A bunch of guys whose game has run its course (no disrespect intended) who gives a damn? Donte Greene, Bonzi Wells, Royce White. Really????? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it ain't gonna work with the over-the-hill gang.
\
Most of the 3 on 3 coaches in their prime could outplay their players. Tiny Archibald H of F point guard, and Nancy Lieberman who, by the way, could probably juke Donte Greene, even at her age.
Boring.
Warriors going small against Rockets (Green, KD, Curry, Thompson and Igudala) look strong. But you can NOT play the game of NBA playoff basketball 5 against 10. Dub's bench must step up, particularly on the Defensive end. The job of all the players providing relief for starters must be to play shut-down D. Be frightening. Kick ass! Don't worry about scoring.
Driving home from a Jones' Boy's Concert in Pacific, I found a Memorial Service guide for Nate "The Great" Thurmond in my glove box. I miss my teammate tremendously. I began thinking how Nate is often overlooked by a basketball public that remembers the Russells, Chamberlains, and Jabbars, while Nate was the best ALL AROUND center of all three. (Walton was the best All Around, but he doesn't count because he didn't pass the test of time.)
Then, I began thinking what about the centers in today's game? Jokic of Denver and Joel Embid of Philly as examples of today's "new" centers. They would not have scored against Nate The Great.. Take that to the bank.
Just wondering: When Joel Embid and Pascal Siakam, both from the Cameroon, meet Luc Mbah a Moute do they have to bow to the Prince?
My latest sports gripe: SPLIT SCREENS. Not only do we sports' fans have to put up with endless regular commercials, but now the powers that be have added more advertising space they can sell by virtue of splitting the screen while the sporting event is going on, and they don't even have the courtesy to give the sport the bigger of the two screens. Talk about greed at the expense of viewers. What I do when the split screen comes on is place my right palm over the commercial screen and close my right eye. Blocks the ad Frigg 'em! Corporate greed over the top. Amazon pays no income tax. Is that nuts, or what? But they are not the only corporation paying zero taxes on the back of the Middle Class. Get real, America!.
In honor of the Kentucky Derby:
A Jockey by Ron Koertce
named Kovacs went down
at Pomona yesterday.
He was riding something
that was born to hold
one piece of paper
to another.
The crowd loves to hate
accidents and everybody
wanted to know wo Ted
Kovacs was. Like the
next winner, it was
a mystery.
This then, is to set
the record straight:
Ted Kovacs makes 14
thousand a year when
things to right.
His wife keeps a
scrapbook that shows
the day he tripled,
the $9000.00 Exacta
where he was second,
and all the times he
was in intensive care.
When he almost didn't make it,
the article ran to nearly
20 lines.
Sunday, May 5, 2019
Saturday, April 6, 2019
The NFL is a Weeny Sport
I just finished watching Wales defeat Scotland in an international rugby match. All I can say is the National Football League should be ashamed of itself. Rugby players wear no helmets, no pads. They play in T-shirts and shorts and advance the ball down the field in what appears to me with the kind of violence associated with the Visigoths sacking Rome or our Army storming ashore on the beaches of Normandy. Not a concussion protocol in sight. And talk about fast, holy hundred meter dash!!!! And then, after the match, I'm told, both teams go to the pub and suck up suds and hug each other, and sing songs. Now that's football.
Sacramento Kings center Willy Cauley Stein, a free agent at the end of this season, would consider leaving for another team. He feels, according to this morning's sport page, unappreciated. He says of himself, "I've still got more skills that haven't been brought out." He wants to be more than a rim running center. I'm a fan of Cauley Stein, but find his complaint curious. Is he saying the Kings coaching staff have not developed his potential? If that's the case, pray tell, what would that potential be - skill wise? At this point in his career, the way I see it, Willy is a Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan type of player and that's not an insult. Tyson won a ring being a rim protector and dunking lob passes. But, if Cauley Stein sees himself as possessing the kind of skills that would put him in the category of Anthony Davis, or Tim Duncan or Hakeem Olyjuwon, wouldn't it seem logical that in the four off seasons, Willy would have worked his butt off to learn to shoot a consistent jumper, or develop a few post moves or jump hook? Oh, but maybe, this was the job of the Kings coaches.
Watched my Dubs hand the Nuggets their jocks (I hear this is an outdated male garment) and said to myself if they can play like this through the playoffs, it's another Championship Parade. And just so you know where my heart is, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about Warrior defense. When the attack on D, every other part of their game reaches it's devastating potential.
Question going into end of season. Who will the Celtics give up to get AD? They better be careful not to give away too much. AD does not have a good medical history.
