Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to your morning Skull Session.
And, may I say, MERRY LEBRONMAS! Yes LeBronmas, where LeBron James comes down from basketball heaven in a Hummer driven by eight angry Cavalier fans in parkas and mittens to deliver hubris to all that doubted the ability of the basketball equivalent of the Yankees to win one freaking championship finally.
"Now Angry! Now Sad! Now Remorseful and Bitter! On Spiteful, on Pissed! On Tired and Quitter! To Skip Bayless' house, from his window, to his wall! Now throw trash on his lawn, trash away, trash away all!"
Okay so look, I don't like LeBron James. I think he's more or less an immature douche, and his exit from Cleveland was about as hilariously wrong as it could've possibly been. I mean, there was literally no way he could've made Cleveland fans feel any more angry and bitter even if he tried. But with that said, the statue of limitations expired on this about a year ago.
Here's my only thing about the Heat winning the championship; I just hope, that for one second, people stop talking about LeBron James in terms of unquantifiable intangibles that make no sense whatsoever. "The Look" or "Clutch" or whatever BS ESPN is trying to ascribe to superstars to make them seem even more superhuman than they're already made out to be can die in a fiery pit along with QBR and those weird videogame simulations they do for football.
Truth is, LeBron won a championship, and played very well. But so did guys like Shane Battier and Mike Miller, and I don't see anybody talking about their clutch gene (hint: it's because it doesn't exist).
OH HEY THIS CRAP Since it's such a big story I feel more or less obligated to give you an update on what's going on with the Jerry Sandusky trial. I'd like to reiterate my personal distaste for this story in general, but I still think it's an important one that obviously can't be ignored. Aside from the obvious horror of what Sandusky has been accused of, the other themes of power and how hero worship can lead do some seriously awful things being overlooked is something to learn from as well.
In any event, the jury has gone to deliberations, which will continue today. They've asked to rehear the Mike McQueary testimony, and could be at this for a while. In the meantime, one of the Sandusky's adopted children, 33 year old Matt Sandusky, has accused his father of abusing him as a child. Kind of unbelievable that this story keeps getting worse as it goes on, but there's more; I think people need to be prepared for the idea that Sandusky might walk on this. There's been inconsistencies in the victims' testimony, and frankly all it takes is one skeptic/die hard PSU fan to upset the whole boat. We'll see.
OH HEY PLAYOFFS, KIND OF So after months of deliberation and late night Hot Pockets and reruns of Hey Arnold! the powers that be finally figured out what they're gonna do with this whole playoff thing. I'll let SI's Andy Staples explain:
Commissioners were intentionally vague Wednesday about the particulars, but they have agreed upon a 1-4 seeded tournament with semifinals played in bowls and the title game played at a neutral site.
Oh, so a Plus One. Except with a football selection committee instead of computers and hamsters on wheels and a counting duck. Staples breaks down some of the more pressing questions about the plan such as:
- What will this event be called?
- How will teams be selected?
- Where will games be played?
- How drunk will I have to be to enjoy a four team playoff with three SEC teams?
- Does Boise State have cooties or what?
- Does Jim Delany really believe that sitting in his tub and rubbing himself with canola oil while listening to Enya will give him "telekinetic powers?"
At SBN, they go ahead and point out that the whole concept of a selection committee will still make people angry; looking at the BCS year by year, it's clear that having just a four team playoff creates some incredibly difficult choices as far as who to include. I personally would be saying that this means an 8 team playoff makes more sense, but considering how many goats and orphan fingers had to be sacrificed to even get to this point, I'm not optimistic of that happening anytime soon.
ILLEGAL FORWARD PASS, JESUS! COME ON!OH HEY, JESUS Notre Dame might be thinking about moving its so called "Olympic sports" from the Big East and into the Big 12, which I don't have too much of a comment on except this is pretty clearly as impotent a troll move that the Domers seem to be able to make these days. I'm honestly kind of surprised that Notre Dame hasn't made up their own cable channel a la the BTN, but on the other hand their key demographic probably get most of their information via radio and carrier pigeon.
OH HEY... UH, US. Kyle already reported about the smackdown delivered to ESPN in their lawsuit against Ohio State, demanding the release of records, but my favorite part about this whole thing is ESPN's own article on the matter. Where ESPN has no comment... to itself. Like a toddler, these guys are.
OH HEY, LINKS! NBA_FINALS.GIF... Guess which one of these things I lived next to for a year... This should be our new 11W victory song... IT'S ANIMATED BY MOTION CAPTURE DATA... OChem aw yeah... Adam Carolla is a big ol dork
