If you’re a fan of D-How, I am truly sorry. The guy played the most uninspired game I have ever seen. He looked more like Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum than he did superman, with one bead of sweat glimmering from his reddened cheeks, as he smiled all evening at the half-clad body of Rihanna.

No I am not arguing in favor of Bieber fever to the Magic for D-How to Hollywood. The fever needs to stick to swooning fifteen year old girls with hip thrusts.  While D-How needs to go back to playing basketball with more drive than a uni-cycle. Dwight were you not the first overall pick in 2004, the guy who was supposed to help us forget about our generations great centers– Olajuwan, Ewing, Robinson, Mutumbo, and Shaq?

Yesterday you were far too much of the Afro-American Shawn Bradley. Pathetic.

Which is why Daytona– a “man” compared to the NBA’s “teenager”, shined yesterday. The tenth anniversary of the late great Dale Earnhardt’s death–Nascar’s MJ or Magic–touched me deep, as I reminisced on moments watching the great circle the track, while I hung with my ol’ man.  Those memories felt like yesterday–the flamed grill stinging the eyes with those dancing orange flames, while a beautifully seasoned tri-tip drips juicy fat onto oak wood.  Dad gurgling a Coors, with hash curling from his calloused cracked hands, while my uncles spit slurs at the fine Betty walking toward the beach in a poke-o-dot bikini. When the race began, everyone shuttup and watched. Something about the humming motors, thousands upon thousands of fans, and the various colored flags waving in the smooth wind of Daytona courted their boyhood (courting mine now) with memories of  wood race cars in Boy Scouts, skate boards, and bmx.

The glory of  yesterday reflected from a boy…literally. The victor of the 53rd Daytona 500, was  twenty year old rookie Trevor Bayne. He drove the famed Wood Bros. #21 car, leading them to their first large scale victory in ten years. As always the race was a cautiously safe ride for the first 175 laps, with your classic two by two mini races, and an occasional burst into the breakaway flat.  But it was far from boring. Jonathan Washer, from examiner.com, reported the race as ” [a] race [that] was filled with cautions and caution laps, there were too many two by two racing which made it seem boring for a 500 mile (200 lap) race.” Washer began the treatise as a lover of Nascar, which is why his opinion surprised me.

Or maybe it didn’t. The decline in Nascar’s attendance is not because the sport has become boring or awash with drivers that are “too safe”.  The decline is a derivative of pop cultures desire for athleticism–a highly relative term–considering most of us would not have the strength nor the fortitude to control the wile and torque of a car speeding around a track at 170-190 mph. Our cultures inability to see the competitive nature of Nascar is rooted in our entertainment world–the fact that we are now more of a fashion/hip hop culture that wants to see freakish, circus like movements in the air. We only want the wrecks or the dunks, not the patience of a skilled driver, taking small move after small move till the paramount of the 190th lap. A lap when no holds bar, and it becomes a dog eat dog experience on the race track.  My father’s generation looked at the resiliency of an individual, and judged them by their ability to withstand a sporting obstacle and win, win, win, on the biggest stages. We=beauty. My father=heart.

“The cool”=shoe shiner to my father as well. It did not matter what smile or swagger you had during his era, because it was more about the heart of each competitor. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Jerry West, Joe Joe D, The Big O, and Earnhardt Sr., were not a popular face in and of themselves, they were particles of popularity within the greater face of the sport itself. Basketball, Football, Baseball, Nascar, etc, made them who they were, not the opposite.

Which is why Nascar was where it was at yesterday. The NBA paled in comparison to a sport that still offers a freckle face twenty year old Bayne the opportunity to win on the biggest stage. A pile up on lap twenty nine, involving big names like Brian Vickers, Waltrip, Mark Martin, and Jeff Gordan, not only opened the field for youngsters like Bayne, but proved to the sporting world just how hard these guys compete. They literally risk their lives for the love of a sport, which should hit home for the people who choose to judge life by its quality not by its quantity.

Go ahead, you can have Bieber fever, and I will gladly remain steadfast in Nascar.  And when you leave, do you mind dumping Dwight “Tweedle Dee” Howard into the dumpsters out back? Thanks.

–Luke Johnson

Check out this T-Shirt. One of the reasons the Angels don’t get respect around California…

On the heels of my article earlier today about the best and worst pro teams in California, I submit this piece from Bay Area Bias. Let’s just hope the Warriors aren’t holding their breath for the Magic to trade them their franchise player…

In local news, Cal Poly Men’s Basketball got beat on a buzzer-beater again at home on Saturday night. Coach Callero tried to find the positive aspects of the tough loss on senior night.

While the Cal Poly Women’s team is still in first place, they’ve lost their last two games in a row.

