Sportsy Post (tm)

Thoughts from the world of sports:

-The Suns beat the Spurs last night 100-95. True, the Spurs were missing Tony Parker, but this is still a victory for the sport of basketball. San Antonio represents everything that is wrong with the game. I hate how they slow the pace of games down so much. I hate how Tim Duncan whines about every call that doesn't go his way. I hate how Ginobili initiates contact as the offensive player and gets calls. I hate how Parker drives wildly into the key and gets calls. I hate how Bowen gets away with slapping and grabbing on defense because of his "reputation as a great defender."

So when the Suns, a team I love to watch, beat these guys, I'm okay with that.

-Roger Clemens probably won't be speaking at a Texas High School Baseball Coaches' meeting in January.

The title of this aborted speech?

"How I played so long [in professional baseball]."

Awesome.

-Gotta love fantasy football. In one of my leagues, my team scored 35 points for the week.

Total.

To give you an idea of how bad that is, my previous low point total was 56 points. My high this season is 151 points. My starting QB, Tom Brady, has frequently had weeks where he scored over 35 points by himself.

In my other league, I'll be playing my little brother Matt for the title. If you could please root for Drew Brees, Donovan McNabb, and Chester Taylor this Sunday, I'd appreciate it.

-I love watching the train wreck that is New York Knick basketball. After following this saga as Isiah Thomas put together a horrible team and was then forced to coach it, the story gets more interesting all the time.

Seems Isiah has decided that questioning the heart of his players is a great coaching strategy right now. After losing to the Pacer 119-92 last night, Thomas said, "Very rarely do we discuss something that happened strategically. I look forward to that day when I'm not talking about heart and courage.''

Did lack of heart cause the Knick players to miss 20 straight shots last night? Is fear the reason New York is 7-17 on the year? That they are are 116-185 since Thomas arrived, 36-58 since he became the head coach, and 7-24 since he received a contract extension?

Maybe Isiah should take a closer look at himself when trying to figure out what's wrong with the Knicks.

-So Brett Favre finally passed Dan Marino to become the NFL's record holder for all-time passing yards at 61,367. I guess since he's already won a Super Bowl, something Marino never did, Favre has to be seriously considered as the greatest QB ever.

I believe Favre's biggest secret to his success has been longevity. For him to play 17 years in the NFL at quarterback is unheard of. As defenses have gotten faster and stronger, the fact that he's avoided major injury has become even more impressive.

Sure, Brett plays with reckless abandon and makes stupid mistakes at times (he holds the record for most career interceptions with 286). Heck, he didn't know what a nickel defense was until he'd been in the NFL for a few years.

But he has fun when he plays, and that's fun to watch.

Here's hoping Brett doesn't die on the football field, like Joe Paterno will one day.

But it's looking more and more like they'll need to physically drag him off the field to get him to stop playing.

-Finally, Bill Simmons released his seventh-annual NBA Trade Value Column today. It's always an interesting read; this year Dwight Howard is ranked second-most-untradeable. Howard's getting his own post here soon. Trust me.