Deja Vu

I forgot about this one yesterday. If you'll recall, the Miami Heat are scheduled to replay their game against the Atlanta Hawks because the official scorer erred in giving Shaquille O'Neal six fouls when he really only had five.

Shaq's departure threw a wrinkle in there but the league has decided that the show must go on. So now the Heat gets a chance to win a game they already lost playing on a different day with the exact same players as before. Hopefully they will use their time wisely, but I guess they really don't have anything to lose at this point. And by anything I mean absolutely nothing.

His Time To Shine

I'm sure many of you watched Duke beat the UNC Tar Heels, so I won't rehash it here. But I do want to take the time to profile one particular player: Greg Paulus. Paulus had a rough season last year, struggled to find his range, his game. He is a smaller player among freakish athletes, and when he wasn't performing well, he took a lot of flak. A whole lot. I'm sure it was hard for him and his family to hear people openly discuss how awful they thought he was.

I will admit that I was in the category of people who doubted Paulus and wondered how he had made his way to Duke. From all reports, he was a gifted QB so why would he come to a sport like basketball which seems to be such a struggle?

But the mark of a real winner, a hero, if you will, is not what happens when the going is good. It's how they rise up when everyone thinks they are defeated. Think about the movies. The greatest heroes overcome adversity when all looks lost. No guts, no glory, or so the saying goes.

Despite taking a beating from the public last year, in the last few games, Paulus has shown that Coach K was not crazy when he recruited him. He has the range (did you see where he was pulling from? He was taking whatever shot he wanted and they just dropped), he has heart, and even though he makes mistakes, he has shown that he can raise the level of his game to the elitest of the elite. Which one do I value most? Heart. You can teach someone how to shoot, but heart cannot be taught. And to be clear, heart is not celebrating like crazy when the other team makes a turnover in the first 10 minutes of the game. You know who you are.

Back to Pualus, to come back out here, still given a starting role on a squad that everyone thinks is way over your head, and now make the front page of ESPN.com (that's the pic above) because of your 6-8 shooting from the 3 point line against the Tar Heels. Not only that, but because this is one of the biggest rivalries among all sports, his performance will probably make the big game preview reels for years to come.

While there is no telling what the future holds for Paulus, I for one am happy to see the guy who people least expect rising to the challenge when everyone counted him out. That's two in one week: Eli Manning and now Paulus.

Who's got next?

News Blink (Not Hyped Enough For A Flash): Shaq to Suns, Marion and Another Guy to Heat

Well, this was quite the quiet trade, now wasn't it? One prediction I can make is that the season ticket sales of the Phoenix Suns will suddenly spike. The Miami Heat's ticket sales? Not so much.

Stephen A. Smith seems to think this would be a good trade for both teams - Shaq gets some fresh legs to run around him while he holds it down in the middle, and D Wade gets some help. Yeah, I don't see D Wade sticking this one out much longer than he has to unless the Heat make some other acquisitions.

I was surfing the 'net and came across this exchange between Dan Patrick and Shaq after the Heat won the NBA Championship in 2006:

Dan Patrick: Congratulation. Shaq, come on in. How's this one feel
differently than the ones in L.A.?

Shaquille Oneil: It feels good. I came to Miami because of this young
fellow right here [Wade]. I knew he was a special player. I knew the first time
I saw him I knew he was something special. So I knew it was my job to come here
and make him better.

Dan Patrick: When you looked at his skill, when's the first time you
said, "I got -- I can be Robin to his Batman."

Shaquille Oneil: No, I knew that, you know, he was a young gunner. So
when I came here I decided to let him go, and I was going be, you know, second
option. And I was good with that and, you know, he's a great player, unselfish
player. He's the best in the world, D. Wade.

Dan Patrick: You wanted to play for Pat Riley. You got a chance. What
has he meant to your career?

