NBA Team Name Musical Chairs

David Stern and the NBA finally found a buyer for the New Orleans Hornets in Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints. As Benson completely takes over that city he is also interested in taking over the name of a team over in Utah who call themselves the Jazz. Benson has expressed interest in bringing the name back to New Orleans, where the Jazz played up until 1979. Unfortunately for him, Utah has no interest in changing.

"It belongs to Utah," Stern said Monday, as reported by The Times-Picayune. "I wouldn't make it such an important point. There are many things that are indigenous to the area. I'm sure there will be some wonderful (suggested) nicknames."
Via Deseret News

The plot thickens. Since the Hornets are openly interested in a name change, the team currently playing (if you could call in that) games in Charlotte, the Bobcats, would be interested in bringing that name back to Charlotte, where the Hornets played up until 2002.

With new Hornets owner Tom Benson saying he might rename the team, there’s been more speculation about whether the Bobcats would be interested in acquiring the Hornets nickname. Bobcats management can’t comment on that.

But sources familiar with NBA procedure say it would take a minimum of two years from the time a team requested a name change until there actually was a change. That’s in part about giving uniform-supplier Adidas time to adjust to new logos and looks.
Via the Charlotte Observer

With all of this name game madness going on, isn't what needs to happen here fairly obvious? A three-way trade between the Jazz, Bobcats and Hornets is in order. First of all, the Utah Jazz need to give up that name. It makes no sense. Jazz music really originally exploded in New Orleans, and the name should truly belong to that city. Compensation can be protected draft picks and cash considerations. Or maybe some players. Who cares. The Bobcats have the worst record in the East (7-53) and the Hornets hold that same honor in the West (19-42).

In return, New Orleans will receive the name Jazz, and Charlotte will get to call themselves the Hornets once again. All is right with the world. The Jazz can name themselves... wait a minute. This has to be a four-way trade! The team currently known as the Jazz play their games in Salt Lake City, Utah. So what better name for the team from Salt Lake than the Lakers? Los Angeles really only has that name because the team moved there from Minneapolis which lies near the Great Lakes. So some of those assets going to Utah really should go to Los Angeles as they trade their Lakers team name to Utah. Then the Los Angeles franchise can adopt the name the LA Celebrities. Or maybe a play on Hollywood; The Los Angeles Woodies. That city is filled with creative people, they should be able to come up with something.

So it's decided. A four-trade is the only way to solve this. The Lakers receive real applicable assets from Charlotte, Utah and New Orleans. Then after name swaps we will have the New Orleans Jazz, the Utah Lakers and the Charlotte Hornets. I hope David Stern reads this so he can help put this trade together. But that would probably just end in him intervening and vetoing the whole ordeal.

Lamar Odom and the Blame Game

On Monday the Dallas Mavericks and two-time NBA Champion and 2011 Sixth Man of the Year Lamar Odom parted ways with Odom becoming officially deactivated for the remainder of the season and playoffs. Odom will still be under contract with the Mavs until the off-season but will not be eligible to compete in any games for Dallas or any other franchise as the deadline to sign players that can be active in the playoffs passed on March 23. Considering Odom's immense talent, this is not a common move for a team like the Mavericks who are defending the banner they hung in the rafters of the American Airlines Center in Dallas signifying their NBA Finals victory over the Miami Heat last June. But to anyone following the Mavericks and the NBA, this really doesn't come as too big of a surprise. This had been building all season and there are many factors at play here, so where do we point the finger?

Lamar Odom: Not too many people knew this before this whole ordeal began, but Lamar Odom is a pretty sensitive guy. So one thing that cannot be ignored here is the tragedy that took place in Odom's life before the season started and in the years before. Odom lost an infant son back in 2006, and this past July Odom had to deal with two more deaths. His 24-year-old cousin died, and the day after Odom attended that funeral a vehicle he was in collided with a motorcycle, the bike then came in contact with a 15-year-old boy who did not survive the incident. Nobody can blame Odom for being emotional after that summer, and when it was announced that the team he loved to play for, the Los Angeles Lakers, had a trade lined up that would send Odom to the New Orleans Hornets as part of the package that would bring Chris Paul to L.A., Odom was very upset. He could be heard crying on Stephen A. Smith's radio show following this news.

As we know now, that trade did not happen, but Odom took the news as an insult and held a grudge against the Lakers. That's how he ended up on the Mavericks. After all of this, it's understandable how one could end up performing beneath his normal production. But that being said, you still have to do your job. Despite receiving sparing minutes behind superstar Dirk Nowitski, there is no excuse for not giving the game your full efforts, and if you can't do that, you can't pretend that you are, and lead a team on. This is what led to the confrontation between Odom and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban the day before the two parties separated.

