The Playoffs: Welcome to Hockey

The NHL Playoffs are off and running, well into the run with the first round under the teams' belts. Here's guest writer Tony Garcia with more...

Before I get on with my blog, I need to throw something out there. My #1, hands down, unquestioned, head honcho, king of the crop favorite sport is… hockey. Over the next few weeks you're going to be getting a lot of hockey news from yours truly. I don't apologize for that and I never will. I think one of the reasons Troy and I became friends and remain friends is because of hockey. I also feel like part of the reason he reached out to me is because of my love for the game. Sports writing and sports blogging needs more hockey people. Average Joe sports fan needs to watch more of this game and I'm going to attempt to bridge the gap or lend a hand to assist people to flock to what I feel is the greatest team sport in the land. And since I have this space to write and express my views and opinions, you better believe I'm going to use it.

If you haven't been watching Stanley Cup playoff hockey, start now. I mean literally turn on NBC Sports Network or scramble through your channel guide to find CNBC (nothing says hockey like CNBC). Chances are a game is on. As I write this, Boston and Montreal are in the middle of Game 1 of their series. I'll get more into that series later. This is the part of the blog where I pound my chest and say playoff hockey is like nothing else. If you're going to only reserve a little time to watch the game, watch it during the playoffs. The players risk life and limb out there at this time of year. Injuries? What injuries? There's no such thing this time of year. Once a playoff series is over you will find players have played with injuries that you wouldn't think one could function with, let alone play a sport at a professional level. Hockey players are nuts and that's why we love them.

If you did watch the first round of the playoffs, you viewed what was probably one of the best first rounds of all time. You picked a good time to start your hockey fandom. Last night there were three games 7 (or game 7's). I don't know which is proper English, but my last name is Garcia so we'll just agree that there must be some kind of language barrier here that I just simply can't overcome. Games 7 makes more sense to me grammatically but game 7's sounds right phonetically. 

To me there is no better drama than a sports game. Not just hockey but sports in general. I hate to play spoiler for you, but your "reality TV" isn't reality at all. It's either scripted or driven to a pre-determined storyline by some kind of producer or director that it might as well be scripted. I speak from experience. During my stint in LA I worked on many reality shows and every show I worked for had some kind of script or storyline that the producer wanted to follow. Shows that you would think there wasn't any way it could be scripted… they were scripted. It left me with a cold feeling towards that particular niche in the TV industry. But like many employees, after a few jobs, you just turn a blind eye to it and accept that you are just doing a job. And if that job pays a few bills and allows you to eat, you zip it and do that job.

Okay, enough of that. Why should you watch hockey? More specifically why should you watch Stanley Cup Playoff hockey?

The skill of these guys is amazing. The combination of speed, skill, agility, endurance and toughness is like no other sport out there. I think what happens is the viewer sometimes gets lost in how difficult it actually is to do some of the things they do. Go to your nearest ice arena and go to a public skate some time. Strap on your skates and once you've mastered the art of standing on the ice, take your first stride. Now that you've got yourself moving and the boards are coming up, try to stop. It's not easy. Now imagine you have a stick in your hands. Look around. Now imagine everyone else has a stick in their hands too. Oh, and don't forget all those other people out there are going to hit you. You're going to get hit by a big, fast person with a stick. Now look down to the other end of the ice. There's a goalie there. He's 6 foot 5 and he has big pads on. There's so much that goes into a hockey player's head at one time. You literally have less than a second to decide what to do. Then once you decide what you're doing with the puck, you have to execute. On skates. With someone hitting you. There are so many elements that just get ignored and tossed away because these guys make it look easy and effortless. The most mundane hockey play is poetry in motion.

One common thread or complaint I get from Average Joe sports fan about hockey is they can't relate or don't understand the rules. Football, America's Game, is generally simple. Throw ball, catch ball, tackle guy with ball. Basketball, run and throw ball in basket. Baseball, hit ball and catch ball. Sure every one of these sports have nuances to them. Offensive schemes, defensive schemes, zone vs man defense, etc. The rules are just more simple in those games, I get it. It's hard to explain icing and offsides without a dry erase board. Those are the two most common rules people don't understand. What I tell many people that are new to the game is to simplify their viewing at first and just accept that the whistle just happened. Not everyone gets ALL of the rules in football, baseball and basketball. They accept it and move on. But for some reason they get hung up on icing and offsides. After a while you will start to understand it. Then it's on like Donkey Kong.

