New York Knicker-Losers

 


  With the holidays here, there is the usual Christmas Day basketball games. The first game was the Knicks vs. the Wizards, and the Knicks(not shockingly) lost. That is what we are here to talk about. My first question is what the hell is happening in New York sports this year? It looks like the Yankees(to normal standards) and the Islanders are the only ones that are having decent seasons. The real question is who is having a worst season, the Jets or Knicks? You have to weigh the fact that football is a shorter season than basketball.

   If you look at all the stats, the Knicks are at the bottom or near the bottom of almost every category. They are the worst in defense, 3 point defense, and getting to the free throw line just to name a few things. The fact that they are considering shutting down Carmelo Anthony for the season shows their vulnerability. Yes I know he is hurting, but it shows the Knicks do not really have any hope for an already lost hope for their season.

    With a big free agency summer coming up, this season will showcase whether or not certain free agents want to come play for the Knicks. In 2015-2016 offseason, Marc Gasol and Rajon Rando are the 2 biggest free agents. In 2016, reigning MVP Kevin Durant is a free agent. Winning is really a key to many players choosing to sign with a certain team. With the exception of Kobe(who went with the money) and Melo(who went with money and Phil Jackson), we see it is like that with many players.

    The one good thing that will come out of this horrible season is that the Knicks will have a high  first round draft pick. They can take someone who has potential and build around him and Carmelo. Phil Jackson just said that better days are ahead in 2015, but what does he really mean? Does he know something that we do not? Only he really knows. Hopefully he is right. The Knicks, like the Jets, need to show that they can build a winner with the right pieces starting from the top.

    If all the top executives from each New York sports team met and discussed how to make New York sports relevant again, that would be great. Can you imagine Brian Cashman saying, "Let's bring Jeter and Yogi out of retirement?", or Jerry Reese saying, "Let's just play the Patriots and make believe it's the Super Bowl." Phil Jackson was a great coach, but is a rookie executive. He should certainly speak to his contemporaries and get some piece of advice.

Knocking on Beckham's Door

           

    Before we start of, I would just like to say that my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy this past week. Now back to business!! We all know that the New York Football Giants had one frustrating season this past season. Their defense was not great(even though it slightly improved). JPP was the highlight of the defense. They suffered a season ending injury to star wideout Victor Cruz against Philadelphia. The team, as a whole, did not click. The biggest positive that came out of this season for the G-Men was Odell Beckham, Jr. He is really knocking on heaven's door!

   The Giants had the 12th overall pick in last years draft. With all the offensive lines problems last year, a lot of us figured they would address that with the draft. Instead, the picked Beckham with that pick. They picked someone to take over for the departed Hakeem Nicks. At first, it was figured that he would  be, at best, a number 3 receiver behind Cruz and Ruben Randle. NFL experts knew he could be special, but did not know how special.

  Coming to camp, Beckham got injured. He missed preseason games and the first 4 games of the regular season. There was said to be some kind comments made by Tom Coughlin that being injured is not an excuse to not attempt to practice or play. Odell had to go and talk to him because he was frustrated he could not help the team.

   Once he got back on the field, he slowly started to progress with stardom. He made one of the best catches I've ever seen against Dallas a few weeks ago. He has 79 receptions in first 11 games of his career, which is the most in NFL history. While catching is 10th and 11th TD passes today, he set a franchise rookie record. He has also gone over 1000 receiving yards. There has been talk of possible tying Hall of Famer Michael Irvin's record of 9 straight 90 yard games next week.

   We see how much flash and potential he has in him. The fact the Beckham has been mentioned in the same breath as a hall of famer shows what the Giants knew they were doing. Even though there were some people thought it would be a miracle, Odel has the start of something special. He will become a top 3 wide receiver in the NFL in the next 2-3 years. Mark my Word!!!

Alex Rodri-DUMB

     Happy Belated Thanksgiving All!!! I hope you are all enjoyed your turkey, gravy, and stuffing! With that said, I am here with my(late) Holiday Special blog. As a New York Yankee fan, there is certainly a lot of things to be thankful for. The owners like to spend in order to contend, they have won 27 World Series, and the Yankees play in the greatest city in the world. There is one thing that I am not thankful for and that is Alex Rodriguez. We all know that how he was suspended for the season, but he lied about everything.

    There is a two part question I really have:A) How dumb is Alex Rodriguez? and B) How dumb does Alex Rodriguez think we are? Honestly, these are two really valid questions that all Yankees fans and personnel should be thinking. As everyone knows, A-Rod was suspended for the full season last year. His original suspension was for 211 games, but got it reduced to 162 games. None the less, through the whole appeals process he kept denying how he had any involvement with everything in BioGenesis.