Shaquille Oneil: Pat Riley's the best coach I've ever had. Him, Dale
Brown, you know, my father, you know they've been...telling me, you know, to
just stay positive all year. And Coach -- Coach Riley told us on June 8th that
we was going to win on June 20th.

I think I said this before, but my, what a difference two years makes.

I will be interested to see if this trade really helps anyone. A loyal reader mentioned that although Shaq's near the top of his five faves of all time, his "lower body has more miles than my old Toyota RAV4, and I got rid of that whip 2 yrs ago." I couldn't have said it better myself. Like my reader, I still want to see Shaq do well, though, so we'll just be cautiously optimistic . . . for now.

How Many Times?

I know you all aren't used to the one topic-one post articles anymore but I have to shake things up every now and then. Schedule suddenly clears, Pleats 'n Cleats only benefits.

I put a notice out to Roger Clemens yesterday that if you testify falsely under oath, you might as well start notifying your current job that you will be incarcerated sometime in the future. People, it's really not worth it. Plead the fifth. I know admitting it can be problematic due to records and such, but if given the opportunity, just don't say anything.

Now he has invoked the wrath of the former trainer who saved Clemens' alleged syringes for a DNA sample just in case Clemens lied. I like how Clemens has his own ESPN tab at the bottom of the screen called "Clemens" . . . does anyone else think the MLB called and said please don't put him on our tab, we're trying to rehab our image? I'd put five on it.

Now the feds are trying to get a court order to have the syringes tested for Clemens' DNA. Had this occurred prior to the days when we knew our DNA stays on everything - forever - then perhaps I would feel differently, but at this point I have little sympathy for you, Roger. I know you're somewhere right now saying, "D'oh!"

To be continued . . .

Born To Run

I promise that I will actually write full articles again, someday. Until then:

1. Another young college athlete has died after collapsing during practice. 20-year old Jonathan Mason-Davis collapsed during basketball practice at Ohio University-Chillicothe. And two of his cousins were on the team. Is it just me or is this happening at an alarming rate these days? I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with our health care system, or lack thereof, not catching these things like we should. Whatever the reason, it's troubling and very sad to lose a child this way, so I hope we can study this and find out whether this was preventable. Very sad.

2. Shaq is headed from heat to sun. Yes, it's almost official - Shaquille O'Neal will be traded to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. This would have been #1 but out of respect for the deceased, I dropped it to #2. Marion has been trying to get traded for a while now. Sources say that this deal is a go if Shaq passes his physical. Wow. Now we know that the Suns don't and never have played defense. He would seem to be slowing down the movement of the running Suns. I would say this is as much about ticket sales as it is about fit.

2.5. I forgot about Pau Gasol going to the Lakers which broke over the weekend. This is an almost 19 points a game, 9 rebounds type player who has been averaging those types of numbers for his entire 6-year career. No slouch at all. He looked pretty darn good on Tuesday night althought it was against the not so good New Jersey Nets, scoring 24 points in his debut. This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

3. Roger Clemens testified under oath about his steroid use, or lack thereof. His trainer will also testify and say that Clemens is lying. All I hope is that someone, or both, avoids jail time because we know what happens when you lie under oath.

4. One Patriots player is taking the loss extra hard. Defensive back Willie Andrews was arrested after a traffic stop in which he had weed in his car and apparently didn't have a registered vehicle. I really hope his license plate had fallen off or he just bought the car and didn't have his registration sticker in the window. Because otherwise, why?

5. It's not a good day unless the Celtics lose. This time to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I'm not a huge fan of LeBron James, but we can band in solidarity in our dislike of the Celts overratedness. And again, only 2/3 of the Big 3 are healthy enough to play. Notice the talk of world champs has gone by the wayside now that they are close to double-digit losses. That's what I like to hear.

Some Good News

So much to do, so little time. If we could add about 4 or 5 hours to each day, that'd be perfect. Until then:

1. Michael Vick scored a legal victory. A federal judge known to be athlete-friendly overturned the arbitrator's decision that Vick had to return most of his signing bonus, finding that he only had to return about $3.75 million of the nearly $20 million he received. That's the first good news he's had in nearly a year. Hopefully they gave him an extra pudding cup or something to celebrate.

