Long Lost Brothers

Lawrence Frank and Scott Skiles are brothers. This would be more evident if Frank didnt age like Gary Coleman and if Skiles didnt look like the emperor from Starwars.

Who you callin' Nappy Headed!?

Last week, i was surprised to see a name i had never seen on the bottom line of ESPNews. As i watched longer, it became more clear. The ESPN anchor played the infamous tape of Imus' radio show, where he jokingly refered to the Rutgers Girls Basketball team as "Nappy headed hoes." I didn't think that this would become anything big.

But i continued to see Imus' name on that bottom line, and that sentence on the bottom right corner kept getting worse. It went from, "Don Imus stirs controversy" to "Imus suspended" to, "Imus fired."

What i also noticed progressively getting worse was the media's coverage on this issue. Sports writers and analysts everywhere were calling for Imus to be fired. Many called him an idiot. Then the "idiot" was finally fired and the media still decided to bludgeon Imus with insults for a few more days, none of which i could stand listening to.

But finally a sports writer had an opinion i could listen to. Flipping through the channels one night, i saw a 3-way debate on MSNBC between a black woman who i didn't recognize, some white guy, and writer Jason Whitlock. I can not give an exact quotation of what Whitlock said, but i'll paraphrase it as best as i can. He said that we are teaching the Rutgers women a wrong lesson by firing Imus over this (The supposed reason he got fired was because his sponsors pulled out, but if it wasn't for the media this would never have happened). We should teach him that people like this shouldn't make us upset, and that we should just ignore them instead of giving them more attention.

I'm not saying that the Rutgers girls shouldn't be upset about Imus' comments, they have every right to. I just agree with Whitlock that the moral of this story was miswritten, and it's the media's fault for calling for this man to be fired.

There are also more points that Whitlock did not mention that i'd like to bring up. Don Imus is a comedian, just like Dane Cook and Chris Rock. I'd be curious to see what would have happened if Chris Rock made these comments and not Don Imus, because his punishment should be no different and the girls reaction should be no different. But i would guess that this would not be the case. All comedians exaggerate stereotypes all the time in order to get laughs, and most people don't have a problem with it. I'm sure the Rutgers girl's would laugh when they heard Chris Rock degrading women in one of his comedy routines.

Sure, Imus comments were more pointed than usual. Instead of making fun of Jews or Athletes in general (which i'm sure he has done many times), he focused on black, female athletes. But if you are going to say that he was wrong to make his dumb joke about the Rutgers female athletes then you should have been protesting Imus years ago when he was doing the same thing to other groups.

Media everywhere was calling Don Imus an idiot last week, but they were the idiots. If they really felt that Imus was such a low human being, they wouldn't be paying attention to him so much. Imagine you are a female basketball player at Rutgers. You are walking down the street and a homeless person sitting on the sidewalk yells to you, "Look, it's one of those Nappy headed hoes from Rutgers!" What would you do? Would it not be ludicrous to call for that homeless person to be thrown out of the city?

Truthfully answer that question and then decide if you agree with me or not.

Talking Points

Just some talking points for the upcoming NBA playoffs.

Why doesnt the East get any Love?
2 of the last 3 World Champions have been Eastern Conference teams. While the Suns may be a sexy pick, they cant win a 7 game series because they dont play enough D. Dirk Nowitzki is too much of a choker to win the big game, and Tim Duncan and the Spurs are getting older. Besides the Spurs and Rockets, I dont give any other Western Conference team a chance to win the title.

That being said, the East really only has two teams with any chance to win also. Obviously Detroit and Miami are the bench marks of the conference; my beef is with the fact that no one is picking them. Veteran leadership and defense wins championships. In these two areas the East's best come up all aces.

T-Mac is Back
I remember calling this one a while ago. While Sportscenter and all of my friends were counting him as done I knew that as soon as he was healthy that he would be the superstar he has always been. However he proved me wrong also by coming back even better than he had been previously. He was perfectly content playing Robin to Ming's Batman, but at this point in the season Mcgrady is by in the drivers seat. He is unequivically this teams leader, a role that no one thought he would ever take. In spite of Bonzi Wells' untimely departure, look for the Rockets to go deep this year.

People who pick the Suns to win it all are stupid
As previously stated Phoenix is a sexy team to watch (no homo). I admit that their style of play is very pretty (nice alley oop Nash, great block Marion), but lets be serious, does anyone think that they can hang with either San Antonio, Houston, or Dallas in a 7 game series? Championship caliber teams find a way to win when they are off their game. If the Suns are not scoring they are not winning, and playing any one of those three great defensive teams spells doom for the Suns in the playoffs. Outside of Barbosa they have no bench.

New Blood
Is it just me or is everyone excited to see Dwight Howard in the Playoffs? Chris Bosh anyone? Second helping of Bron? Baby Bulls? This is shaping up to be a great 2 months of basketball. The next gen has arrived in the Eastern Conference. If the Wizards hadnt succumb to the NBA 82 game season they would be right up their with the other young, exciting Eastern Conference teams. While none of those teams really have a chance it will still be fun to watch.

Allow Myself to Introduce, Myself

Hi all,

I just thought i'd provide a little introduction. My name is Max, I'm a college student in the DC area. I am a big fan of all Washington teams, except i prefer the Orioles over the Nationals. I actively browse a lot of sports forums and i'm also into the NBA and NFL drafts. I'm also a mid stakes poker player. Right now i'm currently a good regular at Pokerstars 200 dollar buyin, short handed. I will also be blogging about poker.

So lets just start the hating, shall we? If anyone here is into poker you prbably watched High Stakes Poker on GSN tonight. Can i just say that Daniel Negreanu is absolutely terrible in Cash games. It seems like as the seasons of HSP have went on Negreanu has become tighter, more predictable and more stupid. A prime example is a hand tonight where he is in the blinds with AK. The table is very loose, and there is a raise and two cold calls in front of him. AK is a very strong preflop hand, and he could have easily raised and taken down the pot, but instead he decides to call. This is a terrible terrible terrible mistake no matter who you are playing with. Then he leads the flop in a 4-way pot with NOTHING. Put that money into a reraise preflop, idiot.

Now onto baseball, i just wanted to say that i really really don't like the red sox, mainly their fans. I'm not a Yankee lover in the slightest, but i find it funny how the Yankee's and the Sox are viewed by the media as polar opposites. Oh boo hoo, the Yankees spend so much money while other teams like the Sox can't keep up! Newsflash, the Sox spend just as much money, and so do a lot of teams. I respect the Yankee's because they consistently have put great teams together, while many teams have not with a similar payroll.

Ok, that's enough hating for a night. I hope you enjoy.

Im Baaaaaack