It’s official.

With his win in last weekend’s Charles Schwab Challenge at the famed Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, Sam Burns has officially grabbed the baton to become the third straight PGA star hailing from Shreveport, Louisiana.

We are now entering the fifth consecutive decade of exceptional championship golf featuring three of North Louisiana’s finest golfers.

Shreveport’s Hal Sutton (14 PGA Tour wins) started this streak back in October, 1982 with his first tour win at the Walt Disney World Golf Classic.  David Toms (13 PGA Tour wins) picked up the Shreveport championship golf mantle beginning in July, 1997 with his first win at the Quad City Classic.  David also won PGA events during the 2000’s and the 2010’s.

Hal Sutton and David Toms each have one major championship trophy at home, too.  Both were victorious in the PGA Championship.  Hal’s major win in 1983 came by one shot over a fellow named Jack Nicklaus.  David Toms’ gutsy PGA Championship in 2001 was also by a single shot over Phil Mickelson.  That’s pretty impressive company!

With his playoff win last Sunday at Colonial over current world #1 golfer and close friend Scottie Scheffler, the 25-year old Shreveport sensation Sam Burns just earned his third PGA win of the season and his fourth overall title on tour.

As a result, Sam Burns just entered the upper echelon of golf as he moved up to #9 in the world golf rankings.

Being the first of this trio of successful Shreveport golfers, Hal Sutton was a Northwood High School golf phenom who dominated the local competition during the 1970’s.  Though he had any number of college scholarship offers, Sutton elected to attend Centenary College in his hometown of Shreveport.

While at Centenary, Hal Sutton won 14 golf tournaments in his college career and led the Gents into their first NCAA golf tournament appearance.  Sutton was named a college All-American and awarded the 1980 Golf Magazine “College Golfer of the Year” title .  He also won the 1980 US Men’s Amateur championship played in North Carolina.

Upon entering the PGA Tour in 1981, Hal Sutton won five times during the 1980’s, six tournaments in the 1990’s, and another three events in the early 2000’s.  He played on four Ryder Cup teams over his career and was named the Captain of the 2004 Ryder Cup team.  Hal Sutton (now 64) briefly played on the PGA Champions Tour and currently works and resides in the Houston area.

Around this same time, David Toms was beginning to make a name for himself on the golf course, too.

Another very talented North Louisiana junior golfer, Toms won his age group at the 1984 Junior World Golf Championships.  He would graduate from Bossier City’s Airline High School and play college golf for LSU.  Though David Toms initially played for a few years on the PGA Tour after college, he lost his PGA Card after the 1994 season.

Toms would bounce back the following year in 1995 by winning twice on the Nike Tour (the PGA’s development tour).  With his confidence restored, David Toms finally broke through on the PGA Tour by gaining his first win at Quad City in 1997.

David Toms would win three PGA events in the 1990’s, nine more times during the Tiger Woods’ era of the 2000’s, and added a final win at the 2011 Colonial.

After turning 50, David Toms won the 2018 US Senior Open and has remained a consistent top finisher on the PGA Champions Tour ever since.  Toms (now 55 years of age) still resides in the Shreveport area.

David Toms credits fellow Shreveporter Hal Sutton with being a mentor and inspiration while he was a young golfer.  Toms said, “What he did for me and all the guys my age, was give us something to shoot at, you know,

I kept trying to stay focused while watching Sunday night’s NBA Eastern Conference Game 7 between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.  As a long-time Celtics fan, I was obviously pulling for the C’s but wanted to watch a competitive game played by today’s highly skilled athletes.

Though the Celtics prevailed 100-96 (nearly blowing a big lead in the final two minutes), this game was no masterpiece.  The players were hitting the floor with so much regularity that the NBA should have dispatched a doctor to each bench to assist the (cough, cough) injured during nearly every time out.

The players in Game 7 weren’t taking lumps because of the amount of vicious elbows (OK, there were a few) or hard fouls committed to prevent an easy score (there were a few of those, too).   Those types of plays should be expected in the final game to decide which team would face the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals coming up on Thursday.

It was incredible the number of times which these gifted basketball players fell to the floor on Sunday evening after taking a shot or attempting to prevent another player from taking a shot.

Though a few of the floor burns may have been attributable to hard play, the vast majority of the falls came from overacting.

