MLS NOTES: MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said that he has
"no guilt" from the recent allotment of Carlos Valderrama
from the Fusion to the Mutiny (See THE DAILY, 4/26). Logan:
"I expected some Monday-morning quarterbacking. ... If you
look at commissioners in other sports, you'll see moves like
this" (USA TODAY, 4/27). But in NJ, Tim Leonard criticizes
the move by Logan, and writes that he "has set a precedent
that any star player ... can do anything he wants and be
accommodated." Leonard, on MLS "becoming accepted" in the
U.S.: "It's just words until the people running the sport
decide to be major league" (Bergen RECORD, 4/27).
NBA: In Toronto, Craig Daniels writes that no NBA
season "in decades has been as squirrelly, as wacky, as
flip-a-coin and as suspect as this one," with a "growing
consensus that teams and players have been beaten senseless"
by the scheduling. Daniels: "The NBA's irregular season is
winding to a close, and there's a growing chorus that says
it's not a moment too soon" (TORONTO SUN, 4/27).
ROCK ON! In Toronto, Mary Ormsby profiled the success
of the National Lacrosse League champion Toronto Rock. Rock
investor & Maple Leafs Assistant GM Bill Watters: "If you
had told me last summer that we'd be putting more than
10,000 fans in Maple Leaf Gardens ... and that the team
would be in the league championship final, I'd have said you
were crazy." The 16 Rock investors, who paid a $250,000
franchise fee, include NHL HOFer Bobby Orr, "HNIC"
commentator Don Cherry, MLB COO Paul Beeston and Red Wings
LW Brendan Shanahan (TORONTO STAR, 4/25).
