The New York Knicks Woes

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The New York Knicks are off to their worst start in franchise history 5-21. They are becoming a laughing joke in the already terrible eastern conference. There are so many problems within the Knicks organization. Those problems can be the record itself, team chemistry, the coach, and the triangle system. The article Chris Broussard wrote about the Knicks’ woes covers the above topics.

To start everything off, Broussard jumped right into the fact that the Knicks are 5-21 on the season. With any teams, a record like that can be very discouraging. Confidence is at an all time low and frustration is at an all time high. I’m sure, many teams are beginning to not take the Knicks seriously as a basketball team especially since they are in a joke of a conference.

With the losing record, it brings me to Broussard’s second point, team chemistry. Apparently, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Carmelo Anthony, never liked each other and the fact that the Knicks can’t buy a win surely isn’t helping. Insiders have said that players are not working hard in practice and that is transferring over to games.

In fact, players have started to argue in the middle of the games even though they are fully aware that there are cameras everywhere.

The next topic of discussion is the coach Derek Fisher. Many players are used to having a soft practice like previous years with Mike Woodson. Derek Fisher has fast past hard tiring practices and some players are unhappy with that.

I believe that professional athletes can be spoiled ungrateful brats. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that you need to practice hard so the games are easy. In my opinion, Fisher is one of the most respected players to every play the game, he also has multiple championships.

Lastly, the only thing that the Knicks players seem to agree on is they feel like they should stop running the triangle offense. Players feel like it not only is the current offense not working, but also they feel as though the competition knows exactly how to guard the offense.

I feel as though that is just an excuse and if the players would listen and work hard at the offense it could possibly help them. When Knicks owner Phil Jackson was coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, they ran the triangle offense and it won them six championships.

Overall, I feel like the Knicks are starting to give up on the season and it’s so early on. I feel like Phil Jackson definitely needs to consider trading players starting with the obnoxious J.R. Smith and maybe even considering Carmelo Anthony.

Slava Voynov’s Domestic Violence Case Worse Than Expected

By Savannah Malnar

When defenseman Slava Voynov of the Los Angeles Kings was initially arrested on domestic violence charges and suspended indefinitely by the NHL in late October, the media didn’t have a lot of information on the case. Voynov and his wife both claimed it was an “accident,” but the case still went to court.

Fast forward roughly two months to Voynov’s preliminary hearing on Monday. In this hearing, what at first seemed like a possible misunderstanding became much worse. A police officer offered his testimony to the case; apparently, Voynov had pushed his wife to the ground multiple times, kicked her, choked her multiple times, and pushed her into a television which caused a gash above her eye requiring stitches.

Pretty bad, right? The people in the sport media largely agree. Big names such as Yahoo! Sports and the Bleacher Report say it like it is, calling the incident “shocking,” “bloody,” and “horrifying.” An article in the Bleacher Report praised the NHL for its initial suspension, along with its decision to fine the LA Kings $100,000 when they violated suspension protocol and allowed the defenseman to take part in a practice with the team. The NHL’s lack of toleration for both the suspected domestic violence and violation of suspension protocol shows their dedication to ensuring a high standard of how the players act off the ice. This reflects good on the league in comparison to the NFL’s mishandling of the Ray Rice case.

While the large national media outlets highlighted the moral aspect of Voynov’s case and suspension, a more local source, the LA Times, stayed completely objective on that front. In comparison to the headlines “NHL’s Hard Line with Slava Voynov Remains Justified as Horrible Details Emerge” (Bleacher Report) and “Slava Voynov kicked, choked, bloodied wife according to police” (Yahoo! Sports), the LA Times headline was simply “Domestic violence case against Slava Voynov will proceed, judge rules.” This is an extremely stark difference and reflects the habits of local sources tending to be less critical of athletes in these sorts of situations.

With domestic abuse becoming a hot topic in the sports world, both the league itself and the hockey media must be sensitive to the broad audience that the sport invites. Even with the LA Times remaining objective, the media and the NHL have done a good job so far showing this sort of behavior by a player is unacceptable and disappointing.

