Posts Tagged ‘Dallas Mavericks’

If stomping on opposing players’ arms or faces is part of professional ball I’ll stick to college games, thank you.

November 27, 2011

 

I went to the USC-UCLA football game last night, and saw lots of excitement and color—the tailgate feasts, the reunions—planned and unplanned—of old college pals and acquaintances, the bands playing, cheerleaders cheering, and the USC crowd exhorting star quarterback Matt Barkley to return, chanting “One more year.”

Then there was the game: exciting for a while if you were, like me, a Trojan fan, but without suspense as the Trojans won, 50-0.

It was easy to cheer for USC, harder if you were a UCLA fan, but the Bruins have had their day, and will in the future. No mixed feelings as you cheered your team on.

How different if you were a fan of the long-doormat Detroit Lions of the NFL professional football league. The Lions are 7-4, well placed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Their offense is led by quarterback Matt Stafford, their defense by the ferocious Ndamukong Suh.

But it’s no fun cheering for Suh, who along with his formidable talent is one of the dirtiest players in all of football—or any other sport. Thursday in a rage, he stomped on the unprotected arm (more…)

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Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, Sports | 5 Comments »

Andrew Bynum disgraces the Lakers again by taking a handicapped parking space

July 21, 2011

It’s hard to root root root for the home team when it’s led by bums. Like Andrew Bynum of the Los Angeles Lakers. Back in May, in the closing minutes of the playoff game in which the Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Lakers, 122-86, Bynum committed one of the ugliest fouls in the history of the NBA.

The giant Bynum, seven feet tall and listed at 285 pounds, flattened the smallest player on the floor, J.J.Barea, six feet and 175 pounds, as he was going up for a shot and in a completely vulnerable position. The non-partisan announcers pronounced Bynum’s behavior “disgusting” and “bush league.” Bynum later apologized for the incident, and Laker fans were inclined to give the talented 24-year old another chance.

Yesterday NBC television cameras caught Bynum parking in a handicapped spot, in a parking lot that was half empty. The $15-million per year athlete wouldn’t walk a few extra feet, so took a parking space that was reserved for people who couldn’t easily walk the few extra feet.

High crime? No. Behavior that’ll encourage me to yell, “Hooray, Andrew”? No. How about “Go, Lakers!” Not while Bynum is on the team.

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Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 3 Comments »

Wow! Rory McIlroy eagles to go 10 under at U.S. Open. Ethical fans cheer extra loud after letdowns from Canucks, Lakers, and Buckeyes

June 17, 2011

Sport is often depressing. We were depressed Monday when Vancouverites rioted after their thuggish Canucks lost the National Hockey League championship to the Boston Bruins. We were depressed last month when the Los Angeles Lakers degenerated into dirty play as they were swept in four games by the Dallas Mavericks. And we were depressed by the news that Ohio State’s All-American quarterback Terrelle Pryor and super coach Jim Tressel were long-time cheaters.

But sport is more often elevating, as when tennis star Andy Roddick corrected an umpire’s wrong call to his own disadvantage and it wound up costing him a championship, or when 22-year old Rory McIlroy gave  everybody a lesson in  grace and sportsmanship after his game totally disintegrated as he was on the verge of claiming one of golf’s major prizes, the Masters Green Jacket.

So I was delighted to read in this morning’s paper that McIlroy had a three stroke lead after the first round of golfdom’s #1 prize, the 111th U.S. Open. As I sat down to blog about this exemplar of ethics in sport, Google popped up with this breaking news from Reuters that McIlroy had holed out his approach shot on the par-four eighth hole for a rare eagle to go 10 under par, the earliest any player had ever reached 10-under in the Open. Ethics fans hope he keeps it up this time.

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