Larry Brown Sports

At first it was NBC LA botching the Kings’ logo, then it was FOX’s Liz Habib butchering some highlights, and now it’s CBS’ turn to screw up something LA Kings-related.

CBS rolled some Kings mascot footage before showing Kings-Coyotes highlights from Game 4, but they used the Sacramento Kings mascot.

Disappointingly, the blunder gives CBS LA into repeat offender status.

H/T Marcus Vanderberg

Reporter Julie Tristan is becoming known this across the country, and it’s not for a good reason. The host of KSDK’s “Show Me St. Louis!” did a feature last week on Cardinals third baseman David Freese riding the new Mr. Freeze ride at Six Flags St. Louis. For some reason, Tristan took the opportunity to shamelessly hit on the the ballplayer repeatedly.

Some of her choice lines included:

“We’re going to hit on you, heavily.”

“I think what everyone wants to know is … do you have a girlfriend???”

“Do you prefer blondes or brunettes?”

“Last question: Do you think we’re pretty?”

“Isn’t he just the cutest? We look perfect together!”

Tristan of course capped it all off by saying of Freese, “I love you.”

Videos of women asking out professional athletes are cute when they involve a service person and a choreographed invite to a military ball, not an actual TV reporter. A word of advice for Tristan after that pathetic display: Express your crushes on your personal time, not when you’re supposed to be a professional on camera. That was disgusting.

Big thank you to Deadspin for sharing the video.

NHL play-by-play announcer Dave Strader ventured into a touchy area with his final call of the Predators-Red Wings series on Friday night. Nashville had just beaten Detroit 2-1 to win the series in five games, and Strader celebrated the moment with a questionable, and borderline racist pun.

“Honkytown has taken down Hockeytown,” was his call for the series.

Detroit is affectionately called “Hockeytown” because of the Red Wings’ success and the passion of the fans. “Honky” is a racist term for a white person, though there is a type of music/bar called “Honky-tonk,” which would be less offensive.

Let’s hope for Strader’s sake he was referring to Nashville as a honky-tonk bar/music town rather than a city full of honkys. Next time just play it straight, Strader, and don’t try to say something cute that can be taken the wrong way.

As I’ve stated before, I don’t ever watch Skip Bayless on TV or pay attention to anything he says, so I have no idea what he does or does not say on his show or Twitter feed. Apparently he was recently bragging about his high school basketball career and how his background as a starter on a team that lost in the state finals gives him credibility when discussing the Russell Westbrook dynamic on the Thunder. All that alleged credibility quickly went away when Jalen Rose pressed him with a few questions Tuesday morning.

During an argument about the Thunder and Russell Westbrook, Rose got Bayless to admit he averaged just 1.4 points per game as a senior in high school. He also got Bayless to admit he played on the JV team as a junior.

Bayless, clearly embarrassed and frustrated, said “We’ll address that later.” He apparently never did, but he found a way to immediately turn the tables back on Rose.

Normally I don’t encourage pointing the finger and laughing at someone but, in this case, I do.

Kevin Durant called out resident ESPN antagonist Skip Bayless for his lack of basketball knowledge Monday. Responding to the clown’s apparent comments that Russell Westbrook shoots too much for the Thunder (don’t ask me, I don’t pay any attention to anything he says), Durant said “That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball.”

The criticism of Russell Westbrook has been persistent since the playoffs last year when many media members/wanna-be critics watched the Thunder play for the first time. They were horrified by what they saw — that Westbrook is a playmaking point guard who tries to score rather than distribute — and began hammering him mercilessly. Apparently the complaints have continued for brainless Bayless, who gets paid big money to play the role of the outrageous antagonist for ESPN, even though the Thunder have the best record in the conference and second-best record in the league.

Oklahoma City is 20-4 when Westbrook takes more shots than Durant and they’ve won those games by 12.4 points on average.

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The Knicks responded to a damaging report from the New York Daily News by calling it an extortion attempt from the paper. The Daily News reported Monday that the Knicks withheld information about Jeremy Lin needing surgery on his knee until after the deadline for season ticket holders to purchase playoff tickets for all four rounds.

We wouldn’t put anything past the Knicks, but the report seemed like a stretch. The Knicks don’t have trouble selling out playoff games, so what motivation would they have to get more money up front? Do they really stand to profit that much from one month of interest? I can’t imagine that was their reason.

In reality, Lin, like any competitive player, didn’t want to commit to surgery that would likely end his season without exploring all options first. He saw several doctors, tested the knee well after the Wednesday playoff ticket deadline, and ultimately decided surgery was his best option. I think that’s the reason the announcement was delayed. What team tries bragging about devastating injury news? None of them do.

LBS called the Knicks around 4:00 p.m. ET Monday and they had no response to the report. A few hours later, both Madison Square Garden (MSG) and Cablevision sent statements blasting the Daily News.

