Mailbag - November Edition
It's been another hectic month and here are a few conclusions that I have come to:
1. I can only predict about 60% of the NFL teams. The rest of the league just completely baffles me.
2. I am very excited to be upon the Lakers' and UCLA Basketball seasons. The Raiders and Bruins' football teams depress me.
3. The BCS is ridiculous. We all knew this. I don't want to give it any more print that I already have.
4. It's not news that we're in a recession. I know it started last December instead of February, but really, that's not a reason for the market to go down almost 700 points today.
5. Don't grow up in a slum in India. Saw that movie. Great film. India = not a fun place to grow up poor.
On to the Mailbag.
Q: Are the Titans the Floyd Mayweather of football? They win but in unwatchable fashion. (Elliot from Los Angeles, CA)
A: I can't tell you how upset I am that I didn't come up with the comparison first. As a huge boxing fan I am embarrassed. And I've been one of the biggest Pretty Boy Floyd supporters there is. That guy is the only safe investment there is. As to the comparison, as much as I hate to say it, after Mayweather/Castillo II, Pretty Boy Floyd realized that he could win fights without getting hit but sell just as many tickets because of his personality. Therefore, every post Castillo II fight was like watching a defensive boxing clinic. That's a perfect way to describe the Titans. Every game is like watching a defensive clinic. You can't watch a Titans game unless you have money on them or maybe are from Tennessee. Even then it's unbearable. Just put your money on them and be happy you did. They're the anti-Rams. Like I said, I'm embarrassed that I didn't make the comparison first. Speaking of boxing . . .
Q: What do you think of De La Hoya against Pacquiao. Who wins and will it be a good fight? (Andrew from Santa Monica, CA)
A: This is a tough one to call because I can't stand De La Hoya and would love to see Pacquiao win. However, there is no way that Pacquiao will pack as powerful a punch at welterweight. He looked great making the jump from 130 to 135 to fight David Diaz but that's nothing like the leap will be to 147. De La Hoya did struggle adjusting to Steve Forbes' speed and Pacquiao is clearly far superior to Forbes but I don't think Pacquiao will be able to hurt De La Hoya enough nor be fast enough to make up for the size discrepancy.
Vegas has this fight at 2:1 in De La Hoya's favor but I really see this as a 4:1 type fight. De La Hoya will have a huge reach advantage and figures to use the jab to neutralize the Pac Man's speed. A lot of people have been asking me about 24/7 but I haven't watched. I'm boycotting until Pretty Boy Floyd and Papa or Uncle Mayweather are a part of it. I'll say this though. That show always skews the fight in favor of the underdog so that people are more apt to watch the fight. When Mayweather fought Hatton people actually started buying into Hatton after seeing the way that HBO slanted the fight promotion on 24/7. Something tells me that the same thing has been happening with De La Hoya/Pacquiao. The fight started out as 3:1 and has dropped to 2:1. I like De La Hoya in the fight but would love to be proven wrong. My friend Delbert is a fighter and trains in Freddie Roach's gym. He tells me that Pacquiao is unreal. I'm just not sure he can make up for the sheer size differential in this fight. I'll say this, it will be a fun fight and you should definitely not miss the spectacle.
Q: What's going on with hip hop these days? Can anybody flow anymore? Even Lil' Wayne and Kanye are falling off. (Marco from Los Angeles, CA)
A: I don't know what's going on but it's been a trend since the South took over. Fun tracks in the club. That's about it. Don't get me wrong, I loved me some Hot Boys and Big Tymers back in the day, but this new stuff is killing me. Every song featuring T-Pain or Akon needs to go away. So pretty much every song there is. As to Kanye, he gets a pass because of the sudden passing of his mother. Lil' Wayne doesn't get a pass though. I've always defended him but some of the new stuff is just atrocious. He needs to get back to his Drop It Like It's Hot roots. I'll buy back in when I hear something like, "saw a girl at the club, had her at the hotel from a courier, now it's time to go deep like I'm playing for Steve Spurrier." I just came up with that. Send it to Dre. I need a hook. Long story short, we need to get back to the old style music that you can play and just be happy with. The transition to the East Coast/West Coast era was fine too, but after that it went downhill.
Q: What are your thoughts on the UCLA Basketball team this season? Will they be able to make it back to another Final Four? (Charlie from Los Angeles, CA)
A: While we're talking about UCLA, I'd like to address the Bruins football questions. Here goes. I'm not answering them. We gave up four defensive touchdowns. We're going to get killed by $C, my least favorite sports entity. Craft is a nice, gutsy guy, but I really would like to have a QB that I'm confident is better than I am.
