If Lebron fails again this June, he will be making the wrong kind of history.
Late April/early May -ish. I don’t need to tell devoted sports fans that this is the most wonderful, most enjoyable, most rewarding time on the sports calendar. There is almost too much to consume… NBA Playoffs, NHL Playoffs, NFL Draft, baseball’s first month, NBA Draft build-up, College football’s spring practices, etc. Take all of that, throw in NBA superstars lacerating their hand while trying to put out the Heat, Metta World Peace’s new name becoming super awkward, and Chris Bosh laying a new dinosaur egg (I mean having a new-born baby), and the Sports World has given me plenty to discuss.
In interest of brevity and covering multiple topics, we’re going to bang out this opinionated column out disjointedly and bullet-style. I thought your short attention spans wouldn’t mind…
- I’m not a big fan of giving out “NFL Draft grades” because, well, who the heck knows how good a class of players, who have never stepped on an NFL field should grade, but as a follow up to my NFL Mock Draft (that was predictably rendered completely irrelevant with about 12 trades in the first 9 minutes), here are five drafts that I liked…
- Chargers- They got great value by drafting Melvin Ingram, who was widely considered a top 10 pick coming into the draft, at 18.
- Steelers- Ditto with David DeCastro at 24.
- Bengals- Effectively filled their two most immediate needs in the first round by drafting Dre Kirkpatick (cornerback) and Kevin Zeitler (guard).
- Patriots- Didn’t fare as well in the later rounds, but Bill Belichick will love working with first-rounders, Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower, who will provide a big upgrade in the line backing corps.
- Buccaneers- Drafting safety Mark Barron at 7 seemed like a little bit of a reach, but at least they got their guy. They were also able to draft Doug Martin (31st), who will spell carries from LaGarette Blount, and Lavontee David (58th), a linebacker with a first-round grade.
Now three drafts I didn’t like…
- Seahawks- Where do I start? Bruce Irvin, their 15th overall pick has been arrested for robbery, destruction of property, and knocking a sign off a delivery car. I wouldn’t care except for the part where he was the 15th overall pick in the NFL draft. The only thing that could make this selection more idiotic is that Irvin was considered a second or third round pick, so even if Seattle fell in love with him for whatever reason, they could have traded out of the first round, compiled more draft picks, and still had gotten Irvin. Of course, that would make too much sense.
Kevin Kolb's inaccuracy could impede the maturation of rookie Michael Floyd.
- Cardinals- “We have a big hole at guard? And David DeCastro, the best guard prospect in the last five years and a future 10 year-starter is still on the board? We’ll take Michel Floyd. He’ll be a great complement to Larry Fitzgerald! And by complement, I mean he’ll complement him while talking defenders running back Kevin Kolb picks.”
- Rams- Not bad in terms of overall value, but everybody and their mother knew that St. Louis needed to give Sam Bradford a weapon to work with (hey, Justin Blackmon) and instead of just staying at 6 and taking Blackmon, they traded back to 7 (missing him by one spot), and then traded back again to 14 (missed Michael Floyd by one spot). Aaaandd Sam Bradford continues to try to make chicken salad from chicken bleep.
- I was bummed out by the bittersweet news about ESPN’s Hubert Davis taking an assistant coaching position at North Carolina (his alma mater and the team I call mine). Sweet, because I think Hubert will do well in his assistant coaching position at Carolina, but bitter, because who knows who ESPN will select to replace him on College Gameday. Who is going to save the day while Jay Bilas is on his legal high-horse about some recruiting scandal, Digger Phelps is half asleep, and Rece Davis is trying to prevent disaster. Also, we have to say goodbye to one of the most unique, inimitable, and enjoyable laughs in history of broadcast television.
- Something totally not sports-related, but relevant because it is one of the most effective uses of social media I know of, and this is a sports blog. At my high school, a group of guys thought it would be cool to spread the news that one of their friends was hosting a party by tweeting the hash tag, #RossMorganRager (Ross Morgan being the name of the kid hosting it, and Rager meaning party.) Long story short, after only one day of my high school excessively tweeting about the Ross Morgan Rager, local radio shows in Pittsburgh caught wind of it and Jimmy Fallon even mentioned it on his website. As if this wasn’t crazy enough, the next day, Ross Morgan Rager started to trend globally (!!) on Twitter and Pittsburgh’s most watched news broadcast did an interview with them about it, which you can watch here. Keep in mind that this all started with a group of eight high school kids repeatedly tweeting a hash tag to spread the word of something, and in three days, has turned into a phenomenon bigger than Project X. (Time will tell whether the party actually happens because every Pittsburgh city police officer and their mother knows about it, but regardless, still wicked awesome.) Lesson learned: Never underestimate the power and influence of social media because ANYTHING IS POSSSIBBBLLLE!!
