I started wondering about whether you need to support local teams when you play for a local team. Tom Brady was spotted wearing a New York cap while he played for New England (Karma may have gotten to him with his recent injury). Michael Jordan tried out for the White Sox while on a hiatus from the Bulls, but if he had played for the Dodgers or the Tigers would Chicago Basketball fans have been less welcoming when he came back to the Bulls? I find Cleveland fans attention and venom towards LBJ amusing, if he takes a franchise from nowhere to the NBA finals in two years my take is let him do what he wants.

But I also started thinking about the similarities between this and when you work for one company and use products from a rival. If you work for Nissan and drive a Toyota, if you work for Microsoft and use a Mac, or, heaven forbid, if you work for Yahoo and use Google, does this make you disloyal?

Personally, I think its okay for an individual to use a rival product. With the caveat that you’re using something because it’s better and meets your needs better (whether in terms of cost or design or some other important feature) and that you use your own products to a point where you know what the market needs are and work to your best to improve the company you work for.

Here’s my theory, sell out and you won’t win. Boozer sold out on the Cavs and next thing you know the Cav’s make the finals and the Jazz – in addition to having the most ridiculous name in Pro sports, Utah Jazz – never make it past the second round. And though Hargreaves has won a couple of titles with Man United saw the English team not qualify for the European championship. Guess we’ll need to see what happens with Brand and Kaman in the near future, but my guess is they won’t win.

Here’s my rationale, trust is integral to success, when a team trusts each other success is more likely. And if you show the world that you can’t be trusted then you won’t win. Whether in sport, in business or in life, integrity is a key to success.

Unofficially, this series of videos with actors/singers and atheletes is pretty funny. This is B Diddy in short shorts while Cool it Now by New Edition plays in the back (facebook readers you might need to view the original post on the blog). In a word hilarious.

Shaq has to be one of my favourite athletes! The guy went back to school, got an MBA and is – according to the video – now working on his doctorate. More young men and athletes should take Shaq’s example.

I like Walsh, think he did good things with Indiana over the past 25 years – till he brought in Larry Legend and then things kind of went downhill. Still, it’s an upgrade over Isiah who basically took a sinking ship and made it sink a heckofalot faster.

It’s turnaround strategy time. How should Walsh turn the ship around?

This is a tough one. If I was Walsh, I would do 4 things, change the leadership, clean the house out, find and promote the talent, and improve relationships.

Changing leadership; I would fire Isiah, take the GM role for a while and bring Herb Williams in an interim head coach role ASAP. Bring in strong leadership at the top, Herb isn’t the long term guy but he shows promise and has the players respect. Let Herb have a go next season if he succeeds it turns out like the Raptors and Mitchell, if he fails he’s likely not to fail as dramatically as Isiah.

Clean the house out; buy out Steph Marbury, trade Eddy curry for a bag of peanuts to whoever will take him, get rid of Zach Randolph, and stop and breathe. Try and clean up some significant cap room so when players like Lebron, CB4, Wade, Melo come on the market in a couple of years the Knicks are an attractive situation.

Find and promote the talent, the Knicks have some good players, some good personnel, Nate Robinson and Crawford are decent, I would package one or both of them if it gets Curry/Randolph out the door, otherwise no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Renaldo Balkman, David Lee, and their draft pick, plus Nate – if he keeps him – are a decent foundation. Add to it a strong pick in the draft – again if he keeps it – and we have a decent core with the Knicks.

Improving relationships; keep it authentic. Be real, be true, speak to the other GMs in the league and let them know there will be no more sucker trades, but the Knicks have got some assets and some needs.

This is a sweet situation, there’s absolutely no worse it could get. Walsh has a chance to be the King of NY. Or could it get worse? F***, I hope not.

I filled out two tournament brackets and with the knowledge that never before have more then two number 1 seeds made the final four. The phrase “Never before have more then two number 1 seeds made the final four” played over and over again in my mind as I filled out my brackets.

Imagine my dismay as I watched Kansas beat Davidson last night to ensure that four number 1 seeds were in the final four.

My life is filled with semi-randomness at the moment. The book made for timely reading indeed.

