The Mystery that is the Chicago Bulls

     Unpredictable would be the best word to use when describing the 2012-13 Chicago Bulls season. Many thought with star Point Guard Derrick Rose going down with a torn ACL in game 1 of last year's playoffs, that this season was already in the books. Could the Bulls really hold their heads above water long enough for D Rose to come back? Would their record reflect a scenario to make it even worth it at all for Rose to come back? Should he simply sit out this year and look to come back strong for next season? These are the questions that have been asked, and it has started the unpredictability.

     So, how will Chicago be without its current favorite son? The Bulls currently sit at 21-15, good enough for 5th in the Eastern Conference standings. Most Bulls fans would say that they would take that record at this point any day of the week. The record may seem pretty straightforward to some that say Chicago is "decent" without Derrick Rose, but this season has been anything but straightforward. An argument can be made that the Bulls are the hardest team in the league to figure out this year.

     Recent evidence would support this claim. The Bulls in the last few weeks, have given the Miami Heat one of their 3 home losses, and defeated the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. In fact, Chicago is a perfect 3-0 against the Knicks this season. These wins were typical of the Tom Thibodeau era, great defense and effort to wear down the opponent. And then there's the list of head scratchers. Chicago lost at home on New Year's Eve to the lowly Bobcats, ending Charlotte's 18 game losing streak. The Bulls most recent disturbing defeat came again at home, losing to Phoenix, ending a 12 road losing skid for the Suns. These losses were keyed by poor defense, flat offense and bad execution overall. This is very uncharacteristic of Thibodeau coached teams. 

     All this points up the facts that this team is just one of those teams that you just never know what you will get. Case and point, the Bulls have one of the best Road records in the league at 10-5, while going a very pedestrian 11-10 at home. It is clear that the Bulls seem to play like that gritty and desperate team on the road, and seem to get relaxed and timid while playing at home. 

     The final verdict for me, is that we won't effectively be able to judge this year's Chicago Bulls squad until Derrick Rose can return. If healthy and effective, Rose can give the Bulls their leader and go to guy down the stretch, when the offense can become stagnant. Rose is expected to return some time after the All Star Break. Until then, I encourage all Bulls fans to continue to be positive while we continue to await "The Return" for this season. The final verdict has yet to be decided on, but if Derrick Rose can return to his old self, sentencing for the rest of the league could be set for late April, through June.

Not the Devil: The Argument for Armstrong

     The sky seems to be falling on the life and legacy of one Lance Armstrong. Over the past year or so, Armstrong's fall from grace has been well documented. People have simply made up their minds about Lance in many different ways.
     The consensus is that he is a liar and a cheat; that he has no business calling himself an athlete, or he should just crawl back to the hole he came from. Some don't even want to refer to him as an Athlete anymore.
     During this whole doping ordeal, apparently we were deceived by Armstrong. He went out publicly on shows such as Larry King and assured us all that he wasn't doping, when in fact he probably was all along. Again, we were all deceived. That being said, let's get rid of all this talk about Lance Armstrong owes us all an apology. He let us, the fans, down, but he hasn't harmed any fans.
     As far as I'm concerned, Lance Armstrong, only needs to apologize to those people that he tried to publicly destroy in court and in other ways, because they were telling the truth about him. Obviously these aren't actions to be proud of, but they are only condemning to a certain extent.
     However, last time I checked, there are usually at least two sides to every story, and this Armstrong case is no different. The Athlete side maybe put to bed now, but the image and legacy of Armstrong's life is still very much in the balance.
     Did Lance Armstrong dope? Well, yes apparently he did with his admission to Oprah. However, There is more to this story than a simple cheater. So let's now take a look at the real life scenarios that might change the views of those who are just so quick to judge and make their minds up.
     Let us take a look now at the good he did for the world, since that seems to be overlooked. As a Cancer survivor, Lance's journey from the death bed to his run of dominance in the cycling world was inspirational. In fact, it was so important that he was able to make a fortune off of endorsements. However, the big picture here is that his success and publicity around the world helped him start his Livestrong Campaign and Foundation for Cancer Research.
     Armstrong has raised around $475 Million dollars for Cancer Research as part of this campaign. Sure he benefited financially, making millions of dollars for himself in the process, but again that isn't part of the bigger picture.
     $475 Million is a lot of green for Cancer research, and the argument can be viably made that this amount of money directly contributed to the saving of countless lives since its inception in 1997.
     Another thing that can be considered is that this staggering amount of money may not be possible without the success that Armstrong enjoyed in his 7 year run of dominance in the Tour de France, along with his positive publicity from his winning fight with cancer. So this brings up another question that I think needs to at least be addressed.
     Did the pressure to win for his charity and the fight against cancer, lead Lance Armstrong to pursue the performance-enhancing route in order to have success? I do believe this is a legitimate question. The pressure to win is always a contributing factor to the use of PEDs, but with the success of Livestrong Foundation in his corner, could that have made it about more than simply winning a race?
     I do not know the answer to this question, however, I can't simply sweep this under the rug of simple excuses.
     One more thing to consider is Lance Armstrong did in fact cheat, but he cheated in what is widely considered as the "Dirtiest" sport in terms of the doping issue. So one thing everyone should ask is does the "everybody's doing it," angle justify Armstrong's doping? In this case, I actually think it does.
     Lance was stripped of his Tour titles, so who are you going to give them to? The Runners up? How bout third place? Fourth?
     The fact of the matter is that anyone who would take accept these titles after not winning them outright is probably guilty of the same charges against Armstrong, and anyone who raced clean would probably have too much integrity to want anything to do with being handed a championship that they didn't win.
     Lance Armstrong the athlete, let us as fans down, but to me, what he has done for humanity and the world in his fight against cancer out ways his deception on the bike to the extent that he should still have some positive light on his unfairly, suddenly hollowed image.
     It is time for those so called "experts" that so know everything about everything, to stand up and actually do some research. You just might learn something, and maybe you can at least find the good in what is an already unfortunate enough situation.
   

