Gregg Popovich and David Stern Were Both Wrong

By virtue of his tenure and success, San Antonio Spurs Head Coach, Gregg Popovich, has earned the respect of NBA insiders and fans. I am among them, and nothing I write about here really diminishes my admiration for the guy.

By now it's the talk of the sports world, that is, his radical decision to give a handful of stars a game off last week. Doubly amazing is NBA Commissioner David Stern's staggering $250,000 fine of the Spurs.

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I think both were wrong

Yeah, I heard the rationale behind Pop's decision:  An unusually heavy schedule.  Aging stars.  Coach's prerogative.  But professional basketball is about putting your best players on the court (unless they're otherwise unable to play), and about professional athletes playing and putting in their best effort throughout the contest (regardless of who's winning or losing). 

Coach Pop breached an important sports value.

If I were a member of the Miami Heat, who missed competing with the likes of Tim Duncan last week, I'd feel disrespected by the Spurs.  I'd be terribly disappointed if I were a fan, coming to the American Airlines Arena and paying premium fees to see two of the best star-loaded teams in the NBA.

I wonder how Heat star LeBron James actually felt.  I wonder, too, how Tim Duncan et al. felt, for that matter, about not playing.  

In turn, the Commissioner's penalty was overly heavy-handed.  Almost draconian, in my eyes.

I won't squabble about the amount per se, but more about the seemingly authoritarian way he delivered the decision. Here's former Orlando Magic Head Coach, Stan Van Gundy, speaking about Stern's leadership, as quoted by SI writer Chris Mannix:

"And if you are a true leader in David Stern's position, then lead. Take the moral high ground and get out and persuade people. Lead on the issue. David Stern is not able to do that because, especially among the coaches, he has not built that kind of trust or shown them that kind of respect. What he is stuck with is bully tactics, a my way or the highway approach, and that's just not going to work in this case."

The NBA coaches can, of course, speak to this much better than many of us.  But if Van Gundy's claim is true, then it girds my sentiments about the man behind the hefty fine. 

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Surely there was a better way

Pop could've tempered his aging stars' minutes, perhaps more than he already had, before their game off.   Maybe he had done this already, too, but we could've tempered practice time as well or given them practice off.  

If there is evidence to believe that the Spurs got the unfair treatment with the scheduling, then that is a different matter altogether.  Their management could've arranged a private meeting with the Commissioner to address and resolve it.  

On Stern's part, a similarly private discussion, and more concerted investigation of the matter, would've been better.  It remained his privilege to dole out such reprimand on things deemed not in the best interest of the NBA.  But to Van Gundy's point, it would've shown better leadership on his part.  

Otherwise this incident left a triple loss in its wake:  for the Spurs, the NBA, and the fans.  

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Fired, Wired and Hired in Los Angeles

Mike Brown, fired

Mike Brown

The Los Angeles Lakers wasted no time in this young NBA season. They invested heavily in building up the team during the off-season, and they must win another championship this year. This is the sort of pressure CEOs and their organizations experience, and if they don't produce, they're out much quicker than they can imagine. Coach Mike Brown obviously found himself on the short end of the stick, as the beloved 'Lake Show' stumbled badly at the season's start.

Reference:  With no time to waste, Lakers make right decision in firing Mike Brown

Phil Jackson, wired. 

Phil Jackson

I am a Chicago Bulls fan, and Phil Jackson was singularly responsible for an outstanding 1990s, what, with two 'three-peat' championships. He followed that up with a 'three-peat' and a 're-peat' with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000s. That's a remarkable 11 championships in two decades of basketball, where the odds of any coach winning just one is virtually miniscule. I love the Zen Master, so it seemed that he was all set to return to the bench to bring that storied 'Lake Show' back on the championship track. Seemed.

Reference:  West Side: Jackson was Lakers' man

Mike D'Antoni, hired. 

Mike D'Antoni

Mike D'Antoni left the New York Knicks in a fiasco around Carmelo Anthony last year. I don't follow his coaching or his teams, but was shocked to hear that the Los Angeles top brass chose him over Phil Jackson. If an NBA championship were a Nobel Prize, there is absolutely no other coach in the league you'd seek for advice, research, leadership and results than the Zen Master. He has 11 such 'prizes.' Still, this article opened my eyes to the prospects that Mike D'Antoni was actually a better fit with the Lakers and offered a better chance for that 'prize.'

