I had planned to write a post about the big, fat September Vogue and editrix Anna Wintour’s latest anointed tennis star, Alexander Zverev, who at 19 is the youngest player to crack the top 30 since Novak Djokovic a decade ago. (The magazine article’s headline blares “Alexander the Great” above a picture of a shirtless, Alexandrian figure indeed.)
But I’m afraid such pleasures pale with the news that Brazilian Police have recommended that Ryan Lochte be charged with falsely reporting a crime for saying he’d been robbed at a gas station during the Rio Games. ...
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Read MoreIs it just me or were the Rio Games ultimately dispiriting? Yes, I’m glad as an American that the United States won 121 medals and as a woman that American woman won 61 of them. (Give it up for Title IX.)
And I thought the Christoph Waltz/Samsung Galaxy commercial – in which the two-time Academy Award winner manages to mock superior Eurotrash and over-accomplished, multitasking exceptional Americans at the same time through a series of character vignettes – was just terrific.
But too many athletes reminded me that time is the cruelest opponent. ...
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Read MoreThe last few days have been difficult for those of us who are fans of Ryan Lochte – who admire his beauty, talent, heart and joie de vivre. Now we must admonish the man for swimming the anchor leg in a series of graceless events that have only underscored the stereotype of Brazil as a lawless country and of the United States as a nation of entitled louts. Here is the takeaway, particularly for the young who might extol and even emulate his antics...
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Read MoreAnother day and more muddled information about who did what to whom in the tale of whether or not 12-time Olympic champ Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers were robbed at gunpoint Sunday.
Let’s go to the videotape, shall we? Or rather several videotapes. Look, let’s just cut to the chase. It now appears that the tipsy lads stopped at a gas station, had to pee, either were denied bathroom privileges or decided to take matters in their own hands – peeing against a wall, ripping off the bathroom door – whereupon an armed security guard forced them at gunpoint to sit on the ground with their arms raised and in effect demanded money to pay for the damage. One man’s justice is another’s extortion. But anyway you slice it, Lochte lied. And for what? ...
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Read MoreSo which is it? Were 12-time Olympic swimming champion Ryan Lochte and three fellow swimmers robbed at gunpoint as they returned to the Olympic Village during the Rio Games? Or did they invent the story to cover up a drunken night on the town? Or are Rio officials trying to cover up an unsavory aspect of these summer games, the lawlessness of the host city?
It’s hard to know in a twisting tale that now has a Brazilian judge now seeking to detain Lochte, who has already left the country, and James Feigen. Often, though, the truth in a mystery lies between two viewpoints. ...
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Read More“It’s a great race, it’s a great race, it’s a great race” I kept screaming at the TV as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte went 1-2 in the 200 IM finals in the Olympic Trials in Omaha.
“Win or lose, we have a good friendship and that’s why it’s a great rivalry,” Lochte said afterward.
Frankly, I thought Lochte, swimming with a groin injury, had Phelps in the final leg, the free, but hand it to Phelps – he has the longer reach and the champion’s ability to close. That takes nothing away from Lochte, who has never been intimidated, never backed down. That’s what makes it a great rivalry. ...
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Read MoreMaybe God was compensating Cleveland for having to host the Republican/Trump Convention.
Just kidding.
The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals – the first team to do so – to take the championship from the vaunted Golden State Warriors 93-89. Native son LeBron James was named MVP and will most certainly draw the largest cheers when the team is feted with a parade Wednesday.
As I’ve written in a previous post, the only thing as fascinating as a triumphant underdog is a flawed winner. The Warriors won 73 games in the regular season. Their star, Stephen Curry, was the regular-season MVP. They were a lock, particularly early on in the championship series. ...
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