Friday Random Rants

Eating like a king
Earlier today, I posted what a local White Castle sign says. It reads “Make your Valentines Day reservation today”. I think I laughed loudly as I drove past the intersection of 8 mile and Gratiot. But come to find out, it’s a legit thing. I’ve been informed that select WC’s across the country do this and they actually sell out. The y put out table cloths, candles, and the whole nine. I would’ve never guessed it.

Generations
As I drove home yesterday listening to sports talk radio, I listened to the guys talk about the SEC as the premier conference in college football. It was used as an argument about why Lane Kiffin would leave Tennessee to go to USC. One of the on-air personalities mentioned LSU and my mind quickly moved to the 90-92 LSU basketball era.

Why that era? It’s when I boarded the Shaq train. I watched just about every LSU game I could. It was obvious how dominant he was in college and how dominant he could be in the NBA. I was a huge fan.

But why do I bring that up? As I thought about it, I realized:

(1) That I’m getting old.
(2) Every generation, or maybe every 10 -15 years the next “Insert legend” comes along

Today’s media and today’s kids all talk about how dominant Dwight Howard is. They fall all over his humorous antics, thunder dunks, and overall size.

Shaq was that guy long before Dwight Howard. Actually, they wish they could be Shaq of back then. That’s not age bias either. Check the stats. They can’t touch what he was doing.

He rocked the Superman logo tattoo. He had the Superman logo on his vehicle’s grilles, gate to his house, etc. etc.

But nowadays, people see Fat Shaq. They see the injured Shaq. They see the Shaq that helps Lebron, instead of the Shaq that was the MDP, Most Dominant Player. In my opinion he’s gotta be one of the top 10 players of all time.

But I digress.

I started thinking how now I’m the guy who’s saying things like “Dwight Howard is great, but he’s no Shaq” to the younger generation. I’ve now seen some great players come and go. Guys who when they came into their sports were the stars of tomorrow. I loved basketball in the late 80’s and early 90’s so those are the careers I can think of off hand.

I think of Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Shaq, Grant Hill, Antonio McDyess…..Those are the bigger names. Chris Webber was the next Karl Malone. McDyess was a beast. Penny was the next Magic Johnson. Ya gotta wonder how things might have turned out for those guys and their franchises if they didn’t get hurt. Grant Hill was gonna save the NBA after Jordan retired…And Shaq. I already mentioned him.

I didn’t even mention Kobe and Kevin Garnett….Allen Iverson.

The thing is those guys could legitimately ball. I look at the guys coming out of high school and college these days and not many can ball like the guys coming out in the early 90’s. That might be the last great era of the NBA.

I saw a stat last night where 2009 has the fewest McDonalds All Americans averaging double figure points, and/or rebounds. The analyst blames a lot of it on entitlement, and flat out lack of skill. Today’s kids seem to get by more on athletic ability than improving their skills.

It’s sad really. My generation could be one of the last to say “But you should’ve seen ‘enter legend name’ play. He was so much better than today’s guys…”

Today’s generation
Along the same lines, I had a conversation with a friend the other day about high school sports. One of his best friends coaches varsity basketball and is apparently somewhat frustrated with his team. From what I know, they have a decent amount of talent. But the kids don’t want to be coached. They want their playing time, they want their shots, and not much more. They don’t realize how much it takes to actually improve at a sport or skill.

Again…is it entitlement? Do we give kids too much these days? Do they have a case of the flu…that is, affluenza? I first heard that word about the former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Basically it said he is the poster child for affluenza…the sickness of affluence, or being given too much. Or at least too much too soon.

Are we failing our kids by wanting or trying to give them so much? I had a great childhood and never had near the things today’s kids have. I had chores. We had to work for things. We didn’t have to work as much as maybe our parents did as kids, but there was correlation between earning something instead of just being given something.

What is it? Is it our insecurities of what other parents give their kids? Is it keeping up with the Joneses? Is it us trying to show some level of achievement? Is it us not wanting to be the parents of kids “that don’t this or that?”

Another radio show talked about the degrading social skills of today’s kids too. I don’t know if they’ve totally degraded, but they are very different than ours. They socialize through text messages and online video games. Many don’t know how to carry verbal conversations, or at the very least they are uncomfortable with them.

They want on to say how even GPS/Navigation devices these days are effecting how we find locations and destinations. Kids aren’t using maps anymore, or can’t really read a map. Some schools are eliminating cursive writing as a graded course. They cite computer keyboarding and texting skills as the reason not to grade the course. It’s almost become obsolete. The list seems to be growing daily of the skills our kids aren’t developing due to technology.

Technology is cool. I love it, but we can’t lean on it. What if there is a severe and real black out someday. If we don’t have some type of social, communication, or survival skills, what will happen?

Things we need to ponder. Especially us old men.