Transcending Sports

As we draw close to Jackie Robinson Day I decided to take time in my blog to reflect upon those athletes who, like Jackie Robinson, transcended sports. But before I get to all of that I have to get something off my chest which has been bothering me the last few days as I watch the nit-wits on ESPN pontificate upon the subject of Don Imis and the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team. To start with it is obvious that Don Imis is a racist, a bigot and someone who enjoys saying such things for shock value. The thing that has bothered me however is the fact that everyone on ESPN keeps saying "the Rutger's Team has come off looking good in all of this by proving that they aren't 'nappy headed ho's' by showing that they get good grades and are well spoken valedictorians." Do you see what bothers me? Let me continue to clarify. Last time I checked in the United States you are innocent until proven guilty, yet the way the pundits on ESPN talk you would think all women must prove that they are not what Don Imis said. The statement is so utterly racist and bigoted you should not have to provide documents proving that you are a valedictorian to discredit Don Imis' aspersions upon your character.

Now, back to my original reason for writing this article: athletes who transcended sports. In my mind the athletes who transcended sports are as follows:

Muhammad Ali

For obvious reasons Muhammad Ali transcended sports when he refused induction into the US Army. This is the reason I think that Ali is most loved and hated for, some to this day have a problem with Ali refusing to serve but as he said at the time "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong no Vietcong ever called me nigger." and who can argue with that. In 1996 Sports Illustrated did a poll of the world to find out who was the most recognizable figure in sports and over 20 years after the day he retired from boxing he was still the most recognizable figure getting over 65% of the vote and Michael Jordan who after all was wining his 6Th championship got less then 25% of the vote. Muhammad Ali was not just a sports figure he was a world figure.

Pelé

O Rei Pelé or The King Pelé. Pelé is hailed as a national hero in Brazil and is a hero to all the poor of the world. Pelé was officially declared the football ambassador of the world by FIFA and a national treasure by the Brazilian government. Pelé was not just one of the best soccer players of all time he was a player who did and does his best to make the world a better place to live. When a war was going on in South America both sides decided that they would stop fighting to watch Pelé play. This has turned in to the saying " soccer stops wars" but if the saying was true it would be "O Rei Pelé stops wars"

Jesse Owens

Owens was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. He was often sick with what his mother reportedly called "the devil's cold". He was given the name Jesse by a teacher in Cleveland who did not understand his accent when the young boy said he was called J.C. Owens first came to national attention when, as a student of East Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio, he tied the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and long-jumped 24 feet 9 1/2 inches (7.56 m) at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago. What made Jesse Owens the man that was loved by the world was not that he could run fast or jump far but that he did it at Adolf Hitler's Berlin Olympics and that Adolf Hitler had to sit and watch as Owens won every event that he entered over the German athletes all of whom were of the Aryan race that Hitler believed to be superior. The look on Hitlers face when Jesse won transcended sports.

The Best There Ever Was Or Ever Will Be

It's April and I'm ready for some football but as I don't have a game to turn on I'll have to just talk about it and hope September comes fast this year. So the other day in my blog I talked about the best players of all time in the NBA and I had a list 1 to 10 and this got me thinking, if I had to do the same for the NFL how would my list go? Now after I thought about this for some time it came to me that it's not the same as in the NBA. In the NBA the players all try to do the same thing and therefore are comparable to one another but in the NFL it is far more divided into specific positions . Who can say who is the better player Jerry Rice or Joe Montana? I wouldn't like to say. So after some more thought it came to me that the best way to do this was to say who the best players where at the positions they played. So this is the blog of the Running Back.

Coming in at number Ten is a guy who helped make being a Running Back cool and had the best run in the history of the Super Bowl, Marcus Allen. He ran 3,022 times for 12,243 yards, 123 tds and a 4.1 average. He added 587 receptions for 5,411 yards and 21 tds.

When you think about doing it all and doing it in the big games the next guy is the name that comes to mind, Marshall Faulk. With 12279 Rushing and 6875 yards Receiving he is one of the all time best.

At 8 you have the guy who is now known for some bad things but he was a great RB, and the first to break the 2,000 yard mark for a season. That's right OJ Simpson.

7 You have the guy who one day could be the best to ever play in LaDainian Tomlinson. With 9176 yards rushing and 2900 receiving to go with a 111 TD's in just six years he could just end all the talk on who the best is.

