'We're gonna win the game, I guarantee it.' Do you recognize that quote? If you don't, you should. This is probably the greatest prediction ever made by a player, in a time when player predictions actually meant something. Who is the player, you ask? None other than Joe Namath, predicting the outcome of Super Bowl III. The New York Jets were facing off against the Baltimore Colts and were 10-point underdogs. The brash young QB would follow through on his prediction, winning 1969's big game 16-7. His boldness was innovative and would be copied time and again throughout sports history by some of the game's greatest athletes. Recently, however, this trend has gotten a little out of hand. 'I know we goin' win. I know we goin' bust they ass. Tomorrow night is the last game here in this building this year. Y'all can quote me, put it back page, front page, whatever.' Now I know most of you know who this is. It's Detroit's Rasheed Wallace giving his usual playoff prediction. This prediction came after a Game Three loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron James. Rasheed was pretty much explaining, in his own crazy language, that the Pistons would defeat the Cavs in Game Four and wrap up the series back home in Game Five. Wallace's predictions have become so common that writers have coined the phrase 'guaransheed' to explain his constant predictions. This is Wallace's fourth such prediction and there is one problem. The Pistons lost Game Four. This forces me to bring forth the ultimate question; do player predictions mean anything anymore? I have thought long and hard about this topic and came up with a checklist of sorts to see if this 'guaransheed' actually constitutes a meaningful prediction. First off, if you are trying to be bold and make a prediction, you or your team must be the underdog in the contest. Nope. Sorry Rasheed, but your team is the heavy favorite to win the NBA Championship. This in no way constitutes the Detroit Pistons as the underdog against the fourth seed Cleveland Cavaliers. No one on this Pistons team should be making any guarantees, unless they find themselves down in a playoff series, and that is very unlikely to happen now. Second, what does a guarantee mean if the game that is being predicted is not the championship? My answer: absolutely nothing. You have come up short once again Rasheed. This is the second round of the playoffs, not even the Conference Finals. Save your predictions for that round, or even better, the NBA Finals. A second round prediction, especially when your team is up 2-1 games, means absolutely nothing to me. Finally, make sure you come through with solid play in the game you made a prediction about. There is nothing more embarrassing than predicting a victory and then having a less than stellar performance. Ask Seahawks TE Jeremy Stevens, he'll tell you. Would you believe it that Rasheed falls short once again? I would hardly call 7 points and 3 turnovers a stellar performance. Simply said, Wallace talked the talk but did not walk the walk in Game Four. So let's sum up what we have learned today. The Pistons are heavy favorites to win this series, Wallace's prediction did not come true during an all-important game, and Rasheed had a pretty poor performance in Game Four. To add further insult to injury, the Pistons actually lost the game. Rasheed's predictions have come to mean absolutely nothing and these types of player predictions have become a real problem. If you can think all the way back to the first round of the playoffs, Ron Artest made a similar bogus prediction, but for different reasons. He predicted the Kings would win the championship; only the Kings were the eighth seed and no one took them seriously. Especially after they lost in round one to the Spurs. Some other athletes actually make predictions just to pump themselves up. A classic example is Joey Porter, the linebacker from the Pittsburg Steelers. Before the 2006 Super Bowl, Porter made all kinds of predictions for the sole purpose of giving his team reasons to win the game. If these predictions and trash talking are the only way to get pumped up for the SuperBowl, you have a serious problem. I am going to close with one important message to all athletes such as these. Leave the prediction making to the experts and the media. We, like you, might not know what we are talking about, but at least we get paid for it. All your bogus predictions about games that aren't very significant are just diluting your importance and turning you into a circus act. The next time I hear a player prediction, I'll know it's more valuable as entertainment than actual information. |