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Another knock to Tiger Woods’ Performance

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By Alex O’Connor

With the monster year that Rory McIlroy had in 2014, the golf world is starting to wonder if a new trend setter has emerged in the industry. McIlroy has won four major championships, including two in the past year and is only twenty-five years old. The phrase “future of golf” has been connected to his name as he has won two majors in the past year and had numerous other top-10 finishes in 2014. Recently, golf legend Colin Montgomerie exalted McIlroy while putting a struggling Tiger Woods down even further. In regards to McIlroy’s current playing, Montogmerie reported to Kicca.com that “Is he going to be able to get back, not just to the levels he was, but better than that? Because that’s where Rory McIlroy’s taken the standard of golf: to one level beyond where Tiger was.” In regards to the potential of McIlroy wining all four majors in a year, “That’s another question on people’s lips within our game. Can he win all four in a year, never mind two.” The level of dominance McIlroy has shown in the last year has been impressive, but a question needs to be risen if the high praise from Montgomerie is warranted in the right ways.

The UK Daily Mail took numerous excerpts from Montgomerie’s interview to shape their article about how McIlroy is on the rise, though editor Chris Cutmore did emphasize Woods’ impressive resume. Cutmore noted the fourteen majors that Woods has won as well as his longest-standing number one record for a large majority of his McIlroy’s career. Once Cutmore acknowledged Woods’ accomplishments, he emphasized Montgomerie’s comments while incorporating McIlroy’s impressive performance over the past few years. While Woods has recently had a change in swing coach and has been hampered by injuries for the past year, media presence has been relatively negative surrounding him. Woods has not won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open, and played competitively in a limited capacity in 2014. The new reports by The UK Daily Mail as well as on Kicca.com have supplemented the negative media attention around Woods.

In the current state of golf, there may be a changing of power in golf. Tiger Woods has been the face of the gold world for almost fifteen years, but his injuries may be limiting him. Currently, Rory McIlroy has been given the rank of Number one in the world and has no signs of slowing up. Colin Montogmerie’s comments are yet another knock to Tiger Woods and he will need to overcome his troubles in the media as well as on the golf course.

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Mumps Outbreak Spreads Through NHL

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By Nick Muhl

Yes, you did in fact read that last headline correctly. The National Hockey League is currently experiencing a moderate outbreak of the mumps. While NFL headlines argue whether Johnny Manziel should or shouldn’t be a starting quarterback and the NBA is going wild watching the Golden State Warriors fast start to the season, the NHL is investigating one of the strangest stories to hit a major sports league in 2014.

Mumps is “an acute, inflammatory, contagious disease caused by a paramyxovirus”. Symptoms include fever, headaches, muscle pains, fatigue and swollen glands but can be prevented by a vaccine and mostly only affects children.

Currently multiple teams and players have contracted the disease including players on the Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, and several superstars including the Duck’s Cory Perry, the Rangers Tanner Glass, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Suter, and now most recently the Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby.

Crosby, like many other NHL players, received a mumps vaccine booster shot prior to traveling to Russia for the Winter Olympic games in Sochi. In an interview with ESPN, Dr. Greg Wallace, a lead epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said that “considering the lengthy incubation period of the mumps, it’s virtually impossible to predict how long this outbreak will affect the league.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC, also reports several hundred to a couple thousand cases of the mumps every year. The high number of cases in a little over a month in the NHL is alarming. However, with close contact locker rooms and multiple games in different cities each week – it is understandable why the disease has spread somewhat quickly and yet the origin cannot be traced.

According to USA Today, the NHL released information to each team regarding the mumps outbreak and how to prevent the spread of the disease. It remains to be seen if the NHL will provide additional support to prevent the spread of the disease, because of its nature there is no telling when the outbreak may end for the league.

While many fans, players, and media want the NHL to track down “patient zero”, it may be more important for the NHL to find a way to prevent the further spread of this disease before the NHL becomes subject to more serious headlines.

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From WWE to UFC: Phil “CM Punk” Brooks makes the transition

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By Kaleb Page

In the MMA world there are always opportunities for new talent to come along and add new life to the scene. This past weekend saw a very big name join MMA and the UFC organization from another big organization. This move sent waves throughout the entire MMA universe and made buzz around the UFC on Saturday night explode.

For years Phil Brooks was a member of WWE and quite the success. Known as CM Punk, Brooks was a superstar under one of the biggest entertainment entities in the world. Headlining pay-per-view events, having global advertising and even action figures made Brooks a household name as his character CM Punk. Even though there was all the fame and things that come with being a professional wrestler; Brooks had a falling out with management. This falling out saw Brooks out of the WWE and wondering what would come next.

