Old School vs. New School: How To Rank Greatness

It seems as if this week is the week in which former NBA players decided to defend their eras and their players. You had Stephen Jackson who was on the 2006-2007 Warriors that beat the top seeded Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs as an eighth seed. Then, you have NBA legend Oscar Robertson saying this. You have Isaiah Thomas saying this, too. So, this week was the week in which former NBA players, some all-time greats, told us how they really feel.

People are putting Stephen Curry in the category with all-time great point guards already. Former players are complaining. He’s having fun with the whole thing, though. This is not anything new. In many sports, when a generation of players retire and the new generation of players reach their primes, the old generation tends to complain. They want to hold on to their spot. They feel the need to remind the fans that were either very young or not born at the time of their primes of how good they were. Some take it to the extreme and don’t just say they were good back in the day, but that they are good now after retirement. This is not an NBA dynamic. This isn’t just a player dynamic either. This is a dynamic in all of sports.

You guys ever argue with an older person about sports? You already know how it goes, (unless you are an older person reading this, don’t stop reading though). The first thing you are going to hear about is how good the players back in their day were. Stats not even something that is brought up. You are probably going to bring up stats before them. All they would talk about is impact and what they saw with their own eyes. This is something that is very important. I personally feel that statistics hold too much weight in the sports world today because statistics could be deceptive sometimes. However, they’re going to use feelings, memories, and “vibes” to discredit the current players of your generation. The next qualifier that older fans are quick to bring up are rule changes. For the NFL, it got softer. For the NBA, it got softer. For the MLB, the game was much better back in the day because guys were better; more home runs. “But, they were on steroids. That’s why.” “Steroids don’t make you make contact with ball, trust me I’ve been watching the game since you were a baby.” On and on and on, you guys know how it is. Legitimate facts and claims might be brought up. This is a fundamental aspect of every good argument/debate. Both sides must bring up legitimate facts that both parties can agree on in order to argue about what they don’t agree on. Rule changes do change the way sports are played making the games different. However, if both sides were to be honest, there’s just a generation gap. You will never fully understand how great the former players were despite how many YouTube videos you saw of them because you weren’t alive or old enough when these players were playing. The older person may never fully understand how great this generation of players are despite rule changes because they’re so used to seeing a certain style of play, seeing how great their generation of players were, or stubborn. It’s different when you experience greatness at the time when they were great because you understand the impact. However, anybody can over or underestimate people.

Now to Stephen Curry.

He’s on pace to break several offensive records this year and he has his team on pace to win the most games in NBA history. The team that they might surpass for the most wins in NBA history is the NBA champion 1995-1996 Bulls. This is a win total that many people didn’t think would be passed for a long time. Some teams have won 67 games, but nobody has even reached 70 since the Bulls set the mark at 72 wins 20 years ago. In other words, Stephen Curry and the Warriors are having a historic season.

How do you discredit a person’s greatness when the numbers show you how great they are? You discredit everything else surrounding them. Their team was really good, he or she was just along for the ride. Or in Stephen Curry’s case, the league isn’t as good anymore and the rules changed so its easier to play the game. THEY COULDN’T PLAY IN OUR DAY! Numbers do lie sometimes. It feels like every year, a different quarterback throws for the most yards in a season. Out of the top 15 seasons for most passing yards, 12 of those seasons were had in the last 5 years. A statistic like that will show you why having the most passing yards in a season is probably not the best indicator for how good a quarterback is historically. The increase in passing yards are directly correlated with the rule changes in the NFL that make it easier for offensive players to produce.

However, the decrease in home runs over the years due to the fact that guys aren’t using steroids anymore (at least most guys). This decrease does not mean the players are worse now than they were back then. They just don’t cheat…as much. Are rules in the NBA different than they were back in the day? Yes. No hand checking. The definition of a flagrant foul has changed. However, the skill level of the competition is not the same as it was back in the day. Today’s NBA has more athletes. Today’s NBA athletes are better shooters and I know that Oscar Robertson doesn’t like that. OK, let’s be real. It was never OK to hit people in the face as they are shooting. In any era, that’s a foul. This is what you would have to do in order to stop Stephen Curry from making a three and even then it’s not promised that he is going to miss. I have literally seen Chris Paul have his hand on Stephen Curry’s chest as he’s shooting and he still made it and he turned around a looked at his coach Doc Rivers and basically told him that he had his hand on his chest so he tried his best. I think it was the same game that this happened. Shooting the basketball is shooting the basketball and I find it hard to believe that guys aren’t getting up in the best 3 point shooter in NBA history’s face to try and make him miss, despite what the legend Oscar Robertson says.