Let's move to a happier topic, the Howland-led Bruins basketball team. This year will feature a lot of ups and downs. We're missing Westbrook, Love, and Mbah a Moute. However, we got an influx of new freshman including two names that you'll fall in love with if you haven't already. Jrue, not Drew and J'Mison not Jameson. The freshmen will dictate how this season goes. As much as I'd like to think he'll recover, I just don't see senior guard Josh Shipp being mentally ready to take on the boon of being the scoring leader for this team the way we need him to. Our big men are raw except for Aboya who has been brilliant thus far. Of the freshmen bigs expect nice things from Drew Gordon.
Moving to the returners, James Keefe isn't doing it enough for me. Dragovic is knocking down some shots which means he's not useless like he was last year. Collison is very solid but I don't buy pre-season All-American.
While we'll struggle because of our youth up front, we have an X-factor. Jrue Holiday. I've been to a couple of games this year and this guy is unreal. I hope he stays a secret so that we can get more than a year out of him. To me, he's a better prospect than anyone since Baron Davis. I can't believe his vision, quickness, leaping ability, shot. He should be playing the 1 and sliding Collison over to the 2. Jrue Holiday will just make you happy if you're a Bruin fan.
Lastly, we have Howland. You know we'll always be in games because of the tenacity he instills. However, as we've seen, Howland is stubborn. Our zone offense is inept because he won't change his ways and look to get the ball inside or use the short corner for some reason. Defensively we watched Love get killed on high screens in recover situations last year and I have a feeling that teams will exploit our slower bigs much in the same way when they hedge too. The good news is that none of our big men are good enough to go pro in the next two years, nor are our young guards like Malcolm Lee. Howland will be able to groom these guys for a couple of years and we should be scary good when they come around. This year we'll be good and a Final Four isn't out of the realm of possibility, but unless Shipp comes around and a young big develops to the point where Aboya has a compliment, I see us as a Top-15 team but not much more this season. We're too young and not athletic enough in the frontcourt to ask for much more.
Q: How much will losing Plaxico Burress hurt the Giants' Super Bowl chances and how dumb is Plaxico? (Brian from Tarzana, CA)
A: I'll answer the second half of your question first. It's easier. Plaxico is really dumb. He carried a weapon that he wasn't licensed to carry in the state with the toughest gun laws. Not only that, but it looks like Bloomberg is pressuring the DA to throw the book at Plax. They already asked for 2.5x the bail amount that they were planning on asking for. Going back to Plax being dumb, he pulled a Cheddar Bob and shot himself in the leg. No word yet on weather Eminem is throwing his name into a rap lyric anytime soon a la B-Rabbit. I just don't understand why you carry a gun instead of hiring bodyguards to do that for you. I understand the need to protect one's self, especially in light of all that has transpired with athletes being accosted from Chicago to Miami to New Jersey, etc. However, don't go and break a law yourself when you can hire trained professionals to ensure your safety for you. In the awful scenario where you fear for your safety, what if you mess up and shoot some unsuspecting person who was reaching for his cell phone that you mistook for a gun. Now you're in a mess you had no business being in. Many athletes learned from the horrible incidents involving the victimizations of their teams and sought to secure their homes. Hopefully others will learn from Plaxico and hire trained bodyguards instead of toting the guns themselves. It doesn't take a man to carry a gun. Any moron can have a gun. It takes a man to make the right decisions. Speaking of that, what was Antonio Pierce thinking? Plaxico had him hide the gun while he went to the hospital and told the workers, using an alias, that he was shot at Applebees. I know that's his friend, but you have to know where to draw the line. There is a 0% chance of this working out in your favor. I'm not saying he should have snitched. What I am saying is that he should not have abetted in the commission of a violent felony. Sorry to my friend D.J. who disagrees, but it's just plain dumb. I would never rat out a friend, but I'd never go out of my way to assist a friend in the commission of a felony to land myself in prison next to him. I don't even want to go to the hospital's failing to report the GSW as they were supposed to.
