ESPN’s Mark Stein is the first to report that the Dallas Mavericks have fired coach Avery Johnson a day after being bounced from the NBA playoffs by the New Orleans Hornets.

Johnson had a tumultuous last few months on the job in Dallas. He was roundly criticized late in the regular season for benching future Hall-of-Famer Jason Kidd, who had just been acquired in a trade, for the final 35 seconds of a game. A few weeks after this, Johnson allegedly got in a shouting match with Mavs’ owner Mark Cuban.

But the most telling sign of Avery’s status with the team might have come the day after Sunday’s game 4 loss to the Hornets. According to reports, Mavericks player Josh Howard, who stirred controversy recently by admitting to smoking pot in the off-season, had a wild birthday party in the hours after game 4. When the team showed up the next day, Johnson demanded to know which players had attended the party. Only a handful admitted to having partied with Howard, but this was enough to send Johnson into a fit of rage during which he called off practice. The team, oblivious to Johnson’s anger, conducted practice itself before boarding the plane for New Orleans.

I think it’s safe to say that the Mavs stopped listening to Avery somewhere along the line. Now they won’t after worry about his nutty late-game benchings of Hall-of-Famers, his yappy sarcastic rants about wanting to be blamed for stuff, and his complete inability to figure out a strategy to slow down Chris Paul. He’s gone. And next year they will have a new coach…possibly Jeff Van Gundy or Del Harris. And neither of them will get Dirk Nowitzki to toughen up either, meaning the Mavs will again fail to win a championship.

Initial reports about Sean Avery’s medical condition proved somewhat hysterical and basically inaccurate.

Originally, it was reported, via “reliable sources,” that Avery had gone into cardiac arrest and been rushed to the hospital. Now the team has clarified the situation by informing us that, though Avery was indeed taken to the hospital, he did not go in an ambulance, but was driven there by a team doctor.

Additionally, Avery did not die or come close to death, but was suffering from a lacerated spleen and experienced some internal bleeding.

The injury happened when Avery was hit during the Rangers’ 5-3 playoff loss to the Penguins Tuesday night. He will not be returning to play this season, but is expected to recover fully.

yankees starter Phil Hughes has a good explanation for why he can’t pitch worth a damn this year - it’s the glare from the stadium lights.

Hughes claims that, though he has good eyesight generally, he experiences blurriness in certain stadiums because of the glare. This blurriness apparently caused him to misread a signal from Yankees catcher Chris Stewart during his start Tuesday night.

“I thought I saw something different than what he put down,” Hughes said. “The sequence [of signals] made me think curveball, but he called for a fastball.”

The curveball Hughes threw ended up being a 2-strike wild pitch to Gary Sheffield to advance a baserunner. Mr. Sheffield deposited the next pitch in the seats for a two-run homer.

The Tigers went on to beat the Yankees 6-4. Hughes went 3 2/3, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits, and raising his ERA to a nice round 9.00.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Hughes got booed by the Yankee Stadium crowd. That probably made him wish he were deaf as well as blind.

Honestly, how the hell can you have a blind starting pitcher? A one-armed pitcher like Jim Abbott is okay. Or a one-legged one like Monty Stratton. Or even a mentally retarded one like Kyle Farnsworth. But blind? That ain’t gonna fly, man.

Controversial New York Rangers hockey player and fashion-plate Sean Avery was reportedly rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning in cardiac arrest. Sources say Avery was unconscious and not breathing when he was found. A team source confirmed that Avery was taken to the hospital but would give no further details.

Avery and the Rangers lost their playoff game to the Penguins in Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. Whatever happened to him, happened after the game. It would be insane and unfair to speculate…but there was probably booze involved, and also maybe pills.

(picture: skate2stick.com)

The talk all throughout the Pistons/76ers series has been about the Pistons’ switch.

Is the switch in the on position or the off? It’s the playoffs, so shouldn’t it always be on? And why is Rasheed Wallace joking around with the other team in crunch-time? What position is his switch in?

I guess ‘Sheed’s switch was on “serious” Tuesday night, cause he scored 19 on 8-12 shooting with 3 threes and 6 blocks. Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton were also on, cause they both scored over 20. With those three guys on, the Pistons beat the Sixers 98-81, and now lead the series 3-2.

The Dallas Mavericks now know what they need to win an NBA championship: Chris Paul.

