PGA HYPOCRISY & NBA FINALS

Yesterday on television, I watched the primo director of the PGA talking about the newly formed LIV sometime after it started and had convinced some ot the PGA's elite players to jump ship. For Big Bucks, needless to say as every sports fan knows. (Phil Mickelson received $200 million, Dustin Johnson, $97 million and Bruce Koepka $69 million dollars.) He didn't waste time to remind the golfing world that this league - the LIV - was solely sponsored by the Saudi government, a government that supported the twin towers bombers and routinely murders its own people. He didn't say it but the message was clear, the money these players were receiving was stained by blood. The league itself was bloody. I remember back then how appreciative the World Trade Center survivors and victims' families were for the PGA's stance.

Yesterday, those same survivors and victims' families were betrayed. The PGA announced that it would be merging with the LIV. which is to say they will be partners with terrorists and killers. Phil Mickelson stated joyously that it was an amazing day. Yes, Phil, amazing it is that GREED ounce again triumphs over honor, but it is by no means joyful. It is sad and dishonest and unpatriotic. And you have the audacity to call it joyous. Just as the past president our country Donald Trump has the audacity to allow Saudi sponsored golf to be played on his golf courses. Just as  the PGA now has the audacity to provide the Saudi government with a world public relations coup. Shame on the PGA. 

Let's be clear, I have no problem with competing leagues. That's fair business practice and we've seen it happen often in the United States. What I object to strenuously is with a league owned by the Saudi government. As most Americans did, on 9/11/2001, I watched Saudi nurtured pilots steer their deadly planes into the Twin Towers in the heart of New York City. Unless the Saudi government divests its entire ownership interests in the LIV, I will never watch PGA golf again. I would hope all Americans to similarly pledge. 

THE NBA FINAL. Now to something truly joyous: basketball. The Heat and the Nuggest are tied. This is a surprise to me. I would have thought the Nuggets would have dominated on the Mile High home court. As it turned out the Heat had other plans. I do recall for responding to some Athletic Writers that the only chance the Heat have lies not with their two stars, Butler and Adebayo but with Vincent, Straus and Martin.  I like being right. I do, however, add that Adebayo played the last two games like he was better than Anthony Davis, not a less talented version of AD. He played the entire 50 by 90 feet of the court and Jokic, as great as he is, and his help D, had trouble finding him. I still believe the Nuggets will win, but it is possible it will take 7 games. Here, however, in closing, is a question to ponder. Are these two games of Adebayo an aberration or a new norm? The Heat's centers inconsistent offensive highs and lows have alwasys mystified me. What Heat fans can hope for is that this is the year, in these Finals, that Bam finally internalizes how talented he truly is.

In honor of the NBA Finals, I offer this poem I wrote about my beloved Dubs.

Ode to the Golden State Warriors 2015   by Tom Meschery
 
One small change and the line begins: Good luck,

timing and the stars. This morning, I'm still seeing
Curry’s three float through the sky of the arena
reminding me of a lesson in geometry:
An arc is a segment of the circumference
of the circle – from foot (the flat plane of release)
that travels in silent degrees over the moon.
That it drops into the hoop is a matter
both of mathematics and imagination.
 
I am watching this arc with my arm in a sling
having had my shoulder replaced with titanium,
a science of a lesser degree than the one
Curry, and his teammate, Thompson,
use to turn mathamatics into a sport.
 
As far as my titanium shoulder will allow,
I raise my arm to salute the Splash Brothers
and their teammates, three out of five,
Bogut, Barnes, and Green
and all the other players off the bench,
no small part of the equation called teammates.
And raise it up again through pain
to honor the others: players and coaches,
Gentry, Adams, and Kerr for his coaching
that were it not intense, looks much like joy.
 
Something so old inside me called desire
yearns to play again, to shake off years,
travel through the television screen
and be six-six again, called undersized
like Draymond Green snatching rebounds,
playing beyond our skills because we will it,
because we know that timing gives us wings.
 
And wherever they are, the old Warriors,
Nate and Rick, Al and Jeff, I wonder, if like me,
they’re watching these new Warriors, Dubs,
seeing how luck, timing, and the stars triangulate.
 
           
          

timing, and the stars. This morning I’m still seeing

Derrick White's Buzzer Beater & etc

It's his journey that makes his buzzer beater last night, winning the 6th game for the Celts, that should be memorialized as much as Shot #2, (Shot #1 belonging to MJ.) A skinny 6 footer out of high school with no Division One offers, goes to Division Two UCCS has a growth spurt, pumps up his weight, works tirelessly on his game, transfers to U of Colorado, and is drafted by the Spurs as low round one pick, continued to work and hustle, traded to the Celtics and Voila - a place in Boston Celtics History.  For me, it is always these circuitous routes to fame that interest me. 

