GarageGabs

I’m heading to Charlotte until Saturday, so I’m gonna have to sign off until then.  Unlike all the cool sports blogs I don’t have help waiting in the wings, so the site will be dead until Saturday.  Until then, I leave you with this fantastic photo of my serve.

Ok, I know this is totally not sports related but Anna Nicole Smith is dead.  I thought about this for a second and realized there is no way I could tie this in with sports without seeming insensitive to death, so I won’t try.

I’m finding just a few things ironic about her death.

The police are reporting they found her dead after her private nurse phone them upon discovering Smith unresponsive in her hotel room.  Ok, why did she have a private nurse?

Smith recently lost 69 pounds thanks to “TrimSpa”.  I’ve told my fiancee and other female friends to stay away from weight loss “magic pills”.  I have to wonder.  I’m sure the autopsy will clear things up.

Ironic that a woman that emulated Marilyn Monroe died at 39.  Monroe died at 36.

Ironic that her son died out of the blue just 5 months ago.

I have to wonder if this is karma in action.  Will there now be a huge debate as to who inherits her fortune?
In all honesty, my condolences for anyone that is upset by her passing.

Anna Nicole Dead, World Awaits Variously Insincere Condolences From Entertainment Tonight, TMZ.com, Others  (The Darn News)

Since Ruben decided to be a smart-ass and comment that NC State “got lucky” and beat Carolina, I figured I would add this story that I stumbled onto.

Basically, the article covers why Colorado schools suck so bad at basketball.

Oh, and let me personally add that Denver is home to the Denver Nuggets…the Nuggets of 0 NBA titles and a 42-71 playoff record in 30 freakin years. Also, I don’t see a championship on the horizon with that magnificent combo of Iverson and overrated Carmelo Anthony. Lets be honest here: Anthony wasn’t even the best player in his draft class….or even second best. In fact, I’d take LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh over him now, and if I were building a TEAM, rather than trying to fill a building with fans, I’d take Josh Howard over him as well. The Nuggets hay day was in the early to mid 1980’s when teams played defense about as much as Jenna Jameson protected her virginity. Allen Iverson? Yeah, nice pickup. You obtained Iverson (who could never lead Philly to a title) by sacrificing a solid PG (Andre Miller), and your future (two #1 picks). This on a team that is built around Anthony and a bunch of guys that get injured every 10-12 days. Smart. You’ll get 25 ppg out of AI, he’ll get knocked around like a pin ball all year, and you’ll still get the same thing you get every year….if your lucky An early exit from the playoffs.

Finally, lets not forget that the best player to ever wear a Denver Nuggets uniform was the one and only David Thompson from where……that’s right….NCSU!

Enjoy Ruben.

It Must Have Something To Do With The Altitude (And Here Come The Pretzels!)

PS: Ruben, if you would like to reply to this personal message, I’ll take it in the form of an e-mail and then put up your response as a post. I made an entire category…..just for you.

 

 

ESPN is reporting that Wade Phillips will be the next Dallas Cowboys head coach.  As a Dallas fan, I can’t say that I’m all that excited, but honestly, I don’t really think it would have mattered much who they hired.  I only say that because the crop of available coaches sucked in my opinion.

 

Of the available choices, Phillips was probably the best, since he has had major success with the 3-4 defense…most recently in San Diego.  Also, I think Phillips is simply going to keep the seat warm in Dallas, until Jason Garrett is ready to take over as head coach.  Garrett was hired by Dallas, but his job has not yet been defined.  It has been speculated that he will be the offensive coordinator, so the hiring of Phillips makes even more sense. 

 

I’m very happy it wasn’t Norv Turner.  I believe Turner’s days as a top offensive play caller are over, and in fact he may be a bit burnt out.  IIf Wade is anywhere near as popular as his father(Bum Phillips) was in Texas, he should be just fine.

 

In other Cowboys news Terrell Owens has said that he hopes Phillips does a better job of coaching than Bill Parcells so that he can catch the ball better.

 

Anyway, on to a new era in Dallas.

 

Sources: Cowboys To Name Phillips New Head Coach  (ESPN.com)

Sarah Spain has a video describing her Super Bowl ticket experience.  She scored 4 Super Bowl tickets in about 48 hours.  Pretty amazing story.  So much for their Super Bowl predictions.

 

 

Duke lost their 3rd in a row to Carolina.  How long until the Blue Devils fall out of the top 25?  They are now 6th in the ACC, yet ranked higher than 4 teams that are ahead of them.  Could Boston College be the NCAA version of the Philadelphia Eagles, losing Sean Williams, but continuing to win?

 

The Celtics have now lost 16 straight games.  Why?  Name 5 Celtics other than Paul Pierce.  I can name 16 Celtic legends:  Red Auerbach, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, JoJo White, John Havlicek, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Reggie Lewis, Dave Cowens,  Tom Heinsohn, Don Nelson, Bill Sharmon.  Seriously disturbing that a team with this much tradition is THAT bad.

 

What’s up with the Nuggets?  They’ve got both their stars now, but after losing again tonight, they are 2-4 with AI and Anthony on the floor.  Now Marcus Camby is hurt.  (big surprise there huh?)  In all seriousness, this team better get it together and start winning fast or this whole “answer” experiment is gonna leave them asking a lot of questions.

