Goals

Regular readers of my blog know that I like “first” stories. In the many years of competing athletically in different sports, it is something to say to be the first of something.

Take Laila Edwards. With the completion of the recent Olympics, she became the first Black American woman to receive a gold medal in hockey. She was a defenseman on this year’s squad that won their third such medal in our country’s history.

Now that I got that out of the way, let me tell you the rest of the story.

She actually started as a figure skater before switching to ice hockey around the age of five. Her love for the game came from her father. When there were no youth hockey teams for girls, she joined the boys’ team. She left her hometown of Cleavland to attend the elite hockey program at Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester New York. While there she scored 413 points (147 goals) in 287 games.

She started her collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin, making the All-Rookie team while helping the Badgers win their seventh national championship. She also made the All-Tournament Team. Two years later, she scored a nation leading 35 goals, helping Wisconsin win their second title in three years. She also won the Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year Award, given annually by USA Hockey to the outstanding American-born female ice hockey player.

Fast forward to this year’s Games in Italy. She scored two goals and six assists in the tournament, including assisting on the game tying goal against Canada that sent that game into overtime enroute to the gold medal game.

Ms. Edwards understood the importance of her achievements. "I am just so honored to be able to inspire anyone, but more specifically girls of color." Edwards said. "It's incredible to break a barrier. For me, it’s always been hockey. But now I understand it’s never just been hockey.”

It never is.

Confession

They say that confession is good for the soul. Well, it’s my turn. Going into the second half of the NBA season, I have not seen one complete game this season. Sure, a quarter here, an entire half there. But an entire game from start to finish? Nope.

Why? To quote Tom Hagen from the movie “The Godfather,” “…take this into consideration.”

First, the positive. Today’s players are taking the game athletically to the next level. They play hard and you see the spirit of competing most nights.

But then there are the other nights.

My first beef with the league starts with two words: Load Management. The technical definition is the strategic resting of healthy star players, popularized by teams like the San Antonio Spurs around 2010 to reduce physiological stress, prevent injury, and maximize performance for playoffs. My POV on that is while the treatment and care of players has improved medically, it has to be noted that in the first 62 years the NBA named an MVP, 32 of the recipients logged at least 80 games and only two winners (Bob Cousy in 1956-57 and Bill Walton in 1977-78) appeared in fewer than 90% of his team’s games. In fact, in a study conducted by the league itself, one of the doctor’s that conducted the study (Dr. Christina Mack) indicated that she “did not see a lower injury rate when players rested.”

Between the 1990s to today, the average number of games missed per season by those defined as star players rose considerably. In the ‘90s, it was 10.6 games. In the 2020s, it’s 23.9 games. That’s just under 30% of the league 82 regular season game schedule.

Understand, I am from the era when stars like Michael Jordan played 87% of the possible regular season games for his career. Out of his 15 years in the league, he played all 82 games in nine different seasons. To quote Jordan, …"You know, I never wanted to miss a game because it was an opportunity to prove. It was something that I felt like the fans were there watching me play. I want to impress that guy way up on top who probably worked his [butt] off to get a ticket or to get money to buy the ticket."

Yet another reason why I like Mike.

My other concern with the league is teams tanking. Simply put, tanking is the practice of teams losing intentionally to ensure a better draft pick. One of the more blatant examples of this occurred in April 2023, when the Mavericks were still mathematically alive for a play-in spot but owed a top-10-protected 2023 first-round pick to the Knicks. Dallas elected to rest Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic against the San Antonio Spurs in its last game. In the previous game against the Chicago Bulls, Irving did not play and Doncic played 12 minutes. The Mavericks lost both games.

I’ll just say two things. The last #1 pick that was on a championship team was Andrew Wiggins, who was the #1 pick by Cleveland in 2014. By the way, he got his ring with Golden State. He wasn’t even a starter on that squad.

And excuse me for being a competitive purist, but to quote Herm Edwards, “…you play to win the game…Hello?” To paraphrase Sam Rothstein from the movie Casino, otherwise, what’s the point?

For me, at the end of the day, it comes down to effective overall roster management, chemistry, coaching, and luck.

In either case, I am ending my unofficial “boycott.” For me, the season has just begun.

Excel

While this is a sports blog, the essence of it deals with competing. Just line up and do the best you can and see what happens. This blog does not just deal with the literal sense of athletic endeavors. Competing comes in various forms whether physically, mentally, or both.

Take the recent college Excel championships that were held in Las Vegas earlier this month. That’s right, competitive spreadsheeting. This is the third year of the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC), that had to be upgraded from the original location that was held in Tucson because of the demand.

And before you ask, yes there is a professional level to this competition that began in 2021. To quote one of my boyz, while this is not the pros, it is the varsity.

Of this year’s 64 contestants and teams, the winning team members win two grand each while the individual winner pockets five grand. And yes, even one team (University of Tennessee) has an NIL (name, image, and likeness) deal. Their school won the 2024 team title.

Can’t help but think of the Rick Ross song, “Every day, I’m hustling.”

This year’s event didn’t seem any different than a March Madness introduction. The contestants come down through a hype tunnel and do their poses and dances just like the athletes on a big screen. Sponsored on YouTube, it is complete with commentators and fans holding up signs like “Trust Your Cells.”

Some of the cases that the participants try to solve include sorting giant datasets in specific ways to working through a visual puzzle, using Excel to solve 20 Sudoku puzzles at the same time and preventing an animated bird from flying into certain cells of a spreadsheet.

I didn’t even know that birds could be included in a spreadsheet.

To paraphrase the commercial, while these students will not be known for their notoriety, they will be All-Stars in things other than sports.

Memorial

Shock. Disbelief. Stunning.

The Washington Post, the newspaper and one of my media sources for DC (as well as world) news, announced this week that they are eliminating the Sports department in its entirety. Not cutting back. Not just making layoffs. Eliminating totally.

Not to sound corny, but I literally grew up with the Post. From the Washington Bullets heydays of the 70’s to the Washington Redskins dynasty years of the 80’s to their great Olympic coverage and investigative reporting, the Post was it for me in general and for sports in particular. I didn’t realize at the time, but I think the Post planted the seeds in my future development.

I think that it was working in the background of my mind by the time I got to college. I ended up majoring (and getting) my degree in Mass Communications. While there, I worked for the school newspaper, earning the position of Assistant Sports Editor. I was the “beat” guy for both the major school sports such as football and basketball as well as covering sports such as women’s field hockey and lacrosse. I then expanded my range with various internships with local TV and radio stations as well as eventually having my own weekly jazz radio show.

To paraphrase one of my favorite comics, “I’m not looking for no applause, I’m trying to tell you a story.”

Why didn’t I try to go farther with it? Well, when it came time to decide whether to be a starving intern working for nothing or a paying job, to quote Randy Moss, straight cash homie.

I didn’t have any big dreams to be a big-time media guy. I just thought it was something cool to do while I was trying to figure things out.

I think that the Post remnants are still in my head. July 2^nd will mark the 16^th year (what?) since my first blog post. While it’s been an on and off thing during that time, I still like doing it. Unlike one of my favorite all-time players, Allen Iverson, I am talking about practice.