Author Archives: Kent Sterling

San Antonio Spurs show the way to NBA Championship for teams like the Indiana Pacers

by Kent Sterling

Gregg Popovich has led the Spurs to play basketball the right way, and not coincidentally five championships.

Selflessness on both ends of the basketball court doesn’t always beat a team of self-possessed stars, but it gives a team a fighting chance. That’s how championships are won by small market teams like the San Antonio Spurs – and potentially by the Indiana Pacers.

The San Antonio Spurs play championship level basketball without any self-immersed stars, and they just finished vanquishing the best team money can buy – the Miami Heat with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh – in five games.

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Experts are spending the morning dissecting the Heat’s first loss in an NBA Finals since 2011. Fatigue is a big part of the discussion as the Heat have played a virtual season of playoff games (87 games) over the past four years, but the reason the Heat got beat is the same as it almost always is in a seven-game series – the better TEAM won.

The Spurs subvert all selfish impulses to function as a single entity, and the result is basketball the way it is meant to be played. It’s not some star-driven create off the dribble mess played by men identified by single names, but a beautiful ballet of movement and passing that creates open shots with far more regularity than individual excellence.

And while EriK Spoelstra has proven himself to be a fine NBA coach, his counterpart with the Spurs might be the best basketball coach in the history of the game. Gregg Popovich is basketball’s answer to Vince Lombardi. Not only is he the best coach in the recent history of the NBA, he might be the best in American sports.

Popovich is driven, focused, detailed, and the creator of a culture that defies the momentum of marketing-first decision making that has driven the NBA since David Stern took over as commissioner just over 30 years ago. Sure, he can be prickly with the media, but if you knew a lot of the people in the media, prickly would likely describe you on your best day.

The Spurs are built to win games, not sell jerseys, and that is what made their absolute dominance over the Heat a spectacle worth examining. While LeBron James operates like a corporation, the Spurs play basketball for one another and for their coach.

As the Spurs are committed to another run at a title with nearly everyone under contract but Boris Diaw (Tim Duncan has a player option for 2014-2015, but is not going anywhere), the Heat are in a state of serious flux. James, Wade, and Chris Bosh all have player options for 2014-2015, and none have committed to coming back.

When James was asked last night about his plans for next year, his response was telling, “My team will sit down, we’ll deal with it. The key phrase in his answer is “my team.” He’s not talking about the Heat, but his group of advisors who plot the course for his career. While James is very selfless on the floor, it appears as it always has that James is every bit the strategist off the floor that he is on it.

That’s what made this NBA Finals so fascinating. It was basketball played for profit and branding versus basketball played for love, and while the individual members of the Pacers contemplate their future and motivation for playing hard and well, they need to decide what they are all about.

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Will the Pacers return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse with love for one another and a collective commitment to excellence, or because they are paid a ton of money? Will Pacers management allow their players the chance to return after the total disintegration of the positive vibe that resulted in a 33-7 start to the season? Can Frank Vogel inspire the same level of team-first camaraderie as Popovich, or is he a camp counselor afraid to upset the collection of egos that ran wild in the latter half of 2013-2014?

“Some selfish dudes in here,” is the Roy Hibbert quote that perfectly captured the Pacers as they unwound toward the end of the regular season, and selfish is one trait that kills a basketball team.

This offseason, like all off-seasons, will tell who is in the game for the cash, and who plays for rings. The only team for whom we know the answer as an absolute certainty is the Spurs, and not coincidentally they are the guys wearing the rings.

Time for Indiana All-Stars to stop picking on Kentucky

by Kent Sterling

James Blackmon Jr. joined George McGinnis and Oscar Robertson as Indiana All-Stars to score 60 or more points combined in the home and home games against Kentucky.

The Indiana All-Star basketball events are wonderful traditions, and should continue whether or not people show up to watch. It’s great for the very best at any pursuit to assemble and create life-long memories and friendships.

But let’s find another victim, can we? The Commonwealth of Kentucky is not churning out hoop heroes with nearly the same regularity as the Hoosier State.

Indiana has throttled Kentucky 13 straight times, and 20-of-21. There is no drama in this supposed competition and whatever rivalry might have been in full flower in the days of Wes Unseld, Jack Givens, Rex Chapman, Winston Bennett, Darrell Griffith. Today, it’s an exhibition between teams on entirely different tiers.

