The Future in St. Louis Looks Dim

This post originally appeared before the 2011 MLB season. It's an interesting read now due to the fact the Cards won the World Series and Albert Pujols just signed with the Angles. Feel free to comment with your thoughts on St. Louis' future.

The news broke about Adam Wainwright's elbow and in the blink of an eye the St. Louis Cardinals' season outlook didn't seem so optimistic. After finishing second in the National League Central division last season behind the Cincinnati Reds, the Cardinals looked poised to recapture the division crown and possibly win a playoff series. They were unable to sign Albert Pujols in the offseason because, quite frankly, the man was asking for too much money. That put a cloud over the beginning of Spring Training and the team will try to sign him again after the season. A few days into camp their other superstar, Wainwright, injured his elbow and will now have season-ending Tommy John surgery.

It is a blow to a rotation that isn't that deep to begin with. Wainwright burst onto the scene during the Cardinals World Series championship in 2006 when, as a rookie, he shut down the opposition from the closer's role. The past two seasons he finished second in Cy Young voting and was sure to be right up there again this year. Now, the Cardinals will turn to Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia to get the job done. Carpenter has battled injuries throughout his career so who knows how much his body will be able to take and Garcia is still young. Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook are 3-4 in the rotation and the word around the league is that the Cards will try to sign Kevin Millwood or Pedro Martinez to fill the gap.

It is bad news on top of bad news for the Cardinals who, as mentioned before, failed to re-sign Pujols before spring training started. Pujols decided to cut off negotiations so that he would not become a distraction and that is a good move on his part but no one can deny that the contract extension will loom over the season. To make matters worse, it is rumored that the Chicago Cubs are going to make a run at Pujols after the season and they certainly could pay him the money he is asking for. Hopefully he is willing to take less cash to stay with the Cardinals but athletes these days are all about their money. As always, he should turn in another MVP-type season and he will have too because without Wainwright the pitching dominance won't be as great.

One thing is for sure: the Cardinals are a winning franchise and despite Wainwright's injury, they should be in the top two in the NL Central and in the talk for the playoffs. Pujols will have another great year and will worry about his contract after the season. As for Wainwright, he will go through surgery and doctors say he should return to form. There have been pitchers who have come back from Tommy John better than before and if that's the case here, good luck hitters. However, the immediate future doesn't look good in St. Louis and it could be a bad calendar year for Redbird fans.

Photo courtesy of waiversharks.com

Jersey Gets Their Superstar

More trade news from the NBA and I'm not a fan of this move at all. Deron Williams, star point guard of the Utah Jazz, was sent to the New Jersey Nets and, in return, the Jazz received point guard, Devin Harris and a promising rookie in Derrick Favors. Williams is clearly one of the best point guards in the NBA today (see past post on NBA point guards) and many teams have coveted his services. The Nets pulled off the move less than 24 hours after Carmelo Anthony was traded to the New York Knicks and it almost seems that the Nets wanted a superstar on their roster so badly that they didn't think through this deal very hard before executing it.

It's no secret that New Jersey wanted LeBron James in the summer and that they desperately tried to make a trade with Denver to land Carmelo. Now they have Williams, but the problem is that they gave away two young players that had loads of potential. Harris and Favors along with center, Brook Lopez, made up a pretty good, young core that could have led the Nets back to the glory days of the early 2000s. Without a doubt, Williams is an improvement from Harris but he really has no one to pass to. He and Lopez could have the same success that Williams had with Carlos Boozer in Utah but there is no supporting cast. At first glance it appears that the Nets have a pretty solid roster of young talent but it really isn't. At 17-40 they are 4th in the Atlantic Division and have no shot at the playoffs this season. After Williams and Lopez the Nets have an overrated, overpaid and injured player in Troy Murphy. Sasha Vujacic has a decent jumpshot but other than that all he has going for him is Maria Sharapova. Damion James's best basketball days were in Austin, Texas as a Longhorn and Travis Outlaw got a hefty contract in the offseason and has produced very little. Williams is stuck with a bunch of players that will not win.

