Final Blog

This is my final blog for the year.  I have found this blogging to be somewhat pointless.  I haven’t been able to figure out how this is helping me learn the material discussed in class. I know we did this to get practice writing, but this isn’t formal writing.  I don’t know if this even gets read because there is no comments posted to tell me otherwise.  Maybe I missed the whole purpose of this exercise, but I don’t feel it helped enhance my learning experience. Thats the honest truth.

Coach Killer

The talk here in Atlant for the past few weeks has been about the Falcons and Michael Vick who are going south and fast.  Jim Mora Sr., father of the Falcons head coach said on a radio show that Michael Vick is a Coach Killer.  I don’t know about Vick being a coach killer but I do know someone that is a coach, GM, team, and franchise killer and that is Stephon Marbury. Marbury is now at odds with coach Isaiah Thomas, the man who stood up for him when he was feuding with Larry Brown.  Marbury was benched the second half of a game this past weekend and refused to huddle with the team during timeouts, he just sat at the end of the bench.  Marbury is playing his 11th season in the pros and has yet to figure out that if you want to be on a winning team you have to put the team goals before his own.  Marbury started his career playing with best friend Kevin Garnett but they had a falling out because Marbury couldn’t stand the thought of Garnett being the 1st option so he demanded to be traded.  Marbury played 2 1/2 misreable seasons with the New Jersey Nets then was Traded to Phoenix.  Pheonix thought Marbury would help them run a more up tempo game and thought Jason Kidd was getting too old so they made the trade.  Kidd led the Nets to the playoffs, Marbury kept the Suns out of the playoffs. Marbury the was traded to the Knicks, so he could play in his home state.  He has failed them too and has worn out his welcome. After getting Larry Brown fired last year, he may get two coaches in two years. Isaiah Thomas had his back last year,  now it seems their careers will be link forever. Thomas believed he could be the man that could get Marbury to play like a real point guard should.  Marbury doesn’t have Thomas’ back this time and that will end Thomas’ coaching career.

Some Suprises

It’s early in the season but so far there have been a few suprises.  A few of the teams picked to be contenders look pitiful and some perinially bad teams have suprised some people.  Eastern Conference favorites Miami, Detroit, and Chicago are a combined 9-13 with each team having only three wins. Miami has been playing without Shaq and have looked lost at times. Detroit looks like they are really going to miss Ben Wallace in the middle, and the new crack down on complaining to officials have hurt them more than any other team.  The Chicago Bulls, who made the most noise this offseason by signing Ben Wallace and drafting Tyrus Thomas, have clearly regressed.  The team lacks unity right now and will hae to learn to play together if they plan on winning a championship. In the Western Conference, 3 of last years playoff teams are in last in their divisions, the biggest suprise being the Pheonix Suns.  Sitting at 2-5 the Suns continue to play their fast pace style and lead the league in scoring but they have yet to play defense, they are giving up a league worst 108 points a game.  The Denver Nuggets have started 3-4 but the suprising thing is they have yet to win a game at home. Memphis has been playing without their superstar Pau Gasol because of an injury sustained at the World Championships and are a league worst 1-6. The Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, and New Orleans Hornets All sit near or at the top of their divisions and all have winning records.

Early Observations

After only a few games these are my observations:

Andrew Bynum of the Los Angelas Lakers may be poised to have a breakout year and could be the best young big man in the league.  Bynum had a good summer and preseason, but questioned still remained about what he would be able to do against real NBA talent. He seemed to answer those questions Tuesday night helping the Lakers in a come back win against the Phoenix Suns.  With Kwame Brown out for the first few weeks Bynum should see a lot of playing time and if the first game was any indication of what to expect, Brown will have to battle to gett his starting spot back.  Remember Bynum is only 19 years old so he will have his ups and downs this season but he looks as if he has a very bright future in the NBA.

The Knick released Jalen Rose earlier this week, and this is where I think the NBA needs to read “Money Ball” and take some notes.  NBA contracts are guarenteed, that means the Knicks are on the hook for over $17 million for his salary this year.  The Knicks roster is loaded with these kind of contracts and if they want to become a competitive team in the future they have to stop making these deals.

