Flopping is Gay

2 basketball posts in 2 days complaining about the NBA. BORING! You’ll also notice I used the word “gay”in the title and this world pretty much has a problem with calling anything gay that isn’t a man having sex with another man. Flopping in basketball is acting like you got fouled when you didn’t which could possibly be construed as gay because it is an effeminate move. Hence the title.

What you’ll see below is a bonafide problem in the NBA.

Refs need to be told by the league to call the game different. Raise the level of called fouls from a 5 to an 8. Touching is no longer a foul. Flopping never gets called. Players get away with dirtier plays. Take basketball back to the way it was played in the 80’s when the Pistons implemented the Jordan Rules. This was back when people actually cared about the NBA.

By |2014-11-05T09:04:43-05:00November 5th, 2014|Sports|1 Comment

Getting Old and Worse at Sports

Not catching this ball

Not catching this ball

Anyone that is older than me will likely say, “you’re not that old.”  30 years old isn’t that old when compared to an entire life but the body doesn’t reach its peak at the midway point.  What I’ve noticed is that I’m getting worse in just about anything I do that involves hand eye coordination or moving.

MJ_golf_courseThere are professional athletes who play well into their 30’s and can still be productive but usually not at as high a level as their 20’s.  Isiah Thomas retired at the ripe age of 32.  Barry Sanders at 30.  Even MJ retired at 30 (the first time).  The reason athletes retire is because they can’t play at the level they once played at.  When you don’t feel like you are effective anymore, you give a reason like I’m too old and retire.  This helps your mind and is an excuse for being worse than you once were.

[dropcap background=”yes” color=”#333333″]Just remember when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.[/dropcap]

 

San Antonio Spurs v Phoenix Suns, Game 3I look back at my youth and was once a pretty sound basketball player.  This clip has me scoring 6 points in a quarter back when I was 13.  I don’t even score 6 points in a game nowadays.  When I was young, and admittedly would play way more basketball than I do now, I would go as far and say I was actually good at basketball.  I play today and my arms feel like they are the wrong size for my body and the ball feels like a balloon.

Man-relaxing-in-surf-whil-001This is for a number of reasons one of which I already mentioned, I don’t play as often.  Which leads to the obvious question, are your skills declining or are you not practicing enough?  Like many answers to questions, both.  Here’s the kicker, I don’t practice anything!  Aside from playing a lot of beer pong throughout my 20’s, I don’t take any activity seriously.  This in turn has left me with a feeling of uselessness in most everything I do.

I-quit-middle-fingerGames are all the same.  You start off learning the game.  Then you start practicing the game.  Then you start playing the game at as high a level as you can.  I’ve played hundreds of games and what happens time after time is you plateau in the game and then comes a crucial point where you either 1) devote more time to start mastering the nuances of the game or 2) quit.  I quit.  I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades but master of none.  Meaning that I’m respectable at most things, but am never the best.

free_wallpaper_of_natural_scenery_magical_sunsetIn a society where people only care about winning, it makes getting worse at things suck.  Am I exaggerating a bit in this post?  Yes.  I guarantee if I wanted to concentrate on shooting a basketball for 40 hours a week, I would improve and this post would have no meaning whatsoever.  The point is though that when you get older, life gets in the way.  You slave away at a job for 40 hours and leisure activities fade.  Next thing you know you’re 50 years old wondering where time went.  Is there a point to this post?  I don’t know.  I think it’s even though you suck, you should still have fun doing it.  Unfortunately sucking is frustrating as hell and makes people make blog posts.

 

 

By |2014-05-19T08:49:50-04:00May 19th, 2014|Sports|4 Comments

I Don’t Hate You Anymore, Lebron

act_lebron_james

First of all, Michael Jordan was and always will be my favorite player of all time. Even now, I probably can’t go more than a week or two without thinking about how I wish I could re-live watching him.  I’ve always wanted a DVD (I guess that’s outdated now) set of every one of his college and professional games to come out; I would watch at least a game a day.  To me, even if he is a pompous asshole, he can do no wrong.  The guy could kill a million babies and I would simply say “but it’s MJ, it’s no big deal.”

