The Sports Curmudgeon

I have always enjoyed the portion of the NCAA Tournament where the field is cut from 16 to the Final Four. Most teams that have made it to that point of the season are playing well and most are good teams; the players give full effort for the entirety of these games and the experience is always enjoyable. When CBS signed off their coverage yesterday and went to 60 Minutes, I was just a bit sad that it would be another year until I got to see a long weekend of basketball so enjoyable again.

Speaking of CBS, I think the suits there are probably about as happy as they can be with the way this tournament has unfolded. They had their Cinderella teams and upsets in the early rounds that gave them the opportunity to gush and to marvel at the unpredictability of it all. Then in the end, the four “monsters” – all four teams seeded #1 in the regions – are set to travel to San Antonio. If my math is correct, the combined record of the Final Four this year is 143-9. “Chalk” teams attract fans every year; there is a huge segment of the sporting public that loves a front-runner and people will latch onto teams that are “top-rated” every year. That usually translates to TV ratings and TV ratings translate very directly to revenues.

Ever since the Dallas Mavericks exploited the ridiculous loophole in the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement to pay Keith Van Horn more than $4M to “come back” to the NBA so they could trade him and his “salary” to the Nets for Jason Kidd, the Mavs have not beaten a team with a winning record. At the moment, Dallas is still in the playoffs but they are falling rapidly in the ultra-competitive NBA West and have a bunch of road games against winning teams to finish the season. They are not a shoo-in to make the playoffs - - let alone advance. Meanwhile, the NJ Nets – from whence Jason Kidd came – are currently in the #8 slot for the playoffs in the ultra-mediocre NBA East.

The Nets are hardly a shoo-in for the playoffs either; their record as of this morning is a pathetic 31-43 but the teams chasing them for that last slot are not exactly world-beaters either. Now, would it not be worth a chuckle if the Nets got into a playoff series while the Mavs were relegated to “Lottery Pick Limbo”? For me, it would pay off a karmic debt somewhere in the cosmos.

Speaking of the Mavs and their misfortunes, isn’t it interesting that Mark Cuban is so silent about his Mavericks with regard to topics of “responsibility” and “accountability”? He loves to champion those things in his blog in so many other dimensions of the world and the human condition. When a referee makes a mistake – or a call that Cuban just does not agree with – he sends tapes to the league office and complains that the officials should be accountable for their mistakes. When David Stern does something Cuban doesn’t like, it usually does not take long for Cuban to call out the Commish. So, why is he being so soft on this group of overpaid and underachieving athletes? Couldn’t be a case of latent jock-sniffing - - could it?

According to an AP report, former NBA player, Isaiah Rider, is in police custody again. According to police reports, he failed to stop at an intersection at 2:30 AM; and when police pulled him over, they found that the car had been reported stolen in South Los Angeles. I hope no one is shocked by this news because the concept of Isaiah Rider being in trouble with the law is prosaic. It is one of those things that you know is going to happen. It is sort of like when you were in high school and you got set up on a blind date; no matter how much you hoped things would be better this time, you knew in your heart that your date would look like one of Shrek’s siblings.

It is not worth the trouble to go and find a complete rap sheet on Isaiah Rider to make the point that this man has not been adequately socialized as an adult hominid. Just from memory, during and after his NBA playing days, Rider has been involved in legal issues related to drugs, assault and battery, improper possession of firearms and resisting a police officer. He once spit at fans who were jeering him. Last year he pled guilty to charges of felony possession of drugs and was sentenced; a couple of months ago he was arrested on charges involving illegal possession of firearms; now the latest incident. Think about all of that and now consider the following proposition:

Isaiah Rider gets himself back in shape (he is 37 years old) and wants to make a come back in the NBA. None of the 30 teams will even return his phone calls.

Is that collusion on the part of the NBA owners? Alternatively, is it an expression that they do not want an aging player who used to be able to play in their locker room because of the baggage that he brings with him?

Just asking…

The NHL has an interesting set of legal issues ongoing at the moment. Remember when Steve Bertuzzi attacked Steve Moore from behind ending Moore’s career with a broken neck? Well, Bertuzzi is back in the league and here is some of the legal fallout from all of that:

Moore is suing Bertuzzi and has included then Vancouver coach, Marc Crawford, in his complaint.

Bertuzzi is suing the Canucks as a team. (Don’t recall why…)

The Canucks have counter-filed against Bertuzzi. (Don’t recall why…)

NOW, Bertuzzi is suing Crawford – his former coach – regarding the incident.

At the time, the NHL could not find any justification to suspend Crawford for any part he may have played in the incident – either actively or passively. Perhaps, after depositions are taken in all of these matters, the papers can be sent to the NHL Front Office so that the commissioner can see what his super-sleuth investigators might have missed when they looked into all of this.

Finally, here is a comment from Steve Simmons in the Toronto Sun about another lawsuit that is ongoing now:

“You can’t make this up: Boxing promoter Don King is suing ESPN for $2.5 billion for defamation of character. How you defame a killer is beyond me, but oddly enough, this lawsuit appears to be proceeding.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…