Talent or heart?

By Morgan Payne

Perhaps launching this blog during the same week as the awesomely audacious Grantland is an omen. I’m not sure if it is a good omen or a disastrous one, but there has to be some significance in the timing, right? Here’s to hoping we enjoy some semblance of success. Anyways here is my first crack at this blog thing.

Talent or heart? Too easy for me to answer. I would take talent over heart every day of the week, and twice on Sundays. (Mind you, this rationale applies best to basketball). However, I seem to be in the minority in my opinion. Every talking head on TV and in print touts “team players” who have “intangibles” and are “fundamentally sound”. To me that’s code for a nice, boring (usually white) guy that people assume will do whatever it takes to win. But guess what? Those guys don’t capture my attention, and therefore aren’t as worthy of my, or the public’s, attention.

How many times have you heard some color commentator say something along the lines of “I would take a bunch of hard workers over talent on my team?” That is the most politically correct, scared line of crap, but I get it. Most of the people saying that are insiders and actually do value those type of players because they know what it takes to win. Beyond a shade of doubt, championship teams need talent but also extremely hard workers and a couple of glue guys. The same people who truly value team players with heart do so because they don’t get coaches fired as quickly as talented, braggadocios types. If I were in a coach’s position, or an NBA insider’s, I would feel the same way. However, I’m a fan. What I have a problem with is fans agreeing with this line of thinking. Fans hear these type of players are important to building championship teams and automatically assume that’s what their favorite team needs. In most cases, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Sure, heart and fundamentals will help the team win a couple of extra games occasionally, but in the grand scheme of things who cares? Your favorite team either wins the championship, or like 29 teams every year, doesn’t. Parity is the greatest fallacy in the NBA. The obvious truth is only a handful of teams have a realistic shot at winning the title. So I have made the easy determination that I would rather enjoy watching talent over grit. I implore all you loyal readers to adopt the same mindset. If not, you may be perpetually dissatisfied with your team.

Case in point is Brian Scalabrine, the most famous 12th man in the NBA. His popularity is so immense because of one main fact; he is similar to the majority of fans. In normal society Scal would be a really tall guy who could play sport swell. In the NBA, he is what we imagine ourselves to be: a white guy with comparatively minimal athletic ability who scraps whenever he is in the game. His likability is easy to comprehend because white America sees itself whenever he walks on the court ten times a year. There is no way he actually helps his team in any measurable way, yet fans still faun over him like he is an integral part of a championship contender. While he may be a good guy to have in the locker room and a safe interview, his intangibles don’t come close to making up for his lack of skills and athletic ability. I have nothing against the guy, but there is no reason beyond the color of his skin and hair that should make him a fan favorite. You don’t see people rooting so fervently for Solomon Jones or Dominic McGuire.

Fans are a fickle group as evidenced by their seemingly contradictory point of view when cheering for their teams. If there is one thing everyone enjoys and roots for sheepishly its displays of extreme athleticism. Pure athleticism and the publics’ glaring lack thereof, is what often draws sports fans in. We watch to see super humans do what we never even thought was possible. If you could create a player that combines supreme athleticism and a penchant to take contested 3’s in crunch time and throw down 360 alley-oops you have the recipe for the most entertaining player in sports. I assert that the perfect concoction of that prodigious athleticism and blatant arrogance is manifested in the incomparable JR Smith.

Most of you reading this already know, but for those who don’t I have a bit of a man crush on one Earl Smith III. The man embodies everything an athlete should be. Because he is not playing for the Lakers, Celtics, or other true contender he gets a pass for not being as selfless or fundamentally sound as some of his counterparts. The Nuggets aren’t going to win a championship anytime in the near or distant future so why do people criticize him for playing the game the way millions of fans wish they could? He plays without shame or acknowledgment of the consequences. Flying up and down the court, putting the ball in the basket, and adding flare to it all is his goal. His unapologetic nature and unflappable confidence is what makes him truly special. A player of less ability would have been out of the league years ago. But his athleticism and potential ensures his spot on an NBA roster year after year. There may not be a more entertaining player in the league and he has won my heart a thousand times over.

In no way am I saying he is one of the best players in the league or would even be good for a team with a real shot at the Larry O’Brien Trophy. He is simply the player with the greatest propensity to entertain. And entertainment is what fans should desire most. That last sentence seems so simple, but so many fans have strayed from what originally captured their attention. They get caught up in what the experts say and seemingly don’t realize that it’s not as fun to watch a bunch of team players with 20 inches verticals who can’t shoot outside of ten feet. If that’s truly the case than go out to the rec center and catch a pickup game between some 50 year old accountants.

So talent or heart, which would you take? I hope we, as fans, all use our talents and pick the former.

The NBA Finals is over...Now What?

