U.S.A is still the best at basketball, NFL shennanigans + random things to think about

Some things and thoughts have floated around my mind for days, possibly weeks, but the beginning of the NFL season has taken up so much of my sports-oriented time, we haven't had time to review and discuss the important matters taking place across the Sports World.  Now that the game previews for tonight are out of the way and we can all enjoy watching the Jets lose later, it's time to say the things everyone needs to know or already knows....just....READ

• Firstly, and most importantly to myself, the U.S. basketball team won the FIBA World Championship in FIBA's tournament.  It's certainly not as well-known or respected as winning a gold medal in the Olympics, but it's a great tournament, featuring the world's best players, in which the rest of the world views as extremlely exciting and important.  Case and point, the Turkey vs. U.S.A. final had a local crowd of 15,000 in Istanbul rooting for their fellow countrymen.  the NBA still has more of the world's best players and an NBA championship is still as valuable as an olympic gold medal if not moreso in reality  (even though Kobe said he was more proud of his medal)  That was based on the ability to represent his country, however, and not the level of competition.  Considering most of the top 20 best players in the world still reside in America, the NBA playoffs are still the highest level of play, despite its individualistic ideals.


•   Many people viewed this new U.S. team as the "B" team, without Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo, etc, but the truth of the matter is this young b-ball team played a much more cohesive game and put a more exciting product on the floor.  Kevin Durant proved how much better his defense is becoming, including his shot blocking ability, while continuing to be the best offensively dominant scorer in the world.  Durant won a scoring title last year in the NBA at the age of 21, but MVPs are in his near future.  These young players have proven that they can adapt to the world's game better than today's greatest superstars.  'Melo, Lebron, Kobe, and D-wade finished THIRD in this tournament 4 years ago, winning the bronze medal.  The media said this team was under-sized and couldn't shoot, but the young talent in the NBA, the future of basketball greatness, showed how much promise the sport really has. 


•  Lamar Odom was the only veteran who had any impact, he actually seemed to prove with his clutch rebounding and defense that he might've been a bigger part of the Lakers winning the last two titles than we ever could've imagined.  Derek Rose was incredibly fast to the basket, scoring at will at times, as well as being the best passer on the floor, the future assist leader in the NBA.  Even Kevin Love made some big plays, while young guards across the league showed off their talent. (Eric Gordon, Stephon Curry, Russell Westbrook)  The future of the NBA is so bright, and this tournament proves it.  The future stars in the league did something that the Superstars of today couldn't do last time around, and now we can look forward to another run at Gold in the Olympics of 2012.


• Second off, continuing our trend of NFL coverage, Calvin Johnson caught a ball in the endzone, got both feet down, a knee down, and never juggled or mishandled or dropped or let go of the ball!  No matter how you interpret what ever rule was quoted in the NFL rulebook/handbook, every other rule states that a receiver who CATCHES the ball and gets TWO feet or ONE knee down has made a complete catch.  I understand that it has to be completely defined before a player can start his endzone celebration, but IT WAS!  His feet were down.  Then his knee was down. He had the ball securely in his hand.  Anyone who says that they immediately knew that was NOT a touchdown is not only a liar, but an incorrect one at that.


• Chris Carter is one of the guys claiming he knew that Calvin had not established the catch before putting the ball on the ground and raising his hands in triumph.  I'm happy to see how wrong he is about this because it brings me to another point after this one, but first, C.C., stick with PLAYING football.  Coach Lovie Smith of the Bears has to challenge the call if there's any questions, that's his job, especially in such an important situation.  It looked and smelled and felt like a touchdown, but he used the ball to push himself up off the ground after the catch was already made and that's where Chicago's coach was hoping that the refs would misinterpret the rule and cost the Lions the game.  I hate to agree with Bob Costas, and disagree with Skip Bayless on the matter, but I've been given no choice.  Mr. Carter if you had made that catch as such back in your overrated playing days, you would've flipped your lid if they had reversed the CALL on the FIELD, which was that it was in fact A TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   You're a former player and receiver, have some sympathy and respect.


•  Speaking of which that guy who grounded his club because he didnt know he was golfing out of a bunker and didnt make the playoffs because of the resulting penalty got screwed too.  But golf is fun to play, not follow, here's hoping Tiger finds his way back to the top someday soon though.


• By the way, Chris Carter of ESPN, why don't you even show some respect to your fellow media mates whom have let you do what they do for a living with them?  After your pro football career, you would've been best to do us all a favor and retire quietly and peacefully into the night because you are wrong far too often and I don't just mean when it comes to predictions.  You have strong opinions on matters, but you don't respect the media or the opinions of analysts who have never played sports professionally.  Obviously, you know the X's and O's, the ins and the outs, strategies, schemes, and veteran players, but that does not mean that you know everything.  You absolutely know how to play the game of football, you are a potential Hall of Famer and I respected your ability on the field.  BUT unless you can predict the outcome of every game, unless you personally know every player, UNLESS you know the coach's strategy going into each and every week for specific teams, keep your disrespectful opinions to yourself. 


•  Players play, coaches coach, and analysts/experts analyze expertly.  Our job isn't to disect each and every play, we are good at our jobs and know more about more sports, because we study, research, and watch all the games.  We have statistics to consider, but we can also see that Kobe hits 3-pointers in the clutch, the Ravens and Steelers consistently play great defense, a HOF Quarterback has become a bigger part of building a championship team, etc.  We dont need to see that a running back can't find or burst through the hole to know that an offensive line has been ineffective....  All I'm saying is that if former players want to be involved with the media, they should respect everyone else's opinion and not act like they have MORE knowledge by having on-field experience.   We all played sports when we were younger, and we still do for fun, so just because you had the privilege and were blessed with the talent and good fortune to have a professional career doesnt mean you have to continue to rub it in our faces afterwards.  In other words, don't judge me or my media family Chris Carter, or I'll judge you.


