WBAI Sports Newswire

Carmelo All-Star Joke

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:22:58 GMT

Synopsis

A year after Knicks power forward Amar'e Stoudamire became the first Knick to start an all-star game since Patrick Ewing in the mid 90's and deservingly so, this year Carmelo Anthony is a starter in the eastern conference lineup and it is a complete joke.

Story

A year ago this time at NBA all-star weekend New York Knicks fans were clamoring over Knicks power forward Amar’e Stoudamire. Amar’e not only was the lone all-star player the franchise was able to lock up after the big fish of the 2010 summer sweepstakes, Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, choose to join forces and compliment each other’s talents by playing together on South Beach, but he had a first half worthy of MVP consideration. Before the Knicks acquired Stoudamire during 4^th of July weekend 2010 the Knicks had gone nine consecutive seasons with a losing record and an equally amount of time since they had last won a playoff game. Over that time the team brought in talented players one after another who made no impact in terms of turning this team around anywhere towards a winning direction. Players such such as Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, David Lee and others who at one time or another in their careers have proven that they can be very good NBA players whether it was making an all-star team, winning individual season awards or having a major impact on a team making a postseason run, but collectively as a unit or individually were not able to rise the Knicks franchise from underneath the cesspool of humility and futility that has perpetuated Knicks basketball over the last decade. They all came to star studded Madison Square Garden with eyes on playing big meaningful games late in the regular season, playoff games, and even the big dream of being canonized for life in this town by bringing the city its first hoops championship since 1973. Because after all folks, as they say there is no place like New York City when you are a winner.

But once the dreaming stops and reality begins by stepping onto the big lights of the Madison Square Garden stage where the only thing higher than the fans fervor for a winner is the scrutiny of a watchful media eye the resolve and the character of a ball player always comes to the forefront and we see what they are really made of. None of those guys were cut out to play any kind of winning basketball in New York City. But Amar’e was built for that even if the sample size we got from him was only through the first half of one season. In Amar’e Stoudamire’s first season with the Knicks a season ago the team began 3-8 and things looked as if New York was also going to suck Amar’e up in its whirlpool of disaster and the team appeared as if it were headed down the same disastrous road as the previous nine seasons.

Following a home loss early in the season to the Houston Rockets in which the team fell to 3-7 before they would lose another game to Denver to drop their record to 3-8 Stoudamire sat at his locker disappointed and said loud enough for anyone to hear that the losing was not acceptable and that he was a winner and not used to losing. Shortly after that the Knicks turned a 3-8 record into a 5 game winning streak before a home loss to Atlanta ended the streak which immediately led to the start of another win streak of eight games which gave the Knicks 13 wins in 14 games propelling them over the .500 mark which is not to be taken lightly when you consider the string of losing seasons the team had going into last season. During the eight game win streak Stoudamire scored 30 points each game. He even scored 30 in a ninth consecutive contest to set a franchise record in what was the game of the year at Madison Square against the Boston Celtics on December 15^{th where} Stoudamire finished a point shy of 40 and hit a deep straight away three at the buzzer for the game winner only to have it reviewed and waved off. When Amar’e spoke in the locker room everyone listened. He was the one who the young Knicks roster looked up to, he was the superstar that they all followed on television growing up and he was the undisputed leader of the locker room, it was Amar’e Stoudamire’s team and he backed every bit of that up.

For most of the first half of last season Amar’e Stoudamire trailed only Kevin Durant for the league’s scoring lead and Amar’e was the number one player in the league in fourth quarter scoring and all of sudden he had MVP chants rained down upon him from the Madison Square Garden crowd on a nightly occasion, so much so that some had to ask the crowd to tone down the chants while he was at the free throw line because it might have been getting in the way of his concentration at the line. In three and a half months through the first half of last season Amar’e did what so many all-star talented players could not do before him and that was bring winning basketball, watchable basketball back to the greatest basketball city in the world for the first time in a decade. Amar’e showed what he was made of as soon as he jumped into the New York spotlight and a year ago he was rewarded with that by becoming the first Knick to start an all-star game since Patrick Ewing in the mid 90’s which was a proud accomplishment and well deserved. That was an accomplishment worthy of thunderous applause and high praise and Amar’e even represented New York well with 29 points in the game. But as we sit here at this year’s all-star break Amar’e Stoudamire is not on an all-star roster for the first time since 2006 when he missed all but three games that season due to microfracture knee surgery. But after ending the Knicks’ streak of not having a starter In the all-star game after all those years just last season this year for the second consecutive year there was a New York Knick starting in the game, and he hardly deserved it.

It was the day after the all-star break a season ago when the Knicks and Denver Nuggets pulled off the blockbuster trade of the season as the Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony in a deal that the majority of Knick fans lauded and celebrated. Constant trade rumors involving key members of the team before the trade put a bit of a cramp into the Knicks’ winning style but at the time of the trade they had a record of 28-26 and because of the youth of the team they were only going to get better as the years went on and the young players continued to develop their games to an even higher level. The Carmelo Anthony trade was not made for Carmelo to come in and save the Knicks. Amar’e had already done that. The trade was made to make the team even better and put them closer to competing for a NBA championship. Despite Amar’e proving to be a dominate force, a force higher than anything Carmelo had ever proven to be in Denver, and the best fourth quarter scorer of last season the franchise still handed Carmelo Anthony the keys to the franchise and to the offense the minute he stepped through the door which as the last year has shown has had a negative effect on the team’s offense, chemistry and winning ways, and we’ve seen Amar’e Stoudamire’s game along with those of other Knicks take a decline. Quite simply because of the hype that surrounds the name “Carmelo Anthony” and his game the Knicks organization just gave him free reign of everything like there was nothing already established before he got here. If you want to put that much stock into a player than he better be able to live up to it and that has not been close to being the case with Carmelo Anthony

Before the trade and even now Carmelo Anthony it has been said is the “best scorer” or “best pure scorer” in basketball. In fact Charles Barkley said it countless times during TNT’s all-star weekend broadcasts the last couple of days. How anyone said that before the trade was a question mark but for anyone to still be saying this now is a head scratcher which leads one to ask, have you been watching the Knicks games? Barkley obviously is not because if he actually was he surely would not be signing that tune and in fact his opinion of Carmelo might even fall. After acquiring Anthony last season the Knicks finished the regular season 14-14 including a stretch where they lost 7 consecutive games. During that losing streak you watched Carmelo not be able to buy a basket in the second half so many times, let alone in the 4^th quarter and this is a guy who a lot of fans and media members like to proclaim as “the best closer in the game” this side of Kobe Bryant. In fact there is even a statistic out there that says Carmelo has made more last second shots than anyone in the league over the last few years and that includes Kobe Bryant and everyone else. But could there be more of a misleading statistic that over hypes someone’s true game than this one?

How about the three point shot that Carmelo bricked at the end of game one of their first round playoff series against Boston last April when despite being ice cold and 1-11 in the second half, and 5-17 for the game up to that point, Carmelo took it upon himself to take a deep three in the game’s final seconds with the team down two and Amar’e Stoudamire rolling in the game going 12-16 from the field for 28 points. In that instance Carmelo was trying to play what Boston head coach Doc Rivers likes to call “hero ball.” The Knicks would go on to lose that series to Boston who swept Carmelo and the Knicks away in four games to make the Knicks’ record post trade with Carmelo 14-18. Of the four playoff games vs. Boston Carmelo played well in just one of them which was a 42 point, 17 rebound effort in game 2. A game in which the Knicks still lost and the supposed “best closer in the game” this side of Kobe Bryant scored zero points in the game’s final 2:30.

This season begins and Carmelo Anthony is shooting under 40% from the field and the team starts with a record of 8-15 before Jeremy Lin is inserted into the rotation the day before Super Bowl XLVI and drops 25 points, 5 rebounds, and seven assists on the New Jersey Nets. The next game against Utah the Knicks give Lin the first start of his career, a game in which Anthony injured his groin in the first quarter and did not return to the court until two weeks later. Over that time including the first New Jersey game the Knicks behind Jeremy Lin won 8 of 9 games overall and saved their season and literally stunned the world by leading the Knicks to seven straight victories during that stretch. Before Lin entered the rotation on February 4^th the Knicks were a ship sinking fast and everybody from Carmelo to Mike D’antoni would have been ripped to shreds come the end of the season when they would have been sitting from the outside looking in at the playoffs. But come playoff time however Carmelo who was on stage with Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Derrick Rose, and Dwayne Wade last night as the Eastern conference starters were announced has only made it out of the first round of the playoffs once in eight NBA seasons. Clearly Carmelo is not in the same class as the four gentlemen he shared the eastern conference starting lineup with. Those four are real superstars and play like it every time they take the court.

