Brawlers of Basketball
I thought I would never talk about the WNBA in any blog I would ever write in my lifetime. It shows that I should never say never, and that the reason I wouldn’t touch that topic is that I don’t get ESPN 2 in Canada. Unless the WNBA is carried by an ABC or FOX or CBS, I’ll never get to watch the WNBA. Needless to say, my knowledge of the game is weak.
However, I have watched WNBA games and it has been rough for the most part - and I only mean the execution rather than physical play. But the LA Sparks and Detroit Shock (shocked that I knew?) had a brawl that has captured the attention of sports fans across the continent. Lisa Leslie, a star WNBA player as well as a mom and a player who was involved in the brawl, handled herself so well that I had to write about this. What she said was this incident will bring more attention to their league and it’s not the way they wanted to do it. I agree that she didn’t want the attention to happen like this, but she’s got to be somewhat happy that the league that she has worked so hard to help build has become significant for at least a few seconds. I bet that the other side story to this matchup that people care about is Michael Cooper v. Bill Laimbeer - two former rivals from a long time ago who happen to coach women for a living. Aside from them, do you have any connection with the WNBA? I know Candace Parker is related to Toronto Raptor Anthony Parker. So this brawl hasn’t hurt the league thanks to all the exposure and attention it has gotten. All you have to do is check Youtube for further evidence.
One guy who might get hurt is Rick Mahorn, who pushed the biggest star down to the ground (Leslie). People can talk about how he was trying to break the fight up, but if you check out the different camera angles you will see he just pushed her down - accidentally or not. For those of you who don’t know who Rick Mahorn is, he was a former Detroit Piston that everyone talks highly about because he was part of 2 championships when in reality he just happened to be at the right place at the right time (yes, that was me deflating Mahorn as a player).
And Leslie handled herself well. Would you hear an NBA player talk about how he is a father who wants to set a great example? Say what you want about the league, about Leslie or otherwise, she proved that perhaps there is a sports league that has a few classy athletes. Although that doesn’t help as it comes on the heels of a brawl that has put their league on the map for the time being. I would watch the NBA over the WNBA 100% of the time but I now find myself respecting the league after this incident. Strange…
OTHER STUFF:
- I got to attend the Rogers Tennis tournament in Toronto and stood about 10 feet away from Roger Federer during warm-up. I have never seen a bigger crowd around a practice court than I did on Monday when Federer was preparing for his doubles match. He was bounced from the tourney on Wednesday but I bet he could use the relaxation time to get re-vamped for another US Open run.
Side note: Apparently, Andy Roddick’s family kicked people out of their row that was not cheering for Andy. They were in a seating area that was for general admission. I guess we know where he gets his insecurities from. I got this from some ladies who sat close to the family.
- Brett Favre might want to use a pay phone and call collect rather than use his team phone. Although the Minnesota Vikings should know better and deserve to be punished for going against NFL rules, does Brett ever think about anyone but himself? I guess he wants everyone to bow down or bend over backwards for him. Sad.
- The AL Central is showing how overrated their division is. The Chicago White Sox are well below .500 against the AL East, at .500 against the AL West while their record has been padded by their play within their division as well as their weak NL opponents. Minnesota is worse as they can’t beat the East or West. Detroit cannot win in the central, but that will change over the next couple of months as they continue to make their charge towards first place in that overblown division. The AL East has and will continue to be baseball’s strongest division.
- Dear Lebron, don’t tell me, show me…
I can’t believe July is almost over!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Maybe if they promised a brawl per game, the WNBA ratings would go up.
I don’t have much of an opinion on it, it looked pretty much like any other brawl in sports - professionals losing their cool. As for Mahorn, I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination he tried to push her down. Girls were clawing and slapping at him, and at no point did he appear to be defensive. Don’t you remember his playing days? If he was trying to hurt Lisa Leslie, the next day she would have showed up looking like Tina Turner after her honeymoon.
Awesome that you got to see some tennis in person.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I say put roller skates on them and let the games begin. Roller Derby/Basketball/Horse Racing all rolled into one.
I tried to look at Utube video of the “incident” and there appears to be a drunken white guy, around mid 40’s in a Red Wings jersy trying to get phone numbers from the “girls” before during and after the “incident”.
Maybe he thinks they’ll need some comforting?
I watched two uTube videos and that’s all of the WnBa that I can take, the sound/picture/players/announcers are really bad and I never got to see Mahorn go Ike Turner on anybody.
That’s what the announcer should have said “Oh no he didn’t, did he just go Ike Turner on Lisa Leslie”?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Shooter - Never saw Mahorn play, but I bet he was overrated. Regardless of how it happened, he pushed Leslie. I think it was more instinct and that kind of push would merely make an NBA player step back - rendering Mahorn’s involvement virtually meaningless.
The tennis was great. Watching Boris Becker past his prime though was hard to see.
Miracle - That would be a roller derby-type call if they used that Ike Turner line. And if the Red Wings part is true, Piggy needs an intervention.
July 26th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Mahorn was a beast on that bad boys team. You should have seen the look of fear in Jordan’s eyes when he played the Pistons. Scottie Pippen used to take himself out of games. Mahorn was Bruce Bowen before Bowen was Bowen. But I don’t care that he pushed that bitch. They’re all lezzies anyways. If they didnt want to get hit, they shouldn’t have been fighting.