Reggie Rose' statment

This past week, when I heard about what Reggie Rose (Derrick's Brother) said about the Bulls organization; I was shocked. The exact words he said were; "It's frustrating to see my brother play his heart and soul out for the team and them not put anything around him." He had no right to disclose such a thing. He isn't the one playing on the court. Only Derrick should be able to make a statement like that because he deserves to have a voice in the matter. I understand that Reggie is his manager, but he still isn't the one on the team. Plus, I think the Bulls have done a decent job putting talent around him. They do have the best defensive team in the league. How can you say he has no talent around him? Though, I will say that the Bulls need to get another good offensive player before they even think about winning a championship. If Rose does somehow win one on his own, it would show people why he was MVP the year before he got hurt. The bottom line is that Reggie pushed his boundaries when he made that statement. It could affect a player's relationship with Derrick and possibly cause team chemistry issues. I think it was a bad move on Reggie's part.

Hockey Hockey Hockey

It's always eventful in Chicago when you're dealing with sports. The Hockey City Classic was held at Soldier Field this weekend. Notre Dame Fighting Irish took on the Miami Redhawks and right after the Minnesota Golden Gophers took on the Wisconsin Badgers. The Fighting Irish and the Badgers left Chicago with a win. According to the Chicago Tribune, just about 52,051 people attended this event... aka a lot of people. It was definitely an exciting event to take part of. On the subject of hockey, we can't forget about our Blackhawks! They are currently one game away from tying the league's record of sixteen consecutive games with a point to start. The Blackhawks will take on the Vancouver Canucks tonight at 7:30. Maybe Marian Hossa will be able to up his goals with home game advantage. Hossa has only scored two goals in the past thirteen games...ouch. Not what we expect from one of our star players. Lets go Chicago!

Blue Collared Noah

Derrick Rose's injury status has overshadowed Joakim Noah's first All-Star bid. After seven seasons, Noah has finally earned his recognition; to play on the same stage as some of the MBA's best players.

An on-going foot injury has threatened not only Noah's performance this season, but many questioned his attendance at this years All-Star Game.

When addressing his concern for up-coming All-Star Game, Noah explained his desire to play, but made sure to point out that his priority was his performance for the rest of Bulls' season.

Despite his injury status, Noah arose from beneath the All-Star stage. The excitement was written all over his face.

Noah played with the intensity and aggressiveness that the fans and players alike have learned to expect from him. He played like the hardworking, blue-collar player that he has always been known to be.

While Lebron James and Kevin Durant spent the majority of the game impressing fans with their offensive skills, Noah stuck with his normal game plan-- being the great defensive player we have all come to love.

Although West beat the East 143-138, Noah has proved that he always leaves his heart on the court.

Noah has given Chicago fans hope during a Rose-less season. Hopefully these February Chicago showers will bring March flowers and will continue success for the Bulls.

The Arnold's are Coming, the Arnold's are Coming!

The 2013 Arnold Classic is just around the corner. Bodybuilding's very biggest, and I mean biggest, athletes will be in attendance to show off what they have been trying for all year long.  The Arnold's is a professional body building competition that is named after the sport's very best of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The name of the competition itself should give away the sport's policy on using performance enhancing drugs.  Schwarzenegger admitted to using it, as well as many of the sports several other athletes such as Mister Olympia himself, Phil Health.  Though there is still testing for the drugs, they are very lenient on the testing and pretty much allow the athletes to do what they want.  In my opinion this is one of the only sports that got drug testing done the right way; by doing it as sparingly as possible and letting the professionals chose whether they were going to us the drugs or not.

I grew up in the sports "Steroid Era".  Where athletes who use performance enhancing drugs are ridiculed and looked down upon for not playing the game in a "pure" fashion.  My question is, "Why?"  Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire both broke a long time single season home run record, and people now look down on these two athletes because of their association with performance enhancing drugs.  But, they still had to hit the ball… against pitchers who also may or may not have been using the drugs as well.  So in my opinion, it all evens out.