With Anthony out and Lin in the team did not miss Anthony One Iota and the Knicks played their best ball of the season and clearly played better with Carmelo off the court in way of ball movement, player movement, desire, leadership and winning. At the all-star break the Knicks have a record of 17-18 and are currently seventh in the eastern conference playoff standings. When Carmelo brought his star to New York he was supposed to bring a superstar game with him. The latter has yet to happen and when your team proves to play better without you than with you it’s time for some real substance and not just a name.

Knicks Gun for the Heat

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:02:26 GMT

Synopsis

Linsanity and the Knicks prepare for A showdown on South Beach against Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat before the all-star break.

Story

In a lockout shortened season that began two months late and afforded NBA teams just two weeks of training camp to get ready for the start of the season the New York Knicks entered the campaign with lofty expectations after finishing with their first winning record in nine years a season ago in a year that saw them acquire perennial all-stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudamire. With the addition of 7’1 center Tyson Chandler, coming into this season, who anchored the back of the Dallas Mavericks defense during their championship run last season the Knicks were attractive to many like a top contestant in a beauty contest.

But just as fast as looks can attract in the NBA they can disappear equally as fast and then come right back again even faster and look as enticing as ever. That is the story thus far of the 2012 New York Knicks as they are just a couple of games past the midway point of their season and close in on the all-star break. An all-star break that will give the team rest where they will only play one game over a nine day stretch once the all-star break begins on Friday. But before all the fun begins in Orlando, Florida this weekend during the all-star festivities that will see Knicks stars featured prominently throughout the weekend’s events the Knickerbockers have a primetime showdown further south of Orlando in the Sunshine state against the team whom they will have to get past someday if they ever want to win an NBA championship which is what this current Knicks ensemble have all been brought here to do.

After beginning the season with a record of 8-15 and looking like one of the biggest disappointments in recent New York sports history the Knicks got a stroke of Linsanity and ran off seven consecutive wins to even their record at .500 before going 2-2 over their next four games headed into Thursday night including a win over the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. The recent surge under the direction of phenom point guard Jeremy Lin accounts for the Knicks winning 9 of their last 11 games which is a far cry from losing 11 of 13 games which is where the Knicks were the night Jeremy Lin saw his first extended minutes and scored 25 points to go along with 7 assists and five rebounds against the New Jersey Nets the night before the New York Giants won Super Bowl XLVI. Two nights later when Lin got his first start of the season against the Jazz he dazzled so much in a 28 point 8 assists performance that he had members of the Giants off their feet giving him a standing ovation and Linsanity was born.

This now sets up a matchup with the Miami Heat at 7:00 Thursday night in a nationally televised broadcast. “It’s going to be fun,” said Carmelo Anthony following the Knicks’ 99-82 blowout win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden “I’ve been in a lot of these games before. It’s going to be a lot of fun, a lot of anticipation about this game, we are going down there to win. Miami is playing great basketball right now, one of the hottest teams if not the hottest team in the NBA right now so it will be a great game, fun game down there a great experience especially for Jeremy, his first one, so we are excited about that.”’

When Carmelo says this will be Jeremy’s first one he is referring to the fact that Thursday night’s matchup will be the first time Jeremy Lin has played against the Heat in a Knick uniform. The matchup between the two teams will always have a special feel as long as Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony are on the respective teams because these two have been linked together since they were regarded as the two best players leading into the 2003 draft where they were selected first and third overall. It has always been a marquee matchup anytime Lebron and Carmelo go head to head and Carmelo always seems to bring his A game against Lebron and has won 9 of their 13 meetings. “They are a great team, they are playing great team basketball,” Anthony says of Miami Heat as he is in the process of trying to prove to folks that he can be a positive and not a hindrance to this Knicks team with the way things have suddenly changed now that Jeremy Lin is the starting point guard and for all intensive purposes the most valuable player on the team.

In the only matchup between the Knicks and Heat so far this season on January 27^th Lin sat at the end of the Knicks bench and saw the same amount of minutes as Carmelo Anthony, zero. Anthony chose that game and the following night against Houston to sit out to rest some nagging injuries. The shorthanded Knicks shot 43 three pointers against Miami that night in an attempt to stay in the game against Miami’s behemoth of a team led by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. “They have some great guys on that team and they are playing great team basketball right now but it’s a fun game, it’s going to be a fun atmosphere down there, it’s going to be one of them games that Jeremy hasn’t been a part of yet.” Anthony says about his point guard and the team’s Thursday night matchup.

In the first matchup almost four weeks ago the Knicks made 18 3 pointers including 7 by Bill Walker but were eventually outclassed by Miami. This time around the Knicks will enter Miami with a much more talented squad with a legit chance to knock off the Heat. Bill Walker who was lights out in the last game will be lucky to see any floor time at all this Thursday night with the emergence of a bench that appears to have a shot at being the best in the league. Since the insertion of Jeremy Lin into the starting lineup every player has raised their game and that cannot be any more accurate than for the performance of forward Steve Novak who has come alive as a lethal three point threat off the bench for New York. “We knew tonight was important we had to handle our business at home,” Steve Novak said following his 17 point performance including five three point makes against Atlanta. “I think tonight was a big step towards getting ready for them.” Steve Novak played his college ball at Marquette university where he played on the same team as Dwayne Wade “Dwayne I mean he’s Dwayne Wade. He’s just had an incredible career, already has a championship and obviously has a good thing going on in Miami right now so it’s always fun when we get to see each other. I always ask him to be nice but the way his career has taken off since he has gotten in the league is unbelievable.” Novak said.

Along with Novak players like Iman Shumpert and Jared Jefferies have come off the New York bench and given the Knicks major contributions during their turnaround over the last three weeks but what has really taken this team to another level has been the additions of veteran guards Baron Davis and J.R. Smith to the team which has provided the Knicks with almost as much fire power off the bench as they have in the starting unit. J.R. Smith made his Knicks debut against the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks last Sunday and immediately came off the bench to hit three consecutive three point shots to make him an instant favorite among Knick fans. Baron Davis has had an all-star career at the point guard position and was signed by the Knicks before the season began to give them a playmaker at the point guard position. But Davis who had been dealing with a back issue since last April was unable to play in an NBA game until this past Monday when he finally made his long awaited Knicks debut against the Nets “I’m excited about every game, especially for me because I didn’t really think that I would be here. If you would have had asked me in August I was really thinking about retiring and not sure if I could come back from such an injury like this.” Said Baron Davis who went on to say he was overjoyed and praised the Knicks training staff following a 14 minute six assists effort in Wednesday night’s win.

The other part of that Knicks dynamic backcourt off the bench J.R. Smith showed his defensive prowess swiping five steals in Wednesday night’s game and Smith was also on the receiving end of two beautiful alley oop passes from Davis “Baron was there in my rookie year in New Orleans so we kind of know how to play with each other already. When he gets the ball I put my trust in to him. We just have to make eye contact and play.” As Smith is looking forward to the Showdown in South beach like everyone else. “The atmosphere is going to be great. We have great players just like they do. It’s going to be interesting, I think it’s really going to come down to our bench and our bench has to step up tomorrow and if we do that I think we’ll come out. There are going to be a lot of people watching and it’s going to be a playoff atmosphere game so we’ve just got to be confident.”

