What’s Spinning

While millions are making plans on which or how many Super Bowl festivities to attend Sunday evening….let’s see what else is keeping the sports world spinning on its axis:

I had every intention of watching the Finals of the Australian Open live….but a sixteen hour time difference…meaning a 3am start time in my neck of the woods, proved too much to bear.  Turns out Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova got started without me….and ended with Serena winning her 6th Aussie Open and 19th Grand Slam tournament! 

Along with Serena’s phenomenal run at #1, it is nice to see American women on the tour….she and big sis Venus are the highest ranking of the ladies representing the red, white and blue.  However, teenager Madison Keys made her presence known in the season’s first tourney…and Sloane Stephens made a go of things as well.  

It may still be a tad early in the season, but the impressive winning streak of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks has all the makings of moving them beyond the “Great Pretenders” status they’ve held on to in previous seasons….

No sooner than the release of All-Star weekend lineups came the inevitable analysis of shoulda coulda wouldas.  This is an exhibition game aka a popularity contest.  The key to appearances in the star studded weekend?…be more popular than the next guy.  No, it isn’t the least bit fair but it is how business is done. There’s a big difference between a name being known by basketball enthusiasts and being a household name…and if a less glamorous market is thrown in the mix…the odds are truly stacked against good players regardless of the type of numbers they are putting up.  Shout out to the Damian Lillardsof the league!

Coach K of the Duke Blue Devils had the honorable distinction of being the first Division 1 coach to reach 1,000 wins.  That milestone was quickly overshadowed when Junior Rasheed Sulaimon found himself with the dishonorable distinction of being the first player ever dismissed from the program by Coach K.  The good news in this hot mess—Rasheed is in good academic standing.  Whatever the lesson was in his dismissal, I hope he has learned it…and goes on to great things!

Tiger Woods not making the cut in his 2015 debut was disappointing no doubt… at least it was newsworthy though.  All the drama of his missing tooth, over the last few weeks, most definitely was not!  Count me as a believer…as soon as he figures out how to get out of his own way….Tiger will be back on course (pun intended) to capturing 4 more majors and then some!

Back to THE game of the weekend….Seattle 27 Patriots 17….go Hawks!

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