Podcast Notes...

Here are my notes and talking points from last night's Podcast. Obviously I couldn't get to all of them, but I'm posting them anyway.

Boston at 4-1, Detroit and Atlanta undefeated, and Cleveland is beginning to dominate with Lebron (I think he dropped 41 on the Bulls last night). Boston, minus their loss to Indiana on Saturday, looks terrific. Their win against the Rockets on Election night was very impressive because many people are picking Houston to dominate the Western conference this year because of their Artest pickup.

Artest is the TO of professional basketball – the guy has mounds of talent, looks good on paper, and at times plays like an all-star. He’s also had a long career with plenty of accolades along the way. But off the court he is a nightmare, just like TO. Let’s review his off the court behavior, going all the way back to his rookie season with the Bulls in 1999:

- He tried to work for Circuit City during his rookie season to get an employee discount on items
- On the Pacers, he attended practice in a bathrobe and humiliated himself repeatedly.
- Later that season, Artest asked for a month off to promote an R&B album on his record label, but was denied
- He destroyed a camera at MSG in 2003 and was suspended for three games
- He tried to fight Heat coach Pat Riley and was suspended four games
- Of course he was part of the infamous bench clearing brawl
- Showed up on the cover of Penthouse in 2005
- In 2007, he was called out by authorities for not having fed his dog Socks; the dogs seized his dog and only returned it after Artest promised to feed it daily
- One month later, artest was arrested for domestic abuse in Sacramento

All I can say is buyer beware. What looks good on paper doesn’t always pan out in the locker-room.

The Knicks are still making waves off the court instead of on the court; as to what they’ll do with Starberry, it’s anyone’s guess, but my sense is that they should wait him out and wait for him to take a buyout so they look tough and don’t get bitched around as the new coach and gm combo…that would restore some adult leadership in that franchise which has been lacking.

AI-trade is genius because the Pistons can step up Maxiell, who they just signed to an extension, and give him more minutes than they have in the past; on any other NBA team, he would be a starter or major and consistent contributor. I also like their distinct mix of youth and experience, which gives them an energetic “win now” mentality; AI, Sheed, and Hamilton hold down the fort while Prince and Maxiell do the dirty work. Forde, from ESPN, sums up the trade best when he talks about the emergence of Stuckey, whom everyone at ESPN seems to love (on and off TV):

“Second, the emergence of Rodney Stuckey made Billups expendable. Dumars believes Stuckey is the point guard of the future in Detroit. Billups has four more years on his contract, and Dumars didn't want Stuckey playing a sixth man role that long.

While it's likely Iverson will start in the backcourt with Richard Hamilton this season, when Iverson hits free agency next year, Stuckey should take over as the starting point guard in Detroit. Stuckey has proven to be an explosive scorer. His point guard skills are still in question, but the Pistons believe he'll be just fine with more experience. Many around the league see Stuckey as a young Baron Davis type of point guard. He had better be, because Dumars is showing extraordinary faith in him by making this move.

To a lesser extent, moving McDyess is also about providing opportunity for young players -- in particular, the emerging frontcourt of Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson. The Pistons are high on both players and want to know by the summer if they have what it takes to anchor the Pistons' inside game. Third, trading Billups and McDyess for Iverson will clear significant salary cap space for the Pistons. If Dumars lets both Iverson and Detroit's other significant free agent, Rasheed Wallace, walk next summer, the team will be approximately $21 to $22 million under the cap.”

AI is the Dan Marino of basketball. From a Detroit newspaper I read yesterday (quote):

- He has averaged more points in NBA history than everyone except Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.
- He has put in more minutes per night than everyone except Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson.
- He has recorded more steals in league history than all but four other players.
- Allen Iverson has done all of that and then some through what is now his 12th NBA campaign.

Yet he still hasn’t won a championship and this may be his best chance he’ll ever get.

The Wizards continue to struggle without Gilbert Arenas. For the past two seasons, we’ve started off without Arenas and despite his absence, we’ve never gone 0-3. That said, there have been plenty of bright spots in this season so far:

- Play of Javale McGee, 2nd rounder out of Nevada; 7’6, has a jumper and can drive to the basket – a true big man, so to speak which is good because Haywood is out until December
- Play of Nick Young, 3rd year player whose beginning to put it together on offense
- Juan Dixon, former MD guy, is getting solid minutes
- It’s only a matter of time until this Wizards team puts it together, but we still shouldn’t have signed Arenas to 110 million dollars

The Western Conference, as usual, looks amazing this year. The Jazz and Lakers are undefeated, Phoenix is off to a hot start at 4-1, and both Houston and New Orleans are at 3-1, dominating like they did last year.

