The Weak Ender

The Boston Celtics introduce a dance team this season and what happens? Red Auerbach and Dennis Johnson end up dead. Coincidence?

Probably. Hey, it's not like the Celtics haven't had their share of people dropping dead in their history. Len Bias, Reggie Lewis, M.L. Carr, et all. The Celtics drop faster than Kennedy's.

And yet, Magic Johnson has lived with the HIV virus for 18 years. The Lakers are still getting over on the Celtics.

Maybe this should serve as a warning to Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, as they might not want to leave school early to enter the NBA if Boston is holding the first pick in the draft. Just saying is all.

• Who wants to party with Pac Man Jones? Idiot. Pac Man is like that guy who joins a bachelor party as one of those creey friends of a friend. He is the kind of guy with a stupid nickname (like Pac Man) who wants to impress the group so he starts throwing his money around. The kind of guy who volunteers to go pick up some booze, only to return with a bottle of Tequila Rose and a case of Zima. Then he will proceed to plead his case by saying that Zima has more alcohol than beer and you�ll drink it, (because it's delicious), but you won�t have to like it. Then this guy throws his money around at the strip club and you then have to kind of laugh at his dumb jokes because he paid for your cover making the whole party uncomfortable. In other words, he acts just like Bill Simons. (Although the Sports Dork's posse probably hasn't killed anybody.)

• The Maloof brothers were quiet during the whole Tim Hardaway thing. Although Gavin Maloof was reported as saying that they wouldn't employ a homophobe. Not quite the damaging words that you would expect from the Maloofs. But maybe its better that they kept a low profile during the whole thing. The Maloofs deserve a lot of admiration for being such pioneers, and the classy way they have handled the whole Hardaway situation illustrates just how sophisticated they are. They are a true inspiration.

• Gomer Manning is being universally praised for redoing his deal. Now the poor fellow is going to have to find a way to survive on his endless endorsement deals.

AND FINALLY

Corey Dillon is retiring and hey, where is Peter King to trump his Hall of Fame credentials? If Tiki Barber is a slam-dunk, why not Dillon? Let's look at the numbers.

Dillon: 11,241 rushing yards, 82 touchdowns
Barber: 10,448 rushing yards, 55 touchdowns

Now, to Tiki's credit, he was a much better receiver than Dillon and it's not close really. (Comparing him to other pass-catching running backs, Tiki was no Marcus Allen.) But Dillon was a Super Bowl champion whereas Barber was a non-factor in the Giants Super Bowl loss. Both guys deserve to join Tim Brown in the Hall of Average.

UPDATE: Peter King responded to THN's email question: Is Corey Dillon a Hall of Fame running back? King's answer: I don't know.

He'd probably have an answer if you asked him about Starbucks, but he can't condescend to talk about the NFL evidentially.