Jack’s Blog

It’s vacation time!  This will be my last blog until Tuesday, May 14.  Look forward to returning with more stories to entertain and inspire.

Whatever anyone says about Jerry Tarkanian, no one refutes he was the master of getting guys to play hard.  The one type of guy who Tark couldn’t stand to have on his team, whom he knew that if he played, sooner or later, they were going to lose.  He called that kind of player a “Cool Guy.”  I haven’t talked to him yet about the Chicago Bulls but I imagine he was totally impressed.  Not because they won in Game 7 but because . . . they don’t have any cool guys.

One coach Tark has always been unbelievably impressed with is Tom Thibodeau.  Tibbs doesn’t like cool guys either.  He took a Chicago Bulls team without Kirk Heinrich, Luol Deng and, of course, Derrick Rose, a former MVP whose services he hasn’t had all year, into Brooklyn’s brand new digs and came out a winner.  He took a franchise which has had incredible success - but had never, NEVER, won a game 7 on the road.  Yet they did it.  Why?

Thibodeau has been telling us all along:

“We have enough.”

Yesterday, both Boston and the Lakers were down 0-3.  It was apparent that neither was going to win its series.  Yet the Celtics won Game 4 in Boston, knowing that all they have to look forward to is the Knicks’ inevitable series-clincher in New York.   Meanwhile, the Lakers lost to San Antonio in LA.  Can we conclude anything from these two performances?  Even though, without Rondo, the Celtics had almost no chance of advancing, they were well aware they didn’t dare let their long-time, ticket-buying fans down in an elimination game.  Apparently, the Lakers’ relationship with their fans isn’t quite as intimate as that of the Celts.

On TNT’s pregame show, Kenny Smith even exclaimed that he’d heard Jack Nicholson gave his tickets to his cousin.  Which, of course, was absurd.  Because Jack has a relationship with the Lakers that’s stronger than a series sweep (against - he’s witnessed the flip side), even if it’s his favorite team getting blown out twice in a row.  He remembers the past - and looks forward to the future.  Whatever (and whomever) it brings.

For the record: how many people who were criticizing the way Mike D’Antoni coached yesterday’s game would have wanted to switch places with him?  And for those foolish enough to say yes, do you really think the outcome would have been any different because of your brilliant bench manuevering?  If you do, there are talk show hosts and hundreds of callers waiting to abuse you on the Subway fresh take hot lines, #1-25.

Truthfully, Boston had a shot at winning yesterday and the Lakers didn’t.  For that game, they’d lost their their starting small forward and top four guards - one of whom happens to be one the top three players in the game.  They were so decimated with injuries, nothing could have been done against the Spurs.  Nothing.

Whether or not that is true for the entire season will remain a mystery.  The saddest part of the entire year is the truth behind Charles Barkley’s statement regarding the Lakers’ pitiful performance in Game 3:

“It’s not too many times you can take the Lakers +30 - and lose.”

Fan is short for fanatic.  It’s just that a fanatic gets fanatical about his or her team when the team is down as well as when it’s winning.  And that fanaticism can take on the form of sarcasm, negativity and disgust if losing persists - even if injuries turn a slim chance into a nonexistent one.  In the case of the Los Angeles Lakers, their fans should have their “fan licenses” revoked after the way they acted toward their team - or what was left of it - the past few games.

If any Lakers fan is asked to name the greatest player in the NBA, every last one of them will (still) yell, “Kobe!“  So, when your team loses its best player - who happens to be the best player in the NBA (according to you) - wouldn’t you think it would be normal (even for fanatics) - to tone down their expectations?  At least a little?  One of them was heard (on the air in Fresno) answering that question by exclaiming, “Maybe, but this is the Lakers.“  Meaning what?  That there’s a proclamation issued that your team is bequeathed wins?

First of all, before they lost Bryant, the Lakers were a seven seed matched up against the two seed.  The two seed that just happened to be the San Antonio Spurs, a team that’s used to post season pressure, having won its share of championships in the past, and a team that has a coach in Gregg Popovich who many think is the best in the business.  In addition to having the great Kobe MIA for the remainder of the year, Los Angeles had Steve Nash as its point guard.  He would have been the perfect lead guard had he not gotten hurt.  Some fans felt that it was a mistake to obtain Nash because it was inevitable he was going to get hurt - with his age and history of injuries.  Nevertheless, these fans still expected Nash to lead the team to a World Championship.  But, alas, Nash got hurt and wasn’t available last night.