Watching My First Rugby Match by Tom Meschery
I wonder in the chaos
called a scrum,
what is hidden
that is not the ball.
And remains behind
within the vortex
as the ball slips out
and pitched to run
until the next collision.
This way the ball
moves down the field
one embrace after another
that it is not so fond
to its final destination
players bloody and broken
and wars are lost and won.
Sacramento Kings center Willy Cauley Stein, a free agent at the end of this season, would consider leaving for another team. He feels, according to this morning's sport page, unappreciated. He says of himself, "I've still got more skills that haven't been brought out." He wants to be more than a rim running center. I'm a fan of Cauley Stein, but find his complaint curious. Is he saying the Kings coaching staff have not developed his potential? If that's the case, pray tell, what would that potential be - skill wise? At this point in his career, the way I see it, Willy is a Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan type of player and that's not an insult. Tyson won a ring being a rim protector and dunking lob passes. But, if Cauley Stein sees himself as possessing the kind of skills that would put him in the category of Anthony Davis, or Tim Duncan or Hakeem Olyjuwon, wouldn't it seem logical that in the four off seasons, Willy would have worked his butt off to learn to shoot a consistent jumper, or develop a few post moves or jump hook? Oh, but maybe, this was the job of the Kings coaches.
Watched my Dubs hand the Nuggets their jocks (I hear this is an outdated male garment) and said to myself if they can play like this through the playoffs, it's another Championship Parade. And just so you know where my heart is, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about Warrior defense. When the attack on D, every other part of their game reaches it's devastating potential.
Question going into end of season. Who will the Celtics give up to get AD? They better be careful not to give away too much. AD does not have a good medical history.
Watching My First Rugby Match by Tom Meschery
I wonder in the chaos
called a scrum,
what is hidden
that is not the ball.
And remains behind
within the vortex
as the ball slips out
and pitched to run
until the next collision.
This way the ball
moves down the field
one embrace after another
that it is not so fond
to its final destination
players bloody and broken
and wars are lost and won.
Monday, April 1, 2019
End of 2018/19 NBA Season Approaching and etc
I don't mean to denigrate Pop's Spurs, but I'd like the Warriors to avoid facing the OKC in the first round. Granted the Thunder are not playing well. But mindsets change once playoffs begin, and OKC has some excellent players and are far more physical than the Spurs. Now that we have Bogut back with the Dubs, I'm less concerned about physicality in the paint and rim protecting, but it's my feeling they have the one time ability to pull off an upset. So, Of course who the Dubs play will be more determined by the team playing for the 7th spot, and how they are viewing their chances. Still, the Dubs need to win down the stretch and stay atop the Western Conference.
When there's talk of Coach of the Year, it appears to me the pundits are overlooking the job Steve Kerr has done this season. Ask all the coaches who've won consecutive NBA Championships how difficult it is, and Kerr has to be considered a strong contender.
It bears keeping in mind that Coach Kerr has had to be extremely creative putting together rotations for this season that were more predictable and more effective in the past. In addition, he's had to figure out how to integrated Boogie into a line-up in such a way as to maximize his positives and minimize his negatives, two of which are: he's not a rim protector and not a fierce rebounder. Note: I believe the first requirement for jumping is that your shoes must leave the court. Sorry, Boogie, I love parts of your game, but you have no hops.
If not Kerr for Coach of the Year, I vote for Pop. He's done wonders with a very incongruous group of players.
A respectful nod to Doc of the Clippers, or should I say Jerry West for breaking the team down and putting it back together better.
If not our Western Conference coaches, than Budennholser of the Bucks. Nifty job with his bench players.
So, what does the race for the NBA Championship look like from Meschery's view point?
The East first: The 76ers do not have the chemistry; the Celtics? Yeah, they can be extremely tough but seem to have too many lapses in concentration, plus I'm not that big a fan of Kyrie as a leader; the Bucks appears to have all the positions covered and bench strength at max at just the right tiime. That leaves Toronto. Can they win with Lowry as their leader? Neither a true point guard nor a pure shooting two guard.
The West: The Warriors and the Rockets. Watch out for the feisty Clippers. There is no question that the Rockets are tough. But whither goeth Hardin, so goeth the Rockets. The Warriors win because it's extremely difficult to beat them in a seven game series.
Now cometh the ETC like the Post Man:
Is anybody pissed at the split screen coverage of sporting events? And what's with the larger screen being the commercial and the weeny screen to the sport. Rise up sports fans, we have nothing to lose but a few bad beer commercials and some lying Big Pharma promises.
