Dwayne Wade Shuts it Down; Thanks Riley

The Miami Heat continue to do there part for the environment, producing exactly no heat. Dwayne Wade has officially shut it down for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs (AHHHHH HA HA HA). Following move after move that signifies the absolute black hole this franchise is in, this last one can hardly be considered a surprise.

To start the year the Heat were just terrible. The league held it's collective tongue, though. The only comments were to the effect that everything would be fine when Wade returned from his shoulder injury.

As the losses piled up with no sign of improvement, the talk of Wade's return seemed to remind Ricky Davis that there is a glimmer of talent within him some where and he and better shine it up to coincide with Wade's return. When Wade returned assumptions were made about Shaq, Davis and all of the Heat's play rising to meet the ability of Wade.

One problem, Wade's ability seems to be hiding under something thicker than Dan Le Batard's chest hair. Now Shaq has been dealt and Wade has shut it down. Wade certainly can't be faulted, Head coach and GM Pat Riley said recently he was planning to skip a few weeks. Planning on taking the time to scout players in NCAA tournaments.

I can only imagine how that went over with Wade "Sounds great coach. See you next season, my uhhh, let's say... knee hurts."

Now with this season a complete waste, Shaq gone to Phoenix (woo hoo a win, over a team with talent), and Wade on the shelf Shawn Marion has got to be wondering how fast he can get to Boston, or Detroit, hell he's probably take Minnesota right now.

If the team doesn't seem commited to winning—trading away a legendary player for a contract move, the coach doesn't seem commited to winning —yet another early exit when the team plays poorly, we certainly can't expect the star player to grit it out. It will be interesting to see what Marion can do with a team that has zero pressure to win and no real stars other than him.

Yao Ming's Injured; Who's To Blame

ESPN is reporting that Lee from Dream Shake is giant jinx. Ok that not exactly what they said but I'm paraphrasing here. Maybe I am the jinx for metinong Dream Shakes Nostradamus skills. In either case Yao Ming is is out for the year, with a stress fracture in his foot.

Over the last few weeks Lee, over at Dream Shake, has been predicting win after win. I found it quite impressive, so impressive in fact that when the Rockets finally hit that tenth win and Lee's prediction was completed, I decided I'd give I'd give credit where credit was due and acknowledge his brilliance with a post of my own. Unfortunately I showed my lack of brilliance by crediting Dave who also writes for Dream Shake. Lee left me comment to clear things up. Now that we have all that cleared up though I can't help but wonder. Does Lee really want credit for jinxing the Rockets right out of the playoffs.

Yao is going to miss the rest of the year, including the playoffs-along with the rest of the Rockets now. An MRI revealed fluid around one of the bones in Yao's foot, upon further examination, the teams doctor think Yao should have surgery. There is an alternative to the surgery but either way the recovery time is 4-months. In related news that I could care less about that means that Yao will be available for the Communist Reds uhhh I mean China for the Olympics

Sasha Pavlovic enrolls in the Lebron James school of sprain recovery

I wrote the following towards the end of the two weeks Lebron missed earlier this season after spraining his finger.

Written December 08, 2007 - I hate to disappoint but this is not Gilbert Arenas’
new blog. I am not a professional athlete. I cannot speak to the toil of an
eighty-two game season. But I have sprained my finger before. Either LeBron
James is very soft, or there is something more severe going on. In either case
the situation as it is currently is terrible. You can’t miss like 2 weeks with a
sprained finger on your non-shooting hand. Sam Cassel 15 years older and is only
missing two weeks with a strained calf muscle. Man up and be the leader you are
supposed to be LBJ.

Now Pavlovic is going to miss 8 weeks with a sprained foot. Really!?, 8 weeks. You are going to have to be a little tougher than that, especially in the East.

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Ladanian Tomlinson responds to Deion

Ladanian Tomlinson responded to Deion Sanders comments questioning the fact LT missed all but a handful of plays in the Chargers loss to New England. LT basically said “you weren’t a running back in this league and don’t know what it’s like.”

LT is right, Deion didn’t play running back. But now does ESPN have to fire half of the talking heads? A lot of them have not played the sport they are commenting on, or any sport professionally for that matter. I don’t know if I agree with Deion or not. But I definitely think he is paid to put his opinion out there, I would be disappointed if he didn’t.

As for LT playing or not playing, I think that is his call. But he knew more about Rivers situation (watch for my post on Rivers playing) than we did. If he didn’t think the comparisons would be there, I have to call that just plain naive.

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Canadians ask Tom Brady "what’s that all aboot?"

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Tom Brady walks into a bar an apartment building and the bartender supermodel says "why the big boot?"

Ok, the bad jokes are over

So I posted about the walking boot TMZ caught Brady in yesterday. Now they have a picture of him in cowboy boots.

All of my cowboy friends (count:0) have told me that if he can hit a club in those boots, he ain't hurt that bad.

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Philip Rivers is a full grown man

If you follow this blog you know I have been back and forth on the Philip Rivers for the last few weeks. ESPN has a report that Rivers had his knee scoped on Monday in order to be as close to playing condition as possible. He will require offseason surgery to repair his ACL. That pretty much solved my back and forth. I am now officially a Rivers fan. My big hang up was all that Jaw Jacking he does. You know what, after that performance on Sunday, all I can say is "Talk all you want bud, cause you are backing it up"

Also this kinda makes you question LT sitting out with a sprain, don't worry Ladanian. Now that your team couldn't punch it in the endzone, you will have a while to rest that knee.

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Houston Texans Offseason

Houston Texans – I have a huge issue with people who are so quick to spout their
opinion, especially a negative opinion. Then when it turns out they are wrong, they are never around to man up about it. I am not that guy. I was a vocal critic of the Mario Williams draft choice. I was wrong. Very, Very, wrong. Reggie Bush isn’t what he was in college(I am an SC fan that is as close as I am getting to saying he’s a bust) Vince Young is decent, and he is a better passer than most people are giving him credit for. Those two aside Mario Williams was the right pick.
The Texans suffered a series of injuries through out the year. No one ever wants to go through all the trouble that Houston did but there is an upside. Between Sage Rosenfels and Matt Schaub along with Ahman Green, Ron Dayne, and Darius Walker, they have found reliable back ups to go along with their starters. The only potential problem facing Gary Kubiak is that with any kind of difficulty on Matt Schaub’s part a QB controversy could arise. Not the worst problem to have. At WR they have Super receiver Andre Johnson who injury got as well. He was replaced nicely by Andre Davis who turned in excellent work as a return man as well towards the end of the season. I do think they responded well to those injuries this year and you can’t help but acknowledge the job Gary Kubiak did with this team.
With the Mario Williams anchored front line their defense has shown very well this year. The injury bug did get them on this side of the ball as well, hitting Dunta Robinson mid season. There secondary still held their own through out the year.
With their skill positions and their defense looking like all they need is to stay off the trainers table. Their real gaping hole is at the left tackle position. They should look at Ryan Clady (OT-Boise St.) who should drop this far and should be their first choice.
With that hole sealed up and consistent QB play the only thing left will be dodging a bullet on the injury front. If that happens the future for this team looks great. They are my sleeper for 2008.

Next team - My Minnesota Vikings