Ridiculousness

Jeremy Lin is now a member of the Houston Rockets.

Again.

Officially.

And I couldn't be happier.

As a basketball fan.

As a fantasy basketball owner.

And as a guy who finds it completely impossible to root for the overrated shooting star titled Carmelo Anthony.

There’s never been a player who has accomplished less, by thinking he's more, than Lin's former teammate Carmelo Anthony.

Since joining the Association in 2003, Anthony has been the poster child for that old golf saying:

You drive for show, but you putt for dough.

Despite scoring nearly 16,000 points in the regular season, Carmelo has never been able to win the big one.

Actually he’s never been able to win the little one either.

Sure, he’s made the playoffs every year.

But considering that more than half of the league does that, that’s not really saying much.

And in every one of those years, except one, Carmelo was eliminated in the first round.

In fact, Anthony’s post-season win percentage is the lowest of any NBA player who has ever laced up the sneakers.

Well any player who has played 50 or more playoff games.

But still.

Even with that abysmal record, that hasn’t stopped NBA owners from throwing money at him.

LOTS of money at him.

In 2007, the Denver Nuggets signed Anthony to a five-year $80 million dollar deal.

Anthony rewarded the team by demanding a trade in 2010.

And then again in 2011.

In February of that year, the Nuggets finally gave in.

Shipping Anthony to New York for five guys, three draft picks and a chunk of cash.

Before the ink was dry on the deal, the Knicks rewarded Carmelo with a three-year contract extension.

Worth another $65 million.

Carmelo may not know much about winning in the NBA, but he certainly knows how to get paid.

And maybe that’s what has me so fired up about this story.

When the word came out a few days ago that Houston had offered Lin a three-year deal worth $25 million.

Everybody had an opinion.

Especially Carmelo.

When asked what he thought of the offer, Anthony called it “ridiculous.”

Ridiculous!

Really?

Generous, maybe.

Magnanimous, perhaps.

But ridiculous?

Paying a guy like Anthony who has a whopping 17 playoff wins over nine seasons nearly $22 million a year.

That’s ridiculous.

Paying the most marketable NBA player since Michael Jordan a third of that.

That’s plain brilliant.

The fact that the Knicks didn’t match the Lin offer, or perhaps couldn’t match the offer.

Because they had too much cash locked up in Anthony’s monster contract.

Well, that’s nobody’s fault but the Knicks.

If anything is ridiculous about this situation, it’s the fact that  the Knicks were sitting on a goldmine.

And they flushed it down the sewer.

New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia.

And Jeremy Lin is Chinese.

Holy Gene Rayburn Batman.

We have a match.

Unfortunately the Knicks took that perfect match and lit their franchise on fire.

Don’t blame Jeremy Lin for signing the best deal he could.

And don’t blame the Rockets for giving it to him.

Even if Houston had no idea what they had in Lin when they released him just eight months ago.

Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted as much back in February:

Daryl Morey ‏@dmorey

@jlin7 Did not know he was this good.  Anyone who says they knew misleading U 

I guess he ran out of characters.

But the point was well taken.

Jeremy Lin came out of nowhere.

Well, he came out of Harvard.

Which in the NBA, is out of nowhere.

And the fact that he’s an Asian point guard.

Well, that really stacked the odds against him.

But during the 25 starts he made with the Knicks this past season, Lin showed that he can really play in this league.

Like February 4th.

When he scored 25 points off the bench to beat the Nets.

Or February 6th.

When he had 28 points and eight assists to beat the Jazz.

Or February 8th.

When he had 23 and 10 in a win against Washington.

Or February 10.

When he dropped 38 on Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Or February 11.

When he put up 20 and eight against Minnesota.

Or February 14.

When he had 27 and 11 in Toronto, including a buzzer-beating three-point shot to win it.

Or February 15.

When he put up a career-high 13 assists to beat Sacramento.

Seven straight wins.

Six of which were without Anthony.

Who was nursing a “lingering groin injury.”

And when Anthony did come back.

The team lost eight out of 10.

Including six straight at one point.

