Generation Y Sports

Everything You Need to Know About Conference Expansion

2010-06-07T19:37:00.008-05:00

by Matt Corder

You’ve probably heard by now the news that the college sports landscape is on the brink of huge change. The news comes on the word that the Pac 10 officially approved a measure to look into the expansion of the conference through the assimilation of six schools, likely from the Big 12. There are a lot of questions out there. Here’s everything you need to know.

Myth: Texas wants to move.

The University of Texas holds all the cards in this conference expansion. They are pushing to create a TV network of their own that will undoubtedly yield huge profits for the University. This negates any reason for them to move to a conference with their own TV network (the Big 10). It is also the most profitable university in the country based on merchandise and ticket sales. Additionally, UT currently owns the Big 12. The conference knows it needs the Longhorns, and the University takes full advantage. Why would they want to leave a conference that bends to their every whim, unless it fails to remain competitive? The only reason you will see UT move is if it is a last option.

Fact: Everything hinges on the Big 10 extending an invite to the University of Nebraska.

For all the talk about conference expansion, nothing of substance has taken place...yet. There have been flirtations (Nebraska and Missouri to the Big 10), courtships (the Big 10 to Notre Dame), talk of expansion (the Pac 10), and even ultimatums (the Big 12 to Nebraska and Missouri), and yet nothing has happened thus far. Everyone is waiting to see who will make the first move and if big time expansion is going to occur, it all hinges on the Cornhuskers.

Why is that?

The Big 10 has not been secretive in their desire to absorb Notre Dame’s football program into their conference. It’s easy to understand why, given the Irish’s huge national fan base. Don’t make the mistake that this is what everything depends on though. The addition of only one school would actually signal that huge expansion is not likely as the Big 10 would be content with a twelve team conference in the event Notre Dame signs on. The real tipping point would come with Nebraska.

Take a look at the Big 12 conference right now. All the power is in the south, most especially with the Behemoth University of Texas. The only competition that Texas faces in the Big 12 North comes from the Cornhuskers and UT made it known that their decision for the future depends on what Nebraska chooses to do. If the Huskers were to make the move to the Big 10, the north division of the Big 12 would collapse and leave the Longhorns with no choice but to bolt for greener pastures. On the flip side, let’s say Nebraska chooses to stay. This situation would leave the conference with championship caliber squads in both the North and South (yes, Nebraska is back). That gives Texas no incentive to leave because there isn’t a scenario that would leave the school better off than it was before. They already have a lucrative TV network of their own, the travel of a Pac 10 schedule would be extremely difficult on all the sports programs, and the only thing the Pac 10 could offer is academic prestige.

What’s interesting about all this is that Nebraska and Texas have a huge rivalry between the athletic departments. It all stems back to the formation of the Big 12 conference, a time when Nebraska was the preeminent program in all of college football. Tom Osborne, then the coach at Nebraska, now the athletic director, allegedly has yet to forgive UT for events that transpired during the expansion. What we know is that the Big 8 bent over backwards to a number of ridiculous demands by UT in order to get them to join the conference including: who the commissioner would be, where the offices of the conference would be located, and elimination of partial-qualifier players. Osborne feels that the partial treatment continues to this day, given that the Big 12 entered into negotiations to hold the conference championship at the new Cowboys Stadium for the next three years (there was an understanding that the venue would change from the North to the South in alternating years). Many have speculated that Osborne has long wanted to take his revenge on UT and the move to the Big 10 seems to be his best opportunity.

Pay attention to what Nebraska decides to do.

Myth: Kansas will get a raw deal if they’re left behind

I know this sounds naïve, but it’s the truth. Kansas is awesome at men’s basketball. I know this. But the Jayhawks don’t offer anything else to the conference. Nothing. If you take a look at any sport, both men’s and women’s, you’ll find that KU is among the conference’s worst in everything. The only other success they’ve ever achieved was in football during the Bill Callahan era at Nebraska. It turns out that Mangino was a horrible human being who constantly mocked and degraded his players though. It’s tough to stomach, given the incredible tradition of the basketball program, but Kansas is no different than school like Memphis or Gonzaga, only with tangible results. They’d better serve the landscape of college sports by embracing this identity.

Fact: Dan Beebe (Big 12 commissioner) has no idea what he’s doing

To get the lowdown on all this I suggest you read this article by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports. To sum up his premise, here’s what you need to know:
-Beebe assumed the Pac 10 and Big 10 commissioners were his friends and voted against the four-team playoff. He cited “tradition” as his reason for doing it, just like the other two conferences did, but as it turns out the Pac 10 and Big 10 were actually looking to consolidate their power and earn more money for themselves (using the guise of “tradition” to trick idiots like Beebe and the mainstream media). It turns out the playoff would have made more money for everybody (nearly four times as much as the current BCS), but the Pac 10 and Big 10 wanted it all for themselves. They have successfully used pawns like Beebe to make this goal on the cusp of being attained. Savvy? Yes. Horrible for college football fans? An even bigger Yes.
-Beebe is standing idly by as the Pac 10 and Big 10 now look to poach his member schools. Beebe is not being proactive in protecting his conference’s interests by also looking to expand the conference and take in new teams. He has become extremely defensive to criticism and shown to everyone paying attention that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s pathetic to watch and painful for any Big 12 fans hoping the conference stays intact.
-His hope for salvation may, ironically, lie in a college football playoff. If Beebe were to endorse the college football playoff, it might end up saving the Big 12 conference. The appeal of nearly four times the money is something that all the schools not in the Pac 10/Big 10 could not resist. The Big 12 was the conference that broke the tie back when the conferences last voted on the issue, and an indication by Beebe that the Big 12 would now endorse the idea could end up salvaging everything. Cool to think about? Yes. Likely to happen? No.

Myth: The Mountain West Conference made a mistake by choosing not to add schools (see: Boise St.)to the conference

The realignment that is about to occur is going to be messy. There are going to be a lot of hurt feelings from the schools that are left out and the MWC has now put itself in a position to take full advantage of the situation. Sure, they could have invited Boise State and added a dominant college football team to its roster. But that’s only thinking in terms of short-term success. The MWC commissioner, Craig Thompson, is wise to stand pat and let the other conferences make the mistakes here with the realignment. What the MWC is doing is working to ensure long-term success. Who do you think is going to be waiting with open arms when the Kansas Jayhawks and their legendary basketball program are left out of the party? Who do you think is waiting to absorb Baylor and its excellent baseball and track programs? Who do you think is going to take in Kansas State and Dan Snyder’s football program? Who do you think is going to extend the offer to Boise State, when the time is right? That’s the MWC folks. They are going to clean up fast on the mess that is going to happen and the Mountain West is going to emerge as a powerful conference, one that the BCS will have to recognize.

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We are about to witness something spectacular, the likes of which we’ve never seen. I’m intrigued to see what happens, most especially with Nebraska. I’m rooting for the Big 12 to stay together because I’ve grown up as a fan of the Huskers and the tradition of the old Big 8. However, I understand why Osborne would leave, the least of his reasons being that membership in the Big 10 will likely yield an extra $6+ million dollars a year for the school (because of the Big 10 network). If there’s anything to take from this, it’s that the Pac 10 and Big 10 are preventing what everyone wants (the college football playoff), unfortunately they are being run by the smartest men in the room. Don’t discount the SEC in all of this though. Although seemingly uninvolved up to this point, I doubt their commissioner will sit back and let the Pac 10 and Big 10 think they rule everything.

It’s going to break hearts, it’s going to break tradition, but in the end, it will be fascinating to watch this thing unfold.

Why Boston Will Win

2010-06-02T20:44:00.007-05:00

by Matt Corder

Before we start, let me admit a couple of things to the readers. I received Eddie's take for LA earlier today and had a little bit more time to digest how I should respond. Additionally, I was able to take in Simmons’ finals preview as well the podcast. With that said here we go:

The Celtics will win this series in six.

I don’t need to take the time to reiterate how blessed we are as basketball fans to have the Celtics and Lakers meeting for the NBA title. It’s been said a thousand times. The great thing that is starting to become apparent, though, is that people are almost unanimous in the idea that we really have no idea who is going to win this series. One could argue that the Celtics really haven’t been healthy all year, while on the flip side it’s easy to debate whether the Lakers have really been tested in these playoffs. There’s just no way to gauge what is going to happen come Thursday night.

It’s our job to figure it out though and, in my mind, the Celtics take down Kobe…again. Here’s why:

1. Contrasting styles. On the one hand you’ve got the Los Angeles Lakers, currently averaging an astounding 105.7 (4^th best in the playoffs) points per game. It’s no secret the Lakers can score. On the other hand, you’ve got the Boston Celtics, currently allowing a mere 91.4 points per game (2^nd best in the playoffs). It’s likewise no surprise that the Celtics can lock you down. If you want to get cheesy and talk in clichés, you’d obviously say defense wins championships. I know it sounds lame, but it’s true. There is no way the Lakers are going to overwhelm the Celtics with their offensive prowess. They got away with it every round in the West, but an NBA team has never won a title because their opponents simply couldn’t keep up with an opponent’s scoring ability. I’d even be willing to throw in the fact that the Lakers might not be prepared for the defensive wall they are going to run up against. You’re kidding yourself if you think they battled a single opponent thus far in the playoffs who could match up with them. I expect the Lakers will have to overcome some initial shock as they face their first worthy opponent of the postseason. Advantage: Boston.

2. Depth. The Lakers might have the superior player, but the Celtics have the superior bench, a HUGE asset in the quest to win a title. I’m just going to throw it out there: Lamar Odom is the only player who will contribute off the bench for the Lakers in this series, and even his contribution is questionable (anyone remember 2008?). Contrast that with the Celtics, who are perfectly built to take on the Lakers.

It’s not worth it to spend much time on either team’s back courts. The Lakers have the wildly inconsistent combo of Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown, while the Celtics have the injured Tony Allen and game six-hero Nate Robinson. It’s naïve to think any of these guys can make a big impact, in fact, it’s pretty much a wash. If you put a gun to my head, I give the edge to Boston as Allen has proven to be a reliable defender (see: James, Lebron) and Robinson is capable of getting hot at any time. This isn’t what’s important though.

What is important is the depth in the front court. The Lakers advantage in the West thus far has been their ability to pound teams inside. None of their opponents had the ability/depth to match up with their starters down low. The Celtics have Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Rasheed Wallace to back up the KG/Perkins combo. I’m not going to try to make the case that these players are going to have significant impacts on the offensive end (although Davis has proven he is more than capable of stepping up). What I am going to make the case for is the real reason they’re important. Playoff basketball is all about preventing easy buckets and making your opponent settle for shots they’re not normally comfortable taking. Playoff basketball is about fouls, and you need a lot of them to go around.

By having two capable big men who can step in and keep the starters out of trouble, the Celtics have the ability to force the Lakers to beat them from the outside (and the Lakers inability to hit jump shots has been the dirty little secret of the postseason). The fouls are important because, theoretically, Boston has 24 of them to spread around and it won’t be a liability if any two of them foul out. You won’t see Boston give up a single easy bucket in this series. Advantage: Boston.

3. Ray Allen. Although it’s still not known what player Kobe Bryant is going to defend, I think it’s a safe assumption to say Phil Jackson is going to match him against Rajon Rondo, very similar to how Kobe locked down Russell Westbrook in the OKC series. The difference this time is that the Celtics have a reliable shooting guard, in fact, maybe the best shooter of all time (all apologies to Reggie Miller fans). There is no way Derek Fisher can keep up with the constant movement and running through screens that he is about to face while tasked with guarding Allen. It’s the biggest mismatch of the series and one that I expect the Celtics will exploit in a major way. Advantage: Boston.

4. History. The Celtics and the Lakers have met 11 times in the finals before this matchup. The overall series record? 9-2 Celtics.

Ouch.

If you travel back in time to learn anything about this rivalry, you find that the Celtics have dominated because of their commitment to all the dirty aspects of basketball: tough rebounds, hard fouls, and gritty play. Jerry West is one of the greatest guards of all time and even when he teamed up with Wilt Chamberlin, one of the finest offensive talents of all time, he still couldn’t take down the Bill Russell-led Celtics. What do we have this year? Kobe Bryant, one of the best guards ever, teaming up with Pau Gasol, one of the two best offensive big men in the NBA, combining forces to do battle with the Kevin Garnett-led defense of the Boston Celtics. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. Advantage: Boston.

The finals are going to kick off in Hollywood, so let’s draw a movie-themed metaphor for the teams. If you have to choose one actor to represent the Boston Celtics, I think it’s no contest that you go for Mickey Rourke. The parallels are all there. Rourke showed incredible promise early on in his career, with excellent portrayals in “Body Heat,” “Diner,” and “Rumble Fish,” much like the current incarnation of the Boston Celtics showed incredible promise in 2008 by winning the title with the newly formed “Big Three” of KG, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. It seemed that both the actor and the team were going to dominate their respective fields for the near future. Alas, Rourke’s career eventually disintegrated in a cloud of destructive behavior, finger pointing, and terrible movie roles that led many critics to question his desire and abilities. Sound familiar? The Celtics experienced the same downfall as the 2009 team saw their season collapse due to Kevin Garnett's injury, and the 2010 team seemingly went through the motions en route to a 27-27 finish down the stretch. Even the most die-hard Boston fans wondered whether the team even wanted to be there. All was not lost though! Rourke eventually re-tuned his acting ability, culminating in his incredible portrayal of Randy “The Ram” Robinson in “The Wrestler.” There is no doubt that he is back and will continue to amaze us in the years to come. As we’ve found out in the 2010 NBA playoffs, the Boston Celtics are likewise back to their original form and looking to cement their status as all-time greats. Although Mickey Rourke no longer carries the good looks and charm that brought attention to him early in his career, his rugged brand of acting is universally respected and the talent is still there. Similarly, the Boston Celtics are not going to win pretty, in fact their play is downright ugly, but there’s no question that team knows how to play basketball at a championship level.

Contrast all that with The Los Angeles Lakers. If you’re going to compare the current version of the team to anyone, it has to be Brad Pitt. Both The Lakers and Pitt have had consistent runs at their respective trades. They’ve never really experienced the peaks and valleys that plague so many others. I also believe this metaphor holds true because both LA and Pitt are incredibly attractive (I swear I’m straight), so much so that it has possibly hurt their overall reputations. Their beauty has almost been a curse. Allow me to explain. It’s a well-known fact that throughout his entire career, Brad Pitt has sought out obscure roles in order to prove that there’s more behind the pretty face. He’s certainly delivered with his awesome roles in “Fight Club” and “Snatch” and yet, he still hasn’t won an Oscar. Everyone loves Brad Pitt, but are we really going to consider him one of the all-time greats? Compare that with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have always been consistent during the Black Mamba’s career. They’ve now made the finals three straight years and Kobe is always among the top three in MVP voting, and yet, the verdict is still out on Kobe’s legacy. Much like Pitt being unable to shake the shadow of his good looks, Kobe Bryant is still trying to escape the Shaq era in LA. It’s true that Kobe has won the title without the Big Diesel, but it wasn’t a legendary performance by any means. I’d compare it to Pitt’s performance in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Sure it was Oscar worthy, and he deservedly got a nomination, but did that performance transcend acting? You see my point.

If you keep going with the metaphor, I think the choice becomes clear. You take Boston (and Rourke) every time. They do so many things so much better than their opponents, and even though it may not be appealing to the eye, it produces when it matters most.

Boston in six, Rourke to win an Oscar before Pitt.

Why LA Will Win

2010-06-02T20:42:00.007-05:00

by Eddie Moore

The NBA season is unfortunately coming to a close. As an avid NBA fan, what I’ll feel when it is over is akin to my mind-set the day after Christmas. No more presents, Christmas lights, Christmas carols, Home Alone marathons, lies about the existence of Santa Claus, intrigue, and so on. All of the excitement in life is suddenly gone once all the presents are opened. Although this nostalgia is transient (for most people, I suppose), it’s still a part of the year many people loathe. Luckily for sports fans, it’s not the day after Christmas just yet. Instead, we have a huge unopened present still under the tree. Of course the present I’m referring to is the finals showdown featuring arguably the greatest rivalry in all of sports, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics. This series is already receiving overwhelming hype (and deservedly so) and it’s not hyperbole to believe this series could be an all-time gem. Unfortunately for Celtics fans, this will be a series to forget because the Lakers will prevail and take home their sixteenth title. More importantly, this Lakers championship will enhance the already heated rivalry between the two teams.

Every sport has its notable rivalries. Whether it is baseball’s Red Sox-Yankees rivalry or college basketball’s Duke-UNC rivalry, these games/series attract the attention of more fans. More people give a s*** if Tiger Woods is battling Phil Mickelson in the last round of the Masters than if Tiger is competing against Trevor Immelman. Fans have seen the green and gold collide numerous times in the past, and it’s a match-up many people want to see again.

Because of the historic background and deeply rooted hatred associated with this rivalry, there is the possibility for the moments in this series to become immortalized. The legendary Magic hook-shot in the ’87 Finals and the Dennis Johnson jumper at the end of game 4 in the ’85 Finals are just two of many moments that will always be remembered. Now, if the Orlando Magic were to play the Lakers, that series would still be exciting, but not epic. The same is true if the Celtics were to battle the Phoenix Suns. Fortunately the Suns didn't play the Magic, that series would be about as entertaining as the ’05 Finals (San Antonio Spurs vs. Detroit Pistons--possibly the worst finals of all time). We should all be thankful we won’t have to witness it.

Fortunately, our current Finals match-up is a magnificent one. Everything you could ask for in a series is there. Kendrick Perkins/’Sheed/Ron Artest vs. their self-control. Artest’s defense vs. Paul Pierce’s offense. Kevin Garnett’s physicality vs. Pau Gasol’s alleged softness. Will Jack Nicholson moon the Garden fans again? The list goes on and on. The Celts and Lakers have met 11 times in the Finals with the Celts having dominated the series (Celtics have won nine times). Now, two years dismissed from Boston’s championship, the Lakers are ready for revenge. More importantly, Kobe Bryant is ready for revenge. These teams last met in the Finals two years ago, in what ended up being a lopsided affair. Let’s not forget the Lakers were without Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza in the 2008 Finals; the Lakers were forced to play either Luke Walton or Sasha Vujacic to defend Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Let’s just say perimeter defense is not Walton’s or Vujacic’s forte. Kobe’s teammates in the ’08 Finals dissolved like Alka-Seltzer tablets. Hell, even Kobe wasn’t his typical self. I concede this is more of a testament to the Celtic’s dominance that year than the Lakers’ demise.

This year is a completely different one, though, and that means a sixteenth title for LA. With a retooled squad more capable of defeating this current Celtics team, Kobe will continue his phenomenal play and prove to the world he is still the best player. He will escape the infamous “I can’t beat Boston” tag that Jerry West has had to live with. More importantly, he will grab his fifth NBA championship, which will inevitably spark more MJ-Kobe arguments. Needless to say, this is a colossal series for Kobe. If he wants to be one of the best five players of all time, he has to win this one. Obviously it won’t be easy, since the Celtics are a completely different animal than the Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz, or Phoenix Suns. They play a much more intense and punishing style of basketball that is a far contrast from the Suns’ style of play. Albeit, if Pau Gasol continues to execute successfully in the post (he should), Derek Fisher hits big-time shots when called upon (always has), Lamar Odom hits the glass (got my fingers crossed), Kobe continues his ridiculous play (did you see game 6 of the Suns’ series!), and Artest continues his solid play (no reason to think otherwise)…

The Lakers will win this series in 6.

The Lakers have been impeccable on their home floor this postseason and the Celtics are going have to win at least one if they plan on holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. That won’t be an easy task. Pierce and Ray Allen destroyed LA in ‘08, but now the Lakers have Artest to shut down Pierce. So how are the Celtics supposed to win if Artest can defend Pierce in a similar fashion as he did Kevin Durant in the first round? Well, obviously the physicality of the Celtics could cause troubles for LA, but I’m skeptical that Gasol, Odom, and Andrew Bynum will all wilt this year. Gasol is now much more comfortable in the triangle offense than in ’08, and his skill-set far exceeds KG’s. I’m slightly concerned about Odom, but he can’t play any worst than in ’08. And Bynum? Well at least he will be in uniform this year.

Rajon Rondo may give the Lakers’ point guards fits throughout the series, but I can’t envision him deciding an NBA finals. Despite Rondo’s brilliant play this entire season, I think he’s overrated (to no fault of his own). NBA columnists are ready to declare Rondo the best PG in the game and a top ten player if he wins the title this year. Not so fast. I’ll still take Deron Williams and Chris Paul over Rondo as my floor general any day. Rondo is an extremely versatile talent who marvels in the open floor, and given too much space he can tear an opposing team apart with his exceptional passing ability. Let's not forget Rondo’s amazing shooting and FT ability (or lack thereof). I’m also uneasy thinking Phil Jackson will allow Rondo to be the ultimate difference maker. The Lakers have already faced Russell Westbrook, Williams, and Steve Nash this playoffs so it’s not going to be a surprise when they encounter another talented PG. It also helps that Bryant will (most likely) defend Rondo and Fisher will have the task of guarding Allen. That’s the match-up that should worry Lakers fans.

If history is indicative of anything, the Celtics better win game 1. We all know the undefeated record of Jackson’s playoff teams when able to operate with a 1-0 lead. I’m a little worried about the Lakers’ lack of depth and how the Celtics’ second unit may give LA problems. All in all though, the Lakers still have the best player on the court with a home court advantage. Garnett is not the same player he was in ’08. These Lakers have a bitter taste in their mouths from ’08, and now they also know what it feels like to have won a championship series. Bryant’s supporting cast is vastly superior than his ’08 crew and that will ultimately be the deciding factor. The Gasol-Bryant tandem will continue to be the most successful and unstoppable duo in the game.

I’m expecting an epic series that won’t disappoint, but as I mentioned before, the Lakers will win this series in six and Kobe will capture his 5th title, changing the perspective on how we analyze his legacy.

This is a Christmas present Celtics fans should avoid opening.

The Power of Twitter

2010-05-27T19:56:00.020-05:00

by Matt Corder

Two weeks ago, the Boston Celtics closed out the Cleveland Lebrons in game six of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. To say that Cleveland gave up is an understatement. The team clearly had issues. Throw out all the theories you want: the Cavs just couldn’t match up with the Celtics, the Cavs weren’t talented enough, Delonte West was sleeping with Lebron’s mom, etc. It doesn’t matter. You could visibly see it on the court.

What you may not have seen, or heard rather, was the taunting of the Celtics’ fans that began in the third quarter during a trip to the free throw line by the king himself. Barely audible above the commentary of the announcers, slowly rising, gaining force as every fan realized the implication, “new york knicks, New York Knicks, NEW YORK KNICKS.”

And so it went the rest of the game.

To the casual observer this may have just seemed like a bunch of inebriated south-siders mocking the best player in the game, sensing the inevitable victory that was at hand. But it was much more than that. You weren’t just witnessing the King in his last game in a Cavaliers uniform; you were witnessing a breakthrough, the likes of which we’ve never seen. You were witnessing the power of Twitter. Follow along…

What is Twitter?

I apologize in advance to those of you who are already signed up on the popular site, but for those of you who aren’t, let me give a brief tutorial. Twitter is a social networking tool that simply asks, “what are you doing.” In the website’s own words, “Twitter is a rich source of instant information. Stay updated. Keep others updated. It's a whole thing.” It seems stupid at first, and you’re probably still apprehensive, like I was. It’s just another one of those tween MySpace fads right? Wrong.

Twitter is one of the most important creations of the last ten years.

It’s a profound statement, I know.

You’re probably asking yourself why? How could this stupid website my daughter/girlfriend/sister gets on ten times a night have such profound value? Twitter is becoming, or already has become, the most important media device since the invention of the Internet. It allows the users an instantaneous medium for sharing information, stories, opinions, and news at a rate with which traditional devices can’t keep up. Want to know what Peter King thinks about Brett Favre’s off-season ankle surgery? Boom, he shares it on Twitter. Want to know Shaq’s immediate thoughts on a game? Boom, check it out on Twitter.

Twitter is set up in the following manner. A user, like myself, subscribes for an account and creates a username (mrcorder is mine…follow me!). The user can then search Twitter for any person they want, whether it’s their favorite friends, writers, personalities, or movie stars. Once you find a person, say Steve Nash for example (username: the_real_nash), you choose to “follow” that person. The user can follow as many people as they choose.

Now for the important part.

From then on the user can simply log into the site and what pops up is known as the newsfeed. In the newsfeed the user will be able to see all the recent “tweets” of the people that they have chosen to follow. Tweets are status updates by the other users that answer the basic question of Twitter (what are you doing?). For example, after Steve Nash took an elbow to the face in the Western Conference Semifinals he tweeted the following, “A 3 year old at the park just asked me why I have a bandaid on my face. Me: I bumped into someone's elbow. Kid: what was his name? Me: Tim.” Priceless! Where else could you find stories like that??

Twitter has since evolved beyond that question though as celebrities/athletes/etc can let you know their thoughts on relevant issues. Roger Ebert, for example, is a HUGE liberal. I would have never known this had I only been reading his movie critiques. Perhaps the most intriguing part of Twitter, though, is the ability to instantly link your followers to great information (articles, blogs, videos) that most people never would take the time to find. The capacity to expand knowledge that rapidly is extraordinarily powerful. Businesses have also recognized the marketing power of Twitter as famous writers, athletes, etc have the ability to instantly speak to well over a million people (Ashton Kutcher has nearly five million followers, for example). There is inherent value to be found and many businesses have even created their own accounts to tweet about sales, deals, product releases, etc.

