Let's lay out some facts:

I do not like Draymond Green. I respect his role and what he brings to the team, but that "role" requires him to be wildly insufferable a vast majority of the time.

I do like Paul Pierce. He's had a hell of a career, and he's exuded the perfect amount of cockiness, charisma,  and swagger throughout it.

That said, I pride myself on my objectivity and to call this chirp anything less than a burn of epic proportions would simply be disingenuous. It felt a tad unnecessary to throw (seemingly) unprovoked haymakers at a future Hall Of Famer - that didn't even play - during the first minute of a 1-0 game, but the questionable timing doesn't take away from the 600 degree content. I don't know Draymond Green's shooting percentage when it comes to shots fired, but that shit talk was the equivalent of a flaming bag of poop. He just went right at 'The Truth' and - whether Paul Pierce wants to admit it or not - hurt him with it.

You see, every good insult is at least semi-rooted in fact, and there is little to no doubt that Paul Pierce wishes he had the prestige of a Kobe Bryant. I'm not saying that he had any interest in going around to every building in the league getting showered with gifts like the baby Jesus. If he wanted to have a farewell tour then he probably would have been more matter-of-fact about it being his final season, and he likely would have been more well received on the road. He seems pretty content in just riding things out as an end-of-the-bench, veteran presence on a good team which - in many ways - is a hell of a lot more commendable than stunting the growth of young players on a bad team for an entire season by being the consummate jackass at the park who shoots the ball every time he touches it.

Be that as it may, you have to believe the Paul Pierce wanted more out of the twilight of his career than going out like a whisper in the wind. As someone who had the same type of cutthroat competitiveness as the guy he went to battle against in multiple NBA Finals I would imagine it stings to ride off into the sunset playing 11 minutes a night and averaging 3.5 points per game. I'm sure he's not consumed with jealousy or anything, but it's not something that hasn't crossed his mind.

So yeah, I do have to tip my cap to Draymond for hitting him in his soft spot like all good trash talkers do....even if he didn't make the entirety of the game before I had to slam that same cap on the ground as the least subtle cocksucker in sports tried to bicycle kick his competition...

AwfulAnnouncing-  On Monday, KHTK 1140 radio host Damien Barling harshly criticized Vlade Divac and the hometown Sacramento Kings for a poor return in the DeMarcus Cousins trade. Two days later, Barling has reportedly been pulled from the air in what his co-hosts say was a retaliatory suspension.

On Wednesday, Barling’s co-hosts on “The Lo-Down,” Jason Ross and Ken Rudolph, came onto the air at noon and explained that Barling had been suspended for calling the Kings’ front office “embarrassing” and that they were canceling their show in solidarity, according to The Sacramento Bee. 

The Bee reports the Kings had nothing to do with Barling being removed from the air. Sources at KHTK told the paper that Barling had not been suspended or fired, though being barred from his own show sounds like a suspension to us.

Via the Sactown Royalty blog, here’s what Barling said following Divac’s press conference:

Damien Barling: “That was embarrassing. That was absolutely embarrassing.”

Jason Ross: “In what way?”

Barling: “In every single way imaginable. That dude is not fit to be the general manager of a basketball team. This is real life. You just heard a general manager say publicly at a press conference ‘We had a better deal two days ago’. You moron! You can’t say that! ‘Oh why didn’t you wait till Thursday?’ ‘Oh cause we had a better deal two days ago?’”

Ross: “It was getting worse”

Barling: “Are you serious? Bro… I don’t even know what to say. If you’re a Kings fan, you should absolutely be embarrassed by that. That was awful. That was absolutely awful. You cannot do that. You can’t do that. Awful. That’s awful dude. Absolutely incredible”



Amazing how these radio personalities are always trying to focus on the negative. The Sacramento Kings flagship station could have discussed any number of things on Monday, and they chose to rip into the team's highly-decorated GM after he traded away a dominant, top 10-15 player in the league for the NBA equivalent of pocket lint? Vlade Divac came forward to unnecessarily admit that he could have gotten the NBA equivalent of a sleeve of pennies a couple days earlier, and they aren't appreciative of his honesty and forthrightness?

