You can’t buy a championship. Period.

Does having money to spend help? Absolutely.  But it doesn’t win the title. End of story.

As I’ve stated before, I’m a Yankees fan. You’re saying to yourself, “Self, of course he would say money doesn’t buy championships. He doesn’t want to feel as if those titles are tainted.” I will never feel that money taints titles, plus, some already are tainted thanks to A-Rod and Clemens. But I stopped worrying about the money issue when the Yankees were going through their recent dry spell.

*Disclaimer* – Yes, I realize it doesn’t count as a dry spell if it’s only eight years long after winning four in five years. But we did miss the playoffs one year… *Disclaimer*

During that eight year hiatus from our God given place at the top of baseball (kidding), we had, by the far, the largest payroll in baseball each year (and still do). But aside from the loss to Arizona in 2001, at the tail end of careers for key players such as Paul O’neill, Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius, all we had was a collection of all-stars. A nice problem to have, yes, but it has been proven time and again that a random collection of all-stars won’t get the job done.

In that time period, we saw an upstart Angels squad rally behind a stuffed monkey, the Marlins have another “win and sell” party, two groups of idiots and a return to baseball glory for teams in Chicago (sorry Cubs), St. Louis and Philadelphia.

What those teams had is what really makes a champion. And that is chemistry, one of the most overused and overvalued terms in sports. But in a sport like baseball, where you play 162 games in about 185 days, around the same 24 guys everyday, chemistry is very important. Chemistry doesn’t have to mean getting along with everyone on the team. It helps, but true chemistry occurs when every member of the team is truly playing for the goal of winning a championship. You could tell that the Red Sox of 2004 and 2007 had great chemistry and got along great, but those were teams on a mission that would not be stopped. The same can be said for any team that wins a championship, and that is my point. The Yankees of 1996-2000 were built with a lot of money, but they were built with a lot of thought into how pieces would fit together and who the right guys were to be those pieces. Same with the team in 2009.

I do, however, feel that we should have a salary cap in baseball, as well as a salary floor, because it always seems to come down to the same 5 or 6 teams every year that have a real shot to contend. We see upstarts like the Tampa Bay Rays come and go. The Twins have opened their wallet for Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, so hopefully other smaller market teams will follow suit. I am a Yankees fan, but I’m a baseball fan first. And more teams being able to contend is just better for the game. Maybe, when the next round of labor talks come up, the players and owners can come together and make some decisions that are truly better for the game. But, I doubt it.

- Sean

First off is Ron Washington, a black man and the manager of the Texas Rangers. Recently, a story came out about Washington failing a drug test last year due to cocaine. By all accounts, he was very upfront with the organization about the issue and offered his resignation, which was declined, immediately. He wasted no time in apologizing for his decision and made no excuses. Because of that, he has largely been given a pass by the local and national media, and that is something I can agree with. Given the state of baseball drug issues the last few years, and given the bullshit apologies we’ve heard from various athletes, it’s very refreshing to hear a public figure immediately come out and own up to his mistakes and ask for forgiveness. He doesn’t need our forgiveness. We all make stupid mistakes and decisions in our lives, for various reasons. But the fact that he immediately owned up to the issue and didn’t try to make excuses shows immense character. People in all walks of life should take a lesson from Washington on how to handle personal adversity and mistakes.

The other man, our white man, is Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has now had allegations of sexual misconduct against him twice in less than a year. While no charges have been files against him, the incredible stupidity he has shown by continuing to put himself in these situations is incredible, and even though the media fervor has died down, his stupidity was a major focal point of most sports related discussions after the story first broke. I’m not trying to say that Roethlisberger needs to not have a life outside of football. I’m not saying he can never go out and have a good time with his buddies. This is a free country and, within the constraints of the law, we can more or less do what we please. But there comes a time when you need to realize that you are a major celebrity in this country and there are many people out there who would love to take advantage of that status. Be smarter about where you’re going, what potential clientele might be there and who you are surrounding yourself with.

