Derrick Rose

Ricky Rubio

Derrick Rose and Ricky Rubio are both outstanding basketball players.

Rose and Rubio are both point guards and therefore are the “quarterbacks of their respective teams.

Derrick Rose turns 21 years old in October of 2009 while Ricky Rubio turns 19 years old in October 2009.

Both Rose and Rubio are listed as 6′3″ tall.

Rose reportedly weighs 196 lbs. while Rubio is reported to weigh 180lbs.

Rose and Rubio are both well paid professional basketball players.

Rose was the first player chosen in the 2008 NBA draft.

Rubio is expected to be one of the first five players chosen in the 2009 NBA
draft.

Rose plays for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA.

Rubio plays for DKV Joventut in both the Spanish ACB League and ULEB Eurocup.

Rose was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2008- 2009 season.

Rubio was named Mr. Europa and Defensive Player of the Year for the 2008-2009 season.

Rose at age 20 has been a professional basketball player for one season.

Rubio at age 18 has been a professionall basketball player for four years.

Rose is a United States citizen.

Rubio is a citizen of Spain.

Rose’s former team the University of Memphis Tigers, may be penalized because it is alleged that Rose committed fraud by having someone else take a college entrance test for him.

Rubio’s team ,DKV Joventut, on the other hand will receive a multi-million dollar payment if Rubio plays in the NBA.

Because he is a U.S. citizen, Rose needed to be 19 years old and one year removed from high school to be eligible to play in the NBA.

Because he is not a U.S. citizen Rubio could become a professional athlete in his country without regard to his age or educational status.

Rose, who in the education vernacular might best be described as an “indifferent student”,was probably not interested in attending college but went through the motions in order to promote his future professional career.

Rubio was able to pursue his profession at age 14 and was able to continue his education while doing so.

Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler are examples of  U.S.high school basketball players who are  circumventing the current system which requires elite players to attend college for at least one year prior to entering the NBA draft.

Jennings who it is said could not achieve a qualifying score on his college entrance test,made more than one million dollars playing in Italy in the 2008-2009 season and will enter this year’s NBA draft.

Jeremy Tyler a San Diego High School basketball player announced that he is foregoing his senior year to play professionally in Europe and enter the NBA draft in two years.

Perhaps if U.S.citizens had the same opportunity to play professionally as Ricky Rubio there would be no reason for elite players to cheat on college entrance tests.

Or will Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler become the catalysts for changing the NBA  age rules?

Michael Oher
The Number One Draft Choice of the Baltimore Ravens

Millions of American football fans watched the 2009 NFL draft and listened to commentators rate the choices teams were making. Without question the most important player chosen in this year’s draft was Michael Oher the six foot five inch 300+ pound offensive tackle who played college football at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

If you don’t know Michael Oher’s story , you should learn about him. Oher is the subject of a book The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. The book is being made into a movie.

Oher,an African American  grew up in the most miserable of conditions in inner city Memphis, Tennessee. His father was murdered and his mother was a drug addict. He lived on the streets and basically raised himself. He  was  academically deficient but possessed innate intelligence and “street smarts”.

A private Christian high  school in East Memphis accepted Oher and gave him the educational experience that changed his life. A wealthy white family took Oher in and ultimately adopted him. Oher became a member of a real family.

Oher’s story is not a football story nor is it a story about one person’s triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Rather, Oher’s story is a testament to the possibility that the lives of millions of youngsters can be changed with the help and determination of others.

Whether Oher becomes a great professional football player, is not known but what we know is that his story can serve as a beacon for ways to change the lives of thousands if not millions of young people.

A Diamond in the RoughTechnorati Tags: Michael Oher, Sean Touhey, Baltimore Ravens, Briarcrest Christian School

Jerermy Tyler

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Jeremy Tyler ,a junior in  high school in San Diego California, announced that he is foregoing his senior year to play professional basketball in Europe. Tyler a six foot eleven seventeen year old was quoted as saying that high school basketball “was boring and I was not getting better”.