My personal favorite aspect of the site is the ability to communicate with all the people you follow. When you send out your own person tweets (status updates), you can mention a famous person by placing the @ sign before their username (@the_real_nash, for example, would allow Steve Nash to see that you mentioned his name). This is important because it has created a direct line of communication between my idols and me. I personally have had SI football writer Peter King respond to two of my questions (yes, he actually mentioned me and answered my question specifically) as well as the polarizing sports columnist Jason Whitlock, among others. Where else would I have had that ability before? (In case you’re wondering, Bill Simmons is the holy grail for Twitter sports land. Let’s just say if he answers one of your questions, you’re dying a happy man.)

It’s a lot to take in. I know

A couple of days before game six of the Boston/Cleveland matchup, America’s best sportswriter Bill Simmons had an idea. For the past year or so Simmons has witnessed the power of the social networking tool that so many people have yet to embrace. Amassing more than a million followers, Simmons gained the ability to instantly reach some of America’s most diehard sports fans by sharing his thoughts about stories and even during games. And so he thought, “why stop there?”

Simmons reached out to his followers with the idea to create a Twitter account through which he could funnel chants to fans at the game. It was fairly simple. He created the account (username: CelticsChants), took suggestions all week, and then an hour or so before the game tweeted the chants he felt were the best. He was hesitant that it would even work, but hey, it was worth a try. Simmons’ reasoning was that there were enough followers who check Twitter on a regular basis (from their phones) that they could spread the word amongst the fans.

The first half came and went. No CelticsChants were heard. But then, just as Simmons had given up, admitting, “looks like this failed. Oh, well - we gave it a shot. Always knew it was far-fetched,” it started. The king stepped to the line and it gained steam, “new york knicks, New York Knicks, NEW YORK KNICKS.” Cleveland was clearly phased, the impact resonating throughout the team. The Celtics fans, via Bill Simmons, were shouting the dirty little secret that Cleveland’s team had believed all season, but were only now realizing. This would be Lebron James’ last game in a Cleveland uniform.

Did it feel a little dirty? Absolutely. Was it awful to beat up on the most championship-starved city in the United States, in the latest of a series of dark moments? You betcha.

Was it a breakthrough of the power of modern technology, the likes of which we’ve never seen?

Big time.

I personally use Twitter because I am a sports nut. I follow all of my favorite writers/editors/reporters/insiders in order to gain the ability to instantly access their thoughts, opinions, and breaking stories. By now you’ve probably heard the rumor that Lebron James’ mother was having an affair with Delonte West that caused the Cavs to eventually lose the series (I’m not here to argue the truth of it or not). But you didn’t learn about it instantly that Friday afternoon like I did. Who do you think looked like a stud at the bar that night when he was breaking the news to all his other sports-obsessed buddies?

That would be me.

Twitter has allowed me to become an extremely unique insider to the modern day sports world. I have been keen to every rumor/breaking story of the past six months hours, if not days, before non-Twitter users. I walk into any casual sports conversation and can instantly lay a trump card on anybody else’s takes. To me, that is power.

But the beauty of Twitter is that it doesn’t just extend to sports. Is music your forte? Follow all your favorite bands and critics and instantly become privy to updates on their latest albums and concerts. Are you a movie geek? Find your favorite actors and perhaps even get the inside word on where they’ll be hanging out that night.

I swear it happens.

My prediction for Twitter is that it will eventually grow to incorporate a lot of advertising, very similar to the way that Google and Facebook are amassing millions of dollars. This is power for the creators of the site, but for me, Twitter will extend way beyond that. What Bill Simmons accomplished was the first in a series of twitter terrorism acts that you are going to witness. I guarantee the students in Durham, North Carolina took notice of the feat. They will certainly come up with their own Twitter account (DukeChants is no longer available as a user name, unfortunately) through which the Cameron Crazies can direct the cheers at games.

This was the first raindrop in a hurricane that is about to sweep over American sports.

Twitter is the future. Wait, it’s not even the future. It’s the present. If you’re not on Twitter yet, you are missing out. You’re behind on the news and you’re not reading the information you need to know. I’ve heard every excuse and it usually has something to do with the fact that Twitter is lame and for young girls. You’re wrong. I heard the same excuses with iPods, I heard the same excuses with Facebook, I’m now hearing the same excuses for Twitter. Get on your horse and sign up as fast as possible.

And if you’re one of the stubborn few who choose to hold out? Well, you just missed out on the link to this column.

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Dissecting Dirk

2010-05-15T12:59:00.003-05:00

by Eddie Moore

With an incredible assortment of NBA talent possibly opting to test the free agent market, there is no doubt this summer’s free agency could potentially change the landscape of the NBA – and hopefully it will. The most notable players – LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amar’e Stoudamire, Joe Johnson – have been the subject of numerous rumors over the course of the last two years. The most enticing buzz inevitably focuses on arguably the two best players in the game, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. There’s one sure fact about this free agent class: no other players can make the immediate impact of those two. Absent from all the free agency rumors though has been the most beloved (and talented) Dallas Maverick of all-time…

Erick Dampier! Ok, I’m joking.

Anyway, of course I’m referring to the goofy German, Dirk Nowitzki.

After the Mavericks season came to another disappointing halt, Nowitzki responded without hesitation when asked about his future: “I guess I’ve got some time now to think about some stuff, think about my options.” The prospect of Dirk exploring free agency should excite every NBA fan on the planet – unless of course you’re a Mavs fan. So is Dirk actually serious about leaving his loyal fan base? Or was he just fuming after a defeat? Obviously in Dirk’s twelve-year career with Dallas he has yet to win an NBA championship. At this stage of his career, if Dirk truly wants to win one, he will need to do so playing for a team other than his current one, the Mavs.

First off, what would the Mavericks lose if Dirk decided to part ways? Well, despite being 31, Dirk is quite possibly still at the apex of his career and isn’t showing any signs of wear and tear. He had one of his finest seasons this year; was consistently clutch, developed a knack for finding his open teammates, achieved his first ever triple double, and managed to carry the Mavs to an impressive two-seed (which they promptly blew). Although the Mavs again struggled in the postseason, the blame cannot be put on Dirk.

Dirk’s awards and achievements over his career are astounding. He has played on nine all-star teams. He won the 2007 Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He has been on nine all-NBA teams. He has broken every one of the all-time important Maverick records. He even led the Mavericks to their lone finals appearance. His ability to score with ease makes him a pleasure to watch. Dirk’s uniqueness as a player stems from his ability to achieve what many basketball fans had dreamt for years: a 7-footer with legitimate 3-point range. When Dirk gets in the “zone,” he’s virtually impossible to defend. Dirk’s quintessential go-to move, the elbow fade away, is one of the only truly-unguarable moves in the world. You get the point: Dirk is a one-of-a-kind player who warrants a max-contract.

Still, Dirk realizes that despite all of his individual success, there’s a major milestone yet to be accomplished, winning a title. As of now, Dirk is on the brink of achieving the “yeah, but” status that still haunts John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing. All his faults will constantly be harped on. Dirk is too skittish. He can’t win the big game. He shies away in big moments. He won the MVP and lost to an eight-seed. He couldn’t maintain a 2-0 series lead in the Finals. He’s not a person you build a team around. He could be remembered as one of the greatest players in NBA history without a title. Not exactly the legacy Dirk wants to be known for. He will finish his career as a top fifty player – probably even top thirty – but until Dirk gets this monkey off his back, criticism will always linger.

So why should Dirk leave the Mavs? Currently he’s in an optimal situation, right? Not so fast. Marc Cuban does have a tendency to splurge exorbitant amounts of cash on his players, and he’s probably the most passionate owner in the league, but this situation may not be so apt for Dirk. Dirk’s a player who prefers to stay out of the limelight. Even in 2008 when he was having chaotic girl problems, he still tried his best to stay private. When I watch Mavericks games, I don’t see Dirk embracing Cuban on the sidelines as much as many of the other Mavs. I’m not so sure Dirk enjoys how involved Cuban actually is. Dirk publicly addressed Cuban’s overwhelming presence behind the team’s bench (back in 2006): “Do I think it's a bit much sometimes? Yeah. He's got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game. I don't think that helps us.” Cuban’s excessive passion on the sidelines is a double-edged sword. He’s constantly ragging on the referees when things go bad and he’s exchanging high-fives and hugs when things go well. The net result: over a million dollars of fines and NO championships. You be the judge…

There is no doubt Cuban loves and trusts Dirk to be the go-to guy on his retooled Mavs squad, so much so that it was rumored Cuban once denied a potential Dirk for Kobe Bryant swap – which is idiotic if in fact true – a few years back when the Black Mamba wanted out from the Lakers. To say the least, Cuban is a passionate and outspoken individual who seeks perfection but has yet to find it with the Mavericks.

A former computer nerd-turned-CEO perfectionist, he constantly tinkers with Dirk’s team. Exhibit A: a few years removed from their finals appearance, Cuban decides to shell out two number ones and a young, ascending PG (Devon Harris) for an older, past-his-prime PG (Jason Kidd). Granted Kidd makes everyone better individually, but he’s yet to display the significant impact that Cuban and the Mavs envisioned. In the two years Kidd has run the show as the “playmaking-point-guard-who-was-supposed-to-lead-them-to-a-championship,” the Mavs have suffered a second round and a first round exit. Not exactly the dividends Mavs fans were hoping for, especially since Cuban made this move assuming Kidd was that illusive missing link. Well, Kidd is now 37 and coming off one of his worst series of his career. It’s safe to say Cuban missed the boat on that one.

Exhibit B: Hoping to find a legitimate center to compliment Dirk in 2004, Cuban apparently finds the answer in Erick Dampier. We all know how this relationship played out. The only positive: the contract expires this year enabling the Mavs to hopefully make amends for this blunder. Just a reminder: Cuban opted not to re-sign Steve Nash the year before – for less money. This is akin to dumping your once semi-attractive girlfriend because you didn’t want to rush into marriage, but then subsequently marrying an overweight, prude, and spoiled gal instead. Then, to make matters worse, your old girlfriend is now on the SI Swimsuit Cover and married to one of your old high-school buds.

Fast forward to this season. Cuban, fortunate that the Wizards decided to inexplicably hold a garage sell, was able to land Brandon Haywood, Caron Butler, and Deshawn Stevenson for Josh Howard and Dwight Gooden. This trade enabled the Mavs to eventually capture the two-seed and accumulate some intriguing trade pieces to better their position for the year’s free agency. Dirk can’t win a title with this team though.

Although the Mavs were a two-seed, they easily could have been a four or five. His teammates didn’t produce for him when needed. He and the Mavericks have squandered their best opportunities and now they are praying to land a big-time free agent to deliver that elusive title. Kidd, Marion, and Terry are all aging and they also lack a true shooting guard – Butler just doesn’t cut it as a two. Since the Damp contract will free up much needed cap space for the Mavs, it can safely be assumed that Cuban will try to lure the best-of-the-best. Relying on hope can always backfire. Will Cuban have to settle for a Ray Allen-type free agent (very good but not incredible)? Or will the Mavs land a Wade, Lebron or Bosh - an extremely hopeful outlook?

Let’s get hypothetical for a minute. So, if Toronto phones Dallas tomorrow offering a Bosh for Dirk sign-and-trade, do the Mavs bite? This makes sense for Dallas, but it wouldn’t benefit Dirk. If Dirk is truly thirsty for winning a title – which he better be – he rejects this scenario. What Dirk should do is explore taking a pay-cut to play for a contender, just like Garnett (who now has a title) did back in 2007. Hopefully at this stage of Dirk’s career, he realizes that money is not a primary concern. A win-win could result for both parties if Dirk ultimately decides to depart though. The Mavs would now be in position to possibly land two marquee free agents. Maybe Bosh and Johnson…maybe Bosh and Wade…or maybe even LeBron and Bosh. Nonetheless, the Mavs would be able to sign multiple free agents to strengthen their team.

Dirk can now try to alter his legacy by taking a pay cut and possibly even taking an inferior role on another team if paired with the right player. Imagine Dirk reuniting with Nash and playing in that high-octane offense with Stoudamire. Maybe Dirk discusses with LeBron or Wade about the possibility of forming a dynamic duo in New York. The possibilities are endless if Dirk so chooses to go elsewhere. For the first time in his career it will be Dirk calling the shots, rather than Cuban.

This summer’s free agency will obviously be captivating. Fortunately for NBA fans, it just got more fascinating after hearing Dirk’s recent remarks. Dirk Nowitzki is synonymous with Dallas Maverick basketball just as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are synonymous with Boston Celtic and Los Angeles Laker basketball, respectively. Unlike Magic and Larry though, Dirk can’t say he has achieved the greatest accomplishment in all of sports: winning an NBA championship. He now has the opportunity to alter his legacy if he so chooses, but only time will tell whether that decision results in something truly successful (an NBA title). If his lack of playoff success with the Mavericks in the past years is truly indicative of anything, then Dirk has to take this opportunity to flee and join a team with the experience and/or capability of winning a championship.

A Disturbing Trend in Modern Athletes

2010-05-10T23:40:00.016-05:00

by Matt Corder

Growing up as a kid in Littleton, Colorado there were a small group of movies that essentially shaped my childhood. The first was “The Sandlot” (no explanation needed, this is probably my favorite sports movie of all time), next was “Titanic” (the first movie my parents ever owned that had nudity), and the last were the Mighty Duck movies (perfectly timed with the Avalanche’s move to Colorado, also where I learned to love my country). For the purposes of this column, let’s focus solely on those last movies and in particular, “D2: The Mighty Ducks,” easily the best of the three.

If you can flashback and remember that far, you’ll recall that the head coach of the Ducks is Gordon Bombay. Coach Bombay comes to manage the team merely to fulfill community service obligations, but of course rediscovers his love for the game when he successfully turns the Ducks' fortune around. After his triumphant run with the team in the first movie, Bombay is invited to coach team USA’s squad (the Ducks) in the Junior Goodwill Games in D2. This comes after he gets sponsored by the hotshot apparel company Hendrix Hockey. The team gets off to a hot start but eventually begins to implode after a poor showing against Iceland, and most notably, Bombay's being consumed by his own image with Hendrix. This is what’s important.

At some point during the Duck’s run in the Goodwill Games, Coach Bombay forgets who he is and where he came from. He buys into his newfound celebrity, even wearing suits behind the bench and slicking his hair (very un-Bombay-like moves). Everyone who knows the real Bombay can barely recognize the man he has become. Not just in the movie but in real life, why does that happen? Why do athletes and celebrities forget their roots and transform into monsters that are in no way comparable to their former personalities? It’s a problem that is plaguing the sports world right now and I’m on a quest to figure out why.

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Last week, Sports Illustrated featured a damning piece on the latest athlete to be consumed by this problem, Ben Roethlisberger. You’ve heard most of the stories—the first rape allegation in Tahoe, the motorcycle accident after winning the Super Bowl, the second rape allegation in Georgia—but there’s even more. The story paints a portrait of a troubled athlete who fails to learn from his mistakes. Think Big Ben learned from the motorcycle accident? Nope. He was videotaped by a local news outlet months after the accident speeding down a Pittsburgh highway, again without a helmet (the station allegedly refused to air the video tape, afraid that it would damage their relationship with the Steelers). Think Big Ben’s damage was done only in a hotel room in Tahoe? Nope. He allegedly pulled strings to have a Tahoe restaurant employee fired, merely because the waiter asked for identification from a woman he was dining with.

Big Ben wasn’t always like this though. The SI piece also mentions a number of people who cite that Roethlisberger once was a nice guy. His former high school coach attests that Ben was a “good-humored, well-behaved young athlete.” His hometown remembers him as a “nice person,” who has given back extensively to the town that shaped him. It was a fairy tale story. Midwest kid stars at the local college, plays well enough to catch the eyes of NFL scouts, eventually leads a proud franchise back to relevance/championships. It sounds like a cheesy sports movie. But at some point this fairy tale crashes and burns, somewhere around the time Roethlisberger won his first Super Bowl and signed with Nike.

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The May 2010 issue of Vanity Fair features a similarly damning piece on another famous athlete—perhaps the most famous athlete—Eldrick “Tiger” Woods. This article highlights a number of personal accounts of Tiger’s affairs, from the mouths of the women who allegedly slept with him. These stories depict a man who is also consumed with his unprecedented celebrity. It’s almost as if Tiger wanted to see how much he could get away with, how far he could push the boundaries. The article cites a waitress who claimed Tiger seduced her the same evening after having shared breakfast with his wife at the restaurant she worked at. There’s even a rumor that he slept with the college daughter of one of his neighbors, likewise, taking her back into his house. How does this happen? This is the same guy who married one of the most gorgeous women on the planet in a perfect athlete-meets-beautiful-girl story, had two kids, and was supposed to forever alter the landscape of sports.

Take a second and remember the last time you saw Tiger Woods speak. There’s no way around it, Tiger is an awkward guy. This is the kind of person he was growing up. It’s not that big of a reach to assume that the kid spent so much time playing golf and hanging out with his dad that he failed to develop any kind of people skills. He struggles with the media and comes off as being artificial and phony. I’m sure he may have been a little arrogant in the past, given the manner in which he always annihilated his competition, but that confidence was probably absent as soon as he stepped off a golf course. There is no way he has always acted like the guy in the previous paragraph, especially around females.

Perhaps the more difficult story to read in the Vanity Fair article is one that gives the details not of Tiger’s affairs with women, but of Tiger’s selling out of a personal adviser. The article states that when Tiger first signed with Nike and IMG he had a long-time mentor, John Merchant, who was the first African American member of the executive committee of the USGA. Merchant had made it his personal goal to see that Tiger wasn’t taken advantage of and also that he use his potential in order to aid junior golf efforts with minorities. The story goes that when Tiger signed his initial $40 million contract with Nike, there was an understanding that $1 million was to be donated to junior golf charity work. There was a deserving organization that would have made better use of the donation, but Earl Woods insisted that he be put in charge of finding worthy beneficiaries—a task he was by no means qualified for. When Merchant finally called out Earl Woods on his selfishness, Tiger threw him under the bus, at the urging of Earl and most vehemently, IMG. The young African-American whom John Merchant had placed all his faith in, the one who was supposed to forever elevate the status of minorities in sports? He vanished into a thick cloud of International Management Group, trusting his future into the hands of people dead-set on making as much money as possible off of him.

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What is it about an athlete’s career that causes normal guys with athletic ability to transform into narcissistic jerks? I think in order to find the answer, you’ve got to figure out what these stories have in common. Look at Coach Bombay in the Mighty Ducks: normal guy becomes a great coach, gets sponsored by Hendrix Hockey, becomes consumed by his new image. Rather than focusing on having fun and being a coach to the players, he focuses on maintaining the perception of “Gordon Bombay: spokesman for Hendrix” and “Gordon Bombay: Head Coach of USA hockey.” This is exactly what Hendrix wants from Bombay. They only care to profit off of his image.

What do Ben Roethlisberger and Tiger Woods have in common? I’m thinking less along the lines that both have a taste for extremely young co-eds, and more along the lines of the shared sponsor that has stuck by them in their troubled times. Does anyone else see the hilarity, symbolism, and double entendre in Nike’s slogan “Just Do It?” Yes, the one thing these athletes have in common is the sponsorship and unwavering support of the world’s most powerful sporting apparel/equipment corporation. This isn’t to suggest that Nike is solely to blame for the problem, but I do believe it's the starting point.

At the heart of all this is the fact that athletes like Roethlisberger and Woods are catered to in a way that has never happened before. Athletes used to be able to be “Tiger Woods: the athlete” AND “Tiger Woods: the human being,” but at some point the two roles merged into one, and it’s no coincidence that it’s usually around the time the IMG’s and Nike’s of the world come calling. The common theme when this transformation takes place? Money. How else could Nike choose to stand behind these guys after the horrible allegations and stories surrounding them?

Companies like Nike and IMG, in the hunt for ever-increasing profits, allow these athletes to feel a sense of entitlement. In order to sign as many of these guys as possible, they turn into genies that grant the every wish of their clients. They spoon feed these guys into believing that they can act like “Tiger Woods: client of IMG” all the time. I’m not faulting the companies for doing this. After all, it’s in their best interest, from a capitalistic business sense, to treat their clients like royalty. The athletes are their assets.

However, this model has unfortunately led to the creation of these completely unrecognizable human beings who are capable of all the horrible things you just read about. It is no wonder that guys like Roethlisberger are often found in public asking, “do you know who I am?” whenever someone challenges them or refuses to give in to their demands. Companies like IMG have enabled this behavior their whole careers and the athletes begin to believe that it’s normal to act like that. It’s not an excuse for their behavior, just a way of attempting to understand its origin.

It’s a twisted system where the athletes become convinced that the goal of their careers should be to acquire as much money and fame as possible. Meanwhile, companies become consumed with the highest performing athletes, regardless of their moral character, because they can likewise earn more money. Both sides continue to feed the beast until it spirals out of control.

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Upon Coach Bombay's epiphany that he has been giving priority to his image over the good of the team, he holds a team meeting. During that meeting, he burns a cardboard cutout of himself in a moment of self deprecation, apologizes for his behavior, and gets back to having fun again. The Mighty Ducks, representing team USA, eventually go on to win the gold medal. If there’s anything you can take from that movie, it would be that scene. Coach Bombay realizes that happiness isn’t found in dollar signs and the night life in LA.

People are always willing to forgive, assuming you do it the right way. Unfortunately for Ben Roethlisberger and Tiger Woods, they haven’t figured it out yet.

Tim Tebow 101

2010-04-27T22:59:00.012-05:00

by Matt Corder

“One of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. But because he’s not like everyone else you don’t like him.”

I just got done watching the latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Run Ricky Run. If you thought Ricky Williams was an enigma before, be prepared to search for entirely new words to describe him afterwards. He’s part narcissist, part bipolar, part genuine, part athletic brilliance, part coward, part hero, part warrior, part immature, part grown up-- and even then you’re only beginning to touch the surface. The documentary follows Ricky over the tumultuous train wreck and eventual retribution that is his life and football career.

Having just completed my viewing of the film, I’m not really sure if I could tell you anything further about the man except this: if there’s one thing we do know about Ricky Williams, it is the fact that he can play football. Sure, there are surprises about what a horrible family life he had growing up (including a particularly disturbing revelation that his dad sexually took advantage of him as a six year old), but the only real thing we learned about Ricky Williams was that he was a GREAT football player. That’s it. Not one teammate had anything bad to say about him, only that he impressed the hell out of them with his other-worldly work ethic. Hold that thought.

Reread that quote in the beginning for me real quick. Now, take a guess as to who it is describing. Unless you just got done watching the documentary, there’s only one (recently drafted) NFL player that should come to mind. I’m of course talking about the newest member of the Denver Broncos, one Timothy Richard Tebow.

Although that last quote was actually used to describe Ricky in the documentary, does it not perfectly describe the latest enigma in the NFL? Tim Tebow is the most polarizing figure in American sports since Allen Iverson (another athlete for whom a 30 for 30 documentary was made, by the way). You either LOVE him or you HATE him. There is no in between on this guy. Absolutely none.

Why is that?

Ever since the Broncos drafted Tebow, I’ve been trying to discover the answer to just that question. I, like many other college football fans, have spent the last four years absolutely hating the guts out of Tebow. I loved to root against him, loved to crack jokes at his expense, even went so far as to root for a scumbag like Nick Saban the past two years—just because it meant rooting against this kid! And why?!? Much like every other person in America, I have no idea. Not a freaking clue. I guess it’s only fair that God crack a cruel joke at my expense, bestowing the city of Denver with his chosen son, only one year removed from the Jay Cutler fiasco.

So let’s break it down excuse by excuse to figure this out: Why do people hate Tim Tebow? Follow along…

"Tim Tebow forces his beliefs on other people"

This rationale is ridiculous for two reasons. First off, it’s just plain false. Sure, Tebow has no problem talking about his beliefs, but not once has he tried to convert or force them on anyone. Critics like to point to his Super Bowl commercial as contradicting this fact, but anyone who watched that commercial knows that it was extremely mild and blown way out of proportion. We need to make something clear: Tebow is letting it be known that he is personally against abortion, but don’t make the mistake that he is asking you to be against it too. If this were the case, fifty of his former teammates would have come out by now to slam him in the media. Not one has.

Second of all, think back to pre-Thanksgiving day incident Tiger Woods. There used to be only one knock on Tiger and it was the simple fact that the man didn’t come out and state his belief in anything. Nothing at all. We faulted him for this. The media, the politicians, the fans—we’re all guilty of accusing Tiger Woods of not standing up for anything, and yet we’re the same people who persecute Tebow for doing just that. How hypocritical. I’m not saying you need to side with Tebow in the highly controversial abortion argument, but at least applaud the man for standing up for what he believes in—especially in an era where the modern athlete cowers away from doing so.

"Tim Tebow comes off as being cheesy/phony

I completely understand if this is your perception of the guy. I believed it for the last four years as well. Let me just throw this at you. Urban Meyer represents everything that is currently wrong with college football. He is a megalomaniac human being, completely obsessed with having control over every aspect of his football program. He constantly threatens to revoke media rights for newspapers that are critical of his players and is notorious for running up the score on less talented football programs than his own. He is in A-hole. Compare him with John Gruden, the former NFL head coach turned ESPN analyst. Like Meyer, Gruden was notorious for being a scumbag. He would actually go so far as to penalize players and even cut them, simply because they got injured!

Why do I bring this up? Well, Tim Tebow turns both of these bad guys to jello. If there was anything artificial about his work ethic or the way he talked, these guys would have sniffed it out like John Madden sniffs out an all-you-can-eat at Country Buffet. Gruden was the only guy on ESPN’s draft panel to endorse the pick (Was it a coincidence that he was also the only one on that panel who spent time with him in interviews and on the field? I digress….), while Meyer has gone so far as to proclaim that Tebow is like a son to him. There has to be something special there to completely and visibly alter these two guys’ normal demeanor. That’s the effect Tebow has on people! He makes coaches excited to get up every day and work hard, he turns arrogant men into humble human beings—that has to be worth something.