I hate to say it, because I like Joe Biden, but he needs to drop out of the race for the presidency. This latest revelation, which is not really a revelation, that he pats and hugs and embraces women, not sexually, but certainly condescendingly, disqualifies him in the eyes of the modern generation of educated women voters the Dems need to beat the jerk we have in office now. It's time to pass the political baton to the youngsters.
Zion Williams is not the Second Coming of Lebron James. More of a Randle look-a-like inside/slashing power forward. Not a jump shooter, not with that sidewinder form. But I may eat my words as Lebron was not a shooter when he came into the league.
Pulling for U of Virginia just because - from loser last year to winner this year seems like justice.
I've never been much of a bowling fan, but clearly it requires great talent to play the sport well. So here's a bowling poem in honor of a sport I overlook and in honor of fathers and sons. .
Hook by Floyd Skloot
My father limps on the leg that healed short.
His twice-broken right wrist, too weak to hold
a bowing ball palm up, is why he spins
a hook he cannot control. The ball rolls
slowly, as if limping while it wanders
from one gutter to the other and back.
We stand dead last in the Father and Son
League, not helped by my rocketing straight shots
that knock down nothing as often as they
knock down everything. He watches, giving
no advice. At thirteen, knowing there is
nothing for me to say either. I wait
for the ball's return so I can heft it
again and aim down the gleaming alley.
When there's talk of Coach of the Year, it appears to me the pundits are overlooking the job Steve Kerr has done this season. Ask all the coaches who've won consecutive NBA Championships how difficult it is, and Kerr has to be considered a strong contender.
It bears keeping in mind that Coach Kerr has had to be extremely creative putting together rotations for this season that were more predictable and more effective in the past. In addition, he's had to figure out how to integrated Boogie into a line-up in such a way as to maximize his positives and minimize his negatives, two of which are: he's not a rim protector and not a fierce rebounder. Note: I believe the first requirement for jumping is that your shoes must leave the court. Sorry, Boogie, I love parts of your game, but you have no hops.
If not Kerr for Coach of the Year, I vote for Pop. He's done wonders with a very incongruous group of players.
A respectful nod to Doc of the Clippers, or should I say Jerry West for breaking the team down and putting it back together better.
If not our Western Conference coaches, than Budennholser of the Bucks. Nifty job with his bench players.
So, what does the race for the NBA Championship look like from Meschery's view point?
The East first: The 76ers do not have the chemistry; the Celtics? Yeah, they can be extremely tough but seem to have too many lapses in concentration, plus I'm not that big a fan of Kyrie as a leader; the Bucks appears to have all the positions covered and bench strength at max at just the right tiime. That leaves Toronto. Can they win with Lowry as their leader? Neither a true point guard nor a pure shooting two guard.
The West: The Warriors and the Rockets. Watch out for the feisty Clippers. There is no question that the Rockets are tough. But whither goeth Hardin, so goeth the Rockets. The Warriors win because it's extremely difficult to beat them in a seven game series.
Now cometh the ETC like the Post Man:
Is anybody pissed at the split screen coverage of sporting events? And what's with the larger screen being the commercial and the weeny screen to the sport. Rise up sports fans, we have nothing to lose but a few bad beer commercials and some lying Big Pharma promises.
I hate to say it, because I like Joe Biden, but he needs to drop out of the race for the presidency. This latest revelation, which is not really a revelation, that he pats and hugs and embraces women, not sexually, but certainly condescendingly, disqualifies him in the eyes of the modern generation of educated women voters the Dems need to beat the jerk we have in office now. It's time to pass the political baton to the youngsters.
Zion Williams is not the Second Coming of Lebron James. More of a Randle look-a-like inside/slashing power forward. Not a jump shooter, not with that sidewinder form. But I may eat my words as Lebron was not a shooter when he came into the league.
Pulling for U of Virginia just because - from loser last year to winner this year seems like justice.
I've never been much of a bowling fan, but clearly it requires great talent to play the sport well. So here's a bowling poem in honor of a sport I overlook and in honor of fathers and sons. .
Hook by Floyd Skloot
My father limps on the leg that healed short.
His twice-broken right wrist, too weak to hold
a bowing ball palm up, is why he spins
a hook he cannot control. The ball rolls
slowly, as if limping while it wanders
from one gutter to the other and back.
We stand dead last in the Father and Son
League, not helped by my rocketing straight shots
that knock down nothing as often as they
knock down everything. He watches, giving
no advice. At thirteen, knowing there is
nothing for me to say either. I wait
for the ball's return so I can heft it
again and aim down the gleaming alley.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
I gotta say
What's with sports owners these days? Kraft of the Patriots is getting below the belt massages at an exotic massage parlor, and Giant's CEO is video'd knocking his wife to the ground in a restaurant trying to grab a cell phone out of her hand. I guess Sir Charles was right back when he said, "I ain't nobody's role model." Or something to that effect.
