Tommy Smokes Is A Nightmare To Coach
I'll start this by saying I actually like Tommy Smokes quite a bit. He loves Survivor, baseball and is pretty funny. If you haven't watched him getting Mintzy arrested from a year ago, stop everything you're doing right now and watch this. This made me laugh so hard, I was literally crying when I saw this…and that was having seen it happen in real time a month earlier.
Having said all of that, having to coach Thomas Smokes on the Barstool Basketball team is an absolute nightmare.
There might not be more selfish and aggravating player in sports history. Did Reggie Jackson think highly of himself? Absolutely. He also went to 14 All-Star Games. Terrell Owens had a pretty big ego when he played. But you know what? He also has the 3rd most receiving yards in NFL history.
Let's contrast that with Mr. Smokes. He pleaded for the last shot in a tie game last week. I said absolutely not and instead gave the ball to Nick Mulcahy who immediately made the game winning shot. Tommy could barely hide his disgust until spinning it and declaring the team was undefeated without him.
In the second game on Monday night, the second he touched the ball, he threw up a three with plenty of time on the shot clock. To his credit, the ball was nothing but net. Unfortunately, that also means it didn't hit the rim or backboard and instead the air ball weakily bounced out of bounds.
I told Vibbs I was writing this blog and he said it might be the first time in history that a coach wrote an op-ed shitting on one of his own players. This is far from an ordinary situation.
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He wasn't viral. He was a virus. He sits on the furthest side of the bench just bitching and moaning that he's not playing and how he's a great shooter. He's not a great shooter. I'm not benching him to make a point (although that doesn't hurt). I'm benching Tommy Smokes because he's the worst player on the roster.
He's right about a fireable offense but I don't think it's exactly what he means. I got to the game right on time (which started at 8:30 and the gym has another game going on so players can't shoot around until just before the game begins).
The fireable offense is Tommy being a constant pain in the ass. I've talked with the GM Dana Beers and asked him if we should consider cutting Tommy. Dana's reply: "Yes. Of course."
No matter what, Tommy will be on the roster next week. I have to go to Chicago so I'll miss the game Monday night. I'm not going to leave asst. coach KenJac having to deal with cutting Tommy. Maybe under KenJac, Tommy can can learn to be a good teammate and not a total shithead.
I'll put a poll up on Twitter and see what people think. Chime in here in the comments too. I'll read them. If he gives KenJac a hard time or pulls any stupid bits while I'm gone, I'm going to tell Dana to cut his ass.
The good news is he'd have more time to make funny videos like the Mintzy one.
Finally, check out Vibbs blog which goes into greater detail about the game Monday as well as me benching Tommy for the end of the game.