Category Archives: sports

Lebron Did Just Fine

Lebron James did what he wanted to do, in the way he felt it should be done. Big deal.

His departure gave us a chance to hear him, see him and get a better sense of who he is as a human being. While he spoke, was sort of interviewed, he looked entirely uncomfortable, except when he began spouting off NBA history (which he knows quite well). His eyes went from being watery to angry to just plain anxious. Lebron went from King to countryman.

I was impressed by Lebron James ability to hold this ‘interview’ in front of millions of people and keep his composure. He is a young man, 25 years old, and in our day and age, that is certainly younger than my grandfather who worked in a sweat factory and had four children. Lebraun, we must remember, is still a kid, despite the fact he called himself a man.

While he looks like one, in fact in some strange way he appears to be an old man, he is part of a basketball team that coddles him and takes care of all his needs. He is a young man.

Anyway everyone seems to be pissed off at Lebraun and his handlers for his exit from Cleveland. I’m not and I don’t think he damaged his ‘brand’, his reputation. He is an outstanding basketball player, who gives up sometimes (playoffs against Boston) but generally dazzles everyone who watches him. He might even be a good man. The interview for his exit was hold amongst children in need of scholarships and basketball courts. Very cool.

Prepare yourself for the future when other stars begin doing the same as Lebron. And by the way, the fact that three superstars are coming together in Miami, to me, is awesome. This super team was not orchestrated by a general manager, or mostly not, but instead by the players. Talk about empowering the Players Union and the individual basketball stars.

We’ve come along way baby, and Lebron, like great players, and important people, are setting the tone for some big changes in the league.

C’mon Tiger! Stop bleeding in front of us. Enough!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIYejgkqd0o

This is a new Nike commercial that utilizes Tiger Wood’s dead father’s voice in the background, Tiger’s sad face and a message re. his most recent infidelity. Quite frankly, it is nauseating.

C’mon Tiger.

Nike exists to make money. If they can increase their profits by using dead people in their advertisements, or allowing a celebrity to re-humiliate himself and his family, they will.  The question we have to ask ourselves has nothing to do with Nike – for corporations continually show that ethics and decency are not considered when selling products or an image.

What we need to be asking is:  Tiger, what are you doing? Are you okay?

You just went through months of apologizing to your fans and the public for lying and representing yourself as a wholesome sort of guy. You told us you were sorry for being an imposter and you looked so good at it that I bought it and even wrote a blog post stating I believed you. http://avrum.net/2010/02/19/i-believe-tiger-woods-the-emotional-show-man/

I no longer do.

If you have the ability to stand in front of a camera, knowing your deceased Father’s voice would be used to help sell a product through the guise of a rebuke, you no longer deserve the understanding extended to you  by the  American and Canadian people – who are  interested.

Your father is gone. Leave him out of this. You have exhumed him and for what? To sell head bands for Nike? Oy, oy, oy!!! The disrepect wagon just keeps rolling along.

How could you possibly think it would be okay to use him in a Nike commercial, to dishonor him, to sell shoes? How could you possibly think your wife and children would look better through this hideous representation of a running shoe? You seemed so contrite on television, in front of the media. You may have screwed up again.

Tiger, where is your respect for your parents, your wife and children and yourself. It is neither humble nor modest to perform the way you have in this commercial. You need to be both.

I think you have gone too far!  Stop imploding in front of  us. Stop the public bleeding. Please stop!

The commercial  asks  if you’ve learned anything. Sadly, it seems that you and Nike have discovered ways of making more money in the grave.

Oy, the mighty just keeping falling. 

Nike, I have an idea for you.  Missiles would look great with your logo on it. Or how about surface-to-air missiles? Or machine guns?

NIKE COMMERCIAL

Nike semi-automatics! (Tiger’s Mom doing voice  over). My son would use one if he were in a gang, a profitable one of course.  Why don’t you. (Smile).

_________________________________________________________________________

Note from Avrum:   Michael Jackon and Elvis became parodies of themselve, unable to  recognize their true character any longer, instead believing other people’s script about them. This comes with great fame. Emporers suffered from this same thing. They saw themselves as dieties.

I fear Tiger does as well. I would guess he needs some serious support and assistance. I would advice he  walks away from golf for a number of years.  

He may crash again. Oy!

I Believe Tiger Woods, The Emotional Show Man

Tiger Woods is a man who likely has a hard time being himself.

He has been a showman all his life; he has been watched, studied and idolized. Inevitably he had to have moved into that role. So today when he apologized to pretty much the entire universe, cosmos and more, there was something about it that  was so admirable, sad, and compelling and there was something about it that  was contrived, overly-penciled, and repetitive.

He apologized so much that one wonders if that much apology lies inside any man.

Tiger Woods is a superhuman being. If you think otherwise than look closely.  He is one of the most known faces in the world, ever, and has accomplished that through brilliance.

If not, wouldn’t more people being doing it? He is black, Asian, Buddhist, composed and a changing force in golf, and therefore in society. 

He orchestrated that apology, or so it seams, trained for it and choreographed the sentences, around the paragraphs around the hyperbolic emotion. But I believe it was real never-the-less. Some people can say sorry and feel it as they do, and cry and beg and get all snotty.

While others are so used to public adulation, oratory and performing — there apology script will be exactly that.  But I think he is suffering and deeply sorry for hurting his wife, mother and children and maybe others. 

Tiger Woods is right. He has along road ahead of him to get better; to uninstall his strong sense of entitlement about being our royalty. But he is a master many times over, and people like him have the ability to go deeply and powerfully in many different areas of life.

