Thursday Round-Up: The “Atlanta’s Renaissance is Doomed” Edition
Two topics I found interesting this week, and my thoughts on some texts I received.
BARKLEY vs LEBRON: This entire situation with Lebron and Barkley is ridiculous. Its also incredibly unsurprising. Barkley has always been outspoken — he’s been critical of many different NBA players over the years, stars included. The fact that he took on Lebron is not surprising at all, its just interesting the way he went about it. When Barkley facetiously asked, “Does Lebron not want to compete?” he clearly didn’t actually mean that Lebron is averse to competition. Its predictable jabber from Barkley, who has put his foot in his mouth on plenty of occasions. It also seems that this comment is what upset James the most. It is a ridiculous premise if you think about it — Lebron has been one of the fiercest competitors the league has seen throughout his career, and for anyone to genuinely question his competitive nature would be foolish. I have a different belief: I don’t think Lebron cared exactly what was said — he’s heard that all his career. He was only frustrated by the source of the criticism.
In my opinion, Lebron is incredibly image conscious. He never does anything to rock the proverbial boat. He sits on the fence about as well as someone in his position could. He didn’t take the lead among NBA stars in speaking up about police brutality, Carmelo did. And while Lebron’s voice may have been the loudest, he was not the first to test the waters of social justice commentary. Lebron wants so badly to be liked across the board, which is not an unusual desire to have. It’s just unrealistic. No one in his position is going to be ubiquitously beloved by all fans or players.
Another thing we know about Lebron is that he is a student of the game in the truest sense of the word. He is as familiar with the history of the game as anyone in the league. He knows all about Charles Barkley. Dwyane Wade mentioned that Chuck should be careful with what he says given that someone can look up Barkley’s notorious past with a quick Google search. Let’s make this clear. Lebron didn’t have to do a Google search. He knows about Barkley. He knew all about his “interesting” history with the league prior to this situation. Most importantly, he knows that Barkley is, by any metric, without a doubt one of the greatest players of all time. That’s why he blew up. That’s why he attacked Barkley.
When you don’t care about someone’s opinion of you, you don’t take the time to fire back with personal attacks. Lebron cares about Barkley’s opinion of him, so he lashed out.
For the record (and I’m not sure who’s record this would be on, not many people care what my opinion is), I’m on Barkley’s side here. Lebron is the pseudo GM of The Cavs. If he wants help, and if feels that the team needs another playmaker, that’s on him. He’s the one who demanded Tristan Thompson get paid. He’s the one who so desperately wanted Shumpert and Smith to be resigned. He’s the one who wanted Kyle Korver. This does not fall on anyone’s shoulders but his. That’s the price you have to pay when you become the Player/Coach/GM. You’ve got to take the all of the responsibility, 100% of the time.
Oh, and just another note: If he wants another playmaker, Carmelo Anthony is dying to get out of New York. I’m sure he’ll pick up the phone.
SUPER BOWL LI: I haven’t written anything extensive on the Super Bowl to this point. I guess I’m still in shock that The Dirty Birds are even in this thing. It’s truly unbelievable, and I don’t think it will really set in until Sunday afternoon.
As far as my thoughts on the game, they are few and likely biased. Read further with that in mind…
I think Atlanta can score on anyone, and that they’ll score a lot on Sunday. The Patriots defense has been good this season, but they have also only faced two truly great QBs all season: Russell Wilson (loss) and Ben Roethlisberger (win). Matt Ryan and The Falcons are a completely different beast. The Eagles were the only team to slow down Atlanta all season, and much of that was self induced by Atlanta, be it missed throws or dropped passes. I expect Atlanta to use every weapon at their disposal, and I anticipate Matty Ice leaning on Coleman and Freeman heavily on Sunday.
As for The Patriots, they will also score. Tom Brady still scares me, and we all know that Belichick will have a game plan that will stretch Shanahan and company to the limits on offense. Traditionally, Belichick will double-team an elite receiver like Julio Jones, and put his #1 corner on the opposition’s #2 wide receiver. In this case, that means that Taylor Gabriel better show up. That’s a lot of pressure for a young receiver, and I’m interested to see how he handles it. Apart from the secondary, New England’s pass rush will likely cause problems as well, leaving it up to Atlanta’s O-line to keep Ryan upright long enough to work around The Pats’ secondary.
