Win some, Lose some: Jason Kidd’s non-trade

With the news of Jason Kidd apparently heading to the Mavericks – up to the point that he left the Nets and actually got on a plane to Dallas – and then the subsequent blocking of the trade by Devean George, why not do a little win some-lose some about the whole situation?

Win some: Devean George. Congratulations on keeping that starting job in Dallas until Josh Howard returns from injury. Well, even if you’re not traded, you might not be holding unto that spot for long if you keep up 0-for-11 performances like the one you did just hours after blocking the trade on Wednesday.

The NBA. David Stern is probably breathing a huge sigh of relief now that he won’t have to figure what to do about the all-star rosters. Had the Kidd trade gone through, it would have made him the first player to be a voted starter to switch conferences after making the game. Would he play for the West? Does someone on the West get booted? Who fills in on the East? Who starts for the East? Do the East get a 13th player now that the West gets Kidd? These are questions that would’ve dogged Stern that he no longer has to deal with.

Lose some: The New Jersey Nets. They would’ve got a lot of cap room to build around and a young point guard who could one day be a star (not quite superstar) in the league. Also, sadly, in the East, you don’t even have to be a .500 team to make the playoffs it’s starting to look like.

Jason Kidd. We all know that he wants out of the swamp and getting to play with Dirk instead of cry baby Vince Carter surely would’ve put a huge smile on his face. He’d also get even further away from his trifling ex.

Jerry Stackhouse. Reports are that the Nets would have bought him out, leaving him free to rejoin the Mavs in 30 days. A 30 day, midseason vacation? Sounds like something Shaq has been doing the past few years.

Jose Calderon. With Ray Allen being named to replace the injured Caron Butler already, there would be no doubt that the Raptors point guard would’ve made his first all-star squad. Seriously, who else would play the point on that team?

On the fence: The Dallas Mavericks. Sure they would have Jason Kidd, but who knows how that would have turned out. It’s not like Devin Harris was bad or anything and they will be getting Stack back in 30 days, but there would’ve effectively been no future in Big D. Without their emerging, young PG and giving up two first-round picks (regardless of draft position), this team could fall apart easily down the road with team’s age after adding Kidd and if Dirk can’t sustain his play.

Clemens cooking

After a few hours worth of testimony to the grand jury along with accuser/former trainer Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens' public image is not looking very hot. He's cooking, but not in the good way. One could even say his pants are literally on fire. It would explain why he came off as nervous when being grilled about his accused use of Human Growth Hormone and steroids.

And his death-stares and McNamee were so chilling one could have thought that somebody's — either Clemens or McNamee — head would explode from the sheer force being exerted in that look.

But the all-time word of the hearing had to "misremember." It could be used in a sentence like: "Andy Pettitte misremembers some things." Hilarious. It might even be construed as smack-talking since Clemens may be updating his Christmas card list when you consider that Pettitte's under-oath claims that Clemens admitted to him that he used HGH are VERY damning.

There isn't much known for 100% truth in the situation still but if there's one thing that we do now know, it's that somebody may be going to prison. All of these depositions were under-oath in a court and, as we know from the Barry Bonds indictment on perjury, you cannot tell a lie to the government without them getting their retribution. The U.S. government do not like looking like fools, despite who their leader is.

A quick non-Clemens, MLB thought.

Ryan Dempster is dumb. Going out and saying that your team will end their 100-year World Series drought is ballsy, but quite dumb. There are forces beyond his power at work behind the scenes at Wrigley Field that will keep the Cubs from winning. It's called a curse. Besides that, the Cubs are by no streak the best team in baseball. In fact, I'd take the Yankees to beat the Cubs and they have hardly any starting pitching. After the Yanks, the Red Sox, Tigers, Mets and even the Dodgers have a better shot in my mind than the Cubs.

How about that LeBron?

Last night, to my — and the rest of the guys working in the sports section — surprise, LeBron got the type of "help" that the Cavaliers thought they would be getting when the signed a guy named Larry Hughes to a huge deal. The 40 points he scored last night were a season high, but you could have probably guessed it would have been considering we're talking about Larry Hughes here.

I still maintain that, had the Cavaliers been able to sign Michael Redd during the offseason that they acquired Hughes, the team would have had a better shot at winning the championship last year. The only downside to the Cavs having Redd would be that Hughes is a far better defender. Redd though, can shoot the lights out on any given night.

If I'm the Cavs and LeBron, I'm hoping that Hughes can play like some more, especially down the stretch and take some pressure off the King. James, by the way, picked up the double-double with 29 points and 10 assists.

A frightening moment

While I'm sure that not many people tuned into watch the Florida Panthers play against the Buffalo Sabres yesterday but there was a moment that would've created quite the stir to those who saw it.

Panthers captain Olli Jokinen went into the corner in an attempt to hit Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur but something went awry; Jokinen missed his target, was upended and his skate came up and sliced teammate Richard Zednik in the right side of his neck. Blood started pouring out while Zednik clutched his neck and raced to the Panthers' bench where a trainer helped him off the ice. He was taking to a local hospital where surgery was needed to close the wound.

The bigger question here isn't about players' safety and brutal injuries, it's about whether or not they should have finished the game. I find it ridiculous that after watching a fellow player, friend and teammate (for the Panthers) suffer a possible life-threatening injury they had to continue playing a hockey game. Could their minds and thoughts possibly be anywhere except with Zednik at the time? Even worse, the players, coaches and fans had to endure a 15-minute break while the ice had to be scraped clean of all the blood that had stained it. How could anyone continue playing a game after that?

It's not like a game postponement is out of the ordinary after something like this. When Detroit's Jiri Fischer collapsed on the bench after his heart failed and was revived, the game was discontinued until a later day. Why couldn't this have happened after Zednik's blood stained the ice? It really makes no sense.

The fact that NHL vice president Colin Campbell was at the game and witnessed this whole scene happen doesn't inspire confidence in the league either. How could a high up guy like that not ice the game to hold up some league integrity?

Ultimately, if the Panthers fail to reach the playoffs by one or two points, which they could have achieved by winning last night's game (The Sabres won 5-3 and scored after the incident), they can look back at last night in Buffalo as to why they're golfing early.