"Most people would not believe this..."

Kevin Johnson has enjoyed a high profile post-NBA career with his recent stint as mayor of Sacramento. In fact, it's safe to say he's completely left his playing days behind him.

As told to the Kevin Calabro Show, 710 AM in Seattle:

"The last time I shot a basketball was on my 40th birthday and that was about 4 years ago. That's the only day I've shot a basketball in the 10 years since I retired. I do not play on the side. I work out. I lift. I get up early in the morning and bike and do all those sorts of things.

When I walked away from the game of basketball I wanted to make a clean break. I'm starting to get that bug and that itch of wanting to go shoot some hoops so at some point I'll pick it up and start playing again leisurely."

That time almost came sooner when visiting the White House after Barack Obama took office.

"When I was running for mayor in the city of Sacramento, we had a conversation. One time I was at the White House talking to the President and the media was all around us and the media essentially said to the President, 'Are you going to take Kevin Johnson on in basketball?'

And the President got very serious and he said, 'I know my limitations.'

I respected that because you know if he calls me out of retirement I've gotta skunk him I can't be nice because he's the President. The integrity of the game is at stake."

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"The craziest thing I saw was probably a small bomb being thrown at a bench."...

Josh Childress is returning to the States after a two year stint in Greece with Olympiacos and he's lucky to still have all his fingers from the way he describes his experience. Visiting with Bickley and MJ on AM 910 in Phoenix, Childress describes the frequent "bombings.":

"It happened all the time but you had to get used to it. It would range from M80's to, I don't know what's the next step above those but, I'd probably say 3 or 4 or 5 M80's put together."

"They'd be throwing them at the opposing team's bench. When we were in other arenas, they'd throw it at our bench."

"One rule that my teammate told me is never pick anything up. He said that one time I guess someone threw what looked like a normal paper towel onto the floor, just a crumpled up piece of paper towel. And the trainer went to pick it up and it blew his finger off."

"Anytime anything like that happened, I made sure I got to safety."

If fingers are being blown off inside arenas, I'm not quite sure where you could consider yourself "safe." Which might be one of the reasons why he finds himself in Phoenix now rather than Athens.

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It's not personal, Uncle Sam. It's just soccer...

You already knew that Steve Nash has overcome adversity in life having grown up in Canada but now the recessive trait is expressing itself in South Africa. Nash not only pledges allegiance to the Maple Leaf, he prefers St. George's Cross over the Stars and Stripes as well.

Yeah, the Phoenix Suns point guard is in Johannesburg rooting for England, as told to the Dan Patrick Show:

"My family's all English so I've been an England fan my whole life. But I really want to see the U.S. do well and see people back home excited about the sport so I'm rooting them on from this point forward."

Who would he root for if England and the U.S. played again in the knockout round?

"I'm pulling for England. I'm not one of these fans who's two-faced and tell the American audience that I really care about their team but, no, I do care. I want them to do well but I could never pull for them over England."

To be fair, my family's roots can be traced back to Russia so I have no rooting interest in this World Cup.

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What starts with an e-mail from Tim Donaghy requesting to come back on the Dan Patrick radio show almost breaks out into a war...

Patrick agrees to have Donaghy back on his show and the fun happens shortly thereafter:

Donaghy: I saw the blueprint for what I discuss in the book. I just was hoping to again talk with you and kind of reverse the roles a little bit and ask you a question. What's a logical explanation in this situation for what goes on in these games, in these situations, when you have a bottom line of an organization that loses $400 million and each series that gets extended means several million dollars to the organization?

And I just find that it's strange that this is allowed to continue to occur.

Patrick asks if officials are instructed to favor a certain team.

Donaghy: I'm not saying "instructed" but I'm saying they're programmed and trained to look for certain things and that's what puts these teams at an advantage or disadvantage and I think it's very obvious in these last two games that this has taken place. And I think that you can see the frustration on Phil Jackson's face because he knows its taken place. And you can see the frustration on Rasheed Wallace's face and the Boston Celtics that whenever there's a call that's marginal or flat out wrong, it's going in favor of the team that's down in the series.

