Do I Need To See This?

I was stunned at the world-wide reaction to the Tiger Woods press conference yesterday. For all the talk that golf isn't a real sport and that Kobe or LeBron might be more well-known, I can't think of another athlete that gets the world to stop for 15 minutes just because he is reading a prepared statement. It was everywhere yesterday - you couldn't avoid it if you wanted to (Ok, fine. You probably could have if you, you know, work during the day.) The point is that he was on 10 or 15 channels and all over the Internet. If you ever wanted to know who wins a popularity contest, I think that just about settles it.

As for the statement itself - frankly, watching it just made me really uncomfortable. Fortunately for me, I don't have much experience having to deal with people who are going through addiction rehabilitation, but that is clearly what Woods was doing yesterday. It felt like I was watching something that should have stayed behind closed doors, but instead Tiger's people thought this spectacle would be better off taking place in front of the entire world. All I wanted to know was when/if he will be coming back this year and I didn't get my answer. I learned more from the fact that there were leaked photos of him practicing than from anything he said. For the first time I am actually doubting that he might be back for the Masters, but I don't doubt he'll be back at some point this year. At the end of the day, that's all I care about. Tiger didn't let me down, because I didn't expect anything from him but great golf. And frankly, if you expect more than athletic greatness from your favorite athletes, you better be under the age of 15 or else I feel pretty sorry for you.

-I find it kind of funny that the Knicks fans are celebrating the fact that their team was able to unload several bad contracts for expiring ones. They seem to think this means that it is almost a certainty that LeBron James will be playing in New York next season. While I don't doubt they have a better chance to land him than several of the teams who will have a lot of cap space this free agency period, I don't know if they should start printing those new jerseys just yet. It was a good first step, but they need to make sure they management follows through. As a Celtic fan I know what can happen when you put all your effort into one plan of action, only to have the reality go in a completely different direction (see: tanking for Tim Duncan or Greg Oden and ending up with neither). They need to actually be able to sell James on the long-term plan or else next season will end up with David Lee and Gilbert Arenas on the cover of the media guide.