There was no Knick who looked and sounded more disappointed earlier in the season when the Knicks were in the midst of losing 11 of 13 games before Lin than Amar’e Stoudamire. Right now however Amar’e is in much better spirits headed into this Thursday matchup versus Miami. “This game will be a great indication of how good we can be. We know how talented we are from our lineup, we know how deep we are as far as our depth so we have a great challenge ahead of us in Miami.” Stoudamire said. The game will be another test for Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin who will find himself in another primetime matchup against the NBA elite. Thus far Lin has passed those tests with flying colors but the Heat will present the biggest challenge yet to Lin on the defensive end. Already teams have begun to try and double team Lin at times and trap him to either force him to turn the ball over or to get the ball out of his hands. If there has been one issue of concern with Lin amongst the brilliance he has displayed thus far it is his number of turnovers so this will be an interesting matchup to see how both teams will deal with that.

Last year in the eastern conference Finals basketball fans remember how Lebron James guarded last season’s MVP Derrick Rose at the end of those games and shut him down which was a big factor in Miami closing that series out in five games. If James can do that to Rose than needless to say Jeremy Linn will be up for one heck of a challenge. “We have played some tough games so far this year with Jeremy in the lineup,” says Amar’e “Miami is a team that does a great job on the pick and roll and they do a great job with trapping so we will have to have a talk in shootaround before the game to figure out the best ways to exploit their defense. “ Stoudamire believes these two teams will see each other again come late spring “This is one of those fun games, it’s a competitive game, two of the top teams high in the championship pursuit so it’s going to be a very exciting game from start to finish.” Amare concluded before he and the team left the Knicks locker room inside Madison Square Garden to board a Jet down to Miami. With 31 games left on the schedule after Thursday night there still remains a lot of time for the Knicks to get the chemistry straight with this talented roster but a competitive game would be a great show for the NBA and a win by the Knicks would put the Bokers’ on cloud nine going into the break when just three weeks ago none of this seemed possible.

Stars Aligned At Garden

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:41:37 GMT

Synopsis

Knicks ready to face the Heat on All-Star selection night, Thursday January 27th.

Story

All eyes will be on Madison Square Garden tonight as the New York Knicks might have their first player named a starter to the all-star game for the first time since Patrick Ewing in 1992. That will be the backdrop of tonight’s nationally televised broadcast on TNT as the Knicks take on the Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat. The third member of the Miami Thrice Chris Bosh will not be on hand as he is back in Miami nursing an ankle injury. TNT’s studio cast of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley will be in the building tonight which will only heighten the drama of the evening. It’s been years since there has been a buzz at Madison Square Garden this late in the season and a lot of credit has to be given to first year Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudamire who was the Knicks’ prize free agent acquisition this past summer and not Lebron James who spurned the Knicks for South Beach, Miami. Stoudamire incredibly is the second leading scorer in the NBA this season with an average of 26.1 points per game. Stoudamire is at the top of any MVP discussion and his teammates are looking forward to the night “it’s very exciting, the three guys Ray, Gallo, and Stat have put together a great season so far so it will be exciting for us.” Says first year Knicks forward Landry Fields who has to be on cloud nine right now as he is in the midst of a renaissance season at the Garden and knows nothing about the turmoil that took place in Knicks land the previous nine consecutive losing seasons.

Knicks point guard Raymond Felton will not be one of the starters for the all-star game but with a scoring average of 17.5 points per game and 8.9 assists, both career highs, Felton, the general of this Knicks team has a shot at being named a reserve to the all-star game a couple weeks from now “we will see what happens, I hear a lot of talk that I have a good chance but we will see what happens over the next week or two.” Says Felton. Going into tonight’s game against Miami the Knicks have a record of 23-21 which is good enough for the 6^th best record in the Eastern conference. This being a revival season for the Knicks every game against one of the elite teams in the league is always an interesting measuring stick of exactly where the team is at and if they are for real “You want to win against any top echelon team, Miami is a very good team so we have to make sure we are ready to go, we have to get our rest and be sharp on all cylinders.” Says Amar’e Stoudamire. Miami teammates Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are expected to be two of the five starters for the Eastern conference all-stars but despite the star power and two previous losses to Miami earlier in the season Felton says the team has played in a number of spotlight games this season and will be unnerved for this one “We’ve already had a lot of T.V. games so far so there is really no pressure about it being a TNT game, we just look forward to having a good game against Miami and hopefully get this win.” It’s going down tonight at the world’s most famous arena.

Vick Should Be NFL MVP

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:07:52 GMT

Synopsis

Why Michael Vick should be the 2010 NFL MVP and not Tom Brady.

