Spartacus Whitlock

If you do not know by now, I am a fan of the NBA. I am not a fan of blatant stupidity that seems to follow this league’s players, media and fans.

In case you had not heard of Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks before last week, you were in the majority. Lin was on the verge of being cut by the Knicks when due to injury he got a shot to play – and play he did. He was part of a winning streak by contributing some key baskets against a variety of teams. It was a great story that most embraced.

If you did not know, Lin is the first Asian American to play in the NBA, the league that prides itself on being the sport of the world. Lin’s rise to stardom and recognition was seismic, to say the least, as he was also a good interview.

Now enter the stupidity.

After Lin’s 38-point performance against the Lakers, columnist Jason Whitlock tweeted “some lucky lady in NYC is going to feel a couple of inches of pain tonight.”

Really? So is that how athletes are rewarded these days? We now offer up women as trophies, as if this is an episode of Spatacus? 

Yeah, Floyd 

Not to be one-upped, Floyd Mayweather decided to chime in and state that the Lin hype is all about the fact that he is Asian. “Brothers do what he does every night.”  Yeah, Floyd, but considering where he came from and the fact he was not given a chance in other places may have something to do with it.

Hey, Floyd, try tweeting this: “I have decided that I will no longer duck Manny Pacquiao and I am fighting him this summer as soon as I get out of jail for putting hands on a woman.”

That is all anyone wants to hear from Floyd. 

Let the NCAA campaign season begin 

It’s that time. Time for the campaign season to begin, and while you may be thinking this is about who the Republican Party can run against the incumbent, President Barack Obama, to sit in the White House for the next four years, there is another campaign taking place.

The NCAA basketball tournament is just around the corner, and this is the time when teams and coaches campaign for a position in the tournament. There is a lot at stake here, such as seedings and game location in the tournament, not to mention job survival.

In the next few weeks, pay attention to how many coaches who will publicly lobby that their team is deserving of a spot in the tournament, if not the conference that they are in getting as many teams in as they can.

It’s all at times rather silly when you look at some reasons they give. My favorite is the one when they talk about their strength of schedule. Really? In some cases they bring that up, failing to mention some of the blood donors that they played early in the season – in some cases, schools we learned even played basketball.

Hey, here is an idea on the selection process. Play a legitimate schedule, play tough teams on the road, and play teams that were in the post-season in the prior year. That is for starters. If you want to add a blood donor, give some of the teams in a reasonable area code within proximity of the school instead of having someone come in from two time zones away.

This year’s tournament will be wide open. Never have there been so many teams that have a chance to win, and I am not sure what that says. I do not believe that teams today are anywhere close to being as good as teams of just a few years ago.

The good players are more spread out around the country, unlike the days when the Big East and the ACC would always get the best players because of the cozy deal that featured those schools on ESPN (and we all know how much the kids like TV). Now every conference, for the most, part has a TV package where nearly all the games can be seen.

Fundamentally, players are different, which is why the experienced coaches seem to have a challenge of pushing the button on getting players to play because they easily get caught up in the hype. When players tune out a coach today, you can start the clock on the the coach’s survival; seldom do you see schools back him up, as they are so conscious of what the media and boosters think. Sad, but true.

This will be a fun and interesting tournament for sure, as there is no dominant team, so let the campaigning begin and may the hottest team win.