I woke up early this morning, and like many in North America, I felt the Heat. Without a doubt, we witnessed history last night in the sports world, whether we like it or not. Like many, I’ve gone back and forth over Lebron James’ decision to go to the Miami Heat. To clear my mind, I’ve gone and grabbed a good ‘ol yellow legal pad. Here are the winners and losers of free agency 2010:
Winner: Miami Heat
Dwayne Wade alone brought them to the fifth place in the east. Anybody who doesn’t think they are instant contenders are kidding themselves. Do not for a second buy the “well we still have to fill out the rest of the roster” excuse, my dad could play for the Heat and they’d still win a ton of games just by getting to the free throw line. [...]
Some of you may know that I am currently in Hawaii and am boarding a cruise tomorrow. While you all pause to tell me how you’re jealous and how lucky I am, there is a part of me that wishes I was back home to watch the Canucks battle the BlackHawks. (Try not to mistake this for complaining, I am very very grateful to be here, if the ship has Versus, that would make this pineapple trip that much sweeter).
So to fulfill my duty as a fan, I felt it was time to release this. One of my odd new year’s resolutions this year was to write my own rap verse (I know, weird right?) and late one night, inspiration hit, and I succeeded, sort of. I realized that writing was one thing, but actually rapping? That takes skills that this Sam Chan does not possess. So the ‘song’ stayed in my harddrive, and I attempted to find someone with actual hip-hop talents to record it, but was unsuccessful. [...]
I am ecstatic to announce the launch of Another2010Blog.com. As many of you may have known, the Winter Olympics have hit my home town, and this blog will follow the events and the buzz (sorry Yahoo, I mean Google) going around the city during these couple of weeks. If you’re a big sports fanatic like me, you will definitely want to stop by.
The personal branding and ‘business’ (used loosely) side of me tell me that I should cover the Olympics here, since I haven’t exactly been overflowing with posts and it’d make for more visitors, hits, and other goodies that us bloggers love. However, I ultimately decided against that and here’s why:
I see blogs as story books. Another Sam Chan is my personal story, and I believe having the Olympics in my home town is worth it’s own story – with it’s own binding and cover. 50 years from now, I want to be able to read back as about the time the Olympics hit Vancouver as its own book, and not as simply a chapter.
The Olympics are not about me. Although I am extremely lucky to be here during this time, the 2010 Olympics are about celebrating sports and the city of Vancouver, and reporting news doesn’t keep in line with the idea of a personal blog.
It’s an opportunity for me to use Tumblr. I have been itching to try out Tumblr for a while now and am very excited for it’s re-blog feature. It allows for greater content to be posted on a blog from different perspectives, and allows for better community building. It is my hope that during this short time, I can use the blog as a collaboration to find many more amazing experiences and stories that will live past these next 17 days.
To make it easier for you, I have added a tab at the top that links directly to the new olympics blog. I hope that I can share some of the excitement of my home city in the upcoming days.
Joe Sakic. Taken from hespelerbob's Flickr. All credits go to him.
Joe Sakic was drafted the same year I was born. The first rink I ever skated in was the same rink that Joe Sakic played hockey in as a kid. Somebody somewhere told me that and I was damn proud of it, although my childhood was spent in the swimming pool next door a lot more than the ice rink. Although I spent the majority of my childhood in the Tri-Cities Coquitlam area, Burnaby has always served as my first home and for as long as I could remember, i followed Joe Sakic’s career. It wow-ed me that he was so good, so respected, so classy and so loyal (the last one hurts because I would have given anything for him to be in a Canucks uniform instead of hitting milestone goals on us with his beloved Avalanche team). Everything I knew about him screamed role model to me. I felt a connection to him as a fan, as if I could share in his successes since he was from BC and lets face it – we’re not exactly the city of champions when it comes to sports. So as he retired today, I also felt like I have moved on to a different part of my life as well. When I talk to younger hockey fans now, I’ll be bringing up “old time greats” like Sakic and Markus Naslund and they won’t know who the hell I’m talking about, because when it comes down to it, these guys weren’t just my favourite athletes, they were my role models. I will always love the game of hockey and sports in general, but I will never call Sidney Crosby or Lebron James my role model. Hell, Crosby is 5 months and 1 day older than me.
Watching Sakic play and the way he carried himself through his career taught me tons about sportsmanship and having the right attitude. When I look back at his highlights, its a reminder that there are still people who can succeed immensely the right way – even through this cut-throat ruthless business world. This is the same league where owners didn’t give a damn when their loyal captain of 13 years leaves (Saku Koivu) and Brian Burke personally escorts soon to be ex-players to the airport because they ain’t worth the money (Peter Schaefer). When I watched the press conference today, it made me realize how great a person Joe Sakic must be off the ice. How many of you in your jobs today can say that when you retire, your boss will be reduced to tears because he’s so happy for you? Not even Michael Jordan got that treatment.
I realize that I’m making it sound like he died when he’s really just retiring, and with all the deaths lately, we really don’t need this kind of talk. I also realize that I’m bordering on insane sports idolatry. I guess what I’m trying to say is that watching one of my last sports role models retire has made me recognize that I’m exiting the stage where I can simply follow and appreciate other’s deeds and greatness, and that it is going to be my turn to have the opportunity to impact others. No, I’m not going to be an athlete, but as Joe Sakic set the example, leaders come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, forms, and personalities. If one day, I can impact some kid (who probably isn’t born yet), I’ll look back at whatever I’ll have done and call it a success.
But damn, in a normal, healthy, simple sports fan kind of way, I’m sure going to miss Joe Sakic. It indeed is the end of an era. Here’s the highlights:
I woke up early this morning, and like many in North America, I felt the Heat. Without a doubt, we witnessed history last night in the sports world, whether we like it or not. Like many, I’ve gone back and forth over Lebron James’ decision to go to the Miami Heat. To clear my mind, I’ve gone and grabbed a good ‘ol yellow legal pad. Here are the winners and losers of free agency 2010:
I am ecstatic to announce the launch of 