6 Eric Dickerson. In 12 seasons with the Rams, Colts, Raiders and Falcons he ran 2,996 times for 13,259 yards and 90 tds for a 4.4 average. Added 281 catches for 2,137 yards and 6 tds.

5 Earl Campbell- Ive never seen such a big man run so fast. He was used up by Bum Phillips with the Oilers and Saints or he would have had a longer more productive career. In 9 seasons he had 2,187 attempts for 9,407 yards, 74 tds and a 4.3 average.

4 Emmitt Smith-In 226 games he rushed for 18,355 yards on 4,409 carries, 164 tds and a 4.2 average. He added 515 catches for 3,224 yards and 11 tds.

3 Jim Brown- Some would say he is the best of all time, but with lots of little guys in the NFL back then for him to run over, it wasn't as hard as in todays NFL. I can not see Brown having the same runs in today's NFL. He had 2,359 rushes for 12,312 yards, 106 tds and an amazing 5.2 yard per rush average

Coming in at number 2, the man so sweet it was his name, the one- the only-Walter Payton. They called him Sweetness and when you talk about the best of all time it's hard to think he is ever going to move down this list much. We lost him way too soon when he died, It's far less good a world without Sweetness. He was man who stood for everything that is right in and outside of the game. In the game he had 3,838 rushes for 16,726 yards, 110 tds and a 4.4 average per carry. He added 492 receptions for 4,538 yards and 15 TDs. All this while playing on some really bad Bears teams most of his career.

The The Best There Ever Was Or Ever Will Be- Barry Sanders. Every move beautiful, poetry in motion. Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman wrote of Sanders by saying, "It doesn't matter where the play is blocked; he'll find his own soft spot...The scheme doesn't matter with Sanders. He can run from any alignment. While other people are stuck with joints, he seems to have ball bearings in his legs that give him a mechanical advantage...Sanders' finest runs often occur when he takes the handoff and, with a couple of moves, turns the line of scrimmage into a broken field...Nobody has ever created such turmoil at the point of attack as Sanders has...Knock on wood, he seems indestructible..." The Pro Bowl safety John Lynch said of playing against Sanders, "It's like you're on an ice skating rink and he's the only one with a pair of skates". The late great Reggie White said "tackling Sanders is like trying to drink coffee with a fork".

The Best Of All Time!

So now everyone who thinks they know something about the NBA is talking about " Is Kobe better then MJ?" and everyone and their mother wants to fight about this. I was on NBA.com today and talking to other guys about this and they just about lost it when I said that MJ is not the best of all time, they thought that some how I was saying Kobe is better. I was not, some how this thing is down to Kobe Or MJ and that is it, like they are the only guys ever to play this game and play it good. So now it is my turn to put you all right. You all want to talk about how MJ has more 50 point games then Kobe and how that makes him the best player of all time. Are you all that dumb? Wilt Chamberlain has three times the 50 point games that Kobe And MJ have put together. He is the only guy who averaged 50 a game for a year and when he averaged 44.8 the next year no one thought it was that good but it was more then MJ ever averaged for a year, so do not come to me with some weak ass opinion and then try to say MJ is the best player of all time thanks to having 31 career 50 point games, Wilt Chamberlain had over a 130 career 50 point games so MJ is not in the same world as him and if you think he did any better on 60 point games think again. MJ and Kobe have four each and Wilt Chamberlain has 32, yes that is not a typo I said 32. The best player when it came to puting the ball in the bisket was Wilt Chamberlain and it is not even close.

Now when the MJ fans are not saying he was the best thanks to being the best scorer of all time they as saying something just as dumb. That he is the best thanks to wining more rings then Kobe.... Hello!! Maybe I'm the only guy in this world who knows the name Bill Russell and if that is true let me help you out by listing his honors.

Honors: Elected to Naismith Basketball Basketball Hall of Fame (1975); NBA champion (1957, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '68, '69); NBA MVP (1958, '61, '62, '63, '65);
All-NBA First Team (1959, '63, '65); All-NBA Second Team (1958, '60, '61, '62, '64, '66, '67, '68); NBA All-Defensive Team (1969); 12-time NBA All-Star (1958-69); All-Star Game MVP (1963); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996); Olympic gold medalist (1956).

Now read it one more time and count on your hands you unevolved tree-dwellers the number of times he was a champion. I'll give you a minute.....done? Yeah that is right ten. Ten, it is like he won as many rings as MJ and then was like ' no I think I'll do this three more times just to prove I'm the best at this. Yes one more time, MJ is not the best at this and would be lucky to rank in the top 5.


