The New American Revolution

The World Cup officially starts today and if you're not planning on catching that wonderful World Cup fever for a month, the you're missing out. My dislike of professional soccer is well documented, but one thing is for sure: that when World Cup comes around, I catch the fever. I'm certainly not the only one either.

While most Americans will be concerning themselves only with the end of the NBA Finals, baseball, and God forbid American football in June (in case you didn't hear the season doesn't start until September), the rest of the world, and I truly mean the rest of the world, will be foaming at the mouth over the biggest tournament that the world's sport has.

The entire world stops for this month-long emotional roller coaster that is called the World Cup. Nations bond together, from Spain to New Zealand to Argentina to wherever Cameroon is, gathering in front of television sets waiting for the worst, but hoping for the best.

And they would be willing to sacrifice about almost anything short of death for their country to be guaranteed victory. In a survey done by VIP Communications, Inc., it was found that 51% of North Americans supporting their other native countries in the World Cup wouldn't eat for a week, and 7% would give up their job. But some of those numbers only pale in comparison to each specific country's responses. In England, neither food nor love life are necessary; 93% of them would starve themselves for a week, and 12% would sacrifice their love life for a year, to bring home the cup. When the Italians were asked, 70% of respondents, many of whom probably still live with their mother anyway, would quit their jobs for victory.

Yet, while the rest of the world is gearing up for the event, only 1 in 4 adult Americans say they'll tune in for some of the World Cup, although higher numbers among those 30 years and younger are certainly promising for the sport's future in the U.S.A.

But why are older people not interested? I mean, if everyone loves the Olympics, and the added bonus that comes with your own country being represented, then what's wrong with the World Cup? Well, the answer to that question is very simple: Soccer. Older people, as well as many young Americans dislike soccer, because quite frankly, that's one of the only things that the U.S. can't beat the rest of the world at. The U.S. has always needed to have different sports than everyone else; (see baseball, American football) because we have always been different, being the only power in the Western Hemisphere throughout the 20th century. We were different and better than everyone else and our sports needed to be as well (hence American football as opposed to futbol).

When the Cold War hit is when soccer saw its temporary death in the US. Soccer was a Soviet game, and no one wanted to be considered a communist by playing the sport. Therefore, in the country that had come in third place in the 1930 World Cup, soccer's popularity plummeted, explaining the absence of a World Cup appearance from 1954 to 1986.

But now, almost 20 years after the Soviet Union collapsed, a new generation is in place, one that at least appreciates the sport, and will be watching most of this World Cup. And who will be the first opponent they will see the US face? England. The United States, a country with a young fan base, relatively inexperienced in the ways of soccer, but somewhat rabid nonetheless, with a team that are clear underdogs, but might just be ready to make a run, going up against a country with a cocky fan base, who have lived and died with the sport for years, and has a team that has a history of winning. Seems like it will be American Revolution Part II, and if the US wins this match, it could get some people watching the Cup. No one loves anything more than beating down on the Brits, right?

This is why tomorrow's match against England is arguably one of the biggest in US soccer history. This is the opportunity to beat a hated, yet tough opponent, as well as to get some momentum for the rest of the tournament, not to mention earning the respect and support of millions across the States. It could also be the start of something new, a huge boost to the sport of soccer. If the United States went from beating the Brits to eventually becoming the most powerful country in the world, then maybe American soccer can do the same, going from beating the Brits to becoming one of the most popular sports in the United States.

If the US wins this battle against the English, maybe, just maybe, there will only be one type of football being talked about in the month of June, and a lot more Americans sacrificing food for a week in order to bring the cup to the' US of A, the newest revolutionaries in the soccer world. So get out your American flags and soccer balls folks, the British are coming!

Innocent, Yet Guilty?

Sorry for the lack of beef lately, I've had to take up an occupation to acquire the currency that supports my lavish lifestyle, and have therefore had little time to provide you, my audience, with the stories you deserve. Today, my beef is with the sanctions put on the USC football program today.

Today, the NCAA handed down what I consider an unfair punishment to USC, after it investigated into whether former USC Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and his family took improper gifts during Bush's time at the school from 2003 to 2005. The punishment included a two-year postseason ban, a reduction of reportedly around 20 scholarships and a forfeiture of wins from at least the 2004 season.

