You can't win just showing up

I'm gonna get this out there get it out of my head and be done. There are a lot of sports franchises who suck for one very important reason:they hire a bunch of players who don't make any noise and are just happy to show up and have a job.

First case in point I give you the Memphis grizzlies when they first got here they drafted a bunch of scrappy I wanna leave it all on the court guys. Now they may not have been loud mouths or show boats but they went out there and they played hard. Fast forward 8 years, other then a few guys trying to either increase their trade value(Rudy gay, OJ Mayo, Marc gasol and probably Zack Randolph) they mostly have a team full of guys just happy to show up and be getting paid. Now some might say I am being unfair to the four I pointed out, but I'm not because even if they didn't want to be traded if you look at how the grizzlies management has handled the team over the last 5 years if you are good, and are productive they trade you to save cap space(for what I have no clue whatsoever). I mean the grizzlies used to have Jason williams, Shane battier, Pau gasol, kyle lowry(not a household name but dude is the type to go out there and give you energy and hustle for however long you have him on the court), Bonzi Wells, Stromile Swift, Mike Miller, and earl somebody's who's name I forget right now. With those guys they had back to back playoff appearances(except for lowry) they didn't win a game but hell neither did the timberwolves for a while it just takes time and experience.

I already ranted about the grizzlies loss on friday by 10 points when they did not score for the entire end of the game. Which is a pride thing, because after that game if you had pride and couldn't muster up enough strength to make the next team you face pay you don't deserve to pick up a basketball. As much as it pained me to read about it when the raiders got called a "practice squad" by the giants what did they do they beat my eagles, because it was pride. A few weeks later they beat the bengals, again pride we deserve to play in this league too maybe we don't have all the right personnel but you will respect that we CAN beat you. I will include my sixers in this as well yeah you sign a big name or two to sell tickets but your not signing pieces that can actually help your team. SO your not going anywhere.

Because of his last two wide reciever picks(MONSTAHS can I say that, Desean Jackson if he doesn't make the probowl next year something is wrong, he's hurt so I don't know if he will get to 10 TD's this year and 1000 yards but before the injury he was on pace hell he was about to probably set the 50 yard or more TD reception record for a season and jeremy maclin ain no slouch either just needs another year of seasoning is all) I am letting Andy reid off the hook. Before last year Andy would always pick "character guys" read this as guys who won't talk too much or get into on the field or off the field issues. Problem is this quiet guys were always quiet especially in big moments. If you wanna show boat or trash talk on the field fine, I don't mind a guy who wants the spotlight because that means he will be fearless when it's crunch time. When you need a guy to give that extra effort so folks will remember his contribution to the victory, the comeback, the stand quiet guys will always let you down. They shy away from the spotlight, they just wanna collect a paycheck.

This is not to say NO quiet guys can't be good, Marvin Harrison comes to mind and yes he was good and didn't bring a lot of drama but he's a rare talent. Which when you think about the numbers your looking for a needle in a haystack made of a bunch of other needles found in haystacks because thats what sports are. There are soo many players, schools, overseas teams, development or "minor" leagues. That for you to find a good player who can contribute for years in any sport is a long shot, you get better odds at a craps table in vegas. Usually a good sign though is somebody who wants the spotlight. A guy who wants to be the one to hit that walk off home run at the bottom of the 9th inning game 7 of the world series. The man who wants to go up and catch the jump ball in traffic on that hail mary at the end of the game. The player who wants to shoot that buzzer beater and win the game. In basketball I would say ray allen, I mean have you ever heard ray allen's name in anything he has a good career shooting average and points per game average. His game is steady, Reggie miller without that killer instinct(because Reggie was a trash talker ask a knicks fan about Reggie miller).

Don't get me wrong there are some guys out there who are all mouth and no action as well, so getting the loudest guy isn't a cure all either. But you want that guy who when your down 20 points in the third quarter is looking at you pleading with you to put him in the game, that James T Kirk type if there is still time on the clock we can do something. Who sees the 11 guys on the other team coming at him free but doesn't think I'm about to get killed but this is how I am gonna make these guys miss. Who has the ice water in his veins closer staring daggers at him and is thinking I'm taking this sucker downtown give me your best pitch.

