With the Jets season in turmoil, and the media looking to get answers from somebody who may have any the Jets head coach Rex Ryan was found vacationing in the Bahamas with his wife. Whether or not a vacation was proper or not, this soon after such a terrible season is not something I can judge. I’m sure an island getaway was probably necessary after a season like this. But don’t think that the media feels the same way. Gary Meyers of the New York Daily News decided that he was going to take up the mantle of the Jet front offices and answer some questions that he would’ve like to see answered. According to Brian Costello of the New York Post, the Jets organization debated having the press conference on Monday without owner Woody Johnson but felt it wouldn’t be fair for Rex to answer those questions about Mike Tannenbaum which is what led to the delayed press conference announced for January 8th, next Tuesday. Then there’s Steve Serby of the Post giving his sarcastic take on how the Jets are waiting while every other team that has an opening is working hard to fill the vacancy while the lead men in the Jets organization are deciding that vacations are more important.
I’m not going to kill Rex Ryan here because the guy decided that he needed to get away like the Snickers commercial suggested. This season must have felt like three. But the Jets organization does have a duty to fulfill here to face the tough questions surrounding what was at times a very secret cult-ish way to run an organization. Media members aren’t going to quickly forget the wall of players that kept them from watching the Tebow package that was so built up with speculation. They aren’t going to just let the Jets get away with not speaking up while a major organizational retooling was happening. They want to know why Rex wasn’t sent packing along with Mike Tannenbaum. They want to hear the owner give reasons as to why he felt only one of the two had to go. How is Woody going to hold Rex accountable next year? What is he looking for in the next GM? How are they going to handle the QB situation? Is Tim Tebow really going to be sent packing to Jacksonville?
With that being said, the Jets beat writers sound like a bunch of 15 year old girls who are being ignored. They are using their space in New York City’s newspapers as one long Facebook status to air out their sour grapes at what is becoming an increasingly frustrating way to do their job. The Jets organization has been a mess lately and the losing only invites harder questions to answer without wanting to punch someone in the mouth. Maybe with a 9 day head start to cool off, Woody and Rex can show up calm, tanned and ready to answer some very difficult questions from a pack of wild dogs frothing at the mouth to hear their take on what the writers wrote.
Amar’e Stoudemire made his return to a Knick uniform this past Tuesday in a loss to the Blazers on Tuesday. He only scored six points to the media but went on the offensive Wednesday in front of a pack of reporters who wondered about the star power forward’s mental health. Amar’e praised Mike Woodson while needling his former head coach in Phoenix and New York by insisting that this is the first time he’s ever been coached defense. Kevin Kiernan of the Post said the best way to tell whether Amar’e is healthy is to see how he does on the defensive side of the ball with the way he rotates to defend. Speaking of their defense, Nate Taylor of the New York Times says that the team has become flat defensively now falling to middle of the pack in categories they were leading the league in during their 18-5 start. Meanwhile Al Iannazzone of Newsday offers this little nugget from Amar’e Stoudemire about being ok with coming off the bench if the team is winning. The Knicks have been 5-5 in their last ten games.
The defensive lapses have been alarming but hallelujah! We finally know why Amar’e sucks so badly on defense. He just wasn’t ever taught how to defend OR box out and get positioning on rebounds. Now it all makes sense. Needless to say this didn’t sit well with me and it shouldn’t sit well with any Knick fan who has any aspirations of seeing their team do major things this year. I knew Amare’s return would cause some kind of conflict within a peaceful ecosystem that existed but this caught me off guard. This town loves their basketball teams having that defensive edge and for about the first 23 games the Knicks played with that kind of edge, but now with the Spurs and Celtics looming on the schedule, and the Knicks without Raymond Felton to cover the quick shifty point guards like Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker, it will fall upon the elder legs of Jason Kidd and Pablo Spaghetti to get it done.
Am I going to fault Amare for wanting to start? No. He’s a starter in the NBA regardless of his allergic reaction to playing defense. He has the kind of freak athleticism that very few players have and the Knicks are lucky to have that on their roster. They need Amar’e to begin to “get it” on defense. The rotations, the assignments, everything. They need him to understand all the phases of the game and I need Mike Woodson to hold him accountable. That he won’t just automatically get his starting job back because he has one of the most expensive contracts in the NBA. If Amare isn’t on board with that then he doesn’t deserve to play and no matter how much bitching he does he can sit. Or the Knicks can do what they do with Ronnie Brewer. Play him at starting forward just so they put Carmelo at the 4, and then once JR Smith comes in have him firmly parked on the bench for the rest of the game. A starter by name only. By the way, ever seen Ronnie Brewer during a game when the first sub starts? Its like Pavlov’s dogs with him, he hears the siren and he immediately reports to the bench without even looking at who’s coming in. Poor guy.
