tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90207883385879629872024-03-14T01:18:45.780-07:00JamTimesports for thoughtIHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-70362682761531460682021-04-29T13:28:00.003-07:002021-04-29T14:11:01.142-07:00Kirk Cousins on Vikings Offensive Line: “If I Die, I Die”<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Minnesota quarterback reflects on team's pass protection </i></span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>ahead of NFL Draft</i></span></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Isaac Huss</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; white-space: pre-wrap;">MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA -- Tomorrow is the NFL Draft, and Kirk Cousins knows what’s at stake. He also knows his Minnesota Vikings’ front office has a thing for drafting defensive backs early and often. And often at the expense of his porous offensive line.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d65f4ab0-7fff-5d3b-b15a-adf0cc433da3" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Listen, if I die, I die,” Cousins said, while taking a break from practicing his next big </span><a href="https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/1179561596126945281?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gender reveal</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> [his wife isn’t pregnant, he just wasn’t satisfied with his accuracy on the last one]. “I’m at peace about that. I know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I have a close, personal relationship with </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SKORNorth/status/1341148992445542408?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dakota Dozier</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. If Coach Zimmer wants to draft d-backs with all ten picks tomorrow -- and he might -- well, at least I know there’ll be a big house waiting for me in the sky.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgbKSznSovE0gYwJsemAeFnCqkVseDDzJJebx5f-8xEoFyukt7BuqdE0fc4X_0OnDZ1EaLI_68wsjWnl-OwMeE-PWpnfPDiNsj0sG4ZDquJxWXmI3P2Y-sYr5hJj10WBoAiwgHtqXNg/s1024/kirk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1024" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgbKSznSovE0gYwJsemAeFnCqkVseDDzJJebx5f-8xEoFyukt7BuqdE0fc4X_0OnDZ1EaLI_68wsjWnl-OwMeE-PWpnfPDiNsj0sG4ZDquJxWXmI3P2Y-sYr5hJj10WBoAiwgHtqXNg/w539-h361/kirk.jpg" width="539" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Minnesota’s offensive line unit, while excelling in opening holes in the run game for tailback Dalvin Cook, has struggled </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SeanBormanNFL/status/1348627715927273474?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">blocking for Cousins on pass plays</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> since he arrived three years ago. The Vikings have since cut perhaps their best player in the group, left tackle Riley Rieff, in a cost-saving measure, and retained Dozier, one of the worst pass blockers in the league a year ago. Cousins seems unfazed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Survival of the fittest, I always say -- and if you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty darn fit,” Kirk said, which has been fact-checked as “True” by his wife (Snopes has rated it Somewhat True). “I want to respect what other people's concerns are. I know my mom had been tweeting at Zim from her burner account, ‘TonkaLoveBoat69,’ all offseason to trade for Orlando Brown. Not me. I'm gonna let nature do its course. And just to say, if </span><a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1045508099769946112?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aaron Donald</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> knocks me out, he knocks me out. I'm going to be OK. I think.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cousins was then asked, on a scale of 1-10, how worried he was about the Vikings taking a QB in the first round to replace him -- not unlike the Packers did last year with Jordan Love -- with one being Patrick Mahomes and ten being Jimmy Garoppalo. Cousins responded, "I'm not gonna call anybody stupid, for the trouble it would get me in. But I'm about a .000001. It’s not like there’s a </span><a href="https://twitter.com/FourVerticals_/status/1386796623032852484?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christian Ponder</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in this draft, am I right?”</span></p><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Any great player who's gonna come in and work! Who are you all thinking? Reply <a href="https://twitter.com/Verizon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Verizon</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFLDraft?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFLDraft</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerizonPartner?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VerizonPartner</a> <a href="https://t.co/7KIMWrFkBa">https://t.co/7KIMWrFkBa</a></p>— Kirk Cousins (@KirkCousins8) <a href="https://twitter.com/KirkCousins8/status/1387844151149006868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He went on to say: "But seriously, I have peace. I don't believe that I control the outcome of my life. Why do you think I got a fully-guaranteed contract? Other than the Vikings being weirdly desperate for a slightly above-average QB. Oh and the fact that I used the Jets as leverage to drive up the price. Good times. But I digress…”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s because there's many things out of my control. I trust the Lord to handle things. If something happens, I trust him to have a plan and purpose. So if Rick (Spielman, the Vikings’ GM) wants to draft an edge rusher named “Kwity” or a cornerback named “Lousy” or a linebacker named “B1G” or a quarterback named “Mac” or heck if he wants to trade all his picks for 500 7th rounders next year, I’ll be at peace. Actually, Rick, please don’t pick Mac. Have you not seen him </span><a href="https://twitter.com/Knina_WI/status/1380491859907186694?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with his shirt off</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? He’d destroy our vibe.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kirk then returned to gender reveal practice, proceeded to drop back and toss his mini exploding football into a phone booth fifty yards away, do some </span><a href="https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1227676537102585856?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">undistinguishable dance</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (definitely not the griddy? we think?), and scream “</span><a href="https://twitter.com/JeffEisenband/status/1320383623611244545?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">YOU LIKE THAT</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">! YOU LIKE THAT!” at his smokin’ hot wife.</span></p></span>IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-75442607905668372252017-02-22T22:32:00.003-08:002017-02-23T08:57:47.352-08:00Rooting Against a Rubio Trade<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a single, 31-year-old diehard Twins fan, trade deadlines are basically like Valentine’s day. You’re never unaware that it’s happening, and once every few years there’s someone new in your life that warrants your attention (the name Shannon comes to mind..Shannon Stewart, that is), but typically it comes and goes without so much as a raised eyebrow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then consider that the NBA closes trade season in mid-to-late February, and you’ll begin to understand why my unhealthy and irrational 7-year love affair with Ricky Rubio feels a bit threatened this time of year. Imagine my trepidation when the late great Flip Saunders (RIP) and now Tom Thibodeau are dangling the Babe from Barcelona into the trade waters, hoping someone, something would bite.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was already about all that I (and my Twitter feed) could take when ESPN’s Brian Windhorst made it very clear that Thibs was trying to move Ricky, and that was long before Rubio dramatically started social media flirting with Kristaps Porzingis (he’s mine, Zingis).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried to quit Rubio, I did. I was convinced at the end of last year that, even as the team was making improvements, Ricky’s wasn’t. This was most obvious in the open jump shooting and finishing at the rim categories, of course. But it was his tendency to tense up and force bad passes and shots as the game tightened that was as much of a concern as any. After all, there are five guys on the court, and only one of them needs to shoot. But if one of them can’t shoot and can’t pass or make simple decisions about whether to do one or the other, well, then, the writing’s on the wall.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also started to allow my heart to stray towards another: Kris Dunn. I was convinced by the draft lottery in May that Dunn was definitely the third-best player in the draft at worst. His combination of playmaking and scoring along with aggressive, physical defense had me dreaming about another favorite point guard of mine: Gary Payton. And while the Wolves staying at #5 wasn’t terribly promising in its likelihood of netting Dunn, I wasn’t without hope that he would fall to the Timberwolves at #5, and by golly he did.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Almost immediately, Woj bombs started dropping all around me claiming that Rubio was surely to be traded sooner rather than later, and just as immediately I had regretted my role in coveting Dunn. I should have known that Thibs would see Dunn as his guy and that Rubio would have to go. I was naive, in hindsight, to think we could draft Dunn and have him and Rubio coexist like Isiah and Dumars, hell even Ricky and Johnny (Flynn). After all, Jamal Murray was still available, and while I considered him a hair below Dunn based primarily on the defensive discrepancy between them (in favor of Dunn), I would now have preferred Murray if only it meant filling a more obvious need while more importantly not displacing Rubio, my love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, to the surprise of just about everybody, Rubio not only survived that draft night in the blue and green but also the rest of the offseason, and was the opening day starter to kick off the 2016-17 season. But not even Dunn’s atrocious start to his NBA career could seem to dim <span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Thibodeau</span>’s affinity for him and subsequently his desire to unload Rubio to free up the starter position in the near--if not immediate--future.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fast forward to the 2017 NBA trade deadline and you had all the makings of a Rubio trade: the lingering stench of the Reggie Jackson rumor (pull my hair back?), the less nauseating but not much more palatable Iman Shumpert rumor, and then the newest and sexiest but no less head-scratching, the Derrick Rose (and Joakim Noah) rumor, complete with Ricky and Kristaps sitting in a Twitter tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You had <span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Thibodeau</span> effusing praise upon Dunn for months without giving Rubio a whiff of a vote of confidence, even though Ricky is by far the greatest veteran presence on the team (and it’s not even close) and has been showing real signs of turning a corner in terms of running Thibs’ offense, posting an incredible assist-to-turnover rate--despite some of the greatest degree of difficulty passes in the L--and even individual shooting-wise improvements.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ultimate test of irrational fandom for a favorite individual player on a favorite team is how you would feel if he was traded away in an obviously beneficial trade scenario for your team (and even for your favorite player). For instance, if Ricky were to be traded to Indiana along with Shabazz, Brandon Rush, a number 1 and a number 2 draft pick for Paul George and Monta Ellis, that would be an objectively amazing trade for the hometown Timberwolves that might even make New Orleans blush.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, admittedly, I would have a hard time getting excited about a trade like that, even in all its glory, but for the sole fact that it would mean Rubio would be leaving town. Even now, if I know Rubio isn’t going to be playing (like when he missed five games in November), I’m significantly less excited to watch even the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, and Zach LaVine. It’s a problem, I know.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s just something about the way the man plays the game. He plays hard every minute. He never takes a play off on offense or defense. He’s constantly communicating with his teammates and coaches, on offense and defense, even in fleeting glances that set up jaw-dropping alley-oops or 70-foot leak outs. As Bill Simmons described his experience watching Larry Bird in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Book of Basketball</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Rubio changes the way you watch the game. You start to see what he sees: plays developing ahead of time; open passing lanes before they open; hell, you even expect other NBA players to give their all like Rubio does, which is, shall we say, not typical.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rubio’s play, however, is that he is so relatable. He’s certainly taller, longer, more Spanish, and better looking than most of us, but by all accounts, he’s a slow white guy who can’t jump or shoot. He plays with incredible emotion and leaves his heart on his sleeve. He tells teammates, “Change your face.” He cheers on the third-string point guard when he hits the game-winning shot after he supplanted Rubio himself in the crunch time lineup. What Rubio feels, we feel.