If you're reading this and saying, "but Tony, I understand the rules already. What are your thoughts on the first round and what do you see happening in the second round?" I'm saying I'm sorry but you're gonna have to wait 24 hours for that. This one was for Average Joe sports fan that needs to be lead to the game of hockey. Watch a Stanley Cup playoff overtime game and tell me it was boring. Blasphemy! Once you've made it through these playoffs you'll be ready for more complicated things. Things I promise I'm going to be covering in the future. Things like CORSI and FENWICK and the trap and umbrella power play. These things are so exciting to me and I can't wait to share them with all of you. 

Every time I attempt to attract more people to the game I always feel like I'm a lawyer trying to sway a jury one way or another. Hopefully I did in this case. If my words don't do it for you, just turn on the game like I suggested earlier. You'll get hooked. Because of the drama. Because of the grit. Because it's the Cup.

SPT Remembers Bob Hoskins

I know what you're thinking… "Troy, of all the films that this man has graced his presence with - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hook, Brazil, Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', Nixon, Michael, on and on and on… why choose Super Mario Bros., the film that he had always expressed disappointment for?"

It's no secret that I hold the Super Mario Bros. live-action film in a dear place of my heart, for so many reasons that people abhor the film, I have grown to adore it. It was weird, it looked super-cool, and these two guys that weren't even remotely Italian really were the epitome of cool. Sure, it probably is a terrible movie, but I still love Super Mario Bros. And Bob Hoskins' presence in that film was one of the biggest drawing factors to that.

That tangent about Mario aside, Hollywood lost another great today, at the age of 71. Hoskins had just recently retired from acting, a result of his deteriorating health from a Parkinsons diagnosis. The BBC is reporting that he passed after contracting pneumonia. 

This weekend why not pop in Roger Rabbit, Hook, or one of the many films that you grew up with that Hoskins was largely responsible for and enjoy in his honor?

Eyes Wide Shut: The Donald Sterling Saga

Guest-writer Tony Garcia submits his second article for SPT - an editorial on the current controversy surrounding Donald Sterling and his comments. Here's Tony...

I didn't get a chance to drive past the Staples Center today because I had to work. Oh… and I also don't live in Los Angeles anymore. In fact, I live over a thousand miles away. Tough break for me I suppose. Outside of Los Angeles though, the LA Clippers have been at the center of the sports universe for the last three days. Only this time I'm not sure they want to be. Instead of concentrating on playoff basketball everyone from Coach Doc Rivers to the players have been distracted by the sideshow created by their owner, Donald Sterling. 

In case you missed it, Donald Sterling is in some piping hot water right now, and quite possibly deserved. Over the weekend TMZ released an audio file where Sterling spews all kinds of hot garbage about "blacks" being brought to "his games." The audio itself is arduous, boring and at times, incoherent. If I were going to write a cliff notes version of said tape, it would be transcribed like so:

Sterling: I'm rich. I'm Jewish. I'm an old school racist. Blacks aren't allowed at my games.

Since my transcribing skills aren't what they used to be, I implore you all to check out the audio for yourselves. When I listened to it in its entirety I was shocked, appalled and generally confused (Editor Troy's Note: Me too… much of it is nonsensical). There was also a bit of sympathy somewhere in there. Not so much for Sterling but just for the situation in general. How can we, in the year 2014, still be dealing with racist issues like this? Or better yet, why are we dealing with racist issues like this? 

So I looked into this Sterling cat. Thanks Google. Now I know too much about someone I've never even heard of before Saturday morning. I take that back…I have heard of Donald Sterling. I knew that he was considered a horrible owner and owned one of the worst teams in sports. I'm talking pre CP3, Doc Rivers and Blake Griffin days. The current Clippers team actually isn't that bad. #BasketballAnalysis

In my research I came across a few interesting things about Mr Sterling. Turns out he owns a lot of rental properties in or around the LA area. One thing that just popped out at me for some reason, not sure why… (sarcasm)… is that the US Department of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination after he made statements against renting to Latino and African-American tenants. Hmmm…

Then in 2009, Elgin Baylor, who is an NBA Hall of Famer that was also the general manager of the Clippers from 1986-2008, filed a civil lawsuit against the Clippers organization for wrongful termination. In Baylor's statements to authorities he described Sterling's business practices like a "vision of a Southern plantation type structure…poor black kids from the South playing for a white coach." I'm kind of sensing a trend here.

