Four years and already counting..

I can’t believe it’s already over. Spain became the 2010 World Cup champions yesterday by beating the Netherlands 1-0 on a goal in the 116th minute by world-class midfielder Andres Iniesta. As it was ending and I watched the closing celebrations, I couldn’t help but be a little sad. Not because I wanted the Netherlands to win, but because I know one of the best months in all of sports had come to and end.

In my opinion, this tournament brought us more than we could have bargained for. We saw the United States unite a country by the winning their group in thrilling fashion and attracting more attention to soccer in the states than ever before. We saw the defending champion Italians fail to advance from the group stages and the sheer embarrassment the French squad brought to their country. We had extremely controversial refereeing and spectacular last-minute finishes. Blood, sweat, tears, passion, and sheer desire all left on the pitch. Vuvuzelas that sounded like a pack of 6 trillion bee’s buzzing around your TV. Instant replay became the center of debate and surely some sort of review process is going to be implemented for the 2014 tournament in Brazil. Yes the 2010 South Africa World Cup definitely had its own flavor, whether you liked it or not.

Some critics will say the level of play in this tournament might have been sub par. A lot of teams didn’t live up to expectations and the hype was overshadowed by bad refereeing and controversial calls. Some critics don’t care enough to even comment on the tournament, and couldn’t care less about it all together. However, the beauty of this tournament is whether you are a soccer fanatic/hooligan or someone who doesn’t know an ounce about the sport, for one month you are drawn to it one way or another. Even if to say how boring you think soccer is and complain about the pathetic diving and fake injuries you see, you can’t help but watch. For one month, all politics are pushed aside and you root for your home country with passion and excitement. For the majority of Americans who don’t know a single thing about soccer or even care for that matter, you found yourself sitting around your TV’s, or in a local pub screaming for the United States to win. Lots of fans were running to the closest store to buy some sort of USA apparel to represent our country and root them on. You had hopes they would keep the dream alive and took this opportunity to be patriotic and support your country, the land you love. The United States vs Ghana match was the single most watched soccer game ever in the United States. The country cared, and everyone was involved. It was a time to rally behind something special in a country that’s seen its better days. It was a time when race, ethnicity and politics were thrown out the window. You found yourself high fiving and hugging complete strangers wherever you were when Landon Donovan scored that miraculous goal verse Algeria. That’s the beautiful thing about the game of soccer or as the Europeans call it, Futbol. There is more passion behind this sport than any other. It unites people, it’s inspiring, it brings people together. Sure there might be some aspects to the sport you don’t like, but every sport has that. Soccer is truly the only global sport, and for one month every four years it takes center stage. In my book, it doesn’t get any better. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m already counting down the days till 2014 in Brazil.

Joke, debacle, ridiculous, embarrassment, all those words came to mind as I watched "the decision" air on ESPN thursday night. In all my 20+ years of watching sports I have never seen something so blown out of proportion and egotistical in my entire life. Not only did Lebron James drag us along with his free agency circus act for the past two years, this past month has been an absolute nightmare for sports fans everywhere and tonight was just the cherry on top. I truly felt embarrassed for Lebron James. Kids sitting around awaiting his decision, commercial interruptions of him promoting vitamin water, it looked like a bad version of who wants to be a millionaire, although this show should of been called, who wants to be an selfless ego-maniac. Get over yourself Lebron, you are the biggest attention whore drama queen I have seen in sports in a long time. You make Terrell Owens look shy. All the proceeds go to the boys and girls club, please. If that's not the biggest cover up to try and take attention off sheer ego and self promotion, I don't know what is. Sorry Lebron, you may have some people fooled, but I'm not one of them.

I used to have respect for you, I didn't like you after what you did to the pistons in 2007, but I respected your abilities and what you meant to the future of the NBA. Whenever you came up in conversations I would always correct anyone who was speaking like an irrational Detroit Pistons fan and tell them how great you are for the NBA and the excitement you bring to the game. But now you are just fake to me, a sell-out, a self-riotous egomaniac. So everyone please, drink that hatorade like your shotgunning a beer and speak up as loud as you can, because its all completely justified.

In one fail swoop Thursday night Lebron James went from the so called "King" to Dwayne Wade's royal servant. You want to be known as a great in this league, you work for it. When the Lakers were in the dumps after Shaq left, did Kobe leave? When the Celtics didn't make the playoffs, did Paul Pierce bolt town? When MJ couldn't get past the Pistons all those years, did he leave Chicago? No, they all stayed and built lasting legacy's and gave the fans what they deserved. What they wanted, what they cheered for and spent their hard earned money on, seeing their star host a championship. Instead Lebron you sold-out, you gave up, you took the easy road. You abandoned a town that gave you everything to join someone elses team. You left join two other gold medal wining superstars because you didn't want to work hard enough and long enough to win it for the city of Cleveland . You left a town that held its breath on your every word and have fans that would give up their first born to keep you in a Cleveland Cavalier jersey. Your parting gifts, a huge kick straight to the cajones. You pretty much should of just sat in that chair and said, hello Cleveland, not only am I leaving the Cavalier organization, but I'm going to have my very own self promoting hour long show telling the whole world I'm leaving you behind and never looking back. All while providing the city with another agonizing reminder of how long its been since you have won a championship and how far you are from realizing that dream.

So congratulations Lebron. Not only have you become the biggest attention starved drama queen athlete in all of sports, you are now the most hated person in the history of Cleveland sports. Because of you, Art Modell has officially been forgiven, and that's saying something.

The Human Victory Cigar

I mean, REALLY?! Rumor has it that the Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed in principle with Darko "the human victory cigar" Milicic on a 4 year/$20mill contract!This deal for Milicic is quite odd considering that in February he wasn't even playing in the league and said he was giving up on the NBA and returning to Europe. Career averages for Darko, 5 pts and 4 rbs per game. SOLID!!

Furthermore, this isn't the only splash the Wolves have made in the past 24 hours. Earlier today they agreed to another 4 year, $13 million deal with their 2008 second round-pick, Nikola Pekovic. With these two moves, the T-Wolves just spend $33 million to shore up their middle, yeah and BP shored up the oil spill on the golf coast

If these two clowns, especially Darko are worth $20 million and $13 million respectively, then I'm worth at least $500k/year to carry towels and clean lockers. Not to mention these deals cut severely into the Wolves cap room this summer. Previously they were $13 million under the cap but now have a little under $5million left to use on remaining FA's. All the while they are trying to move Al Jefferson, a 25 year old potential all star with career averages of 20pts and 10rbs. So, replace a career 20/10 guy with a career 5/4 guy and severly eat into your cap space during arguably the biggest free agent summer of all time, yeah that makes a ton of sense. I tell you what, those must be some seriously physcadelic drugs they have in Minnesota.