#WudderSports Quick Hits: Masters Wrap, LeBron, Sixers, Baseball Back
Despite endless noise surrounding each, I hereby refuse to believe any of the following three things can or will happen, until they actually do:
1) Bill O’Reilly getting fired from FoxNews for sexual harassment.
2) Donald Trump impeached by a majority Republican congress.
3) A LeBron James-led team failing to reach the NBA Finals in this decade.
Masters 2017:
Yeah, yeah, I know we’re all now supposed to be happy for Sergio Garcia, the PGA Tour’s Euro Tony Romo, for finally winning a major after 73 tries, at the 2017 Masters in a playoff over Justin Rose. Cool. But if you tell me you didn’t at least chuckle a bit, when he blew that putt to win at 18 in the most Sergio Garcia-est way imaginable, then we probably just look for different things in our sports entertainment.
If you believe Dustin Johnson, The Great One’s Son-In-Law, reigning #1 ranked golfer in the world, whose appetites have been well documented and who's been previously caught in a lie about a jet ski incident a few years ago, really got hurt the day before The Masters by slipping on wood floors while wearing socks?!?
I have a truck-wash from Jeff Kent, plus a stock tip from Lenny Dykstra to sell you.
A friendly reminder to the prisoners-of-the-moment who claimed last Monday night’s NCAA Title Game between North Carolina and Gonzaga was the worst played national championship of the shot-clock era, that UCONN/Butler happened in 2011.
UNC/Gonzaga did, however, manage to break one of the more incredible runs of dramatic sporting championship finales in modern history. It all began in June with Golden State blowing a 3-1 lead in the 20SickDream NBA Finals as LeBron brought Cleveland its first title of any kind since the Civil Rights Act of ’64, then in October we saw the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in rain-delayed extra-innings of Game 7 for their first title in 108 years, in January it was that Clemson Tiger comeback to stun Nick Saban & Bama in the BCS Championship despite being down 14 with minutes to play, and then in February the insane Super Bowl that the Falcons somehow blew.
Best Social-Media Sports Feuds of the Past Week:
1) Shady McCoy versus Tito Alfonso
Rumor has it, the Birds are strongly considering spending their first-rounder on a running back or receiver by the way. Thanks Again, Chip!
2) Charles Oakley versus Dennis Rodman.
Shady was a little extra, plus messy per usual, but considering the context, we'll allow it.
Oakley/Rodman hasn’t truly escalated to the great heights of its potential just yet, but I am always here for The Worm pushing Oak’s bully buttons, whether it be back in their playing days, or from now until the end of time on Twitter or in public.
Many thanks to the great Gregg Poppovich, for throwing his old assistant Brett Brown a bone, getting his Spurs to dump a game to the Lakers, which puts L.A. in far greater peril of losing their Top 3 pick protected 2017 draft pick, by taking them from second to third-worst record, which will belong to the Sixers should a single team jump them. Here’s hoping it’s the Kings that land the #1 pick, then relinquish it to the Sixers, in a previously agreed-upon pick swap, to fully complete the Sam Hinkie-orchestrated wrath.
Sixers Keepers for 2017-2018:
Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, TJ McConnell, Robert Covington, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Richaun Holmes.
Nobody untouchable besides the first three names mentioned, the rest can stick around, depending, but everybody else can and probably should go, especially Sergio Rodriguez.
Let’s see if Lil' Colangelo starts making more bad moves to bring his own guys in, even though pretty much every asset he has, picks/players/cash, is a result of Hinkie’s work. TLC looks like a potentially solid pick at #24 now that he’s getting time, so I’ll give him that. Everything else has ranged from negligible to abject failure.
NBA Big Three Season Awards
MVP:
1) Russell Westbrook
2) LeBron James
3) James Harden
4) Kawhi Leonard
5) John Wall
Rookie of the Year:
Dario Saric (as injury forced Embiid to default, after just 31 awe-inspiring games)
Coach of the Year:
Erik Spoelstra aka 'Spo aka Filipino Jackson, Miami Heat
WudderSportsWomen Of The Week Salute
Congrats to the United States Women's Hockey Team on Two Big Wins In Recent Weeks:
One For Fair-Pay in their battle with USA Hockey, and another for their Fourth World Championship victory on Tuesday.
Congrats to Philadelphia Basketball Legend, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Player, Former Dobbins Tech High School Star, Four-Time Olympic Gold Medalist and
Former Temple Owls Head Coach Dawn Staley, on winning her first NCAA National Championship as Head Coach of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.
Meanwhile, in the only professional sport in the world with true gender equity, Congrats to The Wudder's Favorite Tennis Player of All-Time, Venus Williams, for becoming the oldest player to ever beat a World #1-ranked player, when she defeated Angelique Kerber two weeks ago, in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open. Venus also moved into the Top 10 for the first time in several years, her absence mostly due to illness and injury, just two months shy of her 37th Birthday.
Baseball Back
The Phillies at least seem headed in the right direction, but did they really have anywhere to go but up, as the lowest-scoring team in MLB in 2016? Hopefully some of these kids can make things more interesting than last season, one so painfully boring that by the time I returned east, there was hardly any reason to watch them much on TV, let alone actually attend games. That football number they put up in a 17-3 win over the Nats in Philly on Saturday night was a great way to ring in the new baseball year.
Nostrabombus Phightin' Phils Season Record Prediction: 77-85
Stay tuned to #WudderSports this spring for more Quick Hits, Phillies, NBA playoffs, Stream of Process and Flock Of Eagles to come.
"WE ON OUR WAY HOME! ON OUR WAY HOME! WE COMING HOME!"-Lennon/McCartney
