This Week in Sports: LeBron's Decision was bad for sports, but LeBron playing for Miami is good for sports.

Bill Simmons wrote a column during the 2006 NBA Finals, in which he describes two possible futures for the NBA. The Mavericks could win and convince NBA teams and younger players that the collective team concept was the best way to play. Or Dwyane Wade and the Heat could win and reinforce the idea that a perimeter scorer playing a clear out one-on-one game was the best way to win. Unfortunately Wade won and guys like Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Gilbert Arenas and now Joe Johnson get max contracts.

Fans continually call out to their sports heroes to take less money to help the team sign other players good enough to help them win a championship and that is exactly what LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh did by agreeing to sign with the Miami Heat for less than the maximum contract available. Parents tell their kids to play as a team. We despise Kobe Bryant for taking thirty (30) shots to get his points when most observers would agree that the Lakers best chance to win is for him to create open looks for himself and the rest of his team. We prefer to see LeBron win getting a 20-10-10 instead of Monta Ellis scoring 42 in a loss.

The Miami Heat should be a team in every sense of the word. They should be able to win unselfishly and make people proud to be fans of the NBA.

Worldwide Wes - Who?

Worldwide Wes is considered by many to be the most powerful man in basketball. Wait, who? My thoughts exactly. Allow me to elaborate: while reading the 2nd part of Royce's favorite column of the year (the Sports Guy's Annual Trade Value column), Simmons tells us a story about Worldwide Wes, a man who "...carries more weight within the league than basically anybody." The story is interesting, and the quote that comes out of the story is a classic, yet I found myself asking "why haven't I even heard of this guy?

So, I did a little bit of searching, and came across this insightful GQ piece. Now, after reading, my only question is this: "Is this guy so sleazy that he comes off as a good guy, or is he genuinely a good guy?"

PS. The picture accompanying this article is from the (in)famous "Malice at the Palace" (which, I might add, Cedric the Entertainer speaks to in this entertaining bit).

NFL Week 2 Picks

To drop a a second link to Simmons' NFL picks column I want to talk about the actual games this week. Three are particularly tough to call:
Bucs (+5) over BILLS
Saints (PK) over EAGLES
Ravens (+3.5) over CHARGERS

Who you picking in these games?

Aight, Dawg

It's official: Steve Smith is the Anti-Terrell Owens. Hat-tip to Sports Guy for the video link, which was fascinating to watch because
A) of the way Steve Smith offers unqualified support to not one, but two teammates - even encouraging DeAngelo Williams to "bomb on me" to vent his anger. I didn't even know that "bomb on me" was an expression...so...I learned something today.
B) of the half-dozen plays shown (in whole or in part), including 3 interceptions, Smith never stops hustling. He's like Rip Hamilton, only if Rip was allowed to tackle opposing players after turning the ball over. Again, fascinating to see, which is both an encouraging & a sad statement on the work ethic of the modern NFL.
C) what you see at the end of that video is about eleventy billion times more genuine than Terrell's lame Rod Tidwell imitation.

Great players are hard enough to come by; finding a great player who's also a great teammate is even harder, so the Panthers should count themselves lucky that they have # 89 on their side week in and week out.