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Handful of former Hornets still alive in NBA playoffs

Calumet Farm's Preakness win hearkens to a simpler time

Wiggins at UK would have been nice, but it’s still good

Early first-round signings are missing all the fun!

Do sports fans need an off-season ?

by J.W. Miller on 05/24/13

My good friend, Rev. Bob Malsbary, is pretty creative. Anybody who can pull a sermon out of his hat every week that hits all pertinent targets, teaches a warm moral lesson and keeps his parishioners awake has to be good at what he does. So whenever Bob suggests a column idea, I’ve got to pay attention. In that context, I have to mention that Bob Malsbary is a huge basketball fan, particularly the Indiana Hoosiers and the NBA. Rooting for the Hoosiers proves that Bob lives up to the biblical lesson that nobody’s perfect, but he did have a keen observation this week when he noticed how many former Hornets players are still playing basketball.

Translated, players who left the local franchise for reasons of trades, free agency or termination were good enough to help their current teams get to the second round of the NBA playoffs and beyond. For the sake of brevity, I’ve limited the list to players whose teams were among the final eight playing, half of whom have been eliminated as the NBA is frothing over the conference championships that will determine which teams fight it out for supremacy. I’ll make that call in another column, although it doesn’t take Divine Intervention to see that Miami is probably headed for its second title in a row.

But back to the former Hornets, how about that Quincy Poindexter? The Hornets’ first-round draft choice in 2011 comes off the bench for Memphis these days and Tuesday night put up 17 in a loss to the Spurs. Poindexter has played in all 13 games, is playing 22.7 minutes a game during which time he has averaged 7.4 points and 2.7 rebounds. The Heat and Pacers matchup features two popular former Hornets. David West, one of the franchise’s all-time greatest players left New Orleans in 2011 to sign as a free agent with Indiana and is averaging 16.3 points and 6.7 rebounds over the 13 playoff games. The Birdman is back, this time with the Heat. Tattooed and mohawked as ever, Chris Andersen gives Miami some muscle and bonafide weirdness off the bench, averaging 7.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in just 14 minutes per game.

Several former Hornets are watching the conference finals at home, having lost in the elite eight. The duo of Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry were valuable contributors to Golden State’s efforts to advance. Jack played 35 minutes per game and averaged 17.2 points and 4.7 assists in the playoffs, while Landry scored 11.8 and grabbed 5.2 rebounds per match. In Chicago, sharp-shooting Marco Bellinelli averaged 11.1 points as the undermanned Bulls put up a valiant effort against Miami. Former Hornets favorite Tyson Chandler gave the Knicks inside muscle during his 29 minutes per game against the Pacers, pulling down 7.3 rebounds and scoring 5.7 points per game.

An interesting footnote is that all the players mentioned with the exception of Andersen, were members of the 2011-12 Hornets team that went 46-36 and lost in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs to the Lakers. We would much rather see a column about current New Orleans players still playing in the NBA playoffs, but with the No. 6 pick in this year’s NBA draft, which could be parlayed with Eric Gordon for a productive small forward, maybe that isn’t as far down the road as we think.

Now, contrary to what Bob Malsbary might think, I don’t have anything against Gordon just because he went to Indiana, but let's take his premise one step further. Specific pockets of the sporting universe would be interested in looking at how many former Indiana Hoosiers made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs this year, compared with, oh, maybe Kentucky. For the record, five former Wildcats made it to the Elite Eight, and Pacers Coach Frank Vogel is a Kentucky grad. And the Hoosiers? Uh, well, Knicks head coach Mike Woodson played at IU, and then there’s, uh, well maybe that comparison is column fodder for another day.

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by J.W. Miller on 05/20/13

Well, we won’t have a Triple Crown winner in racing for the 35^th straight year, but we got something even better with Oxbow’s victory in the Preakness. It is the first time in 45 years that the most famous racing stable in history, Calumet Farm, is back in the winners circle of a Triple Crown race. Calumet Farm’s return to prominence is a true hearkening back to a time when life was predictable, proscribed and a helluva lot more peaceful. For those of us who voted for or against Nixon, Calumet in the winners circle is like the Rockefellers once again the epitome of wealth or General Motors being the symbol of our country’s economic strength, Muhammad Ali is heavyweight champ and the Celtics win the NBA championship. It just feels right, and it’s a good thing.

Prior to the Kentucky Derby, I suggested that nostalgia buffs should pick Oxbow simply because of Calumet Farm, 77-year-old trainer Wayne Lukas and 50-year-old jockey Gary Stevens. However, at 15-1 odds, few suspected the colt could actually win, which it did impressively at Pimlico in a wire-to-wire romp over Derby winner Orb. Calumet now has eight Preakness winners, but Oxbow is the first since Forward Pass in 1968, its last triumph in the classics. In the meantime, the farm has been the subject of controversy and bankruptcy.

