From LASportsblog.bravehost.com
By: Mathew Berson
I am embarrassed to be an American sports fan. Once thought to be the escape from the tedium of everyday life, professional sport in this country has become mired in corruption and criminality. Never before have the three major professional leagues in the United States- the NBA, the NFL, and MLB- faced such scrutiny due to the pitiful and immature behavior of the people involved. Professional sport in this country faces a public relations nightmare. I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the NBA’s David Stern or MLB’s Bud Selig if it were the end of the world. The credibility of American sport hemorrhages as these three men attempt sew up the scars; however the damage has already been done.
For years, the honorable American public has hoisted professional athletes on a pedestal. Our athletes epitomize the American ethics of hard work, personal sacrifice, and delayed gratification, three traits that our society values in every individual. Their ability to make the big play under pressure, to work just a little harder to get that extra yard, to never give up because there is always a chance, have awed the American public into creating god-like figures. We forget they are human. But we worship our athletes, we criticize our athletes, and we look to our athletes for inspiration and hope when all else in our lives isn’t even worth mentioning. The professional athlete had become the picture of what every American should want to be: hardworking, successful, and healthy. However, it seems that recent events have convinced us just the opposite. The athletes once regarded as role models are now the kind of guys that hang out under the bleachers, the ones that every parent doesn’t want their kid to hang around with.
The NFL has had a rash of player misconducts as of late. After years of former commissioner
Paul Tagliabue’s apathy towards punishing players, new commissioner Roger Goodell has stepped in and cleaned house with those who dare to break the law. Adam "Pacman" Jones was suspended for the entire season earlier this year due to his involvement in about eleven different police investigations and a couple of night club shootings. You think a guy who makes a couple million a year could control his throw-money-at-strippers-and-start-a-fight-at-a-nightclub-where-someone-gets-shot problem, but this guy never fails to amaze. Also, Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry and Bears’ tackle Tank Johnson were each given an eight game suspension by Goodell for their various run-ins with the law. In fact, the entire Cincinnati team was suspect last year, as nine players in total were arrested throughout the season, prompting Goodell to ask coach Marvin Lewis if he needed help in controlling the players in the locker room. It seems like every week there is a new NFL’er on the wrong side of the law.
And now the Michael Vick situation. Here’s a guy who has everything in the world: a cannon for a left arm and rockets for legs, a ten-year $130 million contract, his own shoe line and clothing label, and the city of Atlanta at his fingertips. But yet this same guy, the number one overall pick in the 2001 draft, has the audacity to put all those things on the line for what? Dog fighting! Are you kidding me? It has to be one of the cruelest, most barbaric practices in the history of mankind, and this guy does it. Why? He surely doesn’t need the money, so he must just have an unhealthy obsession with watching two bitches fight. Maybe he should have just convinced a drunk girl that her boyfriend was cheating on her with the other drunk girl across the room and got them to fight- now that’s my kind of bitch-fight. I like the ones with torn clothing and pulled hair, not the ones with bloodstained carpeting and breaking sticks (which were used for pulling dogs’ teeth apart). Vick’s dog fighting scandal is as shocking as it is ridiculous.
If the National Football League hasn’t caused American sports fans to throw in the towel, just look to the NBA for yet another reason to wash your hands of American sport. David Stern faces a commissioner’s worst nightmare; Tim Donaghy, a 13year veteran official, faces allegations of making calls to affect the point spread in games in which he or his associates had wagered on. Having been tracked down for months by the FBI, Donaghy is believed to help federal investigators bring down a mafia-organized gambling network in exchange for leniency. Stern faces a Goliath-like battle. He must restore the integrity of the game in a league that already is poorly perceived by much of the United States while at the same time working to ensure that corruption on this level never finds its way onto the court again.
But the damage has been done.
