A Little Bit of a Lot

Do yourselves a favor and read the article in The Athletic today about Ukranian Slava Medvedenko, Shaquille O'Neal's backup on the Lakers' teams of the early 2000's. Slava is defending his country from Putin's army. It is a story of bravery and resolve. He has invited Shaq to come to his home country to visit and appear in support of the Ukranian people. The minute  the playoffs are over, Shaq should go. 

I've become a big fan of Marcs Thompson's sports writing. How can you not with lines such as these, talking about our dear Dubs: "The Warriors have shown they can take their foot off the pedal. If they've got room for error, they're not above using it." Makes an old retired rhetoric teacher's heart glad. Let's not take the foot off the pedal tonight, okay?

When I read that the Sacramento Kings have hired two assistant coaches and it is not mentioned that newly hired Coach Brown has not approved the hire, I start to worry. Hiring assistants should be exclusively the job of the head coach, not the job of the GM or the owner. 

Absolutly loved the comeback by the Warriors reserves two nights ago. Kerr kept them in even after a worried Coach Kidd brought back his starters. The comeback continued until the 25 plus deficit was reduced to 8 points. Might have been interesting to see what the reserves could have done had they been left in after that. I believe in miracles. 

Glad to see the 49ers comitt to Trey Lance at QB for next season. Also delighted to see that the Raiders are evaluating Colin Kaepernick as a back up QB. What I saw breifly on TV, Colin looks in great shape. Congrats to the Raiders for showing some courage, giving Colin that chance to prove himself when no other NFL team had the cajones. 

Joel Embid complains about not being selected NBA MVP, "What more can I do?" He asks. Okay, for starters: learn to shoot deep 3 pt shots like Jokic; learn to pass/assist like Jokic; learn to facilitate the offense like Jokic. End of story. jokic is Chapter One, you're Chapter Two. 

Great Coach Kerr line about Luka Doncic, "He can make 3 pt jumpers in his sleep." I think Kerr was talking about nightmares. Still, the ball stays in Luka's hands too long. When the rest of the Mavs' team is handdling the ball and getting shot opportunities, the Mavs are a much tougher team than when they rely mostly on Luka. Tonight at Chase Center we'll see if the Warriors can close out the series. 

Don't forget WNBA star, Brittany Griner, a prisoner in Russia. Write letters, Email, Instagram, get on Facebook. Get angry sports fans!

While 50 Republican Senators refuse to pass a basic gun control law HR 8 that would tighten background checks, another 19 elementary school children have been murdered by a guntotting crazy in the town of Uvalde,Texas. (The greatest of shame upon you senators.)

The following poem was written after the Nazi airforce bombed the city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. God will do the same for the dead children of Uvalde, I pray.

IN GUERNICA THE DEAD CHILDREN   by Norman Roston

In Guernica the dead children were laid out in order on the sidewalk

In their white starched dresses.

In their pitiful white dresses.

On their foreheads and breasts, the little roud holes

Where death came in like thunder

While they were playing their important summer games.

Do not weep for them Madre

They are gone forever, the little ones

Straight to heaven to the Saints

And God will fill their bullet holes with candy.

 