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, best of all--from a Timberwolves standpoint, anyway--Andrew Wiggins has shown himself more than capable of being the primary ball handler and setting up the offense (oftentimes himself) during crunch time. Not that I would ever prefer Rubio to stand in the corner spotting up during any set offensive play (ever), mind you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it does serve two purposes: 1. Starting the offense with Wiggins prevents teams from denying Wiggins the ball late in the shot clock and 2. It serves to help the team (and its fans) to avoid repeating the debacle against the Clippers four years ago when Kevin Martin had his pocket picked clean by Jamal Crawford when Martin was trying to bring the ball up the floor in the key play that helped turned a huge Timberwolves win into a crushing loss.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No, Rubio is no longer the liability in the clutch that he once was. He’s more of a threat with his shooting, and that seems to have bolstered his confidence and helped his ability to make the right pass with the game on the line. And, when he has an off game, Tyus Jones has shown the ability (as mentioned earlier) to step in and knock down shots when called upon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I’ll go to sleep tonight and rest easy knowing the trade talk has died down, that Thibs said he doesn’t see a trade that would improve his team (and those who heard him actually believe him), that he’s happy with his team as-is, and that we’ll likely have another Minnesota trade deadline come and go without anyone to show for it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But until that 2pm deadline passes, I won’t be able to help still sweating it out, knowing that my favorite player, Ricky Ricard Rubio Vives may be slangin' his passes elsewhere--if not this week, then soon enough. And I’ll be sad. Like a jealous lover.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>This post was amended on 2/23/2017 to account for the author's incorrect reporting of his own age.</i></span></span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-34826619799853370972016-03-13T14:37:00.003-07:002016-03-13T14:57:56.874-07:00STATUES OF LIMITATIONS<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Celebrate imperfect athletes or withdraw fan club membership?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Isaac Huss</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JyRf1n43T2sEmevvoyp5bSIvNow_Wy7IpaHMfulAEoXN0C6oO4lK4ZPVwAOM2V_2PbD3ruZzdi7bXq4JTFnioL_tQ7DmrakgheXVx5D0N-xSN-GCISszZWgekK0dxNZrBkyOmqdEww/s1600/5238152919_a61c59e3b6_o.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JyRf1n43T2sEmevvoyp5bSIvNow_Wy7IpaHMfulAEoXN0C6oO4lK4ZPVwAOM2V_2PbD3ruZzdi7bXq4JTFnioL_tQ7DmrakgheXVx5D0N-xSN-GCISszZWgekK0dxNZrBkyOmqdEww/s400/5238152919_a61c59e3b6_o.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/compujeramey/5238152919" target="_blank">Jeremy Jannene on Flickr</a></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My favorite athlete as a child, hands-down, was Kiiiiiiirby Puuuuuuuckett. I was a rather impressionable six year old during the 1991 World Series, and boy did he leave an impression. Imagine my sublime delight, then, when I found out that I had been chosen to appear in a promotional poster along with my idol when I was seven (!). The poster was to advertise for the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0e182e; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kirby Puckett Eight-Ball Invitational in support of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children’s HeartLink, his preferred charity. Yeah, I had some modest success as a child model/actor, and while I had the fortune of appearing in a few other higher-paying spots, you couldn’t have paid me to stay away from this one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kirby showed up late, hardly said boo to me, and the poster never saw the light of day, thanks to an apparent dispute between the charity and Puckett’s wife. All things considered, I got my signed baseball, a meeting with my hero, and couldn’t have been happier. But it was the first time I realized that these sports stars I adored were not perfect, and it wouldn’t be the last time a dispute involving Mrs. Puckett caused me to think twice about idolizing her husband. But more on that later.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Selective Memories</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last Sunday, March 6 marked the ten-year anniversary of his death. Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis StarTribune wrote </span><a href="http://www.startribune.com/ten-years-after-kirby-puckett-s-death-dan-gladden-goes-deep-with-stories/371174181/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a nice column</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reminiscing about Puckett through the eyes of former Twins teammate and longtime radio broadcaster Dan Gladden. He also said this: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We prefer to remember the great times and great laughs with Puck, rather than the public troubles that surfaced in the final 2 ½ years of his short life.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d like to as well. In fact, I rarely prefer to remember the bad times I’ve undergone or witnessed of others. And the purpose of reliving these memories here is not to beat a dead horse, nor to color a dead man’s legacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, I’m seeking something else: clarity. As in, what </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I make of these conflicting sentiments that I harbor, essentially simultaneously, in my mind and heart? How do I reconcile the fact that perhaps my favorite athlete of all time was also, at least at times, a terrible human being? That even when he was at his most publicly likable he was very possibly also his most privately despicable? Is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">any</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reconciliation possible?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Star for the People...</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the years following that magical 1991 season, Kirby’s play remained at a very high level, although his team went on the decline. That made him all the more endearing, really, as his greatness was even more impressive compared to his teammates and the overall state of the franchise. But then again, his numbers would have stood out on any team. After all, through his first ten seasons, he produced more hits than anyone in the modern era.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But of course the numbers couldn’t possibly tell the whole story. People adored Kirby. There was just something about him that endeared people to him: teammates, coaches, and fans alike.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So when his 12th major league season was cut short because of a pitch he took to the face, we were </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">crushed. When he was forced to retire the following season because of an irreversible case of Glaucoma, it hurt. The weird thing, though, was that we hurt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Kirby as much as anything.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...Now a Falling Star</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But none of that compared to the gut-check I experienced when I learned about the accusation against him of sexual assault, and then subsequently of domestic abuse of his wife (and mistress too). Because Kirby wasn’t just a great player. He was a great guy. That was a huge reason he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, because he was a humanitarian, a community-builder, and a great friend. Or so we were told.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Frank Dedford’s landmark column, </span><a href="http://www.si.com/vault/2003/03/17/8100518/the-rise-and-fall-of-kirby-puckett-the-media-and-the-fans-in-minnesota-turned-the-twins-hall-of-famer-into-a-paragon-of-every-virtueand-that-made-his-human-flaws-when-they-came-to-light-all-the-more-shocking" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the author recounts with great candor how Kirby somehow won our hearts with a sparkling public persona and meanwhile, behind closed doors, was abusing his wife--when he wasn’t cheating on her, that is.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not quite three years later, Kirby passed away after suffering a massive stroke. But it was as if he was already gone. His weight had gotten out of hand to the point where he hardly looked like himself, and the public fallout of his criminal transgressions had led him to leave Minnesota, where he had made his home since first coming up in the big-leagues in the mid-1980’s.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tarnished Legacies or Revisionist History?</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last Monday, March 7, Peyton Manning retired from the NFL. Had he retired a year earlier, or even after his numerous neck surgeries left his career in the balance, he could have ridden off into the sunset a first-ballot Hall of Famer himself and with his pristine reputation as all-american man intact. Sure, he would only have one of his now-two Super Bowl wins, but he also would have retired before being </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/broncos/2016/03/07/peyton-manning-hgh-investigation/81438618/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">famously accused</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of using performance-enhancing human growth hormones which were delivered to his residence under his wife’s name. He also would have dodged the </span><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/01/peyton-s-manning-s-forgotten-sex-scandal.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">re-emerging of a scandal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from his college days at the University of Tennessee, where he was accused of sexually harassing a female trainer.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Manning’s statistical greatness as an NFL quarterback is unquestioned. But should we now remember him differently? After all, his likability (not to mention marketability) from his championship Manning family pedigree to his aw shucks good guy reputation has been larger than life--and maybe just as impressive as his playing heroics. As it is now, there simply can be no comprehensive overview of his legacy without mention of scandal. But heaven forbid he were to be more credibly linked to HGH, much less formally charged?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve rooted for Peyton Manning from time to time, although never if he was facing my Vikings. I’ve also rooted for </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/sports/football/vikings-adrian-peterson-reaches-plea-deal-in-child-abuse-case.html?_r=0" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Adrian Peterson</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (still do), </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2016/02/03/darren-sharper-rape-charges-plea-agreement-trial/79799842/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darren Sharper</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the </span><a href="http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/12/28/smoot-opens-up-about-planning-scandalous-love-boat-party/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love Boaters</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2061794" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Onterrio Smith</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… the list of Vikings with spotted reputations is lengthy. </span><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ex-yankee-chuck-knoblauch-arrested-allegedly-assaulting-ex-wife-article-1.1879120" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chuck Knoblauch</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/03/sports/basketball-sprewell-attack-stuns-league.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Latrell Sprewell</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I hope </span><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/johnny-manziel-cleveland-browns-timeline-411352" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Johnny Manziel</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> makes a comeback. Does this make </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a terrible person? Or a forgiving one? Or both?</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That doesn’t mean I root for players and teams indiscriminately. And there’s a big difference between wearing around a Darren Sharper jersey and an Onterrio Smith jersey nowadays, even though both players are now likely be remembered more for their missteps as opposed to anything they did on the field. But what about a Manziel jersey? Would I be pulling for a guy to conquer his demons and live up to his potential? Or implicitly acquitting his (alleged) alcohol abuse and domestic violence? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That probably have more to do with my own intentions than anybody else.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the lingering question for me, then, is the same as it is for Reusse: how should I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">remember</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> these stars? Can I “choose” to remember someone for what I liked about them? Perhaps the nobler thing would be to do so. Or do we have a moral obligation to remember the missteps as well, so as to not be doomed to repeat history?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Times They Are a-Changin’</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this new world of 24 hour news cycles, social media, and secular yet hyper-moralism, we may not even have the option to choose to remember the great times we *shared* with these athletes without also simultaneously remembering their sins. This will certainly keep us from forgetting their moral frailty, sure. But to what end?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was the late Cardinal Francis George who observed in 2003 that, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the United States, everything is permitted, even encouraged: 'Go for it, try it, do it,' and we are urged, no matter what the 'it' might be. But, while everything is permitted, practically nothing is forgiven.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We give these professional athletes everything: fame, fortune, power, and moral license (within the law, of course), and rush to worship at their altars as soon as they wow us with their talent and athleticism and finish on top in our championship rounds. We’ll even, for the most part, accept their physical limitations if they let us down on the battlefield (with some exceptions; see Blair Walsh for a recent example).