SPORTS  |  LIFESTYLE  |  ATTITUDE  |  AUTHENTIC
YDKJ
  • HOME
  • About
  • Contact
  • Photos

NBA  |  Don't expect Iverson to change any time soon

7/31/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

He is a self-absorbed, immature a-hole.

This is news to people?

Not for nothing, the laughter, if not flat-out guffaws, being heaved in the direction of those who have genuflected at the mere mention of Allen Iverson now acting somewhat miffed by his recent irresponsible behavior is more than warranted.

Yo, wake up. You grew up. D-bags such as your bromantic love interest, umm, no. They never do.

We don’t need an all-out investigation headed by Columbo to determine that, or to somehow pretzel-logic his fetish for casinos as the excuse du jour and reason for sympathy.   

The latest act of “all about me” A.I., which saw the former Sixers fan favorite blow off a scheduled Big3 League appearance in Dallas this past weekend much like he did in Philly less than a month ago, is merely another example of an individual who has shown no concept of accountability, or concern for others, at any point since he became a prime recruit back in high school a quarter century ago.

Well, unless there was some canned, staged event or team-fueled PR BS that served to put him in a positive light and didn’t cut into any of his late-night drinking or gambling binges. Then he might – MIGHT – get up off his keister and “invest” a moment or two of his precious time.

Remember those good ol’ days of your youth, when you’d watch him flex his verbal muscles about practice being too valued by his Hall of Fame coach? When you’d watch him make George “Chucker” Constanza seem like a pass-first player? When you’d watch Your Team, Your Town, Your 76ers construct a squad of defensive-minded, never-shoot minions to cater to his massive ego?

Fun times. Lotta entertainment. Lotta wins, too.

Lotta substance?

Kinda hard to nail that one down in the positive category.

Even the one memory-making trip to the NBA Finals driven by Iverson, really, was nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan, lightning-in-a-bottle deal. There was never any chance, even with getting to that stage, of the Sixers becoming champions during his run in Philly.

That first-game stunner in L.A. was nice, but strictly a precursor to the four-game mauling at the hands of the Lakers that quickly ensued.

This legacy he has tarnished of late … what was it?

Take away the teenage girl-like attraction to his stardom, heavily fueled by an ever-misplaced admiration for his acting like the spoiled child he was, and you’re left with one incredibly gifted athlete who forever marched to his own drum, and everyone else be damned.

That hasn’t changed. Nor is it ever going to change.

Self-absorbed, immature a-holes never do.
​



0 Comments

NBA  |  Use Simmons in trade for LeBron? Uh, no ...

7/22/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
NBA all-time great LeBron James, left, has been mentoring the Sixers' Ben Simmons for years.
Picture
By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

It sounds fantastic.

Almost too good to be true.

Then Philly sports fans or media members, speaking for the masses, or trying to, in their eyes, enlighten those same masses, open up, share some ideas – of the knee-jerk, non-thinking kind – and, suddenly you realize, yeah, it really is too good to be true.

Yo, not for nothing, but if the 76ers are gonna acquire LeBron James ... only they need to trade Ben Simmons in order to do so, no thanks.

The whole point of getting the best player in the NBA would be lost.

Lost?

Well, here's a clue or a few to get:

James' stay at the top of the game's heap, believe it or not, does have a shelf life. None of us may be sure exactly what it is, but at some point he will begin to fade from the elite. A bright mind, he is aware of this and entrepreneurial enough to want to be part of the passing-the-torch process if at all possible.

Despite all the hullabaloo surrounding Joel Embiid and his “successful” 31-game run last season, not to mention Markelle Fultz and his being the latest name on the tip of everyone's tongue, Simmons is the one potentially transcendental talent on the Sixers' roster, and he already is being mentored by James.

Umm, hello ...

Wake up, people. If you want the optimum advantage of having the King hold court here, then you want him guiding Simmons on the youngster's journey toward greatness – because if the latter is every going to get there, it's more likely to happen with a little help, some understanding, and a lot of first-hand examples.

Sorry, those whose memories only span back to the weeks leading up to this year's draft, but your 2017 No. 1 overall pick is a far better trade commodity in a situation such as this for multiple reasons. Chief among them being that his value will never be higher and, in this particular case, his being used as a chip could enable the James-Simmons connection to occur.

The inability for so many to struggle with grasping what the team may have in Simmons is mind-boggling. Yeah, he's been outtta sight, outta mind for a year now, but still ... he is the one guy who possesses a skill set so rare that the self-proclaimed geniuses can't stop racking their brains at the concept of a 6-foot-10 guy playing the point on offense and anywhere that suits him on defense.

