The discussions of money in the context of the times. The rumors. The “journalism” on display everywhere. Twitter. The experts (holy crap do I hate them). The bad ideas . . .
Yuck.
I was looking forward to this, and I do think that the Knicks will pull off a pleasant surprise or two, but this is freaking tacky. Whether the Knicks improve or not, I don’t like today at all. Again, independent of how well the Knicks fare, there is a chance that I like the NBA a little less than I did yesterday. It’s all just so . . . grotesque, right?
Ken and Dan also discuss the media’s reaction to Iverson. Which is sad. Such is life. Check out this blog entry on ESPN.com, which echoes some of the opinions that Ken expresses about Stephen A. Smith’s coverage of the matter.
To kick of the show, however, Ken completes his mission to tell the world about a few of our listeners who happen to have blogs or podcasts of their own. These projects are also listed below. Dan was against doing something nice, but Ken overpowered him with brute physical strength. In all seriousness, it would mean a great deal to the both Ken and Dan if you would give some of your fellow DOC listeners a chance to entertain you with their efforts . . . you just might discover your next favorite voice. Here’s the list:
In addition, there were two lazy bastards who didn’t contact us until after the episode was recorded. Go to their websites, read something every day for the next week, and then call them lazy bastards in the comments section. Use as much profanity as you want. Here’s the the links:
The Bay Area Sports Report is a brand new blog co-founded by hall of fame DOC commenter MR.FJG_SON. The authors better write something NOW or they’ll never work in this internet again! Actually, even if they don’t write something by the time you click there, send the link to everyone you know anyway. Let’s see of we can get them enough click-throughs or tiny-url-dealies to be bought out by ESPN or something. Check them out at thebayareasportsreport.tumblr.com.
Painstakingly created by a mysterious and dangerous young man known only as “Josh”, Waiting For Groza is a new but quite cool hoops blog. He’s got a great piece on strange statistical similarities between Andrew Bogut and Robert parish. Give him some love at waitingforgroza.blogspot.com.
Congratulations to Tas and Skeets on 500 episodes. The quality and quantity of their output is absolutely nuts. Dan and I have trouble finding an hour a week to record and we don’t even plan what we are going to talk about until 3 seconds after it comes out of our mouths. Do Canadians sleep?
I didn’t consider team need, just the merits of the player (exactly like the teams should do).
Is it too soon? Nope. NBA skills are binary: either they exist or they don’t.
The most difficult choice was between Jennings and Evans for the spot behind Blake Griffin. Jennings looks to be the most likely player to be part of a playoff winner, but how long can a 165-pound player stay healthy? Ask TJ Ford what happens when insanely fast objects run into power forwards. Is a more explosive and less douche-baggy version of Kenny Anderson really possible over the long term? If so, then he’s Isiah Thomas Jr. in a few years once he learns to defend and a well rounded team organization is put around him; if not, then Evans should be the man because he’s going to be getting lay-up after lay-up after foul shot for a long freaking time.
The biggest surprises are Lawson and Caspi, both of whom look like playoff-caliber contributors. John Hollinger absolutely nailed Ty Lawson and I think his draft rater needs to be a bigger deal moving forward.
Laugh all you want at two Knicks being included in this list. Seriously, laugh at me. I deserve it. Nonetheless, Toney Douglas can score and defend; the only frontier is passing. He’s at least a worthy and valuable third guard, possibly more. Jordan Hill, meanwhile, hasn’t gotten the opportunity from the fickle Mike D’Antoni, but it’s difficult to look at the size, the motor and the jump shot and not see some actual reasons for hope. Check out his advanced stats and imagine what he’ll be once he learns to not foul 8 times per 36 minutes. Where else but early in the draft do you routinely get 6-10 contributors? No, he isn’t Brandon Jennings, but that won’t actually be a federal crime until Shoals is named Attorney General for Obama’s second term.
A few of these players (Hill, Holiday, Beaubois) have flashed good (and unmistakable) physical tools in brief spurts, mostly in garbage time. Nonetheless, NBA garbage time is a pretty good indicator because if it walks like a duck then it is often a duck. Again, ask John Hollinger.
Psycho T rebounds and gets fouled, all while working his ass off and firing up home fans. That ALWAYS translates. Why wasn’t it valued more?
Yes, I realize that the previous bullet point expresses an ironic sentiment since I’m ranking Hansbrough a spot lower than he was actually drafted.
The mock draft I wrote in mid-June seems to have been rendered as a complete and total pile of bull-plop. I’m as surprised as you are.
Hasheem Thabeet, not listed, would be a great pick in the mid-teens. I actually like him because he really competes. Yes, he’ll get dunked on, get pushed around, look ridiculous, and lose individual matchups. But with some seasoning and the right parameters in place (20 minutes a night, two years from now) he’ll still block lots of shots, get enough boards, and affect field goal percentages in a good way for his team. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Dajuan Blair was a tough omission. It was somewhat of a coin flip between him and Hansbrough. I wonder if the somewhat expected good play from Blair means more in practice then it did in theory back in June. It seems to me that people will conveniently forget about his potential knee problems when he’s putting up double-doubles in the Western Conference Finals. Who in the NBA doesn’t have potential knee problems?
