139 replies to this topic

[yancy]

NBA official Tim Donaghy is being investigated by the FBI for betting on games he officiated, quite possibly altering the outcome of said games with crooked calls. After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well. Michael Vick, well, you know. Near-universally disliked steroid sponge Barry Bonds muscles in on Hank Aaron's all-time home run record in what's destined to be a big, filthy asterisk looming over the most statistically obsessed major sport. The University of Oklahoma is forced to vacate its records for the 2005 season, including a bowl victory, because two players were paid $17,000 for work they didn't actually do. Finally, and perhaps most disturbing, the Cubs are six games ahead of the Cardinals. WTF

[Sam]

I was thinking the same thing.

Maybe when the 1919 Black Sox scandal broke, it was worse. Baseball was the only pro league in the country and probably bigger than horseracing and boxing combined, which were the only other national sports. I would argue that scandal was more damaging to the credibility of the league than the Donaghy scandal appears to be to the NBA at this time. Most people don't give a shit about pro cycling around here, and Bonds/Vick are still essentially individual scandals.

But this is pretty bad. And while its not a sport, let's not forget the Chris Benoit scandal . . . its pretty closely linked.

[Slackmo]

NBA official Tim Donaghy is being investigated by the FBI for betting on games he officiated, quite possibly altering the outcome of said games with crooked calls.

It only came to light in July, and in the shadow of the Vick story, no less. Even then, it seems to be met with a collective "who was it?" rather than "omg i can't believe it" from all (non-Suns) fans.

After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well.

It would seem that someone's always failing drug tests in cycling. (Or that one jealous country is falsely accusing another's teams.)

Michael Vick, well, you know.

Kind of an old story that's peaking now with the indictment. (Though it would seem the real peak will come with the trial and verdict.)

Near-universally disliked steroid sponge Barry Bonds muscles in on Hank Aaron's all-time home run record in what's destined to be a big, filthy asterisk looming over the most statistically obsessed major sport.

Another story that spans more of an era than being necessarily associated with July '07, especially if the old man can't hit three homers in the next week. Odds are he won't, and that the record will be broken in August.

The University of Oklahoma is forced to vacate its records for the 2005 season, including a bowl victory, because two players were paid $17,000 for work they didn't actually do.

Another story that only came to light in July. And NCAA sanctions tag one or two big schools every year.

Finally, and perhaps most disturbing, the Cubs are six games ahead of the Cardinals.

Well, I'll give you that one.

[yancy]

It only came to light in July

Kind of an old story that's peaking now

Another story that only came to light in July.

That's kind of my point.

[Slackmo]

It only came to light in July

Kind of an old story that's peaking now

Another story that only came to light in July.

That's kind of my point.

I s'pose. But it seems like this is always the month that the other sports air their nasty bits.

Plus, an Irishman just won a major PGA event. Hard for me to complain.

[yancy]

Still can't believe the NBA thing isn't bigger news. Has to be due to Vick. Remember the Pistons/Pacers brawl at Auburn Hills? "Donaghy was a member of the crew that called technical fouls on Miami's head coach and assistant coach. The Knicks shot a whopping 39 free throws to the Heat's eight, and New York wound up winning by six -- just beating the 4.5 point spread." Interesting. Remember when Rasheed Wallace was suspended seven games for supposedly threatening an official after a game? Donaghy. I'm sure other connections will be made between his officiating record and betting history in the weeks to come.

[worrywort]

[yancy]

Andy fucking Milonakis hasn't used up his fifteen minutes?

[Bleep Blop]

Picture of Donaghy tapping Warriors center Andres Biendrens to tell him that he's been in the key too long(7 seconds from what I've heard- you are only allowed 3) in a stretch of the Bulls trying to run the game clock down at the end of a game which ended up going to OT with the Bulls losing. Ouch.

Guy has also been connected to two games where the Knicks won. That pick this year sure could have been better.

[ParticleHustler]

Still can't believe the NBA thing isn't bigger news. Has to be due to Vick.

No, the truth is, very few people give a shit about the NBA anymore. I agree it's a big story in theory (the idea of a ref or refs getting involved with the mob and fixing games), but since it involves a sport I no longer watch or enjoy, I don't care as much. This hits just a little closer to home than the daily Tour de France DQs. Now, if this was the NFL, the National Guard would have been called in to 10-15 cities by now.

[Sam]

I would expect that as the Donaghy investigation proceeds, and actual game tapes are reviewed specifically and compared to betting lines and wagers, the story will get much, much bigger should the allegations be found true. It's not a monster of a story right now, but that isn't because nobody cares about the NBA. That's because the investigation is still in its infancy and there are only questions that cannot be answered.

Yes, but will it have stereotypes?

[without_opinion]

After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well.

