Puke-R-rific Twolves-style

Someone should go shove one of the Celtic's NBA Championship trophies up Kevin McHale's ass.

He's one pathetic excuse of an NBA General Manager who's shoddy decision-making has led to a chaotic excuse of an NBA franchise. Sure, I've been harboring anger for years because of pick-ups like J.R. Rider, Ndudi Ebi, Paul Grant, Will Avery, Michael Olowokandi, Sam Cassell, and others -- but he's gone too far this time.

It seems as if he now is desperate enough to yell at the franchise player about a lack of effort. What a freaking hypocrite. I'm sure if we had an inside look at McHale's office at Target Center, we'd need those tiny white 3M filter masks to breathe in all the dust that's settled in the room. He hasn't done crap for this team besides make his nightly appearance in his 7th row seat, and he blames Garnett for its woes.

I can't believe he's got the balls to yell at Kevin Garnett. If he in fact runs this player out of town, I might put in a call for his head on pitchfork or something — in a My-Name-Is-Earl-redneck hick sort-a-way. Read more for yourself: here.

Some daylight far, far away

In case you missed yesterday's post, I've just about had it with my local squads. Luckily my fretting subsided a bit this morning as I saw in my run of national newspapers that my prayers were answered. Of course, it wasn't in the Twin Cities but my personal sister-city of Boston.

Theo's back with the Sox!

I'm talking about Theo Epstein, the former General Manager of the Red Sox who quit his position 80 days ago. He can be largely credited with building the only recent team I'm a fan of to win a World Series. My interest in the team skyrocketed in 2004 while I lived for a short while in Beantown. It was an incredible experience where I made some great friends, did the golf thing nearly 24/7, lived with some freaking hippie girls, and fell in love with the Sox. The team probably has a lot to thank me for, since my presence at their games no doubtedly helped them to their first World Series title in more than 80 years.

After the Red Sox lost early in the playoffs this year, fans have had little else to cheer for as far as offseason maneuvers. Theo couldn't agree to a contract extension left the team. Ever since, they've been operating without a general manager. It most definitely affected contract negotiations with beloved center fielder Johnny Damon, who later packed his bags and his mountain-man look to cross enemy lines and wear pinstripes with the Yankees. Excuse me while I puke.

Theo's role won't be made public until next week with the team, but I think it's incredibly doubtful it won't include rebuilding this team. They've lost nearly every major player who got a ring in 2004 with the exception of Jason Veritek, Manny, and ex-Twin David Ortiz. Let's see what he'll do, but with the rather horrible movements of the Twins who are headed nowhere yet again, maybe I can even start wearing my Sox cap again soon!

My Minny teams

Before I rant, let me clear this up: I'm not off the Minny-sota bandwagon. I'm simply sick and tired of this freaking sports situation in this town. My favorite clubs are collectively struggling more right now than I've ever seen. From the "U" to the pro squads, they've all proven themselves to be routinely frugal, lazy and downright ignorant while cities and teams across the country bring sports to a new level. I feel like our teams are stuck in a frozen tundra. Oh wait, we are.

Gophers Mens Basketball: Arguably my favorite squad, of which I've seen 80 percent of all games the past decade or so, is stuck in a rut yet again. They're 0-4 in the Big Ten, their guards suck, their shooting stats are abysmal, this year marks the seventh team coach Monson has failed, and he's also been horrible at retaining solid and ever-improving in-state talent. Williams Arena is the best sports venue in town and it's faitful deserve a team that should annually be a NCAA tounament bubble team at worst. This one might not even qualify for the NIT. Answer: Fire Monson. Rebuild recruiting efforts.

Twins: Where have the good days gone? I can guarantee Geezer Pohlad's forgotten. Not only will he refuse to pick up actual top-tier talent to be competitive, his frugalness is holding up the process of building a new ballpark, and his team will have to be incredibly lucky to compete for the wild card in 2006. I will predict that he will now threaten to sell the squad by the summer too. Answer: Sell to Glen Taylor. Raise payroll. Snag a power-hitter. Make stadium deal in St. Paul.

