The Power of Competition

A few weeks ago LeBron James was named the 2009 NBA MVP.  He is the 2nd youngest person to ever win the award and only the 3rd to win the award while leading his team in points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks.  He was clearly the best player during the regular season this year and deserved the trophy and all of the praise that comes along with it.

In his acceptance speech he thanked his teammates, coaches, God, and of course his parents but there was one person he left out, Kobe Bryant.  If not for Kobe then LeBron would not have won the award and more than likely would not have raised his game to its current level so quickly.

To understand what I am talking about you need to go back to the summer and the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.  It was here that LeBron learned why Kobe is so dominant and where he was taught the lessons on how to be great.

Both LeBron and Kobe were on the US Mens basketball team dubbed the "Redeem Team" and both were determined to bring a gold medal back to the US.  However it turns out that Kobe was a bit more determined than LeBron as Kobe was waking up every morning at 6am to get in morning workouts before the official team practices.

LeBron soon found out about this and decided that if he was ever going to take the next step in his career and become a truly great player that he would need to follow the example being set by Bryant.  

Over the next few weeks the two would train together and Kobe's intense work ethic would rub off on LeBron and the two would eventually carry the US all the way to the gold medal.

Fast forward to the start of the 2009 NBA season and LeBron still waking up everyday at 6am to get in those early morning workouts and make himself a better player.  It clearly worked as this year the NBA saw one of the most dominant seasons in league history as LeBron was possessed and led his Cleveland Cavaliers to a 66-16 record (40-2 at home). 

While LeBron has always been a gifted athlete and a great competitor it can be argued that to reach that next level he needed someone to challenege him.  Having to practice against the likes of Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak wasn't going to allow him to do that.  LeBron needed someone to challenge him and say, "people may say you're the next Jordan but you aren't on my level yet."  This is basically what Kobe did.  By getting up early and working harder than everybody else Bryant basically called out LeBron daring him to try and keep up and get to that next level.  

This form of competition not only helps Kobe and LeBron, D Wade can also be included in this discussion as well, but helps the league.  The league has always done well when there are rivalries to create buzz.  For instance the NBA enjoyed its greatest level of success during the Magic vs. Bird era as whenever those two played it was a national event.  A rivalry composed of two of the most dominant players of the generation.  Now the NBA has Kobe and LeBron to promote the game and to create debate.

This is what the NBA was missing during "Jordan era" when Michael Jordan dominated the game and had no one to challenge him and make him better.  The league would try to position guys like Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley to be his rival but MJ would ruin them.  He was unmatched on the court almost his entire career and it leaves me wondering what could have been if either Kobe or LeBron was born 10 years earlier.

As for the present LeBron is the new MVP and has Kobe to thank for it.  He would have reached his current level of skill on his own but without Kobe as an example and an influence it would not have come nearly as soon. LeBron may win many more MVP awards but if he wants to get better as a player he will need someone to challenge him.  It is far too easy to reach a plateau and then have no real reason to go any further.  It is what happened to Jordan and what hopefully doesn't happen to LeBron.

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Panther Pride

One week before the NHL Trade Deadline I was on the radio with my Co-host Wych and our NHL Insider Stevie P and I said that the Panthers should trade Jay Bouwmeester. Both Wych and Stevie P said this was stupid. I suggested that they trade him since he was going to become a free agent at the end of the season and Florida wasn't going to make the playoffs. They argued that if they traded him they wouldn't make the playoffs so they might as well keep him.

Well look who was right in the end...ME.

The Florida Panthers missed the playoffs for the 9th straight season and now their best player is going to leave and they will get nothing in return. They have significantly weakened their team and all because they wanted to have 2 playoff home games.

How brutal of a team is this? This kind of thing is like business 101. You do not allow your best assets to leave the company for 0 compensation. You need to ensure that you get something and I mean anything because in the end something is better than nothing.

Now one of the arguments used by Stevie P and Wych aka Dumb and Dumber was that it would be selling out your fans to trade Bouwmeester. Moron argument as fans are more disappointed in missing the playoffs and in Bouwmeester's case it was well documented he wasn't going to resign in Florida so by trading him you show your fans that you are going to have a team filled with players that want to be Panthers.

