Super Bowl XLVI
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?
PHT: Some purists might try to poke holes in Detroit’s 19 straight wins at Joe Louis Arena, but it’s an impressive run nonetheless.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
Arc: With 38 teams projected to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble, this is a big weekend to boost a tournament profile.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Charlie Wi holds a three-shot lead at the midway point of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Tiger Woods sits six back.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Wayne Rooney scored twice as Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1 in an ill-tempered match Saturday to provisionally move to the top of the Premier League.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
Reuters
DALLAS - Hours before the Dallas Mavericks’ biggest game of the season, forward Josh Howard went on the radio Friday to talk about something else — his fondness for marijuana.
It was quite a follow-up to teammate Jerry Stackhouse calling opposing coach Byron Scott “a sucker in my book” on local airwaves.
Howard’s comments are more serious because marijuana use is illegal and eligible for punishment from the NBA. It’s a topic he’s addressed before, but never so publicly, so close to tipping off such an important game, as the Mavericks were down 0-2 in their first-round series against the New Orleans Hornets.
“Most of the players in the league use marijuana and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometimes,” Howard told The Michael Irvin Show on the local ESPN affiliate. “I mean, that’s my personal choice and my personal opinion, but I don’t think that’s stopping me from doing my job.”
Howard was 5-of-16 from the field, but hit eight of 10 free throws and had 18 points to help the Mavericks beat the Hornets 97-87 on Friday night.
He went into the game averaging only 13.5 points over the first two games, down from 19.9 in the regular season. Even that’s down from the upper 20s he averaged earlier this season.
“Just because I’m not scoring the same way I’ve been scoring, that’s no reason for the media to say, ‘Oh, it’s because he’s getting high,”’ Howard told Irvin. “I’m still in season. I’m not smoking nothing.”
After the game, Howard apologized “to my organization and all my fans” for all the fuss his comments created. Team owner Mark Cuban said Howard would be disciplined. The league could get involved, too, although Cuban and Howard said they hadn’t heard anything yet.
“I’m sorry things have gone the way they are,” Howard said. “I never meant to hurt nobody’s feelings. But those two guys (Cuban and coach Avery Johnson) are going to help me handle that.”
He also hopes the subject gets dropped.
“I think that’s it for me with that,” Howard said. “It’s over with now. I’m trying to talk about basketball.”
Stackhouse’s comments came on his radio show Wednesday night.
“I don’t think Byron Scott is the best coach or I don’t think he’s the best guy to deal with — you know what I’m sayin’? — from some things that I’ve heard from other players and just some dealings that I had with him earlier in the season,” Stackhouse said.
Stackhouse said he “was about ready to” beat up Scott during the second game of this season.
“He was sitting on the sideline and we just got into a little conversation or something and he was going to tell me, you know, ’Talk to me when you get a ring,”’ Stackhouse said. “I told that fool, ’If I played with Magic and Worthy and Kareem, I’d have a ring, too.”’
Stackhouse came off the bench Friday night after starting the first two games. He didn’t score in seven minutes, all in the first half.
|