I am tempted to cut Harold Varnor III some slake for joining the LIV golf tour because he is African American. One might argue Varnor has some rights to pocketing as much money as he can, the doors to wealth being so often closed to people of color. Tempted, yes. But finally NO. The LIV is sponsored by the Saudi government whose hands are covered with the blood of their people. It would be condescending of me to do let  Varnor off the hook. Let me reiterate, I have no problem with competitive pro leagues, but I do if that league sponsor is responsible for murdering their citizens. Not to mention that this tourny that Varnor lll now leads is being played in Donald Trumps failing golf course in Scotland.

It looks like the LPGA is getting a super star in Rose Jhang. Our sport page calls her the Mozart of golf. I wonder who the Beethoven of Golf is? As for Rose's ascendancy, it might be a good idea to look back at the history of Michelle Wie.   

I was thrilled to wtach on TV both NCAA basketball championship teams at the White House, enjoying themselves with President Biden and his wife and other dignataries, remembering how proud of those teams that won their Championships during the Trump years for refusing to go to the White House and The Donald's pathetic responses that they were "uninvited." 

METAPHOR     by Tom Meschery

 Because I have just read Bob Hass’ poem to Inuit carvers
and later read an essay by Leonard Pttts Jr and marveled
at his composition and later on read that Louise Gluck
won the Nobel Prize for Literature and as the morning
wore on, the air fragrant for the first time in months of fires,

watched with delight on Television Anthony Davis shoot
perfect jump-shots, and later still in the still afternoon,
drowsy in an old man’s need for a nap, reread the part
in Hass’ poem about the whiteness of a softball
that can and would become a world in which all people
shall have almost perfectly white teeth, which implies
a completely different distribution of wealth. My God,

I was stunned that there existed in the world such
athleticism of imagery. Which put me in mind
of my teammate, Lenny Wilkens’ moves, in the seconds
before the lazy afternoon closed my eyes, that one
move I witnessed in a game they won, so quick
and subtle that had he not been a point guard,
in the NBA, he could have been a poet, and the ball
orbiting and dropping, softly, into the net

could have been the metaphor I was searching for
in a game I loved and played but without finesse.    
 

 

 

The 2023East and West Finals and etc

 Who would have believed the Heat are about to become the Champs of the East? I'd need written evidence dated and signed at the time of the reading and plplaced in a sealed envelope marked to be opened a the end of the Eastern Playoff Finals before I'd believe such a prognostication, a five syllable word proving I went to college and am suspicious of prophets. Jimmy Buckets whom I've always disliked by the way he left the TWolves, has by his spectacular performances with Miami made me a fan. People might wonder how this undersized wing gets his shots off. Look more carefully at his fade away jumper, Jimmy has HOPS . Eric Spoelsrtra is one of the best coaches in the NBA. The Heat are going to give Denver fits. They may not win, but Coach Malone will need bedrest after the NBA Championship is over.

Speaking of the Nuggets. Three cheers for Coach Malone, a terrific coach the Sacramento Kings should never have fired. But of course that would have saddle Kings' fans tieh DeMarcus Cousins for a longer period of time, since Malone was actually getting the doofus to play like a real pro. Can't complain., now that the Kings have turned things around with Coach Mike Brown.

Back to the Finals. Lakers' GM Pelinka went from dumb GM for the Westbrook move to smart GM by getting rid of him just in the nick of time and bringing on some heady vets to help Lebron and AD turn their season around. That they got swept is not surprising; the tank was running on fumes by the time they had to face the full tank Nuggets and their NBA MVP Nicola Jokic. Oh, you say but didn't Embid get this years MVP? On paper, yes. But since I don't vote until after the Playoffs are OVER, I select the Serb who loves horses, keeps wiping his nose and continues to prove he's the most talented Big to hit the NBA since Shaq. Sorry, Joel. I really believe you're a great player, but the proof resides always in  clutch time. 

I am now an official Aaron Gordon fan. Denver would have a harder time without his muscle and extra efforts. He has turned himelf into a  real power forward in the tradition of Karl Malone and Maurice Lucas

Side Bar: To the LA Lakers: If you give up Reeves, Vanderbilt, Schroeder, Hachimura, Lonnie Walker lll, or Max Christie to get Kyrie Irving. . . okay, you won't, you promise!!! The Lakers are one more wing defender from making a championship run next season with the health caveat always to consider. 