Story

With the Super Bowl approaching and the league’s big announcement of season MVP coming any day now it seems to be a forgone conclusion everywhere you turn, look, or listen that that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be the 2010 NFL most valuable player. Well, I am here to tell you that that is not the case; and while we are at it, was Andrew Luck really going to be the first quarterback selected in the draft this year over Cam Newton, had Luck chosen to enter the draft? Really? The madness must stop!
   Without a doubt football fans across the country will tell you that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick has been the most electrifying player to watch in the NFL this season: hands down! From the moment he was thrust onto the field in week 1 against Green Bay after starting quarterback Kevin Kolb was knocked out by Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews Jr., Vick came onto the field and dazzled in such a way that it left football fans in front of their television set every week yearning for more.
Vick came into that week 1 game towards the end of the 2nd quarter with his team down by double digits and began to wreak havoc on Green Bay; throwing for 175 yards and running for another 103, to bring Philadelphia back. It was an amazing performance but Vick and the Eagles fell just short losing 27-20. At the conclusion of that game Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. said he was exhausted from chasing Vick around for a half and hoped he never had to see Vick ever again.
From that moment Michael Vick had gained the attention of the Nation and eye balls across the country did not leave the television set all season long whenever Michael Vick was performing, and by the time the season was over a man who was cast as public enemy #1 among sports fans just months before had captured the imagination of the nation; even making headlines on national news telecasts i.e. CCN, MSNBC, and all the 6:30 evening news broadcasts on the local networks.
   Two performances in particular by Vick this season bested those of any other player this NFL season and should be placed in a time capsule to stand the test of time until we see another performance that equals it. On November 15th in front of a nationally televised Monday Night Football audience Michael Vick went on the road to Washington D.C. against the Redskins and threw for 333 yards connecting for four touchdown passes while also running for another 80 yards and two more scores on the ground. Vick single-handily put the game so far out of reach that midway through the third quarter Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid began to slowly call the dogs off out of respect to the opponent. The Vick led offense showed good sportsmanship and stopped attacking, or else the embarrassing numbers Vick put up that night would have been even more ridiculous. As it was Vick’s performance may well go down as the greatest single game ever played by a quarterback. The Eagles won 59-28 and the 59 points were the most scored in the 40 year history of Monday Night Football.
Then On December 19th, again on the road, down 31-10 with a little under 8:00 minutes to play in the 4th quarter against division rival New York with first place and the division on the line Vick rallied his team back, running for 94 fourth quarter yards and accounting for three touchdowns to tie the score at 31 all with 1:16 left on the clock. That set the stage for Philadelphia’s Desean Jackson to punctuate the “miracle at the meadowlands” part two, running back a game winning put return as time expired, ruining the season of their arch-rival in the process.
It is fair to say that Michael Vick is the most dangerous player in the National football league. Everyone is forced to admit this when he produces one of his incomparable performances. From station to station up and down the radio and television dial you hear the talking heads showering him with superlatives; especially all the former NFL quarterbacks, all of whom give it up to Mike Vick. After Vick’s six touchdown demolition of the Washington Redskins on November 15th everyone was asking the questions: “can Michael Vick be stopped?” “How do you stop Michael Vick?” Among those asking the question was the coach of the team slated to play Vick’s Eagles the following week: The New York football Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.
Coughlin spoke about how he was watching the Eagles-Redskins game from home, taking notes and preparing for the following week’s matchup. He confessed that while watching in astonishment, like the rest of the nation, he had to put down his pen and pad and simply take in the game as a fan! Vick was putting on such a show that even he got caught up in the moment.   Coughlin went on to say that what came next was a sudden feeling of sickness, knowing it was he who had to prepare next to stop Vick the following weekend.
When Coughlin and the Giants met Vick in front of another nationally televised audience six days later the Giants unleashed a relentless pass rush against the Philadelphia quarterback that comprised of a series of blitzes. Up until that point Michael Vick came into that game with zero interceptions, zero fumbles: zero turnovers. The Giants managed to rough Vick up that night, sacking him three times and hitting him many more, causing him to lose a fumble for his first turnover of the season. The rest of the NFL, like the nation at large, was watching; and since that game the book to defense Vick has been to blitz him, blitz him, blitz him!
Michael Vick is so dangerous an offensive weapon that defensive coordinators have been left to blitz him on what seems like every down. Anyone who watched Vick and the Eagles, and Tom Brady with the Patriots, this season clearly saw that Vick was up against a more vicious and concentrated pass rush. This was true week in and week out, and Vick took way more of a beating this season than Brady because of it!
No one likes to consistently blitz a great quarterback. Defenses do not like blitzing Brady and Peyton Manning for the fear that those quarterbacks will burn them. With Michael Vick defenses coordinators figure they have no choice but to blitz because if you don’t and you give him time to decide whether he wants to throw one his laser passes somewhere down the field or use his legs, the results will be devastating. That’s why the strategy to defense Vick has literally been to blitz him as much as possible, create chaos for him, and make him get the ball out of his hands as soon as possible, and hopefully get a sack or hit on him in the process.
Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to a 14-2 record this season, the best in the National football league. He threw for 36 touchdowns to only 4 interceptions and his last interception came all the way back on October 17th against Baltimore. He has in fact set the record for consecutive passes thrown without being intercepted; which to be fair comes with a little luck because he had a couple passes in a week 15 game against Green Bay that this writer saw with his own eyes that were primed to be intercepted only to bounce off the hands of the hapless defender.
Who knows how many other would be interceptions were dropped over this consecutive non-interception streak. Nevertheless the streak is very impressive. That streak, along with his team’s 14 wins and his 36 touchdown passes this season, are the biggest case for Tom Brady to win 2010 MVP. When the New England Patriots traded Randy Moss to Minnesota after a 41-14 drubbing of the Miami Dolphins on October 4th many believed the Patriots were pulling out a white flag and giving up on the season. No way could the Patriots compete with the vaunted division rival New York Jets who in week 2 buried the Patriots at the Meadowlands; despite a remarkable one handed touchdown grab by Moss on all-world defensive back Derelle Revis.
The Patriots lost just once more regular season game following that trade and a lot of credit has to be given to Brady, no doubt. But let’s not act as if the league’s golden boy was throwing to a collection of stiffs. The moment Moss was shipped out of town the Patriots reacquired Deion Branch who won 2004 Super Bowl MVP honors with Brady and the Patriots. Also left on the team was wide receiver Wes Welker who caught over 100 catches the previous three seasons. Brady also has the great master mind, head coach Bill Belichick, on his side. The Grim Reaper even won 11 games two seasons ago with Matt Cassel as his starting quarterback when Tom Brady missed the entire season with a knee injury.
Brady’s numbers this season speak for themselves. But do they really measure up to all the theatrics Vick has given us this season? Was Tom Brady really the NFL’s Most Valuable Player this season in every sense of the word? Has what Tom Brady done this season have more value than the lessons we can learn from the extraordinary story of redemption that Mike Vick has given us? It is the stuff of great morality play: The fallen hero emerges from one of the toughest federal prisons in the country at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, to a dramatic return to the of top the National Football League!
Was Tom Brady more valuable to his team than Vick was to his this season? Yes, Brady threw for 3900 yards and 36 touchdowns but Michael Vick threw for 3018 yards and 21 touchdowns plus he ran for another 676 yards and nine touchdowns giving him a total of 30 touchdowns on the season - six less than Brady’s total for the season. On average Brady threw for 243.8 yards per game while Vick bested that throwing for an average of 251.5 yards per game, and this from a guy who runs part of the time.
Then consider the fact that Vick missed four games this season, three to injury with busted ribs, after he practically juked out all 11 men of Washington’s defense in week 4 then paying the price at the end of the play. And he missed a game in week 17, when the team had nothing to play for, and you can see had Vick not gotten hurt Brady wouldn’t have a statistical advantage over Vick in anything except Interceptions and probably wins.
Brady has been with head coach Bill Belichick and that great Patriots system for 10 years now, a system that he obviously feels very comfortable in. In Philadelphia Vick was in his first year learning the system as a starter on the run, playing in front of a suspect offensive line while being pressured as much as any quarterback in the league. Lest we forget, he was supposed to spend this season as the back up quarterback. That’s why we say here: Michael Vick was the most outstanding and spectacular performer in the NFL this season and should be your 2010 NFL MVP!

Far From A Rivalry

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:08:52 GMT

Synopsis

Samori Benjamin says there has been no better leader in the NBA than Lebron James since he entered the NBA and despite the talk the new big three in Miami never built the same on-court rivalries the way their predecessors of the 80's did.

Story

When Lebron James was a senior in high school and ballyhooed more than any other high school athlete of his era, many raised eyebrows when James’ mother Gloria took out a loan to buy her son a hummer automobile halfway through the school year. A few months later Lebron became Nike’s chosen one and the billion dollar sneaker giant made James’ bank account $90 million fatter. A couple months after that James was drafted into the NBA by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Seven years later James has incredibly lived up to the immense billing he got coming out of high school, and more. Since his first game in November 2003 he carried a Cavaliers franchise that spent most of its NBA years before Lebron as either a bottom basement team or a team fighting to stay above mediocrity. Save for the Mark Price, Craig Ehlo, Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty Cavaliers of the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Cavaliers presence on the NBA landscape had been minuscule at best. Then Lebron came.

The NBA has a draft lottery system where the worse team in the league does not necessarily get the first pick in the draft. Since the lottery system was instituted in 1985 the team with the worst record in the NBA has only won and gotten the chance to select first overall four times. The Cleveland Cavaliers were one of those four teams. By his third season James had the Cavaliers in the playoffs and the following season he had them in the NBA Finals at age 22 where he ran into a San Antonio Spurs team that was winning its fourth NBA title in Nine years as they swept James and the Cavaliers. But no fault on James’ part. Lebron would have had to be Superman himself to lead the Cavaliers to four wins and an NBA championship over the San Antonio Spurs.

It would have been more spectacular than anything Jordan did in his career had he carried the Cavaliers and won that series because James did not have his Scottie Pippen. Which is the biggest reason why he has not made it back to the NBA Finals in the three seasons since. With his back to back MVP awards the last two seasons and the numbers he’s put up no one has accomplished more individually in the first seven years of their career than Lebron James has. He has carried the Cavaliers to 60 plus win seasons the past two seasons with a supporting cast that shows how much they ride on the coattails of their star and are unable to do much on their own once the late games of May roll around. Which is also the reason why he decided to part ways with Cleveland and Northheast Ohio.

James had a number of able and willing suitors who all presented him with intriguing opportunities. It would have been a bad career decision for Lebron to stay in Cleveland with a basketball team that has been unable to significantly upgrade their roster in the seven years since he’s been there. If he had decided to stay in Cleveland the story would not have been as intriguing as him going to start a new chapter with any of the number of cities that were after him. During his “Decision” show on espn in which he was interviewed by Jim Gray and told the country he was leaving Cleveland for Miami James stated that the biggest factor in his decision was going to a team where he could win a championships “immediately.” A lot of critics say until Lebron wins a championship his career will in a sense be a failure, but a lot of us have a certain criteria on how the great “King James” has to win a championship which would mean winning one without going and pairing up with someone almost as equally as great as he in Dwayne Wade. That’s because Lebron is so great that he has the game to one day be looked at as good or better than Michael Jordan depending on how the rest of his career goes and how many titles he wins, and even though Michael played with a hall of fame sidekick in Scottie Pippen, Pippen was not as great as Dwayne Wade who pulled off a Jordanesque performance in the 2006 NBA Finals while leading an aging Miami Heat team to a championship after falling down 0-2 in the series. But if James only truly cares about winning championships immediately then going to Miami to team up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh clearly gives him the best chance to do just that. Maybe the greatness of his championship victories will be hurt a bit in the minds of some when he wins his first or second NBA title because of the greatness of Wade but if Miami can run off four, five, six championships in a row then everyone will have to reevaluate the path James took with his career and the greatness of it. We all know James and Wade are students of the game, for all we know they could be sitting around talking about how they have the potential to be the greatest NBA basketball team of all-time. Does anyone doubt with the greatness of these three superstars that at some point during their time together on South Beach that they can challenge Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ all-time regular season record of 72-10 that they set in the 1996-97 season? If these things happen we will all have to reevaluate the legacy of Lebron James.

