Spencer Lee has entered the US Open

[D3 for LU]

Well, he's in the semis, going to bang heads w/Jersey Shores own Suriano later on.

This will be a benchmark moment for Spencer.

D3

[El Luchador]

How far are they wrestling the championship side of the bracket tonight? 

[Plasmodium]

My head says Nicky Pushups, but my heart says Spencer Lee.

Does Lee have a catchy moniker?

[El Luchador]

5 minutes ago, Plasmodium said:

My head says Nicky Pushups, but my heart says Spencer Lee.

Does Lee have a catchy moniker?

How about Spencer "Bruce" Lee?

[ionel]

When are the semis? 

[D3 for LU]

8 minutes ago, El Luchador said:

How about Spencer "Bruce" Lee?

Of course!

D3

[Wrestleknownothing]

1 hour ago, ionel said:

When are the semis? 

8pm CT

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, Plasmodium said:

My head says Nicky Pushups, but my heart says Spencer Lee.

Does Lee have a catchy moniker?

Gilman once referred to him as “Spencer ‘freaking’ Lee”

[de4856]

This is just my opinion but Spencer doesn’t look right. He’s obviously super slick technically, but in his last match he was up 9-0 coming out of the break. And basically didn’t do anything in the 2nd period. It makes me think that there’s something going on with him. And I’m not talking about his knees. Tonight he will face Suriano and I think Spencer is going to have to tech him or pile up the points and hang on to get past Nick. Watching Suriano today, he looks like his old self, a lot of moving around and just enough offense, so we’ll see what happens. 

[skandar]

Spencer isn’t wrestling

[Wrestleknownothing]

28 minutes ago, de4856 said:

This is just my opinion but Spencer doesn’t look right. He’s obviously super slick technically, but in his last match he was up 9-0 coming out of the break. And basically didn’t do anything in the 2nd period. It makes me think that there’s something going on with him. And I’m not talking about his knees. Tonight he will face Suriano and I think Spencer is going to have to tech him or pile up the points and hang on to get past Nick. Watching Suriano today, he looks like his old self, a lot of moving around and just enough offense, so we’ll see what happens. 

Spencer Lee's gassed bad in the second period. He has about a two minute hard go in him right now. If he can get the tech in those two minutes he is on to the finals. If they are still wrestling in the second period, I do not like Lee's chances.

[Wrestleknownothing]

6 minutes ago, skandar said:

Spencer isn’t wrestling

That is a shame

 

 

[ionel]

8 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

That is a shame

 

 

I am physically unable to make 57kg but I guess this seems different.  

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Does this hurt Spencer’s chance at Olympic gold in 2024?

[Pinnacle]

2 hours ago, Plasmodium said:

My head says Nicky Pushups, but my heart says Spencer Lee.

Does Lee have a catchy moniker?

 

2 hours ago, El Luchador said:

How about Spencer "Bruce" Lee?

 

Well, he forfeits out so,..... but he is the best Brands has ever seen? 

It's a comedy or a tragedy. Not sure which.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Pinnacle

[lu_alum]

Didn’t he essentially accomplish the task at hand - qualify for WTT?


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[Le duke]

Didn’t he essentially accomplish the task at hand - qualify for WTT?


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https://www.instagram.com/p/Crf9g63s6V2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=


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[oldschool]

Man, I was really looking forward to this match. Does anyone know the details on why he withdrew? From the bit of that interview his father gave, I couldn't sus out any concrete details.

[Perry]

7 minutes ago, oldschool said:

Man, I was really looking forward to this match. Does anyone know the details on why he withdrew? From the bit of that interview his father gave, I couldn't sus out any concrete details.

He only wanted to wrestle weaker competition. 

[D3 for LU]

You had to go there?  Really?

D3

[de4856]

Well let’s hope that Spencer can get healthy again and we can get to see him wrestle again. I guess that if there’s a silver lining to all this, is that his technique was very impressive. 

[dragit]

15 minutes ago, oldschool said:

Man, I was really looking forward to this match. Does anyone know the details on why he withdrew? From the bit of that interview his father gave, I couldn't sus out any concrete details.

Mr. Lee comes off as a very good guy and a wonderfully devoted father.  I was genuinely moved by his authentic emotion at the end of the interview, just wanting his son to be healthy.

But there is still this weird disconnect they have in terms of not simply stating a specific reason for why someone who just won three matches won't take the mat to try to make a world team.  He went out of his way to give a lengthy interview very quickly, but in 19 minutes he really doesn't give the most basic information that anyone would expect in such an interview.  

He basically just says that Spencer isn't right physically, and that because of that he didn't wrestle back in Tulsa and is withdrawing from the Open.  He at one point said that 10 months after double ACL surgery is tough.

But he never says in anything resembling a declarative sentence, unless I missed it, what the physical reason is for his withdrawal.  Is it knee pain?  Is it general problems with his legs not being strong enough?  Is it general exhaustion because he can't wrestle a lot because he has to go easy on his knees 10 months after ACL surgery (which they apparently waited for many months to have after he redshirted last year)?

There isn't any reason not to start the interview by just stating what the specific reason is.  Again, he went out of his way to give the interview.  And he can't compete for the world team this year, so there isn't any competitive disadvantage to saying, My knee hurts (and it's not like no one knows he's got bad knees anyway).  

