No Brain Activated
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Written by Don Landrigan
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Wednesday, 07 April 2010 07:29 |
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In Japan, I don't get my copy of ESPN The Mag hot off the presses. As a subscriber, it gets sent to me... well... the most flattering term would be "sporadically" (and "how sporadically" could be a different column entirely!).
At this point, it's important to point out that I normally like what Reilly has to say. Really like. And it's pretty much the first thing I turn to when I open The Mag. He's usually spot on, and eminently readable. Sure, he sometimes-perhaps-too-often gets on his soapbox, but as often as not it's drawing attention to someone deserves it (the piece "The greatest moment in women's sports" went a bit overboard) - and he generally has a good eye for when a wrong needs rightin', or someone's due for a good tar and feathering.
But of all things good 'n' holy, he completely whiffed on this piece on Greg Wise.
Greg Wise coaches Houston's Yates High School basketball team, and by any measure, they are the best team in the state of Texas.
During the last season, they set a US National record of 15 straight games where they scored over 100 points, they scored 100 or higher 26 times, they set a Texas single game scoring record with a 170 point effort, and they won their second straight Class 4A state championship.
So they're good. That's clear. But Reilly's claim that because Yates High School basketball team is good that "somebody's going to get hurt" is inane... and the rest of the piece is littered with stupidity after stupidity.
Really Reilly? In a piece where you deplore the violence that occurred post a basketball game, he states "The things I would like to do to Coach Wise would curl an executioner's toes."... and "I'd like Wise to spend a day as a speed bump in the Lee parking lot". Nice.
And basically, Reilly's piece is calling out not only the coach, but the team as well. These are high school kids. And they're high school kids who excel at something - yet Reilly has the temerity to denigrate them for this.
In an age where too many children are satisfied with mediocrity, calling out a coach and a group of kids for "trying hard" is disgusting.
The entire piece reads as if Reilly wants the team to 'take it easy'. And I'm aghast that such a respected journalist would be proposing that a team would give anything else but their best efforts in a game.
Sure, I agree with the notion that perhaps playing a full court press in the end of a blowout is a little too much, but we're talking about teaching kids. On that, I get that perhaps someone could have a quiet chat to Greg Wise about the appropriacy of having kids go for the kill... but it's not ok to instruct them to give anything less than than 100%.
"Giving it your all" does matter.
Reilly offers the following as his piece's epithet:
I wouldn't be surprised if he goes for the national record of 211. If he gets it, I hope they add an *:
*Set by Yates High School, Classless of 2010.
Reilly's a great writer, but this was anything but a great piece... so I'll suggest that ESPN should put an asterisk on his offering of that day:
* written by Rick Reilly, Classless piece of March 22nd.
Rick Reilly writes many great pieces. This sure as hell wasn't one of them.
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Written by Don Landrigan
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Wednesday, 31 March 2010 08:39 |
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We're getting damn close to the lottery, and this year promises to be one of the biggest ever... if not THE biggest ever.
What's that? The draft lottery?
Hell no... I'm talking about the LeBron James sweepstakes, and what losing in them is going to mean.
There are a quite a few players with an 'available' tag coming up on: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amar'e Stoudemire, Manu Ginobli, Carlos Boozer... and if you extend the list to include ETO (Early Termination Option) and restricted free agents, the entire group is massive.
However, there are definitely more destinations than players worthy of being called 'elite'. This is going to inevitably lead to some players getting given contracts that will a millstone on their new franchise for some time to come. Contracts the like of which were given to Stephon Marbury. To Steve "Franchise" Francis. To Eddy Curry.
 It's hard to say who'll be the recipient of such a contract this off season, but given the fact that there are going to be several franchises with bulging pockets, and no-one to spend it on - there are bound to be a few sizeable contracts that get handed out in the heat of the moment. Contracts that but a few months down the track, teams will wish they could take back.
For let's be perfectly honest: whilst a few of the aforementioned players may move around, LeBron's likely to remain where he is. And when that happens, there'll be the mad rush to get Wade... Stoudemire... Bosh... Boozer... and so on (can anyone imagine Kobe not being a Laker???).
Sooner rather than later, the quality's going to run out. That's going to happen before teams run out of money too... so as it does every season there are going to be some head-scratchers.
That's REALLY going to be obvious this season, because a lot of the contracts made this off-season are going to impacted by the looming Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Speculation is that the CBA will include a shortening of contracts, and a lessening of their max-value (smart money should be on David Stern getting his way). Except that already existing contracts will be honoured, grandfathered into whatever system the CBA creates.
So this off-season? Expect teams to be pushing for 3-5 year contracts, and players to be grabbing at the full 7.
And it's a guarantee that some teams will fold before the players do.
Hell... I'd bet that there'll be some teams that will jump out of the gates offering 'stupid money' to some of the free/restricted agents out there. 
What teams? I could see New York ending up making some bone-headers... Golden State too.
