Posts from the Dallas Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Next to Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop was the clear #2 most valuable asset Dallas sent away to New Jersey in the midseason acquisition of Jason Kidd. He was the best defender the Mavericks had at a key defensive position. Surely, we would have helped some in rejecting the advances of David West and Tyson Chandler in Dallas' five-game first-round loss to New Orleans. He wouldn't have flipped the series -- but he would have helped.

Apparently, the Mavericks think so too, as the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reports Diop has reached a five-year deal with Dallas for the full mid-level. That will take DeSagana right through his prime (he's 26), and could leave Dallas with one of the best defenders in the league at center, which seems important as Andrew Bynum, Amare Stoudemire, Al Jefferson, and Greg Oden hang around the West.

The key question, one partially answered by the signing: how will Rick Carlisle use Diop? In three seasons under Avery Johnson, Diop averaged no more than 18 minutes a game. You might blame foul trouble, but Diop recorded only 1.9 fouls per game this season in his 17 minutes with Dallas.

Johnson is (was?) a notorious micro-manager, and his constant in-game substitutions always offered an opportunity for jokes for road crowds. Diop's never going to be even so good as a Dikembe Mutombo on offense, but with a steady diet of minutes, he could at least become a Mark Eaton type anchor through his prime.

Milton Bradley is crazy, but in a sympathetic way. Like, he just has a temper. Lots of us have tempers. Not all of us have to restrain ourselves because we do our jobs in front of thousands of people every night. Still, the fact remains: Milton Bradley is kind of crazy.

But even he scoffs at the ball of round mound of unbound (thank you!) that is Sidney Ponson (via BBTF):

Bradley was quoted last month as saying of Ponson: "Man, that dude has some issues." Bradley took issue with that yesterday, saying he'd said only that Ponson had issues while he was a Ranger and that the two said hello before Monday night's game at the Stadium.

Bradley sort of reversed that yesterday, saying he didn't think Ponson was a bad guy. Either way, the damage is done. If Milton Bradley thinks you need to figure some things out, something is seriously wrong.

Crystal Palace supporters still suffering from the loss of that Premier League promotion playoff last May might be taking a little solace in their American counterparts today.

USL Second Division side Crystal Palace Baltimore upset an uninspired New York Red Bulls side, 2-0, last night in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup. The win prompted many sports fans in Baltimore to say, "Wait, we have a soccer team here?"

Indeed, the club was founded in 2006, 101 years after Crystal Palace FC was founded in London, and it serves as a player development wing for the Coca-Cola Championship club. Clearly, player development is going pretty well there, though as Ives Galarcep notes, too many Red Bulls just didn't come to play last night.

Two other USL clubs pulled off upsets, as USL-1 leaders the Charleston Battery defeated MLS Cup holders the Houston Dynamo on penalty kicks, while the Seattle Sounders topped Chivas USA, 2-0. Other USL clubs didn't get away so easily. The Kansas City Wizards came back from a 2-0 deficit to topple the Carolina Railhawks, 4-2, in extra time, and FC Dallas scored a 2-1 comeback win against Miami FC. D.C. United, the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution also cruised to victory over USL clubs.

The U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals are scheduled for next Tuesday.

The 3rd round of the U.S. Open Cup kicks off tomorrow, and if you're looking for the MLS clubs that are taking this tournament seriously this year, just look for which clubs are playing at home.

Unlike England's FA Cup, where the home team is determined by random draw, MLS and USL clubs place bids with the U.S. Soccer Federation to host games, and the highest bidder plays at home. If you look at the schedule for tomorrow's games, you'll notice that the New England Revolution, the Chicago Fire, D.C. United and FC Dallas are all playing at home.

By contrast, the Houston Dynamo travel to South Carolina to face USL-1 leaders the Charleston Battery, and the New York Red Bulls head to Maryland to face USL-2 side Crystal Palace Baltimore. Perhaps Houston and New York aren't quite as interested in the CONCACAF Champions League bid that comes with winning the Open Cup.

D.C. United, however, suddenly seems much more interested in the Open Cup than they were last year.

