S.E.C Sports Editor’s Choice

This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.

I believe that we are in a slump at the moment in sports. Both professional and college football crowned their champions, and baseball hasn’t started; leaving us with just basketball. Generally there are two major sports being played, but at the moment I have to settle for just one. Although there will be some stories from other major sports this edition of the S.E.C, it will mostly be all about the hardwood.
5- Real sacrifice
Sports teams are like families, at least that is what any good coach will tell you as you go through workouts and start to sacrifice for everybody else. Eventually you are family, you know what the others are thinking, where they will be when you aren’t looking and exactly how to help them out no matter what. Every once in a while this actually works and the team becomes family. Coach Tom Walters of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons proved that he really wanted for his team’s philosophy. Walters donated his kidney to his freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan, just to keep him alive. Walters is expected to be back in the dugout coaching his team in a couple of weeks. Jordan will be taking the semester off to get better, but plans to return to school and the baseball team next year.
4- New king behind the arc
There have been many pure shooters in the National Basketball Association; Reggie Miller, Rick Barry and Larry Bird are just a few. But on Feb. 10, 2011, another pure shooter Ray Allen, of the Boston Celtics became the new king of the shooters behind the 3-point line. Miller held the previous record of 2,560made 3-point shots, that is a total of 7,680 points in just threes. Allen now holds the record with 2,562-made threes. After breaking the record in Boston against the Lakers, Allen walked over to the score table and hugged Miller, and then got a fist-bump from Kobe Bryant. Some analysts say that if Allen can continue for another three or four years in the NBA, he could possibly make over 3,000, the only problem is that he is 35 years old.
3- What a disappointment
How do you go from being a contender in the play-offs one year and then come one loss short of setting a record for the longest-losing streak in North American sports history? Answer, you lose the man nicknamed “King James,” that is right, Lebron James. The Cleveland Cavaliers are officially the worst team in the NBA, again. The Cavs lost a record 26 games, and hadn’t seen a win since Dec. 18, 2010 and had a record of 8-45 when it was time to print. Sure they have some injured players, and haven’t had their greatest time on the court, but 26 straight loses? Coach Byron Scott finally snapped, “I am mad as hell. I can deal with losing, especially when our guys have played as hard as they have over the last couple of weeks, but I find it very hard to deal with when guys don’t come out ready to play.” This just leaves one question, the Cavs can’t lose forever, right? Luckily they got a win on Feb. 11, 2011. Let’s hope they aren’t starting another losing streak.
2- Super re-cap
Title town has gotten the trophy back and the Lombardi is back home in Green Bay again. The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 on Feb. 6, 2011, in the “House that Jerry Built,” Dallas Stadium. The Steelers (the team with the experience in the big dance) looked like they had never been there before, turning the ball over three times. Off of those turnovers, the Packers scored 21 points. Not much else to say other than that the Packers played and the Steelers didn’t. Oh, the last time the Packers won the big game, they were lead by a guy in a jersey with the number four on it and his name was Brett Favre, that was in 1998.
1- He did what?
There were always two things that I could count on in sports, the Chicago Cubs will never win the World Series and Jerry Sloan would be sitting (or standing) staring onto the basketball court from the bench of the Utah Jazz. Well one of those will no longer be happening as Sloan resigned on Thursday Feb. 10, 2011. Just to show how long Sloan has been calling the shots here are some interesting statistics; there have been 245 coaching changes in the NBA since Sloan took over in 1988. Five new teams have been added to the league in that time. Not to mention that he was sitting on the bench as the head coach before most of us “traditional-students” were born. Sloan will now continue working on his John Deere tractor collection (his great love.) In short the NBA will be missing something, and it will be the coach that always had a stone face until there was a call he didn’t like.