Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo apparently blurted out a badly kept secret (official Bill Kennedy’s sexual orientation) and did so in the most offensive and menacing way possible – all of which is so very Rondo.
But while this never became a burning issue during David Stern’s time as emperor, new sheriff Adam Silver is likely to drop a hammer of more than his current one-game suspension on Rondo to make it clear that screaming “F-----!” at the top of one’s lungs is more than expressing dismay at a call. There is insult, and then there is insult delivered with malice aforethought. This is one of those things that is never right, no matter how many years it has been since Kennedy was first outed (five), how many other officials have come out (Violet Palmer), or whether they don’t want to make a big thing of their orientation. Silver doesn’t get the option to be silent, period.
[RELATED: Rondo, Kings' brass issue statements regarding offensive slur]
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In a move that should have surprised exactly zero people, Pete Rose remains banned from baseball and essentially non Hall-Of-Fame-able. And perhaps this new rebuke, from commissioner-for-years-to-come Rob Manfred, will be remembered as his last attempt to become officially beloved again.
This is not the place where we will indulge ourselves with the nature of addiction, forgiveness, historical accuracy or politics. Rose remains wired into gambling, as the Manfred report showed. Baseball forgives only those they must forgive, and truthfully, the hue and cry for Rose’s reinstatement has been diminishing for years. The historical accuracy argument has butted heads against his own inability to be accurate about his past.
And finally, Rose’s sense of politics was so hilariously deficient that one wonders why nobody ever walked up to him and said, “Pete, just shut up for God’s sake. Every time you speak, you undermine your case.”
I suspect he has learned that lesson at last, and far too late.
[RELATED: Manfred rejects Rose's plea for reinstatement]
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In other action (courtesy Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com), Houston coach Tom Herman will be fitted Tuesday with a diamond grill on his teeth, making good on a promise to his team for winning the American Athletic Conference title.
Makes that Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl worth watching, at least for the halftime interview.
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If Leicester City, which just polished off the Chelsea Mourinho-ettes Monday, ends up winning the Premier League after what they have put themselves through over the past several years, the Buffalo Bills will win the Super Bowl and we can remove one more thing from Luck’s bucket list.
If not, we’ll be watching that 30-for-30 on the Bills until we are all long and safely dead.
In fairness, though, we did get this from Jose himself, via Sky Sports: “One of my best qualities is to read the game for my players and I feel like my work was betrayed. I think they deserved to win because they were better than us during a long period of time. We conceded two goals that were unacceptable.”
And:
“All last season I did phenomenal work and brought them to a level that is not their level and more than they really are.
When some of your players don't hit the levels they are capable of it is hard to see. This season we are doing so bad for some reason, not all of them.”
Now there’s an inspirational speech for the troops.
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Nick Saban kept his Alabama strength coach, Scott Cochran, from leaving for bigger and better barbells. Why is this important? Cochran made $420,000 last year, and with the raise he is likely to make, he will be earning more than all but one Mid-American Conference head coach.
Or, to put it in perspective, 47 pitches from Zack Greinke.
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If there really is an argument out there about whether American Pharaoh deserved to be Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year rather than Serena Williams, I would say our school system has failed to teach people that some things aren’t worth the time it takes to argue them, and since life is finite, that lost time is not regained on the back end.
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When did Steve Young decide to start impersonating his former agent Leigh Steinberg? Asking for a courtroom sketch artist.
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Oh, and which came first, Stephen Curry’s warmups being televised nationally, or Odell Beckham’s warmups being televised nationally? Get the answer in this edition of “Pimp My Walkthrough.”
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And finally, Ontario is initiating supermarket beer sales starting Tuesday. That ought to make being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan a far more convenient torture.
