Friday, December 4, 2009

win, lose or draw...

in the 1986 NBA Draft Lottery the New york Knicks held the worst possible chance of obtaining the number 1 pick in the draft. The Knicks buck the odds and won the lottery, drafting Patrick Ewing. Its the last time the sun shone on the New York Knickerbockers. Allegations from team owners charged the NBA with handing the Knicks the first overall pick and these charges led to the changing of the rules in such a way that a team in the position that final lottery position would have an absolutely minuscule chance of winning the first overall pick...

a lot of good that did. In 2008, the Chicago Bulls, the most blessed team in the history of the draft—a team that somehow convinced, via mind-meld, the Portland Trailblazers to choose Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan—won the draft lottery with the best record amongst all the members of the draft lottery. All of this after the 6 NBA Finals the team won with Jordan in the 1990's. So much for fairness...

in Johannesburg, South Africa this afternoon, the 2010 World Cup Draw was chosen in a similar fashion. Somehow Italy—defending champs, Spain and France end up in the easiest draws. As an American i'm not here to kick dirt for having to play England in the first game, or about Team USA's draw. i think the draw is good for this US team, which might be this countries best representative ever leading in to the cup. i also relish a chance to play the Motherland to open the tournament, a game i think the US side could win to take control of the draw as a whole, forward to the knock out stages. The team player will be crying in his ceviche...

its just bothers me how European teams especially these three would have the red carpet rolled out for them. France especially. The ultimate insult...

world class striker Thierry Henry—you might have seen him in the Gillete commercials with Tiger Woods and Roger Federer before he was booted by Derek Jeter, who apparently just started shaving—committed a hand ball foul in the seminal moment of the France's World Cup qualifying win over Ireland. The foul was not called and Henry's goal stood, France in, Ireland out. The last thing France deserves is an easy entry into the knock out stages. FIFA, the governing body of World Football, is rattling chains that they will sanction Henry for his unsportsmanlike play. Its not going to happen, and it shouldn't. The only thing that is going to make this right is to drop the referee of that game, Martin Hansson, in the middle of Dublin...

the Italian leagues have been through its own controversies, between referee bribing and the like. FIFA slapped them on the wrist and gave them another good draw...

Spain, well, their Spanish—and the 2008 European Champions, we might as well give them a cup semi birth, if not final...

i guess, shouldn't be surprised. Although it probably doesn't matter what kind of help FIFA gives to its European members, those heathens from Brazil will probably hoist the cup for the sixth time. It almost makes it worth it to know that the "beautiful game," is truly ruled by the western hemisphere...

who's Sam Bowie? Exactly...

2 comments:

Jack Flynn said...

First of all, you can't teach 7'3". Who knew that a white guy that tall would play stiff?

As for the draw, I absolutely love the idea of a match against England. The entire country will go into a prolonged period of mourning and self-flagellation if the Americans beat them. Then the Cat-licks can take advantage of their despair to finally kick the Brits out of the North and Ireland, long a province, will be a nation once again.

France got a ridiculously easy draw. I don't want to hear any crap about playing the host nation making it tougher. I thought that FIFA would want to do something about the appearance of impropriety from that Irish debacle. Then I remembered I was thinking about FIFA, an organization that would barbecue kittens right there on the pitch if it put another euro in their pockets.

TW said...

You pretty much nailed it.