Sunday, April 5, 2015

Kentucky: The Rebuttal

Great post by Kurly but this blog is going to get all Talk Show”ish” because a lot of what he said is wrong.  Let’s start with what he got correct.  Sports do need villains.  Being a huge Duke fan I’m used to being one and revel in knowing it.  The idea that if I can’t cheer for my team but I can cheer against somebody else is what keeps people interested.  I know if Duke or Wisconsin weren’t in the final I’d probably be cheering for whichever team I dislike least.  I think it’s a way better attitude to have 1 or 2 favorite teams and then dislike, but respect, the rest.  Nobody likes the people who always change teams to cheer for a winner.  Take your team from the bottom to top and cheer against the rest.
Now, let’s get to what he got wrong.  First let’s start with indentured servitude.  Completely inaccurate and almost an insult to what a true indentured servant was.  Everybody talks about the rules within college basketball but nobody mentions that baseball and football have similar rules.  The football rules are in place because the game is so much different from college to the pros and “kids” need a couple years to physically mature to be ready.  How is basketball different?  The NBA is not a ballet.  It’s physical and most kids aren’t ready to go straight there.  Do you wonder why “he’s got an NBA body” is spoken so loudly about some kids?  And what doesn’t get mentioned is for every Al Jefferson, Kobe Bryant, or Kevin Garnett there are 10 Robert Swifts, Korleone Young, or Sebastian Telfair’s.  Overall it’s a rule that benefit’s more than it hurts.  By the way, I say all this and I am completely against the rule.  I think it’s a sham to force kids to go to college.
Second, is this a failure for Kentucky?  Your gall darn right it is.  They openly wanted that undefeated season and the came up short.  By definition that is a failure.  Do I as a fan hate them because they were brash?  No.  Do I love that they failed?  Yes.  But not because I’m a poor excuse for a fan or human.  I detest Calipari and all he stands for (more on that later) and I love that the Harrison twins (the only Kentucky players I don’t like) are falling by the way side.  They want history and they didn’t get it.  Failure.

Third, and on to John Calipari.  First thing about him is this whole one and done bullsh!t that somehow came back this year.  That rule has been in effect for 10 years.  This is not new and he didn’t invent something that was revolutionary.  For some stupid reason ESPN decided to make it a story.  Um, Anthony Davis, John Wall, and Derrick Rose are all NBA veterans so let’s be done with the one and done talk.  That’s not the reason to hate him.  The reason to hate him is he is a dirty coach who has been caught numerous times.  Yes, I know pretty much all coaches do it but he’s been caught and that makes a difference.  I hate Bruce Pearl too and all these people who are cheering for him at Auburn out to be ashamed of themselves.  I hold no ill will towards giving these coaches second (and third) chances but I reserve the right to openly despise them.  Some people may hate Calipari for who he recruits or who he doesn’t graduate but it’s solely his arrogance and unacceptance of his past sins that irritate me.  “How can I be accountable for what 1 YMCA coach did or who took Derek Rose’s ACT for him?” is what he says.  Um, your program, you’re accountable.  And I won’t even mention that the first thing out of his mouth when his teams are taken to brink by Notre Dame that “his team didn’t play well” instead of “Notre Dame played a heck of a game”.  Whoops just did.  He’s an arrogant prick and I don’t like him, Bruce Pearl, or Rick Pitino for that matter. 
Last, I want to hit on the “doing it the right way” or “celebrating their demise”.  This is where I shake my head at Kurly.  See, the only thing worse than then ESPN’s talking heads are the knobs that pass as Sports Talk radio hosts in this city.  Homer, Gary Ellerson, and Sparky are as clueless as my wall.  I think half of them say stupid things to get reactions and the other half actually believe the non-sense that comes out of their mouths.  Now, I said the only thing worse than ESPN are these people but there’s another group that actually take it to another level…it’s the people who call in, write to JSOnline, or comment on twitter.  These non-intellectual mouth breathers ruin social media for people like me.  See, that’s the difference between Kurly and me.  I don’t listen to them or read their articles.  Why punish myself with the opinion of un-educated people?  It’s like listening to Bob and Brian for their sports opinion.  It makes no sense.  It’s why I follow about 7 people on twitter and choose to watch Packer games with only 2-3 guys.  I want to be surrounded by people who “get” the sport on my level.  The rest don’t matter, however, I completely understand Kurly’s stance.  I just don’t know why he continues to punish himself and then pontificate that the masses all think this stupid way.  True story…I watched the Packers lose to Seattle in a BW3’s and as soon as the game was over I texted a couple of my non-packer loving friends and told them a little piece of me was cheering for them to lose because 90% of the people there were idiots.


As I stated to begin, it was a great post by Kurly but I can’t agree with most of it.  I felt a need to post my “rebuttal” and I think there are a lot of people who share my thoughts.  My advice coming out though is to stop listening to sports talk, stop reading Bill Simmons, and find the handful of people who make sense and follow them.  Start with Jay Bilas and move from there.

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