On top of all that, Williams is a free agent at the end of this season and I would be surprised if he stays in New Jersey. Unless they can pull together some pieces and convince him that they have a shot at being a contender he will most likely leave for a better team. I have thought that he may want to go to Los Angeles to play with Kobe. Yes, Phil Jackson is leaving and there certainly will be some changes to the Lakers but Williams could run the point and have Kobe, Gasol and Odom to pass to. Derek Fisher is on the way out and LA will need somebody to run the Lake Show. It's definitley a place where he can win a championship or two and cement his legacy as an elite point guard. A friend of mine also brought up the idea of Dallas. Jason Kidd, like Fisher, is almost done and the mavs will need a point guard. Williams is from Dallas and could play in his hometown with Dirk Nowitzki and work for Mark Cuban. What player doesn't want to play for Cuban? Point is, there are going to be many destinations more popular than New Jersey at the end of the season. The Nets could only have him for half of a season and then he will be gone, but Utah has Harris and Favors for a long time.

Another thing that bugs me about this trade is Utah's timing. A few weeks ago williams and former Utah head coach, Jerry Sloan, reportedly got in an argument and when all was said and done, Sloan resigned. He was one of the NBA's best coaches and had been with the Jazz for 20 years. However, Williams got the best of him or the franchise picked their point guard over their coach and told Sloan to resign. What ever it was, Jerry Sloan is now at home. Williams is no longer in Utah either. Why didn't the Jazz tell Coach Sloan that if he waited just two more weeks Williams would be gone? That's no loyalty to a man who has been around for a long time. Jerry Sloan deserved better than that.

With this trade it is obvious that the power of the NBA has shifted to the East. For years the West has won all the championships and had most of the star players but with Carlos Boozer going to the Bulls, Amare and Carmelo to the Knicks and now Deron Williams to the Nets the East should be dominant. The Celtics, Heat, Bulls, Magic and maybe even the Knicks could take on the top teams in the West and beat them any night and I will say right now the champion will come out of the East this season. No one knows yet how long Deron Williams will be in New Jersey but, for now, the Nets have their superstar and they are hoping it means a few more "W's" in the win column.

Photo courtesy of financebehavior.co.uk

Melo's New York State of Mind

The deal is done and the drama is over. After months of speculation and rumors, Carmelo Anthony has been traded from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks. The trade, which also involved the Minnesota Timberwolves, was completed late Monday night and involved 12 players, draft picks and 3 million dollars in cash. New York is getting Melo, Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, Shelden Williams and Renaldo Balkman from Denver while the Nuggets are receiving Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov and draft picks from the Knicks. New York also sent Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry to Minnesota for Corey Brewer. Anthony is a bona fide superstar in the NBA and Billups is a steady point guard who is a proven winner. The Knicks did sacrifice young talent but no one can deny that superstars win championships in the NBA and the Big Apple now has Melo and Amare Stoudamire in blue and orange.

Since the offseason, trade talks have swirled around Anthony and he made it no secret that New York was his preferred destination. He tried hard to end up in his chosen city without tarnishing his image like his buddy down in South Beach did and, for the most part, he was successful. Carmelo Anthony is back where he wants to be, the East Coast. Melo was the superstar in Denver and led them to the Western Conference Finals in 2009 but despite the success of the Nuggets, it was clear they were never going to win a championship. It became imminent that Anthony was on the way out, whether it was via trade or free agency, and now he will be playing in Madison Square Garden, the greatest arena in sports. The Knicks signed Amare Stoudamire in the offseason and he has lifted MSG's spirits, leading the team to a 28-26 record which is second in the Atlantic Division. Already much improved from last season and second in the league in scoring with 106.2 points per game, New York added Melo who averages 25.2 points. Stoudamire puts up 26.1 per game and the two average over 16 rebounds combined.

What will be interesting to see is how Anthony and Stoudamire mesh. Amare left Phoenix because he was tired of playing in Steve Nash's shadow and he wanted a team to call his own. He has been the star of New York City for the first half of the season and carried the Knicks so far but now Carmelo enters the picture. Can the two coexist and will Melo respect that this is Amare's team? I think they can do it and I believe they will produce. However, to say the Knicks are favorites to win the East is ludicrous. At best they will be the 5th seed behind Boston, Miami, Chicago and Orlando but they could make some noise in the postseason. It will be hard to win playoff games with little supporting cast. Landry Fields and Billups are reliable but after that there is little talent. Ronny Turiaf and Renaldo Balkman can defend and rebound but the scoring will be hard to come by off the bench. A few years from now the Knicks could be an Eastern Conference powerhouse but not this year.

