Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban appeared on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” last night. Cuban said Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez’s 162-game suspension is “unfair” because sports leagues “have rules in the game.” Cuban: “When there are rules that the players association and the owners vote on and you come to an agreement on these rules, you should follow the rules. That’s one of the things I really like about David Stern. We’ve asked him, ‘Do you want all this king-like power to make unilateral decisions?’ and he said, 'No.' And then you look at baseball and Bud Selig, their king, has made the decision that despite the rules, despite the fact that A-Rod has never tested positive for it, but Commissioner Selig has said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I want this to come down on him’” (“The Tonight Show,” NBC, 1/15).
NBC’s Jay Leno: “The Lakers lost again last night. They have lost 11 of their last 12 games. They lost to the Cavaliers. That’s like losing a foot race to Chris Christie. What’s going on? They are bad. After the game, Justin Bieber egged the Staples Center. Before the game, instead of playing the National Anthem, they play Taps now. It’s gotten so bad fans are asking hot dog vendors, ‘Can I get these to go?’ The Lakers are so bad, Mark Cuban wants to buy the team just for scrap” (“The Tonight Show,” NBC, 1/15).
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert said, "A terrifying new enemy is threatening to destroy our beloved college sports: Education." A CNN report was aired that noted the Univ. of North Carolina is a "top-tier academic institution," but added that an academic counselor at the school said that many of the student-athletes "can't even read." Colbert added, "UNC is fulfilling its end of the bargain. You play football and in exchange you get a diploma. This whole 'we owe students an education' racket is a threat to something much more important than kids' futures: present-day money. Because college sports is an $8 billion industry, roughly the size of the NFL. If college athletes learn math, they'll be able to calculate that their share of the money is zero percent, and they're big boys. Besides, knowledge is a precious thing. It's a waste to stuff it into a football player's skull when it's just going to get all scrambled out on the field" ("The Colbert Report," Comedy Central, 1/15).
