Patrice Bergeron’s injury toll: broken rib, torn cartilage, separated shoulder

Boston Bruins' Rich Peverley stands with teammates after they were defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of their NHL Stanley Cup Finals hockey series in Boston, Massachusetts, June 24, 2013. REUTERS/Winslow Townson (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT ICE HOCKEY)

By Sean Leahy | Puck Daddy

BOSTON -- Now that the playoffs are over, the injury information will finally be revealed and we'll know exactly what kind of bumps and bruises the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins were dealing with.

When Patrice Bergeron left Game 5 after playing just 6 minutes and 6 seconds, the rumors about what happened to him ranged from a back injury to a ruptured spleen. Neither were correct as Bergeron told the media after the Game 6 loss in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Bruins forward said he was dealing with a broken rib, torn cartilage and muscles and a separated shoulder, which Bergeron said he suffered Monday night.

"It’s Stanley Cup Final, everyone’s banged up, everyone wants to help the team," he said. "Obviously I couldn't do that in Game 5. It was mostly because they were worried about my spleen being hurt, so that's why we had to go to the hospital. But everything was fine so it was just the ribs, and the muscles, and the soft tissue. So obviously I would’ve liked to stay in it but I was going through a lot of pain."

Bergeron played 17:45 in Game 6 and was 5-for-11 on faceoffs. It was noticeable during pre-game warmups how gingerly he was skating around. Now we know just what kind of pain he was dealing with, and the kind of injuries these players fight through in order to help their team win a Stanley Cup.

Eight minutes away from forcing a Game 7 only to have the Blackhawks make a dramatic comeback to win the Cup will be a hard memory to forget for Bergeron and the Bruins.

"You work so hard just to get to this point and give yourself a chance to get the Cup," he said. "And you feel like you’re right there, and you have a chance to force Game 7, and definitely it hurts. It doesn't work your way. Have to give credit to Chicago. They played a great series. But at the same time, it's the last thing you want to say.

"It hurts to see them hoisting the cup."

Maria Sharapova Dishes About 'Refreshing' Relationship With Grigor Dimitrov

Written by: ThePostGame Staff

Maria Sharapova hasn't been too keen on letting the press into her relationship with fellow pro Grigor Dimitrov, but in a surprisingly open interview with USA Today, she uncharacteristically gushes about Dimitrov -- and says dating a younger man (Dimitrov is 22 years old) is "refreshing."

"Maybe it makes me really young, too, inside, which is good," Sharapova, 26, told the newspaper.

As for what she's looking for in a man, she says: "It's about finding the person where you can be yourself all the time, where you're comfortable with being younger girl, the older girl, the mature girl, and the person that understands you and look at you and say you're completely off your rocker!

"I have so many things going on in my life and I really love them. Of course I want someone to be by my side to enjoy them. You know, I can jump on a plane tomorrow and go somewhere because I want to do it. And it's really important that that person respects me for the decisions that I make and the things that I do in my life."

She did not, however, offer any of her tips about outrunning the paparazzi.

The two were first spotted cozying up on a Madrid street earlier this month. Sharapova ended her engagement to basketball player Sasha Vujacic last year.

Why can’t NBA teams fill arenas, even after giving away free tickets?

By Kelly Dwyer | Ball Don't Lie

So, why aren’t you going to NBA games?

Is it because you’re a weirdo, and don’t like the league? That can’t be the case, because you’re reading this website. Is it because you live too far away from an NBA arena? Fair enough, though there are 28 cities to chose from, including two teams apiece in New York and Los Angeles. Parking prices? Concession ripoffs? Poor sight lines? Can’t stand that guy that yells “ev-ry-bo-dy clap your hands?” All of these make sense.

