Eastern Conference Basketball isn't fantastic, its anonymous

I haven't written for a while, so I am sorry to post an empty blog. I think my blog is a perfect representation of what is in the way for the heat to repeat as champions. Nothing.. The east has one team other than Miami with a winning record.  The very tall and formidable Indiana pacers. The Bulls will get better as the year progresses. Brooklyn and new York have injuries but have insane talent. They both stink right now. Can anyone name another team in the east? Philly? Boston? Cleveland? Toronto? Do you know that the two team that have longest playoff streak in east?  Not Miami. Not New York. It is Boston and the Atlanta Hawks. If you take away the Heat, Pacers, Nets and Knicks, could you name an All star team. Derek Rose is gone till the playoffs. Rudy Gay is in the witness protection program in Toronto. Kyrie Irving is made of paper mache. He gets hurt more frequently than any person I have ever heard of.  Speaking of Cleveland who is this number one draft pick who sits the bench quite often? Anthony Bennett. He may go down as the most under used number one pick in history.  He is the most anonymous first pick of the last 20 years. The east is so bad that western conference teams are asking for realignment. This could be the first time that several teams make the playoffs with a losing record. Teams are tanking for this great college class? I don't think they could if they tried.
Why are they so bad?  The old teams are just old. Brooklyn and New York can't stay healthy or put two games in a row of consistent basketball together. Other teams have lost star players and are trying to fix problems with unproven talent.  Orlando lost Howard. Atlanta lost Joe Johnson and Josh Smith.  They also fired coaches who could win 50 games a season but fail in the playoffs. They have made terrible trades and have not recovered. The Pistons haven't been the same sine Hamilton and Billups left. Philly got nothing from Bynum and traded Igoudola for nothing but promise.  Cleveland lost Lebron and has the number 1 pick twice in 3 years. Milwaukee lost Bogut and Ellis, and last year Jennings.  Toronto lost Bosh.  Who is Demar Derozen? I know he is a l.a.kid but can he play? These teams are mismanaged for the future. They bring in all of this young potential talent and they are not really ready for the NBA. The west is younger and hungrier. The west has two old teams but they can still play. The Spurs are a top 3 team. The Lakers will be better than most think if Kobe is healthy. The death of the east is the one and done players. The life of the west is the mixture of the old,new, and unproven.  I am a east coast guy and I am dying with this.. We shall see what happens..

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....

Are these streaks good for sports or a sign of the lack of talent league wide

When the Chicago Black hawks started the NHL with a 20 plus game winning streak, my first thought was who have they played. Hockey is having a shorter season than normal due to the lockout and I wondered if Chicago's schedule was favorable. I saw that they played Detroit a few times. St. Louis as well. As they were winning so was the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat won 27 straight games and I thought about who they were playing too. The Heat beat the Knicks, Thunder, Celtics on the road. The Clippers won 17 straight in December. The Denver Nuggets won 15 straight in March. Now the Pittsburgh Penguins have gone 15-0-0 for the month of March setting a record for most wins without a tie or shootout in NHL history. Are these streaks happening because of talentless pool or are these teams really good? 
I think these teams are really good. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup two years ago and underachieved over the last two years. They lost key players who helped them win the cup and it has taken a while for them to gel. The western conference playoffs this year in hockey is going to be epic. The Kings, Ducks, Blackhawks, and Canucks are going to really keep people up late watching to see who can make it to the Stanley Cup finals.
The Miami Heat know that they are the favorite to represent the east, and they also know that they are going to have to earn the title. The Bulls, Pacers, Knicks and Celtics really want to make some history. The Celtics and Knicks are still smarting after blowing huge leads against the Heat during their streak. The Bulls and Pacers believe that they have the blueprint to beat the Heat. During the streak of the Heat they played a lot of teams with losing records, but with Lebron James on the team every opponent is inferior. They are the defending champs for a reason. When the Clippers won 17 straight they beat good teams as well. The Clippers are having a season to remember. They have never won 50 games. They have never won their division. They are on pace to do both things. Denver's style of offense is extremely difficult to play against especially in Denver. They have the best record at home and most impressively have no superstars on their team. George Karl should get a lot of votes for coach of the year.  The Penguins have the two best players in the game on their team. We want Crosby and Malkin healthy and playing at the top of their game. When the best is playing their best it is exciting to see.
As much as I love to condemn sports of today, I have to give credit when credit is due. These win streaks show that when the best players are healthy and their teams understand their roles great things can happen. Chicago has great talent on all four lines. The Clippers have Chris Paul who is the best leader in basketball.  The Heat ha Lebron and D-wade. The Penguins have Crosby and Malkin. The Nuggets have Andre Miller and Ty Lawson who are tremendous leaders. We make sports harder than it should be with over analysis. Instead of just win baby, it should just play. When you have the talent like these teams possess that becomes all you need to do...

Who is the villain now?

I am back!!! I have missed blogging and hopefully i will continue to do this for this is my release.. So lets begin..

