Wrong Tim

Funny how my perception changes THAT quickly.

When Tim Duncan of San Antonio Spurs was ejected by referee Joey Crawford for "laughing" on April 15, I wanted to write a piece of how well-behaved Duncan has always been and how crazy that ejection was.

I was only half correct.

David Stern, NBA's Commissioner, decided to suspend Crawford for the rest of the playoff, but also slapped Duncan with a hefty fine for his provocative speech against the veteran referee.

Ever since being drafted by the San Antonio Spurs as the first overall pick in 1997, Duncan has earned the reputation of being one of the most down-to-earth players in the league.

But after the fine had been handed down, I started to notice criticisms about him being a whiner and him frequently drawing the ire of referees for his sarcastic demeanor. Eventually, I realised that I wouldn't want to play or referee against him, as his nonchalance (not to mention his dominance in the low post) can easily make me angry and frustrated.

A month later, during the Western Conference semi-final, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw, two key members of the Phoenix Suns, was suspended for one game. Their crime? Leaving the bench area (but did nothing else) during an altercation, which was started by Spurs' reserve forward Robert Horry who took yet another cheap shot on the Suns' feisty and battered Steve Nash, in the final meaningless seconds of their blow-out loss against the Suns. The irony is, had the two players remained in the bench area, their view would have been blocked and they would have no way to see whether Nash, who had been bruised, flattened and even kneed in the groin by Spurs' forward Bruce Bowen during the series, was okay.

Many cried foul over Stoudemire and Diaw's suspension, saying that Duncan should also be suspended for leaving the bench area during a more-than-physical play earlier in the game. The NBA, however, said Duncan would not be suspended, as that play in question was not an "altercation".

While Horry was suspended for two games, his absence as a reserve player can never be compared with the colossal absence of Stoudemire and Diaw, two of most important players of the Suns. Duncan then promptly led the Spurs to beat the Suns the very next game, and went on to advance to the Western Conference final.

Sorry Tim. I was an admirer of you not that long ago, but now I just have to root against you.

Air Northwest

The Portland Trailblazers has defied all odds (a mere 5.3% of winning the lottery) by landing the top pick in the lottery for 2007 NBA Draft. Its rival in the Northwest Division, the Seattle Supersonics (8.8%), landed the second spot as the ping-pong balls bounced in the perfect way for the Pacific Northwest. The top two picks are likely to be Greg Oden of Ohio State, and Kevin Durant from University of Texas, who have been regarded as two of the best talents in a decade.

One quick thought: Now that both Oden and Durant are definitely going to land in the Western Conference, is there any quick fix to cure the imbalance between the Western Conference and the inferior Eastern Conference?

Numbers Game

I am really crazy for the Dallas Cowboys, and the NFL Draft too.

As I have written not so long ago, I would spend the entire night listening to the webcast of the draft, and type the information of all draftees into a neatly-prepared Word file.

And since there are still more than three months to go before the start of the coming NFL season, I have no choice but to pay my attention to some of the more peculiar things in my team, the Cowboys.

That is, the jersey number of the newly drafted players.

Unless they have a player who is drafted high in the first round, teams will spend ages to finalise the players' numbers.

And that's exactly what had happened to the Cowboys, who had just released the updated jersey numbers of their players two days ago.

Which means that I had been checking their homepage for the past few weeks, trying in vain to find out what their updated jersey numbers are.

And now, the wait is finally over. So please indulge me for listing the jersey numbers of their draft class of 2007:

93 DE Anthony Spencer
79 OL James Marten
86 WR Isaiah Stanback
68 OL Doug Free
6 PK Nick Folk
34 RB Deon Anderson
40 CB Courtney Brown
38 CB Alan Ball

Now there is one more happy man in the world.

Fish in a Big Pond

Who says that all NBA players are selfish and immature? Utah Jazz point guard Derek Fisher is a man of grit and courage. He has just done something extraordinary by helping his team beat the Golden State Warriors in spectacular fashion, despite the most difficult circumstances surrounding the well-being of his infant daughter. You can see the details here.

25 Years Ago Yesterday

25 years ago yesterday (May 8, 1982), my all-time hero, Gilles Villeneuve, died in a violent crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, just two weeks after vowing not to speak to his teammate Didier Pironi again for the rest of his life, for stealing victory right under his nose at the San Marino Grand Prix.

RIP, Gilles. You are the best.

I Rooted for Chelsea ...

For one evening only.

