August 5, 2024
What a spectacular week of the Olympics we’ve seen so far. I have to start with the fastest man in the world competition we saw last night, in the 100-meter dash. Noah Lyles talked a lot of smack going in, and even looked pretty bad in the first couple of qualifying races he ran. However, when it was all on the line, he proved to be the Olympic Champion by a torso. NBA Twitter was definitely in shambles after that, since Noah commented earlier in the week that the NBA Champion shouldn’t be considered the world champion, which didn’t sit well with them. All the people who don’t watch track and field are also in shambles because they don’t understand the torso rule, so they thought Kishane Thompson got screwed. He didn’t. That’s the rule. Even if you don’t like the rule and I play your game that it should be first body part to hit the line, Noah’s foot still hit the line first. If you want to take it a step further and say it should be first body part over the line, then Fred Kerly would be your Olympic Champion. Either way, Noah won the race and rightfully so, and he met the moment. Thank goodness because anybody that does all those crazy antics during the introduction had better win! Congrats to him and Kerley though, who took the bronze.
Elsewhere around the Olympics, Simone Biles is incredible. She is 27 years old, a won her 2nd ever women’s all-around Olympic Gold Medal. I don’t care that she slipped off the balance beam this morning in the individual event. She also got a silver in the floor exercise. She is the most decorated Olympic Gymnast of all-time with 11 medals, and the oldest American gymnast to win gold. She is the GOAT, and it’s this type of greatness that is the reason we watch sports. Then there’s Katie Ledecky, who is another GOAT in her own right in the pool, dominating in the 1500 meters and 800 meters, and becoming the most decorated female Olympian in US history. These two women are two of the best female Olympians we’ve ever seen, and they may both add to that total come 2028 in Los Angeles. While those two made headlines, don’t forget about Scottie Scheffeler winning the Gold Medal in golf in a wild year, that even saw him getting arrested. There was also Novak Djokovic who won the gold medal in men’s singles tennis. This man has the golden grand slam: 10 Australian open wins, 3 French Open victories, 7 Wimbledon titles, and 4 US Opens. What was amazing about Scheffler and Joker is that they were both extremely emotional about winning, and it shows you just how important the Olympics really are. These two win all the time, yet these wins felt just as impactful, if not more.
Don’t forget about the always controversial but interesting side stories that come out of the Olympic Games. For instance, Egyptian Fencer Nada Hafez competed while seven months pregnant. She competed very well too, despite not medaling. I know some will be critical, but she is a very accomplished woman who is also an MD, and ultimately, I think this is a personal choice. While there are many women that know what it’s like to be 7 months pregnant, there aren’t many of us that know anything about fencing or what the preparation is like, or if it could be harmful to someone who is pregnant. Thus, most of us aren’t in position to judge, other than to say what she did was remarkable and strong enough to compete, let alone win while pregnant. It was also fascinating seeing North and South Korean athletes take photos together. Sadly, I fear that North Korea athletes will be having a word or two from their government when they get home, and hopefully they are not punished for what they did. There’s also the controversy raging around Algeria’s intersex athlete Imane Khelif, a boxer, who easily beat up Italy’s Angela Carini. Look, I don’t think we need to overdramatize and politicize this situation as is being done, but we need to face facts. We now need to make distinctions between biological males and females, and genetic males and females. If someone is genetically a male, that gives them a competitive advantage over a genetic female, and they shouldn’t be competing against a female. I don’t know what the solution is, but it makes no sense. It’s a shame for both athletes who I’m sure have been through a lot to get to this point, but it’s simply not a level playing field, no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves otherwise. The IOC needs to revisit this topic.
Meanwhile, the US Men’s Basketball Team is on its way to the elimination round against Brazil tomorrow. The US is adjusting nicely to international competition, looking stronger and stronger in their last two victories against Puerto Rico and South Sudan. My favorite part about Olympic Basketball though is the wild conclusions that people draw from these games. Based on the last 10 days of basketball, these people have determined that Lebron and KD are head and shoulder the two best players in the world currently; Jayson Tatum is a scrub who should be delivering your Door Dash and not a top 5 player; Joel Embiid is an Eric Dampier level scrub who should have his passport revoked; and Steve Kerr should only be coaching 8th grade girls in Aruba and makes Mike Brown look like Red Auberbach. Ok so all of this is ridiculous, but on Lebron and his greatness, he may not be the best player over the course of an entire season, but on any given night, he can be the best player in the world. That’s still meaningful.
After attending the first 10 days of the Olympics and attending 10 events I can say that Paris got the most important thing right: security. When you host an Olympics that is critical. They had 68,000 solider and police officers in the streets and at events. They also did fairly well with transportation. If you’ve been in San Francisco and rode BART, been to Atlanta and rode MARTA, or New York and rode the Subway, they are filthy. Most in the world are, but can they be effective modes of transportation is always the question, and the Paris Metro is. They also did a great job of keeping the cost of the tickets manageable for people. The downside to that though, is that they used one platform to sell tickets at face value, and re-sell those same tickets at face as well. However, that platform was not enough to support the masses that jammed the website all the time for tickets. All the secondary market was delegitimized, so it was hard to know who was a scam and who wasn’t, and even the ones that weren’t had their issues. It has its pros and cons because when the Olympics come to LA in 2028, there will be many more good platforms where you can get tickets, but I suspect the cost will be extremely expensive. Think Super Bowl like ticket prices to the opening ceremony.