I say they could be in a few years because they will be able to assemble a supporting cast and another summer of superstars in free agency will have gone by. Chris Paul has mentioned before that he would like to go to New York and team up with Anthony and Stoudamire and the idea of that should be scary to other teams in the East. Deron Williams and Dwight Howard are also approaching free agency so there are options out there. It is my assumption that Paul will end up in NYC to run the point for the Knickerbockers which would make Spike Lee and the Gang go nuts at MSG.

The Knicks have not been a good team since the new millenium hit and they haven't had a superstar since Patrick Ewing. Stoudamire has filled that role and now Anthony is with him. Ewing never could win the Big Apple a championship but it looks like these two should. This year expect nothing better than perhaps a first round win in the playoffs but in the years following, beware of the Knicks. Those are words we haven't heard in awhile. But then again, basketball is back in New York City.

Photo courtesy of ice-dotcom.com

It's An All-Star Game, Not A Popularity Contest

This weekend, the Staples Center in Los Angeles will be taken over by the NBA's greatest players in the annual All-Star game. It's a weekend of festivities, starting with the Celebrity All-Star Game on Friday night, (it is always great to see which celebs can actually play some ball). The Dunk Contest, 3-point Contest, and Skills Challenge all take the stage Saturday night, followed by the NBA All-Star game Sunday. The game showcases East versus West in a showdown of the game's best players this year. At least that is what it should be.  In reality, it's a game that highlights who the fans feel are the most popular players in the league. Every year, true fans of the game cringe when they see that Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady have been named All-Stars, despite having bad seasons or not even playing due to injury. That's the consequence of allowing fan voting. It's a flawed system that doesn't give the best players their due.

Fans only vote for the starters and then the coaches vote for the bench players which is good. If it weren't for the coaches who knows what the rosters would look like. Now, I give the fans credit for their selections this year because they all seem right to me, except for one. The East starting lineup will feature Derrick Rose at the point, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the wings and Amare Stoudamire and Dwight Howard in the post. All five players are in the running for the MVP award at the end of the year so they are very deserving of the honor. In the West Chris Paul will run the point guard position with Kobe Bryant as his shooting guard. Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant will be the forwards and the man in the middle will be....Yao Ming???? Yao Ming, that guy from China who has appeared in five games of this year before being injured? Yeah, that guy. Seriously now, I know he's a good player when healthy and I appreciate that the fans in China rally around him but this is absurd. Commissioner David Stern chose Kevin Love as the replacement for Yao but it's sad that the fans couldn't get it right the first time.

Players like Allen Iverson, Yao and Tracy McGrady have made All-Star teams simply because they were popular and not because they were having the best year. A lesser known player rarely has a chance to be named unless the coaches vote him in. It's not just the NBA either. Every major sport thinks fans should have the right to vote for who is an all-star that year and every year the rosters are flawed in some way. I understand that the leagues want their fans to feel like they are part of the process but it's getting out of hand. I want to see the best players take the floor on Sunday night, not the most popular ones. Recently it has also been announced that a portion of the voting for the baseball Hall of Fame will be done by fans. This is wrong because if anyone can vote what qualifies them? Not everyone can have a say in what happens and that's life. Maybe for an All-Star game it's okay but when the fan voting starts coming to the Hall of Fame that's when I start losing interest.

Abundance of Great Guards, But Rose is Number 1

Lately my friends and I have had the great debate on who is the NBA's best point guard today and we always have come up with mixed results. Some like Chris Paul but others think it's Deron Williams. Some will say Rajon Rondo but some will answer Derrick Rose. Russell Westbrook's name comes up in the conversation and veterans like Steve Nash and Tony Parker find ways to stay relevant. There are even a few who would like to crown John Wall in his first year but, quite frankly, a coach would take any of these players to lead his team and he would be happy but for the sake of the argument who really is the greatest?