Indiana has several neighboring states, and high school basketball players are more competitive in Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio than they are in Kentucky, and it’s not close.

That’s not a rip on Kentucky, or the kids who try like hell to compete with their neighbors to the north. Indiana churns out excellent players by the busload, and Kentucky would struggle to beat the third or fourth best set of 12 Hoosiers.

Kentucky would be better served by playing in an all-star series against West Virginia.

Some are calling for the all-star program to be abandoned, and that would be an enormous shame. Very few people watch summer basketball, but more often than not it’s wonderful for the kids. They get to play more basketball with similarly talented kids, and more importantly are the idle hours spent crammed together in hotel rooms watching TV and hanging out.

The reasons for the disparity in quality of play are many, but include difference in population and availability of excellent trainers and facilities. Indiana is an anomaly in that the best athletes play basketball, and there are basketball-specific trainers who work with kids from a very young age to build strong fundamentals.

Take soon-to-be drafted Michigan State guard Gary Harris. Prior to becoming the 2012 Mr. Basketball in Indiana, he worked tirelessly with Christopher Thomas of 100% Hoops to master the intricacies of ball handling, shooting, and defensive movement. That work started when Gary was eight.

Multiply that level of work by dozens of kids in every class by similar training programs all over the state, and it’s little surprise that Indiana pastes Kentucky twice each year.

Since 1990, zero Keckucky Mr. Basketballs have been drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. When Harris is made a lottery pick on June 26th, he will be the fifth first round pick in the last seven years who was an Indiana Mr. Basketball. Add non Mr. Basketballs like Rodney Carney, George Hill, Jeff Teague, JaJuan Johnson, Marquis Teague, Gordon Hayward, Tyler Zeller, and Mike Conley, and that’s a lot of excellence churned by Indiana in a decade.

The history of the series is nice, but the games have lost all potential conflict, and that is more obvious in the Bluegrass State than in Indiana. The game hosted Friday night in Kentucky wasn’t at Freedom Hall, Rupp Arena, or the Yum! Center. It was played in front of a sparse crowd of 1,000-ish at Transylvania University.

Last night’s Indiana win was watched by almost 7,000 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, but not because there was any doubt about the result. People just love watching the all-stars here and the 2014 class is a good one with Indiana bound James Blackmon Jr., Mr. Basketball Trey Lyles (unable to play due to illness) Trevon Bluiett, and others.

These all-stars deserved a quarry that requires more heavy lifting than can be provided by Kentucky’s best, and that will be true next year too.

Final “Ahead of the Curve” filled with great guests, laughs, and a race for the ages

by Kent Sterling

Exhausted from a competitive race, Hagan & Sterling walk out of the Emmis Building after a year of fun.

Whatever else might be said about the weekly effort Fox 59’s Chris Hagan and I put out on 1070 the Fan each Saturday, those two hours were always the best of my day. Today’s final edition was no different.

Indy Star columnist Bob Kravitz and Rick Venturi joined us to shed their well-informed insight about the continued recovery of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, and we discussed the Indiana vs. Kentucky all-star series that appears to have lost all public momentum.

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As has been the case every week, there were a lot of laughs. Chris is a funny guy, and we are comfortable enough with each other to take and receive occasional shots without turning surly, so mockery ensues – as it always should.

There was also a footrace race that was ill-advised. I was quite sure that I could beat Chris in a length of hallway race, and Chris takes pride in his speed, so between segments we faced off.

I am still not sure who won, but there is no doubt that Chris with his piston-like, driving, short strides got to his maximum speed more quickly and that I was closing in after the midway point of the spectacle.

My undoing was the voluntary shedding of my shoes. Chris wears flip flops to the studio every week, and I sport New Balance running shoes. Outfitting him with running shoes was impossible, so I agreed to run bare foot so there was no advantage. Honestly, my motivation was to strip Chris of all excuses because I thought I would coast to a win.

Not that I believed Chris to be slow, but while I did not have blazing speed as a youth, there hasn’t been much erosion in my top end speed.

This was not my first rodeo on the Emmis sixth floor hallway track. I am a veteran of several contentious races against the very fleet Eric Wunnenberg, the sales manager at 1070 the Fan, and I knew where to begin deceleration in order not either crash through a window or clip the pool table. That advantage nearly served my ass, but while I believed the race result favored my slightly, most impartial observers gave Chris the edge.

