Things you hate about sports you love

[GhostMachine]

edited my initial post.

[DavidMarrio]

Football:

Shit away fan banter and chanting about teams that have nothing to do with a game,

Shit pundits and commentators,

TV companies dictating when games get played and not considering the fans in terms of travel and cost.

3rd place in the Champions League group stages entering the Europa League,

FIFA as a whole and to an extent UEFA,

Half and half scarves 

Players who wear gloves because its cold but will wear short sleeve tops at the same time. 

The same 4/5 managers who seem to hop around clubs when other managers are never given a chance because such and such is seen as safe option yet will get sacked within 2/3 years. 

 

[Hobo]

Just now, Davidmarrio said:

Football:

Shit away fan banter and chanting about teams that have nothing to do with a game,

 

This.

[Mick]

Phil Simms.

[MDK]

19 minutes ago, Davidmarrio said:

Football:

Shit away fan banter and chanting about teams that have nothing to do with a game,

Shit pundits and commentators,

TV companies dictating when games get played and not considering the fans in terms of travel and cost.

3rd place in the Champions League group stages entering the Europa League,

FIFA as a whole and to an extent UEFA,

Half and half scarves 

Players who wear gloves because its cold but will wear short sleeve tops at the same time. 

The same 4/5 managers who seem to hop around clubs when other managers are never given a chance because such and such is seen as safe option yet will get sacked within 2/3 years. 

 

Did you just plagiarise half of mine?

The half and half scarves I don't mind if it is for a special game or a testimonial but not for Orient Reserves vs Ladbrooke Grove U21's.

[DavidMarrio]

2 minutes ago, MDK said:

Did you just plagiarise half of mine?

The half and half scarves I don't mind if it is for a special game or a testimonial but not for Orient Reserves vs Ladbrooke Grove U21's.

tbf half of the stuff is things near enough everyone hates about football  

One thing i did forget....players in positions having squad numbers that doesn't fit that position. Why the fuck is Glen Johnson number 8 when he's a right back....

[MDK]

Just now, Davidmarrio said:

tbf half of the stuff is things near enough everyone hates about football  

One thing i did forget....players in positions having squad numbers that doesn't fit that position. Why the fuck is Glen Johnson number 8 when he's a right back....

That does wind me up. On the flip side I do like it when a players number is taken and instead they take 81 instead of 9 or something but style it as 8+1. I think Pipo Inzaghi or someone did that.

[Gazz]

Ivan Zamorano, he wore 1+8.

Players surrounding referees, only the captain should be allowed to speak to the referee.

[TCO]

4 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Ivan Zamorano, he wore 1+8.

He was clearly thinking of the more well known case 

Edited January 12, 2017 by TCO

[Colly]

Birmingham had a fantastic selection of cheap scarves at the weekend, including the ubiquitous horrible half and half, but also including the even better block type "Oldest competition in the world, I was there! 7.01.17". I was there. For a third round cup game. Against a team in the same division. Which needed a replay.

[Toe]

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless.

[GhostMachine]

5 hours ago, Toe said:

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless.

Who, thankfully, are no longer working together.

[Gazz]

On 11/01/2017 at 22:33, GhostMachine said:

 Participation trophies for kids are bullshit and send the wrong message.

Scientific research into participation trophies has shown that they are positive reinforcers that reward things like effort, commitment, perserverance, communication and hard work, rather than 'winning', which is absolutely irrelevant to child development, both on and off the field. Kids aren't stupid, they know that you don't get trophies all the time for everything.

[Rich]

On 12/01/2017 at 11:00, MDK said:

Ain't that the truth. I cant imagine how much worse it is in non-league. But I might be finding out soon...

you get female refs on ocassion

[Szumi]

There's only one Sian Massey!

[Quom]

On 1/12/2017 at 10:38, Jasonmufc said:

Well, the idea behind it is obviously that they want to give smaller teams a chance to rebound and potentially get out of mediocrity, seeing there's no pyramid system to weed out the weak.

But if you look at the past five years, it's pretty obvious that it does little in the way of elevating teams back into contention. Unless you're the Cavs and get three first overalls in four years, and get the best player in the world to come back.

Looking at the five top fives, it really makes it even more painful...

Magic - 3x
Cavs - 3x
76ers - 3x
Bobcats/Hornets - 2x
Wizards - 2x
Suns - 2x
T-Wolves - 2x
Lakers - 2x
Hornets/Pelicans - 1x
Kings - 1x
Celtics - 1x
Bucks - 1x
Jazz - 1x
Knicks - 1x

Not even mentioning that nearly half the league has had a top 5 pick in the past five drafts, how many temas have went from that top five spot and reached the Playoffs/Contention in the past five years? The only one are the aformentioned Cavs who have had the pick of the litter since 2010, and only got over the hump by getting LeBron and Love.
Meanwhile you have the 76ers who are STILL in the lower percentile of teams in the East, which is historically the weaker division too. And the Orlando Magic are only one spot above them, wallowing in even more mediocrity.

