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Bar Chat

02/09/2012

Final Story on the Super Bowl

NBA Quiz: Kobe Bryant became the fifth all-time leading scorer in NBA history the other night and thru Tuesday has 28,601. But if you add ABA scoring, Kobe is seventh. So name the top ten in scoring, NBA / ABA combined. Answer below.

Wrapping it up

Of course I finished my last column just a few minutes after the Giants defeated the Patriots in one of the more bizarre, and thrilling, endings so now it’s time to put the rest down for the archives.

“Trailing 17-15 with 69 seconds left, the Giants had a first down, goal to go, from the Patriots’ seven-yard line. After the snap, Giants quarterback Eli Manning handed the ball to Ahmad Bradshaw, who was tackled for a one-yard gain. At this point the Giants, according to PredictionMachine, had an 88.3% chance of winning the game.

“New England coach Bill Belichick then called a time out – his second of the half – leaving the Patriots with one. He used the break to pull out a clever piece of strategy: Belichick told his defense to let the Giants score on the next play. By conceding the touchdown and the lead, he figured, his offense would have a little more time left to drive down the field and score, taking back the lead to win the game.

“On the next play, Bradshaw took the handoff and saw the Patriots not making any major effort to stop him. Manning, seeing what was happening, thought for a moment that the Giants should decline the invitation to score, run another play to wind down the clock, and then kick a field goal.

“Manning yelled to Bradshaw: ‘Don’t score, don’t score.’ Bradshaw said the advice didn’t register until he was on the half-yard line. He tried to stop, but his momentum carried him into the end zone.

“According to the numbers, scoring the touchdown at that point actually decreased the Giants’ chances of winning the game by about three percentage points. Once Bradshaw crossed the goal line, his team had a 95.5% chance of winning. Had he stopped short and allowed the Giants to run one more play before kicking, the Giants would have had a 98.1% chance of winning.

“After the game, Belichick said he’d rather get the ball back and have a last possession ‘rather than have a game end on a kick that’s well over a 90% success rate.’

“While Belichick won that round, he actually missed a chance to give his team a far more significant boost. Had he figured this plan out earlier and let the Giants score on first down instead, quarterback Tom Brady would have gotten the ball back with 1:04 left and two timeouts instead of one. In that case, the Patriots’ chances of winning would have jumped by a more-significant six percentage points….

“Asked about the play Monday, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said: ‘You certainly don’t want to leave that much time on the clock.’ He took responsibility for failing to realize what the Patriots were up to. ‘I really didn’t instruct the runner not to score,’ he added. In the end, though, he said, ‘it turned out the right way.’

“Forty ticks of the clock later, the Patriots had the ball on their 44-yard line. It was a second-and-10 and the Patriots needed to score a touchdown to win the game. Just before the snap, Giants defensive end Justin Tuck realized the team had too many players on the field and ran for the sidelines with his helmet in his hands. It was too late.

“The Patriots snapped the ball and ran a play. After it was over, the Giants got whistled for having 12 men on the field. The penalty: five yards for the Patriots and a repeat of second down.

“But here’s the problem: The play itself – an incomplete pass by Brady – had burned eight seconds. And at this point in the game, time was arguably more important than a few yards. Some thought the outcome was so favorable to the Giants that they’d done this on purpose….

“If anything, the play will force the NFL to consider changing the rules so that a penalty of this nature doesn’t hurt the innocent team by taking away precious seconds….

“To add to the woes of Patriots fans: Fox Sports’ Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former vice president of officiating, said the rules actually allow officials to give expired time back to a team if they see what is known as a ‘palpably unfair act.’”

--You just have to have so much respect for Tom Coughlin. Talk is cheap, he always says, unlike that other coach in New York.

“We keep playing, we keep fighting and we’re highly competitive,” he said a day after the big game. “We do have great trust in each other, great belief that we can finish, if we keep playing…we will find a way to win.”

--The Giants are the ninth straight Super Bowl winner to have a tougher regular-season schedule than its opponent, according to Pro-Football-Reference. In seven of those seasons, the Super Bowl champion had a strength of schedule ranked in the top 10 overall in the league.

--How often has the team with the best regular-season record won the title in the following sports since the first Super Bowl?

