About 15 years ago, I completely lost interest in the NBA...the Not Basketball Association, as it became less of a sports league and more of a vehicle for selling shoes and rap music. Today's remnants of professional basketball regularly embarass this country in international competitions; it's essentially now to basketball what the WWE is to wrestling. Numerous folks have tried to convince me otherwise, but events such as last night's Royal Rumble in professional basketbrawl prove my point.
In real basketball, I see that CBS/SI's Seth Davis named the Huskers' Doc Sadler the #4 new coach making an immediate impact on their team, ahead of some of the other name hires in the Big XII, like Bob Huggins and Greg McDermott. Next up for the Husker hoopsters is a trip to Hawai'i to play in the Rainbow Classic about the time the first winter storm could be bearing down on the state. Also in the Classic are the Creighton Bluejays, setting up a potential rematch for the Jays and their bandwagon fans, if Dana Altman can somehow knock some sense into his squad.
Today's Omaha World-Herald had a nice little recap of the overhyped 2005 Husker recruiting class. Don't misread that statement; there will be some nice players and it will be a solid group of players in time. But it will never be what recruitniks said it would be 2 years ago, especially with so many players (Harrison Beck, Leon Jackson, Rodney Picou, Justin Tomerlin) all out of the program.
It would be interesting to hear the "rest of the story" behind the departure of John Blake to North Carolina. Rumors are that Blake was upset at not being named recruiting coordinator last season, and the speed at which Blake was replaced with Buddy Wyatt indicates that this change has been in the planning for some time. There are even some internet reports that Blake wasn't planning on leaving until after the Cotton Bowl. In any event, Nebraska will definitely miss Blake on the recruiting trail.
Guess you better make way for the Not Hockey League and Misguided League Baseball. It's been pointed out before by people more-versed in sports than myself -- bench-clearing brawls in a baseball involving a bunch of white guys (a nearly daily occurrence during the season) is met with chuckles and a "God Bless America!" Major injury-causing fights in all-white hockey matches are "just part of the game, let them play." Sports Center may even do a strategic analysis of the fight. But when there's the once- or twice-a-year brawl in basketball involving a bunch of black guys, the white-dominated sports media sniffs in disgust. Savages! By the way, you can't exactly point to how basketball "regularly embarrasses this country in international competition" without acknowledging how poorly the US has competed in baseball, hockey, tennis, golf, the list continues to grow.
ReplyDeleteI'm not condoning hockey or baseball fights either, though at least in hockey, they wear padding. One major difference is that in this case, an NBA skirmish has gone into the stands ala WWE.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't make this into a race issue either. Shame.