December 19, 2012
Men in Blazers: Special Guest Bill Buford
Let’s call it an off week for the English Premier League. Liverpool fans and Ryan Shawcross’s cheekbone may not agree, but this was a week in which there were few surprises. Luckily, the Men in Blazers were joined by bestselling author Bill Buford for an extended conversation revolving around his seminal soccer tome Among the […]
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Q&A: Utah Jazz Head Coach Tyrone Corbin on His Team’s Three Bigs
The Jazz look to be settling in as a solid bottom-four playoff seed in the Western Conference, though with Golden State off to a surprising 17-8 start, making the playoffs at all is no guarantee for the incumbent No. 8 seed. Utah is 14-12 after an exciting road win last night in Brooklyn. Before the […]
Read moreIs This Real? Does Peaking Late Equal a Super Bowl Victory?
Now is right around the time when NFL teams are supposed to be getting hot for the postseason. If there’s any narrative about the postseason taken more seriously than the power of having nobody believe in you, it’s the power of peaking at the right time. It’s an argument that’s easy to understand and ingrained […]
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The Dodgers and the Curse of Plenty
As the calendar flipped over to June last season, the Dodgers faced what seemed like an easy decision. Six and a half months earlier, they had signed All-Star center fielder Matt Kemp to a $160 million contract extension, ensuring that their franchise player wouldn’t test free agency at the end of the following season, and […]
Read moreThe Best Thing About Gerald Henderson Throwing Down on Dwight Howard …
It’s a Lakers benchwarmer celebrating! I can’t tell who that is, but I’m pretty sure that’s Robert Sacre yanking him down. Any guesses, Lakers fans? [UPDATE: ET TU, ANTAWN?!] Can you imagine someone on the bench celebrating if this happened to Kobe? There’s probably an ejection seat button on the tongue of Kobe’s sneaker just […]
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Save the Aloha, For Now: UFC Legend B.J. Penn
Back in January of 2009, my friend Rick traveled to Las Vegas with some business associates to attend UFC 94. Living in San Francisco, just a short flight away, I decided to visit my old college buddy and reminisce about decades of miserable Vikings football (our favorite team) and our college fraternity’s tireless service to […]
Read moreAbout Last Night: Never a Dull Moment on The Lake Show
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here’s what you missed in sports on Tuesday. The Lakers came back from an 18-point third quarter deficit to top the Bobcats, 101-100, and avoid what would have been the most embarrassing moment of their already difficult season. It was a Pyrrhic victory for some […]
Read moreDecember 18, 2012
Jim Boeheim, the Complicated Fatalist, Wins No. 900
My first experience with live college basketball came on February 12, 1994, when my dad and I made the three-hour trip from the Adirondack Mountains to see Syracuse take on Kentucky. Through an old grad school connection, dad got us in to the home locker room an hour before the game, and that’s where I […]
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Fantasy Island: Your Guide to the Ultimate Championship Week Preparation
We’re here: Week 16. For those of you lucky enough to still be around, there is boundless glory to be won. To help with the preparation during fantasy football’s most sacred of times, we’ve compiled a short weekly schedule designed to draw from the good (and the bad) methods of readying yourself for the big […]
Read moreThe B.S. Report: Mike Lombardi
Bill Simmons called the NFL Network’s Mike Lombardi to break down Week 15, discuss the playoff picture, and address rumors about Mr. Lombardi’s professional future. To listen to this podcast, you can download it on iTunes here or go to the ESPN.com PodCenter here.
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I Suck at Football, Week 15: If DeMarco Murray’s Butt Were Candies and Nuts
Erwin Schrödinger’s in town, so we meet at Ye Rustic on Thursday night. The Bengals are playing the Eagles, and for some reason this historic contest of champions is being broadcast in prime time. Schrödinger and I are, respectively, the third and fourth people who show up to watch it unfold. We could have gone […]
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BQBL: Skinny Josh Freeman’s Summer Jam Screen Debut
With all the rookie quarterbacks in the NFL BQBL this year, you’d think that there would be more fresh faces on the BQBL Summer Jam Screen. Aside from the artist currently known as Ryan Lindley, the rookie crop has been more or less serviceable. The most entertainingly inept TAINTers have actually been quarterbacks that were […]
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We Went There: Linsanity Returns to the Garden
I was standing outside of Madison Square Garden, waiting for my friend, when a middle-aged Asian American man in a fancy suit walked by me and smiled. It wasn’t quite like the throes of Linsanity, when a new constituency of Knicks fans began showing up to the Garden, but last night’s game against the Houston […]
Read moreIt’s Time for a Jets Intervention
NFL teams don’t often get the chance to rebuild on their own terms. In most cases, they’re the last people to find out that it’s time. A team that can scratch some credible way to contention in August finds themselves wasting away at the bottom of the league by November and realizes, after all, that […]
Read morePTI Timeline: Notre Dame
It wasn’t long after PTI’s launch in 2001 that Notre Dame fired football coach Bob Davie. Eleven years later, the Irish are finally back on top, ranked no. 1 and playing for the BCS title. Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser have somehow kept their jobs throughout, commenting at every turn on the fates and fortunes […]
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That Was a Goal: The Premier League Weekend in Five Goals
The story of the Premier League this weekend, told in five goals. Get some. Adel Taarabt QPR got its much-needed first win of the season on Saturday against Fulham. They owe the three points, largely, to the performance of Moroccan attacking midfielder Adel Taarabt. After the match, new-ish QPR manager Harry Redknapp — the man […]
Read moreAbout Last Night: Sanchize Delivers Christmas Gift to Titans
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here’s what you missed in sports on Monday. Mark Sanchez finished with five turnovers, including three on the final three possessions, as the Jets lost to the Titans, 14-10, and were eliminated from playoff contention. “So many asses,” said Sanchez ruefully. “Just so many asses […]
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