July 2009 Archives

I know, I know I'm on vacation and should just forget about sports. It's just that I peeked at the sports section this morning and read Chris Cohan wants to sell the Warriors. After I finished leaping for joy and after reminding myself he's the worst sports owner in the Bay Area -- that's pretty low -- I decided to write this blog just because I couldn't help myself.

If Cohan sells the new owner should clear out the whole bunch. First to go would be president Bobby Rowell, in way over his head. Then Big Nellie Don Nelson should get a pink slip along with his buddy Little Nellie Larry Riley. Out with the whole coaching staff. Out with Stephen Jackson and out with Corey Maggette. Out out, just out.

Someone needs to blow up this pitiful operation and start from scratch.

Hi, Everyone.

As you know I'm on vacation but I plan to post a blog occasionally and, well, this sad Steve McNair business motivates me to write.

I'm sorry he's gone and I'm sorry for the young lady who almost certainly shot him and almost certainly was his mistress. This is a tragedy, not because McNair used to be a football hero, but because two people died.

And it brings me to a thought I've long held. We don't know sports stars. I don't know them, not really, and if I don't know them you sure don't either. We see them on the field and we feel we get to know them but we don't. I interview them under controlled circumstances and I think I get to know them but I don't. I know what they choose to project, the person they choose to be in public.

I believe we don't know a person until that person comes into our house more than once, until we know that person in unguarded, candid moments. I'm not talking only about star athletes. I'm talking about anyone.

We didn't know McNair. I am not saying he was bad because he had an affair. I have no idea what went on in his marriage and I don't presume to judge him. But it's clear there was a disparity between the family-man image he chose to project and the reality of his life. We didn't know him. We don't know any of them. Please remember that the next time you want to say an athlete is a hero or a role model. You simply don't know.

That's it for today. Talk to you in a week or so.