BP Stands for Being Pathetic

Finally after nearly twelve weeks, there is a cap that that will stop the flow of oil from spill into Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Coast. It's a small step but there is a lot of work to do for the whole region to go back where it once was. My condolences to the 11 workers who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

One Mistake After Another

BP handled this crisis the wrong way from the beginning. When the explosion took place on April 20 at Deepwater Horizon, BP CEO Tony Hawyard minimized the impact of the oil spill by suggesting that the Gulf of Mexico was "relatively tiny" when compared to the "very big ocean." Also, he believed that the spill would not caused that much damage to the area. One rule when dealing with a crisis: Never underestimate the impact of a natural disaster. As a result, the oil spill reached Louisiana (affecting birds, fish and other aquatic animals) Mississippi, Alabama and now it has surfaced towards Florida, specifically, Pensacola.


"I Want My Life Back"

A month after the oil spill, Mr. Hayward gave an interview where he said that he wanted to "get his life back." Are you kidding me? Tell that to the people who lost family members in the oil rig explosion along with the citizens of the Gulf Coast who has to endure with yet another natural calamity. Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast nearly five years and since then, the region has made significant progress (businesses have either came back or new ones were developed in the area; New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl in February; tourism has improved, etc.) and now this. No one would ever thought that one disaster would not only become worse than Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989 but also echo the slow response time of Hurricane Katrina. Everyone from the federal government on down should take the blame for their poor reaction time to this catastrophe. To handle the media firestorm, Mr. Hayward launched a $50 million ad campaign to apologize for his comments and to ensure the public that BP is doing all that they can to clean up the disaster. One problem: BP has not cut the check recently to seafood business owners, out-of-work drilling crews, fishermen and property owners who work and live in the Gulf Coast. In fact, the workers have received little compensation for their long hours of dedicated service in the region. It is funny that BP doesn't have the money to pay the workers, but there's enough funds to create a media campaign to protect themselves.


How to handle this crisis


What BP should have done to handle this crisis is the following:

1) Once the disaster took place, immediately hold a press conference and tell the audience what's going on . Also,make sure that all media outlets (newspapers, television, radio, online) has access to talk with whoever is in charge and ask questions. This has to be done within 24 hours (no later than that) after the disaster occurred.

2) As mentioned earlier, Never downplay any disaster because you never know how worse the situation could actually get.

3) If you can't hire any workers, go on television, radio and online and ask for volunteers to help clean up the Gulf Coast. If you do that, people will stop what they are doing and head down to the Gulf to help out.

In a time of need, that is what we do as a nation, we help out those who need our assistance.

It's too bad that BP doesn't realize that.

The Decision sounds more like The Over The Top Spectacle

On July 8, 2010 at the Boys & Girls Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, free agent and the reigning two time Most Valuable Player LeBron James announced on television that he was "going to take my talents" to South Beach and join the Miami Heat with Heat Captain Dwayne Wade and fellow free agent Chris Bosh, late of the Toronto Raptors. His decision caused shock waves in the sports world because the idea of three all-stars (two players from different teams) in their prime joining forces on one team was unheard of. It has been done whether through the NBA draft (Ex: The four time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs) or by trade (Ex: The 17 time NBA Champions Boston Celtics with Ray Allen via then-Seattle Supersonics and Kevin Garnett via Minnesota Timberwolves- The C's by the way won the NBA Crown in 2008 and made it to the finals this past season losing the series in 7 games against the Los Angeles Lakers) but never like this. Right now there are two teams that within a few years are going to be contenders for the NBA Crown (Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls) who have built their respective teams for the ground up (save a few free agents) through the NBA Draft, even though they have tried to lure free agents to their squads.

Congrats to both Owner Mickey Arison and GM/President Pat Riley for making the deal happen. The Heat has the chance to bring a few championships to South Beach, but at the same time, I don't know if this was the right way to build a title contending team.