Before today, no BCS conference football team had been banned from postseason play in seven years.

I feel that what Bush did and what USC seemed to allow him to do is unforgivable and should be severely punished, but why is the NCAA punishing players who weren't even involved in the matter. When Bush first began receiving benefits, most of the guys on this football team were only in middle school. When Bush began receiving benefits, USC head coach Lane Kiffin was then only the team's wide receivers coach. But you know who did play big parts in the program when Bush began receiving his benefits? Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush.

Sadly however, the NCAA is not powerful enough to do anything to Carroll and/or Bush, as since they are only a collegiate association, they really can only sanction those involved currently in collegiate athletics, which neither Carroll, who bolted for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, when rumors began spreading about the Bush situation, nor Bush, who now plays for the Saints, currently have anything to do with.

I have a feeling however, that with a team like the Seahawks and Carroll's poor NFL track record (33-31 overall, with a couple of firings sprinkled in), and Bush's underperformance in the NFL so far, that both of them are getting and will continue to get the bad karma that they deserve.

Because of the fact that the NCAA can't do anything to punish Carroll or Bush, the only people to dump the punishment on are those currently involved with the USC football team, and with USC being such a top-notch program, the NCAA felt it needed to show the rest of the world, how no team can get away with violating NCAA rules.

But, punishing players that did nothing wrong is not the solution to the problem. These guys came to USC innocently, in hopes of winning a national championship, and now they are going to have to either suffer as a football player their whole four years, all because a player from five years ago broke NCAA rules.

The NCAA's best option is to only take the wins away from the years Bush played for USC, and taking no action against this year's team, or any future USC teams. I know that taking the wins away or not, people will probably remember more about the success that USC had during this period instead of the NCAA vacating its wins, but still, it's the only fair solution.

The postseason ban is bad enough alone, as the current players have nothing to play for, but the scholarship deduction is just as bad, because when the current underclassmen are seniors, and the postseason ban is finally gone, USC will still have a bad football team from their inability to recruit any good players the two years prior.

This isn't the current USC football team's fault. This is Reggie Bush's fault, Pete Carroll's fault the 2003 - 2005 USC athletic department's fault, and most importantly for this story, this is the NCAA's fault. The NCAA should have caught the Bush problem back when it was occuring and was actually relevant, instead of five years down the road. And since they didn't, then oh well, their fault, everyone moves on. Instead, the NCAA is doing the wrong thing again. First they didn't catch Bush and now they're punishing this year's players. I guess the NCAA doesn't know the saying, two wrongs don't make a right.

I hate to see bad deeds go unpunished as much as anyone does, but it's wrong for the NCAA to punish innocent people. I know it's wrong for no one to get a punishment here, but it's even worse to punish people that had nothing to do with the violation. If the NCAA wanted to get justice, they should have gotten it right when they had the chance.

The Pitch Count: A Starting Pitcher's Over-Controlling Babysitter

Today, my beef is with managers babying pitchers, by keeping them on strict pitch counts, instead of just letting them keep doing what they do best: pitch.

Tonight, Stephen Strasburg is making his long-awaited major league debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

It's a sure thing that the phenom will throw his first major league pitch at around 7:05 pm, but it's yet to be seen how well he'll actually do.

Ever since being drafted first overall by the Nationals a year ago, and signing a four year, $15.1 million deal - the most ever for a rookie - a month later, everyone in baseball has been awaiting Strasburg's debut.

Strasburg has been on a very strict pitch count since he first started in the minors, with the Nationals' Double-A club, the Harrisburg Senators. The longest he has pitched in a game is 6.1 innings, and he has usually been taken out after five or six innings, despite dominating almost every team and hitter he faced. Many have expected the same thing tonight, as ESPN's Tim Kurkjian reported that Strasburg will likely only throw either six innings or about 90 pitches, no matter how well he is doing.

The pitch counts, the call-ups, it's all been part of a carefully structured plan that the Nationals have laid out for their hopeful soon-to-be-ace; but was it really the right choice to baby Strasburg so much? With the way things are going in Texas it certainly doesn't seem so.

Former flamethrower, Nolan Ryan, now an executive with the Rangers, and Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux are on a mission to go back to the time when pitch counts weren't carefully monitored and when starters pitching for almost the entire game, instead of just six innings, was the norm.

