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NBA WEEK IN REVIEW: The shock’s slowly wearing off

3 Nov

Can you recall a more interestingly bizarre first week of the NBA season?

One week ago the questions going into the season were spicy enough topics:

Was this the begging of the Lebron dominated ascendancy where he’d win 3 of the next 5 NBA titles?

How long would it take for the Lakers to gel on their run to grab the Western Conference title from the OKC Thunder?

Ray Allen defecting to the Miami Heat, adding fuel to the recently developed rivalry with the Boston Celtics,
and the additions to the Celtics roster in wake of Allen’s departure; with Courtney Lee and Jason Terry.

A week ago about this time in the afternoon, I was smugly sporting my OKC Thunder playoff shirt, having excited discussions about the rapidly approaching San Antonio game on Nov. 1st. OKC was the defending champs of the West, and even with the additions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, I felt like it was still their title to lose. It would be just a matter of getting better during playoff moments and adding another year of experience under the belts.

Last Saturday night, I was watching one of the College Football games when I saw James Harden’s name go across the ticker. I got excited because this was the news I was expecting–that the Thunder had finally reached an agreement with him.

TRADE??????????? TRADE!!!!!!!!!!! TRADE?????????????

What the FUCK?

Everyone in the room looked at each other in shock, my friend who’s a Heat fan laughed in excitement. I was stunned. Trade James Harden for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and two draft picks. My main man James Harden, not only was he my 2nd favorite player on the team, but he was an integral part of last year’s playoff run. He was just going to get better, and when have you ever seen a title contender tinker with locker room chemistry after getting SO CLOSE to an NBA title?

Wow. I was too high to really deal with it the first night. When I woke up, I had to question if I dreamed seeing that news. However ESPN confirmed the awful news the next day when I checked the internet.

I knew last year’s team was special, even then I knew there was a chance that this particular group of guys was going to change. I knew there was a chance Royal Ivey wouldn’t get picked back up. I was hoping Derek Fisher’s Laker ass wouldn’t be returning. I did not see this coming, and was at least hoping they’d give it another run with the core before breaking up RUN OKC.

Tough night to be an Okie. Notre dame waxes the Sooner’s ass and the Thunder trade away one of the major championship cogs


I’d never seen anything play out like that deteriorating into a trade so suddenly. Maybe Presti didn’t want to drag it out? They say he would get the best deal if he traded Harden before the season began. Five days before the season started?

It wasn’t a very public affair, there were no shots traded through the media, so that is what makes it seem so shocking. There was so much time to still work a deal out, why did this seem odd, strange, almost spiteful. Like “Fuck you! We’ll send you to Houston, see how much you like being the man for a losing team.”

I blame both sides, if there is blame to assign. I definitely feel like there were so many avenues for management to take with this:

Give the team another run and then make decisions on who stays and who goes next off-season. This way you could determine whether it was a good idea to pay Kendrick Perkins big money or amnesty him, trade Ibaka Blocka Flame for prospects, find a suitable point guard so Westbrook can move to the 2, or give Harden an opportunity to show he’s worth max money.

The decision to trade him just seems haste. I almost feel like it had nothing to do with what was happening on the court. I wonder if the front office didn’t feel they could give max-money to a young man dumb enough to get filmed making it rain at the strip club.

Maybe this was brought up during negotiations and it put Harden off, causing a behind-the- scenes souring on both parties. Let’s not forget the terrible NBA Finals he had. He was so awful that I wondered if he was partying too much in South Beach during games 3 through 5. Anyone remember this?

If I recall correctly he’d missed a dunk or two that game also. That missed layup though was critical. Had he made that shot, we may only be talking about the nasty game that Westbrook brought that night rather than his gaffe during the endgame that sewed up the W for Miami. Of course they wouldn’t have even been in the NBA Finals had it not been for “Big Game James II” going HAM against the Lakers and Mavs.

