6:15 PMDarcy Hordichuk's late-3rd period fight vs. the Blues on Tuesday night costs the Canucks forward a one-game suspension - and also costs his coach $10,000.
5:45 PM The removal of Byron Scott in New Orleans & the self-removal of Allen Iverson in Memphis? SI's Arash Markazitakes the blame.
5:30 PM Ex-Eagles receiver Freddie Mitchell airs his frustrations with Donovan McNabb, calling him an "inconsistent" QB and also blaming him for being blackballed by the NFL. Oh, and FredEX enjoyed the CMAs so much that he's cutting his own country music album.
One of the coolest sports innovations of the last few years has been the NHL’s Outdoor Classic, a hockey game held outside in the dead of winter. January 1, to be exact. As a matter of fact, if there were any problems with this year’s Wrigley Field tilt between Chicago and Detroit, it’s that, well, it was just the one game.
(If you seriously must be outdoors and this far north on New Year’s Day, this is probably the best way to spend your time.)
The NHL has realized the popularity of what it has created, thankfully. As ESPN.COM reports, with designs on reappropriating New Year’s Day for hockey instead of college football, the league may be expanding the spectacle to multiple cities: Read more…
Ever since the Michael Phelps incident there has been a lot of debate over whether or not we actually should care if athletes smoke pot occasionally. After all, it’s not exactly a performance enhancing drug, and the evidence that occasional use actually hinders anyone’s ability to achieve at a high level is spotty at best. But Phelps has brought it into the spotlight, and there will probably be increasing attention paid to athletes who choose to fire one up every once in a while.
(You really think this guy isn’t stoned all the time?)
Nowhere is a perceived crackdown on this more noteworthy than in the world of snowboarding, where it’s often assumed that the competitors are just high all the time. With the Olympics coming up next February, drug testing has begun, and it’s not exactly something that fits into their laid-back culture. After all the first gold medalist in Olympic snowboarding tested positive for pot the next day. Although, with the rules involved in testing, I’m not sure it fits into any culture, but you can judge for yourself if the demands are worth it.
The best part about this headline, in truth, is that it’s not even the first time we’ve been able to connect Eddy Curry with a preposterous legal suit in the past month. Remember this? Still, as bad as a two-year-old Big & Tall clothing bill is, this takes the cake: According to this story in the NEW YORK POST, the oft-injured and always overpaid Knicks center is accused of trying to solicit gay sex from his chauffeur, whom he also made touch his penis, clean up towels he had ejaculated into and whom he called a, “f**king Jew”, “white slave”, “white devil”, and “grandmaster of the KKK”. Oh, and when the driver complained, Curry pointed a loaded gun at him and threatened to kill him if he spoke.
(Nothing is coming up Eddy anymore. That’s for sure.)
Yes, folks, that’s about as good a story lede as you can get. Just imagine the eyes on the reporter who tripped across this court filing. “Oh, look, a Knicks benchwarmer is getting sued. Hmm, wait a minute! Gay sex! Racial epithets! He makes $9 million!! Someone get me the executive editor!”
For your reading pleasure, here are the best lines from the suit, carefully culled by the POST:
The stunning court papers claim Curry, a married father of three, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky“in the nude,” allegedly telling him, “Look at me, Dave, look” and “Come and touch it, Dave.”
In a disturbing episode reminiscent of some of the evidence in the manslaughter case against former Nets star Jayson Williams, Kuchinsky further claims in his suit that Curry pointed a “fully loaded” gun at him on at least two separate occasions to keep him from complaining about his treatment. “Look, I have one in the chamber,” Curry allegedly said.
Exactly how many of the allegations Curry fulfilled is up for debate, but — as with the Duke rape case — at the very least he was doing things that weren’t advisable. Note to self: Don’t call any future butlers grandmaster of the KKK”. Oh, and don’t make them butlers if you’ve only hired them to drive you around.
However, what might be the most astonishing thing about the suit, is just how little David Kuchinsky, the driver in question, is asking for. The POST claims that he wants $98,000 — $68,000 in unpaid wages and another $25,000+ in unpaid expenses from Curry — and “compensatory damages” from the center. Look, we’re not genuises here, but $98,000 is chump change for a guy whose been making $9 million a year. Sure, it’s good money, but if you’re Curry, don’t you just settle that suit as fast as humanly possible? You whipped it out on the guy repeatedly and made him clean up your masturbatory mess, and all he wants is a measly $100G? Seems cheap at the price, if you ask us.