I'm actually glad that Damien Barling was suspended via non-suspension. He clearly needed the time to find the bright side after pessimistically overlooking the fact that the Sacramento Kings picked up a player that could turn into the next Steph Curry if he magically happens to become approximately 15x better in every aspect of the game. DeMarcus Cousins useless 28 points and 10 rebounds per game got flipped into a known quantity like a middling first round pick, and all this simple-minded contrarian seems to care about is picking apart the thought process behind trading a superstar for roster fodder? How dare he! He will be lucky if he doesn't get canned, because surrounding a dysfunctional franchise with yes-men at every level is a tried and true way for an organization to finally see the error of their ways. 

SportingNews-  Leicester City has fired manager Claudio Ranieri months after he led them to a remarkable Premier League title. The 65-year-old's position has come under increasing scrutiny this season, with Leicester unable to get close to the standards it hit during last season's historic run to the top.

"Domestic results in the current campaign have placed the Club’s Premier League status under threat and the Board reluctantly feels that a change of leadership, while admittedly painful, is necessary in the Club’s greatest interest," the team said in a release announcing the move.

Despite the more encouraging performance in Wednesday's 2-1 loss, the club has decided to part company with the manager who led Leicester to title glory only nine months ago.

The decision comes just 16 days after Leicester released a statement in which it expressed "unwavering support" for Ranieri, despite recent poor form. Ranieri replaced Nigel Pearson in July 2015 and steered Leicester to arguably the most unexpected title triumph in the history of England's top flight.

The Foxes finished 10 points ahead of closest rivals Arsenal, with Ranieri's side winning 23 and losing only three of their 38 matches. They then topped Group G with four wins from six games in their first foray into the Champions League this season.



Never forget that sports are a "what have you done for me lately?" business. I don't know why you would given the quickness with which the trigger gets pulled in firing highly decorated leaders. However, now you absolutely can't question how forever wavering the job security of coaches is when the man that helped a team overcome 5,000-1 odds(!!!!) to win an EPL title is currently unemployed 298 days later. Talk about setting the bar too high. Claudio Ranieri took his team on a run that was nothing short of miraculous, and was rewarded with a pat on the ass and a request for a repeat. He turned the sky into the limit, and his employer assumed the sky was now the standard. 

The term "thankless job" gets thrown around quite a bit, but it doesn't fit any situation better than it does this one. Shit, David Blatt might even have to consider LeBron's mid-season dismissal of him fair after hearing this story. This guy did what even Las Vegas thought was impossible and was kicked to the curb because doing it again didn't seem probable. Congrats on making history Claudio, but you didn't make it repeat itself within the calendar year so kick rocks. 

I don't know all that much about international soccer and losing Premier League status kind of seems like a death sentence, but Claudio Ranieri is one of the only reasons that the name 'Leicester City' will live forever in sports lore. Poor bastard was instrumental in helping his club do something that was as likely as winning the lottery, and they barely let stay around long enough to cash in the winning ticket. Dude basically climbed Mount Everest without a safe harness and when he got to the peak there was someone waiting at the top to say "Eh, beginner's luck. Go back down and do it again or I'm kicking you off the mountain". 

Now that's what I call taking back the power! Besides getting some undeserved recreational sex and a free education that - best case scenario - you don't even need for the foreseeable future, what are the perks of being a highly sought after college football recruit? You end up locked into a university whose head coach owes you no loyalty and is always looking for a better opportunity. You can't renege on your decision after you make it official without putting one year of your already short football career in jeopardy. You're not earning any money despite committing yourself to a workload that would make the average student wonder what purpose a higher education serves if not freeing up 5 drinking nights per week. I know some will shun this nameless kid for fucking over a school that couldn't defend itself against the unspoken extortion without admitting to obvious wrongdoing, but I think he handled this perfectly. 

All high-end recruits that are worth the hassle should start playing hard to get. Why the hell not? When you really think about it, a 5-star prospect is basically the athletic equivalent of an unspeakably beautiful woman. If single ladies can have a bunch of suitors taking them out for multiple dinners on the off-chance they choose to sleep with them, then why can't uber talented kids lead on a couple hopeful institutions in order to pad their piggy bank with hundreds before it's barred from any more deposits. Lord knows they won't get to enjoy the benefits of a free market when they are tied down by a university that's just going to exploit their skills for unpaid labor. Might as well shamelessly take each school for all their worth, because the roles will undoubtedly be reversed once that LOI gets signed. 

