The Scariest Word in All of Sports

Is there a scarier word in the history of professional sports? I mean seriously the word potential scares the shit out of me when used in the world of professional sports. That guy has the potential to be the next Michael Jordan. That has been actually said about 20 times in the history of the NBA. (With Harold Miner actually getting the nickname “Baby Jordan”) People have made tens of millions of dollars off the word potential and have proceeded to do nothing with it. Jay Bilas of ESPN College Basketball Game Day throws the word potential around like its nothing.

When I heard the word Potential used in the context of sports I literally cringe. You know what potential means to me, YOU HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING YET!!!! Ok, I got that off my chest. Ryan Leaf had the potential to be the next Drew Bledsoe. (Don’t anyone out there knock Bledsoe. I’ll hunt you down if you do.) Did Ryan Leaf become the next Drew Bledsoe? Hell No. He was out of the league in like 3 years after the San Diego Chargers blew the number 2 pick on him. Michael Olowokandi had the potential to be the next Hakeem Olajuwon or at least that was said about him prior to his overall number 1 draft pick the Clippers used on him. Did these people do anything at any point in their career? No. Yet each are probably set for life because at one point in their career, someone thought they could have been awesome.

The person that turned me off on the word potential was my high school football coach, Thomas Kasprzak (affectionately known as Coach Kaz or just Kaz. Needless to say that this got quite confusing at some points in high school. Sidenote: What are the odds of two people having the nickname Kaz and somehow being involved in Reading Memorial High School Football. Reading is about 20,000 people. Just bizarre.) I was playing freshmen football way back in the day and I heard the freshmen coach talking to Coach Kaz. The freshmen coach said “We have some talent down there but they are really raw. Some of these kids have never played football before but there are some that have the potential to be great.” Coach Kaz (always one with words) said, “Potential means as much as a bucket full of shit. Let me know when they are actually good.” This came from the same guy that decided it was a good idea to head butt me while I was wearing my helmet after turning his hat backwards because he called the wrong play and didn’t realize it until we lined up in it. It was against our rivals, Woburn (pronounced Woo-Burn for all my non Middlesex League friends), right in front of the stands where all of the parents were sitting. This was also the same game that I scored my first Varsity Football touchdown of my career because the Woburn secondary decided not to guard me as I ran a post right down the middle of the field. When talking to the Woburn players at the all-star game at the end of the year they didn’t guard me because they were told that there is no way they will throw the ball to Kaz if he is beyond 5yds down the field. Sounds like a flawed game plan but up into that point in my career they were spot on.

So now that I am off my tangent about the wonderful and illustrious Coach Kaz, potential is the scariest word in the history of sports. That’s why during last year’s NBA draft they were talking about what Greg Oden and Kevin Durant have the potential to be I was close to vomiting. They said Oden had the potential to be the next Bill Russell and that Durant had the potential to be the best scorer in the history of the NBA. There was no comparable player to him. While these both maybe true, they could end up both being as false as anything. Say Oden is never the same after microfracture surgery and turns out to be more Sam Bowie then Bill Russell. Say Kevin Durant never adds any weight or muscle to his little frame and stays at an 18ppg clip. Why we as a society feels the need to make these bold predictions of potential is a great mystery to me. I mean look at the NFL Draft. In the last 9 years more then half of the number one overall draft picks have turned out to be an absolute bust. The likes of Tim Couch, Courtney Brown, Michael Vick, David Carr, and Alex Smith are all out of the league or should be. (Don’t start sending emails about how Vick wasn’t a bust, the guy was kicked out of the NFL for dog fighting, that is a bust in my opinion or that it’s too early to tell about Alex Smith or how Rusca will defend David Carr because he is from Fresno St. I watch Alex Smith play all too much being out here in the Bay Area and let me tell you, he sucks.)

I ask you to stop using the word potential. Jay Bilas said that Eric Gordon, the 19 year old freshmen point guard, has the potential be the next great guard in the NBA and is comparable to Isiah Thomas. Isiah is one of the best point guards in the history of the NBA. It’s a little early to make that comparison. Just stop it all ready.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox and can calm down now. That had the potential of getting ugly if I didn't. Ah shit... son of a bitch.

The White Wash

This posting is about a rare phenomenon in the world of basketball today. This phenomenon is almost as rare as not seeing Britney Spears’ vagine when she gets out of a car. The phenomenon is called the White Wash. Many people probably don’t even know what the white wash is. A wikipedia search of white wash gives us Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, or calsomine is a type of inexpensive paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and chalk (whiting). Other additives have historically included water glass, glue, egg white, Portland cement, salt, soap, milk or flour. Sadly this is not what I am talking about. The white wash I am talking about is when a team has five white (American Born) players on the floor at the same time. I told you it was rare.

The last great NBA team to actually employ a white was the 85-86 Celtics. They would go Danny Ainge, Scott Wedmen, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Bill Walton all on the floor at the same time. This is the team that I argue is the single greatest NBA team of all time. They went 68-14 and more importantly 40-1 at home. Going 40-1 at home will never be done or topped again. No one has a home court advantage as the Celtics did back in the old Boston Garden. This super team would regularly employ the white wash and still went on to having the best record in the NBA and bringing the Celtics to their 16^th NBA Championship.

