Warriors in trouble?

Nothing is guaranteed in life or sports. Warriors are figuring that out. Durant's knee injury is a scary situation for sure. It's amazing how in a second things can change completely in life and sports. Of course, it's not that serious for the dubs yet. Durant is supposed to come back for the playoffs, actually much earlier than that. But the Spurs as usual are on their tail and the fear for the Warriors is losing home court in the playoffs. Winning the regular season looked like a foregone conclusion for the first 4 months, but now looks shaky since they lost back-to-back games for the first time in forever since Durant's injury. That was one of the coolest records in their run and they have now lost to the Wizards and Bulls back-to-back on the road. Of course this was a tough road-trip anyways and they still have to adjust to life without Durant. Still, the amber-light is on, if not the red-light and that is totally understandable when you lose a top-3 talent in the league like Durant. Even a deep, talented Warriors team cannot move on without any impact.

But the Warriors will be fine as long as Durant comes back relatively healthy in time for the playoffs. After the initial bump, they should be able to compete and win in the regular season like last year without KD. It will be interesting to see if the Spurs get past them, but what does that even mean in the long run? The Spurs had the second spot last year in the West and had home court against the Thunder and didn't even get past that second round series. So if both the Warriors and the Spurs do make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, I am not sure how big the home court is going to be. But just the prestige and optics of being the best in the West and the league is important and losing that is not good for the Warriors. You have to be aggressive and go for the crown at every point in sports. Things change constantly and I always say, the window doesn't close but others just surpass you before you realize it. As great as the Warriors have been this season and as young as their core is, they can't take anything for granted for this season or the future and they have to get the best out of every game.

Speaking of windows and challengers, the NBA trade deadline had a great start and a quiet end. Boogie Cousins addition to the Pelicans has a potential to be landscape changing. It has not worked out for them in it's first week, but there is too much size and talent there to write them off. In fact, given the Pelicans are chasing the 8th spot in the playoffs and the Warriors weaknesses against interior size, people were immediately trying to project how a Warriors-Pelicans first round matchup will play out. Would the Warriors be in trouble? I don't think so, but may be if the Pelicans can add a piece or two to those big guys next year, it can have a big impact in the West. And then the Durant injury happens. You realize how fickle and intensely competitive and challenging success in sports can be in sports. Everybody is coming for the crown. Can Curry and Durant hold the fort for the Warriors for a few years like LeBron or Kobe/Shaq or MJ? Time will tell. Even the Suns with the emergence of Booker and with yet another top pick coming up next year will be a threat in a couple of years. Nothing wrong with that!

The GOAT Bowl

Pats coach Bill Belichick said after winning the Super Bowl that they are actually 5 weeks behind the other teams in preparing for the 2017 season. And I don't think he was kidding or being cheeky. Hoodie don't do cheeky. That statement and attitude is a microcosm of what makes these Pats great. You don't become the Goat (greatest of all time) without that kind of passion, desire, work ethic, and professionalism. Both Hoodie and Brady cemented their legacy with their 5th ring and removed all arguments against anointing them the Goat in their respective jobs. As if winning 5 Super Bowls is not enough, Brady also embellished his resume with the way they won this game.

The team in general and Brady in particular had to play a perfect rest of the game after after falling behind 28-3 and they did just that. 43/62 for 466 yards passing is an amazing stat-line for any QB on any given Sunday, but is an even more impressive performance for a Super Bowl, especially in a comeback win. These 2 Goats never have to pay for anything ever in Boston. One guy can run for the mayor of Boston and the other for the Governor of Massachusetts and probably win the election with a 95% landslide. Of course, we can guess their political leanings and that coincidentally was one of the storylines for the game. A lot of liberals on Twitter were rooting against the Pats just because Trump said he is rooting for the Pats since they are his friends. Thats neither here nor there.

Coming back to the game, there are many astounding numbers and weird stats that paint a picture of the Falcons' collapse, but one thing in particular stands out for me. With a 28-20 lead, the Falcons had a first-and-10 at the Pats 22 with 4:40 to go in the game. They were well within field goal range and they could have literally taken 3 knees, wasted almost 2 minutes or drained all of Patriots timeouts, and gone up 11 points. Game over! That was how close they were to the championship. Instead they played on, moved backwards thanks to an untimely sack and a penalty, got themselves out of the field goal range, and gave the ball back to the Pats with decent time on the clock. They absolutely came from ahead to lose this one. I can't even imagine what the football fans in Atlanta are going through this week.

That was one of the most heart-breaking, soul-crushing losses ever. They had that game in the bag. The Lombardi trophy was almost ready to be packed and shipped to Atlanta. Even their owner Arthur Blank and his wife had come down to the sidelines ready to celebrate. And then everything went wrong. The play calling of offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and game management of MVP Matt Ryan has come under a lot of criticism and rightfully so. Between the deep drop on 3rd-1 and not milking the clock pre-snap late in the game and taking a sack in field-goal range  and not running the ball in the second half and not involving Julio Jones enough, the Falcons made more mistakes in a little more than half a quarter than they had probably made this entire season.

The Falcons defense actually played much better than I expected. They got to Brady time and again and looked great. But they got tired and slowed down late in the game. This was due to 2 reasons. The Falcons D has always had issues in the second half of games, which is a sign of a tired team with questionable depth. Plus, Atlanta scored easily in the Super Bowl early and were out-snapped and out-possessed by the Pats in a big way despite the score. This meant the Falcons D was on the field forever and that caught up to them. Matty Ice didn't make enough plays late in the game and that was the difference. Sure, baby Shanny could have called a better game, but the MVP just needed a play or two to wrap this up and he didn't and couldn't. Devonta Freeman was amazing running the ball, but he might have also missed his assignment on that key strip sack.

Atlanta's offense was good and effective early, but dropped the ball in the money quarter. This made for an horrible loss for them, but an immensely entertaining Super Bowl for the fans. The great run of close Super Bowls continued as this one went to another level with the first ever overtime.  It is definitely in the running for the best Super Bowl ever and that catch by Julian Edelman is the best catch ever in a Super Bowl in my opinion. It is better than the David Tyree catch that helped the Giants beat the Pats. The Julio Jones' catch was no slouch either and would have been the story if the Falcons had won. This was a Super Bowl for the ages. I don't know where we go from here. Next year's may be a letdown even if it's a nail-baiter.