By Tyler Wilson

Annually from mid-June until late August (when college football starts), there is a lull in Sports. The NBA Finals is over and baseball will rule Sportscenter for the upcoming two months. And in my opinion, this sucks. I really don't like watching baseball during the regular season - for me it's boring. Now I may not be the ultimate baseball enthusiast, but I just can't get myself to watch the MLB in the summer. I would rather go to a San Antonio Missions game than have to watch two-and-a-half hours of walking around and 30 minutes of baseball on TV. I would rather watch golf, which to me is actually exciting.

But now that I got that off my chest, congratulations to the 2011 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. They truly deserved it. They actually showed some heart for once. This victory also intensifies the I-35 rivalry between the Mavs and Spurs, which will be great for both teams. But what surprised me the most about how the Mavericks won and celebrated was Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban was surprisingly classy, which shows me that ANYBODY can change

Cuban, the notoriously obnoxious Mavs' owner, was unexpectedly cool, calm and collected throughout this year's NBA playoffs. And unexpectedly classy as well. Classy and Cuban in the same sentence? Say it aint' so? Sorry Cuban haters, but he did everything right during this year's playoffs. He basically matured on the biggest stage an NBA owner can be on. He did this in a series where he could have talked so much shit about the Heat and their superstar Lebron James. But he didn't. He kept his composure, and instead of holding the trophy for himself for the first time, he let the very first Mavs' owner Donald Carter hold up the trophy. That is about the classiest move I can think of. He went from this............

........to a wife and three kids and an NBA champion owner. He matured. So did Dirk, and the rest of the Mavs. If Cuban can change for the better (Note: he probably hasn't changed, but has manipulated the media to think he really has changed. Nonetheless, he didn't bask in the glory as expected he would have). The picture that sticks in my head the most about Cuban is when they interviewed him before Game 1 of the 2006 Finals, when he was running on a treadmill, cocky as can be. But in this year's Finals, that Cuban was nowhere to be found.

My point is that if Cuban can change, anybody can. Including Lebron. I really don't care about what Lebron does in his career, and honestly, I don't care how important he is to the NBA (I know, my mentioning of him shows he is important, so therefore I am contradicting myself). Nonetheless, even though I don't care how important he is to the league, I am forced to care because the media wants it that way. The NBA would not be the NBA today without "the King," and I am well aware of this, but Lebron is certainly not.

Lebron is not aware of the impact he has on people. He is not really aware of anything but fame. But sports is more than fame, and more than pure entertainment. Yes, sports is a form of entertainment, but it is ultimately a way of expressing our human instinct for competition in a more sophisticated society. The basketball court is essentially an exemplification of Thomas Hobbes' state of nature, and the best players and teams normally win if they impose their will on the competition. Maybe we should tell Lebron that the only way to survive on earth would be to win an NBA championship. Then he might just win one.

But for now, like I mentioned in my first blog post, he is content with enjoying the fame that comes with being the greatest talent there is. If he was a musical artist, this would be just fine. He would be top 10 on the Billboard charts and everybody would like him and that would be that. His career would not be tainted for not reaching the zenith and he would be enjoying life to the fullest. People would like his songs and praise him for making such great music. And the people who dislike his songs would just blow him off and listen to country music. No criticism, no regret, just a different career choice.

In sports, however, competition is the engine that drives all the cogs in the machine. Yes there is competition in the music business, but not to the point to where it defines one's career. In sports, if one is not the ultimate competitor and has the talent to be, he will be criticized. It's inevitable, because sports is competition, not just a concert. Lebron James does not quite understand this. He has displayed to us that when the competition becomes serious, he shies away from it, almost cowardly. And this is not what sports is about. He may go out and compete night for night, but behind his competition is a will for fame.

"The man upstairs knows when it's my time," Lebron tweeted. "Right now isn't the time." This tweet by Lebron tells me that he expects his talents to take him to the top, that he did everything he could have to help the Heat win. Bull shit. If the court were really in the state of nature, Lebron would be dead already. This tweet just tells me that he is all about fame, fortune, hanging with his friends and enjoying the ride.

Good Will Hunting, one of my favorite movies of all time, shows the life of Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a twenty year-old genius who has not faced the world because of insecurities stemming from a rough foster upbringing. He is smarter than MIT professors. But he doesn't realize that there is more to life than just knowledge. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), his eventual psychologist, helps him realize these insecurities, therefore giving him the confidence to venture into the real world and to experience it with no regrets, chasing love along the way.

Right now, Lebron James needs a Sean Magurie. He needs someone from his same upbringing to help him experience competition for what it really is. This mentor needs to tell him to get back to the days of when he scored 29 of the Cavs' last 30 points against the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals to eventually take home the series. He needs to experience it again, and not shy away from his talents like Will Hunting did. He knows what it takes to be a competitor, so for anyone and everyone it will always remain a mystery to why he closed up like a rollie pollie does when you touch it in the this year's NBA Finals. For now, he is a Will Hunting with no Sean Maguire.

Without this guy, Will Hunting would have never chosen to take life head on. Lebron needs a Sean Maguire in his life.

An interpretation of the NBA Finals

By Chris Hanneke

You do know Dallas won right? Just making sure you saw that in the midst of all the Lebron bashing.