Even in 2000, pitch counts weren't even close to as strict as they were today. According to Sports Illustrated, during the 2000 season, there were 466 times when a pitcher was allowed to throw 120 pitches or more. Last year the number went down all the way to 92. And for what reason?

Many argue that with deeper lineups, and recognizably smaller strike zones, that pitchers today have tougher, more tiring starts than pitchers during Ryan's era. But, one of the main reasons for deeper lineups and improved hitters was steroid and amphetamine usage. With steroids being rigorously tested now, hitters are less likely to hit the monster homers that make a pitcher and manager's guts wrench, and with amphetamines being banned, hitters have a tougher time staying alert and catching up to pitches.

The steroid fueled hitting boom is over, with evidence being shown in the amount of perfect games lately as well as the amount of dominant pitchers in the game today. This season, there should have been three perfect games, had Jim Joyce's now infamous call during Armando Galarraga's start. Pitchers are once again dominating hitters, instead of vice versa.

Another shred of evidence supporting the fact that pitchers are once again dominating is team ERA over the past few years. Every year since 2006, the leading team ERA has dropped. In 2006, the Detroit Tigers led all of baseball with a team ERA of 3.84, while so far this year, the San Diego Padres lead with a 3.02 ERA; last year the Los Angeles Dodgers led with a 3.41 ERA.

Showing pitchers tough love has certainly worked for Nolan Ryan and the Rangers, who went from perennial AL West bottom feeders, to being just 0.5 games out of first place in the division. Not bad for a team whose rotation consists of Rich Harden, C.J. Wilson, Scott Feldman, Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis, who are not necessarily the Roy Halladays are Tim Lincecums of the league.

But of course, it's not as if Ryan and Maddux have their scrappy starters going eight innings every outing.

"What we're trying to get rid of is that thing in pitchers' heads of how many pitches they have," Maddux told SI. "I'd be out there asking how they feel, and they'd say, 'Well, how many pitches do I have?' And I'd say, 'Doesn't matter—how do you feel?'"

Since the inception of their relaxed pitch count, Ranger starters went from a league-low 5.4 innings per start in 2008, to 5.9 innings per start last season, good for a tie for fourth in the American League.

It's time for managers to loosen the reigns on starters a little bit. It's ridiculous how many times as a Yankee fan, that I've seen Joe Torre or Joe Girardi take out a starter doing perfectly fine and put in a reliever that came close to blowing or actually did blow the game. And it was all because the starter just had to be taken out after throwing 100 pitches.

What's the difference between today's starters and starters back in the 80's? I thought that man had evolved, became stronger, more durable. It certainly seems that way with big guys like C.C. Sabathia and Roy Halladay becoming more and more of a norm for pitchers in baseball, as opposed to the skinny Nolan Ryan and Orel Hershiser type-pitchers of the 80s. So wouldn't you expect the bigger, stronger guys to be the ones that are able to pitch longer?

The bar is too low for pitchers these days. Guys like Strasburg may not be able to reach their full confidence level if the game is being taken out of their hands with three innings left, and a heckuva lot of baseball to still be played. If they were allowed to keep pitching without having to worry about their pitch count or when the manager was going to come out of the dugout, then just maybe, they'd be able to focus on the hitter and their own gameplan, the things that actually really matter for a pitcher.

I know an arm can only take so much abuse, especially when it comes in the form of a pitching motion - one of the most unnatural arm motions there is - but if pitching coaches and managers slowly allow starters to pitch deeper into games, then starters could get used to throwing more, and become more durable.

Neither babying nor abusing a pitcher's arm has proven to be the outright more effective method. Different things work for different people. But the last thing that major league hitters are going to be doing to Strasburg is babying him, especially with him being a guy who already has so much fame without having thrown a single pitch in the majors. My bet is that Strasburg comes out against the Pirates, throws six outstanding innings, and eventually has a wonderful, Cy Young Award filled career. The real shame however, is that when this game and possibly his career are over, we'll never know if, without a pitch count, he could have done more.

The World Cup's Benedict Arnold

The World Cup is coming up, starting on June 11, and for those of you who know me, you know that the World Cup is the only time I get excited about soccer. For one month every four years I get me some World Cup fever, and after that I wait three years and eleven months until I care about soccer again. So since I have so little time to appreciate soccer, I hate to start my World Cup coverage on a negative note, but that's just the way it works. Today, my beef is with Giuseppe Rossi.

