Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Kevin Durant to Warriors is a strong move by a strong man despite Stephen A. Smith

Kevin Durant and Steph Curry as teammates raises expectations to a championship and 75 regular season wins. Inviting that into your life is anything but weak.

Kevin Durant and Steph Curry as teammates raises expectations to a championship and 75 regular season wins. Inviting that into your life is anything but weak.

Kevin Durant announced today on the Players Tribune that he is joining the Golden State Warriors to form what many will say is the greatest accumulation of talent in NBA history.

That’s debatable.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

What is beyond argument is that Durant has made a decision that is best for him.  That’s because we can’t swim around in his head to learn which boxes needed to be checked in order to make it.

It’s simple and hyperbolic for ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith (imagine that – ‘simple’ and ‘Stephen A. Smith’ in the same sentence!) to yell about Durant making “the weakest move I’ve ever seen” to join the team that beat him a month ago in the Western Conference Finals after Oklahoma City led the series 3-1.

Carping about Durant jumping ship for a chance to win because he felt the Thunder couldn’t do it is itself weak and silly.  As much as Smith believes he invented the concept of insight, we in the media operate in a veritable vacuum of information.  Stephen guesses with passion.  That’s his job.

Let’s look at this from another perspective.  Durant has not only carried a team for eight years – with a nod to Russell Westbrook – but a city as well.  A desire for a new challenge, one where he is not the absolute nexus of team success and civic pride is not evidence of weakness.

Durant understands his decision will have a horrible effect on his adopted hometown, and his status as a statue guy for the Thunder has been abdicated.  That’s not an easy choice.

Hopping a plane for the unfamiliar is never easy because it can provide a rocky landing.  The expectations for Warrior will leap toward the ridiculous.  They won 73 games last season, so Durant on the floor in place of Harrison Barnes should allow them the win, what, 75-77 games?

And if they don’t, what then?

Durant could have remained a hero and hall of famer forever in Oklahoma City, He could have worked tirelessly, continued to average in the upper 20s, and been seen as one of the best five players of his generation.

Instead, he is pushing his chips into the middle of the table.  If the Warriors win 66 games and lose in the NBA Finals or any step of the playoffs prior, Durant will be seen as a loser.  Putting yourself in the jackpot scenario is not a weak move.

Durant has much more to lose than gain by signing with the Warriors because now he becomes a “supposed to win” player instead of a “wouldn’t it be nice if he won” player.

This decision was about a man deciding where he wants to live and work.  As a public figure, he can be criticized and mocked, but it isn’t a just or reasonable response.

The tough part of saying yes to a suitor is the de facto negative response to all the others.  It would have been a lovely moment for Durant and the people of Oklahoma City if he had decided to agree to return.  And how much fun would it have been to be the next big thing in Boston?  Playing with the Clippers in Los Angeles would have opened next chapter doors for Durant.  Saying no to all those options required a man much tougher than Smith gives him credit for being.

And congratulations to Durant for doing it quietly without and pomp, circumstance, or Jim Gray.

Click here for a $1 comprehensive dental exam done by the best dentist in Indiana – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top seven reasons to be appalled and baffled by day one of NBA free agency

We'll see if Timofey Mozgov is asked to take his warm-up off for the $16M/year the Lakes will pay him.

We’ll see if Timofey Mozgov is asked to take his warm-up off for the $16M/year the Lakes will pay him.

It’s the silliest season ever for the NBA.

Day one of free agency is normally filled with crazy deals struck during the initial feeding frenzy. Each year, we screech, “(Insert player’s name here) is worth (insert millions of dollars)?!  No chance!  Our society has gone haywire!”

Today is a little different.  Haywire has a new definition.  The bar has been raised.

Timofey Mozgov, a player with nine DNPCDs (did not play – coach’s decision) in the recently concluded playoffs, has agreed to a deal worth $64 million over four years with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Other deals are equally outrageous.  Mediocrity is being rewarded at a level that is more than troubling – it’s unsustainable and a potentially poisonous element in the popularity of the NBA.

Paying the best an enormous amount of money is one thing.  That’s understandable.  Rewarding abject mediocrity is quite another.  Fans don’t – can’t – understand that.

Want to give LeBron James $100 million?  Great.  He’s worth it.  Mozgov gets $16M per, and fans’ brows furrow as we question the sanity of the entire system.