Great article by John Hollinger in The Athletic this morning about NBA teams' stuckneess through bad trades and looming monstrous luxury taxes. The Clippers and the TWolves in particularly are in bad shape. My Warriors are on his list, but they'll figure it out as long as Bob Myers continues to be GM. Don't leave, Bob. Go out with the Dudes you came in with. 

On another subject: I hated seeing Koepka win the PGA. I just can't root for a player (or players) who plays for a the LIV that is sponsored by murderers. I have no problem with competing leagues, but not a League with blood on its hands, which means the $ has blood on in. Some golfers I really liked jumped to the LIV. Greed is the root of all evil. 

Speaking of lucre. It's time for some of the NBA super stars to take less money so their teams can get better mid level players to help them win championships. I say this only because this new CBA is truly draconian for ownership that has in the past been WILLING  TO PAY EXCEEDING WELL DESPITE THE TAXES. Spread the wealth a little, how about it, guys? Have I said this before? I guess the socialist in mean keeps popping up. Socialism on the million dollar level. I'm loving it. Marx is turning over in his grave. 

Here's my ETC about Life. There are now graduation ceremonies for kindergarteners, my son Matt informs me; he and his wife are headed to one for my grandson Van. This has been going on for some time now, he also informs me. I obviously have not been paying attention. Caps and Gowns? 

I haven't shared this poem in a long time about my high school basketball coach, a legend in San Francisco hoop history. 

Benny Neff

Coach, I loved you. I owe my fundamentals
to you. I do not hold it against you
that you questioned what I was good for
and that your anger wound up as spit in my face.
Those of us who could withstand your anger
learned how to play the game of basketball
so well that we carried it with us into college
and me into the pros. But I remember a boy
trying out for the team you frightened badly,
who ran and you chased him and he swung
Up in to the standard and sat like a bird
perched above the hoop crying while you
threw basketballs at him, one after the other,
and the rest of us, thinking it was funny,
fed you the balls, throwing nice crisp
two-handed chest passes just the way
you taught us, fingers straight, thumbs down. 

that you called me a sonovabitch and

REST IN PEACE JOE KAPP

 I have not met many people in my many years on this planet who lived life with as much enthusiasm and joy as University of California Bears and NFL quarterback great, Joe Kapp. He died at the age of 85 this past  Monday. I find myself honored that I was born in the same year 1938 as Joe, I have a lot of memories of Joe from as far back as our college days when I played for Saint Mary's and he played for the Bears, but so do most athletes of that time. Joes Kapp stories are filled with great athletic exploits, hijinks, memorable quotes, and deeply felt beliefs. 

I wrote the following poem that is in my recent collection of poetry, Clear Path for Joe. 

SOUL

     For Joe Kapp

  

                  Yesterday, among men of my generation of athletes, gray haired, aging

and aged, Joe Kapp, wild man, Mexican/Indian, famous for his exploits

on the football field, still wild, there like the rest of us to honor a great

dead coach, embraced me. And I embraced back, hearing him whisper

in my ear the word, Soul as if he was imparting to me a special secret

he’d discovered on his journey into the valley of dementia.

Too many knocks on the old noggin fuck it who gives a shit, didn’t we

have some good times? Was he telling me I had a soul or that souls

were present in this room, wafting through the air with the bravado

stories of our heroics? Oh, that we were ever so young and athletic

and destined for greatness. Was he pouring from the cup of his mouth

some special knowledge into my ear, a warm and blessed liquid. O My Soul,

was that you, coming to me when I least expect it, announcing your existence

among so many good men, through the mouth of this man, shaman

of expletives, high priest of stories and fists, and laughs, and beers

and hijinks that I recall left us all breathless, filled with good humor? O Joe,

quarterback, who never ran out of bounds because only gringos do, wild,

violent Joe, have you given me a parting gift, a piece of the eternal puzzle?

 

 

Las Vegas, New Oakland City Suburb & NBA New CBA

 Let's get it over with, once the Athletics leave for Las Vegas to join the Raiders, and with the departure of the Warriors back to their original home in San Francisco, the City of Oakland will be without a professional sports team. Understandably, East Bay sports fans will turn their allegiances to the Warriors and the Giants. I can't see Raider fans ever becoming 49er fans. Vegas is not that costly to fly to occasionally to see their once beloved black and white uniforms. There is a pretty good chance I'm hearing that Las Vegas will soon have an NBA team. For Oakland and Berkeley folks, pro sports teams leaving might not be such a bad thing. The property where the A's and Warriors stadium and arena stand is seriously valuable. Perhaps it's time to spend county money on the people of the county. Just saying.

