Hello readers, welcome to the latest issue of O For 4. Thank you if you are a returning reader. Apologies on the time off since the last issue, but there really has not been anything controversial for me to discuss and I did not want to regurgitate what you have already read elsewhere. This is another issue with a range of topics, but there is one which is much more important than the others, and you will know which one that is when you get to it (hint: it’s last). Without further delay, let’s get to this week’s topics, and as always, please leave your comments at the end.
1. Updating My NBA Picks
Shortly before the NBA season began, right after the Karl Anthony Towns/Julius Randle trade between Minnesota and New York, I made my predictions for the 2024-25 season. I said Boston would make it out of the east again, and I said that Minnesota and Denver would vie for the west crown. As we are about 20% of the way through the regular season, it seems like a good time to reevaluate my predictions. While the Cleveland Cavaliers are certainly off to an amazing start, currently sitting at 16-1, my thoughts on the Eastern Conference remain the same. If you are wondering who is responsible for the Cavs’ singular loss, it is none other than the Celtics. It was a great game, with Boston coming away with a 120-117 home win. So you should conclude that these two teams are very even. But that would be forgetting to mention that Boston was without Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford in that game; in fact, Porzingis still has not appeared in a game this year due to injury. In other words, this team will be even tougher later when they are at full strength. And at this point, no other eastern team worries me.
In the west, on the other hand, I have new thoughts. This conference seems to have more significant injuries early on. Kawhi Leonard has been out for the Clippers, Kevin Durant is out for the Suns, Mike Conley is out for Minnesota, and Chet Holmgren sustained a nasty looking hip injury for OKC. Oh, and Zion Williamson is still MIA for New Orleans. Denver and Minnesota, my preseason beliefs, currently sit at 5th and 10th in the conference standings, though they are a manageable 2.5 and 3.5 games back of first, respectively. Currently in first are OKC and Golden State. I don’t mean to cherry pick the top of the table, but I am going all in on this year’s Warriors squad. The depth they have on this roster is remarkable. Their front court rotation of Trayce Jackson-Davis, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, and Kevon Looney is solid, even if not striking fear into opponents. They all score, rebound, and defend at or above average, and the team does not see significant dropoff when they put in the backups. On the wing, Andrew Wiggins is having a resurgence this year after struggling last year. His numbers are up across the board, and his PPG are up over 4 per game from last year’s career low. Like the frontcourt, Golden State’s backcourt also has strong depth. Newcomer Lindy Waters III has fit in seamlessly, Buddy Hield is shooting lights out (including a team-leading 44.1 from beyond the three-point line) and Brandin Podziemski has held his own when spelling the star of the team.
Stephen Curry is having another Stephen Curry year. While he is only averaging 22 points per game, he is continuing to drain triples at a high rate, averaging four made per game, while his game still features his ability to attack on the dribble and to score inside as well. He has such great ball control with the dribble that he can lose defenders (and often make them look silly) whenever he wants. What is noteworthy is that he is having the impact on games that he is while playing under 30 minutes per game, which would be the third lowest of his career if he stays at this amount of court time. In fact, no one on the Warriors team plays over 30 a game, further showing the depth of this roster.
So here is the new prediction. The Warriors continue to be great while spreading minutes around, then come playoff time, Curry ramps up his usage and says “night-night” to all four postseason opponents they face on their way to title number five.
2. Alabama In Trouble
We’ll go from one pick that I am changing to a pick that I simply got very very wrong. The Alabama Crimson Tide were my preseason pick to win the college national championship in the first year of the expanded 12-team playoff. At times this season, that pick looked real good. They started the season 4-0 with a win over then-#2 Georgia. For the first half of that game, the Crimson Tide looked like they were untouchable, jumping out to a 28-0 lead. They also shut out a ranked Missouri team, 34-0, and a week later went to LSU and blew them out, 42-13. But a bad loss to Vanderbilt cost them their perfect season, a loss to Tennessee temporarily put them out of SEC title talk, and an embarrassing performance at Oklahoma moved them out of the top 12.
Now, there were some other results around the nation this weekend that may end up saving Bama. In the SEC, Texas A&M and Ole Miss both lost, as did Big 12 teams BYU and Colorado and the previously undefeated Army. As we head to the final week of the regular season, Alabama is still going to need some help if they are going to get back into the playoff. First things first, though, they need to win the Iron Bowl against Auburn. On top of that, they could use a Texas victory over TA&M, a Mississippi State win over Ole Miss, and a USC upset of Notre Dame. Even one of those results helps.