Reference:  East Side: D'Antoni was right pick

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

For the Love of Hockey

My family and I were the third of three sets of close relatives to emigrate from Manila to Chicago in 1968.  Three of my cousins and I were about the same age, and we were all active boys.  Hockey was the first sport we played together, and it was on the baseball diamond turned skating rink at Smith's Field on the west side.  They managed to get proper hockey skates, while I happened to wear figure skates that had parallel blades and customary teeth at the front. 

A Filipino boy doesn't usually find himself on the ice, so it was my first effort at skating.  As it turned out, my natural skating motion was more that of a hockey player than a figure skater.  Practically, this meant I stumbled often on those darn teeth and sometimes onto my face.  I was too graceless at first and too stiff from the cold Chicago winter to brace myself from the fall.  With proper skates not quite in the offing at the time, I wore a football helmet to keep more bruises at bay.

Within three years, all of our parents moved us to the suburbs, and I was playing little league hockey in Arlington Heights.  With a full complement of gear and uniform, I came to really love hockey, even as my cousins ventured away from the sport.  I loved the speed of being on the ice, and the skating motion had a grace that walking or running couldn't quite match.  I became good enough at it to win two trophies in that first year of organized play.

From old heartbreak to new thrill

Forty years ago the NHL had little play on TV.  That was fine, as we had sports news highlights and our beloved Tribune.  One of my best family-cum-sports memories was of my father and me, listening on the radio to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup, between our Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens.  Picture this.  It was a steamy May evening in 1971, as we sat on the third floor porch in the back of our Chicago apartment, the radio situated between us.

Oh, that game was a heartbreak!  It was a hard-fought series between two great teams that were very well-matched for Lord Stanley.  Still, the Blackhawks were up 2-0, then 3-2, in the series.  They were even winning 2-0 in that Game 7, before the Canadiens scored 3 unanswered goals to win on our home ice.
      

We Blackhawks fans had to wait 39 years, before our guys could hoist Lord Stanley high above the ice (2010).  I was living in Dubai, and it was an Australian friend who said, "Hey Ronnie, congratulations on your Stanley Cup!"  "It was a boyhood thrill," I smiled at Lance.

Blackhawks Classics during the lockout

So it's with displeasure that there is no NHL right now.  After consecutive management-labor disputes with the NFL and the NBA last year, the NHL followed suit this year with its lockout.  Three major play stoppages in a relatively short period of time don't bode well for American professional sports, but this matter warrants study for another article.   

Like scores of sports fans across the world, we Americans love watching our athletes have at it on the field, court and rink.  So I am grateful that our local Comcast Sportsnet is airing Blackhawks Classics. 

It makes perfect sense, doesn't it.  TV executives surely can work out agreements to air more of such games.  From those involved directly in the sport, to what I call auxiliary businesses, and of course us fans, it's a complex but exciting ecology that we've all fashioned.  Bars and restaurants can show those games.  Perhaps even a couple of vendors can be on hand.  Some advertisers would be glad to get on the bandwagon.  All of this is already going on, for sure, but I think more of it can take place and thus benefit a lot more people.  

That heartbreak series, notwithstanding, my father and I would love to watch every game of that 1971 championship.  From listening to a staticky radio, to watching on his super-HD large-screen TV, the obligatory beers on hand, of course, we'd be thrilled.

Life would be good.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Bulls Joakim Noah in Burger Mode

The Chicago Bears have Peanut Tillman in strip-the-football beast mode.  The Chicago Bulls have Joakim Noah going beast mode, too.  Averaging nearly a double-double with 16.0 points and 9.8 rebounds, and generally bounding up and down the court as if he were still overcoming the acne years of adolescence.  

This article isn't about his all-star play, though, but that burger heave-ho in the waning seconds of a recent game with the Orlando Magic.  "Stick with this one, because it's hilarious," Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated wrote, and I'll second that motion. 

Some Magic players were in a haughty uproar about it.  One of them hoped that such a despicable act never recur on hallowed basketball courts.  Oh, the horror of Noah trying to win a free burger for the fans!

