0 FOR SUNDAY — The Weekly Opine

Self-induced controversy…again. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Tiger. Daytona. NBA. Whiff.

Last Sunday, on a day anticipated as a harbinger of impending spring, the sports of golf, auto racing and basketball left me perplexed and scratching my head. Victims of their own hubris and tinkering, the Daytona 500 and NBA All-Star Game succumbed to gimmicks that must be reevaluated and rejected. Meanwhile, the golf world witnessed its GOAT gimp around another golf course, a damaged shell of his former GOAT-ness.

At the end of the day

Tiger Woods is golf’s GOAT, a.k.a. Greatest Of All Time. But his antic last week, during the first round of the Genesis Invitational tournament, was cringeworthy. For the umpteenth time Tiger demonstrated that, despite the steely discipline and work ethic he’s demonstrated on his way to becoming the GOAT, he is still one immature dude.

Woods’ goofy, insensitive and stupid tampon prank on Thursday overshadowed the great golf played on Sunday and reminded us that Tiger can often be a man-child. In the aftermath of Woods’ tone-deaf tampon foolishness, 4-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson, a gentlemen’s gentleman, tweeted that Tiger’s “never been a leader.” Johnson accurately said Tiger is “still heralded after all the mistakes.”

I agree. Tiger Woods should not be held up as a role model. One helluva golfer but not someone kids should emulate.

It is appalling to hear otherwise highly respected journalists, such as CBS’s Jim Nance, fawn, and gush about Tiger’s amazing comeback from the devastating injuries he suffered in a horrific car crash two years ago. While it remains unspoken among many, this space repeatedly points out that Tiger’s predicament is self-inflicted.

You rarely hear golf commentators remind viewers that Woods’ inability to tee it up on a weekly basis is not because a random tree fell on his car. It’s because Woods was driving 85 mph in a zone with a posted limit of 45 mph. On a dangerous, hilly, twisting road. Anyone with a modicum of maturity would have driven at – or barely above – the speed limit.

The violin playing for Tiger Woods needs to stop. Watching him fall apart last Sunday, as is his modus operandi since returning to the PGA following his car accident, seemed inevitable. Tiger teases with good first and second rounds. After surviving the cut line, Woods falls off a cliff on Saturday and/or Sunday, when the toll of walking back-to-back-to-back-to-back 18-hole days overcomes him and his right leg. Last Sunday Tiger carded five bogeys on his final round.

His physical condition is Tiger’s fault. So is the heat he’s catching for his absurdly distasteful tampon joke.

Unless you fact-check it, don’t believe anything Fox Broadcasting says. (Photo credit Pit Stop Official Gear)

Don’t play it again

NASCAR’s biggest race was also last Sunday, the 65th running of the Daytona 500. Anyone seeking more evidence that Fox Broadcasting persistently lies needn’t do more than listen to its race announcers proclaim the Daytona 500 as “The Great American Race.” Anyone who knows a thing about motorsports knows the Indianapolis 500 is the undisputed greatest motorsports race in the world (a world that includes America).

What makes Daytona lackluster is that winning the race is dependent on “hooking up” with several other cars to create a draft to pull/push your car to the front of the pack. It’s like groupthink racing. The passing does not look natural but is the product of a few cars ganging up to chase down and pass whoever is in the lead. Cars even pit together, i.e., Fords pit at the same time, Chevys pit together, etc. Ugh!

On top of that, NASCAR employs a silly “overtime” green-white-checkered finish. For example, if a crash brings out the yellow flag near the end of Daytona’s scheduled 200 laps, the race can restart on, say, lap 199 with the green flag. Then the next lap is the white flag lap (the white flag signals one lap to go) followed by the checkered flag.

Trouble is, sometimes there is another crash during the green-white-checkered overtime. So, they go green-white-checkered again. Dull. And boring.

As a result, the ending at Daytona felt unnatural, like forced fun. (At Indy, the race can end under the caution flag. It rarely happens but that’s part of the deal. No soccer-like extra time. It’s a 500-mile race… period.) Adding insult, Daytona has two pre-ordained caution periods after the first two stages of racing. That’s no fun!

Last Sunday, it took 212 laps to finally complete the race. When it ended, the self-proclaimed Great American Race earned its place as a great snooze fest.

High school all-stars take the game seriously. (Photo credit Brian Spurlock)

NBA (Not Basketball at All) All-Star Game

I gave up intently watching the NBA’s all-star game years ago. Once the entertainment factor replaced playing real basketball, I lost interest. (Have you noticed the NBA’s GOAT, Michael Jordan, does not show up to watch what the NBA All-Star game has devolved into?)

All-Star Saturday, featuring the skills competition, 3-point shooting contest and slam dunk contest, is still fun although the actual all-stars are mostly courtside fashion models. However, Sunday’s all-star game is an absolute farce. Who cares if Jason Tatum of the Boston Celtics set an all-star game record scoring 55 points? I could’ve scored 20, considering the open pathway to the rim players with the ball are granted by ‘defenders.’

To be blunt, the NBA All-Star Game is the worst basketball game you’ll ever see. Why the League would denigrate its own product with such an outlandish display of dreadful basketball is beyond me.

The late, great Don Cornelius, of Soul Train fame, would be envious of the NBA All-Star Game “line dance.” Players step aside, politely giving way so their ‘opponent’ can glide unopposed to the basket or take mostly uncontested shots from anywhere on the court. A lovefest unlike any in sports. And a huge turn-off.

During the game, which I watched for a total of about 10 minutes, TNT showed a video clip of MJ and Kobe Bryant going at each other during an all-star game back in the day. Back then, the players used the game as a means of solidifying their position amongst the game’s alpha dogs. It was real mano-a-mano stuff. Legit ballin’.

Truthfully, the McDonald’s All American High School all-star game is much better than the NBA game. In the McDonald’s game the players, many destined for just a year or two of college before heading to the NBA, are playing to prove they belong on high school’s biggest stage and improve their stature in the minds of NBA scouts. The coaches preach team ball and playing “D.” It is a real basketball game with dollops of oohs- and aahs-eliciting passes and dunks.

The NBA all-stars appear lazy (playing little defense), selfish (how does anyone score 55 of his team’s 184 points?), and clownish (laughing the night away). A camera shot of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver didn’t help. The commish, head buried in his mobile phone, was hopefully texting “fix this!” to his lieutenants.

The NBA All-Star Game, a once anticipated marker on the annual sports calendar, is an embarrassing hot mess.