I think that fans are smarter than most GMs think and that if you simply tell them the situation that they will understand. For instance if the Raptors decide to trade Chris Bosh this year I won't be mad because I know that he wanted to sign with a different team and wanted more money. I am ok with that. I am not ok with them letting him walk into free agency in 2010 however. You need to be get something for your top guys.

In the case of Bouwmeester there was a solid offer on the table. The Canucks offered Kevin Bieksa, Mason Raymond, and a 1st round draft pick. Bieksa had 1 more point than Bouwmeester in 10 less games, Raymond is a solid 3rd or 4th line player (hell in Florida he could play 2nd line) and a 1st round pick is a 1st round pick. Tell me how you turn this deal down? What was the thought process behind this rejection?

"Nope instead of getting decent players and a 1st rounder back let's just keep him and let him walk away for nothing at the end of the year when we miss the playoffs. I think Nathan Horton as your best player is a step in the right direction."

Yes I am a Canucks fan so my opinion might be a little bias but seriously what hockey fan can look at that trade, knowing the situation, and turn it down? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Bouwmeester is a top 10 defenseman in the NHL and will more than likely be on the 2010 Canadian Olympic team. He is the current ironman leader in the NHL and at 25 is only going to get better. He is a player that every team in the league wants but if he tells you he doesn't want to resign with you then there is no choice but to trade him.

Florida has clearly shown in the past that they understand this situation as they traded Roberto Luongo once he made it clear he wouldn't resign.

I don't know what was so different with Bouwmeester. All I know is that it is moves like this that keep the Panthers out of the playoffs every year.


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The Moral Hazard

Pick any league in North American sport that has a draft.  The NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB all have drafts.  This is the process where teams select players who aren't yet professionals and draft them to play for their team.  It is not a complicated process and as far as sports go it is not only the life stream of the game but it is also valuable entertainment to the fans.

Who doesn't love draft day?  It is a day that can give hope to any fan whether their team be a perennial powerhouse, a fringe contender, or a basement dweller who needs a chance.  On draft day anything can happen and it gives general managers and owners a way to rebuild not only their franchise but also the interest of their fan base.

While draft day does have its many benefits it also has one vital flaw.  Every draft day of the above mentioned sports is a day in which losing is rewarded and where the values of society are tossed out the window. 

What I am talking about is the system by which the team that finished last in the regular season gets the #1 overall pick.  Yes I know some leagues have lottery but the basic principle is still the same, the worse you do the greater your reward.

Imagine this system was adopted in other areas of society say for instance in the workplace.  When employers see someone working hard they promote that person as a way of rewarding their achievements.  What they don't do is find the guy who shows up late, leaves early, and doesn't get his work in on time and give him a company car and the corner office.  The very idea of rewarding someone for losing is laughable and yet it is commonplace in sports and likely always will be.

So by looking at the system in place if I took over the role of a GM in let's say the NBA and my team isn't very good and we are headed towards a lottery pick what incentive is there for me to try and make my team better?  Yes, I could trade players and try and sign guys in free agency, or I could tank the season and try and get the next LeBron James or Kobe Bryant.  Free agents cost a lot of money and if my team is untalented then executing trades will be difficult. It is much easier to select a college player and sign him to a rookie contract.

This argument is usually attacked by people saying that the reverse order draft is the ultimate leveler when really this is only a myth that is perpetuated by idiots.  If the reverse order draft is such a great system then why haven't the Pittsburgh Pirates won more than 80 games since 1993?   Or the Charlotte Bobcats made the playoffs in their 5 years as a franchise?  And why did it take the Columbus Blue Jackets 8 seasons to finally make the playoffs?

People tend to think that the more top draft picks a team gets the better it will become but that simply is not the case.  Success in sports is based on the quality of the organization.  The ability to hire good coaches and draft the right kind of players are what make the good teams good.