Wiggins, My Take & The Kings

Mainly the question Warrior Andrew Wiggins' presence poses Is he the wing answer to the Warriors concept of deep shooting, defense and movement? This year, really the first year that fans should judge his performance, Wiggins played like a star through the first half of the season and was named to the starting five on the West's All Star team. Some pundits questined whether he belonged. I didn't. That is not until the second half of the season when Wiggins game went south or north or whereve disinterest or confusion or lost spirit takes a player. I texted coaches and knowlegable NBA sources, what was going on with Wiggins? How could a player who played so well before the All Star Game, play so unenthusiastically the rest of the way? I got all sorts of possibilities. None satisfied me. Wiggins is a 6'7" swift, leaping, slashing, shooting wing with a 7 foot wingspan. Past perfomances prove he is cabable of sustained greatness. Why then, now does he not perform at that level all the time?My wife, who is an artist and sees life in terms of esthetics, joked that perhaps Wiggens sees himself as a ballet dancer and not a pro-basketball player. "Ha, ha!" I said. Later, I began thinking about what Melanie's joke. What if? Which is the question one always asks oneself if one is a mystery writer, which I happen to be (See my website Warrior14.com for info. on my upcoming first mystery novel) What if Andrew Wiggins doesn't see himself as a star? I played in the NBA for 10 years. I've been around the sport all my adult life, even while I was teaching and in retirment. Every NBA star I ever knew or every spent any time examing possessed a very strong and clear image of himself as a GREAT player, a STAR. There are no modest superstars. They may say the right things and people may thing they are being modest, but it is fiction. They actualize how they see themselves. And they see themself in the heavens in the galazies of brilliance. The more I thougt about this, the more it made sense to me. Every thing i've ever heard about Andrew Wiggins is that he is a gentle, thoughtful young man and a great teammate. What if the answer to his inconsistency is his inability to visualize himslf in the role of a superstar. In some ways I understand. I was selected to the West's 1963 All Star Team. If someone had asked me back then was I an All Star, I would have probably said no. I had a good season, that was it. That response for all intents and purposes predicted the way I would play and whee my game would lead me. For the next nine years until I retired, I was a reliable, defensive minded, rebounder, an important cog in the machine of the team, but I would never be an All Star again. 

Back to Adnew Wiggiins and his performances in this seasons playoffs. Suddently Wiggins has left whatever kept him playing so lacklusterly in the second half of the season and is playing like an All Star. His guarding of Super Star Luka Doncic (Here' a guy who has a firm image of himself in the role of super hero) was magic. What I'm hoping for is this: Andrew Wiggins is finally seeing himself as a bone fide super star. 

Cloe your eyes Wigs. There's a picture there. It's of you flying through the air dunking on Wilt Chamberlian, or of you slashing past Bam Adebayo, or sinking a three over the outstretched hands of Magic Johnson. It's you. You beleong you belong in the same realm as Steph and Klay and LeBron, and KD. 

SACRAMENTO KINGS

A couple of quck thougts about the Kings. They lucked out by jumping from the 7th lottery postion to 4th and a chance to get a really solid college player in the draft. The most essential thing right now is that the owner Vivak Ranadive must get off the dime and externd GM McNair's contract so the Kings will finally have some continuity. McNair has earned it, making some difficult but smart moves, so that for the first time since I moved to Sacramento, the Kings have a chance to create a playoff team. No ownership meddling any more. 

Ode to the Golden State Warriors 2015    by Tom Meschery

 

One small change and the line reads: 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 much luck, timing, and the stars triangulate.

 

      

          

Today's Warriors vx Mavs & etc

 How to stop the Slovenian Superstar? t=That is the question. Whether tis noblier to have Klay guard him or Andrew Wiggings or suffer the heartgache of Draymond getting into foul trouble early. Must give the Warriors pause. To stop Luka is devoutly to be wished, but why not stop the secondary shooters? And not dream of stopping Doncic and suffer the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that his jumper from all angles will inflict? 

This is my answer to the question about how to stop the Slovenian Star. Make of it as you wish.

And without the Shakespeare, the Dubs better stop the errant passes, turnovers, "throwing the ball around like a canine owner playing fetch with his dog." Compliments to whoever wrote this on Facebook this morning. 

Ime Udoka called out his two veteran stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for letting the team down in the second half of their first game of the Eastern Conference series against the Miami Heat. Some might say it was unwise, considering the Celts had a perfect excuse for their second half woes, the absense of their toughest defender, Marcus Smart and arguabley the second best paint defender in Al Horford, the Dominican star who my wife insists is French because of his long eyelashes. But no. Coach Udoka did not fall into the excuse trap. He learned well under the tutelege of Pop in San Antonio. If your vets are never called out, the rest of the team will seee it as favoritism, not somethng you want when dealing with a bunch of professionals, all no matter bench players or not, with big egos. You set standards or you don't. If you don't, you will perish as a coach in the NBA. Go, Coach Udoka!

I'll not pretend to know at this point who the winner of the Western Conferece will be. If the Warriors can stop their turnovers and limit their opponents to difficult shots with no seond chance shots, the Dubs will be victorious. On offense, they have too many weapons for the Mavs, who relie almost entirely on Luka. If Luka is smart and become a true point guard and shares the basketball with his teammates, and said teamated make a high % of heir shots, the Mavs will win. 

