I think this list started way back in June or July. I’d hate to let all of these interesting topics go to waste on my account of having gotten too busy.
Shall we dive in:
Shquille O'Neal literally changed the whole landscape of the Eastern Conference.
- The Shaquille O’Neal trade to Cleveland is bigger than a blockbuster — it’s a mockbuster. Everybody thought they had the team they wanted, then Shaq teleported to the eastern conference screwing everything up. Now, everybody’s after their favorite fantasy basketball players — no kidding — and half the teams tore up their rosters this summer in order to stay competitive with the most dominant team on paper. Even Stephen Jackson of my lowly Golden State Warriors wants in on the action. It’s a ripple effect that I just didn’t have time to write about.
- Ricky Rubio has ended my summer on a high note. We’re talking the ultimate ‘eff you.’ Yes sir, he can flip his bird with the big boys and I for one do not blame him. As hard as the Minnesota Timberwolves wanted to chase after the little bugger, he wasn’t interested in living in cold-ass nowhere land. I’m sure growing up in Europe he had dreams of America and living the big life in New York, Miami, Chicago or San Francisco. What can you say, people love the city. But then reality sinks in too fast when you have a 75 percent chance shitty-town syndrome come draft day. It gets even worse when you start to consider market size, with places like Minnesota on the bottom rung of pro basketball’s TV black hole. The T’Wolves haven’t been relevant since Kevin Garnett. Next year isn’t changing that. Ricky Rubio couldn’t change that. And I think he figured that out soon enough, which is why he’s going to Barcelona, baby.
- I was going to do a full list of tight ends for your fantasy football draft, much like the other lists I did for every other position outside of kicker. That died when I realized that out of the top four TEs, none matter. So why worry? Hakuna matata.
- Usain Bolt is this really badass dude that happens to be quirky and run like a gazelle. I was remarking with a coworker of mine the other day on how fast he is in full stride compared to everyone else. Water cooler talk for sure. I remember quite vividly his 100-meter dash win in the Beijing Olympics and how he got a bad start (yes, he totally did) and still kicked the competition’s ass. I was mesmerized. Flash forward to the world games, same dudes in the building, some of them a little cocky too, and Bolt gets a good start this time, leveling the competition with a 9.53 world record. Then, he comes back in the 200 and breaks 20 seconds. Dude may be Jaimaican, but right now he’s my hero. (Please don’t get caught doping! Pretty, please!)
- Plaxico Burress isn’t as despicable to me as Antonio Pierce. In fact, I wouldn’t have thrown the book at Plax. If I was on the Grand Jury in New York, I’d be eyeing Mr. Pierce for his behavior in trying to cover the whole thing up. He deserves a couple of months behind bars for stupidly trying to help a friend out — a friend who stupidly shot himself. At what point, in a friendship, do you say, “eff you, dude … I ain’t putting my hands on nothing.” Apparently, Pierce is unaware of these limits. And Plax wins the award for best friend of the year. Jerk.
- The Boom Tho Mixtape is on its way, if it already isn’t here. My boy Rod Benson, formerly of the Dakota Wizards and the Reno Bighorns, has got a mixtape. He’s handling his thizzle. I wrote about him for my paper some time back. I have no idea what the dude is up to, but I keep hearing about him in the club in SF with my boy J-Gant (the other half of the Boom Tho movement) and Clay. Looks like they taking over the music scene cause J-Gant is a promoter now. Watch out. Better yet, listen below:
- Why steroids is worse than betting?– I was totally going to pen this killer column on how the steroid era and Barry Bonds sucks harder than Pete Rose being out of the hall of fame. But then I lost steam doing something else. Either way, it still pisses me off and I dislike Barry much more than I dislike Pete Rose right now. This paragraph will have to do. But I reserve the right to come back to this topic. I’m sure steroids will come back up.
- The 49ers — They need my attention right now. Did I ever tell you I got into sports writing so that one day I could cover the 49ers like Niners Nation does? You didn’t need to know that. But it’s the truth. But with their quarterback battle coming to a close and my preferred guy winning, I’m getting more and more pumped about this year and what the red and gold are bringing to the table. My one worry is that my boy Jason Hill, who I’ve written about here before, will get lost in the shuffle of all those receivers. I’m keeping my eye out on him.
- Which Fantasy Football program do you use? — Is it ESPN, Yahoo!, NFL.com or some other third-party vendor that charges you up the gazoo. It’s weird because this year I’m trying out eCouchCoach.com, which is supposedly really cool for this keeper league I’m getting into. They give you Twitter updates and send you e-mail alerts when folks on your roster are hurt and all this other cool stuff you’d expect ESPN to do. Only problem is, I can’t stand the layout. We’ll see how my feelings change as this season gets underway and I draft on Sunday.
- The town I live in, is a monster for high school football — I really had something good going for me in little old Grass Valley, Calif. Writing about high school football is the premiere sport here, getting covered by the local newspaper (me), the local radio station and by a public access television crew. It’s like Texas but in the middle of nowhere California. What’s even better is the kids are pretty good. The Nevada Union Miners went 10-2 last season, losing in the second-round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs. They sent a bunch of kids to play college ball. The Bear River Bruins took a thumping in the first round of the Division IV playoffs of the same section after going 8-3 in the Pioneer Valley League. They had a kid, Tanner Mathias, I swear should’ve been a Division I pickup at quarterback. He didn’t get much love but is playing at JC this season. My point is, giving up the sports writer position feels like it came at the weirdest time. But hey, I’m still gonna write about it. And maybe take a little video.
Tanner Mathias was an amazing high school quarterback for the Bear River Bruins in my town.
That’s it. That was all I wanted to write about, but never had a chance to really dive into all essay-like. More posts coming on some of these subjects. Others will be expanded upon.
Hey, I never vouched for ecouchcoach.com! I only said it was extremely flexible and MAY be cool, don’t hold it against me if it sucks.
And then it bombs. I blame you for everything.