Top 10 Traitors

Here are 10 of sports’ most heinous traitors.

10. Johnny Damon, Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs. Let’s just get these three out of the way, right off the bat. We would include Babe Ruth on this list too, but it’s not his fault the Sox sold him. And we’d include Jose Canseco, Mike Myers and Alan Embree but they sucked on the Yankees, so no one cares.

9. Butch Harmon. Yes, Tiger Woods once had a “swing coach.” The man known as the best golf teacher in the world was Woods’ coach early on in his career before the pair had a falling out in 2002. Now, Harmon is helping Woods’ bitter rival Phil Mickelson perfect his game. Let’s see if he can teach Lefty when and when not to use his driver.

8. Carlos Boozer. How do you get an entire city to hate you? How about stabbing a blind man in the back? Back in 2004, when the Cleveland Cavaliers held the rights to Boozer, the Cavs released him from his contract, with a verbal agreement in place for Boozer to sign for the full mid-level exception, only to see him go back on his word and sign with the Utah Jazz. It helped that the Jazz gave him $70 million in blood money.

7. Jon Gruden. Gruden went 40-28 in four seasons as the Raiders’ head coach, a stint that ended in 2001. Which do you think Raider Nation remembers more vividly – the 40 wins, or the one loss, of Super Bowl XXXVII, the very next year to Chuckie’s Buccaneers?

 

6. Gordon Bombay. A fictional character, as some astute readers might note. But still one of sports’ most notorious traitors – the former childhood hockey star abandoned his Hawks in order to win the Minnesota peewee hockey championship as coach of The Mighty Ducks. Anaheim should call its NHL team the Turncoats.

5. Jered Weaver. Weaver might be the only pitcher in baseball history to steal a starting rotation spot from his own brother. Now that’s treason. Imagine Thanksgiving at the Weaver house…

4. Boston College. A founding member of the Big East, the Eagles were left reeling when Miami and Virginia Tech accepted offers to join the ACC. After initially committing to rebuilding their conference, the Eagles spurned the Big East too and accepted an offer to become the ACC’s 12th team. Take that, Seton Hall.

3. David Beckham. As much as America’s MLS is an improved league, it is no UEFA. America knows it, Europe knows it, and David Beckham certainly knows it. He didn’t move to LA to hone his footwork or win championships, but for money and press. Beckham and his spicy wife may have loved the attention of starring in their own NBC reality show, but they’ll have trouble explaining their reasons to the thousands of poor little European girls tearing posters off their walls.

2. Adam Vinatieri. The hero of New England’s three Super Bowl victories, Vinatieri was one of the most beloved Patriots ever. But after the 2005 season, he left to join the Colts as a free agent. The kicker was instrumental during the Colts’ Super Bowl run last season, which included a 38-34 victory over his former team in the AFC title game. Here’s to the Stephen Gostkowski era.

1. Benedict Arnold. Okay, so he has nothing to do with sports. But he is the greatest traitor of all time. You can’t deny it. And Rocket sorta looks like him, white hair and all.
Source:  The TUFTS DAILY

The new Cavaliers training facility opens today

The new Cavaliers training facility, Cleveland Clinic Courts, will open today in a grand opening ceremony at 2:30pm.

The $25 million, 50,000-square-foot facility has everything a professional basketball player could want, including a massive workout area and locker room, two full-length courts, underground parking and around-the-clock availability.

The Cavs, will house all their basketball training in the new building in Independence, just south of downtown Cleveland on Interstate 77.

“We’re very proud of it,” assistant general manager Chris Grant said. “I don’t think we’ve reinvented the wheel, but we really like the layout.”

The workout room is 3,000 square feet, and that’s not counting a large training room, a laundry room and a doctor’s office that has a direct link to the Cleveland Clinic.

“It turned out great,” Ferry said. “We’re very happy with it.”
The facility also contains a visiting locker room that can be used by opposing teams that are in town a day before a game, while the Cavs’ massive locker room area almost defies description.

Key features:

  • Two adjacent regulation NBA courts with a total of 6 hoops
  • Extra large, strength and conditioning training area that over looks the playing court area.
  • Large theater-style team meeting room for video instruction with over-sized seating.
  • Three spacious locker rooms for Cavs players, visiting teams, and staff.
  • Underground parking

    • “Cleveland Clinic Courts” Design

     

    Source: The Chronicle-Telegram

    Lebron Spreads Happiness

    Lyn Brown’s secret to running a successful charity isn’t much of a secret.
    She operates Make-A-Wish Foundation of Hawai’i like a business, watching how each dollar is spent, ensuring everything is done by the book and keeping the organization focused on its mission.
    “You have to treat it like it’s your own business,” said Brown, executive director of the charity that grants wishes to children with life-threatening conditions. “I like to think of us as being a nonprofit run as a for-profit organization.”
    Kapolei resident Mela Edrada, whose 13-year-old son, Anthony, got to meet Cleveland Cavaliers basketball superstar LeBron James in January before dying of cancer two months later, has nothing but praise for Make-A-Wish.
    The charity arranged an all-expenses-paid trip for Anthony and his family to Cleveland, where Anthony met James, sat in a luxury skybox to watch the team play, and went shopping in the Cavaliers souvenir shop with his favorite player. James had given Anthony and six other children from other Make-A-Wish chapters gift cards to spend in the shop.
    Once Anthony and his family returned home, he couldn’t stop talking about the experience, even as his condition began to worsen. He would happily take friends and relatives to his bedroom to show off the Cavaliers jersey — with Anthony’s name on the back — signed by James, the autographed basketballs and the other team paraphernalia he brought back.
    “He was just so amazed and happy,” Edrada said of her late son. “I could just see it in his eyes.”
    That expression of joy is what the Make-A-Wish staffers strive to bring to all the children they help.