Mark Cuban / Rick Carlisle: You can't ignore the authority figures above Odom in this ordeal. Apparently what sparked the separation was the halftime confrontation between Cuban and Odom Sunday night where Cuban asked him, "Are you in or are you out?" Clearly, this was a show of distaste from Cuban in Odom's lack of effort and productive play. But couldn't he have had that discussion in private and not thrown Odom under the bus in front of his teammates? Seems as if Cuban could have handled that situation better, but Cuban handling sensitive situations with little to no sensitivity of his own is not news to anyone.

And Odom is a guy who is used to playing big minutes. Even in the sixth man role for the Lakers he was playing 30-plus minutes every game. One possibility for Odom's underwhelming play could have just been Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks not understanding how to use Odom, and thus not giving him the minutes he is used to. Odom is a very versatile player. He can't be seen as any one guy's backup. The Mavericks didn't seem to understand this, and Lakers captain Kobe Bryant would agree.

“It’s tough,” Bryant said. “He comes to a team that’s pretty much set, you know what I mean? So it’s hard for him to find his niche. The fans, they don’t really understand what he does or how he can do it, you know what I mean?

“I hope they don’t unlock that mystery. I know. I know how to use him and to use his skill set and this, that and the other. But with this team, the roster that they had being pretty much set, it’s tough for him to be able to find his groove here.”

So maybe some blame can be pointed at the higher ups. But maybe Odom just has to be in L.A. to be happy an successful. Maybe Odom should take Metta World Peace's advice.

David Stern: We can't forget that the reason that Odom didn't end up in New Orleans was because the Hornets are owned by the league, since the franchise wasn't making money, and because of that NBA commissioner David Stern took over as the action force behind the Hornets. During the Chris Paul negotiations, Stern had the last say on trades, and he vetoed that one after the teams involved had come to terms. But why did it even get that far? Follow me here. If the Hornets were in negotiations with the Lakers and Rockets about a trade that involved the face of their franchise, shouldn't Stern have been kept in the loop there? And if Stern knew about the serious negotiations and that there was a possibility of an agreement, why wouldn't he have stopped the talks before all the parties accepted the terms? If Stern had done his job and intervened before the three teams all did the leg work to put that deal together, the trade never would have been announced in the media, and Odom would have never had to have heard from a television set that the Lakers aimed to trade him.

Lamar Odom's lost season, the Mavericks diminishing championship defense hopes and this whole messy situation was the result of a large number of factors, and David Stern, Mark Cuban and Odom himself are the entities at the heart of it all.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn visit UMass

Two of the most prominent investigative sports journalists of our time, Mark Fainaru-Wada (author of Game of Shadows) and T.J. Quinn (ESPN investigative reporter) came to visit the UMass Amherst sports journalism concentration students this past Thursday. Both guys broke major stories during the Barry Bonds and BALCO era and continue to do so today. Students got invaluable insight and advice from Mark and T.J. as they covered a wide range of topics, told stories and shared several memorable moments with the aspiring journalists in attendance. Here is some of the best stuff from the inspiring visit.

"Any reporting should be investigative reporting." - T.J. Quinn
In other words, always do your homework. With any project you're working on you should have some background on what you're getting into and should be looking to acquire as much information as you possibly can. Fainaru-Wada told a story of his colleague Lance Williams getting very important information on Greg Anderson for Game of Shadows by calling his grandmother. "Do more work than you need to," Quinn said.

"Being informed is a really key piece in getting people to talk to you." - Mark Fainaru-Wada
Both special guests talked about constantly talking to people and gathering information. According to the guys, a good beat writer or reporter is always talking to someone in uniform. And not usually the big name guys. The "little guys" always know what's going on and are more willing to talk. Once you get a tip from one of them, that's when you can build on that. Quinn says he still hates cold calling people and talking to people who don't want to talk to him, but says you just have to "Make the phone call. Knock on the door. Do it."

Both Quinn and Fainaru-Wada stressed several times about the importance of knowing as much as possible about someone before talking to them, specifically for a profile. The more you can present to them that you already know, the more likely they will confirm it and continue to talk.

"Documents are gold." - T.J. Quinn
When talking about acquiring information and the processes that come with it, Quinn was very adamant about how important documents are in the process. He mentioned having to tell several reporters that the way to get your hands on documents is to simply go to the courthouse and ask for them. They had no idea that was the case. Quinn also told a story about names that were crossed off the Mitchell Report. If you look at the list online the names aren't view-able. But when you have the actual document on your hand, you could flip it over and see a name like Gary Sheffield right there. "There is no electronic substitute," Quinn said.

"Writing is overrated. Reporting is everything." - Mark Fainaru-Wada
Fainaru-Wada told the class about how much pride he has in his writing when he first started his career, and then realized that worse writers who were better reporters were far more valuable. People are reading for your information, not your vocabulary. Fainaru-Wada values a great reporter who is an average writer over a great writer who is an average reporter.

