May 21, 2024

Hello and welcome to the very first edition of O For 4.  This blog will be a weekly collection of essays featuring my takes on recent stories from the sports world.  My takes will always be a reflection of my true opinions on a topic.  I do know that some of my views are not always popular ones, but hopefully in those instances, I am effective in communicating my reasons and I can bring some people over to my side of the table.  I will always try to be respectful of the individuals (athletes, coaches, executives, etc.) I am writing about, but I can’t promise that that will be the case every time.  When warranted, I will write a take-down.  This blog will be open to comments so hopefully debate is inspired.  Hopefully the comment section can remain a respectful and civil forum.  Let’s have some fun with this…

1. About The Author

I guess there is no better place to start my blog about sports stories than with a few words about the author, who was never all that good at sports.  Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Oren Basse, but I simply go by the nickname “O”, as in the title of this blog.  I am originally from the suburbs of Detroit.  I attended Michigan State University from 1998-2002, a four-year stretch which saw some great successes for our athletic department.  There were three consecutive Men’s Final Fours including the 2000 championship; I attended the Final Four and Championship that year in Indianapolis.  There was Nick Saban as the football coach for my first two years, leading the program to one of its greatest ever seasons to that point in the fall of 1999 before he left for LSU.  There was the “Cold War” hockey game where Spartan Stadium was turned into an outdoor hockey rink to host the highest-attended hockey game ever (record since broken), and of course I attended that as well.  To this day, I remain a die-hard Spartan fan, and that is actually what led me to my first job in sports journalism.  I am a writer for TheOnlyColors.com, an SB Nation site dedicated to Michigan State.

In addition to my alma mater, I am also a hardcore fan of my Detroit Lions.  I do reside in Detroit these days, just a few miles from Ford Field.  Growing up, my family had season tickets back at the Silverdome.  I saw most of Barry Sanders’ home games in person.  While these eyes were blessed with that, they also were subjected to plenty of heartache, including a certain Brett Favre-to-Sterling Sharpe TD bomb in a Wildcard game to knock the Lions out of the 1993 playoffs.  And I was there for the first ever regular season game in the new stadium.  Through all the bad years, I have stubbornly stayed faithful.  These last couple years are making it all feel worth it.  I promise you all tears when my Lions finally break their “glass ceiling” and reach a Super Bowl.  2024 will be the year!

Aside from that, I want the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons to do well, but I am not as invested emotionally there.  In the NBA, my “favorite team” changes every couple years, based on where my favorite player du jour is suiting up.  I’ll get into this more in future blogs.

I am big into soccer.  It all started in 2010 when I just happened to be backpacking in South America during the World Cup (South Africa was host that year) and everywhere I went, the game was on the television.  Small stores that did not have TVs were listening to it on the radio.  The hostels I was staying in were having massive parties every day during the games and the passion I witnessed in everyone there hooked me.  So much so that four years later I traveled to Brazil for their World Cup, spending a full four weeks there taking in as much of the competition and the festivities as I could.  I did not make it to the Russia games as I had scheduling conflicts, and I did not go to Qatar because it was not clear if I would be able to enjoy a beer at the games.  But the next version in 2026 will be here in North America and I am already planning that out for myself.  In fact, if I have one bit of advice for anyone reading this, it is to get yourself to a World Cup game at some point.  Even if you do not like soccer, the atmosphere around these games and the event as a whole is second to none.  The pageantry of the games and the unrivaled displays of patriotism amongst the players and fans make it worth it, not to mention you are seeing the absolute best playing for arguably the most famous trophy in the world. Back to me, over the past year I have taken up playing soccer in a co-ed adult league having never played this sport in an organized setting before.  I am playing against people who are mostly ten to twenty years younger than me and who have played their whole lives.  Basically, I’m a fish out of water on that field.  But it’s fun.