Jimmy Butler, Miami’s primary scorer, goes 6’7” and weighs 230 pounds.   If you watched Butler play during Sunday’s Game 7 finale against Boston, the big fellow was hitting the hardwood after nearly every shot attempt.

Either the Celtics were pushing him around a like a ragdoll or Butler has a very bright future in Hollywood after such a persuasive acting performance in Game 7!

Since doctors weren’t being summoned to the floor to attend to Jimmy Butler, his flopping performance Sunday night was definitely All-Star caliber.  Time after time, this talented and very coordinated basketball player came crashing down to the floor with hopes of hearing the referees (who did a horrible job during this series) blow a whistle to award the player with one or more free throw attempts for his efforts.

The NBA officially calls this a “flop”.  It’s simply a big fake.

The rewards usually include having an undeserved foul being called on an opposing player with one or more free throws then awarded to the actor/player for his outstanding acting performance.

NBA flopping (which has been on the rise for more than two decades) has now become a basketball pandemic.  You’re also starting to see it happen more in college games, too.

Once you start to reward bad behavior, you should expect to see more of it.

By the way, Miami isn’t alone in having a few truly outstanding NBA floppers.

The Boston Celtics (led by All-NBA flopping guard Marcus Smart) left their share of wet spots and dents on the hardwood of Miami’s basketball arena Sunday night, too.  Marcus Smart is 6’4” and weighs in at a very solid 220 pounds.  Yet, time after time, the Celtics point guard seemed to be easily toppled to the floor on nearly every shot attempt.

These actors have become so convincing that they can create an illusion that a little old lady sitting in the first row might be able bring one of these giant players down.

Let’s head to the NBA rule book for more information on the consequences of flopping:

“A ‘flop’ is an attempt to either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call by exaggerating the effect of contact with an opposing player.

The main factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would have been expected given the force or direction ...

Long-time Los Angeles Lakers forward James Worthy was a very quiet man on the basketball court.  After most games, it was his charismatic teammate, Magic Johnson, or legendary center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who were most likely to speak to the press following Lakers victories.

Instead, James Worthy spoke with his incredible game.  At 6’9”, he reminded me of a taller version of one of my favorite NBA players, Julius “Dr. J” Erving.

James Worthy was that tall gifted athlete clad in Lakers purple and gold who effortlessly glided down the hardwood to send down yet another swooping dunk.  It brought delight to Lakers fans but served to deflate his opponents.  James Worthy was great fun to watch!

The former University of North Carolina star played on another talented team during his college days.   The Tar Heels won a national championship in 1982 as Worthy won the MVP trophy alongside teammates including future NBA legend Michael Jordan and center Sam Perkins.

James Worthy became the first overall pick in the NBA in the spring of 1982.  He would play all 12 of his NBA seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers.   During that time, James Worthy picked up three NBA Championship rings and became a 7-time NBA All-Star.  His #42 jersey was retired by the Lakers as was his #52 jersey he wore for the North Carolina Tar Heels.  To his credit, Worthy also returned to Carolina to finish his degree after the NBA drafted him following his junior year.

James Worthy was certainly one of the best basketball players of his generation.  When recently asked for his thoughts about today’s version of the NBA, Worthy, now 61, served-up another trademark slam dunk in describing most of today’s NBA players.

“Guys are coming to the NBA who are not fundamentally sound. All they do is practice threes, lift weights, get tattoos, tweet and go on social media. That’s it.”

James Worthy added, “So you don’t have that sound player; you have an athletic player. And that’s what’s happening to the game. It’s a lot of iso’s (isolation plays) and looking for mismatches. (Former Celtics great) Bill Russell told me one time, they had five options off of one play. You don’t see that anymore.”

Before you dismiss his comments as just another old guy who is trying to feel more relevant, let’s take a closer look at the allegations.

Not fundamentally sound – Worthy means that today’s basketball players are unlikely to make more than one pass on a particular play on offense.  He also means that today’s players are not encouraged to play hard defense in every regular season game as opposed to the playoffs.  In order to defend today’s players, I’ll point the finger at referees at every level who have allowed basketball players to palm the ball (unlike during Worthy’s era) and travel with the ball.  When the game’s rules are being relaxed this much, it’s hard to blame the players for taking advantage of it.