This past week, Rossi, a 23 year old striker, was left off of the Italian World Cup team, which he had longed to play for his entire life. So, why do I have a beef with the man who just had his hopes and dreams crushed at least for another four years?

Rossi, despite his very, very Italian name, was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. to Italian immigrant parents, both of whom taught language at local Clifton High School. He spent his childhood in the good ol' US of A, yet he's constantly decided to play with the Italians. When he was offered a spot on the Parma youth team, he moved to Italy with his family. Since then, he has played for the Italian national team at almost every different youth level.

Before the 2006 World Cup, Rossi was invited by USA coach Bruce Arena to come to the USA's pre-World Cup training camp, but refused the offer, even though he had no shot at playing for Italy. Chances are he would have made the American squad this year as well for the USA, but Rossi stuck with trying to make the Italian squad and once again got turned away, and I could not be happier.

You figure if Rossi, was not only born in the USA, but spent 15 of his 23 years here, that he would be playing for the Americans. I know that the US certainly isn't a soccer hotbed, but it provided Rossi with a great childhood, a great education and a great life. It's not like he was born here, but spent most of his life in Italy; this guy is an American whether he likes it or not.

Rossi isn't the first person to get all the perks of being an American, while playing for another country when international play comes around. In baseball, so many players are born in America, live in America, have success in America and become wealthy because of America, yet they still play for other teams when the World Baseball Classic comes around.

One example that immediately comes to mind is Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez was born to Dominican parents in New York. At the age of four he and his family moved to the Dominican Republic, but then moved almost immediately back to Miami, when the Dominican economy hit hard times. Rodriguez was born in America, bred in America, has succeeded in America, and his family was bailed out by America when they needed help most. Sounds like an American to me. But apparently, Rodriguez feels that having lived in the Dominican Republic for a couple years as opposed to the more than 30 years he has resided in the United States, and having Dominican parents, makes him more Dominican than American.

I don't want to make playing for the U.S. sound like a chore or a hardship here, but by playing in these international competitions, you are supposed to be doing your country a service. It's almost a responsibility for athletes to represent their country, if they have the talent to do so. Like so many Olympians, these star athletes, every four years, shed their team's jerseys and forget about the millions of dollars that they make, in order to represent their countries in the most renowned soccer tournament in the world.

Guys like Rossi and A-Rod didn't just end up in the United States on accident. Their parents came here for the same reason many other immigrants do, for a chance at a better life not only for themselves, but for their children. And the United States takes them in, because as it says on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Sorry, if I'm going all American on everyone's you know what's, but if someone is going to live in America, and reap the benefits of being an American, then in return they should at least use the talents that they have developed here every four years to help out the country they were born and raised in, as opposed to playing for the country that their parents were born in.

So yes, Rossi has Italian parents, and has lived there for the past several years, but he was born in the United States; he was raised in the United States; he was educated in the United States; he got his start in soccer in the United States. This guy is an American first and an Italian second. He has a responsibility to represent his country, and that country is the United States of America.

The Classic Case of the Child Star

I have some beef lined up, but today I feel like I need to take the time out to acknowledge the retirement of baseball great, Ken Griffey, Jr. The baseball great retired the same way he played for the last decade, quietly.

Sometimes things just don't work out. Ken Griffey, Jr. was set to become the best player in baseball, a statement that no one can refute. Griffey came into the league at the young age of 19, and immediately became one of the top players in the league. In just 61 games his rookie season, Griffey had 16 HRs, 61 RBI and 16 SBs. Junior had arrived.

In 1993, at the young age of 23, Griffey had his first monster year, hitting .309, smashing 45 homers, batting in 109 runs, and stealing 17 bases.

But he wasn't only one of the best hitters in baseball, he was one of the best fielders as well. Griffey, won 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards, not losing once during the 1990s. He scaled walls, dove for balls, and patrolled the outfield like no one had done before him with the possible exception of Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.

He had the swing of an angel, so smooth and sweet. How the ball traveled so far when he swung the bat so easily is bewildering, but Griffey found a way to do it somehow, and he found out early on. Before he had even turned 30, Griffey already had 398 home runs, and early the next season, he became the youngest player ever at the time to hit 400 home runs.