Communication wise:Poorly Handled

I don't have a problem with LeBron leaving because as a free agent, you have the right to stay with or leave a team for greater opportunities (i.e. championships, more playing time if you are coming off the bench) or money. It's the American way, that why so many of us leaving our current job for a new one (well, it kinda tough nowadays because of the economy you need to hang on to the job as much as you can.) But the idea of going on national television and telling the team that you have been for a number of years that you are leaving was inexcusable. It was bad enough to not telling the Cavs nothing about his intentions to stay or leave the team but having reps from the Knicks, Bulls, Nets, and Clippers fly into in Cleveland and lead these teams on thinking that they have a chance to sign him was horrible. As a free agent, there is a right way to make your exit and that was definitely the wrong way to go about it.

The State of Ohio- Specifially Northeastern Ohio

I was born in Akron, Ohio, which is also LeBron's hometown, and I know how sports fans in Northeastern Ohio felt when Lebron announced his decision. It felt like a punch in the gut along with the feeling that someone just ripped your heart out. Sports fans here has stuck by the Indians, Browns and Cavs during the good times (World Series, NBA Finals and AFC Championship apperances) and the bad times ( losing championship games, losing seasons and sagging attendance at home games.) But the setiment here in Ohio is that LeBron is a marked man, a traitor, turncoat, a guy who can't walk and/or stay in Ohio anymore ( not unless he makes a visit here either as a late at night/early morning kind of deal.) Once the decision was made, people expressed themselves in great lengths such as: burning LeBron's jersey, throwing away anyway with his face or name on it, called him every dirty name you can possible think of on message boards online, among other things. Unfortunately, every amount of goodwill that he has built with Ohioans since his St. Vincent-St. Mary's days is gone for good.

Summer of 1996

When I heard that LeBron was not coming back to the Cavs reminded me of the summer of 1996 when Shaquille O'Neal left the Orlando Magic for the Los Angeles Lakers. O'Neal, who ironically played with James last season, played four outstanding seasons with Orlando, a young team that when to the NBA Finals in 1995 and the Eastern Conference Finals in 1996. The Magic were one of the best teams not only in the Eastern Conference but around the league as well. Shaq and Penny Hardaway were supposed to be the Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar of the 1990s and had plans to lead Orlando to a number of championships.

When Shaq, then a member of the 1996 Dream Team in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, held a press conference, I figured that it was probably something about the Olympic basketball team. However that all changed when Jerry West, then-General Manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, was sitting next to him at the press conference, then I knew that something was up. Shaq announced that he was going to sign a deal with the Lakers, I couldn't believe that he would leave a great situation with Orlando for L.A. It did not help matters that Shaq kept bashing the Magic organization and the city of Orlando by saying he was a "big fish in a small pond" time and time again (the funny thing is that to this day, he still has a home in Orlando!) The Orlando Magic survived Shaq's departure by making the playoffs the following season but that the lone bright spot for a number of years. The team when through constant roster changes, and a number of up and down seasons until the team drafted Dwight Howard in 2004. Since then the team has improved dramatically and now the Magic is a serious contender for the NBA Title. But it took a while for the team to bounce back and it looks like Cleveland is going to experience the same thing.

The best way to handle the situation

In May when the Cavs lost game 6 in Boston and LeBron start shaking hands with the Celtics fans, taking off the wrist bands, the headband and then the piece of resistance, when he took off his jersey in the locker room tunnel in full view of the television camera of the TD Garden, you had the feeling that he wanted to leave behind anything related to Cleveland. What he should have done was take some time away from basketball for a while (10-20 days) andtold the Cavaliers that "there's a good chance that I would not come back to the team next year." If he told them that, the Cavs could move on and sign whatever free agents were available at the time. However, when he held the organization hostage with his decision, the Cavs was forced to scramble and find some players to play with them. But they couldn't sign the top free agents because either they re-signed with their old team or took their services else to a new team. Tell them straight up with your intentions face to face and don't use TV or online to say where you are going to play.

I really don't think that LeBron and his inner circle realize how bad they came off with "the decision." It is a given that he's going to get booed in Cleveland when Miami plays two road games at Quicken Loans Arena, but the Heat plays at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey and the United Center in Chicago, they are going to get treated badly because as illustrated earlier, those were the cities that Lebron strung along and pulled the rug underneath them on national television.

It's hard to believe but at this point last year, both LeBron and Tiger Woods were two of the biggest names in sports today and now a year later, both athletes have taken major self inflicted hits to their public image. I know that Lebron has a marketing team to help build his brand name, but what he also need is a public relations team because whatever his team is doing right is a total disaster.