Calumet was recently sold for a reported $36 million to an investment group that in turn leased the property to Brad Kelley, a former tobacco magnate and current racing enthusiast. Kelley was nowhere to be found Saturday, which is his norm. The reclusive billionaire - 264th on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans - is rarely seen in public and almost never speaks to the press. And while Oxbow is listed as owned by Calumet Farm, the three-year-old raced in the black and gold silks of Kelley's Bluegrass Hall, a 200-acre farm across from Keeneland once known as Bluegrass Farm and formerly owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt. In fact, Calumet's legendary “devil red and blue” silks were sold at auction in 1992 to a Brazilian businessman for $12,000.

Still, its recent controversies do nothing to tarnish the past majesty of Calumet Farm. As James C. Nicholson writes in his excellent book titled “The Kentucky Derby,” Calumet Farm dominated racing from 1941 to 1961. During that time, Calumet led all stables in annual purses won for twelve years and was never out of the top three. Overall, Calumet Farm owned eight Derby winners and bred nine. Those eight wins came in just twenty starts, but in the twelve races it did not win, Calumet had four seconds and a third.

Warren Wright inherited the farm from his father in 1931 and sought to convert the top saddlebred stable into a top racing stable. The Wright family was one of the richest in the country, having made a fortune from their popular Calumet baking powder. Wright’s efforts paid off as Calumet Farm burst upon the racing scene in 1941 with a long-tailed colt named Whirlaway. He would win the Triple Crown and break the career earnings record set by Seabiscuit. Whirlaway eventually joined his jockey Eddie Arcaro and trainer Ben Jones in racing’s Hall of Fame.

Calumet saddled Pensive to win the 1944 Derby, but past victories would be exceeded by another Calumet thoroughbred when Citation won the Triple Crown in 1948, the last to do so until Secretariat a generation later. The mahogany colored colt crushed the competition as a two-year-old and captured the Derby as an odds-on favorite, going on to win nineteen of twenty races. In 1949, Time Magazine ran a cover story on the farm and trainer Jones, affectionately known as “the man in the white hat.” Success continued with Derby victories for Ponder (1949), Hill Gail (1952), Iron Liege (1957), Tim Tam (1958) and Forward Pass (1968).

Calumet began to lose its luster as a racing stable in the 1970’s, although it won the 1990 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder. In November of that year, details surrounding the death of 15-year-old Alydar - America's leading sire of the time - and the collection of a $36 million insurance policy brought a cloud of suspicion over the business. Under Calumet president J.T. Lundy, mismanagement and fraud left the farm with a massive debt load that led Calumet Farm to file for bankruptcy protection in 1991 as they were losing one million dollars a month.

A series of owner changes over the years followed, but now the stable appears, well, stable. If Oxbow’s victory is any indication, Calumet Farm is ready to resume its rightful spot in racing’s limelight, and a lot of us traditionalists will go to the $2 window and bet on their success.

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by J.W. Miller on 05/15/13

Every sports fan in America who roots for a particular team is greedy. Greedy as sin! We all want our faves to corral all the good players, have the best coach, spend the most money just so long as we can revel in the reflected glory of a national championship or professional superiority like the World Series or Super Bowl. And, for the sake of full disclosure, I stand on a stack of Bibles readily admitting that’s the way I feel about Kentucky basketball. So, Jimbo, how do you feel about Andrew Wiggins’ decision to enroll at Kansas? Frankly, my dear, I’m okay with it, and here’s why.

If you believe the rankings and those people who spend their lives on such things, Kentucky’s 2013 recruiting class already stands as the highest-rated ever. You will note I did not say the “greatest” ever, as many pundits have been gushing. They are just the highest-rated. Now, that might turn out to mean that they are the greatest class ever, but that would mean the Wildcats are going to roll through the 2013-14 NCAA basketball season undefeated, untied and unscored upon. They will win their ninth national title, all five starters and two or three reserves will be drafted in the first round by the NBA a year from now, and a new construction project will be announced to add rafters in Rupp Arena to hold all the retired jerseys that will be added. And, don’t get me wrong, that would be oakey-doke with me, too.

Wiggins, currently regarded as the top high school player in the hemisphere (after all, he is Canadian!), decided to play where his heart is, which is what he said when he announced his choice. You can’t throw rocks at a kid for that. Although the school he chose can legitimately challenge the Wildcats for supremacy, spreading the talent is good for the game. Hey, because I'm greedy doesn't mean I can't be magnanimous sometimes!

