[W]hat James proved himself to be Thursday night: A contradiction. An athlete who loves the chase but can’t handle the failure. A star who craves the bright lights, but only wants them to show his good side.
[T]his flimsy, cowardly “decision” [was] a plot so empty and devoid of substance that it needed its own infomercial, and a bad one at that.

James, if nothing else on this pathetic night for the NBA, proved that he isn’t up to that task and doesn’t even want to try. He doesn’t want to beat the best; he wants the best to get him his rings already so his accomplishments can catch up to his hubris — so he can cash in on this make-believe legend in what has been a make-believe career. James’ reputation went from questionable to counterfeit Thursday night, with an assist from the adoring network that pays billions to broadcast a sport that James, ironically, has now done far more damage than good.
–Ken Berger, CBSSports.com

LeBron lost something in the process. James had alienated so many fans with the way he had representatives of six teams trek to Cleveland to play out the entire process, even though, as one of the general managers said, “We knew only two or three teams had a chance to get these guys.” He lost even more people by choosing to announce his decision on ESPN in an elaborate show. How could any non-Heat fan watch this thing play out and think, “I wanna root for this guy?”
–J.A. Adande, ESPN.com

[T]he Summer of LeBron chugged forward, undaunted and a little undeserved. Who was this me-first LeBron James? The LeBron we loved was a dynamic, devoted player who, at his best, played joyously and selflessly—a rare star who seemed to be having as much fun as the people paying to watch him.

But the LeBron James who emerged this summer was a different character—inscrutable, attention-grabby and mysteriously tone deaf, speaking of himself in the third person and gabbing to Larry King as Kobe battled Boston. And the King James label—a little presumptive, don’t you think? Kings don’t get bounced in the Eastern Conference Semis.
–Jason Gay, The Wall Street Journal

How he said it drowned out the meaning of his words. If he was going to divorce himself from the fans who viewed him as one of their own, as a savior to their depressed region, then wasn’t there a less painful way to do so?
–Ian Thomsen, SI.com

The thing is that if LeBron really did care about the hearts he broke back home, he wouldn’t have made his announcement through a vulgar stunt like this. He would have done it the tasteful way – faked some tears while standing in front of a microphone in a basketball auditorium, maybe wearing some shades to make it seem like he didn’t want anyone to see how red his eyes were. He could have pretended to care a little bit.
-Allen Barra, The Village Voice

The silver lining, [of LeBron James going to Miami]: All non-Floridian sports fans can root against the Heat with a passion usually reserved for local teams. The Miami Heat will be the new Yankees.
–Isaac Chotiner, The New Republic

I just didn’t think LeBron James had it in him to create his own ESPN show dedicated to dumping his hometown. I always thought he might leave for another team. But I didn’t think he would do it so readily, so impassively, so cooly, I didn’t think he would so publicly spurn and embarrass the city that has dedicated so much of its energy to loving him. I didn’t think he had that in him.
–Joe Posnanski, SI.com

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
–Dan Gilbert, Majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers

I’m keeping my 2 yr old up to watch the LeBron James Special. I want her to see the exact moment our society hit rock bottom.
–Eric Stangel, Head Writer and Executive Producer for The Late Show with David Letterman

First, Jagger was in the stadium besides Bill Clinton supporting the U.S side when the American lost to Ghana in the round of 16.

Then, Jagger threw his support behind his native England, only to see them lose 4-1 to rival Germany.

AS a result, he joined the world bandwagon in cheering for Brazil (supposedly out of affection for his half-brazilian son), then saw (caused?) them to suffer the biggest upset of the World Cup so far, falling to the Netherlands 2-1.

As of this writing, Mick Jagger has been shown in the stands of the Argentina-Germany game. No word yet on who he is jin– supporting.

However, that quickly changed in the second half, as a Brazilian mistake allowed the European team an equalizer, followed shortly by the goal that would give the Netherlands a lead that they would never relinquish.

Just 10 minutes into the game, Robinho scored the opening goal to put the Brazilian side up for the rest of the half. A scant 8 minutes after the second half got under way, however, an own goal by Felipe Melo allowed the Dutch side to tie the scoreboard. The score would remain tied for another 15 minutes until Sneijder would score off a corner kick for the Clockwork Orange and give the game its final margin.

John Wooden

John Wooden, legendary basketball coach died Friday, June 4th, 2010 at the age of 99. Here are some reactions to his passing.

