Monday, May 23, 2011

When There's That Much Smoke

There Has to Be A Fire Somewhere Right?

Is America's Most Famous Cyclist a Fraud?

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Co-Host & Head Writer

This past Sunday Tyler Hamilton, a former Gold-Medal winning cyclist and former US Postal Cycling teammate of Lance Armstrong, was interviewed on "60 Minutes" where he confessed to using illegal performance enhancers like EPO and other doping techniques while helping Armstrong win three of his record seven Tours de France.

He also stated that Armstrong himself was a major user of the blood-booster EPO, as well as human growth hormone and testosterone while regularly using techniques designed to beat the testing done by the agencies like the World Anti-Doping Agency. When pressed to back up his claims, Hamilton gave replies that were along these two lines: "I heard the conversation" or "I was there when he was doing it and I was doing it with him".

He even went so far as to say that part of the reason that Lance never got caught or never tested positive was that he and his people could make things like that go away. Hamilton hinted that the International Cycling Union was at best turning a blind eye and at worst complicit in covering up Armstrong's transgressions. If true, that's a very damaging statement leveled at the governing body of a sport that has long fought rumors of rampant corruption.

Hamilton is the third former US Postal teammate of Armstrong's to come out and say that despite Lance's "I've never tested positive" affirmations to the contrary, America's greatest cyclist reached his legendary place in his sport's history by hook and by crook.

When Armstrong's bitter rival Greg LeMond made accusations that Armstrong might be cheating en route to winning the Tour de France after his fight with cancer, he was dismissed as a rival chucking sour grapes at a legend, because he was bitter over rumors that Armstrong was behind bike maufacturer Trek threatening to end their relationship with LeMond.

And when another former Armstrong teammate, Floyd Landis, threw similar stones with regards to Armstrong claiming that he was the biggest drug user of everyone on the US Postal team, his accusations were dismissed under the headline of "People in Glass Houses" as Landis himself had just recently been stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win due to his own doping.

All the while Armstrong sang the familiar "I have NEVER tested positive" refrain and Landis was dismissed as just another bitter, jealous ex-teammate just like Steven Swart and Frankie Andreu who along with his wife Betsy and former Armstrong personal assistant Mike Anderson are among those who have leveled accusations at Armstrong regarding doping and other cheating while he was racking up his record seven Tour de France wins.

In the past Lance Armstrong would make the case that personal hatred, want of financial gain, revenge, jealousy, any and/or all of the above drove his accusers to level these unfounded charges at him. He could make the case that accusations by Landis and LeMond had no credibility since both men admitted to their own drug use after years of steadfast denials.

All of this would eventually cut the legs out any potential story and Lance would continue on. Winning the Tour de France, adding to his legend as America's most famous cyclist and seemingly, its most famous cancer survivor. After all, who wants to believe that a guy who conquered cancer and continues to push for research, programs and any other initiative that will assist in curing as many of the myriad types of cancer that are out there could possibly be a hero with feet of clay.

And yet, Hamilton's "60 Minutes" interview is compelling. A man who got away with cheating the system for most of his cycling career. A man who claims that although the Olympics was one of the few times he raced "clean", he was so disgusted with himself that he hid his 2004 gold medal away for years before recently returning it to the United States Anti-Doping Agency last week.

Armstrong's people claim that Hamilton is fueled by greed and a desire for publicity since he is writing a book about his career in cycling. This time, the typical response from Armstrong's camp seems to ring hollow. Hamilton was a widely respected and well-liked member of the professional cycling community and Armstrong's camp aside, very few people have anything bad to say about him.

Hamilton's confessions may be good for his own soul, but they may ultimately wind up being good for the soul of the sport he still claims to love. Even if those confessions lead to the sport's biggest name being taken down. Sometimes the only way to make something better is to blow it up and start all over.


Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Lake (no)Show
Why the Lakers got swept by the Mavericks
by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Head Writer/Analyst


As I watched Game 4 of the NBA second round series between the Dallas Mavericks and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers go to halftime with the Lakers down 63-39, I was reminded of a scene fr0m the movie "The Replacements". Head Coach Jimmy McGinty is asked by a sideline reporter what the Washington Sentinels will need to overcome the big halftime deficit in a game they must win to make the playoffs. His reply? "Heart." When pressed by the reporter, he taps his chest with his game plan and says "Miles and miles of heart."

The reason this scene popped into my head was because heart was exactly what I did not see from the Lakers. Not just in Game 4 which ended in a 122-86 series-sweeping rout by the Mavs; but throughout the entire series.

I kept waiting for the Lakers to flip that switch and become "that team". You know the one with the cast of characters like "Kobe The Ruthless" - able to score on anyone, anytime and win a series by nothing more than the sheer force of his will.

