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The NCAA Heisman trophy winner will take 4 online courses, which means that he will need to be in a classroom only once a month. Texas A&M university Sports Management students can take up to 8 online courses, which accounts for only 19% of the credits required to graduate.
Jalen Rose, commenter on Number Don’t Lie, said, ”If one and done athlete did it?”
I agree with his comment. The majority of the one and done athletes are black. The media and sports fans would question:
I believe it sets a bad precedent. The NCAA is trying to that show their priority is to educate and develop solid citizens. They are offering student-athletes an experience to help them transition from teenagers to adulthood by the time athletes leave the university.
The Texas A&M are trying to prevent their star athlete from being mobbed by fans asking him for autographs, and pictures. It sounds noble and is a smart move if you think of this situation from a business prospective. The university’s most important athlete or asset must be made as comfortable as possible in order to help Texas A&M make as much as money as possible.
This just confirms to me that the NCAA is a big business that will do whatever they need to do in order to maximize their profits. I don’t believe the NCAA does enough to educate, teach life skills and help these athletes in the transition from boys to men.
Am I being too cynical?
Enjoy your day!
The Raptors have won 5 games in a row and now in the playoff hunt. The Raptors are only 3 games out of a playoff spot with 23 wins. Coach Casey is settling into a period where his team believes it can win every game.
They responded to a loss to the Grizzlies with a big win against the slumping Knicks last night.
The Philadelphia 76ers has 22 wins but have 3 less losses than the Raptors. They own the tie breaker if they tie the Raptors in the win column.
The Milwaukee Bucks are fading, didn’t trade Monta Ellis and only added J.J. Redick before the trading deadline. They have 26 wins.
The Atlanta Hawks presently have 30 wins. They didn’t trade Josh Smith before the trade deadline. The Hawks will make the playoffs.
The Magic number is 40 wins. The Raptors need to go 17 – 9 over the last 26 games to make the playoffs. I don’t believe they can do it. The Bucks need to be 14 – 15 in their last 29 games to get to 40 wins.
Andrew Bynum can also affect the Raptors playoff fortunes if he plays this year. The Sixers team need to 18 – 13 in their last 31 games to get to the 40 win mark.
I hope the Raptors good run continues. I still believe the Bucks are just far enough out of the Raptors reach to keep the last playoff spot. At least it will be an exciting finish to the season for Raptor fans.
Good job Coach Casey!
Kenyon Martin joins the Knicks.
I believe they traded Ronnie Brewer for a second round pick and cash. The Knicks will miss Ronnie Brewer. Brewer is a, 6’7” player who can defend multiple positions and a good team player who doesn’t require a lot of shots.
The Knicks needed to make room for Martin.
The 4 Ex-Nuggets (Melo, Smith, Camby and Martin) will now be responsible to lead the Knicks deep into the playoffs.
Martin’s presence will give the Knicks an enforcer. He would’ve started a fight, knocked an opponent down or given some hard fouls in the blowout loss earlier this week against the Pacers.
There is a huge difference between the Knicks’ home and away records. They need to keep the second spot in the Eastern Conference in order to make any kind of run for an NBA title.
The Knicks will drop from 2 to maybe 5 by the time the playoffs start.
Do you think the Knicks will have a good playoff run?
Enjoy your second half of the season!
They acquired Jordan Crawford from the Washington Wizard for an injured Leandro Barbosa and Jason Collins.
The Celtics can use Crawford’s scoring ability to help them in their playoff run. Sometimes the Celtics have a hard time scoring points. Crawford proves scoring off the bench. His career average is 13 points a game.
They are 4 games out of the division lead. It will be a battle until the end for who will win the Atlantic Division.
Neither the Knicks nor the Nets improved their teams.
Who will win the Atlantic Division?
Enjoy your second half of the season!
The Raptors acquired Sebastian Telfair for Hamed Haddadi and 2014 second round pick.
