Monthly Sports Round-Up - May 2007
Warriors eliminate Mavericks
In what is considered to be the biggest upset in the history of NBA, the Golden State Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks from the NBA playoffs in 6 games. The Mavericks, which came in with an NBA record 6th best number of regular season wins and who were one of the favorites to win it all, failed to get past the 8th seed in the Western conference. This was the first time (after NBA went to Best of 7 games format for all rounds in the playoffs) that an 8th seed team had beaten the 1st seed. Dan Nelson simply out-coached the Avery Johnson coached Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki never found his rhythm during the series, except in couple of games. Baron Davis used to be a high profile player 2-3 seasons ago when he was with Boston but had fallen by the way-side ever since but that was until this series, when he had a monster of a time.
Tiger wins at Wachovia
It was business as usual for Tiger as he won his 3rd PGA title of the year. This tournament, though not being a major, is considered the closest that a non-major can get to the level of a major what with each of the world's top 10 players turning in for this tournament (as were 27 of the top 30) on top of the prize money that the tournament offers. This was also the 4th time in his career that Tiger won a tournament after he had a double-bogey on the back nine of the final round. And now, Tiger gets ready for the Player's Championship scheduled for next week, in what will be his first back-to-back starts of this season.
In what is considered to be the biggest upset in the history of NBA, the Golden State Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks from the NBA playoffs in 6 games. The Mavericks, which came in with an NBA record 6th best number of regular season wins and who were one of the favorites to win it all, failed to get past the 8th seed in the Western conference. This was the first time (after NBA went to Best of 7 games format for all rounds in the playoffs) that an 8th seed team had beaten the 1st seed. Dan Nelson simply out-coached the Avery Johnson coached Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki never found his rhythm during the series, except in couple of games. Baron Davis used to be a high profile player 2-3 seasons ago when he was with Boston but had fallen by the way-side ever since but that was until this series, when he had a monster of a time.
Tiger wins at Wachovia
It was business as usual for Tiger as he won his 3rd PGA title of the year. This tournament, though not being a major, is considered the closest that a non-major can get to the level of a major what with each of the world's top 10 players turning in for this tournament (as were 27 of the top 30) on top of the prize money that the tournament offers. This was also the 4th time in his career that Tiger won a tournament after he had a double-bogey on the back nine of the final round. And now, Tiger gets ready for the Player's Championship scheduled for next week, in what will be his first back-to-back starts of this season.
Clisjters bids adieu
Kim Clisjters retires from professional tennis at the ripe (?!) age of 24. With her suffering form some major injuring over the past few seasons and also hinting about retirement sometime during this season, the announcement did not come as a surprise. She is one player on the women's circuit I greatly liked for the way she conducted outside the tennis court. When she was dating Lleyton Hewitt, I did not like it one bit bcos he always looked like a jerk to me and this lady here is as sweet a person as it comes. I was only happy when they broke up and now she is getting married to a football star in the fall. Here's wishing her the best that life can offer in her post-retirement life. Seriously, retirement at age 24, life just can't get better :) The Hindu had a good tribute to her. Read it here.
Kim Clisjters retires from professional tennis at the ripe (?!) age of 24. With her suffering form some major injuring over the past few seasons and also hinting about retirement sometime during this season, the announcement did not come as a surprise. She is one player on the women's circuit I greatly liked for the way she conducted outside the tennis court. When she was dating Lleyton Hewitt, I did not like it one bit bcos he always looked like a jerk to me and this lady here is as sweet a person as it comes. I was only happy when they broke up and now she is getting married to a football star in the fall. Here's wishing her the best that life can offer in her post-retirement life. Seriously, retirement at age 24, life just can't get better :) The Hindu had a good tribute to her. Read it here.
Dirk Nowitzki is 2006-07 NBA MVP
In spite of his team’s ignominious exit from the playoffs in the first round, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was named as the NBA regular season MVP, thus ending Steve Nash’s reign as the NBA MVP for 2 consecutive seasons. I have never been a Steve Nash fan and so, was delighted when this expected news came out. Though he (and his team) failed when it counted the most, I still thought for all that he helped his team accomplish in the 82 games-long regular season, he deserved this award fully. His season average of 24.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game easily deserved MVP honors. For the record, this is only the 3rd time that the team whose player was given the MVP award, lost in the 1st round of the playoffs.
NBA Draft lottery throws a lot of surprises
The Pacific Northwest emerged as the clear winner in the NBA draft lottery as the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics, both long shots given their last season record, won the most coveted first and the second picks and therewith the right to choose Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in next month's NBA draft. Though being a Seattle native, it was good news in that we got the 2nd overall pick & might most probably land up with Durant, at the same time, I felt that the very concept of the draft helping out the worst teams has been defeated by what transpired at the draft lottery. The Grizzlies, Celtics and the Bucks, who were the teams with the league's three worst records, only managed to bag the 4th, 5th and the 6th picks. Looks like that ever since the weighted lottery system was introduced way back in 1994, only twice have the worst teams gotten the first pick (The cavaliers in 2003 and Magic in 2004). And this is for the time since 1993 that the worst 3 teams failed to get any of the top 3 picks. The calls for the lottery system to be abolished has gotten only louder, after what has just happened. While talking about how remote a chance these 2 teams had a chance of getting the first 2 picks, ESPN analysts were saying that these 2 teams had as much chance, as that of Shaq making 11 consecutive free throws. That was way too funny.
