Off the Bench and Out of the Doghouse

Lamar Odom grabs applause and some of the credit for a turnaround for the Mavericks in a win over the Rockets this week. Yep, no boos just cheers when Odom handled the basketball. He scored nine points on five shots off the bench; four rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in the 90-81 win.

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle was quick to point out afterwards that Odom was one of the guys who lifted the team to the win. Carlisle specifically said, “He played his game and that’s how he plays.” Sounds like a sports cliché to me but who cares, all that matters is Odom played great off the bench in a game where the Mavericks trailed by double digits. Dallas has won six off its last eight games – woohoo!

Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban still didn’t get the prize that he’s wanted for years – a Major League baseball team. Losing out to a group that included Magic Johnson putting up a whopping two billion dollars for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the biggest amount paid for any team in North America. Magic is LA, an icon to the people who live in Southern California, it makes sense in some weird Hollywood way. Sorry Mark but MLB might have done you a favor, it’ll take a lot of retooling to restore the Dodgers ballclub to its former stature, last time the team won a championship was 1988.

Boys Snag Opening Game

Speaking of a long time between championships – the Cowboys are once again grabbing the spotlight if nothing else. Yep, the NFL just announced that the opening game would feature the Championship Giants against the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday September 5^th. Now that’s a great PR move by the league! The last time the Boys and Giants met in January it was a winner take all game to get into the playoffs. The 31-14 win for New York didn’t live up to the hype in the Cowboy thrashing but the drama certainly did. The Giants took the back road into the post season and won the Lombardi Trophy in the end.

More than 26 million people watched that game. Can you imagine how many will be tuned in for the opening game of the season? Cowboy Owner Jerry Jones has to love the irony in all of this with Giants owner John Mara picking Jones pocket just a few days ago in salary cap controversy. Jones was asked to fork over $10 million dollars for a salary cap penalty in the uncapped season of 2010. He’s countering back maybe in the form of a lawsuit against the other teams. We all know what payback is all about in these parts. Bring on the Giants!

Bracket Blues

Finally, is anybody in the Metroplex still alive in their brackets? Mine was busted almost from the start. The predicting thing looks easier than it really is folks. Hats off to Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas and Ohio State – that’s your final four. The Baylor men made it to the Elite 8 but couldn’t get by the Wildcats, 82-70 at the buzzer, so Kentucky makes it in to the last four for the second year in a row.

However, the lady Bears trashed Tennessee 77-58 making it into the women’s NCAA final four tournament. So Baylor will be represented just not in New Orleans, they’ll be thousands of miles away in Denver for the ladies showdown. Go Bears!