Red Flags in Sports

Red Flags:

1. Half way through a baseball season you sit back and realize the centerfielder who is tearing it up and carrying the team was traded for a light hitting shortstop, has a reasonable salary and has already been in three organizations. As a bonus he does not believe in dinosaurs or aspirin.
2. A player on your favorite football team regularly hangs out with Odell Thurman and Chris Henry.
3. A baseball player on your favorite team shows up for spring training in 2005 twenty pounds lighter and lacking his old power.
4. Your basketball team trades a player in part because his behavior in the practice facility makes the front office fear for the safety of young building blocks Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler.

What can we assume about the players in the above scenarios?

1. Crazy
2. Criminal
3. Former roid user.
4. Will eventually spark a brawl that will ruin one franchise and have widespread affects (tightened security, dress code, etc.) across the NBA.

This brings me to Telfair’s recent escapades. By all accounts he did nothing to deserve the chain robbery. Furthermore, people fail to realize that NBA players have a lot of time to kill. Given that they only have to be at their best from 6-11 at night, it’s easy to see why basketball players keep different schedules than the average fan. So I’m not overly concerned that he was dining at Justin’s. Allegedlly the incident occured at 10 P.M. which gave him plenty of time to rest up for games on back-to-back nights. Although there are safer places to hang out with $50,000 around one’s neck. And let's not forget that someone was shot (Fabolous, pictured left). Have we learned nothing from Tony Allen? But I digress. More importantly I get nervous when guys dress for a game and leave at the half. Granted Telfair wasn’t in a car accident. But if he flames out in Boston and moves on to star in Miami, a.k.a. “The Irving Fryar”, I won’t handle it well. The only positive about this hypothetical situation is that I won’t have to listen to my dad repeatedly say, “Why can’t we get players like that?” He stopped watching the Celtics years ago. But back to reality. As I watched the Knicks game last night I knew there was something fishy about Telfair not returning to the bench. I put it out of my mind at the time but did they think the real story would not get out? It’s 2006. With Deadspin, 24-hour news and every jackass with Internet access writing a blog…wait that’s me. Damn.

Some final thoughts:

1. Will Rondo and Telfair develop into some sort of good son/bad son combination?
2. Will Allan Ray do everything in his power to injure Luke Jackson?
3. Will Leon Powe seek vengeance on Doc for implying that the warrior from Cal is a slow learner?
4. Will Olowakandi make the team?