FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Spike Lee may be the most famous Knicks fan in the world.
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News of the Knicks' trades Friday afternoon came up on Spike Lee's cell phone, each one eliciting as little reaction as the next, as the famed director sat in a Hollywood studio.

"It was funny ... I was in the middle of a shoot, and I got this e-mail that the Knicks had traded Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harington," said Lee, who is currently directing a Super Bowl commercial. "I like Jamal a lot. Maybe I'll see it differently, but right now I don't see that trade."

Lee, who shrugged his shoulders at both trades, basically felt the same way about the Knicks dealing Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. "I don't see it," he said. "They're making moves, but I just don't see it right now."

Then again, that's nothing new for the Knicks, who have been making countless moves for the past seven years, none of which have helped them be anything other than a sub.-.500 team.

The move Lee would like to see the Knicks make is to either play or move disgruntled point guard Stephon Marbury, who hasn't played this season and has been deactivated for every game since the first week despite being healthy and ready to play. "The man's stuck in limbo," said Lee. "He's stuck in Knick limbo. They're paying $22 million a year. They have to do something with him ... but I think [Mike] D'Antoni is a good coach, and the games I've gone to this year have been enjoyable."

Graham Harrell and Texas Tech can lock up a division title.

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All times Eastern.

Friday

• 7:00 p.m., ESPN2: No. 10 Duke and Michigan meet in the title game of the 2K Sports Classic.

• 9:30 p.m., ESPN: Two of the past three NBA Rookie of the Year award winners clash as Kevin Durant's Thunder look to strike down Chris Paul's Hornets.

• 10:00 p.m., ESPNU: No. 1 North Carolina meets UC Santa Barbara in a layover game before the Maui Invitational. Tyler Hansbrough, the reigning National Player of the Year, could make his '08-09 debut after missing time with a stress reaction in his right shin.

Saturday

• 11:00 a.m., The Tennis Channel: Spain (sans Rafael Nadal) mixes it up with Argentina in the final of the Davis Cup.

• 12:30 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel: Defending English and European champion Manchester United -- a distant third behind co-frontrunners Chelsea and Liverpool -- looks to keep pace in the English Premier League title hunt at fifth-place Aston Villa.

Meet Sayyed Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah, the strongest man in Egypt. He generates 260 horsepower -- equivalent to the strength of 30,000 men -- and has a medical exemption from working for fear of harming someone else in the workplace.

He's also never slept a day in his life, as we learn at the 3:40 mark.

This news report, which aired on Al-Mihwar TV in 2007, tells his story.

This is the "Incredible Hulk" or the Samson of our times. He got married 28 times and has fathered 35 sons and daughters. The eldest, Sameh, is 24 years old, while the youngest, Sayyed, is only three. Medical tests have proven that his strength equals 260 horsepower. He can bend a metal coin with his eye socket or his tongue. Then he breaks it in two with his bare hands. Sayyed Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah is a gifted man.

Allah has bestowed upon him great strength, but he uses it only to do good. This is a man on whom Allah has bestowed the strength of 30,000 men, or 260 horsepower. Allah has also blessed him with a faithful and humble heart, as well as good values and self-restraint.

Watch the interview and tell us what you think: the real deal or a hoax?

Billy Corgan (above) implied Eddie Vedder jinxed the Cubs.

FTR caught the Smashing Pumpkins at Philadelphia's Tower Theater in October 2007. And while it's easy to dismiss the band's reunion as a Billy Corgan vanity project -- especially with D'Arcy and James Iha conspicuously M.I.A. -- it's equally difficult to deny the Pumps their propers. Yes, Corgan's a pretentous wanker but he's also a masterclass performer and expert musician responsible for 98 percent of his band's catalog.

Corgan also happens to be a devout Chicago Cubs fan -- perhaps explaining lyrics like "way down deep beneath my heart / lies a soul that's torn apart" -- and often opens up about his lifelong passion during shows.

Home Run Derby reports from a homecoming concert this week in Chicago, where Corgan spoke between numbers to the crowd about "All the Way," the Cub-themed song Eddie Vedder recorded earlier this season. Corgan seems to believe the Pearl Jam frontman, a former Chicago native, torpedoed the team's chances of ending its century-long title drought by writing the ditty.

If … If … IF … the Cubs did have a chance this last year that just passed …  [expletive] Eddie Vedder killed that [expletive] dead.  Last I checked Eddie ain’t living here,  Okay? 

Eddie ain’t living here to write a song about my [expletive] team.

Nothing like a feud between fortysomething alt-rock legends to spice up the Hot Stove League.

What say you, Cubs fans? Did Vedder's song pump you up? Or, like Corgan, did you see the writing on the wall?

Billy Corgan blames Eddie Vedder for the collapse of the 2008 Cubs [Home Run Derby]

Film Forum

By dumbfounding coincidence, a film about the most famous tie game in football history premiered Wednesday in New York, just 72 hours after the stalemate between the Eagles and Bengals made ties a national talking point.

But the deadlocked result of the classic game at the center of Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, a documentary by Kevin Rafferty, is where the comparisons to Sunday’s NFL snoozer ends.

Tomorrow, Harvard and Yale -- the nation's oldest and third-oldest colleges, respectively -- meet for the 125th playing in their longrunning rivalry known simply as The Game. But it's also the 40th anniversary of their legendary 1968 meeting, when the Ancient Eight rivals entered the annual grudge match undefeated for the first time since 1909.

The Bulldogs, overwhelming favorites on merit, were headlined by Heisman hopeful quarterback Brian Dowling (nicknamed "God," who hadn't lost a game since seventh grade) and running back Calvin Hill, a future Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champ. The game unfolded according to expectations, with Yale leading 29-13 after 59 minutes. But Harvard scored two touchdowns -- and a pair of two-point conversions -- in the final 42 seconds, escaping with the "victory" revealed in the title.

Rafferty, a veteran filmmaker who helmed the 1982 cult classic The Atomic Cafe, intercuts the original ABC telecast of the game with contemporary recollections from several dozen participants -- from Yale tackle Bob Livingston (George W. Bush's roommate), Harvard guard Tommy Lee Jones (Al Gore's roommate), to Yale fullback Bob Levin (Meryl Streep's boyfriend). The stripped-down production and direct approach of Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 -- which borrows its title from The Crimson's day-after headline -- makes for an evenly wrought and refreshingly unpretentious 105 minutes. Instead, the rich historical significance on the game's periphery reveals itself, in anecdotes like the story of Harvard's Pat Conway, a Vietnam vet playing aside teammates active in the anti-war movement.

If you're in the New York area, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is running through Dec. 2 at Film Forum, a non-profit movie theater in the West Village. If not, a DVD of the film with additional interviews is slated for an early 2009 release.

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 at Film Forum in New York City [Film Forum]
Pablo S. Torre: Why Harvard will beat Yale [SI.com]