The Sports Guru

Every year you hear the stories.  For every one guy that makes it in the NBA there are about 50 that don’t.  Only 1st Round picks receive guarunteed contracts and there are always players that stay in the draft based on horrible advice, end up not getting drafted, and find themselves in a foreign country or worse out of the game entirely. 

Lenny Cooke is one such story.  Cooke was a Blacktop Legend in New York City and New Jersey.  He played in AAU tournaments with the best.  Carmello Anthony, Shannon Brown, LeBron James.  Cooke had no problem telling everyone that he was the best.  He once challeneged Kobe Bryant to a game of 1-on-1 at a summer camp that Bryant was attending as a speaker to the players.

Like James, Cooke was a freak for his age.  Rising 6′6, weighing in at 230, mostly muscle, Cooke easily dominated smaller competition.  Unlike James, however, Cooke was relying on bad advice.  He struggled through school.  While LeBron was receiving national attention, with his high school games being played in college arenas, televised on ESPN2, Cooke was transferring through six high schools.  When colleges came calling with scholarships, Cooke refused to listen.  Even LeBron went through the paces and has often said he would have went to Duke or North Carolina had he been froced to go to college.

Cooke and Lebron faced each other often on AAU teams, with Cooke doing all the talking off the court while James used his game to do the talking.  James dominated Cooke, but Lenny still felt he was the better of the two, the people he trusted told him so. 

Too young, too immature for the NBA, Cooke went undrafted in the 2002 draft.  He was invited to play in the summer leagues but had trouble remembering the plays and soon was left behind.  Suddenly Cooke found himself alone, all of people he trusted gone.

Cooke has since bounced around and I had lost track of him until today when I cam accross this article in the New York Daily News.  It seems Cooke was in a serious car accident almost 2 years a go that nearly ended his life.  He has battled back, and at the tender age of 23 is looking for another chance to reach his dream.

We have run out of adjectives to describe LeBron.  To say he is wise beyond his years is an understatement.  LeBron had something else goiong for him.  He had people that truly cared about him watching out for him.  Controlling who came into contact with him.  His mother made sure he satyed out of trouble and he had friends, real friends that were there before LeBron was, well, LeBron.

People also criticized the NBA for putting in an age limit.  They use LeBron as an example for their argument.  For every LeBron, though, there are dozens of Lenny Cooke’s.  Young men that don’t have that support system.  I say the NBA got it right.

Good Luck Lenny, I’m pulling for ya. 

Projected Record

8-8, 2nd Place AFC North

Projected Schedule W/L
Chicago          (W)
New Orleans   (W)
@Detroit        (W)
@Philadelphia (L)
St. Louis         (W)
@Miami          (L)
Arizona           (W)
@Buffalo         (L)
@Minnesota    (L)
New England   (L)
@Seattle         (L)
NY Jets            (W)
@San Francisco(L)
Detroit             (W)
Minnesota        (W)
@Chicago         (L)

Mike McCarthy heads to the land of Cheese-heads to take over a Packers team trying to reclaim the glory of the past.  Unfortunitely for McCarthy, the Packers are old and don’t have alot of explosive talent on the field.  Even worse, McCarthy is going to be tasked with handling the touchy, sensitive Brett Favre “watch”.  It’s been done before  -  Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson forced Dan Marino out.  Jones is a great owner and Johnson had 2 Super Bowl rings when he arrived in Miami.  The resume of McCarthy is not that strong so it should be interesting to see how it is handled.  All of this could be avoided, of course, if the Packers go out and win ball games.

Team Strengths – The Packers went defense in the draft, nabbing A.J. Hawk from Ohio State with the #5 pick.  They then dove into free agency and grabbed Charles Woodson to pair with Al Harris.  When healthy Woodson is as good as they come, and Harris is an above average #2 guy.  Together the Packers will be able to play press coverage on the outside enabling the Packers to play run first.  The Linebackers should be fun to watch, with Hawk and rookie Abdul Hodge from Iowa, along with Nick Barnett.  The Packers are a little young and inexperienced along the D-Line, but do have KGB(Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila).  Overall the Packers will play aggressive, in your face defense that will give opponents trouble.

Team Weaknesses - As good as the defense looks, it’s the offense that will be the achilles’ heel of the Pack.  There is no doubt that Favre is a Hall of Famer, but like a power pitcher that has to adjust the way he pitches as he gets older Favre needs to adjust the way he plays quarterback.  He isn’t the same Favre that was winning 3 straight MVP awards a decade ago.  Coach McCarthy has done a good job of getting in Favre’s face right from the start.  After a recent scrimmage that included 5 Favre INT’s, McCarthy proclaimed to the press that 3 of the picks were unacceptable.  I haven’t heard anything like this in Green Bay since very early in Mike Holmgren’s tenure.  Problem is there isn’t a whole lot of talent around Favre on offense.  Ahman Green is still coming back from a ruptured quad and has yet to practice.  Jevon Walker was traded to Denver in the offseason leaving Donald Driver and Robert Ferguson as the lead wide-outs.  The Offensive Line is also a big question mark heading into the season.

 
Best Case Scenario – If McCarthy, who has coached Favre in the past, can get Favre to buy into a toned down offensive scheme there might be some hope in Green Bay.  The defense is going to make big plays and the Packers are going to be in their fair share of games.  Even at 36 there is still a little bit of magic in #4’s right arm, but he needs to pick and choose his times.  If Favre plays controlled and the playmakers the Packers DO have can stay healthy and make plays the Packers have the ability to hit 10 wins and win the division.  Favre needs to let the defense do the work and make the plays when they can be made.

Worst Case Scenario – Brett Favre tunes McCarthy out and keeps on doing the same ‘ole thing.  If that happens, the Packers are in big trouble.  Favre has alread come out and said this was the best team he has been associated with, including the Super Bowl teams. Not good.  Favre needs to think the opposite, especially offensively.  If he tries to carry the Packers, they’ll fail.  He isn’t the same player he was in 1997.  If Favre tries to force the action he is going to put his defense in tough spots and the losses are going to start to mount.  The the whispers will start and McCarthy will have a choice to make.

My Opinion – How does that saying go?  You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  That’s Brett Favre in a nutshell.  He has played the “gunslinger” so often it’s hard to imagine him in another role.  Few times can you look at a team and realistically see two dramatically different outcomes.  On one hand, Favre could make one last run, a cinderella story similar to John Elway.  Elway, if you remember, rode the back of Terrell Davis and a stout defense on the way to Back-to-Back titles to end his career.  Favre doesn’t have that kind of team around him, but needs to take the same approach.  He needs to step aside and let his teammates carry him.  If he does, the Pack have a chance.  If he doesn’t, well, it could get ugly.  I choose to go somewhere in the middle.  8-8, no playoffs and another off-season of ”if and when” in Green Bay.