Practice 3’s – Again, this has a lot to do with today’s players being encouraged to do this.  Statistically speaking, a player making more than 33% of his 3-point attempts will score more points over the course of a game than a player who connects on 50% (a good percentage) of his 2-point shots.   This season, the East #1 seed Miami Heat connected on a league-leading 37.9% of its 3-point attempts.  As a whole, the 30 NBA teams averaged 35% on 3-point shooting this season.   The teams attempted an incredible 35 long-distance shots per game.  As for 2-pointers, not one single NBA team made 50% on its 2-point shots.  Phoenix (48.5%) led the league with the league average coming in at 46% for this season.  With statistics now squarely on the side of coaches and players, maybe it’s time to move the three point line once back again.  Better yet,

For those of us old dogs who were alive to watch the American Football League games on NBC back in the late 1960’s, the name “Heidi Bowl” has a special meaning.

During last Saturday night’s NBC telecast of the USFL game between the Michigan Panthers and the Birmingham Stallions, the network did it once again!   Yes, NBC cut away from the end of the USFL game at 10PM Central time for the obligatory 30-minute local news break and the 10:30PM (sharp) start of Saturday Night Live.

Unlike the original “Heidi Bowl” game of November 17, 1968 on NBC between the 7-2 New York Jets and quarterback Joe Namath and the 7-2 Oakland Raiders coached by John Madden, this weekend’s error by NBC didn’t carry nearly as many consequences.   NBC informed viewers that the game’s conclusion could be found on cable affiliate CNBC.

Saturday’s NBC cutaway from coverage of the USFL came in a game in which Birmingham was comfortably ahead of Michigan late in the fourth quarter and won the game 33-17.  The Stallions moved to 6-0 while the disappointing Michigan Panthers fell to 1-5.

In 1968, though, it was a totally different matter.

The New York Jets and Oakland Raiders were the top teams in the AFL.   The game’s 3PM Central kick-off allotted NBC three hours to complete the game.  At 6PM sharp, NBC had been heavily promoting the network’s premiere of the family movie, Heidi.  It was a classic story about a young orphan girl who has come to live with her grumpy, distant grandfather at his small home in the Swiss Alps.

More importantly, NBC’s primary movie sponsor (Timex – how ironic!) required that the movie must air on time as part of their contract with the network.

Remembering back to 1968, NBC budgeted two hours and thirty minutes for its AFL games (my, how times have changed!).  Unfortunately, this nationally televised East vs. West rivalry game featured several serious injuries, numerous penalties, and a lot of scoring.  By 6PM Central time, the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets! were still clinging to a slim three-point lead at 32-29 as Oakland was driving down the field with about one minute left in the football game.

There was panic in the NBC control room.

Since the AFL football game had exceeded its maximum allotted time, NBC had to cut away from the football game and began to show Heidi!  As you probably guessed, the Oakland Raiders would score the go-ahead touchdown just seconds later.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Jets fumbled the ball and Oakland tacked on an insurance score to win the game 43-32.

I remember watching that game at home with my Dad (who was a Jets fan).  We were both very upset when NBC dropped the game in favor of Heidi.  We figured it was a mistake, and that NBC would surely come back quickly to the football game.

Nope.

About ten minutes into the Heidi movie, the final score was given on a crawler across the bottom of the television screen.  Ironically, the football score’s insertion into the movie came just as Heidi’s paralyzed cousin Clara was taking her first, slow steps to walk.  Now, the primarily-female movie audience was unhappy with NBC, too!

NBC caught incredible flak from both sides, but irate football fans never forgot this moment.  Of course, this dilemma came in the days prior to cable television so there were no alternative television channels available to send the football fans to watch the game’s end.

The Jets/Raiders game in 1968 was dubbed the “Heidi Bowl” by football fans and that name lives in infamy today.

The maddening incident would lead a positive change, though.  In the next television contract negotiated for the combined AFL/NFL merger, local stations would be required to carry the end of the league’s football...

It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a demolition derby.   On Sunday afternoon, I saw a most unusual demolition derby being contested on a gorgeous golf course in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In case you’re a bit fuzzy on how a demolition derby works, these events are usually held on a Friday or Saturday night at your local dirt racing track.  A dozen or so junk car clunkers are dumped onto the track and then slowly ram into each other until one barely moving vehicle is left.  That driver slowly emerges from the wreckage and collects a check, a trophy, and applause from the locals.

That’s pretty much what happened over the weekend in Tulsa at one of America’s greatest golf courses, Southern Hills Country Club.   In this case, though, Justin Thomas collected a check worth an incredible $2.7 million plus the 26-pound PGA Wannamaker Trophy along with hearty applause from thousands of Oklahoma golf fans.