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And we rightly distinguish between moral missteps and athletic failings. But what about true forgiveness? Which, of course, is not the same as, “Well, he’s on my team and he’s better than our other options at running back, so I’ll ignore the fact that he </span><a href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/01/06/adrian-peterson-roger-goodell-was-blind-to-what-i-was-going-through/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">still doesn’t seem to think he did anything wrong</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To this day 34 is still my favorite number. I wore it proudly in any sport it was available, including a brief but forgettable high school varsity basketball career. If people ask “Why 34?” Well, it all started with a man named Kirby Puckett. Although Herschel Walker had something to do with it too, as did Isaiah Rider. I thought the best player on the team wore 34 and by the time I found out it was merely coincidence that those players all chose the same number, it was too late. Much later did I realize Kirby Puckett wasn’t the perfect player from whom to inherit a number.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But then again, is any?</span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-18487596202990527432014-07-04T17:55:00.000-07:002016-03-13T15:05:43.222-07:00A Love Letter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRDI_RBjWcUGDZvNBNB1jWx3atPgwJGl2UIAFF8edHMsd1T-9asZb9nOhjRQginaz1MSLGypK6B5TsSXYEun76-V57YbMomVV4O2aHuwrnPjklP74UqZRd_exFyJa-sxJSx1LSLUIEA/s1600/KEVIN_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRDI_RBjWcUGDZvNBNB1jWx3atPgwJGl2UIAFF8edHMsd1T-9asZb9nOhjRQginaz1MSLGypK6B5TsSXYEun76-V57YbMomVV4O2aHuwrnPjklP74UqZRd_exFyJa-sxJSx1LSLUIEA/s1600/KEVIN_01.jpg" width="318" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Kevin,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-0c4819c5-03fe-bf14-e439-1c7b28273dc3" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t sleep much last night, and, well, you’ve been on my mind a lot lately. So perhaps telling you how I feel, or at least putting these feelings into words, will help me to rest a little bit easier.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been a tough couple of months, to be honest. Since it became clear back in May that you wanted to leave, I’ve gone through what seems to be the usual string of emotions. First, denial: I didn’t believe it was true, didn’t want to believe it. Then, anger. Then, sadness and resignation. And now, well, I just feel numb.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It didn’t help when you visited Boston. I guess I never thought about what it’d be like to see you with someone else. But there you were, hanging with Rajon Rondo, Rob Gronkowski, and who knows who else. Let me tell you, Kevin, it hurt. There’s just no way around it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll never forget the day you came into my life. Sure, I’d known about you, known that you were a high school phenom in Oregon and a star freshman at UCLA. But it wasn’t until June 27, 2008, my 23rd birthday, when Kevin McHale traded for you and our lives really began together. You were the best birthday present a guy could ask for, really.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I admit, I wasn’t convinced, at least initially. I really wanted Derrick Rose or Mike Beasley, but O.J. Mayo was a stud himself, and #3 was the highest we’ve ever picked, and we needed a stud. I wasn’t sure he was worth giving up for you, but hey, we got Mike Miller out of the deal and got rid of Marko Jaric, so I was in (even if it meant Marko’s gf wouldn’t be around).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But you eventually won me over, first with your efforts on the boards and then your outside shooting. That night when you grabbed 30 rebounds to go along with 30 points, the Target Center was a different place. There was an energy that had not been enjoyed since the days of that other Kevin. For a little while there, you made us forget about the other Kevin. I really mean that.</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a man fills up the boxscore to historic proportions, night after night, when he plays a key role on an Olympic Gold Medal team (defensively, even!), when all inclinations are that he’ll sign a long term contract where nobody wants to sign a long-term contract, it’s hard not to fall in Love.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I did, Kevin, I fell for you. Hard. And that’s what makes this hurt so bad.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And since we’re being honest, it was Love that made me overlook your imperfections. The lackluster effort on defense. The complete unwillingness to foul somebody. The multiple possessions a game where you didn’t bother to cross half court to join your team on defense. The curious habit of the best rebounder in the game excusing himself from offensive rebound opportunities on opponents’ free throws, in order to get to the other end of the court without having to… jog?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not to mention your complete unwillingness to pass up a somewhat uncontested jump shot to pass to a more-open teammate. More forgivable, given that none of your teammates could hit a jump shot, even a more-open one. But still.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No, I knew you weren’t perfect. And sure, there was a sneaking feeling that you were a player capable of incredible stats yet incapable of helping his team finish in the top 16 out of 30 teams. But you were a Timberwolf, and I loved you for it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I started getting worried when you complained about the $60+ million contract you signed in January 2012, almost as soon as you signed it. I get it, you wanted a fifth year. But it seems like an either-or proposition to me. As in, either you sign a contract with the team and pledge your allegiance to it, or you don’t, and then you can talk all the shit you want.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, you signed the contract, then explained how you would play with a chip on your shoulder, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a phrase typically referring to proving enemies wrong, not your employer. That following December, you curiously decided to air out your dirty laundry to Yahoo! Sports about the contract negotiation, team roster moves, and even your hurt feelings when people in the organization supposedly didn’t buy that your broken hand came from those now-infamous knuckle push-ups.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me let you in on a little secret, Kevin: nobody buys that your broken hand came from knuckle push-ups. And yeah, we were pissed. But we got over it. And, believe it or not, we could get over this.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s “this” you say? Let me be clear: I don’t want you here against your will. If you do indeed walk out that door and out of my life forever, it would hurt. But I can’t make you Love me, if you don’t. Just show some respect along the way, bro. This organization traded a top-3 pick for you (Mayo), traded away an all-star caliber player (Al Jefferson) to put you in the driver seat, paid you over $43 million, and would be happy to pay you the rest of the $31+ mil left on your contract, and then some.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The “this” that I’m talking about, that we could get over, is you dissing us, the fans! NBA basketball is a business, yadda yadda yadda, and the Timberwolves aren’t going to have anybody feel sorry for them. But we fans have had your back for the past six years. And it’s our hard-earned cash that ultimately pays your contract.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far, you seem to have forgotten about us. In an interview in LA last month, you said, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In six years I haven't been in the playoffs, and I think it's time for people to be watching me.” Hey, Kevin, what are we, chopped liver? We’ve been watching you for six years. Cheering for you, even. And yeah, we noticed you haven’t made the playoffs.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve had to endure you talking about the Timberwolves as “they” and you fielding questions about how desirable such locations as New York and Cleveland (!) would be for you. How was your trip to Boston, Kevin? I hear Big Papi was offering advice on making the move there from Minny. Maybe he can help you find some steroids too??? (I’m sorry, Papi, I didn’t mean that, honest. This is just a tough time for me. You know, with Kevin and everything…)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On SportsNation, you said that you received some advice. And if that advice was for you to get out of Minnesota, I can’t find any fault in that. It’s a free country, there’s probably more endorsement money to be made elsewhere, and there are definitely better teams out there. And then there’s the winter…</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But at what cost? Was that advice to weasel your way out of your contract a year early, abandon your teammates and insult them on the way out, and all the while seem completely oblivious to the big “f--- you” you’re giving to your loyal and supportive fanbase? I sure hope not. If it was, you need to find somebody else from whom to take advice.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eff yous notwithstanding, I still care about you, Kevin, so I’m going to offer you some free advice of my own. Look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you signed a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and by extension, their fans. Request a trade, sure. And if you have beefs with the organization, then by all means, take it up with them.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But here’s an idea: play out your contract! Put in your work without being a complete baby about it. Leave it up to the team as to whether they want to risk losing you in free agency. The Wolves will likely be better this year, and guess what, they’ll pay you over $15 million bucks either way.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If not? You do still owe something to the fans, and we’re not asking for much. If you’re sick of losing and missing the playoffs, you don’t think that’s going to change, and you want to play somewhere else? Fine. We get it. We’re sick of the losing, too, and can’t quite blame you. Just don’t play the martyr. As Flip put it best, “you’re either part of the problem, or part of the solution.” And as Marcellus Wiley was fair to point out, don’t hide behind your agent. You make the decisions, so stand behind them.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And do yourself a favor. If you do end up with a new team, play some defense. Don’t take plays off. Work on your body language, and consider the team to be greater than yourself.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, hey, did you hear about our new draft pick? He went to UCLA and Flip calls him the best athlete in the draft, even if he is a bit of a project… Oh, never mind.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But one last thing: if you ever run into Stephon, have him call me?</span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-32424792701294193212014-04-07T11:33:00.000-07:002014-04-07T11:33:01.434-07:00Fatherhood and Baseball, in that Order<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmhyphenhyphen_nHyT7GEKCWhBKg1on9qNl5fuJ0YaNK3sRQ-VrlR180saJKTjg85G1MJKVteyJIiFWivd-Bb__bssqbCeRGpXzoDLTAbPpRD-NIJC1MWDtrGlYaS7Xv_H-VAMk7r6XMDPbg6xpHA/s1600/Victoria-Murphy-NY-Mets-Daniel-Murphy-wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmhyphenhyphen_nHyT7GEKCWhBKg1on9qNl5fuJ0YaNK3sRQ-VrlR180saJKTjg85G1MJKVteyJIiFWivd-Bb__bssqbCeRGpXzoDLTAbPpRD-NIJC1MWDtrGlYaS7Xv_H-VAMk7r6XMDPbg6xpHA/s1600/Victoria-Murphy-NY-Mets-Daniel-Murphy-wife.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I grew up watching NFL football in the mid-nineties, back when Norman Julius Esiason’s nickname, Boomer, spoke more to his strong arm as a quarterback than to his pontificating on sports talk radio.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-849b32c3-3d71-5f04-9450-a2cab7dde453" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regrettably, I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him in utero, when he apparently received the nickname from Mama Esiason. According to the New York Times, it was his prolific prenatal kicking that made him Boomer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s unclear as to whether said kicking was truly an effort to encourage labor at an earlier time or if it was just to call attention to himself. Which is not unlike his recent rant against New York Mets infielder Daniel Murphy’s decision to miss the first two games of the baseball season.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On April 2, Esiason’s co-host, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Craig Carton, bemoaned the fact that the Mets had to call up a minor league replacement as they awaited Murphy’s return from paternity leave. Carton clarified that Murphy’s wife gave birth on Monday (around noon) and it would have been legitimate, in his mind, to miss the game that day.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, especially since the Mets’ second game was not until Wednesday, Carton wondered aloud about the legitimacy of Murphy missing Wednesday’s game as well. “I mean, what are you doing?” Carlton said.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Esiason then took it a step further: “Quite frankly, I would have said ‘C-section before the season starts, I need to be at opening day…’” His explanation had something to do with being able to send his kids to college. In conclusion, Boomer said, “Get your ass back to work.