Suns and Mavs Peg The Basketball Needle

1. Fast Times at David Stern High

Game 1 of the Suns and Mavs was so entertaining, one has to ask the question: “why can’t the rest of the NBA be like this?”

Granted, you can’t clone Steve Nash and Shawn Marion. And there are only a few silky smooth PG/SG combos like Jason Terry. And Nowitzki currently owns the patent for being a 7-0 dead-eye shooter with all-court skills in the NBA.

But I think there’s enough talent to support a style of play much closer to what is happening in the West, than the bump-and-grind of the East.

So how do we get there?

We should start by having the league enforce their rules on contact. While there will be the short term pain of more fouls, more foul-outs, and more tedious games, the long term gain could well be worth it.

Basically, the league would need to stop rewarding smothering defense, and instead start promoting more offense, and increased possessions. Perhaps even trim the shot clock down to :20.

You would still have defense, and spectacular defensive plays, you just wouldn’t have wrestling. And any players who are fat, clumsy, and slow would be systematically weeded out of the game.

If you watched Mavs-Suns, you saw just how spectacular the NBA “product” can be. The big question is: how can David Stern and the owners move the needle. How far and how fast?

2. Wie’s Chance? Wee Chance.

If Michelle Wie makes the US Open, she’s going to have to kick the door down. For her final qualifying site, she’s chosen Canoe Brook, NJ. Good in that there are more spots there than any other place. Bad in that there are lots of tour pros. Writes Ron Sirak…

There will only be about 75 spots up for grabs in sectional qualifying, and the two spots likely to get the most PGA Tour players are Canoe Brook, because the Barclays Classic in nearby Westchester County, N.Y., follows the qualifier, and at Brookside G&CC in Columbus, Ohio, because the Memorial Tournament is the tour's previous stop. Canoe Brook is limited to 156 entrants and Brookside to 144. In 2004, when a sectional qualifier was held at Canoe Brook, 138 golfers competed for 22 spots and it took a score of 140 to get into a playoff for the final spot. That means Wie would have to beat 85 percent of those in the field to advance. The club's North Course (par 72) will play at about 7,000 yards, while the South Course (par 70) will measure close to 6,700 yards. All players will play one round on each course.

REACT: I actually WANT Wie to make the US Open. Just because I think –wait, I know – that it would TEAR HER UP. If she thinks that almost making the cut at a few handpicked PGA Tour events can in any way prepare her for golf’s ultimate torture test, she’s crazy. So bring it on, honey. Better go 14-14 on fairways, otherwise, you might take 3 whacks just to wedge out of that 6 inch rough with your pipecleaner arms.

3. Indy 500 & the Danica Factor

Danica Patrick makes a run at the Indy 500 again, one year after leading the race and making headlines last summer. For her, good. I’m happy. And I hope she wins. Because when she does, there will be a lot of breathless hyperbole about how this has “changed the face of racing” (and perhaps sports in general).

And then what?

Are little girls going to say: “Mommy, mommy! Put me in a go-kart league! I want to be just like Danica!”

Sure, a few will. But it’s not going to change the landscape of racing. And you and I won’t get a Danica Patrick “dividend check” for her winning. And she won’t pose nude for Playboy (at least I don’t think).

So I don’t quite get who Danica Patrick is “selling to” really? Is it hard core race fans who now have a hot chick to spice up their left turns? Is it casual racing fans (do such fans even exist?). Feminists? Non race fans?

Finally, my producer Jay insists that she’s not “hot.” I think he’s nuts, but that the beauty of being a man – having an opinion on every single female that walks the planet.

Jay’s take on Danica: “Mousey” and “mean.” Hmm. Maybe he’s right.

4. Ballot Madness

George Will weighs in on how absurd the immigration “debate” has become in our country. And for those of you who don’t like me citing firebomber Ann Coulter, nobody can accuse will of being a cheap shot artist.

Writes will, in defense of English as our common language, and a call to eliminate the farce that is non-english ballots in our elections….

In 1906, the year before a rabbi in a Passover sermon coined the phrase "melting pot" during torrential immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, Congress passed, and President Theodore Roosevelt signed, legislation requiring people seeking to become naturalized citizens to demonstrate oral English fluency.

How can legislators support language such as that and ballots in multiple languages?

REACT: It really is sad, that we can no longer even have a rational debate about these things. Ballots in Spanish are insane. Period. And yet modern politicians, so cowed by fear of political correctness, won’t do a thing to kill them. Amazing.

5. And Now Your Pic O' The Day!

Yikes! Don't call Indiana Jones on this one!