Where's the Outrage?

So #4 is back. He will be in a Vikings uniform. My question is why? Brett Favre is no doubt a first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback. He has a number of league records and has won a Super Bowl. This will be Brett Favre’s 19th season in the NFL! Very few players can match him for longevity. Heck, most coaches can’t match his longevity. But, back to my question. Why did he decide he had to come back and play for the Minnesota Vikings? Last year, he played for the New York Jets. One could argue that he had three or four good games early in the season, yes, but his play could be described as disastrous towards the end of the season. He cost the head coach his job. I would argue that another quarterback might have taken the Jets into the playoffs. I hope the Minnesota Vikings know what they’ve purchased for $25 million over two years. (There is no doubt that Sage Rosenfel and Tarvaris Jackson were not impressing the Minnesota Vikings staff but a 40-year-old quarterback?) As for the Packers fans, what can I say? Farve wanted to play and the Packers didn’t think he could any more.

I saw an article on Sports Illustrated’s website entitled 25 things we miss in basketball, which I thought was rather clever. I thought Iwould comment on some of the 25 things, because the game I see today is not the game I grew up with.

George Gervin. There were lots of beautiful things to see in 1980s basketball. Magic Johnson running the floor on fast-break. Larry Bird rocketing and not looking pass to one of his teammates. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook. Adrian Dantley shooting free throws. George “The Iceman” Gervin and the finger roll. George Gervin was probably a prototype for the modern basketball player. He was a scoring machine. Don’t expect any defense because there was none. On the other hand, if you throw him the ball, you can sit back and watch some fabulous move and then the elegant finger roll.

Silence. Frank Deford talked about this several years ago. Basketball games used to be relatively quiet. We were able to hear the squeak of the tennis shoes on the hardwood floors. You could hear the coaches barking out signals and instructions. You can take your son or daughter to a game and actually explain what was going on. Now, basketball games are more like a rock concert because “We Will Rock You.” As a matter fact, these aren’t basketball games, they are Sporting Events. The stadium announcer wants you on your feet and yelling frantically for the whole game. It just isn’t the same.

Michael Jordan-Larry Bird. Although I really liked the Boston Celtics versus the Los Angeles Lakers, the Michael Jordan — Larry Bird rivalry really endures. Maybe it was because of their McDonald’s commercials. I don’t think they made more than two or three of them but they were playing H-O-R-S-E. the game, the commercial, which starts off with one of them shooting a fairly benign shot like a free throw. Then they were shooting from the bench area. Then they were shooting from the rafters. The commercial would end with them shooting somewhere outside of the stadium, miles away, and you just hear the swoosh of the basketball – “Nothing but net.”

Georgetown, University of Houston, University of Michigan. I didn’t follow NCAA basketball as closely as some of my friends but I always paid attention to March Madness (I really don’t remember when they had the tournament as March Madness.) Georgetown always had a great team. They somehow found great players. John Thompson found a way to make these players play together as a team. The University of Houston and the University of Michigan have two very memorable teams during this time period – Phi Slamma Jamma and the Fab Five. The University of Houston was led by Clyde Drexler who brought near sprinter speed to the basketball court. If he has the ball in the open court, no one was going to catch him. The team is rounded out with Benny Anders, Hakeem Olajuwon (One of the greatest centers to ever play the game in my book), Larry Micheaux, Michael Young and Rob Williams. The Fab Five were a young team in the early 1990s (sorry this is just outside of my time frame). They played some phenomenal basketball. They played with plenty of attitude and skill. There were five of the best college players I’ve ever seen play together. Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson. (I know that I didn’t mention any of the Duke teams or University of North Carolina teams. Sorry. It’s not that I didn’t like those teams. They had some very memorable and great teams but to me they just were quite as memorable as the three that I mentioned.)

Team basketball. This is what I miss more than anything else. There was a time in the NBA when teams actually passed the ball — more than once. There were more plays in the playbook than just isolating the superstar. Rebounding and boxing out were important. There was more of a team concept to defense. There was hustle away from the ball. Now this team concept seems to have gone the way of the Ford model T.

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