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Esiason has since offered a statement to apologize. And, as far as predictable and presumably involuntary apologetic statements go, this one seemed fairly sincere: </span><a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/04/04/boomer-esiason-apologizes-for-insensitive-comments-on-murphys-paternity-leave/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #e82425; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 30pt; margin-left: 17pt; margin-right: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My deep apologies to both Daniel and Tori Murphy for creating an intrusion into a very sacred and personal moment in their lives, and that’s the birth of their son, Noah. Daniel is the Mets’ second baseman, whose brief paternity leave led to a flippant and insensitive remark that I sincerely regret. (In the) meantime, I’m very grateful to my many friends over at the March of Dimes who graciously reached out and re-educated me that if a pregnancy is healthy, it is medically beneficial to let the labor begin on its own rather than to schedule a C-section for convenience. In fact, babies born just a few weeks early have double the risk of death compared to babies born after 39 full weeks of pregnancy. As their promotional campaign says, ‘Healthy babies are worth the wait.’ And as a proud father, I couldn’t agree more.” (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> From </span><a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/04/04/boomer-esiason-apologizes-for-insensitive-comments-on-murphys-paternity-leave/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #e82425; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CBS Local</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fact, I must admit I was fairly impressed by the depth of his apology. He went past the threshold of “I’m sorry if you were offended” and went on to explain exactly where he felt he had offended and even sought to remedy his wrongdoing with education. Perhaps some of us are more aware than others about the inherent risks associated with major surgeries, but that’s another story. Again as far as politically-correct sorrys go, bravo. Truly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s still unresolved, however, is what seems to me to be a curious cluelessness regarding the point of paternity leave, particularly in reference to Carlton’s intimation that any time off “now that she’s </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">had</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the baby,” is essentially overkill.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There’s nothing you can do anyway,” he says. “You’re not breastfeeding the kid.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To Boomer’s credit, he initially defends Murphy by saying he has the legal right to take some time off. But it’s then that he proceeds to give his endorsement of elective Cesareans.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Believe it or not, an additional, unassociated New York-based sports radio host is also struggling to comprehend what good a little old man can be to a woman and their child she had just delivered.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike Francesa, also a nationally-renowned sports personality, called paternity leave a “gimmick” and a “scam” while discussing the Murphy story on his own show. “I guarantee you are not sitting there holding your wife’s hand. . . . I had three kids. . . I was at the birth and was back to work the next day. I didn’t see any reason not to be working. Harrison [Francesa’s son] was born at nine in the morning. I worked that day. What was I gonna do, sit with my wife in the hospital?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What seems to be the sticking point for Carlton, who to my knowledge has not apologized or taken back any of his statements, as well as Francesa, who has publicly refused to do either, is that yeah, while everybody likes a few days off, there’s nothing specific to childbirth that merits a man excusing himself from work any longer than it takes to witness the birth itself.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carlton and Esiason did mention the role a father would play in setting up a “support system” as something he could nobly do within the 24 hours they have allotted by virtue of their sports radio authority. Hell, Francesa even said, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can hire a nurse to take care of the baby if your wife needs help.”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hmmm. I don’t know, guys, I think I’m really starting to believe that “there ain’t nothing to do,” as Carlton says, so don’t try to convince me that the woman might need help. Sounds like a gimmick. Maybe even a scam! </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, what’s been missing from most of this conversation is, you guessed it, the woman. I’m not sure I need to take the time here to explain how a man could be helpful in the days immediately after childbirth. But if any of our aforementioned radio heads want to know, they could probably just ask the women who have given birth to their children. As the saying goes, better late then never.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More broadly, though, what’s really at stake here is fatherhood. Is a man a father simply by impregnating a woman? In the literal sense, yes. But anyone who’s ever had a father worth the name--or moreover, anyone who’s never had anything more a literal father--can tell you that fatherhood doesn’t end with a sexual act. That’s merely when fatherhood begins. Our at least should.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So bravo to Major League Baseball for instituting its 3-game paternity list policy in 2011 (yes, Murphy only missed two games), which allows its players to step away from their professional duties and focus on their fatherly duties. Even if that means (gasp) simply sitting with their wives in the hospital.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But of course fatherhood is more than that. It’s even more than changing diapers in the middle of the night. But that’s definitely part of it, as Murphy has learned firsthand.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"We had our first panic session,” Murphy explained to reporters once he’d returned from leave. “It was dark. She tried to change a diaper, couldn't do it. I came in," he said. "It was just the three of us, 3 o'clock in the morning, all freaking out. He was the only one screaming. I wanted to."</span>IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-6807699013732166652013-12-23T08:24:00.000-08:002013-12-23T08:24:02.671-08:00MN Sports, Ricky Rubio, and Last Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQz1LzWnW6M9VDUlPLbXVRZDh-VT37iFHI36JaK31FtH98ArQsXSEjF3mtq9B6Kvm-0PQHlq6Jbs036C8IzRLLn1y2RCiRw3o9x2sS8hWD32UXk9ObGd4qfQk5yzm6TEWKxRvjkyIsQ/s1600/rub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQz1LzWnW6M9VDUlPLbXVRZDh-VT37iFHI36JaK31FtH98ArQsXSEjF3mtq9B6Kvm-0PQHlq6Jbs036C8IzRLLn1y2RCiRw3o9x2sS8hWD32UXk9ObGd4qfQk5yzm6TEWKxRvjkyIsQ/s320/rub.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If, God willing, I’m ever blessed with a son of my own, we are going to have a talk. Right around the age of reason, when he starts making decisions on his own, the types of decisions that begin to shape who he is and will become for the rest of his life, I’m going to make sure he knows the ramifications of said decisions. You know, like choosing to root for Minnesota sports teams.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-4378a044-203f-d022-6482-e086151be47e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because if he does decide to root for Minnesota sports, he’s basically signing up for a lifetime of heartbreaking losses. Of course, there will inevitably be a period of blissful naïveté, when he thinks he has been born into “just the right time”. Perhaps a second championship in four years will mark the beginning of his fan life, causing him to think such things are the norm rather than the exception. Perhaps the star point guard’s bro-love for the franchise player will keep him around, even as said guard dreams of warmer climes, like New York. Maybe even the most spectacular offense the NFL had ever seen really can overcome a shaky defense.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No, son, not in Minnesota. I’m not saying you can’t root for your Minnesota teams. Just be prepared. And find ways to cope. Like writing about heartbreaking losses. Maybe if you at least just understand better why your favorite team lost, you’ll feel better? It’s worth a try right?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In case you missed it, the most recent heartbreaking loss in the land of 10,000 publicly-financed stadium complaints wasn’t the Vikings soiling themselves in Paul Brown stadium yesterday or even the Wild’s embarrassing loss to a bottom-feeding Rangers team that evening. No, it was the Timberwolves somehow, someway losing 120-116 in overtime to a very good Clippers team last night whom they had simply outplayed right up until the end.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The play that keeps replaying in my head, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, is Jamal Crawford stealing the ball from Kevin Martin and scoring to tie the game in the waning seconds of regulation. All we had to do was hold the ball, make two free throws, and fly home to Minnesota. Of course, every 24-second possession over 48 minutes counts the same, but it was this one that went so terribly wrong at the most important time, and so it’s worth analyzing this one (and maybe a few more above) and beyond the rest.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ball was inbounded, shot clock off, into the backcourt to Martin, where he’s double-teamed by Chris Paul and Crawford. Hold it right there… something needs to change. The issue is not, as commentator Jim Peterson said, that you don’t want to pass the ball backwards. Just recognize that Martin is, relative to position, our worst ball handler except for maybe Corey Brewer. So at this point, everybody on the team should have been running towards him to help, especially Ricky Rubio. Ricky needs to go get that ball and not let Martin have to even take a dribble. Why Martin thought it was a good idea to try to dribble around Paul, one of the best defenders in the league, is another story, and thus he deserves blame here as well.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like Martin as a player and it’s obvious we’re a better team with him, thanks to his outside shooting and playmaking ability. But this isn’t the first game that I’ve walked away from wondering how a veteran could make such glaring offensive mistakes, as a player who has made his name on the offensive end. What’s the solution? Take him for what he is, which is a volume scorer, and don’t ask him to do anything else. And that “anything else” means, now more than ever, handle the ball with a skilled on-the-ball defender.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But of course there’s a bigger issue here as well. Martin gets the ball in the back court in the first place because Adelman seems to prefer him bringing the ball up late in games. The thinking, presumably, is that Rubio isn’t enough of an offensive threat himself and teams would overcommit to keep the ball out of Martin’s hands with the game on the line. The thinking is sound... as long as nobody forgets that Martin doesn’t dribble like a point guard, and if faced with pressure defense he doesn’t you-know-what.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not opposed to having someone else bring up the ball every once in a while, but Ricky obviously needs the ball in his hands to be effective on offense. And even when defenders are giving him space to shoot his jumper, he still seems to have little issue getting the ball to his teammates. As evidenced by the great look he gave Nikola Pekovic at the end of overtime, Ricky is part of the solution on offense, not part of the problem. And yes, that includes nights when he doesn’t record a point.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are people who will see Rubio’s zero points in the box score and inevitably continue with the whole “Rubio needs to score more” narrative (actually, this is already happening on Twitter). But, whether that’s true or not, Rubio’s lack of scoring is not the issue. The Timberwolves are 4th in the NBA in scoring (105.6/game) and scored 106 in regulation last night. As a coach, when you have two players scoring as efficiently as Kevin Love (45 on 15/23 shooting) and Pek (34 on 16/28) last night, you want your point guard to do what he did: pass them the ball. Of course, if you have to choose, you pass it to the one who scored 45 on 15/23, but we’ll get to that later.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For now, Rubio. Obviously, the man needs to make more of his layups and take less contested jumpers. But I would argue he’s taking many of those contested jumpers because of outside pressure to become more of a scorer. And perhaps he should look for his shot more. But to ask Ricky Rubio to become more of a scorer would be akin to asking Michael Jordan to become more of a baseball player. Sure, Jordan probably could have gotten better had he stuck with it. But at what cost? Jordan was put on this earth to be a basketball player, and Rubio to be a passer. Love and Pekovic don’t combine to score 79 points if Rubio is pretending to be Russell Westbrook.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How many point guards in the NBA have more of an impact on both offense and defense as Rubio, even without the points? Put it this way: to say that Rubio needs to score more than his career mark of 10 ppg is to say that he needs to become Chris Paul. Which, of course, would be nice… but not necessary. To win a championship in the NBA, you don’t need a scoring point guard. You need a facilitator who plays defense and can hit an outside shot.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking at the list of NBA champions and their point guards over the past 20-25 years, you can make some fun conclusions, especially as a Wolves fan. First of all, the only point guards that carried a significant scoring load on a championship team were the Spurs’ Tony Parker and the Pistons’ Chauncey Billups. Of course, Tim Duncan also won a championship without Parker, and the Detroit’s championship was much more about defense than it was about Billups’ scoring. But speaking of Timberwolves point guards who won championships with other teams, there’s also Sam Cassell, J.J. Barea, and Stephon Marbury (juuuuust kidding).