I’m tired. Trying to figure how much Alex Rodriguez earns for every pitch he’ll take for a ball has me frazzled. Would you please write this week’s column? I’ll lay out some facts and you can write it in your mind’s eye.

On Monday last week, the Denver Nuggets refused to practice for their coach, Hall of Fame player Dan Issel. The players said Issel was hollering at them too much. The team was three games below .500 at the time.

Issel thought the team stunk. He derided their effort and their refusal to get the best out of themselves. Issel said, “Practices are not negotiable. I think the players thought that we were going to practice as punishment. I’ve never had a practice for punishment and never will.”

A Denver Post column by Mark Kiszia said of the situation, “The league has sold its sweet soul to a gangsta rap attitude that has ex-fans covering their ears and eyes in disgust, while Issel is stuck in the worst job in sports: pro hoops coach, whose responsibility far outstrips his authority in a sport gone bad.”

Said Issel of the players, “From the time they’re AAU players, they get special treatment. People around them tell them that nothing is ever their fault. And they don’t take ownership of it. So when you have situations like this, it’s always somebody else’s fault, somebody else’s responsibility. But that’s not the kid’s fault, that’s our fault as a society for treating them that way.”

Former Celtic Danny Ainge resigned as head coach of the Phoenix Suns a year ago. This week he said, “I heard that my kids were in drug rehab, that I was in drug rehab, that I was having an affair, that I was going through a divorce. I’ve heard just about everything [as to why he resigned] and I just have to laugh at it.”

Why did he resign? “Ultimately, I felt that what I was doing – coaching basketball – had no redeeming value … I was missing out on too many things that were important to me.”

Sports Illustrated, with its Legacy Award, honored former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden last week. Many of Wooden’s former players showed up. One was Bill Walton.

“We thought he was nuts,” said Walton. “But in all his preachings and teachings, everything he told us turned out to be true. He would say to rebel players, ‘I admire and respect your position. We’ll miss you here at UCLA. We’ve enjoyed your time. Thanks for coming.'”

Walton ended with, “He is a man who truly has principles and ideas. He taught life.”

In writing your column, consider this: If the NBA disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow, would the world be a better place? You could expand the column by inserting any sport in the above question, excepting kids pickup games of any kind where no parents are present.

I appreciate your taking the time in this busy holiday season to compose this column.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and CBS sportscaster.