TheBigLead- Aaron Hernandez is on trial for double-murder. He’s already serving a life sentence for first degree murder. While he’s allegedly sporting tattoos of the guns used in the murders, he has yet to plead guilty. In fact, he’s preparing quite the defense. Via the Boston Herald:

Buried in a list of potential witnesses are two “unknown” experts who the former tight end’s attorneys may call. One expert may “discuss marijuana use in the NFL.” Another could address “the medical and psychological impacts for individuals who ingest marijuana” and whether there is any correlation between pot use and violence.

Together, those experts could be used in a Hail Mary maneuver to try to erase the mental state needed to convict Hernandez of two counts of first-degree murder.

---

He was gonna let it slide....but then he got high...
He was gonna let them live their lives....but then he got high....
Two dead bodies in chalk, and I know why....
Yeah-ahhhhh
Because he got high, because he got high, because he got higggggh!
LaDaDa-Da-Da-Da

He was gonna talk it out...but then he got high....
He almost changed his mind en route...but then he got high...
The most obvious double homicide, and I know why...
Yeah-ahhhhh
Because he killed high, because he killed high, because he killed higgggggh!
LaDaDa-Da-Da-Da

Couple things to discuss here. First of all, AfroMan hoodwinked the world with that one hit wonder, because even I could have written that shit while...well...high. Second of all, I know this "defense" of a man who is already serving a life sentence is a complete waste of time, but we should probably deter folks from using the drug that's currently being legalized across the nation as an excuse for multiple murders. Just a suggestion, but maybe we could all agree not to hear out the council if they want to claim weed as an accomplice, because - newsflash - pot's only victims have corresponding calories. 

Seriously though, this fuckin' guy....

I don't say this to downplay the immaturity of a grown ass man who was likely yelling derogatory insults at college basketball coach, but I think this proves - once and for all - that Rick Pitino is far too easily disrespected. I can't speak to the shortness of his fuse, but I can tell you that he seems like an incredibly easy target. A wee little Italian man who probably has a bit of a Napoleon complex to go along with a closet that was so full of skeletons that it eventually burst wide open and poured out into the public eye? I'm not saying I would be court side trying to remind him of the sins of his past, but I can see why the type of middle aged man that would chose him.

Pitino was definitely right in saying that the ejected fan was a coward for going after someone who couldn't go back at him in any conceivable way other than the old "hold me back, hold me back" routine, but apparently the loudmouth does have an eye for the excessively vulnerable. As everyone knows, the truth hurts the most and ol' Ricky appeared to have his delicate ego bruised. Maybe this heckler would have verbally attacked the opposition's head coach no matter who it was, but I have never seen any other high profile, collegiate figurehead halfheartedly try to swim move past his own defensive line in order to confront a fan, so maybe he did just pick the lowest hanging fruit with the ripest of skin. 

LBS-  Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times was in attendance Wednesday when Winston spoke for 40 minutes to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders from Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg, Fla. Things started out great, with Winston encouraging the children to be positive, work hard in school and chase their dreams. But when Winston decided to give a short pep talk to only the young boys in the room, his message quickly became cringe-worthy.

Winston noticed that a few male students in the room looked bored, so he tried to capture their attention.

“All my young boys, stand up. The ladies, sit down,” he said. “But all my boys, stand up. We strong, right? We strong! We strong, right? All my boys, tell me one time: I can do anything I put my mind to. Now a lot of boys aren’t supposed to be soft-spoken. You know what I’m saying? One day y’all are going to have a very deep voice like this (in deep voice). One day, you’ll have a very, very deep voice.

“But the ladies, they’re supposed to be silent, polite, gentle. My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong. I want y’all to tell me what the third rule of life is: I can do anything I put my mind to. Scream it!”



