He’s got a lot of something

So.

Stephen Jackson is unhappy and wants to be traded.

The Golden State Warriors sharpshooter says the team has been going backward ever since its 2007 playoff run. In that, he is right. So why, one might ask, did Jackson sign a contract extension through 2013 a year and a half after that playoff appearance, when the Warriors’ direction already was evident?

"Who's going to turn down that money?” Jackson said. “I'm not stupid. I didn't go to college, but I have a lot of common sense."

This is the same Stephen Jackson who in the past five years, according to a generally favorable Wikipedia bio, “has been charged with felony criminal recklessness and a number of misdemeanors, including assault, disorderly conduct, and two counts of battery.”

Yes, much common sense.

Friday column: Locksley precedent is a hit

If you’re a scalp hunter for The University of New Mexico, your job just got easier.

UNM might not be Harvard, and Albuquerque might not be — oh, I don’t know, Cambridge or Palo Alto — but at our state’s largest university, there is one personnel perk you don’t get at any other school.

One free shot.

Yes, thanks to the precedent set by the administration in the case of head football coach Mike Locksley, all university personnel can take a productive swing at the co-worker of their choice and get no more than a verbal reprimand and a letter placed in their personnel file.

Talk about a great recruitment tool.

“Well, no, I’m afraid our salaries are rather limited at the moment, and the school contribution to the 401(k) plan has been halted … but if you run into an annoying fellow professor, you can cold-cock him!”

“When do I start?”

To be fair, Locksley didn’t knock out assistant coach J.B. Gerald, but grabbing him by the collar, hitting him and splitting his lip — an attack bad enough to necessitate a police report — is close enough to allow a little hyperbole for recruitment purposes.

After all, coaches have been known to mislead athletes to get them to sign on the dotted line. Locksley, for instance, is accused of wanting to fill the football office with young lovelies bodacious enough to make potential recruits sign letters of intent before they remember where they are.

Alas for football administrative assistant Sylvia Lopez, 54, it was decided she didn’t fit the bill, and out the door she went. Lopez in May filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charging sexual harassment, age discrimination and retaliation.

At the time, UNM athletic director Paul Krebs said of Locksley, “He is an outstanding football coach. I believe he is an outstanding individual. I’m really looking forward to what he’s able to build here long-term with our football program.”

What he’s built so far is a program that’s an embarrassment both on the field and in the office. But he remains the coach.

The only possible problem for Locksley — and the one-punch rule — is an investigation launched by the school’s Human Resources Division. But UNM President David Schmidly and Krebs are two of the three people who will make a final decision on the matter. Schmidly has made it clear he’s got Kreb’s back, and Krebs has made it clear he has Locksley’s.

“I do not believe (the punch) is a reflection of his dealings,” Krebs said Monday. “It’s not a reflection of his character. This does not shake my faith in his leadership whatsoever.”

Let’s roll the tape on that last part again: “This does not shake my faith in his leadership whatsoever.”

Who wouldn’t want to work for an administration like that?

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Getting it exactly backward

Last Sunday I heard a priest discuss a section of the Gospel of Mark. In the passage, as Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die, his disciples — behind his back — are arguing over which of them is “the greatest.”

The scene would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.

In Christian belief, the second person of the Trinity is on his way to give up his body as an atoning sacrifice for mankind, and the dunderheads behind him are getting chesty with one another over who has the best spiritual CV. He’s thinking service; they’re thinking personal glory.

About the time the congregation was ready to mutter a collective “How pathetic,” the Rev. Curt Norman asked, “Of course, we never find ourselves in such arguments, do we?”

And, of course, we do.

We do it in all sorts of endeavors, including, as Norman went on to note, spending hours watching games on TV each weekend “to find out which one is the greatest.”

I’m not someone who thinks engaging in competition is a bad thing, but I do believe that context and perspective are absolutely crucial. Fans often lose perspective. So do high schools and universities. Society as a whole, one could argue, has lost perspective over athletics.

That includes, of course, the players.

In Lawrence, Kan., in the past week there have been three altercations between athletes. No, this wasn’t Jayhawks vs. Wildcats or Cornhuskers or Sooners. This was Jayhawks vs. Jayhawks — basketball players vs. football players — in ugly incidents that involved race baiting and violence. And what were they about?

About women. About status. About ego. About who rules the roost in Lawrence, Kan.
Apparently, this animosity between teams has existed for years at KU. Said one former Jayhawk football player, “It’s a big ego thing. It’s like who pretty much runs the school, who’s better.”

One non-athlete asked why players fought with each other when they all were beneficiaries of full-ride scholarships, while other students pay thousands of dollars for an education.

“I feel like they need to chill out,” the student said. “They’ve got the good life.”
You would think so. But the disease of ego, the disease that blinded the disciples to what life was truly about two millennia ago, continues to blind us today.

It may be misguided that athletes are idolized in our society, but idolized they are. As such, they’re in a position to effect positive change, to serve the greater good by serving others.

