LeBron James’ highly-anticipated return to Cleveland finally took place last night, and his Miami Heat defeated the Cavaliers soundly. Big deal. When watching James play, I’ll admit he is a terrific talent. I’m also convinced that he will never play on a championship team, no matter where he goes or how many other superstars he teams up with. The problem is that wherever he goes the team’s style of play has to revolve around him. I don’t think it’s an accident that both Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh have been a bit disappointing so far this year while James has thrived. Wade and Bosh are slowly becoming what James’ former teammates in Cleveland became – spectators. James is basketball’s equivalent of football’s O.J. Simpson and Dan Marino – their teams never won because the style of play of those teams had nothing to do with winning. It had to do with piling up gaudy statistics for those players and hoping that would add up to winning. In the end it didn’t. In James’ own sport, Pistol Pete Maravich is a good example of the same type of thing. He was an electric shooter and a great showman, and the type of player you’d pay to see play. But there was no way any team he played on was ever going to win a championship. In baseball, the greatest player who never won a World Series is probably Ted Williams, but I don’t put him in this category. Baseball players can’t really hog the ball. They all get their turns at bat, and can only field and throw the ball when it’s hit to them. While watching James, the impression I get is that he doesn’t take his profession very seriously, and in no way, shape or form has the work ethic or drive of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Julius Erving or Larry Bird. If James gloats or struts around after thrashing the Cavs, I really don’t want to hear it. Talk to me when you stop getting routed by the Celtics, or when you beat the Lakers. After all, these guys promised “multiple championships”. The only thing “multiple” they’ve produced so far is multiple beatdowns at the hands of the Celtics.
Classic Team Logo of The Day
Logo of a minor league baseball team, the old Louisville Redbirds, who were a Triple A franchise that existed from 1982 until 1998. The team name came from their affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals, and they were an immediate hit with Kentucky baseball fans, becoming the first minor league franchise to draw over a million fans in their second season. They played in the old American Association, but moved to the International League when the AA folded in 1998. Four of the Redbirds players went on to play key roles with the Cardinals – Willie McGee, Andy Van Slyke, Vince Coleman and Terry Pendleton.
Classic Sports Card of The Day
From www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1955 Bowman baseball card of former Brooklyn Dodgers’ catcher Roy Campanella. “Campy” was without a doubt one of the best major league catchers of all time, and after playing in the Negro and Mexican Leagues signed with the Dodgers in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line. He was an integral part of “Dem Bums” – as the Dodgers were affectionately called by their fans in that era. He was an eight-time all-star, was National League MVP 3 times, helped the Dodgers win a World Series in 1955, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Campanella’s career was tragically cut short when he was paralyzed in a car accident in 1958. He died at his home in California of a heart attack in 1993.
NFL – Week Thirteen Predictions
Week 12 turned out to be the most successful week so far this season as I managed to pick 13 winners out of 16 games, pushing the overall mark for the season so far to 106 games picked correctly and 69 wrong. Here are the week 13 choices:
Houston at Philadelphia – this week’s Thursday night matchup. The Texans rebounded to knock off Tennessee last week but just aren’t good enough to beat an Eagles’ team that will be looking to get back on track after losing to the Bears. Philly wins at home.
Buffalo at Minnesota – the Bills lost an unprecedented third game in overtime last week, all of them 3-point losses. Minnesota’s energy level is much higher with new coach Leslie Frazier, but I think the Bills will pull a mild upset this week and win on the road.
New Orleans at Cincinnati – the Saints are clicking on all cylinders again, while the Bengals are a sham. New Orleans wins big behind a monster game from Drew Brees.
Chicago at Detroit – Chicago continues to rise in the NFC, but the Lions always play them tough. This should be a very close game, but in my opinion the Bears have matured to the point where they’ll win a game they need to against a weaker opponent. The Bears to win in a low-scoring game.
San Francisco at Green Bay – the 49ers kept their division title hopes alive with a win on Monday night, but those hopes will get dashed this week in Lambeau Field. The Packer defense will make QB Troy Smith’s life miserable and Green Bay will win.
Denver at Kansas City – the Broncos have fallen a long way since winning the first 6 games of the Josh McDaniels era last season. Kansas City wins big at home to stay ahead of the red hot Chargers in their division race.
Cleveland at Miami – the young Browns have played some great football at times this year, but Miami’s defense will shut them down and the Dolphins will win at home.