Going to the Giants, I'll use your question to talk about the G-Men in general terms as well. Losing Plaxico is huge. If a team can get pressure to Eli, all of a sudden the Throw The Ball Up For Grabs In Plax' General Direction play goes out the window. Plax had the game winning TD in the Super Bowl and 11 catches for 151 yards against Green Bay. He is a huge part of the offense that is now gone. The Giants will still be able to run the ball and still be better than fine on defense. I'm just curious to see what happens when Eli faces pressure. Eli's decent at best but everyone is drinking his Kool-Aid because he gets an hour to throw the ball every time he drops back. Watch the highlights. He's never under pressure. If you gave half of the QB's in the league his time to throw they'd be just as good. I'm interested to see what happens if the Giants face a healthy Dallas squad in the playoffs without Plax. How about a matchup with Carolina or Tampa Bay? Is the NFC East really as tough as people thought? Are the G-Men really battle tested? Is Eli ready if the running game doesn't show up completely and the defense falters at some point? The Giants are a very good team, but I hope at least this will prevent people (yes, you NY) from prematurely granting them the Lombardi Trophy.
Q: Did you hear that LeBron James called me stupid? What do you have to say to him? (Charles from Leeds, AL)
A: Personally Chuck, I think it's just trrble. LeBron's just a knucklehead, a trrble trrble knucklehead. As if I needed another reason to be annoyed with "King James." I have never seen a more self-absorbed person in my life. He makes Cristiano Ronaldo appear modest. Why would anyone want to be on his "team?" He doesn't care about his teammates. He only cares about LeBron. Now he's made fun of the #1 non-Lakers reason for my liking the NBA. Charles Barkley was right in everything he said about Bron Bron. It's not right to be selling yourself to another team when you have 2 years left on your contract, let alone selling out your hometown team. It really would be like Barkley talking about going to ESPN in 2 years while he's doing a TNT telecast as Sir Charles noted. Barkley had it absolutely right as usual. To LeBron I'd say this. Drop the act. Don't talk about the team being important. Just tell us that you want to win a Championship by yourself. Tell us that you want to be as rich as possible. Tell us that you want to be a global icon, bigger than MJ ever was. Anything else and your lie will just be transparent. And word to the wise, picking a public fight with the most beloved NBA personality there is right now is not a smart way to achieve your real goals. Just sign with the Knicks for an obscene amount of money so I can enjoy rooting for you never to win a Championship because you stand for everything I can't stand in this me-first generation.
Alright folks. That's all she wrote for this month. I hope you all had a nice Turkey Day and didn't eat as much as I did. Enjoy the coming weeks in sports and try to avoid the financial pages.
1. I can only predict about 60% of the NFL teams. The rest of the league just completely baffles me.
2. I am very excited to be upon the Lakers' and UCLA Basketball seasons. The Raiders and Bruins' football teams depress me.
3. The BCS is ridiculous. We all knew this. I don't want to give it any more print that I already have.
4. It's not news that we're in a recession. I know it started last December instead of February, but really, that's not a reason for the market to go down almost 700 points today.
5. Don't grow up in a slum in India. Saw that movie. Great film. India = not a fun place to grow up poor.
On to the Mailbag.
Q: Are the Titans the Floyd Mayweather of football? They win but in unwatchable fashion. (Elliot from Los Angeles, CA)
A: I can't tell you how upset I am that I didn't come up with the comparison first. As a huge boxing fan I am embarrassed. And I've been one of the biggest Pretty Boy Floyd supporters there is. That guy is the only safe investment there is. As to the comparison, as much as I hate to say it, after Mayweather/Castillo II, Pretty Boy Floyd realized that he could win fights without getting hit but sell just as many tickets because of his personality. Therefore, every post Castillo II fight was like watching a defensive boxing clinic. That's a perfect way to describe the Titans. Every game is like watching a defensive clinic. You can't watch a Titans game unless you have money on them or maybe are from Tennessee. Even then it's unbearable. Just put your money on them and be happy you did. They're the anti-Rams. Like I said, I'm embarrassed that I didn't make the comparison first. Speaking of boxing . . .
Q: What do you think of De La Hoya against Pacquiao. Who wins and will it be a good fight? (Andrew from Santa Monica, CA)
A: This is a tough one to call because I can't stand De La Hoya and would love to see Pacquiao win. However, there is no way that Pacquiao will pack as powerful a punch at welterweight. He looked great making the jump from 130 to 135 to fight David Diaz but that's nothing like the leap will be to 147. De La Hoya did struggle adjusting to Steve Forbes' speed and Pacquiao is clearly far superior to Forbes but I don't think Pacquiao will be able to hurt De La Hoya enough nor be fast enough to make up for the size discrepancy.
