NBA Strike

  I thought I would not miss NBA basketball, but I was wrong.  I knew that the NBA was going on strike this summer and I thought, ahhhhh, who give's a hell?  Apparently I do.  

   Anyone who knows me, know how much I love basketball.  I have always said basketball was my 'mistress'.  It's what I thought about 90% of the time.  It consumed me for much of my life.  I do believe that I am over that obsession, however; I still enjoy basketball above all sports (even baseball!).  Watching basketball in a great pleasure for me.  I appreciate the athleticism of the game above all.  I don't care what anyone says, basketball athletes are the greatest athletes in the world.  The ability to run, jump, move with agility,  their physical strength and skill level is unprecedented in sports.  Soccer advocates call their sport 'the beautiful game' but I ask you; what is beautiful about twenty-two guys chasing a ball around and scoring a goal every other week?.  Basketball is the beautiful game.  It combines teamwork, athleticism, conditioning, skills, physical toughness, intelligence, excitement and a flow, that when played well, far exceeds any other sport. And I am being deprived of enjoying it because a bunch of billionaires and millionaires are arguing over how much more rich they can get.  

    Now there are many things I don't like about the game.  

I don't miss LeBron's talents;  

I don't miss the tattoos; 

I don't miss the showboating; 

I don't miss today's players thinking they are among the games greatest players in history without having accomplished anything (LeBron, Wade, Howard, and dozens of others), 

I don't miss the lack of teamwork played now,

I don't miss everyone trying to just dunk or shoot threes all game;

I don't miss sport center highlights that glorify the dunks and threes over what basketball is really about; 

I don't miss listening to the players crying about being 'disrespected'(whatever the fuck that means!), 

I don't miss Baron Davis dribble down and hoist up a thirty footer without anyone else on his team touching the ball (and he's the point guard - someone who is supposed to facilitate the team's offense - YIKE!),  

I don't miss Kevin Garnett pretending to be mean  (Mr. Meanface),

I don't miss Kobe's selfishness, and I don't miss many other things that grind me about today's game.  

However…

     I miss the game.  I love the game and to not be able to watch it pisses me off.  There is not anything else, sports-wise; to watch on TV.  I cannot watch a whole hockey game, although I have started to watch some of the Oilers games, for the the first time since the late 80's.  But a whole hockey game… not fucking likely!  So what is there to watch on TV without basketball?  My beloved Tar Heels open their season last Friday, with the opportunity to rip my heart out again (they are the top ranked team in the country - which means I will die a long, slow, death this winter, with the inevitable upset being the culmination of my torture - Do you know the Greek story about Prometheus?.  Read it and you see how it is a metaphor of my thirty-five year relationship with the Tar Heels!).  But college basketball is not shown on TV until December at the earliest, so the drought continues. 

     I have read quite a bit about strikes in sports.  Everyone, me included, is disgusted by the amounts of money in sports.  Is Albert Pujols really worth 30-35 million a year to play a child's game. The average salary for most sports is way over a million dollars per person.   Should anyone really have to play hundreds of dollars a night to just sit in the stands to watch a game, as well as the money spent on food/drinks/parking?  The whole system is fucked up.  It is so fucked up that maybe cancelling some seasons and starting over, may be the only solution.  

   I am a firm believer that the only way for sports to get under control is for the system to go back to the 'old days' when the owner ruled the system.  I know that it's not the best, but to me that is the only way to get things under control.  When the owners are the controlling party, it is not the best for the players.  Players were like chattel.  That is obvious, but look back in sports history and you will see that when the owners ruled, the sports were at their strongest.  Players were beloved, because they were much more real.  Players were not super-duper stars, with entourages, chains, tattoos, Hummers, mansions, ho's, talent, reality shows, entitlement, and fucked up attitudes.  Athletes made enough money to live a good life.  And the owners made the most money.  It's not fair but sport was great.  There were sporting heroes, dynasties, long term loyal players, a faithful fan base and a love for the games.  Now you have a bunch of selfish, entitled, spoiled, overbearing, disloyal, felonious, money hungry jerks. Yes they have the skills and without them, there is no game, but; having the players rule the roost has led us to this point in sporting history: A FUCKING DISASTER! 

    The NBA strike will not end soon.  The owners don't care whether of not there is a season.  No games mean that some of the owners lose less money than if the games were played.  And besides that, the owners are already rich people, with other incoming continuing to roll in.  They don't need the NBA to live large.  It is true that the owners have brought all the financial problems on themselves (spending) but too bad.  Without the owners, the players talents would not been seen.  No one will pay to watch Kobe play at the park, no matter how good he is.  The owners provide the stage, without them there is no professional sports.  Forget talent.  Money talks and the owners have it.  

    I can remember clearly reading a 'Sport' magazine in about 1970, with a picture of Johnny Bench on the cover and the headline was 'Who will the first one hundred thousand dollar a year player?'.   In the latest proposal to the players, in five years the average salary will be seven million dollars per year. And the players have the arrogance to turn it down.  The players have zero leverage.  NOBODY FUCKING CARES IF THEY PLAY OR NOT!  Sign the agreement and do the only thing you know to do: put an orange ball in an orange hoop.  

