Charity is a daily effort for athletes and sports organizations.  It seems that each week a new event pops up where coaches or athletes are sporting a special patch or shoes that commemorate a cause.

They always have to have a catchy name like Coaches for Cancer, Assistants for Aids, Students for Swine Flu, or Ballplayers for Birth Control.  Okay, maybe the last one wouldn't be legitimate, but I think that would be a great cause to pursue in the future.

They usually entail some sort of color specific item being worn or used in the game such as all white sneakers by coaches, gold patches for Haiti on the jersey, pink bats in baseball, or just pink anywhere for breast cancer.

All this philanthropic work looks great from the outside, but is it really a good thing?

This past weekend we witnessed a beat down by the Georgetown Hoyas against the Duke Blue Devils in Washington D.C.  Everyone was excited for the event, not only because we got to see two top ten teams battle it out, but we also got to see President Obama enjoy the game in the stands and even take his turn as a sports analyst for a few minutes.

The other important part of the game was how the Georgetown STAND group and the Duke for Darfur group worked together to form the Darfur Dream Team.  The Darfur Dream Team is a combined effort by students and alumni from both schools to come together and raise money for the Darfur Dream Team's Sister School Program, a program that is helping to reinvigorate two schools in a Darfur refugee camp.  Definitely a great cause, but is a sports event the correct setting to display a message like this?

I know when I watched the game I didn't notice the message at all.  The only messages I got were the consistent cameo shots of Barack, Biden, Axelrod, and Gibbs enjoying a basketball game, nothing about Darfur.  I got the message that Duke played terribly and Georgetown played brilliantly.  I couldn't even bear to watch the final five minutes of the game because Duke was playing so bad.  I had no clue what the cause was for, where the money was going, or how it was brought about.  I only knew there was a cause because of the different shoes on the coaches and a patch on the players' jerseys.

All I knew was that this was a typical big time non-conference college game, which basically means that it's for some sort of charity event, the coach will be wearing sneakers, and I don't really care other then Duke better win or I'm going to be in a glum mood for the rest of the day.  The only thing I got out of the game was a disconsolate feeling from Duke losing and a annoyed headache from hearing Barack Obama and Verne Lundquist make partisan jokes about Barack being left-handed and that even he can go to his right once in awhile.  Somebody get these men off my television screen!

I don't think most people got the message, but more importantly I don't think we ever truly know what the message is about.  When we attend these events and a portion goes to charity, what are we really giving our money towards?  I know in the case of Darfur the money may never reach the schools that the Darfur Dream Team is trying to rebuild.  Darfur is extremely corrupt and some charities are too.  Everyone thinks that all charities are out for the better good for the people, but do they ever look to see how the charity has been built up.  The largest charities need money as well to grow bigger and to gain a national presence and this means that not all money is going directly to the people who need it.  Also, in Darfur much of the money that is meant to rebuild the schools will probably go as bribes to the colonizers just to allow them to be there.  Maybe a very small portion of the money will actually reach the starving citizens and the refugees who truly need it.  We never truly know who we are actually helping by giving money to charity.

So maybe sports events aren't the best platforms to get these causes across.  Most people who attend these games will see they helped a charity on their ticket and never think about the charity again.  People who are watching are not going to remember a blip during the telecast speaking on Darfur, but instead will remember Verne and Barack's lame jokes back and forth to one another.  

I think the biggest problem is the oversaturation of charity related sports events.  There comes a time when it happens just too much, too often, that we no longer think of what it's for and who it's benefiting.  I don't think about the cause when I see the event, I think about what item these players or coaches are wearing and how ridiculous they look in them.  I don't feel like one is more special than the other because I've seen a different event the week before, except there were different color shoes and different patches on the jerseys.

Maybe I just think too much or maybe I'm cynical in thinking that even if I did donate that my money wouldn't go where these people are telling me its going.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but I do know that the message isn't getting across in the right way and just because we keep thinking we're doing something good, doesn't mean we actually are.

What's the record for most points in a NBA game?

What's the consecutive game streak number by Joe DiMaggio?

What NFL team has the most Super Bowl wins?

What's the record for most home runs in a single season? (Okay, I guess this one is debatable)

You know all those records.  You know the person who established them and the number that corresponds with them.