For what he was able to accomplish, for some of the people he coached — who he not only turned into great basketball players, but into greater people — says enough about John Wooden’s legacy.
–2002 Wooden Award honoree Jason Williams

When you talk about the definition of the word “class,” you could go to Webster’s Dictionary and there should be a picture of Coach Wooden right there.
–ESPN Broadcaster Dick Vitale

You need not be a sports fan to mourn the passing of John Wooden. Coach Wooden took the self-sacrifice and teamwork required to be successful in basketball and modeled them into a paradigm for life. Through basketball, he taught generations of players and fans the values of love, friendship, responsibility and humility. `Make friendship a true art’ and `Give thanks for your blessings and ask for guidance every day’ were among his favorite maxims. I give thanks to God for the life and wisdom of John Wooden. May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.
–Cardinal Roger Mahony

So saddened about Coach Wooden’s passing, but so thankful for the impact he had on me & countless others. Thank you, Coach.
–Former USC and current NFL coach Pete Carroll

He set quite an example. He was more like a parent than a coach. He really was a very selfless and giving human being, but he was a disciplinarian. We learned all about those aspects of life that most kids want to skip over. He wouldn’t let us do that.

Many people have asked me if Coach Wooden was for real. They wanted to know if he really didn’t use foul language or really didn’t tell his teams they had to win a specific game. I’m aware how cynical the world has become. Coach’s value system was from another era, it was developed in an America that has passed on.
–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Today, we’ve lost a giant in all of sport with the passing of Coach Wooden. Quite likely, his accomplishments as a college basketball coach will never be matched. Neither will the impact he had on his players or the greater basketball community. Many have called Coach Wooden the ‘gold standard’ of coaches. I believe he was the ‘gold standard’ of people and carried himself with uncommon grace, dignity and humility. Coach Wooden’s name is synonymous with excellence, and deservedly so. He was one of the great leaders – in any profession – of his generation. We are blessed that the sport of basketball benefitted from his talents for so long. Coach Wooden and his wisdom will be sorely missed.
–Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski

Everybody knew John Wooden, and everybody knew him in a loving manner. I don’t know anybody who ever had anything ill to say about the man, and that’s remarkable considering how many people he came into contact with. We lost a great man.
–Bobby Plump, the former Butler star and “Hoosiers” inspiration.

When I think of a basketball coach the only one I ever thought of was Coach Wooden. He had a great life and helped so many coaches until well in his 90s. Every time I talked to him he would give me some words of advice. He’s the best of all time. There will never be another like him and you can’t say that about too many people.
–Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim

He has been anxious to be reunited with Nell for a lot of years, so this is not a sad experience for him I don’t believe. I don’t think there is anyone who had influenced the number of people in his life than he had.
–former Arizona coach Lute Olson

I never met him. Meeting him was on the bucket list. Came close a couple times, but never did meet him. Obviously, I’ve read everything about him, so just being selfish and personal, I have regret that I never had an in-person meeting with him. Amazing life.
–St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa

The takeaways we all have been blessed with from knowing John Wooden are numerous. For all of his successes, he was such a humble man. Tonight, we have lost a true American icon.
–Pat Summitt, Tennessee women’s basketball coach

This is a sad day at UCLA. Coach Wooden’s legacy transcends athletics; what he did was produce leaders. But his influence has reached far beyond our campus and even our community. Through his work and his life, he imparted his phenomenal understanding of leadership and his unwavering sense of integrity to so many people. His ‘Pyramid of Success’ hangs in my office to remind me every day of what it takes to be an effective leader. He was truly a legend in his own time, and he will be a legend for generations to come.
–Gene Block, UCLA Chancellor

There has not been a finer gentleman in sports than John Wooden.
–Jay Bilas, ESPN analyst

Those of us who knew him and knew him well are the ones who were blessed by his life. And as usual, when it gets down to it, Shakespeare said it best: “His life was gentle, and the elemnents so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world: THIS was a man.”

It’s fair to say we will never see his likes again. Goodnight sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
–Legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully

Coach Wooden was one in a billion as a coach, mentor and friend. As a friend, whenever you reached out to him he always reached back unconditionally. Coach led a good life and he died a good death.
–Jamaal Wilkes

Mr. Wooden, who died Friday night of natural causes at age 99, built one of sports’ greatest dynasties at UCLA in the 1960s and 1970s, when his Bruins won 10 national titles in 12 seasons. His teams, some featuring Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and later Bill Walton, racked up four 30-0 seasons and won a record 88 consecutive games from 1971 to 1974.

