“The man is chasing rings. Its strictly business! Nothing personal dude.” – Maceo Battles, Junoir’s childhood friend.
EL BARIO, BRONX – There was a lot going on this week, so much so that it was really hard to fixate on one thing so I will focus on two sports and the many talking points that occurred this week with them. The good Deacon Blaber this week had a lively debate with my childhood friend, which will be covered in this week’s sports bully pulpit. The debate was related to the furious support by people of the opting out of contracts by Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony. The NBA draft occurred on Thursday so that requires discussion and of course we have the huge developments in World Cup that cannot go a miss.
NBA – We begin with the players opting out of their contracts. As a Knick fan, Carmelo opting out makes me happy. He can go to Chicago for all I care. If they have 4 guys willing to play defense while he hangs around midcourt waiting for the easy score, so be it. Tom Thibodeau thinks he can teach a 30 year old man that was never inclined to play defense in the first place to play better defense, best of luck to him.
As for Lebron opting out, I had the vigorous debate with my friend on the basis that Dwayne Wade had to the right to be annoyed with Lebron opting out. Miami was Wade’s team and he took a step back and a pay cut to get Lebron there. Lebron was the one talking about winning 8 titles now that the going got tough and they went 2 for 4 in titles, Lebron wants to assess his options!?! My friend seems to think it is a business decision and Wade shouldn’t take it personal. Lebron is looking for the best opportunity to get as many rings as possible and no average guy would take a pay cut for another man so that thinking is on Wade. My message to Lebron if I was Wade would be “If you see me coming, you better cross the street cause when I catch you, Ima bust head to the white meat, SUCKER!!”
Apparently the NBA Draft was last night. Another friend of mine’s wife got them tickets so he went to check out. It was 5 hours of his life, he will never get back. Andrew Wiggins was taken as the first pick. The second consecutive year a Canadian was picked number 1. Losing American jobs to Europeans is one thing but Canadians!?! Well now that is a very worrying trend. Next thing you know they will have a decent international team and compete against us like we do in hockey. That kind of future is enough to give me nightmares.
World Cup – If you noticed, I said us when I talked about the USA. I am re-asserting my American faith now that Ghana has been knocked out of the competition. It was a tough group and despite all the frustration about why North America 1 and Africa 1 are in the same group while you have joke group like Algeria (Africa 4) and Iran (Asia 4), in another group, it is all irrelevant now. You have to play when the whistle blows and the USA did a better job than Ghana and Portugal.
The other talking point has been the biting incident by Uruguay’s Luis Suarez. This is the third time he has bitten an opponent in a match. FIFA suspended Suarez for 9 international matches and 4 months. The amount of apologist for Suarez range from the his national teammates, the coach, the president of Uruguayan Football Association and the president of Uruguay himself. Even Maradona has attempted to defend him. The South American lobby were pushing hard for a minor fine and claim that he is being unfairly persecuted.
I am just glad this time it was against a FIFA powerhouse like Italy because if it was against an African or Asian nation, nothing would happen. FIFA is more a political body than a sports organization and corrupt to the bone so I am not surprised he got such a joke suspension for a repeat offense.
Suarez’s grandmother claims that this is what FIFA wanted to do, throw him out like people kick a dog out the home. She is incorrect because if a dog had bitten someone 3 times in 7 years they would be put down. After his 2010 handball antics, I could tell you that he had no sportsmanship about him. He will bite someone again because considering how many apologists this guy has, how could he ever think he did anything wrong. You wait and see.
That is it for now, hope you enjoyed by article I hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to comment below and come back tomorrow for the one and only Cheesy Bruin who will take a bite out of dullness on a Sunday.
P.s… If you want to read more of my ramblings as a Rugby Guy, you can find them on RugbyWrapUp.com and our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @RugbyWrapUp and @JunoirBlaber, respectively
