Posts Tagged ‘Gus Griffin’

Charlie Brown and Those Who Believe in the Jay-Z, NFL Partnership

Friday, August 23rd, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

JZ

Over the past 3 years, I have written 6 different columns related to Colin Kaepernick.

My guess is that anyone who wanted my view could go to War Room Sports to read them and get a pretty good idea about my thoughts on the matter. Simply put, I am not sure that I have anything new to add to the discussion about the recently announced Jay-Z partnership with the NFL. Ironically, the column that most reflects my thoughts about this union wasn’t actually written about Colin Kaepernick.

CBIt was about Charlie Brown and Lucy.

Essentially, I compared sports fans of Washington DC teams to Charlie Brown trying to kick the football held by Lucy. No matter how much history and evidence that she would always pull the ball away just as old Chuck approached, the fans believed this time would be different.

Those who believe in the Jay-Z and NFL partnership are like Charlie Brown.

They go through intellectual contortions to rationalize embracing it as a substantive response to the issues raised by Kaepernick. Contortions that the great gymnast Simone Biles could not reproduce.

The most common tropes are as follows:

  • This is chess not checkers; as if Jay-Z has some Machiavellian strategy that will secure the elimination of police brutality and other forms of oppression;
  • If you are not at the table you are on the menu; which makes merely being in the presence of power the goal rather than wielding power toward the elimination of cannibalism; or
  • Let’s give it a chance and wait and see; which sounds like a form of faith described in the book of Hebrews. The problem with this is that there is no substance of what is hoped for, nor evidence of things not seen.

Then there are those who espouse that maybe Jay-Z will secure some business set asides. To that I ask, for whom? The other Black folks who are among the 1 percent, which are not as impacted by the issues Kaepernick raised? Or maybe preferential hiring of Black folks for seasonal minimum wage jobs with no benefits in stadiums, that essentially codify the working poor?

Upon what track record are these hopes based? It seems above question that Jay-Z has been very supportive of the families directly impacted by police brutality. That is a positive contribution that should not be dismissed.

It is also on the back end of the oppressive process.

JZ

To the extent that poverty has been criminalized in America, gentrification and the displacement that accompanies it is one of those foundational issues. Any analysis of the construction of the Barclays center in Brooklyn must conclude that Jay-Z was the primary pitchman for the project to the community and little to none of the promises made to sell the project were kept. In the process, a whole bunch of Black people were moved out. They are no less homeless or otherwise displaced just because a Black face was central in the causing their exodus.

Jay-Z’s take away: less than 1% percent ownership in the Nets plus whatever profit he gained from its eventual sale. Should we be hopeful because it amounts to more than 30 pieces of silver?

I just don’t understand what about this warrants hope. In fact, this partnership is about as organic as an arranged marriage. I would go as far as saying it was foreseeable and straight out of the textbook on Sedating an Uprising 101. In chapter 1, it is clearly outlined that the ruling class throw the masses one whom they like to quell the revolt. That person discourages any further radical descent suggesting that any and all solutions must come from the very systems that are at the root of the problems to begin with.

In the end, the only people to benefit will be Jay-Z, his class comrades, who will be the only ones to make out from any business goodies secured, and the NFL shield, which provides cover for the “owners”.

As sobering as it is to come to the reality of how little this partnership will make a difference, it is as important to understand those who espouse the aforementioned tropes. They are as follows:

  • Affinity cheerleaders are those who think that Jay-Z will advocate for them just because he is
    Black….the demographic disproportionately adversely affected by the issues raised by Kaepernick. If you believe that you are engaging in willful naivety. Same skin is not always kin. It should be remembered that affinity is broader than just race. It can include gender, religion, etc.;
  • Cult of personality followers are those who are so obsessed with the person that they refuse to engage in any critical analysis of the person’s behavior and record. Anytime the word cult is used to describe a group, it is not good;
  • Opportunists are those who know nothing of substance will come from the partnership but see the platform as an opportunity to advance their own individualistic agenda. In this sense they are not Charlie Brown. Such are among the least trustworthy personalities in that they are not driven by any set of principles or have any interests in changing the systems of oppression, but only advancing their own place within such systems;

An underlying factor in all of the above is a lack of class analysis, which explains why poor Black folks think a billionaire rapper is on their side.

There is a hope.

Within 2 months of writing the Charlie Brown piece about the futility of Washington sports fans rooting for their teams, the Capitals won their first Stanley Cup title. So maybe I don’t know what the hell I am talking about! So, to all of those who believe that this partnership is something positive, go ahead take a run and try to kick the damn ball yet again. Lucy represents Jay-Z and the NFL. Charlie Brown represents you!

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Time to Grant Hall of Fame Pardons to the Old Raiders

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

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Yet another old Raider has passed away without getting his just NFL Hall of Fame (HOF) call.

This time it was wide receiver Cliff Branch at the age of 71. A few years ago, it was his longtime quarterback (QB) Kenny “Snake” Stabler, whom was not inducted until after death.