Tyler follows high school star, Brandon Jennings,who skipped college last year to play professional basketball in Italy. Jennings is reported to have earned more than a million dollars this year and is now expected to be in this year’s NBA draft.

A few days before Tyler’s plans were made public, an NCAA committee  announced that it was changing its rule concerning the eligibility of college underclassmen to explore the opportunity to enter the NBA draft but to college return without penalty if they have not hired an agent to represent them.

Current rules require that in order to play in the NBA a USA citizen  must be  nineteen  years old and at least one year  has passed since his high school class whould have graduated . A separate set of rules apply to international players .

The NCAA committee is proposing to change the rules so that college coaches can plan  more effectively for their roster for the following season.

Technorati Tags: NCAA Basketball, Jeremy Tyler, Brandon Jennings, NBA Rules

Aroldis Chapman

The Cuban baseball team was competitive in this year’s  World Baseball Classic. Cuba  was eliminated from the Classic by the  the Japanese team which won the tournament this year  as well as the last  Classic in 2006.

There are a number of very good players on the Cuban team. They are a flashy team with a number of players who might be able to compete in professional baseball in the United States.

I was particularly intrigued with a young  pitcher on the Cuban team, Aroldis Chapman. I watched Chapman fire fastballs to the Australian team that were clocked at 99 miles per hour. He followed his fastballs with 75 miles per hour breaking balls. If you have ever tried to hit a basebal l you know this is a lethal combination.

The Castro government has survived the U.S. policy through the regimes of U.S. Presidents from John F. Kennedy to  Barack Obama.  The quality of life of  most Cubans has deteriorated over the years while hundreds of thousands of middle and upper income Cubans have immigrated to the U.S. and Canada.

Thousands of Cubans have perished or been imprisoned for trying to flee the island nation by sea.

The Cuban government has developed special trade alliances with Venezuela and China among other nations in order to sustain its feeble economy.

When the Cowboys released Terrell Owens the sports media declared almost in unison that it was about time.

Coaches and general managers apparently told reporters that few teams were  interested in Owens. The consensus among most sports reporters and analysts was that only “wacky” owners like Al Davis of the Raiders or Daniel Snyder of the Redskins were likely to sign Owens for the upcoming season.

Jason Whitlock, a well known  sports columnist for the Kansas City Star and foxports.com, likened Owens to “a reformed stripper” that some crazed NFL owner would sign in July thinking he could control Owens .

The Bills Take the Leap

The Buffalo Bills not the Raiders nor the Redskins signed Owens within two days after the Cowboys released him.Bills’ owner, Ralph Wilson Jr., a man never thought of as unconventional , was apparently  the central player in the decision to sign Owens.

ESPN.com’s Tim Graham opines that the Bills “after years of doing business the same way-adopted a totally different approach and made the sort of bold move nobody expected.”

Graham goes on to note that Owens ‘”price tag is amazingly cheap” at $6.5 million. A number of commentators point to Owens’ $6.5 million deal as an indication that Buffalo was the only team intersted in signing the former Dallas receiver. It should be remebered that the Bills will pay Owens more than $700 thousand more thn he would have gotten from the Cowboys this coming season. Also it is important to note that the Cowboys gave Owens a new contract just last season which guaranteed him $12 million.

Michael Phelps ,America’s greatest Olympian, was photographed smoking marijuana at a party at the University of South Carolina. USA swimming has suspended Phelps for three months.  The sheriff in South Carolina has charged several people at the party so he can charge Phelps with a crime.

Santonio Holmes,the Most Valuable Player in the 2009 Super Bowl, was suspended for one game during the past season for being stopped by the police and found to have a small amount of marijuana. Holmes and Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger, went to Disney World.

Even Sumo wrestlers are being suspended for smoking pot. Many athletes both amateur and professional are risking their careers for continued use of marijuana.

On many college and high school campuses  across the nation, large  numbers of students smoke marijuana. Forty per cent of all Americans say they have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives.

National parks and national forests are being use as  “greenhouses” for growing marijuana.

Mexico is in on the verge of of imploding because of the attacks of drug gangs on police and government officials. Thousands have died in Mexico in this  “Drug War” which is also threatening the United States’ southern border.

