The biggest story in American Sports this week has probably been NFL Draft prospect Michael Sam publically announcing, just a few months out from the draft, that he is gay. There’s been an overwhelming amount of support for the guy, but that may not necessarily mean he’s drafted. Privately it sounds like quite a few NFL folks still have an issue with this, but nobody wants to be the guy to speak out against him, since whoever does is gonna be slaughtered in the media. The closest thing to that so far is his dad admitting that he’s a little uncomfortable about it. For the record, his teammates at Missouri already knew and appear cool with it. Michael Sam is always going to be known now for this, and that could either ruin or make his career – imagine the endorsements he could get from companies looking for the PR rep. The issue with drafting him now is not ‘is he ready for the NFL?’, but ‘is the NFL ready for him?’. Which is stupid. Obviously there have been closet homosexuals (sorry for the tired cliché) in the NFL before. What difference does someones sexual preference make to their ability to perform as an athlete? Should we discriminate against people who like fat chicks too? People’s lives are complicated and full of many contrasting and varied aspects, which often have no significance or influence on each other. People need to stop judging others and trying to place them in these stereotyped pigeonholes based on one or two aspects of their personality. It’s too easy and it’s not fair. Moving on now.

NFL scout texts top 5 best locker rooms for Michael Sam: Seahawks, Patriots, Green Bay, Colts, Giants.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) February 10, 2014

Power Rankings:

LeBron James reckons by the time he finishes his career he’ll be recognised at one of the ‘top 4 players to ever play the game’. Here’s who he has to deal with, according to Slam Magazine:

					Per Game					Shooting
Rank	Player	From	To	G	PTS	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	FG%	3P%	FT%
1	Michael Jordan	1985	2003	1072	30.1	6.2	5.3	2.3	0.8	.497	.327	.835
2	Wilt Chamberlain	1960	1973	1045	30.1	22.9	4.4			.540		.511
3	Bill Russell	1957	1969	963	15.1	22.5	4.3			.440		.561
4	Shaquille O'Neal	1993	2011	1207	23.7	10.9	2.5	0.6	2.3	.582	.045	.527
5	Oscar Robertson	1961	1974	1040	25.7	7.5	9.5	1.1	0.1	.485		.838
6	Magic Johnson	1980	1996	906	19.5	7.2	11.2	1.9	0.4	.520	.303	.848
7	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1970	1989	1560	24.6	11.2	3.6	0.9	2.6	.559	.056	.721
8	Tim Duncan	1998	2014	1208	20.0	11.2	3.1	0.7	2.2	.506	.179	.694
9	Larry Bird	1980	1992	897	24.3	10.0	6.3	1.7	0.8	.496	.376	.886
10	Kobe Bryant	1997	2014	1245	25.5	5.3	4.8	1.5	0.5	.454	.335	.838

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com:

Travelling In Style

New Japanese pitching import Masahiro Tanaka sure knows how to travel comfortably. After signing a US$155m contract with the Yankees, he spent almost $200k of those deniros chartering a 787 jet, reserving the entire plane for just himself, his wife, three buddies and, naturally, his pet poodle, for his trip to New York. Sadly, he couldn’t pay off the weather gods, so his trip to the Tokyo airport took 8 and a half hours navigating through the snow. Tanaka will hope to follow in the footsteps of a number of successful Japanese MLB imports in recent years, most notably Texas’ Yu Darvish, who made the All Star team in both his first two seasons.

Setting The Record Straight

We can confirm that despite internet rumours to the contrary, LA Clippers forward Blake Griffin did not, in fact, slap Justin Bieber in the face at a Starbucks this week for not putting his shirt on when asked. Unfortunately.

Weekly Pondering

Someone made a great point to me earlier this week about the Michael Sam thing, and how sports have always been at the forefront of social change. Think Jackie Robinson helping to usher in the Civil Rights Movement with his becoming the first black man in the MLB. Or the many labour disputes surrounding professionalism and amateurism. It’s kinda sad that this isn’t really the case anymore, but a major step towards that utopian society of freedom and equality that we all dream of can be achieved if the masculine, conservative (I hate how people use this word as a bad thing) world of the NFL shows enough open-mindedness to, well… to ignore this issue completely. I mean, heralding every homosexual athlete doesn’t promote the right idea, that’s still singling them out whether positively or negatively. The truest sign of social progress is the day that an athlete’s personal life completely doesn’t matter.

Good Week:

Goran Dragic (Phoenix Suns) - Because he did this:

Cleveland Browns – I know we’re stretching this out to call it a good week, but they’ve got a new coach and QB disaster Brandon Weeden (sorry dude, but prove us wrong!) wants out now. Normally your starting QB jumping ship would be an issue, but not so much here.

Bad Week:

Maurice Cheeks (Formerly of the Detroit Pistons) – Coach Cheeks bore the brunt of a pretty awful start by a well-stacked Detroit Pistons team. Although they were only a game out of the playoffs even at 21-29, Detroit owners clearly expected more in the weak Eastern Conference, and Cheeks became the fourth quickest NBA coach to get the sack in his first season with a team in 25 years. In their first game without Cheeks, Detroit beat San Antonio 109-100.

Paul George (Indiana Pacers) – He’s still in All Star form an everything – this was a bad week for… other reasons. He miiight have gotten a stripper pregnant. But all good, he’s gonna chip in some dollars if it’s his.

Philadelphia 76ers – Or is it a good week? If they’re tanking, then is losing like winning for regular teams? So good is bad and bad is good? Right is wrong? And pigs fly? Nah, 7 losses in a row is never a good thing. Philly sucks.

Player of the Week:

Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) – It’s not really worth searching deeper for standouts when this guy makes an impeccable case for this honour (Dugout Player of the Week is right up there with the Oscars and the Nobel Peace Prize in the eyes of the experts…) every single week. He dropped 41 on the Knicks the other day, and has 3 consecutive double-doubles.

Upcoming Dates (NZ Time):

February 17 - 2014 NBA All-Star Game

February 26 - MLB Spring Training Begins

March 22 - MLB Regular Season Begins