Mr. Wooden’s trademarks as a coach were conditioning, drilling, and the “Pyramid of Success,” a formula for clean living that admitted of no facial hair or profanity. While rival coaches spoke behind his back of “Saint John,” Mr. Wooden lectured his players on the virtues of self-control and industriousness. He spouted pithy slogans like “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

His players loved him. “When I left UCLA in 1974 and became the highest-paid player in the history of team sports at that time, the quality of my life went down,” wrote Bill Walton in 2000 in UCLA Magazine. “That’s how special it was to have played for John Wooden and UCLA.”

The LA TV station KCAL has this to add:

Shortly after graduating from Purdue in 1932, Wooden married Nell Riley, whom he had met at a carnival when he was 15.

His UCLA obitituary says the couple remained together until her death in 1985. He considered his wife his “lucky Nell” — he never began a game without finding her in the stands and getting a wink and an OK signal from her.

Wooden often said that when his wife passed, he stopped fearing death.

He told UCLA Magazine in 2007, “I look forward to seeing her again.”

A week ago webcomic creator Wes Molebash posted a simple question on his blog:

If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead), who would it be and why?
- Wes

My response was just as straightforward and simple:

Jean Val Jean
May 26, 2010 at 11:00 am | Permalink

Easy: I’d give a year’s salary to have dinner with John “They call me Coach” Wooden.

I wish I’d known back then what I know now. I would have gone into debt to have met John Wooden.
In March 2000, ESPN and Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly called Wooden “the best man I know”:

On Tuesday the best man I know will do what he always does on the 21st of the month. He’ll sit down and pen a love letter to his best girl. He’ll say how much he misses her and loves her and can’t wait to see her again. Then he’ll fold it once, slide it in a little envelope and walk into his bedroom. He’ll go to the stack of love letters sitting there on her pillow, untie the yellow ribbon, place the new one on top and tie the ribbon again.

The stack will be 180 letters high then, because Tuesday is 15 years to the day since Nellie, his beloved wife of 53 years, died. In her memory, he sleeps only on his half of the bed, only on his pillow, only on top of the sheets, never between, with just the old bedspread they shared to keep him warm.

There’s never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach.

According to earlier news reports, he asked one of his sons to shave him while he was in the hospital. He had previously said that he wanted to be clear-cut when he met back with his Nellie.

I wish I could write more about John Wooden… but it weighs heavily on me right now. I can’t find the words. Godspeed John Wooden. Enjoy seeing Nellie again.

-Tiki Barber, in his 2007 memoir “Tiki: My life in the game and beyond”

“I don’t give a [bleep] that the relationship didn’t work. Not only did he abandon her, I felt like he abandoned us for a lot of our lives. I have a hard time forgiving that.”

-Tiki Barber, speaking of his parents’ split in a 2004 NY Post interview.

Ex-Giants superstar Tiki Barber has dumped his 8-months-pregnant wife, Ginny, for sexy former NBC intern Traci Lynn Johnson, sources told The NY Post last night. The football star-turned-”Today” show-correspondent left his wife of 11 years, Ginny, for the 23-year-old blond, who also worked at the NBC TV show “30 Rock”, the sources said. Ginny, who is expecting twins, found out about the relationship late last year, after the run-around running back moved out of their Upper East Side home.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/timing_tiki_plays_field_TMZxMDNXxvBbNgVBToZL8O#ixzz0kRs1L6NX

“Good morning, and thank you for joining me. Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me, have worked with me, always supported me. Now, every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each on of you simply and directly I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in. I know people want to find out how i could be so selfish and foolish.”

“I have let you down”

“Elin never hit me that night or any night
there has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage.
Elin deserves praise, not blame.”

“I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated.  What I did was not acceptable. and I am the only person to blame.

Tiger Woods, in happier times

I knew my actions were wrong.
I never thought about who I was hurting.
Instead I thought only about myself.”

“I brought this shame on myself.I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife’s mother, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.”

“It’s up to me to start living a life of integrity.
I once heard, and I believe it’s true, it’s not what you achieve in life that matters.  It’s what you overcome.”

“It’s hard to admit that I need help. but I do.
For 45 days, I was in in-patient therapy, receiving guidance for the issues I’m facing.
but I’ve taken my first steps in the right direction.”

“For the sake of my family: please leave my wife and kids alone.”

