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For those of us who couldn’t care less about the “sport” of auto racing, the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt seems so avoidable and such a waste. After all, to many, auto racing is a useless, boring exercise in which grown men drive cars at ridiculous speeds on narrow streets known as tracks. And not only do the drivers race at unfathomable speeds, the acts of bumping and cutting off your opponents are considered strategy rather than criminal acts. After all, if you did the same thing on the highway as the average racer does on the track, you would likely be arrested, lose your license, be a thousand dollars lighter in the wallet and appear to have a death wish.

But then many of us who abhor racing love the sweet science of boxing. But the argument against racecar driving described above fits for boxing as well. If two men brawl in the street, they will likely be arrested and viewed as aberrant.

Intuitively, both sports are moronic and defy common sense. Both sports legalize illegal behavior and on occasion cost participants their lives. But to boxing fans like the Critic, boxing somehow seems more acceptable than racing. But surely there are racing fans who feel exactly the opposite.

In light of Earnhardt’s death, there will be the inevitable calls for the abolition of auto racing. But understand the view of the racing aficionado: there is risk in every sport, and racecar driving is no different. So even if you don’t like or understand the sport of auto racing, if you are a boxing fan, you have no right to criticize the sport that killed Dale Earnhardt.

But it is just so hard to accept a sport in which death is such an increasingly common part of the game.

A Renaissance in Boston

If the season ended right now, the Boston Celtics would be in the playoffs. While that may not seem like such a big deal, before Rick Pitino left the Celtics were deader than Sammy Hagar’s career.

Under interim coach Jim O’Brien, the Celtics have gone an impressive 11-6, including a spectacular win on the road in Portland. Antoine Walker is a new player. He is finally taking the ball to the hole and not settling for low percentage three pointers as the first option. While longtime Critic readers know that the Critic has always been high on Walker, Walker has been vilified in Boston for the better part of the last three years as representing all that is wrong with the NBA and the Celtics in particular.

Now there are stories appearing in Beantown about what a disgrace it was that Walker was not named to the All-Star team. Let’s not get carried away. While Walker has excellent numbers, he had more than his fair share of dog games before Pitino was exiled. However, Walker is maturing as a player and a person, though he still has a great amount of room for improvement in both areas. But if he keeps it up, this will be the last All-Star Game he misses for the next ten years.

Like it matters.

O’Brien’s success is not solely due to Walker’s improvement. O’Brien has utilized players that Pitino ignored, such as Eric Williams, Vitaly Potapenko, Mark Blount and Chris Carr, and those players have come through.

With Walker and Paul Pierce, the Celtics have two young studs to build their franchise around. Where they lack the most is at the point guard position. Kenny Anderson can’t defend, shoot from the outside or handle the ball efficiently. Pitino made many poor personnel moves during his reign of error in Boston, but his biggest mistakes were trading for Anderson and his immense, immovable contract, and trading the number eight pick in the draft to Cleveland for Potapenko, a useful but unremarkable center. Cleveland used that pick to select Utah point guard Andre Miller.

If the Celtics had a big three of Walker, Pierce and Miller, they would really be in business.

Miscellaneous Random Musings

The Critic and Fred Hickman were both one year early, but at this point in the season Allen Iverson is the NBA MVP. Iverson makes the early morning SportsCenter worth watching. Much like Walker, Iverson is maturing and becoming a better all-around player.

It is so easy to forget how young and immature these players are when they enter the league, and teams give up on young talent too quickly. Pitino would have given Walker away last season. And do you think Washington would take Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber back? Philadelphia gave up on All-Star Jerry Stackhouse, although at least they got Theo Ratliff in return. The Sixers also gave up on the blossoming Tim Thomas. The Warriors shopped Antawn Jamison without success, and now they are fortunate no team grabbed the former Tar Heel.

There is no more tiresome individual in sports right now than Mark Cuban. At first he was mildly amusing, but now he is a boring, obnoxious ass.

The Critic hopes someone steals Ray Lewis’s white fur coat and then blames it on Cuban.

The Cavaliers were justified in starting a brawl when the Mavericks ran up the score to get their fans free Chalupas (all attendees of the game got free Taco Bell if the Mavs scored 100 points). It’s one thing to try to appease fans, its another thing to embarrass an opponent and be a poor sport.

When Cuban ran out on the floor, it was too bad one of the Cleveland players didn’t flatten him and then claim they thought he was a crazed fan. What kind of punishment do you think David Stern would have levied upon the offender? Stern probably would have named him as an alternate to the All-Star team for next season.

Cuban is just a rich geek who is paying athletes to be his friends.

For most of his career Gary Sheffield has had the reputation of being an underachieving malcontent. However last year Sheffield appeared to be turning his career around when he enjoyed his best year ever, batting .325 with 43 homers and 109 RBI.

So what does Sheffield do as an encore? Despite being one of the highest paid players in baseball, he demands that the Dodgers either give him a new contract or trade him. Of course, according to Sheffield, his demand is not about the money, it is about respect.

And Mark Rich’s pardon had nothing to do with money either, just ask the Angel of Harlem.

By: Scott Shuster