Molly Sims playing in an AVP qualifier

cheetah · **Molly Sims playing in an AVP qualifier -** 06-28-2006, 02:53 PM

Excuse my rant.....
Ok Everyone,
A friend of mine just told me that Molly Sims, Supermodel and TV star, played in an AVP qualifer in Huntington Beach about a month ago.

http://206.196.31.34/TeamPreview.asp...=7506&ID2=5394
http://63.214.178.28/news/article.jsp?id=4995

I was just wondering what everyone thought about this.....
What I want to know is....Don't you have to be invited to play in an AVP qualifier? How does someone that doesn't play tournies regularly, let alone isn't an open player, get to play in a qualifier......doesn't really seem fair, does it?
And why the heck would Amber Willey, who I don't know much about, but I do know is regular player on the tour.....partner up with Sims in a qualifier? Isn't that just asking for a beat down?

Does anyone feel that stuff like this causes the public to take the sport of beach volleyball less seriously?

mycena · 06-28-2006, 04:08 PM

Well, since I have no fond feelings for the AVP, nor bad feelings I dont really have opinion about people taking beach volleyball 'seriously'. However, I think that having a model/ actress participate in a qualifier is just going to generate publicity. I dont really think that it would necessarily be bad. I am sure that there are frequently famous people who play in lower level sporting events every now and then. Minor league baseball games, golf qualifiers, etc. And besides, they made a couple of points.

strazzere · 06-28-2006, 06:51 PM

It's all about the publicity... Maybe they watched cloud 9 and thought it was real or something?

Anyway, look at thier pictures; http://206.196.31.34/TeamPreview.asp...=7506&ID2=5394

Ones smiling like and idiot - ones playing vball.

They probably figured they could get another anna kournikova - a person whose played before, but is just damn hot. (Granted Anna is better than molly any day..)

VolleyChick · 06-28-2006, 09:16 PM

It was entertaining for the 6 minutes or so that they ran the match play by play on line live. Ace...Ace...Ace...LOL. As long as she didn't push a more deserving team out of the qualifier, I don't see any harm in it. It brought out a lot press and, if nothing else, showed that you can't just jump on a court and play 2's. I think that fact is lost on the general public since the pro's make doubles look so easy!

pdoug20 · 07-06-2006, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strazzere

It's all about the publicity... Maybe they watched cloud 9 and thought it was real or something?

Anyway, look at thier pictures; http://206.196.31.34/TeamPreview.asp...=7506&ID2=5394

Ones smiling like and idiot - ones playing vball.

They probably figured they could get another anna kournikova - a person whose played before, but is just damn hot. (Granted Anna is better than molly any day..)

I don't know if I would equate her to Anna Kournikova outside of looks because at least Kournikova has played her sport more than once, albeit quite terribly...

mycena · 07-07-2006, 07:42 AM

I just read the article about her playing. Its funny. "never played serious beach volleyball before." I never would have guessed with her awesome form in the pictures. It looks like she has one mean underhand serve

I still dont think that its a bad thing that she played but maybe her Olympian friend could have given her a couple of tips before she stepped onto the court.

DougHillman · 07-28-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdoug20

I don't know if I would equate her to Anna Kournikova outside of looks because at least Kournikova has played her sport more than once, albeit quite terribly...

This statement (and similar ones over the years) irks me to no end.

You don't get ranked #8 in the world by playing "terribly." You don't get to the semi-finals of Wimbledon by playing "terribly." You don't get to be ranked #1 in doubles by playing "terribly."

So Kournikova never won a major pro singles tournament. So what? She was still a phenomenally good player. Who happened to be pretty hot. So she got alot of press for being hot. Again, so what? She actually got that press because she was a pretty damn good tennis player. Watch the early rounds of a major (or even the middle rounds of just a regular tournament) and you'll see that there are ALOT of hot players (both female & male) on the ATP tour. Do any of them really get any media hype until the break into the upper rankings? No.

Did Kournikova lose focus on tennis due to her media stardom? Maybe. Or maybe she simply didn't have the skills to be better than the #8 ranked female player IN THE WORLD. Regardless, that's nothing to sneeze at.

To say that she was a "terrible" player is just misguided and ignorant.

D

NewEnglandRT · 07-28-2006, 06:39 PM

WOW, that's one heck of a first post! Are you here Page Ranking guy? I agree with you to an extent.... why not say hello before jumping down someone's throat?