Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: Dumb boos, Sixers Need Williams, Iverson Rants, Masters Hype, more
I’ll jump right into the Week-in-Review:
• The Phils are out of the gate 5-1, yet fans managed to make booing part of the story. Morons. I understand Cole Hamels got rocked in his first start, and to top it off the Mets were the ones smacking him around. But the idiotic “this is Philly and we boo” mentality is old and tired. All it really does is feed the national perception that Philly fans are dopes. Besides, it was the fourth game of the season expected by many to end in the World Series. Why is anyone booing?
• The above question was actually meant to be rhetorical. The only thing worse than the booing were the explanations for it that flooded sports talk radio. Mike Missanelli’s explanation of the various types of boos was almost comical. Tuesday night was apparently the tough love type boo. Give me a break. First of all, people were there on a cold night, most of them who booed probably had a few beers in them, and they were ticked that they were seeing a bad loss. They weren’t distinguishing between types of boos. And the geniuses who think they’re motivating Hamels are even worse. Yep, Cole Hamels, a guy whose won the World Series MVP Award, is going to motivated by Joe Sixpack booing from the second level. Don’t think so.
• I never thought I’d be writing about how the Sixers hopes of winning a playoff series are doomed if Lou Williams can’t return from injury, but the last week has made it pretty clear of that being true. The Sixers haven’t won a game since clinching a playoff spot last Friday, and Williams was hurt in Saturday’s game at Milwaukee. The Sixers have since lost to the Celtics and the Knicks, dropping behind New York to the seventh seed in the East. They weren’t close to guaranteed wins with Williams, and there was probably a letdown factor after clinching a playoff spot. But he is almost undoubtedly the Sixers best scorer, averaging 13.7 points in 23.3 minutes off the bench this season. He’s out at least through the last three games of the regular season.
• In some ways it has to be asked if the Allen Iverson story had any chance of going any other way than it’s been going. Iverson was reportedly in one of his cars being driven by a friend when it was pulled over for a lane violation and the car was found to have “fake dealer license on it and it was not registered, even though it was purchased two years ago.” He ended up cursing out the cops, though later apologized. Iverson is back in the States in Atlanta after getting injured in Turkey.
This is classic Iverson. He reacts instinctively, doing the combination hip hop, spoiled athlete thing, or whatever people want to call it, and then he wants to make it right with an apology. The same report quotes Iverson saying to police, “Take the vehicle, I have 10 more,” “Police don’t have anything else (expletive) to do except (expletive) with me,” and “Do you know who I am?”
I don’t see how Iverson’s personal story ends well. I hope I’m wrong.
• According to ProFootballTalk.com, “This year’s version of the Madden video game will place a new emphasis on concussions, with any player suffering a concussion being sidelined for the rest of the game, and the game announcers (Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth) explaining the seriousness of head injuries.” I get that they’re trying to drive home the message to kids that concussions are a serious issue, and I applaud that effort. But I’m not sure this is the best way to do it. Video games should be a fun (not obsessively used) distraction. It’s a game. No one wants to flip it on and not be able to use DeSean Jackson or whomever their favorite player is. We need to let kids be just kids sometimes.
• Mike Greenberg was at it again yesterday, pontificating on the foursome that did the ceremonial teeing off to open the Masters. Who would replace these legends of the game? You mean, the game that just recently let black golfers actually play it? Who knew they even did a ceremonial teeing off? Or cared? The Masters would be a blip on the ESPN radar if they didn’t air it – just ask the NHL. The best part of the hypocrisy of the Masters and golf in general is that the most racist game in existence today is praying to God that Tiger Woods returns to form so people will care about it again.
• Duke’s Kyle Irvin has declared for the NBA draft after playing 11 games in college as a freshman due to injury. No more questions about why teams like Butler make the championship game or why the NBA is watered-down, we have our answer. And, by the way, the NBA is headed for a lockout that will at the very least shorten, if not cancel, the season. Gee, you think Irvin is just dying to play the game?
• I can almost promise this will be one of my last rips of Philly Sports Daily because I simply stopped following the online publication after their moronic article last week suggesting that the start of the Phillies season meant that the Sixers will be “bumped off stage.” It was basically an “opinion” getting recycled from sports talk. Oh, they won’t win a title so who cares if they’re playing better. And why are they going to be bumped? Because the media deems it so.
• Tweet of the Week: It comes from the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari, “#Eagles sell out draft party; 6,500 tickets go in 4 hours; yeah, NFL's *really* worried about impact of a lockout on fan support.”
• I don’t understand how anyone can get excited about this year’s NFL draft. The lockout is quickly headed to the summer months, the two sides are squabbling over nonsense like where to negotiate, and we’re supposed to care about who teams might pick in a draft where trades of players won’t even be allowed. No, thanks.