Furthermore, if he really was cheesy/phony, don’t you think a former teammate would have spoken up by now to get their fifteen minutes of fame? It hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to. In a recent article in the Denver Post, former Florida defensive lineman Jarvis Moss (a teammate of his in 2006) stated that Tebow, “attacked the workouts like us, the juniors and seniors. He outworked everyone on the team, and that's how he gained the respect of a lot of the guys."

"Tim Tebow doesn’t have the tools to make it in the NFL"

I used to harp on this argument all the time, but what has the guy not shown us? He won a national championship as a Freshman, won the Heisman trophy as a sophomore (the first guy to do that by the way), led his team to the national title as a junior, and came within a game of getting back to the title game as a senior. All the guy ever did was win, in what is widely accepted to be the toughest conference in the country, and he annihilated the record books while he was at it. He has made it clear that he can compete with the best and yet they say he doesn’t have the tools?

If you want my honest opinion, most of what Mel Kiper and Todd McShay do is a pseudo-science, no different than the archaic scouts in baseball and basketball who discredit all the methods and stats of sabremetrics. Don’t forget that these guys unanimously agreed that JaMarcus Russell was the greatest quarterback to bless the draft board in the history of the NFL. He had all the “tools” but Tebow doesn’t? What a bunch of hacks.

Another fascinating point that has recently come to light is whether the ESPN analysts especially hype players who sign with their own agents—draft day insider trading, if you will (examine this further here). Lastly, I find it hypocritical that Mel Kiper believes Tebow doesn’t have the tools to make it the next level when he agrees that he will definitely outwork everybody. This is the same Mel Kiper who is discredited by his peers for never having played a down of football (not having the tools to do his job), but who is universally recognized for his incredible work ethic. Sound familiar?

"Tim Tebow is only a sensation because he’s white"

This unfortunately might be true, but it’s not Tebow’s fault that it happened. You’re going to have to put the blame for this on Bristol and NFL management. Throughout the last twenty years we’ve seen the scouts discount nearly every black “system” quarterback, Michael Vick included, because they believed their skills wouldn’t translate in the NFL. It is a complete double standard for management to now believe that Tebow will succeed where others failed, and I understand anyone who has a complaint with this. Again though, it’s flawed logic to hate Tebow for this. He cannot help that ESPN or the front office of the Denver Broncos may have subconscious biases.

"Tim Tebow wears jean shorts, aka jorts"

Completely justified. I have no defense for his horrible wardrobe decisions.

The truth about Tebow is that he is a walking paradox. That’s the reason he is hated so widely. Homeschooled white kids aren’t supposed to be good at football, but Tebow is. All-American quarterbacks are supposed to bed every co-ed within a ten mile radius, yet Tebow takes pride in his virginity. NFL-ready quarterbacks are supposed to be arrogant and unlikeable bullies, but Tebow demonstrates nothing but humility and the ability to win a room over instantly.

Tim Tebow is a bizarro NFL quarterback and it shakes the foundations of football fans everywhere that he continues to be so successful, while at the same time representing the complete opposite of what we’re accustomed to. I for one nearly had a heart attack when I learned the news that my team traded away three draft picks to move up and take him. I hated the guy! But it’s time to man up and admit my mistakes. Tim Tebow is everything that is good about sports and life, and in the wake of the Roethlisberger incident, how could you not root for him to succeed?

So here I go. I am fully endorsing the Tebow draft pick. I admit that I have done nothing but hate the guy for four years and that I was wrong to do so. It’s time that I repent.

God,

I’d like to apologize for stubbornly and ignorantly doubting your chosen son, Tim. I also ask that you forgive me of my sins and continue to bless Tim with unparalleled skills and work ethic on the gridiron. I wish him nothing but the best and will continue to pray for him to be successful.

Sincerely,

Matt

P.S. Forgive Josh McDaniels for failing to improve the front seven…

Running out of Magic

2010-04-21T23:31:00.012-05:00

(Editor's note: NBA Czar Eddie Moore makes his triumphant return with this terrific column on the Oklahoma City Thunder, check it out!)

by Eddie Moore

Every fan loves a great underdog story. Only a couple of weeks ago, Butler captured the imaginations of sports fans everywhere with their Hoosiers-like run to the NCAA title game. Their improbable push through the NCAA tournament eventually came to a halt after Duke escaped in what turned out to be an epic final. Once the Oklahoma City Thunder were slotted to face the Las Angeles Lakers in round one, the stage was set for yet another potential monumental underdog story.

My personal favorite underdog story comes from the onscreen production Little Giants, a David vs Goliath story of Pop Warner football teams in a small town. I happen to be a humongous fan of the New York “football” Giants by the way. When you watch the movie you might ask yourself if the teams in the movie influenced my selection for favorite underdog story? To which I counter, nahhh…

The parallels from the Little Giants and this first-round Thunder-Lakers match-up are undoubtedly there. The Lakers, led by their pompous coach Phil Jackson (Kevin O’Shea), represent your typical cocky, ultra-talented, big city team (portrayed perfectly in the movie as the Cowboys). The team expects to succeed in impressive fashion, and they usually do. Conversely, the Thunder, led by their dorky and modest coach, Scott Brooks (Daniel O’Shea), symbolize the underdogs (Giants) who have yet to achieve anything. Their success is dependent upon the presence of one player, Kevin Durant (Becky ‘The Icebox’ O’Shea). Unfortunately in this series, it doesn’t appear that our underdog will triumph – which is extremely disappointing.

After last night’s game, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of inadequacy. The Thunder had just suffered through a demoralizing loss that easily could have (and should have) been won. Was I the only one left hoping the Thunder’s Coach of the Year, Brooks, would have a Dennis Green-type outburst to motivate his players? You know the one I’m talking about, immortalized forever in the Coors Light commercials: “THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY ARE…AND WE LET ‘EM OFF THE HOOK.” The Thunder’s inability to execute in the clutch – a reoccurring theme – as well as their failure to contain Bryant in the fourth quarter (15 fourth quarter points), has now put the underdog in a very problematic situation, down 2-0 going back to Oklahoma City.

Maybe the Thunder were doomed from the start of the playoffs. After all, they easily could have captured a higher seed and avoided a brutal first-round match-up against the defending champs. Instead, the Thunder managed to squander late-game leads (most notably Denver and Portland) at the end of the regular season, thus securing a disappointing 8-seed. Along with an inability to close out games, Russell Westbrook struggled mightily in the latter part of the season. This, coupled with other teams exploiting the Thunder’s major weakness, a lack of a true back-to-the-basket post-up player (see: Camby, Marcus – a player they could have, and should have, traded for at the deadline), all factored into their disappointing finish.

So why in the world was I overly optimistic for a team facing the defending champs? Well, hope really. I wanted to believe this (still) underappreciated squad had enough in the tank to pull a colossal upset. I thought Kevin Durant could miraculously carry this team with his leadership and scoring (I mean, he is the youngest scoring champion of all-time!). I believed Westbrook could abuse the Lakers point guards (which he easily can). And lastly, I thought the Lakers were a somewhat overrated team vulnerable against an ultra-athletic squad like the Thunder. Maybe I was a little too hopeful.

The truth is the Thunder are who we thought they were. They are an extremely competitive team that can hang with anyone, primarily because of the brilliance of Durant and their underrated defense, but that’s it. Besides some fourth quarter struggles from Durant, game two epitomized this perfectly. With no disrespect to Bryant – he was phenomenal as always – the Thunder let game two slip away. They held the Lakers to a putrid 37% field-goal percentage and still couldn’t prevail. Serge Ibaka took command of the paint by blocking a ridiculous seven shots. (On another note, how about Ibaka getting in a little scuffle with Lamar Odom early in the game. I loved it. How did Odom respond? With an impressive 2 for 9 performance. Vintage Lamar!).

As the game winded down though, Brooks failed to make any notable adjustments. There would be no “annexation of Puerto Rico” play to bail out the Thunder on this night. Their offense continued to be stagnant whenever Durant couldn’t get the rock. The Lakers, on the other hand, countered successfully by relying on the greatest closer in the game. The Thunder will learn. The formula is easy: get your playmaker the ball and let him create. Evident in the Lakers, Bryant gets the ball in late-game situations while the Thunder somehow can’t get Durant the ball.

The irony of this series is that the Lakers have an overwhelming advantage down low, but can’t seem to capitalize on it (or even try to exploit it). This is what makes this series infinitely more frustrating. The Thunder could make this series very interesting, but they’re not.

Maybe the result of this series thus far is more a testament to Bryant’s excellence than to the Thunder’s unclutchness and inexperience. But inexperience absolutely is playing a role in the Thunder’s struggles (afterall it took Michael Jordan numerous attempts to finally overcome a feisty Pistons squad). Unfortunately I’m skeptical, though, and here’s why. Gasol eventually gave the Thunder a glimmer of hope by missing some untimely FT’s. The chance was there and the Thunder coudl have seized it, but of course they didn't. Kudos to Brooks for going for the win though – Durant got an awesome three-point look but just couldn’t knock it down.

I’m probably stupid for doubting the Lakers. After all, Phil Jackson is an insane 40-0 after winning game ones. Hell, Bryant has more playoff games under his belt than the entire Thunder team. The Lakers are a much more talented squad and know how to win meaningful games. Oh yea, they are also defending champs.

I guess I believed the Thunder had a little magic left from their impressive regular season to knock off Goliath. It appears that I will be wrong. We won’t get the pleasure of seeing the favorite getting knocked down. (Albeit for everything I’ve said in this column, the Thunder aren’t exactly in a horrible place going forward in the future. Afterall, they could be the Washington Wizards)

Still, I wanted to see another upset where the Little Giant prevails. I’m hoping this column replaces Brooks’ lack of a Dennis Green-type outburst in that he failed to perform. The Lakers gave the Thunder a glimmer of hope last night but it wasn't enough. I’m praying there is still just a glimmer of hope left for this squad, but I’m afraid it's gone.

Running Diary of Utah/Den Game Two

2010-04-20T00:44:00.006-05:00

by Matt Corder

It’s time for a journey inside the mind of an obsessed Denver Nuggets fan. Follow along in this running diary for my live thoughts on game two between the Nuggets and Jazz.

Pregame: I implore you to check Sportscenter to catch Lebron’s performance tonight against the Bulls. He had at least three “OH-MY-GOD-DID-HE-JUST-DO-THAT?!!?!” moments highlighted by the ultra-super-humongous-monster dunk over James Johnson. I am coming out of the closet on Joakim Noah too. I love the guy. Love his hustle, love his intensity, love him bashing the city of Cleveland before the game (was he wrong?). He backed it up on the court despite the loss.

First quarter

11:47 – 'Melo already gets to the free throw line. I want 10+ attempts tonight.

11:00 – Deron Williams makes the easiest layup in playoff history. How he doesn’t get knocked to the ground baffles me. He needs to catch at least three elbows if he wants to make a living on the drive. I’m scared he goes for 30 and 15 tonight.

9:44 – Random thought: Can Chauncey Billups dunk anymore?

9:10 – The announcer just called Nene’s slam, “a foreign facial!” That’s what she said. In related news, Nene just challenged Lebron for dunk of the night.

7:33 – The Jazz are starting a 14 year old seven-footer at center. Nene continues to abuse him getting to the charity stripe.

5:29 – Why ‘Melo isn’t touching the ball every possession is beyond me. The Jazz are choosing to let his defender play isolation defense…to no avail. Nuggets up 17 – 15.

First commercial break of the night – I will have all of these TNT commercials memorized by the NBA finals. Why no Conan commercials yet Turner? Finally, how great are the new NBA commercials? You know the ones I’m talking about, 50% poetry, 50% part rap song, 200% awesome. The NBA continues to distinguish themselves as the best marketed sport in America.

3:33 – The Nuggets put the hard foul on Deron…finally. Carmelo gets called for a flagrant one as D Will goes down. I hate the new NBA, let the players police themselves.

By the way, we have a birdman sighting. For those of you non-Denver readers out there, let me give a short breakdown. He is a cult hero to our city. You hate the big hair, the tattoos (so sick!), the swagger. We LOVE it all. Quick story: I saw him last year after the Western Conference finals at a Best Buy by my house and was so nervous to talk to him that I resorted to following him around the store. The best part about it was that he knew I was doing it (my jaw hitting the floor had nothing to do with it), and still gave me one of those “what up” nods instead of getting weird. I giggled like a little girl at an NSYNC concert, called all my friends, and bragged about how I got to follow the birdman around at Best Buy for ten minutes. To no other sports figure in Denver would I act like that.

3:16 – Williams goes back to the locker room. The Jazz are approaching Portland territory on these injuries. Nuggets need to go on a big run while he’s gone.

End of the first – Deron Williams comes back and continues to kill Denver. Carmelo: Utah as Deron: Denver…neither team has an answer for the respective player. Utah leads 33 – 30.

Second Quarter

9:48 – Nene gets a steal and goes coast-to-coast finishing with his off hand. If this guy could stay out of foul trouble, he might just make an all-star team one of these days.

8:57 – Carmelo is guarding Deron? This could be interesting…

8:48 – Zach Efron (Korver) just made a driving layup without getting hammered by a Nuggets defender. Don’t players across the league just crave the chance to throw him and his perfect beach hair to the ground? Also here’s a debate my buddies have all the time: Does Korver pull more tail than any guy in the NBA? Can’t imagine it happens much in Utah, but you’d like think that on the road this guy gets solicited by more females than Vinny Chase circa season two of Entourage. You’d like to think. Still can’t believe the birdman didn’t send him flying into the third row. Kyle Korver just became the Newman to my Jerry Seinfeld.

6:12 – Carmelo just exchanged baskets with Deron. The points are adding up fast. Anthony: 16, Williams: 17

6:00 – Technical on Jerry Sloan!

4:03 – Disturbing trend starting in that the Jazz aren’t missing any shots. I’m begging Adrian Dantley to take a time out. Please coach! Please, please, please! This problem happens a lot with the Nuggets and I’m too biased to admit it’s because of our immaturity on defense (see: any Denver game against Phoenix).

3:30 Chauncey bails us out with a three after Ty Lawson’s two consecutive offensive boards. Utah up 53 – 51. I murmur an apology to our interim coach…

2:08 – Billups is getting frustrated with Williams defense and promptly forces one inside for an easy charge call. He can’t do anything, showing his age big time.

:24.5 – I can’t watch. The Nuggets just borrowed a hot tub time machine to travel back to 2007. The Jazz are on a 17 – 3 run and just opened up a 12 point lead. Jazz in front 63 – 51.

:0.5 – Worst…possession…ever. Another Billups force leads to a shoot clock violation before the half. ‘Melo needs to get on Chauncey’s case and establish his alpha dog status once and for all. Mr. Big Shot just cannot do anything on the more physical, more talented PG of the Jazz. Off to the locker rooms, the Jazz shoot 68% from the field in the first half. I need to take a shower to get the Nuggets’ stink off. We’re still not sure if Adrian Dantley is in the building tonight.

Third Quarter

11:37 – Billups turns it over again, Williams takes the steal all the way to the foul line…again. Glad we talked things over at half time.

11:00 – Something I forgot to mention thus far, Boozer is killing us too. Nothing changes in period number three.

9:56 – Nene gets called for going after a loose ball with Boozer. That Sloan technical is looking more and more genius as the refs have called everything in the Jazz’s favor ever since then. Turning point in the game up to this point.

7:38 – The fix is in. Williams flops on the defensive end to take a “charge” on Melo.

7:05 – Utah in front by 14 off a ridiculous Boozer put-back dunk. Someone finally reminded Adrian Dantley he has timeouts at his disposal.

Commercial Break – Most unbelievable moment of the night. Some fans from Utah just paid for a spot on TNT to announce their support of Carmelo Anthony. This has to be a prank by Nuggets fans, right? I still am not sure what just happened.

6:50 – Anthony saw the commercial too. He scores right out of the timeout.

4:12ish – We have a JR Smith (for three!) sighting as the Nuggets go on a 7 – 0 run….make that 9 – 0 as Carmelo scores his twentieth points of the night!! 76 – 71, Jazz still lead as Sloan calls a timeout. In case you’re wondering, yes I changed clothes at halftime.

3:38 – Korver makes a bonehead play out of the huddle. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHA.

3:00 – Don’t look now but we have a tie ball game. 76 up.

1:15 and 1:12 and 1:02 – Newman (angry fist clench)

:30 – Lawson makes a veteran play flying past the off balance Utah defense forcing the 14-year old seven footer into further foul trouble. Caps it off by draining both free throws. Nice.

:08 – Newman is on fire. Hold up your four fingers, only one more to play.

Fourth Quarter

Thoughts going into the fourth: Carmelo needs to assert himself and get the ball. Chauncey needs to serve as a facilitator rather than the aggressor on offense. I’d like to see the big men for Denver start scoring again. The Nuggets have to start playing team defense. Who wants it more: Deron or ‘Melo?

10:38 – 'Melo checks back into the game. Time to do work. Jazz up 91 – 87 after two JR free throws.

9:45 – CHAUNCEEEYYY FOR A HUGE THREE TO RETAKE THE LEAD!!!! Forget everything I said earlier about him.

8:05 – Got to credit the Jazz for getting the Nuggets big men in trouble. K-Mart to the bench with five fouls. Flap your wings, here comes the birdman.

7:40 – Big difference between Lebron and ‘Melo just became apparent. After a great finish, he walked away like he knew it was going in the whole time. Lebron sprints to his teammates to celebrate when that happens, like he was amazed it even went it at all (aka not confident). Not saying that my main man is on Lebron’s level, but there is a clear difference in their crunch time behavior. Tie game after the and-one, 95 apiece.

6:17 – Williams has turned it over seven times? I did not pick up on that tonight.

4:32 – Apparently Chauncey took the hot tub machine back to 2004. I feel like an idiot for doubting him. He has taken Williams out of the game in the fourth and just had another great assist after collapsing the Utah D. Nuggets up 102 – 98.

3:09 – Deron woke up. Two straight possessions with an easy assist. Nuggets still lead 104 – 103.

1:43 – Great triple team by the Jazz forces Carmelo into a turnover. One point game. I’m nervous as hell.

1:30 – Newman with a three followed by an offensive foul on Carmelo. Jazz up 108 – 106.

:59 – Nene with a big steal. I am a mess.

:53 – Chauncey misses out on a chance to tie the game as he goes 1 of 2 from the line. One point lead for Utah.

:40.5 – NENE AGAIN!! HE TAKES THE CHARGE ON NEWMAN!

:31.5 – Make up call as Chauncey gets called for the charge. Should have been In ‘Melo’s hands. Chauncey can't decide what year to turn the dial on the time machine.

:25.4 – ‘Melo fouls out. Billups will have his chance to be the alpha dog, if only for tonight. CJ Miles makes both free throws to give the Jazz the 110 – 107 lead. Do I dare ask for JR here (the two pointer is obviously the safer bet)?

:21.6 – Nene with the uncontested jam. One point game.

:11.3 – Deron with two free throws. Lead back to three.

:6.0 – lead cut to one on K-Mart’s put-back. Carmelo knows how badly he screwed up as they give us a shot of him on the bench. Newman to the line on the intentional foul.

Ballgame. The Utah Jazz have won a game in which they played guys named Kosta Koufos, Othyus Jeffers, and Kyrylo Fesenko. I am sick to my stomach. Such an immature showing by our team capped off by Chauncey taking a running three with 3+ second left on the clock. Terrible. Awful. I am sick.

The Ex-Athlete Conundrum

2010-04-15T20:47:00.014-05:00

by Matt Corder

I was on my way to work today when I did what most other sports fans do every morning, I tuned in to listen to Mike & Mike in the Morning on the local ESPN radio affiliate. Without fail, I do this every day. I have no idea why. The two guys on the show aren’t particularly entertaining. They play roles more than anything, roles I don’t really enjoy. On the one hand you have Mike Greenberg, a snotty, elitist, white guy who went to fancy journalism school at Northwestern (he’s of course not afraid to tell anyone about that fact, whether they ask or not). He’s cast as a nerdy, skinny, non-athletic sports fan who’s grateful just for the chance to be there. Sitting next to him is the sports equivalent of a foil: former NFL defensive lineman, Notre Dame graduate, blue-collar sports fan Mike Golic. Mike is a “man’s man” who acts like it was Touchdown Jesus’ will that he enlighten the average guy on what sports are really like. Yuck. No doubt it’s ESPN’s way of trying to capture the whole demography of sports in two men.

The show is certainly a success or they would have been replaced by now, but I can’t stand it any longer.

What’s wrong you ask? The show highlights one of the worst things about sports today and it’s time to start a grassroots movement against it. The issue I have with networks like ESPN is that all the guys you find on TV are former players and coaches, simply for that fact alone. This isn’t just a problem affecting the networks though. No, the ex-athlete conundrum infects sports at every level from coaches to the front office. Everybody assumes that “hey that guy played in the pros, he’ll definitely make a great NBA analyst.” The truth is that they don’t. Follow along.

--

Jalen Rose was a guest on Mike & Mike this morning. Upon coming on the show, Jalen was introduced as an official ESPN NBA analyst who was there to, “tell you who’s going to win each one of [the first-round playoff series].” You’d like to think that having spent 14 years in the NBA, Jalen would give you some inside perspective that we have no idea about as fans.

You’d like to think.

Jalen proceeded to give ten minutes of the most mundane, unoriginal, cliché basketball analysis that I’ve ever heard. It was flat out awful.

The criticism could go all over the place, but let’s run through a couple of highlights. 1. Jalen cited Rasheed Wallace as a reason the Celtics would ultimately take down Miami in the first-round. Rasheed Wallace! This is the same player who scored on his own basket this week, the same player who is causing Bill Simmons to renounce his beloved Boston Celtics, the same player who has man boobs that are rivaled only by Phil Mickelson circa 2006! Rasheed Wallace! Are you kidding me?! 2. He then went on to say something to the effect of the Mavs ultimately winning against the Spurs because of the trade they made. Now, I’m not disputing that the Mavs will take the series, but hasn’t this whole trade angle been exhausted yet? Couldn’t he have mentioned something interesting like, hmm, I don’t know, the fact that Gregg Popovich intentionally rested his two best players, ensuring the Spurs would lose and face the Mavs in the first-round? Does anyone else find that to be a little bit interesting? A championship coach playing mind games with his first round opponent, and you don’t even hype that up? Unforgiveable. 3. He didn’t stick his neck out and bet on a single upset. Not one. When you look at the matchups this makes sense for the most part, but couldn’t he have taken one of the five seeds in either conference to knock off a four seed? I’m a HUGE Denver Nuggets fan and I’m not entirely confident we beat the Jazz in the six games he predicted. Do the Celtics really look like a team that wants to be in the playoffs? Come on now.

As a basketball junkie, I hope and pray to learn new things about the game as often as possible. You’d like to think a former player like Jalen Rose or his co-worker Jamal Mashburn might be able to do this once and a while, but the truth is they don’t. I watch these guys stutter through rehearsed lines every night (lines that they didn’t come up with) and they never take the time to say something to the effect of, “hey this is a great example of a poor defensive rotation coming as a result of the high pick and roll, let’s break down what’s going on here.” Never happens. You’re telling me there aren’t ten thousand basketball fans like myself who couldn’t kill that job on a nightly basis? I know these smart people exist somewhere. Hey, I’m not the one crediting Rasheed Wallace as a reason the Celtics beat the Heat in the first round.

These former players are being gift wrapped some of the coolest jobs on the planet without ever having earned the right to be there.

--

Next let’s examine the case of the front offices. This argument has been run into the ground a thousand times due to Michael Lewis’s smash hit book Moneyball, but the simple fact is a majority of pro sport franchises are still run by scouts and GMs that devise organizational plans based off “instinct,” a trait they claim can only be found by playing the game at the professional level. Obviously that book examines the case against this in baseball, so let’s take it the basketball route.

Different sport, same problem.

Take for example Joe Dumars. During the course of his playing career, Joe Dumars was an exceptional basketball player, the second option on two different championship squads for the Pistons. Michael Jordan called him the best defender he ever faced, and he would eventually get his jersey number retired by Detroit. One year after retiring from basketball, Dumars was appointed to the position of President of Basketball Operations of the Detroit Pistons—one freaking year! After assuming control, he made what are now considered to be some of the luckiest moves in NBA history and managed to assemble the Pistons team that would go on to win the title in 2004. For a long time Dumars was considered to be one of the best GMs in sports and proof that former players really did know best.

Oh boy were we wrong.

Dumars eventually became consumed with hubris. He bought out Larry Brown (the coach who won him the title) after becoming angry with him and fired Flip Saunders (followed Brown, took them to three straight conference championships) because he thought they needed a new "voice" in the locker room. Widely accepted as good moves at the time, the sporting public is now coming to see just how awful Dumars moves were. The Pistons didn’t need a new “voice” in the locker room as he stated, they needed a competent guy in the front office.

The damage didn’t stop there though. Upon accepting the common notion that the Pistons really did need to shake things up, Dumars proceeded to trade away the face of the franchise, Chauncey Billups. At the time, Dumars stated his desire was to clear cap space to eventually sign Lebron James to the Pistons and so the move wasn’t questioned. Billups would go on later that year to lead an immature Denver Nuggets squad to the conference finals (his seventh straight) where they would come close to beating the eventual champion LA Lakers. It couldn’t possibly get worse though right? Wrong. Dumars proceeded to use all the available cap space, that same cap space meant to lure Lebron, during the off season to sign Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon to huge contracts that will doom the franchise for the next five to ten years. This season when former Piston Aaron Afflalo signed with the Nuggets and had the best year of his career, it was widely joked that Dumars was the best GM in Denver Nuggets history.

Not exactly the epithet Dumars wants to be remembered for.

The sad part about this is that there are a number of GMs out there just like Joe Dumars. It’s an epidemic. It’s dooming franchises to a generation of losing all because you have a culture of former players who are handed jobs they are clearly not qualified for. Don’t believe me? Look at what Isiah Thomas did. Look at what Omar Minaya is doing to the Mets. Look at Mike Dunleavy everywhere he’s ever gone.

