The Finger Wag

Did you ever see that episode of The Office when Michael Scott promises everyone a big surprise at the end of the day?  Then it turns out he had nothing planned and walked out awkwardly with everyone watching him?

AndrewMBogut

(Andrew Bogut)

Exciting announcement coming soon for Bucks fans in Milwaukee! On 146 days ago. from web

Stay tuned…

Travis25Outlaw

(Travis Outlaw)

I think Ps3 is the best system and xbox it's ok On 169 days ago. from Echofon

“I think Brandon Roy is the best Trail Blazer and Travis Outlaw it’s ok.”

One of my favorite parts of this website is trying to figure out why an athlete posted a certain tweet.  We usually comment on what they think about a game they played in, a game they watched, or what they have to say about other athletes.  On occasion I feel the need to point out when an athlete tweets the exact same way a 15 year old would.

You like the PS3?  Fantastic.  Now do you think you think the Xbox is an ok system or are you attempting to console it like a scorned lover because you chose the PS3 over it’s red ring of death love?  What about the Wii?  As an early adopter (sucker) of the Wii I demand to know Travis Outlaw’s thoughts on motion control!

I did a slight bit of research on Mr. Outlaw.  He has his own website. He calls himself “Mr. Fourth Quarter” . This is a great nickname.   This nickame is good it got me excited to see some of his heroics.  So I went to youtube and hit up a video called “Travis Outlaw in the NBA”  when I got there and watched the video what I saw was mostly him running around and attempting to dunk on the Birdman of Denver.  Then I saw this comment:

We lost to the MAV’S tonight but my boy OUTLAW was the shit.He is the 6 man of the year.I thought he was going to kill this year so far hes not Mr 4th quarter but still much love to the young blazer

Well… I guess that settles that.

Bowen12

(Bruce Bowen)

What a great start to my day, Manicure and Pedicure at Yardleys Salon Spa. I feel like a KING!!!! On 172 days ago. from Echofon

I’m not gonna knock any guy for getting a mani/pedi.  I was dragged to one once by a girlfriend and it wasn’t so bad.  I sat in a reclining leather chair and watched RV with Robin Williams while some girl practically ground my toes of.

It wasn’t really for me, but if you like it, so be it.

But this is Bruce Bowen.

This is the guy that made millions of dollars for being the guy at your pick up game that you hate. (HATE!).

This guy kneed Steve Nash in the little Stevie Nash.  He straight up Karate-Kid-Crane-Kicked Wally Sczerbiak in the face. (Can’t blame him though, Popovich told him to “sweep the leg”.)

The worst part was that he didn’t ever man up and just get in people’s faces or start fights.  He just stepped under your feet when you took a jump shot.

Now he’s tweeting about feeling like a king at the spa…

In case you forget, here’s some classic Bruce Bowen moments:

Two notes:

1) YouTube should give out licenses that allow people to add title screens to videos.  No license– no text.  Just let me watch the clips please.  (They should also restrict un-funny sports blogs by requiring a license.  But that’s a story for another day.)

2) At 1:44 you get to hear the announcers react to Steve Nash getting hit with a groin shot.  And the guys calling the game are, for some reason, Japanese.

Update: Just a few hours later, Bruce chimed in again with this tweet:

Bowen12

(Bruce Bowen)

Golfing in Teebone Tee it off for cancer. Great cause, and an excuse for a hacker like me to play!! On 172 days ago. from Echofon

Do yourself a favor, Bruce, and don’t refer to yourself as a ‘hacker’.

BigMay42

(Sean May)

would it have been wrong if MJ woulda just walked up there said thank you and walked off? did he gain anything by the speech? On 179 days ago. from Twitterena

Let me tell you about myself. I am in my late twenties. I recently got a new boss who is younger than me. I never played an organized sport past sophomore year of high school (tennis). I once tried to play basketball at least one day a week, this lasted less than three months. I am white. I love basketball. I live in a world where it is myself and 10 other white guys left who love basketball. I even plan on reading Bill Simmons’ manifesto on the sport. When I ask a co-worker if they saw a great finish to an NBA game all I get back is odd stares.

I am obsessed with Michael Jordan.

I had every jersey growing up, the red one, the black, the USA number 9 one, the white one, the 45 one he wore for a cup of coffee. I even had an authentic North Carolina jersey. My mother bought me the Carolina blue Air Jordan sneakers every year. I looked around and couldn’t find a picture of this but one summer when I was a young lad I even had 23 shaved into the back of my hair, representing my hero. Some of my fondest memories of growing up was sitting with my mom or grandmother and watching the Bulls.

My question is, if Jordan came out into the NBA today, would any child think like this?

From all accounts Jordan was an A-class asshole. He gave Steve Kerr a black eye (it could be said Steve deserved this), he ridiculed teammates, called out the organization, publicly lobbied against Tony Kukoc and didn’t want to bring in Scottie Pippen. He gambled. He womanized. He hung out with Charles Oakley. All of this in today’s world would have him listed as a horrible human being. LeBron James can’t even say he might be thinking about leaving Cleveland someday without it leading off SportsCenter. Let’s not even get into Kobe at this point.

I am not going to discuss his hall of fame speech, you can find many other points of view on this if you look for it. I will only offer this, the guy is who he is. He is ultra-competitive to a fault, I think most athletes are. He still perceivesanything slightly negative that happened to him as a personal affront – this is what made him great at basketball and horrible at personal relationships. If nothing else, the speech was truly him.

The point of this little post is that the main difference between then and now is access. 24 hours of sports reporting wasn’t in everyone’s homes. I didn’t even have cable back then. Michael Jordan never had a facebook or a twitter account. Could you imagine if he did? By the time he left practice someone would have leaked that he just called Kwame Brown a “flaming faggot” (he did this once – I somehow doubt Jordan was the first sport’s personality to do this but it was Jordan so it eventually made it into a book) and he would have to have responded – knowing Jordan’s disdain for the media then he probably would have just made a statement over twitter.

This is where things get odd in the new world of interacting, athlete’s are forced to keep themselves out of the public eye because of the media but they turn to twitter and facebook and AIM. They try to interact with their fans without using an espn or an official league channel. I think this could be a great thing for the fan. This is why you see the NFL and Tennis making rules against Twitter. They are scared. Imagine if Tiger Woods just said screw you to the PGA, took all their fines for refusing to talk to the media and just used twitter or facebook to get his views out. Social media can bring the athlete and the fan closer than ever.

I hope it doesn’t ruin too many young kids dream when they realize their hero is just a normal guy.