There have been some amazing moments at the Democratic convention tonight, including Hillary Clinton's motion to nominate Barack Obama by acclimation and Bill Clinton's speech, and I hope Joe Biden is about to add another one.

But I'm not sure anyone can top the speech Beau Biden just made to introduce his father.

That had to be an excruciating speech for Hillary Clinton to give, but she did a superb job.

I would like to point out for the record that in Michigan's 9th Congressional District, which includes, among others, aiela, renniekins, cjdoyle, jenx and me, there are four candidates for the House of Representatives on the November ballot.

1) Gary Peters (D) - A friend that I've known for 18 years.
2) Joe Knollenberg (R) - America's worst Congressman.
3) Adam Goodman (L) - Don't know anything about him.
4) Jack Kevorkian (I) - Really. That Jack Kevorkian.

I know which way I'm going to vote.

A BBC soccer reporter is in trouble for saying that a team's defense "had more holes than a Spanish airliner."

What would even vaguely make you consider saying something like that?

I saw something new at the Olympics tonight. At the medal ceremony for the marathon, the Ethiopian bronze medalist appeared to be singing the Kenyan national anthem. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Well, it might have happened as recently as yesterday, but there's no direct evidence, and it is a slightly different situation. At the beginning of the US anthem during the women's basketball medal ceremony, they showed a long shot of all three teams, and "Russian" Becky Hammon clearly had her hand over her heart. I've not seen any shot that shows if she was actually singing.

By the way, all but one of the American women sang the anthem - Diana Taurasi was the only one who did not. Lisa Leslie brought her gold medals from 1996, 2000 and 2004 to the ceremony, so she was wearing all four during the anthem.

I was surprised at how emotional some of the American men were during their medal ceremony. Chris Paul was crying, LeBron looked like he was tearing up, and Kobe Bryant looked like it was the greatest day of his life. I don't think a single American gold medalist in any sport sang the national anthem with more enthusiasm than he did.

He's not the worst possible VP choice - Clinton would have been worse - but he's about as bad a choice as I can imagine. You're running on change, and you pick the ultimate Washington insider. And by picking someone who "strengthens Obama's weaknesses in foreign policy and experience", all you do is confirm that Obama *has* weaknesses in foreign policy and experience.

I'm sure they will use him as the attack dog while Obama stays above the fray, but he's got too many negatives. They would have been better off with a "no-name" candidate.

Remember, Dan Quayle won.

As some of you may remember, I picked a fantasy Olympic team before the games. The rule is 5 points for gold, 3 for silver, 1 for bronze and -5 for doping. I picked a team that was a mix of silly names and superstars. With two days of competition left, let's see how I've done:

#1: Usain Bolt, track & field, Jamaica. He's done pretty well, I'd say. Three events, three gold medals, three world records. 15 points.

#2: Ser-Od Bat-Ochir, track & field, Mongolia. Doesn't compete until Sunday.

#3: Yelana Isinbayeva, track & field, Russia. Won the pole vault, breaking her own world record. Five points gives me a total of 20.

#4: Natalie Coughlin, swimming, United States. Won six medals - one gold, two silver and three bronze. 14 points gives me 34.

#5: Michael Phelps, swimming, United States. If you don't know how this one turned out, you haven't watched any Olympic coverage at all. Eight golds. 40 points. 74 and counting.

#6: Do Thi Ngan Thuong, gymnastics, Vietnam. Ooops. The good news is that she finished last in the all-around. The bad news is that she was then expelled from the Olympics for a positive drug test. In her defense, the IOC said it was not meant as a performance enhancer - she took a PMS pill. Still, that's a five-point penalty, so I'm down to 69.

#7: Brad Pitt, boxing, Australia. Lost in the first round. Adopted four children.

#8: Natalia Valeeva, archery, Italy. Lost in the round of 32.

#9: Nivalter Jesus, canoe, Brazil. Finished seventh in the semifinals in both the 500 and 1000-meter races.

#10: Cadel Evans, cycling, Australia. Fifth in the time trial.

#11: Becky Holder, equestrian, United States. She and her former racehorse, Courageous Comet, finished 42nd in the three-day event.

#12: Tsagaanbaatar Hashbaatar, judo, Mongolia. Lost in the first round.

#13: Sheila Taormina, modern pentathlon, United States. Finished 19th despite great performances in swimming and riding.