• The Phils are out of the gate 5-1, yet fans managed to make booing part of the story. Morons. I understand Cole Hamels got rocked in his first start, and to top it off the Mets were the ones smacking him around. But the idiotic “this is Philly and we boo” mentality is old and tired. All it really does is feed the national perception that Philly fans are dopes. Besides, it was the fourth game of the season expected by many to end in the World Series. Why is anyone booing?
• The above question was actually meant to be rhetorical. The only thing worse than the booing were the explanations for it that flooded sports talk radio. Mike Missanelli’s explanation of the various types of boos was almost comical. Tuesday night was apparently the tough love type boo. Give me a break. First of all, people were there on a cold night, most of them who booed probably had a few beers in them, and they were ticked that they were seeing a bad loss. They weren’t distinguishing between types of boos. And the geniuses who think they’re motivating Hamels are even worse. Yep, Cole Hamels, a guy whose won the World Series MVP Award, is going to motivated by Joe Sixpack booing from the second level. Don’t think so.
• I never thought I’d be writing about how the Sixers hopes of winning a playoff series are doomed if Lou Williams can’t return from injury, but the last week has made it pretty clear of that being true. The Sixers haven’t won a game since clinching a playoff spot last Friday, and Williams was hurt in Saturday’s game at Milwaukee. The Sixers have since lost to the Celtics and the Knicks, dropping behind New York to the seventh seed in the East. They weren’t close to guaranteed wins with Williams, and there was probably a letdown factor after clinching a playoff spot. But he is almost undoubtedly the Sixers best scorer, averaging 13.7 points in 23.3 minutes off the bench this season. He’s out at least through the last three games of the regular season.
• In some ways it has to be asked if the Allen Iverson story had any chance of going any other way than it’s been going. Iverson was reportedly in one of his cars being driven by a friend when it was pulled over for a lane violation and the car was found to have “fake dealer license on it and it was not registered, even though it was purchased two years ago.” He ended up cursing out the cops, though later apologized. Iverson is back in the States in Atlanta after getting injured in Turkey.
This is classic Iverson. He reacts instinctively, doing the combination hip hop, spoiled athlete thing, or whatever people want to call it, and then he wants to make it right with an apology. The same report quotes Iverson saying to police, “Take the vehicle, I have 10 more,” “Police don’t have anything else (expletive) to do except (expletive) with me,” and “Do you know who I am?”
I don’t see how Iverson’s personal story ends well. I hope I’m wrong.
• According to ProFootballTalk.com, “This year’s version of the Madden video game will place a new emphasis on concussions, with any player suffering a concussion being sidelined for the rest of the game, and the game announcers (Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth) explaining the seriousness of head injuries.” I get that they’re trying to drive home the message to kids that concussions are a serious issue, and I applaud that effort. But I’m not sure this is the best way to do it. Video games should be a fun (not obsessively used) distraction. It’s a game. No one wants to flip it on and not be able to use DeSean Jackson or whomever their favorite player is. We need to let kids be just kids sometimes.
• Mike Greenberg was at it again yesterday, pontificating on the foursome that did the ceremonial teeing off to open the Masters. Who would replace these legends of the game? You mean, the game that just recently let black golfers actually play it? Who knew they even did a ceremonial teeing off? Or cared? The Masters would be a blip on the ESPN radar if they didn’t air it – just ask the NHL. The best part of the hypocrisy of the Masters and golf in general is that the most racist game in existence today is praying to God that Tiger Woods returns to form so people will care about it again.
• Duke’s Kyle Irvin has declared for the NBA draft after playing 11 games in college as a freshman due to injury. No more questions about why teams like Butler make the championship game or why the NBA is watered-down, we have our answer. And, by the way, the NBA is headed for a lockout that will at the very least shorten, if not cancel, the season. Gee, you think Irvin is just dying to play the game?
• I can almost promise this will be one of my last rips of Philly Sports Daily because I simply stopped following the online publication after their moronic article last week suggesting that the start of the Phillies season meant that the Sixers will be “bumped off stage.” It was basically an “opinion” getting recycled from sports talk. Oh, they won’t win a title so who cares if they’re playing better. And why are they going to be bumped? Because the media deems it so.
• Tweet of the Week: It comes from the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari, “#Eagles sell out draft party; 6,500 tickets go in 4 hours; yeah, NFL's *really* worried about impact of a lockout on fan support.”
• I don’t understand how anyone can get excited about this year’s NFL draft. The lockout is quickly headed to the summer months, the two sides are squabbling over nonsense like where to negotiate, and we’re supposed to care about who teams might pick in a draft where trades of players won’t even be allowed. No, thanks.
Comments