Who's Afraid of the IRA? And Other Friday Foolishness

If Ira Newble truly wants to find a team that would offer more playing time, he holds a player option on his contract for the 2007-08 season. But agent Steve Kauffman isn't going to let him walk away from a $3.4 million contract since he'd be a minimum-salary player on the open market. Despite his recent upsurge, Newble probably isn't going to get a lot of minutes since he plays the same position as James. Willoughby News-Herald

If the Notorious IRA wants to get paid more than 3.4 million dollars for his services, he better learn to rap. 'Cause he sure as shit isn't gonna get paid that much to play basketball.

Steve Francis told several NBA players of the buyout talks and that he was hoping to sign with Houston, where he lives during the offseason.
New York Daily News

Yeah, and Superman wants to re-sign with the planet Krypton, but that shit's been blown up for years...

Reserve center Scot Pollard told the team he regretted looking into a TV camera during a recent game and saying, ``Hey kids, do drugs.'' Pollard was sitting on the bench in street clothes when he made the remark during a 20-second timeout in Sunday's game against the Indiana Pacers. ``It was a bad joke,'' Pollard said in Thursday editions of the Plain Dealer. ``That's all it boils down to. There are a number of things people could say about it, but it just turned out it was a bad joke. Obviously, I don't believe that.'' Akron Beacon Journal

Obviously.

The Nets' Antoine Wright isn't backtracking about slams he put on his college "education" at Texas A&M. But he says he aimed his controversial comments at all colleges, not just A&M. "I don't regret what I said, but I regret doing the interview," said Wright, who on HBO's "Costas Now" said his high school courses were tougher than those at A&M, where athletes were "in poultry science for a reason . . . to get this grade [not] learn about chickens." New York Post

Wow, he really ripped the lid off that scandal. I think there were still 5 0r 6 people out there who didn't know athletes get a free ride at schools with competitive athletic programs.

The ratings for Marbury's premiere TV talk show with Kobe Bryant, "Stars on Stars" received a .1 rating (75,000 homes). While that would seem modest, a FoxSportsNet spokesman said the total is 15 percent higher than the programs shown in that Friday time slot the past three months. Marbury's second show is today at 4:30 p.m. Knicks superfan/filmmaker Spike Lee will be Marbury's guest. The show will be replayed Sunday at 2 p.m. and Monday at 3:30 p.m. New York Post

Only way I'm watching this show is if Marbury has Francis on as his guest and the two of them rate the top ten most overpaid players of all time.