Justin Thomas emerged as the survivor of this weekend’s first golf major of the season as he and his playing competitors failed to capitalize – time after time – on this historic golf course on a beautiful cool Sunday afternoon.

After the first 18 holes at the 2022 PGA Championship, the leader was 5-under par.

By the end of play of four rounds and 72 holes on Sunday afternoon, the leader was still just 5-under par.

I love it!

I’m not a fan of seeing traditional championship golf layouts such Southern Hills Country Club being turned into a glorified drive, pitch, and putt competition by these golfers utilizing juiced golf balls and high tech equipment.

Mother Nature got into the act and decided to shake things up over the weekend.

The tournament’s weather was quite typical of Tulsa in late spring.  On Thursday and Friday, it was sunny and warm with temperatures in the upper 80’s and a breezy southerly wind gusting over 20 miles per hour.

After the second round ended on Friday evening and the field was trimmed in half, the weather conditions pulled a switcheroo as a late season cold front dropped temperatures by nearly thirty degrees Saturday and northerly winds completely changed the way the golf course played.  A little bit of drizzle on Saturday made playing conditions feel even chillier.

At the beginning of Saturday’s third round, the tournament leader (Will Zalatoris) was 9-under par.  By the start of the final round on Sunday, the new leader, Mito Pereira, was also at -9.

By the end of Sunday’s final round, a 5-under par final score would be good enough to get any player into a playoff.  Only two players (Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris) were able to do that.

Justin Thomas (-2) was seven shots behind the leader at the start of the final round, but his three-under par 67 on Sunday was good enough to get him into a playoff later in the day.

Mito the Press:

Now in his first full season on the PGA Tour, Chile’s Mito Pereira looked steady as a rock for much of the final 36 holes.

During Sunday’s final round, the 27-year old golfer dropped a shot here and there but seemed calm and under control for nearly the entire day.  He was at -6 and holding a one shot lead standing on the 18th tee on Sunday afternoon.

A creek hugs the right side of the fairway at the 495-yard par-4 18th hole.  The same small body of water also crosses the entire fairway at about 325 yards off the tee.  Golfers are forced to hit their second shot of nearly 200 yards up a 50-foot elevation rise into the green.  The 18th hole at Southern Hills is renowned as one of the most difficult finishin...

As usual, Nick Saban is right.

Despite all the barking, chirping, woofing, and whining you may be hearing about how Coach Saban’s remarks last week concerning how the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) money is being turned into legalized bribery, the king of college football coaches was refreshingly honest and on target.

Alabama’s head football coach is 70 years old.  Like many of us from the boomer generation, he believes that a student’s academic achievement, athletic success, and overall college experience should all be important in the long-run.

The new “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) money now being offered to college athletes was initially intended to give highly recognizable athletes the opportunity to cash-in on personal endorsements in order to earn extra money while in college.  That idea has quickly morphed into a form of an unofficial third-party bank (funded by enthusiastic athletic supporters) which is being utilized to dole out cash incentives to prospective and current student-athletes.

Coach Nick Saban usually doesn’t let his guard down when speaking in public.  This time, he let loose with some on-target comments about the way some schools have opted to go with the NIL process.

“I know the consequence is going to be difficult for the people who are spending tons of money to get players.  You’ve read about them, you know who they are. I mean we were second in recruiting last year, (Texas) A&M was first, A&M bought every player on their team, made a deal for Name, Image and Likeness. We didn’t buy one player, but I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it.”

 The coach added that Alabama (whose quarterback Bryce Young had his own NIL deal for about $1 million last season) had 25 football players who scored nearly $3 million in NIL cash.

Nick Saban said that the current NIL mayhem has quickly moved away from the initial concept of individual athletes negotiating their own deals.   We have quickly morphed into the era of NIL “collectives”.

These NIL “collectives” (such as the one being used by Texas A&M and many other colleges) acts as a third-party in charge of collecting a pool of money from enthusiastic donors and redistributes the loot to the school’s student-athletes for their agreement to (wink, wink) participate in certain promotional ventures at a later date.

Welcome to the Wild West Show!

Logical questions such as “How do these NIL collectives even know which student-athlete to contact?” or “How much cash should be offered to a particular athlete?” and “Is the coaching staff providing any input?” deserve immediate answers.

