Just to show you how bad the Mavericks are, that’s the only team the Clippers beat this season. The Clips are 1-8 and were pretty much doomed from the start when Elton Brand deserted them in free agency and Maggette bolted for Golden State. Baron Davis was their key offseason acquisition, but he only signed with them to be back in LA where he grew up and to make some money. It’s pretty clear he didn’t consider much else otherwise he wouldn’t have signed with that garbage organization. And he had no idea that leaving the Warriors meant he would have a new coach with a different coaching style. And that as you could imagine has caused some problems. Quoting Baron:

“There’s definitely a disconnect there. I’ve never had so many plays in my entire career. I have to figure out how to fit more into his system, and [Dunleavy] has to figure out how to relax his grip.
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“It’s like every time we come down the floor, everyone is trying to figure out the play, and by the time I get it called out and everyone knows it, there is eight seconds left on the shot clock,” Davis said. “It takes away some of our instincts.”

As far as I see it, Davis has really only had one year where things worked — two years ago with the Warriors when they took out the Mavs in the playoffs. He’s a picky guy who only works in certain systems (the free-wielding kind), and butts heads with his coaches (not named Nelson). With four years left on his contract, I’m just wondering who will be the first to go: Baron Davis, or Mike Dunleavy. It’ll be hard to fire Dunleavy now that he’s GM of the team, too. Hope Baron’s open to an offseason trade.

There’s been a tremendous amount of speculation about Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden leaving the NFL to fill the head coaching vacancy at Tennessee now that Phil Fulmer is out. A lot of the rumors and speculation revolve around Gruden’s ties to Tennesse as a one-time grad assistant with the Vols, and the fact that he still owns property in the area. But NFL analyst Brian Baldinger disagreed with the speculation saying that Gruden would be a bad fit at Tennessee. He gave his reasoning on The Arnie Spanier Show:

“Jon [Gruden] might have the most complex playbook in the whole NFL. That’s why he can only co-exist with a veteran quarterback. Chris Simms didn’t have a chance of digesting that playbook — you’ve gotta have Jeff Garcia or Brad Johnson or Rich Gannon. If you took that playbook to college with 20 hours a week, with 15 spring practices, he would be doing back flips in angst when they couldn’t digest his playbook. It would be a horrible fit, just that alone would be a horrible fit.”

When you think about the point Baldy makes, it’s hard to disagree. The facts are staring you right in the face. And that’s coming from the same analyst who proclaimed on the radio that the Falcons would be the surprise team in the NFL this year, winning around eight games as opposed to the four or less most idiots thought. His reasoning? He broadcasted their preseason games and felt that Matt Ryan was the best quarterback to enter the league since Peyton Manning. I’ll take his word for it. As for Chucky, maybe he can continue to stroke the Tennessee position to gain leverage for a fatter contract with Tampa Bay.

Whenever the Jets and Patriots meet, the postgame handshake is a big deal. Mangini’s used to coach for the Patriots under Belichick until he got the Jets job and decided to blow the lid off the whole “Spygate” issue last year. That pissed Belichick off something good as you could imagine, and since that point, their postgame handshake hasn’t exactly been a matter of exchanging pleasantries. In fact, spygate or not, we found out that Belichick has a history of snubbing people in postgame handshakes dating back to his days with the Browns. As you could imagine, particularly after losing at home to the Jets, Bill Belichick wasn’t exactly the most gracious of losers following the game:

I love the way Mangini tries to hold on extra long to emphasize what a jerk Belichick is. He wasn’t letting him go, wanted his moment of satisfaction. Of course we all know the difference-maker in this one — and it wasn’t the coaches. No Brady + Favre = victory for the Jets. Of course I’m still wondering what happened to that formula the first time around …

Even though he’s been off acting as a diva on Dancing With the Stars lately, Warren Sapp still hasn’t lost his magical touch of talking smack. The guy got off some good blasts on the ‘06 Raiders team, and some even better ones on Al Davis recently. But as MDS at PFT tells us via Adam Schefter, Sapp may have saved his best blast for Keyshawn Johnson when answering a viewer’s question for Inside the NFL:

(On whether he would ever watch Keyshawn Johnson’s reality show about interior design)
SAPP: Me, watch Keyshawn on an interior decorating show? Keyshawn, I knew you were a bitch. And thanks for making it all clear.

MDS points out that this isn’t the first time Sapp’s taken a shot at Keyshawn. He’s called him a bigger malcontent than T.O., and diminished Key’s skills as well. Seems like much ado about nothing, but maybe Sapp’s just one of those guys that always has to have the serrated edge. And believe me when I say that I’m eagerly awaiting Keyshawn’s response. Maybe he’s just the bigger man between the two children, though Key does have a pretty big mouth too so I am optimistic.

Compared to the old days, or even when Nolan Ryan pitched, the hurlers these days are pussies. That’s putting the Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Brandon Webb crowd aside considering those dudes actually make efforts to finish off their games on a regular basis. I’m not saying the way we handle pitchers these days is a bad thing, but I am saying that somewhere along the line pitch counts, Dr. James Andrews, and guaranteed contracts took the place of rosin bags, chewing tobacco, and rubber arms. Thankfully the Texas Rangers still have Nolan Ryan to guide the new generation through the wussied waters. Mr. Express is putting 10 of the youngest, more-promising arms in the Rangers’ system through a conditioning regimen:

On the third day of conditioning camp at The Ballpark in Arlington on Wednesday, the 10 young pitchers the Rangers summoned for this occasion had still yet to throw a baseball.
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By the end of the day Friday, the last day of camp, the number of pitches that will have been thrown still will be the same: zero.

That’s the one thing many of the durable pitchers share in common: strong legs from good conditioning. Isn’t that something those big Texans like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens had in common? Well, that and maybe they shared something else too. For people who consider themselves so medically advanced, it’s amazing to see how many pitchers go down with injuries these days. Maybe Ryan’s right. Maybe they all need to start focusing their conditioning on their legs — certainly didn’t hurt for him.

Whatever the Suns couldn’t accomplish on the court Wednesday night, they tried to make up for with non-sporting tactics. Being a UCLA guy, I’m familiar with Matt Barnes‘ background as a tight end on his high school football team. Seems like he was rekindling his football days when he laid into Rafer Alston of the Rockets who was trying to put a screen on him. Yao Ming came over to play peace-maker, Steve Nash tried to get in the middle, Tracy McGrady threw a shove in there, and pretty much once Shaq got into the picture all was quiet on the western front. Here’s a video that shows every aspect of the fight from start to finish:

Alright, so let’s break down all elements of this brawl. Matt Barnes was the dirty one with an uncool check on Alston to start everything. Nash comes skating in to get involved and gets tossed like a parking ticket by T-Mac. Then Shaq comes in the middle, pushes T-Mac who falls over with ease, and then he pushes Yao who tumbles over T-Mac in a 3 Stooges-like comedy bit. And that pretty much ended everything. With the teams fighting for playoff spots in the West, it’s not going to be easy for either of these squads to get by without their top players for a handful of games, which is where it looks like we’re heading. And the biggest kicker of all? Ron Artest wasn’t anywhere near the fight! Amazing.