It’s been 24 hours since the Dallas Mavericks became champions of the National Basketball Association. Or, if you go by what you read/watch, it’s been 24 hours since the Devil got his due, justice was served and, more simply, Lebron James’ career was tarnished beyond repair.

That’s the NBA we have now. Like it or not, James is still the focus of the entire league. The story of the Finals was not about Dallas’ triumphs, or even Miami’s failures, but specifically of James’ failures. Likewise, the story headed into next season (barring a lockout, which will trump all other stories, obviously) won’t be about Dallas’ search to repeat, but about James’ search for vengeance.

What I find most interesting and paradoxical about this entire situation is that even the discussions focusing on how Lebron failed, and how he will never be great (which I already gave my views on), are essentially just reinforcing just how great he is to begin with. Because greatness is more than what happens on the court. No other star could have taken the discussion away from a weathered veteran like Dirk Nowitzki capturing his first ring, not even MVP Derrick Rose, but that is exactly what James has done. Sure there are the “noble” sportswriters that forewent the chance to bash James’ shortcomings to praise the Mavericks, but the overwhelming majority focused on James. And in these stories, I couldn’t believe how many had the balls to say he would never the same in their eyes. YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT LEBRON JAMES INSTEAD OF WRITING ABOUT THE FUCKING WORLD CHAMPIONS!! THAT DOESN’T TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT HOW MUCH HE MEANS TO THE LEAGUE?! YOU THINK THAT WILL JUST CHANGE OVERNIGHT?!

It was a lonely walk to the podium as Lebron had to prepare to face his critics.

Look, James will never be Jordan, blah blah blah, we get it. As much time as I’ve spent defending him, I find it absolutely impossible to defend his play in the Finals, especially Games 4-6. I will never understand why he refused to impose his will and instead and was comfortable settling for jump shots and playing second fiddle to Dwyane Wade. But I yearn for a time when everyone got off of their high horses and stopped pretending that Lebron James coming TWO GAMES SHORT of an NBA Championship speaks to some larger problem in his character. The Decision was a stupid idea, get over it. The parade Miami held for him was a stupider idea, get over it. He played every game this year, every single one, with a bull’s-eye on his back. He never used that as an excuse. He embraced the role of a villain and played with an intensity we’d never seen from him before for the first three rounds. And then the Finals came, and he froze up. And that deserves criticism. He is the one who created this giant spectacle surrounding him, and he set the stakes from the beginning, it was championship or bust. I just never thought that James coming up two games short of delivering the ultimate “told you so” moment (I think Rick Reilly said that initially, in which case I really should use a better term, because Rick Reilly’s name should only ever appear in this blog if he is being absolutely skewered) would all of a sudden make him one of the biggest failures in the history of sport.

You know who had similar problems in the Finals once upon a time? Dirk Nowitzki. He finally got a ring and now he can coast through the rest of his Hall of Fame career, never having to win another. Even if he retires in five or six years with just that one ring, the discussion of him as a top 20 all-time player will still continue. Not saying I agree or disagree with that, I’m just saying that’s the case.

James is in a far worse situation. Even if he would turn it on for a year and finally win his ring, the discussion wouldn’t be about him finally achieving the ultimate goal. It would be about how he needed help, how he better win at least three or four more if he wants to be considered one of the game’s greatest ever.

That is the reality, and it got me thinking about how much of our sports reality is based on our perceptions. Anyone who has ever had a Communications class knows the power of the media to shape perceptions of the audience, and never has it been more obvious with James, and Nowitzki provides the perfect foil. Case in point: Nowitzki’s emotional celebration after the game.

"Look at the humble White Guy! He celebrates so naturally." Ugh

To recap, the final buzzer sounded and he walked off the court, hurdled over the front row of people, walked through the tunnel and into the locker room where he could presumably cry without everyone seeing it. Oh, but the camera caught everything until he actually made it into the locker room. It was the type of moment White Middle America could absolutely eat up. “Look at the White guy enjoying the moment by himself, what a humble way of going about his business.” Even Bill Simmons fell into the trap, and it messed with everything I consider to be true in this world. “It was the most genuine sports moment of the year,” he wrote, “LeBron would have done it at midcourt in front of everyone, partly for effect, and maybe that's one of the biggest differences between them right now. You play basketball for you and your teammates, not for everyone else.” I would defend Simmons to the death, but that part absolutely made me want to throw up. I couldn’t believe he’d gone soft and fallen for that. My counter to his point on Lebron is simple, if James had done the exact same thing, you don’t think the talk would have been something along the lines of “Look how selfish he is, instead of crying naturally with his teammates, he made it blatantly obvious that he was too big for this moment and left his teammates to celebrate alone while he stormed to the locker room with all of the cameras following.” You see what I did there?

The real difference between the two is that Nowitzki has chosen the career path that allows him to hide away and no one will doubt his intentions. If he wants to cry by himself, we will let him cry by himself because he’s earned it. Lebron chose a career path that eliminated his right to do that. He chose to do The Decision. He chose to be the center of attention. So I’m not saying either one’s path is right or wrong.

