Friday, the 19th. This Morning's Sports' Page

Can't miss the opportunity, although I do not relish it, to say once again the Kings are totally screwed up. I remember praising Vlade Divac for trying to bring in some vets to surround the pouting but talented Cousins. Okay, good job, but what else had to be done, didn't get done. On the most tepid support of George Karl, not discipline for Cousins. And sad to say, no in-your-face-tough-love approach to his players by George Karl, which has surprised the hell out of me, since I know George to be a forceful man of integrity who does not put up with bad basketball. Now, this, Divac fires a perfectly solid assistant coach, who's responsibility is offense, not defense, which is the BIG problem for the Kings. The reason being, he [Divac] want to "shake things up." Are you kidding me? Is this dumb or is it dumb? Does Karl deserve better than this as Ailene Voisin asks in this morning's Bee?
You bet, but only if in the second half of the season, George becomes the coach he always has been - the coach who never let players get away with anything other than their best performance. George, get after your players, force them to play their best, and if management won't support you, make it clear that's the problem and quit. It's not worth losing your reputation and your legacy.

It looks like the talking heads and sports columnists were not too impressed with the trades that went down by trade deadline, but I see it differently. I think two teams might have made moves that will improve their squads dramatically. The Detroit Pistons have acquired Tobias Harris, one of the most underrated stretch forwards in the league plus Danatas Motiejunas and guard Marcus Thorton. Motiejunas is a young power forward will become better in a more structured atmosphere and Thorton can, when he's hot, fill it up from deep and has become a willing defender if not a great one. All in all, the team, with the addition of these players, improved their chances significantly to make the playoffs.

Jeff Green's addition to the Clippers is a plus. How big a plus is open to interpretation, but plus nonetheless. They got rid of Stephenson, who they weren't playing anyway for a stretch forward who possesses occasional All-Star skills. And occasional maybe all the Clips really need from him. Doc will be able to pull him when, as Green has done so often in the past, gone on vacation.

Not sure about Channing Frye going to the Cavs. That does help by stretching the floor for LeBron and Kyre, but doesn't address the Cavs glaring defensive weakness. Channing is not a defender, Kyrie is not a defender. Love is not a defender. When two of your starters are weak defensively, it doesn't make much sense bring in another weak defender.

Foye will help the Thunder, a team that is already playing extremely well. He provides a little more fire power and a little more is all they are looking for. It's an uptick. Sometimes upticks are all that's necessary for the playoff advancement.

If I were Portland, I wouldn't waive Varejao as it's been reported they'll do. With minutes in a back up role, Varejao could help the Blazers as they make a run at a playoff birth. He brings energy on the boards and defensively in the paint. And, he is a proven teammate, and that quality should never be overlooked.

Baseball spring training is starting. Just had lunch with old buddies from high school and I'm in the mood for nostalgia, so here's an old poem about baseball from the point of view of a New York Giant's fan back in the Twenties about the Cubs infield of shortstop, Tinker; second baseman, Evers; and first baseman, Chance whose skillful double plays often played a part in defeating the Giants. 

Baseball's Sad Lexicon    by  Franklin P. Adams

These are the saddest of possible words:
   "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
      Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
making a Giant hit into a double -
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
      "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

A Few Small Concerns

I'm a little worried that Rodger Goodell will have a hard time in the coming years now that the NFL has cut his salary down to $34.1 million. How's he going to pay for groceries?

Strange news from King Land. Do GM's fire assistant coaches without consulting first with head coaches?

More from the Land of the Kings: I'll take Mosgov and Shumpert for McLemore and Koufas any day of the year. Hell, Cousins likes to play on the perimeter anyway. Guess he can't get over that he was a guard when he was 12 years old. Of course, the irony is that the big fellow is the Kings second best 3 pt shooter.

I'm a little concerned with English grammar in the NBA after reading a quote by Eric Spoelstra of the Heat in this morning's sports page: "That was between Hassan and I." Eric, drop the Hassan, repeat the sentence and see how stupid that sounds. We got enough problems teaching grammar to our kids,we don't need NBA models screwing up.

Would somebody tell me how Marco Belinelli, who played a couple of fabulous seasons off the bench for the Bulls and Spurs, suddenly turned into a dud with the Kings?

Browsing through a collection of old poetry, I came across this lovely quatrain by William Makepeace Thackerary and started laughing at its quaint message.  No, that's Make Peace, not World Peace.

