Bleacher Report - Articles by Erik Cunningham

No Sympathy for Shogun

Erik Cunningham — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:40:10 -0400

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida seemed resigned to his fate last Saturday night after his light heavyweight title bout with Maurcio "Shogun" Rua.

As the two came to the middle of the ring to hear the official decision Machida's head hung low, covering up a busted lip and a face that was beginning to swell with welts.

It looked as if the 15-0 fighter was about to be handed loss No. 1 in his career.

Then the uniamous decision was handed down 48-47 Machida. The thousands in attendance at the Staples Center began to boo and millions more across the country surely let out a groan as well.

Machida had appeared to steal the fight and retained his title in the UFC's 205 lb weight class.

This forced UFC President Dana White to reiterate one of his favorite sayings in the post fight press conference. Although he believed Shogun won the fight White pointed out that if you really want to be sure that you won the fight, you don't let it go to the judges.

It probably didn't help than instead of encouraging Rua to push the action his corner was telling him he had won every round.

While the fight was very technical and at some points even boring, I'd have to agree with White. Rua had several opportunities to punish Machida out of his clinch, and appeared to hobble the champion several times with leg kicks, Rua never bothered to press the action.

Machida clearly looked more beat down in the fifth and final round of the fight but both fighters were content to circle and look for openings instead of going on the attack.

It's not to say that a technical strategy does not work in the UFC, Forrest Griffin used one to take out Quintin Jackson at UFC 86, but both fighters pushed the action in that fight and tried to finish it.

While I do not believe Machida won the fight (I had the fight scored 48-47 Rua) I cannot feel much sympathy for Rua. While you have to respect Machida's counter striking ability it can only go so far before it looks like you fear it.

Rua had opportunities and did not take them instead opting to put the fights in the hands of the judges.

White already announced after the fight that the two are going to have a rematch immediately. Some advice to Shogun for the second go-round. Finish the fight.

Thanks For One Last Night, MJ

Erik Cunningham — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:22:55 -0400

I remember the first time I actually realized it. I looked up at my uncle and asked him in that semi cute kids voice, “Is Michael Jordan the best player ever?”

It was 1993, I was 7-years old.

It was my first year actually following the team, having been hooked during the NBA Finals the season before. Seeing the Bulls finish off the Phoenix Suns that year and earn their first three-peat is probably my first vivid sports memory. Even as a 7-year-old I knew this was special, I probably wouldn’t see one of my favorite teams win a title again, much less three in a row.

The Bulls winning that third title was my first moment of sports euphoria, a few weeks later I’d experience my first taste of sports heartbreak. Jordan’s heart was no longer in the game after the murder of his father. He was giving up basketball for baseball.

I hated baseball, and at that point everything else in the world. I was a seven year old kid who got attached to sports and their stars quickly, and my “idol” had just retired.

I tried to make due cheering for Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc, and B.J. Armstrong but things just weren’t the same. The team couldn’t find an identity without MJ, even with Pippen putting up career numbers that year.

Then if by some miracle the rumors started flying, Jordan was practicing with the team again. He missed basketball, he wanted to see if he still had it.

Turns out he did.

I got another three-and-a-half seasons with Michael. During what many would consider there most formative years as a sports fan. I would estimate I missed maybe 10 Bulls games in that span. By some miracle I even attended the “70” game in 1996, when the Bulls beat the Lakers record for wins in a season against the Milwaukee Bucks.

It was the one and only time I got to see MJ in person. I still cherish that memory to this day. I remember the smile on his face as the horn sounded that night. Just another accolade to add to an increasingly large list.

Michael Jordan was my childhood, plain and simple. He ranks above everything else. Nobody had the drive or determination to beat Michael, it seemed like things would always turn out alright with the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter. As a kid I couldn’t say the same for my other interests, Batman, The Power Rangers, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So when Michael Jordan took the podium last night with tears in his eyes I wasn’t surprised when it transformed me into a little kid again if just for a few minutes. Counting down and shooting game winning shots in my driveway.

Hitting game winning fade away jumpers against my grandfather and pumping my fist afterward, and sitting on my couch with tears of happiness in my eyes seeing Jordan, follow through extended as he drilled a jumper against Bryon Russell in the 1998 NBA Finals.

So when my 3-year-old cousin waddled into the room last night and asked me “Who’s that on TV?” I didn’t have to ask anybody this time

Through tears of my own I looked at him and simply said:

“That’s Michael Jordan, he’s the best ever.”

Why I Care About the Chicago Bulls Again

Erik Cunningham — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:31:01 -0400

When Paul Pierce’s second free throw clanged against the back of the iron and Glenn Davis pulled the rebound down as time expired, I experienced quite a rush of emotion.

Anger. Sadness. Utter frustration.

All at the Bulls for blowing a ten-point lead when it looked like they were headed back to the United Center up 3-2 with a chance to take a series against the defending World Champions.