Personally, I’ll take the James saga any day of the week. It’s more entertaining, and as I’ve said, that’s what sports is at its core: entertainment. And like other forms of entertainment, everything is up for interpretation. The second I realized what Nowitzki was up to after the game, I knew that everyone (fans, media, etc.) would eat it up, because I realized that was the best way to interpret it. And you know what? They have the right to interpret it that way. They can think he just wanted to be alone, to let the moment sink in. I saw it more as a moment in which he was announcing to the world, “look how humble I am, here’s your photographic proof of my humility,” which of course is a contradiction. And the truth is we’re probably all wrong. None of us really know why athletes do what they do, but in this age of Twitter and blogs especially, just about everyone (i.e. me) has an interpretation as to why. And no matter how many theories we come up with, none of us will truly understand why an athlete like Lebron James does the things that he does. We can only interpret it through our perceptions of that athlete.

As Chuck Klosterman said today on Grantland, sports is art, and art is open to interpretation. We may want sports to be as clean cut and perfectly crafted as “The Wire,” with every piece coming together so beautifully that it ends in the only way we could possibly see fit. But the truth is, sports is much more like “The Sopranos,” with a bunch of flourishing moments so surreal that they overshadow any of the more unsatisfying ones from the past. And yet, just when we think we have it all figured out and there is only one way it can end, everything just goes black.

T-Wils' first post

By Tyler Wilson

This is my first post on this blog, and as probably anticipated by fellow blogger Chris Hanneke, my first blog is going to mention the San Antonio Spurs. Sure, I am a native of San Antonio and a die hard Spurs fan, but I am no bandwagon fan. I stay true to my team in spite of all the critics out there saying they are too old, too slow, or whatever. But I'm not going to try and defend them with my hometown bias either. I'm going to say it as it is. This year they did not have the depth like they have had in the past. Just like I stay true to the Spurs, I will also stay true to myself and my opinion, which is exactly what my portion of the blog is going to feature. The sports world in the eyes of T-Wils, but not AS biased as Chris might like to think it is.

As a Spurs fan, this year's NBA Finals is like watching Freddie vs. Jason. Who is the lesser of two evils? It is an extremely tough choice for all Spurs fans, as well as for myself. I find myself watching the finals in limbo, kind of like Leo in Inception (this is for you, Chris). But the more and more I watch, the more and more I have become drawn to the Mavericks (In Spurs country, this is the equivalent of a Yankees' fan rooting for the Red Sox). But let me explain my reasoning.

First of all, Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest basketball players I have ever seen. The way he elevates over defenders to shoot and the way he has been able to dominate at will in the 4th quarter has been phenomenal. Dirk does not feed off the haughty Mark Cuban and arrogant sixth man, Jason Terry. He is on a mission. He wants that ring, and I have to respect him for that. Even though he ruined the Spurs' chance at a 3-peat in 2006 when he made a 3-point play to tie Game 7 of what John Hollinger rated the No. 3 best playoff series of all time, I find myself rooting for HIM. Not the Mavs, but Dirk.

Secondly, the arrogance of Miami's big-3 gets on my nerves. Especially Lebron James. From the post-Decision party (Our hero mentions this numerous times in his columns) to Lebron throwing up powder before every game to him and D-Wade mocking Dirk for being sick. Everything about this team annoys me. They are the basketball equivalent of the Yankees. And I hate the Yankees. Eventually, the Heat will be winning championships like the Yankees, so why not let Dallas have their glory?

But no matter how much glory Dallas will receive from winning the championship, the Spurs will always have the upper-hand in this rivalry. Just look at the rafters of each arena. I like Dirk as a player and as a person, and even though I hate all the other Mavs, I can go in peace knowing that someone who truly deserved the championship won.

Going back to Lebron, I completely agree with everything Chris mentioned in his previous blog. His blog made me think of an article by Jemele Hill I read about Shaq right after he retired entitled, "Why isn't Shaq the G.O.A.T." She stated that Shaq could have been just as good as Jordan if he would have worked harder to get his body into shape and took the game more seriously. But if he did take basketball more seriously, who would have liked him as a person? Shaq is one of the most likable guys in all of sports, and it's all because he did not take life too seriously.

It is the little things in life that one must enjoy, and Shaq knew how to do that. I can say the same thing. I know I could be doing better in school, but I would rather go out with my friends or watch that movie or be with my girlfriend than be studying 24/7. If you were to study 24/7, wouldn't you get tired?

This is the same reasoning I look at when I look at Lebron. He is in the limelight 24/7. Do you think he's tired? I do. He is expected to win all the time because of his superb talent. This is unrealistic, especially for Lebron, who obviously does not have that killer instinct. Lebron is just along for the ride, and he seems to be throughly enjoying it. He is living the dream. With his talent, would you work hard? Or would you become complacent? Try and look at it from his perspective, because we can all say that if we were in his shoes that we would beat the shit out of the Mavs. But would you really? Or would you just be along to enjoy the ride. After all, he took his talents to South Beach, not his determination and will.