In no other business are employees put on such a fast track to the top. And why is that? Truly qualified guys like Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey or Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane are still viewed inside the game as outsiders who are intruding on a sport they could never understand, simply because they didn’t sit the bench for fifteen years in the pros. The fact is that these archaic views need to be thrown out altogether in sports and yet we’re still not seeing it happen.

It has to stop.

--

All my criticism is grounded in the fact that Mike & Mike know nothing about professional basketball, my favorite sport. Greeny at least makes an attempt to sound informed, but the lack of knowledge is so apparent when Golic takes the air that I’m often left pissed off when I arrive at my desk every morning. How could two guys be so stupid, so uninformed, and get paid to talk about my sport every morning to a national audience? And don’t even pretend like it’s not true! If you want proof of this fact listen to the way Golic handles his takes on the NFL versus the NBA.

When it comes to the NFL, he is the hands down expert, given that he has maintained a lot of the relationships from his playing days and stays up to date. More than anything though, you can tell he feels comfortable with the NFL just by listening to his voice alone, without taking in any of the content. It gets more excited and riled up when football is being discussed. He is on the edge of his seat, ready to pounce into action whenever needed. Check it out some time, I swear it happens. I can’t blame him though for loving football above all else. After all, the sport made him a rich man and got him where he is today, but he was given a job simply because he is an ex player. Are you picking up on a theme here?

What I can blame him for is his NBA analysis. It’s like a middle school kid standing up and delivering his first public speaking assignment in front of his classmates. He tightens up, his voice loses its edge, he never, repeat, NEVER challenges anyone’s opinions on the NBA and much like that middle schooler, tries to switch topics and get the segment done as soon as possible. As a diehard NBA fan, let me vouch and tell you there is no way Mike Golic has watched an NBA game during the past three years. You’re talking about one of the three biggest sports in America, and our most-listened to voice doesn’t know a thing about it (beyond what his producers feed him that morning).

What a travesty.

I can’t be the only person who’s sick of the ex-player conundrum in sports. Please tell me you are too. It’s like watching successful parents hand over their business to their spoiled children only to watch them run the business into the ground. How could they continue to be so foolish? How does this still happen?

Unfortunately I don’t have the answers on how to fix it. Jalen Rose has a job at ESPN inevitably unless he takes the Steve Phillips/Michael Irvin route (cross your fingers!). I guess it’s on us knowledgeable sports fans to work our asses off until we eventually take down the antiquated thinking of the sports networks and franchises.

Count me in.

NBA Mailbag

2010-04-14T01:29:00.008-05:00

by Matt Corder & Eddie Moore

With the NBA playoffs just days away, I decided to hit up my good buddy and fellow NBA czar Eddie Moore. The dude knows more about the game of basketball than anyone I know. The two of us recently set out to decipher the Western Conference and over the past week or two we have exchanged emails trying to accomplish that task. What follows is everything we came up. Follow along as we break down all the angles…

Eddie Moore – EM (4/7): Matt, the NBA regular season is coming to a close and there remain numerous questions that need to be answered. Most notably, the two through eight seeds in the Western Conference (currently) are separated by merely three-and-a-half games! What better than to address this topic by constructing our own version of a Simmons/Gladwell-type mailbag – a creative name is still pending.

Hopefully, by the end of this we will have successfully predicted the two through eight seeds out West and also addressed other concerns and issues surrounding those teams. Let’s get this started...

The enigmatic West took another crazy turn last night as the Utah Jazz escaped with a wildly controversial win that may, ultimately, dictate the fate of the Oklahoma City Thunder – they now seem out of contention for the two seed and their pending match-up with the Denver Nuggets tonight could possibly drop the Thunder to the eight seed (or, obviously, the game could continue to drop the struggling Nuggets down lower in the standings). Anyway, most critics cite the Thunder’s youth and inexperience as the primary reasons why the Thunder won’t escape the first round.

As the first of many questions still looming in the West, can the Thunder prove their doubters wrong and potentially make a heroic run in the playoffs? Maybe, more importantly, would a first round win over a top-seeded team establish Kevin Durant as the second best player in the league behind LeBron James?

Matt Corder – MC (4/7): I'm all for the creative naming of the mailbag. Possible ideas off the top of my head: 25 Moore Questions and Answers, the ME First mailbag (matt and eddie), the Houston to Denver connection...and I'm open to any ideas because all of those ideas suck.

Moving on to more important things...

What a game last night, easily one of the best of the year. I'm not sure what to think of the Thunder anymore. When I first realized this team had potential all-stars, I assumed they'd take a couple of years to do anything because they'd be immature. They've since proved me wrong. I then figured out that this team might make a run into the playoffs this year, but again I cited their lack of experience as a reason they would eventually fade down the stretch and miss the post-season. Obviously they proved me wrong again. All I can come up with now is the fact that they don't have a legitimate big man and that they've never been to the post-season as reasons for them losing in the first round. Do I even dare to question whether they will prove me wrong again? I don't think so.

At this point, I think it's safe to say the Thunder are a threat in the playoffs. I would not be surprised to see this team knock off an unsuspecting opponent in the first round (Denver/Dallas/Phoenix). Beyond that though? There is no way they advance past the Utah's and LA's of the world as the size will be way too much to overcome in the later rounds.

Let's not get carried away right off the bat though. Even if Durant somehow carries this team to the West finals, there is no way he surpasses Kobe Bryant as the second best player in the NBA. I would be willing to give him the third spot, depending on his performance, but let's be real...Kobe's rings/experience/MVP speak way louder than Durant's recent performance. The Black Mamba is way more poisonous than the Durantula! What's your take?

Moving on, I have to admit I thought I was going to have this seeding thing figured out. I planned on getting on ESPN.com and looking at the teams remaining schedules and *POOF* I'd have my answer to this looming question. Obviously, it's not going to be that easy. Of the seven teams jockeying for position, only Utah and Dallas have schedules that you could consider mildly easy. The rest of the teams?? They're all playing each other! I don't even know where to start so I'm going to throw the argument back your way with a couple of questions.

Do we give Utah and Dallas the 2/3 seeds because of their schedules?

Can we safely assume Portland is going to stay locked in at that 8 seed?

EM (4/7): Alright, at thirty-one years old, is Bryant going to continue to play at a level superior to Durant (twenty-one years old)? My inclination is to place Bryant above Durant because of his incredible consistency, but I think Durant can easily slide by Bryant. Kobe will ultimately go down as the better player (unless Durant miraculously wins five plus titles and some MVP's), but based on Durant’s improvement so far in this league, it is not asinine to expect him to outperform Bryant in the future. Bryant is only getting older (albeit with an incredibly talented team) and Durant isn’t even near approaching his prime yet (with a young improving team), so I’ll take my chances with the Western Conference Player of the Year (Durant), in my opinion.

In regard to the highly coveted two and three seeds, I firmly believe the Mavericks are in great shape for one of them. They own the tiebreaker with the Nuggets and, yes, their schedule is pretty favorable down the stretch. The Jazz (without Kirilenko) also appear to have a relatively easy schedule, which should ensure them either the two or three seed. Despite everything I just said, another team can easily creep into one of those spots. If the Nuggets didn’t have so many question marks (lack of big men and, oh yea, a head coach!) going in to the post-season, I would say they could compete for one of those seeds. I’m going to assume that they will fail in that regard and, instead, the San Antonio Spurs will battle until the last game of the season (against Dallas). The Spurs have the opportunity to knock down the Suns, Nuggets, and Mavericks down the stretch. If they can win even two of those games – I’ll assume the other two games (Grizzles and T’Wolves) are W's – they just may grab the two or three seed. It’s going to be extremely interesting, but I’m not willing to hand the Mavs and Jazz those two seeds just yet. Sorry Suns fans, your schedule is too brutal down the stretch – Spurs, Thunder, Rockets, Nuggets, and the Jazz. Best of luck with that!

The Blazers currently sit in the eighth spot out West, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Nobody in the West wants an encounter with the Lakers, especially in the first round, but the Blazers have reasons to be optimistic. Most notably, the Lakers can’t seem to beat the Blazers in the Rose Garden. They have a play maker who can light it up any night in Brandon Roy and is a tough guard for LA. That's about it though. I find the Blazers the least dangerous team in the West and the least entertaining, too. Nate McMillan has done an incredible job with his squad this year given the unfortunate injuries they had to battle with, but I definitely believe it’s going to be a quick post-season for that team. With a tough schedule ahead, the Blazers will sit tight in the eighth spot and suffer a first-round defeat lasting only five (or maybe six) games.

Moving on…

Mark Cuban recently (today, actually) made some audacious comments concerning the Western Conference. Specifically, he believes “if we dial in, we know we can kill anybody.” Is Cuban displaying excessive hubris here? Or are the Mavs a legitimate threat to come out of the West?

Can the Suns, with a really solid and deep team, make any noise in the playoffs? I’m a little uneasy predicting them to get out of the first round.

MC (4/7): Let's start off with some great news: the Nuggets just went final with a comeback win on the road in OKC. Before you rub it in, I will be the first to admit that I texted you stating I was turning off the game (a classic reverse jinx move by the way). The Nuggets went about six minutes or so without a field goal during the second half and I gave up as they went down by 12. My boys made me proud though with a HUGE HUGE HUGE comeback W. At the time of this email they sit alone at #2 in the west (they'll be joined by Dallas though in about ten minutes).

In regards to Cuban...on paper, yes, the Mavs are a threat to do some serious damage in the West. That threat most likely ends there though. Ever since the return of Dampier and the "I just work here" comments by Haywood, the Mavs have been in a serious funk. Although they certainly have all the pieces, it is no secret that Caron Butler is struggling to find his role on the team. He knows he can carry a team into the NBA playoffs as a first-option scorer but he has been asked to assume a role as a second (behind Dirk), third (behind Kidd), or even fourth (behind Jet Terry) option in the Mavs offense. Does he need more touches to succeed? Does he need to overcome an attitude problem? I don't have the answers to these questions. My take is that the Mavs need to define his role better so that this team can evolve and advance in the playoffs.

Going further into the comments though, obviously this was a motivational ploy by Cuban. The comments were made on the radio show of one of his own players (Terry) so the words were meant for the team to hear, presumably to inspire confidence. What if the words inspire something else though? Do you think Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, et al are going to take those comments lightly? If I'm a Mavs fan, I'd be worried Cuban might become the distraction he was during last year's playoffs when K-Mart out-dueled him in the media (and the court).

With the Suns, it's going to be all about match ups. It's cute to hear about their resurgance, but I think true NBA fans aren't really fooled by the Suns' gimmicks. This is still a fast-breaking team that can't play defense (currently allowing 105.8 point per/game). This works both ways though. Let's say the Suns meet the Nuggets in the first round. Even though I love my team, the Nuggets have a tendancy to play the Suns game, a game they simply cannot keep up with. I give the Suns the edge there. On the other hand, what if the Suns play the Spurs in the first round?? Does anyone really believe the Suns finally breakthrough in that rivalry?? There is NO way Tim Duncan is letting that happen. The fast break has never won in the playoffs, nor is it going to win this year. The Suns make it to the second round, at best.

Alright, I know you can't hold it in anymore...give us your pitch for the Spurs. Can Tim Duncan and Coach Popovich get the job done one last time? Does Manu have the health to last through the playoffs? Is this the classic late season push past Spurs teams have used to win the title? Lay it on us...

And by the way, I owe the Rockets a round on me for taking down the Jazz tonight.

EM (4/7): Old. Washed-up. Overrated. Slow. Finished. Injured. Depleted. These were just some of the words used to describe the state of the Spurs earlier in the season – that’s right, earlier in the regular season. Any knowledgeable NBA fan knows that the regular season is completely overrated if you are a contending team. Contending teams enter the season with one thing on their mind: an NBA title. Teams are not remembered for their spectacular regular seasons (sorry Suns and Mavs fans) or for their individual accolades. Instead, teams create their legacies by performing at a high-level during the most important time of the year: the playoffs. The Spurs can easily attest to this. Four championships in the last ten years prove that the Spurs understand the winning formula, and understand it well.

So, do the Spurs have another good show in them? This is what I do know: in the last three weeks all the Spurs have done is beat the best. They defeated the Thunder, Cavilers, Celtics, Magic, and Lakers – and all in pretty impressive fashion. Manu Ginobili appears completely recovered from his ankle injury and is playing as good of basketball as any player in the league for the last month. Duncan has definitely had his fair share of putrid performances, but he is still somehow averaging a 20 (PPG) and 10 (REB). Maybe, most importantly, their Frenchman (Parker) has returned. Assuming George Hill will be healthy by the playoffs, the Spurs have a tandem of PGs that can give the Lakers and Mavericks huge trouble. Richard Jefferson is the X-Factor though. He has been an enigma all season. Ever since getting his (huge) payday, he has rewarded the Spurs with his worst season of his career. If he can somehow find a fit in this offense – maybe the addition of Parker and a new, rejuvenated Ginobili will spark some improvement – then the Spurs are in awesome shape heading in to the playoffs. They need Roger Mason to get back to knocking down big-time threes in the clutch when the defense swarms on Parker, Ginobili, and/or Duncan. With one of the best all-around coaches in the league (Greg Popovich), the Spurs will be able to squeeze out those close games in the fourth. Do not sleep on these Spurs; they may just represent the West in the Finals…

Alright, let’s get these predictions started. How do you want do this? Should we start with you predicting who will ultimately come out of the West, and why? Let's maybe analyze the best players...Thoughts?

MC (4/13): So the west is starting to look a little clearer after the last two night's games. It appears as if the Nuggets are going to lose to the Suns and barring a miraculous comeback here's how it looks like it's going to end up.

1) LA Lakers - not showing us anything going into the playoffs. Their experience should allow them to easily advance over the immature OKC Thunder though.

2) Dallas Mavericks - all the stats prove this team is poised to do major damage in the playoffs. Can Butler carve out a role? Can Dirk be as mentally tough as other teams' alpha dogs? or does he go back to the Dirk we saw against the Warriors a couple years ago?

3) Phoenix Suns - The Suns just killed the Nuggets and look surprisingly awesome. I am going to give them the win against Denver tonight and Utah tomorrow. An easy first round matchup with Portland puts the Suns in the second round against the winner of Dal/SA, a matchup likely to be exhausting for the winner.

4) Denver Nuggets - not exactly showing a lot of pride with George Karl out. The Nuggets will go as JR Smith's three point scoring goes.

5) Utah Jazz - they are your typical Jazz team: solid, fundamentally sound, still missing the one piece they need to take the next step. No surprise here if they advance past Denver though.

6) Portland Trailblazers - If Brandon Roy is out, the Blazers aren't a threat in the playoffs....right???

7) San Antonio Spurs - The real enigma of the West playoffs. Do they have one more run in them? Did they peak a little too early? I wouldn't want to face them.

8) OKC Thunder - An overall great story and a threat to contend in the future in the west. However, this team has made it clear they aren't mature enough to do anything in the playoffs as they struggle to close out games in which they take early leads. They'll have to learn this trait before they can be considered a serious threat.

What do you think? Give me your final takes and we'll wrap this thing up.

EM (4/13): The ratings look good to me. I'll add a quick tidbit to each squad then it should be all good to go.

1) LA: Is Kobe a little more injured and tired than everyone thinks? Or is he just waiting to unleash his venom for the playoffs?

2) DAL: Can J-Kidd and Dirk finally get a ring to add to their already impressive resume? Or will they both suffer from the Barkely-Malone syndrome that has haunted their careers?

3) SUNS: Is there a better PG-PF combination in the league than Nash and Amare right now? This is a very hot team that is clicking at the perfect time. Not a team I want to play.

4) Den: George Karl apparently will be available if the Nuggets advance to round two. Translation Nuggets: Karl is trying as hard as humanly possible to motivate you all! Win for your damn coach!

5) Jazz: Will the lack of a strong shooting guard (Matthews or Miles) prove to be their demise, especially if they advance and play Kobe in round two? Deron clearly has made a huge leap this year and looks as motivated as ever to make a serious run into June.

6) Blazers: Have to love the perseverance of this team. The Rose Garden won't give up on this team so why should we just because of another key injury? (Probably because it is their lone superstar...)

7) Spurs: Manu-Parker-Duncan. Still one of the best big-threes we have in the game. Can they all stay healthy though?

8) Thunder: Durant has the opportunity to pull off one of the biggest feats in all of basketball – not defeating a one-seed (although this would be epic), but beating the ultra-competitive and last year's Finals MVP Kobe Bryant in the playoffs.

----

That wraps up our regular season coverage of the NBA. Stay tuned later this week as Eddie returns and we bring you our 2010 playoff preview.

The Case for Lebron in New York

2010-04-01T22:50:00.013-05:00

by Matt Corder

A couple of weeks ago ESPN continued its documentary series 30 for 30, which aims to capture memorable issues, trends, athletes, teams, rivalries, games and events that transformed the sports landscape in the past thirty years. The most recent piece, titled “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks,” chronicled the highly entertaining Knicks/Pacers playoffs rivalry from 1993-1995. The documentary does an excellent job capturing a supremely unique NBA rivalry. But why was it so important? Although it sparked some of the best made-for-TV moments in recent NBA history (Reggie flashing the choke sign at Spike, Reggie scoring eight points in 9 seconds, etc), the basketball was actually all for naught. Neither of the teams ever went on to achieve the honor of being crowned NBA champion.

What the movie did achieve was time travel, inviting the viewer to journey back to an NBA where Michael Jordan had abruptly retired, leaving the door wide open for an alpha dog to emerge atop the NBA pecking order. This was a serious issue—basketball fans had just embarked on the most successful thirteen year run in NBA history, starting with Magic Johnson and Larrry Bird saving the NBA in 1980, culminating with the three-peat by the Bulls and the greatest superstar in sports history. Who would fill the gaping hole left by the swift departure of MJ?

The media was desperately searching for a replacement, and the allure of a contender in NYC was too much to pass up.

--

Whether you agree with it or not, winning titles in a big city means something more. I don’t take anything away from the San Antonio Spurs, but Tim Duncan’s four rings are not as memorable as Kobe Bryant’s. They just aren’t. Teams in small markets don’t have to deal with the exponential amount of pressure/history/beat reporters/criticisms/temptations that comes with playing in a city like LA or NYC. Overcoming all that is a special achievement, the rare chance for a team to transcend sports and enter popular culture. After the departure of MJ, surely someone would step up.

Right?

Wrong. Patrick Ewing was never an alpha dog and, as much as Reggie Miller did a good job trying to be one, neither was he. They were actors in the latest Spike Lee joint, the director doing his best to control the action from his chair. Alpha dogs don’t miss layups to win the series (Ewing) and they certainly don’t disappear from the action for vast stretches of time (Miller). Most of all though, alpha dogs win championships, something that Ewing and Milling both failed to do in their careers.

So why did this rivalry matter then? No titles, no alpha dogs, nothing. Why was this important? Why are we still captivated?

Why?

Be honest. What really made the Knicks/Pacers rivalry so captivating was that the show was taking place on the grandest stage in all of sports—Madison Square Garden. This mattered. If Patrick Ewing could have somehow found a way to lead any of those teams to a title, he would have joined rare company, forever etching his name on the pages of New York’s sports history. The media wanted it, the city wanted it, David Stern even wanted it and yet, it wasn’t meant to be.

If there is anything we can take from this story it's this: it mattered because it took place in New York City—exactly the reason Lebron James needs to sign there during free agency this summer.

--

Lebron James has a rare opportunity. He could become the first person to simultaneously be the greatest athlete in the world, while playing in the greatest city in the world.

Think about the implications of this scenario.

Sure you’ve had the biggest superstars (Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle) or the biggest personalities (Joe Namath, Reggie Jackson), but never the single greatest athlete on the planet donning the uniform of a New York team.

Let’s get something out of the way first: Lebron James is going to win titles wherever he goes. He is playing the game at a level far beyond anyone else in the NBA right now. He is unguardable, the strongest and fastest player in the game, capable of playing any of the five positions on the court at an all-star level. It would not only be memorable, it would transcend basketball…and transcending the sport itself is important.

You know how hippies always talk about Woodstock as being more important than music? How hipsters fantasize about Studio 54 during the eighties? LA fans about the show-time Lakers? Wrap all those eras into one and inject it with something from the steroids era in baseball, and that’s what you’d have with the Lebron era in New York City. A ticket to those games would instantly become the most coveted in all of sports. You think celebrities show up for games in LA? Wait till Lebron signs with the Knicks. You’d get celebrities who actually matter, celebrities who get to the game before tipoff and stay till end, celebrities who actually know and embrace the sport!

Think about this. A great documentary was made on a rivalry that ultimately didn't matter, simply because it involved a New York team. What would it do for basketball if he went there and won titles?

Playing sports in the big apple is different.

--

It's also different because of the fans. They demand the most of the players and have the highest expectations of any fan base in the world.

Recall for a minute the Lakers/Celtics series in 2008. Do you remember how the Garden loyalists absolutely shamed the “fans” from southern California? It wasn’t even close, so bad in fact that it became a tactical disadvantage for the Lakers as they never really had the extra lift needed to push past Boston. It got really depressing at one point during the series when it became apparent the Lakers fans just didn't know how to cheer. Oh sure, we’ll credit them with inventing the “MVP” chant every time Kobe touches the ball, but other than that they had nothing. It got so bad that they began to rip off Boston’s chant of “LA sucks” substituting Boston in place of their city. That is simply indefensible. It would be like the Yankees ripping off “Sweet Caroline” while the Red Sox were in town. Why were the Lakers fans so weak? It’s because in LA, basketball is trendy—a fashion that goes in and out of style with the seasons. In Boston? It’s life. Celtics fans understood how important a title was and they wanted it so badly they willed their team to the Promised Land.

Pretty cool huh?

It is common knowledge that Boston fans have nothing on New York fans.

--

No matter where Lebron James ends up, he is going to have success. He’ll start a dynasty wherever he goes. He is the rare talent, the likes of which come around once every twenty years. If he stays in Cleveland, he will do well for himself and there is something to be said for that. He’ll go down as the man who ended the championship drought in that city, the greatest ever athlete in Cleveland, and one of the ten best players in NBA history.

He’ll be remembered as Tim Duncan 2.0

If he chooses New York? He instantly becomes a cultural icon, the likes of which have never been seen. He’ll make a run at Michael as the best basketball player of all time, even perhaps laying a claim to the most dominant athlete of all time. He’ll approach all the areas that Tiger Woods should have, combining his all-universe basketball talents with one of the most charismatic personalities in pop culture.

He’ll be remembered as Lebron James: the best who ever played the game. Lebron James: NBA champion. Lebron James: New Yorker.

What is it the Jay-Z song says?

“In New York, concrete Jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York”

Bill Simmons and the Mainsteam Media

2010-03-09T21:26:00.006-06:00

by Matt Corder

(Note: This is one of the longest columns I’ve ever written. I wanted to give you a little road map of where we’re going here. I start off with a funny story about my buddy Eddie and I’s first-ever communication with Bill Simmons, I follow that up with an explanation of a feud that then erupted between some of America’s best sports writers, and I conclude it all by summarizing what we can take from everything that transpired. Please note any words that are underlined will link you to the original artical I cite. I welcome and beg for any and all comments. Proceed with caution…)

Let me preface the story with this nugget….Bill Simmons is the best sportswriter in America. If you’ve ever had a take on sports, if you like to claim that you’re a sports fan, hell, if you enjoy sports in any capacity, there is no discernible reason you shouldn’t be consuming everything Bill Simmons writes. He is the best at what he does—the Roger Federer/Albert Pujols/Sidney Crosby/Lebron James of his profession. Rick Reilly once held this title (he passed the torch a year or two before he bailed on SI) and to get old school, the legendary horned frog alumn Dan Jenkins once had his rightful claim to it. There is no doubt that Simmons now owns it.

Friday February 26^th started out like any other day. I began my morning by checking ESPN.com and reading up on the previous night’s NBA games. After inhaling the information at a rate which should be illegal, I scrolled down to my favorite part of the ESPN front page—the little box to the left of Rick Reilly’s columns, just below the top stories of the day. Permanently and perfectly etched onto the World Wide Leader’s web page, I’m of course talking about the section devoted to my favorite sportswriter, one Bill Simmons.

In recent years I’ve become arrogant about my sports knowledge and one of my all-time favorite activities is debating any and all sports. One of the ways I like to size up my opponents is by immediately asking whether they read the Sports Guy (Simmons’ nickname). Any response/explanation that falls short of praising Simmons as a god instantly results in me disqualifying the other party based on lack of credentials.

I’m eventually going to defend this opinion, bear with me.

Let’s get back to the story though. I soon learned that, much to my delight, Simmons was scheduled to host a live chat that day, perfectly timed to transpire over my lunch break. There would be no Whataburgers consumed on this day. I quickly texted my buddy Eddie (also at work, also obsessed with Simmons) and we vowed to get our questions answered by our mutual hero. The chat starts, we each began barraging him with questions. Basically what happens during the course of one of these is he sits at his computer fielding questions from readers all over America, selects his personal favorites, posts them in the chat (which are viewed nationally), and then fires back a response. You can view it all here.

At 12:54 p.m. EST, all my dreams came true. Simmons took my question. I was all alone in my section of the office and I had a moment. I screamed a little, I fist pumped, it is even debatable if I did a touchdown celebration that would make Ocho Cinco blush (think of the legendary taunt of WWE group D-Generation X seen here at the :30 second mark). I quickly called Eddie and my dad to gloat. I was in my own little sports heaven.

Now, Eddie would later admit that if I had been the only one to get my question answered, he would have been crushed. Defying the odds, Eddie persisted with an onslaught of questions and, at 1:14 p.m. EST, he struck gold. Both of us, disciples of the almighty Bill Simmons, had managed to get our questions of faith answered during the course of the chat. We had tried for years to get him to notice us in mailbags and chats, at times spending hours crafting cleverly-worded questions in the hope that he would indulge us with a response, but to no avail. With this chat, we were now members of an elite club, finally gaining active status among the legions of Simmons fans that no doubt had spent the same amount of time as us, if not more. Skull and Bones Society? I scoff at them.