Coach Tom Thibodeau apparently gave Noah a talking-to as well, though as usual he's discreet and respectful with what he shares in the media.

Anyone else pissed off about this?

Well, I'm here to tell you, Take a chill pill, man, and give the guy a break!

NBA is a business

I'm sure there are many basketball purists out there who do talk about respecting the game and following its conventions, written and unwritten.  But pure has to be defined with the media-rich, multimillion-dollar stakes in mind.  One reason the NBA has been so successful is its marketing and promotions campaign, and the Bulls struck a great deal when McDonald's agreed to give the fans a free Big Mac, if the team broke 100 points.  

By the way, the Bulls are hardly a scoring machine.  They're cut in the mold of Coach Thibs, who's instilled a defense-first mindset among his players.  So maybe the marketing genius in the Bulls organization ought to reset the threshold with Mickey D's to something like, say, 90 points.    

No harm done

Look, Noah is deadly serious about his game, but is a spirited presence on the court.  He has a quirky personality, too.  It's what makes him entertaining to watch.  So when that quirkiness gets the better of him, now and then, I say, So what?

That game with the Magic was well on-hand anyway.  No way they could've overcome a 6-point deficit in those closing seconds, so Noah's maligned three-point heave was actually a harmless thing and he meant no disrespect with it.

Especially for a guy whose every moment on- and off-the-court is a bad-hair day. 

Everyone loves a giveaway

The lowest paid NBA player probably makes more money in one year than do the vast majority of fans watching them in their stadium, drinking at the bar, or lounging on the couch.  But here's the kicker, It's fans, like those who were rallying for a free Big Mac, who help inflate the bulging wallets on those players' behinds.

I say Noah was actually awesome for trying to trigger that giveaway.  True, there were 20,000 fans disappointed, as Golliver wrote, but they all loved him for the try.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Not Fair for Richard Dent to Blame Mike Ditka

Richard Dent blames Mike Ditka for the Chicago Bears' failure to win another Vince Lombardi trophy, after such a crushing victory in Super Bowl XX.  They were poised to win at least two more, and it was very disappointing and frustrating to watch them fall short.  Repeatedly.

Ditka needed to adapt his style

My first reaction, honestly, was to agree with him.

The fiery, in-your-face style of Da Coach worked perfectly with his team.  Just one loss in a dominant 1985-1986 season, and just 10 points surrendered through an unrelenting playoff march.  But to sustain that championship run required a more flexible, soft-pedaled tact, I thought, at least in some situations and with some players.  A CEO who succeeds at starting up or turning around a company through a hard-nosed approach has to shift gears over time, and focus more on balancing and reconciling multiple, perhaps competing stakeholder interests.  Ditka didn't adapt.

Ditka is an unrivaled winner

My second reaction was more measured and thoughtful, as I decided to research the matter.

Ditka's winning percentage of .631 over 11 seasons (1982 - 1992) makes him the unrivaled winningest Bears Head Coach in the post-George Halas era.  That's to the present season with Lovie Smith, sports fans!  Even Papa Bear's record in his fourth stint at the helm (1958 - 1967) fell short of Iron Mike's at .588.

So anyone can call Ditka any name, but 'loser' cannot be one of them. 

Jim McMahon was the starting QB, and played in more games than any other backup, in the three seasons after their Super Bowl.  The Punky QB was often injured, unfortunately, and never seemed to regain the magic touch he had in the run-up to the Super Bowl.

So the Doug Flutie bit that Dent focused on was, at worst, a blip on the radar.  Hardly anything that could be pinned on Da Coach.

Ditka led the Bears to seven playoff appearances during his stint, and the team had the following regular season records:

1. 1984 - 1985 (10 - 6)
2. 1985 - 1986 (15 - 1)
3. 1986 - 1987 (14 - 2)
4. 1987 - 1988 (11 - 4)
5. 1988 - 1989 (12 - 4)
6. 1990 - 1991 (11 - 5) 
7. 1991 - 1992 (11 - 5)

You see, they were indeed poised to win multiple Super Bowls.  Instead, they came away with a positively mediocre .500 record in these post-seasons:  6 - 6.