That other basketball team in NY had a pretty good beginning to their 2013 campaign. The Brooklyn JayZ’s went to OKC and stunned the Thunder by having, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post describes, as one of those nights that Mikhail Prokhorov envisioned after a few vodkatinis. The big three of D. Will Get Another Coach Fired, Need a Cup of Joe Johnson, and Laying down by a Brook Lopez combined for 77 of the team’s 110 points in their convincing rout of the Western Conference powerhouse. Howard Beck of the New York Times writes that this was a new year and a new look Nets. Roderick Boone of Newsday used the word shocking to describe the team’s win. Considering their lack of effort in their past few blowout losses, maybe shocking wasn’t too strong of a term. Howard Beck wrote about what is ailing Gilbert Grape…i mean Deron Williams.
All kidding aside, this was the kind of performance from Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez that those in cushy luxury suites had come to expect from the expensive trio of superstars asked to build up the brand. No matter what you may think of Deron Williams, he still has the ability to play like one of the elite point guards in the game and with his night of 19 points and 13 assists he put everyone back on notice. His shooting has been off and he’s been moody playing in Avery Johnson’s iso offense that seemed to not suit the superstar’s tastebuds but last night’s performance reminded everyone that when Deron is good, the Nets can be a very tough team no matter what. I continue to be impressed by Brook Lopez’ night in and night out performance. I wasn’t convinced the guy could stay healthy long enough to show that he could play but out of that trio of centers of him, Dwight Howard, and Andrew Bynum you can certainly make the case that if you were dropped on to this planet today, you would take Brook without even hesitating. His offense has improved and he’s been doing a good job as a big securing tough rebounds and going on the offensive glass. He’s not a complete product but the fact is, he’s atleast earning his pay unlike the other guys who have either been questionable night in and night out or just been out.
Ray Lewis is retiring and most if not all newspapers had a small blurb about the retirement of one of the greats at the linebacker position. Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun writes that Ray Lewis will go down as the greatest middle linebacker in the history of the NFL. Peter Schmuck (and I’m sure Ravens fans after reading this will be thinking how appropriate a last name) of the Sun wonders why Ray chose to make his announcement now?
I chose just the Baltimore papers to give a feel about what the local area is feeling today as Ray Lewis’ announcement has hit every medium and every Baltimore fan or Ray Lewis Fan has had time to digest the news. The only surprising news that Ray Lewis is retiring is the fact that he announced it in a team meeting after talking about how the players should play for each other. To drop this kind of news on the players after such an emotional and uplifting meeting has to be weighing on the team emotionally. The timing is the only issue I had with this, but perhaps this is Ray Lewis’ last great motivational speech as a teammate and player in the league. Maybe this is what it will take to inspire the players to go out and play for the face of the franchise. I think a majority of people have moved on from Lewis’ stabbing rap, but this morning while dropping my mom off to work, there was Boomer and Carton joking around that Lewis hasn’t stabbed anyone lately. Its a complicated legacy, one that Ray has done much to fix. He’s been out there preaching his sermons of togetherness and helping each other that have resonated with so many people. Its hard for people to let go of the fact that he was involved in a murder that answers have not been given to.
The fact is, Ray Lewis paid his pennance (according to a court ruling) and has forged a career based on intelligence and sheer will that nobody could have expected. Remember, three linebackers were taken ahead of him and a reality altering 100 plus middle linebackers have played in the league since his arrival to today. Its a model of consistency and a source of strength for both Lewis and the Ravens that he has come to play and take ownership of the franchise the way he has. He will surely be a part of the fabric of the Baltimore community for years and years just like he is in the Miami-Dade County area where he makes his offseason home. Yes, he’s probably the greatest middle linebacker ever to play the game and will go down as a first ballot hall of famer for sure. I still can’t help but think that not a day goes by that this man has ultimate regret that he was even in the same zip code as that tragedy. Whether he had something to do with it or not, that’s not for me to say. He was judged to be not guilty of murder. He was however convicted with lying about details relating to that night’s shooting. There is some twinge of doubt with which his detractors will always hold over him.
This weekend, a speaker by the name of Gian Paul Gonzalez came to speak at an event at the St Peter’s Church in Teaneck, NJ. My wife was there, I was bed ridden with the flu. She came and told me a story that Mr. Gonzalez (he of the All-In speech that inspired the Giants to their Super Bowl run last year), told to those who were there that night. A kid came home to see his mother with marks on her face. The son asked what happened and got no answer. He asked his mother for a deck of cards. His mother refused to give him a deck of cards thinking he was going to gamble to get him and his mother out of the situation they were in. They lived in a poor neighborhood. Her son told her that he wasn’t going to gamble with it, but promised that those cards would get them out. He had decided that every time he would flip a card, he would do the number of push ups written on the card. Face cards were 10, Aces were 11. He started doing it nightly and by his senior year of college he could finish a full deck of cards without getting tired. He did finally get his mother out of that neighborhood and away from people that could put marks on her face. Which is why he chose the number 52, for the 52 cards in a deck. That boy, was Ray Lewis.
That’s the sheer will to both survive and excel that people talk about when they talk about Ray Lewis.
Here’s what to watch tonight: The Knicks vs. Spurs live from MSG tonight at 7:30. If you’re an NFL fan gearing up for playoff weekend there’s the replay of the Green Bay vs. Minny game on NFL Network starting at 8. The Fiesta Bowl is on ESPN from 8:30 on.
ENJOY
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