Lance Armstrong just stepped down from Live Strong because of his relations with the drugs as well. He now has to turn all of his Tour De France titles.  Ok, so he may have lied about using drugs, but sports is all about entertaining the fans.  Seeing athletes at their  best form.

Sure, you can make the argument that these types of drugs were not used when the records that these athletes are breaking were set, but they were still taking substances to try and improve their game as well.  These are grown men, they are paid big dollars because they are the best at what they do in their sport.  If they take drugs to get them to that level of excellence is that not their prerogative? I am sure even the purest of players in sports have had the opportunity to use the same drugs to improve their game as well.

There can definitely be an argument made that drug use is a bad influence on children, but even cartoons are taking supplements that they are unsure of to improve there game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbaKze622Kg

So i think that argument is void in itself.

So the world of professional body building has the right answer.  Just leave the athletes alone and let them train however they want to train.  we want to see the 500 foot home runs, the seven consecutive titles.  Sports fans want to see records being broken,  I am going to be watching the Arnold's this year knowing a good majority of these athletes are using performance enhancing drugs, and I feel there is nothing wrong with that.

Rose's Recovery

Derrick Rose has been sitting out since having knee surgery and his return for the season looked bleak- until today.
The all-star Bulls guard participated in 5-on-5 drills during today's practice. Although he mentioned last week that he might be out for the season, this small glimmer of hope will keep fans crossing their fingers for a surprise return.
In the meantime, fans can look forward to Hinrich tearing up the court tomorrow after recovering from an elbow infection. This should give the Bulls a much needed boost in their game against New Orleans. The Bulls, who currently holds the Eastern Conference's fifth seed, went 2-5 while Hinrich was benched.
Now Rose just needs to follow Hinrich's lead and help bring the Bulls back to their former glory.

President Obama Golfs With Tiger Woods -- Leaves Many Outraged

When you're the President of the United States, it's no surprise to get the best of the best. And so, in a first on Sunday, President Obama teed off at the exclusive Floridian Yacht and Golf Club with the world's No. 2 golfer, Tiger Woods.

Also joining the duo was U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Jim Crane, the resort owner and owner of the Houston Astros baseball team. 

Butch Harmon, Woods' former swing coach, said that the president congratulated Woods on winning the Farmers Insurance Open last month and told him, "The last tournament you played was fun to watch. It's good to see you play well again"(Chicago Tribune). 

Unfortunately...the Twitterverse and Facebook users were outraged. And that didn't sit well with me. 

For a majority of the night, #TigerWoods was trending on Twitter and among the tweets and retweets, you could see how outraged users were.One of the night's top tweet was retweeted over 616 times and stated: "The national debt is $16,541,000,484,267 & growing. Don't worry though, Obama's working hard on the problem while golfing with Tiger Woods"(Twitter). 

How did a simple story get turned into such negativity. All of a sudden people had second thoughts about the man they voted to office. Really? Golf has that much power? Should presidents be denied some sort of normalcy and not have hobbies? Can presidents not take a day where they can unwind from the craziness of it all that is our economy? Do we, as Americans, not look forward to a weekend after a long week of work to unwind? Why should the president be denied that same right?

Listen, if you're going to be mad at the president for golfing, be mad at his score, be mad that he probably doesn't have to pay for his green fees, or even be mad at his grip -- but this? Come on.

After all, for those of you who don't work or have school tomorrow, might I remind you that it's President's Day? 

You can thank him now. 

Michael Jordan's Birthday

Happy Birthday Michael Jordan! Jordan is, arguably, the greatest basketball player of all time.

Jordan said in his Hall Of Fame speech in 2009 that he feels like he can play the game at the age of 50. Well, now he’s 50.

Can Jordan still suit up and drop 30 points like he did in his prime? We’ll never know since he’s not making a comeback to the NBA.        

Regardless if he can still play or not, it’s his birthday and every NBA fan is celebrating it. In honor of Jordan’s 50^th Birthday, here are 50 of his greatest plays.  Special thanks to Youtube user m2e1iriko for making the video. 

Happy Birthday MJ! 

Dunk Contest

    Remember the days when Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins were slamming spectacular dunk after spectacular dunk to determine who was the Slam Dunk champion? 