Here are the seven reasons to be appalled and confused by day one of NBA free agency:

7 – Our society of ribbons for everyone is now being extended to the NBA.  For years, adults have lamented the trend toward making every kid feel special, thereby making none feel special.  Rewarding mediocrity has been so thoroughly inculcated into our society that it has now extended to the NBA.  C student level pro basketball players are now being paid 200 times the average household income.   Continue reading

Top 10 reasons why you should feel very good about Andrew Luck getting historic cash

Andrew Luck signs the contract that makes him the NFL's best paid player.

Andrew Luck signs the contract that makes him the NFL’s best paid player.

Colts quarterback Andrew Luck signed a contract yesterday that makes him the highest paid player in NFL history.

The guaranteed money is an astounding $87 million over the next six years – $22 million more than the next biggest deal, the $65 million guaranteed to New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Luck has never won a Super Bowl, or even played in a Super Bowl.  He’s never led the NFL in passer rating or QBR, and most experts feel he slots just outside the top five in rankings behind Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, and Drew Brees.  Carson Palmer and Russell Wilson are also pretty damn good.

Some fans and media are asking why a quarterback in the back half of the NFL’s top 10 is worth 25% more guaranteed jack than any other player in league history.  While the question is legit, the answers are too.

Here are the 10 reasons Luck is worth every penny of the $87 million he is guaranteed through 2021.

10 – After lucking into both Peyton Manning and Luck, hoping for a third straight generational QB is too much to ask.  For every Manning and Luck, there are five Sam Bradfords and David Carrs who are taken #1, but fail to fulfill expectations.  Luck possesses a rare combination of athleticism, intellect, and character that projects forward toward a Super Bowl championship – or multiple championships.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

9 – Last year was an aberration.  Luck played seven games last season, and the Colts were 2-5 in those games.  That means that backups were 6-3.  Does that make sense to anyone?  Of course not, so I am choosing to overlook it completely.  Even a cynic like me is willing to look back at 2012-2014 as more indicative of Luck’s career path than the weird and injury filled 2015.  Luck’s stats across the board were down in his fourth year, but over the first three, he was in steady ascension toward greatness.

8 – Luck checks ALL the boxes.  He can run, throw, lead, think, and behave, which makes Luck a unicorn among NFL quarterbacks.  If you are going to invest historic money in a single player, you should do it with a player – and a person – who absolutely understands his role in the community as well as on the field.  Athletic enough to win a Super Bowl and smart enough to win a Nobel Prize is one hell of a skill set for the face of a franchise.

7 – Offensive line has to be better, right?  The Colts invested four draft picks on offensive linemen two months ago, including Ryan Kelly, who will be Robin to Luck’s Batman.  The O-line will be better – or else!  If you owned a porcelain vase worth $87 million, would you ship it without bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts?  Nope!  If Colts GM Ryan Grigson and coaches Chuck Pagano and Joe Philbin can’t draft, develop, and correctly employ offensive linemen capable of keeping Luck on his feet, they will be replaced – and should be.

6 – He could have gotten more.  Luck was the perfect NFL player to bridge the gap between guaranteed and total money.  While $87 million is a ton of jack for 96 Sundays of work, there are still $53 million in his contract that Luck might never see.  In the NBA and MLB, virtually every cent is guaranteed.  Players in those leagues are far less likely to lose time due to injury, and they play on teams with smaller rosters, but Luck could have tried to hold firm as a trailblazer to establish guaranteed deals as a possibility in the NFL.

5 – Luck is entering his prime while many of the other top 10 are entering their twilight.  Luck will turn 27 on the day after the 2016 opener, which means that this six-year swath of time covered by this contract will almost perfectly cover his athletic prime.  As we look at current expert quarterback rankings, among the top five only Newton will be under the age of 33 at the end of the 2016 season.

4 – We don’t have to listen to evasive answers to extension questions through camp.  As monotonous as the questions were about signing an extension became for Luck, it was even worse for fans.  Luck will have to stand at a podium one more time (before 2020) to answer questions about his financial well-being.  Thank God.  he was sick of it, and so were we.

3 – Least likely pro athlete to be affected by infusion of cash.  Producer Scott Agness asked me yesterday what I thought Andrew Luck would buy first with the proceeds of his initial $18M signing bonus (he gets another $14M paid in nine months).  I joked, “A new bicycle helmet!”  Then I thought about it, and I might have been right.  The QB with a flip phone and bicycle that he uses to move around downtown Indy is not likely to buy a Bentley or Rolls.  I can’t see him buying a bejeweled crown and scepter for the mantle.  Luck is building a sweet house he designed, but that’s hardly the kind of indulgence we are talking about.  His effort on the field won’t be impacted either.  Luck is getting paid because he plays hard – he won’t play hard because he’s getting paid.

