Basketball is a team sport. To win the finals a team generally needs three superb players. When a team lacks multiple strong members and someone like LeBron James takes over the game, he scores a lot of points, but because other members stand around submissively watching their leader, their team does not do as well. The Lakers and Celtics, each with multiple superstars, fared better in the playoffs. In the unlikely event that LeBron were to decide to join the Nets, he could score lots of points, but he would not have key high enough caliber team members to ensure play-off success.
In NJ government where a team of Executive, Legislative, and Supreme Court leaders should be striving together for excellent governance, we have King Christie taking over the game while others often stand by and watch. Not a formula for victory. Even on a basketball team different players have different personal agendas, but like our NJ leaders they are paid by the same source and should have a single objective of succeeding in their task. NJ governance would benefit from at least three key players, but is currently operating with only one superstar.
NJ Nets would not benefit from King James, and NJ is not benefitting from King Christie. Neither the Nets nor NJ need one superstar. They each need a roster with several seasoned, high-performing leaders.
I know, I know: I'm not a sports columnist. But there is no more basic prerequisite for politics than character - and from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton to Sharpe James, that has been hammered home again and again. But how does one build character? How does one know what a candidate is made of before they take office and let us down?
We can't. Success in one area of life does not necessarily create success in other areas. Faithfulness in one area is not always reflected in others. But, all things being equal, character that is built by facing and enduring challenges and hardships usually bodes well for an individual. Giving up is always easy. It takes character to come back, again and again, when no one else cares. It takes character to give it your all when everyone has written your cause off as hopeless. It takes character, in our culture that worships winning, to stand proud and tall and hold your head high after your best efforts have not led to the winner's stand.
So I'm stepping away from politics today to offer my applause to the men's basketball program at New Jersey Institute of Technology. After losing their final game of the season to Utah Valley yesterday, NJIT set the NCAA Division 1 record for the most games lost in a single season. They went 0-29 this year. The Star-Ledger has some heart-rending details of the winless season.
I'm not going to go on and on about being a "noble loser". There may be a goose-egg in the win column, but these young men aren't losers. NJIT struggeld in Division II and the move upwards was conceived as a PR move. It's just another example of how our colleges are living off of our youth with little regard for the outcome. But the men's basketball team didn't let adversity become their scapegoat. They have proven that they are made out of something a little bit tougher than most. They didn't quit. They didn't give up. And for that, I am proud of their achievement.
The racially and sexually inappropriate remarks made by shock jock Don Imus created a storm of protest last week that ended with both NBC and CBS firing the long-time provocateur. During a recent broadcast, Imus had taken aim at the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which had recently faced Tennessee for the national championship and had won acclaim for its grit and determination. Rather than applauding the efforts of the women's team that had rebounded from adversity all year, Imus referred to them as "nappy-haired hos." The firestorm that erupted caused Imus to apologize on numerous occasions and agree to meet with the team and extend an apology first-hand. However, with protests occurring on college campuses, outrage mounting in the African American community, and advertisers pulling their ads from his show, Imus was fired. The big loser in this saga was Don Imus, a member of the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame and a radio personality who earned approximately $10 million per year. The hands down winner was Rutgers University.
Folks who read here in the fall probably know that I am a huge Rutgers football team, and defend the University's decision to pour more money and resources into the program. I found it unfortunate that other programs had to be cut, but I thought that the long term benefits to the state's colleges would be great.
And then seeing the women's basketball team rise to such unexpected heights, and with such amazing class after the Imus mess, made me even more proud.
The Rutgers University Board of Governors says the decision to cut six intercollegiate sports at the end of the school year is final, even though donors are pledging millions of dollars to fund them.
Students, family members and donors who oppose the decision to cut the six sports - men's heavyweight crew, men's lightweight crew, men's fencing, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis and women's fencing - voiced their disapproval at the board's meeting Friday. . .
The teams' supporters say they've raised about $3 million in pledges to save the sports.
In a letter read at the meeting, Bruce Nicholas of Greenwich, Conn., said he would give $1 million to save the crew team.
"I intend to do even more," wrote Nicholas, who has already donated $1 million to crew.
President McComick explained that they cannot support the programs on donations every year, so will not try.
What a load of crap. They raise endowments all the time. If you have a guy who has the money to give $2 or more million to a sport, then he has the connections to raise more.
I really don't care much about any of these sports, though I used to be a diver, but the decision here is ridiculous. If they can spend millions more on football, they can accept millions in donations for other sports.
This is the video in two parts from the Lady Knights press conference earlier today. These women make me proud to be a Rutgers grad and they put Imus to shame.
Coach Vivian Stringer of the Rutgers women's basketball team at a press conference this afternoon:
"These young ladies are the best this nation has to offer, and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers University," Stringer said of her players. "They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate, they are gifted. They are God's representatives in every sense of the word."
"It's not about them (players) as black or nappy headed. It's about us as a people," Stringer said. "When there is not equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all."
David Liss was blogging the press conference and has some statements from the players themselves.