And oddly enough, I also felt one other emotion: Happiness.

Happiness that for the first time in a very long time, I absolutely care about the Chicago Bulls again. I was right there with them two years ago when they knocked off the then-defending champion Miami Heat, and nearly knocked off by the Pistons.

But even then I still found it hard to care about that team.

They achieved everything that I expected of them, but didn’t really surprise me. The next season, they underachieved. Picked to go to the NBA Finals by some, the team sputtered and wound up missing the playoffs.

I had to question how much I really loved that team.

Call me fair-weather if you want, but I never gave up on that team. I never jumped to another NBA franchise and called them my favorite team. I found players I liked, and followed them when the team went downhill.

But still, I waited patiently.

Patiently, I sat through goodbyes to Ron Artest and Elton Brand. I sat through “marquee” players such as Jalen Rose and Ron Mercer. I saw the original “Baby Bulls” never quite pan out.

I sat through Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas getting my hopes up and making me believe that it was all starting to turn around, and I watched them last season affirm that I had no reason to believe in them.

We were spoiled growing up in Chicago, literally being born into the Michael Jordan era. We didn’t have to put up with Jordan’s failures. I started watching basketball seriously during the 1991-1992 season and for two years, all I knew was the sweetest of success.

Two World Championships in my first two years of enjoying basketball. Then, another three-peat two years after that, all while getting the opportunity to watch the greatest basketball player of all time do his thing in Chicago. All I knew was victory, and the disassembling of the team that I loved was enough to leave me jaded toward the NBA at the age of 13.

All of a sudden, though, they have the first pick in the NBA draft. I feel the familiar tinge of excitement this team has instilled in me for the last decade again when they draft Derrick Rose. I manage to suppress it, though.

Vinnie Del Negro is our head coach, nothing good can come out of this. I watch the team anyway, and I’m blown away by Rose. I start to see good things come from this team, but the bad is still there. Like a jaded lover, I won’t let myself get attached again. I can’t help but get excited when the team clicks at the end of the year and picks up the seven seed in the playoffs.

I expect nothing but the worst, they’ve got the Celtics in the first round.

This Bulls team has heart, though, and this series, despite its disappointments, has reaffirmed my belief in them. Thomas has come along as the athlete the team was expecting. Rose is everything I hoped for and more. Ben Gordon has proved his ability to heat up faster then Gilbert Arenas. Luol Deng is nowhere to be found, and it’s funny to think of where this team could be in this series right now if they had him.

All in all, though, despite the fact that this team is down 3-2, that they just blew what might have been their most important game of the season, all I can think of is how attached I’ve grown to them again. That I can actually remain hopeful that this team can contend.

It’s nice to care about pro basketball again.

It’s nice to care about the Chicago Bulls again.

What We Shouldn't Have Learned from the Jericho Scott Incident

Erik Cunningham — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:10:25 -0400

If you played Little League baseball while growing up, then I’m sure you’ve dealt with it before. The one kid in your league that no one could touch. He was 6'0" at the age of nine and could chuck the ball over the plate so fast that the pop of the catchers mitt could be heard before the bat even came off your shoulder.

You just learned to deal with this monster because if you ever connected against him it made your whole week. The parents and coaches of New Haven, CT’s Liga Juvenile de Baseball, however, found a different way to deal with it.

Jericho Scott might not be a giant, but the nine-year-old throws 40 mph, too fast for most of the players in the eight-team league to keep up with. His team, Will Power Fitness, started the season 8-0 before the league finally stepped in and said Scott couldn’t pitch anymore.

Scott, who hadn’t hit a batter all season, is simply being punished for being too good. What, exactly, is banning him from taking the mound teaching the youth of this league?

We learn some pretty hard facts growing up playing youth sports. We find out some people are just flat-out better than us, and that the only way we’re going to get on the same level as them is if we work hard.

What these kids are being taught is that if someone is better than them, to not worry about it, because he won’t be around for long if you complain enough.

So when little Johnny who couldn’t hit a fastball when he was nine years old gets his first big boy job in the world, what’s he going to do when he can’t hit quota? Go complain to the boss that Jericho is taking all of his sales and that he just can’t keep up with him?

What’s the boss going to do? He’s going to laugh and tell John to get out there and try harder.

Now, I understand there are those who say that sports are supposed to be all about having fun. In youth it’s all about learning the fundamentals and getting your juice box and apple slice after the game, but we also need to understand that we learn some pretty important life lessons as kids.

We learn to listen and to be coached. We make friends. But the one thing I’ve always taken from the game is that to be great at something, you have to work for, no one just hands it to you.

If you’re curious, Scott took the mound less than a week later after the ban, the other team packed up their equipment and left, leaving Scott and his team with no one to play against. The league later ordered the team be disbanded, but Will Power Fitness refused.

Unfortunately, it looks like Scott and his team are having to learn another lesson: It’s lonely at the top.

