There has been a lot since I last spoke to you. NHL playoffs are going on, NBA basketball is about to reach the playoffs, the MLB has kicked off the season, and the NFL draft is approaching.
Although I am not a big NHL fan, I know I should be because one of the best Bay Area teams is a hockey team. But, I can say that I know the playoffs has been somewhat awkward, many low seeded teams and beating high seeded teams. I believe the sharks are not doing to hot - but I don’t have enough credibility to speak more about the sport if you take me seriously.
As for basketball, I can say a thing or two. The NBA playoffs are approaching the there are many shockers. Of coarse you got the Heat, the Lakers, the Celtics, etc. But what about the Memphis Grizzles and the Indiana Pacers, my favorite teams of each conference in the playoffs. These teams are young and exciting to watch; look for these two teams to do work in the playoffs. How about the San Antonio Spurs though? This team is NEVER talked about year after year, but they still end up the second best team in the west. I give credit, their coach knows how to make a basketball team win. I don’t how the Bulls keep winning games without Derrick Rose, especially the game where Tom Tibado benched Rose when he came back from injury and defeated the Maimi Heat in overtime. But at the end of the day, the Bull will not do anything in the playoffs without D-Rose. Maimi Heat, OKC Thunder, look out.
In the MLB not much has gone on just to say, the MLB has started. Albert Pujols didn’t seem to be impressed by his 300million dollar contract because he has been slumping a little, but not has much as the San Francisco Giants, most notably Tim Lincecum. He sucks right now, hopefully its just too early in the season to get worried. But I have a feeling that Timmy didn’t refine his game in the offseason.
This pretty much wraps up “Recap in Sports” and maybe for the last time, it has been a fun assignment in AP Language and I got a lot of experience from it. Hopefully this blog gains publicity maybe later down the road, and it is something I can look 50 years from now and see what I did in my Junior year of high school.
Since the last time I’ve talked to you, not much has gone down in sports. So consequently I will not be talking as much as i normally do. But i do find the broncos drama down in the NFL quite interesting. As Payton Manning parted ways with the Colts after over a decade. But despite the Denver Broncos’ great run last season with fairy-tale quarterback, Tim Tebow, John Elway is not satisfied.
Then…the unthinkable happens. The Broncos land Peyton Manning of all people and your starting gig disintegrates into Denver’s thin air.
“Oh yeah, did I mention you’ve been traded to the Jets, where you won’t be starting?”
And so goes the up-and-down see-saw that is Tebow’s career. One minute, all you can see is sky. The next, you are looking up at Mark Sanchez on the other end of the see-saw.
On top of that, all you and a seventh-round pick got the Broncos was a fourth-round pick and a sixth-round selection. Talk about your all-time backfires.
Football analysts, of course, will say it was bound to happen. Tebow may have averaged 5.4 yards per carry last season, but he also completed just 46.5 percent of his passes. What’s more, he averaged a mere 6.4 yards per pass attempt.
Now Tebow heads to the hectic world of New York, where Tebowmania is likely to take on a whole new meaning.
What learned is that now matter how hard you try to hate Tim Tebow, you can’t, thats the plane truth. He just is an overwhelmingly great guy, period. And he is a GREAT football player. Quarterback? Maybe not. But I’m voting for him
In other news, the NBA is steady smooth approaching the playoffs, and my prediction to how makes the last seed in the east has to be the New York Knicks. Although they may have lost Amare’ Studamire, the Knicks are sparked from their head coach, Dan’toni resigning and I believe they will make and do damage in the playoffs
Sorry for the limited content, sports has been quite and overdramatic and I choose not to speak upon the hollywood bs of sports. See you next time
Not too much has gone down in sports since the last time we talked, relatively. I want to focus on one particularly event - All Star weekend for the NBA. This is personally one of my favorite sporting events of the year; behind the Super Bowl, NBA Championship, and the World Series. During the All Star weekend many events take place: All Star celebrity game, Rising Stars game, Skills challenge, 3-point shoot out, Dunk contest, and lastly the All Star game itself. Let’s review one event at a time!
The first event to tip off All Star weekend was the celebrity game. I personally love this event. It shows the popularity of the game and how you do not need professionals to be entertained. Like most sports, you do not have to be great to be really good at this game - in fact, J-Cole, rap superstar, caught an ally oop dunk! I was not able to watch this event (because I was snowboarding) but I also like watching celebrities and seeing how has decent game! It is honestly a place where you can learn something about big public images - whether their the athlete and a stinker. Overall a good event.
