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"Tonight's NBC Olympic Encore is brought to you by Ambien CR."

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Majerus, Prime and the Straw

For me to show up here, in the every-so-often way that I do. I, admittedly, am among the worst on this staff about posting regularly other than Danny who, due to Hebrew scriptural law isn't allowed to post more frequently without getting paid. Because Jews enjoy money.

You might wonder why I post so infrequently, and I assure you it's not for lack of brilliant ideas or knowledge worth dropping on you, the ig'nint masses. Also, it's not because I went into seclusion following the one of the football games on Sunday that supposedly ended in most exhilirating fashion.

Nope. For me, it's just good old fashioned American laziness. And with that, I'm going to make a pledge, nay - a sincere and empty promise - to post more frequently. As founder of this blog, I suppose I feel some sort of responsibility to at least contribute, if not always lead.

Unfortunately, when laziness and faux-motivation jump on the scale of lady justice, laziness usually wins. So, that means they'll mostly be shoddily cobbled-together collages of a bunch of random stuff, each item more random than the last.

So with that, readers (i.e., our mothers and people who got here via a Google search for actual yellow chairs), I present you with the first in a series of posts I'm calling...well, nothing, just a post. About stuff. Read on.

Rick Majerus' Politickin'

Among the more bizarre stories of the last couple of weeks has been the sudden and overwhelming presence of Rick Majerus in the national spotlight. It started earlier this month when his Billiken squad was beaten 49-20 by George Washington (the school, not the guy) in their A-10 conference opener. The pathetic offensive showing drew national attention in setting the record for fewest points scored in the NCAA since the shot clock was instituted in 1985.

The coverage then turned from oddball to downright bizarre with last week's Sports Illustrated feature on Majerus that detailed, among other things, Majerus' habit of berating his players in practice by calling them 'cunts' and - weirder still - his unsettling penchant for exposing himself to his players.

Though you'd think that after having heard detailed accounts of what this guy looks like naked would pretty much sate the American appetite for all things Rick Majerus, you'd be wrong. This week, Majerus drew heavy fire from St. Louis University officials for comments made to a reporter while attending a Hillary Clinton campaign event wherein the coach voiced his support for a woman's right to choose and furthering support of stem cell research.

Without turning this into another episode of Yellow Chair Politics, I will say this - I think I speak for most, if not all of the members of this staff in saying that I'm a huge Rick Majerus fan. The affable and accessible Majerus is one of the few truly likable characters in college coaching, a profession more often than not filled with dour and unseemly personalities created as a defense mechanism to an insanely stressful career. While it's true that I happen to agree with his position, I don't support what he did because I support his politics. I support what he did because it was awesome to see a guy in a position so frequently politicized and sterilized make a statement without fear of rattling a few cages. Compared with guys like Bill Belichick, it's a welcome change to see some personality in the world of sports.

Despite what you may think about Majerus personally or what he had to say, you've got to admit one thing - hearing a guy who once remarked live on the air during an ESPN telecast about renting hotel porn and masturbating to Ashley Judd candidly discuss religion, politics and bioethics is a collision of two worlds you never thought you'd see in your life. May be the most baffling "what the fuck?" moment of the last five years.

Random YouTube filler!

Also, these you've gotta see. Boredom and YouTube are dangerous bedfellows, my friends.



Music Video for "Must be the Money" by Deion Sanders. Amazing, simply amazing. Among the best parts: Deion makin' it rain, early-90s style and the fact that he's sportin' the "brightly colored suit, no shirt" style for most of the video.

Highlight: 2:38, with a surprise guest appearance by...Darryl Strawberry?!?!



Music video for "Shoot, Pass, Slam" by Shaquille O'Neal. Vintage music video from Shaq's early days as a rapper, featuring highlights from his time with the Magic.

Highlight: At 2:06, Shaq gets a sweet feed from a shorty shorts-clad Scott Skiles and, as the video implies, slams it!



1986 Anti-cocaine Public Service Announcement starring Mike Schmidt's mustache. Now, they say most people don't know how to define "irony," but I'd say that having a member of the late 80's-early 90's Phillies talk about the dangers of cocaine pretty much sums it up.

Highlight: "If you're into cocaine, get off it. You're living a lie."

That's all well and good, Mike, but where were you with that advice when Darryl was up living it up in Deion's crib? Huh? Where were you!?!?!

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Answering a Question With Another Question

I'm admittedly not really much of a college football fan - regardless of whatever you say about the passion and the purity of amateur sports, you won't convince me - the pros are better athletes, plain and simple. The chance to watch Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, LT and the rest of the otherworldly superstars in the NFL will always trump seeing 10 slapdick future grocery clerks and one superstar play in a 56-3 rout of Alabama-Birmingham. But hey, that's just me.

Despite that, I've probably watched more college football this year than during recent seasons, and it's pretty obvious why. This college football season has been the most exciting in a long time, provided you're not a huge fan of the traditional powers like USC, ND, LSU or Florida (although if you follow the Gators, you'll get a consolation Heisman out of it, so don't worry too much).

The 2007 installment has had the excitement and feeligns of arbitrariness usually relegated to college basketball, starting with Appalachian State's shocker at Michigan Stadium. Over the following months, we got to witness Ohio State's persistent falling ass-backwards into title contention, USC's failure to play up to its talent, LSU providing proof that the SEC has more parity than any other conference in the country and the constant hilarity that was Notre Dame.

All the shocking upsets and constant shuffling amongst the top 10 left me with one question - Did this season's unpredictability prove that college football doesn't need a playoff? I've heard the argument (most recently from Dan Shanoff) that the college football season basically is a playoff, because the top teams will ultimately play in enough tough conference games (and hopefully at least one tough non-conference game) to really legitimate their stake at a national title.

Or, is the opposite true? Did this season only just serve to ultimately give us a lousy national championship with two teams who just basically managed to play a weak enough schedule that they weren't tested at the right time. Ohio State seems like the perfect argument for this. I mean, if you were to really think of the two best teams in the country, I don't think there's any way you'd put OSU in the top three. Maybe the top five, but that's probably a stretch, because I still don't think they match up to Mizzou, WVA, LSU or even Florida and USC. Isn't that as good an argument as any for having a playoff system to weed out lucky pretenders from the national championship game? In the completely made-up tournament in my head, I see OSU losing in the semis to a team like Georgia or even Arkansas.

Of course, tangentally related to this is the question of conference championships. After a completely dream season, Missouri could get totally screwed by having to play a really tough Oklahoma team in the Big 12 championship, while Ohio State gets to sit home and root for the Sooners. My completely uninformed opinion is simple - either all the BCS conferences should have one or none of them should.

I'm not nearly expert enough on the politics or machinery of college sports to offer anything close to an answer on this. I'm only curious to know what people think - has this college football season answered, in any way, the debate over the current BCS system? If you're interested enough, feel free to write up an opinion and email us, and I'll post it as its own item (yellowchairsports@gmail.com).

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The Politics and Business of Yi Jianlian

When the Bucks drafted Yi Jianlian, you could almost hear him thinking to himself, "Where the fuck is Milwaukee?" And most of the rest of the world wonders the same thing. Most people outside of the Midwest, not to mention outside of the country, probably can't point out Milwaukee on a map, so it's understandable that the draft's third biggest story has turned into whispers of holdouts and trade demands.

Here in Milwaukee the general buzz (at least the one I've gathered) is that we better get a good deal for Yi. Even though Yi himself has said that he will play wherever he gets drafted, his posse (or handlers, or entourage, or whatever) doesn't like the idea of going to a small market city with such a low Chinese population. So most people seem to be assuming that a trade is in the works, and we (Milwaukee) are okay with that as long as we get a good return.

Well I'm here to cry foul. This could be a pivotal moment for the NBA as far as international players are concerned. If the Bucks and the NBA allow Yi to "force" a trade, it could be the end of the free market system that professional basketball currently enjoys. When I talk to people that are big sports fans, but lackluster about Major League Baseball, it's almost always because of what we'll call the New York Yankees factor. When big market teams like New York and L.A. are able to push their weight around to create an imbalanced playing field in free agency, sports leagues lose parity. And even though the biggest markets are satisfied with being in contention every year, it takes an entire country of interest for a professional sports league to thrive. Baseball is able to get away with it (though I think they could generate more fan interest with a salary cap, although I don't necessarily personally want to see a salaray cap...you know what, that's a long tangent that I'm not going to go into) but the NBA cannot live without the combined interests of markets like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Portland, Indiana, Utah, etc.

I applaud Milwaukee for calling Yi's bluff and drafting him despite being locked out of his workouts, but to complete the move they have to sign him and get him in a Bucks uniform next year. If the Bucks trade Yi it could open the floodgates, so to speak, and persuade other international talents to demand to play in cities where there is a high population of their nationality. This means that the whole market is cornered by cities like New York and L.A. (and to a lesser degree Chicago and D.C.) Teams could, like Milwaukee, draft international talent and try to get a good deal for their draft pick, but when a player is pressuring a team to trade, that team never gets a completely fair deal.

It is vital that the Bucks stay strong on this. If Yi's representatives threaten to move him back to China, let them. As much as it would pain me to see the Bucks go from having the next Dirk Nowitzki to having nothing, we already traded the first Dirk Nowitzki for nothing, soooo been there, done that.

Oh, and just to clear things up...

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