World of Sports (WOS) 6/20-6/26/2011

Four Major Sports
They saw a total of 2 Drafts (NBA and NHL if we can consider it a "major sport"), 90 games (MLB), and a bunch of assuredly boring but optimistic labor talks (NFL) (There might actually be a season! Actually I am feeling more and more confident that there will be).

In case you missed either of the two drafts here are the run downs of the top ten of each:

NBA Draft Round 1 Picks 1-10

	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	School/club team
	1	Kyrie Irving	PG	United States	Cleveland Cavaliers (from L.A. Clippers)	Duke (Fr.)
	2	Derrick Williams	SF	United States	Minnesota Timberwolves	Arizona (So.)
	3	Enes Kanter	C/PF	Turkey	Utah Jazz (from New Jersey)	Kentucky (Fr.)
	4	Tristan Thompson	PF/SF	Canada	Cleveland Cavaliers	Texas (Fr.)
	5	Jonas Valančiūnas	C	Lithuania	Toronto Raptors	Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
	6	Jan Veselý	SF	Czech Republic	Washington Wizards	Partizan (Serbia)
	7	Bismack Biyombo	PF	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sacramento Kings (traded to Charlotte Bobcats)	Fuenlabrada (Spain)
	8	Brandon Knight	PG	United States	Detroit Pistons	Kentucky (Fr.)
	9	Kemba Walker	PG/SG	United States	Charlotte Bobcats	Connecticut (Jr.)
	10	Jimmer Fredette	SG	United States	Milwaukee Bucks (traded to Sacramento Kings)	BYU (Sr.)

Want more? Feel free to check out my full rundown of the 2011 NBA Draft

NHL Draft Round 1 Picks 1-10

Pick #	Name	Pos.	Team	Former Team
1	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	C	Edmonton Oilers	Red Deer
2	Gabriel Landeskog	LW	Colorado Avalanche	Kitchener
3	Jonathan Huberdeau	C	Florida Panthers	Saint John
4	Adam Larsson	D	New Jersey Devils	Skelleftea
5	Ryan Strome	C	New York Islanders	Niagara
6	Mika Zibanejad	C	Ottawa Senators	Djurgarden Jr.
7	Mark Scheifele	C	Winnipeg	--
8	Sean Couturier	C	Philadelphia Flyers	Drummondville
9	Dougie Hamilton	D	Boston Bruins	Niagara
10	Jonas Brodin	D	Minnesota Wild	Farjestad

"The Cycle" - A brief summary of this past week in Major league Baseball

Despite a good week of baseball upon which I will soon elaborate the biggest and most disappointing news of the week has to be the injury to St. Louis Cardinal's first baseman Albert Pujols. Right when Pujols was starting to get heated up his wrist gets fractured and he goes on the 15-day Disabled List. The Cardinal's went on to win their game Monday night against the Kansas City Royals, but it is a major blow both the Cardinal's and baseball as Pujols still remains baseball's most dangerous hitter.

However, amongst Major League Baseball's innumerable games fans were privileged to see some spectacular performances by two of its rising young pitchers.

Justin Verlander (10-3, 2.38 ERA, 124 Ks) of the Detroit Tigers may have produced the most dominant performance of the week in his 8 innings work this past Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks with no earned runs and 14 Ks, but for the week overall he was outdone by James Shields (8-4, 2,29 ERA, 117 Ks) of the Tampa Bay Rays. Shields shut down both the Florida Marlins (6/19) and the Houston Astros (6/24) this past week for two complete games allowing a total only 7 hits and 1 earned run over 18 innings of work.Well done sir.

This Week's Golden Bat Award: J. J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles who batted .444 on week with 3 home runs, 6 runs batted in, and 7 runs scored.


Top Five Records of the Week 6/20-6/26/2011:
Atlanta Braves                 5-1
Tampa Bay Rays             5-1
Los Angeles Angels         5-1
San Fransisco Giants       4-2
New York Yankees        4-2

Meanwhile in Sports (while America was most likely not watching)
The soccer world was a buzz as the conclusion of multiple male tournaments came to pass and the biggest women's tournament was on the cusp of beginning.

