2K Trivia: The Quest For 2,000 Yards

Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson, fresh off a 2,006-yard season in 2009, has his eye on becoming the first player to turn the 2,000-yard season trick twice. Do you think he will do it? Last year, he was the sixth player to surpass the 2K milestone. O.J. Simpson was the first to do it (2,003 yds. in 1973), and Eric Dickerson set the NFL single-season mark with 2,105 yards in 1984. Can you name the other three players to gain 2,000-plus yards in a season? (Highlight the area following this post to reveal the answers.) Answers-->Barry Sanders (2,053 yds. in 1997), Terrell Davis (2,008 yds. in 1998) and Jamal Lewis (2,066 yds. in 2003).

Time Out For T.O. Trivia

Online reports indicate 14-year NFL receiver Terrell Owens has agreed to a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. Owens, 36, has caught 1,006 passes in his pro career, including 144 receiving touchdowns. Which brings us to a quick trivia question about T.O. - A third-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1996, Owens scored four TDs in his rookie season. Against which team did the former Tennessee-Chattanooga star score his first pro touchdown? Hint: The opponent was an AFC Central team at the time. (Highlight area directly after this post for the answer). T.O.'s 1st TD was vs. Cincinnati on 10/20/96.

And 1 (More) Team for Juwan Howard

Veteran NBA forward Juwan Howard today signed a deal with the Miami Heat, allowing him to join the highly touted triumvirate of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If he makes it on to the court in a Heat uniform, it would represent the eighth club for which he has seen game action (Washington, Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Houston, Charlotte, Portland, Miami).

J-E-T-S Honor J-O-E & Other Greats

Joe Namath, the guarantor of the New York Jets' Super Bowl III victory over the Baltimore Colts, will be part of the Jets' first Ring of Honor induction, scheduled for Aug. 16, at halftime of the first game at New Meadowlands Stadium, the team announced today. Joining Namath in the inaugural group will be Weeb Ewbank (shown at left with Namath), Winston Hill, Joe Klecko, Curtis Martin and Don Maynard.

The Magic's Mountain

As we head into the meat of the 2009 NBA Finals, today's trivia topic revolves around the Finals' 2-3-2 format. First adopted by the NBA for the 1985 playoffs, the format has been the way of life for the league's championship series ever since.

Love it? Hate it?

Well, Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic - down 0-2 to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers - better embrace the opportunity to get back in this series with potentially three games in a row at home.

I took a look at the archives and came up with some interesting discoveries about previous Finals teams tabbed to play the "middle three" games at home:

- Since 1985, only two of those teams swept their three consecutive home games and went on to win the NBA title ('03-04 Pistons and '05-06 Heat).

- Since 1985, only three "3-4-5" home teams won the NBA title despite losing one of their three home games ('84-85 Lakers, '92-93 Bulls and '97-98 Bulls).

It's a tall order for Orlando but there's no better time than now to get on a hot streak.

Above image: Anfernee Hardaway soars on a sweet Basketball Digest cover in 1995. Penny and the Magic wouldn't have minded at least one more home game vs. Houston in the Finals that year. The Rockets won games 1 and 2 in Orlando and needed only two of their three allotted home games to win it all.

Defense Rules For Denver

As a native of Denver and someone who grew up just outside the Mile High City, I'm really stoked about the Denver Nuggets right now. The team's current success takes me back to the glory years of the late 70s and 80s, when D.T., "The Horse," Kiki, Fat and Alex dominated the headlines.

Given the team's big year, I thought a comparison to perhaps the best Nuggets team from that era - or any era in franchise history - was in order. I'm talking about Doug Moe's 1987-88 team (the pic shows dapper Doug on the cover of Denver's slick '88-89 press guide). Now, you can draw a number of parallels between the 2008-09 Denver Nuggets and their 1987-88 forebears, but two noticeable similarities are that each team posted 54 wins (the club's highest peak since it joined the NBA in 1976-77) and squared off against the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs.

As for the biggest difference between the teams - aside from fashion (I've got to say that as a teenager, I loved wearing my white hoodie with the Nuggets' rainbow-colored skyscraper design) - it's got to be their playing philosophies.

In '87-88, the Nuggets were led by colorful coach Moe, who preached a run-and-gun offense that lit up scoreboards all over the NBA map. That year, the Nugs ranked first in the league in scoring, averaging 116.7 points per game. Their defense, meanwhile, was fifth-worst, giving up 112.7 ppg.

At the present time, 21 years later, it's all about defense for Denver (along with solid-as-a-rock team solidarity, fortified by hometown hero Chauncey Billups). Head Coach George Karl, who kept with Denver's breakneck offensive tradition for his first four years at the helm, broke with the past before the '08-09 opener.

The new emphasis on D not only resulted in the 54 W's, it also helped deliver the team's first playoff series win since Mt. Mutombo & Co. upset Karl's heavily favored Seattle team in 1994. Get this- through the team's first seven playoff games, they've allowed an average of only 88.7 points per game.

Where do they go from here?

In 1988, the high-scoring Nuggets opened up a 1-0 lead on the Mavs before falling in six games. At the time of this writing, Denver's new defense-first unit was up 2-0 on Dallas in the '09 West semifinals. Does defense really win championships? The Nuggets are putting the old adage to the test. Don't change the channel. I know I'm not.

Hit For The Cycle Week

Not to be confused with Lando Calrissian.

Let's go cycling!

C'mon, honey, everyone's doing it. We're going through the quad!

In the past week, we've seen three players hit for the cycle in the major leagues: Los Angeles's Orlando Hudson, Texas's Ian Kinsler and Minnesota OF/DH Jason Kubel. Which brings up this interesting question: When was the last time a player hit a natural cycle (getting a single, double, triple and home run, in that order)?

The last occurrence of a natural cycle in the majors was on Sept. 13, 2006, by Gary Matthews, Jr. of the Rangers. It's a rare feat- it's happened only 14 times in MLB history. Authoring one of those gems was "Sweet-swinging" Billy Williams (above), a Hall of Famer who made his name with the Chicago Cubs. He turned the trick on July 17, 1966.