Posted on February 14th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
Pictures that include kids are the most interesting when hate and invective fill an arena, when so-called adults froth at the mouth and hurl vile insults at a fellow human being.
That scene played out Saturday at Oklahoma City when former favorite son Kevin Durant made his first appearance since bolting for Golden State. Cupcake props, “KowarD” T-shirts and all manner of derogatory homemade signs complemented the verbal abuse that Thunder fans dished throughout the game.
“The most vicious things you could say, they said about my son tonight,” Wanda Durant told ESPN after the Warriors’ 130-114 victory. “We poured our heart into this place. Not just him. Our family. This is basketball. This is not whether or not you’re going to make it into heaven.”
Some children seemed genuinely confused, understandably so.
Yes, Durant’s decision to leave was painful, but this is grown-ups’ way of processing pain? This is what mature behavior looks like, compared to antics of spoiled fifth-graders? He’s now a worthless piece of trash, eight seasons as OKC’s pride and joy instantly obliterated by his career choice last summer?
“Daddy, why is everybody being so mean to KD?”
“Well, kids, he doesn’t play for our team anymore; he’s the enemy.”
“But isn’t he the same person we used to love?”
“Go do your homework.”
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Posted on February 8th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
Super Bowl 51 was unlike any other, featuring a historic collapse and unprecedented comeback. The game capped a topsy-turvy NFL season of lackluster TV ratings, uneven play, inconsistent officiating and the usual assortment of issues involving drugs and domestic violence.
However, professional football is part of our national DNA. Even with dips in viewership, NFL games attract as many eyeballs as anything else. Nielsen reports that 172 million people watched at least some portion of Supe 51, making it the most-watched program in television history.
As a multi-billion dollar industry, the NFL is doing fine with a forecast that remains bright for the immediate future. There’s too much money at stake for a precipitous drop in commercial interest and fans have invested too much emotionally and reflexively for steep declines in viewing interest.
But pro football is only a sliver of the game. Like an iceberg, the tip can remain intact while pieces break off beneath the surface.
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Posted on February 6th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
One of sports’ greatest debates revolves around the best way to lose. Kind of like the semi-serious, jokingly morbid discussions on preferred methods of death.
Would you rather fall behind quickly and slide onto the wrong side of a blowout, your mind drifting off as the clock winds down, like you swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills?
Or is the choice a taut, competitive contest with lead changes and mood swings throughout, until at the very end you lose in a flash, like a bullet to the temple?
Such deliberations are unnecessary for the victors. The best way to win is “all of the above:” running away early; pulling away late; and seesawing in a nail-biter that’s decided on the last play.
Overcoming or blowing a huge lead seems to occupy a separate category of joy and pain. It contains all the drama of a back-and-forth affair, but it doesn’t start dispensing the tension until we’re convinced none is coming.
Then it’s like an IV drip that was clogged but suddenly opened at full bore.
Sports has delivered an overdose recently.
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Posted on February 1st, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
The college football season kicked off Wednesday, at least the portion that delivers a fresh set of rankings to devour. Thousands of high school seniors played their role in feeding the machine, sometimes on live TV, by putting pen to paper for the spectacle that is National Signing Day.
ESPN scheduled live coverage of a dozen players announcing their commitments over the course of the day, from four-star offensive tackle Stephan Zabie (UCLA) in the morning, to five-star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson (Florida State) in the evening. The network also placed reporters at 16 schools for live reports, in which no coach was displeased with his haul of incoming workers.
Every school’s class is No. 1! Each coach should receive a participation trophy.
The process is disturbing on a number of fronts: the glorification of high school students who play football; the commercialization of college sports; the overemphasis on athletic interests versus academic pursuits; the reinforcement of a grossly unfair, multi-billion dollar system.
I can’t blame the 18-year-olds for being excited as most of them make the biggest decision of their lives to date. Graduating from high school and selecting an institution of higher education can be exceedingly stressful. The ability to finally make your choice official has to be a relief.
Adults are the problem, preying on the emotions of immature teens, providing them with an inflated sense of self-worth and dubious definition of commitment.
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Posted on January 30th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
In the eyes of many, we’re living in an alternate universe filled with alternative facts. But not even that phenomenon fully explains what’s happening in downtown D.C.
The Washington Wizards are the NBA’s hottest team, 11-2 in their last 13 games. They have suffered back-to-back losses just once since Dec. 2. With New York in town Tuesday, Washington is a half-game out of the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, which means the Wizards are a threat to host a playoff-series opener for the first time since 1979.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Washington Capitals have taught us better than that.
With the midseason break complete and the second half set to resume, the Caps have the NHL’s best record. All-Stars Alex Ovechkin and Braden Holtby delivered big plays for the Metropolitan Division on Sunday, just as they’ve been instrumental in Washington’s 13-2 record in the last 15 games. The Caps haven’t lost two straight since Dec. 29.
D.C. sports fans are forgiven for not knowing what to think. Pessimism is our default mindset and it’s totally understandable. Goings-on at Verizon Center never work out quite right for the Wizards or Capitals, who occupy different ends of the spectrum but disappoint nonetheless.
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Posted on January 26th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
The NBA will announce its All-Star Game reserves on Thursday. I’m going to assume the league’s coaches were serious in voting, a stark contrast to the players, who acted like standup comedians in balloting for the starters.