2010 World Cup

Congratulations to Espana y Netherlands for making it to the final game of the 2010 World Cup. While watching the majority of the soccer matches of the Cup, there are some observations that I like and others that I don't care for.

My observations of the 2010 World Cup:

1. The biggest winner of them all: the continent of Africa

Africa has been in the news for the last twenty years for all the wrong reasons, whether it is for health reasons (Hunger; HIV/AIDS epidemic) or political issues (Apartheid, Rwanda genocide of 1994; Somalia.) It was great to see Africa, specifically South Africa, receiving positive news for a change. The World Cup has generated a lot of money during its one month run, hopefully the cash will end up with the citizens of Africa and not into the pockets of business leaders or crooked politicians.

2. Soccer does not suck!

My first experience with soccer took place about thirty years ago when my brother took up the sport. We would go to a empty field and just kick the ball around and that was a lot of fun. Who knows, one of us could have been the next Pele ( I remember seeing clips of him playing in for the New York Cosmos in a match at Yankee Stadium, yes that Yankee Stadium.) It was not the first time that the United States has tried to warm up to soccer. During the 1970s, a soccer league was founded to get people interested in the sport. Unfortunately, the league disbanded in 1984. A few years earlier in 1978, the Major Indoor Soccer League was founded and the league eventually had 31 teams throughout its history, including a team in my area (Cleveland Force.) Even though the league folded in 1992, people were still interested in soccer.

Today, there is a soccer league (Major Soccer League) that has teams in New York; Los Angeles (Carson, Calif.) ; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Kansas City, Missouri; Salt Lake City; Commerce City, Colorado; San Jose, Calif; and Houston.

People here in this country has to realize that futbol is the number one sport in the world. Even though there is really a strong international support for American football, people like futbol better.

3. Vuvuzelas

The vuvuzela is a great invention. I want that as a Christmas gift! Anyway, when you heard the sound of a number of vuvuzelas going off in unison during a match,it sounded like a swarm of bees. During the first week of the World Cup, people were complaining about the sound by saying that it was a distraction and they could not stand the noise. The only that I can say about that is: Stop complaining! This is a country where if you go to watch a game at a stadium or arena, the public address announcer has to instruct the crowd to generate noise, or use piped in sounds to get them going. To me, the vuvuzela is a great tool to use and it's better than those annoying thundersticks (which was a good idea when it came out, but it just got on your nerve after a while.) OK, so it did not work as a promotion in Miami for the Tampa Bay Rays-Florida Marlins game in June, but give it time, you will see the vuvuzelas in stadiums and arenas around the United States.

4. Unless there's an injury on the field -No unnecessary timeouts

It was great to see a match where there wasn't any necessary timeouts to pay the bills or use a two minute warning (who's sole purpose is to advertise the sponsors.) If you noticed on the wall of the stadium in Johannesburg, the ads where plastered on the wall and it would change from one sponsor to another after a few minutes. Stadiums and arenas in Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League uses that technique (in baseball: it's at the backstop and the NBA and NHL, it's on the side walls) but you only wish that this is the only and best way to advertise instead of spending millions of dollars on television commercials.

5. The player's theatrics after scoring a goal

I have no problem with a player expressing themselves after scoring a goal. Actually it's quite entertaining. It's too bad the National Football League (or as I call it the No Fun League) doesn't take some notes on this. If a player demonstrated or choreographed anything after scoring a touchdown, he would get fined tens of thousand of dollars for "showing up the opponent." Ask Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco about how outrageous the amount that they're being fined for celebrating in the end zone .

What I don't like about the World Cup:

The World Cup takes place every four years

I truly understand now why the World Cup is every four years: it's all about creating enthusiasm interest and anticipation in the sport. You want to get everyone's attention to soccer without worrying about over saturation and if that occurs, the public would not become interested in the sport anymore. You want to draw to as people all around the world as you possibly can to your sport (maybe gain some new soccer fans) and I believe that FIFA has done a great with that. Hopefully here in the States, people are still interested in soccer after the conclusion of the World Cup.

Actually, that was my only beef with the World Cup. I like soccer and hope that the sport continues to gain new fans and flourish over time.