Messi will never be Pele. He may not even be Ronaldo

The modern footballer is a wealthy, globally recognizable star. The top players on the big teams, elite guys like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are icons, and the players who are not on that level or playing for non-traditional powers are still well known and major attractions for advertisers and headlines. With that being said, I also say this: Lionel Messi, as great as he is, is not Pele. He’s not even Maradona. And he may never be.

Messi is so good that the mythical title of world’s greatest player has not been in dispute the last two years. Actually Messi and Ronaldo, the clear second best player have separated themselves so much from the rest of the pack the only comparisons for them that can be made are with the all time greats. And therein lies the biggest knock on Messi.

As great a player as Messi has been, his achievements have been almost exclusively on the club level. Barcelona has used their considerable resources to surround Messi with some of the most talented players in the world. They, along with Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester City have created a chasm between themselves and the other teams domestically by throwing millions of dollars at player after player to win every year. George Steinbrenner would be proud of the zeal in which these team owners collect stars and assemble teams.

More than half of the World Cup winning team from Spain wears the red and blue of Barcelona and that incredible collection of talent and cohesiveness is breath taking to watch and almost impossible to defeat. Champions League, La Liga and World Club titles have all been won by Barcelona in the last three years, prompting talk of them being the best club team of all time.

Messi has not been able to even come close to matching those accomplishments with his Argentine national team. And when you want to be named among the greatest of all time, the measuring stick is World Cup titles. Pele won his first at seventeen in 1958 and his 3rd in 1970. Maradona went to two finals, winning in 1986 and finishing second in 1990.

While the Brazil teams of Pele and Maradona’s Argentina teams were comprised of some of the best talent in their eras, the Argentina team that played in the 2010 World Cup also had very good not great players and a plethora of world class strikers. But led by Messi and coached by Maradona they couldn’t even make the semi-finals.  Its worth noting that the only international title Messi has won is the 2008 Olympics gold medal.

One of the true marks of greatness is elevating the play of others around you. While the current crop of Argentine players may not be as good as some of years past, they are still one of the top 10 national teams, and that doesn't figure to change before the next World Cup.

Having the transcendent best player of this generation should make them the prohibitive favorite for the next trophy in 2014, but if Messi doesn’t raise his game even higher when he puts on the Albiceleste jersey, his place in the pantheon of greats will reside below the likes of Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo (Brazil) and Zidane.


I’ve been closely following this crazy NBA season, and the more I see him, the more I think Derrick Rose’s playing style is the closest I have seen to Allen Iverson (minus the cornrows.) Like Iverson, I don’t see him having a long NBA career, because at the rate he’s getting dinged up, he will quickly lose his speed and once he does, he’s an average PG.

The baseball season starts this week, and my NY Yankees are reloaded for another pennant run. The AL is going to be stacked this year, with Texas, Detroit, Anaheim, Boston and Tampa Bay all legitimate contenders for a World Series spot.

In the National League, I don’t think any team can beat the Phillies, but I do think the Washington Nationals will be a contender this year. They are putting together a good young team in DC, and they will make the NL East interesting this year. Pitching is the major factor in a 162 game season, and the Nationals have some good arms on their team. They will be fun to watch.

Congrats to Calabar High School and Edwin Allen High School for winning the 2012 Boys and Girls Champs respectively. Penn Relays is coming up, and should be quite competitive. Some of the best individual performers at Champs; Shauna Helps, Delano Williams, Tiffany James and Shericka Jackson look like they will have very bright futures in track.

Check out the times below for the fastest US high school 4x400 times in all of 2012:
3:14.88 DeSoto, Tx
3:15.12 Boys & Girls, Brooklyn, NY (indoor.)
3:15.16 Timberview, Mansfield, Tx

Below are the times for the top three boys finishers at Champs 2012:
3:10.19 Calabar HS
3:12.64 Kingston College
3:13.64 Jamaica College

The Girls 4x400 breaks down like this:
3:43.01 Wakefield, Raleigh (indoor)
3:45.16 Lancaster, Tx
3:47.49 Garden City, NY ( indoor)
3:47.56 Aquinas, Fort Lauderdale
3:47.70 DeSoto, Tx
3:48.86 American Heritage, Plantation, Fl
3:49.25 Medgar Evers, Brooklyn (indoor)

The top three HS girls finishers at Champs 2012:
3:38.91 Vere Tech
3:44.04 Holmwood
3:44.51 Edwin Allen

Here’s to a great, competitive track season coming up in 2012!

The Ides of March

First things first, my original NCAA tournament Final Four teams are as follows:

UNC, Michigan State, Kentucky and the now departed Florida State. With the benefit of knowing prior to posting that FSU is out, I believe the winner of OSU v Cincy will advance to the Final Four. The matchup between Jared Sullinger and Yancy Gates (L) will probably decide that game.

The Champions League and the English Premier League battles are heating up. The matchups for the Champions League include AC Milan, leaders of the Italian Serie A, versus Barcelona, the defending champions of Europe. In all there are two teams from Spain, one from Germany, France and England, as well as a Cypriot team and the legendary Benfica of Portugal, a shadow of the team that set UCL standards over a generation ago.

What does it say though about the state of English football that they have only have one team-Chelsea, who have been playing middling football all season-in all European competitions?