Washington at New York Giants – the Giants helped their cause immensely last week by coming from behind to defeat Jacksonville while the Eagles were losing. They can’t afford to slip up here and won’t. New York to win big at home.
Jacksonville at Tennessee – the Jaguars were written off as having no chance to do anything in their division at the start of the season, but they just won’t go away. With the Titans having QB issues, I believe Jacksonville gets a big division win on the road.
Oakland at San Diego – the Raiders are usually a tough out in division games but San Diego is hitting their stride and needs to win to keep pace in the AFC West race. The Chargers win with another impressive showing by both their offense and defense.
St. Louis at Arizona – are the young Rams good enough yet to steal an NFC West crown? I’m not sure of that yet but they’re certainly good enough to knock off a fading Cardinal team. St. Louis wins on the road.
Dallas at Indianapolis – the Cowboys should have won on Thanksgiving and are a completely different team under interim coach Jason Garrett. This could be an upset considering the battered physical condition of the Colts, but I’ll go with Indy at home to win.
Carolina at Seattle – as terribly inconsistent as the Seahawks have been all year, they really still look like the only team with the chops to win the weak NFC West. This should be an easy win for them at home against the NFL’s worst team.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay – the young Buccaneers have not beaten anybody with a winning record this year, despite a surprising season. I’m going to pick them to finally do it this week against a division opponent at home.
Pittsburgh at Baltimore – the Steelers escaped the noose last week in Buffalo to keep pace with Baltimore in their division. Then again, the Bills should have beaten the Ravens too. The Ravens won the first meeting between these teams, when Ben Roethlisberger was still under suspension. I think they’ll win again at home to take control of the race.
New York Jets at New England – I honestly believe on paper the Jets are the better overall team in this matchup, especially on defense. But Tom Brady just doesn’t fail in these types of games at home. The Patriots win a close game to move ahead in the AFC East.
Classic Team Logo of The Day
Logo of an old minor league hockey team, the Springfield Indians. Based in Springfield, Massachussets, the Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League and existed in the league for 60 years, from 1924 until 1994, with some brief interruptions over the years. This logo was used from 1936 until 1967, when they became affiliated with the expansion Los Angeles Kings NHL franchise and became the Springfield Kings. The franchise won 7 Calder Cup championships, and 12 former members of the team are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, including Punch Imlach, Eddie Shore, Gump Worsley, Billy Smith and Brian Kilrea.
Classic Sports Card of The Day
1989 Topps hockey card of former National Hockey League goaltender Clint Malarchuk. Malarchuk played in the NHL from 1981 through 1996 with the Quebec Nordiques, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. On March 22, 1989 while playing for the Sabres, he suffered a life-threatening injury when the skate of St. Louis Blues’ player Steve Tuttle severed an artery in his neck. The wound bled profusely and it took 300 stitches to close it. After retiring as a player Malarchuk had problems with alcoholism and nightmares, but has gotten his life together in recent years and in 2010 was hired as a goaltending consultant with the Atlanta Thrashers.
NBA – The Heat Is On
This was really predictable right from the start. When the Miami Heat signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwayne Wade and form a “superteam” , they held a big event to introduce all their new stars, and the trio promised multiple championships – not 2 or 3, but 7 or 8. Unfortunately, the NBA isn’t a fantasy league, they have real teams that play real games. Now with the Heat barely over the .500 mark so far, and having been soundly beaten twice by the Boston Celtics, there already are rumors that Heat players are beginning to blame coach Eric Spoelstra for the poor start – saying that his schemes are too simplistic and aren’t taking advantage of the players’ skills. It was also reported that Spoelstra called out LeBron for not taking practice seriously enough. I feel sorry for the coach. He’s probably a great young coach, but he’s in a no-win situation. Obviously, his new superstars aren’t willing to do what it takes to win, the dirty work – like practicing for instance – and instead feel they just need to show up on game night and the wins will just come. Spoelstra had scapegoat written all over him as soon as the new stars were signed. The presence of Pat Riley, who coached the Laker “Showtime” teams in the Magic Johnson era, in the front office doesn’t help either. There were reports right from the start that Riley would wind up coaching the team, although he insists that Spoelstra is his man. We’ll see how long that lasts if the losses pile up. The Heat have a 10-8 record at this point, and LeBron’s old Cleveland Cavalier teammates aren’t far behind them, with a 7-10 record, not bad when you consider that the team is in an adjustment period dealing with the loss of James. Yes, you could argue that Miami needs to go through the same type of adjustment, but that’s not what the players themselves were hyping before the actual games were played. They were already planning multiple championship parades. Of course, when reality sets in and the whole thing comes crashing down, make no mistake – it’ll be Eric Spoelstra’s fault.