It can’t be the ticket prices, though. For a few teams, at least. More and more NBA teams are basically giving away tickets to games, offering free ticket specials or $1 deals on ducats. Several ticket pricing websites are often reduced to selling tickets for literal pocket change on game days, and yet fans still aren’t showing up. From a report from TIME, as put together by Bill Tuttle:

    According to ESPN statistics, the Pistons are averaging 13,272 tickets sold per home game, and they play in the 21,000-seat Palace arena. Some of these “sold” tickets are given away free, and many more ticket holders simply don’t show up. The net result is a sea of unoccupied seats in the Palace, as fans who watch the games on TV can attest.

    Essentially the same scene is being played out at several NBA arenas this season. The Pistons are hardly the only team finding it difficult to attract fans. To boost attendance, the Milwaukee Bucks (fourth-worst in league attendance) have been hosting promotions like “Buck Night,” when tickets for kids 14 and under are $1, and hot dogs sell for just $1 as well. (Naturally, the event took place when the Bucks were playing the Pistons.)

Entertainment sways aside, there’s a good reason why a whole lot of fans don’t follow through on using those free or discounted tickets. It’s the same reason you just let a whole sheet of coupons expire, or declined to take advantage of the free local municipal entertainment your city surely offers.

It’s because it’s free. Who cares, when you’re not taking in entertainment you’ve already paid for? This is why the Pistons have cut back on free tickets. From the Detroit News:

    "If you rely on free tickets too heavily, it undermines the pricing structure," said Andrew Zimbalist, economist at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. "If you have a regular ticket and you're sitting next to someone who got theirs free, that undercuts the value of your ticket.

    "And you can, like the Pistons are, get away from that by offering other inducements that maintain the underlying integrity of the pricing structure."

    [President and CEO of Palace Sports Dennis] Mannion agreed, saying that giving away tickets generates "very low" revenue from parking and concessions.

    "You also have high no-show rates with free tickets," he said.

Which brings us back to the original point. If you can secure free or heavily discounted tickets through either the team or ticket brokering sites, why not take in that night’s contest? Even if it is against the Sacramento Kings?
For a lot of us, the secondary costs get to be way too much. Personally speaking, my family of four cannot afford to take in an Indiana Pacers game this year, even if we grabbed a batch of heavily discounted seats high in the rafters. The hour-long drive, parking and costs that go beyond the price of the actual ticket are too high. Because I’m not going to be the dad that sneaks snacks into the arena for his kids to eat surreptitiously on the cheap -- and I’m not going to make my wife sit through D.J. Augustin running sets off the bench without buying her a few beers to get through it. And YOU try saying “no” to your daughters when they want to buy another foam finger.

Teams have acted upon these issues, offering all sorts of concession and apparel deals, but the fair-weather fan isn’t going to spend time researching these things as they would research pricing out travel and lodging for a vacation. A $1,000 expense is worth studying. A $150 night out? Not so much.

Especially when you can lift your head from the laptop and look up to see an NBA game, likely in full high definition on a receiver your cable company gave you at an ever-cheapening rate, flickering for free on your local affiliate. You don’t even have to shell out nearly $200 for NBA League Pass to watch that same random midweek game, coming to you live or paused by choice with varying camera angles and impressive production values. Should your team’s high scorer limp off to the locker room during the contest, you’re probably better off at home anyway – because all the NBA news you’d ever need is yours immediately, just for the price of a computer and Internet connection. Updates come quicker in the living room.

You can quibble about the style of play all you want, but if you enjoy the game, you enjoy the game – and it’s much easier to enjoy regional NBA basketball for free than it is to check in on the local high school or college team on TV. To say nothing of the fact that even the most basic of cable or dish packages will allow you to see nationally televised games nearly every day of the week, often two times a night.

The fears that baseball owners expressed in the 1930s regarding radio airplay of games, possibly cutting into their attendance figures, might be finally realized. There’s no comparing sitting in the warm sunshine of a slow-as-molasses (but still enjoyable, in person) baseball game with huddling around a scratchy RCA radio dial. Basketball’s an indoor sport, though. A winter sport that is easy to follow on television. The experience isn’t nearly the same. There is nothing like taking in a live NBA game with your eyes acting as your own producer in the truck, but the TV experience ain’t half bad.