I think its an aberration not a sign of a decline as some others have stated. The English game is still flush with money and talent, they just had a bad year. I still have Madrid winning the Champions League title this year, as well as La Liga. Chelsea, after ditching their first year coach Andres Villas-Boa, seemed to have more urgency in their recent games, and even Fernando Torres (R) is scoring again. They may yet prove a formidable foe in Europe this season.

Speaking of the English Premier League, thoughts and well wishes go out to Fabrice Muamba of Bolton. He collapsed from an apparent heart attack during an FA Cup game against Tottenham and had to be revived on the field. Let’s hope this 23 year old pulls through this.

NBA season is in full gear, and while my Knicks struggled early under Mike Antoni (no ‘D’!)I stand by my preseason thinking that this team-the deepest in the East-can compete with the other two top tier teams, Miami and Chicago.

Every radio and television announcer prefaced commentary about D’Antoni with ‘He’s a really nice guy, but…”

He was a nice guy who was incredibly stubborn in thinking his no defense, run and gun philosophy could win in the NBA, even though it never has. He fought against any changes to his style and failed to mesh the talent he never had his first two seasons over the last season and a half.

To most the kiss of death for him was when he would not change his style for Knicks star player, Carmelo Anthony.  To me the kiss of death was his interview last season where he defended his shoot in 7 seconds or less style and said coming within a game of going to the Finals is proof that it can be successful.

Nice guy or not, this team has tremendous talent which you need to win in the NBA, and with a coach that requires team defense, they are playing better already. I see them doing well in the playoffs.

On a more serious note, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while walking home from a convenience store on the evening of February 26^th. His murderer has still not been arrested or charged with a crime.

Criminals are criminals and deserve to be dealt with appropriately by the law, but a 17 year old with no history of any violence or criminal activity who was doing nothing besides walking home should not be shot, harassed, intimidated or killed by some trigger happy wanna be cop. And I say this whether the victim is black, white, Asian, Hispanic or any other ethnic group. 

There is only one criminal in this tragedy. That criminal is his murderer, some dirtbag named George Zimmerman. He should be arrested, charged, convicted and sent to jail where he belongs. 

 The petition from MoveOn.org is here. Please sign and pass on.

More random nuggets of information

Taking Jay-Z out of the conversation, is it possible that Nikki Minaj is the best NY rapper doing it today?

And also in that vein, is Vybz “Cake Soap” Kartel (R) the best dancehall has to offer? Please let the answer to that question be no….

Raphael Saadiq performing with Mick Jagger @ The Grammys = Great look. Saadiq is easily one of the most underrated musicians of this generation.

Watched the Barcelona v Arsenal Champions League 1st leg on February 16th. The same Barca team that picked apart and destroyed Arsenal a year ago was deservedly beaten at the Emirates Stadium by Arsenal.

Koscielny (below) was marking Messi so closely I think the Argentinian superstar is still tangled up in his shorts! I'm looking forward to the return fixture in Barcelona.

Thoughts for this week

Arsenal showed the heart of a champion today-they rebounded from the loss at Porto and are now challenging for 1st place in England and they routed Porto today. Samir Nasri scored one of the best goals i've seen this year.

Great win, I hope they keep this form up.

70 wins and counting-but does anyone really care about Women's College basketball? I admit, I watch it on occasion, and I think what they may lack in athleticism, they make up for in fundamentals, but it's clearly a sport with only three or four real dominant powers (UConn, Tennessee, Rutgers and in the past, UCLA) and as such.....is it really relevant?

It does beg the question though-is this the most impressive team winning streak?


I must admit, AC Milan v. Manchester United-David Beckham's first game in England against the team that made him a star. I think this is going to be even better than the first game 2 weeks ago. Ronaldinho, Beckham, Rooney, Eto'o, Alex Pato...this is going to be something special

And on the subject, I think the Champions League is by far the greatest sports tournament in the world. I think the NCAA Basketball tournament is a close second, but for completely different-one celebrates the best teams and best players in their sport in a tournament within a tournament. The other is fun because of the classic David vs Goliath scenario; the underdogs who make it there and challenge the big boys.

The Lakers don't look like the best team in basketball anymore. Odom is playing like garbage, Gasol is playing soft (AGAIN) and opposing guards a driving past Fisher like his name is 'EZ Pass'

This week in the world of sports

Am I the only one who is completely uninterested in the Winter Olympics? Care to tell me your reasons?

I watched the European Champions League quarterfinals this week. Arsenal is still one of my favorite teams, but I have to look at the game against Porto in this context-they played down to their opponents and got caught napping. http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=248deedb-4040-48d9-94b7-c653a598d2f1&from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_articles

Arsenal right now reminds me the old Montreal Expos baseball team; prepetually tremendous young talent, but a team that cannot put it all together over the course of a season to win it all. They remain interesting because of their young guys, but they ultimatley will break your heart because the very thing that makes them intriguing (their youth) is what makes them underachievers (their inexperience.)

I hope the two words that Tiger says on Friday during his press announcement is "I'm back" and not "I'm sorry." He owes no except his wife an explanantion, and all of these phonies in the media harping on this story, they do not deserve to see him humbled.