I have had this gripe about sports as business for years. Mainly because in this drive to make themselves seem more palatable to the corporate dollars they forget why the corporate folks were so interested:the people in the stands. You give the people in the stands that everyday Joe who works his 9-5 or 5-1, 6-2 shift and just wants to go home relax and watch a game. Maybe have a beer, the folks that even if you go 0 for the season show up if you played hard and say damn we sucked but we never gave up, a break here or there and maybe we go 500, hell maybe we even have a winning season. Any competition is a test of wills, preparation and luck. Because you can be the best in the world and still need to catch a few breaks, have a shot bounce off awkwardly, have a ball that flutters hit your finger tips and bounce into your body not away, have that high fly ball not lose as much momentum as you thought and sail into the stands fair. That wrister go under the goalies pad and not catch just enough to stop short.

Give me a guy who wants the ball whether your winning or losing, who sees the paint as his own personal domain and nobody better even think that they gonna get a rebound, the guy who sees a ball over the middle not as a death sentence but as an opportunity to bounce off and run 30 yards for the score. That inside fastball as the game tieing or winning home run, that break away as a chance to stone the other teams best scorer.

That is what made me fall in love with sports as a kid, watching guys go out there and say you think you can beat me prove it.

It all boils down to Vengeance

I was thinking Sunday night after watching Ninja Assassin, that as I look at any and all ninja stories I don't care who's they are basically all a story of vengeance there may be sub plots but it's still about vengeance and if you think about it, because of the job description well can you blame them.

This about it they are assassins, somebody wants someone else dead because of a past wrong done to them. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Master splinter and the shredder enemies because shredder killed splinters master.

Okay let me head the geekdom train off now before I go on a tangent(technically I just deleted part of the tangent) and focus on Raizo(played by Rain who I'm slapping myself upside the head about I'm trying to figure out where I had seen Rain before it was in last year's speed racer as Taejo togokhan). Raizo is a bad mutha shutcho mouf. The rebellious son of the Ozunu clan, he is on a mission to destroy that which created him.

I like the way this movie was done, it mixed in some of the mysticism, a lot of the weapons(especially the staples), some of the history, a whole lot of action and some blood and gore. Now while I am not a fan of blood for bloods sake in a movie like this, yes you need it. I am also wondering with the way this movie was rated exactly why couldn't Tarantino show the crazy 88 fight scene in full color. Another mild digression, the problem with this movie is if I start to give too much back story you will be mad at me, because this movie is just that tight. Yeah yeah maybe the name will only appeal to guys, but it also has a love story(or two) woven in, as well as some drama, some mystery, and a little bit of wise cracking humor.

I will say this the fact that a human life is worth 100 pounds of gold to some people, hmm I feel honored. And if you ever get a sealed letter and it shakes like there might be sand in it, don't open it and if the sand that is leaking happens to be of a dark hue turn all the lights on.

Go see this movie, Raizo is the best man to do it since the dragon was entered, the fists got pissed, and the chinese made a connection. When I say you will see some tail kicked, you will some some straight up and down aw hell nah I ain going out like this, Raizo ain playin wit them. You have to go see this movie, I don't care if you got to do a trade off with your girl for an extreme chick flick this movie is worth it.

What was the question?

Allen Iverson aka the Answer. Former NBA rookie of the year, former MVP, multi year scoring champion, allstar MVP. There have been rumors swirling around that he might return to philadelphia and let me tell you why I see this as a good thing, there has been a lot of trash talked over the years about allen iverson but a few things cannot be disputed: the man can score the basketball his career scoring average 27.0 a game(lowered because he only averaged 17 due to sparse minutes in detroit and12  this season in 3 games with memphis it jumps up to 27.8 if you remove the last two seasons). In a league where some teams don't have players averaging over 20 points for the entire season his career average is 27 points. There is also some dispute about where or not the man will pass the ball he averages a respectable 6.2 assists per game, this is a guard 6 assists a game is considered a good game, he averages that for his career. He averages 3.7 rebounds a game for his career this man is 6 feet tall and he fights amongst the trees, Allen Iverson has always been the captain of the NBA all heart team. Oh and did I mention the steals

2.2 for his career and to put it in even more perspective the men got triple digit steals every year except for this year and his year in detroit, yup he had more then 100 steals every year which means these claims of not playing defense, not going all out for the team are bull.