That team also had a talented AND tough Power Forward named Pau who played the game with equal parts skill and power and was good for a double-double every game. There was D-Fish the respected team elder who invariably made HUGE, clutch shots every game. Andrew the Younger gave them yet another low-post scorer, rebounder and tough, physical, shot-blocking defender of that sacred area called "The Paint". And finally there was Lamar and Ron, homeboys from NYC who could play multiple positions, provide ball-handling, clutch scoring, physical D, match-up problems, celebrity significant others and shout outs to therapists. All led by the Zen Master, whose ability to blend egos and talents together to make champions was legen - wait for it - dary as the rings for every finger would attest.

I kept waiting for that team to show up. But it never did. Not in Game 1 when the Lakers blew a 16 point lead yet still had two excellent chances to win the game but Pau Gasol butter-fingered his chance and Kobe flat out bricked his.

Not in Game 2 which saw the Lakers fall 93-81. They missed their first 15 triples (they finished 2-20 from beyond the arc); couldn't guard Dirk Nowitzki (24 points) for the second straight game; got a 3-12 performance from Odom, the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year and saw Artest - their reputed defensive stopper - clothesline reserve Dallas Guard JJ Barrea (whose 12 points led a Mav's bench that outscored LA's 30-12)) with 24 seconds left in a game in which they only managed 32 points for the entire second half.

Completely losing home court would have been bad enough - LA was 2-16 (now 2-17) all time when losing the first two of a seven game series (most recently the 2008 Finals against Boston) - but to hear Andrew Bynum of all people to say after the game that the Lakers flat out have trust issues only added insult to injury. It raised the possibility that the Lakers were not only being undone by their erratic play on the court, but by a locker room in disarray.

That team I mentioned earlier would surely show up in Game 3 right? After all none of Phil Jackson's teams had EVER been swept in a post-season series in the 20 years he'd been manning an NBA bench. So surely they'd show up for Game 3 right? Nope.

Game 3 pretty much resembled Game 1. The Lakers were up by 7 with 5:05 to go when their defense betrayed them. The Mavs went on a 20-7 run led by Nowitzki (32 points) en route to a 32 point quarter that was highlighted by what Kobe referred to as "some of the dumbest defensive mistakes I've seen us make all year." It all added up to a 98-92 Dallas win putting them up 3-0 and in position for the unimaginable scenario: sweeping the Lakers out of the playoffs. After all, none of the previous 98 NBA teams that were down 0-3 ever came back.


Which brings us back to where I started this piece - Game 4. With their season, the defense of their back-to-back titles and Phil's retirement send-off on the line you'd expect that this game of all games would be the one where "That" team would FINALLY show up. That they'd fight tooth, nail, and every other body part on every possession for all 48 minutes. They'd make sure that if they went down, they'd go down fighting, leaving it all out on the floor. Yeah, not so much.

LA came out flat and stayed that way. Dallas didn't just make it rain from beyond the arc, they let loose a torrential downpour of three point field goals. Jason Terry's 9 led the way as Dallas tied an NBA post-season record with 20 3's (on 21 attempts). The Mavs didn't even need an All-Star performance from Dirk (17 points) to sweep LA, getting 32 from Terry, 22 from JJ Barea and 21 from Peja Stojakovic (6-6 from 3) -all of whom come off the Mavs bench - to make the Lakers the 99th team not to come back after losing the first three games of a seven game series.

As for that bush-league stuff that Odom and to a greater extent Bynum pulled at the end of the game? Don't even get me started. Odom's was more frsutration than anything and didn't seem to have any malicious intent. Bynum on the other hand, well I've seen muggings on 125th Street that were more polite. That garbage has no business in the game and does nothing but disgrace the Lakers, the NBA and the game of basketball. Okay, so you got me started, but this is where I stop.

Yes, the Dallas Mavericks get plenty of credit for the sweep. They executed their game plan on both sides of the ball almost flawlessly. They owned games 2 and 4 and came up with HUGE 4th quarters (the quarter that typically belonged to "That" team) in games 1 and 3 to win both. They played the vaunted Los Angeles Front Court to a standstill - which goes in the "W" column for Dallas as no one was supposed to be able to handle the LA Big Men. Their bench thoroughly outplayed LA's, exposing it for the weakness it's been for some time now once you get past Odom (a match-up advantage LA never managed to take advantage of in this series). And Rick Carlisle, RICK CARLISLE, out-coached the Zen Master.

That said, this is a series that LA woulda, coulda, shoulda won but didn't for one simple reason: heart. Miles and miles of heart. Dallas had it, LA didn't and because of that, not even Shane Falco could have saved the Lakers from their fate.