Greatness

(Insert superstar name here) is the next Michael Jordan. This has been the statement said about any “phenom” player coming into the league since the mid-90’s. It is also a phrase that drives me crazy. Kobe is not the next Jordan. LeBron is not the next Jordan. Why must we always try to find a comparison to everything?

Michael Jordan was a once in a lifetime kind of player. I do not know when or if we will ever see a player like him again. Honestly, even though I’m a huge MJ fan, I would love to see that kind of greatness again. The things he did on a court transformed the game in so many ways. There are people that are better dunkers then him. There are players that are better ball-handlers then him. The thing that sets him aside is he was great at so many things. That combination, and the dominance the Jordan Bulls had, will be hard to recreate ever again.

So why do we constantly find the need to compare players to him, even though it seems impossible? Human nature. As humans, we don’t want to accept that the best is behind us. We are raised to think that things will just get better. We want to remember the past and know that where we are now is better than where we were. I get this, I really do. What I don’t get is the constant forced comparison. Kobe is a great player, but does not quite compare to MJ. Yet, we have been forced to hear this comparison since Kobe entered the league. LeBron is no where near MJ. He doesn’t even fit the comparison. Recently, sports talking heads finally realized that LBJ needs to be compared to Magic more than MJ. No, LBJ is not as good as Magic, but the comparison is closer.

More than anything, I want to celebrate what players have done. When a player has a great season, I want to remember them for having a great season. The problem with this is that as soon as a player starts doing well, the 4 million sports talk shows start comparing these players to the greats from the past. These comparisons add so much extra pressure to these players. This is a problem. Players can ignore sports talk for a little while, but if you are compared to MJ and you miss a shot in the final seconds of a game, there is no way to ignore the avalanche of critics that comes along. Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless will yell at whoever is on the other side of the desk for hours on end with criticism of that player’s lack of clutch shooting.

Greatness in sport is something to be celebrated. Too bad, in this country at least, we have changed that. We like to tear down great players for not being the greatest of all time.

Sports hurt...

What a crazy year for my sports fandom it has been. The NFL season saw my Cowboys give me hope, just to come crashing down a few weeks later (as usual…). Then comes the hockey season, where I got to endure the soap opera that is Sidney Crosby. When will he come back? Will he be the same player? Finally, when the Penguins were whole again, they were unstoppable, at least until the playoffs where they fell apart in the third period of game 1. After that, it was all downhill for them (they tried to comeback, but dug themselves too deep). Then there is the NBA. The Bulls dominated the entire year, with or without their MVP Derrick Rose. Watching game 1 of the playoffs, it was easy to see that they were going to dispose of the 76ers quickly and the championship run was on! Well, until it happened. D-Rose made one of his signature moves and he tore his ACL. Now, the Bulls are against the ropes and likely to be knocked out by the lowly 76ers in the next few days. As a Twins fan, I will ignore that there is currently baseball being played.

This brings me to my newest team, Manchester City. I know, I know. I’m a bandwagoner. Kind of, at least.

When I first started working in soccer three years ago, I decided I needed to get fully involved (copyright Firehouse Subs… mmm, this makes me hungry) and pick a premiership team. This led to a week of research into what team I would want to support. I knew I didn’t want to support ManU, Chelsea, or Arsenal, since it seems that is who everyone in the US likes, and I tend to go against the grain. I also knew that I didn’t want to pick a team that would perennially fight for relegation (Sorry Sunderland). I wanted a team that was in the top half, but still had an underdog feel to them. The final choice came down to Tottenham, Everton, and City. The tipping point was that City had Robinho on their team, and I was a fan of his. Of course, his time at City was uninspiring and short-lived, but my fandom stayed. In the next couple of years leading up to this season, a lot of money was spent. I mean a lot of money. Seriously, if you don’t know much about this, look it up. In a way, I did not like that the team I chose turned out to be ridiculously rich (they were purchased by an oil sheikh shortly before I started following them), but then I decided it was nice to support the wealthy team for once.

Fast forward to this year. City was unstoppable early on. They could not be stopped, or even slowed down. They showed some flaws playing in Champions league. Then there was the loss to Chelsea. It was frustrating to see them lose that game, but they were bound to lose one game, right? But then they lost to Sunderland. REALLY??? SUNDERLAND??? They hit a low point when they lost to Arsenal. Not saying that there is anything bad about losing to the Gunners. They had gone from having a seemingly impossible to lose lead in the league to being down 8 points with only six matches to go. They were done. United would never mess that up. They were the model of consistency and winning. But they did. Now, there is one match left for all teams and the Manchester clubs are tied in points. City has a +8 goal differential over United, which is the first tie-breaker. Hope is back!

All that is left for City to do is win against a team fighting to be 17^th, just outside of relegation. Should be easy right? I am having a hard time getting excited for this game. After all the heartbreak I have suffered via sports this year, I’m more nervous than anything. I can see it now. We will tie QPR and United will win and get the title, leaving me crushed.

Sports hurt…

P.S. – All games in the final week are played at the exact same time. No team gets a time advantage over any other. I love this so much. Genius, pure genius! Also, for the first time, all games will be airing on US stations. Every. Last. Game. No words can describe how awesome this is.

Introduction

I’m a sports junkie.

I’ve spent most of my life talking, debating, and ranting about sports, so why not try to put pen to paper finger to keyboard and let everyone know what I’m thinking.

I grew up in Eastern Iowa. Not exactly a sports Mecca. This basically meant that I had no required teams to support based on location. So I had to come up with which teams I wanted to support. I’ll save you the long and drawn out stories for each team and keep this short. I basically chose the teams that were good when I was young, except when it comes to college sports. I will cover that a little more later.

Here are the teams I support:

§         College - Iowa State (Most important one)

§         NFL – Dallas Cowboys

§         NBA – Chicago Bulls

§         MLB – Minnesota Twins

§         NHL – Pittsburgh Penguins

§         MLS – FC Dallas

§         BPL (that stands for Barclay’s Premier League) – Manchester City

So how did I become an Iowa State in Eastern Iowa, where U of I dominates the market? Growing up, my family cheered for all things from the state of Iowa. This meant supporting UNI, UI, and ISU. Even though the only one of those schools that my parents did not attend was ISU, my mom tended to support them in the Cy-Hawk rivalry. So I kind of picked up on that I guess. As I got a little older, and trash talk got more prevalent, I was pushed more to the ISU side. I never liked the way Iowa fans acted, so things escalated quickly. The only thing that made my love for ISU grow more was going to school (and graduating) from there.

Anyways, that is enough of a background of me for now. Go State!