Patrick: So Phoenix wins tonight, right?

Donaghy: I'm not saying it's a definite thing but when they're down 2-0 or 3-1, they're going to get the benefit of the calls. And I will say, yes, I will see Phoenix getting the benefit of the calls tonight in that game. Absolutely I will. And that's what happened last night.

Okay, okay, you've likely heard all of this before out of Donaghy. Referees have pregame meetings where they're instructed to look for things that would favor the team who is currently at a disadvantage in the series.

But, coming up next, things get personal.

Donaghy: You look at Jameer Nelson who is just totally out of control and falls down and is getting the benefit of calls and it's just, to me, comical that somebody like yourself seems not to see this and seems to protect the NBA.

Patrick: Tim, why are you coming back at me? I gave you an opportunity last time you were on. Did you regroup or have somebody say, 'You know what? He was ripping you,' or something?

Donaghy: I did. I did and I'm going to be honest with you, I did have some people come to me and say you kind of came after me and ripped me a little bit. And I want to apologize if I come across as disrespectful but it just seemed like you kind of shied toward protecting the NBA a little bit.

Then both sides decide to "pull back the curtain" on their dealings with each other behind the scenes.

Patrick: Tim, full disclosure, did you say I treated you fairly when you hung up the phone with me when you called back?

Donaghy: Absolutely, I did.

Patrick: Okay then don't listen to somebody else. I treated you fairly. I gave you an opportunity to explain your book. I have questions about the book, Tim. If I'm protecting the league, why would I have you on in the first place?

Donaghy: Dan, you told me you didn't read the whole book.

Patrick: I told you that! I asked you questions for you to tell me what was in the book.

Donaghy: So you didn't read the whole thing.

Patrick: I just said I didn't.

The circular arguing continues until Patrick runs out of time and decides to carry it over to the next segment. But not before taking a shot at Donaghy's man region.

Patrick: If you want to talk to whoever your friends are who said I ganged up on you, go ahead.

Donaghy: I don't need any help, Dan, but I appreciate the thought.

Patrick brings Donaghy back. Points made during the previous segment are largely regurgitated. Eventually the segment descends into an argument over why it took Donaghy so long to come on the show during his initial book selling media tour. Patrick claims its because Donaghy was afraid he wasn't going to be treated fairly. Donaghy claims it was months before he finally received word that Patrick would have him on... and so on and so forth.

The only aspect of the interview that isn't properly resolved is Donaghy's assertion that Patrick was "covering up for the league." When challenging an interview subject on their particular point of view, the job of a good interviewer, it can sometimes come across that the interviewer is an advocate for the other side. Which is not always the case. And likely not the case with Patrick.

That's how Patrick should have responded. Instead he says that if he was "covering up for the league" he wouldn't have Donaghy on in the first place. A very weak retort.

If he's theoretically a skilled "NBA advocate" he'd be more effective at doing the league's "bidding" by confronting and diminishing Donaghy's point of view rather than just ignoring him.

Either way, they eventually kiss and make up at the end.

Classic radio.

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Former NBA player and current Phoenix Suns analyst... doesn't use any qualifiers when labeling Derek Fisher as a basketball player. Although he wasn't asked to expound on his opinion either.

As told to the 2 Live Stews on Sporting News Radio, Eddie Johnson was describing the evolution of Robin Lopez's game when his thoughts turned to Fisher:

"I think Robin has developed tremendously well. When he first came in, couldn't shoot free throws. Now he's a bona fide free throw shooter and that tells me a lot. Jump shot from 15 (feet) is pretty convincing. I think he's evolving and he has a nastiness about him, as you saw when he popped Fisher on the head which Fisher deserves. Everybody needs to pop Fisher every now and then. I love Derek Fisher, but he is one of the dirtiest players in the league, by far. By far. But I'm glad he popped him."

Instead of any sort of follow up, the Stews just kept rolling with the next in their set of questions.

Perhaps they'll revisit the issue next time. Salt Lake City silk screeners will remain on standby.

Here's video of Lopez's "elbow brush" from Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals that briefly set Fisher off.

