Today while watching ESPN I was beaten over the head (as ESPN tends to wear stories out over its hour long  program) with several sports stories from the previous night. In the midst of Stanley Cup playoff analysis and baseball highlights, were two very important stories that not only affect the sports world, but shine a light on our general society.

After the magic gave up what seemed to be an insurmountable lead to the Boston Celtics in a game 5 loss, Dwight Howard had to deal with every professional athletes worst nightmare, the media. While he answered several questions, it was his pointed remarks about his coach, Stan Van Gundy. Now while most of the anger behind those comments was caused by the loss, any person with a pulse could tell you that he really believed that Stan was the one ultimately responsible for why they lost the game and the fact that he only touched the ball 10 times in the fourth quarter. Stan does deserve some of the blame for why they lost, but how can the coach be at fault for the fact that a team which relies on the three point shot went 0-6 in the fourth quarter, or that they were minus 3 in rebounds or that they failed to make a field goal basket for the final 6 minutes of that same quarter? Can Stan really take all the blame for the Celtics getting rebound after rebound during the critical final possessions and just wanted the game more? And if Howard wanted the ball so much, couldn’t he have just gone to his point guard and demanded the ball regardless of the play they had called? These are the questions the Magic and sports world will be mulling over until tomorrow’s elimination game 6. 
Often times, the coaches in professional sports (and the players as well) get too much blame for losses and too much credit for wins. I like Dwight Howard as a player and really hope the Magic pull out the series win (I hate the Celtics), but calling out your coach in the MIDDLE of a series is never a good way to go. Howard should have been willing to acknowledge the mistakes that he made and own up to the loss, as most superstar players do, rather than deflect everything off onto someone else. Its all in the maturation process and he will get it together by game 6.
After that whole ordeal, I figured the rest of Sports Center would be relatively tame, with them bringing up the Howard comments about 5 more times. However that was not to be as a more alarming report about USC head coach Tim Floyd giving money to recruit OJ Mayo. While nothing of the sort should shock me as these stories pop up all the time in college sports, however something intrigued me. Tim Floyd coaches at USC, a major football and academic institution that has had trouble with the NCAA before. I thought to myself, Why does this school continue to have issues and if so, where is the NCAA? But before I waxed poetic on that topic, I wondered what would posses a coach to do such a thing. In today’s sports world, such value is placed on winning and money, which are never a good combination when used for bad things. Tim Floyd and OJ Mayo were able to resurrect USC basketball, but was it worth improper conduct just to get some job security and contract extension. And while I am disappointed in Tim Floyd, I think that most of the blame should go on OJ Mayo and his “inner circle.” He looks just as guilty, if not more, because he took the money which then lead to the fame and NBA contract. It doesn’t matter how young he was, ANYONE who is thinking about going to college should know right from wrong. Now if someone offered to give me $1000 to study engineering at GEorgia Tech, I would have a hard time turning it down. Alas, I am not a professional athlete and OJ Mayo definitely lost some respect by following the money.
Another issue brought up in the report is the fact this happened at USC. It turns out that we still have no verdict on the Reggie Bush case start 3 (!!!!) years ago and now this. How is it that Yahoo Sports (which does some excellent investigative journalism) can find out and investigate all of these scandals BEFORE the NCAA, who is supposed to be cracking down and making sure things like this don’t happen? The NCAA, for all the strides it has made, is still as lazy and reactive as ever. If you can make millions on various bowl games, championships tickets sales, and sponsorship deals, shouldn’t you be able to hire some more competent people to investigate these types of matters. Heck, Yahoo Sports has done a better job investigating issues of the NCAA than the NCAA! In an era where recruits are like gods on campuses and coaches face tremendous pressure to win, the governing body should get its act together and stand up for what is right by being more proactive in the effort to make sure things like this don’t happen again.
Much Love,
Terence