Reading all of that led to even more questions. If all of this were true, why wouldn't this guy, this owner, this supposed diplomat of the NBA, be questioned before any of this happened? How could the then commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, let any of this go on without even batting an eye? To me the red flags were there well before TMZ released those tapes. The NBA just chose to close their eyes on the matter. It's a damn shame it had to reach this point but unfortunately in order for there to be some justice, something like this had to happen. 

So what about some answers? The story doesn't end with the old rich white man just riding off into the sunset off of Santa Monica Pier while still owning the team, does it? Short answer, no. Lord no. Hell no.

I mentioned the name David Stern above. Thankfully he is now former commissioner David Stern. He retired literally a couple months ago. Just in time if you ask me. Enter new NBA commissioner Adam Silver. He's handed a pretty bad situation here and had to react pretty quickly. Word around the hoops world was the entire NBA Players Association was prepared to protest tonight's playoff games and stage a "walk-off". No, I'm not talking about a Zoolander/Hansel classic walk off. I'm talking about the players leaving the court during the playoffs, the NBA's biggest stage. The domino effect that would've had would've been quite strong when you consider the fans into the equation. Imagine spending your hard earned dollars on going to an already over-priced game only to see the players walk off. 

So Adam Silver had a sticky situation on his hands but boy did he step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. The only walk-off today was a walk-off grand slam off the bat of Adam Silver. When I woke up today I didn't expect sports history to be made. I also didn't expect to type so many words about basketball, a sport I generally have less interest in out of the "big 4" sports. What Adam Silver did today should be applauded and will be talked about in the pantheon of sports history forever. 

After the NBA's investigation of this matter, Silver imposed a lifetime ban from the game of basketball on Donald Sterling. On top of that, Sterling was slapped with a $2.5 million fine, which is the maximum fine amount. Effective immediately. In a matter of days Sterling went from owning the LA Clippers to clipping coupons out of LA newspapers. Just like that. Swift justice. Sterling can't attend NBA games or practices. He may not be present at the Clippers facilities. He can no longer make any decisions regarding the team. Banned. For life.

What's next in all this is the eventual sale of the team. Silver has urged the Board of Governors (the other 29 owners of NBA franchises) to "exercise its authority to force the sale of the team." All that means is this thing is pretty much over for Sterling. No owner of another team will vote for Sterling because this has already reached the point of no return. Any owner that isn't with the commish will face backlash from their own players, coaches and fans. This is a done deal.

What amazed me today wasn't the decision of Silver but the counter-argument some people were making that were in favor of Sterling. You know those people. They're the "first amendment" people. Freedom of Speech. You can hide behind that all you'd like. It's your right. Sterling made his thinking known and will now lose because of it. 

There's no room for racism or bigotry in today's society. Sports always has and will continue to play a major role in climbing the barriers of racism. As we all get older it will be nice to be rid of the "Southern plantation owner" mentality. Donald Sterling grew up in different times than you and I did, but that doesn't make his views right. The good ol' boy network of old-time thinking took a major hit today and for that we should be happy. Thanks for listening.

Star Wars: This Will Be a Day Long Remembered

In a surprising move (many were expecting the announcement to come in with the hyper-punny May the 4th faux-celebration), Lucasfilm has announced the cast of the new Star Wars sequel, still as of yet untitled.

Original stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) will be reprising their roles from the original trilogy. 

New to the series are actors are John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Mr. Selfridge), Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Issac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter)... oh yeah, and freaking Max von Sydow (you know, of many films but let's be honest you know and love him as the voice of Vigo the Carpathian, right?). The new cast's roles are as of yet announced.

The film opens on December 18, 2015 and begins filming in the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Slashfilm has a fantastic breakdown of all the new actors, descriptions of their personalities and how they might coincide with characters on-screen and more. Check it out, it's a great read.