The AI trade certainly alters things in the Western Conference. The Nuggets are going to drop off without AI and Melo scoring 100 plus points per night. The Nuggets rebuilding year gives other teams in the Western conference breathing room this year, and prevents a repeat of last year where you had 40 plus win teams in the west not making the playoffs.

Redskins:

- Poor fan turnout at FedEx Field, which gave everyone the wrong impression of Redskins fans if you watched MNF; MNF, by the way, had the second largest telecast in cable tv history
- Wilbon wrote a column about this in the Post and he’s dead on: too many drunk and obnoxious fans at the Redskins stadium; the traffic is a mess, the tickets are expensive, the parking sucks, and there is no place besides the stadium to hang out if you’re not tailgating; so why drop so much cash to go through that experience, see fights break out, and have people just get wasted and talk trash?
- Zorn is going to be compared to Turner if he keeps this offense unproductive
- Campbell may not be our QB of the future and I’ve said this all along
- That said, we had the ability to compete against the Steelers without their best player and we couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity’; as Coach Sully said, turnovers = death
- We let Leftwhich kill us which is totally unacceptable if we even have a shot at going somewhere in the playoffs this year
- The Giants, of course, look nasty and I am afraid to play them in four weeks

ALSO REMEMBER THAT THE GIANTS BEAT THE STEELERS WITHOUT STEEL CITIES THREE BEST PLAYERS. From the Pittsburgh Tribune:

“The other loss, to the New York Giants, is another matter. It went almost unnoted that the Steelers lost to the defending Super Bowl champions, in a game they might have won, without three important offensive starters -- running back Willie Parker, left tackle Marvel Smith and wide receiver Santonio Holmes. That they played the Giants so well without such key players should be considered a positive.”

The Steelers also shut down the league’s best running back, holding him to 50 yards after he ran for 120 the past five games…bottom line, this Steelers team is legit.

Sean Taylor's is being posthumously inducted into the Redskins ring of honor. From ESPN.com,

"The Washington Redskins will honor safety Sean Taylor before the Nov. 30 game with the New York Giants, inducting him into the team's Ring of Fame one year after his slaying. Taylor was shot while home in Florida with his family last year. He died on Nov. 27.

"It's appropriate that Sean joins our Ring of Fame after a stellar career cut short far too soon," Redskins owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement released by the team. "His life touched so many of us in such deep and lasting ways. His presence is all around us, in our organization and among our fans."

Taylor, who was 24, will be the 43rd member of the Redskins organization admitted into the Ring of Fame, which honors those who have made distinguished contributions to the team. He is the first since Gary Clark entered on Oct. 7, 2007. The ceremony will feature a tribute and messages from former teammates as well as the presentation of a commemorative plaque to members of Taylor's family.

Taylor, who left behind a baby daughter, was a two-time Pro Bowl selection after the Redskins made him the fifth pick of the 2004 NFL draft following an all-American career at the University of Miami. He possessed a dazzling array of size, speed, instincts, athleticism and range and was developing into one of the most complete safeties in the NFL before his death.

The Redskins rallied to reach the playoffs following his funeral last season, winning four straight games, and a placard in his honor has hung at FedEx Field since his passing. His lockers at FedEx Field and Redskins Park have also been kept in place as he left them in remembrance."

Thursday night football is back which is still pretty annoying, especially when they put on good games which you can’t watch at home unless you have Comcast which sucks anyway (note: they don’t have it on Dish Network or any other cable network except Comcast..all three cable providers are also in litigation with NFL network).

Apparently the NFL network’s viewership is up, but their customers are down because Dish Network removed the channel and therefore 4 million customers from their cable package; lets just hope they all get rid of it or allow the senate to bitch them around like they did last year when specter forced goodell to view the Giants – Patriots game on NBC and cbs despite their reservations.

There are not a lot of good matchups this weekend, which is unusual: Indy Pittsburgh will be good; Buffalo-New England will be good; Tennessee-Chicago would have been good if Orton is healthy So the game of the week is clearly the Eagles-Giants