Interview with Kathryn Bertine, Olympic Hopeful
August 27, 2008
I think most of us who played sports before have wondered if we’d have a chance at qualifying for the Olympics in the less well-known sports. Of course, you and I followed that thought by reaching for some more Pringles and changing the channel! However, Kathryn Bertine instead went all-out in attempting to qualify for the Olympics. She tried multiple sports, multiple strategies, and even multiple citizenships to be part of Beijing 2008. Unfortunately, her cycling times weren’t quite good enough for Beijing, but she’s already thinking about London 2012! My interview with her is below. (Photo by Andrew Kozak).
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“I’m not Dead Yet”: Why are Stars Past their Prime Treated so Badly?
August 13, 2008
Recently we saw both Manny Ramirez and Brett Favre being escorted off the premises in Boston and Green Bay. Both had delivered a title to each city after decades of losing. Both were slightly past their prime, but still at least among the top 25% in the league at their position. Yet they were widely vilified for their attitudes, and management tried hard to get rid of them. Why did this happen? Are you going to tell me that Manny and Brett’s attitudes have spontaneously changed from team player to spoiled divo as they aged? Or that their attitudes were so bad that they could only be tolerated when playing at an MVP level? Both theories are highly suspect.
Rick Reilly Insults the World, One Country at a Time
July 31, 2008
Rick Reilly is paid millions of dollars each year to work for ESPN. That includes a short column once a week for ESPN The Mag. What topic did Rick Reilly pick this week? Mocking the anthems of 17 different countries. What’s worse is that he shows astounding cultural ignorance in doing so. Let’s pick out just three of his entries:
What Cleveland Must Do to Reach the 2009 Finals
July 1, 2008
We at SOMM are continuing a series on how the 14 play-off teams that did not make it to the 2008 Finals can make it in 2009. (If time permits, we may also do lottery teams). If you are a dedicated fan of one of the teams, let me know and we may also feature your thoughts when we get to your team.
Amar from Cavalier Attitude at http://mvn.com/nba-cavaliers/ was gracious enough to share some thoughts on how the Cavaliers might improve this off-season:
A few months ago, somebody said that if defense and rebounding alone won NBA championships, then Cleveland would have had a parade in June of ‘07. They didn’t, so you can figure out what that means.
It also means that the Cavs have those two aspects of the game down. But anybody who watched the Cavs intense seven-game second-round series with the Celtics can vouch for the fact that Cleveland needs another scorer besides LeBron James to get buckets. It really doesn’t matter who that guy is, whether it be a big man in the post or a sharp-shooter on the perimeter. Somebody else has to help LB shoulder the load, and that somebody else isn’t on the roster - at least not yet.
Jesus Plays Sports: Analyzing the Redemption of Josh Hamilton
June 26, 2008
Note: When I publish articles on topics where I have a discernable bias due to who I am, I like to let readers know upfront what my bias is. It’s more fair to readers that way, instead of pretending that I have a neutral background. That’s why I put the “Jesus Plays Sports” label on this and other posts. It means that my Christian faith and the world of sports are colliding. I’m saying this now because it’s the first “Jesus Plays Sports” entry I’ve done on here.
The Josh Hamilton story is well-known to most of us. Ballplayer grows up in a loving, religious family, ballplayer is the #1 overall pick in MLB, ballplayer gets hooked on drugs, and ballplayer somehow kicks the habit to fulfull his #1 overall pick status.
The Most Awesome Sports Blog Of All Time Would Have…
June 23, 2008
Will Leitch, former editor of Deadspin.com, is finishing up his last week with the site before leaving. I refuse to write a “What Leitch meant to blogging” or “What Leitch could have done better” column. The man’s leaving in a week and can’t change anything now, and those retrospective columns often reek of “hindsight is 20-20 vision” or smug backstabbing. I am not interested in replacing him, for the record. But I couldn’t help but wonder, what would I do if I had the time and freedom to blog full-time? Here are my passions to help develop a better sports blog. I’ve posted about these for years at http://mcbias.blogspot.com/search/label/Bloggolalia , if you want to see all my thoughts.
What Detroit Must Do to Reach the 2009 Finals
June 19, 2008
We at SOMM are starting a series on how the 14 play-off teams that did not make it to the 2008 Finals can make it in 2009. (If time permits, we may also do lottery teams). First up, the Detroit Pistons, who lost to Boston in six games in the Eastern Conference. Besides my own thoughts, I asked both a Pistons blogger and a dedicated fan for three ways the Pistons can improve. If you are a dedicated fan of one of the teams, let me know and we may also feature your thoughts when we get to your team.