I definitely expect the Pats to be back in the Super Bowl next year and for several more years until Brady retires. They are now the Goats in the NFL and I think they are going after MJ. A sixth ring will put Brady in Michael Jordan's zip code and firmly in the conversation for best athlete ever in all of sports . In reality, winning 6 in the NFL is way harder than winning 6 in the NBA. The only blemishes on his resume are the 2 Super Bowl losses, both to Eli Manning. And of course the spy-gate, deflate-gate controversy puts a small asterisk on his resume as well. But history might look at it completely differently. Fifteen years from now, both Hoodie and Brady may be celebrated as ruthless competitors who were not afraid to cheat. Thats not necessarily a bad thing in sports. This is not war. But don't say that to those 2. They are probably already preparing to fight in 2017 for their 6th ring. We will see them again on the field in less than 211 days and thats fine by me.

Best Ever Super Bowl!

The only thing standing between Tom Brady and Hoodie and the title of unquestioned GOAT - Greatest of All Time, is an inexperienced Atlanta Falcons team. Usually, the only thing worse than Drew Brees on the road is Matt Ryan on the road. Of course the Super Bowl is at a neutral site and not in Atlanta. A healthy Julio Jones is an oxymoron as much as the term "Atlanta defense." With all that said, I absolutely love this Falcons team. Matt Ryan is a legitimate MVP candidate. He had the quietest "38 TDs, 9 Ints, almost 5000 yards, and almost 70% completion percentage" season I can ever think of. Part of it is, every grand mother throws for 5000 yards these days. But the major reason for them flying under the radar was,  people did not recognize the Falcons or Matty Ice as legitimate contenders this season until Thanksgiving. But the Falcons didn't care and they kept on winning. Julio stayed relatively healthy and was unstoppable as always. Their RB tandem is a real force and both Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman can play the thunder or the lightning role with decent effectiveness. Their defense has improved through the season and can do some things well. They are a great team and a very deserving NFC champion.

Sure, Aaron Rodgers would be have a been a comforting name to bet on if we wanted to slow down the Hoodie-Tommy juggernaut. But then again, who except Eli Manning has ever slowed down those two. Falcons and Matt Ryan are the best challenge to this version of the Pats right here, right now. For people who tend to look at history with some reverence, the thought of the present day Pats challenging the best ever is a tough pill to swallow, especially if you are a left coast fan with connections to the Niners dynasty, Bill Walsh, and Joe Montana. Brady and Hoodie have a legitimate argument for best ever already since they have been to 7 Super Bowls in the parity era. But winning the 5th will remove all doubts. Hard to accept for folks like me who view these Pats through the prism of tuck-rule, spy-gate, and deflate-gate. But you have to give the devil it's due. These guy are good. Actually, they are great. And they are the best ever. No disrespect to the Falcons, but the dirty dirty will have trouble finishing this. I am curious to see what things Hoodie takes away from the Falcons offense as he is always known to shutdown the opposition's top option or two. He will do something and bother the versatile and potent Falcons' offense just enough to win this thing. We are just a couple of days away from anointing the best ever in the NFL. Move over Joe Montana, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Noll.

New England Patriots 31- Atlanta Falcons 27

Sequels Galore

Last week was one of the great football week over the last several months. First, the college football championship sequel was as good as I had expected it to be. Deshaun Watson and Clemson did what I was hoping as well as expecting from them. Alabama is as legit a team and as solid a program as they come in college football today. They brought everything they had and then some to the table, but I was expecting that the talent and experience of Watson would be the difference maker and would be able to handle it all. That’s what happened, though the Alabama D made it difficult for the kid. The game came down to the last seconds and Watson finished Bama off with a 2-minute drive like an elite NFL QB. I like him at the next level and would draft him high, but then again, we fall easily for great college QBs and some of them don’t translate to the next level. I would trust the GMs on this one instead of making my own call. I liked QBs like Michael Vick and Geno Smith coming into the NFL. Didn’t expect much from Cam Newton or Tim Tebow at the next level. As you can tell, I was right with Vick and Tebow and not so much with Geno or Cam. It’s a tough call and I am definitely not qualified to make it. But I will keep an eye on Watson on the projections of experts like Mel Kuiper, who should be out and about soon.

This college game came right after the start of the NFL playoffs, which had an underwhelming run over the wild-card weekend. Even the much-anticipated Giants-Packers game was a dud, though it’s never boring to watch a great QB like Aaron Rodgers play. He impressed us in the wild-card game and gave us a performance for the ages last weekend in the divisional round in what was one of the best football games I have watched in a long time! The word instant classic is often over-used in sports, especially in the 24-hour ESPN-classic era where they will repeat the so-called classic game just 4 hours after the final buzzer. But this one was a hyper-instant-super-classic. ARod is carving an amazing niche for himself and his career is shining brighter than ever. We all know that his talent has been on display for many moons now and we have seen him do amazing things on the field. He has also been one of those guys with immense confidence in himself and walks the cocky-v-confidence line expertly. Of course, it’s easier to act like the boss once you win a championship. That Super Bowl ring brings you all kinds of credibility that you can’t enjoy without it. And that’s true not just for star players like ARod or Curry or LeBron, but also GMs and coaches too. I always half-joke that the coaches get a free pass for 5 years after a championship and GMs, probably 10 years. Talented players get a pass anyways.

The thing that is really adding onto the legend of ARod is his cool and calm leadership. Few years back, he asked the media and fans to R-E-L-A-X after a bad start to a Packers’ season. And then the Packers had an amazing rest of the season as he had predicted. He had a similar moment this season as the Packers were looking mediocre and struggling in their division, but Rodgers then said they can run the table and save the season. Boy, was he prophetic! They have not lost since. Not only did they run the table, they did it primarily due to ARod’s amazing play. He spoke and then he delivered. That momentum continued well into this Dallas game and it looked like it was over at half-time with the Packers leading comfortably. The only blemish on ARod’s play in this game, probably his entire second half of this season, was an inopportune pick he threw in the third quarter right after Dak threw a horrible pick to give the Packers the ball. Packers could have put the game away in that drive, but instead, handed Dallas the ball back and gave them a lot of life. Dak played great from that point on and was actually the best part of this loss for Dallas. Their future with the new triplets – Dak, Zeke, and Dez, look great.