Let's also put another lie to rest why Iverson wanted out of philly, it was the same reason Charles Barkley left. You ask a man to lead you team to the playoffs and win and you give him sub par talent with which to do it. For Barkley I will never forget the quote " I asked for Shaq and they got me Shakleford" he needed a dominate center in the middle to help him out and they got him a body who could give the team 6 fouls. A man puts it all on the line for you and you give him no support of course he will be bitter. For Iverson I know who it was Kevin Ollie, Kevin Ollie never worked out for the philadelphia 76ers but he was cheap. And 6 times ollie got a contract from the Sixers his numbers never improved, he never added more to the team yet they kept bringing him back. Why he wasn't helping, he wasn't a piece for the future he was just a cheap guy you could throw out on the court. And for a guy who would go out there and play hurt, who would challenge the giants and get hit every game, who would lay it all on the line, I can't blame him.

Allen Iverson was a Philadelphia kind of player: all heart, no quit, it wasn't about the personal accolades it was about the winning. You wonder why he didn't work in detroit simple Iverson needs a big dominant center for his game to work, suprisingly the year they went to the finals First they had ratliff who got hurt then they got mutumbo. The main difference between ratliff and mutumbo Ratliff scored more points. Way more points, so when they got to the Finals yes the lakers had to worry about mutumbo blocking shots but they had no worries about him on the offensive end.

As for the memphis grizzlies man please, let me read you the list of players memphis has traded away in the last 8 years: Jayson williams, Bonzi wells, Stromile swift(but he game back and left again), Shane Battier(dumbest trade ever all dude does is whatever you ask score a little, rebound, block some shots, the consumate 6th man), Kyle Lowry, Pau Gasol. Now while Pau's heart may have been questioned a time or two all of those guys did one thing the current roster members don't they play their hearts out all game and sometimes will the team to win. The memphis grizzlies starting point guard shouldn't even be a back up in the league. He is not a leader, for as long as he has been a grizzlie he has been the safe guy, the quiet guy the guy who will just go in there and basically disappear. Which may be great in a movie but if you want to win the game you need players on your team who can not only score but who can inspire their team mates and help them kick it into another gear. On Sunday Memphis lost a game 98-88. With like 3 minutes left in that game I believe memphis was up 88-78, thats right for 3 minutes memphis DID NOT SCORE, you have a 10 point lead, with 3 minutes left and you can't score a single basket? Nobody drove the basket trying to force a foul.

This is where you need heart players at, this is where you need guys who are gonna refuse to lose a game that you are winning wire to wire and the other team just decides at the end we just want it more. and no they weren't caught with a bunch of 3 pointers the other team basically drove to the basket on them and scored 20 points, the last 20 points of the game. Yet some people wanna lie and say the current starter is their point guard of the future, really thats the kind of leadership you want out on the floor for your team you wanna go scoreless in crunch time? I know memphis if they went scoreless it was because they shot a bunch of jumpers at the end. Yet they didn't wanna start iverson, He would have drove no way in hell you lose that game if iverson is on the team because he wants to win, he is a competitor.

I hear talk about Iverson being a ball hog, um how many assists a year did he average again? I don't care what "Team Ball" lie you tell yourself if you want to be a champion there has to be one guy who dominates the ball on your team and other players who can be counted on to just fill there role.For Chicago it was jordan, for detroit it was Isaih Thomas then chauncey billups and rip hamilton, for philly it was doctor j, for san antonio it was Tim Duncan, for Houston Hakeem olajuwan, LA it was first magic then shaq then kobe, For miami it was dwayne wade. One guy who you know was gonna get the ball when the game was on the line, yes you could have other good players on the team but they had to compliment the star. People may not like to admit it but on those first 3 laker title runs shaq was the man, he was the center of the triangle for the last one Kobe finally found some players who could compliment his style. And if we go back to Jordan the current mark of Excellence for this era of basketball we are in do you remember how many game winning shot's he hit on their way to finals glory?  think it was one the last one versus Utah I believe jordan hit the final game leading or winning shot. Before that the guys who closed the door Bj armstong, john paxson, craig hodges, steve kerr hell I think even pippen closed one out.

