Who Who says 2010 won’t be a great year!  I just came  across what probably will be the greatest sports story of the year and possibly the decade.

Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton may have pulled guns on each other in the Wizards’ locker room.  According to the report I read on MSNBC.com, the incident either happened on December 21 or December 24.   Nice way to celebrate the holidays, guys!

Anyway, according to the reports I read, Crittenton was upset over some gambling debts  he felt Arenas owed him.  When Crittenton confronted Arenas, Gilbert was reported to pull his gun on him.

The response?  Crittenton pulled his gun on Arenas.  For whatever else you may think about Arenas, clearly this guy is no pro with a gun.  Isn’t the whole point of pulling  a gun on someone to make sure they don’t pull one on you?

I’ve watched a lot of movies and even read some books, so I’m pretty sure that if I pulled a gun on someone I’d mention something to them about “freezing”.  Like, you know, staying where I can see you so that you CAN NOT pull a gun on me.

Apparently, Arenas missed that lesson.  Maybe he was busy practicing his jump shot or gambling.

Whatever.  The NBA will be dealing with a whole host of questions here.  Like, how did either of these idiots get a gun into an NBA locker room?

To me the bigger question is why would Arenas, who makes gazillions not just pay Crittenton the money he owed him? 

All that will be answered in time, but for now recently deceased owner Abe Pollin must be in the afterlife somewhere disappointed that two of his Wizards are living up to the old team nickname that he changed due to worries about gun violence in DC.

Guess you can take The Bullets out of DC, but you can’t take The Bullets out of The Wizards…

PS – reportedly, Arenas has even been tweeting about in on Twitter.  Nothing beter than self-incrimination to start off the new year!

So “The Answer” is retiring and I have yet to figure out what the question was. 

Maybe it was “what self-serving player is going out exactly as he deserves, unwanted?”  Or “What supremely talented player never won anything in the NBA?”

Then there’s “what knucklehead couldn’t be bothered to see that actually practicing helps the whole team included himself?”.   Maybe it’s “who’s blowing a chance to redefine his career by refusing to accept that he might win a title by accepting a lesser role now that he’s 107 years old?”

But ultimately, if I had to put big money on it, I think the question is “who is too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it anymore?”

Ahhh. Yes.  That easily could be Allen Iverson.

Iverson is not exactly Stephon Marbury, but he’s learning a similar tough lesson.  In life or at least in NBA life, people will put up with you if you’re a difficult personality so long as you’ve got the talent that makes it worth dealing with your baggage.

When the lowly Grizzlies and desperate Knicks decide that Allen Iverson is no longer worth it, that’s the answer  that only A.I. can answer for.

I hate golf.  But, despite that I’m starting this post out with a golf reference to make a point that needs to be made.

Tom Watson at 92 or 59, whatever age he truly is, got real close to winning the British Open or some other completely over hyped golf tournament this past weekend.  Even I, who never watches or listens to sports talk radio about golf, couldn’t help but be fascinated by how close Watson came to winning such a big tournament at such an advanced age.

I think it was the 43 year old in me rooting for the 59 year in him.

PS – the old guy chocked.

Anyway, sports is a tough business.  Age isn’t kind in sports and you don’t often win when you bet on it.

The Phoenix Suns are taking a big bet on Steve Nash.  The two-time league MVP is set to sign a two year extension to his existing deal that will now keep him with the franchise until he’s 38.  Nash is 35 now and you can bet his best years are behind him.  He’s never going to win another MVP.  Write that down!

Even worse, the best years are behind the Suns.  Point guards top out around their mid thirties.  Having elite skills and elite players surrounding an aging point guard can mask their decline a bit, but make no mistake that age wins ever time.  NO athlete is immune.  Not even Jordan or Armstrong.

The Suns are a fading franchise.  The coach who brought out the best in Nash is now toiling in New York with even less talent.  Nash may lose his best piece if Amare Stoudamire doesn’t get a deal he likes next year.  Extending Nash might have made sense if his supporting cast were say the LA Lakers or their arch rival Celtics.  But, they’re not.

They say you get what you pay for.  Pheonix will soon find that to be very true.  They’re going to overpay for the last pro years of Steve Nash’s career at the exact time they should be spending Nash money on bringing in young talent to re-stock with.

Nice work, Suns!

Grant Hill has always seemed a class act to me.  While injuries stopped him from fulfilling his promise as one of the first “next Jordan’s”, Hill has to be admired for the way he’s battled back.

He actually played a ton of games last year for Phoenix and was an effective member of the Suns’ squad.  At an advanced age and having made a bunch of money in his career, you’d think the last motivation left for Grant Hill would be a championship.

And you’d be wrong.

Rumors are swirling that Hill is going to sign with the New York Knicks.

Why???

Even if everything breaks the Knicks’ way, LeBron won’t even be in Manhattan for another year.  By then the brittle Hill will be one year closer to 40.  How much will he have left?

And has he looked at the Knicks’ roster recently?  That team is more than a LeBron James and old version of Grant Hill away from a title.

Apparently, the Celtics are in the Hill chase too.   Here’s hoping Grant Hill regains his sanity long enough to sign on with Garnett and the gang.

Playing in Boston would give him a much better chance to go out a champion.  And not even Michael Jordan did that….

For the life of me I don’t understand why NBA teams are so interested in Jason Kidd and Steve Nash.  It’s 2009.   If it was 1999 or even 2004, I would get it.

Kidd is a free agent and Nash is one year away from free agency (I think) and still the piece around which Phoenix intends to rebuild.  Why?

Kidd (I think ) is 36.  Nash is right there with him.  If I wasn’t so lazy with the research, this post would be even more impressive. 

But lazy or not, my point is that point guards don’t last much beyond their mid-thirties.  I’d even venture to say that many of the greatest point guards were done being truly great by their early 30s.

John Stockton, off the top of my head, probably stayed as effective as anyone deep into his 30s.  Stockton, though, is the exception.

My advice for NBA teams would be to think of both Nash and Kidd as one year investments.  At their advanced ages for basketball, they’re both running out of time.   Kidd, in particular, has played a lot of basketball when you factor in his coming out school so early.

Jason Kidd and Steve Nash belong in the Hall of Fame some day.  Where they don’t belong right now is in a smart NBA team’s future plans beyond the next year.

Mark my words.  I’m not wishing either of them bad things, but it seems inevitable that you’ll see even sharper declines in each of them sooner than later.

The lowly Washington Nationals took Stephen Strasburg as the number one pick in baseball’s draft today.  The guy is clearly a phenom.  He was the best pitcher by far in college this year.   The San Diego State star had a 13-1 record, with an ERA just over one.  And did I mention he struck out guys at a god-like rate?

Whoop-dee-damn do to paraphrase the legendary Derrick Coleman.

Why am I so not excited?  Because baseball’s draft sucks.  Baseball talent is really hard to judge and young pitching is especially difficult.  I’ve always known that, but the point really came home earlier today.  I was reading about the past twenty five years of baseball draft classes.  According to SI.com, over the last twenty five drafts the best pitchers to be drafted number one are….

Are you ready?  Are you excited?  Are you trying to figure out which future or current Hall of Famers were number one picks?  Here’s the answer:

Floyd Bannister and Andy Benes.  Both of those guys had their moments and certainly making the bigs is a tremendous achievement, but neither of those guys are getting a sniff of Cooperstown unless they pay their way in.  And those are the best two careers for number one pitchers in the last 20 years.

Roger Clemens is the highest pick to have major success in the same time frame and he wasn’t even picked til about 18 or 20 if my memory serves.

Contrast that with the NBA.  Since 1984, here are some of the guys who’ve been drafted number one:  Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Derrick Coleman (who merits inclusion mostly for the great quote above), Shaq, AI, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, LeBron, Dwight Howard.