Along with Bob Hayes, Branch, more than any other track athlete, made the successful transition to impact NFL receiver. He was one of the most feared deep threats of his era and unlike Renaldo Nehemiah, whom the 49ers attempted to convert, Branch could actually catch.

The case for Branch is so simple, even a die-hard Steeler fan who hated the local Northern California Raiders at the height of their storied 70s rivalry, can acknowledge its merits. I can say without hesitation that Branch was as every bit as good as Steelers HOF receiver Lynn Swann. His career numbers are better and he certainly had more longevity.

There has been a disturbing trend of former Raiders with legitimate, though debatable, HOF claims, who have died without getting the call.

The list includes the following:

 

  • Defensive End Lyle Alzado passed away in 1992. He was a Raider in mindset long before coming to the team. His pass rushing was elite, but difficult to document because the stats were not kept until 1982, which was the later part of his career. During that strike-shortened 9 game season of 1982, Alzado had 7 sacks as a pass rushing specialist;
  • Safety Jack Tatum died in 2010 and was simply one of the most intimidating players in NFL history. He laid the groundwork for other hard-hitting safeties, such as Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley, and Sean Taylor. All were better players than Tatum, but Tatum held his own with 37 career interceptions, including a career-high 7 in his final season. They called him “The Assassin”;
  • Tight End Todd Christensen passed away in 2013 and was a 5-time Pro Bowler, with numbers remarkably similar to those of fellow Raider Dave Casper, who is in the HOF and whom he replaced. He led the league in receptions twice.

Then there is offensive lineman Steve Wisnewski, who at least is alive, and was an 8-time Pro-Bowler.

A case can be made for Tom Flores being one of only 3 men to both play for and be head coach on a Super Bowl (SB) winning team. He was among the first Latino starting QBs. My apprehension on Flores is his unremarkable Seattle coaching tenure. His induction would bring other 2-time situational SB winning coaches like George Seifert and Mike Shanahan screaming bloody murder, and neither of them is deserving.

Then there are those Raiders that their fan base lobby for without merit, to include Lester Hayes and Jim Plunkett.

Hayes had 20 interceptions in a two-year period to include 13 in 1980, when he won Defensive Player of the Year. Here is the secret about corners with a lot of interceptions: it tells you that offenses know that they can be beat. HOF corners Deion Sanders, Darryl Green, and Mike Haynes never led the league in interceptions. Why? Because QB’s knew the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. The Raiders would learn of Hayes’ flaws after 1980, when the league would outlaw the stickem Hayes used excessively. It led them to acquire Haynes in 1983. From that point forward, Hayes never had to cover a number 1 receiver.

Jim Plunkett was one of the truly great comeback stories in NFL history in 1980. Nothing can ever take that away. He is also among the first known Native American QBs. With that being said, he has one of the most absurd HOF cases I have ever heard. He is a classic example of giving an individual player too much credit for team/organizational accomplishments. Plunkett did not win 2 Super Bowls. The Raiders teams of which he was the QB did. Yes, he was MVP against the Eagles, but that award could have as easily gone to linebacker Rod Martin, who had 3 interceptions. He was selected to go to a total of zero pro bowls. At no time was Jim Plunkett one of the best QBs in football. Raiders fans exaggerate about Jim Plunkett the way Black Washington fans exaggerate about Doug Williams. Both were social trailblazers to some extent, and in the right place at the right time and played exceptionally well in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t make either of them Hall of Famers.

There are three primary reasons for the reluctance to recognize the Raiders. The first is the large shadow of my Pittsburgh Steelers. During the 70s the Steelers won 4 SBs to the Raiders 1 and held a 3-2 playoff edge on the Raiders. Simply put, the better team’s players have been recognized more. Steelers HOF linebacker Jack Ham was honest enough to admit that were he not a Steeler, he might not be in the HOF. The same can be said of several Celtics in the basketball HOF. The second reason is their “over the line” style of play, which many called “dirty”. I personally think that this is unfair. Short of safety George Atkinson’s assault on Swann, the Raiders were no “dirtier” than my Steelers, the 85 Bears, the Parcells era Giants, Shannahan’s cut blocking Broncos, or Buddy Ryan’s Eagles. They did embrace the image more than anyone else and I suspect that turned some HOF voters off.

fg0jrpoyoqt1jeuxbortAs I see it, by far the number one reason the Raiders have been snubbed of HOF recognition is the Godfather of “RaiderNation” himself, the late Al Davis and his endless feud with the league. Even his own HOF call was unjustly delayed. It goes back to the AFL/NFL battles for elite college players in the 1960s. If one listened to Davis, he beat the NFL every time, which is grossly misleading. He did win the legal battle to move to Los Angeles, which only added to the organization’s rebel image. As the Cowboys were marketed as America’s team, the Raiders were the team of the counter-culture. Even after the rapper Ice Cube uttered the line, “Stop givin’ juice to the Raiders Cause Al Davis never paid us”, he also admitted to how influential the team was on the Los Angeles based hip hop group NWA.