The generation gap is real. The generation gap in sports doesn’t just affect fans. It affects players, as well. When you have an NBA legend discrediting your career and accomplishments, it can hurt your career. It may not prevent you from winning rings, but it can prevent you from being thought of as highly as you would like to be at the end of your career because knowledgeable voices have influence. It can even prevent you from making halls of fame, ask Terrell Owens. I believe that in our society, we need to emphasize how influential generation gaps are in our perception of sports. Think about it, if Kobe didn’t start his career while Michael Jordan was playing and several years after like around now, maybe people wouldn’t be calling him this generation’s Michael Jordan, but the next Michael Jordan. Maybe Kobe played to close to Michael Jordan’s era so his impact was still fresh in the minds of NBA fans back in Kobe’s prime. Who know’s? Comparing players is fun is fun for fans and analysts. That’s part of what makes sports interesting. But, when well-respected former players start publicly discrediting current player’s accomplishments and the whole league, that might be a little too far. We, fans and players young and old, need to understand that we cannot completely and fairly judge a person’s career until after it’s done. Doing that might prevent us from recognizing that we are watching the best player in history, or fool us into thinking that we are watching the best player in history. While a player is playing, all we can do is speculate.

Who Wants To Be A Multimillionaire: Insane Contracts in the MLB

In the early days of baseball, before the MLB existed, there was the National Association of Professional Baseball Players . This is basically the same National League that exists today because after the National League came the American League and the two, over time, merged and today we have Major League Baseball (MLB). However, in the days when the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was the major destination for all baseball players, players used to just hop from one team to the next. I know this sounds crazy and some of you reading this may think, “Yea, that’s free agency.” No. Imagine if Clayton Kershaw left the Dodgers and joined the Mets when the Dodgers got down 3-1 in the playoffs last year. I’m not sure how the playoffs worked for the National Association back in the day or even if they had any, but it was that easy for guys to leave their teams when they wanted to because they weren’t under contract. It wasn’t until the National League was formed that players weren’t allowed to leave their team. But when I say they weren’t allowed to leave their team, I mean players were bound to their team for life. The rule that allowed this was reserve clause. The reserve clause basically allowed teams to keep players for life by renewing their contracts when they wanted. It went from one extreme to the next. It wasn’t until over a hundred years later when the fight against it led by Marvin Miller (creator of the Major League Baseball’s Player’s Association), Curt Flood (who sued the MLB over the reserve clause and lost in the Supreme Court), Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally (players who challenged the rule in the 70’s and won free agency for the players) was the backlash against the rule taken seriously. However, these pioneers are the reason that the MLB caught up with the other sports leagues in America and that free agency exists today. They are the reason that Ryan Braun is supposed to make $145,500,000 through 2020.

 

Baseball is notorious for their contracts. When you talk about the top players you talk about hundreds of millions of dollars, per player. Not just the money, you talk about the length, as well. Players get signed for close to, or in Giancarlo Stanton’s case more than, a decade. This is unheard of in any other sport. Players get a lot of money in the NBA and NFL particularly the star players or quarterbacks. However, getting committed to a contract for most of your career (let’s be honest, if you sign a contract for more than a decade, that’s most of your career, I don’t care what sport it is), sets you and your family up for life. This type of security is almost unheard of for the even the top players in basketball.

