Thinking Out Loud: California Chrome Fails, So Do Hockey Fans

Listen, I'll be the first to admit. I'm not a horse racing guy. I bet on the Kentucky Derby in Vegas four years ago (won), but it was nothing more than a lucky guess.

I'm a passive fan when it comes to the Triple Crown, but I'm fully aware of how it works. When a horse wins the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, he will inevitably face a horse in the Belmont that did not run each of the first two legs.

The co-owner of California Chrome, Steve Coburn, clearly isn't happy about this fact. Here is his rant from after Saturday's Belmont Stakes.



Coburn didn't back off Sunday.

"It says Triple Crown. You nominate your horse for the Triple Crown. That means three," Coburn said in the track-side interview with ESPN on Sunday. "Even the Triple Crown trophy has three points on it. So when you earn enough points to run in the Kentucky Derby, those 20 horses that start in the Kentucky Derby should be the only 20 allowed to run in the Preakness and the Belmont for the Triple Crown."

He also made a questionable analogy of why Tonalist's participation Saturday was unfair.

"These people nominate their horses for the Triple Crown and then they hold out two [races] and then come back and run one," Coburn told ESPN. "That would be like me at 6-2 playing basketball with a kid in a wheelchair. They haven't done anything with their horses in the Triple Crown. There were three horses in this race that ran in the first two -- California Chrome, Ride on Curlin and General a Rod -- none of the other horses did.  You figure out. You ask yourself, 'Would it be fair if I played basketball with a child in a wheel chair?"

Coburn made the analogy in both interviews Sunday morning. He was asked in the "Good Morning America interview" if he considered the comparison offensive.

"No, I'm just trying to compare the two," he said. "Is it fair for me to play with this child in a wheelchair? Is it fair for them to hold their horses back?"

Coburn said he has no problems if people label him a "sore loser" and even proceeded to give out his phone number so people can call him with their complaints.

Listen, I'm not an expert on this. But the Triple Crown has been run the same way for 146 years. When Affirmed won in 1973, he beat horses that didn't run all three races. When Secretariat won two years earlier, same story.

Whether Coburn likes it or not, this is how the sport works. If he doesn't like it, maybe he should bring it up with racing commissions who run the Triple Crown. I highly doubt anything will change, but perhaps Coburn will feel better.

I get that it's a quick turnaround for the horses who run, but I'm not in favor of anything that will make the Triple Crown easier to win. It's been done 11 times, and it should be difficult. Otherwise, it wouldn't carry nearly the prestige it does. Then the sport suffers, and horse racing has suffered enough over the years.

******

Coburn wasn't the only person putting his foot squarely in his mouth over the weekend.

Hello, hockey fans.

As soon as LeBron James left Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday because of leg cramps, the internet started in.

I'm as pro-NHL as the next guy, but this is a great example of hockey fans' inferiority complex. The sport doesn't do as well on television as the NBA does, and that drives people crazy, because they don't think there's any competition when it comes to the quality of the games.

I don't argue that. What I argue is how NHL fans choose to articulate themselves.

LeBron James might be an egomaniac, but he's a two-time NBA champion, NBA MVP, and an Olympic gold medalist. He isn't a quitter. If he's not finishing an NBA Finals game, something is wrong.

And I've seen what leg cramps can do to elite athletes. I've seen some of the best marathon runners in the world crippled by cramps less than halfway into a 26-mile race. These folks train their entire lives to run distance, but end up unable to stand without help when the heat and humidity prove to be too much for them.

Comparing LeBron James to a hockey player just doesn't work. All it does it make hockey fans look petty and silly.

LeBron James Still Doesn't Get It

And you wanted it all
Now you’re taking the fall
You don’t know why
--Red Line Chemistry, "You Don't Get It"

I'm not a huge NBA fan. Probably never will be, though it would be greatly helpful if the league put in a system that made it possible for more than about five teams to win a championship.

But if someone tells me that Miami is trailing throughout in their bid to stay alive in a series, and the Dallas Mavericks -- owned by Mark Cuban and led by the exceptionally likable Dirk Nowitzki -- are the opponent, I'll flip it on and watch.

No one outside of Heat fans wanted to see Miami win this championship. Their fans are insufferable bandwagon-jumpers, many of whom probably couldn't name three guys from the 2006 championship team. The team is led by Dwyane Wade, one of my favorite players, but no one gives him the credit he deserves for being the alpha dog. Instead, everyone wants to know why LeBron James isn't the alpha dog.

Well, folks, for starters, he's not the best player on the team. Wade is. Shouldn't the best player be the guy you run the offense through, instead of the second-best player?

James is a fantastic talent, but he typecast himself as a secondary piece the second he decided to "take (his) talents to South Beach."

That moment ended any opportunity for James to ever be considered one of the sport's all-time great players. He decided to ride Wade's coattails, instead of being a leader of his own team.

Mind you, that's okay. It's not the end of the world that someone doesn't want to be the greatest of all-time. Most of us are okay with our roles. We don't need to be the president of the company we work for, and we don't need a fancy title in front of our name to feel important. It doesn't make it a good or bad thing to want or not want those things. It's just the way we're wired.

In the case of LeBron James, he's not wired to be the best of all time. Wade? Well, he kind of is, and that's why he is the leader of the Miami Heat.