But even if Bama makes it into the field, they will be a road team in the first round, and then it will be a case of which version of this team shows up. Will it be the team that jumped out on Georgia and walloped LSU? Or will it be the team that was trounced by Oklahoma? This team is highly schizophrenic, and it goes as QB Jalen Milroe goes. If he is hitting his deep throws and breaking runs with his legs, this team can beat anyone in the country. But when the Tide offense starts settling for screens and checkdowns, they can quickly become stagnant. I am going to wait to see what the bracket looks like before making new predictions. All I will say at this time is that I do not expect to see Alabama win a game if they make it to the playoff.
3. UFC Needs To Bring Back Francis Ngannou
Last weekend, the UFC had one of its most marquee heavyweight fights ever. The current champion, Jon “Bones” Jones, who is considered by many to be the best MMA fighter of all time, defended his belt against the two-time former champion, Stipe Miocic, whose four successful defenses of the belt are a heavyweight division record. It did not take long in this fight for Jones to demonstrate that he was a superior fighter, as Miocic, having not fought in three and a half years since losing his title the second time, looked slow and unable to keep up. In the third round, Jones earned the victory by TKO.
That previous fight of Miocic’s was also a highly anticipated one. He would be facing Francis Ngannou for a second time, after successfully defending his belt against him in 2018. Ngannou is arguably the most feared man in mixed martial arts as he has demonstrated an ability to knock out even the biggest and best heavyweights with a single punch. In his rematch against Miocic, he did just that, knocking out the champion in the second round to earn the belt. But after defending his new belt once, Ngannou had fulfilled his contract and he became a free agent when he and the UFC could not agree on a new deal. He would eventually sign on with another MMA federation, and one month before the Jones/Miocic fight, Ngannou captured the heavyweight championship of the Professional Fighters League.
So here is what needs to happen now. The UFC and the PFC need to get together and come up with some arrangement where their two champions will face each other. This was a fight that was speculated to occur in the UFC when Jones first announced he would be moving up from light heavyweight to heavyweight. He is a two-division champion and, as I said, maybe the best to ever enter the octagon. But Ngannou would be a whole other kind of fight, an opponent the likes of which Jones has never faced. They say in combat sports that “Styles make fights.” Well, this superfight would be the two best at two very different styles, the precision striker who is also excellent in the clench and on the mat against the knockout artist who simply cannot be overpowered. The money is out there. Sponsors will throw down for this and the fans will buy the tickets and the pay-per-view broadcast. This fight needs to happen.
4. Racism In European Soccer
Time to get serious for a few minutes. In the months I have been writing this blog, I have often talked about changes in the world of sports that I feel should not have been made. Most famously, I am talking about the mess that the NCAA has turned itself into. Now, I am going to take issue with a topic that has not seen change, but really really needs to. European soccer matches have been the scene of vile racist language and behavior directed at players by the fans for decades. As with everything else in this world, this topic has become more prevalent in the modern environment of 24 hour news coverage and the internet.
For years, the European federation, UEFA, as well as its constituent national leagues have been trying to curb this problem by running campaigns and installing a system of penalties on the teams of the offending fans. So far, none of it has worked and the disgusting displays persist. The most recent headline-grabbing incident happened in the aftermath of the “El Clasico” game between Real Madrid and Barcelona in late October. During the game, two Barcelona players, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, both of whom are Black, were the recipients of insults and abuse from people in the stands. Police investigating has resulted in three individuals being identified in stadium video as the perpetrators, and they have subsequently been arrested.
This is not the first time that arrests have been made of soccer fans for shouting racist remarks toward players; in an incident back in 2023, three fans were sentenced to eight months in prison and another fan received a twelve month sentence that same year stemming from another incident.
I credit the leagues for having the moral integrity to go after their own fans, and I credit these police departments for going to the lengths they have to seek out the guilty individuals. But it absolutely baffles me that this is where Europe is as a society. I will not pretend to act like racism does not exist on this side of the Atlantic, but I can say matter of factly that there is not a pandemic of racist abuse of famous athletes occurring at our sporting events (or of any minority celebrities at public events).
For those of you reading this who are unfamiliar with this ongoing story, this is more than fans being caught using derogatory terms for Black people, though certainly that would be bad enough. There have been regular reports of fans making monkey sounds and throwing banana peels at players, and there have been comments about slavery. And amazingly, pleas by teams and leagues for this behavior to halt has not worked, and now even the threat of jail time does not seem to be dissuading people from acting so disgustingly.
Could you imagine something like this happening at sporting events in America? I don’t mean it happening once. I mean it happening repeatedly and frequently. It seems hard to envision, as you would think that this kind of behavior would be met in a very unwelcome manner by others in the stands. So why is there not this same sort of backlash in Europe? Why is this behavior not being shut down by other members of the audience? Why is there no system of self-policing amongst fans?
I know I like to offer solutions to topics I write about. This, unfortunately, is an instance where I am at a loss of words. Hope Europe can figure out how to stop it, and soon. It is really saddening.
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