To be honest, I'm not quite sure I follow the line of thinking on this one. While I totally understand that the most deep-seated and die-hard of fandom gets put out to pasture the second that any team offers you a chance to realize your dream, I'm not so sure that I would now feel better about the outcome of last season's World Series if I were Cody Deason. That's the right thing to say, of course, as it would be preposterously tone deaf to speak disparagingly of the most outstanding accomplishment of the organization that just picked you to be part of their presumably bright future. However, all pleasantries aside, wouldn't giving up his passion for the Los Angeles Dodgers immediately after having celebrated their first title in his lifetime served as a bigger high to leave on than the most mind-blowing of breakup sex? What's even the "downside" there, that he'd be joining the ranks of an up-and-coming team that was still hungry for their first title in franchise history? The truth is that the organization that ultimately grew his love for a game that he's now one step closer to calling a profession could have started packing their shit and heading back to Brooklyn yesterday afternoon and that news would have been merely a footnote on the best chapter of Cody Deason's life to date. Clayton Kershaw could have announced his retirement on the grounds that the Houston Astros killed his competitive spirit, and it wouldn't cause but one drop of rain to fall from Cloud 9 as he stood atop it following the calling of his name. Getting drafted into the MLB, by anyone really, is undoubtedly the greatest thing that can happen to a young athlete. However, in saying that, I don't think we have to act like getting the chance to fully enjoy his first championship before having to start contributing far more than just raw emotion throughout the long, arduous path to winning one wouldn't have been the greatest thing to happen to a young fan. His future is obviously what matters here, but - regardless of how successful his career as an Astro ends up being - there will always be a golden opportunity to go out on top as a devote Dodger that was just barely missed in his past.
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Let me offer the following disclaimer. In an uncontrolled setting, there are a minuscule amount of people roaming this very planet that wouldn't immediately wet themselves after having drawn the ire of Kendrick Perkins. If anyone on the Golden State Warriors were to catch him outside, for instance, running in the opposite direction would probably be the smartest strategy to employ. There's just very little doubt that if met in the "right" circumstances, of which there are many, that he's the wrong one to fuck with. Those circumstances, however, don't include an NBA Finals in which he's serving as nothing more than a sharply dressed scare tactic that couldn't even frighten the neighborhood children into taking only one piece of Halloween candy. I don't know if Big Perk is under the illusion that Cleveland is playing their home games at Rucker Park, but they'd pretty much have to be for Warriors to even consider taking the slightest of heed to his empty threats. We're not talking about a scene out of Mad Men or a mobster movie, for when it comes to a professional basketball court there is nothing all that intimidating about a man of any size, strength, or stature sitting on the sidelines in a suit. If that wasn't made clear when Draymond Green basically implied that a skirt and pom-poms should be part of Kendrick Perkins gameday attire then it was damn sure evidenced by someone with the build of high school distance runner showing absolutely no hesitation in going forehead-to-sternum with the biggest and baddest spectator in the stands around a bench full of his peers...
I giggled when I read that quote from Kendrick Perkins, and it's sadly because he's basically become a parody of what I'm assuming he was meant to be for a Cleveland Cavaliers team that never had any intention of letting him touch a basketball when it mattered. If his role is to summon the insecurities of the opponent then he honestly might be better of giving up his court-side seat to the internet troll that was ultimately responsible for the creation of KD's burner account. If nothing else, this series has proven that his tough talk is about as hollow as J.R. Smith's head, and that's a bad look for a guy who currently offers little else.
NHL- New York Islanders President of Hockey Operations, Lou Lamoriello announced today that Garth Snow and Doug Weight have been relieved of their duties. Lamoriello will take over the responsibilities of General Manager and immediately begin the process to find the team's next Head Coach.