There is no doubt that an admission of using cocaine is more serious than unproven allegations of sexual misconduct. I’m not here to crucify either of these guys. But the differences in the way these situations have been handled, and the ability of the two men to learn from their mistakes (although we’ll have to wait and see on Washington) is astronomical.

Maybe the way athlete’s are treated when they get in trouble is not a race issue. Maybe its a “learn how to own up to your mistakes” issue.

- Sean

I. Am. Pumped.

Is there anything better than those first two days of the tournament, when, if you have the time, you can sit on the couch all day and watch nothing but basketball? Is there anything more exciting than watching all the upsets go down, even that one 16 seed who hangs with the big boys for 25 minutes before finally falling apart? The answer is no. There is nothing more exciting in sports. If you think otherwise, you’re wrong.

When it comes to college sports, I don’t have any real rooting interest. I follow a few teams casually, just checking their rankings and records periodically throughout the season. Being from New Jersey, I take interest in how Seton Hall and Rutgers play, as well as St. Johns. I also follow Georgetown, mainly because of my youthful devotion to Patrick Ewing.

But, more so than any other college team, I find myself actually rooting for Texas A&M. My good friend Jared is a major A&M fan. I give him shit about it, clowning on Aggies and their sporting ineptitude. But when it comes to basketball, I’m kinda hooked on ‘em. I took notice a few years back when Acie Law was leading the Aggs deep into the tournament, and Billy Gillespie looked like the next big thing in coaching. Who knew that leaving College Station would be your worst career movie, eh Billy?

The more I watch A&M, the more on board with their team I become. Aside from Donald Sloan, they don’t really have another player who can get their shot and bury it at any given point. What they do have, however, is a true team. Their guys know their roles and what they have to do to succeed. They bust their asses every play of every game, and they have the rare trait of never looking past a team. They come ready to play, whether its Kansas or Nebraska. That’s a team I can get behind.

So, sit back and enjoy. Get your brackets filled out and your pool rules ratified. We’re in the final month of the college basketball season, and they always save the best for last.

Just get right with your family and get right with yourself, and get back to playing golf.

The fact is, Tiger Woods doesn’t owe us an apology. The only people he owes an apology to are his wife, his kids and his mom. No one else in this world is in a position to judge him for his mistakes.

He doesn’t owe an apology to parents who told their kids to look up to him. Don’t allow public figures to be a roll model for you or your kids, for anything other than their game performance. If you are taking your moral cues from celebrities, you have bigger issues.

Besides, no matter what Tiger says, no one is going to take him seriously. “He’s only sorry because he got caught.” No shit. How many times have you apologized for something before you got caught doing it? Most times, people do not consider the ramifications of their actions until they are caught. Does that excuse the action? Absolutely not. But to say someone is insincere in their apology because they didn’t apologize before they were caught is just ridiculous. It seems as though the fact he was caught is a bigger crime than the act itself.

So let’s all just move on from the Tiger Woods story. Let’s see how he acts on the golf course for the rest of his career. Let’s see how he treats his wife for the rest of their time together, if they even stay together. The only way we’ll ever know if Tiger was sincere in his apologies is to observe how he acts from here on out. Until then, let’s just move on.

10. Brent Barry – Only whitey ever to win the dunk contest. That, by itself, puts him on this list. But just barely.

9. Nate Robinson / Spud Webb – I’m including these 2 together because their accomplishments in the dunk contest are equally amazing.  For these 2 little guys to beat the likes of Wilkins, Jordan and Dwight Howard remains completely mind blowing.

8. Darryl Dawkins – Chocolate Thunder gets points for not only shattering backboards, but also for the outrageous names he gave his dunks. Plus, he was an alien from the planet Lovetron. We are lucky that he took time out of practicing interplanetary funkmanship to show us how to put it down with authority.

7. LeBron James – I struggled with the decision to put him on this list because of his baffling refusal to show his stuff in the dunk contest. But, when he wants to take it to the basket, he’s dunking over anyone that gets in his way. May well be at the top of this list when his career is over. And if he ever competes at All-Star Weekend.