Even with all of that said, I’ve still got Atlanta winning by 43. I warned you that I have a bias.
But on a real note, I expect a close game (shocker), a lot of points (duh), and I’ve got Julio winning the MVP as The Falcons take home the Lombardi Trophy 31–27.
Bet you can’t find that sort of expert analysis anywhere else.
TEXTS I GOT THIS WEEK: This is my version of a weekly mailbag that you see from other writers. Here’s what I heard from friends this week:
Stej: “Slowly falling in love with ATL renaissance vs. Brady’s revenge. This is like the most cordial super bowl ever. Neither team cares about the other team.”
This is a highly underrated Super Bowl, in my opinion. Atlanta and New England could not be more different, and for anyone familiar with the two cities beyond a superficial geographical level, it makes this game all the more interesting. Normally, we have two powerhouses in The Super Bowl. If this were Dallas and New England, what is there to say besides the fact that the two of them are very storied franchises? I guess the Romo storyline would be compelling, but not like this.
On the one hand you’ve got Atlanta, the apathetic sports town that’s broken its fans hearts so many times they’ve legitimately become numb to the pain. Seriously. Ask any Atlanta fan. No one expected this, and we still can’t believe it. And in fact, I think deep down, I’m still expecting us to blow it. Its inevitable, right?
On the other hand, you’ve got Boston, the perennial contender that’s been here so many times that they have to make up story lines and controversy to keep things interesting (see Dan Shaughnessy’s column about how boring this Super Bowl is for Pats fans). Boston is legitimately so bored with winning, that the chief goal of this season has become sticking it to Roger Goodell for the way he handled Deflategate. So essentially, one team is just tickled pink to be in SB51, the other is so disenchanted with the whole thing that they’re inventing new storylines to keep interest.
It’s a match made in storyline heaven, and not enough people are paying attention to it.
Just as a side note, Atlanta kills Boston from a non-sports culture standpoint. We have better music (see any Wikipedia article on rappers), better food (Waffle House, Chick-fil-A), and more homegrown talent (Donald Glover is one of the 3 most talented people on the planet right now. Just think about it). End of discussion.
Parker: “I hate the idea of Chip Kelly as OC tbh.”
Parker is referring the horrifying rumors that Chip Kelly might be Atlanta’s next OC. When I got this notification from Bleacher Report as I was walking into the NFCCG, my heart sunk.
Three years ago, if you had told me Chip Kelly was going to become Atlanta’s next OC I would have been ecstatic. But now, with all we know about how his defenses play significantly more snaps than other teams, I don’t want any part of him. “Indeed, the 2015 Eagles defense defended an incredible 1,148 plays, while the team that defended the fewest, the Seahawks, played just 947 snaps. At an NFL average of around 65 plays a game, Kelly’s defense effectively played three more games than Seattle’s” (Chris Brown, The Ringer). This is a recipe for disaster. Not only are you talking about your defense being on the field, getting tired, and giving up points, but they’re also more prone to injury.
Atlanta’s defense is young, scrappy, and fast. The last thing they need is to be hung out to dry for entire games, growing discouraged and demoralized by the lack of offensive help they receive.
Oh, and Chip’s offense has been terrible two years in a row.
For Kyle Shanahan’s replacement, please give me literally anyone else.
Nate: [Sent the Kiffin recruiting video in a group text, which became the source of much humor within said group text]
This video is truly unbelievable. What an absolute fall from grace Kiffin has experienced. He went from UT and USC, two of the most stored programs in the history of college football to FAU, a team with so little tradition, most people didn’t know that their mascot was The Owls.
If you haven’t seen the video, it’s right here:
If ever there were a time that I felt bad for Lane Kiffin, it is now. He looks positively miserable. There is about as much candor and enthusiasm in his voice as there is in Charlie Brown’s teacher’s. Couple with that the atrocious intro music that sounds like something you’d hear at a motivational speech about how to find your true purpose, and you’ve got potentially the worst “hype” video of all time.
Ego has always been the issue for Kiffin, and it doesn’t look like that’s changed. He was going to have to be humbled eventually, and it looks like that may have finally happened. I believe in the guy’s offense, and he’ll get FAU heading in the right direction eventually if he sticks around.
I just don’t think he’s going to stick around.
Thanks for reading, I’ll try to do better next time.
