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By Jason Comack  January 11, 2010, at 4:29 pm  Reed Harris dropped all kinds of interesting nuggets of information during the post fight presser. The most interesting was that the WEC is headed for Pay-Per-View. Of course this move has been rumored for a long time, but its just now that the WEC finally has enough talent to back it up.
Faber vs. Aldo for the featherweight title was confirmed by Harris. It was also strongly hinted that this would headline WEC’s first PPV. There’s little to not like about this fight. Faber is not only the WEC’s most popular fighter he’s also the 2nd or 3rd best featherweight on the planet. Aldo, the champ, has a skill set the reminds people of Anderson Silva…need I say more?
Harris also eluded to the fact that when the WEC goes PPV they are going to load the card from top to bottom to make sure its a card you can’t afford to miss.
Ben Henderson’s next opponent will likely be Donald Cerrone in a rematch of their fight of the year from 2009. While not confirmed by Reed Harris all signs strongly point in that direction. Harris also suggested that Henderson’s first title defense could be on the same PPV card as Faber/Aldo.
Those two title fights as the main/co-main on a card rivals most of the cards the UFC puts on these days. With the growing list of talented fighters its easy to fantasy book the rest of the PPV card.
A fight including rising lightweight stars like Anthony Njokuani and Kamal Shalorus could open the card. Top featherweight contenders Mike Brown and Manny Gamburayan could meet in a number one contenders bout. Those are four fights that are must see and I haven’t even tapped into the WEC’s talent pool at 135.
The growth of the WEC is great for the sport. PPV means more revenue for the WEC, means bigger paychecks for fighters and in turn that means more fighters at 155 would be willing to cut to 145 (that means you Frankie Edgar.)
Kudos to Reed Harris for showing us the proper way to build an MMA organization.
By Anthony De Franco December 17, 2009, at 5:27 pm Since the next episode of Jersey Shore is on tonight, let’s take a look at a video that had the internet abuzz for about two weeks.
Well, I couldn’t find one that wasn’t incredibly disrespectful or tasteless, but by now I’m sure you’ve heard that MTV is pulling a scene off of Jersey Shore where “Snooki” gets punched in the face by a guy can be cateogorized as a giant douche bag.
Anyway, here’s where we come in, bringing you this video link from the ever so wonderful TMZ.com.
What’s through this magical door? None other than the dude that knocked out in what appears to be an “underground” MMA fight. Not to mention since the guy lives in New York, this was illegal. Just saying. Personally, I say we throw him in against Fedor and see what happens.
Two lessons to be learned here. First off, punching chicks in the face is a bad idea, especially if you do it on national television. Second of all, if you do decide that it’s the way to go, then be prepared for every little detail about your life to come out. Including videos where some dude knocks you the fuck out.
Oh and don’t take part in an MMA fight that is in someones basement. Get in a real gym and get on a legit MMA card. It’s not that hard to do.
By Jason Comack November 30, 2009, at 7:53 pm Imagine a “Doomsday Summer Of 2010″ scenario Knicks fans. LeBron resigns with Cleveland, Brandon Jennings has become a megastar, the cap comes in at the lowest expected number, and Eddy Curry/Jared Jeffries are both still wearing orange and blue. All hope is lost and Donnie Walsh is a failure….right?
Wrong. Even in a worst case scenario the Knicks still have a lot of hope. While fans and the media will anoint any Non-LeBron team a failure the truth is there are still a ton of ways the Knicks can make it work.
So lets say the Knicks can’t make any roster moves between now and next summers free agency. Here’s their commitments (rounded to the nearest million):
Eddy Curry (12), Jared Jeffries, (7) Danilo Gallinari, (3) Jordan Hill, (3) Wilson Chandler, and (2) Toney Douglas (1) =$28 Mill
Now since the Knicks only have six players under contract the NBA, under the salary cap rules, would add six placeholder players who would make the league minimum. In other words roughly $3 million worth of additional salary.