"The New York Islanders would like to thank both Garth and Doug for their dedication to the franchise," Lamoriello said. "Both started their tenures with the franchise as players and grew as tremendous leaders to the positions they held." Both will remain with the organization. ------- Ironically enough, considering their undying animosity for what was widely thought to be a never-ending contract, the last line of that press release shouldn't be all that much less encouraging to Islanders fans as the two paragraphs that precede it. Pity position or not, the fact that Garth Snow will still be lingering around the organization like a wet fart should make each and every decision that takes place in Lou Lamoriello's office look as though it was chosen from a bed of roses by comparison. Maybe the architect that basically built the Devils' winning culture brick by brick doesn't need to be made to look better by having his own personal foil inside his new franchise. Maybe he's once again found the magic touch that he had in becoming one of the most revered General Managers in all of sports. That said, the work that he did just prior to getting systematically thrust from his throne in New Jersey and the supervising he's done since certainly hasn't convinced me that this upgrade isn't made to appear more massive by the frightening option that was status quo. The Islanders' immediate future is largely dependent on retaining John Tavares, and while that was more unlikely under Garth Snow, I wouldn't exactly go raising the number '91' to rafters just yet. Lou Lamoriello can be just a stubborn as he is loyal, and that's led to plenty of shrewd negotiations with star players in the past. With the amount of cash that's going to get thrown at the feet of a number one overall pick that actually lived up to his billing, I don't know that I'm all the sudden ready to declare the team that drafted him the runaway winner in the free agency sweepstakes just because their money man is no longer bankrupt of the brains necessary to do the job. I guess what I am trying to say is that while the Islanders absolutely could have done worse, until proven otherwise they are basically in the stage of the game where they think they are dating 'Mr. Right' solely because of how wrong they were about the ex-husband that ended up using their personal information to sabotage their credit. Lou Lamoriello could end up being a hugely successful hire, but given that his age probably doesn't make him long for a position in which he's undeniably decreased in prominence, there's probably a fairly decent chance that he ends up having to point to Garth Snow's tenure just to prove the progress he made.
First and foremost, as someone that has accepted the intellectual demise of this country, I find the negligence that caused this entire ordeal absolutely hilarious. Just the idea that some low level schmuck at Fox News hopped on the old Google machine and typed in 'philadelphia eagles kneeling' as if putting one's knee to the ground is a practice that is now as synonymous with "disrespecting America" as the wiping of one's own dirty ass with the stars & stripes is pure comedy to me. Quite honestly, it's the perfect representation of how warped brains have become by nothing more than a peaceful protest against inequality. Those that fear God basically fund Fox News and yet they are the ones influenced by grown men silently bowing their heads from a semi-seated position because those pictures couldn't possibly be processed as prayer due to the people in them wearing football pads. The people that Trump is pandering to by shamelessly keeping alive the same dead issue are so easily brainwashed that a physical act that's been partaken in throughout multiple generations by tens of millions of likeminded viewers every single Sunday morning now instinctively triggers their Patriotism complex. If not insanely depressing, it's pretty incredible when you think about it. But make no mistake here, this apology isn't to the team that had their invitation revoked when a thin-skinned President came to realize that the attendance to his photo-op was going to turn it into a photo-flop. This apology is just to make sure that Fox News retains their notch on the Bible belt. It's to their own viewers, not the people that were misrepresented in defense of said President when he jingled the same old set of keys to distract dumbasses from issues that actually matter. Think about how much despicable trash Fox News has vomited all over social media the last few years (Ex. "shut up and dribble"), and this is the one that got quickly taken down? You can ask yourself why that is, but I think you already know it's because it's the only one that directly compromises the morals of a vast majority of their own damn customers.
In theory, Mike Fiers makes a fair argument here. An extended stare down, a flipped bat, a deliberate home run trot, and an emphatic finger point back to the mound is a bit much in terms of a reaction to getting accidentally plunked on the forearm with an up-and-in pitch. Unfortunately, I think you kind of have to keep that argument to yourself when you've previously put the man that it's being made against into the hospital with a broken face that brought a swift end to his season. Getting hit by a pitch is most certainly an occupational hazard, but being carted off on a stretcher with a mangled money maker typically isn't. Therefore, it seems a bit disingenuous for someone to go around using insults like "childish" in reference to the type of grudge he's never had to worry about holding. It's probably wise to take a swing in another man's shoes before publicly questioning his character and, if we are judging by Mike Fiers own implication that his accuracy is average, I can almost guarantee that Mike Fiers wouldn't feel totally at ease digging his heels into the batter's box against Mike Fiers. Therefore, I think it's time he shuts the hell up and accepts his long-belated emasculation like a man instead of whining that the person who brought it upon him acted like a boy in doing something as natural and instinctive as remembering who it was that had that bad blood leaking from multiple features of his face. One single base is a small price to pay for each 100 MPH mistake, so maybe we can pen the humble acceptance of any and all vengeful responses in as a consequence of high-speed baseball beaning. Especially in cases where the batter is left laying lifeless on the ground. Safe to say that definitely doesn't carry a self-imposed statute of limitations, and - even on the off-chance it did - there was simply nothing "childish" about the exit velocity on that dinger.