     Yeah, those days are over. The NBA slam dunk Contest seems like it's getting worse each year. The last time the Slam Dunk contest lived up to the hype was in 2003 when Jason Richardson won two straight dunk contests. The time before that was in 2000 when Vince Carter put on one of the greatest dunk contest shows of all time! 

     NBA fans want to see amazing dunks. There is nothing like an incredible dunk that gets everyone up on their feet hollarin'. Well, the All-Star Weekend is here and that means one thing; The Slam Dunk contest. 

     The 2013 Slam Dunk contest on a scale of one to 10, was a six at best. The first two rounds of the contest aren't even worth mentioning because there wasn't a dunk performed that hasn't been done before. Jeremy Evans and Terrence Ross made the finals. 

     They each did two dunks, so a total of four dunks. Three of four dunks in the final round were better than any of the dunks performed in the previous two rounds. Ross had a tribute dunk to Vince Carter even rockin' Carter's number 15 Raptors jersey. You can see the dunks in the Final round and judge for yourself. 

    Fans want superstar players to participate in the contest, but stars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant just don't want to do it. The dunk contest needs stars and it needs some flavor, something new to grab the viewer's attention. 

     The sad part is, that no matter how good the dunk contest can get in the future, it'll never be as good as the dunk contests in the 1980's with Jordan and Wilkins. 

Lebron James Vs. Michael Jordan

On the eve of Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, I am going to talk about the hot discussion topic of the week. Mike vs. Lebron. Now, all week the "First take" discussed the matter with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. Skip took the approach of defending Michael, and Stephen took the side of Lebron.
The crucial argument was who would win in a one-on-one match.
 Here is my argument. First thing, Michael was 6'6 216 pounds. Lebron is 6'8 250 pounds. Now, to say that one-on-one Michael would dominate Lebron is a bold statement, just because of the size factor. It is a dis-respect to Lebron James. He is clearly one of the most explosive all around players that we have ever seen play the game. He is bigger, stronger, and possibly even faster than Jordan. However, Jordan and Kobe Bryant were clearly the two best shooters ever to play basketball. That is one thing Mike and Kobe have on Lebron. I think that Michael Jordan had the most desire to win of any player in all of sports history. That is what makes him a forever all-time world icon. He is so famous and popular that some people will always be heavily bias that no one could be better than him.
 I think that is unfair to Lebron. He technically has more potential than Michael ever had. he just has not had the chance to prove himself. Now, he may never catch Michael, but, to say he is not as dominant...is a hard thing to say right now. Lebron is clearly dominating the NBA and is almost impossible to guard. I would not state who would win one-on-one, but one thing I would say is this... It would be closer than people think. Jordan would work Lebron with his shooting. However, Lebron would drive to the lane on Jordan all day. My final word is that there is no way someone can say either one would dominate each other.  It is not realistic and just would not happen.

NFL Considers Widening Field

The NFL may consider taking a page out of Canada’s playbook. Nothing has been confirmed but the league could be looking into widening its field much like Canada’s CFL. The game of football has become quite gruesome over the years. Players are faster and stronger than ever and long-term head injuries are becoming more prevalent. Former competition committee leader Bill Polian told The National Football Post that the league had considered making the drastic change years ago and they may be revisiting the idea. Polian also mentioned that, from his experience, there are less traumatic collisions in Canada. The Canadian field is 35 feet wider than the NFL’s 160 feet. Allowing more space on the field could aid in the reduction of such high speed collisions.

I think the idea is certainly worth looking into. These players definitely need all the help they can get. Head injuries are no joke. The past few years have really shown us how devastating head injuries can be to a player's ability to lead a normal life outside the field. With cases like Junior Seau we saw how insomnia and depression could rob a player of his ability to think clearly and ultimately to live. So, I think the idea is well worth investigating.

But, not everyone is as open to the idea as I am. Some say the widening of the field could have an adverse effect on the player's safety and that collisions could be even worse. Others feel like the modification would have no effect on the hits at all. We'll see what comes of this idea in the months ahead.