Steve Blake is, ideally, the back up to Nash, so with Nash out, Lakers fans felt he was certainly capable to lead the team.  Then, he pulled his hamstring - and now he’s out indefinitely.  Jodie Meeks, a nice complementary player was next, but he sprained his ankle and is headed for an MRI.  Is there someone out there with a Los Angeles Lakers voodoo doll?  I guarantee if there was such a thing, they’d sell out in a hurry.

Still and all, Laker fans went into Game 3 with hope that, maybe the home crowd could pull them through.  Of course, if that were to happen, it would have to wait until at least midway through the second quarter because that’s when it’s fashionable to show up in LA.  You know, like, with the traffic and all.

When the game began, the Lakers got a few points from their big guys - Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard.  The fans, which include their announcers, actually thought, even though the game is 48 minutes, that they’d have a shot.  “Get it inside!” they yelled, because it is somewhat unrealistic to depend on a second year player and a guy just called up from the D-League to knock down enough shots to win.  And, because that’s what Kobe tweeted.  As if the Spurs didn’t consider it would be a good idea for the Lakers to try to score that way and had not game planned for it.

That’s when the cynicism begins.  All because the fan’s team is losing.  And they don’t want to be a loser.  A number of them are losers in what they do.  The Lakers give them meaning - and they think - respect.  Hey, they don’t need any more help being a loser.  While fanatic has the word “fan” in it, so does infantile.  Winston Churchill said a long time ago:

“A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

After an 82 games (not including those always exciting preseason tilts), the NBA moves into the “games that really count” portion of the schedule.  The first round used to be best-of-five but they were changed to best-of-seven for two (really one) reason(s).  The first was that best-of-seven add more games (even though it may only be one game per match up) and more games mean more money.  The other (as in redundant) reason is that, on occasion, the lower seed would win - which usually translated into fewer games - meaning less money.  And, as we’ve all come to know, if there’s one thing owners desperately care about it’s the health and well-being of the players money.

Way back when I was a youngster (as in 50 or so years ago), we knew what season it was by what professional sport was playing its games.  Baseball’s guys were called “the men of summer.”  Football was played when the leaves were turning colors, i.e. fall.  Basketball was indoors because it was in the winter.  Spring was for baseball’s spring training unless you lived in the south (or Texas or Oklahoma), in which case it was reserved for college’s spring football.

All the best bowl games were New Year’s Day and a week or so later the championship game in pro football, which became known as the Super Bowl, was played.  Now, the Super Bowl is in February (which only has 28 days so it could be in jeopardy of losing its showpiece television program).  The World Series has ended in November which means the new baseball fan will wonder if Reggie Jackson is known as Mr. October because he couldn’t deliver in the biggest games.  And while it used to be that basketball’s end meant baseball was about to begin, the NBA Finals may have to be scheduled around the major league all-star game.

Since it’s finally here, let the youngsters make believe they’re hitting the game-winner while we reflect on having done the same in our youth.  Beyond the memories, let’s just sit back and watch the world’s greatest athletes perform acts that would be difficult for viewers a foot shorter or a light year slower.  Basketball has become a combination of ballet and MMA in which there needs to be a strong emphasis of teamwork.  I’m not sure Dr. Naismith would be proud or utterly confused.

While NBA players are usually the most confident bunch in the world (next to boxers), this year (at least so far) there haven’t been too many outlandish quotes.  I saw one attributed to the Grizzlies’ Tony Allen which, undoubtedly, will be repeated thousands of times by countless others:

“We just want to take it one game at a time.”

Granted, these are the dog days of the NBA.  There are a few teams that might already be, dare I say, “positioning themselves” for the draft?  Others know there is more ball to be played (and bonus money to be made) once the season ends.  Except for a select few, e.g. the Lakers, many are more concerned with keeping their key guys healthy than trying to influence the postseason match ups.

Enter the Harlem Globetrotters Miami Heat.  The Heat won it all last year (one year too late, some say).  One of the concerns last season was whether the team had a reliable three point shooter to kick it out to after penetration.  So they got . . . the greatest three point marksman of all-time, Ray Allen.  He joined LeBron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh and (most of) the remainder of the team that won it all.  Was that fair?  There’s nothing fair about building a team in the NBA - the better the executives, the more understanding the owner is that money must be spent wisely (but, make no mistake about it, it must be spent), the slicker the people running the organization, the more likely the team will plug the gaps that are holding it back from being mentioned as a club that can compete for a championship - on a nightly basis.

The Miami Heat knew they were going to - as coaches are fond of saying - get everyone’s best shot.  Winning as much as they did during the first part of the year wasn’t surprising.  The “Big Three” had shed whatever it was that could have been on their collective backs their initial season (their first together) and they seemed to be playing looser.  A similar feeling for their coaching staff.