And even at half-cost, fans aren’t showing up. You can blame the lockout or slow-paced coaching or losing records or the economy all you want; these are all significant factors behind the lacking attendance. Even in the shadiest of shacks, though, with the most minimal of electronic setups, NBA basketball can still be a fantastic thing.

That’s bad news for teams that can’t help but turn a $1 ticket into a $100 night out.

Could Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola be after the same jobs?

By Andy Brassell European football expert

 Pep Guardiola's departure from Barcelona at the end of last season wasn't just the end of his involvement in a glorious era for the club. It also called time on one of the most fascinating managerial rivalries in Spanish - and world - football, between Guardiola and Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho.

It appears increasingly likely that Mourinho will also be a former La Liga boss by next summer. Monday's edition of Madrid-based newspaper Marca claimed the coach and his president Florentino Perez have mutually agreed that he will leave at the end of June 2013, with just the terms of the settlement to be decided.

Speculation on Mourinho's future in the Spanish capital stretches back for almost two years, but there is weight to this. Marca is strongly pro-Real Madrid and pro-Perez, and often acts as an unofficial conduit for the president's thoughts.

The current situation is, frankly, a pain for Perez. His relationship with Mourinho has always been cordial rather than affectionate, but he brought the Portuguese to the Bernabeu for one reason - to win the Champions League.

The problem is that Real's patchy domestic form has left them in third place in La Liga, 11 points behind Barcelona. This is despite Saturday's convincing derby win over second-placed Atletico.

Real finished second behind Borussia Dortmund in Champions League Group D and there is now a two-month hiatus before the knockout stages begin. Perez needs the club to remain competitive at home in the meantime if Mourinho is to remain to work his magic in Europe.

But whether or not Real end up winning May's final at Wembley, the timing could be right for Mourinho to move on. He will have completed three years in Madrid, which has tended to be his maximum at one club.

It is longer than most expected him to last. He has survived despite frequent rows with the media and persistent rumours of a schism between Spanish and foreign players in the camp.

Were he to leave, there are very few clubs in world football who could realistically hope to attract a coach of such renown. How his future will unfold is, however, complicated by his old sparring partner Guardiola.

Two aspects of Guardiola's status potentially muddle things in terms of Mourinho's immediate future. Firstly, the ex-Barcelona coach is a free agent, so there is no need to negotiate exit terms, as Mourinho would have to should he leave Madrid.

Secondly, the competition for Guardiola's signature is so fierce that it is hard to imagine any enamoured club waiting until the completion of his current sabbatical year with his family in New York to make a move. They may even fire a coach earlier than anticipated to create a vacancy.

One club where this could well happen is Paris Saint-Germain. Since his arrival in France last December, former Chelsea and AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti has failed to either capture silverware or produce any real quality, despite an outlay of around £120m on transfer fees alone.

Following Tuesday's Champions League win over Porto,  which saw Ancelotti's side top their group, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi backed his man in the most non-committal way possible. "Today, Carlo is here," he told reporters on his way out of the Parc des Princes.

With his team on a run of three defeats in their last five league games, Al-Khelaifi's reticence is unsurprising. Monday's L'Equipe carried the headline "Qatar wants a big clean-up", claiming the club's Middle East owners are already planning a future without the Italian.

Further down, the newspaper said PSG representatives had already entered into discussions with Guardiola's entourage. It's hard to imagine star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be too pleased after his disparaging comments about Guardiola in his autobiography last year.

PSG's Swedish star would be rather more cheered by the arrival of Mourinho, whom he named as his favourite coach, along with Fabio Capello, in his book. Mourinho already knows Al-Khelaifi on a personal level, having worked as a pundit for his Al-Jazeera Sport channel at Euro 2012.

