May 5, 2014 at 1:42 p.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
Sterling's fall, draft apathy and the truth about coaching
Shoutouts & Callouts
I wanted to take a moment to put a bow on the Donald Sterling saga, which came to a head hours after last week's column hit newsstands.
Rookie NBA commission Adam Silver wielded a heavy hammer, blackballing Sterling from the league for life and fining him $2.5 million. It's was the harshest penalty Silver could deliver after determining that the voice of the man lobbing racial venom in a private conversation leaked to TMZ was indeed Sterling.
As I said last week, due process needed to take its course, and since this matter fell outside the jurisdiction of the court system, Silver's verdict and sentencing suffices as due process. I also said if the tape was genuine then Sterling was deserving of any and all consequences that came his way. That certainly happened last week.
The NBA had to react quickly given the groundswell of negative public opinion. It did and Sterling has not once denied the charges against him. Removing Sterling from the league certainly seems to be justified.
However I still question the means used to reach those ends, and whether that was the intended consequence in the first place.
I'm not the only one who thinks so. Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabaar wrote an eloquent op-ed piece in "TIME" last week that condemned Sterling, the private recording of his conversations, the media who ran with the story and the public that hastily leveled its verdict.
"Moral outrage is exhausting. And dangerous," Abdul-Jabbar said in the opening of his piece. "The whole country has gotten a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome from the newest popular sport of Extreme Finger Wagging."
Abdul-Jabaar had some harsh criticism for Sterling's ex-girlfriend V. Stiviano, and the media.
"She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist soundbites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee," he said. "They caught big game on a slow news day, so they put his head on a pike, dubbed him Lord of the Flies, and danced around him whooping."
Abdul-Jabbar ended his piece with a piece of sage advice.
"Let's use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.' Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs."
Like so many shots Abdul-Jabaar took during his career, this one was nothing but net.
Callout: Not catching draft fever
The NFL Draft begins Thursday, but pardon me for not getting too worked up over it.
There are certainly merits to the draft. Savvy general managers, like the Packers' Ted Thompson, use it as the primary means to build their rosters for years to come.
The reason the draft doesn't excite me is all the hype. Is Jadeveon Clowney (DE-South Carolina) legitimately this year's No. 1 pick? Can Johnny Manziel (QB-Texas A&M) shed his "character issues?" Will he become the next Russell Wilson or the next JaMarcus Russell? Is the league ready for Michael Sam (DE/LB-Missouri), an openly gay player?
To me it's all bluster, hype and speculation. We will not know these answers until these guys, and the 250-plus others drafted over the three-day event, hit the field and try to prove themselves.
Remember all the so-called "draftniks" thought Ryan Leaf was a potential No. 1 overall pick. Four years later, no one took a chance on Tom Brady until the sixth round. How did their careers turn out?
So, while I will have some interest in the draft, I'm not going to get too worked up over who won and who lost. We will learn that answer together in good time.
Extra Point: Just the tip of the iceberg
I've been thinking a lot lately about the role of high school coaches. From the outside, we may see the individual who guides his or her team into competition, runs practices and conducts interviews with the media afterward. The high school sports season may only last two to three months - sometimes closer to four if you make a deep tournament run - but the work of most coaches extends well beyond the final playoff game.
What if I told you several high school coaches could be found working with their youth programs, sometimes even coaching a younger age group? I've seen it countless times.
What if I told you that, because money is tight across the board, coaches take time to organize fundraisers, volunteer at the Hodag Country Festival or lobby local booster clubs for grants to offset the cost of essential items like jerseys, helmets and pads? Virtually every coach I've worked with has had to do that at some point.
What if I told you that at 6 a.m. on race day a cross county coach was out on his ATV surveying trails, marking the course and clearing debris? I've seen it.
What if I told you before a road game - with no trainer to be found - while taping a pregame interview, a coach was also taping ankles? It's happened.
What about all the offseason programs that take place, from camps to open gyms to summer leagues? What about coaching seminars?
What about a coach's life outside of his or her sport? The majority try to balance coaching with their day jobs, being a good spouse and/or trying to raise a family. I have a hard enough time balancing the final three items, without taking on a major commitment like coaching.
The fact is to field a competitive program, many coaches devote time to their sports year round, not just the two or three months they are paid to coach and even that does not guarantee success. It's a tireless, and sometimes a thankless, job - between parents who gripe about playing time, administrators who expect results and outsiders who believe they spend too much on co-curricular activities.
That's just the head coaches. We haven't even talked about assistants who receive a fraction the pay or the volunteer assistants who help out and don't even ask for a dime.
The fact is the majority don't coach for the pay or the fame. They do it because they have a passion for their sport and they have a passion for working with kids. For that, coaches have my utmost respect.
Recently a coach sent me an illustration of his time (see above), which struck me as very profound. "Remember, games and practice are all just the tip of the iceberg," he said.
He couldn't be more accurate.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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