​Okay, I have a few questions. What was the purpose of this appearance? Was there a general theme to this speaking engagement? If you have been in an argument with a wife or girlfriend then you know that you've already stepped in the proverbial shit if you demand that one female sits down - never mind a classroom full of them. Anyone that has ever let the term "relax" slip from their lips in the general direction of a woman knows that verbally reprimanding the fairer sex as you generalize them as submissive underlings is going to cause you more of a headache than asking them to decide what they want for dinner. The problem here is that - unless he was trying to rally the entirety of an elementary school to get some 3rd down stops and fight for the tough yards - Jameis Winston was probably the wrong person for this job.

What we just learned probably should have been something we already knew, but it's a lesson nonetheless. Being able to get college/professional athletes' adrenaline pumping in the locker room is slightly different than keeping the attention of a bunch of pre-teens. Success is in one does not equal success in the other. Words spoken to football players in the heat of battle have to be chosen far less carefully than words spoken to the inquiring, sponge-like minds of our youth. I don't think Jameis Winston meant to be as sexist as his PG-version of "ladies should only speak when spoken to" sounded, but if you give a guy who has proven he has the gift of gab and no filter a microphone then you are complicit in what comes next.

Sure, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback could probably benefit from some sensitivity training and a seminar on equal rights, but was it the following video of Jameis Winston ranting about getting in asses that made people think that he wouldn't? As a highly paid public figure with a questionable past he needs to do a better job of not reciting antiquated gender roles from the 60's, but let's not act like simplistic babble delivered in an aggressively motivational tone isn't his calling card...

Personally, I think he was misquoted. Everyone knows that Jameis pronounces "strong" with a 'K'...

TheComeback-  Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said on his radio show that a Syracuse fan called him after the Orange’s game against the Yellow Jackets and was unhappy that fans chanted “air-ball” at Syracuse star John Gillon. According to Syracuse.com, Pastner says he told them too bad.

“I said, sir, a few things with all due respect,” Pastner said. “This is not intramurals nor is it the ‘Love Boat’ where everyone gets served cocktails at 4 p.m. I said this is men’s elite college basketball and I said the air-ball chant has gone around since Dr. James Naismith invented the game. I said, I guarantee you if one of our guys air-balled the ball at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, thirty-thousand people would be chanting airball for the entire game.”



​But...but...but...what about the poor players and their delicate feelings!? How can we possibly make sure that each high level student athlete that is perfectly unique in their own special way (sort of like a snowflake) will react positively to being reminded that their jump shot fell about 6 feet short? I want Jim Boeheim to turn his boys into men at his own pace, and the harsh reality of the "air ball!" chant is expediting the all-to-fragile maturity process faster than I - or some absolute loon of a Syracuse fan - deem acceptable! If Georgia Tech students are going to be classless than I prefer it be because they woke up hungover and went straight to the confessional instead of their lecture hall, not because they didn't respect the sanctity of some spirited, jovial competition. 

Seriously though - assuming this wasn't at all a troll job - how does a person like this come to be a fan of college athletics? This might be because phone calls have become the bane of my existence, but I can't imagine being offended to the point of looking up a number and dialing out to anyone about anything I saw take place during a basketball game. I honestly don't understand how someone could devote time, money, or energy to sports if a chant that has become more of a reactionary requirement than incessant mockery has you digging through 'The Yellow Pages'. I suppose you don't have to enjoy college kids interacting with opposing players and trying to get in their head. However, if it costs you a wink of sleep or a percentile of battery life then maybe, just maybe, find an interest that's a little more your speed....like attending Bible study and going around to nearby sermons shaking hands and saying "peace be with you" to everyone in attendance.

SportingNews- Even Texas football coach Tom Herman has slipped up during his past jobs.

No, we're not talking about his time at Houston, when he turned around a floundering program. While still in high school, Herman was fired from fast food chain Subway for secretly chowing down on pastrami.

While he would tell people he worked as a "subcontractor" or "submarine contractor," Herman said he would sneak off to the walk-in refridgerator and stuff pastrami in his face.

“I used to love the pastrami. They had those big walk-in refrigerators. I was standing in there one day, with the door shut, just throwing pastrami in my mouth,” Herman told the Dallas Morning News.

"It was like something out of a movie. I've got this bin of meat, throwing meat in my mouth, the door swings open and it's the owner. He goes, 'Get out. Don't come back.'"

