After getting dinged with his 17th technical foul, DeMarcus Cousins stated, "It's obvious I can't be myself. Me playing how I play is what makes me the player that I am Obviously it's not acceptable, so I'm trying to find a way to, you know, do what these guys are asking me to do. . . "
So, how would the officials like for you to play, DeMarcus? How about not questioning them on every call. How about not waving your arms in disgust and embarrassing them. How about not smacking an opponent in the face (okay, last night's face slap was inadvertent, but the refs called it anyway).
Bottom line: how about not leading the league in technical fouls very year.
This is NOT about the officials. It is about you and your inability to control your emotions. You have an anger management problem. You will always have one, if you don't do something mature about it now when you're young. Otherwise, that anger will surface in other areas of your life. Ask any psychologist.
Finally, Grow Up.
Talk about anger management, I read that the N.Y. Knicks pulled off a PR coup. After the bad press of the Oakley/Dolan feud, the team allowed Latrelle Sprewell back into MSG from which he'd been banned for bad-mouthing the owner back in 2003. Sat right next to Dolan, smiling and waving to fans. This is the same one-time Warrior Sprewell who choked his Warrior coach. Got the "red-carpet" treatment. Kudos to the PR guys who thought that baby up.
At least Cousins hasn't choked a referee, But I'd worry if I were them.
One of the greatest moments in basketball history will be played out tonight when the Connecticut Lady Huskies go for their one hundredth straight victory. Did you get that sportswriters, ONE HUNDRED WINS WITHOUT A LOSS. Such scant attention is being paid to this seemingly impossible feat that one would believe 100 straight wins happens every day. This is HUGE. This is like Wilt's 100 point game. Can it possibly be that the Lady Huskies are getting the public relations snub because they are women? Could that be true in 2017? Yeah, I guess, since we elected a President who felt it was okay to grope women.
I can hear all the conservatives moaning, come on, Meschery, you can't blame Trump for everything. Oh, yes I can. When the President of our country treats women the way he has, ("I grope women because I can get away with it because I'm a star," B.S) you bet I can. A pronouncement of this kind has fall-out. And one of the fall-outs is it validates and perpetuates misogyny.
As a country and as sports fans, we better get our butts in gear. Women's sports need to be covered better. Why not begin with this historic moment in sport's history. How about the front page of the sport's section tomorrow, win or lose, a full column?
Talk about Spring Training. Baseball season's approaching. Here's a baseball poem for all you diminishing baseball fans.
Baseball by Linda Pastan
When you tried to tell me
baseball was a metaphor
for life: the long, dusty travail
around the bases, for instance,
to try to go home again;
the Sacrifice for which you win
approval but not applause;
the way the light closed down
in the last days of the season -
I didn't believe you.
It's just a way of passing
the time, I said.
And you said; that's it.
Yes.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Loyalty in Sports? Really?
Where do sports fans get the idea about loyalty? There has never been, let me repeat, never been loyalty in sports. Not between owners and players, owners and their host cities, players and their owners, players and their teammates, and players and the cities they play for.
Owners have always moved their teams for the sake of the bottom line. (the facts are there on the Internet) Players, once they got their legal rights, jumped from one team to another at the siren call of more bucks. Back in 1972 when I was coaching the Carolina Cougars in the ABA, the Seattle Sonics signed away my star center, Jim McDaniels in mid season. The Sonics felt no disloyalty stealing from me, one of their ex-players who'd broken his butt for them, and McDaniels felt no remorse leaving behind his teammates, trying to make a playoff run. Personal example. There are hundreds more.
So here we are, 2016, watching OKC fans go ballistic over Kenin Durant leaving a team he played his heart out for, for eight seasons, and I mean his heart out for. I've witnessed very few players that played with such passion, intelligence, and grit as KD. during his tenure with the Thunder. One might ask Thunder fans, quoting Shakespeare, "Have you no eyes to see?" KD. is a big-time-pro! And those soft ice cream signs, where did they come from? Those were made by OKC management and approved by management and ownership. Can there be any doubt of that? KD made the owner, a lot of money. How did he express his loyalty? Like a bush-leaguer.
