by John Walters
Starting Five
1. Ernie’s a Good Dude
What stands out most about Ernie Johnson, who last night won a Sports Emmy as Outstanding Studio Host and then promptly bequeathed it to the daughters of Stuart Scott, is how reliably solid he is. A white man who never played the game and shares the TNT studios with three African-American former NBA All-Stars, two of them Hall of Famers, EJ never backs down from them but he also never tries to wrest the spotlight, either.
He’s a man who knows who he is, which is sadly an increasingly rare spectacle. Last night’s gesture was not surprising. And it was funny because while two men could not be more different in on-air temperament and style, that wasn’t the point. Johnson, himself a cancer survivor, by giving Stu’s daughters the trophy, was just reminding them that no one in the room was going to forget their dad.
He’s a special man.
2. Square Peg
Some of the very best scenes from Mad Men have involved the fabulous Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss, who grew up before our eyes on The West Wing) and either Roger Sterling or Don Draper. Sunday night was no different, as Peggy got hammered in the skeleton of an office in the old Time & Life Building (I think SI For Kids moved in after?) with Roger while roller skating.
This piece in Vanity Fair discusses the inspiration for that scene and the one pictured above. This remains my favorite Peggy Olson scene.
3. Rip Off
“Stop! You’re hurting me. You brute.”
Yes, the moment I heard that Manny Pacquiao had suffered a torn rotator cuff before Saturday night’s Fight of the Hour, I thought 1) Who was the dope who decided to admit that publicly? 2) class-action suit and 3) why wasn’t this on the MayPac At Last doc on HBO?
Well, No. 2 has come to pass. I don’t know much about how things transpire legally, but it does seem to me that the people who inveigled the public into paying $99 to watch were not quite forthright. What if Manny and Top Rank have to pay up? Then they’ll definitely fight Mayweather again.
4. Tim’s Time?
The Big Fundamental averaged 18 ppg. in the series. His lowest scoring game, the one that skewed the average down, was during SAS’ 27-point win in Game 3.
Bill Simmons (and Gregg Popovich) are correct: 39 year-old Tim Duncan really was the Spurs’ most consistent player in their seven-game series versus the Clips. And recall, it was Duncan who buried the two pressure free throws with :08 left after being whistled for the phantom foul a few seconds earlier.
Is it time for the league’s best-ever power forward to retire? I hope not. But next year’s Spurs need improved back court play? Who’d have thought, after the 2013 NBA Finals, that Tony Parker would be washed up before Duncan? Or will the Frenchman have his own career renaissance next season?
5. WDOG (The Smartest Pet Trick)
Really enjoyed this Vulture piece from New York magazine, which had a terrific idea about how to cover the end of the Letterman era: interview a smattering of Dave’s former writers and ask them about their best ideas that never made air (every writer can recall his or her best line that got cut or story that didn’t make the lineup, back when print allowed only a finite amount of stories to run…even fewer when Rick Reilly was feeling prolific).
Music 101
How Deep Is Your Love?
Remember that year that Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs, and then he just went back to being Brady Anderson? Meet the Bee Gees, who were an afterthought Australian trio of siblings who with one monster album owned all of pop culture for a year or so. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack spent 24 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard chart and there are at least five Bee Gees songs on it that anyone of a certain age can recall in an instant. Related: John Travolta was once thin and lithe.
Remote Patrol
Bayern Munich at Barcelona
FOX Sports 1 2:30 p.m.
Messi: Barca has outscored its past 5 opponents by a score of 20-0. Is that good? It’s not bad.
The first leg of this UEFA Champions League semifinal features the two squads that most observers, your humble scribe included, consider the world’s two best squads. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez suit up for host Barca, while Bayern boasts World Cup champions Thomas Muller and Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER!!!!! among others. Two best teams in the world, and one of them has arguably the best player since Pele.