There were moments in the early parts of the game when I was telling myself, “I know Dak earned this and he has to go through this right of passage. This experience can only help them down the road. But this is the kind of game where Dallas probably needs Tony Romo to hang with Rodgers.”  Dak looked much more impressive later in the game and almost negated my Romo argument. Mind you, I was not saying that Dallas should have started Romo or even put him in mid-way through the game. I was just saying Romo would have played better in this game at this particular juncture of their respective careers. But Dak was not the problem as he tied this game, giving Dallas a chance to win. Dak kept pace with ARod. There were 3 game-tying or tie-breaking field goals in the last 2 minutes of the game. I can’t remember ever seeing something like that. After Dak drove the Boys down for a game-tying field goal, ARod worked his magic with just 35 seconds left while all of us were getting ready for overtime. The final play for the Packers, which led to the game winning field goal, was typical ARod! He scrambled left, danced around forever, and nailed a pass to a spot where only his TE Jared Cook could catch and barely stay inbounds. Cook made a great play to complement Rodgers’ genius.

The other hero for the Packers was Mason Crosby who nailed 3 pressure-packed, 50+ yard field goals in the final seconds, including one that was nullified by a Dallas timeout. That one was right down the middle while the next one that actually counted looked headed wide-left before sneaking in to deprive us of overtime. For a moment, when that ball looked headed wide-left, I thought this may be another heart-breaking OT loss for the Packers. They have had some rough go-arounds and hard luck in the playoffs since they won the Super Bowl 5 years back. They have had impressive seasons and ARod has been mostly great, but playoff dominance has still eluded them lately. That may be over this year as ARod is playing at an HNL (‘hole ‘nother level!) and they look every bit like the proverbial team of destiny. GB and Dallas played a great playoff game just 2 years back that GB won at home. That was the famous “Dez Bryant catch/no-catch” game and this year’s edition was even better. This game was another sequel that didn’t disappoint. The Atlanta-Seattle game was also a sequel from 4 years back, but Atlanta repeated the result this year with an impressive win that was not as close as the earlier one. Seattle was not great this year and they deserved to lose. Of course, both these NFC divisional match-ups and the NFC championship game next weekend are also re-matches from this regular season, which is also great.

Atlanta on the road next weekend is going to be tough for the Packers, though Dallas had the best record in the NFC. I can’t wait for that game! Good luck to the Packers and ARod as there is nothing in the NFL quite like watching a great QB play. Matt Ryan is probably the MVP of this season, but ARod is looking legendary right now. A Brady-ARod (much like the Peyton-ARod) Super Bowl has been eluding us and we need it this year. Brady and the Pats dispatched the Texans last weekend as expected and their real test only starts this weekend with the Steelers coming to town. Can Le'Veon Bell dance and find holes against a hoodie defense is a question I am eagerly awaiting to answer. Pats don’t have a great defense, but they have great coaches who seem to be able to scheme their way to success more than anybody else. What do the Pats do against the killer Bees is a great story for this week. The Steelers rode Bell to the AFC championship game with a win at Kansas City in another great game last Sunday. We finally got 2 great games on Sunday after a week and a half of playoff futility. The Steelers sneaked past the Chiefs in a game where the Chiefs scored all the TDs. Steelers moved the ball up and down and stalled every time, but scored enough field goals to win. Nonetheless, we got a good game and we also got a Steelers @ Pats game we want. Bring it on!

Another sequel that was hyped up was the Cavs at the Warriors game in the NBA on MLK jr day. The dubs took care of business at home and crushed the Cavs. Not much to say here except that we now wait for the finals. We hope these 2 teams make it and continue this rivalry and the sequels. LeBron doesn’t think this is a rivalry and I don’t know why he is so insecure about it. It is every bit a rivalry and the only one of any relevance in the NBA today. A third straight finals will cement it, but nothing is guaranteed in the brutal west. The great Warriors still have to get past the Spurs and/or the Rockets to get to the Finals. Along the way, they may run into the dreaded Westbrook too if the Thunder pull off an upset in the early rounds of the playoffs. All of this will make for an exciting playoffs, but I will trade it all for the Cavs-Warriors version 3. This time, hopefully no injuries and suspensions.  I wouldn’t mind a Spurs-Warriors western conference finals too along the way. That has been eluding us over the last 2 great dubs season as well. After the Packer-Cowboys game last weekend, I am shooting for the moon in the playoffs in all sports!

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NFL Layoffs - Mild-Card Weekend!

The NFL playoffs kicked off this weekend. This is usually the best part of the dog days of winter and the only thing to look for post holidays. This year's wild card matchups however were the most under-whelming I could think of in years. In a QB driven league, the AFC side of the bracket featured 3 backups or backup of backups. Yes, I count Brock Osweiler as a backup of his own backup! Derek Carr could have been a refreshing breath of fresh air in this year's playoffs, but his injury took all the intrigue out of the upstart Raiders. I like Connor Cook, but it was not fair to expect a rookie QB to win a playoff game on the road in his first ever NFL start.

The Raiders at Texans game got the earlier start time on Saturday and those teams are even lucky it was on live TV! The best part of this matchup was the post-game interview on ESPN when Houston's Jadeveon Clowney showed up and physically dwarfed the ex-players on the set including Randy Moss, who is no chopped liver himself at 6' 4". It's just amazing to see how big and strong pro athletes actually are.  Houston did win as expected with Brock looking better than usual. Not sure if we should credit the Raiders D for that, but Brock will remain the starter next weekend at New England. He sure earned it Saturday, but I don't see it happening again for him or the Texans against the Patriots.

Neither the Saturday night matchup between the Lions and the Seahawks nor the early Sunday game between the Dolphins and the Steelers were any better in terms of excitement or intrigue going in. None of these 3 games surprised us as they all stayed true to expectation. The Lions pretended like they were close, but didn't do anything to take advantage of Seattle's weaknesses or the opportunities presented. The best part of the Pittsburgh game was as usual watching Le'Veon Bell, the slowest fast runner in the NFL. This guy's patience and how long he waits behind the line of scrimmage for holes to open up before hitting them at full speed is a sight to behold. I have never seem anything like that. His style is unique.

