The EPL doesn't play the best football.

The Lakers are turning it around...Really?

So the Lakers are turning their season around after winning four of there last five and beating Minnesota last night. Kobe is turning into an assist machine and the offense is starting to jell....wait a second! I'm not buying it and here's why. Last week in the middle of a crucial week for LA coming off 2 losses to Chicago and Memphis the Lakers season was near the edge. They had two critical home games against Utah and OKC. They managed to handle Utah who is a playoff team this season. It was a good win for them. They then handled the somewhat sputtering Thunder. These were two season saving wins. Suddenly the Lake Show was 6 six games under and poised to pick up some easy wins against soft competition in the coming week. They had one final home game against the woeful Hornets on Tuesday. The Lakers mopped them up with relative ease and rested there stars in the fourth...no wait that's not what happened. The Lakers blew a big lead and were tied late in the fourth and held on to get a tougher than it should have been win. That's ok though they are still jellying and a win's a win. So the next night they dispatched the helpless Suns to start off their big road trip and secured their first win on the road in 2013...on no wait that's not what happened. After leading by 10 plus most of the game the Lakers collapsed in the fourth quarter. Dwight Howard re-injured his shoulder (killing in my mind any chance of trading him) and was out of the game. The Laker offense seemed to sputter instantly. Kobe got four points to draw them even, but missed a critical lay up late to allow the Suns to pull out of reach and secure the win. To say this wasn't a bad loss would be an understatement. The Suns are one of the leagues worst teams this year. It was a back to back, but it was the Lakers lack of depth that caught up to them in the end. Last night the Lakers were able to turn it all around by crushing the T-Wolves to get their first road win of 2013 in February mind you. Oh no wait that wasn't really how it all went down. The Lakers were up 29! That's right 29 and the T-Wolves who are without their best player, who wouldn't be in the top three of best players on the Lakers, battled back to get within four with the ball twice in the fourth. The T-wolves inability to defend finally caught up with them and the Lakers did get their first road win of 2013...in February. So what's my beef? All good teams have to beat the lesser competition. It doesn't always have to be with ease, but they need those wins to secure their playoff position. The Lakers this year have lost almost every time they have played a good team. As Kobe said after they beat the Thunder, "We finally beat a team worth a damn." (sorry Utah) The Lakers have not only in this week lost to an inferior team talent and record wise, but they struggled on full rest with a team that is in disarray. These are all bad signs. So, my beef is (yeah I know get to the point) the pundits are praising the revived Lakers. How can you praise anything this team has done over the course of this week? It's great that Kobe is passing the ball, but isn't that what Steve Nash is for? (My next Blog will address this topic) Aren't you supposed to beat these teams even in an off year? Wasn't the Suns loss a critical loss for them? Instead we hear about how they are starting to jell and they are finding their step as a team. Hog wash. Here's what I would expect an objective pundit on ESPN to say. The Lakers scored two season saving wins last week, but they are still 6 games below .500. They have a critical week ahead with 4 games they should be favored in. The Lakers need to sweep this week in a fashion a manner that shows they are progressing as a team. (After the last three games) The Lakers have gone 2 and 1 over the past three, but they have been tested in each game an collapsed against Phoenix. Although they might make the playoffs I can't imagine any team would be overly concerned with them in a seven game series. The Laker offense is still a major work in progress and there appear to be no signs of getting a player that can help them stabilize before the trade deadline. Dwight Howard continues to battle a bad shoulder and one has to wonder at what point do the Lakers seriously have to consider shutting him down. The other question that looms is with the Laker project failing this year does Howard have to consider shutting himself down so he doesn't damage his value? The Month of February is crucial for LA. Efforts like they gave last night will not get it done against even average competition in the NBA. They have more games they will be favored in and their effort so far against he better teams is as such that they will need to win every game they are favored the rest of this month.

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.

