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Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. Justin Morneau Authentic . This week, they discuss standout moments from the NHL and NBA Drafts, the Coyotes speaking frankly and FIFAs famous foam. Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star: My thumb is up to the NBA. Heres why. The NBA draft is a show about possibilities, and thats fun. Then, Thursday night, midway through the first round, Adam Silver stopped the proceedings to tell a story about a prospect named Isaiah Austin, whose career ended last week after he was diagnosed with a disease called Marfan Syndrome. Then Silver stepped up to make Austin a ceremonial pick on behalf of the entire Association. They took a moment about the cruel end of possibility, and the NBA made it beautiful. Best moment in draft history, hands down. Steve Simmons, Sun Media: My thumb is up to Don Maloney, general manager of the newly named Arizona Coyotes - and yeah, that sounds weird - for his unusual honesty in explaining why the club has chosen to buy out top-line centre, Mike Ribeiro. Normally youd get a little “blah blah blah” from an NHL GM on why a player was being let go. But Maloney was more than clear here: he said the team didnt want to put up with Ribeiros behavioral issues, could not tolerate them going forward and could not have him part of the team anymore. The Coyotes, who couldnt afford lunch a year or two ago let alone buying someone out, will be paying Ribeiro $2 million a year for the next six years just to go away. Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is up to one of the great sporting advances of the past decade. Baseballs expanded replay? Advanced stats? Heck, no. Im talking about the so-called felony foam world cup referees have been spraying on the field to mark the spot for free kicks and, more importantly, delineate where defenders can set their wall. This low-tech marvel, which looks like shaving cream and dissipates in a minute, eliminates time wasting and the inevitable cheating by defenders who try to creep closer to the spot. While baseball needed a replay room in New York, FIFA found an inexpensive way to literally lay down the law. The gimmick belongs in the sports hall of foam. Sorry. Dave Naylor, TSN: My thumb is up to the sons of athletes who chose their own path to make a name for themselves. Im refering to the selection of Elfrid Payton Jr. in this weeks NBA Draft, going 10th overall to the Philadelphia 76ers. Payton is the son of CFL Hall-of-Famer Elfrid Payton - better known as SWAC to some - who played for five CFL teams including Baltimore, Montreal and Winnipeg. Like recent NHL draft picks Darnell Nurse and Seth Jones - whose fathers played in the CFL and NBA respectively - Payton put his good athletic genes to use in another sport. Its always a nice story to see a young athlete follow in his fathers footsteps. But its a little more interesting to see them go their own way. Chris Young White Jersey . -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are making a case for saving coach Greg Schianos job with a strong second-half turnaround. Paul Molitor Authentic . - Phil Macks penalty kick with no time remaining completed a remarkable comeback Sunday as Canada defeated Samoa 22-19 to finish third at the USA Sevens — its best ever finish at an IRB Sevens rugby event.LAPEENRANTA, Finland - Canadian head coach Kevin Dineen knew it would be a stiff challenge to get his team back on track after a crushing semifinal loss at the world under-18 hockey championship. His team rose to the occasion Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Sweden in the bronze-medal game. "The sting from yesterday is not something we hid from or pretend didnt happen," Dineen said. "We accepted it and moved on. I think we take satisfaction that we worked hard and that things worked out today." A day earlier, Canada erased a three-goal deficit before dropping a 4-3 overtime decision to the Czech Republic. The loss prevented the 2013 champions from returning to the gold-medal game. Determined to come home with a medal, the Canadians started off slowly Sunday before finding their form in the third-place game. Brendan Perlini, Lawson Crouse and Travis Konecny scored and goalie Mason McDonald made 38 saves. "We were not going to miss an opportunity to represent our country well," Dineen said. "The unity that this group has shown to come together in this short little timeframe, I think there was a lot of encouragement within our group and a lot of very quick chemistry that made yessterday very disappointing. Chris Young Authentic. "But even so, I think we got great satisfaction from todays win." Swedens Henrik Tornqvist opened the scoring with a short-handed goal midway through the first period. Perlini answered with a power-play goal at the 17:02 mark. Crouse put Canada ahead at 11:57 of the second period and Konecny provided an insurance goal with less than five minutes to play in the third. "Weve spent five weeks together and weve done a lot of work," Dineen said. "Things didnt end the way we wanted to but on the flip side of that, that time could come down to the game today. They played extremely hard. "Theres one thing that we certainly wont fault them (for) — we had great effort throughout this whole tournament." Linus Soderstrom made 23 saves as Sweden settled for a fourth-place finish. "There was no guarantee how it was going to end," Dineen said. "But in saying that, I think we all walk out of here — and I hope the boys do as well — (feeling) that theyre a little wiser about the game and a little better for the experience." The United States won gold later in the day with a 5-2 victory over the Czechs. cheap jerseys from china cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