There Will Be 'Bron

By Chris Hanneke

Daniel Plainview has a lot of Michael Jordan in him (figuratively, of course).

“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.”

The best movie of the ‘00s, and my personal favorite movie of all time, was There Will Be Blood. The film focuses on the life of Daniel Plainview, who goes from a simple mineral prospector to an oil tycoon over the course of the narrative. However, it is the way he gets there that is what makes it such a fascinating story. Just as the above quote, which he utters early on in the film, suggests, Plainview stops at nothing to get what he wants.

By the end of the film, 20 years have passed, and Plainview is alone in his lavish mansion. His competitive spirit has earned him everything he could ever need financially, but with no more land to acquire, he mostly sits around his house and gets drunk to pass the time. He belittles his deaf son, and in one of the greatest final scenes of any film ever, he settles his ongoing feud with the local pastor by (SPOILER ALERT!) beating him to death with a bowling pin.

It’s an unbelievable story, one which my brief synopsis doesn’t do nearly enough justice. But its message is clear: at some point, competitive spirit morphs into greed, and it is that greed that can dehumanize people and turn them into monsters. At its simplest, it is a critique of United States capitalism and what that system does to so many people who constantly yearn for more, no matter what the cost.

However, I can’t help but watch the 2011 NBA Finals, listen to all of the critics of Lebron James claim he will never be like Michael Jordan and not think of Plainview every time I hear the reasons why Jordan was the greatest basketball player who ever lived.

Just as a disclaimer, I’m not here to dispute that; Jordan is the greatest basketball player that has ever lived, and it looks like no one in the league right now will ever match (BIAS ALERT!), except maybe Kevin Durant.

How Jordan got to that point is what I find most fascinating. He got there mostly by possessing the same attitude toward basketball that Plainview had toward oil drilling. I could absolutely imagine Jordan uttering something along the lines of “I have a competition in me, I want no one else to succeed” if a reporter asked him why he wanted to win so bad. And yet, the qualities that make the audience despise Plainview by the end of the film are the same qualities that have made Jordan the staple for greatness in the NBA.

Jordan was relentless. Phil Jackson, Jordan’s former coach, talked with this blog’s hero, Bill Simmons, about “Michael's steadfast refusal to blow random, meaningless road games in Sacramento, Vancouver, Cleveland or wherever, how those were the nights that made him truly special, when his entire team was dragging, when the NBA schedule demanded a Chicago loss, yet Michael just couldn't allow it.” Quite simply, he wasn’t happy unless he won, and he tried to win by any means necessary.

Michael Jordan will always be defined by his rings.

These are the standards basketball fans expect their players to live up to now that Jordan’s time has passed. More specifically, those are the standards James is expected to live up to now that he is The Player That Is Most Expected To Be “The Next Jordan” Until The Next One Comes Along.

James is, almost undeniably, the most athletically gifted human being to ever strap on a pair of basketball sneakers. Athletically, he could run circles even around Jordan. If he possessed Jordan’s maniacal, “Plainview” attitude, we as basketball fans have to believe he could be the greatest to have ever played the game. But as these past two years have shown, James clearly doesn’t possess that attitude, and unless he makes some miraculous shift overnight, he will never get there. It is the fact that he COULD get there is what has everyone so frustrated. As fans that don’t have the actual talent to play in the league, we like to believe that if we were given the athletic gifts that James was given, we would absolutely use them to their maximum potential.

But would we really? Would we really just stand idly by in a situation like James was in in Cleveland, one where we knew that each and every night we not only had to be the best player on the court, but unless we did enough to get everyone else involved, we would have no chance of winning. After seven years of not having a single second option, how many of us would have truly stuck it out?

Now, James is in a situation where he doesn’t have to be that guy night in and night out. But still, we know he has the gifts to carry a team, and that is why it is so frustrating to see him so happily defer to his fellow superstar teammate, Dwyane Wade. In many ways, Wade has come out of these playoffs the undisputed better basketball player, historically, than James. In fact, James has restricted his skills so much that during Game 5, a good friend of this blog, Albert Samaha, tweeted “Is Jason Kidd paying Lebron James not to take him off the dribble?” It was a fair question, because, let’s face it, the biggest athletic freak in the league should have no trouble blowing past a 38-year old point guard that once did this.

For this reason, and the fact that his team, a Goliath of sorts that could only live up to their hype by winning the title, is a game away from elimination, the narrative surrounding James is that he will never be Jordan. The issue I have with that is, so what?

That’s the catch here. For Jordan, establishing his legacy meant putting basketball above all else in life. It may sound good on paper to only value winning; as fans, what more could you want from a player? But athletes aren’t robots. Many of them are smart to recognize that they have been blessed with an opportunity to play a game with a bunch of equally blessed individuals. They get to play the game they love with their closest friends and make more money than you or I could ever dream of making by doing so. It’s not that they don’t care about winning, it’s just that in the grand scheme of things, is winning one, two or six championships really worth pissing off everyone around you so much so that when it’s all said and done, none of your teammates want to hang out with you anymore?