#14: Venus Williams, tennis, United States. Lost early in the singles, but won doubles gold with her sister. Back up to 74 points.

#15: Viktors Scerbatihs, weightlifting, Latvia. Bronze medal. Lifted 533 pounds over his head. Now at 75 points.

#16: Jarkko Ala-Huikku, wrestling, Finland. Lost in the round of 16.

#17: Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, beach volleyball, United States. Won gold for the second Olympiad in a row. 80 points.

#18: United States women's basketball. Playing Australia in the gold-medal game in about 12 hours.

So 80 points, plus a very probable five from the American women's basketball team.

But whatever happens, we'll have the best-looking victory party:

( Pictures )

I found it interesting that, in her sit-down interview with Bob Costas, 16-year-old Shawn Johnson was carrying her three silver medals, wearing her gold medal, and also sporting a very large pair of peace-sign earrings.

I don't know that it was meant as a political statement, but it was still nice to see.

From Yahoo! Sports' Olympics blog:

Every judging break seems to have gone China's way during these Olympics. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, I just think that judges are humans who are influenced by big names, fans and other external factors. Oh, and they're also terrible. Judged events will always be viewed with skepticism by those who lose for this reason, particularly those who lose to a member of the home delegation. (Think Roy Jones Jr. at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.)

It is because of this skewed inconsistency that Fourth-Place Medal introduces The Real 2008 Medal Count. Our medal count will tally medals won in sports decided on the field of play, not by a judge in a teal blazer.

The judged Olympic events we will ignore for our tally are: boxing, diving, equestrian, gymnastics, judo, taekwondo, trampoline and wrestling. We debated whether to include boxing, wrestling and the martial arts in the list, as they can be decided by competitors. However, because the judging is prone to error and shenaningans, we will include it.

The Real 2008 Medal Count
China: 22 gold; 11 silver; 11 bronze
United States: 21 gold; 19 silver; 21 bronze

As you can see, in the events where medals are determined by competitors rather than judges, the gold medal gap between China and the U.S. is greatly narrowed, and the total medal count is an American runaway. Counting the judged events, China has a commanding lead in golds. Hmmm... Nope, nothing fishy about that!

Wow. That's an original idea. I wish I had thought of that 12 years ago.

As part of my Olympic blogging, I decided to try to watch every sport at least once. I've done a pretty good job of this - I've watched, in alphabetical order:

Archery
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Field Hockey
Gymnastics
Handball
Judo
Rowing
Shooting
Soccer
Softball
Swimming
Table Tennis
Track & Field
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling

I missed tennis, but I'm not going to hold it against myself - it is one of the few sports where I've ever covered any of the gold medal winners.

I haven't seen any canoeing/kayaking, but I'll make sure to catch some before the competition ends.

There's diving on CBC's overnight coverage, which I'm taping, so I suppose I can watch a few minutes of that.

Modern pentathlon and taekwondo haven't even started yet.

I have no plan to watch rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline or synchronized swimming.

That leaves sailing. I was worried about that, because I haven't been able to find any coverage of it on NBC's Olympic site. The one time I tried, the race got postponed due to a lack of wind. Tonight, though, I found the last race of the Laser class. These are small one-man boats, and I have no idea what is happening. I've watched America's Cup races in the past, and I never understand those either. I can see how you make the boat go in the same direction as the wind, but not the other direction.

The race, which is now over, was actually quite exciting. The New Zealand boat won by a few seconds over Slovenia - it all took about 30 minutes. The guy from Great Britain only had to finish the race to win gold, and he did, despite the Swedish guy trying something that the commentator seemed to think was vaguely nefarious. The Swede ended up last, which knocked him entirely out of the medals. Slovenia got silver and Italy finished third in the race and third overall.

In a few minutes, the last race of the Laser Radial class is going to start. Those are slightly smaller versions of the Lasers, sailed by women. The American, Anna Tunnicliffe, has a big lead going into the last race, and will win gold if she does well in this race at all. I'd love to stay up and cheer for her, especially since she's from Michigan, but it is 2 in the morning, and I'm tired.

I hope she wins.

[UPDATE 1: OK, I stayed up. Tunnicliffe crossed the start line too early, had to double back, and she fell back to 8th place. Right now, just past halfway, she's in 9th, which would mean a silver medal. However, apparently, the wind is shifting slightly to the right, which might help her. How, I have no idea.]