The contracts are this huge for 2 reasons: the longevity that is possible in the sport and the limited quality of star talent in sports. Baseball is not basketball. It is not hockey. It is not rugby. It is not football, neither of them. Depending on the position, the sport tends not to be physically taxing on your whole body. Pitchers have to worry about their arm (although pitchers back in the day used to pitch double headers and complete games like it was nothing, but that’s another issue). Catchers have to be in an uncomfortable position for a long time. Besides that, infielders and outfielders run every now and again. It can get physical, but it is not typically a physical game. For this reason, general managers and owners do not mind making long-term investments into their star players, even if the player might be turning 40 at the end if the contract. Now, think of sports as a capitalistic business, which it is. If a product is productive at its purpose, then the more rare it is, the more valuable it becomes. At that point, it’s about who’s willing to pay the highest price to acquire the product. Each star is one of the best at what they do and may do it differently. Basically, there’s only one Giancarlo Stanton. There’s only one Mike Trout. There’s only one LeBron James. There’s only one Aaron Rodgers. There’s only one Henrik Lundqvist. I know that it may bother a few of you reading this that I am talking about sports players like their smartphones, but when a general manager trades away a player that the fans love from a team they have been on for their whole career without notice, then you know that this is exactly how these general managers and owners see these players.

You cannot become a billionaire by playing for a team in American sports. That financial status is reserved for the owners. If the athletes made so much money, then the owners wouldn’t even bother owning the team. This is the definition of rich people problems. However, think about the principle. Do not think like a fan while reading this paragraph. I repeat. DO NOT THINK LIKE A FAN WHILE READING THIS PARAGRAPH. In baseball, the top players are not making millions, but hundreds of millions of dollars, They are the ones that are bringing in the money for the team, not the owners. There are hundreds of players and less than 50 owners, 30 teams. Yet, all the players combined are bringing in around 50% of the revenue. And, you still have guys being set for life with their 10 year/$100 million dollar contracts. This just shows you how much money baseball and sports in general are making because you have guys making near $30 million a year and that’s nothing for the teams.

These are just some of the names of the players in MLB history who never lived up to their contract. This happens a lot. As a Mets fan, I remember Jose Reyes having his best year of his career during his last year with the Mets. Once he got his money from the Miami Marlins, he stopped playing at the level that got him the money he was getting. That happens a lot, as well. You can think like a fan again. How often do you hear fans complain about how much money a guy on their team is making and about how the money spent on him could be spent on someone else, or 2 other lesser known guys. This is the state of the MLB. If you have a few good seasons, you can be set for life. Is it worth it, though?

From a business aspect, it’s worth it, but from a team development aspect, it’s overrated. With stars, you can underachieve and still have the attention and excitement around your team. Nobody wants to underachieve (unless you’re the Sixers), but being bad with players that nobody knows is a recipe for relocation. But when you look at the teams that are winning championships or are contenders every year, the Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Royals, they build their teams through their farm systems. They may sign a free agent, but they don’t really on them for success. I think that giving a guy a lot of money for a long time might be ideal for some teams, but every team doesn’t need to be committing so heavily to baseball players. As far as the length of the contracts? Unless your hitting home runs like this guy in the video below (and no steroids in 2016), then I don’t think paying someone for a whole decade of production in advance is worth it, considering how many people don’t live up to the contract. But hey, it’s the market.

 

The Rooney Rule Isn’t Effective: Black NFL Head Coaches

Shortly before the playoffs started, many head coaches were fired. During this time, the most talked about firing was the firing of Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith. Lovie Smith was the head coach for the Chicago Bears for 9 years before getting fired in 2012. He finished with a 81- 63 record. However, 2 years later, he was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He did not have a good season only winning 2 games in his first year, but they were not that good before he got there and the team was devoid of talent. This season, his team used their high draft pick to draft 2013 Heisman winner Jameis Winston and the team improved to 6 – 10. The team looks very promising in the eyes of many NFL fans. His players loved him. However, he was fired this year. Lovie Smith is black. As of right now, there are 6 minority head coaches in the NFL including newly hired black coach Hue Jackson of the Cleveland Browns and Latino coach Ron Rivera whose team the Carolina Panthers will be coaching in Super Bowl 50.

The Rooney Rule was established in 2003 and it requires teams to interview, at least one minority head coach when the position is open. This is basically the NFL’s version of affirmative action. It was named after Pittsburgh Steelers Owner and head of the NFL’s diversity committee Dan Rooney. The purpose of this rule was to give minority coaches an equal shot at head coaching positions and the expected outcome was an increased number of minority head coaches in the NFL. However, based off of the amount of minority head coaches alone (in a league that is mostly black) this rule doesn’t seem to be working.As a matter of fact, token candidates are a big problem for the league. Teams are literally interviewing black candidates for head coaching positions just because they are black. The team usually know who they want to hire already so this black candidate has no chance of getting the job. As a result, certain aspiring black head coaches become the go-to token candidate and as a result of so many interviews with no job, they aren’t taken seriously by almost every team. They become stuck as a position or assistant coach.