Simmons would later admit that he took over 42,000 questions in less than three hours. That’s 233 questions per minute, about four per second. You bet I know the statistics on this.

This was better than sex.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but Eddie’s question ended up having a significant impact that extended well beyond the chat. It started a huge controversy, one that would eventually grow to include well-respected Boston sportswriter Charlie Pierce, nationally syndicated columnist Jason Whitlock, the ever-controversial Keith Olbermann, and of course Bill Simmons. It was after this disagreement ended yesterday that I reaffirmed my opinion of Simmons as the crème de la crème of sports writing in the U.S.

What was Eddie’s question you ask? It must have been complex, a well thought out inquiry that had been years in the making.

Not quite.

Eddie asked him, in the exact words, “Is Tiger ever going to be the same golfer?”

You laugh, I think he should win the Pulitzer.

Say what you want but the great sports feud of 2010 stemmed from Eddie’s question. You see, Simmons would eventually go on to explain in the chat that he felt Tiger’s attempt to return to golf would be far more difficult and compelling than Ali's coming back from a ban from boxing. This was big.

Here’s the cliffnotes version of what happened next.

Pierce started the conflict by writing this piece in his blog. He blasted Simmons for being too young to have experienced the Ali drama and eventually questioned whether the Sports Guy has actually read anything that took place after the production of the movie Karate Kid. Later on, a sports blog dug up an old Jason Whitlock piece that revealed Pierce has had a personal vendetta against Simmons since the early 2000s because Bill refused to be mentored by him earlier this decade. The Sports Guy responded with this piece. He explained that yes, he did exaggerate, but largely sticks by his point that Tiger’s comeback will be more difficult given the way that news in our country is now driven (think TMZ). Pierce again seized the moment and blasted his points a second time in this article, although he appeared far more objective on the second try.

The fight should have ended there but, as fortune would have it, Keith Olberman decided he needed to weigh in as well. Rather than take the mostly objective approach of Pierce, Olberman showed no lack of restraint in this little piece (last paragraph). His unprovoked jabs at Simmons’ talent as a writer came from nowhere. It led to more drama. Simmons took the bait and responded with a couple of tweets that showed no signs of remorse. Olberman then responded with the final blow in the fight with this intense rebuttal. It got personal, it was ugly, it was awesome.

Simmons eventually refused to respond to Olberman’s latest post in a tweet last night, seemingly taking the high road and stating that fighting was not the reason he got into sports writing. Thus, the great sports feud of 2010 ended.

If you’re still reading I think it’s time to make some sense of what just happened.

Even as an admitted fan of Bill Simmons, the first question that popped into my mind was what would provoke Charlie Pierce or Keith Olberman to go after the Sports Guy? There are really only two options if you think about it: the first, that Simmons thesis was so egregious that they felt compelled to write rebuttals in order to show just how outrageous his claim was (an objective approach); the second, that they feel some combination of jealousy/bias/hate towards Simmons’ success and couldn’t resist any kind of an opportunity to go after him (a subjective approach).

Let’s break down option number one. If you want my own personal opinion, I think Simmons may have taken it a little too far. The only way Tiger’s comeback has any relation to Ali’s is only in the fact that they are both comebacks. The circumstances surrounding both situations are wildly different and thus, aren’t worthy of comparison. Pierce does the best job in pointing this fact out during the course of his second piece by stating just how dissimilar the two scenarios are. I don’t pretend that Simmons’ doesn’t have an ego and it is my suspicion that this is ultimately what drove him to defend his original take in the chat. Can you blame him though? All a writer has in the world are his ideas. If Simmons honestly believes that his idea is right, no matter how absurd they might seem, it is his duty to defend that idea. And although I eventually disagree with him, there’s no doubt he did an excellent job summarizing his thought process after doing extensive research on the topic.

If both of Simmons’ critics had come out solely claiming option one as their impetus for responding, I would have no problem with their respective articles.

The simple fact is that both writers chose option two and allowed their writing to sink to a personal level. Although it’s true that both Pierce and Olberman’s responses evolved from an objective level (option one), at some point both writers made the choice of going subjective (option two). Pierce implies that Simmons doesn’t read sports history and also directs language at Simmons that suggests that Bill is still a kid who doesn’t know the ropes yet. Olberman takes Pierce’s personal attack, juices it up with HGH, throws in some protein shakes, and eventually gets it on an anabolic steroids cycle. To sum it up, Olberman states that Simmons has, ”no discernible insight or talent,” goes on to wonder about Simmons’ future at ESPN, and even alleges that Simmons posted sophomoric responses in the comment section of his blog.

Please call me out on this if I’m wrong BUT am I the only person who senses some sort of bitterness/envy at Simmons’ mainstream success? It’s true, Bill Simmons doesn’t adhere to the standard rules of sports writing. His columns often extend thousands of words, cite multiple pop culture references, and utilize dirty jokes. Get past it guys! This is what the people want now. We are no longer content with Rick Reilly’s 800 word articles filled with lame one-liners. We want more. The modern day sports fan is always in pursuit of more sports knowledge and the internet has finally allowed us access into a world we were prohibited from entering (unless of course you wanted to break your back for twenty years as a beat reporter before MAYBE being given the chance to write a column).

What’s inherently obvious here is that these old school guys are frustrated with the fact that Simmons bypassed the old system. He was the first sports writer to recognize the potential of the internet and he seized that opportunity to perfect his craft. Furthermore, he helped sports writing evolve in a way that could entertain the reader beyond any levels previously achieved. Does anyone else find it ironic and hilarious that both writers used the internet as the vehicle in which they went after Simmons? Furthermore, to say that the man has no talent is naïve and, well, stupid. Simmons is no slouch, he achieved a Masters in Journalism from Boston University. He worked at the Boston Herald for a short time before realizing that the system was not set up to reward talent, it was set up to reward slavery...errr...“loyalty.”

All I know is that Simmons has a New York Times bestselling book, his fans wait up to four hours just for the opportunity to meet him for five seconds, and guys like Eddie and myself log on for the chance to chat with him while we’re at work. If that’s not a sign of a great writer, I don’t know what is. It’s time we admit what has become so obvious to me. At this moment, Bill Simmons is the best sports writer in America.

The Tiger Column

2010-02-23T19:58:00.012-06:00

by Matt Corder

Everyone has a take on Tiger. Here's mine:

I'm going to follow the text of the speech exactly as he spoke it (with the words I believe were written on the paper) and give a quick take on each section. I encourage you to click on the links throughout the text (the underlined sections) as they were purposely placed there to add comedy and/or effect to the column. You can follow along with the video here.

Tiger - Good morning, and thank you for joining me. Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me or you've worked with me or you've supported me.

Me - Tiger has friends? The only friends I've ever heard that he has are Charles Barkley, Mark O'Meara, and MJ. He refuses to call the first two back. The third, probably the only athlete ever who could relate to him, isn't exactly a class act.

Tiger - Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly [DON'T READ THIS SECTION TIGER!!!! THIS IS YOUR AGENT SPEAKING: PAUSE HERE AND LOOK DOWN TO ADD EFFECT!] I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in [SHAKE HEAD IN DISGUST!!!]

Me - Remember when you were a kid and you weren't allowed to get out of time out until you apologized to your mom or your sister so you forced out an "I'm sorry" while crossing your fingers on both hands and looking down at the ground? Kinda the same thing...

Tiger - I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children. And while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say.

Me - Commence the nose growing.

Tiger - Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior. As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time...

Me - ...And the other island I have agreed to purchase for her.

Tiger - We have a lot to discuss; however, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us. I am also aware of the pain my behavior has caused to those of you in this room. I have let you down, and I have let down my fans [USE THAT FAMOUS TIGER STARE AND GLARE INTO THE CAMERA]. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior has been a personal disappointment.

Me - Does anyone really think Sir Charles gives a crap?

Tiger - To those of you who work for me, I have let you down personally and professionally. My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners.

Me - Translation: I enjoy making boatloads of money. I resent that some of my sponsors chose to drop me, thus why I have called this news conference during Accenture's tournament. I will never forgive. I will never forget. That includes all you players who have called me out in the past months (are you listening Jesper?). We have a code on the tour and all of you who spoke out against me broke the code. There will be retribution.

Tiger - To everyone involved in my foundation, including my staff, board of directors, sponsors, and most importantly, the young students we reach, our work is more important than ever. Thirteen years ago, my dad and I envisioned helping young people achieve their dreams through education. This work remains unchanged and will continue to grow. From the Learning Center students in Southern California to the Earl Woods scholars in Washington, D.C., millions of kids have changed their lives, and I am dedicated to making sure that continues.

Me - This part was sad in my mind because I felt like it was the only time he looked confident as well as the only time he spoke from the heart. Earl Woods and the game of golf are the only two things that bring out emotion in Tiger Woods. That is a fact.

Tiger - But still, I know I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I am embarrassed that I have put you in this position.

Me - No pun intended.

Tiger - [JUST LIKE WE'VE BEEN PRACTICING THE LAST 45 DAYS DURING YOUR "REHAB"] For all that I have done [PAUSE, SWALLOW FOR EFFECT, AND STARE INTO CAMERA] I am so sorry.

Me - That's not the eye of the Tiger.

Tiger - I have a lot to atone for, but there is one issue I really want to discuss. Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal.

Me - The fact that IMG is writing in the text of the speech what body language Tiger should use is becoming very, very apparent. Also, if this section of the speech turns out to be false, Tiger will never be trusted again. Tiger has made it clear to the journalistic community that he still doesn't give a crap about them. If he lied to their face here, you can be sure they're going to send the dogs on him again in a way that will make this affair mess seem like it was rated PG.

Tiger - Elin deserves praise, not blame. [PAUSE] The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother [LOOK AT YOUR MOTHER, WE WILL CUT THE CAMERA TO HER REACTION] my wife's family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.

Me - Here's another way Tiger's handlers messed up. They never should have told him to get married. You can't convince me differently that they aren't responsible for every action in his life. That marriage was as much a fabrication by IMG as the press conference was. Tiger isn't a normal human being. He's reaching Michael Jackson status in how far removed he is from your average Joe. Celebrities actually do live by different rules and they neglected to educate him on this fact. They should have let him stay single, run wild, and let his exploits become the stuff of legend - the stories that sportswriters gloat about behind the scenes. See: Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, any single athlete not named Tiger Woods.

Tiger - I've had a lot of time to think about what I've done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before [THIS IS THE HARDEST PART, BUT DO THE FAKE CRY JUST LIKE WE PRACTICED] It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made. It's up to me to start living a life of integrity.

Me - Translation: IMG has had a lot of time to plan this press conference. Do you believe a word I'm saying? I don't.

Tiger - I once heard, and I believe it's true, it's not what you achieve in life that matters; it's what you overcome

Me - What? Is this some famous saying I'm missing out on? Did George Washington yell this to the troops when they were crossing the Delaware?

Tiger - Achievements on the golf course are only part of setting an example. Character and decency are what really count.

Me - For those keeping track at home, Tiger's nose has now reached seven inches in length.

Tiger - Parents used to point to me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families a special apology. I want to say to them that I am truly sorry [PAUSE AND STARE AGAIN! THAT'S IT YOU'RE GETTING THE HANG OF IT NOT! THEY'LL EAT THIS PART UP FOR SURE]

Me - Although I'm not sure he meant it, I was actually glad he said this part.

Tiger - It's hard to admit that I need help, but I do. For 45 days from the end of December to early February, I was in inpatient therapy...

Me - Translation: For the past couple months I was at IMG Headquarters...

Tiger - ...receiving guidance...

Me - ...being trained by a speech coach...

Tiger - ...for the issues I'm facing.

Me - ...for this press conference.

Tiger - I have a long way to go. But I've taken my first steps in the right direction. As I proceed, I understand people have questions. I understand the press wants to ask me for the details and the times I was unfaithful. I understand people want to know whether Elin and I will remain together. Please know that as far as I'm concerned, every one of these questions and answers is a matter between Elin and me. These are issues between a husband and a wife.

Me - Agree with Tiger here but it's his fault he put Elin in this position. Unfortunately, we live in a society of double standards. He has put her in the worst possible position a woman with kids can be in. If she divorces Tiger, she'll inevitably be called a gold digger and a bad wife for not sticking by her husband. If she stays with Tiger, she'll inevitably be called anti-feminist and a soft wife who is unwilling to stand up for herself. A lose-lose scenario. Shame on you Tiger.

Tiger - Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance-enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false.

Me - This is the strangest part of the whole apology. Why even bring this up? Come to think of it, Tiger did used to be a scrawny nerd from Stanford and then all of a sudden he was a physical specimen. Remind you of another Pac-10 alumn?

Tiger - Some have written things about my family. Despite the damage I have done, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. They did not do these things [OH YEAH USE THOSE HAND GESTURES WE TALKED ABOUT, WE WERE SAND-BAGGING THE WHOLE TIME, THEY NEVER EXPECTED THAT!] I did. I have always tried to maintain a private space for my wife and children. They have been kept separate from my sponsors, my commercial endorsements [THIS IS WHERE WE CUT THE CAMERA FEED TO CHANGE OUT YOUR BATTERIES] When my children were born, we only released photographs so that the paparazzi could not chase them. However, my behavior doesn't make it right for the media to follow my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to school and report the school's location. They staked out my wife and they pursued my mom. Whatever my wrongdoings, for the sake of my family, please leave my wife and kids alone.

Me - As Bill Simmons already has already pointed out, I agree with Tiger here. Leave them kids alone!

Tiger - I recognize I have brought this on myself, and I know above all I am the one who needs to change. I owe it to my family to become a better person. I owe it to those closest to me to become a better man. That's where my focus will be.

Me - Nose length is approaching the one foot line.

Tiger - I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught. As I move forward, I will continue to receive help because I've learned that's how people really do change.

Me - News leaked this week that the Dalai Lama doesn't even know who Tiger Woods is. If he was really a Buddhist, don't you think they could have arranged a photo-op at some point to promote the religion/help a cause/raise money/anything? If you believe Tiger at this point, I'm sure you're also one of those who believe Sammy Sosa was all-natural.

Tiger - Starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment and more therapy...

Me - Translation: Starting tomorrow, I will leave for my home golf course for swing instruction from Hank Haney...

Tiger - ...I would like to thank my friends at Accenture...

Me - ...I would like to extend the middle finger to Accenture...

Tiger - ...and the players in the field this week for understanding why I'm making these remarks today.

Me - ...and all the players who have come out against me in the media, particularly Ernie Els, who I will personally destroy in next year's match play, after which he will promptly be assassinated by a hit man, for understanding why I'm making these remarks today.

Tiger - In therapy I've learned the importance of looking at my spiritual life and keeping in balance with my professional life. I need to regain my balance and be centered so I can save the things that are most important to me, my marriage and my children. That also means relying on others for help. I've learned to seek support from my peers in therapy, and I hope someday to return that support to others who are seeking help. I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game. In recent weeks I have received many thousands of emails, letters and phone calls from people expressing good wishes. To everyone who has reached out to me and my family, thank you. Your encouragement means the world to Elin and me. I want to thank the PGA Tour, Commissioner Finchem, and the players for their patience and understanding while I work on my private life. I look forward to seeing my fellow players on the course. Finally, there are many people in this room, and there are many people at home who believed in me. Today I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. Thank you.

My Final Take - I know this is getting long so let me wrap this up by saying this. I realized after the press conference I didn't need to hear Tiger say he was sorry. All I really care about is that I want him to play golf again. I am one of the tens of people (yes that is written correctly) who tune in to watch golf every weekend and there is something missing. I never rooted for the guy, but I miss rooting against him. He represents everything that is athletic greatness/dominance/clutchness. We are being deprived of an opportunity to watch this man exhibit his greats talents and that might be the real tragedy of this ordeal.

NBA Mid-Season Breakdown

2010-02-09T22:15:00.016-06:00

by Matt Corder

It's nearly the All-Star break which means it's time to give a mid-season breakdown of everything that's going on in the NBA. There's a lot to talk about here so let me rundown how I'm going to divide it up. The trade deadline is about a week away so let's start with the five players I'd most like to see move before then (and the five I want to stay!). Next I'll tell you how they'll finish, starting with the East and finishing with the West. I'll be sure to give a quick take on all the teams as well. Lastly, I'll do my best to predict the finals, of course realizing that I'm going to eat my own words from my predictions earlier this year.

And here.....we......go

The Five Players I Want To See Traded

5. One of the big three players in Washington (Jamison, Butler, Arenas) - The Wizards hung on for like 4-5 years convinced that this group could take them to the promised land. Unfortunately we'll never know if it could have worked out. Their tenure was plagued by injuries and suspension and it's time for management to realize this trifecta was never going to take them anywhere in the first place. Gilbert Arenas made sure of that. Of the three, Antawn Jamison is the most intriguing because of his ability to stretch the floor. In my opinion though, Caron Butler is the most likely to be moved (along with center Brendan Haywood). Possible Destinations: (Butler) Dallas, Houston; (Jamison) Cleveland; (Arenas) China, Unemployment Line.

4. Andre Iguodala, SF Philadelphia 76ers - Iggy never really lived up to the hype of the second coming of A.I. in Philadelphia (how could he?). Any trade suitor needs to know what they're getting when they take on this disaster of a contract. Iguodala is never going to assert himself as the dominant player on a team. He's too inconsistent. Watch out though if he's willing to play second fiddle for one of the contenders. There are few players in the NBA who possess his raw athletic talent and he'd likely flourish in a fast break offense. Possible Destinations: Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland.

3. Marcus Camby, C Los Angeles Clippers - Camby is exactly the kind of piece a contending team would like to add before a push into the playoffs. He brings a mix of rebounding and defense that few, if any, of the other players out there can deliver. The Clippers would love to move him in order to clear payroll. This would allow LA to go after one of the big free agents this summer and they remain Bill Simmons' favorite choice to land Lebron James. Possible Destinations: Denver, New York

2. Ray Allen, SG Boston Celtics - I want to see Allen moved only to see Boston crash and burn. They don't realize how valuable he is to what they do. Has everyone forgotten that it was Allen, not Paul Pierce or KG, who carried the team in the playoffs last year? Does anybody else realize that most teams would kill for a reliable three point shooter who can shoot quickly off a screen? Is anyone else excited about the possibility of Boston making this big of a mistake?? Possible Destinations: Chicago, Sacramento, Philadelphia

1. Amar'e Stoudamire, PF/C Phoenix Suns - This is the player who could potentially have the biggest impact. The guy is a huge headcase though which makes him a huge liability. Although his contract could expire this season, he also has a player option for 17+ million next year that he might excercise in light of a potential league lockout. Unfortunately this might be a major reason he doesn't get moved. I still can't believe Cleveland refused to pull the trigger on acquiring this guy last year when they easily could have made it work. Possible Destinations: Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit

The Five Players I Don't Want To See Traded

5. Ben Gordon, SG Detroit Pistons - God forbid any of the other teams in the NBA have to deal with this guy. It wasn't a coincidence that Chicago made no effort whatsoever to re-sign him even after their great playoff series with Boston. No one has any doubts about his ability to score. That attitude though? It's got to go. Possible Destinations: Philadelphia

4. Glen "Big Baby" Davis, PF Boston Celtics- Another head case. I love how he brings unwanted attention to the Celtics' locker room. In my crazy basketball-obsessed brain I like to pretend this is a huge disadvantage for Boston that is secretly working to sabotage their season. This is a good thing. Possible Destinations: Charlotte

3. Kirk Hinrich, PG/SG Chicago Bulls - Hinrich is exactly what the Lakers need given the decline of Derek Fisher and the inability of Shannon Brown/Jordan Farmar to distinguish themselves. If the Lakers (or Celtics) were able to get a hold of him it could be a huge disadvantage for the competition. Possible Destinations: LA Lakers, Boston, Sacramento

2. Kevin Martin, SG Sacramento Kings - Martin is another player who could have a huge impact on a playoff-bound team. It's no secret that he isn't fitting in well with Tyreke Evans and the Kings wouldn't dream of trading the soon-to-be Rookie of the Year. Everyone also realizes that the Kings are always looking to cut payroll and what better way to do it than by moving your biggest contract? I don't want to see this happen because it would make Dallas extremely dangerous and I am currently enjoying every second of their collapse before the break. Possible Destinations: Dallas, Boston, Chicago

1. Chris Bosh, PF Toronto Raptors - First off, the Raptors are the potential dark horse team of this year's playoffs (think Chicago last year). Second off, the threat of a Western team landing his services for this year's playoff run scares the crap out of me. Next, it's no secret that Bosh is from Texas and would love to come back to his home state. Finally, if one of said West teams was able to land Bosh in a trade, they might just be able to convince him to stay long-term during this upcoming free agency period. I can't deal with the idea of Chris Bosh spending the prime of his career in my conference. Keep him Toronto! Possible Destinations: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio

Please Note: none of the players listed are the most likely to be traded. I want to be clear that these are the players that I want/don't want to see traded.

How They'll Finish

Eastern Conference

15. New Jersey Nets - Can they finish with the worst record of all time? Devin Harris is either more hurt than he is leading on OR lost his explosiveness in his latest injury. Does anyone else like the sound of John Wall teaming up with Lebron next year?

14. Washington Wizards - Can they please pull the trigger on a trade--even if it is just Brendan Haywood? I can't wait to see how the Gilbert Arenas situation finally pans out.

13. New York Knicks - What better way to lure Lebron than with one of the worst seasons in franchise history? Am I right, am I right?

12. Philadelphia 76ers - Is it just me or are the basketball gods properly repaying Philly for their shady signing of Elton Brand? I wish I could feel bad for Allen Iverson, but the fact remains that he'd rather lose on his terms than come off the bench for a contender.

11. Detroit Pistons - It's time to get rid of Joe Dumars.

10. Milwaukee Bucks - How quickly did that Brandon Jennings hype die down? Poor Michael Redd.

9. Indiana Pacers - This is the team in the NBA that I know the least about. Danny Granger is having an awful season shooting, but I expect him to rebound in the second half.

8. Chicago Bulls - Derek Rose apparently spent his offseason practicing his moves on video games rather than the gym. He needs to rededicate himself. This team is intriguing because they can potentially land a big name free agent next year if they make the right moves. This year though? Nothing to see..

7. Miami Heat - Dwayne Wade is good enough to carry this team into into the playoffs which they will be promptly swept right out of.

6. Charlotte Bobcats - Remember earlier this year when I was pleading for the Nuggets to trade for Stephen Jackson? Witness his impact on a team by checking in to see the Charlotte Bobcats make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. They will be a big obstacle for one of the big four teams in a first round matchup because of the defensive prowess of Jackson and All-Star forward Gerald Wallace.

5. Toronto Raptors - Meet this year's Chicago Bulls. This team has one of the top seven players in the NBA in Bosh and they are sneaking their way to a very respectable record.

4. Boston Celtics - Something has to change here. KG was fortunate to win a title before his body gave out, but it's evident that he is no longer the same caliber of player. If you can believe it, Rajon Rondo is now the best player on this team...and it's not even close.

3. Atlanta Hawks - They've played their way into the conversation of the East's elite teams. Unfortunately for Hotlanta, a second round playoff matchup is looming with the Magic, a team they cannot matchup with.

2. Orlando Magic - Charles Barkley said it best last night on TNT: the great thing about the Magic is that Dwight Howard doesn't have to be the best player on the floor for them to win. This distinguishes his club from the Cavs. Speaking of Dwight, has anyone else noticed that the most charismatic big man in the NBA has added two new moves to his arsenal? It was a dirty secret that up until this season he really only had one move, a Tim Duncan-like move where he lowers his left shoulder while going to his right and finishing with a right-handed hook shot . He has (fairly successfully) added two more moves though, a left handed hook shot coming off a shoulder fake to the right and a mid-range a bank shot. If he continues to develop new weapons, he is going to finally evolve into the best center since Shaq.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers - Lebron.

Western Conference

15. Minnesota Timberwolves - I'd like to see Kevin Love assert himself as the dominant player for the T-Wolves.

14. Golden State Warriors - Monta Ellis is a pleasure to watch, but I just watched him go down hard against the Mavericks. It would be a disappointment if he was unable to finish out the season in full. Is Steph Curry the second best rookie this year?

13. Sacramento Kings - Will they try to make this Tyreke Evans/Kevin Martin duo work? In case you hadn't heard, Evans will also be named the Rookie of the Year this season.

12. LA Clippers - Dear God, please let Blake Griffin be healthy again. Thanks, Matt.

11. New Orleans Hornets - This is another team that has some big decisions to make. With Chris Paul possibly out for the season, will they finally try to start fresh? Check out CP3's replacement, Darren Collison (had a 16/14 performance last week).

10. Portland Trail Blazers - Injuries, injuries, injuries. Brandon Roy could carry this team into the playoffs, much like D-Wade, I just don't think they can sustain this rally. Juwan Howard at Center? Really?

9. Memphis Grizzlies - The trade for Marc Gasol (swapping him for his brother Pau) is all of a sudden looking genius. Throw in OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay with Zach Randolph and you have yourself a pretty strong team, just not quite strong enough to make it out West. This team would be the five seed out East.

8. Oklahoma City Thunder - Kevin Durant is coasting to the scoring title + Russel Westbrook is a future All-Star + the Thunder are in my team's division = FML.

7. Houston Rockets - H Town will use their experience to squeeze into the playoffs. They are proving that they can win close games and I'd be willing to wager they have the most wins in OT this year of any team in the NBA. I'm putting them here so they matchup with my Nuggets in round one and I can catch the games with my buddies.