How many times have you screamed at your TV, "What the hell kind of call was that?!" after some bald idiot blows his whistle for a foul that looked more like a playful pat on the back than reach-in foul? We’ve all heard Bill Walton say, "I don’t know what he saw. That was the worst call in the history of Western Civilization!" From now on, every single time there is a suspect call in a game people watching will have NO reason to think the referee is NOT throwing the game. Hecklers will replace "HEY REF! GET OFF YOUR KNEES, YOU’RE BLOWING THE GAME!" with "HEY REF! MAKE SURE THE HOME TEAM WINS BY FIVE POINTS! I NEED TO FEED MY FAMILY!" By losing the credibility of the officials, the NBA has lost the credibility of its league. If those who control the actual game cannot be trusted, than the American public can never be totally certain what they’re watching is unbiased and legitimate.
With everything happening in the NBA and NFL, you would think that Major League Baseball would be cashing in on Barry Bonds’s pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record. Instead, the American public clenches its teeth as Bonds inches closer and closer to the record; with his name along with Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi surfacing amid the BALCO steroid scandal, we question whether or not those homeruns Barry hit were really the work of a man, or a superhuman machine hopped-up on human growth hormone and horse tranquilizers. We all know the answer, but we just can’t prove it.
The truth is that baseball has been plagued by steroid use for years. When Jose Canseco released his book in which he detailed times when he injected steroids with Mark McGwire in the A’s clubhouse, the American public thought he was just out for the money after his career hit brick wall. However, his book opened the can of worms that is now the steroid controversy. After a couple of congressional hearings in which Rafael Palmero, McGwire and Giambi were questioned about steroid use in baseball, Selig has felt the need to hire former Senator George Mitchell to head an investigation into the problem that is wrecking the sport. Although none of these players have tested positive for steroids or openly admitted taking steroids, the fact that the Federal Government and Major League baseball are individually investigating them gives any individual the right to assume that there was definitely foul play going on. The government doesn’t just go around handing out indictments like candy.
So now we’re forced to ask:
Could Mark McGwire really hit 70 home runs in a single season without the help of steroids? Could Slammin’ Sammy Sosa really keep pace with Big Mac if he weren’t on the Juice, too? How did Barry hit 73? How did Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs in 1996 when his highest total in every other season was just 24? What is "the clear"? Did Viagra really hire Rafael Palmero to be its pitchman, or did impotence hit Rafi at age 37 after years and years of steroid use?
This brings me back to the old adage: nothing is what it appears to be. As we watched the Sosa-
McGwire home-run battle and Bonds’s demolition of the single season home-run record a few years later, we were awed by the distances of the home-runs, captivated by the media’s relentless coverage of the chase, and charmed by the players’ professional, yet playful charisma under relentless pressure and scrutiny.
We were fooled.
As Barry Bonds rounds the bases for the 756th time in the near future, we will clap dubiously in the wake of what has become the biggest scandal to rock Major Leagues since Pete Rose’s gambling problems. Once thought of as the greatest record to hold in American sports, the all-time home-run record is forever tainted. When his career finally ends, the American public will most certainly add a mental asterisk to whatever number ends up next to Bonds in the history books. Once the most coveted number in all of baseball, 756 will forever be specious symbol of deceit and dishonesty and will now forever be regarded as the most suspicious record in the history of the American Pastime.
As Selig, Goodell and Stern scurry to save the integrity of their leagues, the American sports fan can’t help but feel betrayed. Sport, once ripe with fair competition, sportsmanship and hard work, has become a housing ground for individuals whose superior athletic talent is outweighed only by their own lack of common sense and self-discipline. Instead of gods, the American public worships morally bankrupt delinquents who just happen to run faster, throw harder and hit just a little bit better than the rest of us.
I’m surprised Maurice Clarett didn’t make it.
While Maurice Clarett melts behind prison bars for cocaine possession, illegal firearms possession, and DUI, Mathew J. Berson will be sunbathing and scummin’ it along the local beaches of Isla Vista.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Basketball Without Boarders
From: LASportsblog.bravehost.com
Basketball Without Boarders
By: Jeff Girouard
E-Mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
July is maybe the worst pro sports month of the year. Actually, there is no maybe about it, July is a disaster for most sports fans. If the youtube clips of underground dog fighting didn’t turn your brain to soup then all that Dan Lebatard airtime certainly did. Without a doubt the most troubling news to come out of the driest month in sports is NBA ref Tim Donaghy revealing that he bet on games, possibly altered outcomes of games and is in so deep with organized crime syndicates that he opted to turn himself in to the feds. Though this confession is a proverbial black-eye for the league, professional officiating and pro sports in general, the NBA is not doomed. There are too many billions tied directly to its Superstars, franchises and advertisements for it to collapse. Point in fact, the NBA will survive because it operates like a business and a damn good one. That said, Tim Donaghy, whose actions have earned him a level of infamy on par with Tonya Harding, is a living, breathing reminder that the guy with the whistle and his finger on the clock should not wield enough power to put that type of enterprise in jeopardy.