By 1999, at the young age of 29, Griffey was voted to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. He was the only active outfielder voted onto the squad, no Barry Bonds, no Sammy Sosa, just Ken Griffey, Jr.

But then his world turned upside down. After 11 seasons in Seattle, Griffey requested to be traded to the Reds so he could live closer to his family in Cincinnati, his hometown. He got his wish following the 1999 season, and was traded to the Reds for Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, Antonio Perez and Jake Meyer.

It looked as if the Reds had gotten a star in the middle of his prime, but they soon found out, along with everybody else, that Griffey wouldn't be the player that he was on the Mariners ever again. He switched his number from 24 to 30, and his identity from superstar to has-been.

The player who many thought could end up hitting 800 home runs, was hit by the injury bug constantly during his first several years with the Reds. From 2002-2004, he missed 260 out of 486 games, but nevertheless still had a major accomplishment on June 20, 2004, becoming the 20th player at the time to reach 500 career home runs.

There was still some hope that Griffey could return to old form following the 2004 season if he managed to stay healthy, especially with his wonderful performance in the 2005 season, in which he belted 35 homers and had a .301 average. But his injuries persisted, as in September 2005 he strained a tendon in his left foot, and the following year, ready to replicate the great stats during the 2005 season, Griffey was out almost a month with a knee injury. Griffey still ended up with 27 home runs despite playing just 109 games.

Griffey continued to have to fight through the bad luck, breaking his wrist in the 2006 offseason. Still, Griffey came back in 2007 to hit 30 home runs, in the last big season that he would ever have.

The next few years, Griffey began to show signs of aging. He started off the 2008 campaign with the Reds, but was traded to the White Sox at the MLB Trade Deadline on July 31, 2008 in exchange for Nick Masset, and Danny Richar, after nine years in Cincinnati. After the season was over, Griffey became a free agent, and at 39 decided it would be best to end his playing with the team that he had seen so many good time with, the Seattle Mariners.

His two years with the Mariners were what you'd expect from an aging star: a few homers and an awful batting average. Griffey hit just .214 in his first year with the M's and this season was just hitting .184 and was rarely worth even starting for the team.

Rumor has it that this year during a game, he was called to pinch-hit, but was asleep in the clubhouse, when he was called, and missed the at-bat. The rumors were never verified, but if they're true they represent the play that Griffey has provided the Mariners with the past two years, sleep-inducing.

Embarrassing himself as a player, and becoming just another one of those aging superstars that stick around for too long, Griffey called it quits Wednesday, after a 22 season Hall of Fame career, 63o home runs, 13 All Star Selections, 10 Gold Glove awards, and countless injuries which caused him to miss more than 600 games over his career, and most certainly cost him a position at the top of the All-Time Home Run list, exactly where most people wanted him to be.

You see, Griffey, the White Knight of Baseball, should have been the last guy to have had his career ruined by injuries, as he is one of the few superstars, and especially home run hitters, that has not had his reputation tarnished by steroid usage. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, all used steroids, but Griffey did it clean.

I'm not one to say that sometimes life just doesn't make sense, or that it sometimes just sucks, but in Griffey's case, that's exactly what happened. All of the guys that should have been punished for breaking the rules, enjoyed illustrious, healthy careers, while the man who had a wonderful career not due to needles, but the sweetest swing in baseball, suffered constantly, plagued by injuries, looking on as Barry Bonds broke the home run record he was supposed to break. If any case disproves the idea of karma, it's Ken Griffey's.

After leaving Seattle, Griffey disappeared into oblivion, caused by all of that missed time due to injuries and his location in Cincinnati, Ohio, not exactly the media capital of the world. The man who many expected to become the best player in baseball, essentially dropped off of the face of the earth in an instant, in one of the biggest declines an athlete has taken in the history of sport. The backwards-hat wearing, home run bashing, sweet-swinging kid, became just another middle-aged, injury-prone, average player and yet no one seemed to notice. And why would they?

Out of the blue, every year, it seemed like Griffey would reach a new milestone. First it was 500 then 600 and finally 630, putting him 5th on the all-time list, which certainly isn't too shabby of a career. But other than that his play wasn't newsworthy, as most of his homers came with the Mariners in the first 10 years of his career. He finished 130 homers behind leader Barry Bonds, a number he easily beaten, had he not missed 600 games.