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">J.J.’s Mavericks team is a realistic best-case scenario for the Timberwolves. Similar enough star (Dirk and KLove), point guard (Ricky and Jason Kidd), veteran shooter (Jason Terry and Martin) J.J., etc. The stark difference? Defense, really (Tyson Chandler, namely). Boston won a championship with a young point guard who could hardly hit an outside shot (Rajon Rondo) but was an elite passer and defender. The rest of those championship teams all had point guards that didn’t do much more than get the ball into the hands of the likes of LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, and Michael.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which reminds me. Kevin Love finished 15-23 from the floor, 13-15 on free throws and scored 45 points, yet didn’t touch the ball on the three most critical possessions of the game (Martin’s turnover and the last possessions of regulation and overtime). I repeat: didn’t touch the ball.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, on the last possession of overtime when Pekovic missed from close range, you couldn’t expect Love to get a better look. Perhaps Pekovic rushed it given the fact time was running out, but Love is not immune to such things himself against the Clippers, in Staples Center (see November 11). And Crawford’s dunk to tie the game at the end of the 4th was so disorienting that you can’t quite blame Ricky for doing what he could to get a decent look with 10 seconds left without a timeout, even though that resulted in two low-percentage jumpers from Pek.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still, Love has to have the ball in that situation. Nay, he has to have the ball on every possession with the game on the line, not to mention when he has been virtually unstoppable all game. Adelman has to do a better job of pounding that into his team, the team has to do a better job of executing, or both. That’s not to say Love would have inevitably won the game had he been given the chance. But he earned the chance by how he’d played so far this game, this season.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That being said, it’s worth wondering if it’s clear how to get him the ball. Where does he like to get it? What’s his go-to move? Go-to players have clear answers to those questions. We all know where Pek wants the ball, and what he’s going to do. Maybe that’s why he got it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s easy to forget this team is still very young and very new to each other. Rubio, Love, and Pek only played a handful of minutes together last year and none with Martin. Two of the biggest issues for this team right now are help defense and offensive consistency, both of which are exacerbated by a lack of experience together. More time together could very realistically mean you come away from a game like last night with a win instead of a loss.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then again, this is Minnesota.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But just so we’re clear, the Wolves need to continue to work to get better on defense, first and foremost. They need to have a clearer identity on offense so that in close games they know what to do to get a bucket. And they need to play as hard as they did last night every night, no exceptions. Such improvement means that Wolves fans very well could be treated to much more meaningful games come springtime… That will inevitably end in heartbreak.</span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-84116540586105967812012-03-06T21:13:00.006-08:002013-10-24T20:31:24.964-07:00JEREMY LIN: A COACH'S DREAM?<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> <br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">America loves Jeremy Lin.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">And let me count the ways: the underdog story, his undeniably likeable personality, the way he seems totally unfazed by his success, the way he continues to deliver unbelievable performances.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">But to me what it comes down to is that this guy is obviously so good all of a sudden and yet just a month ago that fact was obvious to nobody.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">There is something about this man that is just truly remarkable, and sometimes there aren’t perfect explanations to what makes a man remarkable.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">And as extraordinary as Jeremy Lin is, could it be even more amazing how the situation all came together at seemingly the perfect time and place for him to take a nation by storm?</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">For even remarkable people need an opportunity to prove their own significance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Count me as a fan of Lin, for all of the reasons above and many more.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">So don’t misunderstand me when I say that there was something about his emergence which wasn’t terribly astonishing to me.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">With the little knowledge I had of Lin at the time (I knew he was young, Asian, and quick with the ball), seeing him score 25 and 28 points in his first two real opportunities to play significant minutes in the NBA led me to the following conclusion: why not? (Side note: I admit my astonishment has increased markedly as he continues to pile up the stats and wins.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">The NBA is set up right now to encourage quick perimeter players to attack the basket off the dribble.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Defensive rules have become so strict that on-the-ball defenders can’t really do much other than just try to slow a dribble drive to the basket and hope someone comes to help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">It only makes sense, then, that a player who understands this and is capable of it will take advantage of the system.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Obviously, Lin is capable of this, and it’s hard to imagine how his coaches and teams could have missed this obvious fact.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">So why wasn’t he given the opportunity to do it before?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">That seems to be the million-dollar question, and you surely have heard the most popular explanations: his race, his race, and oh yeah, his race.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">What else could it be?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">I’m not going to claim that race never entered into the equation.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">But I think there’s actually a simpler, more universal phenomenon at work here, and it’s not racial prejudice.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">No, it’s basketball prejudice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Here’s what I mean: there is often a tension between what basketball players do well and what their coaches want them to do.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Player A might be good at a lot of things, but if the coach is looking for something else, Player A might never get a chance to do what he does best.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Lin is actually an example of someone whose coaches really did understand what he did well and let him do his thing, at every level he played… except the NBA.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">His first two NBA teams didn’t know what they had and let him go for nothing.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">And credit the Knicks for giving him the chance, but even then, it was only after a team already thin at his position became decimated with injuries, creating an opportunity for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Lin plays the point guard position, which is traditionally played by a solid, if not spectacular—even</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">conservative—player whose job is to handle the ball, run the offense and often times little else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">But you don’t have to watch the NBA very long to realize that the best point guards in the NBA (Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, et al.) are actually the spectacular types who can create their own offense (read: beat their defender off the dribble), and then either score themselves or assist easy baskets.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Not exactly the game-manager types that have traditionally manned the position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Lin fits the new NBA mold.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Of course, he is a well-rounded player, but he’s not conservative at all.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">In fact, in addition to setting records for how many points he’s scored in his first handful of starts, he’s also set records by how many turnovers he’s accumulated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Coaches hate turnovers, obviously.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">But they like winning more.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">And Lin has shown that the offense he generates easily offsets his truly alarming turnover rate, which leads one to believe that maybe there’s something new to be learned about how to evaluate a player and his statistics!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">The other impressive part of Lin’s game that simply can’t be overlooked is his energy, his fire, his infectious personality and his chemistry with teammates.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Yes, Lin has been singularly spectacular, but perhaps more impressive is how he’s lifted up his lowly teammates to such a level as he has, leading his team which had lost 11 of 13 games to seven straight victories and sustained success since.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">And here again is something that is often surprisingly overlooked by coaches.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Of course when asked, a coach would say he wishes every player would be like Lin: likable, coachable, hard worker, relentless energy, hustle, great teammate.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">However, put a player like that in front of them, and often times their blinded by that same player’s limitations.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Coaches may not want to admit it, but they will more often than not pick the enigmatic, stubborn, lazy and selfish player if that same player shows more obvious/flashy talent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">But Lin, like all true innovations, is both new and not new at the same time.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">He does all the little things that good basketball players have always done, while taking advantage of a new era of NBA rules that enhance his talents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">And like all true American underdog stories, he has done it against all odds, and with charm to boot.</span><span style="font-size: 85%; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">What’s not to like, coach?</span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-83480083601978070452012-01-28T11:25:00.000-08:002013-10-24T20:28:54.307-07:00PATERNO, GAGLIARDI, AND THE DEMISE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FOOTBALL COACH<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-size: 12.0pt;">Joe Paterno, God rest him, passed away last week, and the resounding sentiment seemed to be, “what a shame.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The legendary Penn State football coach who seemed invincible only a few short months ago, leading his nationally-ranked Nittany Lions at the ripe old age of 86 and showing few signs of slowing down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-size: 12.0pt;">And then came the scandal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paterno was fired amidst allegations that his former top assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulted young boys even in the Penn State locker room while he served a prominent role at a local outreach to underprivileged boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since then, Paterno’s health had steadily declined up until his death on January 22.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shame is the operative word here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is unspeakable shame in the acts committed by Sandusky, and, undeniably, passed on to Paterno by association.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is even a case to be made that the way Paterno was dispatched from his job was shameful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s certainly a shame to see a man who was responsible for so many good things decline in health so rapidly, perhaps as a result of the onslaught of negativity he received in the wake of the scandal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">His death offers another opportunity to reflect on what exactly happened that went so wrong, and why he was in the middle of the blame in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. John’s football coach John Gagliardi had that opportunity in a recent interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Columnist Bob Sansevere asked him “</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">How should Paterno be remembered?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was Gagliardi’s response:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">“I don't know why he even should have been connected to that thing (scandal). It's sad he's attached to that thing. I don't know all the (facts). He wasn't the guy, the culprit. I really feel pretty saddened about it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">And so you begin to understand why we have scandals like this in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure Coach Gagliardi could come off as any more clueless, which itself isn’t a surprise if you’ve ever heard him interview before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a Tommie can admit that there is something endearing about Gagliardi’s off-the-wall take on life, which is mostly harmless overall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And certainly he’s a great coach, quite possibly one of the very best in the history of football.