Let's make one thing clear, I totally understand a professional athlete finding himself a half dozen fuck's worth of frustrated by someone whose job is essentially to break news prior to the time in which the subject of said news feels comfortable with it being broken. As well sourced as they may be, Ian Rapoport and others in his line of work often find themselves forced into a precarious position of choosing between efficiency and accuracy, as the allure of getting credited is basically the drug by which they are able to survive on 2.5 hours sleep with their work phone invisibly attached to the side of their head. Going from the NFL champs to the NFL chumps might be considered a mildly humiliating demotion, but in most cases I'd be more liable to believe that a player's rant was more so an instinctive reaction to seeing unofficial information being prematurely spread about him than anything else. Unfortunately this isn't one of those cases, for if Mychal Kendricks wanted that to be the consensus amongst fans and (other) media members alike then he needed to do a better job making sure those timely tweets didn't end up being dead-on-balls accurate...
Like, if the ink truly had yet to dry on that allegedly completed contract then he should have started pushing for a second-year option, or considered settling for something in the $2.9 range. It didn't need to be an unrecognizable deal, but it had to be given at least a minor facelift from the one that Ian Rapoport was already proudly parading through Adam Schefter's social (media) circle as his conquest of the week. Theoretically I can see his point, but I simply can't take serious a hissy fit aimed at the increasingly rare reporting of the whole truth. The entire impetus of Mychal Kendricks' argument was basically that the NFL insider for which he had taken explicit umbrage was too correct in his unusually complementary leak about the brightness of his future, and for that I instantly put my defense of him in the past.
First and foremost, I want to give credit where credit is due. Just as much as it is a reflection of Philadelphia's current level of trust in their President of Basketball Operations, this was a hilarious and well-placed jab at someone who is apparently the internet's preeminent troll. From 'Fire BC', to 'Where is Eric Jr?', to a brilliantly simple '91', this mediocre t-shirt maker rocked his outfits in a perfect comedic sequence, with each being more clever than the last. I want to make that clear so that this act of good-humored trolling is differentiated from those that it took aim at, and so that it doesn't get lost in the call that I am about to make for Bryan Colangelo to lose his job. Now that we've gotten all that praise out of the way, it's time to talk about who is deserving of criticism here. That, quite obviously, is the Philadelphia 76ers for letting this embarrassment drag out for as long as it has without the rolling of a fairly obvious head as a result. Unless a team that finally followed through on it's promise and reached the playoffs after years of strategically avoiding them like the plague is prepared to sacrifice every single ounce of good will they've built up, Bryan Colangelo absolutely has to go. So much so, in fact, that it might not even matter whether him or his wife were directly responsible for an amount of burner accounts that could leave the an entire organization's reputation in ashes. Even if there wasn't an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing in their direction, the Sixers being run by the most insecure and persistent of anonymous online personalities (or their significant other) has already become an internet truth. That might not hold up in the court of law, but professional athletes that have seen their peers potentially trashed by the one person who is supposed to have their back no matter what are much more likely to be swayed by the court of public opinion. There's admittedly a dangerous precedent to be set by letting the angry mob rule over your front office, but it's not an dangerous as heading into an insanely important offseason with a GM that's basically wearing a scarlet letter across his overly collared shirt. From a business perspective, a basketball perspective, and a business of basketball perspective, the Sixers need someone else in charge ASAP. If I know Philly fans like I think I know Philly fans then novelty tees are just the beginning, and I can guarantee the franchise as a whole will not like the ending. 'The Process' is quite literally based on trust and yet the team that put it into action all those years ago currently demands none of it from its players or customers because of one person, no matter how powerful he may be.
TheScore- Rodney Hood has been DNP'd for five of Cleveland's 19 playoff games, and it would've been six had he not been thrown in for the final three seconds of Game 1 of the Finals. (But hey, at least Hood agreed to check in for mop-up duty that time.) He's averaging 4.6 points and 1.1 assists on .415/.158/.778 shooting in 14.5 minutes a game this postseason, and the Cavs have been 25.7 points per 100 possessions worse with him on the floor.
