Mark Cuban and the Good of Admitting Prejudice

Honestly, there was nothing wrong with what Mark Cuban said when he admitted his prejudices. My first reaction when I saw this was YES! A White person who wants to be honest and admit their prejudices with the hopes of working on them.

(By the way, watch that entire video. Cuban, one of my favorite people in sports, speaks frankly and honestly like he does when he criticizes in the NBA. Don't take the soundbyte, swallow this and then process what I say next)

This is what I want more people to do. I've written about it before (see the bottom of this post) and I think that the best way we can understand and live with each other is to work on our prejudices as much as we call out others for theirs along with ignorance and racism.

Yet because people are such children whenever we get honest on discussing race, this became a bigger deal. I'm not speaking on good folks like Bomani Jones and others who pointed out worthy critiques of what he said. I'm talking to others who are unable to distinguish between Cuban and Donald Sterling and think this is a bigger deal than it is.

A Few Thoughts on the Heat's Winning Streak

For those living under a rock, the Miami Heat have rolled off 23 straight wins as they beat Boston inside TD Waterhouse.  They're in sole possession of the 2nd-longest streak in NBA history and how they've played during it is one more sign of how remarkable they've been this years.

Permit me to drop a few points I've observed.

As I've said before, the one thing that marvels me about the Heat is how locked in they are. They may be trailing in their games but they find a way to dig in, man up and overpower teams. They've gotten a few breaks - i.e. LeBron James' game winning shot to beat Orlando in a game they almost lost - but it's been a streak of dominance, not flukes.

That said, it reminds me to say that the 2007-08 Rockets that won 22 games remain one of the flukiest, strangest streaks in sports history. Even without Yao Ming for half of that streak, it's a reminder that being the hottest team doesn't mean you're one of the best teams. That streak helped them earn the No. 5 seed and saw them get bounced in the 1st round.

Appreciating Kobe Bryant's Late Career Surge

In his 17th season, Kobe Bryant is still one of the 10 best players in the league. That says a lot.

I hinted at this a while ago in my recent Lakers video but I think we need to stop and remind ourselves what we are seeing with Kobe Bean Bryant in his 17th season.

We've seen Kobe do things that make us think Father Time hasn't grabbed him yet. Back to back 40+ point and 10+ assist games, something no Laker had done once in the last 40 years. His clutch 3-pointers against Toronto to send that game to OT and game-winning dunk had me thinking he was wearing No. 8 again.

He won NBA Player of the Month for February and NBA Player of the Week this past week. Not much to gloss over except Kobe is doing this in YEAR 17. 17-year veterans shouldn't be Top 5 in scoring. 17-year veterans change up their game to stay alive but rarely does it them and their team even deadlier.

Sherman Maxwell: The First Black Sportscaster

Before we all loved "Boo-yah!" by Stuart Scott. Before Greg Gumbel and Fred Hickman became pioneers at ESPN and CNN, respectively. Before OJ Simpson was on Monday Night Football. There was Sherman "Jocko" Maxwell, the first recorded Black sportscaster in history.

Maxwell got his start in 1929 doing a 5-minute weekly radio sports report on WNJR in Newark, New Jersey. Despite being turned down 25 times, his persistence was rewarded and soon he became all around the state. He expanded to do radio on WHOM and WRNY in the 30's and 40's and he devoted his energy to his love of baseball.

With the Negro Leagues in full swing at that time, he would call games on the radio and even served as the PA announcer for the Newark Eagles. He'd also submit game stories since the Newark Star-Ledger didn't send anyone to cover Negro League games and eventually wrote a column in Baseball Digest

Maxwell stayed in radio until 1967. He was inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame and died in 2008 at the age of 100. As the great Sam Lacy was a pioneer for me and so many others in print, Maxwell made waves for future Black sportscasters in radio and television. His stories and recordkeeping would prove crucial to preserving the history of the Negro Leagues as time passed.

To Mr. Maxwell, I say thank you.

Talking Sports with the Urban Post Worldwide

Forgot to post this last week, but I did some radio work with the Urban Post Worldwide talking sports. Hosted by Niele Anderson, a friend and former co-worker at the LA Sentinel, I'm chopping it up with my former editor Kenneth Miller, the guy who helped me get into journalism.

Enjoy if you like. I'm at the beginning so don't worry waiting to see me. If I can make some time, I'll be doing this more often in 2013 so stay tuned.