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">So what does it matter that Gagliardi still seems to be wondering why Paterno received such backlash?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it calls into question whether Gagliardi is in any way prepared or even capable of doing any better a job than Paterno did if ever faced with such a concern.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">Earth to Gagliardi: Paterno “should have been connected” to the Penn State Football Scandal because Paterno <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> Penn State Football!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting vulnerable young boys in the Penn State LOCKER ROOM, and Paterno, as reports later showed, never felt the need to even personally approach Sandusky about it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">It should be noted that Paterno did pass the information on to his superiors, as is protocol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact that he apparently did nothing more speaks much more loudly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Concerned only with protocol, and not with actually figuring out what the hell was going on, Paterno showed that he wasn’t really concerned at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">It stands as a curious testament to how great our men and our institutions can be while being so very flawed and fragile at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could Paterno build up one of the greatest and most revered football programs in America, revered for not just wins and losses either but for much more, and yet at the same time failing in such a dramatic, and yet basic way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could he be so adept at leading a football team to victory and yet so inept at leading that same organization in basic human morals and ethics?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">Perhaps there’s no clear answer, but if Gagliardi’s interview is any indication, St. John’s football program might be suffering from the same schizophrenia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact of the matter is that Paterno took the fall, not for Sandusky’s sins as Gagliardi apparently still thinks, but for his own sins of standing by and doing essentially nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">Is it too much to ask a football coach?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sure hope not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any football coach worth his clipboard is teaching much more than x’s and o’s: he teaches attention to detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He teaches accountability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He teaches manly virtues like courage, fortitude, and selflessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if nothing else, he teaches the power of authority and obedience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">For a good football coach, nothing happens on the field, on the sidelines, and in the locker room that he doesn’t know about, that he doesn’t care a great deal about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything that goes wrong, he corrects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who resists his authority, he reprimands. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow, Joe Paterno failed in this most basic way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">Is it possible that sexual assaults were happening in his own locker room and he didn’t immediately know?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the moment he found out and he didn’t get right to the bottom of it, reprimand the culprits, make serious corrections and demand accountability, he failed as a football coach, not to mention as a human being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-size: 11pt;">The fact that a figure of Gagliardi’s stature seemingly fails to realize these basic tenets of leadership and the inherent accountability therein, should set alarms off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sincerely hope that there is no coach, no university, or any other organization in the country that doesn’t take the time to re-evaluate what they are doing to ensure the Penn State scandal is the last of its kind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As much as Joe Paterno’s hastened death is a shame, and as shameful as the entire Penn State scandal is, it would be a much greater shame if the best we can do is, “feel pretty saddened about it.” </span></div>
IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-15057097889884344072011-06-22T16:37:00.000-07:002013-10-24T20:36:44.737-07:00TIERS FOR FEARSA detailed draft plan for the Minnesota Timberwolves<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">No Kan Do</span><br />
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T Minus 1 day until the NBA Draft, and I’m starting to get worried. There are “reports” from Espn.com’s Chad Ford that the Timberwolves are considering Enes Kanter at #2. This is very bad news. Recapping my last post introducing my suggested draft plan for the Timberwolves, you either take Williams (or Irving if available) or you trade down. Which means, David Kahn, please do not take Kanter at #2. If you like him, trade with Utah. They’d be happy to do it.<br />
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However, that all being said, forget trading down. Take Derrick Williams. And here’s why: it’s become pretty clear that Williams is going to be a good player, and is the clear-cut 2nd best player in the draft, if not the best. So the only reason for the Wolves not to take him would be that they’re happy with Beasley playing small forward.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">B-Easy or D-Weezy?</span><br />
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But here’s what the Wolves need to ask themselves: who would you rather have, Beasley or Williams? If I had to choose, I would take Williams. Beasley’s a great talent, and he has a high ceiling, even after what has been an underwhelming two years in the league, given his gifts and his being drafted #2 overall. I would even say he has unique offensive skills that could make him one of the better offensive forwards in the league.<br />
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However, he has a few strikes against him: 1. He is a very individualistic player. Right now, he’s a one-on-one player with shaky shot selection and who doesn’t pass much. 2. He doesn’t play a lick of d. Capable? Maybe. But needs to improve. 3. And three, his intangibles are pretty glaringly suspect. I’m not saying you can’t have erratic body language, talk to yourself out loud, and generally look completely stoned (giving him the benefit of the doubt that he’s not actually stoned), and not be a good basketball player. But I am saying that if you already have those strikes against you, then you need to play hard, all the time, to have the world believe that you actually give a rat’s. And Beasley doesn’t.<br />
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Two things could help his cause: One, Rambis could be fired. It’s no secret that Rambis once upon a time didn’t play a different talented forward enough to allow him to play his game. I’m also not sure that Rambis’ do-whatever-you-want demeanor is helpful to Mr. “He smoked too much weed” Beasley. And secondly, Beasley was tearing it up last year before he hurt his ankle, and he is a much different player healthy.<br />
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That all being said, I’m not sure there’s a GM in the Association who would take Beasley over Williams right now. Williams just seems two talented, charismatic, and explosive, and Beasley just has too many question marks. So if that’s the case, you can’t pass up Williams just because you have Beasley already.<br />
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Can you find enough minutes for both? That might be another story. But I think the right play is to take Williams and figure out the rest later.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kyrie Eleison</span><br />
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Same thing with Kyrie Irving. I think Rubio and Irving could play together. Irving can shoot the ball from three and can score in a number of ways. He also was in a similar situation at Duke, with he and Nolan Smith both capable of playing both guard positions. I’m not sure I want Ricky playing off the ball, but Irving could play the two and run the offense when Ricky sits. Regardless, Irving (and Williams too) would be easy to trade if it didn’t work out.<br />
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I think Kanter will be good. He’s built like a man and runs like horse, with post moves to boot- a unique combination. But he’s too much of an unknown to take him that high. And if he can’t play defense, which remains to be seen, we would regress as a defensive team, which should not be possible.<br />
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Therein lies the problem with building around Kevin Love: he doesn’t score inside and he doesn’t defend inside. So finding a center to play next to him requires finding a defensive force as well as someone who can create his own shot inside every now and again, which just might be the most rare commodity in basketball.<br />
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If you’re going to draft out of need, fine, but our top two needs are production from the 2 guard and defense from the center, and you won’t find either of those in any of the top 8 or so players in this draft. So if you’re drafting at #2, it’s gotta be Williams, Irving, or nothing!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tiers or Tears</span><br />
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If I was running this draft, I would ascribe to Chad Ford’s <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2011/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=Tiers-110616">Tier System</a>. To summarize, the players are ranked, then grouped. The progression of each tier represents a significant drop-off in the level of player as well as the “sure-thing” factor: whether such a player has a high probability of success in the NBA.<br />
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The tier system protects teams from themselves: it keeps them from reaching too low for a player while passing up a better player. Why would teams ever “reach”? They would probably be picking based on a need or a “fit”, which can be sometimes very fluid things. For example, with the Wolves, we basically need everything, while an argument could be made that no player will perfectly fit our team, because it’s so bad!<br />
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Below is a list of players, separated by tier. I essentially took Ford’s advice on who fits in to which tier. But I went a few steps further: 1, I ordered the players within each tier according to who would be most valuable for the Timberwolves. 2, I deleted players from the list that don’t make much sense for us to draft (basically all the power forwards). 3, I identified where in the draft I would take each tier.<br />
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So here’s how it works: When it’s the Wolves’ pick turn to pick at #2 or #20 (or elsewhere if there’s a trade), they choose the most valuable player from the highest tier that still has players in it. In this case, value is based on how they help our team.<br />
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Obvious example: If Williams goes #1, you have to take Kyrie Irving, even though he doesn’t fill an obvious need, while a different player from a lower tier might. Bottom line is, Irving could turn into a star while Bismack Biyombo might never pan out. It just simply wouldn’t be wise to pass on a player of Irving’s caliber to pick based on need.<br />
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One last thing: It’s possible if we somehow ended up with the 6-8 or 13-19 picks that there’s nobody there worth picking at that level. So don’t pick there.<br />
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So without any further ado, here’s who I would draft and how they’d help us:<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Who I would draft at #2:</span><br />
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Kyrie Irving – pg – Great all-around player. Provides offensive creativity, passing, defense, outside shooting, and is a good teammate and citizen. On the flip side, he only provided a limited sample size of stats at Duke, and is coming off an injury.<br />
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Derrick Williams – sf/pf – Charismatic personality who led a deep, unexpected run in NCAA tournament. Brings multi-faceted scoring, athleticism and finishing ability, strength, rebounding, outside shooting, energy, and toughness.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">3 or below:</span><br />
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Enes Kanter – c – Sat out last season ineligible to play at Kentucky. He’s a strong, confident offensive force inside; works hard, plays hard, and loves the game.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">4 or below:</span><br />
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Kemba Walker - pg – National Champion and arguably the best college player in the nation last year. Another charismatic leader, he greatly improved his shooting and was essentially unstoppable offensively. But can he play point guard and will he pay defense?<br />
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Brandon Knight –pg/sg – Athletic, aggressive guard who made multiple game-winning shots in the postseason last year. Not a great passer, average shooter, but gets it done, and plays tough defense.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">9 or below:</span><br />
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Klay Thompson - sg – Possibly the best shooter in the draft, he’s big (6’7”) and athletic. But does he play d and can he create his own shot?<br />
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Bismack Biyambo – c – 7’7” wingspan despite his 6’9” frame. Very active, and a good rebounder and shot-blocker. Other than that, and his non-existent offensive game, he’s very much a mystery.<br />
<br />
