When it comes to sports and the internet, sometimes the only thing better than an amazing [insert sport here] highlight is a goofy video!
It’s not always pro athletes trying to be funny either – sometimes it’s a terrible blooper or an ugly fall, occasionally a team mascot might be involved and other times, a popular “trend” may pop up where you least expect it.
Take the act of “Tebowing,” for example.
Ever since quarterback Tim Tebow took over in Denver, “Tebowing” has become an incredibly popular thing to do. The Broncos pivot is deeply religious, you see, and he routinely takes a knee to throw up a prayer, unmoved by anything that is happening around him.
When I say it’s become a popular thing to do, I’m not kidding! The internet is now full of “Tebowers,” and that trend has even made it to semi-pro and pro hockey. My pal Adam Chorneyko threw down a “Tebow” after potting a goal for the ECHL’s Colorado Eagles back in November, and it happened again this week in the NHL:
I mentioned earlier that sometimes mascots get in on the action – check out this video featuring Rocky the Mountain Lion of the Denver Nuggets. (VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP!) (more…)
It has been a respectable start to the season for the Toronto Raptors as they are currently at 3-3 and only half a game back of the first place Philadelphia 76ers in the Atlantic Division.
So far this week the Raptors have defeated the Raptors have defeated the New York Knicks 90-85 and the Cleveland Cavaliers 92-77 to get back to the .500 mark after a three game losing streak to Indiana, Dallas and Orlando.
Over the last two Raptors wins, it has been the play of Bargnani that has been at a very high level. Bargnani had 21 points in the Raptors win in New York and 31 points in their win over Cleveland.
But it has been Bargnani’s defensive commitment that needs to be praised. He was a +22 last night, and that should please head coach Dwane Casey, who was brought in from Dallas in the off-season to improve the Raptors play on their own end of the court.
In Dallas, Casey got to know Dirk Nowitzki really quite well, and if he can make Bargnani half the player that Nowitzki is, the Raptors will be in great shape.
In terms of defense, one player in the NBA that has become a defensive stud to start the season is Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. So far Howard is leading the NBA with 16 rebounds a game, including back-to-back performances where he had 24 rebounds last week against New Jersey and Charlotte.
In other NBA news, there have been two significant injuries to start the season. Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs is out five weeks with hand surgery and Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies is out eight weeks with a torn knee ligament.
Also today, the Sacramento Kings have fired head coach Paul Westphal and replaced him with Keith Smart, who has previous head coaching experience in Cleveland and Golden State. Smart also has a Canadian connection, as he played for the Halifax Windjammers of the World Basketball League in 1991.
It may be the Christmas season, but it is a very big weekend on the world sport stage. On Boxing Day, the sports world will be focused on Alberta for the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship. The event is significant because it is the first time that Edmonton and Calgary, two bitter provincial rivals have joined forces to host a world class sporting event. Edmonton will host all of Team Canada’s round robin games, with Calgary hosting the medal round.
Team Canada’s first game is Monday at 1:30pm against Finland (TSN). Both teams have something in common. They both lost to Russia in the medal round at the 2011 World Junior Hockey Championships in Buffalo. Finland lost 4-3 to Russia in the quarterfinals, while Canada lost 5-3 to Russia in the Gold medal game.
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but the Dallas Mavericks are on top of the basketball world at the moment after stunning the mighty Miami Heat in six games this week.
It was sweet redemption for Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, who were both there when the Heat came from behind to beat the Mavs in 2006, and it was a long time coming for Jason Kidd who finally got his hands on the trophy after 17 seasons in the league. So, now they all have more rings than LeBron James right?
Well…they now have one more championship than he does, but not necessarily more rings. That is, if Mavs owner Mark Cuban gets his way!
Cuban said after the win on the weekend that he might not get rings for his players because they are so old school, and that he felt like it was time to take things to another level, whatever that means. That’s not sitting well with the players though, and ESPN says they’ve all had a chance to try and talk Cuban out of whatever crazy thing he’s thinking of doing! (more…)
Basketball fans across this fantastic continent of North America can rejoice.
The Miami Heat, despite their trio of superstars, are not the 2011 NBA Champions.