Oh and in case you are going to say that MJ did all the little things like have more assists a game then the guys who I just mantioned just remember that Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain's career rebound per game average is over 22.5. Bill Russell had 51 boards in one game, 49 in two others, and a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds and as As Oscar Robertson put it in the Philadelphia Daily News when asked whether Chamberlain was the best ever, "The books don't lie." Now I'm not saying that MJ is not a good player or one of the 10 best of all time but before you all start saying it is him or Kobe just remember that MJ did not set the benchmark of execellence Chamberlain and Russell did and MJ is just lucky that he is geting a mention when it comes to the best players of all time.

Last of all when it comes to who is better all time Kobe or MJ here is my list of the best players of all time 1 to 10.

1 Wilt Chamberlain

2 Bill Russell

3 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

4 Oscar Robertson

5 Shaquille O'Neal

6 Kobe Bryant

7 Michael Jordan

8 Magic Johnson

9 Larry Bird

10 Jerry West

Playoffs! Don't talk to me about PLAYOFFS!

With the NBA Playoffs just around the bend it is time to look at the standings and talk about the match-ups. After a lot of thought I think the West is going to stay the same for the last 16 games. So with that in mind here is the first round of the West Playoffs and how I think they would play out.

#1 Dallas
#8 Golden State

#2Phoenix
#7Denver

#3San Antonio
#6L.A. Lakers

#4Utah
#5Houston

So looking at this one by one starting from the top, I think that Golden State would give Dallas one hell of a series, as evidence the fact that Golden State is 2-0 this year against Dallas, but in the end I like Dallas in 7 games.

Phoenix and Denver is going to be fun TV that's for sure, I think the only question in this series is whether or not we are going to see a defensive play or not. My money is Phoenix playing just enough defense to get the job done in 6 games.

San Antonio and the Lakers, I'm sure you all know what I'm going to say but before you say I'm being a homer let me say this, the Lakers are 2 and 1 this year against San Antonio and the one loss was thanks to a buzzer-beater. Lakers in 6 games.

Utah and Houston, this should make for some of the best played and best coached games of the year. I think in the end the experience of Houston is going to pay-off. Houston in 7 games.

So after the first round if my memory is not letting me down the match-ups would be as follows.


#1 Dallas
#6L.A. Lakers


#2Phoenix
#5Houston

Dallas and the Lakers. This is very hard for me to call. I think Dallas is over-hyped and the Lakers always fight to the end. This is going 7 games for sure and I like the Lakers 101 to 100 in game 7. Like I said this is going to be hard.

Phoenix and Houston. This to me comes down to that fact that Phoenix just has too much fire power and I do not think T-mac can put up 50 in every game. Phoenix in 7 games.

So now we come to it the Western Conference Finals.

#2 Phoenix
#6 Lakers

Would it be too much to ask for the Lakers to best the top 3 teams in the West one after another? It could be, but on the other hand if they come this far with out going home I can not see Kobe letting them fall to the Suns two years in a row. This time it is the Lakers in 6.

This is all for now but look out for my Eastern Conference Playoff breakdown.

The Race For MVP

The race for MVP is on and in a lot of minds Dirk Nowitzki is the leading candidate but not in mine. If someone asked me today who I would give the MVP to I would start by saying that they should not have an MVP as it is an utterly subjective award. As for me I think that Shaq is always the MVP because without him a team with D Wade could not get over the 500 mark but with him they are on an 8 game win streak. Now I'm not saying that Shaq is going to get the award but he should. He is the Most Valuable Player to his team. Now on the other hand Shaq did not play most of the year and I know some of you are saying 'how can you say he is the MVP." It is true that Shaq was out for most of the year but what I'm saying is all that showed was just how valuable he is. So after saying all that I have to say that this award is more Best Player than Most Valuable Player. If you are going off of that criteria then my Best Player of the year award list looks something like this.

1. Steve Nash- His 20 points and 11 assists a game speak for themselves but he does all the little things too like leading the team in taking charges.
2. Dirk Nowitzki- The best 7 foot shooter ever, he does however have a problem coming through in the clutch.
3. Tim Duncan- The best power forward in history. Need I say more? How about 20 and 10 a game and the only thing that gives his team a chance of wining the west.
4. Kobe Bryant- Yeah Yeah I'm a homer but you all know damn well that you do not want to play the Lakers come playoffs and he is why. He could just go off for a 100.
5. Tracy McGrady- If we are talking best player this guy should be on every list.
   