----
​
And who would have thought, all those years ago when Tom Herman was shamelessly shoveling low grade lunch meat down his gullet as fast as he possibly could that he was actually prepping himself for quite the future in coaching college football? I know that the new Texas hire's past affinity for eating crappy corned beef in a timely fashion doesn't seem at all related to his career path. However, any teenager that is able to restrict his diet to quickly devoured handfuls of 'Subway' pastrami despite knowing exactly how garbage it is has the time management skills to spend 21 hours a day recruiting. I bet Tom Herman still gets his daily allotment of protein by eating cold cuts out of the bag while watching game tape. I would hope that he's least rocking with 'Boar's Head' by now, but having no need for utensils, a table, or a time slot for lunch without a doubt lends itself to the type of low maintenance gluttony required of guys that spend all damn day in the office. The fact that the former shitty sandwich maker had the ability to make himself sound more important than he was by referring to himself as a "submarine contractor" probably aided his prominent rise in a profession which places a high value on talking directly out of your ass and selling bullshit by the foot long, but so did eating glorified prison food like a goddamn caveman.

All in all? Nothing too surprising here. If we are being totally honest, I expected much, much worse from an incident outside of a bar that resulted in a local linebacking legend getting charged with aggravated assault in a football town. I'm not condoning his conduct because he was certainly the one that escalated what appeared to be a pretty amicable situation, but when you hear Joey Porter got arrested in Pittsburgh prior to a playoff game the mental picture you are left with is splattered with at least a little blood. I'll stop short of praising him for trying to intimidate a bouncer with an amount of finger pointing and close talking that would make a boot camp instructor say "enough already", but I am happy to see that a volatile human being showed at least a little restraint after repeatedly being told "no" by one ballsy ass bouncer.

Seriously, if anyone deserves real credit here it's the guy manning the entrance at 'Flats'. We have all had at least one "you're just a doorman...DOORMAN!" moment. Even if we didn't say it out loud, we certainly thought it while temporarily being roped off from an experience that - 9 times out of 10 - ends up being way more underwhelming than we originally perceive. If you haven't felt frustrated by some dude doing his job by restricting your fun then you are probably a young, attractive female that buys clothes that are one size too small, but the rest of us are used to being denied by bouncers that treat us like we are anxious children at the amusement park. 

That's why it's good to see that the profession isn't entirely made of part-time bullies. I thought that a few extra inches, a couple of gratuitous bulking seasons, some rough high school years, and an authority complex was all that was holding me back from a bouncing gig. I couldn't have been more wrong, because there is no amount of additional muscle mass that would have me standing my ground while Joey Porter was misting spit across the side of my face. Even before the cop showed up, the man in the blue hat was nose-to-nose with the only person in Pittsburgh that could handle being James Harrison's sparring partner. Turns out that every so often being given the gift of discretion can be just as thankless of a job as it can be an empowering one. 

GrinIronNow- Stories of employees fired for social media posts are nothing new, but what happened to former Alabama standout Fernando Bryant at Strong Rock Christian School in metro Atlanta is unusual. Bryant was fired just 20 days after being hired by the school as its head football coach over what he claims was a three year old Instagram post made by his wife showing the two holding a bottle of alcohol at a public function.

Strong Rock Christian School requires all employees be Born-Again Christians, but Bryant told 11 Alive News in Atlanta he was never forbidden from drinking or given strict guidelines about past social media posts.

A termination letter from the school to Bryant obtained by 11 Alive News states the social media post as the cause for his firing. A source inside the school’s football program believes this is the offending social media post and shared it with the TV station.

“It is a little disheartening,” Bryant told 11 Alive News. “I don’t understand it from the standpoint of the day they hired me to the day they said they couldn’t have me as their head coach. Nothing had changed. Nothing changed from the standpoint of anything they knew about me.”

