Starting Five

1. “A Leave of Presence”

That was the term film critic Roger Ebert used just earlier this week when announcing that he would begin curtailing his film review efforts. Yesterday Ebert, 70, passed away. No shortage of encomia accompanied Ebert’s death, from this one (terrific lede, by the way, one that Ebert would have appreciatee) by Neil Steinberg in the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert’s employer for more than 40 years, to this one from a fellow downstate Illinois native, Will Leitch (just wait until Darren Rovell dies), which originally ran a year or two ago. Too much to say here, but read Ebert’s memoir, “Life Itself“, if you get a chance.

As for other material, this 2010 Esquire profile by Chris Jones is as good as you’ll find.

Five Roger Ebert tidbits:

1) The first film he saw was “A Day at The Races”, starring the Marx Brothers (admission: 9 cents).

2) As a University of Illinois senior (he grew up in Champaign), Ebert was the editor-in-chief of The Daily Illini. The sports editor was future Sports Illustrated senior writer William Nack, whom some of us feel was the most poetic writer in the mag’s history.

3) He was fortunate enough to have legendary Chicago columnist Mike Royko take him under his wing soon after he arrived at The Chicago Sun Times.

4) He became, in 1975, the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize.

5) He once sort of dated Oprah Winfrey. He admits that she put the brakes on it.

2. Bosh Bash

I think we’d all feel worse for Chris Bosh having been robbed of $340,000 worth of jewelry if the heist had not occurred while he was out celebrating his 29 birthday, a bacchanal that included a cake that was a “jewel-festooned chocolate elephant ridden by a miniature Bosh figure.” Oh, and he reportedly arrived by both helicopter and yacht. These are the types of details that a young Steve Rushin would weave into literary and comic gold when writing one of his outstanding SI features back in the 1990s, before the internet.

3-5: Apologies. Just got called in to the steakateria. Will finish later if I have the chance or this will run in full tomorrow.

3. I once spent three hours interviewing Jay Mohr at his beach house in California for a story that would run in TV Guide (I know). I thought that we got along well — we’re about the same age and we were both raised in New Jersey, and one of us is funny. Anyway, after believing that we’d bonded, as I was walking to my car he called out, “Enjoy those quotes! They’re the same ones I gave to People magazine.”

Which is to say that sometimes, as a journalist –and particularly when you are dealing with actors/actresses — you are not going to reveal your subject to your satisfaction. Or your readers’. That’s what happened in this Rolling Stone cover story on Jon Hamm, who was amiable and charming enough, but at the end played his role as Don Draper to a tee for RS scribe Josh Eells. We learn very little of substance about Hamm, except for the fact that before he was cast in Mad Men, his last job was as a waiter at a Latin restaurant located just three blocks from where the show currently films. He even uses the same parking lot that he used then. What aspiring actor will not spend another five years in the biz (the biz of waiting tables, that is) upon reading that anecdote?

Also, we learn that as handsome as Hamm is now, he was even more studly as a high school football player in suburban St. Louis. Honestly, name an actor who looks/looked better in shoulder pads, ever, than Hamm does below.  Not even Tom Cruise’s Stefen Djordjevic is as much of a skirt-melter. Hey, I’m straight, but man is that a good-looking cat.

4. Pac-12 director of officiating Ed Rush resigns. And spring cleaning at Rutgers, where head coach Mike Rice was fired, and both athletic director Tim Pernetti and assistant coach Jimmy Martelli, a.k.a. “Baby Rice”, resigned. Martelli is the son of St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli, a longtime Philly hoops presence who 1) is best friends with Geno Auriemma and 2) could probably tell you more about Ed Rush and whether or not the Philly connection with NBA refs is a corrupt one.

As for Rush, he had to go and he’s too smart not to realize it. Three steps to his departure: 1) Singling out one coach, Arizona’s Sean Miller, for his officials to focus on instead of telling them to be tougher on coaches in general. 2) That coach, Miller, earning his first technical foul of the entire season, which leads to some serious dot-connecting, and 3) dot-connecting that only occurs when a referee chooses to inform CBSSports.com scribe Jeff Goodman of Rush’s comments. The real question here is why that official would do that. The most sensible answer is that Rush wasn’t joking –not enough, anyway — and that this official was tired of Rush’s bullying and/or his lack of integrity. As employees or underlings, we are always loyal to a boss/manager/coach who may say something off-color or inappropriate in confidence because we recognize the greater good that he/she is doing. People only go off the reservation if they feel their leader is harming the overall institution. That’s what Eric Murdock did at Rutgers, and that is what this anonymous referee was doing when he unburdened himself to Goodman.

5. Miami Heat: 27 games. Los Angeles Clippers: 17 games. Denver Nuggets: 15 games. New York Knicks: 11 games and counting. I don’t know if there has ever been a single NBA season with four 11-plus game win streaks. As for the scoring title, Kevin Durant is averaging 28.4 points per game, while Carmelo Anthony is averaging 28.3 points per game, with about two weeks left in the regular season.

Worth noting: Durant has played 14 more games. His season points total is 2,158 points, while Melo has scored 1,755 points. Still, as far as the league is concerned, it all comes down to ppg for the scoring title. I refer you to the 1978 season, when George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs was averaging 26.8 ppg heading into the final game while David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets was averaging 26.6. Both teams’ final games were on a Sunday, with Thompson’s Nuggets playing first (both, notably, were playing for ABA refugee franchises).

Thompson went for 72 points.

The Spurs played later that evening. Gervin went for 63, and won the scoring title. Thompson: 27.15 ppg. Gervin: 27.22 ppg.

It makes you wonder what players are capable of when they REALLY, really care; and when their teammates feed them; and what both opposing defenses were doing.

Wondering if a similar final day of the season is in the offing. Until then, though, do note that the Knicks visit the Thunder tomorrow (Sunday). I see the ‘bockers streak ending at 11 games.

Reserves

The Washington Nationals may be baseball’s best team, and they have already recorded two shutouts, but they also lost 15-0 at Cincinnati last night. The worst loss in the majors in baseball’s first week. It’s only a four-game sample, but the Nats have been outscored this season, 16-11. Only five teams have a worse run differential, and two of them have won a World Series in the past five years (Phillies, -16, and Yankees, -12).

The New York Times hangs out with Louis CK. What reason could you possibly have for not wanting to read what the comic has to say. Funny and wise. I’ll take that every time.

It’s funny, isn’t it? ESPN exercised extreme sensitivity in never airing Kevin Ware’s injury, not once. And yet they torture-porn us with footage of Mike Rice going all Patches O’Houlihan at Rutgers for the past 72 hours. We get it, ESPN. Congratulations: you destroyed a few men’s careers. Granted, they may have deserved it. But so did Ed Rush. Except that you didn’t have tape on that. If Rice were to commit suicide this weekend, would his blood be on the hands of anyone in Bristol?

 

Let’s just remember that if we get a Syracuse-Louisville final (and I definitely believe that either Michigan or Wichita State, if not both, could still be standing on Sunday morning), that the last time they played Syracuse blew a 16-point lead only to lose by 17 to the Cards in the Big East tournament final final. There’s some coaching involved in that type of swing. My favorite Rick Pitino game of all time is when he led the Wildcats back from a 31-point deficit at LSU with less than 16 minutes remaining. The Wildcats won by four. So, yeah, he deserves that Naismith Hall of Fame induction. Well done, Rick.

My old colleague Seth Davis is now a Subway sandwich spokesperson. He always craved being famous more than he did performing journalism.