It would have been the perfect storyline, with both players most likely reaching the milestone at the the same time. The clean Griffey would have beaten the cheating Bonds, and the hero would have beaten the villain. But things don't always go as planned. Injuries happen, and they just so happened to the man that could have been the best player to ever step onto the diamond. Like so many child stars, it just didn't pan out for Griffey like it should have. So, sorry, if you were looking for a feel good story, because Griffey's certainly isn't one.

The Zen Master's Mind Games

With increased traffic to the site thanks to readers like you, and only so much beef to go around, I present to you a new segment/article I like to call Where Is The Love Wednesday. This concept will basically be the opposite of having beef, as every Wednesday, I'll be talking about something I love currently taking place in the sports world. Enjoy.

Today my love travels to Los Angeles, California to the one known as The Zen Master.

Phil Jackson, who has coached the Lakers since 1999, with the exception of the 2004-05 season, and the Bulls before that during their 90s dynasty, has won a grand total of 10 championships (6 with the Bulls, 4 with the Lakers), the most ever by a coach in the NBA.

He's certainly had a lot of help from a strong contingent of players; Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman with the Bulls, and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant with the Lakers. Having the best players in the league have led many to speculate, including admittedly myself at one point, if Jackson is actually a great coach, or if this Zen Buddhist just has great karma and gets put in the right place at the right time. But what many don't realize is how much Jackson impacts a team.

I'm a firm believer that no coach can win without good players. No matter how much potential you can tap as a coach, there still has to be a great amount of talent on a team for them to win at all. I mean it's the players, not the coach, that are actually playing.

Has Jackson always had good players? Yes. Has he been constantly blessed with some of the greatest players in the history of basketball? Yes. But what really shows Jackson's coaching abilities is what he gets out of every single player on his bench. On each and every one of his teams, it wasn't just the superstars running the show, role players always have played a big role, especially come playoff time, the period a coach's role also becomes that more important.

With the Bulls, Jackson had guys like John Paxson, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, Luc Longley and my all-time favorite Toni Kukoc (pronounced koo-coach). Each and every single player had a big role that was harnessed beautifully by Jackson to bring Chicago six championships over the 90s. Guys like Armstrong and Kerr were the sharp shooters, Grant and Harper were the great defensive players, Paxson was the veteran clutch guy and three point shooter, Longley was the beast and Kukoc was the great sixth man who could do whatever he was asked to do.

With the Lakers Jackson had Derek Fisher with his great three point shot and later his veteran leadership, Robert Horry as the sixth man who could make a clutch three and help lead the team, Deavan George's athleticism and defense, Horace Grant, and A.C. Green who knew how to win championships, playing with the 90s Bulls and 80s Lakers respectively, Mark Madsen to give Shaq a rest and dance at championship parades (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTRuCPddhbU), and of course Rick Fox for his good looks.

Most, if not all of these players played better under Jackson than they did under any other coach they played for. That's not just luck. Jackson has always done a great job at not only getting the most out of his superstars and turning them into team players, but he also knows how to get the most out of role players by allowing them to find their niche on the team, like the present day Lakers with the success of Lamar Odom as a great rebounder and clutch player. No matter how good or bad a player is, they will have an important role under Jackson, which makes every single player buy into a team atmosphere, which leads to championships.

But that's not why I'm loving Phil Jackson today. I'm loving Phil Jackson for one of the main things he does as a coach in the playoffs, something that he's done in every series this year. Using his Zen Buddhist, philosophical, Jedi-like mind tricks, Phil Jackson gets in people's heads.

In the first series against the young and dangerous Oklahoma Thunder, Jackson said about the team's star, 21 year old NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant, "As far as the calls that he gets on the floor, I think a lot of the referees are treating him like a superstar; he gets to the line easy and often," to which Durant replied he felt, "disrespected." Jackson was fined $35,000 for criticizing the referees, and Durant ended up having a great playoff series, averaging 25 PPG, despite losing to the Lakers in six games.