(Quick tangent: If anybody from the North Allegheny School District is reading this as apart of their witch-hunt for students discussing the Ross Morgan Rager, just stop it. You guys have this delusion that you can control and monitor every little thing that your students say on the Internet like a some sort of communist regime. If there is one thing that you should take away from all of this, it is that you can’t. The Internet and social media will win every time, as it has with the Ross Morgan Rager phenomenon. You blocked access to this very website inside your schools (appreciate it and won’t forget that) for no conceivable reason other than you want to discourage the individuality, aspirations, and passion that one of your students expresses. But guess what? Hundreds of kids from our school are still able to read my work outside of your scope of internet control. You should be less concerned with trying to place your tyrannical blanket over social media and this hypothetical party, and more concerned with consequential matters. You know, like the bomb threat that occurred inside your school on Thursday. Remind me again why we have cameras set up throughout the school if they can’t be used to discover who left the threatening note in the bathroom (exactly the kind of thing that they’re meant for). Or maybe even spend some time amending your online shopping portal, which was supposed to generate revenue and help chip away at your 8 MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT, but only generated 48 dollars in its first month of excistance. The overall incompetence is becoming comical at this point.) Anyways, back to sports….
- Speaking of social media, I can’t resist mentioning this Twitter account. It’s a parody account that makes fun of Chris Bosh by tweeting things like, “Lebron and Dwayne locked me inside a locker before the game,” in teenage girl speak. Making fun of Chris Bosh will never get old.
Hi Charles!
- I love Charles Barkley. I stop what I am doing to listen to Charles Barley’s thoughts more than I do to watch any athlete play in a game on TV. Yes, he makes the same three points almost every broadcast, (1. Carmelo Anthony is the best scorer in the world and better than Durant because he has a post-game. 2. Lebron James is the best basketball player in the world and should take the last shot for the Heat. 3. The Celtics, Lakers, and Spurs are too old to keep up with faster teams like Oklahoma City.), but say what you want, I have never enjoyed anyone trying to pronounce a last name correctly as I did when Barkley botched “Kawhi Lenard and Kasta Koufos” the other night. Now if we can only eradicate the 57 grudges Shaq holds against guys he used to play against, we’d have “The Sports View” (except the part where The View is unbearable).
- I think enough has already been said about it over the past week, but it’s a damn shame about the Derrick Rose injury. Just another reminder of how fragile sports are, I guess. Bummer, not only because it kills the Chicago’s title chances, gives Miami an EZ pass to the Finals, and means he can’t play in the Olympics, but because we don’t know if the most explosive point guard in league history will ever be the same athlete.
Chris Paul also had a major knee injury (torn meniscus) three years ago, and I would argue that he has never been the same player since. He lost half-a-step and has had to compensate his lost athleticism with basketball IQ, savvy, and everything else that makes Chris Paul awesome.
The problem with Derrick Rose is that his explosiveness is the best facet of his game. He’s a drive-first, score-first point guard and doesn’t have quite the level of passing skills, jump shot, or wherewithal of Chris Paul, so if he does lose even half a step, what’s plan B? This may be an overreaction, but every fan of the game of basketball should be at least a little bit worried about the future of the sport (along with Kevin Durant) never being the same player again. It’d be a damn shame.
Both Rose and Howard will be missed on the Olympic team.
- Speaking of Derrick Rose’s injury, in case you were wondering, that is now two superstars that are not only out of the playoffs, but the Olympics as well. Congratulations, NBA Owners. You wanted to squeeze 66 regular season games into a 120 day time frame and create this ultra-condensed, injury-inducing, borderline inhumane schedule, and now you have not only taken away a potentially epic Chicago-Miami series and given us the opportunity to make up things that Dwight Howard is saying while watching the Magic from afar (good thing), but you also squashed the 2012 Olympic team’s chances of becoming the greatest basketball team ever assembled, and killed the potential 1992 Dream Team vs. 2012 Team debate, that I wrote about back in March. And not that that you asked, but the post-Howard/Rose injuries roster should look like this: Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Durant, Carmelo, Paul, Love, Chandler, Westbrook, Williams, Garnett, and Anthony Effing Davis. Yes, I stole that idea from Bill Simmons. And yes, I like it too much to think of another one.)