This rule does not apply to position coaches and coordinators. This is important to point out because of how people typically climb the ranks in the NFL. Most of the time, head coaches start out as position or assistant coaches and then move up to coordinator. Then, from coordinator you can become head coach. These promotions can happen either within on franchise or when the opportunity presents itself with other teams. This the career ladder that most NFL head coaches have had to take. ESPN writer Mina Kimes says in her article New study exposes the NFL’s real diversity crisis that, “According to new research from professors at Georgetown, George Washington, Emory and Iowa State University, white position coaches and assistants in the NFL are more than twice as likely to be promoted to coordinator than their black counterparts, regardless of their performance, experience or coaching background.” She continues to say that, “According to their research, quarterbacks coaches are more likely to become head coaches than, say, receivers or running backs coaches. And because white players are more likely to play quarterback (a recent study found that black high school quarterbacks are 39 percent more likely to be asked to switch positions when they enter college), they are also more likely to coach the position, and then possibly become coordinators, and so forth.” Combine this with the fact that this rule does not apply to position coaches and coordinators and you see that the Rooney Rule can end up not being effective and it hasn’t.

Stephen A points out that not only are black coaches at a disadvantage to get coaching positions, but the ones that do get head coaching positions get hired to unfavorable jobs. As you can see, there are a lot of systematic factors that can account for the low number of minority head coaches in the NFL. However, I know some of you reading this might be thinking to yourself, “I don’t think that (insert favorite NFL team here) owner/general manager is racist, even if we don’t have a black coach or coordinator on our team.” That may be true. That is irrelevant though because the number of nonwhite faces in coaching positions in the NFL are low. The reason why all those stats are what they are and why we see that the Rooney Rule isn’t working is because of something that effects the amount of opportunities available for people in most job fields: connections. Herm Edwards, former well-respected head coach of the Jets, in told ESPN writer Mina Kimes in her article New study exposes the NFL’s real diversity crisis that, “This league is about relationships… A lot of guys who are minority coaches that come in the league, after a while they get discouraged.” Sometimes, if you aren’t friends with people in charge, you will not get the job. This seems to be the case in the NFL and all of the NFL owners are white so it makes sense that most of their friends who have jobs in the NFL are white.

In a league in that is notorious for being very impatient with its coaches and sometimes players, we see coaches that have their jobs for long periods of time despite their lack of production. Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys and Jeff Fisher of the St. Louis Rams are just two examples of coaches like this. Many times, they have good relationships with the owner and Jason Garrett-Jerry Jones is the face of a tight head coach-owner relationship. They happen to be white. It’s kind of like the players whose parents are friends with the coach and are making the team regardless of skill because of it so there are no more spots for you. However, for Lovie Smith, the results seemed to be coming and he didn’t have enough time to prove that he is the right head coach for the team. Firing him made no sense from a team development perspective. Yet, Chip Kelly got another head coaching job VERY quickly after he was fired from the last one. It doesn’t seem right.

Representation is important. It is important to make people feel that if they work hard, they can achieve success, too, regardless of race. This is why there is so much anger over the lack of black and Latino Oscar nominations. In a league where most of the players are black, the coaching staff should have similar diversity. It makes sense. The Rooney Rule was created because of the lack of black head coaches in the NFL. The fact that this rule exists means that the NFL (not the individual teams but Roger Goodell) doesn’t like a lack of diversity. So, it’s time to fix the problem before it gets too big and there is only on minority coach. If this were the case for another big company, and the NFL is a business, then the general public would look at them with a raised eyebrow. The Rooney Rule needs to be amended to provide real opportunities to black coaches aspiring to be head coaches and not the fool’s gold that exists today.

