League Notes
Toronto FC lost to Chivas USA 3-1 Saturday in a regular-season game, and the CP wrote, "It was billed as [an MLS] game. But it sure felt like a minor-league affair for Toronto FC and team's fans." Toronto FC was "missing nine regulars to international duty and forced to sign three defenders, including one amateur, to emergency call-up contracts a day before the game" (CP, 9/6). In Toronto, Garth Woolsey wrote MLS "looks bush league when it schedules games directly against World Cup qualifiers, resulting in some of its teams being forced to compete short-handed" (TORONTO SUN, 9/7). Also in Toronto, Gareth Wheeler writes the fact that MLS allowed the game to be played "with so many players absent because of international commitments is an embarrassment" (TORONTO SUN, 9/8).
SETTING THE STANDARDS: The EXAMINER's Paula Duffy wrote of Heat G Mario Chalmers and Grizzlies F Darrell Arthur being sent home early from the NBA rookie symposium last week for program violations, "They should have been forced to stay just to be used in role play about real-life temptations and learn how it feels to be humiliated in front of your bosses and peers." Instead, NBA Commissioner David Stern "blew a gasket and ordered them out of the seminar and hotel" (EXAMINER.com, 9/5).
ASSIGNED SEATING: In a Q&A with Craig Harris of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, USA Basketball Managing Dir Jerry Colangelo said of his experience at the Beijing Games, "The most unique experience was the opening game against China. ... The president addressed our players before they went on the court and he called and asked me to sit with them. ... When I finally got to where I was sitting, there was the president of China, the prime minister of China, President Bush and ex-President Bush, with (former Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger sitting behind me. That is kind of unique, isn't it?" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 9/7).
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