Why do we care about numbers so much?  Why can't we just witness greatness instead of trying to rationalize it based on statistics?  We can't because sports don't work that way.  We can't decide the winner of a game based on who looked better and we can't say someone was the best without having something to back it up.  Sports are all about numbers and there's nothing wrong with that.

So why is wrong if players know the numbers?

This past week Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West to become the Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer. A great accomplishment and an unbelievable achievement at his age, but a record that was soiled by fellow teammates, coaches, fans, and the media.  Most athletes would be praised for such a remarkable stat, for Kobe Bryant, it's a distraction that he caused.  Immediately after the game we heard Pau Gasol speak about how the Lakers could finally go back to winning games.  We heard Phil Jackson say Kobe was distracted because he knew the record was approaching.  Fans and the media referred to him as selfish and lamented that all Kobe cares about is the numbers.  He wants to break all the numbers.

What athlete doesn't want to be the best though?

To be the best in the sports world you have to have the records.  You have to build up your resume and showcase how great you are based on your numbers.   The most points, most wins, most home runs, most playoff victories, most titles, mostly everything in sports is based on the numbers.

What's the most amount of points Kobe has scored in a single game?  What's the most amount of assists?  Most people can tell you the first one; hardly anyone can tell you the second one.

I don't know why it's different for Kobe.  Maybe people don't want him to be the greatest.  Maybe he still has the stigma of a bad guy to most folks and people can't appreciate how great he is.  Other sports and even other players we have no problem with the players going for the record.   Do you remember when A-Rod was going for 500 home runs and basically slumped for 20-some odd games?  We didn't care that it was affecting the team.  We still watched every night waiting for number 500.  We didn't care if Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa struck out three times in a game as long as they hit a home run to move towards Roger Maris.  We want to see records be broken, except when Kobe Bryant is breaking them.

I don't know if people have truly comprehended how great Kobe Bryant is.  I know I haven't until the past couple years.  There were always the excuses why he was so good.  He had Shaq on his team.  Phil Jackson is his coach.  The players that surround him are great.  No, the real reason Kobe Bryant is so great is because he works at being great.  He may work harder then everyone in the game and anyone who played before him.  He makes his entire team better as players and he takes the blame for every loss with no haste towards any of his teammate.  The Lakers lost to the Grizzlies on the day that Kobe set the Lakers scoring record.  Who was at fault for that Lakers loss?  Kobe Bryant, the guy who scored 44 points that game.  

If we care about the numbers so much then the players should be allowed to care to.  Will Kobe Bryant be the greatest player to ever play the game?  I don't know, but I'm sure we're going to try to determine it based on numbers.  Maybe we should forget the numbers for once, start experiencing sports greatness by how it's played and what it creates, instead of how many points and how many wins.  Maybe then people can appreciate Kobe Bryant for what he is, instead of what people perceive as what he's trying to be.

The best.

Do you love your job?  Do you wake up every morning and think, "I am so lucky to have the career I have and wouldn't change it for anything in the world?"

Probably not.  Very few of us have that perfect dream job that even if we had to work for free we would do so.  I think for many of us, being a professional athlete would be one of those dream jobs though.

Wouldn't being a professional athlete be great?  You'd have fame and fortune; fans wanting your autograph; women wanting to get with you.  You'd get to travel around the country and experience so much on other peoples' expenses.  You would have the opportunity to become acquaintances with other celebrities and get to attend events all around the world.  Furthermore, you would have a voice in society.  You would get the chance to help out the causes that are meaningful to you and get to express your opinion to all of your fans.  Doesn't that sound like the perfect life?  Oh I forgot, you'd get to play a game for a living too.

So what if a professional athlete doesn't love the game?  Doesn't love their job?  Doesn't love all the perks that we think compile into the perfect career?  Should they be chastised for feeling this way?

This is what we saw at the Pro Bowl.  Some players thoroughly enjoyed their time there; others could really care less.  We had players who tried to showcase their skills on a somewhat national stage, while others galloped through the motions, waiting for the game to end so they could go party in South Beach.  We even saw Bryant McKinnie earlier in the week get kicked out of the Pro Bowl for lack of attendance to practice and meetings.  If the job is so perfect then why don't players care about everything that is involved with being a professional athlete?

