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  1. #1
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    Thumbs up SI Story: K -- Sportsman of the Year - Nope

    Stumbled upon this nice piece by Alex Wolff in Sports Illustrated putting forward Coach K as the "Sportsman of the Year" in 2010. Kinda hard to argue with him -- this year alone the guy won a NCAA championship with a less-than-overwhelmingly-talented team, and a World Gold with a brand new (and some would say "B-team") group of pro players.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...ski/index.html

    A few weeks short of his passing el Deano on the all-time wins list, and in a season when he could even pass Knight - yes, everything would have to break right for that to happen - it is nice to see K getting this sort of attention. I suspect there'll be a lot more of it as the 900-win plateau approaches.


    - BD "Hard to imagine a 'B-team' with Durant, Curry, et al on it" BD

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by -bdbd View Post
    Stumbled upon this nice piece by Alex Wolff in Sports Illustrated putting forward Coach K as the "Sportsman of the Year" in 2010. Kinda hard to argue with him -- this year alone the guy won a NCAA championship with a less-than-overwhelmingly-talented team, and a World Gold with a brand new (and some would say "B-team") group of pro players.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...ski/index.html

    A few weeks short of his passing el Deano on the all-time wins list, and in a season when he could even pass Knight - yes, everything would have to break right for that to happen - it is nice to see K getting this sort of attention. I suspect there'll be a lot more of it as the 900-win plateau approaches.


    - BD "Hard to imagine a 'B-team' with Durant, Curry, et al on it" BD
    Watching the NBA this season, its pretty amazing how much credit Coach K and the USA team is getting. When Kevin Love was interviewed on NBAtv the day after his 30-30 game, he gave a ton of credit to the USA coaches and players. I have heard Rose and Westbrook talk about how the experience also has helped them elevate their games.

    It's pretty cool to watch a renaissance in the NBA with a "changing of the guard" so to speak, and realize that K has played a role in that.

  3. #3
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    Nice article, for sure, but just so everyone knows this is the exact article that the DBR linked in its daily headlines 4 days ago.

    --Jason "I actually think the fact that SI published this nomination means they will not be picking K for the award -- it makes him one of the runner-ups" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Nice article, for sure, but just so everyone knows this is the exact article that the DBR linked in its daily headlines 4 days ago.

    --Jason "I actually think the fact that SI published this nomination means they will not be picking K for the award -- it makes him one of the runner-ups" Evans
    A thread was started on it by Lord Ash as well.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boozer View Post
    A thread was started on it by Lord Ash as well.
    Mods - OK to meld this thread into the Lord Ash one... Sorry, I did not find it on my search. I did, however, hope that this would generate some renewed discussion about the Coach K wins-total climb. It would be awesome if he broke the record this year - in part b/c that would mean that we had a tremendous year! - but I don't realistically expect it. I will, however, revel in the early-December breaking of the #2 leader in career wins, some guy who coached at an unimportant state college somewhere.

    Anybody else expecteing the NC media to bury it when that story happens? Regardless, it'll totally frost the buns of several of my Kerlina friends...



  6. #6

    Sportsman of the Year - Lets look at the nominees

    Here are the nominees at least so far and my comments:
    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp

    CHEN: Lions DT Ndamukong Suh No Way
    KING: UConn Women's Coach Geno Auriemma Possible but would make me gag
    KING: Cardinals QB Kurt Warner No Way
    WOLFF: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski Possible
    MAHR: Figure skater Evan Lysacek No Way
    WERTHEIM: Tennis star Rafael Nadal Possible (so is Federer)
    JENKINS: Thunder F Kevin Durant No Way
    McCALLUM: Philiies P Roy Halladay Doubtful but deserving
    ANDERSON: Butler Bulldogs Basketball Doubtful - Picking a team that lost?
    HACK: Golfer Lorena Ochoa Doubful but deserving
    FARBER: Capitals LW Brooks Laich I don't follow hockey and have never heard of him
    ANDERSON: Alabama QB Greg McElroy No Way

    Not on the list is the probable winner - Drew Brees and/or the NO Saints.

