Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 8-11-12

"Ranting with Rizzo" was on this past Saturday at noon,
but if you missed it or there's anything you want to
here again, the podcast is here. Enjoy !



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

With Howard An L.A. King, I Say Bye Bye Heat

Courtesy NationalTurk

Let me preface the remainder of this thought by
coming right out and saying this; I have a very
small basketball IQ. I like the game, watch the
game, and root for my team as hard as I root for
my team in any other sport. That being said, I
don't now what a weak side rebound is, just how
exactly the pick and roll is supposed to be run,
and am completely oblivious as to the difference
of one elbow from another on the basketball court.
So now you have complete ammunition, as if you
needed it, to completely make light of my initial
statement. Which is "With Dwight Howard An L.A.
King, Goodnight Miami Heat"

It's fair to say that the Miami Heat certainly have
age in their favor, and of course Dwight Howard's
back surgery could ultimately be an issue, but if
we were to simply match up these two squads in what
I believe will be an NBA Finals for the next two
years at least, then Miami is going to be one and
done with their title this year. In my humble yet
low basketball I.Q.'d opinion, I believe that the
Lakers not only hold the edge in talent but in
on the court smarts as well. Dwight Howard coming
to LA only puts them over the edge, but when you
look at what Kobe is capable of, Steve Nash brings
to the table, and that they didn't have to give up
Pau Gasol, it's enough to wanna make Phil Jackson
come out of "retirement".

Now I know that Championships are not won on paper,
and that last year the Philadelphia Eagles were
handed the Lombardi trophy in August only to see
them drop it and have it shatter all over the floor,
but I'll take my chances and crown the Lakers now.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 7-7-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is now available.
If you missed the show, enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 6-23-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is available now,
Clemens and Sandusky are part of the conversation
in this episode, as are the NBA Champion Miami Heat.
We take a closer look around the majors, and answer
some out of town listener email. Enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 6-20-12

The weather is HOT, so is this podcast and so are
the NBA Finals, tune in as we look at the Heat and
Thunder, how the MLB season is shaping out, R.A.
Dickey and much much more in this Mad Stork Sports
podcast, Check it out!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 6-16-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is available now,
and baseball is the bulk of the conversation in this
episode. I take a look around the majors, and even
find some time for the NBA Finals. Enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 6-13-12

We talk about that and the NBA Finals, how the MLB
season is shaping out, and much much more in this
Mad Stork Sports podcast, Check it out!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 6-9-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is available now, and
you can have a listen to my view on how my view of game
7 between the Heat and Celtics might end. I take a look
around the majors, and even talk a little Tim Thomas.
Enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

LeBron Not A Choker, The Celtics Are Just Winners

(Damian Strohmeyer/SI)

Though you might get it right once in a while when
you call LeBron James a choker, more often than not
he isn't, and this debate could go on for quite a
bit, but this isn't my point. There is plenty of
blame to go around when it comes to the fact that
the Heat had a 2-0 lead and is now down 3-2.

The guy who often gets a pass in Miami is Dwayne
Wade, and that's because he already brought the
Heat a ring once before, but he is as much if not
more to blame than James is for this recent and
what seems to be inevitable collapse. Chris Bosh
gets the least respect of all in that threesome,
and his return didn't get him any more in last
nights loss. To the naked eye it may seem like
the Miami Heat can't lose, but they aren't really
built to win either. Lots of money invested in 3
guys, and fingers crossed on the rest of the roster.

The Boston Celtics know how to win, it just that
simple. Three years from now if this group is
allowed to stay together you may be able to say
the same about them too, but this win now mentality
has doomed in the short term. They put that bulls
eye on their own back, and they said they wanted it
that way, well the pressure is and microscope is
killing them. Don't tell me that they went to the
Finals last year and could this year too. The Heat
has not won anything yet, and until they do, they
are just another answer to a who lost trivia question.

I knew the Celtics had their number, and could beat
Miami, and still I picked the Heat in six. Why?
Age, but age is also another word for experience, and
now that James, Wade, Bosh, and Spoelstra have left
the door open, Doc Rivers and crew know what to do
once the get inside. For their sake I just hope their
sciatica doesn't kick in.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 6-2-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" Johan Santana No hitter podcast
is available now, have a listen to my view on this and
my look at the Heat Celtics series. Enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 5-30-12

We talk about that and the NBA playoffs, how the MLB
season is shaping out, and so much more in this Mad
Stork Sports podcast, so here you go!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Celtics Can Beat Miami, But The Heat Will Defeat Boston After All

AP Photo

I have been saying for a few weeks now that if there
was one team in the East that could take down the
Miami Heat, it was the Boston Celtics. Not the #1
seeded Chicago Bulls, not the unified, and injury
free Orlando Magic, but the veteran, and savvy Boston
Celtics. That same Celtics team that I said in the
beginning of the year was gonna be too old too compete
this far. The Celtic team that Bob Ryan of the Boston
Globe says is on the fifth year of a three year plan.
It is not to be however, the Celtics who have shown
all year that they would have no problem handling
LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and that other guy, are
starting to get tired, and the schedule is not going
to get any friendlier in the way of two days off in
between games as opposed to one.