Choke job in the playoffs

Ah, there's the rub.

There are teams, maybe just certain players, who are beasts during the regular season, but are more like lame ducks in the playoffs.  They struggle to show up, or they simply choke!  Think:  Greg Maddox, Chicago Cubs.  Think:  Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts (cf. his brother Eli).  Think more recently, way premature playoff exits for top teams (2011 - 2012):  Greenbay Packers (football), Vancouver Canucks (hockey), and Chicago Bulls (basketball).

Only athletes and coaches can speak directly to this, while the rest of us can only imagine it.  Playoffs aren't  just more intense, more physical, more daunting than the regular season.  But they say it's a different atmosphere altogether.  Almost like an altered sport that requires athletes to perform with an even more ungodly fortitude, discipline and skill.   

A friend on Facebook reminded me that defensive genius, Buddy Ryan, and Mike Ditka were feuding through their Super Bowl run.  Apparently Ditka was none too happy, when the players hoisted Ryan on their shoulders as well, after their defensive clamp-down of the Patriots.  Maybe that was a reason for the Bears' one-and-done, as Ryan fled for Philadelphia in 1986 and with him the vaunted 46 defense.  

Many reasons for the Bears' one-and-done

We may never know the exact reason for it, actually.  But here are some points I am certain about:

• No one reason accounted for it, but multiple reasons.
• It was team failure to show up, when it mattered most. 
• It is patently unfair to pin this on Ditka, as Dent just did.

But for one magical season, the Chicago Bears - characters and all - gave us fans the thrill of a lifetime!

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Sources for my facts and figures are below.  I invite my readers to correct anything I got wrong.

List of Chicago Bears Seasons
List of Chicago Bears Head Coaches
List of Chicago Bears Starting QBs

LeBron James' Formula for Success

LeBron James has had an awesome year, with a coveted NBA championship and Olympic gold medal on hand.  And the year is not over, yet.

No one can deny this athlete's ungodly talent, but it's his personality - words and actions - that seems to land him in disfavor among fans time and time again.  Touting serial capture of the Larry O'Brien trophy on stage with his partners in crime, fellow Miami Heat Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch, was arrogant to a fault.  Then, until the playoff run this past season, he was the quintessential shrinking violet, if not David Copperfield act,  in the fourth quarter.

These are certainly reasons I dislike LeBron.  But the main reason is, I am a Bulls fan, and his dreaded Heat ushered our team right out of the 2011 conference finals.

I was talking to a friend soon after the NBA finals this year, and she clearly wasn't past the hating of LeBron or the Heat.  "But you have to admit," I said, "the dude was beast mode!"

For all his veteran years in the NBA, I often forget that LeBron is still a young man.  I remind myself that he has quite a lot of maturing to do.  A 'man-child,' one ESPN analyst called him.  This pulls me back from wading into full-on, hate-on LeBron waters. 

Playing it differently

Einstein purportedly said, Madness is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.  So what was different for LeBron?  Here he is with answers, in a deft, thoughtful interview with ESPN Michael Wilbon:  Part 1 and Part 2.

This is a process I call 'extracting the algorithms.'  Essentially, it's a deeper dive into the underlying dynamics and reasons why a situation is working or not working.  His goal was clear as day, but obviously he needed to re-examine both his play and personality, if he wanted to avoid the fate of Karl Malone or Charles Barclay:  stellar career, sans championship.

We are not machines, so we cannot just pop the hood open and check our engine.  Flaws and limits are the essence of who we are, but these are sometimes difficult to get at.  So doing a deep dive and going at it differently are easier said than done. But it's a must to gain a better measure of success. 

LeBron disconnected and reflected

The underbelly of our technologized world is that we are sometimes so tethered to our devices, as to be effectively shackled from doing anything else.  It helps to turn these off, and read those anachronistic things called books, as LeBron did, in order to free himself enough to turn inward.  To his credit, it worked.

But I'd like to highlight a handful things from the interview. 

1. Self-reflect regularly

Mindfulness, or zen mind, is what martial artists are often schooled to attain.  It's being open and thoughtful about what their situation truly is.  Our situation is not a static thing, but rather, for an athlete, it is a shifting, often unpredictable thing.  So turning inward now and then serves to keep us in the flow of that situation and keep us in a mindful state outside of it. 