Derrick Rose is in his third year for the Chicago Bulls and it appears that he has made his team into a serious contender. Chicago currently sits at third in the top-heavy East behind Miami and Boston and much of the credit should be directed at Rose who has kept the Bulls winning despite injuries to Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer. He averages 24.7 points which is tops on the team and among point guards. He has improved his shooting percentages and is now a threat to shoot the ball from deep, unlike his first few years when teams could sag off of him. His playmaking ability has been superb and his assist average is now at 8.1 per game. Saturday night Rose outplayed Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets in a 97-88 Bulls win and the game before that he outplayed Williams in another Bulls victory.

Rose, Westbrook, Rondo, Williams and Paul represent the new generation of point guards in the NBA and they are representing it well. Every single one of them is a pure point guard who can score but at the same distribute the ball to their teammates. All five average 8+ assists with Rondo's 12.3 leading the league. Three of the five also average over 20 points. Never has there been this great of a debate on this topic. Five point guards who seem to be equal. What sets Rose apart from the rest is that he is the winningest team besides Rondo and he has to do the most work for his team. He must take up the heavy scoring load, which he has done well thanks to his improved jumper, and he is expected to feed Boozer and Luol Deng. He is the face of his franchise and is also an all-star for the second time in his career.

Rondo can't say he is the face of the franchise because he sits behind the Big Three and Westbrook plays second fiddle to Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City. Chris Paul owns New Orleans but he wants out and Williams name has surfaced as a factor in the resignation of coach Jerry Sloan. Derrick Rose owns Chicago and has embraced his role as that man. Also, imagine the pressure Rose is under in Chicago. The last player drafted by the Bulls in the post-Jordan era who was from Chicago will go down as one of the biggest busts ever. His name was Eddy Curry. Rose attended Simeon High and was drafted number one overall by the Bulls. He is expected to be the player that gets Chicago back to the glory days of the Jordan-Pippen era. He must play in MJ's shadow yet he has made his own name and received very little comparison. He is doing big things under immense pressure.

Rose has outplayed every one of the other contenders this season except Westbrook, who he matched stat-for-stat in their last meeting. He will also match up against every contender, except Westbrook, one more time this season. It will be interesting to see if Rose can keep up his high-level of play in the second half of the season. Of course, all five guards are excellent but Rose is steadily setting himself apart. It's his third season and he's improving every year. Now that's scary.

That's my case for Derrick Rose being number one in the league but let me hear your thoughts and opinions. Leave a comment telling me who you think is the NBA's top point guard and why.

Sparty Has the Blues

The most surprising story of the college basketball season so far is out of East Lansing, Michigan, home of the disappointing Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans were picked number two in nearly every preseason poll and why not? They were a Final Four team last season and had everybody back for the most part, which many thought put them neck-in-neck with Duke for the best team in the country. However, a different Spartan team must have taken the floor this year as they are 14-10 and currently unranked. Michigan State has been the model of consistency under coach Tom Izzo but this year something is not right. Two key players have left the program and the ones that remain have played inconsistent basketball. Now, a team that bracketologists can always pencil in to their bracket is fighting for a spot in the Big Dance.

I sat in my seat at Lucas Oil Stadium this past April for the Final Four and I fully expected Michigan State to beat Butler. They had the advantage at almost every position, or so it seemed, and they were physically superior to their opponent. Yet, Butler came away with a two point win and many were left to ponder how Michigan State lost. In 2009, determined to win the championship in nearby Detroit, MSU lost to North Carolina. 2010 appeared to be their year but again they fell. Well, now distinguished stars Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers are seniors so surely 2011 would be the Spartans championship season, or so we all thought. If this group of players never wins a championship it could go down in history as one of the greatest teams to not win the big one. Lucas and Summers have been to three Sweet 16's and two Final Fours but may not even make the tournament this year.

Why is Michigan State struggling? Nobody really knows to be honest. I don't have an answer but I do know this: they miss Chris Allen and Korie Lucious more than people expected. Yes, Lucas, Summers and forward Draymond Green have the potential to be stars but Michigan State is a good TEAM and they lost two key pieces to the puzzle. Allen was forced/decided that he would transfer before the year because he failed to meet team commitments and butted heads reguarly with Tom Izzo. Allen was part of the recruiting class with Lucas and Summers and in his junior season he averaged 8.2 points while shooting 40% from 3-point land. He was a vital part of the team with his knockdown shooting but will now play for Iowa State next year. Lucious, on the other hand, will always be remembered for his game-winning three at the buzzer against Maryland in last year's tournament but he too is no longer with the program for failure to abide by team rules. He had several infractions and in the middle of the season left the team. Lucious was the definition of a great backup, averaging 6.5 points and 4 assists while also being a deep ball threat. Losing those two has cut into the Spartans scoring and their ability to spread out a defense.