James, Wade, and Bosh were never the kind of rivals the way the prominent figures of the 1980’s NBA were. To denounce what the new Miami trio has done by saying that Magic, Larry, Issiah, and Jordan would have never teamed up with one another is a joke. It’s true that it would have been a wack move to see these guys team up in the prime of their careers rather than oppose each other the way they so often did in their careers. But these guys all faced off against one another in the NBA playoffs and built intense and at times bitter and nasty rivalries with each other. The playoffs are where rivalries are made. The aforementioned stars of the 80’s opposed each other many times in the playoffs which would have made a pairing of stars in that era impossible. In the seven years James, Wade, and Bosh have been in the NBA the grand total of times the three have faced each other in a playoff series is zero. Not once has Lebron matched up against Wade in a playoff, Or Wade faced off against Bosh or James faced off against Bosh’s Raptors. So these three never built up a serious on court rivalry against one another. Then on the flipside all three gentleman came out of the same 2003 draft class, have spent multiple summers together playing on the men’s National basketball team, so it’s natural to see how they built up such a friendship and how they could want to play together. And the best part about Lebron James’ espn “the decision” broadcast on espn is that he raised $5 million to the Boys and Girls Club. All the hate should cease with that simple number. Another note, when you look at the greatness of a player like Tracy McGrady who is a two-time NBA scoring champion with similar size and game to James, and see Mcgrady has never been able to get his team out of the first round of the playoffs while James has never failed to make it out of the first round then you begin to see the true greatness of what Lebron James has done over the first half of his career.

NBA's 10 Most Underrated

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:32:06 GMT

Synopsis

WBAI Sports takes a look at the 10 most under rated players in the National Basketball Association.

Story

10. Since entering the NBA straight out of high school Monta Ellis has made a strong case against the NBA’s new policy that mandates all high school basketball players spend at least one year in college after graduating. Ellis was a part of the last NBA draft that allowed players to come out of high school and he has been one of the more exciting guards since he’s hit the NBA. In this his fifth season Golden State Warriors’ Ellis is averaging 17.8 points for his career and is averaging career bests this season of 25.7 points per game and 5.3 assists per game. At age 24, Ellis has a chance to make his legacy special if he can continue to improve, keep those numbers where they’re at, and be a part of some winning teams.

9. Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves is just in his second NBA season but in limited playing time a season ago Love still led all rookies in double doubles. An obstacle that’s been in Love’s way early in his career is the fact that the team’s franchise player plays the same position as he. Because of this Love has bounced in and out of the starting lineup. But with averages still of 15.2 points and 11.4 rebounds in this his second season, Love is well on his way to an incredible NBA career.

8. Brother of Los Angeles Lakers all-star season center Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol was in the trade that sent Pau from Memphis to the Lakers two years ago. At the time many ripped Memphis for making the deal because at the time it was believed that Memphis got no talent back in the deal. But with averages of 14.9 points and 9.4 rebounds this season Gasol is nearly averaging a double double for the season and at age 25 Gasol can make a solid NBA career for himself.

7. Portland Trailblazers point guard Andre Miller has had a very solid career in his 11 seasons in the NBA. In his third season in the league with the Cleveland Cavaliers Miller led the NBA in assists with 10.9 for the season. Miller has held it down at the point position for five different teams and everywhere he goes he puts up solid numbers. Miller though has never been voted to an all-star team.

6. In his third NBA season Aaron Brooks of the Houston Rockets is averaging 19.4 points and 5.4 assists and made Houston comfortable enough last season to trade Rafer Alston who had manned the starting point position with the team for a few years. Brooks was close to having an all-star season this year and is a big reason why the Houston Rockets have remained in the playoff race all season long after not having Yao Ming or Tracy Mcgrady for the entire season.

5. David Lee of the New York Knicks might have been in the number one spot had NBA commissioner David Stern not handpicked Lee to be an eastern conference all-star after Philadelphia 76’ers guard Allen Iverson was not able to make the game. At 20.3 points and 11.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists Lee is having a tremendous season and is one of just three players in the NBA who are averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds on the season. After battling for minutes and a consistent role with the team Lee has outlasted all the other big men who were on the team when he arrived. Lee is actually the last man standing from the Knicks roster that was in his rookie season. The New York Knicks have more money under the salary cap this summer for the much anticipated free agent class than any other team in the NBA. The Knicks though must not sleep on their own man this summer.

4. Jamal Crawford has scored 50 points or more for 3 different teams during his NBA career. But until this season Crawford has had the stigma of a ball player who was strictly a gunner, not a team player nor a winning player and a guy that winning teams had no use for. Crawford who debuted in the league in 2000 has never played in a playoff game. Crawford has played in more games without reaching the playoffs than any other team in the NBA. This April however Crawford will be a part of the playoffs for the first time of his career with his Atlanta Hawks. Coming off the bench this season Crawford has added a huge lift for the team off the bench and is averaging over 17 points per game. Crawford has to be the leader for the NBA 6^th man award and this season he has proved that he is no doubt an all-star caliber player.

3. Michael Beasley of the Miami Heat was the only high lottery pick taken in the 2008 NBA draft who never got the opportunity to be a consistent part of his team’s starting lineup. Despite being the number two pick overall a season ago, Beasley came off the bench the entire season and had unimpressive numbers of 13.9 and 5.4 rebounds a game as a rookie. This season as a starter Beasley has pushed those averages to 15.8 and 6.7. In games that Dwayne Wade has missed for the Heat this season Beasley has taken more of a role on offense and put up big numbers in those games. It appears here as if Beasley is still learning to play alongside a superstar who dominates the ball like Dwayne Wade.

2. Before this season Zach Randolph was another player who had the stigma of being a guy who put up good numbers for bad teams but was not a winning player. Randolph was nicknamed the “black hole” and looked at as someone who was a bad locker room presence. All of that is hot air and now that Randolph is on a Memphis Grizzles team that has surprised many by being a team that has played over .500 ball this season, Randolph who is one of three players to average 20 points and 10 rebounds this season was awarded with his first ever all-star appearance this season.

1. Nate “The Great” Robinson is number one on the list of most underrated players in the NBA. When given the opportunity Robinson is a flat put playmaker. But at 5’9 Robinson still has not been given that opportunity and still is held back by others who think that he is too short to be a starting player in the NBA. Robinson also deals with the misnomer that he is not intelligent enough to be a point guard in the NBA. Nate Robinson is one of the most exciting players in the National Basketball association and was a source of excitement for Knicks fans who’ve had to struggle through a string of losing seasons the last few years. Now with the Boston Celtics Robinson will have his chance to gain recognition on the big stage.

No Go For The A.I. Show

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:39:02 GMT

Synopsis

After the Yankees won the world series the New York Knicks had a chance to keep the excitement going in NYC by bring in free agent Allen Iverson. They chose not to and that was absolutely the wrong move.

Story

At the end of Larry brown’s single season coaching the New York Knicks on March 31st 2006 his former player Allen Iverson, then with the Philadelphia 76’ers, came to New York where he faced a rookie who loves to tell people to this day, every chance he gets, that one of his greatest inspirations growing up was A.I. That night five foot eight Nate Robinson dropped 34 points against Iverson and the Sixers. After the game inside the visiting locker room Iverson spoke in front of a large media contingent who had waited patiently for him to appear in front of his locker for some postgame conversation.

Earlier that season on November 26th 2005 Philadelphia made their first trip to Madison Square Garden, and with the score tied in the final seconds New York had the ball for the final shot.   Coach Larry Brown designed the final shot of the game for Nate Robinson. Robinson was guarded by Iverson on that final possession and went down the court and nailed a three point shot over Iverson at the buzzer to give New York a 105-102 victory.

As Iverson spoke in front of the media on that night in late March he smiled and talked glowingly about the 34 point night Robinson had just had against him and told everyone that Robinson reminds him a lot of himself.