Classic Team Logo of The Day
This is an “alternate” logo of the National Football League’s St. Louis Cardinals, incorporating the city’s Gateway Arch, used starting in 1966 when the Arch first opened. The Cardinals moved from Chicago to St.Louis after the 1960 season, and played there until 1987 when owner Bill Bidwell moved them to Arizona. They had exciting teams during their stay in St. Louis but never won any championships. Coach Don Coryell, known for his “Air Coryell” offense in later years in San Diego, coached the Cardinals in St. Louis. Some notable players from the St. Louis years are Jim Hart, Dan Dierdorf, Sonny Randle, Bobby Joe Conrad, Jackie Smith, Larry Wilson, Roger Wehrli, Ernie MacMillan, John David Crow, Roy Green, Terry Metcalf and Conrad Dobler.
Classic Sports Card of The Day
1973 Topps football card of former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson. Drafted by the Bengals in 1971, Anderson earned the starting job by 1972 and led the team for 16 years. His position coach when he started out in Cinci was Bill Walsh, and Anderson was the first QB to direct Walsh’s “West Coast” offense. He guided the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1981, losing to Joe Montana’s 49ers, and ranks second behind Montana in postseason quarterback rating at 93.5. Anderson was a 4-time Pro Bowler in his career and has come close to election to football’s Hall of Fame but so far hasn’t made it in. Anderson has also dabbled in coaching since retiring, serving as an assistant for the Bengals, Jacksonville and Pittsburgh.
Remembering Bill Walsh
On this day in 1931, legendary NFL head coach Bill Walsh was born in Los Angeles, California. I recently read a short biography of Walsh and it reminded me of a fact that seems lost in today’s NFL – that the greatest coaches of all time are the ones that are the best teachers, not the ones who rant and rave and put on a big macho act. Paul Brown was an innovator in that he was the first to introduce classroom training and film study to the NFL. Vince Lombardi has a reputation as a taskmaster but in reality he was one of the best “teaching” head coaches of all time. He was a teacher before he decided to go into coaching. Tom Landry was as stoic a figure on the sidelines as there’s ever been. His method was all about teaching and preparation throughout the week in practice, not yelling and screaming on the sideline on Sundays. Chuck Noll, who played for Brown in Cleveland, always had a reputation for being low-key in Pittsburgh. Noll was a no-nonsense coach, but like the others was all about having his team prepared. Joe Gibbs always had a Mr.Peepers persona, peering out through his eyeglasses, but he too was a great “teacher”.
Walsh was the ultimate in football coaches who you’d never guess were coaches if you met them on the street. He was professorial to the point where he came across as arrogant. Old school football people always scoffed at Walsh’s “West Coast” offense, which substituted a short “dink and dunk” passing game for the running game. His offense took the opposite approach of the norm, which was that you had to run the ball effectively to set up the passing game. Walsh would pass the ball to set up the running game. It wasn’t a particularly physical style of football, which is what drove football purists crazy, but it was definitely an extension of Walsh’s personality – a scholarly approach to the game rather than the usual “three yards and a cloud of dust” approach. Walsh had the knack for bringing in players who fit his system and were mature to the point where they didn’t need constant babysitting and policing (see this year’s Dallas Cowboys or Minnesota Vikings for examples of that). Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig and Matt Millen were not only the team’s best players but also the hardest working. In his early formative years, Walsh was not a great athlete, or a top student either. Obviously he was a genius when it came to football though. When he worked at San Jose State as a graduate assistant coach, the head coach wrote this note in his personnel file: “I predict Bill Walsh will become the outstanding football coach in the United States.” There was a great quote in that biography on Walsh that sums up his scholarly approach to the game. ESPN analyst Beano Cook said this about him: “If Bill Walsh was a general, he would be able to overrun Europe with an army from Sweden.” Walsh was definitely one of the NFL’s greatest coaches of all time, and deserves the “genius” label that he used to seem to relish wearing. When he passed away in 2007 the league lost a great resource, and if there’s one thing current NFL owners can learn from him, it’s that every once in awhile when your team is struggling and your knee-jerk reaction is to blame the coach for “losing control of the locker room” and fire him, maybe a closer look at what kind of players are in that locker room should be in order.