It's been a steep decline for Hood since coming over in a trade from the Utah Jazz, with whom he was averaging 16.8 points and shooting 39 percent from 3-point range on the year. Now, to avoid losing faith in himself, he goes back and watches tape of some of those pre-trade games. "At times when I may lose a little bit of confidence because of playing time or whatever, I look back to my Utah highlights a lot on YouTube just to remind myself that that was this (season) when I did those things," Hood told The Undefeated's Marc J. Spears. "I was playing at such a high clip when I got traded. And then, this is my first time having DNPs in life. The first time shooting two times or five times in a game. Having to adjust is the toughest part. It's a part of my growth. I'm not going to always be in this state." ------ If we're being totally honest , my gut reaction was commiserate with a professional athlete who is so far in his own head in regards to his struggles that he's running through YouTube videos that are mere months past their upload date to convince himself that he's something better than hopelessly awful. Unfortunately, as sad as that story is, it triggered me to remember that Rodney Hood burned the sympathy card that he's now trying to play the second he let his ego get in the way of him taking the floor in a playoff game weeks before he was set to become a free agent. It's not that he's not deserving of support, but it makes it a lot more difficult to offer it to him when his first instinct was selfish pride. The idea that an NBA player is spending what little free time the NBA Finals affords him to hole up and watch himself post 16 PPG for the playoff team that decided they didn't even need his offense despite losing their leading scorer for nothing last offseason is incredibly dark and depressing. On the "bright" side, however, at least we have our answer to the question that has undoubtedly crossed the mind of every person that has happened to catch the first two games of this series. Yes, Jordan Clarkson and J.R. Smith are somehow, someway currently more mentally equipped to give the Cavaliers meaningful minutes against the Warriors.
For, as much as their play can be perfectly personified by the above clip, they (presumably) aren't so far removed from being useful that they need an online refresher course on what made them relatively successful NBA players in the first place. Rodney Hood has already cost himself millions of dollars prior to this report. That said, letting the outside world know that he frequents games that happened within the same calendar year that we are currently in as a way of either summoning his skill set or properly self loathing can only be as good for his perception on the open market as being relegated to garbage time for a garbage team. The good news is that, despite being given multiple opportunities to feel sorry for themselves and completely pack it in, a team that's proven to be more mentally weak when faced with controversy than Tristan Thompson is when faced with extra-marital affairs continued to fight throughout the vast majority of an uphill battle. The bad news is that the result of their version of resilience was not anywhere close to being enough to overcome an absolute avalanche of threes from Steph Curry.
Admittedly, as it pertains to the Cavaliers' resolve, the bar was set pretty damn low during a tumultuous season in which they quit on themselves more times than a smoker trying to kick the habit while working the line at the Marlboro factory. Still, I couldn't help but feel like they flashed some in avoiding the cold, unforgiving touch of certain death that's typically a byproduct of coming out after halftime against Golden State. In case a wasted 50+ point effort didn't highlight how above and beyond the Cavaliers have to go just to keep this thing close then consider the fact that they actually won a third quarter in the building that usually uses that time to form the world's biggest circle jerk....and still remained down by double digits headed into the 4th quarter. Other than J.R. Smith being particularly terrible in a way that makes you think he left his game in the same spot in which he forgot the score, it somewhat amazingly didn't look as though Cleveland was feeling ill effects, that figured to be inevitable, of blowing Game 1 in such a disheartening fashion. Instead, it honestly just looked like they were overmatched by a far more talented team that was inspired to be better by the realization that they were extremely lucky to be up in the series. I obviously don't think LeBron James or the Cleveland Cavaliers played to their peak, but if Kevin Durant is going to miss merely 4 shots while Steph Curry is adding another record to his resume then it doesn't really matter what they do anyway. To put it comparatively, what ever lasting impact was made by J.R. Smith choosing the final seconds of a tied game to run around with the ball aimlessly like the basketball equivalent of a chicken with his head cut off was probably matched by watching a desperation heave leave the goddamn stratosphere only to hit nothing but net as it came back down out of orbit. That's bad news as much as it good news, but such is reality for a Cavaliers team that's being reminded why they were given next to no chance to beat this juggernaut. Things could change in Cleveland, but home court advantage alone isn't going to offset the disadvantages that LeBron and company are at in trying to keep up.
