Author Archives: Kent Sterling
Indianapolis #Colts – Good injury news from Frank Reich! JT must be fed! Chuck Pagano is a weasel!
Indianapolis Colts – Jonathan Taylor key to winning! Sumner gone – Pacers cap space back! Cards lose!
Ben Simmons to the Pacers is a terrible idea in many ways – here are four!
Ben Simmons looks terrible in this Pacers jersey, or more correctly – that Pacers jersey is a poor fit for Ben Simmons.
Ben Simmons to the Indiana Pacers? Oh, hell no!
These rumors must have been planted by Simmons’ agent to try to create a market out of this air for the disgruntled Philadelphia 76er, right? There is no way the Pacers do something this silly. Kevin Pritchard is a lot of things as a team president, but silly is not among them.
Here are five great reasons why trading for Simmons would be the height of lunacy (if you need more than these five, I have plenty more. Just email me for the complete list, which is longer than Martin Luther’s 95 Theses against the Catholic Church):
- Simmons can’t shoot, and he won’t shoot! In four seasons, Simmons has attempted a grand total of 34 three-point shots, of which he made five. FIVE! From the foul line, he is also inept, making less than 60% of his free throws. The difference between Simmons hitting 59.7% and 80% – the kind of average you want in a guy playing the point – is almost precisely one point per game over his career.
- Over his four seasons, Simmons has not progressed. His per game and per 36 minutes averages have dipped in many instances and stayed static in others. Simmons is what he is, and shows little likelihood of becoming a true franchise level player.
- Simmons is disgruntled, and that tends to travel with a player wherever he goes. If he is going to sit rather than join his teammates to prepare for the 2021-2022 season, what might set him off here to do the same thing? After both Paul George and Victor Oladipo asked to be dealt to a sanctuary far from Indy, Pritchard is wary of investing in a petulant guy who is not fully “gruntled.”
- The price would be steep. Simmons costs an average of $35.5M per year, and because of the salary cap, the Pacers would have to cobble together parts equalling roughly $27M to make the trade compliant with NBA rules. It would likely be more than that to keep the Pacers under the salary cap threshold, which they have always been and will always be.
It’s not that Simmons is a bad player. In four seasons, he’s been an all-star three times, and a first team All Defense member twice. If Simmons could shoot, he would be one of the best five players in the NBA. But he is not.
It’s very likely these rumors of Simmons to the Pacers are nothing more than ridiculous bleating proffered by the Simmons camp to gin up a little interest. They sure don’t want their meal ticket to forfeit giant chunks of money for following through on his threat to never play for the 76ers again.
But on the off chance this smoke isn’t coming from arson within the Simmons cabal of advisors, for the love of James Naismith, Pritchard must not pull the trigger on a deal to bring a fatally flawed player to a city where shooters are king.
Indiana fans are smart – they have heard coaches say the same thing since they were born – “If you can’t shoot, you can’t play.” Ben Simmons can’t, so he shouldn’t. At least not in Indiana!
Indianapolis Colts – Optimistic look at map to playoffs! Four reasons Pacers must pass on Ben Simmons!
Optimism Wednesday! 10 reasons to believe Colts will beat Ravens! Seven reasons to love Pacers this year!!
No one but Urban Meyer’s wife deserves an apology for his foolish adolescent behavior
Urban Meyer is a football coach and husband, but he is not our husband. He doesn’t owe me an apology.
So Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer allowed a woman in his Columbus, Ohio, bar dance very, very near him. We know this because someone videotaped the idiocy with a smart phone and posted it on social media.
Of course they did.
Is this really how we want to use a piece of awesome technology? I’m no champion of married men exhibiting this level of public indiscretion, but is it really any of our business how a football coach conducts his personal business?
The answer is no – it is not my business, nor yours – unless your name is Shelley Meyer or you are the husband of the injudicious blond.
But we are no longer allowed to simply shake our heads in disdain as we walk past seriously post-pubescent music enthusiasts. No, we need to turn Urban’s recklessness into public scorn because, hey, that’s a ton of clicks, and that’s how our society has evolved over the last 15 years.