Because those two are gone it has put more pressure on Summers to shoot the ball but now opposing defenses can key in on him more. While he averages more points and shoots a better 3-point percentage this season, his field-goal and free throw percentages have dropped significantly from his junior year. Green, a player who can go inside or out, has been forced more onto the perimeter in order to stretch the defense. He has been the Spartans most valuable player this year, recording a triple-double last game against Penn State and putting up the best stats. He averages 13.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and shoots 39% from deep. Those two do not get their shots off though without Lucas, the engine that makes this team go. He's the teams leading scorer at 16 points per game and also shoots a great percentage from behind the line at 40%. He dishes out almost four assists a game and now we are left wondering how Michigan State has lost 10 games?? Look at those stats listed and it's hard to imagine that team is fighting for a tournament berth.

At closer look we can find two big reasons to the Spartans demise. Lucas, Green and Summers average 42.7 points combined while the rest of the team only averages 28.3. Seven of those points come from Delvon Roe and the Spartans 71 points per game are woeful. That's good for 121st in the nation. Remember, without Allen and Lucious that's 15 points missing plus 4 assists from Lucious. A Tom Izzo team also prides itself on rebounding but the Spartans are 84th in the nation with only 37 per game. If there are two problems with this team those are it. A Big Ten team can't win without rebounding because that's what the league prides itself on.

There is still time to turn it around somewhat and this coming Tuesday Michigan State could make a huge statement if they beat current #1 Ohio State on the road. There are still four ranked teams left on their schedule plus the Big Ten Tournament and if the Spartans play the way they are capable of then they should be dancing in March. However, other players will need to step up and everyone will need to hit the glass harder or we could see something unusual, a Sparty-less NCAA Tournament. The last time that happened was in 1997. I was six years old at the time and I'm 19 now. That puts it in perspective pretty well.

The Super Bowl is Super for a Reason

Football has taken over as "America's Game" which is sad to me, and other baseball fans, but it is true. The hype around the NFL is enormous and nothing is bigger and better than the Super Bowl. After the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers treated us to a great game at the biggest venue down in Big D, it is obvious football has never been more popular. The NFL is the most lucrative league in the world yet there may not be a season next year. What would a Sunday be like without football and only NBA games to watch at noon? Kind of like Los Angeles without the Lakers-you still have something to watch but it's just not as good because it's the Clippers. As the league now shifts their full attention to the collective bargaining agreement let's look at why the Super Bowl is the greatest sports championship we have today.

March Madness is definitely the best playoff system in sports but the Super Bowl is the best championship game. 103,219 turned out to watch this year's big game and it could have been more had 1,000+ seats not been ruled unsafe because of weather damages. According to the Nielsen ratings 111 million people tuned in to FOX to watch the game and that includes men, women and children of all ages. People who don't watch football at least watch a little bit or attend a party where the game is on. Super Bowl parties are tradition in America and that's why non-NFL fans will tune in for this game. The chance to eat big, hang out with friends and watch football just seems American.

The Super Bowl also has an electric halftime show that brings in more viewers because people may not be huge football fans but they could be a devoted fan of the Black Eyed Peas or Tom Petty or even...Justin Timberlake. This year the Black Eyed Peas put on an outstanding performance that wowed the crowd with light shows, dancing and surprise appearances. Sure, the singing may not have been the best but the point is, people got excited for it and it entertained them. It almost looked like the NFL wouldn't put on a halftime show after the "wardrobe malfunction" of Janet Jackson but, instead of cancelling it, they went a new direction and signed acts that were respectable. This year the fans got a nice surprise when Slash, guitarist from Guns N' Roses, came out to play "Sweet Child O' Mine" and Usher dropped down to help will.i.am with the song "OMG." How's that for a side show to the game?

