2013—A Look into an
eventful year in Sports.
By J.
Terrell Price
A repeat, a
hoax, a newly crowned champion, a streak, and a phenomenon who took the baseball world by storm . Those are just a few of the storylines in sports that have grabbed our attention in the 2013 calendar year.
As if 2012
wasn’t eventful enough, this year has shaped out to be one of those “where were
you when…” type of years. It began with the Alabama
Crimson Tide displaying their supremacy, and that of the SEC, with a domination
(and that’s being gentle) of America’s darling, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who's star linebacker, Manti T'eo would create his own page of headlines.
Many pundits and prognosticators pegged the Irish as a David to Bama’s Goliath. That is until the opening kickoff…or maybe it was the opening coin flip, which Notre Dame won and inexplicably deferred to the Tide. Ball game over. SEC Dominates Again. Those are the sentiments echoed once again for the seventh consecutive year. And to think that if there were five more seconds allotted to the Georgia Bulldogs, this title would be theirs.
Many pundits and prognosticators pegged the Irish as a David to Bama’s Goliath. That is until the opening kickoff…or maybe it was the opening coin flip, which Notre Dame won and inexplicably deferred to the Tide. Ball game over. SEC Dominates Again. Those are the sentiments echoed once again for the seventh consecutive year. And to think that if there were five more seconds allotted to the Georgia Bulldogs, this title would be theirs.
But not even
two weeks after the annihilation that was the “Title Game” came news that T’eo’s
made for television story of an ill girlfriend who died of leukemia the same
day as his grandmother was all a part of a cruel hoax; and Manti was the “catfish”.
You see, not only was the girlfriend not striken by a terrible disease, but she
did not even exist. T’eo believed the woman he shared many a phone conversation
and developed an online relationship with, Lennay Kekkua, was in fact real.
Turns out that an acquaintance of the linebacker, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was the
voice behind the fictional woman. He claims to have initiated the hoax, not
revealing himself until after the faked death of the Kekkua character. Many
question whether T’eo was in on this dirty cruel joke or not. No one knows whether it was a
tactic to elevate the the linebacker’s Heisman hopes and future draft status or
a deeper mental issue that will detered National Football League general managers. It seemed to play a role in T'eo's draft positioning, as he was not chosen until the second round of the NFL Draft in April.
While the “Catfish
Celebrity Version” was playing out, the NFL playoffs were approaching a climax.
The NFC playoffs drew to a pinnacle as the Championship of the conference
pitted the Atlanta Falcons versus the San Francisco Forty Niners. The
snakebitten Falcons franchise hosted their first title game in their 46 year
history, but could not stop the hot and suddenly celebrity-bound quarterback,
Colin Kaepernick. In the AFC, two rivals met again as rematch of the previous
year’s title tilt between the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots played
out. This time the Birds from Maryland came out on top and defeated the Pats,
giving longtime Raven, Ray Lewis the opportunity to end his career with the
ultimate omega—a Super Bowl title. Ravens quarterback, Joe Flacco and the Baltimore
offense did not disappoint as they took care of the Niners in the Mercedes-Benz
Superdome. As entertaining as the game was, what most likely was discussed on twitter and social media that night was the blackout in the venue. After Pop star, Beyoncé shut the Halftime Show down with a titillating performance, something weird happened as play resumed. The lights went black in half of the Superdome. Some attributed it to Bey's hot show that included pyrotechnics and enough explosives to shut any Fourth of July party down. Others joked of the Superdome's old and decrepit age for an arena and the host city's lack of funds to pay the electric bill.
During all
this football business, there was a basketball season playing out if anyone
cared. The champion Miami Heat returned their squad for another run, as well as
the usual suspects as contenders. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Los Angeles
have aspirations of a title as well—The Los Angeles CLIPPERS. A perennial step
child to the glorified Lakers, the Clippers at one point were the hottest team
in basketball, while the Lakers were more akin to a daily soap opera. The
simmering beef between longtime Laker Kobe Bryant and newly acquired Dwight
Howard came to a head in early February when Bryant questioned the severity of
Howard’s nagging back injury. As the Lakers mired through inconsistent play,
they found themselves jockeying for positioning in the Western Conference. Kobe would, however miss the postseason due to a tear of his Achilles tendon late in the season. Bryant, a typically durable player had to sit out and watch his Lakers go quietly into the night under the "leadership" of Howard, who chose not to even finish the elimination game by getting ejected. Not the most glorious way to enter into a free agent summer. The
Eastern Conference proved to be Miami and “the field” to use a golf
analogy. No team emerged as a legitimate threat to the reigning champions during the regular season.
