Ethnic Avenue – The Street That Crosses All the Others

Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Anyone who watches the NBA on TNT knows that roaming reporter Craig Sager has long been the butt of everyone’s jokes–mostly because of his flamboyant style of dress (and his overall goofy demeanor). You know that some of it is part of the “show,” but some of it isn’t.

So you have to hand it to the guy: he takes all of the shit in stride and goes out every night and does his job—dressed to the nines.

Earlier in the week, the Phoenix Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire made some controversial remarks about the Lakers’ Lamar Odom. After Odom scorched Phoenix for a game-changing 19 points and 19 rebounds in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, a reporter asked Stoudemire what he thought of Odom’s performance. He replied:

I’m not giving him no hype…he had a lucky game.

In basketball, that level of disrespect can cost you big-time in subsequent meetings, when the other guy (or team)—who probably grew up eating shit-talkers for breakfast—is going to come at you full-force. It’s no surprise that even Stoudemire’s own coach, Alvin Gentry, said the remarks were “stupid.” Like Game 1, the Lakers won Game 2 comfortably, with impressive performances from several players.

But, it wasn’t Odom that delivered the stinging payback to Stoudemire’s foolhardy comments. It was Craig Sager:

Oh snap. The moral of the story: be 100 percent sure (or at least 90) you can back up your shit-talking.