MLB…13 of 45 (29%)
NBA…19 of 45 (42%)
NFL…21 of 46 (46%)
NHL…19 of 44 (43%)

--The Giants are just the 8th pick to win Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 at 15:1. Ahead of them are Green Bay (6:1), New England (7:1), New Orleans (8:1), Philadelphia (12:1), Pittsburgh (12:1), Houston (12:1) and Baltimore (14:1), this according to online sports book Bovada. [Cleveland and Jacksonville are 100:1. They should be 500:1.]

Among the Giants’ free agents are Mario Manningham, linebacker Chase Blackburn, offensive lineman Kareem McKenzie and punter Steve Weatherford.

The Giants’ best cornerback, Terrell Thomas, was one of five defensive players to tear an ACL. 12 players, overall, finished the year on the injured reserve list. What if most of them come back healthy?    The Giants will be tough to beat.

Then again, just saw that tight ends Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum both tore ACLs on Sunday.

“Back in February 2005, when Bill Belichick and Tom Brady hoisted the Super Bowl trophy for the third time in four seasons, they seemed like a safe bet for greatest coach-quarterback combination in NFL history. That was before the videotaping scandal known as Spygate ensnarled New England, before the Super Bowl defeat in 2008.

“Again, the New England Patriots not only reached the Super Bowl but led the Giants late in the fourth quarter. Again, they lost a heartbreaker. This, though, is where the question of Brady and Belichick’s collective legacy gets tricky, even for two men certain to reach the Hall of Fame.

“Between them, B&B boast 5 Super Bowl appearances and 16 playoff victories, the most for any one such pairing. But…their recent history is that of falling short, closer to the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s than any historic NFL dynasties….

“Soon after, a video would hit the Internet, with (Brady’s wife Gisele) Bundchen defending Brady to hecklers. She swore in the video and said her husband could not throw the ball and catch it, an obvious dig at receivers Wes Welker and Deion Branch, both of whom dropped critical passes*.

“That’s the funny thing about legacies, how easily they can shift.   If Rob Gronkowski does not injure his ankle against the Baltimore Ravens, if Welker’s hands secure the ball, if Brady doesn’t thrown an interception, perhaps the Patriots win. Perhaps Brady and Belichick move closer to assuming the title of greatest combo of all time. An inch here, a connection there, and everything is different….

“Now, Brady and Belichick hold a 3-2 mark in Super Bowls, which is nothing to scoff at, which is remarkable, really, just a cut below other combinations. Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll never lost in their four Super Bowls. Joe Montana and Bill Walsh went 3-0 and Montana won a fourth title with a team that Walsh largely built.

“It’s hard to argue that Brady and Belichick are even the best quarterback-coach combination of the past four seasons, not after Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin bested them in the Super Bowl, not once, but twice. This is how quickly perceptions shift….

“Back at his podium, as Belichick addressed reporters, his voice dripped with that classic dry annoyance. ‘Any more questions about the game?’ he asked. He didn’t get that after another Super Bowl defeat, the most pertinent questions, of his legacy in particular, went beyond that.”

*As for Gisele, as the New York Post reported, she didn’t handle the hecklers well who were jeering, “Eli rules!” and “Eli owns your husband!” minutes after the Super Bowl ended.

She was heard seething to a colleague, “You catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball….My husband cannot f—king throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time! I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times!”

Had Welker caught Brady’s throw with four minutes left in the game and the Pats up, they would have come close to running out the clock, if not taking it in for a clinching score.

But as many now realize upon further reflection, Brady didn’t throw a great pass. He had Welker for a score if it was on the mark. Ditto Deion Branch and his drop. It was Brady’s fault. Lousy pass.

“The last time Brady won a Super Bowl was in February 2005. That’s a long, long time ago by quarterback and NFL standards.

“Since then, Brady and the Patriots are 7-6 in the postseason, have lost twice at home as the AFC’s top seed and have lost two Super Bowls as a favorite, one in which they were going for perfection.

“In those 13 postseason games, Brady’s had some good moments, but he has also had his share of bad ones. He has thrown 27 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. To put that into context, Brady has never thrown more than 14 picks in a 16-game season….

“Seven years is a long time between rings…If his name were Peyton Manning, he’d be seared like a steak at St. Elmo’s. As it is, Since Brady last won a Super Bowl, Peyton Manning has won one and Eli Manning has two, both by outdueling Brady along the way.

