Third Video Blog

Here is my third video blog that I promised some time ago. I apologize for making all you viewers wait so see my second favorite place to long board however I hope everyone enjoys the video.

Star's Lack of Composure Costs Him a Game But Could Cost His Team the Series

Any time one of your stars can’t play it’s bad news for your respective club. Any time the reason for their absence is due to their own hot-headedness it becomes much worse. This was just the case when Celtics star point guard Rajon Rondo was ejected from Sunday’s game and subsequently suspended for the C’s next playoff game with the Atlanta Hawks, following Rondo’s contact with a referee.

I mean looking at the replay he hardly touches referee Marc Davis but the rules of the league are in place to protect officials and Rondo clearly makes contact. The Celtics ended up losing the game after Rondo’s ejection and now he’ll watch the entire second game of the series from the bench. Rondo is a passionate player that is constantly giving 110%. He’s one of those guys who only has one gear, and it will be a huge loss for the Celtics to have him watching from the sidelines when they play game two in Atlanta on Tuesday.

In an interview done today, Rondo said that the contact was unintentional and that he tripped on his way to argue his foul call. In the first video, you can see right at the end that he does indeed trip on Davis’s feet when he ran into him, but Rondo still shouldn’t have been all up in the ref’s business in the first place. Only down four, with 4:10 left in the game is not the time to be accosting referees. It is the time when star players should be composed and show true leadership. Now the Celtics will have to play an already strong Hawks team without one of their best players. I definitely feel for Rondo, but he should know how to better conduct himself in such an important situation.

If the Hawks go on to win this series will Rondo’s actions in game one be targeted for a source of blame?
Clearly those who write for  Celtics Town  won't be very pleased.

Off The Hill: Revised

I chose to revise this blog because surfing the web for skiing stuff was always one of my hobbies. There’s constantly new cool stuff to check out because there’s always snow somewhere that someone is skiing. I also wanted to show you guys a really awesome mountain that’s really off the grid and tucked away.

Link to original blog post (http://semiprosports.blogspot.com/2012/02/off-hill.html)

The mountain is Telluride.

I have traveled all around the west coast to a handful of mountain’s and never once thought about or had heard about Telluride until freshman year in college. Freshman year a kid who lived in my hall grew up in Telluride and as the avid skier I am I inquired about the mountain. Turns out that Telluride is a secret gem skied almost primarily by locals, and has been described as ‘magical’, if you couldn’t pick that up in the video. It also turns out that there is a porcupine named Stickers that hangs out at the top of the mountain introducing itself to everyone. Also one of the up and coming Free-skiing riders came from Telluride, his name is Gus Kenworthy. Gus is actually featured in the video above for a few short clips and recently placed in the 2012 Winter X Games. Telluride still remains one of my favorite, however never skied, mountains. 

Injury Bug Bites the NBA Playoffs….Hard

To win a championship a lot of things need to be working for you. As good as your team was in the regular season, none of that matters now that you are in the playoffs. For your favorite team to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy at season’s end, you basically need the planets need to align in your favor. Cold shooting, late game turnovers and foul trouble are all more paramount once teams seasons are on the line. The biggest thing that can swing a series in the opposing team’s favor can happen in the blink of an eye. Injuries can be quite damning to a team’s chances and might just be the Universe’s way of telling teams “Not this year fellas.” On two separate occasions Saturday we saw players go down with serious injuries that, not only hurt their own teams odds but, changed the scope of how the entire playoffs would play out.

In the 4^th quarter of the opening game between the Chicago Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers, reigning MVP Derrick Rose drove to the basket and came down awkwardly on his left knee. The next few minutes the Bulls superstar was writhing on the floor in pain as a packed United Center in Chicago looked on in silence. Rose had torn his ACL, and just like that his season was over. A very serious injury, Rose will need a lot of rehabbing in the off-season to come back from this. The question now is, can the Bulls come back from this? Can they, the number seed in the East, one of the front runners in the race for the championship overcome the loss of their best player? Reports from Chicago would have you believing they think they can, but everyone knows they aren’t the same team without him.

In a similar case in Miami, rookie guard for the Knicks Iman Shumpert went down, also injuring his left knee. In what looked like any other play, Shumpert was bringing the ball up the court for the Knicks when he planted his left knee awkwardly and immediately crumpled to the ground clearly in pain. In replays you can see the slightest twinge of his knee as the rookie attempts a behind the back dribble. Along with tearing his ACL, Shumpert also tore the lateral meniscus in his left knee. His injury is actually a bit worse than Rose’s and it is predicted that Shumpert will be out at least 6-8 months while he attempts to rehab from this. The loss is a big one for the Knicks who were counting on Shumpert’s stellar defense to slow down Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade. On top of the huge physical blow this did to the Knicks the effect it has mentally may be the real killer in this series. Already down big in the game to the Heat when Shumpert went down, the Knicks appeared absolutely deflated as they watched trainers have to carry their young teammate to the locker room. Any chance for an upset in the series may have disappeared into that locker room with him.

 
Injuries are a huge part of sports and they can have far-reaching effects on your team’s chances of winning it all. Sometimes the teams celebrating at the end of the season don’t have the best rosters, instead, they have the healthiest.