To prove this point look no further than the Detroit Red Wings.  Arguably the most dominant team of the past decade and a team that didn't have a 1st round draft pick from 2000-2007.  During this period they finished 1st in their division every single year and won 2 Stanley Cups.  They achieved this success not by getting lottery picks but by being an excellent organization that didn't use the draft as a crutch.

I think the solution to this problem is a simple one and a fair one at that.  Every team in the entire league should have an equal chance at the 1st overall pick.  Does this system make it more difficult for weaker teams to improve their chances to get better?  I don't think so.  I think that it would not only make the draft more interesting but eliminate the current incentive to fail.  GMs would have to be smarter and there could be no more tanking in order to get a better draft spot.

This system would make any league infinitely more interesting.  Imagine if Crosby and Ovechkin were on the same team.  Or LeBron and Kobe.  That would be amazing.  Yes it is awesome to see them go head to head and everything but the history that they could make playing on the same team would be even greater.

The Moral Hazard is the principle that that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.  In this case that a team would act much differently if drafts weren't reverse order.  Maybe if there was no incentive to come last we wouldn't see the same teams huddled in the basement of the standings every year.

The idea that someone is rewarded for failing or being inferior is a bizarre one that is only prominent in professional sports.  Yet it is contradictory to everything that I feel sports stands for.  The point of sports is to compete against an opponent and to beat that opponent.  If you lose the game there is no second prize there is only defeat.  The current draft system in the 4 major North American sports leagues needs an overhaul.  Teams need to stop losing every year in order to get great draft picks. 

In the immortal words of Herm Edwards, "You play to win the game!"

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Mike Milbury

How on earth does Mike Milbury have a job in hockey?  Scratch that.  How does he have a job period?  Not only was he a terrible NHL player (238 points in 754 games) but he was also the worst GM in hockey history, at least in my lifetime anyways.  His lack of success at both these occupations some how landed him a job with both TSN and CBC doing broadcasting and analysis.

As a player Milbury is best known for being one of the many Bruins to go into the stands and start fighting fans.  That's right this isn't just a basketball thing.  The Malace at the Palace happened 25 years after Milbury and his Bruins teammates went into the stands to attack fans.  Milbury himself took the shoe off one man and proceeded to beat him with it.  Hilarious but overall not the kind of thing employers look upon favorably.

He then became a coach for the Bruins and had one year of success in 1989 when he lead the Bruins to the Presidents Trophy.  However when he was selected to coach the All-star team he selected enforcer Chris Nilan and checker Brian Skrudland ahead of players such as Kirk Muller and Guy Lafleur.  Because of this idiocy the NHL made a new rule that roster selections for the teams would be a committee decision rather than just the coach.

Now we get to the good part.  His career as a GM.  Miulbury was the GM of the New York Islanders from 1999 to 2006.  During his time with the Islanders he traded away the following players.  Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, and Bryan McCabe; goalies Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo, as well as forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Raffi Torres.

Here are two of Milbury's trades that turned out to be two of the worst trades in NHL history:

Vancouver Canucks trade Trevor Linden to New York Islanders for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, and a first-round pick

 New York Islanders trade Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to the Florida Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha

He was also responsible for picking Rick DiPietro 1st overall in the 2000 draft over players such as Danny Heatley and Marion Gaborik.  He is also the man responsible for trading for Alexei Yashin, a trade in which he included the 2nd overall draft pick, and then signed Yashin to a 10 year $87.5 million dollar contract.

After seeing his impressive resume it blows my mind that this guy gets paid to give advice and analysis on the game of hockey.  How can anything that he says be taken seriously when he has proven that he can't judge talent, can't draft well, and is a goon with no conscience? 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised as the TSN, CBC, and Sportsnet panel are littered with career losers.  Guys like Darren Pang aka Panger, Kelly Hrudey, Nick Kypreos, and JP Stock all have posistions with the above mentioned networks and all sucked.  I mean honestly Kelly Hrudey is best known for wearing a bandana.  That is what he is remembered for and is his greatest achievement.

How come there are no good former players in the booth or on TV?  Oh that's right they all get real jobs either coaching or in the front office.  Guys like Steve Yzerman and Patrick Roy both have careers still in hockey because their input is actually valuable to the people still involved in the game.

