Bonds...Vick...NBA Refs?

It was a bad week for sports. Bonds is two homers from the record, Michael Vick will be indicted, and the NBA is facing a Pete Rose-like scandal.

Here's my take. Barry Bonds is a good baseball player. He might be a jerk but he knows how to hit. The truth about baseball is that players have been using performance enhancing substances since the first day. The greats as we remember them now were not all model citizens. So although Bonds has given people plenty of reason to hate him, he has been a consistently good hitter his whole career. I'd much rather Bonds be the hero instead of Mark McGwire. I guess I'll just be happy when he breaks the record and people stop caring about baseball again.

On Michael Vick: he's stupid. He's Marcus Vick's brother. He's the most talented athlete in the NFL. He likes to watch and bet on dog fights. He finally has a receiver to throw to but might never get the chance to do anything substantial in the NFL. His loss, Nike's loss, the NFL's loss but look for a big suspension based on what Roger Goodell's reaction has been to this summer's plethora of misbehaving players.

On the NBA referee scandal: so many speculations can be made about this case. It is still too early to know whether games were actually tainted by betting and throwing games. But this is much worse than a player betting on games. This has potential to affect the credibility of the league just a year after it decided to give referees more respect and power with cracking down player reactions to calls made. This could make Rasheed Wallace turn in his sleep thinking about all of those technical fouls he was given. And although Joey Crawford wasn't implicated, it certainly reminds us of Tim Duncan's ejection last year and Crawford's subsequent suspension. Basically the NBA has to hope that this was not part of a bigger problem and is an isolated incident involving a human being that made some mistakes.

On a brighter side in the NBA, look for Steve Francis to have a renaissance in Houston. He'll be healthy and back in a city where he made is mark and is comfortable. At 30, he has plenty of good basketball left and Houston has quietly made key moves in the offseason to help them get to the next level. Less pressure on TMac and Yao means they will be even more effective.