In both the NBA and NHL, the All-Star breaks are over and the trade deadlines have passed. Chicago, for the first time in – well, my entire life – has two teams with legitimate playoff hopes entering the month of March.
The defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, who are still trying to find their stride after losing a major portion of their championship team to salary cap issues, and the young, talented Bulls have windy city sports fans strapped in for a wild ride.
Personally, I’m thrilled…for the Bulls.
I must admit, I’m biased. Hockey is very hard for me to get into, if only because I find regular season hockey mind-numbingly boring. It’s a great event to watch live, but a lot is lost on television; mainly, the ability to follow the puck.
A hockey puck zips across the ice at an incredible speed and unless you’re blessed with a 60-something inch high-definition TV, you just can’t see it. At best, you can guess the position of the puck by the movement of the players on the ice. At worst, it’s mass chaos.
That, combined with the fact that the Hawks have been (ATTENTION: critical understatement to follow…) consistently inconsistent for most of the season makes me less than excited to follow their playoff chase.
The Bulls have my full attention. For the first time since His Airness dominated the league in his retired No. 23 jersey, basketball has actually taken precedence over my admitted baseball addiction.
This Bulls team, led by the MVP-candidate Derrick Rose, is just so much fun to watch. Rose breaking ankles and blazing past defenders, Joakim Noah dominating the offensive boards, and Carlos Boozer scoring in the post – all with the intensity of a team that has played the whole season with a visible chip on their shoulder – has me sucked in.
And here’s the best part – they’re not just exciting, they’re winning. As they enter the stretch run of the season, they finally have their whole team healthy and they appear poised to make a serious run at an NBA championship.
Even the Bulls strongest supporters couldn’t have seen this coming at the beginning of the season, and that’s what makes it all the more thrilling. Everybody loves an underdog – especially when they win.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Bullish or Bullsh*t?
The Chicago Bulls are good, there’s no argument there.
There is, however, an argument as to exactly how good. Bulls fans are beginning to convince themselves that their team might be the best in the Eastern Conference, possibly even the entire league.
Starting with the Eastern Conference; that’s a possibility. Going into Monday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, the Bulls are in third place in the conference. They sit two games behind the Boston Celtics and one and a half games behind the Miami Heat – though they are tied with the Heat in the loss column.
Essentially all pundits agree that the best team in the East resides in one of those three cities; Boston, Miami, or Chicago. In my opinion, though, one of these things does not belong…
The Miami Heat. So far this season against the Bulls and Celtics, the Heat are an uninspiring 0-5. They are a great team, to be certain. They have the best player in the NBA in LeBron James and another member of the league’s top-5 in Dwyane Wade.
Based purely on star power, the Heat have dominated mediocre, sub-.500 teams, and they will continue to do so. But, they are a team with many weaknesses. Chiefly, they have no center and no point guard. They simply cannot compete against teams who can score down low or have a talented point guard (Like, let’s say….Chicago or Boston).
That leaves Boston and Chicago. At this point, I’m not ready to say that the Bulls have surpassed the Celtics as the top team in the East. With a healthy Joakim Noah, it’s a possibility. Particularly since Boston traded away one of its big men – Kendrick Perkins – at the trade deadline.
But as of right now, the Celtics still have one big advantage over the Bulls; Ray Allen. Chicago is offensively weak at shooting guard and not particularly overpowering defensively. I’m just not convinced that anybody on the Bulls can consistently guard Ray Allen in a 7-game series.
Does that make the Celtics decidedly better? Not necessarily, but it’s also hard to prove that they’re not.
Then there’s the West – and that’s a completely different story. San Antonio, Dallas, and Los Angeles (Lakers) all have a better record than the Bulls. They also all have something that might still give the Bulls fits; a talented big man.
Noah has blossomed into one of the best centers in the league for the Bulls over the past year, however it still remains to be seen if he has come far enough to consistently compete with the likes of Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and Dirk Nowitzki.
If he can, I have no doubt in my mind that they can not only consistently compete against, but beat all three of those teams.
So, back to the original query; how good are the Chicago Bulls? The answer is very – but they still have to prove it on the court, particularly out west.
There is, however, an argument as to exactly how good. Bulls fans are beginning to convince themselves that their team might be the best in the Eastern Conference, possibly even the entire league.
Starting with the Eastern Conference; that’s a possibility. Going into Monday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, the Bulls are in third place in the conference. They sit two games behind the Boston Celtics and one and a half games behind the Miami Heat – though they are tied with the Heat in the loss column.