----

I certainly don't agree with some high school digging through the social media archives of the coach they already appointed and internet stalking his entire family, because if the 'Son Of God' had Instagram then even he would have a post or two that Strong Rock Christian School would find objectionable. There's only one type of person that is as crazy and thorough as a suspicious girlfriend and it is the person in charge of staffing a psychotically religious institution. Especially one that has an extremely cut-throat post-employment vetting process that includes shaming someone for indulging in the same type of shit that Jesus Christ himself turned water into three years after the fact. I agree that Fernando Bryant should have been given the self important/unattainable standards his hiring would require before he was...well...hired, but I have to believe he dodged a bullet by getting fired.

We have all been in relationships where far too much was expected of us, and - unless they involved freak-off-the-leash sex - we have all wished that those relationships ended earlier than they did. Since Fernando Bryant would probably get canned if they found out he fled the missionary position or pulled out of his own wife, he should consider his prompt ending to a fling with a school that insists their employees and students be lifelong choir boys a blessing in disguise. I may not be familiar with his coaching acumen, but surely a guy with a resume that includes a decade of NFL experience can find better work than at a school that cares so little about football that they restrict themselves to manning the sidelines with priests and Pope-fuls. 

NYDN-  Former NFL running back Cedric Benson was charged with driving while intoxicated on Saturday, and he had quite an excuse when the cop who pulled him over tried to make him do a field sobriety test.

Benson said “he couldn’t do that because he played 8 years in the NFL,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

The police report also states that a “glassy”-eyed Benson, whose speech was “mumbled,” claimed football was the reason he couldn’t count to a number higher than three.

The former Bengals, Bears and Packers running back was pulled over in his BMW by an Austin, Texas police officer for driving 42 mph in a 30-mph zone.

After stopping his car in a 7-Eleven parking lot, an “uncooperative” Benson ignored the officer’s orders to remain inside his BMW and instead tried to walk into the convenience store.



I'm not even kidding when I say that I think the most shocking part of this story is that Cedric Benson actually did play 8 seasons in the NFL. I'm not usually one for research but when I first read that quote I had to go back and double check, because I would have found it equally as believable if he had told the cops that he played 8 minutes in the NFL. Either the former Bears' flameout had the an 8 year career that made the XFL seem memorable by comparison, or I must not have the brain power to pass a hypothetical field sobriety test either. Either way, the fact that he topped 1,000 yards for three straight seasons has me questioning whether or not I should undergo the concussion protocol. 

More importantly, I don't appreciate Cedric Benson trying to take advantage of my two day old philosophy that potentially subjecting yourself to CTE by playing professional football gives you an easy out for suspiciously rare criminal activity. Drinking and driving is simply not a crazy enough transgression to duplicitously blame non-existent brain trauma when you can't count higher than one hand's worth of fingers. Shit, I bet even Stanley Wilson could have told you what number came after 3 when he was standing in a stranger's lawn with his hands cuffed behind his back and his dick flapping in the wind as he bleed out from a gunshot wound.

I'm not even mad at Cedric Benson. I'm just....disappointed. If you want to use the existence of a debilitating disease to get you out of trouble then at least commit to it and get yourself into a type of trouble that has arresting officers wondering if you know what planet you're on. Pulling over and trying to grab a quick taquito was a lazy, shameless attempt at acting like his neurological processes were comprised by anything other than an excessive amount of alcohol. 

Finally. I knew there was a reason why I always found John Calipari to be something less than likable, and - ironically enough - it's because he's too concerned with being liked. We are talking about a guy that runs a semi-professional pitstop for kids that have no intention of using their one year of college as anything more than a showcase for the next level. Contrary to the negative slant of the previous sentence, I don't have a problem with him doing so, because - while I find the game to be disingenuous - there's no reason for me to hate the person who plays it the best. What I do have a problem with is someone not embracing their role as the villain when it comes with the territory of always having a competitive advantage.

The size of the smile that John Calipari wears after a win should only be challenged by the size of the smile he wears when an entire student section directs their ire at him, and only him. He should relish being told that he sucks by fans of an incredibly inferior program, because no coach would ever get that much attention unless he was great at what he does. Now, I know that part of the reason that he stormed off the court was because he was upset with his team of first round NBA talent for only having a one point halftime lead over a 7-20 team. That said, having a couple hundred college kids drown him out on live TV clearly rattled his cage, and that should not happen to someone who perpetually roams freely at the top of the standings and whose annual success inherently makes them a heel. Maybe Coach Cal should turn that frown upside down, because a person who has zero self awareness is almost as obnoxious as a person who doesn't realize that winning all the damn time is obnoxious. He's obviously both and his sour puss is only going to lead to more personalized chants.

