What other people could learn from Lance Armstrong

I'm not going to dissect the interview that Lance Armstrong did with Oprah and beat him up any more. People who know me will tell you that I'm not a fan of Lance Armstrong. I had a real issue with the way he bullied and attacked former friends to protect his lies. After hearing he was going to come clean I thought we would give the usual BS confession that many athletes have given, but instead we got something much different. Before anyone goes pouncing on my next few statements I want to clarify that I realize he did not admit to everything and may have told a few more lies in his interview with Oprah. Yet, I have to say that his confession was a breathe of fresh air based on the admissions of many other famous athletes. He candor was incredible. He called himself a bully and freely admitted that he would not have won the 7 tours without cheating. He also went into an amazing amount of depth. How does that differ from someone like Jason Gaimbi? Gaimbi never came out and spoke candidly about his use of steroids or directly admitted what he did. All he did was apologize which everyone viewed as an admission of guilt. How does it differ from Arod? His interview with Peter Gammons was done in a far more controlled manner, Gammons was the wrong guy, and it was less in depth. More so than Gaimbi he was honest about a few things, but he didn't get into major details and he blamed other people. He also told more lies and denied things that seemed obvious to anyone that had tracked his progress during his career. Arod stroke me as a person doing damage control that didn't want to end up in Armstrong's situation. (Can't say I blame him for that) Barry Bonds was so adamant that he didn't use and what he did use he wasn't aware of until after the fact. Roger Clemens never was proven to have used performance enhancers, but I just have a hard time believing that Andy Petite did and he didn't. Petite never came clean to everyone and at this point why would he. He's been given a pass. Clemens irks me because he, like Armstrong, has been so adamant of his innocence despite there being clear indications that he did use them. So what can we learn. The information age is changing sports. As an athlete it's hard to keep a secret. Your friends can betray you for their 15 minutes of fame. Keeping things under wraps like this is next to impossible. Everyone is questioned when they suddenly have a noticeable physical change. Whether that be direct or indirectly. Athletes are under the finest microscope the media and social media. It's hard to keep secrets these days. The media will not only put pressure on the athletes, but anyone they have a relationship with to break the story. Admitting to something before it blows up to be a bigger thing is probably the right course of action. If Lance had admitted to things early on he could have taken his 6 month suspension and loss of titles and moved on. Now he's lost everything. I think people would have understood that the culture of the sport would have not been so hard on him. Don't get me wrong he probably would have had to give back titles, but the ramifications wouldn't have been as bad as they will be now. He really took defending himself to a new level. I think about the company that came out and said they want their 12.5 million back, which they are entitled too, and cringe. Finally, we are winning the battle on PED's. Science and testing have improved and it's getting harder and harder to break the rules. Mike Greenberg made the comment this week that we were losing the battle and maybe there should be some changes to allow certain things. I couldn't disagree more. I'll make my points on that in a later BLOG. Let's just say for now Athletes are going to find it hard to get away with using under the changing rules.

Real Dead and Not Kicking

Real drew against Osuadskfajsdkf. They didn't have their superstar and they were on the road, but these are not valid excuses. They didn't put out the 11 best players they had choosing players like Modric and Callejon. I would have liked to have seen Hugian, Ozil Dimaria and Bezema. Instead we stuck with Modric. He's just awful. I thought he was spending this year winning favor. The lineup was wrong. I'm not going to go player for player, but Jose Mo should have played his A stars and chose some of the players that haven't impressed to much, including bringing on Kaka. Modric continues to be a failure, as is Callejon. Just more bad transfer decision by Jose Mo. Where's the passion? I think in this case you can blame the manager. He has unmotivated his team. Even if Barca were to lose or draw tomorrow this was a chance for Real to make up points, so in the end this was a major draw for them and it will be the final blow of having any hope of coming back against the mighty Barca. In contrast to last year Barca kept fighting on and setup a home clash 4 behind Real with 4 games after that to go. They failed to win the match, but they created the Drama. Unless Aletico can get hot Barca is going to wrap this totally up at the 30 match point. Am I'm talking a clinch at the 30 game mark. 25 up on Altetico! That's right.

