What Works For One Doesn't Always Work For Another

Brandon Jennings is a 20 year old point guard of the Milwaukee Bucks. He is a rookie in this league and he got there in an unusual way. After the NBA decided that players could not immediately go straight to the NBA from high school. Instead players now need to be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school. Jennings found himself a loophole which many considered a huge gamble and could possibly lead to decreasing his draft stock instead of increasing it.

Originally Jennings was going to attend the University of Arizona but then later decided to skip college all together and play professional basketball overseas where he could not only gain experience in the game but make some money as well. This decision led him to Italy where he played for Lottomatica Roma. He was guaranteed 1.65 million dollars and also received a two million dollar endorsement deal from Under Armor. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for a young guy right? Well not exactly. He pretty much played like crap while in Italy. He only made about thirty six percent of his shots, averaged around six, seven points a game. In high school Jennings averaged nearly thirty three points a game. So you can count that as kind of a fail.

After he entered the draft many felt like he wasn't even a first round selection anymore. But he was invited to New York anyways and the Bucks took a chance and drafted him tenth overall. It's kinda worked out for both parties this season. Jennings is a top canedate for the Rookie of the Year Award averaging sixteen points a game and six assists while his team is currently holding the fifth potential playoff spot in the eastern conference.



Enter stage left Jeremy Tyler. He too is a high school basketball star who doesn't feel the need for college so he too bolts for Europe. Now with Tyler the biggest question for me is why. His kid was living and playing in San Diego, California. San-Dee-Aa-go. SAN DIEGO! Now for those who don't understand why I am making a big deal about San Diego its because if I could choose one city to live in, San Diego is at the top of the list. But this knucklehead thought he would be better off to drop out of high school as a junior to go play pro ball in Europe. But theres more to it than picking a school then deciding otherwise. He really had no choice because he bombed the crap out of the SATs so no college would accept him regardless of his basketball talent. So he signed a contract with Maccabi Haifa, which played in the Israel league. Things didn't work out too well for Tyler who stands at six foot eleven inches and is incredibly athletic. He appeared in ten games averaging two points and two rebounds while averaging about eight minutes a game. Still...hes sixteen, seventeen years old making over one hundred K for this time there. However Tyler didn't like how things were going and quit the team with five weeks left in the season. He said he found it hard adapting to the professional style of the game and couldn't seem to find a way into the starting lineup. Well no kidding!

It's more than that though. This kid clearly had attitude and maturity problems. During one game he walked out on his team in protest for not getting enough playing time. Because that makes sense right. A kid in high school thinking everything is going to be handed to him walks out when its not. Instead of getting the playing time he wanted the coach sat his butt down for three games in street clothes and off the official roster. But what hurts Tyler the most in this case is that this stint in Israel does not count towards his eligibility so he is still a year away from being allowed to enter the NBA draft but he also can't sign another pro contract somewhere else until September.



This whole topic has been big one me for quite some time. I guess you can say I have a different belief than most when it comes to athletes and college. I never really liked or approved the special treatment that a star athlete or any athlete for that matter gets in high school and even in college. For me I believe that if they kids really want a job in professional sports they like us normal person should have to a full college career. If they people are bound to make more money than any other job field why should they get a shortcut to it? Of course we all know that going to college is a lot more than getting that piece of paper that formally says yay you did it welcome to the real world but its the people you befriend and the memories you make along with it. And really nobody should be denied that regardless of their financial status or social status. Plus as an athlete it seems silly to just put all your chips in one basket because face it, not everyone becomes a star in any professional sports league and a lot of those who didn't were able to use the degrees they earned and find a new job else where. Now I'm sure a number of you will find all this quite silly and thats okay but it's just where I stand on the issue.

As always thank you for logging in today. Feel free to check out the the fan page of Facebook and the Twitter page by searching Ice Cold Sports. Next time on the program we'll dab into an exciting scuffle that involved a fan and the CEO of a team. You won't want to miss that one. This has been Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network.

A Real Underdog Victory

Welcome all to Ice Cold Sports here on the Radio Blog Network! It has been awhile since we've been on and I sure missed you all, hope you feel the same. Today we have the amazing story of American soccer player Charlie Davies. Charlie has managed to silence all his doubters to make an incredible return to the game of soccer after many feared that he would never play again.



Back in October Davies was involved in a serious car accident just outside Washington D.C. One person was killed in the single car accident that left Davies struggling for his life. His long list of injuries included a broken Tibia and Femur, a broken and dislocated elbow, facial breaks that included and eye socket, forehead, and nose. But most severely, a lacerated bladder and bleeding of the brain.

He underwent hours and hours of surgery and was told it would be over a year before could even do anything related to soccer. He would face a very long, intense, and painful rehabilitation. Not only did Davies go through it all, but he managed to cut his recovery time in half.

The day after the accident with Davies laying in a hospital bed fighting for his life his USA teammates took battle on the field against Costa Rica. USA needed a win or tie to clinch the CONCACAF title over Mexico while Costa Rica needed a win just to qualify. With heavy hearts the fans held up signs and watched the 9th minute of the game in dead silence to honor the fallen player.



Late in the match Costa Rica held a sizable 2-0 lead but USA showed the determination and poise it showed in the Confederations Cup to come back scoring goals in the 75th minute and late in stoppage time to earn the clinching tie. Even though the game ended in a tie, there was a celebration to be had. Players jogging around the field, high fiving fans, and carrying a giant flag with Charlie's name and number on it.

