Celebrate The Mavs Championship, Not The Heats Loss

The bittersweet irony of Jason Kidd coming back to the Dallas Mavericks after all these years and winning a championship is probably lost on many NBA fans. Shawn Marion, for a brief time, was arguably one of the best all-around players in the game who likely was traded away hastily from a desperate Phoenix Suns team. Jason Terry has been one of the most durable, underrated and consistent players in the NBA over the last dozen years. And after scoring over 22,000 points and leading the Mavs to 11 straight playoff appearances, Dirk Nowitzki finally earned a long-awaited championship and much-deserved Finals MVP.

Unfortunately for these four veterans — some of the best players of their generation — they couldn’t have won a title during a more cynical and sadistic time in sports media coverage and sports fandom.

The 2010-11 NBA Finals will not be remembered for what the Mavericks accomplished; it will go down as the year LeBron James proved he isn’t the greatest of all-time. Oh and he isn’t a closer; he isn’t a champion; he isn’t Michael Jordan; he isn’t the next Michael Jordan; he isn’t tough; he doesn’t show up in the fourth quarter; he’s Scottie Pippen; he’s not-even-Scottie-Pippen; he defers; he isn’t a leader; he doesn’t make his teammates better and the list goes on. Enough already.
Look, everybody knows that an integral part of being a sports fan is hating on your opponent. It’s all in good fun, usually.

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There Will Only Be One Shaq

When Shaquille O’Neal announced via Twitter that he was retiring. the game of basketball lost one of its best players. His statistics are overwhelming: O’Neal was on four NBA championship teams and was the 1993 Rookie of the Year, 2000 Most Valuable Player, a three-time Finals MVP, a 15 time All-Star, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and has 14 All-NBA selections and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections under his belt. He scored 28,596 points (seventh most in NBA history), 13,099 rebounds (13th), .582 field-goal percentage (1st) and 2,732 blocks (8th). But the numbers don’t do the player or the personality justice.

When Shaq entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick by the Orlando Magic in the 1992 NBA Draft, everyone knew he’d be a beast. There were what could only be called viral videos of Shaq furiously dunking on any and everyone. He was a one-man wrecking crew and backboards around the country feared him.

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What Do Athletes Salaries Say About American Values?

Remember your first job? Probably at a fast food joint, or maybe working retail somewhere. If you’re like me, you thought $5.65 an hour was a fortune. I mean, working part time could bring in a paycheck upwards of $200! Now imagine you’re Lebron James. Your first paycheck from your first job clocked in a cool $12.96 million for three years. That’s $4.32 million a year, $52,682 a game, or nearly $1,100 per minute. Suddenly, $5.65 an hour doesn’t sounds all that great in comparison to athletes salaries, does it?

This is one very small example of the ridiculousness surrounding athletes and their paychecks. In a society where jobs are disappearing, people are cutting back left and right, and families are losing their houses, athletes are signing record-breaking contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, while their fans just look on adoringly.

In 2009, the average salary for basketball player was $5.84 million. An average baseball player made $3.26 million. A hockey player, $2.4 million. Football players made an average of $770,000, a relatively small chunk of change, but still over the top, take advantage of this and gamble at roseslots for your favorite players and win a lot of money.

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March Madness: Half-Mad, Half-March

We’re past Valentine’s Day, we’re quickly moving through February and the month of March will be upon us quite shortly. So, what does that mean? It means the NFL lockout will commence very soon but it also means that college basketball is set to take the center stage.

Yes, March is the month that many sports fans refer to as March Madness, but let’s evaluate this: how mad is this month?

The college basketball tournament that everyone gets excited about is the NCAA Tournament, which in 2011, will begin on Thursday, March 24th. And we won’t determine a winner until we are all the way into April.

So why all the madness?

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Why Cam Newton Proves College Players Should Be Paid

If there is one lesson to be taken from the Heisman trophy won by Cam Newton, it is that amateurism, the one component that separates the NFL and NCAA, doesn’t mean much. Now, don’t blame Cam Newton or his dad, because the NCAA system exists to promote “amateurism,” which is basically code for unpaid indentured servitude.

The NCAA has developed the best possible economic scenario: national exposure of its product, insane revenues, and virtually zero expenditure on payroll. Since its inception, the NCAA has exploited its workhorses with an egregious lack of concern for its participants. In one particularly damning example, the NCAA went so far as to develop a new designation for athletes in order to avoid Workers Compensation claims.

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