As the season progressed, injuries hit team after team and, as the post-All Star game part of the schedule moved on, the Heat kept adding win after win.  Now, the “streak” became the topic of conversation.  With the NCAA’s March Madness fever grabbing nearly every sports fan, college basketball owns this time of the year.  Spring training has begun, football and its trading deadline occupies some space and the Blackhawks gave hockey enthusiasts something to talk about post-lockout.

Meanwhile, Miami (the pro hoops team, not the college one) almost bored people with its dismantling of opponents - the “contendas” as well as those who show up because league rules dictate they must.  OK, so what about their bitter rival, aka the (aging, but) capable Boston Celtics?  The arena will always be rockin’ when the Heat show up regardless of the circumstances.  Except that there would be no Rajon Rondo (even though the W-L results have yet to be affected by the little dynamo’s absence) and no KG.  What Kevin Garnett gives the Celts, beyond points and rebounds, is a nastiness seldom seen in any sport.  Or pretty much in any walk of life.  You’ve heard how people say, “If I were in a war, the guy I’d like to have in my foxhole is Kevin Garnett?”  Even pacifists feel that way about KG.

So when it was announced that Garnett wouldn’t be available, green flags were about to be flown at half staff.  Only this is Boston, damn it!  Beantowners don’t surrender to anybody!  Somebody would come through with a wicked good game.  This time that somebody was Jeff Green who had a personal high (as well as a high for most NBA players) of 43.  The Men in Green were often up double digits and led for the entire game.  Or so it seemed.  Until LeBron hit the game winner after the Heat finally tied it.

Had the Heat been toying with them?  To many it might now seem so after watching that game last night, the Heat’s 23rd victory in a row.  A person I was with suggested Miami actually would like to see the streak end so they could simply worry about just winning the playoffs.  The pressure of back-to-back will be enough of a burden.  A winning streak would only be an albatross for the last season’s champs.

Some may wonder if the late, and fiercely competitive, owner of the Raiders, Al Davis, wouldn’t back off (between now and the end of the regular season) his famous saying:

“Just win, baby!”

March Madness has always meant upsets.  Fans love upsets - even when they blow up their brackets.  What usually happens is that the biggest upsets occur in the first or second round.  However, the past few years have seen “mid-majors” play in the Final Four!  This year we may not be so startled - for a different reason.

This season, unlike all the others, most people who follow the sport closely, feel the national champion may be one of as many as 15-20 teams.  In the past, parity be damned, the team cutting down the nets was almost always a top ten preseason squad.  The tournament was exciting, with upsets and near upsets, but the eventual champion always came from a so-called “power” conference, i.e. a school with basketball tradition.  Until 2010.  Almost.

Butler made a magical run and, all of a sudden, the nation was watching them play for all the marbles - against the standard bearer for the power schools - Duke.  Naturally, the game was held in the the Bulldogs hometown.  No one was sure what the actual split was as far as percentage of fans who were rooting for David vs. those who were pulling for the big fella but the game was scripted exactly as the tournament had been up to that point.

Everyone who said that, ‘Sure there are upsets along the way” (like, every year) “but one of the big money, perennial basketball studs with great bloodlines  always prevails in the end,” had to hold their collective breaths - as the Bulldogs’ Gordon Hayward took the final shot - a heave from deeeeeep.  If someone happened to be watching their first college basketball game ever that night, by the time Hayward let that shot go, they understood the significance of whether that that ball went through the hoop or not.  So, while the ball was in flight, it really seemed like time stood still - with everyone (im)patiently waiting for the outcome.  To make it even more suspenseful, the ball banked off the backboard and hit the rim - but, alas, missed - narrowly avoiding what would have rewritten the history books on college basketball and Final Fours.

This year we may not be afforded a major surprise because so many teams have a legitimate opportunity to call themselves #1.

But I think I’ll watch it anyway.

The halftime show at the Super Bowl was awesome.  Then there was a 34-minute power outage, caused by nothing we know for sure but (eventually) fixed by unknown people.  Near the end of the game, there was a running play in which the ball was incorrectly placed, a missed field goal that was re-kicked because the kicker was run into (really?), a QB who ran out-of-bounds and was hit after he got there (with no call) and a receiver who was held as he tried to run his route (which would have possibly allowed him to make the winning TD catch).  Of those plays, only one was overturned - the wrong spot on the running play.  The correct spot of the ball changed what would have been a Ravens’ first down to a fourth down.  Of course, that play was the only one that was allowed to be reversed.

