Nothing But The Truth

The SEVEN

by Mack Williams

27 February 2019

I. Michael Cohen

I don’t know how long Rep. Cummings’ committee will have Michael Cohen before them this afternoon, but as far as I am concerned, they can all go home now. Cohen, the President’s former attorney and fixer provided a copy of a personal check signed by the President of the United States to reimburse him for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels which was intended to keep their affair out of the public eye prior to the 2016 election. One might generally ask why someone needs a strong-arm “fixer” if they are not doing things that require fixing…so this may help answer that.

This makes Trump a part of a campaign finance violation. By all rights, when Cohen goes to jail, he should be sharing the cell.  As for Rep. Jim Jordan, he ought use his time during this hearing to write apology letters to all of those abused wrestlers.

II. Remix

I guess Spike Lee – based on his statement at the Academy Awards telecast in which he claimed that the New York Knicks are “trying to tank” – might be expecting the Knicks to release a remix of the old hymn, “We’re Marching To Zion”:

We’re tanking to Zion

Beautiful, slam dunking Zion

We’re tanking downward to Zion

That beautiful forward of Duke

III. Nobel Peace Prize

So it turns out that the President’s people have asked for a recommendation for him to get the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts with Kim Jung Un. Funny…I have a difficult time in imagining Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and others within SCLC – from prison in some cases – calling the Nobel committee to ask them to give Dr. King the prize…but I’m just funny like that.

That said, the concept of Donald Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize leads me to think about Dave Kingman, the former slugger who played for the New York Mets as well as several other teams. Kingman hit 442 home runs during his career, but combined that with a relatively low batting average of .236, along with striking out 1,816 times, one of the highest amounts of strikeouts in major league history. Despite his great success as a home run hitter, he is not in the Hall of Fame because it was felt that his entire body of work was not of the highest standard as per an individual to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Nobel Peace Prize is an exclusive award akin to being inducted into a Hall of Fame; only the best of the best.  Not Individual-1.

IV.  MAGA Terrorist

It should would be great if the President and Sarah Sanders would get off Michael Cohen and say something about the home-grown terrorist that sought to assassinate various MSNBC and CNN journalists, as opposed to the fictional caravans not at the southern border.

V.  Emergency

I certainly hope someone’s house doesn’t catch fire as Donald Trump is driving by.  He’s been talking about how he may declare an “emergency” at the border for a couple of months.  Anything that is an emergency requires immediate action; as such, if it took him two months to declare an “emergency,” then that means that it’s not a real emergency. Using this timetable, by the time Trump reports the fire, the house will have burned down to the ground.

VI.  Meek Mill

Now that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is in a bit of legal trouble himself, perhaps Meek Mill can return the favor.

VII.  Black History Month

If you’re looking for something for your young kids within the last days of Black History Month, please feel free to check out my book, “Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues.”  https://www.amazon.com/Jackie-Robinson-Negro-Leagues-Williams/dp/150040876X

Gotta Be The Shoes

The SEVEN
by Mack Williams
23 February 2019

I. Office Hours

The doctors will be ready shortly. Which one would you like to be seen by?

II. Tails It Is

It is undeniable what a tremendous legacy Representative John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young and Rev. Bernice King (and the King family) have in Atlanta. But it obviously has absolutely nothing to do with sports…so why were they on the field for the coin toss at the Super Bowl? If the NFL wanted an ATL sports legend out there for the coin toss, they could have called Greg Maddox, or Dominique Wilkins, or Deion Sanders, or Chipper Jones, or of course Henry Aaron.

And why were there so many spots during the telecast highlighting the NFL’s efforts within communities? Do you think it had anything to do with the league’s desire to present a socially progressive face since Colin Kaepernick was claiming that he was being blackballed? No, it couldn’t be that at all.

So how much is Kaepernick getting from the settlement?