Vegas has this fight at 2:1 in De La Hoya's favor but I really see this as a 4:1 type fight. De La Hoya will have a huge reach advantage and figures to use the jab to neutralize the Pac Man's speed. A lot of people have been asking me about 24/7 but I haven't watched. I'm boycotting until Pretty Boy Floyd and Papa or Uncle Mayweather are a part of it. I'll say this though. That show always skews the fight in favor of the underdog so that people are more apt to watch the fight. When Mayweather fought Hatton people actually started buying into Hatton after seeing the way that HBO slanted the fight promotion on 24/7. Something tells me that the same thing has been happening with De La Hoya/Pacquiao. The fight started out as 3:1 and has dropped to 2:1. I like De La Hoya in the fight but would love to be proven wrong. My friend Delbert is a fighter and trains in Freddie Roach's gym. He tells me that Pacquiao is unreal. I'm just not sure he can make up for the sheer size differential in this fight. I'll say this, it will be a fun fight and you should definitely not miss the spectacle.
Q: What's going on with hip hop these days? Can anybody flow anymore? Even Lil' Wayne and Kanye are falling off. (Marco from Los Angeles, CA)
A: I don't know what's going on but it's been a trend since the South took over. Fun tracks in the club. That's about it. Don't get me wrong, I loved me some Hot Boys and Big Tymers back in the day, but this new stuff is killing me. Every song featuring T-Pain or Akon needs to go away. So pretty much every song there is. As to Kanye, he gets a pass because of the sudden passing of his mother. Lil' Wayne doesn't get a pass though. I've always defended him but some of the new stuff is just atrocious. He needs to get back to his Drop It Like It's Hot roots. I'll buy back in when I hear something like, "saw a girl at the club, had her at the hotel from a courier, now it's time to go deep like I'm playing for Steve Spurrier." I just came up with that. Send it to Dre. I need a hook. Long story short, we need to get back to the old style music that you can play and just be happy with. The transition to the East Coast/West Coast era was fine too, but after that it went downhill.
Q: What are your thoughts on the UCLA Basketball team this season? Will they be able to make it back to another Final Four? (Charlie from Los Angeles, CA)
A: While we're talking about UCLA, I'd like to address the Bruins football questions. Here goes. I'm not answering them. We gave up four defensive touchdowns. We're going to get killed by $C, my least favorite sports entity. Craft is a nice, gutsy guy, but I really would like to have a QB that I'm confident is better than I am.
Let's move to a happier topic, the Howland-led Bruins basketball team. This year will feature a lot of ups and downs. We're missing Westbrook, Love, and Mbah a Moute. However, we got an influx of new freshman including two names that you'll fall in love with if you haven't already. Jrue, not Drew and J'Mison not Jameson. The freshmen will dictate how this season goes. As much as I'd like to think he'll recover, I just don't see senior guard Josh Shipp being mentally ready to take on the boon of being the scoring leader for this team the way we need him to. Our big men are raw except for Aboya who has been brilliant thus far. Of the freshmen bigs expect nice things from Drew Gordon.
Moving to the returners, James Keefe isn't doing it enough for me. Dragovic is knocking down some shots which means he's not useless like he was last year. Collison is very solid but I don't buy pre-season All-American.
While we'll struggle because of our youth up front, we have an X-factor. Jrue Holiday. I've been to a couple of games this year and this guy is unreal. I hope he stays a secret so that we can get more than a year out of him. To me, he's a better prospect than anyone since Baron Davis. I can't believe his vision, quickness, leaping ability, shot. He should be playing the 1 and sliding Collison over to the 2. Jrue Holiday will just make you happy if you're a Bruin fan.
Lastly, we have Howland. You know we'll always be in games because of the tenacity he instills. However, as we've seen, Howland is stubborn. Our zone offense is inept because he won't change his ways and look to get the ball inside or use the short corner for some reason. Defensively we watched Love get killed on high screens in recover situations last year and I have a feeling that teams will exploit our slower bigs much in the same way when they hedge too. The good news is that none of our big men are good enough to go pro in the next two years, nor are our young guards like Malcolm Lee. Howland will be able to groom these guys for a couple of years and we should be scary good when they come around. This year we'll be good and a Final Four isn't out of the realm of possibility, but unless Shipp comes around and a young big develops to the point where Aboya has a compliment, I see us as a Top-15 team but not much more this season. We're too young and not athletic enough in the frontcourt to ask for much more.
