I’ve realized for a lot of people, my blog posts are their only connection with the sports world. I know its weird…I find it shocking when people dont have espn.com set at their browser homepage.
So, I’ve decided to create a “weekly recap” post that take a look at some of the bigger stories in sports this past week. Just a warning to my non-Bay Area readers, I’ll probably be heavily Bay Area biased…so be aware.
Since I have to release a “weekly report” to my boss every week on Thursday at 2pm, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to release this recap thing Thursday afternoons as well. Yeah…multitasking at its finest.
World Cup
Probably the greatest sporting event in the world, and what I’ve been writing about for the past two weeks. I wont spend time talking about it here, though you can read about two of the bigger surprises: the US’s achievements so far and the French disaster.
The epic tennis match at Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut…
6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. Simply…insane.
Just take a look at the records set in this game…
1) Longest match ever: 11 hours 5 minutes over a total of 3 days.
2) Longest set: 5th set lasted 8 hours 11 minutes
3) Most games in a set: 138 in the 5th
4) Most games in a match: 183
5) Most aces in a match by one player: Isner, 112
6) Total aces in a match: 215 total
This went down as the most epic tennis match ever played, and its a feat that will probably never ever be duplicated. What was absolutely stunning was the sheer quality of play throughout the 11 hours. There were 510 winners and 215 total aces, with only 122 unforced errors. The human will power shown during the entire game, and the emotions display at the completion of the game, coupled with the tremendous fan support, were all a testament to the beauty of sports.
The San Jose Sharks Offseason
After the Sharks were eliminated from the playoffs last year, talk immediately went to who the Sharks were going to sign: either Patrick Marleau or Evgeni Nabokov, two of the longest tenured Sharks and two of the fan favorites. Both player’s contracts were up, and the Sharks only had enough salary cap space to sign one of these players. Sign Marleau, lose Nabokov. Sign Nabokov, lose Marleau. It was a heated debate, with fans taking sides of one player or the other.
I took the side of Patrick Marleau, who I think is the heart and sole of this Sharks team, and someone who I wish retires as a Shark. Even throughout all the disappointments of these past couple seasons, Marleau has been the one who has always fought hard for his team.
With regards to Nabokov, he’s one of the great goaltenders of this league, but has never been able to perform well in the playoffs. Come playoff time, you need a goalie who will “steal” games and series for you, and Nabokov never came through for the Sharks. He never got “hot”. This past playoffs, Nabokov played his best ever, yet at the same time, he still let in a lot of soft goals that he should have stopped. What did this show me? Even when Nabokov plays his best, it’s really not good enough to win.
In the end, Nabokov was the one who was let go. Nabokov will be missed, as he was one of the fan’s favorite players. I wish him the best of luck.
Today, Patrick Marleau was signed to a 4 year contract, worth $6.9 million/season. This deal makes me love Marleau even more. Why? Marleau was the premier Center on the market this year, and could have attracted top money from numerous teams. While his $6.9 million/season is a lot, there are 20+ players who make more than him. He deserves to be one of the top paid players in the league, but he gave the Sharks a “hometown” discount to stay with the team.
NBA Free Agency Frenzy
And the buildup to the biggest summer in NBA history has begun, with two of the biggest players making key moves.
First, the Miami Heat traded Daequan Cook and an 18th pick to Oklahoma City for the 32nd pick in the round.
Then, the Chicago Bulls traded Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Wizards for players/picks to be announced.
While these trades might seem lopsided or unfair, they were done for one purpose only: to free up cap space to try to lure top players come July 1st. By trading away Cook and their 18th pick (who’s value is around $3 million), the Miami Heat has enough salary cap room to sign 3 max-contract players, their own Dwayne Wade and possibly two others, like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.
By getting rid of Hinrich’s $9 million contract, the Bulls freed enough cap room to sign 2 maximum-salary players from this years market, supposedly rumored to be Lebron James and Chris Bosh.
After all these deals, here’s an analyst’s projection of summer cap space.
1. New York Knicks – $34.2 million
2. Chicago Bulls – $29.1 million
3. New Jersey Nets – $27.2 million
4. Miami Heat – $26.2 million
Come July, it’ll be very interesting to see how things fall.
On a side note, The Warriors made a similar trade where they traded away Corey Maggette to Milwaukee for Charlie Bell and Dan Gadzuric. This wasn’t a trade for player quality in mind. Rather, this again was a salary dump trade. Maggette still has 3 years and $31 million on his contract, which the Bucks were willing to pick up since they’ll most likely lose John Salmons to free agency this year. Gadzuric only has $7.2 million in his last year on his contract, while Bell has $8 million over two years. By getting rid of Maggette’s insane contract, and losing Gadzuric’s contract after next season, the Warriors will too have a little cap space to try to get a quality free agent this summer.
Obsessedsportsnut's Blog 