Coincidence.

I think not.

Now only time will tell if Jeremy Lin can recapture the magic that swept through New York five months ago.

The Linsanity, if you will.

But the bottom line for me is that Jeremy Lin is everything that is right about sports.

While Carmelo Anthony is everything that is wrong.

And anybody who says anything different, is just plain ridiculous.

Jurassic Pork

Syracuse, New York.

The home of Carmelo Anthony.

Donovan McNabb.

And really really fat people.

Nothing against fat people.

Or Syracuse, New York.

But my son and I have spent the last 12 hours in this town.

And I feel like Calista Flockhart.

I haven’t seen this many fat people since Roseanne’s sitcom went off the air.

Now before the mayor of Syracuse shuts down my blog.

Let me say that there were plenty of fat people in Buffalo too.

It is certainly possible that the fat factor is a little off kilter because of where we’ve been hanging out.

Last night it was Buffalo Wings.

In Buffalo.

Tonight it was BBQ in Syracuse.

Courtesy of Adam Richman.

As I built our itinerary for this trip, I noticed we had a hole on Thursday night.

Nothing to do.

I searched for a game.

Or a concert.

Or a play.

And it was strike 1, 2 and 3.

So I had to go to my ace in the hole.

Food.

Specifically, Man vs Food.

Fortunately for me, the Travel Channel show made a stop in Syracuse last June.

At the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

Problem solved.

I called the restaurant to see if they take reservations.

Which they don’t.

And to see if they take 12-year olds.

Which they do.

We headed over there at around 5p.

And barely beat the dinner rush.

By the time we left two hours later, there were at least two dozen people waiting for a table.

But that was their problem.

Not mine.

My problem was how I was going to fit all this food into my belly.

We started off with the wings.

Syracuse Wings.

Smoked, not fried.

Six of them.

In something they call “Wango Tango” sauce.

It was supposed to be hot.

But it really wasn’t.

Tasty, yes.

Hot, no.

But on the table there were open bottles of all four of their sauces.

Add as you wish.

From the “mild” Sensuous Slathering Sauce.

To the hottest of the hot.

Devil’s Duel Pepper Sauce.

Which wasn’t really that hot either.

But they were all good.

Enough with the undercard.

The reason we were there was simple...

THE PORK-SKET SANDWICH.

It is defined as “Brisket layered with cheese & jalapenos.  Topped with pulled pork and coleslaw.”

They could’ve just called it Heaven.

That’s the sandwich Adam Richman inhaled when he shot the show there.

I can understand how a Jew could be attracted to the brisket.

But pork Adam?

Tssk, tssk.

Of course that didn’t stop me either.

I think I took my first bite before the waitress even lowered the plate to the table.

At one point the manager came over to see how everything was going.

She seemed genuinely impressed (or shocked) that I was eating the sandwich with two hands.

“Most people eat it with a knife and fork.”

She learned quickly that I’m not like most people.

I loved the combination of meat and slaw.

I didn’t taste the pulled pork.

But I sure did enjoy it.

I’m not sure what kind of cheese that was.

But it was perfect.

And the jalapenos.

Loved them.

I know I was hungry.

But I wiped that thing out faster than you can say triple bypass.

In between bites I asked questions about the Man vs. Food shoot at the restaurant.

I had to gather some facts for the blog.

I was told that Richman was 6-foot-2 in person.

“And very good looking.”

I was also told that before the show they used to sell about 10 Pork-Sket Sandwiches per week.

Now they sell 100 a day.

At $15 a piece.

That’s an increase of $10,350 per week.

Now you’re speaking the Jewish language.

While I was wiping out the Pork-Sket -- dumb name by the way --- my son was enjoying the ribs.

The pork ribs, of course.

The picture on their website might be the greatest ever picture of ribs.

But up close and in person, they are even better.

Fall off the bone.

Smoked like a fine pack of Marlboro.

Fantastic.

At the end of the meal, the waitress asked if I was interested in dessert.

I tried prying my mouth open to say no.

But I just shook my head instead.

I came.

I saw.

I got conquered.