“Forget Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. He’s become Jim Kelly, LeBron James, Alex Rodriguez.

“Oops, did I just write that? I know it’s sacrilegious to question Brady in the media, what with his good looks, his model wife and his three rings, but this is a what-have-you-done-lately league.

“It had been one of those nights when we were reminded that even though they have won just four Super Bowls in their history and eight NFL championships in all, the Giants can still feel like the biggest team we have, and that includes the Yankees. The Yankees are there in the playoffs every year, of course, and have won an epic number of World Series.

“Say it again: You can put all the other great seasons up against them, Namath and Seaver and Willis Reed and whatever you think is the best Yankee victory of them all. Nothing beats what the Giants have done to the Patriots in these two Super Bowls.

“All that talk from Rex Ryan about little brother and big brother and we are reminded once again in Indy on Sunday night that the Giants, when they are on top, feel like the biggest game in town, and you know ‘town’ includes Jersey, too.”

--Tom Coughlin was a disciple of John Wooden and on Saturday night, as reported by the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro, Coughlin told his men:

“Championships are won by teams who love one another. Just like this team does.”

“Then Coughlin referenced Wooden’s famed ‘Pyramid of Success,’ one of the guiding principles of his own life as a coach. The Pyramid’s original top level was this: ‘Competitive Greatness.’ But late in his life, Wooden replaced that with a simpler word.

“ ‘Coach Coughlin is a thoughtful man who so clearly cares about doing things the right way,’ Wooden himself said of the Giants coach not long before his death in 2010. ‘His success on the field is a reflection of his principles, and I can think of no greater thing you can say about a coach than that.’”

“Those principles, transferred from coach to team, were on display all year, and they were brilliantly backlit all across this night.

“ ‘All year, Coach has been nothing but positive,’ Eli Manning would say. ‘And if he believes in us, you know we are going to believe in each other.’

“And Coughlin’s players proved it. They didn’t play a perfect game, but damned if they didn’t devour the game when it was theirs to take. Damned if they weren’t good enough to be champions, again. Good enough to be remembered forever.

“They got there through their hearts, and drive there by a great coach. A forever coach.

--Nice job by NBC’s Cris Collinsworth for saying when the Giants got down to the Patriots’ 11-yard line with barely 90 seconds left:

“This is one of those weird situations. You may actually tell him to fall down on the 1-yard line so you can run the entirety of the clock and kick a field goal late. Tough decision, tough to say. But it is a strategy.”

--A record 111.3 million tuned in, slightly more than last year’s Super Bowl. About 47% of U.S. households with televisions watched the broadcast. Technically, though, 60% of households watched the final episode of M*A*S*H, so by that metric it remains No. 1 all time.

--Since I noted last chat how much I liked Clint Eastwood’s commercial, I have to comment on the controversy afterward. A very stupid controversy, if you ask me. Some saw it as an implicit endorsement of Barack Obama, as Eastwood says in the ad, it is “halftime in America” and that “Motor City is fighting again.”

I just saw it as a terrific ad and great use of Clint. Eastwood himself was forced to respond on Monday.

“I just want to say that the spin stops with you guys, and there is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain,” as Bill O’Reilly read a statement that Clint supplied Fox News. “I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK.”

Eastwood added, “If Obama or any other politician wants to run with the spirit of that ad, go for it.”

Clint’s getting very old…and I’m sure just real tired of the crap that passes for discourse in America these days. I don’t blame him. He doesn’t have to apologize or explain himself to anyone, but he was classy to do so in the manner he did.

--So what happens to Peyton Manning, now that’s it very clear the Colts aren’t coming up with a $28 million bonus on March 8, thus making him a free agent? Does he end up in New York? Washington? Miami? Regarding this last one, some feel that with the hire of former Green Bay offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, Green Bay backup quarterback, and free agent, Matt Flynn is a natural to sign with his old coach. Others say Miami owner Steve Ross favors Peyton. Or does Manning retire and immediately move into the No. 1 analyst slot, replacing Troy Aikman? [Just surmising on this last one.]

Actually, Miami would be a great fit, as much as I’d love to see him in a Jets uniform.

--Norman Chad / Washington Post…some of his thoughts on watching all the coverage, Super Bowl Sunday.

“2:48: Brian Williams tells us ‘Rock Center’ moves to Wednesday nights. I was hoping it was moving to the Cayman Islands.