America needs to seriously explore a new policy on illegal drugs.This  nation has spent billions of dollars to stop the importation of marijuana and other illegal drugs. At the same almost any fifteen year old high school student can find abundance of marijuan in vitually any city or town in this country.

While several states have reduced penalties for possession and use of marijuana other states have increased penalties and enforcement., There is no coherent national policy.

It is time for a national dialogue about the future of America’s drug policies.

Senator John McCain is in the throes of a losing spiral over the past few months. He lost the presidential election in November and on the first Sunday in February his beloved Arizona Cardinals lost the Super Bowl.

McCain and many of his Republican colleagues are now  “doubling down” by opposing the  President’s “stimulus package”. McCain told CBS television,

“There’s too much spending, too much unnecessary spending, not the right kind of tax cuts and no end game,” McCain said. “In other words,after the economy recovers, we should be on a path to a balanced budget. We’re laying the biggest deficit on future generations of Americans in history.”

McCain also commented on the Cardinal’s Super Bowl loss,

“The old guy, [Kurt] Warner, almost won. For a change, an old guy almost won. I’m proud of him,”

At the same time, President Barack Obama not only bested McCain in
November but the Pittsburgh Steelers whose owner ,coaches and players
campaigned for him “stole” victory  from McCain’s Cardinals in the last
few seconds of the big game.

The President is still riding a hot streak with the people of the nation.The Gallup daily tracking poll found that 66% of Americans approve the President’s performance during the first two weeks of his presidency. At the same time the Diageo/Hotline Poll found that only 26% of Americans approve of the performance Congressional Republicans.

The arithmetic suggests that McCain and his Republican colleagues are engaged in a high risk strategy by challenging the popular new president’s major economic recovery initiative. Just today the President has called on his 13 million former campaign supporters to host house parties across the nation to support for his bill.

In part the Obama administration’s proposal is a classic example of the theory  of  twentieth century economist John Maynard Keynes. The thrust of Keynes’ theory is that the most important action government can take is to distribute money to people and get them to spend it.

“If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at
suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the
surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on
well-tried principles of laissez faire to dig the notes up again . . .
there need be no more unemployment. . . . It would indeed be more
sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and
practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than
nothing.”
(Keynes 1935)

So from the Keynesian perspective spending money on family planning, smoking cessation, the arts, and other programs Republicans are in themselves stimulative.

The Republican opposition gives homage to the free market views of Milton Friedman the late Nobel Laureate.Friedman opposed most government intervention in the economy and in 2001 Owen Ullmann interviewed Friedman and said,

Friedman and John Maynard Keynes are arguably the most influential economists of the Twentieth Century. But as we begin a new millennium, it is Friedman who seems to be winning the debate between the free-market school that he epitomizes and the government-interventionist advocates who see Keynes as their champion

In large measure the challenge by McCain and his fellow Republicans is a battle between competing theories of how to stimulate economic recovery. So when Democrats talk about spending will create jobs , Republicans counter that such spending is wasteful.

In an amazing show of solidarity 36 of the 41 Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted to strip all spending from the stimulus bill and replace it with all tax cuts, the DeMint amendment .

The President and his allies counter that spending and investment are the most effective methods that will jump start a turn around for the economy.

Mike Tomlin- Head Coach - Pittsburgh Steelers

Rod Graves- VP and GM -Arizona Cardinals

When the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals face off in Super Bowl XLIII, the issue of race will not be a major point of discussion among fans and commentators. Less than two weeks after Barack Obama, the United States’ first African American President, took office and a few days after the Republican Party selected an African American, Michael Steele ,as its chairman, there is little discussion of race and its importance to the game.

Black Quarterbacks

Flashback to 1988 and Super Bowl XXII, when the Washington Redskins and faced off against the Denver Broncos, race was front and center in the discussion of the game. Doug Williams was the Washington quarterback and was the center of attention because he was the first African American signal caller to start in a Super Bowl.

