Search Results: sports

• Gene Therapy: No Time to "Stick to Sports"

  May 31, 2022 Gene Clemons 0 Comments

  

   

  by Gene Clemons

   

  “Stick to sports!”

   

  If you have played, coached, or covered sports you know this phrase all too well. The familiar refrain of those who believe that if you are involved in athletics, then all you should ever care about or talk about is athletics. The assumption is that all you know about is sports and therefore you are unqualified to speak about anything else intelligently. The hypocrisy is maddening. Most fans don’t really understand the sports they follow but it has never kept any of them from discussing it ad nauseum. Doctors are not told to “stick to medicine,” carpenters are not asked to “stick to building things” and people who work at a supermarket are not told to “stick to groceries.” Why is there a double standard for people who participate in and cover sports? 

   

  The tragedy in Uvalde Texas once again put America in the crosshairs of domestic terrorism and sports media members in a position where we are left to ponder if it is time for social commentary or the escapism that comes along with tuning into your favorite sports television show, radio broadcast, podcast, or column. In many cases it can be a delicate balance. There are so many other media outlets and sources that someone can turn to which don’t offer the opportunities to escape into the sports world. So, when the sports world decides, it is going to switch up normal programming to illuminate a particular story, when they decide that their commentary on an event, topic, or issues supersedes that of the sports climate that they normally indulge in, there are times where there is push back. That resistance normally comes in the form of the phrase “Stick to Sports!”

   

  What many fans who feel this way fail to understand is that sometimes there are topics that media members do not feel comfortable with letting go by without addressing them. At the end of the day humanity should win out over a bottom line or an inconvenience to one’s normal escapism. It is impossible to escape for people who have immersed their lives in mass media. How do you come into a local radio show, think about the issues that trouble our country, know you have a platform to address those issues, however big, and say nothing? It is incumbent on those who can help to do so. 

   

  This was no more evident in how the “Worldwide Leader” handled its sports personalities. Jemele Hill and Dan Lebatard were both suspended for their social/political commentary while working at ESPN. In Hill’s case she was suspended for political tweets that she made on her personal profile. Both incidents soured the relationship with the popular personalities and ultimately ended their relationship. Both have gone on to find the freedom they sought while at ESPN. The interesting thing is that after their departures (Hill’s especially) and in the wake of the senseless murders of multiple black and brown people at the hands of the police force, ESPN allowed their personalities to open up and share strong commentary on the subject which included many heartfelt, teary-eyed, strongly defiant admonishments of the police force and hoe they have treated people of color. Even in those cases, the “stick to sports” regulars came out to admonish the efforts to bring about change on the airwaves of their favorite sports talk debate show platform. 

   

  The hypocrisy is almost laughable if the subject matter was not so serious. Many of the same people who will tell athletes and the media members who cover them to stick to sports, are the same people who talk about athletes and media members having the power to make changes and influence people. How they feel seems to only depend on if they are personally affected by the issue. If so, then it is ok to address it and in fact, it is our duty to do so. If not, then media and athletes alike should just engage in the sports rhetoric that pleases them. You wonder if these people truly believe that athletes and sports media members really want to talk about these difficult subjects. There would be no reason to talk about police forces using excessive force if police did not use excessive force. There would be no reason to write monologues about racial inequality if that inequality did not exist. And the last thing anyone ever wants to discuss is mass murder and murdering children. These are not topics that many look to tackle or discuss but when they happen, what other choice are we left with? 

   

  We should never have to address children being massacred in a school while police forces sit outside and detain parents who are only trying to help their kids. There should be no reason to address unarmed black men and women being killed by police officers while heavily armed white terrorist are apprehended unharmed. The truth is that most members of the media do the very best they can to stick to sports or to create a sports angle in their commentary. If they truly addressed all of the horrible things that happened in this country there would be no time for sports and eventually they would depress themselves but again, there are some things that no matter how you try, you can not and should not ignore.  Sports and sports media should never have to be the vehicle for escape because you don’t want to deal with the heartbreak associated with these events. We should all do a better job of making sure these events do not continue, and how else do you make that happen, if everyone doesn't talk about it ..

   

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  Gene Clemons is a Sports Analyst and Contributor to CWN Sports. His weekly column and podcast - Gene Therapy focuses on Sports, Politics and Social/Urban issues.

   

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• Gene Therapy: Chris Rock, Don't Be Sorry, Be Careful!