I’m no expert, but Jim Gray has really fallen. They’re not even letting him work on the Golf Channel now. (Fansmanship loves the Golf Channel by the way)

Did anyone watch the NBA All-Star Game? I watched only the last few minutes… Is it the worst All-Star game in pro sports? KG needs to get his head right. The old man needs rest. He’s up and cursing someone out I think as we speak… Usually I don’t add takes in a post like this but I couldn’t help myself. He’s more unlikeable to opposing fans than Kobe or any other player in the league. That’s saying a lot. LeBron’s going to make someone get hurt… that would be a real story coming out of the weekend.

Kevin Durant is a baller.

and finally….

Fansmanship’s High School was given the honor of being named a California Distinguished School. What does it say about Fansmanship that the school was a distinguished school both before and after we were students there? Probably nothing. Congrats to the faculty and staff at Coast Union High School!

In today’s cotton candy world, both hollywood and sports stars are interchangable. The incestuous relationship between the two has tainted the NBA’s mid-classic, one filled with amazing memories of the leagues true stars battling it out for supremacy and the right to call themselves not only stars but superstars.

Which according to Andy Stevensfrom fansmanship.com, is the reason the “boring” though best power forward in hoops Kevin Love, nearly missed out.  20 and 10 for Love is like tying his shoes. He’s the first player to go for 30 and 30 (that is not a typo) in 28 years. And yet had it not been for the blessing of Yao’s injury prone career; curse rather if you are talking to the Rockets front office, K-Love would of better known as a christian radio station.  The guy is so methodical in his approach toward the game that he rebounds without jumping. Why? He is smarter than any other forward in hoops, and knows that 80% of the time the ball will carom to the opposite side in which it was shot from. Not only has this approach made him the best rebounder in basketball (15.5 per), but wisely conserves his energy and his knees, which in the end increases his longevity.

“BUT HE IS NOT FLASHY OR PRETTY ENOUGH!” Pretty? Since when do NBA stars have to be pretty or hollywood made? And since when did Paris Hilton have a say in things anyways?

Unfortunately a player like Love is too Beethoven. His ability to out-think individuals is boring, like watching Bobby Fischer dominate a 70- something Russian man at a game of chess. Where are the Jay-Z’s? T.I’s? Lil Weezy’s? Why listen to the abrupt pause and finishes of a Beethoven, when we can stimulate our cultures sub-par brain with cheep beats and kindergarten hooks?

Which is exactly the reason our pop culture is to blame for everything; we are insightfully deaf and dumb. Like Dumbo we sail with our ears instead of slicing skies with intellectual jet-planes. We’re more intrigued when candy chewing L.O.blows a kiss to Khloe Kardashian than we are when Love records another twenty rebound night on an over-hyped big, i.e. Andrew Bynum.

“But Andrew, your dimples remind us of an innocent school boy.” Really pop world?

Love is the better version of our eras Kevin McHale, a guy who won three titles in the 80’s with the Celtics, on a team of forgettable- boring- athletes.  McHale and the Celtics were self-less back country farm boys who graced sports with less one dimensional athleticism, than they did a team oriented intellectualism.

Instead we get Lamar Odom because his swag aloofness is adorable. Or Yao, because he’s the face of an entire nation (which by the way is ridiculous, if this is the case, vote in Eduardo Najera.) Next thing you know, Lil Bow Wow, who currently plays ball at USC, will be the first college athlete voted into a professional mid-classic.

In the end, who gives? It is only the game of some-stars. Kobe? Of course. LeBron, Wade, Durant? Without a doubt deserve it. Let them steal the show, literally, percolate desire from fans with about as much intelligence as Sarah Palin’s economic plan. When the game ends, K- Love will go back to shutting up every critic on the planet. You can count on that.

–Luke Johnson

A shoe in for being chosen by the fans, his peers and coaches as an all-star, right?  Not quite.

Yao Ming was chosen as the starting Western Conference center by the fans, even though he hasn’t leaped for one jump-ball this season.  However, since Yao is injured, Love recieved the final all-star nod in his place.  If Yao weren’t injured, the league leader in rebounding and hustle would have been left off the all-star roster all-together.

This protocol of events is what disgusts me about the NBA all-star voting and selection process.  It has nothing to do with current palpable and measurable worth.  It only has to do with fan clubs, popularity and “bling.”

Why is this amazing talent not getting any respect league-wide? Is there even a racial undertone here? Because he is caucasian, isn’t “flashy” and doesn’t have his own ™ dance or strut, is he paying the price in the eyes of “the fans?”  If Love were an African-American, would we even be having this discussion?

I believe the answer is no.  He’d be one of the first selected.  I am not at all insensitive to the history of the plight of the African American in the United States, but it is evident that a certain amount of racism exists here.

The NBA is dominated by African Americans the same as Caucasians dominating American society is percieved.  Thus, the Caucasian is the same, if not worse off in the NBA than the African American is in today’s American society.

Anti-stereotype crusaders of racial equality need to realize in some instances it can undeniably be a two-way street.  Jackie Robinson it is not, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a particular amount of discrimination found when reading between the lines.

Bottom line:  “Black” or “White,” show Kevin some love already.