A Nice Quandary

Shall I tell you today about the fall of Maria Sharapova at lush Wimbledon or shall I address another renewal of Mets-Yanks in a momentous doubleheader for both?

Or, maybe I could just turn an analytical eye to the brave Knicks selection of a young Italian with their first pick, or the Nets extreme shuffling, trading a bigtime producer on the court in Richard Jefferson for a couple of question marks and drafting two big guys.

Ah, what the heck! Let’s do a little bit of everything. They all make for a good story.

Maria the beautiful fell to another young Russian for the second straight year at that London sanctuary of tennis. Can it really be four years since she won at Wimbledon, when both shoulders operated in pretty much the same fashion?

Those were the days when she was at the top of her game, when she moved like the wind yet hit hard enough to beat even the likes of Serena into submission. But yesterday Maria double-faulted eight times and made more unforced errors than was absolutely necessary against a determined Kudryatseva.

Sharapova, though, was once again gracious in defeat if her father was not. Instead, he proved once again that he may not be worthy of such a daughter, one who doesn’t blame every loss on a bad day or some imagined injury, one who doesn’t hold up play in a desperate attempt to change the winds of fortune. She only expressed some natural frustration at her own vulnerability.

The back-and-forth Mets face the pitching-short Yanks today, resulting in some interesting matchups, the still plugging Pedro facing the newly acquired and well-travelled Sidney Ponson and then Mike Pelfrey facing the Yanks Dan Giese, who apparently has a lot of difficulty traveling at all. (Giese missed a flight).

It says here that the Mets sweep the Yanks today. That Mets pitching duo of Pedro and Pelfrey will be too much for the Bombers, despite that awesome Yankee lineup. Doesn’t good hitting always succumb to good pitching? We’ll find out tonight, I guess, after all the votes have been tabulated.

As riveting as the baseball may be, it can’t be more dramatic than the Knicks first pick of the 19-year old Italian Danilo Gallinardi, whose Dad used to room with the apparently fearless new coach Mike D’Antoni. In selecting such an obvious family favorite, he puts himself into a precarious position, but, come to think of it, not too unlike the football Giants Coughlin’s position upon the selection of Chris Snee. And that turned out just fine.

I’m hoping the Italian Connection just points to D’Antoni’s beliefs in the kid’s abilities, which are prodigious by all accounts. But at 210 pounds, it’s a little hard to believe he could become any kind of post presence, something the Knicks desperately need, or would have needed the way they used to play.

Of course, a little more shooting never hurts, but that hasn’t really been the Knicks problem. It’s been more the curious inability of the likes of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph to get up in the air once in a while, or great while, for that matter. But the best big man available at number 6 was Brook Lopez of Stanford, whom nobody expects to really set the NBA back on its heels.

Rome wasn’t built in a day though, even if you do bring in an Italian. I just hope he’s the shooter and ball-handler Donnie Walsh expects. I suppose the inadequacies in the post can be addressed later. After all, the Knicks have been pretty bad for a long time, what’s a season or two among friends?

The Nets surely made a lot of moves, though whether it made them any better is seriously open to question. Trading Richard Jefferson (BYE RICHARD!) is a significant loss of scoring and why don’t Bobby Simmons and Yi Xiang send me? They certainly did get bigger though, nabbing center Brook Lopez of Stanford with the 10^th pick and then what might be a very serviceable Ryan Anderson at 21.

Right now, it looks as if Vice Carter will have to do a lot of scoring, not that he’s incapable of it. But, if the 6’10” 240 pound Anderson can light up the NBA as he did the Pac 10, anything is possible. Not that I expect it this year. It seems to me the Nets are gearing up for a great first season in Brooklyn. And, as a died in the wool Jerseyan, I can’t say it makes me happy.

But it all works for me. Mets-Yanks, Wimbledon, and the never-ending saga of basketball misfortunes in New York. You can’t say it’s ever boring, or even likely to be.