For 17 days during the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, the biggest hurdle in Canada's ambitious Own the Podium program - a $110-million partnership between the federal government and private industry to ensure success - turned out not to be the Chinese or the Germans, but our closest neighbours to the south, the Americans.

With Chris Bosh set to be among the most coveted crop of free agents in years alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, will he leave the Raptors? A number of teams have created cap room in hopes of landing one of the Big 3. But those who have left Toronto for greener pastures in past, haven't really found what they were looking for south of the border.

Tiger Woods’s 13-minute statement on Friday wasn’t an apology, it was an infomercial. It was little more than a necessary public relations gesture in his attempt to regain a portion of the carefully constructed empire that has crumbled around him.

There’s no question I have a love-hate relationship with the Olympic Games. When they’re on, I love watching them. But I hate the two-plus years of hype leading up to them. I love the young athletes giving their all on the world stage, but I hate the restrictive rules of the IOC and the blatant commercialism of it all. Come to think of it, there are a lot of things to love and hate about the Olympics.

Sunday’s thrilling 31-17 victory by the New Orleans Saints over the Indianapolis Colts was a fitting culmination of a two-week party in Miami. But as cloudless as the skies were and as warm as the breeze was, there are storm clouds on the horizon for the NFL, as the future of the league is going to be determined in the next four weeks.

As hard as it may be for Toronto Maple Leaf fans these days, I promise you, it’s even harder being a fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Brian Burke has the Leafs on the long road back to respectability, particularly after swinging a trade to acquire Dion Phaneuf and Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

It seems only appropriate that in what should be the final season of Allen Iverson's career, he's voted in as a starter at the NBA All-Star Game. Appropriate because it's the cherry on top of a spotty career in which his raw talent has benefited him far beyond common sense.Throughout his career, Iverson has embodied everything that is wrong with the NBA.

Much to the chagrin of the National Hockey League, the ongoing Auger-Burrows affair just isn’t going away. The issue was rekindled this weekend when Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean and Canucks coach Alain Vigneault exchanged barbs over MacLean’s softball interview with NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell.

What former Saskatchewan Roughriders GM Eric Tillman did was wrong -- grinding into his 16-year-old babysitter’s butt, putting her through a year-long pre-trial and using painkillers and sleeping pills as an excuse. In the end, what Tillman did was stupid. But how stupid was it? Was it Tiger Woods stupid? Michael Vick stupid? Gilbert Arenas stupid? Should it cost him his livelihood?

Since the calendar flipped to 2010, a number of people have asked for my opinions about the previous decade in sports. That’s not very easy to answer, given that I can’t remember what I had for breakfast. But, given a good night’s sleep and a handful aspirin, I found I actually do have some thoughts about the roaring 2000s. So for those who asked, here’s your answer.