Thursday, December 09, 2004
One Foot Out The Door
Just when I think I am in, they force me back out.
It's been awfully tough to get excited about the NBA this season. For most teams, the season is not even twenty games old and already we've seen a whole year's worth of controversy and outrageous incidents. The Shaq-Kobe-Phil-Buss-Kupchak-Payton-Malone love/hate heptagon. I'm still shaken up over that one. The Latrell Sprewell "I got a family to feed" quote. Hilarious, but excruciating. Ron Artest asking for time off to recuperate from promoting his R&B album. 'Nuff said. The Sprewell "Suck my (expletive)" quote. Brilliant. Even after crawling through all this muck like Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption," I still felt there was light at the end of the sewage pipe. Pro basketball, specifically the Lakers with their uptempo new squad, were actually starting to draw me in. And then the Karl Malone tiff happened. I really don't know if I can survive this one. College basketball might be getting a new number one fan.
Kobe and Karl are both right and both wrong. The spirit of Kobe's comments was absolutely correct. The Lakers and their new young players should not be strung along about a possible roster addition that would mean a warm spot on the IR for a guy out there busting his butt right now. But why did Kobe have to say this publicly? Why did he have to refer to his teammates as giving him 110% as opposed to the team? For all Kobe's damage control babble about how he had nothing to do with Shaq and Phil being dispatched, his actions and words since then constantly contradict that. To some degree I would attribute this latest fiasco to Mitch Kupchak not commanding the respect that Jerry West did. You think Kobe would be openly discussing personnel issues if he was still working for Jerry West? No way. West would have total control of this situation and Kobe would never have said a peep. However, it's not Kupchak's fault that Jerry Buss sent a message to Kobe that the Lakers were his team. Kobe has clearly taken the power implied to him with his massive contract and the exodus of his two former obstacles and gone nuts with it. ESPN's Chad Ford described this morning on ESPN Radio how Laker players' agents recently have indicated that many of Kobe's players have already come to despise him. He made vague references to Kobe getting in guys' faces and (get this) threatening to trade them. I guess with a contract as fat as $134 million, he figured he'd better earn his keep as a player and a GM.
Karl Malone is neither the saint nor the martyr he's making himself out to be. Of course, he has every right to be upset if Kobe was indeed rolling out an unwelcome mat. He's done quite a lot for the Lakers in a very short amount of time and has appeared to do a bit more for Bryant personally than any of his longtime teammates were willing to do. For him to be publicly called out by Kobe (of all people) is ridiculous. Regardless of his actions, Karl Malone deserves more respect and consideration than to have this issue splashed into the media, especially since he and Kobe live less than a mile apart. But why did he have to keep his intentions for this season shrouded in such mystery? Why did he have to dangle his Hall-of-Fame persona in front of a team hungry for rebounding and veteran leadership? Take a stand and state your intentions. Ski or flee.
I feel like I'm wedged between a double team here. I've been a Laker fan for all of my twenty-six years, but now my tolerance is being truly tested. The team's brightest young star is also most destructive to its future. If half the stories about Kobe are true, no one is going to want to play with him. Can you imagine the Los Angeles Lakers unable to draw interest from top free agents? And because of the prospect of being teammates with the best player in the game? I don't want to turn my back on my team, but how can I be expected to cheer for this? Couple this dilemma with all the other sicknesses that plague the NBA today and I am considering quitting on the pro game entirely.
People that don't know country music always accuse it of being about women leaving, trucks breaking down, and dogs dying. Rap music, they say, is just about hollas, ballas, and bling bling. Think about the stereotypes people assign to the National Basketball Association. Now tell me that these days they aren't all true.
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It's been awfully tough to get excited about the NBA this season. For most teams, the season is not even twenty games old and already we've seen a whole year's worth of controversy and outrageous incidents. The Shaq-Kobe-Phil-Buss-Kupchak-Payton-Malone love/hate heptagon. I'm still shaken up over that one. The Latrell Sprewell "I got a family to feed" quote. Hilarious, but excruciating. Ron Artest asking for time off to recuperate from promoting his R&B album. 'Nuff said. The Sprewell "Suck my (expletive)" quote. Brilliant. Even after crawling through all this muck like Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption," I still felt there was light at the end of the sewage pipe. Pro basketball, specifically the Lakers with their uptempo new squad, were actually starting to draw me in. And then the Karl Malone tiff happened. I really don't know if I can survive this one. College basketball might be getting a new number one fan.
Kobe and Karl are both right and both wrong. The spirit of Kobe's comments was absolutely correct. The Lakers and their new young players should not be strung along about a possible roster addition that would mean a warm spot on the IR for a guy out there busting his butt right now. But why did Kobe have to say this publicly? Why did he have to refer to his teammates as giving him 110% as opposed to the team? For all Kobe's damage control babble about how he had nothing to do with Shaq and Phil being dispatched, his actions and words since then constantly contradict that. To some degree I would attribute this latest fiasco to Mitch Kupchak not commanding the respect that Jerry West did. You think Kobe would be openly discussing personnel issues if he was still working for Jerry West? No way. West would have total control of this situation and Kobe would never have said a peep. However, it's not Kupchak's fault that Jerry Buss sent a message to Kobe that the Lakers were his team. Kobe has clearly taken the power implied to him with his massive contract and the exodus of his two former obstacles and gone nuts with it. ESPN's Chad Ford described this morning on ESPN Radio how Laker players' agents recently have indicated that many of Kobe's players have already come to despise him. He made vague references to Kobe getting in guys' faces and (get this) threatening to trade them. I guess with a contract as fat as $134 million, he figured he'd better earn his keep as a player and a GM.
