St. Paul, Minn. — Gov. Mark Dayton confirmed Wednesday morning that he's willing to call lawmakers back for a special session on a Vikings stadium bill. The governor said the current plan "was not ready to be brought forward" after being introduced in April. He said he wasn't happy with the financing, and worried that revenues pledged to pay back state bonds might not be sufficient. He's offered to borrow $300 million for a new Vikings stadium. The plans currently call for that to be paid for with a mix of sales taxes on sports memorabilia, lottery proceeds, stadium fees and satellite television taxes. "If it gets ready, when it gets ready, if it's a good deal for the people of Minnesota, it builds a people's stadium, then I'll seriously consider calling a special session if there's still a gap in time until the next regular session," Dayton said. "But we'll have to see. It takes every partner to make this deal happen, and that hasn't occurred yet."

Credit to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo.com

 

Minnesota Timberwolves general manager David Kahn has decided to fire coach Kurt Rambis, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Kahn isn’t expected to announce the decision until after Thursday’s NBA draft, but he’s already begun collecting information on prospective replacements for Rambis, sources said.

Kahn met with Rambis last week and believes he has reached an impasse with the coach. The relationship between Kahn and Rambis deteriorated over the course of the past season, to the point where there’s been little communication between them.

Rambis has two years left on his original four-year contract. With the Timberwolves in the midst of a major rebuilding project, he went 32-132 as their coach, including a league-worst 17-65 this season.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_minnesota_firing_kurt_rambis_062211

THANK FREAKING GOD!!!!!

Today could be the day Ricky Rubio's Euroleague career ends and the Wolves announce his signing.  Game is at 1:45 Central, you can watch the game here: ACB Orange

The Starting Lineups Are

BB Bizkaia

Hervelle, Axel

Mavroeidis, Dimitrios

Mumbru, Alex

Jackson, Aaron

Warren, Chris

FC Barcelona

ERAZEM LORBEK

JOE INGLES

KOSTA PEROVIC

J.C. NAVARRO

RICKY RUBIO

Ricky's Starting!!!!! Hopefully we get something promising from Ricky Today...Join me in watching the game would ya!

Per the Star Trib

With the Wild in the early stages of its deliberate search to find a replacement for Todd Richards, veteran coach Craig MacTavish has emerged as a strong candidate.

According to multiple league sources, the former Edmonton Oilers coach has had a handful of conversations with Chuck Fletcher and was recently interviewed by the Wild general manager at a Toronto hotel.

The 52-year-old MacTavish, who coached the Oilers from 2000 to '09, has been unwilling to talk about any of the NHL coaching vacancies other than to say he's "recharged" and ready to return to coaching.

"He's one of my favorites," Los Angeles Kings veteran forward Ryan Smyth, coached by MacTavish for six seasons, said in a phone interview Thursday. "He knows and understands the game very well and was exciting to play for. He understands the players very well. He knew me more than I did at times."

MacTavish, who guided the eighth-seeded Oilers to within one game of a Stanley Cup in 2006, would bring instant credibility to the Wild bench. He won four Stanley Cups in his 19-year playing career player -- three with Edmonton and one with the New York Rangers.

One of the great defensive centers, the well-spoken MacTavish brought that same acumen to his coaching. He's known as a defensive-oriented, technically sound coach, one who's a shrewd in-game bench manager and good communicator.

"He cares deeply for his players and their families," Smyth said. "He's all about the team. During that [2006] playoff, the speech he gave right from the get-go really emphasized, 'Don't let the highs get too high, the lows too low, stay even-keeled, enjoy it, seize the moment.'

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/121361799.html

Thoughts?

Per the Denver Post

The Nuggets traded Melo to the New York Knicks tonight, a league source said. Denver gets Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks 2014 first-round draft pick, the Warriors' 2012 second-round pick, the Warriors' 2013 second-round pick and $3 million in cash.

Anthony will go to New York, along with Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman.

Minnesota will recieve Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry.

Not Bad...We Get Radolph for NOTHING haha

per Chris Broussard of ESPN.com

The Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks are discussing a three-team trade that would make forward Carmelo Anthony a Knick before the Feb. 24 trade deadline, according to league sources.

 

Anthony

 

In the proposed trade, New York would send Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry to Minnesota and the Timberwolves would send Corey Brewer and a first-round pick to Denver. Denver would also receive Wilson Chandler from New York.

The deal is not expected to happen until the middle of next week at the earliest, and one source said it could drag out until the trade deadline. Denver, which has been exchanging proposals with the Knicks for the past couple weeks, is weighing other options.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6094827&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_6094827

Awesome Hire if True....Story after the jump!

Continue reading this post »

In order to clear things up and not be posing 7,000 different threads about news, guesses, and rumors about who the new head coach will be, Lets simplify this...post all News, updates, ideas etc... in this thread.

Continue reading this post »

Dish Network Corp. and News Corp. said they have reached a distribution agreement to provide satellite-TV provider Dish with access to programming from Fox television networks, including local stations in major cities.

The agreement also includes carriage of FX, National Geographic Channel and Fox's 19 regional sports networks, which were restored for Dish subscribers Friday. The cable networks has been blacked out during contract negotiations after the old deal ended Sept. 30.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303284604575582742189791702.html

According to Tom Pellissaro of ESPN 1500 AM

The reactions of teammates on the sideline and in the locker room on Tuesdaysaid it all.

For the second time in 8½ months, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Cedric Griffin's season is over because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, according to multiple reports.

This time, the injury is to Griffin's right knee, which he injured on a play with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Monday's loss to the New York Jets.

Griffin, 27, had returned to game action only 15 days earlier in a game against the Detroit Lions after rehabbing the torn ACL in his left knee he suffered in the NFC championship game Jan. 24 at New Orleans.

The Vikings again are down to three healthy cornerbacks -- Antoine Winfield,Asher Allen and Lito Sheppard -- because rookie Chris Cook is recovering from a second minor knee surgery and probably will miss at least one more game.

Whenever Cook is healthy, he's the most likely candidate to take over the starting job at right cornerback. Allen started the Vikings' first two games there while Griffin and Cook were out and finished Monday's game there as well.

UGH

Per Tom Pellisaro of ESPNAM1500 Jay glazer of Fox Sports.com via his twitter. 

Multiple reports now emerging that #Vikings are pursuing a trade for Randy Moss. @Jay_Glazer reporting it's "close" but pending new contract

http://twitter.com/Jay_Glazer and http://twitter.com/TomPelissero

God Please let it happen...Favre to Moss...Somebody pinch me please... It's amazing how an accidental tweet by Bill Simons of ESPN turns into legit stuff. SKOL VIKINGS!!!!

according to Henry Lake of KFAN via his twitter page

lakeshow73     Source tells me Vikes making a play for V Jack. Not sure if anything eminent. I have NOT confirmed or got a denial from Vikes. #kfan #vikings #nfltrade

http://twitter.com/lakeshow73

Hmmm...interesting...what would the compensation be???? a 3rd round pick and Berrian??? is he worth it? would we shell out the money that he wants to keep him here? Very interesting news...hope it's true.