  Mar 28, 2022 Gene Clemons 0 Comments

  

   

  by Gene Clemons

   

  Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. He did it on live television and in front of an audience filled with their peers. So many people were shocked by the event it almost crashed social media. There is one clip on Twitter that at the time this is being written has over 50 million views. Chris Rock called it "the greatest night in the history of television" in the immediate reaction to the run in with Smith. Why did it happen? It was the product of a joke. A joke that made fun of Jada Pinkett-Smith's bald head. Pinkett-Smith has been open about dealing with alopecia and part of it has been embracing this new bald look. But any time people who live in the public eye have to deal with changes in their life, they do so publicly. Because of that they are open to ridicule and scrutiny by people who feel as if stars should be able to accept ridicule and deal with hurtful jokes because they are rich and famous. You hear people say things like “That’s the price of fame.” This is the place where athletics and the arts deal with the same issues. Because they perform publicly, people believe they know actors, musicians, and athletes. Because they are compensated handsomely, people believe they have the right to say whatever. Jokes like Chris Rock’s open the doors for the average person to make light of a serious situation.

   

  Was the slap extreme, probably, but what better way should Smith have handled it? At some point, embarrassing someone publicly should be matched with the same energy. If Smith reaches out to Rock behind the scenes and voices his displeasure with Rock, would Rock go public with the conversation and apologize or does he go with the old adage that as a comedian, you never feel bad about anything you say on stage because it is all art. If that is the case, there is a chance that as a long-time standup comedian, Rock knew that this could happen when you look to get laughs at the expense of someone in the audience. He may just file the slap under the “price of doing business” as a standup comedian. For Smith, this is simply having his wife’s back in the moment immediately. You could see she did not find the joke funny at all. Will could have sat there but instead wanted to let Rock and probably all of the people who have taken shots at his family for over 25 years that he is no longer going to tolerate the foolishness and disrespect lobbed at them. This is the shot heard round the world and a warning. Tread lightly! But for many others who are not Will Smith or have Smith’s public cache when they are violated or attacked (physically or verbally).

   

  

   

  Athletes are often ridiculed for their performance by people who could never come close to playing their sport and even if they did play, they most likely fall drastically short of the excellence of the player. The entitlement of fans, and even analysts, to believe they can say whatever, whenever they want to an athlete with impunity is amazing. When Kwame Brown became tired of being used as a punchline by Stephen A. Smith and various other NBA and basketball commentators and writers, he began firing back. Some of the rants he went on were probably funny to many in the public space, but they came from a real place where that man no longer felt as if he could hold his tongue. We have all been there but thankfully for the majority of us, we don’t have to live out our lives for millions of people to see.

   

  So, on the occasion that there is a response from an athlete, it is often disastrous for the fan and the player. The fan gets beat up, embarrassed, removed from venues, and banned from watching the team they claim to love in person. With all of that, it is still worse for the players. They receive backlash for being thin skinned. They get their actions questioned and their performances are put underneath a microscope, and if they actually get into a physical altercation, there is the legal side of things, especially if that person is looking at the player as a lottery ticket. Even when the fan is in the wrong, they still look for cause to sue a player and force a settlement because most players don’t want their personal lives on display for everyone to see. Many people look to take advantage of the fact that for many of these athletes, it is cheaper to settle than to spend the time and money going through civil litigation. In many cases athletes, like movie and music stars, can’t live normal lives. There is so much anxiety behind functioning in a society that forces them to be “on” at all times because Lebron has to be Lebron at the store, Beyonce has to always be Beyonce regardless of how she feels, and Will Smith is expected to be the “Fresh Prince” or that movie megastar they see on screen.

   

  This Smith/Rock situation should remind everyone of a simple fact. Just because you have freedom of speech, it does not mean you are free from the consequences that follow your speech. In this hyper-sensitive society, it is interesting that criticism and ridicule have not subsided. In fact, many fans, columnists, bloggers, and mass media types feel more empowered to voice their strong opinions because they realize that level of spice gets reactions from people on both sides of the issue. We hardly ever stop to consider the feelings of the person we are kicking while they are down. We don’t think in their worst moment or a time where they are feeling unsure of themselves that their reaction might be over the top. That’s a failure on our part to read the room because whatever was said could possibly be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This event is supposed to be a celebration of excellence in film, it is not a stand-up half-hour special. For the most part, the people attending this show are not there for the laughs and they definitely are not there for laughs at the expense of the people who are there or dealing with illness.