I know that there are KU athletes who, through work in the community, do exactly that. While others, wearing the same color uniforms, figuratively traveling the same road, are fighting — literally — over who should be serving them.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Hurrah! — the cheat is back — hurrah!

Justine Henin is making a comeback.

How exciting (yawn).

The Belgian is, indeed, a former No. 1 player, but I have no use for her — and haven’t since she cheated Serena Williams in the the 2003 French Open.

Remember?

In the middle of the third set of their semifinal, Williams started to serve, only to have Henin raise her hand to indicate she wasn’t ready. Her serve interrupted, Williams put the ball into the net.

But the referee didn’t see Henin raise her hand, and Henin wouldn’t cop to having done so. Point, Henin. Then game, Henin. Soon match, Henin.

Utterly classless.

I hope Williams beats her like a drum.

Perhaps they have a point

Critics have attacked the recruiting practices of Binghamton University basketball coach Kevin Broadus, saying that since his 2007 hiring he has lowered school standards.

While Broadus has given the Wildcats a winning team, his point guard, Emanuel ‘Tiki’ Mayben, now has given Broadus’ detractors the evidence they need to make the coach’s life miserable.

New York cops have charged Mayben, who last season set a single-season assists record for Binghamtom, with possessing and selling cocaine.

"I did all I could," Broadus said, according to The New York Times. "I tried to help the kid."

Some kids, coach Broadus, don’t want to be “helped."

Friday column: Before you hit the 'Send' button ...

A while back I decided to never send a meaningful e-mail without letting some time pass between the writing and the sending — preferably a full day.

You ask why?

Really?

Like you’ve never clicked on Send and thought, “I really wish I had that back … ”

Maybe I shouldn’t have worded the e-mail that way. Maybe I shouldn’t have blown off spell-check. Maybe that phrase — as colorful as it is — shouldn’t have been applied to (my boss, my banker, my mother-in-law, my fill-in-the-blank).

The problem with instant communication is, well, it’s so … instant. And if it’s a problem for a cautious 58-year-old journalist, imagine the problem it can be for a brash 20-something athlete with a Twitter account.

Such as Washington linebacker Robert Henson, who after his team was booed in Sunday’s 9-7 win over the Rams, wrote the following:

“All you fake half hearted Skins fan can … I won’t go there but I dislike you very strongly, don’t come to Fed Ex to boo dim wits!!”

As if calling his team’s fans dim wits wasn’t enough, he added, “The question is who are you to say you know what’s best for the team and you work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds.”

One might riposte that at least those who work at McDonalds work at McDonalds. Henson, on the other hand, hasn’t been on the field for a single play in the first two games of the season.

Later — I imagine shortly after a brief discussion with the people who sign his paychecks — Henson apologized for his remarks. Even better, he deleted his Twitter account. But his cached remarks will live forever.

As will those of Kansas basketball player Tyshawn Taylor, who decided not only was it a good idea to get into a fight with some Jayhawk football players Tuesday, but it was a good idea to talk about it on Facebook.

“I got a dislocated finger … from throwing a punch … so don’t let the news paper gas yall up aite,” Taylor wrote.
Later, Taylor posted, “(racial slur)s be muggin me … you know I’m mugging back.”

All of which might make it difficult for Taylor to deny involvement in the melee if it comes time for police to file charges.

This year, Google offered its Gmail users a way to “undo” a sent e-mail within five seconds of it being lobbed into cyberspace. To my knowledge, there’s no comparable way to undo a Tweet or Facebook message.

Even if there were, you can take it from the examples of Messrs. Henson and Taylor — for that matter, you can take it from me — that five seconds is not nearly long enough.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Actually, Floyd, I look at you as a putz

Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t like that journalists have reported on a few of the alleged “whoopsies” in his life. Such as:

* His being sued for $167,000 unpaid on a loan for a half-million dollar luxury car.

* His owing the IRS $6.17 million in unpaid taxes.

* The seizing of handguns, ammunition and bulletproof vests from his home — along with two cars — in the investigation of a Las Vegas, Nev., shooting.

Mayweather has a theory on his press coverage:

In America, he said, “If you're rich, you're a rich [n-word]," he said. "If you're poor, you're a poor [n-word]. If you're smart, you're a smart [n-word]. At the end of the day, they still look at me as a [n-word]."

Mayweather went on:

"The fans in the UK showed me more love than in my own country. That's crazy ... Sometimes I'll sit back, I'll be in my theater sometimes, and I'll think: 'Imagine if I was the same fighter that I am, and I was the same person that I am, and I was from another country. Can you just imagine how big I'd be?'"

Yeah, I have funny thoughts when I’m sitting in my theater, too.

Floyd, there are 194 other nations in the world, and 131 of them have never had a world boxing champion in any division — Burkina Faso, Myanmar and Slovenia, just to name three. You could be big, soooo big.

The airport is that-a-way.