It would seem that someone's always failing drug tests in cycling. (Or that one jealous country is falsely accusing another's teams.)

having closely followed the last 5 or so tours day in & day out, this latest one is a pretty big deal. i don't even feel like catching up on it today. damn you vino

the nba story will continue to gain ground. stern was put in a tough position on that one -- in order for the fbi to build it's case he had to allow donaghy to keep doing his job and in turn keep jeopardizing legitimate outcomes of important games. that sucks

michael vick is a piece of shit

[without_opinion]

while we're on the subject of cheaters, this oughta be thrown in:

July 22, 2007

TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels
Robert Booth
TO LIVE up to his public image of a rugged, ex-SAS adventurer, it must have seemed essential for Bear Grylls to appear at ease sleeping rough and catching his own food in his television survival series.

But it has emerged that Grylls, 33, was enjoying a far more conventional form of comfort, retreating some nights from filming in mountains and on desert islands to nearby lodges and hotels.

Now Channel 4 has launched an investigation into whether Grylls, who has conquered Everest and the Arctic, deceived the public in his series Born Survivor.

The series, screened in March and April and watched by 1.4m viewers, built up Grylls’s credentials as a tough outdoorsman. In a question and answer session on Channel 4’s website, he recalls how station bosses pitched the venture to him stating: “We just drop you into a lot of different hellholes equipped with nothing, and you do what you have to do to survive.”

But an adviser to Born Survivor has disclosed that at one location where the adventurer claimed to be a “real life Robin-son Crusoe” trapped on “a desert island”, he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains where he was filmed biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and struggling for survival “with just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire”, he actually slept some nights with the crew in a lodge fitted with television and internet access. The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as “a cosy getaway for families” with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls, was shown apparently building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail.

But according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant brought in for the job, it was he who led the team that built the raft. It was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax an apparently wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada. “I’m in luck,” he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the US where horses still roam wild.”

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station for the “choreographed” feature.

“If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,” he said.

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and has now asked Diverse, the Bristol-based production company that made the programme, to look into the other claims.

“We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously,” said a spokeswoman for the channel.

The latest suggestion that Channel 4 may have breached viewer trust comes as the broad-caster’s supervisory board prepares to issue new editorial guidelines to suppliers in order to stamp out alleged sharp practices that mislead viewers.

“Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a ‘how to’ guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments,” the spokeswoman said.

“The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls’s experience is one of unaided solo survival.”

Nevertheless, the disclosure is likely to disappoint fans of the Eton-educated adventurer, who at the age of 23 became the youngest Briton to scale Everest. Just two years before that he had broken his back in three places after his parachute ripped during a military exercise.

On screen he has emerged as a natural performer, with stunts such as squeezing water from animal dung and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs.

Grylls could not be contacted for comment this weekend as he was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son.

Sometimes I wish to God I didnt know now
The things I didnt know then
And give me something to believe in

[sKinnY]

After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well.

WTF

i think it's about time they band competitive cycling. this is getting out of hand.

[pong]

Sports don't mean half of what they used to mean to me anymore. I was once fanatical. Today, I really don't care much. I think that's what draws me closer to being a Cubs fan, actually. The park, the excitement, the rabid fans even though they never win. Something about this franchise just feels like a slice of the past to me. But, you look across the sports landscape and it doesn't take a genius to tell you that half of these guys don't give a fuck and are on drugs that enhance. Then, one thing you left out that is important is the greed. Greed and disparity. Across the board, guys like Lance Briggs really have put a huge damper on the game. People coming out of college with guaranteed money who never amount to much. Guys who come out of the 6th round and play great, but never get rewarded. Yeah, sports pretty much suck now. And, I'll add: especially the NBA. Fuck, even without this officiating fiasco: I despise the way that game is officiated and since the Jordan era, IMO, it has really done a lot of damage to a game I once loved.

[b17yoe]

NBA official Tim Donaghy is being investigated by the FBI for betting on games he officiated, quite possibly altering the outcome of said games with crooked calls.

After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well.

Michael Vick, well, you know.

Near-universally disliked steroid sponge Barry Bonds muscles in on Hank Aaron's all-time home run record in what's destined to be a big, filthy asterisk looming over the most statistically obsessed major sport.

The University of Oklahoma is forced to vacate its records for the 2005 season, including a bowl victory, because two players were paid $17,000 for work they didn't actually do.

Finally, and perhaps most disturbing, the Cubs are six games ahead of the Cardinals.

WTF

Fuck the NBA.
Fuck Michael Vick.
Fuck the St. Louis Cardinals.

[Nick]

The darkest month in sports history. Clearly.

[norton]

After winning last weekend's Tour de France time trial, Alexander Vinokourov leaves in disgrace after testing positive for a blood transfusion. His entire team pulls out as well.

WTF

i think it's about time they band competitive cycling. this is getting out of hand.

As upset as I am about Vino (I've always been a pretty big fan of his), the fact that cycling has such a bad reputation baffles me somewhat. As far as I can tell, it is the only sport out there that is serious about doping, so yes, they do have more athletes that test positive. There are loads of flaws in their system (not the least of which being the French press tossing allegations around left and right simply because they haven't had a top rider in 20 years), but at least they are trying to clean up the sport. That's why the Vino story is so damaging. Just when it looks like they were making progress, one of the top riders in the world, and the pre-race favorite to win the Tour, tests positive.