San Diego Chargers Need To Put a Stop to Shawne Merriman's Decision

Erik Cunningham — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:47:30 -0400

Webster's Dictionary lists the definition of pride as a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. It also lists: "foolishness as resulting from or showing a lack of sense, ill-considered, and unwise."

Next to both of these definitions sits a picture of San Diego Chargers' All-Pro linebacker Shawne Merriman. Okay, so the last part may not be true, but you couldn’t blame Webster’s if they considered including Merriman’s portrait in their next edition, following his decision to play this season with two partially-torn ligaments in his left knee.

It is Merriman’s own foolish pride that is spurring this decision. He figures that if surgeon’s were so amazed that he finished last season going on one bad knee, that perhaps he should tempt fate once more by playing the whole season as a human unicycle.

Merriman is doing this in the face of what should be the most terrifying words in the English language to any professional athlete: career-ending injury.

Three seasons into an already amazing career in which Merriman has registered 39.5 sacks (more than any other NFL player in the last three seasons), he is willing to risk an entire career to play a fourth instead of sitting it out so he will be able to play a 14th.

He’s met with plenty of surgeons that all have told him the same thing: To have major surgery and take the year off, or minor surgery and miss most of the season. Yet, it only took one to tell him that he can play on it and all of a sudden that seems like the best decision to him.

After all, we know that’s what Merriman is hoping to make: the best decision for himself, his career, and for his team. He even told that to the media while considering what to do. If Merriman considers this the best decision, then perhaps he should have his head checked by doctors as well.

The Chargers' organization needs to step in and tell their star that he’s getting the surgery. While the organization is set to win a championship now, it looks like they are going to stay that way for a while.

Give Merriman the time off, see how the team does, and hope he can make it back for the playoffs. Then you get him at around 90 percent, with a small chance for injury, instead of 80-90 percent with a high chance for a major injury.

Shawne Merriman is arguably the best defensive player in the NFL, and in his three-year career, he has already shown Hall of Fame potential. It would be a shame to see him crumpled up on the field in Week One against Carolina, while the commentator’s are rehashing the injury, saying it’s the worst thing they’ve seen since Joe Theismann.

With that having been said, maybe Merriman does play out the season, maybe he even has a semi-decent year, but the smart money says that Merriman doesn’t finish the season uninjured.

Bulls Fans Shouldn't be so Quick to Dismiss Del Negro

Erik Cunningham — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:35:18 -0400

A collective sigh seems to have been let out across Bulls Nation today—not a sigh of relief, but one that usually precedes the words, “Oh boy.”

What was the reason for this collective sigh of what appears to be imminent suffering, you ask? The hiring of Phoenix Suns assistant GM Vinny Del Negro as the Bulls' new head coach just days after Doug Collins backed out of taking the job.

John Paxson has put all of his eggs in one basket with this hire. Del Negro has never coached in his life, he brings zero experience to a team that honestly looks like it could use some, and many believed that there were better candidates out there.

In short, Paxson has just put his neck on the chopping block—and Del Negro’s performance this season is either going to drop the guillotine or give Paxson a last-minute pardon.

Bulls fans shouldn't go out and start bashing Del Negro immediately. The man is starting with a clean slate—he hasn’t done anything great yet, but neither has he done anything wrong.

You can hate Paxson all you want for the hire, but don’t count out Del Negro before he’s even put a team on the floor.

Hoping for the best may not be very comforting, but that’s all that can be done right now.

With that said, I question the timing of this move. It seems to have come from so far out of nowhere, and with such quickness, that I wonder why they didn’t hold off on signing Del Negro until after the NBA Finals.

This would have given the team a chance to speak with Boston assistant Tom Thibodeau and several other coaches, and to make this decision seem less brash.

I can see why, after a two month search, the team wanted to lock up a coach—especially after Mike D’Antoni and Collins both stood the Bulls up on prom night.

But if they’re going to play the role of the jilted lover, wouldn't they find a prettier date to take to the prom instead of the first guy that passes their way? Were the Bulls honestly worried that another team was going to sign him?

Del Negro is 41 years old and has been out of the league for seven years now. He may still be able to relate to the players, but one has to wonder how a team without a clear-cut leader, and still quite a bit of young talent, is going to react to a man that hasn’t even coached his son's second grade basketball team—let alone an NBA game.

I’ll give Del Negro two months before I start to pass judgment on him, but that will be when Bulls fans can start to figure out where their season is headed.

He has the number one pick in either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley and a whole roster of up-and-down players who can under- or over-achieve every night. It will be his goal to nurture that pick and get his players to play ball like they did two years ago (49 wins) instead last year (49 losses).

So don’t pass judgment on Del Negro just yet. A year from now is when we’ll get to see how things pan out.

We’ll either be riding high and praising John Paxson as a genius, or we’ll be stuck in the same boat we are right now.

Del Negro is an interesting experiment—let’s just hope he doesn’t blow up in our faces.