During a rather pedestrian draft night last Thursday, one of the more tender moments was Shan "Don't Call Me Shane" Foster's playing of a song he wrote just for the NFL draft. At the time, I may have said something cynical about it, but the more I think about it, rooting against the Joey Harrington of the NBA is just wrong.

Here's Shan's little jam he put together to discuss his feelings about being a professional basketball player.



It's actually kind of catchy, in a very irritating way. And, all Joey H. jokes aside, the dude does have a pretty sick voice. Or, as Dirk said*, "He's no 'Hoff, but he's pretty good."

H/T: Hot Clicks

As fellow FanHouse-r Ryan Wilson told you earlier, the Dallas Cowboys and receiver Terry Glenn are reportedly back talking again and trying to mend some fences. Glenn and the team have been at odds for most of the offseason.

Glenn is now saying all the right things, including wanting to stay a Cowboy:

"I want [Cowboys owner] Jerry [Jones] to understand that I know he has the ultimate power in everything that goes on with the Cowboys, and I'm not trying to challenge him in any way, shape or form," Glenn told Werder earlier this month. "He can -- and will -- determine the outcome of this because it's ultimately his decision. But what I want is to remain a Cowboy. I've been here for five years and I've made Dallas my home, and I would love nothing more than to be a Dallas Cowboy."

Being humble to the owner is always a great start and stroking Jones ego is always advisable. This is a long way since the two sides were bickering about an alleged injury settlement. Even Jones thinks the notion that Glenn is challenging him is wrong.

"It isn't my will against Terry's," Jones said. "That's ridiculous."

So we could have this thing wrapped up in the next month, just in time for training camp, eh?

The whole Don Imus/Adam "Pacman" Jones uproar didn't last very long, did it? It was like one minute everyone was getting upset, and the next minute everyone was asking, "Why should we care what this guy says?" Even Al Sharpton seems to have moved on.

But Jason Whitlock has a column at FoxSports.com in which he argues that while we shouldn't care about Imus, it actually is worth addressing the point that Imus claimed he was trying to make in asking "What color" Jones is.

Tuesday didn't start out very well for the Texas Rangers on the injury front. Early in the day they found out that Hank Blalock, who they'd been hoping to bring off of the disabled list to use on Tuesday, bruised his hand while diving for a ball at Triple-A Oklahoma and his return to the team will be delayed another day or two because of it. A couple of days isn't that big of a deal though, I mean, at least Hank's not going to be out another 4-6 weeks with a pulled hamstring like catcher Gerald Laird is going to be.

Now, the Rangers could have stopped with the injuries right there, but you know how things are down in Texas. Everything has to be bigger, or they have to have more, so on Tuesday night the Rangers didn't stop hurting themselves. Josh Hamilton had to leave the game in the fifth inning a couple of innings after making a diving catch, and now he's day-to-day with knee inflammation.

The Rangers aren't planning on putting Hamilton on the disabled list or anything, instead hoping that a couple of days off will take care of it, but it should be pointed out that it's the same knee Hamilton had arthroscopic surgery on back in 2006. This may be a good thing for Hamilton seeing as how his batting average has been on the decline in June, so maybe the rest will do him some good.

Though considering the latest injuries to Blalock and Laird, along with the fact Milton Bradley's missed the last six games with a sore quad, I don't think the Rangers will want Josh resting too long.

Don Imus claims he was trying to defend Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones when he responded to a report about Jones arrest record by asking, "What color is he?" But Jones himself doesn't appreciate what Imus said.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Jones had this reaction when told what Imus said:

"I'm truly upset about the comments," Jones said. "Obviously Mr. Imus has problems with African-Americans. I'm upset, and I hope the station he works for handles it accordingly. I will pray for him."

WABC, the radio station that syndicates Imus, has said it accepts Imus's explanation and will not discipline him. Imus was fired from his last job for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."

Don Imus spoke out on his radio show today about his comments yesterday regarding Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones. Here's the audio:

Talking about police treatment of Jones, who has been arrested several times, Imus said, "What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason. There's no reason to arrest this kid six times, I mean maybe he did something once but everybody does something once -- I have. ... They shoot blacks for no reason."

Imus later added, "I know there's some people who want to get me, but you're not going to get me for this. It's ridiculous."