Gods and Monsters: A Final Lesson From Penn State

College football has long created gods who tower over the sport. The Freeh Report headed by former FBI director Louis Freeh is another reminder of danger in creating such idols as the Penn State scandal continues to shake out. Folks blatantly looked the other way or didn't report Jerry Sandusky's serial raping of young boys.

It’s not just a football problem. Any area where people give folks carte blanche to do whatever while looking the other way is ripe for corruption and abuse. There’s too much evidence of this to ignore but in sports, it seems to happen way too much and in the aftermath of Joe Paterno's fall from grace, we should take notes.

Folks turn ordinary men into gods and they have the potential to become ugly monsters. Warped in their judgment and horrifying in their fall that their supporters knowingly or unknowingly enabled.

The Virgo Speaketh!!! (Finally)

Time to finally put my face and voice out for you all to see. One of my goals this year was to do more video blogs and I explain in the intro why I resisted it for a while. I loved being an anonymous thinker but at some point, you need to let people see you and relate to you. I'm still going to write blogs as usual but I'm going to mix in videos as well.

Here I discuss the state of L.A. sports and why it looks as bleak as ever with no NBA, terrible NFL teams, disappointing college basketball and inconsistent college football. Looks like our hope is with Long Beach State to carry the torch after their huge upset at Pittsburgh!

Sidenote, it's disturbing that UCLA lacks great guard play and watching Casper Ware (LB State) and Cezar Guerrero (Oklahoma State) do work last night. They have let too many great LA players slip out of their backyard to shine somewhere else. On the same note, it's beautiful to see one of LA's best football players - De'Anthony Thomas - get the chance to not just shine at Oregon, but grow up as a man in a different environment from home.

Grinds My Gears: Sports Edition

I was thinking about this last night while reading Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski's take on MLB postseason records being asterisked in this day and age. There's a lot of things I see reported or discussed that I feel get overstated and I've tried to steer away from them.

I'll start with MLB postseason records. There's no surprise that guys within the last 15 years have owned postseason records and you know why? Guys are playing more games. So I don't give career records the same legitimacy that I give old school guys before the creation of the LCS in 1969 and the LDS in 1995.

Those are definitely some inflated numbers in the grand scheme of baseball but at the same time, I would give guys props for stepping up in October. Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and other guys of my era who have huge power numbers deserve all of their credit.

I'd rather divide up those postseason numbers by series. Like LCS records for HR's and RBI's, LDS records and then World Series records. That'd put things in proper context. Here's some other peeves, mostly stemming from the 24/7 news cycle

- Preseason debuts: I hate when announcers say so-and-so is making their professional debut in a preseason game. It's true but a preseason game isn't exactly a high stakes debut like when the games actually matter. It's us putting way more stock in preseason games than we should. It's fascinating to watch of course but what do we remember more? Cam Newton's first preseason game or his first NFL game?

- Must wins in the 1st half of a season: I don't know when this started but it has to stop. I understand the NFL is a 16-game season but week 4 isn't a must-win. I love the NBA but there aren't many mustwins in January as opposed to March or April.

This matters in college football when every game matters thanks to polls and the BCS. But in college basketball, NBA, NFL, NHL or any major sport, how a team performs early is usually no indicator of how they'll be at the end. Heck, we're watching a World Series where the Cardinals raced in due to a hot September. Again, a problem of creating too much hype and stories instead of letting stuff play out.

- Superteam Backlash. I blame the Miami Heat for this. They became the villains for a lot of reasons yet I think they never fully embraced the hated role. Yet everybody hated them, wanted to see them fail and as soon as they lost, hell fury came on them. (They did bring some of it on themselves though - 4th Quarter anyone?)

Now it's happening to the Eagles, all because Vince Young said it felt like a Dream Team. Nevermind the fact that the old axiom of "Chemistry trumps talent" has been true for years for a reason. I remember this all too well with the 2004 Lakers and losing to a better team in Detroit.

Nevermind also that there have been superteams for years and they were also hated for winning. Know why I hated the old Bulls? They won. Know why I hated the Celtics? They won. Yet 3 years ago, I don't remember anyone saying that Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen ruined the game with their sacrifice.

