Stoudemire's selfish act was off-the-charts stupid

I hate selfish athletes, guys who do things with only themselves in mind, athletes whose actions are not only going to hurt themselves but those who rely on them.

Hello, Amar’e Stoudemire.

Look, we’ve all been frustrated when things go bad, we get mad at ourselves, at teammates, at coaches, at circumstances, at whatever and it’s entirely a normal reaction.

But that reaction should also include a vow to do better, to work harder, to help the team more, to – and this was one of Sam Mitchell’s favourite phrases and advice well worth following – play for the guy sitting next to you.

It is not normal to punch a panel of glass and suffer a cut so severe that it could mean missing a game, could mean missing two games, could mean missing the rest of the season (Oh, wait, the rest of the season is two games. Never mind).

It is not normal lash out in such a selfish way that it puts in peril all that you’ve worked so hard with as a member of a team.

Stoudemire’s post-game punching of the glass encasement of a fire extinguisher (insert your own “Amar’e finally attacks the glass” joke here) was one of the most selfish and stupid actions I can recall.

There are suggestions he’s out at least for Game 3 but if there is a severe laceration – and calling EMTs to the locker room after the incident would suggest that’s the case (the photo here cadged from the interwebs and ESPN paints a rather grim picture) – I can’t see him being back in a week and by then the Knicks season is going to be over.

Sure, it may have been spur of the moment but, truth be told, the game wasn’t even close, wasn’t ever truly close, and why he decided to hammer a hunk of glass walking to the locker room then is beyond me.

The Stoudemire situation in New York is interesting. He doesn’t seem to mesh well on the court with either Carmelo Anthony or Tyson Chandler; he’s got knees so bad his contract can’t be insured and a bad back, a combination that make him the most untradeable athlete in perhaps all of sport, and he’s got three years and about $65 million left on his deal.

Yeah, future looks bright in Gotham, doesn’t it?

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Holy crap! It’s May 1 already?

Means one thing:

Birth Month!!!!

Guidelines are murky, and probably change person to person but I think we need to expand Birth Week. Means a little more leeway for knuckleheadism in the month leading up to the week which, my personal decree, runs from the Saturday before until the Friday night after.

That sound good?

But, really, how in the name of all that’s good in the world did it get to be May 1 already?

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One last point on Rajon Rondo.

So he gets a one-game suspension – I would have given him two but perhaps they took into consideration the fact it’s the post-season and stakes are higher – once again a team has to pay for a teammate losing his cool.

But in hindsight, there’s another aspect to that rankles a little bit.

It’s the referee Marc Davis – the same guy who seemed to take such great glee in tossing DeMar DeRozan out of the last road game in Milwaukee – seems part of a growing trend of NBA officials who are starting to act a bit like baseball umpires.

You know the type, the guys who enjoy being confrontational, officials who seem to welcome conflict rather than trying to diffuse it; guys who think they are far more part of the show than they actually are.

You see it in baseball all too often, umps who provoke situations because they can, guys who invite arguments rather than walk away from them.

I’m not saying all NBA officials do it, it may be self-conscious (Davis blew the jump ball call that set Rondo off and reacted too hastily in giving him the technical foul that precipitated the bump) but good refs – and I’ve got Joe Crawford, Bill Spooner, Dan Crawford at the top of my list – know they are a part of the game and not “the” game and act accordingly.

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A way long time ago, I used to be of the school of thought that the only thing more boring sports that track was field.

Thankfully, those days are gone.

Looks like that’s going to be one of my gigs over in London, along with some basketball and heavens knows what else.

Might get to Montreal to see some diving before hand to do some set-up stuff and I’m sure there’ll be a handful of other things that’ll occupy my time.

But if you’ve got some track and field insight, I’m all ears.

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Okay, tremendously small sample size but, man, that was some Yu Darvish outing, wasn’t it?

Caught a fair amount of it because Heat-Knicks was so boring and have to admit the kid was pretty darn impressive.

So was Kyle Drabek, who continues to grow as a pitcher and that can’t be anything but a good thing for TOD but then there was the back-to-back homers that broke it open and, well, therein lies the issue. Starters go more than five, often a fair bit more, and the bullpen can’t get the job finished.

But the most surprising thing had to be the attendance. Only 21,000 or so and that’s about nine grand fewer than I had kind of expected.

I realize it was a somewhat gloomy Monday night in April and that’s a tough draw anyway but you’d have thought someone with the hype of Darvish would have juiced the audience a wee bit more.

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From The Department Of Total Non-Surprise comes news out of Charlotte yesterday that Paul Silas will not return as head coach of the Bobcats.

All we have to say to that is:

Lucky him.

Wonder what mistake Michael Jordan will make in replacing him because if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Jordan since he moved from the court to the front office and then the owner’s suite, it’s that he’s one of the most inept executives in the game.

Can’t wait to see who lines up for that coaching job.

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Comments

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Hobbs!