Thoughts and Speculation

Recently 19 year old Joey Logano became the youngest driver in NASCAR history to win a race. A heroic effort, the young Logano overcame incredible odds and decades of history in accomplishing the feat. But this is not a NASCAR blog, and the subject of this article is not Joey Logano.

As a very passionate sports fan, deeply emotionally invested as such, I used to rise and fall with the game by game results of my hometown Cubs. When Steve Bartman knocked that foul ball away from Moises Alou in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS I was aboslutely crushed. My heart lept at the promise of the Bulls taking Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry (aka the "Twin Towers"), and fell when they never fulfilled their promise in a Chicago uniform. I held up Sammy Sosa on a pedestal and defended the beleaguered slugger even through the corked bat incident in 2003. When Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown against the Colts in Super Bowl XLI I jumped up and down on the sofa. And when the Bears ended up losing that game I was slumped over sitting on that same couch.

In these recent times, much of that passion and faith has been rewarded with such events as the Mitchell report, athlete misconduct, rising prices on everything from tickets to jerseys, and a general disregard for the fans who are the life blood of professional athletics. I recently attended a Braves v. Yankees game for which I paid $18 for upper deck seats. Perhaps it was the near capacity crowd or the popularity of the Yankees, but these seats which might have went for $5 only a few years ago were nearly quadruple that number. Meanwhile some of the greatest baseball players of our generation have been singled out in the Mitchell Report as out and out cheaters (Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, etc.). We have witnessed an NFL wide receiver (Donte Stallworth), clearly driving while under the influence, hitting and subsequently killing an innocent pedestrian. Even more increduously Stallworth received a minimal sentence of 30 days in jail. We have owners firing hundreds of employees and cutting health benefits for these same employees while ringing up more then $30 million in profits (Green Bay Packers).


Perhaps this week a few more All Stars will be outed as steroid users by the Mitchell Report. Maybe a NBA lottery pick will hold out for another million or two. And these days a high school player bypassing college to play in Europe en route to the NBA is becoming a scary reality rather than a distant possiblity (Brandon Jennings). Job cuts will continue in the NFL, with profits rolling into the pockets of the owners and players. And arrogant owners will continue to hire overpaid coaches to watch over a group of overpaid, underworked prima donna athletes. In the worst economy since the Great Depression, with people waiting in line at the unemployment office and losing their homes and families along with their jobs, the sports we hold as so sacred...an outlet for the pressures of daily life...and the athletes and teams we revere and cheer for are not uplifting their fans but instead soaking in the reverence while sitting in their ivory towers.

While watching the NBA draft I realized that those fans at the Madison Square Garden cheering or moaning over the young men being picked by their respective teams will perhaps make a fraction of what these athletes will make over the course of their relatively short careers. To put this in perspective, the average NBA player will make over $5 million a season while the average annual income of a U.S. household stands at somewhere around $50,000 a year.

While this may very well come off as a bitter rant of your average sports fan this is hardly such. I will continue to watch sports and be passionate about my preferred teams and players. However the deep respect and reverence that I once held for this national icons has all but disappeared. Sadly when we need our heroes to lift the rest of us up, they instead choose to ignore the people who have lifted their status and showered them with praise and adulation.

Dog Days

The NBA Finals have come and gone, a blow out affair between the Lakers and the Magic, ending with Kobe Bryant taking home a 4th championship, and more importantly his first without Shaq. Football season is still in its training camp infancy, with Donte Stallworth's suspension the biggest news of the summer out of the NFL. Yawn. Baseball season is nearing its halfway mark, but lets not pretend like anyone cares. At least until October. So here we are, in the dog days of the sports season. With the NBA (LA Lakers) and the NHL(Pittsburgh Penguins) crowning their champions this past month, and the NFL still far from opening kick off, the sports landscape seems to be barren and devoid of any meaning for the time being. Right? And as baseball fans wait for October, NFL heads count down the days till opening kickoff, and hoop fanatics sit patiently for the NBA season to begin once again, presumably there are countless people out there in the world who are searching for an appropriate outlet for their sports fix.

(Just a personal theory, but seeing as crime seems to go up during these "dog days of summer" is there any reason to believe there is a correlation between the lack of major sports action and this presumed spike in crime?)

