Posts Tagged ‘Sports’
Are rookie contracts getting out of hand?
Sunday, December 19th, 2010Sports Has Become Soft!
Friday, December 10th, 2010The sports I grew up watching were a lot tougher and a lot more competitive. Now I have nothing against sportsmanship but what I have been seeing lately is utterly ridiculous.
In the NFL you are not allowed to hit anybody without giving the NFL a rebate, in the NBA you are not allowed to have any emotion without hurting your team by getting a technical foul.
I watched Lebron James go back to Cleveland and make jokes with his former teammates after an off-season where he basically called them all garbage. He chose to leave a team that won over 60 games to play with his two friends and a bunch of players that wouldn’t make it on the bus if this was an And 1 try out.
It is ridiculous. I see players in football and basketball knock each other down and then rush to pick up the player they just knocked down. “WHERE THEY DO THAT AT?” I sit back and think of the “Bad Boy” Pistons or the Pat Riley Knicks or Heat teams and imagine them picking up a player they just knocked down. YEAH RIGHT!
I sit back and wonder what Buddy Ryan would have said if Andre Watters or Wes Hopkins would have picked up a wide receiver they just knocked down! That would have been an offense comparable to Colonel Nathan Jessup ordering the code red on William Santiago.
I know why Sports have become this way. It’s an amalgamation of free agency, corporate sponsorships, and athletes becoming businesses themselves. When Tom Brady said he hates the Jets I got excited and thought “that’s the way it is suppose to be”. Stop being politically correct and telling people what they want to hear! Tell your opponent you hate them and then do your best to defeat them.
I guarantee if sports stopped being so soft, the contest would mean more to the athletes and we as fans would get better contests. More players should be like Tom Brady and hate their opponent. Then again Tom Brady wears Uggs so he is also soft. Oh well!
Michele Toler Visits The War Room to Chat About “Designer Baggage”!
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Fashion designer and author Michele Toler will join us in The War Room Thursday, December 16th, to discuss her new book “Designer Baggage” and whatever it is she THINKS she knows about sports!
Tune in Thursday, December 16th at 6pm EST to hear our conversation with Michele! To tune in, go to www.WarRoomSports.com and click the “Listen Live” button…or dial 323-410-0012 to listen live by phone.
In the meantime, check out the Designer Baggage Facebook page and purchase your copy of the book on the “info” tab of that page NOW!!! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Designer-Baggage/103457276589
And while you’re at it, join the War Room Sports Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/WarRoomSports!
We Got Next…For A Lot Less!
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
I like sports in general, but I have never been a huge basketball fan. This year that has changed. My 11 year old nephew has just discovered Derrick Rose and is now a basketball fan. I like to talk to him about his interests, so this year I have been watching a lot more basketball. We’ve attended a live game this season and even succumbed to purchasing the overpriced Direct TV NBA League Pass. Whenever I become a fan of something, I always wonder how much money people make doing whatever it is. So I went to the place I get all my answers, Google.
After a brief Google search, I learned about rookie salaries as well as veteran salaries. I learned that during the 2010-11 season, first round draft picks will make anywhere between 1 million and 4 million dollars during their first season. Veteran stars like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett will rake in about 13 million and 18 million respectively. While role players such as Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess should pocket approximately 2 million and 4.8 million dollars respectively. While I was Googling salaries of NBA players, I started to wonder how WNBA players salaries would compare to their male counter parts. What I found led me to ask this question, WHY IN THE HELL WOULD SOMEONE AGREE TO THIS?
The disparity between NBA salaries and WNBA salaries is just damn egregious. If my daughter told me she wanted to play in the WNBA, I’d tell her, she’s better off teaching. There is no possible way a woman could play in the WNBA if she didn’t love the game. Let’s look at the numbers. A WNBA player with 0-2 years of playing experience will make a minimum of 35,000 in 2010. 35,000 dollars, that’s it. This is four thousand dollars less than a General Manager at Wendy’s. What that means is that John Wall, the number one 2010 NBA draft pick can pay the number one 2010 WNBA draft pick’s (Tina Charles) salary about 114 times. The NBA has a sliding scale by which players get paid. The WNBA also has a similar chart, but it only has two rows, players with 0-2 years of experience and players with three or more years of experience. In 2010, a WNBA player that has three or more years experience will make at least 51,000 and max out at about 100,000. Are you kidding me?
It’s funny because just like the NBA, the WNBA has salary caps. The NBA Maximum Team salary cap for 2010 is 58 million dollars, while a WNBA team can spend at the most 800,000 dollars. This is hilarious considering the last pick in the first round 2010 NBA draft will make at least $ 1 million dollars for his first season.
WNBA players, often stay in college the whole four years and earn a degree. This is a good thing considering what their base salaries are. After they are done playing basketball for less money than IRS auditor makes, they are going to have to start a second career. I’m convinced; WNBA players have to love the game. Why else would they devote years to playing the game, when they could take their degrees to private industry and make way more money? I’m not naive, I know that the NBA is way more appealing and profitable than the WNBA, but I never would have guessed the gap between salaries was this big. Before retiring at the end of 2009, arguably the most marketable star of the WNBA, Lisa Leslie, was paid about 91,000. As if all of this information wasn’t bad enough, while NBA superstar Lebron James decided to tear down an entire franchise on the way to South Beach during his off season, WNBA players play in places such as Poland, Turkey and Israel to collect larger paychecks during theirs.