Earlier I mentioned that the Super Bowl is the best championship game and here's why: consider that of the six major sports fans watch only two have a playoff that results in a one game, winner-take-all matchup. College football has the flawed BCS system which never allows the fans to see who truly is the champion and the NBA, MLB and NHL all have lengthy playoff series that last over a month. By the time those three leagues reach the actual championship the general fans are almost burned out. They know that there could still be seven games left before a champion is crowned. This also discourages throwing parties for the game and non-fans to tune in because in a series who knows what game will be the deciding game. Ticket buyers may have a seat at Game 5 but the champion may not be crowned that night. With the Super Bowl we know that when the Steelers and Packers run out of the tunnel one of them will leave a champion. There is something to be said for a winner-take-all game. There are no mess ups or do-overs the next night and a team can't say, "well we're only down one game." With the Super Bowl it's one chance, bring your best effort and you will get the trophy at the end. 

That's why the Super Bowl is super.

The Bulls are Back

He drove right with Bryan Russell guarding him, stepped back (maybe a push-off) and drained the game winning shot to beat the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. That was Michael Jordan's last shot as a Bull and it also signaled the end of the Chicago dynasty. After that sixth title Jordan retired from the game, Phil Jackson left for Los Angeles and Scottie Pippen signed with the Rockets. The following year the new-look Bulls drafted Elton Brand out of Duke and Ron Artest from St. John's. For years the Bulls suffered through losing seasons with terrible draft picks (i.e.- Marcus Fizer, Eddy Curry, Michael Ruffin, Jake Voskuhl) and frequent head coaching changes. It was a nightmare in Chicago.

In 2003 the Bulls hired Scott Skiles and, along with some smarter draft picks made strides. However, after awhile Skiles was fired and the next coach, Vinny Del Negro, met the same fate. In 2010-11 its obvious that former Number 1 pick Derrick Rose and center Joakim Noah are a solid young core and new head coach Tom Thibodeau seems to be the right man for the job. The Bulls also had one of the best offseasons of teams not named the Miami Heat by signing Carlos Boozer, a low post scoring threat they have desperately needed. Sharpshooter Kyle Korver and slasher, Ronnie Brewer also signed in Chicago.

Superstars like Bosh, LeBron and Wade were available this summer and LeBron and Wade expressed interest in the Bulls. At the beginning of the summer I was hoping and wishing that one of them would come to Chicago to team up with Rose and Noah and I was disappointed when LeBron said he was taking his talents to South Beach and not the Windy City. However, as the season goes on it is more and more apparent that the Bulls don't need one of those superstar scorers. When the trade talks started heating up for Carmelo Anthony it has been said that Chicago is one of his preferred destinations yet you won't see Bulls fans throwing out the Welcome mat for him. These days Bulls fans are pretty content with their team. Rose has shouldered much of the scoring load, averaging 24.4 points per game but the offense is fluid and moves through everybody before a shot goes up. The Bulls do not have a player who stalls the offense such as a LeBron or Carmelo. Signing one of those players would hurt the chemistry Chicago has because once the ball gets in their hands the offense stops and it becomes a game of one-on-one. In the NBA teams need a guy who can go one-on-one at the end of the shot clock and the Bulls have their man in Rose but at the same time he understands to move the ball.

The signing of Carlos Boozer has given the Bulls a low post presence that they needed and, although they haven't been on the floor together that much, he has meshed with Joakim Noah nicely. Boozer has missed 18 games due to a broken wrist and an ankle sprain while Noah has been sitting out since the middle of December. Together the two average nearly 22 rebounds a game and complement each other well. Boozer rebounds and does the scoring while Noah is content with rebounding, bringing energy and being a defensive presence. Those two along with solid backups Kurt Thomas, who scored 20 points in a game this season for the first time since 2005, and Omer Asik make up a group of big men that can contend with Boston and Orlando in the East. Boozer's offense down low will be very valuable come playoff time when the team must play series and Rose can't do it all by himself.

And then there is Rose, the former Number 1 pick who graduated from Chicago's very own Simeon High. We are watching him improve every year and now in his third season D-Rose looks like a frontrunner for the MVP, an award that hasn't been in Chicago since 1998 when Jordan won his fifth. Derrick Rose is everything a superstar these days is not. He is humble and always looks at his accomplishments as a team. He deflects praise because he knows there is still work to done. As far as this Bulls team has come there is still a great journey ahead and Rose, despite being only 22, realizes that. He works hard on all areas of his game and it shows. For example, Rose shot 22% and 26% from 3-point land in his first two seasons. He averaged just 0.8 attempts from downtown last year but this year that number is up to 4.2 and he is hitting better than 37% of those.