III. NFL Potpourri and Gene

While the NFL is on spring vacation, they might like to take a look at the overtime rules, which are clearly unfair (or they can let all of these new football leagues try the innovation and copy off of them later). You can receive the ball first in overtime (which by definition is a situation created by a game that was even from at least a score standpoint for a full sixty minutes), move the ball thirty yards, kick a field goal and win the game with no chance of rebuttal from the opponent. In basketball the two teams play a five-minute overtime period in which they each have their opportunities to score. In baseball each team gets the same number of chances at bat in extra innings. But in the NFL, you can lose without your offense stepping on the field again…not fair. Nor is it fair to even think about blaming one player for a loss, even if their miscue is in a key play of the game, as in the case of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Alshon Jeffery, whose inability to catch a late-game pass resulted in an interception which sealed their fate in their playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.

The Eagles would not have been the defending Super Bowl champions without Jeffery…which took me back to a game during my tenure as an assistant basketball coach where we were playing one of our chief rivals. Down by a point with less than ten seconds to play, our power forward Gene rebounded the other team’s missed foul shot. We brought the ball downcourt, got a great look on what would have likely been a game-winning jumper…but then here’s Gene again with the offensive rebound, getting fouled as he attempted to go back up with it with two seconds left. Gene proceeded to miss both free throws, and we lost…and Gene was despondent until it was pointed out to him that had he not made either of the previous two plays, we’ve lost anyway. One player is never totally responsible for a win or a loss, even if it’s Tom Brady, said by many to be the GOAT after being the winning QB of six Super Bowls in 19 years.

Of course, the San Francisco Giants won three titles within a five year period (2010-14), the Lakers won five within a nine year period (1980-88), and the Bulls won six in eight years (1991-98) with a Jordan-Baseball asterisk. And the Yankees won four within five years (1996-2000), which is to say that the Patriots’ run is not . But the Yanks did have the GOAT of closers…and congratulations to Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera.

IV. Training Day

One of the things President Trump apparently knows little to nothing about is the way major (and not so major) Division I college football and basketball teams eat, at the very least during the season. The athletic departments hook them up much better than anyone else on campus, certainly better than a serving of fast food. So if Individual-1 thinks that Big Macs, etc. were a treat for the national champion Clemson Tigers, that shows his lack of knowledge in that regard. As he himself might tweet, “UnPresidented.”

V. Choices

It must be great to be both a five-tool baseball prospect and the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, and if you are you might be a little busy…but Kyler Murray, if you happen to be reading this blog, and you really are 5’11’…choose baseball. I’m just sayin’…

VI. We’re Marching To Zion

So I sat around all evening at home waiting…while some people paid $2,000 to sit in Cameron Indoor Stadium…to see Zion Williamson play 33 seconds?

Paying college athletes wouldn’t keep Zion’s Nikes from exploding, but it certainly would help level the playing field in terms of everyone involved getting an opportunity to reap financial benefit. That one play has brought this topic back to the forefront, and the NBA, for one, should be glad, despite their plan to let 18-year-olds play in the G League as of next season. The league gets billions of dollars of free advertising – through the promotion of future stars – from the NCAA, and you didn’t have to see President Obama and Spike Lee at the game to know that Duke vs. North Carolina is bigger than the South Bay Lakers vs. the Westchester Knicks. Anything that can keep these guys in school a little longer should be worth it to the NBA.

VII. Boogie

DeMarcus Cousins’ injury last year set off a string of events which will affect the league for years to come. Had he not gotten injured, the chances are that the New Orleans Pelicans would have re-signed him, which probably would have led Anthony Davis to want to remain in New Orleans. As it is, Boogie Cousins signs and gets to spend a year with the champion Golden State Warriors…and possibly get a ring while he’s at it. The finances will probably not enable him to return next year, which means that he will be available as a free agent to become the player to possibly help put some other team over the top. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis wants out, which means that his ultimate trade from the Pelicans will mean a total reboot fro that franchise which looked to be on the way up just a year ago.

As for Boogie’s teammate (who we see can dunk), he using makes those “relocation” threes. Was it the shoes?

http://www.nba.com/video/2019/01/21/0021800701-gsw-lal-curry-slip-q3