Sunday night in Miami, Jason Terry scored 27 points as the Dallas Mavericks 105-95 to win the NBA Finals 4-2.
In the process, the Mavericks won their first title in franchise history since joining the NBA in 1980. It has been quite the year for the Dallas sports scene. In October, the Texas Rangers went to the World Series, and in January, Dallas hosted the Super Bowl.
Despite a poor first half, Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 points, and was named NBA Finals MVP. Nowitzki, from Germany, becomes the third international born player in history to win the Bill Russell Award for NBA Finals MVP, joining Nigerian born Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets (1994 and 1995) and French born Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs (2007).
It was interesting to see Nowitzki quickly run to the locker room though immediately once the game was over, before rejoining his team on the stage to accept his MVP award.
In another note, I thought it was a class act by the Mavericks, to recognize their original owner, Don Carter who founded the team in 1980, before selling it to American politician Ross Perot in 1996. Carter still owns 4% of the Mavericks.
World Champion Perdita Felicien of Oshawa, Ontario, is in a tough field this weekend at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York City (Saturday, 2:30pm, NBC). This is the sixth stop of the IAAF Samsung Diamond League Series, and Felicien looks to improve on her sixth place finish in Rome last month.
Felicien, who won the Gold medal in the women’s 100m hurdles for Canada at the 2003 IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Paris, France, will participate in her last key event before coming to Edmonton for a key track meet at the end of the month. Her top competitors include Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica, the women’s gold medallist in the 100m hurdles at the 2009 IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Berlin, Jessica Ennis of Great Britain, who won Gold at the same World Championships in heptathlon, Delloreen Ennis of Jamaica, who is a three-time World Championship medallist in women’s hurdles, 2010 World Indoor Champion Lolo Jones of the United States, and American Kellie Wells, who won the Diamond League event in Qatar last month.
The Dallas Mavericks are only one win away from their first NBA Title in franchise history.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points as the Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat 112-103 to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals.
It was the first time that either team scored 100 points in a game in the NBA Finals and on Thursday night both squads recorded triple digits.
After Miami dominated the early stages of the fourth quarter, it was the Mavericks that were effectively able to close things out. Down 100-97, it was Jason Terry that came up huge down the stretch, scoring two key shots from downtown in the final 3:23.
Miami struggled mightily defensively down the stretch as they were outscored 15-3 in the last 3:37 of the game.
The Mavericks once again played tight defense on LeBron James. After going pointless in the fourth quarter in game four, James only had one fourth quarter basket on Thursday, and that was with 29 seconds left and the Mavericks up by seven.
Despite coming off the bench, Terry still played 30 minutes and scored 21 points.
Despite a high fever pushing 102 degrees, Dirk Nowitzki played for the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
Nowitzki might not have had his best game of the NBA playoffs (only went six for nineteen and missed four simple shots), he did score 21 points and had a double double (11 rebounds) as the Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat 86-83 to tie the NBA Finals at 2.
Center Tyson Chandler also came up huge for Dallas in game four as he had 13 points and 16 rebounds.
Down 69-65 after three quarters, the Mavericks stuck with head coach Rick Carlisle’s excellent defensive minded game plan. Miami only scored 14 fourth quarter points.
Down the stretch, Nowitzki came up huge for Dallas with an important layup and Jason Terry scored two key free throws that put the Mavericks up by three.
With six seconds remaining, and the Heat threatening to tie the ball game, Dwyane Wade was unable to catch a pass from center court properly, and Mike Miller couldn’t get off a quality three point shot that turned out to be an air ball.
Game five is in Dallas on Thursday. Start time is 7pm on ABC.
Chris Bosh made many game winning shots for the Toronto Raptors over the years.
On Sunday though, Bosh might have made the most important shot of his NBA career.
With 39 seconds left, Bosh made a 16 foot jumper to put the Heat up 88-86 to take a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Finals.
The Heat were then able to make a strong defensive stand at the end of the game as Udonis Haslem was able to block Mavericks’ star Dirk Nowitzki enough from scoring the game-tying basket.
