Belated Thanks

You have cordially been invited to the belated Mike Abrams’ Thanksgiving dinner. At this dinner, each dish represents a different topic. It’s kind of like the Sedar plate on Passover, except this dinner works for sports fans and is printed in the paper instead of nasty books filled with crumbs from the past 20 years of family feasts. The menu is as follows:\nThere are a couple different side dishes. The first dish is sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes are Avery Johnson getting fined $25,000 by the NBA after being ejected from a Pacers game. \nThis ejection was definitely sweet because I was at the game, and not only did the Pacers beat Dallas, but Johnson’s ejection stemmed from one of the worst calls I’ve seen since ... well, I guess since the last game because NBA officials generally suck. (Please don’t fine me David Stern.) \nJohnson had every right to be angry, and I was hoping he would go out there and clock referee Bennett Salvatore. Now that would have deserved a fine.\nThe gravy is LeBron James. Bron Bron dropped stat lines of more than 30-10-10 on back-to-back nights last weekend. His game was straight gravy those nights, and he dropped 38 to beat the Celtics Tuesday night.\nBut no Thanksgiving meal can go without the turkey. My turkey is the BCS debacle. \nEvery year, the debate of how screwed up the BCS is arises. This year, the debate is in full force since the necessity of a playoff system is clearly evident. \nHow does the top-ranked team in the nation go into a conference title game as an underdog?\nThe answer is because it isn’t the best team in the nation. It is only ranked No. 1 because the BCS is forced to put someone there. This season is filled with teams that are good, but not good enough to have two clear-cut teams in the national championship game. This year is the perfect example of why a playoff system would benefit the NCAA tremendously.\nOf course, next year we will be having the same debate because logical events rarely take place in sports.\nIf you’re still hungry, then a little pie for dessert is my Heisman pick. Darren McFadden should win the Heisman this year. He deserved it last year, but the voters have some strange bias against juniors and gave it to an undeserving Troy Smith. Don’t jip him of his glory again this year!\nThat’s all you get at the belated Mike Abrams Thanksgiving dinner. I hope you’re full. If not, just wait for the tryptophan to kick in and you will be too tired to eat anyway.