[UPDATE 2: The commentator on NBCOlympics.com just typed "Shee suddenly GETS HER SHIFT, THIS IS AMAZING. HAND IN THERE USA." Not a clue what that means.]

[UPDATE 3: Apparently, it was good, because she made the turn in third. Now there is just a downwind leg to the finish. If she hangs onto third, she wins the gold.]

[UPDATE 4: Gold medal for Anna Tunnicliffe! I have no idea what just happened, but it was very cool. She went way to the left on the upwind leg, and apparently the wind changed just at the right time, so she jumped from 9th to 3rd in a very short time. It was very tight when she cut in front of the Chinese boat to make the turn. Then, on the downwind leg, she was right behind the Australian boat, so it had to tack away, which moved Anna into second, which was more than enough for her to win the overall title.]

[UPDATE 5: Just for the record, Lithuania's Gintare Volungeviciute ended up with the silver medal, and I hope I never have to type that name again. No, I didn't cut-and-paste it. That would have been cheating.]

Wow.

I don't know what else to say. I usually sit in a movie mentally composing these posts, but not this time. I was too far into the story.

I think Heath Ledger is going to win Best Actor, and I think he deserves it. He was incredible. But I don't think they would have given it to him had he lived - I have a hard time seeing the Academy voting for that role in that movie for Best Actor.

I just don't think I ever want to see it again, and neither does Angie. It was just so dark and so disturbing that I'd be uncomfortable knowing it was all coming again.

The only meaningful flaw that the movie had for me was that I didn't particularly like Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel. I know that had to find someone, since Katie Holmes wouldn't play the role again, but Gyllenhaal just doesn't impress me as an actress.

I have one question, but I'll put them behind a cut for ( spoilers )

(reposted from my sports blog - LJ feed available at motorcitysports - so that you all can see what you are missing)

Final results: Men's Shot Put
Gold: Tomasz Majewski (POL) 21.51 meters
Silver: Christian Cantwell (USA) 21.09
Bronze: Andrei Mikhnevich (BLR) 21.05
4: Dylan Armstrong (CAN) 21.04

Armstrong was third going into the final round, but Cantwell hit a big throw to move from fourth to second. Armstrong fouled on his last throw, meaning he missed out on the bronze by a centimeter. Canada still doesn't have a medal.

The US also knocked Canada out of the women's soccer tournament and beat the Canadians 8-1 in softball. That's another point of evidence in why softball is being taken out of the Olympics - in four games, the United States has gone 4-0, outscored their opponents 29-1 and allowed two hits. Two no-hitters and two one-hitters.

One of the odder stories of the Athens Olympics had a happy ending on Day 7. In 2004, American rifleman Matt Emmons had a massive lead going into the final shot - three points in an event where the normal scores on a shot range from 10.8 to 9.8. All he had to do was hit the target and he had the gold.

He shot and didn't think anything was different than any of his other shots. As he prepared to see the score that would officially give him gold, he saw "0.0". After several minutes of confusion, it turned out that, in an unbelievable mistake, he had shot at the next target over. Instead of gold, he finished eighth.

After congratulating the medalists in remarkably good spirits, he retreated to a Olympic Village nightspot. Also there was Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova, who had just won a bronze medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle event. While doing interviews on Czech TV, they had asked her to stay on the air and do color commentary for the men's 50-meter rifle event. She said that Emmons had been so impressive that she had been cheering for him as the event went on, and was crushed when he made the terrible error at the end.

So, at the beer garden, Kurkova approached Emmons to offer some words of consolation. He thanked her, and they started talking.

Yesterday, Matt Emmons won the silver medal in the 50-meter rifle event, giving him some redemption for his mistake in Athens. That doesn't give him family bragging rights, though. Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova-Emmons has already won gold and silver in her two events.

I didn't see Katerina Emmon's medal ceremony, but she'd be hard-pressed to top the performance put on by American pixie Nastia Liukin, who won the all-around gymnastics gold last night. Liukin was a bit of a surprise - Shawn Johnson was the defending world champion and as tended to finish ahead of Liukin in big competitions - and she seemed pretty stunned by the whole thing.

When the medalists came out from the ceremony, Liukin's face was a portrait of unexploded joy, and she stayed that way as Yang Yi Lin got her bronze medal and Johnson got the silver.

