Sports Rant Sunday!!

Some days, writing a blog is really easy. you get out of bed and an idea jumps out and boots you in the junk and goes on it's merry way. and then there are days when you feel like you should write, but you can't imagine what in the world you would want to write about. for lack of a better description, those days suck. it's actually the root reason why I would never want to have a career attached to writing, as the idea of a lack of creativity being able to keep me from gainful employment would keep me up at night. But those days, unfortunately are more frequent than the days with great ideas (this should be obvious from the earlier statement), so i just have to just get it done...today, however, is not one of those days, and i still have the tingle from the steel toed boot to the junk...i even have a theme, which is Sports Rant Sunday...let's begin with...

...John Calipari. I'm not sure which is shadier, that Cal seemed to leave situations that he admittedly brought to new heights in NCAA scandalous rubble, or that Kentucky says they knew about the situation and hired him anyway. For those who need a little background, here's a snapshot. Cal was the coach at UMass when Marcus Camby was on the take from an agent, something he says he knew nothing about. Doubtful. Almost unbelievable. All you need to know about the end result is that when you look in the NCAA record books for the UMass run to the final 4 under Coach Cal, you'll notice it's absence- this is because when you get caught violating NCAA rules, they don't let you take credit for those wins and any championship banners you may have must be taken from the rafters. One NCAA final four, one vacated NCAA final four....let's jump ahead to 2008 and move down south, to where the BBQ is on point, the basketball is fanatical and where apparently, you don't have to take your own SAT to be admitted there (this is my time to hate...really?!? you have to cheat to get into the U of Memphis- don't they have open enrollment?)...The second vacated NCAA final four Calipari will have is beacuse of...

...Derrick Rose, another critical component to Calipari's success (as Camby was, I know some of you young bucks may not remember Marcus as a baller as opposed to the Mr. Glass character he's become in his NBA career) is right in the middle of a scandal that will, if proven true, will change the face of college basketball for quite some time. Derrick Rose has been accused of two things, either of which would be a devistating blow to Memphis Basketball as well as any marketability Rose may have had for himself...1) he and three other Simeon HS (Chicago, IL) basketball players are "allegedly" to have had their grades changed on their transcripts, Rose's from a "D" to a "C" (or, as i like to call it, from inelegible to elegible) for one month (long enough to reflect it on the transcript), and then changed back later (hopefully, and ineffectively, to avoid detection). This is the more reasonable of the charges, one that if it happened, he at least has some degree of plausible deniability. I can imagine a world where students may have never even seen their transcripts. However, this is not a legitimate response for, 2) Derrick Rose "allegedly" had another student take his SAT examination. Any of you all that have taken any College Board standardized test know they're a little anal about making sure you are who you say you are, by having to provide a student and a picture, and they're evaluated by someone whose sole purpose is to make sure the exact accusation Derrick Rose is being accused of, having a sit-in take your examination, can't happen. I believe DRose did have someone take his examination. I would tell you definitively, but since Rose is now speaking about this through his lawyers, I can't give you a clear answer. but this is one of those simple things- if you took the examination yourself, come out and say it yourself. There's no risk in being honest, and saying I took the examination myself. the fact that, three days after the story breaks, a search for Derrick Rose saying "I didn't do that," is not available, which speaks volumes to me, more than anything he may have said, or had his lawyers say...

LeBron James- If Nike wants to really be haters, they would keep the current LeBron-Kobe puppet show on the air, except they need to make sure the Kobe puppet makes some reference to the Magic and DHoward, and then have the DHoward puppet come on and push the LeBron puppet off the screen. But really, what more could this guy have done during the playoffs. He literally saved the two games they won, and were, across the board, outplayed- No answer for Howard, no real answer for the pick and roll, no answer for Rashad Lewis (he's grown up from having to watch him cry in the Green Room during his draft), Mikael Piertus, who Warrior fans may remember having never made a shot when it counted, outscored the entire bench of the Cleveland Cavaliers. In retrsopect, it's as if Nike knew all along- you may have noticed the theme of "I've got a ring, where's yours?" can easily be kept with a commercial with Kobe kicking LeBron out, saying only Conference Champions can live in the house, and bring in a DHoward puppet.

But i hate for hate's sake...