Sports Are Coming Back… Sort Of
With states across the country slowly reopening the major sports organizations are doing the same. Major League Baseball hopes to get started in July with a truncated season and expanded playoff with no fans present. The NBA is also planning to resume its season though it seems to be hitting some road blocks. The NHL, NCAA and NFL are all looking at their contingency plans for reopening. The elephant in the room is that fans can’t pack stadiums. They won’t even be allowed at all and believe me these teams need those ticket sales, concession stand sales & merchandise sales. These sports leagues like corporations, colleges & schools are going to have be innovative with how they make money in this age of COVID. They’re losing billions of dollars and one doesn’t have to wonder why they are pushing to get back to playing games.
Last Thoughts from The Last Dance
ESPN x Netflix’s The Last Dance ended on Sunday and already people are hailing it as one of the best documentaries of all-time. Well… not everyone. Apparently former Bulls players Horace Grant & Scottie Pippen aren’t too keen on how they looked during the documentary.
Grant has been on a number of platforms to show his disdain for the documentary and Michael Jordan’s comments about him. Horace, like Michael, is trying to paint his picture and present himself in a great light but some things get in the way… like facts. For Horace to say that he never said anything to author Sam Smith for Smith’s book The Jordan Rules is just inaccurate. Horace was a source. Was he the only source? No… but Horace did snitch. Anyone who followed that the Bulls during the first 3-peat knows Horace was jealous of Michael & Scottie. He felt he should have been given more praise. Horace was a key part of that team but MJ and Scottie were the focal points. Horace didn’t want to accept that he wasn’t on the same plane as Michael & Scottie(and Scottie in particular since the two were drafted together in 1987). This led to the ’94 season of Horace having the “blue flu” and continued snitching like the infamous 1993 Inside Sports interview where he criticized Pippen & head coach Phil Jackson.
And then there’s Scottie Pippen’s portrayal in the documentary. Let me start by saying that Scottie is one of my favorite players in the NBA. He is clearly a Top 20 player. He redefined the small forward position with his athleticism & skills. I have him as the 3rd best small forward of all-time behind LeBron James & Larry Bird. I do feel the documentary could’ve given more roses to Pippen but Pippen’s portrayal in that documentary is what Scottie somewhat made it to be. He’s the one who said that he wasn’t going to let his foot injury “f*ck up his summer” leading into the 1998 season. Pippen was upset because he was in trade talks & criminally underpaid but he also made it harder for his teammates during that season by deciding to have the surgery right before the season started. He also said during the infamous 1.8 second debacle against the Knicks in 1994 that he wouldn’t change a thing about that incident. You can’t make that statement some 26 years later.
In conclusion I thought the documentary was excellent. It was told through the lens of Michael Jordan so you expect it to be spun to favor him. To be clear – Jordan was a jerk but his psychopathic push to compete, make his teammates better & win is what made him the GOAT.
WWE Quick Hits
- Becky Lynch is taking a leave of absence due to her pregnancy. She leaves at the top of the women’s division. Becky relinquished the RAW Women’s title to Asuka. Congrats to Becky & fiancé Seth Rollins on their first child.
- Condolences to the family of former WWE star Shad Gaspard. He passed away during a tragic swimming accident. He instructed lifeguards to save his 10-year-old son before a rip current took his body.
- RAW & SmackDown are seeing some depressing ratings numbers and while some may blame it on not having fans in the arena or some of the wrestlers choosing not to wrestle because of COVID the real reason is that the storylines lack substance. The RAW tag team division has been reduced to bad comedy skits. The lack of depth has led to Vince McMahon basically doing away with the brand split and having certain wrestlers on multiple shows. The lack of imagination from McMahon & his writers are being exposed on TV every time now. RAW in particular is becoming more difficult to sit through.
- Some may be mad at Charlotte Flair’s overexposure on TV these last few weeks but I’m not one of them. She is the standard bearer of the women’s division and any match she’s in will be better for it.
- Triple H had a recent interview with B/R Wrestling and had some interesting comments. One of the more interesting comments he had dealt with the difficulty in building up a “universal heel or babyface”. This comment puzzled me because they have had ample opportunities to build a universal heel or babyface. Rusev was a monster heel who was sacrificed on the altar of John Cena and then sent to do ridiculous storylines. He actually got over again with his Rusev Day gimmick and because it wasn’t Vince’s idea they sat on it. Rusev is just one example; there are plenty of others.
Final Thoughts
- Paul Pierce was quoted recently saying LeBron James wasn’t a top 5 player all-time. That’s just a dumb comment. Pierce is clearly letting his hate get in the way of facts. Hell… even Michael Jordan feels that weaselly jerk Isiah Thomas is the 2nd best PG of all-time.
- Dak Prescott has reportedly turned down a 5 year, $175 million contract because he apparently wants $45 million in the last year of his deal. Good luck with that, Dak.
- We send our condolences to the family of Bulls legend & long time coach of the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan. Sloan passed away today at the age of 78. He was revered & admired across the NBA and he will sorely be missed. RIP Jerry…
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