Uh, that box you're stuck in ... trying stepping outside of it.

Might find a lot more opportunities out there.

More wins for the Sixers, too.

Especially if they keep Simmons while acquiring James.

Otherwise, nothing fantastic about it.

Just pointless then.
​

1 Comment

College Football  |  Temple in better hands than expected

7/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
In accepting his first head-coaching job, Geoff Collins stepped into a tough spot at Temple University, having to replace the program's best head coach in generations who also happened to be a great salesman, but appears to have the Owls right on track for continued success.
Picture
By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

Panic.

Unfiltered. Unabridged. Uncontrollable.

That, if anything, would have been the correct response for anyone associated with Temple University football when Dr. Neil Theobald got shown the door by the school’s board of trustees a year ago.

As president, he’d overseen everything at the North Broad campus for four years, but nowhere was his presence felt more than within the grid program, which experienced unprecedented growth, exposure and success during his tenure.

Oh, there is no denying the impact Matt Rhule had as well then, but Baylor University’s new head coach can thank Theobald in large part for that Big 12 gig and paycheck to match he now has. The latter gave the former not only his break at Temple, but the support required to turn an absolute dumpster fire into a viable, entertaining FBS operation – one good enough to make back-to-back American Athletic Conference championship games, including a victory in the second go-’round.

Put it this way, no one – not even Rhule or All-American linebacker Tyler Matakevich or 2017 first-round draft pick Haason Reddick – influenced the road the Owls traveled from 2012 through 2016 more than Theobald did.

Fortunately, his ouster last July occurred too late to derail Temple’s pending fall campaign. But, anything after that … well, fair game.

Which is why anyone with a real investment in the football team had every reason to have a deer-in-headlights appearance with matching vibes inside for months following that, even while Rhule’s final edition of Owls was piecing together a conference title-winning season.

Temple did so with nary a sniff of attention from the Philly media and area fans – which was a far cry from the apex of awesomeness it reached the previous year while beating Penn State, hosting Notre Dame and recording its first double-digit-win campaign in almost 40 years.

Any hopes that the program would continue its upward trend despite Theobald’s departure seemed to rest with Rhule. Then he left, barely seconds after securing that AAC crown.

Panic, say hello to Dread.

Seriously. All things considered, with the never-ending string of obstacles Temple football has faced for decades, ranging anywhere from lousy facilities to no respect to bad luck, a self-imposed death penalty wouldn’t have been such a bad option. Just think about the release from frustration …

But it has kept plugging away. Under new administrative authority, with yet another first-time head coach, and, amazingly, with the 2017 season little more than a month away, it – gulp – has stabilized.

At least it appears to have stabilized.

Not for nothing, but Geoff Collins has almost reprised Rhule’s savior role … only with a more folksy, even friendlier, gotta-get-me-some-cheesesteaks approach. But he’s just as hard-ass on the field as his predecessor, just as demanding on what he expects of his players, both those already on campus and those he is, and will be, recruiting for the Cherry and White.

Plus, Temple has several players listed on preseason watch lists for awards, it remains recognized as an AAC title contender, and just this week word leaked out that a home-and-home series may be in the works between it and Atlantic Coast Conference member Miami.

None of those are signs of a program that is careening off the tracks, as easily could have been the case once the driving force behind Temple’s commitment to football was forced to leave.

But, here it is, a year after Theobald was 86’d. It’s also seventh months since Rhule split. Yet, the Owls are still sitting with the proverbial big kids at their conference table, still getting some “love” from those in college football circles, and still bringing in quality players.
​
Go figure …
​

A-OK WITH COLLINS

Hard to put a finger on it.

At some point, with following all his activity, seeing how he interacted with people, young and old, players and non-players, watching him work his players, hearing how he was viewed at previous stops, it just clicked for me:

This guy, this new coach for Temple football, well, maybe he ain’t Matt Rhule.

Maybe, for this program, with where it’s going, he may be … ummm, better.

Yep, said it. Still stuns me, too.

The Owls’ former coach was a special kind of salesman, able to light a fire under his players and actually elicit some interest in Philly for a program that, well, has never received much of any in its entire existence.

Rhule was never about Xs and Os. He was all attitude, and he was, pardon the fanspeak, awesome with it. No one with any connection to Temple football has any business viewing him as anything less than the highest regard, as a quality coach, as a program-builder, as a guy who took the Owls to previously unprecedented heights for them.

