Early Season Onions

Tis the season for turkey, travel, Thanksgiving, the start of college basketball and ...... ONIONS! Yesterday we got our first taste of college basketball onions, when Butler's Rotnei Clark gave the Bulldogs the last second victory over Marquette at the Maui Invitational. See for yourself...



The one unfortunate thing about this game, is that is was played in the early session of the Maui Invitational, which meant that Bill Raftery was NOT on the call. We all know what would have happened if Raftery was on the airwaves. Let's flashback to Raftery in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, where we get 3 Onions calls in the final minutes of the Ohio State-Siena game, including a "Double-Order" to cap things off.


Raftery is back on the mic tonight calling the North Carolina-Butler game. Let's hope there are a few orders of Onions on the menu tonight.

Fun Fact Friday: Brown and Out

Well, that didn't last too long. After just five games played in the 2012-13 NBA season, Mike Brown is out as the Lakers Head Coach. The new look Lakers, who added Steve Nash and Dwight (eisen)Howard to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to form the Big Aging Four, started the season 1-4.

Mike Brown: You're Fired.

Five games marked the fastest the Lakers have ever fired a coach, easily beating out the previous record of 12 games back in 1999, when they got rid of Frank Drebin Del Harris. Five games also is the fastest an NBA coach has been let go, the previous record of 9.

Still lots of information to come out on why the move was made, but here are some of the story lines on why this went down:

-Princeton offense: As Charles Barkley said on Inside the NBA last week on TNT, "I want my accountant to come from Princeton, not my NBA offense." He's got a point. While the Princeton offense can be successful with the right group of players and the right coach (not Mike Brown), it just wasn't working here. Not sure why Brown was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, when he had two of the best big men in the league, along with one of the all time greatest shooting guards, led by a two-time MVP at PG...none of whom have ever run the Princeton offense.

-Dwight Howard: True or False - Dwight Howard has been involved in the firing of two NBA coaches, on opposite coasts of the country, in a mere 6 months. True. With that said, we doubt Howard himself had THAT much to do with the firing.

-Kobe: Speaking of individuals that had to do with the firing. A lot of fingers are being pointed at Kobe. Well, if you saw the death stare he gave to Mike Brown at the end of Wednesday's loss to the Utah Jazz, you probably would too. We'll see what comes out in regards to how much say Kobe had in this decision. Kobe supposedly did sign off on Brown implementing the Princeton offense this summer, but I guess he's flip-flopping on that decision now.



-Weekend at Bernie's: Lakers assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff will coach the team tonight against Golden State, and most likely Sunday's game vs. Sacramento. The long term replacement is yet to be determined but common names being heard include Phil Jackson (obvious 1st choice), Jerry Sloan (pick and roll w/ Steve Nash leading the way), Mike D'Antoni (Nash's coach in Phoenix, good relationship w/ Kobe from Olympics and Italian roots), Brian Shaw (former Lakers assistant under Phil Jackson, probably should have gotten the job when they hired Brown). Daily Onions pick would be D'Antoni - probably the most realistic and best move at this point.

-7 Games in Heaven: Here is the next seven games for the Lakers. Golden State, Sacto, San Antonio, Phoenix, Houston, New JERRRSEEEY Brooklyn, at Sacto. Six in a row at home, most thought Brown would get at least the weekend to clean things up. Why wait though? He's obviously not the right fit, so get someone new in who can take over the team when they have a handful of winnable games. Get them off to a hot start and go from there.

Throwback Onions: Grant Park 2008, Revisted

The following is an account of Election Night in Grant Park, Chicago, back in 2008, when Barack Obama was named the 44th President of the United States. This post is not meant to be political, but more of a narrative of history in the making. This was originally written the days following the 2008 election.

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Reporting Live from Grant Park: Experiencing History

Jason Sacks

11/4/08

When I moved to Chicago on June 2, in the back of my mind I thought that I might be a part of a historic event within the next four to five months.  The Cubs were the best team in baseball, and I was moving in three blocks from Wrigley Field.  I couldn’t help but think how crazy the month of October would be in Wrigleyville as the Cubs ended the 100-year curse. Well, less than a week into October, Wrigley field went dark, and there went the historic event; “wait till next year,” as they say in these parts.  But less than a month after the Cubs were booted from the playoffs, that historic event that I thought about, would turn out to be something much more  than just a World Series in my backyard.

About two weeks ago, people started discussing an Election Night rally in Grant Park, where Senator Barack Obama would hopefully make his acceptance speech as the next President of the United States.  Details were still a bit unclear, but my initial gut reaction was that that rally was going to be absolute chaos.  I attended a free Stevie Wonder concert in the summer at Grant Park and ended up sitting on Lake Shore Drive (for those of you not familiar with Chicago, not the best seat for a concert).  The number of people present made it impossible to move, hear or see anything going on.  I could just imagine what this Election Night rally would be like, and didn’t think I wanted to be anywhere near there. I figured there’d be better views on television.

Then about a week ago, someone sent me the link to register for a free ticket for the Election Night Rally.  Word on the street was that tickets were good for you and a guest, and that they’d allow about 70,000 people into the park.  I filled out the registration form and figured it’d be worth at least having the option of going.  I quickly received confirmation that I had a ticket and that a ticket would be emailed to me a day before the event.  At that point, I was still on the fence on whether or not I’d attend.  The more and more I thought about it though, I wondered, how cool would it be to tell my friends, family and one day my children, that I was there to witness one of the most historic nights in our country’s history.  Done. I was going.

I'm in that crowd...somewhere

The tickets and information about the event said that the doors to Hutchinson Field in Grant Park would open at 8:30 pm (all times in this account are Central Time...I’ve converted).  We knew there’d be large crowds of people down there, so we (myself, Colleen, Brady and Brandi) arrived at the entrance to the event at around 6:15 pm.  We started to work our way through the crowds and entered through our first check point, showing tickets and IDs, disposing of any food, beverages, large bags, etc.  We then walked to another checkpoint where they checked tickets, and another checkpoint where they pretty much did the same thing.  At that point, we could see a row of 24 metal detectors and a large mass of people.  It took about 25 minutes to actually get up to the metal detectors. Luckily, while we were waiting, Brady’s new $15 transistor radio that he just bought at CVS was giving us up to the minute updates on…NASCAR and the Chicago traffic (Eventually Brady would find a news station with Election updates, or not). As we got closer to the metal detectors, I made sure that we went through the detector numbered 22 for good luck (you’re welcome, Barack).  As we made it through the final checkpoint, which was manned by TSA workers along with Secret Service Officers, we could start to see the open field where the rally would take place.