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After tonight, I’m sure it’s in there somewhere…

As NBA commissioner, David Stern has made sure that the kids understand how vital it is to have a pair of his player’s sneakers. He’s promoted the game for years now as if every single fan out there is a kid who wants to be like Mike. Diluting the value of a franchise’s players, while risking serious injury, he has made it a point to ensure that a tired batch of meal tickets get embarrassed annually in some international tournament that nobody in this country even gives a shit about anyway. And then to compensate for the fact that his product consists of a couple hundred young millionaires, many of whom grew up on some very mean streets, he has introduced “mandatory minimums” and kept them in place year after year, in spite of the arbitrary way they have helped to ruin entire seasons.

The Phoenix Suns, their fans and also fans like me, who deserved better this year, can all attest to this. I was sitting in a hotel room in Venice, CA in 1997, when Stern’s brainchild turned an assault of a point guard by a power forward into the worst miscarriage of justice his leadership had yet to produce. PJ Brown chucked a much smaller Charlie Ward into the stands behind one of the baselines, and somehow the Knicks ended up being the team with 4 players suspended. Rules and discipline had nothing to do with the decisions that were handed down, but rather the general mindset of this man and how the natural physicality and raw emotion of this great sport of basketball offends him so much, that whenever anything bad happens, all you can hear is “Shakedown!” as prison warden Stern puts the organization on high alert, with guards swapping out rubber bullets for the real deal should any of the inmates happen to step one foot over one of those painted lines on the floor.

That’s who he is and that is what his influence has created here. So 10 years later another power forward decides to take out his aggression on a point guard, and again the natural instinct of a couple of players to stand up for their teammate caused them to take a single step onto the court from the bench area. Neither Diaw nor Stoudamire got close enough to the action to even spit on anyone involved, and both moved back onto the sidelines. There was absolutely no malicious intent on the part of a single player on that court, besides of course the one that initiated the violence in the first place. Nonetheless, mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines are not something that can be overruled by a lower court, and in a situation where David Stern must choose between the game of basketball or a Napoleon-moment for himself, he always chooses wrong.

Indeed, the arbitrary authoritarianism Stern embodies is the essence of how the NBA treats both its players and its fans these days. They are big young guys full of adrenaline, and we are all young, impressionable and bound to learn our most valuable life lessons from a sport we watch on TV. The players are necessary to have a sport in the first place, but in Stern’s mind if you don’t keep them on a short leash, one of these nights they’ll end up somehow causing an entire arena to collapse. What will America think of the sport then? 25,000 fans died because the commissioner wasn’t willing to institute gag orders and mandatory minimums…’they’d tear me apart in the papers’! So the fines are handed out for anyone that even thinks something negative towards the league or its proud ruler, and the lines on the floor of this bloc are there for a reason.

Same goes for draft picks! Unlike every other professional sport on the planet, the NBA doesn’t grant the worst teams with the opportunity to draft the best players coming out of college that year. The draft order is decided by a lottery. This year that lottery managed to give the three teams with the worst records the 4th, 5th and 6th picks respectively. Somehow this nonsense adds value to the sport in Stern’s mind, as do the mandatory minimums and filling up the USA teams with stars who need the off season to rest. And so, the fans of a city like Boston, Milwaukee or Memphis end up lingering in the ether a year or two longer, or perhaps forever if the FUCKING PING-PONG BALLS DECIDE that’s the way it should be. Like there isn’t enough injustice in this world already.

I couldn’t help but think of the film Dirty Dancing, when news of his ‘confession’ hit the wire. It’s the scene right after Baby providing the alibi for Swayze, admitting that she’d been sleeping with him when the wallets were stolen, only to find out that they fired him anyway. “So I did it for NOTHING?” She cries out at the injustice, and the hefty price she paid for doing the right thing. Does anyone think Giambi wasn’t feeling those very same emotions yesterday and the day before? The Yankees were using his confession to void the stupid contract they signed him to, and the vultures were already nibbling at his flesh.

First impressions of someone like him or Bonds copping to the fact that they used steroids and HGH, for me are like learning that OJ was writing a book about how he killed his wife and Ron Goldman. Though Giambi isn’t as much of a villain in all this as he’s made out to be by the sporting press. After reading a couple articles on him yesterday, it seemed to me that the press had once again lost itself somewhere up its own ass. Case in point: Giambi’s ‘apology’ is full of holes.

