College basketball
We'll call it the Warehouse Wednesday, and the game is simple:
With less than a week to go until the calendar says March and the madness is close, let's visit the college hoops wholesaler. Who are you buying and selling as we try to figure out who is legit and who is pretending to be legit.
Kansas. We are buying. Stellar back-court experience, and point guard Frank Mason is a player of the year candidate. Josh Jackson is a match-up nightmare. Are we a touch concerned about the lack of interior depth? Maybe, but we are still willing to spend on the Jayhawks.
Kentucky. Selling. Wow, this bunch is confusing, and more than any UK team under Calipari, truly plays to the level of its competition. Never was that more evident than last night's sleep-walking win over hapless Missouri, a team with the lowest RPI of any foe on the UK schedule. UK loses than game if Bam Adebayo does go bonkers - 22 points, 15 boards on all of nine shots. To make maters worse, against legit foes the Wildcats are way too dependent on sharp-shooter Malik Monk, and that's a recipe for trouble in the domes and spacious arenas that house the deeper tournament sites.
Duke. Selling. Yes, the Devils are playing better, but what's the universally accepted rule for March success? You have to have great point guard play. The two best point guards on Duke's bench wear suits to the games (assistant coaches Nolan Smith and Jeff Chapel, and there's an argument that Coach K may be in the top 5). They can score in bunches, but other than the overwhelming hatred for Grayson Allen, this does not have the feel of a typical Duke team.
UCLA. Buying. In bunches. Lonzo Ball is the truth - although the assessment from his old man that he's better than Steph Curry right now is a) ludicrous and b) everything that's wrong with youth sports in today's country. Steve Alford has a team with a lot of weapons that can score in a variety of ways and is deeper than most know. (Side note: We think the Pac-12 is going to look great in the NCAA dance.)
Gonzaga. Selling. Other than the win at St. Mary's, the dazzling record of 28-0 is tarnished by a resume that underwhelms. Gonzaga is amazingly efficient on the offensive end - they are shooting 51.3 percent, which is third in the country - but it's more than fair to wonder if that would be a similar number against even middle of the road Power 5 schools who are more athletic and relentless defensively.
Thoughts?
Bullying in the WNBA
Bullying is bad.
You can cue Mr. Mackey from South Park if you'd like, "Bullying is bad, OK." But, in truth, with a couple of young kids, we are pretty worried about the problem.
As the regulars know, this is a FOIB (family-oriented, interweb-based) sports column but we occasionally dip our toes into other arenas. This is especially true when there is this little happening in the sports realm.
Today is no different, and this issue overlaps between real-life and sports. It even raise a question about perspective in the muddy waters that is our overly politically correct society that is filled with hand-wringing and interweb morality mobs hunting out perceived injustice in the safety of the Twittersphere and with the strength in numbers and righteousness of discrimination is the devil. Whether it's actually discrimination or not is not as germane as the quick-trigger post of outrage, but so it goes.
Be it the moral indignation of the morality mob or the 'scoop' mentality of the massive media monster, being first is too often valued over being right, and that in our view is way more damaging (especially on the media end) that perceptions or the actual rare cases of bias.
As for the issue in discussion, this story is a surreal springboard of talking points.
In this story - a Yahoo News rewrite of an article in the San Diego Tribune-Union - former WNBA player Candice Wiggins says she retired from the WNBA in part because she was bullied and belittled for being a heterosexual woman.
As we said in the opening, bullying of all sorts is a terrible and demeaning thing, and no one - not even the crazy folks in Jerry Springer's audience - is pro-bullying. The claim is bad on a lot of levels, of course, mainly because it's bullying and intimidation and those things should not have a place in our society nor in our workplaces.
But (there's always a but, right?) let's take a step back and look at the coverage of Wiggins' claim.
First, did you know the Tribune-Union story came Monday? That's more than two days, and it's not like this is the last weekend in October in terms of busy sports calendar stuff. Rather quiet for a story that touches on some of the hot-button issues of our time right? I mean pro sports leagues are looking to move nine-figure hosting opportunities out of states - the NBA just did it with the NBA All-Star Game - because of laws that are alleged to be unfair for the transgender community. Yes, it's fair to say that almost everything that happens in the WNBA is rather quiet by comparison, but this is more than that.
If you don't think so, ask yourself if this had been a racially-motivated bullying, or if it had been the reverse - a homosexual athlete saying they were bullying in the locker room and around the league because of the sexual orientation.
In fact, the backlash has been so great - forget support, a majority of the WNBA community has gone on the attack of Wiggins and her claims - the Tribune-Union did a follow up on Wiggins Tuesday in which she stood by her accounts. (Granted, in the follow-up, she tried to clarify her original statement that 98 percent of the league was gay, saying she used that figure to be more "illustrative than factual." Her detractors - and there are quite a few across the WNBA - have spent more time trying to discredit Wiggins' story because of that number than her actual claims, which is telling.)
How disjointed has the "so-called support" been from the WNBA? Glad you asked.
How about this politically correct from Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBA Players Association, who released this in a statement: "Whether one agrees or disagrees with the comments made recently by a former player, or whether one has seen or experienced anything like what she has described, anything that impacts an inclusive culture should be taken seriously."