I was surprised Wiggins did not choose Florida State, the same school where his mother and father were star athletes. That would have shown he has great respect for his parents’ legacy, and that is commendable in any young person. Choosing the Seminoles or the Jayhawks might also mean Wiggins doesn’t want to share the stage with seven other McDonald’s all-Americans, which he would do if he had chosen to suit up in Bluegrass blue this fall. Sports Illustrated a month ago suggested Wiggins was not all he was cracked up to be, questioning his work ethic and intimating that he might even be a little selfish. That would never fit in with John Calipari’s coaching theory of “All for one and one for all.” It doesn’t matter who gets the glory so long as we win. That has been the mantra of Kentucky’s all-star signing class so far, that they simply want to play together to win a national championship.

But are they the greatest class of all time? It’s usually a bad sign when any team is listed as the greatest in its category before the season begins. We have all seen teams expected to win the big game as slam-dunk favorites somehow fall short. Many of us who remember when Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and the rest of Michigan’s “Fab Five” were predicted to sweep through three straight NCAA tournaments. They wound up winning zero. Nada. Zilch! But that is why they play the game. It doesn’t always follow the script penned by the so-called experts.

How the 2013-14 NCAA basketball script will turn out in the end is anybody’s guess, but as a Kentucky fan I am confident. Having Andrew Wiggins on board, willing to sacrifice personal glory for the good of the team, would have been a great luxury. But I am certain that Wildcat fans are happy with the hand we have been dealt. It would have been nice to have one more Ace in our hand, but most poker players will take five Jacks to an Ace any day.

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by J.W. Miller on 05/13/13

So the Saints signed their first-round draft choice, DB Kenny Vaccaro, last week. They followed that up with signing the rest of their draft choices at the team’s rookie mini-camp this past weekend, just two weeks after the draft. My only comment is: “Where’s the fun in that?” Whatever happened to the days of first-round holdouts and charges that the team is “disrespecting me” with a low-ball offer? Don’t you miss the threats that the player will go play baseball or take up bullfighting or rake in cash as a croupier rather than accept the team’s generous offer to set him up financially for life?

You can blame the current Collective Bargaining Agreement for turning the draft choice signing drama into a Happy Days rerun. The CBA included a provision that basically formalized the long-time practice of “slotting” while helping protect the clubs from themselves. Slotting simply meant that the player drafted ahead of you received a bit more money while the guy directly behind you received a little less. Of course, since it was not a rule but a practice that evolved over the years, it included posturing and protests from preening agents who charged that their man should have been selected higher, ergo, he should be paid like the top five pick he shoulda been instead of the third-round pick he was.

As a long-suffering club negotiator, I prepared myself each year for the dance according to the history and propensity of my dance partner. Draft choice negotiations in the old days were like a dance where your partner always wants to lead and you are forced to follow, no matter whose toes get stepped on. "Dancing with the Stars" had nothing on agents who specialized in polarizing holdouts such as Leigh Steinberg, Eugene Parker and the Poston brothers. Those agents and a handful of others plotted their steps based on ego and how they could milk the situation for their own personal enhancement.

The worst thing an agent could do would be to come to a quick deal with a club, because other agents would use that against him when recruiting the next class of draft-eligible players. The bomb-throwers would claim that agents who reach agreement before the reporting date were in management’s pocket, which means that you, young Nimrod, will never get your true worth until management sweats. Of course, that was all poppycock. Some agents ignored such criticism, and their players could be counted on to report on time.

I have chronicled on this page my signing of LB Brian Urlacher in Chicago in 2000. His agent demanded Urlacher sign before his wedding date in early July to avoid the community property laws. Prophetically, two years later Urlacher was divorced, but he kept his signing bonus. Drew Rosenhaus developed a reputation as a “shark,” which figured into the title of his book titled “A Shark Never Sleeps.” But Rosenhaus knew how and when to make a deal, having figured out quickly that the agent doesn’t get paid until the cash starts flowing. Oh, yes, and it also helps your player to have him in camp on time.

Some holdouts truly harmed the player’s career, and I can point to at least two examples in which I was directly involved, compliments of the aforementioned Steinberg and Parker. Steinberg held out DT Shawn Knight in 1987 when Saints GM Jim Finks was not going to pay one penny more than we had budgeted. Knight held out through training camp and finally signed when the season began. It became soon evident that Finks should have listened to personnel director Bill Kuharich, who wanted to draft OT Harris Barton. I will never forget one wag’s comment about Knight during a practice: “Look, Knight was knocked to his feet!” After two games, the players went on strike, and Knight never caught up. He was traded at the end of the season for Denver DT Ted Gregory, another bust.