Somewhat impressively, my main take away from a video the featured the prolonged absence of a Tyronn Lue during a depressing break in the action that called more nothing if not all the therapeutic motivation was not a confirmation that he really is just a suited spectator whose organizational role is about as replaceable as that of Kendrick Perkins. I mean, it definitely stood out to me that prior to an overtime period that was predictably crucial to them keeping the series competitive, the Cavaliers' coach was literally out of the picture for a vast majority of the time in which his team stewed in their own stupidity. After all, how could I not be befuddled by the fact that not a second of thought was given to throwing J.R. Smith back out on the floor when he was largely left to only his own devices after making the single biggest, and most fundamentally inexcusable, mishap in NBA Finals history? That said, I just don't think any of that was as noteworthy as how composed LeBron James was throughout the two plus minute stretch in which the reality of the ridiculousness around him set in. That might sound silly, seeing as how his full range of emotions was written across his face in the clearest of penmanship. However, what we saw LeBron work through (which likely included the immediate acceptance of his departure this summer) as he came to grips with fact that his head coach was sitting on a life preserver as his team was left drowning only appeared as excruciating as what was happening on the couch of every fan that had an interest in the NBA Finals lasting more than five games. For instance, I'm pretty sure I was made just as visibly sick, with the main difference being that I hadn't just contributed an all-time playoff performance that was as much of a guarantee to end with over 50 points as it was to be rendered meaningless. The haters, of which there are still a shocking amount, will of course point to the lack of leadership shown by LeBron James when his team (and specifically one teammate) needed it the most, but I'm honestly just impressed that he didn't assault anyone given the circumstances. Everyone else remaining almost completely silent as the best player in the world fought through his own fate was a pretty accurate reflection of what's taken place on the court for the Cavaliers this season. Unfortunately, what's taken place on the court for the Cavaliers this season leaves as much reason for optimism heading into Game 3 as the 19-point differential in Game 2 did.
To be honest, I'd be a hypocrite to bemoan the occasional use of a white lie. Nothing J.R. Smith said was going to undo what was undoubtedly one of stupidest plays in the history of sports, so tip-toeing past the obvious truth while trying to explain the inexplicable in a way that makes him look slightly better (more accurately, less worse) was pretty damn harmless. Unfortunately, the white lie in question was about as doomed an endeavor as taking the ball and sprinting in the complete opposite direction of the goal with the game on the line. A player flat out forgetting the score in such a foolish and fatal fashion is damn near unprecedented. Therefore, crafting your excuse around a hypothetical in which two players, from opposing teams, both forget the score at the exact same time probably isn't the most forgiving of escape route. I'm going to try to put it as simply as one possibly can while attempting to navigate the complicatedly uncomplicated mind of 'Swish'. If what we saw was his instinctual reaction to grabbing a rebound three feet from the basket while the time ticked down in an NBA Finals game that he knew to be tied then I'd be more concerned about his ability to read a play than I already was about his ability to read a scoreboard. I think it's fairly obvious that what we saw in that interview was a damned fool fabricating on the fly, but - as evidenced by the entire viewing audience reacting in consensus with someone as hated as Draymond Green - lying about something so stupid only stands to make you look dumber. Therefore, he was probably just better off piping down. Assuming, of course, that putting the pipe down was off the table.
Welp, if nothing else, we got treated to an example of how little LeBron James has had to work with this postseason that's so glaring that it would leave J.R. Smith squinting mindlessly into its replay. I think we all wish that it didn't come at the expense of debatably the best game that the Cleveland Cavaliers have played throughout these playoffs and/or potentially sabotaged the competitiveness of a series that just started. Still, it's all-but-impossible to come away from that sequence - in which a short-armed, go-ahead foul shot in the final seconds was compounded in stupidity by the type of situational awareness that you'd expect from a second grader that suffers from ADD - without treating as fact that what the best player in the league has been able to accomplish in his 15th season is largely in spite of his team. On a night in which LeBron casually posted the most efficient 51 points and 8 assists you'll ever come across, he was left holding an 'L' because his own teammate literally ran away with any possibility of a 'W'. Unfortunately, as crazy as it seems given how clueless a professional basketball player has to be to not know the score of a Finals game in the waning seconds, the truth is that it would be disingenuous to put the full focus of the blame on J.R. Smith. After all, he was merely the only obstacle that LeBron James was unable overcome, as opposed to the only one put in front of him. What we saw in the 4th quarter of road game against one of the most talented teams in the history of professional sports was basically a game show in which the producers had the one common goal of seeing LeBron James off with the depressing toot of a trombone. Between the undeniable stank of the home cooking that had referees building up to their grand finale of summoning an idiotic rule that no one knew existed to overturn the result of a hugely consequential coin flip...
...and the sheer senselessness of a presumably comatose head coach that was too busy fulfilling his main role as a suited spectator to put his hands together in a 'T' formation as confused chaos ensued...
LeBron James basically took the floor in overtime covered in the sewage that Jordan Clarkson kept splashing up every time he tried (and failed) to help after having trudged all the way up Shit's Creek almost solely on the strength of his paddle. J.R. Smith definitely contributed largely to the toughness of the travel by using the contaminated waters to finger paint the magnum opus of his limited mental capacity, but he wasn't the only anchor on board as the Cavaliers wasted the greatness they witnessed. He was just the one whose dumbstruck face we should all shame if this series ends in less than six.
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