Shall we dive in:

Shquille O'Neal literally changed the whole landscape of the Eastern Conference.

• The Shaquille O’Neal trade to Cleveland is bigger than a blockbuster — it’s a mockbuster. Everybody thought they had the team they wanted, then Shaq teleported to the eastern conference screwing everything up. Now, everybody’s after their favorite fantasy basketball players — no kidding — and half the teams tore up their rosters this summer in order to stay competitive with the most dominant team on paper. Even Stephen Jackson of my lowly Golden State Warriors wants in on the action. It’s a ripple effect that I just didn’t have time to write about.
• Ricky Rubio has ended my summer on a high note. We’re talking the ultimate ‘eff you.’ Yes sir, he can flip his bird with the big boys and I for one do not blame him. As hard as the Minnesota Timberwolves wanted to chase after the little bugger, he wasn’t interested in living in cold-ass nowhere land. I’m sure growing up in Europe he had dreams of America and living the big life in New York, Miami, Chicago or San Francisco. What can you say, people love the city. But then reality sinks in too fast when you have a 75 percent chance shitty-town syndrome come draft day. It gets even worse when you start to consider market size, with places like Minnesota on the bottom rung of pro basketball’s TV black hole. The T’Wolves haven’t been relevant since Kevin Garnett. Next year isn’t changing that. Ricky Rubio couldn’t change that. And I think he figured that out soon enough, which is why he’s going to Barcelona, baby.
• I was going to do a full list of tight ends for your fantasy football draft, much like the other lists I did for every other position outside of kicker. That died when I realized that out of the top four TEs, none matter. So why worry? Hakuna matata.
• Usain Bolt is this really badass dude that happens to be quirky and run like a gazelle. I was remarking with a coworker of mine the other day on how fast he is in full stride compared to everyone else. Water cooler talk for sure. I remember quite vividly his 100-meter dash win in the Beijing Olympics and how he got a bad start (yes, he totally did) and still kicked the competition’s ass. I was mesmerized. Flash forward to the world games, same dudes in the building, some of them a little cocky too, and Bolt gets a good start this time, leveling the competition with a 9.53 world record. Then, he comes back in the 200 and breaks 20 seconds. Dude may be Jaimaican, but right now he’s my hero. (Please don’t get caught doping! Pretty, please!)
  
  
  
• Plaxico Burress isn’t as despicable to me as Antonio Pierce. In fact, I wouldn’t have thrown the book at Plax. If I was on the Grand Jury in New York, I’d be eyeing Mr. Pierce for his behavior in trying to cover the whole thing up. He deserves a couple of months behind bars for stupidly trying to help a friend out — a friend who stupidly shot himself. At what point, in a friendship, do you say, “eff you, dude … I ain’t putting my hands on nothing.” Apparently, Pierce is unaware of these limits. And Plax wins the award for best friend of the year. Jerk.
• The Boom Tho Mixtape is on its way, if it already isn’t here. My boy Rod Benson, formerly of the Dakota Wizards and the Reno Bighorns, has got a mixtape. He’s handling his thizzle. I wrote about him for my paper some time back. I have no idea what the dude is up to, but I keep hearing about him in the club in SF with my boy J-Gant (the other half of the Boom Tho movement) and Clay. Looks like they taking over the music scene cause J-Gant is a promoter now. Watch out. Better yet, listen below:
• Why steroids is worse than betting?– I was totally going to pen this killer column on how the steroid era and Barry Bonds sucks harder than Pete Rose being out of the hall of fame. But then I lost steam doing something else. Either way, it still pisses me off and I dislike Barry much more than I dislike Pete Rose right now. This paragraph will have to do. But I reserve the right to come back to this topic. I’m sure steroids will come back up.
• The 49ers — They need my attention right now. Did I ever tell you I got into sports writing so that one day I could cover the 49ers like Niners Nation does? You didn’t need to know that. But it’s the truth. But with their quarterback battle coming to a close and my preferred guy winning, I’m getting more and more pumped about this year and what the red and gold are bringing to the table. My one worry is that my boy Jason Hill, who I’ve written about here before, will get lost in the shuffle of all those receivers. I’m keeping my eye out on him.
• Which Fantasy Football program do you use? — Is it ESPN, Yahoo!, NFL.com or some other third-party vendor that charges you up the gazoo. It’s weird because this year I’m trying out eCouchCoach.com, which is supposedly really cool for this keeper league I’m getting into. They give you Twitter updates and send you e-mail alerts when folks on your roster are hurt and all this other cool stuff you’d expect ESPN to do. Only problem is, I can’t stand the layout. We’ll see how my feelings change as this season gets underway and I draft on Sunday.