    Source:  Honolulu Advertiser 
     

    Remembering Ted Stepien

    Stephen Miller of The Wall Street Journal wrote a nice article about the former Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien who passed away Monday at age 82.

    Mr. Stephien was sportsman since he starred in basketball and football at Pittsburgh’s Schenley High School but he turned down an athletic scholarship to become a bombardier during World War II.

    Tom Nissalke, who was Mr. Stepien’s last coach at Cleveland and who knew him well, said, “He loved athletics so much, and I think he let that love override what would have been more prudent decisions. He wanted to be a player, and since he couldn’t be that, he would have liked to be a coach, but that didn’t work out, so he settled for being an owner….I really liked the guy.”

    In the 1970s, he became a minority owner of the Cleveland Indians. In 1980, he paid $2 million for controlling 37% share of the Cavaliers and eventually owned more than 80% of the team.

    From the article:
    “But the bad luck and bad decisions started early. Among the players traded away were James Edwards and Bill Laimbeer. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Laimbeer went on to start for the 1989 and 1990 champion Detroit Pistons team, coached by another Stepien refugee, Chuck Daly.

    One of the beneficiaries of Mr. Stepien’s missteps was the Dallas Mavericks. The team ended up with the Cavaliers’ first-round picks for the 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986 seasons. Mr. Stepien helped build the Mavericks “into a great franchise,” says Burt Graeff, a sportswriter for the Cleveland Press at the time who later co-wrote a book, “CAVS From Fitch to Fratello.” Mr. Graeff adds that Mavericks coach Dick Motta “said he was afraid to go to lunch because he would miss a call from Ted Stepien.”

    NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien took the unprecedented step of forbidding the Cavaliers from executing any trade without league review. The NBA instituted a rule nicknamed for Mr. Stepien, preventing the trade of successive No. 1 draft picks.

    In a rare trade gone well, the Cavaliers acquired World B. Free in 1982 from Golden State. Mr. Free became the team’s biggest star.

    Mr. Stepien “had good intentions, but they failed completely,” says Mr. Graeff. To try to keep tickets selling, Mr. Stepien employed a mascot called “Superfan” to sit courtside, where he entertained fans by ripping apart beer cans with his teeth, and a team of scantily clad dancers.

    Mr. Stepien had other ideas for the team as well: At one time, he was barred from the locker room for trying to diagram plays.”

    Was Oden The Right Pick?

    Tim Kawakami thinks Oden is still worth it.
    “Even when I realized that Greg Oden has been hurt almost constantly since he was 18 (wrist, back, now knee), even when I hear all those NBA executives murmuring about red flags throughout Oden’s medical charts in the pre-draft camp, even when it was decided that he had to undergo exploratory knee surgery earlier this week, even when Kevin Durant lit up the summer league in his final few games, then kept up the momentum with eye-popping shooting in a practice vs. the Olympic team, all the way up to the point during surgery today that doctors decided they need to perform immediate microfracture surgery to repair ligaments in his knee, I would’ve remained steadfastly behind Portland’s decision to draft Oden over Kevin Durant in last April’s draft.”
    I said then it was a no-brainer to take Oden. I say it now, even knowing that Oden will miss his entire rookie season.   I’m saying that Portland made the smart pick. Oden was the pick the Trail Blazers had to make.

    Source:  San Jose Mercury News

    Point Guard Option Is Still Open

    Sarunas Jasikevicius is waiting for Golden State to trade him. “I’m really waiting for Golden State to trade me. It’s been going on since February, and nothing’s happening. ”

    Jasikevicius is due to make $4 million in his last year of his three year contract he signed with the Indiana Pacers in 2005-06 season.

    Golden State does not want to take on any long-term financial obligations if its trades Jasikevicius.

    Cleveland could trade Ira Newble’s expiring contract, along with a second-round pick.  Miami hear is also looking for a point guard and could do the same package with Michael Doleac and Chris Quinn.

    But according to Jasikevicius “not much going on now”. “from what I hear from my agent, Golden State had a lot of interesting offers. ” he said.

     Source: ESPN.COM

    Dajuan Wagner Signs with Polish Team

    Former Camden High School basketball star Dajuan Wagner, who has battled illness and injury in his NBA career, has signed a one-year deal with a Polish team, Prokom Trefl Sopot, according to eurobasket.com.
    The team, which was founded in 1995 and competes in the Euroleague, is based in Sopot, Poland and won the Polish League Championship in 2004 through 2007, and includes former NBA player Travis Best.

    Wagner, a former first-round draft pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers, was most recently a member of the Golden State Warriors.

    But, the Warriors bought out his contract — which was a partially guaranteed $1.6 million deal — last preseason after Wagner wasn’t able to keep up with the daily rigors. The 24-year-old Wagner battled severe colitis as well as a knee injury during his time with the Cavs, and finally had his colon removed in October of 2005 at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.

    Source: CourierPostOnline