But, he wanted to go … and, frankly, Collins wanted to come. Apparently as much as Rhule did back in 2012, when he left an assistant’s gig with the New York Giants to return to Broad Street, where he had been Al Golden’s right-hand offensive man for years.
​
Collins, frankly, arrived with better credentials. He’d been successful as a defensive coordinator at two Southeastern Conference schools, and actually had been Rhule’s boss at prior stops for both at Albright and Western Carolina.

But Temple, if nothing else, is a tough sell. Any coach at the Owls’ helm will face indifference and disrespect that few, if any, elsewhere ever experience. Rhule handled that like, well, no one else ever has.

Until now.

Oh, it’s early. Way early. Far too early to tell how things will go, long-term. But if the early returns, or examples, are any indication, Collins has matched, if not surpassed, Rhule’s steadfast enthusiasm and energy in not only running the Temple program, but promoting it.

He has sold me. Even faster than Rhule did.

0 Comments

MLB  |  Herrera deserves a better following in Philly

7/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Odubel Herrera has raised his batting average from .217 in late May to .262 entering tonight.
Picture
By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

His cross to bear is not a new one.

Just the most recent of an obvious lot.

For years, for decades, for generations, Philadelphia sports fans, not to mention follow-the-flock media, have made it their mission to look past the facts, ignore reality and skip what they see in order to perpetuate many assorted myths, personal vendettas and what have you to tear down individual athletes.

Good ones. Damn good ones.

What’s that, “Ang” doesn’t like Donovan McNabb? Yeah, screw that quarterback. He sucks. Couldn’t even stop himself from throwing up at the Super Bowl.

Jayson Werth had an issue with a fan getting in his way of catching a foul ball? That rat bastard. He can’t play anyway.

Andre Iguodola got how much money? Man, he’s terrible. Not worth a dime.


So, current Phillies center fielder/whipping boy Odubel Herrera is not exactly alone in feeling Philly’s wrath.

Unwarranted wrath that is.

Not for nothing, but the overkill of blame and criticism directed at the guy, and his performance, has highlighted just how dreadful a season the team is having and how clueless those who run the club and follow it are.

Bench him? Bury him? Trade him?

Say it ain’t so.

The first two already have occurred. If the third does, holy cow.

Look, the guy isn’t having a banner campaign overall. He started slow, then dialed it down even further as the Phillies sunk into the abyss during the month of May.

Got it. He didn’t help the situation.

Of course, making him the focal point of all the team’s problems, as if him running through a stop sign or flipping a bat proved a death knell, was silly. Especially when a team is as flawed as these 2017 Phillies are.

At no point did his defense suffer, and, frankly, neither did his passion for playing waiver.

Sorry, watch the game instead of just regurgitating what has become trendy among the masses because this sportstalk radio host said so or a sports columnist wrote so … and forever fail to adapt to what actually is or what has changed.

Yeah, OK, he plays with flare. That’s a problem?!!

Jeez, if ever a team needed some life pumped into – even by artificial means – these Phillies are it. Plus, the dude can play.

Put it this way, while chatter about moving him, either down to the farm or another organization, continues to float around, Herrera, after batting an abysmal .183 in May, has righted his game back to last year’s all-star form. Since June hit, the guy is batting .319 entering tonight’s contest at Miami. He has 8 homers, 18 runs scored, 19 RBIs and 16 doubles over that same 40-game span as well.

Project those out to a full season and we’re talking about a line that reads .319-32-73-77 and with a club-record 65 doubles (which would be just two shy of Earl Webb’s major-league mark). Not bad for a guy manager Pete Mackanin has jerked around in the order for weeks, often dropping him – ridiculously – into the No. 7 hole.

Thing is, for all his mental mistakes or base-running faux pas, Herrera always – ALWAYS – was the most difficult “out” for the opposition, and we’re not just talking at the plate.

Being a kid who made the transition from infield to outfield, he was staring at two major obstacles:
  • The reality that he would never be able to succeed because few do, especially in center.
  • The perception that he would never be able to succeed because few do, especially in center.

Truth is, Herrera is a very good defensive player who borders on being exceptional. He ain’t quite the outfield version of Freddy Galvis, but, then again, few in Philly seem to grasp just how awesome a shortstop they have in their midst, either.

But instead of recognizing, and appreciating, what we got, we’ll keep ripping the guy and pointing the finger at him when 2-0 leads suddenly become 8-2 deficits.

It’s stupid and it’s sad, but it’s not uncommon.

Not here.

On the bright side, Herrera gets to keep the cross whether he stays here or not. Philly fans will make sure of that.
​

0 Comments

MLB  |  Not looking good for Trout or Harper to land in Philly

7/15/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

It's a fade-to-black fact.