I also enjoy watching tennis, UFC, and the X-Games, so don’t be surprised when I write about those at some point.  On the contrary, I can probably guarantee you that I will never discuss baseball, motor sports, and most Olympic sports.  Probably.

Aside from sports, traveling is huge for me.  I’ve got 30+ stamps in my passport so far and will add more this summer.  I’ve lived in five U.S. states, at least one in each time zone, and one foreign country.  I’ve been to 46 of the states (Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Arkansas have eluded me); my dog, Delilah, has been to 43 of them.

I have mentioned that I write for another blog.  That was not the beginning of my work as a writer.  I actually am a novelist and have self-published three novels, a trilogy, which you are welcome to purchase on Amazon if you are interested in reading more of my work.  A fourth novel, a separate story from my trilogy, has been started but it will be a while before I complete that and release it.

And lastly, bringing this back to sports, I am the co-host of a podcast called “dOllar betZ” along with my buddy, Andrew “Z” Zeoli.  The two capitalized letters in that title are for our nicknames. You can find episodes on Apple, Amazon, Audible, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I think you all know me well enough now, so let’s get to some current sports topics.

2. NBA Playoffs: Whose League Is It?

We are certainly at a changing of the guard right now in the NBA.  I saw during a game early in round two that this is the first time since 2005 that none of Lebron James, Steph Curry, or Kevin Durant has made it past round one.  The 2022 champs (Golden State Warriors) did not make the playoffs and the 2021 champions (Milwaukee Bucks) were bounced in the first round, as were last year’s Eastern Conference champions (Miami Heat).  Yes, the defending champion Denver Nuggets made it to round 2 and were the two-seed in their conference, but the two teams assumed to be their strongest competition, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, are very much in uncharted territory for their young rosters.  Indeed, the West’s #1 seed OKC got bounced by a more experienced Dallas Mavericks team.  

In the East, it has felt like Boston vs. the field since the All-Star break, if not earlier.  The New York Knicks were nobody’s prediction to be the 2-seed and they were doing it all with their second-best player, Julius Randle, out for the season, not to mention other injuries they have incurred.  The Indiana Pacers took advantage of their opponents’ injuries to make an improbably run to the conference finals.  The Cleveland Cavaliers made the second round for the first time since Lebron’s final season in his home state.  They were no match for Boston, but they may be another young team who will elevate over the next few seasons.  And even the Celtics have some things to prove with a retooled roster (not to mention an injury to Kristaps Porzingis) this year.

Obviously, every team still alive has a star or two, but I think we are seeing that going beyond that may not be the best anymore.  There is so much talent in the NBA now that going for that third star (obviously a subjective term) may mean depriving your team of more overall talent and a better lineup, not to mention depth.  Take a look at Phoenix and the L.A. Clippers, who both lost in the first round despite having three studs on their respective rosters.  Sure, the Clippers were hobbled by Kawhi Leonard’s injury, but I would argue that only proves the importance of having better talent throughout the roster.  Will this be a lesson to NBA owners and general managers to stop trying to bogart all-stars?  Will they learn how to build more complete rosters?  As talent coming into the NBA only gets better (more international talent as well as better developed American players), and as science continues to build even freakier athletes, I think it is a reasonable expectation that we see more injuries late in the season and into the playoffs.  The increased competition will lead to more wear and tear.  I mean, there was not a first-round series this year whose storyline was not impacted by an injury.  Some of the second-round matchups also had key players missing games.

Personally, I am all for this revision to modern-day roster construction.  May this be the end of all-stars conspiring how to get onto the same team to shortcut their way to a title.  Call that the Lebron James Effect.  Let’s get back to the Golden Age of the NBA (the 80s and 90s) and have a league full of alphas that want to play against one another, not with each other.

