Knicks Don't Retain Lin, Silva Retains His Belt

I wanted to keep my last post on topic about baseball's second half, so here are some thoughts on other sports news from the week.

Knicks

It appears that Jeremy Lin is on his way out of New York, and I cannot be happier. Lin made millions off of a great two weeks, and I'm happy for the guy, but I'm more excited that it's coming out of the Rocket's wallet. Lin signed the Rockets offer sheet last night, 3 years $25 million ($5 mil for the first two years, and $15  mil for the third and final year), and the Knicks have until Tuesday to sign him or he is gone. 

From his breakout game against the Nets on February 4th, until Amar'e and Carmelo returned against the Nets on February 20th, he averaged 25 points, 9.2 assists, and 5.9 turnovers per game during that nine game stretch. In the 17 games that followed though, Lin averaged 15 points, 6.8 assists and 3.8 turnovers per game. 

Lin could still be an average point guard, but his value is more off the court (merchandise, ticket sales), and with one of the NBA's biggest stars in Carmelo Anthony plus their rich history, the Knicks don't need help in that category. With the acquisitions of Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton to secure the point guard position, they could produce around the same or better than Lin on the court without the long term cost.

Landry Fields is another Knick that is trading his blue and orange for Raptors red and purple. After a good rookie campaign, Fields took a step back last season (he hasn't been the same player since the Carmelo trade). With the re-signing of JR Smith plus Iman Shumpert showing a lot of promise (when he was healthy), Fields became expendable.   

Silva-Sonnen II

Anderson Silva successfully retained his championship stopping Chael Sonnen in the second round of their fight at UFC 148. After getting taken down, and smothered for almost the whole first round, I thought that we could be seeing a repeat of their first fight. Even after the fight Sonnen said he thought he broke Anderson Silva. However, it didn't take long for the Spider to recover, after a failed spinning backfist by the challenger, Silva turned it up to another level. After a knee to the chest of Sonnen, Anderson unleashed a flurry of punches that signaled the end of the fight. 

There was some controversy after the fight, because Anderson's knee may have illegally been thrown to Sonnen's face, as well as Anderson grabbing Chael's shorts during a takedown attempt in the second round.  Sonnen took the loss like a man, and said Anderson was the better fighter that day, and won't appeal the loss. It looks like their feud is over, after Silva told the Brazilian fans in Vegas to cheer Sonnen for putting on a good fight, and even invited him over his house for a barbeque.

The question is where does the future Hall of Famer go now? Anderson is arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and there isn't too much more for him to accomplish. The Middleweight Division is probably one of the weaker ones in the company, with the main contenders being: Chris Weidman after his impressive win over Mark Munoz, Hector Lombard former Bellator Champion making his UFC debut next week, Michael Bisping, and Brian Stann. Silva already holds the UFC for Most Consecutive Title defenses, and with dream matchups against GSP or Jon Jones looking more fantasy than reality, what else does he have to prove?

Chael Sonnen also has a tough career decision. He said himself you don't retire from the UFC if you never won a championship, you just quit. A third fight with Anderson Silva seems almost inconceivable, so unless Silva retires soon Sonnen won't get another shot at the Middleweight belt. There are rumors that he may move up to Light Heavyweight, but they have their own unstoppable champion. Chael still has a grudge to settle with Wanderlei Silva, but that won't bring him any closer to a title. Chael holds the gift of gab and is assuredly has a commentator/analyst job waiting for him in his post-fighting career.

Ortiz-Griffin III

Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin finished off their trilogy with a rubber match at UFC 148. Just like their first two fight, the judges' decision was controversial (All 3 judges scored it 29-28 for Griffin). Tito took Griffin down in both the first and third rounds, hitting him with vintage Tito Ortiz hellbows, but Forrest looked a lot crisper than Tito standing. Both guys were clearly gassed in the third round. It was disappointing to see Tito go out with another loss, but it no matter who won the fight, the other guy would have had a legit complaint.

Ortiz was more upset with Forrest's post-fight antics, running out of the cage after the fight before Dana told him to "Get the Fuck back in there", and taking the mic from Joe Rogan for Tito's retirement speech.

UFC 149

Next weekend is probably the most cursed card in UFC history (which I talked about in a previous post), headlined by Urijah Faber and Renan Barao in an interim Championship fight and the UFC debut of Hector Lombard, the top of the card should deliver in entertainment value.

After going 4-2 in my UFC 148 predictions bringing my record to 7-4 in the last two PPV's after getting off to a cold start that I'm going to erase from the record books (since this is my blog), here are the quick picks for 149:

Urijah Faber over Renan Barao by Decision

Hector Lombard over Tim Botesch by KO

Cheick Kongo over Shawn Jordan by KO

Brian Ebersol over James Head by Decision

Chris Clements over Matt Riddle by KO

NFL

I don't want to rush summer and the days down at the Jersey Shore, but training camps are opening in a couple weeks, and I CAN'T WAIT for Jets football. With a great draft and the intrigue of Tim Tebow (will Tebow-Mania replace Lin-Sanity as the most over-hyped player in NY?) (see how I turned it around full circle) the circus that has become the New York Football Jets will be as exciting as ever this season. With preseason predictions, and a weekly betting guide, there will be a lot more NFL talk in the coming months!