Who’s to say after an Olympic year and the memory of that Finals wasn’t going to fuel him to put it altogether during a Contract year? If anyone was poised for a big year it was Harden. If any team was poised to dethrone Lebron and the Heat it was OKC.

Sure you get some future picks and more pieces for the future but you never know what is going to happen. Ask Penny Hardaway if there are any guarantees.

Which is why part of me feels disappointed that Harden wanted to leave a winning team to be the man on a losing team.
Was six million that big of a deal when you could make some serious loot off endorsements and playoff share?
At the age of 23 how much more money do you need? What can you get at 60 million that you can’t get at 54 million?
Reportedly everyone else had taken less to stay with the team except Harden.

There’s no guarantee that the next big contract would be there at age 27 (arguably a player’s prime)so I guess I see the urgency. If Harden is the kind of dude who plays for money and not championships, then maybe he is better off on a different team.

It feels kind of like a nasty break up. Except in break ups you don’t have to wait four years to get back together. Seeing Harden in a Rockets uniform is like seeing a girl you were in love with married to the very next guy she dated, only 2 months after you broke up.

I haven’t even processed the break up and this cat is already putting up monster games for the Rockets. OUCH. Big time. Much like a jilted lover, I’m looking at all the press clippings, calling up my friends in Houston to ask about him.

It’s just too soon.

I ain’t mad at ya mane. Make it rain down there in Houston

The Thunder definitely seemed like a team in shock against the Spurs. I’m sure it couldn’t have felt good knowing that the last time they played on the Spurs court they had Harden to go to war with. They played well enough to win, that is until Tony Parker took over the last minute of the game.

In addition to giving up Harden, they traded Cole Aldrich, Daquan Cook, and Lazar Hayward, and chose not to re-sign “Royale with Cheese” and “D-Fish”

That’s half of last year’s team gone, with a few new faces in Perry Jones III, Lamb, K-Mart, and Hasheem Thabeet.
It’s not easy to defend a Western Conference title with so much transition in the locker room. I imagine the shock is slowly wearing off and by next month, the 82 game machine will be in full tilt and it’ll be less foreign to see Harden in that Rocket Red and not in Thunder Blue ( I gotta give KD credit on how well he has managed to keep things moving forward–He was quoted after the Spurs game as saying “I back the front office fully on their decisions”).

By All Star Break we’ll see them getting comfortable with each other and I think the 2nd half is where we’ll get a true gauge of how this particular group will mesh. “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons is ready to write them off and hand it to the Lakers( kind of funny because I do recall him admonishing the Thunder for “reaching” for Harden when they could have Stephen Curry). I’m still in wait and see mode. This group may not be able to handle the Heat in June, but I think they can still handle the Lakers in April.

The jury is still out on the Lakers. They kind of look old right now, and Nash and Kobe are both already hurt. We don’t know how Dwight Howard’s back will hold up, Jamison and Artest (I refuse to call him World Peace)are both old. They looked terrible last night without Nash. I’m not sold on their bench either.

Maybe this makes the Spurs sleepers as well, but they still lack a big dude in the post to help out Tim Duncan.

So right now I feel like it’s too early to write the OKC boys off. I kind of like the look of this year’s team. I don’t doubt Westbrook and Durant’s drive to be champions. You definitely can’t doubt their talent. Who’s to say Miami stays healthy? Who’s to say Chris Bosh doesn’t come out and do something to ruin the locker room chemistry in Miami? Chicago seemed poised to knock off the Heat until D. Rose’s unfortunate ACL tear. But that is why they play the game. As my favorite sports reporter Chris Arnold used to say back int the day, ” You never know.”

I’m running with these boys again this year, and see where they take me. KD is right, time to move forward. And yes, I will definitely be attending a Rockets game or two this year to see my main man James put up some points. Happy for him that he gets to be 23 years old and get paid 80 million dollars to live in Houston. He’s going to have a good time. I just don’t think it will translate into a championship ring.