Josh Gordon, Spliffs, and the Intensity of the NFL

Josh Gordon was dismissed from Baylor University in 2011 after failing a test for marijuana. He was selected in 2012 by the Cleveland Browns. In 2013, he was suspended for 2 games by the NFL for another failed drug test on which he blamed prescription cough medicine. He then pleaded guilty for a DUI charge and was suspended by the NFL for the whole 2014 season. Then, the NFL altered its substance abuse policy and allowed him to play after his suspension was reduced to 10 games, but he was suspended for the last game of the season. He was then suspended for the whole 2015 season for testing positive for alcohol, which he was not allowed to drink due to the fact that he was entered into the NFL’s substance abuse program after his last suspension. He claims that he was drinking on a flight during the off-season and he didn’t know that the restrictions applied to the off-season, as well. He has committed a lot of drug related violations in his young NFL career and in the last 2 years, he has spent more time not playing than playing in the NFL. However, despite all of his violations, his tone has remained the same. He believes that HE DOES NOT HAVE A PROBLEM. He believes this so much that he recently has applied for reinstatement by he NFL. He claims that he does not have a problem and I feel that many NFL players believe that he doesn’t either considering the amount of drug violations there have been in the NFL in recent years and that he has only gotten suspended for marijuana, which is not a very addictive drug. This article showed the amount of drug violations there was up until September 2014. Most of those suspensions were for performance-enhancing drugs (not condoning them but its obvious why an athlete would want to use PEDs) and marijuana. With the exception of the alcohol suspension from last year and maybe the cough medicine incident (or maybe not), it is safe to say that the reason that Josh Gordon has gotten suspended so much is because of marijuana. When on the field, Josh Gordon is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. So if he doesn’t have a problem, why does he keep putting his career on the line for it.

American football is a gladiator sport. If you are an offensive player, particularly quarterback, running-back, or wide receiver, guys are going on the field with the intent of hurting you, maybe not to the point of injury, but just enough to knock the ball out of your hands or knock you so hard you can’t hold on to the ball. As a matter of fact, there are claims that rugby, a sport that looks like football without pads, is safer than American football. Yet, they are treated as if they play a sport with just as much intensity as every other major sport in America. Every NFL game, somebody gets hurt. So for those that happen to get repeatedly hurt due to playing style or position, do you continuously give them painkillers and other dangerous prescription drugs? It seems as if the players are continuously taking matters into their own hands whether they decide to smoke synthetic marijuana which is not a banned substance under the list of banned substances in the NFL but worse than real marijuana or take their chances by smoking the real thing and hope that they do not get tested soon.

Josh Gordon has been labelled as an addict, an immature kid (by others as well as himself), and another potential great who’s career was plagued by drugs all before the age of 25. It seems as if in his mind, he’s being treated unfairly by the NFL and general public. It is a fact that a lot of other 25 year olds in America smoke weed. I don’t think that anybody reading this will dispute that. However, most other 25 year olds don’t have millions at stake to lose if they are caught smoking it. The argument is that he is just careless, however, if there is really an epidemic of painkillers, which can have much worse effects and are more addictive than marijuana, given to the players by team doctors and if most players choose to smoke marijuana instead because it is safer, and these players play a sport in which they are beat up once a week, is he really being careless or doing what he feels he has to do to be able to play in the NFL?

NFL, do you suspend a player if there is marijuana detected in his system but he plays for the Denver Broncos? There’s a change in American culture when it comes to marijuana. States all across the country are on a path towards legalizing it if they have not already. Yet, the NFL does not want to follow this trend despite portraying itself as America’s unofficial pastime. Despite how they actually feel about the drug, that seems wrong of them. However, they can do what they want. The health benefits of marijuana are undeniable. It has gotten to the point where researchers are looking into ways for people to use marijuana for health benefits without the high. However, the NFL needs to realize that players are not going to wait for researchers to figure it out and they aren’t going to let random tests stop them from their pain relief.

I have never played professional or even collegiate football. The furthest I have gone in my football career is middle school. I do not smoke marijuana, either. However, I do know that since I have not played at a high level that I cannot judge a NFL player because of his alternate and safer method of pain relief. The perception of American football is changing. From ex-players suing the NFL over neglecting to inform them how dangerous the game is to ex-players wishing they never played and predicting the NFL will go extinct, people are looking at the NFL differently. People are realizing that football is just as much of a game on the field as it isn’t off the field. The NFL needs to realize that and take that into account with its policy. Many want to label Josh Gordon irresponsible, but that may be irresponsible of us as NFL fans. Josh Gordon could very well, be irresponsible and just wanted to get high and had no medical need for marijuana. However, the fact that there’s a possibility that he may have needed marijuana to play football means that we might be right in jumping to conclusions.