Then they started to introduce Liukin, and she was OK as they proceeded through the multiple languages ... at least until they said "gold medalist and Olympic champion." That's when the tears started welling up in her eyes.

She tried to sing the national anthem, but she wasn't having much success keeping her emotions together. Like so many American athletes, she came apart when the song got to "land of the free and home of the brave".

Bronze medalist Yang Yi Lin is one of the three Chinese gymnasts that are at the center of the age controversy. Gymnasts must turn 16 by 12/31/2008 to be eligible to compete in these Olympics, and there are questions as to whether any of the three top Chinese performers are actually old enough. Well, actually, there doesn't seem to be any doubt at all about He Ke Xin. The Chinese national press agency, Xinhua, referred to her as a up-and-coming 13-year-old star in 2007 and mentioned her as a 14-year-old in May of this year. Now, her birthday is listed as Jan. 1, 1982.

Of course, the stories in question have now both been pulled from Xinhua's web archive. At the moment, the IOC is saying that they don't see a problem, because the gymnasts' passports are in order. They aren't going to rock any boats in China, so nothing will happen unless absolute proof shows up.

None of that matters to the medal standings, since gymnastics doesn't count. The United States hacked away most of China's lead, thanks to swimming gold medals from Michael Phelps, Rebecca Soni and Ryan Lochte. Track & field is also underway, with the US taking the silver in the shot put and a bronze in the women's 10,000.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 17-9-5=117
2) United States 13-10-18=113
3) South Korea 6-9-3=60
4) Australia 5-5-8=48
5) Italy 6-4-4=46
6) France 3-8-6=45
7) Japan 6-2-3=39
8) Russia 3-6-6=39
9) Germany 5-1-3=31
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 6-0-0=30
10) Great Britain 3-2-1=22
11) Slovakia 3-1-0=18
12) Ukraine 3-0-3=18
13) Cuba 1-3-4=18
14) Czech Republic 2-2-0=16
15) Hungary 0-4-1=13
16) Azerbaijan 1-2-1=12
17) Holland 1-1-4=12
18) Georgia 2-0-1=11
19) North Korea 1-1-3=11
X) NatalieCoughlinville 1-1-2=10
20) Romania 1-1-1=9

justinelavaworm might be able to help settle poor aiela's mind. :)

Book 34 was The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfeld, the other half of "Succession", one book split into two.

The pace definitely picked up, and I was definitely more sucked into it than I had been the first one. I plowed through it during lunch breaks at work, before bed, etc.

And then the unthinkable happened.

It ended.

But it didn't just end - it ended with new questions being asked. With the uncertainty of an empire hanging in the balance of some pretty shocking news.

...

And Scott Westerfeld is not likely to write in his adult book universes anymore, according to his web page.

Now, one can't blame him. He gets better (read, any) fan mail from the teens. He sells more books. And, as I've said, I think the YA stuff of his I've read is better. I think he's really found his niche and I can't blame him at all for following his career along the best path possible.

But ARGH. I'm the kind of girl who slogged through an entire four book series that was POORLY WRITTEN because there was a hook in the plot I was interested in seeing how it works out. I read the entire Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster, even though the last four were HORRIBLE. I am a completionist, if that's even a word. I need to know these things.

...and I guess I'm just going to have to make up my own ending in my head for this one. :P

I'm wearing my guacamole-green PGA Championship shirt, but I'm both amused and alarmed by the fact that it is an "Antigua Desert Dry" shirt.

Antigua Desert?

By the way, I've been doing my daily Olympic reports on my sports blog, and you should all be reading them! You can also access them in a slightly delayed manner via motorcitysports.

The NBC color commentator on the Australia-Brazil women's basketball game was just raving about Lauren Jackson and how much she loves her game. She then went on to add that LJ just won a championship in Russia and "is probably going to win one in the WNBA."

It was about 10 minutes later before they mentioned that the color commentator, Swin Cash, happens to play on the same WNBA team as Jackson. Seattle very might win the title, but I'm not sure Swin is exactly providing a neutral perspective on the matter.

NBC is streaming tons of live Olympic coverage live from Beijing. There aren't any announcers, other than the stadium PA guys, but you can see just about every event, no matter how obscure.

Just in the last hour, I've watched the men's air-rifle final, won by an Indian when a Finn blew his last shot, and now I'm watching an archery quarterfinal between Russia and China. The Russians were winning at the halfway point, but China just hit three straight bulls-eyes to take the lead.