To end a great start to the All Star weekend was the Rising Stars game. This event consists of the best rookies and sophomores (2nd year players) in the NBA. This year was quite different though - Charles Barkley and Shaq, TNT analysts, were the coaches of each team. Each drafted players from rookies and sophomores. Although the game seemed a little staged (in the pre-game show) it was a overall fun event to watch. Charles Barkley’s team crushed Shaq’s squad, giving Charles bragging rights for the remainder of the year. One part of the game that I thought was funny was towards the end when John Wall was going to throw a self alley oop (keep in mind, no defense is played during all star weekend - to entertainment and resting purposes) and Greg Monroe comes out of no where and snatches the ball from the air and throws the ball down for an easy dunk at the other end. Pretty funny - but John Wall did get to have a free dunk, a around the back slam. Great way to end day one of all star weekend.
Day two of the all star weekend started out with the skill competition, a point guard driven event where their passing, dribbling, and shooting skills are demonstrated at the highest level. Tony Parker came out of no where to win the event over great guards like Steve Nash and Derrick Rose. The least hyped up event of all in my opinion.
Next was the three point shoot out. An event where the best 3-point shooters in the league go head to head to see how can make the most 3s out of 30 shots in 5 locations behind the arc. Oddly, Kenvin Love, center from the Minnesota Timberwolves won the event - know for his rebounding skills, Love has shown signs of fundamentals, but no one knew how GREAT of a shooter he was until now. I guess All Star weekend can help your paycheck
The last event of All Star day number 2 was the slam dunk contest. Out of any all star event in any sports, this maybe be the most notorious one of all. Over the last 50 years it has been the highlight of the weekend, until this year. Many people believed that the dunk contest has been died for 3-4 years now, but I was still a believer - until this year. Not only the contest had no stars, it had no creativity also. Well maybe some, but the talent was truly a restriction to the event. Some dunks in my opinion were just straight up sorry. In general, this was the biggest failure of the weekend. TNT analyst, Kenny Smith tried to spice things up, but it just made things sooo much worse. The only things that can save this dunk contest: Lebron James, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, and Dwight Howard. Enough said.
The last, but certainly not least, the all star game itself. East versus West. At first, the West was blowing the East out of the water, it looked like another “fun but boring to watch at the same time” type of game. But Lebron James had different ideas. I knew he was the best player in the world, but after what I saw, he went up another level. In the forth quarter, in attempt to get back in the game, James hit 6 RIDICULOUS 3-pointers to draw the East back eventually to one. The game was lost on a missed buzzer 3 by his Miami Heat teammate, Dwayne Wade. Kevin Durant was awarded all star MVP, another great achievement in his early career while Kobe Bryant passed Michael Jordan in all time points scored in an all star game. By far, the best event in the Orlando all star weekend.
Although sports are constantly keeping fans off their sets, I apologize in advance that I will not be covering a whole lot of other news other than the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl is arguably that greatest game to watch for Americans, and it sucks that it only comes up once a year. But you don’t need to be a fan to like the Super Bowl because at least you can watch all the new creative commercials (consumerism at its finest). As a matter of fact, it is probably considered Un-American if you do not watch the Super Bowl. Kinda like going to church on Sunday for Christmas, it is just immoral if you do not attend. That’s probably why over 111 million people tuned in this past Sunday.
Let’s address the actual game now, New York Giants taking on the New England Patriots. Both very even teams going into the game. It was a very similar matchup from their last encounter at the Super Bowl back in 2007, where the Giants won in dramatic fashion 17-14, one of the best Super Bowls ever. So this game had hype. That’s why I thought this game was going to fall short of expectations, but I was very wrong:
The game started out interesting when Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, threw intentional grounding when he was standing in the endzone, resulting in a safety (2 points). Giants then later scored a touchdown to star wide receiver, Victor Cruz. The score was 9-0 after the first quarter, looking bad of the Pats. Tom Brady seemed not to be phased, putting the team on his back; he set up a easy field goal and not much later a touchdown. Score was 10-9 at half.
Halftime show was interesting considering one of the performers flipped off the camera on live TV. But overall, I didn’t even watch the halftime show, and I really never have, because to me, its a circus on the field.
