Champions Lose Like Bums

Couldn't help but grab my iPad and blog about the Dallas/LA game. What a bunch of bums. The Lakers are supposed to be champions. Well that means you act like champions whether you win or lose. The two cheap shots in the fourth quarter were definitely uncalled for. Especially the foul on Bynum. I would start the trade papers right now before the game is over. Bynum is a pathetic excuse of a basketball player anyway, and now he just confirmed that. What really disturbs me is that their leader on the floor didn't immediately call his team together and send a message that this kind of bush league play needs to stop now.

I am watching the game with my 13 year old son, who is a basketball player in his own right. He idolizes most of the players and tries to play like they do. What kind of a message do these displays of poor sportsmanship send to kids his age? Is it ok to try and injure the opponent who has just kicked your butt? What Bynum did to Barea should get him suspended at the start of next year. There is no place for that kind of play at any level, especially at the highest level of the sport. Don't take your frustration of being a poor player who has never lived up to the billing, by trying to take out a defenseless, in the air opponent.

Take the defeat like men. My father always told me that you win and lose with dignity. Sometimes the team you are playing is just better than you. Today, Dallas was by far the better team on the floor. Accept it Lakers, you have been the champions for the last two years, but today because of two players you looked like a bunch of bums.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

What in the world was Rashard Mendenhall thinking this past week when he tweeted about Bin Laden being killed, and the events of 9/11. Now, I am not going to go into all that stuff, you can decide yourself what to think and believe. Everyone has their own opinion, and you can agree or disagree with what is said. What I can't figure out is why would Rashard tweet his thoughts on this subject? This was media suicide. Did he think that nobody would read it, or that his comments would cause an uproar with those in the media and fans of the Steelers, and the NFL, and for that matter the United States. Regardless of whether he is right or wrong, these kind of comments would have been better off kept off the social Internet.

When you are a celebrity, anytime you voice your opinion on delicate issues, the backlash can be devastating. I am a fan of Mendenhall's, from his day's at the University of Illinois, and I hate to see him in the situation he is in right now. Even an apology won't undo what he has already said, and now Champion has cut ties with him as one of their spokesmen. This may haunt him the rest of his professional career, and cost him a lot of endorsement money.

Rashard is not the only athlete to get into hot water with comments made via Twitter, Facebook,and other Social Medias. It seems that whenever a player is displeased with something, even during a game, it is easy to grab a phone and text his feelings for everyone to see. Do players not realize that even when they send a tweet out to their followers, that eventually it will end up on SPORTSCENTER. Whatever happened to taking issues to the coach? I don't know about you, but I don't care about an athlete, making millions of dollars, griping about playing time, or that his teammates won't pass him the ball, and I sure don't care about their political views.

The next time an athlete or celebrity decides to express their opinion to the whole world, maybe he/she should ask the question, to Tweet or not to Tweet, what's the best decision?