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Monday, April 11, 2005
Sayson: Lost lobos
By HOMER SAYSON
SECOND OVERTIME
CHICAGO – Whatever confidence there was left for the Timberwolves to make this year’s playoffs, it vanished yesterday. Shattered like shards of broken glass following a humiliating 105-98 loss to the lowly Hawks at the Philips Arena in Atlanta.
The Hawks are an inept bunch, losers of 27 of their previous 28 games including 14 straight. They haven’t won since March 11 and have lost 12 consecutive home games. The Hawks have an overall record of 12-64.
If the Timberwolves couldn’t beat a team of Altanta’s caliber this time of year, they probably don’t deserve to be in the post-season.
Four games behind Memphis (43-32) for the eighth playoffs spot in the West, Minnesota (40-37) still has five games to play in its schedule. Technically, there’s a sliver of hope left, a chance to enter via the backdoor.
But that’s impossible. The Wolves have lacked bite lately, and gone is the growl that catapulted them to the conference finals last year. Instead of hoping against hope, it would be better to euthanize these dying Wolves. This will quickly end the agony and save us the tears.
Kevin McHale, the Wolves’ interim coach, was livid over his team’s lackluster effort.
“You can’t disrespect the game of basketball like that. You have to play as a team and when you don’t, it gets ugly,” he said.
Play as a team, the Wolves didn’t. And McHale was right, it was ugly.
Kevin Garnett was his usual MVP self (32 pts, 12 rebs and 4 assts), but Minnesota only had a disappointing team total of 10 assists, while Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell combined just 7-of-24 from the field.
Ironically, it was the Hawks who played with the passion of a team in search of a playoffs berth. They hit 42-of-85 field goals (49.5 percent), converted 7-of-14 treys and made 14-of-14 from the stripe, which is astounding considering that the Hawks are 29th in the NBA in free-throw shooting percentage (70.9).
The Hawks also had nine steals and forced 13 turnovers.
But it was Tyronn Lue who caused the most damage by scoring 23 points. Lue gave his team a 93-89 lead at the 3:33 mark and the 6-foot ex-Laker nailed back-to-back jumpers including the dagger in the final 17 seconds that iced the victory.
BASHING AN ICON. Lawyer Manny Oyson’s Counterpunch meanderings here at Sun.Star Cebu are one of the few columns that I devote time to read. In one of his articles last week, Oyson wrote about his apparent divorce with the Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC).
I was absolutely mortified.
Oyson is an accomplished journalist of 53 years. A Sun.Star Cebu pioneer, he has been writing a sports column long before this paper was born two decades ago. Recah Trinidad of the Philippine Daily Inquirer calls him a “boxing scholar,” while Quinito Henson of the Philippine Star refers to Oyson as a “highly-respected columnist.”
I take pride in being better than any sportswriter in Cebu right now. But Oyson is the best. I hope to be a legend someday. But Oyson is already an institution.
“My association with the SAC seems to be over. I have been deactivated from it’s membership. I am not complaining,” Oyson wrote.
This is ridiculous. Oyson is one of the pillars that enabled the SAC to exist. Removing him from that organization is sacrilege, it’s like barring Michael Jordan from entering the United Center in Chicago.
I’m not a SAC member. I don’t know and I don’t care who runs this joint now. But they must afford Oyson the respect he so deserves. Oyson may be 60-something but he is still on top of his game. And even on their best days, none of those hotshots at the SAC can hold their ground against the iconic Oyson.
Oyson wrote further: “When the new members of the crop and SMC left me out of the awards selection committee in 1996, I did not complain.”
I am friends with Girlie Garces, SMC’s corporate communications manager for Visayas and Mindanao. SMC has been my NBA Finals sponsor since 2002. But if this company continues to disrespect a colleague whom I truly admire, then SMC can shove their sponsorship money in the ...
You know where I mean.
(homsay@hotmail.com)
(April 11, 2005 issue)
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