The double standard
DeAndre Jordan, big-time NBA basketball player, said that an Olympic gold is more important than an NBA championship.
For that he's getting blitzed, and especially crucified by Screamin' A. Smith, who says that position is why Jordan has never even made an all-star team. (Side note: Jordan has never made an all-star team because his only effective offensive move is a dunk. Expanding his array of shots and skills would make him All-NBA, regardless if he believes the sky is purple polka-dotted and the Loch Ness monster enjoys eating Oatmeal Creme Pies with Nick Saban and Big Foot.)
But here are two talking points in regard to his statement:
Is his statement accurate that Olympic Gold is more precious than NBA title? Quite possibly. For Manu Ginobli, who ended his international career in Argentina's loss to the U.S. last night, here's betting if he was given the choice between his Spurs winning it all last June or his country winning it all this weekend, he would take the latter. Sure the first one of each would most likely be sweeter than the second one of either, but you can make that discussion, especially for a player like Jordan, who will not be harshly judged in the prism of legacy without a title. Someone like LeBron or Kobe or now Durant and the Warriors, yes, an NBA title carries a heavy and lasting check mark.
Also, why the double standard? We want our athletes to care about what they are doing, no? And golfers like Rory McIlroy were bagged on for poo-pooing these games. So, Jordan speaks of their importance and now we flip the script on that point of view too?
We loathe canned answers and catch-phrases littered with cliches. It's awful stuff. (For the exact opposite of that, listen to our interview Wednesday with Mike Leach, who is the Count of Conversation and the Duke of Do you believe what he just said.)
But, when athletes and coaches get cut with a double-edge sword on either side of a particular issue, just so Hot Take Media Blowhard can spit some passionate mumbo-jumbo, man, it makes the useless sound of the cliche river more and more understandable.
Deshaun Watson, from Clemson University, poses for a photo after he received the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top NCAA quarterback, in Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Speaking of double standards
Clemson quarterback DeShaun Watson says the term "dual-threat" when describing a quarterback is a code word for 'black.'
Is he right?
He makes a compelling case, and that's without mentioning that Andrew Luck and Cam Newton had the same 40 times at the combine and you almost never heard Luck described as a dual-threat guy.
Sure, system has something to do with it, and there's no denying the duality of the numbers Watson posted last year with more than 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. (Wow, how great was last year's Heisman class considering the first-ever 4,000-1,000 guy in FBS history did not win the award and the guy who passed Barry Sanders single season all-purpose yards record did not win the award, either?)
Are those terms - possession receiver vs. deep threat; pocket passer vs. dual-threat, etc. - stereotypical?
Here's the thing about stereotypes: The become stereotypes - flattering or not - because they have been proven true over time. It of course is not always fair to pigeon-hole some one, and we all know what happens when we assume things, but we also forget that stereotypes does not equal one of the awful 'ism' words that stirs the internet morality mob into a frenzy.
Besides, isn't being called a dual-threat a compliment in the grade scheme of things?
Yes, Calvin Johnson was a freakish athlete, so calling him a freak fit. Almost all of the athletic 'freaks' we reference - guys with a surreal combination of tangible measurements, be it size and speed or reach and strength or what have you - are black, but that doesn't mean it's a racial thing does it?
It doesn't change the fact J.J. Watt is a freak and Johnson may be the game's best-ever possession receiver, or at least since some other black dude named Jerry Rice.
Yes, there are far more black 'dual-threat' quarterbacks, but is that anymore stereotypical - and far more complimentary - than the large number of "game-managers" at quarterback are white dudes.
And in a lot of ways, the younger generations - generations far more tolerant and understanding of other races - are viewing those stereotypes with a new and almost colorblind prism when it comes to sports.
It happens as they play the games - most high school quarterbacks are asked to be dual threats because of the influx of systems calling for a running quarterback - and the games we watch.
For example, Gym rat - a long-used term for the gritty white basketball player who overcomes a perceived lack of talent by working hard - applies to Steph Curry as much as it does J.J. Reddick. Who has a higher basketball IQ than LeBron James, regardless of skin color?
Maybe stereotypes could be linked to racial views, but it sure feels like those descriptions - and the commonalities among those fitting them - are more compliments than compartmentalization than ever before.
Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart speaks to reporters at a news conference in Knoxville in this 2012 file photo.UT change over
Normally in this part, we do some college football preview stuff. We're two weeks from the season for Pete Warrick's sake.