I looked over at the Western conference finals to
see if the breakdown of games was any different, but
it wasn't. So as much as I'd love to sit here and
gripe about the NBA working for the Heat and against
Boston, I can't. Even if Doc Rivers and some of his
players are unhappy with the refs, it won't change
their age, and the fact that though I might admit that
right now the Heat is the better team, a rested, and
healthy Celtics squad would hand them their lunch.
That being said, if the Celts hadn't allowed the young
and fiery 76'ers to hang around until game seven, they
might have had a chance of resting a little beforehand,
and stealing this series away from the favored Heat,
no matter how much rest there would have been in between
games in the East finals. This of course in turn would
have started the LeBron James is a "choke artist loser"
headline mill. So maybe for LeBron, this works out
pretty well, and the Celtics really have no one else to
blame in the end but themselves. A Shame.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Live - 6PM EST - Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio

The New Jersey Devils face off with the suddenly
human LA Kings?, Baseball's more expensive payrolls
are sucking it up, and the Heat, Celtics, Spurs and
Thunder are all that remain in the NBA. Mad Stork
Sports on ScatterRadio is on at 6PM, join me for an
hour and let's discuss some of this. Call in and
make your voice heard. Find the show here on ScatterRadio


Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Chris Bosh Less Heat "Extinguished" By The Pacers

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

I'm not sure the Miami Heat PA Announcer wants to use
the term extinguish to describe the Heats loss last
night at the hands of the Indiana Pacers as joyfully
as he did when describing the fouling out of Amar'e
Stoudemire last week, but that's pretty much what
the Pacers did last night.

I have been calling Miami's "BIG 3" the "Big 2.5" for
as long as they put that trio together, but I have to
admit that as soon as I heard that Chris Bosh got hurt
and would be out for the rest of the second round, I
knew Indiana caught a break. Last night was a perfect
example of this, and though I won't go as far as saying
that the Heat will lose this series, they just might.

Last week Nationals GM Mike Rizzo called the Phillies
Cole Hamels "fake tough" a term that I can only recall
hearing once before, and that was when Kevin Durant
used it to refer to Chris Bosh that way last year.
As I recall, I was fully on board with that assessment
of Bosh, but what I must admit if the Heat do drop this
series, or if it goes seven and they sweat it out, is
that Bosh is more important to Miami's Championship
aspirations than I care to admit.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Did The NY Knicks Get Too Melo To Keep Linning?

Jeff Haynes/Reuters

It wasn't too long ago that there was alot of
Linning and Linsanity around the NY Knicks,
but now they are almost exactly where they
started after Jeremy Lin took New York City,
and the NBA by storm. All of that being said
I'm not ready to start pointing fingers on
who's fault it might be, or if this is a little
bit of a coincidence with the return of Carmelo
Anthony, but you can't help but see that things
have changed a bit.

I hate calling for a coaches job, I've done it,
but I hate doing it, and I won't do it here.
Mike D'Antoni is easy to pick on here because
many fans think that he should be the one to
fix their offensive struggles with Anthony in
the lineup, but the truth is D'Antoni never
asked for Carmelo Anthony to begin with, it was
Jim Dolan who force fed him to Donnie Walsh and
D'Antoni, and even though I don't want to call
out Carmelo either, the numbers don't lie.
You might wonder why he wouldn't want Anthony,
and that basketball is basketball, but apparently
this system that D'Antoni runs hasn't been a good
fit for this coach and player. Before Anthony's
return to the lineup the Knicks went from 7 games
under .500 to .500, and today find themselves at
six games under .500, in the middle of a six game
losing streak, and all those gains and momentum
just about lost.

Did the Knicks get too Melo? I think the answer
here is yes, but I also think it's fixable, IF
Melo wants to be part of the solution, AND if
D'Antoni can come up with enough adjustments to
make these parts work as one. The Knicks have
many good players on this team, and that is a
problem at times, but if Coach D'Antoni can make
sure he puts the lineup on the floor that best
matches up against the other team, logic will
tell you that if everyone is on board this will
work. The thing is, everything logical doesn't
always work that way. I heard NY Knicks TV man
and legend Walt "Clyde" Frazier say that he never
saw a team that got along as good as this bunch,
and that they seem to genuinely like each other,
well if that's the case, then this logic might
just work here.

Their are very few games left this season, and the
Knicks need to turn things around ASAP it's true,
but not just to make the playoffs, which I think
they will, but to avoid the seventh or eighth seed.
Should they land in the playoffs as either of those
two seeds, they better be hot and clicking as a unit,
because knocking off either Chicago or Miami to move
forward will prove to be more than a big task, and
they will need a little more Linsanity by the whole
team to get it done.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Knicks Win With Lin Raise Expectations vs Heat

Reuters/Adam Hunger

Tonight's game vs the Miami Heat is not going to mean
too much in the standings unless the Knicks are going
to come all the way back and win the entire Atlantic
division and take the #1 seed, but if you take the
temperature of the fans right now, you would think
that it's the 7th game of the NBA Finals.