The Gold Cup (North American National Team Tournament) - The United States managed this week to beat Panama on Wednesday and then lose miserably to Mexico in the Gold Cup Final on Saturday. The U.S. has looked all out of sorts the entire tournament with uninspired match after uninspired match. The first time they played Panama on the 11th of June it cost them to the tune of a 2-1 loss. This week, however, they were able to avenge their loss with a 1-0 win thanks in large part to Landon Donovan and the sudden emergence of the U.S.'s star of the future of 8 years ago Freddy Adu. Their inspired play carried on for the next 22' of their match against Mexico as they scored two goals to go up 2-0, but quickly petered out as Mexico stormed back for four goals starting in the 29' for a 4-2 victory. Though the loss of a tournament is always painful it is the seemingly growing distance between the U.S. and Mexico which has to be more painful. Mexico appears to have a plethora of young buddings stars while the U.S. has a dearth. The U.S. can perhaps take some solace in Adu sudden improvement for at the age of 22 there seems to still be time for him to become the savior he was thought to be.

Copa Santander Libertadores de América (South American Club Team Tournament) - In a spirited match FC Santos defeated C.A. Peñarol 2-1 and things did end with a bang as brawl ensued after the final whistle.  The Fight can be viewed on YouTube.

U.S. Track and Field Championships - Walter Dix emerged as America's favorite to challenge Jamaica's Usain Bolt by winning both the 100m and 200m, but his 100m time was still .76 off of Bolt's record, which is a lot of time in in the 100m dash. The women's field remained more convoluted with Carmelita Jeter taking the 100m and Shalonda Solomon winning the 200m.

College World Series - The field narrowed to two, Florida and South Carolina, for an all SEC finals. USC won a 3-2 13 inning epic against Virginia to advance while Florida defeated Vanderbilt 6-4 in 9.

Nascar - After quite a struggle, including a radio rant, Kurt Busch got his first win of the season with a 4s win over Jeff Gordon.

Wimbledon (Tennis) - The first three rounds came to a conclusion with most of the top players still standing. The only notables to fall were Andy Roddick (8) in straight sets to Feliciano Lopez (6-7, 6-7, 4-6) and Na Li of China (6-3, 4-6, 6-8)


NOT SPORTS (My favorite non-sport related things of the week)

True Grit - Jeff Bridges and unknown 14 year girl (Hailee Steinfeld), wow! If you haven't seen it and are a fan of awesomeness see it.

Cat says what? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps I'm still not convinced this is real.



Feel good flash-mob of the year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOyTNtsWyY I am not sure what language this is in, but you still get the idea.


If I missed anything or you have any thoughts, comments, or questions leave them in the comment box below or e-mail me at shannon.samuelc@gmail.com

NBA Draft 2011 and "The Kahn"

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of the draft I first want to give a shout out to my boy David Kahn GM of the Minnesota Timberwolves for not letting me down. Ever since the 2009 Point Guard Extravaganza when he drafted FOUR point guards (three in the first round and two of them back to back #'s 5 and 6) he has not let a draft day be boring. I mean how awesome is it that he not only drafted Rubio, but then he essentially told him to stay in Europe by drafting a second point guard (Jonny Flynn) right after him and then he trades the only point guard of the four that has actually had any NBA success, Ty Lawson, to the Nuggets? Not to mention he trade said second point guard in this draft for virtually NOTHING. Is awesome the right word? I have to admit I was a little worried when they did the sensible thing and drafted Derrick Williams 2nd, but my boy Kahn did not let me down... he's like a fail NBA version of Bill Belichick... he wheels and deals alright, but only to utter failure and my delight, awesome, so awesome. I will elaborate on his awesomeness later and how he made my NBA Draft night. Now to the break down of the draft.