Years ago, all of the plays would have stood as called.  None would have been reviewed.  New rules, however, let a coach “challenge” a referee’s call in certain situations.  Should the coach lose his challenge, i.e. if he’s wrong, his team is charged with a time out, but if the replay shows he’s right - with conclusive video evidence - then the proper call is made, no TO is charged and the game continues.

In the Super Bowl each of the aforementioned plays could (should) have been reversed just like the incorrect ball spot actually was.  And there were many other controversial calls throughout the game.  It seems as though no matter what changes are made to get the calls right, humans will still be involved in calling them, reviewing them or correcting them.

If the game were called without an error, what would we have to complain about - besides the coaches and players?  If your team loses the Super Bowl - or hasn’t gotten in it for decades, consider the following line as your mantra:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  If you continue to lose, . . . maybe failure’s your thing!”

Sure, the NBA has a great rivalry in the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers but that only occurs when they meet in the NBA Finals.  OK, a regular season game between the two is exciting but everyone knows it’s nothing more than a preliminary to the real games, i.e. if they play in the finals.

If other good teams play each other, there is a modicum of interest, e.g. Miami vs. any of the top clubs but that’s due more to the players than the teams.  Well, the NBA has a true rivalry now and it doesn’t matter who’s playing for which squad.  The New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets.  For those people who aren’t from that area, New York City is composed of five boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.  Ask residents of each and they’ll tell you they’re from New York (as in New York City).  All except the guys from Brooklyn.  They’ll say they’re from Brooklyn.  Kenny “The Jet” Smith (a native of Queens) acknowledged as much last night on TNT’s studio show.

Another former Tarheel point guard, Raymond Felton said he felt the Knicks-Nets rivalry could become like UNC-Duke.  He said the Nets talk “a lot of blather.”  This type of comment is not heard from anybody about any other team until the playoffs - and when it’s said then, it just seems to be a rallying cry to somehow squeeze out a victory.  The Nets and the Knicks make it personal because living in NYC (Brooklyn or elsewhere) hardens guys.  Or crushes them.

There are other states in which there are multiple teams but while Houston, San Antonio and Dallas all have winning franchises, Texas will always be a football state.  Florida has a clubs in Orlando and Miami, both with very good teams for years (save last year’s debacle in DisneyWorld), but Florida is a place you visit.  Although people are now from Florida, their parents (definitely grandparents) are from somewhere else.  That’s a similar situation to California, the only state that is home for four pro basketball franchises (only because Kevin Johnson governs with the same never-say-die attitude that he played with).  The Kings, and for that matter, the Warriors, haven’t been good enough to warrant a rivalry with anyone.  Those guys are struggling for survival, hoping to snatch a playoff spot (and exit after round one).

LA has two very good teams but the overall atmosphere is too laid back.  Besides, the Lakers have been king for so long and Clips have been bad for so long that the Clippers resurgence is just now being recognized.  As a matter of fact, the Lakers had better recognize it real quick or they’ll lose the tie breaker (which may or may not be significant) since they already dropped one to the Clips earlier in the season.  Right there is the difference between NY and LA.  In New York, if one team beat the other, fans of both would know it.

In New York, things are different.  People from New York are . . . from New York.  Their parents and grandparents too.  Maybe their great- or great-great-grandparents weren’t from New York.  If not, they were from Europe.  NY fans show before the tipoff, not LA style, are loud knowledgeable, intense, sarcastic and obnoxious.  Basketball is not just a game - it’s something that’s taken much more seriously.  It’s one of the items discussed at every bar, restaurant, barber shop (not hair styling salon) and dinner tables.  Depending on the time of year, maybe the only one.

What about college ball, you ask?  That is supposed to be a religion in New York.  It is.  So is high school.  The basketball is what’s worshiped.

Someone very close to me said there would only be one other NBA rivalry fans would love to see as much as the Knicks and the Nets:

“It would be the Washington Wizards  . . . but only if the Harlem Globetrotters had a franchise.”  

The headline sounds like a Chicken Little warning but football is at such a crossroads now.  The only way it can be saved is with drastic changes, the kind that would make it unrecognizable to someone who enjoyed it in the 1960s but hadn’t seen a game since.  It’s doubtful there is such a creature so the experiment is moot but when you combine the new player safety rules (without which football would probably spend more time in the courtroom than on the playing field) and the increased strength, speed and overall ability of today’s player, one of them is going to lose out.  Between the two, the latter will be overwhelmingly outvoted by the former - unless the only voters were the people who used to watch the gladiators.  The game will be as popular as ever; it just won’t be the same.

