Sports World Review

Reinvigorating The NBA All Star Game Dunk Contest

Shaquille O’Neal had the idea a few weeks ago of Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and other top NBA stars to compete in the NBA All Star Game Dunk Contest to raise money for the earthquake-stricken country of Haiti. His Cleveland Cavilers team mate Lebron James quickly withdrew his name from the contest citing he has nothing to win by participating in the event. It would be great to see the best stars in the game compete in the dunk contest because people will actually know who the competitors are. One of the great moments in NBA history was Michael Jordan dunking from the free throw line. The poster of #23 in mid air was one of the most popular posters in the 1990’s. Jordan’s battles in the dunk contest with Dominick Wilkins were instant classics taking the slam dunk and turning it into an art form. The 1985 All Star Game had Michael Jordan, Dominick Wilkins, Clyde Drexler, and Julius Erving. Not taking anything away from Nate Robinson’s dunks in recent years, but the whole contest has a gimmicky aspect to it now. The NBA would benefit greatly if they could somehow convince its biggest stars to compete in the dunk contest.

England Hasn’t Seen Anything Yet From Landon Donovan

Skeptics pointed to Landon Donovan’s unsuccessful stints in Germany when the all-time United States Men’s National Team leading scorer first went on loan to English Premier Club Everton from his MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy at the beginning of 2010. With the United States facing England in their opening game in this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, all eyes on both sides of the Atlantic were on Donovan when he made his English debut in the snow against Arsenal on January 9th.

The American’s impact was felt in just the 12th minute he sent in a wicked corner kick (making his Galaxy team mate David Beckham proud) finding the head of Leon Osman who stiffly knocked the ball into the Arsenal net. Donovan went on to continue to torment one of England’s best clubs down the right side of the field before being subbed out with 15 minutes left in the game. Everton gave up two cheap goals to Arsenal to tie the Gunners in the end, but anyone you watched the game knew that Donovan had shown he could play in England.

Donovan has started every game since and this past Wednesday against Sunderland, the 27-year-old scored his first goal in England.  Donovan ran onto a well-placed header from Australian Tim Cahill and expertly beat the keeper with a left footed strike. Scoring his first goal with Everton early on into his loan spell gives Donovan the confidence to elevate his play further. I’ve watched almost every game he’s played in the last year and half with the Galaxy, Bayern Munich, and the United States and I know that his game has a few more levels than what he’s shown so far with Everton.

Donovan has been feeling his way into the team playing smart football, but now that he’s getting comfortable in the system I expect him to start making more adventurous runs and being a bit more selfish with the ball. That being said Donovan is surrounded by great players in Tim Cahill, Steven Pienaar, Marouane Fellani, and Louis Saha where as in MLS or with the national team he has step up and be the main attacking player. In the coming weeks Donovan will grow  into his role and no one should be surprised if we see a few more goals in the not too distant future from the soccer star. Landon’s next chance to find the back of the net will be on Saturday as Everton travel to Wigan.

Andy Roddick Continues U.S. Tennis Cursing Spree

American tennis stars can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to cursing out umpires as Andy Roddick continued the trend during his victory over Thomaz Belluci in the second round of the Australian Open. The #6 ranked player in the world served a slew of profanities at umpire Fergus Murphy after a call was overturned costing Roddick a point. Roddick refused to shake Murphy’s hand after the match despite being the victor.

Roddick’s recent display of lack of restraint follows Serena Williams’ outrageous melt down at the U.S. Open that costed the female American tennis star $82,000. There’s nothing new about potty-mouthed tennis players from the United States as John McEnroe is one of the most celebrated American tennis players in history. McEnroe is still famous today for his tennis court temper tantrums that took place in the 1980’s. However, McEnroe’s outbursts were often called entertaining when Williams and Roddick’s were more of the embarrassing type.

Regardless of these incidents, tennis has the luxury of having a bevy of stars including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, the Williams sisters, and Dinara Safina (who will all be appearing in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open) helping the sport reach a broader audience. Perhaps, as was the case with McEnroe, controversy will only bring more attention to the game of tennis.