But Davis also engaged in a lot of frivolous litigation, such as suing to keep marketing rights in Los Angeles after the team had already returned to Oakland. Most of that stuff never saw the inside of a court and was summarily dismissed. This infuriated blue blood owners to include the Rooneys of Pittsburgh. Al Davis could also be petty as was clear with his feud with future HOF running back Marcus Allen.

But I suspect the die had been cast long before this. NFL ownership is the most exclusive sports club in the world and admittance to such comes with the understanding that you will go along with the program. The forces of the 1970 NFL/AFL merger got Davis admitted. Had the owners been able to vote on him alone, I suspect he would not have been accepted. He just was not “their kind of people”. He grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and often envisioned his team as an NFL version of the groundbreaking organization that broke baseball’s color barrier. He was never the “go along to get along” type and for that and the cumulation of all else mentioned, his players have paid in the form of HOF snubs.

It’s time that it stopped.

Next year, to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the NFL, the HOF class will be expanded to as many as 20. Let’s hope some long overdue and deserving Raiders get the nod. Even the Hatfields and McCoys called a truce. Surely the ghost of Al Davis, the Raiders, and HOF voters can do the same.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

The Righteous Indignation of Trent Williams

Monday, July 29th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Maybe the hold out of Washington All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams is just about getting a new or reworked contract. He has 2 years left on his current deal, with cap hits of $14.7 million this year and $14.6 million in 2020.

Maybe Williams wants to be like or surpass the other Trent…as in Raiders offensive lineman Trent Brown, who became the highest paid offensive linemen in league history. He will earn $36.75 million guaranteed and an average annual salary of $16.5 million per year.

After all, he holds ALL the leverage in this situation for a number of reasons:

  • He is arguably the best left tackle in the game, which protects the typical right throwing QB’s blind side;
  • His probable replacement, Ereck Flowers’ pass blocking has been described as “a backwards skating 300 pounder”. That is an attempted humorous way of saying that he isn’t very good;
  • Instability at this position makes it all the more difficult to throw your first round QB to the wolves

If it is just about money, all of the above explain the situation and there really is nothing unique about this. A “financial apology” may smooth over all animosity.

I suspect there is more to this hold out and recent reports support my suspicion.

In the winter, Williams underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his head. It was determined to be malignant, which means that it was made up of cancerous cells.

Subsequent reports say that Williams was unhappy with how the team doctors handled his situation and some have even said he seeks a trade as opposed to playing for the team again. Due to health privacy laws, the team is limited in what it can say about this matter without Williams’ consent.

Be that as it may, Williams is not the only player unhappy with the team doctors and overall handling of injuries. Keep in mind that Washington has been the most injury-riddled team in the NFL in each of the past 2 seasons. They put 26 players on the injured reserve in 2017 and topped that with 28 in 2018.

Football is a violent game and injuries must be baked into the planning recipe. To lead the league in injuries is bad luck.

To lead the league in consecutive years is extremely abnormal.

The team has tried a number of responses, including ice made of Gatorade.

That was not an attempt at humor but is true.

There are a number of theories, including the team’s tendency to draft players with an injury history under the thinking that they would be financial bargains. Say whatever one wants about owner Daniel Snyder, but he has no history of being cheap.

All of this leads me to believe two things: 1) that the prospect of Cancer is as terrifying for a 300 plus pound multimillionaire as it would be for any one of us, and 2) that such fear made him more conscious of his medical treatment than perhaps he had been before. More than a few of his teammates have echoed his concerns and stand by him.

The NFL’s “M.O.” is to treat players the way a factory treats a conveyor belt. When they are of no more use, they are discarded and replaced. Players are not conveyor belts in a factory. They are human beings. The fact that they are very well paid human beings does not mean that they forfeit the desire to play with their grandchildren one day.

Then again, it could be just about money. I’m sure that some will utter the tired trope, “he signed a contract and he should honor his contract”. Teams cut players under contract all the time. In other words, it’s only a contract as long as the team says it’s a contract. Under those conditions, holding out is the player’s only direct leverage.

Either way, I’m on the side of the players, which is to say labor. You need go no further than the health struggles of retired players to know how little the NFL cares about its most valuable asset and how hard it has resisted the moral responsibility to take care of them. When one considers all of this, Trent Williams’ indignation is more than righteous!

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

The Big Three and Serena’s Reality

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Tennis

I hope that even the peripheral tennis fan can appreciate what we are witnessing from the men’s “Big Three” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.

Why? Because they just may be the best threesome of athletes to overlap one another during their prime in any one sport, EVER!

When I say best three, I mean three athletes whom all have a legitimate G.O.A.T. claim.

Think about it for a bit: in baseball we had Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and later Ken Griffey Jr and Barry Bonds, but it is hard to find a 3rd peer.

