This Week in Sports: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

He’d rather be unemployed than be a Jet anyway.

The Good

Jason Collins comes out:

NBA player Jason Collins came out of the closet via an interview with Sports Illustrated this week, making him the first openly gay male athlete, actively playing a major team sport, to do so in U.S. history. Collins, himself, said he never intended to be a trailblazer, but rather decided he was finally willing to do so since no one else had stepped up to the plate.

The reaction to the announcement continues to reverberate throughout the sports world and will likely continue to do so for some time. Although there have been some negative reactions, those of NFL players Mike Wallace and Asante Samuels come to mind, Collins has said that he’s felt overwhelming support for the most part.

Jets release Tim Tebow:

This week the Jets mercifully released quarterback Tim Tebow, putting an end to one of the most talked about, least important sports stories of the last year. Whether or not he got a fair shake in New York is irrelevant at this point.

By the end of his stint as the Broncos starter in 2012, Tebow was a one-man media circus and the Jets were driving a clown car around a sinking ship. The last thing a sinking ship needs is a circus. They’re both better off without each other.

But still not doing so great on their own.

A fitting end to the Lakers’ season from hell.

The Bad 

The Lakers Swept By the Spurs: 

It’s safe to say that the Lakers season didn’t play out in quite the way fans and the franchise had imagined it would when they picked up two future Hall of Famers in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard during the 2012 offseason. Moves that looked good on paper just never quite came together on the basketball court.

A once seemingly ageless Nash finally started to look every bit the 39-year-old he is. Injuries kept him out of much of the season, and when he was on the court, he was often ineffectual at best. And Howard battled both injuries and team leader Kobe Bryant, who didn’t bother to hide his early disdain for Howard, all season long.

Questions about whether this team would even make the playoffs were swirling as early as December, but once Bryant went down with a season-ending, if not career-ending, Achilles injury, they went from postseason long shot to no shot.

They were swept by the Spurs early this week and Howard ended his season with an embarrassing ejection in the third quarter of Game 4.  Honestly, could it really have ended any other way? It was painful, but at least it’s over.

Looks like someone lost a bet with nemesis Santonio Holmes.

The Ugly 

Mark Sanchez Remains an Easy Target for Ridicule:

Embattled Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is coming off a year from hell and is unquestionably one of the least respected starting quarterbacks in the NFL today. Some of the treatment he receives is a bit over-the-top, considering he went to two consecutive AFC Championships in his first two years, but much of it he brings on himself.

But the Jets ongoing circus being what it is, coming off the Tim Tebow experiment, and the fact that the franchise took quarterback Geno Smith in the second round of the draft, you’d think Sanchez would want to keep a low profile and just focus on his game. His job is on the line, after all. Yet he remains stunningly unfazed by the circumstances surrounding him.

In other words, this doesn’t seem like the ideal time to debut his greasy new ‘do, complete with neon green headband. But that’s exactly what Sanchez did at a press conference earlier this week and, naturally, the fact that he’s now channeling his “inner soccer player” is the only thing most of us took away from the interview. It’s gotta be tough to be a Jets fan.

Tommy Lasorda wants Psy to get off his damn lawn.

And The Awesome!

Tommy Lasorda is Not Impressed, Kinda Confused:

If you thought American gymnast McKayla Maroney was not impressed by her silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda recently rewrote that book when he was treated to (tortured with?) an impromptu performance dance performance by Korean star PSY at Los Angeles home game this week.

The good news is that he was dancing to his new single “Gentleman,” rather than the endlessly overplayed and grating “Gagnam Style.” The bad news is that PSY has a new single and doesn’t seem to be fading into oblivion like most of us had hoped. Classic double-edged sword. But seriously, this guy had Right Said Fred written all over him—right?

Oh well, one thing is certain—Lasorda isn’t going to be downloading PSY’s new single, or his old single, onto his iPod anytime soon. 1. Because he looks both shocked and appalled by the display. And 2. Because he probably has no idea what an iPod is. (Cause he’s super old, duh)