Create your own opportunities
The guys suggested always looking at every possible angle regardless of your position and what your current assignments are. When Quinn spoke about being a beat writer for the Mets he mentioned how he needed to be doing game recaps and multiple feature and other columns simultaneously. So having story ideas is always a good thing, even if it hasn't been assigned by an editor. "If you want to do a good story nobody will say they don't want it," Fainaru-Wada said.

They're real people
Quinn and Fainaru-Wada may seem like information gaining robots, but their personalities could be seen instantly when sitting down in a relaxed classroom setting. Quinn frequently cracked deadpan jokes and Fainaru-Wada seemed to find it difficult to refrain from profanity. Way more laughs filled that Bartlett Hall room than one would have expected at the beginning of the night and some tears almost joined it as well.

When recalling the experience of almost receiving jail time for not revealing his sources to a federal grand jury, Fainaru-Wada was very emotional, especially when reminiscing about the start of he and Quinn's friendship. When Fainaru-Wada was going through that tough process, Quinn and his colleagues started a website to support their current journalistic rivals, and that kindness started what turned into a friendship.

There was no question in Fainaru-Wada's mind during that time that he would not reveal his sources, and his sympathy for one man, Troy Ellerman, who did end up serving jail time for his involvement in the story was a show of humane compassion.

Fainaru-Wada had to stop himself mid-sentence multiple times as he was overcome by the moment of sharing his touching story with the class. Quinn's actions and Fainaru-Wada's reaction to this moment show that these guys are actual people and not the cold-hearted cut-throat information hounds that their critics on Twitter may think they are.

Dwight Howard and the Entitled Star Athlete

The above image is from the Orlando Magic's 108-86 loss to the New York Knicks last night, a game that was broadcast nationally on ESPN. As you can see, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is hosting a timeout discussion, probably focusing on the reasons Orlando had fallen so far behind. Then off the the right of the image, Dwight Howard and teammate Jameer Nelson sit isolated from the rest of their team, completely out of hearing reach of even Stan Van Gundy's voice, let alone your average screeching coach. This sign of disrespect to their coach and their teammates is something that is not just a common problem on the Magic, but all across professional sports today.

In countless cities in America, faces of sports franchises are carrying themselves with this type of lofty attitude, putting themselves about the team itself, caring more about themselves as a brand than they do about the win in the next morning's paper. There is really no excuse for this type of behavior, and Howard's actions last night is a perfect example. If anyone in the National Basketball Association should be doing everything in their power to re-endear themselves with their employer, their teammates and their fans, it's Howard, following a trade request that went unfulfilled and has loomed over the Magic all season. Instead, Howard shows a complete disregard for all of those parties, by clearly displaying what one would perceive as selfish actions. What message is he sending here? That he and Nelson aren't responsible for the loss? That Van Gundy has nothing to offer him as far as advice in this situation? Even if these things are true, this is almost an aggressive act of disrespect considering six steps is the difference between this being talked about nationally or a non-issue.

This issue shines a spotlight on many problems in professional sports today, where the athletes have all the power and control the fate of the league. We saw this with the secret conspiring that led to the Miami Thrice, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, as well as countless other trade requests and other me-first activity. But what can be done about this. What is stopping star athletes from acting this way? When fans are paying money to see them, and not the owners and coaches, who ultimately has power over the athletes? When the athlete is earning a considerably higher salary than their coach, how does a coach discipline that athlete. The basic bureaucratic system and chain of power and command is flip-flopped.

I hope that Howard has to ask questions about this, and I hope other athletes start facing consequences for their selfish actions. Maybe it just takes an outspoken veteran (on Orlando I would point to Jason or Quentin Richardson) to put these guys in their place and show them where they are wrong. Maybe these events require league intervention and suspensions. But there is really no excuse for disrespecting your teammates in any situation, win or lose. I suppose the only punishment is the fact that when we're looking at the NBA teams still playing in June, the Orlando Magic probably won't be one of them.

What Do We Believe in All This Braun Business?

So Braun becomes the first guy to get accused of violating the MLB drug policy and have the suspension revoked. But to me, something is still fishy here and it's not Mickey D's 2 for $3 Filet-O-Fish deal. There are a lot of different factors that make me question Braun's innocence in all of this. Now, I'm not saying he's guilty or he was definitely using PEDs, but let's explore some of the signs that could lead one to believe that this case is due for some further investigation.

Let's just look at Braun's public statement from Miller Park once it was revealed that he would not be serving the 50-game suspension for violating the drug policy. First of all, why do you need to make a 13-minute public statement like this with cameras and microphones and the works? Is this the new installment of "The Decision" entitled "The Appeal"?

