Prima Donna Battle

The NBA is turning itself into a joke.

The "superstars" are the main cause. And the fact that the league's paid officials treat some of them like their long-lost children.

The latest episode includes the air-headed DeMarcus Cousins, and a guy shoved down our throats: Blake Griffin.

See, basketball is supposed to be a physical game. In the days of Bill Russell and others, it was, to an extent. Nowadays, not so much. Some contact to role players goes unnoticed, but so much as blink an eyelash at a superstar; a foul is called.

Couple that with the fact that many players, particularly Griffin, routinely fake being fouled (number 2 in the video) to get calls. Now we have a problem. There's the saying, "If you don't cheat, you ain't trying," but NBA players take this to a whole new level.

Now, part of the reason that DeMarcus Cousins yesterday fouled out in eighteen minutes is because of his own play. But he was matched up with Griffin, a circumstance the NBA ensures will get you into foul trouble. After all, this is a league that rigged its dunk contest for him to win...

Following the game in which the two engaged in occasional pushing and shoving, Griffin, when asked about it by the media, said he would leave it all on the court. Probably because he got all the calls.

When Cousins was informed of Griffin's comments, he said what many other of the league's big men have probably wanted to all season: "Of course that's what Blake is going to say because he's in L.A., where actors belong."

Then, later, Cousins to Sports Illustrated: "He's babied. He's the poster child of the league. He sells tickets, but he's babied. Bottom line. The refs, the league -- period. He gets away with (everything). He taunts players. Nothing is done. He's babied."

Now, a lot of idiotic things have come out of Cousins' mouth. But his evaluation of Griffin is spot on.

And how are the rest of the league's superstars doing? I'm sure you remember: Deron Williams getting his Hall of Fame coach, Jerry Sloan, fired, only to leave the team anyway. Carmelo Anthony, after forcing his way out of Denver, coming into the season overweight and quitting on the team in New York to get the coach ousted. Dwight Howard and his ridiculous ongoing escapade...

The league is a mess.

How to Fix the Dunk Contest

DeMar DeRozan stated it best a year ago, when he campaigned against props that have taken over the dunk contest. The best pure dunker in the field of Serge Ibaka, Blake Griffin, JaVale McGee and himself, DeRozan was eliminated after the first round, probably because he didn't use any props: gospel choruses, Kias, teddy bears...

"There's no telling what might happen next year," DeRozan said. "Someone might use a trampoline."

Well, that didn't happen, but there was a motorcycle to jump over, a camera attached to eventual winner Jeremy Evans' ear, and a glow-in-the dark jersey (the only one that was actually kind of cool). Also included in this year's contest, rated an "F" by over 35% of SportsNation, was corny dialogue prior to practically every dunk.

There was also P Diddy proclaiming "black power" after stating his favorite sports movie was White Men Can't Jump before Chase Budinger's first attempt. I'll let you be the judge.

Honestly, I wouldn't care about all this garbage, if the dunks were actually impressive. This year, only one really stood out: Evans' two-ball alley-oop slam. Budinger, Paul George and Derrick Williams were all disappointments.

Oh, and Blake Griffin jumping over the car last year wasn't any good either.

It's just frustrating as a fan when TeamFlightBrothers on YouTube feature hundreds of slams that completely blow the NBA dunk contest away.  

Another problem: the contestants. It pains me to hate on these role guys, but when there was a graphic saying Chase Budinger had registered six dunks all season, well, yeah.

As Charles Barkley stated, LeBron and those other superstars need to "get off their butts" and get into the dunk contest.

I hate LeBron. And I don't like most of the other NBA superstars either. But their participation would make for a better contest from a fan's perspective. I don't need to explain why. Or at least get legitimate dunkers back out there, such as DeRozan, Andre Iguodala, maybe a John Wall.

And get rid of those stupid props.

Enough is Enough

"Breaking news," reports the SportsCenter broadcast from the living room, "After coming in 44th yesterday at (insert random golf tournament no one cares about here), Tiger Woods decided that he just doesn't play very well when he's single. So this morning he announced he will be joining the dating site eHarmony. Unfortunately, he soon realized this wasn't the type of dating site he was looking for." We also can't forget spending five minutes analyzing each hole he played in his 44th-place finish, the clips of his now slightly subdued antics of disgust included.

Or, five minutes later: "After eating eggs and toast for breakfast, Brett Favre decided to go out hunting earlier today. He came back empty-handed, possibly because he was too busy texting..."

Okay, these aren't real SportsCenter reports (what I wrote actually sounds more like the Comedy Central show Onion SportsDome, a show you should really check out), but my point here is that some athletes are just covered way too much by ESPN. I am tired of their love, or at least excessive coverage of Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, the Miami Heat, and some others. I doubt I'm alone.

I'm not much of a golf fan. I don't know who number one in the world is. I wouldn't unless I was a follower of the sport. I certainly know who No. 3 is, though (Tiger Woods). And I know who Phil Mickelson is, even though he is ranked like a hundred something. Why? Because I watch SportsCenter. And regardless of how they do, all of the coverage and analysis is of their play, even if Bubba Watson or some other unknown wins the tournament. Maybe the only reason the casual sports fan only knows of a few golfers is because only a few of them are covered. Golf relies so much on Tiger Woods, because he gets five times more coverage than every other golfer combined.

Brett Favre. I don't even want to talk about him, but I will. Now that he's actually retired, hopefully for sure this time, one would assume the coverage of him would finally come to an end. Yeah right. Instead he has to remain in the spotlight, because he's fallen ill with the Tiger Woods Syndrome. His "sexting" hasn't been proven, but until someone figures this out, he'll remain in the news. Thankfully, there hasn't been much talk about him lately, but it'll surely return.

There are the guys that do deserve the attention they've been receiving, such as Shaun White, Blake Griffin, and Kevin Love. Theirs certainly hasn't been to the extent of the aforementioned, not even close. But their dominance of their sport makes them more than worthy of it, and constant talk of them I could withstand for a little while, to take away the attention of the guys far past their prime.