Mark80

I was surprised it beat it by that much as well.

Stephen A. Smith should not be considered a reliable source on anything. He will say anything and everything to garner extra attention. He's a complete moron and an embarrassment to the profession. Correct that, he acts and reports like a complete moron, I'm sure he's actually a very intelligent man.

What's really funny is they probably did do something like that! With Kim Jong-un scoring all 4 goals.

That's why I put the adverb "additionally" in there! Just looked up the Basketball game, it was an 8.2, much lower than the World Cup game.

A valid point, those would be can't miss games if they were one game series or every 4 years for me at least. But I'm curious as to how this compared to the Olympic Gold medal game for hockey, the Gold medal game for Basketball, and the World Baseball Classic Championship game (I think it was just a one game final but can't remember for sure). Those are the premiere international competitions for those sports and each occur every 4 years. I'm guessing that the World Cup blew them all out of the water. Additionally, we can't even compare the ratings on a worldwide scale. The soccer would crush everything including the Superbowl. I would also guess that many other soccer competitions would do the same including Euro Cup, Champions League Final (every year), FA Cup Final, Copa del Ray Final and probably some others would demolish the ratings of everything worldwide except the Super Bowl (besides Euro and Champions League, they'd beat out Super Bowl too). Too lazy to look this all up though now.

Nope, just a facts, logic, and objectivity fan. (Unless it's the Bills and Sabres)

Also an excellent one, lots of sediment though (if it's the Ommegang I'm thinking of). Usually pick up the big bottle of it when I get it and I can't drink the last ounce or so of it! Whatever, it's so good so who cares.

Not anymore. Moved to crappy NJ in 2006 after bought by Anheuser-Busch. Was buy one get one recently at Consumer's. Very, very good stuff. Personally, I don't really discriminate, I like pretty much all of them. If I'm in it for a long haul I go Bud Light though. Just very easy to drink a lot of it. Otherwise I like pretty much anything but sours and bitters. Tend to stay away from stouts as well, unless its the occasional Guinness. Favorite types are IPAs, Brown Ales, Lagers.

I somehow, amazingly, avoided hearing any news of the game until I got home last night after 8 and was able to watch the whole thing unspoiled on DVR. A minor miracle in this day and age in itself. I'm sure it would have been a different story had the US been in it though! I thought it was a great game as well. Both teams had plenty of chances to score throughout but miss touches here, great defenses there, missed shots the next time, and quality saves by the goaltenders when needed. I think both teams played exactly how they wanted to play and neither one played better than the other. Germany just got the fantastic finish on their goal to win it. I'm just really glad that it didn't go to PKs. I truly hate how a World Championship can be determined by PKs. As mentioned before, I too am shocked about FIFA's lack of medical competence when it comes to concussions. This was at least the 3rd time that a guy was clearly knocked out and put back in to the game just minutes later. The last two times it happened the guys got knocked out, got up, and went back down to the ground after stumbling a bit. Obviously substantial concussions that any person with any sense could see. The second last time the guy was even out cold for a considerable period of time on the pitch! I mean, holy crap. How can their trainers respectfully call themselves members of the medical community and allow these guys back on the pitch? Does someone actually have to die in a game for things to change? This is absolutely absurd to me. Insane.

The first time he left was after the Conference Finals loss to Boston after he (and the Cavs) were booed off the court after getting spanked at home in game 5 to go down 3-2. In fact, there were 3 additional seasons in Cleveland after that first Spurs loss. But I guess Kermit doesn't care about facts either!

Exactly again! Not sure what's so hard for peeps to understand about this. There are basically NO main public universities in the state's largest cities. Illinois, Penn State, Florida State, Florida, Texas, Oregon, Wisconsin, Kansas, Mizzou...on and on and on. I sometimes feel that the people who are obsessed with NYC are just the other New Yorkers!

Yes, he would have been a perfect fit there.

It's more because of the CBA expiring in two years than anything.

Just coinciding with the end of the current CBA. Not surprising at all.

Well then, most Knicks fans are stupid! I don't agree with JR on one point though, I don't think a decent team will improve his defense at all. He has always been a subpar to terrible defender. That's just him in my opinion and I don't see him improving significantly in that respect at any point. However, his offensive skills are undeniable and if you pair him with a guy or two that are excellent defenders down low, then you got something brewing.

Really? Who? I've only seen him called a bust or a question mark at best. Seriously, it's not that I don't believe you, I just haven't heard anyone say that as of yet.

Gonna be hard to tear it up in SF when he's will most likely be the 4th passing option. I liked him, I respected his rise from where he was selected, he put up very good numbers all things considered, and I certainly appreciate how he re-signed with us for less than he could have got on the open market. I just feel like we have obtained two better receivers in the off season in Watkins and Williams and, quite frankly, I got tired of the drops in absolutely vital situations. I won't crap on him, but I don't miss him.

Honestly, haven't even thought about him in over a month. So I would answer your question with a simple no.

I don't think anyone blamed him for last season nor will they blame him for next season.