So now, it’s on to CBS Sports 1430 to begin another chapter of my reinvention as a host. I spent a long time in radio management, but that vocation became a tired routine of finding efficiencies rather than motivating creative excellence.

The grind of firing people wore on me over the years, and despite a mostly favorable environment at my last stop, I decided life was too short to live 268 miles away from my wife and son with the reward being the pleasure of deciding whose life to redirect through a change of employment.

I always wanted to be a host. Performing is not only fun, but I was relatively decent at it back in Chicago at a couple of improvisational theaters. Radio and improv always seemed to be very similar (they are), so finding a way to build my brand into that of a paid content provider seemed like a reasonable notion.

Launching kentsterling.com was a great first step, and other opportunities were offered. Beginning a week from Monday, I get to build and execute as good a sportstalk radio show each weekday on CBS Sports 1430 as I can. And I can’t wait.

My producer is Nick Bosak, a passionate, versatile, and dedicated young man who I have worked with twice before. Not sure what the future holds, but these Saturdays with Chris have been a lot of fun and very educational.

While June 23rd can’t come fast enough, today was a little melancholy as I really like Chris and producer David Dearing, and Saturdays with them were joyful.

Thanks to Jeff Smulyan, Charlie Morgan, and Greg Rakestraw for welcoming me back when I returned from St. Louis 15 months ago. And I’ll always be very thankful to all the people who gave me the benefit of the doubt when I was less sure about how radio is done well from the inside.

Final “Ahead of the Curve” with Hagan & Sterling to air today at 10a on 1070 the Fan

by Kent Sterling

The last ride for Chris Hagan and me airs today from 10a-12p.

Going out with a bang and not a whimper is the goal. It’s been a lot of fun, but today’s “Ahead of the Curve” will be the final installment.

I’m headed to CBS Sports 1430 to begin hosting a show weekdays from 3p-6p beginning June 23rd, and for obvious reasons that means any presence on 1070 the Fan must cease.

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Fox 59’s Chris Hagan and I will talk to two of our favorite guests – Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz and the always insightful Rick Venturi about everything going on in sports – minus the World Cup.

Colts owner Jim Irsay spoke to Bob this week, and he wrote a poignant piece on indystar.com about his feelings about Irsay’s battle with addiction, and whether he will be able to answer the bell everyday to avoid a relapse.

Venturi worked with Irsay for years while with the Colts for more than a decade, and has his own views about the owner’s battle with demons that run in the family.

The Indiana vs. Kentucky All-Star series continues tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and while I love the tradition of the rivalry, the point where it generates mass interest has passed. Indiana has won the last 12 contests, and Kentucky has been less than competitive for a long time.

Youth and high school talent in Indiana has exploded with great training and facilities, while Kentucky has remained a mediocre pasture for gifted players. Is it time for the Hoosier State to choose a new quarry, and begin a more evenly matched series? The barely more than 1,000 fans, or more importantly the thousands of empty seats, in Lexington for last night’s game say yes.

The NBA Finals continues with the San Antonio Spurs holding a 3-1 advantage over the two-time reigning champion Miami Heat. The Spurs have beaten the Heat by executing near letter perfect team offense and defense. Their attention to detail has proven again that talent isn’t everything in basketball, and that the best individuals can be beaten by the better team.

We’ll talk to both Bob and Rick about the team versus collection of stars concept.

While beginning a different path in a different building for a different company is very exciting, and I can’t wait for the opportunity to get rolling at CBS Sports 1430, I’ll be a little melancholy walking out of the Emmis Building for the last time today. I was there when ground was broken, watched the building rise from the dreams of Jeff Smulyan, Norm Gurwitz, and others, and stood in the showcase studio when the switch was thrown to put WIBC live from there as the 1998 WIBC Radiothon to Benefit The Salvation Army kicked off.

There is some symmetry in going to work immediately across the street from the old WIBC studios, and I look forward to working hard every day to put together the best show possible at 1430. Still, saying goodbye to Emmis, Hagan, and producer David Deering will require some reflection.

It’s been a lot of fun. And it will be a lot of fun starting June 23.

San Antonio Spurs take 3-1; host clinic for high school and youth basketball coaches

by Kent Sterling

Kids grow up dreaming of authoring spectacular dunks and individual statistical excellence.

