More photos » Evan Vucci - AP

Daniel Snyder shaking hands with his newest multi-million dollar investment... hopefully this one pays out better than Zorn, Gibbs, Spurrier...

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Earlier this week, SB Nation's Andrew Sharp asked a simple question. What's more valuable in sports: a great owner, or a great player?

He used the example of the lowly Nets as he pondered if they would be better off getting the #1 overall pick or an insanely wealthy owner who was willing to spend dollars like they are going out of style (which I think they technically are).

It was a really good article, breaking down each major sports league - as to who was more important to a team's success, the owner or the player.

Check out the article @ http://www.sbnation.com/2010/3/11/1365424/you-choose-owner-or-draft-pick

Clearly we at Project Franchise think that its not quite that cut and dry - as we believe that it starts with the owner (and their GM/"Front Office"), but that all the money in the world wont necessarily buy a winning team... Just ask Daniel Snyder. Hopefully our team will help to show a new model, where the fans actually have a voice and can help make the best decisions for a team as a group - meaning there is really a new component in the formula, where the quality of the team will be dependent on the quality of the fans!

How awesome was that USA hockey win over Canada? Inspirational you say? Well the team was inspired for sure...by a 5-year-old.

Apparently Josh Sacco and his dad Jim have watched the movie "Miracle" over and over again, so much so, that Josh has memorized Coach Herb Brooks speech (down to the same outfit and pre-game notes). Prior to the big win on Sunday, Josh gave this exact speech to Team USA, and well, I think it's fair to say the kid must've done a pretty good job.

They better keep this kid around for the remainder of the Vancouver games.

Miracle-Herb Brooks" Pre-Game Speech (via jsacco14)

As a feature of tonights SC, ESPN decided to put together a baseball version of 2-Pac & Biggie - a couple of 90's sports stars talkin mad $h*t via the media. I'm 100% sure that Jose Canseco is a slimey dirtbag who has shamed himself and the game, and who is not telling the truth about steroids because of a more objective, but rather to make money and screw the sport he believed screwed him - however, compared to McGwire he's a friggin saint. Big Mac has similarly only come groveling back to the public just so he can have a prayer of getting into the HOF and so that he can go work with Tony LaRussa in St Louis - who is basically the new McGwire as he lies to our faces and dodges questions about how much he knew about the Bash Bros juicing while he was in charge in Oaktown.

The QOTH was delivered by Canseco during his rebuttal to McGwire saying he wont stoop to Jose's level, when he called out Big Mac's tearful apology citing the classic Jimmy Dugan line as he sheepishly turned and looked directly into the camera - "Mark, there's no crying in baseball, you know that..."

ZINGGGGGGG! For a strange, twitching weirdo who literally got knocked out the last time we saw him on TV that's a hell of a line... Hopefully just enough to force McGwire back into the dark cave he's been hibernating in for the past 5 years.

More photos » Gary Dineen - NBAE/Getty Images

Kobe Bryant is a great player and has made a number of clutch shots, but he still can't come compare to Jordan. (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)

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Today on ESPN's 1st and 10 Jemele Hill proved why she should not have a job analyzing sports, particularly professional basketball.  On the show she debated two points with Skip Bayless.  The first was who between Kobe and Jordan was more clutch and the second was who was better at the age of 20, Durant or Lebron.  

On the first point Jemele stated that Kobe was a better clutch player than His Airness.  Am I a Kobe hater? Yes. Do I accept that Kobe Bryant is one of the 15 greatest players in NBA history?  Yes.  

To even put Kobe's ability to perform in pressure situations on the same level as Jordan's is absolutely ridiculous. 

In 6 NBA Finals appearances, Jordan won six titles and six Finals MVP trophies with several game-winning Finals shots, including Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, his last Finals appearance.  

Kobe has also made 6 Finals appearances, winning 4 titles, 3 with the most dominating center of this era and has won a total of one Finals MVP trophy.  He has made one game-winning Finals shot against the Pistons in Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals, a series the Lakers went on to lose comprehensively 4-1.

Jordan averaged 33.4 points in the playoffs, the all-time record, on 48.7% shooting from the field to go along with averages of 6.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists.  All of these are increases from his regular season averages.

Kobe also has impressive playoff averages of 25.0 points on 44.7% shooting to go with 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists.  His points and rebounds average slightly decrease from his regular season totals and his field goal percentage is nearly an entire percent lower than his regular season average.  His assists average goes up by 0.1. 

The fact that you can't hand check players and that the level of contact allowed now is far less than during MJ's prime makes it even more amazing to see what Jordan accomplished.  I could keep going on, but if you want more proof of how in every way Jordan is more clutch, check out these stats.

Bryant: Career Achievements and Playoff Stats

Jordan: Career Achievements and Playoff Stats

Now her second argument was that Durant as 20 year-old was slightly better than James simply because he had a better outside touch.  This is the most ridiculous premise to determine who's a better player because it simply neglects other aspects of the game.  

Durant's average of 25.3 points per game on 47.6% shooting is outstanding.  He also averaged 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists.  All in all an extremely impressive second year in the league at the age of 20.  