Giants came strong, scoring two back-to-back field goals. But towards the end of the 3rd quarter, Brady zipped by another touchdown. End of the third, Pats up 17-15. But it would not be long until Eli Manning, New York’s star quarterback, led the Giants to a touchdown, which involved the defining moment of a great game; Manning’s 40+ yard passing completion to Mario Manningham. The catch involved a PERFECT throw with a BEAUTIFUL catch, keeping both feet inbounds, making the play the most fundamental but spectacular play to be witness. It led to the most bizarre touchdown by Amod Bradshaw, running into the endzone, but trying to kneel down at the very last finally realizing the Patriots were letting him into the endzone in order to get the ball back. If Bradshaw had kneeled down at the 1 yard line the game probably would have been sealed away, but instead he stumbled into the endzone. After failing a 2 point conversion, Patriots got the ball back with 1 timeout and about 2 minutes left in the game, and with Tom “Golden Child” Brady, I like those odds. But unfortunately the Patriots receivers dropped three big passes in the final moments in the game, leaving Brady to chuck a hail marry in the final seconds of the game; but that hail marry almost was answered, because it tipped off one of the defenders and almost fell into tight-end Grankowski’s hands. That would have been the greatest play in NFL history. But the game is a matter of inches and the Pats were a couple off from the super bowl; that gave Eli Manning his second ring, passing his brother Payton.
What a game…
Wow! Where can i begin after not posting for about a month? There has been so much going on in the sports world…I have absolutely no idea where to begin. So I’m just ganna go of the top of my head:
Lets start off on a bad note? Recently, former Penn State head football coach, Joe Paterno, passed away due to being in severe condition caused by lung cancer. First off, I want to point out how fast the news of his death came to me. I mean, randomly SportsCenter confirms the critical condition he is in, and the next day they confirm his death. The fight of cancer didn’t even last more than 24 hours seemed fairly bizarre to me. But, not just his death was odd, it is also his legacy. His whole entire life, Paterno has been the supreme icon of Penn State, winning multiple bowl championships while being a great influence academically, donating hundreds and thousands to the campus. He even has his own library on campus, which is one of the nicest and most significant facilities on campus. He has done so many great things in his life, and then there is the small portion of controversy towards the last three months of his life. Its like we cannot barry Paterno without mentioning this issue. Its really hard to explain…but it seems like his legacy is still living for the wrong reasons despite all the great accomplishments he has made.
On a more calming note, the NBA season is in its prime and all forces are going! Some teams are doing better than anyone has expected, such as the: Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, and Phoenix Suns. Other teams have done notable bad, such as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. It is really hard to analyze this year in basketball because it is all going at such a rapid pace. All I know is Kobe Bryant is still a 25 year old superstar in his prime with the stats he has to put up in order for the Lakers to continue their somewhat success. Ricky Rubio, a spanish bred point guard on the Minnesota Timber-wolves has proven to all his haters (including me) that he can play in the NBA. But not only just play, but play well in the NBA. What else is there to say about the NBA, oh yeah the Miami Heat =). My predicting is that the Heat will be cruising to the NBA finals this year and if they win this year (which is a MUST), they will win the year after….and the year after….and year after.
In the NFL world, it is a sad day…at least for the bay area fans. The 49ers were defeated in an overtime thriller against the New York Giants in the NFC championship game. And the key factor to the loss was rookie wide receiver, Kyle Williams. I don’t want to rant about this man because he has had it so rough already, and to his defense, he took it like a man and admitted the fault. Ted Ginn turned out to be a bigger loss then anyone expected! On the other end in the AFC the New England Patriots beat down the Baltimore Ravens on a blown field goal by the Ravens kicker. It a rematch of the infamous 2007 superbowl - Giants vs. Pats -. I believe that we will witness a repeat and a conspiracy; the Giants will take down the Patriots in amazing fashion. But until game time, all we will hear about is the hype and conspiracies of this game.
In other sports, I haven’t heard a whole lot. Detroit Tigers acquired first basemen, Price Fielder, which will give that team one of the best offenses in the league alongside Miguel Cabreara. Winter X-Games is starting, I have no clue what to predict except for the fact that Shaun White is ganna win something.
Until next time, this is another Recap in Sports.
Ahhhhhhhhh…finally. Finally, it’s over..The dragging NBA lockout has finally been terminated. It is hard to believe, but it is true. The National Basketball Association is returning on December 25, 2011, where a 66 game season and limited playoff periods will commence. Now that NBA facilities are open, the major story-lines are discussed..
Let’s start out with the free agents. The free agent class may not be as legendary as last year, but still a strong one. Lets start out with the superstars; Chris Paul, New Orleans’s point guard, and Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic’s center. It is unlikely that both players will remain on their current team. Howard seems to be intrigued by joining Kobe Byrant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Paul, it is unclear where he is going, all I know that he is going. Other respectable names are: Neñe, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Jamal Crawford, David West, Tyson Chandler, and Caron Butler.
