Congrats BronBron

Love him or hate him, he's still the league's best player. And I would just like to take a moment and recognize his first 'ship and also give a big shout-out to Cleveland Cavaliers President Dan Gilbert, who two years ago ridiculed James on his way out of Ohio and then proclaimed that his organization would win a 'ship before Miami. Truth is, they can't even make the playoffs anymore......waaa waaaaa waaaaaaaaaa!

One Love,
M

44 pts apparently isn't good enough!

After a historic showing by perennial All-Star Rajon Rondo of 44 pts, 8 Rebs, and 10 assists, the Celtics once again fell to the heat in OT

Boy, what a great game.....I guess me wearing his jersey shirt didn't help this time #letdown

Let's hope these Conference Finals don't end up being a blowout......

NBA CONFERENCE FINALS TIME!

As we approach the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, who is your pick to win? I'm going out on a limb here and am picking the Celtics in six and the Spurs in seven (drinking that Miami haterade).

What do YOU think?

More ranting/ravings coming soon......stay tuned......

Child’s Play: The Sports World Edition

By: Matt Petersen

“Children are our future”…….. or at least that is what anyone in the world is led to believe by their respective politicians. While an obvious statement, which is driven more by inevitability than it is hope, it has recently been taken to heart on an international level throughout the past couple decades which has quietly stirred up plenty of controversy among many critics. In our wonderful country where we are seeing a steady decrease in the number of doctors and other healthcare professionals yet standard roster sizes for all professional sports have been pretty stable, should this be a cause for concern? Or is this just unnecessary brainwashing?

Perhaps the sports most affected by this issue are not only the most international sports (baseball, soccer, and basketball) but they also have the most lenient requirements for athletes in terms of age and/or education level. The first of these sports to see this issue come into play from a publicity standpoint is baseball, namely the youth “programs” that exist in the Dominican Republic. These programs have constantly been under fire since the late 80’s for their extreme conditioning methods in the Caribbean heat and the regular administering of Performance Enhancing Drugs to their players. Perhaps one of the biggest controversies out of the Dominican sports world came at the 2001 Little League World Series, where native pitcher Danny Almonte was the target of an investigation which revealed that the child phenom had his birth certificate changed to make it appear that he was 12 instead of 14, with the maximum allowable age into the event was just 13. After the truth was revealed, the Dominican team was forced to vacate all wins from the tournament and increased the proverbial stain on that country and its national sport.

Perhaps the most ridiculous grooming/exploitation/whatever-the-hell you want to call it of children came Monday when highly touted soccer club Real Madrid signed 7-year-old Leonel Angel Coira. The native Argentinean will begin play in Real’s youth team in hopes that they will be able to groom him into the next Lionel Messi, who shares a similar story. Messi, another prodigy of Argentina, signed with Real-rival FC Barcelona at the tender age of 11 and at his current age of 24, has already won numerous international championships/awards (to include a Gold Medal with his native Argentina at the 2008 Olympics) and is already widely considered perhaps the most explosive striker the world has ever seen.

On the home front, we are starting to see the same kind of ideals take place, and the main adversary is basketball. It all began with the National Basketball Association Draft of 2001, where South Carolina native Kwame Brown was selected first overall by the Washington Wizards. With this selection, Brown became the first player in league history to be drafted straight out of high school. Michael Jordan even dubbed Brown the next, well, Michael Jordan of the league. For the next five years, we would see some of the league’s current marquee players following this same trend: Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Josh Smith, Tyson Chandler and King James himself, just to name a few. Although many of these players have gone on to lead very successful careers, Brown has unfortunately not suffered the same fate. This draft trend would stop in 2006 when the NCAA in conjunction with the NBA made it a rule that all draftees must participate in at least one year of collegiate basketball. Although it was debatable as to whether this was really necessary, we have seen some very talented athletes bring schools prowess that they hadn’t seen in the past. The dark side to all this is that now we are seeing an increase in collegiate coaches involved in illegal recruiting as they attempt to reach out to AAU programs for recruits a la John Calipari and Bruce Pearl. For those who are getting away with it, we also see another trend developing. Major programs such as USC have now taken a step further in not just targeting high school-aged players, but even middle schoolers! It’s important to note that if you use the proper channels, recruiting these young players is perfectly legal, but the real issue comes as to whether we should be doing this as opposed to encouraging these young men to continue their educations and help the future of our workforce.