James has always come across as someone who cared more about his brand than championship rings. Fans want it to be the other way around because of everything I have just mentioned. But why should James be blamed for caring more about entertaining than winning (which, by the way, is probably not even the case, but I'm trying to make a point). Has any player drawn this much attention, this many polarizing viewpoints, since Jordan? Hell, he’s the reason I was so anxious to get this blog started. I wanted to give my opinion on the man that just about anyone that likes sports has an opinion on. He may never even get to Kobe Bryant levels of success on the court, but he has, in many ways, already surpassed him in terms of just how important he is to the game.

"The Decision" may have been an awful idea, but it was nevertheless a testament to just how popular Lebron James truly is.

Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Plainview. But as is typical with just about every actor, in his many interviews discussing the award, he never once claimed that he was aiming to win it. That’s because actors aren’t expected to care about winning anything. They are expected to give the generic answer of “I just want to entertain, and hopefully this award means I’ve succeeded in doing that.”

Basketball, and sports in general, does not work that way. At its heart, sports is merely entertainment, just like movies. We are just as entertained by movies that end in tragedy and those that end in triumph. As long as the end result matches the rest of the action, we leave satisfied. So why have we reached a point where we can’t be satisfied with the sheer entertainment sports provides us? It’s not enough that James has generated more interest in the league than there has been since the mid-‘90s; he’s supposed to play his career out the way we want, he’s supposed to do everything in his power to win as many championships as possible, he’s supposed to be the next Jordan, dammit!

Maybe James knows what it takes to be the next Jordan, maybe James knows he has what he takes to be the next Jordan and maybe James (gasp!) doesn’t want to do what it takes to be the next Jordan because he knows if he goes that route, he may end up isolated in his lavish mansion settling petty feuds long after his prime has passed.

If Dallas wins the series, James will be skewered for weeks following. But the labor dispute will heat up and the criticism will subside a bit, only until basketball gets rolling again (hopefully, sooner, rather than later, a la NFL) when the entire tale of James not being Jordan will start all over.

If Miami comes back and wins the next two games, unless James gives heroic performances in both, he will still be questioned and the critics won't stop until he wins another.

Win or lose, James will never please his critics. But if there is one thing we have learned about him this year, it is that he does not care what his critics think. As his famous Nike Ad poignantly asked, "Should I be who you want me to be?"

You want him to be hyper-competitive. You want him to win at whatever cost. You want him to beat his rivals over the head with a bowling pin. But James isn't like that.

That doesn't mean Lebron James doesn't have a competition in him, it just means that his competition doesn't match that of a Jordan or a Plainview. But is that so bad? Is it so bad if he wants, or at least doesn’t mind if, someone else succeeds as well?

I’m finished.

Welcome (Part 2, From Chris)

By Chris Hanneke

It was a late-night Facebook message from Joey Shoen that started this thing. 3 a.m. to be exact. He was almost certainly drunk, so even though I agreed to contribute, I assumed he would never actually go through with it. This was two weeks ago, and I was still trying to find a summer job, so the thought of writing anything wasn’t exactly at the top of my list. I somehow got a job, and I thought that would make me even less interested in writing for a measly little blog. Hell, just about everyone has blogs these days, what would make ours special? But there was a part in Shoen’s message that stuck with me.

“I think it would be a fun way to keep in touch,” he wrote, “keep our writing skizzizzils (Note: The use of “skizzizzils” should be the most obvious example that he was intoxicated while writing the message) up over summer, and at least make each other laugh. Let me know what you think.”

I really liked that. Like the blog’s name suggests, we’re all just a bunch of wannabes. Still, this was, and now that Shoen actually went through with it and created the damn thing, this IS a chance for us to mostly do what we all enjoy doing: write about sports. These other guys on here entertain the hell out of me, so my hope is to entertain them right back.

But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love everyone else to read what we have to say. More than that, we encourage comments. By all means, if you think we sound like idiots (which, let’s be honest, will probably be the case at least 73% of the time), make a comment in the comments section. Oftentimes, the comments can be more entertaining than the piece itself, especially if it’s a T-Wils piece in which he goes on and on about how he fantasizes about Tim Duncan’s postgame showers. The more interactive you are with the comments, the more fun it is for everyone.

The comments aren’t there just to pat the writer on the back. For example, I enjoyed Shoen’s first article, thought it blended humor and insight nicely. But I wouldn’t dare put that in the comments section, that would be way too cordial of me. Instead, I’d probably make a comment something along the lines of: “You do realize it’s 2011, not 2008, right? Twitter isn’t lame anymore and no one still plays NBA Live.”

Anyway, I just spent almost 400 words making a suggestion that probably no one will use, but I mean it. We will have fun doing this even if it is just the five of us (or however many contributors we have) telling inside jokes to one other. But the more our audience gets involved, the more fun, and (wait for it…) the more fulfilling (awww) this whole process will be.

