Cotton Candy

"Man I'm tellin' my momma on LeBron!"

When I was growing up sports many times was the maker of men. Whether you played basketball, football or ran track. Coaches we're extremely hard on you and would say just about anything to you or about you. In the weight room there was a sign that said, “check your feelings and your attitude at the door.” You had to get broken down in order to get built back up. Your feelings about the situation were irrelevant at all times according to the coaches and the other players.

Of course, during that day everybody had some type connection with their dads or a coach that told them how life was going to be and you either dealt with it or you quit. Now days there are so many kids being raised by single moms without any connection to their fathers, a male role model or a coach at all. Unfortunately, these moms aren't allowing coaches to step in like they did back when I was coming up to kick these young men in the rear end and discipline them. As a result many athletes have become as soft as drugstore cotton candy, even in the professional ranks.

Earlier Wednesday, Kendrick Perkins said he was upset that James had sent out a tweet to his 3.5 million followers about the amazing dunk that Blake Griffin threw down on him. Are you kidding me bruh! He's upset because Lebron and the rest of the world commented on him getting dunked on?  Like the other 20 million people that saw it on Sports Center 400 times kept it a secret. How weak is that bruh?

Here's the tweet that Lebron sent out on Jan 30th: "Dunk of the Year! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!!! Wow! I guess I'm No. 2 now. Move over #6."

"Did I call him out? I mean, did you read the tweet? Did I call him out? I can see why he felt embarrassed. I don't think I was the only one to react to the unbelievable play by Blake and that's what it was all about," James said after the Miami Heat's 102-89 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.

Attention single mothers! Stop coddling these boys and allow a man to teach them how to be a man! I don't care if it's your brother, your child's coach or your freaking neighbor for crying out loud. Just because his dad isn’t around isn’t an excuse to raise him like a soft kitten! When I was coming up your coach was the closest thing you had to a father and he was going to act like it on the field, court or track. I've seen plenty of boyz get hemmed up at practice or even on game day for talking back or for not putting in enough effort.

My dad would curse out every kid on the block if they stepped out of line in front of him. Then call their parents. That’s the way it was and people were better as a result of it. Mothers weren’t upset because somebody said something to their child if it was right!

Former Kansas football coach Mark Mangino was fired in 2008 after many of his players complained that he was disrespecting them. He once told a kid at halftime, "You keep talking about being a 1000 yard rusher but you haven't done $%#!." The kid said that coach called him out in front of the team and disrespected him. Are you kidding me? He also threw a kid out of his chair because he was sleeping during a team meeting prior to the bowl. So the player called his mother from the bowl sight and told her that he wanted to transfer. Are you listening to me people? He called his mother and she rushed to his aid! He shouldn’t have been sleeping in the meeting! I’ve seen coaches do much worse bruh trust me on that.

These are the same young men that we are expecting to go out into the workforce and compete one day. Ain't gonna happen bruh! That's why we see women are taking care of grown men right now because their momma's have coddled them their entire lives and they never learned to assume the roll of a man.

“I got dunked on and now my feeling are hurt because LeBron tweeted!” Really bruh? Back in the day if you didn't want to get embarrassed you kept a boy out of the end zone or stopped him from dunking on you. Otherwise, you knew that you would be the joke on the yard until you redeemed yourself.

I know coaches like Vince Lombardi(Packers), Mike Ditka(Bears) and Chuck Noll(Steelers) would never have been able to coach in this era. They were too demanding and wouldn't have catered to these kids the way coaches have to today. That's why Mike Singletary got fired from the 49'rs last year.  See when those guys were coaching they had players that had been taught to respect authority from birth. Athletes now are loose cannons because momma has taught them that they were the man of the house at age 8. Good luck with that bruh because you still have to get out into the world and compete with people like me and I don’t care about your feelings!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Hit me up on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.