I faced a similar holdout in Chicago when we drafted Michigan WR David Terrell, who was represented by Parker. Terrell was a big receiver, at 6-2, 220 pounds who had great numbers in college. Unfortunately, the scouts universally rated the reason as Terrell’s skills, choosing to ignore his college QB, the very under-rated Tom Brady. Parker refused to deal, even when those around the No. 8 slot were signing, and Terrell did not sign until missing most of training camp. When Terrell reported, he was wearing a mustard-colored suit, maybe he thought it was “maize,” which was the last time anybody noticed David Terrell. Another bust. Brady went to New England in the sixth round, reported to camp on time, and you know the rest.

Draft busts will still occur today, despite the new rules on rookie negotiations. But now busts will no longer be at the mercy of their agent’s desire to hold them out. They will now make it or not based on their ability. Either they are players or they aren’t, and that is why the new draft rules will help those players who before could not help themselves.

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Which Saints draft pick will make the quickest impact?S Kenny Vaccaro
OT Terron Armstead
NT John Jenkins
WR Kenny Stills
DE Rufus Johnson

by J.W. Miller on 05/10/13

When I was a kid, there were four seasons: baseball, football, college basketball and school. We experienced some overlap of seasons, most of it government mandated. Like the rule about attending school, at least until you were 16. I followed the Red Sox religiously before they had a Nation, primarily through the Sporting News and daily newspaper. It was a true delight when they made it to the Saturday Game of the Week, but that meant they probably were playing the Yankees, who were owned then by CBS and had sports television to themselves.

When the Red Sox of Ted Williams and Frank Malzone were hopelessly out of it, we still had the World Series. I recall sneaking my little Sears Silvertone radio into my book satchel, the patriarch of backpacks, so that my friends and I could listen to the World Series during school. Some teachers, like my one-armed math teacher, Rodney Taylor, would allow us the luxury of shelving the fractions for a few days, but all my teachers were not so accommodating. I remember the late, great Buck Cottrell and I sitting in the back of Mrs. Snyder's 8th Grade English class trying to share the earpiece on my Silvertone so she could not see us istening to Game 7 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the hated Yankees. The jig was almost up when Hal Smith tied the game with a three-run homer, but it was all over when Bill Mazeroski hit the game winner in the bottom of the ninth. Today, they call that a “walk off,” home run, but then we were too busy jumping up and down to label it. We could not have been more excited if it had started snowing and they were sending us home for the day.

Those were the days, my friend, but fans today do not have to work as hard for their sports information. In fact, as Jason Gay pointed out this week in the Wall Street Journal, sports fans no longer have an offseason. No rest for the sports-weary. You can blame a lot of factors, including ESPN which started out showing refrigerator races and tractor pulls but then had to invent sports like the “X games” to fill up their 24 hours of programming. Adding broadcasts of multiple baseball and basketball games led to ESPN 2, ESPN 3, ESPNU and the multiple ESPN news channels while a parallel proliferation gave us the NFL Network, the Golf Channel and Direct TV packages.

Where we had to sneak our radio into school to hear the World Series, today you can subscribe to Sirius Radio and get 24-hour access to the NFL, ESPN and College radio in between the Margaritaville and Grateful Dead channels. You can get auto racing, international soccer, Canadian League football, Arena football and just about any other team sport activity you can name. During college basketball season, multiple games are on every night, which enables the sports junkie to sit there glassy-eyed until the games from the West Coast and Hawaii end at dawn. As Gay put it in his column:

“Is there such a thing as a sports off-season anymore? It used to be, not long ago, that the conclusion of your team's season put a healthy halt on your attention. Maybe you'd watch other teams in the playoffs, if you could stomach it, but soon it was on to something completely different. Baseball. Hockey. Talking to your children and pets. Detailed projects involving yarn. It was a natural break that allowed emotional wounds to heal and enthusiasm to regenerate. An off-season wasn't just useful for players. An off-season was also for you. Except now there's no off-season. There's a season, and there are games, but the games are just a fraction of the sports fan's obligation.

"The other part of following a sports team is the yearlong, all-consuming white noise of gossip and conjecture: hirings, firings, trades, executive machinations and maneuvers that sometimes happen but usually don't. This stuff has always occurred but now it's goosed and amplified and elevated into a mandatory part of the experience, requiring an attention span stretching well beyond the reasonable boundaries of the season. It's exhausting. And there's an assumption that this is good, good, good, that holding an audience's attention 12 months of the year is a brilliant marketing strategy that carries no risk of audience burnout. There's no pause to think that maybe a degree of rationing might be useful, just to allow fans to recharge and maybe see a movie. A movie? Why, aren't you fancy! A serious fan would be breaking down film and analyzing college prospects. If not college prospects, high-school prospects. If not high-school prospects, eighth-graders. This stuff is 24-7, baby. More is always better. Get with the program.”

To read Gay’s entire column, go to:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324326504578465201703189968.html

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