Unfortunately, Mr. Paul plays for the New Orleans Hornets, and I doubt they will be looking to trade him any time soon.

The Mavs became even more intimately familiar with the dynamic, sometimes dominating skills of Mr. Paul in game 5 Tuesday night, when Paul put up 24 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists. That’s called a triple-double in the biz.

The Mavs’ Jason Kidd knows about triple-doubles too…just not in this series. The best-laid plans of Mark Cuban included trading for Kidd mid-season, but the much-ballyhooed deal did not deliver the desired result.

So, for all the talk about how crazily competitive the West was this year, three out of the four first-round series are over in 5 games, one being a sweep. Obviously, Dallas, Phoenix and Denver were not as good as everyone thought. Phoenix looks like it will have a new coach, and Denver may very well too. But Dallas?

If Mark Cuban knows what’s good for him, Avery Johnson will also be fired.

The Phoenix Suns were unable to follow-up their game 4 blow-out of the Spurs with a game 5 victory, and are therefore eliminated from the playoffs.

Phoenix is not new to being ousted from the post-season by San Antonio - it also happened to them last year. And Amare Stoudemire, for one, is tired of the pattern.

“Every year it seems like we always play the Spurs, and they beat us every single time,” Stoudemire said. “As long as I’m here we’re going to break it sooner or later, because I’m tired of losing to these guys. I’m sick and fed up.”

The Suns will have to improve in a few areas if they ever want to beat San Antonio in the playoffs. The main thing they need is a defensive stopper they can put on Tony Parker, who ran them over all series, including game 5 when he put up 31. And, frankly, they need a better coach.

Speaking of Mike DAntoni…it looks like he’s going to make Phoenix’s decision a lot easier by forcing his way out. Reportedly, D’Antoni believes the organization does not have his back. He wants permission to seek a job elsewhere, perhaps Chicago or New York. No one is commenting officially yet, but it appears D’Antoni is as good as gone.

Earlier today I wondered if Kevin Garnett might get suspended for shoving referee Ed Rush during a small scrum in the second quarter of last night’s Celtics/Hawks game. Now we have the answer…no, he will not.

In fact, no suspensions have been handed out over the altercation, which featured technical fouls for KG, Joe Johnson, Sam Cassell and Zaza Pachulia, and saw Marvin Williams and Kendrick Perkins get up from but not entirely leave the bench.

The league did the right thing here. It was not really a brawl, just a bunch of manly pushing and guys jawing at each other. Garnett clearly didn’t push Rush very severely, plus Williams and Perkins only barely left the bench area. No reason to send this series spiraling into controversy the same way last year’s Spurs/Suns series was.

Paul Pierce has been fined $25,000 for making a “menacing gesture” toward Atlanta’s Al Horford late in the Celtics’ game 3 loss to the Hawks. Said “menacing gesture” has been interpreted by some as a gang sign:

The Celtics deny the gesture was gang-related, but say the three fingers sign represents “blood, sweat and tears” a rallying cry for the Celtics this season (and also a crappy jazz-rock band from the ’60s).

“Watch what Paul does when he’s introduced. He’s done it for every game,” said Celtics director of basketball operations Danny Ainge. “That’s not anything related to gangs.”

Commissioner David Stern declined to confirm whether the fine was levied specifically because the gesture was gang-related.

“I don’t know. But I know it was unique. . . . You can check the gesture and you can check what it’s usually compared to. Our guys made their decision. I’m not into the etymology of gestures.

“You analyze the situation on the basis of all the available evidence and likelihood. You make the decision. And our decision is that there were two menacing gestures.”

I know it’s the heat of battle and all that, but why can’t guys leave the gang signs and the choking gestures and all the other crap out of it? It’s such playground nonsense. And if you are going to drop a gang sign on someone, better have your boys there backing you up. Glocks and MAC-10s at midnight. That’s what I’m sayin’.

It’s been 25 years since Lee Elia alienated Cubs fans, apparently for all-time, by going on a profane rant against them after an afternoon of booing at Wrigley Field. The meltdown remains one of the great pieces of audio in sports history. Let’s all enjoy it one more time (NSFW):

boomp3.com

The Cubs were 5-14 at the time of the tirade. They would finish the season 71-91…and Elia himself would be fired before that season was even over.