Sports Update

Crazy week. Not a good week if you're a sports fan in general or a Detroit sports fan. The Pistons and Wings are spinning their wheels right now. It's early, so there's no need to panic, but it's frustrating to watch your teams flail about.

Rod Marinelli is absolutely right when he says that it comes down to "execution". Players who want to win find a way to dig down deep and execute - even if the circumstances are against them. Desire can and should fuel execution. As much as I love watching Rip Hamilton play, his ability to put the team on his back and carry them to victory is limited. Rip gets frustrated when the calls don't go his way, and he loses focus on the job at hand. Opponents have learned this, and they realize they can take his head, and therefore his game, out of the game. He's only human, but he needs to work on rising above the pettiness or finding a way to use it as further fuel for his desire (like Rasheed Wallace).

Extremely good news on the Kenny Rogers front! Looks like The Gambler may be returning to the Tigers after all! It was shocking and disappointing to see all of the posturing coming from Kenny Rogers' camp over the past 2 weeks. Now it appears that a lot of this was due to Kenny's agent, Scott Boras. After firing Scott Boras, Kenny is now representing himself, and he has given every indication that he would like to pitch for the Detroit Tigers in 2008. If Kenny is healthy, that is terrific news!

And speaking of rough weeks, big turn of events for Scott Boras. After the recent article in ESPN The Magazine basically labelled him a sports agent genius, it appears that Scott is being put back in his place. The Yankees refuse to deal with him on the A-Rod deal, and Kenny Rogers fires him publicly. GMs are commenting in the media on the difficulty of working with Boras. Clearly, a message is being sent to Boras that his schtick is getting tired, and he needs to change his approach. Over time trends develop and the trend with Boras is that he manipulates markets and people. After a while, this comes across as viscious and lacking integrity. There's nothing wrong with getting top dollar for your players, but not if it destroys the team where the player lands. This is a lesson to everyone that even in today's society of "me" that there is accountability for one's actions at the end of the day.