Anger and Sadness

It's been a while. I'm coming back with loads of rage.

First of all, today was a really sad day for me......it was sad because when the Wolves lost today, it didn't bother me that much. Usually after an overtime loss (a game the Wolves really should've won), it would bug me until the next day.....but not today. After the firing of Dwane Casey, and having a day to process it.....you just realize how in shambles this organization is, and that this team isn't going anywhere.

Can anyone give an argument for NOT trading Kevin Garnett at this point? You're obviously, despite Kevin McHale's delusional assertions, not going anywhere in the Western Conference. What happens next year? You don't have the pieces to make any significant trades. If we were to make the playoffs, we wouldn't have a pick in the draft. We'd basically have the same team as this year, except everyone is older. Then Garnett opts out of his contract, and you have nothing to show for it.

Chicago has reportedly offered Ben Gordon, PJ Brown, and their 1st round draft pick to the Grizzlies for Pau Gasol. Now is the time to call up Chicago and offer them Garnett, while you still can, whether he approves of the trade or not, before it's too late. Garnett is 31, and deserves to be on not only a team with championship potential, but a team whose front office isn't horribly disorganized and downright stupid. If Kevin McHale wants to leave this team on a good note before he hands over the reigns to Fred Hoiberg, his legacy will have to be trading the franchise's most beloved player. What does he have to lose anyway?

Maybe then this state will have something to get excited about. Nobody, including myself, really cares that much anymore.

OK, some Australian Open ranting....

Thus far, the tournament has been sort of disappointing. Sure, there have been some decent matches.....but not really. Here are some of my gripes.....

-ESPN's announcing crew is absolutely horrible. Cliff Drysdale and Patrick McEnroe are tolerable, but Dick Enberg, Mary Joe Fernandez, Pam Shriver, and particularly Mary Carillo (*shudder*) are just atrocious. Listening to their bad jokes and uninsightful commentary makes me wonder how I would do in the booth. Mary Carillo is probably the biggest female blowhard I know of.....a great match is single handedly ruined by her commentary.

-I ranted about how men's tennis is far superior to women's tennis a week or two ago, and this tournament has only gone to prove that. I've compiled the ratio of winners to unforced errors, for the tournament, for the two women's finalists, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.

Through 6 matches
Maria Sharapova: 180 winners to 220 unforced errors, or -40
Serena Williams: 143 winners to 147 unforced errors, or -4

Watching Sharapova play Kim Clijsters made me wanna vomit. How can two players be top 5 in the world, and be playing this horribly? Shall we compare this to the men's semifinalists?

Through 5 matches
Roger Federer: 200 winners to 138 unforced errors, or +62
Andy Roddick: 210 winners to 101 unforced errors, or +109
Fernando Gonzalez: 265 winners to 127 unforced errors, or +138
Tommy Haas: 225 winners to 140 unforced errors, or +85

So let's average it out on a per match basis.....

Maria Sharapova, per match: 30 winners, 37 errors, or -7
Serena Williams, per match: 24 winners, 25 unforced errors, or -1

Roger Federer, per match: 40 winners, 28 unforced errors, or +12
Andy Roddick, per match: 42 winners, 20 unforced errors, or +22
Fernando Gonzalez, per match: 53 winners, 25 unforced errors, or +28
Tommy Haas, per match: 45 winners, 28 unforced errors, or +17

So there you have it. More statistics to show that men's tennis is better than women's. I can't believe I just spent half an hour collecting that data when nobody reads this.

Back to the bitching about the Australian Open....

-I believe the agreement is that after Roger Federer wins the Australian Open this year, the ESPN commentating team will each take turns performing fellatio on him, on court, as he holds the trophy. We get that he's good, but fuck, the guy hits an overhead, and it's suddenly the "brushstroke of a master artist whose canvas is the tennis court". The whole "you're watching the greatest ever" thing was cool for the first, say, 5 majors he won, but just stop it, it's gotten irritating.

It's been fun watching tennis this past week and a half, but none of the matches have really been that noteworthy. All it's done is reinforce the two main views I have about professional tennis these days: 1) Men's tennis is getting boring, not exciting, because of Federer's dominance and 2) Women's tennis is not only boring, but also aesthetically unpleasing.

Super Bowl ramblings sometime later this week.