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Pedo State University

15 Jul

Throw the fucking book at them. If Penn State doesn’t get the death penalty, then I might be off College Football forever. It would be the biggest hypocrisy of hypocrisies that involve the corporation that is the NCAA.

Basically they would be saying that giving money to athletes is a much bigger crime than raping little boys. Take the fucking statue down, erase the name on the library and SHUT DOWN the football program. I see no other way around it.

I’ve heard radio/tv talking heads say that it had nothing to do with football–that it would be punishing all the people who had nothing to do with the incident (R.C. Slocum made Aggies look real bad with his statement about how “one mistake” shouldn’t “taint” Joe Pa’s legacy).

I have two responses:

1) It did involve football because this low-life motherfucker Sandusky was using the brand name of PSU to lure these boys in. He’d get them free gear, let them meet players, and even take them on university sanctioned trips (I wouldn’t be surprised if Sandusky was molesting these boys 2 doors down from Shultz, Curley, and or Paterno. They probably met some of these boys he was raping.). He raped kids on campus in areas he was still allowed access even after he no longer worked for Penn State.

2) The players on scholarship should be allowed to transfer without sitting out a year(this is what they did when they gave it to SMU in the ’80’s). Anybody who stays or decides in the future to go there know what they are getting into. My kid and my money would NOT be going to Penn State (just thought of another great bumper sticker).

When the story broke last fall I could smell massive cover up, but the conspiracy theorist in me wonders just how far this really goes. I wouldn’t be surprised if some lawmen, senators and governors weren’t somehow indirectly involved in this.

This might not be the end of it. How many people were like the guidance counselor, who told one of the victims that Sandusky wouldn’t “do such a thing”, when the victim tried to come forward with this information about him?

I want every journalist, talking head, football coach, fan to come forward like Rick Reilly, and publicly renounce their blind allegiance to Joe Paterno.

Somewhere in the Key West, Jimmy Johnson (and all members of the ’86 Miami Hurricanes squad) should feel vindicated. During the 1987 Fiesta Bowl,  the media did everything they could to raise Joe Pa to saint status, and to make Jimmy Johnson seem like a ringleader to a gang of hoodlums. Brent Musburger was one of the worst transgressors at the time. He was practically giddy when the heroic PSU Nittany Lions upset the villainous Miami Hurricanes.

And to all the people who say that Joe Paterno’s full volume of work shouldn’t be judged by “this one horrendous” mistake. GET REAL PEOPLE. Sandusky raped little boys and people knew about this and did NOTHING to stop it. That isn’t a mistake. That is a knowing accomplice.

It’s as bad as that Berkeley student going to a casino with his friend and not stopping him from raping and killing that poor little girl back in the ’90’s. It’s as bad as harboring a criminal. If I drove a buddy to his girlfriend’s house and he killed her and I drove him home, that would make me an accomplice.

How the fuck do you hear a boy getting raped in the shower and not fucking do anything to help the kid–ie stopping the rape and calling the cops?

No one says that John Wayne Gacy’s charity work and scuccessful business ventures make up for his proclivity for raping and killing young men. So how can Joe Pa’s body of work not be sullied by this new information?

Fuck Penn State. Fuck Football. And if there is some yokel out there who can’t see the importance of why Penn State should not suit up next year, then fuck them too. My best advice (outside of researching the effects of rape on children) for those people is to buy a ” Time Machine Building for Dummies” book and transport themselves back to ancient Greece, where it was socially accepted to take a young boy on a “rite of passage”.

Sandusky is about to find out what they do to old ass men who prey on little boys in the “Big House”, and if you think I’m talking about the stadium where the Michigan Wolverines play, then you’re one of the dumb motherfuckers who just don’t get it.

 

 

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Got my Swagg back.

9 Oct

The Playmaker. One of the forefathers of that winning tradition at the "U". Football is back. That extra edge I needed is back along with it.

Most importantly the “U” is back.

Coincidence?? I think not.

