Micheal Jordan ... yikes

I am certain that when the Chicago Bulls were on your schedule, most teams and players probably lost a little sleep during the Jordan era. Whether you were scared or having excitement that you were going to see Jordan, you couldn't sleep. A a player, he did not tolerate losing. Most people were worried that he would not know how to handle his competitive nature after his playing days were over. He retired three times. He played baseball. He took up golf. He has this amazing brand with his own company as well as Nike. He is the most successful athlete in the history of the world. Magic Johnson is pretty close with hi movie theaters and Starbucks, but no one single brand is like Jordan's. What has happened to him is more than Shakespearean. It is downright cruel..
Micheal Jordan as an NBA executive or Owner has been inexplicable. He has drafted Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Micheal Kidd Gilchrist to name a few. I guess if he can still beat one on one, he drafts you. His departure from Washington is something that irritates him to this day. He tried to teach the triangle offense in Washington and he could believe that the players could not grasp it. He was their best player and he was 41 years old. Charlotte has been a nightmare. He has fired a coach every year over the last four. Paul Silas and Larry Brown have NBA street cred. Charlotte actually improved this year and had some good wins this year. The sad thing about this year is watching Jordan's reactions during Bobcat games. He is shaking his head or always walking out. I watched the Lakers play Bobcats and the camera was repeatedly on Jordan and he looked like he did not want to be there. Constantly shaking his head even though his team was winning. Maybe he is being punished for being so good. Maybe great players can only relate to great players. Larry Bird had success on the bench in Indiana, Jerry West is still the best talent evaluator. Elgin Baylor had 4 winning seasons as g.m. of the Clippers out of 20. Bill Russell did win a title as a player coach. Micheal Jordan is getting the definite Yin and yang of sports life. He is getting Murphy's Law as well. Can he fix this? Maybe he needs to reach out to Phil Jackson and turn this all around. Maybe he needs to go away and the enigma that most people think he is. No one should be so great at one thing and be so bad at the other extreme. They say that those who can do, those who can't teach. I am speechless. Rob and Carl Reiner have directed great movies and television shows and they could act too. Penny Marshall as well. Sean Penn, Denzell Washington, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard were actors first. I will always root for Jordan. He is still my hero..

The NFL Draft.. Can we Shut up Already

The NFL Draft is two days away and the NFL pundits can't wait. Ever since Alabama slapped Notre Dame all over the field, every network has been evaluating every eligible player to find out who be this years surprise,stud, or bust. Will there be a
Russell Wilson or David Wilson. Is there a Tom Brady or Ryan Leaf. There are definitely a few players who will make a lifetime mark on the NFL. Every draft has that. This draft has intrigue because a bunch of players have at one point been labelled as "can't miss" or overall number 1 talent.  Matt Barkeley would have a top ten pick last year and now he is second round talent. Landry Jones is now third round talent. Tyrann Mathieu may not be called till later. Manti Te'o a second round possibility. Just to name  a few. Marcus Lattimore may go undrafted.  Who knows..
Does anyone really know?  I don't think teams really do or do the pundits. I think teams should draft to beat the teams they play not the best player available. If the strength of the teams you play is passing the ball, shouldn't you draft better corners or d-line help.  For example, the NFC south is loaded with offensive football players. Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina, and Tampa can really throw the football. Each team has a receiver or tight end that been Pro-Bowler. You could either a player who can rush the passer to offset passing attacks or get better weapons to keep up with the better teams in the division. Tampa just got Darrell Revis to cover the best receivers in the south. Now they can focus on getting a pass rusher to sack Breed, Ryan, or Newton.  Simple right. My team, New York Giants every year draft tight ends in the first round even though the other teams in the division seem to make bigger splash moves. Now the Giants have won two super bowls in the last decade so maybe the other teams should draft to beat them, but I am always perplexed by the choices by the Giants. This year the Giants need to get someone who can play middle linebacker or contain RG3 ,Vicki and Romo on the perimeter. Instead the Giants will no doubt draft offensive lineman which makes no sense.
The other aspect of the draft that bothers me is teams think the trend is one thing and it completely blows up in their faces. For example, running quarterback is the trend right now. RG3, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson have freaked out everyone in the league because they can run and throw. I always ask this question, what quarterback has won a super bowl playing like they do? Jeff Hostetler is the only one. Twenty three years ago. Steve Young threw six touchdown passes and led the 49ers with his arm. The last four champs, Flacco,Manning, Rodgers,Brees pretty much stay in the pocket to make plays. In fact add Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and you have the highest paid players in the game. In fact I am willing to bet that one of the six will be in the super bowl this year. Running quarterbacks get hurt, they can't run in the rain or snow and are prone to turn the ball over when hit.  Plus they cannot run forever. Steve Young was a great runner but made the Hall of Fame because of his arm. John Elway ran, but his cannon  arm was his signature . Donovan Mcnabb ran a lot and had a lot of success but never won the super bowl. Teams adjust and find ways to exploit weaknesses in these schemes. I can't wait to see the plan of attack this year against these young guns. You will see that I am right.
The draft will be interesting to see if teams are drafting to the trend,needs, or best available player. Hopefully my team will do better than yours. I am just glad the chatter is over. No more speculation and innuendo. Should be a riveting three days.... Not

NBA playoffs... God I hope Lakers get swept..

