The Lakers are having trouble with Kwame Brown. Especially amusing is the fanboy comment imagining that the Lakers could trade Brown for Kevin Garnett.

I don't watch much football any more, but I was flipping through channels this evening as I was waiting to be called for the Bob Barr radio show. With under a minute to go in the first half, the 49ers, who have a quarterback I never heard of, threw a long pass to inside the 5, and the receiver made a spectacular catch. But there was a flag; the play was called back for a holding penalty. On the replay, it was clear, the defensive lineman was about to cream the quarterback from behind, and the left tackle illegally pulled him down. The announcers kept talking about how the tackle cost the team a great gain, but this seems to confuse the causation; in the but-for world where the offensive holding isn't committed, the quarterback is sacked hard, perhaps fumbles, and there's no long throw and great catch. At a minimum, the holding saved the Niners a down; it quite possibly saved the team a turnover; ex ante, there's a chance there's no flag, and the catch counts. Blame the tackle for missing the block to begin with perhaps (I couldn't tell from the replay whether that was his fault), but there's nothing to complain about with the hold qua hold.