Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James

After a tough loss, no let me rephrase this. After an embarrassing lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas day questions came out about which player is better. Basically since the most valuable puppets questions have been arising about which of these two players is the best. Now if you ask my brother he would tell you that Lebron James is and always will be the greatest player ever, but I don't think so.
If you ask me I have to say Kobe Bryant is the best player on the planet and will be the best player ever until someone scores a hundred points in a game, seven championship rings or like seven MVP trophies and some Final's MVP trophies. Kobe Bryant has put a stamp on his career and legacy when he captured three championships and put up eighty one points on the Toronto Raptors.
You can state a case that Lebron James is the greatest player ever by the way he came in the NBA. Lebron lived up to every bit of the hype coming straight out of high school and performed the way he did. Lebron averaged 20 points with 5 rebounds and 5 assists which is the best rookie season I've seen by a player straight out of high school.
The difference between these players and the reason LeBron has the upper hand is because unlike Kobe Bryant Lebron James was thrust into the lime light as the savior of the organization. Kobe Bryant was just a rookie out of high school on a team that was filled with stars. Kobe was not needed to help the Lakers make the playoffs that year, but showed his jitters shooting air balls against the Utah Jazz.
LeBron did carry his team to a Finals appearance and got swept by the San Antonio Spurs and also later won a league MVP trophy. That caused LeBron to be right under Kobe Bryant because Kobe has four championship rings, a MVP and Final's MVP trophy to put on his mantle. Kobe Bryant has played thirteen years and is a polished player with the sniper instinct to be called the "Black Mamba." LeBron is still young and has the abilities of a faster Magic Johnson, but still needs to improve on his jump shot and win a few championship rings to be in the talks of greatest player ever or even better than Kobe Bryant.

Vince Youngs Magic Ran Out

The Tennessee Titans did everything they could to get into the playoffs, but came up short after the San Diego Chargers gave them a Christmas beating on Christmas Night. The Titans started off the season terrible after coming off an extremely impressive season a year ago. The Titans went thirteen and two to finish the regular season, but got booted out of the playoffs early by the Baltimore Ravens.
The Titans started off this season totally backwards and Kerry Collins got himself into a slump that made Coach Jeff Fisher bench him and play Vince Young. Well Fisher reluctantly did it after owner Bud Adams played the owner card and made it happen sooner than later. After that the Titans made a spectacular turn around by going on a streak that would have made NFL history with a playoff berth.
Sports media and fans were ready to put Vince Young into the fire asking how much worst can he do, but still some people weren't sold on the quarterback change. Vince Young rubbed some people the wrong way when he said he will start again and will also be a Hall of Famer and most people couldn't let go what happened a couple years ago when Young couldn't take the heckling and had those off the field problems.
Vince Young showed that he matured greatly and that he's learned a lot from the sideline and was able to put it to work. Vince won nine games in 2007 and took the Titans on a six game winning ride this year before losing to the great Indianapolis Colts who were fighting for perfection. If you ask me Vince Young had a great season and shows he will be a great quarterback in the future. Who knows where the Titans would be if he played a couple games earlier, but things happen for a reason and hopefully this reason will bring Vince Young back to greatness.

Did Tracy McGrady Deserve This?

Three days ago the Houston Rockets were deciding on whether or not to increase guard Tracy McGrady playing minutes, trade him or suspend him indefinitely from the team. Then today we hear that the Rockets are looking to trade Tracy. Tracy McGrady came back from micro fracture surgery earlier this month and wasn't receiving much playing time since his return. After talking about wanting more time to a Houston newspaper he was suspended for two games by the general manager.
Tracy McGrady has been only getting eight to ten minutes a game, but it is only in the first half. Rockets' Head Coach Rick Adelman and Tracy McGrady had problems earlier in the season when Tracy tried to shoot around before a game. Rick has also said that he is trying to bring Tracy back slowly but surely. With all that said, it was perfectly clear that this wasn't the best place for Tracy McGrady anymore.
After the Houston Rockets lost Tracy McGrady last year and then found out they lost Yao Ming for the season the Rockets looked like they were moving in another direction for this year and work back around when Yao Ming comes back. They gave new comer Trevor Ariza McGrady's jersey number which shows the ultimate disrespect and clearly states they didn't want him back this year.
People say the Tracy McGrady doesn't care and say that he can't win the big one or the important game and that is a wrongful accusation. Tracy McGrady tries hard and like any other sports athlete doesn't want to be known as a loser. Of course everybody doesn't win and some people do choke under pressure, but McGrady has proven himself time after time. McGrady deserves a chance to play full time as a starter and have the chance to compete for a championship.

Were The Colts Wrong?

First the New Orleans Saints lost to a hopeless Dallas Cowboys team two weeks ago and now the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts lost yesterday to a New York Jets team where a head coach gave his concession speech a week ago. The Colts had the game in hand with an early six to nothing lead. Coach Jim Caldwell pulled all the starters in the third quarter and the Colts had no Peyton power to make that fourth quarter comeback.
This makes me ask the question, where the Colts Wrong? The Indianapolis Colts have flirted many times with a perfect season, but always came up short. The reason for them never really getting that perfect mark was due to the coach resting their players for the post season. The Colts didn't rest the starters a few seasons back and won a Super Bowl, but the Colts fell from the unbeaten rank in the eleventh week.
This year was supposed to be different for the Indianapolis Colts. With a new head coach and Peyton Manning looked like he was unaware of where the organization was going before the beginning of this year’s season. Sports writers were ready to give the Colts a wild card spot in this years playoffs, but no one expected another strong Most Valuable Player campaign and was on the verge of a perfect season and the top seed in the AFC.
Now everyone is second guessing if the coach messed up the perfect season by pulling out the starters in a game that was still winnable. I would blame the coach, but first I have to say the real reason. The media wouldn't let the resting of the players alone. They continued to hound Coach Caldwell and the team about if he was or wasn't going to rest the starters that the coach almost looked confused at times and the players seeming too frustrated to even care anymore.
But if you ask me I totally blame the coach he fell to the pressure of the media and to the unsureness of himself to make history. Yes in this big world sports is just a small piece, but to make history is a historic and fulfilling feat. Why else does Mercury Morris come out of hiding to spit hot fire rap lyrics and telling each team they're not on his block because there is nothing like being perfect. Coach Caldwell could've been the first coach ever to start his head coaching career undefeated, but instead sold himself short.