Fit - How he fits into the team he was drafted by

Pick - My rating for how good the pick was overall

1 Cleveland (from LA Clippers) Kyrie Irving 6-4 191 PG Duke Given, they do have Baron Davis and Ramon Sessions AND Daniel Gibson on the roster for a combined $22M, but they HAD to make this pick. (As a side note this is a perfect example of why there is going to be an NBA lockout - owners and GMs making stupid decisions) Honestly the only reason Irving is not being projected to be as good as Chris Paul, Deron Williams, John Wall, and Derrick Rose (who is not the best player in the NBA by the way) is because he played so little. When he did play, though, he played extremely well and in one game essentially undressed Kemba Walker in front of national TV audiences both on the offensive end and the defensive end. Kemba didn't even recover from playing Irving until the Big East tournament. Kyrie definitely has the makings of a superstar and was the right pick. He is, however, going to need to learn to hate Lebron like the rest of Cleveland and the US (myself included)... I think his "Lebron Love" might be his only flaw. Fit (1-10) - 9           Pick (1-10) - 10 2 Minnesota Derrick Williams 6-9 248 PF Arizona Having already lauded this pick as the sensible thing to do I do want to make a couple of qualifications of my praise. 1. This was a no-brainer. Williams and Irving have been constantly put into a class of their own by both pundits and draft analysts alike. Had David Kahn turned on ESPN or visit any reputable sport website in the last 3 months he would have acquired such knowledge. 2. I believe he has a high risk of being nothing but mediocre. That is not to say that he cannot become something great he will just need to transform his game if he wants to be extremely successful in the NBA. At best I think he develops into a poor man's Blake Griffin, which is not a bad thing. Fit (1-10) - 5           Pick (1-10) - 8  3 Utah (From New Jersey) Enes Kanter 6-11 260 C Turkey I have mixed feelings on this pick. From what I have seen of Kanter I think this is a great pick. The only thing that will make them regret this pick is if Brandon Knight becomes as good has his other Calipari brethren (Derrick Rose and John Wall). Good centers, however, are more rare today than good point guards, which was their other option here with Brandon Knight and this guy took Jared Sullinger (who would have been a high lottery pick if he had come out) and the rest of the Nike Hoops Summit to school before the last college season when he was ruled ineligible by the NCSSR for... heaven forbid... making money playing basketball. I, like them, think anyone who tries to make money should be punished especially if it is by using their talents and God-given gifts. I'm glad he learned his lesson for when this comes up again! Oh wait... Fit (1-10) - 10           Pick (1-10) - 8 4 Cleveland Tristan Thompson 6-9 227 PF Texas ??? This guy goes 13 ppg and 8 rpg in college and they draft him 4th? They must have seen something I didn't see. He must NOT have crumbled against Arizona in the NCAA tournament scoring 3 and getting 6 rebounds. He must NOT be a freshman who would have extremely benefited from staying in college one or two more years. OR they could be the Cavs and have failed because they didn't have an absolutely no brain pick here. You decide. Fit (1-10) - 7           Pick (1-10) - 2 5 Toronto Jonas Valanciunas 7-0 245 C Lithuania Love his height and his potential, but I am never a fan of team drafting international players this high who can't come over RIGHT NOW. Why do they even enter the draft? This isn't baseball where you get 25 rounds to fill up a minor league system. Fit (1-10) - 8 (When he gets here I guess)  Pick (1-10) - 4 6 Washington Jan Vesely 6-11 240 SF Czech Republic I absolutely loved what he said when they asked him if he was the European "Blake Griffin". "More like he is the American Jan Vesely." Don't get me wrong you know Blake wrote it down on the calendar and circled the first game of the season (necessary and depressing "if there is a season comment") against Washington and will most likely do something worse to him than what he did to Timofey Mosgov, but who wants to be asked a question like that? All in all this should make for an awesome couple of dunk contests in the future since Baby Bron Bron has never wanted to step to be a man, which I suppose is understandable since he would most likely have been exposed earlier for not being able to handle pressure situations. Fit (1-10) - 7           Pick (1-10) - 8 7 Sacramento (Proposed trade: rights to Charlotte) Bismack Biyombo 6-9 243 PF Spain A shorter poor man's Hasheem Thabeet - I honestly can't even believe that is possible. The only thing that will make him better than Thabeet in the future when he is an absolute bust is that he was drafted lower in the lottery. Fit (1-10) - 1           Pick (1-10) - 1 8 Detroit Brandon Knight 6-4 177 PG Kentucky Fantastic pick for