Let’s talk NBA for a moment, and specifically the Lakers. I feel like many people, NBA Executives included, have lost their perspective on the value of D’Angelo Russell. He is currently on a one-year $17 million deal. He shoots nearly 40% from three, he can create his own shot, and is a very good playmaker. He’s definitively an NBA Starter too. For that kind of production, he should be more like a $30-$40 million player per season. Yes, I realize that he can be streaky and doesn’t play a lot of defense, but there’s a lot of guys in the league that can’t play defense. You aren’t going to trade him and get some all-star back, and you shouldn’t trade him for lesser parts. Keep it in perspective because D-Lo is actually a really good player.
The MLB Trade deadline came and went and the Dodgers definitely made their best efforts to improve their ball club. There was definitely no superstar level player available, but the Dodgers did a really nice job of acquiring players who can help them now, and they only gave up one top 15 prospect in the process. Between Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman, Amed Rosario, and Michael Kopech, the Boys in Blue managed to help their starting rotation, bullpen, bench, and even add a quality bat that can play multiple positions. I realize the Dodgers have been looking like hell lately, but you’ve got to keep in mind that they have been missing a hell of a lot players. Give it a couple of weeks, and they might actually have an even better team than you originally thought, especially once they get Mookie Betts, Freddie Freema, and Max Muncy back in the lineup, and Edman is playing center field. By the way, when does Gavin Lux get an apology letter from everyone? He is one of the hottest hitters in the National League, and has now earned himself an everyday spot on the infield. Everyone is freaking out over Clayton Kershaw’s last start, but relax, it’s only his 2nd start back from injury. The Padres also aren’t a great matchup for him at this point. Ultimately, once the Dodgers get a healthy Yamamoto back, and a couple of other bullpen pieces from the injured list, I think they’ll be fine. Perhaps none of you have noticed that the Dodgers are just 1.5 games back of the best record in the NL, because the Philles have been losing like crazy too. Too be honest, I don’t care at all about being the top seed in the NL, because it almost seems like a curse going into the playoffs. Instead, it’s truly all about how this team is going to be playing heading into October, and how they execute against elite pitching.
As for the Angels, what a pathetic organization they demonstrated they are at the trade deadline. At the deadline they were one of the three worst teams in baseball. Yet they did not trade a single player who was under team control beyond this season. When you can’t even rebuild or sell correctly in a seller’s market, you’re doing something wrong. These guys are clearly trying to make a run as the worst run organization in all of baseball, and in sports. Teams like the Marlins have rebuilt, competed, and torn down their organization multiple times in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, the Angels, have done nothing but sold fans on the illusion that they can win next season for the last decade. Are fans really buying it anymore? No way. Meanwhile, when Perry Minasian got asked if they can compete next season, all he said was “we’ll see”. Really? We’ll see??? You’re not even going to pretend like you’re for sure going to try and win next season? Ok Perry, way to make your fans feel like your franchise knows what it’s doing. I do see some optimists buying into the idea that next season a lineup Logan O’Hoppe, Nolan Schanuel, Christian Moore, Zach Neto, Anthony Rendon, Mike Trout, and Joe Adell is going to be promising. Their pitchers would include Reid Detmers, Caden Dana, Chase Silseth, George Klassen, Samuel Aldegheri, Patrick Sandoval, and Jose Soriano. The problem with this line of thinking is that many of these younger players are being fast tracked to the Major Leagues because the Halos have no choices but to pull them up because their minor league system is so terrible, along with their depleted Big-League roster. The assumption that they can continue to develop into consistently impactful players with such a flawed infrastructure is a mistaken one. Look at Reid Detmers, who has had his confidence completely shattered, and has had more poor starts in the minors than quality ones. The Halos have done nothing to help him with his mechanics, yet they may just bring him back up in the next week or two to see if he can pitch well again. The same thing goes for many of the position players who are playing well now, but at some point may not, and they won’t have the support in the organization to help them work through it. Lastly, everyone wants to write off Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, which is fine, but don’t put them in the same bucket. Anthony Rendon couldn’t care less about baseball, and he shows it on a day-to-day basis. He’s the guy sitting in the meeting looking at his watch to figure out how much longer he has to be there. Mike Trout on the other hand has shown that he wants to be with the Angels, and succeed with them, despite the fact he has had trouble staying healthy. I’m not saying you can count on either of them moving forward, but they simply are not the same.
Finally, what a disappointing season finale of House of The Dragon. The entire episode was basically a trailer for Season 3. The last episode seemed to build up so much momentum toward this episode, and then nothing happened. Spoiler alert for those of you that haven’t seen it, but there isn’t much to spoil because nothing happened. An enormous amount of time was wasted on the Lannister scene and why? It was simply a waste of time, and even worse because it was the finale. You know what the worst part is? You will have to wait 2 years before you get to season 3. Will anybody still care at that point? These writers are going to have to tell an amazing story if they are going to bring people back to watch this.
