everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Knight School
It's no secret to those who know me that I hate "Reality TV". Primarily because it's far from reality and the participants are usually shallow, immature people. "Reality TV" has brought us such fine entertainment as "Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire?", "The Bachelor", "Survivor", "Joe Millionaire" and "Man vs Beast" - all shows that are so far from reality it's ridiculous. They're usually just game shows in disguise.
My wife has been watching some of this "Dancing With The Stars", which is not as bad as the aforementioned shows, but not something I care to watch. (Now I see we have "Skating with the Stars", too, which just seems to have major injury written all over it.) The only "reality" show I"ve watched with any regularity at all was "Extreme Home Makeover" which I liked just to see what kind of cool toys they put in the house, but grew tired of it after a year or so of watching.
So, I say all that to say that I watched a new "reality" show this week. Evidently, ESPN and Bob Knight have teamed up for Knight School. This is, like most reality TV, about winning a contest - in this case, to see who can win an opportunity to walk-on to the Texas Tech basketball team next fall
. Under the direction of Coach Knight and his Texas Tech staff, 33 players are trying out for the spot. (This is at least the third reality show by ESPN, although there may have been more.)
Now, I love Bob Knight. Sure, he has his faults, which are well-publicized. However, I think he has been a great coach for many years, and I find him pretty entertaining. His post-game press conferences, especially in March (which have been fewer in recent years), are usually worth watching. He is, at times, hilarious. Therefore, I was pretty anxious to watch this show. Finally a reality show with something interesting to me - Bob Knight and basketball.
In the first show, which I viewed on Sunday night, the group was narrowed to either 16 or 12 players (I can't seem to recall now). Bob says in the article above that he did all of the basketball, but some of the other aspects of the show were done by others associated with the show (for example, the "boot camp" scenes in an upcoming episode - which also displays that this show, like the others, is not total reality, either). So, it's not all Bob and basketball - but I enjoyed watching the first show. I have to admit that some of the personal interviews with participants - you know, where they're sitting there alone in front of the camera talking about what the feel and how they don't like some other guy - annoys me, just like it does from other reality shows I've seen. But overall I enjoyed watching it and seeing Bob in action. I don't know if I'll stick with it until the end, but I'll probably be watching again this coming week.
So maybe I won't hate all reality shows. Just most of them.
More "Duke-haters"?
It's no secret that Kentucky sucks this year. Anyone who has watched them play can attest to that. They play in a conference in which the other 11 schools have basketball programs only to kill time between football season and spring football. And most fans of these schools don't even know they have basketball teams (trust me - I lived in Alabama for 4 years.)
Perhaps in order to make himself feel better about Kentucky failing to win in a football conference, and possibly missing the NCAA tournament (although I expect the Kentucky name will get them in regardless), some guy has written this article about the relative lack of success by former Duke assistants under Krzyzewski. Duke is having an outstanding year, so he can't belittle them for the current season. Instead, he goes after former assistants? I suppose in the absence of anything positive to write about Kentucky's season, and considering Tubby hasn't made it to the final four in 8 years now (yes, I'm including this year), and never with his own players, you have to attempt to disparage those you are most jealous of - which, not surprisingly, is Duke. I guess they still can't let go of 1992.
At least Kansas doesn't suck, but what was the point of this article posted yesterday? No, not 3 years ago, but yesterday. Again, Duke is having a great year, and Redick an unbelievable year, and so someone (I don't see a name attached to this article, but I don't blame him/her for not wanting to be associated with it) chooses to write about a game from Redick's freshman year when Kansas beat Duke. He's pretty proud of Heinrich's defense on Redick who, basically, was just a shooter then. I guess when you haven't won a national championship in nearly 20 years (Duke, by the way, has won 3 since Kansas' last one in 1988), you have to revel in the glory days of shutting down a one-dimensional freshman. Congratulations.
All of the Duke-haters out there really, really need to get a life.
Wilbon on white players
As for a good article by someone who actually knows a little bit about sports, here's one from a couple of days ago by Michael Wilbon about the lack of prominent white American players in the NBA, which also discusses the future of Duke's J.J. Redick, Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and UNC's Tyler Hansbrough and their potential impact.
Nobody really wants to talk about it - matters of race, especially something like pointing out the best two players in college basketball right now are white, sometimes make people nervous. Nevertheless, the fact that the two best players in college basketball (along with what may be it's best freshman player in Hansbrough) are white is pretty unique. There may be various reasons for that (see this article), but it's still true.
One quote from the article:
Johnny Mac is back
Some other time I'll talk about how much I loved watching John McEnroe play tennis during his prime (or any other time, for that matter). He was great and is by far my favorite tennis player. I also love him behind the mic as a tennis commentator, where he's been most of the time since his retirement. So, it was great news to hear he's actually playing on the ATP tour again, and this past week won a doubles title in San Jose. I've heard rumors he might be interested in playing singles as well, although I don't know if he'd be able to have much success there. But I hope to see him playing again soon.