Having said all of that, my first story will be posted sometime later today. By all means, please rip me in the comments section.

A Welcome/Plea to Join the Dallas Bandwagon

By Joey Shoen

Hey guys, thanks for visiting our blog. If you made your way to this website, you’re more than likely a good friend, family member, or really bad at looking up porn-or, in the case of my buddy Matt Salt, a little of all three. Everyone writing here is a very knowledgeable, witty sports fan, and we hope you like what you read!

I came up with the idea to start this blog about two weeks ago. I then proceeded to get drunk for thirteen straight days, and here we stand (just kidding, but not really). Without possessing an actual summer “job”, I needed a way to validate all the sports I watch before my dad starts making me pay for my own Del Taco. After writing for the USD Vista for the past two years and having the privilege to cover such big-time college sporting events as the Torero football team’s heartbreaking Homecoming loss to Dayton and anything women’s crew did, I am more than a little excited to write about sports that people actually care about. Tyler, Chris, and Morgan have all spent time as Sports editors for the Vista, and they have done a great job with their weekly opinion columns. Joe is from New Mexico, so that’s cool too. The name of our blog is a reference to ESPN’s “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons, who had a similar humble beginning as a blogger and now hangs out with celebrities like Ric Bucher and Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin. We’ve set the bar pretty low. Now onto the good stuff, and thanks again for coming!

P.S. I was kidding about the whole Salt looking up porn thing. He’s actually really good at finding his stuff.

The Finals: Why You Should Pull For the Mavs

Trust me, I am well aware that this year’s NBA Finals has easily become the most scrutinized playoff series in the history of sports. With ESPN, NBAtv, Twitter (lame), Facebook (I’m on it, but…lame), there have never been more angles taken by more people on a postseason match-up. Ever. “LeBron’s a great facilitator.” “LeBron’s too unselfish.” “LeBron’s choking.” “LeBron’s upset after his mom was seen leaving Jeff Van Gundy’s hotel room prior to kicking bellhop’s ass at 4 A.M.” It’s ridiculous. I spent ten minutes today watching a SportsCenter special on some 75-year-old German guy named Holger who has taught Dirk Nowitzki to shoot… like a 75-year-old German guy named Holger.

Luckily for us, the series has been incredible. Maybe it’s not worthy of the 24-hour coverage it’s receiving, but we live in the same country that has turned anything Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, or Justin Bieber does into headline news. (Alright, Bieber’s cute, but you get my point). Each of the five games has been well-played, exciting, and close until the final minutes. There are four sure-fire Hall of Famers on the court, and two of them are playing at the highest level of their careers. (Kidd and LeBron have seen better days). Plus, Jim Carrey and Dean Cain are coaching the teams! If James Cameron isn’t sitting at home drooling over “Superman vs. The Mask: Protect the Rim”, he apparently doesn’t have the cinematic mind we all thought he did.

These Finals have also been so nice as to provide us with a clear-cut group of heroes to cheer for and villains to cheer against. Unless you’re from Miami or a convicted felon, which team is which should be pretty obvious. When LeBron took his talents and Bosh took whatever it is that he has to South Beach this off-season, the Heat instantly became the most hated team in the NBA-and for good reason. They are going to be this good (and probably better) for the next five or six years. A championship for them this year spells big trouble for the rest of the NBA in the future. Meanwhile, the Mavs just seem like a bunch of nice veterans who completely understand that this is their last chance to get a ring. They play their asses off, and their will to win has already propelled them to at least two of the greatest comebacks in playoff history. You gotta pull for them, you just gotta!

Before I give you my reasons why the Mavs are the good guys and the Heat aren’t, I want you to know I am fully aware that the Heat will probably still win. That’s the way sports work. Gordon Heyward’s half-court shot rims out, the Yankees have 27 rings, and the girl Kobe raped in Colorado had to choose the wrong pair of panties to wear out that night. They’re not fair. I honestly chose this topic because we are rapidly approaching the end of the basketball season. I am one of the biggest baseball fans around, but I can only write so much on the high-powered Padre offense. It’s getting to the point where I am just watching to see if Dick Enberg mistakes another ground-rule double for a home-run. He’s up to 74 this year, six ahead of last year’s record pace. Anyways, here you go…

The Mavs: The Girls Next Door

1. Dirk: He’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen someone take (and make) so many off balance, one-footed, contested shots in my life. We have yet to see a player like him, and unless our boy Holger stays alive long enough to mentor another lanky seven-footer, we probably won’t see another. He seems like an all-around nice guy, and you can tell he wants this more than anyone. The relationship between the U.S. and Germany has been a little testy at times, but with all the joy Nowitzki and the Hoff have brought us over the past 20 years, I say bring on the Schnitzel!