As for the East, I have to admit that Butler, Athogh I don't like him, a reason I made clear in a previous blog, is a bona fide Super Star. I do believe that the Celts will win if they get Smart and Horford back. Miami will win the next game in Miami. The Celts win both games in Boston, and the next two for the Conferenc championship. 

Which leads me to my next question, which is one of my favorite NBA pet peeves. Why on earth are MVP and other league awards awared before the end of the Playoff???? Is that enough qustion marks? Dumb and dumber! Monty Willims did a hell of a job during the season, but I offer Steve Kerr and Ime Udoka and Miami Heat Coach Spoelstra as better complete ecamples of the total season. MVP, sure the Joker deserved it, but what is the 76ers had won the East and Joel Embiid kept up his maginificent league performance? What about Jayson Tatum? Butler? Best  defender. Okay, probably got it right with Marcus Smart, but what if he flopped during the playoffs. Does he still deserve the award if he can produce defens in crunch time? Most imporved? How about Jordan Poole? Maybe not, but why not wait until the most important part of the seaon is over, wait until we see who produces at the highest level during CRUNCH TIME? Awards before the playoff are STUPID. And the NBA should not want to look STUPID. 

An etc pet peeve. Please comment if this bothers you as much as it does me. When watching golf on TV, why do commercials get the bigger of the split screen? Is it all about greed? I hold my hand up and shiled the ads in order to see the teeeeny figure of Jordan Spieth hit one hell of a drive that I can baredly see if it was a wide screen and damn near impossible on the little teeeny weeny screen that the PGA offers me. I want to see the putt, I don't want to be distracted my a beer commercial or a ROLEX ad. Who gives a sh-t?

Let's keep sending weaposn to the Ukrainians. The underdogs are making life miserable for Putin's army. Putin is not doing well in his version of the playoffs. No MVP for him. And when will our governent stop dragging its feet and shut down every single money-grubbing Russian oligarth from their money??????  

Brtttany Griner, hang in there. We love you.

It's baseball season. Here's an old standard for an old standard.

HITS AND RUNS   By Carl Sandburg

I remember the Chillicothe ball players grappling the Rock

     Island ball players in the sixteen-inning game ended by 

     darkness.

And the shoulders of the Chillcothe players were in red smoke

     against the sundown and the shoulders of the Rock

      Island players were a yellow smoke against the sun-

      down.

And the umpire's voice was hoarse calling balls and strikes

     And outs, and the umpire's throat fought in the 

     the dust for a song. 

Im

Playoffs 2022 & etc

 The playoffs are well under way and I'm behind writing about the games. I might have had something to say aboutr the TWolves surprisingly strong showing and not surprisingly final loss to the Griz. I might have said the TWolves need a smarter point guard who they don't need to score but can defend. I might have said that Parrick Beverley often looks as crazy as Wiley the Cayote as he mistakes leadership for physicality. (Is physicality a real word?). And physicality for brute force. That said, the TWolves would not have gotten as far as they did without him. I might have said all these things, but I didn't. I've been usy editing the galleys of my upcoming first mystery novel: The Brovelli Brothers: The Case of the "61 Chevy Impala that is due out sometime in November. There, I got in some early advertising. 

It is the second round. Joel Embid is out with and injured eye and a concussion. Without Emibid, the 76ers have no chance to defeat the Heat. I am totally sorry for Joel, who I like as player immensely. I do not like James Harden, although I realize he is an offensive weapon. Read the adjective anyway you want. The way Harden has disappeared in close important games and the way he left his Rockets and Nets teammates offends me.  I wish Embid well, I do wish he'd not decided to leave his Cameroon Olymic teaam to join the French team. Coould it be Hardin's personality is rubbing off on him? The heat wins. The Heat wil not win the East. 

The East belongs to /the Greek Fleet -of-Foot nd his teammates who will finally defeat a tough Boston Celtic team. Can the Bucks win it all? Not without Middleton.