My wife has been watching some of this "Dancing With The Stars", which is not as bad as the aforementioned shows, but not something I care to watch. (Now I see we have "Skating with the Stars", too, which just seems to have major injury written all over it.) The only "reality" show I"ve watched with any regularity at all was "Extreme Home Makeover" which I liked just to see what kind of cool toys they put in the house, but grew tired of it after a year or so of watching.
So, I say all that to say that I watched a new "reality" show this week. Evidently, ESPN and Bob Knight have teamed up for Knight School. This is, like most reality TV, about winning a contest - in this case, to see who can win an opportunity to walk-on to the Texas Tech basketball team next fall
. Under the direction of Coach Knight and his Texas Tech staff, 33 players are trying out for the spot. (This is at least the third reality show by ESPN, although there may have been more.)Now, I love Bob Knight. Sure, he has his faults, which are well-publicized. However, I think he has been a great coach for many years, and I find him pretty entertaining. His post-game press conferences, especially in March (which have been fewer in recent years), are usually worth watching. He is, at times, hilarious. Therefore, I was pretty anxious to watch this show. Finally a reality show with something interesting to me - Bob Knight and basketball.
In the first show, which I viewed on Sunday night, the group was narrowed to either 16 or 12 players (I can't seem to recall now). Bob says in the article above that he did all of the basketball, but some of the other aspects of the show were done by others associated with the show (for example, the "boot camp" scenes in an upcoming episode - which also displays that this show, like the others, is not total reality, either). So, it's not all Bob and basketball - but I enjoyed watching the first show. I have to admit that some of the personal interviews with participants - you know, where they're sitting there alone in front of the camera talking about what the feel and how they don't like some other guy - annoys me, just like it does from other reality shows I've seen. But overall I enjoyed watching it and seeing Bob in action. I don't know if I'll stick with it until the end, but I'll probably be watching again this coming week.
So maybe I won't hate all reality shows. Just most of them.
More "Duke-haters"?
It's no secret that Kentucky sucks this year. Anyone who has watched them play can attest to that. They play in a conference in which the other 11 schools have basketball programs only to kill time between football season and spring football. And most fans of these schools don't even know they have basketball teams (trust me - I lived in Alabama for 4 years.)
Perhaps in order to make himself feel better about Kentucky failing to win in a football conference, and possibly missing the NCAA tournament (although I expect the Kentucky name will get them in regardless), some guy has written this article about the relative lack of success by former Duke assistants under Krzyzewski. Duke is having an outstanding year, so he can't belittle them for the current season. Instead, he goes after former assistants? I suppose in the absence of anything positive to write about Kentucky's season, and considering Tubby hasn't made it to the final four in 8 years now (yes, I'm including this year), and never with his own players, you have to attempt to disparage those you are most jealous of - which, not surprisingly, is Duke. I guess they still can't let go of 1992.
At least Kansas doesn't suck, but what was the point of this article posted yesterday? No, not 3 years ago, but yesterday. Again, Duke is having a great year, and Redick an unbelievable year, and so someone (I don't see a name attached to this article, but I don't blame him/her for not wanting to be associated with it) chooses to write about a game from Redick's freshman year when Kansas beat Duke. He's pretty proud of Heinrich's defense on Redick who, basically, was just a shooter then. I guess when you haven't won a national championship in nearly 20 years (Duke, by the way, has won 3 since Kansas' last one in 1988), you have to revel in the glory days of shutting down a one-dimensional freshman. Congratulations.
All of the Duke-haters out there really, really need to get a life.
Wilbon on white players
As for a good article by someone who actually knows a little bit about sports, here's one from a couple of days ago by Michael Wilbon about the lack of prominent white American players in the NBA, which also discusses the future of Duke's J.J. Redick, Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and UNC's Tyler Hansbrough and their potential impact.
Nobody really wants to talk about it - matters of race, especially something like pointing out the best two players in college basketball right now are white, sometimes make people nervous. Nevertheless, the fact that the two best players in college basketball (along with what may be it's best freshman player in Hansbrough) are white is pretty unique. There may be various reasons for that (see this article), but it's still true.
One quote from the article:
Chris Mullin ... studied the moves of black stars Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe while growing up watching the 1970s Knicks. But he wore John Havlicek's No. 17 and looked up to Larry Bird. Of the dwindling number of white American kids playing basketball, Mullin said: "It's not seen as realistic. Suddenly, people don't see someone whose skill set they can identify with, and they think playing at a high level is far-fetched. In Spain, kids now are saying, 'Look at Pau Gasol.'"No matter how much we try to be colorblind, sometimes we identify with those most like us. For that reason, it seems that having more prominent white players in the game would be a good thing.
Johnny Mac is back
Some other time I'll talk about how much I loved watching John McEnroe play tennis during his prime (or any other time, for that matter). He was great and is by far my favorite tennis player. I also love him behind the mic as a tennis commentator, where he's been most of the time since his retirement. So, it was great news to hear he's actually playing on the ATP tour again, and this past week won a doubles title in San Jose. I've heard rumors he might be interested in playing singles as well, although I don't know if he'd be able to have much success there. But I hope to see him playing again soon.
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