2 – Can’t win a Super Bowl without a franchise QB.  There are 53 men on every NFL team’s active roster, and they all serve a purpose.  None is close in importance to whether a team wins or loses than the quarterback.  Without Luck, the Colts are ordinary in the extreme, as the Patriots would be without Brady or the Steelers without Roethlisberger.

Click here for a $1 comprehensive dental exam done by the best dentist in Indiana – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

1 – Would you rather Jim Irsay kept the cash?  The NFL prints money for its franchises.  I was told be a former major league owner that his cat could run an NFL team and net $40 million.  That was 15 years ago.  I much prefer a player like Luck wisely investing and donating his money than an owner strip mining his asset so he can buy another gross of diamond bedazzled trinkets to pass out to money grubbing cougars.  Irsay invested in his most valuable asset and it was cash well spent.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top 10 Indiana (and Kentucky) basketball questions to be answered in the next year

How good can New Albany's Romeo Langford be is one of the 10 questions about basketball to be answered this year.

How good can New Albany’s Romeo Langford be is one of the 10 questions about basketball to be answered this year.

What a year of hoops action Indiana basketball fans have to look forward to.  So much potential for thrills and heartbreak with every shot, pass, and recruiting visit.

This is why we love basketball – virtually anything can happen, and it likely will over the next 10 months.

Some of the biggest stories in Indiana that may lead to even bigger news in 2016-2017:

The Pacers have made some serious adjustments to their roster and staff.

Tom Crean appears to be a different kind of leader in Bloomington.

The high school talent level has never been higher.

Jason Gardner might have IUPUI ready to win big.

Matt Painter needs a run in March to silence critics.

Two all-timers are gone from Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Lest we forget our neighbors to the south:

Louisville is going to have to answer for running a brothel in its basketball dorm.

Kentucky seems not to possess the cache they once did as a development outpost for the NBA.

Here are my top 10 area basketball questions that will be answered during the upcoming season/year:

10 – Can Paul George avoid Zika Virus and upset at Rio Olympics?  Athletes are bailing on the opportunity to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics for a couple of reasons – sanitation is reported to be horrendous in the fresh water events like rowing, and mosquitoes there carry a virus that can cause miserable birth defects.  Paul needs to pack some Off!, stay out of the ponds, and help the United States win a gold medal that seems to have become a birthright for the United States.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

9 – Will Tom Crean, Chris Holtmann, or Matt Painter grab monster 2017 class from home state?  Kris Wilkes, Jaren Jackson, Malik Williams, Zach Gunn, and Paul Scruggs are among a very talented group of seniors-to-be in Indiana.  Get one, that’s a step forward in recruiting Indiana.  Get four of five, plus Romeo Langford in 2018, and start sewing banners.

8 – Can Butler continue winning without Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones?  Butler returns talented players like Kelon Martin, Tyler Lewis, and Tyler Wideman, but the loss of two players who have been significant cogs in the Bulldogs machine for what seems like the last 15 years might be difficult to overcome.  Dunham and Jones have been program cornerstones like Matt Howard, Shelvin Mack, Gordon Heyward, A.J. Graves, Joel Cornette, Brandon Miller, and Mike Marshall before them.  Replacing everything Dunham and Jones took with them as they walked out of Hinkle for the final time will be a great challenge for Holtmann.

7 – Will Pacers build on 45-win season following departures of Frank Vogel, George Hill, and others?  Lots of change at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.  Gone are Frank Vogel, George Hill, Solomon Hill, Jordan Hill, and Ian Mahinmi (likely), and in are Nate McMillan, Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young, and Georges Niang.  That might be really good for the Pacers – maybe it won’t be.  Time will tell.  Right now – Teague for Hill is a short term push, and maybe a long term gain.  Young is better than the #20 pick right now, but that deal will eventually be a long term loss.  McMillan for Vogel is a wait and see move.

6 – Can Matt Painter find a path to March success?  After two straight opening round overtime losses, Boilermaker fans are getting a little bit nervous about the prospects for future success in the month of March.  This season will find Purdue filled with talent, so expectations are high.  If Purdue loses again in the first round, the normally docile West Lafayette fan base might begin to chant unpleasantries at alum events.

