June 29th, 2010 - Lebron, Come to the Nets!

Email Tom @ TomO@NJMAX.com

Although the Nets move from New Jersey to Brooklyn is imminent, they will still always have the support of us Jersey fans.  There will always be a place in my heart for watching games when I was younger at the old Continental Airlines Arena; boy, is that place just full of nostalgia or what?  Jayson Williams, where have you gone (jail?)? 

…At any rate, because of my support for the Nets, and with NBA free agent season just around the corner, I am now going to use NJMAX as a platform to attempt to convince LeBron James to come play for us, even if we only get him for a year in Jersey at the Rock.  Aside from New Jersey’s obvious appeals; the shore, the Guido’s, the diners, Cake Boss (hey Lary, when are we gonna get a Cake Boss page?  That show is freakin’ awesome, and maybe they’ll make cake in the shape of your head for you or something), the tomatoes, the strip clubs, etc., coming to play for the Nets actually makes a lot of BASKETBALL SENSE for LeBron.  If he actually wants to win a championship and isn’t all about the money (because under NBA rules Cleveland can offer him the most money), LeBron should take a serious look at the Nets franchise.  - FULL BLOG

June 14th, 2010 - Rutger's Future Home?

With conference expansion Armageddon running ramped throughout the country these days, nearly every school in America is left wondering where it will end up.  From a New Jersey standpoint, our only major football program is Rutgers University, thus making the Scarlet Knights our main concern.  Rutgers currently plays in all sports in the Big East Conference, which has eight football members (including RU) and eight more non-football members. 

Here is the current Big East Lineup:

To me, the Big East is a good gig for Rutgers.  It is probably the nation’s most powerful basketball conference (both men’s and women’s), and the football is competitive enough where Rutgers has a chance of making a run at winning the conference on a year to year basis.  The Big East already has an automatic bid to the BCS every year, which is a nice little $14 million dollar payout for the conference.

Of the six automatic qualifiers to the BCS, however, the Big East has to be viewed as the weakest.  This is why rumors that the Big Ten may be looking to expand eastward has gotten Rutgers fans thrilled with excitement.  The Big Ten has its own television network, which serves to help the conference produce roughly four times as much revenue as the Big East does per team, per year.  And with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State now being joined by Nebraska, the conference has assembled four of the seven winningest football programs in history.  - FULL BLOG

June 9th, 2010 - 2010 World Cup Predictions

On the eve of the world’s greatest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, I thought it would be an appropriate time to offer perspective from our charming little corner of the world here in New Jersey.  Of course, our interest in the tournament is on a national level, as we all hope the U.S. team can better its disappointing performance in Germany four years ago.  Ultimately, this appears to be the one of the deepest World Cups to date, with stars from Europe’s top club teams spread out over the globe like never before.  This level of competition is sure to present problems for the U.S., who have made their living year to year by pounding weak nations in CONCACAF (The North American soccer federation).  We don’t have those stupid Canadians to beat up on anymore however, these are the big boys.  England, Spain, Argentina, The Netherlands, and Brazil all arguably have fielded their most talented squads in history, and none of those four teams were even semi-finalists in ’06. 

With the vast amount of talent amassed in year’s Cup, I feel a deciding factor in the tournament will be location.  South Africa, a relatively foreign land to most of the world, has to be considered a truly neutral site to the soccer powerhouses of Europe and South America.  As almost a rule of thumb in World Cup matches, European teams always with in Europe (as shown in 2006, with the four semi-finalists all being European nations), and, consequently, South American teams win in their homelands, having won every World Cup played in the Western Hemisphere.  With neither of the two “power continents” being used as the stage for the competition this year, the field is broken completely open.  Add that to the increasing number of capable national teams in this day and age, and we could have all the makings of the most surprising and capricious World Cups in history.  This factor bodes very well for underdog teams like the Americans, as well as the five nations from the hosting African continent.  - FULL BLOG

Most Recent Update
-updated 6.29.2010