In basketball we had Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. For all of their ambassadorship and marketing of the game, neither Magic nor Bird have a valid claim.

In football we had Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. But is there really a good argument to put either Manning or Brees over Joe Montana?

When talking about Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, it’s hard to find “buts” to either’s claim beyond one of the other two.

No disrespect to Rod Laver, who won a calendar year grand slam in both 1962 and 1969.

All of the Big 3 have won the career grand slam.

Bjorn Borg’s capacity to go from clay to grass, winning the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, 3 straight years, is the second hardest thing to do in tennis, behind the calendar year Grand Slam. But he never won a hard-court major.

We almost never talk about Pete Sampras and his 14 major titles. But he never won the French Open.

Other than the calendar year Grand Slam, there is nothing all 3 members of this group have not done.

How dominant have they been?

 

  • They have won 50 of the past 58 major titles.

 

  • They have all 3 made the final four of a major 12 times in 13 years. In six different years, all three made it to the final four of all the majors. If not for injuries, especially to Djokovic and Nadal, it would likely have been more.

 

  • The major title count to date is Federer with 20, Nadal with 18, and Djokovic with 16. They are ranked in reverse 1, 2, and 3 in the world.

 

Tennis’ Big Three has been to Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, and David Ferrer, what Michael Jordan was to John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing.

While Federer is clearly a lion in the winter, he is still formidable. He played his A game in last Sunday’s Wimbledon final and was still not able to beat Djokovic on his B game.

The only frustrating thing about the Big Three is identifying heirs to their throne. They are all over 30 and can’t go on forever. So, who in the hell is next?

Three have the game but all have glaring flaws:

Alexander Zverev has all the tools but just seems uninterested at times and has even all but admitted as much.

Stefanos Tsitsipas also has the game but lacks experience.

And then of course there is the mercurial Nick Kyrgios, who blatantly admits that he does not train. Even with that, his record against Nadal and Djokovic is 5-4. The guy has never lost to Novak Djokovic.

On the women’s side, we Serena fans are going to have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that she may never win another major.

SWIt’s not a question of capacity. When her serve is right, she still beats every other player. The problem is that increasingly the serve is not right and her “B” game is no longer good enough to survive the unforced errors and beat upper echelon players, as it once was. There are times when I cannot get the image of Mays, Manning, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Muhammad Ali towards the end of their careers out of my head. I could not bear to see Serena go out the way that they did.

One of the things that makes a great athlete is a fierce stubbornness. It, likewise, is also what keeps them around beyond their greatness. She certainly has earned the right to leave when she is good and ready. I just hope she is ready before Mother Time forces the issue.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

 

Megan Rapinoe: One of My New Favorite Athletes

Monday, July 8th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

United States' Megan Rapinoe celebrates after scoring the opening goal from the penalty spot during the Women's World Cup final soccer match between US and The Netherlands at the Stade de Lyon in Decines, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, July 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) ORG XMIT: XAF175

United States’ Megan Rapinoe celebrates after scoring the opening goal from the penalty spot during the Women’s World Cup final soccer match between US and The Netherlands at the Stade de Lyon in Decines, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, July 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) ORG XMIT: XAF175

I am not a soccer fan.

I could not explain the basic rules of the game, nor tell you much of the history, other than Brazil holding the most World Cups.

While I understand it to be the world’s most popular sport, I really cannot provide a comprehensive explanation as to why.

And yet with all my superficial understanding of the game, the one thing that I am crystal clear about is my admiration for Women’s American Soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Who is Megan Rapinoe? She grew up gay in Redding, California, which is just north of my birth town of Sacramento. While I know nothing about growing up gay, I do know Northern California. Aside of the San Francisco Bay area, it is culturally California’s version of “Middle America” and the South. It is politically an oasis of red among a sea of California blue. It is unabashedly pro-Trump.

Rapinoe was also the first white athlete to follow Colin Kaepernick’s lead and kneel during the national anthem in 2016. Her stance made such an impact that the U.S. Soccer authorities implemented a rule that mandated standing. So she has continued her protest by refusing to sing the National Anthem.

It was not a one time, “follow the trend” stance. When recently asked about being invited to the White House if the women win the World Cup, Rapinoe responded, “I doubt we get invited and even if we do, I would not go ‘to the fucking White House’.”

Some will say she is one of many that have rejected such invitations under the current administration. What makes her stance so admirable? For me the answer is the potential greater Black LGBT alliance. This is important because one of the most reliable tools the empowered use against the masses is “divide and conquer”. We can certainly continue to struggle for Black liberation on our own. And we will. LGBT can do the same for their human rights. I am sure that it will. The same can be said of undocumented citizens, labor, and a number of other marginalized demographic groups. But we would be much stronger working in coalition with others as opposed to working in silos.

