Author: David Shama

Chris McCosky of the Detroit News didn’t hold back in a recent article that contrasted Boston’s Kevin Garnett and rival Detroit power forward Rasheed Wallace, https://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/SPORTS0102/806020370/1004/SPORTS.   “Off the court, Garnett can be a jerk,” McCosky wrote.  “He is rude to ball boys and locker room attendants.  He gets himself so intensely wound before games, he’s even a jerk to his teammates at times. But on the court, Garnett is the perfect teammate. He plays hard every second he’s on the floor. …

“Wallace off the court is one of the warmest and funniest guys in the league. There isn’t a ball boy or locker room attendant that he hasn’t tipped lavishly. … But on the court, Wallace can be a jerk. There are times, because he is so ridiculously skilled, he just gets bored and lax. He doesn’t always agree with the game plan, but instead of arguing about it before the game, he sometimes tries to rebel against it during the game.”

Former Gopher player and Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders, fired earlier this week as Detroit coach, will have another NBA job if he wants one.  It doesn’t take too much imagination to think that Saunders, 53, may one day coach the Wolves again, or even succeed Tubby Smith as Gopher coach.

Major league baseball is proud of its superior attendance for interleague play but an article in the No. 35 Baseball Research Journal pointed out certain advantages about the American League-National League games.  Generally, interleague games have been played when school is out and weather is warm, plus a majority of games have been scheduled on weekends, according to the Journal article that analyzed data from 1997-2006.

Twins second baseman Alexi Casilla has reached base via hit or walk in 15 of his last 17 games.  He has hit safely in 13 of 14 games and extended his hit-streak to eight games yesterday in the team’s 3-2 loss to Baltimore.  He is hitting .343 (24-for-70) and he has either scored a run or drove in a run in 15 of his 20 games played in 2008.  He had three hits yesterday.

Kevin Gorg, who has been part of the FSN North broadcast team on Minnesota Wild games, will be appearing on several of the network’s Twins telecasts.  Gorg said his role will be providing “behind the scenes” reporting such as selling beer at the Metrodome.  For that assignment Gorg will become a vendor.

Twenty current and former NFL players, including the Vikings’ Darren Sharper, will participate in the annual NFL Broadcast Boot Camp at NFL Films in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. The activity, from June 16-19, will be directed by the NFL Broadcasting Department and cover a wide range of topics with instructors from each of the NFL’s broadcasting partners – CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC, NFL Network, Sirius Satellite Radio, Westwood One Radio, plus local radio and TV.  The training will include hands-on work in areas such as tape study, editing, show preparation, radio production, control room operation, studio preparation, production meetings, field reporting and game preparation.

Gopher hockey coach Don Lucia talking last week about his new assistant Mike Hastings who is the winningest coach in United States Hockey League history and in 14 seasons led Omaha to a 529-210-56 record: “After a month-long search and talking to numerous people, I believe Mike Hastings is the right fit for Gopher hockey. He is a former defenseman who has established himself by winning over 70 percent of his games over the last 14 years in the USHL. Mike has recruiting contacts all over North America, but his ties with the USHL will prove invaluable to our program.”

The Gopher women’s track and field team has four student-athletes, Heather Dorniden, Liz Podominick, Jamie Cheever and Alicia Rue, on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V teams as voted upon by the nation’s sports information directors. Dorniden, Podominick and Cheever are first team honorees while Rue is second team.  Minnesota’s four selections was best among Big Ten Conference teams.

Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi is believed to be on a list of candidates for the athletic director’s job at Notre Dame.  A local source speaking confidentially said on Monday he thinks Notre Dame will test Maturi’s interest in replacing Kevin White who recently left Notre Dame to become athletic director at Duke.  On Sunday an article on the South Bend Tribune’s Web site included Maturi’s name among eight people that could be top candidates for the Notre Dame job.  Maturi, however, told Sports Headliners this morning that he hasn’t been contacted by anyone officially representing Notre Dame.

