Thoughts

Once in a while will come a post as this where instead of one topic covered in depth, there are several thoughts relayed based on questions asked offline and through various portals (Facebook, MySpace, email, IM). So, to answer questions that have not been addressed so far this week:

• First of all, the most common: “Jay, what do you think about the Alex Rodriguez (not touching that nickname) drama?” If you have not had the chance to read “Geez…”, it should answer that question and maybe a few others.
  
  
• Next, sticking with the hometown, the New York Giants made several moves this week; the most notable being placing the franchise tag on leading rusher Brandon Jacobs. For those who are unfamiliar with what this tag means, here's a primer from Wikipedia.
  
  As mentioned in the NYT's article, the tag essentially gives general manager Jerry Reese more time to negotiate a long-term deal with Jacobs and his agent, Justin Schulman.
  
  It’s an interesting move considering that both Jacobs and Derrick Ward are (well, were) unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2008 season. This isn’t a case of lockerroom rivals trying to one-up each other to become the starter as both not only have a strong relationship on and off the field, but they compliment each other (though Ward is deceptively strong). Of course, it’s hard to deny finances playing a role; that’s the principle of free agency – to offer your services for the best contract available, including to your current employer.
  
  This is a case of wanting the opportunity to be the starting tailback in the NFL. Considering how both players found themselves in the same backfield in the first place – Jacobs as a third-string back behind Carnell ‘Cadillac’ Williams and Ronnie Brown in Auburn before transferring to Southern Illinois while Ward toiled in Ottawa (Calif.) and bided his time on the Jets’ practice squad – the long-term contract means stability in an unforgiving league.
  
  As rumbled throughout the season in the press box, few expected Ward – “Wind” of NYG’s “Earth, Wind and Fire” trio of running backs – to stay with New York after this season. While he had a strong year in limited duty in 2007 (broken leg in the middle of that season), his stock rose this past year, the first full season of his career.
  
  The Giants franchise is one that despite the market they play in, is not the most lavish spender compared to Dallas, Oakland or the recently-restrained squad in Washington. If somehow, they are buying time to not only negotiate a contract with Jacobs first, Ward could be next in line unless the team finds an outside linebacker or wide receiver in the college ranks that it really wants to grab in the April draft (which means decent signing bonus money instead of free agent dough).
  
  
• If you have not had the chance to or did not know about it, HBO Sports has an interesting web series called Ring Life, which they have recently added to the onDemand packages. Lately, they have the series for Ronald Hearns, the son of legendary welterweight Tommy ‘Hitman’ Hearns and Edvan Barros, a Brazilian fighter who is struggling to make a dent as a bit more than a journeyman. HBO has always done a splendid job with their sports documentaries and specials and these small web nuggets are no different.
  
  Here's the latest of the series on lightweight champion Nate Campbell:
  
  
  
  
• Sticking with sports docs, you’ll see a few more related to the black athlete over the next two weeks. However, two that are recommended are HBO’s ‘Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football” and a longtime personal favorite, “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson” (recently shown on PBS).
  
  
• College basketball fans: finally, I’m talking to you and not taking potshots at the NCAA’s way of doing business at your expense. Since I admit to not having kept up with the games at all this season, I wonder how some of you may (if at all) compare UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet this season to Greg Oden in his lone season at Ohio State. Both players are more known for their shot-blocking abilities than anything else, yet at least in college, guys of that ilk can use their height to post up against undersized centers. Talk to me.
  
  
• Sticking with college ball, the question is more for those of you who also watch the NBA: who seems like the better pro prospect at the moment: UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough or Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin?
  
  
• Finally, international football/soccer has gained more American coverage over the years, but in the last twelve months, ESPN has ramped up their efforts to keep viewers posted on highlights, scores and news. Yet, many are still fairly unfamiliar with the game beyond those one-minute clips and passing news on the bottom line scroll. Here are two more primers: one from BBC Sport and the other from friend of Scribe, Sounder at Heart.

Showcase

If you’re a NBA fan right now, life is pretty good.

Sure, we heard way too much about the Dream Week here in the fair metropolis called New York City. Without question, the mainstream sports media would have not made much if the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics descended upon Milwaukee’s Bradley Center within a span of five days. Yet, all three teams, along a few others have added some flavor what has typically been a bland month of sports. Considering the news surrounding every other sporting organization as of late, the last thing that anyone would have called the A is a breath of fresh air.

Such has been the first few weeks of 2009.

Now, we are on our way to this weekend’s All-Star break in Phoenix. The Slam Dunk contest may be the most popular non-game event of the entire weekend, but it is the Rookie Challenge that is the most intriguing event on the slate.

While these guys are in the pre-K and Kindergarten classes of the NBA, they’ve shown so far that they can advance through the classes, at least based on the talents they have displayed so far.