While I am sure there are racist factions among the LBGT community, I am far more familiar with anti-gay bias among Black folks. They fall into one of two categories: ideological bigots, which are divided between the Evangelical or Nationalist factions; and the simple garden variety bigots. The primary reasoning seems to be the notion that comparing the LGBT movement with the Civil Rights movement trivializes our struggle. It is true that no two movements are exactly interchangeable. It is also true that the mere option of non-revelation is a tool that most Black folks have never had to combat the terrorism that we have endured. LBGT have such a tool.

Rapinoe acknowledges the distinctions when she said, “I haven’t experienced racial profiling, police brutality, or the sight of a family member’s body lying dead in the street. But I cannot stand idly by while there are people in the country who have had to deal with that kind of heartache”.

That, in my mind, is what an ally sounds like, and her actions have been consistent with her words.

What remains a mystery to me is the basic question around homophobia, for which I have yet to get any rational answer: How does the relationship, love, or even just sex, between consenting adults adversely affect your life? On the movement level: How does rejecting willing allies advance our agenda?

From my experience, the answers to these questions have routinely been based primarily on bigotry masquerading as cultural nationalism or religious integrity.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City. It is considered to be the moment when a culmination of police brutality led the LGBT community to say enough is enough. And therein lies the basis for alliances. The same state sponsored harassment that LBGT was subjected to at Stonewall harassed Black folks in Selma, Alabama in 1965 and undocumented immigrants today. Those who use homophobia as a tool to stigmatize and oppress, often do the same with racism. Those who use racism often do the same with xenophobia. Those who use xenophobia often do the same with misogyny. The tools of oppression are equal opportunists in protecting the interests of the empowered class. Thus we must have the same openness in accepting willing reciprocal alliances. We need not have the exact same experiences. We only need to recognize injustice because as Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

It is against this backdrop that Megan Rapinoe and many others from the LGBT community have expressed a desire to align with other struggles for human rights. It is only reasonable that they expect reciprocal solidarity for their human rights. If you have an issue with that, their sexual orientation isn’t the problem. You are!

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

KD and Kawhi’s Revenge

Friday, June 28th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

kevin-durant-kawhi-leonard

He came out blazing!

For the opening minutes of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, you would have never known that Kevin Durant (KD) was dealing with what could be a career-ending injury.

He looked every bit the basketball phenom we have come to know. That is a combination of Bob McAdoo, George Gervin, and Dirk Nowitzki…only a better defender than either (did you see him at 7-foot stay in front of 6-foot guard Fred VanVleet?). Among non-centers, I consider KD to be the most difficult matchup for a defender in NBA history.

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Then Achilles arose and that is where we are today. This week, Durant declined his $31.5 million option to remain with the Warriors, which makes him an unrestricted free agent. While it is still in doubt whether or not Durant will ever be what he once was, make no mistake that multiple NBA teams will be willing to roll the dice that he will and offer him a super max contract.

KLLast year at this time, when Kawhi Leonard refused to play due to his injury, his basic interest in the game of basketball was being questioned. As a result, the San Antonio Spurs, which many consider to be among the most stable franchises in all of sports, traded him. Today, after leading the Raptors to an NBA title, he has a legitimate claim to be the best player in the game. He is also now an unrestricted free agent and will get a super max deal.

Overall, both KD and Kawhi get the last laugh…good for them. However, why do so many feel that it is their place to decide if someone is or is not hurt, and when a player should or should not play?

There are so many factors to be considered when it is determined if a professional athlete, less than 100%, should or should not play. Yet, rarely is there a narrative from us fans/media that considers all of those factors.

The most common line of thinking is something like this from a recent talk radio caller; “KD knew the risks and chose to play anyway. Professional athletes are obsessively competitive and always want to play, otherwise they likely would not have made it to this level. It is what they do. Those reading any more into this are over-analyzing. After all, one can walk outside and be struck by lightning”.

This vacuum analysis is based on the false premise that the decision to play was ultimately KD’s. That simply was not true. The ultimate decision maker is the organization. The vacuum of which I speak assumes that nothing external to KD’s line of thought drove the decision. The ridiculous and insulting notion that the Warriors are better without him was not a factor. Toxic masculinity, which exists in varying degrees on all male sports teams, that says, “You tough it out and play through injury”, was not a factor. The fact that the Warriors were down 3-1 and KD was their only viable hope of getting back into the series was not a factor. Finally, his pending free-agency option was not a factor.

Anyone that believes any of this is delusional beyond imagination.

Without going into the thinly-veiled homophobic tone of “he is soft”, there is the condescending arrogance that we know their bodies better than they do. Even the “ok” from team doctors is suspect because…he/she is the TEAM’S doctor and thus has an inherent conflict of interest. Also, just because people would have played hurt “back in the day” does not mean they should today. Once upon a time people worked without wages. That does not make it a valid consideration for labor today. Finally, there is the notion that because they make a lot of money, they should play short of being on a deathbed. In fact the opposite makes more sense. If we speak in terms of the professional athlete’s body being his most valuable commodity, then why would he risk compounding an injury by playing hurt?

