MADE TO BE BROKEN

Records are a part of sports as much as anything else. Score keepers today now keep a meticulous record of every stat that could seemingly be compiled into a noteworthy collection. Such as most wins for a major league pitcher in MLB history on Tuesdays, or a teams lifetime record playing a division rival on the second night of a back to back. You know, the important stuff. Every now and then though a record worth noting is broken, and this week the NBA was witness to three. The Cleveland Cavaliers set the new benchmark of futility, not just for basketball but all four major sports, with 26 straight losses and counting. Jerry Sloan stepped down last night as the Jazz head coach after 23 years. The longest, consecutive tenure by one coach for one team. Lastly, Ray Allen surpassed Reggie Miller as the all time three point leader. What's really special about all of these records though, is that they are near the untouchable status. Something that you will never see again. One could argue that it's almost harder to lose as many games in a row as the Cavs have then to win 85% of the games in the same stretch. The way the leagues run now, coaches are always on the chopping block unless title's are pouring in. Sloan's coaching streak may be the safest of all three. Two key things to remember about Allen's three point record: he's about 800 makes in front of the third guy (Jason Kidd), and he's still playing. By the time he's done he could be right around 3,000 3PT made which not only would require the right type of player, but one that would also have to expect to play for close to 20 years. A very long time for any pro athlete. Now I'm not saying these are at the top of the records list. Those are reserved for only the most improbable of records. If I could pick two as examples that I'd wager never broken: Joe Dimaggio's hitting streak, and Brett Favre's consecutive starts streak. These are examples of records that defy the odds, and in Dimaggio's case, the test of time. However, they say records are made to be broken. They never said it would be easy though.