In cutaways during the interview, we see LeBron with his eyes closed or pouring over a book, in a deeply meditative state.  

2.  Do only what works

How many times have you seen friends or family doing things, which don't really work, even for their own stated purpose.  Sure, join a glam health club and dish out beaucoup bucks.  But having done so doesn't lead to fitness or weight loss, because we may be traveling often for work and we have an active family life on the weekend.  So there is no time for the club, yet we keep renewing the membership, right?

We don't know all that LeBron went through in his personal life to finally happen upon things that worked for him, but clearly he kept at it.  Again, it's an imperfect process and it often takes time.  But in our self-reflection, we must be open and honest enough to acknowledge when something we thought was working actually isn't working. 

3.  Balance things

If I may take the liberty of expanding on what LeBron meant by "balance" in the interview, it's this:  We must keep things in perspective, and not get caught in just one thing or another.

The reality is, basketball is a complex sport.  Yes, it's absolutely spot-on to say that it's a team sport.  In this light, it's ludicrous to focus on individual stat lines, isn't it.  Yet, that sport is comprised of very real individuals.  Some would-be inspirational posts on Facebook tout the idea that there is no 'I' in Team, and I say in retort, Hell, yeah, there is most definitely a lot of 'I's in Team!

So it's avoiding the simplistic characterizations of team versus individual, but acknowledging both and even reveling in the intricacy of their dynamics.  I argue that zen-master Phil Jackson's repeated success as a coach has to do with (a) his empathic insight into the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant; (b) his astute grasp of basketball as a team sport; and (c) his deft weaving of these individuals into a unique, seamless fabric we call a winning formula.  

LeBron knows full well that the things he did differently were in relation to, and in the context of, playing for the Heat.  

4.  Tap into a formula

I often help my daughter with her math homework.  When she was in third grader, her language abilities were at a high school level.  Math was her relative weakness, though she still tested at fifth grade level back then.  In my absence, she often struggled with it.

I helped her think through problems, especially those presented as a narrative, which apparently all young students dread.  She had formulas at her disposal, of course.  But I helped her grasp what the problem was about, first of all, and then which formula applied.  Moreover, I helped her understand these formulas better, so she had insight into their derivation.

I'm happy to add that as of last year, as a seventh grader, she tested in the 98th percentile for math.  

In my conceptual framework, Theory of Algorithms, a formula is an algorithm.  Once you've extracted the right one, then you can use it again in different situations.  Which is what LeBron is poised to do, now that the new NBA season has started.

Which is bad news, once again, for my beloved Bulls (sigh). 

A point of emphasis, in closing

You have to make sure, it's the right algorithms you're extracting vis-a-vis your situation, just as my daughter had to use the right formulas for particular problems.

If you come away from this LeBron interview thinking that turning off your iPhone 5 or delving into 'War and Peace' will lift your success to the next level, you haven't extracted the right algorithms. Instead, the right ones, which were not so explicit in the interview, are self-reflecting regularly and teasing out what actually works for you.

So you may use LeBron's formula, but how you apply it in your sport may be entirely different from what he did.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Ozzie Guillen: Baseball Success, PR Nightmare

Surely the Miami Marlins' front office must've known they were hiring an outspoken, often irreverent manager in Ozzie Guillen.  They knew he had a successful track record as a player, coach and manager, and had won the favor of many players he managed.  But after Ozzie's ill-advised "I love Fidel Castro ... I respect Fidel Castro" quip on Time Magazine, their season wavered like a top losing its spin, flirted with the Chicago Cubs' own MLB bottom-feeding season, then gone, history, hasta-la-bye-bye.  Ozzie fired, but left fat in the wallet.     

The front office wanted a prominent, capable Latino manager to help advance their commercial, sports and cultural plans in a predominantly Cuban-American community in Miami.  A short year later, they decided they didn't want that manager after all.

Maybe they should've engaged Eva Longoria as the true diamond in the dugout, instead.

How free is freedom, really?  

There is no questioning Ozzie's freedom to speak his mind.  But we know that freedom comes with a responsibility to be respectful and therefore an accountability to others.  Surely he must've known that the community he had recently joined would go ballastic, if he said anything even remotely praiseworthy of the Cuban leader.