But today, we need to make comment on the announcement that University of Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart has announced that he will retire, effective June 30, 2017.
He will meet with the media today around noon.
What is Hart's legacy in Knoxville? Well, like the famous end zones in Neyland, it certainly is checkered.
He hired men's basketball coach Rick Barnes, and by all accounts that looks like a glorious hire. But he also hired Donnie Tyndall before that, and that is on the short list of worst hires in school history.
He has been part of the painful effort to merge the athletic department from two separate arms for men's and women's sports. That has had both gains and setbacks, including the highly contentious decisions regarding the Lady Vols moniker.
He has been at the wheel of a program that has been sued and settled a Title IX lawsuit claiming the athletic department in general and the football program specifically promoted a culture that allowed for domestic abuse.
To be fair, Hart inherited a T-total mess from Mike Hamilton, who raised a ton of money and left the Power T as tarnished as ever.
But, in the ways that are universally true in the SEC, Hart's legacy will be tied to Butch Jones, whom Hart hired and who appears to have the Vols back on the edge of national relevance.
Whether Hart's legacy trends good or bad, because even his biggest fan can't say Hart was great and his biggest detractor would have a hard time saying he was terrible, rides on Butch and Co.
And while we're here, if we're a UTC fan, we'd be more than a little worried that the system's mothership may realize that the best candidate to take the reins from Hart could very well be UTC AD David Blackburn, who has guided the Mocs to unprecedented heights over the last two years.
FILE - This July 10, 2016 file photo shows U.S. Team's Dansby Swanson, of the Atlanta Braves, follows through during the second inning of the All-Star Futures baseball game against the World Team in San Diego. Atlanta Braves' shortstop Erick Aybar has been traded to the Detroit Tigers for minor league catcher Kade Scivicque, clearing room for Atlanta to call up top prospect Dansby Swanson. Swanson, the No. 1 overall draft pick of 2015, will be in the lineup at shortstop and make his major league debut Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi) This and that
- Dansby Swanson, the Braves youthful wunderkind, got two hits in his major league debut Wednesday. His back story about driving most of the night Tuesday from Jackson, Miss., and spending the night in his parents house before making his big-league debut is pretty cool. Kudos to AJC Braves ace Dave O'Brien for writing it well on ajc.com.
- The lesson here as we see a retired fire marshall pull a gun on a guy trying to steal someone's golf clubs is never touch another man's wife or his new set of Titleist irons.
- Man, the story about Ryan Lochte and his swimming mates who say they were robbed and the authorities aren't buying it continues to get more and more weird. Rio police asked Lochte to stay in the country but he was already back in the U.S. Now two of the other swimmers were pulled off a plane Wednesday for questioning.
- The NFL's greed and hypocrisy never fail to surprise, you know? Last year, the league came down on Tony Romo for hosting a fantasy convention with some other NFL players, and the event eventually got cancelled when Romo and his crew pulled out of the event. The NFL's biggest beef was that it was held in Las Vegas, and you guessed it in a conventional in a casino. Here's what a league spokesman told Fox at the time: "Players and NFL personnel may not participate in promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held or sponsored by casinos." So now fast-forward a year, and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is collecting $250 million for by selling the naming rights and calling the Dolphins' home, wait for it, "Hard Rock Stadium" after the company that started with music-based restaurants but owns several casinos, including the Seminole Hard Rock Casino roughly 10 miles south of the stadium. This would be a good time for ol' Roger Goodell to suspend Julius Peppers or James Harrison for PEDs or something.
- Man the ways colleges are now finding to extra-compensate star-studded head coaches is dizzying. We all know that Nick Saban had his house bought for him by Alabama boosters, and that's cool. Now comes this story that Michigan is paying millions of dollars of premiums for a life insurance policy for Jim Harbaugh. All told, his compensation for the 2016 season from Michigan will net Harbaugh roughly $9 million. (And as soon as Saban sees that, here's betting his agent calls the Bama brass ASAP.)
In this Nov. 30, 2015 file photo, actor Robert Redford attends The Independent Filmmaker Project's 25th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Today's question
OK gang, lots to debate today, and sorry for the comments being off yesterday. It was a crazy day.
So, if you have something you want to get off your chest from Wednesday, knock yourself out.
If there's something from above, go crazy.
If you have a mailbag question, go to it.
If you need a Rushmore, well, today is Robert Redford's 80th birthday, so what makes your Rushmore of Redford movies, and you can go either starred in like Butch and Sundance or directed like Quiz Show.
Discuss.