I’m Just Here So I Don’t Get Fined.

It feels as if it is a new epidemic for athletes to just cooperate in post game interviews as if they don’t like the media. You have this…

And this…

And this…

And all of this prompting this…

Now, I know that saying that it is an epidemic is maybe a stretch given the fact that not every player is not cooperating and not answering questions in post game interviews. However, it is the atmosphere that is created when that is acceptable. The players ultimately aren’t calling their peers out on it. In the Thunder’s case, Kevin Durant kind of picked up on Russell Westbrook’s behavior and kind of copied it. The fans love it and that’s the one part that many of the people who talk about press-player interactions don’t really say (I thoroughly enjoyed those Marshawn Lynch interviews when they first happened). In most cases, the coaches aren’t saying much to the players about it. And finally, the press kind of just take it. When this atmosphere is created, it creates the possibility of other players (especially future professional athletes) mimicking their behavior. After all, any publicity is good publicity, right?

This has happened before in sports. For example…

The relationship between the media and the players have always been an awkward one. If you are playing well on and off the field/court, you’re going to not mind a post game interview so much. As a matter of fact, some players would even want the post game interview to brag about their stats or their team’s win. But, when you aren’t playing well and looking bad off the court/field, you have instances like the ones shown above. In my mind, I think of the relationship like the relationship between the principal and the student. When you get called to the office and you know you’re doing well in school, you might just get some props from your teacher or get put on the honor roll or something. When you’re not doing well, you know what’s coming and then you complain about how the principal doesn’t know what’s really going on or if you want to Marshawn Lynch it, just don’t answer the questions because you already know what’s coming. The analogy may not work so well, but if you think about it long enough it might. Kind of.

I was watching a debate show called First Take on ESPN 2 and I saw this “debate” live. They weren’t really arguing the point so it’s not really a debate, but it’s a debate show.

They basically said when you don’t answer our questions, we can ruin your image. They didn’t literally say that, but they toed that line. What Stephen A. Smith said is was SERIOUS and seeing how Russell Westbrook doesn’t really care too much for the media these days, I’m surprised that he hasn’t cursed Stephen A. out already.

In the media, when a player is being disrespectful or just difficult with the media, the media seems to always portray the player as just taking out their frustration with whatever it is (either their play or off the court/field activities) on the media. See the pattern there? The media always asks good questions, right? The media never tries to sully people’s images due to personal conflicts, right? The media never oversteps boundaries, right? The reason that Marshawn Lynch doesn’t cooperate with the media is because he doesn’t trust them. Even when he has a good game, he’s not saying anything. He REALLY doesn’t trust them. Russell Westbrook has had a bad relationship with the media almost his whole career, especially with the Oklahoma City media. Mainly, because they have called him selfish, a ball hog, a bad presence in the locker room, and somebody who hurts his team rather than helps it. I am not in the locker room with his team and I have never covered the Thunder so I’m not going to completely disregard those specific criticisms. However, put yourself in Russell Westbrook’s shoes. How would you feel if you were getting triple doubles almost every night but people were still saying that you were hurting your team. Now if you check the comments on the last video, you will see a lot of people say that the players are just soft. That may be true and maybe when a player doesn’t respond to the media that he or she is showing a sign of weakness because he or she is showing that they are letting the criticism get to them. However, it could be a statement of protest because of how they feel that they are bring treated by the media. By the way, it’s mandatory in most sports leagues for the athletes to do post game interviews. When Marshawn Lynch said in an interview “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” he was really only there so he won’t get fined by the NFL. So when these players are there looking miserable, it’s because they don’t want to get interviewed.

The Players’ Tribune is a website started by Derek Jeter in 2014 for athletes to tell their stories how they want. It is basically a platform that allows athletes to become journalists. Players have social media, as well. Players have all kinds of ways to convey whatever they want however they want. So in society, the media’s role is changing. It might become a less important role in sports. So, this enables players to bypass the media by not answering questions and interact with the fans how they want to. So, Stephen A. and Skip Bayless may be thinking in a very old school way.