6. Shawn Kemp – When he wasn’t too busy having kids, Shawn Kemp thrilled us with his aerial skills. Another guy who would dunk over anyone who got in his way with unmatched hostility. During his and Gary Payton’s hay-days, you did not change the channel when a Sonics game was on T.V.

5. David Thompson – With a nickname like Skywalker, you have to be on this list. Thompson had the ability to take your breath away whenever the ball was in his hands. And, most of the time, he did.

4. Julius Erving – Doctor J revolutionized the air game in his days in the ABA, helping the smaller league compete with the much higher profile NBA.

3. Vince Carter – Dude straight up leaped a 7’2″ guy in the Olympics. Yeah, he was a french guy, but still.

2. Michael Jordan – It always seemed as if Jordan could fly. Even when he was coming down, he seemed to have a little lift left in reserve. And he really made Patrick Ewing look silly.

1. Dominique Wilkins – The human highlight film. I never saw anyone display more in-air acrobatics than ‘Nique. Sorry, Mike, but Dominique is number 1 on this list.

The Olympic Games is sport in its most pure form. The athletes are out there representing only themselves and their countries. These people aren’t concerned about where their next contract is coming from or what city they may be playing for next season. They are not worried about holding something back to save for the next game. The Olympians leave everything out on the field for that gold medal, because you never know if you’re going to have a chance to get back. You can’t worry about leaving anything in the tank when you only get to compete at the highest level every 4 years. 4 years can be the difference between being on top of your game and struggling to stay afloat.

However, The Olympics are a fantastic case study of civilization as a whole. Many people, from many different backgrounds, all thrown together and competing for the same goal. Isn’t that a microcosm of our world? Regardless of where you come from, where you’ve been and where you’re going, aren’t we all working towards the same basic goals?

I don’t mean to jump on a soapbox, but the world can learn a few things from The Olympics. Let’s stop allowing our differences to stand in the way of progress. Let’s stop worrying about the new skier that may hurt your chance for a medal, or the new guy at the office who is gunning for your promotion. Like the Olympians, we need to take the competition in stride, and use it to better ourselves and the world we live in.

Now is not only the time to sit back and watch some fantastic competition, but also time to sit back and watch these athletes interact with each other and take joy in the fact that, despite their different backgrounds and countries of origin, they are all fighting for the same thing. Just like our world outside of sports.

Enjoy!

10. LeBron James – I put him on here because I hate watching him settling for 3-pointers. There is no one in this league that can stop him. Take it to the basket. Please!

9. Bruce Bowen – Not only was Bowen a helluva defender during his NBA career, but you couldn’t leave him open on offense. If he had space while he was camped in the corner, that 3 was going up and in.

8. Steve Kerr – If he could get the shot off, it was going in. And he was always clutch.

7. Tim Hardaway – Might be a surprise for Timmy to be on this list, but when he would bring the ball up, do a quick crossover and pull up for the 3, you just knew it was dropping. And he was deadly against the Knicks during his Miami Heat days.

6. Dirk Nowitzki – Just a scary shooter from anywhere on the court. Especially if he’s feelin’ it.

5. Ray Allen – Dude has an absolutely beautiful release, and has always had a knack for making shots when it counts.

4. Chauncey Billups – You’d be hard pressed to find a guy that has made more big shots in the last decade than Billups.

3. John Starks – At times you were clutch, but Game 7 of the 1994 Finals…you’re still shooting in my nightmares.

2. Reggie Miller – Game 1, 1995 Eastern Conference Finals, Pacers vs. Knicks. ‘Nuff said.

1. Larry Bird – There is no one else in NBA history (Okay, maybe Jordan) that I want on my team when I need a big shot to win a game, especially a 3.

This list represents the 10 guys I think of when I think of scary 3-point shooters. I know I’ve missed some guys, so feel free to chime in with your opinions.