The best game of the weekend was as expected the Giants at Packers. The final score was a 38-13 blowout, but the game was real close well into the third quarter and the QB play in the form of Aaron Rodgers was well worth the price of admission. A-Rod was on fire starting with that Hail Mary at the end of the first half. The Packers D shut out Odell Beckham Jr.  and now he has got all off season to shoot shirtless selfies on party boats in Miami. What a circus that Miami story was and these tools doubled down with a shirtless workout in the frozen tundra before the game. I don't know what these guys were thinking. But then again, they are not paid to think and are not the sharpest tool in the shed. OBJ is a piece of work and he needs to cleanup his act.

Thus ended the wild card weekend, which was more mild than wild making these playoffs more of a layoff so far before the real contests kickoff next weekend. The Patriots get another bye week with the Texans coming to town, but the other 3 games should be decent. In the meantime, we got the college football championship game tomorrow. This one should be a doozy as Clemson and Alabama hookup for the second year in a row. That rarely happens  in College football and I expect it to be better than even last year when Alabama won 45-40. Vegas thinks Alabama will win easily, but I expect Deshaun Watson to step up and make it hard for Alabama. I am hoping and expecting a close, injury-free contest to cap off a good college season.

Holiday Ball

Holiday season usually mean some combination of family, travel, and sports. I didn't travel to meet family this year and hence my season was more skewed towards watching sports on TV. This time of the year, we have the NFL ramping up, fantasy football peaking or waning depending on how the playoffs treated you, bowl games, and the Christmas Day NBA games. Speaking of Bowl games, there was a great one tonight at Orange Bowl between Michigan and Florida state. Michigan lost by a point. Jim Harbaugh is a great coach. What he has done at Michigan in 2 years is as impressive as what he did in each of his previous stops. But he does seem to suffer a little bit from the bridesmaid syndrome. He takes teams almost to the very top, but falls just a little short in the Super Bowl or the crucial Ohio State game or the Orange Bowl. It doesn't seem like he is screwing things up, but bad luck seems to follow him at the worst of times. However, you can't blame it all on bad luck as some of his failures might be due to his offenses being conservative and not explosive enough to score in the clutch against good defenses. For a former quarterback turned head coach, his teams are pretty defense and run oriented and conservative on offense. In any case, congrats on a good season and let's see where he takes his program. If he stays that is. He is always linked to high profile NFL openings.

In the NBA, the Warriors-Cavs Christmas Day game is still reverberating across the league.  It was great theater and good TV. NBA should have been happy with the show and the TV ratings for that game. It even drew more viewers than the Ravens-Steelers game for the stretch they overlapped. However, NBA did get killed later with the other games going against the NFL. This game in Cleveland was very reminiscent of the thrilling finals these teams played in June in more ways than one. I was very impressed by the intensity of this game from the get-go. It felt like the game 8 of the finals! Unfortunately for the Warriors, the result and the ending felt like the finals too. They came from way ahead to lose a close one. Losing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter is never a good look, especially for an elite team. Houston Rockets' GM Daryl Morey and the analytics crowd will tell you that it's statistically rare for teams to lose when they are ahead by more points than the number of minutes remaining in the game. Thats true for a normal team, let alone a star-studded championship contender. With all that said, I don't think the dubs have a lot to worry about. They dominated the game even with Curry being MIA. They should be able to handle these Cavs. Unless of course it's an one possession game at the end and the ball in in Kyrie Irving's hands. All bets are off in that case.

In the NFL, the Christmas weekend was great this year with a full slate of games on Saturday plus a couple of games on Sunday and Monday Night Football. This week 17 is going to be weird since it's hard to even figure out which teams have anything to play for. Many stars are going to be resting and the gamblers are going to have a hard time picking winners. Ironically, the best team in the league, the New England Patriots, might still have to play and win since the Raiders are right on their heels and the number 1 seed is still in doubt. The Raiders and Chiefs have a lot to play for as well. The only real contest is the Packers @ Lions Sunday night for the NFC North title. There is still some intrigue on the NFC side, though I won't bore you with all the details including how the TB Bucs can still make the playoffs if 8 things break their way including a tie. The AFC playoff on the other hand is all set and only the seedings are on the line this weekend. The NFL TV ratings since the elections seem to be back on track, but a lot of it seems to be because of the Cowboys. This will continue into the playoffs and we can expect a massive Super Bowl if the Boys make it that far. But the AFC playoffs might have some interesting TV numbers as we have 3 backup QBs among the 6 playoff teams - Matt Moore, Matt McGloin, and Tom Savage.  Whether they throw the ball to their receivers, opposing cornerbacks, or into the dirt, some of us will be watching for sure. But will America watch? Happy New Year to everybody and lets usher in the NFL playoffs and find out.

RIP Sager!

Last week was a sad one in the NBA. America's beloved sideline reporter Craig Sager lost his battle against cancer and the NBA universe paid a great tribute to him. He made sideline reporting fun. He got a lot of attention for his outlandish suits and the reactions to it from the coaches and the stars. Thats probably what made him a star, but he was much more than just his clothes. I liked his demeanor and his casual style of questioning, which he actually leveraged effectively to ask tough questions. We also heard great stories after his passing that we had no idea about. For instance, Dennis Rodman shared with the world how Sager saved his life by talking him out of a potential suicide attempt back in 1993 when he was done in Detroit. No wonder there is genuine affection for him from across the league. I was pleasantly surprised and also happy to see the league going the extra mile to pay tribute to a sideline reporter as if he was a star ex-athlete or a owner. From various eulogies on TNT to Steve Kerr's speech at the Oracle arena to the funky jerseys that several teams sported on the bench, Sager deserved it all. RIP Sager! We will all miss you and your colorful personality.