TheBigLead- Candice Wiggins, former WNBA player and a star at Stanford in college, was in San Diego to be inducted in the San Diego Hall of Champions’ Bretibard Hall of Fame on Tuesday. (She played in high school in La Jolla). She had some things to say about her time in the WNBA.

“I wanted to play two more seasons of WNBA, but the experience didn’t lend itself to my mental state,” Wiggins said. “It was a depressing state in the WNBA. It’s not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be quite hard. I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me. … My spirit was being broken.”

She then went on to claim that culture was a result of the predominance of gay women in the league, and that she was bullied:

“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply."



Meet Candice Wiggins, the first person that has ever felt uncomfortable in the workplace because of her sexuality. Sure, during the 99.9% of her life that didn't take place in a WNBA locker room was likely spent unintentionally creating an atmosphere that was equally as uneasy for her homosexual peers, but that .1%? Probably the toughest thing a member of an occupational minority has ever had to suffer through!

Look, I know it's not right for me to throw around inaccurate, hyperbolic statistics in downplaying what someone considers a personally traumatic experience, but it's just as wrong for Candice Wiggins to throw around inaccurate, hyperbolic statistics to make herself sound like the token, outcasted straight person. I've heard all the generalizations about women who plays sports at a high level too, but there is no fucking way that a league that employs approximately 140 athletes only employs approximately 2.5 heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that having a proclivity for penis didn't make it weird for this particular heterosexual in a largely homosexual working environment. It does mean that she blatantly exaggerated, and - in the process - trivialized what the gay athletes that came before her had to go through when they were sealing their lips as tightly as the deadbolt on their closet door in order to avoid true prejudicial backlash.

I don't mean to question Candice Wiggins "empirical evidence", but I would assume that being openly straight in the WNBA is a lot like being white in the NBA. You probably get fucked with a little more often and are on the ass end of a majority of the jokes. However, I can't help but think she should have just dealt with the ass pats that lasted about a half second too long and shrugged off the one-liners about her reproductively compliant bedroom gymnastics. I can only imagine how fast he would get laughed out of the league if Kyle Korver tried to claim that the run-of-the-mill locker room antics he endured were an example of racial bullying by his predominantly black teammates, and I don't see how this is all that different.

That said, I'm very interested to see if this defies the irrelevance of the WNBA and actually results in a significant outcry. A woman feeling harassed - sexually or otherwise - in the workplace is (and should be) taken very seriously, but is it as serious when the people she is pointing fingers are no longer heterosexual and male?

Bet you didn't think there were any inherent benefits to working as the liaison between a substandard fanbase whose best interests have gone largely ignored and the organization that has ignored them, did ya? Oh, how wrong you were. You see, when you are the twitter rep for a team that plays in a city that is anything but convenient and whose management is anything but reliable, you can pretty much tell the stupidly loyal supporters that still remain to do whatever you want without worrying about overstepping your bounds. 

And what better universally despised thing to bar them from doing than distracting from the crappy play by on the ice by trying to turn a hockey game into a crappy, timed, interactive experience. Especially one that attempts to strong-arm people into raising their hands that are undoubtedly in possession of the beer you'd need to cope while watching a team that is essentially dead last in the league (since the Colorado Avalanche can't currently be considered an NHL franchise). In most cases I would say that it's not smart for team twitter's to take aim at specific sections of paying customers. However, the people attending Arizona Coyotes games have been made to endure much, much worse than getting scolded for participating in a laborious activity that is nothing more than a communal cliche that the average person finds mind-numbingly annoying. 

It pains me to say this, but I am glad that Wayne Shaw was forced to resign. It's not because I care that people knowingly made money off a "professional athlete's" premeditated decision to indulge in a mid-match treat, but because I was tricked into thinking his intentions were genuine. I have no problem with an obese, 46 year old backup goaltender wandering off to the bar at halftime just like I have no problem with him putting Mark Sanchez's hot dog "incident" to shame by going tonsil deep on a slab of pie. If his teammates are cool with him gassing his lower intestine with pastries while they are were gassing themselves running up and down the field during the 83rd minute trying to tie up the match then all the power to him. The fact is I would encourage such behavior if there wasn't a black cloud of deceit hovering over it.