Parents of young basketball players ask sons and daughters “How many did you score?” before asking if the team won because they don’t know a hell of a lot about the game, and more importantly don’t give a damn about the other kids on the team. Some are nutty enough to check the score sheet after a game, and walk away smiling after a loss.

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That puts coaches at an immediate and almost impossible to overcome disadvantage in trying to teach kids to play the game the right way.

The San Antonio Spurs are doing a fantastic job of schooling all of us a little bit in these NBA Finals after taking a 3-1 series lead of the media darlings of the NBA – the formerly unbeatable and imitated Miami Heat.

Never mind the Spurs should have won last year’s championship in six games, this year’s clinic by the Spurs on both ends has put the focus on team-first basketball.

Everything the Spurs do is focused on team success from the unfortunately unique offensive selflessness to communication on defense to crisp offensive movement of the ball to the smartest salary structure in professional sports.

The salary of the entire Spurs team is only $63,115,911. The New York Knicks didn’t make the playoffs, and their players earn a total of $25 million more. The underachieving Lakers cashed $77 million in checks.

Future no-brainer hall of famer Tim Duncan earns only $10.3 million per year. Tony Parker makes more than anyone on the Spurs with a $12.5 million salary. Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire took home $21.7 million for the 2013-2014 season, and injured Lakers guard Kobe Bryant made over $30 million. Neither of their teams made the playoffs.

In the locker room, no one on the Spurs talks about “selfish dudes,” and there are no instances of guys trying to pad stats because they are in a contract year.

The Spurs just go out and play basketball the way it is supposed to be played – just as players from age 8-18 should but rarely do.

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Moving without the ball is so important to basketball, but it’s not the only important thing the Spurs do well. They know exactly where the other four players are on the floor at all times, and that requires people doing precisely what they are supposed to do every second of every possession. It requires accurate passes to open teammates, and an attitude of forgiveness for those who miss open looks.

Defensively, basketball is played not just by the man guarding the ball, but by the entire team. Communication and willingness to help at the right time are key. Not only are the Spurs really good defensively, but they consistently hold themselves and each other accountable when they fail.

Basketball is a behaviorally challenging game in that individual accomplishments are such temptations, and can be occasionally rewarded. A great individual effort can carry a team, but rarely for an entire season. Winning consistently requires a devotion by all five players to focus on the success of the other four.

Acting is like that. As we watch, our concentration is on the words spoken by the performers but for those words to convey the most profound meaning, the other actors must listen intently. Just as acting is about listening, basketball is about what you do when you don’t have the ball and are noir defending the man with the ball.

The Spurs get that better than any other team in the NBA, and because the eyes of America’s youth are watching the success selflessness is bringing to Popovich’s team, maybe coaches who understand the game can impress upon them the need to focus on the success of teammates with the same energy they devote to their own glory.

Because of the Spurs relentless drive to play the game correctly, they are in a position to win the fifth world championship of the Popovich era, and finally America is awakening to the fact that basketball played with attention riveted on success for others is winning basketball.

Never in Popovich’s 17 full seasons as coach have the Spurs failed to win 61% of their games, and never have they run their offense through an individual.

The way the Spurs play basketball is the way life should be lived, and that is the message youth basketball can convey. Team success is earned by those committed to the success of the whole rather than the parts. Every game the Spurs play against the Heat sears that message into our minds, and those who watch and learn are better for it.

Athlete and celebrity tweets outrage Indiana Pacers fans – Are we really this thin-skinned?

by Kent Sterling

Sure, George Hill likes to avoid the media, but if in his shoes I wouldn't be overly enthusiastic about talking to us either.

Sure, George Hill was honest and maybe a little callous in his tweet, but can’t we handle that without getting pissed off at him?

If Indiana Pacers guard George Hill can’t post a small motivational tweet without angering radio hosts and their callers, our society is in big trouble.

Hill’s message was simple – that for every true fan, there are five waiting for him to fail. That’s a bleak assessment that reflects the level at which Hill pays attention to knuckleheads, but the judgment the tweet has prompted is proportionally outrageous.

I guess it was a slow day for eager to be agitated fans.