When Randy Shannon was hired as the head coach of the University of Miami football team, I told my buddy Roach that in a couple years the team would be back on top. I knew the next two years would be tough, transition years. It was tough watching those lossed to Florida and Cal last year. But I knew this year ahd to be different.

They are still not ready for the big time, too young and too undiscilpined, but next year is their year I believe.
I knew the year before their last championship that they’d be ready back in 2000 when they got hosed out of the championship game by the NCAA when they had beaten FSU head to head (and Washington had the same record and had beaten Miami that year).

You could just tell they had the horses. Clinton Portis, Jeremy Shockey, Santana Moss, Andre Johnson. Ed Reed, Jonathan Vilma. Maybe the greatest of all their championship teams.

Yes I’m from Texas. But my biggest fantasy (besides getting laid) as a kid was to go to University of Miami and be the team mascot, Sebastian the Ibis. Running out on the field with team from the tunnels amidst the smoke to all of the fans at the old Orange Bowl.

I also wanted to be a professional baseball player. Neither dream was realized. the best I could muster was a visit to Navarro Junior college in Corsicana, Texas and a pamphlet from the U of M a few days later. I saw the price of out of state tuition and my jaw dropped. My parents hadn’t planned on me going to college and I was barely able to graduate high school anyway, so I settled for a 500 dollar booster club scholarship and went to community college.

But still I watched with interest. Since I’ve been a fan of football I’ve been a Canes fan. ’92 was a rough year, the loss to Alabama, ’93 wasn’t easy to take with teh Fiesta Bowl loss to Arizona, ’94 was the Orange Bowl loss to Neberaska, ’95 they were a non-factor and also had their 58 game home winning streak snapped by U-W, and the losses kept piling on……but they hired Butch Davis eventually and he brought the program back into the spotlight.

So after Davis left and they won, the next year the wins were becoming harder to eke out, and though they were undefeated going into the Fiesta Bowl game of ’03, I had a weird feeling that something was wrong.

First, for whatever reason, whenever they go out to Arizona, things go bad, even going back as far as 1987 when they lost to Penn State. So I took the halftime “kick the field goal” competition between the school’s fans as an omen (even watching Edggie George hog the mic from Warren Sapp during the halftime show seemed prophetic).

So what happened? Miami claws back only to get screwed at the end by a bogus pass interference call.
But you can look back at a lot of reasons besides that call of why they lost.
1. they didn’d get the ball to Kellen Winslow enough
2. The Maurice Clarret strip of safety Sean Taylor (R.I.P.) on a key interception cost them some points.
3. The Roscoe Parrish fumble early in the 4th quarter was costly as well.

The fact that I am still holding onto this loss is a testament to my love for the “U”.
Also my favorite football of all time, Michael Irvin went to college there. I’ve seen all the key games on ESPN Classic. I’ve beaten everyone with the ALL time Miami teams on the NCAA Football video games (even got it down on lock with the classic teams from ’87, 89,’91, ’01, and ’02 teams).

So I’m just happy that they are competitive again. With Coker (who seemed like a nice guy) as the coach, they seemed to have lost that edge they always had.
People hated the “U” players because they were too breash, too much celebrating, and dirty.

But that was why I liked them. Those championship teams were vicious, nasty and the defense had some of the hardest, quickest linebackers and safeties you’d ever seen. Sean Talyor had the potential to be the greatest safety in NFL history before his life was tragically cut short (one of the saddest days of my life).

I liked the fact that no one liked the Canes, it made me like them more. I’ve always considered myself one of those polarizing kinda characters as well, either people absolutely love me or hate me. I can dig it.

But they lost that Ali-esque-swagger along the way, and you could see it slowly seep away and soon they were settling for the Emerald Bowl and going 9-4 instead of 12-1 or 11-2.

So when they hired Shannon I was excited, here was an alum. He had won a championship in ’87 as a linebacker. He knew what it took to win. He also had a piece of the legacy.

Somewhere along the way old players and supporters were not on the sidelines anymore to cheer their old school on. Their was no accountability to uphold the winning tradition, and it showed.