For Brooks he found himself at as he said “a fork in the road,” either go back to the WWE or make a new path. This is where the UFC stepped in.

After going through the legal aspects of a contract and finding the logistics of moving Brooks into the UFC; the deal was made. The rumors had been swirling for weeks about CM Punk making a decision on what he would do, and yet people had no idea when he would make an announcement. At Saturday’s UFC 181 pay-per-view event, which was filled with great match-ups and story lines, there was one moment that added an unexpected jolt. During the broadcast Brooks stepped in front of the camera and made his announcement to join the UFC.

This announcement gained a mix of reactions to what took place. There were fighters stepping out to welcome Brooks to this new world and wish him the best, and then there were those calling him out to fight since he was a “fake wrestler.” Many media outlets looked to this move in amazement since this is a WWE star who never had any experience in fighting or even wrestling for that matter.

However I think it is only fair to be level-headed in what goes on in this case. Yes it is a guy who is high-profile and was a WWE wrestler, but what makes it any different from a new guy entering in the UFC for their first fight? There has to be time to actually watch him fight and prove himself in this organization just as anyone else would have to do. That is why I think it is unfair to judge this move before Brooks even fights. If the 36-year-old Phil “CM Punk” Brooks is as dedicated to this as he says, then it will be interesting to see what happens. As a fan of the UFC and MMA this is exciting to add him to the roster and see what he does with this opportunity.

Brooks is scheduled to fight sometime in 2015 to give him time to hit the training hard and get to his projected weight class of middle weight (185 lbs). Also his opponent will be another new fighter or a fighter that is only 0-1, 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 or 1-2 in order to make it a fair fight. In the time until his debut it will be hard to wait and see who the opponent is.

For now enjoy the new jolt of excitement added to an already anticipated 2015 year for the UFC.

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All-American Diver Celebrates Being Gay

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By Ellen Chlumecky

In a world where professional and collegiate athletes’ lives are put on display for the rest of the world to see, it becomes harder and harder for these people to keep a secret about themselves private. Secrets especially are hard to keep when one is in the spotlight often. Conor Murphy is one of the few athletes that found it easier to reveal the secret to the rest of his team and the rest of the university, that he was gay.

Conor Murphy is an All-American diver at Indiana University. Conor owns two Big Ten titles and two top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships in platform diving. He finished his sophomore year fifth at NCAAs in platform diving. In 2012, he competed at the Olympic Trials that summer. As a junior, he captured the Big Ten title in platform diving and took third at NCAAs in platform diving. He is also the first Indiana University athlete to say publicly he is gay.

Conor Murphy speaks only positive things about how his teammates and university have been behind him in his coming out. While he has always been comfortable with his identity, his classmates, teammates, and university made him feel even more at ease. Conor expresses how Bloomington is an accepting place, where many different people come from many different places. While he knows not everyone holds these liberal views, he states that everyone is very tolerant and welcoming.

Conor is just one of many gay collegiate athletes in our sports world today. The difference between him and quite a few of them though, is that not all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student athletes don’t always feel welcome or comfortable with telling others their secret. Playing on any collegiate team requires trust between teammates. When a teammate does not feel comfortable expressing their secret to other teammates in fear of being judged, it affects the individual and the team.

While Conor Murphy’s story is a positive one, not every collegiate or even professional athlete has received open arms when they decided to come out. Conor Murphy and several of his fellow athletes recently stated that they want to be able to teach more confidence to fellow athletes or anyone in general having difficulty coming out. While the world has slowly become more accepting, there are still people out there who are road blocks to people’s happiness. Everyone in the sports world, especially athletes, need to do their best to be welcoming and accepting to their fellow teammates, coaches, or anyone else working in sports when one decides to come out. No one should ever be discouraged to play or work in sports because of their sexual orientation.

All information in this story came from the story “All-American diver and Big Ten champion Conor Murphy celebrates being gay at Indiana.”

http://www.outsports.com/2014/12/9/7354125/conor-murphy-gay-diver-indiana

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A Carolina Miracle: Panthers QB Newton Sustains Minimal Injuries After Severe Accident

By Savannah Malnar

December 9th could have been a tragic day for the NFL. Cam Newton, starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, was hospitalized in what looked like a deadly car wreck. Every image of the accident looked like something out of an action movie.