5 – Is IUPUI ready to jump to top of Summit League?  Jason Gardner has a very nice looking team on paper.  He has transfers like Ron Patterson who are Power Five level talents, and homegrown players who got a taste of success last year when the Jaguars shared the conference’s top spot halfway through the season.  This might be the year Gardner gets IUPUI rolling.

4 – Will Romeo Langford become the best high school player ever from Indiana?  One thing is for sure – Romeo Langford is different from any other player I have ever seen.  His combination of explosiveness, limitless range, rebounding savvy, ball-handling skill, and team first demeanor is unicorn-esque.  As a sophomore, Langford led the Bulldogs to the 4A state championship, and this year he is probably the biggest drawing card in the Louisville market, including Rick Pitino’s Cardinals.  If he stays healthy, Langford has a legitimate shot at Damon Bailey’s all-time scoring record.

3 – Will Louisville and Rick Pitino pay a larger price for Whorehouse Dorm?  The NCAA continues to investigate the scandal that erupted with the release of the tell-all book by prostitute/madame Katina Powell and journalist Dick Cady.  Strippers and prostitutes, according to Powell were paid by a member of Pitino’s staff to service players, recruits, and family members of recruits in a university dorm.  If the NCAA decides the self-imposed sanctions aren’t enough, Pitino’s job could be in jeopardy.

2 – Is the Tom Crean evolution for real, complete, or a work in progress?  I like the new Tom Crean.  He’s a more real guy, and a little less the relentless seller of his program that we saw during his first seven years in Bloomington.  Hopefully, this is the real Crean that fans will see for the remainder of his time in Bloomington.  If there is a backslide to the old Crean, his next sub-par season might be his last in Bloomington.  If he continues down this path of reason and likability, Crean might raise another banner in Assembly Hall.

Click here for a $1 comprehensive dental exam done by the best dentist in Indiana – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

1 – Is the bloom off the rose at Kentucky?  Skal Labissiere came to Lexington as a presumptive top five overall pick in the 2016 draft, and fell to 28th when he was selected last Thursday night.  Spending a year in Kentucky under the tutelage of John Calipari evidently wasn’t the magic elixir for brand and game building that Cal touts at every opportunity.  Tyler Ulis was at UK for two years, and was taken #34.  Maybe, like many believe, it’s not so much the developmental plan instilled by Cal, but his recruiting “magic” that releases so many players to the NBA after spending 10-22 months in the Bluegrass State.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top 10 reasons Pat Summit is a true icon of leadership and American sports

Pat Summit was a great coach - not just a great women's coach.  She will be missed, but her work will be felt forever.

Pat Summit was a great coach – not just a great women’s coach. She will be missed, but her work will be felt forever.

Pat Summit was taken too soon at the age of 64, but her legacy will live forever as a leader of young people – not a female leader of females, but a leader of human beings.

Her tenure as the head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee stretched from a time prior to women’s basketball being sanctioned as an NCAA sport through a time when thousands fill arenas to watch women’s professional basketball.

When she took over the Tennessee program at the age of 22, she drove the van and washed the uniforms, and she left as an icon after being diagnosed with early onset dementia.

By all accounts, she was a force of nature who demanded excellence – and got it, with eight National Championships while winning 1,098 games prior to turning 60.

Had Summit been able to continue to coach until turning 70, she would have had a legitimate chance to win 1,500 games.  No one would ever have come close to reaching that plateau.

The way women are viewed in American society has changed radically since Summit became the coach at Tennessee, and that is not a coincidence.  In November, there is a legitimate chance a woman will be elected president.  A compelling argument can be made it would not be possible without Summit’s legacy as a leader.

Here are 10 reasons we should remember Summit as an icon:

10 – Won an SEC title after being diagnosed with early onset dementia.  Fighters fight, and that’s how Summit viewed her disease – as an opponent to be conquered.  While the disease won in the end – as it always does – Summit taught it a few things as Tennessee won 27 games and advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to Baylor, the eventual champion.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

9 – Won 20 or more games 36 straight seasons.  Consistency is the hallmark of great leaders and  no one in college basketball history has ever won more consistently than Summit.  Her Volunteers won at least 29 games every season from 1993-2008.

8 – Either won NCAA Championship or national coach of the year honors 12 times in a quarter century.  From 1983 to 2008, Summit won a title or COY trophy in 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2007, and 2008.

7 – 100% graduation rate.  In 38 seasons as the coach for Tennessee’s women’s basketball team, every single player to spend four years in Knoxville received her degree.  Every one.  Not a single player was allowed to slip, fall through the cracks, and miss the requirements needed to earn her diploma.  Wins are nice, but the ability to motivate adolescents to become adults through making adult choices is how college coaching legacies are built.

