FedExing NBA Players

Anyone who tells you that the most exciting time of the NBA season is the playoffs must not have been a general manager.  The next to last week in February brings uncertainty among the player ranks as the trade deadline has come and gone with some interesting moves... and non-moves.

Among the eye-opening flips include the shipping of long-time Denver Nugget Andre Miller to Washington.  Insiders say that a New Year's Day spat between the former Utah Ute and coach Brian Shaw may have precipitated the deadline-day move.  Miller could provide much needed mentorship to budding Wizards superstar Otto Porter, who has had a subpar rookie season playing behind fellow native Missourian and recent All-Star Bradley Beal.  Another one wagging tongues was the late move by Indiana to send former All-Star swing man Danny Granger to Philly for up-and-comer Evan Turner.  Pacers GM Larry Bird better sure hope this doesn't backfire on him because he just traded away a career 17-point-a-game player that is versatile on the wing as he is on the post, not to mention one of the key components that helped the former Eastern Conference champs push current NBA titleholder Miami to seven games last year in the conference finals.

The one non-move that is truly reverberating the league is whether or not All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo will be moved from Boston.  One of the primary cogs of the Celtics' last run to the championship four years ago, the former Kentucky standout has been the focal point of trade talks since coming back from an ACL injury last year.  When the deadline approached, the heat turned up on Rondo's pending move, something that has rankled the last link to Doc Rivers' coaching tenure in Beantown.  As of late, some league experts have Rondo going to Oklahoma City, which would take a lot of pressure off of Russell Westbrook bringing the ball up and even more release for league scoring leader Kevin Durant, who could concentrate more on posting up.

One player who was traded who wouldn't mind returning to his former team is Steve Blake.  Starting the year as the focal point of a no-name lineup the Los Angeles Lakers haven't seen since Del Harris coached the club in the early '90s, Blake was dealt to Golden State in a rare in-division transaction (both teams are in the Pacific).   The 11th-year veteran from Maryland was a key reserve in helping the Lakers barely get in the playoffs in 2013, Blake's move is being seen as waving the white flag for a club stuck in the bottom four of the Western Conference with no sign of improvement on the horizon.  With the recent revelation of Kobe Bryant needing another three weeks for his still sore knee suffered before Christmas, GM Mitch Kupchak appears to be looking toward the draft later this summer and a rare entry into the lottery.  Meanwhile, Blake, in the last year of his contract, said as he left the Staples Center for Oakland that he would entertain a return to Los Angeles next year.  Blake's wish to come back to the City of Angels could be muted if Carmelo Anthony is courted to come westward from the Knicks in the offseason.

Sam-iami Vice

A confluence of perfect storms is crippling the most unlikeliest of places this week.   No, not the snow, ice and odd earthquakes that hit Georgia and South Carolina and other parts of the southern Atlantic region.  I'm speaking of the recent announcement of Mizzou All-American defensive end Michael Sam saying he's gay and the immediate impact on the upcoming NFL Draft.  In addition, that same NFL releasing its report on the investigation into the past season's locker-room spat between Miami Dolphins offensive linemen Jonathan Martin and All-Pro Richie Incognito.  This interesting intersection of controversies comes at a time when the league should be celebrating just its second-ever Black quarterback to win the Super Bowl.  It now has to deal with two bigger issues: how to not look like social neanderthals when the Galveston, TX native looks to be one of the over 330 young men called to the stage in New York for the start of their pro football career, and in the case of a possible drafting of Sam by Miami, how he would fit in with a locker room that would also see the return of Incognito, a not-so-tightly-wrapped nut himself.

Before we delve further into this perfect storm, let me preface this for those who wish to liken the LGBTQ movement to the Civil Rights movement: NOT EVEN CLOSE.  You can smoothly hide homosexual tendencies among even the best trained eyes.  I should know: I used to sell club dance music to the LGBQT community in my younger days and there were some who could easily slip between the same-sex and heterosexual worlds without even a peep.  However, let me make this abundantly clear: YOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR SKIN COLOR.  When you among the same-sex movement can show me instances of being lynched for no reason other than what's immediately obvious, let me know.  I'll be over by Emmitt Till's grave with a handkerchief for you.

Which brings me to young Mr. Sam, whose 'coming out' totally runs against the grain of his native Texas tradition.  After all, Texas is where "men are men, and women are proud of it".  But what has become an all-too-familiar ring among today's Black male athlete rears its head here as well.  Sam's parents separated in his childhood, with him going to his mother.  He's had a brother killed and two others incarcerated.  It should come as no surprise that his dad's recent comments - misconstrued or not - would make the senior Sam of the "old school" way of thinking.  On the heels of helping the Mizzou Tigers to their first divisional crown since joining the SEC two years ago, to see the junior Sam reach the accolades he's garnered is nothing short of amazing.  The footage of him getting in his teammates' faces, exhorting them to step their game up, would lead you to believe that he is a very strong, masculine example of how student-athletes in a sport as rough and manly as football should conduct themselves.