A quick comment about 49er headline in today's Sac Bee sports: Seeking guys who can "take it to another level" at receiver. Duh! On a pro level, would you seek a player who didn't? Double Duh!
It bears repeating Sacramento sports fans are still being subjected to reading about their Kings results two days after the game happens because the paper is unwilling to pay the bucks it needs to be a first class newspaper. So lets say there's an astonishing event that happens in California (you chose the event) that happens at nine in the evening, I guess we wouldn''t hear about it the next morning, right?
The LA Clippers beat our Kings, if you want to know. A great game. Our young, refreshingly enthusiastic youngster almost pulling it off, and what do I read this morning: some stuff about Coach Joerger believing something special is happening in basketball in the River City "for many years to come."
A Kings' footnote: The young power forward Harry Giles could turn out to be special. He's got a feather touch and very smooth and quick. I'm seeing a little Scotty Pipen. Don't know if he has quite that handle, but we'll see.
Two tough losses by my Warriors on the road. No question we have the best Starting Five. Now our bench has to back the five up with some grit. I can accept losses, but not when losses are the result of lack of toughness. But, I'm sounding like a coach instead of a retired English teacher. Or maybe I'm sounding like a Saturday Morning Quarterback.
How the hell did the Rockets get Ken Faried? The "Manimal" is a LOAD on the glass - both ends, and all of a sudden, this once upon a time only energy guy is making shots. Very worrisome for all opponents in the West.
When is the league going to ban Donald Trump for life for flagrant fouls against our country? What is with this person that he feels he's got to kiss the arses of dictators? I understand Putin because Putin is blackmailing him, but those two murderers from Saudi Arabia and North Korea????? You'd think, being a bully himself, Trump would understand the only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him. What an embarrassment Trump is. And the Republican Party, what can I say except remember the little weasels that always hung out with the school bully, those guys with no courage and no brains of their own? The Elephant Party might want to start looking in the mirror for any resemblance to weasels reflecting back to them.
A quick comment about 49er headline in today's Sac Bee sports: Seeking guys who can "take it to another level" at receiver. Duh! On a pro level, would you seek a player who didn't? Double Duh!
It bears repeating Sacramento sports fans are still being subjected to reading about their Kings results two days after the game happens because the paper is unwilling to pay the bucks it needs to be a first class newspaper. So lets say there's an astonishing event that happens in California (you chose the event) that happens at nine in the evening, I guess we wouldn''t hear about it the next morning, right?
The LA Clippers beat our Kings, if you want to know. A great game. Our young, refreshingly enthusiastic youngster almost pulling it off, and what do I read this morning: some stuff about Coach Joerger believing something special is happening in basketball in the River City "for many years to come."
A Kings' footnote: The young power forward Harry Giles could turn out to be special. He's got a feather touch and very smooth and quick. I'm seeing a little Scotty Pipen. Don't know if he has quite that handle, but we'll see.
Two tough losses by my Warriors on the road. No question we have the best Starting Five. Now our bench has to back the five up with some grit. I can accept losses, but not when losses are the result of lack of toughness. But, I'm sounding like a coach instead of a retired English teacher. Or maybe I'm sounding like a Saturday Morning Quarterback.
How the hell did the Rockets get Ken Faried? The "Manimal" is a LOAD on the glass - both ends, and all of a sudden, this once upon a time only energy guy is making shots. Very worrisome for all opponents in the West.
When is the league going to ban Donald Trump for life for flagrant fouls against our country? What is with this person that he feels he's got to kiss the arses of dictators? I understand Putin because Putin is blackmailing him, but those two murderers from Saudi Arabia and North Korea????? You'd think, being a bully himself, Trump would understand the only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him. What an embarrassment Trump is. And the Republican Party, what can I say except remember the little weasels that always hung out with the school bully, those guys with no courage and no brains of their own? The Elephant Party might want to start looking in the mirror for any resemblance to weasels reflecting back to them.
Trump and Kim Going One-On-One in Hanoi by Tom Meschery
Sacramento Bee February, 27, 2019
The dark letters at the top of the page,
I have no doubt, were composed
with me in mind, to spoil my breakfast,
to ruin my coffee with an image
of a basketball court: one evil president
and a fat little dictator, facing off:
uniforms made of their country’s flags,
ro-sham-bo’ing at the top of the key,
for first ups. Scissors cut paper - Kim wins.
Rock breaks scissors, Trump wins.