“Instead of paying him, they discriminated against him, figuring that it would keep him there,” said Kuchinsky’s lawyer, Matthew Blit. “Imagine going into your boss’s office … and he stands up and drops his pants and he asks you take care of him. Those actions are unacceptable whether it’s in a corporate office or a private home.”
It’s worth noting that Kuchinsky does have a checkered past — he served a three-year prison sentence for a 1992 burglary in New Jersey — and that Curry’s lawyer, Kelly Saindon, says that the suit is the culmination of a series of blackmailing threats from the former chauffeur.
Still, if any of these allegations are admitted to or proven true in a court of law, it will solidify one thing: Curry is the human equivalent of canine feces. Yes, we’re calling him dog crap. He can take his 2:38 of game action this entire season and shove it. Or maybe Kuchinsky can do that for him. He might like that.
There was more NBA news, but alas, it was much less inflammatory, degrading or insulting. Still, it was pretty entertaining. Following a second-straight win over Toronto, snapping the team’s previous elongated losing skid in the process, Celtics center Kevin Garnett felt comfortable enough to loosen up in a postgame presser and go Christopher Reeve on everyone. Here’s the video:
Is it just us, or does Paul Pierce always seem like KG’s red-headed step-cousin in the interview room? Garnett steals the stage even when he’s trying to deflect praise, all of which makes the dual-mic pressers even more awkward, and more entertaining in the process.
Also, if you haven’t seen him play yet this year, now might be a good time to check out Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin. Here’s a lowdown of what he does well: Everything inside the three-point line. Here’s what he does poorly: select earphones. Did anyone see the earbuds he was using during a pre-game shootaround before Monday night’s win over rival Texas, a victory which snapped a six-game Oklahoma hoops losing streak against the Longhorns? They were either A) really old iPod earbuds or B) ripoffs of iPod earbuds. We couldn’t see “COBY” on them, but they had all the tell-tale signs. What, he can’t afford any Bose or Sony in-ear headphones? And what about the Nike ‘phones that are allegedly “designed for athletics”. Nike sponsors OU and they won’t comp a future top-10 pick a pair of headphones?
(Hmmm. Blake Griffin. Think he’s from Quahog, R.I.?)
You know all those horrible chick flicks they put out with a hot actress — say, Kate Hudson — who is torn between two perfectly affable potential lovers and friends? Well, in this one, the two guys are played by PGA stud Adam Scott on Alex Rodriguez. Oh, and it’s actually happening.
Remember the old codger of a Hall of Fame voter in Tuscon who openly forgot to vote for Rickey Henderson? Well, ol’ Corky Simpson is taking out his frustration on the interwebs. We’d give you his home address and email if we had it … so come back soon. We should have it by lunch (gotta love the interwebs, even if Corky doesn’t).
There is no way Ed Rendell will ever win another election in Pennsylvania; he just simultaneously jinxed both the Steelers and Eagles with one, ferociously stupid blow.
Rendell might get off easy if it’s really snowy in Pittsburgh and the Ravens slog out a gross game. That’s more than you can say for the Spanish soccer fans in the video below.
There have been plenty of self-assured hurrahs about the Colts’ new coach after Tony Dungy’s retirement, with Jim Caldwell lauded as the perfect replacement waiting in the wings. Well, did anyone think to check out his record at his last stop? SHUTDOWN CORNER did. Guess what: It isn’t pretty.
Speaking of the Colts, if things keep going down this path, Dungy might not be the only constant Indianapolis face leaving town. Marvin Harrison might be gone, too.
With apologies to Keith Olbermann: we have found the worst person in the world, and they live in Chicago. It’s not easy to ruin the very special Winter Classic, especially for a Detroit fan, but it happened to a 14-year-old boy when someone claiming to work at Wrigley Field walked off with the boy’s once-in-a-lifetime souvenir.
(Artist’s depiction of the victimized child.)
Kalan Plew rushed rinkside to see his Red Wings leave the ice after the game, and maybe even get a high-five. But he caught Henrik Zetterberg’s eye, and the Wings winger gave him his stick. As the boy sprinted to show his father, someone dressed as a security guard told the boy he couldn’t have the stick in the stadium, and he could pick it up at the customer relations office. You can guess what happens next: the man just walks off with the stick, which is probably on eBay as we speak.