    From the list the only contenders to me are Krzyzewski or one of the tennis players - Nadal or Federer. To pick Geno over K would be criminal and to pick them both would be asinine. Halladay had a great year, has had a great career, and is a great story as he could have made more money but wanted to be with the Phillies. Ochoa was the best women golfer in the world and is a great person(I happen to know her personally a little and she is the real deal.)

    My guess is something to do with the Saints. But I think it really should be K.

    SoCal

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by SoCalDukeFan View Post
    Here are the nominees at least so far and my comments:
    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp

    CHEN: Lions DT Ndamukong Suh No Way
    KING: UConn Women's Coach Geno Auriemma Possible but would make me gag
    KING: Cardinals QB Kurt Warner No Way
    WOLFF: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski Possible
    MAHR: Figure skater Evan Lysacek No Way
    WERTHEIM: Tennis star Rafael Nadal Possible (so is Federer)
    JENKINS: Thunder F Kevin Durant No Way
    McCALLUM: Philiies P Roy Halladay Doubtful but deserving
    ANDERSON: Butler Bulldogs Basketball Doubtful - Picking a team that lost?
    HACK: Golfer Lorena Ochoa Doubful but deserving
    FARBER: Capitals LW Brooks Laich I don't follow hockey and have never heard of him
    ANDERSON: Alabama QB Greg McElroy No Way

    Not on the list is the probable winner - Drew Brees and/or the NO Saints.

    From the list the only contenders to me are Krzyzewski or one of the tennis players - Nadal or Federer. To pick Geno over K would be criminal and to pick them both would be asinine. Halladay had a great year, has had a great career, and is a great story as he could have made more money but wanted to be with the Phillies. Ochoa was the best women golfer in the world and is a great person(I happen to know her personally a little and she is the real deal.)

    My guess is something to do with the Saints. But I think it really should be K.

    SoCal
    No way Federer would be up for it this year. Nadal won the French, Wimbledon and the US Open this year and has supplanted Federer as the best player in the world.

    That said I think you are right that it goes to Brees and the Saints and if they have Geno and Coach K share it I am never picking up an SI again just to flip through it.

  8. #8
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    Boston, MA

    Really?

    I love the US-centric view of SI...no one decided to discuss players and / teams from the most popular global sport, or the most popular event, in 2010? Really?

    No Xavi? No Iniesta? No Sneijder? No Mourinho? No Spanish national team? Come on SI - you can do better than that!
    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill

    President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by flyingdutchdevil View Post
    I love the US-centric view of SI...no one decided to discuss players and / teams from the most popular global sport, or the most popular event, in 2010? Really?

    No Xavi? No Iniesta? No Sneijder? No Mourinho? No Spanish national team? Come on SI - you can do better than that!
    I agree with you, but it's just a hard sell. They are adding more nominations as it goes on, so don't get too angry about it yet. That being said, I'm not sure who on that team I would've chosen.

    My thoughts on reasonable winners:

    -Durant - The contrast between him and LeBron is huge. Durant is really an NBA fee-good story.
    -Coach K - Did a lot despite being doubted in a huge way in both, but isn't well-liked. Hard to say. Then again, Dean Smith did win it back in the 90s, so who knows?
    -Lysacek - It's a feel-good story of how he won. I didn't know all of that back then, but it's an amazing story.
    -Halladay - Duh. He's just so good and was so dominant. So amazing.
    -Butler - Cinderella. Feel-good to most of the USA, even as the losers.

    That's really it. I can't see any of the rest of them being reasonable winners, even if the stories are good. I would argue that Landon Donovan could and should also go on that list (and, I would argue, may deserve to win given how World Cup mania swept the country), given the US-centricity of SI. A Spain player/coach might be harder to pick to put on it, though.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by SoCalDukeFan View Post
    To pick Geno over K would be criminal and to pick them both would be asinine.
    I'm not sure I agree with this line of reasoning, though I wish I did. Playing devil's advocate, what has K accomplished this year that Geno hasn't? They both coached their teams to the exact same championships, and Geno did it with an undefeated team. Especially if a less loaded UConn this season exceeds UCLA's win streak, I'm not sure how you could give this award to K over Geno.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by flyingdutchdevil View Post
    I love the US-centric view of SI...no one decided to discuss players and / teams from the most popular global sport, or the most popular event, in 2010? Really?