Mourinho has won national titles in four countries already. The possibility of doing so in a fifth is something that could appeal to his well-developed sense of history.

But it is not only the PSG job that both Mourinho and Guardiola are being linked with. Manchester City's Roberto Mancini was recently forced to respond to reports that the Real boss's agent, Jorge Mendes, had met with Manchester City's sporting director Txiki Begiristain.

It is unlikely to be the last time Mancini has to do so. The fact Mourinho turned Mancini's domestic success and European failure at Inter Milan into a Champions League win has escaped nobody's notice.

Still, the suspicion is that Begiristain might have his sights trained elsewhere. It was he who chose Guardiola ahead of Mourinho for the Barcelona post back in 2008.

Wednesday's edition of Catalan Daily Sport again invoked the link between the pair. Sport claimed Begiristain "will clean up City to prepare for the arrival of Guardiola", suggesting he will slash the wage bill and reduce the size of the squad. This would leave Guardiola closer to the tight group dynamic he favoured at the Camp Nou.

Meanwhile, the difficulties being experienced by Rafael Benitez at Chelsea mean the prospect of Mourinho returning to Stamford Bridge is not off the table.

The possibility that when Mourinho and Guardiola eventually resume hostilities it will be in the Premier League is certainly an intriguing one.

What Augusta and Chinese teen might mean for golf

By John Strege
GolfDigest.com | GolfDigest.com

The walls are crumbling around what was once America's most exclusive men's club, what with women and children now given the run of the place. More or less.

The Augusta National Golf Club will invite a 14-year-old boy to play in the Masters next spring, this in the wake of having conferred membership on Condoleezza Rice, its first female member. What next, public play days?

That said, the greater story here is not that China's Guan Tianlang, by virtue of his victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship on Sunday, will become the youngest ever to play in the Masters. Instead, it's the latest example of what might happen should China embrace golf other than superficially.

Guan, who turned 14 less than two weeks ago, won by a stroke a tournament created by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation in conjunction with Augusta National and the Royal and Ancient for the purpose of growing the game in the region. As an incentive, the trophy for winning is a Masters invitation.

Thus Guan will become the second Chinese 14-year-old to play in a major championship in a 10-month period. In June, Andy Zhang played in the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club. What each also has in common is that they train, at least part of the year, in Florida.

Golf remains largely an elitist sport in China, though it is growing; the number of courses there has increased from 170 to nearly 600 in the last eight years, according to a story by China Daily. We asked Dan Washburn, an expert on golf in China and a contributor to Golf Digest and Golf World for his thoughts on what impact Guan might have on Chinese golf. His email response:

"Guan's historic achievement certainly can't hurt golf's prospects for growth in China, but the obstacles the sport faces in the country are real. It will be interesting to see how much coverage Guan's Masters adventure attracts in China beyond the niche golf publications. Even Feng Shanshan, winner of China's first major, struggles for recognition in her home country.

"Golf is going to grow in China -- there is no doubt about that. Trying to predict how fast or to what heights, however, is a fool's errand. But if this drumbeat continues -- Feng, Zhang, and now Guan -- Chinese golf is soon going to be hard for the world to ignore, no matter how far from the mainstream the sport continues to be in China."

If China does begin to tap its golf potential, well, consider what happened to women's golf when Korean parents began sending their daughters en masse to train in the U.S. China might not similarly dominate a men's game that has substantially greater depth and international influence, but it might upend the balance of power and put Asia on equal footing with the U.S., Europe and Australia.

Guan, meanwhile, has been playing golf in the U.S. at least since 2005, when he finished fourth in the six-and-under division of the Callaway Junior World Championship in San Diego. He won the 11-and-12 division of the tournament by 11 strokes in 2011 and tied for 22nd in the 15-to-17 division in July.

His introduction to international golf at the elite level came last April, when he was 13 and became the youngest player in European Tour history, at the China Open (he missed the cut). The story received considerable attention in precincts other than the U.S., to the point that the British bookmaker Ladbrokes offered 1,000-to-1 odds that by his 18th birthday he'd be ranked No. 1 in the world.