Keeping with the worst case scenario theme let’s say the NBA salary cap comes in at $50 million. With the Knicks committed to $31 million in payroll they would be $19 million under the cap.
What could the Knicks do with that money?
Offer Rudy Gay, a restricted free agent, enough money Memphis can’t afford to match it. Gay is a guy who will re-energize NY. He’s a borderline all-star right now but will thrive in an uptempo offense. He needs to refine his defense to take his game to the next level but at only 23 and already showing signs of taking the leap.
- Of the players of the 2006 draft class only Rondo, Roy, Aldridge and Bargnani got extensions. If Memphis was prepared to pay Gay big time money wouldn’t they have offered him an extension?
- If the Knicks offered Gay the same contract Rondo got; 55 million over 5 years, starting at 9 million, would Memphis financially be able to match? Memphis already has $47 million committed to their ‘09 payroll. That number doesn’t include their three first round picks, including one that will likely be in the top 5. Let’s say those draft picks add up to $7 million. That takes the Grizzles cap number to $54 million. Paying Gay $9 million would top them off at $63 million, dangerously close to a potential luxury tax line.
- Have the Grizzles ever demonstrated that they are willing to spend money? Furthermore O.J Mayo is due to hit restricted free agency in 2012, eventually he’ll command a near max deal as well.
So now the Knicks have Gay and still have $10 million left to play with. As currently constructed NY would still lack a floor general PG who could run the Seven Seconds Or Less Offense. They could turn to free agency to fill this void.
- Ray Felton: Unrestricted free agent. Would be pricey and might never be better then a third guard on a great team.
- T.J Ford: Has a player option, at $8.5 million, if he opted out he would be looking for big bucks. Ford has the speed to run an offense but since joining Indy his assist numbers have dropped dramatically. Health is also a big question mark for the undersized Ford.
- Kyle Lowry: Restricted free agent. A tenacious defender whose great at pushing the pace on both ends. He drives to the lane like few PG’s can and has a knack for drawing fouls. His long range jumper is improving but still has a long way to go. He’s also never been asked to play starter minutes and hasn’t consistently dished out assists. Lowry might be the best fit for the Knicks but he’s a restricted free agent and he’d be hard to pry away. The Rockets love him
- Randy Foye: Also a restricted free agent. Foye seems to have fallen out of favor in Washington. He’s a bit of a tweener but for a PG he’s solid defensively. Foye has a solid range on his jumper, but is a shoot first point guard.
The Knicks best option might be to hit the trade market. Being under the cap the Knicks are the perfect match for a team looking to shed salary.
- Chicago is a team that will be looking shed salary entering the Summer Of 2010. The Bulls, blessed with Derrick Rose, have Kirk Hinrich eating up $9 million and not playing major minutes. While Hinrich doesn’t carry name value he’s a very solid jump shooter, distributor and defender. The Knicks could essentially trade nothing (cap space) for Hinrch. Hinrich is owed $17 million over the next two seasons. A reasonable short term commitment for the Knicks.
So now the Knicks have added Gay ($9 million) and Hinrich ($9 million) to their 2010 payroll. That would pretty much put them up against the cap. With their remaining money, and mid level exception, the Knicks could go bargain shopping.
- Wouldn’t Raja Bell, coming off an injury, take a 2 million dollar contract to reunite with D’Antoni in the Big Apple?
- Wouldn’t Marcus Camby take a 3 million dollar contract to come back to the Garden?
So now, having spent all the Knicks money here’s their hypothetical roster:
Starters: C: Camby, PF: Gallinari, SF: Gay, SG: Bell, PG: Hinrich.
Sixth Man: Wilson Chandler; SG/SF
Bench: Jordan Hill; PF/C, Toney Douglas; PG/SG, Jared Jefferies; SF/PF, Eddy Curry; C.
In a weak East isn’t that easily a playoff caliber team? Are you telling me that this group is worse then the Pacers (currently the 7 seed) or the Bobcats (currently the 8 seed)?
