maninblack

Men's 110m hurdles:

Spoiler: Click here to view

China's Liu Xiang was forced to withdraw from the qualifying heats due to injury. He was widely expected to contend for the gold medal he won in Athens in '04.

Liu's withdrawal casts a huge shadow on China's Olympic quest. He was pretty much pegged as their go-to guy to win gold in track and field.

Spoiler: Click here to view

I'm sure they'll get through with their other 6023 medals. I was hoping to stay awake for the Xiang heat as the rumours were flying around. But my efforts to stay awake all night (my body clock is out and I had to get up now to go and buy some football tickets!) but my bid fell at around half 5. I think I vaguely saw Idowu getting through after keeping myself awake for the Triathlon. Did anyone else see it? Snowsill walked it in the end, was fun watching with Steve Bennett on commentary and his wife running in the race for another country.

Men's 110m hurdles:

Donaghy apparently sold out more referees, claimed the NBA reprimanded a ref for ejecting Gary Payton in January 2000 (because the league didn't want star players ejected, especially early in games), and then proceeded to claim the fix was in for the 2002 and 2005 NBA playoffs (the Kings-Lakers series in 2002 was explicitly referenced, implying the refs gave the Lakers game 6 to get the series to game 7, but I'm not 100% on which series(es) were referenced in the 2005 implication).

Through it all, David Stern remains delusional with a transparently fake smile and a "My referees are incorruptible" stance.

Stern has done a pretty good job directing the NBA past Donaghy during the season. He's going to do whatever he can to put the story back in the box until tangible proof is found that backs up Donaghy's claims.

Bah, the network with F1 coverage on my end punts the race off in favor of Euro 2008 >.<

I love how one of the F1 sites I go to is ripping on Coulthard for playing it safe and not driving aggressively to get his third place finish. There's nothing wrong with Coulthard making the most out of the situation when the opportunity presents itself.

I'd like to have a reissue of Showtime! It's a Japan-only PS1 game that's basically a poor man's version of Capcom's Power Stone - all the graphics look like they're hand drawn by little kids. But I was very amused by it when I played it.

I also would like an updated version of Loom.

Oh, and ditto on Bushido Blade.

I would've loved to have the Pistons win one more title, mainly to stick it to Larry Brown. But...the Boston big three's storyline is more intriguing this year, so yeah, go B-town.

Less than a minute to go, and it looks like Boston have their ticket to the finals.

The Spurs aren't a dynasty. Defending the championship is the hardest part of any sports franchise, to overcome injuries, team chemistry issues, fan expectations, and everything just to get another shot. The Spurs haven't even repeated once.

I'm not sure if that would be an accurate definition of "dynasty" as far as the NBA goes. The NBA title was basically being traded between the Lakers and Celtics throughout most of the 1980s. This rivalry between competing dynasties took the NBA to a whole new level.

A lot of fans are conditioned to pooh-pooh a team not winning the title in consecutive years because the Bulls, Pistons, Rockets and Lakers were repeat champs, but winning three championships over a five-year stretch is just as tough as doing it back to back.

I wouldn't. Lakers won 3 in a row. Bulls won 3 in a row. Even the Rockets won 2 in a row. The Spurs can't ever win after there championship. Not a Dynasty just a good team

You do realize that the Spurs are one of the few NBA teams to have won a championship over the last 20 years? And you don't find them good enough to be regarded as a dynasty just because their 3 championships from 2003 to 2007 weren't won back-to-back? (N)

He's been an official for 31 years is why he was suspended and not fired, and I think that the there is a system that assigns the ref's for each game.

Yep, he's one of the league's senior referees. I'm not saying Crawford should be sacked, just why he's assigned to a game where his impartiality is going to - at the very least - raise some eyebrows.

My own question is why the NBA assigned Joey Crawford to any Spurs playoff game.

The Pistons take Game 2 in Boston, and home court advantage.

Co-sign. Talk about peaking at the right time.

I'm starting to wonder if three of the first-round Western Conference matchups end in 5 games or less.

I find it sad that my hopes for the Rockets have been dashed so quickly.

Apparently Howard Shultz plans to sue Clay Bennet for breach of contract and get the Sonics back

The Sonics may still leave Seattle, if David Stern's statement standing by Bennett is anything to go by.

And finally, we get the playoffs. Time to see if we get a Lakers vs Celtics finals.

How about Boston getting the title this year? If they can keep their Big Three from burning out before the playoffs, they could do it.

And Houston's winning streak ends at the hands of the visiting Boston Celtics.

It was a very good run while it lasted. Hopefully they can win enough games to get a good seeding in the first round, though I'm not sure if that actually exists given how competitive the West is at the moment.

I've watched Truly, Madly, Deeply, and it was a very good movie. He will indeed be missed.

I wouldn't say that they shut McGrady's offense down as he only had taken 9 shots into the 4th quarter or something like that. It was more of him being an unselfish player, allowing his teammates to get open and make shots.

That being said, I'll give the Rockets credit for beating the Lakers. Though, with Gasol out, I do wonder if the outcome would've been different.

The Houston Rockets now own the second longest winning streak in NBA History at 21 games, after beating the Bobcats last night. This is an astounding run they've been on, alot without Yao Ming, but honestly I think it'll hurt them come playoff time. Tracy McGrady can't carry an entire team by himself through even a first round of the playoffs as he's shown on more than one occasion so I personally don't forsee a Colorado Rockies-esque run to the Finals for H-Town. With that being said, I hope Houston does well and they create an even more exciting Western Conference playoffs than already expected.

I certainly hope the Rockets make it out of the first round this time

Apparently San Antonio are trading Francisco Elson and Brent Barry for Kurt Thomas.

Did anyone else catch the joke of a game the Knicks played tonight against the Celtics?

And the Cavs just beat the Celtics I know it's only one game in the regular season, but that's gotta do wonders for Cavalier morale.

Hopefully Boston too can use this loss as motivation to get even better.

And Stephon Marbury just left the Knicks.

Wonder if NY continue the trend of teams improving after Marbury leaves them.

And now it's Renault's turn to get implicated in spying on the competition.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hU30xx...1HO912-Om5ZnOCg

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/motorsport/sto...2209013,00.html

Alonso's supposed to be ready to rejoin his old team, so we'll see how these charges monkeywrench his reunion plans.

According to McLaren a temporary gearbox problem caused Hamilton's sudden loss of momentum. Damn, but to lose car reliability at the most critical part of the campaign!

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2816335,00.html

Still, better it be Raikkonen than Alonso being Driver's Champion.