One thing about the journey of KD and Kawhi is that they were both once considered low profile personalities. They were the humble, anti-showboat type of athletes that fans wanted to root for…that is until they did not provide the labor that was expected. Today, both are cautionary tales that despite all the fame and money, many fans, media, and especially owners see professional athletes as chattel.

Speaking of “owners”, this mindset is why NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, to his credit, is paying attention to the designation of “owner”. In a country where Black men were once literally property, and in a league where they make up nearly 75% of the players, referring to their “bosses” as owners should be more than a dog whistle. Of course, formal Chattel Slavery that once existed in America is no more. But as long as so many feel it their place to tell a grown man when he is and isn’t hurt, should or should not play, it will be a reminder that the slave owner’s mentality is in the present, alive and well.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

The Curious Obsession with the Black Athlete’s Smile

Friday, June 21st, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

ZW

(Originally published on June 20, 2019)

When Zion Williamson goes number one in the NBA draft tonight, many platitudes will be offered. Some will be completely basketball based, such as his explosiveness, his “handle” (dribbling ability) etc. Others will not have anything to do with basketball, such as his humble beginnings and the one that annoys the hell out of me most will be, “he has such a great smile!”

I have been a sports fan for my entire conscious life. I am now 52 years old and not once can I recall sports commentators swooning over the smile of a White athlete the way they do over that of a Black athlete.

The Black athlete’s smile is one of many “dog whistle” codes in sports used to discuss race while maintaining plausible deniability that one is in fact talking about race. Others are “how hard he works” and “how scrappy he is”. Translation: White. Then there is “God-given talent” and “head case”. Translation: Black

Surely, some will say that I am over-reacting and that it is really just a simple compliment that actually could lead to lucrative commercial endorsements for the Black athlete. There certainly is something to the endorsement angle. My contention is that the Black athlete’s smile is selling more than a product or service to America. It sells the assuaging of White guilt for America’s past AND present transgressions and oppression of Black people. The Black athlete’s smile reassures America that everything is all right and that Black people are content and have no interest in rising up and revolting.  There is no better platform for the delivery of this reassurance than one in which the highest profile Black men in America reside and that would be professional sports. Not only are they the most recognizable, but they are, relatively speaking, the biggest, fastest, and strongest. If they are reassuring, there is little reason to fear the rest of us.

In reality, it is just the opposite. The professional Black athlete’s life is so diametrically at odds with that of the masses of Black people from a material perspective, to the point of it being a total misrepresentative sample. The rebels of Ferguson and Baltimore should be what America pays more attention to than the smile of the Black athlete.

What is fascinating about this is the fact that it is not at all a conscious process. Even marketers, who correctly think that Zion Williamson would be a good pitchperson, do not fully understand the WHY. We have been so well schooled in the do’s and don’ts of racial etiquette and social mores to the point that we act and react on automatic pilot.

That etiquette has been interrupted by the current presidential administration which has unmasked and put away all of the previously agreed upon rules regarding race. At the same time, the president has made it blatantly clear how he feels about Black athletes, when he referred to NFL players who kneeled in protest to racial injustice, overwhelmingly Blacks, as “Sons of Bitches”.

Perhaps now, more people can understand why the great sportswriter William C. Rhoden called his book, “40 Million Dollar Slaves”. One of its central points is that regardless of the Black athlete’s wealth, his ultimate role is his usefulness to White America, be it from an entertainment standpoint, commercial standpoint, or psychological guilt relief.

The good news is that the Black athlete is perhaps more conscious of these factors than at any time since the 1960s. We have the various intersectional movements to thank for this to include Black Lives Matter.

If America is interested in moving forward on the issue of race, it must pay much more attention to the pain and experience of everyday Black folks. One way to do this would be to honestly assess, no matter how uncomfortable it may be, the legacy of Slavery and Jim Crow. The current reparations discussions in Congress is a place to start. If we have that honest assessment, we will come to understand that all of the combined wealth of the Black athlete to include Michael Jordan and LeBron James would be pennies on the dollar compared to the wealth created by slavery and inherited by White America, be it in terms of privilege and or capitol.  That reality cannot be dismissed with a smile.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Should Computers Call Balls and Strikes?

Friday, June 14th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

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About a month ago, much to my surprise, I received a notice in the mail from the State of Florida, for a speeding ticket. It had my correct license plate number and declared the vehicle was registered in the State of Maryland. This is certainly not a new experience for me. I am a “lead foot” and have earned many speeding tickets in my day.

There were two problems: 1) the car in the picture was not mine; and 2) I have never driven in the State of Florida in my entire life.

Therefore, I responded via the online link, explaining what I previously stated, and attached my work hours for that fateful July 30, 2018 day, as well as a picture of my actual car in a recent “legitimate” speeding ticket I received.

This past week, I received an email notification that my case was closed and thus I can save the $2 fine.

