The Basement View

  Tuesday night was rock bottom for the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn got booed out of the Barclays Center as the New York Knicks stormed back from a nine-point third quarter deficit behind All-Star candidates Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson. Brunson received MVP chants when he was at the free throw line late in the fourth. The “home” team had their star, Mikal Bridges, booed at the free throw line when the Nets were looking to close out their cross-borough rival. “It’s not fun when you feel like you [‘re] at an away game at home” is what Bridges softly said Tuesday night following the loss, the sixth loss in the last seven games and the 11 th out of the last 13. The last winning streak Brooklyn has had was late December beating the Detroit Pistons twice in three nights. Since the home and home with Detroit, the Pistons and Nets have the same number of wins, two. In this dry spell for the Nets the losses have come in every kind: buzzer beater, overtime, fourth quarter collapse, blow out...

  We have reached that point of year where it is time to dust off your Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot. And while some voters are still afraid to give out theirs, I, as a non-voter, am unbashful and fear no one giving out my fake ballot. If old school thinking was to take a victory lap and not allow anyone in, because those people only put Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron in the Hall, it would be this year, however, the following is an explanation as to why there are plenty of worthy candidates on the ballot this year that deserve to be immortalized in Cooperstown. I will do so by grouping these great baseball players into five groups. These groups are not ranking their greatness, but rather a way of opening the eyes of those who shut the doors of the Hall unless you are a slam dunk candidate.   The Only “Slam Dunk” Candidate   1. Adrian Beltre Beltre is as close to Mantle, Mays, and Aaron as it gets with the 2024 class. The Dominican born third ba...

  Welcome to the time of year where the brutal cold and snow has ushered many of us inside to stoke fireplaces, fill mugs with warm tea or hot chocolate, and to huddle together under a nice blanket to watch playoff football. Last year, I put out a Gambling Column with 12 Rules to help the readers of this column win money when put in the position we are at right now. This year, most of those rules are still applicable, but will be shown out of order. However, here are some of those rules that will not be used: Rule No. 9: Back Joe Burrow at every turn because he is basically Superman in the playoffs unless the opponent is hosting a home Super Bowl. Rule No. 10: NEVER EVER, EVER BET AGAINST TOM BRADY. NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT. Live by this rule if it’s the only rule you listen to.   CLE (-2.5) @ HOU Nothing like the first playoff game of the weekend to highlight two of the staples’ rules of Playoff Football Gambling that make this game a tad bit conflicting: Rule No. 1: It’s Hard ...

  After 15 games, eight years, 2,933 days the New York Jets have finally beat the New England Patriots! Finally, the Jets have ended the longest head-to-head losing streak in the NFL. It only took the worst Patriots team in 26 years and a game played in a snow globe to end the streak. It took all of Breece Hall’s 190 total yards to secure victory. It took two 4 th quarter interceptions, one of which was fumbled back to New England on the same play, to finally win against the Patriots. It took seven sacks of New England backup quarterback Bailey Zappe to finally beat Bill Belichick’s team. The same Bill Belichick that took so much joy beating the team he walked away from a via napkin 24 years ago. He finally dropped a game to his most hated rival. This might be the last time Belichick faces the Jets in New England and possibly for the rest of his coaching career. The fact that the Jets beat Belichick in such a situation seemed all but impossible to me, but it happened. This game sa...

  For the thirteenth consecutive season, the New York Jets will be watching the playoffs from their couches. For a fourth straight season the Jets will have at least 10 losses. What a familiar place we find ourselves in! After an offseason that had the Jets shoehorned as the AFC representative in the Super Bowl with the arrival of Aaron Rodgers, in just a few months since then they have returned to being football’s biggest laughingstock. Following an embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football last week, a game in which Cleveland qualified for postseason play, and had former Jet signal caller Joe Flacco lighting up the Jets defense, Jet fans can feel the immense pressure of the other shoe falling like an anvil atop their heads. Another season has ended and with it comes the usual misery. The blame for all the bad football this year since Aaron Rodgers laid lifeless on the MetLife turf four plays into the season should fall on the shoulders of two men, Joe D...