The Closers League

It's almost here, my favorite time of year.  I smell, grass, astroturf, and nachos.  I see OTAs have begun and become giddy with excitement. I hear talk of Alex Smith having to compete for his job, and of RBs changing teams and I smile.  I get tweets about more of the NFL's insistence on harassing Ezekiel Elliot and I realize: Football Season is almost Here. Here on The Closer's League we are working on a Fantasy Football Section that we hope will go live at the end of the summer, giving you PLENTY of time to prepare for your Draft Day.  I hope you'll drop us a line here and let us know what kind of content you want, what kind of advice and help you'd like to get, and what kind of information would help you the most.  We'd love to hear from you, and be a part of your Gridiron Universe. Stay tuned and stay strong, kick-off will be here before you know it!

Credit:  NOTSportsCenter

You guys NEED to check out this guy's Instagram . His NBA comics are amazing!! We will be putting his feed in the sidebar throughout the remainder of the playoffs.

Oh the joy! Man I love it when the Spurs win. But last night was not just a victory, it was a behind the woodshed, prepare to meet your maker, stone cold beat down. And to be honest, it was a whole lot less satisfying than I thought such a beat down would be. I didn't write up a profile of last night's game ahead of time because I wasn't sure what to write. Everyone who writes columns like ours of course tries to be objective. We try not to let our hometown biases color our opinions of what's going to happen. But we are all human, and having biases is a part of being human. Caring so much for a team you identify with, hoping for your team and its colors to triumph is part of what makes you human. But so is the disappointment and sorrow that follows when they let you down. And that's what emotion thousands of Rockets and James Harden fans are left with this morning: abysmal disappointment.  The atmosphere of the game when the first buzzer rang should have f...

Did anyone else get this last night? Credit:  Fake SportsCenter

  Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire      January 1st, 2016 the consensus #1 overall LB in College Football and possible #1 overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft suffered a devastating knee injury that would end up sparking one of the biggest sports injury debates of the last decade.....from, "Did you see what happened to that guy?!?! His career is over no doubt!," to "Jaylon is a Manimal bro, didn't AP teach you a damn thing?" There is no doubt amongst the masses the caliber player Jaylon Smith was before his unfortunate injury in the Fiesta Bowl, a game in which he didn't have to play in if he was trying to protect his draft stock. That speaks to the kind of teammate he is and why the guys at ND loved him in the locker room. The question that still needs to be answered is just how good is Jaylon Smith now and can he even play football. Let's take a look at twitter clip below that is more than a year old. Quick Recovery Granted he can...

San Antonio has a chance to clinch the series tonight and move on to the WCF. Leonard was fantastic leading up to his injury, he was doing it all for SA. He had 22 points, 15 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Aldridge, Mills and Danny Green each had 16 or more. Anybody who watched that game though knows the night belonged to Manu Ginobili. He showed flashes of his former self with one hell of a dunk and a clutch block to seal the game. The spurs did struggle from the arc, shooting only 11-33, but they took care of the ball committing only seven turnovers and were excellent on the glass grabbing 18 offensive rebounds. Houston should feel awful letting game 5 slip away from them. James Harden showed out with yet another triple-double but he did commit 9 turnovers. Plus, in the final five minutes of regulation and OT, he had just 4 points with 4 turnovers. Ryan Anderson had 19 points while Beverly contributed with 20. Eric Gordon was inserted into the starting lineup but only ga...

Dear Stefan Stephenson of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, I read your article regarding the "Woo" birds at the Astros game.  For those of you unfamiliar, here's Mr. Stephenson's column . I get that when you write for a newspaper like the FWST, you have to have a certain level of bias toward the home town team.  But complaining about an emerging fan engagement by Astros fans (or any fans) makes you the sports reporter equivalent to Dolores Umbridge.  It's also incredibly tacky to write about a negative fan experience of not liking what fans do because "you simply find it annoying".  From what I understand, you are not even a fan of the wave anymore.   The Texas Rangers have even tried to ban it . In all fairness, I can understand why the wave should be banned.  The wave started when most baseball teams used to play in old concrete donuts like old Busch Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, or even the Astrodome.  It was fun to start the wave and seeing it ...

The Rockets & Spurs series is exactly why we watch playoff basketball.  The teams are evenly matched, both with their superstars, and playmakers.  It's got it all: Superstars, Team Ball, Coaching Rivalries (did you know D'Antoni has NEVER won a series against Pop? Not even with the Lakers in 2013), old men, rookies, injuries, OT, two-way blowouts and nail-biters. And with what looks like the Finals result no one wants to see brewing on the horizon, it may be the best playoff basketball we see for the rest of the year (although watching IT drop 53 was pretty amazing, and the Spurs/Grizz Game 4 was legit the stuff heart attacks are made of). So what exactly did Game 5 offer? Everything. We had back and forth. We had struggles and injury to Leonard.  We had flopping fouls.   We had a 39 year old dunk like he was 19 . Clint Capela is WAY better than I ever thought he was, and played that way last night . We had the Spurs from behind go without Leonard at the end o...