Despite how unprofessional his behavior during interviews may be, Marshawn Lynch is well liked by fans and not just Seahawks fans. Fans love the interviews that don’t go well, despite the fact that it is annoying for the interviewer. However, I believe that the media has to understand their place in the sports world now. Athletes are going to not make it easy for them when they aren’t in the mood because they don’t need the media to get fans to know them anymore. They have social media. As a matter of fact, they have Player’s Tribune and social media. I think that the media should take Stephen A’s advice and speculate all they want. However, I don’t think that the effect intended by Stephen A’s advice is going to happen in today’s society.

Sinking Ships: Tanking in the NBA

The following video is going to highlight the Spurs and their bench more than talk about the Sixers, but pay attention to the score.

The official meaning for the word ‘tank’ does not have anything to do with sports. You will not find the most common use of the word in any official dictionary. However, when you search for the definition on Google, it gives the official definitions, but incorporates the ‘slang’ definition, as well. The definition basically says exactly what the Philadelphia organization has been doing for the last 3 years which is basically losing on purpose. Now, when you tell non-sports fans about this concept, the first thing you will almost always hear is: Why would a team want to lose on purpose? This is important to recognize because the fact that this question comes up speaks to the fact that tanking goes against our very nature as human beings and therefore there might be something fundamentally wrong with it.

This is how tanking happens in sports: particularly in the NBA. In the NBA, you either want to be the best or the worst, as crazy as that sounds. The reason for that is that if you are the best, you can win a championship. If you are the worst, you have a better chance of getting the first pick in the NBA Draft, where the best college basketball players get selected by NBA teams. If you are just alright, then you’ll make the playoffs most likely but we all know that you’re not winning the championship because you’re just not the best and you’re too good to get a high pick in the draft so you’re basically stuck there trying to provide false hope of a championship to your fans and no future pretty much. An example of a team like this would have to be the Atlanta Hawks from around 2007-2011. They were good and had some good records to show for it, but they weren’t knocking LeBron out of the playoffs and the fans knew this because they would have decent attendance, but most of the fans were rooting for the other team. Many people thought that this was because you have so many people from other states that move down to Atlanta, but that might not be the case because we saw how excited the fan base could be when they feel they have a legitimate chance to do something in the playoffs last year and to a degree this year, as well.

Other leagues have drafts, as well. However, tanking isn’t as big of a problem in the other leagues due to the nature of the sport. I had an argument over Christmas with my cousin. He was born and raised in Jamaica, as almost all of my family was, as a HUGE soccer fan. When he came to America, he started to follow basketball a little bit more and decided to become a LeBron James fan. So, he saw all The Decision mayhem and he saw him go back to Cleveland, as well. Basically, as a soccer fan, he was used to seeing superstars join each other’s teams and dominate so he said he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. My position was that basketball is a different sport by nature so you can’t compare the two and that there’s something to be said for being THE reason why you win a championship in a sport where one guy can change the whole direction of an organization. It was a long argument. That being said, it is true that one or two guys can single-handedly change the whole direction of a franchise in basketball and it is hard (not impossible) to say that about football, or soccer, or hockey, or any other team sport. This is why there is more parity in the other sports, as well. Therefore, the moves being made by a team’s front office in other sports are almost always about improving the win percentage in the next season. In the NBA, who’s beating LeBron and whoever else is on his team? Notice, over the last 20 years, it’s almost always the same handful of teams winning the championship. The Bulls won 6 in the 1990’s. Kobe has 5, Wade has 3, the Pistons, Celtics, Mavericks and Warriors (to date) won one, and Duncan has 5. That’s all in the last 17 seasons, but there’s 30 NBA teams.

So now, you have the NBA draft. In other sports where tanking isn’t as common, the rules of the draft are very similar to the NBA. However, this might not be common to say, but the NBA Draft rewards tanking. Tanking is illegal in the NBA, but it’s hard to enforce a rule when you can’t really prove that a team is breaking it. The 76ers have come the closest in NBA history to show without a shadow of a doubt that they are tanking. I have never met an athlete in my life that has played a game with the intention of losing. Although, it has happened.

It is the front office that makes roster changes that directly hurt the team. Philadelphia has done nothing but make losing changes and here’s a list of them. The worst trade of all was trading away their most promising rookie in a long time who people thought they were tanking for in the first place. Now, all Philadelphia does is lose. They consistently get high draft picks though and this what they want. Is this wrong or just how business works in the NBA.