After Game 6 Sunday night, James showed the world that he isn't just a guy not wired the way Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are. He's also a very bitter and immature fellow who just doesn't get it.

“All the people that were rooting for me to fail… at the end of the day, tomorrow they have to wake up and have the same life that (they had) before they woke up today,” James said. “They got the same personal problems they had today. And I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do.”

Just remember, LeBron haters, that your life sucks compared to LeBron. Just ask LeBron, and he'll tell you.

It's the typical arrogance of a man who thought it was a good idea to knife an entire fanbase in the back on national television, and didn't bother to tell the franchise he was leaving of his intentions before said knifing.

In the world of public relations disasters, "The Decision" will live on forever. Sunday's interview will be high on the list for LeBron, because he showed again how insanely immature he is, and how far he has to go before he can ever be considered in the class of a guy like Nowitzki.

Meanwhile, as Dan Wetzel writes, Cleveland isn't hating anymore.

They're just laughing.

So are the rest of us, especially Mark Cuban.

TRUTHS ABOUT THE NBA FINALS

I have no magical potion to figure out what will happen in this series, though I think the Lakers will win.

I do, however, feel pretty strongly about a few statements, and the result of the series won't change my mind.

For a basketball fan, this isn't a bad series at all.

I heard Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio talking about this. He made -- hark! -- a really good point. The idea here is that the Cleveland-San Antonio series a couple years ago was a bad matchup for the league. It was a one-man team against a heavy favorite that lacked a serious personality. Remember, the media was so hell-bent on finding a storyline with that Spurs team that they were screaming every five minutes about Bruce Bowen being a dirty player. That's all they could come up with.

There is likely no shortage of entertaining basketball coming in this year's Finals. The Lakers can run the floor with the best of them, and Orlando will push the tempo and take a lot of shots.

There are superstars on both teams, with Kobe for the Lakers and Dwight Howard for Orlando. Not only that, but for Howard, this is a chance to make some noise as a mainstream star, something that hasn't really happened because everyone is too busy fellating LeBron he plays in Orlando.

Orlando has a chance.

Any team that has beaten the likes of Boston and Cleveland has to be given a real shot to win a best-of-seven. You know they'll have at least one game where they shoot lights-out and can't be stopped. That leaves them to get three wins in six games, and I believe this Orlando team is good enough to go 3-3 against anyone in the league.

That said, it's too hard to pick a team like Orlando to win. They don't have the talent to match up with Los Angeles, and they have to rely on the sly coaching of Stan Van Gundy and their long-range shooters.

Oh, and they have to hope the refs don't screw them. There, I said it.

If nothing else, the Van Gundy storyline adds intrigue.

My background in broadcasting makes me naturally interested in something like this. I thought Bob Griese was borderline terrible when he called his son's games at Michigan. Almost like he was trying too hard to hide what everyone knew.

Jeff Van Gundy offered to be taken off the ABC broadcasts of the NBA Finals when Orlando made it. He thinks he can fairly call games coached by his brother, but he didn't want anyone to think he was pushing an agenda.

ABC declined, trusting he would be a professional. While I think he will do a good job, the bottom line is that Jeff Van Gundy is a human being. His presence has helped ABC immensely, and I think it will help them in these Finals, as people will be waiting for him to slip up and start cheering from press row.

The Magic don't need Jameer Nelson.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure they'd love to have him. But putting a player who is rusty and possibly not 100 percent on the floor isn't going to help you beat a team like the Lakers. Stan Van Gundy has set a rotation, and he's worked it well during his team's playoff run.

The last thing they should do right now is mess with that rotation to put an injured player on the floor. Yes, Nelson could help the Magic. He also could hinder them, and it's not at all worth the risk involved.

I won't be watching very much.

It doesn't help that I'm not an NBA fan. It also doesn't help that I get up for work early in the morning. 8pm Central time starts just don't agree with my schedule.

But I know I don't matter to the NBA. Neither does anyone in the Eastern time zone. Instead, they set a start time that caters to -- of all things -- the West Coast.

It's one thing that the NHL does more right than the NBA. It might be only one thing, but for the NHL, it has to be considered a start.

DO WE CARE ABOUT THE NBA FINALS?

When I was a kid, it was fun to watch the Lakers and Celtics do battle for the NBA title. I don't want to be dismissive of this year's incarnation of the NBA's greatest playoff rivalry, but I'm not excited.

It's not ABC's fault. I don't think they've overhyped it (yet). I really like the crew they have working the games (Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson). They do good work, and the broadcasts are enjoyable.

You can't complain about this matchup being overdone, as the Celtics haven't played the Lakers in the NBA Finals since 1987. Yes, this is their 11th Finals matchup, but it's been a while.

These are two dominant organizations. This year marks the 31st time one of them will win the NBA title.

They have great players. Kevin Garnett is going for his first NBA ring in a Hall of Fame career. So is Ray Allen. Paul Pierce is in the Finals for the first time. Kobe Bryant hasn't been to the Finals since Shaq left Los Angeles, so this is his chance to prove he can lead a team to the promised land.

There should be plenty of quality basketball, and no shortage of interesting storylines (officiating, anyone?).

So what's the problem?