As people have noted, this is what is expected of big time, famous athletes who have a following and are the subject of substantial media attention.  In any other sport, the athlete or someone speaking on their behalf would say, It's knee pain, or it's general fatigue and soreness from coming back from surgery, or whatever.

When he wrestled this, his first tournament as a professional, the announcers noted that he had signed two contracts for money.  One is an endorsement deal for a product predicated on the idea that he is of substantial interest to people who watch the sport and buy shoes.  He is a well known professional athlete and the reason a lot of people were interested in this tournament.  He blitzed two guys and was a point from blitzing a third and then went off a cliff.  The average viewer is not an asshole for wanting to know why.  If you immediately give an interview to try to address public interest, just say what the issue is.

I don't think that they are bad people or cowards or CIA secret keepers.  I just think they literally don't understand, or want to accept, the basics of sports media and information sharing.  Another, lesser, example of that was Mr. Lee opining that ESPN shouldn't have shown the clip of Mrs. Lee breaking her glasses.  While I know that this was a difficult moment for the family and I'm sure they would have preferred that people not have used the clip in some of the ways it was used afterwards, it's just not realistic to think that ESPN, in a prime time broadcast, is not going to use a clip like that after the biggest upset in the sport in 50 years.  While I absolutely deplore what he says was said to the family in the arena, at the hotel, etc., and while I'd personally prefer that ESPN show zero family shots, happy or sad, ever, that clip was well within the bounds of basic live sports coverage.  And that's coverage that on the whole has been very, very good to that athlete and his family.  

I'll stop now and fervently hope that Spencer can be healthy enough to take his best shot at the Olympic team next year.  Mr. Lee's pain was palpable and, although it's not as personal for non-family members, there are tons of fans who find it very sad that the guy who blitzed the field in first 2.5 matches keeps being betrayed by his body.  

[Plasmodium]

I like Spencer Lee and admire the temerity he has shown overcoming his many obstacles and I wish him well.  IMO, he shorts his fans by not communicating with them.

[Theo Brixton]

21 minutes ago, dragit said:

Mr. Lee comes off as a very good guy and a wonderfully devoted father.  I was genuinely moved by his authentic emotion at the end of the interview, just wanting his son to be healthy.

But there is still this weird disconnect they have in terms of not simply stating a specific reason for why someone who just won three matches won't take the mat to try to make a world team.  He went out of his way to give a lengthy interview very quickly, but in 19 minutes he really doesn't give the most basic information that anyone would expect in such an interview.  

He basically just says that Spencer isn't right physically, and that because of that he didn't wrestle back in Tulsa and is withdrawing from the Open.  He at one point said that 10 months after double ACL surgery is tough.

But he never says in anything resembling a declarative sentence, unless I missed it, what the physical reason is for his withdrawal.  Is it knee pain?  Is it general problems with his legs not being strong enough?  Is it general exhaustion because he can't wrestle a lot because he has to go easy on his knees 10 months after ACL surgery (which they apparently waited for many months to have after he redshirted last year)?

There isn't any reason not to start the interview by just stating what the specific reason is.  Again, he went out of his way to give the interview.  And he can't compete for the world team this year, so there isn't any competitive disadvantage to saying, My knee hurts (and it's not like no one knows he's got bad knees anyway).  

As people have noted, this is what is expected of big time, famous athletes who have a following and are the subject of substantial media attention.  In any other sport, the athlete or someone speaking on their behalf would say, It's knee pain, or it's general fatigue and soreness from coming back from surgery, or whatever.

When he wrestled this, his first tournament as a professional, the announcers noted that he had signed two contracts for money.  One is an endorsement deal for a product predicated on the idea that he is of substantial interest to people who watch the sport and buy shoes.  He is a well known professional athlete and the reason a lot of people were interested in this tournament.  He blitzed two guys and was a point from blitzing a third and then went off a cliff.  The average viewer is not an asshole for wanting to know why.  If you immediately give an interview to try to address public interest, just say what the issue is.

I don't think that they are bad people or cowards or CIA secret keepers.  I just think they literally don't understand, or want to accept, the basics of sports media and information sharing.  Another, lesser, example of that was Mr. Lee opining that ESPN shouldn't have shown the clip of Mrs. Lee breaking her glasses.  While I know that this was a difficult moment for the family and I'm sure they would have preferred that people not have used the clip in some of the ways it was used afterwards, it's just not realistic to think that ESPN, in a prime time broadcast, is not going to use a clip like that after the biggest upset in the sport in 50 years.  While I absolutely deplore what he says was said to the family in the arena, at the hotel, etc., and while I'd personally prefer that ESPN show zero family shots, happy or sad, ever, that clip was well within the bounds of basic live sports coverage.  And that's coverage that on the whole has been very, very good to that athlete and his family.  

I'll stop now and fervently hope that Spencer can be healthy enough to take his best shot at the Olympic team next year.  Mr. Lee's pain was palpable and, although it's not as personal for non-family members, there are tons of fans who find it very sad that the guy who blitzed the field in first 2.5 matches keeps being betrayed by his body.  

I feel his withdrawal from the tournament has more to do with the mentality displayed in this tweet than any physical hinderance at this point:

 

[CHROMEBIRD]

I give Spencer credit for testing himself and giving the US Open a shot. I don't think many people actually believed he'd be fully ready to go after the college postseason. Was really looking forward to his semifinal match it's probably for the best that he bowed out. He could've gotten seriously hurt against someone like Suriano.