This can’t be right. That initial first reaction when you explain tanking to someone is what let’s you know that. First of all, I’m a Knicks fan and my team tanked last year and this year we look pretty good and are improving every game. I feel for the Philadelphia fans. They have tanked for so long that losing is a habit over there and it might take them a while to shake it. There must be a way in which Philadelphia can look at other teams or other leagues for guidance on how to develop a good team. The fans don’t deserve it and the city doesn’t deserve it. After all, this legend played there.

Let Them Live! Celebrations in the NFL and MLB

In the NFL, and many sports, it is customary to celebrate a scoring play. In the NBA, people tend to do such things after making a three point shot or a slam dunk. In the MLB, people tend to throw their bat up in the air while the ball is going over the wall for a home run, sometimes. In the NFL, it’s been the touchdown celebration (I would say touchdown dance but I wouldn’t classify a spike as a dance).

Touchdown Celebrations have been part of the NFL for as long as the NFL has existed and you can tell from how old some of the clips were in that video. The most famous dancers in NFL history might be  Elbert “Ickey” Woods of the Cincinnati Bengals and Deion “Primetime” Sanders who is well-known for playing on the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers among other teams in the NFL and MLB. It’s natural to want to celebrate an achievement. It’s human. So it makes sense that it happens in most professional sports. However, not all celebrations are taken to very kindly and that is for a variety of reasons.

This is Jose Bautista. He is one of the best players in the MLB. If you did not watch the MLB playoffs last year or are not familiar with baseball, this is what you have to know. The Toronto Blue Jays vs. The Texas Rangers was one of the best match-ups in the whole MLB postseason and that bat flips are “not welcomed” in baseball. I put that in quotation marks for a reason. This wasn’t just a bat flip, however. This was an intense bat flip. This bat was flipped so hard it almost disappeared like Bobby Shmurda’s hat. Jose Bautista plays for the Toronto Blue Jays and hit a hard home run, in Toronto, in a close and heated playoff series. The fans love it. Yet, this is a problem in the MLB.

This is Cam Newton, NFL MVP candidate and Carolina Panthers quarterback. He has been doing this simple dance after a big play, particularly a touchdown, for most of the season. This move is a popular dance moved today called ‘the dab’. He did it one day after a touchdown and as soon as he did it the Titans got upset, some fans got upset, and he has been doing it ever since and plans to continue doing it all the way to the Super Bowl. If I had to guess, the biggest reason that he is doing it right now is because to quote DJ Khaled, “They don’t want him to enjoy life, so he’s going to enjoy life. Just know.” My question is: why is everybody so uptight though?

I understand why a Rangers fan would be upset at Jose Bautista and why everybody in the NFL that doesn’t play on the Panthers would be mad at Cam Newton right now, but for many people in our society to have a problem with those who celebrate their own success is wrong to me. It’s their success. There is a limit to the amount of celebration is considered appropriate and I agree with that, as well. This is why you have penalties for excessive celebration in the NFL. However, I believe that that limit is when the celebration either disgraces the game or shames the opponent, although an argument can be made that the opponent allowing the celebrating team to get into a position where they believe that they can celebrate is shameful in itself. Notice how I have not talked about the NBA. The amount of signature celebrations that are in the NBA are kind of crazy, in a good way. The NBA got it right. They know that celebrations only enhance the NBA brand because they add more entertainment value to the product, which is the game. The MLB doesn’t approve bat flipping because of “the tradition of the game”. They call it upholding tradition, but I call it being stuck in the past and the MLB has had issues with that for a while now, but that’s a whole different blog post. However, it’s important to acknowledge that it is not illegal, just frowned upon. The bat flip energized the stadium and the fans watching at home. It added to the game. It wasn’t in disrespect to the opposing team. The NFL is slightly hypocritical with how they view the celebrations because it’s a problem when Cam Newton hits the dab but not when Odell Beckham Jr. hits the whip. Maybe it’s because Cam is viewed as cocky, but I feel he can do what he wants right now because he’s winning and, again, the casual fan loves it, Panthers fans love it, and the kids love it. He’s doing it for them and not the team that he is beating. Bottomline: If you want to stop a player from celebrating, beat them. As long as the player isn’t doing this…