But now I think Michael Irvin has a reason to be proud. You see former players on the sideline again. You see former players as coaches (former great Michael Barrow is the linebackers coach).

And with the latest win (albeit sloppy) over Ou this past weekend. There is a sense that this crop of players is getting it. The old Canes teams knew that no matter how things were going, they were still going to win. They had that P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude) that carried them through games. They KNEW they had it. They had that swagg going.

Stud quarterback had “USWAGG” cut into his fade last week and a reporter asked him about it. He said that it was about getting that swagger back, that “U” magic. It was something that needed to be brought back to the program.

It was exactly what I wanted to hear. This year a BCS bowl. Next year, a BCS championship.

Can’t wait for December when Billy Corben’s documentary on the “U” comes out. The timing couldn’t be better.

I’m 30, after one of the most successful years professionally, and most disastrous romantically, I’ve recovered my own swagger. I’m ready to dust my shoulders off again, get my swagg on and do this thang. And every Saturday each Miami win, will make my week just a little bit better.

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Why I cried when the Cowboys lost on Thanksgiving on Pete Stoyanavich’s last second field goal

20 Mar
thanks for ruining my Thanksgiving Leon

thanks for ruining my Thanksgiving Leon

Why I cried Thanksgiving Day When Pete Stoyanavich Nailed a Game Winning Field Goal

*Taken from the march 20, 2009 entry of my blog “The Nuclear Polio Vaccination”

When I was four years old my parents bought me a Cowboys T-shirt. There were these cool little cartoon drawings pictures Ed “Too Tall Jones”, Randy and Danny White, and Coach Tom Landry. One time I accidentally got a smidgeon of poop on the tail of my shirt. I was too young to consider the ramifications of not washing the shirt immediately and the stain dried. When the smell became too much for me days later, I discarded my beloved T-shirt.

 

My allegiance to the Cowboys started then before I was old enough to realize what happened. I couldn’t tell you if they were even a good team back then (Danny White was the Tony Romo-esque whipping boy then so probably not).

 

In some ways the years 1991-93 were the best of my life. I knew practically nothing about girls during this three year span. It was a wonderfully latent period, where my adolescent development coincided with the Cowboys going from a NFC Wild Card team to back to back Super Bowl champions.

 

Those teams were incredible to watch. The offense was unstoppable. Michael “Playmaker” Irvin still to this day remains my favorite football player of all time. And I was treated every Sunday to greatness of Jay Novacek, Emmitt Smith, Henrietta’s own Troy Aikman, and Daryl “Moose” Johnston.

 

The defense consisted of the deepest defensive line to take the field. Tony Tolbert, Charles Haley, Tony Casillas and Chad Hennings were such a force that they made things very easy for the secondary of Kevin Smith, Thomas Everett, James Washington, and Larry Brown.

 

The Cowboys also had one of the greatest coaches in football history, Coach Jimmy Johnson. He was also the only coach to win both an NFL title and a National Championship. He orchestrated it all and I learned so much about football from watching those championship teams and reading the books that followed.

 

Nate Newton had his own show on 1310 (“The Ticket”) which often had Michael Irvin as a guest. The laughs would last forever and I’d get a little melancholy when the clock read 6:50 and the show started winding down. I was consumed by the Cowboys success because my life and its awkward hormonal adjustments didn’t seem so awkward on those lovely Sundays, when it was time for the Cowboys to exert their dominance.

 

This of course was before egos got involved, mainly Jerry Jones’ ego. Jimmy Johnson was getting too much credit (deservedly so in my opinion) and Jerry couldn’t handle someone stealing the spotlight from him. So he ran Jimmy out of town after back-to back Super Bowl titles. Well, we all know the rest of this story. Jones hires Switzer to show just how easily replaced Johnson could be and the team went from disciplined and prepared to getting untimely penalties and turnovers.