Then along came Lebron James.  He was the anointed one from the very get-go.  I bought into the hype, justifiably so, and loved watching him play.  I thought it was cool that he got to play for a team (which was mired in mediocrity, no less) that was a city in the state where he grew up.  I couldn’t help but root for him to bring some sort of attention and glory to the state of Ohio, considering I literally don’t know a single thing they are known for.

But after Dan Gilbert failed to bring Lebron any sort of adequate support, year after year,  Lebron inevitably and logically grew frustrated and took his talents to South Beach.  When he made “The Decision” I was pissed!  I was pissed for Ohio and Cleveland, and I was pissed that I didn’t go to Heat games (to watch him) while tickets would still be cheap since he played against them and the Heat weren’t that good.   I wanted to see him get his titles for the Cavs because it made the hometown hero story that much better.  But most of all, I was pissed at the way he handled departing from Cleveland.  He could have forewarned Gilbert and the Cavs rather than embarrassing them in an hour long special which should have been titled “Look At Me, Pay Attention To Me.”  I thought it was immature and the ultimate slap in the face to Cleveland and Ohio.

Looking back now, I’ve realized it was just an immature mistake, no more, no less.  He could have certainly handled it better.  His PR team, assuming he has one, probably realized this too.  But it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be in my head.  He had a right to try to win a title and Gilbert certainly wasn’t doing anything to help bring him any closer.

Now that he’s been on this ridiculous tear, breaking records, kicking ass and taking names, I can’t help but marvel at what he’s doing.  It’s nothing short of incredible, honestly.  He’s doing things no one else did, and with ease.  He’s truly like a man amongst boys.  At this point in his career, I don’t think there’s much he can’t do, if anything.  Well, he’s not the greatest free-throw shooter, but it hasn’t seemed to matter all that much anyway.

A player like Dwight Howard and the way he has been such a baby for the last 2+ seasons, holding the city and team of Orlando hostage and now causing a commotion in L.A. has taught me a lesson: what Lebron did wasn’t so bad.  He didn’t screw Cleveland over, he just made a decision that was in his best interests.  What Dwight did screwed Orlando over, and that city had already been abandoned by their previous number one overall pick and huge center, my main man, Shaq, landing on the same team too, go figure.  Dwight didn’t give it his all, complained, and literally held the team hostage, making it impossible for them to really benefit from losing him other than by potentially getting better via the Ewing Theory.

Whereas up until he left, Lebron gave Cleveland everything he had, and it was almost enough, all by himself.  “I’m not MJ, I’m LJ,” brought a smile to my face when he tweeted that the other day.  His identity has finally come out, and he’s not a bad guy, he’s just having fun playing a game he’s ridiculously gifted at.  So Lebron, it wasn’t your title, and it wasn’t your tackle of this guy (although I loved that because it does make it easier to endear to you), it was simply my new-found understanding that I overreacted to “The Decision.”  And thus, Lebron, I don’t hate you anymore.  In fact, I’m back to loving you, so keep doing what you do big man!

By |2013-02-15T12:10:32-05:00February 15th, 2013|Sports|2 Comments

Philly Athletes Who’ve Gone Broke

Hailing from Philadelphia, I have an odd sense of like/dislike for our sports teams. For starters, Philly teams don’t win championships. The Eagles have only been to Superbowl once. The Sixers as the Nationals won in 1955, then back to the Sixers in 1967, and again in 1983 with Dr J and Moses. The Flyers held the Stanley Cup in 1974, 75 but nothing since. Finally the Phillies won the world series in 1980 and 2008 which I recall had an odd rain delay that caused game 3 to be postponed and the sense of an unofficial victory. That leads for a total of 1 championship since I was born. That’s not a whole lot to get excited for and may add to my lack of being a homer. If there is any team though that I’d want to win, it’s almost always a Philadelphia team but that has to factor in my indifference to the outcome of sporting events in general. Putting this brief history of ineptitude aside, Philadelphia athletes also seem to be better at losing their money than other cities. Let’s look at some of our finer specimens.

