We can all agree that things change over time. Offensive and defensive philosophy, recruiting, high school students behavior, AAU basketball, types of balls used during competition, exposure events, media coverage, and of course coaching.
ESPN, FOX, Local Cable, Blogs, Message Boards, websites are all different outlets that are growing each day and having an impact on sports. Whether it’s basketball, baseball or football, players who score points, score touchdowns or hit home runs are going to be recognized. What can’t be overlooked is the athlete or coach causing a commotion off the playing field-it seems that the resources mentioned above will be all over those who get caught engaging in deviant behavior. Whether it’s calling out a coach in public, DUI, assault, insubordination, etc. The emotional athlete/coach who displays an animated demeanor will also be the topic of discussion.
Sure we all make mistakes. We all do things some will not agree with. In reality, most would love to take back something they have said or did in the past. Yesterday on ‘The View‘, Whoppi Goldberg was talking about Serena Williams and her meltdown at the U.S. Open over the weekend. Whoppi said, ‘we all get emtional and we all get mad’. I couldn’t agree more…
The heat of the moment is an avenue I have taken many times. When we sit back and watch it occur with athletes or coaches on television we always question why they are acting that way? After examining this topic for a long time I think it’s time I end my analysis on this subject. Athletes and coaches are competitors, in the heat of the battle you get excited, sometimes offended, and even challenged…most humans natural reactions are to speak up. It’s a fact some do it in different ways than others.
Take a quick look at some of the top coaches in each sport, they all have some sort of fire burning inside them. Bobby Knight, Pat Summit, and Pat Riley in basketball. Billy Martin, Earl Weaver in baseball and don’t get me started on football coaches (whom I think are special people). Sure there are coaches who are a bit more calmer like Joe Torre, Ton LaRussa, Bill Belichick and the Phil Jackson of today. (The old Jackson was very animated on the sidelines, ‘I used to be a dancer’, Jackson once said)
Each and every one of us is different; coaches and athletes. We come from different backgrounds, raised in a different environment or even era. Messages being sent from parent to child is different in French Lick, Indiana than in Brooklyn, New York. But the one thing we can all agree on is what should always be taught and never taken for granted. Look no further than the 4 D’s.
Desire, Determination, Dedication and Discipline.
Without these four, you don’t have a chance.
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Celtics Town. com on a very interesting story/interview with Boston Celtics draft prospect Lester Hudson. The guy has travelled the road…I am going to root for him this year.
Jay King: Can you tell me a little bit about your journey from Central High School to Southwest Tennessee Community College, and finally to UT-Martin?
Lester Hudson: I grew up in a pretty bad neighborhood, but instead of being dragged down by my surroundings I was always determined to do whatever I could to get out of the neighborhood.I actually didn’t know how much I loved basketball until I was able to play for my high school coach. He saw me playing one day and asked me if I would try out for the team. Later on, after I knew how much I loved the game and had finished a successful high school career, I wasn’t allowed to play my senior year. Since I had failed my ninth grade year and had to repeat it, they wouldn’t let me play during my last year at school. Without basketball, I didn’t do my work, and wound up short of graduating high school.
The following year, while I was working on getting my GED, my high school coach asked me if I wanted to go to a tryout for the Southwest Tennessee Community College team – he never lost faith in me, never stopped thinking I could play college ball. I did really well against the players on the team, and I was offered a spot in school and on the team.
By the time I got into STCC, I knew that I needed to work hard in school to continue my dream of playing basketball and escaping my neighborhood. I had two unbelievable years at STCC – I think I was rated one of the top twenty junior college players in the country – but I once again didn’t graduate. Because I was behind, I had to take beginner courses to get into the real courses, and I failed to meet all the graduation requirements.
Since I didn’t graduate, I couldn’t go right into playing college basketball, and I couldn’t have a scholarship my first year. I decided to go to UT-Martin, but I had to pay my way for the first year – a year I red-shirted. I received financial aid and took out loans to cover the rest of the money, and I finished up my college career at UT-Martin.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can.”
-John Wesley
-Coach Finamore
hoops135@hotmail.com
Damn that Henny got ni$@@as making bad decisions, like Kayne
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
An Arab American Army Psychiatrist, Major Nadal Malik Hasan, opened fire after allegedly shouting Allah hu Akbar. The immediate consequence, 13 brave Americans who had signed to serve their country are dead on their own base. It is true that soldiers are put in harm’s way but that decision is not taken by the soldiers themselves. Soldiers of any country are brave young men and women who have signed up to defend their country. To be subjected to a cowardly attack by one of their own is therefore tragic. We at PTH and in Pakistan join the families of those soldiers who died at Fort Hood in mourning those who lost their lives due to this unnecessary and senseless act of cowardice and butchery.