Earlier this week the future hall of famer Iverson was released from his contract with the lowly Memphis Grizzles and there was much speculation that the New York Knicks would sign him and bring him in for the remainder of the season. It would have been great to see Iverson and Robinson, a two-time dunk champion and easily the most popular player among the garden faithful, team up together in the Knicks backcourt for the remaining 70 plus games of the season. As the Knicks debated internally whether or not to bring Iverson to the team Robinson reiterated again his respect for Iverson at a Knicks practice earlier in the week by telling New York reporters the reason he wears a sleeve on his arm during games is because he watched A.I. do it first. The Knicks however chose to take a pass on Iverson, which is disappointing all the way around.

The Knicks are in the process of what will be a ninth straight losing season. Before this streak began the Knicks were one year removed from having a run of nine consecutive years of making it out of the first round of the playoffs. Knicks fans have had nothing to get excited about since. After four and a half years of Isiah Thomas running the franchise as president of basketball operations from 2004 through 2008 owner James Dolan showed Thomas the door and brought in longtime Indiana Pacers top basketball executive Donnie Walsh. Walsh’s mission statement from day one has been to get the Knicks far enough under the NBA salary cap where they will have a chance at signing one or two big name free agents in the summer of 2010. But if one of those two names who are brought in to help resurrect the Knicks next summer are not Lebron James and/or Dwayne Wade then Knicks management under Donnie Walsh will be batting .000.

The Knicks do not bring A.I. to the world’s most famous arena and they like to tell us their reasoning behind this is they don’t want to interrupt the development of their young players. But the only development the young players of the Knicks have experienced since wearing the orange and blue for most of the last decade has been losing. A condition that has marinated deep inside the franchise and has been apparent every time the team has taken the court over most of that time.      This losing environment more than anything else is a detriment to the young Knicks who the organization says they are trying to protect and who they want so badly to develop. The losing atmosphere has prevailed inside the halls of Madison square garden, and no matter what kind of talent the team has brought in on the court or on the sidelines the past few years the team has not been able to shake this losing mentality. It’s an atmosphere where the Madison Square garden fans who are tired of all the losing get down on the team quick at the first sign of bad play.   It’s an atmosphere that includes a locker room of players who have never won with the knicks, never won in the NBA, nor knows how or what it means to win in the NBA period. The franchise has been beaten down so much by losing that there is no real belief from anyone inside that Knicks locker room that they can be a respectable team because none of the current Knicks players have felt success like that with the team and none of them probably even remember a time when the franchise was respectable on the court. This has been the biggest factor for the Knicks dismal play the last five seasons.

Continuing to expose these young players to this kind of losing atmosphere will do more harm than help no matter how much time they get to play on the court the remainder of the season. Iverson is a proud competitor and would not have put up with being a part of a Knicks team who have rolled over many times over the last few years as the opponent embarrassed them on a nightly basis. If the Knicks had brought in Iverson he would’ve garnered more respect in that locker room than any Knick currently does. The moment he entered everyone would know the success Iverson has had and the winner he has been in the league despite never being a part of a championship team. Bringing in Iverson not only would have caused mass excitement among the fans but it would have brought a whole lot of excitement to the Knicks locker room as well. For all the baggage we hear that Iverson would have brought to the Knicks he may have been the best remedy for a locker room that has known nothing but losing and embarrassment since joining the organization. He would have brought a fight to the team and a fire that New Yorkers would have loved.

When Donnie Walsh came in last season and immediately traded Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph two weeks into the season after the club had gotten off to a good start with a winning record Knicks management made it clear that their plan was to have money available under the salary cap in the summer of 2010 so they can offer the world to Lebron James and/or Dwayne Wade. The organization sacrificed last season and this season and told us that winning ball games was not the top priority until the calendar hits the summer of 2010. The Knicks can say all they want about how not brining in Iverson will allow them to play their young players. If the Knicks were so worried about their young players playing then why is their 8th overall pick in the draft forward Jordan Hill hardly ever on the court? He has already had seven DNP's and the team has only played 13 games. Furthermore, the only other young players the Knicks have any real eye on keeping are Danillo Galinari, Wilson Chandler, and Tony Douglass, none of these men would have hardly seen their playing time affected. Galinari and Chandler would have remained in the starting lineup and Douglass would have continued his role off the bench and the Knicks could have banished current starting point guard Chris Duhon to the bench and sacrificed his minutes.

There is a rookie point guard, Brandon Jennings, playing for Milwaukee who a week ago came 3 points shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time single game rookie scoring record with 55 points, who the Knicks had the opportunity to select in last June’s draft and passed. With the Knicks getting off to their worst start in franchise history Knicks management could have thrown the Knicks fans a bone by bringing Iverson to the team for the rest of the season. Iverson has never played in New York and has no association with the city, but he has that kind of swagger, respect, street cred, and game that New Yorkers have always admired and if the Knicks had given Iverson the keys to the Garden for the remainder of the season and let him start, the A.I. show would have been in full effect and Knicks fans would have loved it.

If Iverson played well there could have been a chance that the Knicks could have decided to bring the future hall of famer back for next season when the other stars come to town. There would have been more excitement at the garden this season than there has been in the building in years, but Knicks management chose to be conservative and not make a move that seemingly the overwhelming majority of Knicks fans wanted to see happen. The Knicks passed up making the popular move and if they don’t bring Lebron or Wade to the city next summer it’s hard to see Walsh and D’Antoni being popular with anyone who bleeds orange and blue.

Rising Black Stars

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:46:53 GMT

Synopsis

After just three African-American ball players made the major league baseball all-star game in 2008, ten made the team in 2009. They had a big impact on the game, possibly creating a revival of the many exciting African-American players seen in year's past.

Story

Last summer during the final season of Yankee stadium when Major league baseball held their annual mid-summer classic in the house that Ruth built there was a lot of magic in the air for a celebration that brought nearly every living hall of famer to the Bronx. The All-star festivities featured the greatest performance in the history of the homerun derby as Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, making his first appearance in an all-star game, took a run at reaching the moon with a few of his monstrous shots into the Bronx night, as he set a home run derby single round record with 28 jacks.   Fans who packed into the most historic ball park in the game’s history, or watched at home on their television sets got to see all the baseball they possibly could have wished for as the contest ended with the American League winning in 15 innings over a time of 4:50 which set the record for the longest all-star game in terms of time, and tied the 1967 All-star game as the longest in terms of innings. But there was something missing, and the moment didn’t seem right to some of the games past greats who were in attendance.

Out of the 67 players on both the American league and National league rosters in 2008, just three were African-American, the lowest number of African-American ball players in an all-star game since 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier, when there were none. Past stars of the game from Joe Morgan and Don Baylor to Ernie Banks all expressed to me their disappointment with the small number of African-American ball players in the all-star game. Joe Morgan who has been a part of the espn broadcast team, who brings the homerun derby to the nation, for years, spoke before Josh Hamilton’s all-time derby performance about how the 08’ derby would be different from any he ever covered because there were no African-American nor Latin ball players participating in the derby.

Derek Jeter, Milton Bradley, and Grady Sizemore were the only African-American ball players in the 2008 game, and only Bradley was born to two African-American parents. “You don’t want to T anybody off with anything you say, I’ve already done enough of that,” said Milton Bradley at last summer’s all-star game. “But right now who do they promote? ‘They promote Ryan Howard, but really you can’t think of anybody else, Barry Bonds the greatest homerun hitter of all-time gets crucified.”   Barry Bonds whether fair or not, has become the face of the steroids era because of the way he hit 73 homeruns in 2001 to set the single season homerun record, and then the way he surpassed Henry Aaron as the all-time career homerun king, all of which has been put into serious question with countless reports of Bonds’ steroids use over the latter part of his career.

Bonds and many other ball players of his era provided the long ball for fans at an all-time clip which many can argue helped attract excitement to the sport because the homerun is the most awe-striking play on a baseball diamond. The 2009 All-star game however, held in St. Louis Missouri, did not feature any of the top 10 active career homerun hitters, and the number of African-American players in the game rose from 3 a year ago to 10. Five were first time all-stars, ball players who can bring a lot of excitement to the baseball community and possibly generate some excitement with the young African-American demographic who seem to identify more with the athletes of the NBA and NFL than those of major league baseball. The increase of African-Americans in the2009 all-star game contributed to a focus of speed and defense in the game, and a number of the African-American ball players put their stamp on the game.