" NBA -- it's No Boys Allowed."

Yes the NBA is No Boys Allowed or it is in the mind of anyone who knows the game like nine time champ Phil Jackson, Jackson told reporters " "That's crazy. That's a vendetta. They have a witch hunt going on. That's nuts. [Korver's] riding somebody. Everybody does that in this league.

"It's just becoming a witch hunt now," he said. "I know it's not a contact sport per se, but it's a physical game and there's a lot of intimidation," Jackson said. "I think that Kobe plays the game within the bounds. There's a certain rule that we have in this game about how to play it. The men play it. That's why it's called the NBA -- it's No Boys Allowed." Bryant has received two one-game suspensions this season for throwing elbows in games, once against the Timberwolves' Marko Jaric , for which he was whistled for an offensive foul, and the other against the Spurs' Manu Ginobili , where he didn't receive a foul on the play. The Spurs said after the game the it was not a foul and it was in no way a dirty play. Kobe is thought by most who know the game to be the best player in the game today and not to be in anyway a dirty player.

"It's insulting," Bryant said before the slumping Lakers flew to Denver for Thursday night's game against the Nuggets. "I don't need to be a dirty player. That's just ridiculous. I'm not a dirty player -- never have been, never will be."

"It is an after-the-fact type of thing," Jackson told reporters, "and that is bothersome. They have the advantage of looking at videotape. "We wish they would correct some of the mistakes they make in a ballgame the same way," he said. "There's a couple of games that probably could be swung, won or lost, by some of the calls they [could] correct after the fact. But you can't do that in the game. This all looks to be true, so in my mind I would have to go along with Jackson in saying this is a "witch hunt" It is hard to see the NBA doing the same thing to a Lebron James or a D Wade, not that they should anyway as Jackson said this is the NBA- No Boys Allowed. It looks to me as if the only crying little boys in the NBA are Stu Jackson and David Stern, Maybe they should stop the "witch hunt" and go back to what they do best, telling the players what they should look like when they come to the game and making sure that they do not talk back about the officiating!"

What a day, what a game

In one of the best games of the year the Suns won over the Mavericks 129 to 127 in double-overtime. Steve Nash played like an MVP down the stretch and Amare Stoudemire had 41 points and 10 rebounds, carrying the Phoenix Suns in a thrilling game between the NBA's top teams.Nash scored 10 points in the final minute of regulation, forcing overtime with a 3-pointer in the closing seconds and when the time came to win the game Dirk Nowitzki could not get the job done. This is the one thing in my mind that makes the Suns the better team and I think that world is going to see it come playoff time. The Lakers got good news today that star F Lamar Odom is going to play in the next game this is very good news for a Laker team that look to be falling out of the playoffs. If Lamar Odom plays the way he did before he was hurt this is going to make the Lakers a hard team to play come playoffs. As I said what a day, what a game.

The News

NFL,

So the NFL year is over and now it is time to make your team better to try to do what the Colts did this year and that is win it all. So who is doing the best job so far, In my mind I look at three teams. The team that is doing the best job of getting better is the Patriots and in my mind they have made all the right moves. If you do not know what moves they have made this year then you have not been looking at ESPN anytime in the last weeks. They have made all the big name move, like singing Adalius Thomas and Donte' Stallworth the best moves hands down. They now have maybe the best player in the NFL outside of LaDainian Tomlinson at QB and a number 1 wide out in Stallworth and if all that did not make them the best, the singing of Adalius Thomas did, one of the 5 best players on D in the NFL and maybe the best, he gives them a big game playmaker on that side of the ball. The two teams who have made the next best moves are the Rams and the Titans. The Rams got a number 3 wide out in Drew Bennett and the Titans got maybe the best CB in Nick Harper of the Colts.

NBA,

In the NBA it is more of the same, the Laker players get hurt, the Suns, Mavs and San Antonio win. Nothing that is very more then a little odd. It looks to me as if this year is going to look a lot like last year come playoff time. My money is on a Miami VS Suns, Mavs and San Antonio, Not sure yet who is going to win the west. The Lakers look as if they could fall out of the playoffs all together. They just have too many players hurt, if they do not come back before the playoffs I would have to say they are not going to do much to any of the good teams in the west. As for Miami they have done just what I thought they would do, Wade would get hurt and it would be the Shaq of the 2000 Lakers who would save the day.... Who am I kidding no one saw this coming but here it is the Shaq of the 2000 Lakers putting up 30 and 15 a night as Miami wins and wins. Look out west or you just could go down to the East this year the way you did last.

