WSD Sports Weekend (4-26-14): Los Angeles Lakers keeping Mike D'Antoni shows nothing but stupidity

Stupid is the theme of the day as I dissect why Mike D'Antoni returning for another season defies all common sense, why Gawker Media/Jezebel/Deadspin fails again at crapping all over someone, and there's some lacrosse respect in today's sports page.

Photo from Beyond the Buzzer.

The Lede

Stupid: Los Angeles Lakers decide to bring back Mike D'Antoni for third season

There's a lot of stupid going on in the NBA lately.

Whatever's happening with the Indiana Pacers is stupid because everyone that's not a Miami Heat fan wants to see the Miami Heat lose, and we thought the answer was here for the first four months of the season. Whatever happened at the end of the Golden State's game and not calling a foul on the LA Clippers' Chris Paul is pretty stupid, and that adds to the fire of ref stupidity during these playoffs.

And of course, there's been stupid since Jim Buss took over full operation with the Lakers. After two miserable seasons with Mike D'Antoni as head coach, they decided to bring him back for a third season.

Hear that? That's the sound of every single Laker fan that's still left throwing everything out the window. That's Kobe Bryant screaming in agony as he reinjures himself because he knows full well that he's going to get another season-ending injury before Thanksgiving.

There's absolutely zero equation that fits both Bryant and D'Antoni to equal out a championship. None. D'Antoni's system is built for young guns. Built for fast-paced offense that doesn't matter whether or not they play defense. In fact, they'd rather the team launch a quick shot and make it so they can get back on offense.

Pau Gasol might as well pack up his shit and go to LAX, he's history. Bryant might as well demand a trade, because a championship isn't coming to the Lakers organization until well after he's retired. Any big names in free agency this summer might as well skip right past going to the Lakers because why in the world would any experienced talent want to come in when D'Antoni's just going to favor putting in more younger guys.

D'Antoni runs a college system that will never work in the NBA. It will never get the Lakers a trip to the Finals. While next season may not be as craptastic as last season, they'll be nowhere near title contention.

They basically gave one of the best players in their history, Kobe Bryant, the big middle finger and told him that they're going to rebuild with D'Antoni. They gave the middle finger to Magic Johnson who doesn't like D'Antoni at all. And they gave two big middle fingers to every single Lakers fan.

At least Buss and D'Antoni were able to get rid of all the Laker bandwagoners because no front-running idiots will stick with a team that lost more games than they played. Now they'll be able to get rid of every single Laker fan after next year.

Say hello to your new fan, Golden State San Francisco Warriors!


Other Headlines

1. NFL: San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh backs up quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Harbaugh reflects on the situation, saying that just one side has been reported and he even quotes Winston Churchill. Of course...
2. NFL: Gawker Media idiot Joshua David bitches about Harbaugh and tells him to shut the f*ck up. Well David, I don't know if you're trying to be the next Drew Magary on Deadspin, but this article was complete garbage. Drubbing it up into a different argument about rape culture when that's not even the issue. It didn't happen, even THE GIRL said it didn't happen. She filed a report to figure out how she got to the hospital, and then we figured it out. Of course, David didn't want to mention any of that because he was too busy ranting about how much he hated Harbaugh. Good job. When you first wrote "I don't know what happened," you should have probably shut the f*ck up yourself and deleted the post.
3. MLB: Washington Nationals keep Bryce Harper out for today's game against San Diego Padres. Harper jammed his thumb while siding into third base during an 11-1 blowout. Even when he decides to try hard, he still can't win.
4. NBA/NHL: Chicago goes 2-0 in big playoff games. The Blackhawks take a huge 3-2 lead against the St. Louis Blues as they head back to Chicago, while the Bulls avoided a 3-0 hole against the Washington Wizards. Displaced Chicagoians at the bars last night were as happy as hell.
5. MLL: The season begins tonight. For the first time, similar to Johns Hopkins in the college ranks, I'll be following a team from beginning to end. And my favorite team in the MLL is the Denver Outlaws.
6. NCAA LAX: Last night's game were the best. There were three buzzer beaters last night, two of them in the ACC semifinals that led to Syracuse and Notre Dame victories. Another one in the Patriot League semifinal between Lehigh and Army. The Irish needed the win to stay away from being 6-6 and potentially not making the playoffs, while the Black Knight's loss puts them in a tough position to make it.
7. MLB: Giants take lead in NL West after win over Indians, Dodgers loss. Suck it, Dodgers.