    No Xavi? No Iniesta? No Sneijder? No Mourinho? No Spanish national team? Come on SI - you can do better than that!
    It's just economics. It's a US publication reflecting the interests of its readership (to wit, I assume that everyone you listed in your post has something to do with soccer, but I have no idea who they are).

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by flyingdutchdevil View Post
    I love the US-centric view of SI...no one decided to discuss players and / teams from the most popular global sport, or the most popular event, in 2010? Really?

    No Xavi? No Iniesta? No Sneijder? No Mourinho? No Spanish national team? Come on SI - you can do better than that!
    It's not just the US-centric "view" of SI. It's their US-centric subscribers and advertisers. It is a US-centric sports magazine. They don't try to be an international magazine, and their decisions - business and editorial - are premised on that.

    SI's sportsman of the year has almost always gone to an American, or an athlete with a lot of exposure in America. If Wikipedia's summary is accurate, the nine non-Americans chosen include Roger Bannister; NHL players Bobby Orr, Bob Bourne, and Wayne Gretzky; Sammy Sosa; and Jackie Stewart. The balance were two Olympians and a heavyweight boxer (back when people cared about boxing).

    It's just not a global magazine.

    -jk

  13. #13

    Well

    Quote Originally Posted by SuperTurkey View Post
    I'm not sure I agree with this line of reasoning, though I wish I did. Playing devil's advocate, what has K accomplished this year that Geno hasn't? They both coached their teams to the exact same championships, and Geno did it with an undefeated team. Especially if a less loaded UConn this season exceeds UCLA's win streak, I'm not sure how you could give this award to K over Geno.
    Let me start by saying that K coached the team that won the world championship.

    K has also succeeded in what is probably the most competitive arena of national college sports.


    SoCal

  14. #14
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    Team USA hockey. A rag-tag group of overachievers conquers the overwhelming favorites* and brings home the go- er, silver.

    *(In the qualifying round)

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by SuperTurkey View Post
    I'm not sure I agree with this line of reasoning, though I wish I did. Playing devil's advocate, what has K accomplished this year that Geno hasn't? They both coached their teams to the exact same championships, and Geno did it with an undefeated team. Especially if a less loaded UConn this season exceeds UCLA's win streak, I'm not sure how you could give this award to K over Geno.
    Were you not paying any attention at all to what K did during the off-season and to what he has been doing during the off-season for the past several years?

    Not to put down what Geno has accomplished, because it is quite impressive and worthy of praise, but there is a world of difference in success in the men's game and the women's game at this level. Look at the variance in national champions over the past decade and the success rate of high seeds in each tournament. You will see that it is just easier for a successful women's team to have a deep run in the tournament.

    Also, there is a magazine sales aspect to this. Just like SI won't pick an international winner because it won't sell magazines to the US audience, I doubt they would pick a women's basketball winner for the same reason. The only way they could pick Geno/UConn would be in tandem with Coach K or some male basketball figure/team.

    As for the winner-- if the Saints were having another great regular season they would be a no-brainer to win it. I still see them as the front-runner. But, they are currently considered no better than about the 4th or 5th best team in the NFC (Giants, Falcons, Eagles, Packers) and I think that could hurt their cause enough to allow someone else to get the SI award.

    We'll see. My bet is that SI will need to pick the winner in the next week or so to allow it to begin working on the articles that will fill the magazine.

    --Jason "What about Josh Hamilton and the Rangers - is there no one on the Giants who could be considered?" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by SoCalDukeFan View Post
    Let me start by saying that K coached the team that won the world championship.
    Well, let's be fair.

  17. #17
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    Talking UC Centric Is To Be Expected from SI

    Quote Originally Posted by flyingdutchdevil View Post
    I love the US-centric view of SI...no one decided to discuss players and / teams from the most popular global sport, or the most popular event, in 2010? Really?