Don't bet on it. Beyond that, don't bet against him. Among those Guan defeated on Sunday was Australian Oliver Goss, a quarter-finalist in the U.S. Amateur and the winner recently of the Australasia Tour's Western Australian Open.

Guan, of course, won't win the Masters in April, perhaps sparing, to which freelance golf writer Dave Andrews jokingly alluded on Twitter, Augusta National from having to serve Happy Meals at the Champions Dinner in 2014.

But he will make history and headlines, helping fulfill the Asia-Pacific Amateur's mandate, to grow the game, possibly doing so in ways that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.

Pingpong passion stokes U.S. Ryder Cup team's competitive fires

Phil Mickelson has had a tough time measuring up to Matt Kuchar in pingpong. (Getty Images)

 

By Yahoo Sport

MEDINAH, Ill. – Perhaps the fiercest competition during this weekend's Ryder Cup will not take place on the golf course, but rather in the United States' team room.

That's where three pingpong tables have been set up in what's become a Ryder Cup tradition amongst U.S. players. The original intent was to build camaraderie, and to that end it worked – if you are to believe Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods ironed out some of their differences over a game of table tennis.

Lately, though, the games have taken on a more serious tone, with Mickelson and Matt Kuchar bringing their own paddles packed away in special cases.

"The Ryder Cup is all about pingpong, everybody," Bubba Watson declared Thursday. "When you bring your own paddles in cases, a briefcase with a paddle in it, then obviously it's about pingpong. … It's nuts."

While tongue in cheek, there is some truth to Watson's claim that the Ryder Cup is all about pingpong. When asked about how his relationship with Woods has evolved over the course of the six Ryder Cup teams they've been on together, Mickelson announced to a packed press room that while they haven't had a lot of success on the course, "as partners on the pingpong table, he and I are delivering."

"We are serving it up, and there are not many guys that can match us on the pong table."

That may be true in doubles; singles, however, is another story.

Kuchar is the unquestioned king of the table-top court. He started playing when he was young with his father. In what became a nightly routine, they'd head out to the garage, unfold the table and play.

In golf terms, Kuchar rates himself a "1 or 2" handicap in pingpong.

"It's been fun bonding, because there is that ability to kind of go out and be boys and kind of feel like you're in the locker room while you're competing against each other," Kuchar said of the pingpong competitions inside the American's team room.

Fun for most, but maybe not so much for Mickelson. According to Watson, this week Kuchar and Mickelson played five points against one another, with Kuchar winning all five.

"So he quit," Watson explained. "Phil Mickelson pouts ever time we make him play Matt Kuchar. Love you, Phil."

Watson also says that he and Jason Dufner "dominated" Mickelson and Jeff Sluman in doubles.

"Mickelson is still mad about it," Watson said. "He hates anytime I beat him because I'm just this goofy left-handed kid named Bubba.

"So anytime I can beat Phil Mickelson, I like to rub it in his face. So on that one, I do disrespect my own teammates when it comes to pingpong."

NFL Kicker Devises Noise To Summon Alligators

Written by: ThePostGame Staff

You've heard about people "speaking" to horses and even cats, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone with a talent akin to that of Falcons placekicker Matt Bryant.

In a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bryant discussed his unique and extremely impressive talent: He can communicate with alligators.

Bryant taught himself to mimic an alligator's distress call, and he has learned how to draw the animal out of the water and lead it around. He honed his skill at a retention pond behind his home in Tampa, and it comes in handy to trick friends on the golf course.

"I've had fun with it," Bryant told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bryant, who is in his fourth year with the Falcons and is 4-for-4 on field goal attempts this year, showed off the skill to some teammates during a golf outing earlier this year in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Someone noticed an alligator in the water and encouraged Bryant to communicate with it. Sure enough, Bryant made the call and the animal came flying out of the water.

