The mad scientist

So Sixers GM Sam Hinkie decided to deal Michael Carter Williams on trade deadline day. While it will take years to know if the deal was right, it did provide us all with something special. The Philadelphia Daily News gave us this classic front page. The graphics design team at the Daily News deserves a ton of credit. 

Twitter 100: The Sports Figures to follow

A great list of the Top 100 sports people to follow on Twitter. From Chad Ochocinco to Dana White

TNT will never let Trailblazer fans forget

So the Thunder hooked up with the Trailblazers on Thursday night and that can mean only one thing Durant vs Oden, the top two picks from the 2007 NBA Draft. Oden was the top pick, while Durant was the second. So far their careers have been totally different. Durant has become the face of the young NBA, while Oden career has been hit by knee injuries.

During the game, I hit the info button to see what it said and boy did it rub it in Blazers fans face. Durant has played 200 something games while Oden has yet to hit a 100. Its not like Blazer fans don't know the difference between the two players but to make it the info graph is just not right.
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Coming to a NBA city near you

The NBA season is about six weeks way, but John Wall fever is starting to get a hold of everyone. The OTWT Maryland bureau send this photo earlier today from a Foot Locker. I know he has talent but this shirt is terrible and no one should ever wear it.
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They get WFAN in Russia?

Wow WFAN has some far reaching power. During an interview on this week on The Mike Francesa Show, new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov asked Mike where the mad dog was. I know that Chris Russo has been gone for a while but its impressive to me that the Russian even knew about the iconic Mike and the Mad Dog Show. Talk about a show that had a world wide reach.
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This is not the way to get me to fill something out

So on Thursday, the Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew headed to Madison Square Garden for the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, which was a lot of fun.

While sitting at work on Monday, my blackberry started buzzing and I had an email it was from the Madison Square Garden asking me to fill out a survey on my experience at the home of Basketball and to entice me to fill out the survey they offered me a chance to win tickets to the Knicks Bobcats game on Dec. 20. Really this is the way to get me to do something offer me tickets to see teams that feature Nate Robinson, David Lee, and Jason Richardson. This is not exactly what I want to try to win.

If the people at the Garden wanted to get me fill out the survey they could have offered me tickets to one of the number of college basketball games they host. Maybe even the Holiday Festival but an NBA game between two terrible teams is not the way to go. As they same thanks but no thanks.

Going to be a busy next couple of days

This is the best time of the sports season. College Basketball is just started, College Football is coming to an end. The NHL, NBA, NFL are all going. With all of these options, the OTWT Tailgating crew can not help but head to some games. On Thursday the gang will be at the Madison Square Garden for the Coaches vs. Cancer events which features 'Cuse vs. Cal and North Carolina vs. Ohio State. Then on Saturday, the gang will be making the trip from home base in New Jersey to see Rutgers take on 'Cuse in football. A couple of big events in a couple of days, should be a lot of fun. Check back later in the week to see all of the sites and sounds from the events.

Now this is a logo

The NFL has their iconic logo, the NBA has Jerry West, but its easy to see why the top soccer league in Belgium has the best logo in the world. The Jupiler League logo (above) features a beer can playing the trumpet, can it get any better than that. Can you imagine the NFL logo featuring a Budweiser can playing an electric guitar, now that would be priceless.

And you thought American Announcers were bad

The Bulls and Jazz met in a preseason game in London last night and the BBC was there to capture the action. Just take one listen to it and hear how terrible they were, hey they did not even know the rules to the. Just when you think American announcers are terrible with soccer just remember this video.

NBA Draft Notes

Who doesn't love a good draft, here are some of the notes from the OTWT Scouting Department about the NBA Draft.

• Beard and bow tie. Tell me James Harden is not old school and cool.
• Draft fashion has always been a big deal and Hasheem Thabeet’s watch is bigger then his arm. Never draft a guys whose watch is bigger then their arm.
• I think that Ricky Rubio could use a hair cut. From Spain to Minnesota talk about a climate change.
• Wow Knick fans are nuts. Don Nelson screws the Knicks again by taking Curry have to love that, years after being run out of town he still can stick it to them.
• Really missing Stephen A. Smith but it was good to see that he was active on twitter during the draft.
• There was a players from Guadalupe and the Congo just picked in the first round, who said the NBA was not international.
• I hope the Timberwolves are working a trade cause Rubio, Flynn and Lawson. That is three point guards for one ball. Reports suggest that Lawson is on his way to Denver for a future one.
• Who said Hansbrough made the wrong choice in going back to North Carolina, he was still a lottery pick. For all of the people that were hating on him, look he is a lottery pick.
• Ellington, Hansbrough, Lawson have it all. Nationals Championship rings and all three first round picks.
• The ACC rules. ACC has at least 6 picks in the first round for the 3rd time in five years (6 in 2007, 7 in 2005). This year the conference has seven, three from the Heels.

Gimmick Infringement?

For the last two years Irish boardcaster Setanta has been making the world laugh with the puppet series Special1 TV. The series includes puppets that depict The Special One, Wayne Rooney, and Sven. The series is classic and has drawn critical acclaim. Now they have company in the puppet sports world.

Now Nike is getting into the puppet business with the Kobe and LeBron commercials during the NBA Finals. Nike will have to show me that they are on the same level as Special1 TV. I really don't think that they will ever be up to that level. It's weird that Nike would go in this direction, maybe they saw the success of Special1 TV and wanted to get in on the sports puppet world.

Look out Kobe and Lebron

Findlay Prep in Nevada is the one of the top five teams in prep basketball. At the start of the year, the team decided to make a version of the famous Air Force One commercial and it turned out ok. Compare the two for your self below.