Its the first week of the season and already the Sonics have begun to threaten to move if the city of Seattle can not come to an agreement on a new arena.  The Sonics faithful have started their own website to keep their team in town

www.saveoursonics.org

Shoe Companies Dumping All-American Camps

If you were a big shoe company 15 years ago there was pressure to get in the business of running high school all-american camps.  Now the trend is to get out of that business.  Reebok pulled its name from the camps this past summer. Adidas announced a few weeks ago that they were no longer going to run their camp.  It is expected that Nike will make the announcement that it no longer going to run its camp.  These camps use to signal the start of the summer evaluation period for college coaches.  While coaches are unable to make contact with there target players during these camps, it is a chance for the coaches to evaluate talent.  At the Nike camp in 1996 a guy named Tracy McGrady came out of nowhere to gain recognition amd eventually a first round draft pick out of high school the following draft.  These camps use to be like this, every year there was one guy would come from nowhere to make a name fo themself.  These camps also allowed the shoe companies to get an advantage in the race to sign players.  While the shoe companies couldn’t sign players because they were still in high school, the camps competed to get the best players, because the camps were all held the same week.  Being able to land a big high school talent at your camp meant you were the company he was going to be exposed to and were seen as the frontrunner if the kid went pro.  Now league rules prevent high schoolers from entering the draft, this may be one reason the companies have decided to get out of this business. Another reason is because most of the big name players have already made commitments to colleges before the camps and not many players have come from nowhere to dominate.  Both Nike and adidas plan on running smaller instuctional camps for high school players but the recruiting camps are going to have to find other sponsors.

Image, What Image?

The NBA has had trouble improving their image over the years.  NFL players have gone to jail for murder and major league baseball is in the center of the steroids scandal yet the NBA has the worst percieved image of the major sports league.  The biggest reason they have this bad image is because they continue to give bad characters chance after chance to play in the league.  In the early 90’s “The Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons were popular for their dirty style of play on the court. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the Portland Jailblazers, were filled with great talent but poor character. The likes of Isiah Rider(Weed), Damon Stoudimire (Weed and Gun charges), and Rasheed Wallace (All-time Technical foul Leader) were the face of this franchise and all three have had their share of run ins with the law.   Then you have Ron Artest, this guy is just plain crazy.  The guy went into the stands after a fan which resulted the biggest malae in american sports history.  After that he requested time off from basketball so he could promote his new recording groups album.  This guy doesn’t have his head on straight at all.  That brings us to Stephen Jackson.  This is the guy who was the first player to go into the stands to protect Artest by throwing haymakers at anyone close to him.  His latest incident happened last week when he and some of his teammates were at a shoe modeling establishment when an altercation between the group of players and another group of men broke out.  One of the men tried to run over Jackson and his teammates so Jackson pulled out a hand gun and fired shots in the air.  In light of this incident, the NBA has yet to suspend Jackson for this.  Jackson has a long wrap sheet of character issues yet the NBA values talent over image. At the University of Arizona Jackson was kicked out of school for his conduct before he ever played a single game.  While in San Antonio he was viewed as uncoachable and no effort was made to resign him when he was a free agent despite the fact that he was the teams 3rd leading scorer and best clutch shooter.  He was pushed out of Atlanta because they didn’t want him influencing their young talent and he is still in the league because the Indiana Pacers have become the new Jailblazers

Let The Season Begin

The NBA season is upon us as training camps began this week. Here are a few things to watch as the season progresses.  First, the NBA has decided to change their ball after 35 years.  The ball is now being made of a composite leather which the league claims has a better grip than the old ball.  The ball hasn’t been welcomed by several players including Shaq.  I know the ball feels different but Shaq’s game isn’t exactly built on touch and feel.  As a matter of fact I don’t think the ball can hurt his shooting too bad.  Nevertheless it will be interesting to see how much effect this ball will have on the game.  The next story will be to see how Lebron and Carmelo handle the pressure of getting deep into the playoffs. Their friend and fellow 03 draftee D. Wade set the bar high and it will be fun to see how hungry Lebron and Carmelo will be.  It will also be interesting to see Kobe’s quest for another ring.  Kobe really wanted to get another ring before Shaq but thanks to D. Wade, Shaq has those bragging rights.  The Lakers came on at the end of last year to make the playoffs and played well in the playoffs. This was because Kobe’s game developed into the unselfish star, let’s see how long it takes him to go back to trying to play one-on-nine.  A couple of other questions to ponder:

• When and where will Iverson be traded?
• Will Isiah Thomas make it to the All-star break?
• Will KG be moved by the trade deadline?
• Which rookie is the real deal?
• Which Young Player will breakout this year?
• How many games will pass before Ron Artest goes crazy on someone?

