a hunger for perfection

As Julie Bosman writes in the N.Y. Times:

This year Papa John's has promised that if anyone correctly predicts all 63 tournament games, the pizza company will give away one million pizzas, to be divided equally among all entrants on the Sporting News Web site. (The winner also receives a lifetime subscription to The Sporting News magazine.)

If the numbers in my post yesterday are correct, one million pizzas doesn't quite stack up, considering the odds of winning. When they're offering a billion pizzas, let me know.

As a side note, how exactly does Papa John's plan to deliver this award? Who could eat that much pizza? Is this award transferrable somehow? Can the winner donate the pies to the Red Cross for use in worldwide relief efforts?

Meanwhile, things with the Knicks have somehow managed to go even further downhill. Here's Stephon Marbury on Larry Brown:

"He's basically speaking on things that he's done. I think the people in New York want to know what he's going to do, as far as us winning. What happened in the past is in the past."

"I'm no longer going to allow him to say things about me and not say anything back. I allowed him to drag me the first three or four months in the paper. And I didn't say one word. I just sat back and just took it. But I'm not taking it no more. So if something's going to be said, I'm going to defend myself. My mother taught me that. Somebody hits, you hit them back."

Brown fired back:

"I'll take full responsibility for us winning 17 games and losing 45. You're the best guard in the league, and the team's 17-45 — yeah, it's the coach's fault."

OK, look, Marbury (or "Starbury," as he sometimes calls himself) is an idiot. Brown obviously has a track records that demands respect and credibility, and Marbury doesn't; he's been a pain in the ass everywhere he's gone. Marbury is not going to win this war in the media, and will be increasingly alienated from his few remaining fans. The Knicks should do everything they can to trade him this offseason, and I'm sure they will—though moving Stephon's $60 million contract may be about as likely as Marbury and Brown vacationing together this summer.

But as much as I blame Marbury... it bothers me that the media has essentially given Brown a free pass here. Why can't Brown take the high road and sit down with Marbury and clear the air? Yes, Marbury is a spoiled and deluded who thinks the world revolves around him, but shouldn't Brown be above that? Why is he firing back through the media, when there are quieter and more effective ways of dealing with this type of situation?

Imagine for a second that Gary Sheffield came out and criticized Joe Torre to the media after the game. Is there any chance at all that A) Torre would fire back at Sheffield to the press, and B) this wouldn't be resolved within a day or two, after a closed-door meeting between Sheffield and Torre? Neither of those things would ever happen, because Torre would always take the high road, and do everything he could to cool down the story while attempting to resolve the situation with his player.

And about that 17-45 record (now 18-45, after a win last night) Brown mentioned. Maybe it doesn't ALL fall on the coach's shoulders, but if Larry Brown was anyone else, wouldn't there be more rumblings about him losing his job by now? It's a coach's job to take what he has and shape it into a winning formula. Coaching the Knicks this season wasn't going to be easy for anyone, but honestly, it's hard to see this season as anything but a worst case scenario. Before the season, there was skepticism toward the team, but enough talent on hand that many observers thought they had a decent chance at a .500 record and a playoff berth.

Much of that somewhat sunny forecast was because Brown was here, and things were looking up. Maybe we all gave Brown too much credit.