Simply put? I want my old, fat men eating and drinking at inappropriate times because they are old, fat, and can't help themselves, not because there are financial implications at stake. Again, I truly don't give a shit that this prop bet humpty dumpty'd over the line that borders the fixing of odds, but I do feel that my innocence was taken advantage of by a jolly, round goal keep that - for at least one day - gave me hope that his act of gluttony was nothing more than his cravings getting the best of him. Wayne Shaw looks more like the type to do anything for laugh as opposed to the type that means any harm, but I'll be damned if finding out that he was fully aware of the line in the sportsbook didn't hurt my feelings. Self awareness ruined another great storyline, and - in turn -reminded me to question the validity of everything I see on the internet. 

“My love for this city has never changed … My love for this city has never changed. Even though I’m gone, it will still be the same. I’m still looking out for these kids. Every family in this city matters to me. Every soul in this city matters to me. Everything’s the same. I’m just not in a Kings uniform anymore, which is OK. The love will still go on.” - DeMarcus Cousins


There is no guarantee that a change of scenery is going to help curb the wild rollercoaster ride that has been DeMarcus Cousins' career. Bringing in a volatile personality as your second big who is in need of the ball in what has become a small man's game might not be the seamless transition that the laughable amount of talent and versatility makes it appear to be on the surface. When you talk about Boogie you are talking about a guy that can't be trusted to make the most out of a situation, and that's what has made his lightning quick transformation into a sympathetic figure such an indictment of the organization that shipped him away for pennies on the dollar.

Seriously, only the Sacramento Kings could trade away a technical foul machine that had become widely know as a locker room cancer, and have him looking like a humble, philanthropic, and appreciative gentleman no more than 48 hours later. Surely there's a lot of time to go before this  deal can be judged - even though it would take an apocalyptic collision of worlds for the Pelicans to feel stupid in retrospect - but by my far-too-early estimation, DeMarcus Cousins is dominating this breakup like it's a 6'1 guard nipping at his heels in the post. Now granted, getting moved from a glorified D-League team to literally anywhere else in the NBA was bound to be a step up professionally, but he's winning this split in the way that any self respecting person with social media would hope to - perceptually. 

It doesn't even matter if his attitude is what got him moved for a package that was so worthless that Amazon wouldn't even waste the bubble wrap, because it would be damn near impossible for you to convince me that the guy stuttering over his genuinely gracious words towards the community he is being forced to leave deserves to be viewed as anything other than the victim. A victim that is going to a more promising organization with a more promising roster in a more entertaining city, and a victim that has the collective empathy that results from getting up in front of a crowd of people and crying into a microphone. Someone get Vlade Divac some oversized sweatpants and couple tubs of ice cream. He already admitted he's worse off today than he was when he turned down a better offer over the weekend, but - if the last two days are any indication - Boogie Cousins is about to make his mourning period an ongoing, abject nightmare.  

We are all in agreement that Micah Bradford has to get something for this shot, right? It doesn't have to be points because he let it go after the buzzer and it was so far from being on target that it nearly sailed over the shot clock, but something that unbelievable simply has to be rewarded somehow. Maybe the ESPY's could make themselves even more useless by introducing a category for 'Best Play That Didn't Result In A Statistic', because a shot that was straight out of a sports movie that failed to suspend disbelief deserves the recognition. I don't care that it was pure luck and had no effect on the outcome of the game, because a half court heave that remarkable hasn't been seen since Jordan and Bird were going toe-to-toe for a Big Mac in a McDonald's commercial. The ball legitimately left the screen entirely. That's such a cartoonish thing to happen that it should have already been written into the script of the forever-delayed 'Space Jam 2'. The most unlikely prayer coming to fruition in a completely untimely fashion? Micah Bradford basically just proved that God is human and makes mistakes, and I can't help but think that every non-Catholic owes him at least a blue ribbon or a gold star for doing so.