You A Fool

So it is February 21st and for the NBA GM's that means just one thing you got one day to go to make you team better for the playoffs or next year. The talk this year is all about the Lakers going after Jason Kidd and as always the thought that this could be the year that Kevin Garnett is on the move maybe to the Lakers or one of the playoff teams. The Nets are saying they would let Kidd go for the 19 year old Lakers Center Andrew Bynum but the Lakers are not that dumb they are not going to give away one of the up and coming stars in the NBA to get Kidd. They know what they have in Andrew Bynum. It could be Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe all over but this time no fights just the rings. As for Kevin Garnett no one very sure if he is going to go or if like every other year it is just talk, The Lakers would love to have him but as just said they are not going to give up one of the best guys on there team to get him. So for like all of the world we just have to sit back and see what the next move is going to be and if the Lakers do give up Bynum to get Kevin Garnett or Kidd I just have one thing to say about it, In the words of Kevin Garnett " you a fool"

Howard, Anthony To Replace Yao, Boozer..Damn right

Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard and Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony have been named by NBA Commissioner David Stern to replace injured West All-Stars Yao Ming (right knee) of the Houston Rockets and Carlos Boozer(left fibula) on the Western Conference Roster for the 2007 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, February 18 in Las Vegas. So now the one thing we have to ask is how in this world did they not get on it to start with. As far I know Josh Howard is the number two guy on the best team. Some are saying that it was the 15 games that Carmelo did not play that hurt him or that he is just not that good. So to start with I want to say he is that good, this is a bad man. We are talking about a guy who can go for 50 on any night of the week and a guy who is the 2006-07 SCORING LEADER! I'm just happy that they got it right and put Carmelo Anthony in the game and I would say look out East Carmelo could be a little mad when he gets to the game!

All Star Weekend

Aww the sweet sweet sound of ESPN's talking heads turning red as they are told that LeBron James and his friends D Wade and Carmelo Anthony are going to miss this years dunk contest. A new year same old same old the guys who are good do not want to dunk and the guys who want to are no good. The best that we can hope for is that one of the guys and get Kobe Bryant to stop judging the contest long enough to show them how it is done! We all know who the best in the NBA are and no one is going to think that you are the best in the NBA for wining a dunk contest with out Kobe or LeBron or D Wade in it! I think they would be be better off just not having a dunk contest or they are going to have to get some names to come for something other then judging! All-Star Weekend is all about the fans and if the only guy they know is judging I do not think they are going to like it to much!

Erik Hay

Colts and more

So the Colts won it all and now we can all stop saying that Peyton Manning can not win the big one! So all of the guys one ESPN are going to get off his back now right...haha No never just hours after the game they had to start on just how good is he and does he need to win more then one Super Bowl. Look All i'm saying is can we all just get off his back for this year find something new to talk about and some other guy who can not win the big one, Manning did it! now I do not think we should give him a pass, after he does not want one. On Monday, as Manning spoke to the media as Super Bowl XLI’s Most Valuable Player, he asked not that the media stop scrutinizing and criticizing, but more that he not be judged based on this year. At least not in the future.
Some past Super Bowl champion quarterbacks, he said, get a pass for poor games or poor seasons, their reputation as a Super Bowl winning sometimes covering for mistakes.
No pass, Manning said.
No way. No how.
“I don’t want the pass,” Manning said Monday, a day after the Colts’ 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. “I want to be held accountable each year, and each year my goal is to be a better quarterback.
“I feel like I should be because of the experience I gained this year.”

So now to the NBA.

The Mavs are looking good as we all know and the Suns just win all the time and you can never say that San Antonio is not going to win it all as long as they have the big 3, But as for me I think that you could see alot more upsets this year! The Eastern Conference can go to anyone who wants it ( Miami in my mind) But as we all know the West is best. Now a team that is on the move is the L.A. Clippers they have won 7 of 10 and are playing more like last year, Look out for them to make a run. Denver was a team that all of the world loved when they got A.I but did not live up to all of the talk! The Team that is doing the most with players no one knows by name other the Kobe is the Lakers. At 30 and 19 they are 2 games back of San Antonio and a very good team! I think you could see them make a run come playoff time! Look out NBA the Lakers are comeing!

All for now!

Erik Hay