FanNation - The Republic of Sport

As an aspiring sports writer, the easiest way to gain attention is to blog. Bill "The Sports Guy" Simmons did it, and look at him now, he writes for ESPN, the pinnicale of sports journalism. So I signed up for FanNation, and got caught up with graduating (yea, I'm only going to be a FRESHMAN in college, but I'll find time to blog at least weekly), and starting work, and telling Miami of Ohio that I plan to make them my alma matter, etc. So while watching the draft and seeing my Bulls draft Joakim Noah, a player that I really don't like but can't quite figure out why besides the fact that he went to Florida who beat The Ohio State University (my mom's alma matter, and one of my favorite sports colleges of all time) not once, but twice this year in championship games. And thought, why not blog about it.

So here we are. The NBA Draft. First let me do some venting (AKA BITCHING) about the NBA Draft, the MOST overrated draft in sports if you ask me. Yes I do realize that the entire NBA draft goes faster than the first round and a half of the NFL's draft, but the outside of the lottery picks, which of those players actually make an immeadiate impact on their teams? How about an impact withing 3 years? Almost none, look at the NFL draft, better yet, look at my Bears (season ticket holder) who turn third round picks into pro-bowlers (Charles Tillman cough, Lance Briggs cough). Secondly, they need to take a page out of the NHL's book (that's a phrase you don't hear often) and MOVE THE DRAFT AROUND. Every league needs to reach out to fan bases AWAY FROM NEW YORK and move thier drafts around. Have it in Chicago, or LA, or put it in smaller markets like the NHL just did (Columbus) and have it in Portland (an NBA only city) or Cleveland, or Orlando (another NBA only city).

It's now an hour and a half since the draft started and their on pick 20, and besides the obvious question of why did the Bulls take the same player two years in arrow (Noah and Tyrus Thomas are pretty much the same guy only one is French and ugly) as opposed to addressing htier need of a big man, my major question is WHAT THE HELL ARE THE KNICKS THINKING OF TRADING FOR ZACH RANDOLPH THE BIGGEST WASTE OF SPACE IN THE NBA?! I hate the Knicks and I'm pissed they did this. They already have Nate "Lil'****" Robinsons (waste of space) and Steve "Fanchise" Francis (waste of space) and they trade Channing Frye, the second or third best player on their team behind Stephon Marbury and maybe David Lee, and they decided to do JACKSHIT about fixing the fact that they suck and instead make the matter worse. Who does this sound like?

I'll give you a hint, gimme an L, gimme an A, gimme a  NOT THE CLIPPERS. What does that Spell? THE LAKERS. The Lakers took a guy I've never heard of from a school that means **** to college basketball since Jarret Jack left, and they don't think about taking a big man to fix a problem, or maybe trading kobe for that precious No. 1 pick and taking Oden or Durrant? No, they just made Kobe angrier. WHY?! WHY on earth do you do that. You already have Jordan Farmar in the first round last year? You won championships with Ron Harper at PG? WHY ARE YOU TAKING A PG? What should they have done, gee I dunno, maybe LET KOBE PICK. Make him a little happier.

Let's move away from the ultra-stupid and go to my local stupidity. The Bulls had some good players left on the board. They still can do good. Marc Gasol is still on the table, as is Tiago Splitter*, who according to Draftexpress.com is the SECOND BEST CENTER IN THIS YEAR'S DRAFT (obviously behind only Greg "Grandpa" Oden). A player who they say is like soon-to-be-former Bull PJ Brown (Who lives in my town and HATES Chicago). If you doubt it check out his highlights on you tube by clicking here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlrqMS7tp-A. Gasol is supposedly a very similar player to big brother Pau. He's seventh on that draftexpress.com list. Draftexpress.com had splitter going 21st overall and has Gasol going early in the second round. The first round is heading into teams that have no need for big men (i.e. Phoenix, San Antionio, Utah, Houston) so maybe the Bulls should, oh I don't know trade their two second round picks for an top ten pick in the second round and take one of those guys, lord knows they don't need 3 rookies this season.

OK, I'm getting sick of the NBA, I'm a football guy myself. Bears fan until the day I die (soprry to those of you in Green Bay, Minnesota, and Detroit, I will show no mercy to your suckiness.) So football has always been my sport. I'm sick of hearing about Lance Briggs. Dude needs to drop Drew Rosenfuck, I mean Rosenhaus as his handler, I mean agent, and realize that prior to tagging him, they offered him MORE MONEY THAN HE'S ASKING FOR NOW! Now that he's going the route of a little**** (you'll come to learn that I say that often) I don't like him anymore. So Lance, if your reading this, pay close attention. LANCE BRIGGS IS NOT. THAT. GOOD. There I said it. If it wasn't for the best D-Line in the NFL and Brian Urlacher, no one would know who he is. Go to Washington, or Philly, or hell go to **** Green Bay, you will never, and I mean NEVER, make another Pro Bowl. I'm calling it right now folks, the second lance Briggs drops the midnight blue and orange he will be NOTHING.

That being said, let me give kudos to Roger Goodell. Comish, you've done something not many people have had the chutzpah to do in pro sports, you're punishing players for being poor role models. Finally someone is forcing players to do the right thing by taking away pretty much their only means of money. The only thing is, you've yet to do anything about Michael Vick, or is it Ron Mexico, I can't remember. See, he's done something pretty terrible. He has housed illegal dog fights, and whether he knew about it or not, really shouldn't do it. Because, we all sort of know he knew about it. I know that in this country of innocent until proven guilty there's a stigma about celebrities being convicted before they've even been tried, but come on, there was a dog grave yard in his back yard. How do you NOT REALIZE THAT?! I think that if you want to show you mean business, tell Vick he can't play half the season, and when he's convicted suspend him for not just one season, but two. Pacman Jones got a season for essentially being the reason that an innocent man was paralyzed in a club shooting, you suspended Tank, sorry Terry "Tank" Johnson for half the season for breaking his parole and having all of those guns, well Vick is forcing animals to fight, he's killing them, he's breaking a myriad FEDERAL LAWS, that's worse than what Jones did, that's way worse than what Johnson did, hell you could put all the things that the Bengals have done together and it wouldn't come close to that. I say you make an example out of Vick.

Well, I'm kind of spent for the night, so I'll give you a preview of what to look forward to. Why the NHL is good. Why Soccer should be bigger in the US. Why NASCAR is more of entertainment than sport but INDY Car is a sport. Uni Breakdowns galore, why Mid Majors should get more respect, and well, what ever else I can come up with. If you have any ideas you can email me at  uahsb@yahoo.com or you can leave comments. Let me know what I can do better, what do you want to see? The only thing I ask in return is that you check in regularly and tell your friends, spread the word, I can't afford to pay for advertising. Damn Student Loans. I'm still deciding how often I'm gonna update, for now it looks like once during the week and once on weekends, but that may change. So check back on Sat. or Sun. or Mon. (depends on how early I post).

But in the words of Porky Pig Th-th-th, Th-th-th, Th-th-th, That's All Folks.

SEE YA.

*(Note As I was finishing tagging this post, Tiago Splitter went to my other NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs. I'm happy, yet sad, I'd love to seem him in a Bulls Uni, but the Spurs are good too. I'll explain my love affari with the Spurs at a later date.)