To wonder where the turn to the "other side" for Sam happened is something only he can answer to, but what will be interesting drama come April in the Big Apple is not IF he's drafted, but rather WHERE he's drafted.  It is well known that the reigning SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, who received his bachelor's degree in December, isn't a lock for the first two rounds, but if he happens to fall at least to the fifth round, lots of tongues will be wagging, not the least those being outgoing NFLPA Executive Director DeMarcus Smith, who is on record of saying that any notion of draft round demotion in Sam's case would be considered "gutless".  I'm quite sure current San Diego Chargers linebacker Manti Te'o, himself caught in a 'catfish' scam that led to rumors of alleged same-sex tendencies in 2012 while at Notre Dame, is breathing a sigh of relief as he rests up for next year.

Who isn't breathing easily is the Miami Dolphins.  Already rocked from a report into last year's brouhaha with Martin and Incognito, should they make the remote attempt to draft Sam, the question now becomes how soon should they bring him into the mix knowing what has spewed from Incognito's mouth over the last year and a half.  The report from the NFL says that Martin, a second year player in Miami before abruptly leaving midseason, wasn't the only target of Incognito's emotionally-charged epithets.  In a report this weekend on ESPN.com, another offensive lineman and an assistant trainer were also targets.  The investigation, done by league official Ted Wells, also makes note of the Michael Sam announcement and the exhortation for all franchises to conduct themselves more tolerantly.

Talk about an introduction to the NFL.  Michael Sam, I hope you've got much thicker skin that your soon-to-be teammates, because this is going to be one very rough-and-tumble rookie season... and we haven't even hit OTAs yet.

The Breakthrough

For just the second time in 26 years, the quarterback that has won the Super Bowl has been Black.  Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks is that person, although he didn't need to do much in the 43-8 beatdown of Denver in metro New York City.  Wilson's two touchdown passes were aided by a defense that created four turnovers and 28 points on its own, including a 69-yard interception returned for a score by game MVP Malcolm Smith, just the third linebacker to earn the Big Game's highest honor .

Granted, Wilson didn't get the truck, but he does sit in the winners' circle with Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins.  Wilson also is the shortest quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl, clocking in at a mere 5 feet-11 inches.  The championship does cap off a breakthrough season for the dimunitive signal caller from Cincinnati by way of Richmond, VA.  His ability to evade even the best pass rushers has endeared him to fans all across the Pacific Northwest.  He gets his toughness, however, from his father, the late Harrison Barnes III, who spent a short time in the NFL as a preseason player in San Diego, making the two one of the few father-son duos to ever make the league.

So now that both Black quarterbacks and Black coaches have each earned two rings on their own, surely it is about time to pair the two for a title run.  Considering it almost happened in 2000 with Tampa Bay's Tony Dungy and Shaun King, this should give the impetus to give the smartest brothers in the business the platform they so richly deserve.

Super Black

A strong month for Black men in football culminates this weekend with the Super Bowl. Amidst the hirings in both the NFL and major college football, two young brothers were making history of their own.  Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is the focal point of the Pacific Northwest's second entry into the Big Game.  He and his San Francisco counterpart, Colin Kaepernick, had a memorable NFC Conference Championship game two weeks ago where it looked like the 49ers had a shot at returning to the title game, only to be thwarted by a well-timed tip by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman that resulted in a game-ending interception and the now-infamous rant by Sherman immediately following the title clinch.  "Thug" inferences aside, the tilt featured two interesting athletic moments for Black men.

That conference championship featured two Black quarterbacks for the first time since the NFL-AFL merger.  It also guaranteed that the Super Bowl would witness just its fifth Black starting quarterback since Doug WIlliams' memorable performance for the Washington Redskins in SB XXII against the same Denver Broncos that Wilson will face (the others making the title game include the late Steve McNair for Tennessee in SB 34 and Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb in SB 39).  Had Kaepernick been able to complete the pass to Michael Crabtree, it would have been the first time that a Black quarterback made the Super Bowl in consecutive trips.  That's not to say that Blacks in the so-called "thinking man's positions" haven't held their own as of late.

Dating back to SB XLI, the only time in league history that Black coaches have opposed each other (Chicago's Lovie Smith and winner Tony Dungy of Indianapolis), there has been either a Black coach or starting quarterback in six of the last eight battles for the Lombardi Trophy.  Among the highlights in this stretch is Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who may have put himself one step closer to Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame by being the only one in this select group to have made the Super Bowl twice, winning a topsy-turvy Super Bowl 43 over Arizona before falling late two years later against Green Bay.

What was notable about SB XLV is that Tomlin and Co. had to endure a rather unseasonably-chilly Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.  Wilson is about to do the same thing in NYC at MetLife Stadium, where a foot of snow dumped on the Big Apple last week.  It will be interesting to see if the Cincinnati native can weather the elements and bring Black quarterbacks just their second-ever win in the NFL Championship.  Win or lose, however, just the mere presence of Wilson in the title tilt caps of an outstanding month for Black men on the gridiron.