Ed Reed, defensive back for the Baltimore Ravens, was called for his third violation of player safety rules in the past three years, i.e. hits to the neck and head area of a defenseless player.  According to the commissioner’s office, his actions will earn him one game suspension which, at his salary, would be in the range of $420,000.  That’s an expensive lesson although I imagine that’s why the rules are structured the way they are.  It’s easy to understand - unless you’re Ed Reed, in which case you’d be really pissed.

Although Reed has a history of being a, for lack of a better term, “hit man,” in this case the punishment seems quite a bit harsher that the crime after viewing the three infractions.  The first was a roughing the passer (vs. the Saints’ Drew Brees), yet Reed would probably tell you he whacked many a QB harder than he did on that day.  Brees would undoubtedly agree he’d been hut harder.  The second was a hit on a defenseless receiver (vs. the Patriots’ Deion Branch) and is, by far, the worst of the three.  The final one, the one that put him over the top, was also a helmet to helmet collision with Pittsburgh’s Emmanuel Sanders but “hit” would describe the contact better.  He didn’t look to be headhunting as didn’t accelerate through the tackle.

The scientific part of sports, in relation to the human body, has grown exponentially - in both legal and illegal ways.  Players are just bigger, stronger and faster than ever before in the game’s history.  Coaches are smarter.  The game has evolved from men leaving their jobs, driving to the field, changing clothes and “having at it,” into a true profession - especially for the coaches.  In the earlier days of football (from the no facemask days until the ’80s), offensive didn’t have elaborate “schemes” to deal with.  Offensively, the coaches have implemented “packages” for specialists.  It’s genius until the next generation comes along and takes the game a level higher.

But, if a football player is going to be fined nearly a half a million dollars for three hits like the ones delivered by Ed Reed, either football will drastically tone down or Roger Goodell and his minions will pull back on their safety issues.  All but the Neanderthals are on the safety side.  Personally, I’ve suffered through ten back surgeries.  When I went to see the doctor for my first one, a ruptured disk at C5-6, the first question he asked me was if I’d ever been in a car accident.  When I said no, he asked me if I had ever played football.  That was in 1987.  Now, some of the hits in football are like car accidents.

When I saw the kid from UCLA hit Matt Barkley, who had no idea he was coming, my body actually tingled.  Then, they kept showing the replay and when I saw his neck snap, I had to turn away.  Many years ago, I recall a study being done that showed in an average NFL game, there are only nine minutes of actual action.  I mentioned that to a football coach on the staff at our university and he told me:

“There might only be nine minutes of action, but it’s nine minutes of violent collisions.”

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/nfl/11/19/ed-reed-suspended.ap/index.html#ixzz2CkNspgfV

hits to the head and neck area of defenseless players.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/nfl/11/19/ed-reed-suspended.ap/index.html#ixzz2CkNspgfV

hits to the head and neck area of defenseless players.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/nfl/11/19/ed-reed-suspended.ap/index.html#ixzz2CkNspgfV

If everything remained as it was, we’d still be living in caves.  Progress has always been America’s keyword.  But, as the saying goes, “While there is no progress without change, not all change is progress.“  That means that when some changes are implemented, a number of them might turn out negatively.  It’s just how it works.

There are people in society who have tremendous influence over the rest of the folks out there, especially the youth.  There’s a major difference here.  Unless someone is completely magnanimous and can’t wait to get to the soup kitchen or shelter to assist others who have less, money and fame drive the vast majority of decisions made in this country.  One of the areas that most disturbs me is how much money athletes are paid. Another is how they act - in the name of getting more money.

I’m by no means a prude and realize “the good ol’ days” will never return.  On that we ought to be grateful.  Dig deep enough and you find they weren’t that good in the first place.  However, there are still many who cling to tradition.  Understandably so - it’s difficult to give up what your dad and/or your coaches taught you.  In many instances, they were the greatest role models you had/have and letting go of those life lessons hurts too much not to let people know.  By venting. 

Unfortunately, the main message these days is that sports is entertainment.  True - but when the entertainment part gets in the way of how you understand the game was meant to be played, that’s going over the top.   Yesterday, I saw a receiver catch a touchdown pass, do a little dance, flex and throw out his arms to the crowd as if he was embracing them.  His team was playing a road game and - they were behind!  We’re told it doesn’t matter.  He’s merely expressing himself, trying to find a celebration that people back home are going to like enough, so he can use it as a trademark.  Trademark celebrations lead to endorsements.  What doesn’t lead to player endorsements is winning.  That used to be enough; now it’s just a part of a player’s package.  I saw where Phil Rizzuto, the “Scooter,” once said:  

“I’m glad I don’t play anymore.  I couldn’t learn all the handshakes.”