Sports will go on

The last week in sports has been nothing short of a train wreck.

Be it doped out cyclists competing in the only race Americans care about (and "care about" is such a strong way to describe America's, um, tolerance of this race) or the ongoing Barry Bonds saga in baseball, or the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal.

Yikes, that's a bad week in itself. Then you add the worst of them all: the NBA's embarrassing story of a referee that slipped through the cracks and allegedly fixed basketball games over the last two years.

In a league that's already slipping down the slope faster than a beginning skier, Tim Donaghy's gambling problems might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Already struggling with an identity issue, a league perceived to be led by money-hungry thugs, the NBA has seen ratings fall a long way the last few years thanks to highly-public wrongdoings by NBA players. From the Ron Artest fight in Auburn Hills, MI, to the Stephen Jackson off-court trouble to many more similar stories, the last thing the NBA needed was this gambling headline.

This is right up there with the 1919 "Black Sox", the Chicago White Sox team that got caught up in gambling and fixing games (including the World Series).

But this is when the NBA needs to do a drastic overhaul and change its entire image. Before this incident, people accused refs of favoring one team over another. Now it seems some of these allegations might be true. David Stern, the NBA Commissioner, is a smart enough man to see and seize this opportunity to change the NBA.

Starting with its background probes into the history of NBA officials, then changing its marketing scheme to make the league more family friendly, the NBA could rise once again to take over the focus of American sports fans.

Sports and the NBA will go on from this point, but it's up to Stern and Co. to step up to the plate and fix the league. Without a major fix, this could be the incident we talk about years from now that changed the way individual sports hire the people that decide the games.

That, and maybe only that, would save this wrecked train.

Memoirs of a sports traveler

If I've learned nothing over the last month and a half, and some would argue just that, it's that Europe loves their soccer and the Yankees suck.

While traveling throughout Europe, it didn't matter what country be it Spain, France, Greece or any others, they love their futbol. Like you didn't know that. But when Thierry Henry was traded from the London-based EPL Arsenal team to FC Barcelona last June, he was the talk of the continent.

Plastered all over the news in between reports in Iraq was Thierry Henry this, Thierry Henry that. Not that I'm complaining, as I've enjoyed watching Henry for a long time. But this was their equivalent to Dwayne Wade or Kobe Bryant being traded to the San Antonio Spurs. Much like the New York Yankees are to baseball, FC Barcelona is to soccer. They won the Champions League this season, ousting Liverpool in the finals to become the best team in Europe. Now they acquired arguably the best striker in the world in the 29-year-old Henry.

Back stateside, where I've been in New York City for the past week attending a series of concerts of Boston-based band Dispatch, I felt the eeriness while sitting on the floor of Madison Square Garden. Our tickets the first night were literally on the very floor that Michael Jordan dominated the Patrick Ewing-led Knicks. This is where Mark Messier came through with his Game Seven guarantee in the '94 Stanley Cup finals. This is where Reggie Miller taunted Spike Lee. Just name names and the memories come back. Willis Reed. The John Starks dunk. Ray Allan's Georgetown game. Wow, I was right there.

But what caught me by surprise were the "Let's go Red Sox!" and "Yankees Suck!" chants that echoed each of the three nights throughout MSG. How could New Yorkers let Boston fans chant these vile things at their beloved Yanks? I was stunned.

Then I was reminded that the Yanks were 10 games out when I overheard a conversation at a coffee shop today.

"The Yanks are going 50-27 in the second half," said one patron.

"What are you worrying about baseball?" a second person said. "We've got AC."

Maybe it's fitting that ESPN is featuring the famed '77 Yankee team by titling the documentary "The Bronx is Burning."

I don't think 30 years later much has changed.