We begin Odds & Ends this week with the decision by ESPN to fire baseball analyst Curt Schilling for posting an anti-transgender message on Facebook and also added a few choice words of his own:

“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

He didn’t stop there, on his blog, he snarled at “all of you out there who are just dying to be offended so you can create some sort of faux cause to rally behind.”

Schilling had been with ESPN since 2010 and was in hot water last year when he posted a Twitter meme that compared Muslim Jihadism and German Nazis, “the math is staggering when you get to the true [number]s”. ESPN suspended him for the remainder of the 2015 season and removed him from the broadcast team on Sunday Night Baseball.

Honestly,I’m on ESPN’s side with how they dealt with Schilling. In my personal opinion,he’s always been a big asshole when it comes to his ramming of his political views down people’s throats. I never cared for it and still don’t. Not only that,but it seemed to me that he couldn’t adhere to corporate policy at ESPN and that anything he says publicly or posts online carries a lot of weight. He can have his personal views on politics or social issues all he wants,but the fact of the matter is that nobody wants to hear about politics from sports personalities. If he wants to do that,he can go on Fox News and spew that out.

In the same realm, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that next year’s NBA All-Star Game,which is slated to be played in Charlotte at the Time Warner Cable Arena next February may be moved if the state of North Carolina law limiting anti-discrimination protection for gays, lesbians and transgender people stands.

“We’ve been working very closely with the business community down there and the governor and the legislature to make it clear that it would be problematic for us to move forward with our All-Star Game if there is not a change in the law,” Silver said.

The game is slated to bring $100 million into the Charlotte economy.

“I believe they’re going to do the right thing,” Silver said. “And I think they’ve heard loud and clearly from the NBA, they know what’s at stake in terms of the All-Star Game … but I think at least at the moment, constructive engagement on our part is the best way to go as opposed to putting a gun to their head and saying ‘Do this, or else.'”

The NBA isn’t the first to threaten or even pull a game from a state. In the 1990s the NFL pulled Super Bowl XXVII from being hosted in Tempe, Ariz. after they refused to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day and would not allow the state to host one until the law was changed. It was and they were awarded Super Bowl XXX. In 2011 several MLB players threatened to boycott the All-Star Game being played in Phoenix that year due to the controversial laws there surrounding illegal immigrants.

I think it’s wise for the NBA to move the game if the laws in North Carolina stay like they are. There are other places in the league that seem to be more welcoming and accomodating to their fands who are part of the LGBT community. Personally,I’d move it to Sacramento who is opening a new arena in October and what better way to christen it?

Speaking of the Kings, there’s nobody I want more to coach this team than Luke Walton. With Tom Thibodeau taking the Timberwolves job and Scott Brooks taking the job with the Wizards, I don’t think there’s a more qualified guy to be the next coach of this team than Walton.

I know you’re thinking I’m crazy, but I’m serious. Walton comes from a system that is and has been working for years now in the Bay Area with the Warriors. He did as remarkable of a job than anyone in his stint as interim coach while Steve Kerr was recovering from back surgery and if DeMarcus Cousins is somehow on this roster, I think he can handle him well. After all, he dealt with Draymond Green and he tackles players.

Unfortunately Walton won’t be able to interview for the job until after the first round and who knows if he’ll be able to take the job while the Warriors are still in the playoffs. However, in a recent interview with Grant Napear on KHTK,general manager Vlade Divac said that he’d like to take as much time as possible to find the next coach of this team. That says to me that if Walton’s interested in coming 90 miles east, Divac will hire him.

Yes,it’s a pipe dream and yes,it’s my pipe dream,but he is the best coaching option out there and the best guy who has never been a head coach. Let’s get him!

Let’s go back to baseball and the San Francisco Giants’ closer situation. So far this season Santiago Casilla has blown two saves and one of them was totally his fault.

In Tuesday’s game at home against Arizona with the count 1-2 on Jake Lamb, Casilla gives up a home run to Lamb to tie the game at 7. The Diamondbacks went on to win the game 9-7 in 11 innings.

Casilla’s blunders are nothing new. He’s given Giants fans plenty of reasons to watch game through their fingers over their eyes and it seems to me that it’s time for the Giants to maybe consider another closer. It happened in 2014 when Sergio Romo was demoted in favor of Casilla and it could happen again. I don’t think it’s going to be Hunter Strickland because,like Casilla,he has the same bed-shitting ability and could be worse. I honestly don’t think the next closer is even on the roster right now. It may take a trade to bring on a new closer and push Casilla back to the bullpen.

To quote my friend Kim, if you aren’t trusted to close Game 7 of the World Series,how can you be the team’s closer?
I wonder the same thing.