Gophers Football: Stadium remains unsolved. But just how the Metrodome is looks and smells like a dirty toilet, Glen Mason has proven much the same. He's achieved far less than any other coach at a respectable instution during his last 9 years at the U. But still, the school was dumb enough to resign him -- and overpay him -- so he can again lead the Gophers to a few more trips to Nashville for the Music City Bowl. The best part is that I feel the need to puke during at least 4 or 5 Big Ten games per season because Mason can't find a way to win big games. I didn't forget about the win at Michigan this year -- even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Answer: Fire Mason (failed), build a defense (we'll see), build a stadium (will happen soon).

Vikings: Where to start? Stupid coach. No playoffs. Stupid players. Love boat. Police run-ins. Fred Smoot's mouth. The worst part is that there's even more that I didn't even mention. Answer: Fire coach (done), have a good draft (I'm optimistic), get a running back (I hope not Ontarrio Smith).

Timberwolves: You gotta feel for Kevin Garnett. If Big Ticket had some talent around him, he could go down as one of the best athletes ever to play in the state. He's not the problem. This team is mediocre for one reason: Kevin McHale. For years, he's failed miserably in drafts (e.g. Ndudi Ebi, Will Avery, Paul Grant), let rock star Chauncey Billups leave town, and simply proven he doesn't have the smarts it takes to run a squad in the NBA. And now, he's even locked himself away from critics in the media. P.S. he even fired Flip Saunders -- who's now in Detroit with the Piston, leading them to a 31-5 record (one of the best winning records since Michael Jordan was winning championships). Answer: Fire McHale. Buy a point guard.

Wild: Being that it's now their 5th season, I want to forget this whole "expansion" thing. It's time to win. Seriously, I hardly know one player on this team. Almost half way through the 2005-06 campaign, their 9th in the division. They completely failed to sign a big name player last off-season when the market was ripe. They've got the best arena in the country and the top coach in the league. Yet they completely keep wasting his time when they fail to put players on the ice able to make themselves one of the top 10 teams in the NHL.
Answer: How the heck do I know -- it's hockey!

Drop the conversation?

In case you missed it, 60 minutes had a very interesting interview with Morgan Freeman in December. He's by far one of my favorite actors and I wish more of those Hollywood-types were like him. Being that today was Martin Luther King Day, I felt it might be fitting to refer to Freeman's interesting comment on race relations in America. See the video here.

In case you're still stuck on 56k connection and can't see the interview online for yourself, Freeman pretty much said that that the best way for Americans to deal with race relations and end racism is to simply stop talking about it. There's no more need to designate people as white, black, blue, whatever.

Now as the white, middle-class Midwestern suburban boy that I am, you should realize that at no time that I can remember have I ever felt disrespected because of my race. I have witnessed racism only a bit, most evidently through one of my best childhood friends who happened to be black. In the spring of my 7th grade year, he was virtually chased out of town after self-proclaiming "n*gg*r" haters instigated him into a fight after school in front of hundreds of students. Police initially broke up the melee, but for each night of the next month, the harassers continued to shout racial slurs at his family and his home. I believe they even threatened his life. From there, there was little reason to make that community his home anymore and he soon moved away. I haven't heard much from him since.

While I can imagine Freeman has seen and heard many more horrible indecencies like this, his remarks trouble me. I worry that closing the door to conversation about race in America will ultimately force the issue back into the closet where people feel even more uncomfortable discussing the issue than they do now. Equality in the United States has so much further to go before King's dream comes to fruition and I see no reason to believe it will happen any sooner if we encourage people to drop the subject and simply let it fester in individuals' minds.

I'd like to hear what other people think about this. So if you see the clip or simply want to say something, please feel free to chime in.