If you do just the ordinary, you’ll lose, so you have to do something unusual to beat people more athletically gifted than you. | | | | | Michael Jordan turns 54 Friday. (Sporting News/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “If you do just the ordinary, you’ll lose, so you have to do something unusual to beat people more athletically gifted than you.”
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| | rantnrave:// Who are All-Star games for -- the fans, the league, or the players? In the TWITTER age, voting is easier and universal, and it has created significant issues for leagues. MLB had to reckon with the ROYALS nearly getting their entire lineup in as starters in 2015. The NBA has had a ZAZA PACHULIA problem for two straight years and changed its rules to account for it by including media and players. The JOHN SCOTT saga looms largest. It turned NHL commissioner GARY BETTMAN into a heel with hockey fans. ESPN's BAXTER HOLMES looked into NBA voting and saw a system that was rife with bots and potential trouble. Voting isn't rigged but it is open to manipulation, whether by zealous GEORGIANS voting for Pachulia or from KAWHI LEONARD fans. That leaves leagues to decide whether voting should be for all fans or benefit the most devoted. To me, these games are exhibitions which should serve as the payoff for each sport's universe of consumers, even at the possible cost to ratings and sponsors. Let them vote in who they want... As college football coaching staffs balloon, what is the argument for not paying players? If the sport has turned into a jobs creator, it should allow that wealth to trickle down to the players -- the ones that make up most of the labor. Giving LAMAR JACKSON or DESHAUN WATSON only a scholarship in exchange for their work seems less equitable the larger the revenue grows... GREG MADDUX is still fooling hitters... Why are more girls choosing volleyball over basketball?... Will drinking make you want to work out?... I can't wait for THE ROOTS' NBA musical... Do you want to see a movie about TOM BRADY and the PATRIOTS?... SportsREDEF won't be publishing MONDAY in honor of PRESIDENTS' DAY. We'll be back in your inbox TUESDAY morning. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | Maisonneuve |
| At six foot eight, Richard Kelly Kemick is built for volleyball. There’s only one problem: he’s not any good. | | |
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 | ESPN.com |
| Twitter bots, social media influencers and the challenges of fan voting in the digital age: We've come a long way from hanging chads. | | |
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 | MMQB |
| On the Friday (Feb 3) before The Big One, we rode shotgun with an Uber driver desperate to cash in by shuttling revelers (with varying levels of rudeness and/or belligerence) around Space City. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| Donald Trump’s election was merely an accelerant for a change that was already sweeping across sportswriting. | | |
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 | WSJ |
| Thanks to SoulCycle and other spinning franchises, riding a stationary bike indoors has become an out-of-this-world art form. Spinning skeptic Jason Gay took seven classes in seven days. Here’s the tale of his conversion. | | |
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 | Vice |
| Weed gummies, sensory deprivation tanks, MMA, making people eat live crickets. I did it the whole Joe Rogan Experience. | | |
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 | The Players' Tribune |
| I’m not the man Ashley married. I’m a much better version of that man. One I wish she was here to see. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Rio club Fluminense is using a hook-up in Slovakia to nurture players for the lucrative European leagues. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| WWE star John Cena will be on hiatus after WrestleMania 33, so how will SmackDown fare with AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and others running the ship? Let's see what the numbers say. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Less than six months after the Games ended, many sites have been abandoned, despite government promises to leave “no white elephants” behind. | | |
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 | Mic |
| If you want to be a Raiderette, learn to keep your legs closed. Literally. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| The only city course that doesn’t stay open all winter is Trump Links at Ferry Point, which was built on top of a former landfill. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| "The hatred," Adonis said of the emotion he feels from the Mexican fans. "It's almost a hostile environment. I'm sure there's places in Afghanistan more tranquil than this." | | |
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 | SB*Nation |
| You can't overthrow an owner like James Dolan, but you can fight (a little). | | |
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 | Hakai Magazine |
| Ever heard of Arctic hysteria? Neither did this Danish-Greenlandic artist until 1995, and then she forever changed the way we view Arctic explorers. | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| In the summer of 2006, Nijland, general director of the Dutch club FC Groningen, and Henk Veldmate, then the technical director of the club, flew to Uruguay to scout young attackers. Ten years on, Nijland can still hardly contain his excitement as he recounts, with great pride, the story of Suarez's transfer from Nacional, Uruguay's top club, to Groningen. | | |
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 | Yahoo! Sports |
| Six years later, no one remembers who came up with the idea that saved the NBA in New Orleans. All they recall is that the plan was brilliant. Imaginative. Out of the box. Who would have guessed the solution for keeping the Hornets (now Pelicans) in a place that wasn’t sure it wanted them would be to host what amounted to basketball Tupperware parties? | | |
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 | Climbing |
| Instead of bouldering in Yosemite or sport climbing in the Sierra foothills, James Lucas reluctantly decides to spend his winter training indoors. | | |
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| WSJ |
| The NBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement gives players more freedom over how they market and profit from their own collective images. | | |
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| ESPN.com |
| As he reaches his 50th birthday, MJ is still looking for one more ass to kick. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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