6. San Antonio Spurs - The Spurs are a first round sweep waiting to happen. If you want to know why this team doesn't resemble any of the championship squads of the past, here's why. The Spurs were a team that never chased bad contracts, or big name players. Instead they built a core of players that were born and bred into the principles of Coach Popovich and the result was a number of titles. It is now clear to this sports fan that the move for Richard Jefferson marked the end of an era for the Spurs. It was the first time they ever chose to gamble on a roster move and the result is a team with no identity, poor team defense, and a frustrated trio of former champions. If you've tracked Pop's soundbites after games this year, you can tell that he's extremely frustrated and is struggling to connect with his team.

5. Phoenix Suns - Gotta love the fast break offense. Gotta love that it's never going to take them anywhere.

4. Dallas Mavericks - This placement is based on the assumption that the Mavs will not make a major roster move before the trade deadline. It gets complicated, but they'd be stupid to do so because they're not going to win a title this year and they could possibly maneuver their way into one of the marquee free agents this summer. We'll see what happens. They are a potential two seed if they make a move though.

3. Utah Jazz - The hottest team in the NBA outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

2. Denver Nuggets - They just took down the Lakers and the Cavs...without Carmelo Anthony in the lineup. I believe the Nuggets can beat the Lakers. I really do. No one else agrees with me, but google what their record is against .500 teams or better.

1. LA Lakers - Kobe.

Playoff Predictions

East

1st Round: CLE def. CHI, ORL def. MIA, ATL def. CHA, BOS def. TOR
2nd Round: CLE def. BOS, ORL def. ATL
Conference Finals: CLE def ORL

West

1st Round: LAL def. OKC, DEN def. HOU, UTAH def. SA, DAL def. PHO
2nd Round: LAL def. DAL, DEN def. UTAH
Conference Finals: DEN def. LAL

FINALS: CLE def. DEN

Award Predictions

MVP: Lebron James
ROTY: Tyreke Evans
6th Man: Jamal Crawford
DEF: Gerald Wallace

New Era of Stadiums

2010-02-04T00:01:00.017-06:00

by Matt Corder

An average summer day in the city of Houston, Texas reaches about 93 degrees Fahrenheit. This stat neglects that the city is home to one of the most humid climates in the world which works to accentuate the temperature to a startling heat index (the temperature that your body experiences). Throw in the fact that Houston gets little wind during the summer months and you're dealing with one of the most extreme climates in the Western Hemisphere. So extreme, in fact, that Houston has earned a reputation for being the most air-conditioned city in the world.

Not exactly a desirable environment for a professional sports franchise.

It was with this predicament in mind that legendary Houston Mayor Roy Hofheinz conceived the idea for the Houston Astrodome. Dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the Astrodome was the first enclosed stadium for a major league "field sport." Along with the distinction of being the first major indoor stadium, the Astrodome also became famous for its scoreboard, the "Astrolite," that occupied more than 470 feet of space. At the time, this was a truly innovative idea and the stadium became a symbol of the success of the city as well as becoming a major landmark for our country. The Astros and Oilers eventually came to call it home. It was by far the most famous stadium in the US and a big testament to everything that men could achieve, perfectly coinciding with the space program and Houston's role in that era.

Unfortunately for the stadium, the Astros eventually left for a more modern facility, the Oilers skipped town, and the Texans now call Reliant Stadium their home. Anyone who's been inside the Astrodome could tell you that by today's standards the stadium is pretty basic. The only reason it's still standing is the fact that it's a historical landmark to the city.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Fiesta Bowl at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. When the stadium was first introduced in 2006, it was tabbed as the best stadium in the Western Hemisphere and ushered in a new era of stadium construction in America--the first of the so-called "mega stadiums." It boasts a retractable playing surface that allows the stadium to have real grass turf despite a closed roof. When you throw in the unique look of the exterior, you come out with one of the great stadiums in the United States, or so it would seem.

Now, I know I might not come off as the most objective observer, given the devastating manner in which my team lost, but I have to say I was not impressed with the facility. And yes, I'll explain why. First off I paid $135 to sit in a section allotted to the TCU students. Throw in a $400 plane ticket and I'm already down half a G just to get to the game (not including hotel, food, etc). I'm fairly certain the seating was temporary (in an attempt to exploit any dollar possible out of the event) and I of course was seated in the very top row of the grandstand, tucked away in one of the end zones. Now, the last time I received a physical I clocked out at 20/10 vision meaning from twenty feet I see what the average person sees at ten (translation: my vision rules). From where I was sitting I can't say that I failed to see the game, so much as I couldn't enjoy it. It was just too far away. The only reason I could tell which TCU players were involved in the action was because of my knowledge of the team, not what I was viewing in front of me. What really drove this point home was that the only TV in sight was strategically (stupidly?) placed in the part of the stadium that was geometrically farthest from me.

I was absolutely perplexed that the people who figured out the physics behind making a 120 yard football field move inside and outside could so thoroughly screw up the viewing experience of the fan. Now you're saying that things couldn't possibly get worse right? Well they did, and not because TCU lost. When you're attending a sporting event in person, one of the reasonable expectations any fan has is the ability to hear the stadium announcer narrate all the action on the field. At University of Phoenix stadium, you can forget about that. I could not hear the man from where I was seated. I realize that this may not have been the case for every fan who attended the game that day, but in my mind I can't come up with a single logical reason how a stadium of this hype and fanfare could have such an obvious defect. It's like a student earning a 4.0 from Harvard law and showing up to a job interview with spelling errors on his resume.

One of the problems (and blessings) behind innovative ideas and concepts is that there are inevitably copycats who come along and perfect (or steal) the original idea. Just ask the guys who started Apple. The Astrodome can always claim that it was the first indoor stadium, but the best? Hardly. For starters, the stadium eventually gave rise to the birth of AstroTurf, which any athlete can tell you was one of the worst ideas for the health and safety of players in the history of sports. The stadium also failed to consider the potential for growth and popularity of the sports being played there. The famous "Astrolite" scoreboard had to be torn down to persuade Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams from moving the team to Jacksonville. This move created 15,000 additional seats so that he could bring the stadium capacity up to contemporary standards for the NFL at that time (side note: Adams eventually moved the team to Tennessee anyhow). This is all insignificant though.

What is important here is that all of the great stadiums of the past couple of years can trace their roots to the era ushered in by the construction of the Astrodome. This modern era is characterized by a never-ending quest to be bigger, better, and more technologically savvy than any of the stadiums that have come before it. Today the Astrodome doesn't hold a candle to the University of Phoenix Stadiums of the world, but at one time it was the toast of modern architecture. Isn't it ironic that the one-time greatest stadium on planet earth is no longer up to today's standards?

Is it possible the same fate awaits the new Cowboys stadium?

The short answer to that last question is yes, just not for the reasons you think.

The new Cowboys Stadium was completed in May 2009 and to date is the most expensive stadium ever built, coming in at a price tag in the $1.15 billion range. In the tradition of the "mega stadium" era, Jerry Jones outdid everything that ever came before it. On top of its massive size, Jerry World is also famous for its field level luxury boxes, gigantic concourses, and of course the greatest TV ever created. Spanning the distance between the 20 yard lines on the field, the Mitsubishi HD TV is truly a gift from God and could stake its own claim to the "Eighth Wonder of the World" title held by the Astrodome.

I have now been inside the stadium two times, once for an open house, once for the Big XII Championship game. I could easily go on and on about how glorious the stadium is, but I think I can sum it up better in one story. I was seated no more than five rows off the field for that matchup between Nebraska and Texas, around the twenty-five yard line. The seats were freaking incredible. When Texas was making the now infamous drive to win the game, do you think I was watching the live action on the field or that huge TV? If you guessed the latter you are absolutely correct and it's a confirmation of the overwhelming nature of the screen. This was probably the most important sporting event (given the location, the importance of the game, and the controversial result) that I have ever attended in person, and I was freaking watching the game on the big screen, despite my proximity to the action.

If you'll recall that one of my gripes about University of Phoenix Stadium was the price of admission. Times that by a million and you come to the new Cowboys Stadium. It's no secret that Jerry Jones has alienated a number of former season ticket holders in the process of creating the venue. Most fans had to pay a retainer fee in the tens of thousands of dollars range before they could even purchase the tickets ($60 for the cheapest seat in the house). Throw in astronomical parking ($30 - $100), concessions ($10 a beer) and you're most likely talking about the single most expensive live sporting experience ever created (estimate for a family of four: $400 or so per game).

Now to get back to my original point in this section. Does the same fate of the Astrodome await the new Cowboys Stadium?

You bet your ass it does.

The new stadium that will eventually replace Jerry World is complete with everything a fan could ever need. A great HD TV, surround sound, plenty of food and beverages, and comfortable seating. How many people is this post-modern stadium going to seat you ask?

No more than ten people.

You see if there's one thing that has become overwhelmingly clear to me in this era of "mega stadiums," it's that I would much rather watch a sporting event from home. The first advantage of this revelation is that you obviously save vast sums of money. Secondly, you're free to enjoy the peace and quiet of your own home, and HD television has made all things possible. Furthermore when you watch a game in your living room, you're going to get great analysis, every camera angle, and the reliability of good audio and video. You're also never going to have to deal with obnoxious drunk people, large crowds, and traffic. You see what Jerry Jones may have unknowingly foreshadowed with his huge TV is that the post-modern sports fan has no need to attend a sporting event. And why would they? He or she can have a much more enjoyable experience at home, for a fraction of the price, without any of the hassle.

Sure, you'll never be able to claim that you were actually there when Santonio Holmes made the catch to win the Super Bowl, but hell, who cares? You're going to know that he caught it first because of the seven different angles you just watched it from in HD on your couch.

My Quick Takes/Weekly Wish List

2010-01-27T21:44:00.015-06:00

by Matt Corder

It's been a long time since I last wrote. No big deal. Here comes the noise. My thoughts on the last week or so in sports (and Jersey Shore!)...

-I reside in the DFW area so I'd be remiss if I didn't lead off with America's team. And how 'bout them Cowboys? Jerry Jones was finally able to get the playoff win that has eluded him for more than a decade. I never would have thought that he'd lose his mind in the process. By now I'm sure you've heard about the extension given to Wade Phillips through the 2011 season. While the length of the contract isn't going to turn any heads, there was something else that became evident to this sports fan. I believe the move signaled an end to an era in professional football. In baseball you have the Yankees, in football you had the Cowboys. Both franchises appealed to fans outside their geographic regions because of their commitment to winning championships. Nothing else matters to the Yankees and the same used to hold true for the Cowboys. No more. By signing Wade Phillips, Jerry Jones is basically conceding that he would rather have a "Yes Man" than a great football coach. You know who else enjoys having a "Yes Man" as a head coach?? Al Davis. Phillips gets it done in the regular season, but the guy is 1-482 in games that matter during his head coaching career (2-482 if you count the win over the Saints during the regular season this year). It's easy to get philosophical and claim teams respond better to consistency with head coaches or that Wade hasn't been given a fair shot to win it all just yet. That's a load of BS. Great coaches win when it matters. Wade is incapable of doing that.

-Favre, Brett - QB, Minnesota Vikings. What was your reaction when he threw that interception? Was it karma slapping him in the face? Was it the only way the career of a "gunslinger" can possibly end? My hope is that Favre comes back. I really do. I believe the last two years have been dedicated to two things. One was to get back at the Green Bay Packers for moving on so easily without him. Number two was that the greatest statistical career of a quarterback (to date) cannot possibly end with an interception to lose the NFC Championship game. Oh my God did that really happen......again!?! He has to come back. The Vikings were built to win a championship in a small window. I don't want him to go out like Butch Cassidy. I really don't. Given his reputation though, doesn't it kind of seem appropriate?

-Is it just me or is Peyton Manning approaching MJ and Tiger's level? Not so much the cultural icon status as the ability to just say, "F you guys, I'm going to win this. There is nothing anyone can do to stop me." Putting up that many points on a Ryan defense just doesn't happen. Relish this while you can. This kind of athlete doesn't come around very often.

Moving on to basketball...

-Gilbert Arenas, you deserve the season-long ban and more. I'd never be able to find a job again if I brought guns into my office to intimidate a co-worker. Neither should you.

-I know it will never happen, but OH.....MY.....GOD have you seen Carmelo Anthony, aka the 2009-2010 MVP, play this year? There is no way to guard him, absolutely nothing you can do. Run by you with the quickest drop-step in the NBA? Check. Back you down and finish you off with the dirtiest low-post game in the NBA? Check. Drain that jumper right in your face. Check, check, check. On top of all this he is getting to the free throw line more than anybody but Dwight Howard, he is right on Kobe's heels for the title of best closer in the NBA, and the Nuggets are the hottest team in the league right now (9-1 in their last 10 games). During the 2008 Olympics I heard comparisons that likened Carmelo to Charles Barkley. The premise was that they both became surprise players who ended up evolving into the "leader" of their respective gold medal teams. Let's hope the comparison extends to one more aspect of his career. I'd love to see Carmelo steal an MVP trophy from Lebron, much the way that Barkley stole one from MJ.

-Is anyone else praying for Kevin Garnett to get really healthy, really fast? Lebron is going to coast to the East title if that guy isn't in the lineup.

-Dwight Howard, please learn a low-post move. While I'm here....Lebron, please learn a low-post move.

-Check out Stephen Jackson/Gerald Wallace and the Charlotte Bobcats if you haven't gotten the chance yet.

Hockey......

-My New Year's resolution is to get back into hockey. I've stayed away for way too long. Unfortunately my knowledge of the game is D+ at best right now. I'm working on it.

-It's unspeakable that the Crosby/Ovechkin matchup last week wasn't on national television. Can someone please tell ESPN to pick up one game a week? Please, ESPN, please, please , please?

Other sports....

-I feel like Nadal's tennis career might be winding down. His style of play is a lot like Dwayne Wade in the NBA, or Brandon Jacobs/Marion Barber in the NFL. It's extremely aggressive, extremely physical, and extremely hard to defend. Unfortunately, that style of play doesn't hold up over time because the body breaks down. I hope he's got it in him to have ten more great matches with Federer. Do I see that happening? No way.

-I'm getting excited because March and April are right around the corner which brings the NCAA tourney, the Masters, opening day, etc. Will John Wall carry Kentucky? Will Tiger play? Will the Rockies head back to the playoffs? So close to finding out.

On to the weekly wish list...

5. The Washington Wizards void the contract of Gilbert Arenas. I understand it was a joke gone wrong, but think about it this way. If you sent an e-mail around the office bashing gays and making fun of women's rights, would you still be working at your office? Furthermore, if you brandished three weapons to intimidate a co-worker, would you stay employed at your company? I didn't think so.

4. Kurt Warner comes back for one final year. The guy is a stud. I'd love to see him go out on top as a Super Bowl champion and he certainly has the team to make one more run at it. It would be the perfect ending to the most improbable of stories.

3. Atlanta continues their dominance over the Boston Celtics when the teams meet up on Friday night. Be sure to check out the Hawks as soon as you can. Jamal Crawford is well on his way to winning the NBA 6th Man award.

2. Zach Randolph makes the All-Star team out West, David Lee makes it in the East. Both players deserve it. Trust me on this one.

1. MTV announces a second season to the hit TV show Jersey Shore. I'm split on whether I want the same characters to come back or not. Of course I want The Situation and Snookie back, but the rest of the cast? I could easily do without them. Here's my quick run down: Get Sammie out of here as soon as possible. Angelina immediately earned a lifetime ban when she chose to walk out on the show. Vinny was a nice guy who I know I'd get along with, but he really didn't bring anything to the program. Pauly D was only there to fulfill a stereotype. He's replaceable. Ronnie and J-Woww are the two characters I'm split on. I can't decide if I want them back. On the one hand it was completely awesome watching Ronnie knock out "haters" on a show-to-show basis, on the other hand, no one likes a meat-head. J-Woww is welcome back ONLY on the condition that she is single. Can you imagine how entertaining it would be if she was bringing back random juice-heads every night? Ronnie vs random juice-heads? Sounds perfect.

Bring them back.

Overtime:

In light of Mark McGwire (steroids era) and Andre Dawson (going in as an Expo?), isn't it time we fix the Baseball Hall of Fame?

My Take on Hockey

2009-12-22T22:49:00.007-06:00

by Matt Corder

If you're like me than you recently read the two-part Bill Simmons article featuring renowned writer/author Malcolm Gladwell. During the course of that article you'll find a section where Simmons proposes a very interesting theory about the fall of the NHL under commissioner Gary Bettman. To sum it up, he basically states that the decline of the NHL can be directly linked to NBA commissioner David Stern. After all, he was one of, if not the pivotal reason that Bettman was hired to be the new commissioner of hockey. Simmons proposes that Stern knew Bettman would do a poor job once placed in charge (Bettman had been Stern's assistant for some time and it was Stern who gave Bettman a glowing recommendation to the NHL owners). This allowed the NBA to eventually surpass the NHL in popularity despite the overwhelming success and wealth of resources the NHL had at the time (Gretzky in the LA market, Messier in the NYC market, Lemieux/Jagr in Pittsburgh, all this among many other good things the NHL had going for it back then).

Now whether you believe the theory makes no difference to me. The theory is only important because It gives yours truly an excuse to finally write an article about a sport that at one time consumed all my free time. Prior to the NHL lockout in 2004 - 2005, there was no one on planet Earth who was a bigger hockey fan than my dad and me. Sure we watched baseball and basketball, but only during the playoffs. Like any other red blooded American we watched football every Sunday, but our knowledge of the game was amateur at best. Hockey?? That was a different story. From the time the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 and transformed into the Colorado Avalanche, we were hooked. We watched every game. I spent the good portion of my middle and high school years coming home from practice and watching the Avalanche duke it out every night on TV--and oh man did they duke it out when Claude Lemieux was on the team.

I remember exactly where I was when the Colorado Avalanche clinched the first major sports title in the history of the city of Denver (okay fine you got me, I was asleep when Uwe Krupp scored the lone goal in triple overtime to win the cup...it was a school night! Give me a break though, I wasn't even ten years old at the time). I remember attending the victory parade downtown and waving to my favorite player Peter Forsberg. I remember calling my good friend Mark Langill after the first period of a blood bath game against the Detroit Red Wings--a night where they had to physically shovel multiple loads of bloodied ice off the rink. I know where I was when the Avs won their second cup (Miami, FL on vacation) and where Ray Bourque took the Stanley Cup that same night to celebrate (my neighborhood, where he had been secretly living the entirety of his time with the Avalanche...yes you heard correctly, I was on vacation and missed the entire thing...FML).

My favorite moment during all those years? Easy. Going to a playoff hockey matchup against the Canucks during our second cup year in 2001 and sitting five rows off the glass. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a puck used during pregame warm ups. This was very exciting stuff in Matt Corder's world during the eighth grade, on par with kissing a girl on the cheek and seeing if I could actually stay up all night at a sleepover.

The least favorite moment? Easier. Watching Steve Moore get cheapshotted from behind by Todd Bertuzzi live. I remember this event vividly. I don't know if I've ever seen my dad get so upset about a sporting event. We both resolved to assassinate Bertuzzi the first chance we got. If you've seen the play you know why. It ended Moore's career before it ever got a chance to get off the ground. I recall talking about the incident at school the next day with my group of friends and even with my English teacher. The happenings of the game consumed every topic of conversation. It still baffles me how Bertuzzi didn't spend time behind bars. The moment was UGLY.

So I think I've made it at least somewhat apparent that I enjoyed hockey, scratch that, LOVED hockey.

What Happened you ask??

The lockout happened. The salary cap happened. The Avalanche getting really old all of a sudden happened.

The loss of my passion for hockey happened.

- - -

Earlier this week the International Federation of Association Football (or as it's known under it's French acronym--FIFA), awarded it's annual World Player of the Year Award to Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi. The award is given once a year to the soccer player thought to be the world's best based on votes by the coaches and captains of the international teams.

And what a year it was for Messi and his Spanish club FC Barcelona.

Messi's club became the first Spanish team ever to complete what is known in the soccer world as a "Treble." They did this by being crowned La Liga Champions (earning the most points in a season where they twice play each of the other 19 teams in Spain's top division...basically the equivalent of completing the NBA regular season with the best record), winning the Copa del Rey (essentially a March Madness formatted tournament between the teams of Spain's top two soccer divisions), and eventually taking the 2009 UEFA Champions League title (a super tournament held between the top club soccer teams in Europe with each of the countries sending 1-4 teams from their top league). They eventually went on to complete a "Sextuple" by winning three more prestigious titles (the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup). They were the first team to ever accomplish this feat.

Now from a pure entertainment perspective, imagine what it is like to be a fan of Lionel Messi's team FC Barcelona. Not only do you get to root your team through a regular season (La Liga), but you also get to watch them through a bracketed tournament for the country's world championship which is in no way tied to the results of the regular season(the Copa del Rey). But the fun doesn't end there. They then get treated to the ultimate fantasy in that their team is usually given the chance to compete for the title of the best team in Europe that year (the Champion's League). So in any given year, a fan of Barcelona can count on seeing their team play their traditional rivals in the Spanish League, cheer them through a bracketed tournament for the national title, and then see them compete against the best talent that the soccer world has to offer. You get a regular season, March Madness, and then a tournament that could only be compared to a college football playoff...every freaking year! (please note: the college football playoff doesn't exist yet, but that's how entertaining the Champion's League is. Unfortunately, this is also how entertaining a college football playoff would be, but as of now it is still relegated to my dreams) How awesome does that sound? Keep in mind this doesn't even bring into play the other tournaments and titles that Barcelona went on to win this year (the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup), which would probably take another 500 words to explain. Let me just put it this way...it's another 500 words of awesomeness.

Furthermore, how much money do you think the La Liga, UEFA, and FIFA bring in any given year?

- - -

If you're a long-time fan of Bill Simmons, you've most likely heard his proposition to save hockey. In addition to the troubles caused by the lockout, he believes that the league was crushed by over-expansion (diluted the talent) as well as the decision to try to enter warm-weathered markets (the fans don't relate to the sport). He proposes that the NHL should cut the number of teams from 30 to 24 as well as delegating half the teams to Canada. The NHL would then be broken up into a twelve-team American Conference and a twelve-team Canadian Conference with the winners of each competing annually for the Stanley Cup.

The idea is pretty compelling given the state of hockey in 2009 and would probably end up succeeding because Hockey has nowhere to go but up at this point. But what if the NHL went even further than that? What if it were to finally punch back at the NBA and its continuing efforts to dominate hockey in everything?

What if Hockey went the route of Soccer? Just picture this for a second:

First off, let's say that every year the NHL began its regular season with a March Madness-like tournament. We could call it the Gretzky Cup in honor of the Great One himself. The Gretzky Cup would be an annual 32-team tournament between all the clubs in the NHL as well as the two best minor league teams as determined by the front office. It would be complete with seeds, regions, brackets...basically everything that March Madness already has. Each year before the regular season kicked off, the teams would go through a two week, single-elimination tournament with the winner taking home the coveted Gretzky Cup. This would be a much more effective way to begin the season. It could also potentially bring in millions of dollars in revenue as well as generate a ton of excitement about the sport, not only in Vegas, but the rest of the country.

Furthermore, hockey is arguably the most globally established sport of any of the big four in America. Basketball is certainly making a run to catch up, but if you're talking about a sport that has been long-established in the major countries of Europe and Asia, hockey easily wins the argument. What if the NHL set up a "Champion's League." What if, throughout the year, the four best teams from the NHL, Russia, Sweden, Finland met periodically in a round robin super-tournament? What if you expanded this league to 32 teams and included 1-4 teams from several of the other major leagues throughout Eastern Europe and East Asia? Is this not something you would watch? Imagine further that the Russian league continues to grow and starts to poach free agents from the NHL, much like European basketball teams are currently starting to do to the NBA. What if we really can't claim that the NHL is the best hockey league in the world anymore? The real question is, would it even matter at that point?

America is finally getting a test taste of the awesome nature of world-class European soccer, and I don't think there's any doubts that it has been a major hit. Why not try to replicate this success (in some small way) with Hockey?

You don't necessarily adopt all of the changes that Bill Simmons or myself have proposed. But how about adopting just one of those three changes? Can you give me any reason the Gretzky Cup idea doesn't succeed in an era where the March Madness TV contract is worth BILLIONS of dollars? Why not try to enhance the hockey experience? Why not try to win back the legions of fans (my dad and I included) who have yet to forgive the NHL? Why not Gary Bettman?

Why not?

Weekly Wish List

2009-12-03T22:47:00.021-06:00

by Matt Corder

What was he thinking?

My apologies for the lack of the columns lately. I visited the family over the holiday and the Thanksgiving hangover lasted all week. I'll be sure to make up for it next week with more than the usual two articles.

Back to sports though.

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. The man is going to get assailed the rest of his career for the events of the past couple of days, so I'm not going to take the time to hammer him anymore than the tabloids already have. My take on the whole ordeal is that I just don't understand it. I've read and reread just about every article that's come out on the subject. From the tabloids to the respected sports outlets, you name it, I've scanned through it. It seems that when Tiger broke through on the tour in 1997 he had already earned a legendary reputation for his exploits with women. This was before the first Masters, before Nike, and way before he was married. Everyone who had ever spent an evening with Tiger was said to have their own story about his conquests. I've got no problem with that. He was young, good-looking, and starting to earn a ton of money.

Where I draw the line is when he made the decision to get married, and most importantly, to have children. If the man couldn't control his urge for women, he should have never elected to walk down the aisle. Why not choose the life of Derek Jeter? That guy has plowed through half of the best looking Hollywood starlets and Manhattan socialites, without so much as a whisper about his reputation. I am 100% positive that we would have never thought less of Tiger if that's the life he chose to lead. Like Jeter, we would have been perfectly content as long as he continued to deliver results as an athlete. I still don't understand it. What was he thinking? Couldn't someone at Nike have stepped in and told him that maybe, just maybe, it was a terrible idea to cheat on his wife? So disappointing.

Let's move on.

