WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

when the worlds collideIt’s a great time of the year in 2012 for sports fans and fans of politics. Only every four years do these worlds collide in terms of their individual obsessions with dominating our very stressed and possibly limited attention spans. This is such an intense time in our society that there really should be a college course that brings every area of study together under one umbrella I would call, When Worlds Collide 101.” We would learn so much about ourselves just by taking this course where we could study the events that are current and those soon to come. We would look at the media coverage and write a group term paper analyzing the complete and unabated obsession with being number one in the hearts and minds of everyone.

Everyone would get to grade themselves just by participating and helping to complete this paper. Here are the participants in the May-June battle to be number one in our minds:

One World Trade Center. As of tomorrow, it will be the tallest building in the U.S. Take that you terrorist wannabees – try to bring that one down! Yes, it’s easier to see and I know all the reporting on how proud we are of it excites you. But don’t try it cause now you know we will just build another one even taller. So we are still – and will remain – number one no matter what you do.

The NBA playoffs are in full effect after the lockout. Everyone has something to prove albeit from a different perspective. No one knows who will win. We love it. The stakes are so high. Forget the Mayan Calender – End of the World Playoff in December. The world ends for the defeated NBA teams and players by end of their playoffs in June.

But wait there’s more! The NBA draft just finished this weekend and now we have a full-fledged battle between the NBA and the NFL for our love and devotion. The sports world wants to be our religion as it pumps us up to have faith that our team can win against all odds. Just take a look at that new World Trade Center building.

Let’s not forget that the Baseball season is going full steam. Baseball is our American pastime. And Baseball will not be denied it’s place as the sport that best exemplifies that we are indeed number one, at least until the football season officially starts in September. Of course he NFL ignores all that, and as mini-camps gear up and Tim Tebow speaks to thousands on Sunday, the NFL pumps out its chest and says “We’re number one!”

Let’s not even go into the political fight between the Republicans and Democrats. These in and out fighters push the same “we must be number one “ message from totally different points of view (they say). We stare transfixed at the TV watching the polls which are our political game scorecards as they predict victory or defeat.

But wait! The Olympics are coming to London in June and we have rocket launchers to be placed on the roofs of buildings to take out any terrorist air attacks. Religious psychos, the “best of the best” athletes from all over the world, and whole countries will be fighting to be number one in London. Worlds collide!!!!
But if the slugfest among your favorite sports and politicians is wearing you Bonesballers down, take heart. It’s only an opportunity for us to realize that we’re all in college studying how to transcend all the messages aimed at our heads by all the sports, all the politicians, all the religions and just enjoy the game of life.

As the sports and political, religious and all other “worlds” collide, let’s just sing that great American favorite – “It’s a wonderful time of the year.”

Kaboom!

Barry Orms
Former NBA player and now BonesBaller

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“WINSANITY” AND BEYOND !!!

March 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

nullAs teenagers everywhere wonder, “Who was Davey Jones?” many of us will remember Davey as a member of the musical group “The Monkees.” Davey passed away and it was interesting to see the group remembered for scratching out respectability in the shadow of the Beatles. The Monkees would never have surpassed the Beatles in popularity or talent. The bar was set too high for anyone to do that musically and the Beatles still reign as the most influential musical group of our time. Did the Monkees ever think they would be bigger than the Beatles? Maybe? Really? They would have been suffering from “Winsanity”

Of course back in the day, talent mattered in terms of how much fame one garnered. The Monkees, though never surpassing Beatlemania, did very well and had hit records and a hit TV series. But let me now say something really relevant –Snooki is pregnant, this according to various sources who saw her have sex multiple times. There will be many jokes about the fact that Snooki’s pregnancy is real news. Many will say mean things, but Snooki will end up getting big money for the rights to the baby pictures. I have nothing else to say except what does someone with a name like Snooki name her baby? Let’s have a “Winsanity” contest to name Snooki’s little Snookums.
As much as I hate that type of low humor I could not resist. I can always apologize, because in our society an apology to people who are seemingly doing a lot worse things than we are is mandatory today.