In the Western Conference Finals against the Suns, Jackson called out Steve Nash. Jackson said, it was tough to prepare for Nash "because you can't carry the ball like he does in practice. You can't pick that ball up and run with it." Nash responded when hearing the news by saying, "The best coach in the league, Gregg Popovich, didn't have a problem with it," referring to the coach of the Spurs, the team the Suns beaten in the previous round. Nash had a solid series, but was banged up throughout, suffering a broken nose in Game 4 and still suffering from a swollen right eye that almost closed shut during a series against the Spurs, as the Suns lost to the Lakers in six games.

Now, going into the Finals against the Celtics, Jackson is once again making his subtle observations that has caused major reactions. “We [the Lakers] don’t have a smackdown mentality,” Jackson told reporters. “You might have seen that with [Kevin] Garnett on [Orlando's Dwight] Howard in Game 6 in Boston, where he was smacking Howard’s arm and was finally called for an offensive foul.

“That’s not our kind of team. We don’t go out there to smack people around. I call it more resiliency. We’re a more resilient ball club. We try to stay strong and play hard. But we’re going to have to withstand some of that.”

Sure, maybe the comments that Phil has made throughout the playoffs hasn't had a noticeable effect on its actual targets statistically, but it's certainly had some effect on both the players, the referees and everyone watching the game. Guys like Durant, Nash and the Celtics would have played and will play, in the Celtics case, as well as they would have had Jackson not commented, but you know that everyone in the back of their mind, in this series, just like in the others, will look out for what Jackson said. Everyone, including Durant and especially the referees, who I believe were the main targets of all of Jackson's comments, were wondering whether Durant got too many calls, especially with his lanky frame. Everyone was looking out for Steve Nash to take an extra step without dribbling the ball. And now, everyone will be looking out for how physical the Celtics really are.

The great thing is, Jackson could say all of these things, and all he'll get are a couple of fines, which I'm sure is worth it for a guy who raked in a cool $12 million this year. Just the fact that Phil Jackson's comments could have an impact on the referees, or could have an impact on players, and I think certainly does have an impact on the way fans watch the game, is worth a slap on the wrist and a $35,000 fine from David Stern.

Jackson's comments also don't make people play better. Jackson knows better than anyone that it's hard to win in the playoffs when you're playing for revenge, especially over something someone said. Guys playing for revenge start playing frustratedly, focusing more on showing up the person who insulted them instead of actually winning the game, as Durant possible did. It's even harder for someone to totally push a comment about them to the side and try not worry about it, as Nash tried to do.

By calling out people before they call out them, Jackson is making sure he's getting in other people's heads, before they can get in his. If someone responds to his comments, he can just laugh it off knowing that even if it's just a little tiny bit, he's in their heads. It's a win-win-win for Jackson, as his team plays better as a result of his criticisms building unity against a single opponent, the other team has the possibility of playing worse if they are constantly looking for their supposed flaw, and the referees and fans pay more attention to the flaw that Phil pointed out.

Can I positively say that I know what the Zen Master is doing, and exactly what his goals are in criticizing his opponents? No, but Phil knows what he's doing, and based on his track record, whatever he does is bound to only help his team.

Deal With The Devil

Since we talked about God yesterday, I figured we'd bring it over to the Devil today, to make sure no one was left out. Today my beef is with University of Kentucky Men's Basketball Head Coach John Calipari, the Devil of College Basketball.

Calipari is one of the best coaches in college basketball today. He's a fixer-upper. He's taken every college team he has coached from the UMass Minutemen, to the Memphis Tigers, and finally the Kentucky Wildcats from obscurity to the limelight.

Calipari brought UMass out of a 30 year NCAA tournament drought in 1992, and every year thereafter under Calipari the Minutemen made the tournament, making it all the way to the Final Four in 1996.

After a Final Four appearance with UMass, Calipari had a bad stint in the NBA in which he was fired during his third season as coach of the New Jersey Nets. He returned to the college basketball scene in 2000 with the Memphis Tigers, a team that hadn't seen success since the early 90s. By 2003 he had turned the team into a consistent winner, bringing the Tigers to the NCAA tournament every year but 2005. Finally in 2008, Calipari came closer to a title than he has ever been finishing as a runner-up to Kansas.

Following the 2009 season at Memphis, Calipari took the job offer of a lifetime as head coach of the storied University of Kentucky basketball team. Using his famous one-and-done method, in which he brings in a great crop of freshmen that will all almost certainly leave after their first year, Calipari made Kentucky into a championship contender, but the team fell short, losing in the Elite Eight.