He says that the reason he didn't come out before and "attack evereybody" was because he didn't want it to negatively affect the game of baseball. Then why is he doing it now? Once the suspension has been lifted obviously the media will get a hold of it, why would Braun need to come out and confirm everything we already know after the fact? To rub it in people's faces? Sounds like overcompensation to me, an act of a guilty man.

Braun says he was a "victim of a process that failed." Dino Laurenzi Jr. begs to differ. Without getting too specific, Braun basically blames Laurenzi, the urine test collector, or not following protocol which led to the positive test.

Laurenzi states, "I followed the same procedure in collecting Mr. Braun’s sample as I did in the hundreds of other samples I collected under the program."

Braun states, "There were a lot of things we learned about the collector, the collection process, about the way the entire thing worked that made us very concerned and very suspicious."

Who do we believe?

Basically Braun is saying that his sample got switched with one of the other two players who were tested that day, or that Laurenzi or his wife (the only other person in Laurenzi's home where the urine had to spend a night) planted something in his sample that caused the resulting high level of testosterone.

What I don't get here, is where the motive is for Laurenzi? Is he a Cardinals fan? Why has this not happened with any other of the 600 tests Laurenzi has done? One of Braun's defenses was that the testosterone level in the result was three times higher than anything else ever recorded in one of these tests, which was suspicious to him. But if Laurenzi was going to try to frame Braun, wouldn't he be slicker about it and tamper with the sample to make it look like a normal positive test? None of it adds up.

I'll admit that most of the evidence Braun provides points towards him being an innocewnt victim in this process, but from where I sit I think there needs to be further investigation. This was either a freak accident, or there was some foul play from either Braun or Laurenzi. I, as a sports follower, would like to know which one of those things is the truth. Braun says that by the suspension being revoked the truth has prevailed. I'm not sure we've heard the full truth at this point.

Weighing the Options: Why I didn't start The Wire

I understand that it is a fantastic show and that it is most definitely right up my alley, but I'm just not going to start watching The Wire... yet.

Jena Janovy. Jay Asser. Bill Simmons. President Barack Obama. Several friends of mine. These people have all endorsed The Wire and agree that it is an amazing, must-watch show. And while I have great respect for all of those voices, I just can't start the show at this time.

You see, I have a problem. If I start a television show, I have to watch every episode of that television show until I have seen all that is available. Much like Pringles, once I pop I just can't stop. Lost: three seasons (70 episodes) in two months. Dexter: four seasons (48 episodes) in two months. Breaking Bad: four seasons (46 episodes) in a matter of weeks. And I know I watched all of Six Feet Under in a small amount of time as well, especially considering it wasn't my type of show at all. It's an issue.

And in my final and most busy semester of my college career, I just can't afford to open the Pandora's box that would lead me to watching five seasons and 60 episodes of The Wire in two of the most important months of my life. It has nothing to do with my perceived quality of the show, or any of the many positive endorsements I have heard. It's a personal, self-control issue that I'd like to nip in the butt.

If I were to start this show I feel like it could jeopardize my timely graduation. If I got hooked on The Wire at this time, like I know I would, I would be left borrowing a phrase I have actually heard from the show said by Senator Clay Davis...

"Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Coverage of Women's Sports

The way I see it, the coverage of women's sports gets better as you get more local. I'm not saying that's 100 percent true, or the way it should be, I'm just saying that's how I see it.

Working with the local western Massachusetts papers, I have seen some great coverage on high school girls sports and took part in it myself. I've done recaps and features for girls tennis, softball and soccer, and even put together a "Hampshire Gazzette All-Stars" team for local tennis. If you read that paper every day you have a pretty darn good sense of what is going on with those local teams and you really get to know the athletes.

I feel like the only women's college sports I am exposed to is the March Madness tournament, and even that is usually greatly overshadowed by the men's bracket. However, Brittney Griner has been changing that a bit. Her dominant presence alone has drawn me a little closer to women's college hoops, because I'm always looking to see what impressive feat she will accomplish next.

On the professional level, I'm not really exposed at all to what is going on, and that may be to some fault of my own. But it's also not seen much in the national eye. I see WNBA games on local sports networks occasionally and tune in to hear my boy Mike Gorman, the best play-by-play basketball guy there is in my opinion, do the Connecticut Sun games. But once again, that's a sort of local, New England factor. Very rarely will you see a WNBA game aired nationally, or a highlight package on Sportscenter. Even in the playoffs it's tough to catch most of the games, but at least you'll see highlights when it gets closer to the finals, and the finals are certainly aired (at weird times though, I feel).

One thing in women's sports I do think gets good coverage is the Women's World Cup. Those games are super exciting to watch and are aired pretty frequently. But besides that, I think locality has a lot to do with how well women's sports are covered.