The world we live in is interesting to say the very least. I remember my father always telling me that a man is only as good as his word. In other words if you say you are going to do something, make sure you do it. Jesus believed this same idea as seen in Matthew 5:33-37:
Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
It seems that this idea of letting your “Yes” be “Yes”, and your “No”, “No” has been forgotten in professional sports, specifically the NBA. Just yesterday there were reports of LeBron James telling free-agent Trevor Ariza that he would be staying in Cleveland past this year. Today, there have been reports that this is not necessarily true. If LeBron said he was going to stay he needs to step up and say, “Yes that is what I said”. Unfortunately that will never happen. If LeBron James stepped up right now and said “Listen, I am planning on testing free agency next year, but Cleveland is my first choice” would anyone have a problem with that? It could possibly affect some of the free-agent signings they make this year, but there is always a possibility that something could happen where LeBron never plays again.
There are numerous examples in the NBA where yes no longer means yes. Joe Dumars could not give Avery Johnson a straight yes on whether he would retain him past one year (see “When coaching isn’t enough” for more on Dumars), so Avery pulled his name from consideration for the Detroit Pistons job. All Dumars needed to do was be straight with Avery and say, “You know I will probably be looking for another coach in a years time, you are more of a stop gap for this year, until 2010. We are going to try and make a run at LeBron James and I want to bring in a coach that fits LeBron’s style”. Hedo Turkoglu went back on his acceptance of the Portland Trailblazer’s offer and decided instead to sign with the Toronto Raptors. Carlos Boozer did a similar thing to Cleveland in 2004. Clay Bennett the owner of what is now the Oklahoma City Thunder originally had said he wanted to keep the Seattle Sonics in Seattle, when he was really just lying to keep people off of his back. The examples could go on and on in the NBA.
Obviously not everyone will follow the idea of letting your “Yes” mean “Yes” and your “No” mean “No”, but how different would the NBA, professional sports, and the world look if people followed the simple idea of keeping to your word, even if it means having to do something that is unpopular or not what you personally might want to do. What do you think?
It’s never a good sign when one of your players states that they will stay with your team only if your team contends. Dwayne Wade who will be a free agent come next summer (2010) has already stated that if the Heat can become championship contenders again in the Eastern Conference that he would be interested in sticking around. Unfortunately, the Miami Heat only boasted a 43-39 record last year which gave them the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. With teams like the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic picking up some big name free-agents it will be important and necessary for Miami to look to restock and put in place some players to help take the burden off of Wade. If the Heat are hoping that players like Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley, and Daequan Cook are the players that will take Wade and keep him around, they are most likely mistaken. The Heat should be seriously pursuing a big man to contend with the likes of Dwight Howard, Shaquille O’Neal and even Kevin Garnett (although not a true center).
According to the Boston Herald and sports agent Bill Strickland, Rasheed Wallace is set to join the Boston Celtics for this upcoming year. Wallace was set to have meetings with Orlando, Dallas, and San Antonio but has told his agent (Strickland) to call them off. With Wallace, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Rajon Rondo, the Celtics look poised to make another run at an NBA Championship. The Eastern Conference is shaping up in to a conference that will have 3-4 top teams with other teams scrambling to maintain relevancy. Cleveland, Orlando, and now Boston have all made big off-season moves to bolster their line-ups.
Being an athlete who excels in professional sports is tough, maybe one of the most difficult things in the world. That is why there are so few of them. But something that may be even more difficult than being a professional athlete, is being the coach of those professional athletes. In no other job are you criticized for the failure of your team and then forgotten about when your team does well. Being the coach of a professional team is a job that requires you to shoulder the blame when things aren’t going well and then step into the background when your team is doing well. Coaches must love to coach and must be willing to do just that, coach.
While coaching is important, it seems that we have now entered a time in professional sports where a coach can no longer coach or attempt to bring about change on a team. Typically when a coaching change is made it is a chance for players to hear another person’s voice and allow for the new coach to do some things differently, but how often is to often to change? A New York Times article highlighted the short leash that NBA coaches are on, that article can be read here.
Since when did coaching in any major sport become something that changes when the weather patterns do? An interesting study although extremely time consuming would be to look at the number of coaching changes that have occurred in the major sports (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) over the past five years. For basketball Jerry Sloan has been coaching since 1988. During that time there have been over 225 coaching changes. Did you read that number??? That means that there is on average 11 job changes every season. Remember, there are only 30 teams in the NBA so that is a little over a 1/3 of the teams every season.
By no way am I saying that every coach should be kept, but the firing of Michael Curry that occurred yesterday is a bit frustrating. Curry wasn’t a great coach after only getting the team to a 39-43 record, but look at what he was given. He had to deal with Allen Iverson in a mid-season trade that was anything but beneficial to the Pistons. Joe Dumars is quickly becoming the Matt Millen of the NBA with 5 coaches now in 9 years. Dumars needs to make sure he gets it right with this next coach. Typically, the most successful franchises are the ones who “stay the course”. In the NFL you have the Pittsburgh Steelers, MLB you have the NY Yankees, in the NBA you have the Utah Jazz. Does consistency mean you will win and make the playoffs every year? Of course not, but there is something to be said about consistency. All I am asking is that given the current state of our country, economy, and speed of life, one would think that consistency and staying the course would be appropriate and important.
A Yahoo! article that I Read stated that Yao Ming could possibly be done playing basketball…forever, that’s quite a hit to the Rockets. The article even goes as far as saying that the team should pretty much be blown up and start fresh. That is of course after the team went to game 7 agains the Lakers this year in the Western Conference Finals (I love sports authors who think it’s easier to start over versus building on what you have). Here is the article: Rockets could lose Yao for season or more.
The great female tennis player Chris Evert has taken something of a shot at some of today’s female tennis players. In an article on ESPN.com Evert talks about how the shrieking has gotten out of hand in women’s tennis,
“It is distracting when you are hearing this and I think the grunts are getting louder and more shrill now with the current players.”
While I agree with Evert I think that her and Martina Navratilova need to relax a bit. Navratilova has gone as far as saying that shireking or grunting was considered cheating, according to the ESPN article. I could deal without all of the moaning, shrieking, and grunting, but I could also deal without Sergio Garcia regripping the club 10 times before he hits the ball, NBA players going through a free throw shooting ritual which includes everything except for getting a drink before they shoot, and place kickers having to walk off the distance between them and their place holder (don’t you think if you have kicked the ball as much as some of these guys you could just walk right to the spot, I mean the fields are marked every yard for goodness sake). All of these things are part of these sports and shouldn’t change just because it bothers some people. Here is the article though for your enjoyment: Evert: Shrieks distract from matches.
Yes, the title is bold and yes, I am a fan of soccer. So before you get all huffy puffy at least hear me out my reasons as to why soccer will never matter in the U.S. Soccer as everyone knows is a global phenomenon. In a typical World Cup year viewing records are set boy those who watch the final. For the 2006 World cup ti is estimated that 26 billion individuals watched the World Cup at some point during the tournament. Of those 26 Billion the estimate is that 829 million were from North America and the Caribbean. This was with every game being broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2. That number compared with every other continent is so small that it is almost laughable. Europe brought in 5 billion, Asia had 8 billion, Central and South America had just under 4 billion, Africa had just under 5 billion, and the Middle East which isn’t even a continent but is broken out for statistic purposes had 847 million. The numbers themselves show how little attention is truly paid to soccer in the U.S.
Many will argue that soccer is growing and that bringing over big named players and allowing people a chance to watch will increase viewership and this may be true to a point. But whether soccer lovers want to admit it or not, soccer is not fast enough for American viewers, the stretches of play are too long without a stoppage, and the sport suffers from an identity problem.
The speed of play in soccer is actually quite amazing. When watching a fast paced soccer game there are few sports in the world that rival it (possibly only ice hockey or badminton). The problem for America isn’t necessarily how fast the players are with the ball, it’s the fact that the scoring and scoring chances aren’t frenzied enough and defensive games are normally not played in front of one team’s goal. In any of America’s favorite sports scoring can and does typically come in bunches. That’s the first reason why Americans don’t enjoy soccer.
Along with there not being enough scoring or the speed of play not being fast enough is the fact that halves are too long for most American viewers. Every major sport that we have has commercial breaks built into it. You can get up and go to the bathroom, grab a drink, look outside and still only have missed a Viagra commercial, a truck commercial, and a trailer for a movie. Soccer isn’t like that. You are sitting for 45 minutes without a break. Could you imagine if an inning of baseball lasted 45 minutes straight. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey all have natural built in breaks and commercial breaks so they are easier for people to watch.
The last reason and maybe one of the best reasons that soccer will not matter in the U.S. is because it suffers from an identity problem. Most soccer fans are the guys who didn’t play American football. In our macho man America those Football players woud never be caught dead watching a soccer game, it’s just “not manly enough”. The reason it isn’t manly enough is because every little kid plays soccer. So it’s a little kids game, not a game played by men. While David Beckham brought lots of little girls out to games, he didn’t fit the image of a guy you want to follow or a guy you would necessarily want to hang out with. Imagine if Tom Brady played soccer. If he played soccer and were marketed the way he is with football, that would bring in more men to the sport and would also get it covered a bit more. Until soccer is seen as a sport that men play, it will continue to not matter, at least in America.