Another major story-line, the Los Angeles Lakers. A lot of doubt has hit America’s team, including Laker legend, Magic Johnson. After being swept by the Dallas Mavericks and exiting the season in disgusting fashion along with Phil Jackson leaving, many analyst don’t think the Lakers will be leaving.
What other major talks could be going around the NBA? oh yea thats right, Lebron James. Lebron believes he has revamped his personality; going from a hero in Cleveland, to a villain in Maimi, to just having fun on the court and not try to prove anyone else wrong. I believe that Lebron’s window of being a legend is closing as we speak, and in order to revive his untouchable reputation, winning a championship THIS year is a must. I believe James will win some in his later years, but they won’t mean as much because he will be a less of a force and factor in the league. Now it has to be this year, or he will go down in history as just a good player that had unreal potential.
In other news, Albert Pujols, superstar free agent, decided to sign with the Los Angeles Angels for 252 million dollars for 10 years. That’s big boy money. But is it big enough money to leave the St. Louis Cardinals where he won 3 MVP awards and 2 MLB championships, establishing himself as one of the greatest players to ever live?
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BREAKING NEWS:
just as I am writing this Chris Paul was trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, which involves Lamar Odom going to the Hornets and Pau Gasol going to the Houston Rockets with other pieces incorporated. But this is a blockbuster trade, and the Lakers just got a whole lot better…
Welcome to our third edition of “recap in sports”! News hasn’t been so joyful in sports thus far since the last time I talked to you. 140-somethin’ days of the lockout and still no deal sign. The owners thought they were going to get something done with a final ultimatum. But I guess the players feel they can STILL get a better deal. The NBA needs to realize that their reputation is diminishing by the day. People, including myself, are starting to wonder if the NBA is more so about the money rather than the love of the game. The likelihood of an NBA season for 2011-2012 is slim to none and as a huge basketball fan, I think the players deserve to go without a years pay.
The biggest news not only in sports, but in general has been the Penn State Scandal. Former football defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, was accused of molesting around eight Penn State male students, some on campus over fifteen years ago. A coach witness some of Sandusky’s abuse and reported it to long to head coach Joe Paterno. He then fulfilled his legal obligations, but then everyone started to come down on him and question his “moral” obligations. How can you determine if one’s moral obligations would be more justice than legal obligations. Paterno did what he was suppose to do. Rather than saying that he did not know he could do more than what his legal fulfillments were or saying that he was caught up in the season, he owned up to it. He wished that he would have done more. He also stated that he will be retiring after this season ending his 46-year career with Penn State, thats not a typo. But Penn State trustees rather not wait, because they decided to fire Paterno. Despite his 46 year commitment to the school, the board of trustees still sympathize for JoePa and respect his last request. It is wrong to molest anybody and the issue should be terminated as soon as possible, but its hard to argue that Joe was in the wrong
To end on a more cheerful note, the NFL season has been a great one so far, maybe not for you Eagles’ fans out there, but surely for those 49er fans. While everyone is raving about every single team being inconsistent this year or the Green Bay Packers reviving their legacy, everyone has been overlooking the San Francisco 49ers. After taking down the New York Giants last week, the 49ers are looking like one of the best teams in the league…second best statistically.
So that’s all for now, looking foward for the next post to inform y’all!
P.S. - sorry hockey fans (Mr. P, I see you in that sharks fleece!) no news this week.
During the past two weeks from the time I’ve talked to you, sports has been silent. The NBA lockout has been… well …locked out. The NFL has been somewhat interesting. Week 6, the San Francisco 49ers took down the once undefeated Detroit Lions, and at the end of the game, a usually customary handshake between each team’s coaches turned into a controversial dilemma. 49ers head coach, Jim Harbough, was energized after the win and aggressively shook Jim Schwartz, head coach for the lions, forcefully and gave him a pat on the back. This is where things went wrong. Schwartz took this “pat on the back” and a “get out of my way” type of interpretation. He then went on chasing Harbough down the field to the locker room and the whole game ended in a tense dispute. Although week 6 was exciting, week 7 of the NFL was anything but. Every game was either a blow out, or just a bad match up. Oakland Raiders was forced to acquire free agent quarterback, Carson Palmer, after their former starting quarterback, Jason Campbell, broke his collarbone in week 6. On week 7, a once hopeful Raiders team was blown out 28-0 against a Kansas City Chiefs game, one that they expected to win. Worst of all, the 49ers had a buy week.
Aside from football, the MLB World Series has been a great one, the Saint Louis Cardinal versus the Texas Rangers. Albert Pujols had a historic game so far, luanching three home runs in one game, solidifying his case as one of the best players to ever play this game. Despite his efforts, the Series is 3-2 with the Texas Rangers on top. Game 6 is tonight and its win or go home for the Cardinals.
