Yesterday the word on the sports wire was that Ladainian Tomlinson was being let go by the Chargers. LT predicted it months ago, but it finally became a reality. We also heard that Allen Iverson was given “an indefinite” leave from the Sixers to tend to his ill daughter. Many of us never thought we’d see AI in a Philly jersey again. While he caused a sell-out for his return game a couple of months ago, the Sixers have been a win-one-lose-two-or-three kind of team, not really doing all that much in a very weak Eastern conference. While AI certainly hasn’t – at least on the surface – seemed like the squad smasher than ran through Detroit, then went unwanted through most of the summer only to land, then unland in Memphis, he also wasn’t dropping 30+ a night. He seemed fine with being a distributor, and even was a jovial supporter from the sidelines just a few nights ago as the Sixers beat the Spurs. He didn’t play in the 4th quarter, I don’t believe, but we didn’t read anything about beef in the papers. Seemed like he was cool with getting the W, getting in where he could fit in, rather than having to carry the burden of making every move as was his previous Philly role. Who knows what the future holds, but if we believe Stephen A. Smith, then AI’s locker on Broad Street will be cleared out again. At least this time he’ll get to pack his own stuff up.
The say death comes in threes. Didn’t know that carried over into sports, but today, the Eagles gave word that they were letting Brian Westbrook go. Frankly, I didn’t want to see Westbrook on the field anymore – not in Eagles green or any other jersey. The concussions this year pretty much said enough. Pride, and the love of the game, can make a player want to squeeze out everything they can, but a running backs middle name is “target,” and when they can’t cut like they used to, and make All-Pro linebackers look like special teams fill-ins, then the targets start to become beaten-down bodies, crumpled at the bottom of thousand pound piles. At least Donovan can throw the ball away. Westbrook didn’t have that kind of luxury. The Eagles didn’t have the luxury of dropping $7.25M in his account, to get maybe 6-8 games of ten touches, and perhaps a gem or two during the season. Retirement would have been the fitting end to this story. But I can certainly understand the fight in a young man (at 30, he’s still young by all accounts, except in running back years) when he is told that he can’t do something that he’s done so well for as long as he can remember. So at this point, I can only hope for the best.
Finally, on a somewhat related note, from Stephen Curry (Dell’s kid) to Gerald Henderson’s son to a Wilkins boy to who knows who else, I’m realizing that entire generational eras are happening before my eyes. I was cool with Luke Walton because I only remembered his dad playing spot minutes for the Celtics late in his career, and not his head-band wearing days in Portland. But today in the UPenn paper I saw that Toni Kukoc’s kid had committed to Penn. And watching a few minutes of Tennessee vs. Florida a little while ago, I heard the name Hopson, and I bet that’s Dennis Hopson’s son, or nephew, or something. What I want to know is, where are Shawn Kemp’s kids? He’s got enough to scrimmage against each other, so shouldn’t at least one or two of them be on somebody’s squad by now?