Who Misses or Who Wins

Who misses or who wins the prize
Go lose or conquer as you can;
But if you fall, or if you rise,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

Another King's coach? Really?

So, Cousins is throwing another coach under the bus heading out of town. How many have there been since he showed up? When will the Kings realize that Cousins is not the player to build a team around? He purports to be the team leader. Often he refers to the Kings as "his" team. If this is so, which I doubt, it is by his example the team should be led. Right? Absolutely. In my experience the hardest worker, the most engaged player, the first guy on the practice floor and the last guy off, the player who was always in impeccable shape, was the team's super-star. I do not argue that Cousins' is a super talented player and deserves a star by his name, but he is by no means a team leader, and I have yet to see him in all the years I've watched him with the Kings lead by example.

Instead, Cousins frown, grumbles, grimaces, whines, argues with referees, gets technicals, slouches, un-engaged on the bench when he's out of the game, disrupts the locker-room, blames coaches, and generally sucks the joy out of playing basketball. Were I playing today, I would throw myself over a cliff before I'd be a team mate of his.

Last night on the post game show, Grant Napier and Jerry Reynolds, undoubtedly two of the Kings most loyal supporters and long time Kings' broadcasters, had a lot to say about Cousins' leadership and recent performances, non of it complimentary. Doug Christie, one of the greatest King's defenders, diagrammed some of the defensive errors committed last night by the Kings, and particularly Cousins. Can it possibly be that Vlade doesn't see these glaring errors? How could he not? The problem is that he's going to attribute these mistakes to the coach and his staff, and I suppose he'd have a point. But not to see that Cousins' is as much responsible, if not more, to the recent disgusting performances of the Kings would be the darkest kind of blindness.

All the rage today around the NBA is talking about coaches who do not shy away from confronting their stars when they do something wrong. Perhaps George hasn't done that, in which case he's made his own bed and has to lie in it. Never having been in the King's locker room, I have no idea how George has dealt with the big Boogie, he who so far does not boogie but waddles.

Ah, well. So much for Cousins. But I'm terribly disappointed in Rajon Rando who was quoted in this morning's Bee about Coach Karl's possible firing, "I hope that's the case." Karl salvaged Rondo's career by giving him the green light to run the show, something Rondo claimed Carlyle of the Mavs, his previous team, didn't. There were not a lot of teams in the NBA interested in acquiring Rondo after he went on the big sulk, got fined, and was made persona non grata by the Mavs. End of career? It looked like it until the Kings came along. Rondo's words do not say much for his character, his sense of loyalty.

Here's a little poem about football in honor of the last game of the 2015/16 NFL season.

Is football playing
   Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
   Now I stand up no more.

               A.E. Housman

A Couple of Thoughts & a Few Questions

I saw on NBA Rumors that the Celtics are going to trade or release David Lee. How about this, as strange as it may seem: Why don't the Warriors take Lee back. He'd give them a hell of a lot more than Jason Thompson, and the Celts may be interested in Jason with one year left on his contract and him being younger and an East Coast guy. Probably best to let the Celts release David, then the Warriors can negotiate a more reasonable contract? Yes? No? Since I'm not knowledgeable about contracts and such, I don't know if this is feasible. Anyway, it would give David the chance to complete the circle, end his career with the Dubs. He did, lest people forget, do an admirable job off the bench in the Finals last season. Might be a classy thing to do.

I'm a huge Harrison Barnes supporter, so I'd hate to see him go in a sign and trade for Kevin Durant. It might be worth considering that more does not always equate to better. Okay, okay, I know it IS Durant. A Warrior team with Durant, Steph, Klay and Dray raining threes. Like the friggin Apocalypse.

Cam Newton may indeed be the quarterback of the future, but weren't the pundits saying the same thing about Colin Kepernick a while back? Remember the turtle and the hare tales.

As we approach March Madness, are there any clear leaders among among the college teams? Time to pick the underdogs, which will make for an interesting tourney.

Watched the Timberwolves lose to the Lakers and saw Kobe perform like the old Kobe. I take back what I said about him; even a few games like last night's, and he deserves to have his last All Star Game in the sun. Sorry Damian, you're up next year. As for the Timberwolves, they've got some solid young players to build into a championship team, but they need a coach that will get them to play defense on a regular basis. Tom Thibodeau comes to mind. There's something not right in my mind about Sam Mitchell, perhaps, a little too cool, a little too coach with a capital C. Just a gut reaction.