Williams got a great deal of attention especially when a member of the media allegedly asked him “How long have you been a black quarterback?” Williams had a record setting performance, led his team to victory and was the Most Valuable Player of the game. Williams’ performance helped to open up opportunities for African Americans to become starting quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL).

Black General Managers

In 2001 at Super Bowl XXXV, the New York Giants faced the Baltimore Ravens. The Giants were a solid offensive team pitted against the Ravens’ great defense. While both teams had a number African American star players, the Ravens’ director of player personnel, Ozzie Newsome, was one of a very few African American executives to run the player selection function of an NFL franchise.

The Ravens won the game and Newsome  was promoted to general manager and joined the ranks of revered executives in the NFL. In 2008 at Super Bowl XLII, another African American, Jerry Reese, the general manager of the New York Giants, built a team that won the big game.

Black Coaches

In 2007 at Super Bowl XLI, the Chicago Bears met the Indianapolis Colts. The issue of race was at the center of discussion regarding the game because both head coaches were African American. Lovie Smith the Bears head coach was a former assistant coach to Tony Dungy, the Colts’ headman. The Colts won the game and Dungy was the first African American coach to win the Super Bowl. This victory cemented Dungy’s legacy as one of the league’s great coaches.

Super Bowl XLIII

Super Bowl XLIII features the Arizona Cardinals against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither of the starting quarterbacks are African American but the Steelers have had three African Americans as backup signal callers during the season. There has been a good deal of talk about the Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin.

Tomlin is the youngest head coach ever to participate in the Super Bowl. There is a great deal of discussion about the fact that Tomlin got the his job when the Steelers’ passed over one of their assistant coaches, the current Arizona Cardinals’ Coach Ken Whisenhunt. Much of the discussion centers on whether Whisenhunt’s knowledge of the Steelers gives the Cardinals an advantage in the game. There is little attention to the fact that Mike Tomlin is African American.

The media has focused on the Cardinals’ star players Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner. Fitzgerald is one of the league’s great receivers and Warner is a veteran quarterback who won a Super Bowl when he played for the Saint Louis Rams in 2000. Few people seem to talk much about the Cardinals’ Rod Graves,the man who put the team together. Graves is the Vice President of Football Operations and changed the culture of a team that had been perennial failure in the NFL for many years. By the way, Graves is also an African American.

Therefore, while America may not be a post racial society after electing an African American President, the National Football League might be on its way.

The United States economy is in free fall. Millions of Americans are losing their homes through foreclosure. Even more Americans find themselves owing more on their home than it is worth. Americans have lost millions of dollars in their retirement and pension accounts. There are allegations that some major corporations have perpetrated massive fraud in the sub-prime mortgage market. In this environment the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its infinite wisdom has charged, Mark Cuban with insider stock trading which netted him $750,000.

Cuban is No Angel

Cuban the flamboyant owner of the NBA’s Dallas Maverick , has denied any wrongdoing and believes that the SEC enforcement staff was determined to get him without regard to the facts. Cuban has transformed the Dallas Mavericks from a perennial NBA loser to one of the league’s most successful teams.

He is beloved by players and fans because he seems to be a devoted fan himself. He sits near the team at court side and often travels to away games with the team. He can be heard throughout arenas challenging what he be believes to be bad calls by officials. NBA commissioner, David Stern, has fined Cuban many times for the verbal attacks on officials.

Maybe McCain Was Correct

During his unsuccessful campaign for President, Senator John McCain once said that if he were to become President, he would fire SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. The media ridiculed McCain for this statement, because the President cannot fire the SEC chair. The Obama campaign used McCain’s attack on Cox as a further indication that the Arizona Senator was out of touch in understanding the American economy.

While it is too early to determine Cuban’s culpability in this matter, there are some facts that make this charge against Cuban a bit suspect. First, the insider trade that Cuban supposedly made happened in 2004. Second, the company, Mamma.Com that Cuban traded has a rather checkered history. In 2006, Mamma.Com settled a shareholder lawsuit for 3.5 million dollars regarding its ties to a shady stock promoter. Finally, there is a record of some inappropriate behavior by one of the SEC’s enforcement attorneys toward one of Cuban’s other business ventures. The attorney is now being reviewed for possible disciplinary action.