Why do I bring this up today you might be asking yourself? The reason is I don’t think a single NBA team could even do a white wash never mind one that might actually be able to compete. (Quick Research shows that no NBA team can throw out a white wash) I can’t remember where the stat came from but White Americans only make up 6% of the NBA at this point. The leading White American scorer is Mike Dunleavy Jr. at 17.7ppg which puts him at 52^nd the league. At this point the chance of getting an NBA team to throwing a true white wash together on the court is seriously 0%.

So the real point of this column is to coin a new term. The new term is the Euro Wash. As many people have recently realized but there has been a steady influx of foreign NBA players in the last couple of years. The last three MVP awards have gone out to foreigners (Steve Nash (Canada) twice, and Dirk Nowitski (Germany)). Now Euro Wash doesn’t mean that they have to be from Europe but just not born in the United States. (It was the only way I could get this to work out.) A quick look (I mean spending less then 10 minutes of research) leads me to believe that 3 NBA teams can currently throw out a Euro wash and still compete at a relatively high level. Those three teams are the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors. Their lineups would respectively be:

San Antonio Spurs

Tony Parker

Manu Giniboli

Tim Duncan

Fabricio Oberto

Fransisco Ellson

Los Angeles Lakers

Sasha Vujacic

Kobe Bryant

Vladimir Radmanovic

Ronny Turiaf

Pau Gasol

Toronto Raptors

Jose Calderon

Carlos Delfino

Jorge Garbajose

Andre Bargnani

Rasho Nesterovic

While in reality only the Toronto Raptors should count, all of those players were born outside of the United States. Kobe Bryant was born in Italy because that is where his dad was playing professional basketball at the time and Tim Duncan was born in the Virgin Islands. If I had to pick one of those three teams in a game against either of the others it would be the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe and Gasol are just too good. Its sad to say that is the closest a team can get to a white wash in today’s NBA.

But the subtle underlying point of this post is that the White American NBA player is becoming a thing of the past. (Steve Nash is Canadian and therefore doesn’t count) Now I am not a racist by sense of the word (Some seem to believe that being an Italian from Boston that I genetically predisposed to being a racist but that is not true.) but the only hope of a White American NBA superstar is Kevin Love, the freshmen at UCLA who could very well be the College Player of the Year this year. (I think Tyler Hansborough of UNC or Michael Beasley of Kansas St. are more deserving but Love is mentioned along with them when the award is discussed) He is big and strong and knows how to play the game of basketball. He has a chance to be something great and until then the only other hope of a White American being an NBA All-Star lays on the shoulders of Chris Kaman but lets be honest with Andrew Bynum becoming a beast and Shaquille O’Neal returning to the Western Conference, Kaman has no chance of ever being an NBA All-Star.

My Thoughts...

I had to wait sometime before I made a statement or some comments. I had to let it all sink in and let it meddle for a bit. Many people have come to me asking for my thoughts. They ask me what I am thinking and my opinions. I have held back waiting for the words to come to me. I had to wait to figure out the perfect way of saying it. There are so many different thoughts and emotions running through my mind and my body that I just don’t really know yet. I mean to quote the great Ron Burgundy, “I’m in a glass case of emotion!!!”

Of course I am talking about the return of American Gladiators to NBC, Monday nights at 8pm. (Psych!!!) I really don’t know what to think yet. While the action has been amazing (Powerball has always been my favorite and a game that my friends and I used to play until an unfortunate incident that resulted in Mark Logsdon’s leg getting smashed and cracked under the ferocious hit of Mark Dignard which subsequently ended Logsdon’s soccer career. We never played the game again.) but they spend way too much time talking to the damn contestants about their lives. I mean I watched the other night and with in the first 20 minutes of the show they only had one total event, women’s hit and run, which might be the worst event that they have added to the show. How does twenty minutes of showtime only get us to one event? That is just garbage. Last nights 90-minute show could have been 30 minutes if they got rid of all of the fluff and bullshit and just focused on the action like the old American Gladiators did.

With this being said the physiques and strength of these new gladiators just dwarves those of the past. There is a male gladiator named Justice who is 6’8” 290lbs. He is one of the biggest men I have ever seen. Then there is Titan a four-time Mr. Universe. He has muscles in his ears. I mean he is one massive dude. There is a woman named Helga who is 6’1” 210lbs. While she doesn’t look like she has one single line of muscle on her body, she is the biggest woman I have ever seen. She just towers over all of the other women gladiators and the contestants. Then there is Crush. Aw Crush. I mean you are gorgeous. I mean just absolutely gorgeous. I can’t say enough about you without getting overly creepy. She is about 5’8” 140lbs and she was involved in Mixed Martial Arts before she became a gladiator. She is so far undefeated in the Joust and is absolutely the most beautiful thing on the show. (Pokey thinks Venom is but I have to disagree. Venom is too muscular whereas Crush looks like a normal woman but still kicks ass.)

However, the hosts of the show are just absolute garbage. In case you didn’t know the hosts are Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s Daughter) and the two of them can barely speak intelligibly. I mean I would rather listen to a conversation between Shaquille O’Neal and Plaxico Burress (If you get paid that much money, learn how to speak proper English. You have the money to pay someone to teach you how to speak like a normal human.) The two add nothing to the show except for Hogan flexing and calling everyone “Brother” and Ali looking dim witted and like a deer in headlights when the camera goes on her.

All in all I do enjoy the show. I have watched every episode so far and my only question is why do they have some sort of size limit. I mean there hasn't been a male contestant that weighed over 220lbs. Why can't there be a contestant that was like 6'5" 260lbs? Thats what I want to see and I don't think its too much to ask.