Why because game on the line one man is expected to get the ball, you expect one man to beat you and you want to stop him. The man you knew you had to stop was jordan which meant as long as those other guys fulfilled their role and hit that open shot when jordan drew all the attention they would win. You can lie to yourself all day, if you don't have a guy who not only wants the ball when the game is on the line but that has proven he can make the defense react and respect his presence on the court you are rarely going to win. Plenty of teams in the NBA with a bunch of "nice guys" on the team, no overly forceful willing to just collect their checks and be local celebrities maybe do a little flossing. But who's the guy who when you step on the court you know damn, I gotta tough night cause I gotta guard him, he ain gonna go down til the final whistle is blown.

I said when Iverson first got to memphis that hopefully he gave the team a heart transplant because they needed it, unfortunately it seems the team just wanted the free ticket sales. Allen iverson is a philly style of player, if it ain just about making money, if it is actually about basketball you bring him back. The real AI never left the court unless it was drenched in his blood sweat and tears. He's the type of guy that when he comes back we cheer because we know he gave us his all. If your gripe is that the players we have in philly now may suffer because iverson comes back, um they weren't winning. They are so lackluster that they couldn't even save the coach that was a former beloved player(and won a title for us) yet you wanna tell me AI shouldn't come back cause he ain the answer? No truth be told he should have never been allowed to leave, you stock a team full of decent starters and then folks on the bench who add nothing to the team but some possible flash to show on a commercial. Maybe they go on a streak and get some press so you can sell a jersey or two.

Nobody can deny that Allen Iverson is a Hall of Fame player, some say best to play the game at 6 feet or under. There are some players who should NEVER wear a different jersey. In philly we have allowed quite a few of those players to leave, in football this year we had Brian Dawkins leave, the captain of our defense the guy who kept our D going and we just let him go, in basketball that trade 3 years ago by the Hack Billy king was a mistake. I could see if what Iverson was saying was untrue, but please if a guy never makes your team better he is just sitting there collecting a pay check(and you have given him multiple tours with the team) I prefer you tell me the truth and basically fight to get your team made better then to just be a company man and throw slop on the floor every night and claim it is beautiful.

As touchy as this subject is for me I'm surprised I made it this far without a curse or hitch, cool. You disagree be my guest, but if AI was wearing his jersey again on the team that drafted him, I wouldn't have a single problem with that.

Space the final frontier

I meant to do this the last week but I will today. I bought the star trek(2009) dvd when it first dropped because I was a fan of the original show, TNG, watched DS9 and Voyager from time to time, I never really had time to get into Enterprise though. For those who don't know the original show is of course Star Trek, TNG stands for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and DS9 stands for Deep Space 9 there have of course been at least 8 movies, 20+ years of conventions(I have never been to one) lunchroom and internet wars about which ships are better trek or wars(wars usually wins unfortunately applying the laws of astrophysics as you knew them at the time versus saying to hell with it I'll make my own kinda put you at a slight disadvantage) and so much merch that you could bury yourself 20 times over in it.

Just like Star Wars, Star Trek gave it's fans a glimpse at interactions with worlds and species that amazed us all and had us wishing we were born just a little bit later. It made being a geek kinda cool, looking up at the stars day dreaming not so much a waste of time but a ponderance of things to come. It backed us off from the narcissistic view that in this vast universe of ours this is the only place that life could be done right.

So the 2009 movie what did it do right, pretty much everything because most of us have seen the majority of the back story for star trek most of the original show, probably all of the movies to try to recreate all of that would have been a failure. A twist, one that was introduced in a star trek movie(as well as used various times in the shows, the time paradox) allowed J. J. Abrams to say okay I admit it all happened before but I want to make slight and subtle changes. Changes that were pretty much all for the better.