You can be sure that attorneys affiliated with each school are trying to design a nearly bullet-proof plan to give legal cover to all parties involved in this new process.

Instead of going down that road, let’s now consider the other side of this issue.  How does a 17 or 18-year old high school student handle making such a complicated decision?

This is a hypothetical high school star athlete’s story:

Shreveport, Louisiana high school quarterback Herby Heisman led his team to the state championship last season and is rated as the #1 college quarterback prospect in the US heading into his senior year.  He has already received over 100 football scholarship offers including every perennial national championship contender.

Herby’s family’s income is rather modest which makes him eligible for most college loan programs.  Herby will become the first person in his family to attend college, and they are quite proud of him!  A solid “B” student in high school, he plans to major in Business with a long-term goal of starting his own business once he ends a professional football career.

The 2022 incarnation of the USFL just completed the halfway point of the spring football season.  On the field, the games remain quite competitive and have been fun to watch on television.  The level of play remains a fairly high quality but, obviously, a step below the NFL.

The USFL is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

For a state which LOVES its elephants (as in the Crimson Tide), there is now a very large pachyderm in the USFL’s room today.

The reason?  There aren’t enough football fans willing to watch the USFL on television to sustain this league.

Week 5’s USFL television ratings were released today, and it included more bad news.

Reminder – the USFL’s owner (Fox Sports) said before the season that they would consider an average television audience of 1.4 million viewers per game as being the goal for Year #1.  After the inaugural week achieved an average of 1.8 million television viewers for the four games, fan interest has been on the decline ever since.

According to one source, none of last weekend’s four USFL games during Week #5 delivered even one million TV eyeballs.

Sunday – 11AM-2PM – Birmingham vs. Philadelphia – FOX – 905,000 viewers

Saturday – 2PM-5PM – New Orleans vs. New Jersey – FOX – 750,000 viewers

Sunday – 2PM – 5PM – Pittsburgh vs. Houston – NBC – 692,000 viewers

Friday – 7PM-10PM – Michigan vs. Tampa Bay – USA – 250,000 viewers

The four-game average viewership was 649,000 in the USFL’s fifth week of operation.  That amounts to less than 50% of the Fox Sports goal of 1.4 million viewers per game in Year #1.

There are five more weeks to go in the regular season plus a two-week playoff still remaining.  Perhaps Week #5 marks a low point, but the patient’s trend line has the doctors very concerned.

Sinking USFL viewership means is that the league’s television advertisers will be demanding rebates or lower ad rates for future games as the games fail to deliver the promised audience.  With lower ad revenue coming from the television broadcasts, the viability of the USFL has now become a big concern at the halfway mark of this season.

Yet another lingering issue is the loss of interest in the league’s designated home city of Birmingham, Alabama.  As your Southern born and bred writer predicted here, the local fans in Alabama’s largest city are reluctant to risk getting serious sunburn in 90 degree heat to watch their own minor league football team (which now happens to be 5-0).  The crowd at Saturday’s Birmingham Stallions game could not been more than 5,000 (I’m being generous).

The other three games being played in Birmingham every week are drawing (perhaps) a few hundred fans – even with tickets priced at a very affordable $10 apiece.

The brand new football stadium in Birmingham has already cordoned-off portions of the stadium to bring the “crowd” get a little closer together.  Though I can’t confirm this, it sounds to me like the USFL has added artificial crowd noise help bring a little excitement to big plays and touchdowns in their nearly empty football stadium.

Despite everything which this incarnation of spring professional football has done right to minimize the costs of operation and put a solid product on the field for television viewers and local fans every week, the USFL may be proving, once and for all, that the American public simply prefers to watch its football during the traditional fall and early winter seasons.

Though every other spring professional football effort has failed (poor financing, lack of national television coverage, stadium issues, cost overruns, etc.), one thing remains a constant.

American football fans have proven, time after time,

Well, that was fast!

One of the NFL’s most successful quarterbacks and a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer with the New Orleans Saints, Drew Brees was effectively cut after just one year on the job by NBC Sports.  He was hired to be a television analyst and a part of the NBC Sunday Night Sports pregame and halftime shows.

Being a longtime fan of Drew Brees (back to his college football career at Purdue), the talented signal caller and team leader simply couldn’t muster up enough anger inside of him to take critical shots at his former NFL buddies and make a new name for himself as the designated bad guy for national television.