Telfair gives the Raptors a 20 minute a game back-up point guard. Also, the Raptors get trade a player, Haddadi, who they weren’t going to use.
I like the fact that Bargnani wasn’t traded just because they wanted to get rid of him. Colangelo didn’t believe he got a fair value for Bargnani. The Raptors can wait until the summer to trade him.
Now, the organization has to hope that Bargnani plays well the rest of the season to increase his trade value.
Bad news for the Raptors. The Bucks and the Hawks didn’t trade Monta Ellis nor Josh Smith, which means their teams will be harder to catch for a playoff spot.
How do you view the Raptors’ trade deadline decisions?
Enjoy your second half of the season.
I think some NBA teams make trades for the sake of making trades.
The Houston Rockets get Thomas Robinson and a second round pick.
The Phoenix Suns get Marcus Morris.
The Sacramento Kings get Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich and Toney Douglas.
The Houston Rockets gave away two power forwards who are more versatile and taller than Thomas Robinson.
The Phoenix Suns believe that reuniting the Morris twins will lead the organization towards a better future. Marcus was picked 13th and Markieff 14th overall in the NBA Draft two years ago. The Morris twins couldn’t get their Kansas Jayhawks team a championship.
The Sacramento Kings will get some size and young players. Patrick Patterson was brought in to give DeMarcus Cousins a familiar face in the locker room. They played together at Kentucky University. Cole Aldrich is already on his third team in the NBA. Every team seems to want him but no one is giving him playing time. Toney Douglass is a bench player.
No clear cut winner–but if I had to chose one, it would be the Kings. Since Patterson and Cousins are friends, Patterson may help the moody franchise player (Cousins) be more consistent. Acquiring Aldrich, who will play center, will permit Cousins to play more minutes at his natural position as a power forward.
I hope there will be better trades to talk about.
Who do you think won this trade?
Enjoy your day!
The Montreal Canadiens are leading the Eastern Conference standing after 16 games.
Coach Michel Therrien has the team playing well together.
It was a great move to play his younger players. Alex Galchenyuk and Bredan Gallagher are playing well together–bringing skill, speed and exuberance to the team. They have 10 and 8 points respectively.
P.K. Subban is playing 20 minutes and Andrei Markov is playing 24 minutes per a game on defense. No Matter who they are paired with the puck doesn’t spend much time in their zone because of their great ability to skate, move the puck and shoot it.
Carey Price is showing why he is considered a top 5-goalie in the NHL right now.
The injury toBredan Gallagher may affect the team speed for a while.
The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens on the score board and physically beat up on them. The Canadiens’ lack of size will become an issue because the NHL referees stop calling penalties as the season gets closer to the playoffs.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins will regain their number 1 and 2 seeds. The Boston Bruins have played 3 less games than the Canadiens.
I believe they will make the playoffs as long as their big 3–that is, Carey Price, Andrei Markov, and P. K. Subban–don’t get hurt.
Enjoy the early season success.
The Vancouver Canucks and the Toronto Maple Leafs not agreeing to trade Roberto Luongo for Nazem Kadri and James Reimer has worked out very well for both teams.
There is an expression in the hockey world they use for that occurrence: ”Sometimes the best trades are the ones that aren’t done.”
Roberto Luongo has played 8 games, won 4, and lost 3 in overtime. This means every time Luongo starts a game the Canucks register at least 1 point. His goal against is 1.63 with an excellent save percentage of.934. He is presently third in the NHL for goal against average.
The Canucks are leading their division due in large part to Luongo’s performance.
After 17 games Nazem Kadri leads the Leafs in points and is second in assists. He has also played well defensively. He is tied for fourth on the Leafs in terms of plus – minus with a plus 5.
James Reimer has won 6 games, with a 2.31 goal against average and a .929 save percentage.
The Leafs are presently in the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference. If the season ended today they would be in a playoff spot.
I don’t expect the Canucks to trade Luongo this year.