So maybe your average NFL, NBA, and MLB follower decides to try NASCAR during this summerlong "hiatus" of his preferred sports. NASCAR? Really? After 10,000 years of human civilization, watching a Chevrolet turn left for 4 hours is still the most popular spectator sport in the United States.

Golf? Yawn. Tennis? Nope. Poker? No thanks, not interested in seeing something anyone on Earth can theoretically do. Bowling? Are you serious?

So here we are then... talking about Cleveland Browns' WR Donte Stallworth's suspension, the "real reason" why T.O. left Dallas, and whether or not Ricky Rubio will get drafted by Memphis at the #2 spot in the upcoming NBA draft. This is precisely the type of complacency that eats away at the very fibers of modern civilization. For years and years this same tradition of an empty(and endlessly depressing) period of time, usually from about June to August, has existed in the world of sports. Combined with the traditional increase of everything from gas prices and police presence, this is a deadly combination for your average person, sports fan or not.


















Simply put something must be done about the "dog days of summer", especially in the world of sports. Without entertaining sports to watch, or be immersed in to use the correct terminology, a passionate sports fan during the winter and spring can become a shiftless wanderer, as one can only go to the pool or the movies so many times. In all seriousness, sports can bring a city or even nation together. It brings out the best of us, uniting very diverse groups of people under one purpose. The simple fact that two people may share a passion for a certain sports franchise can result in a truck driver from Indiana and a dentist from New Jersey to sit next to each other on a plane for hours engaged in conversation. Therein lies the power of sports.

And the power of sports can not be underestimated. (especially if you saw those "Go World" commercials by Nike.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9wV8AUe6_A

The Fish that saved Los Angelos

For those who witnessed Game 4 of these NBA Finals between the Los Angelos Lakers and the Orlando Magic saw the unlikeliest of heroes emerge. Kobe and the Lakers now lead the Magic 3 games to 1, and seem to have clinched the title (No team has ever come back from a 3-1 disadvantage in the Finals). However, while Kobe Bryant can now say that he won a championship without Shaq, he still hasn't won one without Derek Fisher.

Derek Fisher was unheralded guard out of Arkansas drafted by Los Angelos in 1996. He was thrown right into the fire, playing 80 games in his rookie season. He didn't even average double digit points until the 2000-2001 season, but by then he had established himself as the primary point guard in Phil Jackson's triangle offense. Kobe Bryant was also drafted in 1996, albeit as one of the top prep stars in the nation. The two were drafted 11 spots apart, however when the Lakers traded starting center Vlade Divac for the young Bryant on draft day their paths would cross as the starting backcourt for a budding Los Angelos squad.


The story of Derek Fisher is nothing short of remarkable. For the Los Angelos 3 peat in the early 2000s, Fisher was the point guard who had to keep both Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant appeased while putting the Lakers in positions to win games. He won the confidence and trust of Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson who had initially written the guard as "undersized and not particularly athletic". Nowadays, Fisher acts almost as a coach on the floor, running the Laker offense even with All Stars Gasol, Bryant, and Odom present, and has been described by his contemporaries, opposing coaches, and most impressively Phil Jackson as "dogged". Its a quality that Jackson has used to describe players like Steve Kerr and Robert Horry. While both players were undersized or underskilled at their respective positions, the two combined to win 12 titles in 14 seasons. Kerr boasts 5 rings while Horry can wear his 7 championship rings with impunity.

This brings us to Game 4 of the 2009 NBA Finals. Against the upstart Magic featuring the "next great center" Dwight Howard, who had a NBA Finals record 9 blocks in Game 4, it wasn't the best player on the team, Kobe Bryant, their All Star center, Pau Gasol, or any of the young budding stars, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar, Andrew Bynum, who would save the Lakers from letting this title slip away. It was the 34 year old Fisher who has battled injuries, his daughter's fight with a deadly illness, and slowing legs to bring Los Angelos a commanding 3-1 lead going into Game 5 in Orlando. More importantly, Fisher perserved Bryant's legacy. While few may remember the name Derek Fisher years and years from now, the man deemed "one of the best players ever" by legends and contemporaries alike will still owe an undersized, underskilled guard from Arkansas. He'll owe him big time.