- Sean

But first, congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on winning your first Super Bowl in franchise history. And leave it to New Orleans to be the first city, in my memory, to throw their parade at night.  Absolutely fantastic!

Back to the point, which I can’t emphasize enough. I was wrong. Manning looked confused and disoriented at times. He made bad throws and hurried throws. And he got picked. Quite possibly the worst interception of his career, given what was at stake for his personal legacy. To make matters worse, you didn’t even have the decency to shake hands with the opposition. That is just classless.

My mother’s friend Cindy, a Louisiana native, said she lost all respect for Peyton Manning. That’s saying a lot, considering the clout that the Manning family has in New Orleans and Louisiana. I won’t go so far as to say I lost all respect for Manning. Lord knows we all make stupid decisions and do things we regret in the heat of the moment. But it was still a very classless move.

Now, I don’t want to seem like I’m crediting Manning for the Saints’ victory, because I’m not. The Saints totally earned this victory, not only with clutch performances from their players (Drew Brees, Garrett Hartley and Tracy Porter, to name a few), but also with fantastic play calling by Sean Payton. Brees was absolutely amazing in his MVP performance. It seems odd that I would mention a kicker as a key performer, but considering the terrible kicking we have seen in the playoffs, and the field position advantage the Colts would have had if those kicks were missed, his performance was just as integral to the victory as any other.

Perhaps the biggest story of the Super Bowl, however, was the Saints defense. They held a dynamic Colts offense to 17 points and baffled one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. And they made one of the biggest defensive plays in Super Bowl history, Tracy Porter’s interception return touchdown that effectively ended the game. It was said that you can’t rely on turnovers to win big games. The Saints don’t rely on turnovers, they make ‘em happen.

So, again, I was wrong. My apologies to the Saints. And, congratulations! It’s been a long time coming. Enjoy it.

You’ve given all of us hope. If the Saints can win a Super Bowl, anyone can win a Super Bowl. Except the Jets…

- Sean

By Ira Brooker

(We’d like to thank Ira for taking time out of his immensely busy schedule to do this for us, you should follow him on Twitter and read his blog “Talent For Idleness” like every single day, it’s better then anything else I read.-Jaime)

Lately, I seem to be giving up more outside shots in my pick-up games. An untrained observer might suggest that this has something to do with me being 31 years old and losing a few steps from a game that had precious few to spare in the first place. I can see where someone might draw that conclusion, but I have a different theory. I blame Dirk Nowitzki.

Ever since I starting holding down the lane for my seventh-grade B-squad, I’ve been a Big Man. It’s a relative term – in NBA parlance, my 6’5”, 240-pound frame would probably make me a bulky shooting guard – but in the arenas of the upper Midwest I’ve usually been the biggest guy on the court. When I was learning my low-post licks, being a big man meant banging bodies, blocking shots and pulling down rebounds. Scoring was a vague possibility if I happened to grab an offensive board right under the hoop or if my point guard happened to look inside instead of dribbling off his foot or chucking up an ill-advised 17-footer.

For the most part, though, I was purely a role player, and so were the guys I guarded. We were big, clumsy oafs who earned our keep by clogging up lanes on defense and putting back the occasional tip-in. Our NBA ideals were athletic post players like David Robinson and Hakeem Olaujowon, but realistically we were more in the mold of professional stiffs like Todd MacCulloch, Randy Breuer and Ervin “Not Magic” Johnson.

I accepted early on that I was never going to be a scoring champion. Instead, I decided to play to my strengths, concentrating more on becoming a solid defensive player and decent screen-setter. Post defense was my specialty. I eventually got to the point where I felt that any big man who tried to work an up-and-under or a drop-step dribble on me was getting the ball swatted right back in his face. I still wasn’t a very good overall player, but a combination of size and work ethic was enough to secure me a starting spot. Not a huge accomplishment on a team that mustered a grand total of six wins in my two years on the varsity squad, but good enough.