The
Heat seriously flirted with history as took aim to break the all- time record of 33
consecutive wins in the regular season. A record set by the Lakers of 1972. The winning streak that started right after Super Bowl Sunday continued through the All-Star Break and into the second half of the season. As LeBron James asserted himself as the most prolific player in the game, Miami took their dominance to another level. The streak got into the twenties and as far as 27 games. The scappy Chicago Bulls ended it on one dramatic night, devoid of their own superstar, Derrick Rose. Coming up seven games short of their goal, the Heat set out to reach their ultimate prize as the playoffs neared.
The NBA's Eastern Conference offered little in the way of competition to Miami until they encountered the rough and rugged Indiana Pacers. The Pacers, who gave the Heat a tough series a year before, traded wins with the champs through six games. Game Seven, however, was no contest as Miami rolled on to the Finals where they would meet with the Western Conference Champs, the San Antonio Spurs.
The Final Series would in some ways become a mirage of the Eastern Conference Final series as wins were traded between the Heat and Spurs through five games. The final two games would turn out to become the most epic climax to a championship series in recent memory. Miami, literally seconds from losing a second final series in three years, pulled off a miracle as Ray Allen tied up Game 6 and sent it into overtime. LeBron James and the crew sealed the deal in that one and lived on to see another day. Game 7 would be more LeBron, more Dwyane Wade, and more champagne flowing by game's end for the boys from Dade County.
The NBA's Eastern Conference offered little in the way of competition to Miami until they encountered the rough and rugged Indiana Pacers. The Pacers, who gave the Heat a tough series a year before, traded wins with the champs through six games. Game Seven, however, was no contest as Miami rolled on to the Finals where they would meet with the Western Conference Champs, the San Antonio Spurs.
The Final Series would in some ways become a mirage of the Eastern Conference Final series as wins were traded between the Heat and Spurs through five games. The final two games would turn out to become the most epic climax to a championship series in recent memory. Miami, literally seconds from losing a second final series in three years, pulled off a miracle as Ray Allen tied up Game 6 and sent it into overtime. LeBron James and the crew sealed the deal in that one and lived on to see another day. Game 7 would be more LeBron, more Dwyane Wade, and more champagne flowing by game's end for the boys from Dade County.
After the whirlwind, grinding NBA season, the basketball world's attention shifted from LeBron back to Dwight Howard and his pending free agency. The disgruntled Laker was courted by five teams, including his hometown Atlanta Hawks. Dubbed the "Indecision", a spin-off from LeBron's "Decision" of 2010, Dwight's choice of who would pay him up to a five year $108 million contract sparked debate all across the world. Dwight eventually chose Houston as his destination, even though the Lakers could offer him the most money. His decision was possibly justified by the idea of playing alongside budding superstar James Harden. Maybe the prospect of learning under basketball greats, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin McHale enticed the talented, but offensively remedial center was vital. Or maybe the nonexistence of state taxes in Texas was enough to soften the blow of passing up an extra $30 million in salary Dwight could have garnered from Los Angeles.
This transaction alone created a ripple effect in the NBA as the teams who did not get Howard's services were left scrambling to fill their rosters and appease fans who were salivating at the thought of having a dominating big man on their squad.
With the year round business of the NFL and the attention-grabbing headlines of the NBA into early July, Major League Baseball always seems to be relegated to the kiddie table in the sports pecking order. While we marveled at LeBron and lamented Dwight and checked in on NFL mini-camps, Los Angeles Dodger fans were treated with a phenomenon unseen to the baseball world since "Fernandomania" struck in the early 1980s. Cuban-born, Yasiel Puig made his Major League debut in early June, and from his first at bat, a star was essentially born. He displayed a flair for the game and provided an entertainment value to the sport that had been lacking since the 1990s. Recording an outfield assist in his first game, Puig was a nightly SportsCenter highlight. His June statistics were so good, fans clamored for him to be selected into July's All-Star Game, despite the fact that he had not played the full season.
