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Everyone watching sporting events this week received their fill of excitement and some received more then others. There was a lot of hoopla and drama involved. Comeback wins, buzzer beaters, record scoring drives, off court stories and just about everything in between came at us like tennis balls out of a mechanical volley machine. It was hard to keep track of it all. For those of you out there that actually have to work everyday and can’t follow all the crazy story lines let me pepper your thoughts with relevant content to keep your life on the right path, sports wise that is. 

The NBA took a break from their grueling schedule to frolic amongst themselves and hold the NBA All Star game. There was alot of laughs and back slapping and selfies at thousand dollar a plate restaurants.Nothing better then watching millionaires have fun while the rest of us go into debt buying game tickets and groceries right? Of course LeBrone James was, as always, the main show piece and the sooth sayer for all things questionable in life and beyond. His excellency even graced us with his thought for his “farewell tour” which he claims he’s a 50/50 on having. Yeah ok, don’t hold your breath on that one folks. We all know that The King needs to act like a king but predicting a farewell tour should be left up to the fans, hopefully. This followed by an eastern all star’s victory over the west in which they scored 211 points was about all I needed to see from The NBA. Time to get back to playing the games in my opinion. 

Just when you thought you had the college basketball season figured out and were penciling in your Final Four probables, along comes an upset that makes you wonder if you know anything at all about the game. The past week has shown the sports world that if you’re ranked in the top five or even the top ten teams in the country you’re walking around with a very big target on your back. It was a week loaded with upsets. Purdue, Marquette, Iowa State and Auburn all had their seasons put in doubt by tough losses. Although Kansas and Kentucky played well enough to win conference match ups both teams struggled defensively. In the end, it was UConn loosing to #15 ranked Creighton by 19 points that showed me anything can and will happen in the college hoops world. Hang on everyone because I think the tournament will be a wild ride this year!

Even though there is absolutely no action on the gridiron right now there are several stories making the rounds concerning college football one of them being next years 12 team playoff format. Frankly I’m not sure the current plan will work or make everyone happy but it is a slight improvement to the four team playoff fiasco that we all suffered through this year. I’m still confused about how it all plays out but basically the top four power five conference winners get a first round bye with the remaining eight at large teams playing first round games at their on campus stadiums. The four winners go on to play the power conference winners in the second round with the eight teams playing for the four final spots to make it to the college championship game with the last two teams. Make sense? yeah, I didn’t think so either. It should be interesting to say the least! I liked it better when we had the New Years Day Bowl games with The AP Sports writers picking the top team. Stay tuned for more on this. 

As I mentioned last week there are several things going on off the fields of football. This past weekend’s Genesis Invitational was The PGA’s first competition of the season and hosted a field of the top players including Tiger Woods who regretfully had to withdraw due to an illness. This is the second or third time Tiger has withdrawn from a competition and I’m beginning to wonder if retirement might be a viable option for the guy that literally single handedlly changed the game of golf. With the Saudi owned LIV golf tournaments throwing cash around like Monopoly money we might be seeing the end of The PGA Tour as the last of the big name hold outs fall into line with LIV one by one. As someone who actually worked for The Saudi Royal Family several years ago I can tell you that they have money that would put Elon Musk to shame. It’s virtually limitless and they know how to use it as leverage. You cannot and will not beat them at a money game. They literally throw money at something they want or seek to dominate until you say “OK, you win”. To them, everyone has a price. It’s that simple.

Lastly, let me mention that the Summer Olympics will take place this year in August in Paris, France and already there is massive controversy surrounding the games. The spectacle of the opening ceremony will feature the Olympic teams traveling by barge and open river boat down the Seine River, a roughly three and one-half mile journey. A major event and top draw in the games, men’s basketball, will however not be well represented in this opening events as the men’s basketball games begin the very next day in Lille, a city over 160 miles away from Paris. What does this mean? This means that U.S. players like LeBrone James, Kevin Durant and a host of other U.S. basketball mega stars will not make the opening spectacle of traveling along with thousands of other athletes as the Eiffel Tower, The Cathedral of Notre Dame and the glittering Paris skyline floats by them. Already, players are pushing back in the schedule as many in The NBA(like LeBrone and KD) have openly stated that this years games in Paris would be their personal Olympic swan song and that Paris is the entire reason they are playing. Go figure. 

Give the French and free lunch and they’ll find a way to screw it up!! Let’s hope we figure all this out so the announcers can scream Play On!! 

Kev

Kev's Corner Our Staffs Weekly Sports perspective

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