Coach Kobe and Season on the Brink

This Friday's game for the Lakers looms large. Should the Lakers lose it will be their sixth straight loss and it would also put them 6 games below .500. It is very easy in the NBA to make the playoffs. More than half of each conference make the playoffs each season. You can do it with a below .500 record, but the West will likely have all 8 teams in the positive. The Lakers will need to be at least a couple of games above even. It's hard to imagine once they get their bigs back they won't have a better run and catch an easier stretch than they are currently caught in. That all being said the Thunder game this Friday is not that big of a deal. The Lakers form is not going to improve over night and they are coming off a very tough stretch. A lose is likely. What's more important are the three games that come after Friday. They play the Cavs at home on Sunday night. A typical Sunday cupcake for the Lakers. Still they will likely be without their three bigs and coming off a rough week and extended minutes for Coach Kobe it may be a challenge. They follow that game up with a the Bucks on Tuesday. The Bucks have been pretty average, but they should give the Lakers a game. Then it gets really tough as the Heat roll into town. The possibility of a nine game losing streak could really bury the Lakers and with many tough contests to close the month out things could get very interesting. Coach Kobe, as I have proclaimed him, has tried motivating his teammates by bashing them in the media and taking to Twitter, but it hasn't worked. They haven't responded. I think the biggest challenges the Coach faces are the fact that Pau is unhappy, they have no bench, they have no one Trevor Ariza type on the bench, the Coach is not the right fit, and Steve Nash isn't at all the right fit for this team. I think that Pau's attitude is so poor that he has soured himself and won't have a change of heart with this team. It's time for Pau to move out, but the return value on him is going to be low. I don't think that Pau is on the major decline, but all the trade rumors and Kobe's funny way of acting towards him has basically just made him a bad apple. I don't know if the Lakers see it that way. I think they believe they sent their bad apple to Philly, but I don't think Pau will ever have the passion for the organization he once had. The Lakers have no bench. They are small on the bench, the have no veterans. They need to address this, but they don't really have much to offer other teams in the way of good players. One thought I've had is that they should bring Pau off the bench. They have enough scoring on in there starting lineup, but he could give them some punch off the bench. The Lakers don't have the up and coming star. They've had a the Devon Georges and Trevor Ariza's over the years that have surprised people with their skill level, but this Laker team lacks the up and coming player to give them that spark. D'Antonio isn't as bad of a coach as people make him out to be, but he is not the right fit for this team. They needed Phil Jackson to manage the ego's and build the team confidence. D'Antonio is a one and done and as most people believe Mike Brown should still be the coach. Steve Nash is always going to seem valuable to any team, but he's not the right fit for this Laker team. He looks like a fish out of water to me. Sunday Cav's can't wait!

Jose Mo!!! Has to go!

There are many facets to this Real Madrid story. No doubt, there is more than meets the eye, but from an outsiders standpoint I get this impression. Real under Jose Mo has done just ok. They have to 2 major trophy's. It hasn't been a failure and the league performance last year was spectacular. Still behind the scenes rumors have abound that the players and the coach are somewhat divided. Those divides were not a big deal last season. Real crashed out of the champions league very late and La Liga was decided by that point. The success of Spain over the summer had everyone in a good mood. Since the start of this season the lines of tensions have shown for Real. First Sergio Ramos had a beef with Jose Mo and found himself on the bench. Then Ronaldo was sad and his coach didn't appear to want to handle the matter. Now more recently Iker has been benched. They claimed his form was poor, but even a bad Iker is better than 90% of goal keepers on a given day. Especially Adon. The league has never been lost so fast. Not only are they trailing Barca by 16 points, but Aletico by 5. There has been little joy in Madrid this season. The UCL wasn't too bad, but they didn't win their group and lost to Dortmund. So why have things gone so off track so fast? I think Florentino Perez has told Jose he will not have as much to say about the transfers. Why? Most of the players Jose has brought in over the last two years have been a bust. Kehdria and Ozil the first year were good, but his last two summers have yielded some poor signings. Sahin, Contrea, Modric, Essien have all disappointed and cost big bucks. Then PSG started making inquiries. Jose realizing that the buy out for early termination during the season is 20 million and only 5 million in the summer decided with the league out of reach and players pushing for a change this summer, he went on the defensive. He intentionally benched Iker to raise the ire of Perez and the fans. He's making himself the villain, so that he can get terminated. Perez has not taken the bait so far. The super clash between Real and Man U has everyone settled down for the time being, but Jose Mo must go! Real needs to see out the rest of the season with him and not give in to terminating him early. No manager they bring in now will get the shipped turned around in time to save the league. So keep Jose Mo on the sidelines for now and make PSG pony up a purchase fee to cover that 5 Million in the summer.