Reading over the new NBA CBA rules is eyes-glazing-over boring for me, but a few things struck me: First, I get the leagues' efforts to level the playing fields between the owners able and willing to spend over the tax threshold and those owners (small market??) that can't or won't, not that some of them aren't as rich as the owners of the Warriors. (No one is as rich as Clips' owner, CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer, so we don't count him.) . I get it. So, the way I read it, there are going to be two tax boundaries beyond which ownership can not go without paying an additional and punitive luxury tax, over and above the one that is in existence now that has been  the crux of the League's dyspepsia and a new one "called an apron" after which the tax punishment will make the word luxury a synonym for reasonable. This sky-high tax will also include further punishment that will deprive said spendthrifts access to mid-level exemptions and certain other player acquisitions. There is nothing wrong with trying to create an even playing field so that all owners play by the same rules. But it does seems to me that there is a disingenuousness going on when the obvious target is the ownership of the Golden State Warriors. (Forget Ballmer. The league could triple the tax and he could still afford to do get any player he wants.)

What's missing here is defining what small market teams are we talking about that are suffering from the Warriors signing players to contracts they deserve for winning four championships in eight years. It might be worth reminding readers that these small market owners did not buy their NBA franchise because they planned on losing money. An NBA franchise is a very sound investment these days. (Check out tax benefits of owning a sports franchise. Pretty interesting stuff.) And, please don't tell me you didn't know owners borrowed most of the money they needed to buy a franchise. So, in terms of investment, what teams help to make NBA ownership such a sound investment? The Golden State Warriors for one, the Clippers for another. Just so you know, the Warriors' owners bought the Warriors for approx 400 million and the franchise is now worth over 800 million. Ballmer bought the Clips for 2.5 billion and the franchise is worth today 9 billion. Holy $! Such rise in value drives up the values of ALL the teams. I think it is also fair to say that it is the so-called small market teams that share in the luxury taxes paid by the over-spending "naughty boys" 

So, who are we really talking about suffering. Is it the game suffering? Are it the fans suffering? Loading up star players work in some cases and not in others. Take the Clips for example, not much luck there spending big bucks for two great players who can't be on the court at the same time because of injuries. I'm not sure if the Suns will be successful getting into the luxury tax with KD, Ayton, Booker and Paul.  

There is a lot that is missing when we talk about creating an equal spending playing field. Let's finally not forget that in 2005 the NBA becomes significantly richer, like big-time richer with the new TV contract and at that time the NBA has significantly increased the cap. Believe me, the star players are going to demand contracts that reflect this rise in dollars. 

I wonder if the NBA is trying to create a league in which a team can only afford to pay two star players max contracts and if they pay a third? What happens? The league boot drops like Draymond's foot on Sabonis' chest? With no ability to sign roll players?  Could this be it? Steph and Klay, and G League guys or Steph and Wigs? Embid and Harden? Joker and Murry? Brown and Tatum? So, maybe, maybe a team can figure out how to pay three supers contracts they and their agents are satisfied with. But I'm predicting it is really going to get messy trying to put together a bunch of solid compatible veteran players on one team that can compete for a championship. The affordable players are guys in their rookie contracts and we know how long it take to whip these youngster, no matter how gifted they are, into real NBA shape. Raise you hand Houston Rockets. 

And finally, let's not forget the fans. Will this even the playing fields enough that they can say they have a chance to look forward to a steady diet of playoffs? I think not. I'm sure I'm missing some nuance, but my gut tells me punishing teams with an additional luxury tax for spending to get good players will not work. There just has to be a better way to create a level playing field. 

I've been thinking a lot sadly about the recent Republicans' efforts to create a climate of fear in our country and the spate of shootings that have lead to the needless deaths of so many young people of color. It makes me wonder if America will ever get free of the death grip of the NRA. Here's a poem that has to do with what's going on. It is heartbreaking. 

HOODIE

 A gray hoodie will not protect my son

from rain, from the New England cold.

 
I see the partial eclipse of his face
as his head sinks into the half-dark
 
and shades his eyes. Even in our
quiet suburb with its unlocked doors,
 
I fear for his safety – the darkest child
on our street in the empire of blocks.
 
Sometimes I don’t know who he is anymore,
traveling the back roads between boy and man.
 
He strides a deep stride, pounds a basketball
into the wet pavement. Will he take his shot
 
or is he waiting for the open-mouthed
orange rim to take a chance on him? I sing
 
his name to the night, ask for safe passage
from this borrowed body into the next
 
and wonder who could mistake him
for anything but good.
 
               January Gill O’Neil