Sports

Vancouver won the 2010 Winter Olympics (original). While the main competitor was thought to be Salzburg, in Austria, that bid was eliminated on the first ballot. The final vote was between Vancouver and Pyongyang, and the Canadians won by a mere 3 votes. Fortunately for Canada, all but two of the Salzburg voters switched to Vancouver on the second ballot. Apparently, all the Europeans voted for Vancouver, because if the Olympics is in North America in 2010 it’s unlikely to be in North America again in 2012. That pushes New York further out of the running. London’s going to have to be the coalition of the willing representative, with Paris flying the standard of the opposition. (Madrid and Moscow are less likely candidates.)

Big revelation of the night: Bill Simmons sounds exactly like any random 16 year old fan. I caught him calling into 1510 on the way home, and he really is the voice of the Boston fan. To a tee. I think that’s a compliment. Notes on the NBA draft (original) follow in real time. I’m shamelessly ripping off Bill’s format, by the way. Just saying.

In an orgy of sporting expenditure, I find myself with four tickets for each weekend 11 AM session in the 2003 Reebok Pro Summer League (original). There’s a chance LeBron James will be playing, and even if he isn’t — hey! It’s summer basketball! How cool is that? I also got one ticket for the evening session on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be able to drag my brother and his wife and my nephew along; if not I’m sure I can find a good home for the excess tickets.

Yeah, Danny’s pretty serious about running this team. I think it’s kind of sneaking up on us. During the glory years of the 80s, Danny was clearly the least talented starter. Mind you, on a team with Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and Dennis Johnson that leaves plenty of room to be pretty damned good — and he was — but he was still the least talented starter and in a lot of ways he was the kid on the team. I think that Boston fans, on occasion, have trouble thinking of Danny as a hard-nosed GM. Look at me; I’m still calling him Danny. Everyone does. ...

Rick Carlisle, coach of the Detroit Pistons told ESPN he was fired yesterday. The Pistons are denying it but there’s a press conference Monday so I’m kind of guessing it’s true. In my opinion, this is an incredibly foolish move. Carlisle won Coach of the Year last year and deserved it. The Pistons have the #2 draft pick this year, and Carlisle should have gotten a chance to work with whoever they pick. Sure, they got swept by the Nets in the playoffs this year and were somewhat embarassed by the Celtics last year, but the Celtics and the Nets are currently the scariest teams in the Eastern Conference. (Yes, I mean it; the Nets own the Celtics but it’d be silly to ignore what the Celtics have done to Indiana, Detroit, and Philly in the playoffs the last couple of years.) ...

Yao Ming is suing Coca-Cola China. One might well assume that he’s out for big money, etc., etc. One would be wrong; he’s suing for 1 yuan, which is about 12 cents, for “spiritual and economic losses.” I.e., he feels he has to sue to protect his rights but he’s not interested in punishing Coca-Cola. Gotta admire that, even if it’s a bit unAmerican.

I finally got around to breaking down the IOC members by coalition/non-coalition. Of the main Committee, 79 members come from non-coalition countries, not counting Mohamad Hasan from Indonesia, because he’s been suspended. Hm, make that 74 — there are five Swiss members and we’ll count them as neutral. 45 come from coalition countries, counting Taiwan as a coalition country even though the US didn’t list ‘em as part of the coalition. I kind of suspect that had more to do with mainland China than anything else. ...

The 2012 Olympics has turned into quite the little microcosm of the political split over the war on Iraq. Paris just tossed its hat into the ring. The other cities bidding are New York, London, Leipzig, Madrid, and Moscow. The choice isn’t made until July of 2005, so plenty can change between now and then, but it’s still a significant group of cities. Oh, OK. Cuba is bidding too. I can’t see New York winning, not so much because of the political issues but because of the corruption scandals wracking the USOC. Leipzig is really too small. Cuba isn’t seriously likely. The other four… well, the IOC always says there’s no political aspect to the selection, but I still think it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

It really is different out here. Not unique, I’m sure, but different. I didn’t realize until recently how much I’d missed being a sports fan in New England. Recently? Until I settled down in Fenway Park the other day and watched Wakefield handcuff the Royals. Yeah, I think that was just about exactly the time. The thing was, the day after the game I could talk about it with just about any native New Englander at work. The Canadians, not so much, but the people who grew up here knew what had happened and who had won and why. I can strike up a conversation about why Vin Baker is the worst thing that ever happened to the Celtics with my insurance agent. We know this crap. We, as a region, care about it. ...

At one point in his ill-fated reign over the Celtics, Rick Pitino told the team that Larry Bird wasn’t going to “come walking through that door.” He was right. But it looks like Danny Ainge is. This is pretty awesome news. It relieves the team of the burden of Chris Wallace, who has made some good moves but has also made some moves so incredibly boneheaded that I can only say “Wow, what a boneheaded move.” It provides a connection to the most recent Celtics dynasty. And Ainge has a good basketball mind. ...