Not too shabby of a track record for a coach who only takes over struggling teams. But, all of this winning comes at a cost. And this is where theses schools make their deal with the devil, selling him their souls for fame and success.

You see, Calipari has a trick to his constant victory. It's called violating NCAA rules. The funny thing is, Calipari always gets out of whatever program he's coaching right around the time when controversy hits. In 1996, UMass had to vacate their tournament record, which included a Final Four appearance, after it was found by the NCAA, that the team's star, Marcus Camby had accepted money and gifts from an agent. Guess who went to the NBA the next year? John Calipari.

The controversy continued when Calipari went to Memphis. The first controversy came when Calipari gave jobs in the program to the relatives of recruits. In 2001 he successfully recruited the best high school player in the country, Dajuan Wagner, most likely under the condition that he give a job to his father Milt Wagner, which Calipari did soon after. In 2007 a similar situation arose; after successfully recruiting Tyreke Evans in 2007, Calipari made Evan's personal strength coach an administrative assistant.

But the problems didn't stop there. An NCAA investigation in 2008 showed, that Memphis' star player, Derrick Rose, who had led them all the way to the NCAA championship the year before, had someone else take his SATs for him, in order to meet NCAA qualifications. Rose, who had taken the ACT three times in Chicago, and never met NCAA standards for a scholarship on any of them, went to Detroit to take the SAT, where someone else finally met the qualifications for Rose.

But with Calipari, if you make a NCAA championship, you better expect some more controversy. It was also found, that during Rose's year at Memphis, Rose's brother was allowed to travel with the team for free. Just the SAT violation did the trick for the NCAA though, as Memphis was forced to vacate its entire 2007-08 regular season, and NCAA tournament wins; the other violation, which would have led to the same punishment, was just salt on the wound. Guess who was out of Memphis following the 2008-09 season? John Calipari.

And that's where we find ourselves today. The devil's done his dirty deeds again, this time in the form of GPA fraudulence. This past week, former University of Kentucky guard Eric Bledsoe was put under investigation as to whether he was eligible to play this year for the Wildcats, due to his low high school GPA.

According to a New York Times report, Bledsoe had a 1.9 GPA the first three years of his high school and in order to meet the standards set by the NCAA to receive a scholarship, Bledsoe would have needed just below a 2.5 GPA his senior year to meet, a pretty lofty grade increase.

Bledsoe also may have received rent from his high school basketball coach, Maurice Ford, his senior year. After the high school that Bledsoe had attended for the three previous years, Carol W. Hayes High School was shut down, instead of moving to nearby Woodlawn like most of his friends, Bledsoe and his mother moved to Birmingham in order to play for A.H. Parker High School. Now Bledsoe is under investigation for suspicion that his high school coach paid at least $1,200 or three month's rent for the Bledsoes, violating NCAA rules.

Calipari's been caught again, and he is seemingly getting worse at playing the game of deception, as this time the controversy comes only one year after coming to Kentucky. Maybe he thought all he needed was one year, figuring with such an all-star squad that he could win the championship quickly and get out, like he always does.

But the NCAA, the God of college basketball, always catches the devious Devil. Wherever Calipari goes to try and do his works, the NCAA is there shortly thereafter. I'm sure with the investigation pending, Calipari is desperately searching for a vacant NBA job.

Oh, but how sweet karma is. Calipari is seemingly under a spell himself. He can't win a title. He wins so many games every single season, rebuilding teams from no-names into contenders, but no matter what he does, no matter what tricks he pulls, it seems as if Calipari will always fall just a little short of winning it all.

The devil of college basketball is 51 years old, and he's getting worse and worse at his little games of deception. The NCAA is constantly on his tail, and Calipari can't keep jumping from school to school much longer, he can't continue to deceive people before they find out what he's doing first, he can't keep making runs at that long awaited title he's been chasing for 22 years as a head coach in both the NCAA and NBA for too much longer. But for now, maybe the devil will continue to make his deals, fooling people until he no longer can, seeking that title. But even if he does win it all, the NCAA will quickly be there uncovering some kind of trick, and Calipari will keep running and running from team to team to no avail, until he can't run anymore.