Puig's emergence has propelled the Dodgers into first place in their division. While other teams vying for National League supremacy are the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.
However, the most notable story in baseball did not happen on the field, but off. A Biogenesis Lab, based in Miami, has been the center of controversy as it has been implicated in supplying multiple Major Leaguers with performance enhancing drugs. Among them include superstars Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. Braun was named in the scandal as early as 2011, but vehemently denied any use of PEDs for the longest time. He eventually succumbed to accusations and evidence and accepted a 65 game suspension, essentially the rest of the 2013 campaign. Rodriguez, however has not wilted in his stance. Major League Baseball even sought to ban the Yankees slugger from the game for life, sighting the "Good of the Game" clause. Eventually, he was given a 211 game suspension that would last through 2014. ARod is currently appealing that punishment, allowing him to play until the matter is heard in court by an arbitrator. These cases of PED use has further stained the game of baseball. The sport that has not quite recovered from the 1994 season-ending strike now has to handle the public relations disaster that is its best and most prominent players associated with drug use. Hopefully a strong end to the regular season and an entertaining post-season will reduce the stench of a scandal that has tainted the game.
As Summer draws near a close and Fall nears, the cycle that is the sports calendar returns back to football. College and professional games will begin come September and there are plenty of storylines. Returning Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel has garnered more attention in the offseason for his shenanigans off the field than his play on it. Basking in his new-found celebrity, the twenty year old has attended just about every fraternity party known to man and may be getting investigated by the NCAA for receiving pay for signing his autograph at multiple signing functions. The matter will be discussed throughout the remainder of the year, as will football in general.
We are two-thirds through the year of 2013 and the most entertaining portion of this sports novel has yet to be written. We will continuously update you on the happenings as they occur.
With the year round business of the NFL and the attention-grabbing headlines of the NBA into early July, Major League Baseball always seems to be relegated to the kiddie table in the sports pecking order. While we marveled at LeBron and lamented Dwight and checked in on NFL mini-camps, Los Angeles Dodger fans were treated with a phenomenon unseen to the baseball world since "Fernandomania" struck in the early 1980s. Cuban-born, Yasiel Puig made his Major League debut in early June, and from his first at bat, a star was essentially born. He displayed a flair for the game and provided an entertainment value to the sport that had been lacking since the 1990s. Recording an outfield assist in his first game, Puig was a nightly SportsCenter highlight. His June statistics were so good, fans clamored for him to be selected into July's All-Star Game, despite the fact that he had not played the full season.
Puig's emergence has propelled the Dodgers into first place in their division. While other teams vying for National League supremacy are the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.
However, the most notable story in baseball did not happen on the field, but off. A Biogenesis Lab, based in Miami, has been the center of controversy as it has been implicated in supplying multiple Major Leaguers with performance enhancing drugs. Among them include superstars Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. Braun was named in the scandal as early as 2011, but vehemently denied any use of PEDs for the longest time. He eventually succumbed to accusations and evidence and accepted a 65 game suspension, essentially the rest of the 2013 campaign. Rodriguez, however has not wilted in his stance. Major League Baseball even sought to ban the Yankees slugger from the game for life, sighting the "Good of the Game" clause. Eventually, he was given a 211 game suspension that would last through 2014. ARod is currently appealing that punishment, allowing him to play until the matter is heard in court by an arbitrator. These cases of PED use has further stained the game of baseball. The sport that has not quite recovered from the 1994 season-ending strike now has to handle the public relations disaster that is its best and most prominent players associated with drug use. Hopefully a strong end to the regular season and an entertaining post-season will reduce the stench of a scandal that has tainted the game.
As Summer draws near a close and Fall nears, the cycle that is the sports calendar returns back to football. College and professional games will begin come September and there are plenty of storylines. Returning Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel has garnered more attention in the offseason for his shenanigans off the field than his play on it. Basking in his new-found celebrity, the twenty year old has attended just about every fraternity party known to man and may be getting investigated by the NCAA for receiving pay for signing his autograph at multiple signing functions. The matter will be discussed throughout the remainder of the year, as will football in general.
We are two-thirds through the year of 2013 and the most entertaining portion of this sports novel has yet to be written. We will continuously update you on the happenings as they occur.