What was he thinking, man?     

I am one of those who've been around the block, literally, having crossed continents and back and having slid into the second half of life.  So I know that, even though I rack my brains now and then trying to figure people out, there is a place in the world for everyone, including Ozzie Guillen.

What is that place, and what is his purpose?

Ozzie plays the Fool

ESPN senior writer LZ Granderson offered an insightful take on this, and I'd like to build on it. 

You see, in Shakespeare, the Fool has a prominent role in the royal court.  He is a figure, if fortunate enough, who is installed for the King's amusement.  Think about the Joker in a deck of cards, and you have a sense for how wild yet useful the Fool is.

The Fool, most importantly, has license to speak true to the King, that is, without getting punished.  In turn, the King may seek, and value, such truthfulness, because he sees only a court full of yes-Your-Highness, curtsy-every-second subjects.  The Fool comes across as silly and dumb, but may actually be smart as a whip and have a finger on the courtly pulse.

LZ is correct in that Ozzie's slurs are a prompt to have a dialogue on very sensitive, clearly incendiary issues.  But more than that, I think, people like Ozzie serve a critical societal and psychological purpose.    

A society hung up on political correctness (PC) may keep an air of civility, by and large.  Each word is carefully crafted, before uttered, or else it lands the utterer in hot water.  Each manner is dressed up, so as not to be offensive to the eyes.  But the reason PC is often itself the butt of politically incorrect sarcasm is that it creates a society that is plastic and unreal, even repressed, ultimately dissatisfying and untenable.

Punish Ozzie for the wrong he said, because he deserves it.

Praise Ozzie for that same wrong he said, because we, as a society, need to be shaken from our staid civility now and then, to face these issues and engage in difficult conversations.  

Finally, no doubt, Ozzie isn't the only one who has those very sentiments about Fidel Castro.  In a way, then, he is the vehicle by which those silent (maybe not all so silent) sentiments are vicariously delivered.

So, the next time the Chicago Shakespeare Repertory stages "King Lear," they know whom to cast to play the role of you-know-what! 

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Bears Jay Cutler Suffers from Type 1 Diabetes

Right after a dominant win over the Colts in the first game of the season, the Chicago Bears hit the wall against the Packers.  The defense held their own relatively well in the 23-10 loss, but the offense tanked and QB Jay Cutler spent most of the game on the turf.  Packers linebacker, Clay Matthews, effectively made mince meat of his counterpart on the Bears offensive line, J'Marcus Webb, and got to Cutler probably more often than his own mother. 

The poor QB was not at all a happy camper, and berated his hapless tackle on Thursday-night national TV.  What got football circles buzzing angrily, though, was his shoulder bump against the much bigger Webb.  His apparent reluctance to apologize afterwards only kept him in the neighborhood of villainy.

In the heat of the game, every athlete and coach know that this sort of thing can happen.  At the end of the day, it's no big deal.  It's better, of course, if the particular combatants kiss and make up privately, and little else has to be disclosed to the media.

Importance of team engagement

There is superb research by Gallup on employee engagement.  Organizations do what they can to promote motivation and commitment, as this makes for a high-performing culture and a highly satisfying milieu for everyone.  In particular, Gallup found that safety incidents diminish, the stronger the bond among the staff.  Why?  Because colleagues who feel that kinship look out for, and take care of, each other.  So for Cutler's sake, I hope he did make lovey-dovey with Webb sometime afterwards.   

That Thursday night loss and incident receded from the limelight well enough, as the Bears beat their opponents in the three games since.

Still, since Cutler's arrival to Chicago, the favor he curries even with us Bears fans waxes and wanes because of his attitude and behavior.  My sister and I were texting each other, while watching the Redskins-Vikings game last week, and she wondered why Cutler couldn't play like Robert Griffin III.  I quipped, "RG3 is a stud, Cutler is a dork (lol)."

Cutler suffers from diabetes

Then a reader commented on a Peter King article in Sports Illustrated that Cutler had Type 1 Diabetes.  He pointed out that stress can result in mood swings, like anger and irritability, in those who suffer from this condition.  I didn't know that, and it stands to reason that diabetes could account for part of what Cutler does on the field.  The condition doesn't excuse his behavior, but it offers an additional explanation.

