Might be time to pull back a bit on the coach love

I see by the dispatches that Coach K down at Duke (and if you think I’m going to try and correctly spell Krzyzewski throughout the entirety of a blog post you are silly, silly people) coached his 903rd win last night, becoming the winningest men’s basketball coach in NCAA history.

He will, of course, be the subject of great tales over the next day or so, where we will hear and read what a wonderful coach he is, what a great accomplishment this is and his deification will continue unabated.

And I wonder of the wisdom of it.

Now, this is not to suggest for a second that Coach K specifically is anything other than a decent and honourable man worthy of such tributes. I have too many close friends who have had close interaction with him who tell me what a fine man he is in all regards to come to any other conclusion than that they are right.

The very few times I’ve spoken to him, he’s been respectful and engaging and a seemingly genuine man.

No, the trouble I have is with The Big Country To Our South and its penchant for lionization of college sports icons, its ability and willingness to raise them to impossible-to-hold standards, to make them greater than what they actually are.

This comes entirely on the heels of the disgusting Penn State scandal and has rankled me for years, this whole NCAA issue of “legendary coaches and leaders of men and women” and an utterly fascination with them.

If we have learned nothing over the years – and thousands of trees have given their lives to stories of coaches, specifically American college coaches, who have been something less than what we think we know of them – it is that there is a misguided rush to lift them to places they don’t belong.

Yes, they are charged with helping start teens on the road to becoming valued and functioning men and women of society but the rush is always to overly praise and elevate rather than to step back and take a deep breath.

What Coach K did was great – although there is a large part of me that believes any “winningest” coach thing is a more a function of time than anything (see Wlkens, Lenny) – and as a college basketball tactician he has few rivals.

But we need to hold off, in his case and every other one, don’t we?

This does come entirely to mind because of Penn State and Joe Paterno and how many times over the years we were told what a paragon he was, how he should be on the Mount Rushmore of coaching.

Now, there are likely no skeletons in the closet of Coach K or many of the other men and women who achieve NCAA greatness. But there are those who would make all of them more than they should and that bothers me.

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So I see the lawsuits have begun the NBA – one in California, one in Minnesota – and all I can say is I’m still a tad confused over what exactly the process is but that it’s started has to at least be seen as a good thing.

Read somewhere that the choice to file in the Northern California circuit was done at least in part because that court has a history of expediting such matters and that can’t be a bad thing.

The choice of players as plaintiffs has to do with gaining a cross-section of earners to present to the court and, yes, they left out anyone from the HOTH. Guess they’re saving them for suits in Brazil, Italy, Spain and Lithuania if need be.

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Now, I like London (the one down the 401, as well as the one over the Atlantic) quite a bit. Been to Labatt Park and Alumni Hall, hung at the Ceeps and Joe Cool’s, used to work in the neighbourhood and my boy Sweet Joe is some high-falutin’ media leader down that way.

But, really.

What nincompoop decided it was a good idea to name a new minor league baseball team the London Rippers?

Just what I’d want in an allegedly family-friendly sports franchise: A name that conjures up reminiscences of serial killers and women who might take their clothes off for a living?

Really.

Do people not think?

Might be the worst team name ever, no?

Sure ain’t the Macon Whoopees, which remains the all-time favourite.

Hey, whoever you are? Change it. Today. Thanks.

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Here’s one thing we have to stop concerning ourselves with:

There were a bunch of “sourced” reports out there yesterday afternoon about the NBA informing teams that games through Dec. 15 had been cancelled.

And people actually treated this as news.

Look, forget the NBA schedule. Any schedule you’re looking at is simply garbage, it’s a waste of bandwidth to publish on a website, a waste of paper to print off.

There is no way the one that eventually gets done – and who knows when that will be – will include games on many of the same nights, certainly not against the same team and it’s an utter falsity to even put it out there.

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How cool is this?

And since it’s her birthday today, why not give it a listen and smile.

Beautiful, no?

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Digression?

Tough week for Super Dog.

Had one of her too-infrequent and apparently frightful baths (all you have to do is say the word and the shivering starts), had to have her nails clipped (given her druthers, she’d rather be Howard Hughes in that regard) and a trip to the vet ends with the diagnosis of “loose joints” and a propensity for her back right knee to pop out of place every now and then. No pain, just a limp and very expensive yet seemingly un-tasty treats that now must be snuck into her food.

And I’m stunned.

This may be the most sedentary hound in the history of domesticated animals, I couldn’t imagine she used her joints often enough for them to become “loose.”

What a dog.

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This just in:

Sources say NBA games through Dec. 16 are cancelled.

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May as well start, no?

Let’s get the mail going. Do it here, let me know what you think and I’d wade through pages and pages and pages of Leaves goalie thingies to find ‘em.

Thanks.

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Comments

[billy]

London had nothing to do with the name.
The American owner gave the team the name Rippers.
So its all his fault.
Doesn't really matter though.
Like the other two minor league baseball teams we had here, the Tigers and Werewolves, and most likely this basketball team the Lightning, this Rippers team will be defunct in roughly two years tops.

[james]

If I'm not mistaken, the Department of Redundancy Department name, the Tiger-Cats, resulted from the amalgamation of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats, way back toward the Depression when there were two football leagues in Ontario. Oskee wee wee!

[doug]

unreal is all i can say....whoever makes these decision should be fired henceforth or as quick as possible...

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1087874--students-at-earl-beatty-public-school-revolt-we-want-our-balls-back?bn=1

[Darren]

Doug, I was surprised by the picture of Super Dog. I've heard you mention your dog many times but I didn't know you had a Boston Terrier. We have 4 Boston Terriers of our own - and, yes, they are Super Dogs. We have worked with the Boston Terrier Rescue of Canada and have had many dogs come through our home as fosters, and many of them have had problems with their knees. Our newest dog, Bamboo, had both of her knees operated on and is doing fine. It has relieved her pain and she is living a much happier life. I hope Super Dog is feeling well - at least as good as she can without an NBA season to watch from the couch!