Why I'm glad to see AI retire, Riot Watch! in Nicaragua and I have some rare theater insights

- Oh well. Some analysts and fans might be lamenting the decision of Allen Iverson to retire from the NBA, but not me. After the story broke late in the day Wednesday, I could not have been happier. This isn't to discount Iverson’s immense talents or the remarkable career he had. The guy was 6’0 standing on his tip-toes, yet his toughness, grit and heart of a lion made him an exciting, inspiring player and scoring champion. He was a mixture of street and heart, a guy who has done a lot of charitable work but always had that ghetto edge to him, so to speak. AI is best known for his “We talkin’ about practice” rant in which he railed against having to show up for practice and put in actual effort to be a team leader. His problems have come in the latter years of his career as his questionable attitude and diminishing skills have been contrasted against an absolute unwillingness to be anything but a starter and leading scorer for a team. After he was traded from Denver to Detroit last season and asked to come off the bench, AI reacted so poorly that he was ultimately asked to stay away from the team entirely while the Pistons made up a bogus back injury to justify his absence. He couldn’t stomach the idea that a team was better off with him coming off the bench and that inability or unwillingness to subjugate his own ego for the betterment of the team led to his being let go by the Pistons in the offseason and several months floating in basketball oblivion while zero teams lined up to sign him. In the end, Memphis bit the bullet and inked AI to a one-year deal in a futile attempt to sell tickets and merchandise for their perpetually terrible team. That attempt failed miserably and AI once again was a malcontent when asked to come off the bench. The Grizzlies released him after three games and after a brief flirtation with the New York Knicks that ended with the team electing not to sign Iverson because he didn’t fit into their rebuilding plans (ya think?), AI pulled the plug on his career. He issued a statement saying in part, "I feel strongly that I can still compete at the highest level." The statement also said Iverson has tremendous love for the game and the desire to play. Yes, AI, you do – as a BACKUP. You are no longer a viable starter, no longer the 10-time All-Star and scoring champion you once were. Just because you have a career average of 27.1 points, fifth all time in the NBA, doesn’t mean you can still perform at that level. "I always thought that when I left the game, it would be because I couldn't help my team the way that I was accustomed to," AI’s statement read. "However, that is not the case." True or not, the bottom line is that the blame for this possibly premature ending rests almost entirely with Allen Iverson and his absolute inability to accept his changing place in the world of basketball. If he were able to adjust to not being a high-scoring starter and embrace the idea of being instant offense off the bench, he would undoubtedly find a home and might still have a shot at that NBA title he has never won………

- What’s the price of having a year of your life wrongfully ripped from you by the legal system? For Ozem Goldwire of Brooklyn, that price is $340,000. That’s the amount the City of New York has agreed to pay Goldwire after he spent a year in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Goldwire, who is autistic, was sent to jail on charges that he murdered his sister in 2006. While no immediate explanation was given for how prosecutors ultimately decided Goldwire was innocent and that he should be released, it truly is secondary to having justice served. The judge presiding over the case described the circumstances as "the perfect storm for false confession," which I would have to concur with. Police had an easy mark: an autistic guy whom they could bully, intimidate and coerce. Goldwire’s attorneys argued that authorities pressured him into making a false confession after screaming, cursing and shoving him repeatedly. Additionally, he was accused of having sex with his sister. New York police detectives Nancy Malota, Christopher Scandole and Matthew Collin admit to no wrongdoing in the settlement, which is standard in these sorts of deals. No one, be it a civil case or criminal case, ever admits to having done anything wrong even as they are paying massive sums of money to settle the case. If you did nothing wrong, why are you paying so much as a dime? Attorney Gerald Allen - who filed suit against the city on behalf of Goldwire – called his client's imprisonment "a terrible, terrible injustice." What is certain is that Goldwire’s release does not come as a result of the real murderer (no, not the one O.J. Simpson is still looking for) being found. The murder of Goldwire’s sister remains unsolved. The lesson from this case is that as much as we would all like to believe that shady police work and interrogation techniques are no longer prevalent in the world, there are still detectives like Malota, Scandole and Collin, who will grill an autistic man for 21 hours in connection with the murder of his sister and tell him he won't be released until he confesses to the crime. Always good to have my faith in something – anything – reaffirmed in such an emphatic manner, detectives…………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It has been far too long, Nicaragua, so I could not be happier to be back talking about angry social dissidents taking it to the streets in your capital of Managua. Seeing tens of thousands of people out in the streets of Managua making their voice heard was a freaking inspiration. "The only way for the government to change, as it has been shown in all these years, is for the people to go to the streets," said Dora Maria Tellez, a wise woman who was a main figure in President Daniel Ortega's government during the 1980s but who now leads an opposition party. "There is no other way," she said at the protests. The one downside of the protests is that they were mostly peaceful – that’s a disappointment. The majority of the protestors were expressing general outrage against their government, especially against Ortega's bid for re-election and the anniversary of last year's municipal elections, which the president's leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front party overwhelmingly won amid rampant allegations of fraud. The election saw the Sandinista party win mayoral races in 94 municipalities, but voting irregularities abounded even as the government refused to allow foreign and local monitors to do their jobs. The results were extremely delayed and there were major discrepancies between results certified by election officials and the tallies released on television. Additional fuel was added to the anti-government fire on October 19, when the country's supreme court lifted a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential terms, clearing the way for Ortega to run in 2011. The United States did its part to fan the flames last month when the State Department issued in a statement saying that it was concerned about the "manner in which the Constitutional Chamber of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court reached a decision on October 19 regarding re-election for Nicaraguan officials, including the President." Ortega’s supporters are attempting to argue that the government is acting on behalf of the people. That’s a nice sentiment, even if it is a total lie. Were it true, that would be sweet, but of course we all know that it’s 100 percent false. Because it’s clearly a lie, I am going to encourage the thousands of proud Nicaraguans who demonstrated on Saturday to continue taking it to the streets and next time out, let’s try to burn a few vehicles, overturn some police cars and do some substantial damaging of property………