Personally, I think Steph Curry is going to be a better, slower Earl Boykins. That doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
Jeff Teague was tough omission from the lottery. I like where his career could go because he has skills that can’t be taught.
Again, please don’t disregard this entire blog post because of the two Knicks. I swear they can each be good. Or maybe I’m just an asshole. Either way, thanks for reading the entire thing.
Ok, we know that you’re all bored shitless. The DOC are going to try to get you through August with a couple episodes, several old school clips to teach you about NBA history, and a column or two. We’ll have something new every weekday for the rest of the month just so none of you goes on a killing spree. Keep checking back. As for today’s entry, I won’t even explain it. I don’t need to say anything other than the first 33 seconds are the greatest thing I’ve ever heard and/or seen. Also, I think the Sacramento Kings are now in good hands.
If it is true that last season NBA teams suffered losses totaling $15 to $20 million and that no more than seven of the league’s 23 franchises showed a profit, is it possible that by moving to one of the NBA’s glamor teams, Moses Malone can part that red sea? Or will the dreaded “ripple effect” created by the Malone signing lead to even higher salaries and perhaps result in the less stable franchises going under?
And later in the article . . .
Do the owners actually want a strike? “I’ve heard it,” O’Brien admits. One of the owners involved in a big free-agent signing this summer has told friends he hopes the players do strike, because with his payroll he actually figures to lose less money if the players walk than he would if the games are played. “We don’t have any owners who want a strike for the sake of a strike,” says NBA Executive Vice-President David Stern, “but it’s going to be relatively painless for some of them. If you’re running at a loss, then a strike could actually prove to be a profitable experience.”
The article also includes a few choice Ted Stepien stories and some body blows to then newbie Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was already coming off like a total putz even before the Clippers were the Clippers. It is worth reading twice. What did we do for entertainment before the SI Vault?
Dan and I discussed the effects of the economy on the NBA in a recent episode and I was dubious about the long-term security of many of our professional sports teams if drastic changes are not made to the business of big-time sports. How could revenues possibly keep up with the escalating salaries AND the debt service or leases on ever-fancier stadiums? The overhead for running, say, a basketball team keeps going up while the best that anybody can hope for is to maintain the current level of interest. Would that make sense for your business?
Long before the economy tanked I was convinced that, even with the attention and cash that so many of us will gladly part with to enjoy our favorite teams, it was still all a house of cards that was waiting for a bad year to fall the hell apart. It’s all a ponzi scheme that would give Bernie Madoff a boner:
the agents use the media to convince the fans that their favorite team’s ownership is apathetic if they don’t spend big money on ever-escalating player salaries
your favorite team’s ownership pays that player but also charges big dollars for tickets and, more importantly, REALLY BIG dollars for a tv deal
the media company that televises the games doesn’t actually make enough in ad revenues or cable subscriber fees to cover the overhead for televising the games, but they justify the expense to their stockholders via a series of pie charts
both the media company and your favorite team lose money but they are somehow worth more every year. Nobody is sure why and they are, in fact, afraid to ask.
Eventually, a spoke or two in that wheel are going to snap. How often did we hear those John Mellencamp “This is Our Country” Chevy commercials during the MLB playoffs or the NFL season? How often do you think you’ll hear it this year? Not often, I’d bet. The reason you keep seeing commercials for the Sham-Wow and phone sex during NBA games is that the cable network has standing deals to sell them any unused commercial slots at a drastically reduced rate. They’d love to sell that space to Chevy, but Chevy won’t be buying it.
It all adds up to a gloomy future for the NBA, right? Teams we love will be gone, right? Gone from our favorite city and even gone from being on TV every night, right? We’ll lose a season or two in a lockout, right?
Actually . . . probably not.
Look at that old SI article and imagine how pessimistic they must have been about similar issues back then. And the league is still here, right? Rich guys figure stuff out, folks. That’s just a fact of life.
I’m not sure why or how, but things will work out. They just will. Money and confidence will reappear, as if by magic, and it all will go on. Maybe the money will be borrowed from our grandchildren and the confidence will be totally unfounded, but we’ll all be happy. I have no doubt. Neither do you. So don’t worry about it.
In fact, enjoy this montage of Bob Mcadoo highlights with my compliments and save your mental energy for imagining how good he would have been playing for Mike D’Antoni:
(If your bitrate allows it, watch all five at once. If you make it through all of them in one sitting they’ll have to transfer you to a minimum security hospital upstate. You’ll live out the rest of your days drinking your food through a straw.)
Since there’s no podcast this week, we’ll fill the void with some Kick Ass youtube clips. How about some vintage Big-O, Big Lew, Bobby D, Black Jesus and Wes Unseld all crammed into the same series? Holy crap!
Wouldn’t it be great if the next development in televising basketball was to shoot it on film from all sorts of cool angles and then run it at half speed? Who would be against this?
