By theOCDPublished: 10 December 2009 4:28 PM ESTPosted in: NBA
So I know I’m late on this and I apologize for that. But I started the photoshop of his picture and had to go through with the post. Former New York Knick Tim Thomas was recently enjoying a meal at Denny’s when a customer greeted him. That’s when things took a nasty turn.
Thomas was getting Denny’s at 3AM with his posse when the incident occurred. A customer noticed Thomas and said, “Hey, what’s up?” Members of Thomas’ crew warned the customer not to talk to the rich ass NBA player. That’s when Thomas decided to throw a chair into a crowd of patrons and hit a woman. One of his posse members punched a customer too.
The manager of the Denny’s also said that Thomas and co. had been at the restaurant on Monday night. They were also rowdy then. I guess Tim Thomas likes to get hammered at the club then stuff his face with pancakes. Could there be any other reason for 3AM Denny’s trip with his crew?
By theOCDPublished: 03 November 2009 8:01 AM ESTPosted in: NBA
Last week, Larry Johnson burned his reputation to the ground by using homophobic slurs on twitter. Drew Gooden allegedly decided to go old school by simply shouting slurs at Los Angeles Clippers fans. According to Wikipedia, Drew Gooden was named a “Good Guy in Sports” by The Sporting News but actor Chris Wylde says Gooden used homophobic slurs to describe him and his friend.
Gooden and the Mavericks were at the Staples Center on Saturday night while Wylde was in the crowd. Wylde and his friend were dressed up in Halloween costumes and claim they were subjecting the Mavs bench to good-natured ribbing. He also claims that none of the taunting was directed at Drew Gooden. Gooden was in street clothes with an injury and allegedly encountered the two men near the pro shop. When Gooden recognized them, Wylde claims that the Mav’s player used the slur “faggot” multiple times.
Wylde later emailed Mark Cuban and the Maverick’s owner says that he will investigate the incident and decide a course of action. Nobody really seems to care in the comments section of OutSports. You know why? Because Drew Gooden is clearly a dumbass if he actually did it. Ignorant people with no influence are not worth acknowledging. What… are they going to get all of Gooden’s non-existent sponsorships revoked? At the same time, there’s no real proof other than Wylde’s allegation. Wylde’s friend, who was also on the receiving end of Gooden’s outburst, declined to comment publicly about the incident. That makes me question the veracity of Wylde’s claims.
Who is Chris Wylde? The OutSports article indicates he’s a heterosexual actor with a wife. Hilariously, his Wikipedia entry seems as if it was copied and pasted from the bio on his official website. It turns out that Wylde has also done a number of sports-related commercials. Chris Wylde can currently be seen in an ESPN Monday Night Football ad and also was in the Fox Sports NBA promo below. That seems like another big dent in Wylde’s credibility. He may have used his platform as a victim to reach out to Mark Cuban and to increase his exposure to the sports world.
There’s no defending Gooden if he actually made the remarks. But I think it’s too soon bury the guy based on Wylde’s claims. Even Mark Cuban seemed to express some doubt as to whether or not Gooden actually verbally attacked the men. In any case, I’m hoping we can go at least another week or two before we have to hear about another instance of homophobia in the sports world.
Cuban was introduced by Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon and also answered students’ questions. The Mav’s owner presented his most recent “I’m smarter than everybody” logic when speaking about performance enhancing drugs saying:
“We do performance-enhancing things all the time, just not steroids. If you administer them properly and fairly and set the rules strictly, as long as in doing so we recognize there are no negative long-term health-impact issues. Sometimes, you just put blinders on because it came from underground. Rather than saying, ‘what’s the best way to do this and is there a positive out of it?’ we just dismiss it.”
So, if Barry Bonds lives past 60, Victor Conte is a hero. This is clearly flawed logic. Cuban later admitted that he’s “not an expert in the subject.” There’s another subject that Cuban knows very little about: being an athlete.
The main issue with Cuban’s stance is that he takes a capitalist approach to the human body. Sure, it might be minimally advantageous to take experimental drugs that won’t kill you. But it’s ridiculous to pretend that performance-enhancing drugs could be administered fairly. What if white people (or any other segment of society) benefit more from future PEDs? What if you had to start taking them when you’re 13 to get the maximum effect? What if they don’t hurt you at all… but they cost an exorbitant amount of money?
This is simply an issue of ethics in competition. The idea of creating rules to “fairly” regular performance-enhancing drugs is a complete contradiction. If you create the maximum level of fairness, you’re back to square one anyway. Last time I checked, having guys run sub 4.0 40s was not key to the advancement or survival of the human race. Maybe I really dislike Mark Cuban… or maybe I’m just afraid that the All Drug Olympics will become a reality.
By theOCDPublished: 19 August 2009 11:40 PM EDTPosted in: NBA
Dirk Nowitzki was “honored” with a wax statue this week at Madame Tussauds in Berlin. I’ve always considered the whole wax figure thing pretty creepy. Maybe it’s because I’m the kind of person that thinks those MFers come alive when you turn away. In any case, Dirk got his fairly accurate replica and posed for pictures with it/him. Which one do you think has less heart?