Well, I felt corny writing that title to describe India's win over the Bangladeshis in both the ODI and test series. India, though a clear winner in both the series, never were ruthless in their demolition of our neighbors, given the fact that it is our loss to them that ultimately spelled doom for the team in the disastrous WC campaign. Though the victory in the 2nd test match was as good as it could get (in terms of victory margin), at the same time, we should not overlook the fact that the Bangladesh batsmen were done in not by any great bowling by the Indians but by their own poor shot selection. I was happy that Sachin got centuries in the 2 tests and at least help the call for his head to die down for the time being, though I have to say that none of them were memorable innings by any means. Now that the team has got some well deserved break (both physically and mentally from the ever scrutinizing eyes of the Indian public), this break should hold them in good stead for the grueling and tougher series ahead.
Defining moment n Lebron's career?
Lebron undisputedly produced the most stellar display of his short NBA career in Game 5 of the Eastern conference finals as he scored a career playoff high 48 points to guide the Cavaliers to a double overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons. It was almost surreal basketball as he scored the last 25 points that the Cavaliers as a team scored, starting from the 4th quarter of regulation. As I type this, the Cavaliers have finished the Pistons in 6 games and are headed to the NBA finals for the first time in their franchise history. But will Lebron be enough to overcome the solid Spurs? The answer is just a matter of few days away.
In spite of his team’s ignominious exit from the playoffs in the first round, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was named as the NBA regular season MVP, thus ending Steve Nash’s reign as the NBA MVP for 2 consecutive seasons. I have never been a Steve Nash fan and so, was delighted when this expected news came out. Though he (and his team) failed when it counted the most, I still thought for all that he helped his team accomplish in the 82 games-long regular season, he deserved this award fully. His season average of 24.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game easily deserved MVP honors. For the record, this is only the 3rd time that the team whose player was given the MVP award, lost in the 1st round of the playoffs.
NBA Draft lottery throws a lot of surprises
The Pacific Northwest emerged as the clear winner in the NBA draft lottery as the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics, both long shots given their last season record, won the most coveted first and the second picks and therewith the right to choose Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in next month's NBA draft. Though being a Seattle native, it was good news in that we got the 2nd overall pick & might most probably land up with Durant, at the same time, I felt that the very concept of the draft helping out the worst teams has been defeated by what transpired at the draft lottery. The Grizzlies, Celtics and the Bucks, who were the teams with the league's three worst records, only managed to bag the 4th, 5th and the 6th picks. Looks like that ever since the weighted lottery system was introduced way back in 1994, only twice have the worst teams gotten the first pick (The cavaliers in 2003 and Magic in 2004). And this is for the time since 1993 that the worst 3 teams failed to get any of the top 3 picks. The calls for the lottery system to be abolished has gotten only louder, after what has just happened. While talking about how remote a chance these 2 teams had a chance of getting the first 2 picks, ESPN analysts were saying that these 2 teams had as much chance, as that of Shaq making 11 consecutive free throws. That was way too funny.
Well, I felt corny writing that title to describe India's win over the Bangladeshis in both the ODI and test series. India, though a clear winner in both the series, never were ruthless in their demolition of our neighbors, given the fact that it is our loss to them that ultimately spelled doom for the team in the disastrous WC campaign. Though the victory in the 2nd test match was as good as it could get (in terms of victory margin), at the same time, we should not overlook the fact that the Bangladesh batsmen were done in not by any great bowling by the Indians but by their own poor shot selection. I was happy that Sachin got centuries in the 2 tests and at least help the call for his head to die down for the time being, though I have to say that none of them were memorable innings by any means. Now that the team has got some well deserved break (both physically and mentally from the ever scrutinizing eyes of the Indian public), this break should hold them in good stead for the grueling and tougher series ahead.
Defining moment n Lebron's career?
Lebron undisputedly produced the most stellar display of his short NBA career in Game 5 of the Eastern conference finals as he scored a career playoff high 48 points to guide the Cavaliers to a double overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons. It was almost surreal basketball as he scored the last 25 points that the Cavaliers as a team scored, starting from the 4th quarter of regulation. As I type this, the Cavaliers have finished the Pistons in 6 games and are headed to the NBA finals for the first time in their franchise history. But will Lebron be enough to overcome the solid Spurs? The answer is just a matter of few days away.
Labels: Monthly Sports Round-ups, Sports
posted by Filbert at 2:43 PM
2 Comments:
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Hi Anon, thanks for the link. I loved the way how they have removed the watermarks from all the images. Makes it so useful to store the images :)
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