in baseball, may obscure the fact that he is a business powerhouse.

      His company, Boras Corp., has so many clients on so many baseball teams that he may be the best-connected person in the sport.

      According to an Oct. 29 profile by Ben McGrath in the New Yorker, Boras Corp. represents 65 major-league players.

      For its services, the company gets 5 percent of the major leaguer’s salaries.

      Daisuke Matsuzaka, a star player in Japan who signed with the Boston Red Sox last December, is a Boras client.

      To get Matsuzaka, Boston first won bidding rights by paying $51.1 million. Then the Red Sox agreed to pay Matsuzaka $52 million over six years, a figure that could reach $60 million if Matsuzaka reaches certain goals.

      Boras also got pitcher Barry Zito $126 million for seven years from the San Francisco Giants in 2007.

      And his bargaining brought outfielder Carlos Beltran $119 for seven years in 2005 from the New York Mets.

      Many other Boras clients have done very well.

      However, none has received the contract numbers Boras negotiated in 2000 for Rodriguez. The player signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. (Rodriquez went to the Yankees in 2004 and the contract remained in force.)

      According to reports, Boras now hopes to get Rodriguez, an extraordinary player who has had less than extraordinary results in the post-season, a new contract in the range of $350 million.

      With the exception of Rodriguez, it’s usually Boras and not the players who are accused of greed after big contracts are signed.

      And sometimes, too, it’s Boras, and not the team owners, who is blamed by fans for high ticket and hot dog prices.

      Boras, though, would seem to be able to take the heat, believing he has a role to play. “There’s a clear need for someone to represent the athlete and to explain the athlete’s value,” he told the New Yorker. “If that person is characterized as a villain, well, so be it.”

    • Torre Should Have Looked Over the Fence

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    • Patriots’ Kraft wants English club

      English football teams are the latest craze for U.S. sports tycoons.

      New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, in the United Kingdom for the NFL game in London last weekend between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins, says he is interested in buying a Premier League soccer – oops, football – team. He already owns Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.

      “We looked seriously at Liverpool,” he told Sky Sports News on Thursday, unwilling to disclose which team he wants to buy. “We still do have an interest in playing in the Premier League. We’d like to close our deal and then talk about it.”

      American tycoons are planting red-white-and-blue flags throughout England: earlier this year, yanks George Gillett and Tom Hicks purchased Liverpool F.C. (apparently beating out Kraft). Gillett owns the Montreal Canadiens while Hicks owns the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers.

      Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner bought the Aston Villa club in 2006. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer gained controlling interest in Manchester United in 2005.

    • Cablevision’s James Dolan has string of losses

      As the chairman of Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the hapless New York Knicks, James L. Dolan should have already known a lot about losing.

      But Dolan, 51, who is also a blues/rock singer, has learned even more about embarrassing defeats during the last few weeks.

      Already vilified in the New York press as a rich kid whose dad gave him the Knicks as a plaything, Dolan is now depicted as a boss who tolerates bad behavior and bad language in the office.

      In addition, a Dolan family plan to make Cablevision Systems Corp. a private company has been rejected by shareholders.

      Cablevision, a dominant player in the New York City area, owns Madison Square Garden, which, in turn, owns the Knicks, the MSG Network, hockey’s New York Rangers, the New York Liberty of the Womens National Basketball Association and Radio City Music Hall.

      All in all, Dolan may be finding new wisdom in the first lines of one of his bands’ songs: “Who told you life would be easy? Who said you would smile every day?”

      On Oct. 2, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Madison Square Garden and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually discriminated against one of its executives.

      The verdict came after a trial that made the Knicks front office seem like a locker room where boys were, alas, boys.

      The Garden was ordered to pay $8.6 million to the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders. The jury found that the company had created a hostile work environment and that it fired Browne Sanders in retaliation for her complaints about inappropriate language and advances.

      The jury ordered Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Cablevision Systems, to pay Browne Sanders $3 million for the retaliatory firing.

      His father, Charles F. Dolan, the founder of HBO, is Cablevision’s chairman and founder.

      Several Dolan family members also serve on the company’s board. Among them is Lawrence Dolan, Charles’ brother and the owner of the Cleveland Indians.

      On Wednesday, shareholders rejected a $10.6 billion bid by the Dolan family to take Cablevision private. The Dolans had offered $36.26 a share. Some major shareholders said the price was too low.

      Charles and James Dolan, who have sometimes feuded, put the best face they could on the rejection, saying in a joint press release:

      “We see today’s outcome as a vote of confidence in the prospects of Cablevision, its management team, its 20,000 employees and the industry’s future.”

      James Dolan’s total compensation for 2006 was $8.71 million, Forbes magazine reported.

      Some of his earnings, over $300,000, have gone to political candidates, mostly Democrats. This year he has given to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

      Dolan is also the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of JD & the Straight Shot.

      According the band’s website, mixing business and music gives Dolan “a sense of balance in his life.”

      The Rocky Mountain News in Denver described the band’s first album, as getting “grudgingly good reviews.”

      The grudging praise sometimes comes from Knicks fans. The team has not had a winning season since 2000-2001, despite a high payroll.

      After 2005-2006 losing season, the club found itself in a soap opera feud with its coach of one year, Larry Brown. The melodrama ended with the Knicks buying out Brown’s contract for $18.5 million.

      Last season, the team won 33 games and lost 49, certainly enough to make Dolan sing the blues.