In every professional sports draft there are labeled superstars. They are those can’t miss athletes which teams absolutely need to pick in the first round. They are frequently predicted to be the last piece to a championship puzzle. But more often than not they are a bust.
Let’s take the five most buzz-worthy draft prospects in the NBA from 2002 – 2007, the number one overall picks: Yao Ming, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bogut, Andrea Bargnani, and Greg Oden. Now Ming, James, and Howard have developed into the superstars they were hyped up to be. But what about Bogut, Bargnani, and Oden? Andrew Bogut has been below-average at best and the Milwaukee Bucks only made the playoffs once (in his rookie season). As for Bargnani, “Il Mago” his Italian nickname for “the magician” has been just that a magician. He appeared in the playoffs his first two seasons, but not the last two. He also finished second for NBA Rookie of the Year, and recently signed a 50 million dollar contract extension with the Toronto Raptors that will start in the 10-11 season.
So what about Greg Oden? Is he among the LeBron’s? Yum, no! Greg Oden is officially a bust for the Portland Trailblazers, but it’s not for lack of skill, but rather lack of playing. Oden has been hurt in every single NBA season he is played in. And wouldn’t you have guessed it; Oden is already out for the 09-10 Season. In Saturday night’s game against the Houston Rockets Oden had to be carted off the court due to a knee injury. Turns out that the “knee injury” in question is a broken kneecap and it will require season ending surgery.
Furthermore Oden is a joke… this is not my line, but rather Wikipedia’s. The often used “research” search engine usually has statistics and personal information about various athletes. Now I already wrote this article for my column in the SUNY Cortland Dragon Chronicle column ”The Sports Chick.” At that time Oden’s wiki page had this one-liner instead of statistics and information: “Greg Oden is a joke.” Since that time it has changed back. HOWEVER you my chick-a-dees are in luck because I already took a screencap of the wikipage, just click on the Oden pic in this post! 
So what is it that makes these NBA athletes choke, bust, and fall off their straight track to superstardom? Is it unrealistic expectations but fans, teams, and analysts, or is it simply that these great athletes peak at the exact place in their lives that gets them a multi-million dollar contract? It doesn’t matter either way! But let’s see where Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls, 2008) and Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers, 2009) are in a few years!
I LOVEEEEEEEEEEE CSI: Miami and was midly pleasantly … umm well just confused when I heard that LA Laker, Pau Gasol, was to guest star on the hit CBS show this season! See below for the clip from last night’s show …
… what do you think of Gasol’s acting my Chick-a-dees?
Filed under: NCAA
The Sports Chick was kind enough to agree to a wager in which I would write a guest post on her blog when Ithaca College defeated Cortland State in this year’s Cortaca Jug game. In the slim chance that Cortland actually won, she would have written something on my blog, but naturally, Ithaca was victorious. The Sports Chick really didn’t think she would win, did she? Perhaps she just wanted a day off from writing, so that’s why she agreed to this wager!
Anyway, Ithaca College won Saturday’s game 23-20 at Butterfield Stadium in Ithaca, New York. That now makes three straight wins for Ithaca against Cortland and a 34-17 lead in the overall series. Using my incredible math skills, that means IC has won 67% of the Cortaca Jug games over the past 51 years. That would suck to be a Cortland fan and deal with so many loses to your rival.
Since I have the floor, er, blog, I want to point out Cortland coach Dan MacNeill’s quote leading up to the Cortaca game. He said, “The Cortland-Ithaca matchup is a big rivalry although this game is just the same as any other. The field measures the same as it does over in Ithaca as it does here.”
Was the variation of the Normal Dale-Hoosiers quote really necessary? Cortland’s Juniors and Seniors played at IC in 2007 and the team is not going to confuse Butterfield Stadium with Ohio Stadium or the Rose Bowl. Actually, maybe the field measurements are different at Ithaca and that caused Cortland to lose. That and the fact that Ithaca has a better football team!
Finally, although Ithaca College (along with Cortland) finished 7-3 and failed to reach the Division 3 playoffs, this marked the 39th straight winning season for the Bombers. It’s nice supporting winning teams like the Bombers, Penguins, Steelers, and the Pirates when they start winning again at some point in the next decade.
Although this was nice writing about Ithaca’s success on a Cortland fan’s blog, if we make a similar wager next year, I’d like dinner at A&W!