   

  It has been said that Rock may not have known what Pinkett-Smith was going through. If that is the case, then that is a failure on his part. The first failure was to make people laugh by dissing someone else. The second failure was not knowing the person you were dissing, was going through a serious issue and that it had probably affected her mentally and emotionally. The final failure was not being prepared. He stood on stage with his hands behind his back after firing off his joke and the subsequent comments based on the crowd reaction. He watched Smith walk up to him knowing that was not in the program or script. He then took a flush slap to the face which we should all be thankful that Smith did not decide to test out his punching ability. Rock may have been out cold; Smith would have been escorted out in handcuffs and society would still be mocking people. In fact, the entire aftermath has been filled with people getting their jokes off at Rock’s expense; what interesting irony.

   

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  Gene Clemons is a Sports Analyst and Contributor to CWN Sports. His weekly column and podcast - Gene Therapy focuses on Sports, Politics and Social/Urban issues.

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• Gene Therapy: Sweet Sweet Fantasy!

  Jan 25, 2022 Gene Clemons 0 Comments

  

   

  by Gene Clemons

   

  The 1st time I ever tried sports betting I was convinced that it was the easiest thing in the world to do. After all, we were just picking games. I know basketball, I know football, I know baseball so how hard it could possibly be. The first time I looked at a betting line I was shocked by how complicated it looked. There were so many numbers on it. I saw the name of the team and then I saw nine to 10 other numbers that I had never seen before. I thought I was just picking the winner. 

   

  The reality was something far more complicated. I immediately realized why Vegas is so rich. We wander into this world as novice but with the ego and the hubris to believe that we know something that everybody else doesn't. And even further than that, we believe we know something that the people who have made trillions of dollars don't know. Only in America can a person walk into another person's profession and believe that they know the business better than that professional yet here we are.

   

  Fantasy sports were different for me as I began to participate because there was no money involved. It was for fun, for bragging rights. But a funny thing happened mid-way through the season. I noticed that not everybody was keeping up with their rosters. One season I remember losing out on making the playoffs because a team went on a four week win streak playing against people who never updated their roster. It was frustrating and ultimately not fulfilling or challenging. My response was to seek out a league that had financial investment. If there was money involved people would be in it to win it until the end. That definitely helped but what I found was that the amount of money really made the difference. A league with a $25 due was not going to keep anyone's attention over a season that lasts five months. The bigger the investment, the bigger the prize, the better the engagement.

   

  That led to the instant gratification of daily fantasy where the prizes are high, and investment could be low. That still achieved the same outcome of keeping people invested and wanting to play again. On a certain level, the daily fantasy contests with thousands of entries reminded me of those 10-team parlays that I used to play when I first began betting on sports. My little $10 bet had the chance to bring back 10 thousand dollars. The chances of me winning were slim to none but because I thought I knew sports and was invested in it mentally, I believed that it gave me an advantage. Clearly, I lost my money like the other dummies who thought the same thing, but I continued to play like that for much longer than I care to admit because of my arrogance. I had the keys to beat the system and that's how the casino has always won. That exact logic is why one day fantasy has made that industry so much money. Everybody believes they have the perfect combination to win it all and of course only one can.

   

  As sports betting slowly becomes legalized in every state, The negative connotations that used to surround sports betting dissipates. Fantasy sports and gambling sites like Fanduel and Draftkings allowed sports betting to be slowly accepted into a society that was obsessed with fantasy football. In essence fantasy was our gateway drug into gambling acceptance. As the money involved with fantasy wagers grew to astronomical levels people began to look at fantasy as a viable source of income and the world of the fantasy analyst exploded. The divide between fantasy sports betting and regular sports betting closed quickly.  Now as sports gambling casinos like MGM moved into the space with BetMGM and the many other sites that are ready to go at a moment's notice prepare for this inevitability.

   

  Sports betting and fantasy are definitely here to stay and are going to become a regular part of our sports world. In-game, real-time win probabilities are not just there to make the viewing experience better. These are tools that help influence the next level of sports wagers, the live bet or in-game wager. This allows people to place bets as the game unfolds. The level of engagement that this provides the user only brings them closer to the game and closer to parting with the money in their wallet. After all that's the end game, money. Most of these online sportsbooks will give you free money to bet. They call it free play and it is designed to get you used to gambling, suck you in, and ultimately make wagering on sports a part of your everyday life. This is not a bad thing, after all you can win, but it is a numbers game for them. The more that plays, the more they make, regardless of the game's outcome. 