     Alex did not want to go on the stand, instead he insisted that Bud Selig("a key witness") should have testified. Is it because he knew if he lied to a judge he'll be brought up on more charges? It does not seem as if A-Rod actually thought any of this through. On top of everything, he decided to sue the Yankees medical staff and the Players Union. What good would suing any of this groups do for him? It shows that he was trying to cause a distraction for the trial. He was not playing smart at all.
 
   It recently came out that he "paid off" his cousin Yuri to keep quiet for him. After that happened, Yuri's wife, Carmen, came out with a letter denying that Alex ever gave them money to keep quiet with everything. What people do for money sometimes, I usually would not believe her, but after everything A-Rod did, I don't believe him at all. If you already lied about so many other things, how can you just come out and say you paid people off. As much bad as someone like Anthony Bosch did, I believed his 60 minutes story more than I ever believed Alex.

   He smartly stayed out of the public for most of this past baseball season. If he does well in 2015, a lot of the fans will "forget" what happened with everything. Personally, I will never forget, nor will I forgive. Let's just hope this distraction does not distract the Yankees this year. As long as he is getting paid by the Yankees, I do want him to help the team, but by no means is he Derek Jeter.

One Big Giant Dynasty?

         

  

   As the San Fransisco Giants won the World Series, I thought to myself "Is it time to consider the Giants a dynasty?" Many teams in the past 14 years have come close to being a "dynasty." The last team that we can say was a dynasty were the early 2000's Patriots who won 3 of 4 Super Bowls. What really makes a dynasty? Is it the way they are run at the executive level? The way they are coached? Or simply the way they play? There are so many factors that come into this discussion.

   To be honest with you, I am huge Yankees fan. Once they lost Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, I knew that dynasty was over. 4 World Series Championships in 6 years, and 4 straight appearances. That was a true dynasty. Joe Torre did an excellent job at managing the game. The players excelled in all areas from defense to pitching to timely hitting. Bob Watson and Brian Cashman put together a great team, as well as bringing up the right players through their farm system.

    As much as I dislike the Patriots, I respect the way they were being run in the early 2000's. Many people may say that the first Super Bowl, Tom Brady just walked into that team. What about the next 2 Super Bowl victories? He redeemed himself by playing well. They were also coached very well by Bill Belichik. Although he was a defensive genius, he was able to run his offense just as well as his defense. The Patriots had the right team around Brady to help make him a winner.
    My favorite example of any dynasty is the Bulls of the 1990's. They won more than half that decades championships. They were well coached. We all know that Phil Jackson did a great job with that team. There were sound defensive and offensive teams, but most importantly they had all players contributing on all ends(not just Jordan and Pippen). Jerry Krause did an excellent job putting the right players around Jordan. Those players gave him the right support to do not 1, but 2 3-peats. The triangle offense also helped out.

    Do I think the Giants are a dynasty? Absolutely! Running a dynasty is like a triangle. You need someone to run at the top, which they have in Brian Sabean. Brian Sabean is putting together the right team. He's signing and bringing up the right players at the right time.  Then there is management. Bruce Bochy is managing the team very diligently. He has great game management.  
Finally, there's the players. The players seem to playing on all cylinders. Let's have some fun and see how long this lasts.

All(Not Old)Timers(3 of 3)

   I am back for the final installment of this 3 part post. What you guys think of my previous 2 All Time teams? Did you agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think? All the sports have such great players in all different generations. I will tell you it was not easy for me at any position(including coach) in any of the 3 sports.

    Ready for the current American sport in football? Here we go:
Offense
Quarterback: Joe Montana
 Wide Receiver: Jerry Rice
 Wide Receiver: Cris Carter
 Running Back: Jim Brown
 Running Back: Barry Sanders
Tight End: Tony Gonzalez
Center: Mike Webster
Guards: Gene Upshaw, John Hannah
Tackles: Bruce Matthews, Orlando Pace

Defense
Defensive End: Michael Strahan
Defensive End: Bruce Smith
Defensive Tackle: Warren Sapp
Defensive Tackle: Joe Green
Linebacker: Lawerence Taylor
Linebacker: Ray Lewis
Linebacker: Brian Urlacher
Cornerback: Dieon Sanders
Cornerback: Rod Woodson
Safety: Ronnie Lott
Safety: Charles Woodson

Special Teams
Kicker: Adam Vinateri
Punter: Sean Landeta

Coach: Vince Lombardi

There's my all time football team. What do you think? Again so many great players at all the positions, its hard to choose for them. Most, if not all, are hall of famers or will be in the hall of fame. It took more time to do football than the other sports because it is a larger team in general.