David Stern’s aggressive pursuit to make the NBA a truly global endeavor and the world's premier professional league leads me to believe that perhaps ten years down the line it may not be farfetched to see franchises in other nations. Access to the NBA product available to anyone with an internet connection and games are broadcasted in 200 nations. Yet as basketball continues to expand beyond our boarders, the NBA as a league wavers precariously at a fork.
The NBA game has become more up-tempo and rules such as traveling, aren't as strictly enforced as they are overseas. Ask any Dwayne Wade spin move. The international game actually forces players to convert perimeter jumpers and players just can’t barrel into the lane/defenders like a fullback and expect free throws. In this way the NBA has been undermining its own game for years. In today’s league its not unlikely to see a player go 7-22 from the floor and still wind up scoring 25 points all because he hit the line more times than Lindsey Lohan in a public restroom on a Wednesday night. Really what’s more damning the fact that the Grizzlies lost by 8 instead of 6 in a regular season game 3 years ago or the fact that Dwayne Wade was a lock to shoot 10 free throws a game in the finals?
Carmelo Anthony proved to be the most effective option at the 2006 World Championships because his polished skill set allowed him to fill it up in a variety of fashions. Whether he was cutting baseline to the basket, hustling for put-backs or draining treys from behind the abbreviated 3-point arc Melo was the lone bright spot of the tourney. His former collegiate coach and current USA assistant Jim Boeheim has made a career out of picking apart 2-3 zones at Syracuse, which makes his position with the team invaluable. Spreading the floor and allowing your best player to attack the basket 1 on 3 may get you to the NBA finals (Mike Brown), but those uninspired tactics wont fly with another teams center camped out in the trapezoid.
As the relatively nascent Wade-Anthony-James trio discovered in ‘04 the international game is structured and officiated much differently than the NBA game they were accustomed. Under the guise of this latest betting scandal Team USA is playing for more than to reassert their dominance over the rest of the world; the squad that travels to Bejing in 2008 will be competing to reestablish the integrity of the Association.
Enter Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd.
My roster for the upcoming Tournament of the Americas looks like this...
Starting 5
Kobe
Kidd
Lebron
Melo/Bosh (depending on the opponent)
Dwight Howard.
Coming off the bench...
Amare
Melo/Bosh
Billups
Deron Williams
Mike Miller
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant
Kobe is fulfilling a life long dream, suiting up for Mike Krzyzewski and team USA. In Sunday’s Blue-White scrimmage he was quick to impress his would-a-been should-a-been college coach as he scored his team's last seven points to lead a double digit comeback. A Kobe-Jason Kidd backcourt is a lethal combination of size, experience and defensive intensity that continues to tease Laker fans and their broken pipe dream. Seriously, how epic would a Steve Nash-Jason Kidd first round match-up have been? American basketball fans have the luxury of experiencing what Laker fans have been feeling for the past 11 years, a confidence that comes with knowing that in a tight game the world’s premiere player wants the ball and will not let his team lose.
He converted all 2 of his free throws en route to 26 points, five dimes, five steals and a game sealing 20 footer from the top of the ‘zoid with six seconds to go.