Alec Burks – sg – One of the best scorers in the nation last year, without much of an outside shot. Great athleticism, and an ability to get to the basket.<br />
<br />
Chris Singleton – sf – Long, excellent defender, decent offensive player.<br />
<br />
Jonas Valanciunas – c – Big, tough and active player, but very raw. Big European buyout means be patient.<br />
<br />
Jan Vesely – sf – Tall (6’10”) and very athletic, runs the floor and finishes. Can handle the ball and shoot a little bit.<br />
<br />
Kawhi Leonard – sf – Active, athletic player who rebounds and shoots the mid-range jumper<br />
<br />
Jimmer Fredette – pg/sg – Ridiculously good shooter, finds ways to get it off, and is very well-liked and respected. Didn’t play any D in college, can he do it in the pros?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">20 or below:</span><br />
<br />
Marshon Brooks – sg – A scorer with very long arms and rebounds well.<br />
Jeremy Tyler – c – tall (7’?) and athletic, he’s an American who’s played overseas and underwhelmed.<br />
Nikola Vucevic – c – 7-footer from USC who has impressed in workouts.<br />
Nolan Smith – sg – 4-year player at Duke with great leadership who plays defense and can score<br />
Donatus Motiejunas – c – Lithuanian 7-footer, would go much higher without his huge buyout<br />
Reggie Jackson - pg/sg – big point guard who plays defense<br />
Tyler Honeycutt – sf – poor man’s Tayshaun Prince?<br />
Josh Selby – pg/sg – highly touted high school recruit underwhelmed at Kansas.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">2nd round:</span><br />
<br />
E’Twan Moore – sg – 4-year started at Purdue shoots the ball well and can play point.<br />
David Lighty – sg – big, smart player from Ohio State plays good defense and can shoot 3’s<br />
Travis Leslie – sg – perhaps best dunker in nation, a little short (6’4”)<br />
Malcolm Lee - pg/sg – another big point guard who can play d.<br />
Kyle Singler – sf – one of best players in nation at Duke after four years, but not sure how his game will translate<br />
Keith Benson - c – big, but questions about his effort<br />
Nikola Mrotic – c – skilled big who will stay in Europe for a year or two<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Late 2nd:</span><br />
<br />
Morris – pg – big (6’5”) point guard from Michigan<br />
Scotty Hopson – sg – great athlete with nice size (6’7”)IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-1744092551843544382011-06-15T22:51:00.000-07:002011-06-15T22:53:31.357-07:00TIMBERWOLVES DRAFT PLANby Isaac Huss<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4z_AbkktIVYis2p3Aza9it2G9PXBZj-9gMMfT1-Z2s3TTob6yozU8OekEQ9F-rMELNn3ilPdNzv84JSUJ095cRwoWNTI6BputssY8iPLjI7E_mnD1ZHeWvweuGlZK__O2VieEJFZVA/s1600/nba_g_2010draft_class_576.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4z_AbkktIVYis2p3Aza9it2G9PXBZj-9gMMfT1-Z2s3TTob6yozU8OekEQ9F-rMELNn3ilPdNzv84JSUJ095cRwoWNTI6BputssY8iPLjI7E_mnD1ZHeWvweuGlZK__O2VieEJFZVA/s400/nba_g_2010draft_class_576.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618691492083221266" border="0" /></a><br />The Timberwolves, if you haven’t heard, suck at life. Recently ESPN the Magazine ranked the teams from the four major sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL) and the Wolves finished 118th out of 122 teams. They have not had a remotely successful season since Kevin Garnett was fatefully gifted to Boston, and have become a national punching bag thanks to David Kahn and his wit, among other things. But perhaps the biggest contributing factor to the T-Wolves’ woes, especially recently, has been their draft history. So to lend a hand, here is one man’s effort to help the cause.<br /><br />First of all, it would help to have a plan in the first place. So to begin, let’s identify the Wolves’ greatest needs. In order to do so, however, let’s identify their greatest strengths:<br /><br />1. Power Forward. Kevin Love is the team’s best, most valuable, and most marketable player, by far. I’m not saying he should be untouchable, but when heading into a draft, unless there’s a clear-cut player with superior, can’t miss skills, you don’t draft at his position. In addition to Love, arguably the two next best players on the roster also play this same position: Michael Beasley and Anthony Tolliver. Tolliver may not be as valuable on the trade market as a Wesley Johnson, or even a Johnny Flynn (hopefully), but nobody played harder and gave a more consistent effort, especially on defense, in addition to being a very good outside shooter. Throw in the fact that Anthony Randolph impressed in Love’s absence at the end of the season, and the fact that Nikola Pekovic might be undersized for center, that leaves the Wolves with an embarrassment of riches of sorts at this position. And when you have an embarrassment of riches at a position, you do not draft that position. I repeat: YOU DO NOT DRAFT AT THAT POSITION!!!<br /><br />And that’s about where it ends. No seriously. That’s the only position that could be considered a position of strength for the Timberwolves. Which means, the Timberwolves should be at least open to drafting any position but power forward. But let me be clear, just for the record: DO NOT DRAFT AT THAT POSITION!!!<br /><br />Now, you may be thinking, “Wait, we have Ricky Rubio, you can’t be saying we should draft another point guard after the whole ‘Ricky Rubio/Johnny Flynn Scandal of 2009’.” Well, here’s what I have to say about that: I agree. But, and this is a big but, if you know what I mean: Our guys must be damn sure that Ricky is who they think he is, which is a “Transformational Player”. I don’t have a problem with them sticking to their guns with that. Also, if they have made any sort of promises to Ricky that they feel like they would lose credibility around the league if they rescinded on those, which is very possible that they did, then they should not draft a point guard.<br /><br />However, if the whole deal with Ricky is what many think it is, which is, here is a mediocre European point guard with a flair for a highlight every now and again who doesn’t really want to play in Minnesota and doesn’t hide that fact, then the Timberwolves should have no qualms with picking a point guard if the shoe fits. Which means: if one of my top three point guard prospects is available when the Wolves choose according to the plan detailed below, they should consider taking him. If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, it might later. And if it doesn’t later, then, I’m sorry.<br /><br />So now that we know what is a position of strength, let’s identify what are positions of need for the upcoming season, and thus, the draft (specific needs in parentheses):<br /><br />1. Shooting Guard (scoring/defending); 2. Center (defending/scoring); 3. Small Forward (defending/scoring); 4. Point Guard (passing/defending/scoring).<br /><br />Notice, the biggest specific need on our team is most definitely defense. We have scorers on our team at every position, except point guard and, arguably, shooting guard. Perhaps it’s worth saying at this time that Wesley Johnson could very well turn out to be a very good off guard, but my bet is that he’s got a better chance of being a very good small forward, where he played in college, and that it would do him well to move him back there permanently. Therefore, if you consider him a forward, then we have no legitimate scoring threat at the off guard position.<br /><br />That all being said, overall team defense is Minnesota’s biggest flaw at this time. That will only be remedied by a competent defensive coach, which they do not possess at this time. In the meantime, the team needs to get better individually at defense, even to the point that David Kahn should be very hesitant to draft anybody who is not at least a competent defender already, and not just potentially. This means you, Jimmer.<br /><br />That all being said, you don’t draft someone #2 overall because of his defense. This means you, Hasheem Thabeet. And, perhaps more importantly, you don’t over-think it. If there is someone who is obviously the 2nd best player in the draft, you take him at #2. If you don’t particularly like that player, trade down.<br /><br />In case you’re wondering if a team should reach at #2 in order to fill a need, the answer is no. If a player doesn’t deserve to be to be taken that high, don’t take him. Here’s what I’m getting at: there’s no player in this draft that deserves to be taken at #2 that fills either of our top two position needs, shooting guard or center. Therefore, we should either take the best player available, or trade down.<br /><br />All of this means that the Timberwolves should not expect to draft a player that significantly improves their team. That doesn’t mean they can’t get better in this draft, but they should look to make a big splash elsewhere: through free agency or a trade. In a later post, I will identify players the Wolves should target in free agency, as well as in a trade. In the meantime, my next post will detail a specific, detailed suggested draft plan for the Wolves.<br /><br />Until then.IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-29352548658017500862010-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:002021-09-05T19:57:23.658-07:00NFL Players: The New Gladiators?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqo2fg_J-drREB5vXLuHuW5Umx7Iz7WopeYusKzhv-ys_gA-BZWVCOoHdMvkvCbtIStKmFcEz9x4WQO_Gjx_BC-UUI-4l4eAWaY8tSHaB6N6i4fagyC1ZG5vGQRFS9zflYzadpsy6YQQ/s1600-h/procap.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423845507812635154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqo2fg_J-drREB5vXLuHuW5Umx7Iz7WopeYusKzhv-ys_gA-BZWVCOoHdMvkvCbtIStKmFcEz9x4WQO_Gjx_BC-UUI-4l4eAWaY8tSHaB6N6i4fagyC1ZG5vGQRFS9zflYzadpsy6YQQ/s320/procap.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 239px;" /></a>
Indianapolis Colts rookie coach Jim Caldwell drew flak recently for sitting his starters in the second half of a loss to the New York Jets. It was their first loss of the season after starting 14-0.
The Colts had already clinched the number one seed in the conference, including home-field advantage until the Super Bowl. However, no team has ever gone undefeated through the playoffs since the Miami Dolphins in 1972, and that was before the NFL expanded to the current 16-game schedule.
Caldwell’s reasoning was that he did not want to risk injury to his best players in a game that was essentially meaningless. Many fans, especially those of the Colts, disagreed with his decision, seeing the record as worthy of the risk.
Even Colts players themselves, while remaining loyal to their coach’s decision, nonetheless expressed their desire to go for the record. The question that will live on: is a historical record worth the risk of serious injury that could derail an eventual championship run?
Lost in the conversation, however, is perhaps a bigger question: is a sport worth playing if the risk of serious injury is so great that it is safer to sit out than to play the game?
Now, it’s worth saying that with any sport there will be the risk of injury. And the higher the level of play, the more the danger, at least theoretically, because bigger and stronger athletes are clashing with each other.
This isn’t to say that sports should be outlawed because of the risk involved. But there is certainly a difference between an athlete being hurt because something went wrong in the sport and an athlete being hurt because something went right.
For example, a basketball player risks injury when he plays the game. But the injuries come from something going wrong: a knee twisting the wrong way during landing, or a ball caroming off a finger and dislocating it.
However, football players are injured on a regular basis because of something that went right: a player who makes a “great” hit over the middle could be praised for his technique, courage, and timing, while at the same time seriously injuring the player he hit.
Injuries are as much a part of the game of football as anything else. An “injury report” is required from every team before every game. Team trainers, it seems, are equal parts coaches as they are first responders, prepared for treating anything from broken bones to concussions to punctured lungs.
In the NFL, injuries aren’t so much possible as they are inevitable. And there is growing research that shows that they are much more debilitating than they seem.
The average lifespan of an NFL player is alarmingly shorter than the average man, and former players have early dementia up to 19 times as often . The extensive damage done to the brain for every concussion is only now being understood, and for every concussion that is diagnosed, many more are hid or not recognized.
In fact, the majority of NFL players will suffer a concussion in their careers. National media members as well as doctors are calling for mandatory regulations regarding concussion treatment, including an obligatory suspension of full-contact activities.
Meanwhile, NFL players as a whole are among the least-compensated athletes in professional sports, especially in the event of career-threatening injuries. Most contracts are not guaranteed, meaning if a player suffers an injury, they can be given a pink slip without further pay.
Now, the comparison to the gladiators of ancient Roman culture is not perfect, as many of them were forced into competition against their will, and there was certainly much more bloodshed.
However, the element that is more relevant is the fact that the athletes put their physical well-being on the line for a reward that is passing, as millions of spectators stand by unscathed and, for many, unsympathetic to the physical toll it takes on the participants.
Consider again the example of the Indianapolis Colts’ dilemma for the chance at a perfect season. Fans clamored for the participation of the Colts’ starters, considering the injury risk a necessary evil on the way to a relatively meaningless accomplishment that merits no trophy, only fame and the accompanying satisfaction.
Some NFL fans become so callous as to see injury timeouts as annoying interruptions to their own entertainment. How dare they presume to lay on the field while they receive medical attention and hold up the rest of the show!
No, pro football players are not forced to hit each other for others’ entertainment. In fact, many of them will make millions more than the average worker to play a game many of them would play for free.
However, is any amount of money enough to allow people to debilitate each other for sport and entertainment? Is there a price being put on human life?
