Sports

You had to know that in this day an age, nothing can truly be hidden from the public. Just a little over two weeks after the news broke of the incident, both TMZ and eBaum Nation have the video.

Between the two sites, eBaum’s video quality is a lot better (as an fyi, the dunk occurs around 30 second mark) than TMZ’s, but the verdict should be obviously for those of you who check out the video: overrated.

In all honesty, the dunk wasn’t that impressive. If LeBron did not make an attempt to block the dunk like most guys would have done in that situation (an after camp pick-up game), this would have been a non-story. As Crawford put it, “I don’t think he thought I was going to dunk it, so he jumped late.”

Anyways, for those of you who have wondered what NIKE has been hiding from the public, check out the video. But again, I caution you to keep your expectations pretty low.

As many/ probably all of you know by now, the Braves have traded Jeff Francoeur to of all teams, the NY Mets for 30-year old Ryan Church last Friday. With that move, the Braves ended Jeff’s 4-year stay with the Braves that in a way for many fans feels like seven when you think back to June of 2002 when the Braves drafted him in the 1st Round (23rd overall) of the MLB Draft that year.

The Lilburn, GA native and Parkview High school two-sport star excited Braves fans across the state when he turned down the chance to play football and baseball at Clemson to sign with the Braves. Francoeur, like most prospects took plenty of time to develop, but the Francoeur hype steadily began to build each and every year as he made his way through the minor leagues. Within two years, he was considered to be the best prospect in the Braves system according to Baseball America.

In 2005 he was supposed to play in the MLB Futures Game, an All-star game between the best and brightest minor league baseball players, but ended up getting called up to “the Show” beforehand. On July 7th, 2005, in the 2nd game of a double header against the Cubs, starting in RF Francoeur infamously hit a 3-run HR to CF for his first major league hit in the bottom of the eighth inning. Francoeur finished the season batting .300 in 67 games, with 14 HR and 44 RBIs.

Even more remarkable that year was his 13 OF assists, which ranked 3rd overall in all of baseball despite the fact that he played less than half of the season. He finished 3rd in the NL Rookie of the Year Award voting playing in just 67 games and despite the fact that the Braves got knocked out of the NLCS ( by the eventually World Series-bound Houston Astros in 4 games) for the 4th straight year, with the 21-year old Francoeur in the fold hope was strong that he could lead the Braves to bigger and better things.

In 2006, Francoeur hit .260 with 29 HR 103 RBI and became just the 4th Brave to play in all 162 games (Felix Millan, Dale Murphy and Andruw Jones are the only others to do so by the way). The following year, Francoeur won his first Gold Glove with 19 OF assists and had a steady season offensively by hitting .293 with 19 HR and 105 RBIs.

At 23 years old, things seemed like they could not be any better for Francoeur and for Braves fans they thought that they were in the midst of seeing another young Braves prospect and local kid shine before their eyes…amazingly that vision was simply a mirage.

Looking back now, it is amazing to think that the beginning of the end of Francoeur’s tenure with the Braves began just 17 months ago. In 2008, Francoeur looked absolutely lost at the plate hitting .239 with 11 HR and 71 RBIs. The low-point came on July 4th when management sent Jeff down to Double A Mississippi to get his swing back on track. Unfortunately, the brief stint (just three days) did not work.

Ultimately the slump has continued through the first half of this season and it had gotten to the point where Braves management said enough is enough. This is  truly a shocking decision to essentially give up on a 25-year old who has yet to reach the prime of his career, but in the end the Braves management felt it was the right thing for the ball club… and shockingly, that decision might have been the right one.

While Ryan Church certainly does not have the potential of Francoeur, he has certainly been the better player for the past year and a half and should marginally improve the Braves inept offense (just 22nd out of 30 teams in runs scored). Still, certainly many Braves fans are probably wishing that things did not have to end like this for the local icon and I think all of us are looking forward to seeing what happens next for both Francoeur and Church from this point onward.

Jamal Crawford, one of the newest Hawks

Last week, it was a busy, but productive week for the Atlanta Hawks. First, they boosted their offense by trading guards Acie Law and Speedy Claxton to the Golden State Warriors for 29-year old PG Jamal Crawford.

This move is the ultimate win-win for the Hawks. With just two years left on his contract (making $9.36 million this year and $10 million the following year) and still in his prime, Crawford (who averaged 19.7 pts last year and 15.2 in his career) should boost the Hawks offense even more so than Bibby did at the PG position.

While some have concerns about Crawford’s  selfishness and defensive play (or lack thereof), when you consider the fact that Crawford had just 0.6 fewer assists per game than Mike Bibby last year (4.4 vs. 5.0) and that over the course of their careers, on average Crawford has taken fewer shots per game than Bibby (13.2 vs. 13.8), the Hawks offensively should be fine. Not to mention, it’s not like Bibby is considered to be a stud defender either.

There is of course the chance that the Hawks bring back Bibby, though it will all depend of course on Bibby’s contract demands in terms of both years and salary per year. Bibby, who turned 31 in May, is not getting any younger and the last thing the Hawks want to do is sign a past-his prime PG to a long-term deal. Only time will tell how this plays out.

Even if Crawford is for some reason unable to give the Hawks any production, the fact of the matter is that essentially did not give up anything for him. Claxton played in just 2 games for the Hawks last season and only 44 games overall during his three-year, constantly injured tenure with the team, while Law played in just 55 games this past year averaging 2.9 pts and 1.6 assists in 10.2 minutes per game.  And while you cannot call any 24-year old a bust, clearly the Hawks have not been too impressed with Law’s progress since drafting him 11th overall two years ago.

The move was clearly a salary dump for the Warriors as both Claxton (making nearly $5.21 million) and Law (making a little over $2.2 million) will be free agents at the end of next season.

Then at the Draft, the Hawks spent their first round pick (#19 overall) on Wake Forrest PG James Teague. The sophomore was very productive in college (18.8 pts, 3.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game) and will basically be the heir apparent to Acie Law. With plenty of upside, Teague was a great pick at #19.

Their 2nd-rounder (#49 overall), Sergiy Gladyr, is a bit of a wild card.  Gladyr, a 6′ 5” 190 lb SG from Ukraine is certainly an unknown commodity to the public due to playing overseas his entire career, but from what I have read the 20-year old in a few years could develop into a nice player.

With numerous free agents (Mike Bibby, Zaza Pachulia and Flip Murray) along with Marvin Williams being a key restricted free agent, the Hawks have a lot of unknown answers in regards to their roster. However, if GM Rick Sund can be creative like he was last week in orchestrating the Crawford trade, the Hawks should be fine.

Nonetheless, it should definitely be a very interesting offseason for the Atlanta Hawks the rest of the way.