Essentially all pundits agree that the best team in the East resides in one of those three cities; Boston, Miami, or Chicago. In my opinion, though, one of these things does not belong…
The Miami Heat. So far this season against the Bulls and Celtics, the Heat are an uninspiring 0-5. They are a great team, to be certain. They have the best player in the NBA in LeBron James and another member of the league’s top-5 in Dwyane Wade.
Based purely on star power, the Heat have dominated mediocre, sub-.500 teams, and they will continue to do so. But, they are a team with many weaknesses. Chiefly, they have no center and no point guard. They simply cannot compete against teams who can score down low or have a talented point guard (Like, let’s say….Chicago or Boston).
That leaves Boston and Chicago. At this point, I’m not ready to say that the Bulls have surpassed the Celtics as the top team in the East. With a healthy Joakim Noah, it’s a possibility. Particularly since Boston traded away one of its big men – Kendrick Perkins – at the trade deadline.
But as of right now, the Celtics still have one big advantage over the Bulls; Ray Allen. Chicago is offensively weak at shooting guard and not particularly overpowering defensively. I’m just not convinced that anybody on the Bulls can consistently guard Ray Allen in a 7-game series.
Does that make the Celtics decidedly better? Not necessarily, but it’s also hard to prove that they’re not.
Then there’s the West – and that’s a completely different story. San Antonio, Dallas, and Los Angeles (Lakers) all have a better record than the Bulls. They also all have something that might still give the Bulls fits; a talented big man.
Noah has blossomed into one of the best centers in the league for the Bulls over the past year, however it still remains to be seen if he has come far enough to consistently compete with the likes of Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and Dirk Nowitzki.
If he can, I have no doubt in my mind that they can not only consistently compete against, but beat all three of those teams.
So, back to the original query; how good are the Chicago Bulls? The answer is very – but they still have to prove it on the court, particularly out west.
Read more...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A Waning Interest
“Pitchers and catchers report.”
About four years ago, as far as I was concerned, those were the four greatest words in sports. They signaled the end to a cold, baseball-less winter and the beginning of another season of the best game on earth. As a baseball fan above all else, this Rogers Hornsby quote always had special meaning to me:
Spring training sucks for the first two weeks. Until teams actually start playing games, spring training is just God-awful boring unless you are actually there. Sure, it’s nice to start hearing some news about your favorite team again, but after a few years you’ve heard the “player X lost 20 lbs and will for-sure win the MVP and hit nine billion home runs this year” story as much as you can stand.
The first week or two of games suck, too. Unless there are a few big position battles or any talented young rookies/minor leaguers that have been invited to big league camp, the first week or two of games suck pretty badly. You get to see about two or three innings of starters playing at approximately 50 percent intensity before an endless string of substitutions.
Most games aren’t broadcast anyway. This one is pretty self explanatory, but most games aren’t broadcast and there’s not much you can glean about a position battle from a box score. Sure, if player A goes 0-for-4 and player B goes 3-for-4 you can take something from that; but it’s often more informative to actually watch. Or, at minimum, listen to.
I grew up. I mean that both literally and figuratively. When I was younger I had less going on in my life, so something as simple as players reporting to camp was a much bigger deal for me. Also, I grew up emotionally; I became more level-headed about my sports addiction. That’s not to say I’ve stopped yelling at the TV, thoroughly convinced that the people on the other side can hear me. I still do that often enough.
Rather, what I mean is I’ve been able to stop getting so sucked into the every-day. I don’t predict a World Series victory with every win and I don’t want to jump off the proverbial (or literal) cliff with every loss. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up, maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last three years in a job where I’ve had a much more intimate relationship with the game, or maybe I’m just a bad sports fan. Who knows.
All of that withstanding, though, it’s still nice to be a little bit closer to those warm summer days at the ballpark. And there’s absolutely nothing that sucks about that.
About four years ago, as far as I was concerned, those were the four greatest words in sports. They signaled the end to a cold, baseball-less winter and the beginning of another season of the best game on earth. As a baseball fan above all else, this Rogers Hornsby quote always had special meaning to me:
“People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”So when the long winter ended and baseball season finally began, it was always a huge deal to me. But these days, I find myself critically underwhelmed; and here’s why:
Spring training sucks for the first two weeks. Until teams actually start playing games, spring training is just God-awful boring unless you are actually there. Sure, it’s nice to start hearing some news about your favorite team again, but after a few years you’ve heard the “player X lost 20 lbs and will for-sure win the MVP and hit nine billion home runs this year” story as much as you can stand.
The first week or two of games suck, too. Unless there are a few big position battles or any talented young rookies/minor leaguers that have been invited to big league camp, the first week or two of games suck pretty badly. You get to see about two or three innings of starters playing at approximately 50 percent intensity before an endless string of substitutions.
