NBA Playoffs Begin
Blowouts, Bull injured, big comebacks, and bumping into referees. The NBA Playoffs have officially started ladies and gentlemen and through the first two days there has been more to talk about than there was the entire season.
Courtesy of afagen |
The Artest Formerly Known as Metta World Peace
By now all of you have probably seen the video of Lakers forward Metta World Peace elbowing Thunder sixth-man of the year candidate James Harden in the head after dunking on a fast break in the Lakers 2OT win over the Thunder recently. Yesterday the NBA handed down a 7 game suspension to World Peace, costing him more than $400,000 in pay over that span. This last week on “Sports Action” guest-host Alex Crawford and I discussed the incident and how long we felt a suspension should last.
For those of you out there who thought that World Peace became a new person when he changed the name on the back of his jersey, you might want to go back and re-evaluate that. This is not new for World Peace who has been suspended multiple times for incidents similar to this throughout his career.
On November 20, 2004 the NBA suspended World Peace, Ron Artest at the time, 86 games for his part in the “Malice at the Palace” incident in which he went into the stands and physically assaulted a fan. He has been ejected out of more games than I can count on both hands and in December 2009 he admitted to drinking Hennessy cognac at halftime of games during his stint with the Chicago Bulls in the early 2000’s.
When he signed with the Lakers in 2009 many people believed that he would change his ways with Kobe Bryant watching over him. Then on September 16, 2011 the name change from Ron Artest to Metta World Peace came. There was speculation that the reason he changed his name was so that people could no longer say “I hate World Peace”.
With two years left on his current contract with the Lakers this latest incident raises questions about whether or not the Lakers will want to keep him around or try and find a market and trade him and the, almost, $15 million still owed on his contract away after this season.
All-in-all it has become apparent that no matter how many times World Peace changes his name or acts as though he is normal he will never be able to escape the person that he really is. Finally it is my prediction that if the Lakers are eliminated in the first or second round this year then World Peace will be shipped off for what he is worth, maybe a second-round draft pick. If that does happen do we possibly see a Chad Ochocinco move where World Peace changes his name back to Artest? Now that would be a story.
Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships Arrive
The sun has finally graced us with it’s presence, the smell of spring is in the air, and all other 11 Pac-12 schools have arrived in Corvallis for the inaugural Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships which will be held locally at Trysting Tree Golf Course this year.
Sitting here this morning I can tell you that the practice rounds for the teams have gotten under way and we are less than 24 hours away from the first tee shot being hit and the tournament beginning.
The favorites to take the team crown this year have to be Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Stanford, Cal, and USC. Oregon comes in to the championships with the most momentum having won their previous tournament, and six on the year.
The Ducks are led by Eugene Wong and Dan Miernicki, the 5th and 18th ranked players in the nation, and have to be two of the favorites for individual champion. Others who will be in the hunt for the title, accompanied by their ranking, could include Patrick Rodgers of Stanford, 3rd, Chris Williams of Washington, 7th, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, 10th, and Steve Lim of USC, 17th. Other players who could be in the mix include Andrew Yun of Stanford, Cheng-Tsung Pan of Washington, Max Homa of Cal, Alex Moore of Oregon State and Martin Trainer, last year’s champion, of USC.
The tournament runs from Friday April 27 through Sunday the 29th with the first two rounds being played on Friday. Come out, support your teams (especially Beaver Nation), and watch the future stars in the game of golf.
Sunday night on “Sports Action” Jonnie and I will be reviewing the Pac-12 Championships and talking about what we learned throughout the weekend. DON’T MISS IT!
Sports Action Blog
Hello sports fans! Welcome to the “Sports Action” blog. Sports Action is a student-run sports talk show based out of Oregon State University on 88.7 KBVR. OSU student-athlete Jonnie Motomochi and myself started the show this this term and we go on the air every Sunday from 8-10pm.
Jonnie specializes in hockey, golf, baseball, and basketball while I specialize in golf, basketball, and football. Together we form a deadly combination of sports knowledge and entertaining banter.
This blog will serve as another way for Jonnie and I to connect with our fans and listeners and get feedback on our show every week. There will be trivia questions, interesting facts, and follow ups on show topics. Follow us on Twitter by clicking on our links above.
Get ready because this…..is…..SPORTS ACTION!