The Steaming Pile that is Kobe Bryant

Last night the vaunted Kobe Bryant looked like Derek Fisher has for the past few years on defense…clueless. The softest brush screen took Kobe off his man, which typically lead to an easy jump shot for OKC. I look for that to be the pattern of the series. The Thunder will continue to take the short open jumpers and rely on the fact that the Lakers cannot guard them. In light of Kobe’s recent failings I figured it was a great time to list my top ten reasons why I think Kobe is a steaming pile. 1. He’s only won 1 MVP. I believe the one he was given was only because he had such a great statistical career, but in a world where Lebron has one 3 it’s easy to see why he has been selected more than once. The stat that is most cherished for the award is not scoring, but the always important does he make everyone around him better stat. Kobe has always been a zero in that regard in it bears out that Moses Malone has more MVP’s than him. 2. Lack of big Playoff moments. Kobe (the Closer) has two memorable playoff moments, but they barely come to mind for most. He hit a shot against Phoenix in 2007 to extend their first round series, which they eventually lost. He hit a three to beat Detroit in 2003 to salvage a game they prevented them from being swept. The 2010 finals is the ultimate demonstration of Kobe not being big when his team needs him. In the three losses Kobe had his best statistical games of the series, but in the 3 of the four wins (let’s leave out the David Stern fix in Game 6 blow out game) Kobe had his worst games culminating in his worst game ever in game 7, which if not for some great Laker officiating, they would have lost. Let me repeat that he had his worst career game ever in his one and only game 7 of the finals. The funny part is I felt Derek Fisher, who I despise almost as much as Kobe, should have been the MVP of that series, but that’s not a good headline. If you want to note a recent MVP playoff performance watch game 7 of the 2005 finals. The Spurs were in a dog fight with the defending Champion pistons. Tim Duncan went off in the second half and did what a star is supposed to do and took over sealing the title for his team. 3. The mess in Colorado. I won’t say he committed a crime other than adultery because I wasn’t there and I don’t know the facts of the case, but Kobe did two things that were so wrong that it’s hard to ignore them. The first was that he threw Shaq under the bus to investigators by saying he does this all of the time. What does Shaq have anything to do with you cheating on your wife? The second was to buy his wife the ring he did and let it leak to the media that he did that. That’s so weak I don’t even know where to start. 4. Whether you like it or not he rode Shaq to the first three titles and then rode him out of town. Everyone wants to point to the fact that Shaq only won one title without Kobe, but I’m going to say what it is. Kobe was a role player the first three title runs. Shaq drew the defense in and either scored or distributed the ball to open shooters. Shaq was in his prime and near the top of the league in scoring. Kobe was good at that time, but it wasn’t until 2002 and beyond that he started playing up to his potential. It was Shaq and Phil that tipped the balance. The fact that Shaq went to a struggling Miami team and had them in the Eastern Conference finals in his first season and then won the finals the next year has always been more impressive to me then the Lakers struggling so bad they had to beg Phil to come back and then when that wasn’t working they robbed Pau Gasol from Memphis. 5. Kobe failed when the Spotlight shined on him in the Finals. We have already discussed that Kobe has lacked big playoff moments, but in the finals specifically he has never answered the bell when his team really needed him. The 2003 and the 2008 Finals specifically. In 2003 Kobe had a chance to take the reins as leader of the Lakers, but he was unable to be the difference maker. He cost Phil Jackson his first Finals loss and got him fired a month later. The 2008 Finals were a demonstration of Kobe’s inability to be a team player. He quit on his team in the finals. It was only after Phil Jackson pointed this out to him in the offseason did the Lakers rally to win two more titles. Yet as bad as those two were the 2010 Finals, which was already noted, but maybe not as gleaming because they won the series in spite of Kobe. 6. Phil Jackson wrote a book about it. Phil took the time to write a book about the fact that he felt Kobe was impossible to coach. Phil later recanted, but it took a few million and assurances from Mitch Kupcheck that Jerry West had their back to get them Pau Gasol. 7. He broke up what could have been the greatest Laker team of all time. He put his personal conquest to be the greatest Laker of all time in front of being part of what could have been the greatest team of all time. If Michael Jordan would have been in Kobe Bryants position with his talent and Shaq the Lakers may have run off 8 straight titles and might still be winning. Kobe being a weak teammate cost the Lakers more than they gained by winning the two recent titles. Imagine how much better Michael would have made Bynum and Gasol? The Lakers should have remained together and had no reason to start losing when they did. There is a direct correlation between Kobe trying to force himself to the top of the Lakers team and them beginning to struggle as a team leading to the termination of Phil Jackson and the trade of Shaq. 8. He’s the worst teammate in the history of sports. No player has ever blamed other people for his own personal lack of leadership than Kobe Bean Bryant. It’s one thing to be demanding of your teammates behind the scenes and get them traded when you don’t like them, it’s another thing to bash them publicly and go unpunished by your overrated front office. I think Kobe’s most recent comments about Ron Artest sum it all up beautifully. “Ron