I have a lot of stuff to write about so this is the first of many things. I'll start with sports, because as foolish and childish as it may seem, my heart floats here more often than other places. Take that as you will. Many crazy things happened this week and most of them were awful, embarrassing, and generally shitty as sports goes. Probably one of the worst sports weeks ever where lots of momentous events occurred.
The King and I
Many people have analyzed the ridiculous and overblown spectacle of Lebron James' "decision". My favorite comments, as always, came from Joe Posnanski, who has a personal stake in the future of Cleveland, but also as a realist expects such for his hometown. Before I get to my point, I'd like to make two general points. The NBA gets no publicity between the Finals and the All Star break. I would argue that hockey gets better overall coverage, anything like this despite the horrible awkwardness of it all gives the NBA a chance to improve. People who don't care about pro basketball, mainly anyone who doesn't hold season tickets and isn't African-American, talked about this, and the NBA has lacked in interest since Jordan's second Chicago retirement.
Second, I marked that the money generated from the special was going to charity. This made me less aggravated by the spectacle. Then, they go and hold in at the Greenwich, CT Boys and Girls club. I get it, the kids aren't affluent, but Greenwich is. I guess you want a neutral site. So why not get some kids from all of the potential suitors cities and fly them in, and show them a good time. I bet of all the Boys and Girls clubs, the kids in Greenwich have it pretty good as opposed to kids in Cleveland or Miami.
But these are beside the point, I'm going to stretch your abilities by comparing Lebron to myself. I saw me in this decision. There is a big difference between being egotistical and confident. Sure, you can be Jordan-like and be both, most great men and women have both giant egos and self-confidence. Lebron isn't there yet, and perhaps never will be. I don't think this experiment will go down as successful as Boston's triumvirate did. Not because the players don't fit, each is uniquely talented and none hog the ball, but this may be the problem. Who puts the daggers in the opponents? Where is their Robert Horry? Derek Fisher? Or even more Kobe Bryant? Wade possesses the will, but isn't a perimeter scorer and driving at Howard in a conference final isn't going to win the game. Now, Lebron's decision showed me something, he won't.
Now, I'm not questioning his ability, I would argue he is more talented and more rounded than Jordan was, but he lacks something. He has the ego; he just had six hours of ESPN time dedicated to himself essentially, but he lacks the confidence in himself. People show Kobe winning when he got Pau Gasol, but that makes it seem as though Gasol made the key plays to win the games. Kobe willed his teams to beat their opponents. People always said Jordan didn't win until he had Pippen, but this is stupid. Jordan would have won with anyone they put out there. Pippen wasn't one of the top five players in the league either; he was good but not Dwyane Wade, who when healthy is probably the third-best perimeter player just below Kobe and Lebron. I look at Lebron and see a man who doesn't believe he is capable of winning a championship on his skills.
He is the direct opposite of myself, and I could see that. I am horribly hard on myself and self-deprecating, but I have confidence in my abilities to do whatever I set my mind to (of course, this happens rarely as one should note). Lebron should have stayed in Cleveland, not because winning championships isn't important, but because struggle and disappointment make the championship's sweeter, the personal growth stronger, and inevitably the Lebron brand is defined differently. As of now, all people see is a man who thinks he is a piece of a championship team, not it's talisman, and Jordan didn't make his name that way. Let's hope he succeeds and finds the confidence to match the ego, because a failure may haunt one of the most entertaining talents of our generation.
The Boss
Speaking of egos, yesterday George Steinbrenner died and as a Royals fan one would expect me to be happy. First, who gets happy at death? Sure, I don't shed tears for murderers and rapists who die, and all of us have a bastard inside of us, but he was a man with the flaws and abilities inherent in all of us. People tend to forget that the Yankees and Royals were rivals in the late 70's, even more so than the Red Sox which is what happens when you have two teams ran by men who deeply care about their teams. Now, these were two plainly different men, in two plainly different situations. Ewing Kauffman wasn't just a great owner; he was a great man. Something funny about the Royals is they typically have a organization full of great, likable men (except that douche Limbaugh) who lately just don't have any baseball acumen. Kauffman lost money on the Royals at times, which Steinbrenner didn't because they were the Yankees and that's a cash cow. But both men spent, so much that the Royals had the highest payroll in baseball entering the 1990's despite the obvious financial gaps between them and other clubs.
Kauffman, and the Steinbrenner. (This obviously leaves out the city of Green Bay, but I doubt most cities would like to foot the bill for their sports teams. Hell, Kansas City can't build freaking light rail. They would have probably given Jason Kendall a five-year contract.) The Rooneys are the Pittsburgh Steelers, and as much a Ben the Rapist (which I will forever refer to him as for the progeny's sake) tries to harm this, they have always as a organization represented class and winning. I would argue the Mara's and Clark's are like this, and baseball has too few historical ownership ties. Baseball owner's are too often larger than life. On that note, let's skip Kauffman and talk about Steinbrenner. Since he bought the Yankees, the teams value has increased from $10 million to $1.5 billion. He fixed Yankee stadium, then made the city of New York build the monstrosity that is the new Yankee Stadium. They won the most games, World Series Championships, World Series Appearances, and made the most playoff appearances playing in the best division in baseball. Sure, he swindled the city for that new stadium, but New Yorkers would say the World Series titles are worth the expense. But no owner, even considering the resources the Yankee brand supplies, put as much into his club, whether it was his heart or money.
