Great commercial, LeBron, etc.

As many of you may know, I broke a bone in my elbow last week playing kickball. Yes, that's right I hurt myself playing kickball, go ahead and laugh. On that note, if you're ever injured in Memphis, I would not go to the St. Francis Hospital ER. It is a complete disaster. Go anywhere else, believe me, you'll be much better for it. Anyway, with my right arm in a big brace it's not easy to type, but I had to post a few things.

First, if you haven't seen this commercial yet, you have to check it out. Very creative and funny. I always see it during Cardinal games on Fox Sports Midwest.





I can't believe this story from Gary Parrish at cbssports.com. I have always had a great deal of respect for LeBron and I think he handles most things extremely well, but this incident makes him look extremely childish and if the people at Nike don't turn over the video, this will be a PR nightmare for LeBron and Nike.

Here is a great picture someone put together.


A lot of people have asked me what I think about the Grizzlies trade for Zach Randolph. I'll say this, I would have rather had one of the other free agent power forwards, but Randolph is not a terrible alternative. Of all the power forwards that were available he is the best scorer and this team desperately needed someone to score on the block. He can be a little bit of a knucklehead, but if he has his head screwed on straight, I know that's asking a lot, he could be a nice addition. He doesn't play any defense, but they just drafted a bunch of defenders. At some point you have to be able to score the ball, and Randolph definitely adds another option on the offensive end. Let's give him a chance and see how this works out.

Speaking of Randolph, I love how people have taken credit for "breaking" the story about the Grizzlies trying to acquire him on draft night. I talked about it on my show at 11am the day after the draft, and posted the story on here early that afternoon, yet others have taken credit for "breaking" the story after the press conference the Grizzlies held that day at 2pm.

I really hope the Cubs can start scoring some runs in the second half of the season! They are so frustrating to watch!

Good stuff!

As a big fan of anything that makes fun of the most annoying person ever to be employed by ESPN, I really enjoyed this video from Rockin Steady and the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen.

Draft Recap

So my wishful thinking did not work for the Grizzlies draft last night as they were not able to make a move and drafted Hasheem Thabeet with the second pick. They then added DeMarre Carroll at #27 and Sam Young at #36.

While I have said I didn't want them to draft Thabeet, it does not mean I think he will be a complete bust. I think he'll be a pretty decent big man who will block shots and rebound, but will never really be a big offensive threat. What I don't like about the pick is while it did fill a need of a shot blocker, the Grizzlies already had three centers on the roster and there is still a big hole at the power forward spot and Thabeet still doesn't provide a low post scorer which is what the Grizzlies desperately need. I thought you could get better value out of the #2 pick by using it in a trade to add more players to improve the overall depth.

I also wasn't a big fan of the Carroll pick only because I thought there were better options available, but at #27, you're not expecting to get a big star so it's tough to complain too much. I would have liked to see them take Wayne Ellington with the pick to fill the need of a long range shooter. I think Ellington could be a great shooter in the NBA. Carroll will provide some toughness and energy though and he loves to play defense and the Grizzlies can use some solid perimeter defenders.

I love the pick of Young at #36. I was shocked to see him slip that far and I'm glad the Grizzlies were able to snatch him up. Young is a tough player who plays very intelligently. He can shoot it from the outside, but has the strength to get to the basket too. In my opinion, this was the best of the Grizzlies' picks.

Some other Grizzlies notes:
My hope of Minnesota giving up the 5th and 18th picks to move up never happened. Minnesota's only offer for the #2 pick was the 6th pick and Craig Smith which wasn't nearly enough.

If you heard Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley on the "Morning Rush" today he mentioned a trade they tried to make that would have cost them $20 million. I have been told by a source that the trade they wanted to make was Darko Milicic and Marko Jaric to the Clippers for Zach Randolph. Once the Clippers nixed that deal, the Grizzlies sent Darko to New York for Quentin Richardson. Darko needed to be traded somewhere because of the logjam at the center spot with Thabeet coming in. Darko would have been the third center and would not have been a happy camper sitting deep on the bench. Richardson brings some veteran leadership and some three-point shooting and he's also in the last year of his contract so he could still be a valuable asset to move later on.

To hear the Heisley interview or Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace's appearance on our show today, go to http://www.sports56whbq.com/.

Draft Day

Well draft day has arrived and tonight is a big night for the Grizzlies, but it appears that the Grizzlies are going to make a big mistake tonight and draft Haseem Thabeet. Most people believe the Grizzlies are sold on drafting the Connecticut center with the number two pick in tonight's draft. What does this mean for the Grizzlies? It means they add a fourth center to the roster and they still don't have a low post scorer. It also means that fans, those that remain, will be upset for the most part that the Grizzlies didn't get more out of this pick than a shot blocking project. I think if the Grizzlies stay at #2 and draft Thabeet, it is the worst draft night, perception wise, that they have had in Memphis.

Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but my prediction for what happens tonight is that the Grizzlies trade the 2nd pick to Minnesota for the 5th pick and the 18th pick. The Grizzlies then take either Steph Curry or Tyreke Evans at #5 and if he is available, they take Tyler Hansbrough at #18.

Calipari cheating?

By now, many people have heard of the accusations of major infractions against the University of Memphis by the NCAA, including an accusation that a University of Memphis basketball player committed "knowing fraudulence or misconduct in connection with his entrance examination." In layman's terms, the document received by the University accuses a player of having someone else take the SAT for him. That player, whose name is blacked out in the report, is easily narrowed down to Derrick Rose since the document says the player participated in the 2007-08 season and doesn't mention another season, and Rose is the only Memphis player that only played during that season.

The pertinent articles on the situation can be found in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and there is also an interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times which sheds more light on the situation and directly points the finger at Rose and includes this interesting quote from Luther Topps, one of Rose's AAU coaches, ‘‘[Smith and I] didn’t know anything about his test,’’ Topps said. ‘‘Reggie moved me and him out of the way long before that, as soon as the money got involved.’’

Let me just say this, if you are shocked that there were NCAA rules broken during John Calipari's tenure at the University of Memphis, then you are incredibly naive. If this is found to be true and you believe that Calipari did not have knowledge of what was going on, you are incredibly naive. If you think this was the only rule that was broken under Calipari, you are incredibly naive. I don't believe Calipari is the only coach in the country that cheats, and if you listen to the radio show you know that's the case, because I've said many times I think just about every coach cheats because you have to in order to win. I do think some coaches are better than others at cheating because they make sure they can never get caught, or if they do get caught, they can deny any knowledge of the situation.

Draft Lottery

So the NBA's draft lottery was held last night and the Grizzlies got a little lucky by landing the number 2 overall pick this year. I have to say, I got extremely excited when it came down to the final two and the Grizzlies were still in it. I had visions of Blake Griffin in a Grizzlies uniform dancing through my head. Oh, how sweet that would be, but the Grizzlies had to settle for number two and I was disappointed. I absolutely love Griffin and to get that close to him and come up short really hurt. Going into today's show I was still a little down about the whole thing, but I have to give our listeners credit, they sold me on how good of a position the Grizzlies are still in at #2 and I'm now feeling much better. The way I see things, there are five options the Grizzlies have with the #2 pick and I'll present them from best to worst as I see it.

1. Trade down in the first round to pick up a proven player and another pick to address the need at power forward and depth issues. (This is definitely my favorite scenario. I think there will be enough teams that covet Ricky Rubio that you could get great value in a trade for the pick.)

2. Draft 18-year-old Spanish sensation Ricky Rubio and keep both him and Mike Conley. (I wouldn't mind this because the point guard position would be in good shape and you could trade Conley later in the year if Rubio pans out the way you hope. At worst, you have two good point guards and you can address the power forward issue in free agency or with the other first-round pick.)

3. Trade Conley and draft Rubio. (If Rubio truly is as good as many people think he can be, then I could see trying to make a trade with Conley before the draft and turning the position over to the kid. Maybe Portland would give up Travis Outlaw for Conley or you could package him in a bigger deal.)

4. Put together whatever package it takes short of O.J. Mayo to move up to #1. (This would be great, since I've already said how much I love Griffin, but I think it would cost too much and is a little unrealistic so I rank it 4th. Having said that, I would at least call the Clippers to feel them out.

5. Draft Hasheem Thabeet or someone else. (Wrong answer! I just am not sold on Thabeet enough to take him at #2 when you could get a lot of value for the pick with Rubio available.)

One other thing to remember is that it could cost up to $8 million to buy Rubio out of his Spanish contract. So if you're going to draft him and keep him, you have to be prepared to pay that.

The Grizzlies record drafting second is not great. The last time they won the second pick in the lottery they had to give the pick to Detroit from a stupid past trade and lost out on Carmelo Anthony. Before that they drafted the dubious Stromile Swift and the infamous Steve "I'm not playing for that franchise" Francis at #2 in 2000 and 1999 respectively. The year before those, in 1998, the Grizzlies did have success taking Mike Bibby at #2. Let's hope this year it works out more like '98 than '99, '00, or '03.

Now a couple tattoo related NBA questions:

1. Is there any more lucrative tattoo artist job in the country than being the Denver Nuggets team tattoo artist? There has to be at least $1 million in tattoos on that team.

2. Why don't foreign players in the NBA get tattoos? I just don't get this. I assume it's a cultural thing, but you'd think that when they get over here and see all their American teammates with them all over their bodies, that at least some of them would get some ink. Is there no tattoo parlors in Europe?

Sometimes things are just too ironic

You never like to hear about a prominent doctor geting in trouble for soliciting sex online, but when that doctor's name is Dr. Weiner, you have to laugh. I mean really, Weiner? Prostitution? That's too much. Here's the story from Fox 13.