I like it too. The NBA (and all sports really except football!) is always better when the New York team is relevant. Whether you love them or love to hate them, it makes it more fun. They will be a train wreck again next season, but once that money clears out Phil should be able to make them interesting at least. Not a Melo fan personally though, I think he is atrocious as a defender.

Can't argue with that!

Ha! Your criticisms are so thoughtful, logical, well-reasoned, objective, and "sound" too!

Well, at least I can respect someone's opinion who has actually met him on numerous occasions and had bad experiences with him. Everyone else who's been negative has been saying vague things like I've read that he did bad things without providing any specifics whatsoever. Also, let's be clear here, I am not a Cavs or LeBron fan. I just like what he did here and think / perhaps thought that he got a bad rap for only one bad PR mistake that he made. I root for the Pacers after having lived in Indiana for the 5 years until I just recently moved back to Buffalo. It was the first area I ever lived that had an NBA team nearby so I picked them up after previously being a Super Sonics fan (loved me some Schrempf and Perkins). As far as Ryan's post. He could have easily said what he wanted to say and made valid points without saying "LeBum," "keeps leaving teams and crying for calls," "loser," and the Mavs whooped his arse just the like the Spurs or whatever non-sense he was spewing. He's flat out the best player in the game right now (sorry KD, but he is), he's won 2 titles, took a team that to a finals that one just 19 games two years later (the year after he left) when they won 60+ the previous two years with LeBron. That shows you the kind of talent that was around him there. When Jordan left mid run to play baseball, the Bulls won 55 games and made the Conference Finals without him the next season. That shows you the kind of talent he had. And if you don't think Jordan every pleaded for calls, then you didn't watch basketball in the 90s. They just didn't have dozens of cameras recording every angle and non-stop sports coverage like they do now back then. And Jordan did abandon his team for his "dream" of being a baseball player for whatever reason, he did. I'm not saying this scars his legacy at all, and he's amazing, but if Ryan is going to point the finger at LeBron for leaving and use Jordan as a reference, then I'm sorry, I don't respect his argument. And to your point of Bird and Magic. How many other hall of famers were on those squads? Kareem, Worthy, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson, McAdo, and Wilkes. 7! yes 7! LeBron never played bad in any finals that appeared in. His team may have got smoked a few times, but he was never the problem. The guy had to carry the weight so much the last two years in Miami that one of the most finely tuned athletes in the world couldn't even walk at the end of two games because he had exerted so much energy during the course of the season, the playoffs, those games that his body simply broke down. Some call him a wuss, I would argue that this is a guy that gave his absolute 100% he had to give. It he wants to link an article from 3 years ago that points out a few games and a few shots that he missed, whatever, so be it. He's made plenty of clutch shots during those years and plenty more since then. Nice objectivity though buddy. Perhaps he'll read this article to see what i'm talking about, but I doubt it. (can't post link but just google lebron james clutch performances and there is a nice bleacher report article on it, with some breakdown). The Dirk comments, sure a stretch, no doubt. But one could also say if he was loyal to his first team and country, why didn't he stay and help build an NBA caliber team / league over there? Another stretch, yes, but similar to saying why didn't LeBron stay in Cleveland and just build the Championship caliber team there? The answer to the questions are the same, at the time it was simply impossible. The rest of the Mavs I brought up was just to show that pretty much every NBA player moves around (including a hall of famer that was very important to their team that year who was on the Mavs, left and came back in Kidd) and his high and mighty Mavs certainly were no different than everyone else. I will never bad mouth Duncan as I went to Wake Law and I love him and everything he stands for and is. A true gentleman on and off the court in every walk of life. Bringing Ripken is was just completely out of left field as he doesn't even play basketball. Apples to oranges in my opinion. Thanks, I've made all the points I care to and am done with this debate.

Also, isn't Sherman more of a zone coverage guy than a man-to-man guy like Deion and Woodson (in his prime) was? Man to man is infinitely more difficult than zone coverage and if you got someone that can shut 'em down like those guys and Revis a few years back, it really allows your D to run some nasty schemes and blitz packages.

Someone substituted their coffee with haterade this morning huh? Jordan, Duncan? OK. Ripken (a baseball player out of nowhere) and Dirk? Well, they each only had one title. LeBron has two and I'm willing to venture a guess that he'll add at least one more before it's over. So every player needs to play for only one team their entire careers for you to respect them? Guess you don't know much about Dirk then for a guy that has him as his user pic, huh? The guy abandoned his entire country where he was playing professionally for DJK Wurzburg from 94-98. But I guess selective memory is OK when you're trying to make a ridiculous point. 2011 Mavs: Jason Terry - Atlanta Hawks draft pick Caron Butler - Miami Heat draft pick Shawn Marion - Phoenix Suns draft pick Tyson Chandler - LA Clippers draft pick Jason Kidd - Left Dallas for the Suns and Nets before returning to Dallas again Once again, selective memory my friend. Oh, and Jordan, he abandoned basketball all together, in his prime for a couple seasons, remember?