Q: How much will losing Plaxico Burress hurt the Giants' Super Bowl chances and how dumb is Plaxico? (Brian from Tarzana, CA)
A: I'll answer the second half of your question first. It's easier. Plaxico is really dumb. He carried a weapon that he wasn't licensed to carry in the state with the toughest gun laws. Not only that, but it looks like Bloomberg is pressuring the DA to throw the book at Plax. They already asked for 2.5x the bail amount that they were planning on asking for. Going back to Plax being dumb, he pulled a Cheddar Bob and shot himself in the leg. No word yet on weather Eminem is throwing his name into a rap lyric anytime soon a la B-Rabbit. I just don't understand why you carry a gun instead of hiring bodyguards to do that for you. I understand the need to protect one's self, especially in light of all that has transpired with athletes being accosted from Chicago to Miami to New Jersey, etc. However, don't go and break a law yourself when you can hire trained professionals to ensure your safety for you. In the awful scenario where you fear for your safety, what if you mess up and shoot some unsuspecting person who was reaching for his cell phone that you mistook for a gun. Now you're in a mess you had no business being in. Many athletes learned from the horrible incidents involving the victimizations of their teams and sought to secure their homes. Hopefully others will learn from Plaxico and hire trained bodyguards instead of toting the guns themselves. It doesn't take a man to carry a gun. Any moron can have a gun. It takes a man to make the right decisions. Speaking of that, what was Antonio Pierce thinking? Plaxico had him hide the gun while he went to the hospital and told the workers, using an alias, that he was shot at Applebees. I know that's his friend, but you have to know where to draw the line. There is a 0% chance of this working out in your favor. I'm not saying he should have snitched. What I am saying is that he should not have abetted in the commission of a violent felony. Sorry to my friend D.J. who disagrees, but it's just plain dumb. I would never rat out a friend, but I'd never go out of my way to assist a friend in the commission of a felony to land myself in prison next to him. I don't even want to go to the hospital's failing to report the GSW as they were supposed to.
Going to the Giants, I'll use your question to talk about the G-Men in general terms as well. Losing Plaxico is huge. If a team can get pressure to Eli, all of a sudden the Throw The Ball Up For Grabs In Plax' General Direction play goes out the window. Plax had the game winning TD in the Super Bowl and 11 catches for 151 yards against Green Bay. He is a huge part of the offense that is now gone. The Giants will still be able to run the ball and still be better than fine on defense. I'm just curious to see what happens when Eli faces pressure. Eli's decent at best but everyone is drinking his Kool-Aid because he gets an hour to throw the ball every time he drops back. Watch the highlights. He's never under pressure. If you gave half of the QB's in the league his time to throw they'd be just as good. I'm interested to see what happens if the Giants face a healthy Dallas squad in the playoffs without Plax. How about a matchup with Carolina or Tampa Bay? Is the NFC East really as tough as people thought? Are the G-Men really battle tested? Is Eli ready if the running game doesn't show up completely and the defense falters at some point? The Giants are a very good team, but I hope at least this will prevent people (yes, you NY) from prematurely granting them the Lombardi Trophy.
Q: Did you hear that LeBron James called me stupid? What do you have to say to him? (Charles from Leeds, AL)
A: Personally Chuck, I think it's just trrble. LeBron's just a knucklehead, a trrble trrble knucklehead. As if I needed another reason to be annoyed with "King James." I have never seen a more self-absorbed person in my life. He makes Cristiano Ronaldo appear modest. Why would anyone want to be on his "team?" He doesn't care about his teammates. He only cares about LeBron. Now he's made fun of the #1 non-Lakers reason for my liking the NBA. Charles Barkley was right in everything he said about Bron Bron. It's not right to be selling yourself to another team when you have 2 years left on your contract, let alone selling out your hometown team. It really would be like Barkley talking about going to ESPN in 2 years while he's doing a TNT telecast as Sir Charles noted. Barkley had it absolutely right as usual. To LeBron I'd say this. Drop the act. Don't talk about the team being important. Just tell us that you want to win a Championship by yourself. Tell us that you want to be as rich as possible. Tell us that you want to be a global icon, bigger than MJ ever was. Anything else and your lie will just be transparent. And word to the wise, picking a public fight with the most beloved NBA personality there is right now is not a smart way to achieve your real goals. Just sign with the Knicks for an obscene amount of money so I can enjoy rooting for you never to win a Championship because you stand for everything I can't stand in this me-first generation.
Alright folks. That's all she wrote for this month. I hope you all had a nice Turkey Day and didn't eat as much as I did. Enjoy the coming weeks in sports and try to avoid the financial pages.
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