I think part of the problem is our society.  We're a passionate nation.  We're supposed to love our country, love thy neighbor, love our family, friends, colleagues, jobs, pets, cuisine, and sports teams; basically anything we can be associated with, we should love.  That's not life though.  We can't always give 100% and shouldn't always care about everything we're associated with.

I guess a lot of people are fake, or at least encapsulated in this culture that we have of loving everything we do.  How many people have picked up a book, read halfway through it, and then decided that the story wasn't that great and decided not to finish it?  Probably very few.  Most avid readers I know think every book they read is great and want to persuade everyone they know to read it as well.  Then we have the fitness fanatics that are determined to fall in love with working out.  They live for the sweat, the pain, the euphoric acid that runs throughout their body.  If they miss a single day on the pec deck then they have to double the effort the next day.

Now I can totally understand enjoying your time at the gym.  You can definitely get a lot out of it including energy, self esteem, and seeing physical results in front of you, but let's not pretend like it's the greatest thing in the world.  If we could obtain the same results by sitting on the couch, watching football, and eating chicken wings then I think we'd go for that route.

We shouldn't have to love all of what we do.  There's going to be positive and negative aspects about everything in life, so let's not pretend that the negatives aren't there.  Even if most of us don't love our jobs, there's probably a sizeable amount of us who like what we do for a living.  There are good days and bad days.  Satisfying times and frustrating times.  That's life; that's people being realistic.

So let's be realistic about being a professional athlete.  There are great incentives that come with the job, but there are deterrence's as well. For some it's dealing with the fame, for others it's dealing with the fortune.  For many football players it's having to act like the Pro Bowl is of importance.  Remember, it's okay to just like something and not totally love it.  I'm sure most of us say we love a sport, a team, or a player, but I'm sure there are parts of it that we actually dislike.  Players are the same way.  There's the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

Do players have to love the game? No, and we shouldn't expect them to.

Everyone got their beer and wings ready for their Pro Bowl Party?  Didn't think so.  Most people couldn't tell you what time the game is starting, let alone be throwing a party for it.  Sunday at 7:20 PM if you really were worried about it.  The Pro Bowl is just one of those things that no one cares about.

It's almost amazing to me that no one cares though.  Most of us love the NFL and yearn for anything football related 365 days a year.  Not the Pro Bowl though.  We can blame this year's Pro Bowl on the Super Bowl and say all we are looking forward to is the big game and all the best players aren't participating, but it's been after the Super Bowl in years past and our demeanor hasn't changed.  The only difference this year is the coaches won't be wearing their Hawaiian shirts.  I'm not pro-Pro Bowl either.  I'd rather rewatch the NFL combine from last year and see Andre Smith's pancakes flopping on the 40-yard dash then to watch this meaningless game.  Why's the game meaningless though?  It may seem meaningless to us, but it could mean a lot to the players participating.  So I'm wondering?  Are all star games for the fans or are they for the players?

Can anyone tell me the final score of any all star game last year?  I bet some of you could tell me who won the MVP of the game or who won one of the skills contests.  That's what we watch for.  We aren't at the edge of our seat with our hands clasped praying that the East beats the West or the National League finally gets an all star victory over the American League.  We'd much rather watch skills competitions like the home run derby or the dunk contest.  That's the problem with all star games; competition.

They're not competitive, or at least not in our sense of thinking about sports competitions.  We are watching players that we see give it their all everyday go up against fellow greats and not care to win.  They would rather pull off a trick play then to show they are the best in the league.  Maybe they don't want to get hurt or maybe that's just how the all star games have evolved.  Either way, they're not too much fun to watch.  No sport has a good all star game.  Baseball probably has the best just because like a got a ridiculous clause installed to give it a little meaning, but when we see 10 different pitchers come into the game it just doesn't feel authentic.

So if we as fans don't enjoy the games then why doesn't any sport change the process up?  The only thing any organization has done is give us the chance to vote so we can see who we want, but even that interest has waned in the past five years.  Give us what we want; skill competitions.  Forget the all star game and just get Kobe, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Dwight Howard to do the dunk contest.  Let’s have some more creative competitions at the Pro Bowl and let us witness these great players' talents in an event that we haven't seen before.  We've seen them on the field; now let’s see who is the fastest in the league.  Lets see what quarterback can throw the farthest and hit the most targets.  It's tough with football to get solid competitions because it's so team related, but there has to be something they can do to grab our interest.