Go Bombers!
Sean’s Ramblings
http://seanramblings.blogspot.com
There was some huge news on Twitter this Saturday night! In fact Hollywood was blowing up with tweets from media, fans, and celebrities alike. And it wasn’t for Lindsay Lohan’s latest drunken night out in LA, or some Kardashian reality hi-jinx. Hollywood was all a buzz about Boxing?
Lost in the world of MMA and UFC is the fact that Boxing is slowly making its way back to being a top topic of conversation in the world if sports. In front of a sold out crowd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas boxer Manny Pacquiao told not only the US, but the world that boxing is back with his all out battle with Miguel Cotto.
At first it seemed like Cotto had the upper-hand. He is undefeated versus southpaws and took the first two rounds from Pacquiao. However, “Pacman” refused to give up. After a few rounds seemed to flip-flip Pacquiao just came out wailing! In fact it got so bad for Cotto towards the end that his wife and son actually left the arena. Then in the 12th Round, Pacquiao defeated Cotto by TKO.
What is lost in this epic fight was the fact that Pacquiao rewrote boxing history! He has won titles in SEVEN different weight classes: flyweight, junior featherweight, featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, and welterweight.
With this win Pacquiao also has the world buzzing about a possible bout versus newly unretired champ, Floyd Mayweather. If everyone was buzzing this much about Pacquiao vs. Cotto, then count on the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight to be an epic can’t miss event.
I think it is now safe to say that boxing is once again towards the top of the sports world. Thank you Pacman!
It seems like every year around this time I write a post about the NFL’s crap choice of a Super Bowl act. In my opinion the last “good one” was a fave of mine, Prince (and he’s even outdated). Now some people where pleasantly surprised to have The Boss perform last year, but he’s outdated for my generation, 18-24 yo, as well!
This year I heard rumblings that Bon Jovi would be the halftime show in Miami for XLIV … like I said just rumblings because it was announced today that The Who will be the XLIV Halftime Show! WHAT THE F*CK! I my love the CSI shows, but I don’t need to hear their intro music during halftime!!!
Seriously NFL, the Who? My question is WHO is your Entertainment Director? Because they clearly need to be fired. Year after year the NFL is aging themselves by these poor choices of Halftime acts. Several years later Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson have still screwed the NFL, but ENOUGH already!
Just a thought but how about Beyonce’, or Lady GaGa, or Britney, or Dave Matthews Band, or Green Day, or Jay-Z, or 50 Cent, or Taylor Swift, or Keith Urban, or … I COULD GO ON FOREVER!!!
Sometime early this year I made the following threatening statement, “I don’t care what the hell I’m doing in the fall! If the Yanks win the World Series, then I’m coming home for ticker tape!” Fast-forward several months later and I enjoyed my Yankees 2009 World Series Ticker Tape Parade through lower Manhattan! I attended the Ticker Tape Parade when the Yankees won the 1996 World Series, but I really don’t remember much because I was 8 years old at the time, and I wasn’t the die-hard Yankee fan that I am today.
I must say the planning for everything was quite hectic! I couldn’t even book my flight from Syracuse to JFK until Mariano Rivera entered the Game 5 because I didn’t want to jinx anything! Also I had to make sure that my sister could drive me to the airport and make her class Thursday morning, I had to see if my Dad could leave work for an hour to pick me up at the airport, AND find someone to go to the parade with on Friday (which turned out to be my Mom)! Needless to say everything worked out perfectly!
The sky was baby blue and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I was on Broadway next to the Wall Street subway station with over 2 million other die hard Yankee fans. We waited for hours, but certainly kept ourselves busy! There was the infamous toilet paper toss across the street, confetti throwing and silly string spraying, and of course trying to spot the best signs – which included: “I’m Your Daddy,” “Marry me Jeter, my boyfriend says it’s OK,” and many others that would get me fired for writing about them! Another classic was a fan had a mini, red, Phillies coffin with a Baby Pedro with the inscription “RIP Phillies.” Also with the Philadelphia bashing was a red cap with a white “P” being thrown into the street. This lead many fans to tear, spit, and write all over it. Needless to say it didn’t even look close to being a baseball cap by the time it went 20 people down!