  There was a 3 part blog post for this topic. It was interesting, fun and challenging all at the same time! There are so many players deserving of all accolades that they could have received. Sometimes its one great season by an OK player that may snub a great player with just an OK season. That is certainly not the case with any of teams.  All my players have had multiple great seasons which have built up to great careers.

All(Not Old) Timers (2 of 3)

  I am back for part 2 of 3 now! Didn't think I was just going to leave you like that did you? What did you think of my All Time baseball team? Any surprises? It was tough, as it was for all the sports that I did. Every sport is different with its generations and eras of players that it produces.

   Today the All Time basketball time will be discussed. It is interesting because this team is the smallest out of all the teams. This is the only team to have under 10 players. It was fun because there are so many greats at ALL the positions. Here we go:

Shooting Guard: Michael Jordan
Point Guard: Magic Johnson
Small Forward: Larry Bird
Power Forward:  Karl Malone
Center: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Coach: Phil Jackson

What do you think? Interesting choices. If you want me to be completely honest with you, the Coach was the toughest position for me. Basketball had some great players and athletes overall. The interesting thing is that we see that four of these players had some kind of rivalries. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had a rivalry, and Jordan and Malone kind of had one.

   We all know that Bird and Johnson's rivalry dated back to college and went through the NBA. That is what made them so great. They pushed each other so much that they became the best at what they do. They dominated the 1980's. Between the 2 of them, they have 5 championships and 6 MVP awards(3 each). That's how good they are.

   Malone and Jordan didn't have a real rivalry like Bird and Johnson did, but they did play each other in back to back championships(both won by Jordan). Like Bird and Johnson, it made 2 of the greats of generation play each other, it only makes them better. Between the 2 of them, they have 7 MVP awards(5 by Jordan, 2 Malone) and 6 championships in 8 appearances(Malone never won one).

   Kareem didn't really have a rivalry, but he did have 6 MVP awards(my whole team has that), and 6 world championships. Kareem, like Michael, was a scoring machine. He also had a great defensive prowess. He was a very intelligent basketball mind, just like the rest of the team is.

   The toughest position was deciding on a coach. It really came down to Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach. The reason I chose Jackson in the end is not because he has 1 more championship than Auerbach, but something completely different. Jackson had 3 3-peats and 1 repeat. His first 3-peat was a young, athletic Bulls team. His second Bulls team, they were more seasoned. The second 3-peat in Chicago had more winning with it, including with the acquisition of Rodman who had already won 2 with Detroit. The third 3-peat with the Lakers was similar to his first with the Bulls, all young and athletic. Kobe and Shaq were still both relatively new to the league, but extremely dominant. The repeat in 2008-2009, 2009-2010 season was also a more seasoned team. What do all of these have in common? All 4 of these teams were 4 different teams of personalities. As a coach, you need to have control of them. Jackson had complete control of all of those teams.

All(Not Old) Timers(1 of 3)

       

    As everyone knows, we are in the middle of a great World Series, football season has started, and basketball season is about to start. As I was thinking of all this, something fun popped into my mind. How would I construct an All Time Team for baseball, football, and basketball? I would do hockey, but to be honest with you I never really got into hockey well enough to know the greatest of the great. By far, baseball was the hardest for me to choose just because of it's rich history. None of them were easy teams to choose. What I did was go by era and who was the best at each position and narrowed it down from there. Are you ready to see my All Time Teams for those 3 sports? Lets Go!!!

   First up is baseball. As we all know, baseball is so rich in history dating back over 120 years so this was the toughest for me. The hardest two positions to pick from were OF(more specifically CF) and catcher. Here we go:
             C   Johnny Bench
             1B Lou Gerhig
             2B Jackie Robinson
             3B Mike Schmidt
             SS Honus Wagner
             LF Babe Ruth
             CF Willie Mays
             RF  Ted Williams
   This is just my lineup. I also came up with a starting rotation and a closer. The rotation was also hard to choose from because of the abundance of great pitchers in this game. Here's my starting rotation:
         SP Sandy Koufax
         SP Bob Gibson
         SP Christy Matthewson
         SP Pedro Martinez
         SP Randy Johnson
         CL Mariano Rivera
     Manager: Tony La Russa
   I know that people have the right to disagree with me, but this is my All Time baseball team. If I ran this team out on the field(obviously everyone in their prime), I believe that they would give me the best chance to win. This is part 1 of 3. The other 2 parts will be coming shortly!