Go ahead. Admit it. You have World Cup fever. USA! USA! USA! It's OK. You are allowed to jump on the United States' soccer bandwagon. You've earned it, having either played youth soccer yourself or suffered through driving your kids to their countless games on Saturday mornings sometime over the last two decades. But here's a word of warning: Don't use your hands to pull yourself up on that wagon. Someone will kick you in the futbol. It's a soccer thing.
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Another word of warning: Don't criticize soccer. That is so 1980s and 1990s. I know. I was usually first in that bloated, Lawrence Taylor jersey-wearing, hot-dog-eating, beer-belching line. If you are still that guy, a guy who would prefer a thrilling 27-26 Detroit Lions preseason win over the Atlanta Falcons over a 1-0 hold-your-breath U.S. soccer victory over Slovenia, then you just need to keep quiet right now. Nobody is listening to you.
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Don't worry, soccer haters, the beautiful game is not going to take this country by storm. You are not going to have to toss your Tim Lincecum jersey in the trash and buy some Jozy Altidore gear. That would require a World Cup championship by the U.S. and, well, there's a better chance of the Nevada Wolf Pack joining the Pac-10 next week than the U.S. winning soccer's top prize. This is just Michael Phelps winning Olympic gold all over again. Two days after the bandwagon runs out of gas we'll all move on to important matters like studying for our NFL fantasy draft. ESPN will stop telling us how amazing soccer is and return to reporting on Brett Favre's breakfast choices.
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As you waited Thursday night to hear Luke Babbitt's and Armon Johnson's names called in the seemingly never-ending NBA draft did you think for even a moment why those two wonderful talents didn't get the Wolf Pack to the NCAA tournament the last two years? How can a team with two legitimate NBA players not win the WAC Tournament at least once on its own floor? The easy answer to that question is that they had a head coach with one foot in Georgia in their first year together followed by a rookie head coach in their second year. Also, more importantly, the Babbitt-Johnson two-year run in Nevada was college basketball's version of Spahn and Sain and pray for rain. They just didn't have any help. But those are just excuses. They should have won at least one of the two WAC Tournaments in Reno. That's why the loss to New Mexico State in March in the WAC semifinals will forever be one of the most heartbreaking losses in Pack men's hoops history.
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Should Stephen Strasburg be on this year's National League All-Star team? Not a chance. Four starts does not an All-Star make. Strasburg might very well be one of the top five pitchers in the major leagues already but you can't make seven or eight starts in June and July and simply walk onto the All-Star team. Strasburg will have plenty of opportunities to make the All-Star team in the next dozen years. The National League has plenty of options to pitch in the All-Star game. Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson and Matt Cain, to name just three.
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The real NBA draft starts in about 10 days when the LeBron James sweepstakes begins. John Wall and Evan Turner might win 45 games each in their first year in the NBA, if they're lucky. The team that gets LeBron might win a NBA championship. The free agent derby this summer is going to change the league's landscape over the next decade. There is a draft every summer and it is always filled with three times as many Adam Morrisons and Kwame Browns than there are Michael Jordans and Tim Duncans.
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Phil Jackson says he is leaning toward retirement. Don't believe him. First of all, with his bad knees, he is always leaning somewhere. It's June. He's always leaning toward retirement in June. Jackson is not going to leave another three-peat on the table. He is still the head coach of the best NBA team. He still has Kobe Bryant. His girlfriend is still his boss. The chance to sit in his rocking chair and looking out his cabin window in Montana will always be there. Not next year.
Joe Santoro is a freelance writer for the Sierra Nevada Media Group. Listen to him on the radio every Wednesday and Friday from 4-6 p.m. on the Chris Andrews Show on 1450-AM.
