Giving Thanks in the World of Sports

By - Jaquan Murphy

I am thankful for my family, friends, good health -- stop me when it sounds familiar.

As a matter of fact, I'll stop myself. After all, we get tired of hearing the same generic Thanksgiving shout-outs, don't we?

However, there are a lot of people and things that do not get the thanks they deserve, especially in the world of sports. This year, I'm going to give them some recognition.

There are quite a few unemployed coaches thankful for teams such as the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles, and Carolina Panthers.

Photo by: Getty Images

Why you ask? Because poor or underachieving teams equal coaching vacancies. It is very likely that there will be a spot or two open on the staff of all of these teams by season's end.

Not to mention, there are a handful of defensive coordinators very thankful for the historically bad pace the New Orleans Saints defense is on. These unemployed coaches are updating their resumes as we speak, thankful for the mediocrity being displayed.

Mike D'Antoni is another person who has plenty to be thankful for this holiday season. The biggest thing being Kobe Bryant's death stare. See, if it wasn't for that, D'Antoni would most likely still be among the ranks of the unemployed, and Mike Brown would probably still be head of an underachieving Lakers team.

In fact, the entire Lakers squad should be thankful for "The Glare," because since the firing of Brown, they have been playing much better basketball.

The Knicks should be thankful for their losses last season. Why? Because the departure of Jeremy Lin saved the organization more money on their salary cap than most people save by switching their car insurance to Geico.

Instead of paying big time money to Lin and continuing to wallow in mediocrity, they are doing much better with guys like Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd on the roster.

New York should also be thankful for the early loss of Amar'e Stoudemire this year. They are again showing that they mesh better with a ship run solely by Carmelo Anthony, as opposed to the two-man duo of Melo and Stat.

To sum it up -- New York is thankful that sometimes less is more.

'Tis the season for giving, and these people and teams are just a few in the world of sports that should be thankful for the gifts they have received.