A little verbal diarrhea on several topics this morning...
1. Football Game: Despite the Yanks winning 20-11 last night at The Stadium, I'd bet against them making the playoffs. They picked the wrong year to play an apathetic and sloppy brand of baseball now that the AL Central may provide 2 teams into postseason play instead of their customary 1. So, since it seems like it'll be football season early around here, I was happy to see my G-Men put up 2 TD's and 2 FG's on the formerly vaunted Bucs defense last night. Tiki ran one up the gut for a 35 yard score and Eli threw a pretty 15 yard post corner to Amani on 3rd & 12 late in the game to put it out of reach.
2. Choke Job?/Redemption?: Will the Spurs choke on Thursday night or will they redeem themselves and show up for a 3rd title in 7 seasons? I had Spurs in 6 and now I'm wondering if it won't be Detroit in 7. Despite having Duncan and Ginobili, the two most talented player on the court, the Pistons seem more resilient and more aggressive and even though they lost Games 1, 2 and 5 (usually bad games to lose when you're the road team), they seem a lot less nervous and shaken than the Spurs. Is it just me or does anyone else think that Duncan is wilting when he should be rising to the occasion? I'm not going to rip him and I don't need anyone to show me the stats because I know they're good but I can't help feeling that he's throwing up hollow numbers right now. All those free throws he's bricking and all those crummy 18 foot fade-aways he's taking would make me uncomfortable right now if I was a Spurs fan. Just a thought.
3. NBA Age Limit: I read an interesting perspective on this issue in yesterday's and today's Daily Quickie on ESPN.com's Page2. Dan Shanoff, the editor of Daily Quickie's take on it is that it's bad for the game to restrict talented players from entering the league based on age. He cites Kobe, LeBron, T-Mac, Amare, Jermaine O'Neal, Rashard Lewis and the other man-children currently dominating the NBA. Of course, there's no denying that I've just listed 6 of the best players going right now, but what of the others, guys like DeShawn Stevenson and Kwame Brown who came into the league straight from high school and who haven't found their place yet? Shanoff says that we shouldn't buy into the notion that colleges will better develop these players for the NBA because college coaches run their programs for themselves and not as NBA prep clinics. He says that the only way a talented high school kid can get better is to not get distracted with school but to prepare for the draft and then learn from NBA coaches whose job it is to get the best out of their players. Interesting food for thought. I don't completely buy into that theory but there is some logic to the point.
4. Bernie Ecclestone v. Danica Patrick: Has anyone else seen the sexist remarks made by Bernie Ecclestone, the President and CEO of the Formula One racing circuit? Without getting into the specifics of what he said, he basically believes that women don't belong in his sport or sports in general and that they should stay home in the kitchen. Now I know that F1 racing is wildly popular in Europe and South America but it just isn't a relevant sport here in the United States and, frankly, relevance in the US is all that matters in the world of sports (soccer included -- I'll debate the business aspects of this with anyone that disagrees). To rip Danica Patrick when she just delivered ratings to other racing events is just idiotic. Why bite the hand that feeds you? You can be the most misogynistic person on earth if you want to be but you're doing your sport (and humanity) a disservice. If Danica Patrick is the meal ticket to better ratings and greater relevance, punch that ticket all the way to the bank. Ecclestone, you're a complete idiot. I have no idea how you're in a position of power. You're about as intelligent as the turd I flushed down the toilet this morning.
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1. I don't believe in the clutch/choke concept in the traditional, ESPN sense. The Spurs and their leader Timmy seem like they're playing tight which is another way of saying choke but maybe it is important to note that the Spurs were never tested this year. In fact, they haven't been to a Game 7 in any round of the playoffs in either of their previous championship runs. Maybe they just don't have the bunker mentality that the Pistons do. Maybe the Spurs haven't forgotten last year's loss to the Lakers after being up 2-0 and it's affecting their mojo. I attribute that "mojo factor" to the Yanks' play this year -- they haven't forgotten how bad last October was and its always in their minds that something took place that shouldn't have.
2. I don't want to defend Shanoff's position because it's not my own and because I dont completely buy into it but here goes... It's not the NBA's job to counsel these kids and make sure they grow up to be well-adjusted adults. It's the NBA's job to maximize every last drop of earning potential they can out of them. For that reason, the NBA can tolerate a thuggish persona if it means that it plays well in jersey sales and other business enterprises. For all the talk about how bad the Artest fight was for the game, NBA viewership increased for all subsequent Pacers-Pistons games this year. I love to moralize and rip on these arrogant jerks for being flashy and socially irresponsible and out of touch but others in the general population don't mind that kind of behavior. It's those folks that the NBA wants to drive sales.
I believe the comment was that Danica Patrick should be wearing white so she can look the same as any other domestic appliances. He also stated this:
The 74-year-old told Autosport racing magazine in Feb. 2000 that women would never excel in Forumla One. He added that if a woman did make it, "she would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys. ... What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish."
I think that he should get out of racing and become the owner of the Reds.
I may write a whole column one day on this, but I think the NBA should have stuck with the 18-year old limit ONLY IF they had player allocations to the NBDL. This would be a marketing genius! Fans would have a reason to watch the NBDL since teams' futures would depend on how the talent develops. Kids would then have to debate whether they would actually make the NBA, or get stuck in the NBDL for a few years. This would also be more beneficial, since instead of a guy like Darko playing 4 minutes a night, he could play 30 minutes in the minors.
Feminist rants are always welcome.
I think Dan Shanoff makes a gross generalization about college coaches. Sure some of them (Bob Huggins comes to mind) don't care what happens to their player once they are done with them. But does anyone really believe ALL coaches are that way? That players at Duke learn nothing about the fundamentals or team play or understanding how to guard a pick and roll? As a life long Carolina fan I hate Duke. But for all their problems, telling me a young player learns more at the feet of Larry Brown than Coach K is plain silly. Just ask Darko.
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