Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Sacramento Kings (who are a basketball team) have fired coach Michael Malone.
Updates to follow.
Edited to add 12/16: It took a long time for the team to make an official announcement, but they finally did.
“Philosophical differences”? So, what, Malone was a Kantian, and D’Alessandro is a follower of divine command theory?
Woohoo!
The PIs were working for a law firm that represented “more than 120 public safety unions”, including the Costa Mesa Police Association. I’m hoping that they roll, and that this ends with jail sentences and disbarment.
Philadelphia is currently 2-19. However, that might not be bad enough:
Has the NYPD been fabricating gun cases?
But what would be their motivation?
NYPD officers faking information to collect money from Operation Gun Stop? That’s unheard of!
For reasons we’re not clear on, Lawrence has been giving us a little bit of grief recently about why we continue to write the TMQ Watch. Frankly, we’ve been wondering that ourselves, and the best answer we can come up with is: “Got to. This America, man.”
But it does give us a little bit of pleasure to be able to cross the streams this week:
…and yes I was tossed off the masthead of New Republic by Chris Hedges too! Dear Chris — my Internet column gets 175K unique views/week
— Gregg Easterbrook (@EasterbrookG) December 9, 2014
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
The 76ers, turning the fundamental belief system of sports on its head, do not mind losing. A lot.
However, they did screw up their chances of going 0-82. Philadelphia is now 1-17.
Anybody out there missing a pony?
Public service announcement: if you get an “order confirmation” email from someplace like Costco or Home Depot, and you didn’t place an online order, and the email doesn’t contain specific details about which store you should pick it up at, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T CLICK ON THE LINKS!
I’m sure most of my readers are smart enough to figure this out on their own, but I wanted to mention it here for reasons.
This week’s TMQ, after the jump…
It is official: University of Alabama-Birmingham is shutting down the football program.
On the one hand, I feel a little sorry for the players and staff who are getting jammed up, especially since there’s a lot of speculation that the regents (including Bear Bryant’s son) have been out to screw UAB and the football program. On the other hand, I really want to see more schools shut down their football programs. If the NFL wants a minor league, let them start their own, instead of riding on the backs of universities. On the gripping hand:
They cut the rifle program?! Philistines! (“Don’t shoot my sacred cow!”)
This could turn into something interesting:
Noted for the record: Bo Pelini out at Nebraska. He was 67-27 overall, and his teams never won less than 9 games a season.
And it has been a bad few days for defensive coordinators: Ellis Johnson out at Auburn, Mike Breske out at Washington State (along with linebacker coach Paul Volero), and Mark Snyder out at Texas A&M.
This isn’t quite a firing, but ESPN is reporting strong speculation that the University of Alabama at Birmingham is going to eliminate their football program. More here.
Two of our new favorite things in the world:
We actually want to write the “Three Types of Fun You Should Never Have With a Freelance Nurse” article, as we have some ideas for that. Unfortunately, those ideas make us cringe so badly we can’t bring ourselves to start writing.
In other news, this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
You had one job, Kansas City. One job. And you blew it.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16 this season:
None.
With this, our hopes turn to the NBA: Philadelphia is now 0-11.
This week’s TMQ, after the jump…
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Oakland.
The Raiders play Kansas City at home on Thursday. I’m a little nervous about this one.
And in other news, Philadelphia is the only team that has a chance to finish the NBA season 0-82. (Currently, the 76ers are 0-9.)
For the record: Will Muschamp out as coach of the University of Florida Gators. The Miami Herald is representing this as a resignation; reading between the lines, it sounds like he jumped before he could be pushed.
Clif Bar, the people who make Clif Bars, gives out sponsorships to various athletes. There are a whole bunch of sponsored athletes in various sports, including mountain climbing.
Recently, the Clif Bar folks decided they were going to stop sponsoring five of those athletes. Four of them are mountain climbers, and one is a BASE jumper. According to the company:
One of the funny things about this is that several of these climbers were recently featured in a documentary, “Valley Uprising”; Clif Bar was a major sponsor of the documentary.
The NYT has more coverage of this issue, including quotes from the athletes in question.
This is an interesting debate, at least to me: Clif Bar isn’t saying “don’t do this stuff”; they’re saying “we won’t sponsor you to do stuff that we think is too far out on the edge”. And you can sort of understand that they don’t want to be associated with some guy who reduces himself to a thin red smear while BASE jumping. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem (from what the NYT is saying) that there’s any shortage of companies that are willing to step in where Clif Bar left off. On the gripping hand, if everyone free-soloed a rock, would you? Does it matter that other sponsors are stepping in; isn’t Clif just taking a moral stance? But if it is a moral stance, what about this documentary? Should they still be attaching their name to it?
I’ve got no idea. I just think it is an interesting debate.
This week’s TMQ, after the jump…
On this date in history, 40 years ago, the Minnesota Vikings beat the L.A. Rams 28-24 on Monday Night Football.
Of greater historical significance, my younger brother was born during halftime of this game.
Happy birthday, Doug.
Sorry this is late. Sunday was busy (but fun) and yesterday was a travel day.
Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Oakland.
And in other news, Philadelphia is the only team that has a chance to finish the NBA season 0-82. (Currently, the 76ers are 0-7.)