“2:55: We are reminded that the London Olympics are less than six months away. Check your local listings.

“3:10: Bill Belichick opens up to Rodney Harrison, even admits working for the Sandinistas in the late 1970s.

“4:32: President Obama, sitting with Matt Lauer, appears to be wearing the same shirt he had on when Lauer interviewed him three years ago on Super Bowl Sunday. Boy, it’s a tough economy.

“4:33: Why does the president need to wear the American flag on his lapel? Isn’t that redundant?

“5:10: Belichick wears a suit en route to the game, then switches to a hoodie for the game (in a dome). Now, that’s genius.

“6:50: Patriots’ defense has 12 men on the field; Le Genie, Belichick, usually doesn’t cheat that openly.

“7:17: Giants’ offense has 12 men in the huddle; that’s just because offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride can’t count.

“8:48: I just realized – I should’ve live-tweeted this game; a newspaper diary is so 20th century.

“9:03: Brady throws a fourth-quarter interception, accurately predicted by the Mayans more than 2,300 years ago.

“9:24: I could swear Danny Woodhead was working the register at Best Buy last week when I bought a big-screen TV.

“9:52: If Rob Gronkowski catches that Hail Mary deflection, I move to the Galapagos Islands.

--Charles Barkley admitted to wagering $100,000 on the Super Bowl, revealing on a Philadelphia radio station that he bet on the Patriots. His reasoning? Sir Charles said he was a big believer in Bill Belichick and predicted 31-17 as a final score. “I tell you, I don’t think it’s going to be close.”

It was in 2006 that Barkley said his gambling problem had cost him roughly $10 million. In 2008, he was sued for $400,000 by a Las Vegas casino for unpaid debts and it was after this came public that he said he was giving up betting altogether. Guess not.

--NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on the fate of the Pro Bowl:

“We’re either going to have to improve the quality of what we’re doing in the Pro Bowl or consider other changes or even consider eliminating the game if that’s the kind of quality game we’re going to provide….

“If the fans are responding negatively to what we’re doing, we better listen.”

As for myself, I can honestly say I don’t recall watching a minute of the Pro Bowl since I was a kid. I also have watched all of two minutes of the NHL’s All-Star Game, and I have watched all of ten minutes in my life of the NBA affair. But baseball’s version I still watch.

AP Men’s Basketball Poll

1. Kentucky*
2. Syracuse
3. Ohio State
4. Missouri
5. North Carolina
6. Baylor
7. Kansas
8. Florida
9. Murray State 23-0…No. 7 USA TODAY/ESPN
10. Duke
13. San Diego State
15. Florida State...getting major respect these days
16. Saint Mary’s…huge game Feb. 18 vs. Murray State
25. Harvard…No. 21 USA TODAY/ESPN
26. Notre Dame…Mark R. says Mike Brey deserves to be coach of the year…and he’s got a point, when you factor in all the losses to graduation and injury.

*I watched most of Kentucky’s game Monday night vs. Florida and they certainly looked like a No. 1. They are blowing people out the last few weeks and are only a one-point loss to Indiana away from being undefeated. Said Florida coach Billy Donovan, “Kentucky has six guys who are gonna be first-round draft picks.” And the best is Anthony Davis, the 6’ 10” freshman who is already the lock No. 1 selection overall next June.

AP Women’s Basketball Poll

1. Baylor
2. Notre Dame
3. Connecticut
4. Stanford
5. Duke
6. Miami (Fla.)
7. Kentucky
8. Maryland
9. Green Bay
10. Ohio State
12. Delaware
25. St. Bonaventure

--USA TODAY/ESPN Preseason College Baseball Poll

1. Florida
2. South Carolina…trying to be first to win three straight College World Series since USC took five in a row from 1970 to 1974.
3. Stanford
4. North Carolina
5. Texas
6. Texas A&M
7. Rice
8. Arkansas
9. Florida State
10. Georgia Tech

--National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw made $500,000 last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers. On Tuesday, Kershaw signed a two-year, $19 million contract with L.A. I’d say that’s a nice step up in pay. Kershaw can become a free agent for the first time after the 2014 season.

--Just a few days after Lance Armstrong was cleared in a long-running steroids investigation, cyclist Alberto Contador was officially stripped of his 2010 Tour de France victory after being found guilty of doping charges.

--Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby practiced the other day but said afterwards there was no timetable for his return in admitting he was not symptom free after his series of concussions.

--Out of nowhere, the New York Knicks found something…a point guard, specifically. But this is no ordinary point guard. He’s the first Chinese-American to play in the NBA, an undrafted kid out of Harvard, Jeremy Lin.

The Knicks have struggled all year at the point and coach Mike D’Antoni, about to get fired, looked down his bench the other night and gave Lin a chance. All Lin did was score 25 points and dish out seven assists in a win over New Jersey. D’Antoni then stuck Lin in the starting lineup for the first time and Lin responded with 28 points and 8 assists, electrifying the Garden crowd. ‘Linsanity,’ as the marketers have been quick to label it. This could be a great story…or it might have a limited shelf life. We’ll give it another few weeks.

--Memphis is joining the Big East in all sports effective 2013.

--It will be interesting to see how Tiger Woods does this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He says he’s in the best physical shape he’s been in years, his emotional state is far better, and he’s played well in his last four events. Tiger said in a press conference on Tuesday that he can practice all day now without having to do icing or other treatment.

“My body’s feeling explosive again, and consequently I’m hitting the ball farther.”

--Mark R. told me about a Washington Nationals initiative… ‘Take back the park!’…which stems from the fact that when the Nats play the Phillies in D.C., a ton of Philly fans descend on Washington (much like Mets fans used to do when they played in Philly).

So the Nats apparently have had enough and are not accepting credit card orders for tickets outside Virginia, Maryland and D.C. when the two teams hook up this year.

--Speaking of Mark R. and Philly, we had dinner on Monday there at a place called Fish (1234 Locust St.) and in all honesty, it was as fine a meal as I’ve ever had in my life. Mark concurs. Fried octopus, baby! Then skate with truffled spaetzle. Then a pear desert that was spectacular. All washed down by a few IPAs from Mystic Brewing Co.

--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, created a little bit of legal history the other day when a judge heard arguments from lawyers representing them in a class action suit involving five killer whales at SeaWorld parks in San Diego and Orlando. PETA claims the captured orcas are treated like slaves. Said a lawyer for Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises and Corky, “This case is on the next frontier of civil rights.” Tilikum, you’ll recall, drowned its trainer at SeaWorld in 2010 in front of a shocked crowd. Tilikum should be serving 10-20 at Attica, if you ask me.

[Inside Attica, inmate A wonders who his new cellmate will be…then he sees fourteen guards holding edges of a giant blanket suddenly stop at his cell. ‘What the [heck?]’ thinks the inmate. Tilikum is deposited inside, taking up the whole space. ‘Noooooo!!!!’ screams the inmate, who then dies of a heart attack, thus saving the state, and taxpayers, lots of money. Tilikum is then moved to the next cell…and the next one…and before you know it…Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a balanced budget, without raising taxes, and is on his way to the White House in 2016. And that, sports fans, is how orcas can help Man….or at least Andrew Cuomo.]

--Shark Attacks…A Look at 2011

According to our friend, George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, sharks killed a dozen people worldwide last year, out of 75 actual attacks, with 29 of those occurring in the United States, though the U.S. had none of the fatalities.

At least that is what the ISAF says. Remember, they are in cahoots with the International Travel Cartel, and have every incentive to keep the figures down.

The actual toll is 6,200 deaths and 43,000 attacks for 2011. Burgess at least admits that his 2011 death toll is double that of 2010, a disturbing trend.

Surfers, by the way, accounted for about 60 percent of unprovoked attacks; swimmers, 35 percent; divers 5 percent.

--Florence Green, the last veteran of World War I, died at the age of 110. That’s the last veteran anywhere, in the world. She joined Britain’s Royal Air Force as a teenager shortly before the war’s end and worked in an officer’s mess.

But Ms. Green went unrecognized until 2010, when a researcher unearthed her records in Britain’s National Archives. She never flaunted her service.

--The University of North Dakota was told to abandon its longstanding Fighting Sioux nickname, but today there is a chance it could yet survive! Supporters collected over 17,000 signatures on a petition to force a statewide vote on the moniker in June. About 13,500 were required. So now the Secretary of State has to rule on whether the signatures are valid. 