Most games aren’t broadcast anyway. This one is pretty self explanatory, but most games aren’t broadcast and there’s not much you can glean about a position battle from a box score. Sure, if player A goes 0-for-4 and player B goes 3-for-4 you can take something from that; but it’s often more informative to actually watch. Or, at minimum, listen to.
I grew up. I mean that both literally and figuratively. When I was younger I had less going on in my life, so something as simple as players reporting to camp was a much bigger deal for me. Also, I grew up emotionally; I became more level-headed about my sports addiction. That’s not to say I’ve stopped yelling at the TV, thoroughly convinced that the people on the other side can hear me. I still do that often enough.
Rather, what I mean is I’ve been able to stop getting so sucked into the every-day. I don’t predict a World Series victory with every win and I don’t want to jump off the proverbial (or literal) cliff with every loss. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up, maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last three years in a job where I’ve had a much more intimate relationship with the game, or maybe I’m just a bad sports fan. Who knows.
All of that withstanding, though, it’s still nice to be a little bit closer to those warm summer days at the ballpark. And there’s absolutely nothing that sucks about that.
Read more...
Friday, February 11, 2011
Two Hypocritical Cents
There have been very few things in sports this year capable of making my blood boil quite like the response to Michael Vick’s return to super-stardom as a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles.
It wasn’t so much the commentators and analysts fawning over his spectacular level of play – that’s expected any time someone has a year like his with that kind of flash. More so, I’m aggravated by the continued hatred and vitriol showed to him that seems to be unique to his situation.
This week Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle added his two cents in an interview with MLB.com writer Scott Merkin. The interview was a harmless, positive piece about the charity work Buehrle and his wife, Jamie, have done for animals.
But then, Buehrle said something stupid:
Something bad DID happen; it’s called prison. On the list of bad things that I wouldn’t want to happen to me, I’d put spending 19 months in prison right near the top. The point is, he paid his debt to society and he doesn’t owe a damn thing to anyone.
And yet, in the most ironic part of this entire situation, since his release from prison Vick has been donating his time and money to charities with the same beliefs and goals as Buehrle.
He has gone above and beyond his sentence to continue doing community service by speaking to children about the evils of dog fighting. He even donated $1 million to help more than 60 dogs who were the victims of dog fighting.
For some reason, though, none of that matters. Don’t get me wrong; I love dogs. I have either owned or lived with someone who owned a dog for the majority of my life. I understand how awful dog fighting is.
But, Vick has done everything he possibly can to show that he’s a changed man. Next time Buehrle should just keep his comments to himself.
It wasn’t so much the commentators and analysts fawning over his spectacular level of play – that’s expected any time someone has a year like his with that kind of flash. More so, I’m aggravated by the continued hatred and vitriol showed to him that seems to be unique to his situation.
This week Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle added his two cents in an interview with MLB.com writer Scott Merkin. The interview was a harmless, positive piece about the charity work Buehrle and his wife, Jamie, have done for animals.
But then, Buehrle said something stupid:
He had a great year and a great comeback, but there were times where we watched the game and I know it's bad to say, but there were times where we hope he gets hurt. Everything you've done to these dogs, something bad needs to happen to these guys.There are so many things wrong with this statement, I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s just ignore for a moment the hypocrisy of the fact that he wished bodily harm on someone, while at the same time condemning that person for causing another creature bodily harm and focus on the “something bad needs to happen” part.
Something bad DID happen; it’s called prison. On the list of bad things that I wouldn’t want to happen to me, I’d put spending 19 months in prison right near the top. The point is, he paid his debt to society and he doesn’t owe a damn thing to anyone.
And yet, in the most ironic part of this entire situation, since his release from prison Vick has been donating his time and money to charities with the same beliefs and goals as Buehrle.
He has gone above and beyond his sentence to continue doing community service by speaking to children about the evils of dog fighting. He even donated $1 million to help more than 60 dogs who were the victims of dog fighting.
For some reason, though, none of that matters. Don’t get me wrong; I love dogs. I have either owned or lived with someone who owned a dog for the majority of my life. I understand how awful dog fighting is.
But, Vick has done everything he possibly can to show that he’s a changed man. Next time Buehrle should just keep his comments to himself.
Read more...
Monday, February 7, 2011
The NFL's Lucky Break
The NFL got lucky this year. Heading into Super Bowl XLV the league was facing a potential nightmare scenario; and it almost happened.
