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All-time great and underachieving?
So we had some discourse about Phil Mickelson among the all-time greats in golf.
His resumé places him among that conversation of the guys positioning for spots 3-thru-8.
Clearly 1-2 are Jack and Eldrick. Hard end and return.
Picking and choosing on different metrics and skill sets is in the eye of the beholder.
But the interesting spin for me is Mickelson being among the smaller group of sports all-time greats — and he is — and still underachieving.
Across sports, who else is on that list?
There needs to be some caveats, because I could see someone suggest a Ken Griffey Jr. — something I will never do since he was able to turn a 68-mph fastball into a 10 hundred-foot homer when we were 15 — but injuries matter in this discussion. Same with a Mike Trout or even, say, an Eric Lindros.
Here are some of the ones I considered, but still looking for additions/nominations to the ATSU all-star crew. (That’s All-Timers Still Underachieved.)
Aaron Rodgers. Yes, he won multiple MVPs and has a Super Bowl. That puts him into the AT status. But let’s be really real. There are only like two or three dudes ever who threw a football better. And that is debatable.
Kevin Durant. With the exception of Kareem at the apex of his sky hook powers — and maybe the full steam version of Shaq Diesel — there has never been a more consistently unstoppable offensive repertoire than the 7-foot-2 guard with midrange genius. He’s top-five in NBA in scoring and has NBA titles. But he’s never been the bona fide alpha of a championship team, and that matters in the NBA.
Bobby Cox. No one who watched TBS through the 1980s from “The Brady Bunch” to the Skip Carey drink-athon ever thought the 1990s Braves would ever be a possibility. Bobby Cox was a big reason that modern-era Braves nation knows little beyond the City Connect unis of the befuddling Braves from the age of shoulder pads and boom boxes. But Cox had three Hall of Fame starting pitchers as well as the Jones boys and an assortment of good-to-great others. Only winning one title feels like a major disappointment in retrospect.
Thoughts and who else should we consider?
Monster stakes
Is it happening? Could it happen?
Look, the NBA playoffs are longer than the New York City Marathon on a consistent loop. (Not for nothing, but it’s not shocking there is not the Marathon Channel among the 12,000 options on your EPB dial. Yawn-tastic.)
The NBA playoffs are longer than insurance seminars. Longer than a 24-hour loop of “Ishtar.”
Longer than Spy’s list of famous contacts.
Longer than, well, you get the drift.
But tonight is Game 1 between the Thunder and Lakers, and OKC — the defending champs with reigning and presumed next MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander — is the overwhelming favorite.
Most books have OKC at minus-1600, which means you have to beat $1,600 to win $100, to win the series.
Done deal, right?
OK, but before the Thunder storm consumes the Lake Show, can we ponder what is at stake for LeBron James?
James is no worse than the top-three all-time basketball players to ever breathe. Most folks have him at 2 behind Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
I have repeatedly said LeBron has the COAT — the career of all-time — and the romanticism around all things MJ have galvanized him as the GOAT.
But what if? What if LeBron and the Lakers topple the wagon that is OKC? What if James improbably leads these Lakers to the Western Conference Finals, or goodness, the NBA Finals?
What a statement it could be for a 41-year-old veteran who amazingly could check those boxes on the same team as his son.
Read that again.
Yes, it’s assuredly unlikely. Downright unimaginable considering OKC went 4-0 over L.A. during the regular season by the scant margins of 43, 36, 9 and 29.
So you’re saying there’s a chance?
But if that chance lands, wow, cue the narrative conversations, friends.
Eye-opening
Budgetary increases are often a hot-button issue around this time of year. It’s par for the course.
But this discourse across Hamilton County in terms of the school system here in Chattanooga clearly shows the trickle-down impact of modern sports even to the prep scene.
This story from TFP education ace Shannon Coan has the details about a proposed seven-figure increase for Hamilton County high school sports.
Deep in the story is the conversation of addressing sports in general — be it funding, stipends, transportation, whatever — in an effort to retain students.
The TSSAA recently opened the one-time transfer portal for high school students.
Some will go for friends. Some will go for academics. Some will go for theater, band or other extra-curricular activities.
But the eye-poppers will be the athletes.
True in college. Will be true in high schools. Sports is the front door to those institutions.
Think of it this way: How many university presidents or high school principals can you name? How many head football coaches at those same schools can you identify?