With all of this being said, if your daughter was a beast at basketball, and she came to you with a four year degree in one hand and a WNBA contract in the other, what would you tell her to do?
Monica Pierce, Guest Blogger for War Room Sports. Read more of her writing @ monicasthoughts.com.
Washington “Deadskin” theme song
Monday, December 6th, 2010Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson, Mike Vick and Stupid Fans
Friday, December 3rd, 2010Is Peyton Manning the best QB in Football?
Friday, December 3rd, 2010The Giants win the World Series and I don’t give a (S)ugar (H)oney (I)ced (T)ea!
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010First off I want to start this post by asking a question. Wtf did I use Sugar Honey Iced Tea in the title, when everyone knows what I meant? Isn’t the intent what’s important? And with that being said why did I just write WTF? And who puts both sugar and honey in their ice tea? I wonder about these things. Anyway congrats to the Giants for winning the World Series but I honestly could care less. It has nothing to do with the fact that they beat my Phillies. It just was not entertaining. I don’t know what it is but baseball is no longer entertaining to me.
I grew up with baseball as my favorite sport. My grandfather and I had season tickets and we would go to Phillies games and sit behind 3rd base and enjoy all of the games. I grew up watching Charlie Hayes, Steve Jeltz, Kevin Gross, Juan Samuel, Shane Rawley, and Von Hayes as my heroes (Although I hated Von Hayes because he seemed to strike out every at bat without swinging).
I would get to the games early and I met a lot of the Phillies players as well as visiting players. I got to see who appreciated the fans and who had no home training (If anybody knows or ever sees Andre “The Hawk” Dawson tell him I hope his sister or niece gets stuck in an elevator alone with Ben Rothlisberger).
I also grew up in the inner city and there really were not a lot of outlets to go and play baseball. I could however play basketball in any neighborhood and maybe that’s the reason why I fell in love with hoops.
Anyway back to the World Champion Giants. The only thing I personally found entertaining about the giants was how ugly a team they were. I mean is it me or did Tim Lincecum look like a lesbian woman (Nothing against lesbians The War Room loves lesbians, at least I do).
And their closer Brian Wilson looks like the old Wooly Willy (Pause) toy.
They had so many ugly players that I would laugh just watching them play but it had nothing at all to do with the game. Eventually I stopped watching because there were a lot better things to watch on TV. In fact I would rather watch any basketball or football game regardless of the teams instead of The World Series. In fact I would rather watch reruns of What’s Happening with the Givins Kids singing “Bubbling Brown Sugar”.
I often wonder where did my love for baseball go, but as I talk to others I realize that many feel the same way. I don’t know what baseball could do to win back fans but the numbers show they are losing fans to other sports. What’s your opinion? What could baseball do? Let The War Room Know!
James “The Blueprint” Williams AKA Jimmy of The War Room
Hall of Famers and All-Stars
Monday, November 1st, 2010As a sports fanatic I argue sports on a daily basis with my co-host, my friends, my family, my co-workers, people at the grocery store, people in Yoga class, people at the gas station, People at Wawa or anyone that wants to argue.
Often in these arguments we talk about who is the greatest, who is better than whom, or who is overrated. What bothers me most is when people say “Such and such is an all-star” or “Such and such is going to the hall of fame”. Don’t get me wrong I believe that making an all-star team or pro-bowl is an accomplishment, and I believe making a hall of fame is also an accomplishment but in my opinion those honors have been watered down.
Any time Jamaal Magloire makes an all-star team, or Derek Anderson makes a pro-bowl it diminishes your argument when you tell me a player is an all-star so they are great.
People know I am very critical of Brett Favre and it is not because he sends text messages to women as though they are meretricious, but it’s because he is looked at by some as the greatest QB of all time and it’s not true. People tell me about his statistics and I can make the argument that based upon his statistics he is not.
His numbers are as high as they are because he throws the ball more than anyone in the history of the game. All of the numbers that people quote are a joke. He has the most td’s and passing yards but he also has over 1,000 more passing attempts than anyone in the history of the game. If you throw the ball 30 times a game it would take you over 2 seasons to get 1,000 attempts. If you look at yds per attempt he doesn’t rank in the top 70. Passing attempts per td he is not in the top 40. So when you look deeper at his numbers you realize he is not as good as people believe. He has 503 tds but also has 492 combined interceptions and fumbles. And he has cost his team playoff games by throwing picks.
When I break these numbers down to people they tell me “Well Jimmy he is a first ballot hall of famer”. That may be true Joe Namath is in the hall of fame, and Joe Dumars is in the hall of fame. They do not have hall of fame numbers though. Joe Namath threw more picks than td’s but he was a likeable guy. Joe Dumars averaged 16 points and 4 assist per game and he is in the hall of fame. Andre Iguadola averages those numbers. Dumars was considered a good guy. The sports writers love Brett Favre. During Monday night football when he threw an interception they still praised him. There are NBA players in the hall of fame that averaged fewer than 10 pts per game. I have done the research and believe me there is more to getting in the hall of fame than being a great player.
So next time you have an argument please don’t use the cop out of he is a hall of famer or an all-star or pro bowler. The more average players that are voted to pro bowls or elected to hall of fames will lessen the potency of not only the honor but also your argument.