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Athletes are under no obligation to please us with each and every utterance, and holding them to that standard is both unfair and asinine. What fans and media are asking is that the level of communication from celebrities to fans be restricted to pablumatic blather about charities and innocuous chit-chat. We deserve better from them, and they deserve much more latitude from us.

It’s as though anything even mildly polarizing is seen as an attack on our sensibilities, and that show a thin-skinnedness that borders on madness.

Lance Stephenson blew in LeBron James ear, and the world crapped its collective pants. Roy Hibbert called out a teammate for being selfish, and a public hissy-fit followed.

Is our threshold for a little fun and honesty so low that we need athletes to be politicians who only tell convenient and uninteresting truths?

Our lives have to be interesting enough that Hill’s musings pale in comparisons as topics of conversation and drivers of outrage.

It used to be true that people with odd opinions about things or a self-important attitude were simply dismissed as ridiculous, but today the media and fans intercede as though minor violations of our sensibilities require an apology and donation to charity.

Of course, Hill’s blurting, Hibbert’s blaming, and Stephenson’s blowing reflect unwise decisions, but who among us aren’t guilty of that every single day, if not hour, of our lives. But if learning from those lessons causes us to evolve into inoffensive clones who are relentlessly tedious and dull, then shame on us for making the world more boring.

In 100 years, we are all going to be dead and if our chief contribution to society is to neuter it from all thoughts and utterances that are bothersome, shame on us.

Good for those who still have the stones to rage against the machine, call out the insipid, and say things we have been advised not to. Soon enough, our voices and twitter feeds will turn silent as we succumb to whatever finally dooms us. Living life trying to avoid discourse and disagreement is the weakest of all options, and discouraging those who say and write what pisses you off is just as unbold.

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Give Hill a pat on the back for having the stones to reveal the motivation for his hard work, Hibbert for giving us a look inside the Pacers locker room, and Stephenson for bringing some fun to a way-too-serious game of throwing a ball through an orange hoop.

Basketball is supposed to be fun, and life is too. People yelling about Hill’s tweet made it less fun yesterday.

Get over yourselves, and say something a little outrageous yourself today.

When my show starts on CBS Sports 1430 AM on June 23rd (Monday thru Friday from 3p-6p), that is going to be the mission. Say and do things that I believe regardless of public sentiment, encourage others to join, and enjoy the hell out of it.

That’s the way life should be lived, and definitely what radio should be about. Glad that Hill and many of the rest of the Pacers agree.

Not sure why the fuss about Indiana Pacers guard George Hill’s tweet

by Kent Sterling

We all need different things to motivate us, and some hear only the cheers and others focus on the boos. Whatever gets you up in the morning working hard is fine by me.

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Indiana Pacers guard George Hill tweeted this morning about how more people want him to fail than succeed.

“FOR EVERY PERSON CHEERING FOR YOU ITS 5 WANTING/ WAITING FOR YOU TO FAIL!!!!! DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE!! #PROVETHEMWRONG #REALFANSVSFAKEFANS”

Of course, that’s a silly notion that invests way too much energy in the opinions and judgment of others, but if it helps fuel Hill’s fire, who are we to question it. His decision to share that philosophy via social media is a little strange, and only serves to fuel the fire of the boobs who just as misguidedly expend so much energy either praising or deriding a man who earns $8-million per year for his basketball skills.

The whole worship/loathe dynamic with sports stars is an odd development in the human psyche, but whatever puts asses in the seats should be fine by the teams and their employees.

It’s asinine and counterproductive for middle class folks to boo people for playing a sport poorly, but I’ve done it a bunch myself. Maybe it’s a release that people need so their heads don’t explode at work or with family.

Head to the stadium or arena, and vent all over the rich and unthankful. I guess when viewed through that prism, it’s a natural piece of behavior. But if Hill or other players are listening to talk radio or checking their Twitter feeds to take the temperature of the jabbering masses, they should do more fishing, online shopping, and traveling.

As for the fans, it would be great if all of our lives were free enough of frustration to keep our attention focused on what’s really important, but that would mean empty arenas and stadia.

The cheers and boos are a small price to pay for extreme wealth for a short period of time. My advice to Hill and the fans is the same – do a better job of focusing on what’s important.

San Antonio plays a nearly perfect, precise, and magical 16 minutes to take 2-1 NBA Finals lead over LeBron and Heat

by Kent Sterling

Gregg Popovich may be the most effective coach in all of professional sports, and last night’s Game Three was a master class in basketball.