Is cycling shooting itself in the foot? Yes. Does it deserve to be singled out as the worst in all of sports? Be serious.

[TJENZ]

while we're on the subject of cheaters, this oughta be thrown in:

July 22, 2007

TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels
Robert Booth
TO LIVE up to his public image of a rugged, ex-SAS adventurer, it must have seemed essential for Bear Grylls to appear at ease sleeping rough and catching his own food in his television survival series.

But it has emerged that Grylls, 33, was enjoying a far more conventional form of comfort, retreating some nights from filming in mountains and on desert islands to nearby lodges and hotels.

Now Channel 4 has launched an investigation into whether Grylls, who has conquered Everest and the Arctic, deceived the public in his series Born Survivor.

The series, screened in March and April and watched by 1.4m viewers, built up Grylls’s credentials as a tough outdoorsman. In a question and answer session on Channel 4’s website, he recalls how station bosses pitched the venture to him stating: “We just drop you into a lot of different hellholes equipped with nothing, and you do what you have to do to survive.”

But an adviser to Born Survivor has disclosed that at one location where the adventurer claimed to be a “real life Robin-son Crusoe” trapped on “a desert island”, he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains where he was filmed biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and struggling for survival “with just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire”, he actually slept some nights with the crew in a lodge fitted with television and internet access. The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as “a cosy getaway for families” with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls, was shown apparently building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail.

But according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant brought in for the job, it was he who led the team that built the raft. It was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax an apparently wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada. “I’m in luck,” he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the US where horses still roam wild.”

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station for the “choreographed” feature.

“If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,” he said.

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and has now asked Diverse, the Bristol-based production company that made the programme, to look into the other claims.

“We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously,” said a spokeswoman for the channel.

The latest suggestion that Channel 4 may have breached viewer trust comes as the broad-caster’s supervisory board prepares to issue new editorial guidelines to suppliers in order to stamp out alleged sharp practices that mislead viewers.

“Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a ‘how to’ guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments,” the spokeswoman said.

“The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls’s experience is one of unaided solo survival.”

Nevertheless, the disclosure is likely to disappoint fans of the Eton-educated adventurer, who at the age of 23 became the youngest Briton to scale Everest. Just two years before that he had broken his back in three places after his parachute ripped during a military exercise.

On screen he has emerged as a natural performer, with stunts such as squeezing water from animal dung and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs.

Grylls could not be contacted for comment this weekend as he was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son.

Sometimes I wish to God I didnt know now
The things I didnt know then
And give me something to believe in

[sin city]

while we're on the subject of cheaters, this oughta be thrown in:

July 22, 2007

TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels
Robert Booth
TO LIVE up to his public image of a rugged, ex-SAS adventurer, it must have seemed essential for Bear Grylls to appear at ease sleeping rough and catching his own food in his television survival series.

But it has emerged that Grylls, 33, was enjoying a far more conventional form of comfort, retreating some nights from filming in mountains and on desert islands to nearby lodges and hotels.

Now Channel 4 has launched an investigation into whether Grylls, who has conquered Everest and the Arctic, deceived the public in his series Born Survivor.

The series, screened in March and April and watched by 1.4m viewers, built up Grylls's credentials as a tough outdoorsman. In a question and answer session on Channel 4's website, he recalls how station bosses pitched the venture to him stating: "We just drop you into a lot of different hellholes equipped with nothing, and you do what you have to do to survive."

But an adviser to Born Survivor has disclosed that at one location where the adventurer claimed to be a "real life Robin-son Crusoe" trapped on "a desert island", he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California's Sierra Nevada mountains where he was filmed biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and struggling for survival "with just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire", he actually slept some nights with the crew in a lodge fitted with television and internet access. The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as "a cosy getaway for families" with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls, was shown apparently building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail.

But according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant brought in for the job, it was he who led the team that built the raft. It was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax an apparently wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada. "I'm in luck," he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. "A chance to use an old native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the US where horses still roam wild."

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station for the "choreographed" feature.

"If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive," he said.

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and has now asked Diverse, the Bristol-based production company that made the programme, to look into the other claims.

"We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously," said a spokeswoman for the channel.

The latest suggestion that Channel 4 may have breached viewer trust comes as the broad-caster's supervisory board prepares to issue new editorial guidelines to suppliers in order to stamp out alleged sharp practices that mislead viewers.

"Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a 'how to' guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments," the spokeswoman said.

"The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls's experience is one of unaided solo survival."

Nevertheless, the disclosure is likely to disappoint fans of the Eton-educated adventurer, who at the age of 23 became the youngest Briton to scale Everest. Just two years before that he had broken his back in three places after his parachute ripped during a military exercise.

On screen he has emerged as a natural performer, with stunts such as squeezing water from animal dung and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs.

Grylls could not be contacted for comment this weekend as he was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son.

Sometimes I wish to God I didnt know now
The things I didnt know then
And give me something to believe in

"I told you he was a pussy..."