All of us where shaking with anticipation by the time 11am came by, and the entire parade seemed like a blur. Thanks to pictures I do remember the following – Yogi Berra is incredibly tiny, Governor David Patterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg were the only people to get the infamous Bronx-jeer, there was a special float for the Bleacher Creatures, while people were in awe of Jay-Z throwing up “the roc” on one particular float it took us fans a minute to realize the dude with the fedora and sunglasses was A-ROD!, fans chanted “One More Year” for the floats carrying Johnny Damon and Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter got the loudest ovation … until Mariano Rivera came rolling by, and the World Series trophy in the hands of the Steinbrenner family was a beautiful sight that never gets old.
Now over the past week I’ve heard many non-Yankee fans say “Congrats on buying your 27th Championship.” To that I say … I rather have an owner who spends money back on the team, than an owner who pockets it! All I can say for myself is that this World Series was something I’ve been waiting for nine years for, and it was worth every win, every loss, every week, everyday, and every second.
“The Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!” -John Sterling
I’m literally in tears. My Yankees have won the World Series! I’ve often talked about my love affair with the pinstripes and how I’ve been a fan since birth. But, I haven’t been a “hardcore fan” aka watching every game and pining over every pitch since about 2002. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years and it is finally here! Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and knows how much my Yankees mean to me!!
and oh by the way, Game 6 hero Hideki Matsui is named the World Series MVP. 
More to come later …
peace
the chick
The 2010 NBA season is finally here, and of course all the typical talk of the big three of Boston, the aging Spurs, and LeBron, Shaq, & Co in Cleveland is occurring. But the team that we are forgetting about here are the defending champs themselves, the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2009 the “Lake Show” won their fifteenth NBA title by beating the Orlando Magic in typical Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant fashion.
Also, a lot has happened with LA this off-season: they acquired NBA resident lunatic Ron Artest, Pau Gasol (and all his ugliness) actually has an acting gig on CSI: Miami airing soon, and renewed Lamar Odom married reality star Khloe Kardashian after a few weeks of dating!
All the craziness aside the Lakers opened their repeat bid with their home opener against the LA Clippers. This game also meant that the Lakers received their 2009 Championship rings. Here’s the rundown from NBA.com:
Bling that’ll blind — The ring is comprised of 15 diamonds weighing in at 2.85 carats.
Over the top? Yes, but well deserving in my mind. The Lakers essentially “stayed put” with the status of their team, but if that means staying at the top, then so be it. I have no doubt that the Lakers will repeat for 2010, but in the world of the Sports Chick it’ll be interesting to see how that ring looks!
In the world of sports media, or media in general, you are supposed to be objective. But, F**K that because my team, my YANKEES ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!
and oh ps- CC SABATHIA NAMED ALCS MVP. 
Filed under: NFL
Going into their Bye Week this week the Denver Broncos continue to shock most football analysts and fans by joining the Indianapolis Colts as the remaining two undefeated teams in the NFL. What I think is most shocking about the Denver Broncos are those hideous Nesquik looking throwback uniforms that they are wearing for a good part of this season. Not only are they diverting from their pretty sweet looking blue and orange uniforms, but they even have socks when worn different ways can look like a checkerboard, vertical stripes, or my favorite a swivel straw!
So why are the Broncos making themselves look like the Nesquik Bunny instead of a rough tough undefeated football team? Well, blame it on the 50th Anniversary of the American Football Conference – more specifically the American Football League. 2009 marks the 50th year that the eight original teams of the AFL were formed, and they are: Boston Patriots (now New England Patriots), Buffalo Bills, Dallas Texans (now Kansas City Chiefs), Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans), Los Angeles Chargers (now San Diego Chargers), New York Titans (now New York Jets), and Oakland Raiders.
Now the eight teams, thankfully, will not be wearing the hideous throwbacks every game in the 2009 NFL, rather they will be worn when these teams go head-to-head. For those of you who want to look like a fool, then you can purchase your teams throwback uniform through the NFL’s Legacy Collection website. However, I strongly suggest that you stick to today’s fashion and wear hunter green (not blue and maze) to support the Jets, and wear a “KC” hat for your Chiefs and not a logo of the state of Texas, and please don’t purchase the swivel straw socks from the Broncos, that is unless you want to be the Nesquik Bunny for Halloween!