6 – While Summit was the head coach at Tennessee, she won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics as a player.  Summit is the only coach I’ve heard of returning to player status to win an Olympic medal.  Being hired as a head coach when you are 22 helps make that possible, but it is still an incredible feat.

5 – Became a great head coach without ever being an assistant.  Summit was a 22 year-old graduate assistant at Tennessee when the head coach abruptly resigned.  She was named head coach without any experience out of a dire need.  What a fortunate decision that was for Tennessee’s athletic director.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and sometimes great hires.

4 – Washed jerseys and drove the team van early in Tennessee era.  Great leaders do what they have to do to put their team in a position to compete successfully.  Summit even slept with her team on an opponent’s gym floor prior to money being spent on lodging for the women’s team.  She didn’t whine or complain – Summit just won.

3 – Every four year player advanced to an Elite Eight.  In 31 seasons of coaching an NCAA basketball team (the first seven seasons Summit coached, women’s basketball was governed by the AIAW), the Volunteers advanced at least as far as the Elite Eight 25 times.  They reached the Final Four 17 times, the championship game 13 times, and won eight National Championships.

2 – Summit was asked twice to consider coaching the Tennessee men’s team.  It would have been fun to watch Summit succeed coaching men in the same measure she achieved while leading women, but Summit declined the invitation.  To accept the men’s position would have been to enforce the perspective that the women’s job wasn’t as special, and Summit wasn’t about to encourage that assumption.

Click here for a $1 comprehensive dental exam done by the best dentist in Indiana – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

1 – The memories expressed today by former players and Tennessee alums.  There have been few people in American sports who have been remembered as fondly as Summit is today.  She is being credited for changing lives in Knoxville by former players as well as people as divergent as Peyton Manning and Paul Finebaum.  Great people touch those they mentor as well as those they briefly bump into.  It seems everyone in sports has a story to tell about Summit, and in those stories Summit will achieve immortality.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top 10 reasons why youth sports parents are crazy

All good reminders, but all go out the window when the games start.

All good reminders, but all go out the window when the games start.

After spending the weekend watching youth soccer at Grand Park in Westfield, I can report that youth sports parents are just as crazy, fun, inappropriate, and combative as ever.

There is nothing parents care about more than their kids and there are few things they take pride in more than the achievements of those kids – whether in sports, band, theater, or intellectual pursuits.

Because of that pride and the longing for additional achievements, parents are prone to more than a little agitation which results in behavior of which few would be proud.

Normal adults who spend hours a day sitting in meetings where decorum is required and speaking without careful consideration results in career death, lose their minds on behalf of their children in relatively meaningless events.

As the uncle of a player for one of the teams competing, my behavior was no better than the parents, but that is nothing new.  Complaining about calls and making smart aleck remarks to the families of those rooting for our opponents is something the Sterlings come by honestly.

it’s ridiculous to take a soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, or football game so seriously that others are made uncomfortable or physically threatened, but feelings for our progeny far outweigh our ability to control our mouths.

Here are the top 10 causes for youth parent insanity:

10 – College scholarships are on the line.  This could be higher, but the scholarship isn’t the goal for some kids – it’s the dream to play in college.  The parents would love to have a scholarship defray or cover all college costs, but the distant dream of free college isn’t a primary driver of immediate insanity. Continue reading

Top 10 stories from the NBA Draft including the Pacers, Yogi, Hammons, and Furkan Korkmaz

If you like the look of Caris Lavert in a Pacers cap, don't get used to it.

If you like the look of Caris Lavert in a Pacers cap, don’t get used to it.

Dreams are granted.  Dreams are crushed.  That’s the NBA Draft in a nutshell.

Last night’s draft was filled with fun and surprises, as were the two days prior for fans of the Indiana Pacers.

A trade sent one Indy native to Utah of all places, brought home another native, filled a gaping hole at power forward, and sacrificed a potential good player at #20.

Years from now, we will look back at the potential all-stars and busts taken from #20 back in the draft to see how they measure up against Thaddeus Young, the power forward the Pacers received from the Brooklyn Nets in return for that pick.

Last night was the kind of night where we can all play along with general managers in evaluating trades and draft choices, and all 30 GMs hope they are right because if they can’t outguess us, their careers will be at a merciful end.