For me, at least, it is.

With each passing loss, with each passing excuse for effort, with each passing rationale for waiting on bringing any of the kids up from the farm, the likelihood of the Phillies somehow cashing in on their Sixers-ish state of abyss the past few years with the signing of a big-time free agent or two dims with subtlety of a sledgehammer coming down on a light switch.

Salvation, thy name will not be Bryce Harper nor Mike Trout.

Sorry, peeps, just keeping it real ...

OK, put away the red-striped glasses and “It Hit Me Like a Matt Klentak” tees for a minute and put the reality caps on. Seriously, who the hell would want to join this dumpster fire of a franchise as it muddles through the recovery of nearly a decade's worth of Ruben Amaro's fingerprints all over it.

We're not talking a quick fix here, or a four-year tanking plan unearthed hatched across the street in South Philly that sent the city's NBA franchise plummeting so hard to the ocean floor that it's bounced back almost to the point of being able to tread water with playoff contention.

No, the Phillies are so far down and buried that it's going to take more than making Harper a half-billion-dollar acquisition or convincing Trout to utilize Section 2855 of the California Labor Code as a means to quantum leap themselves out of the grave.

Both superstars know that. Even in their mid-20s.

They ain't about to waste the primes of their professional careers exhausting themselves in futility with trying to make some pipe dream concocted by any sports-talk host and eaten up by a starving fan base come true.

OK, sure, if Scott Kingery really does turn out to be the next Chase Utley, and we're talking the .300-30-100-100 in his prime Utley and the “broken down before his time” Utley post-2009 World Series, if Rhys Hoskins proves to be a Mini-Me version of slugging Yankees rookie sensation Aaron Judge, and if a couple pitchers arrive to place Aaron Nola in his rightful place in the middle of a rotation, then, yes, Harper or Trout or anyone else would not be making the worst decisions of their lives by coming here.

But how likely are the Phillies to go 3-for-3 on those ifs? Hell, a 1-for-3 effort would be wonderful. Just don't count on it.

The runaway leaders to Major League Baseball's basement in 2017, the Phillies' organizational highlights of late include helping to turn their best player, Odubel Herrera, into persona non grata with the fans, making potential 30-homer guy Tommy Joseaph an almost untradeable entity, and providing manager Pete Mackanin with enough excuses to keep him a sympathetic character through the rest of his days at Citizens Bank Park.

This is not a team on the fast track back to respectability – a location they'd probably need to be in the first place before the likes of Harper or Trout would consider a move to Broad Street.


Picture
Bryce Harper
Picture
Mike Trout

MAYBE THEY DO LIE A LITTLE

The numbers …

For now, they won’t agree with this side of the debate.

Halfway into a decade of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper vying for “best player in baseball” honors, they weigh heavily in the former’s favor.

But the gut feeling here, not to mention what the contacts-aided eye test says, is that the latter either brings, or will bring, more to the table – offensively and otherwise.

Though both had league MVP awards in their back pockets by the time they were 23, Trout, clearly, has produced the more “wow” statistics overall, and on a more consistent basis.

Your “average” 162 games for Trout: .307 batting average, .408 on-base percentage, .566 slugging percentage, 35 homers, 101 RBIs and 120 runs scored.

Comparatively for Harper: .284, .388, .513, 31, 88 and 106.

Trout also added a second MVP to his trophy case at age 25.

Then again, Harper looks on track to match that this season.

His 2015 season trumps any Trout has posted, too, in terms of Ruthian, “holy crap” stats headlined by .460 on-base and .640 slugging clips.

Plus, for all the hype surrounding Trout’s leaps against the fence, Harper is the superior defensive player with the proverbial cannon for an arm, and, like it or not, he has become “the face” of the sport … and seems incredibly comfortable as such, pressure to perform be damned.
​
Of course, if you’re the Phillies or any other team in baseball, you break the bank for either should they ever become available, via free agency or trade.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Categories

    NFL
    MLB
    NBA
    NHL
    NCAAFB
    ​NCAABB
    Eagles
    Phillies
    76ers
    Flyers
    Temple
    Villanova
    La Salle
    ​Saint Joe's
    ​Penn State

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Best of 2018

    Picture

    Best of 2017

    Picture

    Best of 2016

    Picture

    Best of 2015

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Picture
Your source for insight ... or insanity

GET TO KNOW YDKJ

ABOUT    |    CONTACT   |    BLOG    |    PRIVACY POLICY

​© COPYRIGHT 2018   YDKJ   |   Terms & Conditions
Picture