Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
APWhy it's good for Pistons
Five years is about all you get for a run in the NBA, or any sport, these days with free agency and escalating contracts. Ben spent six seasons in Detroit. They won the championship in 2004, lost in the seventh game of the Finals in 2005 and barely made it to the Eastern finals this season.
Despite their league-leading 64 wins, they clearly had grown too fat and happy. Ben was the team’s most decorated player, but third-highest paid. He was going for his big pay day, though he didn't match his previous seasons.
So, the Pistons can retool without the public outcry like that which assaulted the Bulls after their 1998 title or the Lakers after trading Shaquille O’Neal. The Pistons offered Wallace nearly nearly $50 million offer, and he turned it down. How much more could they do than offering to make him the highest-paid in franchise history?
It was clear their offense had bogged down, as coach Flip Saunders yearned to play more open style like more teams. You can’t do that with Wallace, even though he wants to be included in the offense. That was the genesis of some of his feuds with Saunders, including Wallace declining to re-enter a game in March.
The Pistons still have a solid core with Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince, and they can go smaller now with Rasheed in the middle and begin restyling their team for a new run.
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Why it's bad for Pistons
Losing Wallace will hurt when they get hammered by Ben and the Bulls in December. It will take time to put it back together, and Wallace is a man of deep pride. He’s spent his career proving teams wrong about him, being undrafted and traded twice.
The Bulls will be up for the Pistons, who could be looking up at them all season in the standings and on game nights. It’s one thing to say how this won’t work in two or three years, but you still have to get through the seasons before then, and that could be painful.
Despite his diminishing skills, Ben is still an All-Star and one of the top five or 10 defenders in the league. You don’t replace those guys easily. Plus, he was often the heart and soul of the rugged Pistons, demanding better effort and standing up to the best on the other team.
It was Wallace who got everything going in that brawl in 2004 when he went after Ron Artest, which few people do. The Pistons don’t have the guy to step into that role and players like that don’t come along often.
Bulls-Pistons. Get your tickets now.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Paul Pierce has been around long enough to know what Rajon Rondo's performance can mean for the aging Boston Celtics.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
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