2021 MVP and etc

 Got my comeuppance for a mistake on my last blog, misusing the term begging the question when I should have written raising the question. I taught rhetoric for years and should have known better. No excuse for sloppy writing. Thanks Mike C. 

Read in The Athletic this morning Draymond Green's reasons why Steph Curry should be MVP this 2021 NBA season. I am in complete agreement with Draymond. Both of us acknowledge that Nikola Jokic is deserving and worthy, but what Curry has done this year translates beyond basketball. 

On the basketball end of things, both men in my mind are tied over the importance to their teams. Warriors and Nuggets would collapse without their stars. Individual performances are about different strokes, each player excelling in their special ways, Curry's magical threes and dribble drives and sheer ballhandling magic; Jokic with his improbable over-the-head threes that arc into the sky before dropping, moistened by rain clouds, into the net, and his bruising muscle shots in the paint, and deft passing to cutters from the high post. The only difference between the two seems to be team standings, the Nuggets in the thick of battle for the Western Conference title, while the Warriors remain a wild longshot to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. However, let's not forget the Warriors making it into the 8th spot in the Play In round was unlikely and would never have happened without the brilliance of Step Curry. 

Let us consider another factor that the NBA should consider this year to determine the MVP and that is value to the league and to all of the NBA's fans in a year when fans and non fans of sports needed desperately to be cheered up. Steph Curry's magical year did just that. 

Assuming that Jokic and Curry are the two most logical choices for MVP this year, ask yourself which of the two provided you with more viewing pleasure and excitement. Curry hands down. We may be awed by what Jokic can do as a big, but we experience pure pleasure watching Steph Curry darting around opponents and sinking amazing long threes and doing his little dance afterwards, smiling that smile that makes all mothers see him as their fantasy son-in-law. 

One might argue I'm not talking sports but public relations. Well, maybe it is -  the relationship of the public to the player. In this case, this year, the public needs to be taken into consideration. 

All things are not equal. The NBA needs to be wise this season. What Curry had accomplished goes beyond basketball and arguably beyond sports. He has given us joy in the midst of national crises. He should be honored for it. This is the year when the NBA must select co-MVPs. It is the only thing that makes sense. 

Another of my little quatrains to close.

Ezra Pound   by Tom Meschery

Lo, down the track cometh the sprinter
Aye, it is with great exertion he finishes
Leaning into the tape
Does he not appear effortless?

Shame on sportswriter Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union Tribune

 Nick Canepa's fantasy ownership of an NFL team fell as flat as his over used cliche about inmates running the asylum. He was talking about Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers being upset that he wasn't consulted about the draft pick, which brought rookie QB Jordan Love, "QB in waiting" to the team last season Rodger's beef was that the team had a greater need to strengthen other positions. (The playoffs proved Aaron was right.) Canepa's point was, and I assume still is, that a player or players should have no say in coaching and GM decisions, which reminds me of the old TV series title Father Knows Best, Balderdash! 

Sounds a lot like the conservative pun-drips of Fox News telling LeBron James to shut up and stick to dribbling. How arrogant, they claim, of professional athletes that they have opinions and a platform from which to speak How dare they? Well, this isn't news. I get it. There are people in sports who still hearken back to the "Good Old Days" of complete control of teams by ownership. So, write on, Canepa. It's a free country again.

Except that you dissed my league, NBA. What was that all about? Here's what you wrote: ". . . there are now babies in the NFL who want to act as if they're in the NBA, which is a pathetic handful of teams made up of rich, entitled children. . ." You call them, "showrunners." Like, they want to run the show? Gee, how creative! You point to LeBron James as the superstar "showrunner". Can you name another? Hmmm? The NBA and its owners - some conservative, some liberals - have wisely chosen to be a 50 50 league. They understand that theirs is a symbiotic relationship between owners and workers. Owners, coaches, GMs and players share in this equality. Players may be critics, so too owners and coaches and GMs (GM Daryl Morey of the Rockets for example). The NBA is by far the most transparent of all the pro leagues. The players may be rich (so are movie stars and mortgage bankers) but they are not children but grown men who have a constitutional right to speak their minds. That is as long as we believe in the Bill of Rights, Which begs the question, Nick Canepa, do you believe in free speech?  

There is a marvelous collection of poems about sports and sports in poetry compiled by Lillian Morrison called Sprints and Distances. It's been a while, so it may be out of print. You will find some wonderful old-timey poems within as well as some that sound very modern. Many are classic poems. I love to browse through this book from time to time. Today's poem to end the Blog is a prayer. 

PRAYER   by Charles Beeching

God who created me
   Nimble and light of limb,
In three elements free,
    To run, to ride, to swim:
Not  when the sense is dim,
     But now from the heart of joy,
I would remember Him;
   Take the thanks of a boy.

The NBA Play In & etc

 I better get my two cents in before the NBA PLAY IN starts. My original thoughts were along the line of LeBron's, terrible idea that makes a mockery of the season. I have slowly changed my mind as I've become aware of the increased competitiveness of the teams below sixth place in the conference standings and the increased fan interest in those teams' cities. It has always been a problem for me to take games seriously at the end of the NBA season between teams that are already eliminated or on the verge of elimination. The Play In has changed that. For example, up to last night's loss to the Spurs, I still felt the Sacramento Kings had an outside chance to make the 10th spot in the Play In. As for my Warriors, they're in 8th place and still have a shot shot at 6th and certainly 7th. Seventh just sounds better than 8th. See what I mean about the nature of competition? If you've got something to root for, you root. The NBA has provided That Something to root for with the PLAY IN format. 

And, of course, let's not forget the additional revenue the Play In will generate, which will help players and owners tremendously this COVID season without ticket sales, etc. LeBron may feel secure in his own contract, but the lack of cash might be the difference a bench reserve stays on a team or is waived. LeBron should not forget there are 15 players trying to make a living. Not to mention how positive revenue streams have on over-all effect on hiring of management employees and arena workers. 

I have a suggestion for the NBA. This year is the perfect year to name co-equal MVPs: Curry and Jokic. There have never been two players that I recall in recent NBA history that have carried their teams on their talented shoulders. I'll even forgive Jokic, his constantly running nose. He is indeed a force. As for Curry, can anyone deny what he has and still is accomplishing this season. It is time for the NBA to drop the idea that the MVP must be from a winning team. 

Some talk about the 49ers signing Richard Sherman in this mornings sports page. I don't blog much about the NFL. In this case, I'll opine, it's always a good idea for a team with Championship aspirations to have one of its main players be a loud cocky voice that resonates in the locker room, in practices, and games. Sherman walks his talk and the rest of the team knows it. It's a mental thing. Sign the dude!

Baseball season is on the way. Here is a Haiku to kick the season off as perhaps Walt Whitman might have written about it.

WALT WHITMAN   by Tom Meschery

I marked, where, isolated
On a little mound of earth, he rubbed
The ball, tenderly, 'till, he felt its worth
Between split fingers, launch'd it forth.