Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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Dwyane Wade grew up like a lot of kids with a basketball in his hands and a hoop never more than a 3-point shot away. He wanted to be Michael Jordan.
“I remember when the Bulls won their first championship, sitting at home on my floor watching the games. And then Jordan did his shot, the famous shot. I went right in the backyard, turned the lights on and couldn’t do it myself,” he recalled. “I had no athletic ability.”
That was the 1991 NBA finals. Wade was 9 years old. It was probably the first time — but hardly the last — he realized the comparison would never be exact. That didn’t stop others from anointing the slender kid with serious hops and the uncanny ability to get up off the floor as the latest in a long line of “Air Apparents.”
Which may be why the best thing that ever happened to Wade was playing for a coach who wasn’t easily impressed. After the Heat rode Wade’s coattails one final time Tuesday night to claim their first championship, someone asked Pat Riley whether he’d ever seen anybody so good so early in his career.
“Yeah,” he replied without hesitation. “I mean, he’s good. I love Dwyane and I don’t want to disrespect his development. But I watched Michael when he was young. I watched Magic and Larry.”
Riley has had a front-row seat on NBA benches long enough that perspective might be his strongest suit. He’s won with the best, and been burned by them more times than he cares to remember. It’s why he didn’t have to think long to recall an even better playoff debut than Wade’s, including the crowning achievement of finals MVP.
Riley was a Lakers assistant when Magic, all of 20, moved from the backcourt into the center-jump circle for Game 6 of the 1980 championship, filling in for the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Forty-two points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals later, Johnson became the first rookie ever to be named MVP. Small wonder Riley wanted to steer the conversation in a different direction.
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Wade’s signature was all over Game 6, too, but like Magic, his numbers — 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks — only hint at how special a player he’s become. More revealing, Riley pointed out, was how the Heat’s cadre of veterans kept looking to Wade for leadership.
Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, Alonzo Mourning — each was good enough to be The Man at some other time in some other town. Yet there was never any squabbling and even fewer doubts about whose hands they wanted the ball in when the game was on the line.
“Wouldn’t you?” Riley said. “All those guys experienced the same thing for years and years. The ball kept coming to them, coming to them, coming to them, coming to them.
“But they had so much respect for him because they trusted him. They trusted that he wasn’t for himself, only, they trusted that he was all about winning. And a team of veterans can turn over something to him that’s that valuable to them because they know he’s going to deliver.”
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
