Today's Best - 12.05.07

5. Slackers - Anderson Varaejo is back exactly where he started. And his little basketball holdout was apparently just so he didn't have to play basketball for more than a month. the hold out turned useless because after the Bobcats offered Varaejo an offer sheet for 3 years 17.4 million, the Cavaliers matched that offer, binding the floppity power forward to the Cavs a team that he reportedly had no desire to play for. In fact, due to his prolonged vacation, Varaejo could have cost himself a bigger contract. A 3-year 20 million dollar contract was offered to him by the Cavs earlier in the process. I'm not sure if Varaejo's absence has affected teh team much but as of now Cleveland is looking for anything. They now sit 2 games below .500 and have their superstar sidelined with a sprained finger. Maybe their needs will be answered in the form of a well-rested Brazilian.

4. Scoring without a purpose - Allen Iverson recorded his 11th career 50 point game but was outdeuled in the fourth quarter by Kobe Bryant. Iverson scored 33 points in the first half and 49 through three quarters and seemed unconscious to that point, nailing an assortment of jumpers, leaners, fadeaways, floaters and layups. Kobe Bryant held him to just 2 points in the first quarter and scored 12 of his own 25 in the final period to pull the Lakers away for good en route to a 111-107 victory. The fact that it didn't facilitate a win may mean that it was an empty 51 points, but watching the game bought back memories of A.I.'s physical hey-day where he exerted his will on every game, put his team on his tiny frame and carried them to respectability.

3. Marquee Operators - Flipping through league pass last night, in every game outside of Lakers/Nuggets it was impossible to notice the surprisingly low amount of star power. In the Knicks/Nets game, Stephon Marbury was grieving the passing of his father Don, his teammate Eddy Curry tweaked his ankle during a team walk-through and Jason Kidd was away from the team because of a "migraine". The Cavaliers were white-washed by the Wizards as Lebron James missed his fourth straight game with a finger injury. San Antonio had to rely on Manu Ginobili to beat Dallas at home as Tim Duncan sat out with his leg injury, and the Raptors were absolutely plastered by the Suns without their superstar Chris Bosh and their budding 2006 1st round pick Andrea Bargnani.

2. Pat White Haters - Four Heisman trophy finalists were selected yesterday to attend the trophy presentation on Saturday. Although the committee usually selects five finalists, only four were selected this year - a direct slap in the face to Pat White, one of the most dynamic exciting and winning QBs this year. The only real reason for White not being invited could be his team falling short of reaching the National Championship game after a close, yet disappointing loss to Pittsburgh as he battled a late injury. However none of the four finalists, Florida's Tim Tebow, Arkansas' Darren McFadden, Hawaii's Colt Brennan and Missouri's Chase Daniel were as close as White was to leading his team to the BCS Championship. I understand that it was unlikely that he would win, but honestly he has the same chances of winning as the other two finalists not named Tebow or McFadden so why not use one of the available spaces to invite White to the ceremony?

1. Defamation Litigators - George Karl and Pat Riley are among the coaches that will be wearing microphones in Thursday's TNT televised games. This is part of a new initiative by the NBA to offer more transparency on the sidelines and lockerooms by miking coaches and some players during games. Although I think the idea as a whole is kind of dumb, I cant wait for the uproar the first time Pat Riley refers to one of his players as a "fat girl" or George Karl, drops a tightly interlaced offensive string of F-Bombs, C-words, S-words, A-words and Consonant-words in general. Can you imagine what will happen when Phil Jackson decides to test out his whole catalog of Brokeback jokes on national TV. I am also intrigued as to what is said on the bench and kind of wish this silly system was instituted last year so we can learn once and for all what Tim Duncan said that got Joey Crawford so mad that he kicked him out of a game. I bet it was something real degrading like, "Hey Tony, look at Joey's pants, where'd he get those...The Gap?"