High Payroll, Big Trouble?

NBA trainging camps are just a few weeks away so I thought we would look at teams payrolls and determine what teams are making good money decisions and what teams are making bad choices. The problem with NBA contracts is that A. the money is guaranteed, and B. Players are way overvauled. This makes bad contracts extremely hard to trade. It seems that the NBA more than any other sport chooses players on potential rather than substance. Look at the New York Knicks, they have $140.5 dollar payroll for this up coming year (salary cap $53 million). The Knicks are probably the most poorly run Franchise in all of sports. The Knicks had the second worst record in the league last season winning only 23 games. If the Knicks double their win output from last season to 46 (realisticly the might win 30 games this year) the would be paying a little over $3 million dollars per win. The problem with the Knicks is they have a lot of aging players that at one time people thought they were going to be all-stars but fizzled out. This hurts because teams that can trade for these players value cap flexibilty rather than overpaid neverwas players.

Now lets look at a team like the Chicago Bulls, this years salary is almost $53 million. They added the #2 pick in the draft as well as the best defensive player in the NBA so lets say they win the same amount of games they won last year, 50. This comes out to a little over $1 million per win. The Knicks are spending 3 time more money for a win. Looks like the Bulls have Isiah Thomas’ number. As a matter of fact 3 of the highest payroll teams this year missed the playoffs last year and the Knicks and Trail Blazers (#5) will most definately be watching the playoffs at home again this year.
Heres a link to team payroll and players salaries www.hoopshype.com/salaries.htm

TV Deals Mean Big Money

Two years ago the ACC raided the Big East Conference looking for a more lucrative TV contract by boosting their strength in football.  In an attempt to postition their conference among the elite in college football, many thought the Big East would have to fold.  Well the Big East had plans of their own, raiding Conference USA which in the end has postitioned itself as a basketball powerhouse that rivaled the once dominate ACC.  The ACC was able to add a conference championship game in football and with that they were able to demand a the biggest TV deal in the history of college sports.  The Big East may have been become a more valuable conference than it was before the ACC raid.  I say that because they were without a doubt the best basketball conference last season.  There is no doubt that the ACC and Big East are the top two basketball conferences in the country.  The Big East was able to parlay their success in basketball into a 6 year deal with ESPN which begins in 2007-2008.  The battle for teams that began two years is now a battle for the almighty TV dollar.

New Arena

In class this week we have talked about stadium finance and how important it is to a sports franchise.  It just so happens that three teams in the NBA have arena issues.

The Seattle Sonics were recently purchased by Clay Bennett who isn’t happy with the current state of Key Arena.  The arena was built in 1983 and the renovated  in 1995.  Mr. Bennett has met with city officials to discuss building a new world class facility while the mayor of Seattle has proposed new renovations to Key Arena.  Mr. Bennett wants to keep the team in Seattle but  isn’t opposed to moving out of the downtown area and into a different region of the area if a deal can’t be reached with the city.

In Sacramento, the Maloof family has proposed a 1/4 cent sales tax to help fund a development in Sacramento that would house a new stadium for them.  The development would also include shops and resturants. They are currently searching for a sight for the development in which the Maloofs would invest $122 million of their own money over the life of the deal.

Last is the New Orleans/ OK City Hornets.  They will actually open training camp in october in New Orleans practicing at the New Orleans Arena and Tulane University.  They are slated to play 6 games in New Orleans this coming season.  Building a new Arena  in New Orleans has to be a priority if they want to get their team back.  The NBA is toying with going into new markets, Oklahoma City was a suprisingly good host to the Hornets last year and with the All-star game being in Vegas, New Orleans needs to come up with a plan for a facility or they could see the team say Bye-Bye.