The Spirit Lake Sioux reservation in northeastern North Dakota endorses the nickname’s continued use, while the Standing Rock tribe has long opposed it.

For its part, UND has already decided to change the nickname and the school is under no obligation to restore it if voters said it could remain.

--Lindsey Vonn…in Men’s Health

“Forget for a second that crazy technical sex position you’re ready to bust out. ‘Kissing is the most undervalued skill in bed,’ Vonn says. Impress her there, and not only will she assume you have many other talents but she’ll also be eager to let you show them off.”

Oh baby….let’s see…what other talents do I have. I used to be able to play the piano well, but haven’t done that in 30 years. I can drink a lot of beer, on cue, but not a lot of folks, let alone women, would be impressed by that. No chance at Lindsey Vonn then…oh well.

“I met an amazing girl at a music festival, but she lives 5 hours away. Is the distance worth the hassle for someone I’ve known for just 2 days?”
--Tyler, Nashville, TN

TGND: “If you actually carried on several conversations with her, and you know her first and last name, I say go for it.”

I say, no way…I’m too busy. Plus, these days, I’m so old I’m likely to be attending a Mantovani or Bert Kaempfert festival.

Start off right: Pull over as soon as you see the officer’s lights. Turn on your interior light if it’s dark out, and have your license and insurance card ready. This will put him in a good mood.

Don’t hem & haw: Officers are lied to so often that it’s refreshing when someone just fesses up. Acknowledge where you erred and promise you’ll be safer. Throw in an apology as well.

Cop a plea: Now that you’ve proved your sincerity, ask for a break: ‘I earned that citation, but would you mind issuing me a warning instead? It won’t happen again.’ Being direct may work.

Win in court: “If you do get a ticket, consider lawyering up. A good attorney can turn a 6-point ’30 mph over’ ticket into a 4-point ‘unsafe lane change’ ticket – and you won’t have to go to court.”

1. Washington, D.C.!!! Ding ding ding!!! Fanne Foxe still there?
2. Portland, ME…Good lord! Really?!
3. Boston, MA…Very understandable
4. Seattle, WA…Haven’t had coffee here in about 14 years
5. New York, NY…Start spreading the newwwwsss…I’m offering my chair…
6. San Francisco, CA…Eh…at least San Fran has Tree Man down at Fishermen’s Wharf… assuming the dude is still alive
7. Durham, NC…Duke b-ball currently struggling on offense
8. Raleigh, NC…Ken S. set me up here once in the ‘80s
9. Oakland, CA…Did I ever tell you about the time in the ‘80s when I was at a conference for Thomson McKinnon Securities and I had a such a great time that…oops, can’t go there...
10. St. Paul, MN…This I don’t understand…Minneapolis is No. 17. It should be No. 2.

Speaking of Minneapolis, T’Wolves Fever! Catch it! 13-12, after going 17-65 last season. Ricky Rubio for President! Or President of the EU!

99. Bakersfield, CA…Since Buck Owens died, the place has gone to hell. 
100. Las Vegas, NV…Huh. Depends on what your definition of eligible is. 

Top 3 songs for the week 2/5/72: #1 “American Pie” (Don McLean) #2 “Let’s Stay Together” (Al Green…Rev. Al gets boost from Obama) #3 “Brand New Key” (Melanie)…and…#4 “Day After Day” (Badfinger… originally were supposed to be the next Beatles) #5 “Without You” (Nilsson) #6 “Never Been To Spain” (Three Dog Night…underrated tune for after you’ve had four or five cold ones and the people around you don’t mind you belting it out) #7 “Sunshine” (Jonathan Edwards…became an attorney, U.S. senator, and later ran for president, during the campaign for which he had a very expensive haircut on an airport tarmac) #8 “Precious And Few” (Climax) #9 “Hurting Each Other” (Carpenters…great tune) #10 “Joy” (Apollo 100 featuring Tom Parker…godawful instrumental)

NBA Quiz Answer: Top ten scoring all time, NBA / ABA.

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar…38,387
2. Karl Malone…36,928
3. Michael Jordan…32,292
4. Wilt Chamberlain…31,419
5. Julius Erving…30,026*
6. Moses Malone…29,580*
7. Kobe Bryant…28,601
8. Shaquille O’Neal…28,596
9. Dan Issel…27,482*
10. Elvin Hayes…27,313

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