Back Up Your Shit, Washington

First of all, fuck the Washington Wizards. I don't care at all for them. I'm all about trash talking and playing good defense. But when a team continues to talk shit and play extremely physical basketball while losing, well they can go to hell. I'm not disappointed by their institution of the LeBron Rules, but more upset at their approach. Instead of carrying a big stick and speaking softly, they carry a twig and cry. They have resorted to thug tactics, as evidenced by Haywoods blatant attempt to injure LeBron that got him ejected.

And if that wasn't enough to make you deplorable, please, don't taunt the opposing home fans when trailing the Cavaliers by 20 in the 4th quarter.

The entire Wizards team is the culprit here. They have no sense whatsoever. Fine, call LeBron overrated. But don't get upset when he dunks on you repeatedly and freight trains his way into the lane every possession. Call us beatable. But don't act like babies expecting the refs to give you every call. Did the Wizards get jobbed on a few calls? Yeah, probably. But the argument could be made that it was a result of their own incessant whining more than anything else.

I really had no problem with the Wizards before this season. I thought they were a fun team to watch with potential to do well. If they were truly sick of losing to the Cavaliers in the first round for two consecutive postseasons, then they should have let their play do the talking. Instead they chose to prod the Eastern Conference Champs and are paying for it. Its all backfiring. The lack of an emotional response by the Cavaliers players has gotten into the Wizards psyche and they have made it personal.

There is something else in this series that seems to garner less attention than the bickering Wizards. LeBron has truly grown into the leader of this team. Sure, he was the unquestionable leader in years past. But now he knows the role and has figured out how to handle his teammates. One example of this is when Gilbert Arenas starting chirping at Delonte West. Delonte gave him a few words back and Gilbert became increasingly agitated. LeBron stepped in and scolded West and went on telling his entire team to stop talking to the Wizards.

He has also succeeded at making this series personal without making it personal. There is no doubt he knew what Stevenson said about him. Thats why in the opener he stared Stevenson down after a dunk and went so far as to use Stevenson's taunt against him. It was classic. But, unlike the Wizards, he didn't change the way he plays the game. He takes outside shots and drives when he sees the opportunity. He still kicks it out to open teammates and trusts them to make open shots.

The Wizards, on the other hand, have tried to beat the Cavs individually. Arenas takes terrible shots, Jamison tries to score on his own, and Butler drives to the hoop with his head down whenever he gets the ball. There is no semblance of team left. They better get their act together, or this series is going to be over by Sunday.

A Couple Steps Forward, A Few More Back

A Couple Steps in the Wrong Direction

Last night I turned on ESPN to check out my beloved Indians take on the Red Sox. All the players insisted that this series doesn't mean anything more than any other series. But we know the truth. This two game set means something to both of these teams. The Indians were sitting at a dismal 5-7 record; not the type of start I had expected from a team that many pundits picked to win the World Series. Last night seemed to be what would set the Tribe back on track. They pitched well, played good defense, and had some timely hitting. Until the 7th inning. They let the Red Sox chip away at a tenuous 3 run lead and handed the game over to Joe Blowrowski. And guess what? By the time he hit the dugout its 6-4 Sox.

Now its only about 13 games into the season and every team has the time to turn it around. But it can get pretty late in the season pretty quickly. The Tigers have are 3-10 and have the worst record in baseball. They can't stop giving up runs and are finding it increasingly difficult to score 8 runs per game. But the sad truth is this: the Indians are only 2 games better than the Tigers. And what troubles me even more is that Eric Wedge is really trying to win games. He's using Rafael Perez and Rafael Betancourt almost every day, like this is some sort of late September pennant race. I think its time that the Tribe make some call ups to address the closer situation. Adam Miller should get an opportunity to close games out and if he doesn't work, then put in Kobayashi or Betancourt. The fact of the matter is, Joe Blow served up an 81 mph fastball right down the pipe to Manny Ramirez. You don't save games that way. And for the Indians, a 5-8 record can turn into a 13-20 record real quick. Hopefully they can get the season turned around before the bell tolls for them.

Up and Comers

I had the chance to watch the Yankees and Rays play last night as well. First off, the Yankees may really be in trouble. Their starters are not going to get the job done this season. Wang is solid as always and Pettite is good for a few quality starts per month. But Kennedy and Hughes need to be more consistent. And as the season progresses, the innings are going to pile up and they will be fatigued. The Yanks bullpen looked dismal against the Rays last night. I don't know who was pitching, but he got blasted twice by BJ Upton and Evan Longoria.

Speaking of which, BJ Upton is a star in the making. He has the speed, the fielding, and the hitting acumen to make him the next Torii Hunter a rung above Torii Hunter. Pairing him with Evan Longoria really gives the Rays a potent lineup. And don't forget about Carl Crawford in the mix. This team can be really exciting to watch this year. All they need is some consistent pitching, and thats about the hardest thing to come by nowadays in the Majors.

The Diamondbacks also seem to have a young and exciting team. Their rotation is stacked at the top with Dan Haren and Brandon Webb. The jury is still out on Micah Owings but he looks to be promising. They also have the other Upton brother Justin who is batting .388 right now and is near matching his older brother's power numbers. The third basemen Mark Reynolds has been putting up some impressive numbers to start the season but its unlikely that will last. If he can keep up a certain percentage of that pace, then the Diamondbacks could have a very good team that knows how to win (as evidenced by their 90 win season last year with a negative run differential).