China wins to advance to the semifinals in what is apparently a huge upset. Too bad - I'm basically cheering for whoever is playing China in anything.

I'm not going to pretend that the last six days have all been wine and roses, but I was just kneeling on the grass 10 feet behind the green as Padraig Harrington sank an incredible 15-foot putt to win the PGA Championship.

Padraig has won three of the last six majors, something no mortal - in other words, not Tiger - has done since Tom Watson in 1982-83. He had to play 36 holes today on a brutally hard course and shot 66-66. That's incredible, especially for a guy who said all week that he didn't think he had a chance because he was so exhausted from everything that went with winning the British Open a few weeks ago.

He's also a great guy who sounds like the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

This was a long week, and I've still got 90 minutes or so to go, but this was something to remember.

This could be my last post. The media tent is creaking and swaying in the wind, and we were taking on water during the storm.

If this is it, I'll miss you all.

The leaders never hit a shot today - the rain came at 2:15 and they finally canceled play for the day at 6:15. I did just interview leader J.B. Holmes in a parking lot in a heavy thunderstorm - that was fun.

So the leaders will have to play 36 holes tomorrow, starting at 7:30 in the morning and ending around 7:30 in the evening.

Long, long day ahead.

In 1996, I entered a fantasy Olympics contest on ESPN.com. Instead of picking a team that would win, I picked people with interesting stories and interesting names.

I haven't found anyone that is doing such a contest, but someone posted a set of rules that would work:

• Pick three athletes from track and field (including the marathon), with at least one athlete from the field events.

• Pick two swimmers/divers.

• Pick one gymnast.

• Pick one boxer.

• Pick three athletes from all the other sports, though you can pick only one athlete from each discipline, and your picks must include a wrestler (Greco-Roman or freestyle, not that you could tell the difference) or a weightlifter.

• Pick one team from men's or women's basketball, men's or women's volleyball, men's or women's soccer, baseball, softball or team handball.

• You must have at least three non-American athletes on your team.

Scoring: Every individual gold medal is worth five points. Every silver medal is worth three points. Every bronze is worth one point. Every team gold medal is worth 10 points, every team silver is worth five points and every team bronze is worth two points.

Note: For our purposes, any pairs event, such as beach volleyball or synchronized swimming, is considered an individual competition with only a single medal counted. But if you have multiple athletes on a relay team, count each medal. Also, a gymnast's medal in the team competition counts as an individual medal.

Bonus points: If your athlete winds up on the Wheaties box, you receive 10 points. If your athlete makes the cover of Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek or ESPN The Magazine before the Olympic torch is extinguished, you get five extra points. If your athlete is a flag bearer in the closing ceremonies, you get two points. If your athlete makes a public protest about Tibet or Darfur, you get one point.

Oh, and be very careful with your picks -- every athlete busted for doping will cost you five points.

There's no way to hold a draft - the Opening Ceremonies are over and we're less than 12 hours away from the first medal ceremonies, but here's a team that we can all cheer for. It will be a mix of stars and people you've never heard of:

From track and field, we'll go with Jamaica's 100-meter star, Usain Bolt, Mongolian marathoner Ser-Od Bat-Ochir and Russian pole-vault legend Yelena Isinbayeva.

Two swimmers: Natalie Coughlin, because I'd be cheering for her anyway, and, of course, Michael Phelps.

One gymnast: Vietnam's Do Thi Ngan Thuong, mainly because I didn't know that Vietnam had a gymnastics team. And you have to like a four-word name where the words get progressively longer.

One boxer: Australian heavyweight Brad Pitt. I wonder how his wife feels about this.

Ten athletes from other sports (I know it said three, but since I have the only team in the league, I'm making it 10):

1) Italian archery queen Natalia Valeeva. This is her fifth Olympiad and she's competing for her third country: CIS in 1992, Moldova in 1996 and now three times for Italy.

2) Brazilian canoeist Nivalter Jesus. He should win easily - his canoe just skims across the top of the water.

3) Australian cyclist Cadel Evans. The man just biked approximately 37,000 miles in the Tour de France, all up mountains, and now he's racing in the Olympics after about a 15-minute break. He probably cycled to China.

4) American equestrian eventer Becky Holder. Why? Her horse, Courageous Comet, was a decent race horse back in the day.

5) Mongolian judoka Tsagaanbaatar Hashbaatar. Two names, three double a's.