2. Jason Terry: As a UNLV homer, I could never write anything bad about Curtis Terry’s half-brother. Curtis went from being possibly my least-favorite Rebel of all time to one of my most-liked in the span of a year. He was terrible for three years, and all of the sudden, he was leading UNLV to a win in the NCAA Tournament. He’s also the only player I’ve ever seen in person get a ten-second violation against no pressure. Needless to say, his brother is a lot better. During the regular season, I’m pretty sure he shot 90% in the fourth quarter, and he hasn’t been much worse in the playoffs. I don’t think I had ever seen him dribble until Game 4, and now he’s blowing by LeBron like it’s his job (well, it kind of is, but you know what I mean).

3. Shawn Marion: The UNLV homer part deux. Marion, a Rebel for one year, has resurrected his career in these playoffs. Playing with the Suns and Steve Nash, he put up ridiculous numbers throughout his time in Phoenix. He had an outside shot at the Hall of Fame, but then his ego got in the way. Long story short, Suns management gave Amare Stoudemire a bobblehead night over Marion, and he wanted out. He thought he could survive without Nash, but it quickly became evident he was wrong. At least until four weeks ago, when he got the spring back in his legs and returned to being a force on both sides of the floor. He also shoots like a girl, and we all know the world loves women's basketball!

4. J.J. Barea: Being a 5’7” white point guard who wore #11 and grew up in the Video Game Era, I have created many a likeness of myself on NBA Live. Every one of them looks just like J.J. Barea. So you can imagine my delight in watching him carve up defenses and take over games for five-minute stretches at a time. He plays just like I do! Not in real life, mind you, but on NBA Live. I know he’s Puerto Rican, but I’ve been to New York and can salsa dance like no other… we’re practically twins!

5. Brian Cardinal: Are you kidding me? The Mavericks had already worked their way into America’s heart, and then they throw this baller at us? Unlike the rest of you, I had actually heard of Brian Cardinal. Not for anything he did on the court, but because I remember him being the only balding white American in the Big Ten when he was at Purdue 12 years ago. Now look at him! Running around aimlessly, flopping all over the place, and behaving like any white guy who has ever played and wanted nothing to do with actually touching the ball (Translation: 99% of all white players). I jokingly texted my dad that Cardinal was my first pick everytime we chose teams at 24 Hour Fitness. He wrote back “At the 24 Hour in Bosnia?” Not sure where he was going with that one, but once again, Brian Cardinal is not a household name. Yet…

The Heat: The Mean Girls

1. LeBron: I’m not a LeBron hater, I just don’t like him very much and don’t really want him to succeed. Ok, I’m a LeBron hater. He’s a freak of nature and actually seems to be a somewhat amiable guy. I just don’t really like the way he plays, and you can’t forgive him for what he did to Cleveland. Unless it makes sense for a player to choose living in Miami over Ohio and have a chance to win a ring every year, because then you can forgive him. He did quit on his team last year and is in the process of pulling one of the great disappearing acts in recent memory in this series. I almost feel bad for him for having to deal with all the scrutiny he does, but then he’ll start a press conference with “We was” or “Me and D-Wade” and my sympathy goes out the window.

2. D-Wade: I’m actually a huge fan of Wade and everything he stands for. He’s a great player and has probably been the best player on the floor all five games. I don’t even blame him for leaving his ex-wife for Gabrielle Union. What I do blame him for, however, is the way he spells his name. Dwyane. Dwyane! Not Dwayne, not Duane, but Dwyane. I could even accept “Dwain.” But Dwyane? Try pronouncing that name phonetically. The mouth doesn’t work that way! It’s impossible. How has this not become a bigger story?

3. Pat Riley: He just seems like a real doucher. Sitting behind the bench with his watchful eyes, slick back hair and nice suit. Who does he think he is? Pat Riley? Poor Erik Spoelstra. He works his way up the ranks in the Heat organization, lands his dream job, and has to deal with the Godfather scrutinizing every decision from three feet away. 2/1 odds that if the Heat win game 6 Riley fires Spoelstra and steals a ring like he did from Stan Van Gundy in 2006. So what if I copied Riley’s hair in fourth grade and have the yearbook picture to prove it? If I hadn’t been without a few baby teeth, I could’ve been GQ’in too damnit.

4. Chris Bosh: Mainly because he seems to possess the personality of a sober USD sorority chick. His interviews are terrible, and I am pretty sure I could do the Dougie better than him if given the opportunity. He doesn’t seem comfortable in the limelight, especially as the third option on offense. He’s still a top-5 Power Forward in the league, but he could never carry a team to a ring. Then again, neither could Lebron. I guess that’s how we got here.

5. Joel Anthony: I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Anthony, but it pains me when a great offensive player doesn’t demand the ball every possession. Ok, he went to UNLV too, and I just wanted to throw him in here. He might be the only player I’ve ever seen who defenders run away from, but that’s beside the point. Unlike college, he’s playing for the wrong team.

Well there you have it, the first entry onto our little blog. I hope it hasn’t sent you running for the hills, and if it has, come back to read what the other guys have to say. Go Mavs!