    This is an another example of today's spoiled, entitled athlete.  They think because everyone has kissed their asses all their lives that the owners will roll over like a whore in the grass and let them have their way.  They are fucking clueless.  The owners are rich powerful men who get their way, not because they are genetic mutations, but because most of them are smart, hard working people who have made their billions.  These kind of people always get their way and they know it.  The players are playing a game in which they have no chance, but are too stupid to realize it. 

    Let's see LeBron take his 'talent' to Miami now.  No one will give a fiddlers fuck. 

Winter Always Makes Me Sad

Some thoughts from the past few days:

- I hate winter. I hate winter. I hate winter. Only five months left. 

- Tiger Woods: Could someone please explain to me the reason that the greatest golfer the world has ever seen can not hit a driver in the fairway?  I have never seen anyone good, hit the ball all over hell's half acre like Tiger.  He needs a fucking two hundred yard wide fairway to hit.  It is unbelievable.  And since when does he putt like a fucking plumber?  What has happened to him… beside the obvious?

- Last night's SNL musical performers (?) was 'Cold Play'.  Hmmmmm?  Another big time act that fails to deliver.  Lame music.  Even lamer lyrics, but the band members looked and act cool, which of course, is the only important thing in today's world.  If they were playing in my backyard; I would close the curtain and turn up the TV, either that or call the police about noise pollution.  SNL is zero for the new season concerning musical guests.  Each and every one has been brutal. 

- One of my favorite TV/Radio personalities: Tony Kornheiser, a confirmed old fart and fellow curmudgeon, stated last week that after watching some of the American Country Music Awards, that country music was now the mainstream music of America.  I agree with him completely.  Rock and Roll is dead.  Many musicians have sang songs about how rock and roll will live on forever. They were wrong. What is considered rock today is really alternative music.  Twenty years ago, if you played 'Cold Play' or 'Maroon 5', it would have been on a collage channel, or an alternative channel (Or more likely - laughed at). Now it is considered rock.  Not fucking likely.  

I never liked country much.  My mom loved country, compiling over five hundred LP's.  It was mostly old country: My baby left me, the horse died, I lost my job', blah, blah, blah.  Sad and mournful.  I did start to listen to country in the early 90's because I couldn't stand the rock music that had developed.  Country music had changed by the 90's.  'New country' had a less twangy sound to it and the lyrics could be from great, to stupid, to funny.  Not all of it was wonderful, but it was a fuck of a lot better than the grunge (?) drivel that was being played.  

I don't listen much to country these days, as I am not a real fan, but if given the choice of a country song to an alleged 'rock' song; I would pick the country song every time. 

- I just can't wait to look at my hockey pool results each morning. Those seven points I got last night by ten players was exhilarating.  Jeff Skinner got three points, which means the other nine got four.  Just fucking great! 

- Hey Sheebs… you see that debacle in Philadelphia the other night.? A stall; hockey style.  And people want to disagree with me that there is not something wrong with our game?  Wake me up the next time someone scores…

By the way Sheebs; how's that Oiler defence doing these days?  I really hate to be an 'I told you so' but it is so easy. 

My Tar Heels are the number one rated team in america, which can mean only one thing: heart-break for me in March.  Mark it down: I will be off the UNC train by February; still pick them in my brackets and then die a slow miserable death when they fuck up in the tournament.  It will happen.  Trust me.  Do you want me to list the historical precedents that lead me to this conclusion, because I will.

- Say it ain't so Joe…Pa?  Another great American dream up in smoke.  Obviously the whole affair is a fucking atrocity, but I see it as another American chest thumping example of how great the USA is, when in reality it is a complete and utter fuck up.  Just as the horror of 9/11 didn't wake up the Americans and get them to understand that the rest of the world fucking hates them. Instead they used it to pound their chests again and tell everyone how great they are to be able to overcome this tragedy.  

Here is an example of the American sports machine at it's finest.  JoePa decided that football, and in particular his beloved Nittany Lions, were more important than the lives of young boys.  It is that simple.  Penn State football and JoPa were so revered by America because of what they allegedly stood for, that they had to protect the 'brand' over common decency and justice.  America wanted JoPa and Penn State to be glorified, as another example of what is great about the USA.  Well, we all found out how great Penn State was. 

And as for JoPa: all those sixty years of coaching with lectures of how to grow up and be a man through sports and the Penn State way, certainly seems like a lot of bullshit now doesn't it?  JoePa had the opportunity to live what he preached and he chose to protect his ass and the school's name over the correct action.  Shame on you Joe. 

I've said it before and I will say it again: there are no heroes in sports and to glorify and adore athletes and coaches will almost always lead to disappointment.  Love the game; hate the players.  