The SEC Majors in Minors

Whether Cuban did, what the SEC alleges is not the point of concern here. The question is why is the SEC involved in a case that is four years old for a relatively small amount of money involving a company with a questionable past? Given the nature of the current financial crisis, is this the best use of the SEC’s time and resources? New York Attorney General Cuomo has been out front investigating possible corporate wrongdoing involving billions of dollars. Where is the SEC on these major issues?

Phillip Fulmer

Seventeen years ago, I sat in a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee where officials of the University of Tennessee announced that head football coach Johnny Majors had resigned and was being replaced by offensive coordinator Phillip Fulmer. Last Monday November 3, 2008,
University of Tennessee officials held a press conference in Knoxville, Tennessee to announce that this would be head football coach Phillip Fulmer’s final year.

In seventeen years at Tennessee, Fulmer won almost 75% of his games and won a national championship in the 1999. In order to fire Fulmer the University will have to pay him more than six million dollars. In addition, the University will have to pay all of Fulmer’s assistant coaches’ salary for a year or two if they are not retained by the new University of Tennessee head coach. So firing Fulmer is a multi-million dollar act on the part of the University.

McCain’s Navy

Almost twenty-five years ago, I attended a luncheon at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona where a first term United States Senator named John McCain spoke to a group of the city’s African American leaders. McCain assured the group that he was everybody’s senator and vowed to work closely with the small African American population in the state of Arizona.

As a show of his commitment, the senator came with a group of people he called “McCain’s Navy”. These were mostly white professionals who volunteered their services to help improve the lives of a variety of individuals and groups in Arizona. McCain also had syndicated columnist George Will with him. Later, Will, an avowed conservative, wrote a very positive column, which suggested that McCain was a new breed of legislator. More recently, in his columns, Will has been a constant and severe critic of McCain.

On Wednesday November 4, 2008, McCain lost his bid to become the President of the United Sates to Barack Obama, an African American.

‘From Winning to Losing

Both Fulmer and McCain have distinguished careers. Fulmer is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football. Fulmer is an affable fellow who is revered by his former players. He is a former Tennessee offensive lineman who is very large man. Having participated in golf tournaments where Fulmer was a celebrity participant, I can attest to Fulmer being “a hail fellow well met”.

Despite his past success, the University of Tennessee was willing to part with millions of dollars in order to fire Fulmer. Fulmer had a losing record this season and seemed to be unable to compete with some of the newer and more successful coaches in the Southeastern Conference (S.E.C.). Alabama coach Nick Saban has turned Southern football on its ear .In the week when Fulmer was fired, Saban’s Alabama team was voted the number one team in all of college football.

Fulmer also suffers in comparison to other S.E.C. coaches such as Georgia’s Mark Richt and Florida’s Urban Meyer. The newer S.E.C. coaches are more youthful, more media savvy and have installed offenses that are more dynamic and have become fan favorites. Fulmer’s perennial nemesis South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier was quick to “stick the needle” in after embarrassing the Tennessee Volunteers on the field a few days before Fulmer’s firing.

The New Guy Wins

Like Fulmer, Senator McCain has a distinguished and successful career. A genuine war hero who was imprisoned and tortured by the North Vietnamese, McCain has been a legislative leader. He can point to a number of significant achievements in service in the U.S. Senate. His major strength as retired a Navy officer was national security. When the focus of the election shifted to the economy, McCain was out of his element and seemed never able to gain his footing. Consequently, his campaign became tactical rather than strategic. McCain was short in what George Bush 41 called the “vision thing”.

McCain’s opponent, Senator Obama, is forty-seven years old while McCain is seventy-two. Obama bounds up stairs and glides across stages while McCain has a halting gait in part due to old war injuries. With the overwhelming number of Americans believing that America is on the wrong track, McCain suffered when compared to Obama’s inspirational oratory an seeming unflappability.

For both Fulmer and McCain their past successes are laudable, but the future has been ceded to a new generation of leaders.