New Year!

     Happy New Year everyone! It's now 2013 which means we survived the predicted disaster of Winter Solstice 2012. That almost sounds like some kind of event like the Olympics. It is and it isn't, and in this case the most important thing was that it wasn't. Anyway, now people can focus on new achievements and goals to not live up to. What New Years Resolutions will people try for 3 weeks and ignore the rest of the calender year? I'm kidding, so to those who will keep it up; go for it! Good luck with your tasks!
     So what will 2013 have for us in the world of sports? Well that chapter is yet to be written, but based on 2012, sports will still be at an all time high.
     One unfortunate thing will be that the 2013 NFL season will be without one of the iconic figures of this generation, Ray Lewis. Lewis will go down as not only one of the best linebackers to play the game, but also one of the most imposing figures the game has known. He could affect the game in so many ways. He could read offenses and make the correct decisions, as well as get his guys into the right plays. He had tremendous talent, and although he was undersized coming out of Miami (FL); you couldn't have asked for a better building block to start a brand new franchise if you are a Baltimore Raven fan. As long as Baltimore had Ray Lewis, you could count on a dog fight all day long if you were an opposing offense. Nothing would come easy, and often success would not come at all. Lewis is a first ballot Hall of Famer and I'll be sad to see him not a member of the Ravens and the NFL next season.
     After Hockey became the third of the "Big Four" professional leagues to have a lockout, it appeared that the players and owners were quickly approaching the point of no return. This would mean the second cancellation of a season in 8 years for the NHL. However, as of Sunday morning, January 6th, it appears both sides have finally reached a deal to end the lockout and get things going. Season length is TBD at this point, but we can all hope that the NHL does a better job than the NBA with their shortened schedule. Let the Puck drop!
     The NBA seems to be off to a pretty nice start. I'd say it is in safe hands with the collection of young talent leading the league and after the lockout showed how much people would miss the sport, chances are the league be popular for some time to come. The young stars are emerging and the current stars like Lebron and Carmelo are carrying the league to a new level. The key to sustained success is setting the bar high for future generations and continuing to raise it year after year.
     Inspiring performances in the NFL were not uncommon this past year. Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson are both coming back from severe injuries to dominate the sport and the votes for MVP. But, how can anything overshadow Chuck Pagano and the Indianapolis Colts? I know Peterson's run at history put the Vikings, who were 3-13 last year, in the playoffs, but the Colts had many more to overcome. Coach Pagano was diagnosed with Leukemia after week 3, Andrew Luck is a rookie, and the Colts won just two games themselves last season. So what does that mean? Why a trip to the playoffs of course! And to battle Ray Lewis in his final home game in Baltimore no less.
     The last year has shown us that their are some stories that can't be made up in Hollywood. These stories are just so unreal, they have to be real. Here's to those stories of 2012, and to many more in 2013!

 

Hockey $take Out

     The New Year is always supposed to bring excitement to the New Year for Hockey fans but this year is different. Hockey season is still in the air, but thanks to the lockout, many are missing out on the fastest sport out there. Sure like all disagreements, there will be an eventual end to the dilemma, but there doesn't appear to be an end in sight. This situation is just hard to predict, especially sense the season should have started oh I don't know, 2 1/2 months ago. This is one of those scenarios where everyday means something different. Some days, they are close to ending the lockout and others, everyone is in disagreement. Why don't they end the misery and just cancel the entire season? Well the answer is all the revenue they will lose from not having hockey. This is a fact they are well familiar with from experiencing the 2004-05 lockout. Business took a hit and it wasn't even as bad then as it can be this season. Since the 2005-06 season, Revenue has reached well over $3 Billion dollars, an increase of over 30%.

     The NHL has many new advantages today that have allowed for this economic growth, such as T.V. deals with NBC. Virtually all of the Conference finals and Stanley Cup finals can be seen on the Networks of NBC. Perhaps the most significant addition to the revenue is the NHL Winter Classic. The Outdoor Hockey event which takes place on New Years Day is not only successful because of it's popularity and extraordinary context, but it also allows for different financial opportunities such as participation in the 24/7 series by HBO regarding the two teams that play in that season's Winter Classic and how they prepare for the event.

     This however, brings up a completely different issue. Surely the NHL won't go through another lost season with this much on the line, right? Well don't be too surprised, I mean after all, it has already gotten this far, and this was supposed to be the least likely lockout to occur compared to last year's NFL and NBA labor negotiations. 

     It all comes down to the classic cliche, Millionaires (players) vs Billionaires (owners). The losers in the end are always the fans. What is overlooked too often, however, is the employees of the arenas and teams that are taking a financial hit due to this. Many of us might know some of these people and it is frustrating to receive no commission despite technically still receiving salary as a result of employment. 

     The players and the owners need to realize that in order to make things right, they need to set aside their differences and think about everyone else that is involved or affected. However, if you are going to get something done, be sure to do it right, and avoid making the same mistakes the NBA did; with the condensed schedule leading to injuries and travelling nightmares.

     This is a fixable problem but needs to be taken care of. Your move super rich!