The other big news from the NBA last week thats on my mind is the Cavs stars staying back home for the road game in Memphis. They were all rested as the Cavs are real good and don't need all the weapons all the time. Plus they can afford to lose a game or two and might actually be better off giving their stars some rest since they know they are going to have a long and fruitful playoff run extending the already marathon NBA season well into June. This is really a tough one for me since there are valid arguments to be made on either side. First off, resting players randomly mid-season is a trend popularized by Greg Popovich and right there you know there is a legitimate reason to do it. Pop is no fool! This, among other kinds of rests that he forced on Tim Duncan is probably what extended the hall of famer's career by another 2 or 3 years. Coincidentally, the Spurs retired Duncan's jersey today. There are not many stars in today's sports more synonymous with their team as Duncan is with the Spurs. Congrats to Timmy and the Spurs. But coming back to the topic of rest and why Pop and others do it, teams benefit from it and they are free to do whatever they want. The coach is paid to win a championship for their team. If he decides resting LeBron in mid-December helps that cause, he should totally be able to do it.

But NBA is also entertainment and fans are the customers. There was a guy in Memphis holding a sign that read "I paid $800 and drove 4 hours to see this game." Therein lies the problem. NBA owes it's fans a great entertainment product. This is especially true now since the greedy sports world has moved to "dynamic pricing" the last few years where the already crazy prices are even higher for the Cavs game or the Yankees game or the Patriots game. At least, this was not the case back in the day when sticker prices stayed the same for all the regular season games of a team and only the scalpers charged you more for the sexier matchup. Now that the league itself is doing legalized scalping, they have to make sure the stars show up to justify those prices. I don't know if the Grizzlies charged a premium for LeBron, but I would guess they did. It's in the league's best interest to ensure LeBron plays if he can except when he is injured. Stars like Jordan and Kobe always played and honestly, you are a professional athlete paid millions to play basketball. Is it too much to ask that you show up and play? I understand the season is long and rest does the body some good come playoff time, but the league must start enforcing some rules and make some changes to make sure this random resting doesn't happen.

The other thing that gives me pause aside from the "team should do whats good for them" argument is that, we have traditionally accepted stars and starters resting the last game or 2 of the season in preparation for the playoffs. In fact, this is so common that most fantasy football leagues wrap the season up in week 16 week and don't even play week 17. This end of season resting happens in all sports. So how and why is resting in the middle of the season different or worse? I don't have a great or a legally enforceable answer to that, but it is worse because fans do expect some uncertainty at the end of the season. If Cavs were playing the Grizzlies on the last day of the season, fans probably might expect LeBron and even some of the Memphis stars to be possibly rested. So they may not plunk down 800 bucks for those tickets. It is a lot harder to predict mid-season which game or when these stars can or will be rested. NBA can't run it's business like this. Though I have to agree I don't know how they can legislate against this either. They can't tell the coaches how to do their job. They can't say resting is allowed in game 81 and 82, but not games 15 or 36. They also can't differentiate between coaches not playing a bench warmer versus not playing LeBron James. Even if they make these rules, what happens if the team cooks up some fake injuries to rest the stars or start LeBron and bench him after 3 mins?

The league can't do much, but it can remove back-to-back games and make the season a little less stressful for the players. That will also improve the quality of the regular-season games as the league today loses a lot of good matchups to the dreaded tired legs from back-to-backs. Aside from that, I don't know how the league can control this, but I do know they have to. NBA is a business and all the owners have a collective responsibility to make it work. May be they just get them all in a room and ask them to cut it out. May be outlaw resting through an agreed convention rather than bargained regulations. I love coach Pop, but this is one ugly contribution of his to the game. Customer is king and NBA better internalize this notion. Stars drive this league and their game is the product. People pick up the schedule as soon as it's released and check when LeBron is coming to town. When the Warriors are playing the Spurs etc. If the league can't deliver on that schedule, we have a problem. Commish Adam Silver has been good with a lot of things including the Sager celebrations. Hope he steps in and gets this fixed too. If you need rest against a bad team, play hard for 20 mins, blow them out, and rest the second half. This is exactly what Jordan did when he came to my town back in the day. He played, he dominated, and he rested, all in one night.  I paid a premium, saw him play, and went home happy. Everybody won. It's not that complicated. Just play!

Captain Obvious here: Klay can play!

I have had a busy few weeks and missed blogging. When you take a break like that, you would like to come back with a big bang sports story. I can't believe I missed even the Cubs' championship (more on that later). Or the NBA season, the Warriors, and Russell Westbrook. And then there are the great NFL games that I have missed blogging about the last few weeks. But today, Klay Thompson gave us all a great story on a drab late-fall, early-winter Monday night that featured a horrible 41-10 MNF game between the mediocre Colts with a great quarterback and the horrible Jets with a quarterback who can be mediocre at his best. Klay Thompson dropped 60 points in 29 minutes. His average points per minute in this game was almost as high as Wilt Chamberlain's in his 100-point game.

The Warriors are playing great right now and their offense is so fluid and effortless with the addition of Durant to the already lethal shooting combo of Klay and Curry. Things have come together real well, especially on the offensive side and the most surprising thing so far has been how the big 3 have had to sacrifice very little in terms of their shots and points. The big 3 have been close to their average number of shots from last year and that has to be good news for the team's chemistry. But tonight, they all deferred to Klay as he was in one of his zones. It reminded me of the game 6 in the Western Conference Finals last year against Durant's OKC or the regular season game couple of years back when he scored 37 in the third quarter against the Kings. He is as combustible as the other 2 MVPs in his team and I am glad his offense can still shine brightly under the new regime.

The early returns suggest the dubs have absolutely nailed the Durant addition and the offense is working just as they drew it up. This team can only get better, though none of this matters until they get to June. They are the presumptive Western Conference champions and the same goes for the Cavs in the East. The Cavs are playing great to justify such expectations as well. The Clippers and the Spurs are the other impressive teams and as always, the Western conference playoffs are going to be off the chains as kids used to say 15 years back. As for the NBA regular season, the dubs will keep us entertained. There are two other noteworthy individual performances to keep a close eye on. Russell Westbrook just got his 6th straight triple double and he could very well average a triple double for the entire season. That would be amazing to say the least.