Allen Iverson
AI - SAVINGS!
First on my list is Allen Iverson and rightfully so. He brought life into Philly ball that was honestly terrible for years following Barkley’s departure. AI was this city’s savior and he brought that intensity beginning his rookie season. The 2000 championship run was my fondest enjoyment of any Sixers basketball ever. Stepping over Tyrone Lue is the most memorable with AI crossing Jordan as a close second. Amazingly, with all his talent and earning ability, he has found himself without any money. AI earned over 154 million dollars throughout his career and that doesn’t include endorsements which have to be close to 50 million. I would go on to say that with all of AI’s retirements and returns, overseas basketball, and soccer auditions, that this is one of the saddest athlete stories. He succumbed to some costly issues such as gambling, divorce with goddamn kids, and having an entourage 50 deep. These guys just don’t understand that the money stops coming in when you stop playing. “In a Philadelphia Inquirer column published March 7, 2010, Stephen A. Smith wrote that according to “numerous NBA sources”, Iverson would “either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away”, and that Iverson had already been banned from casinos in Detroit and Atlantic City. Smith also wrote that Tawanna, his wife of eight years, had separated from him and filed for divorce, seeking custody of their five children, as well as child support and alimony payments.” I wonder if AI has the answer?

Lenny Dykstra

alg-lenny-dykstra-court-jpg
I remember Lenny being my favorite Phillie during their World Series run in 1993 (he was also runner up for MVP to Barry Bonds that year). He batted lead off, played centerfield, had a cheek full of tobacco and was tough as nails. He was also a bad boy after these numerous incidents. In 1991, while driving drunk (.179 BAC), he crashed his car into a tree on Darby-Paoli Road in Radnor Township after attending John Kruk’s party. Oh yeah, Darren Daulton was also in the car and they both sustained broken bones. In 1999, he was arrested for sexual harassment of a 17-year-old woman who worked at his car wash, but the criminal charges were later dropped. In December 2010, Dykstra was accused of hiring a female escort, then writing the escort a bad $1,000 check. Adult film star and escort Monica Foster claimed that he purchased her escort service on December 13, 2010 then wrote her a check that bounced. Monica Foster later posted a copy of the bounced check on her blog. These acts don’t even touch the financial issues he had which I just don’t have the space or will to write about in this short area. Let’s just say the guy didn’t manage his money well and was a complete shyster and after filing for bankruptcy, has landed himself behind bars.

Michael Vick
michael_vick_dog1
It’s hard for me to really call Vick an Eagle but he technically has played for us and is one of the most high profile finance-tards. I don’t need to go into the dog fighting because that’s been covered to death. Some of Vick’s more interesting bonehead stories. In March 2005, Sonya Elliott filed a civil lawsuit against Vick alleging she contracted genital herpes from him in the autumn of 2002 and that he failed to inform her that he had the disease. Elliot further alleged that Vick had visited clinics under the alias “Ron Mexico” to get treatments and thus knew of his condition. The “weed water bottle” also seems to have gone mum. Vick surrendered a water bottle that had a hidden compartment to security personnel at Miami International Airport on January 17, 2007 but nothing was found illegal. Vick announced that the water bottle was a jewelry stash box, and that the substance in question had been jewelry. HUH? Financially, Vick signed a 6 year, 100 million dollar contract with the Eagles recently so he won’t be broke forever but his financial troubles stemmed from the dog-fighting and his inability to collect on his contract. I have a feeling though that Vick will have wised up and will have some better financial planning moving forward. Over under 5 years til bankruptcy?

By |2013-01-08T20:45:44-05:00January 8th, 2013|Sports|0 Comments

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