Now that sharpshooter Booker is back, the Suns look to be the overall strongest team by position and reserve strength. They will defeat Doncic and the Mavs. I worry about Doncic. He over controls the Mav offense. All one has to do is compare the way he plays point guard to the way Chris Paul  does off the dribble. It seems to me that Luka looks for his shot first and teammates second, the reverse of what CP3 does.I was hoping Jason Kidd who change the way Doncic plays point, but I was wrong. 

My Warriors and Memphis Griz will battle to seven i'm afraid as long as they allow Ja Morant to score over 40 points a game. In the end, the Dubs will win because they are more patient and have the edge o deep playoff experience. One can't help but be impressed with Ja. There are only three players at the guard position that I can equate his skill set too and they are Earl the Pearl Monroe, Pistol Pete, and Allen Iverson. 

In closing, the NBA has got to do something about the refs constantly reviewing every singe hit to the head or rough body contact. I understand the importance of eliminating dangerous plays, but the excessive delays interfere with the flow of the game. And I daresay sometimes to detriment of a team by changing the tempo. 

Here's a small poem I've used before but it seems appropriate during Playoffs/ I let you decide why. 

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. 

 

Ba

Individual Glory

 I'll begin with ETC: Should the Dodgers have pulled Clayton Kershaw out after 7 perfect innings? It's the beginning of the season, why not. How could it possibly affect the long term success of the Dodgers? Another two innings? Even if Kershaw was shelled in the next inning, the Dodgeres were up by 7. Personally, I can't see the scenario happening. I don't watch much baseball, but I just happened to watch that 7th inning performance. Kershsaw looked STRONG. so why the hell not give him a chance for individual glory? I get it that as the season moves on, the focus needs to be TEAM FIRST. Kershaw himself did not make a fuss, going with the team first concept or should I say the "party line?" THERE IS NO "I" IN TEAM. Hogwash! Larry Colton, a one time Philly pitcher in college playing for  the University of California in Berkeley, pitched19 strike outs, the school's record that remains unbroken.. No players today, he reminds me will be able to challenge his single game strike out record. Why? Because coaches don't  allow their pitchers to pitch a full game. I'm not arguing that limiting time is best for a healthy conclusion for pitchers in baseball. For that matter, it's better for all athletes to give their bodies more rest. The NBA has taken this physical fitness strategy to it's illogical extreme, but that's the subject for another blog. Still, imagine a scenario in which Steph Curry in the 4th quarter, the Warriors up by 25 with 2 minutes to go and Curry is one basket away from going ahead of Kobe Bryant's 84 points second best point production record behind Wilt's 100 pts. Imagine Steve Kerr pulling Curry. It wouldn't happen. Individual Glory is dangerous. The Romans knew that. That's why as a conquering Roman legion paraded into the capital led by the conquering general leading the way in his chariot, riding in the chariot with him was a slave whispering in the general's ear of the temporary nature of individual glory. 

And while I'm on the Subject, of Individual vs team, I'm having a big laugh over college football coaches going nuts trying to figure out how to deal with their individual players earning money from their names and all of the ramifications of NILs.  s they say, that horse has already left the barn. There's going to be hierarchy like the NFL and there's very little colleges can do about it. Individuals, right? 

And while I'm on he subject of Individual Glory - and this is a very minor grip - can someone tell what the purpose of having no player names on the back of jerseys except to drive fans' watching crazy? 

The following pome closes this blog nicely, From the book This Loss Behind Us: Pint-Size Publications. 

HIGHLY REMUNERATED DAYDREMWERS by Jack Bedell

What are they thinking abut between pitches?
What's Jimmy contemplating as he looks into the glove? What's Andre musing over with hands              on hips?
Are they reviewing  the possibilities?
Are they daydreaming of girlfriends and ribeye steaks?
Is the all-star in the outfield trying vainly to divide 20 million by 162?
amusing himself through the innings with the comforting notion that by the time he emerges
       from a nice hot shower
and addresses the media in the clubhouse and deals with the hordes who need to
       get a life and
then drives away in luxury to whatever pleasure awaits,
he will have earned another $120, 000 or so?

The meter runs in between pitches, you know.
While the man on the mound
paws the pitching rubber with cleated feet -
fleep - another $146 in the coffers!
What are they thinking about in between pitches?
Not what I'm thinking.
Which is why they're playing the game, and I'm up here
doing long division.