The other surprising NBA stat of the young season is James Harden leading the league in assists. Mike D'Antoni has converted him into a point guard and it seems to be working wonderfully so far with Harden scoring a tonne as usual, but also dropping dimes in addition. I am curious to see if Harden can keep the assists going. NBA is going to give us a lot to talk about this winter and spring. Tonight belonged to Klay. Even the 10-2 Raiders who were at the game had to take a picture with Klay after his 60 point performance. East Bay right now has a lot of good sports going on. The Raiders somehow found the time to take in a Warriors game despite their short week leading into the huge Thursday night game in Kansas City. But who can blame them. The Warriors have been must-see TV for a couple of years and are now graduating to can't-miss TV.  The Warriors game at Clippers on Wednesday and the Raiders game against the Chiefs on Thursday are both can't-miss events this week.

I did miss blogging about several events in the last several weeks and can't possibly touch them all to catchup. But I do want to give a shutout to the Chicago Cubs for winning an amazing World Series in 7 games and destroying the curse of the billy goat. There is so much to write about the World Series, but the story for me is the Cubs President of baseball operations, Theo Epstein. It's time to put this guy in the Hall of Fame already. For him to cure almost 100-year curses in 2 major baseball cities and deliver championships to both Boston and Chicago is unbelievable. He did what he was hired to do in Chicago and he did it in exactly 5 years. The dude never has to pay for a drink in both Chicago and Boston ever and deservedly so. How does he top this? May be switch sports and win a championship for the Clippers or Knicks or the Cleveland Browns! And he might just do it.

Pigs Get Fat. Hogs get Slaughtered!

I hate to be the guy quoting Mark Cuban. He is one of those guys who is smart because he is a billionaire and not exactly the other way around. He has mastered the art of making one sensible point out of every 4, but sounds thoughtful saying all 4 despite the obvious .250 batting average. He said about 2 years back that NFL is too greedy and is going to suffer some setbacks. He called it a hog and said it's ripe to get slaughtered. As a recent article on Yahoo sports pointed out, he might have gotten this one right. NFL is suffering through some horrible TV ratings and attendance this year due to a variety of reasons. This week's Thursday night football triggered this whole thought process in my mind as 2 horrible offenses were on display. I am glad Arizona earned a season-saving win and I am also 50% sure that with Carson Palmer, at least their offense would have looked less putrid. By the way, is there anything more nebulous than being 50% sure!

In any case, the game was played in front of a half empty Levi (I will come to that later) and the TV ratings cannot be good for a Blaine Williamson Gabbert versus Drew Emeric Stanton matchup - middle name references in honor of their criminally bad QB play. The two wizards combined for 286 yards. Thats like the equivalent of 50 yards in 1995 if you adjust for the passing game inflation in the NFL over the last 15 years. NFL shamelessly puts this on national TV and has been doing this for a few years now with the Thursday night football (TNF). Ironically, I felt like this was the first year the teams have finally learned to play semi-decent on Thursday nights, but a game like this is still a good reminder that TNF is a horrible idea. TNF epitomizes the greed that Cubes pontificated about. Aside from the scant disregard for player health and practice time for the teams, TNF also takes away one of the traditional strengths of the NFL - limited availability and appointment viewing.

With the upcoming Saturday schedule, we are going to have NFL on TV 4 nights a week soon and I can pick and choose when and what I want to watch. That usually affects the ratings in the long run, though the overall advertisement revenue might be good enough for the hogs on Park Avenue. People will start skipping Sundays now because their team has already played on Thursday or the best game of the week is on Saturday or whatever and the league will soon be dealing with a splintered and non-committal viewership thats not on the hook on Sundays. MNF has suffered a drop in ratings for 3 years in a row and nobody knows why. You can blame this year on the election cycle, presidential debates, Manning's retirement, and Brady's suspension, but I think the story goes deeper than that. The health problems this sport creates has driven a lot of viewers away already. I cringe at many hits during a game and I don't know how long I can keep watching like that. These are the same hits we were celebrating 10 years back due to our ignorance about what they were doing to an athlete's body. Ignorance was truly bliss in the NFL.

Rules have been changed to dilute the product, but it is still a brutally violent sport. It has a long way to go in this path of player safety and this sport won't even look the same in 10 years. It may or may not be interesting to us, but thats why the suits get paid the big bucks. They need to maintain an interesting product while injecting these athlete safety related changes periodically. But the real threat to the NFL is not that the game will look different on the field, but the players are going be very different too. Most parents are going to keep their kids out of it. This will drastically affect the pipeline delivering top athletes to the sport in addition to having a huge impact on it's popularity as most families won't have any personal connection to it. Football will become the next boxing where only the poor and the desperate kids take to it as a way out of their harsh lives. You could argue this is already a reality in sports in general and football in particular, but this will become more pronounced in the coming years for the NFL.

For a sport already facing these existential challenges, short-sighted and greedy maneuvers like TNF only make things worse. TNF helps nobody - not the players, ticket holders, or the TV audience. If TNF is the symbol of NFL's greed, their stadium deals and the ticket prices are the cherry on top. Levi stadium being half empty on a Thursday night is no surprise because going to watch that horrible Niner team is only going to cost you much more than what you have already paid for the tickets for very little enjoyment in return. You have to take time off work and fight through weekday traffic to get to the stadium by 5 PM Pacific to park, a simple act that will cost you routinely 50 bucks or more these days. A ticket for a mediocre seat that itself should cost no more than 50 bucks will cost you upwards of 100 bucks, or 200 bucks for a "premium" game like the season opener or when the Pats come to town. How can a horrible team play a "premium" game? And the watered down beer is 12 bucks. Basically, only the upper middle class and the rich can afford tickets in these modern day stadiums and they neither have the time nor the interest to sit there in the cold and cheer for a horrible team. Another side-effect of the TNF is, it's hard for the "road warriors" to make the trek for the game because it's in the middle of the week.

