Iverson and Memphis. They're meant for each other.

We're barely two weeks into the NBA season and once again Allen Iverson has committed career suicide. Unable to make it with the Detroit Pistons because  he didn't want to come off the bench,  the same thing is happening with the Memphis Grizzlies. I'm not gonna excuse the Grizzlies from any of this mess because they were foolish for signing him. It's was clearly a bad move for a young team and they should have known this was coming.Management saw dollar signs and tickets sales. Now the Grizzlies are dangerously headed toward team knucklehead with Iverson leading the charge. He's now chirping about having to come off the bench. I understand he's had a great career and all but he needs to step aside and let the youngsters play and go to the mentor role, if that's possible for him. Iverson doesn't realize it's a "what have you done for me lately?" kind of business and for the last year he hasn't done too much except complain about his role on the teams he's been on. Everyone understands you are a great player, have an outstanding body of work, and still have something left to give. But at this point, he would be better served coming off the bench, more for a contender than a chronic rebuilder. As much as I hate to say it, OJ Mayo is better than him and Rudy Gay is better than him, even though he has that magician act going on every once in a while. He's not gonna lead this team anywhere except the bottom of the standings. What does it say about him if he's complaining already. He's selfish. I can understand when he says the negative about me sells more than the positive, but you keep putting yourself in a negative light. Last season he sabotaged his own career when he couldn't make it work in Detroit. I understand there were some behind the scenes action that didn't make the situation any better. Thing is, the Pistons had the ultimate team concept there, and he couldn't make it work there. That was the best situation he'll probably ever have and he blew it. I can understand when he was in Philadelphia he didn't have the best talent around him. In Detroit he played with a team that was a regular at the Eastern Confernce finals. He couldn't compromise. Now he goes to Memphis because no one wants him, because he can't compromise. He still has that characteristic about him. After this he'll be the Terrell Owens of the NBA. No one will want a piece of him. I hate to see him go out like this, but i'm afraid this is the final Answer.

Team owners need to insure a better product

A lot of the sports team owners treat their teams as a hobby or something that they can make money from, neglecting the product on the field or arena. There are some that do care, but they go about trying to build a winner the wrong way. Another blog that i follow, Explode In Sports, touched upon this subject last week.
  Some owners just don't care and some are too power hungry to stay out of their own way. Take a look at Al Davis of the Oakland  Raiders. Anyone he hires is a puppet. It's almost like a shadow government out there in Oakland. If you don't agree with big Al you're out. Ask Lane Kiffin about that. Donald Sterling of the Los Angeles Clippers really has no clue to what he's doing with his team. Dan Snyder treats his like a fantasy league team. They need to pay more attention to what's being done on the field or court to build a winner. In these tough economic times, true sports fans don't have money to throw around to attend a game, let alone watch a lousy team. My home team, the Detroit Lions were blacked out for the second time this season for that fact alone. In the past Lions fans have always supported the team, even though a majority of the time the team was plain bad. Nowdays, those same people can't go to the game and they won't go because the team is so bad. Everyone around the league says William Clay Ford is a great owner. I'm not privy to that, but the guy is too loyal to people that shouldn't be running the operation.That's how Matt Millen got eight long years in the Motor City. I believe he wants a winner, but he doesn't know how to go about building a winner. As much as i can't stand the Yankees, the ownership there does care about putting a winner on the field. They spend a lot of money on free agents and all but they also have a top notch scouting department. Same with Jerry Jones. He will do anything to make the Dallas Cowboys a winner. There are some owners that get criticized for spending a lot, but those are the ones that do it the right way. Owners like the aformentioned Snyder get it wrong. I know we're in a tough economic climate right now and you have to watch the bottom line but give us true sports fans something to cheer about. There are some that use sports as an outlet for the harsh realities of life and just want to be part of something positive.    

Michigan fans need to be patient

The Michigan Wolverines football team has hit a crater sized pothole this season. Once again fans are calling for a quick ouster of head coach Rich Rodriguez. To the Michigan fans still stuck in the past, they need to shut up and get out of the past. When Lloyd Carr was there all you heard was that he was too conservative and couldn't coach all the talent he recruited to Ann Arbor. I've always thought that when Carr was forced to play from behind was when he decided to loosen the reins.Check the Orange Bowl game against Alabama which would prove my point. Fans always talked about wanting a spread type offense at Michigan. Now they have it and they want to run the coach that's running it out of town. Right now they stand at 5-4, needing one win to become bowl eligible and Wolverine fans are howling for Rodriguez's head. It's not gonna happen. If it does it leaves you worse off than they already are. There's a lot of spread type athletes there now and more than likely they switch back to a pro set. Where does that leave you? Another 3-9 debacle similar to last year or worse because your putting square pegs in round holes. Some of the old time fans never wanted him there in the first place and have looked for anything to discredit him. Let him get some time to get things together. Two years is not enough. After the win over Notre Dame, a lot of the old the "old blues" thought Michigan football was "back". If anything that win alone, along with a 4-0 start, where they never left the confines of the Big House, unfairly inflated expectations. Fans, you conveniently forget there was a freshman quarterback at the helm of the team. As great as Tate Forcier looked earlier this season, he has shown his youth later on when navigating rougher seas in the Big Ten. Overall, this is a young team. They've made some strides this year, mostly on the offensive side of the ball, but they still have ways to go. The fans need to give this operation some time instead of breaking their legs jumping off the bandwagon. If the same problems are going on a year from now then you'll know that there's something wrong. I think next year is when it comes all together for Rodriguez. To the fans, please stop beating a dead horse and calling for Rodriguez to be fired. I'm tired of hearing it and others on the other side of the divided house in Ann Arbor are tired of hearing it. Patience is a virtue and some of you fans need to learn it.  