- Here's an oldie but a goody… Why do we have turning lanes without turning lights?  What the fuck is the use, other than to drive me fucking insane?  Everywhere you go in Edmonton/Sherwood Park, you get to go in a turning lane, but there is no light to turn on.  Infuriating.

Stay in the bubble, stay in the bubble, stay in the bubble …

SNL Music Review - Nov. 5/11 (Maroon 5)

I am watching SNL tonight and a band called Maroon 5 will be performing.  Maroon 5?  I’ll bet Moron 5 is more like it. We’ll see…

Five minutes later.

  Ahhh, I am always correct!

Blashphemer!  First song was ‘Move Like Jagger’.  Ha, you wish.  Maybe Andrea Jaeger the former female tennis player.  Sounds  like her also. Except he doesn’t sing as well.   

I couldn’t really really grasp the words to the song, mainly because I was mezmorized by the plethora of tatoos adorning the lead singers arms.  Can someone please show some restaint with the fucking tatoos?  Clever rhyming in this song.  Ya, real clever.  Similar to the lyrical genius Drake, who rhymes like a six year old.  How many lines can you end with a rhyme for you.  Apparently about four minutes worth.  And if I have to see another idiot’s underwear,  I will vomit.   

Song two:  Great! Another singer joins the fray with more tattoos, plus holes in his ears the size of loonies.  How attractive.  And he’s wearing pajama bottoms. But what makes it really special is the rapping.  I love that.  The tatoos around the neck are special.  Does he really need that scarf around his neck?  It distracts us from the gang related tatoos, that we are all dying to see. 

So now we have ‘Squeeky and the Rapper’ with duelling tattos. And they end it with a pretend hug.  How sincere. 

I don’t have a clue what the song was or what it was about.  I can’t get past the tatoos, scarf, underwear and bad lyrics.   Another pitiful performance by a band that will fade into oblivion. 

Today’s world is all about looks and being cool.  Everyting is superficial, with little or no substance.  The music is a perfect example of this.  The bands suck, and they are adored because they have a hundred tatoos and look cool.  And also because kids today haven’t heard any good music, so they don’t know anything better. The music that is produced is laughable.  No one, and I repeat, no one will be listening to most of these shitty musicians five minutes from now, let alone thirty years down the road.  As the guards on top of the castle in Monty Python’s said, “I wave my testicals at you!”

Hockey Pool Angst

   I knew I shouldn’t have joined this fucking hockey pool.  It’s keeping me up night, I tell ya…

   I am not really the kind of person to just join something and not really care that much about it.  If I’m in, I’m in.  In the ‘good old days’, I used to check the hockey scores daily (as I still do), however; in those days, you only added up your team total scores once a week (Tuesday’s Journal had the teams stats) and so you only suffered or gloated one day a week.  Now with the fucking ‘technology age’ you are able to check daily how you are doing, which is a slow form of death.  Do I really need to know every day that my fucking guys couldn’t piss in the ocean if they were standing knee deep in the water?  I think not!

   I’m not going to lie to you, I like to win.  I have always been very successful in hockey pools, winning at least75% of the time and usually being in the money.  To suck, really sucks.  I have a difficult time seeing people who don’t know shit about sports ahead of me in the pool.  I mean, one of the teams ahead of me has a member who once choose a dead man (I shit you not) in one of the drafts.  And like Jon Lovitz once said on SNL (playing Dukakis in a Presidential election debate), “And I’m losing to this guy?”

   I always comes down to me thinking I’m smarter than others concerning sports.  How could they know as much as me, after all that’s all I do.  Watch sports, read about sports, think about sports.  And I’m losing?  Hmmmm?  I don’t get it.  Could it be that I’m not nearly as smart as I think I am?   Nahhhhh!  

   I will put the blame where is should be: on others.  As I have said many times – I am rarely wrong, and when I am… I don’t admit it!  It’s not me... Right Rob?

   I have come to the realization that the reason no one can find a plumber to do any work for you these days is that all the plumbers are playing in the NHL.  How else can you explain the fucking inept players in that league?

Thursday night, I had twelve players playing and I got three points.  THREE FUCKING POINTS!  How is that possible?  I can do the fucking math on how many points per man that works out to be.  Gretzky used to bank than many goals in a night off of Brett Callighan’s ass.  I had three teams (with five players total playing) get shut out.  

   And then on top of it, I got fucking Sheebs grinding my gears about how great the Oilers are doing and their wonderful defense (it won’t fucking last… trust me!).  Rach is grinding me concerning RNH, giving me the old ‘I told you so’ bullshit.  So I got that going for me, which is always nice. 

Jesus, Sheebs plays a couple fucking games in the ACAC forty years ago and he’s an expert?  And Rach… he’s from O’Leary.  What the fuck does he know about hockey?  Soccer… ? Maybe. Football…? Perhaps. Organized crime…? For sure.  But hockey? C’mon, get the fuck outta here!

   You see, getting my assed kicked in the hockey pool brings out the worst in me.   I’m trashing Rach and Jimmer.   I should just remember to do what makes me the happiest: sitting in my bubble and not interact with the outside world.