In our social network driven, self aggrandizing, A.D.D culture, most of these fans just want to see and be seen at big events. If it's not an "event," they want no part of it. So when the team is bad, everybody is trying to dump these tickets online and nobody who can afford it wants it. If it's a winning team with a superstar or two, then everybody wants in and the casual (but rich) fan is there. The team then rips you off even more every year and the prices keep going up with no signs of ever coming down. Sports are the only remaining monopoly operating in our supposedly democratic, marginally free-market society. There is nowhere to go but to your local team if you are a sports fan. They can do whatever they want and they often do. The personal seat licenses in football stadiums, with it's various disguised monikers, are the best example of a greedy monopoly making all the money it can with no conscience. NFL teams are charging 50,000  dollars for PSLs for the better seats in these new stadiums for a sport with 8 home dates! They force you to buy 2 more pre-season games that even the referees don't want to show up to. That is 25% of the regular season. So if you were to sell some of the tickets from the regular season to try and break even, it's virtually impossible between the pre-season overhead and other online transaction fees for those 5 or 6 games you can realistically sell. That is if the team is good. Good luck if they are bad!

NFL is the biggest hog on the farm and even the other fat pigs like the MLB, NHL, or the NBA are no match for their greed. Roger Goodell is spearheading a system now where the fans just can't win and if their team can't win either, fans get pissed off in a hurry. NFL is being dumb by leading us all down this dirt road to a point of no return and they will get slaughtered in due course. Either that or they are being super smart and are well aware they are sitting on a diminishing asset. Their response to the clear and present danger confronting their sport seems to be, let's make more money while we can and are milking us all to their heart's content before the oncoming slaughter.

Football is rolling already.

The NFL season kicked off in style and is off and running in full force already. We got some great games, fantastic finishes, and good story lines as always. The Carolina at Denver game on Thursday night kicked things off  with a close finish. Despite my reduced expectation for that game, it gave us fans exactly what we wanted. Trevor Siemian's play and Cam Newton's beating were the headlines from that game. Cam is an absolute baller. He had a great game despite the monster hits he suffered. Both the man and his game are large and the zebras are having problems officiating him appropriately. Some of the hits were brutal, especially for a QB, and the flags were nowhere to be found. This may change how the Panthers play Cam in the near future. They need to protect him. They should cut down on his scrambles and runs, though a lot of his hits in this game happened in the pocket. But why increase his exposure anyways? He is too important for the reigning NFC champions. Big win for Denver and Siemian. The Broncos have a good team with that defense and a running game centered around C.J.Anderson.

It's been a while since the Raiders were the top story of the week. They sure were the headliner this week as coach Jack Del Rio went for 2 and a win at the end of regulation instead of a tie and overtime. I have never seen that in the NFL. Definitely not in week 1 with a young team trying to make the playoffs for a franchise coming of several horrible years. You see such calls once in a while in college but only towards the end of the season in the NFL with real bad teams that have nothing to play for. Del Rio nailed it here and this win should give the Raiders a tonne of confidence and self-belief. Saints D is horrible and the Raiders D didn't play much better either, but the Raiders are going to truly believe they are playoff-bound after this road win. It's about time for the silver and black. Packers, Chiefs, Giants, Lions, Cowboys, and the Patriots won close and exciting games on this fun NFL Sunday.

That last game in that list between the Patriots and the Cardinals was a heart-breaker for us Cards fans. Kicker Chandler Catanzaro missed what should have been a game winning field goal. The Super Bowl dreaming Cards lost to Hoodie who came in without his pretty boy QB, super star TE, and couple of other key players and still stole a win. Tough loss for the Cards who have to be now satisfied with a good week for David Johnson coupled with a decent performance by Carson Palmer and live to fight another day. They better win next week against Tampa Bay. Dolphins almost knocked off the Seahawks, but "almost" doesn't get you a "w" in the standings. The Monday night games were duds as  Pittsburgh crushed Washington and the Rams looked so horrible that the LA fans probably want them to move back to St. Louis after just one game. The Rams made the 49ers look like world beaters. Blaine Gabbert and the Niners offense were turrible as Chales Barkley would say, but they still won 28-0. Kaep's protest is spreading as many NFL players either kneeled, locked arms, or raised their fist during the anthem even on 9/11. Peaceful protests continue. As always, injuries in the NFL blows and Keenan Allen's season-ending ACL tear was unfortunate. Poor guy can't catch a break.

No more Honey-dues!

There is a funny radio AD playing these days. I think it's on Fox Sports radio and is a promotion for the upcoming NFL season. It warns all women that they should be ready to "lose" their boyfriends and husbands to football. The implication being that men are going to be glued to their TVs watching football starting soon. No time for honey-dues rest of the year! It's a funny AD, but also a fairly accurate depiction of the American reality. Most Blue-blooded American males and some females are so in love with football, both college and pro, that weekends will be exclusively reserved for appointment TV watching if left to their own devices. Thats the power of football and fantasy and gambling only help turbo-charge football's popularity. Every year, the pain of summer's exit is offset by the pleasure of football's arrival. College ball started last weekend and served as a nice appetizer before the main course, the National Football League.

Week one in college football usually features a bunch of cupcake games. It was a pleasant surprise this season as we had a whole bunch of stellar non-conference matchups last weekend. We can all thank three major reasons for this positive development. One, the increase in neutral site games and the financial ramifications of this ensured these sites got some meaty matchups. The 4-team playoff also means one loss does not completely destroy a team's season like in the old days. Superpowers are more willing to take on great challenges, especially early in the season. Also, the playoff committee looks at strength of schedule. This means teams are better off playing some real games instead of scheduling North East Appalachian state at home during the pre-season. With all that said, most teams are back to playing North East Appalachian state in week 2 coming up here. But week 1 was truly awesome and they will all be jumping into their conference contests soon anyways.

We got to see fun non-conference games like Stanford-V-Kansas State, LSU-V-Wisconsin, Notre Dame-V-Texas, Florida State-V-Ole Miss, Texas A&M-V-UCLA, and USC-V-Alabama. Most of the games were close contests with a couple of them even requiring overtime. It reminded us right away why we love football and what we have been missing for the last 7 months. Only the most hyped game of them all, Alabama-USC, disappointed as Alabama annihilated USC. Alabama seems to be on a planet of its own and even it's SEC counterparts didn't look too great in week 1. Neither did Pac-12, though Pac-12 might still be a deep and dangerous place. These games also featured amazing freshmen QBs. Quarterbacks are coming into the NFL more and more prepared and it turns out, the high school QBs are coming into college well-rounded as well. Just another sign of how professional and well-organized the entire sports pipeline has become.