It is upon the sports fans and personnel of the world to ask “How young is too young?” Perhaps more importantly, we should ask, “Is the sports world truly gaining enough results from this process?” Danny Almonte is now an assistant baseball coach at James Monroe High School in New York. Of the NBA players mentioned, they all have definitely seen success in terms of wins/popularity/finances, but only one has won an NBA Championship, Tyson Chandler. Chandler played a significant role in the Dallas Mavericks’ 2011 NBA Championship run, as he provided significant help on defense but still was not the catalyst in hoisting the trophy. That honor would instead go to the German giant, Dirk Nowitzki. As for Leonel Coira, can Real Madrid put this much hope into a kid who could not have spent more than a couple years in a formal education at most? Perhaps the most successful grooming of a child into professional sports would have to be Lionel Messi, who has been astronomically successful in his young career, with perhaps the only blemish on his record is no World Cup win yet Argentina has still enjoyed much success in the past two events.

Alas, are these schools and sports clubs wasting too much time and money to groom these players when the chances of even succeeding in professional sports are slim to none? Moreover, if countries like the USA who worships professional athletes continue to feed this behavior, is it completely insane to idolize and encourage this process when we, now more than ever, are in desperate need of preserving the overall stability of this country and the world? On the other hand, does the media really blow all problems mentioned here out of proportion? We may never know, we may never know…..

Pacifism in Modern Sports

By: Matt Petersen

Why do people play sports? Simple question really with many answers: love of the game, the thrill of victory, to idolize their favorite celebrity athlete….the list goes on. That’s definitely why this writer has always had a great connection with the pure Americana that is defined through sports. Sports were a great way for me to learn and experience many things in life such as shame, aggression, pride, and one of the most important aspect for a child to experience: losing. This has recently been derailed by overwhelming sentiment in America to not hurt anybody’s feelings about, well, anything. This can be seen most apparently in the youth sports leagues around the country that are now awarding trophies to everybody…….on every team…..even if they didn’t score a single point the entire sport season. So what happens next? These children never hear the words “no” or motivating insults that encourage them to change their ways and not grow up to be, for lack of a better term, a self-righteous piece of shit.

I have also been victim to this sad mantra as it is not as new as people may think. I remember playing basketball in 5^th grade and not doing very well in the season. A few days after the season ended, my coach at the time showed up to my house and gave me a trophy. With a puzzled look on my face, I asked him why and he just patronized me as he knew I was young and naïve. Now looking back, I see I was being played a fool.

Back to my original point, why do we constantly feel the need to make all kids feel good about themselves all the time? Sure, it’s appropriate at times, but only when it’s deserved. No longer should it be such a big deal for people to constantly keep their kids with extremely high morale because as the late George Carlin once put it, “You know who also thinks highly of themselves? Crazy people and serial murderers (fake gasp) imagine that…..”

The Riggle Wiggle

By: Eric Pearce

Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman precipitously resigned Thursday over a contract dispute. This situation is a strange one.

He quit because he could not get the Nationals to commit to him long term. Hey, Riggs. You had one of the hottest teams in baseball. Did you get hopped up on some Four Loko and decide managing a young, up-and-coming baseball franchise was not quite what you were looking for? Did the Cubs' floundering ball club bribe you to come back as their savior? Maybe you've had your heart set on opening a sundry shop back in your hometown of Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Strange, to say the least.

We all know players can be over-paid knuckleheads. Many are young, rich and coddled. Though for the most part, we give them a pass. They wow us. They are the physical product that inspire kids and adults alike. They generates billions of dollars a year. They, we cannot live without.

Unless we are talking about crazy Ozzie in Chi-town, owners and managers are supposed to have their heads on straight. We rely on them to keep our product, well, producing. It is well documented that Riggleman and Nats ownership did not get along, but how many people like their boss? In my experience ... very few. Fortunately, the former Nats manager's reputation was solid prior to this move. Time will tell if another club is willing to gamble on a quitter with a career record of 662-824.

Ironically, he quit due to a lack of security. "Jim told me pregame today that if we wouldn't pick up his option, then he wouldn't get on the team bus today," said Nats GM Mike Rizzo, according to AP. I'm pretty sure he just cemented a future of exactly what he ran from. If he gets picked up by another team, it is sure to be a short term contract.

My bet is he gets another gig. Maybe it will be the Cubbies. Maybe he wants to go back to a less stressful bench coach position. Maybe it is the sundry shop. Either way, silly, strange ... give it a name. This was a decision that puts the Nationals in a precarious position. After winning 10 of their last 11 games, bench coach John McLaren will serve as interim manager for the streaking Nationals.

Baseball managers are notorious for doing odd things through the course of a long and arduous season. Here's hoping Washington's burgeoning franchise is not affected negatively by one of the oddest decisions a manager can make. Classy move, Riggs.