10 – Orlando sends Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to Oklahoma City for Serge Ibaka.  This deal wouldn’t bear mention if Oladipo had not been a Hoosier.  Ibaka is in decline.  Vic has not lived up to his #2 overall selection in 2013.  Sabonis?  He might be pretty damn good eventually.  Unlikely either Ibaka or Oladipo last in Orlando or OKC beyond next season – the final year of their current deals. Continue reading

Top 10 ways for Pacers fans to view the George Hill for Jeff Teague trade

Jeff Teague is coming home while George Hill leaves his hometown.

Jeff Teague is coming home while George Hill leaves his hometown.

One hometown hero swapped for another.

It’s easy to be conflicted about this deal.  We watched George Hill lift an otherwise mediocre Broad Ripple High School team to relevance a decade ago before doing the same thing with IUPUI and helping the Pacers to consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, but we also enjoyed Jeff Teague at Pike High School a couple of years later.

Hill is on his way to Utah while Teague is coming home to Indy, (the #12 pick in tonight’s draft goes to Atlanta).  Sad, happy, excited, disappointed – there are a lot of emotions for Pacers fans to grapple with this morning.

Given that today is draft day in the NBA, there will be more immediate change – either by the Pacers standing pat and selecting at #20 and #50 or through another trade – maybe a series of trades.

That’s life in the NBA.

Roster turnover is a fact of life for players, coaches, and fans.  Pacers president Larry Bird explained the change in coaches that sent Frank Vogel to Orlando by saying coaches lose the attention of players after three years.  With Hill gone, and the possibility of free agency Ian Mahinmi not returning, the only Pacer left from the team three years ago is Paul George.

Clearly, the Pacers are embracing change with an uncommon but perhaps ultimately successful enthusiasm.

Here are the top 10 ways Pacers fans can look at the Hill for Teague deal:

10 – Goodbye to a community icon.  George Hill worked hard to impact Indianapolis in a positive way, and Teague will be measured against Hill with that metric as well as what happens on the floor. Continue reading

Top 10 dream Indiana sports stories that might come true in 2016-2017

Andrew Luck shouldn't need his substantial intellect to understand the wisdom of avoiding contact with 300 pound defenders.

Andrew Luck shouldn’t need his substantial intellect to understand the wisdom of avoiding contact with 300 pound defenders.

June is the time for Indiana sports fans to dream, and today we dream big.

The Colts were one win away from a Super Bowl just 17 months ago, Indiana has won the Big Ten twice in the last four years, and the Pacers are coming off a nice bounce back season where they played an Eastern Conference finalist to a game seven.  This would seem to be a time to where dreams might come true.

And so without apology or self-condemnation, we offer 10 Indiana sports dreams to could make the next year a lot of fun if they come true:

10 – Josh Newkirk becomes next Yogi Ferrell for Hoosiers.  The big question for the Hoosiers, who are deep everywhere but at the position that Ferrell vacates through graduation, is point guard.  Newkirk becoming a point guard that can defend at Ferrell’s level and distribute the ball to the Hoosiers many weapons would elevate expectations toward hoisting a sixth banner in early April. Continue reading

Top seven reasons to be very happy for the city of Cleveland today

Cleveland finally won something yesterday, and it was about time.

Cleveland finally won something yesterday, and it was about time.

There is something magical about watching adults experience the level of extreme joy normally reserved for children.

It usually happens only in sports, and usually after the end of a severe drought of success.  Few cities have ever experienced a lack of championships that stretched more than 50 years.

Despite having franchises in three major leagues, Cleveland’s had not known what a celebration felt like since 1964.  Not only had Cavaliers superstar LeBron James not been alive when Jim Brown led the Browns to their last title, his mom Gloria was born over three years after that game.

Through unending losing, choking, and misery Northeast Ohio’s sports fans had been made to believe they might never see another championship, and that seemed especially true after falling behind Golden State 3-1 in the NBA Finals.

Cavs fans kept the faith that the Cavs would be the first team in NBA history to win a title after losing three of the first four games in the NBA Finals.

That faith was rewarded, and now the Mistake by the Lake is again a city on top of the world – as well as Ohio.

Here are seven reasons to be very happy for a city that has suffered long enough:

7 – With LeBron turning 32 in six months, the window is closing.  Opportunities for LeBron to assert his will while sitting only one minute during a game seven are ending.  He’s been lugging around 265 pounds for a long, long time.  Not only has LeBron played 13 NBA seasons, he’s played another 2 1/2 seasons worth of games in the playoffs.  Add 12 all-star appearances and three Olympics, and the tread left on his tires is getting thin.  If not last night, then when? Continue reading