I am really curious to know what drove Charlie Davies to get him to where he is now. What his motivation was and how he managed not to quit when the rehab got extremely tough. Although he is still two to four weeks away from fully rejoining his teammates of Sochaux. For those interested that is a French team. But for Charlie its larger than that. He should be ready for this Junes World Cup event in South Africa where now Team USA's odds at success will rise with the return of a teams top scorer and an opponents fall of another. Keep the inspiration going Charlie, we are all rooting for you and are eager to see you back in Stars and Stripes.



This concludes this edition of Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network. Feel free to check out the fan page on Facebook and on Twitter. Just search Ice Cold Sports. Next time on the program, the story of a high school basketball who tried to follow Brandon Jennings route to the NBA and how it ended fasted than it began. So long folks.

Twitter Is Not For Everyone

By now we all should know what Twitter is. I would actually hope by now you would know what Twitter is. Some call it a text message, condensed version of a Facebook status. Twitter is a massive global phenomenon where you call follow and keep up with just about anybody. But lets face it. Even Twitter is not for everyone.

A prime example is I guess what you can call a "noob" to Twitter but he's someone we all know and love. He provides us with dozens of colorful rants, temper tantrums on the field, curse filled sound bites. The whole nine yards. That man is Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. You can't understand a damn word hes saying when your see him on tv or hear him on the radio and this is no exception. His tweets are a mixture of crappy english skills, spanish, and misspellings all over the place. I will read you one just so we can all be on the same level.

My son oney doing sport elec to have abs if tha help y will doe to

Okay so this one is about his son. And something to do with abs. Other than that...I can't for the life of me what the hell is going on. How bout another one?

Otro zapato a los fenomenos de venezuela tortuga y la logica

Woo a Spanish one. Now my Spanish is a little rusty. Thankfully Google is full of free translators to help us out. Or not. After using several different translators the best translation found was...

Another shoe to the fenomenos of Venezuela tortoise and the logica

Okay so something about a shoe, Venezuela, and a turtle. Yeah...my head is spinning to.

But all in all I really hope Ozzie goes against his word. He claimed that his Twitter won't be used for rants about umpires or how bad his team may be playing. But used for personal reasons and things he does away from the field. I have a little trouble believing all that though because we all know he is a very emotional guy and he doesn't know when to quit while hes ahead.



Ozzie you should be one of my favorites to follow this season. I thank you for what entertainment you will surely provide in the coming months. Just throwing this out there. Ice Cold Sports has a twitter and is on Facebook. Feel free to check them out and if you so please, follow them and get involved. I promise you won't need a special translator to understand what I'm saying. Thats all for now. This is Ice Cold Sports, part of the Radio Blog Network.

An Olympics To Remember

And so ends another Olympics where the athletes that spent years of training and preparing, and giving their all for leaving Americans everywhere feeling proud and like champions. Greetings all and welcome back to Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network, I am the one and only Iceman here to close out what was a fantastic and memorable winter Olympics.

Team USA like the mens hockey team entered these Olympics as underdogs. Projected to finish anywhere between forth and sixth in the final medal count. The Americans however had other ideas. Not only did they win the medal count. They set a new world record with 37 total medals. We played well in events we were expected to like Alpine Skiing, whom cashed in with eight medals led by superstars Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, and Julia Mancuso. USA again dominated in the sport I guess you can say "invented" as Shawn White led the American snowboard team to numerous medals. And then you have speed skating led by the now most decorated winter Olympian Apolo Ohno who is now set to retire from olympic competition and also led by Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis.

And then we have the group that became firsts, ended droughts, and stole the show. For the first time ever, we had American athletes medal in the Nordic Combined event. Not only did American's medal in this for the first time, but they brought home four. On the eve of the last day we saw an American bobsled team win gold for the first time since 1948 in the four man sled competition. Days before this figure skater Evan Lysacek won gold in the mens singles, the first time thats happened since Brian Bointano in 1988.



But of course most of the attention fell on the men's hockey team who as well all know, were expected to do very little. You may remember me last week talking about all this the first time they beat Canada. The end result may have been different that that game but the message stands. USA hockey should be recognized as legitamate program after earning their second silver medal in the last three Olympics.

When the Neilson Ratings came out I was shocked when I saw just how high the ratings actually were. Keep in mind us Americans don't care about hockey. The rating NBC got was a 17.6 which translates to one out of every three homes. In fact... this one game got a higher rating than every world series game since 2004, every NBA finals game since 1998 and every NCAA Final Four game since at least 1998. When you exclude the NFL, the only event to beat this one hockey game was the BCS title game featuring Alabama and Texas. Lets just go to say that this impacted the country and game bigger than we ever expected. The NHL can only hope to benefit from that and it'll be interesting to see if the league allows its players to return in four years to Russia. They let Sidney Crosby win gold in his home country, will they let Alex Ovechkin do the same?

I wouldn't normally close with something like this but what is suppose to provide entertainment actually provided some hard depth truth. I give you a text message submitted to the popular website text from last night dot com.



It comes from area code 940. For those who do not know or didn't google it, this hails from the great state of Texas. It reads..Canada: barely better than America at a sport they invented.

That there folks speaks the truth. Amazing how I was told that USA choked in that game. You would think that the team who blew the two goal lead to have to win in overtime to get the choke rap. But thats how it goes and I can't say enough how proud I am of that team. With that said I hope they'll get a little more respect in 2014 and should be a medal favorite. Not just the hockey team, but the country as whole. You would have to assume that coming off a world record performance. Thanks for joining me today. See ya next time on the next addition of Ice Cold Sports part of the radio blog network.