Here are their statements, via IamaGM.com:

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Warren Sapp irresponsibly tweeted Wednesday that Jeremy Shockey was the “snitch” who told the NFL investigators about the Saints bounty system. Shockey, who played for the Saints two of the three years they had bounties, denied Sapp’s accusation, but the allegation spread across the internet and ended up on many major sports websites. It was even discussed on NFL Network which is owned by the league. There is a serious conflict because the league promised to protect anyone who reports wrongdoing in the NFL. Now the only thing Shockey can do is defend his reputation.

Shockey has said he has a strong relationship with Saints coach Sean Payton and that he wouldn’t rat him out. Shockey even suggested he and Sapp take a lie detector test and show it on TV. But his most powerful words came when he blasted Warren Sapp.

“Sapp can say what he wants about me, but if he really says that he’ll put his life on the line for his source, we’ll see,” he told Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports. “I’ve never been a guy who failed multiple drug tests. I’ve never been divorced. I don’t have four kids by four different women. I don’t lie. This attacks my character and it’s not fair.”

Wow, talk about a burn. It’s nice Shockey brought all that up about Sapp because many people don’t realize what a clown he is. We’ve tried to point it out before and we’ll do it again.

Sapp’s claim about Shockey is irreversible. Once the word gets out that Shockey is the snitch — which is exactly what Sapp did — that’s all most people will hear. They won’t know about Shockey’s denial (or they’ll dismiss it). They won’t do the research and realize that Shockey was upset when he first heard about the allegation several weeks ago. They dismiss the reports from Mike Freeman of CBS and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk who both say Shockey was not the snitch. Nope, most people from now on will think Jeremy Shockey is the reason the Saints got into so much trouble, even if it’s not true, all because of Sapp.

Sapp’s disgustingly irresponsible tweet is grounds for firing. Anyone with Sapp’s clout (or less for that matter) should never throw out a name unless they are 100% certain about their report and have evidence to prove it when it comes to such a sensitive subject. You especially don’t do that when you’re an employee of a league looking to clean up the game, not discourage people from ever stepping forward again. This was a colossal mistake by Sapp on several levels. The only proper response is for him to apologize for saddling Shockey with a snitch label for life and to be fired for his recklessness.

UPDATE: Shockey has tweeted a screen shot of a text conversation between him and Sean Payton which seemingly proves that there are no hard feelings.

If you have ever happened upon a big dance, we would like to hear from you. If you know someone who has had their ticket punched, please let us know. Has your bubble burst lately? If it has, perhaps you should consult a gastroenterologist or, barring that, maybe a shaman. For some reason, however, these trite expressions of nebulousness are dusted off each year around the first week of March in the NCAA’s Pavlovian way to drum up interest for its annual four-week basketball tournament.

Yes, folks it’s that time of year again: Everything is in full bloom, the swallows fly north, and thought-provoking discourse flies south. The NCAA begins its annual march into the forefront of the national consciousness, while brackets are busted and Cinderellas leave their slippers somewhere in Dayton, or East Rutherford.

During my enthralling college journey en route to a communications degree — in other words, a time of heavy chemical experimentation — I learned the seemingly meaningless concept known as the magic bullet theory (not to be confused with Plaxico Burress’ alibi). I didn’t know it then, seeing as how I only took on the major to meet the kind of women who had aspirations of becoming weather girls, but that theory has served me well since I am now using it in a treatise about sports no less. How many times have you watched an excoriation of the NCAA Tournament by some talking head analyzing the field or probable field, and the expressions “Big Dance”, “on the bubble”, “dark horse”, or “tournament resume”, among others have been used? You’ve undoubtedly stumbled across the anachronistic concept of March sports talk novelty. My friends, you have been shot with the magic bullet seemingly prophesied by my professor in Comm 10.

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Tampa radio host Dan Sileo (pictured) seemed to cross a major racial line Monday when he called players the Buccaneers were rumored to be pursuing “three monkeys.”

The players in question are Jonathan Vilma, Cortland Finnegan, and Vincent Jackson — three black players.

“Wow, they’re gonna spend all that money,” Sileo said while hosting his morning show on WDAE The Sports Animal.

Sileo’s co-host then razzed him, suggesting Dan was going to end up changing his mind after the Bucs got the players.

“And Dan’ll be like, ‘well, they’re not really that good.’”

But Sileo stood by his opinion, saying “No! No! If they get those three monkeys, I’m good! I’m ready, man. I’m ready. I want those guys. Those guys are great players.”

The audio is below, via Deadspin:

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Sileo is a former Miami Hurricanes lineman who played 10 games with the Bucs in 1987. He’s had credibility issues in the past and was suspended in 2009 for claims about the Buccaneers owners.

We have no idea in what possible context his “three monkeys” comment could have been stated to make it benign, because that sounded awful. Recall that Howard Cosell got into trouble for calling Redskins receiver Alvin Garrett “a little monkey” on Monday Night Football in 1983. Cosell said that was an affectionate term he also used for white players, but he still left the booth after the season. We can’t imagine things go much better for Sileo. I’d like to hear his explanation for the comment.

UPDATE: Dan Sileo has been fired.

Last week, Shimabaku, an anchor for FOX 5 in San Diego, pretty much called Danica a b*itch on air. Here’s the video:

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