- Happy Thanksgiving to Greg and Diane Horoski of East Patchogue, N.Y. The holiday is an especially meaningful one for the Horoski family after a Suffolk County judge wiped out the $525,000 that the Horoski’s supposedly owed OneWest Bank. Judge Jeffrey Spinner brought a decisive end to a mortgage battle in which the Horoski’s fell behind on their mortgage payments because of health problems and an interest rate change. They claimed in court that they tried repeatedly to restructure their loan, but that the bank would not cooperate. Instead, they received a foreclosure note from the bank. Not willing to lose their home without a fight, Greg and Diane Horoski went to court and found a sympathetic ear in Judge Spinner, who referred to the bank's actions as "harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive." He freed the Horoski's of $291,000 in principal and $235,000 in interest and penalties, but Spinner’s main focus appeared to be tearing the bank a new one for refusing to work with the couple in their attempts to refinance. In his ruling, the judge stated that said the bank "must be appropriately sanctioned so as to deter it from imposing further mortifying abuse." As you would expect, the bank issued a terse and pithy reply to the verdict, saying, "We respectfully disagree with the lower court's unprecedented ruling and we expect that it will be overturned on appeal." In other words, we’re still hopeful that we will have a chance to absolutely dick over this family and throw them out of their home, preferably the day before Christmas so as to inflict maximum pain, suffering and emotional distress. Of course, OneWest may have had a better chance to win the case had they not misled the judge about the dollar amounts at stake in the case, which Spinner claims they did. Lying to the judge is generally not a sound legal strategy, OneWest bank attorneys. I wish I could say better luck to you next time around, but I’m not in the habit of saying things I clearly don’t mean………

- For those of you who have been wondering why I never write about theater-related topics in this space (mostly because I have zero interest in it), here you go. If you have been wanting to see the popular play Superior Donuts, a Broadway comedy by Pulitzer-winning playwright Tracy Letts, now would be a great time to do so. The show’s producers announced that it will close on Jan. 3, meaning you have just over a month to get to Broadway’s Music Box Theatre for a performance. that’s where Super Donuts opened in new York on Sept. 30 after originating at Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf. Oddly enough, the show is actually about exactly what its title implies: doughnuts. It stars Spinal Tap veteran Michael McKean as the hippie proprietor of a decrepit doughnut shop in uptown Chicago. Reviews have been strong so far, although I’m trusting entirely in the opinions of those who actually know something about the theater on this one because as previously stated, I know nothing about the theater and have no interest in learning, as my general belief is that people do not typically break out into song or use song as their primary means of everyday communication, thus rendering musicals completely unrealistic and uninteresting………