Tanner Mathias was an amazing high school quarterback for the Bear River Bruins in my town.

• The town I live in, is a monster for high school football — I really had something good going for me in little old Grass Valley, Calif. Writing about high school football is the premiere sport here, getting covered by the local newspaper (me), the local radio station and by a public access television crew. It’s like Texas but in the middle of nowhere California. What’s even better is the kids are pretty good. The Nevada Union Miners went 10-2 last season, losing in the second-round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs. They sent a bunch of kids to play college ball. The Bear River Bruins took a thumping in the first round of the Division IV playoffs of the same section after going 8-3 in the Pioneer Valley League. They had a kid, Tanner Mathias, I swear should’ve been a Division I pickup at quarterback. He didn’t get much love but is playing at JC this season. My point is, giving up the sports writer position feels like it came at the weirdest time. But hey, I’m still gonna write about it. And maybe take a little video.

That’s it. That was all I wanted to write about, but never had a chance to really dive into all essay-like. More posts coming on some of these subjects. Others will be expanded upon.

Related

• The Big Mac is now the Big Cheese: McGwire admits to steroids use
• Update: Mark McGwire does not get the HOF nod
• First Fantasy Football draft out of the way
• Top 20 running backs for the 2009 NFL fantasy season
• Top 15 Quarterbacks for 2009 NFL Fantasy season

Rick Pitino's affair is gone into a bizarre zone. So much so, I don't know what to say about it.

First, and most importantly, coach Mike Singletary will plug in Shaun Hill as the team’s starter for the San Francisco 49ers’ first preseason game. It’s an indication, in my mind, that the starting spot is his to lose.

Now, on to the ex-convicts and extra marital affairs.

In unprecedented, but most welcomed, news, Roger Goodell announced a season-long suspension for Donte’ Stallworth.

He had it coming.

I can’t help but think this is karma at work for a guy who literally killed a man while driving drunk and spent 23 days of repentance in soft-core jail. I wrote about the backwards way the justice system was working on this case in June. It was atrocious to mete out a 30-day sentence, however long the probation period.

If you’re scoffing at this, you’re either rich or ignorant.

All the particulars of the case, paying off the family and admitting to the crime, do not excuse Stallworth for the loss of life due to his bad decision-making. Yeah, he’s better than most athletes for manning up to his errors, but that doesn’t take away from the punishment that needed to come down on him for the act in itself. An apology doesn’t change things. Goodell has appeared to have remedied this situation, at least in part, for what a judge in Florida should’ve done. (For the first time, I’m actually on Goodell’s side. That’s weird.)

And then, we get some conclusion on Michael Vick, as he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a blessing and a curse for Vick, who will have no chance at dethroning the king, in this case Donovan McNabb, because he’s nowhere near as talented a quarterback but is the break this guy has needed since he landed in prison. Inking this deal is probably the best thing that’s happened to the beleaguered star in three years. And he still has to deal with the fans.

All in all, Thursday was a good day as far as justice being served, for both punishment and redemption.

Now if there were only some conclusion to this Rick Pitino scandal, which is just bizarre. I can’t put the words together so smooth on this one, but I’d like to let to point you to Kentucky sports radio talk show host Bomani Jones at 850 the Buzz, who sums it up, all too well.

Here’s one clip from the show, with plenty more here:

Related

• NFL training camp wants: Shaun Hill, don’t screw this up
• Still mad at Donte Stallworth sentencing
• Niners still lack QB plan
• Rebuilding over; now 49ers need wins
• 49ers got a coach, now they need a QB