Arenas

With Gilbert Arenas out of the lineup, the Washington Wizards are going to keep struggling. This is a big problem for their team, because they don’t have much other real talent in their group. And it’s not only that, but many of their players have found themselves in front of prosecutors and grand juries lately, who are trying to figure out what this dispute entailed and so on. Yes, Arenas has been a big jokester for the NBA lately, but he’s also a very talented player. But at one point the team wasn’t able to run a regular practice anymore, because of suspensions and absences. The coach was displeased, but what can you do? This team probably wasn’t headed to the playoffs, but they need to have their full set of players to even have a shot at it! But with Arenas facing felony charges, that might not happen for awhile.

Possible Bad News?

There was an attack in Angola as the Togo soccer team was on its way to the Africa Cup of Nations. The team was in their bus on the way to the tournament (similar to the Euro Cup) and it killed an assistant coach, a press officer and the bus driver. It’s not completely obvious what happened, but it appears that it has something to do with Angola’s separatist movements and the danger that it can create in certain areas. This raises the fears that some people are having in expectation of the South African World Cup coming up later this year. While the distance between the two places is large, this doesn’t change the perception that many people have about it. Hopefully the security situation in South Africa is better than it was in Angola in this attack. The team was on its way to Cabinda, in Angola, where their next match was to be played. The team returned home early for three days’ mourning.

Gil Arenas

This is a strange story going on in the NBA right now. Gilbert Arenas, resident goofball of the Washington Wizards, is in some deep water. There was an incident with a teammate which ultimately culminated in him bringing a gun (or several) to the stadium and possibly pointing them at the other player, or at least setting it on a chair as either a joke or a threat. It’s not clear what actually happened. The guy messed up. He has been suspended pending a criminal investigation (the guns weren’t registered for DC, where the stadium is). The real spark getting him suspended was his joking Tweets, interviews and an unfortunate finger-gun-pointing display. There is talk of a long-term suspension and possible criminal charges. It will be very interesting to watch this play out; especially with the possibility of a lifetime suspension (which is probably too harsh), everyone is extra wound up about this particular problem.

Broncos Collapse

It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were talking about the Denver Broncos as a potential winning team. In fact, I think I might have even referred to them as a playoff shoe-in or something along those lines. Unfortunately, after their 6-0 start, they went 2-8 to end the season at .500. Which is exactly where things were when they fired their last coach, who had been with the team for many years. The Broncos were close to being a really great team, but it just wasn’t working out for them this year. They keep losing receivers and having discipline problems this year. They would have been in the playoffs this weekend if only they’d won last night against the normally hapless Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were able to put a great run game together that outscored the Broncos. Big time. Their first season with Kyle Orton wasn’t bad, but the expectations were set very high when the season started out so well for them. They just didn’t give the follow-through that everyone thought they needed.

WWE

As the WWE enters the new decade, we can see that there are some amazing wrestlers involved. We have Chris Jericho,Randy Orton and CM Punk, who were less heavily in the game in 2009, but are looking to make big comebacks. Cheap WWE tickets can let you see Jericho finally fight against Orton and the great storylines between them at the moment. Expect some chair-hitting, bodyslamming and other great moves when the new season of the WWE comes up. Whether you’re a fan of the villains or a fan or the heroes, there will be a lot of great fights and some fun drama and comedy in the new years. There are rumors about what’s going to happen, but I don’t want to ruin it for you, so just get your tickets and be there to see it!

Lowell has Surgery

Mike Lowell has been injured for a long time. It looked like there would be a trade sending him to Texas, though it’s not clear what Boston would have gotten in exchange. But then Texas decided they wanted to do a physical first to make sure that they were getting the goods that they thought they were getting. Lowell had a sore thumb at that time and suddenly Texas discovered that he had a torn ligament in the thumb. As a result, we are reporting today that he’s having thumb surgery today as a member of the Boston Red Sox. But the question remains as to why the Red Sox didn’t actually know that his thumb was that injured, why they hadn’t checked into it. What an odd situation for the Red Sox, who are usually so professional and thorough.

March Madness

The 2010 version of March Madness looks like it will be very different from last year’s edition. Last year, we saw North Carolina, Michigan State, Villanova and UConn go at it in the Final Four. But this year, these teams are closer to #10 in the rankings, with teams like Kansas and Texas ranking very high. In fact, Texas just won this week against North Carolina and Villanova by decent margins. When this year’s tournament commences, it’s going to be one of the most entertaining ones that we’ve seen in awhile. We might get to see teams in the Final Four that we haven’t seen in many years, if ever. Make sure to have March Madness tickets in-hand before a lot of fans arrive on the site to get theirs.