You have to respect the NFL for finally addressing the issue of concussions. I thought Goodell was going to take the Bud Selig route and ignore the problem until it ruined the reputation of his sport. He has my applause for firing his tobacco company-like "expert" and finally getting serious on the issue. I don't want to spend too much time here on the NFL, so let's just say I can't wait to see how far Vince Young can take the Titans this year. If you haven't gotten the chance to see him run the option (yes you heard right! the freaking Nebraska Cornhuskers circa 1995 option!) you need to tune in this weekend to watch them attempt to hand the Colts their first loss. Chris Johnson is pretty good too.

In my opinion, there's only one team in the NBA that looks like they can win it all, and unfortunately for the rest of the league, it's the defending champs. The Lakers have looked unbeatable since Pau Gasol came back from injury and I don't know if anyone can match up with that front court when they're healthy (maybe the Celtics?). I really really really wanted to throw the Nuggets into the running, but they currently own losses hand-delivered by the Blake Griffin-less Clippers and the lowly T Wolves. No team belongs in the conversation with LA........yet. Want to see a team on the rise? Well, if you're a passionate fan like I am, I hope you're tuning in whenever the Atlanta Hawks are on TV. The big three teams out East may be evolving into the big four. I'm serious.

I went 3 for 5 last time.

5. We're treated to Allen Iverson version 2001 now that he's back with the 76ers. There's nothing cooler than seeing a guy who is shorter than me give a clinic to the best athletes in the world. We'll probably never see a player like Iverson again. He played a unique brand of basketball and it always came with an "edge" that young players just don't seem to have anymore. I want to see this guy drop 40 at least one more time in a throwback to the old days.

4. Tony Romo takes the first of four steps toward his annual December collapse. Does anyone want to bet me the Cowboys finish better than 9 - 7? Not....gonnna....happen. (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/teams/schedule?team=dal)

3. The New Jersey Nets remain winless throughout the rest of the week. How awesome would it be if they were 0 - 23 heading into the third week of December? I've heard of teams mailing it in, but usually it's after they put in some sort of effort. Is it possible the Nets wanted to have a sub-par season in the hopes that they land the number one pick (which eventually allows them to lure Lebron)? The Nets aren't exactly terrible. They already have a terrific point guard in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez would probably be the second player selected in the draft two years ago, if the teams could go back and redo it (only Derrick Rose would go ahead of him). Of course, I highly doubt that they planned to do this poorly all along, but it's going to be interesting to watch how they respond to this initial adversity.

2. The Denver Broncos get a much needed win as they travel on the road to Arrowhead Stadium. Not a lot of people my age remember this because the Chiefs have been so terrible as of late, but there was a day when NO ONE went into Arrowhead and won a game. I'm talking NO ONE. The Chiefs won games at home as consistently as the Raiders made bad draft picks. Even if the Chiefs struggled early in the season, opposing teams could forget about winning a game from November on in KC. Let's hope the Broncos are able to overcome their division rival.

1. In the most shocking of upsets, the Nebraska Cornhuskers take down the Texas Longhorns in the Big XII Championship this weekend. I've been a Huskers fan my whole life as both my parents went there and the rest of my extended family still resides in Lincoln and Omaha. You know my dad and I will be in attendance on Saturday. However, I never could have dreamed that a win by the Big Red would send the TCU Horned Frogs to the national championship game. Can you imagine how exciting Christmas would be in the Corder household this year if the Huskers take the Big XII Championship, and the Frogs are set to go to Pasadena for a shot at the title? I couldn't have scripted a better way for it to happen. GO BIG RED! (http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2009/12/03/football/doc4b149726cda54976968143.txt)

Overtime: Really Ron Artest? (http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/article/2009-12-02/sn-conversation-ron-artest-i-was-head-case)

Instant Replay: The Next Evolution of Sport

2009-11-19T21:40:00.028-06:00

by Matt Corder

According to FIFA, the play stands?

Let me start by recalling a quick story from a world I (sadly) don't often talk about, the NHL. Prior to the year 1959, no goalie in the NHL wore a protective mask over their face. I don't know how many readers have physically held a regulation size hockey puck in their hand, so let me vouch for it and let you know that it is an extremely hard object and would be ridiculously unforgiving if it hit you in the face. Picture getting nailed by an iPhone traveling at 95 mph. No joke. Back to the story though. In 1959, an innovative goaltender by the name of Jacques Plante was drilled by a puck in the nose during the course of a game. The blow was so severe that it required a stoppage in play until Plante's bleeding could be stopped (NHL teams didn't carry backup goaltenders back then). While getting stitched up, Plante gave his coach an ultimatum that forever changed the course of NHL history. He refused to come back into the game unless his coach permitted him to wear a protective mask he was wearing during practice. His coach was furious, but he eventually allowed the move (although he was reluctant). The media and fans at the time were especially critical of Plante. They questioned his dedication to the game (baseless), they feared he wouldn't be able to see the puck (false), they even went so far as to say that he wasn't brave enough to play the game (ridiculous).

When you hear that story today, you can't believe how outdated, preposterous, and even stupid the attitudes were back then. Who would play hockey without protective gear? You'd have to be an idiot. It was a great stride in the right direction for sports when all the leagues made a commitment toward taking care of their players by requiring protective gear. It wasn't just common sense, it was an evolution of the respective games. Most of these initiatives were made in a reactive nature though. Unfortunately, that's the nature of all the leagues.

Why is that?

I bring up the preceding story in light of numerous recent events having to do with instant replay--the modern day "goalie mask" dilemma. Obviously it is in no way related to safety, but from an evolution of the game standpoint, instant replay ranks right up at the top of the list. So why are leagues still so averse towards adopting instant replay, and more importantly than merely adopting it, effectively implementing it? Why can't they take a proactive approach and do replay the right way?

Let's say you're a fan of the LSU Tigers. What was your response when you found out that SEC officials don't use HD technology in the replay booth? This following the blown interception call against Alabama that could have resulted in an LSU upset, eventually vaulting them into national championship contention. You have to question the SEC when they just inked contracts in the $3 billion dollar range for the right to broadcast their games. You're telling me the best football conference in the NCAA, with (probably) the most lucrative TV deal, can't afford better equipment for its officials? Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's a fact that the better the competition in a league/conference, the more likely the referees/umpires will be criticized. So why would you ever invite the possibility for more criticism? (Want to read up on the SEC controversy? Check this article out http://blog.al.com/solomon/2009/11/redding_sec_officiating_isnt_b.html).

Okay, so maybe college football isn't your thing. You love the game of baseball. How pissed are you if you're a supporter of the Angels after game four of the ALCS? In that game, umpire Tim McClelland blew a call so easy a cavemen could have made it. There were also two other controversial calls in the game that especially extenuated just how bad the problem is in baseball. Bud Selig's response to the calls for more instant replay? "I'm quite satisfied the way things are," the Commish told FOXSports.com. "We need to do a little work, clean up some things. But do I think we need more replay? No. Baseball is not the kind of game that can have interminable delays." Baseball can't have delays??? Baseball is a sport built on delays! Why do relief pitchers need to warm up on the mound after having just thrown a million pitches back in the bullpen? That's a delay. Why are coaches allowed to travel to the mound to have a chat with their pitchers in the middle of an at bat? That's a delay. The whole thing makes me sick. Delays are a natural part of baseball. It would not hurt the sport to make sure that calls were made correctly. In fact, I would argue that it actually would enhance the experience. (Read more here... http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/10210660/Baseball)

And finally, in the mother of all reasons to make instant replay a natural part of sports...yesterday's World Cup qualifying match between France and Ireland. In case you hadn't heard, the Irish national team was robbed of a spot in the 2010 World Cup on a BLATANT hand ball by French star Thierry Henry (check out the picture above). The illegal move set up a game winning goal that vaulted the French into the acclaimed tournament. You think Texas takes high school football seriously? You really believe that baseball is life back east? Multiply each of those fan base's passion by a million and that's how much soccer means to the rest of the world. The Irish defeating the French would have been an all-time upset, and that it resulted in them missing the World Cup makes it all the more devastating. I can't believe that a spot in the tournament was decided by a stubborn lack of instant replay.

I guess if you take anything from my article it's this: I hope I convinced you of the need for instant replay. It's an easy way to enhance the experience of a sporting event for coaches, players, and most importantly, fans. Your team should never get robbed of a victory because a commissioner or a league is too bullheaded to properly implement instant replay. I still don't understand why some leagues refuse to adopt changes that could instantly (pun intended) make their sports better. Yes, there will be a lot of kinks that need to be worked out, but I'm sure it won't be that hard to figure out. It's time for all sport's leagues to step up and be proactive.

For once.

Weekly Wish List

2009-11-18T22:52:00.019-06:00

by Matt Corder

F M L

Hypothetical situation: let's say Josh McDaniels just appointed me to be the VP of Football Operations for the Broncos. In another astonishing twist, the NFL just decided to do a fantasy draft for all of the players in the NFL and I have the first pick. I decide to build around an all-star quarterback given the short-term durability of running backs in the NFL. Who should I go with? Obviously only two guys come to mind (Brees can't join the super-ultra tier of QBs until he gets a ring). I mean you could go with Peyton Manning, if you like 6'5 230 pound quarterbacks, with a laser-rocket arm. He's got three MVP awards, one super bowl ring, and is most likely the smartest guy in the NFL. But then again you could go with Tom Brady, he of the three super bowl rings, supermodel wife, and the greatest five o'clock shadow of all time. To quote my favorite anchorman, "this is hard! I am in a pickle!"

I go with Peyton.

Obviously I bring this up because of the epic Pats/Colts showdown last Sunday night and the infamous fourth down call heard 'round the world. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter, here's mine: I love the call by Belichick to go for it. No matter how far back they could have pinned the Colts, you know Peyton is going the distance for the score. Death, taxes, and Peyton Manning driving his team for a winning touchdown--these are the things you can count on in life. I've heard lots of takes so far, but the one that nobody is mentioning is that Tom Brady missed the wide open receiver. I know the blitz was coming, but Wes Welker was W-I-D-E open. With the game on the line you've got to get the ball into sure hands. Moss or Welker should have been the primary target on that play. I don't know how you trust one of your running back by committee players to win the game for you there. Two weeks ago, the Cowboys had to get a first down to ice the game against the Eagles. Romo dropped back and who did he throw to? If you guessed Tashard Choice, you're an idiot. Patrick Crayton? No way. He went to his most reliable target, Jason Witten. Ballgame. The Patriots QB should have done the same.

Other quick thoughts on the NFL this past week: Brian Westbrook, it's been a great career, but it might be time to hang it up. Disagree? Read this article (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all). Did your fantasy team just get killed by the injury to Ronnie Brown? Well that sucks, I didn't draft him to any of my six teams. That wasn't a typo, I really have six fantasy teams. In related news, my middle name is Loser. If Brett Favre wins the Super Bowl this year, does he come back and give it another go? More importantly, what happens if he doesn't win? It took till week 11 to bench JaMarcus Russel? Jeff Garcia is laughing somewhere. I still can't figure out my Broncos. The only thing I know for certain is that if Orton is out, Denver is toast the rest of the year. And finally...Farewell Dick Jauron!

I just spent a lot of time on the NFL, so here's some short takes on the NBA: Raise your hand if you made the dumbest fantasy basketball move of all time on the second day of the season by dropping Brandon Jennings to pick up Ty Lawson (this is me raising my hand...miserable). If you hadn't heard yet, Brandon Jennings is freaking incredible. Tune in to check him out ASAP. He is a left-handed version of Allen Iverson, minus all the selfishness and baggage. Is it just me or is Chauncey Billups not the same player this year? He's lost a step or twelve. I just watched a highlight of the Cavs-Wizards game tonight. I'd say it was about a 30 second spot and the Wizards drilled the Cavs by 17. I'd estimate 29 seconds were given to Lebron James, despite the fact that he played terrible and forced fifteen or so shots in the fourth quarter. I don't even think they mentioned that Washington won the game. Gotta love ESPN! The Lakers are missing Gasol...bad. Finally, I'm sick and tired of hearing about all the alleged places that Wade, Lebron, and Bosh are going to end up. If they made some secret pact back at the '08 Olympics, who cares. We still have a full season ahead of us and the Nuggets are making a case that last year was no fluke!

I rebounded last week and went 4 1/2 for 5 (Jackson got traded, but not to Denver).

5. Brian Westbrook is prevented from playing in the NFL again this year after sustaining his second concussion in three weeks. I guarantee concussions are going to do to the NFL what steroids did to baseball. It's the dirty little secret that the commissioner is trying to cover up. I understand that you can't prevent players from playing the game at an unreal speed, but something has got to be done. Again, check out the article I linked above or read up on guys like Earl Campbell.

4. We go seven days without a University of Tennessee player getting arrested. (http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091118/SPORTS0601/311180001/Vols+freshman+DB+charged+with+shoplifting)

3. We're treated to an epic early season game between the Magic and Celtics on Friday night--easily the best game of the weekend. The Magic just got Rashard Lewis back after his PED suspension and we're finally going to get a chance to gauge if they're for real. Don't expect the Celtics to make it easy on them.

2. The Broncos don't get flattened this weekend when they meet a San Diego Chargers team doing their best impression of...the San Diego Chargers. I don't know how Norv Turner manages to get his team to peak late in the season, but they seem to do it every year. I've already accepted the fact the Broncos are going to get drilled without Orton in the lineup, I just hope it's not along the lines of last year's shellacking that kept them out of the playoffs. (http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=281228024)

1. TCU avoids the upset this weekend in the trap game of the century in Laramie, Wyoming. I know they don't match up with the Frogs at all. However, it's supposed to snow, Wyoming did play Texas pretty tough for a half this year, and the Frogs lost the last time they made the trip up to play the Cowboys. Am I nervous? Am I paranoid about the Frogs missing out on the BCS? Of course.

Overtime: Gotta love that Belichick has his own bodyguard. Especially when he does this! (http://deadspin.com/5405348/no-one-films-the-belichick-in-failure)

The TCU Horned Frog Manifesto

2009-11-12T22:44:00.010-06:00

by Matt Corder
manifesto - noun - "a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization."

Ladies and Gentlemen, the TCU Horned Frog Manifesto:

1. Speed, Baby. We believe in speed, we love speed, we're addicted to speed. There is no team in college football that is faster than us, nor will there ever be.

2. In Gary We Trust. A career .748 winning percentage. Eighty wins and counting. Head coach of five different 10 win teams. Inventor and guru of the 4-2-5 defense. Gary Patterson is the Knute Rockne of TCU football.

3. I haven't mentioned defense yet? Try leading the nation in total defense three out of the last nine years. The 4-2-5 defense. Noted in Sports Illustrated to be the "antithesis" to the spread. Ask Texas Tech how that worked out.

4. Explosive play-making ability. Let me introduce you to Jeremy Kerley and Jimmy Young, coming soon to a Sunday near you. Oh yeah, that Jerry Hughes fella is pretty good too.

5. The Power of Purple. Welcome to the reinvention of the uniform as we know it (http://gofrogs.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/111009aaa.html)

6. We're fast. Really fast.

7. Fear the Frog. The single most unique nickname in all of collegiate athletics. Relevant to our geographic identity. Not even the real name of the animal. We spit blood.

8. Though shalt beat thy BCS opponents. Nine and two against BCS foes over the last five years. 'Nuff Said.

9. Never forget our forefathers. We play in the spirit of Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, Dutch Meyer, and LT. We play to add a next generation to the list of Frog greats.

10. Oh yeah, we're really fast.

GO FROGS! BEAT UTAH!

(the manifesto is a living document, feel free to add your declaration in the comments section and I'll add it on here)

Weekly Wish List

2009-11-12T21:06:00.012-06:00

by Matt Corder

Can you believe it? We're already halfway through the NFL season and finally starting to find out the identities of all the respected teams. My thoughts: If you're a fan of the Colts, Steelers, or Patriots, it's business as usual. If you're a fan of the Browns, Raiders, Lions, or Rams, well...it's business as usual. When you take a look around the NFL, has anything really changed (minus the Vikings)? I'm serious. The NFC and AFC West divisions have teams that can't figure out if they're good or not (I'm talking about you San Diego, Denver, Arizona, and San Fran). Tony Romo's got the Dallas Cowboys off to another great start (be sure to check out their last five games though http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/teams/schedule?team=dal ...are you laughing yet?). Andy Reid continues his reign of dominance as the worst clock managing coach in league history. And do I dare say that Aaron Rodgers is suffering from a nasty case of Jay Cutler Syndrome...and might actually be overrated? For those non-Broncos fans, Jay Cutler Syndrome, or JCS as we like to call it, involves a quarterback who puts up big numbers, but only when it doesn't matter. One of the overlooked aspects of the Cutler trade was that his numbers were significantly inflated because he always had to pass his team back into games in the second half. Same situation in Green Bay this year. Whereas Cutler's weakness is interceptions, Rodgers' weakness is sacks, a.k.a. holding....onto....the....ball....way....too....long. Throw in a terrible Green Bay defense and I say we can safely diagnose a case of JCS in Rodgers.

(Don't get the impression that I'm discounting both players fantasy value. I personally have Rodgers at QB on almost all my fantasy teams. My point is that I'm not sure these guys are elite QB's in the NFL yet.)

The NBA season is off to an awesome start. Some quick hits: If you haven't seen him play yet, be sure to tune in and see Steve Nash who has managed to successfully build a time machine and transport himself back to 2005. No doubt about it, Brandon Jennings is your ROTY. Great to see Byron Scott out of New Orleans! Not so great to see the fat guy who replaced him (http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2008/writers/ian_thomsen/01/23/hornets.bower/p1.bower.jpg)! Anyone else see Shaq try to run the fast break with Lebron yet? It's laughable. Finally, as I watch the Cleveland Lebrons play this year I can't help but feel like they're going to surprise everyone and actually win it all. My reasoning goes something like this. Too often in sports you'll have a team that will thoroughly dominate a league throughout the season only to go on and lose the title that same year. The following year they'll fail to impress in the regular season, but end up grinding out a championship because of the experience they gained in the previous year. It sucks because when the team ends up winning the championship is often the worst roster the franchise has head in recent memory (on paper). Some recent examples (the 2006-2007 Colts, the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, and the 2008-2009 Los Angeles Lakers). We need a name for this theory and I'm open to suggestions. Drop me a line in the comment section.

Eek, I put up a golden sombrero (plus one) and went 0 for 5 last week.

5. Stephen Jackson is allowed to get out of town. You have one of the biggest egos in coaching (Nelson) going up against one of the most stubborn players in the NBA here. Let that man walk...to the Nuggets! (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/10476/stephen-jacksons-get-out-of-golden-state-card)

4. In the game of the weekend, the Denver Nuggets take down the LA Lakers. Carmelo is going to have a huge game. Don't think Kobe's going to slouch around either. Check out this great piece on the rise of Carmelo. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/091110&sportCat=nba)

3. Iron Mike stays out of jail. It's despicable that paparazzi are allowed to get away with anything they want. I'd wager to say 95% of the population wouldn't be able to handle a stranger approaching them with a camera and shouting insults. Give the man a break. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/091110&sportCat=nba)

2. The game of the year goes down in the NFL in a clash of two of the game's titans (not the Tennessee kind). I suspect Peyton Manning will out-duel Tom Brady, but it really doesn't matter. We all win in this game. (http://espn.go.com/nfl/nflpreview?gameId=291115011)

1. The TCU Horned Frogs take down Utah in the (now) most important game in program history. A win likely means the Frogs are headed to a BCS game. This is also the best chance a non-AQ (automatic qualifier) team has ever had to enter the national championship conversation. If Texas were to lose in the Big XII Championship, it could actually happen. Be sure to check out the Frogs new uniforms this weekend (http://procombat.nikemedia.com/index.php?team=texas_christian#/photos) and also make sure you check out this article (http://www.texasmonthly.com/2009-11-01/webextra15.php).

Overtime: Is this man the greatest entertainer in the history of the NFL? (http://deadspin.com/5402709/sometimes-i-love-ochocinco-so-much-it-hurts)

Don't forget help name my latest theory in the comments section!

Myth Busters: New York Yankees

2009-11-05T23:34:00.008-06:00

by Matt Corder

So, the Yankees won the World Series this year. In other news, the sun rose this morning in the East, the sky is blue, and a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys is complaining. So like most people I bought into the headlines about the Yankees this year. “A-Rod is a new man!” “That Nick Swisher--he’s the key to the team!” “The Yankees finally embraced team chemistry!” Sound familiar? I’ll admit it. I bought it at first. You probably did too. Let’s get something straight though, nothing changed in the Bronx. Let me explain.

First myth: Alex Rodriguez is a new man. If you think A-Rod changed one bit this year as a human being, you are sorely mistaken. I bought into all that crap all the way up until the post-game interview. The veil is now lifted. Was I the only one who noticed A-Rod (yet again) just doesn’t get what it’s all about? This was his chance, he could finally throw a bone to the fans and tell them they're the best. Instead? He turned his post-game interview into a discussion about himself (you know he did!). Oh life is so tough, God it’s so hard to be me. I only made $33 million dollars this year. I have to date a movie star. Poor me, poor me! Listen, I know it was tough on Alex, I really do…NOT! Can he for one second think about his teammates? For God’s sake, there are people who would punt a newborn infant to be in that position, and all he could muster up was a quote about how difficult this past year was for him? Come on dude.

(I will concede that as a player he changed this year. Something finally clicked and he finally had a sense of “the moment.” But as a human being? Still a self-absorbed narcissist in my book)

Second: Brian Cashman is a good GM. This one is way too easy. Does anyone remember that movie Blank Check from when we were kids? Remember how awesome we all imagined that would be? That’s what life is like for Brian Cashman, except instead of buying roller coasters and really cool butlers, he buys a mega-ultra roster of baseball players. Realize that this man has dealt out over a billion dollars in contracts over the past decade and only managed to win twice (only one of which can be attributed to his signings because the 2000 team was largely inherited). The laws of probability dictate that they would eventually win at least one. It’s kind of like flipping a coin and betting that heads will show up once every ten times. They were bound to win sometime.

Finally: this Yankees team is headed back to the days of old. Sure, those pie-in-the-face stunts were cute. You’re right, A-Rod was finally clutch. And yes I agree that Nick Swisher is an awesome guy who smiles a lot. But this team didn’t win like the old ones did. They aren't even close to the dynasty teams of the 90's. The old teams had home grown talent, guys who always understood how to play the game the right way, guys who went out with one thing in mind—get the job done. Was it just me or did the whole thing seem…artificial? It kind of reminded me of a point Bill Simmons brought up about the LA Lakers after Kobe Bryant finally got his first title sans Shaq. The question was whether or not Kobe changed as a player after winning this past title. Everyone always assumed he would be, but was he really vindicated from the selfish reputation that plagued him his entire career? The answer is probably not.

Are the New York Yankees headed back to the dynasty days of those great late 90’s teams? The answer is probably not.

Weekly Wish List

2009-11-05T21:16:00.014-06:00

by Matt Corder

Great World Series. I was happy to see it lasted longer than the average (and typical) four game sweep. A couple of short thoughts on the Series: Cole Hamels, you are an idiot. Who told you earlier this year that Andy Pettite was a guy you could count on in the big game? (answer = this guy) Pettite became the first player to start and win the series clinching game in each round of the playoffs (Lowe also won all three series clinching games, but he didn't start all of them). Do we all agree that the post-game interviewer guy sucked worse than Ryan Howard (a new World Series Record 13 strikeouts!) and should be banned forever? (nod your head) Yes, yes we do.

The NBA season is underway, and god is it awesome. My quick hits: Carmelo, the first sixteenth of the season MVP? You bet your ass he is (seriously though, watch the man play right now). The Celtics are making me regret choosing the Cavs as the eventual champs of the East. KG is clearly the heart and soul of that team (defense especially), but the question will linger all year, can he stay healthy? Finally, if I'm an NBA coach I don't want to run into the Rockets this year (a bunch of hustle players with something to prove, watch out).

I went 2 for 5 in the last wish list...

5. The Mountain West ponies up the same resources for TCU that the WAC devoted to Boise State this week (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4623676). The untold story here is the fact that a BCS berth can literally make or break the bank of a mid-major conference like the WAC or MWC. The WAC isn't forking over cash to a PR firm because they favor Boise, they're doing it because it's an opportunity cost that will allow them to make money this year. That's how important that one game can be to these conferences.

4. Roy Williams continues his best impersonation of Terrell Owens (http://espn.go.com/dallas/columns/cowboys/blog/_/post/4622685) Absolutely hysterical. I can't believe how selfish that guy is. Seriously Roy? You're on a three game win streak, Romo is finally looking like a legit professional, and you're pissed about not getting the ball? Wow.

3. The Denver Nuggets get through the weekend with a (still) flawless record. I can't wait to watch (the highlights of) Carmelo facing off against D-Wade in a battle of two of the NBA's best superstars. (side note: Ty Lawson is starting to make me look really smart)

2. President Obama rightfully hands over his Nobel Peace Prize to this guy (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2009/news/story?id=4625899). At least he did one thing to earn it!

1. The Denver Broncos bounce back against a tough, tough Steelers team. I don't expect the Denver defense to throw up another stinker like they did last week at Baltimore. Also look for Kyle Orton to pick up his play after a rough outing last time.

Overtime: Is anyone actually surprised by this? (http://deadspin.com/5398256/tim-lincecum-cited-in-least-surprising-pot-bust-ever)

NBA Preview Part 3

2009-10-28T23:35:00.015-05:00

by Matt Corder

Who's it going to be?

You know I had to save the best for last. And now, finally, the third installment of my three part NBA Preview. It’s time to take a good hard look at the NBA’s better half. Let me just reiterate that last point for a second. Write it down. The West is clearly superior to the East, no doubt about it. Unlike the top-heavy East, basketball fans find a lot of parity in the West which brings out stronger competition. You want to compete in the Western Conference? You want to make the playoffs in the Western Conference? Win at least fifty games and then come talk to me.

