An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
What happened on Thursday, December 18, 2014?
A long awaited trade: Point guard Rajon Rondo, formerly of the Boston Celtics, had been the subject of trade rumors for most of the last three years. He was finally traded last night to the Dallas Mavericks for Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder, and Jameer Nelson as well as a couple unremarkable draft picks. That’s not a giant haul in return for Rondo, who has been an all-star player and one of the best players on a championship team, but it’s probably close to the best the Celtics could do given that Rondo will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The trade makes the Mavericks one of the favorites to reach the finals from the Western Conference, but no better than about four other “favorites”. Line: Probably best for all parties but it’s still hard to feel happy about the trade.
Injured players mar the featured NBA games: At least for television ratings, I assume. The early national game, the New York Knicks at Chicago Bulls was missing Derek Rose because he was sick and Carmelo Anthony because of knee soreness. The Bulls won 103-97. The late game, the Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden State Warriors, was an extremely high scoring and entertaining game that the Warriors won 114-109. Thunder star, Kevin Durant, left and did not return after turning an ankle. This might just be a turned ankle but Thunder fans are probably hyper-ventilating right now that it could be the kind of related injury that they were afraid of when Durant pushed himself to return quickly from a serious foot injury at the start of the season. Line: Seems like a lot of players are getting hurt in the NBA these days. It’s all knees and ankles, which is less scary long-term than football injuries, but still threatening to athletes.
If the Jaguars win in the woods…: The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Tennessee Titans in a game which mostly only had negative consequences for the winner. By losing, the Titans stay on the inside track to the overall number one draft pick in next year’s draft where you would expect them to select the recent Heisman trophy winner, quarterback Marcus Mariota. The Jaguars? Well, they probably don’t mind quite so much given that they just picked a quarterback in the draft, but still. Line: Did you watch that football game last night? You did? You’ve got problems.