The initial reports of the accident included a picture of Newton smiling at the camera while being attended to by paramedics at the scene. He came out of the accident with just a few fractures in his back and was transported to Carolinas Medical Center for precautionary measures and has since been released. His fractures are extremely similar to the injury that sidelined Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo for one game early in the season. Newton had been going the posted speed limit in an intersection notorious for being dangerous; a car clipped the back of his truck and caused it to flip multiple times.

Just a few days later, Newton spoke directly to the media regarding his accident. He strayed away from talking about himself, saying “As far as when I’m coming back, who cares.” He expressed his concern that his injury was an unnecessary distraction and that the media and fans need to be instead focused on supporting the Panthers’ backup Derek Anderson in Sunday’s key game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Panthers need to win against Tampa Bay in order to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Despite not wanting his accident to become a distraction, the media certainly has pounced on it. Many articles have been published simply quoting Newton’s entire Instagram post that included a picture of his demolished truck and a lengthy yet inspiring caption all about living life to the fullest and not holding grudges.

Newton has retained an exceptional attitude throughout the days following his accident. His words to the fans and the media have been encouraging and uplifting and truly show his thankfulness that he survived a crash that many would not. Reports said that initially he seemed upset that he had let his team down, which sounds funny coming from a guy who did nothing to cause the accident. But on Thursday he said, “It’s no time to sulk. There is something that has to be done come Sunday. I’m excited about it. I’m going to be the biggest supporter.”

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Losing a friend trumps getting a win

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By Kaleb Page

Winning a game gives you one of the best feelings in the world. No matter who the opponent is, the way it happens, etc. A win makes everything just that much better.

When an athlete steps on the court or field of play, all distractions and outside matters should be just that; outside of the game that is about to take place. However on Monday night one athlete could not hold back his emotions on one issue outside of the game.

John Wall, as many NBA watchers know, is an electrifying talent that has the potential on any given night to do amazing things for the Washington Wizards. No different was Monday night when Wall put up 26 points on 10-17 shooting, 17 assists (career-high),  three steals and seven rebounds. The game ended with a score of 133-132, a Wizards win that took double overtime and an amazing stretch by Wall that had the game-winning and-one basket to take the lead with seconds remaining.

Sounds like the perfect basketball night right? Wall had almost a triple double, hit the game winner and beat a tough team in the Boston Celtics. Like most times after a big game, the big time player gets pulled aside to be interviewed on his performance and the road ahead. What came next shows a side more people need to see with sports today.

John was pulled aside and asked some questions about the game by CSN Washington’s Chris Miller. One question in particular about Wall’s emotions after this win brought out the one thing weighing on his mind all night. The loss of his friend who was battling cancer.

Wall met a six-year-old girl named Miyah Telemaque-Nelson last March just months after she had been diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma. From that point the two were best friends, even prompting Wall to do a campaign to get a meet and great with Nicki Minaji for Miyah (one of Miya’s favorite artists). This entire season Wall has been wearing Miyah’s name on his shoes. Even two weeks ago CSN Washington reported that the two talked over FaceTime, making the text message he received prior to the game of her death hit even more.

In response to the question posed about his emotions, the death brought Wall to only say a few words before being unable to continue.

“This is an emotional game for me. This is for Miyah, one of my closest friends I lost. I met [her] last year. It’s just tough. To see a little kid that fights so hard [against] cancer and can’t beat it. This game is for her. My jersey, my shorts, I’m going to give it to her family. It’s a tough day for me.”– John Wall

After the game wall released a group of photos on his Instagram account of him with Miyah that further showed the friendship they shared and how much Wall cared for what he said was his “buddy.”

“If you were blessed to meet and get to know Miyah you know how special of a little girl she was. I’m saddened by the news but I know that she’s in a better place. Keep her family in your prayers. I’ll definitely miss my buddy. Rest In Peace Miyah.” – From Wall’s Post on Instagram

Lost in the fray of allegations, sexual assaults and cheating scandals are the moments and stories that truly emphasize what makes everyone gravitate to sports no matter what game or event is being played. I know the negatives grab the headlines more and get more publicity, but why not take more time to find these stories? Is it easier to find these negative cases, probably so since a lot involves public record and televised court cases; does it also point to a sense of laziness by sports coverage? I think that it does point to some form of laziness to let stories like the one was see here with John and Miyah get tossed to the side for negative ones time and time again. Hopefully we do see in the future a progression to more stories highlighting the positive moments we have in sports.

Rest in peace Miyah.