You can make a case for the Pelicans/Kings, although they only had one top 5 pick both in the past five years, and they both have been fringe playoff teams at best.
And the Celtics are arguably the best case after the Cavs, who have been balling hard despite a massive rebuild and losing all their stars.
And then you have teams like the Lakers, Suns, Wolves who are still sucking balls despite getting top picks for their tanking effort.

... So yeah, even if shit teams are being rewarded with the biggest talents, they do fuck all with it.
But what would be a passable solution, because making it an open market will no doubt lead to many big teams filling their bench with the biggest names and getting even more a monopoly on success. On the other hand, the shit teams are unable to be not shit even when they get 3-4 great draft picks in a row... Unless you're Cleveland and only get out of shitsville through extraordinary means.

Isn't this incongruent with you hating one and done unless you meant that people should be able to jump right after high school? The main argument against the one and done is that the players aren't ready for the NBA.

I don't think there has been a rookie that has been close to the MVP race since Duncan entered the league 20 years ago. So it should hardly be a surprise that getting a high draft pick isn't enough to suddenly rocket you into the top teams in the league. 

I'd also argue that it's less that draft picks don't help and far more that players when free to choose will most often choose to go to a team that's already a success. If the Timberwolves had signed Durant they'd be in the playoffs this year. Instead he chose to go to a team that set a league record for games won in a regular season. Even removing superstars the Timberwolves are signing Cole Aldrich whilst Zaza Pachulia begs the Warriors to take him at a discounted price. LMA fled Portland to chase a ring with San Antonio etc.

Basically the draft has nothing to do with the parity issues in the NBA because they aren't "the biggest talents". The 'biggest talents' are guys in their primes which isn't someone you can actually draft. The bigger issue right now is that the guys you draft are most often going to hit their primes right in time to become UFA. You draft someone at 19-20, he does his 4 year rookie deal then his 4-5 year max and is an UFA at 28. To further complicate issues you've had a jumping salary cap where it can make far more sense to not want to go for a 4 year deal off your rookie deal and instead take a short term deal so you aren't locked in and can keep up with the increasing wages (and become unrestricted far sooner if your team won't do it another team will and the best your team can do is match that offer). 

Finally Cleveland's success had fuck all to do with the draft. LeBron went home. Anthony Bennett (who isn't even in the league any more) and Wiggins (before he played a single game in the NBA) was traded for Kevin Love a top 10 talent in the league when he was traded (and the trade only happened because Love was going to leave for free at the end of the season if he wasn't traded anyway because he wanted out of Minnesota).  

As a Mavs fan I'm sure you will get to experience the joys of 'tanking and still sucking balls' for the next few seasons, even with a billionaire owner highly invested in the success of your franchise and a top 5 coach in the league. If you thought getting a FA was hard because Dallas, wait until you're trying to do it without a superstar player and you're needing to pay bench warmers an extra 50% to even consider signing with you. The draft isn't the issue, the problem is that a rookie alone isn't going to help you much.

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, Quom said:

As a Mavs fan I'm sure you will get to experience the joys of 'tanking and still sucking balls' for the next few seasons, even with a billionaire owner highly invested in the success of your franchise and a top 5 coach in the league. If you thought getting a FA was hard because Dallas, wait until you're trying to do it without a superstar player and you're needing to pay bench warmers an extra 50% to even consider signing with you. The draft isn't the issue, the problem is that a rookie alone isn't going to help you much.

Sadly enough, yes. I'm glad Harrison Barnes has panned out as the next start of the team, but I don't share the excitement that reddit Mavs fans have at the thought that guys like Markelle Fultz are suddenly going to turn the team into a playoff contender again, because odds are he won't.

Hence why I am against systems like one and done, and at the same time also the scumminess of the NCAA making billions of dollars whilst giving student athletes an 'education'. I rather see non-college kids play in a D-League or abroad, and the ones that actually want to go through college do the full 3-4 years, and get more incentive than majoring in Swahili 101 because they're just gonna go for the NBA at the first chance.

Also, another thing about the sports I love... Fuck the NCAA, that can of worms is even too deep and dirty for me to rant about.

[The Lusophone]

Honestly hadn't seen the 'you love' parts so here's a football one:

Refereeing and Punditry: Football is a simple game, you can take someone to a game who has never been before and they'll likely understand it to a good degree - certainly more so than like rugby or cricket - but there's a massive disconnect between what pundits say and what the law actually says - or what referees are told to emphasise. In the era of 24 hour news cycles, endless slow motion replays, reverse angles, top angles, side angles, etc etc its really easy for a pundit to say 'that decision by the referee cost that team a goal', even for something like not allowing play to continue. They don't consider why a referee might not be allowing play to continue (e.g. to check injury, to keep control of a 'powder keg' game etc) and often just get rules wrong. The papers are just as bad as well. Guarantee if in the Championship play-off final the ref sends someone off after a contentious challenge (one of those 'you've seen them given' ones) at least one paper will go "£100 million mistake as ref ruins game" or something similar.

[Colly]

A million times that. I've lost count of the number of times pundits on MOTD (mainly Shearer) completely misinterpret a basic rule, then repeat it over and over again to concensus.

[Moses Julep]

I really hate it when teams that are absolute garbage get bought out by zillionaires and then suddenly they are good.