Vick Gets Dogged for Award

Michael Vick was awarded the 2009 Ed Block Courage Award by his teammates and he receiving this award caused him great criticism. The Ed Block Courage Award winner symbolizes professionalism, great strength and dedication and is also a committed role model. Each year the Ed Block Courage Award honors the National Football League players who exemplify commitments to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. The players are selected by their teammates for team effort and individual performance.
With Michael Vick receiving this award sports columnist and analyst couldn't wait to deem him unworthy. Bashing him by calling him a dog killer and how he brought this punishment upon himself and anything else they can say to make Vick look like crap in his only moment of glory this year. When Michael Vick stands tall people want to kick him or trip him to bring him back down.
Why do sports analysts belittle troubled athletes after they serve their time and apologize for their terrible actions? Why can't sports analyst forgive and forget like the real American sports fan? Is it because they never will reach that level of greatness the athlete has reached or is it due to them not having that athletic ability and is truly jealous of that sports athlete. Maybe it’s just because they have transgressions and were never allowed to apologize or was never forgiveness for their horrific actions.
Either way it goes Michael Vick was given this wonderful award by his teammates. Yeah he fought dogs, it's normal. I've seen plenty of news reports and stories of people fighting dogs for money. The only thing that Michael Vick has done that is inconceivable is killing the dogs and that act is still forgivable. Vick paid his debt to society in so many ways and could've chosen to stay out of football and become a regular Joe, but he decided to show all of those qualifications for that award. He took the humble road by not making a scene about his playing time or feeding into this unjust criticism. Michael Vick has brought himself back to respectability, so respect him for winning this award.

Who Runs Minnesota?

Minnesota Vikings' quarterback Brett Farve and Head Coach Brad Childress talked about a riff between them this week. Every thing seemed great when Brett Farve was slanging the ball all over the field to a 10-1 record and everybody was talking about him being the Most Valuable Player, but like always when things go wrong people start to point the finger.
The Finger pointing almost started after the loss to Pittsburgh or the debacle in Arizona, but came more visible when Brad Childress tried to take Brett Farve out of a 7-6 game versus the Carolina Panthers. Brett Farve refused to come out the game and after a heated argument on the sideline everything blew up in the Vikings' face.
Now every thing is being blown out of proportion and everybody wants to know who's going to run this town tonight and for the rest of the season. When it comes down to it Brad Childress should run the team, but when Brad allowed Brett Farve to keep the Vikings' organization on the edge about returning or not and missed all of training camp. Not to mention that Brad Childress also left practice to go pick Farve up from the airport makes me think that Brett Farve runs the team.
Brett Farve also showed that he runs the team by showing his Willie Beaman side by changing the plays that coach Childress and Adrian Peterson loves to a play that Farve thinks will show off his gun slinging abilities. Then the refusal to come out of the game was the icing on the cake.
Any athlete knows when your head coach asks you to come out of a game you come out of the game no ifs, ands or buts. Things aren't going to get better anytime soon because the problem is already there and it will continue to get scrutinized. Both Brett Farve and Brad Childress put on their game faces and announced that there is no problem and everything is resolved, but that remains to be seen. Will we see Brett Farve hand the ball off more as the season ends or will he continue to throw more passes then he did in the beginning of the season. That's why this question still remains, who runs Minnesota?

McKnight's out on The Town

So University of Southern California's running back Joe McKnight was seen out in the beautiful streets of Los Angeles driving around in a 2006 Land Rover. This is just another blemish on the Trojans' track record of illegal funding or activities with alumni, boosters or agents and their student athletes. Reggie Bush was the last football player to have a similar problem which caused major ramifications to the school and football program.
This is something that really shouldn't be looked into that much because when they dug deeper into the story they found out that the Land Rover is being paid for by the mother of Joe McKnight's child who is the employee of Scott Schenter. Scott isn't an agent nor is he a booster. The mother McKnight's child Johana Michelle Beltran had trouble qualifying for a loan and Scott Schenter helped her out by selling her his Land Rover. Johana makes all the payments and also pays insurance on the vehicle.
All I have to say about this is that this situation means nothing to me or the integrity of the USC football program. Of course we see college players get caught with different kinds of gifts or funds from people all the time, but I don't see why this part of the game is wrong. Student athletes bring their respective universities billions of dollars in revenue and all they don't see any of that money until the universities erect their million dollar dorm rooms, class rooms or study halls. These athletes do get a lot of clothing due to endorsements, but clothes don't fill up their stomach on the weekends and certainly don't allow them to be able to take care of any extra situations they might have.
Joe McKnight needed a car for his child and Johana and she took care of it by getting them an SUV. If a regular student's family or friend of the family is a millionaire for whatever reason do the universities give them a limit on how much money they can get? No. So why is it different for student athletes? Not every athlete that plays colligate sports will play professionally so any extra money of incentives that helps that student’s college experience better should be allowed. The NCAA is worried about tampering which makes no sense because we know now from these athletes freshman year if their going to the league or not. If you ask me I rather an agent or alumnus help out an athlete then let their universities exploit their talents for nothing other than a meal card and some athletic clothing.