9.27.2007

In The News: September 27, 2007

McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is on the cusp of making motosports history, but he literally and figuratively has miles to go before he can become the first rookie driver ever to win the Formula One driver’s championship. Earlier in the season, the incredibly talented driver sat on top of the world, a whopping 14 points ahead of rival teammate Fernando Alonso for the driver’s points lead. But now, having finished behind Alonso in five of the last six races, and with only 3 races to the end of the season, Hamilton finds himself up by a mere 2 points, 97-95.


To make matters more dicey, the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso, and Alonso and Team McLaren is severely strained. Alonso, for one, is essentially driving for himself, as it seems possible that this may be his final season with McLaren, after he snitched on the team costing them a whopping $100 million, as part of the now infamous “spygate” scandal. McLaren team Boss Ron Dennis and Alonso apparently aren’t speaking any longer, with Dennis recently calling Alonso a “remarkable recluse”.

Formula One makes its stop at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.

Kevin McHale looking to wash his hands of past sins

If you’re going to strip a team of superstar talent like Kevin Garnett, you might as well take the rest of the proverbial fat off the bones and try to unload the remaining veteran players and their bloated salaries. It seems that’s exactly the plan for embattled Minnesota Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale. According to reports, McHale is trying his darndest to trade veteran players like Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell and Juwan Howard, and truly start from scratch with a young core of Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Corey Brewer and Randy Foye. According to the Miami Herald, the T’Wolves may have found a suitor for the services of Ricky Davis in Pat Riley and the Miami Heat.

The Redskins have issues at Wide Receiver

While one team tries to go young, another, in a different sport, is for whatever reason going increasingly old. The Washington Redskins, whose key off-season free agent signing was nine year veteran London Fletcher, is apparently close to signing 37-year old wide receiver Keenan McCardell. There are rumblings out of FedEx field that the groin injury that stud receiver Santana Moss suffered this past weekend is a bit more serious than the team and snake-oil salesman coach Joe Gibbs is letting on publicly, thus the signing of McCardell.

It’s on again, it’s off again. The Shawn Marion trade saga contines

The Arizona Republic, which as would be expected is doing an excellent job staying on top of the Shawn Marion situation in Phoenix, reports that given all of the extranuating circumstances a trade seems unlikely. Marion said he would report to camp and realistically he is still bound to the Suns by the 2 years remaining on his contract, so any potential trade offer would have to be significant for the Suns to make the move. We’re not sure there are any truly mind-blowing, signifcant offers out there for the Suns, at least not at this moment.

An impressive sports streak comes to an end

One of the most impressive streaks in recent sports history is over. The US Women’s Soccer Team, which had previously won an amazing 51 straight matches, lost in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup to competing powerhouse Brazil by a score of 4-0.

Warrior’s coach Nelson to make rebounding a priority, or is he?

In an interview with the Associated Press, Golden State Warrior’s coach Don Nelson is rather candid in his assesment of the young, surprisingly overachieving team. Nelson, like the rest of the NBA world, is skeptical about whether the Warriors can replicate the success of last season, when they knocked out the Western Conference powerhouse Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. More specifically, Nelson is concerned about the teams lack of height and strength on the boards. Interestingly enough though, Nelson goes on to say that at least early in the season he anticipates playing 6’ 5” rookie shooting guard Marco Belinelli a lot more than 6’ 10” rookie power forward Brandon Wright. What were you saying about rebounding need again? That Nellie, he’s such a wild and crazy guy.

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