The game winning run was driven in and scored by African-American ball players Adam Jones of Baltimore and Detroit’s Curtis Granderson, and the MVP of the game for the American league, who won for the 13th consecutive time (2002 all-star game ended in a tie), was Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford who became the first position player to win All-star game MVP without driving in a run in the game since Willie Mays in 1968. In fact the speedy Crawford did not score a run in the game either and Jones, Granderson, and Crawford finished the game for the American league in the outfield, in large part because of their speed and athletic ability which made for a superb defensive outfield during the most critical part of the game. Crawford who went 1 for 3 in the game robbed Colorado’s Brad Hawpe of a potential go ahead homerun in the 7th inning which allowed Jones and Granderson to produce the go ahead run in the 8th inning that gave the American league the win. The catch was so spectacular and came at such an important time in the game that it prompted those in the press box to name him game MVP.

To close things out New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera polished off the American league in the 9th inning collecting his 4th all-star game save of his career which is an all-time record. This was preceded by Milwaukee Brewers star Prince Fielder winning the homerun derby the night before and President Barack Obama throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the all-star game. Rivera will be the last player to wear the uniform number 42 of Jackie Robinson, and the dream Jackie had for major league baseball sure looks a lot brighter after the 2009 all-star showcase.

Rose wit' a lil' Mayo

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:29:22 GMT

Synopsis

With two months to go in the basketball season, Chicago's Derrick Rose and Memphis' O.J. Mayo are the top two contenders for rookie of the year honors. They both speak with Wbai Sports about their new beginnings.

Story

Leading up to last June’s NBA draft, the overwhelming choice amongst NBA executives and media types over who was the best player in the Draft was University of Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. The Chicago Bulls agreed and selected the hometown product Rose with the first overall pick in the 2008 draft. Rose, like most high school ball players, was a relative unknown before bursting onto the national scene in his one and only year in college at the University of Memphis. Another guard selected 2 picks after Rose with the 3^rd overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies, O.J. Mayo out of USC, has been widely known to basketball fans for a few years. Now, with about two-thirds of their rookie season complete, the two rookie guards are the leading candidates for NBA rookie of the year. Rose and Mayo resemble a similar connection with another pair of exciting guards who were selected early in the 1996 NBA draft, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. One is a typical point guard while the other is a cold blooded scorer.

When Iverson and Marbury came out of college in 96’, Marbury was a freshman and Iverson was a sophomore. Mayo and Rose entered the draft following their freshman seasons. In 96’ Iverson was as dynamic a guard the game of college basketball had seen in ages. In his two seasons at Georgetown, the six foot playmaker, with the size of a point guard, displayed great ball handling ability, but had the scoring mentality and game of a shooting guard. A man who rose up on seven footers in the lane and stuffed it down in their faces. Marbury was a star point guard from New York City who got all the hype of a New York City high school legend. He had a similar game and ability to Iverson, except Marbury didn’t rang up as many numbers in the points category but always dished out a heck of a lot more assists than Iverson. The point was that both guards could do both well but their strengths were slightly different.

Leading up to that 96’ draft, the big talk, surrounded over which one would end up having the better career. Many looked at Iverson as the guy who would put on a “highlight reel” type performance on a night in and night out basis, while Marbury, who was looked at as a true point guard who could make other players around him better, was widely considered the one who would be a bigger winner because of his ability to be a true point guard and get all his teammates involved. Iverson, the all-world scorer was selected first overall by Philadelphia while Marbury was taken fourth by Milwaukee, then immediately traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ray Allen.

After Lebron James was coveted out of high school and later selected with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft, O.J. Mayo took the role, along with center Greg Oden, as the next can’t miss future NBA prospect. Oden and Mayo were both covered by national publications early in their high school years, including by sports illustrated. Mayo was the guard who always had the rock in his hands which gave him the opportunity to dazzle and showcase his talents. O.J. who was raised in Huntington, West Virginia, made his rounds around the AAU basketball circuit which led to his rising national popularity. O.J. played the early part of his high school basketball career at North college Hill high school in Cincinnati, Ohio where he led his school to three consecutive AP poll titles. He also won Mr. Basketball of Ohio honors in his sophomore and junior seasons before returning to West Virginia and enrolling at Hunnington High School for his senior season.

Derrick Rose’s star on the national scene wasn’t born quite as early as that of O.J. Mayo, but he too had a standout high school career, winning two consecutive state championships at Chicago’s Simeon career academy. In 2007, he was named Mr. Basketball of the state of Illinois. He then moved on to the University of Memphis where his pure package of athleticism, power, speed, and smarts immediately grabbed the attention of the sporting nation. Following the recent success of NBA point guards Chris Paul, Steve Nash, and Deron Williams, and the positive effect they each had on their teams rapid rise up the standings, Rose was looked at early in his freshman season as a franchise changing player. However, aroud this time a year ago, before the start of the NCAA tournament, neither Rose or Mayo was really looked upon as the guy who would be the first player selected in the June draft. Instead it was Kansas State University rookie forward Michael Beasley. After march madness and the NCAA tournament, in which Rose led Memphis to the national championship game, and a heartbreaking loss to the University of Kansas in overtime, there was little debate that it would be Rose who be selected first overall.

Now in their rookie seasons, Rose and Mayo have reached the “The Show”, fulfilling a lifelong dream “It’s great,” said O.J. Mayo of his rookie season in the NBA “I had an opportunity to fight my whole life to get to this point, and to finally get here is pretty exciting for me and I’m just looking forward to getting better each and every night.” Mayo leads all rookies in scoring this season with an average of 19.4 points per game, while Rose is 2^nd with an average of 16.9 points per game but leads all rookies with an average of 6.4 assists per game. Guys like Rose and Mayo are no doubt basketball crazy, love the sport, and have never been ones to shy away from any opportunity to play the sport. But you would have to think that one of the biggest obstacles for any rookie would be adjusting their body to the physical grind that comes with playing a six month 82 game NBA schedule. “It definitely does” says O.J. Mayo “it’s a tough league and there’s really no easy nights. Every night is a fight, so you’ve got to just continue to work hard and get better.” Neither Mayo nor Rose has missed a game this season “I’m eating right, sleeping right, I’m just getting a lot of rest and I really don’t go out like that.” Derrick Rose tells Wbai Sports about how he’s been able to keep his body from breaking down during the long NBA season, “I’m just listening to all my vets and seeing what they do, taking ice baths and all that stuff, so right now I’m feeling good.”

Generally, in a high school or college season, the most games on a basketball schedule is somewhere between 30 and 40. “So many games in a short amount of time,” Mayo tells wbai Sports about his biggest adjustment to NBA life, “And every night having a tough player to compete against, there are no easy nights, no easy days, only the strong survive in this league.” Mayo acknowledges that in the off-season he has to get stronger so in his words he can hold his ground against “some of the stronger players in this league.” When asked who his toughest matchups are in the NBA Rose chuckles and says “Everybody,” “This is the best competition in the world, every night you’re playing against somebody good, so it’s hard,” he continued “everything is hard, all this new traveling, trying to eat and sleep right, learning the plays as a point guard, learning the opponents plays, all that stuff is hard.”

The NBA and the sport of basketball period, is all about the show. A game that’s mixed with a lot of showmanship in between the fierce competition. O.J. Mayo knows a thing or two about putting on a show and how to promote and draw attention to himself. Coming out of high school he choose to attend the University of Southern California because the school has forever been known as a football school, and Mayo wanted to step foot on campus under the L.A. lights, and make the basketball team a power as well. O.J. wanted to throw his name and talents into the mix under the L.A. spotlight, with the special USC football names such as; Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, Reggie Bush, and the rest. Mayo even considered doing something which would have been extremely big and ground breaking. Before deciding to attend USC he considered going to a historically black university, something we never see from the top black athletes of our time. If Mayo would have chosen this route, he sure enough would have created a lot of buzz, because again, the basketball masses knew this kid’s name all throughout his high school career.