    No Xavi? No Iniesta? No Sneijder? No Mourinho? No Spanish national team? Come on SI - you can do better than that!
    Just piling on. I expect that SI wants its pick to resonate with the average reader. What is the global footprint of SI? I don't believe it does much overseas, unlike ESPN Desportes.

    I am afraid US-centric picks are what we will get, which is not all bad to me, since I don't follow futbol or soccer except during the World Cup. On second thought, I do think the Spanish World Cup team will get some love from Time Warner, Inc., in that a team of purists (relatively speaking) beat several teams of thugs to win the quadrennial world championship.

    And a third thought: Since the NBA has a world presence and basketball is second only to futbol, K will have global credentials as the coach of team USA, consisting entirely of NBA players.

    sagegrouse

  18. #18
    Make no mistake, selling magazines is the main issue here. They want to create buzz and get people to buy the newsstand copy. Derek Jeter won last year and probably shouldn't have; it should have been someone like Federer, Manny Pacquiao or Kobe Bryant. Within his own sport, Mauer and Pujols had better seasons for perennial playoff teams. Even on Jeter's own team, Mariano Rivera was more integral to not just last year's championship, but all of their titles. But Jeter is the most marketable player in baseball, so he won. (Then he hit .270 this year and played worse defense than I would have)

    I think Krzyzewski has a shot to win. He's probably the most well-known coach in any sport short of Phil Jackson and Bill Belichick, and might honestly have exceeded them with his accomplishments this season. I also think Durant is plausible as not just celebrating his accomplishments this year, but a nod to what he will continue to do, although that hasn't been their style in the past. I think Brees happened too far back -- why rehash it at this point in time? -- and like someone said, the Saints are good but not great right now. If they were undefeated at this juncture like last year, he'd have a real shot (as I thought he did last year). It's not out of the question that they give it to a true polarizer like LeBron or the Big Three, sort of like Time occasionally does with their Man of the Year.

    All that said, I'd say Kobe Bryant has the best chance, given the Lakers' back-to-back titles, and the popularity/polarizing nature of their team and Bryant himself, not to mention the fact that he's never won.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    Just piling on. I expect that SI wants its pick to resonate with the average reader. What is the global footprint of SI? I don't believe it does much overseas, unlike ESPN Desportes.

    I am afraid US-centric picks are what we will get, which is not all bad to me, since I don't follow futbol or soccer except during the World Cup. On second thought, I do think the Spanish World Cup team will get some love from Time Warner, Inc., in that a team of purists (relatively speaking) beat several teams of thugs to win the quadrennial world championship.

    And a third thought: Since the NBA has a world presence and basketball is second only to futbol, K will have global credentials as the coach of team USA, consisting entirely of NBA players.

    sagegrouse
    I agree with what SI is trying to do - attract the US readership. But check these stats out: 24.3 mill watched the finals. 112 million US viewers watched the World Cup. That's a hell of a population. Soccer is not yet an American sport, but the US will inevitably embrace it. Having SI at least reference soccer in their Sportsman of the Year would have been a sensible thing to do.

    And secondly, please don't refer to the Dutch as a "team of thugs," as I assume that is what you were referring to. If you haven't noticed the name, that's my team and I place the Dutch national team and my Blue Devils on equal footing. I will say that de Jong and van Bommel were overly aggressive in the final game and de Jong certainly deserved a red card for his accidental kick (yes - it was accidental) which he even admitted to being surprised that he got away with only a yellow, but calling them "thugish" is not only incorrect, it's also ignorant. If I were a random fan watching the NCAA FF in 1992, I would easily call Laettner a "thug" for his infamous stomp.
    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill

    President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club

  20. #20
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    Let's see: putting the ball in the net, dribbling, managing elite players... all Jose Mourinho need figure out is taking charges is legal and nobody throws up a flag for a little back-door cut. It's settled - he's not only a possible Sportsman of the Year, but a top candidate to replace Coach K in 2020!
    Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!

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