Thursday on the radio version of News, Notes and Rumors

At 6:20 PM EDT Cory Ruff of nba-draft.com joins me to discuss the draft, Ricky Rubio and his future or lack of that with the Minnesota TimberKitties and Lebron’s statements after the win over Boston last night. Cory always brings great information to the show.

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At 7:20 Eric Galko Dir. of Scouting at OptimumScouting.com and the Bleacher Report joins me to discuss the undrafted free agents that he has rated highly and might fit the needs of the Browns in 2011. Eric’s knowledge of the lower ranked players brings us a great insight into how and if the Browns can improve beyond the draft.

Please join us and be part of the show by calling our Herbalife Hotline at 216-539-0607. The show begins at 6:00 right after the Moohead Radio show.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for and edits https://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on

and a non-fiction work at http://www.merriam-press.com/. He edits . Also Read more at FryingPanSports

Sports Buffet for 05/11/10

SptsBuf

NFL

UFA Charles Grant (NO) had the involuntary manslaughter charge against him dropped. He agreed to a misdemeanor public fighting charge with a fine of $1,000, a year probation and a $20,000 payment to the victims of that confrontation. The charges stemmed from a brawl outside a nightclub that led to the death of an innocent passer by.

Texans LB Bryan Cushing has been suspended for the first 4 games for violations of the NFL drug policy. He was the D Rookie of the year last season despite having failed a test in September of 09. He appealed the decision but lost that appeal and now will serve the suspension.

RFA OG Daryn Colledge signed his tender with the Packers.

We will see a lot of RFA players signing their tenders between now and June 15th. On that date NFL teams can lower the offer and the period for players to get an offer from another team has already expired.

The political left is insisting that the NFL pull the Super Bowl scheduled for Arizona due to the recent law that enforces federal law in the state. I suspect that the gutless Commissioner Goodell will do that despite the fact … Read more at FryingPanSports

The NBA: First half season review

nba

Game of the week–LA 87 @ Cleveland 93

The Cavs trailed for 3 quarters but the 4th quarter is LeBron time. LeBron scored 37 with 12 in the last period to make the difference. Bryant had 31It was an outstanding game. Varejao adds so much energy and rebounding and that was critical in this game. He hit 2 free throws with 20 seconds to go after forcing a fowl going after a miss on a free throw by LeBron. This is the kind of game that the Cavs would have lost a couple of years ago. They have now swept the Lakers in their 2 games.

Top NBA teams are struggling with injuries.

The top teams from last year are all struggling with injuries.

Cleveland (33-11) leads the Eastern Conference but will not have G Mo Williams for up to a month. They traded for Shaq but Coach Brown has not figured out yet how to make a square peg fit into a round hole. He is not playing enough minutes to have the impact the Cavs expected. The Cavs need to find a way to stay in front of Boston and Orlando to keep the home floor advantage in … Read more at FryingPanSports

I'm ready for the baseball playoffs now.

MLB

Inter-league play is over. The All Star game has been played. Now, I have had enough baseball and am ready for the playoffs. Baseball has only another 3 weeks until football and the NFL steals the spot light and doesn’t give it back. Baseball has a following but it is losing ground against other sports particularly football.

Proof of how totally football overshadows baseball can been seen most clearly in the steady decline of the TV ratings for the World Series. It has fallen about 50% in the last 10 years while the ratings for the All Star game have held fairly steady. Why? Because no one plays football in the middle of July.

Baseball has to take maximum advantage of the period when it is the only major league sport in the docket. The schedulers seem dedicated to having all the games between the Boston and the Yankees in the first few weeks of the season. But that is when both the NBA and NHL has its playoffs. A good marketing guy would never put their best games and highest draws on opposite a tough competitor. They should have waited until the MLB was the only show on TV.… Read more at FryingPanSports

What a Sports weekend!

Boston falls to Orlando: I predicted this when Boston had a 3-2 lead in the series. One reaction I could not resist is that the team is not built around the Big 3—it is built around the Big 2.5. Without Kevin Garnett, the team is way too limited offensively and has a huge hole in the d as well. The team is aging and already in salary cap hell. There isn’t any way out of that for the Celts. They will get old together. If, and it is not a given, KG comes back at or close to 100%, they will be in the playoffs for another year or two. But they will not be able to get to the finals again without finding a mid range exception superstar. Orlando and Cleveland are likely to be playing in the East finals for the next several years as long as they are healthy.

LA handles the upstart Rockets easily in game 7: The Lakers jumped off to a quick start against Houston in game 7 and never looked back. The bad sign for them is that the Rockets forced them to game 7 without their superstar center Yao Ming and his … Read more at FryingPanSports