Say what? Now, imagine if that was released by any players' association if this was any other type of locker room bullying against any other type social group. This would lead the 6 o'clock news for Pete's sake.
Here's the view of Monique Currie, who spent 11 years in the WNBA: "Although this interview caused quite a stir, maybe, just maybe, these experiences were real," Currie wrote on her blog.
Currie said of the "pink elephant in the room" in regards to Wiggins' "98 percent" comment: "It's fair to say that's a stretch, however, it's fair to say that during a span of eight years in the WNBA there were possibly more gay players than non-gay players. Does this matter in the grand scheme of things? No. But it does matter to someone who's not in the majority. Perception is real." Currie also said, "Wiggins needs to check her privilege at the door, and not group her very unfortunate personal experiences on an entire group of women."
Wow, some claiming to be a victim of bullying being told by one of her peers to "check her privilege at the door."
Man, this story feels like it's the Alice in Wonderland upside-down, through-the-looking-glass state of current society.---
Which brings us to this...
While we're here we might as well stay in the controversial cross over between sports and sexuality.
Pull up a chair, as we like to say on Press Row from 3-6 on ESPN 105.1 the Zone.
OK, let's travel to Texas for the state wrestling postseason. Like there are in a lot of states, there are title brackets for boys and for girls. According to this story, the most notable wrestler there was Mack Beggs.
Beggs won the 110-pound girls wrestling title to advance to the state tournament.
Mack is a female transitioning into becoming a male, but despite wanting to wrestle against the boys, University Interscholastic League rules state athletes must compete in the classifications on their birth certificates. That at least makes sense on its face because what if there was a transitioning male-to-female who wanted to play basketball on the girls' team.
As for Beggs, well the process of transitioning calls for heavy doses of testosterone, which as we all know is a very strong performance enhancer, especially in a physical sport such as wrestling.
Despite the rule of competing in the same classification on an athlete's birth certificate, at least one other parent of a wrestler in the Class 6A Region II tournament said Beggs' history of taking testosterone presented an unfair advantage and filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Beggs from participating in the tournament.
Beggs' opponent - a wrestler that is a teammate of the daughter of the parent who filed the lawsuit - forfeited the championship match.
"I respect [Beggs' situation] completely, and I think the coaches do," Jim Baudin, the parent that filed the lawsuit told the Dallas Morning News. "All we're saying is she is taking something that gives her an unfair advantage. It's documented. It's universal that it's an unfair advantage."
Beggs's grandmother, however, saw things differently: "Today was not about their students winning," Beggs' grandmother Nancy told the Dallas Morning News. "Today was about bias, hatred and ignorance. [Mack Beggs and wrestlers from the Coppell team] have wrestled each other before, they know each other and they were not happy with this."
This and that
- Speaking of media indifference on a hut-button issue, here's a story from the Daily Wire in which Sage Steele, the biracial ESPN reporter/anchor claims the worst racism she encounters is from black people. The above story is worth your time. It includes this lengthy quote from Steele, who moderated an event called "Under our Skin" at The Crossing Church in Tampa. "There are times that I believe that we, as African-Americans, can be hypocritical, and that is to not look ourselves in the mirror when we are saying certain things and blaming other groups for one thing when we are doing the exact same thing. The worst racism that I have received [as a biracial woman married to white man], and I mean thousands and thousands over the years, is from black people, who in my mind thought would be the most accepting because there has been that experience," the anchor explained. "But even as recent as the last couple of weeks, the words that I have had thrown at me I can't repeat here and it's 99 percent from people with my skin color. But if a white person said those words to me, what would happen?"
- The best one-on-one battle going right now may be the late-night clash between Jimmy Fallon and the strong rally by Stephen Colbert, who has bounced back big time from a slow start. Lots of TV experts say that the political diatribes and passion are fueling Colbert's ascension.
- Interesting update here from TFP North Georgia ace Tyler Jett on the slow, Slow, SLOW progress on the rape allegations after the prom three years ago at Calhoun High School.
- OK< how about some sports. Did you see that Magic Johnson is now manning the wheel for the Lakers? Here's TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer's take on it. Magic has done a lot of great things, but the stories of the former all-time greats stepping to the sideline or the executive suites and finding success are few and far between. Elway. OK. Bird. Yeah. And then who
Today's question
Since so much of the above was on heavier topics, let's have a little birthday fun.
First, ol' George Washington would have been 285 today. The man did a fair amount in his time, right, and since he's like on the actual Rushmore and all, let's do a Rushmore of mountains or mounts for the Father of our Country.
Next, Drew Barrymore is 42 today. Nominations for a Rushmore of Drew - and always be creative.
Also, Dr. J is 67 today. Here's a crazy Rushmore: Rushmore of athletes who wore 6. If I went with Bill Russell, The Doctor, Stan Musial and Al Kaline, you got anyone who can crack that?
Finally, to take us back to sports, Khalil Mack is 26 today. The superstar defensive ace for the Oakland Raiders was named the NFL defensive player of the year last season, and is one of the best NFL players even if he's not one of the most widely recognized.
So, who's on the Rushmore of best athletes in the prominent sports that are still underrated? We'd start with Mack and likely include Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas. Who else you got? (And remember the mailbag.)