Karl Malone is neither the saint nor the martyr he's making himself out to be. Of course, he has every right to be upset if Kobe was indeed rolling out an unwelcome mat. He's done quite a lot for the Lakers in a very short amount of time and has appeared to do a bit more for Bryant personally than any of his longtime teammates were willing to do. For him to be publicly called out by Kobe (of all people) is ridiculous. Regardless of his actions, Karl Malone deserves more respect and consideration than to have this issue splashed into the media, especially since he and Kobe live less than a mile apart. But why did he have to keep his intentions for this season shrouded in such mystery? Why did he have to dangle his Hall-of-Fame persona in front of a team hungry for rebounding and veteran leadership? Take a stand and state your intentions. Ski or flee.
I feel like I'm wedged between a double team here. I've been a Laker fan for all of my twenty-six years, but now my tolerance is being truly tested. The team's brightest young star is also most destructive to its future. If half the stories about Kobe are true, no one is going to want to play with him. Can you imagine the Los Angeles Lakers unable to draw interest from top free agents? And because of the prospect of being teammates with the best player in the game? I don't want to turn my back on my team, but how can I be expected to cheer for this? Couple this dilemma with all the other sicknesses that plague the NBA today and I am considering quitting on the pro game entirely.
People that don't know country music always accuse it of being about women leaving, trucks breaking down, and dogs dying. Rap music, they say, is just about hollas, ballas, and bling bling. Think about the stereotypes people assign to the National Basketball Association. Now tell me that these days they aren't all true.
# posted by j.h.k. @ 1:09 PM 
Monday, December 06, 2004
Mr. Rodgers and Me
I think I should probably cut Cal quaterback Aaron Rodgers some slack. I jumped all over him for mentioning USC in yesterday's paper when the quote was probably 100% benign. I don't regret anything I wrote after SC's victory over Cal, but I'm going to make an effort to not be as jaded when I read any news about Cal or Aaron Rodgers. My new outlook is supported by the following quote from espn.com.
"It just shows it's a faulty system, and we've got to do something to change it up," Rodgers said. "I bet Auburn is pretty ticked, too. ... Nobody cares about West Coast football, I don't think. I just hope Southern Cal represents us well."
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"It just shows it's a faulty system, and we've got to do something to change it up," Rodgers said. "I bet Auburn is pretty ticked, too. ... Nobody cares about West Coast football, I don't think. I just hope Southern Cal represents us well."
# posted by j.h.k. @ 2:01 PM
Sunday, December 05, 2004
From My Sunday Morning Paper
Some quotes you've probably already seen over coffee and a maple bar as I have, but I found them worth mentioning nonetheless.
Hall-of-Famer and all-time homerun king Hank Aaron on Barry Bonds' steroid use (from espn.com and the Journal-Constitution):
"First, since I played the game myself, I know that you can't put something in your body to make you hit a fastball, changeup or curveball. The only person who can do that is the good Lord. But, at that age [40], you have to ask: Did he accomplish all of this by rejuvenating his strength from day to day with those substances? I know that when you reach a certain age, you just don't bounce back as quickly as you think you can when you're playing all of those games. Drugs won't help you hit the ball. But can they make you recuperate consistently enough to hit the kind of home runs that these guys are hitting? Let me say this. Any way you look at it, it's wrong."
Aaron makes great points that had not previously occured to me. I'm not sure if it changes my mind just yet as far as the asterisk issue is concerned, but it's certainly something to consider.
Another quote comes from a less distinguished Aaron. From the LA Times, Cal quaterback Aaron Rodgers had this to say after posting a 26-16 victory over Southern Mississippi in their regular season finale:
"I think we could play with any team in the country. SC knows that."
SC also knows with the game on the line and the ball in your hands, you tend to come up one clutch completion short of victory. Be proud that you "can play" with any team in the country, but if you're gonna drop an SC reference, so shall I.
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Hall-of-Famer and all-time homerun king Hank Aaron on Barry Bonds' steroid use (from espn.com and the Journal-Constitution):
"First, since I played the game myself, I know that you can't put something in your body to make you hit a fastball, changeup or curveball. The only person who can do that is the good Lord. But, at that age [40], you have to ask: Did he accomplish all of this by rejuvenating his strength from day to day with those substances? I know that when you reach a certain age, you just don't bounce back as quickly as you think you can when you're playing all of those games. Drugs won't help you hit the ball. But can they make you recuperate consistently enough to hit the kind of home runs that these guys are hitting? Let me say this. Any way you look at it, it's wrong."
Aaron makes great points that had not previously occured to me. I'm not sure if it changes my mind just yet as far as the asterisk issue is concerned, but it's certainly something to consider.
Another quote comes from a less distinguished Aaron. From the LA Times, Cal quaterback Aaron Rodgers had this to say after posting a 26-16 victory over Southern Mississippi in their regular season finale:
"I think we could play with any team in the country. SC knows that."
SC also knows with the game on the line and the ball in your hands, you tend to come up one clutch completion short of victory. Be proud that you "can play" with any team in the country, but if you're gonna drop an SC reference, so shall I.
# posted by j.h.k. @ 11:42 AM