"Little" Guys

High school basketball is an enigmatic animal. There are multiple levels of competition, based on a school's enrollment size, and therefore different levels of exposure and prestige associated with different players from differing regions and levels. However, the level of competition remains just as tough in the smaller regions than in the largest. The difference is small, and the talent is identical. However, players from private schools and smaller public institutions, with the exception of a few standouts, receive less respect and aplomb than those in large public schools.

What the public doesn't know is that one must look no further than the Orlando Magic's star center, Dwight Howard, to find an example of a small school star succeeding in the NBA. Howard played for Class A Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, also home to NBA alumni Javaris Crittenton, a small private school playing in the "lowest" region in Georgia high school basketball competition. However while the elite prospects are still recruited and deserving players are given their chances by college coaches and NBA scouts, the public writes off many small school basketball stars as a product of little to no competition and lower talent levels.

This blogger was guilty of this ignorant sentiment. Until very recently that is. Recently I had the opportunity to spend time with two varsity basketball players enrolled in St. Francis (also a Class A athletic program) in Alpharetta. The two players are featured as starting guards/fowards for St. Francis, and are being recruited by mid major Division I programs as well as big name schools (Yale, Georgia Tech, etc.). What many sports fans, even high school basketball fans, fail to realize is that while there is a lack of depth in Class A basketball as opposed to Class AAAAA basketball (i.e. Norcross, Wheeler, Milton), the top talent in the "inferior" divisions would very much hold their own against stars from even the largest divisions. And while the pair of St. Francis standouts may never play professional basketball, the idea that they can not compete against players from big name programs is proposterous. In fact, either one could most likely start on most other varsity teams in the state.

This attitude is not just limited to high school basketball however. The difference from Division II and Division III college basketball is negligible, and even the difference between the best Division II and the worst Division I teams is just as small. Top talent across the board is very much similar, and the stigma of coming from a small high school or unknown program should in no way limit the respect a talented player receives.
























2009 Class A GHSA State Champions

10 Reasons Why Kobe Is Better Than LeBron

1) Last night's game Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals showcased a very talented Lakers team blowing out the upstart Magic 100-75. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, a NBA Finals career high, and did it with style and leisure in front of a star studded crowd (Jack Nicholson, Kanye West, Maria Shriver, etc.). LeBron James? Well... he had some nice commercials on yesterday.

2) Kobe Bryant has never been a paradigm of grace and sportsmanship, but we never heard about Bryant walking off the court after a playoff loss. LeBron's lack of grace and sportsmanship in the aftermath of Cleveland's series ending Game 6 loss to Orlando prompted a public call out by the Commish himself, David Stern.

3) Kobe Bryant is a very good shooter. Let me rephrase. Kobe Bryant can knock down nearly any shot within reason on a basketball court. On the other hand, LeBron is improving but still is unable to make the fadeaways and long 3s on a basis consistent with a player deemed "the best player in the NBA". He's a better 3 point shooter (career totals: 34.1 % vs. LeBron's 32.8%) and a MUCH better free throw shooter (84.7% vs. LeBron's 73.8%). Oh, not to mention, Bryant shares the single game record for 3 pointers made with 12.


4) Both players entered the draft straight out of high school at the age of 18. By the time Kobe Bryant was 24, he had 3 rings. LeBron? He's still looking for his first.

5) In 1996 Bryant took R&B singer Brandy to his senior prom at Lower Merion HS. Enough said.

6) LeBron James has been deemed an intelligent businessman, and personally aspires to become an "NBA billionaire". However, Kobe is no slouch either, posting a 1080 SAT, ensuring his entry into any college basketball program in the country had he elected to attend college. By the way, he also speaks fluent Italian.


7) In the 2004 Athens Games, LeBron and Co. took home a bronze medal. Which also marked the first year the USA Basketball team failed to bring home gold. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kobe Bryant made his return to Olympic basketball, and led the USA squad to a gold medal romp over Spain in the finals.

8) Kobe does everything LeBron does, except at 2 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter.

9) LeBron James is a Yankees fan (MLB) and a Cowboys fan (NFL). There's no problem with that, except he lived in Ohio his whole life. Bandwagon much? Seriously, how're you going to wear a Yankees hat to an Indians game.

10) 24 is 1 more than 23.