Category: Sports

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Just Half-Ass It

I was sitting in Boston’s South Station for an hour or so last week, and I found myself  transfixed by Reebok’s new ad Run Easy campaign. Huge banners hung above the doors of the train station, bearing slogans that I found a little perplexing:

Run to the beat of your own drummer. Run Easy.

Conversation is fuel. Run Easy.

Enjoy the ride. Run Easy.

Why Hit the Wall? It hurts. Run Easy.

Why run till you can’t walk? Run Easy.

What are you Just Doing? Run Easy.

Congratulations. You can’t stand up. Run Easy.

A 10-minute mile is just as far as a 6-minute mile. Run Easy.

Did you beat your best time or just yourself? Run Easy.

There were a couple of Boston-specific banners:

Big Dig has set the pace. Run Easy Boston.

The British aren’t coming. The British aren’t coming. Run Easy Boston.

As I said, I was transfixed. Isn’t there a reason all sports-related marketing is aspirational? I can understand trying to subvert standard advertising tropes — those Sublymonal ads can be pretty funny — but this just goes beyond the pale. Sure, you don’t want to tell people that they’ll win the Boston Marathon if they buy your sneakers, but telling them that it’s okay to slack off?

In addition to these “Run Easy”s, each banner featured Reebok’s tagline beneath its logo: I Am What I Am. Now, I appreciate coming up with a slogan that puts us all in mind of the Torah and/or the greatest performance-enhancing-substance-abuser next to Barry Bonds, but in tandem with this campaign, it comes off as “Eh. Why bother? Running isn’t going to make me any better.”

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Cause? Effect?

According to ESPN.com, Ricky Williams tested positive for pot again. Obviously, that’s not news. The only reason I’m posting about it is because of this unintentionally funny paragraph from the story:

“Falling off the wagon is part of rehab,” a source said. “Based on the medical evidence in Ricky’s case, the doctors say it’s too early to come back. He had the positive test last month. Remember, he’s been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder — that’s a real disease and a good percentage of those folks self-medicate with substances like marijuana, often at the moment they are about to have a high level of social interaction.”

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Two words: Play offs

It’s NBA Playoff time, dear readers! There’s no chance on earth that the early games will be as exciting as last year’s, but that’s no reason not to watch!

To help you along, I offer up the inaugural Official VM NBA Playoff Preview! With commentary and predictions from a truly bizarre array of people, journalists (Mitchell Prothero and Tom Spurgeon), a law professor and author (Thane Rosenbaum), and some average schmoes (me, my brother, and my buddy Craig), this preview is bound to entertain, please, and provide no useful information for gambling!

So check it out and leave us your own darn predictions in the comments! Happy hoops!

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The Imus thing

I can’t muster up much energy to write about Imus’ firing. I’m not a listener, so I can’t characterize his show and “what he meant” or offer any other context-creating remark. I feel bad that this whole event has helped Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson consolidate their roles as Kings of All Black People In America, since they’re a couple of charlatans.

I do marvel over the fact that, while he got fired for making a dumb comment about female athletes, his comment had nothing to do with the most prevalent stereotype about female athletes.

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College whoops

I’ve learned a ton from reading Charley Rosen’s basketball columns, particularly his single-game analyses. He’s got a mailbag up this week, and it includes a vituperative response to the “NCAA or NBA” question:

Although I do not always agree with your opinions, I respect them because you seem to know a lot about the actual substance of the game. I know a few people who say that the NBA is not good basketball, and that college ball is much better in regard to defense and team work. They believe that college basketball is played the right way as compared to the showmanship that’s the mainstay of the NBA game. It seems that the college game is more focused on teamwork, while the NBA highlights individual stars. Is the college game really better? — Luke Ford, Minerva, Ohio

No, no, a thousand times no!

The college game is sloppy and the “amateur” players are prone to making innumerable mistakes. Which is why 20-point leads often vanish in a few minutes.

The defense seems to be good in the collegiate ranks only because the overall offense is so poor. Which is why the likes of J.J. Reddick and Adam Morrison struggle so much to score when they come to the NBA. And why so many of the NCAA’s scoring-average leaders in recent years can’t even play in the NBA: Ruben Douglas, Jason Conley, Ronnie McCollum, Alvin Young, Charles Jones, Kevin Granger, Greg Guy, Brett Roberts, Kevin Bradshaw, and so on.

The preponderance of zone defenses in NCAA competition assures that too many players never really learn how to play straight-up defense. Inferior (to the NBA) ball-handling, passing, ball-catching skills, footwork and overall creativity are additional reasons for college defenses appearing to be better than they really are. Which is why the primary difficulty for virtually every NBA rookie is playing defense.

And don’t mistake passing per se for teamwork. The truth is that most college offenses are so poorly constructed (especially against zones) that multiple passes are necessary to find an open shot or to create space in which a designated scorer can operate. In fact, teamwork is much more critical, and much more subtle — the execution of plays, defensive rotations — in the NBA.

It’s economics that pressures the NBA to focus on individuals rather than on teams. Whereas the best college players remain “amateurs” for one or two seasons, NBA stars are around for a decade or more. Add in the fact that playoff teams in the NBA annually play three times as many games every season as do NCAA qualifiers, and pro hoopers’ recognizability is understandably greater. That translates into commercial opportunities, also millions of dollars in player-jerseys, autographed balls, bobbleheads and similar trinkets.

The NBA game has a huge advantage in player talent, offensive and defensive prowess, coaching, officiating and the overall quality of performance in every aspect but one. The only advantage the college game enjoys is the consistent enthusiasm of its players. And this is true only because some veteran NBA players on basement-dwelling teams will take an occasional game off late in the season.

The worst NBA team would trounce the NCAA champs by upwards of 30 points.

Considering I just watched UNC completely melt down and miss 20 of its final 22 shots in its loss to Georgetown, I’m inclined to give some credence to Rosen’s take on this. That said, I think players take a lot more than the “occasional game off late in the season.”