The NBA guys are all stars, champions, some are even Hall of Famers and some placed on the NBA’s All Time 50 Greatest Team.

Looking at the NFL since 1984, you’ve got Bruce Smith, Bo Jackson, Vinny Testaverde, Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer and Eli Manning.  Three Super Bowl Champion quarterbacks, a Hall of Fame defender, the phenomena that was “Bo Knows”, the longevity of Vinny T and the promise of Palmer.

Bottom line is that there is a very good reason that the attention paid to the baseball draft is so much less than the NBA’s or NFL’s. 

It simple doesn’t matter as much.

So good luck to the Nats on signing Stephen Strasburg.  And let’s hope for all our sakes that he turns out to be at least as good as Floyd Bannister.

No disrespect intended, Mr. Bannister!

I wondered too and then I watched this Charles Barkley video:

Let’s just say I’m not smelling comeback…

First Memphis loses John Calipari to Kentucky and now this!  In the aftermath of Calipari’s defection, Memphis AD R. C. Johnson vowed to make a “wow hire” to replace him.

When I hear the words “wow hire” applied to college basketball, I start thinking bringing old legends back (IE-Bob Knight) or stealing a rising coach from another top school (IE – Mark Few) or maybe even a wild card like bringing in a big name from the NBA.

What I didn’t expect was for Johnson to hire Josh Pastner, a current Memphis assistant and former player & assistant at Arizona.  Pastner, who shares the same first name as the Denver Broncos new head coach as well as his early thirties age, is a baby-faced guy who Memphis had better hope starts off better than McDaniels did in Denver.

What’s left to say other than Johnson kept his word.  This is one real “wow hire” even if it’s for the wrong reasons.

Good luck, Memphis Fans and just be happy Jay Cutler isn’t your point guard right now!

President Obama today named Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney as the US Ambassador to Ireland.  Fitting that it was on St. Patrick’s Day.

Congrats to Dan Rooney who epitomizes what this blog stands for.  Passion for sports and politics.

I’m not sure where he stands on nonsense.  But, we like that too.  So here’s some more of that:

A-Rod – Crazy pictures from upcoming Details magazine came out today.  Do you have to love or hate this guy?  Is he misguided or mentally ill?  For what it’s worth, I’ve rarely seen an athlete gifted with so much work so hard to find ways to get people not to love him while not being a really bad guy. Anyway, here’s a link – you decide!  http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_8397

Charlie Villanueva- Speaking of crazy and nonsense… Villanueva tweeted during half time of a recent game against the Celtics.  The Bucks, fighting for their playoff lives, were not amused.  In fairness, he tweeted that he had to step it up and then did in the second half.

Not sure if Villanueva or the NBA looks dumber here.  Villanueva had to know it wouldn’t look good for him to tweet at halftime.  On the other hand, maybe the NBA is missing a golden opportunity.  If football coaches are forced to give sideline interviews at half time and hockey players do interviews between periods, than maybe the NBA should be encouraging all its players to follow in Villanueva’s footsteps.

Nothing like giving the fan an inside view after all…  Just ask A Rod!

OK, so maybe it’s the fact that he delivered a championship to my beloved Syracuse Orangemen, but I’m having a hard time getting worked up over Carmelo Anthony’s latest suspension.

Word is that Anthony got suspended for disregarding his coach.  That’s never a good thing.  But if you are going to ignore George Karl, then I think doing it as a franchise player who doesn’t comply with an order to come out of a game is probably your best case for a leniency come punishment time.

At a time when we are accustomed to seeing athletes clearly lacking passion AKA not giving their all on the court, it’s refreshing to see a franchise player so into the game he just won’t come out.

Maybe I’m a glass half full kind of guy, but for you realists out there please keep in mind that the last time Denver suspended Carmelo it was for a DUI.

Ignoring a coach’s order is still not right, but things could be way worse in Denver.