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Introducing the most popular sports video of the day. It’s already making the rounds, appearing on Deadspin, TBL, No Guts, No Glory and probably any site or blog having any inkling of a sports connection. Heh, who would’ve thought a soccer video could get such a distinction, especially when it doesn’t involve Zidane headbutting a defender through the turf? That’s what you get when you make The Beautiful Game even more beautiful.
How, you ask?
By adding college co-eds with a dash of vicious, cheap shot defending that includes a gnarly ponytail pull. If that doesn’t do it for you… If that doesn’t get your motor running on a glorious Friday morning, get thee to a doctor because you might be dead. If you’re still with me, the particulars are this: The game features BYU and New Mexico going at it. During the game, a New Mexico defender — Elizabeth Lambert if you’re keeping score — decides she’s had enough of BYU’s attempts to, well, play opposite her, I guess.
Ah hell, who am I kidding. I could be writing a dissertation about making homemade nuclear weapons and that would be lost on whoever’s reading. The important things are these: Women’s college soccer featuring cute co-eds and rough play. What else do you really need? One last thing — women soccer players are not to be messed with. Ever.
Oh, and one last, last thing — the referee and the linesmen (or women… not really sure here) are really, really atrocious.
Watch the dunk by Dwight Howard in the lead video, but pay attention to the pass that allowed him to dunk it. It was a high-off-the-glass shot/pass from Jameer Nelson that paved the way for Howard to splash the ball down. The play was executed so effectively, it forced some NBA scholars to consider the possibilities, like, for instance, is that the evolution of the alley-oop play, a play made popular — at least to me, anyway — by Sherman Douglas throwing oops to Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman when they roamed the Syracuse sidelines?
Can an off-the-glass pass become a staple of NBA offenses, especially when you have a leaper like Dwight Howard on the receiving end? The awesome fellows at Free Darko expound — a great deal, in fact — on this idea:
Exceptions, not a considerable planar extension of time and space. Still, this could work, people, and the more the NBA begins to see the ‘oop as foundational, the more possible this kind of thing becomes. In effect, it becomes the new alley-oops.
Maybe we’re putting the heads ahead of the other heads. But remember, the dunk itself was once thought of as useless tomfoolery. Now, most people would agree that relatively sane dunking is the easiest way to ensure the ball goes through the hoop. The paradox of progress is that imagination is always linked to style, and yet it also provides the seed for innovation that changes the face of function. Think about the way the Suns or Warriors use to alter the dimensions of the court (scrapped book idea: using advanced physics to prove this), all through a mode of play dripping with style. Is a team like the Magic or Hornets this close to another great, sustained breakthrough?
Would Stan Van Jeremy make such a play a regular part of his offensive attack? As long as Howard can out-jump everybody else in the paint, and as long as someone like Nelson is making the pass, I don’t see why not. Consider this option as well: the play does not have to be exclusively done for Howard. If I’m not mistaken, Vince Carter is known as a leaper. Why not include him in these off-the-backboard alley-oop plans? Hell, Rashard Lewis could probably find room to work, or jump, as it were, in that kind of play as well.
If Larry Johnson throws up “the roc” every time he scores a touchdown, he might want to throw one up for all the Kansas City Chiefs fans he’s scoring points with. In light of Johnson’s amazingly-brilliant Twitter rant and subsequent suspension, Chiefs fans have had enough of Number 27 and because of that, they don’t want him to get any closer to the franchise’s all-time leading rusher record, one that’s currently held by fan-favorite, Priest Holmes.
In fact, Chiefs fans are so against the idea of Johnson owning that record, they’ve brought out the big guns to express themselves:
Now before you scoff, some petitions have been used to save television shows, so who knows, maybe the Chiefs fans can get their point across in such a manner. If not, I’d recommend a torch-carrying mob descend on 1 Arrowhead Dr and rabble-rouse to their heart’s content. Hey, they do have a right to assemble for peaceful demonstrations, so why not take advantage of it? I mean, just as long as you are only using those torches to light your way.
Anyway, back to the petition. Chiefs fans want nothing to do with Johnson having records they cherish, and hey, when you consider Johnson’s impressive 2.7 YPC on top of everything else he’s managed to screw up, you begin to see their point. A snippet of their plea reveals more:
A quick-and-dirty congratulations are in order for Hideki Matsui and the New York Yankees for their World Series championship. The Yanks beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games, and were powered by Matsui’s absolute domination of the Phillies pitching staff. For the series, Japan’s first-ever MLB World Series MVP hit an eye-popping .612 and had three home runs and eight RBI, six of which came in last night’s clincher. While the Yankees’ 27th world championship is being treated as a welcoming party for Alex Rodriguez, he wouldn’t be in the “True Yankees” club if not for Matsui’s considerable contribution.
LSUFreek has more Hidekizilla goodness over at The Sporting Blog. It’s a fitting celebration for someone who destroyed a major city like Philadelphia in such a definitive manner.
And with that, no more baseball until next spring. Awesome.
We’ve all heard Gus Johnson’s “controversial” call of Chris Johnson’s 52-yard scamper by now, and apparently, at least somebody was predictably offended. As I mentioned in the comments of the initial post, the level of PC-itude in the US almost dictates such a followup from Johnson. Oddly enough, the best play-by-play man in broadcasting — Sorry, that’s not an opinion. It’s a fact. — used a similar analogy as I did in his apology; although, he wasn’t quite as colorful as I was. Damn political correctness.
“If there is a perception of racism in this analogy, it is not coming from me. People of all races have run from the law. However, to those who are offended, I apologize.”
I, too, used the “people of all races have run from the law” explanation, saying, “Don’t you think the guy with the meth lab wouldn’t appreciate being as fast as Johnson, especially when said meth lab/trailer gets raided?” Great minds and all that. It’s just unfortunate that an apology had to be made in the first place. If someone was up-in-arms about Johnson’s innocuous quote, perhaps it’s time for a little introspection as a way of pinpointing what causes them to react with such a level of sensitivity.
Does being that thin-skinned actually benefit your life? Or is this a case of “if I’m going to be miserable, everybody else will be, too?”
Apparently, Maria Sharapova is dating Sasha “The Machine” Vujacic, which helps confirm the apocalypse is indeed on its way. A word of advice for Maria: Don’t make your new beau mad in the way losing to the Boston Celtics did. He has a tendency to get kind of punchy.