Maturi has two years remaining on his contract at Minnesota and “expects to finish his career” as the Gophers’ athletic director.   Maturi said he’s “real happy at Minnesota” but when pressed about whether he would at least listen to a Notre Dame contact, he responded that “I am not going to say never. …”

Maturi is believed to earn over $310,000 as Minnesota athletic director, a salary that is average at best among his Big Ten Conference colleagues.  He said a bigger salary elsewhere won’t tempt him.  “I’ve never done anything (just) for money,” Maturi said.

Maturi is a Notre Dame alum, graduating from the school in 1967.  He admitted ties to Notre Dame are appealing but so, too, is Minnesota because he grew up in the state.

The source, who is close to Gopher athletics, said it will be a serious loss to Minnesota athletics if Maturi leaves the University.  A native of Chisholm, Minnesota, he was athletic director at Denver University and Miami of Ohio before coming to the University of Minnesota.

Maturi has been the athletic director here since July of 2002.  During that time he has successfully merged the men’s and women’s athletic departments at the University. The two departments operated separately for many years and it was a divisive relationship.

Maturi also hired new basketball and football coaches in 2007.  His hiring of national champion basketball coach Tubby Smith within a few days last year is regarded as a coup by many admirers in intercollegiate athletics.  Football coach Tim Brewster has made headlines with his recruiting success and is committed to winning the school’s first Big Ten championship since 1967.

Under Maturi’s leadership the University gained legislative and other support for the TCF Bank Stadium project.  The Gophers will open their new $288.5 million football stadium on campus next year.

Maturi has been a tireless worker on behalf of the Gophers.  Popular within the athletic department, Maturi regularly attends the events of all 25 men’s and women’s sports at the University.  “He’s the hardest working man I’ve ever seen,” the source said.

Maturi’s accomplishments also include fiscal success.  While earlier forecasts had the athletic department operating at a deficit, the Gophers currently have a balanced budget, according to published reports.

Even a high priced event planner couldn’t have concocted a better way for the Minneapolis-Los Angeles Lakers to celebrate the franchise’s 60^th anniversary than to have the team in the NBA finals against their No. 1 enemy, the Boston Celtics.  It’s a dream script the Lakers are following, returning to the NBA finals starting Thursday night for the 29^th time in franchise history, targeting a 15^th world championship that would put them within one title of the most championships in league history.  The Celtics, of course, have 16.

The Lakers have been promoting a 60^th anniversary logo during 2007-2008.  It refers to the Minneapolis-Los Angeles Lakers and is worn on Laker uniforms.  On games televised from the Staples Center in Los Angeles the anniversary logo can be seen on the scoreboard hanging over center court.

The Lakers won five world championships in Minneapolis before they moved to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season. Only once, though, did the Minneapolis Lakers play the Celtics in the finals, 1959.  Boston swept Minneapolis 4-0 as part of an era when the Celtics won 11 titles in 13 years.

After the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960 they lost seven NBA finals to the Celtics.  Laker frustrations with the Celtics didn’t end until 1985 when they finally beat Boston in the finals.

The Lakers won again over Boston in 1987 and the dream script has the two teams playing against each other now for the first time in 21 years.  It’s a fantasy trip for not only the teams, but also the NBA with its two most glamorous franchises sure to goose the league’s image and TV popularity (yikes, this could have been Utah against Detroit).

The Lakers are the favorites against the Celtics, according to many observers.  The Lakers are viewed as the more balanced team between offense and defense.  The Celtics are more likely to have low scoring games, and when a game is in need of a last minute basket Boston doesn’t have anyone who rivals the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.

How successfully Boston defends Bryant may determine the series.  From the days when Elgin Baylor played in Minneapolis to present day, the NBA has always been about match-ups.  The guess is that Boston’s Paul Pierce, a muscular 6-foot-7, will defend Bryant, 6-6 and so good he’s been playing like a Michael Jordan clone.

Pierce may have some moments against Bryant but it looks like a challenging match-up and the one-on-one problems for the Celtics don’t end there.  With Pierce, a forward, taking the Lakers’ superstar guard, that leaves Boston trying to figure out how to defend the long front line of 7-foot Pau Gasol, 6-10 Lamar Odom and 6-10 Vladimir Radmanovic.  In addition to Pierce, the Celtics start 6-11 Kevin Garnett, 6-10 Kendrick Perkins, 6-5 Ray Allen and 6-1 Rajon Rondo.