The NBA Finals: Where Zen Buddhism Confronts Ubuntu, Part 2
June 16, 2008
See my last post for more details about Ubuntu. This time, I wanted to take a more careful look at Phil 
Jackson’s Zen Buddhism and how it affects the Lakers. But first, I must address a concern a few commenters brought up on the last post. To those of us who are outsiders, we might wonder whether the team’s rituals really mean anything. After all, just because a team chants “Championship” after every practice does not mean that it becomes a championship contender, right? So does Paul Pierce really think “Ubuntu” as he goes up for every shot, or is Kendrick Perkins working extra hard to rehabilitate his shoulder just because of the togetherness of the team?
The NBA Finals: Where Ubuntu Confronts Zen Buddhism, Part 1
June 7, 2008
I am surprised that no one has yet touched on the religious or ideological underpinnings of this Finals matchup. On the one hand, Doc Rivers has rallied the Celtics around the South African concept of ubuntu, which loosely means a person is defined and succeeds according to his/her relationships with other people. (For a much fuller explanation of Ubuntu, visit the Wikipedia entry). Please watch this video by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well, which expands on the concept.
On the other hand, Phil Jackson’s exploration of Zen Buddhism and roots in the Pentecostal Christian tradition have been well-known since his Chicago Bulls days. In fact, Phil went so far as to write a book on the topic, Sacred Hoops. Zen Buddhism focuses on attaining enlightment through individual meditation, and “rejects the study of scriptures…in favor of meditation leading to a sudden breakthrough of insight… ” (Quote from religionfacts.com).
Thus, the clash between Doc Rivers and Phil Jackson is between two drastically different ideologies. Ubuntu emphasizes togetherness, while Zen Buddhism emphasizes solitary meditation. But in espousing Ubuntu, Tutu says that “You can’t be human in isolation. You are human only in relationships.”
(I hesitate to call a few generic principles culled from beginner’s textbooks a religion per se, so I will use ideology instead. I might also add that religion, in the hands of a coach, often mysteriously becomes boiled down to “work hard and obey your elders, especially your dictator, err, coach.” The misuse of religious-sounding principles by essentially irreligious authority figures to solidify their hold over subordinates enrages me. Religion should be for freedom, not for further slavery. However, neither P-Jax or Doc is apparently doing that, so I digress).
Anyway, I shall proceed to explain both ideologies as I think they will affect on-court basketball performances. I’ll do Ubuntu first, and do a separate post on Zen later, if it appears there is demand for such a thing.
Ubuntu
Strengths:
Ubuntu’s focus on togetherness was exactly what Doc Rivers needed in the early days of molding this Celtics team. He had experienced All-Stars mixed with 1st and 2nd year players. A poor beginning to the season would have been disastrous.
Also, don’t overlook Ubuntu’s African roots. On a team where the main rotation players are all black, it’s appealing to bond around an ideology that has cultural ties for the players. Now of course, I’m not saying that all blacks are the same, but I bet it doesn’t hurt team unity that the players share a race and an ideology. Also, the concept of Ubuntu does not come into direct conflict with most faiths, so players do not feel pressed to choose between the team ideology and their individual convictions. Tutu expanded on the concept of Ubuntu to define it as ”…affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” However, this brings us to a weakness…
Weaknesses:
Ubuntu, by its very nature, can hamper a player from individual feats of brilliance. In the game I consider to be the true test of the Celtics, Game 7 against the Cavs, Paul Pierce won the game for the Celtics by deviating from the Ubuntu script. His 41 points while Ray and Kevin only put up 17 points on 6-19 shooting showed that at times, a group must allow a member to attain individual honors in order to move that group forward.
Also, one wonders about the effect of late-season acquistion Sam Cassell on Ubuntu. Judging by his on-court shot selection, he is still playing an individual game. When I saw the Celtics and Sam in-person in a late-season game, he seemed to be a welcome addition to the sideline as an incessant, rather encouraging chatterbox. But will that wear on the team in high-pressure situations?
Finally, Ubuntu may lead to team unity, but it also may mean that the team values relationships over winning. While I absolutely applaud this from my position as an observer, I don’t think my Boston friends would agree. After all, as the unfortunate Pacers-Pistons incident from a few years ago shows, team loyalty and unity can also lead to the entire team going over the edge when one team member is threatened, hurt, or angry.
The Corruption of a Sports Dynasty
May 28, 2008
Lately I’ve been reading a history book of Ancient Greece. I’m amazed at how often a city-state dynasty built by talented wise men was then ruined by greedy, self-serving men with a gift for gab and getting the people to follow them. It troubles me to realize that our own country is probably headed for the same inevitable decline. But it also got me thinking; are all sports dynasties doomed to be corrupted?