I don't mind hating superteams. But every time they lose, you don't have to throw their words in their face unless certain parts aren't living up to expectations (and remember, you can put up good numbers and still lose). It makes you look like a sarcastic fool instead of a sports fan who knows good and well you don't just throw parts together and expect to win right away.

Now arrogance is a whole different part to this but for the most part, teams disappoint more than fail. I get the occasional joke but the constant overkill gets on my nerves like no other. It distracts from us being able to actually break down why they're failing.

What your biggest pet peeves in sports? It can be fan or media-related.

How I Became A Sports Fan

This is something I'm surprised I didn't do sooner. But I guess it's time to share how I became such a huge sports fan because it's not your typical road to being the junkie that I am right now. 

My first sports memory was my mom watching the 1991 NBA Finals and remembering the end seeing Michael Jordan and Co. celebrate. I had no awareness as a 6-year-old what I was watching but I think I was mad and I didn't want to wear any Bulls gear. That might have been the start of my hatred of the Michael Jordan era even though I didn't really become a sports fan. 

(Technically, Mom gave me earlier sports memories because she says I'd look at her confused while she'd go nuts over the Showtime Lakers. But I digress)

The next summer, I played T-Ball with some friends of mine from school. People might be surprised baseball was the first sport I ever played but I wasn't really that good. I just loved hitting the ball and that first season, I got a lot of doubles. 

But my best memory was winning the game ball for hitting a "home run" in the semifinals - a HR that was more like reaching 1st on an error then running to 2nd and seeing the ball thrown into the outfield then running all the way home when the ball got thrown past the dugout. We may have lost in the finals, but that apple cider shower we all had was great!

Not exactly Al Bundy scoring 4 TD's in one game but it's my moment, alright? Thanks to T-Ball for two years and the Sandlot and Rookie of the Year in theaters, I became a Dodgers fan and started memorizing names like Eric Karros, Mike Scioscia, Kevin Gross and Darryl Strawberry. It later included Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, whose arrival I still remember driving folks into a frenzy.

The mid-90's also brought me into hockey briefly thanks to the Mighty Ducks and Wayne Gretzky. I owned the LA Gear Gretzkys and those movies had everyone wanting to be the man like Charlie Conway or super cool like Russ and his knucklepuck. They made hockey cool no matter what race you were and of course, Gretzky made LA Hockeytown for his brief stay. 

I became a Cowboys fan during Super Bowl XXVII when I watched at home with the game in Pasadena. When I watched them play next year, I became a bigger fan. Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin became my favorite players and I dug into the team's history. That led me to start watching Monday Night Football with my Dad and I taught myself who the best teams were and the best players. The 1995 Cowboys were the first time I really followed from start to finish and that's the first football season that got me started. 

I never liked the Raiders or Rams so seeing them leave in 1994 was no big deal to me. I hated how folks still wore Raiders gear and their fanbase scared me. The Rams were so terrible, it was like good riddance. 

Shaquille O'Neal got me into the NBA and I became an Orlando Magic fan before I became a Lakers fan. I had to teach myself how to play and who the best teams were. As I grew up watching Shaq and Penny, I also grew up with Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell and going to sleep listening to Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz host the postgame chatter. I used to rent NBA highlight videos from Blockbuster and study all the players and their moves and I'd also buy NBA Almanacs to study the history of the game. 

And when Shaq came to the Lakers? I was actually upset because I wanted a Magic jersey and I bought it the summer after he got traded. But I was happy that my favorite player was coming to the West Coast, more excited than some HS kid we traded for who was more known for dating Brandy as well as his incredible talent. 

That was the start of me watching Fox Sports Net, which just debuted that year so I'd watch that for TV recaps of the day. I knew all of the local sportscasters by heart - Todd "Take a Hike" Donoho on ABC, Fred Roggin on NBC and Jim Hill on CBS - and I'd watch them at 5 and 6 p.m. break down local sports to a science. 

Around that same time, I started reading the sports pages every day. I'd go to school with a copy of the LA Times and read the sports section and comics religiously. By the time I turned 12 in 1996 as I entered junior high school, my sports fandom education was complete - although I had a lot to learn as I got older. 

I pretty much learned a lot about sports through experience and self-teaching. I didn't grow up thinking my teams were the greatest because except for the Cowboys, they weren't. My dad watched games with me but he didn't pass down any knowledge as much as he spent time with me watching and talking about what I saw (he always loved to needle me about the Bulls breaking my heart every holiday as much as my cousins did). 