"I’ve never seen anything like that," said Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter. "… I didn’t wait to see how close it was going to get. There were some bushes there about 25 yards away, and I didn’t wait for it to get any closer. I got behind someone else so it would eat them before me."

A warning to Bryant's future golf partners: Remember to never shave strokes or move the ball, there could be dire consequences.

(H/T to Deadspin)

Ryan Lochte defeats Michael Phelps in Olympic trials showdown

Getty Images

By Chris Chase | Fourth-Place Medal

Ryan Lochte took the first round of his hotly-anticipated summer showdown with Michael Phelps, defeating the two-time defending Olympic champion in the 400 IM to open the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha.

The 27-year-old from Florida led from the outset of the grueling race to touch in 4:07.06, nearly a full body length ahead of Phelps. Lochte had two won world championships in the event after Phelps "retired" from the lengthy discipline following his victory in the Beijing Games. Despite Phelps' pedigree in the race, Lochte was heavily favored to win Monday night, especially after he posted the fastest time in qualifying heats by four seconds.

It was Phelps first loss in a final at the U.S. trials since July 13, 2004, when Ian Crocker defeated him in the 100 butterfly. His defeat did have a silver lining: With his second-place finish, Phelps became the first swimmer in United States history to qualify for four Olympics. The 14-time gold medalist is three medals away from becoming the most prolific winner in the history of the Summer Games.

Monday's result was stinging for third-place finisher Tyler Clary. The 23-year-old Californian was the silver medalist in the 400 at the past two world championships without Phelps. Now, he won't swim the event in London.

Phelps confirmed as much after the race, immediately dismissing speculation that he'd skip the race at next month's Olympics. "This is a baby step," he said of the loss. "Ryan knows that, just like I do, that the race that counts happens in a couple of weeks."

Lochte didn't disagree. Instead of puffing his chest at beating Phelps for the first time in the 400, Lochte demurred to the Olympic king in an interview with NBC. "I still think I'm the hunter trying to catch him," he told Andrea Kremer.

IMG agency will start a prep football program in Florida, but should it?

Former Florida State Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke — Getty Images

 

 

 

 

 

By Cameron Smith | Prep Rally

First, it was a charter school set up by Deion Sanders. Now, IMG, the worldwide talent agency, is getting in on the high school football act.

As noted by the Los Angeles Times, among other sources, IMG Academy will host a varsity high school football team for the first time in 2013. To get the program on a track toward future success, the sports-focused school will begin hosting interested football players during the 2012-13 school year. The football team will be coached by former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Chris Weinke and will be hosted at the same site as the rest of IMG's programs in Brandenton, Fla.

While the IMG program may be destined for future success, that won't come without serious questions about whether or not the agency should be hosting a football team in the first place. IMG -- which features prep sports enterprises like a tennis academy hosted by famed-instructor Nick Bolliteri and a golf school led by David Leadbetter — has more recently begun breaking into full-fledged team sports where the involvement of a third-party entity like IMG are much less traditional.

While IMG launched its soccer academy years ago, its forays into the baseball, basketball and lacrosse world are much more recent. Naturally, all of those efforts will pale in comparison to what it will take to launch a successful football program, particularly in Florida, one of the nation's most talent-rich, competitive states.

There are also sure to be ethical questions to follow on IMG's new school, as well. Many have long questioned the wisdom in integrating pro or collegiate-style training into a traditional school day as a means of more adequately preparing young Americans for future athletic success at the expense of a more traditional scholastic experience.

While the resistance to more professional-style training was less significant with more individualistic or European-powered sports like tennis, golf and soccer, that may not be the case with football, which plays upon its deep roots with all things American and traditional.

Regardless of what happens next, IMG is clearly making waves by adding football in Florida at all. Whether or not those waves are positive may not be known for years in the future. If they are seen as a step forward, don't expect IMG to be the only academy running a pro-style prep football program for long.