Will the Lakers be "the family circus"

An early season 94-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks have Mark Cuban and a few others saying I told you so. I know it's early in the season, but the Lakers looked bad last night, in the process making Mavericks owner Mark Cuban seem prophetic. During the preseason he said that the Ron Artest signing would open the door for others in the Western Conference. True things weren't working last night but i'm sure Phil Jackson will get everything straightned out and Kobe Bryant will make sure everyone stays on the same page. Another potential distraction is Lamar Odom. With the high profile marriage to reality tv Khloe Kardashian, he'll have more cameras following him than he had before. Odom usually keeps out of the spotlight, now he's being thrust into it. Hopefully he can keep his mind on his game and not crumble under the increased attention he gets away from the arena. An immense talent, he's always had a tendency to drift and disappear during games. Although this seems like a recipe for trouble i think the Lakers will overcome this circus atmosphere to remain kings of the west until proven otherwise.

Quick note on college basketball

The NCAA head honchos are thinking of of putting a new rule in place that would prevent coaches from hiring outsiders as assistants and camp counselors. This would hopefully end the "package deal" that we frequently see in college basketball. The deal where the college coach hires or pays an AAU coach or a "handler" so the kid will go to his school. Personally I hope this goes through that way it levels the playing field somewhat in the world of college basketball. Also it would show who the true recruiters are and kids choosing a school based on the program alone rather than going somewhere because someone was paid. 

Twitter makes trouble for athletes

Nothing against the Twitter craze going on right now, but i just don't get it. To me it's almost like what i'm doing now your giving details of your day. Over the summer i began to hear more about professional athletes "tweeting". If i'm an athlete i want no part of this. You might as well invite the press over or get a reality show, which is another topic for another day. Now athletes are finding themselves getting in a bit of hot water over twitter. One is the case of Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The thing about it is it wasn't him "tweeting", it was his brother Marcus lighting the flame. It was all about Larry's role in the offense and apparent disenchantment with the coaching staff. Of course there was some damage control done, now all is well in Cardinal country.This past week it's soon to be former Kansas City Chiefs star Larry Johnson. He goes on his twitter account and blasts his teammates, using gay slurs along the way, and flames his coach, Todd Haley. After the story comes out he tries to make the account private. Too late. He's now suspended  and banned from all team activities. He's apologized and has filed a grievance with the NFL. One local case involved Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions. He alledgedly was giving updates on whether or not he was going to play. I know Chad OchoCinco swears by it, but i just think it's more trouble than it's worth. Just line up the news trucks outside your home if you want to let everyone know what your doing.    

Los Angeles Clippers. Snakebit or just a bad organization?

Once again the Los Angeles Clippers have been snakebitten, spit in the face by the basketball gods. The top overall draft pick Blake Griffin, gone for about two months. Honestly i'm one of the few who for some odd reason has a fascination with the Clippers.I don't knbow why i just have something for the downtrodden in sports. I know, they've botched nearly every personnel move in franchise history. With them it seems like a bad horror movie, when someone says "when you go there you become one of them".It's not that all the players happened to be bad players, its that they made bad deals or players got hurt. There was the Moses Malone deal back in 1976. The selling of Bob McAdoo, the trading of Marques Johnson, which came back to haunt them since they dealt for him after his best days in Milwaukee to Danny Manning blowing out his knee, Danny Ferry forcing his way out of town, Shaun Livingston mangling his leg, and now this. At least they parlayed Ferry into two number one picks and Ron Harper, but he had to go ahead and get hurt.Then Harper said playing for the Clippers was worse than being in prison. The Clips had a few playoff seasons during the 90's and earlier this decade, but bad luck has once again reared its ugly head with the Blake Griffin injury and then i hear in the season opener last night that baron Davis is basically playing one one good leg. I thought this team had a chance to make some regular season noise in the Western Conference, but i don't think they can withstand injuries of any sort. The season's still young and maybe they can actually get it together. They do have Mike Dunleavy as coach so anything's possible. If you want to know more about the Clippers franchise run of bad luck click on the Bill Simmons article he wrote about this back in July. It's downright funny how he breaks all this down.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090624&sportCat=nba