Six Burning Questions
1. Will Tiger Woods win another major? I love when Tiger is in the mix on Sunday, but that hasn’t happened in an eternity. Golf is obviously a game where you can have success through you late 40s and into your 50s, but with his nagging back issues and inconsistent swing, I just do not see Tiger winning his ever elusive 15th major.
2. Which pitcher would you want starting a Game 7? Justin Verlander, no question. That dude is the ultimate competitor and he has time and time again proven his greatness on the sport’s biggest stage.
3. Who is the best quarterback from the 2004 draft class? This is the draft class that includes Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger. To me, the best quarterback and the quarterback with the best resume are two separate things. Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning have two Super Bowls, but I believe that Phillips Rivers is the superior talent. It is likely that all three wind up in Canton, but if we evaluate them in a vacuum, I think Phillip Rivers is the best signal-caller of the bunch.
4. Is Draymond Green a Hall of Famer? Yes. His stats are pedestrian (9 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists per game for his career), but he is on arguably the most dominant team in the history of the sport. If he were transported to, say, Sacramento or Detroit, and compiled the same counting numbers this would be an entirely different discussion, but being the heart and soul of a three-time champion (with likely more rings on the way), makes him a lock for the Hall.
5. Should soccer games be decided on penalty kicks? No, but I don’t have a better solution so I guess PK’s must suffice. This is equivalent to deciding a basketball game by way of a free-throw contest. Penalty kicks by no means illustrate who the better team is. The issue though is that scoring in soccer is often times so infrequent that it is not realistic to expect the players to run around for what in theory could be hours before the winning goal is scored.
6. Who is the biggest bust in NBA history? To be a bust in my eyes, you must have been a) healthy and b) a proven commodity in college/internationally (therefore not selected based on “potential”). Criteria “a” eliminates Greg Oden and criteria “b” eliminates Kwame Brown. I considered three guys for this undesirable label: Darko Milicic, Jimmer Fredette, and Sam Bowie. Ultimately Darko took home the honors. In 2003, the Detroit Pistons took the 7 foot Serbian with the second pick ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Milicic averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds over the course of his career. Not only did he drastically underperform relative to expectations, but the players selected after him went on to have prestigious careers.
