Happy Thursday everyone, here's my Top 5 for February 16, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- Jeremy Lin dishes out a career-high 13 assists as the surging Knicks win their 7th straight beating Sacramento 100-85. After all this, the Knicks are now at the .500 mark (15-15).
- According to SI.com, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning had an unreported fourth neck surgery and was pushing to play late last season.
- Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn underwent 14 hours of surgery to remove a malignant tumor from inside his right cheek. Doctors believe the cancer hasn't spread. Gwynn used smokeless tobacco throughout his baseball career.
2. While I Was Gone
So I take a week off and what happens? The Knicks suddenly become exciting because of some Taiwanese-American kid from Harvard. A franchise spends a decade or more pouring good money down the drain, and some kid making the minimum makes them relevant. You gotta love it. Other than that did I miss anything? (The Swimsuit Issue doesn't count.)
3. Lin-Sanity
So you thought that Jeremy Lin would rate only one item? From the frivolous: There's a website, It's the Lin version of Tebowing. It has to do with his handshake. So, go around Linning all day if you wish. To the serious (sort of): Mainland China is claiming Jeremy as their own even though his parents are from Taiwan. So Jeremy is bringing together the two countries. Now that's Lin-Sane!
4. Fore!
Golf ain't what it used to be. The Wall Street Journal says the sport is losing a million players a year. It's easy to understand why. It's costly. It takes too much time to play. The Tiger bubble has burst. The recession of course doesn't help. And neither do golf club manufacturers who come out with new expensive stuff every 10 minutes. The sport is hard enough to play as it is without feeling you have to junk your clubs and start over every year.
5. A Final Word
So many times our National Anthem before sporting events is a throwaway. They seem to just want to get it over with as fast as possible. Not before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. It was the first Gulf War. Metal detectors were used for the first time. Every fan was given a small American flag to wave. Whitney Houston sang that day. I saw New York City construction workers with tears in their eyes. It brought chills. It still does.
Happy Birthday: Tennis great John McEnroe. 53.
Bonus Birthday: Rapper/Actor Ice-T (Tracy Marrow). 54.
Today in Sports: The NHL announced the season was canceled. It was the first time a major sports league in America lost an entire season in a labor dispute. 2005.
Bonus Event: The start of something big. NBC debuts the first TV newscast, the 15-minute Camel News Caravan. 1948.
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