Random Rumblings: 10/15

• I was at Fenway for game four last night and will have more on that later... Not that there's much to say.
  
  
• He's as good a businessman as any commissioner in professional sports, but that doesn't make David Stern the best human today. With the country facing as bad an economic crisis as it has ever seen, the head of the NBA has decided to cut 9 percent of the league's US Staff, meaning about 80 people will be laid off.
  
  The announcement came Monday, just after wire reports that said the NBA is looking to play regular season games in London leading up to the 2012 Olympics and will partner with the Anschutz Entertainment Group to design around a dozen arenas in China with the first expected to be finished in 2010.
  
  Stern said the league would continue to hire in other countries.
  
  Of course it will. Stern clearly believes, and has for a while now, that the NBA has milked this country for all it is worth and needs to further its international reach in order to maintain basketball's status as the second most popular sport in world. The league will continue to spend millions to promote itself in China every year and even more in an attempt to gain relevance in the UK.
  
  It's a savvy, cost-cutting move to layoff people in this country, the one that has helped the league go mainstream, but Stern is sending a message that will undoubtedly be sent by many businesses in the coming months:
  
  In a recession, the first thing that goes is decency.
  
  
• It's amazing how popular it has become to trash Penn State because its coach is older than me and the four people who read this site combined.
  
  But the main difference between the Nittany Lions and so many other programs this year is the age of the actual players. Joe Paterno's squad seems to put a lot more juniors and seniors on the field than anyone else, and that will make a difference late in the season.
  
  
• Look, nobody wants to forget about the Isiah Thomas era in New York more than I do, but anyone who thinks Chris Duhon is a better point guard than Stephon Marbury is out of their mind.
  
  Let's make this clear: When healthy, and he apparently is, Marbury is the best basketball player the Knicks have.
  
  
• You know who has figured out its place on the internet? WEEI.com. New England's top sports radio station's website realizes that people aren't going there to see scores or updates, so it has hired all kinds of writers to provide excellent daily columns, as opposed to game stories.
  
  
• For some reason, I thought New Haven's Chad Dawson might finally get some respect in the sports world (he already had it in the boxing world) if he could beat a big-name opponent for a title. Well, he absolutely thrashed Antonio Tarver to remain unbeaten, and probably didn't gain a single new fan.
  
  That's how said a state boxing is currently in. When more people care about MMA, a sport that has more one hit wonders than the pop music industry, than they do about a dominate boxer that actually wins the fights he is expected to win, something is clearly wrong.
  
  Too much parity can be a bad thing, just ask the NFL...
  
  
• Maybe it's just because my fantasy football team is winless, but pro football just doesn't seem as fun this year. There seems to be more big-name injuries than in the past which is causing a lot of teams to underachieve.
  
  And I'm sorry, a Tennessee/Tampa Bay Super Bowl doesn't seem too exciting. In fact, the way it looks now, there is only one team that could make the Super Bowl as exciting as it should be:
  
  The Saints, led by Reggie Bush, who looks every bit as good as he was in college.