Which player's going to benefit on an offer of money that vastly outstrips his playing ability? That's tough... I'm going to suggest that we keep our eyes on Anthony Tolliver.
Guy's playing well, and has made the most of his opportunities at Golden State. He's a big forward with range. He is a restricted agent, but I'm betting someone'll offer him money that the Dubs won't match.
That's my bet.
But there'll be others. Other stupidity. Other No Brain Activated offers. That is for sure.
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Written by Don Landrigan
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Wednesday, 24 March 2010 07:35 |
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On Friday, we'll find out which version of Gilbert Arenas the judge determining his sentence believes. The peaceful, happy-go-lucky guy who made a mistake, or the thug who tried to intimidate a team-mate into a cover-up.
The prosecution are seeking a 3 month jail sentence, whereas the-player-formerly-known-as-Zero's defense team are looking for a more lenient sentence of probation/community service.
Of course, the judge doesn't have to listen to either: he could hit Arenas with the maximum 5 years, were he so inclined.
 But the most amazing thing that's coming out is how calculating Gilbert Arenas appears in all of this. How calculating he is. Or at least... attempted to be. The evidence is in on Arenas, and how his story changed several times in an effort to at first erase the incident, then shift blame to a team-mate, then minimise the damage. Arenas sent a memo to a team-mate who was expected to pass it on to Javaris Crittenton that read: "Ur new story. U were n the training rm when u got out there were 3 guns on ur chair with a note. That said pick one. Send that to javaris ill take all the Blame, Ill come up with the story. But that all he needs to say. If we hav to talk to the nba office."
Sheer idiocy.
The lawyers for Arenas are trying to play the pity card too - "Gee... the guy's giving up a heap with the current penalty imposed by the NBA." Really? The fact that through his own stupidity he's cost himself millions in sponsorship/salary should impact the decision? Am I the only one who finds that verging on disgusting?
The other thing is, the penalties may not be over when the judge hammers down the gavel. Stern may decide to impose further discipline once the legal action's done. I made my opinions on 'guns-and-athletes' a while back, and nothing's changed.
Throw the book at him David.
I hope the District of Columbia do too.
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Written by Don Landrigan
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Wednesday, 17 March 2010 07:30 |
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Overall, Matt Barnes played pretty well when the Orlando Magic beat the Lakers.
He did a good job defending Kobe Bryant, or at least as good a job as anyone can do when playing on Kobe.
But he did get a little overly enthusiastic at times.
The "no-it-really-does-smell" pump-fake-pass right at Kobe's nose went a little too far, and Kobe not flinching just gives him the "win" in that category. It really looked like a guy trying to intimidate in a streetball pick-up game, and belittled the efforts he'd made. The swing-on-the-rim into Kobe, post a dunk was a bit too much too. Enthusiasm. Sometimes, it can get the better of you. But hours later, when a player should be just relaxing, chilling between games... you'd think that stupidity wouldn't reign supreme. And at first, it seemed that Matt Barnes was saying all the right things.
Via Twitter...
"No such thing as a (Kobe stopper) he's the badest man n the league. He had 35pts 2day. I jus try 2 make him work 4 every point. Respect!!!"
Kudos for that tweet. It was a perfectly worded missive to the world that showed class post winning.
But then the trash-talking started. Sure, Lamar Odom had things to say about Barnes - calling him a "monkey" wasn't an auspicious moment in Laker/Magic relations... but as explained in the OC Register's piece on this:
Odom yelled out that Barnes was "a monkey," adding: "He picked the right game to act tough." Later, after most reporters had left him, I asked Odom for clarification on that "monkey" comment. Odom said it referenced rapper Rick Ross calling 50 Cent "a monkey" in their rivalry.
"That's an inside joke," Odom said. "The rappers that are feuding with each other, Rick Ross and 50 Cent ... they're feuding with each other. That's an inside joke with this team. Matt Barnes is a cool dude. If I call him a monkey, I don't mean it. If I call him a superhero or a wrestling figure, I don't mean it.
"He did what he had to do. He played a great game. He got the crowd involved. Basketball's entertaining, as well. He did a great job for his team today."
Ok, fair enough.
But Matt Barnes' response went over the bounds of trash-talking, and simply into... well... trash. Via his twitter account, he declared:
"Seems Lamar can't keep my name out of his mouth maby I need 2 put my sons shitty diaper n it"
Say what?
Yup. Twitter, and stupidity. It's happened more than once (hell, just ask JR Smith. Err... Earl III... err... whatever).
And once it's out there, it's out there. No recalling it - deletion won't help: someone always takes a screenshot if it's worth of doing so.
Don't get me wrong: Barnes is a good player, and Orlando are going to need him to be at his most ruthless if they're to get out of the East, never mind win the Finals... but this was definitely lacking in good judgment.
Odom for his part has kept any shots fired across the bow off twitter. A wise mind bides a silent tongue?
Perhaps that's something Matt Barnes could learn...
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Don also writes regularly at With Malice - A Lakers blog. This will be a regular column on stupidity within the NBA.
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