 

Don’t look now, but the Heat have won 5 in a row.  Yes, this coincides with the return of the Diesel, but don’t overlook the contributions of Jason Kapono.  His minutes, points per game, and shooting percentage have all increased during each month of the season, and he is averaging almost 19 points per game in 4 February games, while burning it up from 3 point land.  I’d say it’s about time for Pat Riley to return so this team can have someone to credit for this turn around.  Kapono doesn’t do much other than score, but he will be a HUGE asset to the Heat come playoff time as another scoring option.  Go ahead…double Shaq in the post.

 

The Wizards are in big trouble without Antawn Jamison.  Speaking of the Wizards have you seen Gilbert Arenas have a shooting battle with DeShawn Stevenson?  Arenas shoots one handed from the college 3 point line…and hits 73 of 100, while Stevenson shoots normally from NBA range.  Apparantly, the two bet $20,000 on the shootout.  The best part of the video (besides the amazing shooting) is watching Agent Zero’s attempts at distracting Stevenson, especially towards the end.  The video is long….but you will see it is well worth the watch.

 

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Today was National College Signing Day.  I know you’ll be surprised, but USC and Florida pulled in the best classes.  The rich get richer.

 

Evidently, John Amaechi is gay.  Much like the writer of this article, I’m just tired of hearing about gay people.  I don’t care if you are gay.  It’s not something I need to know.  If I do know, I won’t hold it against you.  I’m sure a gay person can dunk a basketball just as well as I can (not that I can, but you get the idea).

 

Wanna work for ESPN?  Hell, I do.  Check out Harold Reynolds contract over at The Smoking Gun. 

 

A Look At Harold Reynolds’ ESPN Contract (Deadspin)

 

The Final Sarah Spain Post (With Leather)

 

Gilbert Arenas Is A Dick. But Funny (With Leather)

 

 

With a capital A!  That’s right, it’s that time of the year again.  North Carolina and Duke square off tonight at 9 pm in one of the more over hyped games of the year.  How do you hype the game when both teams aren’t on their “A” game?  You focus on the fact that they are both coming off a loss for the first time since 2003.

In all seriousness, this should be a good game.  Watching Hansbrough and McRoberts bang into each other all not creating uncalled travels should be a joy.  Prepare for numerous closeups of Coach K and Roy Williams,  as ESPN focuses on the coaching excellence at these schools.  Hell, the biggest surprise about this game is that ESPN isn’t going to air it on 3 channels.  I expect Carolina to win.  I just don’t think Duke is all that good.

There are other ACC teams tonight engaging in a couple of nice matchups as  Boston College (playing for 1st in conference but somehow unranked..hmm) goes to Miami and Florida State travels to Clemson.  I’m guessing the FSU-Clemson game will be the best game of the evening.

Well, at least it would seem that way to this lady (Sandy Williams) that interviews Martin Lawrence at a Hawks game.  After Martin talks about his own movie, she refers to “Norbit” as “you got a new movie out”. Uhhh, Sandy, that’s Eddie Murphy.  Oh, and the Hawks game was a “star studded event”.  The 3rd time she says “start studded event” she refers to Eddie’s  Martin’s movie as being a “star studded event”.  Seriously world…I’d love to have a sideline reporters job.  I’m not all bad to look at, I am knowledgeable about the Hawks (I know they had Nique  and Spudd), and I’m a solid speaker.  Anyway, check out the video, I’m heading out to watch Martin Lawrence in “Dreamgirls”.

[youtube]3zigoxzH8aY&eurl=[/youtube]

Uh Oh…..Someone Has Tivo!  (Awful Announcing)

 

The motivational posters from the NCSU/UNC game are out:

 

 

For the complete collection, GO HERE.

Despite falling behind by 15 points in the 1st half to NC State, Georgia Tech was able to rally in the 2nd half to beat State, 74-65.  It was pretty obvious State just got tired.  They were running on all cylinders in the first half, but the minutes really began to add up in the 2nd half.  All 5 starters played 33 minutes or more, with only 2 other players playing.  The effort was just not as intense, passes not as crisp, and I thought Engin Atsur was going to die.

Anyway, credit to Tech where credit is due.  They hung tough, and went on an incredible run after the 9 minute mark of half 2.  Javaris  Crittenton, after only scoring 6 in the first half (including a 3/4 court hail mary at the buzzer) scored 15 second half points to lead the Jackets back.  Not crying foul here, but Tech’s run was aided by the men in stripes, they seemed to pocket their whistles in the second half as Georgia Tech got more physical, but oh well, I’ll take it, those kind of calls will benefit the Pack when they have a full bench.  Sidney Lowe has the guys on the right track.

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Also in the ACC tonight, Virginia leads Maryland at the half, 41-31.

Georgia Tech 74 N.C. State 65 (yahoo!)

Snickers has pulled their ad campaign where the two mechanics inadvertently kiss after taking a lot heat from human rights groups.  Here is what the Human Rights Campain had to say about the ad:

The Human Rights Campaign, AmericaBlog.com and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation yesterday called on the makers of Snickers, and its parent company Mars Inc., to pull an online ad campaign launched during the Super Bowl that depicted violent and anti-gay behavior by two actors. By the end of the day Monday, the ads and the additional footage of players from the Colts and the Bears had been pulled from the company website.

 

I’ve got no problem with gay rights but I really don’t think this ad overstepped those boundaries.   I mean come on, it was a gross kiss.  Am I the only person that wasn’t overcome with the need to go out and bully gays after watching the commercial?  Honestly, I think it’s pretty deplorable that the reactions of hetero-sexual males are being pulled from television.  I mean, is it normal for two men to meet in the middle of a snickers bar..with a kiss?  Anyway, if you haven’t seen the ad, it’s here.