The Astros beat up an abysmal Braves team last night.  The Astros logged 5 runs before Braves starting pitcher Bartolo Colon had even gotten a single out in the first inning, starting with a glorious RBI Single for Altuve , and including two homers by Carlos Correa and Carlos Beltran .  Colon tried to get the game back under control, and did in fact for a while: 13 of the next 14 batters he faced he sent down.  Maybe the Braves could get back in this - but then, Josh Reddick shattered those hopes in the 5th by crushing his 100th homer and putting the Astros up 6-0.  And although the Braves were able to put up 2 runs, they never had a chance.  The Astros just rode their batters home and finished the game up 8-3, handing the Braves their 19th loss of the season.  But who cares right?   I mean the Braves are terrible. I thought the Brandon Phillips signing was a horrible idea, but he's not doing that badly.  He and Freddie Freeman are ...

-Not the NBA, Not the NBA, Not the NBA...We talkin' bout the Big3      Ice Cube has put together a 3on3 halfcourt league with some of the NBAs biggest retired personalities: Stephen Jackson, Kenyon Martin, DeShawn Stevenson, and Allen Iverson to name a few. You can catch these legendary coaches on the sidelines as well traveling to a city near you this summer: Clyde Drexler, Gary Payton, Rich Mahone, George Gervin, Julius "Dr. J" Erving. and Rick Barry. Now I must admit that my favorite player in the NBA growing up was Allen Iverson. A.I. was not just the most visible player of the NBA but he was also one of those generational players that left his mark on the NBA far beyond his play on the court, which wasn't too shabby either. Selected 1st OVERALL in the 1996 NBA Draft at 6ft. flat, the shortest player ever drafted number 1 overall, NBA Rookie of the Year  2000-01 NBA Season MVP, shortest and lightest player to ever win at 6ft. 165lbs 17 NBA Seasons...

So I predicted IT would drop 50, and he sure did. I think I was the only person to say that he would do such a thing. Okay you're right, I never said that. I did say Wall and Beal would have to play like All Stars though, and while John Wall had a heck of a game, Bradley Beal struggled. They both were terrible from the 3-point line, combining for a 4-19 stat line behind the arc. With all that being said they still had a really good shot at winning the game!! Wall and Beal both missed game winning shots in the final seconds!! But IT was just too much  - especially down the stretch in the 4th quarter and overtime. What's interesting is that after the Celtics lost their first two games against Chicago, IT emailed game clips to Kobe Bryant. It seems Kobe gave him some advice and since then Boston has won 6 straight games. IT is averaging 28.5 points on 45.5 percent shooting with 6.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in that win streak. When the Black Mamba has advice to...

... is a win for America.

So, as a die hard Spurs fan, I've been regretting writing this post.  Game 1 was hard.  It was ugly.  It was a slap in the face at home. Do I think we can recover? Absolutely.  Do I still think we can win tonight? Of course. But do I think we have another championship in us? Eh...maybe not. Look, the truth of the matter is that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Rocket's points was from one of three places: in the paint under the rim, three pointer (a large number of them SEEMED uncontested but that's just because I'm salty about it), or from the line.  You know where they didn't get ANY? Mid-range jumpers.  So the Spurs need to do two things, and if you see these things happening when the game starts off you'll know if we have it in us to win.  If you see LaMarcus Aldridge show some spunk under the rim - if you see the MONSTER that once dropped 40 points in a playoffs game, if you see a baller come to play, a big that plays aggressive - we are on our way. ...

So it's the second round of the playoffs and we are getting closer to what everybody, at least me anyway, wants to see: The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors for the third year in a row. Can Lebron James repeat for the Land? Will Kevin Durant finally get what he came to the Bay area for, a championship? Ok ok, I'll calm down. But come on, we all know it's inevitable that these two will meet up! I guess we have to get through the second round before any of that can happen though. The Warriors take on the Jazz tonight at the Oracle Arena in Game 1 of their playoff series. Golden State hasn't played a game since April 24th, but I don't see rust being a problem tonight against the Jazz. The Jazz are a solid team, they had five double digit scorers against the Clippers. Joe Johnson seems like he's winning a small battle with father time, and Gordon Hayward continues to show why he was selected to his first ever All-Star Game appearance. However, I j...

Every time I turn on one of those myriad of cooking shows I see people who get up everyday and are excited about the opportunity to create new and exciting food, or maybe, just to remake the same food over and over and over again, but perfectly. You've got your chefs who take the morning market as an invitation for creativity.  On the other hand, you have your pit masters who try daily to perfect the art of the perfect ribs, or the masters of Japan who daily try to make you the perfect miso, or ramen, or roll of sushi.  And even though they've done it 1000x before, they don't mind.  They love it - they don't see what I see when I look at my kitchen: standing for ours, chopping incessantly, the temptation of take-out menus on the fridge.  Cooking for them is an art form. And although I don't understand their love for food, I can appreciate it.  Don't get me wrong, I love food.  Anyone who looks at me could tell I love food. But to be on my feet for 8 hours a...