Zolra's Corner: Baketball Players Deserve Alot of Credit

Even though I am desperately waiting on football season to come back, I will admit that I am keeping up with news surrounding the NBA season. At this rate, I should watch ESPN the same way I watch it during the NFL season. The only time I ever talk about basketball is if Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, or Dwayne Wayde (his picture is above) is in the conversation.

Then as I continued thinking about basketball, I remember watching the reality show Basketball Wives on VH1 every Sunday night before the season finale a few months ago.

So technically, I have been staying in the basketball world, not knowing that I was living there. Crazy huh?

One thing I will say about basketball players is that I give them all the credit in the world for their gameplay. For someone to run from one side of the court to the next continuously, you must have strong legs. Also, you gotta be extremely brave to have players to make as many points than the other time.

Just Imagine

First Team: 98 points
Second Team: 97 points

One close shot is 2 points. A long distance shot is 3 points. So just imagine how much sweat, blood, and tears a team has to go through in order to make those shots.

I am a football fan for life. Even though 2009 was my first year being hooked on the sport full time, football has become an instant addiction for me. I held onto my stomach when the New Orleans Saints were seconds away from making a touchdown. I always feel dehydrated after every game due to my constant yelling at every game I see on television or go to in person. I became so addicted to it that year, I even got offered a paid job writing about them in a sports blog.

However, when it comes to basketball players, I give them the uttermost respect for going through at least 50 games. There are more games than that, but if I was going to be playing basketball professionally, 50 would be my limit.

Cool: Puma Ditches Boxes for 'Clever Little Bag'

By Kiran Aditham

It took 21 months, 2000 ideas and 40-plus packaging prototypes to pore over, but Puma along with designer Yves Behar and his team at Fuseproject have come up with a new sustainable packaging system for Puma sneakers: Clever Little Bag. The product, which will begin rolling out next year, marks the next phase of the brand's social and green-themed initiative PumaVision.

While Puma chief exec Jochen Zeitz said that the brand would not necessarily save money with the new packaging, he adds, "Sustainability is not only absolutely necessary considering the situation our planet is in, we as companies are also overdue to take responsibility. We can't wait for governments. Companies have to lead the way and we want to be among the leaders." Behar meanwhile offers his two cents about the project to Fast Company, which also posts Puma's estimates on Clever Little Bag's impact.

Tiger Woods Returns to Golf, Nike & Others Embrace Their Links

By SUZANNE VRANICA

Tiger Woods and the voice of his late father star in a new commercial from Nike Inc., one of several new advertising pushes that suggest the golfer may be on his way to repairing his shattered image with corporate America.

Nike aired Wednesday a black-and-white TV spot with Mr. Woods looking into the camera. In the background, the voice of his father, Earl Woods, seems to be talking to his son about the importance of taking responsibility for his actions. "I want to find out what your thinking was; I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything," Earl Woods says in the recording.

The ad ends with the image of the sports-apparel maker's trademark swoosh. The spot, created by Wieden + Kennedy, is the golfer's first new TV ad since unflattering revelations about his private life emerged last year. It is expected to run on

Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and Comcast Corp.'s Golf Channel. Nike says the ad will air until Thursday afternoon. "We support Tiger and his family. As he returns to competitive golf, the ad addresses his time away from the game using the powerful words of his father," Nike said in a statement.

The voice of Earl Woods, who died in 2006, was from old interviews, a person familiar with the matter says, adding that Mr. Woods and his mother approved the spot. Mr. Woods wasn't available for comment. Videogame maker Electronic Arts also launched a campaign this week featuring Mr. Woods. The online effort by its EA Sports is using the golfer's image to promote its latest game, "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online." One banner ad shows Mr. Woods, in his familiar red shirt, doing a celebratory fist pump.

Meanwhile, Le Tigre, a polo-shirt maker with no financial ties to Mr. Woods, has adopted the golfer for a billboard it says it plans to hang in New York City Friday. The billboard features a red Le Tigre golf polo and the tag line "Golf's Original Tiger. For Those Who Play A Round." The ads coincide with Mr. Woods's much-anticipated return to golf at the Masters tournament, where he is expected to tee off on Thursday. They are the first sign that marketers are willing to re-embrace the golfer after his once-pristine public image was sullied by revelations about his extramarital affairs.

Since the Nov. 27 car accident that led to intense scrutiny of his personal life, Mr. Woods's endorsement career, which brought him an estimated $100 million a year, has unraveled as sponsors like global consulting firm

Accenture PLC, AT&T Inc. and PepsiCo's Gatorade sports drink severed ties with him. Others, such as Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette, pulled back on using him in ads.

Even the companies that stuck by him have been treading carefully. EA Sports says it did plenty of market research, including online focus groups, to gauge consumer attitudes toward Mr. Woods.

Read the entire article: The Wall Street Journal Online