 

During the second title defense they’d go down in the NFC Championship game 21-0 with three consecutive turnovers to start the first quarter againstSan Francisco. They would battle back but would get ruined by a non- pass interference call on Deion Sanders, and an in-excusable personal foul against Barry Switzer that wrapped up the game for the 49ers. This caused me one of the worst nights of my entire teenaged life (well before I’d wreck my dad’s pickup truck while he was at work.

 

The next year Jerry Jones hastily signed Deion Sanders and pissed away cap space during the first off-season of the salary cap era- free agency. The depth of tremendous talent was dwindling as their unsung heroes went on to better paychecks with other teams. The Boy’s were suddenly vulnerable at every position…….

They won the Super Bowl that year but you could smell what was in the water. They started losing more winnable games every year, drafting poorly and going through a head coach every three years when they’d only had two in the team’s history up to 1994.

 

The legendary players retired year after year and soon the Cowboys were just mediocre….They had taken a public image hit so badly from off the field incidents that they compromised what was a sure fire hit (Randy Moss) to get someone with character (Greg Ellis?). This could be one of the biggest sport’s what-if’s in football history. It is arguable that the Cowboys would be a different franchise and Randy Moss might have been a different player under the tutelage of Michael “Playmaker” Irvin. This pick may have extended the careers of many of the Cowboys players (Who knows, maybe the hit that ended Irvin’s career never happens if Moss is on the field taken attention away from Irvin).

When the losses started piling up, and I found better ways to waste my time, I quit watching altogether. Perhaps I can thank that mid-nineties slump for me being a well rounded person. Yet there was that part of me that missed getting excited about every upcoming season. Instead my predictions were “they’ll still suck just you watch.” People thought I was ‘being a hater”, but I always wanted to be wrong. I was just protecting myself.

Then the Tony Romo era arrived. And though I never agreed with the signing of Terrell Owens, he definitely brought a presence to the offense that had to be accounted for. Once again I was paying attention as the ‘Boys were back in the spotlight.

 

I was sucked in again–just enough to get sick when Romo fumbled in the Seahawks playoff game (thank God I missed the Giants game last year when they spit the bit). This year when everyone was saying Super Bowl or bust, I wanted to just see if they could win a playoff game.  I wasn’t surprised at all when things went south this year.
I was at a party one time and I overheard someone say that Jones was a southern version of AL Davis. A woman of all people had said this (had I any sense at all, I would have started dating this insightful young lady—but that’s another story for another time).

 

A fish stinks from the head down as they say, and I for one blame Jerry Jones. Because of his tomfoolery the Cowboys have had nothing but cream puff coaches (except Bill Parcells), bad drafts, and even worst free agent signing.

 

No self respecting coach will work for him as long as he keeps meddling in the football operation. The man knows how to make money but he has no idea how to run a football team. He needs to hire a legit coach and get out the way. Until then I won’t watch another Cowboys game–no matter how well they are doing because I (we?) ultimately know how it’s going to end.

I can’t stomach losing. It’s a sickening feeling to see them when lose one stupid way after another during the biggest games. I care too much and have seen too much championship football. Anyone who watched those early ’90′s teams understands what winning means and 10-6 and a first round exit in the playoffs doesn’t cut it for most Cowboys fans. It doesn’t matter how much Jones spent building that state-of-the-art luxury stadium. What does matters is who plays in it.

Like a man who still in love with a gal because he remembers the good old days of how it used to be, I had to learn to accept the present circumstances. Sometimes people grow apart and go in different directions. Even though there may still be a hint of hope that she might stop going out to the bar, getting toasted and spending all my money frivolously; things can’t change for the better unless there is a fundamental change from within.

Those glory days are gone. They will probably be gone forever. It has become a very unhealthy relationship with my Dallas Cowboys. My expectations are just unfair and unrealistic. While I was once a recovering Cowboy fan, I now identify myself as simply a football fan.

“There you were. Everybody watched you play. I just turned and walked away. I had nothing left to say. Because you’re still the same.” ~Bob Seger~

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