I scoped out more information on Cutler, and I saw that this was a serious condition and that it both shocked and relieved him when he was finally diagnosed.  Here he was on Larry King Live, where he related his efforts to help children suffering from the same thing: 

That same reader above acknowledged that Cutler may very well be a jerk, but seemed to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I thought, good point, but reasoned that his personality probably accounts more for his behavior than his condition does.  One, I trust that the Bears' training and medical staff have his diabetes under control.  Two, he isn't exactly the most gracious athlete in the media, and few people are likely to characterize his personality as winsome.

But I tell you what, in finding out more about him, I came to appreciate him better.  Apparently he's eschewed endorsement deals, in order to dedicate himself to playing football and helping the Bears win a championship. 

That's cool, I like hearing that!

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Here are more references on Cutler, diabetes, and athletics:

Jay Cutler's Journey with Diabetes
MH Spotlight:  Diabetes-Beat the Blitz
Management of Competitive Athletes with Diabetes

Pregame Rituals Show NBA Players are Unique

Each of us is as unique as a snowflake.  Fine saying, if you are from a country that has winters.

I lived in Dubai, and consulted throughout the Middle East, for years.  There, the coldest it gets is the 60s F.  Many people have never seen snow.  Then how about, Each of us is as unique as a grain of sand?

As unique as a drop in the ocean.

A thumbprint. 

You see, I am a poet, and can readily run rampant with my metaphors.  So get someone like Stephen A. Smith, from ESPN, to tell me, Hold on, get going with what you're trying to say, will you? 

The NBA recently imposed a 90-second time limit on players' pregame rituals, as Sports Illustrated reported.  KD is right:  We fans like it, we fans enjoy it!  This feels like the NBA being ogre parents putting children in their place.

So much of what athletes do in the field, court or rink of play is about their professional demeanor.  They abide by strict rules of conduct that, in a way, diminishes their individuality.  What's more, the gear they don further hides them and makes them virtually anonymous.  Think football linemen, those hefty boys that are all shoulder pads, helmet cages, and thighs like tree trunks. 

At the same time, we fans clamor for their personal side.

Years ago, NBC Sports learned that to attract more women viewers to their Olympics coverage, they needed to do occasional cutaways or personal profiles of the athletes.  Men like them, too.  

I might argue, then, that the unprecedented popularity of social media has to do, in part, with people finding  those personal sides of others on Facebook and Twitter.  And, at the same time, they have a chance to show (off) their personal sides.   

Besides, do NBA players' pregame rituals take all that long to begin with?

 

Personal rituals are about athletes showing us they're real and unique.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

The Quandary that is Lance Armstrong

The news today is abuzz with Lance Armstrong, once again, because he has stepped down as Chairman of his Livestrong Foundation and been fired by Nike.  ESPN is tops for me, as far as awesome, intelligent, and intriguing sports news is concerned, and this is one of their reports on our man in the hot seat.

I love this Nike commercial, and still do, the irony of it notwithstanding.  "What am I on?" he repeats the often-asked question.  "I'm on my bike, busting my ass, six hours a day.  What are you on?"

His claim to infamy had been that he was the most drug-tested athlete and never failed a test.  Now there are reasons to wonder if there was illicit collusion among the testers about any positive results.  I expect that even more will come to light in the next several months. 

Yeah, he was 'on' something

In conversations with cycling friends, in the midst of his championship run on the Tour de France, I said, "Yeah, I think he's on something.  But he's so smart, so disciplined, and so well-advised by the best of minds in the sport, that he's ahead of the game."  

So, as the veritable fortress of doping that he and his mates constructed came undone, brick by brick, I was saddened but not shocked.  I already knew.  There is still more to undo, of course, but his legacy is a demolition site now.

Sports is a quandary

We marvel at what athletes do.  Our jaw drops in awe, our head shakes in disbelief, and our voice is lost in the thick air of whoops, high-fives, and beer.

Truth be told, 99.9% of us cannot do what they can do.  But perhaps in a fit of vicarious play, when we watch them, we can.  Even if the inspiration lifts our athletic skills just a fraction closer to theirs, we are grateful.  This is why I am hooked on sports.