2. Bye bye, Bob Knight. I'm not 100% sure if this one will be official retirement or if he just quit at Texas Tech. He says he's done. And now son Pat Knight is taking over. Reports are that his team was a bit emotional. I'll let this marinate for a while and then give my ruminations later this week. " . . . but that would be an insult to Mickey Mouse." Ah, I'm going to miss him.

3. They're saying 97.5 million people watched the Super Bowl. That's enough for the most watched Super Bowl ever and the second most watched TV program ever. Ever. Wow. The media hype fuel is a powerful thing. Let's just hope the ads don't cost an arm, leg, and both ears next year because of these numbers. That's pretty amazing, though. And there were at least 50 people around each TV at the house where I watched the game, so that number may not be quite accurate.

4. Speaking of which, thoughts on the funniest commercial? Apparently, I missed Naomi Campbell and some lizards performing Thriller but it looked semi-humorous. My favorites were Shaq as a jockey, the guy with the spark plugs attached to his nipples, and the dog lapping up the Gatorade. The latter was mostly funny because everyone else was grossed out and trying to figure out what was going on, and that made me laugh. But maybe I'm weird.

5. It has been a pretty good year for the Cleveland Brown's Derek Anderson. First, he comes from the bench to start for the Browns and does a darn good job, leading them to 10-5 record, keeping media star Brady Quinn on the bench, and throwing 5 TD's in his first start and messing up my first week of fantasy football. And now, since Tom Brady is too beat up to attend the Pro Bowl (why go to Hawaii when you can go home to Brazil with Gisele?), Anderson will be replacing Brady at the Pro Bowl. Heck of a first season as a starter.

David v. Goliath: David Wins Again

Wow. That's all I can really say. No one believed it. You didn't believe it was possible. They looked fallible but it wasn't possible . . .

Indeed, it is. In dramatic fashion, the odds-on favorite New England Patriots were stunned by the New York Giants in the final seconds of the 42nd playing of the Super Bowl. The Giants came to play, but I wonder if they even believed they could win.

And I wonder this to myself, not to the Giants' coach or any of its players, as Terry Bradshaw did after the game. Someone please tell me what the point is of the question, "Did you think you were going to win tonight?" "Hell, no, Terry, I knew we were a goner but I told the guys put on some pads, get on that field, and maybe the Pats will like let us score or something." Yeah.

Not exactly. I wanted the Pats to go undefeated in the regular season, but I was pulling for Eli and the Giants. Eli has that whole "always a bridesmaid never a bride" (or groomsmen/groom, you get the picture) thing going for him. He's an everyman that you want to root for because not one sports pundit would even utter the idea of a Pats upset. But on this night, the groom watched his best man finally take the leap, as big brother Peyton cheered from his luxury box. Eli deserved every bit of that MVP, too, with that tackle he avoided. Exciting finish. And he overcame every odd - and I'm sure made some people very, very rich - and rose to the occasion when it counted. Nice touch by Fox showing the route that Plaxico Burress ran in practice compared to his winning touchdown catch. I was also touched by Burress' display of emotion during his post-game interview. We all get caught up in the hype of the game, the commercials, whose party we're going to attend (where we do not have a seat, miss all of the commercials), but to these guys, it is the culmination of a lifetime of hard work. A lifetime of people who said you would never amount to anything or didn't believe in you, and proving them all wrong in an instant, and forever. This is why sports connects with the people.

You can admit that you thought Tom Brady would launch one to Randy Moss and win the whole game. Even with 10 seconds left. It was simply too unbelievable to think that the Giants might actually win.

Perhaps Bill "I Spy" Belichick is to blame for the Pats loss, because in the end, cheaters just don't prosper. And good guys - like Eli - do finish first.

Congrats, Giants!