Your Monday Morning Roundup

I’m gonna go with an alternate take on this: I think this was a veteran move by Warren Beatty. He knew something was amiss when he looked at the card, so he turned it over to Faye Dunaway and let her become the meme. His stunned look following the kerfuffle may have undone whatever shrapnel he managed to avoid initially, but letting Dunaway go down in flames was a savage move.

Michael Smerconish explains it perfect:

Of course, if you’re a lunatic who doesn’t believe in dinosaurs, you might think this was all intentional:

I’m as cynical as they come, but there is no way that the Academy, the stuffiest organization around – one that applauds contrived bubblespeak like Viola Davis saying “we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life,” as if doctors, researchers, journalists, social workers, philanthropists, firemen, and others are in it for just the bottom line – would ever dare mess with its literal biggest announcement. Best sound in a comedy or children’s film? Sure. But not Best Picture. Me thinks Ike reads a bit too much InfoWars, which would be highly concerning for someone with unfettered access to public airwaves for four hours per day if not for our president doing the same thing.

This photo is great:

Where you at, Steve?

 

Bob Cooney writes that Jahlil Okafor can turn into a great player:

But it’s not a lost cause for the organization or Okafor right now. If you look hard, you can see glimpses of commendable defense, or a desire to rebound. Glimpses aren’t enough, of course. And it is incumbent upon Okafor, and would be hugely beneficial to the Sixers organization, for him to make that the norm. And for all who say he can’t or won’t accept the challenge, maybe you’re right. But the game has always come so easily to him that you get the feeling that if Okafor commits to improving those areas, sizable improvement could be gained.

That’s fair… if Okafor’s commitment to defend and rebound weren’t so easily disprovable, like in this video posted to the Sixers 24-7 Facebook group over the weekend by Rick:

As Jim said, “That’s me playing pickup.”

Meanwhile, Cooney’s colleague, Keith Pompey, gives this SMOLDERING HOT take:

Thanks, Keith.

 

Donald Trump is an animal:

 

Nothing like groping during the Star Spangled Banner. I love how they stopped when it was over. Why stop?

 

Despite losing to Butler last week, Villanova, which smashed Creighton on Saturday, still remains a number one seed in both Bracketology and Dick Jerardi’s bracket, and most others. From Jerardi:

If these are the four No. 1 seeds on March 12, Villanova potentially is in a battle with UNC for ranking among those seeds. The higher-rated by the committee between them likely will get New York, the lower Memphis. I think Villanova is ahead at the moment.

Watch this space. Not that Villanova can’t win elsewhere – remember they won the National Championship last year despite not getting to play the regionals in Philly – but playing at Madison Square Garden would essentially be home games for Nova, especially when you assume that they’ll likely play three Big East Tournament games there, thus giving them the potential to play five out of seven – SEVEN! – games at MSG. From a familiarity standpoint alone, MSG might represent even more of a home court advantage than the Wells Fargo Center. And I want to go to there.

 

Injured Creighton guard Maurice Watson turned himself in yesterday for alleged sexual assault.

 

This just doesn’t look right:

 

This is some “Like Mike” shit:

 

This is probably the slowest inside the park home run you’ll ever see:

 

Sorry, vandalized headstones, you got bumped:

 

Lonzo Ball’s dad is quickly becoming his son’s biggest draft weakness.

 

Here’s your new Penn State party bus.

 

Tim Tebow will be rolling up at Spring Training today, mocking the whole system in the face of hardworking Spring Training participants that have come before him like Billy Crystal and Garth Brooks.

 

Inarguable:

 

Andrew Bogut will likely join the Cavs after the Sixers buy him out, because Cleveland is just collecting players at this point.

 

Here are a lot of quotes about how hard of a worker Ben Simmons is to hold you over until he plays in 8 months.

 

A Chicago Sun Times columnist compares the Sixers to the Cubs. Sure.

 

Matt Klentak wants the Phillies to be great:

“I grew up near Boston, and there are a lot of parallels between the fan bases,” says Klentak. “I think Phillies fans want to see progress.” He’s sporting a checked shirt and a powder blue Phillies windbreaker as he reclines on a navy couch in the corner of his office. “We’ve tried to be very up-front with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

He comes off as clear-eyed and realistic, traits that were evident back at Dartmouth, where he played shortstop and earned his economics degree. “When I was a junior, I vividly remember starting to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to play at a professional level,” he tells me. “I was with my dad, and we were talking about what comes after college if I’m not going to be able to play.”

So he started scribbling down ideas: things he liked, things he didn’t, separated into columns. “The business of baseball was the broad conclusion,” he says. He sent letters and emails out into that world, hoping someone would bite. In the fall of 2002, Klentak got a phone call from Theo Epstein, who at age 28 had just been named the new general manager of the Boston Red Sox. (Within a few years, Epstein would end the team’s 86-year World Series title drought. Soon, teams across the league wanted young, analytical G.M.’s to call their own.) Epstein didn’t have a job for Klentak, but he helped him form connections that led to an internship with the Colorado Rockies.

 

Finders keepers?

 

Podcast:

Airing of Grievances with Josh Innes:

The Stepover Episode 25– discussing the trade deadline:

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