• I don't care if Kevin Kolb could be the future of your organization and that he is thought highly of around the league, and I dont care if Andy Reid is or is not on the hot seat.  All that matters is what we saw in week one... when Kolb was in the game, the offense had no rythm and no confidence, when Vick was brought in for a few plays, good things happened.  Michael Vick brought a swagger, his speed was clearly back to an incredible level, but he didnt completely rely on his feet, he also has a laser rocket arm. (not necessarily an accurate one)  Vick almost brought the struggling Eagles back from a 20-3 deficit against a very solid Green Bay Packers defense.  Why Vick wasn't given a chance to beat Kolb out for the starting job at the beginning of Pre-season, I have no idea.  On a side note, isn't it ironic that Mcnabb convinced the Eagles organization to give Vick a chance?


• Reggie Bush should hide his heisman trophy somewhere safe, the NCAA is coming for it.  Their committee continues to discuss and their next meeting will focus on whether or not Reggie Bush should keep it, as the university's version of the trophy has already been thrown away.  Reggie accepted illegal gifts and money from recruiters, I'm sure there's no doubt...but who the hell cares?  I'm positive that tons of Superstar athletes have gotten away with this at a countless number of schools, but more importantly Reggie Bush was the best player that season in College football.  He had the best stats, the best performances and he was the most important player.  If he was ineligible at the time things might be different but he beat out Vince Young in the heisman voting fair and square.  Money may have had something to do with Reggie Bush choose to go to USC, but it had nothing to do with his talent or how he played on the field.


• EVEN more importantly than that entire situation are the penalties that have been assessed to the university because of Reggie Bush's past conduct.  No sanctions on USC during the present day will do anything to fix what happened back then.  You are taking 30 scholarships away from 30 deserving students who will now fall to a school that places less emphasis on education.  Eventually 30 students down the line who would normally be going to the lesser of college football schools as their last real option to go to college, will be out of the loop completely.  Certain high school students will be stuck in the poorest of neighborhoods as opposed to getting a higher education in college and a few possibly moving on to become professional athletes, all because Reggie Bush accepted gifts & money as a student.  It's nonsense to punish a school trying to help individuals create a brighter future, for something an individual did years ago, choices he's not being punished for financially.  The NCAA is absurd to expect college athletes, to wait, hoping to avoid injury, hoping some NFL scout finds and loves their talent...before they can get paid.  I'm not saying the schools should give the athletes something more than a free education, but they should certainly allow the athletes to recieve endorsements and make a living, for gosh sakes!


• It was clearly a penalty, the Cowboys lost, Romo needs to grow up and stop deflecting the blame.  Wade Phillips needs to stop making excuses and assert himself as the true leader of the team.  Jerry Jones need to be JUST a little more hands-off.  Otherwise the Dallas Cowboys franchise will continue to underacheive.  The only way to win without leadership is to have overwhelming talent like the Cowboys did in the 90's.  America's team, much like a lot of America, needs to be humbled.


• The Patriots defense isn't as amazing as coach Billichik's scheme made them look in the first half of their 2010 opening game against the Cincinnati Bengals, nor were they as bad as they were lazy and uninspired in the second half of the game.


• Conspiracy theory alert:  Virginia Tech lost to a terrible James Madison team this week, 5 days after their opening loss to Boise St.  Clearly, the NCAA didn't want TOO much BCS controversy at the end of the season, so they threatened/convinced VT to lay down and ruin Boise State's credibility.  It looks like any big conference one loss team will get into the BCS championship game over Boise State now.  Sorry heisman hopeful, Kellen Moore.


• We didn't predict, nor pay much attention to college football this week with the signifigance of the NFL's opening week.  The NFL has so much more talent, technique and excitement that it's hard to pay a lot of attention to an NCAA football game with so many flaws.  Plus we all knew there'd be no major upsets as of yet, but college football upset picks are coming to SportsMastermind soon, stay tuned.


• Nadal could...and will win his first U.S. Open title today, therefore becoming one of only a handful of players to acheive the career grand slam.  I'd like to believe that Roger Federer was better in his prime, particularly on grass, but Nadal gets more impressive each year.


• Having not discussed baseball in awhile, I will show my respect to America's favorite (not really anymore) sport by concluding this list with comments on respective teams.  The Padres were a great surprise all year, but their lack of an offense finally caught up to them, don't expect to see them in the playoffs.  I dont care if the Phillies win the division or the wildcard, they will be a force to reckon with in the national league's post-season.  Bobby Cox's Braves are so nicely balanced but less talented than teams like the Rockies, Dodgers and Cardinals... but I think they're getting in.  I loved Joey Votto three years ago, now he's actually good, go reds!  The Yankees are falling hard nearing the end of the season, their starting pitching struggles have been well documented, but Granderson and Jeter are hurting both ends of the line-up with their lack of production.  The Rays just keep on keepin' on, waiting for these last seven games against the Yankees, to claim the division as their own.  The Rangers and Twins have had their moments but they won't actually be able to compete.  The Tampa Bay Rays (My pick to win the World Series) are so good at pitching, even in the bullpen (unlike so many other playoff teams)  My only apprehension has always been the Rays' lineup but they seem to always find a way to score enough runs and/or out-pitch their opponent.  Their ability to hit and run, steal bases, and hit with runners in scoring position has got them this far.  A half game behind the Yanks, look for the Rays to steal the division, starting tonight.