Whats even more interesting about this seasons is that the supposed basement teams are leading their respective divisions right now. The Orioles are on top in the East, the Royals in the Central, and the A's in the West. Nothing is really guaranteed right now. But if they stay on top for another month, they'll have a good lead going into midseason and the supposed contenders will have to play catchup. The teams in most danger right now are the Indians and the Tigers. I don't think the Royals can keep up their current pace, but the White Sox have found their batting groove and have the pitching to win ballgames down the stretch. I just hope the season doesn't get too late too fast.

Sorry Ladies and Gentlemen, The Olympics are Political

Quit whining you Olympians. You of all people should know that the Olympic games are inherently political. When you have athletes representing their countries in competition with athletes from other countries, well, that is political. That 100 yard dash might as well be a battle in the Sahel region of Africa. Except without the genocide and starvation. And people win stuff made of precious metals instead of plundering the stuff. If the Olympics weren't political, then it'd just be athletes from around the world showing up for a huge sporting event. The biggest draw to the Olympics is that nations are pitted against each other in competition.

However, this isn't necessarily friendly competition. During the Cold War all we cared about was defeating the Soviets. Even though they accused us of doping and we accused them of doping; when in reality they were all probably doping. The point is, the Olympics have been used in the past to further political ends because nations can make a point without consequence. Remember in Munich, Jesse Owens dominated his German counterparts and put to rest the "supremacy" of the Aryan race. And Germany used the Olympics to demonstrate the power of German technology by broadcasting the opening ceremonies across the world.

Arab terrorists killed Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972 and the whole world saw because the world pays attention to the Olympic Games. If the Arabs had done the same thing during some international meet in Djibouti, nobody would have paid attention. The Israeli's would just be more deaths chalked up to the Arab-Israeli conflict. President Carter's boycott of the 1980 Olympics drew attention to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the atrocities being committed in that nation. When a powerful nation refuses to participate in the Olympics, everyone wants to know the reason. It is the best publicity a cause can get. If we want to take the politics out of the equation, then we have to take the countries of the games and therefore defeating the purpose of the games altogether.

Currently there have been protests at the Olympic torch relays across the world due to China's crackdown in Tibet a few weeks ago. I understand that for the athletes carrying the torch it is a moment of honor that they will cherish for a lifetime. And I genuinely feel for them when some idiot with a fire extinguisher charges them en route and tries to put out the sacred flame. But with the calls from world leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy and President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies, the athletes must understand that its a well calculated policy move. The world can pressure China immensely to improve their dismal human rights record without any consequence. China won't cancel the games because that would only hurt them economically. Nor can they lash back because then the calls for reform would be justified. By hosting the Games, they have opened the floodgates to criticism from the international community. And if getting China to treat its citizens like humans takes a boycott of the opening ceremonies, then athletes should understand and acquiesce.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

What a tournament! Even though the Final Four went according to plan and the four top seeds made it, this will be one to remember. We still had a Cinderella in Davidson and Stephen Curry. The little team that could beat Georgetown and Wisconsin behind Curry's silky smooth jumper. Not to mention the fact that Davidson was one possession of defeating the eventual champion Jayhawks.

But more importantly we didn't have a UNC-UCLA finals matchup. I'm sick of these schools always dominating the national spotlight. UNC is a media darling and an 18 wheel bandwagon for fairweather fans across the nation. Sure North Carolina has a rich basketball tradition, but so do a lot of other schools. They've been living off Michael Jordan's legacy for the last 20 years and will probably continue to do so. But fans forget that UNC probably doesn't have as rich a tradition as the East Coast bias would have us believe. Before the Michael Jordan era, UNC was hardly a tournament regular but had some finals appearances to their credit. Honestly, they are small beans compared to UCLA.

The Bruins have inarguably college basketball's greatest tradition. They won 10 titles in 12 seasons under the great John Wooden with 7 of those being consecutive. But due to their location on the left coast they are mostly forgotten about and take a back seat to UNC and Duke during most of the season. I really wouldn't have minded a UCLA - Kansas finals because it would have pitted two very good basketball teams with rich traditions against each other. And plus, I probably would have won my bracket (which didn't dictated who I was rooting for). However, the game that fate provided us was more than adequate.

I loved this Memphis team. Ever since they narrowly missed the tournament a few years ago due to an excruciating loss in the Conference USA finals to Louisville, they've been my darling. That loss occurred after Darius Washington was fouled on a 3 point attempt at the buzzer. He collapsed at the line onto the floor after failing to tie the game in what was probably the greatest moment of pure sports agony I've witnessed on a nationally televised event. I can't do the moment justice with words, so just watch it. Appropriately, Memphis' national title dreams were dashed by their inability to hit free throws in clutch situations. This has plagued them this past season and ever other season. I don't understand why Calipari doesn't make this a focus of his practices. Or Boeheim for that matter.

However, through my strange allegiances in college basketball, I've always had a crush on Kansas. My traditional teams have been Arizona, Kansas, Texas, and Michigan. Obviously Syracuse had made its way into the rotation because of my affiliation with the school. But I always love to see Arizona, Kansas, and Texas do well. And I probably used to give them a little more credit than they deserved in past brackets.

This Kansas team was too talented not to have won a title in their tenure. They had to put up with Roy Williams basically deserting them for UNC. Brandon Rush and a few of the underclassmen could have left after that, but they stuck with Bill Self and righted the ship. And they exacted their revenge clinically on Williams' UNC team in the semifinal game. Congrats to the Jayhawks and Tigers for giving us a thrilling championship game. Either way, I would've been happy with the outcome. That being said: Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!