So Tim Legler, with the US is down one with 7.3 seconds on the clock are you sure you don’t want Kobe to have the ball in his hands? I’ve never been the type to say, "I told you so,"... So I’ll let this 8 minute montage of Kobe Game Winners say it for me.
e-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
Basketball Without Boarders
By: Jeff Girouard
E-Mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
July is maybe the worst pro sports month of the year. Actually, there is no maybe about it, July is a disaster for most sports fans. If the youtube clips of underground dog fighting didn’t turn your brain to soup then all that Dan Lebatard airtime certainly did. Without a doubt the most troubling news to come out of the driest month in sports is NBA ref Tim Donaghy revealing that he bet on games, possibly altered outcomes of games and is in so deep with organized crime syndicates that he opted to turn himself in to the feds. Though this confession is a proverbial black-eye for the league, professional officiating and pro sports in general, the NBA is not doomed. There are too many billions tied directly to its Superstars, franchises and advertisements for it to collapse. Point in fact, the NBA will survive because it operates like a business and a damn good one. That said, Tim Donaghy, whose actions have earned him a level of infamy on par with Tonya Harding, is a living, breathing reminder that the guy with the whistle and his finger on the clock should not wield enough power to put that type of enterprise in jeopardy.
David Stern’s aggressive pursuit to make the NBA a truly global endeavor and the world's premier professional league leads me to believe that perhaps ten years down the line it may not be farfetched to see franchises in other nations. Access to the NBA product available to anyone with an internet connection and games are broadcasted in 200 nations. Yet as basketball continues to expand beyond our boarders, the NBA as a league wavers precariously at a fork.
The NBA game has become more up-tempo and rules such as traveling, aren't as strictly enforced as they are overseas. Ask any Dwayne Wade spin move. The international game actually forces players to convert perimeter jumpers and players just can’t barrel into the lane/defenders like a fullback and expect free throws. In this way the NBA has been undermining its own game for years. In today’s league its not unlikely to see a player go 7-22 from the floor and still wind up scoring 25 points all because he hit the line more times than Lindsey Lohan in a public restroom on a Wednesday night. Really what’s more damning the fact that the Grizzlies lost by 8 instead of 6 in a regular season game 3 years ago or the fact that Dwayne Wade was a lock to shoot 10 free throws a game in the finals?
Carmelo Anthony proved to be the most effective option at the 2006 World Championships because his polished skill set allowed him to fill it up in a variety of fashions. Whether he was cutting baseline to the basket, hustling for put-backs or draining treys from behind the abbreviated 3-point arc Melo was the lone bright spot of the tourney. His former collegiate coach and current USA assistant Jim Boeheim has made a career out of picking apart 2-3 zones at Syracuse, which makes his position with the team invaluable. Spreading the floor and allowing your best player to attack the basket 1 on 3 may get you to the NBA finals (Mike Brown), but those uninspired tactics wont fly with another teams center camped out in the trapezoid.
As the relatively nascent Wade-Anthony-James trio discovered in ‘04 the international game is structured and officiated much differently than the NBA game they were accustomed. Under the guise of this latest betting scandal Team USA is playing for more than to reassert their dominance over the rest of the world; the squad that travels to Bejing in 2008 will be competing to reestablish the integrity of the Association.
Enter Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd.
My roster for the upcoming Tournament of the Americas looks like this...
Starting 5
Kobe
Kidd
Lebron
Melo/Bosh (depending on the opponent)
Dwight Howard.
Coming off the bench...
Amare
Melo/Bosh
Billups
Deron Williams
Mike Miller
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant
Kobe is fulfilling a life long dream, suiting up for Mike Krzyzewski and team USA. In Sunday’s Blue-White scrimmage he was quick to impress his would-a-been should-a-been college coach as he scored his team's last seven points to lead a double digit comeback. A Kobe-Jason Kidd backcourt is a lethal combination of size, experience and defensive intensity that continues to tease Laker fans and their broken pipe dream. Seriously, how epic would a Steve Nash-Jason Kidd first round match-up have been? American basketball fans have the luxury of experiencing what Laker fans have been feeling for the past 11 years, a confidence that comes with knowing that in a tight game the world’s premiere player wants the ball and will not let his team lose.
He converted all 2 of his free throws en route to 26 points, five dimes, five steals and a game sealing 20 footer from the top of the ‘zoid with six seconds to go.