Their version

Findlay Prep Nike Airforce Commercial Remake - The most amazing home videos are here

The Classic Version

Where have you gone Loren Woods?

Arizona and Wake Forest fans all over United States are wondering one thing: ""Where has Loreen Woods gone?"" Ok well maybe that is not true. But the answer to the question is Zalgiris Kaunas of the Euroleague. Yes the Euroleague.

The Euroleague is one of the professional basketball competitions in Europe with teams from thirteen different European countries. Kinda like the Champions League of Basketball.

Woods is part of a small community in the Euroleague, players that were ok in college making big money playing in the Euroleague. One look at the rosters of the teams and it reads like a who's who's of over rated college players.

Here are just a couple of these things:

• Former Villanova guard Mike Nardi, who is Joe Wolf's Vertical Jumps's wife least favorite player of all time, is now playing for Air Avellino in Italy.
  
• Former Duke uber-recruit Joey Beard, who ended up transfering to Boston Uninversity, is now playing at AJ Olimipia Milano in Italy.
  
• Former Stanford guard Casey Jacobsen, who was a first round pick in the NBA draft, is now playing at ALBA Berlin in Germany.
  
• Former Duke guard Trajan Langdon, one of my least favorite players of all time, is now playing for CSKA Moscow.
  
• Former St. John's point guard Omar Cook, a poster child for not leaving early for the NBA, is now using his skills at Unicaja Malaga in Spain.
  

These are just a few of the American players that have made their impact on the European game, at first I thought most these guys were no longer player. If anyone is interested in seeing Casey Jacobsen on TV the NBA Network shows some Euroleague games on Saturday.

LeBron or A.I.

Lebron James' new State Farm spot has got me thinking. Who would have become a better player if they stuck with football Allen Iverson or Lebron James. I something that is worth a debate.

LeBron James


Allen Iverson


I know that a lot of people would say James but you know what, I might go with the former quarterback and defensive back from Bethel, Iverson. He would have been a great option quarterback as well as a defensive back.

Late nights with Berba

The NBA does it, the NFL does it, the NHL does it, and Major League Baseball is in the process of doing. All of the major sports have decided to go into the TV network business, now the EPL might be doing the same thing. Premier League heads have said that they would explore the idea of creating their own network, if they do not receive the type of bids that they would like for their television rights.

A Premier League Network could offer great program from reserve matches to weekly shows on different clubs, but their are a couple of shows that I would like to see on the schedule if the league decides to move in this direction.

Here are some of the possible new shows the network should explore:

• Late Nights with Berba: With the emotion of a piece of paper, the United forward could host a talk show that would cure insomnia. Vampires are also welcome guest.
  
• Cooking with Rafa: The Liverpool manager shows the world how to create the best pie and then eats everything that he makes, quality TV.
• Tanning with Phil Brown: The Hull City manager shows everyone the best way to get the perfect tan.
  
• Emirates Street: A combination of Sesame Street and the Arsenal Youth Academy. Wenger, is joined by Viera and Big Bird to teach children all types of things like their ABCs and passing skills.
  

Any other shows suggestions are welcomed.

Professional Taigating: Christmas in the City

On Saturday, part of the Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew took a trip to big city to see the holiday sights and sounds. There was no shortage of sports related sites int he big city.

Lebron James looks down on the city, Knicks fans hope that he is in the city for good in 2010.

It's snowing golf balls at New York Golf Center

The NBA store was into the Christmas Spirit.

Mr. Met is really excited about K-Rod and J.J. coming to the Mets pen.

Gary Carter in tall bobble head form, not that good.

Only Time Will Tell goes mobile

Only Time Time Will Tell went on line Nov. 4, 2006 at 9:58 p.m. blasting Mark Jones for the way called a football game. Almost two years later, the Only Time Will Tell Crew has attended countless sporting events and watched millions of hours of events on television, the crew has decided to go mobile. So now everyone can take the fun of the gang on your mobile phone, just what everyone wanted, I know.

The Spanish Pistol Pete

With the 2008 NBA Draft now a couple of weeks behind us, its time to look forward to next years draft and one man, Ricky Rubio. In Spain, he is know as the Spanish Pistol Pete and come next June he might be know as the number 1 draft pick in the NBA Draft. The world will learn about him during the Olympics.

Scouts love his ability to create his own shot and his passing ability.

Spanish feature on him.

Could Rubio be the best player ever to come on Spain, it might just happen.

What a Day!

All I can say is what a day. Sunday might go down as one of the best days of sports in a very long time from Tigers dramatic putt on the 18th to force a playoff at the US Open, to the Lakers holding on to beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals to force a game six in Boston, to the Turks dramatic win over the Czechs in Euro 2008 at the end of the day all I could say was Wow!

Here is how the front pages covered the drama from all over the globe:

San Diego Tribune covers all of the drama at Torrey Pines Cape Cod Times (Ma) covers the NBA Finals

OLAY (Turkey) covers the Turks dramatic win over the Czech Republic at Euro 2008.

Stairway to Heaven

Putting your hands on a major trophy is something that all athletes live for but in some sports they hand out of the trophy in a better way then most. In the United States, when a team wins a major trophy like the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals, they roll out a stage on wheels and present the trophy to the captain of the team.

But in Europe, they give out the trophy in a different way, they make the players climb up a stairway to heaven. Traditional in cup tournaments like the FA Cup, Coppa Italia, Champions League, and the Carling Cup the captain leads his team up the steps to meet the president of the association and collect the their trophy and medals.

The best thing about having players climb up the steps to get their trophy is the interaction with fans. During the walk up fans give the players flags of native country, scarfs and hats to show there appreciation for winning the trophy.

It would be great to see Tim Duncan climbing up the steps to the commissioners box to collect the trophy from David Stern.