I grew up hearing Chick Hearn criticize the Lakers on air as much as he'd praise them and put games in the refrigerator. I grew up hearing Vin Scully's easy yet authoritative and professional voice tell it like it was with the Dodgers with no bluster. To me, I never had a reason to be a homer fan because my examples weren't super fans who didn't treat their team as gods. They were stars but not beyond criticism and if the voice of the team could be impartial yet loyal, so could I.

Being a LA sports fan in the 90's was fun but challenging. Nobody won titles besides UCLA basketball (who won that 1995 title right when I became interested in the school) but you connected to players and a team identity. You liked the Dodgers' young core of 5 straight Rookies of the Year, you enjoyed The Lake Show, you enjoyed Wayne Gretzky still in his prime. I loved watching the Cowboys win 10-12 games a year and get geeked to play the 49ers every year in a classic. 

All of this I mainly discovered a lot on my own and my family pretty much let me be without influencing my team preferences. And that's how I ended up seeing sports and my teams today. 

One more note: I became a Duke fan in 1998-99 when I saw Elton Brand and Co. run through college basketball. I became a Chargers fan in 2002 when I started attending school in San Diego and for the first time, saw a city rally around a football team.

Maybe I'll do a Part 2 describing my first time attending a sport event and how weird it was to attend my first ever football game at 18. 

2004 - Sports Recap (The Foundation for 2009)

It's funny how this year altered several franchises forever. The Lakers, Chargers, Pacers, Pistons, Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, NY Giants and USC can trace almost where they are now back to what happened in 2004.

The biggest sports story of the year was the "Malice at the Palace" brawl between the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and the fans at Auburn Hills who added fuel to a smoldering fire. SLAM Magazine has a great piece looking back at it but several things happened as a result

- The Pacers were never the same. A Eastern Conference power to a lottery, rebuilding team

- NBA Dress Code instituted.

- Flagrant fouls punished under a microscopic glare.

Of course the irony is that the Pistons shocked the world a few months by ending the Lakers dynasty and proving team over individual. Their blue collar work ethic kept that team among the East's elite until 2008 and made Chauncey Billups go from a journeyman into a borderline Hall of Famer. As a Lakers fan, it made me hate the Pistons once again but that was a weird year for the team.

You had a super team of Karl Malone and Gary Payton join a visibly shaken Kobe Bryant (dealing with his rape charges) and a slowly declining Shaquille O'Neal. You had Derek Fisher proving his value with the 0.4 shot against the Spurs (still remember screaming in my dorm room when he hit that). Kobe played some great basketball under pressure but some of his worst too - one shot in a half against Sacramento? Taking over Game 4 of the Finals when he didn't need to?

It was the end of an era. Shaq left, Fisher left, Gary Payton left. Karl Malone later got in hot water over some comments to Kobe's wife. And thats when the Lakers became Kobe's team for worse and later for better. A leader who had to learn by being selfish that leading means getting guys to follow you and trusting them to step up.

The Dodgers made it a bad sports year for L.A. professionally all around. They made one of their worst trades ever in giving up Paul LoDuca and Guillermo Mota to Florida for Brad Penny. LoDuca was the heart and soul of that team and Mota was the bridge to the unhittable closer Eric Gagne (who was overworked down the stretch). Let's not forget the Boys in Blue were in first place in the NL and cruising - no need to make that deal and Brad Penny was a solid pitcher - until the 2nd half of the season started.

Of course all of that changed when Gagne and LoDuca were on the Mitchell Report but hey, it was a bad deal then. The last year the Dodgers made the playoffs til 2008 but who can forget Jose Lima pitching a four-hit shutout for the Dodgers' first playoff win til 88. I remember watching that in my dorm with awe. LIMA TIME forever!

Then again who cares about that because everyone will remember the 2004 postseason. The greatest NLCS nobody saw with an absolute classic in Game 5 (Jeff Kent's walk-off ended a scoreless tie). And the greatest ALCS ever leading to the Red Sox finally ending the Babe's curse. Pretty much ensuring we'd hate Boston fans but nobody ever thought they'd win one - much less, TWO - World Series in our lifetime.

The Red Sox became the standard for winning in the decade and running a great franchise. Who knew? And the Yankees ended up going on massive spending sprees as a result to finally field a championship team in 2009. That 2004 ALCS is where it all started - losing the torch and taking it back.

