Sports Blog

Today NBA free agents can officially sign with a team.  After a week of being able to shop around, most know where they are going or have agreed to verbal agreements already.  For the most part all the big names have already stated where they are going, but until it’s official, anything can happen.  The NBA has already announced that the salary cap will be lowered for next year.  This will affect effect teams decision to sign a big free agent that will put them over the cap and force them to pay a tax.  With the economy the way it is I think teams will be less willing to go over this year.  We’ll just have to see what happens.  Here is a list of some free agents that have already gave their verbal decision.

Ron Artest, SF - Signed with Lakers

Good signing as both sides have been wanting to join forces for a while.  This gives the Lakers some much needed toughness and allows Kobe to get rest on defense as Artest can shut down the other teams best player.  The only bad thing is they lose fan favorite Trevor Ariza.

Trevor Ariza, SF - Signed with Rockets

This is pretty much like a trade for Ron Artest as they will trade places.  I think that Ariza will be kicking himself for years after he tried to hard ball the Lakers for more money, then accepting the same deal in Houston.  He was great for the Lakers but that was only for a year.  He needs to prove he can do it for longer.

Shannon Brown , G - Re-signed with Lakers
In keeping Brown, the Lakers will pretty much have the same team, assuming Lamar Odom signs, as last year and might even be better will Artest.  Brown gives energy off the bench and he is very athletic.  I see a repeat coming!

Rasheed Wallace, C - Signed with Celtics

This signing makes the Celtics the team to beat in the east again.  Although he is older now, teaming him with KG will be deadly in the middle.  I see another Lakers-Celtics Finals.

Jason Kidd, G - Re-signed with Mavs

There was some temptation to join the Knicks, but in the end the Mavs could offer more money and wanted him the most.  Though they still cant compete with the elite teams, this signing will at least keep them competitive for the fans.

Ben Gordon, G - Signed with Pistons

Good signing for the Pistons as Ben is a good player, but it still doesn’t make them better than the big three in the east (Magic, Celtics, Cavs).  The fact is that the Pistons want a shot at Lebron next year and having Ben might help.  We’ll see.

Hedo Turkolgu, F - Signed with Raptors

After having a great playoffs, Hedo wanted to cash in as he’s not getting any younger.  And, that he did getting almost $10 million a year from the Raptors.  I guess winning a championship isn’t that important to him.

Image Source: Getty Images

It was a very busy weekend full of fireworks all over the sports world.  We’ll start with tennis: Roger Federer and American Andy Roddick played one of the best matches in the history of Wimbledon.  Tied at 2 sets apiece going into the final set, both players played an epic 5th set that was the longest in Wimbledon history.  It was back and forth all the way until Federer finally got the win in the set 16-14.  With this win Federer became the greatest champion in tennis history as he passed Pete Sampras for first all-time Grand Slam victories at 15.  Even Pete, who was on hand to watch, had to give him props saying,” I have to give it to him. He’s won all the majors.  He’s won 15 now.  He’s going to win a few more here.  So in my book he is (the greatest).”  I would have to agree.  On the women’s side Serena made quick work of her sister Venus.  The win gave her three of the four major tournament wins this year.  Even with that she was still disappointed that she couldn’t win them all saying, “I’m really disappointed because I think this is the year I could have done it.  And I didn’t.”

In baseball, He’s BACK!!!!  Manny Ramirez returned to the Dodgers to a cores of both cheers and boos.  Though he was quiet for most of his at-bats, he did go deep in one bringing the crowd up to make noise.  It’s safe to say that its going to be a circus every time he comes up for the rest of the season, especially on the road.  Also the All-Star team rosters were announced on Sunday with the fans getting the starters right for the most part.  I don’t see how Josh Hamilton was an all-star this season, I’m sure fans voted for him based on his Homerun Derby performance last year.  Even he didn’t agree with the selection saying, “I don’t feel I personally deserve to go, but at the same time the fans voted me in so I’m more than happy about that.”  Overall that was the only questionable starter so that was good and it should be an excellent game.  Notably Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, caught up in steroid stories, were not among the selected.  For more on the rosters go here.

In the NBA, free agents were on the move.  With Friday being the first day to meet with teams.  The biggest splash so far is by the Lakers as they picked up Ron Artest.  Some thing that both sides have wanted for a while.  This move and keeping Lamar Odom will make the Lakers a heavy favorite to repeat.  While gaining Artest they did have to part ways with a very key contributor Trevor Ariza.  Ariza’s agent tried to play hardball with the Lakers to get more money and it back fired.  He ended up taking the same deal with Rockets, trading places with Artest, that the Lakers offered to him.  I have a feeling he will be kicking himself for years after this.  Other free agents will be making their choices this week so keep watch.

Image Source: AP Photo

Here’s what happened this weekend in sports:

Will it be Tiger or Mediate? The two will face off today in an 18-hole playoff (Noon EST) to decide who will win the 2008 US Open title.

Tiger usually wins when he is up the day before, but he was struggling yesterday because of his hurt knee, but I’m pretty hopeful he will be able to do his thing today.

Lakers win game 5 – I honestly thought they weren’t going to pull it off & I know die-hard fans were pretty disgruntled because of their horrible performance during game 4, especially with sports casters reminding them that no team has ever come back when down by 3-1 to win a title.

So, basically the Lakers will make history of they pull it off. The refs were pretty lenient on the Lakers especially in the last few minutes of the game.  Anyway, I’m sure the Celtics would rather win their final game at home.  :)       

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the LifeLock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race! Before this long anticipated victory he was on a 76 race losing streak!

He actually was supposed to run out of gas way before the finish line according to his pit crews estimations, but miraculously he an out of gas just shortly after crossing the finish line.

Turkey beats the Czech Republic to make it to the Euro 2008 Quarterfinals. Turkey’s team captain, Nihat Kahveci, scored two goals in the last three minutes of the game. Pretty awesome.  Check out the game highlights here.

Image Source:  NBA.com, ESPN.com, Boston.com, Telegraph.co.uk