Rick Carlisle's a series of unfortunate events

Rick Carlisle, you have my sympathy.




You are a very good basketball coach. Arguably even one of the best in the NBA. Yet, you have been fired from your job twice in the past 5 years.

In 4 season with Indiana you went 181-147 with a winning percentage of .552. Your teams averaged 45 wins and 37 losses. This, by NBA Eastern Conference standards, is very good.

You did not pull the trigger on the trade that sent Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson packing and brought in overpriced duds Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy. After the trade your team went 11-22 and missed out on the playoffs. This is not your fault at all. This is what is called management sabotage.

In two seasons at Detroit your teams went 100-64 with a winning percentage of .610. You were then axed and Larry Brown got to come in and coach your team to a championship the next season. I think you would have coached that same team to a championship. Too bad Larry Brown got to come in and steal your glory.

It's not your fault that the melee at the Palace took place, not your fault that your GM pulled the trigger on the worst trade of the NBA season, not your fault that you were canned in Detroit one year removed from winning coach of the year in the NBA.

Rick Carlisle, your coaching career has been a series of unfortunate events. None of which were within your control. I wish you well and hope that in your next NBA coaching job that you actually get a fair shake for a change.

Pre-NBA days

"So you wanna be a rock superstar, and live large
a big house, 5 cars..."
(Cyprus Hill Rock Superstar)

I've always enjoyed reading about the professional basketball leagues that were in existence before the National Basketball Association formed. Primarily the National Basketball League as it was more low key, grittier and made up of smaller city teams.

This was before the days of big arenas, million dollar contracts, worldwide league promotion, product advertising and commercialization.

The teams were owned by corporations such as Firestone and Goodyear but were not promoted or publicized at anything near the level that they are today. Teams were given a small budget in which to work with and professional sports had yet to become the money making business that it is now. Players were given modest salaries and their lives were not exactly lives of luxury and high class.

Players traveled by bus and played in small gymnasiums in smaller U.S cities in much the same fashion that musicians tour in. They would arrive in a city on the day of the game, play the game, then unwind afterwards (i.e. drink, gamble, etc.), go back to the crummy hotel they were staying in and get a little rest before hitting the road the next morning so that they could make their next small city destination later that evening.

These guys were treated somewhat like celebrities but in a much different way than players are today. They were more like a medium level of fame rock group that was touring the country. People came out to see their talents; which were shooting a ball in a basket instead of wailing on a guitar. They entertained people but they were not treated like kings like today's players are. The life of a NBL player wasn't all glamorous and high status. They were playing the game because it is what they loved to do and they enjoyed doing it as a job.

These guys stayed in cheap hotels, probably had to pay for their own food and other expenses on road trips, hung out together after the games and then did it all again the next day. It was an alternative lifestyle. Different than the working 40 hours a week, coming home to wife and kids lifestyle that was prevalent in society back then. This lifestyle probably appealed to many in the same way that the artist/rock star lifestyle appeals to people today. It was different and it was a way of rebelling against the system.

Athletes, back then, were more known for what they did collectively than who they were as individuals. People came to see them because they represented entertainment in the form of people playing a sport really well. They didn’t come to see certain individual players, or even necessarily certain teams, they came out to see a sport and athletic competition at a high level. They came to see a “show”. It could probably be said that professional athletes were "rock stars" before our culture even had rock stars.

Farewell Joey Crawford

NBA referee nazi Joey Crawford you shall be missed...

False!



As if Tim Duncan didn't give me enough reasons already to be at the top of my NBA favorite players list. Now, he has helped rid the NBA of Joey Crawford. Major props to Duncan. You are truly an accomplished athlete and human being. 3 NBA championships, 2 time NBA MVP, 3 time NBA Finals MVP, founder of the Tim Duncan foundation that promotes cancer awareness/research, and now contributing to that scumbag known as Joey Crawford being exiled from the game of basketball.

*by being suspended "indefinitely" I am assuming that this means forever by the way.

Crawford reminded me of the guys that go around writing traffic citations on campus; getting a power trip from their work when in the grand scheme of things their job is pretty insignificant.

Crawford was a shining example of abuse of authority, often trying to upstage the sport.

Fact: Mr. Crawford, no longer free to run up and down the hardwood screwing up major NBA games and drawing attention to yourself, you will now fade into obscurity.

Parros the Barbarian

I'm not a big hockey fan. However, I am a George Parros fan.

I will occasionally catch a hockey game on television if nothing else is on, and I've even been to a few of my University's club team games. I just can't get into it for whatever reason. Maybe it's because I can't skate and I'm jealous of those that can.

One NHL player that I find interesting, though, is George Parros of the Anaheim Ducks.

Parros is a Princeton graduate and his team's "enforcer" (yes, apparently it is actually possible that a tough guy went to Princeton.) Parros has shattered my misconception that all Princeton males are wimpish.

Parros is also in possession of a killer mustache reminiscent of Frank Zappa.

See for yourself:


Parros doesn't score many goals but he does get into a lot of fights. The hockey equivalent of Mark Madsen. A player that doesn't score many baskets but does "hustle".

In other words, both are extremely lucky that they have a job in professional sports.

Stick it to the Man

Last year USA Today published an article stating that fantasy sports leagues cost employers 1.1 billion dollars a week in lost productivity. According to their findings, 37 million people spend an average of 50 minutes a week at work managing their fantasy teams.

Granted, if not spent on fantasy leagues this 50 minutes of weekly non-productive work time would probably be spent spacing out or shopping on Ebay or something else other than actual work. Still, it is pretty awe inspiring and satisfying to be able to say that fantasy sports are solely responsible for 1.1 billion dollars a week not being raked in by greedy corporations.

To each of us that are not rich CEO's or political leaders or other people with power the man is the establishment of power and money that rules over our lives. It can include corporations, the government, the police, etc. It's not so much a person or persons as it is the invisible hand that pulls our strings.

However, you can fight back! You can sign up in a fantasy sports league today. Think of it as enlisting in the army. An army that is geeky, obsessive and anti-establishment though.

If beating your friends in fantasy competition because you obsess over sports statistics and have no life doesn't give you enough satisfaction then just think of your fantasy sports league as a way of sticking it to the man. Because of you some CEO somewhere can't afford that gazillionth vacation home in the Hamptons.