The San Antonio Spurs played as close to perfect basketball on the road against a great team during the first 16 minutes of Game Three of the NBA Finals last night as I have ever seen.

In the Spurs first 31 possessions, they scored 55 points. That has never happened in an NBA Finals game – not by Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, or LeBron James Miami Heat.

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Watching NBA games can be fun, tedious, miserable, or a joy depending upon who is playing, regardless of rooting interest. While I don’t like the way the Miami Heat were assembled or their entitled attitude, that dislike isn’t enough to make me a fan of whomever they play.

This year’s NBA Finals is not like the old saying, “My two favorite teams are the Pacers and whoever is playing Miami.” If the Heat win their third consecutive championship or the Spurs win their fifth overall is of little interest to me, but I love watching quick and efficient offense, and that makes the Spurs exploits must see TV.

Tony Parker, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, and company move the ball with such speed and precision that every possession can be an absolute clinic of how offensive basketball is – or should be – played.

If a team isn’t capable of extending their defense and pressuring the ball while taking away passing lanes, the Spurs are surgical in their attack. Last night, the Heat came out passionless, and the Spurs went to work making an incredible 19 of their first 21 shots.

The first 16 minutes of last night’s Game Three was an absolute joy to watch – a magnificent offensive clinic that allowed the Spurs to build an insurmountable 25-lead over the two-time defending NBA champs.

After that magical stretch, the Spurs cooled to make “only” 19-of-43 for a respectable 44.2%.

One of the drills coaches use to encourage sharing the ball is to run no dribble scrimmages. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich ran one for the better part of the first half in a pivotal game with the Larry O’Brien Trophy on the line.

While many NBA players and fans believe breaking down a defense is best done one-on-one off the dribble, Popovich and the Spurs prove every night that a passed ball moves faster and causes bigger problems for a defense than a dribbled ball.

Kawhi Leonard, the Pacer who wasn’t, dropped a career high 16 points in the first quarter and 29 for the game on just 13 field goal attempts. He is the latest in a long line of functional players who will never be stars for the Spurs, but is likely to collect multiple championship rings.

In a league built on stars who sell jerseys both domestically and internationally, the Spurs just play the right way and win. Popovich is the exception rather than the rule in that he teaches the game of basketball as a cultural selfless devotion to the team.

The Spurs have talent, but the reason for their success is the culture enforced by a coach who will not tolerate selfishness in a league that relentlessly displays it. Why Popovich is virtually alone in teaching the game as a five-man dance of rhythm and movement resulting in endless open looks is a great question.

Scoring the basketball is not some mysterious and indecipherable riddle that requires a room full of geniuses. Set solid screens, change speed and direction in cuts, make passes on time and on target, and hit open shots. It’s more about details and precision than tactics.

There is a story John Madden tells about Vince Lombardi teaching the power sweep at a coaches clinic. Lombarbi spent eight hours talking about that one play. I get the feeling that Popovich will be discussed in the same reverential tones 20 years from now.

Popovich is not a media friendly guy whose charisma puts him on magazine covers, but he wins at an alarmingly routine rate. In 17 full seasons in San Antonio, his Spurs teams have won 50 or more regular season games 16 times, and in the season he didn’t, they were 37-13. That was the lockout shortened 1998-1999 year that ended with the Spurs first world championship.

In those 17 seasons, the Spurs have never failed to win 61% of their games.

And last night, the reason for all that success was obvious. The Spurs give over their selfish desires for the collective good, and that starts and ends with a coach who successfully instills a team-first culture better than anyone else in sports.

Spurs jerseys gather dust on clearance racks, and they almost never make any network’s daily top ten highlights, but they keep showing anyone who pays attention how basketball is supposed to be played.

Up 2-1, the Spurs are in the driver’s seat for their fifth NBA Championship, and fans get at least another two chances to watch basketball played as close to perfectly as will likely happen again in our lifetimes.

Oink if you’re pissed off! Indiana BMV’s strange and unnecessary effort to restrict vanity plate choices

by Kent Sterling

What kind of thin-skinned nitwit ruled this vanity plate unworthy?

Those who are offended by language baffle me. Over the years, the skin of our society has become thinner rather than thicker, and that worries me.