This experience reminds me of this ongoing debate in baseball to have computers take the place of umpires calling balls and strikes.

As you may guess, this debate is largely a generational one, with the opponents of this idea, who are disproportionately older, insisting that this would take away from the tradition of the game, and that mistakes in baseball…like life…are unavoidable.

The proponents, younger and much more comfortable with technology, insist that this would add consistency to the most common calls in the game, which are balls and strikes.

They are both wrong, albeit for different reasons.

Baseball traditionalist are among the most sanctimonious assholes in the sports fan world. They are all worked up over all proposed changes to the game, just on the tradition tip. They often have zero pragmatic objections. They are in the same category as the people who cried “Armageddon” because some wanted old movies colorized. They had a similar reaction to the notion of inter-league play. Today, we hardly even notice when the Yankees play the Padres. They are, by definition, conservative, and surely it is not necessary to highlight the record of such mindsets when in charge, be it baseball, or the country.

The proponents are wrong as well because they are grossly overestimating the improvement this technology will make. This notion that if you see the ball on TV go through the outlined strike zone that it is in fact a strike is ludicrous. Why? To put it simply, I paraphrase the words of the recently departed Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys: “Your mind is playing tricks on you”.

The greatest weapon in the arsenal of a major league pitcher is not velocity/speed or big movement, as can be with a curveball. The greatest weapon is late movement. The sliders and especially the cut fastball or cutter can move 4-6 inches as it approaches the plate. So, though it may appear to have crossed the plate in the strike zone, that just is not necessarily so and the technology is not going to necessarily reveal such. The cutter in particular is the primary reason the great Mariano Rivera could get professional hitters to swing at pitches that looked as if they would be strikes or take pitches that looked as if they would be balls.

The experiment is being tried in the Independent Atlantic League as we speak but the sample results will not tell us much. Several modifications to the mound and distance to home plate have been made to the point that it simply will not be an apples to apples comparison.

I would like to be confident in an improved product should this be implemented but for all the reasons I have noted, there just is no basis to believe we will get that. Not even the fact that the technology is supposedly the same Doppler radar used for weather forecasts. Are we really suggesting that the weather man has never been wrong? This technology has actually already been used to evaluate umpires and according to one assessment, it missed 500 pitches in

April alone and that did not mean they called them wrong. They did not call them at all.

Therefore, while I have no objection to the concept of a computer calling balls and strikes, the reality is the technology is not as close to an improved product as its proponents would have you believe.

As was the case with my mystery speeding ticket from Florida, sometimes the technology just gets it flat out wrong.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Why LeBron James and Walmart Do Not Make a Winning Team

Wednesday, June 5th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

LBJ

I am a huge LeBron James fan, both for his on-court play and off-court efforts. I have long believed that most of the criticism of him has been spiked “hater-ade” with little substantive basis.

Having said that, if James’ haters have been waiting for something with a little more meat on which to chew, he has given it to them on a silver platter. I am speaking of his collaboration with Walmart to “combat hunger”.

On the surface, it looks like a laudable effort. It is certainly a public relations coup for Walmart. Folks are indeed hungry in the wealthiest country on Earth and they do not have the luxury to be picky about from where their next meal comes.

I get that.

We all should get that it is important to look at root causes and when we do that with Walmart and hunger in America, as the great sport writer Dave Zirin points out, “it is more of the problem than the solution”.

We should be clear about what Walmart is. The heir to the founder, Sam Walton, is worth about $145 billion. It is the largest private employer in the United States, with 1.3 million employees. Its 2018 revenue was over $500 billion and is projected to clear that number in 2019, in no small part due to the corporate tax rate being cut from 35% to 21%. We should also understand that thanks to other corporate loopholes, Walmart is unlikely to even pay the 21%.

We should be just as clear about what Walmart is. It is fanatically anti-union (Click HERE to view Walmart’s anti-union employee training video). It pays its average cashier about $8.48 per hour. These meager wages, in addition to the fact that some 600 thousand of its employees are part-time, are the principle reasons that about half of Walmart employees experience food insecurity. How insecure: a significant number of Walmart employees actually have to access public assistance in the way of food stamps just to get by.

Think about that the next time a “supply side” tax cut advocate promotes this nonsense: Walmart got a 14% tax cut and still will not raise wages to keep its employees from having to access food stamps.

This type of “corporate welfare” is the primary motivation behind the recent bill introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, targeting some of America’s largest corporations. It is called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing out Subsidies Act (or the “Stop BEZOS” Act). The bill would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart for money their employees receive in federal benefits.

So essentially, what LeBron is doing is aligning with the fox to guard the hen house.

Now, Walmart would respond by likely saying that they in fact are raising their floor for salaries.

That is true. It will be raising its minimum wage to $11 per hour this year.