Things we had all heard about but never seen the Kobayashi Me rue the infamous test that only James Tyberius Kirk had ever won(and if you watched the special features you see exactly how he got the cheat to work), we all know he cheated, we all know Spock knew he cheated but just never saw the actual test. We also got to see how Bones got his nickname, Uhura's xenolinguistic skills, Chekov's brilliance. Oh wait I do have to make a minor complaint I did not here "Captain I'm giving her all she's got" everything else about Simon Pegg's Scottie revival was fine but just like Bone's "Spock are you out of your Vulcan mind" before he miraculously figures out a way to put the ship back together better then it was before they were in trouble Scotttie always sounds like Captain Pessimism and then makes the old girl fly faster then she was ever meant to. Even if I didn't do a movie review previously the movie was great if you were a fan go buy it if you weren't originally a fan go rent it then go buy it(yes you will like it).

As for the DVD (I got the special collectors edition) I loved the extra's seeing not only how the writers, producers and director thought about trying to tackle this Beloved piece of movie and TV history(if you think star wars fans are cultish check out trekkies, I mean trekkers, I mean star trek fans). Galaxy quest which was a movie basically making fun of the phenomenon that was star trek was a hit mainly because well it said what we all did about star trek in a way that was comical not insulting.  Granted it would have been nice to hear how the Red shirt felt about you know being a red shirt.

For those who do not know until The next Generation when they switched the command tunics from gold to red(security is now gold, and medical is blue) Command (captain, first officer, usually most of the bridge crew) wore gold tunics, Science officers/medical(just what it says) wore blue, and cannon fodder, engineering, and communications staff wore red.  I must be playing right, there was no such thing as cannon fodder in star trek, yes there was go watch any episode of the original show if you left the ship wearing a red shirt you were not coming back. That was it, you were dead okay wait if you were Uhura or Scottie you would make it back but anybody else nope sorry the lesson to be learned by everyone else by your death was greatly appreciated but you weren't gonna make it. Hell if there was a space battle on the ship you weren't gonna make it. If you were an extra on a star trek episode after season one and they handed you your costume and the tunic was red you knew it was a one time deal, just forget it find the exact time in the show when you were gonna get you 2 minutes of fame tell ya fam and prepare to head into the ether.

And (you have to hurry up and watch for Captain Gung ho cause seriously if you didn't know dude was about to die well your clueless) the scale of the ship and the ships in the universe were there this time. I think that was another small failing with the original show, it always made the ship look so small. Star Wars everything was on a grand scale, and star trek was more demure. Now while it may have been the bad guys ship at least it looked like a monster, it appeared menacing like you were going to have to claw tooth and nail to beat it. And while like everyone else I slightly disagree with it seeming to be built on planet(really JJ we couldn't have it built in space?) the fact that along with the technology of today it seems that they have pushed it forward again. I mean if you look back most of the gadgets they had in the original star trek series we now make use of. I guess that is of course the difference between science fiction and science fantasy can you actually go on to create the devices they are using. For most of star trek yes, for star wars not so much(yet I ain giving up on getting my lightsaber).

And the extras on the DVD are really on point it gives you a look into exactly what the project meant to all involved. And seeing some of the original characters was great, I am still griping about my lack of Klingons(they are in a few deleted scenes but you never see their faces) I am sure they will be in the second movie though.

Thanksgiving

Let's see what do I have to be thankful for?  A day off, as usual these are few and far between. A vacation next month with my wife you really can't have too healthy a relationship with distance because sooner or later you will want to feel the arms of the one you love. That me and my siblings haven't killed each other for another year, we are all opinionated people and lets just say if you knew us you'd be just as surprised as I am.

I'm thankful for some of the interesting people I have met here online for good or ill. It's kinda funny folks would think I am of the monolithic variety because of my skin tone and my political affiliation. Thing is just because I think one thing does not mean I am unwilling to listen or even consider another approach, just don't expect me to join your movement if it's half cocked and only directed at in some way shape or for dumping on me as the constant bad guy. How stupid do you think I am, if there is a problem that I am working towards fixing and you have no solution you just want to complain at how I am addressing the problem, yeah thats not an idea thats backseat driving and guess what if you are unwilling or can't take the wheel then I reserve the right to decide the destination.

I'm thankful for being black in america, there are somethings that one obviously cannot understand unless you view it through the right lens. I see how easily people ignore the truth around them because for the most part it does not effect them, their ignorance costs them nothing and their denial causes them to be popular. Problem is you can't get anything done if all you ever do is deny that something needs to be done, if you constantly say where you are is the best that you can ever be. I may not know the whole story but I do know there are many more chapters to write and that I want to be a part of that writing and that editorial process.

I'm thankful for being a man, not that there is anything wrong with being a woman. Hell so many things right with being a woman, but I kind of like the fact that I can help define something that many feel is lacking or invisible in our world today. Oh we have plenty of folks out there acting like tall children but not many willing to stand up and do the hard part, and it ain always glamorous or gonna get face time with a camera. But how often do you look at the dirt and realize without it you wouldn't have any food? I mean in all honestly without the base one cannot have a building. The bottom of the food chain is actually more important then the top. Because without the little stuff to feed the food of the big stuff guess what disappears?

In a puzzle there is no unimportant piece, because if you do not have all the pieces the puzzle cannot be completed. Oh there will always be folks who don't like the puzzle you picked, or the picture once it's completed or even will say they could do it faster, but regardless if you don't have all the pieces the puzzle cannot be finished. So I enjoy being the unique piece that I am and I'm thankful for a chance to help complete the puzzle

A day of thanks and introspection

By the desktop it is officially thanksgiving, and I had a weird thought in my head on thanksgiving I'm gonna sit and think about where I am, what I've been up to and how things have either changed for the better, stagnated or gotten worse. I've added some widgets to my page so things are about to get interesting, because the blog is the only place I'm gonna cut down on the cursing, so if you're used to (and while I have had some read ain nobody subscribed as of yet so it's some but who knows how many) the rather laid back and pg-13 stylings of  my Blogspot blog understand twitter is about to take you through a whole new door.

I've seen a few movies lately, I bought star trek, I just watched notorious for the first time, so I have plenty of stuff to talk about, and tomorrow I will officially have time to do it., and I plan to make use of such time to blog, tweet, and release a few pent up items in my mind. I use blogging as my own personal therapy whether angry, concerned, sad or exhausted hitting these keys allows me to free up some space in my head and as of late I really haven't had much time to do that, so on a day that I do look out. I plan to blog bomb these spots just random postings out of no where.

Who knows maybe I'll get blog spot above 35 or 40.  As for mile stones hmm I'm not really that big on celebrating them, though I do plan to make a big deal out of my 10th wedding anniversary, I found a woman to put up with me for 10 years whew she has to be a saint because I damn sure ain no angel.

As goes my daily process life happens

What can I say some weeks I never stop working so that by the time I get back to the house I'm too tired to doo much but veg, and I haven't even gotten a good veg session in for quite some time. I think as best I can tell I either have the worlds worst cavity under the filling in my right rear molar or it just needs to come out right now.  few weeks ago I bit down on something no clue what it was, but since that day my right rear molar has been the enemy. I drink something sweet, it hurts like hell I wake up in the morning it hurts like hell. I make the mistake of biting down on something with it again it feels like it's trying to throb it's way out of my skull.

Now in a little under 2 weeks I am heading on a 3 holiday vacation to see my wife in atlanta, I say 3 holiday because I am heading there on the 9th, I will be there for our anniversary(personal holiday), my birthday(and thus christmas being a christmas eve baby), and then new years. I may do a review of the star trek DVD I bought it last week and have been watching the hell out of it, probably will go watch ninja assasin too(because that movie looks like the bomb, I'm a kung fu fan and that movie just screams you have to see this) tomorrow is thanks giving, while my wife isn't hear I guess it will be nice to have a day off with lots of food(even if the tooth traitor will probably not let me enjoy most of it).

Not a big shopaholic so black friday means nothing to me, at all still have to sell a few stocks so that I have some vacation money when I leave.  I sold a large chunk of ford already trying to decide between etrade, sirius and wamu right now, or fannie and freddie. GM is too low to make it worth while.