NBC didn’t do Brees any favors by pairing him with one of the league’s nicest guys, former NFL coach Tony Dungy.

When the two analysts were working side by side, I felt like I was effectively listening to the same person.  Both Tony Dungy and Drew Brees are “encourager” type of personalities and are simply not very good at making critical comments about other professional athletes just the sake of making the television show more interesting to watch.

Here’s a good analogy.

If ABC’s Monday Night Football franchise had not featured the hyper-critical and overbearing Howard Cosell to go with former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and fan favorite Don Meredith, the weekly production would never have been as popular as it was.   Fans tuned-in to hear what Dandy Don would say to set-off the pompous Howard Cosell each week.

Drew Brees + Tony Dungy on the same TV show felt much like ordering a double scoop of vanilla ice cream at your local Baskin Robbins.

Dungy’s “good guy” reputation had been firmly established for years at NBC, so it’s understandable why the network may have opted to cut their losses with the newest “good guy” in Drew Brees.

Not everyone is cut-out for television.

Yet another former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Tony Romo, never approached Drew Brees’ level of play on the field in the NFL.  However, his enthusiastic (and, often times, over-the-top) commentary during CBS NFL football games alongside his rather droll play-by-play man Jim Nantz has helped to boost Romo’s star within CBS Sports.

Perhaps that’s what NBC was hoping for when Drew Brees was hired just one year ago.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think Drew Brees’ depth of knowledge about the game and his insights are exceptional.  The problem is that television isn’t a podcast where you are allowed to take your time and provide a lot of in-depth answers.

In the year 2022, network television work requires very concise opinions (usually 30 seconds or less) where you are expected not to mirror the other analyst’s answers.  That job on television isn’t as easy as you might think.

Let’s take the TNT NBA basketball analysts with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal.

No matter what the issue or game, it’s very likely that Barkley gets the first chance to make an opinion on the action.  Shaq usually takes an opposite position, and Kenny Smith brings in a few stats or observations to support one of the other two.  No matter the game or issues, though, the fans at home can sense that these three guys are just having a lot of fun and reacting to the games in much the same way we are at home.

Barkley and Shaq have no problem taking down a player who is underperforming on the court (such as James Harden and Ben Simmons the past two seasons).  They can be equally praiseworthy of someone whose recent play has been exceptional – such as Boston’s Jayson Tatum or Dallas’ Luka Doncic this post-season.

Going back to Drew Brees and his role on NBC, his addition to the NBC Sunday Night Football show didn’t bring a lot of humor (he’s a good guy but not known a jokester) or scathing commentary (again, Brees is more of an encourager type of personality).

That’s not his fault.  Drew Brees is simply the person that he has alway...

The most invisible man during the NBA’s 2021-2022 season has been former Philadelphia 76ers forward Ben Simmons.  He managed to find a way to remain injured and/or have his feelings hurt for an entire season without ever hitting the floor.

In the Sixers “Win or Go Home” Game 6 at home Thursday night against the Miami Heat, the man who the Sixers traded Simmons for was nearly as invisible during the second half with his new team’s basketball season on the line.

James Harden’s first half performance in this pressure packed Game 6 showed four made baskets on seven attempts (three of the buckets being 3-pointers) totaling 11 points at the half as Philly trailed by one point 49-48.   Harden, who is known as one of the NBA’s most prolific “floppers” in history and is awarded more free throws by referees than most players, didn’t even attempt a single free throw in the first half.  That also means that he didn’t drive to the basket to get a closer range shot or attempt to draw a foul (as he has been known to do).

During the second of half of Thursday’s Game 6, James Harden (a ten-time NBA All-Star) attempted just two shots from the field in 22 minutes of play and, again, had no free throw attempts.

Why would a perennial NBA All-Star like James Harden fade into the background in the second half of a must-win playoff basketball game?

Miami gradually pulled away in the second half to win the game 99-90 and captured this best-of seven series 4-2.  Miami awaits the winner of the Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics series (currently led by Milwaukee 3-2).

For the fourth time in the past five seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers lost in the second round of the NBA playoffs.  As TNT’s Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith enjoy saying, it’s “One-two-three – CANCUN!” as the Sixers vacation season has now begun.

After James Harden was traded by the Brooklyn Nets to Philadelphia a few months ago, Sixers fans believed that the team now had another reliable scorer who could take some of the offensive load and pressure off the team’s talented All-Star center, Joel Embiid.