Who doesn't want to witness a close title fight? Knowing that Chelsea will lose any chance of winning this year's English Premiership title, I decided to put aside how much I hate them and rooted for them in their match against Arsenal over the weekend.

It wasn't a difficult decision at all. My logics were, firstly, Chelsea didn't play Liverpool, my favourite club since childhood. Secondly, they were playing Arsenal, a club which I happen to dislike too. Thirdly, Arsenal was only a point behind Liverpool in fourth place, and a win would enable them take third place. And finally, if Chelsea managed to beat Arsenal, then their match against Manchester United this Wednesday night would have been an explosive encounter.

To be fair, Chelsea always play fluent and beautiful football, and always become an even more well-oiled machine against my Liverpool. Yet just as I have often been disappointed by Liverpool's sluggishness in front of goal, Chelsea simply let me down for not playing good football at Arsenal.

Perhaps it's a lesson to remind me not to root for any club. They will be doomed if I support them.

Chelsea were missing its starter strikers Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko though injury, while the diminutive Joe Cole was the only out-and-out forward. It didn't surprise me that they didn't create any good scoring opportunity in the first-half. And when the ever-ineffective and incompetent Khalid Bouhlarouz brought down Julio Baptista in the penalty area, Chelsea were a man and a goal down just before half-time.

With the absence of centre-back Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien had to be moved back to the centre of defence, which proved to be a shrewd move as he made a number of crucial tackles and blocks which prevented his team from going further behind. And it was indeed Essien who equalized bravely for Chelsea midway through the second-half for his second goal of the season. Incidentally, his two league goals this season have both come against Arsenal.

In a strange move, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho brought on 18-year-old striker Scott Sinclair for his Premiership debut. Just as everyone was wondering what that was about, it was Sinclair who almost created the oh-so important winning goal, where a move started by him from the left gave the unmarked Salomon Kalou acres of spaces in front of goal. Yet his over-reliance on his right foot forced him shoot straight at Jens Lehmann just as injury time was about to expire.

In the end the 1-1 draw was a fair result, but also gave Manchester United their first league title in four years. It also rendered their much-anticipated midweek encounter a meaningless and tame affair.

At one point Chelsea and Manchester United had the chance for an unprecedented "triple-header", with possible match-ups in the Champions' League Final, Premier League and FA Cup Final awaiting them in the same month. But with their defeat in the Champions' League semi-final, and the premature end to the title race in the Premier League, the FA Cup Final later this month has become the only significant match-up between them.

And hopefully it would be an explosive encounter, 'cos they owe us one.

Feeling the Draft

For some reason, I am totally obsessed with the Draft.

No, I'm not talking about beer. I'm talking about the annual player selection process carried out by the major sports leagues in the USA.

The NFL Draft 2007 took place over the weekend and for the umpteenth time, I decided to watch the darn thing live over the internet. That means I had to stick to my computer in the middle of the night and listen to the webcast provided by ESPN.

Unfortunately for me, the ESPN channel for the Far East region never broadcasts such a damn thing here, the reason being extremely simple: Who the hell in Hong Kong would be interested watching the 32 NFL teams select players who have just left college?

Excuse me, did you see that I have been raising my hand for ages?

By the way, did I mention that the whole thing lasted for two days over 18 hours in total? Among the seven rounds in this year's draft, the first round alone lasted for over six hours. And I only managed to watch just over half of it before succumbing to tiredness.

As usual, I would create a Microsoft Word file for the draft so that I can pick it up and know which players the Dallas Cowboys, my favourite team, has just picked.

Yeah, I know it's kind of crazy to do such a meaningless (to others) and tiring (to me) thing year after year. Luckily for me, my wife understands that I am such a crazy guy and would simply leave me alone (which is not that difficult as all she has to do is to remain asleep) when I am listening to the webcast and typing the information into the file in the middle of the night.

So I am confident to say that not many person was more surprised and disappointed than I was when the Cowboys took placekicker Nick Folk in the sixth round (178th pick overall) even though the highly regarded Mason Crosby was still available, who would be picked by the Green Bay Packers just 15 picks later.

One thing I have to admit: I am in love with the NBA Draft too, and as it is more user-friendly to me in terms of the time it would be held (which starts sometime around seven or eight in the morning), I would often take a sneak peek at the Draft's website while I was working in office, even though I know very well that my boss may appear behind me at the most unexpected time.

And I would admit that had the Major League Baseball draft not been that long (over 50 rounds(!)) and had it been broadcasted live on the internet, I would have listened to it every year too!