This season is going to be awesome. Let’s break it down real quick. You’ve got the greatest power forward of all time (Timmy Duncan) going out in what could be his last legitimate shot at a title. You’ve got the Lakers taking a gamble on a man who is certifiably insane. You’ve got young teams like the Blazers and Thunder who are tired of looking from the outside in. On top of all that, you’ve got the usual four or five teams who have never quite been able to break the Laker/Spur stranglehold over the West (minus 2006). This time I’m going to give you my quick take along with a question I have about the team.

Introducing the 2009-2010 Western Conference (and how they’ll finish)…

The “Could We Even Beat A Top Ten College Team?” Division

15. Sacramento Kings – Yuck. Can we move on?

The “One of These Teams Will Participate In The First NBA Fight That Involves Players On The Same Team Trading Blows With Each Other” Division

14. Golden State Warriors – My girlfriend’s team has awesome young talent, only one problem (it rhymes with red roach). Can Stephen Jackson please go to the Denver Nuggets, please Warriors, please, please, please? (seriously though is there a better fit for him in the NBA, the Nuggets would go down as the thugginest team that ever hit a basketball court, beating out the previous record holders--last year's Denver Nuggets. Imagine how many tattoos would be in that starting five!)

13. Memphis Grizzlies – Here’s a math equation for you…drafting Thabeet plus adding an unsure A.I. multiplied by the cancer Zach Randolph = not good. Does anyone else feel bad for Rudy Gay?

The “Everyone Hates Us Because We Couldn’t Make The Rubio Draft Pick Work” Division

12. Minnesota Timberwolves– I really looked forward to the Love/Jefferson combo in the front court, but again one of them went down with an injury. Why couldn’t they make the Rubio pick work? Why? Why? Why?

The “We’d Easily Make The Playoffs If We Were In The Eastern Conference” Division

11. Los Angeles Clippers – I may have put this team in the playoffs if Blake Griffin didn't go down the night before the season started. Will Baron make a commitment to winning?

10. Houston Rockets – It kills me to do this because Houston has great basketball fans, but when you lose Yao for the season, let Artest walk, and have T-Mac still recovering from injury, well let’s just say it can’t be good. Or can it?

9. Oklahoma City Thunder – Write it down: I will be in person to watch a Kevin Durant game this year. Is this team mature enough to take the next step?

8. Phoenix Suns – No way Steve Nash misses the playoffs two years in a row. The same question as always, can Amar’e stay healthy?

The “We’ll All Be Separated By Less Than Three Games At Year End” Division

7. Portland Trailblazers – I say the Blazers take a step back this year because of the uncertainty at point guard. Remember how we always find out that baseball players from Taiwan and the Caribbean are way older than everyone thought they were? Is that not Greg Oden? (Bonus Question: What’s the over/under on number of games before Oden’s knee explodes like Shaun Livingston’s leg?)

6. Utah Jazz – I feel like this team never fulfilled its potential. Who’s to blame for it though? Boozer’s selfishness? AK-47’s whine factor? (answer: not Deron Williams)

5. Dallas Mavericks – I love the annual tradition of hearing Mark Cuban justify the terrible contracts he signed during the off season. How unbelievably awesome is Dirk Nowitzki?

4. Denver Nuggets – The Nuggets will take the Northwest Division or as I like to call it, the hardest division in the NBA. Can Carmelo Anthony join (not win) the conversation for MVP? (I’m serious) (Bonus Question: Will Ty Lawson turn out to be the steal of the draft?)

3. New Orleans Hornets – Chris Paul will make a serious run at the MVP again (don’t forget he nearly stole Kobe’s MVP) as he seeks vengeance for the embarrassing exit in last year’s playoffs. Will people start to recognize how solid Emeka Okafor is?

The “Usual Suspects” Division

2. San Antonio Spurs – Look for the best coach in the NBA to unleash his best team ever. Which player will go down first, Parker or Ginobli? (Bonus Question: Will it even matter?)

1. Los Angeles Lakers – Just like two years ago (as well as with Lebron’s Cavs last year), the Lakers will blow their load too early by finishing with the best record in the West. Artest?

Playoffs:

Conference Quarterfinals: LA def PHO (4-0), SA def POR (4-2), UTAH def NO (4-3), DEN def DAL (4-2)

Conference Semifinals: LA def DEN (4-2), SA def UTAH (4-1)

Conference Finals: SA def LA (4-3)

NBA Finals: SA def CLE (4-2)

Awards:

League MVP: Lebron James (Cavaliers)

Rookie of the Year: Blake Griffin (Clippers)

Sixth Man: Rasheed Wallace (Celtics)

Coach: Flip Saunders (Wizards)

NBA Preview Part 2

2009-10-27T20:43:00.008-05:00

By Matt Corder

Can we get a revival of this...please?

Welcome to part two of my NBA preview. Let’s be honest, the East plays the Robin to the Western Conference’s Batman. They haven’t had much to brag about as of late. And how could they try? You’d have to go back five years to find a time when the East didn’t send a team with a losing record to the postseason. They’ve won a paltry three NBA championships since Jordan’s second retirement (only 3 of the last 11). Of those three East titles, only one was worth watching (Celtics/Lakers). Everyone knows the referees gift wrapped Dwayne Wade’s title, and the ’04 Pistons won with an extremely frustrating brand of basketball that only a city like Detroit could appreciate.

In my opinion, the East is everything that’s wrong with the NBA. A quick rundown for the less savvy NBA fan—turtle-paced offenses, half court sets, ridiculously hard fouls that NBA color guys mistake for great defense—welcome to the Eastern Conference! What’s unfortunate is that the basketball product the East has become notorious for is exactly what’s holding them back. You know why Lebron James ponders leaving the Cavaliers? He wasn’t made to succeed in an offense that is dependent on precise timing and drawn up plays. Let that man run free! Enough ranting though, for each team I’m going to break it down by giving you a bold prediction and a question mark about the team going into the season.

Here we go basketball fans, introducing the 2009-2010 Eastern Conference (in order of how they’ll finish)…

The “Guy-Who –Always-Gets-Picked-Last-In-Dodgeball” Division

15. Milwaukee Bucks – The Bucks finish with the worst record in the NBA. Will they use Michael Redd as trade bait to try to rebuild?

14. Charlotte Bobcats – Larry Brown loses control of the team much like Eric Mangini lost it with the Cleveland Browns. Can Gerald Wallace make the all-star team?

13. Indiana Pacers – Tyler Hansbrough will continue to annoy the crap out of me by out-hustling and out-working his opponents. How close can Danny Granger come to winning the scoring title?

12. New York Nicks – David Lee will lead the league in double doubles for the second straight year. Can the 2010 free agency period come soon enough for Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni?

11. New Jersey Nets – The Nets make a real push for the Brooklyn move under their new Russian owner. Can Devin Harris and/or Brook Lopez take the next step to be elite players in the NBA? (Bonus: Will Lebron really consider them?)

The “Jason-Bourne-I-Don’t-Know-My-Identity” Division

10. Detroit Pistons – Joe Dumars gets fired by the end of the season (he wasted the Lebron cap space on Villanueva and Gordon). Really Joe? Really?

9. Miami Heat – Dwayne Wade leaves after the season is over. Who leaves this ugly situation faster, D-Wade or notorious bandwagon jumper-offer Pat Riley?

8. Philadelphia 76ers – The 76ers finish with a losing record…and still make the playoffs. Can Elton Brand find his game?

7. Toronto Raptors – Everyone finds out why Hedo Turkoglu was allowed to leave the Magic without a fight. Will Chris Bosh choke in his contract year?

The “Johnny-Drama-Supporting-Cast” Division

6. Washington Wizards – The rivalry between the Cavaliers and Wizards gets renewed as Gilbert Arenas comes back from injury. How many times has Agent Zero claimed that he was “really back this time?”

5. Atlanta Hawks – This is my one reach for a prediction. I feel bad for teams like Atlanta who have no hope of ever beating the big three teams in a playoff series. I’ll go out on a limb here and say Josh Smith starts a fight that results in him getting suspended for a long period of time. Is there a more athletic team in the NBA?

4. Chicago Bulls – Derek Rose distinguishes himself as the best point guard in the Eastern Conference. How will the Bulls deal with the fragile egos of Salmons and Deng, especially as they compete for minutes?

The “MJ-Eastern-Conference-Revival” Division

3. Cleveland Cavaliers – Lebron James coasts to his second MVP while Shaq succeeds in the slower offenses of the East. Which player will emerge as a reliable second option in the playoffs for Lebron?

2. Orlando Magic – The Magic will finish with the second best record in the NBA, only to lose in the conference semifinals. Will Vince Carter make his new GM look like a genius or an idiot?

1. Boston Celtics – Kevin Garnett will never be the same player. Even at eighty percent of his former self, he’ll still be the key to a long playoff run by the Celts. Where will the ultra-talented Rajon Rondo end up after the season is over?

Playoffs:

Conference Quarterfinals: BOS def. PHI (4-1), ORL def. TOR (4-2), CLE def. WAS (4-0), CHI def. ATL (4-2)

Conference Semifinals: BOS def. CHI (4-2), CLE def. ORL (4-3)

Conference Finals: CLE def. BOS (4-3)

Look for the Western Conference preview tomorrow, along with my finals pick.

NBA Preview Part 1

2009-10-22T22:02:00.020-05:00

by Matt Corder

They're Baaaaaaacccckk!

The NBA starts in less than five days. Needless to say I’m more excited than Dickie V before a Duke/Carolina game. With the beginning of the season only days away, I’ve got a bold statement to throw your way. Ready? What if I were to tell you that I legitimately believe the NBA is the most popular league among sports fans of my generation? Not kidding. It’s too easy for someone to refute my claim by saying the NFL is the number one sport in America so let me explain my reasoning and how I got there.

As I sat down to write this article I was energized, so much so that I eventually got nervous and couldn’t figure out how to start it. It was originally intended to be a team-by-team breakdown of the Eastern Conference that culminated in my picks, but it evolved into this. I soon realized that the feeling I got about the NBA wasn’t the same one I got when football season finally rolled around—a sort of “Thank God It’s Finally Here I’m Sick Of Having No Other Options” feeling—aka the feeling Joe Torre got in his final three years with the Yankees when Rivera was the only option in the bullpen. No, what I was feeling could only be described as general excitement. In less than five days we are going to have professional basketball again! Life is sweet.

It was at that moment that I realized I love the NBA. It is by far my favorite sport to follow and I know much, much more about the NBA than any of the other professional sports. But why is that? I didn’t play basketball competitively beyond the 8th grade, and I definitely didn’t grow up with a dynasty team to fall in love with (Denver). What was it then? I started to jot down some ideas and here’s what I came up with:

1. The NBA combines the greatest strengths of its two main competitors (NFL and MLB).

The NFL and the NBA both allow their superstars the chance to be showcased continually on a game-by-game basis and therefore the quality of the product is rarely put in jeopardy. Take all the MVP’s last year. You rarely (“never” might be a more appropriate word choice here)see Lebron James have a bad game and the same can be said about Peyton Manning. In MLB it’s quite the opposite. There were several games this past season where Albert Pujols or Dustin Pedroia went 0 for 4 and made no impact. Furthermore, you only see a star pitcher once every five games. You can’t be sure that his start is going to be lights out either.

On the flip side, the NBA also shares a great quality with MLB in that there is never a shortage of entertaining games to be watched. This gives the NBA a quantitative advantage. Throughout the course of the 82 game NBA season, there are games on every single day of the week. When I want to watch an NBA game I can always tune in and find one. The NFL cannot touch this. At its peak viewing season, the NFL is pumping out games on only four days out of seven, and this is only in the dwindling weeks of the year. I love me some NFL but what am I supposed to do on Wednesday’s, look at injury reports? Everyone knows I don’t like dishes served with weak sauce.

2. The interaction that occurs on an NBA court is a lot more personal than any of the other sports. I feel like I know NBA players, like they are my friends. Every game I get to become my own version of a sports psychologist/tv analyst/posse member. For example, I know Kobe has an alpha dog complex, I’m convinced I would get along well with Dwayne Wade, and I know for certain that Carmelo Anthony is misunderstood. You don’t get that in the NFL because of the face masks, and you certainly don’t get it in MLB because the only interactions are at first base. The freestyle play of the NBA allows each individual player to always be in contact with the other nine players on the court. It's the true essence of team sports.

3. The NBA is by far the easiest sport to argue about (and the most fun). If I told you right now that I believe Kobe Bryant is still a way better basketball player than Lebron James, you might take issue with me. In fact you might be willing to yell at me over it.* Why is that though? If you go off my second idea it’s because, with the NBA, each individual fan is afforded a way better opportunity to formulate original opinions about the players, teams, and coaches (you don’t just watch NBA players, you get to know them). I think traditionalists would counter that the quality of the arguments might not be as good, but who cares what they say. I was brought up in a world of the internet, blogs, and the collapse of traditional journalism. In my mind the more opinions that get thrown out there, the better the end content will be.

The NBA is the most popular sport of Generation Y because it is best suited for a generation that doesn’t seek traditional means to get their voices heard. Why is baseball no longer America’s pastime? It’s because of all the major sports in America, baseball most vehemently opposes evolution in the sport and an end to old-school/traditionalist thinking. Just look at the way “moneyball” theory has been pissed on by the mainstream media or the manner in which Bud Selig continues to refuse instant replay improvements (Note to Bud: if you continue to ignore your customers, they will leave). Don’t even get me started on the east coast bias in baseball. The NBA is so much better to its fans in almost every respect. Admit it!

(If you’re keeping track at home that puts the advantage count at 4 for the NBA, 1 for the NFL, 1 for MLB).

You can stack up the number of reasons why the NBA is best suited for the future (I didn't even get started on the global factor). Unfortunately though at this time it can't come close to the level of the NFL in terms of ratings and revenue, and it may never do so. However, there's no denying that the NBA is the sport of young America--an America that is graduating college, starting to get purchasing power, and gaining the ability to affect its teams economically. Don't believe me? Go be friends with Bud Selig.

That concludes part one of my NBA preview (two more to follow). What was originally intended as predictions eventually morphed into a deconstruction of my love for basketball. I hope everyone else is as excited as I am. Let’s go Nuggets!

*For the record, I happen to think Kobe is a cold-blooded killer while Lebron James is a freak athlete who is unfortunately more concerned with making his teammates look good than taking over and winning a game. Disagree? Drop me a line in the comments.

Weekly Wish List

2009-10-21T22:06:00.007-05:00

By Matt Corder

The Red River Shootout? Awful. The Florida Gators? Missing Percy Harvin. The Crimson Tide? Surprisingly legit. It was a letdown weekend in college football to say the least. I don’t know what’s wrong with the alleged Heisman front runners, but it was not pretty. Colt McCoy was disgustingly bad. Tim Tebow had a fumble-fest that nearly cost his team the game. Finally, last year’s winner Sam Bradford likely went down for the season with yet another injury to his throwing shoulder.

Now I’m going to tell you something slightly embarrassing, so you have to promise not to tell anyone. Hurry and get close, I’m only saying this once. Ready? Here it goes. I think I actually enjoyed the Notre Dame/USC game. So embarrassing! Worst of all, I think I was actually rooting for Notre Dame in the end. I don’t know how it happened, but I swear to you that I wanted Jimmy Clausen to lead that team to overtime. I will now go to confession. Wait, God likes Notre Dame. Crap, now what do I do? I cannot like a Charlie Weis-coached team! I refuse!

The baseball playoffs continue to look uneventful now that Rocktober ended. Next!

How about those Denver Broncos! No one saw this coming. Phillip Rivers? You have the same record as Jake Delhomme this year, bahahahahahahaha. In my mind the Saints distinguished themselves as the best team in the NFC thus far. Brett Favre and the Vikings might be 6-0, but they clearly escaped another game in which they should have lost in the final seconds.

I went 3 for 5 again last week…

5. Michael Crabtree gets his welcome to the NFL moment during his NFL debut this weekend. It happened to Reggie Bush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9jgP1brUn8). It can happen to him (I hope).

4. Oklahoma falls out of the top 25 rankings (http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings). Really AP poll? Really? I know that the Sooners’ three losses are at the hands of ranked opponents, but come on. Oklahoma is .500 halfway through the college football season and sitting pretty at #25. Unbiased polls? You’ve got to be kidding me. Let me think about my only trip up to Norman for a second. Okay, now I can vomit.

3. Alex Rodriguez continues his dominance of the postseason. I love it. It’s gotten to the point where A-Rod is even good now with the captain himself. Don’t believe me? Check this out (http://deadspin.com/5385371/yes-that-was-pat-sajak-and-a+rod-groping-jeters-buttocks).

An interesting note for all you Yankee lovers, check this out (http://deadspin.com/5379883/the-hunt-for-mr-october). Pretty ironic huh? I know you rooted against this guy until now! Don’t pretend like you didn’t!

2. The Kansas City Chiefs prove they’re not a terrible team as they take down the Chargers at home. Is it just me, or am I the only one who remembers a Chief’s franchise that never lost at Arrowhead? Come on KC get back to your old school ways and take care of business this weekend!

1. In arguably the most important game in the program’s recent history, TCU takes down BYU this weekend in Provo, Utah. How important is this game you ask? ESPN’s College Gameday program will be broadcasting live from the campus during the day. I can’t recall if TCU has ever had the Gameday crew at one of their games, and I don’t think I’d be wrong in assuming it’s never happened. The Frogs are going to need big games from the front four to win. Look for #98, Jerry Hughes, to dominate the Cougars like he did last year in Fort Worth.

Overtime: Manny being Manny... (http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/124393-manny-showers-while-dodgers-lose)

America's Team?

2009-10-15T23:59:00.020-05:00

by Matt Corder

D'OH!

The New York Yankees, The Boston Celtics, The Notre Dame Fighting Irish--the most respected franchises/programs in American sports. Each of these aforementioned teams is rich in history, filled with tradition. Each has plenty of championships and titles to brag about. You either love 'em or hate 'em. Think fast though, what team did I leave out? Furthermore, what major professional sport did I forget? Well if you weren't born in Afghanistan you should have figured out that the team I neglected to mention was, of course, the Dallas Cowboys.

Now what I'm about to say has to walk a really fine line because Cowboy fans are a very proud fan base--this is a fact. Some people would call it arrogance, Cowboys fans would call it confidence. When you've won as many championships as they have, it's all very understandable. The Dallas Cowboys are undoubtedly America's team and it can be witnessed every weekend when you watch them on the road and the crowd roars for each big play they make. Even though I loathe the Cowboys, I have to admit I'm jealous. Enough with the foreplay though let's get on with the good stuff.

So in my last post I brought up (what I thought was) a really interesting point about the recent failure of the Notre Dame football program. Basically I suggested that a team can't be the face of the sport if that respective team has a coach who is unlikeable, arrogant, soft, prone to choking, etc. We'll call this this theory the Charlie Weis Principle. The Charlie Weis Principle states that no matter how talented a team is, no matter the history/tradition/championships they have, no matter how much the majority of America might root for them, if one of the teams mentioned above has a head coach who doesn't fit the bill, that team shall cease to be the "face" of their sport. Think about it. Billy Martin, Red Auerbach, Knute Rockne,Tom Landry--those guys were great coaches. Now look at Wade Phillips. Do you honestly believe Wade and his 250 lbs. of baby fat intimidate teams in the least bit? When Wade wobbles up and down the sideline, are you confident in your team's chances? I didn't think so.

The decline of the aura and prestige of the Dallas Cowboys can be tied to the head coach. Let me say something bold here that I hope the Dallas fans will agree with. Tony Romo is not a terrible quarterback, he is merely indicative of the larger powers that be. Think of five words/sayings you'd use to describe Tony Romo. Ready, GO! (this is me waiting) Okay, I came up with choke artist, weak, charismatic, soft, and well liked. Now use those same words and you'll find they perfectly describe Wade Phillips. Choke artist? Check! Weak? Check! Do you see what I'm getting at?

Tony Romo is not a bad quarterback, Wade Phillips is just a terrible coach. This guy has a long history of losing control over his teams, and I'll go into all that in one second. Let me add a final word on the QB first though. Do not despair Cowboys fans, I feel that your team is in good hands when Romo is at the helm. What basically happened here was that Romo's rise to fame happened so fast that his notoriety eclipsed his actual talent. Sure the guy is capable of throwing four TD's any given Sunday, but you can't come to expect that of him every single time. Football is a team sport! Give the man some time and I'm sure he'll settle into the role just fine.
　
Back to Wade though. There is a proven track record that this guy does not possess the skill necessary to control an NFL locker room. Back in 1994, Wade was fired from the Denver Broncos after "a mediocre season in which management felt he lost control of the team" (wikipedia). This would begin a long series of coaching tenures marked by similar controversy. In 1999, Wade made the baffling decision to start quarterback Rob Johnson in the final game of the season for the Buffalo Bills, this after Doug Flutie had literally started every other game and led the team to a playoff berth. Finally, everyone knows what is currently happening in the Cowboys locker room. The guy might be a "players" coach, but he's also completely incapable of gaining the respect of his team. Finally in the mother of all reasons of why Wade Phillips is an awful head coach for America's team, does anyone know his career playoff record? Anybody? Bueller?

0-4...'nuff said.

Let's get a couple of things straight here and I'll wrap this up. I still hate the Dallas Cowboys. This doesn't mean that I don't respect them though. Furthermore, this doesn't mean that I don't understand that it's good for the NFL when they do well. Just look at last year's MLB playoffs to see what I mean. Everyone laughed when the Yankees missed the postseason for the first time in forever, but everyone also neglected to tune in. Whether I like it or not, the Cowboys are good for the NFL, and by now I think it should be pretty clear that Wade Phillips isn't the man for the job.

As always I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Weekly Wish List

2009-10-14T23:08:00.015-05:00

by Matt Corder

I experienced a full range of emotions this past week. Part of my soul broke after the devastating manner in which the Rockies managed to make a first round exit from the playoffs (Huston Street! WTF?). A couple of quick hits on the series: 1. Where did you go Troy Tulowitzki? 2. The Phillies' one through six hitters are the most patient hitters in baseball, and pretty damn scary to face in succession (Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, ouch). 3. Uh Tulo, what happened? 4. Neither team has the necessary weapons in their pitching arsenal to win it all. 5. What the hell was that final swing Tulo!?!! 6. Let me finish by saying the difference between the 2007 Rockies and the 2009 Rockies was the bullpen. 7. Tulo?

After the Rockies lost (well technically it was Sunday, so I guess it was before the Rockies lost), the prodigy child Josh McDaniels managed to hand his mentor Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots a loss in extra time. The Broncos remain undefeated and are sitting pretty with a 5 - 0 record. They head into a big game on MNF against division rival San Diego. It was the first ever overtime loss for Tom Brady (interesting fact: the Broncos also handed Brady his first playoff loss).

Finally in the extremely nerve-racking department, the Frogs did not look spectacular against a mediocre Air Force Falcons team. I don't really want to reflect on this too much, just happy to get the road win (this is me realizing we were lucky not to get caught with our pants down).

I went 3 for 5 last week...

5. The Denver Broncos finally beat the San Diego Chargers legitimately. As good as my team looks, I won't be able to gauge them until we take down Phillip Rivers. I hate Phillip Rivers. I think I like Jay Cutler more than Phillip Rivers. Scratch that, I know I like Jay Cutler more than Phillip Rivers. Non-Broncos fans might not remember this, but it was just two years ago that Phillip Rivers came onto the field at Mile High and taunted the Broncos after a late drive failed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsSpYLU7Ig0). It would be salty to get a road win in a year in which the Chargers were a trendy Super Bowl pick (dead wrong) and the Broncos were expected to finish in the bottom tier of the NFL (equally wrong). Look for Brandon Marshall to expose a Chargers' secondary that is in total flux.

4. TCU takes down CSU in a dominant fashion. I'm still waiting for a breakout game from my Alma Mater and last week didn't help to ease the tension. I'd like to say I'm 100% confident going into the game Saturday, but I'm not. It was just last year that the Rams could have easily taken out TCU if the CSU receivers didn't drop two wide open Hail Mary's. I know, I know, I need to realize that weather has played a large part in a majority of the Frogs' games this year. I'd just like to see the offense assert their will on somebody. Let's go Andy D!

3. The Texas Longhorns take down the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Shootout. Let me be clear--I hate both these teams with a passion. The only reason I'm rooting for the burnt orange is that I don't want a crappy team to sneak into the national title game against Florida. I've harped on this all year, but let me say it again. If you like good college football, root for a UT-Florida final this year!!

2. In unprecedented fashion, the USC-Notre Dame gets postponed indefinitely. Is there anything worse for college football than these two teams playing each other in a game that the media thinks is worth something? Come bowl season, the winner of this game is going to point to the W on October 17th as a reason they should get respect. Am I the only one who realizes one of these two teams could sneak into the national title conversation? USC lost to frickin' Washington! Yes, Washington! The team who finished 0-12 last year! And don't even get me started on Notre Dame. It might be good for college football when Notre Dame plays well, but not when Charlie Weis is their coach. Think about Lou Holtz's personality for a second. He's short, he's old, he's cute, he has a lisp for God's sake. How could you not pull for him? It was fun to root for Notre Dame when he was the coach! Now think about Charlie Weis, and think about who his mentor was too. The antithesis to Coach Lou. I refuse to root for the Golden Domers until Weis out of the picture.

1. USMNT member Charlie Davies makes a full recovery from a devastating car wreck this week (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=685080&sec=us&cc=5901). It's terrible to see such a promising young player's career get derailed in this fashion. My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie and his family. Let's hope that he can make a full recovery and, God willing, that he's able to play competitive soccer again. Time will tell if the United States men can use the tragedy as a chance to make a huge push in South Africa.

Overtime: Happy 99th birthday Coach Wooden! (http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/reillygofish)

Sudden Death: You have to watch this penalty shot in hockey (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-9-year-old-scores-greatest-goal-in-Boston?urn=nhl,195876)