This Week in Sports

1. Sean Taylor
Redskins safety Shawn Taylor died Wednesday, approximately 24 hours after he was shot in his home. This is one of those very unfortunate situations where you feel bad for the family and friends but you have to believe he may have brought it upon himself. Taylor, 24, has been in trouble since the day he was drafted. DUIs, player misconduct, a constant disregard for the rules of NFL (or society, for that matter). Taylor exemplified the thug/gangster mentality that has plagued the NFL and NBA over the last 10 years. He played his college ball at "The U" (University of Miami) and unfortunately, he lived up to the reputation that school has earned for itself over the years.
At this point the cops are claiming it was a robbery gone bad. However, the details surrounding the event seem to contradict that assessment in my opinion (and the opinion of just about everyone else in the world with a pulse). There was nothing stolen, for one thing, and the attacker apparently broke down a locked bedroom door with Taylor yelling at him/her from the other side then shot Taylor in the groin. A week earlier Taylor's house was broken into and again nothing was taken, but a large knife was apparently left sticking in the bed. If that's not a precursor to a premeditate murder I don't know what is. Maybe we'll find out that this was in fact a robbery gone bad but in all likelihood, Taylor was involved in something he shouldn't have been and it got him killed. Such a sad story and such a waste of talent.

2. Kevin Garnett
Tonight I got my first look at the revamped Celtics team that has been heralded by almost every pundit as the likely Eastern Conference Champion in the NBA. The Cs, after years of insignificance, made two HUGE moves this season bringing in Ray Allen and future "Top 10 Player of All Time" Kevin Garnett. KG is one of my favorite players of all time and much like Allen Iverson, has never quite gotten the credit he deserves because he has always played on terrible teams. Also like AI, Garnett is one of those guys who leaves EVERYTHING he has on the floor EVERY night. You never watch KG play and think "Ya know, he's just not into it tonight." It takes a special competitor to stay up for an entire 82 game season.
Now that Garnett has been traded to Boston he has a real TEAM around him for the first time in 5 years. It was a treat for me, as a fan not of the team but of Garnett himself, to see him play and seem to ENJOY playing for the first time in a long time. He looked renewed and relieved, knowing that he doesn't have to carry the team. The Celtics, just like any other teammate KG has ever had, feed off of his intensity and desire and the likelihood that the Cs don't make the Finals is pretty slim, in my opinion.

3. Ricky Williams
I just wanted to congratulate former Longhorn Ricky Williams on a thrilling 2007 season. After spending the first 10 games of the season on the suspended list because of his FOURTH drug offense, Ricky stepped onto the field for the Dolphins on Monday for his first action of the season...and proceeded to collect 13 yards rushing before being injured and leaving the game in the first half. His season has now been declared over. Great 13 yards Ricky! Really went all out this year, didn't ya? To steal a line from Bill Simmons, I'm betting his first question was "Can you get medicinal marijuana for a torn shoulder muscle?"

4. Refs
Last night the Mavs played the Wolves, badly in need of a win. It was an exciting game, the Mavs won the game, Dirk played great, and I should have been happy with the win. Am I happy? No. Why? Because of my sworn enemy, the NBA officials. That marked the third out of four Mavs games that were almost unwatchable due to The Stripes. The Mavs were cheated out of a win in Indy by Benny "The Rat" Salvatore (the same son of a gun that called the Phantom Foul for DWade in the Finals 2 years ago), were given almost no chance to win in Milwaukee because of the 41 to 17 free throw discrepancy, and had a blowout turned into a nail-biter by overzealous knuckleheads. Last night's game could have been better officiated by any three blind winos picked up off the streets in Deep Ellum. Every "might have been a touch" on the perimeter was a whistle yet somehow the bigs were allowed to manhandle Dirk, Diop, Damp, and anyone else who happened to be in their way down low. The 3rd quarter took almost an hour to finish because of the constant barrage of whistles. If David Stern is really concerned with the state and image of the game, he ought to start the clean up effort by publicly and viciously firing about 80% of the morons officiating the games and starting from scratch.

5. The Knicks
Lastly, I want to take a moment to call out the New York Knicks and that abysmal "performance" they put up against the Celtics tonight. Even against a good defensive team, an NBA team full of PAID players should be able to crack 75 or 80 points. Not only did the Knicks fail to reach the 70 point mark tonight, they failed to crack 60. 60 POINTS. Kobe Bryant BY HIMSELF in a single game scored 81 last season. The Knicks were down by over 50 at one point and finished the game down 46, scoring a whopping 59 points (and that's with a half court heave at the buzzer).
At one point, I routed for the Knicks with almost as much fire and veracity as I do the Mavs. But I cut up my "Knick Fan" card around the time of the Latrell Sprewell for Keith Van Horn trade. So I have no love for the Knicks. But that game tonight was EMBARRASSING. Embarrassing to the city of New York, embarrassing to the players and coaches and all their families, embarrassing to the NBA. The Knicks have the highest payroll in the NBA (by FAR) but that team has been so haphazardly thrown together that they have no chance of competing. Every player on the team is a tweener who does one thing and one thing only: score. They have about 10 volume shooters on the roster and there aren't three players who play defense, rebound, or pass the ball. I swear they launched more forced shots in this one game than the Spurs, Mavericks, and Suns do COMBINED in a whole season.
It is disgusting the mockery Isiah Thomas has made of that team and it's bad for the NBA to have one of the premier franchises in such a state of SUCK. Stern has to step in and step in NOW. Force the Knicks ownership to fire Thomas and cut half of the overpaid BUMS that take up the roster and start over. Then Stern needs to pass a LAW (not a rule, a LAW) that prevents Thomas from ever becoming involved with the NBA in any capacity ever again. I'm embarrassed as a fan of the NBA to have watched that team tonight.