There’s a giant disconnect here when it comes to the impact all of this has had on the game of baseball…basically none that I can see (perhaps being part of Red Sox Nation keeps me blind to the outside universe), but for the players it has absolutely had an impact. For the most part they’re a group of lying cocksuckers, for whom the millions of dollars they’ve made over the years doesn’t provide enough comfort to make it possible for them to simply tell the truth. Mark McGuire is perhaps the worst of them all, with the hero-status he achieved in breaking Marris’s record, and that neck of his resembling an unnatural phenomenon rarely found outside of professional wrestling.

He, like Rafael Palmerio, lied to Congress and to all of us. The lust for a lasting positive persona in the world, a reality only to them and the collections of idiots still out there who can’t put two and two together, is apparantly the vice that drives their ongoing delusional behavior. But to be fair, if I were in their shoes, with Pete Rose still kicking around in the world, it wouldn’t be something to look forward to once the truth was finally out there. Painful and shameful and hasta la vista Cooperstown…there is still something to be said about the actual reach of all this, and the fact that no one player deserves to carry the load for everyone. By every account I’ve seen, the use of drugs was widespread within every clubhouse in baseball.

With that in mind, I honestly admire Giambi for coming clean and at least not treating us like we’re idiots. For one player who used the stuff to win an MVP, a home run record or the ability to pitch effectively with a 50 year old body (ahem…Roger), to finally man up and say it, may constitute a reason to hope for the best as this debacle continues to unfold. Because soon enough, Bonds will be one away from tying and then breaking Aaron’s record, and I’m not going to lie and say it won’t matter to me that he cheated. It will. I’ll be pissed off that the guy was able to walk out of the bank holding bags of stolen cash, stroll right past the police and just keep on going. We’re all suckers the day he passes Aaron, and judging by the state of our culture in the year 2007, Giambi will end up being a sucker, while those mentioned previously will ride their silence and false statements into the Hall of Fame.

That sucks! Giambi should be applauded for admitting that he used. I don’t care that he’s a Yankee. I admire his courage. He didn’t do the right thing for a while, but he did do the right thing the other day, and that’s worth something. It should be worth something to all of us. He didn’t have to say it, but he did anyway.

After Ted Johnson and Roman Phifer retired, the middle linebacker spot alongside Teddy Bruschi was a noticeable weakness in the Pats defense, on the run in particular. Monty Beisel and Chad Brown were both flops, and while Mike Vrabel’s transition to the middle helped a great deal, his talent as an edge rusher being removed from the equation had an adverse affect on the bottom line. During this period, Tully Banta-Cain was able to get a lot more reps and did indeed emerge as a starting NFL linebacker, though only for a little while, as he is now a 49er. The first piece that appeared to fit perfectly within the scheme was Junior Seau.

His ability to angle and time his attack was what allowed him such success in spite of his age, and in witnessing his ability to improve with every game, it was clear that Seau naturally embodied the the mix of toughness and intelligence needed to excel in Belichick’s defensive scheme. It seemed obvious to me that he had plenty left in the tank, and so today’s news confirming his return to New England for another year was more comforting than surprising. We have our 1st and 2nd down inside linebacker to play beside Bruschi once again, and with Rosevelt Colvin, Mike Vrabel and Adelius Thomas all healthy and in the mix, it’s looking to be a long year for opposing offenses…quarterbacks especially! Though what I’m mostly impressed by when it comes to Junior’s game, is his insatiable lust for disruption.

This influx of disruption is why I’m equally as excited about Seau coming back as I am about all ‘The New Patriots‘, and can hardly wait to see him right up on the line that first time, reading the snap count, blowing through the offensive line and smashing his first running back in the mouth for a loss. This play in particular probably equaled a killed drive per game last season. Combine that with the level of energy Seau brings on the field and on the sideline…it’s the kind of thing that makes my head gush serotonin. Which it is right now, just from thinking about it! (Source)

Key point to walk away with: Randy Moss will get most of the press coverage in terms of players brought in for the super bowl run this year, but the re-signing of Junior Seau may in fact prove to be more crucial to our success than the trade for Moss OR the signing of Thomas. At the end of the season we’ll see if I’m right.