is someone I know I can count on.” The same Ron Artest that got himself suspended for a viscous elbow in a meaningless game going into the playoffs is someone you can count on? The last I checked reliable people don’t lead the league in games suspended. It just shows how out of touch Kobe is when he makes comments like this. The Lakers were supposable wore down last night, but it’s their fault they didn’t close out the previous series sooner. If Ron Artest was reliable he wouldn’t have committed an act unbecoming of a professional and would have been playing the entire series. I just think it’s humorous how Devin Ebanks behaved when he got tossed last night. It’s just common behavior on Kobe’s Lakers. Remember the melt down when they lost last year? Who could forget Andy Bynum tossing off his jersey? I remember the Bulls losing a close series to the Knicks and the Magic, but never getting blow out of the Gym by 40 like that did in 2008. 9. He takes be like Mike to the extreme. I respect the fact that he wants to emulate Michael Jordan. Everybody should try match Michael’s on the court play and drive. He’s the standard bearer for all sports and is without a doubt the best to every play his sport. That being said Kobe has tried countless times to emulate a particular Michael moment over and over. He has a stomach ache before the Game 6 of the Denver series and he tries to persuade everyone to believe it’s going to be like the flu game. If he was so sick why did he stay on the bench with the game so out of reach in the fourth quarter? It’s simple because he wasn’t that sick, and if he was he would have been in the locker room getting an IV. It’s classic Kobe trying to make more of a minor injury than there should be. Remember his back issues in the 2009 playoffs. Amazing how he was totally fine once the Lakers were well ahead of the Magic in the finals. The ultimate joke was when he changed his number mid career for no other reason than to draw comparison to Jordan and himself. It’s yet another classic example of not being the best Kobe he can be, but trying to be the next Jordan. I don’t ever remember MJ trying to be like Magic Johnson and that’s how he was able to revolutionize the game. 10. He will always be under a dark cloud. In the year 2000 I really didn’t like Basketball all that much, but I got caught up the Lakers Trailblazer series. The NBA had all, but crowned the Lakers the next big thing in the NBA and the champs that year. The East presented very little if no challenge, but the Trailblazers had a pretty deep team that season and looked to threaten the Lakers. No one could believe it when the series went to a game 7 in LA. The Blazers thoroughly outplayed the Lakers for 3 quarters and had an 18 point lead with seconds to go in the 3rd when Brian Shaw tossed up a prayer 3 that banked in and cut the lead to 15. Then the call came down from David Stern, the Trailblazers are not to win this game. Stern could not risk two small market teams making it to the finals and he needed to build a new dynasty around LA. The refs intervened in the game and the Lakers came storming back. It was the first time I ever witnessed a crime other than traffic violations. Then in 2002 the small market reared its ugly head again as Sacramento was trying to break threw, but again a crime was committed on a much grander scale in a more offensive way. By the time game 7 of the 2010 Finals rolled around we were used to the story. Stern valued a 5th Kobe title as a better story than an aging Celtics team finding the heart to grab another trophy. The Lakers might hold the record for the highest average amount of free throw attempts in the fourth quarter of playoff games and they did nothing, but shoot throws in the fourth as they drifted by the Celtics to steal a title away. The fourth quarter highlights of that game were not dramatic steals and jump shots, but whistles blow by the officials. Of Kobe’s 5 title teams only 2 can be considered untainted. Conversely you will never hear such things spoken about the Bulls or the showtime Lakers of the 80’s. In closing I would say that for a time I hated Brett Favre with every fiber of my being. I hated that he could aloud every sack and that every year he lead his team to the playoffs with ease. Then Brett got the boot from the Packers when they turned their back on him. He went to New York and almost got them to the playoffs, but it was his gritty year with the Vikings, when he came oh so close to the Superbowl, when I started to realize this guy is one of the GOAT’s of sports. Here was a man that I had every reason to dislike, but somehow he had won me over. I do not think it possible that Kobe could ever attain that status. I respect his talent, but I in no way believe that he will ever earn my respect as a top star and a GOAT. Honorable Mention: Pau Gasol was gifted to the Lakers just in time to help them start winning again. Why would the Grizzlies trade Pau Gasol to the Lakers? There were so many better suitors and the Lakers had so very little to give in return. In a world where top stars are being traded with huge asking prices one of the best post players in the game was traded for a bag of balls. The NBA is different from most leagues in that your Division matters very little, but your conference is all important. You want to avoid at all cost sending a player from your team to a team in the same conference. That’s why Carmello and Shaq were traded to the Eastern conference. The Lakers didn’t want to send Shaq to a team that could meet them in the playoffs. The trade made by the Grizzles made zero sense in the fact that they gained so little and if Pau was going to leave they should have tried harder to deal him in the prior offseason. This was a backdoor deal done by Jerry West to help out his old pals in LA. West did more to damage the Grizzlies franchise in his tenure, but it flies under the radar because of the recovery that the Grizzlies have had under new leadership.