Luis Suarez is a villain. Not a Sith, mind you, but a villain.
In his recent game against Italy, Suarez (Uruguay) embraced his inner Tyson and bit an opposing player. This underscores a week where the US might have blow their best chance at advancing to the knock out stage, ISIS has taken control of quite a bit of Iraq, and CNN still hasn’t found that damn plane. Okay, the last two have nothing to do with sports, and the last isn’t even newsworthy at this point (thought CNN insists on calling it breaking news and running it as a banner on every stinking page…). All three stories underscore our need for stories in our lives. We want villains to hate, we want wars to denounce, and we want mysteries to solve. Magically, sports can provide us all three.
With the world cup we have a villain in the name of Suarez, and a longstanding war between USA and Ghana that has led to a US defeat in two straight cups, though this year we broke the streak. We also have a mystery cooked up in the form of the original Jules Rimet trophy that was lost in 1983 in–you guessed it–Brazil.
We also have alliances and excitement so palpable that the daily slate of games overshadows everything else going on in the sports world. Did you know the NBA draft is this Thursday? Did you know the Knicks traded Tyson Chandler in a 6 player deal that shed the Ray Felton contract and landed the Knicks a pair of draft picks and a pair of sick point guards? Welcome to NYC, Triangle Offense. This also signals a possibly strong year from the shoot first–defend never PF, Stoudemire.
Carmelo is gone, baby, gone and this deal really helps the Knicks begin the long awaited rebuilding process. The move also helps secure Dirk’s return to the Mavs, who are looking to pull in Carmelo as well. This could be good for everyone.
Some Thoughts:
- Every once in a while this pass year I would drop off my two older boys and then head off to work, forgetting the mute-silent 4 yr old sitting in the backseat. I’d get a block or two away from the edge of town and he’d say, ‘daddy?’ Then I would realize I forgot something. Because of these maybe half a dozen moments, I empathize with the man who left his son in the car for a complete work day. On the other hand, he might have just murdered the kid in the worst way.