Why do we have all star games?  Are they for us as the fans or for the players to be recognized?  Are they for us to see these extraordinary talents or for the players to get some extra bonus money and contract leverage in the off season?  Each league may say it's for us, but I know it's not something I care to watch.

Did you hear that every team in the NBA wants to offer a trade for Amare Stoudemire?  That's basically what every piece of breaking news from the NBA was this week.  This team wants Amare and this team wants Amare and this team has the package to get Amare.  It seems like every year in the NBA we have lots of speculation on what players are going to be traded and where they will go.  Eventually there are a few trades that actually go through.  There's always the one massive trade where seven teams end up trading one player four different times, the entire collection of Ron Artest rap verses, and the rights to Dirk Nowitzki's psycho ex-fiance.  That's basically it.  No huge blockbuster that we hoped would happen.  This year things will change. On February 18th, at 3:00 pm, the trade deadline will commence and the NBA will be changed for years to come.  Here's why.

Anybody who has been following the NBA at all for the last year or so knows that 2010 is the year.  The year when all the big name franchise players are either free agents or have the option to opt-out of their current contracts and become free agents.  We have names like Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Shaq, Ray Allen, Manu Ginobli, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer, and the biggest one, JJ Redick.  All the hype seems focused on the off season; teams have been cutting salaries like barbers cut hair. That was a quote from Ronnie on the Jersey Shore reunion.  The problem is that it's not about trying to acquire these players in the off season, it's about acquiring these players from trades.  Why wait when you can grab the go now, schmooze him for the rest of the season, make a big playoff run, and then hopefully resign him in the off season.  Teams aren't dumb and players aren't dumb.  A team isn't going to trade for someone for three months and then hope they resign with them.  This isn't baseball.  No, teams are going to push the player to sign a new contract or they won't go through with the deal.  On the other hand the teams with some of these key players need to unload them.  There is no way the Toronoto Raptors are going to keep Chris Bosh after this season so why not get some goods in exchange for him before he just bolts?  This is exactly what is going to happen to many of these free agents that are getting ready for the 2010 off season and if some of these trades fall in place then we will see the future of the NBA become like years past.

The NBA was great in the 80's and 90's because of the rivalries.  We had repeat meetings in the NBA finals, stars together on the top tier teams, and a landscape where we expected the Bulls, the Celtics, the Lakers, or the Spurs to annually return to the finals.  It was what we wanted to see.  It could return to that state if we see Chris Bosh move West and Amare Stoudemire move East.  The trade rumor that has been circulating for a month is to send Bosh over to the Lakers for Andrew Bynum, a couple draft picks, and an epoxy replica of Khloe Khardashian's butt to cover all the empty seats in Toronto.  If this trade goes through then we have a dominate Lakers team with a starting lineup of Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest/Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant, and a point guard to be named at a later date.  Bosh would definitely resign with LA and the Lakers have the money to do so with the correct trade.  They would be in the finals year after year.  They need a partner though if we want a finals rival.

This is where the Cleveland Cavaliers come in.  Yes, Kobe versus Lebron for years to come could be in the works.  The annointed one needs a partner in crime though, and so far in his career he hasn't had a perennial all star to team up with.  The Cavaliers need to make the big push for Amare Stoudemire.  The Suns just want to get under the luxury tax.  They know they won't be keeping Amare.  If they wanted to keep him they could've signed him in years past.  The Cavs could trade J.J. Hickson, Big Z's expiring contract, and a draft pick or two to get Amare's services for four months, a run at the title, a solid chance to resign him, and most importantly, have the pieces in place to have a perennial championship caliber team that Lebron James would want to stick around Cleveland to play with.  The pieces are out there for the taking.  These teams just need to make it happen.

The NBA is going to change soon.  Maybe it won't be these history in the making trades that would give us the greatest rivalry maybe in the NBA ever.  Maybe Amare ends up in New Jersey and they become a powerhouse once they draft John Wall with the #1 pick.  Maybe Chris Bosh goes to Miami with Dwayne Wade.  There will be new powerhouses popping up in the next couple years, but to return to the glory days of the NBA then we need to have that rivalry that we hope takes place year after year.