The Leafs on the other hand need to make a move to make the playoffs. Only 2 points separate the fifth to tenth spot in the Eastern Conference. They have another 10 games to evaluate where they are positioned at the halfway point of the season.
Do you see the Leafs hanging on to their playoff spot?
Enjoy your day!
Michael Jordan was the NBA superstar who appeared at the right time to propel the league to new heights.
Everybody knows when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came to the NBA in 1979 they help elevate the sport–they were the 2 best players on the best teams. Multiple times the Lakers and the Celtics met in the NBA Finals.
In 1984, when Jordan was drafted, the NBA needed new stars to take over from the Magic and Bird show. Jordan became the savior immediately. He was in the slam dunk contest in 1985 and lost to Dominique Wilkins. In 1986 Jordan scored 63 points in a playoff game against the Celtics.
The NBA league exploded with the emergence of Jordan. He was great for the increase in player salaries, players were now getting lucrative basketball shoe deals and television rating went through the roof. Players like Shaq and Iverson had shoes named after them because of the popularity of the Air Jordan’s.
The dunk contest meant something because Jordan and Wilkins would compete yearly for the title. The two were great scorers who also happened to be great dunkers. Last weekend’s dunk contest was filled with bench players that nobody really knew.
The problem with Jordan’s success was that the NBA marketing was geared towards individual players instead of teams. Now games were be marketed as Jordan and the Bulls against Isaiah and the Pistons. The team aspect slowly eroded.
Many fans knew that Magic and Bird won their championships because of their teammates–not only because of them. People knew Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish were also All-Star and Hall of Fame players.
The Bulls team was all about Jordan. Scottie Pippen’s role during their 6 NBA Titles wasn’t appreciated enough by the fans and the media. He never received any big commercial deals and was not mentioned as one of the great players in the NBA. The media would always refer to the team as Jordan and the Bulls.
I blame the media for creating the selfish attitude that many players have now. Everybody believes they are ‘Da Man’ and no one wants to be second fiddle to anyone. Unfortunately, this has now gone to the extreme with 1 player taking twice as many shots as their teammates. Every good player believes they should be highest paid player on the team.
The quality of the team game concept is non existent; sharing the basketball and thanking your teammates for their contribution to victories is minimal. Many small-market teams were destroyed because the second best player didn’t want to be Pippen or Robin to Batman. The Orlando Magic team cornerstones’, Shaq and Penny, feud was over shoe commercials that pitted the players against each other. Shaq left through free agency and the Magic still haven’t recovered. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Stephon Marbury was upset after Kevin Garnett got a twenty-million dollar-a-year deal. Timberwolves had to trade Marbury. The Raptors’ franchise hasn’t been the same since Tracey McGrady didn’t want to play with his cousin Vince Carter because he wanted to be ‘Da Man’. Tracey McGrady left through free agency.
The Celtics were able to merge 3 aging stars to win a championship. It worked because at that point in their careers it was more important to win a NBA title than to score a lot of points. Garnett, Pierce and Allen made 2 NBA finals appearances and won an NBA Championship with the Celtics.
The Miami Heat players took a slight pay cut to be together and won a championship. LeBron, Bosh and Wade are working well together again this season.
Some players understand now that it takes a very good team to win an NBA Championship. An individual who shoots and scores a lot isn’t enough to win a title. Bryant was reminded of that lesson when he forced Shaq out of Los Angeles Lakers so he could be Da Man. Kobe didn’t win another title until Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum joined him and Derek Fisher.
The social media discussions to decide who’s a better one-on-one player between Kobe and Lebron are irrelevant. This also a negative aspect of Jordan’s rise to fame because Magic and Bird always talked in terms of NBA Championships they won not who was better one on one. Basketball is a team game. Kobe’s Lakers won’t make the playoffs this year. We shouldn’t care.
The NBA organizations need to go back to building very good teams–not have a franchise player who is being paid maximum contract while the team only wins 30% of their games.
What is your take on Jordan?
Enjoy your day!
The Gambit 