Ryanh02

So there I was in front of ESPN watching sports center and they started to talk about womens basketball.  Now normally at this time I leave the room to go get a drink, and thats what I did.  When I came back though they were going on and on about a player on the Russian national team that was fast tracked to gain citizenship so she could play basketball in China for them.  I found this strange not because it happened (heck we do it all the time, I give you Freddy Ado) but because ESPN was reporting it.  Then they went back to an interview with the girl (I can only assume they introduced her when I was in the kitchen), and she spoke with a mid western accent.  The chick is from like Texas or something, so then after that all the USA womens basketball coaches/players/organizers got interviewed and said basically this girl (I wish I could remember her name...) was the Benidict Arnold of her time, and no one should "abandon" her country like that.  My initial thought was in agreement with them, I mean after all there commies.  Then they started showing this girls stats, she is better (BY FAR) than three of the five starters on the USA womens team, a WNBA all star but apparently that was not enough.  Russia totally pulled a USA, they paied her a base of 2 million to come play womens basketball in Russia, and if she leads them to gold she gets another 2 million bonus.  I am the BIGGEST USA fan when it comes to Olympics, I am that crazy guy starting the USA chant at like womens equestrian horse racing.  That being said I want Russia to beat the USA in womens basketball this year, I cant help but think that politics played somehow into her not getting on the team I mean she had amazing numbers but still got snubbed.  I love how Russia did the one thing we usually do and threw money at someone to get there services and I love even more how the girl in response to all the "your a traitor" talk was just like "its my job there paying me, besides you had your chance and you didn't want me on your team.  Did you expect me to just sit out?"  Like I said I only saw the last half of this on ESPN, so if anyone out there knows the girls name or has any more insight into why she was left out of team USA please let me know.  In the mean time though I will be cheering for Russia in one Olympic sport this year.

I could rant and rave about how great John Smoltz is and how much of an asset to not only the Braves but the whole city of Atlanta...the state of Georgia... he has been since he got here in the early 90s but there will be plenty of that over the next few days.  For now I am going to concentrate on how all professional sports screw the east coast fans.  I am not a fan of the NBA, lets just get that out of the way now.  I will watch it because it is a sport but I really do not like it.  That being said you have one of the most historical finals in the history of the game and you aren't starting game time until 9pm est. thats crazyness.  It has always annoyed me that no matter what the sport no matter who was playing (heck it could be two east coast teams) once it got into championship series time the games would not come on until around 9.  Recently the NFL has changed that with the super bowl and baseball always has been decent at there start times 8pm is a good time to start.  But what the hell is with the NBA?  David Stern is ALMOST a worse commish of his sport than Bud is of baseball, start the game at 8pm everyone can be happy not that hard.  What is 5pm to early for people to watch it in California, if anything it is better after work head to the local bar with some friends catch dinner and the game be home by 9.  Instead you decide to totally disenfranchise not only the east coast but the future fan base of your sport (kids) just because you think you might squeeze out an extra million in ad dollars.  Well here is the kicker  TiVo now your going to see a drop in ratings because so many people on the east coast will just record the damn game.   Eventually you have to stop chasing the dollar and realize people have jobs and school and a life to get to each morning...