Having fought for, and won, the right to vote on starting lineups for the first time, players used the opportunity to crack jokes.
Ben Simmons – along with several others who have played as many games as yours truly this season – appeared on ballots. So did luminaries such as Adreian Payne, Pierre Jackson and Bryn Forbes, who have logged fewer than 100 total minutes. Other ballers receiving All-Star nods from peers included Jarell Martin, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and the Wizards’ own Tomas Satorsanky.
There were 154 players who didn’t have a check next to Kevin Durant and 128 players who didn’t circle LeBron James. Only 63 deemed Stephen Curry worthy to be a starting guard for the Western Conference (though to be fair, that omission makes sense considering the mind-boggling exploits of Russell Westbrook and James Harden).
All told, 283 different players received at least one vote on the 324 ballots. Former Washington fan favorite Garrett Temple was among the 98 players who received a single, solitary vote.
“I’m very disappointed in the players,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters Monday. “They’ve asked for a vote and a lot of them just made a mockery of it. I don’t know what the point is.”
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Posted on January 24th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
The hope every year is for an entertaining, competitive Super Bowl. But we’re really desperate for one after this postseason stew of stinkers.
Only two of the 10 playoff games were close – Green Bay’s 34-31 thriller over Dallas and Pittsburgh’s 18-16 nail-biter against Kansas City. Every other contest was settled by at least 13 points.
Six of the matchups were decided by 18 points or more, including Sunday’s conference championships when Atlanta and New England advanced by 23 and 19, respectively, against the Packers and Steelers.
For whatever reason, the NFL’s veneer dulled and its invincibility cracked this season. Theories for the decline in TV ratings are plentiful and diverse, encompassing everything from politics and culture to supply and demand. Don’t forget the question of quantity versus quality. Game officials didn’t help, either, calling too many iffy penalties while blowing obvious ones.
Pro football appears to be wounded but it remains the king. According to Nielsen, the Packers-Cowboys tilt Jan. 15 was the most-watched NFL divisional playoff game ever and the most-watched telecast of any kind since last year’s Super Bowl. It drew more viewers – 48.5 million – than Game 7 of the Cubs-Indians World Series (40 million).
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Posted on January 19th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
My youngest daughter has taken to watching “Friday Night Tykes,” the reality TV show about ultra-competitive youth football programs in Texas. In the season premiere Tuesday night, a coach got in the face of a 12-year-old who struggled to keep up during wind sprints.
“You do this every damn day: ‘I can’t breathe … I’m gonna have a heart attack,’” the coach mocked. “You ain’t dead yet. Push through it!”
During another conditioning session, the adult gave the youngsters encouragement: “Throw up and keep going! Throw up and keep going!”
The modern football mindset is built on those primitive foundational principles. Construction begins at the peewee level. Players who continue through high school and onto college often are the toughest and hardest working. Some of them fear nothing except being called “soft.”
But peers can apply the label whether you endure grueling drills or succumb.
That’s what happened after three University of Oregon players were hospitalized late last week following a series of offseason workouts. On Tuesday, new head coach Willie Taggart suspended Irele Oredinde – the strength and conditioning coach who followed him from South Florida – which led to criticism from players who didn’t spend several days in the hospital.
“How do you suspend a man for three players being out of shape?” junior wide receiver Darren Carrington II tweeted. “All I can say is wow!”
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Posted on January 16th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
Howard University is known for a lot of things, but not much positive in the field of athletics.
The famed school in northwest D.C. has produced more African-American Ph.D.’s, lawyers and architects than any other institution. Equally impressive is the number of black doctors, dentists, engineers and other professionals who graduated from “The Mecca.”
And the list of former students who enjoy big-time careers in business, politics and entertainment is unsurpassed, especially among historically black colleges and universities. The history dates to Howard’s founding in 1867 and the current wave includes TV stars Taraji P. Henson and Anthony Anderson, mayors Kasim Reed and Ras Baraka, and entrepreneurs Cathy Hughes and Sean Combs.
Unfortunately, my alma mater’s athletic department has failed to keep up, particularly in the marquee sports. Howard has just two Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football titles (1987 and 1993) since joining the league in 1970. Success on the hardwood has been similarly infrequent, with a mere three tournament crowns in men’s basketball (1980, 1981 and 1993).
But the university took a step in the right direction last week when it hired Mike London as football coach. London, who won a Division 1-AA national title at Richmond (2008) and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year at Virginia (2011), gives the Bison a level of credibility they haven’t enjoyed since alum and 10-year NFL veteran Steve Wilson patrolled the sidelines.
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Posted on January 11th, 2017
By DERON SNYDER
What’s in it for you?
What do you get from the fun and games that too many folks treat like life and death?
Monday’s college football championship had a little bit of everything for participants and spectators. There was drama and suspense, exhilaration and celebration. There were multiple moments of tension, relief and depression, depending on your rooting interest.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney got all of that and a lot more.
His bonuses for winning 11 games ($150,000) and the ACC title ($150,000), reaching the playoff ($400,000) and championship game ($400,000), plus winning the title ($100,000) and finishing with a Top 5 ranking (200,000) earned him bonuses totaling $1.4 million. That’s on top of his $4.5 million in base pay.
The players? Not so much. They got memories on top of their scholarships. (The unrighteousness of that unbalanced equation is another subject for a different day).
But everyone gets something.
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By DERON SNYDER