Tie-breaker, you decide. I’m betting
on the dictator, with the better cross-over,
step back. Trumps too slow, and can’t
pronounce defense even with a cue card.
Over coffee on a cold, wet morning,
I’m imagining a game of basketball
played in the middle of a city
rebuilt using airplane and body parts,
in the shadow of Buddhist temples,
the saffron yellow of monks’ robes,
and the insanely green rice fields
of Coppala’s war. My coffee
tastes bitter with every score,
listening to their heavy breathing,
smelling the stink of their sweat.
I have a friend who flew missions
over Hanoi and was awarded
The Airforce Cross. He told me
he could strafe a village
with the push of a button,
schools, and huts and once
a soccer field of young men
disappeared into history books.
Is there a merciful bomb left
undiscovered in Hanoi that will end
this ridiculous game of head-fakes
and jab-steps and let the rest of the world
live in peace, allow me to start my day over
with fresh coffee and a different front page
announcing, if there is any justice left,
the last two deaths of an unjust war.
Monday, February 18, 2019
NBA All Star Game, & etc
Okay, so there was a little D being played in the last five minutes of the game, probably motivated by bragging rights.
Dunk contest is getting ho-hum. All 10's for Smith's five missed tries before finally executing????Where have all the real high-flyers gone? Long time passing?
Shak and Barkley are almost incoherent. Sub in another smart woman, like Candace.
Seth and Doc Rivers daughter engaged. We're talking children with great basketball genes.
Steph's son was named Canon. With a sports' name like that and my belief that the principal of irony governs the world, odds are in favor of him turning into a etymologist.
It's worth mentioning again my plan to upgrade the All-Star Game: Create a 4 point line, and two 5 point opportunity boxes at the intersection of sideline and mid-court line.
I hate to say it, but Commissioner Silver's search for more parity could be solved by dropping the league down four teams. There are some really very average players making up rosters. The remaining teams could absorb the best players from the four teams dropped. I know this solution will not be widely applauded, but what the hell, at my age, who cares.
Steph and Seth's mom sinks half-court shot. We now know where the boys got their "real" eyes. Apologies to Dad.
NBA Cares rocks. Lots of charity and love and joy during the festivities. And how about the fashion statements?
Loved seeing all the kids on the court. Basketball will soon be the most popular sport in the world.
Also, big shout out for the NBA again for including Wade and Nowitski as honorary All-Stars. Classy move.
Next year, The Greek Freak needs to enter the dunk contest so we can see something really airborne.. Imagine, like Wilt, picking a silver dollar off the top of the backboard with one hand and dunking with the other. Just saying!
A replay poem from a few years back. Nothing serious, but fun, like the All -Star game.
Chinese Checkers by Arleen Cohen
The dragons
tell me how to move,
like a grasshopper across
the multi-colored field
springing from hole to hole
outmaneuvering the beetles.
I see the sacred star
and one by one
I deposit my eggs
until it is
filled and full.
Dunk contest is getting ho-hum. All 10's for Smith's five missed tries before finally executing????Where have all the real high-flyers gone? Long time passing?
Shak and Barkley are almost incoherent. Sub in another smart woman, like Candace.
Seth and Doc Rivers daughter engaged. We're talking children with great basketball genes.
Steph's son was named Canon. With a sports' name like that and my belief that the principal of irony governs the world, odds are in favor of him turning into a etymologist.
It's worth mentioning again my plan to upgrade the All-Star Game: Create a 4 point line, and two 5 point opportunity boxes at the intersection of sideline and mid-court line.
I hate to say it, but Commissioner Silver's search for more parity could be solved by dropping the league down four teams. There are some really very average players making up rosters. The remaining teams could absorb the best players from the four teams dropped. I know this solution will not be widely applauded, but what the hell, at my age, who cares.
Steph and Seth's mom sinks half-court shot. We now know where the boys got their "real" eyes. Apologies to Dad.
NBA Cares rocks. Lots of charity and love and joy during the festivities. And how about the fashion statements?
Loved seeing all the kids on the court. Basketball will soon be the most popular sport in the world.
Also, big shout out for the NBA again for including Wade and Nowitski as honorary All-Stars. Classy move.
Next year, The Greek Freak needs to enter the dunk contest so we can see something really airborne.. Imagine, like Wilt, picking a silver dollar off the top of the backboard with one hand and dunking with the other. Just saying!
A replay poem from a few years back. Nothing serious, but fun, like the All -Star game.
Chinese Checkers by Arleen Cohen
The dragons
tell me how to move,
like a grasshopper across
the multi-colored field
springing from hole to hole
outmaneuvering the beetles.
I see the sacred star
and one by one
I deposit my eggs
until it is
filled and full.
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