The Intersection of Sports and Politics

I just got back from vacation, so this one is a little overdue.

Unless you've been living under a rock or only get your news from US Weekly, you know about the Russian invasion of Georgia last week. I'm not going to talk about the timing of the invasion with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, although I have been rooting vociferously against the Russians. And it would be really cool if an American raised a Georgian flag while on the podium and proclaimed "We are all Georgians!". And perhaps "traitors" Becky Hammon, an WNBA standout, and JR Holden (Bucknell '98), who are playing for the respective Russian women's and men's basketball teams, should have withdrawn from the Olympics at the last minute in protest (I'm sure there would have been a line of rich Republicans -- is that redundant? -- who would have taken care of any economic harm that would have followed). But none of those things are going to happen.

I want to talk about pro-sports here. Pro athletes, especially the highest profile athletes like Michael, Tiger and Kobe have gone out of their way to stay out of any political or social controversies for fear of harming their global brands. Despots and terrorists buy sneakers too, I guess.

This position is in stark contrast to earlier stars like Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and perhaps most famously, 1968 Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos' "black power salute", who used their celebrity to stand up for important issues of their day.

But what seems worse is that even in light of the invasion of Georgia, athletes are still going to the highest bidder, regardless of recent events. Just days after Russia began the invation, Jannero Pargo, who despite the foreign sounding name is really from Arkansas, signed a 1-year deal to play for Dynamo Moscow of the Russian League. Frankly, I think it's despicable. Players should understand that their brand can be ruined just as easily by the actions they take, not the just stands they refuse to take. I'm going to be the first one boo Pargo should he ever return to the NBA. And if Kobe or LeBron goes to play for a Russian club for $50M of corrupt oil and gas money, they should be unanimously reviled as well.

Now I don't want to limit this rant to the NBA. There are a heck of a lot more players leaving the NHL to cash in with the dollars being doled out by the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL). Just this past year perennial All-Star Jaromir Jagr and goalie Ray Emery joined the Russian league. I hope you choke on your borscht.

Nolan Out as Isles Coach

It just seems to be getting worse as an Islanders fan. Of all the things that they seemed to have done right in the past few years...and that's a very small list...the hiring of Ted Nolan seemed to have been the best. But today, Nolan is out and the Islanders seem to be falling further into the abyss.

Garth Snow, who in his 2 whole years of experience as GM has become the NHL's version of Billy King-Elgin Baylor's love child, clearly orchestrated the move. Clearly, the environment Wang created where lackey-ship trumps leadership and competency is mostly to blame. Snow hasn't brought one free agent of consequence to the Island and the trades and draft choices he's made have been almost universally awful. Frankly the "philosophical difference" about building around young talent is not so much a strategy that Snow adopted, but simply the result of his ineptitude as GM.

But the hockey cognoscenti has applauded the work that Nolan did over his 2 seasons as the Islanders coach, believing that he got much more out of a roster that most analysts believed to be at the bottom of the league, than anyone could have expected.

However, as in most power plays (pun intended) between a GM and a Coach, the Coach loses.

Isles #5 In Yahoo! NHL Power Rankings

Wow, 2 hockey posts in 1 day! Well for a team that almost nobody picked to be in the playoffs, the Islanders are in pretty rare air. Today's Yahoo! Power Rankings has the Isles climbing to #5!

Oh Yeah, Hockey

I got a comment from a friend of mine from High School who found my blog that asked why hadn't I written about hockey yet? I haven't spoken to him in years, but he attributed his interest in hockey to my fervor for the New York Islanders during our high school years, when the Isles were a dynasty. Ah, those were the days. Bossy, Trottier, Potvin, Battlin' Billy Smith and of course Al Arbour.

So as any good Islanders fan would, I have chosen the day after the Isles beat the Rangers to write my first piece on hockey. Nothing gets better than that. And "goalie for life" Ricky DiPietro notched his 100th win of his career. Only 13+ years to go.

So a few quick thoughts:

• I would love to be able to get into hockey again. But after the strike the NHL, which is making over $2B in revenue and in the black, decided to air their games on the Versus network rather than ESPN...or any other channel that is carried by cable. Great decision Mr. Bettman. I know the rinks are full, but now the only people who will be part of the fan base are those who actually go to the games. The only games I even have the opportunity to see are Bruins (boo!) games on NESN, which isn't available in hi-def by me. So it's impossible to really watch. So maybe I'll go to a P-Bruins game or even venture up to the (TD Banknorth) Boston Garden this year. But otherwise, except for the "Melrose Line" podcasts, it's impossible for me to follow what's going on and become the fan that I used to be. I still have my Denis Potvin jersey in the closet, but it doesn't get much use anymore.



• The Isles are surprising again this year. Just like last year, no one expected them to be competitive. In fact, I think I recall seeing several pundits pick the Isles to be at the bottom of the standings. After the losing almost half of the scoring from last year (Ryan Smith, Jason Blake, dare I say Alexei Yashin), it was hard to argue. But I just think that it goes to show how GREAT of a coach Teddy Nolan is.



• Was there anything cooler than having Al Arbour come back and coach his 1500th game for the Islanders earlier this month? Well one, thing, have the team come back and win in the third, by beating the Penguins 3-2. Al Arbour was as much of a symbol of the glory years of the Islanders franchise that I grew up with in high school as any player or member of the organization (props to Bill Torrey). I thought that it was a great idea and was happy to see that he's still got some coaching left in those old bones. Watch this Al Arbour tribute video