And here’s the best part. In 2011 the Knicks would have $20+ million coming off the books and primed to be major players in free agency. Maybe it isn’t as loaded as 2010 but take a look at some of the 2011 free agents.
- Tony Parker, Yao Ming, Pau Gasol, Caron Butler, David West, Josh Howard, Jason Richardson, Richard Jefferson, Tayshuan Prince, John Salmons and Andrei Kirilenko.
Just because Donnie Walsh’s 2010 Plan begins with LeBron James doesn’t mean it ends with him. There are plenty of other ways to make the Knicks relevant again. Even if the sky comes falling.
By Matt Soldano November 16, 2009, at 11:11 pm After a blowout win on Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers were a team who seemingly were clicking on all cylinders. Since then, they have gone ice cold and have suffered embarrassing losses to the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets.
Now, I can understand going into Friday night’s game in the Mile High state that the L.A. would lose to Denver. But I could never fathom the way in which they lost. More about that in a second.
As for Sunday’s loss, the Houston Rockets stuck to their blueprint from the playoffs last year: No Yao, No McGrady, no problem. They’ve done it better than any team in the NBA. Go small and weather the Lakers with solid defense and physical play.
But here is what has stuck out to me most about this team over the past week:
• The Lakers have no answer for young, speedy point guards. None. Aaron Brooks goes for a career high 33 points on while Ty Lawson scores 13 points and adds 6 assists on Friday night.
• Kobe Bryant’s shot attempt vs. amount of points. One of my favorite stats in all of basketball. The past two games Kobe has taken 37 shots and has scored 37 points. A dead on 1.0 ratio. In the first 8 games, Bryant took 198 shots and scored 264 points, a ratio of 1.3 which gives evidence to higher efficiency rating.
• Pau Gasol needs to get back into the starting lineup as soon as possible. It’s not even for the starting five’s sake but rather for the bench. I would like for someone to show me a contending team in NBA history that had a worse bench than the Lakers. Seriously, leave me a comment. With Gasol coming back, Lamar Odom will move back to the bench where he can provide an actual scoring threat on the floor with the second unit.
• Halftime adjustments: Maybe their opponents are drinking MJ’s secret stuff from Space Jam or the Lakers just get really lackadaisical coming out of the break. The past two games the third quarters have looked like this: 29-8, 28-19. While the Rockets was not as horrid as the Nuggets game, it still proved to be the difference because once the Rockets went into the 4th quarter with a 7 point lead, there was no looking back.
As Jason previously mentioned in his Atlanta Hawks post, its way too early to read into any of these things too seriously but at the same time, these are signs that if not fixed could cost the Lakers a serious chance of defending their title. We’ll see this team’s true colors once Gasol comes back fully healthy and we can have a half year evaluation on the Ron Artest signing.
By Alex Goldberg July 10, 2009, at 12:17 pm We here at The 3rd String Safety would like to introduce you to the latest contributors to our website. These two men have been writing about the NHL for almost a year now and through a stroke of genius and tedious late night negotiations at some of our favorite watering holes, have agreed to syndicate their blog posts. These two men that I speak of are Zach Schiff and Bryan Berg. Both of these gentlemen have a passion for Hockey that the rest of us here at 3ss cannot fully appreciate, since to be honest, most of us simply aren’t interested.
From today forward, you will be able to find all of their latest posts both here on our blog and over at their original nesting location The New York Hockey Rivalry. Also be sure to click on the NHL category at the top of your screen to check out all of their older posts which are now hosted here on our website.
Please welcome these men to our team and we hope you enjoy the insight on the NHL that they bring to our website!
By Jordan Lauterbach July 8, 2009, at 1:46 pm 
I came across this last night while searching for footage of Tiger Woods interviewing himself after his win on Sunday. Apparently, it’s from February- but I had never seen it. I thought it was pretty clever….
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