Detroit not because this was necessarily a "need" position but because almost anyone (with the exception of the Bulls, Hornets (for now), Nets (for now) and Washington) needs what this guy could become. He is smart, athletic, talented, and young. They need to get the right people around him and he could blossom into the steal of this draft making last four picks look foolish. Fit (1-10) - 4           Pick (1-10) - 10 9 Charlotte Kemba Walker 6-1 184 PG Connecticut I am torn on this guy. He is an absolute winner. What he and his team did in the Big East and NCAA Tournament is the stuff of legends. Who wins 11 straight games in tournament play? I'd be interested if it has ever happened before. I doubt it. I usually root for winners. I think being a winner is one of the things that transfers the best into professional sports especially if the athlete was the one leading the team like he was. Okay... okay... I've talked myself into rooting for him. I just hope he doesn't turn into the second coming of Jonny Flynn. Now, the only thing he doesn't have going for him now is the fact that MJ drafted him (see Kwame Brown and every draft MJ has ever participated in). Fit (1-10) - 6           Pick (1-10) - 7 10 Milwaukee (Proposed trade: rights to Sacramento) Jimmer Fredette 6-3 196 PG BYU I am amazed that some how after winning every possible National Player of the Year award for the 2010-2011 season Jimmer is underrated. Is he Chris Paul? No. Is a white Michael Jordan? Of course not. But he can shoot, drive, pass, and I guarantee when he is not having to spend every ounce of energy he has on the offensive side of the ball, play defense. I will be interested to see if he Tyreke Evans and Demarcus Cousins can have some sort of chemistry. This may or may not be a great place for him, but I just hope he will still throw up the occasional 35-footer. Fit (1-10) - 5           Pick (1-10) -9 11 Golden State Klay Thompson 6-7 206 SG Washington State Solid SG. He should have a very decent career in the NBA. It is, however, an interesting pick because I am I'm not sure how he fits in next to Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry unless they plan on trading one of them, which would really make no sense unless they can get some very nice pieces back for a player who can get a his shot whenever he wants like both of them can. Fit (1-10) - 3           Pick (1-10) - 8 12 Utah Alec Burks 6-6 193 SG Colorado A need pick, but they did not draft the best player available (see Kawhi Leonard). I understand they need a shooting guard but Leonard was a top 10 talent and Burks is just a middling SG who benefited greatly from a weak draft. Fit (1-10) - 7           Pick (1-10) - 4 13 Phoenix Markieff Morris 6-9 241 PF Kansas His brother is better so if you want a Morris brother... why pick Markieff first? Fit (1-10) - 7           Pick (1-10) - 4 14 Houston Marcus Morris 6-9 230 PF Kansas Should have drafted Leonard, but at least they got the better of the two Morris brothers even if they don't know what position he is going to play. If he ends up as a SF not getting Leonard will have been a big mistake. If he ends up as a PF they will have drafted three PFs in one draft and they don't even need a PF. That is a lose-lose situation. Fit (1-10) - 1           Pick (1-10) - 5 15 Indiana (Rights traded to San Antonio) Kawhi Leonard 6-7 228 SF San Diego State I know San Antonio gave up George Hill for him, but this is a great pick for San Antonio. Their bench is going to be nasty in the post with Dajaun Blair and Kawhi. I am just surprised he fell this far. Fit (1-10) - 8           Pick (1-10) - 10 16 Philadelphia Nikola Vucevic 7-0 260 C USC A typical underwhelming 76ers draft. Nikola will clog the lane nicely but they certainly didn't get much better. Fit (1-10) - 6           Pick (1-10) - 6 17 New York Iman Shumpert 6-6 222 PG Georgia Tech I will have to echo the sentiments of all the Knick fans at the draft. Boooooooo (how many o's is appropriate) ooooo.... If they wanted defense why not the best defender in the draft (Chris Singleton) instead of an under-performing over-sized PG? Fit (1-10) - 3           Pick (1-10) - 2 18 Washington (From Atlanta) Chris Singleton 6-9 230 SF Florida State Great pick by Washington. Guys like Singleton are definitely parts that build championships: long athletic defenders. I foresee him winning multiple championships on multiple teams even if it is not with the Wizards. Fit (1-10) - 9           Pick (1-10) - 9 19 Charlotte (Proposed trade: rights to Milwaukee, from New Orleans via Portland) Tobias Harris 6-8 223 PF Tennessee Being drafted into one of the black holes of the NBA will overshadow Tobias's need to stay in college one more year. I think there should some sort of mediocrity contract that every owner has to sign before they can own a team. If your team cannot make it to the playoffs or out of the first round for ten years you have to sell the team. Bye bye Milwaukee ownership. Sad for a team who at one point had the likes of Kareem and "The Big O". Fit (1-10) - 5           Pick (1-10) - 3  20 Minnesota (Rights traded to Houston, from Memphis via Utah) Donatas Motiejunas 7-0 220 PF Lithuania He is one of three PFs drafted by Houston... so we'll see how this works out if he ever gets to play. Fit (1-10) - 1           Pick (1-10) - 2 21 Portland Nolan Smith 6-4 188 SG Duke I know this is a reach, but Nolan is going to be a great combo guard off the bench. He's the second coming of Jason Terry and I guarantee will win at some point in his career a Sixth Man of the Year award.  