I guess that I should take this as a postive sign though because if these scrubs can get a job in broadcasting then it shouldn't be too hard for me.

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Vancouver Canucks 2008-2009 Season

I originally intended to write this last night but was so pissed off I couldn't get a sentence out without having at least 2 to 3 f bombs in it.  I watched the whole game from the couch in front of the LCD and by the end I almost threw my remote through the TV.  It was a sad display of hockey and Vancouver clearly deserved to lose as they played like complete shit.  Goaltending was weak and the defense was piss poor.  

How big of a lead does Roberto Luongo and the defense need in order to win?  3 goals clearly wasn't enough on multiple occasions.  The offense had to work so hard to score a goal and get back into the game and whenever they would take the lead Bobby Lou would blow it.  I even went to update twitter and as I was midsentance...BAM the lead is gone.

In the St. Louis series Luongo let in 5 goals in 4 games.  In the series against the Blackhawks he let in 21 in 6 games including 7 in game 6.  So much for being the best goalie in the world and the apparent "captain" of the team.  He is as good a captain as Richard Park over there on Long Island.  They both have no business wearing the 'C' and Luongo showed why with his performance.

To make matters worse this game, and game 5, never should have happened.  If the Canucks didn't blow their 3 goal lead in game 2 and their 1 goal lead in game 3 then they would have swept.  God forbid their defense learns how to clear a puck and their goalie realise that the puck stays out of the net.

It's not all Luongo and the defense's fault though as many forwards didn't pull their weight. Guys like Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler who were leaders during the regular season vanished in the Chicago series as both finished the playoffs with only 4 points each.  

Also have to thank Taylor Pyatt for showing up for the Chicago series.  Not sure if it was him out there or his fiance as in 4 games he managed 0 points and was -3.  If you're not gonna try then stay home and cry pal cause the team doesn't need your scrub ass taking up valuable playing time from guys who don't suck.

Mats Sundin needs to be mentioned as well.  The $10 million man who scored 8 points in 8 games.  He got his points to make it look like he did something but if you watched the games you saw a player who was not playing to his strengths.  At 6'5" 231lbs he is a massive man yet for some reason refuses to screen the goalie.  Countless times I saw him standing at the side of the goalie waiting for rebounds instead of screening.  Useless piece of crap taking up too much cap space and using his money to keep his respirator going.

The Sedin sisters did their usual thing.  They got their points and tried to be fancy but never really found their rhythm.  Henrik had 5 points in the Chicago series while Daniel had 4.  Not bad but they need to step it up if they want to get fat new contracts.  They are supposed to be our top offensive threats.  Combined they equal 1 Crosby or Ovechkin.  Instead of being 1 elite player they are 2 good players and that isn't enough.  Going to be interesting to see if they come back.

Alain Vigneault needs to go.  The man is a terrible coach.  He shuffles his lines waaay too much and doesn't allow players to build chemistry with one another.  Also his decision to play to sit on the one goal lead in game 3 was brutal.  The Canucks played the entire second and third period as if they were on the penalty kill.  Eventually they gave up a goal after Willie Mitchell decided to clear the puck along the boards where 8 fucking guys were standing rather than through the middle of the ice.  You don't win games by sitting on leads.  You have to play aggressive hockey.  AV needs to go.

It should be a crazy off season in Vancouver as there are lots of guys becoming free agents. Sundin, the Sedins, and Mattias Ohlund are all set to become free agents.  This will either free up some serious cap space or tie the team down with old and overrated players.

Either way some changes need to be made: A new coach, an elite forward, and a captain that scores goals.  Vancouver missed their chance to win it all this year.  Whoever comes out of the Ducks/Wings series is going to be dead and easy pickings while the teams in the east are all subpar in comparison.  What could have been.

It was hard to watch the Canucks lose like that and just thinking about it again pisses me off.  They had their chance and they blew it.  Shit the bed and gave up.  Played like crap and embarassed the team.  They had so much talent this year and should have done more.  

At least the Calgary Flames lost in the 1st round.

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