James played with more pressure on him as a phenom in his second year than Durant has ever experienced and averaged 27.2 points on 47.2% shooting.  I will agree with Jemele that Durant has a more polished perimeter shooting game at this age than James had at that age.  However James averaged 7.4 rebounds and a ridiculous 7.2 assists as well.  He also averaged one more steal per game than Durant (2.2 to 1.3).  

None of this is to say that Kobe is not a great player or that Durant is not one of the most talented young players in the history of the NBA.  However to compare Kobe's or any player's pressure situation abilities to Jordan's is an act of stupidity anybody who watched playoff games in the 90's knows without looking at the numbers.  Similarly Lebron's all-around game was so much more advanced than Durant's at the same age that looking at one aspect such as perimeter scoring and then using that as a basis to determine a better player is perhaps an even greater act of stupidity.

Then again rooting for the Celtics is exactly like rooting for Hitler, right Jemele?

In coming to the live MNF post-game show from Candlestick an excited Stuart Scott announced they were in "The City by the Bay... some people call it the 'Yay Area'!"

We're all for SS and his hip hop culture references - the original "Booyah" was legendary - but he's getting too old for this stuff. For starters that "Buck is when internal artistry...." blah blah blah line is straight lame, yet he seems to go to it on the regular - somewhere in Compton Lil C cringes every time he hears it. And now this one is just plain silly - does he know what exactly he's saying?! For out of towners or those not in the know, "Yay Area" is a reference to the heavy local crack cocaine drug business that many believe originated in Oakland - doesn't really seem appropriate for a sports TV show who's hippest star, Steve Young, is a mormon lawyer.

Glad to hear he is finally bumping E-40, but SS may want to run the rap lyrics by his kids before he busts em out on air.

More photos » David Liam Kyle - NBAE/Getty Images

Don't blame Lebron for dancing, blame David Stern and the excessive suspensions in place if players tried to police the game themselves. (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)

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"If a guy was doing the Riverdance like that, coach would come over and say, 'Who's got the fewest amount of fouls of my big fellas?' " said ex-Celtic and TNT analyst Kevin McHale. "If you raised your hand, he would say, 'We will let him drive and then we will throw him on the ground.'

"When he is laying there we would say, 'Do you feel like dancing now?'

"And that pretty much solved the dancing problem."

Let's imagine that what McHale said would happen back in his day took place today.  To begin with, both teams would pretend to actually want to fight, but since since fights never happen in the NBA nobody would actually do anything.  The reason why a fight has almost no chance of happening is because of the heavy suspensions that is now imposed on any sort of slightly physical play.  

Any time there's any kind of physical play, there is an immediate reaction that a flagrant foul needs to be called and then announcers usually will say something like "there's no place for that in the game".  Well if there's no place for that in the game then you can't really complain about guys showboating and you should expect Lebron to continue his "Riverdance" (Kevin McHale you were a horrible GM, but that was slightly redeeming).  

It's gotten to the point where a guy like Kendrick Perkins is considered a tough guy.  Bitch please.  Oakley would slap Perkins silly and not one player on the Celtics would be man enough to step to him (I'm looking at you wannabe thug Paul Pierce, throwing up the B against the Hawks).  If you think I'm joking go watch some clips of the early 90's Knicks.  Yeah, we never won a championship, but if you had to choose one team in the history of the NBA in a fight, you would choose that team because we had Oakley and Mason.  Do you really need anybody else?

When players could settle things on the court like that, you didn't have these problems.  That's why you never saw Jordan, Bird, Magic, Dr. J or any other great player dancing around on the court.  Back then if you were talking trash and trying to show a player up, you better believe your ass was going down hard whenever the opportunity presented itself.  

The league was obviously tougher when you allowed the players to police it themselves.  Ever since the Malice in the Palace the league has become excessive in its punishments of players involved in fights or any physical play that could lead to confrontation.  Remember the last "fight' in the NBA between the Knicks and Nuggets?

There were maybe 3 punches thrown, followed by Carmelo's bitch slap and run (seriously just look). The suspensions in comparison to the fight were insane.  Melo got 15 games for his slap and both Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith were hit with 10 game suspensions for their wrestling match.  Then after the fight we had to hear about how this was such a disgusting act that tarnished the game and that "there's no excuse for behavior like this".

If the blame should go anywhere for Lebron's dancing and the less physical brand of basketball we watch today, look at David Stern and the league office.

Wilbon doing a teaser for what was coming after the commercial break - "And drop everything... It's Braylon Edwards!"

ZZZiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnngggggggggggg!!!!!!!!

And one more time proof that there is still some good sports talk on ESPN... Of course outside of PTI it really only occurs on Saturday & Sunday mornings in the fall.

I was watching SportsCenter earlier today and Neil Everret (who i am pretty sure I saw wearing a wallet chain during a broadcast a few days ago) was talking about Tiger's latest skank to come forward and he slipped and called her "cockstress" instead of "cocktail waitress".  Neil's Freudian slip couldn't be more perfect.  Cheers!