Fit (1-10) - 7          Pick (1-10) - 6  22 Denver Kenneth Faried 6-8 225 PF Morehead State Faried is a low scoring version of Kawhi Leonard with better hair. He is a rebound machine who has no problem fulfilling his roll. Fit (1-10) - 9           Pick (1-10) - 9 23 Houston (Rights traded to Chicago, from Orlando via Phoenix) Nikola Mirotic 6-10 226 SF Serbia He is not going to be in the NBA for FOUR YEARS. Fit (1-10) - 1           Pick (1-10) - 1 24 Oklahoma City Reggie Jackson 6-3 208 PG Boston College I guess Eric Maynor wasn't good enough as a back up. I thought Kyle Singler looked good here as a pick. He seemed to be just another piece of the puzzle of what they are trying to build (toughness, high IQ, and shooting). Fit (1-10) - 3           Pick (1-10) - 5  25 Boston (Rights traded to New Jersey) Marshon Brooks 6-5 195 SG Providence As a little bit of insurance for Deron Williams, MarShon should be a good back up and possible replacement for Deron in case he decides to go to greener pastures in free agency next year, which he most likely will. Fit (1-10) - 8           Pick (1-10) - 8 26 Dallas (Rights traded to Denver via Portland) Jordan Hamilton 6-9 228 SF Texas Dallas gets Rudy Fernandez for Hamilton? Well done. Fernandez should prove to be an excellent roll player off the bench for a Mavericks team that is already strong. Hamilton then goes to the Nuggets from Portland in one of the many trades of the evening. Fit (1-10) - 5           Pick (1-10) - 6  27 New Jersey (Rights traded to Boston, from LA Lakers) JaJuan Johnson 6-10 220 PF Purdue A hard worker who will fit right in on the aging Celtics. He most likely get a decent amount of playing his rookie year just to allow KG to get some rest. Fit (1-10) - 8           Pick (1-10) - 8 28 Chicago (Rights traded to Miami) Norris Cole 6-2 175 PG Cleveland St.  Miami got the PG they desperately needed. Not only can dish the rock he can score it as well. Cole averaged 21 ppg 5 apg and 5 rpg in college this past year and most of that was within the three point line. Miami was looking for their version of J J Barea after this years Finals and they may have found it even if he is a bit taller. Fit (1-10) - 9           Pick (1-10) - 8 29 San Antonio Cory Joseph 6-3 186 PG Texas A George Hill replacement? I hope they know what they are doing as this seemed like a stretch. Fit (1-10) - 6           Pick (1-10) - 4  30 Chicago Jimmy Butler 6-8 222 SF Marquette Great story, great kid, and pretty decent fit especially since Chicago's other pick won't be in the NBA for four years. He will be a good role player off the bench and Taj Gibson will be backing up Luol Deng for the foreseeable future so good pick. Fit (1-10) - 6           Pick (1-10) - 6 Notable Second Round Picks 3(33) Detroit (from Toronto) Kyle Singler  6-9 228   SF   Duke 4(34) Washington  Shelvin Mack  6-3 209   PG  Butler 9(39)  Charlotte (Rights traded to 26 Golden State)  Jeremy Tyler 6-11    263 PF 9(49) Memphis  Josh Selby 6-3 195 PG Kansas A couple final draft notes and on why David Kahn shall now be referred to as simply "The Kahn". ESPN's announcers were terrible. I have never witnessed so many awkward "I have no idea what to say pauses" the chief of which was when Stuwart Scott was trying to say that the Bulls wished they could draft MJ again but they couldn't for obvious reasons. They just sat there and stared at each other and off into the distance. The chemistry of Rick Berry, Jeff Van Gundy, and Jay Bilas definitely should not be tried again. Okay about "The Kahn." He traded the 20th pick (and Jonny Flynn) for the 28th pick. Then he traded the 28th pick for the 31st pick. Then he traded the 31st pick for a pick in the second round of next year. There a couple of other things they got Brad Miller (who should have retired like 4 years ago, but is enjoying the pay check of being a big guy in the NBA), the money to pay Brad Miller or to pay off their coach who they just fired for no reason, and another 1st round pick for next year from the Bulls which most likely be somewhere between the 28-30th picks, so basically a 2nd round draft pick. So for the 20th pick he got two 2nd Round picks and a washed up player... genius. That is why I love "The Kahn". The only GM who can make MJ look like the MJ of GMs. If you have any thoughts, comments, or questions leave them in the comment box below or e-mail me at shannon.samuelc@gmail.com.