Although there is no NBA season going on, college basketball has every right to keep basketball fans excited. Look out for the Arizona Wildcats, who just acquired two of the best player in the country, both played for the Oakland AAU basketball Soldiers, Nick Johnson and Josiah Turner.
-Rant-
Being a basketball fan and player, I like basketball shoes. It doesn’t matter that they cost 100-150 bucks, as long as they have the latest shoe performance technology and best appearance. But when you start charging upwards to 200 dollars for some bummy quality shoes, then we have problems. Just because nike puts a Lebron or Kobe logo on the shoe, doesn’t mean its a good shoe. I recently got some new Lebron shoes, his newly released 9th signature shoe that costs about 190 dollars. After playing with it for about three days, the shoe was tearing. I would have been really frustrated if I didn’t get refunded back, but I learned not to buy this particular signature shoe. Now, I’m much better off with my standard 100 dollar nike 2011 nike shoes. Twice the quality for half the price. So my advice to all consumers is that the status of the logo doesn’t mean the quality of the shoe is great. Sorry for the rant.
It has been a hectic week in sports. Lets start with the NBA lockout, David Stern has comfirmed that the NBA season will be postponed two weeks. But don’t get your hopes up, the way things have been going, fans will be lucky to see an NBA season by Janurary. Nonetheless, players are still playing in charity games and regional tournaments organized by Nike, Adidas, Impact, etc. Some stars are even playing overseas, such as Kobe Byrant, who signed a three million dollar contract for fourty days - about ten games with Virtus Bologna out in Italy. Even Maimi Heat’s superstar, Lebron James, has tweeted about playing for an NFL team. Although Seattle Seahawks’ head coach, Pete Carrol, jokingly responded about the salary of an NFL rookie to Lebron, Lebron commented back saying, “yeah coach, more than I’m makin’ now”. But just because Lebron is looking to play in the NFL, it hasn’t stopped Nike to release Lebron’s ninth signature basketball shoe just in time for college and high school basketball season. I guess for Nike, there’s never a bad time of the year make a quick buck with these baby’s going for 170$.
As for a league that actually can solve their rich-boy problems, the NFL has been quite interesting this season. The Green Bay Packers picked off where they left off last year, plowing down every team the encountered in this young season. What about the Buffalo Bills, lead by former Harvard quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick? The guy is proving intelligence is the key to success. Has this become the new ingredient to an elite quarterback? Because despite Cam Newton’s and Michael Vick’s freakish athletic ability and unreal stats, their teams are only 1-4. But you know whose freakish athletic ability is carrying the team? Calvin Johnson. Nine touchdowns in the first five games of the season is probably why the Detroit Lions are 5-0. For Bay Area fans, like myself, San Francisco 49ers are off to a solid start at 4-1 with Alex Smith, yes I said Alex Smith, as one of the most productive quarterbacks so far this season. Jim Harbough, former head coach of Stanford, has turned this team with no identity, to a hard-nose, smash-mouth, old school football team. For the Oakland Raiders, their off to a solid 3-2 start with a stolen win at Houston against the Texas in the most emotional game of the season just after the passing of their owner and NFL Legend, Al Davis.
Though Bay Area fans are pleased with the NFL season, the sure felt a humble disappointment when the MLB postseason kicked off, without last year’s raining champions, San Francisco Giants. Right now, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers are fighting in the ALCS. Rangers are off to a great start, ahead in the series 3-1. They are looking to close it out next game, but it will take getting past Tiger’s ace pitcher, Justin Verlander. For the NLCS, the Milwaukee Brewers and Saint Louis Cardinals are battling it out with the Cardinals up in the series 2-1. As game four is happening as I am writing this, Milwaukee is up, 3-2 in the bottom on the fifth inning, looking to tie up the series.
Hockey season is just approaching, and it is looking a little more optimistic for Pittsburgh Penguins’ star, Sidney Crosby. He has a scheduled physical coming up soon, where he will need to pass an evaluation in order to start playing again since his concussion back in January. For the local fans here in San Jose, I have no future hype for the Sharks. Time in and time out, we have a great regular season, but a disappointing postseason. So I will be humble and I will not get too enthusiastic because in all honesty, I have NO expectations of the Sharks getting to the Stanley Cup.
The month of October has been an entertaining one for sports, hopefully next time I talk to you, The NBA lockout will end, the 49ers will take down the surprisingly undefeated Detroit Lions, the Brewers will be in the World Series, and Sidney Crosby will be back on the ice.