Today's Slate

Or, in other words, what I'll be keeping track of. All times Central.

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Red Wings at Bruins (BOS 3-1) - 2:00 NBC

Blue Jackets at Penguins (Tied 2-2) - 6:00 NBCS

Wild at Avalanche (Tied 2-2) - 8:30 NBCS

-Kings at Sharks (SJ 3-1) - 9:00 CNBC

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Pacers at Hawks (ATL 2-1) - 1:00 TNT

Spurs at Mavericks (Tied 1-1) - 3:30 TNT

Heat at Bobcats (MIA 2-0) - 6:00 ESPN

Thunder at Grizzlies (MEM 2-1) - 8:30 ESPN

MLB

Padres at Nationals - 12:05 FSSD/MASN

-Indians at Giants - 3:05 STO/CSBA

Phillies at D'backs - 7:10 CSPA/FSAZ

Rockies at Dodgers - 8:10 RSRM/SNLA

LAX

Harvard at Yale - 12:30 FCS626

Machine at Hounds - 6:00 MSG+

-Outlaws at Launch - 6:00 LAXN

CBB

Oklahoma at Texas Tech - 12:00 FCS623

-Oklahoma St at Texas - 1:00 LHN

Virginia at Florida St - 5:00 EPSN3

Oregon at Oregon St - 9:30 P12

Deadspin mocks experienced Chicago reporter Peggy Kusinski

Deadspin is a fantastic sports blog that's a daily must go to, mainly for the stories you won't see anywhere else and other big sports conglomerates (like ESPN, CBS Sports, etc.) won't touch. Plus, their in-depth reporting without actual sports access is truly astonishing.

That's why it still amazes me that they're not above posts that just list racist tweets or blasting reporters. Last night, Timothy Burke posted about Peggy Kusinski's screw up with Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane after he scored a game-winning goal in overtime that tied the series up between the St. Louis Blues at 2-2. She asked if this was Kane's first game-winning OT goal, and he responded with, "I'll have to check on that."

Burke responded with posting a smarmy article on Deadspin and didn't even mention the reporter's name, apparently assuming that she was a no-name and was dismissive of her response on what went wrong. She said that it was supposed to be a lead-up question to him talking about the other goals, but that's not how it transpired, sounding like she was ignorant.

This is where I side with Kusinki and believe that Burke fails embarrassingly. Kusinski is a native Chicagan and has been a sports reporter for NBC5 since 2000. She's also been a production assistant at ESPN, helping produce shows like NFL GameDay, SportsCenter, and Outside the Lines. She's also won two National Emmy Awards with her work at ESPN and four Local Emmy Awards with her work at NBC5.

Not to be an asshole, but that's a bit more impressive of a resume than Timothy Burke, who creates GIFs at Deadspin and aided in some of their investigative stories like breaking the Manti Te'o fake girlfriend story.

Obviously Kusinski knows what she's doing and knows Kane's accomplishments. Not even referring to the reporter shows both laziness and your typical Deadspin BS that's thrown up in five minutes just to garner page views and trying to put down reporters.

The funny thing is, Deadspin just made Kusinski more famous by doing this. Because Deadspin caters to everyone, nearly all of their posts receive thousands of views. Not only were they wrong in trying to give her bad pub, but it's very obvious, and she's now more famous than she was a day before. It doesn't matter if there are more idiots tweeting at her and making fun of her. Bottom line is, more eyeballs have seen her name, and will now know who she is.

Everyone that bit on the hook of this article were absolute suckers. And Kusinski can simply laugh it up.

Any sports blogger should have a dream of getting blasted on Deadspin and receiving the free publicity. My predictions are usually horrendous, perhaps I'll get on there one day.