Vision Circle

The Sleeper Has Awakened

So nowadays damn near the only thing that keeps me watching television is Pro Basketball. Not college basketball (when was the last time YOU watched a college baseball game?). Pro. And for the umpteenth time last night's Dallas vs. Houston matchup had me crying out to the gods to bring Ralph Wiley back.

Of course my prayers weren't answered.

Well...not all the way.

If T-Mac isn't the Kwisatz Haderach I don't know who is.

ESPN Draft comments

I'm watching the NFL Draft while waiting for the NBA Playoffs to draft. Chicago's on the clock and they select Cedric Benson out of Texas.

Scroll down to see the photo.

When they draft him, he's crying tears of joy. The announcers are talking about the passion they see in his eyes, the sign of a sure winner. Then they flash to a couple of Texas highlights.

Then I notice the second thing--he had dreads in undergrad, but doesn't have them now. Why?

They cut to an interview with Susan Kolber (used to be "Suzy" but she chopped that I guess, for good reason). I like Kolber, but I didn't expect anything more than a perfunctory interview. She asked him the standard question "How do you feel?" And he responds noting that it's been a long road for him, given the "Ricky" stuff.

Ricky Williams was also a star Texas running back, with dreads. Has had a history of problems--has had a hard time fitting into the NFL culture more than anything else. So Kolber pushes him on it, and asks him why he cut his dreads off. Benson noted that he wanted a "fresh start" with a nice "clean cut" that could look "businesslike." But even that didn't seem to be enough for the coaches. From jump, during workouts, during interviews with various squads, they treated him like he was a boy, then a piece of meat, then a shiftless bum. We all know where those discussions were coming from. I'm willing to bet that the #1 pick (quarterback out of Utah) didn't undergo similar treatment.

After the interview was over, the commentators swiftly moved on.

Damn I wish Wiley were here

Jermaine O' Neal asked whether race had something to do with the desire to add an age limit to the NBA. Jason Whitlock says that it's all business...his post is too idiotic to link to. Find it if you want. I just want to take a look at two paragraphs:

No, it's not. It's business. Despite James' success, and the fact that seven strait-outta-hi-skool players earned spots in the NBA All-Star Game, the influx of unprepared teenage ballers has been bad for the NBA. The growth value of NBA franchises is not keeping pace with NFL and MLB franchises. The league isn't as important as it once was, and Stern is trying to head off a tidal wave of negative publicity directed at the league.

Statement: The influx of unprepared teenage ballers has been bad for the NBA.
How many teenage ballers have entered the league? When he says they are "unprepared" exactly what does he mean? Is Stoudemire unprepared? James? Was Kobe unprepared? Garnett?

Then he says that this group has been "bad for the NBA." How? Here's where the next paragraph comes in:

Fans don't enjoy the game the way they used to, and they're becoming more and more hostile toward the players. O'Neal has a $100-million contract. In his mind he's a huge star. He has no clue how much more of a star he would be had he spent two or three years in college being hyped up by Dick Vitale, Billy Packer, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Clark Kellogg. O'Neal spent his college years sitting on the Portland bench, collecting a fat check. That was good for Jermaine O'Neal. It was not good for the NBA.

Statement:Fans don't enjoy the game the way they used to, and they're becoming more and more hostile towards the players.
Ok. How are you defining "enjoying the game?" Is it by seats in the stadium? By ratings? By the purchase of jerseys? What? They're becoming more hostile towards the players? How? By what measure?

Then comes the kicker--O'Neal's sitting on the bench was good for him...but he SHOULD'VE been in college.

Whitlock's column consists of a bunch of implied causal statements, with absolutely no attempt to actually show the linkages between high school aged ballers and the problems he notes. Hell, last I heard Ron Artest actually WENT to school. Damn I wish Ralph Wiley were here.

C-Webb, Chris Webber...Discipline, Discipline, Discipline

Jason Whitlock goes off on Chris Webber again. Basic argument? That if Webber would've just stayed in the low-post and did the low-post thing he'd be the best power forward ever. Whitlock has some history with Webber, having covered him for the Ann Arbor News some 13 years ago.

I have some history with Webber too, having known him indirectly since he was in the eighth grade. And I was at Michigan during the Fab Five years....before the Fab Five years...and AFTER the Fab Five years. Whitlock's piece bears reading not just for the mistakes of analysis he makes about Webber. Let's be clear, Whitlock is no Ralph Wiley. But I think it says a lot about the three modern meanings of discipline, and the role they have to play in black male lives.

Wishing Wiley was Here (Again)

Every now and then something happens in the sports world that causes me to reflect on what Ralph Wiley would say if he'd been here.

Last week, ESPN began airing spots in commemoration of Black History Month. The first spot I saw had Queen Latifah talking about the 1968 Olympic protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. In order to protest the treatment of African Americans, Latifah noted, Smith and Carlos raised "black love fists."

What the *!&% ??

ESPN does a story like this once a year

A young black male has three times better chance to become a general in the U.S. Army than he does a head football coach for a Division I-A school. He has a better chance at becoming president of a Fortune 500 company than he does leading a college football team onto the field.

More here.

Kellen Winslow's path is the one to take. Don't have your kids play where they can't coach.

Here, we emphasize social power...but changing the rules to make decisions a bit more open definitely doesn't hurt.