Another Heat player that deserves strong recognition for his game three performance was backup point guard Mario Chalmers. The second year player out of Kansas who hails from Anchorage, Alaska, made a game high four 3 pointers including one from a remarkable 36 feet to put the Heat up 29-22 at the end of the first quarter.
The Mavericks remain to be relentless. Down 55-42 in the third quarter, Dallas went on a 15-2 run to tie the score at 57 in the third quarter. But despite being able to come back and tie the score two more times, were never able to take the lead.
Game four takes place Tuesday night at 7pm on ABC from Dallas.
One of the most underrated athletes in Canadian sports history will be going for his tenth grand slam title in tennis tomorrow.
Toronto’s Daniel Nestor hasn’t won a singles’ grand slam title, but has won multiple times in men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Let’s not forget as well a Gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia with Sebastien Lareau.
Nestor and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, the second seeds in the men’s doubles competition at the French Open, will be taking on the unseeded pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina. Cabal and Schwank cannot be taken lightly however as they recently defeated Mike and Bob Bryan, the number one seeds in the world, in the semi-finals.
The match can be seen on TSN at approximately 9am Mountain time tomorrow morning, following the women’s singles final.
The Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are now deadlocked at one game apiece following one of the most remarkable comebacks in NBA Finals history.
Down 88-73 with 6:19 left, the Mavericks went on a 22-5 run to close out the game and win 95-93.
Dirk Nowitzki, who seemed bothered by his torn tendon in his middle finger earlier in the game, wasn’t bothered down the stretch, as he scored Dallas’s final nine points.
With 26 seconds left and the game tied at 90, Nowitzki made a key three pointer to put the Mavericks up by three and then scored the game winning shot on a layup with only three seconds left to score the winning basket.
Mario Chalmers of the Heat tied the score at 93 with a three point shot of his own to temporarily tie the score at 93 before Nowitzki delivered a Dallas victory.
The Mavericks won with excellent ball possession in the fourth quarter. Jason Kidd dribbled the ball exceptionally well in the dying seconds before he found Nowitzki who made a terrific move on former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh.
Game three takes place 6pm MT Sunday night in Dallas on ABC.
The Dallas Mavericks were completely outplayed in the second half by the Miami Heat in a 92-87 loss in Game One of the NBA Finals.
Now they got the news on Wednesday, that there top scorer, Dirk Nowitzki, who recorded 27 points last night, has a torn tendon in his left middle finger (his non shooting hand) and will probably have to wear a splint for the remainder of the series.
Nowitzki, 33, injured his finger when he stripped the ball away from Chris Bosh of the Heat with 3:44 remaining in the game.
The fact that it is his non shooting hand shouldn’t be analyzed too much. Most basketball players need both hands to catch the basketball and shoot the basketball with great proficiency.
With a torn tendon, Nowitzki will more than likely require surgery as soon as the playoffs are over.
I’m familiar with torn tendons in the hand area and would recommend to Nowitzki to wear a splint even though he is not experiencing any pain. With the torn tendon, Nowitzki is unable to straighten the finger and it should be protected to the best ability until he has surgery.
Only two teams remain in the NBA as the battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy gets underway tonight between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks.
Some of the key players from the 2006 championship series remain, but Dwyane Wade is of course now joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosh, and the Mavs are a completely different side, minus Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry who still remain from that year’s runner-up.
The big question for me coming into this year’s final is who will be more dominant – Dirk or LeBron?
One thing I love about watching Nowitzki play the game is that he is dangerous from just about anywhere on the floor and he’s one of those players who seems to be able to find the basket from wherever he decides to shoot from. It’s not always the prettiest thing to watch, but he has been clutch so far in these playoffs.
LeBron James, on the other hand, has really stepped his game up in the past few weeks and is definitely playing like a guy who wants a championship more than anything else in the world. He doesn’t think he’s better than Michael Jordan at this point in his career, despite what others say, but a dominant performance in this series would be a good start! (After the jump: More on the NBA Finals!) (more…)
When it comes to sports and the internet, sometimes the only thing better than an amazing [insert sport here] highlight is a goofy video!
I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but the Dallas Mavericks are on top of the basketball world at the moment after stunning the mighty Miami Heat in six games this week.
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