6) American pentathlete Sheila Taormina. Three reasons - she's older than me, she's from Metro Detroit, and she's the first female athlete to compete in three different Olympic sports: swimming, triathlon and pentathlon.

7) American tennis player Venus Williams. Long-time readers of this blog know I'm a huge Venus Williams fan. One of the nicest people in sports.

8) Latvian weightlighter Viktors Scerbatihs. The favorite to win in the super-heavyweight division, which means he is very strong, and I am afraid of him.

9) Finnish wrestler Jarkko Ala-Huikku. I need one Finn.

10) American beach volleyballers Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. Just for the victory celebration.

And lastly, for my one team, I'll follow my tradition and take U.S. women's basketball.

Touchdown by Craphonso Thorpe.

Really.

The zoo millage got over 86% of the vote in Royal Oak!

It was over 75% in Oakland and Macomb, and even over 66% in Wayne. Overall, this is a resounding win for the Detroit Zoo.

I'm writing this from the biggest tent I've ever seen - the media center at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club. This thing has to be 30 feet high, 100 yards long and 40 yards wide.

This will be my home for the next six days or so - I'll be here from 10-7 every day through Sunday. The only early departure will be Thursday, when I have to get out of here in order to cover the Lions-Giants game at Ford Field.

One cool thing - I got press pass #6, which was my soccer jersey number through high school.

earthgoat is very talented.

That is all.

According to traffic.com, if I left Allen Park right now, my 17-mile drive home would take -1 minutes.

Arrrrr won the second race at Saratoga today.

That's pretty damn impressive considering he has a peg-leg, one eye and runs with a parrot on his shoulder.

They just announced the suspensions. This is directly from the league release:

• Shock forward Plenette Pierson has been suspended for four games for her actions that initiated and escalated the altercation.
• Shock assistant coach Rick Mahorn has been suspended for two games for escalating the altercation.
• Shock center Kara Braxton has been suspended for one game for leaving the area of the bench during an on-court altercation.
• Shock forward Tasha Humphrey has been suspended for one game for leaving the area of the bench during an on-court altercation.
• Shock guard Elaine Powell has been suspended for one game for leaving the area of the bench during an on-court altercation.
• Shock forward Sheri Sam has been suspended for one game for leaving the area of the bench during an on-court altercation.
• Sparks guard Shannon Bobbitt has been suspended for two games for leaving the area of the bench and becoming physically involved in an on-court altercation.
• Sparks guard Murriel Page has been suspended for two games for leaving the area of the bench and becoming physically involved in an on-court altercation.
• Sparks center Lisa Leslie has been suspended for one game for throwing a punch.
• Sparks forward DeLisha Milton-Jones has been suspended for one game for throwing a punch.
• Sparks forward Candace Parker has been suspended for one game for throwing a punch.

This is ridiculous. Pierson's four-game suspension is about right, but to give her four games and give Parker one game is a joke. I could see 4 to 3, but not 4 to 1. That means Candace Parker's actions are being judged to be as bad as Kara Braxton's. Braxton came about 10 feet onto the floor from the far end of the bench, and never got within 25 feet of the fight.

I understand exactly why Braxton got suspended - it is the same rule that screwed the Phoenix Suns a couple years ago. She did technically leave the bench. But you can't give her one game for that, then only give Parker one game for what she did.

As for Mahorn, I think he's lucky. I expected him to get a lot more than two games.

By the way, if Nancy Lieberman didn't make tonight's Detroit-Houston game (9:30 EDT, ESPN2) enough of a circus, the suspensions do. Barring a signing in the next seven hours, Detroit will have seven real players tonight - five guards and two little-used centers. They're going to be using Katie Smith or Sheri Sam at power forward - Sam doesn't serve her suspension until Sunday.

skyflame  asked if Nancy Lieberman hadn't been the coach of the Shock once. Yes, she was, and this excerpt from a Sports Illustrated article gives a pretty good idea of how well that ended:



Actually, Lieberman was fired at the end of the 2000 season with the franchise on the brink of folding. Anna DeForge also left the team, and didn't play again in the WNBA until 2003, then bounced back and became an All-Star. She credits Lieberman for that, saying they spent two full years working together on her career. They now run basketball camps together across the country.

Of course, none of that stopped Lieberman from writing glowing columns about DeForge for ESPN.com.