Because there aren't enough sports blogs
As a former soccer player, it always baffled me how defenders used to stop playing and raise their arms calling for an offside.
Play until there’s a whistle. Don’t stop. It could cost you a goal and often it did.
It’s one thing to have hacks do it, but to see it in major professional leagues and tournaments is even more annoying and frustrating.
Shouldn’t they know better?
With Serie A titles under their belt, this year the neroazzurri wanted to win Champions League.
Jose Mourinho is supposed to be the key missing ingredient to help them achieve this goal.
However, so far in the competition they’ve underwhelmed and underachieved despite qualifying for the next round. There’s no reason why Inter should have not won the group but they managed to mess that up.
Inter has some work to do.
A lot in fact.
Making sense of firing epidemic
By Jeff Sack
Sacramento Kings-Reggie Theus: Should survive the season, if only because of the Maloof brothers caving in to Tru-Warrior. When Joe and Gavin Maloof, allowed Ron Artest to go to Houston in the fire sale that happened during the Summer, the franchise lost any hopes of contending this season. Theus deserves a Mulligan for the campaign.
Who Could Be Next? Evaluating The Longevity Of The Association’s Coaches
Apparently Sacramento Kings Team Owners Joe and Gavin Maloof did not agree with my assessment. The “Sacramento Bee” reported Monday that the Sacramento Kings have become the sixth NBA team this season to fire their head coach. According to the report, the Kings have fired head coach Reggie Theus 24 games into his second season as the Sacramento bench boss. The report also states that assistant coach Chuck “The Rifleman” Person has also been terminated. The Kings Media Relations Department have verified the dismissals, and have stated that assistant coach Kenny Natt has been named interim head coach.
The Kings have gotten off to a lackluster start in the 2008-2009 campaign, as they have a record of 6-18 mired in last place in the NBA Pacific Division. Sacramento has lost 14-16, and they were humiliated on Saturday as they were blown out by the New York Knickerbockers 114-90. The team was 39-43 last season under Theus. He joins Maurice Cheeks, P.J. Carlesimo, Eddie Jordan, Randy Wittman, and Sam Mitchell, all previously dismissed.
Reggie Theus may or may not be a good NBA coach, that question has not been answered. Whether he will get another chance to coach again in the Association, remains to be seen. He certainly did nothing to distinguish himself during his tenure, however he also did nothing to harm his reputation. No one will win with the way the Kings are presently constituted, and by the end of the campaign chances are great that Kenny Natt will no longer be part of the organization. Theus may not have done any thing to prevent his being fired, but he deserved more of a shot to show what he could do.
It’s weird.
The NHL has become a pussy league. Forgive my language.
Yet, dirty hits are on the rise. Be it hitting from behind, shots to the head or cowardly spearing and yapping.
Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Kevin McHale thinks bloggers are having a skewed influence on the sports landscape. I agree.
There’s so much micro-coverage these days it leads to analysis by paralysis. Or is it the other way?
Whatever.
The sheer amount of opinions (intelligent or otherwise) is staggering. It’s one thing to have people call in on radio shows or voice displeasure at a sporting event and quite another to give them access to a blog. Blogging magnifies the power of the fan and opinions- which is not necessarily a bad thing.
However, many popular blogs are not always the most thought provoking. It’s not about the coverage of sports but of the personalities now. It’s about ranting, gossip and humor. Some sites are pretty good and others just plain terrible.
Then again, if you have a GM or coach that is insecure enough to be influenced by a blog then maybe it’s time to have a reassessment of company personnel.
In any event, readers don’t have to worry about this here at ISW. We draw the line at gossip. Personally, I really don’t care about the mundane aspects of an athlete’s private life. I don’t do voyeurism.
I do sports.
Argentina often lurks in the shadow of Brazil in soccer in the realm of popular discourse. Of course, it shouldn’t.
Argentina’s soccer heritage is deep and brilliant. In fact, at this moment, with all due respect to Italy, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands and Germany, one could argue Argentina possesses pound for pound the most talented squad.
A third World Cup title can’t be too far off for Argentina.
Yeah, I know. It’s football, hockey and basketball season. But soccer popped into my mind.
Ever wonder what the goals for and against were for World Cup finalists?
Not really? Same here.
Meh.
Here we go: There have been 69 goals in total scored in a World Cup final. 45 come from four countries:
Brazil – seven finals: 15-9
Germany – seven finals: 11-15
Italy – six finals: 11-6
Argentina – four finals: 8-8
Interesting that Italy has an equal amount of goals (1.8 goals per game) to Germany (1.6) with one less final to its name. Not surprisingly, Brazil manages 2.1 goals per game. Again, no shock here, Italy has the best goals against figure allowing just one goal per game. Germany’s defense has permitted 2.1 goals per game (what’s the German equivalent of Swiss cheese?) followed by Argentina with 2.0.
The ratios look like this:
Brazil: 2.1 – 1.3
Italy 1.8-1.0
Argentina 2.0 -2.0
Germany 1.6 – 2.1
As for France, in two appearances, four Gaullic goals were scored against one foreign. This translates into a 2.0- .05.
Want to continue? Ok, let’s consider one more champion with at least two appearances: Uruguay. The once prolific Uruguayans scored six goals and allowed three in two finals. A ratio of 3.0-1.5.