The Knicks had a nice win against a quality opponent
in the Atlanta Hawks last night, but with Joe Johnson
out of the lineup life was a little easier, and so
was the game. Since the arrival of Jeremy Lin into
the starting five the Knicks have had a few good wins
against quality opponents like the Lakers, Hawks, and
the defending NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks, but they
have also had a couple of clunkers against teams like
the Nets, and the Hornets. The quality wins have been
all at home, and the losses have shown that when teams
make a real effort to defend Lin, they can cause the
Knicks some difficulties. The Hornets were the first
to get some film on him, and in turn made it hard for
New York to run it's offense.

Make no mistake, tonight is going to be one to watch,
but please don't think for a minute that LeBron and
Wade have been under a rock this entire time either.
They know what's going on, and just like the NJ Nets
Deron Williams made a point of saving his best game
of the season so far for Jeremy and the New York fans,
don't expect James, and Wade to let Jeremy Lin waltz
into their home and make a name for himself on their
backs. I won't sit here and tell you that Lin isn't
up to the task, but I can assure you that he and his
teammates are going to have to earn this quality road
win, in what is likely to be the first of many tests
in the Jeremy Lin era.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

NBA Lockout Nears THE END

Image found @bcuban

No matter how you received or read this headline,
the one thing that is for sure is, that no matter
what, it's true. The lockout is near the end,
because they have reached an agreement, or it's
near the end because they are about to piss away
huge portion of the season as we know it.

Last week was supposed to be the NBA season opener,
and last night we should have had the "Dream Team"
Miami Heat against the new look, championship
aspiring, defense playing, New York Knicks in a
newly remodeled Madison Square Garden, but that
wasn't to be. I am by no means an NBA expert, or
aficionado, but I am however a fan, and must admit
that I probably would have lost much more sleep
had the NFL dispute gone this far than I am with
this. I think that the owners, and players both
need to realize that this is much more the norm
than the exception in this country, and it is
probably in the best interest of both parties to
get this resolved. I understand that most owners
have lost money, but the players have already given
back quite a bit. I realize that the players
didn't start this, but there must be some other
angle they can take to help the owners feel like
they may have won here. GET IT DONE, this is
ridiculous. It's becoming less and less sports
relevant everyday, do you really want to become
that obscure in the American sports scene?
The latest news has them bickering over as little
from 1/2 to 1%, and maybe that's a big number in
dollars, but keep this up and you won't ever make
it at the box office, not from me, and not from
quite a few ticked off individuals.

Michael Jordan is/was coaching the the American
golf team, you have players playing in China,
Turkey, Israel, and who knows where else, and
owners getting fined 500,000 for disagreeing
with how this is playing out. Talk about doing
a great job of tarnishing your image. Sheesh

I think I can speak for many of you when I say
that we are all getting to the point where we are
getting tired of hearing "it's just business"


Tweet Thank You Al Davis !

NFC: The New Monster Of The "Midway" Division

Courtesy: Yardbarker

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but when
you have Dallas (Americas Team), the New York
Giants (New York, New York, so nice they named
it twice), the Philadelphia Eagles (The NEW
Miami Heat?), and The Washington Redskins
(Well it is the Nations Capitol, anyway), then
you have lots on swag going on, and as far as
divisions go, it is a bit of a Monster, and one
that will be followed very closely throughout
the year, especially if the Cowboys can steal
one against the Jets on Sunday night football
on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and momentarily
silence Rex Ryan (Who am I kidding!). This is
how I think it will look at seasons end.

1. Philadelphia Eagles (Too Much REAL Talent)
2. Dallas Cowboys (For Real, & Will Make Some Noise)
3. NY Giants (Injuries Hurt/End Season Before It Begins)
4. Washington Redskins (Shanahan A One Trick Pony, No
Elway, No Tricks. O V E R R A T E D)

Tweet

Deja Blue?

In game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals between the same
two teams that battle this year, the turning point
for the Heat seemed to be when with 6:34 left in
the 4th quarter the overcame a 13 point deficit to
beat the Mavs and get back into the series instead
of going into an 0-3 hole. This year the Mavericks
overcame a 15 point deficit with a similar amount of
time left in game two, to avoid an 0-2 deficit on
the way back home to Dallas. Question is, is this
the point that gets the Mavs their title now that
they have a 3-2 lead and two games to win one?

"Ranting With Rizzo" Replay

The NHL and NBA Playoffs take center stage
as usual, but a "Rant" regarding Derek Jeter
kicks off the show and ticks off this host.
Email the show at rizzo@wdisam.com