Tag: sports

Oh, that’s what they meant

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: after the Atlanta Hawks were unceremoniously swept out of the NBA Playoffs, the Hawks organization published this statement that tried to accentuate the good of the season, right after the biggest of bads just occurred.  The tagline of the entire statement was that the Hawks finished the year “True to Atlanta.”

Honestly, I don’t blame any Hawks fans for wanting to read this gigantic wall of text, but basically it’s a written list of all the good things that happened to the Hawks throughout the course of the 14-15 NBA season.  Including things like their franchise best 60-win season, the first time ever to the Eastern Conference Finals, and being one step away from contending for the NBA championship.

Ultimately, it’s no different than any other team-mandated post-season letter thanking the fans and investors (but mostly investors) for their support, but what I think that makes this worse than any other letter sent by any other organization is their choice of tagline, and the unintentional irony behind it.

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Amateur thoughts on MayPac and the future of boxing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’m one of likely millions who were more or less disappointed with the result of the much-anticipated Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.  To no surprise, Mayweather won via decision after 12-rounds, like he’s won the five fights prior to Pacquiao, which I pretty much predicted, if he didn’t outright knock him out in an early round.

I don’t know much about the technical aspect of boxing, but it’s still a sport that I enjoy watching, so I’m sure I’m very subject to criticism about my thoughts that I’m writing now.  But the fight was boring, because of the uber-defense tactic employed by Mayweather, and the fact that he fired basically fewer than 50 strikes, as opposed to only throwing punches in counter to the numerous blows fired by Pacquiao.

The fight was pretty much decided by the fifth round, when the constant updates of the score gradually updated Pacquiao’s inability to connect with blows in spite of throwing so many, and the monumentally higher accuracy in which Mayweather was connecting, because he only threw punches in defense basically.  It was agreed upon with the people I was watching with that if Pacquiao didn’t outright knock out Mayweather, it was just a ticking countdown until Mayweather was going to be declared the winner.  And naturally, Mayweather turtled himself to victory by basically dancing around Pacquiao for the remaining 21 minutes.

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Anyone else think Mayweather wins, easily?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I can’t say that I’m the biggest follower of boxing, but anyone who watches any sort of sport is cognitively aware of the existence of guys like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and that they’re going to be having their long (long) overdue boxing match very soon.

The general consensus is pretty consistent all across the board: it’s five years too late, and most people don’t care nearly as much as they would have, like five years ago, but whatever it’s finally going to go down.

If I were the type to put money on sport (anymore), I wouldn’t hesitate to bet on Mayweather.  Not for a second.  Ask me on the street who I think is going to win, and I’m saying Mayweather before the question is even finished.

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When phrases change meanings with the times

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The last time I was up at my parents’ house, I was rummaging through some old personal effects, and came across an old binder of basketball cards.

It’s funny to admit this nowadays given the fact that they royally suck, and have been more or less the laughing stock of the NBA over the last decade or so, but back in the 90s, I was a huge New York Knicks fan.  John Starks, Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley, Derek Harper, and of course, the franchise himself, Patrick Ewing.  Loved them all.  Rooted for the Knicks against everyone, including Michael Jordan and the Bulls.  I felt sports-heartbreak in 1994, when the Knicks came so close, and lost to Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets in the Finals.  Was even too young to understand the magnitude of the OJ Simpson police chase, and was more irked that a championship game was being preempted.

The point is, I had a ton of Knicks basketball cards in this binder.  Primarily Patrick Ewing, because he was clearly the primary star of the team.  And while flipping through the sheets and sheets of Ewing cards, I came across this particular Ewing card from a ’95-96 Fleer set.

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Time to become a Carolina Panthers fan

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

That’s right, eight losses, one tie.  PLAYOFF TEAM!

Despite the fact that I kind of wanted the Falcons to win, so that the minute hope of the worst Super Bowl champion in history might’ve been a team from Atlanta, when the day was over, I didn’t really care.  The 7-win Carolina Panthers are going to be my new favorite team for the next few weeks, provided they can manage to stay alive in the playoffs, and hopefully fulfill the embarrassing dream of being the worst team in history to make it into the playoffs and become Super Bowl champions.

Seriously, there’s all sorts of wrong with the playoff system, when the 7-8-1 Carolina Panthers not only make it into the playoffs, but actually get a home game.  To put it into perspective how ironically funny this is, the Philadelphia Eagles finished the season 10-6, and are going to be sitting at home watching the playoffs next week.  The San Francisco 49ers finished 8-8, and just fired their head coach.  Meanwhile in the AFC, the Bills, Texans, Chiefs and Chragers (yes) all finished 9-7, and are not in the playoffs.

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NFLOL

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I can’t say that I’ve paid much attention to the embarrassment that was once known as the NFL this season, so I can’t really say I’m coherently aware of who the best quarterback is, what previously thought-to-be-unbreakable record is being threatened, or even who the last undefeated team was before their inevitable defeat, prompting the old tryhard 1979 Miami Dolphins team to pop champagne in celebration.

But I have been somewhat aware of the fact that the NFC South division has been pretty pathetic this season, mostly on account of the fact that it’s where the Atlanta Falcons play, and it’s impossible for me to not hear about the Falcons from time to time.

As we approach the final week of the regular season, there are lots of question marks, hypotheticals, teams that need help from other teams, and so forth, that is the calculus of seeding those teams privileged to make it into the playoffs, and a glimmer of hope at making it, and possibly winning the Super Bowl.  However, there is one thing that is very much definite, and just as much embarrassing:

A team with seven wins is going to win the NFC South division.*  A team with seven wins is going to make the playoffs, and have a chance to make it to the Super Bowl.

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When winning is all that matters

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Lest I look like I’m turning my brog into something of a sports brog, running two straight posts with Kobe Bryant, it’s all part of my loose rules of brogging that anything goes as long as the thoughts and words are my own.  But bear with me, this’ll probably be the last post about basketball for a while, since the thoughts aren’t necessarily about basketball, but more about personalities, and rare ones at that.

But anyway, supposedly within the next 1-2 games that Kobe Bryant plays in, he’s going to pass Michael Jordan for 3rdplace of all-time points scored.  It’s debatable on whether or not he’s going to be able to catch and pass Karl Malone for #2, but I think it’s a safe bet that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 points is going to be safe for yet another challenger.

When I was younger, my then, also-basketball loving friends and I would often talk about who “the Next Jordan” was going to be.  And believe you me, it was a debate that occurred everywhere, where there was basketball to be discussed.  Michael Jordan was nearing the end of his (official, pre-Wizards) career, and it was a rhetorical question that popped up every few years when the reality sunk in that MJ wasn’t going to play forever.

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