Various Odds and Ends, July 5, 2012

• Thank God July 4 is over.  Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone, and, given people I've read from sea to shining sea, we were not alone.
• Nash to the Lakers...  Gotta agree with Brian, but not as far as Mike Greenberg and JT The Brick want to go.  I think it's clear that, with San Antonio aging, the NBA needs another Western Conference team.  In the East, to give Miami a little show, you have Chicago and, depending on free agency, Boston.  In the West, past the Lakers and the Spurs this year, you had...  You had...  My point exactly.  Do I think this is enough for the Lakers to get back and win another title or two?  No.  Not unless someone on the Heat throws a homophobic slur at someone publicly or somesuch.  I think this was done to keep the Lakers relevant and get better ratings as Oklahoma City's foil.
• The NFL, today, announced that all replays that the lead official is seeing will be broadcast to the fans in attendance at that game.  Hey, Brian:  Shall we begin a count as to how many of these calls go to the home team, regardless of the truth of the matter here?  Bad idea!  It would be better to go with rugby's model of a known TMO (Television Match Official) in the booth, and to have the referees fully mic-ed, even when just talking to the players, not just announcing the penalties.  Besides increasing integrity, you can sometimes get some very funny exchanges when the refs tell the players who actually is the boss around here!
• In a decision which should surprise no one reading this blog and my previous exchange with Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer, the Attorney General of the State of Nevada officially determined no crime was committed in the fixed decision in which Brian Bradley defeated Manny Pacquiao.  If we need any more confirmation that the state of Nevada is protecting their boy Floyd for if he has a career after his time in the joint, there it is!  Between the arrogance of Mr. Kizer and the fact that the "investigation" involved interviewing precisely none of judges involved in the fight, it's clear to me that any fix for the fight originated officially within the boxing organization of the state of Nevada, as I've suspected since they allowed Floyd to fight May 5.
• ESPN's John Clayton reports an interesting fact:  The two easiest schedules in the NFL next year are for the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. (Question about 2/3 of the way down the page.)  So who do YOU have going to the Super Bowl?
• Michael Johnson has officially played the race card, as he went Jimmy the Greek on a pre-Olympic interview.  The Daily Mail Online reports this from Johnson:  "Over the last few years, athletes of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American descent have dominated athletics [track and field] finals.  It's a fact that hasn't been discussed openly before.  It's a taboo subject in the States but it is what it is.  Why shouldn't we discuss it?" 
• To this end, studies are being made to see if evidence persists, as believed, that slave-owners actually bred slaves to be more athletic (to perform the tasks required, killing the rest off as unfit -- since they were not seen as human beings by many slave-owners.  So much so that one ship to Jamaica had 170 passengers starting in Africa for slavery in the New World.  Only SIX completed the journey.), leading only a more athletic gene-pool to come down through the generations of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American descent. So much so that all eight of the 100-meter finalists in 2008 in Beijing were of such descent:  Three from Jamaica, including champion Usain Bolt, two African-Americans, two from Trinidad and Tobago, and the one European was an Afro-European from the Dutch island of Curacao.
• Every word true.  The domination of Black athletes in almost every sport cannot be denied, so why do we not discuss at least why this is true?  And that leads to the "urbanization" of many sports cultures, and everything which results.  The reason we don't discuss it is that it is believed to be racist to state it.  So is it any less racist when one of the most prominent African-American runners of our time says it, rather than an old white Vegas-guy of the 70's that the NFL probably wanted rid of anyway when it was clear that he was putting CBS NFL broadcasts too close to the then-truth about the NFL?