A few years ago, though, things started to change. When the big lout I was guarding popped out near the arc for an outlet pass, he didn’t always toss the ball docilely back to one of the scorers. More and more frequently, I’d watch in shock as he squared up and actually shot the ball. And these weren’t the usual “Well, if you’re gonna play that far off me, I might as well put it up” bricks I’d come to expect from big guys. No, these were quick releases, delivered with poise and confidence, and a disturbing number of them went in the hole. The more games I played, the further back the shots got, until I was watching big men drain three-pointers over my outstretched hand on a sickeningly regular basis.

What the hell had happened? Didn’t these big men know their place? Who put it in their heads that they could stray away from the paint and start putting on airs like some highfalutin guard? It didn’t take long for the answer to dawn on me: Dirk Damn Nowitzki, that’s who.

Little did I know that while I was sweating out my Mikan Drills on the hardwood of Sparta, Wisconsin, there was a bigger, blonder, more Teutonic teenager perfecting his three-ball in the gyms of Würzburg, Germany. Not long after Dirk hit the U.S. in the fall of ’98, everything changed for American bigs. Nowitzki came into his own in his sophomore season, riding Don Nelson’s all-offense philosophy to a standout scoring season both in the paint and beyond the arc. When he saddled up for the three-point shoot-out during the 2000 All-Star Weekend, a nation of basketball fans realized that there was no solid reason a seven-footer couldn’t shoot the long ball. Before the decade was out, Dirk was an MVP-winner, a default All-Star and a likely Hall of Famer.

And thus began a poisonous chain reaction: youth coaches stopped shuffling their centers and power forwards off to the ghetto of layups and rebounding drills and began rotating the big kids into shooting exercises with the rest of the squad. Those big kids learned a game where the top-of-the-key pop shot was just as important as the pivot-hook. Those big kids grew into big adults and began working their way into ragtag pick-up games frequented by aging ballers. And finally, tragically, those big kids started drawing me out of my bottom-of-the-lane comfort zone and making me look foolish.

It’s probably wrong of me to heap all the blame on Mr. Nowitzki. It’s not as if he’s the first big man ever to display some range (Rasheed Wallace comes to mind). NBA rosters still have plenty of slots open for traditional, lumbering blocks-and-rebounds guys like Joel Przybilla, Samuel Dalembert and Dirk’s longtime teammate Erick Dampier. But a look around the league shows that the game has changed, probably for the long term. For every standout true center like Dwight Howard or Emeka Okafor, there’s now a Mehmet Okur or Andrea Bargnani, big gunners who just happen to be scraping the seven-foot ceiling. Even the Minnesota Timberwolves, the generally woeful squad to which I pledge my allegiances, boast a couple of beanpoles (Ryan Hollins and Oleksy Pecherov) who can work the perimeter. Hell, even Kevin Love, as pure a rebounding talent as I’ve ever seen, spent his offseason learning to pop the three when he gets an open look.

Back in high school, there was a kid a couple of grades ahead of me by the name of Ryan Rhead. He was 6’10”, maybe 200 pounds and largely averse to mixing it up under the boards, but he could drain the trey better than anyone else on the varsity squad. That’s a skill set you don’t often come across in Wisconsin’s Mississippi Valley Conference, yet I watched a succession of coaches try their damnedest to shoehorn Ryan into being a post player who occasionally stepped out for a jump shot. These days, most coaches would plug the next-biggest kid into the post and let Ryan roam from the paint to the arc, where outsized defenders wouldn’t stand a chance at stopping his shot. Instead, a fair amount of potential was squandered because in the mid ‘90s, it was just a fact of basketball that a kid that tall was relegated to the low post. Dirk Nowitzki would have been a godsend for a guy like Ryan.

I can’t deny that Dirk’s ascendance has improved the quality of the game at every level. He’s spawned a more athletic, well-rounded breed of player. In the long run, he’ll probably prove to be one of the most positive influences in NBA history. The day isn’t far off when every player on the court will have to be at least competent at playing all five positions. Thanks to Dirk, the game of the future will be more competitive, more exciting, more fun to watch and to play.

And I curse him for that.