No, I’m not talking about Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem or the Black Eyed Peas attempting to perform their auto-tune-heavy songs without the aid of auto tune and, in the process, damaging the eardrums of all those within earshot; those two things actually happened.
The scenario the NFL avoided is one that was potentially far more damaging.
If not for Clay Matthews forcing a Rashard Mendenhall fumble that stalled a surging Steelers team early in the fourth quarter, the NFL might have been forced to crown Ben Roethlisberger as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in the same season that they suspended him four games for a second rape accusation.
Prior to that fumble, Green Bay was on its heels. They had lost Charles Woodson, one of their two biggest impact players on defense (Matthews being the other) to injury, and the Steelers looked to be on their way to one of the greatest Super Bowl comebacks in history.
And, just as in Super Bowl XLIII, Roethlisberger would have been at the driver’s seat of the comeback. A victory last night would have given him his third Super Bowl ring in six years, the two most recent of which being dramatic come-from-behind wins.
In a sports environment that, when judging greatness, values championship rings above all else, Roethlisberger would have been placed only one ring shy of Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, and right along side the NFL’s poster-boy Tom Brady.
The league would have been forced to enthusiastically sell Roethlisberger’s story as one of redemption, hoping that the memory of two rape accusations would be forgotten amongst the spectacle of the game; the great comeback, the awful halftime performance, and the commercials.
Hey, ESPN could just dig into their archives and replace the words “Michael Vick” and “dog fighting” with “Ben Roethlisberger” and “rape” on every story they ran during the 2010 season.
Even with all of that, though, I doubt the public would have bought it. Just look at how many people still can’t get over Vick’s dog fighting incident, a crime that most level-headed (read as: not PETA) Americans would consider far less heinous than those Roethlisberger was accused of.
Sure, official charges were never filed (I wonder what the rea$on for that wa$…), but that doesn’t mater. Just like the fact that Vick has gone above and beyond his sentence to do extra community service, speaking to kids about a topic I’m sure he would love to simply put behind him, doesn’t matter. Both Roethlisberger and Vick were found guilty in the court of public opinion. After you’re found guilty there, the real justice system is irrelevant.
But, luckily for the NFL, none of that happened. Mendenhall fumbled, the Packers won, and Roethlisberger slipped quietly off the field and out of the spotlight.
I think the NFL owes Matthews a fruit basket.
No, I’m not talking about Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem or the Black Eyed Peas attempting to perform their auto-tune-heavy songs without the aid of auto tune and, in the process, damaging the eardrums of all those within earshot; those two things actually happened.
The scenario the NFL avoided is one that was potentially far more damaging.
If not for Clay Matthews forcing a Rashard Mendenhall fumble that stalled a surging Steelers team early in the fourth quarter, the NFL might have been forced to crown Ben Roethlisberger as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in the same season that they suspended him four games for a second rape accusation.
Prior to that fumble, Green Bay was on its heels. They had lost Charles Woodson, one of their two biggest impact players on defense (Matthews being the other) to injury, and the Steelers looked to be on their way to one of the greatest Super Bowl comebacks in history.
And, just as in Super Bowl XLIII, Roethlisberger would have been at the driver’s seat of the comeback. A victory last night would have given him his third Super Bowl ring in six years, the two most recent of which being dramatic come-from-behind wins.
In a sports environment that, when judging greatness, values championship rings above all else, Roethlisberger would have been placed only one ring shy of Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, and right along side the NFL’s poster-boy Tom Brady.
The league would have been forced to enthusiastically sell Roethlisberger’s story as one of redemption, hoping that the memory of two rape accusations would be forgotten amongst the spectacle of the game; the great comeback, the awful halftime performance, and the commercials.
Hey, ESPN could just dig into their archives and replace the words “Michael Vick” and “dog fighting” with “Ben Roethlisberger” and “rape” on every story they ran during the 2010 season.
Even with all of that, though, I doubt the public would have bought it. Just look at how many people still can’t get over Vick’s dog fighting incident, a crime that most level-headed (read as: not PETA) Americans would consider far less heinous than those Roethlisberger was accused of.
Sure, official charges were never filed (I wonder what the rea$on for that wa$…), but that doesn’t mater. Just like the fact that Vick has gone above and beyond his sentence to do extra community service, speaking to kids about a topic I’m sure he would love to simply put behind him, doesn’t matter. Both Roethlisberger and Vick were found guilty in the court of public opinion. After you’re found guilty there, the real justice system is irrelevant.
But, luckily for the NFL, none of that happened. Mendenhall fumbled, the Packers won, and Roethlisberger slipped quietly off the field and out of the spotlight.
I think the NFL owes Matthews a fruit basket.
Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)