So Tim Legler, with the US is down one with 7.3 seconds on the clock are you sure you don’t want Kobe to have the ball in his hands? I’ve never been the type to say, "I told you so,"... So I’ll let this 8 minute montage of Kobe Game Winners say it for me.
e-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Dear Average American Sports Fan
From LA Sports Blog - lasportsblog.bravehost.com
By: Nathaniel Gordon
E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
Dear "Average American Sports Fan",
We haven't talked in a long time, mainly because You resent my love and I despise your ignorance. But I've come to extend an olive branch, to save You from yourself; I take that back, that's impossible, basically because You "average American sports fan" are very narcissistic. You think that everything is about You, everything in sports is for You, and that the world revolves around You. However, Friday July 13, 2007 was your Black Friday, and You blindly enjoyed it thinking You were unharmed. From Scott Van Pelt to D'Marco Farr You all thought that Black Friday was a day for You to praise. David Beckham arrived in Los Angeles and You cheered the fact that You could "not give a rats ass" about Becks joining LA Galaxy. What You failed to understand, much like You fail to understand the game of Football, is that this isn't about You; and it isn't FOR You in any way, shape or form.
Over the last few months since the "Beckham Exception" was put into the MLS Salary Cap other MLS teams have been buying players from overseas. But unlike the NASL before them they haven't been spending millions upon millions for random stars from the previous World Cup. Instead each buy has been very calculated; Barros Schelotto the Boca Juniors superstar to Columbus; Cuauhtemoc Blanco of Club America fame to Chicago; Able Xavier of the Portugal National team to LA; and former Colombian National player and Aston Villa star Juan Pablo Angel in New York. Each of these players represent a fan base already in America, millions of people following other leagues and teams outside of the United States. The final, and largest fan base, English Football fans are being attracted by one David Beckham. The point of each players signing is to bring their fans from their previous teams already living in the United States to MLS, hoping that they become attached to their favorite players new teams and establish new fan/club relationships. We won't know if this has worked for about 3 or 4 years, but if the 1-2 year results are positive then more players from overseas will want to come and in turn their fans will come to MLS and the circle continues.
The buzz around the soccer community to this point has already confirmed what I intitally stated, David Beckham isn't for the average American; he is for people like me, people who get up at 4am to watch Arsenal play live on Fox Soccer Channel, but won't sit down to watch a whole MLS game in the middle of the day. If average Americans end up coming to MLS because of Beckham that's extra credit, but otherwise we could give a rats ass about You. Moreover, we don't want to hear You complain about how our Footballers don't score enough, how You actually have to sit for 45 minutes straight to watch a half or how our Footballers aren't tough. You bitch and wine like a 12 year old girl who can't explain why she can't come to the board because there's blood half way down her leg in the middle of math class. Us soccer fans don't have to justify our sport or our passion for it to You, your attention span is too short for the argument anyway... I think I've already lost You to a beer or bong toke, i should of taken a commercial break after paragraph one.
Do I have your attention again? It's okay the hot dog eating contest is over You can listen to me again... shit, there is a Yankees/Sox replay on ESPN 4, I'll wait until your finished watching. Done yet? College beer pong tournament on ESPN6?!?! Okay go ahead I'll be patient but I'm not waiting through the spelling bee to finish my point...
While You were watching College Water Polo on Fox Sports Central I was watching Entourage and although I feel the same way about You at this point as Billy Walsh feels about Eric, I will never ask you admit to the fact that your a 'traitorous f*ck and You like to suck cock!' never, ever... I just want You to admit that my Football is as legit as your Football. Oh, and stop feeling so damn threatened, the NFL isn't going anywhere, we're not replacing anything. Soccer already has 3 Cable channels that are 24-hour dedicated to the beautiful game, plus a satellite radio station, we already have our own broadcast outlets.
So at this point You most likely feel the same about me as I've felt about You Jim Rome, Bill Plaschke, Jay Mariotti, Scott Van Pelt, D'Marco Farr and those of your same thinking. But here's the thing, I don't care about what You have to say, because what You have to say doesn't matter. I care about what Club America fans, Boca Jr. fans, Aston Villa fans, Portuguese fans, Manchester and Real Madrid fans have to say. Because if those fans here in America become fans of MLS teams across America in the next 3-5 years then this has all been a success. The attendances will go from 15-20 thousand a game to 25-35 thousand a game and the passion for the clubs will rise. We don't need You to succeed, so keep your NFL, we're happy with the Football we have.