That was fun, but the main event starts tomorrow. Super Bowl rematch on Thursday night kicks off the NFL season. The excitement of NFL being back is undeniable, but I have to admit, this season opener is a little less exciting than usual. Peyton Manning's retirement and the unknown Trevor Siemian working under center are the main reasons for it. However, in real football terms, there is probably not much missing for Denver from last year as Manning was just a name and a shell of his former self. But he was still Peyton and must-see TV every week for the fans. Tom Brady will be missing in action too due to his suspension and that takes a lot of excitement out of the Pats-Cards Sunday Night matchup. I am still excited for it as this is a very important season for Arizona. The Kaepernick story is still out there and I am happy and proud of him. He has really started something interesting here and the story is going much better than I expected for him personally. He is talking well on the issues, making some adjustments like kneeling instead of sitting during the anthem, attracting support from fellow athletes, and is raising general awareness on a tricky topic. Kudos and good luck to Kaep.

Kaepital Punishment!

Colin Kaepernick is being put through the wringer this week over the national anthem and flag controversy. He refused to stand up during the anthem in protest over the racial and social injustices happening in the great nation of ours. Every time some athlete refuses to salute the flag or refuses to stand for the anthem, he or she is asking for a lot of criticism and attention and Kaep should have expected this. He sounds like he is comfortable about making this statement and seems prepared to face the wrath of the general public. I commend him for his courage and for standing up for what he believes in. It's not easy to be the rebellious outsider and he is being one here despite his on-field and injury troubles. In general, most people, even his critics, seem to agree that this country bestows on him the right and freedom to protest in peaceful ways and they don't have a problem with that. I am on that boat as well. I am glad he is doing what he feels is right and I will never be the one to argue to take that right away from him. However, many people don't agree with his opinion and his approach here. Disrespecting the flag or the anthem is an emotional issue for most people and they are going to spew a lot of venom towards him.

A topic like this also becomes a political topic, especially in an election year, and is not confined to just sports talk shows. In any country, flag, anthem, nationhood, and military are all related concepts, but it's an even direct straight line from the anthem to the military in America. This is probably due to the fact that the country is pretty much in one war or the other at all times. So a lot of people look at any perceived slight to the anthem as disrespecting the military. In reality, the flag and the anthem stands for nationhood and is all encompassing. It is actually even bigger than the military, but many people see the military and veterans when they see the flag or hear the anthem. While insulting the concept of America and our nationhood is far more controversial in spirit, it goes after some abstract concepts and people are not that offended. But any criticism of the military is personal and directly offensive to many Americans. Military is too real and close to heart for people as they may have sons or daughters or cousins or neighbors serving right now. Or they may have lost their granddad or uncle to wars of the past. What Kaep is questioning here is certain fundamental concepts of our nationhood and how our culture works today. I don't think he is anti-military, but thats the perception he has to fight and the angle he has to explain whether he wants it or not.

Nothing changes without protests and major social ills are not easily reformed without disruptive and controversial movements. Aside from Kaep having the right to do this, I do relate to the issue and his cause as well. So, it's hard for me to criticize Kaep at a moral, ethical, or political level. But I am still going to criticize him for sports reasons. As sports fans, we all know his career has been in a downward spiral and is just returning from an injury which seems to have physically weakened him quite a bit. He does not need this distraction right now and the last thing he needs is for the league or teams to blackball him. It's also a huge distraction for his teammates at the start of a season which is probably going to be rough on them anyways. I always ask myself and others "is the juice worth the squeeze" when certain decisions has to be made. Basically you need to do a cost-benefit analysis at every turn in life. The juice is definitely not worth the squeeze for Kaep. He thinks he has a platform and is using it for the grater good of the society. He is, but his platform is not as big as he thinks it is. America loves winners and stars and he is neither right now. NFL will have no problem casting him side in a heartbeat. The platform is a lot bigger for Cam Newton or Tom Brady, not for Colin Kaepernick right now. Thats the sad truth.

At the end of the day, the flag is purely symbolic. Respecting or disrespecting the flag has very little effect on real life. He is going through all these pains for making a largely symbolic gesture while also risking his future. Instead, he would be better off continuing to tweet about it, join the "Black Lives Matter" movement, go on marches, or donate money to the cause. All those actions are a lot more impactful and much less controversial. It will have zero impact on his teammates or his future and achieve better results for the cause. You may ask if I am asking him to compromise his values or his beliefs for some peace or  a better career or more money. Isn't that spineless? Yes and no. Life is all about compromises. One of the reasons we like sports is that you either win or lose at the end of every game. There is a finality and clarity to it that our everyday lives rarely offer. Real life, unlike sports, is not binary and doesn't happen in black and white. It usually happens exclusively in the grey area. So compromises and finding an amicable way forward is often the most effective approach in life. I am all for disruptive movements, but 2016 Kaep with these niners is neither the right person, time, nor the place for this. If I were him, I would have found other ways to contribute to the movement in question. Thats just me and of course Kaep is his own man.

Kaep chose to do what he believes is the right thing to do.  I am OK with it, but I am afraid the country may not be. The supposedly liberal Bay Area will criticize him, but may not be that rough on him. His situation on the road will be much worse. Then again, he may not be in the team long enough to even get on the field either at home or away. He did not look good on the field last week and there are rumors that the niners might cut him. That can be another tricky situation for coach Chip Kelly because any action against Kaep will now be perceived as a reaction to this controversy even if the team just makes a purely football decision. Thats not good for Kelly who came in with some racial accusations leveled against him and did not cut Riley Cooper in Philadelphia after Cooper was caught using the N word. Now, a Kaepernick punishment will be compared to that and might even cause some resentment in the locker room. The other interesting aspect here is how racially divided the support or opposition for Kaep has been among his peers. Breaking news folks - race matters in America! Almost to the exclusion of everything else. Going after the flag or the anthem is always a ultra touchy subject and we may not have heard the last of this controversy. I will bottom line this as follows. I like athletes making socio-political statements. I support Kaep's right to protest peacefully and I even support this particular cause. But his particular method of protest is not smart and might end up distracting his team and hurting his own future. Also, the reaction he is facing is to be expected. I wish him good luck and he is going to need every bit of it.