Speaking of alphas and of the changing of the guard, if there is one thing we sports fans enjoy doing, it is compiling lists.  We discussed this on my podcast in a recent episode, but I want to rehash it here: the top-ten NBA players today.  In my opinion, gone are some of the names who held down the list over most of the past decade: Durant, Harden, Leonard, Westbrook, Davis, Butler, Irving, and Lillard.  Here is my top ten, in no particular order other than putting the old guard at the beginning:

• Steph Curry
• Lebron James
• Nikola Jokic
• Giannis Antetokounmpo
• Joel Embiid
• Luka Doncic
• Jayson Tatum
• Jalen Brunson
• Anthony Edwards
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The next two guys knocking on the door are Tyrese Maxey and Victor Wembanyama.

Back to this year’s playoffs, it would not be a take if I did not offer up my predictions for how the final two rounds will play out.  But first, since this is the first episode of this blog, I will confess all the series in this year’s playoffs which I was wrong about.  I had thought the Clippers and the Suns would get out of the West’s first round, and I thought Orlando would move on in the East. I also had NY getting by Indy to get to the Eastern Finals, but of course the Knicks were done in by injuries, not to mention the Pacers’ record-breaking performance (highest FG% in playoff history) in game 7.  I obviously did not have Dallas in the West Finals as I did not have them getting out of the first round, but even when they did, I predicted that OKC would get by them.  And lastly, I had Denver beating Minnesota, but that highly-entertaining series went the other way thanks to Minnesota’s record-setting comeback from a 15-point halftime deficit in game 7.  Yeah, two road teams both had record-setting performances in game 7 wins on the same day.  So, in review, do not rely on me for betting advice.

So on to my predictions.  I do not have anything shocking here; I am going with both higher-seeded teams.  I think Boston will beat Indiana in the Eastern Finals in five games, though unlike their first two playoff series, I think the game they lose will be on the road.  In the West Finals, I see Minnesota getting by Dallas, probably in six games.  Even though their star, Anthony Edwards is only 22, the Timberwolves have plenty of more experienced players on their roster, namely Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert, and Karl Anthony-Towns.  Even Naz Reid has been a valuable asset off the bench.  

In the Finals, I think Boston will win championship number 18, breaking their tie with the Lakers.  Right now, Boston feels like they are head and shoulders above the rest of the league.  You just have to respect Jayson Tatum’s game.  He should be first-team All-NBA again this season.  And I am actually more of a fan of Jalen Brown than I am of Tatum; he is one of the best “Robin”s in the NBA, as proven by being selected to the All-Star Game in three of the last four seasons.  The surrounding cast is built appropriately, all the way down to one of their lesser used guys in their playoff rotation, Xavier Tillman from Michigan State, who is absolutely one of my favorite guys in the league right now, despite his low usage.  Saying “Go Green” takes on a bit of a double meaning with Tillman on the Celts.  The Celtics will be the champions in about a month’s time.

3. Women’s Sports: The Caitlin Clark Effect

This topic is actually the one that made me think it was time for me to branch out from The Only Colors and create my own blog.  Here is the stat you need to know.  The recent NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Game between South Carolina and Iowa drew an average of 18.7 million viewers, making it the highest watched women’s basketball game in history.  A day later, the Men’s Championship Game between UConn and Purdue only drew an average of 14.8 million, marking the first time ever that the women’s final was watched by more people than the men’s final.

In sports, we often try to heap praise on an athlete by referring to them as “The next (insert name of another athlete in that sport).  Kobe Bryant was the next Michael Jordan (that came true).  Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady (this seems to have come true).  Connor McDavid is the next Wayne Gretzky (this still has to play out).  So I thought about whose name to use in describing Caitlin Clark.  Who is she the replication of?  And a few names came to mind for different reasons.

In 2023, Caitlin Clark became a household name when she carried her Iowa Hawkeyes team to the finals in a game they would lose to the LSU Tigers.  The media coverage ahead, during, and after that game caused some controversy, which I will not elaborate on, but the end result of that controversy was that it cemented Ms. Clark as the biggest name in women’s sports.  Going into the 2023-24 season, there was only one storyline: could Iowa and Caitlin Clark win it all?

By the time the NCAA Tournament arrived, that storyline had only gained momentum despite the fact that Iowa was not the overall #1 team going into March Madness.  But that team, the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, were completely overshadowed.  

The tournament went according to script.  Iowa got to play the team that beat them in the previous year’s championship, LSU, in the Elite Eight, where they got to even that score.  In the Final Four, they took on perennial contender UConn, whose star Paige Bueckers would probably have been the biggest name in the game if it were not for Caitlin.  Iowa came out victorious in that matchup to set up the final against that undefeated South Carolina squad.

The eyes of the country were fixed on Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.  Iowa came out strong and jumped to a 10-0 lead on their way to a seven-point edge after the first quarter.  Caitlin Clark scored 18 points in the opening quarter.  After that, South Carolina worked their way back and had captured the lead by halftime, a lead Iowa would never get back.  The burden of being a one-woman show caught up with Iowa against South Carolina, much as it did a year earlier against LSU, and the Hawkeyes fell further and further behind in the second half before finally losing by a dozen points, 87-75.  Even as the game wound down and the Gamecocks were beginning their celebration, Caitlin was still getting the majority of the time on camera.  Her face as she realized the game was out of reach, her walk to the bench as she got subbed out for the final time in her college career, her expression as she stood in the handshake line after the buzzer waiting to congratulate the champs, her walk to the locker room and out of sight.  Those were the moments the television network needed to capture.  Only after all of those could the cameras turn their full attention to South Carolina’s celebration.

For sports fans, we all know what the most watched college basketball game ever was.  It was the 1979 Men’s Championship Game between the Michigan State Spartans and the Indiana State Sycamores.  This game earned so much limelight because it pitted the Spartans’ Earvin “Magic” Johnson against the Sycamores’ Larry Bird, both of whom had already become household names.  That game was watched by an astonishing 35.1 million pairs of eyes, a number that the population growth in the past 45 years still has not managed to surpass.  So I thought that maybe we could call Caitlin Clark “the next Magic” or “the next Larry”, perhaps the latter as she came up on the losing end of the record-setting game, but either would be acceptable.

But Caitlin is doing more than just drawing viewers.  The first pick in the recent WNBA Draft is also changing the way the women’s game is being played, and it is going to change how the next generation of girls who are in grade school now are going to play.  I am talking about the three-point shot, and especially the deep three.  The NBA had a revolution of its own in this category starting about a decade ago, a revolution which was spearheaded by Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors.  So is Caitlin “the next Steph”?

Obviously, we will need to wait and see what her professional career will hold for her.  Will she finally capture the title that eluded her in college?  Will she get to play with a teammate or two of all-star level, a privilege she did not get to enjoy during her time in Iowa City.  Could she become the next Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, or Maya Moore?  In a related note, is it a requirement that being the WNBA’s best player means you must have alliterative initials?  Caitlin Clark checks that box.

Or, is it possible that by the time her career wraps up, we will be saying that we have never seen anyone like her?  Maybe she is “the first Caitlin Clark” and someday we will be asking who is the next her.

I’m looking forward to finding out.  And that leads me to the last point I wanted to make in this section.  A message to all the fellas out there, if you have not already done so, you need to embrace the world of women’s sports.  The quality is there at the highest levels of competition.  These young women receive excellent coaching and they learn the fundamentals just as well as the men do.  As someone who has already jumped on board, let me promise you that I get the same amount of enjoyment from watching the Women’s World Cup as I do the Men’s, and I enjoy watching women’s tennis as much as the men’s, maybe even more so as there is so much more parity and unpredictability in the Majors.  And now I know that the future of women’s hoops is in good hands, not just with Caitlin Clark entering the professional ranks, but with Paige Bueckers a year behind (can she bring UConn back to the mountaintop in her final year?) and all the others who are coming up afterwards, the ones who will grow up having watched Caitlin and trying to mimic her game in hopes of one day being tabbed “the next Caitlin”.

4. Sports Are Fixed, Right?

Now I am not one for conspiracy theories, though sometimes they can be fun.  And I do actually believe that sports are not scripted and that the results are, indeed, settled on the field of play.  But there are times where things happen that make me question that.  Of course, the most famous accusation of a league influencing the games is the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery, where suspicions are abound that the drawing was rigged to ensure the New York Knicks would get the first pick that year so they could select Patrick Ewing.

There are, of course, more recent examples of leagues being accused of fixing their draft lotteries, and there is a current one which also comes from the NBA.  This one is brought to you by some of my fellow Detroit sports fans, and I am not the one who crunched the numbers so I am trusting someone else’s math here.  For the second consecutive season, the Detroit Pistons finished the regular season with the league’s worst record, and as a result, they shared the best chances of getting the first pick in the draft.  But both years, the Pistons fell all the way to the fifth pick through the lottery.  My source informed me that there was just a two percent chance of that happening.  There is a common saying here in the Motor City, “Detroit vs. everybody”, and there are plenty of Detroiters claiming that the NBA is trying to keep the Pistons in the land of irrelevancy.  Detroit can’t have nice things, so if the Lions are doing well then the other teams need to dwell in the proverbial cellar.

I cannot say one way or another if I believe that the NBA is conspiring to keep a bad team down, though I would absolutely understand the rationale that they want to prevent a potential future face of the league from going to a poorly managed franchise, as by most indications the Pistons currently are.  In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it would be good business management for the various sports leagues to attempt to protect their assets (incoming future stars) by preventing them from ending up on a team in disarray and having their entire potential wasted.  The leagues want to be able to market the best players, and that becomes much tougher when a guy is stuck on a team with a poorly performing management that cannot build the team up out of the bottom of the standings.

Of course, there are examples beyond just influencing draft order that show a league being partial.  To keep this topic Detroit-centric, I will shift over to the Detroit Lions, where the faithful fans can tell you several examples of the officiating doing everything in their power to award the victory to the opposing team.  I won’t list them all, but there was definitely a screwjob in last year’s week 17 game at Dallas that brought back all the feelings of screwjobs past.  I am referring to the “Decker Reported” incident.  Are the Lions really being plotted against or are they just on the wrong side of the worst coincidence in the history of mankind?

Again, I do not think that pro sports are as scripted as professional wrestling… but the doubt is there sometimes.  Because if it is scripted, there certainly have been some good stories told, and not just efforts against certain teams.  For example, Peyton Manning, probably my favorite quarterback to ever throw a pass, winning the Super Bowl in his final game was a great story.  And while we are on the subject of Super Bowl winners, last season’s must-see TV romance between Travis Kelce and the world’s most famous woman, Taylor Swift, was obviously a cross-promotion by the NFL and Taylor’s management/concert production company to recruit more eyes to their respective events.  The NFL needed KC to win the Lombardi Trophy again; there was no way they were going to miss out on the chance to have Kelce and Swift kissing on the field during the post-game celebration.

So here is my hope, in case these things are scripted.  I hope the NFL has crafted a lengthy arc for my Detroit Lions.  All the years of horrendous teams, the multiple games decided by awful calls going against them, the trading-away of their long-term qb where he would immediately win the title with his new team, but also putting them in the first game of the year in 2023 where they got to win a game at the defending champion Chiefs, then the heartbreaking season-ending loss in the NFC Championship Game, and lastly hosting the 2024 Draft (the 2023 host Chiefs went on to win the ensuing Super Bowl) all feels like the NFL is getting ready to complete this story and finally let us Lions faithful out of our collective suffering.  

Commissioner Goodell, are you reading this?  Finish the story. Please make the 2024-25 season, at long last, the Year of the Lion.