What may still turn out to be an underwhelming rookie class of 2008-09, at least on Saturday, we’ll get to see the best of the crop so far after three-plus months:

Michael Beasley (Miami), Derrick Rose (Chicago), O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol (Memphis), Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez (Portland), Eric Gordon (LA Clippers), Brook Lopez (New Jersey) and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City)

Of that roster, the most intriguing players are all under 6’ 6”. When the question “who are the best young point guards in the league after Chris Paul and Deron Williams?” comes up, the rookies feature at least two solid answers in Rose and Westbrook. Rose may have received the hype, but unlike the rest of his teammates in the Windy City, he’s been a consistent performer admist some tenuous circumstances [rookie head coach in Vinny Del Negro, fatigue of the P-word (not that one) in relation to the team]. Westbrook, as the rest of the Thunder, have to improve upon their defense, but he has taken the role as lead ball handler quite well for a team still getting settled in a new city.

Mayo, the truest shooting guard on the team, may fester in the River City if Grizzles management repeats its history of not build around a star player because of thriftiness. However, he’ll become one of those league leaders in scoring as he has a mature offensive game and better-than-expected defense for a first-year player.

The sophs may not present the small guard flash that the rookies present, but outside of Aaron Brooks at six-even, they are a much bigger squad.

Kevin Durant and Jeff Green (Oklahoma City), Al Horford (Atlanta), Wilson Chandler (New York), Al Thornton (LA Clippers), Brooks and Luis Scola (Houston), Rodney Stuckey (Detroit) and Thaddeus Young (Philadelphia)

For the most part, you have to solid starting frontline contributors with both Als, a good 1-2 offensive punch in Oklahoma City and two players in Houston that have been strengthened by playing in the league’s toughest division (the Southwest). Yet, the players to watch are Chandler and Stuckey. For all the hell that former team president Isiah Thomas has gotten (and deserved) for his tenure with the Knicks, he’s a pretty good talent evaluator. Chandler didn’t get any real shine until late last season, but in the past year through those final weeks in ’07-’08, summer league ball and this season, he has the athleticism and scoring knack at small forward that New York hasn’t had since… Bernard King? It may be too soon to compare the two players, but the ‘three’ has been a franchise Achilles’ heel for just about two decades.

Meanwhile, beyond contract wiggle room and a desire to infuse a stagnant team with new life, Joe Dumars’ decision to trade Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson is obviously all about Stuckey. Last year’s playoff performance by the former Eastern Washington star may have presented a lovely problem of depth at lead guard, but when the season started, there was no way that anyone would have expected Dumars to pull the trigger so early in the year. Entrusting Stuckey to run the point for a team that can still make their seventh straight conference final meant that the Pistons are willing to let a second-year player take chances in the final minutes of some late March/early April games.

Sure, it’s more of a part of the carnival than a serious competition, but for many of these players, it’s the first true opportunity on a national, let alone global stage. Some players went the one-and-done route out of big name colleges such as Texas and USC while others were plucked from the international scene with little attention from us myopic Americans. The established stars in Sunday’s All-Star contest are the league’s brand names, but we’ll discover at least one more on Friday.

Say What?!?!: Speaking of brands, have I been consuming a banned substance for the last year thanks to vitaminwater?

Favor

Folks, there's a favor to ask of you.

Could you tell anyone you know to stop this...


and this...

and this...


and for the love of World B. Free, this...


It's not a race thing or a generational clash (as this writer is actually younger than three of the athletes donning these styles) or even envy. This is a "not in your right mind will you EVER walk in my house looking like that" thing.

Maybe this writer's not 'hip', as the kids say... old kids, but someone says it.

To each their own, but if athletes are supposed to stay away from steroids, performance enhancing drugs, recreational drugs and Eliot Spitzer's friendly high-class brothel (ouch...), then they should also stay away from the barber's shears and highlights if this is the result.

It's for the children.

I kid, I kid. Ballers can wear whatever style they want. I just find it funny and scary, both at once.

Forward (IV)

So this series may go beyond January 8th.

College basketball: Are we ever going to keep our superstars? The Florida Gators deserved all of the accolades and press bestowed upon them for being the best team in college basketball over the past two years.

Okay, let’s rewind that.

The Florida Gators are far from worthy of all the accolades and press besto…

Wait. One more time.

The Florida Gators… well, they’re the defending champs. There’s nothing more to say about them at the moment.

During the run to their second title in as many years, head coach Billy Donovan had been courted by the University of Kentucky to replace Tubby Smith. At the time, Donovan said that he wanted to remain in Florida. And he did. He proceeded to accept an offer to become the head coach of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. No one could fathom why he would leave Gainesville, but the idea of meeting the next challenge may have been too hard to pass up. And it’s also a little difficult to say no to a five-year, $27.5 million contract and the prospect of coaching Dwight Howard.