Exactly.
So it makes sense, and it will be money well-spent. And in truth Hamilton County has long underfunded sports in general.
The old adage is when a school board wants to grab the attention of the public, mention funding in terms of the three Bs — books, band and ball.
So I am in favor of this. Heck, it still may not be enough, but at least it’s a start.
But the next layer in Coan’s must-read this morning is the state-championship focus chatter from the board and HCDE leadership. Moreover, the school specific focus of which teams are in position to compete for state championships.
Wow. Simply wow.
Check this out from Jodi Schaffer, R-East Hamilton, from Coan’s story above:
“As a county, we need to start winning state championships,” she said. “We need to think about this as a board and how it’s not going to be equalization because, if we are trying to be equal in every sport and every school, we will continue to lose our athletes and we will continue to not win state championships. It’s just a really hard realization.”
Now this from HCDE Superintendent Justin Robertson:
“It’s not saying that every school won’t have opportunity, but we do know that the landscape is changing, and if we just ignore it, what we’re going to end up doing is hurting every school and hurting opportunities for kids across the district.”
Is this potentially a ground-laying for a transcendental notion of school specialization? There are already various academic specializations across the country at specific high schools, right? CSLA or CSAS or the technical services at various other schools.
Would this mean that the best Hamilton County track kids and golfers would go to Signal, the best football players go to Red Bank and East Hamilton, the best basketball players go to Tyner or Chatt Prep?
Yikes, a budgetary discussion with the potential hidden seeds of a total system-wide transformation.
Not your average school board discussion, my friends.
This and that
> Rick Barnes continues to mine the portal as Tennessee landed Juke Harris from Wake Forest. Here’s more from Paschall, and while Juke is a great name for a hoops guard, he should have really been a slot receiver/scatback, right? “Slip screen to Juke … he makes a man miss … Good night, Irene, and Juke heads to the house.”
> A weekend loser omission: This 14-under coach who got into a fistfight with an umpire over the weekend after a loss. Yeah, both were arrested. Did I mention the coach of the 14-u team was a deputy sheriff? He was fired Monday.
> Braves played. Braves lost. Wait, what? Atlanta was one of our plays Monday, and in truth we went to bed with the Braves up 4-0 heading into the bottom of six. Then … boom. Mariners win 5-4. Side note: Braves 1B Matt Olson hit his 300th career homer. Man, remember when 300 homers was a big deal?
> Speaking of losses, the Tigers announced Monday that ace Tarik Skubal will miss some time with an elbow injury. Yikes.
> Wow, Pablo Torre won a Pulitzer for his podcast reporting on the Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration scandal. That’s not a sentence I ever expected to type.
> The SEC will use the ABS appeal system for balls and strikes in the conference tournament later this month. Good.
> So, after losing 1-0 to Soddy-Daisy in the winners bracket final, Lil Miss 5-at-10 got the ball in a win-or-pack-the-gear game against Hixson. She went the full seven, allowed two hits, struck out nine and walked none in a 2-0 season-extending win. They play Soddy again tonight for the district title and seeding in the regionals.
> We all hear the commercials and see the posters about not littering, and it’s important. It becomes common to tune it out of course, but the first sentence of this story made my eyes get big and my head hurt. “Out in the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and California, is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirl of plastic trash more than twice the size of Texas.” Twice the size of Texas? Lord.
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. Morning, Ernie.
True or false, a floating garbage pile in the Pacific twice the size of Texas must be the source of a Netflix movie ASAP.
True or false, you wish you had named your kid — boy or girl, actually — Juke.
True or false, Juke’s middle name is Box. (Juke Box Harris just sings, right, Spy?)
True or false, sports specialization for public high schools is the wave of the future.
True or false, LeBron has the most to gain of any player still in these NBA playoffs.
True or false, you remember when 300 homers was a big deal.
You know the drill. Answer some Ts or Fs, ask some Ts or Fs.
As for today, happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. Tequila, huge foe. It’s liquid coleslaw in the 5-at-10 universe. Those are the only food and beverage options — served by bare-footed clowns, mind you — in the seventh circle of hell.
On this day in 1904, Cy Young pitched the first recorded perfect game in the modern MLB era.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, let’s contemplate the Rushmore of holidays with the most alcohol consumption.
Go.