Speaking of loyalty (and ethical behavior) I wonder if the owner of the Thunder felt any remorse, moving the Sonics from Seattle (which he said he'd never do when he bought the team) to Oklahoma City, his home town? No way.
All that should matter to fans and ownership is what an athlete does for his city, his team, and his ownership on the court in whatever time span it happens. Based on what he did for the Thunder, the fans, administration, and ownership should have given KD a standing ovation.
So, KD, welcome to the Bay Area where fans have class. You play your heart out for the Warriors, and I guarantee the fans will give you a standing ovation no matter how long you play for us, one year or ten years.
On another subject:
Let's hear it for Steph Curry who sees Donald Trump for what he is an, Ass, not an asset. It is time for liberals to stop being so nice. We need to be on the Conservatives like Draymond Green is on his opponents.
Another poem honoring a black athlete in Black History Month.
On Hurricane Jackson by Alan Dugan
Now his nose's bridge is broken, one eye
will not focus and the other is astray;
trainers whisper in his mouth while one ear
listens to itself, clenched like a fist;
generally shadow-boxing in a smoky room,
his mind hides like the aching boys
who lost a contest in the Pan-Hellenic games
and had to take the back roads home
but someone else, his perfect youth,
laureled in newsprint and dollar bill,
triumphs forever on the great white way
to the statistical Sparta of the Champs.
Owners have always moved their teams for the sake of the bottom line. (the facts are there on the Internet) Players, once they got their legal rights, jumped from one team to another at the siren call of more bucks. Back in 1972 when I was coaching the Carolina Cougars in the ABA, the Seattle Sonics signed away my star center, Jim McDaniels in mid season. The Sonics felt no disloyalty stealing from me, one of their ex-players who'd broken his butt for them, and McDaniels felt no remorse leaving behind his teammates, trying to make a playoff run. Personal example. There are hundreds more.
So here we are, 2016, watching OKC fans go ballistic over Kenin Durant leaving a team he played his heart out for, for eight seasons, and I mean his heart out for. I've witnessed very few players that played with such passion, intelligence, and grit as KD. during his tenure with the Thunder. One might ask Thunder fans, quoting Shakespeare, "Have you no eyes to see?" KD. is a big-time-pro! And those soft ice cream signs, where did they come from? Those were made by OKC management and approved by management and ownership. Can there be any doubt of that? KD made the owner, a lot of money. How did he express his loyalty? Like a bush-leaguer.
Speaking of loyalty (and ethical behavior) I wonder if the owner of the Thunder felt any remorse, moving the Sonics from Seattle (which he said he'd never do when he bought the team) to Oklahoma City, his home town? No way.
All that should matter to fans and ownership is what an athlete does for his city, his team, and his ownership on the court in whatever time span it happens. Based on what he did for the Thunder, the fans, administration, and ownership should have given KD a standing ovation.
So, KD, welcome to the Bay Area where fans have class. You play your heart out for the Warriors, and I guarantee the fans will give you a standing ovation no matter how long you play for us, one year or ten years.
On another subject:
Let's hear it for Steph Curry who sees Donald Trump for what he is an, Ass, not an asset. It is time for liberals to stop being so nice. We need to be on the Conservatives like Draymond Green is on his opponents.
Another poem honoring a black athlete in Black History Month.
On Hurricane Jackson by Alan Dugan
Now his nose's bridge is broken, one eye
will not focus and the other is astray;
trainers whisper in his mouth while one ear
listens to itself, clenched like a fist;
generally shadow-boxing in a smoky room,
his mind hides like the aching boys
who lost a contest in the Pan-Hellenic games
and had to take the back roads home
but someone else, his perfect youth,
laureled in newsprint and dollar bill,
triumphs forever on the great white way
to the statistical Sparta of the Champs.
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