Is Ohio State vs. Florida the new Rosie O'Donnell vs. Donald Trump? No matter who's right, nobody wins...1) Don't get me wrong, I love this newfound cavalier attitude of staying in school. Thanks to the new NBA age-limit and the Florida players sticking it out another year and possibly winning back-to-back titles, it seems like everyone is caught up in collegiate spirit these days. But let's not fool ourselves. Kevin Durant is not staying at Texas. Greg Oden is not registering for History of Rock & Roll II: (The Sammy Hagar Era). Despite disappointing tournament finishes, don't expect to see Arron Afflalo, Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Brandan Wright, Julian Wright and Thaddeus Young in collegiate uniforms next year.
Every year we like to get ourselves caught up in a frenzy of college players potentially spurring the bright lights of the NBA lifestyle for another year of amateur ball. This is because we're all a bunch of self-involved, self-righteous idiots. How many columnists have already written their own opinion on why Kevin Durant or Greg Oden should stay in school, pretending like they know what's best for these kids to do? Nobody cares about the futures of these players, and there's nothing wrong with that, because they're going to be fine anyway, barring some unforeseen career ending injury. (That's one argument people like to always make for why kids should leave school for the NBA earlier, but honestly, how many of these guys are sure things in the NBA but have their career stopped before it can start by a major injury? Jay Williams is the only one that comes to mind in my entire generation. Maybe arguably Bobby Hurley, but he never would've been an All-Star caliber player anyway).
All we care about is seeing competitive college basketball. We also care about acting like we know what's best for a bunch of kids. We don't.
2) Michael Phelps is busy re-writing the record books in Australia right now, and a lot of people are probably going to argue that we as a society should care more than we do. I actually agree to some extent on this one. First of all, I'm not sure why ESPN wouldn't have at least some tape-delayed coverage of the World Swimming Championships? It's a fringe sport at best, but the Olympic coverage of it is always intriguing, and it sure beats watching two more hours of World Poker Tour repeats or, god help us, figure skating.
It's interesting that the three greatest athletes in the world right now play in three somewhat marginal, individual sports: Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps. Woods and Federer get four chances a year to thrust their name into the conscious lexicon of American sports culture. Phelps will probably get one more chance in his lifetime: the 2008 Olympics, where he's expected to compete for an unprecedented eight gold medals.
You'd be hard pressed to find another athlete right now who's up there with Phelps, Tiger and Federer. They're the Gretzky, Montana and Jordan of this generation, the guys who are redefining their sport. Lebron and Wade? Maybe someday, but definitely not yet. Brady and Manning? You could argue for them, but they're still awhiles away. Barry Bonds? Eh, doesn't really count if everybody hates your guts.
3) Quick review of Blades of Glory: some really funny scenes as you'd expect with Will Ferrell, but doesn't have the nuances of his previous films. Figure skating and the Winter Olympics in general are extremely ripe for parody and they nail a lot of the jokes (the ridiculous apparel on and off the ice, the goofy mascots and pageantry, the over-anxious announcing). Jon Heder has his moments, but his character gets grating by the midway point of the film; and he doesn't play off of Ferrell nearly as well as previous co-stars like Vince Vaughn/Luke Wilson in Old School, Christina Applegate in Anchorman and John C. Reilly in Talladega Nights. Will Arnett and Amy Poehler could've been the best part of the movie as the rival figure skaters, but don't get as much screen time or funny send-ups as they deserve. As for Jenna Fischer: I think I'm in love.
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