A championship team needs a leader and Rose is that guy for the Bulls who are still a young team compared to perrenial greats such as the Lakers and Celtics. Boozer is a proven low post scorer and rebounder while Noah is the energy player who does everything in between. Chicago has a deep bench and good role players. At 33-14 the have one of the best records and Noah isn't even playing. The Bulls are back among the NBA's elite but now the question is: when will they win that 7th NBA title?

The Never Ending Argument on Running up the Score

At what point should a coach stop scoring on a team if there opponent is obviously no match for them? In my mind that's a trick question because one team should never completely stop scoring. Some people believe that once a team is up by a certain margin they should stop scoring and just waste time. However, my stance on the issue is that a team should never stop scoring completely because that's not the way the game was meant to be played, no matter what sport it is. There are things that can be done to slow down the scoring such as running off thirty seconds before taking a shot in basketball or not throwing the ball in football but the goal of the game is to score and that's what teams should do until the final whistle blows.

The argument on what should a team do when they are ahead by a big margin came to me when I heard the story of Coach Phil Washington, the 8th grade boys basketball coach at Highland Junior High School here in Anderson, Indiana. The 8th grade team is undefeated and heading to the state tournament. During the season they have pounded teams by 30 and 40 points routinely and now Coach Washington's job is being threatened because of it. Apparently he is not allowed to beat teams by that much and he could be fired immediately or at the end of the season. The team has rallied around their coach and many wear t-shirts that read, "I Support Coach Washington" in hopes that school administration will keep him on the bench.

I can speak from both sides of the spectrum. I have been drilled by 40+ points but there have been a number of games that I have won by a wide margin. I know how bad it feels to walk into the locker room after suffering through four quarters of agony, you feel so defeated. At the same time I always was angry with myself and my team for letting that happen to us. Maybe it's because my friends and I had that competitive fire in us but we never wanted to play bad enough to get beat like that and we certainly didn't want the other team to start taking it easy on us because that is the most embarassing thing ever. Imagine how it would feel in front of your home crowd to be down 30 in the fourth quarter and the other team starts playing Four Corners basketball and passing it around while you run around hopelessly trying to intercept a pass. That's no fun at all and I would rather keep playing real basketball.

Jimmie Johnson's Miami Hurricanes teams
frequently won big but Johnson said
he could only control his team.

My buddies and I recently watched "The U," which is about the heyday of Miami Hurricanes football and part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, and in it former coach Jimmie Johnson discusses the allegations the his teams ran up the score on their opponents. He said, "I can only control one team and that's mine. I can control what my team is doing but I can't control what the other team is doing and if they can't stop us then they should get better." He has a valid point, especially at the college level where teams can recruit and bring in decent players. I understand that in junior high whoever lives in that town is who the coach is stuck with and it's much easier to be overmatched but Jimmie Johnson is correct, the coach can only control one team.

I think in today's world we have become a very soft society in the sports world. I'm not trying to be overdramatic but I feel that we live in a time when everyone must be happy and every kid should be an All-Star. Some schools don't cut kids because they don't wanna make them unhappy, Little League has created more All-Star levels so that everyone can be one and parents want teams to take it easy and not score so much because nobody wants to get beat by 30. This is all nice but very few kids have that competitive edge anymore because they have never learned what it means to be competitive. Nobody wants to get beat by a big margin but at the end of the day maybe we should just toughen up a bit. Maybe that's too overdramatic but I've heard it said before that if you don't like it, get better. I believe that 100%.

Should Coach Washington tell his kids to stop scoring? No he shouldn't. When those kids at the end of the bench who never play get in the game what does he tell them? Like I said earlier there are steps that can be taken to slow down the scoring but he should not tell his kids to stand there for the whole fourth quarter and not score. What Highland administration, teachers and fans should really focus on is this special season that they are witnessing instead of worrying about how badly they are beating teams. How often is it that a group of 8th grade boys goes undefeated and is invited to the state tournament? Not often so instead of worrying about the score let them just play ball.