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How can bloggers be expected to follow basic rules of giving proper credit to a source of information when ESPN overtly... refuses to.

It's petty. It's childish. It's an improper way to do business at a newspaper, radio, television, or internet outlet. Yet the great sports gatekeeper in the sky refuses to act in a way any first year journalism student knows how to.

In reporting the story of Mark Cuban and Steve Kerr receiving fines from the NBA for separate comments made about LeBron James and his impending free agency, ESPN.com fully credits the source of Cuban's comments as having come from a CNNMoney.com interview.

While the ESPN story goes on to fully quote what Kerr said, the source itself is only named as "a radio show." It is no coincidence that the "radio show" not given real credit for the quotes that ESPN freely uses is "The Dan Patrick Radio Show." The same Dan Patrick who is a former employee at ESPN who decided to take his brand to greener pastures a couple of years ago.

Perhaps some readers wouldn't view this as a substantial issue but it strikes at the heart of journalistic integrity. That an ESPN employee would be compelled to withhold a source of information because of the company's personal bias against an individual is damning. ESPN is explicitly not supposed to be in the business of expressing personal biases in its news coverage unless it's interested in fully abandoning any premise of a proper news gathering entity existing on its Bristol campus.

The greater idea being that if ESPN is willing to do something like this on a story of little consequence, in the grander scheme how can a consumer ever be sure when the company isn't compromising its ethics.

And for what? Because the billion dollar multi-platform behemoth feels threatened by a 3 hour radio show?

I doubt the story's author, Jeff Caplan, came to this conclusion on his own but he should be embarrassed that his name is on an article his employers have used to forward a personal agenda.

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The NBA isn't happy to hear that Tim Donaghy's picking games. So he keeps picking them...

If you hear that Tim Donaghy is going to be a guest on a sports talk radio show, you should probably listen. Make sure you're near a shower for when it's over, but definitely listen.

Donaghy tells WAXY-AM 790 in Miami that the NBA doesn't like his recent interviews:

"I got a call from a former FBI agent and I got a call from people associated with the parole department that the NBA was quite unhappy with the fact that I was picking games and, more importantly, I was picking them correctly. They (the NBA) was wondering if it was a violation of my parole. And I was told basically that they didn't feel it was a good idea that I was on the radio doing this."

He said he'd do his best to avoid making picks... and then made some picks.

When told the Magic were 9 and a half point favorites over the Hawks in Game 2?

"Atlanta is way overmatched."

He predicted Cleveland would "prevail" in their series with the Celtics. Not exactly a stretch even though Boston stole home court advantage.

He thinks the Spurs will win Game 3 but the Suns will take the series in 6 or 7. Again, not a stretch with Phoenix up 2-0.

He then picked the Jazz to win Game 3 against the Lakers but then put part of the outcome on the officiating crew.

"There's some officials that basically get intimidated by a strong crowd like they have in Utah. They shy away from making that tough call against the home team so it depends on who's refereeing that game as to whether somebody would bow down to the crowd or somebody would not be intimidated."

Who is "weak?"

"I don't necessarily think it's any secret there's somebody like a Bob Delaney I believe is a weak referee that bows down to crowds and coaches that are all over him. It's no secret that Jerry Sloan is a tough coach and he's all over the referees night in and night out, more so at home to get the crowd into it so it really all depends. Referees like Sean Corbin or Tony Brothers, I think they bow down to the coaches and to the home crowd."

The officials for each game aren't publicly released until gameday. There are websites that keep track of "homer stats" for referees, mostly for betting purposes. You can peruse the numbers and decide if any biases are exposed or not but it is interesting when you consider the referees' names Donaghy decides to point out.

According to at least one site, Delaney's games have played right down the middle this year against the spread. The home team's record being 31-31-3 ATS.

And no road team has won more times against the spread this year than when Tony Brothers is on the floor. The home team has managed just a 21-49-2 record when he's at the game.

While numbers may not always back up his claims and his motive may simply be to make more money off of his book, it's hard to stop listening to this historically unique voice in American sports. The "rogue official" who became a jailbird, served his time, and now won't stop singing.

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