Sincerely Yours,
Voice of American Soccer Fan
E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
By: Nathaniel Gordon
E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
Dear "Average American Sports Fan",
We haven't talked in a long time, mainly because You resent my love and I despise your ignorance. But I've come to extend an olive branch, to save You from yourself; I take that back, that's impossible, basically because You "average American sports fan" are very narcissistic. You think that everything is about You, everything in sports is for You, and that the world revolves around You. However, Friday July 13, 2007 was your Black Friday, and You blindly enjoyed it thinking You were unharmed. From Scott Van Pelt to D'Marco Farr You all thought that Black Friday was a day for You to praise. David Beckham arrived in Los Angeles and You cheered the fact that You could "not give a rats ass" about Becks joining LA Galaxy. What You failed to understand, much like You fail to understand the game of Football, is that this isn't about You; and it isn't FOR You in any way, shape or form.
Over the last few months since the "Beckham Exception" was put into the MLS Salary Cap other MLS teams have been buying players from overseas. But unlike the NASL before them they haven't been spending millions upon millions for random stars from the previous World Cup. Instead each buy has been very calculated; Barros Schelotto the Boca Juniors superstar to Columbus; Cuauhtemoc Blanco of Club America fame to Chicago; Able Xavier of the Portugal National team to LA; and former Colombian National player and Aston Villa star Juan Pablo Angel in New York. Each of these players represent a fan base already in America, millions of people following other leagues and teams outside of the United States. The final, and largest fan base, English Football fans are being attracted by one David Beckham. The point of each players signing is to bring their fans from their previous teams already living in the United States to MLS, hoping that they become attached to their favorite players new teams and establish new fan/club relationships. We won't know if this has worked for about 3 or 4 years, but if the 1-2 year results are positive then more players from overseas will want to come and in turn their fans will come to MLS and the circle continues.
The buzz around the soccer community to this point has already confirmed what I intitally stated, David Beckham isn't for the average American; he is for people like me, people who get up at 4am to watch Arsenal play live on Fox Soccer Channel, but won't sit down to watch a whole MLS game in the middle of the day. If average Americans end up coming to MLS because of Beckham that's extra credit, but otherwise we could give a rats ass about You. Moreover, we don't want to hear You complain about how our Footballers don't score enough, how You actually have to sit for 45 minutes straight to watch a half or how our Footballers aren't tough. You bitch and wine like a 12 year old girl who can't explain why she can't come to the board because there's blood half way down her leg in the middle of math class. Us soccer fans don't have to justify our sport or our passion for it to You, your attention span is too short for the argument anyway... I think I've already lost You to a beer or bong toke, i should of taken a commercial break after paragraph one.
Do I have your attention again? It's okay the hot dog eating contest is over You can listen to me again... shit, there is a Yankees/Sox replay on ESPN 4, I'll wait until your finished watching. Done yet? College beer pong tournament on ESPN6?!?! Okay go ahead I'll be patient but I'm not waiting through the spelling bee to finish my point...
While You were watching College Water Polo on Fox Sports Central I was watching Entourage and although I feel the same way about You at this point as Billy Walsh feels about Eric, I will never ask you admit to the fact that your a 'traitorous f*ck and You like to suck cock!' never, ever... I just want You to admit that my Football is as legit as your Football. Oh, and stop feeling so damn threatened, the NFL isn't going anywhere, we're not replacing anything. Soccer already has 3 Cable channels that are 24-hour dedicated to the beautiful game, plus a satellite radio station, we already have our own broadcast outlets.
So at this point You most likely feel the same about me as I've felt about You Jim Rome, Bill Plaschke, Jay Mariotti, Scott Van Pelt, D'Marco Farr and those of your same thinking. But here's the thing, I don't care about what You have to say, because what You have to say doesn't matter. I care about what Club America fans, Boca Jr. fans, Aston Villa fans, Portuguese fans, Manchester and Real Madrid fans have to say. Because if those fans here in America become fans of MLS teams across America in the next 3-5 years then this has all been a success. The attendances will go from 15-20 thousand a game to 25-35 thousand a game and the passion for the clubs will rise. We don't need You to succeed, so keep your NFL, we're happy with the Football we have.
Sincerely Yours,
Voice of American Soccer Fan
E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
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