Look for more stats in the other three sports in the future.
Bye-bye.
By John Huss
Dick and an even better known movie adaptation of it. Could I possibly have another one up my sleeve? Sadly, the answer is yes.
A Scanner Darkly came out to limited theaters in 2006 with very little fanfare. Partly because it was an obscure title…partly because it was animated. Brilliantly animated using interpolated rotoscope, its main character featured the voice-over of Keanu Reeves. Now before you hang up on me for mentioning his name, let me make you more familiar with this topic. Philip K. Dick wrote the original novel back in the 70s and it featured a story that depicted a futuristic drug culture. The main drug was something called Substance D. Its street name was simply Slow Death. Now portraying Keanu Reeves as a wacked out drug induced lead character is a bit of a stretch…ahem…but the film did a reasonably good job of staying true to the book. All of that is simply backdrop to the main part of this article. The part that I want to truly focus on is the correlation between Substance D and college football.
In the book/movie, Substance D breaks down one side of the brain, which forces the other side to try and compensate for that lost functionality. One result of this is a dual personality. Many of our readers play fantasy college football and know about that all too well.
Side A: Yes honey, let me just check these football stats real quick.
Side B: You idiot, why would you tell her that! You got a death wish? Hurry up, tell her you are ordering her flowers!!!
Side A: Baby, you still like tulips, right?
Even more telling is what the drug is called on the street. For many of us, that Slow Death is the time spent waiting in limbo after the last game until the first Bowl game. That painful gnawing we have as we wait for something called the EagleBank Bowl to kick off on December 20th at 11am (Wake Forest vs Navy). Imagine the agony felt by a college football fan like myself who foolishly agreed to get married on that very same day.
Side A: This is the greatest day of my life.
Side B: How much do we have to give the Padre to get this wedding done inside 10 minutes? That way, we shouldn’t miss too much of the halftime show….
Side A: Bless me Father for I have sinned…
I’ll miss four games that day. Some would argue that’s a small price to pay for love. I say thankfully I won’t have to miss the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (Boise St. vs TCU). It’s on December 23rd.
In the book, taking tabs of Slow Death can only be cured by a stint at a New Path rehab facility. College football is an addiction many of us have and I ain’t going to rehab…no, no, no. Instead, I have a source that says FantasyCollegeBlitz is going to help us all out.
Just this very night, Drew Smith posted his views on the Heisman.
Vince, Daniel and Jason Roberts have plans for an upcoming podcast where they will draft who gets to cover which of the 34 Bowl games. I know if I had first pick, I’d be taking the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl (BYU vs. Arizona)…except that darn wedding thing is keeping me out of the mix. Between my DVR and their extensive bowl game previews, I’ll be able to survive. As will you.
Another way to fill this void is to look at the H2H Bowl Challenge. Winning that would go a long way towards the seed money I need to get the priest to do the short version of the wedding (short version and Catholic wedding is an oxymoron, I know).
Of course, in A Scanner Darkly, the supply and time only lasted so long. In our world, the last bowl game is the BCS Championship on January 8th. Do I really need to tell you who is playing that matchup? Vince called it.
Man…how long after that will I have to wait till spring games start up?
Slow Death.
By Beaker
The title to this post is simple but true axiom in life.
I can’t remember where and why but I recently saw on television Allen “I is all biz” Iverson’s anti-practice rant way back in 2002 when he was still playing for the Sixers.
I think it was aired after he missed practice for the Detroit Pistons on Thanksgiving Day earlier this season – to which he apologized.
Gosh, some modern athletes must frustrate the hell out of coaches, GM’s and fans. Iverson happens to be one of those athletes that leaves you shaking your head saying, “why?”
Let’s see. Iverson has played and been controversial in Philadelphia, Denver and now Detroit and remains without a championship.
Sometimes it’s not hard to poke fun at contemporary athletes because 1) this is the information age where everything is scrutinized and 2) they do and say such incredibly stupid, selfish and childish things.
Then they demand to be “respected.”
This is the part where we all laugh.
Since being part of a trade that sent him to Detroit, Iverson’s influence has yet to be felt as the Pistons are playing sub-500 basketball. Meanwhile, the Nuggets are benefiting from Chauncey Billups’ professionalism. The Nuggets are playing as a team and winning games.
Should anyone be surprised?
Yes, the season is young and Iverson still has an opportunity to turn things around but for now he’s just another athlete who doesn’t seem to mature enough to grasp what it takes to win a title.
Here’s something Allen should ponder.
The greatest musicians, writers, philosophers and inventors in history were born with an inherent talent just like him.
But here’s the difference: Masters like Mozart, Dante, Shakespeare, Edison etc. didn’t change the course of history by grace of their talent alone. They did it through painstaking hard work.
In other words, they “practiced.” Mozart didn’t just hit the piano on the night he was to play concert. He practiced, practiced, practiced.
Similarly, Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan (among scores of others) became icons because they complimented their genius with hard work.
Iverson has a choice. He can mold his brilliance into something bigger or he can act like a little street kid hood with millions in his back pocket and disappear into basketball obscurity…without a championship.
The choice to become a winner is entirely his.