   

  Like anything with gambling, the goal is to be smart and responsible. Whether it is fantasy, sports betting, cards or the stock market, if you are doing it out of desperation, there's a better than likely chance you will fail. If you are doing it for entertainment, you will probably still lose. However, if you approach it as a way to make passive income and you show it the respect you would for any other job, there's the opportunity to come out on top. Never wager what you can't afford to lose. Don't let greed overwhelm you. Little wins are always better than big losses. Parlays are normally losing propositions and the way the sports book would prefer you bet. Imagine if you could add an extra $400 a week to your income, would that make a difference? Of course, it would. So, think consistent winners instead of longshots with big odds. Be boring all the way to the bank or be the most exciting person in the poor house. Your choice.

   

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  Gene Clemons is a Sports Analyst and Contributor to CWN Sports. His weekly column and podcast - Gene Therapy focuses on Sports, Politics and Social/Urban issues.

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• The Disparity in treatment for Male and Female athletes of the NCAA

  Mar 29, 2021 Andrew Williams 0 Comments

     The beginning of March Madness brought us cheers for the bit of normalcy we yearned for a year ago. We set aside our afternoons (or mornings here on the West coast)  to watch our favorite collegiate teams prepare for a battle unlike the ones before, their own personal bubble. NCAA fans men and women alike were eager to see the games played out under those circumstances. Especially since when the NBA bubble was taking place players and pundits alike compared it to a collegiate or AAU type setting we knew this going to big for these athletes ( well if you are the right gender).  

          As we all know female and male rights have never been equal, not even in sports today, in the year of 2021. As of just last week the NCAA was called out for the lack of amenities in the women's workout room versus the men's workout room. The first person to call them out on the issue was Stanford sports performance coach Ali Kershner posted two photos one of  how the men's workout room looks with all different types of equipment  and benches in contrast to the women's workout room with only a set of free weights and a few yoga mats. A few hours after Ali posted her post, NCAA vice president of women's basketball Lynn Holzman, to paraphrase, stated that some amenities teams usually have access to aren´t available due to the  limited space of being in a controlled environment. As well as stating that the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament. After Lynn Holzman made that statement, Sedona Prince of the Oregon Ducks contradicted that there is limited space and posted a video showing all the extra space that they had to add more equipment. She also added a statement saying, ¨If you´re not upset by this problem, then you´re part of it.¨ After the photos from Ali were posted and the video from Sedona was uploaded, multiple NBA and WNBA players tweeted and shared on other social media platforms addressing the problem including A´ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, CJ MCollum, Steph Curry and others. After the NCAA was exposed for the disparities in men and women amenities in the workout rooms, others posted and retweeted about the food options. Sedona also posted the men´s food options having excellent food  while the women had lower than subpar lunch food. Also photos and videos were shared of the difference in their swag bags. As well as the covid tests, women are getting lower quality tests rather than the men.  After all this many people took it as the NCAA being disrespectful and disgraceful.  People were furious, and everyone that was angry with the problem was reposting the different photos and videos on every platform they can. Following all the criticism NCAA officials apologize. Lynn Holzman promised to have improvements and she stated that the issue hit a nerve with her, since she was a former college basketball player. The NCAA has since  put in better equipment in the weight room for the women. Sedona posted another video showing all of the new amenities that has been added. Though the NCAA added  more amenities, this is just a small part of the problem that we have with women's sports in general. For example the number of Division 1 women's teams only compete in 64 tournaments versus the men´s that compete in 68. That is just one of many examples of the inequalities within women's sports. South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said in a statement that ¨Women's basketball is a popular sport whose stock and presence continues to rise on a global level. It is time for the NCAA leadership to reevaluate the value they place on women.¨  Which is completely correct. Some may use the argument that Men's Basketball generates more revenue than Women's basketball programs, but if this argument was to be true why are lower level cinderella teams also being privy to the bountiful buffet and fully equipped weight room but women's programs like a South Carolina should. So this reasoning clearly does not hold water. Simply put we need to make a change with the inequalities that these women and women in general are facing and like Sedona said if you're not upset by this problem, then you're part of it.

   

   

   

  

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• White Supremacy vs Democracy ...and Sports?

  Sep 16, 2020 CWN Publisher 0 Comments

  This week, Blitz Sports Magazine publisher Malik Spann asks a key question - why is all of this corruption being allowed?  Why are the professional athletes being treated like owned puppets?  And why is no one calling out / naming really what's going on?  Sports and Politics.  A discussion goes on and how America’s ongoing conversation about race so often spills into sports. The contradiction of white supremacy thinking and the construct of black supremacy in sports.  Conflicts, contradictions and craziness.

  Hot music featuring independent artists and clips from movies and TV shows to support/accentuate thoughts.

  This is Fly Sports Talk not Dry Sports Talk.

  Listen to the podcast by clicking on the image above.

   

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