The raises will be financed by the recent closing of 10% of their Sam’s Clubs, which amounted to about 11 thousand jobs. So essentially, it was a shell game or Ponzi scheme. Given its tax breaks and poverty wages to begin with, Walmart deserves no more credit for this than my mugger would for bringing me a get-well card in the hospital.

Walmart is certainly not alone. Such corporations facilitate yet another shell game when one looks at the unemployment number being at 4%. How? By suppressing wages and hours, it insures that a number of people must take a second and sometimes third job.

Some may be asking now, why this is your or my business how LeBron attempts to address a need as pressing as hunger.  He has a right to donate his time and money in any way he sees fit. To that, I say that the issue is not what he does or does not have a right to do with his money and time. It is clear he has such a right. The issue is how effective are such efforts when allied with an entity so culpable in exasperating the problem he is trying to address. That is to say, between its employees having to rely on public assistance and the sizeable tax cut, Walmart is essentially being subsidized by our tax dollars.

That is what makes it not only our business but also our obligation to call out all who allow their platform to be used to provide Walmart cover. Silence would be tacit approval.

Nevertheless, real solutions for these issues of systemic origins require systemic analysis. When one engages in such analysis, it becomes clear: be the issue hunger, homelessness, or student loan debt, there simply will not be a cadre of individual heroes that will come to the rescue. These systemic and structural issues are foreseeable in a capitalistic society. They will, therefore require systemic and structural solutions. These solutions can begin when we decide collectively as a society that food, education, housing, among other needs, are human rights and not mere privileges for those who can pay.

This is not about telling LeBron to “shut up and dribble”. It is about making it clear when he is dribbling out of bounds. Teaming with an entity like Walmart, which compounds hunger in America, is way off the court.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Laker Dysfunction and #MeToo

Thursday, May 30th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 18: (L-R) Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss attend Kobe Bryant's jersey retirement ceremony during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center on December 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 18: (L-R) Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss attend Kobe Bryant’s jersey retirement ceremony during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center on December 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

When my Lakers signed LeBron James last year, no one was happier about the occurrence than yours truly. I was straight up “Peacocking” the purple and gold! I even wrote a piece for War Room Sports on the subject:

PE

 

 

 

 

10 Reasons Why LeBron and the Lakers Make Sense

I was never under any illusions that they were ready to challenge the mighty Warriors, however, I at least expected respectability and it looked promising early.

Today it looks anything but promising.

My Lakers look like the New York Knicks west. In fact, over the past 6 years the two franchises have lost the exact same number of games.

So why was I so wrong?

I have concluded that the basic answer to this is that I assumed that my Lakers had a minimal level of organizational competence. It is clear now that this does not exist. Oh how I long for the days of the great Jerry West at the helm or even the Mitch Kupchak era.

In addition, let us be clear: the organization did not pick LeBron. LeBron picked the organization. So I am not sure if it deserves any credit for that either.

Meanwhile, the missteps are too many to list, but let us just list a few:

 

  • After missing the playoffs a grand total of only 5 times in its illustrious history, my Lakers have now missed 6 straight years;
  • Failure to replace Magic Johnson’s position, which either validates the dysfunction or proves it was little more than ceremonial public relations to begin with;
  • Offering NBA title-winning coach Tyronn Lue an embarrassing 3-year deal and dictating to him whom he should have on his staff, when 5 years, and allowing a coach to hire his own staff is the accepted professional way of doing business; and
  • The Anthony Davis trade debacle.

 

All of this has happened under the ownership of Jeanie Buss.

This is where the #MeToo angle comes in and it is delicate.

At least one commentator implied that she is not capable of running the team because she is female.

That is just garden-variety sexism. Unfortunately, there are, and perhaps always will be people who will exploit any available platform to make an “I told you so” pronouncement about the capacity of women to manage, especially in venues that have been dominated by men.

After ferreting out this mindset and candidly assessing her stewardship of the team, there is only one conclusion: YOU ARE WHAT YOUR RECORD SAYS YOU ARE!  In the 6 seasons since the death of the late Dr. Jerry Buss, her father, the team is 163-329.  That is terrible for a man, a woman, or a mongoose. I get the sense that in the current climate, there is some hesitancy on the part of male commentators to call Buss out for this record.

In fairness to her, she allowed her brother to run the team for a few of these years, and to her credit, admits she should have let him go long ago. Firing your brother cannot be easy for anyone. In addition, she inherited the team from one of the greatest owners in the history of sports.  That’s not an easy act to follow. Most who are given the keys to the castle know little about how the castle actually is run. They simply do not come up through the ranks, which is how they might learn.

With that said, we should not feel sorry for Jeanie Buss. The #MeToo movement is long overdue for women having to deal with sexual advances and even worse on the job. The overwhelming number of these women are working class, poor, immigrant, and/or of color. Jeanie Buss is none of those things and thus her performance, as Lakers owner, does not warrant the protection of the movement. If Magic and general manager Rob Pelinka are fair game for the current sorry state of my Lakers, so too is Jeanie Buss.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports