Aftering finally quieting the naysayers a freakish but all too common play ends flashy rookie Ricky Rubio's season

Rubio came to the NBA after playing on one of the premier club teams in Spain who was a championship contender year after year with a team filled with quality veterans. Many said that Rubio needed more work before coming to play in the league after he seemingly regressed if you looked at his statistics on paper. Many said that he needed A LOT of work, muscle development and time to simpily grow up before stepping on the court with guys like 6'8" 240LBS small forward Lebron James and 6'11" and built like a greek statue made of solid rock Dwight Howard.

ESPN.com Player Profile-Ricky Rubio
 Those were the kind of guys that would be meeting Rubio at the rim and how many seriously thought that a guy averaging 2nd man off the bench minutes, barley over 5 pts in those minutes in the SPANISH LEAGUE could even earn court time in THE LEAGUE?
Ricky Rubio is listed at 6'4" and 180lbs in the espn player profile which like the team player profile is sent in by the manager/assistant etc I believe. (at least that how it's done at the lower levels) Basically that means that those numbers get expanded or decreased based on what the player and team want.  Who wants to be listed at 5'11" when they can say they are 6'1", and after the offseason that flew by filled with parties and late nights out with friends had your weight balloon up to 225. That's easy, by opening night you'll have worked off that big mac filled backside, we'll just list him at his playing weight of 190.


What makes this disheartening for both Rubio and Timberwolves fans is he has not only played extremely well all things considered this season, improving week by week and even winning a starting job but this was finally a sign the team was moving in the right direction again for the first time since trading superstar Kevin Garnett. They resigned big-man and all-star Kevin Love to a multi-year deal and have their point guard of the future to go with last years player that was drafted early in the first round Williams and this year again will be picking up someone early and the draft is much much deeper. Things are finally going in the right direction for Minnesota fans before this so I hope its just a speed bump on the road back to relevance, they have waited long enough.






ESPN.com Rubio Article

Guess who said WHAT? "I really do want to play here.....as long as you pay me just $1 more then everyone else. I just want to make as much as I can."

Yardbarker.com Article link here  by Kris Hughes 

 Personally, i'm not surprised at all after hearing that Marlins President David Samson took the first chance he had, (publicly at least) to alienate not only the people that are his naysayers but also his allies.  Some were calling the move to Miami with a publicly funded brand new ballpark a fresh start....what better way to start fresh then to re-open floridians memories of the old Marlins team then with the brash, arrogant, self-rightous, president of that team standing front and center letting those fans that are paying for that field with their tax dollars know that basically he is going to be getting paid whether anyone comes or not.

This is probably the last chance that Reyes has at a big contract in his career, it's the first real free agent opprotunity he's had. Why shouldn't he make as much as he should? I haven't heard any rumors about Samson donating his salary to local charities in need or spending long nights at the homeless shelter after he finishes up his days at the yacht club, have you? No, I don't like hearing stories about athletes and the ridiculous contracts that they sign today and they will continue to sign year after year, it's the nature of the beast. I want to plug my ears and close my eyes and just pretend that there are still some guys that really just play because they enjoy baseball that much, they donate half of the outlandish amount they receive to a battered womens shelter and then they live with their parents in the off-season so they can cut back on their carbon footprint....or something happy sounding like that.

Where do you stand on "BountyGate"???

Let's talk about the biggest story of the off-season....No, not Peyton Manning and his probably divorce from longtime significant other Indianapolis Colts due to the drafting of "once in a decade" phenom Andrew Luck. Nope, not Eli Manning winning his 2nd Superbowl and possibly stepping ahead of brother Peyton for ranking in QB history or even that Eli now has twice beaten the Patriots and damaged Golden Boy Tom Brady's legacy. We are talking about Greg Williams, Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints players enacting a injury bounty for taking other teams best players out of games.

The examples being discussed are that of Kurt Warner which was hit and knocked out of the NFC championship a couple years ago against the Saints and then Brett Favre who was destroyed in his final game against the Saints on their way to the Superbowl. Favre was hit over 20 times in that game yet only 1 flag was thrown. The hits were vicious, tactile, well planned out, LEGAL HITS. In that last year Favre had played in over 250 games or something, in case you don't know, THAT'S AN INSANELY HUGE NUMBER, ESPECIALLY FOR AN NFL QUARTERBACK. Favre is prone to throw balls into tight coverage and make some spectacular plays but conversely have some dumb interceptions. The Saints did EXACTLY what 90% of other teams would do and tried to do, put pressure on Favre, that's what you do in football.

I really think this is getting blown out of proportion in some ways because of the terms being used and people not as familiar as they should be with football to voice their opinion. When you say the word "bounty" it just has a negative connotation to it. I CERTAINLY DO NOT AGREE WITH TRYING TO BE DIRTY, BREAK RULES AND END A PLAYERS CAREER OR EVEN SEASON. What i'm saying is so far today I have heard numerous football players speak out today and say they all had a system of payment and recognition in place for the defensive side of the ball. And every one of them said the same thing.....as long as it is done within the framework of the rules and game then there is NOTHING wrong with this. Did they word it wrong by saying injure players/hurt guys? Yeah, I think they did. But.....isn't that the idea in every team sport in one way or another. In baseball you want to work the count to get the starting pitcher out of the game, in basketball you want to draw fouls to get in the bonus and get the other teams better players off the court and in football.....

SO, what is your take? Is this all just disgusting and cross the line for you, or is it just part of the game?