D-Wade is the toughest?

The Miami Heat went to the White House today. Did you see the ESPN vid clip where Dwayne Wade was asked about his dislocated shoulder? Did you notice the dude standing behind him? Alonzo Mourning? He lost a freakin' kidney! And probably 4 good years of service. I never bought the whole 'Dwayne Wade is the toughest guy in the NBA' meme. But after seeing him get wheel-chaired away with a dislocated shoulder, I'd forgive Zo if he smirked behind Wade's back when asked if he felt okay. But he didn't. Zo's cool. And he knows D-Wade won him a championship.

Trade deadline looming

Hockey? Do they still play hockey? They do and I still dig it. And, come on, man, you know you love talking about sports, contemplating trade possibilities, more than the sports themselves. (Proof: Here's a page recapping all the action at the NFL combine, I defy you to not check it out.) And a trade deadline is a trade deadline even in a sport you don't watch.

ESPN with the NHL Trade Tracker
Pro Sports Daily with the NHL rumors

Back to back in Cali for Kenseth

It was looking Harvick was gonna pull it off--dude, bad re-start killed him near the end--thought Harvick was going undefeated this season. Guess not.

Mark Martin looking pretty good early in the season.

7 Chevys in the top 10. Yowza.

Kenseth takes the Auto 500

6 Nations Update

Each team still has 2 matches left. Note that France has the best offense and best defense. Looking good for France. Check out the whipping Ireland laid on England.
Standings

Scotland 17-37 Italy
Ireland 43-13 England
France 32-21 Wales

Big NBA deadline deal

ESPN says:
The Utah Jazz acquired veteran forward Alan Henderson from Philadelphia just before the trade deadlineThursday. The Jazz and 76ers exchanged the right to trade second-round picks in the 2007 draft. Philadelphia also included undisclosed cash considerations in the deal.

So, wait a minute…what? Henderson was traded for 'the right to trade 2nd round picks'? What the fuck is that? So if Utah has the #42 pick in the draft and Philly has #46, they swap? Philly gave up a player and cash to maybe get a better 2nd round draft pick which they probably won't get. And what did they get for it? Uh, nothing. WTF?

RB re-assessment

games, yards rushing, avg, yards receiving, avg, total, TD
Emmit Smith
TOTAL 226 18,355 4.2 3,224 6.3 21,597 175
8 all pro
Curtis Martin
TOTAL 168 14,101 4.0 3,329 6.9 17,430 100
5 all pro
Jerome Bettis
TOTAL 192 13,662 3.9 1,449 7.2 15,111 94
6 all pro
Mashall Faulk
TOTAL 176 12,279 4.3 6,875 9.0 19,154 136
7 all pro
Corey Dillon
TOTAL 150 11,241 4.3 1,913 7.8 13,154 89
4 all pro
Rickey Watters
TOTAL 144 10,643 4.1 4,248 9.1 14,891 91
5 all pro
Tiki Barber
TOTAL 154 10,448 4.7 5,183 8.8 15,631 67
3 all pro
Edgerrin James
TOTAL 112 10,385 4.1 3,056 7.8 13,441 81
4 all pro
Priest Holmes
TOTAL 108 8,035 4.6 2,945 8.8 10,980 94
3 all pro

Rank (rushing yards):
Emmit, Martin, Bettis, Faulk, Dillon, Watters, Tiki, Edgerrin, Priest

Rank (yards from scimmage):
Emmit, Faulk, Martin, Tiki, Bettis, Watters, Edge, Dillon, Priest

Rank (yards per carry):
Tiki, Priest, Faulk/Dillon, Emmit, Watters/Edge, Martin, Bettis

(With touchdowns I'm inclined to give points but not really to subtract points. For example, I'm inclined to overlook Tiki's paltry (by comparison) number of TD's because perhaps finishing just wasn't in the game plan and considering his YPC it makes sense that he'd be tired after carrying his team downfield. And I'll overlook the last few years of Bettis's career where he rarely touched the ball outside of the 8 yard line. But, you gotta give it up to Emmit's Gretzky-like number of touchdowns or Priest's impressive total in a smaller body of work.)

Rank (touchdowns):
Emmit, Faulk, Martin, Bettis/Priest, Watters, Dillon, Edge, Tiki

All time?
Emmit (dude, he's just killer)
Faulk (I grade him high on total yards and TD's)
Martin (you got to credit his consistency, durability)
Bettis (carry a load over the years)
Tiki (ypc jumps out at you)
Watters (underrated)
Dillon (underrated)
Edge (won't end up better than Martin)
Priest (fewer games played tells the tale)

Emmitt and Faulk are the only clear Hall of Famers to me. Hard to leave out Martin and Bettis though.

Porto 1-1 Chelsea

I watched Chelsea come back and take the draw in Portugal yesterday. It was an exciting game, not much D. I thought the ref favored Chelsea a little (we'll see if they get the same love in the next match), and while they played well enough to steal a draw on the road I wasn't blown away by their performance. For Chelsea, I thought Essien was great, Shevchenko was pretty good (excellent goal), but the backline was suspect, Terry got hurt, Lampard didn't contribute, Robben came and went, Michael Ballack kinda sucked (I don't think he had one good touch in the entire game). Porto didn't get any luck and they only played good enough to hang, not good enough to win.

Roma 0-0 Lyon (a goal on the road might be enough for Roma to win)

Barca 1-2 Liverpool (I watched the first half of the game, I thought the were fairly evenly matched squads, but I left at halftime and missed the winning goal)

Inter 2-2 Valencia (I thought Inter was supposed to be the shiz this year, giving up 2 goals at home doesn't look so strong to me)