So I lament the loss of a character, and ultimately a man who I wouldn't have minded running my team, but I was spoiled. My hometown owners through the beginning of my childhood were great men, who also cared deeply about their clubs. Ewing Kauffman was both the local family owner and Steinbrenner, he wanted to win and not just for himself for Kansas City. Same went for Lamar Hunt and his son, not win at all costs, but win with class. Unfortunately, the money has gone to the point that there are more Georges than Ewings, and that ultimately will be Georges legacy that he upped the ante and therefore made everything else much more shallow.
A Karate Kick to the Chest of Football
I was late on the scene to soccer, but I wouldn't call myself a casual fan. I am deeply devoted to the Yanks and even now can find myself leaning into a long and sad torturous relationship with Fulham FC. The World Cup was the most viewed ever in the United States, and what the people found is either soccer is gripping, cynical, or resembles the Mafia more than sport.
First, why might have one thought is was gripping?
Close games, especially the US games, were dominant, except for the Portugal/North Korea and basically any game Mueller and Klose both played for Germany. The best thing about soccer is the rarity of goals makes it exciting. Some people don't understand this, but when something is rare, it's way more important. So if you don't get soccer, compare it to sex. Say you, don't have sex, but once every couple years (Don't ask why; pretend you're Will Turner). These times are much more important to you than if you were Cristiano Ronaldo and not even exaggerating, we could make a SI swimsuit issue out of your ex-girlfriends and we would have to leave out some ladies. For American football, think about scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl, that's how every World Cup goal, no matter the game, feels.
Is Greg Louganis coaching the Spaniards?
Ok, maybe I shouldn't single them out, but diving is part of the sport. To a casual fan, this can be incredibly frustrating. To an American fan, it is even worse, because we don't get the concept. Our players don't fall upon contact, and the heavy-handed nature of both the MLS and EPL, make the English and American teams far less likely to go down to light contact. Once a ref calls one light foul he must continue, and players take advantage and at times just look ridiculous, such as Torres falling when his two feet tangled which resulted in Chile going a man down (and then having to face Brazil in the second round) or Mesut Ozil not going down against Australia when fouled because he was afraid he would get another card for diving. The varied calls changes the nature of the game, and therefore officials play too big of a part.
So mistakes happen, offside calls are missed both ways like the US-Algeria match and the Argentina-Mexico match. Balls cross the line like Lampard's strike. Howard Webb ends up in WWE match and Nigel De Jong tries to hit him with a steel chair, and he cards half of the field for generally being a douche, which leads us to the next point.
Cruyff would have turned in his grave had he been dead
See what I did there. Dear God, all I want is teams to play football, and preferably for referees to give automatic red cards to anyone who plays a destroyer in midfield. The Defensive Midfielder is the bane of football; I get the pragmatism, allowing goals are bad. Seriously though, are players that worthless in their skill sets that they can't play box to box? England played Gareth Barry as a CDM: Failed. Brazil played two CDMs: Failure. Argentina played Mascherano and no real defenders: fail. The US put in Ricardo Clark: epic fucking fail. I'm not against playing midfielders who care about defense, but at least play someone with some sense of what offense is and how to make a tackle without putting your studs through a shin (On purpose, I realize occasionally, it's a accident). Or a chest.
What the Dutch did in the final was an abomination. That it almost worked, because the Spanish take siestas in the final third, is even worse. To play as if you are beaten before the game started, despite you fielding a team that is almost as talented as your opponent is awful. That Van Bommel and De Jong didn't receive red cards in the game was ridiculous, and the Dutch deserved the endless stream of quick cards that resulted from Spain's diving to add to their ridiculous fouling. The most beautiful football, in my opinion, has been the Dutch's style, even better than Brazil (excepting 1982) for style. Of course, we have seen that the more beautiful team doesn't win, outside of Barcelona's Guardiola lineup, so teams more often rely on brutishness than skill. However, I saw more ineffective brutality as opposed to the stone wall that the US put up last summer against Spain which was the prescription for beating Spain. You force them wide and then use your size to limit their attacks, as opposed to attempting to break their spirits by breaking their sternums.
As a final point, here's to Spain winning the World Cup. While they played incredibly negative for a team with so much talent, and I despise the way they play, I admire the wins in 2008 and now. They will go down as one of the greatest squads ever, and I don't know how I feel about that. The Spanish lacked a quality in the final third, even Villa despite his great tournament. Also, they lacked that killer instinct. They would score a goal and then play keep-away for the rest of the match. It dragged down the football, and the opponents desperation resulted in the chippy-play and general apathy from viewers. Barcelona, who essentially was this team, would have kept pressing and stomped on the lesser teams. But, Del Bosque just had them hold up the ball and limited their attack, which ultimately prevents this team from being the greatest that ever played. I said before the German game that if Spain scores first it will end 1-0, and if Germany scores first 4-1 to Germany. Unlike the other teams, this instinct makes me feel that complacency will breed within the Spanish ranks, and in 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine, Germany will be holding the trophy aloft after dominating with the typical German pragmatism but now also beautiful football.
0 comments:
Post a Comment