Knicks Coach Mike D'Antoni Quits; Romney Passes on March Madness
Today in sports: Mitt Romney says he's not "plugged in" enough to fill out a bracket, Carmelo Anthony is killing the New York Knicks, and Detroit Lions wide receiver has received the richest contract in NFL history.
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New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni resigned as head coach Wednesday, hours after sulking star Carmelo Anthony told beat reporters he wouldn't be requesting a trade out of town. D'Antoni was midway through his fourth season with the club, and while his run-and-gun offense didn't bring the Knicks the kind of success it did when he coached the Phoenix Suns, the news was enough to throw Madison Square Garden Co. stock for a temporary loop [The New York Times, image via Yahoo Finance]
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Barack Obama continued his tradition of filling out an NCAA tournament bracket today, but his likely opponent in this fall's election isn't even going to try. Per Mitt Romney, he's not "plugged in well enough this year to do that." It's nice that Romney didn't accuse the president of taking his eye of the proverbial ball -- which a president must always watch, always -- to make his very safe Final Four picks, but come on: not "plugged in" enough? Children fill out brackets based on which school mascots they think would win in a hypothetical fight. [The Wall Street Journal]
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We'll admit it: we thought New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony would find a way to co-exist with Jeremy Lin and the rest of his New York Knicks teammates, who immediately began looking like a playoff basketball team when Anthony missed eight games due to injury last month. Since Anthony's return, the team is 1-7 and he's rubbing everyone the wrong way by sulking, breaking off plays called by now-former coach Mike D'Antoni and taking the same terrible shots over and over and over (and over) again. [The New York Times]
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Calvin Johnson -- the large-handed, freakishly talented Detroit Lions wide receiver -- has signed a new eight-year contract with the Detroit Lions that's the richest in NFL history. The deal has the potential to be worth $132 million if Johnson hits all his bonuses, but NFL contracts are famously chock-a-block with funny money and escape clauses, so the only figure worth looking at is the amount of guaranteed money. In Johnson's case, that's either $60 million (the number being touted by Johnson's agent, Bus Cook) or $53 million, the number being reported by NFL Network reporter Jason La Canfora, who in this aggregator's opinion is the best when it comes to sifting through the minutia of pro football contracts. Either way, that puts Johnson above the $50 million in guaranteed money the Arizona Cardinals gave to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald last August, a league record that stood for all of seven months. If anything, the deal might wind end up being a bargain for the Lions. Johnson is 26, a decent fellow, and a one-man wrecking machine when the ball is thrown his way in the red zone, as evidenced by the clip below, which for our purposes, is sadly set to a Kings of Leon song, instead of this. [AP and NFL.com]
When we were 25, we had secured full-time employment, talked to a lady and were in the process of moving out of childhood bedroom. Pretty great, but apparently it pales in comparison to the accomplishments of Dallas Seavey, who has been 25 for less than two weeks and already emerged as the youngest person -- sorry, musher -- ever to win Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He also beat his father, 2004 Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey, who finished seventh. [AP]
We got very excited last week over the possibility that Mo Isom would be the first lady ever to kick field goals for the Louisiana State University football team. Sadly, she ended up not making the team following a two-day tryout. LSU coach Les Miles said it was a very difficult decision, and invited Isom -- a former goalie on the school's varsity soccer team --to try walking on again after she imrpoved her accuracy on extra points. He also remarked that Isom reminds him of his own daughter, who is named Thumper, because she's the daughter of a southern football coach. [USA Today]