But for those 0.1% athletes, their world is pure, unadulterated reality.  Past that marveling, I think it's inhuman to subject themselves to such strain and pain.  No body or mind should be subjected to it.  The Tour de France, for example, is 2100 miles of hell, over a 3-week period.  Yes, hundreds of athletes endure this grueling race, year after year, and they recover and they're just fine.

Not to condone the use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), I simply encourage us to try to understand why, for goodness sake, athletes may, and do, in fact resort to them.  As a weekend cyclist, I have a feel for that strain and pain.  I resort to protein powder, spaghetti carbo-load, and hydration fluids, when I train and cycle, but consume absolutely no drugs.  I am wasted after a fast-and-furious 50-mile 'recreational' ride with the guys, under the 110-degree Dubai sun.  I know how my body and mind feel, and all I can do afterward is what Lance did in the Nike commercial:  sleep.

Then, in preparation for the next ride, I review the last ride in my mind and tweak my training regimen accordingly.  I also wonder what else I can consume to raise my performance.   

Moreover, aside from the personal compulsion to excel, athletes also face peer and commercial pressures to perform at such a high level, as to be, once again, downright inhuman.  There's no question about the fact that they made a choice to subject themselves to such pressure.  But once in the sea of these choices, each of them can go only so far to keep their heads above water and endure it.  The cliche is true:  They're only human, after all. 

Yeah, we can get inspired by no-limits, nothing-is-impossible commercials on YouTube and posts on Facebook. But as a matter of brutal fact, all of us have far many more limits than capabilities. Far more things we cannot do than things we can. So those who dope are simply trying, in this complex, strenuous arena of sports, to withstand, survive, and succeed.

Lance is a dilemma

Lance remains a standout athlete to me. They can strip him of his Tour de France mantles, they can grab million-dollar sponsorships off his hands, and they can vilify him in judgmental media circles. He is still a remarkable guy to me.

Why and how?

We do not know exactly how many dopers there were in the field of riders, in his seven-year championship run, but we can safely assume there were many indeed.  So, as far as doping is concerned, it was probably a level playing field.

The fact, then, that Lance rose head-and-shoulders above all of them cannot be accounted for by PEDs.  No, I'd say it was his brilliant strategic skills on the bike.  His unmatched conditioning, discipline, and athleticism.  The masterful direction of Johan Bruyneel.  The training stewardship of Chris Carmichael.  No doubt, all of these were competitive differentiators.  I bet he could've won those championships without PEDs.  The dude was that great on the bike!

It may be said that every dog has its day.  I mean, the critics who must now feel justified in their hard-fought doping accusations, especially those in the French media, who apparently disliked Lance with a passion.  Let him drown completely in his own sea of lies and denials, I hear them shout, wholly discredited and dismissed.

But wait a minute, I say.  Can we not separate the good from the bad, and still admire the guy for surviving cancer, raising half-a-billion dollars to eradicate it, and excelling in one of the most grueling sports around?

I can, and encourage all of us to do the same.

The dilemma in all honesty, however, is that some of us cannot - and will not, even if we can - separate the good from the bad.  He's all bad, good riddance, amen, and thank you, ma'am!

Think:  Joe Paterno.  The abuse that several victims had to endure requires recompense and punishment, of course, as a response to those perpetrators and accomplices, Joe included.  But if this abuse weren't tragic enough, the NCAA had to go nuclear with its own set of punishments on Penn State University and its football program.  Apparently, the hundreds of (innocent) athletes, coaches, students, faculty and administrators were all bad, too, for being at PSU.  No one can convince me that that isn't a travesty in itself!                    

That said, Joe's phenomenal legacy on the football field is obviously now a tarnished set of trophies on the mantlepiece.  But let them take away his statue and categorically vilify the dead man, those trophies still stand strong and proud, in my eyes.  Joe remains among the heralded few in college sports, who sustained decades of success.  Perhaps he is more the real idol now, for his very flaws and mistakes, amidst his longtime accomplishments.      

Same with Lance.  Again, I am saddened by his doping but I still admire, and am inspired by, all the good he did, on and off the bike.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD