Jack’s Blog

Another year goes by and the worst team in the NBA does not get the #1 pick in the lottery.  How in the world can this occur year after year?

As a math teacher, I’ll let you in on the reason.  While the team with the worst record in the league has the greatest number of ping pong balls, it still has only a 25% chance of “winning.”  Which means that there is a 75% chance that one of the other teams’ ping pong balls comes up.

How, then, can the Washington Wizards, with only a 10% chance of hitting the jackpot, come up roses?  Listen carefully for the answer: BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TO WIN!  Sure, the Wizards beat the odds, but whatever team that won, including the New Jersey Nets, would have beaten the odds.  If someone asked you which group had a better chance of winning, the one with 25% of the ping pong balls or the one with 75%, which would you choose?  Well, that’s who won - and will usually win.  Three out of four times, anyway.

People claimed there was hanky-panky when the Knicks, a franchise the league desperately needed at that time (and it doesn’t now?) to be successful won the lottery and got the rights to Patrick Ewing.  Then we were supposed to believe that it was a coincidence that the Cleveland Cavaliers just happened to win the lottery the year that Akron’s LeBron James was the prize? 

Was the fix on for this year’s NBA lottery?  The late Abe Pollin, the long-time Washington Bullets/Wizards owner (and one of the true gentlemen in the NBA), died earlier this season.  With all the problems that franchise has encountered - all of its own (players) making - doesn’t it make for a nice story that the Wiz caught a break and his widow could be there to celebrate winning the (apparent) John Wall sweepstakes? 

Maybe, but if you are one to subscribe to conspiracy theories, I can’t say I know you’re mistaken, but if you ask me how, over and over, the team with the greatest number of chances to win doesn’t, my answer is:

“Do the math.”�

Gilbert Arenas pulled a gun on a teammate, says he’s taking responsibility for his actions (must have been after an exhaustive search to try to find somebody else who would or could assume that responsibility came up empty) and calls himself a goofball. 

In July of ‘08, the owner of the Washington Wizards, Abe Pollin, who died this past November 25, offered a maximum contract to Arenas.  Arenas actually took less than the maximum.  $16 million less.  He did so because it would enable the team to have extra money to sign quality players who would surround him, Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler and give the Wizards an opportunity to win a championship.  So he settled for only $111 million over 6 years - which averages to over $50,000 per day! 

Too bad the extra $16M couldn’t have bought character, common sense or proper decision-making skills.  Those, unfortunately, aren’t for sale.  Neither are championships.  It could be because of the internet (after all, years ago, someone like me couldn’t reach basically everyone in the world to let them know my feelings about this; an invention to force to read what I have to say hasn’t been invented yet - thankfully), but it seems like our athletes have a much greater sense of entitlement in today’s sports world.

This has to come from several different sources since I sincerely doubt people are born that way.  The list of culprits are numerous: parents (and relatives) of the athletes, their coaches, trainers and “mentors,” fans (every level on which they play) and, ultimately, those who control the purse strings or amke the monetary decisions (GM’s, VP’s, presidents, owners). 

A separate category has to be reserved for agents, people whose very livelihood depends on a very small percentage how much they can wrestle away from an organization (or sponsor).  How many critical comments do you think athletes hear from their agents?

This sense of entitlement has grown to epic (epidemic?) proportions.  Whether the indiscretions deal with harmful areas to others (infidelity, lying, failing to act in a professional manner) or illegal acts (DUIs, drugs, PEDS, unlawful possession of firearms), shouldn’t something be done to increase awareness in these people?  Or does Agent 0 stand for the amount of common sense he possess?  It’s easy to criticize others, but the level of frustration is mounting higher and higher. 

What’s this country coming to?  I know upper middle class people who live from paycheck to paycheck, folks who’ve lost their homes and were forced to file for bankruptcy, decent people who are out of jobs or in debt over their eyeballs.  Yet we see multi-million dollar purses for athletic events and those in team sports receiving $57 million for three years of work (whether they’re healthy or not).  Granted, these are a group of highly skilled performers in their field, but I still ask, “Where is the money to pay these people coming from?”  Although I’m not in favor of socialism, what we currently have doesn’t seem to working so well.

Especially when self-proclaimed goofballs are pulling down better than $50K/day.  Wonder what Arenas would think if he was reminded of what Abe Pollin said to him when he made that contract offer (taken from Ivan Carter’s 7/4/08 Washington Post article): 

“You’re the face of the Wizards. When you’re out of the country walking down the street, I know that I have a fine young man representing me, this organization and the city of Washington to the fullest.”