And then there's the Chargers and Giants who swapped picks in the 04 draft and got Philip Rivers and Eli Manning. Yeah that worked out pretty well, the Giants got Super Bowl XLII and the Chargers got four division titles and their first playoff wins since 1995. Did I mention that trade brought along Pro Bowlers Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding to SD?

Oh yeah, Ben Roethlisberger was drafted that year. Drew Brees had a great year for San Diego that paved the way for him to be traded to New Orleans in 2006.

Which bring me back to my city. USC's road as a dominant program in college football started in the 2004 Rose Bowl where they split the national title and ran the table the following year to win the title outright.

To me that 2004 USC team deserves to be ranked among the best college football teams in recent memory - a better defense than the 2005 squad and just as deadly on offense. But that's when the Trojans became the talk of Los Angeles and began establishing their dynasty. One that nearly crumbled this past year.

It was a funny sports year. Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters didn't win anything and were thought to be slumping. At the Olympics, Michael Phelps won 8 medals, Jeremy Wariner showed white guys can win at track, and Team USA didn't win gold in basketball for the first time.

5 years later, this year set up a lot of things that are happening right now.

The only Heroes are on NBC

Tiger Woods' fallout has led to several columns bemoaning the fall of another hero - a role model who fell from his perch like so many have and so many will. But all my life, I've believed that people need to stop looking to athletes for perfection and redefine what is truly worthy of "heroism."

First off, I thought after 9/11 we had a moratorium on throwing around the hero. Heroes don't show off athletic talent, they save lives, make a difference. Anyways I digress.

Athletes have been the target of hero worship since Babe Ruth became the first celebrity athlete of the modern age (1920's). From the Babe to Mickey Mantle to Joe DiMaggio, athletes were treated like immortal royalty - epitomized by the late John Updike referring Ted Williams turning down a curtain call in his final game by saying "Gods do not answer letters."

Blame it on the media for not reporting the dirt athletes did until the 1970's and blame it on the media for building them up to be legends (especially in baseball). It's why Mickey Mantle was a role model despite his alcoholism, the Babe despite his womanizing and DiMaggio despite being a jerk.

As a kid I disagreed with Charles Barkley when he said "I am not a role model" - I figured well yeah you are because you're in the spotlight and have a responsibility (of course I didn't see the WHOLE commerical). Nowadays, I agree with him because if kids look up solely to athletes and entertainers without parental guidance, it's on the parents for giving kids a false hope WITHOUT a dose of reality and relying on someone (a stranger) to do their job.

I looked up to men like Grant Hill, A.C. Green and David Robinson, men who had character and worked hard to maintain it in the public eye. But even then, I was temper my expectations a bit on heroes because people will let you down - they can do great things, but they can also fall

I was a big Bill Clinton fan in junior high, middle school. I remember voting for him in our mock election back in elementary school where he won overwhelmingly. But when he admitted that he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, I was sad but far from devastated. Give credit to my folks for using it as a teaching moment to remember people aren't perfect.

Kobe Bryant showed me this in 2003. He was someone I held in high regard. The 24-year old dynamo with 3 rings and then it all crashed down in Colorado. I remember Dan Shanoff's Daily Quickie on ESPN having a cartoon of a crashed Kobe statue from a pedestal and thinking that's how many felt - crushed.

But again, it showed me people aren't perfect. And when you idolize someone, you have to remember that beyond the mask of sports/entertainment/business (Peep "Wall Street")/life, they are people and you have to "idolize" them for who they are not what they do.

Heroes/Role Models as perfect people is a concept that died when Adam + Eve sinned. I've always said the best role models are those who try to carry themselves the right way, handle their flaws with humility and recover with the same grace/dignity as they did before.

That's why I say that if you're looking for a hero - check your local comic book store, NBC on Monday nights, or the men and women in uniform that protect and serve us everyday. Don't look at people who entertain you because more than likely, they'll fail you unless you expect this going in. Also, if you don't expect perfection from your friends, why expect it from strangers?

Today, I am grateful for the men like my late father, my godbrother Ron and other men at my church who helped mold me into who i am today. I'm grateful to my mom, sister, aunts, female cousins and friends for teaching me how to treat and interact with ladies.

Normal people who do something intangible that's outstanding - shouldn't that be what heroes are about?