Meyer experienced the wrath of Khan upon his return to Jacksonville (Jags owner is Shad Khan), and then apologized to his team and staff. Why he owed them an apology, I’m not sure. He didn’t violate vows made with any of them. I’ve never seen a coach and player stand before God and promise to forego all others.
In Goodfellas, Robert DeNiro’s character tells Ray Liotta, “Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.” Those were quaint times. Now it’s “Keep your smart phone in your pants and let a dorky coach screw up without anti-social media ruining his life.”
Meyer erred in a very substantial way. He acted like a pampered fool in a very public place – like an adolescent 57 year old without responsibilities to his family. His wife may never forgive and trust him again. That’s between them.
Urban’s remorse and pledge to reform is owed his wife. Not us.
Colts can get to 6 wins, but will have to earn 7th! IU Basketball with one BTN+ game ($10)! Pacers open tonight – no TV!
Transfers like IU RB Tim Baldwin remind us of the importance of facing adversity through hard work
Indiana running back Tim Baldwin will transfer to another school, but if he is like many transfers he might be bringing his biggest problem along with him.
Transferring as an option for athletes facing manageable adversity cheats them of the best lessons that come from playing a sport.
This post is prompted by the news that Indiana backup running back Tim Baldwin has entered the transfer portal five games into this season and Crispus Attucks basketball player Jalen Hooks will be transferring to a California prep school funded by Kanye West. I know neither of these guys or their circumstance, so this isn’t a comment on their specific situations.
Transferring can be a positive option for an athlete being treated poorly by a coach or who is unfulfilled by the education provided at their original institution, but the majority of transfers are kids who would rather run from adversity instead of fight through it.
High school and college are supposed to be difficult under normal circumstances. Physical, intellectual, and emotional growth are painful because they require people to accept their limitations. For many elite athletes, it’s especially tough because their lives have been filled with lavish praise from coaches, teachers, parents, and peers. Having your weaknesses suddenly exposed as the talent gap narrows is hard for many to accept.
Some choose fight and some choose flight. Adversity, while unpleasant in the moment, spawns maturity. Running to someone promising wondrous rewards without tedious work sounds great in the moment, but life’s chief rewards come wisdom gained through diligence.
I would never expect a 16-22 year old to understand any of that. It’s beyond their capacity to embrace that concept. There was TV commercial for an investment firm in the 1970s that featured the quote, “The reward for hard work is more hard work.” I laughed out loud every time I heard it. The concept was absurd. The reward for hard work should either be wealth or time off, I scoffed.
I’m not laughing or scoffing any more.
Many transfers are trying to take shortcuts around the hard work and head straight for the reward. They believe so deeply in their own talent that work appears to be unnecessary. When coaches tell them they need to dig deeper, they toss away the shovel and run.
Indiana University Basketball coach Mike Woodson said something interesting the other day about his players beginning to understand the levels of hard work. He said that once players realize there is a level of work and then another level of work, things get easy. The basic tenet is, “If you outwork your opponent, you will out play them.”
David Mamet wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables, and it it Sean Connery’s character explains how to get Al Capone, “You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way.” That’s also – metaphorically – how you succeed in life.
Through the course of a life, it dawns on us that those who work hard earn the opportunity to continue working hard. Digging deep allow us to dig deeper. Coaches and bosses who demand our best are more likely to motivate athletes and employees to give it. It might not always be pretty or pleasant, but morphing from kid to adult rarely is.
When I see reports of athletes transferring, it saddens me. There are transformative moments in life, and the decision to look inward to solve a problem prompts them. The choice to wander based upon the promises of salesmen posing as coaches can extend an adolescence that lasts a lifetime.
Transferring changes geography, but it doesn’t change the biggest problem facing a high school or college athlete because there is no portal to change who you are. That transformation must be earned.
Colts Wentz & Ravens Jackson not so different! Pacers @ Knicks tonight – no TV! IU RB leaves!