The long term consequences of the actions of Major Hasan will obviously be much bigger especially for the 8-15 million Muslims residing in the United States either as citizens or as residents. I know of many patriotic young American Muslims serving in the United States Army, Air Force and the Navy. Their loyalties will become suspect- after all what would we do if a Christian soldier in the Pakistan Army suddenly opened fire on Pakistani Muslim soldiers? And it won’t stop there. Muslims everywhere will be looked at with suspicion.
As investigation into this terrible act is carried out we will no doubt realize that this tragedy has its roots in an erroneous interpretation of Islam favored by some radical clerics which cannot distinguish, in a strict juristic sense, between a state-ordained just war and mindless and purpose violence by non-state actors. Therefore now more than ever the US must now engage with the silent majority of the common Muslims as well the Muslim clerics who don’t offer such erroneous interpretations of the faith.
Muslims in the West must realize that Western systems provide the levellest playing field available for all. The way to tackle your grievances is to adopt the constitutional and legal means, by using the ballot not the bullet, by excelling in science and technology, by becoming economically successful and by lobbying your representatives. And if you are still unsatisfied or disagree with the foreign policy, leave. After all no one forced Nadal Hasan to join the US Army. Once he joined it was his moral duty to stand by his fellow officers in the uniform and live by the code that was applicable to him. If he was so disaffected why didn’t he leave the army first? Why didn’t he migrate back to his ancestral homeland? He didn’t because America gave him an education, a first rate one at Virginia Tech, and livelihood. And America trusted him with the lives of its finest and bravest without any thought about his faith.
He can claim all the racial and religious discrimination but the truth is that Major Nadal Malik Hasan was a serving soldier of the US Army the day he decided to kill his fellow comrades. No one fired him despite his fiery declarations that US was wrong and when he told other soldiers that he was happy about US soldiers getting killed. He must have upset a lot of people, but unlike our Mullahs, no American soldier laid a finger on him.
Today he is being treated alongside those he wounded in the same hospital where the dead from the shooting were brought in. And what else- in the coming days and months he will get the opportunity he didn’t give his fellow soldiers i.e. the opportunity to be heard, the opportunity of due process, the opportunity to tell his side. He will not be condemned unheard- perhaps then a sense of shame and remorse will set in and he will realize what a terrible thing he has done to his comrades in arms.
Guy Fawkes – the leader of the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 – is a figure about whom the English have been ambivalent ever since, depending on the varying repute in which Parliament has been held. Currently, respect for the Westminster Parliament is at one of its lowest ebbs ever, which moves Guy Fawkes more over to the positive end of the hero-to-villain spectrum.
In fact – exaggerating somewhat – one of the greatest services some latter-day terrorist could render to democracy in England would be to blow the old place up: of course, without any human casualties. I say this because if the Palace of Westminster were destroyed, it would be more than just a new parliament building that would be erected in its place: I feel sure that such a tabula rasa would result in a major overhaul of the antiquated and democratically deficient processes of the Westminster Parliament and, indeed, of the whole structure of parliamentary governance in Britain. Assuming that a radically new, modern parliament were built in the place of the bombed-out building – i.e. they did not attempt to reconstruct the Victorian white elephant that is the present parliament – it’s almost impossible to imagine that the institution itself, its culture and traditions, would remain the same.
For example, the chamber of the Commons would most likely be built in the horseshoe shape designed to foster a more collaborative and open style of debating as opposed to the antagonistic, punch-and-judy style of politics encouraged by the rectangular lay-out of the present chamber. The new building could also be designed literally to enable open, transparent politics by embodying more open spaces for MPs to conduct informal meetings and discussions, and by having many more glass walls and partitions, so that people can see who is talking to whom.
But over and above these architectural and cultural considerations, I think the necessity to construct a completely new parliament building would be perceived as an opportunity to make a completely fresh start with how we conduct parliamentary democracy and government in Britain. And, who knows, the trauma of the Westminster Parliament’s destruction might finally overcome the reluctance, indeed inability, of many English people to contemplate the establishment of an English parliament. Perhaps, with the whole new start and the massive financial cost that the need to rebuild Parliament made necessary, people would start to think that the new London parliament should be an English one, and that we should perhaps locate a totally new British parliament (dealing with reserved matters only) somewhere else altogether.
Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the old English Parliament; it’s time to bring him back and give him another chance, so we can restore it!
PS. For any anti-terrorist security staff or ‘lawful-intercept’ data analysts that might be reading this, I’m not actually advocating that terrorists should target the Palace of Westminster: it’s a metaphor.
MSNBC is reporting that Michael Bloomberg was successful in mainting his position as New York City’s Mayor. With the majority of the vote, Bloomberg beats out Bill Thompson, his top competitor.
This is an awkward post about breasts, buttcracks, beauty, lust, and the Christian response. Let me share two posts that I read last week that provoked some thought. The first post, “My Thoughts on Boobies,” is from Anne Jackson at FlowerDust exhorting Christian women to dress modestly and the second, “Is This All Men Think About?” is from Pete Wilson at Without Wax [a pastor in Nashville].
At Quest, there’s been a few Sundays where I’ve had to ask one of our female pastors to ask a female congregant or two to lower their shirts because it ain’t pretty to see crack anytime or anywhere but especially as you’re trying to worship Jesus. But…that’s just me. Say no to crack.
QUESTIONS: What do you think about what was written by these two Christian bloggers? As a Christian woman, what is her responsibility in dressing modestly? What is a Christian dude’s responsibility? During these conversations, why does the attention seem to fall more heavily on how the woman and how she dresses? What does modestly look like for a guy? Why did the Fall have to happen? We could all be naked now and no one would care but that would seriously suck for Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and every other clothing retailers.
MY SIMPLE TAKE: We’re all responsible for our own selves but we can’t dismiss that [Christian] men and women are called to mutuality, partnership, community, and fellowship. Simply, we don’t live on an island to ourselves.
Here’s the post, “My Thoughts on Boobies.”
did you know?
–there is a female feature we call breasts. they can also be referred to as “boobies,” or “the twins,” or “the rack,” or “jugs,” so on, so forth.
–most men find this particular feature interesting. tempting. and amazing.
–upon catching a glimpse of said feature (regardless of how much is actually exposed), it is likely for a man’s mind to go to places it shouldn’t.
–with above knowledge, women, you now are educated and have no excuse.
–PLEASE USE WISDOM WHEN YOU DRESS YOURSELF.
aside: call me a prude. call me whatever. i don’t really care. and as much as this may seem like “casting judgment” (said in a very, scary, echo-y loud voice) on members of the female gender, please get a freaking clue.
i was doing some bloggy-clicking-around during my lunch and it amazes me how many “nice christian girls” (some who are even in church leadership – gasp!) show quite a bit of skin. in the office, at church parties, whatever (oh, and then post them ALL OVER THE INTERNET!)
please forgive me if it seems i have something stuck, as they say, where the sun don’t shine.
I DO.
it’s called modesty.
and if you are supposed to be living examples of godly women…you should too!
And here’s Pete’s post entitled, “Is This All Men Think About?”:
I guess it would be an understatement to say men tend to think about sex more than women. But, I also think it’s an overstatement to say it’s all men think about.
My friend, Anne Jackson wrote a post on her blog last week entitled “My Thoughts On Boobies” which got quite a bit of discussion going around the blogosphere. I must admit that I have been thinking about it a lot since last week (the post, not boobies).
Anne’s challenge was an important one. She was simply saying women should be mindful of what they wear knowing that men are so visually stimulated. My question is this: What responsibility do the men own in all of this? Surely guys we can’t play the “We just can’t help it.” card or the “That’s the way God designed us.” card. Or my favorite lame excuse, “You can look at the menu, you just can’t order.”
So here are my thoughts to get us started. I believe it is true…
1) A man will always notice an attractive woman.
2) After noticing, a man has a choice. He can either choose to continue to “notice” the attractive woman which will lead to fantasy or he can choose to avert his mind and his eyes to something else (often referred to as bouncing).
Why it’s a favorite: Wonderful rhyming story about different things to be thankful for, accompanied by engaging illustrations.
Title: Thanks for Thanksgiving
Author: Julie Markes
Illustrator: Doris Barette
ISBN: 0060510986
Short Summary: A rhyming story, with the three children in a family listing many things they are thankful for.
A little bit more: Very cute story with children listing things they are thankful for like school, music, art, cuddles and hugs, etc.
Is it right for your child?
Issues raised in pictures:—
Issues raised in text: –
Number of pages: 32
Reading/Listening Level: 2-8 years old
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