So who are the villains in sport now? Cant say i see anymore athletes to hate!!! Lebron has finally won!  John Calipari has too. Dale Jr. has his monkey off of his back with a win two weeks ago.  Eli was lambasted for saying he was an elite quarterback and then went out and defeated BOTH Rodgers and Brady en route to a super bowl title!! Favre is gone.  T.O. is being blacklisted from the N.F.L by all of the teams, and the STEROID cases have all blown up in the face of the sports world and the Government. Sharapova won the French Open and Tony Stewart won the Nextel Sprint Cup last fall and the entire media treated him like he needed to be "held" throughout his season.  Who does that leave?  Floyd Mayweather is in jail.  Lance Armstrong is being chased down again but the evidence hasn't changed in ten years. I will tell you who is the villain in sports:  (Wait for it). ESPN and all of the sports writers in this lovely country
Would I kill to work at a reputable sports network? Absolutely. My biggest dream in life is for you to turn on your television and see me pontificating about the world of sports. There is a difference between me and them. Number 1, I dont want to tell you what is news and what isn't news and they do.  When i was a kid, i loved sports because the media seemed to romance the heroes, and try to uplift the zeroes.  When we beat Russia in 1980 it was the greatest accomplishment by this country in sports. We were so proud and happy to defeat that team. Think about your childhood for a moment.  Don't you remember more stories about triumph, accomplishment, and pride than you hear today?  Ali is my hero. Never heard anything about Ali.  Especially the way they do things today.  Lawrence Taylor and Micheal Jordan my other favorite two athletes, were never made a villain like today.  How about Mickey Mantle? We read about the crazy days of his life but he never faced this nonsense. Broadway Joe, Joe Louis, Wilt Chamberlain, Babe Ruth. All of these men were lauded.  Yes it took Wilt a long time to win a title but people understood that it was a team that won titles and individual greatness could not overcome the team concept.  The Celtics of the 60's owned him. The Yankees owned the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The MEDIA never made themselves the story.  The stories were all about the athletes who achieved and who were great.
Today we are inundated with stories about Tim Tebow because he has infused religion into sports and that he is supposedly unable to play the position of quarterback.  Eli Manning said recently that its fascinating that his team just won the super bowl and he is the third least talked about quarterback in his own city.  Why does it matter what Tebow does?  Why do the media try and create stories instead of allowing the true stories develop and be what the sports fan truly want?  Before Matt Kemp got hurt he was off to an epic season.  Instead of pumping up Mat Kemp, the stories were about the failure of Albert Pujols. One sentence about Kemp, but forty pages about Pujols slow start.  There is so much hatred of today athlete that it is a wonder why people want to be a professional athlete.  Bryant Gumbel last week in his closing statement went off about how Mayweather, Schilling, T.O., were finally feeling the brunt of karma.  Tebow is going to be the story for the next 7 months unless he gets hurt.  Last year there was so much to talk about in the N.F.L. and week end and out all we heard about was Tebow.  Brady,  Brees and Stafford threw for 5,000 yards and Cam Newton in his first year as a starter threw for 4,000 plus as a rookie. The Giants are the most forgettable champion in years. 
The reason that I say it is Espn and others, is simply because they are the ones who seem to create the buzz of the sports world.  They are the ones who for months when Brett Favre was retired killed us with Favre's every move. They are the ones who send Sal Pal over to Jets training camp  or Rachel Nichols over to see Lebron. The Kings won the Stanley Cup and it was swept under the rug like it didn't happen.  Novak Djokovic had a chance to win four tennis majors in a row.  He is never mentioned in the pantheon of the best athletes today.  The LPGA is non existent even though Yani Tseng keeps winning majors. Lebron won the title four days ago and they keep showing interviews of him and roundtables about what he has to do next to eclipse Jordan or Shaq , or Magic. Why cant they just leave sports one night to the actual sports and talk about the great action on the field.  Arizona just became the second team to win the College World Series history to sweep through the championship.  The Giants and Pirates are playing series that move them closer to first place in their divisions.  Wimbeldon has started and Venus Williams is fighting a serious disease that affects her play.  Edwin Encarnacion is having a year to remember.  The top 8 picks in the NFL draft have not signed. Bounty gate?  Why wont the league show the proof to the players about what they have on the players?  I guarantee if there was more attention put on the positive things in sports, maybe the athletes wouldn't be so negative to the press.
 There has to be a change in what is more important in sports than speculation and innuendo or potential.  I am soooo tired of hearing about things that don't matter. Sports era of the 60's is lauded because teams were bigger than the individuals.  Jim Brown was greatest athlete of that time but only won one title.  People to this day still bow to him. Wilt was a the single most dominating force in sports but the Celtics kept winning.  Mickey Mantle could not win a title without the dominant pitching from that team.  The Packers of that era was about team.  (Jerry Kramer should be in the hall of fame).. We understand talking about Tiger, Manny Pacquiao, Serena, they play individual sports.  Micheal Phelps needs to win 16 medals or he is a failure.  Appreciate him for who he is and what he did four years ago. I miss the days of having sport heroes.  I hope Christian Ronaldo is getting ready to be ridiculed because Spain is too good.   When did sports become so villainous?  Why does sports have to be negative?  We escape to watch sports.  We understand that there are bad people and bad stories need to be told, but there are lot of positive things in sports that need more attention.  Dont Be afraid to tell us those stories too..