Nevertheless, when it comes to some of the players who inspired him to want to make a living out of making incredible things happen with the rock, Mayo points to one of the finest products ever produced from a historically black university “Earl Monroe,” O.J. says, “I’m a really big fan of the older players because back then it didn’t matter if you were 6’4 or 6’2, they just played ball, whether it was point guard or two guard, they really just went out there and played hard and competed well so I’m a big fan of those players.” Interesting for a kid who was born seven years after the pearl retired from the sport “A guy in my neighborhood who really liked his game talked to me about him a lot when I was younger, he found some tapes for me to watch and once I saw those tapes I really became a big fan, the way he played real smooth with a bob to his game, he really had a lot of fun.” Mayo says.

Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls have the best chance of making the playoffs when it comes between them and O.J. Mayo’s Memphis Grizzlies. At the time of this article the Chicago Bulls are a game and a half out of the final playoff spot in the eastern conference with two months remaining in the season, while Memphis stands 18 games removed from the final playoff spot in the western conference, which has them looking towards next year and the future for any possible playoff talk. “We’re a young team, and us growing together is pretty interesting, we’re all going through the same difficult stages, it’s just trying to turn it around and become a good team, we have each other, it’s not going to be easy but I think we’re a team that can fight this uphill battle and become a good team.” Says Mayo. The Grizzles franchise which originated in Vancouver has only been in existence for 14 seasons and still has never won a playoff game. So Mayo and his fellow Grizzles have a long ways to go before they change the aura surrounding the Memphis Grizzlies. As far as individual awards go, if all things are pretty much even, they are usually given to the player whose team does the most winning. So if Rose is able to push the Bulls into the playoffs this spring he could come away with rookie of the year honors “If it comes with me winning I’ll take it but if we don’t make the playoffs then it really wouldn’t mean nothing.” As far as whether Rose speaks with his fellow rookies around the league he says “I don’t talk to them like that, we have a busy schedule.” Like Iverson and Marbury, Rose and Mayo will be linked together in NBA history. It will be fun to watch whether or not these two young guards will surpass the heights of the two who came before them in 96.’

Blame Commish and Media

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:42:53 GMT

Synopsis

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the baseball writers of America must take the most blame for the steroids era, writes Samori Benjamin.

Story

With the allegation, and then, the admittance of steroid use from New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriquez, major league baseball has officially been tarnished, and to a certain degree ruined. None of the other major professional sports leagues in the United States have damaged their brand more than the protectors of the national pastime. The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, has to take the biggest responsibility in what we now know as the steroids era. An era that has contaminated and tainted the baseball record book. A record book that’s always been the most sacred among all the rest, in a sport that’s largely about the numbers.

Major League Baseball never had an official steroids test until 2004. The idea of no steroids testing was a joke. Professional sports is an arena where it’s the survival of the fittest. If you are not testing for a drug that enhances athletic performance, you have to expect players to use. Baseball players have to provide for their families like everyone else. The sport is the means by which they earn their living, and it’s a business. Baseball team executives want to win, and the best way to judge whether a player will help you win is by looking at their numbers. Numbers that are pulled out at the bargaining table when an athlete states his case for a contract. The bigger the numbers the more millions a ball player can command.   Steroids enhance the numbers. We all grew up as kids hearing and seeing steroids testing at the Olympics and knew it was a drug that would turn you into superman. A magical poison injected into your rear that would give you an unfair advantage. So what did the governing body of major league baseball and the commissioner think was going to happen?

The duties of the commissioner clearly states he must defend what is in “the best interest of baseball.” The commissioner and the governing body of major league baseball are the police of the sport. They are supposed to uphold the tradition and integrity of the game, and there is no way the commissioner’s office could not have known or at least had a high degree of suspicion that ball players were using the juice. To think anything else would be extremely naïve, and there is no way people who are around the game the way the commissioner and his officials are, could be that naïve. It starts at the top, and the commissioner and his executives presided over an era that’s now made the league look like a joke.

The biggest dynamic in the entire steroids conversation are the baseball fans. Baseball fans are the reason major league baseball has a steroids test in place today. For many years, it was not public knowledge that baseball players were not being tested for steroids. Baseball fans just always assumed major leaguers were being tested for steroids. Then everything changed with the Balco laboratory bust in the California bay area in 2003, where major leaguers from Barry Bonds to Jason Giambi were linked to steroids use, and more specifically a designer steroid, that was undetectable on a steroids test, which were being created and distributed to athletes by the company.

The Balco case was the first episode that revealed to the public that major league baseball had neither a steroids policy nor a test. If the public knew this before 2003, the suspicion level towards ball players would have been significant way before 03’, and the public would have demanded credibility and steroids testing in the sport. Which is what happened when the feds busted Balco in the 2nd half of 2003, and players were therefore linked to steroids, the evidence went to a grand jury, there was an indictment, grand jury testimony of New York Yankee Jason Giambi was leaked, which immediately caused the public to question every homerun hit in the major leagues over the preceding 10 to 15 years.

The public was outraged and wanted answers, and that is what got congress involved. In early 2005, America’s elected officials marched baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the director of MLB’s players association, Donald Fehr, up to Capitol Hill to explain why there had never been steroids testing in the sport. A few weeks later, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, and Sammy Sosa were called to the capital to discuss the degree of steroids use in baseball. After that embarrassment major league baseball and the players association agreed to enact a steroids policy in which a first positive test immediately resulted in suspension without pay. There is no doubt had the public known there was no steroids testing in the sport in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had their dramatic pursuit of Roger Marris’ single season homerun record, the whole thing would have been played under heavy suspicion, and whether these guys were cheating or not would have been a big part of the daily conversation. But that wasn’t the case, and there wasn’t a thought on anyone’s mind that these guys possibly could have been using.

So we watched the homerun chase day after day in that summer of 98’ like it was something magical.   Something that was saving the sport which had crippled itself with a mid-season strike in the summer of 1994. Then three years later, after McGwire set a new single season homerun record finishing with 70 homeruns, Barry Bonds comes along and shatters the record that had previously been held for 36 years before McGwire captured it, finishing the 2001 season with 73 homers. And still, during the whole time, both homerun chases were looked upon with amazement and as being great for the sport. There was no public outcry from anyone, that, maybe, possibly, it could have all been aided by steroids. Because the public was not aware that zero percent of major baseball players were tested for steroids.

Another critical aspect of the steroids discussion is the role or non role the baseball writers played. The baseball writers cannot go unscathed, they deserve blame for this era as well. The baseball writers of America are the ones who vote for the hall of fame. On the hall of fame ballot there is an integrity clause which a lot of writers like to point to whenever they give reasoning for why they left someone off their ballot who is worthy of induction. It is the baseball writers role to be the watchful eye over the game, to call out nonsense, to expose the truth, and to make the figures inside the sport accountable. If at any time during the steroids era the baseball writers would have written and informed the public that major league ball players were not being tested for steroids, they would have drawn a lot of attention to the subject which would have set the forces in motion that would have led to steroids testing in baseball. But instead it took the Balco scandal to begin to shed light on the entire issue. Did the baseball writers not know major leaguers were not being tested for steroids? Or did they know and decided to not make an issue of it? We cannot forget the influence and the power of persuasion that the media has over the public. As much as baseball writers and other members of the media love to get into everyone’s business and break bombshell stories, we didn’t hear a word from anyone in the media about the possibility of steroids use in the game.   The baseball writers let the entire era take place right under their noses, and missed the story.

The baseball players association did everything they possibly could to avoid their players to being subjected to steroids testing. But that’s what union’s do, they protect their players. Yes, this makes the players association very guilty as well for what took place over the last 15 years in the sport. The baseball owners knew what was going on as well, but they are about making money, and power and homeruns draw fans and their dollars to the game. No one can seriously expect the players and the owners to blow the whistle on something that was profitable for them both. This is why the baseball commissioner and those inside the major league offices are the ones who must take most of the blame for what went on in the steroids era. He likes to say that he was really unaware of the rampant steroids inside the game, and he likes to say that he wanted a steroids test in place a long time ago but that he never happened because the players union would not agree to it during negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement. If the latter is true, then again, he could have used the baseball writers and the rest of the media to drive home the fact that his players were cheating. It’s as simple as that. Instead, the commissioner turned a blind eye, while those in the media slept the story entirely.