James “The Beard” Harden has a lengthy NBA resume filled with several scoring titles since joining the league back in 2009.   During his 13-season career, he has dominated NBA regular season games with incredible offensive performances.  However, the NBA plays very little serious defense during its overly-long 82 game regular season, so Harden’s isn’t used to seeing a defensive player with a hand in his face like it occurs during playoff time.

Houston Rockets fans became used to seeing this transition into “Playoff Harden” as his offensive output and leadership would evaporate during the playoffs.

When you face another team during in a seven game playoff series, the opponent has time to focus on each player’s weaknesses and force them to do things differently.  James Harden scores a lot of points when he controls the basketball.  By forcing the ball out of his hands early in the shot clock, the opposing team is willing to allow Harden’s other four teammates to step-up and score the points.  On most nights, that simply doesn’t happen.

James Harden’s history has also shown that he is prone to “pout” if he isn’t able to touch the basketball as much as he likes.  That’s exactly what happened in Philadelphia Thursday night in the 76ers’ Game 6 loss to Miami.  He “checked-out” of this game without ever leaving the court.

In a postgame interview with the assembled press, Philly center Joel Embiid (who finished runner-up in the MVP voting this season) said that today’s current version of James Harden simply isn’t the same James Harden as fans might have expected.

“Since we got him, everybody expected the Houston James Harden,

With the fourth week of play in the new USFL now completed, a few unique characters within the football league have been emerging.  Let’s now summarize the games from the USFL’s Week #4:

Birmingham 16, Tampa Bay 13

The league-leading hometown Birmingham Stallions remained the only unbeaten team in the USFL as they scratched out a 16-10 win over a tough Tampa Bay Bandits squad Saturday night.

Led by a couple of players with Hall-of-Fame cartoon names, Birmingham quarterback Alex McGough (yes, it is pronounced “Magoo”) passed for 139 yards and ran for 39 more and a touchdown to lead the Stallions offense.

The former Florida Atlantic University signal caller was a seventh round draft pick of the NFL Seattle Seahawks back in 2018, but he didn’t quite make it to the NFL level.  He has been on NFL practice squads in Seattle, Jacksonville, and Houston prior coming to the USFL this spring.

The Birmingham Stallions went with Mr. McGough at quarterback position for the first time since he suffered an ankle injury in Game #1.  Former Louisiana Tech Bulldogs QB J’Mar Smith has done a great job for Birmingham in the interim.

Defensively, it was none other than Birmingham linebacker Scooby “Doo” Wright leading the way with six tackles and a key sack.  You could find Scooby inside Tampa Bay’s offensive backfield on nearly every series.  When Tampa Bay had one final opportunity to tie or win the game in the final minutes, Scooby “snacked” on the Bandits’ quarterback and then ran off the field with his own unique celebration.  He later called it his “Sharkdawg”.

“Half-shark, half-dog,” Wright said after the game. “It’s my spirit animal.”

Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz said, “There is nobody that has more fun on that field than Scooby Wright.  He is fun to coach, but it is even more fun to watch him play, with the passion and energy he brings every day. I love him.”

Philadelphia Stars 26, Michigan Panthers 25

This game was played Friday night at 9PM Central time on FS1.  The game’s unusual midnight conclusion could have mysteriously played into the outcome as Michigan’s placekicker, Michael Carrizosa, missed a point-blank 21-yard field goal as time expired.  With the loss, Michigan dropped to 1-3, while Philly gladly moved up to 2-2 on the USFL season.

As for the placekicker, he is no longer showing-up on the Michigan roster as of Monday.

Michigan running back Reggie Corbin (who plays the position a lot like former NFL star Darren Sproles) racked-up 152 rushing yards on 12 carries including a league-best 88 yard touchdown scamper for the Panthers.  However, it was Philadelphia quarterback Case Cookus who was, sorry about this, “stirring up” a great game for the winners.

Case Cookus could very well be the “Never give up on your dream” poster boy for USFL football players.  He received no college football scholarship offers coming out of high school.  After a season playing at a nearby junior college, Cookus played college football at FCS (small college group) Northern Arizona University.  In the two football seasons since graduating from Northern Arizona in 2020, he has played football for the New York Giants (undrafted free agent), Denver Broncos (three days), Minnesota Vikings (three days), Las Vegas Raiders (six days), and played most of 2021 with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Elks.

In leading Philadelphia to victory late Friday night,