“Above all, I am the one that needs to change.
I owe it to my family to become a better person.”

“I have a lot of work to do. And I intend to dedicate myself to doing it.”

“Starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment, and more therapy. ”

“I need to regain my balance, and be centered, so I can save the things more important to me: my children, and my marriage.”

“I do plan to return to golf one day.
When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.”

“There are many people in this room, and there are many people at home, who believed in me. Today, I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day, believe in me again.  Thank you.”

————————-

On November 25, 2009, supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer published a story claiming that Woods had an extramarital affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel?, a claim she denied. The story began to attract media attention when Woods had a car accident a day and a half later. He was leaving his home around 2:30 a.m. in his SUV, a 2009 Cadillac Escalade, when he collided with a hedge, a fire hydrant, and finally a tree down the street. Woods was treated for minor facial lacerations, and cited for careless driving. He refused to speak to the police and the accident fanned intense speculation for the following two days until he released a statement on his website. He took blame for the crash, but said it was a private matter; he also praised his wife Elin for getting him out of the car. Woods later announced that he would not attend his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, or any other remaining tournaments in 2009.

Interest in the story grew, until San Diego cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs publicly claimed in the gossip magazine Us Weekly that she had a two-and-a-half-year affair with Woods, producing voice and text messages that she said Woods left her. The voice message stated: “Hey it’s Tiger, I need you to do me a huge favor. Can you please take your name off your phone? My wife went through my phone…You got to do this for me. Huge. Quickly. Bye.”Woods released an apology on the same day the story was published, expressing regret for “transgressions” and saying “I have let my family down.” Woods was not specific about the reason for the apology, and requested privacy.

After over a dozen women claimed in various media outlets that they had affairs with Woods, media pressure increased. On December 11, he released another statement, admitting to infidelity, offering another apology, and announcing an indefinite hiatus from professional golf. On the same day, lawyers acting on his behalf obtained an injunction in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, preventing the publication in the UK of any images of Woods naked or having sexual intercourse, while denying that Woods was aware of the existence of any such images. Reporting the subject of the injunction was also itself injuncted. The following week, one of the women who had undertaken media interviews regarding her relationship with Woods admitted having taken photographs of Woods naked, on the pre-meditated premise that she would sell them if they ever broke up.

The day after the statement, several companies indicated they were reconsidering endorsement deals. Gillette suspended advertising featuring Woods, and said they would not be hiring him for any public appearances for the company. On December 13, management consultancy firm Accenture completely cut its sponsorship of Woods, stating that the golfer was “no longer the right representative.”

On December 11, 2009, Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity.

In this press conference, Tiger Woods also mentioned how he would be seeking to return to his roots on the Buddhist faith, which he admitted abandoning in recent years.

Vonn’s first race, was supposed to have been Thursday, but was postponed due to poor weather conditions. Vonn’s winning time was 1 minute and 44.19 seconds, with teammate and silver medalist Julia Mancuso trailing Vonn by just half a second (1:14.75). It was the second Olympic medal for Mancuso, after the gold in she won in Turin in the Grand Slalom.

Austria’s Elisabeth Görgl won the bronze.

The ex-wide receiver pleaded guilty

Junction trailer Thursday morning to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon. Under a plea agreement, he agreed to a two-year prison sentence and two years of supervised release.

Burress was indicted earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. He faced a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years if convicted at a trial. Phenomena dvd

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His attorneys and prosecutors previously had been unable to agree to a plea deal. Burress previously had been unwilling to agree to more than one year in prison under the terms of a plea agreement while prosecutors reportedly had been seeking two years.

Burress’ sentencing is set for Sept. 22.

He accidentally shooting himself at a Manhattan nightclub last year.

Burress was at the Latin Quarter nightclub on Nov. 29 when an unlicensed gun tucked into his waistband slipped down his leg and fired, shooting him in the right thigh.

A grand jury indicted Burress on weapons charges earlier this month for his self-inflicted gunshot wound last November.

Burress, 32, has been a free agent since the Giants cut him in April. He caught the game-winning touchdown in the final minute of Super Bowl XLII for the Giants.

His attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said in court that the 31-year-old Burress was thinking of his family in taking the plea, although he questioned the recommended prison sentence.

“This was not an intentional criminal act,” Brafman said. “In my judgment, a two-year prison sentence is a very severe punishment.”

With time off for good behavior the sentence could be reduced to 20 months.