A Big Three Roundup

A Game of Woes: The Destruction of the Indiana Pacers

Warning: the following analysis has massive Game of Thrones spoilers for anyone that isn’t up to date on the TV series. 

Monday night’s game in Miami was eerily reminiscent of Sunday’s Red Wedding  in Westeros. Besides an obvious similarity of red, the color of the Heats’ uniform, both events had events containing two sides vying for the ultimate title - either the crown of Westeros or a trip to the NBA Finals. Lannisters, meet the Starks. Pacers, meet the Heat.  

The similarities between the Miami Heat and Lannisters are numerous. Both have a history of being a juggernaut, money pumping, powerful, cultural phenom that inspired both hatred and begrudging admiration from those that were graced to watch them. Watching Jamie Lannister struggle to fight injured and against all odds remains reminiscent of Dwyane Wade playing with injuries. Yet despite their clear amount of ambition and dedication to their craft, both of them are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. While the Lannisters resort to extortion, political manipulation and bribery to win a war, the Heat rely on “cheap” techniques like flopping and cheap fouling to gain favor in a game.

Contrastingly, the Pacers, like the Starks are a honorable, gritty, and tough group of Northern warriors (As in literally. Indiana is from the North. BOOM.) unwilling to accept failure or bend to the will of the rich. In the Game of Thrones universe, Robb Stark, once a boy merely trying to follow in the footsteps of his father, became his own leader and asserted himself as the true King. The real life variant of Robb, Paul George, once looked to a now-injured Danny Granger as his guide before coming into his own this season as a star. With a ragtag group of scrappy young players that believe in him, him and the Pacers, like Robb and his loyal group of men, fought bravely against their superiors. That is, until a fateful moment doomed their hopes.

Success isn’t determined by how much further you are on the moral compass than your competitor. Cersei Lannister once stated, “Power is power”. Two nights ago viewers watched what true power looked like in the world of Westeros: gruesome, ugly, and unpredictable. As we watched Robb fall in disgrace and defeat to his former friends, we also saw the murder of his pregnant wife, his entire army, and his mother. Power is not always honorable and can sometimes be dirty but nonetheless is still power.

Last Monday, the feel-good Indiana Pacers fell victims to true power and had their Red Wedding moment. Miami, led by the basketball’s indisputable king, LeBron James, completely pulverized Indiana: rebounding, playmaking, getting to the line, making open jumpers, finishing in the paint, and staying motivated. By the end of the game, when the Heat had finished their demolition to a tune of 99-76, Hibbert had walked off the court without having shook hands with the other team: a humiliating sign of defeat in the face of total power.

Yes; as one challenger is bequeathed, the other grows stronger and closer to achieving ultimate victory. King James sends his regards.

The Fall of Roger Federer

Oh how the mighty have fallen.
    
On Tuesday, Roger Federer, tennis’ most recognizable figure and, in his prime, perhaps the greatest player ever, was upset by the No. 8 seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. It was the lowest seed for Federer to have lost to in a major tournament since two years ago in Wimbledon when Federer had lost to...Tsonga, then No. 19 in the world.

    It’s something that we are slowly growing accustomed to seeing - an aging Roger Federer desperately trying to fight Father Time but still losing against younger, quicker, and stronger opponents on the grand stages. There’s only so much a powerful mind can do if your body cannot keep up with it. But was this because of a loose ball that drilled Federer in his right arm? Or was it a long decline by the former superstar? 

Last year, Roger showed that he wasn’t completely finished, having won Wimbledon against a more nimble and agile opponent in Andy Murray. However, Federer is not really getting any better. He has yet to win a single tournament in 2013 and it is his longest drought since the beginning of the decade. Although the defending Wimbledon champion began the first few rounds playing at a top level, he slowly began to decline over the last round, when it took him five sets to defeat the No. 18, Gilles Simon.  Rumors began swirling about the status of Federer’s back and how it might hinder him in the later rounds.

Throughout the quarter-finals, Federer was unable to assert himself against Tsonga, a rising talent in tennis and runner up to the 2008 Australian Open title. Though he started off well, up 4-3 in the first set, Federer never recovered and seemed a lot more tired, possibly because of his back. This showed in a match that he had lost in straight sets to someone ranked outside of the ATP Top Ten in nine years.

There is no doubt that Federer is still a great player and capable of defeating the best opponents on a good day. Sometimes one has to wonder though, when the end is going to come for Roger and if it has already began this year. For a player that was previously able to rise to highest challenge of winning Grand Slams, his next one of staying elite may have already caught up to him.

Sources: Associated Press.

Hide Behind Bars

Although I am not a huge cricket fan, it sickens me to see someone like N. Srinivasan “step aside” and refuse all allegations of having been involved in rigging/fixing matches across the IPL.  His justification was equally bad: he was not doing “anything wrong” and that there are no charges pressed directly against him.

Yes; just because his son-in-law was linked with several bookies, doesn’t mean that Srinivasan is the main perpetrator of corruption. There is no specific evidence yet of that. But such a massive brouhaha and public outrage towards the IPL reflects exceptionally badly on the VERY organization, the BCCI, that BY RULE has governing control over every big cricketing league in India. Is the BCCI so incompetent that they are unable to even see the acts of corruption that is happening under their very fingers? It doesn’t matter whether Srinivasan was in charge of rigging games - not knowing what your subordinates are up to is a sign of incompetence, especially if there is a denial of basic facts.

There is only so much that banning players and umpires can do. Firings should be at an all-time high in the BCCI because such incompetence and lazy excuse making is unacceptable, even if it is not directly related to the scandals.

This is classic damage control. Morally, there is no way that BCCI can even try to justify their total incompetence when it has come to dealing with this. Ethically, there there is a massive conflict of interest between Srinivasan’s duty as the president of the BCCI and as the CEO of the company that owns the IPL’s current runner up, CSK. Though he did not explicitly own the team, leaving little to no direct evidence for him to implicated in the rigging of games, there is a clear connection here between him and CSK. This would be like if Commissioner Roger Goodell of the NFL was in charge of regulating every single football league, while being the owner of the New Orleans Saints and not knowing about last year’s bounty scandal. It doesn’t make any sense in the NFL for this to happen, so why should it happen in the IPL?

Alam Srinivas, a writer for cricketcountry.com, furthermore severely criticizes the management of the IPL and calls for Srinivasan to be evicted from the world of cricket as a whole. He expands on previous accusations of a conflict of interest, asking if the former head of the BCCI expected anyone “to believe that the BCCI would conduct a fair inquiry against his son-in-law and his team...if he stayed on as the BCCI president, stepped aside of went on to leave,” (cricketcountry). Srinivas continues his statements furthermore.

His son-in-law is embroiled in illegal betting and fixing. His bail was rejected and the police remand was extended by a court. At least at that stage, Srinivasan should have gone. MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, and the captain of CSK, is now under fire. There are allegations that he had a stake in a sports management company, which handles several Indian cricketers and CSK. Now isn’t that another ‘conflict of interest’? How could Srinivasan morally claim that his captain may be involved, his son-in-law may be involved, his team may be involved, but his own hands were totally clean?

The bigger question is how can you absolve yourself of blame when you were the one that was supposed to make sure things like this didn’t happen? It not only hurts you, it hurts the legitimacy of the BCCI, the IPL, and humiliates everyone involved in the game of cricket.

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