The number of times my Dad barked something like, “Who gives a damn what (insert name here) had to say!” Getting under his skin took more than profanity or an insult. That was (and is) true for those of his generation. When you live through a world war, a guy with a penchant for vulgarity is a petty concern.

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Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles is positioning itself as the arbiter of good taste in the Hoosier State after a judge ruled that a policeman can use “OINK” as his vanity plate a year after the BMV denied his renewal.

“He (She or They) can’t do that!” seems to be something more and more of us yell throughout the course of our day. Not only are we easily offended, there is a demand for immediate redress that is as bizarre as it is troubling.

Why do we care one way or another whether people swear in our presence or on our televisions and radios? Do we really suffer any harm because of the invectives and obscenity. Being completely callous to others and their anger or indifference to societal mores isn’t the point, but being in charge of our own emotions would be a minimum reasonable standard for attitude.

Unless we enjoy being upset, there is no point in listening to those who irritate us, and if we see a license plate with a word that bothers us, do we really need to have the state protect us from it? Are we that weak?

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“OINK” makes a banned list for license plates? Who could possibly be offended by “OINK”? If a policeman takes umbrage, a storm of citations when the car exceeds the speed limit would be a real world disincentive. The obese would have to do some cognitive gymnastics to feel personally slighted.

Maybe the Geico pig would be disillusioned – if he weren’t fictitious.

Can we get over ourselves just a little bit?

Hating LeBron James is easy because the brand and person appear dissimilar

by Kent Sterling

Whatever and whoever this is, many fans don’t trust it, and that makes it unlikable.

There is something strange about LeBron James. His public persona appears forced, and sports fans don’t care for guys who try to put on a happy face away from competition while being a killer during it.

Isiah Thomas’s smile is another contradiction that we never embraced. There was no doubt what Isiah was all about, and it was never to be liked. Whatever he needed to do to gain an advantage is exactly what he did, and when it became clear that he could no longer assert his will to win a championship, Isiah retired. The smile was a facade that no one ever trusted.

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With LeBron, he appears to be an awkward guy, uneasily shoehorned into a persona designed to maximize his marketing potential.

His pre game speeches are clunky and passionless, kind of like a speech class assignment given to the kid who never talks otherwise. The video bombs that have become so annoyingly unfunny show him (as well as Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) as an unwieldy participant in someone else’s game, as though an agent or media relations guy told him to have some fun and show personality he sadly does not have.

It all appears disingenuous to sports fans. The nice guy stuff makes all kinds of sense from the perspective of those trying to market a friendlier image than what LeBron shows on the court. He’s a super-physical brute without remorse as he throws his singularly stout and athletic body into that of a defender with lesser gifts.

The smiley, glasses-wearing jokester minus a sense of humor appears to be a conscious concoction, and fans don’t like concoctions.

Granted, if LeBron walked the streets like he runs the floor, people would shudder in fear, and there is little cash available to pay those who scare the hell out of us as they endorsing products. So I get it, but the result is a complete lack of trust in the image being presented.

“Real” and “honest” only plays when the person is likable, and because we are only allowed to see the facade, discovering and embracing LeBron’s personality just doesn’t happen.

To his credit, none of that appears to matter to LeBron. He wins championships, puts Dre on hold, drinks Powerade, and manages his image with the same attention to detail as he uses to prepare to beat the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs.

His only real misstep was the abject stupidity his “announcement” represented. Anytime a sports figure aligns himself with disgraced sportscaster Jim Gray, the result is going to be a nightmare, but it appears that lesson has been learned. The next time LeBron decides to take his talents to wherever, I doubt Gray is allowed in the building or a part of the planning.

Being liked is not always an option for an iconic player or brand, and in the world of media a talent being disliked is often a positive as long as the throng of haters is equalled by those who pledge their devotion.

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LeBron is never going to be loved like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson. Magic has a million megawatt smile, and played basketball with a unique joy and generosity. Michael seemed as shocked by his own genius as fans were, and Bird was a great player who looked like a lot of the people who bought tickets. LeBron is a linebacker among graceful receivers and running backs. We love our linebackers like Dick Butkus or Lawrence Taylor – rampaging beasts who maim.

Being the best doesn’t automatically lead to affection, and the continued examination of why LeBron isn’t beloved is a silly exercise because excellence and charisma are disconnected concepts that don’t always intersect.