Last night, the Clippers beat the Grizzlies at the buzzer. Chris Paul hit a one handed push shot with great defense played on him by Tony Allen enabling the Clippers to take a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series. So I got up this morning to hear the pundits talk about the inept Clipper half court offense or how they squandered a 12 point lead in the fourth quarter.  I was waiting for them to talk about how Chris Paul is a killer and how he would not let the Clippers lose.  I turn on ESPN first take and they open with the Lakers? They open with twitter gate? They talk for 20 minutes about an interview Coach D'Antonio did on the Dan Patrick Show about Kobe Bryant's reaction to the game on Sunday.  I hate the Lakers... The Lakers are the Tim Tebow of basketball. All season long tedious stories about this dreadful old team that is going nowhere. Just like Tebow. I have never wanted to scream at people I respect so much in my life.  Who cares if the Clippers can't win the title. Who cares even if Memphis had won the game last night. The Lakers are not the story. The NBA had two good games last night, the NBA gave out its sixth man of the year award out yesterday, and there were several other stories to talk about. How about David Lee being out for the playoffs. How about Derek Rose not playing in the post season. Who cares about the Lakers? Delusional fans who truly understand that they are going home within a week? 
There are three games tonight. If I hear anything about the Lakers, I will personally go to ESPN pull out the satellite feed nationwide. The funny thing is that the pundit shows originate in Connecticut. Who wants to wake up in Connecticut, Boston or New York and be deluged with Los Angeles Lakers nonsense? My niece does. She loves the Lakers. Maybe she is in charge of the programming.. The L.A. Tebows

Tiger Woods mess is so confusing

I got up this morning to hear the pundit shows talk about the Masters and the ball dropping disaster and I have never been so confused.  Tiger put his ball a couple feet back to get a better shot and now they are saying that he may not have broken a rule?  Adam Scott must be wondering what he must do to escape this guy. Scott made unbelievable pressure putts and earned the victory. Tiger didn't.  I am the biggest Tiger Woods fan alive but even he knows that he should have been disqualified from the tourney. I have read comments from other golfers who have said that everything was handled properly. There was no way they take Tiger out of this tournament. This is the hallowed Masters and CBS would have had a coverage and ratings nightmare if they would booted Tiger out.
What would have happened if Tiger had won. Each day he had moments of brilliance. He had birdie binges and woke up the echoes of Augusta National. Would it have a been a disaster?  It would have been tainted and probably set the golfing world into a mess. Tiger still needs 5 majors to pass Jack.  Will he get it? Probably. He will become the All time leader in victories by this time next year. All everyone wants is for him to win a major this year. Without controversy. Tiger needs to come out today and make the world respect Adam Scott for his victory. We can't fix the past. We can either learn from it or repeat it. Replaying it over and over again hurts the game. Adam Scott deserves his day..So let's give it to him...

What would Jackie say...

As major league baseball prepares to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day, I wonder what he would say about baseball today.  I wonder if he would wonder what has happened to his game.  Where are the black faces? What happened to the black managers? Who is Tupac Shakur? Lebron James or RG3? I don't profess to a Robinson historian, but I am sure he would be fascinated by pop culture today. One of his last requests before he died was to see a black face in a dugout managing a team. Today there are two managers. Dusty Baker in Cincinnati. Bo Porter in Houston. Who the heck is Bo Porter? That is another blog another day. Cito Gaston won two world series with Toronto. So Jackie would be happy that that happened. He would excited the Ken Williams is a G.m. in Chicago and led them to a title. But where are the players? That would be the mystery to him.
When Jackie was playing baseball, the NBA was in its infancy. Football was more important in college. Boxing was the sport for most African Americans to try. Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis paved the way for the Cassius Clays of the world.  Jim Brown and Gayle Sayers hadn't wowed the world yet and Bill Russell, Willie Mays and Wilt Chamberlain were just warming up. Jackie brought everyone to baseball. The Negro league had better players than Jackie, but he got the shot. If there were jealousy or anger it was kept quiet in the black community. Can you imagine if that happened today?  I can't. Kids today want to play basketball, rap or play football.  Kids today could tell you more about Tupac than they can about any school topic or even Jackie Robinson. If a kid today did what Jackie did he would be called a sellout or a Tom. Kids today want to fight the power and start revolutions without understanding what it really means. They don't value life or education.  Jackie went to UCLA. He resisted non violently, He just played.  He did his social commentary when it was proper. Kids today think that being a professional athlete is so easy. They have no respect or regard for the commitment it takes to be a pro. They go to college for one semester to gain eligibility and then leave after one year.  They think that they are going to hip hop legends if they emulate the path that Tupac set forth. They don't understand the struggles that he went through. He and Lebron James are once in a lifetime talent. So is Tiger Woods. No one is trying to be like Tiger. To me that is puzzling. Let's talk baseball. The greatest leader in team sports is Derek Jeter. He is the biggest name in the biggest city. Matt Kemp is cut from the same cloth. But kids don't want to be like them on the field. Jeter, Woods,and Kemp are notorious ladies men. Maybe the fact that they are mixed race men too may factor into it for some as well.  I can't explain it...
So what would Jackie say? He probably would say be who you are,but don't forget about others are watching and learning from you along the way. He would be sad that kids are running away from baseball and disappointed that the brainwashing of our youths is real and destroying us as a people. He would psyched that there is a black President, but would be ashamed of the efforts to help inner city youth play baseball. He would be ashamed of the greed. He would be confused about the " me me" mentality of all sports.  He would say ," I created all of this?" He would change the channel....