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NBA Stars Take a Stand With “I Can’t Breathe T-Shirts”

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By Nick Muhl

In a show of support for Eric Garner and his family, NBA stars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Garnett, Deron Williams and several other players wore black “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts during the Cleveland Cavaliers game versus the Brooklyn Nets Saturday night.

The players wore the shirts during their pre-game warm ups, copying the move by Bulls point guard Derrick Rose. Rose was the first to wear the shirt during his pre-game warm up before the Bulls game on Saturday.

While LeBron had made many statements throughout the prior week, regarding his displeasure with several highlighted law enforcement related deaths including Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, the decision to wear the shirts came as a surprise to many.

James was interviewed following the game and attributed the symbolic act to “the power of social media.”

James was quoted Sunday requesting a shirt like Rose, through the social media app Twitter, Brooklyn Nets guard Jarrett Jack was able to supply and coordinate wearing the shirts in a sign of peaceful protest.

When the players for both teams came out for pre-game warm ups, the social media world erupted. While the twitter world was scattered with both positive and negative reactions, the #ICantBreathe trend rose back to the top trend on Twitter following the pre-game warm ups, and still remains in the top 5.

Just as LeBron attributed the success of the silent protest to social media, James, Rose, and the other NBA players knew their act of protest would draw attention to the major racial issues and tensions going on recently in the United States – especially on social media.

The NBA is not the only professional sports league to be the topic of headlines regarding players act of protests in the past several weeks. Most notably the NFL’s St. Louis Rams had several players including wide receivers Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt, who demonstrated the “hands up, don’t shoot” sign of protest during pre-game introductions for the team last Sunday.The NFL did not fine any of the Rams players.

According to USA Today’s Sam Amick, the NBA will not fine any of the players for wearing the t-shirts at this time. However, Amick will not provide the name of his source.

LeBron had this to say about the protest following the game,

“As a society we have to do better. We have to be better for one another no matter what race you are. But it’s more of a shoutout to the family more than anything because they’re the ones who should be getting the energy and effort.”

Coverage of the many protests have highlighted the news now for several weeks, and can be expected to for at least several more weeks. It remains to be seen if the NBA players act of protest will continue and how much media attention, as well as social media reaction, it will receive.

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Marvin Lewis hurts more than just Johnny Manziel

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By Alex O’Connor

On Monday in an interview with Lance McAlister of 700 WLW in Cincinnati, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis called Cleveland Browns QB Johnny Manziel a “midget” when referring to the uncertainty of who will be at quarterback for the Browns and the potential game plans that the defense will try to plan for. When Lewis first apologized on Tuesday, he cited that he was sorry to the Browns fans, employees as well as Johnny Manziel. However, he neglected to mention the fact that the word “midget” has a universal effect on society that expands much further than Manziel and the Browns organization. Today, Lewis apologized for the second time, citing “I’m aware that my comment on local radio last night was offensive to people of short stature and to their families and friends.” The second apology was submitted via the Bengals Twitter account, showing an additional insincere gesture on behalf of both parties. Lewis essentially had to “right is wrong” twice, and had to do it both times in the public eye.

Several media and outside organizations have heavily criticized Lewis’ comments as well the manner in which he apologized. The Little People of America is just one example of a group that finds the word offensive and alienating. The Little People of America is an organization that provides support to individuals of short stature and commented that the word has several negative connotations and is often used as an insult. In addition, NBCSports.com has received numerous Bengals fans’ messages regarding the comments made by Lewis. They take aim at the coach, noting that “It’s straight wrong, unmoral, and ignorant” as well as, “I’m a fan of the Bengals, but Marvin just left the most disgusting taste in my mouth.” The general consensus at NBC Sports is that the “m-word is a word that all of us should remove from our vocabularies.”

I understand that coaches can sometimes over-exaggerate their point in the heat of the moment. However, the way Lewis and the Bengals used social media to convey their second apology was not right. First off, only one apology was necessary, and they simply messed it up the first time. National media had the right to critique the statement and ultimately put pressure on Lewis and the organization to make another one. The Little People of America also had the right to emphasize that the Browns and Manziel are not the only ones being effected by Lewis’ comments. The second time should have been conveyed through a communication medium other than social media. The entire situation that has unfolded has also indirectly heightened the intensity of the game on Sunday. Lewis and the Bengals handled the situation poorly, and now have to deal with the media and organizational scrutiny that they are receiving.

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