Sporting Stuff

Was poking around my Kindle highlights (looking to see if there was a way to export them easily) and I ran across a quote from Zlatan Ibrahimovic's biography "I Am Zlatan". I was going to post that and then I thought, maybe I should just post lots of sports stuff in one big post, so that's what I'm doing. No rhyme or reason here, just some interesting sports-related stuff I've run into lately. First the quote from Zlatan on a player's relationship with their team:

The management owned my flesh and bones, in a sense. A footballer at my level is a bit like an orange. The club squeezes it until there’s no juice left, and then it’s time to sell the guy on. That might sound harsh, but that’s how it is. It’s part of the game. We’re owned by the club, and we’re not there to improve our health; we’re there to win, and sometimes even the doctors don’t know where they stand. Should they view the players as patients or as products in the team? After all, they’re not working in a general hospital, they’re part of the team. And then you’ve got yourself. You can speak up. You can even scream, this isn’t working. I’m in too much pain. Nobody knows your body better than you yourself.

What else? Everything from Grantland has been amazing lately. I think that's the best site going on the web right now. It houses my favorite sportswriter, Brian Phillips (if you haven't read it, I can't recommend his ~100 part series of his Football Manager escapades), everything else is generally excellent, and I read the funniest thing I've read in awhile there recently. Here's Bill Simmons on Dexter Pittman's flagrant foul at the end of Miami/Indiana game 5 (here's the video in case you missed it):

Dexter: "Yeah, that!"

LeBron: "I saw it, thanks for that. You're probably getting suspended, though."

Dexter: "Yeah, but he'll never give you the choke sign again, that's for sure! I SHOWED HIM!"

LeBron: "You sure did, Darius."

Dexter: "Dexter."

LeBron: "I mean Dexter."

Dexter: "If you want, I could try to run him over in the parking lot as he's walking to the Pacers' bus."

LeBron: "No, I think we're cool."

Dexter: "You want to grab something to eat?"

LeBron: "I can't, I made plans."

Dexter: "Want to play video games sometime?"

LeBron: "I don't really play video games anymore."

Dexter: "Well, if you ever want to hang, lemme know."

LeBron: "Sure thing, Darius."

In other NBA-related reading, Wages of Wins, which tries to put some science behind the ranking of players, has been excellent throughout the playoffs. Here's how they explained Lebron's play in case you were curious:

A superstar gives your team a five point edge being on the court. With this scale in hand let’s point something out. LeBron James has played 10 playoff games so far this season. In 4 of them, he’s put up a PoP of +10!

Lebron is playing twice as good as a superstar in the playoffs. That's mind boggling. Oh, and before I finish the basketball section, the New Yorker wrote a little about former Knick, Latrell Spreewell. On to soccer, put this on Tumblr earlier, but Michael Bradley's goal against Scotland was magical. If you missed the insane last day of Premier League soccer in the UK, I highly recommend reading 200 Percent's recap. And since I'm writing about sports, if you've never read it, go back and read David Foster Wallace's "profile" of Roger Federer from 2006. It's magic. That's all, have a good Memorial Day.