For all the great plays and heartwarming stories in sports, there’s also the ugly and awful. Each Saturday (but this Sunday), we’ll be bringing you 3-5 of the worst plays/decisions by athletes from that week. Some will be sad, some will be pathetic, but hopefully, most will be funny.
LeBron James
Woof. Most people at this point are well-aware of the issues that the NBA now faces in China after Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted pro-Hong Kong sentiment a couple weeks ago. Sponsorships were paused, Houston’s broadcasts were blacklisted, and most tenuously, teams were heading to China for a preseason tour. One of those teams was the preimer brand in the league, the Lakers, led by the league’s most influential player in LeBron James.
The games went on, despite a palpable tension in the air, and when the Nets and Lakers landed back in the states, many thought that the most tense stage of this stand-off was over. Then LeBron James gave a press conference approximately equivalent to a guy from Florida yelling “Hold my Beer!”
Calling someone misinformed when you yourself admit you don’t know much about the situation is questionable. Not being for the freedom protest in Hong Kong given your stance on issues at home – also questionable. Many have pointed out that James has a banana-boat sized axe to grind with Morey, after Morey disposed of Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul with what LeBron might see as a violation of human rights. Still, any time you end up on a picture like this, you are certianly among the worst of the week.
Juventus
This one is an underrated and underreported story coming out of FIFA – and in this case, it’s not another corruption scandal, merely a licensing fight playing out in the video game arena. The newest edition of FIFA dropped last week, and some players noticed that Juventus wasn’t in the game.
Well – the story has become more clear. Juventus decided to license their rights to a rival video game, Pro Evolution Soccer. As a result, FIFA decided to basically call Juventus something else. Since they still have licenses to the players, they will actually appear in the game for a made-up team. Rough look for everyone involved.
Zion Williamson’s Knee
Why world… Why?
Sorry – this won’t be a long section with incisive political commentary nor will it be a medical section attempting to diagnose any issue Zion may have, because although I have stayed at a Holiday Inn before, I am not a doctor.
What I am is a sad basketball fan who won’t get to see Zion Tuesday night in the first game of the NBA season. Get well soon, your Thiccness.
NFL Referees
This is more of a follow up on Jay’s excellent article earlier this week, which can be found by clicking here.
The clearly bad calls need to stop. It’s weird, as most things in sports are getting better, it seems that the NFL officiating is getting worse. There are constant conversations about the fact that bad officiating comes from the fact that NFL refs are not full time employees – so this intrepid reporter tried to do research and fired up his google machine.
While NFL refs are indeed not full time employees, that has not stopped their compensation from being quite generous. Without playoff/Super Bowl bonuses, NFL refs make an average of 200k a year. This is far more than baseball umpires, basketball refs, and most other sports rules officials. So… not an excuse. Get better.
Bonus: Sam’s Late Night Korean Golf Habit
Yes – if you read that without context, it sounds a lot dirtier than it is. Quite simply, the PGA Tour is on its annual Asian swing – this week on Jeju Island in South Korea, the next in Chiba in Japan, and finally, the annual tournament in Shanghai. The South Korean tournament, the CJ Cup, has managed to draw a strong field, and in its third year, followed that up, headlined by Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka (the two previous winners of the event) but also US Open champion Gary Woodland and worldwide social media dad Phil Mickelson. I’ll save the rest of you a detailed golf breakdown, but Thomas looked great in holding off Danny Lee for his second title in this event.
So why is this worst of the week? Well… Wednesday through Saturday nights, the tournament was broadcast on Golf Channel from 10pm to 2am. Did I stay up until 2 watching golf each night this week? I’m not going to incriminate myself. That being said, the Zozo Open will be broadcast from 11pm-3am Wednesday through Saturday next week. I suspect that my late night golf fix will continue for the next couple weeks.