Eli Manning, Cesc Fabregas and Chris Bosh all benefited from the fact that the “star” player on the team was gone. The focus had moved from “getting the ball”, “scoring baskets” or goals, to winning through a system.

Some general managers and coaches really understand the fact that a team needs time to form a team culture. Others, like Isiah Thomas, think having a lot of stars on a team will help a team win.

I think this system/strategy would work in business as well. At all levels, when you’re struggling you have people inside who are used to doing things their way. Who are used to being given responsibilities and leadership and this is seen as a badge rather then a sense of team, a sense of playing to win.

So when I see teams or companies that are winning the common element seems to be everyone wants to win. The focus is not on who does what, the focus is on what does it take to win.

Both hosts from PTI were giving GO dap – i.e. credit –for taking a political stance and being vocal about his political leaning. I was born during the later stage of a time when many athletes were thought leaders, to a certain extent, in the US. On PTI Michael Wilbon rattled off the names Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, and basketball players like Bill Russell, Bill Walton and Bill Bradley (who’s now in politics, not just talking politics in the locker room) who were all vocal about their political beliefs. Before these athletes there was Jackie Robinson, the black power salute at the Olympic Games, and other acts of politics and sport mixing. Whether you agreed or disagreed with these athletes you had to respect their strength in character to discuss their views. Some, like Ali, even suffering financially and reputationally (yes I know it’s not a word, don’t care) because of their views.

Today, I can only think of one other athlete, the Canadian 2 – time MVP of the NBA – Steve Nash, who also has made his political views known on occasion and has suffered some backlash for some of his views.

Personally, I think there’s too much money in endorsements for professional athletes today, and an athlete today can suffer significant financial set backs by saying the wrong thing or upsetting the wrong person. Being like Mike meant drinking Gatorade, wearing Air Jordans and buying into Brand Jordan not believing in some of the things that Mike believed in. Being like Tiger means wearing an expensive watch or investing a mutual fund or whatever else Tiger’s associated with. I’d love to see GO’s stance to be seen as a new trendsetter, one of athletes speaking their minds.

Maybe I’m a little partial to this as I’m reading Obama’s Dreams of my Father right now and I like the fact that he comes from a diverse background, something I can really relate to. Not to mention that I think he could do a whole heap of good for America’s reputation across the world and… well this wasn’t meant to be a political post so I’ll stop there. Maybe I’d feel differently if GO had endorsed McCain or Clinton on his blog. Don’t know, can’t say. But I like it in this case.

The Knicks – a team I’ve supported since 84, when I got a Knicks hat as a kid, to 99 when Toronto was given an NBA franchise – really stink. So does England. Both teams are struggling having implemented the same strategy. Load up on big name stars and talent will win. What both need is to build a consistent, cohesive, supporting team.

Isiah Thomas has gone out and signed or traded for every big name he could sign for and he’s got a team that on paper could beat a lot of other teams on a position by position basis. The England squad have the same strong line up in comparison to other nations. And yet both teams lose, badly, to teams they supposedly should beat.

The problem is neither of these teams is actually a team. They’re both a bunch of individual players. Not a team. Both teams are full of guys who play one way and can’t adjust to playing with the other players they’re on the court/pitch with. And so both lose, badly, to teams they should beat.

Here’s my solution. Blow them both up. Starting from the Head of the FA and the President of the Knicks. Get rid of both managers – at least England has already done this, I give Zeke till the end of the year. And then figure out what kind of teams you want to model the squads after and get players who fit the mold, play that style and want to win. Look at teams like San Antonio, Detroit, Dallas in the NBA and squads like Italy, France (when they were winning everything) and figure out systems that work. Then go out and stick to a playing strategy and play that strategy.

The problem is it’s easier to say this is what you should do and it’s harder to actually do it and finding the right guys to do it is almost impossible. England is talking about a bunch of guys who have never managed an international side! NYK is looking at peple like Chris Mullin, who haven’t won jack!

This is especially difficult when there’s so much money involved and most of the decision makers are more focused on the bottom line then they are on winning. The only people who seem to really care are paying for their seats to watch these sad states of teams play. And that’s a real shame.

All of this makes me wonder if the guys behind myfootballclub.com, where supporters get together and buy a team, had the right idea. The fans and their community probably would do a much better job then the guys with the suits!