I love it- because we are finally getting to the point where the building up and tearing down of celebrities and athletes based on the need for unending content will finally give way to the next thing – people seeing the world for themselves without being told what to think. Yes –I have lost contact with reality and that’s what we all have to do when we realize that today’s reality is just one illusion after another about everything.

Welcome to BonesBall- where what YOU see is what YOU get if YOU see it –not if someone sees it for YOU.

Some have decided to be extremely critical, but I rejoice over sportscasters like Skip Bayliss and Stephen A Smith (who I think are excellent) on ESPN carrying on a relentless dialogue with sports fans about Lebron James apparent failure to “come up big” at crunch time.

I love this whole thing of setting the bar even beyond winning, which is now the case for Lebron. Remember when Lombardi said winning is the only thing? Not for Lebron. If Lebron does not singlehandedly beat the opposing team in this years NBA finals he will be seen as a failure. Of course if the Heat do not get to the finals, Lebron will have to retire immediately and never appear in public again.

But all that’s not about winning. It’s about fulfilling fantasies of the spectators — but when the bar is set so high by fans and media so hungry for Roman style gladiator matches, no one really can ever ‘win beyond’ unless you can win on demand. As the Miami Heat put a temporary halt to Linsanity as they embarrassed Jeremy and the upstart Knicks, a part of me just loved it – I loved it because before “Linsanity” – Jeremy Lin had been to the bottom of the sports life barrel – out of the league and back again. Jeremy Lin had realized for himself what he had missed and he stated to himself how he would go about the madness of the NBA if he ever got another chance. I believe that Jeremy Lin, at the end of the day raises and lowers his own bar, and that’s what we BonesBallers do.

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The Prospect’s Dilemma: Better Education or Playing Sports in College?

October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Growing up we are constantly nagged at about the importance of receiving a good education.  I can still hear my mom’s daily rant, “You need to go to a good college so you don’t end up like me… and you will make tons of money”.  I’m still waiting on that million dollar paycheck.  Sometimes I question my mom’s philosophy because I am not sure that college equals money… or that money even means happiness.As a kid my vision about college was going to the best quality educational school and being a star player on the basketball team.  For many of us this was or is the vision of college, but what happens when you have to choose between a more prestigious education and being able to play a sport in college?
For those of you that have gone through this dilemma you know how difficult making the decision can be.  Personally, trying to figure out what I wanted was a monumental pain and struggle.  The choice involves considering all past work in the classroom and the time spent working on your game.  Many feel like either way they are “throwing away” their hard work either academically or athletically.People will try to give advice about which choice to make, usually by downgrading the alternative.  Some common pieces of advice from friends and family are, “You’ll get a degree either way” or “It’s not like your going to go pro or anything”.  Dang, I didn’t realize these obvious claims.  I should definitely base my decision solely from these insightful arguments.Both choices offer different opportunities and selling points.  Family proximity, finances, other hobbies, career aspirations, and anything else of value and importance should be considered.  Unfortunately there is no algebraic formula to insert these variables into to give a solution.  It is usually a gut decision that is made on the final day to choose.My main piece of advice when trying to choose is not to frame your options as I did; “To play basketball or not to play basketball?…That is the question”.  If you think of it as education vs. basketball (or whichever sport) then you won’t be able to truly come to a sane selection.

I ultimately chose to stop competitively playing the sport I love in order to go to a more prestigious academic institution.  I could not pass up  the opportunity to go to the school I wanted to.  On the other hand, I have friends that have done the opposite and they love their choices.

Bottom-line is that only you can come to a conclusion, but even if you are happy with your choice you will always wonder about what could have been.  I sure do, so choose wisely my friends.

Written by Hollen O’Kelley
Edited by Saad Rana
Image Source: responsibility-project.libertymutual.com

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