Funny Photo of the Day

Hope you all enjoy today's photo.  In honor of the NBA All-Star weekend, I thought it would be appropriate go the NBA route once again.  Although he isn't an all-star this year, my boy Joakim "Know-that" Noah could have easily been on the roster if he didn't get injured.  How he got away with this outfit on draft day, I'll never understand, but what a hilarious move on his part.  I call this one "Do You Love Peace?  I Couldn't Be With Anyone Who Doesn't Love Peace" ...As Always, captions are encouraged,. Enjoy.

The Golden Rule

So we've finally reached the All-Star break in the NBA in what has already been one of the most memorable season's I can remember. I don't think the league has ever been as deep talent-wise as it is now. A new flurry of starts have burst onto the scene, guys are becoming involved in their teams success much earlier on in their careers, even as rookies. This new batch of exciting players from Kevin Durant to Kevin Love to Derrick Rose (all one and done's, all all-stars this season) ensure that the game will be at its height for the next several years. You look at this young corps of guys, most under the age of 23, and as an NBA fan, you have to be happy with the direction the league is going, even if it is at the expense of the college game.

With this unparalleled rise going on in the NBA, we are witnessing NCAA basketball going in a very different direction.  As a result of the "one and done" rule (players now must attend a college before entering the NBA draft, but can leave after only one year), NCAA basketball has lost most of its star power.  Most of the coveted recruits head to the NBA after their freshman season, leaving coaches stuck in a perpetual state of rebuilding...just ask Kentucky's John Calipari, who lost all of his starters from last year, four of which were freshman.  As a result, you never really get an idea of who is going to be good in the NCAAs until halfway through the season.  Up until that point, most of the public opinion about who the best teams are going to be are based on the coaches of the individual programs.  I think there are pro's and con's to this system, but that ultimately change is needed, allow me to explain.

On the plus side,  the parity in college basketball is as high as its ever been.  With no established four-year guys to anchor teams anymore, every season potentially belongs to any team.  This allows for more upsets during the regular season (The #1 team has already lost 3 times this season) and a more exciting NCAA tournament.  Just last year you had a slew of historic upsets, capped off with 8-seed Northern Iowa taking down 1-seeded Kansas in the second round.  If the games are more exciting, viewership will inevitably rise and the NCAA potentially makes more money, so this new rule hasn't been all bad for the game.  It also allows for smaller programs to be more competitive since the power conference teams face rebuilding situations on a year-to-year basis.

However, true fans of the college game will agree that this new structure is not a good model for consistency.  The whole beauty of college sports, the goal of every coach at this level, is to eventually build a dynasty. Just ask Billy Donovan and the "O' Fours" who decided as a group to bypass the draft after their sophomore season to come back and win a second title, which they did successfully.  This becomes nearly impossible when all of your top recruits jump to the pros after just one year.  There is literally no chance to develop the young talent that these coaches have worked so hard to get.  Starting over year after year seems like an exercise in futility to me.  I think that the best solution to this problem would be to mandate a 2-year minimum at the college level.

With the two year rule, young players in college get a chance to develop and mature for an extra year and effectively improve their draft status upon entering the NBA.  At the same time,  college teams have a bit more consistency when trying to build a program.  I think that this is the best alternative to whats in place right now, a much better solution than allowing for high schoolers to enter the NBA draft.

The problem with allowing high school players to enter the draft is that is severely dilutes the talent pool in the NBA.  Look at the players in the league from 1995-2005 (the high school years).  Aside from a few exceptions (T-Mac, Kobe, Garnett, Howard)  the majority of the high school players that were drafted were clearly not ready to play at the professional level.  NBA teams are stupid enough to take a risk on these young guys with the hopes of finding the next Kobe, but the fact of the matter is, the risk totally outweighs the reward.  If we want to keep the NBA as deep and exciting as it is right now, then the best way to do that would be to keep high schoolers out.  If kids want to bypass college and go to Europe and play for a year, fine with me.  The two year college rule would benefit both the NCAA and the NBA equally and allow for both levels of basketball to excel. That's just my two cents anyway.

Funny Sports Photo of the Day

This is another new segment I'm going to try out on a regular basis. In an effort to get my readers involved, I call on all of you to come up with a funny caption for each picture that I post.  

What better way to kick this thing off than with a photo of the original blogging funny man himself (he was, at one point, an inspiration), Gilbert Arenas.  Washington misses you man...well not exactly Washington, but I miss you...well, I guess I don't really miss you either but I sure do miss reading your blog. Anyway...

Today's picture is titled: "Gun Shy", enjoy.

#5

I hope everyone likes the new "Reasons for O-ptimism graphic, I know I do.  Shoutouts to my boy Kyle "Cosine" Smeallie for putting that together.  Anyway, on to this much awaited post...

Carmelo Anthony may or may not be an O's fan as this picture might indicate.  A guy like Melo, you'd expect to be wearing a Yankees hat or maybe a Dodgers hat, maybe a Rockies hat (see what i did there?)  and yet here he is, rockin' the freshie O's fitted for the camera.  You know when basketball all-stars with no affiliation to that city are rockin the cap that big things are on the horizon...or maybe he just likes the design, i don't know, I'm not a fashion expert believe it or not.  Either way, we can assume this is a good omen.  Melo-please stay in Denver.

Also,  please take a minute to appreciate this other guy in the picture.  Is he a fan or a friend of melo? I couldn't say but his facial expression is priceless...even more reason for optimism this season!

#4

As a fan, there's always the chance you could get left alone in Camden Yards like these two guys, have the entire stadium as your own personal fun-land while taking in an endless supply of booze (seriously, click the link and read this Deadspin article). If this kind of thing happened to me I could probably die a happy man.  Just end it, right then and there and I'd have no complaints.  Have you ever heard of this happening at another ballpark, or any professional stadium for that matter??  I think not.  Gotta love Birdland, go O's.

#3

• Vladimir Guerrero playing in a hitter's ballpark. (Seriously, whats the over/under on home runs hit by Vlad this year?  35? 40?  Staying somewhat conservative, im gonna go with 35, but im taking the over, go Os.)