I say Tiger comes back, is a kick-ass golfer, stays with his wife and chills out a little bit. The public will know him better and he will understand his fans and those who love him as a role model. His road is one in which he needs to take a look at himself and then be at home with himself. The fact he was so private all these years played a role in his downfall.

And I believe he is sorry.  

Ps. I would like to call a revolt against newspapers and journalists. I think the fact Tiger Woods 2 ½ year old’s school location was published in the newspaper is criminal. There seems to be little to know recourse when a paper commits a crime, perhaps some of which are felonies. The revolt and rebellion are called. Demand classic journalism, void of gossip, allegations and no need for sources or accountability. More to come on this.

P.P.S. Notice that so many of the giants in sports and entertainment are melting down. The pressure these folks must be under appears to be so great. The stardom environment is not as golden as it seems.

C’mon Wayne…Then Sell Programs, or Tickets or Somethin’

wayne gretzky

What eventually happens to a fellow like Wayne Gretzky, a hockey player who put up more than 200 points in a few seasons, secured more points (2857)  than any other player, and generally is considered to be one of the finest hockey players who ever lived?

What does a Gretzky or more specifically Wayne do once his relationship to the game is over – as it appears it might be? Where does he go with his life?

Does he work the land on a farm in southern United States or move back to Ontario where he can finance and run hockey schools for children?

Wayne Gretzky is Neil Armstrong is Albert Einstein. Each of them discovered or performed something monumental in the earlier years of their lives and then were faced with, ‘alright what happens now’?

Neil has kept a pretty low profile since his moon walk, spending time teaching and involved in various businesses. Albert continued doing research after E=MC2, was well published and  offered the presidency of The State of Israel, which he turned down.

But Wayne, he is a hockey player through and through, and one gets the sense that he hasn’t as of yet taken off his skates.

This week he stepped down as the managing partner, director of hockey operations and head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes and a lot of people were saying a lot of things about him, now and his future.

As an example, Wayne’s Dad, Walter was quoted in the Toronto Sun http://www.winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/2009/09/25/11109211-sun.html  as follows:    

“When the phone rang in his Brantford, Ont., home yesterday Walter Gretzky said he had no idea it would be his son, Wayne, telling him he is no longer going to be involved with the Phoenix Coyotes or the National Hockey League. ‘I was stunned,” said venerable 70-year-old Walter, adding he can’t imagine his 48-year-old son, Wayne, not having some connection to hockey. “He’s had it,” said Walter. “That is the impression I got.”

Well is that the case that Wayne will move onto becoming a board of director of a number of multi-nationals? Will he abandon any dressing room in the league and/or decide that the game of hockey just isn’t a part of his life anymore.

Will he indeed do what so many athletes do when their days on the ice or behind the bench are over…spend time with his family? Walter was also quotes as saying:  “He said, dad, I am going to spend more time with my family (his 17-year-old son, Trevor, who is a 6-foot-5 quarterback and has to decide whether to go to college for football or baseball).

 I find it hard to believe that Wayne will not be back and instead spending 24/7 with his children. I don’t believe I’m discovering America here. Lots of people are saying the same thing. I am simply throwing in my two cents. 

 Wayne Gretzky would never be happy without being around hockey. Do you remember when he used to talk about the sport during interviews or between periods? He spoke about it as if it was a religion, as if there was something entirely ethereal about the game and it was just another of the Abrahamic religions – minus the patriarch himself (although if one dug enough they might just find the Gretzky Bible on hockey with references to the profits).

His spiritual and undying commitment to the game began when he was a kid as understood through this quote on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky  .

All I wanted to do in the winters was be on the ice. I’d get up n the morning, skate from 7:00 to 8:30, go to school, come home at 3:30, stay on the ice until my mom insisted I come in for dinner, eat in my skates, then go back out until 9:00. On Saturdays and Sundays we’d have huge games, but nighttime became my time. It was a sort of unwritten rule around the neighborhood that I was to be out there myself or with my dad.”

There are those people who are what they do, through and through. Now I don’t know Wayne but I feel, perhaps like you, as if I grew up with him and can read the guy. Wayne is true blue Ontarian. He is what we all dreamed off and hoped to become, or at least many of us.

When we say the ‘pond out back’ that is Wayne. When we say, ‘hook or curve’ — Wayne. When we comment on the Gumper, or the French Connection or the Gardens – we’re talking about Wayne.

Wayne Gretzky = hockey, just like Tiger Woods = Golf. He’s got to come back.

So as you can see, I, like you just don’t know if Gretzky will reincarnate himself in the NHL. He may or he may not. But the real truth is we don’t want him to go. Wayne don’t go.

No doubt there are lots of things you can do in the world of hockey. Be an usher or a ticket man or sell the programs at a Leaf Game. Buy a team or be the general manager. Why not consider launching a new hockey league with men and women playing together or go to another continent and teach them the sport.

But don’t leave Wayne. Life would not be the same without you. Hockey just wouldn’t be hockey. You’re just too young to be a legend. The sunset isn’t ready for you.

Wayne, come on. It couldn’t be that bad!

Wayne Gretzky (2,857)
Mark Messier (1,887)
Gordie Howe (1,850)
Ron Francis (1,798)
Marcel Dionne (1,771)
Steve Yzerman (1,755)
Mario Lemieux (1,723)
Joe Sakic (1,641)
Jaromir Jagr (1,599)
Phil Esposito (1,590)