As Grandpa Simpson says about his daily pills, “Roses don’t make you scream.”
There was no way we could heal through this latest shipwreck. Although we saw the disaster coming, it was too late, too late for a coup d’état, something swift and, if necessary, violent.
The Kansas State-Michigan State NCAA Championship game wrapped up Thursday on TBS. The only question left was whether the director would let us, the national television audience, watch it. Hope was all we had on our side.
With 3:08 left in regulation, it didn’t look good as the storm clouds were moving in. Kansas State’s Ismael Massoud hit a 3-pointer to give his team a five-point lead. But while the ball was still in play, we were left in the dark as the manager cut off two shots from the crowd, a shot from the K-State cheerleaders and a Massoud approach shot back to defend against a suddenly unseen opponent.
And formula-driven insanity was how the rest of the regulation was presented, with the goal of television clearly being to show how the audience reacted to the game, rather than showing the game to the TV audience. It’s one of those TV-induced habits that can only be cured by applying common sense, like looking both ways before crossing the street.
Kansas State Wildcats guard Markquis Nowell steps up the court at Madison Square Garden.Robert Sabo for the NY Post
With 5 seconds left in regulation, Michigan State tied it with a layup. K-State got in quickly, then as he started running down the floor…
… TBS cut to a live shot of the Michigan State team!
What was the group doing? He was watching the final seconds of regulation intently and anxiously in a tied NCAA Tournament game, something we would have done if we had been allowed to.
Ch. 4’s coverage of the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center years ago. As the countdown hit 1, Ch. 4 crowd shots cut, so the show we were encouraged to watch was not shown.
Michigan State plays at Madison Square Garden.Getty Images
But it’s 2023. All the high-tech bells, whistles and gadgets are on hand in the broadcast truck, yet the eternal logic of actually paying attention to the game comes down to who and not what.
To recap: With seconds remaining and the ball in play in a tied NCAA Tournament game, TBS intercepted a shot from the band. Even the roses couldn’t stop screaming at me.
Shame on Memphis Morant for the claptrap
No offense to the naysayers, but how do you stand up for the sports fans — the paying customers — who refuse to get it, served up expensive, unfiltered garbage only to beg for more?
Grizzlies star Ja Morant returned Wednesday from an eight-game suspension for misconduct above NBA standards. Unbidden, he received a standing ovation from the Memphis crowd.
For what? For endangering the team? Season passes for making a fool of themselves? Getting a lap dance for driving around 50k at five in the morning and pulling a gun?
The crowd showed Morant their one-way love when he deserved, at best, the silent treatment.
Ja Morant greets the fans after returning to the lineup after leaving the Memphis court.USA TODAY Sports
But maybe things are different in Memphis. The band’s theme song, “Whoop That Trick,” is borrowed from a song by Memphis-born rapper Al Kapone, whose tune he says represents the “underdog.” Of course, because “Wow that trick” means emphasis. And when I say “lemon wedge,” I mean “Tuesday.”
What really makes sense, and how the rational world translates “Wow that trick”, is how it is defined in the Urban Dictionary: to give a “pimp slap”. And that’s the kind of filth that Adam Silver’s selective silence invents.
To this end, the late Tom Nissalke remains a heroic figure.
In December 1978, “troubled” Nets star Bernard King had more problems. He was arrested for possession of cocaine, driving while intoxicated and driving without a license.
Two nights later in a game against the Nissalke-coached Rockets at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, King was introduced as the starter to a regular crowd of about 6,000. King’s return after his arrest was met with lukewarm applause or scattered silence.
But John Sterling, the Nets’ radio voice and unabashed cheerleader, took care of it. From his courtside seat, Sterling stood up, faced the crowd behind him, and began making wild gestures to stand up for King. Several people—perhaps out of embarrassment, perhaps out of teenage ignorance—obeyed Sterling’s beckons.
Thus, King was given a partial standing ovation.
During the playing of the national anthem, Nissalke charged from Houston’s bench, stood in front of Sterling to speak harshly that the NBA was riddled with drugs and that bush league homers like Sterling played on that stage.
Forty-five years later, Ja Morant received a standing ovation, no invitation needed.
Wow! Fins are tied by Jalen
It’s hard to understand NFL teams signing players as if a uniform change would improve their character.
The Dolphins traded for Rams CB Jalen Ramsey last week, a skilled career misanthrope with three years left on his contract and a $46 million base salary.
While the Dolphins are on the precipice of a championship and see Ramsey as the missing piece that can get them there, they see Ramsey as an overpaid salary dump.
Jalen Ramsey has been submitted by the DolphinsAP
Earlier with Jacksonville, Ramsey proved emphatically and emphatically that he is the first and only me, even as he showed up to 2019 training camp in an armored truck, and then the Jags asked them to cash in on him to retain him. he was traded to the Rams later that year.
His on-field and off-field play has included fights, bragging trash talk, very personal altercations with ugly actions, and suspensions and ejections for foul play.
His greatest gift to professional football to date is his ability to keep both sides in the game. However, it remains an appreciated presence. But if the Dolphins are lucky, Ramsey’s behavior won’t cost them a win.
What are the origins of nonsense?
Reader Richard T. Monahan reports on a YouTube video of Nolan Ryan’s fifth no-hitter, as seen on NBC in 1981.
Ryan, with the Astros, faced the Dodgers’ Ted Power.
NBC’s Tony Kube told co-host Joe Garagiola that he spoke with Dodgers pitching coach Ron Perranoski before the game, and he said Power lacked “arm discipline” and “location.”
Garagiola, a former catcher, said he was confused by the terminology. Kubek added that “velocity” is now spoken of as “velocity” and “control” is now called “position.”
And Garagiola couldn’t get past “arm discipline,” saying it was a high-rent district term that “sounds like a Madison Avenue PR campaign.”
Fan Hodges found peace
Brooklyn-born Marty Kaplan, a highly regarded accountant and author of a book on taxes, died on March 10 at the age of 83, and presumably peacefully.
According to his family, that peace was achieved last year with the induction of Gil Hodges into the Hall of Fame.