There were folks who looked at the success rate of college coaches coming into the NBA and found that history was not on Donovan’s side. Maybe that played a role in his sudden change of heart. Maybe what he really hoped for were big bucks from UF. Who knows? Either way, he was an NBA coach for five days. It was a costly, controversial and quite honestly, flaky way back to the college game. Whether he flipped the script because he loved the collegiate ranks more or he was trying to get UF to give him the world can be debated forever and a day. Yet, before signing with the Magic, Donovan was the fifth star to have left a back-to-back national champion. When he returned after five days, he must have realized that Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green were not coming back with him.

Add the names of Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Acie Law IV, Alando Tucker and Glen Davis and it was clear to see that the Gators were not the only program losing big name players.

It happens every year, of course. College basketball loses players because of the pros; be it the NBA for the more prominent players or international leagues for the lesser known. If you’re a major player and you’re in demand, your options become more lucrative and the opportunities are more challenging. Yet, there is an influx of freshmen and transfers that hit the campus shortly after the departed become pros. There’s a new group to fawn over, hype and pray for their health so that there is a March Madness run in the near future. As all media for a sport, they begin the hype machine for certain players with out of sight skills or humble beginnings to reach the national stage. When college didn’t have a chance to lose out on these potential phenoms because they aspired for the NBA Draft, the issue became a ‘pandemic’ for the game.

In 2005, David Stern threw the NCAA a bone – while trying to protect his league from unrefined high school players – by instituting an age limit for draft eligibility. Potential draftees have to be at least nineteen years of age and at least one year removed from high school. While the player can still skip college and play in a non-NBA affiliated pro league for a year, the rule has compelled players to go to college for at least one year. This has given the NCAA some prominent young talents for the first time in years, yet it has also forced a bigger recruiting dilemma than ever before. Desperation from agents and NBA scouts in the past were tempered by the fact that no matter how many teams showed an interest, the player could not choose where he would go. College coaches may have limited communications – don’t laugh – but there is no limit to the amount of schools that beg for a player’s talents. Could you imagine how many coaches went for Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo and Michael Beasley?

The pressures of being a college coach in today’s sports climate are enormous. Every program wants to win now and beat the rival, no matter what. If neither are achieved within three or four years – before a recruiting class has even graduated – the coach gets canned, despite how irrational it is for 300+ Division I schools to dream of one national title. Getting several solid players and allowing them to develop was a concept that had gone out the window years ago, so grabbing the ‘can’t miss’ kid adds more pressure for the coach. Sure, there is a tremendous financial windfall for the school and coach if the player comes to his school and he catapults the team to the Big Dance. Case in point; last year’s Texas Longhorns with Kevin Durant and this year’s USC Trojans with Mayo.

Durant and Ohio State’s Oden were the first collegiate superstars in the age-limit era… and they still bolted. Durant is trying to give life to a Seattle SuperSonics franchise that may leave the Pacific Northwest. Oden is rehabbing after shutting down his rookie campaign for Portland with microfracture surgery. They were not the only one-and-done players in the college ranks last year: Daequon Cook & Mike Conley, Jr. (also Ohio State), Brandan Wright (North Carolina), Javaris Critterton & Thaddeus Young (Georgia Tech) and Spencer Hawes (Washington). Yes, some NBA media highlighted that fourteen of the selected players in the first round were juniors and seniors, yet for half of the remaining players to have been freshman just go to show that the concept of the college superstar is fleeting.

Those freshmen were much of the reason why college basketball enjoyed a boost of popularity last year. Yet, with so many departures at once, the ‘problem’ has not been solved. Originally, Stern wanted a two-year limit while Billy Hunter and the Players’ Union fought against the limit. When the two sides passed a new collective bargaining agreement in 2005, the one-year compromise was believed to have been one of the critical deal breakers. Some in the college ranks want the Association to revisit the rule and Stern may not hesitate to bring the issue to the owners and players’ union once more. Somehow, you can get the feeling that the NCAA is asking the NBA to solve its problem for them as opposed to being proactive about retaining their student-athletes. With the CBA not expiring until 2011, it may take a while for the rule to be amended (assuming both sides even agree to re-open the CBA to make the change). So what will NCAA president Myles Brand and the powers-that-be do in the meantime should be given greater attention than ever before.

Will the NCAA accept that college is going to be a layover en route to the NBA for some talented freshmen? Will they remedy the situation by offering to pay players for performance (which is a long held reason for some of the early departures)? Will they come up with any non-academic anecdote that forces players to stay on campus in order to remain on the team? After Rose, Mayo and Beasley leave for the pros – yes, after – these questions will sure come to the surface before the next crop of freshmen head for orientation this fall.