Is Terry Stotts of the Trail Blazers Coach of the Year? If the Blazers make the playoffs, he better be.

For Super Sunday coming up, how about a this football poem from my second book of poetry, Some Men.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Yesterday's win with seconds on the clock
made going back to work easier even after weeks
when everything for him had turned to crap.

They'd painted their faces green,
put on their wigs, donned their yellow capes,
circled their trucks like wagons heading west,

roasted hotdogs.. The ice cold beer tasted best
when shared with family and friends, a small
philosophy, but something he had learned to trust.

The newspapers were full of war in some country
he couldn't spell. The neighbor's son had fought there.
They brought him back a week ago without a leg.

A letter came that said his house was"upside down."
Thank God he wasn't out of work, he'd told his wife.
Thank God for Football. The game protected him from grief.

What he could save of this crummy time, he found
every Sunday in the stands with his high school pals,
who stood beside him on the dwindling factory line.

Half a Sunday without a worry. You think that's peanuts?
We're all small-town when it comes to fears. He'd said that,
he remembered, during a time out, coach challenging a call
while the referee looked into the past to see what was right. 

Chinese New Year of the Monkey Warrior T-shirts and etc

Wouldn't it be great if the Warriors for Chinese New Years honored some of the great Chinese Bay Area basketball players such as Willie Wo Wo Wong (posthumously), Al Mock, Norm OwYoung Jang, and add Jeremy Lin to the list. Probably the time has passed for such a ceremony to happen, but maybe next year, huh? If any Warrior exec is reading my blog. How about it, Rick, Raymond?

I love irony. The 49ers give up on Vernon Davis, and he's back at Levi Stadium with the Denver Broncos competing in the Super Bowl. An aside: I had a good friend, now no longer willing with us, by the name of George Gutekunst, the garrulous owner of one of the great 4 star restaurants, Ondine, who used to host a Stupid Bowl party on Super Bowl Sunday. Always Osso Bucco and great conversation. Who attended? Socialist seamen, artists, novelists, poets, sportsmen, broadcasters, restaurateurs, journalists. No one watched the game.

My wife, Melanie, who fancies animal designs in clothing wants a pair of Cam Newton trousers. I love Cam's brash confidence, and I'd normally be pulling for him. But this year, I'm cheering for Payton Manning and the Broncos. Wouldn't it be superb and fitting for such a consummate pro to retire with a ring?

As much as the Warriors are lauded for their offensive skills, it's clear to me that their chances of winning a second championship rests with their defense. When they're playing lock-down D, they explode on the offensive end. Otherwise, they go a little "up and down" scoring in bunches, then giving up points so teams stay within striking distance. Not something they want to happen as they start the second half of the season run to the finish line.

I'm with Steve Kerr when he said of Draymond Green that it was great that Dray owned up publicly to being "selfish, unselfish," a nicer piece of rhetoric this old English teacher hasn't heard for awhile. Go Draymond! You slipped that screen nicely.

Back to the 49ers: Still on my "ticked off" hobby horse. When will San Franciscans finally vent some anger over the 49er team continuing to call themselves, the San Francisco 49ers, for God's sake? The team's stadium is in Santa Clara, built with San Jose taxes. The Super Bowl teams and media are staying in San Jose hotels and eating in San Jose restaurants. Media day and all its Hoopla taking place in San Jose. Come on! What does San Francisco get? A little "festival on the Embarcedero." Big Deal! Let's not kid ourselves Citizens of the City of Saint Francis, you are no longer starters, but relegated firmly to the bench, and don't think for a second that San Francisco will win a best 6th man award, you are way down on the end, picking splinters out of your butt. Sorry, I should have used a football metaphor, but I'm a roundball man.

I've finally decided to write a memoir. I'm at a point in the writing talking about some of the great players from my era. Here's a small poem written in the voice of Earl Monroe, the great Bullets and Knicks' guard of the 60s and 70s.

Earl "The Pearl" Monroe

In the rec leagues,
they called me Black Jesus.
When I walked onto the court
the crowed parted like water.
In college, someone found a rhyme
and I became a pearl.
I guess I've been a mixed
metaphor ever since. Sometimes,
when I backed a player 
down into the paint
and spun into my shot,
I knew before the ball left
my fingers it was going in.
At that moment
I could have healed lepers,
raised the dead.