Like it or not, it seems American culture has carried on the ancient tradition of sending warriors into the ring to battle at their own risk. And while pro football doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, perhaps it is time for the NFL to work harder to protect its greatest assets: the players themselves.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLTaxG7CE-YLHVOn7aXxvhu5z9bIeviK_F5gvba5P8uzgAVG61vo0BFIWLuzEFlEl4aW1bCjaPnojx7Z-tIluPo7cRXYgt3hzhvMpjU3QXYWDL6m9h6qBuQQYHCWzRZL2Lg3oKjNP8g/s1512/Screen+Shot+2021-09-05+at+9.57.01+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLTaxG7CE-YLHVOn7aXxvhu5z9bIeviK_F5gvba5P8uzgAVG61vo0BFIWLuzEFlEl4aW1bCjaPnojx7Z-tIluPo7cRXYgt3hzhvMpjU3QXYWDL6m9h6qBuQQYHCWzRZL2Lg3oKjNP8g/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-09-05+at+9.57.01+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-11175897337866697502009-10-11T18:08:00.000-07:002013-10-24T19:35:20.740-07:00Tim Tebow: Redefining the Dream<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lZRaJGRUTQK7o6_hCxfWH9S25BmNpY0N02KT2Qh2Y8Bvkj7O4o4U7vQLCyERolgt-A7_OLYrrqWtBmXcTdEpniEy9IvKoFh5fbrCZhj8uH8ODy3_o-lldF0nW6b-rROpm_-7gV1VDA/s1600-h/tebowcreation.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391514962447572642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lZRaJGRUTQK7o6_hCxfWH9S25BmNpY0N02KT2Qh2Y8Bvkj7O4o4U7vQLCyERolgt-A7_OLYrrqWtBmXcTdEpniEy9IvKoFh5fbrCZhj8uH8ODy3_o-lldF0nW6b-rROpm_-7gV1VDA/s320/tebowcreation.jpg" style="display: block; height: 184px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
Like many young boys who grew watching professional sports, I dreamed of being a professional athlete. It seemed like the ultimate profession: not only could I play a game all day, I could get paid for it, and paid a lot for that matter, and if that wasn’t enough, I would be a celebrity, and I would be famous, and women would be screaming for my attention, and I would use my celebrity to help save the whales. My dream had it all: fun, fame, fortune, and females. What more could you possibly want?<br />
<br />
Well, someone ought to tell Tim Tebow about what being a celebrity athlete is really all about. Apparently, he has made it to the top of the college football world without tapping into its bag of goodies that comes with sports superstardom. Here he is, in his fourth year of playing quarterback for the Florida Gators, two National Championships and a Heisman Trophy later, and he doesn’t seem to get it. Doesn’t he know he could be making millions in the NFL by now? In fact, he could have left the college ranks after his sophomore year and still would have gone down in history as one of the best college players of all time. Instead, he now is recovering from a concussion he sustained September 27 against the University of Kentucky.<br />
<br />
Of course, everyone expects Tebow to bounce back from the injury with no ill effects, because up until this point, anyone who has ever been impressed by his success has ceased being surprised. Heck, even his birth was miraculous: according to his parents, “Timmy” should have died no less than four times before he was born because of a deadly illness his mother contracted on a missionary trip to the Philippines. Yes, his parents are missionaries. And yes, perhaps the greatest college quarterback ever is also a well-seasoned missionary himself, taking time every off-season to travel abroad to spread the Good News. And perform circumcisions. I’m not making this up.<br />
<br />
Clearly, nothing holds Tim Tebow back. And yet, he has become an icon of restraint in the last year, beginning with his decision to return for his senior year of football, risking, or at least delaying, a pro career promising all of the spoils that every young boy dreams about at night. And yet perhaps his greatest feat of restraint is in a different arena: sex.<br />
<br />
Back in July, as Tebow fielded questions at a preseason press conference, a reporter asked him if he, you know, was saving himself for marriage. His response was a lighthearted chuckle and a genuine smile, accompanied by nervous, yet slightly amused laughter from the other reporters in the room. The answer, of course, was “yes I am”, and the whole sports world stopped turning for a moment. Not necessarily because it was surprised, as the guy wrote “John 3:16” on his eye black during the national championship game in January. But the fact that the information was undeniably public now was enough to give pause to sports fans everywhere as they tried to make sense of such a thing.<br />
<br />
Think about it: the guy is undeniably good looking, funny, charming, articulate, built like a horse, plays the hardest position in sports better than maybe anyone ever at the college level, is set to make millions the moment he takes his talent to the NFL, not to mention he is doing all of this at the University of Florida, which does not lack for eligible mega-babes, and he’s saving himself for marriage? It honestly is mind-blowing, most especially for a world who would be asking not one question, but two in response: Why?! How?!<br />
<br />
The unbelievable nature of the story is only multiplied when you consider the modern culture in college football. It has become a relatively common occurrence for recruits who are visiting a campus to be treated to certain “local ladies” as a sort of foretaste of what life would be like as a member of the team. Sex is a foregone conclusion on college campuses today, and most especially for football players, who are the most eligible bachelors on campus, and many times are particularly sought out by groupies hoping to get close to a star. And so many times players are all too happy to oblige.<br />
<br />
Not Timmy. He claims that football is fourth on his list, behind faith, family, and school, in that order (notice: premarital sex is not a priority). And when he says things like that, you almost expect him to say, “ha ha, just kidding,” not because he doesn’t sound sincere, but because he does. He doesn’t sound like a preacher, or an extremist, or even slightly annoyed when faced with cynicism. In fact, he seems to <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3812762&sportCat=ncf&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines">relish the opportunity</a> just to share his faith:<br />
<br />
“You know, there's a lot of leaders out there. But, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good ones. So that's always been my dream and my goal...to be someone that a parent can say, 'Hey, this kid did it the right way.' That's always been my dream and my goal more so than winning a trophy or winning a championship.”<br />
<br />
Sounds like he’s just living his dream.IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-58801058968994714802009-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:002013-10-20T14:25:38.613-07:00FAVRE > T-JACK<a href="http://youarestruggling.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/tj1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://youarestruggling.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/tj1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 268px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 402px;" /></a><br />
One thing is certain: the quarterback has been the key to the Vikings’ demise over the last ten years. In that time, the Vikings and their fans have been tormented by Daunte Culpepper and his itty-bitty, fumble-happy hands; Jeff George and his phantom sacks; a bunch of other slow, old, white guys; and of course Tarvaris Jackson and his fluttering “five hundred, dead or alive” heaves that even the red-headed neighbor kid knows he can intercept.<br />
<br />
And that is precisely why the Vikings need Brett Favre to lead the troops this season. Not because he’s the perfect quarterback, for he might throw as many interceptions as T-Jack would (admittedly scary), but because, for the first time in a long time, opposing defenses would be worried about the Vikings passing the ball.<br />
<br />
Clearly, Favre is old and interception-prone. But he still scares people with his arm, and will punish defenses if they key on Adrian Peterson. Furthermore, #4 is still capable of leading the team to come-from-behind victories, especially important because we tend to give up big plays on defense.<br />
<br />
It was espn.com’s Bill Simmons who, last winter, was hoping that the Vikings would make the playoffs because he was so excited to bet against them, particularly because Jackson was quarterback (and we all know how that turned out). A Tarvaris Jackson-led (or Sage Rosenfels-led) team doesn’t scare anybody but Vikings fans, while Favre gives us a glimmer of hope.<br />
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Plus, we get to stick it to Wisconsin.IHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9020788338587962987.post-83460332497084430822009-07-14T22:54:00.000-07:002009-07-14T22:56:32.298-07:00A letter to my readersAMDG<br />July 13 2009<br /><br />A letter to my readers<br /><br />Yes, it’s been many years since I last picked up the proverbial pen (I say proverbial because I’m not sure anyone uses them anymore) to write for JamTime. What is the inspiration, you ask, to continue what for some seemed like a figment of a child’s boredom? His name is Bill Simmons. Also known as “The Sports Guy” in ESPN the Magazine and on espn.com, his writing has essentially inspired me to return to my own.<br /><br />At first glance, we couldn’t be any more different. Bill’s writing is filled with movie references, (anybody who knows me knows that I have very limited range when it comes to movie watching), strip club jokes, and odes to his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox. And initially I was turned off to his writing for its occasional “mature themes” as much as I was for his allegiance to a team that nobody is allowed to root for. But what I did see through it all is a rare transcendence in his writing that I had not seen in other writers. Not necessarily an other-worldly transcendence, but a transcendence nonetheless. A sort of scope of sports that saw beyond the athletic world, and not in a superficial “here’s how sports affects real life” sense that can’t see beyond the self-centeredness of the sports world, but more of a “let’s be honest, sports are not that important, but at the same time, they’re fascinating, and that’s ok.<br /><br />Here’s an example: Bill, as a Red Sox fan, endured (and saw the end of) the infamous “Curse” which supposedly kept Boston devoid of a World Series Title for close to a century. One of the observations that he made in reference to a city which has endured losing for so long is this: Eventually, if a team loses so much, and in dramatic fashion to boot, they come to expect failure; no longer are they even surprised if their team ruins it. To me, this is a great observation, and it really rings true in many arenas. To give a local example of this phenomenon, look no further than the current state of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Every time the team has a losing season (and there have been many), the team and its fans practically expect to be screwed in the lottery, because that’s the only thing they are used to.<br /><br />Take the 1992 draft, when the Wolves had just come off a season when they had the worst record in the NBA. An undeniable talent by the name of Shaquille O’Neal was set to be the #1 draft choice. Minnesota ends up choosing third and takes Christian Laettner. By the time the 2009 draft lottery came around, nobody in Minnesota was surprised when we fell to the 6th slot, seemingly much too low to be able to take Ricky Rubio or even Hasheem Thabeet, the two players in the draft who most clearly would help the team. Then, in a bit of draft-day luck, combined with a trade for the 5th pick, the team was able to select Rubio, only to have him waver at playing for the team because of contractual issues with his Spanish pro team. And nobody in Minnesota is surprised.<br /><br />Why is Simmons’ insight so noteworthy? Not because he has able to shed light on a sports story, but because his insight is so easily applicable to the rest of society and instances in real life. And his references to pop culture, and even human nature, have got me thinking that there might just be something to this professional sports thing that simply a diversion from real life: sports may be able to offer a metaphor for the rest of our lives if only we can see beyond the face value. No, sports is not the only thing nor the most important thing, and we can probably all agree that it takes too high a priority for too many people. However, it also seems that it’s here to stay, and that is enough to try to take something away from it, especially if you’re already committed to watching the Twins every summer night or the Vikings every Sunday morning.<br /><br />That’s why I want to write again. I’m still watching sports, and more and more people are doing the same. Instead of trying to break a habit that is bound to stick anyway (and you don’t really want to kick, anyway) why not enjoy them like you want to, while also gaining something else, perhaps something more valuable: an opportunity to think more deeply about our everyday lives.<br /><br />It’s good to be back.<br />Isaac HussIHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10632271736941179187noreply@blogger.com1