- Hockey… just kidding. I don’t know anything.
- I already tweeted these at the start of the playoffs, but my NBA awards go as such…
6th Man of the Year – James Harden More inevitable than Chris Bosh making this face after missing 13 consecutive jump shots and then dunking the ball while no one is within eight six feet of him.
Rookie of the Year – Kyrie Irving Ditto.
Defensive Player of the Year – Tyson Chandler Dwight Howard took himself out of the running, we can’t give Lebron too much credit, and although I could make a case for Tony Allen (best perimeter defender in the NBA), Chandler has single-handedly ameliorated New York’s defense. You could also consider this a carry-over award from his remarkable performance in last June’s Finals. He protected the rim and eliminated the Miami’s penetration better than anyone to date. The Mavericks simply don’t win that series if you replaced Chandler with an average defensive center.
Most Improved Player – Hasheem Thabeet Just kidding.
This is one of my least favorite awards in all of sports. The connotation is, “you sucked last year, but then you became a respectable pro basketball player for whatever reason, so congrats.” But whatever. My pick is Jeremy Lin. If you really think about it, there is no other choice. No player’s stock rose as much from last season to now nearly as much as Lin’s.
Coach of the Year – Greg Poppovich You won’t care, but the Coach of the Year race is this season’s tightest, most intriguing award race. The aforementioned condescended schedule presented almost every coach with the same predicaments throughout the season: Play my star(s) 45 minutes tonight because what is what we’ll probably need to win, or only play them 38 because we have three games in the following five nights? Do I sit my best players and essentially throw a game away against a superior team because they have played six games in the past nine nights? No coach was in a tougher situation (three best players have an average age of 33) and did a better job handling it than Greg Poppovich. Case in point: his team has the #1 seed, and all of his stars are as fresh as they could possibly be.
Most Valuable Player – This Lebron Guy
We’ll get to the man above in a second, but first top 3…
3. Kevin Durant
Best player on one of the league’s top two title favorites. The most impressive aspect of Durant’s season was that he sacrificed shots and for like Harden and Westbrook involved, and he still found a way to make an even bigger impact on games than ever before by having career-highs in rebounds, assists, and blocks. He simply doesn’t care about stats though, just winning, and couldn’t be happier when his teammates play well and receive attention and credit from the media. Nothing but encouraging signs for the future of the league.
2. Chris Paul
As close to a "prefect point guard" that you will ever find.
You might argue that Durant should be in this spot and that’s fine. I just have a soft spot in my heart for Chris Paul. His numbers (19.4 PPG, 9.0 APG, 2.5 SPG, 48/37/86 shooting splits, third in PER) are good, but not great and don’t scream second most valuable in league. My defense: He does everything for his team in crunch time. (Only player in the league to rank in the top 10 in crunch-time points and assists.) He almost single-handedly kept the Clippers’ season afloat when they were quitting on their coach in mid-March. There would be a bigger win/loss difference if you were to replace Chris Paul on the Clippers with an average point guard (say, Mike Conley Jr.), than if you replaced Durant with an average small forward (say Caron Butler) on the Thunder.
1. Lebron James
Duh. He leads his team in points, assists, rebounds, and he’s going to make First Team All-Defense. For those of you keeping score at home, that is three MVP trophies (four if it weren’t for The Decision, lets just be honest) in four seasons for Lebron. That puts him in a class with only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. (No Jordan because the two-year baseball hiatus interrupted his prime. Also, I urge you to read and reconsider that list again. Holy Schnikes!!) And for those of you still keeping score at home, that is zero titles for Lebron to date, which puts him in a class of his own. No player in the history of the league has ever simultaneously held three MVP trophies and zero titles. If you think about it, this is perfectly fitting representation of Lebron’s career – one of the best regular season players we have ever seen, but just never had the chops and MJ-esque killer instinct and psychopathic competitiveness to perform when it mattered most and win titles. Of course, Lebron could fix all of this by unleashing Holy Hell on the league and taking the damn thing in June. There’s always that.
